However, telling people about your product and expecting word of mouth to go viral is not a strategy and not something you can really measure. We’ve come up with a few ideas to help you increase your word of mouth marketing to help grow your business.
1. Make Yourself Interesting
Think of it as social currency – share what makes you look fun/good/interesting. This will entice sharing. The consumer will feel confident in the information they are sharing. They will be contributing to something that is worth talking about. Kudos for being the smart cookie.
2. Create a Trigger
Can you tie yourself into other things that your consumers do or use? LiveChat mentioned, “you can design products that are often triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking your products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment”. If people remember you, they will continue to talk about you. Sounds like a great way to start a successful referral program.
3. Have value
If you establish yourself with a few people, they will share the experience with friends. You may not remember the last time you shared a mediocre restaurant or service with someone. But, you can remember an amazing experience at a Japanese restaurant. You also know a coworker who loves sushi. You’ll tell them all about it since it is something that you know that person will value. You know that by sharing valuable information makes you valuable. Great customer service and having a great product are just a few ways to up your value.
4. Provoke Emotion
Creating emotion goes hand in hand with creating value. People are more likely to share something that promotes high arousal. People are more likely to share experiences in which they had some sort of emotion towards.
No one shares an ‘OK’ experience. People share the things that make them happy or upset. Think about Yelp – the reviews are either one extreme or the other. Hardly ever does someone take the time or effort to talk about their experience if it was average.
5. Satisfy your customers
People only praise or recommend something they like. So keep your current customers extremely satisfied, this will encourage them to recommend your brand. Find ways to show that you care about them, pay attention, and worry about your client’s success.
And as some customer issues are inevitable, when they arise, resolve it as quickly as possible to prevent the customer from becoming dissatisfied and ultimately misrepresenting your brand, product, or service. Learn how to integrate relationship marketing with your customer to help engaging and satisfied customers
Having highly satisfied customers is the starting point for word of mouth marketing.
6. Surprise
Within your word of mouth marketing strategies, your customer’s experience is very important.
People like to be surprised, to get better-than-expected care, a toast, or an unexpected thank-you. Delivering something more and maybe even a little surprising is a great way to encourage customers to speak positively about your brand.
7. Be Creative and Innovative
Innovate in your segment, be original in your ideas, through a specific product, or unusual marketing ideas, or even the company culture. Being unique and out of the common can draw attention to you, and it is important to use this strategy to differentiate yourself.
8. Tell Your Story
By nature, people are storytellers and love listening and passing on interesting stories. The tip I share is if you want your brand to be in the consumer’s mouth it’s worth learning to be a good storyteller. By being a storyteller, it becomes easier for you to delight your customer, and in return he or she spreads your message.
9. Be a benchmark in your industry
Pass on trust to your client. You can do this by showing them that you have knowledge on the subject. This does require a certain level of effort, but surely the long-term benefits will outweigh the dedicated effort. When your brand becomes a thought leader in your segment, word of mouth will soon appear.
10. Be Transparent
People value companies that are honest and transparent, this gives more confidence to the consumer. Treat your customers well, respect them and they will reciprocate kindly.
11. Encourage your customers
Create strategies to encourage word of mouth marketing to happen. You can invite your customers to share your content, post photos of your products on social networks, create content related to your brand, check-in, write reviews, etc. All of which fuels word of mouth.
12. Thank your customers
Regardless of how you will do this, whether it will be through a simple “thank you,” with a special benefit, an email, or a public thanks on your social networks, the important thing is to thank the customers who are talking about your brand and recognize them by actions.
People will see this and appreciate it and your business even more. You might even spark them to keep sharing and you might get others to join in to get recognition too. People love feeling appreciated.
13. Keep your customers in the loop
Stay in touch with your customers by informing them of specials. You can do this by sending them coupons once in a while, or simple flyers. This will help them increase their visits to your business.
You can also inform them of changes and updates within your business. People are nosy and like to be in the know. Especially when it comes to learning about new product updates and your vision.
14. Try to viralize
Viral marketing campaigns are those that use entertainment to encourage people to talk about a particular brand or product. Perhaps one of the oldest and even most successful examples of viral marketing has been the launch campaign for the Blair Witch movie.
The producer released some notes, casting doubt on the truthfulness of the events discussed in the film, arousing the interest of thousands of viewers who spent weeks discussing the subject in all digital media.
15. Evangelize
The process of evangelization consists in finding out who are the natural and spontaneous ambassadors and promoters of your brand. You can be sure: they exist! They are those people who admire and use their products and services and who easily engage in spreading the information throughout their life cycle.
16. Reap what you sow
It is important to find who in your market are the influential individuals. The ones who have a high power of persuasion and a constant and powerful dialogue with the population at large can be great for business.
From there, you should strive to present your product to these people. Building a unique and very positive experience, in the expectation that the whole process and brand differentials be communicated by these people. Why? Because then you have the potential for reaching a huge audience.
17. Form Communities
An effective way to increase the visibility and reach of a brand is to create communities of common interest for users to talk about products, exchanging views on usage, key differentiators, and possible improvements.
You may find there are groups on social sites that already exist! You can join them or start a community of your own.
18. Turn word of mouth into something positive
Regardless of the area of activity, the size of the company or the moment lived, word of mouth should be seen as a fundamental strategy to achieve better results. You must realize that the users who talk are a tool, and have of wide reach and the power of convincing. This is why precisely the reason, it deserves great attention and dedication.
You can play up great comments and use them as testimonials and give shout-outs to amp up your positive vibes.
19. Negative feedback care
All word of mouth marketing is based on the dissemination of positive, interesting, and relevant information about the brand. The experience of other users… a.k.a ‘reviews’ can encourage potential customers to make a purchase.
However, it is up to the online reputation manager to be constantly aware of what’s being said online. Opinion and experience can be expressed and shared, and negative feedback is also included in that.
Knowing how to turn the negative comments around, and turn them into benefits for the brand is very important. The first point, of course, is to be open to criticism and opinions. Remember that your users have had an important brand experience and they tend to repeat themselves to others. So if the experience was bad, adopting strategies to reverse the situation becomes urgent and necessary.
20. Ask for feedback
You as a seller need to find ways in which a customer feels like he is part of the company. For example, by asking for their opinion and taking their feedback seriously you can build a better brand (that customers want). And this can spark conversation in a good way.
21. Influencer sit downs
You can also generate word of mouth marketing by providing a forum for influencers to sit down and have a good chat about your brand. Influencers can be very appealing and the use of influencers has skyrocketed. So if you can get a niche influencer to sit down and discuss your brand, you will likely reap the benefits.
22. Incentivize your customers
Use of valuable incentives helps a lot when it comes to encouraging word of mouth marketing since it gets the customers talking. Some will talk about it when asked and some will just do it on their own. Offering valuable incentives will help spread the word about your product. Incentive rewards can be in the form of clothes, mugs, cash, discounts, new products, gift cards, store cards, USB drives, and many more. Incentives are driving factors, which is exactly why many people start some sort of rewards program.
23. Initiate referral program
To go on what we just mentioned, incentivizing customers… The simplest way to getting more word of mouth is to get customer referrals with a referral program. In fact, people are usually happy to help others so asking for referrals makes sense. Creating an opportunity for your customers to talk about your product or services has been the ultimate word of mouth marketing strategy.
In fact, 81% of consumers are influenced by social media posts from their friends.
In conclusion
I’ll end this article with a question… How to encourage word of mouth marketing? The basic essentials you should analyze, evaluate, implement and plan are:
Align with customers vision – You just have to understand the specific needs of your customers and work with them for your own benefit.
Client feedback – It helps in the evaluation of the product and service and helps you deliver what people want.
Pair a great product with these great experiences – Customers are usually willing to pay for a product or service from a business that stands out, so make yourself shine!
A streamlined referral process can help people have a great experience spreading the word (and get an incentive for doing so). Stay proactive whether your business is small or big and you’ll be golden.
I’m often asked the fastest way to improve sales productivity. The answer is simple and should be obvious, “Stop Chasing Customers/Prospects You Can’t Help!”
That statement is likely to elicit a resounding “Dugghhhh!” The reality, however, is that sales people waste too much time chasing customers they can’t help or worst, customers that don’t want/need their help.
Every day, I get literally 100’s of emails, and at least 20 calls from sales people wanting to sell me something. Most don’t care about what our company does, they just believe they can “help me,” pitching their products/services. Most pitches are irrelevant to me and my company. As a result, they waste my time, their time, and their brand equity.
I wish I could say some small percentage did research on me or my company, but it’s not evident in their communication with me.
Why do so many sales people waste their time chasing customers they can’t help? Some thoughts:
They don’t care about helping, their job is selling. They and their managers believe selling is simply a numbers game (it is, but you have to look at the numbers in the right way). The more emails, the more calls, the more likely you hit your numbers. The attitude is literally dialing/emailing for dollars.
Continuing from the previous point, they don’t know how to help. While they would never admit it, they view their job as presenting their product, it’s the customer’s job to figure out whether they need it. I don’t know that this is selling, though people with sales titles do this. It’s actually easier and faster for me to hit up a website. Plus, I get better information than dealing with someone who is ill equipped to go off script, “Can I connect you to someone who really understands this stuff?????”
They conduct non-discovery. Yes, you read it right, it’s non-discovery. They are asking what they think are discovery questions, but they are meaningless. Of course I’m interested in growing my business, of course I want to increase the profitability of the company, of course I want more qualified prospects. Just because I reply affirmatively to those, doesn’t mean I want or need what you are selling, or that your solution can even help me and my company.
They don’t take the time to understand who they can help and why they might need help. Sales people understand their products, “We solve these problems, we help you achieve these things….” But they struggle to translate that into identifying specifically who needs help. They know they are supposed to call “these personas” in “these industries.” Maybe they even know they are supposed to ask “these questions,” looking for certain answers.
We do our best work and we create the greatest value for customers who want and need our help. Our job is to find them by focusing on our ICP. Then doing our homework, within that ICP, trying to determine who is most likely to have a need now–or by helping increase their sense of urgency about doing something now.
We are responsible for producing revenue, but regardless of our wishful thinking and persistence in calling people, we don’t produce it unless we focus on those who need and want our help now!
The remote sales force and customer service team is officially here.
The last decade has seen a staggering rise in remote work. Per Gallup, the size of the remote workforce has nearly doubled in the last few years. A whopping 43 percent of U.S. employees reported working remotely all or some of the time in 2017, compared to just 23 percent in 2015 and 19 percent in 2003, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The rise in remote work has created new challenges and opportunities for managers tasked with leading geographically dispersed teams.
Sales and customer service teams are not immune to these larger trends. According to FlexJobs, customer service representatives, account managers, business development managers, and client services directors all rank among the 14 most popular remote positions held by Americans in 2018 (with the latter positions ranking #1 and #3 respectively).
Benefits of Remote Sales and Customer Service Teams
The breakout growth of remote sales and customer service roles is happening for a multitude of reasons. Recent statistics support the benefits of using remote sales and customer service reps on your team. For example:
65 percent of workers said that remote work would give their productivity a boost.
86 percent said that working alone allows them to hit maximum productivity.
95 percent of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention.
80 percent of employees consider telework a job perk.
Gallup also reports that workers who spent 60-80% of their time away from the office had the highest rates of engagement, which supports the notion that a well-run, disciplined, and motivated remote sales or customer success team can lead to staggering achievements.
Potential Challenges of Managing Remote Work
Running a successful remote sales team requires 3 things:
Communication
Coordination
Collaboration
The challenge with managing a remote sales force or customer service team is in maintaining and organizing a team with geographically-dispersed members, holding team members accountable, and coaching and training reps who are not in your office frequently.
Fortunately, there are several proven tactics that managers can wield to lead their remote teams with the aid of technology.
How to Track and Drive Remote Customer Service Productivity
Creating a productive remote sales team is all about establishing the rules of engagement for how reps conduct their days, holding them accountable, and coordinating and coaching through technology.
Follow these steps to coach, communicate, and collaborate with your remote sales and customer service teams more effectively.
Step 1. Codify and Communicate the Rules of Engagement
Ambiguity is the enemy of success for remote sales team and customer service reps. You should establish clear guidelines and playbooks for them to follow that leave as little guesswork as possible in the equation.
For example, remote sales reps need a really strong grasp of the guidelines for responding to an inbound ticket. You should create detailed flowcharts for remote customer service reps to follow that show how to respond to common issues and resolve them as quickly as possible. In addition, you should provide guidelines for proactive customer outreach, upselling an existing customer, and pushing an issue up the chain to management.
For remote sales reps, it’s imperative to drill crystal clear understanding of territory assignment, outreach protocol, and targeting and follow-up processes. Bringing new remote reps into the office for in-person onboarding and training is worth the time and expense, since it affords reps the opportunity to get face-to-face instruction, shadowing, and live call coaching. It also builds trust – a must for any functioning team.
Step 2. Measure and Publish Results
Your remote sales and customer service reps need direction and clear expectations in terms of daily, weekly, and monthly output. Measuring and publishing rep activity is a moral imperative.
The right way to track rep activity is to set clear benchmarks and KPIs for them to hit. For example, you might set a daily goal for customer service reps to resolve 30 customer tickets or proactively check in on 5 major accounts.
With the aid of modern cloud communication tools, you can automatically log every action a remote rep takes throughout the day, from making a call to setting a meeting to sending an email.
A great manager will take steps to publish, incentivize, and reward rep achievement. Sharing daily activity levels and wins is a great way to social engineer positive feedback loops and reinforce behaviors that lead to positive outcomes for your sales and customer service teams.
Step 3. Source and Provide Frequent Feedback
The third key component for managing a remote sales team is through steady, consistent two-way communication. Your reps need to hear from you frequently and vice-versa.
Taking steps to create effective lines of communication to hear and send feedback to your remote team is the first order of priority. Once you have codified the rules of engagement, it’s important to clearly reiterate them through the duration of each rep’s employment.
Weekly meetings with your remote team via phone and video conferencing are a great way to keep everyone in the loop. You can also direct reps to online learning centers such as this article on customer service tips to assist with continued learning and development.
How Do You Lead Remote Sales and Customer Service Reps?
Here at Nextiva, we manage a massive group of award-winning sales and customer service teams spread throughout the world. And we’re not the only ones.
We’d love to hear how you track and drive productivity for your remote sales and customer service reps in 2019. As the remote workforce continues to grow, there will be an infinite opportunity for creating new strategies and tactics to lead your remote teams more effectively.
Share your best ideas and strategies below – and help your fellow sales and customer service managers lead their remote teams more effectively in 2019.
Playing the game is not the same thing as playing to win. You can play the game, simply going through the motions, without intention, without being mindful, and without a spirit of competition (found in this book). This is nothing more than “punching the clock” and “putting in your time.”
Playing to win means intentionally doing the things that increase your chances of winning and creating a competitive advantage.
Persisting in pursuing your dream client
There are salespeople who call their dream client once and never call again. There are others who call once a quarter, just to “check in,” never calling with a real agenda worth a meeting, and so infrequently as to be meaningless. Instead of pursuing their dream clients, they look for more “hot” leads.
Those who play to win develop a professional pursuit plan and persist over time, knowing that eventually they will find an opportunity. Giving up because something is difficult is not a strategy for winning. Determined, patient, persistence is what wins.
Be known for your ideas
So, you say you want to be a trusted advisor? How then can you allow marketing to nurture your dream clients instead of doing this work yourself? There are some who refuse to read books on their craft, the news that would provide them insights, or the books and broadcasts that would help shape a better lens through which to see the world. No one believes your marketing department is their trusted advisor.
If you are going to advise others, business acumen and situational knowledge are necessary. If you want to be known for your ideas and advice, you have to develop them yourself. Winning starts with you becoming someone worth buying from in the first place.
Prepare for meetings
Because it is your job to make sales calls, you make sales calls. The fact that one makes a sales call says nothing whatsoever about the quality of that sales call. I once heard a salesperson open their first sales call with these words, “Can you tell me what your company does?” As you might have imagined, it was a very short sales call.
The time your prospective client gives you is a gift. It’s an opportunity. If you are going to play to win, you need to use that time well enough that you earn the right for more time—and greater commitments. Winners train, and winners prepare.
Control the process
If you play, you may leave a sales meeting without a next step, without something on your prospective client’s calendar. Maybe they told you they’d get back with you (what is really a non-commitment). Or maybe you didn’t want to ask because you didn’t want to risk insulting, alienating, or making your prospect uncomfortable.
Winning means gaining all the commitments (found in this book) you need to help the client move from their current state to the better future state you are going to help them achieve. It also means you have sometimes difficult, sometimes uncomfortable conversations.
Connect with people and connect the dots
One way you can tell someone is playing the game without trying to win is by looking at the number of contacts they are engaged with as they pursue the client’s business. Invariably, those who play are too comfortable being single-threaded, knowing only one nice, super-receptive, non-challenging contact who is always willing to give them time.
Those who win go vertical, moving up and down within the organization, as well as moving horizontally, bringing in people from all the areas their solution will touch. They connect with people and connect the dots. They wire the building, and in doing so, they increase their odds of winning.
Likability, caring, and thoughtfulness
Low energy, no energy, no real interest, and no follow up isn’t what you would project if you wanted to win. There are many who believe that it isn’t helpful to be known, liked, and trusted, and that relationships don’t matter. Imaging holding this view when your competitor holds the opposite.
When you play to win, you invest your emotional energy, you prove you care, and you provide your client with an idea as to what it’s going to be like to work with you.
Engineering winning solutions
People who play believe they are selling their solution. Much of the time, this means giving the client something to which they can easily refuse. The solution isn’t the client’s, and so they are not invested in it.
Those who win do their best to engineer the right solution, knowing that all is for naught unless they give the client something to which they can say “yes.”
There is no reason to play the game without a strong desire and intention to win. Do what is necessary to stack the deck in your favor.
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Have you heard the great debate? To script your video or to not script your video. That is the question! While writing video scripts doesn’t have to be difficult, understanding if you need them can be.
Have you ever asked yourself, should I script my marketing and sales videos?
I know I have, many times.
Some people say that you should get in front of the camera and just riff! Now, riffing a video is not really a technical term. So when you hear that, what do they mean by riffing a video?
Simply put, you get in front of the camera and just say what you think about a product, service, or topic. While this might be okay in certain scenarios, for most mortals, it is a recipe for disaster.
When Does Riffing Sales & Marketing Videos Work?
To be honest, I use to be on the side of the fence that was yelling for people to riff their videos. I would say things like, “a video done and published is a video that is played.”
I use to talk about how writing scripts for your marketing videos was a waste of time. I believed that the time writing could be time spent on recording a new video for your business.
But, I’m no longer on that side of the fence.
With that said, I am not going to badmouth riffing. As a matter of fact, there are times when riffing makes sense.
When you ask.
Well, here are a couple times it totally makes sense to riff your video.
You’re a sales rep who has said the same thing over and over again about the products and or services you sell. Look, you know this information forwards and backwards. There is no difference in talking to a human or talking to a camera when it comes to your expertise.
When you are part of a group video. This could be a webinar style video or some event panel video. The idea here is you will need to think on your feet and interact to what others are saying. If you try to script your answers for this type of marketing video senario, you will come off robotic as well as unengaged with the actual conversation happening.
When you’re really passionate about a topic and you just need to get it out to the world. Look, there is nothing wrong with firing up Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or even LinkedIn and creating a topical video on something you’re passionate about. In this type of scenario, your audience expects a lower quality in video as well as your possible makeshift thought process.
When you’re a “pro”. Wait, what? Even pros use a great video script. I love this video by my buddy Nick Nimmin where he is completely authentic at the beginning. Listen to what this pro with over 327,607 subscribers has to say about the use of a script.
I’m sure there are other reasons you can think of for video riff sessions. If so, leave a comment or hit me up on the socials. I would love to carry on the conversation.
Before we dive into when video scripts make sense for you, I should probably make sure you know what a video script is and what it is designed for.
What IS a Business Video Script?
One thing to note, a business video script is a bit different than the script you imagine hollywood actors and actresses using. The technical definition of a script may be what you use or, you may pare it down a bit.
So, what is a script? The folks over at scripted put it this way:
“A video script is a chronological run-down of scenes, shots, action and dialogue specifying who is saying and doing what, and when they’re saying or doing it. Each page of the script represents roughly one minute of screen time.”
When Does a Video Script Make Sense For Sales & Marketing?
The obvious and easy answer is any other time than the times I mentioned above. However, that answer doesn’t provide a ton of value to you as the reader.
So, let’s dig in and give you what are my thoughts on when sales and marketing professionals should leverage the amazing power of a video script.
When you are doing any video over one to two minutes. Look, your brain is super powerful but, when you get past one to two minutes of talking about a topic, you brain can either wonder or start to repeat itself. Neither of those look good on camera, trust me.
When you are going to make episodic videos. If you want to be consistent with your intros, outros and call-to-actions, a video script will keep you in line. If you don’t use that script, your brain will take you into different directions. Why is being consistent important in your videos? It creates “familiarity” and builds trust.
When you are talking about new topics. You don’t have to know everything about everything. But, your audience needs to learn what they need to learn. If you do some research and use that research to build an outline that later becomes a video script, a couple of things happen.
You learn and become familiar with the content you are about to create a video about.
You are able to add in moments of fun, or seriousness, depending upon the topic.
You can extend the verbiage that you might not use or say things in a way that makes more sense. Communication is key and marketing and sales video scripts absolutely help you to communicate better.
Should I Write My Video Scripts or Use a Script Writer?
Here are my thoughts on writing your own video scripts versus getting a script writer.
Leveraging strategic writing and hyper-focused communication when speaking to a specific audience or relaying a certain brand message is essential.
Not only is a story needed but it needs to tie into the brand or audience’s values/needs. Most script writers have advertising and marketing experience so writing your type of video script can come very natural to them.
When writing a script, a good script writer is able to communicate effectively in a number of ways. Remember that a script isn’t written to be read; it’s written to be communicated.
As with most projects, improved planning creates a better process. This is even more true in the video production realm.
A great script writer understands all the things that can go wrong as well as every scenario that needs to be planned for.
Quality production creates a seamless process with less stress and more action thought out during the filming day.
Less mistakes because of script usage is a surefire way to win big when saving recording time.
Leveraging scripts created by a script writer also gives the “talent” aka business owner, sales rep, marketer, or other employees more time to focus on other aspects of the company that require their attention.
So, scripts help employees still do their job and create amazing quality video content as well.
With all that said, I don’t think most of you reading this need a script writer. If you are in sales or marketing, you are already good with the words. You already know your messages, your audience, your goals and other important aspects of the conversations you are using video to get started.
I personally write at least 80% of my own scripts. The other 20% it is a brand or event message they have asked me to share before I speak or it’s a scripted video for our Impulse Creative website.
So go write some script, record the videos and send them my way! I would love to see what you can accomplish. If your not sure where to get started, you could watch this kick butt video from my pal Sunny Lenarduzzi. Oh, did I mention that she has 233,071 subscribers and uses scripts?
Why Did I Fall In Love With Video Scripts?
The main reason I fell in love with using scripts for all my video is simple. I love to save time. By using video scripts, I dramatically decrease the amount of redos I need.
Past saving time, a great creative outcome was super important in my decision to change from the riff side.
Using scripts allow us to tell a good story as well as:
Stay succinct
Sound smarter
Be funnier
Improve our timing
So much more …
They also (and you may fall in love with this reason) allow us to spend less money.
When filming a business video, you not only have to consider the time it takes, but the amount of money you pay everyone involved.
Even if your talent is insourced talent, “employees” make an hourly or salary wage. Investing a little more on the front end to establish a great script/story saves time and money in the long run.
Then, you can focus on earning more money per video versus spending more.
But Wait, There is More…
This is borderline common sense, but it still needs to be stated: A professional script will allow you to develop and promote a higher quality video with a more substantial message.
You’ll be focused on story as well as SEO along the entire video production journey. The better your storyline resonates the more trust you generate towards you and your brand.
Entertaining and educating prospects leads and current customers creates a sense of intrigue that allows your leads to enter the mystical world of brand loyalty. You know, the place we want all of our customers to be.
I hope that this article has helped you answer that age old question, “To script or not to script?”
I am continually trying to convince salespeople that inbound website leads should be a priority.
Most salespeople still distrust B2B website leads, possibly because inbound web leads are relatively new. Also, salespeople have been trained to perform outbound sales and don’t know what to do with an inbound lead.
I want salespeople to not only have faith in inbound leads but make inbound leads a higher priority than outbound leads. The following are some reasons why inbound leads should be treated as the highest priority:
Less Work Involved
The beauty of an inbound lead is the lead typically already knows they need your product or services. They have recognized their need and identified your company as a possible fit as a solutions provider. As a salesperson, this means you need to do less work in selling your product or service. The prospect already knows they need a solution, now all a salesperson needs to do is differentiate from the competition and tailor a proposal that fits the prospect’s specific needs.
More Thoughtful Approach
An inbound lead has been more thoughtful about reaching out to your company. They likely performed research and are deliberate in contacting your firm.
Meanwhile, an outbound lead could just be committing to a sales conversation because it’s convenient or they are being polite—not really knowing much about your company and/or unique value proposition. Inbound B2B website leads typically have performed more due diligence and want to specifically speak to your firm about their pain points, issues, and requirements.
Brand Positioned Better
When a prospect is contacting your firm versus the other way around, your brand is positioned better. During the outbound prospecting process, it may appear that your firm is desperate for business or not working at capacity. With an inbound lead, your firm can play a “hard to get” strategy in which you are interviewing the prospect as much they are interviewing you. This positions your firm, and the brand itself, as more disciplined about the types of projects and clients you take on.
Most Responsive
Studies have shown that the company who contacts the prospect first is most likely to win the business. It is important that salespeople not only make inbound leads their first priority but respond to inbound leads within an hour, at least during business hours. If a salesperson responds before a competitor’s salesperson, they can dictate and guide the project requirements much easier. The quicker you respond the more likely you will be the one that they measure other prospective vendors against.
Conclusion: Inbound = Gold!
In conclusion, inbound B2B website leads are most likely to close with less work and a much shorter sales cycle. I strongly encourage salespeople to simplify their lives and increase commissions by making inbound leads their top priority going forward.
Business Insider spoke to British entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley about how they view Brexit, and if it's affecting their business — and the response was one of overwhelming fear and sadness.
Their answers provide a window into how some expat Brits, divorced from day-to-day life back in the UK, are reacting to the political turmoil roiling their homeland.
"The downside case is obviously that the UK becomes a lowly, irrelevant island in the North Sea, with very limited relationships and limited asset, and there's an enormous brain drain ... into countries where they have great, stronger trade agreements, and stronger future prospects," said Pete Flint, the cofounder of Trulia who now works as a venture capital investor at NFX.
"I'm horrified"
It's little surprise that Silicon Valley is concerned about Brexit.
The American tech industry is famously liberal. Back in the UK, one poll of the tech sector prior to the referendum found that almost 90% of respondents were pro-Remain. It threatens to damage a range of industry interests, from the availability of international talent to access to funding, respondents said.
Some techies expressed concern on a personal level about what's going on.
"I'm horrified," Josh Browder, the founder of legal startup DoNotPay, who has been in the US for four years, said bluntly. "I think if there was a hard Brexit ... incomes would go down, prices would go up, and it would be a lower quality of life for people like my mother who lives in north-west London."
Nicky Goulimis, cofounder and COO of Nova Credit, an international credit bureau, compared it to a Shakespearean tragedy.
"I guess I'm fairly heartbroken by what's going on, independent of any rational perspective," she said. "My family's from Greece, I grew up in London, and I think just seeing the uncertainty, and the EU is such a force for good in the UK as well as in the entirety of Europe."
Uncertainty causes caution
The uncertainty is already impacting business decisions, some say.
Andy McLoughlin, a cofounder of Huddle who now works as an investor for Uncork Capital, said: "We do have a bunch of British entrepreneurs in the portfolio and would absolutely consider looking at UK businesses in the future but until we understand what how this all plays out, I can’t see us doing anything."
McLoughlin is also co-chair of GBx, an exclusive group of entrepreneurs, investors, and other assorted techies in Silicon Valley. Of the group, he added: "There are a few [members of GBx] who have some operations in the UK and are wondering whether it will make sense to keep teams and their non-US center of gravity in the country."
NFX's Flint also said it was making his investment firm more "cautious."
"As investors, we're primarily focused on the US market. I think we are more nervous about investing in EU or UK businesses ... as a result of Brexit. Brexit is probably anticipated to be a big negative on the UK economy, and a slight negative on the European economy," he said. "It's made us increasingly cautious."
It'll make access to talent far harder for startups in the UK, Browder said — though he predicts it could stand to benefit him and DoNotPay personally if it creates more immigration and bureaucratic hoops for people to jump through. "But that's a conflict of interest, as a person I think it's really bad for the country," he added.
London "has this history of reinventing itself"
Others argue there's less cause for pessimism.
London & Partners, a non-profit organisation backed by the mayor of London, points to significant investments from tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple in London since the 2016 referendum, as well as smaller expansions and investments from Silicon Valley startups like shoe firm Allbirds, Credit Karma, and analytics service Mix Panel.
"We see London very much as this thriving global magnet, that is this centre of global energy," said Penny Hardwood, the organisation's SVP of business development. "It's incredibly dynamic, over the last 2,000 years it has this history of reinventing itself."
Fundamentally, there's still a vast amount of uncertainty and unknowns: Will the UK crash out of the EU without a deal on March 29, 2019. Will the negotiations be extended? Will the ultimate agreement be favourable to the UK economy? Might there be a second referendum? How would it even turn out?
For now, more than two years into the process, the answers still aren't clear, and Britain is fast approaching the brink. Brexit may ultimately prove the doubters wrong, but for Brits in the Bay Area at present, the future back home looks gloomy.
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In just about every industry, traditional companies are being challenged by the nimble nature of startups, which have an easier time catering to the wants and needs of modern customers.
The health and wellness industry is particularly ripe for change, with consumers always looking for the next diet trend, healthy eating craze, or lifestyle product to turn to.
Below, you'll find five startups that are challenging the status quo with simple, transparent products and services, and redefining the way we think about health and wellness in the process.
Health and wellness trends tend to come and go. Right now, celery juice is all the rage. A few months ago, it was activated charcoal water that everyone was drinking to "detox." And, while the Atkins diet was critiqued in the '90s for its low-carb limits, the Keto diet is becoming increasingly popular, albeit controversial, today. If anything, our willingness to try new foods, diets, and herbal remedies in the name of improving our health signals a desire for change.
But what is it that we're looking for?
It's a question that new companies are constantly asking, thinking about how they might solve common problems, ease frustrations, or make improvements to the status quo. And with consumers eager for change, the health and wellness industry has lots of room for improvement.
Whether it's vitamins, food, or hygienic products, some of our favorite startups are the ones that are redefining the way we think about, and access, some of our most important and commonly-used products. From choosing higher-quality ingredients to making healthy eating more affordable and accessible, these brands are bettering the products we use to better ourselves — and isn't that what we're all searching for?
While health and wellness trends may come and go, we think these ones are in it for the long haul.
Keep reading to learn more about these five startups that are shaking up the health and wellness industry:
The problem: There is an abundance of vitamins with nuanced labeling and confusing language that makes the shopping process intimidating, leading consumers to buy blindly.
Ritual's solution: This female-centric vitamin brand is all about transparency — in everything from its brand values to its see-through vitamin capsules. When Katerina Schneider, Founder and CEO, was pregnant, she began purging her home of products with questionable ingredients. When it came to finding a prenatal vitamin, she came across a plethora of ingredients she was wary of. Her failed quest ultimately turned into an exciting opportunity — to create better women’s vitamins.
Since 2015, Ritual has been committed to providing women with essential vitamins that are traceable, transparent, and made with high-quality ingredients. These aren’t just meaningless labels, though — Schneider worked tirelessly with doctors, scientists, and nutritionists to settle on the right formula. If you’re still a skeptic, Ritual will help you actually understand what you’re putting in your body. The company offers an essential women’s vitamin and a prenatal option, each made with a minimal number of ingredients (9 and 12, respectively). On the website, you’ll find an in-depth background of each ingredient explaining the benefits and even where it’s made (down to the exact factory), plus you'll find an interview with the producer.
If you’ve ever struggled to shop the vitamin aisle, let alone try to understand the ingredients list on a particular bottle, Ritual can help. The company takes out the guesswork by offering only two options — essential women's and essential prenatal — and they use a subscription service model to make vitamins a mainstay in your daily routine. Pricing is $30 a month for their regular vitamins and $35 for the prenatal. Each month you'll get a clear bottle filled with transparent capsules, in which you can actually see all of the ingredients in your vitamin — all wrapped up a bright, yellow box that’ll make you actually want to take your vitamins every day, two times to be exact.
The problem: The one-size-fits-all approach to taking vitamins doesn't work for everyone.
Care/of's solution: We all lead unique lives, and just as our approach to eating and exercising is tailored to our way of life, our vitamins should be too. The assumption that gender or age alone can determine exactly what kind of vitamins we need is inadequate, according to Care/of. A more holistic approach to vitamins, one that considers your needs and preferences, is necessary. That's why Care/of is making vitamins personal.
It all starts with a quick, but in-depth questionnaire. You'll find questions about more basic things like age and gender, but also more specific ones that address your physical activity, diet, and specific health-related improvements you're looking to make. After you complete the questions, you'll get your recommendations. While reading about vitamins isn't something I would usually find interesting, the site is kind of mesmerizing — providing vital information in a way that is so aesthetically pleasing you won't be able to look away. With each vitamin recommendation, you'll get information on what it does, what ingredients it contains, how it's been researched over the years (and how conclusive this research is), and how it can help a specific concern you addressed in the survey, among other facts.
You can purchase your recommended doses through a monthly subscription service, which will vary in price based on what you have in your box. For reference, I took the quiz and my box came out to be $57 a month. The good news is, if you find the price to be too steep, you can remove any vitamin from your box, for a set of vitamins that works for your body and budget.
The problem: Accessibility and affordability (or lack thereof) serve as major obstacles to healthy eating.
Thrive Market's solution: For most people, shopping for groceries wholesale conjures up thoughts of buying rice and soda in bulk at Costco, while shopping for organic food brings to mind small grocery bags that come with long bills attached. There's a reason people like to call Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck" instead. While that misnomer is funny, it speaks to the high cost of buying foods that align with our values. Yet, so many of us want to do this — whether that means shopping from fair-trade purveyors for ethical reasons or only buying foods that are paleo for health purposes.
Thrive Market wants to make grocery shopping simple and more affordable, with radically transparent labeling coupled with wholesale prices. It's a membership service, and a year costs $59.95, which comes down to just $5 a month. From there, you can shop your favorite healthy brands at a fraction of the price. On average, you'll save between 25-50%. If you grocery shop often, or for a big family, you'll likely make up the yearly membership fee in savings from your first two orders.
Thrive is committed to doing better in more ways than one. Every product on the website is GMO-free, as Thrive believes that we should know everything we're putting into our bodies, and deserve to know about chemicals in our food that we wouldn't be comfortable ingesting. Additionally, Thrive is extending its mission to make healthy eating more affordable and accessible with its Thrive Gives memberships. When you buy a membership to Thrive Market, Thrive will donate a membership to a low-income family, along with educational content and grocery stipends.
When you are a marketer, there are terms used within the profession that only other marketers may know. If you’re a marketer, you need to be able to speak the universal marketing language. One such marketing term, especially known within the SaaS (software as a service) industry, is the term “freemium.” Freemium is a combination of the words “free” and “premium” that is used to describe a business model that offers basic products or services at no cost while the premium products are available for an additional expense. SaaS companies such as Hootsuite, HubSpot, Snapt and Dropbox are all great examples of companies that offer a free trial or a basic package for free to hook new customers. This type of business model has both advantages and challenges when it comes to overall marketing strategy.
The biggest advantage of offering a freemium product or service is that you are allowing new customers to try the product out for free. The hope is that the customer will fall in love the product or service and make additional purchases based on their new relationship with the company. If all goes well, the customer will be happy and loyal, and refer new customers to the company. In turn, the company gains new customers and drives revenue by selling their customers additional products. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Well, there are some marketing challenges associated with this business model, particularly in the SaaS industry. Let’s discuss them.
One challenge many companies face within the SaaS industry is determining the differences between free products and paid products and creating a detailed promotional plan to execute ongoing marketing communications. Within the content marketing plan, it is important to focus on transparency. Within the marketing collateral, you should outline the features and pricing available among all of the different products offered by the company. By being transparent, you’ll gain the trust of new customers and maintain loyalty from current customers. One way to accomplish this is by creating a product comparison chart, a checklist, or a detailed pricing page. HubSpot’s pricing page is a great example of how to highlight the features and tools associated with their free products compared to the premium products.
A second challenge faced by many marketers promoting a SaaS freemium product is how to differentiate themselves from competitors offering a similar product or service. Try creating a competitor comparison sheet for new customers that showcases the benefits of your product over your competitors’ products. Keep in mind that you should stick to the facts within the comparison sheet. Never bad-mouth one of your competitors; if you do, new customers may question your authority and intent. You may also want to monitor online reviews of your competitors’ products and yours, and respond to reviews and the community directly. By communicating with potential customers on social media, review sites, and chat rooms, you are building relationships and hopefully winning their business.
The third challenge, and probably the biggest challenge, is once you have offered the product or service for free, how do you convince the customer to spend money? The answer lies within the features available. Basic packages tend to only include the bare minimum. Advanced, or premium, features start to become available with additional cost. These features must be worth the additional cost. Therefore, the marketing efforts must convey the value proposition for making the additional purchase. The customer must know the additional value that they will receive and feel comfortable moving forward with a purchase. Detailing the premium features within marketing collateral is a necessity. Providing an ROI calculator, case studies, or a webpage showcasing the benefits of the premium product will help demonstrate the value of the product or service.
At the end of the day, all marketers face similar challenges no matter what the business model may be. It is important to do your homework by researching your buyer personas and learning what is most valuable to them. Be sure to provide top-notch customer service for all of your customers, regardless of the revenue generated from them. If all of your marketing efforts are customer-centric, rather than company-centric, your likelihood of success is much greater and you can overcome a variety of marketing challenges.
A sales rep’s mind can be their worst enemy when it comes to pricing initiatives. You have probably heard the comments in the hall-way and board rooms. “We don’t have good products/solutions to command those types of prices”. “My customer
But take it from me, lovely, documentation should not wait.
Having standard operating procedure templates, guides, and forms hammered out before you get new team members onboarded and new business projects underway sets you up for success!
Without them, both you and your virtual team will struggle.
Communication will break down, steps will be missed, and everyone will get frustrated. All of which can be avoided if you take the time to construct a few key documents first!
Here are 7 different standard operating procedure examples for small business, the reasons why each one is important, and how they build the foundation for your business:
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #1: New Client Onboarding
Whether you’re a coach or freelancer, you need to have instructions that help bring new clients into the fold.
The first few interactions an incoming client has with you and your virtual team leaves a HUGE impression, so they need to be handled carefully.
Client Onboarding can include information like:
Templated language for first emails or phone calls
Questions to ask and information to gather at the beginning of the relationship (contact info, goals, how they heard about you, etc.)
FAQs
Common issues/concerns new clients express, and how to handle them
Next steps for new customers after onboarding is complete
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #2: Product Launch Plan
Launching new products and offerings on a regular basis keeps income flowing and clients engaged. It’s a good idea to create and launch something new for customers to purchase several times each year.
Now each of your products should have some variation, but the way you get them ready to sell should be consistent. Otherwise, you’ll be creating unnecessary work for yourself and your team! In your standard operating procedure template, may out the steps you want followed to prep and promote new offerings.
There are four components of a typical launch:
PRE-LAUNCH: This phase focuses on promotion and buzz-building, generating interest and conversation. Pre-launch usually lasts several weeks, and should be designed to ensure that readers and fans are talking about a product across multiple social platforms.
LAUNCH: After a strategic series of reminders, previews, and nudges have been broadcast, the official on-sale date arrives and purchases flood in! To create a sense of urgency, registration/purchasing is available for a set number of days (usually five to ten).
DELIVERY: Once customers are registered and the registration period has ended, the class, workshop, or product is made available. If you’ve included built-in interactivity for a period of time, such as discussion within a private Facebook Group you may need to manage that yourself.
FOLLOW-UP: Once delivery is complete or a class has wrapped up, don’t forget to circle back with customers. Get their feedback, gauge their interest in future or similar offerings, and thank them profusely for participating. This is also a great time to gather testimonials.
Document steps, procedures, and tools to use for each of the four. Also consider whipping up FAQs to address issues and hiccups!
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #3: New Team Member Onboarding
Even if you plan to train in ALL freelancers yourself, it’s helpful to create templates and documentation for new team member onboarding.
Codifying these standard operating procedures ensures that all contractors receive the same training on the same tasks; gives them common ground to start from; and will make it easier for them to onboard future team members if you decide to share that workload in the future.
Virtual team member onboarding can include information like:
Expectations
Preferred communication media
Passwords and access to shared drives, documents, calendars, etc.
Do’s and Don’ts for team member interactions and/or client interactions
Org chart
Weekly checklists or recurring work templates
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #4: Help Desk Manual
Clients have questions, and your team needs to have answers!
Create some standard operating procedure templates and decision trees that will enable them to handle the most common questions quickly and calmly.
Building a help desk manual empowers your team to address issues without bugging you for approval or input.
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #5: Product Release Calendar
Creating an annual product release calendar may be challenging if you don’t have many products or coursesd, but even a rough schedule can be helpful from the outset.
Creating a standard operating procedure document gives both you and your team the big-picture view: Goals for the year, information on how to space out project planning, and when crunch-times may hit.
Without it, you’ll be so focused on daily and weekly targets, you might never move beyond them to creating and launching money-making products!
Make sure that your SOP template includes all four stages of your launch(pre-launch, launch, delivery, follow-up) so you can determine when to begin work and when deadlines should fall.
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #6: Editorial Calendar
Running a small business means creating loads of content for current and prospective clients. You may be writing and building everything now, but eventually you’ll outsource at least some of your content creation.
And if you’re constantly scrambling for topics, images, and outlines, you’ll drive yourself and your team insane. Not to mention posting inconsistently, which leads to a decrease in interest and follows!
So create a standard operating procedure template that maps out your entire content creation and publishing process.
Some examples of guidelines that you’ll want to include in your SOP are:
Research (topics and keywords)
How the content should be created
Formatting of content (colors, sizes, fonts, etc.)
Proofing / Editing
Content due dates (when your team should have tasks completed)
Where does the content get saved (Dropbox, google drive, project management system, etc.)
Where does the content get published
When does the content get published
Creation of graphics & copy to promote your content pieces
How to repurpose your content
Some examples of content that you’ll want to include instructions for are:
Blog posts
Emails
Social Media Posts
Podcasts
Freebies (like workbooks, checklists, etc. to grow your mailing list)
YouTube Videos
Facebook Live broadcasts
Standard Operating Procedure Examples for Small Business #7: Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Reports
In order to make data-based decisions about future projects, it’s essential to have some KPI reports in place.
While trusting your gut can be helpful in some instances, your entire team needs to be comfortable utilizing more concrete metrics and influencing factors.
Tracking KPIs also gives you a clear picture of where performance can be improved, and which elements of your business are thriving.
Train your team with a standard operating procedure template that will guide them in how to collect, track, and store the analytics reports for your business.
Some common KPIs include:
Sales conversion rates
Email open and click rates
Member enrollment and dropoff rates
Number of clients
Subscriber totals and rates
New vs. repeat site visits
Customer acquisition cost
I wholeheartedly recommend implementing all 7 of the standard operating procedure examples I’ve outlined here, since each will bolster growing your small business in a different way.
But even adopting 2 or 3 is bound to help you and your team feel more prepared, informed, and primed for success!
I was watching TV and 60 Minutes came on, and there was this really interesting story about a couple in Michigan that made 24 million dollars on the lottery. Of course, you’re going, “Well, somebody won the big ticket.” No, they did it over years in small increments, and it was fascinating the way they did it. They figured out a formula. There was a particular kind of lottery game where, if somebody didn’t win, it would roll back. This couple knew that the moment it rolled back was the time to buy more tickets, and statistically they could win. They basically out-mathed the lottery, and it even went as far as being investigated by the state of Massachusetts because they went from Michigan to Massachusetts after Michigan shut that down.
It was outstanding the way they were able to do that, but here is the point. Everybody’s into the lottery, right? You go buy a ticket and you’re going to win and you’re going to retire and do all these great things. It’s a dream. You’re going to get rich quick. But what they did is they used the same tool and the same dream that everybody had, built a company, sold shares in it, and got everybody rich doing it slow, and that was the key. They were patient. They waited for the right time. They had a system, and that is the biggest difference between playing the lottery and being played by the lottery.
When a Win Is Not A Win?
Now, I don’t know if you’ve played scratch-off tickets or not, but here’s the deal with those. One out of every 8 or 10 or so are a winner. More often than not, the winner is known as a push. A push means you spend $10, you get $10 back. It’s something I call kissing your sister or kissing your brother, and Vegas has made that very popular in a lot of games where you put in a dollar, you win a dollar back. You still feel like you won, but really you didn’t win anything, you just broke even. They get you addicted to this concept.
Well, I’ve seen this kind of mentality a lot of times in marketing, especially when it comes to people selling you how to get rich quick; you’re going to make a million dollars overnight and all this other stuff, right? Well, I have this thing on my desk. It’s called an easy button. You may have heard of these before. It’s associated with Staples, and here’s one:
“That was easy.”
Right? So that was easy. All you have to do is press that button and boom, you’re going to get rich! I’ve seen this all the time. I’ve gone to webinars on “All you have to do is drive traffic to ___,” “All you have to do is build this funnel, the secret funnel formula,” or “I’m going to show you how to make millions on LinkedIn by connecting and pitching with the right people.” All of those things tend to be get rich quick formulas. That’s the lottery dream, but the reality is this. It takes time, it takes trial, and it takes error. They didn’t win every ticket that they put in there. They have buckets and buckets of them, but they won more often than they lost.
One of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison. He said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that it won’t work,” and that’s essentially what these people did. What you have to do is keep trying, but don’t buy into schemes. Create a strategy. That’s one of the main reasons why most people’s marketing don’t work; they try something and then they stop. I want to give you five key things that you need to think about when you’re developing a marketing strategy, especially online. Those five things are, in order: audience, targeting, messages, timing, and noise.
1) Audience
Let’s start out with the audience. I’ve often heard it said that the most successful people niche down. They find a niche of underwater basket weavers, but even that niche still has to be drilled down. You have to segment to where they’re at. Now, there are six core principles. They’re what I call cold, warm, and hot. Cold, they don’t know anything about you. Warm, they know about you, but they’re not ready to buy. Hot, they are ready to buy. Often there are three more segments. Where are they in your customer life cycle? Are they past clients, current clients or potential clients? You have to figure out which audience you’re marketing to. If you try to use too broad of a brush, chances are you might make a couple of hits, but the more targeted you are with each message, the better off you’re going to be.
2) Targeting
Here comes the second thing: the targeting. Now, there are so many different ways to get messages out. What happens is people try to use a strategy, email or social or website, whatever it is. Yes, use them all. Use email to get certain people on your list or get people to pay attention to what you’re doing. Use social to get another group. Try your website, drive traffic to your website. Try using audio and video, and never forget something as basic as print. It could be a letter, it could be a postcard, a gift, whatever, something they get in the mail, or something you hand out. What you’re trying to do is reach the audience not only where they’re at, but where they’re going to pay attention.
3) Messages
Next comes the messages. How are you going to deliver these messages? When you use email and social, are you driving them back to your blog? Are you using graphics to get people back to your website? Are you using videos to educate people to get them on your email list? That’s what setting up the messages to perform a task is like. What is the purpose of the message and where does it fall into the ecosystem of how you’re communicating with that person?
4) Timing
The next piece is timing. When are people paying attention to things? If they’re consumers, chances are they’re going to be on Facebook and they’ll be on nights and weekends because probably they’re working and they’re not paying attention to Facebook as much during the day. If they’re businesses, chances are they’ll be on LinkedIn, and they’re going to do that during work hours. That’s the next piece: are they business? Are they consumer? When are they going to pay attention? Then there is frequency. When it comes to timing, how often should you send it? Should you do it daily, should you do it weekly, or something else? If you send out a daily message, that’s 365 a year. When you send it a weekly, it’s 52. If you send out monthly, it’s 12. What’s enough? What’s the right formula for where people are at? If people are hot to buy, maybe you send them a message every day. If people are cold and just getting to know you, maybe you send them something once a month. All of that plays down to what kind of messages and where you’re putting them and what’s the timing.
5) Noise
The final piece of this puzzle is noise. You have to be louder and more tuned in to where people are listening to for your kind of solution, because there are way too many ads. Now, there are blatant ads that people pay for inside of Facebook, but there’s also non-blatant ads where people are promoting things, but it may not feel like promotion. It could be a video or it could be a question or something along those lines. Trust me. I know you’ve taken some of those IQ tests and name tests on Facebook, right? There’s marketing involved in that. They’re trying to get your information. So too many ads get in the way. The second piece of that is, can you beat the algorithm? The algorithms show certain content more often than others, and that’s one of the games that you have to play. I don’t have time to get into the details on that. The final thing is, are you doing something that is scroll stopping? Are you getting attention from people in inboxes, on social media, somehow, some way that’s not making them bypass your message?
Final Thoughts
Let me leave you with a couple of final thoughts. Number one, have a strategy. Figure out what you’re trying to do. Number two, start a plan. Lay the plan out so you know where you’re headed. Three, execute the plan. Make sure that you do it exactly the way that you laid it out. Number four, measure the results, and then finally, repurpose some of those pieces and build some new stuff. You may not get rich quick, but if you follow this lottery formula, you may get rich slow.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?
You’ve heard the hype: Account Based Marketing (ABM) is red hot. I don’t think it’s fair to call ABM “the next big thing in B2B marketing” because it is currently the big thing!
Here’s what we do know – the ABM landscape is changing and evolving faster than ever before. A little over 3 years ago, we published one of the industry’s first comprehensive guides to ABM. Here we are 3 years later, and we’ve learned an extraordinary amount. So much so that we had to write a new Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing. With over 70% new content and over 170 pages, these are the latest and greatest ABM best practices.
Over a 3-year span, we’ve noticed three key insights around executing ABM in organizations.
3 Lessons From the Front Lines of Account Based Marketing
1. You must establish “Account Entitlements” before selecting and tiering your target accounts
Account Entitlements answer the question, “What is the right amount of time and energy I should dedicate to each account?” If you’ve adopted a 3-tiered approach to scale ABM like many organizations, you’ll need to distinguish the different resources you’re able to dedicate to each tier.
You pay a certain price to open doors and close deals an account. Whether it’s with time or money, both are a limited resource, which means you must be judicious with how they’re spent.
If you spend all of your time on personalizing your interactions for your Tier 1 accounts, you’re left with no other choice than to automate interactions for your Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts. In other words, you spam those accounts, which breaks the rules of ABM. In the same vein, if you spend all of your ABM budget on elaborate direct mail and costly ads to your Tier 1 target accounts, you lack channel diversity, and you’re left with only the traditional channels of phone and email for Tier 2 and 3. This, again, breaks the rules of ABM.
In order to select your target accounts and split them up into their appropriate tiers, you must split your time and budget up appropriately across all 3 tiers.
The most important takeaway is if you’ve allocated all of your time and resources but the numbers don’t add up (i.e., there are more target accounts than your resources allow for) it’s OK to cut back the number of target accounts.
Establishing your Account Entitlement will require multiple sessions with your sales and marketing leadership to get it right. It’s a fine balancing act that requires a lot of tinkering and adjusting.
Here’s an example (albeit an extremely simplified example) of what entitlement could look like:
2. ABM is the perfect strategy for upselling and cross-selling
After closing a deal, the relationship with the customer doesn’t end. In true enterprise deals, up to 70% of revenue or more can come from existing accounts when you’re focused on selling enterprise deals. Some people call this a land-and-expand strategy, some call it upselling and cross-selling, while yet others call it expansion. But know that whatever you call it, it works!
For those who need a quick refresher on the difference between upselling and cross-selling, here it is:
What is upselling? Upselling is a sales strategy to get customers to increase spending by offering more or better versions of your product. Think, “Would you like to supersize that?”
What is cross-selling? Cross-selling is a strategy to get customers to increase spending by offering them products that are complementary to something they’ve just bought. Think, “Would you like fries with that?”
When adding customer expansion to the mix, as a savvy marketer, I’m sure you know that we also have to build that into our funnel. However, our funnel won’t look much like a funnel anymore, but rather a bow-tie. ABM focuses on existing customer success and expansion just as much as, if not more than, new customer acquisition.
3. The secret weapon for ABM alignment is the Sales and Marketing Standup
Stand-up meetings are common in the world of agile software development. Developers use them to tackle common roadblocks, ensure they’re on the same page and coordinate efforts in coding and engineering.
One of the easiest and most impactful processes you can implement to drive your ABM program and improve alignment is to implement regular sales and marketing stand-ups. In these standups, every week or two, the Account Based Marketer meets 1:1 with each Account Executive and Sales Development Rep for 5-10 minutes to share updates, discuss how they are jointly going after accounts, and agree on go forward actions.
Topics include:
Progress made since last stand-up
Who did you talk to?
What did you learn?
Plan going forward
Focus on the top 3-5 target accounts to penetrate, and two opportunities to accelerate.
What actions will Marketing take? The AE? ADR?
Blockages
One helpful resource is for Marketing to bring an ‘action menu,’ a collection of possible ABM plays that will keep progress moving forward with target accounts. These can be simple, like a welcome package for new executive hires, or more sophisticated, like a multi-channel outreach play to follow-up with key attendees from a recent tradeshow.
In addition to the regular stand-up meeting, it’s also useful to hold monthly ABM ‘win rooms’ to review metrics and set actions across the entire program, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to assess the entire program, consider changes to the account list, dive into metrics, and so on. These should involve leadership from both marketing and sales teams.
An idea whose time has come
Winning major deals in B2B markets is never going to be easy – you’re selling complex solutions into big organizations. No single person can simply pull the trigger on a deal without consulting an interconnected matrix of people, each with his or her own perspectives, problems and prejudices.
But now, you can take concrete, measurable steps that dramatically increase your chances of winning the biggest, most attractive deals in your market.
The coronavirus pandemic accelerated payments industry digitization by two to three years, as lockdowns, restrictions, and ongoing consumer health concerns upended daily life in ways that trickled into spending trends and consumer habits.
The Payment Processing Industry Overview
The power dynamics in the payments industry are changing as businesses and consumers shift dollars from cash and checks to digital payment methods. Cards dominate the in-store retail channel, but mobile wallets like Apple Pay are seeing a rapid uptick in usage and paving the way for the future of payments.
At the same time, e-commerce will chip away at brick-and-mortar retail as smartphones attract a rising share of digital shopping. Digital peer-to-peer (P2P) apps are supplanting cash in the day-to-day lives of users across generations as they become more appealing and useful than ever.
And change is trickling down into bigger industries long-dominated by cash and check, like remittances and business-to-business payments.
In response, providers are scrambling for market share. Skyrocketing consolidation that creates mega-giants is forcing providers to diversify in search of new volume.
The Payments Industry Explained
In this report, Insider Intelligence will examine the payments ecosystem today, as well as the pandemic's impact on growth drivers and the industry's future. The report begins by tracing the path of in-store and online payments from processing to settlement across key stakeholders.It then unpacks pandemic-driven changes in usage of various payment methods, and forecasts growth and defines drivers for key digital payment channels and transaction types as the pandemic accelerates digitization.
Finally, it highlights three trends that are changing the industry, looking at how surging fraud, a revenue crunch, and rising demand for white-labeled payments features from unconventional players might spark change in the years to come.
Payments Industry Trends
In-store payment methods
In-store payment methods dipped a little over 3% in 2020—but it still holds the majority of sales. Debit and credit cards continue to lead the segment, as cash and check usage slowly ticks downward. And surging contactless penetration is set to bring mobile payments in-store to prominence for the first time in the years ahead.
Ecommerce growth
Surging e-commerce will continute to eat away at in-store payments' share of overall retail. Online retail sales surged to $794.50 billion, a record-breaking 14.4% of total US retail in 2020, thanks to increased spending on smartphones in particular.
Digital payments
The digitization of payments isn't just contained to retail, though, with real time mobile P2P payments, digital remittances, and digital business payments continuing to blossom as change spreads through the ecosystem. Mobile proximity payment volume accelerated to $131.36 billion, per Insider Intelligence estimates, as major wallets added users at a record clip in 2020.
Credit cards
Payments made via credit card will grow from $1.75 trillion in 2019 to $1.82 trillion in 2024, marking a 0.79% CAGR. High credit appetite and robust rewards programs — which are set to expand as issuers aim to keep their payments solutions top-of-wallet — will entice spending and help the segment tick up, though growth will be slower than inflation.
The financial institutions mentioned in this report are: ACI Worldwide, Adyen, Affirm, Afterpay, AiFi, Alliance Data, Amazon, American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Barclays, Billtrust, BNP Paribas, Caper, Capital One, Citi, Clover, Discover, ExxonMobil, Facebook, Fiserv, FIS, Galileo, Global Payments, Gemalto, Giant Eagle, Google, Grabango, Green Dot, Idemia, Ingenico, Instagram, Interlink, iZettle, JPMorgan Chase, Klarna, Kount, LG, Maestro, Mastercard, Marqeta, Mobeewave, MoneyGram, NACHA, NBC Universal, NCR, Payoneer, PayPal, Paysafe, Remitly, Shopify, Square, Standard, Star, Stripe, SumUp, Synchrony Financial, TerraPay, TikTok, Thales, The Clearing House, Transferwise, USAA, Venmo, Verifone, Visa, Vocalink, Walmart Wells Fargo, Western Union, Zelle
In full, the report:
Explains the pandemic's impact on major sectors of the payments industry
Follows a typical card payment from processing to settlement, and discusses the roles of key stakeholders, including acquirers, processors, issuers, and facilitators
Evaluates key trends impacting payments hardware and software providers
Discusses volume forecasts in key categories, including ecommerce, mobile payments, remittances, and B2B payments
Assesses growth drivers across the ecosystem in these key categories
Identifies three trends that will define the landscape in 2021, and what they might mean for key players
Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:
When we see people we know or admire purchasing products or trying out certain restaurants, something tells us we have to try out these experiences too. Other people have enjoyed it and it worked for them, so why can’t we do that too?
If there’s any way for marketers to convince customers to buy, social proof is the way to go. This is a social and psychological phenomenon where people recommend the products and services they’ve tried and, as a result, users who see this get interested in that product too.
According to Think With Google, 40 percent of millennials say their favorite creator understands them better than their friends. Consumers have adapted to trusting what others say while seeing other people buying and loving products because it gives them the reason to trust what they’re purchasing.
If you’re looking for ways to boost your sales using social proof, here are three to get you started.
1. Customer reviews and client testimonials
It doesn’t seem to matter whether reviews and customer testimonials come from someone you know as Nielsen reports that 92 percent of visitors will trust a recommendation from a colleague or friend while 70 percent will trust a recommendation from a complete stranger.
Brands often showcase client testimonials on their website as social proof that their business is legitimate and brings positive results to its customers. Customers also like to use social media to express their opinions. When visitors see this, it shows they can trust the business enough to make a purchase and not feel uncomfortable about it.
Enable customer reviews of your products and don’t try to hide any negative feedback as this will only hurt you. It’s actually a good thing to showcase negative reviews because it shows lack of bias and earns you credibility. The Journal of Consumer Research found that, if worded politely, customer complaints have the ability to encourage other consumers to still make a purchase.
2. Business logos
It’s important to showcase how brands benefit from your business in order to bump up your credibility. If there are popular websites that are using your products and enjoying them, put their logo on your website showing they’re loyal, happy customers.
By showing viewers that the big guys support you, it lets them know that they’re safe if they decide to do the same. When visitors see brand logos on your site that they’re familiar with, it tells them you’re a company they can trust that will bring them effective results.
Most businesses display client logos on their homepage where new visitors can see it and associate it with positive outcomes. Try to place your collection of logos above the fold as Nielsen finds that users spend about 57 percent of their time on a web page browsing above the fold.
3. Influencer endorsements
Influencer marketing uses well-known people on social media and those with a large following to promote brands and products in return for money. Think about it: if someone with a ton of influence tells you to buy a product because they love it, why wouldn’t you feel encouraged to buy it too?
A poll by Tomoson found that businesses are making $6.50 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. The potential revenue you could rake in from this method is outstanding as there’s a lot of power in influencers telling their audience to check out a new product or business.
Research by eMarketer found that 48 percent of marketers plan to boost their influencer marketing budget in the near future as they see the value it brings to their business. With platforms like Instagram continuing to rise, social media users now more than ever depend on the opinions and reviews of the influencers they follow to make buying decisions.
What’s next
Social proof marketing has proven to be super effective to boost sales and attract new customers. It uses the pre-existing relationship between well-known influencers and their audience to convert them to paying customers. Remember that reviews and testimonials are a great way to show that you’re trusted by real people out there. Business logos tell visitors that you’re the real deal because they chose you over your competitors. How will you use social proof marketing to boost sales this year?
The last hour of work is my favorite. And no, not because I can’t wait for work to be over.
Much ado has been made about the importance of a strong sales morning ritual, but did you know an end-of-day sales ritual can be just as powerful? The reason I have a set schedule for the end of my day is not only to help me stay organized, but to achieve my ultimate goal in sales: driving agreements. Keeping my workflow efficient and systematic has empowered me to focus on that goal, leading to a successful career in sales. This all began 14 years ago, when I started my sales career selling alarms door to door in Southern California. One of the many sales lessons I learned in that role is that the last hour of the workday should be your most productive.
In our office, we called this the “golden hour.” Our manager promised us that if we would push through until the very end, we would talk to more people and be more successful, and he was right. There were many nights where our coworkers were waiting in the car while we were closing the final deal of the day.
In the B2B world, the last hour of the day does not have the same meaning as it did knocking on doors. However, it is still my favorite part of the day because I get to look back at all of the hard work I put into the day, and plan for the next day.
Creating and maintaining a schedule is important for everyone, and especially important for people in sales to be able to focus on the main goal of creating more agreements. On my calendar I have the last hour of the day blocked off from any other meetings. During this hour, I take the time to step back and do the following things each day:
Review The Day – First, I look back at all of the meetings I had that day. I think about what was accomplished, what I owe my prospects/customers as far as information, and what next steps I will take to progress the discussion further. This is a key time to evaluate what went right, what went wrong, and what I can do to help push the needle further toward achieving my goals. I also take the time to review my team’s needs: how their meetings went, and if there’s anything they need from me.
Review The Next Day – After reviewing what happened today, I look forward to the next day to see what is coming up. I prepare for my meetings taking place that day by doing research on new prospects, preparing information and pricing for calls, and deciding if I need to add any additional meetings internally. This is another point where I look at my team’s needs—if there are any meetings I need to join or any materials they need from me.
Update CRM – Whether it’s Salesforce or another CRM, one of the most crucial things that get missed in sales is keeping consistent notes and next steps updated in your CRM. This will help you remember each conversation you had with a prospect for future calls and later follow-up. Many deals that don’t get closed the first time can reappear in a year or two if the prospect isn’t happy with the solution they bought, and it’s helpful to be able to accurately recall how the conversation went. Keeping copious notes and next steps will also help you forecast your deals more accurately, which will make happier managers.
Send Follow-Up Emails – Reviewing your pipeline and following up with your prospects should be a daily habit. This does not mean you email each person each day (because that is very annoying) but you should have a sequence of follow-ups that happens on a daily basis. My days are usually packed with calls and meetings so this last hour is the time to make the follow-ups to help progress deals. Make sure your whole team is also following this sequence so that all prospects are given the same attention.
Clean Email Inbox – I am inbox zero all the way. Keeping a clean email inbox not only helps keep you organized, but it really helps to prioritize the emails that need to be followed up with quickly. I have a folder system for all emails and at the end of the day I have either replied to every email or put the email in a folder to follow up as soon as I have the information I need. I have to attribute a large amount of my sales success to email so this is very important to me. Staying on top of emails and replying promptly builds trust with prospects—they can always rely on hearing back from you, no matter how small of a question they have.
Review Contracts – It’s important to know what stage a contract is in—whether it’s waiting for a signature or up for renewal. Taking some time to look through the inbox of the contract lifecycle management platform ensures I know when I need to send a reminder for a signature or set a meeting to discuss the renewal. Features such as deadline alerts help me stay on top of renewals, and notifications help me stay on top of what I need to do to get a deal across the line; whether it’s accepting edits, responding to comments, or putting my signature on a document.
With so many things to do in the day, taking some time to pause and evaluate is a great way to stay on top of things and ensure nothing is falling through the cracks. Here are three ways to get started creating your own end-of-day ritual:
Put a block on your calendar. Make it official, and hold to it. If people try to schedule meetings during that time, reschedule them unless it’s absolutely urgent.
Make a list of your daily “close-up” tasks. All roles are slightly different, so personalize your list so that you never miss a step. It’s also helpful to go over your team’s lists to ensure they aren’t leaving anything out.
Stick to it and re-evaluate. Set a check-in with yourself and your team a few months down the road. What are the most successful parts of your last hour? What isn’t working as well? Is everyone still on track and holding to this schedule? Take some time to step back and make sure this plan is still working for everyone.
Hopefully, this will help you look at the end of the day differently, find more success, and smash that quota!
Amazon declared in its 2018 annual filing that it competes against transportation and logistics companies, as CNBC first reported.
It's a clear warning shot against UPS and FedEx, two companies that used to claim Amazon is simply their customer.
Meanwhile, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts last week that the retail giant will "continue to expand (its) Amazon logistics and (its) delivery capability" in 2019.
Each quarter, corporations dutifully report the "Risk Factors" facing their company to the public and investors in SEC filings.
Amazon's annual reports usually first highlight the "intense competition" the retail juggernaut faces. In 2017, that predictably included "retail, e-commerce services, digital content and electronic devices, and web and infrastructure computing services."
That's a clear warning shot to UPS and FedEx. Both transportation companies have long claimed Amazon is just a good customer.
But the tide is starting to turn. UPS CEO David Abney told Business Insider last week that UPS "monitor(s) them (Amazon) as is if they were a competitor." And FedEx claimed, seemingly out of nowhere, last week that Amazon is not their largest competitor, claiming just 1.3% of the company's 2018 revenue.
Amazon's annual filing, which was released last week, had the following entry under "Risk Factors" (emphasis ours):
We Face Intense Competition
Our businesses are rapidly evolving and intensely competitive, and we have many competitors in different industries, including physical, e-commerce, and omnichannel retail, e-commerce services, digital content and electronic devices, web and infrastructure computing services, and transportation and logistics services, and across geographies, including cross-border competition.
That bolded phrase, as CNBC reported, hasn't been seen on an Amazon quarterly or annual filing before.
And in the sentence following, the phrase we've bolded is also totally new in an Amazon annual filing:
Some of our current and potential competitors have greater resources, longer histories, more customers, and/or greater brand recognition, particularly with our newly-launched products and services and in our newer geographic regions. They may secure better terms from vendors, adopt more aggressive pricing, and devote more resources to technology, infrastructure, fulfillment, and marketing.
One of those newly-launched services in logistics could be Amazon Shipping, which just expanded its home shipping services to the New York area. The service, already in Los Angeles and London, nixes fuel surcharges and other fees that FedEx and UPS place on its goods.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts on Thursday that the retail giant will "continue to expand (its) Amazon logistics and (its) delivery capability" in 2019. He highlighted that in-house deliveries were also cheaper.
In 2018, Amazon expanded two-day shipping availability to "almost anywhere" in the US with its additional Amazon Air capacity. Free one-day shipping is now accessible for the "majority of Prime members in the US." Three more Amazon Air gateways are underway in Ohio, Illinois, and Texas.
You’ve heard the hype: Account Based Marketing (ABM) is red hot. I don’t think it’s fair to call ABM “the next big thing in B2B marketing” because it is currently the big thing!
Here’s what we do know – the ABM landscape is changing and evolving faster than ever before. A little over 3 years ago, we published one of the industry’s first comprehensive guides to ABM. Here we are 3 years later, and we’ve learned an extraordinary amount. So much so that we had to write a new Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing. With over 70% new content and over 170 pages, these are the latest and greatest ABM best practices.
Over a 3-year span, we’ve noticed three key insights around executing ABM in organizations.
3 Lessons From the Front Lines of Account Based Marketing
1. You must establish “Account Entitlements” before selecting and tiering your target accounts
Account Entitlements answer the question, “What is the right amount of time and energy I should dedicate to each account?” If you’ve adopted a 3-tiered approach to scale ABM like many organizations, you’ll need to distinguish the different resources you’re able to dedicate to each tier.
You pay a certain price to open doors and close deals an account. Whether it’s with time or money, both are a limited resource, which means you must be judicious with how they’re spent.
If you spend all of your time on personalizing your interactions for your Tier 1 accounts, you’re left with no other choice than to automate interactions for your Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts. In other words, you spam those accounts, which breaks the rules of ABM. In the same vein, if you spend all of your ABM budget on elaborate direct mail and costly ads to your Tier 1 target accounts, you lack channel diversity, and you’re left with only the traditional channels of phone and email for Tier 2 and 3. This, again, breaks the rules of ABM.
In order to select your target accounts and split them up into their appropriate tiers, you must split your time and budget up appropriately across all 3 tiers.
The most important takeaway is if you’ve allocated all of your time and resources but the numbers don’t add up (i.e., there are more target accounts than your resources allow for) it’s OK to cut back the number of target accounts.
Establishing your Account Entitlement will require multiple sessions with your sales and marketing leadership to get it right. It’s a fine balancing act that requires a lot of tinkering and adjusting.
Here’s an example (albeit an extremely simplified example) of what entitlement could look like:
2. ABM is the perfect strategy for upselling and cross-selling
After closing a deal, the relationship with the customer doesn’t end. In true enterprise deals, up to 70% of revenue or more can come from existing accounts when you’re focused on selling enterprise deals. Some people call this a land-and-expand strategy, some call it upselling and cross-selling, while yet others call it expansion. But know that whatever you call it, it works!
For those who need a quick refresher on the difference between upselling and cross-selling, here it is:
What is upselling? Upselling is a sales strategy to get customers to increase spending by offering more or better versions of your product. Think, “Would you like to supersize that?”
What is cross-selling? Cross-selling is a strategy to get customers to increase spending by offering them products that are complementary to something they’ve just bought. Think, “Would you like fries with that?”
When adding customer expansion to the mix, as a savvy marketer, I’m sure you know that we also have to build that into our funnel. However, our funnel won’t look much like a funnel anymore, but rather a bow-tie. ABM focuses on existing customer success and expansion just as much as, if not more than, new customer acquisition.
3. The secret weapon for ABM alignment is the Sales and Marketing Standup
Stand-up meetings are common in the world of agile software development. Developers use them to tackle common roadblocks, ensure they’re on the same page and coordinate efforts in coding and engineering.
One of the easiest and most impactful processes you can implement to drive your ABM program and improve alignment is to implement regular sales and marketing stand-ups. In these standups, every week or two, the Account Based Marketer meets 1:1 with each Account Executive and Sales Development Rep for 5-10 minutes to share updates, discuss how they are jointly going after accounts, and agree on go forward actions.
Topics include:
Progress made since last stand-up
Who did you talk to?
What did you learn?
Plan going forward
Focus on the top 3-5 target accounts to penetrate, and two opportunities to accelerate.
What actions will Marketing take? The AE? ADR?
Blockages
One helpful resource is for Marketing to bring an ‘action menu,’ a collection of possible ABM plays that will keep progress moving forward with target accounts. These can be simple, like a welcome package for new executive hires, or more sophisticated, like a multi-channel outreach play to follow-up with key attendees from a recent tradeshow.
In addition to the regular stand-up meeting, it’s also useful to hold monthly ABM ‘win rooms’ to review metrics and set actions across the entire program, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to assess the entire program, consider changes to the account list, dive into metrics, and so on. These should involve leadership from both marketing and sales teams.
An idea whose time has come
Winning major deals in B2B markets is never going to be easy – you’re selling complex solutions into big organizations. No single person can simply pull the trigger on a deal without consulting an interconnected matrix of people, each with his or her own perspectives, problems and prejudices.
But now, you can take concrete, measurable steps that dramatically increase your chances of winning the biggest, most attractive deals in your market.
Events are often one of the biggest marketing expenses. If this is the case, why do so few of us measure the real impact of these initiatives?
According to Event MB, 85% of event planners use event registration software, 61% use event marketing tools, and 54% use survey tools. While this is promising, these tech stacks can often lead to uncertain attribution models that fail to calculate the true ROI of events.
In this article, I’ll share an ROI attribution model that will help you accurately measure the results from your events. It all begins with assigning the right metrics to your goals.
Attaching Metrics to Event Goals
Before looking at the metrics and tools needed to measure success, you must have a clear vision on the outcome you want to achieve from your events.
Setting marketing goals is nothing new. But it’s worth mentioning here, as event goals can vary depending on the shape and format of your event. For example, a workshop that accepts only a dozen or so people will have vastly different outcomes to a 2,000-attendee conference.
The best goals are specific, but that doesn’t mean you should only choose one. Yes, you need a primary goal, but secondary outcomes usually come as an added bonus (whether you intend them to happen or not).
Why not implement them into your plan from the very beginning for the best results possible? This way, you can split your goals into two buckets:
Objective results: The measurable impact your event had on the business.
Subjective results: Outcomes such as brand recognition, engagement, and customer relationships. Harder to measure, but still contribute to your ROI.
Here, I’ll outline the most common event marketing goals and the metrics attached to them.
Generating Brand Awareness
Starting at the top of the funnel, events can be an effective method of driving brand awareness with your audience and industry as a whole. Awareness goals include:
Event registrations are, of course, the lifeblood of your event marketing, and should be a leading KPI for how well you’re performing. With these goals in mind, it’s time to apply some metrics. These include:
Number of registrations
Reach on social media
Social media engagement
Mentions in online media
Attributed website visits
Measuring Engagement During Your Event
How are you going to measure the level of engagement at your event? While this outcome can often seem “fluffy,” there are several ways to do it. These goals include:
Session attendance
Session engagement
Event app engagement
Social media engagement
Engagement metrics provide a litmus to measure how attendees are enjoying your event. Metrics for measuring these goals include:
Live poll responses
Questions asked during sessions
Event app downloads and sessions
Mentions of company and event hashtag on social media
These goals are important for any event manager. They help you figure out what works well, what doesn’t and what needs fixing in real time. These metrics allow you to address unhappy attendees and improve your event in the future.
Acquiring Customers & Educating Your Audience
Goals that fit under the umbrella of “education” bridge the gap between awareness and ROI-driven goals (such as sales and lead generation).
Attendees are often looking for events where they can sharpen their skills and learn about new technologies. These technologies can include your own product.
Education- and acquisition-driven goals include:
New customer acquisition
Customer satisfaction
Customer retention
Partner engagement
Partner satisfaction
Metrics for these goals will seem obvious, and include the following:
Direct purchases
Software trials and demos
Samples given out
In-event surveys
Post-event NPS survey
As you can see, these metrics are designed to measure several stages of the sales cycle before and during an event. Even the post-event NPS survey is designed to gauge how much value attendees got from your event.
3 Tools & Methods to Measure Event Marketing Success
With these goals and metrics defined, you can now effectively measure the overall ROI of your event marketing.
ROI is considered the holy grail of all marketing metrics. But how do you measure it effectively? It all starts by capturing the right data at all stages of the event marketing funnel.
Here, we’ll dive into three different tools that you can use to measure the performance of your events in real-time (and after the fact).
1. Get Attendee Insights with Event Surveys
Generating insights from attendees is best collected during the event itself. For example, if you want to ask what your attendees thought of a speaker, you can get them to fill out a survey right after they’ve attended. This way, you’ll collect accurate data to inform future session choices.
Uncover insights such as how much they enjoyed the session and how long they spent there. You can also ask them which topics they wish you covered. This can help direct your future event strategy, not to mention your content marketing efforts.
Marketers who take the time to respond to these surveys are usually engaged and invested. They’re more likely to convert into leads. These people should be qualified and scored accordingly.
You can capture this data from a survey tool or your own mobile app. If attendees use your app to express interest or register for sessions, you can time the delivery of your survey to strike while it’s fresh in their mind.
Measure Buzz with Social Listening
Your attendees will be engaging in conversations across several channels during your event. For example, Twitter is a favorite for those who enjoy live-tweeting during events.
Use social listening to measure engagement around your event before, during and after it happens. Use it to measure:
Mentions of your hashtag
Mentions of your company name
Mentions of your event name
Mentions of the venue and any related topics
Keep track of the number of posts/tweets, as well as any images and videos to fuel your user-generated content (UGC) efforts post-event. Social listening can also measure engagement during sessions. Do this by looking out for speaker quotes and overall sentiment (e.g. if they’re going on too long, how excited they are etc.)
There are many tools that can help you set up dashboards for social listening. Define which keywords, hashtags, and branded terms to monitor and you’ll get a real-time report as they happen.
Utilize Proprietary Data with an Event App
Proprietary event apps have become a mainstay of the event marketer’s toolkit. It helps boost retention, engagement, and generally build buzz around an event.
They can also provide insights on your attendees. By building your own event app, you’ll begin to build a treasure-trove of proprietary data around your events.
For example, you can see how many attendees actually turned up vs. those that dropped off. This provides you with a churn rate from sign-up to attendance. You can also use it to measure the most popular sessions or keynotes. This provides insights into which topics and speakers interest your audience the most.
This data also provides proof to exhibitors and sponsors. Provide data into how many attendees interacted with their brand. Use this insight to increase sponsor retention for future events.
There will be times where you’ll want to avoid using event technology to provide a positive experience for attendees. You must balance a streamlined experience and the use of technology for technology’s sake.
How to Practically Measure Event ROI
By collecting data and measuring the metrics outlined in this article, you’ve set yourself up to measure the level of success from your events (based on your goals).
However, there’s one final step: applying these insights to an ROI model. To wrap-up this guide, I’ll share an effective model to help you measure both objective and subjective goals (as described earlier in this article).
Step 1: First, Calculate Your Costs
To measure ROI, you first need a complete 360 view of your event expenditure. This is often referred to as the “total cost to execute,” or TOCE for short. These are usually split into two different categories:
Upfront costs: Usually approved by stakeholders as part of the budget, and are therefore easier to measure. These costs include catering, venue, printing etc.
Hidden costs: Involve elements such as people- and time-related costs, i.e. the total time and resources needed to execute the event itself.
To calculate hidden costs, multiply the wages (or contractor fees) of your event staff by the average number of hours needed to execute the event. This includes before, during and after the event itself.
Step 2: Measure Objective Results
So, your event is all wrapped up. Now it’s time to figure out what fruits have come to bear, starting with the results that matter most: your true-north goals.
As defined earlier, your true-north metrics will typically be one of the following:
Revenue generated
Customer acquisition
Lead generation
Appointments set
Business development opportunities
Recruitment (as a primary goal)
Again, it all depends on why you ran your event in the first place. You may also measure long-term impact, such as customer retention and renewed deals as a result of your face-to-face efforts.
With these figures at hand, you can calculate the ROI based on your total costs (both upfront and hidden) along with revenue, projected deal flow, and retention.
Step 3: Measure Subjective Results
Measuring these outcomes is slightly trickier, but still well worth taking stock. Subjective results include the following:
Brand awareness (social reach, attendees etc.)
Networking
Recruitment (as a secondary goal)
Enriched customer relationships
You can measure these outcomes based on “soft” metrics. These include numbers such as visits to your booth, attendees to a keynote and brand-related mentions across social and web. These numbers work both for exhibitors and event organizers alike.
Leading Event Marketing Strategy with ROI
ROI is too often left as an afterthought for brands. Sure, benefits such as brand awareness can lead to long-term results. But your eye should still be on your overall return.
How are you currently measuring the results from your events? Does ROI matter most to your organization, or do you run events for other benefits?
(This article is sponsored by Adobe.) Kelly’s in charge of choosing IT cloud services at her company. She has signed the company up for a chatbot service, and has had the “Pro” level service (not the “Free” or “Standard”) for two years.
It’s time for the annual renewal. Will she renew? Will she decide to renew, but switch to the free service only? Is there anything about the email notice and/or webpage for the service that will either encourage her or discourage her from renewing?
The pricing plan that is presented to Kelly. (Large preview)
There is a lot of research on human decision-making. Here are some of my favorite insights from the research.
Most Decisions Are Not Made “Logically”
We like to think that we are logical and that when we are making a decision, we carefully weigh all of our alternatives. When it’s time to buy a new car, do we read all the specs and reviews, and choose the one that is the safest and most economical? When it’s time to renew the chatbot service, does Kelly do a study to see how much use she has made of the “Pro” services and evaluate whether she should stay with that level and pay that amount each month?
These would be the logical ways to make the decision, and although we sometimes make decisions rationally and logically, there are hundreds of decisions we make every day, and we don’t do a logical think through of every one. Even the big decisions where we think we are being logical, the research shows that most of our decisions — big or small — are made unconsciously and involve emotion.
Here are some facts about decisions that may surprise you.
Most Of Our Decisions Are Made Unconsciously
By looking at brain activity while making a decision, researchers could predict what choice people would make 7-10 seconds before they themselves were even aware of having made a decision. This means that even when people think they are making a conscious, logical, decision, chances are that they aren’t aware that they’ve already made a decision and that it was unconscious. We aren’t even aware of our own process.
Do you write your messaging and content to appeal to logical thinking?
If so, it’s possible and even probable that your logical, persuasive arguments to your target audience about why they should go with the premium service, or why they should purchase a particular product may be in vain.
Be suspicious of what people say.
Another problem is that if you are diligent in your design process and ask people what factors are important to them, you might not be getting a true answer.
For example, if someone interviewed Kelly and asked her why she chooses the “Pro” level each year, it is likely that she will come up with an answer that sounds very logical (i.e. about the service, how her company uses it and so on) when the real reason she stays with “Pro” rather than the “Free” plan may be emotional (“I don’t want to have things go wrong and if I pay money things won’t go wrong”) or just habit (“It’s what we always sign up for”). What people tell you is the reason for why they do what they do may not be the actual reason.
The vmPFC is part of the prefrontal cortex, i.e. the front of your brain. It is important in regulating fear. Other parts of your brain (in particular the amygdala) tell you when you should be afraid and what you should be afraid of. The amygdala is where “conditioned” fear responses are born and perpetuated. The vmPFC, in contrast, has an opposite role. It mitigates conditioned fear. It stops you from continuing to be afraid in certain situations. When the vmPFC is active then you are able to let go of conditioned fears. As a result, you are then able to make a decision.
You should just assume that all decisions involve emotions. Rather than just making logical arguments to persuade, you are more likely to persuade people to take an action if you understand how they are feeling about the decision and feed their feeling. For example, if Kelly is feeling apprehensive about making a wrong decision then your messaging should be more about making her feel secure and safe than it is about product features.
People buy when they feel confident of their decision.
There is actually a neuron that fires up in the brain that triggers people to take action when the brain decides it is confident of a decision. This is subjective. It’s not necessarily based on the amount of information you’ve collected — it’s a feeling of confidence.
If you want people to take an action then you need to make them feel confident. If you want Kelly to choose the “Pro” level again, then you need to give her messaging about the “Pro” version that makes her confident of her choice. For example, feed data back to her about how much she has used the service. This will make her feel confident that she is making the correct choice.
Don’t Confuse Unconscious With Irrational Or Bad
I take exception with writers who equate unconscious decision making with making poor or irrational decisions. For example, Dan Ariely in his book, “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” implies that unless we work hard to prevent it, many to most of our decisions are poor and irrational.
Most of our mental processing is unconscious, and most of our decision-making is unconscious, but that doesn’t mean it’s faulty, irrational, or bad. We are faced with an overwhelming amount of data (11,000,000 pieces of data come into the brain every second according to Dr. Timothy Wilson in his book “Strangers To Ourselves: Discovering The Adaptive Unconscious”) and our conscious minds can’t process all of that.
Our unconscious has evolved to process most of the data and to make decisions for us according to guidelines and rules of thumb that are in our best interest most of the time. This is the genesis of “trusting your gut”, and most of the time it works!
People do like to think that they are being logical and thorough, however, so you may want to offer logical reasons for why a certain decision should be made so that the person making the decision has a rational reason they can give themselves and others. Go ahead and give Kelly the rational reasons she should renew for the “Pro” level, but just understand that that reason is probably not the actual reason.
Only Give More Information If People Are Making A Goal-Based Decision
There are two different types of decisions that people make. Value-based decisions are made in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). So, during those times when you really are comparing the Honda to the Subaru when you are shopping for a car, then you are making a value-based goal decision. If Kelly was comparing the features of the different levels for the chatbot service then she would be making a value-based goal decision.
Habit-based decisions occur in the basal ganglia (deep in the brain). When you pull your usual cereal off the shelf at the grocery store and put it in your cart, that’s a habit-based decision. If Kelly presses the ‘Renew’ button for the Chatbot software then she is making a habit-based decision.
What’s interesting is that if the OFC is quiet then the habit part of the brain takes over. This means that people are either making a goal-directed decision or a habit decision, but not both at the same time.
Structure of the human brain and location of the basal ganglia (Large preview)
If you give someone a lot of information then they will switch from habit to goal-directed. So if you want someone to make a habit decision, don’t give them too much information to review. If you want them to make a goal-directed decision then do give them information to review.
If you want Kelly to renew for the “Pro” level then don’t give her lots of data. Let her make the habit-based decision to renew. If you are hoping that she will go up a level (not down) then you may want to give her data on her options as that will kick her from a habit decision to a goal-directed decision.
Too Many Choices Means People Won’t Choose
You may have heard the idea that people can only remember, or deal with 7 plus or minus 2 things at a time (5 to 9). This actually is not true. It was a theory first mentioned by Miller in 1956 at a talk he gave at the American Psychological Association meeting. But research since then shows that 7 +- 2 is a myth. The real number is 3-4 not 5-9. Refuting research includes:
And most recently, Sheena Iyengar (author of “The Art Of Choosing”), has conducted several studies that clearly show that if you give people too many choices then they end up not choosing anything at all.
People liked having more choices to choose from but they were more satisfied with their choice when there was less to choose from.
So, if you show someone too many choices (in this case of sales/CRM services) they might not choose any and instead abandon the page.
Showing too many options can only overwhelm your users. Choose less with your goals in mind. (Large preview)
Kelly was given five choices for the Chatbot service. Three to four would have been better.
So, is there anything you can do to encourage Kelly to re-subscribe and not change her level of membership?
In this case, the decision is probably a habit-based decision. The best thing to do, then, is to not do much at all. Don’t send her an email with information on all the membership levels. Instead, give her one or two reasons why continuing with her current subscription is the way to go and leave it at that. At a different time (not when she is deciding whether to renew), you can make a pitch for a higher premium level. But if you do that pitch while she is about to renew, you may jeopardize her habit-based renewal.
If someone is making a habit-based decision, do not give them a lot of information.
Provide people with a brief, but a logical reason for their decision so they can use that to tell themselves and others why they did what they did.
Limit the number of choices people have to make to one, two or three. If you provide too many choices then people likely won’t choose at all.
This article is part of the UX design series sponsored by Adobe. Adobe XD tool is made for a fast and fluid UX design process, as it lets you go from idea to prototype faster. Design, prototype and share — all in one app. You can check out more inspiring projects created with Adobe XD on Behance, and also sign up for the Adobe experience design newsletter to stay updated and informed on the latest trends and insights for UX/UI design.
For B2B companies, revenue from existing customers can be as much as 80% of growth. That is, retention and expansion is the name of the game. Is your company truly focusing on retention? Or, are you chasing renewals?
Some Definitions:
A focus on retention means doing the things that make renewals a non-event.
“Chasing renewals” means trying to catch-up with decision makers to address concerns and issues at the time of renewal…when there’s scarce time to actually do anything to improve.
Some Facts:
The subscription economy has changed Sales to “Land, Retain, Expand.”
Happy and successful customers are far more likely to be retained. Make sure you are creating happy customers that perceive success.
Recognize that there is no “customer” in B2B (and I’m not talking about B2b for selling to small business) – it’s a group of contacts in the account, that all have different perspectives, expectations, and requirements.
The key: Since people change jobs all the time, your company ought to have relationships with multiple people in the account. Engaging with only with 1 person in the account puts you at significant risk (especially for large/strategic accounts): What do you do when they leave? Is there a sufficient set of relationships that enable a smooth transition? Are you absolutely sure that person is really representing *all* interests in the account?
Smart, successful companies know how they are meeting the different perspectives, expectations, and requirements of the different customer persona that are involved in your products and services. To that end, it’s critical to measure and improve the Percentage of Buying Committee Members That Are Happy and Perceiving Success.
Screenshot from TopBox that highlights the 3 key dimensions of account health: Engagement and Sentiment from the right contacts, the right time.
You could ask your Sales and CS teams about customer sentiment, but by doing so you’re missing a huge opportunity to engage the key contacts in the account. Besides, we continuously find that the account team hasn’t properly engaged the key contacts in the account to know sentiment with confidence. As a result, they aren’t growing footprint (i.e. just relying on 1 “Champion” contact), have blind spots, will be taken aback when a key contact leaves their job, and are likely to be surprised when an account churns.
There is a better way. Customer Success teams must:
Recognize that acquiring feedback from a customer is engagement. Be concerned if they aren’t providing feedback. In fact, our research finds that silent accounts can be up to 14x more likely to churn than accounts that do provide feedback, even when that feedback is negative!
Embrace feedback: Recognize that the customer is in an ideal position to tell you what’s working and what isn’t. Set up listening posts, especially (1) following the implementation phase to ask if they feel that the onboarding effort teed them up for success, and (2) ~5 months before renewal so you have sufficient time to address issues and concerns well in advance of renewal (and repeat that cycle each year to refresh the plan with the latest members of your Buying Committee since teams change over time).
Communicate directly with the key contacts in the account to convey your commitment to addressing their feedback. Chucking a survey invitation over the wall from an automated system IS NOT sufficient!
Leverage a B2B-specific voice-of-customer platform such as TopBox to scale your process. These platforms not only allow your CSMs/Account Teams to more scalably request and act on customer feedback, but also enable the rest of the company to hear the voice-of-the-customer directly, with visualizations to address root causes. Don’t debate with Leadership and/or Product what you “believe” the right improvement investments should be — show them the data!
Commit to being transparent: Especially for large/strategic accounts, leverage your Champion in the account to help you gather feedback from the people that matter most. Share the feedback from the account, and use it to drive updates to the account plan. BTW, if you think being transparent is equivalent to “exposing the warts” then realize that they are already talking to each other anyway… you might as well be a part of the conversation.
Next step: Download this whitepaper to get the details and gain templates for the process. The paper includes a case example, a “cookbook” step-by-step description of the process, and templates ready for you to use.
Bottom line: It’s the job of the CSM to ensure revenue retention and expansion. Ensuring customers are happy and perceiving success, value, and frictionless experiences makes renewals a non-event. And sampling 5-10% via a survey isn’t enough — companies that do this well achieve 60%+ participation (response) rates, making it easy to have a focus on Customer Success throughout the company.
Has your email list stopped growing? Can’t figure out what’s going on?
It’s called the subscriber growth plateau and it happens to the best of us.
Simply saying, “sign up for my email newsletter” isn’t going to do the trick anymore.
Your offer has to give if you want to get.
Developing a compelling email course or challenge can revitalize your digital marketing, boost your subscriber growth, and generate a ton of sales for your business.
In this guide, you’ll learn how email courses and challenges can kickstart your list growth and convert new subscribers to paying customers with simple, automated emails.
But how can an email course do all that?
Email courses and challenges uniquely attract a relevant and eager audience by tapping into human psychology.
Courses and challenges draw on our desire to learn, achieve goals, feel accomplished, and connect with a purpose.
Not only is this strategy effective at growing your email list, it’s also a logical pre-purchase step for your prospective customers. People that engage with your course or challenge are primed to become perfect buyers for your paid products or services.
The best part: As email automation tools like AWeber become more powerful, accessible, and easy-to-use, building a simple course or challenge is a breeze.
Don’t have a product to sell yet? Read on and learn how to develop a product, service, or revenue stream to serve your new subscribers.
What is an email course?
An email course is a simple series of automated emails that deliver educational or instructional content.
(Want to see an email course in action to inspire your own? Check out Everyday Email. You get 30 tips in 30 days sent to your inbox. It’s the MOST FUN way to learn email marketing. Ever.)
We’re in the age of online courses, where successful entrepreneurs are making a living using robust and affordable online course platforms like Thinkific and Teachable. These platforms help you build, deliver, and sell text, audio, or video-based courses to your audience.
Online educational courses are effective because they deliver valuable instructional content that people need to learn and grow.
With an email course, you don’t need to pay for extra software or find a new service to learn. You’ll simply deliver your lessons by email. 💌
For example, you might offer a 1-week email course to your website visitors. When someone signs up, your email service provider will automatically deliver a sequence of emails at a frequency of your choosing. This could be one email per day, or one every other day. It all depends on your course content.
Here’s a quick view of how a daily course might look for someone selling a guitar lesson bootcamp with AWeber:
Email courses can be lead magnets
If your email course is free, you can use it as a lead magnet a.k.a. anincentive to invite lots of people to join your email newsletter list. Just let them know that by signing up for the course, they’re granting you permission to send them newsletters later. This is a great way to skyrocket your list growth.
You could also put it behind a paywall. Charging for an email course is a great way to monetize your email marketing efforts. If your subscribers start telling you they loved your course so much they’d pay for it, you might want to consider charging for that content.
Check out how this landing page — created with AWeber — positions the email course as a valuable, limited-time offer.
When visitors click on the “Enroll today for 25% off!” button, a form that looks like the image below pops up.
See how easy it is to collect payments from within AWeber? Don’t forget to thank new customers for their purchase...
Keep that in mind as you’re developing your course.
What is an email challenge?
An email challenge is similar to a course in that you’ll still deliver an automated sequence of emails. Instead of teaching your subscribers a skill or craft, the purpose of these emails will be to challenge your subscribers to accomplish goals and take certain actions.
Your tips, tactics, and guidance throughout the challenge will help them set and crush their goals. You’ll also be building up your position as a mentor or coach for your subscribers.
Challenges appeal to our human desire to improve ourselves. A good challenge encourages participation by playing up the benefits your subscriber will reap if they follow through.
Here are some examples:
Let’s say you’re running a 30-day clean eating challenge. You should promote the positive health and energy changes your subscribers are likely to experience from shifting their diet on your webform or landing page.
If your challenge is to help subscribers land their first freelancing gig, paint the picture of what financial freedom looks like after they’ve built their own business.
Email challenges can be sent at a schedule of your choosing — just let your subscribers know what to expect. If your 30-day challenge is one email a day for 30 days, let them know when they’re signing up and in your welcome email. But if it’s easier on you and your subscribers, your 30-day challenge could simply consist of one weekly email (so 4 emails total over the course of a month).
Should you start with an email course or a challenge?
It depends on a few things.
What will resonate most with your audience?
Think about your audience and the typical content you deliver. Is it already educational? Have you poured hours into building a blog or creating content that teaches your tribe how to be better at something?
If yes, an email course might be a great place to start. You already have the content, you might just need to repurpose it and package it into a course.
If your brand objective is to be an authority in a specific area, delivering a course can help you achieve your goal.
Maybe your content appeals to people’s aspirations. Do audiences flock to your content because it’s inspirational, or motivational?
Then an email challenge might be just what they need. Capitalize on your motivational tone and push your audience to accept a challenge and meet a specific goal.
What will be easier for you to create?
As an entrepreneur or business owner, you have plenty to do. Buckling down to create an email course or challenge from scratch may not be on the top of the list. Using content you already have might deliver the most impact for your effort.
If you are a content creator, or you have a content team, your course or challenge may already be out there. You simply have to repurpose your content to fit the format.
Do a quick content audit to see what exists, what is still relevant, and what is most popular with your audience. These bits of info can help you figure out how much you can pull into your course without reinventing the wheel.
What will help you sell the most stuff?
Courses and challenges are wildly effective at growing and engaging your email list, but what about revenue? How can a free course or challenge make your business more money?
How you make money might determine whether you build a course before a challenge, or vice versa.
For example, if your current source of online income is educational products, like a paid course, eBook, or physical book, you can use a free email mini-course to introduce your audience to a preview of the paid product. Give your audience a taste of the value your premium products will provide and they’ll be more likely to buy.
If your current source of income is selling physical products, one-on-one services, or promoting products/services as an affiliate, you might benefit from an email challenge. An email challenge can uniquely position your products and services as the keys to successfully completing it. At the end of the challenge, whether your subscriber succeeded or not, you can pitch products or services as an aid to try again, or keep on going.
There’s no rule that says you can’t do both! Maybe start with an email course to build up your audience and later in the year, re-engage the same group with a challenge. What’s important is that you get started.
Step One: Crafting your content
Use the tactics below to make this part of the process as painless as possible, especially if you don’t fancy yourself a writer.
Creating an awesome email course
Email courses help you and your subscribers grow! Teaching a new subscriber what you know is a great way to kick off a long and profitable relationship. But what should you write? And how do you get started?
First, create your pitch…
Determine what it is you’ll be teaching your subscribers. Condense this down to a simple value-packed statement. This statement will be helpful when you are writing content for your landing page or web form.
A great email course can:
teach a subscriber how to do a certain task.
demystify a confusing topic.
introduce your audience to an exciting new topic.
help subscribers make more money, save time, or solve problems by enhancing their existing skills or knowledge.
The perfect pitch for your course should include what you’ll be teaching, how that can impact your subscriber’s life, and how long it’ll take.
Here are a few examples:
Enroll in our “7-day Email Copywriting Course” and never worry about what to write in your emails again.
Kick-start your side hustle with our “14-Day Find Your First Client Course.”
Plan your Disney vacation like a pro with our 7-day guide.
Once you’ve nailed your pitch, you’ll have a sense of what the content should be.
Next, write your emails…
The Traditional Email Course
A traditional email course consists of long-form emails that have both a full, in-depth lesson and a homework assignment in each email sent.
These courses are great when diving into a complex topic. Use images and diagrams as needed, and be sure to write in a style that is familiar to your audience. Even if you’re covering a technical topic, you risk losing your audience’s attention if you assume they understand technical jargon and terminology.
When structuring your course, you can also list them out as lessons in your subject lines and content (lesson 1, lesson 2, lesson 3, etc.). This will help give subscribers a reference point for where they’re at, and where they’re going.
The Snackable Mini Email Course
A snackable course offers bite-sized bits of information delivered over time. These can be simple tips, 5-minute lessons, quick exercises, or links to short resources or tools.
Here is a great example of a snackable course email from Henneke Duistermaat. Each day you receive a short tip about copywriting.
The Multimedia Email Course
Perhaps you have educational content in different formats, like video, audio, or long-form blog articles.
If you plan to deliver your course content using different mediums, simply use email to direct the user to a video, audio, or article on your website, or another service (like YouTube.)
Here’s an example from Donald Miller of how an email might look using this style:
Drive your subscribers to take action
No matter what format or tone your course takes, it should definitely be actionable.
Be sure that your audience has a clear call-to-action to apply what they’re learning, interact with you or a larger group, and stay engaged throughout the course.
Creating an awesome email challenge
Crafting an email challenge can be a bit easier than a course. It requires less educational content.
But you still need a pitch…
Challenges are all about transformation. At the end of a challenge, your subscribers should be in an improved state. Your challenge transports them from A to B — from unhealthy to fit, from novice to pro, from start-up to profitable.
To successfully attract email subscribers to accept your challenge, you need to pitch that transformation. Craft a short statement that explains the beginning and end state your subscribers will move from if they take you up on your challenge.
Here are a few examples:
Launch your own successful food blog in just 7 days!
10x your email list with this 30-day challenge!
Drop 2 sizes in 90 days!
Your pitch will become the compass for your challenge emails.
Now about those emails…
Yes, you still have to write them.
Fortunately, writing challenge emails is a breeze. Focus on one action per email. Give your subscribers enough details to know what they’re expected to do, and why they’re expected to do it.
Sell them on the value of completing the task. Give them insight into how this single feat plays into the big picture and helps them achieve their larger goals.
Here are some tips to make your challenge emails shine:
Include numbers in your subject line to let your audience know where they are in the overall challenge (i.e. Day 1, Challenge 1, Task 1)
Offer a teaser of how much effort each challenge might require to encourage subscribers to carve out time to complete (i.e. 20 minutes to complete.)
Don’t let your tribe feel lost. Link to other resources, an online community, or your contact info to encourage them to keep moving forward.
Remember to play the role of the coach. Be equal parts demanding and inspirational. Push your subscribers to do their best, and keep them focused on the benefits of your program.
Step Two: Building your automated campaign
Delivering your automated course or challenge emails with AWeber is as easy as it gets.
There are just a few steps to upload your draft emails from Google Docs or Microsoft Word (or pen and paper, if that’s how you roll) to an automated sequence — or campaign — inside AWeber.
Designing your emails
Don’t let designing your emails slow you down! There are hundreds of template designs to choose from, so how do you know which one is right for your course or challenge? All that choice might have you questioning which one is right for you.
Pro tip: the best design for courses and challenges are as little design as possible.
You want your automated emails to feel personal, like a direct message someone might send from Gmail.
There are a few stationary style templates in AWeber that will help you send simple personal emails. These will enable you to focus on your message and on building a strong relationship with your subscribers, rather than get distracted with images and formatting options.
Here’s an example:
When you simplify your email design, you can build your drafts in minutes rather than hours.
Simply transfer your email content into your new template using AWeber’s Drag and Drop Email Builder. Add any logos, images, video thumbnails, or links, and you’re set to begin building your automated campaign.
Creating your automated campaign
Head on over to Campaigns in AWeber. Just click the Campaigns link in the Messages dropdown.
Create a new campaign and choose “On Subscribe” as the trigger, this will deliver your automated emails to all new subscribers. You can also set the campaign to trigger when a particular tag is applied (this is a great option if you have multiple lead magnets).
Now, just drag and drop your messages and wait times (the time in between each message.) If you want to send a 30-day challenge with one email being sent each week for 4 weeks, simply drag in four messages with a one-week wait time in between.
If you want to send a 7-day email course, drag in seven messages with a one-day wait time in between.
Here’s an example:
When you’re ready, save and activate your campaign.
That’s it! Any new subscribers to this email list will immediately be enrolled into your automated email course or challenge.
Step Three: Attracting Subscribers
Once your course or challenge is live, it’s time to attract the right subscribers to join.
Focus on these four elements to build a high-converting incentive: signup form, traffic, visibility, and value.
Let’s dive into each element!
Create your signup form or landing page
Your signup form or landing page is the entry-point to your course or challenge. This is the form that people will fill out to sign up!
To encourage sign ups, you want to make sure your copy (the actual words describing your course/challenge) is clear and compelling. Be sure the design fits your brand, and it’s easy for anyone to fill it out and submit.
This means you should limit your form to just a few fields, like name and email. Asking for too many details up front might decrease the number of people that actually fill it out.
When crafting your copy, focus on the pitch you drafted earlier. What’s the value that your course provides, or the transformation that your challenge promises.
There are many best practices to pull from these. Some use color to highlight key words and value propositions. Others use images to showcase yourself as the instructor, or a happy student with a positive end result.
As your list grows, use social proof to show new visitors that others have found success after opting-in. Social proof is evidence from a real user that your course or challenge worked. This could be a statement like: “Join the 4,000 subscribers that [did the thing your course or challenge promises.]” This could also include course reviews, quotes, or photos from your fans.
Another important element of your form is the call-to-action, or CTA.
Many forms simply state “subscribe” or “sign-up,” which is a bit dull. If you want your future subscribers to be as excited about your course or challenge as you are, dial up the tone of your call-to-action!
Here’s a good example from Simple Green Smoothies:
Drive traffic to your form or landing page
The best form in the world won’t generate sign ups if no one sees it!
Getting people to see your course or challenge requires traffic.
You can think of web traffic as you would real traffic. There are a lot of vehicles potentially driving to your website or sign up form. They can arrive at that destination through a variety of “on-ramps.” These “on-ramps” are typically referred to as channels. These could be Google searches, paid ads, social posts, blog articles, YouTube videos, or even a billboard or radio ad.
There are a variety of ways to tell people who you are, what you do, why you do it, and where to go to learn more (your website, landing page or signup form).
Many marketing channels are free (like posting on Pinterest, or optimizing your content for Google,) just some time and effort, while others might require a small budget, like running a paid Facebook ad campaign.
One of the best ways to drive paid or organic traffic to your page is to publish relevant content. This can be written, audio, or video content.
You can start a blog, podcast, or YouTube series, which might require a lot of effort if you don’t have one of those things already. An alternative to this is guest posting on other people’s blogs or appearing on other people’s podcasts. Or, publish content on public networks like Medium.com.
Increase your visibility
Here’s the reality: Your sign up form won’t do much good at the very bottom of your website. Position your sign up form where people are most likely to see it. This could be in the middle of a popular blog article, or at the top of your site.
Or, create a landing page dedicated to driving traffic for your course or email challenge.
Also, you can experiment with pop-up or slide-in forms that appear after your visitors are on your site for a few seconds.
Your form should be working for you, not against you. Here are more examples of forms to provide some inspiration.
Promote the value
Your subscribers are going to ask, “What’s in it for me?”
Be sure your incentive clearly answers this question. If you have a challenge, appeal to their desire to improve themselves. If you have a course, stress the value of gaining advanced knowledge or a new skill.
Not everyone is willing to share their email address if the value they’ll receive isn’t clear.
Make sure your visitors are left thinking, “How could I not sign up!?”
Remember, attracting users to your course or challenge takes time. Focus on your copy, traffic, visibility, and value and you’ll give your content the best chance to be seen!
Step Four: Converting email course participants to paying customers
Alright, the course or challenge is built, form is functional, people are joining, lives are changing… what’s next?
In this final step, we’ll take a look at how to convert your new subscribers into paying customers.
Before you can make a sale, you must have something to sell.
Here are two quick options to put you on the path to profitability.
Option 1: Develop a paid solution to a relevant problem
If you are already an established business, you likely offer a product or service. This product or service should ideally solve a problem that is relevant to the problem your course or challenge addresses.
For example, if you produce fitness content or run a fitness challenge, you may sell paid fitness videos or home gym equipment. Maybe you have customized workout plans that can be sold digitally, or you have a gym or training service that caters to local customers.
Or if you produce a mini-email course on a specific topic, you might have a more robust paid course offering, a book, or one-on-one consultation sessions that you can sell.
Here are a few common products you might consider developing:
A physical product, sold through an eCommerce store
Consultation services via Skype or in-person
Option 2: Sell someone else’s products or services
Okay, so maybe you don’t have an established business, service, or product. You might not have the time and energy to invest in starting from scratch.
Here’s the solution: You can promote someone else’s products or services to your new audience and earn money for any sales you might refer.
This is typically called an affiliate, partner, or referral program. Not all products or services will offer one, and you’ll have to sign up and agree to the terms of the provider if you want to pursue this route.
The key to successfully earning revenue as an affiliate or partner is to make sure that the products and services you promote are super relevant. What you promote should speak to the same pain points and needs that your course or challenge addresses.
You may have a mini-course on learning a new computer skill, like digital photography or video editing. Promoting the physical products you’d recommend using — like a camera, tripod, light kit, or software, can also be very relevant and rewarding, as you gain the trust of your new subscribers.
How to convert your subscribers into paying customers!
Regardless of which option you choose to monetize your efforts, you’ll have to successfully lead your subscribers to a point of sale.
Here are two tips to help you sell more through your course or challenge.
Email course conversion tip #1: Tease the problem.
A strong conversion strategy is to always tease the problem, or shine a light on what your audience might be struggling with, even as your course or challenge moves them towards the solution.
Your content should provide real value, solve real problems, and transform customers into a better version of themselves, but the result should never be the final destination.
Even after a 30-day fitness challenge, or a mini-course to learn a skill, your subscriber will still need to maintain their health, or practice their skill. Or, maybe take the leap and seek out the next level of their development.
Paid content, products, or services can help your subscribers continue to move forward.
By teasing the problem, your paid solution is always the logical next step.
Email course conversion tip #2: Show, don’t tell.
It’s easy to tell your subscribers that a product or service could solve their problems or change their world.
But keep in mind that your subscribers are likely asking themselves these questions:
“How much does it cost? Is it worth the money?”
“How complicated is it? Can I do it?”
“Do I need it? Can I be successful without it?”
“What are other people saying?”
Instead of answering these questions directly or with a Frequently Asked Questions website or email, consider creative ways to show your subscribers the answers.
Here are two assets to leverage:
Demo videos
Your subscriber needs to understand what they’d be purchasing. They need to feel confident that they have the time, ability, and confidence to do their part.
One of the best ways to help subscribers overcome any doubt is to present a demo video. In your demo video, showcase the product or service, highlight the value to the subscriber, and mostly focus on how easy it is to get started.
Social proof
Another valuable tool when promoting a sale is social proof, or the use of customer testimonials, stories, quotes, or social media posts to promote the value and credibility of your products. It’s more assuring for your future customers to hear about successes from actual people like them.
When pitching your product, use this content to reduce doubts that your subscribers might have, or answer specific questions. Having stories delivered by your happiest customers, rather than you, can help the sales process feel more natural and less salesy.
Note: Be sure to ask your customers if you can use their testimonial content to promote your products. Remember to get written permission before doing so.
Never stop learning.
Go forth and build your online course or challenge, but be sure to keep on learning what’s working as marketing continues to evolve.
People often conflate higher costs with higher quality. The two concepts seem intrinsically linked. We have a natural inclination to believe, "Well, that company must be charging that much for that product for a reason."
That mentality — that instinct that often leads us to believe expensive means better — is the basis for a pricing strategy known as prestige pricing. It's a tactic businesses leverage to shape premium brand perception by charging premium prices.
Here, we'll review the strategy in-depth, touch on what it takes to leverage it, and look at some prominent examples of the technique in practice.
A prestige pricing strategy is often closely tied to brand perception. Companies that take this approach often have products that are recognized for their superior quality or the value they add to the lives of customers.
The pricing method is based on the assumption that consumers perceive more value at higher prices — that expensive products are priced that way for a valid reason. Prestige pricing strategies can vary depending on a company's goals for its brand and offerings.
If you want to implement one yourself, you'll want to look at competitors in your market to see how they price products that are similar to yours. With a unique value proposition that differentiates your product from the competition, you'll be able to justify a higher price point.
Prestige Pricing Advantages and Disadvantages
There are both advantages and disadvantages to a prestige pricing strategy. Let’s take a look at them below.
Pro: Increased Revenue
The most obvious advantage is increased revenue: If you can establish your goods and services as worth a higher price, your total revenue increases. Successful prestige pricing can also raise your market reputation, especially if customers are willing to post about your brand on social media. This type of organic marketing is invaluable, since it comes from customers who have experience with your product instead of in-house marketing teams and accounts.
Pro: Brand Differentiation
Prestige pricing can also help set you apart from other brands that may be trying to capture the same market niche. Done right, your pricing strategy can help differentiate your brand from similar offerings by effectively creating a different category for your products. While slightly lower-priced items may be fundamentally similar to yours, prestige pricing can establish a different product tier that’s as much about your brand as it is about your product.
Con: Higher Marketing Costs
On the other side of the prestige pricing coin are potential disadvantages. First is the initial marketing costs — you’ll need to spend on consistent and comprehensive marketing to establish your business as a premium brand and convince buyers your products are worth the cost. And if another, similar brand is more successful with this approach, you may end up spending a substantive amount of money for minimal returns.
Con: Decreased Sales Volume
Sales volume is another possible disadvantage. Because your products have a higher basic price point, your overall customer market shrinks since you’re targeting a smaller segment of top-tier buyers. As a result, it’s critical to find a price point that results in sustained revenue based on specific market demographics, and develop ways to expand into new territories or buyer segments to ensure revenues don’t flatline.
What is a Prestige Pricing Strategy?
A prestige pricing strategy focuses on convincing prospective buyers your product or service is worth the extra money.
Simply raising your prices won’t do the trick — just because something is more expensive doesn’t mean it has more value or provides greater benefit to buyers. To make prestige pricing effective, businesses need an approach that underpins the value of prospective offerings in a way that resonates with customers and aligns with their subconscious perception of what a prestige product should deliver.
But what does this look like in practice? Let’s break down four key elements of a prestige pricing strategy.
Establish Your Image
If you want to charge prestige prices, you need to establish a brand image that sets you apart from the competition and positions you as the highest-value option in the market.
Consider brands such as Yeti, which has established itself as the premium supplier of equipment in the outdoor temperature-control gear market. Its line of coolers, bags. and cups are known for their usability and durability. It enables the company to charge substantially more than their nearest competitors, despite that fact that many similar brands have features that are nearly on par with Yeti.
The difference? Image.Yeti has spent the time and money to create an image across its website, social media platforms, and sales channels that position its products as those used by experienced adventurers who want the best of the best — and are willing to pay for it.
The same strategy applies to building your brand if you want to charge prestige pricing. First, you need to find a niche: Which set of products or services are your focus? Next, you need to establish a set of target customers and create a consistent brand image and experience across all of your channels. Finally, you have to deliver a product that lives up to initial expectations and that gets people talking about your brand, in turn reinforcing your image.
Increase Perceived Value
Next, you need to increase the perceived value of your most popular offerings with the creation of targeted pricing strategies.
Consider psychological pricing, which leverages consumers’ perception of a product’s value based on its price. The number nine offers the most obvious example: Products priced at $39 instead of $40 or $9.99 instead of $10 are often perceived as both more affordable and of slightly lower quality.
If you’re looking to create the impression of a premium product, it’s worth opting for round numbers. While this limits your potential buyer pool, it unconsciously creates a sense of greater value among customers and helps set your brand apart from the competition.
Make the Most of Choice
User choice is critical in establishing a premium brand — if you can make it work in your favor.
Here, the goal is to give users a set of choices that naturally lead to your preferred option. This concept is sometimes called the “Magicians Choice”, in which audience participants are given choices that always lead to the same outcome.
For example, if you have three objects (A, B and C) and want someone to pick A, you ask them to select two objects. If they pick B and C, you say you’ve eliminated them and A is the choice. If they pick A and B, you eliminate C and ask them to choose again. If they select B, you eliminate that and select A. And if they select A, you’ve achieved the goal.
A similar choice strategy can be applied to prestige pricing. By offering a variety of price points for different product categories, you can naturally shift buyers toward your highest revenue generators and also capture top-tier customers.
Consider a product page with four categories. Each category is progressively more expensive — let’s say $50, $100, $250 and $500 — and each category comes with additional features. If your ideal revenue generator is the $250 category, you ensure that this offering has the most included features for the price, making it a substantive improvement over both lower-priced categories and therefore a better deal from the consumer perspective.
The $500 category, meanwhile, only offers a few additional features and isn’t designed to represent your biggest sales volume — instead, this top-tier prestige pricing will capture a few customers at the highest end of your market to drive improved reputation.
Intelligently Constrain Supply
Constrained supply is also a key component of an effective prestige pricing strategy. While at first glance it makes more sense to have your product available to everyone who wants it and can afford it, this short-term revenue is often outpaced by the long-term benefits of generating excitement for products that aren’t widely available.
By intelligently constraining supply to drive up demand, you can also increase prices and create more consistent interest in your brand. The caveat? Don’t take it too far — if no one can get their hands on your product, you’ll start losing customers to the competition.
Prestige Pricing Examples
Some high-profile companies use prestige pricing to value their products. Let's take a look at examples of these businesses.
Prestige pricing has a significant presence in the fashion industry, and this example highlights that trend.
Though the Tom Ford shirt is likely much of higher quality than the H&M one, there probably isn't enough of a difference between them to naturally warrant a $433 price discrepancy.
And at the end of the day, they're both just white t-shirts — it's not unreasonable to assume that most people you encounter won't pay close enough attention to really care whether the shirt you're wearing costs more than most people's monthly grocery budget.
But this comparison brings to light one of the main drivers of successful prestige pricing. Consumers who are buying the $440 Tom Ford shirt aren't buying the shirt itself so much as they're buying the fact that they just bought a $440 white t-shirt.
It's about status. In buying the Tom Ford shirt, consumers are demonstrating that they have the means to spend over $400 on something most people would buy for less than $20. It's projecting an image — one defined by wealth, class, and prestige.
This example is a case study in how limiting the supply of a product can enable successful prestige pricing. According to research from Soloreview, the Yeezy Boost 750 cost roughly $76 to produce — compared to $43 to produce the D-Rose 5 Boost. And yet, that $33 difference in production cost doesn't reflect the gap between how much a new pair of each shoe sells for today. That's a discrepancy of (at least) $985.
So how do you account for that price difference? Well, the Yeezy Boost 750s were released in a much more limited supply than the D Rose 5s. The former were rolled out via “drops” with fixed numbers of pairs available — with the first batch selling out in less than one minute. The D Rose 5s, on the other hand, were mass-produced.
Though the difference in production costs between the two isn't staggering, the difference in allure and exclusivity is. Resellers can charge prestige prices for the Yeezy 750 Boosts because their supply is scarce and, in turn, of higher perceived value.
Here, we have an example of a company leveraging prestige pricing to create the impression of superior product quality among its own products. In an interview with Fortune, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimated that a pair of standard Apple AirPods with a wired charging case — priced at $159 — had a manufacturing cost of $59 to $69 per unit.
While the AirPods Pro have additional features, it's hard to imagine that those bells and whistles account for an additional $100 in production costs — or the difference between each model's respective price tag.
And yet, Apple charges at that markup — leveraging prestige pricing to create perceived value. It's affirming consumers' perception that they're getting a premium product by offering it at a premium price point.
Compared to the Lexus NX, the Toyota Rav4 has a better fuel economy, is similarly sized, has more cargo space, has a similar dashboard touchscreen, and is just as safe. All in all, the two cars are fundamentally similar when compared objectively — so it might seem hard to account for an over $10,000 gap in starting price between the two.
But that comparison falls through when you consider their respective target markets. The Lexus NX is a luxury vehicle, and its built-in features and price reflect that.
Though the baseline experience of driving each car might be similar — both get you from point A to point B comfortably — the prospect of owning the Lexus has a certain appeal that registers with high-end buyers. In turn, the brand has the flexibility to charge a prestige price for the car.
One of the most prominent examples of prestige pricing comes from the diamond trade. There are two kinds of diamonds — natural and lab-grown. As you can assume, natural diamonds occur naturally. They're the ones that are mined, with an ultimately fixed supply.
Lab-grown diamonds are synthetic. They're manufactured in labs via chemical reactions that I won't even pretend to understand. But in this context, the term "synthetic" doesn't necessarily mean artificial. They actually have the exact same crystal structure and chemical composition as natural diamonds.
They're virtually indistinguishable from one another. Seriously, in the image above, I genuinely don't know whether those labels are accurate. The one on the left might be lab-grown, and the other could be natural. Even a seasoned jeweler would have trouble identifying which one is which.
But even though they might be the same in chemical composition and appearance, there's an extreme gap in value between the two. Why is that? Because diamond retailers say so, and the market agrees.
Diamond sellers use prestige pricing when it comes to natural diamonds. They create the impression of higher quality, scarcity, and status affirmation by pricing those kinds of diamonds a cut above their lab-grown counterparts. Though natural and lab-grown diamonds are identical in chemistry, they differ in public perception — a byproduct of charging a premium rate.
The Price of Perception
Perception matters. If companies can establish themselves as premier options in their market vertical, they can charge a higher rate for goods and services, even if these prices don’t reflect the actual value of the goods in question.
Simply put, prestige pricing remains viable thanks to one of the core tenets of economics: A product is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
One of the brands at the forefront of the industry is Fitbit, a company whose wearables track everything from daily steps and workout pace, to sleep patterns and stress levels. A Fitbit helps you better understand when to push yourself in a workout, when to take a moment to decompress, or when the fatigue or irritability you feel is from poor sleep.
As an avid runner, personal trainer, and fitness journalist, I've tested more fitness trackers than I can count, even before they became a staple on people's wrists. My first tracker, the Fitbit Flex, would light up with a few red dots to notify me I'd hit my daily step goal. This was revolutionary information at the time and I loved it.
Fitbit's lineup of trackers looks far different today, chock-full of innovative trackers and smartwatches meant for a variety of people. To narrow down the best, I decided to test every Fitbit available. I used them on runs, hikes, running errands around town, and even while sleeping to compile those best fit for any lifestyle.
With automatic activity tracking and a huge screen, the Versa 3 has nearly all the perks of the Fitbit line at a not-totally-absurd price point plus a stylish design.
Pros: Automatic activity and sleep tracking, in-depth exercise and sleep stats, 24/7 heart rate tracking, heart rate zones, built-in GPS, water-resistant up to 50 meters, oxygen saturation reading, mindful minutes, battery life
Cons: Occasionally uncomfortable, sometimes needs to be manually synced
Battery life: 6 days
Charge time: 12 minutes
Exercise modes: 20
Built-in: GPS and music storage
The Versa 3 stands out for its bright, colorful face and big display that clearly shows any stats. There are a lot of pros to this watch:
During a run or bike ride, the large display is especially great for quick glances at your pace in real time as you move. You can also easily check other stats — total time, average pace, heart rate zones — just by tapping the watch face, even mid-activity. The device buzzes to let you know when you've switched between fat burn, cardio, or peak zones.
In the Fitbit app, you can see the complete overview of your cardio numbers, including time spent in those various heart rate zones, active zone minutes, average, minimum, and maximum heart rate, calories burned, and steps taken. With all this data, the Fitbit also determines your VO2max, the top marker of fitness level.
The Versa 3 has built-in GPS, so you can also go for a run or walk without your phone, which I particularly love to unplug and focus on your steps without losing the data behind how many I got in today.
The Versa 3 also has automatic activity tracking, which is such a nice feature when you forget to hit start on your runs. In addition to straight cardio workouts, you also have easy shortcuts to tracking Bootcamp, Pilates, yoga, circuit training, and weight workouts.
The sleep tracking on the Versa 3 also stands out among other devices in the line, as it reveals your time awake, in REM, deep sleep, and light sleep, plus the percent of the time you spend below resting heart rate (aka "restoration"). All these stats lead to an overall sleep score that makes it easy to see the quality of your sleep.
You also get health-promoting tips based on sleep and activity, like when the watch told me I spend more minutes in deep sleep on days my step count hits more than 11,000 (fascinating!).
The final thing worth mentioning about Fitbit, in general, is the Relax app. This comes on each watch, but it's best on the Versa 3 because you just have to press play and it gives you a pretty visual of the Versa's large screen. You then just follow along for deep inhales and exhales. You can check the mindfulness tap on the Fitbit phone app to see what your starting and ending heart rate is, as well as log how you're feeling from very calm to very stressed.
The Versa 3 (as well as the Sense) will connect to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to help you check off errands or set reminders, without your computer or phone. You can even pay through the watch.
Lastly, you can control music from Spotify, Pandora, or Deezer, and even answer calls right on the watch face. If you have an Android, you can send voice-to-text responses, too.
The only big downfall to the Versa (and the Sense) is that sometimes the watchband stuck to my skin — especially at night or when I didn't dry it off after a workout. I do have sensitive skin, but it left a mark at one point, which went away quickly.
Also, because I close all the apps on my phone pretty often, sometimes I'd need to manually sync the watch to the phone app to see my full list of stats. This sometimes took longer than I wanted it to, especially after software updates.
Lastly, this is certainly not the cheapest watch on our list, but it still comes in below competitor models like the Apple Watch.
The best Fitbit for monitoring health
Fitbit
The Sense smartwatch has a ton of added features, focusing on heart health and stress management, giving you a more holistic look at your well-being.
Pros: Automatic activity and sleep tracking, in-depth exercise and sleep stats, 24/7 heart rate tracking, heart rate zones, built-in GPS, water-resistant up to 50 meters, oxygen saturation reading, mindful minutes, EDA scan, ECG readings, stress management score
Cons: Expensive
Battery life: 6 days
Charge time: 12 minutes
Exercise modes: 20
Built-in: GPS and music storage
The Sense offers a more complete picture of your health, tracking not just your physical activity but also your mental state.
For starters, the Sense offers automatic exercise and sleep tracking, and the stats that come with those readings.
More excitingly, this smartwatch offers electrodermal activity (EDA) readings. This is a measurement of tiny electrical changes on the skin which is meant to indicate your stress levels. To get a reading, you open the EDA scan app on the watch, hold your palm on the screen, and then do a mindfulness session as it reads your EDA. After, the watch will tell you how many EDA responses it calculated (fewer means you were calm), plus your starting and ending heart rate. It gives you an option to log how you're feeling (calm or stressed), too.
Using those EDA readings, heart rate data, sleep patterns, and your exercise for the day, the Sense will also give you a stress management score. I was surprised by how low my score was when I actually felt stressed, but I chalk that up to a balance of physical activity and a healthy amount of sleep.
Lastly, the Sense also reads your blood oxygen levels at night and can act as an electrocardiogram (ECG) reader with the accompanying app. This means with the touch of the screen, the watch analyzes your heart rate and looks for atrial fibrillation (or AFib, which shows an irregular heart contraction and can signal a major health issue).
The less flashy but super-useful features including the ability to answer calls via Bluetooth, sync your calendar, pair the watch with Alexa or Google Assistant, and pay through your watch.
To get all these features, you do have to pay a rather hefty price, and it can take some time to add things like EDA scanning to your regular health routine. But if you're trying to seriously clean up your overall health or want accountability to stay on track, the Sense's many features are worth the price.
The best Fitbit for tracking fitness
Fitbit
The Charge 4 hits a budget-friendly price point while offering stellar activity tracking in a smaller footprint than a smartwatch.
Pros: Automatic activity and sleep tracking, in-depth exercise and sleep stats, 24/7 heart rate tracking, heart rate zones, built-in GPS, water-resistant up to 50 meters, mindful minutes, slim design, long battery life
Cons: Black-and-white display, smaller screen, no music storage
Battery life: 7 days
Exercise modes: 20
Built-in: GPS
If you want a tracker to record your workouts and daily movement with a few nice-to-haves, but you don't care about fancy features like a big, colorful screen; answering calls via your watch, or connecting with Alexa or Google Assistant, then the Charge 4 is your match.
This tracker records and displays you all the stats you want from your workout: current and average exercise pace, distance, heart rate zones, total time, steps taken, and calories burned. Within the Fitbit app, you can also see a map of your run, complete with intensity zones showing where your heart rate climbed highest and dipped lowest.
The Charge 4 has built-in GPS, so you can run without your smartphone if you want your hands free or the battery is low, which is rarer for a tracker this small.
You also still have the option to sync your calendar and get alerts on events, plus you can read text messages and see when you're getting calls. The Charge 4 also comes with access to the Relax app for two minutes of deep breathing with dots to follow for each inhale and exhale instead of a video. This device also has Fitbit's in-depth sleep tracking.
The battery life on the Charge 4 is longer than either Versas or the Sense. The design is smaller and takes up less space around your wrist, which is nice for more petite people.
However, that also makes the screen smaller for reading and navigating, which can be a huge drawback for some.
The best budget Fitbit tracker
Fitbit
If you want a straightforward activity tracker to tell you how much you've moved today and how good of a workout you got, the Inspire 2 offers the best of Fitbit's basic features at under $100.
Pros: Automatic activity and sleep tracking, in-depth exercise and sleep stats, 24/7 heart rate tracking, heart rate zones, water-resistant up to 50 meters, mindful minutes, slim design, battery life
Cons: No built-in GPS, smaller screen
Battery life: 10 days
Exercise modes: 20
Built-in: None
This mini-sized watch has the best of Fitbit's signature features, including automatic sleep and activity tracking, constant heart rate tracking, and mindfulness encouragement via the Relax app. Better yet, it has the longest battery life of all the Fitbits — and it's under $100.
You can also get smartphone notifications like calendar alerts, texts, and calls on the Inspire 2 (though you can't answer your phone directly on the watch).
The slim design is nice for people who aren't used to something on their wrist, and the minimalist display, while small and harder to read for some people, makes it easy to see what's important without being inundated with stats and info.
The biggest downfall is that you need your phone every time you head out for a walk or run in order to track mileage and other stats. But that's not even a huge concession for most people.
The best budget Fitbit smartwatch
Fitbit
If you want the big screen of the Versa 3 and the Sense but don't need to answer calls from your watch or have a built-in GPS, the Versa 2 is a fabulous option to save a little money ($50).
Pros: Cheaper than the Versa 3 or Sense, automatic activity and sleep tracking, in-depth exercise and sleep stats, 24/7 heart rate tracking, heart rate zones, water-resistant up to 50 meters, mindful minutes, long battery life
Cons: no built-in GPS, music storage only works with Deezer and Pandora's premium service
Battery life: 6 days
Exercise modes: 15
Built-in: Limited music storage
The Versa 2 has the big, bright screen of Fitbit's leading smartwatch models (i.g., Versa 3 and Sense), albeit with a little less modern-looking display (though the clock face and straps are all customizable).
It automatically tracks activity and sleep, offers a sleep score, has 24/7 heart rate tracking, and offers guided breathing exercises. It displays real-time pace and distance when you're on the move. The Versa 2 has 15 exercise modes to record, which is 5 less than the newer models, but still includes all the biggies like running, biking, hiking, swimming, weights, and Bootcamp.
You can connect the watch to Amazon Alexa and control music via apps like Spotify. You also get phone notifications like texts and calls (you can't answer calls through the watch, though you can use voice replies to texts) and can pay with the watch.
The major thing you're giving up by opting for the older model is built-in GPS. That means you'll need your phone with you when you go out for a run, walk, bike ride, or hike. But realistically, most of us take our phones with us running for safety or communication, so this might not be as big of a deal-breaker as it sounds. Plus, built-in GPS drains your battery faster, so you'll score a longer battery life.
What we're looking forward to testing
Fitbit Luxe: Fitbit recently announced a new fashion-forward fitness tracker to its lineup, the Luxe. The device is about the size of the Charge 4, but with sleek metal finishes and luxe wrist bands, and the more advanced features of the Versa 3. The device is currently on pre-order and will ship this spring. Our tech team will be testing the device, so check back for updates on how it compares to its predecessors.
How to shop for a Fitbit
Fitbit was one of the first brands in the fitness tracking space when it came out with its step counter. Since then, its devices have evolved with the needs of its customer base, allowing it to maintain one of the top spots in a growing market of fitness trackers and smartwatches. There are good options from other brands like Suunto, Apple, and Garmin but Fitbit continues to deliver high-quality products that excel in a few key areas:
User-friendly features
Ease-of-use is everything when it comes to any technology, but especially a device you intend to use every day. Fitbit's found success as a brand thanks to its easy-to-use interfaces and superior activity and sleep tracking.
What makes Fitbit such a successful brand — and one worth the money — is that all its devices, no matter the price point or type (tracker versus smartwatch), come with all the foundational features you want in a health and fitness tracker. This includes the ability to automatically track sleep and activity, which is the best thing about the brand, in my opinion.
Then, all the models track pace, distance, and calories burned during your workouts, and calculate your heart rate training zones, including fat burn, cardio, and peak. For sleep, you not only get the total hours you slept, but the time you spent in deep and REM sleep, plus the percentage of time you spent below your resting heart rate.
With some models, these stats are easier to access than others — namely, the Sense, Versa 2, and Versa and 3 because their larger screens are easier to read at a glance. But even with the smaller, more narrow faces of the Charge 4, the numbers are very large which is really nice to have. The Inspire 2 is definitely the hardest to glace stats quickly off of.
The Fitbit app itself, accessed via your phone, is easy to navigate and clearly displays steps, miles, active zone minutes, daily calorie burn, mindfulness days, exercise, and activity per hour. It also reminders you to take 250 steps per hour. Additionally, you can track your menstrual cycle, food and water intake, and weight (though these require more manual entries).
Easy-access add-on features
Fitbit now also offers a Premium membership, through which you get access to guided meditations, video workouts, goal setting and challenges, and more in-depth health insights, particularly for your blood oxygen level readings, heart rate variability, and breathing rate.
All of these features are accessed through the Fitbit app, so this is mostly just a plus for Fitbit as a brand. However, most of the new Fitbit devices come with a complimentary free trial, after which it's $10/month or $80/year, and the upgrade unlocks special features for some devices. The Sense, for example, includes a six-month free trial of Premium, which also offers special mindfulness and mediation features through the watch's special electrodermal activity sensor. The Inspire 2 comes with a year-long free trial. The Versa 3, Versa 2, and Charge 4 all come with a 3-month free trial.
Superior battery life
Each Fitbit in the line has top-notch battery life, lasting days even with auto-activity and auto-sleep tracking turned on, so you don't have to worry about charging it every night.
Officially, the battery for all Fitbits featured lasts from six days up to 10 days, depending on the device and your usage. In my experience, the Versa 2, Versa 3, and Sense last an average of six days on one charge, the Charge 4 for seven days, and the Inspire 2 a whopping 10 days.
Versatile customization options
For starters, there are the devices themselves: The Fitbit line is a range of smartwatches and other wearables, all with different features and price points, so you can choose the one that best fits your style and health goals.
Then, Fitbit offers plenty of options to customize the look of your device. Each watch or tracker comes with a basic band, but all have different colors and material bands you can purchase for customization, from stainless steel mesh for a professional look to expressive prints to more breathable sports bands. The only watch on our list that doesn't offer a sport-specific band is the Inspire 2.
You can also customize the watch faces, both for aesthetics and readability, and to personalize shortcuts on the devices and what's displayed on the main app page. The Sense and Versa 3 have the most options for watch faces; you can even download third-party designs or use your own photos, which you can't do with the other models.
How I test Fitbits
Fitbit; Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
In addition to testing past iterations of Fitbit trackers and smartwatches when they were launched, I tested each on the list below for several days (some weeks, even) wearing them 24/7 in most cases. I wore each during different types of workouts, from runs and walks to strength sets and yoga. I also wore the trackers to bed and for mindfulness sessions. Here are the key features I looked for when testing:
Workout tracking
To successfully record stats during a workout and easily check these as you go, it's important that a watch clearly displays numbers, and quickly and continuously connects to the GPS, particularly if it's built into the watch. I judged the trackers and watches on whether I could easily see my current pace, distance, and time, and if I had quick access to see other metrics like average pace and heart rate.
Additionally, I ran another fitness tracking app on my phone to test the accuracy of the watch's distance and pace. For every Fitbit featured, the numbers were always relatively close (and within the normal range you'd find if you compared almost any other fitness tracker).
Because Fitbit offers automatic tracking, I also did a few workouts without manually pressing the start button to confirm that it picked up my movement, which it almost always did.
Tracking and comfort while sleeping
I wore each of these watches and trackers to bed to test the automatic sleep tracking. I checked these stats in the morning to make sure it recorded my time in bed and wake-up times throughout the night. I also wore the devices when occasionally taking naps throughout the day, which they also picked up on.
The devices needed to be comfortable enough to wear all night in order to get those stats, too. While the bands occasionally stuck to my skin if I got sweaty at night, it never disturbed my sleep — I only ever noticed this after waking up.
Battery life
I tested the battery life of each Fitbit by charging it to 100% battery and wearing it through workouts, nights of sleep, and throughout the day to see how long each would last. They all surprised me, too — the life lasted even after several workouts, including those using the built-in GPS (which typically drains batteries quickly). The Inspire 2 was the most impressive for battery life.
App usability
One huge perk of Fitbit is the built-in stress-reducing apps, so how easy these were to use was a key part of testing. I tried Fitbit's mindfulness program, the Relax app, on all devices, and the EDA scan app on the Sense, which contributes to stress management numbers. I looked for ease of use, visuals, and the stats provided after recording a mindfulness session, like changes in heart rate.
The best deals on Fitbits from this guide
Depending on the model, you can get pretty lucky when Fitbit deal searching. The Sense, Charge 4, and Inspire 2, for instance, see regular price drops throughout the year, discounting them by up to $50. We also see a ton of all-time lows during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, like the Charge 4 available for only $120.
To track your steps and exercise — and to help keep your budget on track, too — we rounded up the best deals you can take advantage of. Below, find sales on models like the Versa 3, Sense, and Charge 4. Here are the best deals we found.
Here are the best Fitbit smartwatch and tracker deals available now.
Not all objections are fatal, most, based on how we interpret and handle them, can usually add to the conversation and ultimately to converting the objecting prospect to a client. While there is a lot more to succeeding in sales than handling objections, mishandling them is usually fatal, and is why most salespeople dread objections. However, perhaps part of the therapy, the “objection recovery” program sales need to go through to better deal with objections, is to use the very thing they fear to drive sales.
Know Your Objections
The first thing to understand is which objections are dangerous. Like snakes, I don’t like any, but some are not dangerous at all, while others can kill you, you wanna know which is which before you handle them.
Objections that come up during a prospecting call are entirely different from the ones that come at the end of a sale. At a high level the prospecting objections you can prepare for, but there is always a random element, so we have to be ready for the known and the unknown. Objections that come up at the end of the sale we should be aware of in advance. If they are unexpected, it is likely something we missed, be that an overlooked fact, or failing to involve all the right people. However, if you have done your work, you should be able to minimize these, couple that with your sales skills (the reason you get the big bucks), and these should be par for the game.
Prep and Practice
As you know I am a big advocate for reviewing all opportunities that have entered your pipeline, regardless of the outcome, win, lose or draw. I recommend not just looking at what happened and why, but how; how things unfolded on a play by play or objection/response levels. What were some of the conversations like vs. others you had where things turned out different? Those who follow this approach to reviewing opportunities, usually do an excellent job on the big themes, but not the little details. What were the specific objections, when did they come, what was the real underlying characteristics that drove the objection?
One fundamental characteristic is whether the objection is a means of asking a question. Underlying concerns could stem from a lack of understanding or awareness of alternatives. Buyers, like sellers, are creatures of ego, rather than admit they need help, they blurt it out as an aggressive question, an objection. However, what they are saying is “I don’t understand, explain that to me.” Instead of taking it personally, our job is to create clarity. When we don’t get defensive, we actually take the time to understand what led them to that view, and work with them to understand ours, move on from the objection, (you don’t always have to overcome it, you just need to be able to move the prospect past it willingly, things can be resolved without always being settled).
Give It Back
The best salespeople do not look for a way to avoid objections. A reasonable objection tells you they are thinking about what you are saying and are asking you for help in understanding or putting what you are saying in a context that makes sense to them. The also-rans get defensive, close their mind to the possibilities, and respond in a way that turns the buyer off at the exact point when they were open to input. A good objection makes a salesperson think, and the best way to handle it is to lean on your experience and your plan. If you don’t have experience, a solid and practiced plan will help you through. If you have experience, but no plan, you’re beat from the start. Many salespeople confuse a “playbook” with a “plan”, which is why they fall short on objections. A question makes you think; an objection is a question, the pay of is in how one answers that question. The best salespeople understand the query behind the objection – because they are prepared.
Your Turn
So, what do we do when we need to break through to a prospect, when we need to understand something we are saying, to set a better context? The expert answer is to ask better questions. But often we have to move the prospect a bit further than they are ready to; what to do? Throw an objection at the prospect! That’s right, straight up an objection.
You don’t need to be rude, but given your preparation and understanding; given that you understand that an objection is just a powerful question accentuated by emotion, ask that question – Object to what they are saying. Think of it as an Obquestion!
Questions make people think, at least they should; if you need a breakthrough from a prospect it has to come from within them, you can at best lead and guide. Which means they need to break down their resistance, your goal is to get them to think differently enough to have that breakthrough. Your goal is not to play point-counterpoint; but based on your plan, and preparation, and review of previous opportunities with similar characteristics, you should be in a position to throw up an objection to the way they are viewing things. There are likely former prospects who were stuck on the same or similar points, who subsequently with your help, overcame that road-bump, and are now happy clients.
The key is to throw an objection to how they may be viewing things, not to them. Most salespeople take objections personally; you need to craft your Obquestion in a way that gets them to think, not to shut down.
Example:
I prospected a VP, left him a voicemail when he called back and heard why I was calling, he told me he had just hired another training company, one I knew well and respected. They had a great program, but it was entirely focused on a successful first meeting, there was a naïve assumption that appointments were already booked, appointments are easy to book, the challenge was that first meeting.
Prospect: Oh Tibor, bad timing, we just hired ACME Corp. (The we’re all set, just bought, we’re good objection)
Being familiar with the program, I was not going to win a pissing contest over the phone, so I threw up an objection.
Me: That’s great, I know Jim and ACME, great program. Tell me, George, once your people master the ACME program, how will you ensure they have appointment and prospects to put that great program into practice?
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on New Breed’s blog here.
It may seem counterintuitive to offer part of your product or service for free, but sometimes, it can be the most powerful marketing strategy at your disposal. Freemium, a combination of “free” and “premium” is a business model used widely by software companies to promote product led growth.
The idea behind freemium is this: By enabling prospective buyers to test out the software for free, you’ll show the value in it before they ever spend a dime. Eventually, they’ll hit a paywall where they can’t access certain key features without purchasing the premium product. Because they’ve experienced the benefits of the free version, paying for the upgrade feels like a natural next step.
If that seems dubious to you, think again; countless companies, including DropBox, Hulu, LinkedIn and MailChimp, have seen major success with this model. It works because it allows the product to sell itself, reducing the burden on sales and marketing teams.
How to Translate Freemium Into Any Business Model
Freemium has proven to be a great strategy for software companies, but that doesn’t mean non-software companies can’t spin up their own version of freemium offers as well. When you boil it down, freemium is a classic inbound way to sell products and services: Give value before extracting value.
However, if you’re looking to take a freemium approach to your business, there are a few things you should consider first.
Will a freemium model be cost-efficient for your business?
The main danger with a freemium business model is that if it doesn’t make sense for your business, you could lose a lot of revenue in the long run. Before you weave freemium into your business strategy, you have to be sure you have all the resources you need to sustainably grow with this model.
In general, businesses will need to be at a certain growth stage for a freemium model to make sense. To figure out whether or not freemium will generate a sustainable return on investment for your business, ask yourself:
Is my product or service robust enough to support a freemium model? If your product or service only has three features, and you want to offer two of those features for free, people probably won’t feel inclined to purchase the premium model.
Is my product or service simple enough for people to easily try it out? If the barrier to using your product or service is too high — for example, if implementation involves a cumbersome data migration and other complicated hoops to jump through — people won’t be likely to use the free model at all.
Is there a demand for my product or service? If there’s no demand for your product or service, it probably doesn’t make sense to start off with a freemium model.
Bottom line: Don’t jump into the freemium mode just because it’s worked for others in the past. Decide whether or not the upfront investment of your time and money will be worth it in the long run, and consider what works best for your business and your buyer personas.
In what ways can your company provide value for free?
Providing value to your prospects before they even become customers is a unique and effective way to show your sales pitch, rather than tell it through a long sales cycle and nurture campaign. Start thinking about the different ways your company might be able to give your customers a glimpse of what it will be like to use your product, work with your business or purchase your service. Great ways to provide value upfront include product demos, limited samples, free assessments or initial consultations.
At New Breed, for example, we’re a services company, and our product is our people. To provide value upfront, we offer one-on-one consultations with our prospects about any topic of their choice. We might audit their HubSpot portals, assess their Salesforce data or talk about anything else they might be struggling with — for free. This gives prospects a chance to get the sense of what it’s like to work with our strategists and see the value and education we can provide right away.
How much value is too much value?
Whatever you decide to offer, it’s important to be able to distinguish the line between just enough value to encourage freemium users to buy, and so much value that there’s no sense in them purchasing the full product. Obviously, you don’t want to give away your entire product or service for free, because any additional purchases will be seen as add-ons.
Find the sweet spot. Put the paywall for the premium version in front of crucial features, but don’t limit your freemium offers enough to hinder your prospects’ ability to extract value. A great example of this is the freemium model of Vidyard’s GoVideo: The free GoVideo Chrome extension allows users to take videos, but it doesn’t allow them to see granular tracking or choose their thumbnail image. Putting the paywall in front of little inconvenient things like this gives users more incentive to purchase the full product in the long run.
Freemium: A Unique Business Model with Huge Potential
The freemium business model has the potential to work for any company, as long as you approach it strategically. Decide whether or not the upfront costs of offering free services will reap enough revenue in the long run to be a smart choice for your business. Be creative about the different ways you can provide free goods or services to your prospects — but be careful not to give too much away all at once.
By incorporating freemium into your business model, you have the ability to begin delighting your customers before they’re customers at all. Ultimately, this will set your business up for generating recurring revenue, creating loyal brand evangelists and seeing long-term success.
With all the marketing and branding focus on influencer marketing through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, email marketing just seems like a thing of the past. Right now, 85% of Generation Z says they use email at least one time per month. That doesn’t sound like a lot to those of us who live in our inboxes every day.
These numbers may make marketers question whether email is still a viable marketing tool for CPG brands. In 2015—the newest information available—62% more brands offered email registration, but then 33% of them failed to send even one message. Chances are, those companies either weren’t organized enough in their email methods to complete a campaign or, perhaps more likely, they believed email wouldn’t be as effective as other marketing options.
Before you toss it out altogether, let’s consider some alternatives. After all, email is still growing to the tune of $22.16 billion by the year 2025. It can’t all be bad news, right?
Be Mobile Friendly
It’s absolutely time to optimize your email marketing for mobile devices, and yet many brands still aren’t with the program. Up to 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and yet 33% of food and beverage brands still don’t sent mobile friendly emails.
Aside from the poor user experience, which absolutely will not pass Generation Z’s 8-second attention filter, why spend so much time creating an email campaign and individual emails that your customers won’t be able to read?
Segment Your List
With younger generations checking email on a monthly rather than hourly basis, your emails will start to pile up. No one likes to be overwhelmed by a mountain of messages, regardless of how often they check. Make sure your potential buyers aren’t facing this every time they open their inbox:
A little information can go a long way toward helping you reach buyers with the right emails. What types of products have they purchased before? Has a sale prompted a purchase in the past? Do the stores in their area even carry the promotion you’re advertising? Targeted emails with offers that actually appeal to the recipient are much more likely to be opened.
Personalize Email Offers
The information you gather can be used for more than simple list segmenting. Personalizing the experience is a great way to get those buyers to click on your message. Remember: personalizing is so much more than simply addressing the buyer by name. You want to offer an experience tailored to their exact needs. For instance, you may have some insight into their buying history. What if you provided special offers on those items each customer buys the most?
By adding information about specials, deals, and free trials at locations near each consumer, you up the chances of getting those buyers out with wallets in hand. In fact, 68% of Gen Z says that email is important to them for the chance to get coupons and discounts, and 62% said they had coupons from their emails that they intended to redeem online. And yet, only 4% of food and beverage brands are emailing coupons.
Offer Exclusivity
FOMO is a thing. Younger generations don’t want to feel like they’re missing out on anything. Give them the opportunity to enjoy something exclusive, and they’re all in. That might be the chance to attend a hot event in their area, an opportunity to access new products before anyone else, or even the chance to help you develop your next product. By presenting these options in your email marketing, buyers may be more likely to open additional emails as they receive them—all in the name of not missing out on their next big experience.
These are just some basic ways to reach younger audiences with email marketing. Add in a mix of tried-and-true methods (loyalty programs, anyone?) and a bit of the new (emojis are so right now), and you’re even more likely to see increased response. As always, if we can help in any way, reach out any time.
The incredible growth of eCommerce has sent returns skyrocketing. Traditionally, only about 9% of merchandise was returned, but in terms of online orders, at least 30% of orders are returned to the merchant.
This increase has put a strain on supply chain funnels and sounded the call for smoother reverse logistics processes. Having reached critical mass, returns can certainly affect your bottom line and brand image if they are not properly managed.
How should a company flip returns to an advantage? By using reverse logistics!
Why?
Because reverse logistics can improve overall business health in at least four ways: saving money, reducing waste, improving customer retention and identifying potential for product improvements. In this post, we’ll show you how.
1. Reverse Logistics to Save Money
This is a priority that every company can appreciate. Saving money improves the bottom line and increases profits, which is obviously the main reason most companies are in business. It may be tempting to gloss over returns, but they have a real impact on profitability.
The average manufacturing company spends 9-15% of its revenue just on processing returns. The expenses may include many things such as return shipping charges, receiving and restocking, liquidation and staff time.
Here’s a scenario:
Sales are strong; lots of orders are going out – great news. There is a fair margin on the products and the net profits look good. But returns are accepted for up to ninety days and they trickle in awkwardly and informally. When this company receives a returned item, the priority is to refund the customer’s money and the eCommerce system doesn’t handle refunds smoothly. As a result, returns aren’t tracked in detail and all adjustments are made manually.
Did you spot the fail?
These returns are not being included with sales data in a transparent way. Business owners in this situation may not have an accurate picture of sales health. The manual adjustments and casual handling of each return actually cost the company more money in manpower and wasted time, not to mention the loss of merchandise that could have been used in another way.
2. Reverse Logistics to Reduce Waste
A good portion of returned items can be resold, although this varies significantly by product category. However, there are many items that cannot be resold as is, perhaps due to damaged packaging or small defects. It might be surprising that these items still have value and do not need to go directly into the trash. The units can be refurbished, repackaged, reused for parts or recycled.
Electronics, for example, are often returned due to minor issues and the selling company typically passes these units on to secondary markets rather than process the goods further in-house. Resale of electronics in secondary markets amounts to as much as $15 billion in the US alone.
Clothing returns can be problematic when items that have been tried on, become dirty or have been damaged. Also, reprocessing needs such as replacing torn plastic packaging or tags seriously affect the ease of resale. It’s easy enough to make these corrections if efficient reverse logistics systems are in place.
A fulfillment service is not typically equipped to tag and repackage merchandise, but taking a proactive approach to logistics management can change everything. A company with this attitude and a good relationship with their fulfillment partner can anticipate the issue and simply set up their 3PL with packaging, tags, labels or whatever is needed to easily turn over an item for resale.
Other product categories may be more appropriate for liquidation (think food or consumables) but many products can still be reused in a creative way. Companies even make toothbrushes out of recycled yogurt cups, so just remember that no idea is too crazy to consider.
By reducing waste in these ways, companies can make more money and help the environment at the same time. Plus, this leads to happier customers.
3. Reverse Logistics to Enhance Customer Retention
Customers love a good return process. In fact, 95% of customers will continue buying from a company if they have a positive return experience. It only takes one bad experience to make a bad impression, so as eCommerce returns continue to increase in number, it’s worth devoting special attention to reverse logistics processes.
The good news is that a good return process encourages customer loyalty – and every business wants to retain customers. After all, it can cost as much as five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. And it might come as a surprise that eCommerce return capabilities affect first purchases from new customers. One report stated that 68% of US shoppers would be more inclined to shop on a site that offered automated returns. Before they even buy, they are interested in the return process.
Once the customer has made that first purchase, it is well worth keeping them happy – which doesn’t mean they won’t return something. The report also notes that 96% of consumers say they would shop again from a retailer based on a good return experience. Easy shipping, no restocking fees and quick refund processing or replacement are all factors in customer satisfaction. But one of the most important results of returned merchandise can actually be better products.
4. Reverse Logistics for Product Improvement
Good reverse logistics data can identify whether there are quality control issues. For instance, if a particular product gets returned more often than average, there might be an issue with that product. There may be manufacturing defects that can be recaptured by the merchant from the manufacturer, which means sending products further back through the supply chain.
Collecting information on returns is vital to product development, so it is important to actively use the data from these returns and identify patterns. AI systems are beginning to be used to analyze the vast amounts of eCommerce data along with other digital tools. Once these systems easily and quickly analyze mass data, human staff and managers can review the results and take appropriate action.
Besides defects, reverse logistics offer a chance to identify manufacturing improvements, which lead to better products and more sales. Customers frequently return an item that they simply don’t like once they see it in person. This could be because the item is represented poorly on the site, which is essential to identify.
How many orders are lost for this reason?
It could be because the item lacks something, doesn’t have a particular feature or just doesn’t present well. Think about a returned order as a golden opportunity to find out why someone doesn’t like a product so that it can be improved. This is the essence of good marketing: selling customers what they want rather than trying to make them want what’s being sold.
Conclusion
Sometimes it seems like no sales are final, but returns can actually benefit the company if they are handled correctly. A casual reverse chain that just puts products back on a shelf or in the trash, gains nothing — no knowledge about how many customers returned something for being poorly sized; zero information about defects in manufacturing; no recovery of value; zero customer loyalty.
Once the benefits of smooth reverse logistics are clear, it’s easy to see that returns are just as important as outgoing orders. The companies that pay close attention to improving reverse processes can add value and improve the bottom line.
Content Marketing, once a catchphrase and digital marketing tactic, is now seen as a key component in the success of a brand’s online marketing strategy. Make that, their marketing strategy. Online marketing and marketing are one and the same in our digital age.
With years of content publication, tracking, and measurement under our belts, we have the data to state confidently that content marketing accelerates business growth. Content marketing continues to evolve, and to stay ahead of the game we’ve had to grow and change as well.
The Definition of Content Marketing Has Evolved
Since the early 2000s, organizations have been collecting data and using it to make better decisions about what, when, where, and who to target in online marketing campaigns. What we’ve learned is that customers are increasingly engaged in the buying process. They are seeking information to their questions, educating themselves about the options, reading reviews, viewing demo videos, and scoping out online communities for support before they even speak with a salesperson or purchase a product.
Without content, none of this is possible. Content Marketing feeds search engines, social media channels, online media outlets, and brand blogs. Content is the fuel that powers the internet.
Twenty years ago, when brands and publishers shifted their focus from print and television to the new world of digital media, content marketing focused on creating websites with educational and promotional content while figuring out how to get search engines to serve up their sites in search results. That part hasn’t changed much.
However, internet use habits have changed, and so have content consumption and buying habits. According to Pew Research, 77% of Americans go online on a daily basis while 26% of Americans report being online almost constantly. Advanced customer experience analytics and data on buyer behavior allows us to build content strategies that are highly customer-centric. We know what our customers want, as well as where and when they want it.
Focus on the Buyer
Parallel to how SEO has evolved, from the days of producing tons of content focused on specific keywords, so has Content Marketing evolved. As Google has shifted the way they serve searchers to providing the most relevant, helpful content based on the searcher’s intent, so have Content Marketers changed their focus to publishing helpful content that serves buyers by answering their questions and adding value to the customer experience.
Companies that use content to build trust and forge a relationship with buyers will be remembered when the buyer is ready to purchase.
Marketing – Sales – Customer Success Alignment
The alignment of the customer experience between the Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams has become a priority in recent years, particularly in B2B companies. Content that was once only used for marketing purposes is now part of the relationship-building focus of Sales and Customer Success. Personalized content experiences that meet specific customer needs are used in sales engagement to help buyers make decisions, fueling sales growth, increased customer retention, and higher referral rates.
Content Consumption
Savvy Content Marketers realize that different buyer groups prefer different forms of content. Using data on buyer behavior, we are creating content in the format that best attracts our target audience, be it blog content, social media posts, or video. Video especially has seen tremendous growth. 52% of marketers say video content has the best ROI. (Hubspot) Brands that use video marketing grow their year-over-year revenue 49% faster than brands that don’t. (Wirebuzz)
Also, consider the increasing use of mobile devices and smartphones. Mobile consumption must be considered when creating content. Pew Research states that 89% of mobile users go online daily and 31% go online almost constantly. Content Marketing campaigns that are built around the mobile experience, voice search, and content that is easy to digest and share will appeal to mobile device users.
The Role of Content Marketing
The perception of the role of Content Marketing within organizations is one of the biggest changes in its evolution. Once seen as a “nice to have” – as in “it would be nice to have a blog” or “when we reach a certain size, we’ll start doing email marketing” – growth-driven organizations now realize they can no longer wait until “some day” to begin using content in their online marketing, sales, and customer success strategies.
Content Marketers now have a seat at the table as companies plan their annual marketing strategy. Armed with data that takes a deep dive into what’s working and what isn’t, along with trends in search engine optimization and social platforms, we help shape the business goals and map out how to achieve them. Reports by leading data firms show that 86 percent of B2C brands and 93 percent of B2B organizations use content marketing to connect with their target buyers. (Sources: CMI and IAB)
High-growth companies now understand that Content adds value at every stage of their buyer’s journey and, like a magnet, pulls leads from one stage to the next. It’s not enough to have a blog and do occasional promotion of blog content on their social channels. Companies that are successfully using content marketing create consistent, buyer-centric, messaging across all channels, planned out in focused, measured campaigns.
High Quality + Promotion Over Quantity
Content Marketers are working smarter, not harder. The best ROI comes from publishing high-quality pieces of content, then promoting that content on the right channels, to the right audience. Publishing blog articles frequently, then hoping to climb in search rankings doesn’t yield the best return. We’re finding that there is more bang for our buck when we publish a valuable piece of content then distribute it on the right channels, use paid media to promote it and repurpose the piece in multiple ways.
Guest posting on authoritative third-party sites is an effective addition to our content mix. The opportunity to expand brand visibility and thought leadership, gain high-quality backlinks, and drive organic search and referral traffic, makes guest posting an important part of content marketing campaigns.
Change is Constant
One thing is certain, the definition of Content Marketing will continue to evolve. Technology will advance and bring with it new, exciting ways to reach customers. As we gain deeper insights into buyer needs and behaviors, content preferences and internet use, we will develop better, more targeted ways to connect with our buyers.
It’s an exciting time in marketing. Are you ready for the changes to come? Here are a few actionable items that will help you meet the challenge:
Begin with a clear understanding of your buyer persona and their online buying behavior
Map out your buyer’s journey
Create helpful, compelling content that addresses their problems and questions at each stage of the buyer’s journey
Publish content that is unique to your brand – think original research, customer success stories, and industry insights
Build your email list by offering unique content resources that potential buyers can download
Use email marketing to nurture leads by sending relevant content to them based on their interest
Publish blog content consistently and promote it on all of your channels, making sure you have a strong brand voice to build thought leadership
Use keyword research and SEO best practices to ensure your content performs well in search
Add guest posting on relevant, high-authority sites, to your content marketing strategy
Optimize your website for the mobile experience
Use analytics to track and measure your content performance
Always put your buyers first – a customer-centric focus will serve you best
No matter the department, every single person in your company should understand sales because, at the end of the day, it’s everyone’s job to sell the brand.
Marketing and customer support are specific departments that benefit the most from understanding the sales process. Both act as the “face” of your company and are important touch points for the customer.
Unfortunately, sales, marketing, and support are not always aligned in their goals. They often operate in silos, performing their own functions and acting as separate entities. Thus, vital customer communication falls through the cracks and creates a disconnect in the customer journey.
To align marketing and support departments with sales, sales managers can construct an ongoing, interdepartmental job-shadowing program. Put marketing and support staff in a sales-shadowing rotation once a month to sync knowledge and skills.Call it“sales rep for a day.”
Before starting an interdepartmental job-shadowing program at your company, get buy-in from all departments involved. Only then can you begin to implement the remaining steps outlined below to establish a marketing/support “sales rep for a day” program.
Mutual benefits of shadowing
Rather than simply giving a lunch-and-learn or presentation, job shadowing offers a hands-on way to learn how the sales reps represent the company and its products/services to potential customers, as well as the pains and shortcomings of the sales department. It allows the marketers and customer service reps to hear prospects’ questions and concerns. Shadowees can also help the sales team sharpen their sales pitches, perhaps by filling in gaps or sharing customer and marketing success stories.
For shadowing to work, though, all parties need to mutually benefit from it. For example, if you suggest taking a marketing rep from his or her job for a couple of hours a month, the marketing manager needs to understand why this activity will benefit the team. You’ll have to answer the question: What’s in it for me?
In addition, job shadowing can have positive results for employees involved:
Team building. Working together and interacting on a regular basis builds rapport and trust on an internal level. As communication is strengthened internally and team members are aware of what customers are saying across departments, the customer experience is improved. Collaborating and openly sharing ideas between teams also supports productivity.
New skill development. Participants acquire the skills that the other departments use to successfully complete their jobs and learns how those skills relate to overall business processes. Developing new skills also helps team members interact with the customer more confidently and offer better advice.
Stronger understanding of the customer. Shadowing sales can help marketers and customer service reps understand the customer better (their initial needs and wants and what they value), which makes identifying and solving customer pain points easier. It also highlights what types of leads work best and what types of buyer personas to focus on.
Departmental benefits include the following:
Identifying content opportunities. By sitting in on sales calls, the marketing team might realize that important sales-enablement content (i.e., case studies, blogs, white papers) needs to be created or that some materials are not even being used. They might also find that customers are wanting more information on a certain feature or pain point. Thus they can produce better, more knowledgeable content.
Aligning language. Sales, support, andmarketing can benefit from learning the language used by the other departments. How does each department talk with customers? How do they explain the product/service? Marketing can incorporate sales terms in content and campaigns while customer support can use sales language in everyday conversations. Sales can use customer success stories from marketing and support in their pitches and presentations. In addition, marketing and support may be aware of certain sales terms (e.g., LTV or SQL) but may not understand how it maps to the overall business process. Shadowing provides valuable context for this type of information.
Syncing overall brand image. What kind of image is being projected by sales? Does it align with the image projected by marketing and support? For example, are they offering the same advice to customers? What does the handoff look like between sales and marketing/support? This goes back to creating a consistent customer journey. The same message needs to be presented across departments.
Below are steps for creating a sales-shadowing program. Try it first with marketing and support. If successful, you’ll have a model to use with other departments, such as product development or IT.
Steps for setting up a sales-shadowing program
1. Pitch the idea / Schedule a team meeting
Before announcing your shadowing program, you’ll need to get marketing and customer support leaders on board with the idea. Schedule a meeting with managers, and outline the mutual benefits (touch on benefits listed above) and how the exercise aligns with overall company goals.
Get your salespeople on board. Present the plan to your sales team. Encourage questions and suggestions about activities that would be best to shadow. It shouldn’t be difficult to achieve buy-in—your sales reps will likely welcome the opportunity to highlight issues for marketing/support. There’s also a certain pride involved with sharing knowledge.
Get marketing and support on board. Give the pitch to these departments about shadowing sales. Again, first outline the benefits mentioned above to achieve buy-in (emphasize that the overall customer experience will be improved). Then, share how the process will work. Provide a schedule via email and hard copy, as well as a list of which employees will be matched with which sales rep. This can be a static list or change once a month. Also, depending on the size of your company, 1:1 shadowing may not be efficient, so determine whether two or more employees should be assigned to one sales rep.
Offer something in return. Depending on what you determined with marketing and support leaders, share that your reps can also shadow the marketing/support teams (i.e., participate in a content creation brainstorm or have them take care of a customer ticket). Cross-team training can apply to all departments and ensures that no team feels less important than the others.
Also, discuss what days and times work best across departments to implement the job-shadowing program, and set up a tactical plan based on this discussion.
The main goal for this first step is to generate buy-in from managers and employees. Shadowing won’t be a successful exercise if you can’t communicate its value to everyone involved.
2. Hold a short training session for participants
Before throwing marketing/support into the sales room, provide information on common terminology and how the sales process works. Context is essential for effective future shadowing.
Run department members through a quick training session. This should be a watered-down version of your general sales onboarding. Don’t overwhelm your audience with information. Hit the highlights, and focus on key sales strategies and activities. Provide visuals where appropriate. If you have a video used for onboarding, show it. Also include a few of your sales reps in this session, and have them interact and answer questions.
Training material. Give a summary of what most sales reps learn their first week on the job. What tools does your team use? Do you have a CRM? An email automation system? How does communication work peer to peer and rep to customer?
Your sales pipeline. Answer questions such as what does your sales pipeline look like? How do you determine ideal pipeline size? Give a visual of the funnel. How do you build it? What are the stages of your sales cycle? What are the key metrics?
Your sales playbook. Outline your sales strategy, and explain things like ideal prospects, selling approach, customer personas, how opportunities are qualified, lead generation, etc. What does the customer journey look like?
Another important element to the training session is to set expectations for both shadowers and shadowees. What does success look like both for the teams as a whole and for the shadowing program? What do you want employees to gain from this experience?
3. Begin the shadowing rotation
Take the schedule you created in Step 1, and set as a monthly recurring event in Google Calendar. Maybe you set shadowing for the third Wednesday of the month for an hour or two (whatever makes the most sense for your teams). Send invites to participants and automated reminder emails closer to the actual event (include who is matched with whom).
Each salesperson being shadowed should carefully consider the activities already scheduled during that time. What are the best sales activities for marketing and support to shadow? What can these departments take and apply in their own roles? Here are a few ideas of activities that would be beneficial across departments:
Cold calls. Even if the calls are just qualifying new leads, hearing the initial questions potential customers have AND the questions the sales reps have for prospects helps shadowees to understand what clients are really looking for. Let shadowees listen in, and encourage them to take notes on the call/ask questions afterward.
Product demos. Demos to potential customers shows the product/service in action and let prospects voice concerns. These demonstrations might also highlight features that marketing or support may not have completely understood. This activity provides a look at the product from the customer perspective.
Follow-up calls. Listening to these types of calls helps shadowees understand the key selling points for customers and what might be holding them back from the purchase (this can be especially helpful for marketing). Support reps might discover that sales reps are offering discounts or incentives that might come up later in customer service calls.
Weekly sales meetings would also be helpful to shadow. The shadow date/time does not have to be set in stone. The point is to make sure an event is in place so participants remember to do it before the month’s end.
4. Debrief the team
During the exercise, send monthly questionnaires via email for updates on what activity was shadowed for the month, and provide a brief observation.
At the end of the cycle, send a more in-depth survey to participants (or even an email with questions to think about). Next, pull everyone together for a debriefing. Ask specific questions to determine whether the exercise was successful:
What did you learn?
What was a surprise?
How does this change what you do in your role?
What will you consider changing because of your shadowing experience?
What have you already changed?
Is there anything you wished you would have learned?
What suggestions do you have to better align sales with your department?
Was this exercise helpful? In what way?
In what ways was the customer experience improved?
Compile results into a short report to share with marketing and support leaders, highlighting specific benefits and challenges or areas that were or will be improved. Maybe marketing was able to create a bottom-of-the-funnel e-book about a feature based on several sales-customer conversations. Or perhaps customer support was made aware that a specific customer had misaligned expectations. Knowing that the customer was at risk and acting accordingly saved the relationship.
Make improvements to the program where needed (maybe shadowing should happen more than once a month), and continue the shadowing exercise in the next cycle. Consider involving other departments, such as IT or product development, in future cycles.
Align departments to add customer value
Keep in mind that the overall goal of being a “sales rep for a day” is to improve the customer experience and create a consistent customer journey. Universal knowledge of processes between sales, marketing, and support helps streamline key customer touch points.
These types of exercises also help employees learn what areas need improving within the company. And even just getting to know each other on a personal level can break silos and encourage better communication across teams.
Remember that as you ramp up your sales, enablement and integration shouldn’t stop. It should be an active process done throughout the year—shadowing is just one way to do it.
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