Rnordman

Whenever you get called to speak in public, do your palms sweat? Does your tongue get tied up — it’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Feel nervous? Not many people are natural public speakers — in order to impress your audience, you need practice and the right guidance. If you’re responsible for appearing in front of a large audience to deliver speeches or talks, then work your way through this cheat sheet. It’s a collaborative effort between London Speaker Bureau and datadial, and will certainly help you overcome your fear of public speaking. Click to enlarge.

Read the full article: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Becoming A Great Public Speaker

Metro Vancouver has been spending like mad for a couple of decades, but we still can’t match Toronto or Montreal when it comes to providing commuters with rapid transit.

We live in a society that extols winning and winners. As a result, we spend a disproportionate amount of time analyzing why things have worked well, but very little time understanding when they don’t. Given the fact that many initiatives do not achieve the lofty goals set for them, it would appear that we would be wise to spend more time learning from failure to avoid repeating the same errors.

From my experience, figuring out who to blame usually takes precedence over a thoughtful post mortem to figure out why. A poor product launch may be the fault of poor pricing, the wrong distribution channels, or simply a poorly made product. An under performing advertising or digital media campaign might be the result of lousy creativity, unclear messaging, the wrong media plan, or some other factor. It might be the agency’s fault or simply the result of misguided direction from the client.

The problem with many quantitative marketing metrics is that they tell us frequencies and levels but do not get into the reasons why. This often results in the fixing of the wrong things, leaving us wondering why results have not gotten any better. In addition, given the availability of metrics such as number of followers and likes, we sometimes forget that having a large number of followers is really good, but having and reaching the right one is critical. We need to ensure that we truly understand what is occurring.

When trying to understand the root causes of failure, it is helpful to think about strategy issues versus the execution elements. For things to work well, they must both be appropriate and in alignment. If things do not go as planned, the questions that need to be addressed are:

• Was the right strategy in place, but things were simply poorly executed?
• Was the execution great, but achieved under a poorly conceived strategy–or were both sub-optimal?

While it is not always easy to figure out if the right strategy was in place, a good marketing strategy usually includes:

• market insights
• proper selection of target audiences
• compelling value propositions
• a branding strategy to ensure relevance

Good marketing execution usually includes:

• compelling and creative content
• clear messaging
• media placements that reflect targets
• sufficient investment in resources or dollars to ensure breakthrough

One way of understanding why things didn’t work well is to speak with members of the target audience and ask them what they thought of the product, campaign, content, etc. This can be done with an online survey, a chat room, through a phone survey, or even a focus group. The key is to get unbiased responses. Keeping the sponsor of the research unidentified is usually a good idea. And, I have seen that the reasons attributed to failure are often the wrong ones. Getting a customer-centric perspective is essential.

Another method to understanding what happened is to speak with those responsible for the execution. Find out what compromises were made or how clear the strategy or directions were. Oftentimes staff members and agency partners understand all too well why things did not go well. You might want to use a third party researcher to get this information, and aggregate responses to ensure anonymity of the participants. Otherwise, you probably will not get the full story.

Failure does not have to be fatal. The key is to learn from mistakes and use this information to make the next go better than it would have been before you had the new insights. So keep on measuring things, get appropriate feedback, and ensure that you truly understand the “whys”!

Guest Post by Stephan Liozu, PhD, CPP

Let me open this short essay with a very direct statement: value-based pricing is not just a pricing strategy. It is a go to market strategy. It is a customer-focused approach that touches segmentation, differentiation, communication and much more. Why am I making this statement? I have been working with many organizations and their pricing teams over the past few years as they are trying to design and execute value-based pricing strategies. Most of them are full of good intentions but are facing a lot of organizational resistance, strong silos, and roadblocks during the execution phase. At the heart of value-based pricing is a different value mindset that requires a strong alignment between all customer-focus functions: innovation, marketing, pricing, and sales.


This is why I am making this strong statement. Putting customer value at the center of your pricing models requires putting customer value at the center of your innovation, marketing and sales models as well. And it does start with the innovation process as your organization’s innovators create new pockets of customer value in the front-end of innovation. Value-based marketing and technical programs in turn articulate compelling value propositions and value messages to the market using the outcome of the innovation work and of the dollarization process. Pricing teams bring more science on how to measure and dollarize customer value as well as on how to deploy pricing tactics that will prevent leaving money on the table. Finally, sales organizations negotiate for value and enter into value conversations with customers.


In addition to deploying all four of these value-based processes, business professionals also need to make sure the three steps of the value management process are equally managed. First customer value is created or extracted. Then it needs to be measured using the EVE® process. Finally it needs to be captured during the commercial interactions. The measurement process is a must-do activity prior to deploying value-based tactics. Measuring is all about being in control. It is about measuring how much economic value a firm brings to its customers and how much is shared with them without leaving money on the table. It is all about not flying blind!

So you get it. Deploying value-based pricing as a pricing strategy will bring you good results. Doing it as a holistic value-based approach will bring great results. It will align your customer-focused processes and will help you with the transformation of your commercial culture. To help organizations and pricing teams operationalize value-pricing and the EVE® methodology, I have designed a unique workshop which will be held at the upcoming Professional Pricing Society conference in Las Vegas on 10/21/2014 (http://pricingsociety.com/home/workshops-conferences/conferences/north-america---fall/fall-2014-workshops-and-conference/las-vegas-2014-workshop-day-1/stephan-liozu). This one-day workshop will cover four key blocks:

1. Latest science on value-based pricing and the EVE® methodology
2. Critical capabilities to execute value-based pricing and EVE®
3. Operationalizing EVE® and customer value across all customer facing functions in the organization
4. Creating a value culture to enable value-based strategies

Participants will be able to assess their capabilities with value-based pricing and EVE®, as well as their current value culture. They will receive specific tools and tips on how to execute value-based innovation, value-based marketing, and value selling programs so that value-based pricing activities can be fully leveraged. I hope you can join us.

Be bold! Join the customer value revolution!

[Army-technology.com] Boeing has successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the high-energy laser mobile demonstrator (HEL MD) in maritime conditions during a testing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, US.

Undertaken in collaboration with the US Army, the demonstration involved a HEL MD that used a 10kW high-energy laser installed on an Oshkosh military vehicle, and successfully engaged more than 150 aerial targets, including 60mm mortars and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Boeing Directed Energy Systems director Dave DeYoung said: "Under windy, rainy and foggy weather conditions in Florida, these engagements were the most challenging to date with a 10kW laser on HEL MD.

Lithium ion batteries power the HEL MD’s laser. Batteries are charged by a 60 kW diesel generator, so if the Army can keep the fuel tank full, they can shoot down incoming threats indefinitely. The system uses a telescope and infrared-based, wide field of view camera to locate and designate targets. Boeing has designed the system to be operated by a driver and an operator with a laptop and an Xbox controller. Putting it on a truck makes the system mobile, and thus much more useful in battle situations.

It only has the cost of diesel fuel. The laser system can fire repeatedly without expending valuable munitions or additional manpower.

The team plans to install a 50kW or 60kW laser on HEL MD to demonstrate counter RAM and UAV capability at the tactically significant power level.

The 50kW or 60kW is scheduled to be upgraded to a 100kW class laser in subsequent demonstrations, while the supporting thermal and power subsystems will also be upgraded to increase the effective range of the laser or decrease the required laser time on target.

Read more »

First things first, what do you think of the new blog theme? Playing with the Hueman theme to see how it goes. I have also removed a large number of poppy uppy things!

Recently I heard an interesting idea on how to indirectly incentive employees to do a particular voluntary task. The plan was that every x percent of people who did the task would translate into a charitable donation from the company to a charity voted on by the employees.

My first thought was “great, they finally get that you should stop trying to incentive everything with competitions or gift vouchers!” However, after I thought some more thought I began to feel that this was still a bad idea…

First of all, let’s look at a couple of types of incentives.

• Material Incentives: These are rewards that have a direct material value to a users. Money, prizes that sort of thing.
• Non Material Incentives: These are rewards that have no direct material value. Points, Badges, virtual currency.

These are both direct incentives, the user gets some sort of personal benefit from getting them.

• Indirect Incentives: These are incentives that the user gets no personal benefit from. Charitable donations, sponsoring a puppy in Outer Mongolia – that sort of thing.

Initially it looks like indirect incentives are the perfect storm. They appeal to the altruist / philanthropist in us all. They cost less as you are not giving everyone a reward. There is competition, there is social pressure (you don’t want to be the one that lets down the puppies in Outer Mongolia) and more.

So, do the task and feel good about helping a charity…. right?

I’m not sure. An incentive is still an incentive – it is still an extrinsic reward. There is still the risk that you will get people only doing the task for the reward – direct or otherwise. You still potentially sacrifice quality for quantity.

What’s worse here is that whilst it is voluntary, not doing it doesn’t just affect your chances of a reward, now it affects charity. This is in fact Shamification. So you are being forced to do something that is meant to be voluntary by being made to feel socially guilty if you don’t. Again, this will get people responding just to not be seen as not responding. This again boosts quantity over quality and possibly creating negative or resentful feelings!

Another factor here is many will see this as “You have money to save puppies, but not to give me a financial boost? How much do you really value me doing this task then?”.

What are the answers then?

Honestly, I don’t really know – but here are some things to think about when you consider any types of incentive, direct or indirect.

1. Any incentive is still a reward and will potentially have an effect on intrinsic motivation
2. Incentives need to be meaningful to the user.
3. Incentives need to make the user feel they are valued.
4. Making people feel guilty is not going to endear them to you. If something is voluntary, don’t associate guilt to not doing it!
5. Value quality over quantity. For example. if you are using an incentive to get people to do a survey, consider why they are doing the survey. Are they doing it for the reward (or to avoid shame) or because they think you value their opinion and they want to give it to you? Whilst you may want 100% participation, surely you would rather have 20% of people engage and give valuable input, rather than 100% where at least 80% is just people doing it because they feel they have to.
6. Don’t use incentives at all…. Consider how you can make better use of intrinsic motivation (RAMP).

  Recently I had a guest post on Forbes.com about the ways buyers gain an upper hand with salespeople. If you are like most salespeople, you know that working with buyers creates unique selling situations.   I recommend you go into such situations with some insight on how buyers think. Check out the article: 6 […]

The 3 Levels of Sales Skills is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino

There is no way to succeed in sales without passing through three stages.

First, you have to learn the fundamentals of selling. You have to learn to close, or gain commitments. Doing doing so also requires that you learn how to overcome objections and resolve concerns. You also have to learn how to deliver a value proposition, even one that is features and benefits.

You also have to learn to prospect. I call this opening relationships and opening opportunities because nothing is closed that isn’t first opened. Prospecting is as fundamental to selling as closing, even if we spend too much time worrying about closing and not enough on opening.

The fundamentals also require that you learn to tell stories (or present). You have to be able to talk about how things are going to be different, how you get different results, and how you have helped other people in similar situations.

Once you have a command of these first level fundamentals, you can graduate to the intermediate selling skills, Level 2.

You have to be able to diagnose your clients needs in some sort of discovery or needs analysis. You can’t easily diagnose your dream clients needs if you don’t know anything. It takes time to master the art of diagnosis.

Because there are now so many people and companies that sell what you sell, you have to be able to differentiate yourself and your offering. Differentiating is difficult, and it takes time to develop yourself to the point that you are different. You also have to spend time learning how to differentiate what you do from what your competitors do.

The last of the intermediate skills is negotiation. Where different levels of value can be created, different levels of value can be captured. As you grow, you learn and develop the skill of creating and capturing more value. But this isn’t an easy skill set to learn, and especially when so many buyers believe price is the same thing as cost (or choose to believe that anyway).

The final stage won’t be the last stage we develop into as salespeople. It’s just the highest level now. As buyer’s needs change, and as we develop, there will be a higher level. But for now, this is the third and highest level.

Once you’ve spent time selling (or working in some capacity where you have responsibility for results) you develop business acumen and situational knowledge. You learn how business works, and you have had enough experiences to recognize patterns and ideas that are worth trying.

You also develop the skill of helping people and organizations change. More and more, decisions are made by consensus, and salespeople have to help lead and manage change. They sometimes have to act as the catalyst for change, something that is not easily done without having had the experiences that develop those skills.

Finally, sales is a leadership role. The skill of leading others is what allows you to lead your clients, lead your teams, and lead your client’s team–even when you have no formal authority. Leadership is necessary, especially for large, complex deals.

The acquisition of these skills doesn’t occur in a linear fashion. They develop over time, and you develop them through your experiences, your training, and your personal and professional development. None of them are easy to develop, and all of them are necessary.

If you’re not engaging, you’re not selling. Most sales reps today understandthis, but they don’t know how to make it happen. That’s mostly because today’s buyers have such incredibly high thresholds (and even higher standards) for engagement – and if you don’t capture their genuine interest, you’re not capturing their profitable business.

LET’S RECAP:

Sales engagement is the third and final variable in the sales enablement formula for sales reps. So far, we’ve broken out the first variable, sales planning, into its compositional elements – visibility, analysis and prioritization – and the second variable, sales preparation, into its triage of elements – resources, collaboration and guidance.

So, if you want to reach the third and final engagement variable, you have to clinch the delivery.

Sales engagement: DELIVERY, impact and insight.

The Corporate Executive Board – plus our own experience and common sense – tells us that unless buyers are in dire need of a staple item, the buying experience trumps flashy features and cost. Sales reps that deliver information with distinguishing customization, affability and authenticity beat out the generic, the apathetic and what is perceived as phony – every time.

Engaging delivery means making the buying experience easier and more straightforward.

• “Best-in-class B2B sales organizations that deliver through a buyer/sales portal achieve 28% higher revenue than organizations still using unimpressive email attachments to deliver information to buyers.”
  Aberdeen Research
• “53% of the purchase decision is buying experience – by far the biggest driver.”
  Corporate Executive Board

Okay, so you’re thinking: “But I’m dealing with rational B2B buyers – buyers driven by logic and bottom line, not emotional engagement or subjective experience.” Well, you may want to think twice …

A study conducted by Google and CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council found that B2B buyers are often more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than B2C consumers are. Here are some of the findings:

• The connections are there.
  Of the hundreds of B2C brands studied, most have emotional connections with just10-40%of consumers. Of theem>nineB2B brands studied, seven surpassed the50%mark in emotional connection.
• The buyer’s just hidden.
  B2C companies speak directly to their consumers, but it’s not as cut and dry with B2B sales and marketing. You’re selling to a decision maker who’s subject to a whole slew of opinions and influences, from purchasing committees and third-party buying consultants to corporate procurement processes. This obscures the person in the picture, putting a rational frame around your sales process and edging out emotion.
• It’s all about risk.
  “When a personal consumer makes a bad purchase, the stakes are relatively low. Best case, it’s returnable. If not, it might require an explanation to a spouse. Business purchases, on the other hand, can involve huge amounts of risk: Responsibility for a multi-million dollar software acquisition that goes bad can lead to poor business performance and even the loss of a job. The business customer won’t buy unless there is a substantial emotional connection to help overcome this risk.”
• Consensus stirs things up.
  “We tend to forget that whenever there are people trying to work together to make a decision, there will be interpersonal and, inevitably, emotional forces at work.” With all the steamy risk and hands in the pot, the B2B buying process fires up more emotions than B2C purchases. It’s just hard to tell because there are so many cooks in the decision-making kitchen.

So in your delivery don’t underestimate the emotional factor together with messaging, insight and impact.

When preparing the sales strategy, delivery matters.

Here’s how a Sales Enablement Platform helps sales reps deliver to engage:

Put email to shame.

• Deliver content and messages through private buyer portals to dramatically improve the buying experience.
• Don’t burden buyers with annoying email attachments. Portals are friendly and convenient, and they open the door to game-changing differentiation.

Give buyers the keys to the suite.

• Set up one convenient location for all the materials you share.
• Make digging through the inbox a thing of the past – no more scouring for last week’s email.
• Ensure that everything is easy to receive, download, read and navigate from any device.

Make it easy for everyone.  

• Interact and collaborate with buyers through portals so everything stays in one place, in context and under control. This makes the sales process easier for reps and the buying journey pleasant for buyers.
• Answer questions, share content and guide buyers to key value points that connect the dots for their specific needs.

Keep messaging on point.

• Don’t leave it up to the buyer to make sense of your content. They may be smart, but it’s human nature to digest words differently than they were intended.
• Guide buyers’ interpretations of your value messages with voice annotated documents and videos within the buyer portal.
• Preserve messaging guidelines with marketing-approved content and appropriate voice/tone for a rep’s specific goals and your company’s determined personality.

Build buyer consensus.

• Allow buyers to invite their coworkers into the sales portal, driving home your key value points and building consensus across the buying team.
• Make it easy for your reps to present a clear and consistent value picture, which makes it easier for your buyers to make an informed decision.

Deliver robust presentations without a glitch.

• Send anything you want through the sales portal without worrying about email volume filters kicking it back. Lots of graphics, multimedia attachments and video? No problem.
• Give buyers the full experience without feeling the need to downsize sales presentations or truncate that wow factor.

I’m a big fan of marketing automation, don’t get me wrong. At Anvil, we champion the use of marketing automation, particularly to our B2B clients. Unfortunately, our own internal use of a marketing automation platform has shed light on major misconceptions regarding its potential power. At the heart of the myth, is that marketing automation technology will boost your sales and save your business. In fact, marketing automation platforms are only 25% of the equation, if that. I’ve outlined four “P”s of a successful marketing automation program to help set the record straight.

People

While this may seem obvious to some, people are at the heart of successful marketing automation programs. The best marketing automation platforms in the world are useless without someone competent to manage them. As such, it is essential to find a reliable internal hire with sufficient relevant experience and talent to build, manage and optimize campaigns. Unfortunately, experienced marketing automation professionals are in short supply. In lieu of relevant marketing automation platform experience, look for individuals with sales automation, email or database marketing experience. Even if you manage to find good talent, it can be beneficial to tap specialized agencies and vendors to guide platform selection, implementation and management.

More important than a solid marketing automation team, is the support of the executive management and sales team. Without buy-in from the top, sales team culture typically eschews technology and technically-oriented support teams. The VP or Director of Sales must be a champion of marketing automation and build an incentive system that encourages proactive response to marketing automation leads. One of my clients’ VP of Sales blamed marketing for soft sales numbers, despite their ability to prove his sales team was not following up on qualified leads. In that case, the CEO would need to get involved to ensure alignment between sales and marketing teams.

Related Class: Demand Generation: Sales and Marketing Alignment

Process

Process is the second-most misunderstood and under-valued component of a successful marketing automation campaign. Without a well-defined process, even the best people will fall short of their goals. In the above example of a client with misaligned sales and marketing teams, we evaluated their marketing automation platform, process and content. We found their use of the platform was fairly solid, but they lacked process. This created inconsistency across campaigns which in turn, impacted results. Ensure your marketing automation team creates a set of processes around content creation, campaign management and lead flow to the sales team. This typically requires training, proactive management, measurement and refinement at regular intervals.

Related Class: The Framework: Demand Generation Analytics and Measurement

Promotion

So you’ve hired a solid marketing automation team, developed a process for management and flow of leads. Don’t pat yourself on the back too soon. The third and most important component of a successful marketing automation campaign is promotional content. No marketing automation campaign can work without content. Your marketing automation team needs to collaborate with sales, marketing and customer support to develop compelling promotional materials that generate interest and action. Start with an overall promotional strategy that maps out content for every stage of the buying cycle, then develop and refine based on campaign performance.

Related Class: How to Build a Lead Nurture Campaign

Platform

Now that we’ve addressed the three most critical components of marketing automation, we can talk about the platform. The reason I believe the platform is least important is because there are a variety of solutions that can meet your needs and can be set up relatively quickly. On the lower-end of cost, platforms like HubSpot and Act-on are sufficiently powerful and intuitive. Mid-range providers like Pardot and Marketo require a bit more training and customization. On the upper-end, Eloqua and SAP require significant investment and commitment. While there is no such thing as a marketing automation program without a platform, the technology is only an enabler, not the solution itself.

Don’t let yourself get dazzled by the slick marketing from marketing automation platform providers. Focus on building a team of People, create a streamlined Process and develop compelling Content before worrying about the technology Platform and you’ll be more successful with your marketing automation program. For more information, request a copy of Anvil’s Marketing Automation Cheat Sheet.

For more on how to create an effective marketing automation program, marketers need to learn how to reach customers across multiple channels. In this Online Marketing class, Marketing Automation for Full Lifecycle Management, you will learn how to implement a strong marketing automation strategy to manage and plan effectively, while keeping prospects and customers engaged across a variety of platforms.

What is the purpose of writing content? There are three main purposes: entertainment, information and promotion. The written word is the primary method most companies rely on to communicate with current and prospective customers. When these words are intended for e-mail delivery, the spam filter is a serious hurdle to clear. When messages are caught in spam folders, the time and energy you put into content development is wasted. To ensure that your messages are actually read by your customers, writing copy to avoid spam is an essential skill to master.

What is spam?

Spam is a tasty canned meat product. While this may be true, it is unimportant here. For our discussion, spam is defined as e-mail messages that contain undesired marketing content. The bad news is that this definition is subjective. Each user has a different tolerance for marketing messages and can tailor his or her spam filter to meet his or her preferences. The good news is that most users don’t bother! Writing copy to avoid spam usually means avoiding commonly flagged characteristics. Here are some common red flags:

ALL CAPS AND TOO MUCH PUNCTUATION!!!

Bad: V1AGRA SAMPL3!!!

Better: Your Samples Are Available

These silly tricks are intended to grab the reader’s attention, but they often backfire; subject lines like these are more likely to be marked as spam. Also, substituting numbers for letters is really amateur; your message is better than that.

Vague Subject Line

“FREE Information!” may be accurate, but it’s not very informative. “Here is the Free Information You Requested” is better. For the best results, be specific and truthful in your subject lines. Notice also that the second subject line example specifies that the recipient requested the information being delivered. This leads nicely to the next point…

Who Ordered This Stuff?

To avoid the spam folder, don’t send information to people who haven’t asked you to, or resourceful information that will actually help them. Most people simply do not appreciate unsolicited marketing offers. If you have had previous contact with an individual, you are even less likely to be caught in the filter. Whenever possible, use the customer’s name in the message body; this is easy to accomplish and looks better to both the spam filter and the reader.

Don’t Write Spam           

The biggest key to writing copy to avoid spam is simply, don’t write spam! Rather than focusing on selling, write copy designed to inform or entertain your audience first. Selling can happen later, and through a more personal medium.

Get Personal

Make sure you personalize your e-mails before sending them with dynamic tags. “Hey [firstname], Check out this FREE eBook about Inbound Marketing”. So each person the gets the e-mail will have it customized with their name, which makes them feel special. This will make the receiver feel like it is made for them and will be more likely to open the e-mail and will ultimately help grow your list, not shorten it. Imagine if you visit a bank every Friday and the teller just goes through the motions to process your check vs. them saying “Welcome back Jane, What can I do for you today?” I would definitely prefer felling like I matter and they remember my name and make me feel like I am the only one in the world to help.

E-mail is a cheap and easy way to reach a large number of people with a message. Content is the Key to grabbing attention, so make sure it will blow them out of the water and right into your lead nurturing sales funnel. Quality e-mail content can open the door to a future sales conversation. Unfortunately, the best content does no good if it doesn’t reach the intended recipient. Write copy to avoid the spam filter, and your e-mail marketing campaigns will be even more cost effective.

Check out these best practices for creating remarkable content, one of the most important steps in an inbound marketing strategy. The authors discuss how to develop ebooks, videos and blog articles and provide tips for sharing your content with your ideal audience.

Marketing campaigns change directions all the time. Sometimes the best target market didn’t turn out to be what you thought. Other times, a new market suddenly pops up and you want a piece of it before competitors do.

There are more extreme cases though when a new market of sales leads will demand an entirely new direction for your business.

For example, famed drugstore chain CVS has stopped the sale of tobacco in its stores. For those who’ve wondered how drugstores ever came to sell cigarettes, this move was long overdue. But for the company itself, its seems the intention is more than just living up to the expectations of public health advocates. It intends to change its name to reflect a ‘a new era.’

Changing the name of your business isn’t the only thing that belies a bigger change that a new market demands. Other drastic measures could include rebranding, creating new products, an entirely different channel for your lead generation campaign.

• Rebranding – If you’ve heard of it before, you will now that changing a company’s name is just one part of the process. It involves an extreme makeover of all your marketing content. From websites and emails to even the catalog you put down in the lobby. It is a massive overhaul and it won’t be easy.

• New products – It’s not hard to imagine new products pushing you towards a different market. In fact, it’s more likely those products were made because of it! That’s why your marketing campaign needs to reflect your new offers. Dunkin Donuts, while it still sells donuts, has been known recently for pushing its coffee products in attempts to knock out Starbucks.

• A new channel – Perhaps the mildest case of going in a different direction is adopting a new channel. But beware, every marketer knows there’s more to adopting, say, social media than just putting up a profile. Channels don’t just call you to use the properly. The represent certain values that your business may take a while to adopt.

Going in a new direction is a part of business, but it’s not always as easy as it looks. That’s why you need to carefully assess your sales leads even if the sailing’s currently been smooth. You never know when the tide is going to change.

Intent to purchase: it is perhaps the least discussed and most important aspect of conversion optimization. Ultimately, you focus on improving your website conversions to attract leads, build better relationships with customers, and most of all make sales. The ability to identify when a customer has a firm intent to purchase gives you a clear advantage. But how can you identify the intent to purchase and take steps to foster it in today’s mobile environment? One new report is offering powerful insights for marketers, entrepreneurs, and data analysts thinking about this issue.

Telmetrics recently released their third annual Mobile Path to Purchase study, in partnership with XAd and the Nielsen Company. Each year, the study seeks to find data, trends, and patterns on what factors are influencing mobile device use in the United States. By extension, the analysts are able to identify consumer mobile usage behaviors and the implications for intent to purchase.

The results provide specific insights into a range of verticals from retail to travel. But there are major takeaways that can inform any mobile strategy.

Mobile devices are everywhere. What does this mean for your business?

The reality of mobile usage: eclipsing desktops and laptops

One look at the Pew Internet Research Project’s mobile usage statistics will quickly show you how ubiquitous mobile devices have become. More than 90% of people own a cell phone, with almost 60% of those being smartphones. Another 42% of the public owns an iPad, Surface, or another tablet. As a result, mobile is playing an increasing role in how users access the internet and conduct every task possible online, from shopping to research.

It’s become so important that the Google Hummingbird updates actually reward websites that are optimized for mobile, and penalize those that aren’t. If you need a tutorial on mobile optimization for SEO, I recommend Search Engine Land’s Google Hummingbird FAQ.

Mobile has also become what the study is calling an “essential everyday shopping tool.” 53% are using mobile devices at home instead of traditional computers, up from 32% just the year before. At the same time, half of respondents consider mobile devices to be their most important tool in the purchase process. Meanwhile, one third of respondents exclusively shop online via mobile devices.

Have you made sufficient investments in your mobile presence considering how important mobile is becoming?

It’s about more than just minimum optimization

The first step in any mobile optimization campaign is making sure that you have a website that looks great and functions well on a wide range of devices. We’ve discussed this previously, including these resources on responsive design and mobile landing pages.

But the Mobile Path to Purchase study suggests that consumers in 2014 and beyond are looking for more than just a functional mobile experience. In fact, that’s the minimum threshold to be taken seriously. Instead, it’s about effectively tapping into a channel where buyers are ready to make buying decisions and are primed for your insights and influence on their purchase process.

The report suggests that mobile usage happens early in the purchase process, at the “top of the funnel.” Respondents revealed that they reach for mobile devices when they start considering a purchase and are very open to suggestions. Only one in five people considered that they knew “exactly what they’re looking for.” The rest are browsing, conducting research, and consuming content.

Understand the levers that tip the balance

While mobile users may be on the hunt for exactly what they need, one thing is clear: there are certain factors that matter when users are doing brand research online via mobile device. The availability of basic information is critical. Consider:

• Pricing information is a top concern. Is your pricing easy to find, clear to understand, and competitive with your industry or indicative of the level of value that you bring if it’s higher than average?
• Location matters. Because mobile users are very likely to convert (more on that soon), 50% are looking for locations within five miles of their current position. This underscores the importance for easy to find contact information and location information on your content, as well as up to date information on social profiles and review sites.
• Good deals get people to take action. 49% are actively looking for discounts and deals. In fact, coupons ranked 33% more important to this year’s respondents than they did in 2013. Whether buyers are becoming savvier or money is just tighter, this points to the idea that easy to find and easy to use discounts can remove important friction in the process.
• A mobile-enabled and easy to find phone number is also key. The ability to find a phone number was 55% more important than it was to respondents in 2013. 53% of mobile shoppers called a business to learn more or speak to a staff member, and local numbers were preferred 3:1 over a toll-free number.

Mobile is a high conversion medium

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the study is that mobile is a high conversion medium. Nearly 2 out of 3 mobile shoppers make a purchase, and another 16% go on to make a purchase in that same category they researched in the near future. 65% of respondents actually purchase within a day, and in the restaurant and entertainment categories purchases happen within the hour.  A significant number of purchases happen offline as well, arguing the case for mobile optimization for brick and mortar businesses.

So how can you put these recommendations to work in taking advantage of the high intent to purchase and likelihood to convert in your own mobile funnel?

Invest in your infrastructure: Ensure that your website is appropriately optimized for mobile devices. Pay attention to the basic factors that can make or break the mobile experience, such as the ability to activate click to call and find current pricing and location information.

Make yourself easy to find and easy to talk to: Is all your contact information up to date everywhere that matters? Is your latest info available in search engines, review sites, and reference sites such as Yellowpages.com? Have you selected and trained a smart person to answer your phone and handle customer care and inquiries?

Incentivize your conversions: Consider offering exclusive mobile discounts through partnerships with sites like Yelp, SMS marketing companies, or specialized mobile advertising platforms. Users are on the hunt for good deals, and a targeted discount could be enough to get them to purchase now.

Find other mechanisms that imply immediate action: Are you currently using simple touches that say “immediacy” to your visitors? For example, a restaurant might have good results by showing daily specials dated for today, even if the date is something that auto-updates. It suggests that a delicious meal is immediately available to the hungry consumer.

Create content that’s geared toward early buying cycle: When the eager to purchase mobile user finds your website, what information will they have available to them? If they’re seeking more information early in the buying process, do you have the right information to help them make a smart buying decision and understand how your brand is differentiated? Equally important is to ensure that your content is mobile-appropriate: short, focused, and easy to view on a small screen.

Understanding how to make the most of the opportunities that mobile creates is a challenge for even the most seasoned online entrepreneurs. It’s a channel that’s growing rapidly, and consumer behaviors are evolving in real-time. Take the time today to invest in the foundation, and experiment and test solutions to see what works with your mobile funnel.

What’s working for you right now in terms of mobile optimization? Are you seeing similar behaviors among your customers? Let me know in the comments below.

Android: Calculator apps are pretty straightforward: do math. But Calc+ has extra ingredients to make it more powerful, and useful, than its competition.

Read more...

We've all had at least one email go unanswered. Writing your emails backwards will build the habit of getting to the point quickly so you can gain more responses, according to Time Management Ninja.

Read more...

TORONTO — This Friday has been christened Bill Murray Day by the Toronto International Film Festival, and while a few of his best-loved films screen in public, locals should be on the lookout for the actor himself.

Murray has a habit of showing up in the most unlikely places, whether it’s in the engagement photos of total strangers or uncredited at the climax of “Zombieland.”

Below, some of the Top 10 legends about the sardonic, eccentric “Ghostbusters” star:

1. According to a 2010 GQ feature story, anyone who wants to talk to Murray (whether that happens to be a director, producer or a lowly journalist) must dial an 800 number and leave a message. If he’s interested in talking, he’ll call you back. He’s never had a publicist and fired his agent in recent years.

2. On the New York set of “Ghostbusters,” Murray had a penchant for withdrawing a couple hundred dollars in small bills and then distributing the money to homeless people, according to an anecdote relayed by agent Michael Ovitz in Esquire. Murray “knew every doorman and everyone in every restaurant” in the city, where he was apparently beloved.

3. When Murray joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1977, he was a replacement to the first season’s breakout star, Chevy Chase. When Chase returned to the skit-show institution as guest host, Murray confronted him about something backstage and they traded insults (Chase apparently insulted Murray’s complexion) until the conflict turned physical. Murray told Empire magazine in 2012 that the skirmish was “really a Hollywood fight, a ‘Don’t touch my face!’ kind of thing,” but his alleged parting shot at Chase remains infamous: “Medium talent!”

4. Murray’s relationship with Harold Ramis became strained while the two collaborated on the classic comedy “Groundhog Day.” The film’s producers urged Murray to hire a personal assistant to facilitate communication between the actor and the studio, and Murray gave in. Except he hired someone who was deaf and mute (even though Murray didn’t know sign language). Ramis, who died in February, called the ploy “anti-communication” in an Entertainment Weekly interview. Murray acknowledged in a 2014 Reddit chat that ultimately he and his assistant “didn’t part well.”

5. He loves sports, supports several Chicago-based franchises and golfs avidly. But Murray has also been a part owner of an array of minor-league teams, including the St. Paul Saints, Hudson Valley Renegades, Brockton Rox and Charleston RiverDogs. According to the RiverDogs’ official website, Murray’s job title is “director of fun.” During a rain-ruined RiverDogs game, Murray reportedly entertained the crowd by rounding the tarp-wrapped bases and sliding sloppily into home base.

6. The ugliest blemish on Murray’s otherwise impressive resume is the 2004 film “Garfield” and its similarly maligned 2006 follow-up. But to hear Murray tell it, there was an amusing explanation for his participation. In a Reddit chat earlier this year, Murray claimed that he looked at the “Garfield” screenplay and saw “Joel Cohen” written on it and, thinking of the “Fargo” co-director, agreed to do the film after only a cursory look at the script. Only later did he realize that the decorated sibling directing duo spell their last name “Coen.”

7. There’s an entire website (billmurraystory.com) devoted to public brushes with a frolicking Murray. He tooled about in a stolen golf cart in Sweden, crashed a May bachelor party, and materialized at a house party in Scotland and washed the dishes. He played kickball with strangers, he bartended at South by Southwest with Wu-Tang Clan and he exercised his pipes in the private karaoke room of total strangers in 2011.

8. The “Scrooged” star hosts an annual Christmas party, though he prefers not to call it that. He told Esquire he puts “a lot of Christmas trees around the house so it smells good” and serves “Christmas wine.” Last year, Winnipeg-raised retired wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper tweeted a photo of a “Murray Christmas” card he said he’d received from the actor, which featured a topless Murray with a red bow wrapped around his neck.

9. Murray’s inconsistent commitment to a third “Ghostbusters” film has fed the rumour mill for years. One story that circulated in 2011 claimed that Murray ran one version of a “Ghostbusters 3” script through a shredder and mailed it back to co-writers Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. Whether that’s true or not, he explained his lack of interest in revisiting the franchise in an interview earlier this year with Dazed Digital, arguing: “I find that you don’t really lose by saying no in show business. If you say no, sometimes they come back with a better script. Or sometimes it just goes away.”

10. One Murray tale that might be a Murray myth was related to the comedian directly. GQ asked Murray about the rumour that he was sneaking up behind people in New York, covering their eyes and saying “Guess who?” When they turned around and identified him, he would say: “No one will believe you.” Asked about the legend, Murray took a long pause and said he’d heard the rumour from a lot of people. He then added: “But by God, it sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Just so crazy and unlikely and unusual?”

The post TIFF 2014: The Top 10 Bill Murray legends appeared first on Macleans.ca.

Robin Esrock, author of The Great Canadian Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences, shares his picks of some unique undertakings across the country:

1. Sour toe cocktail (Dawson City, Yukon): You can drink fermented horse milk in Mongolia or rocket-fuel raki in Albania, but only in Canada can you drink a cocktail served with a human toe. Sixty-thousand people have joined the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. The toes occasionally get swallowed, despite a hefty fine.

2. Snorkel with salmon (Campbell River, B.C.): For a unique view of the Pacific West Coast’s annual salmon run, grab a wetsuit and let the current carry you downriver. You’ll float past tens of thousands of salmon migrating upriver to spawn and die.

3. Fire a gun in a mall (Edmonton): The West Edmonton Mall is the largest on the continent, attracting 30 million visitors a year. It’s also the only mall where you can fire a .44 Magnum, and other weapons, in the Wild West Shooting Centre.

4. Narcisse snake dens (Narcisse, Man.): Each spring, the world’s largest concentration of snakes, up to 150,000 red garters, slither into rock dens for their annual mating ritual. Visitors can pick them up, so long as they’re gentle.

5. Crooked Bush (Hafford, Sask.): Wild aspen forests in the prairies grow straight and tall, unless you visit this mysterious grove, which bend, twist and knot like a Tim Burton movie prop. Blamed on an unexplained genetic mutation.

6. Spend a night in jail (Ottawa): Canada’s hotel options are vast, but only one is a former prison, haunted by ghosts of the condemned. When the Nicholas Street jail closed in the 1970s due to inhumane conditions, it reopened as a backpacker hostel. Guests lock themselves in cells for the night.

7. Go for an Ice raft (Quebec City): Each February, Quebec hosts the world’s largest winter carnival, where you can ice-raft, dance in ice palaces and watch paddlers race across the cracked-ice soup of the Saint Lawrence River for the annual ice canoe race.

8. Raft a tidal wave (Urbania, N.S.): When the world’s largest tides back into rivers that feed them, it creates a true tidal wave. Hopping on a raft with an on-board motor to slam into this natural water park is distinctly fun, and uniquely Canadian.

9. Get Screeched (St. John’s, N.L.): To become an honorary Newfoundlander, visitors kiss a petrified cod (or a toy puffin’s behind), listen to ribald banter and shoot strong rum, known as screech. Only the brave pucker for the fish; screech has that effect on people.

10. Fly in a DC-3 (Yellowknife): Buffalo Airways is the world’s only DC-3 airline, serving remote communities on the 1935 aircraft, and providing fodder for the TV series, Ice Pilots NWT. Aviation enthusiasts visit from around the world for a ride.

The post 10 weird things you can only do in Canada appeared first on Macleans.ca.

You’ve probably had to deal with professional criticism at some point (or often) in your sales career.

In such a fast-paced, high-pressure profession that is continuously focused on results, we are often subject to our fair share of criticism from colleagues, managers, clients, and prospects.

If you want to be successful in sales, you must train yourself to take criticism and use it to your advantage. ← Click To Tweet

It’s easy to get wrapped up in your faults when others are pointing them out to you. But, there are steps you can take to efficiently move past the negativity and actually create success through the criticism that you receive.

1. Change The Definition

Remove the word “criticism” from your vocabulary and replace it with the word “feedback.”  Changing your mindset about the feedback that you receive helps turn the situation from a negative to a positive.

Don’t struggle with feedback from your manager, try to understand their point of view and use that knowledge to improve yourself. If you’re constantly losing paperwork, it may be a sign that your organization needs improvement. If your client mentions value that your competitor offers and you currently do not, perhaps you can discover new opportunities for your business as well.

Notice that simply by changing the definition of the issue, you go from a state of fault to a state of improvement.

2. You’re Not Alone

Understand that any feedback you receive has likely been relayed to many of your colleagues and fellow salespeople as well. We all have and will receive feedback from multiple sources throughout our careers.

You do not have to shoot for perfection. You simply need to approach your sales career with a willingness to learn and improve.

3. Take Action

Learning from the feedback you receive is a wonderful thing. It’s an important first step! However, any knowledge that you acquire is useless unless you put it into motion.

If you have discovered that your organization skills need improvement, take steps to improve them! If you have learned that you need to communicate more effectively, start researching ways to improve your communication!

By using the feedback you receive as learning experiences, you break down any tension you may be feeling and enter a state of improvement. The most successful sales professionals are simply the ones who made mistakes, received feedback, and took positive action to enhance their skills!

What’s one piece of feedback you have received and improved upon in the past?

You can build consistent and continuous sales results with my new book, Nonstop Sales Boom! Learn the strategies you need to succeed!

Just as the traditional sequential (and slow) "waterfall" approach to software development has started to fade into disrepute, a similar approach to Big Data analytics has surfaced. For too many organizations, devising incredibly potent models for predicting behavior is becoming an end in itself, obscuring the process by which we learn from our data.

Indeed, much of the focus on Big Data lies in accumulating more and more data to improve our ability to predict what consumers will buy, which customers will churn, etc. And so we put inordinate amounts of effort into perfecting our prediction models rather than learning from their many failures to do so.

Unfortunately, our data infrastructure too often gets in the way of our ability to embrace failure, which is why the cloud is so important to Big Data.

The Process Of Prediction

As Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, stresses:

[The] most enduring impact of predictive analytics ... comes less from quantitatively improving the quality of prediction than from dramatically changing how organizations think about problems and opportunities.

In other words, if we're paying attention, the process can help us "better understand[] the real business challenges [our] predictive analytics address."

But to do this well, we need to be willing to fail. Again. And again. As Schrage notes:

Ironically, the greatest value from predictive analytics typically comes more from their unexpected failures than their anticipated success. In other words, the real influence and insight come from learning exactly how and why your predictions failed. Why? Because it means the assumptions, the data, the model and/or the analyses were wrong in some meaningfully measurable way.

Failure, then, is the key to learning from Big Data. Hadoop vendor Cloudera rightly challenges us to "ask bigger questions," but a key component of these questions is iterating through trial-and-error toward the right questions to ask. 

Institutionalizing Failure In The Cloud

While a cloud environment won't kill a company's fixation with Big Models for Big Data, it sets the appropriate tone for experimentation. Big data is all about asking the right questions. Hence the importance of domain knowledge. 

This is why I keep coming back to Gartner analyst Svetlana Sicular's contention that "Learning Hadoop is easier than learning the company’s business," which means that the first place to look for Big Data expertise is in-house, not the land of magical data-science fairies. 

Even so, no matter how smart you or your data-science team is, your initial questions are almost certainly going to be wrong. In fact, you'll probably fail to collect the right data and to ask pertinent questions—over and over again. 

As such, it's critical to use a flexible, open data infrastructure that allows you to continually tweak your approach until it bears real fruit.

In a conversation I had with Matt Wood (@mza), general manager of data science at Amazon Web Services, he describes just how hard it is to approach data correctly when our hardware and software infrastructure gets in the way:

Those that go out and buy expensive infrastructure find that the problem scope and domain shift really quickly. By the time they get around to answering the original question, the business has moved on. You need an environment that is flexible and allows you to quickly respond to changing big data requirements. Your resource mix is continually evolving—if you buy infrastructure it's almost immediately irrelevant to your business because it's frozen in time. It's solving a problem you may not have or care about any more.

Cloud, in other words, is all about creating a culture that can iterate without fear of failure. 

All Your Big Data Are Belong To The Cloud

This isn't to suggest that cloud obviates failure. Quite the contrary. As Wood says, it's all about making the cost of failure acceptable: "You're going to fail a lot of the time, and so it's critical to lower the cost of experimentation."

It's also not to suggest that Big Data projects will only succeed in the cloud. As Shaun Connolly, vice president of Strategy at Hortonworks, a leading Hadoop vendor, told me:

I believe there will be multiple centers of data gravity, one of which is on-premises. But I am convinced Hadoop in the cloud plays a significant role in the broader architecture as the Hadoop market continues to mature.

In sum, Big Data doesn't have to be in the cloud, and for many workloads it may make sense to store, process and analyze the data on-premise. But for building a culture of experimentation, the essence of Big Data discovery, cloud is critical.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Public speaking can be terrifying for many people simply because they're not accustomed to having a room full of people paying attention to their every word and action. There are also plenty of people brimming with self-confidence who, due to a lack of practice or preparation, give a presentation that doesn't connect. In both cases, the result is a wasted opportunity to teach your employees, impress your boss, or win over clients.

To find out how to give an excellent presentation, we turned to one of the best public speakers in the world, Sri Lankan human resources consultant Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, recently crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking by Toastmasters International. Hettiarachchi survived seven rounds of a competition that lasted six months and included 33,000 competitors from around the world.

He and eight other finalists competed at the Toastmasters annual convention last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On Aug. 23, Hettiarachchi took first place for his speech "I See Something," which clocked in at seven minutes and 20 seconds.

Below, he shares his best advice for novice public speakers:

1. Always start with a message.

Hettiarachchi says that a common mistake beginners make when crafting their speeches is by starting with a topic. Instead, he says you should begin with a message, and it should be as concise as possible. This message is whatever you want your audience to be thinking about when your presentation concludes.

For example, the message of the speech that brought him through the semifinals, "Deadly Samba," was: "If you don't burn for your dream, your dream will burn away."

He says that there are two approaches to developing a speech. In the first, you write your speech as an essay and practice it until it becomes memorized and conversational. The second, which he prefers, is starting with a speech off the top of your head and then refining it until you are happy with writing it down.

With a recorder in hand, Hettiarachi will focus on a message and then begin speaking spontaneously. He'll listen back to his speech, making note of what needs improvement and then begin again.

2. Be confident enough to be yourself.

"You need to sell yourself before you sell your message," Hettiarachi says. And the way to do that is by being genuine, which Hettiarachi admits is easier said than done. "It took me 10 years to learn to be myself on stage," he says, laughing.

Hettiarachi entered the Toastmasters contest every year for the past 10 years, reaching the semifinals four times, but didn't make the finals, he explains, until he stopped behaving as if he were an actor on stage. A speech should be conversational, not theatrical, he says.

Sure, he understands the value of using a prop like a flower to add drama to his words, as he did in the finals, but he did so in a way that engaged the audience rather than focusing the attention on himself.

The only way to go in front of an audience and to present in a way that isn't simply miming is to practice again and again, pretending (if need be) that you're talking to a room full of your closest friends.

3. See yourself through your audience's eyes.

Novice speakers tend to become wrapped up in themselves, which may just be because they're afraid to acknowledge a room full of listeners. But if you're going to speak, you need to realize that you're doing it for the benefit of others, not yourself.

Hettiarachi's championship speech "I See Something" began its life as a 20-minute TEDxYouth talk. It was a talk that he gave about 90 times, he says, and each minute of the personal story he told about going from a wayward child to an adult who wishes to inspire others seemed important to him. But then he went back and tried to imagine what information was essential to communicate his message and was able to cut it down to 10 minutes.

To make Toastmasters' regulation time of seven minutes and 30 seconds, he imagined being an audience member who knew nothing about his life and cut away whatever they did not need to hear.

He uses this mindset to keep his audience guessing. He has a rule where he will not communicate a lesson for longer than 30 seconds, since the focus should be on storytelling.

In "I See Something," Hettiarachchi tells the story of his mother picking him up from jail when he was a teenager. Within the span of 20 seconds, which you can see in the video excerpt below, he gets the audience to answer a question, makes them laugh, and then suddenly brings them into somber territory.

"A speech has to be like a roller coaster," he says.

4. Have a forum to practice.

Eighty percent of the path to becoming a great speaker is trial and error, Hettiarachchi explains, and the only way to learn is by speaking in front of an audience that will give honest feedback.

It's why he says he has enjoyed giving speeches at schools, since children often react honestly, unrestrained by etiquette.

For Hettiarachchi, his Toastmasters group provided a place to grow as a speaker, but he says any kind of similar forum is suitable, because like any skill, you must practice public speaking to become and then stay great at it.

5. Find the right coach or mentor.

And finally, Hettiarachchi says, you should find someone willing to help you grow as a public speaker. Interestingly, this does not need to be someone who can teach you advanced speaking techniques; they just need to be someone who "gives you permission to explore possibilities, who gives you permission to fail," he says.

Hettiarachchi has had several mentors in his life, including Arunasalam Balraj, whom he met through Toastmasters. He considers him like a second father, and was privileged to win the speaking championship on the day Balraj was elected second vice president of Toastmasters International.

The path to becoming a great public speaker is the path to becoming comfortable with sharing who you are with other people, and a coach or mentor who understands you personally can help push you toward this goal.

Watch a short collection of clips from Hettiarachchi's winning speech, "I See Something":

SEE ALSO: 7 Public Speaking Tips From A Toastmasters Pro

DON'T MISS: What It's Like To Be Part Of New York's Most Renowned Public Speaking Club

Join the conversation about this story »

Decisions, decisions! Even when we aren’t aware of them, we’re making them all the time. Many of those decisions we make easily, without even thinking – orange juice or coffee? Gym or happy hour? TV or sleep? But with larger decisions we tend to think more deeply, and take longer to decide.

Purchase decisions are similar. Some are made quickly, without much thought, while others can take weeks or months of research and deliberation to decide. That’s why, as marketers, it’s important to anticipate the decision-making path of your consumer, and to answer questions before they arise.

From the moment a consumer decides to start researching a purchase, she’ll inevitably be presented with many available options. How will you differentiate your marketing from the competition? As we discussed in our ebook, Deliver More Purchase-Ready Consumers with Marketing Automation, effective analytics are essential to unlocking the full potential of your marketing initiatives. And one of the key ways data can help you is by revealing the path your buyers take toward a purchase.

In 1968, researchers Engel, Blackwell, and Kollat developed a five-step model of the consumer buying decision process (known as the Engel-Blackwell-Kollat or EBK model), and that model is still useful for marketers today. Here are the five steps of the EBK model, and how you can use them to stay a step ahead of your buyers:

Step 1: Problem Recognition

The first step of the buying cycle is that the consumer recognizes a problem which needs to be solved, or a need which needs to be satisfied. Basically, the consumer is looking for a solution to resolve a state of discomfort. The discomfort could arise from anything – an inability to get work done in time, frustrating technology or processes, or a competitor gaining an advantage.

At this stage, having built brand awareness is extremely important. If you can be the first solution a buyer thinks of – before he’s even started to research – your company will have a huge leg-up. This is also why you should highlight customer challenges/pain points in your marketing – that kind of marketing will resonate in the problem recognition phase.

Step 2: Information Search

The second step in the decision making process is to gather all information available about possible solutions. The larger the purchase decision, the longer this process will take. A consumer will want to be very thorough in her search and seek out info regarding features, pricing, ease of use, etc.

While buyers used to contact companies directly in order to research, today this information gathering happens through self-education – which is where marketing comes in. It’s crucial that your marketing is found by the consumer during her search. There are lots of ways to “get found,” but ranking highly in search results is crucial – our SEO Cheat Sheet provides a great overview on leveraging website optimization to get found. You’ll also want a strong content marketing strategy at this point, to help your buyers get educated while they research.

Step 3: Alternative Evaluation

The third step is the (often tedious) evaluation process. Most consumers have a list of criteria that the solution must meet, and as a marketer, you must know exactly what is on that list. What’s a deal-maker, and what’s a deal-breaker in the eyes of your consumer?

As the buyer evaluates, your marketing should speak to his needs and interests. There are many ways to make sure your marketing is relevant: you can build buyer personas to understand common criteria, objections, and challenges; you can segment and target your lists to send effective nurture emails; and you can personalize your website (and other content) in response to buyer attributes.

Step 4: Purchase

This is the fun step! Once the consumer has made up her mind, she no longer has a problem…she has a solution! Time to celebrate!

It’s also time for something even more fun – metrics! Now that you’ve guided someone from problem to solution, you’ll want to replicate that success with other buyers. And to do that, you’ll need robust reporting on how your marketing actually affected the sale. Check out our Essential 8 Reports for inspiration.

Step 5: Post-Purchase

The best marketers know that the process doesn’t end at the purchase step – in fact, that’s only the beginning of a customer’s value for your company. Once acquisition is out of the way, your new goal is to create long-term relationships between consumer and company, ensuring that you get the most value out of your customers, and they get the most value out of your products.

Now that you know the steps of the consumer decision-making process, start thinking ahead! Optimize your marketing for every stage of the process, by building brand awareness, upping your inbound marketing game, personalizing your marketing efforts, running robust reports, and continuing to market to your current customers.

Do you consider the five-step decision-making process in your marketing? If so, how? If not, why not? Let us know in the comments below.

I love it when heavyweights in any industry do a little sparring. In this case HubSpot’s CEO, Brian Halligan, and Joe Pullizi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, went toe-to-toe in Marcus Sheridan’s recent interview post with Halligan. The subject, the differences (and similarities) between content marketing and inbound marketing. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of these guys and have a ton of respect for them as well, but I think this argument is fluffy at best. Here’s why.

Point – Counterpoint

The crux of the disagreement stemmed from Brian’s answer to Marcus’ question about content marketing vs. inbound marketing:

“If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it? Same thing with content no one ever sees—it doesn’t move the needle with your audience. So I think content is the fuel for inbound marketing goodness, but when I think about what makes inbound tick, it’s truly rethinking the consumer experience to be more frictionless.”

Joe pushed back in the comments pretty vigorously:

“I just wish Brian would have elaborated more on the difference between inbound marketing and content marketing. In this interview, Brian really talks about ‘content.’ Content is not content marketing.”

Joe went on to say, “Inbound and content marketing are just two different ways to look at the customer. I applaud HubSpot for really creating the religion that is Inbound (I’ll be at the conference in a couple weeks to view this firsthand). Content marketing is a much different animal (including, among other things, it’s channel agnostic. Many of the best content marketing examples in the world are not digital…like HubSpot’s own event or John Deere’s infamous print magazine).”

The Real Distinction (If Any)—From An Agency’s Point of View

I would love to hear rebuttals from both Brian and Joe, but my point is, who cares? We’re not talking about two different industries here, or even two different methodologies. We’re not talking about two different channels either. In inbound marketing, you publish and promote great stuff and people will find it helpful and share it with their friends and co-workers. You do that often enough and you can build up brand awareness, generate leads and even increase sales. That’s really not much different from content marketing, is it? Both inbound marketing and content marketing have various degrees of owned, earned and paid media distribution options, so that’s not much of a distinction either. Content marketing, done right, helps to drive qualified traffic from the search engines—that’s a huge part of inbound marketing. Both forms of marketing leverage social media, when possible. Am I missing something?

Joe’s point is content marketing really dives into buyer personas and the buyer journey and seeks alignment and context of content and distribution with those. Well, last time I checked, that’s what we do with inbound marketing too, and even outbound nowadays.

For me, it’s a rhetorical argument. We use all of these approaches in a combined way to attract, engage and delight, as HubSpot would say. We do this every day on every client account. It’s not a choice of one versus the other. That makes no sense if you’re trying to find the best way to reach customers and help them to become buyers. I think we’re splitting hairs about the distinction between inbound and content marketing. They’re just two important parts of the same equation, indivisible and far better in concert than in the boxing ring.

This is why I can’t wait for the new version of Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah’s new version of the ground breaking book, Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage and Delight Customers, which is coming out soon. I’m hoping they will put some of these largely semantic fist fights to rest once and for all! If you want a sneak preview, there’s a CTA below with your name on it. I think I heard a bell—or were my ears just ringing from the upper cut I just received from Brian and Joe?

With the ease of summer coming to an end, it’s time for us all to take a deep breath and welcome what’s coming: change.

In today’s evolving business environment, change happens more quickly than ever. And given the increasing complexity of the technology landscape and escalating competition, companies simply can’t afford to be stymied by each change they encounter – to survive, they must identify a way to harness changes and use them for the good of their bottom line.

Let’s start by examining the key forces dominating the business atmosphere – changes that impact the strategy and behavior of your sales team every day:

• It’s complicated: Companies today operate in a knowledge economy, regardless of the particular products and services they offer. For the sales organization, this means that sales teams must be ready to adapt how you’re selling, how you’re positioning the products and company, and how to respond to market force changes.
• We’re in this together: Leaders at all levels of the organization want to know that the organization they’re working with will support them at a strategic level, and make a measurable, positive impact on their bottom line. For sales, this means finding your way into the hearts and minds of your customers, understanding how the decisions they make are governed by the larger trends in their industry.
• Dollars must make sense: Buyers today are buying differently, engaging more deliberately and committing more slowly. This new reality places even greater pressure on sales. Not only must you prove your potential worth to customers, you must also break through the fixation on cost and change the conversation to one centered on value.

These changes are disruptive, and meeting them in order to succeed in today’s environment is a tall order. It means changing, in turn, the way we do business. It means changing to meet change:

• Get agile: As salespeople and buyers alike are overloaded with information on a consistent basis, making sense of the noise can only work to perfect ones selling techniques and purchase decisions. In other words, in order for your sales reps to avoid engaging in a game of tug of war with their customers, they must adopt nimble and agile sales enablement strategies.
• Engage fully: The change required to align sales with the evolving business landscape must involve the entire sales organization. Regardless of how your organization ultimately tackles these challenges with changes in the way you engage, responding to a dramatic shift will require the attention of everyone.
• Shift behavior: The change out there requires a broad, think-big kind of response from sales. You must be seen as offering genuine value, helping customers simplify complexity and deliver better outcomes. This requires not just a shift in mindset among your sales team, but a practical shift in everyone’s behavior, from the top down.
• Transfer knowledge: A shift in behavior requires an increase in the knowledge base among sales professionals. Creating the ability to hold those conversations means an organizational shift. You must define and agree on a shared vision for a given prospect, and then arm your salespeople with the tools they need to fulfill their knowledge imperative.
• Avoid ‘panic-button’ investments: Salespeople are, ultimately, only human. They rush to overcome pressures by quickly identifying a technology, training or other solution, often in the process making ‘panic button’ investments that fail to equip their sales force to respond to change. No matter how good a company’s intentions, if a solution doesn’t offer real value, it doesn’t matter how hard you work to elicit buy-in.

Change is Hard

 

Change is inevitable. But it doesn’t need to be intimidating. If you change the way you work and implement effective sales enablement strategies, it’s possible to make change work for you – and ultimately, your organization.

Our “Putting Change to Work” Guide takes a deeper look at the forces of change challenging companies in every sector, how sales organizations are impacted – and how they can respond in a way that lets change work for, and not against, their organization.

 

Thanks to our consistent blogging and optimized calls to action, we get a LOT of leads from our blog. Sadly, not all of them are a good fit for our services, so ensuring that we focus our attention on the right leads is absolutely critical to our success.

To help us maximize our opportunities, while minimizing the time spent with leads that aren’t a good fit, we have come up with a 3 step sales process that starts with what we call a Connect Call.

The goal of the connect call is to:

1. Establish if there is a problem we can help solve
2. Establish that I’m a credible person to help them solve it
3. Determine if there is motivation to solve this problem or not
4. Get commitment to proceed with the next call

How to Qualify While Engaging in Conversation

The following sample script is what we use (as a guide, not word for word) when we are calling someone who has downloaded one of our eBooks.

Hi, Pete, it’s Trent (Pause long enough to give them a chance to acknowledge that they know me. If they don’t….)

Trent who?

Oh, sorry, I thought you would recognize my name…it’s Trent Dyrsmid – a lot of people that I call know my name already.

If they don’t say “Trent who?” but their voice indicates they are annoyed, say…

Sounds like I caught you at a bad time, Pete?

If they say no, say, Ok, are you sure?

If they ask how long we’ll need, say, I don’t know. You requested some info from my company and I’m calling to see if I can help. I’m an expert at helping companies to improve their results from their blogging efforts and I’ve done a little bit of research on your company. I do see some areas where we might be able to help you with things, but I don’t know if it’s a priority for you or not?

They will likely ask what I found in the research that you did.

I see that you downloaded an ebook on blogging and then I checked out your blog and didn’t see a whole lot of activity, so I was wondering if you are considering doing more with your blog, and if so, if there is stuff that you are still trying to learn by downloading our ebook?

They are probably going to tell you that their blog isn’t working at this point.

I was going to say that (your blog sucks), but I didn’t want to be so forward. It sounds like you know that your blog isn’t doing what you need it to and you know that you are not doing it well. Is it a priority to do it better?

Now the prospect is probably going to open up enough to uncover the real problem: lead generation.

So you’ve done enough research to know that blogging could attract prospects to you and ultimate deliver leads to your sales team? But you haven’t been able to figure out how to do it yourself?

They will likely make a statement to agree.

And then you mentioned that you have a sales team cold calling and that you’ve had some attrition, um, so it’s important, it sounds like, not so much to figure out how to do blogging, but how to get leads for the sales team? Is that right?

They will likely answer affirmatively and expand on the problem somewhat.

I’m a big advocate of proactive selling, however you probably have read that inbound leads typically close at a higher rate with lower sales effort so, while I don’t like to feed lazy salespeople, I certainly like more productive salespeople. (pause)

They will probably make another affirmation and add more commentary.

So, I’ve worked with many companies and helped them figure out, not just how to do blogging, but to help them figure out really how to build a sales funnel from their marketing efforts. If that is a priority for you, is that something you’d be interested in having a longer conversation about? Typically what we’d talk about is what you are doing now, what you are not doing, a little bit about your marketing efforts as well as your sales efforts…as in I can walk you through some of the ways that we might be able to help, and if that is something that you think is still a priority, and you believe that I might be able to help you we can go from there and figure out what next steps makes sense. Would you like to have a longer conversation about that?

They are probably going to say that they are open to the idea, but….they are also going to express some reservations (other people have promised this before and not delivered, etc…)

Ok, I’m not committing to helping you with anything yet…and I’m not certain that I can help you either. There is certain things that we would need to agree upon before we even consider entering into an engagement together. We can go two routes. One is maybe we share some of the problems you have and what you’ve tried with other people and I can maybe point out where you might have gone wrong, and we can discuss those and I can talk to you about how I avoid those, or….

Remember Your Goals

Remember, the goal of the Connect Call isn’t to try and sell them on anything more than investing the time to have a more in depth conversation about their needs; assuming that you have determined that they are a good prospect, that is.

 

Questions to Establish If There is a Problem

I have provided you with the the conversation above as an example of how you want to talk with a new prospect. As every prospect isn’t going to be the same as the next, below are some additional questions that you will want to weave into your conversation.

• What are you doing to generate new business today?
• Where do you get leads from? How is that working?
• Is your website an important part of your lead generation strategy?
• Have you considered blogging? (or blogging more)
• How many leads do you need?
• What are some of the activities that you have considered starting?
• Who is your ideal customer?
• Do you know what type of traffic you are getting now and where they are coming from?
• Do you know which sources of traffic and producing the most engaged visitors?
• Do you know which sites are referring you the most / best traffic?

Closing for the Appointment (for the 2nd call)

Your Connect Call should last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how interested they are, and how interested you are in them.

Once you have established that there is a need, and you believe they are qualified enough to justify your investing another hour of your time, you should close for the 2nd appointment (the Exploratory Call).

To do that, you should say something along the lines of…

If this is a priority for you, typically what I would propose for the next step is that we would have a longer dialogue and I would share with you some of the ways that I might be able to help you, or how I have helped companies like yours, uh, and we can talk through potentially putting a plan together where we can help you to move forward.

Common Objections

#1 Send me a proposal.

If you have done a good job with the Connect Call, it’s not uncommon to have a prospect ask you for a proposal.

If they do ask, DO NOT AGREE TO SEND THEM ONE!

Sending a proposal at this stage in the conversation is the kiss of death. If they do ask you for one, here’s what you can say…

Ok, Dave, it sounds like we have identified that there are some things that you are interested in; some of the things that we talked about must have resonated with you. It seems like this is a priority for you, is that right?

Ah..yes it is.

So, um…unfortunately, I don’t feel I’m capable of writing the right proposal for you yet. Ummm, we’ve talked about a few things, but I don’t feel like I know enough about where you’re trying to take the business. Uh, and I don’t have a good enough feel for what you are and aren’t d0ing now both in your sales and in your marketing to really figure out exactly what it is that is going to get you to where you want to go.

Typically what I would propose, if this is still a priority and I have established the fact that I think I can help you with this, is that we’d have another conversation where it would probably be a bit more structured, and I’d ask you a lot more questions about your business… I can certainly answer any questions that you might have about how we work or what we do…and at the end of that, I’d have a much better feel for exactly what it is that I think can do in order to maximize our chances of really doing a great job for you and helping you to get where you want to go.

Is that something that you’d be interested in doing?

If they agree, book it. If not, ask why not?

#2 They think they have it all figured out

Everyone has problems with sales and marketing; however, if they don’t yet trust you, it’s not uncommon for people to be unwilling to admit that they have any problems that you might be able to help them with.

If you find that no matter what you ask them about, they say some version of “we’ve got that handled”, then you might try saying something along the lines of this…

Well, it seems to me, although I see areas for improvement, you believe your doing it in a way that is getting the best returns and results for you, um, so…. if that’s the case, I don’t want to continue to pester you with questions….so maybe this just wouldn’t be a good fit?

If they keep telling me that they have everything covered, I might try to lighten the mood by saying…

It seems like I’ve caught you on a really bad day. I’ve never talked with anyone who had no problems in any of these areas, um….is that the case?

Conclusion

• A multi-part sales process can help you maximize your opportunities, while minimizing the time spent with leads that aren’t a good fit.
• The goal of your first call is to:
  • Establish if there is a problem we can help solve
  • Establish that you are a credible person to help them solve it
  • Determine if there is motivation to solve this problem or not
  • Get commitment to proceed with the next call
• Every prospect isn’t the same as the next. You need to be prepared with additional questions to establish if they have a problem you can solve.
• The first call should be brief. Once you have established that there is a need, and you believe they are qualified enough to justify your investing another hour of your time, you should close for the 2nd appointment.
• Prospects may ask you to send them a proposal, DON’T!

What Comes Next?

Now that we have covered how to qualify a new business prospect, we need to move on to step 2: the Exploratory Call, which we’ll cover in an upcoming post. If you have questions about this post, please leave them in the comments below.

If your content isn’t mobile, your business is losing money. That may seem like a strong statement, but the stats support its truth:

• 87% of the world’s population uses a mobile device. (Source: Dynamic Artisans)
• 74% of smartphone owners use their devices to check their email. (Source: Gartner)
• Mobile now makes up the majority of email opens at 51%. (Source: Litmus)
  
• By the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are expected to total over 2.2 billion. By this time, 80% of email users are expected to access their email accounts via a mobile device. (Source: Radicati) 
• 56% of shoppers are likely to make a purchase via a mobile app in the next year. (Source: Adobe)
• Mobile offers are redeemed 10X more frequently than print offers. (Source: eMarketer)
• 30% of mobile users will abandon a purchase transaction if the shopping cart isn’t optimized for mobile devices. (Source: Mobify)
• Mobile users spend more money per purchase than customers do on a desktop website. (Source: Fast Company)

Whether you’re a B2C business with ecommerce sales or a B2B company generating offers to potential leads, your website content and emails need to be mobile-friendly. It will benefit your bottom line in addition to improving the web presence of your company.

Here are five reasons your content needs to be mobile now:

1. Mobile users want content in quick, digestible bites. People do not have the patience to try to navigate a website that is not optimized on their device. It your site isn’t intuitive, they will go elsewhere.
2. Mobile gets traffic. Google made this clear with last year’s Hummingbird update. The future of search is mobile, and websites that aren’t usable on handheld devices will be penalized in their search rank.
3. Mobile creates a positive online image. If your website is difficult to navigate on mobile, customers are less likely to trust you and more likely to go to your competition.
4. Mobile increases conversions. If you want to convert your website visitors into paying customers, you need clear and easy to click calls-to-action. If your buttons are obscured or links difficult to click on your mobile site, you lose this opportunity.
5. Mobile reduces bounces. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, your bounce rate is likely high. If visitors have to zoom or squint to read the type, they won’t stick around.

So, what do you do if your website isn’t mobile optimized? Choose a platform that offers responsive design. This means that the system that your website is built on responds to whatever device a person is using – whether it’s a phone, tablet, or laptop – by automatically repacking the website pages to a design that best fits the device being used at that moment.

As a HubSpot VAR and Silver Level Partner, we love its Content Optimization System (COS) because it’s designed for mobile right out of the box. It’s also fast to load and with author tags, social media and keyword tools built throughout, the COS is optimized for the modern rules of SEO.

Many Content Management Systems (CMS) require special templates or additional coding to optimize for mobile. But Hubspot’s COS makes your content look good on any device. Your landing pages, blog and email will automatically adjust to whatever device is viewing it without any extra work on your end. This offers a scalable solution as devices continue to evolve. After all, who knows what we’ll be viewing our websites on in the next 20 years?

If you are interested in making the most of your online presence and want to explore HubSpot’s software, we’re happy to speak with you and show how we’ve used the tools to help our clients.

“The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it,” said Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Since business development is all about influence, that’s a statement worth etching into your mind.

But first, how do you know what other people want to talk about? Ask questions and listen.

So, listening is a critical skill for all business-to-business telemarketers. It enables them to understand a prospect’s situation and respond with relevant questions and insightful answers. And because we lose the ability to use body language on the phone, listening is even more important on the phone than during an in-person sales call. When you listen, you can more easily empathize with a prospect. Also, when you listen, you demonstrate respect, enhancing the chances for business collaboration, problem solving and developing a win-win situation.

Hearing and Listening Are Worlds Apart

There are two kinds of telemarketers and inside sales people:

• Those who just hear
• Those who go beyond hearing to listening

While listening is an active technique, hearing is passive. It’s dangerous to think that everyone who is capable of hearing is also a good listener.

Learning to Listen

Those of us who can hear have rarely been taught to listen well. There are, however, three techniques you can practice to improve listening skills.

• Parroting

Words don’t always tumble out in an eloquent phrase that immediately makes sense. In fact, if you ever read transcriptions of conversations, you will see that sentences often aren’t completed, and thoughts are not fully formed. An effective technique to deal with this problem is parroting.

Parroting is exactly what it sounds like. You parrot back to someone exactly what they said and, when you do this, two things may happen. By repeating the words, you may comprehend them better. Alternatively, the person you’re speaking with has a chance to hear what they said and fill in the gaps. Essentially, it forces both of you to focus on what’s being said.

• Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is close to parroting, but it goes beyond the capabilities of a brightly colored bird. Now the telemarketer summarizes what the contact has said in their own words. This technique assures understanding and also demonstrates that you’re taking the time to learn about the prospects’ needs and problems.

• Feeling Feedback

With feeling feedback, you not only paraphrase what someone is saying, you also show that you understand how they feel about it. For example:

Prospect: “Our company has invested hundreds of thousands in this trade show, and I’m responsible for making sure that the leads flow in and it pays off.”

Telemarketer: “I imagine that’s a huge weight on your shoulders. Are you interested in exploring some ideas to maximize the number and quality of leads you generate, assuring an increased return on investment?”

In this way, the telemarketer demonstrates they are interested and ready to help.

Start practicing these techniques in your phone calls, or teach them to your call-center staff, and you’ll discover powerful business to business telemarketing results.

GUEST POST

---

It’s nearly impossible to keep up with a wave of new marketing and analytics tools that have flooded the market in the past year. But my company, Segment, tries to test them all.

We’ve found a few gems that are super useful but still fly under the radar.

So if you want in on the underground analytics market, hop off your ‘fixie’, don your Warby Parkers, and grab a snobby coffee. It’s time for a lesson in hipster analytics; the best tools before they break.

Outbound — Marketing automation for email, push, SMS, and voice

As a marketer, it’s common to plan campaigns by channel: What emails should we be sending? What tweets and posts? What texts and push notifications are most engaging? Outbound, a new marketing automation tool, takes a different approach. The company believes all communication should be based on how people are interacting (or not interacting) with your product.

As founder Josh Weissburg puts it, “Don’t ask what emails you need to set up. Instead, think about where your customers are getting stuck. Then use the right channel — email, mobile push, SMS, voice, etc. — to send a message automatically when a customer doesn’t take the next step.”

There are three reasons why Outbound is a unique marketing automation tool: It manages email, push notifications, voice calls, and SMS from a single interface. It helps you limit the number of messages you send to people that fall in multiple user segments. And, it lets you target messages by what users didn’t do. For example, an e-commerce company could set up recurring emails to people who viewed a product but didn’t add it to their cart. A SaaS company could reach out to customers who created a project but haven’t invited colleagues. In conjunction with a funnel analysis tool that helps you identify where your customers are “getting stuck,” Outbound can be pretty powerful.

---

VentureBeat is studying return on investment in social media
Share your knowledge, and we’ll share all the data with you in return.

---

Amplitude — Funnel analysis on a budget

Speaking of funnel analysis tools, Amplitude is a new mobile service competing with Mixpanel, KISSmetrics, and Google Analytics for customers. Amplitude provides a lot of the same functionality as veteran analytics tools — building conversion funnels, analyzing retention, tracking revenue, building cohorts — but offers it at a significantly lower price. Amplitude has a clean user interface and crunches data pretty quickly.

“We’ve seen a lot of customers that are paying more for analytics than the rest of their infrastructure combined — that’s crazy,” said Spenser Skates, co-founder and CEO at Amplitude. “We’re an order of magnitude more affordable than our competitors because of a lot of smart things we do on our backend to precompute results.”

If you’re sick of shelling out a lot of money for your analytics tools, you might want to look into Amplitude.

StackLead — Automatic lead qualification

Someone signs up for your service from a random Gmail account. Okay. But what if they were the VP of Product at a Fortune 500 company? You’d probably want to know that. StackLead is a great tool for doing the grunt work of a business development representative and automatically surfacing this info.

“StackLead automatically researches sales leads,” said Gordon Wintrob, co-founder at StackLead. “Given an email address, we crawl the web and tell you everything you want to know about a prospect and their business, from the company size to the software they use to their fundraising history.”

StackLead also provides a tool to help sales teams create personalized outbound emails and plug in helpful fields like title and industry.

Spinnakr — Real-time web traffic response

You’re looking at your analytics report. You see that, yesterday, a surge of people came in from a particular article. What if you knew that earlier? What could you have done about it?

Spinnakr is a nifty tool for responding in real time to website traffic patterns. For example, imagine you sell designer clothing and Mary’s Fashion Blog posts about your adorable new shoes. Spinnakr would notify you if a lot of people enter your site from this post, then let you set up a personalized message for Mary’s fans. You might offer these visitors a discount on those shoes, which will help you close more sales.

Adam Bonnifield, co-founder of Spinnakr, mentioned crisis communication as another way people are using the service. “Spinnakr instantly discovers a negative review or complaint about your company on a forum, notifies you about it the second it happens, and then lets you post a targeted response on your website.” Of course, no one is ever going to say anything bad about your product online because it’s perfect. On the off chance they do, Spinnakr is an insurance policy.

Inspectlet — User session video recording

Once you get people to your site, there are various heat mapping tools that show you where your users are clicking and moving their mouse, but sometimes this data can be difficult to interpret. Inspectlet is from the same genre of tools but represents the new wave. Instead of creating a color-coded map, Inspectlet records video sessions of users’ behavior.

“Heatmaps tell you what people find interesting on your site; session recordings tell you why it was interesting,” said Rachit Gupta, founder and CEO of Inspectlet. “Watching a user’s entire visit that spans multiple important pages on your site gives you a complete understanding of the user’s intentions behind that visit.”

When you are close to a product — you interact with it every day, you built it, you know where to find what you need — it’s hard to know how a completely new user would experience it. Inspectlet takes the guessing out of the equation and provides helpful, qualitative feedback for product and design teams.

And there you have it, kids — the shiny new tools you can say you knew before they were cool. Did I miss one? Add it in the comments below…

---

Diana Smith is the director of marketing at Segment, a single platform that collects, translates, and routes user data to more than 100 analytics and marketing tools.

Spinnakr is platform for making websites smarter, displaying targeted messages to its different kinds of visitors. We raise inbound conversions by 200-300% for our clients, which include some of the world's hottest SMBs.... read more »

Inspectlet records videos of your site visitors as they use your site, allowing you to see everything they do. See every mouse movement, scroll, click, and keypress on your site. You never need to wonder how visitors use your site agai... read more »

Did you know that over 40% of marketers believe their Facebook usage is a vital part of running a business?

Are you aware that 82% of social media leads are collected from Twitter?

According to the infographic, “How To Generate Leads With Social Media” by Quick Sprout, for the past four years, social media has been a key component in generating leads. In fact, social media has a higher “lead-to-close” frequency by 100%, in contrast to outbound marketing.

This is why we need to further understand strategies for generating leads with social media. I highly recommend referring to this week’s ‘interesting infographic’, which emphasizes stats and recommendations for effective social media lead generation:

Why Generate Leads Through Social Media?

1. To boost exposure for your business.
2. To enhance web traffic.
3. To diminish costs.
4. To improve sales.
5. To improve search results, including page ranks and inbound links.

Social Media Facts You Need To Know

• For the past eight years, there has been a 365% hike in U.S. social media usage.
• Approximately 69% of marketers are willing to pay for social media strategies to augment web traffic.
• However, 65% of marketers invest in social media to further comprehend their market.
• Social media marketing has reduced costs for 45% of businesses.
• Consumer satisfaction increased with the help of social media for 50% of businesses.
• Revenue increased for 24% of businesses when they utilized social media for lead generation.

Social Media Strategies For Lead Generation

1. Consider numerous channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
2. Each channel should have a long-term strategy implemented.
3. Make sure you conduct pertinent research, which includes keywords and information about your demographics.
4. Ensure content is focused and highlights your company’s proficiency.
5. Create a community by engaging with social media followers.
6. Cross-promote your social media channels with one another.
7. Monitor social media results.
8. Further understand and improve your SEO.

Take Note

• Approximately 82% of companies utilize LinkedIn solely for business reasons.
• YouTube is utilized for marketing motives by 77% of companies.
• A total of 23% of Facebook users refer to their profiles 5+ times everyday.
• 44% of companies that owned Twitter accounts experienced a hike in their number of consumers.

How can you apply Quick Sprout’s lead generation advice to your business? View the full infographic below, then answer the question in the comment box.