What are Twitter lists anyway? A Twitter list is a curated group of users on Twitter. When the list is viewed, the posts of the people added to that list show up in the list’s stream. Basically it’s a way to group interesting people on specific subjects or other groups (clients, friends, competitors, movie stars) to more easily follow whatever topic brought them all together.

People can follow your lists and you can follow theirs’ so it’s a good way to curate information to share with friends and colleagues.

Why make lists?
You know how people complain about how noisy Twitter is? That’s because they follow everybody who follows them. Twitter lists help cut down the noise and make you more efficient. A quick look at your lists tells you what’s going on without having to filter through thousands of tweets cluttering up your Twitter stream. Make lists and scan them instead. Then share, share, share!

Another good reason is if you don’t have a lot of followers but there are a lot of people you want to talk to, listen to and learn from. Creating lists allows you to watch for their tweets without having to follow too many people at once. Many people look to see if you are following lots more people than are following you. If this happens you look either boring or like a spammer. Both are bad. Follow fewer people than follow you and you will avoid this. Make lists instead, then decide who really belongs in your Twitter stream.

Public lists or private lists?
The content stream of public lists are seen by anyone on Twitter. Private ones are seen only by you. People are notified when they are added to a public list and if you look at their profile on Twitter then click the “more” tab you can see what public lists a person has created or subscribed to and which ones they are a member of.

I have a lot of private lists. These may be potential customers or competitors I want to keep an eye on, or hashtags I want to follow but not make a big deal on my profile about. If I am wanting to watch a particular topic for an upcoming workshop or training session I may create a list to pay closer attention to that topic without following and later maybe unfollowing a bunch of users.

Below are some common types of Twitter lists.

Hashtag lists
When I go to a conference I use the hashtags relevant to that discussion. As I follow the tags it’s easy for me to add people who are interesting to a list related to that tag and follow up with them later. If there are particular hashtags or Twitter chats relevant to your industry you should be using them anyway, so it makes sense to create lists (public or private) of the other people using the same tags so you can start talking with them, right?

Client lists
Want to keep up with what your clients are doing online? Create a private list of your clients and you can keep an eye on what’s going on in their world.

Competitor lists
There’s no better way to see what the competition is up to than to create a list of competitors and monitor their tweets. Heck, you might learn something!

Journalists and news organizations
I like to keep all my news folks together so when I want to see what’s going on in the world I can find it in one click by going to my list.

Your Tribe lists
These are the people you talk to a lot. They may be co-workers, family or other professionals in your industry you talk to a lot. These conversationalists make Twitter more fun and you want to keep them in a list so you don’t lose track of them.

List strategies
All of the above are good types of lists and you need to decide which works for you or come up with your own. Remember unless the list is private people can see the name of the list you put them on. If it makes them feel good they feel that way towards you. If it makes them feel bad? Well, figure that out. I like to avoid creating names that will alienate. For example, finding yourself on “PeopleIHopeNevertoMeet” doesn’t sound as good as “SmartMarketers” does it?

Getting on Twitter lists
Being listed can be kind of fun. By golly people LIKE me! If you want to get your message out to more people, being on a list or 2 is a good way to increase your reach. In general it’s bad form to ask to be on a list unless it’s very specific to what you do. Instead, just stick to good Twitter etiquette, share great content and support others. You’ll have a better experience and people will add you to lists because you add value.

This week's blog comes from guest blogger, Dave Kurlan.  Dave is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly-regarded sales leadership expert.

When a great salesperson is recommended by Objective Management Group's (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessment, and this star has a great track record, and great references, should we expect this person to succeed?

Most executives do.

But even though salespeople will tell you that "If you can sell, you can sell anything", that statement is only true some of the time. Here are some examples of salespeople who are successful in one environment, but usually fail in another:

1. They were the best in their business at selling high-volume, low-cost products until they went to work for a value-based company and the "beat their best price" tactics were no longer available.
2. They were the best at selling programs to procurement until they went to work for a company where the sale had to be made in the C-Suite where they were intimidated, unable to speak the language and unable to grasp the importance of strategy, profit and return.
3. They were the best at selling components to OEM's until they went to work for a company where they had to sell conceptual services and were lost without a product to demonstrate.
4. They were the best at finding and selling new accounts for a local company until they went to work for a national firm and had to do the same thing, in a brand new territory, working from their home.
5. They were the best at selling 5-cent parts by the thousand until they went to work for a company where they had to sell 6-figure programs and choked over the amount of money they had to ask for.
6. They were the best when they were managing, retaining and growing key accounts, and now that they work for a company where they must hunt for new business, they are sucking wind.
7. They were on top of the pack when they sold services with a six-month sales cycle, but now that they work for a company selling a product in a very short sales cycle, nothing is getting closed.
8. They were #1 at the last company, working under a hands-on sales manager who was a stickler for coaching and accountability, but the results just aren't there with the new company where they are reporting directly to the President who only responds to the proactive requests of his salespeople.
9. There was nobody better at getting contracts signed when they sold the product that everyone buys and it was only a matter of who they would buy it from, but now that they are selling things that companies could either do themselves or not do at all, they can't overcome the ambivalence.
10. They were at the top of the heap working for the large, well-known industry leader where prospects rolled out the red carpet and eagerly bought their products. Now that they are working for a lesser known company, they aren't able to overcome the resistance that is always there now, but never there before.

Skills and experience are terrific, but track record is extremely misleading!

For example, if you go back and take another look at #4, this is where great salespeople, selling the exact same thing, can suddenly fail because they aren't able to succeed when working remotely from a sales manager who doesn't manage her salespeople very closely.

I reviewed OMG's data on a random set of 4,500 recent sales candidate assessments and only 12% were suitable for working remotely. BUT…upon closer look, 12% was not representative of the findings for any one company!

David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, once observed that “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.” A more current corollary might be, “Brand-building is too important to be left to the brand people.”

The historical role brands have played – serving as symbols to guarantee a certain level of quality or as images to attract attention – is no longer relevant or useful today. A brand can’t just be a promise; it must be a promise delivered. And brand stewardship can no longer be under the exclusive purview of marketing departments and brand managers.

A 2008 survey of chief marketing officers and brand managers by the Association of National Advertisers found that 64% say their brands do not influence decisions made at their companies. Brands may drive communications activities, but little else. This means that nearly two-thirds of companies are pouring millions of dollars into marketing and advertising to promote certain values and attributes that may or may not be aligned with the reality of the business. Customers no longer tolerate the disconnects that arise from such gaps – and companies can no longer afford to keep brand-building a costly, discrete, and subjective set of activities.

Brand-building is a function that business leaders, owners, and general managers – the people responsible for the culture, core operations, and customer experiences of an organization – must drive. Smart companies form brand councils to meet this leadership imperative.

Brand councils are comprised of senior executives from a range of company functions: key business unit leaders, influential staff leaders from human resources, marketing, legal, and finance, and sometimes even the CEO. On occasion, these senior executives may designate lieutenants to sit on the brand council as their representatives, but they ensure the designees have the social capital, as well as the authority, to participate fully.

The brand council is charged with using the brand as the lens for strategic business decision-making. It uses the brand identity and positioning as guardrails to assess the appropriateness of proposed initiatives and as standards to evaluate their execution. The charter of a brand council is usually limited to oversight and approval, not implementation, so it draws the line between what is on-brand and what is not, and holds project teams and working groups accountable to it.

Brand councils usually devote the most attention to three areas of the organization.

• Product development often requires strong executive brand stewardship because the pursuit of innovation and the pressure to fill the pipeline often cause teams to veer off-brand. A brand council can resolve conflicting priorities, or at least bring the parties with different interests together in a brand-focused discussion.
• Partnerships are also potential brand stumbling blocks that deserve attention. Whether it’s a strategic partnership, a distribution deal, or a co-marketing campaign, companies often enter into agreements with a focus on the business opportunity and the business terms of the contract. A brand council can ensure brand objectives are also met and brand equity is protected in the arrangement.
• Brand councils are actively involved in people issues. Not only do they shape people strategies throughout the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to transition, but they also serve as champions for brand alignment and engagement throughout the organization. Brand councils often oversee the development and deployment of brand guides and tools, and they may provide leadership for brand rollout meetings and experiences. Brand council members also represent their functions on the council, giving them voice and visibility to other executives by recognizing their brand-related successes and raising their brand-related concerns.

Forming and running a brand council requires a significant investment of time and energy by executives who already have very full plates. But companies must stop thinking about and using brands as static outward-facing, image-oriented objects. No longer is a brand an experience mediated through messaging and marketing communications. It is the experience that is actually delivered and expressed through every single thing the organization does, every day. As such, brand-building needs to be led at the highest levels of the organization. It can’t be delegated to a marketing department or an advertising agency. It must be driven – and embraced – as an enterprise-wide approach. A brand council is how savvy companies ensure this happens.

Ultimately, though, the best brand councils operate with the goal of making themselves unnecessary. Rather than relishing the role of brand police, they inform, inspire, and instruct the organization on stewarding the brand, so that over time, everyone in the organization knows how to appropriately interpret and reinforce the brand.

Upon occasion, I used to be the girl who fell asleep in history class. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. It’s not that the history didn’t have value; I just didn’t have enough of a connection to the material to pay attention. Maybe it was the vehicle in which the material was being delivered; the textbook and the teachers in some cases, at other times it might’ve been the story itself… As it relates to our professional lives, we are constantly consuming information and some of it sticks, while some of it doesn’t. Does that immediately correlate to how it’s delivered – blog posts, reports, news media, social or online video? Or is it again, the story and how it’s told? If our audiences don’t have enough of a connection with our content, they’re not going to care enough to consider the value. Beyond giving value, we need to give context, relatability, intrigue, connectivity… In other words, we need to tell a story. Storytelling is an art. It takes thoughtful crafting and intuitive development to be effective. It’s something everyone can do, but it’s also something that takes work to perfect. Perhaps it’s also why content marketing research shows that 92% of marketers hold creating high-quality content to be valuable or very valuable, but only 54% can actually execute effectively on that perceived value. If you want your audience to get the most value out of your content, you need to have a good story to support it. To ensure your content has a story, and that it’s resonating with your audience (and not putting them to sleep at their desks), here are six key questions to ask in order to be effective.

Question 1: Who is the hero?

Any good story has a hero or a focus or a protagonist – do you know who your hero is in your content? Have you established who or what represents the change from real, relatable circumstances to an ideal, desirable end? As marketers, our heroes more often than not are our target audiences – the people who we want to see winning in the end.

Question 2: What is the sequence?

What do you want your readers to take away from your content, and what’s the best way to get them to that end? Does the form of your content suit its intended function? Before you put pen to page, or get cracking on content creation, you need to know what you want to cover, and in what order that material should be presented. Is your story best conveyed in a concise, direct timeline from point A to point B, or are your readers already at point C but unsure of how they got there? If you want to drive conversions with your content, your story needs map to that destination.

Question 3: When is the conflict?

When can you interject a little unexpected punch to keep your readers engaged? When do your readers need a jolt of emotion or intrigue to maintain interest? All good stories have a conflict, a challenge, an unexpected twist, or some kind of problem that readers want to see solved. Sometimes it’s best to set this hook early, sometimes you need to have a decent build up in order to give the conflict enough weight, but it always has to be somewhere in your story. What’s the pain point, and how does it get addressed? What’s keeping your audience up at night, and how do they get better? What’s lurking in the dark, and how do your readers stay safe? For any value you want to convey in your content, your story needs a conflict in order to make that value more meaningful.

Question 4: Where are the facts?

Where do you need your audience to buy in to your story? Where might you lose them if things aren’t adding up? Even the most fanciful stories of fiction are grounded in some truth, so your story always needs a solid foundation of facts. Do you have supporting data? Is there a study you can cite to back up your claim? Just as Aberdeen research shows that it takes 10 marketing touches, on average, to progress a net-new prospect to a closed-won deal, your story also needs to provide enough factual touches to keep your audience’s trust from beginning to end.

Question 5: How does it all come together?

After you’ve built the story – ask yourself these questions again… make sure that your answers are the same and they are achieving what you set out to do with the story. Similar to how a developer would QA their own work, a content creator needs to do the same. You may even perfect all the individual components of your story, but upon review, the piece as a whole may not have the clarity or coherence necessary to be compelling. Do all the individual components of the story add up to one piece, and does the one piece support all of the story’s individual components? For an effective story, both must be true.

Question 6: Why does the audience care?

Why is your story interesting to your audience? As a marketer, you’ll want to answer this this question when promoting your content. Use it as your main theme throughout your promotion campaign. Use it as the title of your story, or your pitched blog posts. Use it however you like, but be sure this interesting aspect is also aligned to the overall value the content is intended to deliver. What’s the biggest takeaway from the story? What will your audience learn? What’s your recommendation? Effective content marketing requires effectively marketed content, so in finalizing your story, be sure that the whole piece still delivers the value it was initially created to convey. With these six questions in hand, you are now ready to conquer the story writing world. I’m sure you’ve got a fond memory or two from your high school history days, do share your tidbits in the comments section below and make a note on why you felt like that piece of history stuck with you – was it the textbook? the teacher? Or the story itself?

For more useful tips on content marketing, download Aberdeen’s free report, 5 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers.

Ever followed a link to an article or blog post on Twitter, and noticed that it had a string of extra text tacked onto the end with a bunch of underscores and equal signs? It probably looked something like this:

http://www.shiftcomm.com/blog/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SHIFTblog

That’s a UTM code. Though a familiar friend to the digital marketer, to many PR professionals it reads like gibberish. But that bit of text is an indispensable weapon in the marketer’s arsenal – and it can also be an invaluable tool for PR if you understand how to use it.

UTM = short for “Use This, Marketers!”

OK, not really. But it’s so handy to the marketer’s toolkit that it might as well be. A UTM tag is string of text added to a URL that allows you to monitor traffic to your website by source (i.e. where it’s coming from) and medium (i.e. how it got there).

In summary: by understanding which sources drive more (or less) traffic for each specific campaign, marketers can measure the success of a campaign and draw valuable insights about what works, what doesn’t and how to tweak for next time.

But what’s in it for PR?

As a PR professional, being savvy about UTM tags will bring you one step closer to that elusive phantom that escapes many a PR campaign: concrete metrics that matter to the client. While in the past we’ve noted that the job of PR is not to directly drive sales, make no mistake: good PR should be helping. UTM tags can help you demonstrate the value of your work by showing how it drives quantifiable marketing results (i.e. website traffic and, ultimately, sales).

Imagine this scenario.

You’re running social on behalf of a client, and they want to run a Back-to-School giveaway campaign on Twitter and Facebook. They set up a landing page for the campaign, and your goal is clear: use your PR prowess to drive as many people to that landing page as humanly possible. You pitch the news to your media contacts, you draft promotional content to push out on Twitter and Facebook, you utilize all the right hashtags.

Then comes the reporting. You can track metrics such as follower growth and post engagement with access to Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics. There are tools out there (like Sysomos and TweetReach) that can help you calculate how many people tweeted/shared, and estimate exposure or impressions generated. This is the easy stuff for most PR professionals.

This is where UTM tags can add an extra “oomph” to your metrics. Create and add the appropriate UTM tag to the landing page URL, and via Google Analytics you’ll be able to see not only how many people visited the page, but whether they came from Facebook or Twitter as well. Plus, it differentiates the traffic from your individual posts from all the other traffic that reached the page independently – allowing you to measure the actual impact of this specific campaign, and use it to offer your client more meaningful recommendations for future campaigns.

So show me how to do it!

Firstly, UTM tags will only work if your client has an analytics platform like Google Analytics set up with goals. Encourage your client to give you Analytics access. Without it, you won’t be able to see any of the awesome results of your campaign!

Secondly, understanding when to use UTM tags is a simple matter of asking yourself, “Does the URL link back to the client’s website?” If yes, use a UTM tag. If no, a UTM tag will do you no good. Examples of times to use UTM tags can be anything from social campaign landing pages to sharing eBooks and webinars.

Next, use Google’s Campaign URL Builder. Start with the URL you want to drive traffic to, such as a homepage or landing page, and fill in a source (e.g. Facebook) and a medium (e.g. social). (Term and content are optional and can give you more customization if you’re tracking paid keywords.)

So to stick with the above example, if I were running a Back-to-School campaign for a client on Facebook and Twitter, I would fill out the form twice as such:

Website URL: www.clientwebsite.com/landingpage (both times)
Campaign Source: facebook (first time); twitter (second time)
Campaign Medium: social (both times)
Campaign Name: back to school (both times)

I would end up with two separate URLs, one to use when sharing the landing page on Facebook, and the other to use when sharing on Twitter.

In Google Analytics is where the magic happens. Look under Acquisition -> Campaigns. After you share the UTM’ed URL and it’s received a few clicks, you’ll see your campaign right there. If you click on the campaign, you’ll see traffic broken down by the social media channels you set. At the end of the campaign you’ll be able to deliver your client a robust report beefed up with web traffic metrics, all thanks to a small snippet of text that Google will generate for you (until you learn to create them yourself)!

Over 2,500 years ago, philosopher and poet Lao Tzu taught that our words become actions, which eventually become our destiny.

In first century Greece, historian and essayist Plutarch declared that a speaker's state of mind, character, and disposition are exposed through their words. And Napoleon Hill, the twentieth century father of personal success literature, asserts that words plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

"Across the planet, sages insist that words are potent and should be chosen and spoken with care, for they are 'the most powerful drug used by mankind,' as
 Rudyard Kipling warns," says Darlene Price, president of Well Said, Inc., and author of "Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results." "If they're right, it stands to reason that what we say to ourselves and others plays a critical role in helping us achieve success." 

Regardless of how you may define success, words will help manifest that vision into reality.

"There are also words and phrases that can damage your self-image, mar your reputation, and jeopardize your success," Price says. "To optimize your success, eliminate this language from your vocabulary and never speak it to yourself or another person."

Here are 17 phrases successful people never say: 

"I have no choice," or, "I had no choice."

"Successful people always see the options, regardless of the circumstances," Price says. "To say we have no choice in the matter implies that we perceive ourselves as a victim; that we are less powerful than our environment." These weak words relieve the speaker of all responsibility.

Successful people say: "I have a choice," "Here are our options," or, "Let's imagine all the possibilities." They know that claiming and exercising the power to choose is the first step toward achieving their goals, she says.

"I should have," or, "I could have."

The words "should," "could," and "ought" imply regret, blame, finger-pointing, and fault, whether you say them to yourself or another person. "Successful people don't wallow in the past, and they rarely regret a decision or action," says Price. "Even if it's deemed a failure by others, they accept it as a learning experience that gets them one step closer to their goal."

Similarly, they avoid: "You should have," and, "You could have." "There's no quicker way to upset a boss, colleague, or customer than to suggest they're guilty of something (even if they are)." Instead, take a collaborative approach. Say, "Please help me understand why…" or,  "Next time may we adopt an alternative approach…"

"I can't do that," or, "That's impossible," or, "That can't be done."

Not only are these words self-limiting, others perceive them as pessimistic, unconstructive, even defeatist, Price explains. "Achievers know there are countless roadblocks on the road to success — barriers that may stall or stump, but never stop them." They either remove the barrier, or figure out a way to go over, under, or around it.

The words "can't" or "impossible" rarely enter the minds of successful people. "Instead of throwing in the towel," Price says, "they speak in terms of alternative ways to get the work accomplished: 'What I can do is...' 'I'm sure there's a way to...' 'Instead of ___, let's try___.'"

As the great industrialist Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't — you're right."

"That's not my job," or, "I don't get paid enough for this," or, "That's not my problem."

Successful people help others succeed.

As billionaire Warren Buffett says, "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

"Think of 'planting trees' as your job," Price says. "If you're asked to do something by your boss, coworker, or a customer, it's because it's important to them. Therefore, as a team player, goal No. 1 is to figure out how to help them get it accomplished." 

Even if it's not in your job description, by saying so displays a career-limiting bad attitude. Even if your boss lays an unreasonable request on your desk, reply positively by saying, "Sure, I'll be glad to help you accomplish that. Given my current tasks of A, B, and C, which one of these would you like to place on back-burner while I work on this new assignment?"

"This response clearly communicates a prioritized workload, alongside a willing attitude to help," she says.

"But we've always done it that way," or, "That's not the way we do it here."

Successful people are passionate about innovation, finding a better way of doing something. In fact, Steve Jobs said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." For this reason, effective managers value employees who demonstrate creative thinking, flexibility, and problem-solving skill, Price explains.

"These phrases, in one fell swoop, reveal you are the opposite: stuck in the past, inflexible, and closed-minded," she says. "Even if you disagree with someone's idea, say instead, 'Wow, that's an interesting idea. How would that work?' Or, 'That's a different approach. Let's discuss the pros and cons.'"

"It's not fair." 

She got a raise, you didn't. He was recognized, you weren't. That department is receiving funding, yours isn't. "Injustices happen on the job and in the world every day," she says. "Successful people are proactive about issues versus reactive. Instead of complaining or whining, take action: document the facts, build a case, and present an intelligent argument to the person or group that can help you."

"He's a jerk," or, "She's lazy," or, "My job stinks," or, "I hate this company." 

Successful people avoid words of judgment, insult, and negativity, says Price.

"Regardless of your feelings or the circumstances, avoid making unconstructive or judgmental statements that convey a negative attitude toward people or your job." If a genuine complaint or issue needs to be brought to someone's attention, do so with well-documented facts, tact, consideration, and neutrality.

"Nothing tanks a career faster than name-calling or mudslinging," she says. "Not only does it reveal juvenile immaturity, it's language that may be libel and fire-able." Successful people choose words carefully to state observable facts and avoid disparaging language.

SEE ALSO: 11 Things You Should Never Say At Work

Join the conversation about this story »

Digital opportunities flourish per hour, day, week, etc for businesses of all sectors. However, smaller outfits host limited resources. Therefore, owners seek automated marketing, allowing for focus on internal affairs and sales rather than online marketing endeavors, beneficial to the business yet requiring steps foreign to many owners.

While the use of automated marketing tools seems obvious, selecting the right one for a respective business is not always clear. Have you considered switching marketing automation programs? Consider eight steps for a smooth transition.

Assess

Note short and long-term business goals. Is current software helping the business achieve such? If not, note reasons why, like poor user experience, limited abilities, etc. Next, observe the problems with a current system to shop for a newer one. Supplement available online services with posing questions to peers and in-industry friends.

Shop

Use the inefficiencies of current systems to shop for new potential. Use search engine operators to further define the search. For example, place “marketing automation software” (in quotation marks), coupling the term with sought adjectives like “easy-to-use” or “economical.” Make note of free trials and related limited options. Though free trials are convenient, such periods often lack the ‘full suite’ of tools, allowing an owner to accurately assess the software’s value to the business.

Definition

Owners assign workers to seek marketing tools while others address the need alone. Whether convincing others or yourself, align the program’s abilities with in-house business goals and needs. While the notion of automating and associated benefits sounds like a great idea, bosses won’t be ‘sold’ on the idea of implementation unless in-house crews can clearly demonstrate how software expedites the achievement of business goals.

Devotion

Most automation programs ‘do the work’ for in-house teams, yet proper attention to capabilities is a factor of success. Ensure team members devote time to learning how to operate systems and advanced options. Alternatively, consider devoting a team member toward the exercise of operating, measuring, and reporting upon the automation program. Furthermore, explore third-party marketing solutions; read more at PosiRank.com.

Record

Many marketing tools allow for free trial periods. In-house marketing teams, third-party agencies, or CEOs trace whether tool outcomes meet initial intent. Record outcomes, engagement levels of the public and germane metrics associated to the success of the tool. Use recorded data to compare several tools or make an argument to use particular software for respective campaigns or at limited capacities.

Offline Measurement

The ultimate purpose of the automation program is to increase sales. Ensure sales are influenced, aligning offline measurement efforts to couple online metrics. For example, if a particular program aids social media engagement, automating Twitter or Facebook posts, ask incoming customers about how they learned of services. Further defining the process, observe whether customers come from particular digital properties, or if digital efforts influence only some personas of a larger targeted market.

Integrate

Integrate new marketing tools with other reporting and measuring software programs. For example, if automated tools place content on social platforms, use other tools to measure shares, engagement levels, likes, comments and more to define a ‘sweet spot’ to use for subsequent content releases.

Share

Does your brand operate premium-marketing software to improve user experience, selection, efficiency of product, and better relate to existing consumers? Share the news with present brand advocates and potential consumers. Marketing tools make operations more effective, and consumers like knowing brands continuously strive toward excellence. Make the use of marketing tools a public relations effort as well.

Further Considerations

As mentioned above, consider allocating personal time to learning chosen systems or assign in-house crews to learn, leverage, and integrate software. Many times, limited systems or usable data are not concerns; ‘how to use’ systems and ‘finding ways to implement provided metrics’ are major concerns of brands that are uncertain about chosen automation programs.

Automation is great for making the most of provided resources and business time. However, automated marketing solutions are not always effective in isolation. Use automation in combination with manual research, competitor analysis, and ongoing reading of search engine optimization and online marketing materials.

Depending on present nature of business and future aspirations, an owner may supplement in-house operations with third-party marketing agencies. Some feel comfortable allowing third parties to execute all marketing and advertising endeavors, yet agencies address exclusive needs related to content, social media, pay-per-click advertising, etc.

Execute the above steps for a smooth automated system transition. Furthermore, assess present states of business to make projections, helping to define better systems and modify ongoing business goals.

Airbnb launched their new brand image yesterday, with an entirely new look, style and logo. This has caused tremors throughout the creative world. “What does the new Airbnb logo look like?” A dog? a female sex organ? The answers are endlessly, hilariously varied.

That’s not to say, however, that we don’t love the redesign. Airbnb have matured from the cold, clunky blue text favoured by San Fran tech startups to a slick, simple and meaningful logo that in its essence represents Airbnb’s core pillars as a lifestyle brand. People, places and love. That’s not bad for an ‘A’.

This all got us thinking about other great logos that truly identify with the brand (Thanks for the distraction, Twitter). At its best, a logo should identify with your brand. Who are you? What do you do? What do you represent? A simple and memorable logo will be a thousand times more valuable than an over complicated design with pictures, swirls and perhaps a cow shooting lasers from its udder. Though that would be awesome, right?

Here are five (pretty well known) logos that we think are just awesome!

1.

Forever synonymous with all things sport, fashion, athletic and cool. The Nike swoosh is probably the most famous logo in the world, which for us, as web designers is the ultimate. The best bit about it, the best known logo in the world (probably) only cost them $35! Although they did compensate designer Carolyn Davidson with 500 stocks later on.

Just Do It.

2.

Steve Jobs, the ultimate perfectionist (other than personal idol of this writer, Jonny Wilkinson). The Apple logo we know and love (to hate) today was initially created in 1976 by designer Rob Janoff. There is a bite, or ‘byte’ taken out of the side simply to demonstrate that the fruit is infact an apple, rather than a cherry. The colours, the simplicity, like the man himself: its genius.

3.

Designed using the simple GIMP image editing software, free to use on Linux, Google Founder Larry Brim claimed he had no Graphic Design skills at all. The iconic behemoth of the Internet now has one of the best known logo in the world. We don’t have to tell you why, surely? Back to the same formula, simple, memorable, relevant. This whole logo design thing is easy, right. Probably wrong, but it sounded good.

4.

The Golden Arches. They call to me even now, I see the sign and I know what to expect. Terrible food quality and great, addictive taste. That kind of association value is vital for a brand’s success and its something that McDonald’s has in spades. Amazing for just a single letter.

5.

Designed by those well known creative types, an accountant. Back in 1887 Frank M. Robinson penned the brand name in Spencerian font which was popular at the time. Slightly more elaborate than the other logos on our list, but still totally memorable.

Clearly, we have chosen some of the largest brands in the world. Ever think that good logo design is what has propelled them to this status? There are loads of cola companies, thousands of trainer manufacturers, but none have reached the success of Coca-Cola or Nike. So, when designing your logo just remember that. Its very easy to get carried away in small details.

In the latter part of the 19^th century John Wanamaker, the father of modern advertising, is reputed to have said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Imagine you could demonstrate and manage the impact of marketing on revenue? Imagine you knew which half of your budget was well spent?

For a B2B company with sales cycles of more than six months this may still not be easy. Notice we are not talking about a labor of Sisyphus, pursuing marketing ROI on a single marketing initiative.

Measuring the impact of marketing means being able to attribute revenues back to all marketing initiatives that helped accelerate and earn that revenue. Another alternative, tracking marketing lead sources, which is similar to “first touch attribution” and while easily implemented, is not a substitute for recording 100% of the marketing interactions with contacts during their buying journey.

To successfully attribute marketing to revenue requires marketers:

1. Record all contact interactions with marketing initiatives.

2. Associate known contacts with opportunities in your CRM.

3. Weight the valued marketing interactions fairly.

In the past ten years there have been several developments on the marketing technology front that aid us in overcoming these challenges. Marketing automation records prospect interactions with marketing initiatives.

Since Wanamaker’s time we have been able to record the cost of our marketing outreach. The problem was we didn’t know which half of it was being effective unless they placed the order immediately because we could not see nor measure their interaction with our marketing initiatives.

In an age dominated by Digital Marketing,measuring and recording the prospect responses with Marketing Automation opens the door to demonstrating incremental movements in the buying cycle as a result of each marketing interaction.

A second important technology needed to overcome challenge #2 listed above is the Business Intelligence (BI) platform. For the most part, firms and sales people associate opportunities with accounts, and rarely attach contacts to the opportunity. In the majority of B2B sales five or more contacts may be associated with the purchase process and buying decision, yet only one or none of the contacts are listed on the opportunity.

The result is that the recorded marketing interactions with the 5+contacts are not directly associated with the opportunity or revenue. Enter the BI system. Connect it to your Marketing automation and your CRM platforms, give it some business rules for making the associations between contacts and opportunities, and you have overcome the second challenge.

Now you have arrived at challenge #3. Do you give equal weight to all marketing interactions with all contacts associated with the account, for all time prior to the opportunity closing? Probably not. You will probably need to weight the value of the interactions based on their recency and type. For example, you may choose to discount all website visits prior to 3 months before the opportunity was created, and you may choose to weight a webinar attendance five times greater than a Slideshare viewing.

In summary, your steps to getting started on Marketing Attribution include the following:

1. Integrate your marketing automation system and CRM to leverage the campaign object in the CRM when recording prospect behaviors. This will at least give you some basic reporting and show you some of the gaps.

2. Document and refine your lead management process so that pipeline reports on leads (not just opportunities) can accurately record marketing’s efforts.

3. Deploy a cloud based BI system that has pre-built connectors to your MA and CRM.

4. Define your business rules, configure your reports.

5. Train your staff to leverage reports in making better decisions every day and add measured KPIs into their variable compensation plans.

The knowledge, skills, processes and technologies are finally here to help all the John Wanamakers in the marketing world redirect the wasted marketing budget into initiatives that help sales people sell more. What are you waiting for?

Blog post written by Jeff Pedowitz, President & CEO, and Kevin Joyce, VP of Marketing Strategy, The Pedowitz Group. 

Most of us decide whether or not we borrow money for something based on whether or not we can afford to pay it off soon. Business author Seth Godin suggests a different paradigm: try to only borrow money when the thing you're buying increases in value.

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The best and most consumer-friendly Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems save callers time by easily answering the questions most frequently asked, and by connecting callers with the best available agent for more complex inquiries. The problem is, most IVRs simply don’t do this well.

Consumers call the companies with whom they do business to get something done. These companies implement IVR systems to route callers to the right place quickly, and to speed up the whole process, including actually handling the work where possible. There’s nothing inherently wrong about enabling your customers to help themselves, on-demand, over the phone. We’ve all embraced self-service in other areas of our life, with few complaints: consider ATMs and online banking, self-checkout lines at the grocery store, even refueling our cars. When done well, there’s nothing objectionable about online and over the phone services that enable customers to help themselves. However, when done poorly, there’s plenty wrong with it.

Too often in this numbers-driven industry, we focus solely on containment of callers within self-service. The underlying goal of containment in an IVR is a reduction in call-center costs. Achieving a high level of containment has been a primary goal of call centers across industries for many years. However, focusing solely on containment, and all but ignoring the obvious objective of making your company easy and pleasurable to do business with — that is, delivering a great service experience — has caused a backlash from consumers. We construct multiple hurdles, and nearly trap callers in an attempt to contain them in the IVR. And, in the end it backfires, as consumers inevitably find ways around the IVR. Their first reaction is to zero out. And, when that doesn’t work, they resort to resources such as get2human.com to discover ways to get past more elaborate and annoying IVR hurdles.

Measuring the success of voice applications has traditionally focused on containment, but this measure alone is short-sighted. Both businesses and consumers would be better served if companies switched their focus from containment to resolution and customer satisfaction through ease of use.

Step 1: Focus on productivity

Innately, the word containment is a horrific word to describe how a customer inquiry has been handled. To explain the concept of containment to an outsider, it basically translates to: we blocked X percentage of calls from talking to our expensive customer service representatives. That includes a certain portion of calls that current IVRs are able to resolve, but often additionally include caller hang-ups, dropped callers, or people who were redirected down an incorrect path. There’s no concept of issue resolution – containment does not infer that the inquiry was handled correctly.

At Interactions, when we map a customer journey, issues are resolved, not contained. While an inquiry resolved in self-service does translate to a contained contact, a contained contact does not always translate to a resolved inquiry depending on how the business tracks the metric. We often meet with enterprises that consider abandoned calls as contained. Abandoned, as in, hung up because they got stuck in your IVR, were too busy to wait on hold, or any variety of reasons why they didn’t complete a self-service inquiry. As far as finance is concerned, a high containment rate is good, so in turn, increasing your abandonment rate will make your metrics appear more cost-effective.

However, this is counterproductive to solutions that work to improve routing and self-service and the associated metrics. If you’re able to front-end your callers with a more engaging message with a system that can understand callers’ intents more effectively, in turn your abandonment rate will decrease. And if you had a very high abandonment rate before making improvements, the drop in your abandons may outweigh the containment improvements that a better system will provide. Therefore, if you’re including abandons in your containment rate, when you improve routing, there’s a distinct possibility that your ‘containment’ rate may drop. That makes the effective progress you’ve driven in the contact center look detrimental in the eyes of the Finance department.

For those enterprises that do include abandoned calls in their containment rate, improvements to self-service and routing will have to be offset in other areas. While containment may decrease, you should see repeat calls go down due to less abandonment as well as an improved First Call Resolution rate. Often, the value of a decrease in repeat callers and increased first call resolution will be viewed as secondary metrics in the eyes of finance, so the improvements that have been made will look much less beneficial than in actuality.

When we adjust our thinking from containment to issue resolution, we benefit both the customer and ourselves. Separating abandonment rate and containment rate allows our improvements to be viewed beneficially – we begin really tracking the issues that we resolve. As we get better, our containment rate will definitively increase, while our abandonment will drop, and in turn we’ll see a boost in CSAT, FCR, and a drop in Repeat Calls.

Step 2: Focus on quality

To be clear, resolving customers’ inquiries is a worthy goal, and one that the customer will embrace when it’s done in a way that is easy, fast, and pleasing. Therefore, “resolution” and “experience” are both key measures, and both deserve focus. With that said, we believe that determining the business value of self-service resolution is well understood, therefore we will focus on assessing and valuing the customer experience related to the IVR for the remainder of this article.

There are many ways to gauge the satisfaction of your customers. Net Promoter Score is a powerful method for measuring overall customer satisfaction, at the highest and ultimate level. As such, NPS has gained enormous support and popularity. J.D. Power rankings and awards related to customer service are highly respected and coveted. J.D. Power covers multiple service areas and delivers a comparative assessment of organizations within industries, and their offerings across multiple dimensions. While both offer valuable insight into customer satisfaction at the highest levels, by themselves they’re not suitable for assessing the impact of your IVR on the customer experience or overall satisfaction.

To assess the experience of your IVR, and its contribution to overall satisfaction, you’ll need a metric that is better suited, and an approach that is specifically designed, for measuring IVR success. We suggest Customer Effort Score (CES), a metric that measures a customer’s perception of the amount of effort they had to put forth to get done, what they called to get done. CES is based on a single survey question that asks, “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” Research shows that CES is better suited to assess an individual service interaction and predictor of future behavior than broader measures. We believe that through careful design, your survey can assess both the quality of the interaction, and correlate the interaction to your broader measures of overall customer satisfaction such as NPS. For the approach, we suggest a method that:

• Provides for a randomized sample, rather than a self-selected sample.
• Allows for clear isolation of the IVR experience from the overall service experience and levels of satisfaction.
• Administers the survey shortly after the original service interaction (minutes, rather than hours or days).
• Allows for cross-referencing to call recordings and other call related data (e.g., CRM).
• Permits correlation to broader customer satisfaction ratings.

In conclusion, we believe that success is more completely measured and holistically improved when we focus on productivity and quality. Metrics and methods are available that allow us to measure levels of success across both dimensions. But in the final analysis, it’s the action we take to improve satisfaction and performance, based on the insights uncovered by the data, that drives customer success.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a social seller. Certainly not to the extent that some of the social media superstars out there are, but enough so that I don’t have to deploy any other means to generate demand. Add that to inbound from referrals and repeat business with past clients, I’m in pretty good shape.

I get how social works, the do’s and don’ts, the platforms, the upside, and the downside.

This is what concerns me: Social selling isn’t for everyone. Not for every buyer and not for every seller. And social selling doesn’t have an on-off switch. It’s not binary. There are degrees to which it can facilitate making contact, enable you to enhance relationships with potential customers, provide value to those customers, and generally get buyers closer to the point where they will buy from you. It’s not all or nothing.

If the industry into which you sell has not made significant inroads into using social networking for research, gathering insights, and connecting with potential suppliers, you are not going to get them there.

Everyone in sales should have a complete, up-to-date LinkedIn profile. The profile should list, for each position, the value that person delivered to their customers. It should not be an online resume, unless you’re looking for a job.

How much further should you, your company, and your salespeople go with respect to using LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and other social platforms? Here is where some well-meaning social selling experts and I diverge.

Social selling is not a universal elixir that will magically overcome a multitude of ineffective or non-existent selling practices. Social will only get you so far. And in some cases, not very far at all.

Even with the increasing wave toward social during the past five years, sales reps still need to be competent in many areas to be effective and efficient. Which of the capabilities in the list attached to the link above are you willing to give up in place of social media skills? And those are only basic selling skills. The list doesn’t include those capabilities that enable experienced salespeople to consistently win business, such as financial acumen, political selling skills, and competitive strategies and tactics, to name just a few.

There is no question that social selling can be extremely effective in some—even many—situations. And I know that social selling will become more and more of a required competency for sales people to succeed going forward, once all the social laggards get on the bus. But for right now, please objectively assess your need for your salespeople to blindly spend time social selling at the expense of what may offer a much higher return.

Finally, if you have assessed the adoption of social within your target market(s) and have determined you need to be there, be very strategic and deliberate when it comes to where and how within your established sales process(es) social should be applied. And, if it’s at all possible, measure that impact.

Graphic source: jensholvoet.com

The post All The Hype Around Social Selling Really Concerns Me appeared first on Dave Stein's Blog.

You’ve got awesome content, and you’re confident your buyers would love it if they would just open your emails. But that’s the difficult part; actually delivering your eBooks, guides and articles in a manner people will be receptive to.

Turns out, email is still one of those ways. In fact, 91 percent of consumers check their email daily, according to ExactTarget, and 74 percent of consumers prefer to receive commercial communications via email, reports Merckle.

Email is working. The Direct Marketing Association revealed that 66 percent of online consumers made a purchase as a result of an email-marketing message. But amongst all of this good news, there is some bad: consumers are overwhelmed by the amount of marketing emails they receive. (More than 838 billion marketing messages were sent in 2013 alone!)

So how do you cut through the noise and get people to engage with your marketing emails? Well, my email inbox is overflowing with advertisers who want me to buy this or try that, but there have been a few emails I couldn’t resist opening and checking out.

By examining my own behavior, I’ve learned a few lessons from the pros.

Subject Lines Need to Leave Me Wanting More

Ann Taylor must have the best email subject line writer in the retailer world. Every email I get, I know it will simply be a discount or coupon for clothes I’ve seen a million times. And still, I open nearly every single email I receive because I just can’t resist. The subject lines are that good.

The Takeaway: Understand what it is your consumers want, then tap into that emotion with your subject line. In this case, buyers want amazing discounts on the items they love. It can range from 15 to 60 percent, so the subject line lures them in to find out how big the savings can be.

Welcome Emails Need to Be Inviting While Pushing Me Forward

I signed up for a 30-day free trial of Honey. I usually ignore welcome emails because I know they are trying to get me to buy the full package. But this one was different. It was inviting and personal. It provided me with the tools I needed to explore the software further and, yes, it gave me the option to upgrade. It was third on the list and valuable for those who are ready. Following that, I was given a personal email address incase I needed anything further.

The Takeaway: Think about how you’d want to be approached after signing up for a free trial or buying something. You don’t want to be pushed or handled. You’d want the information you need to make the most of your trial or new purchase. And you’d want personal care if you had questions. Provide the same for your buyers.

Email Content Needs to Solve My Problems, Big and Small

For many women, buying jeans is a major event. Finding the perfect pair with the perfect fit at the right price is a huge deal. So that is why I loved that Madewell solved buyer problems in its latest email. “Curing the whole bag-out situation” and making the “rearview” look good make me feel like this brand gets me.

The Takeaway: Knowing your buyers’ pain points and what keeps them up at night are your pathway into buyers becoming customers.Understand the challenges you can solve for your recipients, and then talk about it.

Email Videos Need to be Über Helpful to Me

I love my Dyson DC44 vacuum. It makes me want to clean my floors—and trust me, this is no easy feat. I love Dyson as a brand even more since I received a simple email with a video showing me how to clean my vacuum’s filter. A reminder email with a short, valuable how-to video, what more could I ask for?

The Takeaway: Video email marketing offers a return 280 percent higher than traditional emails. So use it, but use it wisely. Keep it simple. Keep it useful.

If You Mess Up, You Should Apologize to Me

Speaking of free trials, I tried one for Plated, a company that will deliver ingredients and recipes right to my door. While the meals were delicious and I enjoyed the convenience, I decided not to continue. So imagine my surprise when I got an email that said my next order of meals were on their way. I wasn’t happy Plated was going to charge me again, so I was relieved when I received an apology email with a little personal flair.

The Takeaway: If you mess up, say so—quickly. Apologize. And, most importantly, make it genuine. It will restore your buyers’ faith in your brand.

You Can Re-engage Me with Clever Emails

How cute are dogs? How great are puns?! Loverly really milked it when it sent me an email to re-engage me after several months of no use. While I loved these cutesy elements, the important parts of this email were the three calls to action to re-engage with the brand. There were also social icons where I could connect with the brand in different ways if I preferred. There were also easy ways to unsubscribe or alter my preferences.

The Takeaway: Draw buyers back in with intriguing emails and content. You can make it cute, but make it valuable. Then if recipients don’t respond, remove them from your list once and for all.

So what does it take to win over buyers and get them to open your emails in their inbox. The truth is, it comes down to good content. From headlines and videos to apology language and enticing calls to action, your email click-through rates depend on quality, valuable content. Email is a successful channel for delivering your content, but it hinges on your ability to create worthy content.

Consumers often find it difficult to trust sales reps. In fact, 92% of people don’t trust companies who cold call them. The average email subscriber gets 416 commercial messages per month and the average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages each day according to Consumer Reports.

People are being bombarded by sales and marketing messages each day, making it harder and harder to forge meaningful relationships with prospective customers. One way sales reps can build trust is by using content to inform, educate and create awareness among prospective buyers. It’s a less threatening way to introduce them to your products/services without going in for the hard sell. Below are five types of content that are especially helpful in building trust.

1. Sales Letter – Whether delivered via email, direct mail or landing page, the sales letter is a good old standby that is still incredibly effective today. Prospects are more likely to respond to sales letters that are short, sweet and to the point. According to MailChimp, emails are more likely to be opened when the subject line is less than 50 characters long.

2. Pitch Deck – Once you have your prospect interested, the next step is to deliver an irresistible pitch that lets them know how your product/service can solve their problem. A great pitch deck tells a story, paints a picture, persuades the prospect that you are the right supplier and that this is the right time to buy.

3. Case Study – It’s time to show and prove. It’s easy to say what your product/service can do but it’s harder to back it up with results. Case studies help you to do just that. Where they really shine is when you are able to show the prospect a case study of when your company has seen success with an organization in the same field and facing the same problems they are. This creates a sense of confidence that you are able to handle the specific challenges they are facing and come out on top.

4. Visual Product Description – There’s an old adage that goes “I can show you better than I can tell you.” 65% of people are visual learners, therefore, it’s imperative that you appeal to their needs by providing a graphical representation of your offer. This can come in the form of a photo, infographic, video or SlideShare presentation.

5. Customer testimonial – It’s important that prospects hear what your current customers have to say about you and your product/service. While your case study may have been compelling, there’s nothing like hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth. According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90% of respondents claim that positive online reviews influence their buying decisions. Reviews and testimonials provide an added level of assurance for the prospect that you are able to deliver on your promises.

Content doesn’t fall into the realm of the marketing department alone. Good salespeople have always understood this. However, smart sales reps can learn from recent advances in content marketing to lean less on the hard sell and a lot more on information sharing with the intention of solving the customer’s problems.

Remarketing is one of the fastest growing areas in online marketing. Google first introduced remarketing ad options years ago, and now Facebook has them too.

You might think most people who use them are savvy online marketers with years of experience in the digital space. But remarketing doesn’t have to be overly complicated – or hard to do.

If you are new to online marketing, starting with remarketing, or just don’t have the time or resources to build and manage a complex, segmented, multi-path retargeting campaign, you’re reading the right article.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the basics of remarketing and give you the one simple strategy you need to get results right now.

Note: Remarketing is also commonly known as retargeting – Google uses the term ‘remarketing’, everyone else tends to use the term ‘retargeting’. I’ll be using both terms interchangeably in this article.

What is Remarketing?

First things first. Just what is remarketing anyway?

You may know that 98% of first time visitors to your site are not going to immediately buy from you. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow remind your unconverted, bounced traffic of who you are, increase your consumer touchpoints and even persuade that lost visitor to come on back and buy from you?

That’s what retargeting can do.

You’ve probably experienced remarketing in action. You’ve visited a website, left it for whatever reason (your webinar started, your cat needs feeding, or you really do need to get back to the thing you were intending to do), then as you’re sifting through other websites or listening to music on 8tracks, you see an ad from the website you were visiting earlier. Their branded image keeps following you around, and you start to feel familiar with who they are. Before you know it, you’re back on their website, converting with an ebook download or even purchasing their product.

That’s remarketing.

How to Create a Simple Ad Retargeting Campaign

If you’re making a basic remarketing ad, it’s not that difficult to set up. Whether your objective is to gain brand awareness or generate clickthroughs for conversions, setting up one campaign can be done in three simple steps.

The three steps to technically set up a campaign are:

1. Create a remarketing campaign in Google AdWords, Facebook, or a third party ad provider (like Wishpond).

2. Create your retargeting ad by following the steps of your ad provider. You need a memorable headline, an eye-catching image, persuasive and short ad copy, and an irresistible Call to Action (CTA). We’ll go through the elements of a high converting ad in the next section – stay tuned.

3. Add a remarketing tag to your website. This is a snippet of code you copy and paste to embed on your entire website. Paste the code on all the pages from which you want to remarket bounced traffic to (for example, your homepage, pricing page and specific landing pages). The code looks something like this:

When someone bounces from your site, they get a ‘cookie id’. Your cookie (now in their browser) follows your lost traffic as they visit other sites.

Your branded ad can be shown wherever they are online – you don’t have to guess which sites they’re going to be on.

Create the Perfect Retargeting Ad

The better your ad is optimized and personalized to reflect your business and your website visitor, the more likely your ad is going to achieve the results you need.

There’s four main components of a successful retargeting ad:

• Headline
• Image
• Ad Copy
• Call to Action

Let’s dive in to the best practises of each component:

Headline

For a remarketing campaign that’s focused on brand awareness, use your company name and logo as part of your headline. You could include a short tag line too, so long as it doesn’t detract from visitors remembering your brand name.

If you’re using remarketing for other objectives such as increased click-through rates for sales or lead generation, use headlines that invoke an action, such as including the word “free”, “we miss you” or “download your ebook…”.

Image

The image on your retargeting ad is generally the first thing people see on your ad. Make it eye-catching and memorable. If you’re making a brand awareness campaign, your image should be related to your business brand such as the face of your CEO, your brand mascot or even an image of your latest product offerings (so people recall why they visited your site in the first place).

Use a high quality image that’s large enough to clearly see in your ad. Don’t use overly detailed images that are hard to see at a glance. And definitely, leave white space in your ad, and room for your Headline, Text and Call to Action (CTA).

Take your brand awareness deeper, by using your website color scheme in your background.

Image sizes

Use multiple image sizes so that it can be viewed on more of the Google Display network sites.

There’s actually 15 different sizes you can use with a standard image:

Note: You can also use .gif, HTML5 and Flash images – but for a first ad, stick to the basics and understand the ins and outs of what you’re doing first. Kind of like learning to walk before you run.

The most common sizes are 300×250, 728×90 and 160×600.

Personally, I prefer to start with the 300×250 pixel image ad, as they tend to generate the most impressions. Then I A/B test the ad images to find the winner. Then I’d make the image in other sizes too.

Persuasive Ad Copy

Your copy could be as simple as your optimized tagline. This is particularly true when your objective is to increase brand awareness. The more consistent the touchpoints your bounced traffic has with you, the more likely they’ll remember who you are and what you do.

Use pertinent keywords in your copy that will resonate with your market. Use capitalization and bold to draw attention to your keywords.

If your Ads are for click-throughs, succinctly write out 1-2 of your benefits that will seal the deal for getting the click. Retargeting ads are not huge, so keep your benefits to a maximum of 9 to 10 words. Make them easy to read and show why someone should click. Make it a question, and use words like “easy” and “free”.

Call to Action (CTA)

Your CTA is the ask you’re making of your viewers, so make it stand out. After your image, it should be the next thing that captures attention in your ad. Make a CTA button that color contrasts with your background. For example, if your ad is blue use an orange CTA button. If your ad is yellow, use a green CTA button.

Your CTA should motivate action.

If your objective is a clickthrough, use action words like:

• “Download Now”
• “Find out More”
• “Buy it Now”

Create the Right Ad Retargeting Time, Frequency and Budget

A really cool feature about ad remarketing is that you can set not only the duration of your campaigns, but you can also cap the frequency you want your ads to be seen by your bounced traffic. Once you’ve created the perfect ad, think about when and how often to show it for optimal results.

Keep in mind that your ad will show up on any site your traffic is visiting – so long as it’s part of the Google Ad Display Network, or on Facebook.

If you set your ad campaign to follow your bounced traffic for say, a month, you’re not going to want to show your ad every day. You’ll give the impression of being spammy and ‘in your face’ – not really something most visitors find appealing.

Ad Campaign Duration

Set the time frame of your ad by using Google’s remarketing Member Duration. This means your ad will show to each bounced visitor for number of days you indicate.

It’s not like regular online advertising where you set a campaign start and end date. The campaign starts when someone visits your page and bounces – keeping your cookie on their browser.

If you’re using the campaign for brand awareness, set the duration for 30 days, to keep your brand front and center after someone first visited your site.

If you’re using the campaign for an immediate click-through (whether for sales, lead gen, contests or what have you), set the duration for a shorter time.

Remarketing Frequency Capping

You can also set the number of times your ad will be displayed in a day, week or month. Set up a frequency cap that gets your brand seen and familiar but doesn’t also frustrate your market by seeing your ad all the time!

If you’re running the campaign for a month and your objective is brand awareness, set your ads to show a few times per week

If you’re running the campaign for 10 days, and you want an immediate clickthrough, show your ads more frequently.

As with any online advertising campaign, it pays to regularly check your analytics to determine what duration and frequency gives you optimal results.

Budget

Another factor to consider is, of course, your budget. The more times your ad shows (if you’re using CPM) or gets clicks (if you’re using CPC), the more it costs you.

Determine the value of your objective. If you’re using the remarketing campaign to increase brand awareness – what’s the bottom line worth to your business? If you’re using the campaigns for a sale conversion – how much margin can you spend on advertising?

Let’s take a look at a budgeting process for the sale of a t-shirt you’re selling online. Let’s say the t-shirt costs you $10 to make, and you’re selling them online for $20. Your profit margin is $10/ single sale, or 100%.

To sell more t-shirts, you realize you need to market your goods to more interested buyers. You use retargeting campaigns. By budgeting $20/day (or $140/ week), your ad is shown to about 5,000 unique visitors per week (based on industry average). Of those 5,000 visitors, 2% convert. You sell 100 t-shirts in a week.

This gives you an ad retargeting ROI of $1000 ($10/shirt x 100) – $140 (in ad retargeting costs) = $860.

That’s $860 in a week – that you wouldn’t have made without an optimized ad retargeting campaign.

Of course, this is a hypothetical example, and every ad campaign ROI will vary.

Track, Test and Measure Results

Always track the performance of your online ads. Set up metrics based on your campaign objectives.

If your goal is to increase brand awareness, for example:

• Measure ad retargeting impressions to track how many visitors see your ads
• Set up brand monitoring (such as Google Alerts, or paid monitoring that can monitor brand sentiment etc., like Social Mention, Brand Watch or Com Score)
• Track website traffic with Google analytics or your own website metrics

Test your ads with A/B testing. Make two variations of your ad, and use an A/B testing software to split test your ads by showing 50% of viewers variation ‘A’ and 50% variation ‘B’. Track the results you need – such as clickthroughs. If one ad performs significantly better, use that ad going forward.

Measure your campaign results. The more concrete you are with your bottom line dollars, the better you can prove your worth as a marketer – and your results in online remarketing.

For a brand awareness remarketing campaign measure:

• Impressions – by using a CPM (cost per a thousand) campaign to measure how many views your ads get.
• Customer engagement – by tracking your clickthrough rate (CTR).
• Reach and Frequency – by tracking your frequency capping and ad views.

Conclusion

Remarketing doesn’t have to be super complicated. Try out these steps and see the results for yourself.

Many sales managers and recruiters are proud to say that they trust their gut instincts when making hires, but with the number of sales people hitting quota hovering around 58% (CSO Insights), it is worth questioning whether the “gut” helps that much in selecting great sales hires.

Ultimately the hiring manager has to live with a hiring decision – make a mistake and the lack of output from a poor performing sales rep has to be made up somewhere else – so sure, it is natural for instincts to be a component to any hiring process, but based on our experience in screening hundreds of thousands of sales candidates for our clients, mistakes happen when gut alone is used as the basis for hiring decisions.

Why? Because hiring salespeople is complicated, and most people don’t have the tools to properly assess and evaluate candidates, they just default to their gut and hope that it works out.  When it comes to revenue, the lifeblood of any company, hope is a risky strategy.

Learn to expect proof that the people who are going to generate your company’s revenue can achieve their number.  Here are 3 basic reasons, why you should never hire on gut when it comes to sales roles:

1. Objectivity – The “gut” is an emotional yes/no/maybe response based on how one feels at any particular time rather than a thorough and structured investigation of facts.  The problem with this is that an interviewer’s mood can swing from day to day and is influenced by many factors that have nothing to do with the evaluating  – eat a spicy meal before an interview and your “gut” may tell you to take a pass on a great sales candidate (see More structure in hiring = more successful reps).
2. Accuracy – There are an overwhelming number of verbal and non-verbal signals sent out by a candidate during an interview and an interviewer, particularly an untrained one, is prone to misread these signals. What often happens is that a likeable or relaxed candidate is often confused with a capable sales person (see The Most Common Sales Interviewing Mistakes).
3. Cost – The costs of a poor sales hire can be enormous when you consider time and effort to recruit, the time invested in managing and training, and the squandered leads and poor impressions made on prospects (see Doing the Math on Bad Sales Hires).

There is no doubt that gut is an unavoidable factor however, next time you see yourself falling prey to making a decision based on gut, ask yourself if you have the proof required to hire this individual.  Do your homework on references.  Feel free to ask for a business case or have them do a presentation to you.  Ask the same questions multiple times in multiple ways and look for inconsistencies.  At the end of this process, you may still want to hire the person but now you will have proof.  If this extra work saves just one bad hire, you will have saved yourself a huge amount of time, effort, grief, and money.

To your success!

Image courtesy of iosphere | freedigitalphotos.net

The post 3 Reasons Not to Trust Your Gut When Hiring Sales People appeared first on Peak Sales Recruiting | Sales Recruiter.

SPONSORED POST

This sponsored post is produced in association with CoPilot. 

Talk to any sales rep in the tech world, and you’ll hear about the gap. It’s the gap between marketing and CRM. While maybe not as big as the Grand Canyon, that gap is big enough to hold the mile-high frustrations of countless sales representatives who’d love to spend more time selling and less time in task management.

The gap is understandable when you look at where the focus has been until now. Marketing automation has been honed for years with platforms like Marketo, Eloqua, and today’s platforms like Autopilot making the jobs of marketers more efficient and streamlined. But these platforms are intended to build and execute multi-channel campaigns. They remain the turf of the marketing team.

At the same time, CRM tools like Salesforce and their competitors help sales teams manage pipeline and forecasting. For sure, they incorporate automation, but generally speaking, these automated capabilities do more to support organizational management rather than the real sales work of interfacing with customers or prospects. They simply don’t do a good job of automating outbound prospecting.

Reducing the grunt work of sales

Here’s the reality: For many sales reps on the front lines, conducting day-to-day business through a CRM means countless numbers of tasks that need to be manually implemented. And after each individual task, the sales rep needs to create and schedule an additional follow-up task. All these distinct activities end up compounding one another and chewing up huge amounts of time, from tracking leads to managing email, scheduling follow-ups, and reporting. Not only does productivity get beaten down; so does morale.

Now, imagine the grunt work taken out of the sales rep’s job. Imagine that he or she can stop being a taskmaster and spend more time creating opportunities, qualifying leads and closing business. This is where sales automation comes in, the third spoke on the CRM/marketing automation/sales automation wheel. 

Entrants in sales automation like the platform CoPilot are designed to automatically engage prospects through outbound drip campaigns created by the sales team then automatically follow up based on behavior and deliver only engaged prospects into the sale’s person’s inbox.

Redefining productivity 

The hopes for sales automation are big. Some suggest it will change how sales professionals define a productive day. For example, those in sales have long been taught that a good sales rep can perform 50 to 100 activities per day. Advocates of automation see a world where that can turn into 500 or even 1,000 activities per day — but where most of these tasks are automated, increasing the number of warm leads and freeing time for meaningful engagement with prospects.

There’s also the hope that sales teams can apply learning based on tracking and outcomes. Let’s say a top-performing sales rep is getting a 48 percent open rate when the rest of the team is averaging 33 percent. With automation, the vision is to leverage the most compelling content and automate the hell out of it.

The ultimate driver is for increased revenue and company growth. That’s hard to argue with, and it’s my belief that sales automation will become one of the essential factors in getting there.

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I recently delivered a marketing automation best practices session to a veteran team of B2B marketers. While some of the ideas I’ve shared got traction with the team, at the end of the session, one of the managers spoke up and provided the feedback that her team has “plenty of experience running email marketing campaigns” and quite a few of the things I’ve shared with them are already “well embedded in our marketing routine”.

I was surprised. After all, prior to the session I did my homework. I analysed the client’s marketing system historic data, and intentionally picked just those best practices and tips that hit specific issues I’ve uncovered. But very quickly I realized my surprise had little merit. I was also reminded that it wasn’t the first time a client downplayed the importance of optimizing their email marketing practice. Why?

Because email marketing has been around forever.

Well, not forever. But long enough to receive the same kind of treatment that a single average performing student will receive in a class that’s otherwise filled with brilliant outliers and complete idiots. Yes yes, we know you’re here, but since you’re not breaking our charts with your performance scores or flattening it with your stupidity, well, just keep being the jolly good boy that you are, see you at graduation.

Think about it. Email marketing seems so easy to understand and operate. It’s not surprising that B2B marketers take it for granted. Here’s why:

You don’t need to learn how to interact with a thousand bits of fluctuating data like you do in, say, Google AdWords. Luckily, there are plenty of PPC vendors who’ll gladly do that for you.

You don’t need to figure out the black secrets of SEO, or keep track of Google’s ever changing search ranking algos. Are guest blog posts OK today? should I spend my acquisition dollars on building links, driving shares, or eating exotic cupcakes? who knows.

You also don’t need to spend hundreds of hours in the time-wasting expanses of social networks, trying to engage influencers in a non-awkward way, or just hoping Facebook hasn’t yet completely eliminated organic reach.

Heck, you don’t even have to worry too much about creative, since your recipients are usually enterprise employees who receive their emails wrapped in their Outlook client with images disabled by default, because of course they are.

No. All you need to do is this:

Define your list criteria. Write something. Send. Check the stats. Voila.

Herein lies one of the biggest fallacies of modern B2B marketing, and a trap well worth your time avoiding. Not only do marketers who avoid it see much better results than those who ignore it, but they’re also cooler people and live longer.

So here’s what you, dear B2B marketer, need to do to ensure those engagement numbers stay up.

1. Scrub your data clean. Then do it again.

This advice is as difficult to consistently implement as it is basic. Your organization has multiple data feeds into its marketing database: lists of event attendees, lists of leads received from 3rd parties, purchased opt-in lists (yikes), , campaign landing pages, and potentially a few others as well. Keeping it all clean and coherent is a chore, for sure. But it’s worth it. Here are a few way you can keep your data in shape, ideally before or at the moment it enters your database:

• Implement an Excel template for list uploads, with validation rules that enforce things like phone number validities, country code conformity, campaign identifiers, etc.
• Use an API-enabled data validation and enrichment service, such as StrikeIron or one of its many equivalents.
• If you have a marketing automation system in place, use triggered workflows that kick in whenever a new lead is added to the database and address anomalies such as an empty company name field, email addresses from low quality domains, and others.

2. Work on your target group selection criteria, hard.

If you’ve ever attended a writing workshop, you’re probably familiar with the following piece of advice: Write something. Then cut it by half. And then by another half. (yes, I know I totally ignored the advice when writing this piece. Sue me.)

The same applies to your campaign lists. Whatever your initial list definitions are, consider adding more filters to trim the the resulting list further. The rationale is simple: targeted sends produce , always. Why? because the wider your distribution list, the higher the likelihood of its contents being irrelevant to the recipients, of hitting spam traps, getting marked as spam, or getting a high unsubscribe rate.

Also, you’ve spent top dollars getting names into your database, so why the heck are you so flippant about abusing their inbox and losing their ear?!

3. Use context to clear the way for your content

Imagine a high ranking official hurrying in her black executive car to an important parliament session. Policemen on motorcycles and vehicles, sirens blaring, clear the path for the car as it zips through crowded streets and traffic jams.

To get to your recipients, your content, your message, needs to fight its way through the cacophony of noise and the crowds of other marketers trying the same. Context can be a powerful tool to cut through the mess and allow your message to reach its destination.

Here are some contextual signals to use in your email messages:

• Include a reminder of how the recipient’s email address was acquired
• Provide indications of a recent engagement, such as an event both of you attended, a meetup or a phone call
• If your intention is to be informative (always a good idea,) hook into current newsworthy events to accentuate the relevancy of your message.

4. Use behavioural signals to engage those more likely to respond

Most marketing automation systems, and some email marketing systems as well, can provide you the ability to collect engagement signals outside of the email channel, such as your website, or CRM. Engagement signals let the marketer know, either in real-time or in retrospect, how a person interacted with the marketing asset. Examples are clicks on email links, visits to specific web pages, application usage data (particularly useful in SaaS products), form fill outs, a video view, and more.

Using engagement signals within your email marketing program, especially recent ones, is a good practice to uphold. It:

• Allows you to demonstrate granular relevancy. For example, you might want to update your audience about a specific feature upgrade in your SaaS product. Instead of hitting the entire database with a message, you leverage app usage data in your target group selection criteria, and send it only to those who’ve interacted with the feature in the past.
• Increases the chances of engagement, by targeting people who have engaged in a recent period with other pieces of email marketing, with specific sections of your website, or even with your inside sales team.
• Provides you with the opportunity to apply dynamic content that demonstrates how up to date you are with regards to their recent interactions. This tactic is widely used in B2C by sharp online retailers who deploy email campaigns to shopping cart abandoners, with offers related to the products they’ve selected. There’s no reason why it can’t be adapted to a B2B scenario.

This post was originally published on LinkedIn.

Customer success is one of the most essential ingredients for sustainable growth in SaaS. Having a dedicated customer success manager (CSM) is great - but it's just as important that sales owns customer success too.

From a sales perspective, there are three main stages where customer success measures can be implemented:

1. pre-sell: before they're a customer,
2. post-sell: while they're a customer,
3. post-cancellation: after they're a customer.

BEFORE THEY'RE A CUSTOMER

What can sales do before a deal is closed to improve customer success? How can sales drive customer success before a prospect converts into a paying customer?

Qualify For Fit

As a sales person, you want to close deals. It’s tempting to skimp over the qualifying part of the sales process. If a prospect shows interest, if you believe you can make the sale, clearly you should make the sale, right?

Not so fast my friend.

As a sales person, it’s your job to sell to those who should buy your product, not to those who want to buy it!

Properly qualify prospects, and then ask yourself: Is this prospect really a good fit?

Example: Qualifying Prospects

A prospect might come to us and say: “We need bulk email.”

The easy thing to respond? “Oh yeah, great, we have this powerful bulk email feature! It’s going to make you a lot of money and save you a lot of time!” And then you push that prospect into becoming a customer.

But do you really understand what the prospect needs?

Instead, follow up with more qualifying questions.

• What kind of bulk email do you want to send? Marketing, newsletter or sales bulk emails?
• What kind of tracking, which metrics do you need on those emails?
• Do you need HTML style emails or do you need text only?
• etc.

Asking these questions will help you determine whether that prospect is really a good fit or not.

If you sell to a prospect who isn’t really a good fit, just because they want “bulk email” and your product has “bulk email”… they’ll be in for a surprise if the bulk email function doesn’t match their use case.

And by that time they’ll have invested their time and money into your product - when you could easily have saved them both by asking some simple qualifying questions. The customer will cancel, and walk away from your company with a bad experience, and a bad taste in their mouth.

Qualify For Risks

What are potential risks if this prospect becomes a customer? Can they really afford to stay with you? Can this customer survive long enough to truly be a valuable customer? What could potentially affect this customers’ lifecycle?

Example:

At Close.io we had a new sales person who sold a deal to a new startup. Our sales rep and that startup had something in common: they both lacked experience!

Startup: “We have no sales people now, but we’re going to hire 30 interns, and have them cold call potential customers. So we’ll need 30 licenses for Close.io, and then by the end of the month we’ll sort out the interns who didn’t make the cut, so we'll probably keep 15 to 20 licenses.” They had previously shared with us that they had received about $30,000 or $40,000 in funding.

Inside the mind of our sales rep: ‘Wow, 15 to 20 licenses, that could be $3000 in MRR!’

He eagerly pushed to close the deal. “Look, here’s how we’ll do it. You put in your credit card now, and we’ll book you for 30 seats, but we won’t charge for you 30 days. After that, we’ll start billing your card for the remaining 15 to 20 seats.”

What happened next?

Before the trial even expired, 29 of the 30 licenses cancelled! One month we booked $3000 in MRR, the next month we had to put in $2900 churn. Deals like that can totally screw up your numbers.

This sales person should have qualified the risks! They should never have closed this deal. They could just have said: “Hey, do the trial, and after the trial - when you have your numbers down, and really know how you’re going to use Close.io - then we’re going to take your credit card number and close the deal, based on the actual number of users.”

Our sales person should have realized that this was a high-churn-risk customer:

• With $30,000 or $40,000 in funding, they’d burn through their cash real quick, especially when they hire 30 interns!
• Hiring 30 interns to do cold calling - without experienced sales leadership! - and expecting them to bring in deals isn’t going to work in the real world. They just didn't understand professional sales.

Two huge red flags. This is an extreme example, but it’s very common for sales people to not properly qualify for risks, and it'll affect customer success later on.

Set The Right Expectations

Most sales reps sell benefits and make promises to prospects. But you want to take it a step further than that: set the right expectations for what being a customer of yours really entails.

Example: Ease of Use

Prospect: “I want this product to do X, Y and Z easily.”

Sales rep: “Oh, great, this is super easy with our product, you are going to do great!”

When in reality, it might not be that easy - especially if your prospect isn’t tech-savvy, or doesn’t have the kind of expertise and experience you possess.

Understand where they are coming from:

• Have they used a product in your category before?
• Do they really understand the workflow they need?
• Did you explain to them what the actual workflow is going to be?

Example: Promising Benefits

Be mindful of how you convey your benefits.
Don’t say: “You’re going to see a 15% to 30% increase in productivity.”
Do say: “Our customers see a 15% to 30% increase in productivity on average.”

If you promise them 15% to 30%, and after using your product they get 10% - they’ll be disappointed. You will have disappointed them. In the worst case they’ll churn - but even if they stay, you’ll have screwed up the relationship. They’ll always take your word with a grain of salt, will always assume you’re overpromising, and they’re less likely to refer you. The impact you’ll have on them will be diminished because of lack of trust, and that can affect customer success later on.

Onboarding

Do you already have an onboarding process in place for your customers?
If not, create an onboarding experience asap - preferably a good training on how to use your product.

Example: Close.io Onboarding

In the early days, we offered personalized 1-on-1 training sessions to all customers. As we grew and scaled, we started offering a weekly training webinar, where we cover different aspects of Close.io, and how to set it up and get going.

This training has been extremely popular, and it has been extremely effective at helping our customers become better at using the product, and getting more value out of it.

Why Do You Need Onboarding?

It’s not enough to sell the benefits of your product. You also want to sell them the actual implementation. Think about a diet product - you can say: “This diet system will help you to lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks!” They buy, and then you tell them: “Only eat carrots for 6 weeks, and go for a 5 mile run every morning.” Well, yeah, they would probably lose 30 pounds if they'd do that, but nobody is going to do it.

When customers start using your product, they are going to run into challenges. They are not going to fully understand how to use things optimally right from the start. It does require training. They need help configuring and setting things up optimally. If they aren’t using your product successfully - they will churn.

That’s why onboarding is so important.

Are You Selling The Onboarding Experience?

If you DO have onboarding, then SELL the onboarding experience to your users! Don’t just passively offer the onboarding. Instead, proactively sell them on participating: push, convince and coerce them to do the onboarding!

At Close.io, every time we close a deal we tell them: “We’re very excited to have you on board! Now that you see the promise in the product, we want to also make sure that we deliver on this promise. The best way we can deliver is by helping you come on board and train you on Close.io, because it can be very complex and has a lot of nuances. So I highly recommend this Thursday, you do our training webinar, here’s the link, please sign up and have the entire team sign up, and whenever you add new users, please have them sign up.”

We’re selling our customers on the onboarding! It’s not enough to take their money now - we want to keep them happy, successful and productive, so that they stay onboard.

Sell your onboarding, so that your customers actually DO the onboarding!

Get Long-Term Commitments

Get prospects to sign up for a long-term contract or annual plan. You want to get a long-term commitment from them so that all the work you invest into them pays off - and they get a better price and more value.

But you have to sell this. Many startups fail at this - they assume customers are going to sign up for annual contracts by themselves if they want to, and make no serious effort to convert them to annual plans. “We’ll just give them an amazing experience with out amazing product and our amazing service, and they’re going to automatically stay!”

That’s not good enough.

Push people to sign annual contracts. Even before you close the deal. And if somebody came on board on a monthly plan, pitch them again in the next month on the annual plan, and say: “Hey, you’ve been with us for a month. How has the experience been?”

And if they’re happy with it, ask them: “Great, do you plan on using our product for the next 6 to 8 months?” - “Yeah!” - “Well, why don’t you save money and do a one year contract with us, this way you’re going to be with us anyway, but you’re going to save ___ dollars”.

This is how you get more people to commit to annual plans, and reduce churn.

Later on when customers experience problems, they don’t just quit. They won’t be the fickle customer who just turns around and leaves when there’s an issue. And this is in their own interest as well, because switching from one vendor to the next is just going to slow them down, they'll have to change the way they work, and more often then not it's just an out of the frying pan into the fire situation.

They’ll be more committed to finding a solution, and sticking with your product - it buys you more time to solve their problems and make them happy again, and it allows you to invest more effort into making them successful.

WHILE THEY'RE A CUSTOMER

Just because you’ve sold someone and they're now a paying customer doesn’t mean your job as sales person is finished. Beautiful sales opportunities wait among your current customers - don't miss out!

Check in with customers you’ve closed a month or two ago. You want to find out:

• How are they doing?
• Is your product serving them well?

Upselling

Ask your customers:

• Whats the plan for growth?
• How many users are you going to add over the next few months?
• What are other opportunities within this organization to sell this product? What about your support department? What about this other department?

Help your customers to put a plan together to bring more people on board.

Referrals

Ask your customers if they can make referrals to other people in other companies who can also come on board.

Few sales people do this, but if you consistently ask your current customers for referrals, it can become a substantial source of high-converting sales leads.

Let’s say a customer refers you, and you successfully sell to that referral. You’ll have accomplished several things - in addition to closing another deal:

1. You have increased the perceived value of your product in the eyes of the referring customer. Since the person they referred obviously saw enough value in it to make a purchasing decision, others obviously too see the value in this. Don’t underestimate how much social validation matters, even in a professional B2B context.
2. The referring customer (rightfully) feels they made an impact, they feel empowered because they made a difference - thus, they’re more likely to make more referrals.
3. Make the new (referred) customer thank the referring customer for making the referral - and they're going to be even more excited to keep on referring you.

Problems & Technical Issues

You’re going to run into problems, especially if you’re working in a tech company. You’re going to have downtimes, things break, bugs… and your customers are going to get pissed off.

So how do you solve these problems? You either do it from a position of weakness, or from a position of strength.

From a position of weakness:

• Apologize to your customers.
• Fix the problem.
• Try to compensate customers.
• Apologize and beg for their mercy some more. :-(

From a position of strength:

• Apologize to your customers.
• Fix the problem.
• Try to compensate customers.
• Turn lemons into lemonade. :-)

Example: Close.io's Calling Outage
Our VOIP provider suffered from a DDOS attack. The calling function of our sales communication platform was down for an entire day. Now this is a very rare event, and our VOIP provider had never experienced this before. It affected all our customers with calling plans - they couldn’t make any calls from within Close.io.

Some customers complained vehemently. They were upset and angry about a day of wasted productivity and lost opportunities.

We did what any good software company would do: work furiously on resolving the issue, and communicate very transparently what was going on, what users should expect, and finally when the problem was fixed.

We personally gave extra attention to every single customer.

A crisis like this is your chance to shine.

Some of our customers demanded compensation for the productivity loss.

What most companies would say: “Of course, here’s a refund!”

What we said (and what every company who strongly cares about customer success should say): “All right, we’d love to help you guys out and actually strengthen this relationship. You can see how we responded to this situation - and if you’re happy with the way we responded to it, here’s what we’re going to offer: we want to give you guys an additional 5 or 10% discount. But we want to make this a long-term relationship both ways, so that we can work on your success together. So we ask that you guys sign a 1 year contract.”

We had five or six customers who demanded compensation.

How many do you think signed up for a one year contract?

Four!

Always respond from a position of strength! Asking a customer for something in return is fair game. Contrary to what many people assume, it even benefits the customers, because it gives you more leverage to make them successful.

If you do it right, the relationship with these customers will improve - as was the case with the customers who took us up on we’re sorry offer. Just like in personal relationships, overcoming hard times together strengthens business relationships.

AFTER THEY'RE A CUSTOMER

All is not lost once a customer cancels. These make for some of the most challenging, but also most worthwhile sales conversations you can have. Skilled sales professionals have an opportunity to turn these customers around and make them successful with your product. Hustle hard to keep them on board - but don't go comcast on them.

What do you do when a customer cancels their service with you?

First, you call them and ask them for feedback. You want to know what the issue is.

Second, you try to save the customer by communicating from a position of strength. Find opportunities to resolve the issue if you can. It’s worth to invest effort into this. 


At Close.io, every single customer that ever churns, we call and figure out exactly why they churn.

First thing is to understand: What is the reason why they churn. Understand what made them want to leave.

Example: Going Out Of Business

Customer: “Well, we’re cancelling because we’re going out of business.”

Sales rep: “I’m sorry to hear that. Tell me a little bit more about this situation.”

And try to offer customers some help.

If it means that they just need to cut some costs for some amount of time, and then hopefully try to get their business back on track, then you might be able to help financially. Not by giving them money, but by giving them an extended trial or a discount. Sometimes a bit of generosity can give them the leeway to get back on track. But if they’re going out of business for good, give them advice, give them help, give them the support they need - you know how much sweat, blood and tears it takes to build something up, and how painful it can be to have it fall apart. Little gestures can go a long way.

Example: Missing Feature X

Customer: “We’re leaving because your product doesn’t have feature X.”

Sales rep: “Ok, we didn’t have this feature. Did you know that our product lacks feature X when you first signed up? Did our sales do a bad job of understanding your needs? Did we do a bad job when it came to telling you whether or not we have all the features that fit your needs? Or is it something that you figured out later on, you just had a new need, and our product didn’t address this new need?”

The question here is: is that even part of your product roadmap?

Example: Close.io Missing Special Reporting Feature

Customer: “We’re leaving Close.io because we want reporting.”

Sales rep: “Ok, what type of reporting do you need?”

Customer: “We need reporting that graphs and charts how users are behaving based on X, Y and Z parameters.”

Sales rep: “Interesting. Now have you already found another tool that actually does that?”

Customer: “Yeah, we’re looking at this other tool that functions exactly this way.”

Sales rep: “All right, first let's step back and pause for a second. Why did you sign up with us to begin with? For what reason did you originally chose Close.io? What attracted you to us at first?”

Direct the conversation towards the benefits and the value of your product for the customer. This is simple sales psychology: it balances the equation a bit, and creates a counter-force to their desire to leave you. First understand why they chose you to begin with. Then understand what they specifically need, and where the mismatch is.

Sales rep: “All right, so you need this kind of reporting. How would that specifically work? What would that look like?”

Customer: “Well, X, Y and Z.”

Sales rep: “If we had exactly what you said, if we had it in this way, would you consider staying?”

Customer: “Yes, we would stay.”

Sales rep: “If we were able to deliver this feature in the next 2 to 3 months, would you consider sticking around for the next 2 to 3 months until you have that?” 

SCENARIO A [feature is on roadmap, customer negative]:
Customer: “No, it’s just not worth it for us to keep on paying you for two or three months until you release feature X.” 

It’s about aligning the customers’ expectations with the value you provide, and it creates a shared goal for you and your customer within a defined time frame.

These kinds of arrangements turn churning customers into valuable long-term partners, allies and brand ambassadors.

Example: Customer Didn’t Get Enough Support

Sometimes customers churn because they haven’t received the support and customer care they needed, or an issue they were struggling with didn’t get resolved well enough.

This is a great opportunity for you to sell them on you again.

Offer them extra value and attention.

Own up to your problem.

Sales rep: “Hey, we’re really sorry that his happened. We’re committed to making this work. Here’s what we propose. Give us 2 weeks. During this time we’re going to give you an extra level of support, enterprise level of support - we’re going to give you support that we usually charge for. But you’re going to get it or free, we’re going to help you guys become successful, and deliver on the promise that we originally made you. Are you open to that, if we can do that, if we can fix that issue for you? If we can solve that problem for you, would you consider staying?”

Give them that level of support. Be rockstars. Overwhelm them with awesomeness. And then, at the end of those two weeks, make them sign a one year contract.

Sales rep: “Hey, were you happy with the support we gave you?”

Customer: “Yes, we’re happy, your team was awesome. Our problems are solved.”

Sales rep: “Great! Why dont we make this a long term relationship? You saw how we solve problems, you saw how we deal with issues, why don’t we get you guys on board for the long run? We’re going to save you some money, and we’re committing to you to deliver amazing customer success.”

That’s how you not only save customers, but come out stronger at the end of that process.

Summary

You now know how to implement sales-driven customer success in all three customer stages: before they sign up, while they are paying you, and once they want to leave. Keep a healthy balance - don't discount your product, or overdeliver on service, to the point where it becomes unsustainable for you. 

Social Media Marketing for Lead Generation written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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

photo credit: whoohoo120 on Flickr

Let’s say you’ve devised the perfect marketing strategy for your small business, a photograph business. It involves placing ads in papers and passing out business cards. The business comes in, and for a while things are good. After a few more months, however, it seems that the leads have dried up. You’ve had nothing but success at the events you’ve done thus far, but fewer people are responding. So what do you do? Make a new plan, Stan, and it should probably involve social media. Look, I’m not saying your marketing strategy doesn’t have potential, but if you’re not using social media to generate leads, you’re missing out on an opportunity to reach a huge market. Not convinced? Lend me your ear…

Tides Have Changed

photo credit: Flickr

Now more than ever, there has been a dramatic shift on social media from being purely a community to being a viable market. Here your customers sit, just waiting for you to reach them and tell them why they need you at their next bar mitzvah. Small businesses are using social media to create a brand for themselves, making them almost instantly recognisable. Through posts, tweets, pictures and videos, they’re encouraging conversations about their products and services. Social media also makes your company appear more personable. Your customers will feel like they can approach you, ask you questions and potentially pass your name on to their friends.

Content Leads to Leads

In recent years, social media has come away from the community builder aspect and become more of a lead generation and content publishing platform for small businesses. This encourages them to become content publishers, writing blogs and posting photographs in order to further connect with the customer. It works like this: The photographer might show off his or her expertise in a blog explaining the rule of thirds or the best time to use outdoor lighting. He or she then posts the article to the company website and begins posting the link on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with an accompanying photo on Instagram. The followers then read the post, comment and even share it with their friends. The photographer has reached out to more people, who probably have a relative or friend who needs a photographer for an event. The content helps potential clients view the photographer as an expert, and they’ll be more likely to trust the service provider. The links on the various social media sites help point back to the business website, bettering the link profile. Sure, community is a great aspect of social media, but just having people “like” your page just isn’t enough. You have to keep them engaged with new and original content, questions in posts and photographs that will provoke a positive response.

Get Out the Measuring Tape

photo credit: Google Analytics

It is now so much easier to measure social media’s return on investment (ROI). After you establish the goals you want to reach, such as clicked links, filled-out contact sheets or booking dates for events, you need to define a strategy to reach them and find a way to track your progress. Check out these programs:

• Simply Measured
• Google Analytics
• Socialbakers
• Rival IQ
• Zumm

These tools (and others) will help you see your social media efforts in action. You’ll be able to see what is working, what isn’t and what you can do to change that. Some companies rely heavily on paid advertisements, such as Google Adwords or Facebook Ads, and it’s true, they can be very useful. Their value, however, should come from the number of clicks back to your website, and if they aren’t doing that, they’re not really worth it. The possibilities are endless with social media and landing page marketing. Who knows? A social media shift might just lift your small business out of a marking slump.

Michael Bird is Co-Founder and Director of Strategy at Social Garden, a Social Media Marketing, Content Development, and SEO Agency based in Melbourne, Australia. You can connect with Mike on Google+, Twitter, or click through to check out Social Garden’s Blog.

You have a product or service to sell. You need to reach people to sell what you’re offering. You need to break through the noise to get people’s attention, and you need to do it in a way that isn’t annoying so they don’t tune you out.

No pressure.

Here at OutboundEngine, we have read and loved Rand Fishkin’s “Content Marketing Manifesto.” In it, he argues that your content marketing should not be designed:

• to convert customers directly
• to acquire leads directly
• to make sales directly

That is the kind of content that gets you ignored or blocked. Instead, your content marketing should focus on building familiarity, likability and trust.

This is what we do for our customers at OutboundEngine. We send out great content via email and social media so that you, in turn, are perceived as a trusted, professional resource by your customers. That means not constantly talking about yourself, but thinking about what others need and want and how you can help fulfill those needs.

Another way to think of it is, as writer Austin Kleon advises, to avoid being “human spam.” You do that by sharing helpful information so that when you do reach out with your pitch, you’ve built an audience who wants to hear from you. As Austin says in his book Show Your Work, “before you have something to shill, you need to build up a network of goodwill.”

So let’s assume you’ve built up your audience of goodwill. What now?

Use these storytelling tips to add life to your pitch, whether that’s delivered in a blog post, email or brochure.

1) Ask yourself: Who is your audience? What do they want or need?

When you do talk about your company in your marketing, frame the story from your customer’s point of view. What problem are you helping to solve for them? How are you making their lives better, easier or more fun?

Let’s pretend you’re a real estate agent and you want to get more clients. Now, you could send an email with your listings, but that’s the same email that every other agent is sending. Try something different. Sell yourself with a story.

2) We’re all holding out for a hero (or heroine).

Stories work better when we can focus on a character. Give us someone to root for. Chances are your hero is a past client, or it might even be you.  Set up your story. A picture and a quote (or a video) make us feel like there’s a real person and real stakes involved.

Meet Jack and Jill. They’re newlyweds looking for their first house. They have all the details squared away. They’ve been preapproved, they know their budget and what they’re looking for and they’re ready to act.

3) Thrill us with plot or “action.”

This is the most straightforward part. What happened? What is the “inciting incident” that led your hero (or heroine’s) problem? Keep it short and sweet. Think of it as leading up to the main point of your story.

The market is so hot in Austin, it doesn’t matter how quickly we put in an offer. Even if it’s the first day on the market, Jack and Jill are competing with multiple offers, often above asking price. After losing out on four houses, they’re getting frustrated and losing patience.

4) Climax

This is what you’ve been leading up to, the most exciting part of your story. It’s the fight scene or the moment when boy finally gets girl. Wow us.

They have good news—they’re expecting a baby! Now the pressure is really on. Jill would like to move into their new home before the baby arrives, and they’ve found the perfect house in their ideal neighborhood. But can we beat the other buyers?

5) Resolution

How did you and your business solve the problem you’ve set up? Tell us what you did so your client was able to walk away and live happily ever after.

We were competing with multiple offers, but ours was one they picked. After meeting Jack and Jill, the sellers were excited about a young family moving into their home. It reminded them of their own journey in the house, and they wanted to share that. The fact that we offered more than anyone else (and asked for less) didn’t hurt. Now Jack and Jill are excited to start their new adventure together. They close later this month.

6) Credits

Make it really easy for your audience to find you so that when the time is right, they know how to get in touch.

If you, like Jack and Jill, are ready for your new home, get in touch. I will make your dreams come true. Contact me at 123-000-000 or bill@bigdogrealty.com.

7) Bonus tip: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” –Leonardo da Vinci

If da Vinci couldn’t get everything perfect, neither will you. You need to move on to the next thing, so don’t get so focused on a particular blog, email or Tweet that you don’t have time for your follow-up and all of the other things you have to do.

These seven tips can help you create an ongoing narrative with your customers. We recommend sending regular (but not too frequent!) emails, keeping your social media accounts updated and being available to your customers where they already are online. Think about all of your communications as one long story—how you can help your customers make their dreams come true.

Originally posted on the OutboundEngine blog.

Content marketing continues to be the hot topic among digital marketers around the globe, and interest in the discipline shows no sign of abating. Many marketers are all too happy to divert their advertising budget into producing content that connects with their customers on an emotional level, hoping to achieve a level of engagement that will be enduring and drive greater levels of success.

In fact, for many marketing experts, the production of content has never been view as anything but a fundamental requirement. Since the dawn of marketing, it has been content that has communicated directly with customers, content that has interacted with a wide audience, and content that has converted potential leads into guaranteed sales. That said, there are those that remain cynical about the value in content generation, and particularly the associated costs.

The thought of investing thousands upon thousands into a slow-burning, considered content strategy may be somewhat daunting, not least when ‘quick wins’ such as paid marketing have the ability to generate leads in just a couple of clicks. For those working in organic traffic, therefore, it is more important than ever to justify to wary clients that investment in content will lead to long-term engagement and exceptional levels of ROI.

Our infographic below provides a brief insight into some of the arguments for the adoption of a content marketing plan. The figures detailed should act as a starting point for discussion with your clients, helping you identify the core benefits that secure the budget you need for success in your next marketing campaign.

By Rob Petersen, {grow} Community Member

Digital is the only media channel predicted to grow in the next 3 years according to Zenith Optimedia. It is now #2 behind TV. By the end of the decade, many expect is to be ahead of TV. A decade ago, it was just beginning to make an appearance.

Executives say their CEO’s are more involved in digital efforts than ever before and that their enterprises are now investing enough to meet their overall digital goals. McKinsey says companies have to address organizational issues before digital can have a transformative impact on their business.

Do the opportunities outweigh the challenges with the C-Suite? Here are 26 reasons digital marketing matters so much to the C-Suite.

1. 94% of CMO’s believe advanced analytics play a big role in helping them realize their goals (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
2. 87% of CMO’s want to integrate cross-channel touch points (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
3. 83% of CMO’s want to put analytics in place to capture customer insights (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
4. 79% of CEO’s plan to build digital ecosystems capable of supporting complex customer interactions (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
5. 78% of executives and managers say achieving digital transformation will be critical for their organization within two years (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
6. 75% of CEOs fret about the talent gap, studies estimate that there are currently 110,000 unfulfilled tech jobs in the UK alone (Real Business)
7. 78% want social networks to foster collaboration (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
8. 70% of marketing organizations have a chief technologist on payroll; 80% of them report to marketing (source: Gartner Digital Marketing Spending Survey)
9. 69% want a digitally enabled supply chain (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
10. 67% of CMOs feel under prepared because they have made very little progress in coping with social media (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
11. 64% say the pace of technology change in their organization is too slow (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
12. 63% of CMO’s say their companies lack a cohesive social media plan (source: IBM Global C-Suite Study)
13. 53%  indicate their leaders say they “don’t have time” for digital transformation (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
14. 52% say their organization doesn’t even know how to proceed with digital transformation (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
15. Up to 50% of digital marketing activities are outsourced (source: Gartner Digital Marketing Spending Survey)
16. 45% of C-Suite executive say they are highly or somewhat dissatisfied with their management structure for digital (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
17. 41% of savings from digital marketing are reinvested (source: Gartner Digital Marketing Spending Survey)
18. 40% say their company resists digital transformation with a “this is the way we’ve always done it” explanation (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
19. Less than 40 percent of executives say their companies have accountability measures in  place for their digital objectives, either through measurable targets, performance incentives for relevant employees, or an executive “owner” of their digital programs (source: McKinsey)
20. 38% say digital transformation is a permanent fixture on their CEO’s agenda, and only 36% say their CEO has shared a vision for digital transformation with employees (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
21. 27% say the critical time to implement digital transformation has passed— meaning they’ve missed the boat and are now just trying to survive (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
22. 25% of companies will have a chief digital officer in the C-suite by 2015 (source: Gartner Digital Marketing Spending Survey)
23. 23% of respondents fear they’ll lose influence in their organizations if they push for a digital transformation (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
24. Only 15% of companies rank in the “most mature” stage of digital transformation, while 65% are considered “least mature” (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
25. Only 14% says they are highly satisfied with the management structure for digital (source: MIT Sloan Management Review)
26. Only 7 percent say their organizations understand  the exact value at stake from digital (source: McKinsey)

My own belief is the key to success for the C-Suite is steady, consistent commitment. Companies shouldn’t try to “boil the ocean,” but rather, establish near goals, build success stories and scale. By the way, the philosophy to build, test and scale is what digital marketing is all about and is how, much of the time, transformations take place.

How much do you think digital marketing matters to the C-Suite?

Rob Petersen is an experienced advertising and marketing executive and the founder of the BarnRaisers agency. Follow Rob on Twitter: @RobPetersen

The post 26 Reasons Digital Marketing Matters So Much to the C-Suite appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

        

Comments

• Thanks Rhonda. Glad you like the analogy. Yes. There is a lack ... by rob petersen
• Thanks Steve. Appreciate the input. Maybe the best stat was ... by rob petersen
• Rob, love your “don't try to boil the ocean” comment. We ... by rhonda hurwitz
• Wow, great stats to consider. Thanks for sharing. IMO, the most ... by Steve_Dodd
• […] Do the opportunities outweigh the challenges with the ... by 26 Reasons Digital Marketing Matters So Much to...

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To develop meaningful and mature relationships at work or at home we need to develop two filters. The first filter protects you from other people. The second filter protects other people from you.

Filter 1: protect yourself from others. I once worked with a manager who gave blunt feedback in perpetuity: “You’re not a grateful person!” and “You’re just not a great writer!” and “Well, that was dumb!” My response, at first, was to listen as if everything she said was true. On the outside, I became defensive — but on the inside, I returned home emotionally beaten up. Every night my wife, Anna, would listen to the details of the encounters and help me to discern truth from error. One day she just said, “You’ve got to learn to consider the source!” My error was not that I didn’t listen, but that I listened too much. In other words, I needed to learn to filter the feedback.

Filter 2: Protect other people from you. On the other hand, I once worked with a leader with whom I felt I could be completely open. One day she said to me, “I value what you have to say, but sometimes it feels like I’ve been punched in the solar plexus when we talk.” Clearly, I was not doing a good enough job at protecting this colleague from me. I needed to increase the filter of what I shared and how I shared it. (For further reading see Pia Mellody’s work on boundaries).

Learning to apply enough of both filters — but not too much — is tough. Too much or too little can create relationship conflict as depicted in the matrix below (with a hat tip to “The Relationship Grid” by Terrence Real)

Here’s how it works:

If both filters are low, you’re volatile.This is the worst position to be in: you don’t protect yourself from other people or protect other people from you. If you’re in this place you will act like a wounded animal. You will feel hypersensitive to what someone is saying to you but you will speak defensively. You may feel like a victim but will act like a bully.

When you find yourself feeling this way, ask, “Am I seeing the situation clearly?” and “Do I feel like I am overreacting here?” and “Does it seem like the other person is overreacting here?” Apply a tax to what the other person is saying; assume he isn’t 100% accurate. Look for one thing you agree with and discard the rest. Hold back your own words until you feel clearer. Write down what you feel like saying to him (and do it on paper so you can’t send an outraged email accidentally), then review it later.

If you have one high filter and one low filter, you’re either overbearing or vulnerable. If you’re overbearing, it’s is a tricky position to be in; you feel confident but may be unknowingly causing offense. You’re saying what you believe, but may seem too outspoken. The problem is that you may not be adjusting well to other people because you’re not really hearing them. You’re communicating like it’s a one-way street.

When you sense this situation, say, “Perhaps I am being a bit bombastic about this. Do you see this differently?” or “You know, I have been wrong before. What are your thoughts?” Hold back more than you feel like doing.

When you are vulnerable, you protect other people from you, but you don’t protect yourself from other people. You take feedback personally but also struggle to push back on others.

Remember you have the right to be treated kindly. When you find yourself in this situation, think of the words of Dr. Maya Angelou: “There’s a place in you that you must keep inviolate. You must keep it pristine. Clean. So that nobody has a right to curse you or treat you badly. Nobody. No mother, father, no wife, no husband, no­­­ — nobody. You have to have a place where you say: ‘Stop it. Back up. Don’t you know I’m a child of God?’”

And when both of your filters are too high, you’re walled off. In this position, you are basically withdrawn. You’re being overprotective of what you say and what you absorb. You’re not going to give or take offence, but you can seem aloof and a bit cold.

Try opening up a bit. Say, “I want to share something with you, but I want you to be gentle with me on this.”

When we find the right balance with these two filters, we find the sweet spot, and become invincible. Here, we have the ability to know and be known. We can listen without risk of permanent damage and speak without risk of offending. We can navigate complex relationships because we can adapt without losing sight of who we are.

The truth is that we can be in different places with different people. The challenge is to figure out where we are in any particular relationship and then to adjust towards the sweet spot, where relationships thrive.

We all define "success" differently, but most millennials associate it with happiness, good health, a strong social network, and a well-balanced life.  

According to experts, how you spend your downtime as a 20- or 30-something plays a huge part in your ability to achieve these things. 

"If you take time to recharge and pay attention to fitness and your diet, for example, after work or on weekends, you'll set the stage for great life habits that put you at the top of your game at the office," says Lynn Taylor, author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job."

"It's self-perpetuating. A healthy mind and body helps you do your best work. Knowing that you are achieving great results at the office further encourages you to relax and follow your passions during your leisure time — which creates a work-life balance and positive outlook in all your endeavors."

Here are 13 things successful 20- and 30-somethings do in their downtime: 

1. They tend to their social networks. These people typically have a strong social network, "and they understand that constant contact is critical to happiness in their spare time," Taylor says. "The loss of a smart phone is a disaster for most anyone today, but particularly this age group, who thrives on its broad and advanced network of friends through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter."

2. They spend time with family and friends. When they're working or going to school, it's hard for millennials to give focused attention to those they care about, Taylor says. That's why they make an effort to check in with friends and family during their downtime.

3. They exercise. Many successful millennials thrive on good health and seek a natural adrenaline rush, such as a regular fitness program or even extreme sports. "You can go cycling, hiking, kayaking, snow boarding, surfing, scuba diving, and, for the extreme sports lovers, there's bungee jumping and a host of other options," Taylor says.

4. They learn something new. Successful 20- and 30-somethings are typically intellectually curious, seek to remain well-read, and surf the net constantly for the truth. "They don't take much at face value, as the last 10 to 15 years of world events have underscored the need for them to question things that prior generations were more apt to accept," she says.

5. They reflect on their personal and professional success. This age group is often fascinated with how other young, mega entrepreneurs in technology have made it, and the role of innovation, Taylor explains. "In their downtime, they ponder how that career trajectory could apply to them, not because material wealth will give them fancier homes and cars per se — but because they want to make a difference and seek career freedom, which financial reward provides. Successful millennials are passionate about their pursuits — both at work and play."

6. They spend time outside. Enjoying nature and outdoor activities of all kinds contributes to successful people's ability to function at their best during the workweek, physically and mentally. "Successful millennials don't take our environment for granted," Taylor says. 

7. They eat well, with purpose. "Casual dining, especially with friends, is a high priority for this group of people after work or on weekends," she says. "These foodies want to know what they're eating, and prefer organic and healthier foods. Cooking a killer meal is also appealing to many."

8. They travel. Travel can be expensive, but the most accomplished and fulfilled millennials figure out ways to explore new cities or visit friends and family during their time off from work. Why? They crave exciting experiences — and want to learn about new places and cultures.

9. They do something spontaneous. "Successful millennials realize that sometimes you just need to live a little," says Ryan Kahn, a career coach, founder of The Hired Group, and author of "Hired! The Guide for the Recent Grad." "Being spontaneous shows that you are able to think on your feet and make quick decisions, which are also qualities of those that hold leadership roles." 

10. They engage in an activity that supports their passion. They recognize that this is the perfect time to unwind with their favorite pastimes or hobbies, such as shopping, golfing, socializing, reading, painting, or something else, Taylor says. 

11. They do something philanthropic. "Successful millennials are more likely to think green than their demographic counterparts," Taylor says. "Supporting that philosophy with their deeds, not words, translates to success." 

She says many are socially conscious and want to make a positive difference on the planet. "They may volunteer to support a cause that helps the environment, for example." 

12. They tap into their creativity. "Leisure pursuits that tap into creativity, such as playing a musical instrument, listening to their latest musical download, or attending a concert are all popular pursuits for successful 20- and 30-somethings," Taylor says. "Similarly, painting or writing a blog on a topic of passion supports a desire to be innovative and expressive."

13. They recharge. Successful millennials use their downtime to recharge their batteries. They know they'll be able to get more done at work if they're well-rested and focused.

SEE ALSO: 10 Things Successful People Do On Friday Afternoon

Join the conversation about this story »

Author: Jessica Langensand

There are three things that symbolize summer for me: watermelon, warm nights, and a very full Kindle. And while I’m not opposed to classic beach reads (murder mysteries, romance novels, etc.), I feel twice as proud of myself when I’m enjoying books I can apply back at work — it’s the best of both worlds.

So whether you’re up for a summer get-away, or just a relaxing weekend at home, here are my ten picks for books that will help you return to your desk both refreshed and inspired:

1. The New Rules of Marketing and PR

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly – David Meerman Scott (Marketing and Sales Strategist)

Want to learn techniques for communicating with potential buyers, increasing your online presence, and driving sales revenue? Then don’t miss this bestselling how-to guide. This 4^th edition includes case studies, actionable tips, and updated strategies for all the major social media channels, including Instagram and Pinterest.

2. Highly Recommended

Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business – Paul M. Rand (President and CEO of Zocalo Group)

In today’s highly social world, consumers rely on word of mouth more than ever when making a buying decision. Highly Recommended shows you how to find out where and what your customers are saying about your brand, create a “shareable story,” and identify new methods to reach your digital audience.

3. Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World – Gary Vaynerchuk

So you want to knock out your competition and land the sale? Well it’s going to take more than one attempt. Gary Vaynerchuk outlines the winning combination of social strategies (i.e. jabs and right hooks) and high-quality content, helping you present the perfect message at the right time.

4. Your Network is Your Net Worth

Your Network is Your Net Worth: Unlock the Hidden Power of Connections for Wealth, Success, and Happiness in the Digital Age  – Porter Gale

Virgin America’s former VP of Marketing, Porter Gale, explores the power of networking in this thought-provoking, enjoyable read. Gale shares inspiring tales of well-known executives and personal anecdotes to create a framework for using connections to achieve professional growth.

5. Content Rules

Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business  - Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs) and C.C. Chapman (Founder, Digital Dads)

Regardless of the size of your team, or the amount of brand new content you have to share, you’ll establish relevance and credibility if you follow the ‘Content Rules’ outlined by Handley and Chapman. Taketheir advice, and you’ll soon be producing top-notch content that gets your brand noticed!

6. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert Cialdini (Professor of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University)

As a marketer, I’m always trying to think about what makes people act (i.e. click an email, attend a webinar, download an ebook, etc.). This book will teach you the six critical principles of influence you can employ to be more persuasive – a definite must-read regardless of what industry you’re in.

7. Keeping Up with the Quants

Keeping Up with the Quants: Your Guide to Understanding and Using Analytics - Thomas H. Davenport and Jinho Kim

As a manager in any industry, you probably understand why interpreting data is a crucial part of business decisions. For those of us who don’t have a background in quantitative analysis, Keeping Up with the Quants will help you become more data-driven and metrics-literate (Note: I made that term up).

8. Sexy Little Numbers

Sexy Little Numbers: How to Grow Your Business Using the Data You Already Have – Dimitri Maex

Another great book on using data to generate profit is Sexy Little Numbers. In an easy-to-understand manner, Maex outlines how to turn what may seem like meaningless numbers into valuable information that improves your bottom line.

9. Epic Content Marketing

Epic Content Marketing : How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less – Joe Pulizzi (Founder, Content Marketing Institute)

“Marketing Less” isn’t a term most marketers hear every day, but Joe Pulizzi  (aka the “Godfather of Content Marketing”) illustrates how to capture the attention of your audience with a focused content strategy. Check out this page-turner to get a complete overview of content marketing strategy, and to learn processes you can immediately implement.

 10. Contagious

Contagious: Why Things Catch On – Jonah Berger

Why do some YouTube videos go viral, and others get a handful of views (mostly from your immediate family)? Why did I decide it was a great idea to wear velour pants with JUICY written on the butt when I was 13? Is that inappropriate? In his book, Jonah Berger explains how and why certain things catch on, which can help you not only understand trends better, but also employ these tactics to make your own product catch on.

What are some of your marketing must-reads? What’s going in your beach bag (or briefcase) this summer? Feel free to leave additional suggestions in the comments!

Summer Must-Reads: 10 Marketing Books to Throw in Your Beach Bag was posted at Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership. | http://blog.marketo.com

How much should founders and CEOs participate in developing an outbound sales process for their companies? Better to get their hands dirty and immerse themselves in the nitty gritty of sales, or to delegate it to someone else so they can make the big strategic decisions and work on other things?

This question was at the core of the challenges facing the man I recently had breakfast with: a highly accomplished CEO and founder of an incredibly successful SaaS company.

Their startup is doing great. Steady, sustainable growth through inbound marketing and channel partnerships. The whole machine is running beautifully.

Except that there's a lot more opportunity out there for them than what they're getting from inbound and channel partnerships. And our successful SaaS CEO is hungry for that opportunity. How can he get access to that vast untapped potential?

Say it with me kids: Outbound sales!

Developing A Sales Process

He did some things right: he hired a couple of young, ambitious sales reps who feel excited to tackle the challenge.

He learned about different sales tactics and outbound strategies. He did his best to supply them with the right leadership (he mentioned how he already replaced several non-performing heads of sales).

He spelled out what needed to be figured out:

• lead generation
• prospecting
• qualifying leads
• funneling high quality outbound leads to the account execs
• what tools to use
• using cold emails and cold calls to get to decision makers
• etc.

But in all his efforts to get outbound sales rolling, there was one crucial thing that was missing:

Him!

He pretty much handed off the development of the outbound sales process to his employees, and spent about an hour a week to check in with them. That's not enough. 

In this crucial stage of your company, where you're experimenting and learning how to do outbound sales successfully, you as the founder or CEO need to be knee-deep in the sales hustle. You need to be actively involved, you need to participate.

You need to get your hands dirty doing all the things you want your sales team to do. Even low level activities like sourcing leads to reach out to, or dialing dozens of numbers in a row just to get one prospect to pick up the phone. Whatever it is. Do the grunt work. 

Why CEOs & Founders Should Be Involved In Building The First Sales Process

Many founders and CEOs push back when I tell them to do this. "But Steli, I could be closing six or seven figure channel partnership deals, and you want me to spend my time cold calling prospects that at best bring in a couple thousand in MRR?" 

That's exactly what I want you to do. Not because of the couple thousand in MRR that you might potentially get from doing cold calling. But because of the many millions of dollars your startup could steadily earn if you build a strong outbound sales process.

Bambi, Meet Gozilla

To build that sales process, you need to know what it's like to do all the things you want your sales team to do. You can't take some ideas you picked up from a book, from a friend who grew sales for his SaaS company by XX million dollars, or from the charismatic speaker at a conference.

You need to take your beautiful and precious ideas and see what happens to them when you put them out there in the battlefield of harsh realities. Because if you just hand your untested ideas over to someone else, and it doesn't work - you'll never know if it doesn't work because the idea was wrong, or because the person responsible didn't do it right.

"The best way to find product/market fit is to get in front of customers and validate your assertions. Start early, and validate before you build anything. Use wireframes of the product to walk customers through your vision, then keep validating throughout product development.

Develop objective listening skills, and don’t get caught up in selling too hard. Often entrepreneurs only hear what they want to hear, a trait sometimes referred to as “happy ears.” When a customer disagrees, you’ll often hear these entrepreneurs say: “They just don’t get it.” This is a good indication the entrepreneur isn’t listening."

- David Skok, Accelerate Your Startup: Get the Right Product/Market Fit

David writes about finding product/market fit - but the same principle applies to building your outbound sales process. 

Nobody Understands Your Business As Good As You Do

Nobody is as qualified to do this as you are. Nobody else has the big picture understanding, combined with the nitty-gritty knowledge of the mechanics of your company. 

"How can you send some young MBA “biz dev type” out into battle to sign up partners when you’ve never met with your potential business development collaborators and heard what their goals are and how you can meet them?  If you send out the biz dev guy I’m sure he/she will ink deals. That’s what they do. But you’re unlikely to yield results unless there is a close alignment of benefits for them and for you."

Mark wrote about biz dev deals, but the same principle applies to developing your outbound sales process. As a CEO/founder, nobody is as attuned to your business as you are - that's why you are the one who needs to do this. 

You Get Unfiltered Insights

Doing the grunt work is the price you pay for getting an unfiltered view of the marketplace. You need these first-hand experiences: the reactions of the prospects when you try to get their attention.

You need to hear with your own ears the words they speak when you pitch them.

You need to see their responses with your own eyes.

You need to understand what it takes to find a hundred quality leads, what works and what doesn't.

It's not good enough to rely on the interpretations your sales reps provide you with, because they don't see the full picture. They lack the context required to make the kinds of judgment calls which will shape your companies' outbound sales process.

When Can You Hand It Off To Someone Else?

Your ultimate goal is to build a scalable and repeatable sales process that doesn't require any handholing or personal attention from the CEO or founders - but that's exactly how you start out. You start out holding hands, you start out dedicating your personal attention to closing deals and figuring out how to make things work.

Once you transition from the sales exploration phase to the sales execution phase, then it's time to find a sales leader and let her take ownership of your sales operation. In wrote about the four stages of startup sales in my sales hiring post, and the transition point between sales exploration to sales execution is between stage #2 to stage #3.

What’s a faster way to connect with a target audience than building thought leadership from scratch? Working with influencers that already have authority and credibility with the target audience you want to reach.

Why so many companies focus only on buying their way into new markets and audiences I may never know. Working with industry influencers through networking, interviews co-created content has been an instrumental approach for our boutique and specialized agency. By connecting with influencers and working with them to achieve mutually beneficial goals, we’ve grown our business substantially.

This post is an in-depth look at how your business can tap into the power of influencers and co-created content through 7 steps that go from planning to implementation to measurement.

And at the end, there’s a $500 off discount code for an upcoming digital marketing conference where I’ll be presenting on this very topic.

What are Influencers and what is Influencer Marketing?

Influencers are credible, authoritative individuals who have an engaged community that follows and acts on their thought leadership.

Influencer Marketing is working with influencers to affect change in thought and action amongst a network towards goals that are mutually beneficial to the brand, the influencer and their community. Whether it is a partnership to co-create content or more general advocacy, influencers open doors for brands to connect with engaged consumers they might otherwise never reach in a meaningful way.

Strategies for establishing influencer marketing programs:

What connects a brand with an influencer in a mutually beneficial way isn’t deep pockets and a famous person with high fans, friends and follower counts. Meaningful connections and influence start with context and relevant subject matter – topics. Brands that clearly define customer needs that intersect with how a brand wants to be known, can use that insight to identify topical focus for influencer marketing.

The logic is basically this: Find, qualify and engage people that are already authoritative and effective in their ability to influence your target market on the topics you both care about. Armed with specific topics of focus, influencers can be identified, qualified and engaged through a variety of tools, tactics and channels ranging from influencer discovery services to social networking to email marketing.

Creating value for influencers in a way that inspires promotion of brand messaging to the influencer’s community can support overall brand content marketing objectives. Building relationships with influencers that can deliver measurable impact keeps influencer marketing programs efficient and mutually beneficial.

Effective Influencer Marketing strategies involve an ongoing, mutually beneficial effort that bears fruit over and over again. Companies that can find influencers relevant to their own target audience and then provide those influencers with value, have a great basis for an influencer marketing program.

How to measure the success of influencer marketing programs aligned with business marketing objectives:

The success of Influencer Marketing programs relies on effective use of goal setting and identification of key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, it may be hypothesized that engaging with a certain group of news and social media influencers will increase online conversations and citations about your brand’s solutions and benefits, resulting in media placements, blog mentions and inbound inquiries for services.

A great example of this is The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn (client). Influencers were included in the creation of the guide and it was promoted and repurposed through multiple channels. With both influencers and content communicating the value, visibility of LinkedIn as a Marketing solution (vs. recruiting and jobs) resulted in a huge ROI on the program and millions in new revenue.

The KPIs for such a program might include influencer solicitations responded to, quantity and sentiment of influencer mentions of the brand, the social shares, engagement and links to brand content from influencers, the percent of referred traffic from influencers that turns into leads and sales, the percent of news media mentions, citations and links, the percent of referred traffic from news media that turns into leads and sales. A correlation of these KPIs can be presented as an overlay to web site traffic and conversions over time.

While there a number of strategies for using influencer marketing to achieve overall business goals, one of the most effective involves connecting with influencers to co-create content. Finding common ground between a target audience, brand and influencers enables content co-creation to provide value to all involved.

An example of co-created influencer content that really shines is the series of conference eBooks we’ve been creating for Content Marketing World over the past 3 years (2012, 2013).

For the 2014 edition (pictured above), over 30 major brands and 10 industry thought leaders are contributing their insights into 4 different eBooks covering important content marketing topics like: Content Marketing Strategy, Audience Development, Visual Content and Content Marketing ROI.

The objective of these conference eBooks is to create awareness of the CMWorld conference by assembling strategic and practical insights from some of the most influential brands and thought leaders in the industry. The eBooks serve as a useful resource for any marketer who might want to attend the #CMWorld conference. They also promote the influencers that contributed. The eBooks also provide a living example of TopRank’s content marketing and influencer marketing expertise. On top of all that, the eBook series has become so popular that it has a 3rd party sponsor – Curata.

Performance measurement in reaching these objectives will come at many different levels and for multiple goals. The key performance indicators will range from the social reach, links and mentions at the individual influencer level, to the specific eBook they are a part of and to the overall campaign. Business outcomes to be measured include inquiries, leads and conference registrations.

We’ll be releasing the 4 Content Marketing eBooks (Strategy, Audience, Visual, ROI) starting in August so be sure to watch Online Marketing Blog and the Content Marketing World websites for their release.

With mutual benefit, influencer participation with content marketing projects creates opportunities for brands to tap into the influencer’s sphere of influence. Incentive for influencers to promote the content project is strong, especially when the content helps advance the influencer’s own goals for greater industry visibility.

So what’s a good process for developing an influencer content marketing program?

Putting A Co-Created Influencer Content Marketing Program in Action:

1. Define goals – Serving different audiences (influencers, brand, prospects, industry media) requires a strategy that identifies distinct goals. Influencers may want exposure, the brand wants to grow expertise for a topic and attract new business, prospects want expert information, the news media wants referenceable examples and subject matter excerpts as story sources.

2. Select topics – Topics represent the themes and areas of focus for planning editorial and for sourcing influencers. Topic alignment between brand, influencer and community is essential for mutual value to be created.

3. Identify type of content or media mix – Types of content are often determined by the content marketing plan, and target audience. At the same time, there are some types of content more amenable to co-creation with influencers such as eBooks, reports, blog posts, quoted infographics and video compilations. A clear line of sight must be present between the co-created content and the content objectives in the marketing plan.

4. Find, qualify and recruit influencers – Influencer sourcing and engagement takes time. Many influencer co-created content projects will draw from existing influencer relationships and involve making new influencer connections. Distinctions between brandividuals and influencers must be made – the influencers must be effective in their ability to affect actions amongst a community. Recruiting might involve small, easy projects that advance the relationship to more robust and substantial time commitments.

5. Plan, co-create, repurpose modular content – The content marketing plan for co-created content identifies the primary and sub-themes, the influencers to work with, the types of contributions influencers will make (according to themes), the type of content to be created, it’s component parts, social share messages and repurposing. Modular content planning allows pre-promotion of the co-created content project to build momentum for launch and then deconstruction of the content for customized repurposing and social promotion on networks, blogs, and the media.

6. Inspire participation and promotion – Influencer communications provide expectations and clear timelines along with the benefits for all when a co-created influencer content project is successful. Providing influencers with tools such as sharing images, pre-written tweets, embed codes and short URLs can substantially increase promotion participation and reach.

7. Performance measurement and optimization – Individual influencer promotions of the co-created content project can be measured based on social network shares, sentiment of those shares, engagement on the topic, links and blog pickups. Embeds used by influencers to create blog posts can be tracked for referral traffic along with referred social traffic from their links. Referred traffic that results in website visits can be further analyzed for metrics such as time on site, categories of content consumed, leads and sales.

Overall reach, engagement, traffic, leads and sales for the content project can be tracked as well, taking note of the contributions made by influencers towards key performance metrics like growing affinity between a topic and the brand as well as business outcomes like leads and sales.

Where to learn more about influencer marketing?

I will be discussing the ins and outs, possibilities and best practices of influencer marketing, especially when it comes to co-creating content at the upcoming ClickZ Live conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, August 12th. Here are the presentation deliverables:

Learn how to identify, romance and engage influencers to co-create and promote incredible content that delivers for your audience and your brand. Through best practices and examples you will learn:

• Topics and being the best answer for your category
• Influencer content opportunities
• How to identify, qualify and engage influencers
• The mechanics of co-created content
• Inspiring participation and promotion
• Performance measurement and optimization

Besides myself, there’s quite a good mix of speakers that will be on hand to share their digital marketing wisdom including an opening keynote from Bonin Bough, VP, Global Media and Consumer Engagement, Mondel?z International (which includes brands ranging from Oreo to Ritz to Trident and many others)

There’s also an amazing collection of brand marketers presenting at ClickZ Live in San Francisco including: Pandora, eBay, HP, LinkedIn, Tribune Publishing, Hitachi Data Systems, Microsoft, Cisco, FordDirect, Verizon, Wyndham Hotels, Facebook, Hootsuite, SAP, IBM, Yahoo, Google, AOL, Nissan, Amazon and a lot more.

Honestly, this is one of the most impressive brand marketer representations that I’ve seen at a ClickZ (prev SES) event.

No doubt, there will be a lot to learn as well as some impressive networking.

If you register for the ClickZ Live conference using TOPRANK14 as a Priority Code, then you’ll get a nice discount $500 OFF on the admission fee. I hope to see you there!

Top image: Tom Fishburne

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2014. | Influencer Marketing and Content FTW! 7 Steps to Co-Created Awesome | http://www.toprankblog.com