Rnordman

Sales reps run into trouble when they try to go into a call totally cold. The modern buyer doesn't have the patience to address basic questions with answers that anyone can find through a cursory search — nor do they have the time to fill you in on their challenges.

If you pick up the phone without gathering any background information, at best, you stand to annoy the person — and at worst, you could be hung up on mid-sentence. Either way, that deal is probably going nowhere

Prospect research is a challenge that's every bit as frustrating as it is essential — so to help you out, we've put together a list of 18 of the best places to research buyers before sales conversations.

The 18 Best Places to Research Buyers Before Sales Conversations

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become a staple of prospect research — it has a case for being the most centralized, effective platform for gathering valuable information on potential customers. 

If you decide to leverage LinkedIn to guide or support your prospect research efforts, there are some key steps you should follow. Find your buyer on the network, and check out each of the following areas of their profile:

• Experience at their current job: Most people list primary job duties or major projects they’ve worked on. This can help you get a sense of their decision-making authority and place within their organization.
• Experience at their former jobs: Customize your messaging based on their career history. Is this their first time making this kind of purchasing decision? Or have they done this many times?
• Shared connections: If you have a connection in common with your prospect, make sure to bring it up during your conversation. Ask how they know this person to establish a sense of credibility and set the stage for a potential referral opportunity.
• Groups: Click through to their groups to gauge their interests and see what’s being talked about.
• Recent activity: Take a look at what your buyer has recently shared and where.

2. The Buyer’s Twitter Account

If your prospect has a Twitter account, spend a few minutes on their page to get a sense of what they’re interested in. If they've retweeted any articles, take a look at them. If they consistently express interest in a particular issue, familiarize yourself with it.

You don't necessarily have to be too ham-handed and direct about everything you saw on their feed on your call — but it helps to be able to speak to their interests a bit. Adding an element of familiarity to a sales conversation is disarming and often productive.

3. The Company’s Twitter Account

A company's Twitter account can give you valuable information on its messaging, identity, and mission. Seeing the kind of content it's promoting and getting a feel for its brand voice helps you understand how to better present yourself to a buyer.

For instance, if the company's Twitter comes off as stern and no-nonsense, you'll know that prospects from it will probably be more receptive to consummate professionalism than a more laid-back approach.

One way or another, leverage the platform to get a read on their company's identity. Doing so can give you the perspective needed to tailor a targeted, effective pitch that suits how their business operates.

4. The Company’s Press and Media Releases Page

Press and media releases give you valuable context into how the company operates and has been performing. Being able to discuss announcements like leadership changes, product releases, or financial statements lets a buyer know you've taken a sincere, vested interest in their business.

That kind of information can also help you determine the most appropriate, relevant subject matter to touch on during your call. If you know where their business stands, you can have a better picture of what they need to hear.

5. Their Competitor's Press and Media Releases Pages

Any significant announcement a competitor has made within the past few months will color the way your buyer looks at your offering — either as a competitive advantage or an unnecessary expense in the face of more pressing priorities.

Where does their business stand, relative to its competition? If you have a pulse on how their industry peers are performing, you can frame your pitch with a special sense of urgency — you can pin down the company's current place in its market and give yourself the space to demonstrate how you can improve it.

6. The Company's Financial Statements

If your buyer works for a public company, it might be a good idea to check out its most recent financial reports on the SEC’s website. This will give you an idea of how the company is performing — as well as the problems it’s facing.

This point's value is similar to the one above — it gives you a frame of reference for where the business stands and allows you to speak to the ways your solution can enhance its footing.

7. Various Blogs

Read what your buyer reads, and read what your buyer writes. If your prospect maintains a blog, be sure to read at least the last few posts and comment on them during your call. Referencing the company's content demonstrates interest and shows you've done your homework.

You should also look over popular industry blogs to get a feel for the trends and challenges your prospect is likely facing. You want to show that you're in tune with their needs, interests, and specific pain points — that often starts with understanding the nuances of their industry.

8. The Buyer's Facebook Profile

Facebook is a less professional, more personal social network — so you're less likely to find immediately relevant, company-specific information on it than you would on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Still, checking out your buyer's Facebook profile to pick up a few personal tidbits about them generally doesn't hurt. But be careful with that kind of intel — weave it into the conversation naturally. You don't want to come off as intrusive or flat-out creepy with an overly personal appeal.

9. Your Marketing Automation System

Sure, this might be the first time you're checking up on your prospect — but it might not be the first time they've checked you out. Search your prospect's name in your marketing automation system to turn up any existing contact records or interaction history.

You might just find this particular buyer knows a lot more about your product or service than you thought — or they might have demonstrated a particular interest in certain features or applications your solution offers.

That kind of information gives you perspective on their level of familiarity with your product or service and where they stand in their buying process — allowing you to make a more thoughtfully tailored appeal on your call.

10. Your CRM

In addition to the marketing automation system, stop by your trusty CRM to determine if another sales team member has reached out to this prospect in the past — and if so, what the results were.

You don't want to overwhelm your prospect with overly aggressive contact or inundate them with too many sales emails. See whether they've engaged with your sales team previously — that perspective lets you know how hard you should press the gas when pursuing their business.

11. The Company's Google Results

Search for the company to bring up any news stories that they've kept off their press page — good or bad. Be sure to select high-quality, reliable third-party publications when going this route.

This strategy can give you more objective intel about the prospect's company's performance and any issues it might be facing. Backing your conversations with that kind of insight can make you seem more in tune with the business's unique challenges.

12. The Buyer's Google Results

Search your buyer’s name in quotes to surface any other information about them that might’ve fallen through the cracks. Just like researching your prospect on Facebook, this method gives you a more personal perspective on your prospect.

Are they a baking contest winner? An amateur trumpet player? A published creative writer? Approaching a sales conversation with that information can be disarming — but don't get carried away. Remember, being overly familiar can raise some uncomfortable questions or come off as creepy.

13. Quora

Use Quora to understand what your prospect is hoping to learn. For instance, maybe they posted a question three days ago about a challenge their company is facing.

If you show up to your meeting with some relevant tips in hand, your prospect will definitely be impressed — bonus points if you can demonstrate how your solution can remedy the issues they brought up on the platform.

14. Glassdoor

Looking at a company's Glassdoor page reveals a few important details. First, it helps you understand its culture. Does almost every review from the past two years mention the organization's stellar philanthropic record? If so, you might want to build rapport by asking the buyer about the company's charitable initiatives.

Glassdoor will also tell you which positions the company is hiring for. If it's looking for new employees in a division related to your product, that's definitely a good sign. The organization is clearly investing in that area of its business.

15. AngelList

If you sell to startups, AngelList is an essential research tool. You can see the company's funding history — including the timing, value, and participants in each round, past and present employees, advisory team, founders, products, launches, and open roles.

All of that information gives you a better sense of the challenges their business is dealing with. Sales is about solving — you'll have a hard time doing that if you don't know what the problems are, to begin with.

16. Datanyze

Knowing what technology your prospect uses can help you personalize your messaging and make a more persuasive pitch. Datanyze offers a free Chrome Extension that you can click while on the prospect's website to see which tools its company is currently using.

17. Crunchbase

Use Crunchbase to discover your prospect's acquisition history, funding rounds, investors, team members, news, timeline, competitors, former employees, customers, partners, sub-organizations, board members and advisors, and other related details.

18. Yelp

Does your prospect work directly with consumers? If so, browsing their Yelp page is a great way to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses. For example, maybe 40% of their reviews mention their poor customer service.

If that was the case, you could give a few suggestions to improve service in your initial email. Or maybe multiple reviewers praise its reasonable prices. You might offer to share some strategies for directing customers to the most high-margin products.

Prospect research is central to having productive sales conversations and ultimately closing deals. You never want to go into any engagement with a potential customer blind — so always thoroughly prepare for those kinds of interactions with focused, thoughtful intel gathering from a variety of sources.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and accuracy.

In what has now become an iconic statement about American politics, and maybe politics everywhere, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (now Chicago Mayor) declared that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” He was making the point that it is always hard to summon the will to enact big, new policy ideas, even when they appear perfectly logical. Until some dramatic development galvanizes people to act, they sit on the shelf. And what a pity it is if that dramatic moment passes, and there they still sit, perhaps never to be put into law or regulation.

Thinking about that phenomenon, you’d be wise to wonder: what transformative ideas are sitting on the shelf right now? Three of the biggest, I would argue, come from the work of economists. They address very specific problems in very smart ways. But they might only be adopted when concern about the federal government’s deficit is again at a fever pitch.

Congestion pricing

Multiple studies have shown what all Americans can see: in many places of the country, especially on too many of our nation’s bridges, our infrastructure is either crumbling or excessively crowded. By some accounts, the bills for just public facilities (excluding additional privately funded broadband investments) could run into trillions of dollars. In principle, even with huge federal budget deficits, such investments could be funded through a special “capital budget” as they are at the state level. But past proposals for a capital budget have gone nowhere, so the only politically realistic way of funding them instead is through some kind of public infrastructure bank, which at this writing has some bipartisan support, but still not enough to get the bank created and adequately funded.

Even if this should happen, however, many economists have argued for years that before much construction of additional roads in particular is undertaken, existing roads, which are less than full during off-peak hours, could be more rationally used, reducing somewhat the need for potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in new roads. That rational way is by charging drivers more during congested periods when their presence on the road generates “negative externalities” for other drivers.

However much congestion pricing may make sense to an economist, the politics make it all but a non-starter: people accustomed to driving on public roads for free are not likely to embrace these charges, even if they are told it will mean less taxes required for building new roads. The regressive nature of the charges only complicates the politics.

A very different result may be possible, however, as more states and localities authorize the construction of roads that are privately owned and financed, or even sell off existing roads and other infrastructure in order to relieve their own budgetary pressures. Private owners are likely to have greater freedom in how they set tolls than is the case for governments. Private ownership of roads and infrastructure raises a host of other issues — such as whether certain roads are deemed to be so essential that their rates are regulated to prevent monopoly exploitation — but in our “new normal” age of austerity, taxpayer funding of roads seems less and less likely, leaving private financing and ownership as the principal way to rebuild and expand a good portion of America’s aging physical infrastructure.

Medicare vouchers

Another idea waiting for implementation at some point that will have major implications for the entire health care industry is vouchers (euphemistically and for political reasons probably called “premium support”) for Medicare, and possibly Medicaid, as a replacement, or at least an option, for those over 55, in lieu of the current fee-for-service reimbursement system. Under such a system, beneficiaries would purchase health care insurance on their own (without regard to preexisting conditions, of course), with insurers receiving a support payment.

In some versions of this idea, initially proposed in the 1990s by Brookings Institution scholars Henry Aaron and Robert Reischauer, the supports would be geographically based, and in all versions would increase with the growth of the economy, and perhaps with the cost of medical care itself. Clearly, the lower the escalation factor for the voucher, the greater would be the incentives of premium support for medical care cost control, but also the greater risk that beneficiaries would have to pay more for care out of pocket (which for many seniors would translate into receiving less care).

Another long-time Brookings Senior Fellow (and public policy servant extraordinaire) Alice Rivlin briefly agreed on a premium support plan several years ago with Rep. Paul Ryan, the current chairman of the House Budget Committee, but the two later parted ways over the magnitude of the escalation factor. Even though medical cost inflation has slowed in recent years, economists have not agreed on how much of the slowdown is cyclical and how much is likely to be permanent.

Whatever the facts, the continued aging of the population means that Medicare spending will continue to rise, and it is because of this fact that federal policymakers eventually may be driven to adopt some kind of premium support plan. When then happens, look for even more pressure for medical cost control than exists now including downward pressure on provider earnings. Also look for more cost-effective medical delivery models, such as Minute-clinics in pharmacies, and also innovation and entrepreneurship aimed at cutting the growth of health care spending.

Tax on carbon

A third policy idea that has been on the shelf for some time and which has many intellectual “fathers” and “mothers” is a carbon tax, which has two rationales. One is to correct an “externality,” namely the contribution of carbon dioxide emissions to climate change (though the magnitude of that contribution continues to be hotly disputed, pun partially intended). A second benefit of a carbon tax is that its revenues could make a significant contribution toward long-term deficit reduction. For example, a tax of $20/ton on carbon, would raise roughly $1 trillion over a decade, though the net increase in revenue would be somewhat smaller to the extent that some of this amount would (as it should) be rebated to lower income households because of the tax’s regressive nature. A potentially more politically palatable way of introducing a carbon tax is to trade it for a reduction in the social security tax and thus keep the whole package revenue neutral, but at least tax a “bad” (pollution) while encouraging a “good” (the supply of and possibly the demand for more labor).

Any one of these ideas, if implemented, would change the economic environment for firms and compel them to respond strategically. The thinkers behind them would join the pantheon of the trillion dollar economists whose ideas have transformed business. For now, they’re on the shelf, still in waiting for their crisis.

There’s a lot of talk about Facebook and Twitter and quite a couple of other social media networks out there, but rarely we talk about Pinterest for ecommerce in the same sentence. And yet, if you think about it, a social platform filled to the brim with beautiful, eye-catching, good quality images might actually do the trick. There are more and more reasons that should convince you this one is a winner. You can see them with your own eyes. Below, I just want to share some useful info, and dispose of tips I came across recently. They should help you improve (or set up) a Pinterest marketing strategy:

1. Contests

It’s a fact already that stirring the interest of the audience leads to increased engagement. A contest, for instance, can drive sales and traffic for your store. There are inspiring stories like this one, about a website that boosted its traffic by 150% due to Pinterest. But this particular “pin it to win it” contest is not an isolated case. Next? I’d suggest that you read the Pinterest’s contest guidelines first, so you don’t cross that spam border.

2. Rich Pins

These pins contain extra information inside the pin from your store’s website. Worry not, these details will update if the website is updated. Also, there are different categories. Right now, there are five types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product and place. For instance, “Product Pins” includes information such as pricing, stock availability, where a user can purchase, even a click through to the product page on the store’s website, price alert emails, and more. “Recipe Pins” include details like ingredients and cooking and prep times to recipes added from your website. And “Movie Pins” include from ratings, cast, reviews and other details, to images shared from Netflix, Flixster, and Rotten Tomatoes. Also, companies of all sizes, with stores on Shopify, e Bay and Etsy, can use Rich Pins.
Must do: Apply for Rich Pins. It’s a simple process: decide what kind of Rich Pin you want, add the appropriate metatags to your site, validate your Rich Pins and apply to get them on Pinterest. More details here.

3. Use quality photos

It should go without saying, but actually poor quality photos will hardly get repinned on Pinterest. Images with multiple dominant colours are more likely to get repinned than those dominated by one single colour. The fewer faces, the better, because it looks like “faces” are repinned less than the rest. The size of the images matters big time (I mean at least 600 px wide).

4. Pin at the right time

And last, but not least, the time period when you post it, is also important. Pinterest says the best hours are 2-4 pm and 8-11 pm, but it varies from one area to another, so dig deeper.

Looking forward to hearing more about your own experiences and discoveries in the Pinterest-ecomm relationship. In the meantime, to strengthen your social media muscles, we suggest you go back and read again this piece on social media tools for ecommerce.

Image Credit: Campus Party Europa http://www.flickr.com/photos/campuspartyeuropa/4523436384/

As policy announcements go, the one that just came out of the European Commission speaks volumes about just how much the world of communications has changed in the past few years.

The EC said Thursday it would no longer regulate fixed telephones lines. For those of you too young to remember, before iPhones, people used to have a phone sitting in their homes with buttons or a circular thing on the face and a long wire running into the wall.

This is what is meant by “fixed line.”

Anyhoo, in a press conference, EC vice president Neelie Kroes said the reason for ending regulation was twofold.

First, there are so many providers offering fixed-line services in Europe that costs are very low. And there are so many alternative technologies for making phone calls, like voice over IP, that the volume of traditional has been falling rapidly.

So, instead of wasting time on yesterday’s technology, Kroes wants to shift regulatory resources to areas like mobile services and broadband competition.

“Less regulation, more competition,” Kroes said at the press conference. “My goal for EU telecoms is to ensure that EU consumers enjoy the highest level of competition.”

Practically speaking, that move won’t likely have much immediate impact on consumers. For telecom companies, it means they won’t be subject to lengthy reviews when they plan changes in fixed line services and pricing. The EC is betting there is enough competition to keep providers in check and to keep prices falling.

However, there are areas where the EC is concerned there is not enough consumer protection, and it’s redeploying its regulators to provide more oversight and review of telecom services and pricing.

For instance, the EC said it will be revisiting how it defines broadband markets to find ways to reduce regulations and increase competition. The EC also wants to dedicate more resources to ensure competition for business users with the goal of lowering their costs to “unleash growth across the economy.”

In what has now become an iconic statement about American politics, and maybe politics everywhere, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (now Chicago Mayor) declared that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” He was making the point that it is always hard to summon the will to enact big, new policy ideas, even when they appear perfectly logical. Until some dramatic development galvanizes people to act, they sit on the shelf. And what a pity it is if that dramatic moment passes, and there they still sit, perhaps never to be put into law or regulation.

Thinking about that phenomenon, you’d be wise to wonder: what transformative ideas are sitting on the shelf right now? Three of the biggest, I would argue, come from the work of economists. They address very specific problems in very smart ways. But they might only be adopted when concern about the federal government’s deficit is again at a fever pitch.

Congestion pricing

Multiple studies have shown what all Americans can see: in many places of the country, especially on too many of our nation’s bridges, our infrastructure is either crumbling or excessively crowded. By some accounts, the bills for just public facilities (excluding additional privately funded broadband investments) could run into trillions of dollars. In principle, even with huge federal budget deficits, such investments could be funded through a special “capital budget” as they are at the state level. But past proposals for a capital budget have gone nowhere, so the only politically realistic way of funding them instead is through some kind of public infrastructure bank, which at this writing has some bipartisan support, but still not enough to get the bank created and adequately funded.

Even if this should happen, however, many economists have argued for years that before much construction of additional roads in particular is undertaken, existing roads, which are less than full during off-peak hours, could be more rationally used, reducing somewhat the need for potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in new roads. That rational way is by charging drivers more during congested periods when their presence on the road generates “negative externalities” for other drivers.

However much congestion pricing may make sense to an economist, the politics make it all but a non-starter: people accustomed to driving on public roads for free are not likely to embrace these charges, even if they are told it will mean less taxes required for building new roads. The regressive nature of the charges only complicates the politics.

A very different result may be possible, however, as more states and localities authorize the construction of roads that are privately owned and financed, or even sell off existing roads and other infrastructure in order to relieve their own budgetary pressures. Private owners are likely to have greater freedom in how they set tolls than is the case for governments. Private ownership of roads and infrastructure raises a host of other issues — such as whether certain roads are deemed to be so essential that their rates are regulated to prevent monopoly exploitation — but in our “new normal” age of austerity, taxpayer funding of roads seems less and less likely, leaving private financing and ownership as the principal way to rebuild and expand a good portion of America’s aging physical infrastructure.

Medicare vouchers

Another idea waiting for implementation at some point that will have major implications for the entire health care industry is vouchers (euphemistically and for political reasons probably called “premium support”) for Medicare, and possibly Medicaid, as a replacement, or at least an option, for those over 55, in lieu of the current fee-for-service reimbursement system. Under such a system, beneficiaries would purchase health care insurance on their own (without regard to preexisting conditions, of course), with insurers receiving a support payment.

In some versions of this idea, initially proposed in the 1990s by Brookings Institution scholars Henry Aaron and Robert Reischauer, the supports would be geographically based, and in all versions would increase with the growth of the economy, and perhaps with the cost of medical care itself. Clearly, the lower the escalation factor for the voucher, the greater would be the incentives of premium support for medical care cost control, but also the greater risk that beneficiaries would have to pay more for care out of pocket (which for many seniors would translate into receiving less care).

Another long-time Brookings Senior Fellow (and public policy servant extraordinaire) Alice Rivlin briefly agreed on a premium support plan several years ago with Rep. Paul Ryan, the current chairman of the House Budget Committee, but the two later parted ways over the magnitude of the escalation factor. Even though medical cost inflation has slowed in recent years, economists have not agreed on how much of the slowdown is cyclical and how much is likely to be permanent.

Whatever the facts, the continued aging of the population means that Medicare spending will continue to rise, and it is because of this fact that federal policymakers eventually may be driven to adopt some kind of premium support plan. When then happens, look for even more pressure for medical cost control than exists now including downward pressure on provider earnings. Also look for more cost-effective medical delivery models, such as Minute-clinics in pharmacies, and also innovation and entrepreneurship aimed at cutting the growth of health care spending.

Tax on carbon

A third policy idea that has been on the shelf for some time and which has many intellectual “fathers” and “mothers” is a carbon tax, which has two rationales. One is to correct an “externality,” namely the contribution of carbon dioxide emissions to climate change (though the magnitude of that contribution continues to be hotly disputed, pun partially intended). A second benefit of a carbon tax is that its revenues could make a significant contribution toward long-term deficit reduction. For example, a tax of $20/ton on carbon, would raise roughly $1 trillion over a decade, though the net increase in revenue would be somewhat smaller to the extent that some of this amount would (as it should) be rebated to lower income households because of the tax’s regressive nature. A potentially more politically palatable way of introducing a carbon tax is to trade it for a reduction in the social security tax and thus keep the whole package revenue neutral, but at least tax a “bad” (pollution) while encouraging a “good” (the supply of and possibly the demand for more labor).

Any one of these ideas, if implemented, would change the economic environment for firms and compel them to respond strategically. The thinkers behind them would join the pantheon of the trillion dollar economists whose ideas have transformed business. For now, they’re on the shelf, still in waiting for their crisis.

The holiday shopping season seems to start earlier every year: Google says more than half of consumers will start making their holiday purchases before Thanksgiving. 

This year, it's trying to make it even easier for shoppers to get quick product information and price comparisons by expanding the format of its visual product listing ads (PLAs).

You've likely noticed Google's PLAs before if you searched online for a product:

The company launched PLAs in late 2012 and they've been a big success for the Google as more and more companies decide to buy the visual ads. 

Now, in time for the holiday shopping rush, Google's going to start rolling out some changes to make its PLAs more useful to shoppers. When you search for a broad category, like "tote handbag," Google will start letting you click into a "virtual showroom" where you can check out even more different brands and models with pricing information. It will look a little like Google images, but with a bunch of products. 

When you search for a specific product, you'll get a bigger grid in Google's right-hand panel showing sites where that product is available, different prices, details about it, and reviews (like the camera example on the right).

Finally, if you search for something like "best tablets," Google will start showing you a visual ranking you can scroll through based on customer reviews pulled from other sites.

These tweaks will be great for Google, which can sell more ads, and will likely be good news for shoppers, because it will let them do a little easy research before they buy something. 

It's bad news, however, for Amazon. 

So far, Amazon has refused to buy Google's PLAs (and a recent report by analysts at Jefferies Equity Research shows that even Amazon subsidiaries, like Zappos or Diapers.com, have cut back). That means that you won't see products from Amazon showing up in Google's new photo grids and you won't see it listed as a buying option for specific products. 

Google's ads push Amazon's naturally high-ranked search results farther down the page. Even when Amazon does pay for an ad (like it did in the hydroflask example above), it still now has to compete with the bigger, much more eye-catching PLAs. The further down the page a link is, the less likely anyone will click on it. 

A way Amazon would like to avoid this problem is by having more people start their searches directly on Amazon.com. However, the more Amazon-like features that Google offers through PLAs — like product descriptions and reviews — the less likely people will be to intuitively start there, unless they're already loyal Amazon users. 

By making these tweaks to its PLA format, Google is essentially delving Amazon a big blow right before the busiest shopping season of the year. 

Business Insider reached out to Amazon for comment, and will update when we hear back. 

SEE ALSO: Here Are Google's 9 Hiring 'Dos' And 'Don'ts'

Join the conversation about this story »

Content calendars can be an excellent tool to plot out your social outreach strategy for creating and sharing content over time. The calendar may include links to existing resources like e-books and white-papers, videos and other downloads. These are easily scheduled in a content calendar and that allows you to see the story you are weaving over a period of time and also step back and see where there are opportunities to create more information or to curate relevant content from other sources.

All good right? Yes and no. It may be tempting to fill in the calendar with all the marketing info you possibly can and call it a day. Schedule it in Sprout Social or Hootsuite and you’re done. Awesome. NOT.

Write this down and put it on your monitor. 75% of the content you share every day should be about your network and their interests, not about you. This content may be curated from relevant news stories, breakthroughs in the industry you are related to, regulatory issues or re-shares to support the people within your networks. The remaining 25% can be about you, though it still should be useful and valuable information not canned marketing speak, and that 25% can certainly be planned out in a content calendar!

What does a content calendar look like?
It varies a lot sometimes it’s a shared Google spreadsheet or a literal calendar on a whiteboard. It’s good if it is in a format that can be shared with your entire team. This makes it easy for people to edit and add their own ideas and plan ahead. Here’s a good tutorial on creating a content calendar and a free template to boot.

Once you get some items in your content calendar step back and take a look. It should give you ideas to look for the other 75% of content through searches, curation tools like Scoop.it or Feedly, and keyword alerts with apps like Mention and Buzzsumo.

Bottom line? Content calendars aren’t a shortcut to social media engagement. They’re a planning tool that can help you get a better big picture of your messaging and the time to engage with your network and support and add value to it in real-time.

You might have a killer digital marketing strategy that covers every content channel and speaks directly to each of your buyer personas, but plenty can still go wrong during the implementation process. Unfortunately, far too many marketing campaigns fall prey to a lack of attentiveness or responsiveness on the part of their stakeholders.

Ensure that yours does not meet this fate by carefully measuring its performance, identifying potential areas of weakness and applying the appropriate fixes before any problems become overwhelming.

Why Use Online Campaign Testing?

What you hope to get out of your digital marketing measurement efforts will depend on the goals of your campaign, and there are two basic reasons to test its performance.

First, you need to measure its effectiveness. Carefully tracking traffic, lead generation and conversion metrics helps you identify what your campaign is doing right. It can also help you sell the non-marketing decision-makers, including your company’s CFO, on the importance of a diversified digital presence.

You also need to identify and respond to potential challenges while ensuring that your campaign’s ROI remains as high as possible. Carefully tracking performance in real time is a great way to determine what’s working and what’s not. By doing more of the former and reducing or eliminating the latter, you’ll avoid throwing good money after poorly performing aspects of your marketing campaign and keep your financial colleagues happy.

Metrics You Should Be Watching

You can’t optimize your online presence for conversions without a good grip on the metrics that drive them. Some of the most important online marketing metrics to watch include:

• Visitors by inbound channel
• Landing page click-through rate
• Call-to-action conversion rate
• Email marketing conversion rate
• Pay per click cost per visitor
• Pay per click cost per conversion
• Pay per click conversion rate
• % of leads that convert to an opportunity or proposal
• % of proposals that your sales team closes
• Cost per sale or acquisition
• Average “Life Time Value” of a sale
• Marketing ROI

Of course, the measurements that matter most to you will depend on your business goals and type of business. If you’re focused on developing your company’s reputation as a thought leader, then the content that you publish such as ebooks, guides, white papers, blog articles and newsletters will be key. Your content will also have a significant impact on your search engine rankings, social media engagement, your website traffic and all the metrics we have listed.

If you’re concerned with improving conversions, you’ll care about your landing pages’ bounce rates and your conversion rates, which will determine the effectiveness of your call-to-action (CTA).

A/B split testing enables you to experiment with and track the performance of different ads, site landing pages, CTAs, page layouts and content types.

It’s also critical to reduce any friction between your company’s marketing operations and its sales, service and support teams. For optimal performance your marketing and sales processes should be integrated. Collaboration and feedback between marketing, sales, service and support can significantly improve overall business performance.

Plan Your Digital Marketing Measurement Strategy

You’ve identified your company’s value proposition. You’ve targeted the key buyer personas that drive your sales and devised a great call-to-action to draw them into your sales funnel. You’ve even outlined a content creation plan that allocates resources to your highest-ROI channels and ensures that you’re reaching more prospective buyers than your competitors.

The only thing left to do is to implement a measurement system that positions your digital marketing strategy for success today and in the future.

Measuring your Internet Marketing performance is the 8^th and final step in our Digital Marketing plan. To recap all of the steps and get a more in-depth understanding of how you can put the Digital Marketing plan to work for your business, click here to download the free whitepaper “8 Critical Ingredients of a Digital Marketing Plan.”

When measuring campaign results, the most important metric is ultimately the business outcome. However, assessing program analytics measuring the relative success of campaign elements can reveal important details about performance. Additionally, savvy communicators can use conclusions from these analyses to improve the results of future campaigns.

Individual message performance, whether we’re talking about press releases, blog posts or even social media updates, can reveal important information about audience preferences and the effectiveness of a specific message.

• Views: The overall number of views a message generates tells you a lot about the language you used in the headline or social update that immediately garnered attention. Isolate top performing messages and look for patterns. You can even test different approaches (social media is great for this) by benchmarking your average results, using a specific format for a group of messages, and then comparing the results generated against your benchmarks.
• Interactions: Once you’ve identified the top performing messages, tighten the filter and analyze which generated the most interactions. “Interaction” is a broad term, encompassing everything from social and an e-mail share to numbers of downloads, but it’s an important indicator of the degree to which the audience valued your message. Those social shares equate to message amplification, and more specific interactions inch closer to the ultimate outcome. Content that drives lots of views but few interactions doesn’t deliver a lot of value for the brand. Analyze the content that generated the most interactions, again looking for patterns.
• Clicks: In analyzing the click-through rate on a per-message basis, we’re tightening the filter once again, and assessing whether or not a message successfully inspired the audience to pursue the desired course of action, such as registering for a webinar, downloading a paper or clicking on a link served in the content. Paying attention to the click through rate will reveal which messages were the most compelling (and most effective.)

Future content can be improved by applying key findings from each of these three areas.

One word of caution: Search engines and audience preferences change with surprising speed. Take the time to run this sort of assessment several times per year. Additionally, if you’re targeting a variety of markets or personas with your content, assessing the message results within specific verticals can also be useful.

In addition to assessing content through the lens of business outcomes, it’s also important to note that views, engagement actions and click-through rate are also important indicators of content quality in the eyes of search engine algorithms. Continually tightening the screws on these factors can contribute positively to the organization’s search rank.

The transaction that happens when someone reads a piece of digital comment, and is interested enough to click on a link the publisher has offered is an important conversion within the decision funnel, and is an important data point PR teams should be reporting and using as a tool to measure campaign ROI, as well.

How to Use Your Expert Knowledge to Build Authority Online written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

It’s guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest post is from Daniel Glickman – Enjoy! 

photo credit: 123rf

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent. – John Donne

The internet is a living continent that depends on community contribution to thrive. Without input from participating members, the internet would cease to be relevant. However, the biggest strength of the internet is also its biggest weakness: with almost three billion users, the internet is an enormous global stage, and as participants, we are all competing for a bit of spotlight. However, in our fight to get a moment of glory, too many generate content that is useless and irrelevant. So how do you create important content? Use your expert knowledge to benefit the online community.

First, realize that the online community doesn’t care about you.

Like any other consumers, online audiences are seeking to consume relevant, valuable knowledge. Luckily, you have the power to give them exactly what they want. But first, you need to stop contributing only to benefit yourself. Creating content simply for your own marketing benefits will never get you the same results as contributing genuinely for the benefit of the community.

Ask not what the online community can do for you, but what you can do for the online community.

If you are consistently putting the audience’s needs above your own, you will benefit. The key to being a valuable participant is knowing what you have to offer, why it sets you apart, and how to get it out properly. The most important input you can give to the existing online community is expert knowledge that only you have by contributing content that is unique to your specialty to genuinely help others.

Give fresh perspectives.

A core necessity of any content is that it is valuable and high-quality. However, even the best content can easily be overlooked. A constant challenge is creating fresh and interesting content that offers value to visitors. It’s easy for a great post or infographic to become buried under other online content, so how do you catch the attention of an ever-distracted online audience? Know how the element of surprise can attract attention. A moving graphic, interesting color scheme, or dash of humor in a forum post are all real ways to keep audiences on their toes and interested in what you have to say.

Choose appropriate methods for delivering knowledge.

There are as many topics to contribute about as there are ways to get your insights out there. Informative online presentations, guest blogging, webinars, and active participation in online forums are just a few of the many ways to help the community at large and, if done correctly, can drive long-lasting community engagement. Identify why each method would benefit you, and ask yourself if it’s relevant to your niche. The owner of a medical technology company is probably better suited to contribute knowledge to forums than webinars, but either method works if the owner understands his strengths. A great writer but bad public speaker is probably not suited for a live presentation and should choose an online slideshow with great taglines instead. Know how to play up your strengths and invest in the appropriate methods to benefit the most.

Strive to start conversation.

Putting out content that doesn’t generate audience feedback is like delivering a presentation with zero engagement. Before any post or comment, ask yourself if you are just adding your two-cents or actually participating and driving a conversation. One of the best ways to see this in action is by rephrasing your comments as questions. See how much more participation you get from asking your audience their opinion?

There you have it – to be an authority on your niche, deliver genuine content for the purpose of contributing, not benefitting. The most engaging content – that great TED talk, memorable article, or viral website – was created because of a passion of to share, not benefit. If you can do this successfully, you will not only establish yourself as an authority in your field, but will also draw an engaged audience to you naturally.

Daniel Glickman is the CMO of emaze. He loves analyzing marketing data and building strategic and tactical plans.

“Whoever tells the best story wins.” – John Quincy Adams

There is a non-stoppable and growing trend of collaboration between places and their “fans” who help create stories for and on behalf of the brand to promote awareness and growth. Stories are among the most powerful brand elements that must be present to establish your place’s personality and reinforce your brand’s promise. Through storytelling, people share their experiences related to your place, those experiences trigger emotions from and a connection with other people, and the snowball effect of that connection invites and draws more people to your place.

While this may not be a new revelation for you, are you really doing all you can to make the best use of truly valuable storytelling in your Placemaking initiatives?

1. Let the people tell you WHY. Destination marketers must play a pivotal community leadership role by collecting and sharing the best stories of WHY, not just WHAT. Rather than focusing on telling your target market what make’s your place so great through your own marketing messages — on your website, in your marketing collateral, or in your social media postings — let them tell you THEIR stories. This will allow you to connect with people through your shared passions about why your place is special, their personal experiences with your place, and will ultimately help you build lasting relationships with them. It can also create ideas and momentum to drive your marketing campaigns.
2. Co-create new stories about your place with the people. According to Mark Lightowler, site author of Storytelling To Create Impact Brands, the best way of creating relevance for your brand is to ensure your brand plays a part in your target audience’s personal story. It is not just about you creating a great story for your brand, but about knowing your audience and their story and how your brand fits into that story. He suggests that you engage with your clients [residents, visitors, businesses] to create a new story together. This new co-created story is the one that gets told by the people in your target market to their networks, getting your brand closer to even more people.
3. Let peoples’ stories drive innovative Placemaking. Build resident and visitor communities on your website and social media sites to encourage the exchange of stories and ideas from the people. Post polls/surveys to get their opinions about the positive and not-so-positive aspects of your place to generate discussion and reveal the areas on which your Placemaking efforts should focus. Establish contests to invite residents, visitors, and businesses to propose projects that can boost the image of your place as a whole or of a particular ‘hidden gem’ that just needs some creative attention.
4. Listen and respond in your social media channels. Encourage all stakeholders to participate in the discussions about your place, its activities, and what it offers. Let them know you care about their personal experiences and ideas and how you can apply them to improving your brand and building a destination of choice. This will result in establishing the critical emotional connection with the people who matter most, enable you to achieve likeability among them, and strengthen their loyalty to your place brand.
5. Harvest the enthusiasm of local hearts and minds. Many places have experimented with “community journalism,” with publications and local news outlets encouraging and even hiring locals to help develop and serve their communities. Some of these initiatives have not been as successful as hoped, but I believe community-member ‘journalists’ are capable of capturing the true essence of a place and what’s going on there. Places just need a well-established plan for managing these news sources, and ensuring the appropriateness, credibility and accuracy of the information reported. They also need well-developed and reliable public relations and risk management plans for addressing public response to these home-grown stories that can potentially either portray the positive realities of a place or otherwise tarnish its brand identity.

Do you agree or disagree with the potential value of any of the ideas I’ve presented here? Do you have other suggestions for using story power to connect people with places?

I haven’t yet tried Ello, the newest social network to aspire to the role of “Facebook killer” (though my request for access is pending), but I know already that it is doomed to fail in that role. I’ve seen this scenario play out again and again, and result is a foregone conclusion.

Ello has attracted attention because of its pugnacious attitude expressed in a “manifesto” that begins, “Your social network is owned by advertisers” and ends “You are not a product.”

Some people are rooting for Ello to unseat Facebook by tapping into user rage over the giant social network’s controversial approach to using member information to sell advertising. They will be disappointed. Ello has no better chance of challenging Facebook than MySpace or Friendster. The social network wars are over, Facebook won and it’s time to move on.

My opinion is rooted in more than 30 years of watching battles play out over new platforms. Invariably the script is the same. To understand why Facebook has already won you have to understand the nature of technology platforms.

Platform Markets are Different

Platforms are technologies that serve as a foundation for development. Windows is a platform. So is the X86 chip architecture. Oracle is a platform and so are iOS and Google Maps. The winners in platform markets typically get 80% share, and everybody else fights over the scraps. This is because developers and customers want safe choices. They’re willing to pay more and accept less in exchange for knowing that a platform is going to be around for a while.

Platform winners are never supplanted by direct competitors. They fail for two main reasons: Customer preferences change or a new platform comes along that delivers a new kind of value.

An example of the first phenomenon is spreadsheets. In the late 1980s Lotus was larger than Microsoft and had a stranglehold on the highly profitable spreadsheet market with 1-2-3. Dozens of competitors took on Lotus with cheaper alternatives or modestly differentiated products. None gained more than a few percentage points of market share. What killed 1-2-3 was a change in preferences.Users preferred an integrated office suite based on a GUI metaphor. Microsoft had that and Lotus was slow to respond. (What’s sometimes forgotten is the Microsoft also discounted Office heavily in the early days, a strategy that helped tip the balance.)

An example of the second phenomenon is network operating systems. Novell’s NetWare reigned as the market leader until a good enough alternative came along in IP. IP wasn’t as elegant as NetWare, but it was free and accessible to all. Once it achieved critical mass, it became a safe choice and NetWare’s fate was sealed. Linux did the same thing to proprietary competitors on the server. Platform vendors are terrified by competitors that build critical mass.

Free doesn’t always supplant expensive. Linux on the desktop has never challenged Windows, but I think that’s due more to usability issues than price. On servers, Linux has done extremely well. It has critical mass.

Once platform companies become embedded they protect their franchise through a surround strategy. Some, like Microsoft and Intel, build formidable distribution networks and use volume discounts to block competition. Others, like Oracle and EMC, build software layers around their platforms that effectively embed them into customers’ organizations. Basically, it becomes more expensive for customers to switch than to stick with the incumbent.

What’s Really Different about Ello?

How does this relate to Ello? From what I’ve read, Ello uses the same basic social networking metaphors as Facebook and every other social network. Functionally, it’s a wash. Ello’s only major distinction is in the way it handles personal data.

The problem with that strategy is a few people really care. Privacy is important to a vocal minority, but in my view the vast majority of Facebook users couldn’t care less. As long as they can post photos of their kids and trash talk with their friends at no charge they’re happy. The recent disclosure that Facebook secretly manipulated the emotions of nearly 700,000 users has gotten plenty of media attention, but I don’t see anyone occupying Central Park over this issue. Facebook knows better than anyone that there are lines it shouldn’t cross.

What will ultimately unseat Facebook – or at least halt its growth – will be something that looks nothing like a social network. It may be based on sensors or artificial intelligence or free beer. No one knows. That’s one of the beauties of technology disruption. It comes from the craziest places. One thing is clear to me, however. It won’t come from Ello.

Image Credit: eirikso/Flickr

 

Twitter is broken. Facebook you can’t trust. Google+ is a wasteland.

And Ello? Well, if you can get past its monospaced font, aggressive rejection of color, and beta-stage bugs and incompleteness, well, Ello is pretty nice.

Over the past month it’s become clear that most of the tools we use for communication and community online — our social media networks — are broken, either by design, or because they have outgrown the purposes for which they were built.

This is the dark side of what used to be called the “attention economy.” The more people (or corporations) require our attention, the more they will invade those areas where we happen to be paying attention. On Facebook, that means advertisers. On Twitter, it’s trolls.

As a result, any person or conversation can be a target for trolls in proportion to how popular she (or it) becomes. To get attention, they go where the people are.

Nothing makes this clearer than #GamerGate, a ridiculous argument between hardcore gamers and video game journalists that overspilled its banks last month and turned into an uncontrolled, seemingly endless, metastasizing free-for-all.

As David Auerbach writes in Salon, GamerGate shows that on Twitter, “the line between discussion and harassment is slippery.” Because conversations happen in public, anyone can drop in at any time and make your conversation theirs. If 100 or 1,000 of their friends subsequently drop in to the conversation too, you can no longer be heard. The crowd shouts you down.

Above: The Terrible Sea Lion, a cartoon from Wondermark.

Image Credit: http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Worse, this “conversation” then overtakes your entire experience of Twitter. The problem was satirized in a cartoon by David Malki that, Auerbach notes, has since been adopted as a kind of touchpoint by GamerGate participants themselves.

If you enjoy Twitter, and use Twitter extensively, it becomes a kind of “social sixth sense,” as Clive Thompson called it back in Twitter’s early days. That sense makes Twitter become an extension of yourself, which at first feels awesome.

But when the whole world — including people you find obnoxious, loathsome, or who are outright aggressive towards you — suddenly shows up inside this “sixth sense,” it feels invasive.

The people who are harshing your mellow have a point, though, just like the sea lion: Anything you say on Twitter is a statement made in public, for all to hear.

GamerGate didn’t invent the obnoxious, public flame war, of course. Trolls have been on the Internet since the days when Usenet ruled. “Doxing” (looking up personal information on a person and publishing it) as well as sexual threats and harassment have been an unfortunate part of Internet culture for a decade or more.

Kathy Sierra, an early Internet marketing and product development guru, was driven off the Internet in 2007 by harassment, including death threats — the kind of treatment that is now unfortunately routine for any women making controversial statements in public or semi-public roles online. It wasn’t just that people were saying mean things to Sierra; she received threats that made her fear for the safety of herself and her family.

Sierra has recently returned to the Internet and posted a thoughtful, heartfelt piece about trolling. It should be required reading for anyone concerned about community and conversation online. (Also worth reading: The response from Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, a troll who Sierra — and several journalists — identified as one of the major sources of her harassment. Weev’s response is both a retort to Sierra and a pretty clear statement of his own character and motivations.)

As Sierra points out, you can’t win in a fight with the trolls: The game is stacked in their favor. But she ends her post on a hopeful note, suggesting that it might be possible to create better alternatives:

I do think we need more options for online spaces, and I hope one of those spaces allows the kind of public conversations and learning we had on Twitter but where women — or anyone — does not feel an undercurrent of fear watching her follower count increase. Where there’s no such thing as The Koolaid Point. And I also know the worst possible approach would be more aggressive banning, or restricting speech (especially not that), or restricting anonymity. I don’t think Twitter needs to (or even can, at this point) do anything at all. I think we need to do something.

Maybe one of those spaces is Ello. Right now, it feels like the kind of hopeful, civil, wonderful experiment that Twitter did in 2007. Maybe it’s the ethical social network we all need. I’m not a deep enough user of Ello to know why exactly it works better, but it certainly seems like a different, healthier kind of place.

I don’t know if that’s something inherent in the design of Ello, such as its lack of advertising, or if it’s just because Ello is still small and the trolls haven’t started to arrive yet. I suspect it’s the latter.

My theory: Any sufficiently popular conversation is eventually owned by those who value attention the most.

Am I wrong? Are there technologies or design patterns that can prevent this from happening? I sure hope so. Let me know what you think.

Stefan Michel, professor at IMD, says your business should rethink how it captures value, not just how it creates it. For more, read his article, Capture More Value.

Download this podcast

The big story in the economy these days is about how the US economy continues to grow while Europe contracts, Japan stumbles, and emerging markets like China slow.

This divergence is likely to have US stock investors concerned since the stock market and is not the US economy. Indeed, the large multinational firms of the S&P 500 generate much of their business abroad.

"Foreign sales accounted for 33% of aggregate revenue for the S&P 500 in 2013," Goldman Sachs' Amanda Sneider writes. "The median stock reported 29% of sales outside the US. Companies reported that 12% of revenues came from EMEA, with 7% directly attributable to Europe. Approximately 8% of revenues stem from the Asia Pacific region and just 7% of reported revenues were from non-US Americas (Canada and Latin America). The remaining 6% of revenues were foreign but unclassifiable."

In addition to weak sales due to deteriorating foreign demand, these multinational companies have to worry about the strengthening US currency, which shrinks the value of foreign profits when they get converted to dollars.

Sneider believes that stocks with greater exposure to Western Europe are more likely to miss analysts' estimates when they announce their Q3 earnings.

Join the conversation about this story »

In my work, I meet two different types of business owners and managers. There are those that spend all of their time focusing on what the competition is doing, and there are those who never pay attention to competitors.

Which bucket do you fall in?

The people that focus on the competition are worried about losing customers. They are worried about special offers and promotions in the marketplace. They see changes in competitors marketing strategy or product offerings and react to them.

The people that don’t care about competitors claim there are no “real competitors”. What we offer is better or different, they say. No one does exactly what we do, and that’s why our customers choose us, they argue.

Which group is better off?

You might argue that the people in group one are being too reactionary, spending too much time worrying about the competition and not enough time building their own brand. You’re right.

You also might argue that the people in group two are a little naïve about their market and might miss something important that could affect their business. You’re right again.

In reality, you have to be a little bit of both, and somewhere in between. While it’s important to know who your competitors are, and what they’re doing, it’s also important to differentiate yourself and define your own brand. Customers are looking for a reason to buy from you and not them. You can’t give them a reason if you’re just copying what your competition is doing, but you also can’t give them a reason if you don’t know what your competition is doing.

Succeeding in a competitive environment means knowing what other companies are doing, and offering something better. What value do you provide your customers?

Next week we will be digging deeper into the competitive landscape in two posts designed to offer conflicting views of how to deal with the competition. Stay tuned!

Roger Sutton made waves this past week for writing “An open letter to the self-published author feeling dissed,” which begat “No, I don’t want to read your self-published books” by Ron Charles, itself a G-rated echo of Josh Olson’s “I will not read your fucking script.”

If you care about my thoughts on Sutton’s and Charles’ pieces, read “Dearest Writer: Nobody Owes You Shit” by Chuck Wendig, who said exactly what I would have if I had his writing chops and wasn’t too lazy to write something myself.

There’s one thing about Charles’ piece that I would like to discuss here. It’s a question Sutton asked after Charles contacted him:

“And if old media is so passe, why do they care so much about what we think?”

Why indeed?

We talk all the time about traditional media, how they aren’t relevant and don’t push sales as in days of yore. Blah, blah, blah, and more blah… But . . . .

We still go to them.

Why? Follow-the-Leader (a.k.a. The Domino Effect), Following and Conversation.

Follow-the-Leader (a.k.a. The Domino Effect)

The traditional media outlets feed Ego, but they also can initiate the Domino Effect. One example: When Ann Scott Tyson’s book American Spartan (which shares the work of Jim Gant, whose work Steve shared in 2009) was released earlier this year, there was interest,but not as much as expected, and I was told some journalists didn’t like Ann’s story. Some press, but not a ton. Then, after a Nightline producer worked for what felt like years digging into the story, a piece from Nightline appeared. After that? Domino effect. Outlets from around the world asked for interviews with Ann and/or Jim—or in the rush to not be left behind, wrote their own stories without interviewing them (instead pulling information from other blogs and sites which also relied on outside, unconfirmed information instead of interviews, thus leading to the spread of misinformation). This included outlets and journalists contacted upon the release of the book, who didn’t write/report on anything to do with it until it felt like everyone else was . . . At that point, their actions indicated that they couldn’t be left out. Someone else started the Domino Effect and they followed.

So, the justified thinking is, if I can just get that one major media outlet, everyone else will follow. It happens all the time. More followers than leaders, but . . . If you connect with that one leader . . . Jackpot.

Following

Those in it for the follow-the-leader category don’t often have a following of their own—or, they have a following but lack the direct connect. For example, they could be a well-known author who has always relied on his publisher for press and doesn’t have his own site or e-mail list. As with the just-starting out author, he doesn’t have the vehicle to just post or e-mail an article or announcement in order to reach his audience. Instead, he has to rely on the middle men.

Conversation

This is just because it feels good to talk to someone smart.

I saw the image to the right on a friend’s Facebook page via Grammarly this week.  I’m not saying authors or media outlets are sexually attracted to each other, but there is an intellectual attraction in some cases. It’s refreshing to speak with someone who takes the conversation to a level that teaches us something about ourselves, during which we learn in addition to share. It’s why Steve has visited Hugh Hewitt in-studio a number of times (yesterday being the most recent visit, with Giora Romm, author of Solitary). Hugh takes the time to read the book (you’d be surprised how often this step is skipped) and goes beyond the book. He understands the topic at a deeper level and wants to discuss it at that level. There are a few other outlets/individuals that do the same. Charlie Rose comes to mind. (And this holds true for print, too. Conversation isn’t sitting solo in video or radio worlds.)

If Old Media Is So Passe .  .  .

So do we need the traditional media outlets? No.

Should we continue going to them? For the conversation, yes. There’s value in it because the author and host benefit from sharing such a conversation—and that conversation will frame a book or other work/topic for listeners/readers in a way that a review or blurb or article won’t.

But the rest? If you build your following, follow-the-leader becomes less and less necessary. It’s like weaning a baby from the bottle. The bottle is good in the beginning, but at some point you’ve got to get off it and going it alone. It offers a set amount of nourishment for a certain amount of time. If you stay with it as a long-term strategy, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

Bottom line: Get thee a following and a good conversation.

I am amazed at how many people set up an online business and then quickly expect world domination, getting thousands of orders daily from customers in every part of the globe. The truth is, a successful business can get the majority of their customers from these three sources:

1. Repeat Customers

We seem to always be on the hunt for new customers, but what is wrong with your old or current ones? Depending on the nature of your business, 30% or more of your sales should come from repeat customers. Plus, it is much easier to sell to a previous customer than it is to a new one.

Ways to get repeat customers:

• Follow your customers on social media (so they follow you back)
• Give your customers special offers and exclusives just for them
• Reach out every now and then to your customers just to say hello, wish happy holidays, etc.
• Ask your customers to join an email newsletter list
• Listen to and try to meet their needs for new products or services

2. Referrals

Happy customers will recommend you to their friends and family. Referrals and word of mouth are typically the easy way to get a sale because the customer does all the work for you.

Ways to get referrals:

• Ask – it is sometimes that simple. Nicely ask your customers to recommend you if they are happy with your product or service
• Give an incentive, such as a free gift, free service or discount off of their next purchase for each referral
• Send them a promo item (t-shirt, bag, pen) with your logo and url on it. When they use it, it acts like a referral
• Throw a few business cards in with the product, they may pass them on

3. Your Local Market

Why are we such snobs when it comes to our local market? Buyers are buyers, and as I have told my clients many times, you will see that people want to support their local businesses, out of a sense of pride and because local businesses pay taxes and employ people.

Ways to get more local business:

• Participate in and/or sponsor community charitable events
• Form alliances with other, non-competitive businesses for cross promotion
• Make friends with the local business writer at your newspaper to get press or provide needed quotes or sound bites on other local business news
• Label your products, business cards, and marketing materials with “Proudly Boston-based” or “A San Francisco Company”
• Join local business networking groups

Social media and email marketing are the two most popular digital marketing methods used today, but are they working together or against each other?

Research by Gigaom shows us that 86% of digital marketers use email marketing and 72% use social media. These were the two most popular tactics, coming out ahead of SEO (70%), content marketing (64%) and display advertising (53%). Perhaps it’s because of this that I’ve seen a lot of talk about which of the two methods is the most effective and which one delivers the best return on investment.

By treating them up in this way, with each tactic trying to out-perform the other, a lot of marketers are missing a huge opportunity. Instead, we should be considering how one channel can filter into the other and how each of them can play to their individual strengths as part of an integrated marketing campaign. For instance, using social media is a great way to build a targeted mailing list, whilst email is a very effective tool for turning engaged fans and followers into buyers.

In a new infographic, Constant Contact has reached out to 13 experts in digital marketing and collected their top tips for integrating social media and email marketing. It contains some extremely valuable advice on how to map opportunities at different points in the customer lifecycle, how to attribute results, how to target email subscribers on social media and much more.

If you have a tip that didn’t make the list please let us know in the comments. You can also register for a webinar on this topic, which takes place on October 28^th and features Luke Brynley-Jones and Kath Pay. Click here for all the details.

Why aren’t B2B marketers doing more to generate recommendations for their brands? I mean every B2B marketer (or head of sales, for that matter) understands how important positive word of mouth and referrals are, right?

And these days, it’s easy to leverage social media to amplify favorable comments about your brand, products or content. Yet my experience is that few B2B marketers are making it a priority to generate these “social recommendations” as part of their marketing strategy.

Why is that?

A Matter of Trust

Sure it can be a challenge to get business professionals to publicly recommend a company. But we’re talking B2B, so you don’t need thousands of vocal fans — just a few will get you started. And while it may not be a snap to identify brand champions in your CRM system today, it’s still a pretty straightforward issue to address.

Or maybe it’s because you’re too focused on (obsessed with) content marketing. If that’s the case, then shouldn’t you consider spending less time on content activities and more time on identifying and mobilizing advocates to generate social recommendations?

Now don’t get me wrong. I understand the importance of building brand awareness and authority with buyers before they’re ready to chat with your chomping-at-the-bit sales reps. High quality content is awesome for that. Not to mention, it helps with SEO and fuels social media. So yes, I get the value of content marketing.

On the other hand, buyers trust the recommendations of peers more than what we marketers say in our blog posts, white papers, webinars, status updates or tweets. Sorry, but it’s true. To highlight the importance of social recommendations, Christopher Duskin, vice president of marketing at referral marketing company Extole, noted:

“At some level, social recommendations are the only valid marketing for B2B… It is thousands of forums, emails and casual conversations all asking ‘what should I do’ and ‘who should I use.’ If you have ever been a customer reference or asked to talk to a reference, you’ve experienced it.”

And here’s what Tim Handorf, co-founder and president of business software review site G2 Crowd, claims:

“Although business buying decisions tend to be more complex than a consumer decision, buyers still want insights and lessons learned from their peers to help them make a decision.” 

Put another way, wouldn’t you be more likely to pick a vendor that comes highly recommended versus one that emails you lots of quality content? Hands down, peer recommendations win me over every time.

Advocates for Your Brand

With that said, let’s take a moment and consider who can do the recommending on your company’s behalf. It’s probably more people than you think.

Customer Advocates

First of all, every company has customers willing to advocate, even those that sell to other businesses. How do you go about identifying these brand advocates? The quickest way is to email the Net Promoter Ultimate Question survey to your database to discover which customers are most likely to recommend your company. Within 24 to 48 hours you’ll identify a bunch of brand advocates.

Employee Advocates

If your company is like most, then your employees are an untapped source of advocacy for your brand. Remember, they have a vested interest in the business’ success. And hopefully a certain percentage of your workforce is ready and willing to tell their social networks the story of your company and its products. So go ahead and make it easy for them to spread the good word about your brand.

Partners, Influencers and Prospects

You have a whole ecosystem of vendors, partners, and investors who you can turn to for recommendations and favorable tweets. Are you tapping into them? And what about industry influencers and thought-leaders that understand how cool your company is? Plus, consider prospects who may have found your website helpful or your latest whitepaper informative. Make it easy for all of them to share their positive opinions, too.

How to Generate Recommendations

Now consider all the ways you can mobilize the different types of advocates to promote your company:

• Ask for testimonials
• Get them to share branded content on social media
• Use their quotes in case studies and content marketing
• Invite them to participate in company webinars and events
• Make them guest contributors for the company blog
• Prompt them to write reviews on sites like G2 Crowd

What’s the bottom line?

Sure it’s great to get people reading and sharing your content. But wouldn’t it be better to get more of your advocates to be recommending your products and services on social media? In more practical terms, wouldn’t you benefit from doing fewer blog posts every month and instead putting that time into identifying and mobilizing advocates to recommend your brand? I sure think so.

Now it’s your turn. What are you doing to identify and mobilize advocates? Is generating social recommendations one of your key initiatives or not even on your priority list?

(Editor’s note: this article first appeared on CMSWire)

Technology-based businesses, with a few notable exceptions, have an unfortunate and self-limiting habit of selling on specification – and of believing that positioning their product or service as faster, cheaper, or better is the key to making customers want to buy.

Whilst there are visible examples of that strategy working in rapid replacement cycle consumer markets like smartphones, there are three obvious problems with that line of thinking in high-value considered-purchase business-to-business situations.

Three problems with a “best product” positioning strategy

The first is that in a lame attempt to differentiate, vendors end up claiming that their offering is “better” in an artificial or irrelevant dimension that is of no interest to the prospect and has no positive impact on their buying behavior.

The second is that in a technology feature-function arms race in a competitive market, no one vendor is likely to be able to sustain “better” indefinitely as each generation of product leapfrogs the previous one.

The third and most important is that intelligent buyers recognize that on any rational analysis every vendor can’t possibly have the superior offering, so they are inclined to discount all these “better” claims for what they are: irrelevant and unsustainable puffery.

Standing out from the crowd

Basing your positioning on claiming to be better usually results in lazy and ineffective marketing. So how should serious business-to-business vendors aim to stand out from the crowd?

The clue lies in the word “differentiation”: if you are selling to an intelligent audience, your prospects are smart enough to either ignore or devalue messages that sound similar – and that’s why bleating out “better” won’t grab their attention.

Differentiation = acting and behaving different

What they are listening for is something that sounds different – for memorable messages that stand out from the crowd and which intrigue them enough to want to learn more. That’s why any successful attempt to differentiate must focus on the things that are truly different about you.

Given the rapid evolution of technology, differentiation based on specific product features is hard to sustain and in any case much less relevant when your buyer is thoughtfully evaluating a long-term investment rather than a one-off transaction.

Under these circumstances, any claims of current-generation product superiority are much less relevant than your prospect’s confidence in your long-term approach – and that’s where true sustainable differentiation must be established.

If you are to set yourself apart from your competition in a sustainable way, you need to convince your prospects that you have a demonstrably different and provably superior approach to addressing their most important issues.

Your attitude – and their experience

This is less a function of visible product functionality than it is of your company’s attitude, approach, architecture and philosophy. It’s about the lasting experience the prospect can expect if they choose to do business with you.

While short-sighted product-centric companies are focusing on what they do, their smarter competitors are explaining why they choose to do what they do, and how their approach delivers a superior experience.

It’s an approach that Apple has absolutely nailed in consumer markets, and it’s a philosophy that was convincingly communicated in Simon Sinek’s memorable TED video, “Start With Why.”

Different = superior experiences and outcomes

If you really want to stand out from the crowd, you need to start by showing how and why you are different, and only when you have established this then go on to explain how this drives superior long-term experiences and outcomes for your customers.

In the long run, having a sustainable and provably differentiated approach will always out perform short term positioning based on shiny baubles and spurious claims of product superiority. And curiously enough, it seems to drive superior results in the here-and-now as well.

Millennial sales reps

Many companies are now hiring millennials – a move that expands generational diversity of their sales teams. It also raises a couple of significant questions like: How do you engage millennial sales reps? Sales Training Connection has addressed that question in several previous blog posts.

But the question we haven’t discussed is: Why might millennials make great salespeople? Mark Roberge – Chief Revenue Officer of Inbound Sales Products for HubSpot – published an interesting article answering this question in the SMM Monitor. It’s definitely worth a read. Here are some highlights:

According to Roberge, “Today’s buyers are empowered by the Internet and are demanding more personalized, more relevant, and more helpful interactions with salespeople. Millennials are well positioned to deliver on this expectation. This generation not only embraces the new playbook, they helped write it by leading the digital charge and tuning out old-school sales tactics from day one.”

He goes on to share the top reasons he thinks millennials will do well in today’s challenging sales environment:

• They’re digital natives – It will become increasingly important to be digitally savvy and it’s a sweet spot for millennials.
• They live and breathe your product – Young sales reps in general are drawn to a company’s mission which means they don’t just sell your product, they believe in it and that is transparent to customers.
• They’re entrepreneurial – In today’s market bring a business mindset to the engagement is exactly what customer are expecting.
• They’re data-driven – Millennial salespeople will approach selling as a science, embracing the tools and analytics that are increasingly becoming important as a foundation for success.

Roberge ends the article with this point: “The criteria for hiring salespeople have changed dramatically over the past decade. Customers don’t look for salespeople that want to control the conversation anymore; they look for reps that are data-driven, solution-oriented, and empathetic.”

Our sense is Roberge is correct. Customers want trusted advisors not product facilitators. They expect sales rep to bring fresh ideas for framing the problem and insights for generating creative solutions. Our bet is millennials are free from some of the history that will prevent that from happening and some of the talents to make sure that it does.

The challenge for sales management is to develop the mindset and skills to leverage that potential.

In the world of social media, social networking and instant access to information, people have become more talkative than ever.

So it comes as no surprise that when making a decision online, consumers look to the readily accessible experiences of others and have done so since the dawn of the internet.

With 70% of people trusting consumer opinions posted online, it is essential that any ecommerce business keeps up with the demand for social proof, allowing other consumers to read and hear about other people’s experiences with a given product or service.

To get the best conversion rates and beat the competition, your business must prove to potential buyers that people like your product.

Here’s how to bring consumers and companies together.

Step one: transparency

One thing that hasn’t changed over time is the power of word-of-mouth. When looking for a product or service online, consumers look for brands that they can trust.

Responding to your consumer reviews, questions and feedback shows that you are a transparent organisation that truly values their thoughts, experiences and feedback of your customers.

The knowledge that, reviews of your services are 100% genuine can be the difference between an abandoned basket and a click of the ‘complete order’ button.

In fact, A/B testing proved that simply displaying positive online reviews at the checkout stage on your site can increase sales by up to 58%.

Step two: communication

What better way to tell how your company is doing than to hear it straight from your customers? And what better way to offer proof of your customer service than replying to reviews?

95% of unhappy customers will return if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently. So all reviews, both the good and the bad, open up possibilities to build credibility, popularity and reputation, giving you the upper hand over your competition.

Step three: sharing

Social media has become almost as natural as breathing to the average consumer, and what better social proof is there than sharing consumer reviews via Facebook? 

Reviews will appear on your business page, and your customers can share their reviews with all their friends, building up your reputation for you.

92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, and the average Facebook user has almost 200 friends - so you’ve basically struck gold.

Step four: growth

Social media is an invaluable channel for growth in ecommerce: 96% of top retailers consider customer ratings and reviews an effective way to drive conversions. 

Customer reviews can create a 74% increase in product conversion, according to PeopleClaim. So whether it takes the form of a star-rating, a widget, or Facebook sharing, social proof is a big deal, and it’s key to increasing sales and growing your business.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and five other big names in digital media in the UK are rallying together next week as they bid to steal share of advertising dollars from TV broadcasters — by replicating the same tactic TV broadcasters use to sign huge "upfront" deals with advertisers.

They're hoping to shift tens of millions in spending their way.

Next week the UK will host its first “Digital Upfronts”, a week-long event where digital media owners will tout their wares to advertisers and agencies in the hope of signing major deals. There will be 11 presentations in total, some glitzy parties and celebrity appearances as the digital titans battle it out to woo advertising executives away from traditional media (you can find the full calendar and all the companies appearing here). 

The idea is taken from the US, when TV network ABC began broadcasting all its most attractive programming in the Fall but sold advertising for those shows in the Spring — hence “upfront.”

The advantage of the Upfront, for media sellers, is to create a short, quick window for ad sales in which advertisers will feel forced to lock in the best deals they can. In general, the system has kept prices for TV advertising high (even though advertisers feel they're locking in discounts because they're buying in bulk).

The vast majority of TV advertising across the world is now sold in this way: far ahead of time and accompanied by Upfronts events held by the broadcasters to showcase their programming and ad opportunities for the forthcoming seasons. But digital media tends to be bought much closer to when it actually appears, and it can often be a bit of an afterthought in the campaign planning process.

The digital media industry wants to change that and hopes the Upfronts tactic will gloss up their display and online video ads as more premium offerings akin to TV so they can book in more revenue ahead of time.

One source from one of the big digital media companies involved with the Upfronts next week told Business Insider they expect “tens of millions of pounds” worth of deals to be struck over the course of the five days.

Other companies involved have told Business Insider the first year of Digital Upfronts in the UK will be less about immediate upfront commitments being signed, but more about showcasing what is on offer to raise understanding among advertisers.

But they do say that will change over time. In the US, where digital “NewFronts” have been running for seven years, major deals are now announced at each annual event. It just takes time for advertising buyers to change their habits.

It may take longer for that muscle memory to grow in the UK. As digital marketing website Digiday explains, the event is dominated by US technology platforms, which reduces the likelihood of new content or product announcements for the UK audience. 

We don’t know know the exact cause-and-effect relationship between the US NewFronts event and digital advertising deals and it’s difficult to estimate just how much business the UK event will pull in.

But what we do know is that the digital advertising pot is growing and, as Omnicom Media Group admitted the other day when it revealed it is telling clients to shift as much as 25% of their TV budgets to online video, at least some of that growth is to the detriment of TV. 

The digital media industry is now hoping to take TV on at its own game to in the hope of stealing even more of that advertising share.

That said, digital still has a long way to go. TV had a 40.2% of the $532 billion global advertising market in 2013 while internet advertising had a 20.6% share, according to a report from Publicis Groupe’s Zenith Optimedia. 

SEE ALSO: The Ad Agency For Apple, Pepsi and McDonald's Is Advising Clients To Slash Millions From Their TV Budgets

Join the conversation about this story »

Creating content seems easy. But creating valuable content that’s worth a spot in your emails? Now that’s a different story… Yet it doesn’t have to be.

Writing content for email is vastly different than writing content for other publication channels, such as your blog or social networks — and it should be treated that way.

To ensure your emails are filled to the brim with content that produces results, here are some tips to help you get started:

Exclusive Content

When the first customer-facing email was created, its purpose wasn’t to send content that people had previously heard or read. Instead, the intent was to open a new line of communication to keep prospects regularly engaged and prevent them from turning into stale leads. Although email today is often used by brands as a promotional tool peppered with “marketing-ese,” breaking this habit is crucial to creating emails that your subscribers actually find interesting.

While your content should accurately reflect your brand, it should be something your audience looks forward to when checking their inbox. Consider offering “insider” tips, ideas, and curated news that are relevant to your business. Keep it casual, concise, and as selfless as possible.

And unless you’re teasing content to encourage email subscriptions, keep the content off of your website and social media. By presenting content your readers can’t get anywhere else, they’ll be more likely to open your emails.

For example, if you run a dog grooming business, exclusive content might include a list of preferred dog shampoos and why you recommend them, tips for getting an anxious pet to calm down during bathtime, how-to guides for preventing hair mats, etc. Curated content might feature the latest releases of your favorite products, sales on grooming equipment at local pet stores, and more.

TIP: By making your business a must-have resource, your value will be irreplaceable. The goal is to attract new customers by providing valuable content, not just stuffing a newsletter with things YOU want to say.

Images

Visuals are a pretty big deal, and they can be extremely effective in capturing your audience’s attention and sparking interest in ways that text alone cannot. Why? People only remember 20 percent of what they read, but they remember 80 percent of what they see. We also process images 60,000 times faster than text.

If you’re a power-mom who loves blogging about recipes and children’s fashion, colorful imagery can help bring your ideas to life and inspire your readers to take action. A recipe for butternut squash and goat cheese pasta may sound okay, but it’s the delicious photo that’s going to cause stomachs to grumble and influence your readers to make it later for dinner — and then snap a pic of it to spark envy among friends.

TIP: Whether you use a graphic designer to create high quality visuals or you take advantage of AWeber’s free stock image gallery, including those elements can help nurture subscriber loyalty.

Great Subject Lines

There are a number of things we do to present ourselves in the best way possible when making a first impression, whether it’s combing our hair or choosing the right words to say. Well, your email subject lines should be getting the same treatment, too.

As the first piece of content readers see from you, your subject lines should be carefully constructed to make a good impression. Keep them short but relevant to the content in your email. They should also be inviting so your readers will be encouraged to interact with your message. Some of the best subject lines include how-to statements, numbers, direct statements, and/or personalization, such as these:

Asking a question is a great way to approach your subject line. This one in particular works so well because it addresses a strong concern of every subscriber to this email list: How should we prepare for the future of B2B marketing? By sparking curiosity and supplying an answer in your email, readers will be sure to click through.

This subject line works well because it’s actionable (“quench”) and concisely tells the reader exactly what the email is all about.

Bad headlines on the other hand, look a lot like this (so avoid these!):

Refinery29 may create good email content, but this subject line tells subscribers little about why they should open this email. So the company’s own shopping addiction got worse? That means nothing to the readers. Instead of focusing on your own brand, tell your audience why they should become addicted to your products/services.

Pumpkin spice and concerts go together like…Well, nobody is really sure, to be honest. Sure, the seasonal topic is timely, but we don’t need to pumpkin spice all the things. If you want to jump on the now-trending bandwagon, make sure it’s also relevant to the content in your email.

TIP: Subject line split tests can be a great way to see what messaging works best with your subscriber list. Even if your email message is valuable, the content can’t do its job if no one gets past the subject line.

User-Generated Content

Sometimes, the best content isn’t anything you’ve created on your own. Rather, it’s the type of content created by your customers — a.k.a. user-generated content (UGC). From Facebook to Yelp!, there are a number of places where consumers come together to share their experiences with businesses all over the world. So why not make use of these powerful communities to unearth helpful content for your emails?

An owner of a local bakery, for example, might want to feature their most shared items on Pinterest or even reviews from Facebook followers who raved about a new cake flavor.

When prospective consumers can identify with the real people interacting with and benefiting from your business, they’ll be more encouraged to do so as well.

TIP: Testimonials can be an important part of user-generated content that adds credibility and value to your emails. Think about using quotes and ideas from customers that can help your subscribers, not just flaunt how amazing you are!

Irresistible Offers

According to a study from Blue Kangaroo, seven out of ten people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email in the prior week. In addition to using coupons as a way to incentivize people to sign up for your emails, they can be leveraged for encouraging them to open emails on a regular basis.

Just make sure the offer is valuable to them. Exclusive discount codes or coupons are always a win, but consider offering something they wouldn’t be able to get from a competitor in the Sunday paper, such as a helpful how-to guide or a top secret ‘never been shared before’ recipe.

TIP: In addition to coupons and discounts, offer your subscribers sneak peeks to new products or services, exclusive chances to pre-order sure-to-sell-out items, or have a “last call” clearance sale available only to them!

Still Not Sure? Just Ask

If you don’t know what kind of content is valuable to your audience, why not ask them? All it takes is a brief email survey that invites feedback on information they’d like to receive from you in the future. Once you have that information, you’ll be ready to create amazing email-opening worthy content.

Want to learn more tricks of the trade? Sign up below to receive helpful blog posts (like this one) right in your inbox!

Creating content seems easy. But creating valuable content that’s worth a spot in your emails? Now that’s a different story… Yet it doesn’t have to be.

Writing content for email is vastly different than writing content for other publication channels, such as your blog or social networks — and it should be treated that way.

To ensure your emails are filled to the brim with content that produces results, here are some tips to help you get started:

Exclusive Content

When the first customer-facing email was created, its purpose wasn’t to send content that people had previously heard or read. Instead, the intent was to open a new line of communication to keep prospects regularly engaged and prevent them from turning into stale leads. Although email today is often used by brands as a promotional tool peppered with “marketing-ese,” breaking this habit is crucial to creating emails that your subscribers actually find interesting.

While your content should accurately reflect your brand, it should be something your audience looks forward to when checking their inbox. Consider offering “insider” tips, ideas, and curated news that are relevant to your business. Keep it casual, concise, and as selfless as possible.

And unless you’re teasing content to encourage email subscriptions, keep the content off of your website and social media. By presenting content your readers can’t get anywhere else, they’ll be more likely to open your emails.

For example, if you run a dog grooming business, exclusive content might include a list of preferred dog shampoos and why you recommend them, tips for getting an anxious pet to calm down during bathtime, how-to guides for preventing hair mats, etc. Curated content might feature the latest releases of your favorite products, sales on grooming equipment at local pet stores, and more.

TIP: By making your business a must-have resource, your value will be irreplaceable. The goal is to attract new customers by providing valuable content, not just stuffing a newsletter with things YOU want to say.

Images

Visuals are a pretty big deal, and they can be extremely effective in capturing your audience’s attention and sparking interest in ways that text alone cannot. Why? People only remember 20 percent of what they read, but they remember 80 percent of what they see. We also process images 60,000 times faster than text.

If you’re a power-mom who loves blogging about recipes and children’s fashion, colorful imagery can help bring your ideas to life and inspire your readers to take action. A recipe for butternut squash and goat cheese pasta may sound okay, but it’s the delicious photo that’s going to cause stomachs to grumble and influence your readers to make it later for dinner — and then snap a pic of it to spark envy among friends.

TIP: Whether you use a graphic designer to create high quality visuals or you take advantage of AWeber’s free stock image gallery, including those elements can help nurture subscriber loyalty.

Great Subject Lines

There are a number of things we do to present ourselves in the best way possible when making a first impression, whether it’s combing our hair or choosing the right words to say. Well, your email subject lines should be getting the same treatment, too.

As the first piece of content readers see from you, your subject lines should be carefully constructed to make a good impression. Keep them short but relevant to the content in your email. They should also be inviting so your readers will be encouraged to interact with your message. Some of the best subject lines include how-to statements, numbers, direct statements, and/or personalization, such as these:

Asking a question is a great way to approach your subject line. This one in particular works so well because it addresses a strong concern of every subscriber to this email list: How should we prepare for the future of B2B marketing? By sparking curiosity and supplying an answer in your email, readers will be sure to click through.

This subject line works well because it’s actionable (“quench”) and concisely tells the reader exactly what the email is all about.

Bad headlines on the other hand, look a lot like this (so avoid these!):

Refinery29 may create good email content, but this subject line tells subscribers little about why they should open this email. So the company’s own shopping addiction got worse? That means nothing to the readers. Instead of focusing on your own brand, tell your audience why they should become addicted to your products/services.

Pumpkin spice and concerts go together like…Well, nobody is really sure, to be honest. Sure, the seasonal topic is timely, but we don’t need to pumpkin spice all the things. If you want to jump on the now-trending bandwagon, make sure it’s also relevant to the content in your email.

TIP: Subject line split tests can be a great way to see what messaging works best with your subscriber list. Even if your email message is valuable, the content can’t do its job if no one gets past the subject line.

User-Generated Content

Sometimes, the best content isn’t anything you’ve created on your own. Rather, it’s the type of content created by your customers — a.k.a. user-generated content (UGC). From Facebook to Yelp!, there are a number of places where consumers come together to share their experiences with businesses all over the world. So why not make use of these powerful communities to unearth helpful content for your emails?

An owner of a local bakery, for example, might want to feature their most shared items on Pinterest or even reviews from Facebook followers who raved about a new cake flavor.

When prospective consumers can identify with the real people interacting with and benefiting from your business, they’ll be more encouraged to do so as well.

TIP: Testimonials can be an important part of user-generated content that adds credibility and value to your emails. Think about using quotes and ideas from customers that can help your subscribers, not just flaunt how amazing you are!

Irresistible Offers

According to a study from Blue Kangaroo, seven out of ten people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email in the prior week. In addition to using coupons as a way to incentivize people to sign up for your emails, they can be leveraged for encouraging them to open emails on a regular basis.

Just make sure the offer is valuable to them. Exclusive discount codes or coupons are always a win, but consider offering something they wouldn’t be able to get from a competitor in the Sunday paper, such as a helpful how-to guide or a top secret ‘never been shared before’ recipe.

TIP: In addition to coupons and discounts, offer your subscribers sneak peeks to new products or services, exclusive chances to pre-order sure-to-sell-out items, or have a “last call” clearance sale available only to them!

Still Not Sure? Just Ask

If you don’t know what kind of content is valuable to your audience, why not ask them? All it takes is a brief email survey that invites feedback on information they’d like to receive from you in the future. Once you have that information, you’ll be ready to create amazing email-opening worthy content.

Want to learn more tricks of the trade? Sign up below to receive helpful blog posts (like this one) right in your inbox!

No matter your marketing strategy, you should consider each and every potential customer as an individual relationship. And yes, I mean like dating. This is exactly how inbound marketing is structured, though you can go a bit too far if you’re not careful. The key is to treat each relationship as fragile from the very beginning. Remember, your customers can leave at any time. So, how can you use inbound marketing to build strong ties with your buyers?

Get Personal

We all know that guy who seems to have dozens of friends but never calls any of them by name. How close do you think he could possibly be with “Hey, Guy,” “Dude,” “Buddy” if he doesn’t know their names? If you want to make an impression, you need to learn each customer’s name…and use it—when you send emails, when you target ads, when you answer their shout-outs on social media, and most especially when you handle customer service claims.

The beauty of most inbound marketing tools is that gathering name and contact information is easy. Most people are more than happy to say, “Hello, my name is…” and that gives you the chance to start a beautiful relationship with personalized marketing.

Be Yourself

If you don’t know your brand identity by the time you start chatting up with potential customers, you’re in trouble. Consumers are smart. They’ll pick up on your fake voice, your fake image, and your fake concern. Why try to cram your brand into a box when you could be yourself and build true relationships?

Your brand should shine through your website design, blog posts, and social media interactions, but it can’t stop there. Every time you interact with customers, you must be yourself…be your brand.

Don’t Interrupt

Yes, everyone likes a grand gesture here and there, but disrupting your customers is not the way to win hearts. Don’t flood their mailboxes and inboxes with irrelevant mail just to stay at the top of their minds. When you have something to say, go ahead and say it. Otherwise, let them come to you when they’re ready.

Meet Them Where They Are

No matter how hard you push, consumers won’t make a purchase until they’re ready. In fact, the harder you push, the more likely they are to walk away. You don’t want to break up before the relationship starts getting good, do you? Rushing things is never a good idea.

To meet your buyers where they are, you must be aware of where they are in the buying cycle at all times. Have they downloaded an informative ebook or white paper? They’re probably sitting near the middle of your sales cycle and need more information before they’ll take the leap. Have they requested a demonstration or downloaded a discount offer? They’re all yours for the taking.

Don’t Overdo It

Really, this last rule covers any manner of relationship faux pas. The biggest, of course, is gathering information your customers don’t really want you to have. With cookies and contact forms and every other intel-collecting program out there, it’s easy to get a little greedy with the info. The problem is, most of that information is stuff you shouldn’t know so early in your relationship.

If you are going to get sneaky with your suggestions and targeted ads, make sure you’re super sneaky. Surround those recommendations with products and services your buyers haven’t yet shown interest in. Otherwise, they’ll wonder why they spent ten minutes searching Google for pet shampoo and received coupons from you thirty seconds later. Let me tell you: that kind of behavior is creepy, and your customers will break up with you.

You can build great relationships through inbound marketing without crossing any lines. We’ll help you foster any connections you make and convert them into true leads, and then to customers. Better than that, we can show you how to maintain those relationships for years while boosting the lifetime value of each customer. Are you ready to change the way you court your customers?

In a traditional marketing model, the biggest challenge for B2B marketers in lead nurturing is engaging with their prospects. Some studies estimate that 90 percent of leads only have one direct interaction (such as visiting the website) with the seller. The solution for B2B marketers is to try and capture every interaction the potential customer has with their product and related products in order to determine intent and serve the customer timely, relevant information at key points in their decision-making process.

Intent data pulls from all the interactions potential customers have with your product or brand and helps marketers act more efficiently. Here are five ways intent data is redefining lead nurturing.

1. Add Scale with B2B Intent Data

Your clients are on the internet gathering information long before they visit your website. Every interaction they have with your company and its competitors is useful. The more data marketers have about potential customers, including third-party data like search terms and even publicly available company information, the better they can serve those prospects the information they need to make decisions and become actual customers. Intent data can reach a larger interested pool than traditional lead acquisition, which involves gathering names at trade shows, emails through white paper downloads or other website interactions, and top-down lead qualifying.

2. Score Interactions for More Qualified Leads

Your clients consume information about your brand and competitors at multiple content touchpoints, such as downloads, articles, search, etc. Using predictive analytics and other lead scoring methods, each interaction can be measured for how valuable it is in the sales cycle. The behavioral intent data can be acted upon.

3. Allocate Resources More Efficiently

Customers are reading white papers – you need to create more of them. Are they abandoning your site before submitting a form? Put more search-friendly, accessible information in front of them. Are they searching your competitors but not you? Shift emphasis on branding efforts. Evaluate your resources and then determine where they are best serving the customer; create content as needed, and keep the leads informed and connected. Intent data lets you determine what information prospective customers want so you can serve them accordingly.

4. Add Focus to Lead Nurturing

After applying analytics to the data you have gathered to figure out behavioral intent, you can use it in contextual ways to serve ads, direct news and information, and track decision paths. This keeps the conversation or interest fresh in prospective customers’ minds and keeps your product and service in front of them, which yields more intent-based information to nurture more leads.

5. Join Efforts of Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales need to work together to pursue and nurture leads so the customer is not bombarded with unrelated messages. In terms of lead nurturing, the more intent data that can be gathered and applied to a prospect, the more likely a conversion because you’re serving the target audience with the appropriate message at the right time. Marketers can’t hand over leads when they’re in the information-gathering phase or they will be turned off by sales efforts. Similarly, sales can’t just gather names at a trade show and expect marketing to communicate and inform them without some other information about what products they’re interested in and where they are in the decision process to become a customer.

Intent data can help nurture leads because it knows so much about the customer’s decision path before the customer is ready to interact with your site and make a transaction. Gathering this information helps marketers determine what clients really need by communicating with them throughout the buying process.

Cloud-based marketing software provider HubSpot went up 20.4% in first-day trading, closing at $30.10 per share.

That gives HubSpot a market cap of roughly $913.8 million.

Its shares opened at $32.95 a share Thursday morning, and went as low as $29.08 midday, before closing at $30.10.

Its 20% first-day pop wasn’t exactly eye-popping, but it’s a decent surge considering there were some questions about HubSpot’s management and rising costs lately.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based software company set its IPO price at $25 per share Wednesday, slightly above the price range of $22 to $24 it had set earlier this week. It sold 5 million shares at that price, raising $125 million in total through the IPO.

In 2013, HubSpot recorded $77.6 million in sales, but had a net loss of $34.4 million. In the first six months of 2014, it had $51.3 million in revenue and lost $17.7 million. But HubSpot is a software-as-a-service company, so its customers pay for the service as they use it, meaning its revenue gets recorded over time on a subscription-basis.

HubSpot is best-known for its “marketing automation” software, which helps sales and marketing people generate better sales leads and strategies. It mostly deals with small and medium size companies with less than 2,000 employees. 

Join the conversation about this story »

*This post first ran June 13, 2014.

Account-based marketing is a trend that is gaining a lot of traction, probably because it just makes so much sense. Sales has always used an account-based approach while evaluating the leads they receive from marketing, as the first thing they look at is if the lead is from a company they believe could become a potential customer.  After all, a “qualified” lead that has run the gauntlet of demographic and activity-based scoring from a company that will never, ever buy is not really a lead.

There is a problem, however, with the account-based marketing approach.

As B2Bs continue to try and adapt one-to-one B2C techniques and technologies to work on the accounts they try to sell to, they miss the vital and strategic understanding of how B2Bs actually buy. The vendors we work with for demand generation and the technologies we have invested in have yet to grow and evolve to accommodate the account-based approach, forcing us to work within the confines of their systems and continue to make decisions based on demographics, and not firmographics.

A high level marketing executive pointed out once that his company “doesn’t sell to glass buildings, we sell to people.” While true, B2Bs are not selling to individual people – we sell to a committee of people tasked with making a decision together. All of these people have different motivations, different pain points, are rewarded differently, and are evaluating your products or services from different points of view. The only thing they often have in common is that they work for the same company, and unless they are all engaged in some sort of buyer dialogue with you they are not likely to buy.

Consider myself as an example of an “engaged” individual in your marketing automation system. I get calls from marketing technology vendors almost daily, based on the fact that I am a bit of a collector of white papers. I download the hell out of those things, with every intention of reading them all to help expand my knowledge of marketing best practices. I must be a “hot lead” in more systems than I can count, and I am sure I am not alone. I know many folks in the space that do the same as me. We are the window shoppers, the tire kickers, and there is no easy way to identify us in most marketing automation platforms since our titles are probably in the sweet spot and our activity-based scoring is through the roof.

How can you tell if there is a real selling opportunity at my company? Easy! If I am not the only one from my company interacting with your website or downloading content.

The problem though is that most (if not all) marketing automation platforms don’t offer that sort of visibility into account-based activity. There is no way to easily tag multiple prospects to a single account. Running a report on the account name might work, unless there are multiple spellings of the company name (IBM vs. I.B.M. vs. International Business Machines) to muddy the waters. Consider how leads vs. contacts work in Salesforce.com. Traditionally, when marketing owns them, they live in the leads tab with no common link at the account level. Conversely, when sales own them, they become contacts and cannot exist unless they are associated with an account. Why can’t marketing automation offer the ability/option to operate the same way, providing visibility into account-level interest and activity in our programs?

Our service providers put us in the same sort of pickle. When renting an email list or putting together a content syndication program, there is often no easy way to exclude leads from companies we know will not buy. Sometimes you are allowed to provide an exclusion or suppression list, but it is typically limited to specific email addresses you already have rather than expanding to companies you know will not buy. Filtering is usually limited to titles or departments, and almost never company size or industry. And don’t even try to specify B2B vs. B2C! They simply are not configured to provide firmographic-based leads – at least until enough customers demand it. They take advantage of the fact that we need those leads now, and rather than force them to change they way that they serve our needs we wind up paying for leads we know will never, ever buy.

The problem with account-based marketing is that our vendors are not yet equipped to handle the change in tactics. Until we put it at the top of the features request list, or walk away from vendors that cannot accommodate the approach, we are going to be stuck using a shotgun approach to demand generation when a precision rifle would serve our needs much more effectively.

Author: Jason Stewart @jstewart_1 VP Demand Generation, ANNUITAS