Rnordman

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Amazon’s Fire Phone innovates with its four-camera configuration. It innovates with its object-identifying Firefly feature. And it innovates with its Mayday feature that provides face-to-tracked-face assistance on the go.

But one way in which it doesn’t innovate may be the way that most people were hoping it would: price. Available for $199 on a two-year AT&T contract or $649 unlocked, the Fire Phone is similar to other premium phones such as the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5.

The Fire Phone’s failure to disrupt has led many to question whether it is keeping the Amazon flame. Indeed, the cellular options available to Fire Phone buyers are less creative than the limited free data option Amazon offered with AT&T at the release of the Kindle Fire HD.

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We’ll be exploring how you can grow your mobile business at MobileBeat 2014 in San Francisco on July 8-9.

Grab your tickets now!

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When Amazon entered the tablet market with the $199 Kindle Fire, it set off a price war. Jeff Bezos noted that the company produces “premium products at a non-premium price.” But while Amazon has shown some willingness to follow others down the ladder as tablet pricing has collapsed, offering the Kindle Fire HD for $139, still a far cry from the sub-$100 tablets littering the pages of Walmart.com.

But, perhaps burned by that competitive tablet, things changed when the company introduced the Kindle Fire HDX, with its leading-edge processor and display technology. At a starting price of $229 for the 7-inch version, it is significantly less than the $299 iPad Mini, but so is nearly every other tablet below 8 inches.

A better comparison would be with the Google Nexus 7, also priced at $229. Amazon’s next category expansion — Fire TV, also loaded with powerful internals — came in at $99, the same price as Apple TV and the highest-end Roku player.

It’s not unusual for brands to climb the prestige ladder as their sales grow. HTC, for example, was once a company that developed phones and PDAs for other companies. In the 1980s, Samsung’s electronics were dismissed as cheap junk. Now, both are focused mostly on high-end gadgets.

But what Amazon is doing is more like a cross-country expedition than one up a mountain. As Jeff Bezos pointed out early in the Fire Phone presentation, its brand has strong recognition among consumers for customer satisfaction across several metrics.

And according to the YouGov brand index, which measures “brand health” across a variety of measures, Amazon was the #1 brand in 2013, with the Kindle sub-brand coming in 10th behind Cheerios. (Alas, the Fire Phone, like Fire TV, drops the “Kindle” delineation.) Amazon doesn’t need to raise the prestige of this brand, it just has to extend the influence of it.

There’s another factor at play. The Fire Phone has its share of features designed to keep you at a buying level Amazon finds palatable. However, much more of what consumers do on phones — tasks such as taking photos, sending e-mail and messages, mapping and, yes, even having voice conversations — are more difficult to monetize.  If, as Jeff Bezos said, Amazon monetizes when consumers use their devices (since they inevitably drive purchases on Amazon), there’s simply less of the usage pie that Amazon is getting, at least compared to AT&T.

The Fire Phone may not strike fear into the heart of Apple and Samsung for the time being, but it’s clearly not intended to. It’s about providing an option to Amazon’s loyal customers in a product category where its ecosystem advantages are too diluted to disrupt at this point.

Volume Up is a regular column on consumer technology and digital ecosystems. Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and founder and editor of the crowdfunding product site Backerjack. He also blogs about the tech industry at Techspressive.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where cu... read more »

Audience targeting is not new. However, the increasing complexity of the buying cycle now makes it much more challenging to execute.

How can marketers join the dots to find and engage desirable audiences?

Marketers have always known the value of delivering the right message to the right person, at the right time.

But the touch points along the path-to-purchase have grown into a web of influences and interactions, which marketers must interpret and analyse in order to properly optimise their programmes.

Linking online and offline channels and multiple devices is now an intricate process, but one that ultimately promises big rewards.

Bridging the gap, particularly between digital channels such as search and social, promises to benefit both marketers and consumers, delivering targeted ads and messages that are highly relevant to what people are looking for, and driving engagement and sales.

How can marketers integrate and link different channels and manage audiences? Here are four examples where this is working well:

1. Facebook Exchange and web site data

Reaching audiences that have responded to paid search advertising or visited a brand website via Facebook is a powerful reminder to encourage consumers along the road to purchase.

For example, a consumer might visit a specific product page on a retailer’s site, put the product in his basket but then not reach the checkout. 

Integrating Facebook Exchange (FBX) with website data enables advertisers to display a product specific message in real-time, on Facebook, to encourage the consumer to come back and complete the purchase.

2. Data Management Platforms 

Multiple channels impact the purchasing journey, meaning that brands need to integrate signals from display and email with search and social to provide a wider view.

Linking paid search campaign structures and keyword performance to your Data Management Platform (DMP), allows for extended targeting across other marketing channels, such as display and email.

For example, if an advertiser integrates paid search with a DMP, he or she could target specific audiences on display.

Consumers that have searched for the keyword “home insurance” or have searched for any keyword within a 'home insurance' campaign may be valuable audiences for the advertiser to target using display ads.

It could also tag high performing keywords and only target consumers that have searched on those terms. This helps the advertiser refine audiences by consumer intent – increasing the ROI of display campaigns.

3. Google Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) provides another opportunity to optimise search campaigns by allowing brands to tailor keyword bids and ad text for the highest value audiences - those who have visited your website in the past.

Brands simply add a remarketing tag to their sites and then segment visitors into remarketing lists for paid search and display campaigns.

You can deliver personalised adverts, dependent on which pages of the site they have visited, or target broader keywords specifically at people that have bought from you in the past.

4. Intent-Driven Audiences

This allows advertisers to target users who clicked their ads on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing when they browse Facebook.

A further development of Facebook Custom Audiences (which allow brands to import first-party data such as email addresses or use a tracking pixel on their own sites to retarget their site visitors on Facebook) it brings search-intent into the mix for the first time.

Advertisers are able to segment and target users on Facebook based on the search ads that brought them to their sites.

This approach delivers other benefits as well. For example, marketers can easily create Facebook Custom Audiences of consumers who click on their paid search campaigns, automatically aggregating the users into Custom Audiences based on the campaign structure and the keywords of the ads that were clicked on.

These audiences can be expanded with Lookalikes to achieve even more reach, scale, and customers.

Reaching and engaging with consumers will always be complex in a multichannel world, with decisions influenced by a combination of interactions.

However, brands now have the tools and ability to use audience management technology to bridge the gaps between channels, such as search and social, and use the intent shown on one to enable targeting on others.

This drives higher impact campaigns, increases conversions and delivers a higher ROI for brands, whatever sector they are operating in.

It’s hard to ignore the buzz surrounding the World Cup, and more and more marketers are being forced to take extreme action to stand out at in what is likely to be the biggest advertising opportunity of 2014.

Paddy Power’s deforestation stunt is likely the most successful example so far! 

Despite the attention on the more traditional PR stunts around the World Cup, this is expected to be the most digital and social World Cup to date.

As such, I wanted to share three considerations for your search, social and display campaigns to ensure success around the World Cup.

1. Consider the customer behind the click 

As hard as it is to imagine, there will be consumers online during the World Cup who don’t like football. It’s important brands don’t allow these consumers to become frustrated by the constant bombardment of World Cup messages. 

If you are targeting both football lovers and haters, make sure your campaigns are relevant to users by integrating your search, social and display targeting with audience data from a Data Management Platform (DMP) to give you a comprehensive profile of who you’re reaching.

Your World Cup messaging will then reach the right people, those who are passionate about the beautiful game, rather than alienating 'World Cup widows' who want to escape the World Cup.  

2. Take advantage of the first truly dual screen World Cup

In the four years since the last World Cup, the proliferation of smartphones and tablets has really kicked-off; tablet usage has surged from 2.8% in 2010 to nearly 40% in 2014.

In turn, 61% of Brits now ‘dual-screen’ – click and browse around the net -  while they’re watching TV. Combine this trend with the fact that 77% of us are influenced by what we see on TV and the opportunities becomes compelling   

FIFA claims more than 1bn people saw the final on TV back in 2010. The volume of searches and data generated this time around, in a dual-screening age, is sure to be phenomenal. 

For advertisers to take advantage of viewers engaged across several platforms, create a feed of match timings and TV ad slots so your search, social and display campaigns are automatically scheduled to boost and reduce bids on mobiles and tablets accordingly.

By combining this data with audience data, you can focus your campaign on football lovers who are likely to be sat watching the match, tablet in hand.  Done well, this can improve your ROI by dramatically increasing your CTR and conversions. 

3. Keep your social ads in-feed with fresh and relevant creative

It’s fair to assume Facebook feeds will be crammed with World Cup chatter, getting your social ad campaigns aligned with this chatter will be key. As such, the popularity of social ads combined with the dual-screening phenomenon presents a huge opportunity for marketers. 

Recent Marin research found that News Feed Ads on Facebook have a 44x higher CTR and 5x greater conversion rate compared to right-side display ads.

Clearly this is not a game of two equal halves. Marketers should not underestimate this powerful form of native advertising, which offers another way to target keen dual-screeners, as they take to Facebook whilst watching the games on TV. 

However, as the number of savvy marketers capitalising on Facebook quickly rises, so too does the competition for high-value ad placements.

Consequently, it’s absolutely critical advertisers create ads that are as compelling and engaging as possible, especially considering Facebook does not promote ads in the News Feed unless they maintain a high CTR.

To maintain that essential high CTR, marketers must continually optimise, test and improve ad creative and pay careful attention to the frequency of ads.

If ads are shown too often to the same targets, you will pay the penalty of ‘ad fatigue’, causing customers to ignore your ads and become irritated with your brand.  

Being hyper-relevant during major sports events also pays off, as Oreo famously illustrated by reacting quickly on Twitter during the Super Bowl power cut.  

The World Cup is a highly competitive space for marketers so it’s essential you’re well equipped to take advantage of key moments by reacting quickly with humorous and shareable content.

Perhaps it’s that the news of the day bothers me more now since I have to explain a lot of it to the inquiring minds of my children. Maybe I’m getting more cranky in my old(er) age. Or it could be that I just like a good fight. Whatever the reason, I seem to have gotten into more debates and discussions about social issues and politics lately on my social networks.

Whether its gun control (I’m for it), prejudice (I’m against it) or government interference (generally against that, too, even though it somewhat contradicts the first entry in this list), it seems I’ve been involved in a few fights of late. I am now even blocked on Facebook by a family member because I was throwing snarky comments in a few of her posts. Seems she uses her personal account like a business account and didn’t find me funny since potential clients could see the comments.

Too bad she didn’t have a relative who could help her figure that mechanism out a little better. Heh.

Generally, I don’t pay much attention to people who get aggravated with my opinions and such. Social media has been, is and will always be 100 percent optional and opt-in. If you don’t care for someone’s content or perspective, you can unfollow. And despite what your instincts tell you, doing so is not bad, wrong or negative.

Keep in mind that I don’t typically espouse my opinions as if I’m right and everyone else is wrong. I have some decorum and tact about how I voice things. In fact, I am attracted to intelligent discourse on any subject, am happy to admit when I’m wrong and am generally fair and polite.

But I still get under people’s skin sometimes.

Keeping an asshole or two around helps you stay grounded, centered and probably sane.

The secret to being comfortable with that is knowing without the occasional asshole in the room, nothing pushes the thinking. Eli Pariser’s outstanding book The Filter Bubble warns what will happen if we carve out homogenous networks. To summarize: If you surround yourself with like-minded people and only like-minded people, you never learn or grow. You also become more isolated and fearful of that which isn’t like you.

Keeping an asshole or two around helps you stay grounded, centered and probably sane.

Certainly, my relative can read me the riot act about how she shouldn’t have to ask a relative to respect her business and the clientele who might see my comments, even if she’s using her personal profile inappropriately. And sure, there are moments when I let my arrogance about a certain issue get the best of me and overstep my bounds. (I almost always apologize when that happens.) But more often than not, I’ll proudly wear the badge of Asshole in the Room.

With it, someone is pushing the thinking. Someone is denying the same old, same old. And there is inherent value there.

In the words of Gary Larson, “Wait! Wait! Listen to me! … We don’t HAVE to be just sheep.”

   

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• Proof It’s Not Facebook. It’s You.
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Proving ROI is one of the biggest pressures for modern marketers, especially as technology keeps changing the goalposts. Where should you be investing your time and money?

One day it’s all about email, the next social media – but what gives the best online marketing ROI? And should you ditch what you know just to make sure you don’t miss out on a new audience? Let’s take a look at three popular marketing channels . . .

 

Email Marketing

While some have predicted the demise of email marketing, email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Not only is it still one of the most popular online activities – 89% of total Internet users use email – but using email as part of your marketing plan does work. In 2013, almost one in three emails sent in North America were opened.

People are still reading email and marketers are still using it (66% say email gets a good ROI), but to stay ahead of the game and get the most out of your investment in email you need to be on the ball:

• 79% of people use their smartphone for reading emails so responsive design becomes a necessity. Emails that take ages to load or don’t display properly will be deleted.
• Ensure the content in your email works. Video content increases click-through rates by 55%, so include more audio visual content in emails.

 

Social Media

While it may not be as established as email, social media is certainly a cost effective marketing tool. When it’s done well, it’s also a great way to encourage users to convert – 46% of consumers rely on it when making a purchase.

A must for all marketers then? Maybe not. While 15% of marketing managers say that social media has made a quantitative impact on their business, a whopping 49% aren’t able to quantify whether it made a difference to their company.

Measuring the ROI from social media marketing continues to prove tricky, so until analytics improve, adding tracking URLs to any links you post, monitoring interactions such as likes and comments, and ensuring you have a sustainable social media strategy aligned to your business goals will all help you maximize the value of your social media efforts.

 

Online Reviews

With so many consumers talking about their experiences on social media, is there still a need to implement online reviews on your site? In one word, yes! Recent research by online review solution Trustpilot, shows that reviews have the ability to increase business revenues by 40%.

In fact, most Internet shoppers find it impossible to shop without them – Trustpilot discovered that a whopping 77% of UK consumers consult online reviews9 before making their purchasing decision.

Obviously negative reviews aren’t great for business – 78% of online shoppers would be deterred from making a purchase after reading a bad review. But this isn’t a reason to ignore them. The way you respond to negative criticism can help improve sales – 15% of people are more likely to do business with a company that attempts to resolve someone’s negative experience.

 

Moving Forward

• Don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket. Ignoring some marketing channels while investing in others won’t get a fully rounded result.
• Optimise the buying cycle by ensuring the right messages are sent at the right time, across a mix of marketing channels.
• Remember to keep the message consistent regardless of the channel used, to ensure the best online marketing ROI for your company.

 

Want to know how online reviews can boost your sales? Download the complete Trust Economy Report by Trustpilot now

This article was first published on the Trustpilot Blog

This week I had opportunity to host a LinkedIn workshop for 17 CEOs. These CEOs lead companies in a wide range of industries and stages of maturity and they range in age from early 40s on up. A few shared their thoughts on social media and LinkedIn. “Why do I get so many random invitations?” someone asked. I think everyone nodded in agreement.

They don’t really like those constant, random invitations. Actually there was no one who liked them. CEOs get more than their share of invitations, no doubt.

“By virtue of being the CEO, people want to know you and connect with you. You make the decisions and you authorize purchases,” I answered. It’s both reality and the truth. People may not connect with the CEO because they actually want to know you. It comes with the title, period.

Other things I heard throughout the morning included:

“Uggghhh, how do we work around that? I don’t want to be a jerk but I get too many invitations from random salespeople to respond to.”

“Is it better to just delete them or should I answer them”

“They only want something from me. They’re just trying to sell me something. Don’t they know I already know a dozen financial planners, insurance people, printers, IT providers? I don’t want them in my network trolling around.”

There’s truth in each of those statements. I get it. Let’s take a look at what’s happening in a typical invitation exchange.

For business development, salespeople (and everyone who wants to talk with CEOs)

Your job is to get in front of decision makers. Period. And now, you use LinkedIn. Good work. But think about your sales process. You have a quota, you have list of prospects or customers and you need to make a certain number of calls, appointments and actual meetings in a week and month. You are diligent, often aggressive (that’s part of your DNA and job description if you are a hunter) and you reach out via every means possible.

If you were the CEO would you take your call, respond to your email, accept your LinkedIn invitation?

Be honest. Have you provided enough reason, value, or earned enough trust to warrant his or her response? Do you have enough status, power or known celebrity to warrant a CEO of a company to want to talk with you? If you are honest, probably not. Stop trolling and start putting some effort into to working on their behalf. The best business development process is well crafted, intentional and thoughtful. It’s personalized through good research, an introduction, a great referral, and a proof-based value proposition.

Consider it from the CEO’s perspective. They are smart people and have trusted go-to advisors. They probably have insurance, financial advice, networked printers, and most everything else it takes to run a business. Once again why should they connect with you? Colleen Stanley‘s post, Are You Thinking Like a CEO? goes right to this point. CEOs know people, know how to reach out to those they want to do business with, and are careful about inviting new people in without a reference or referral. Initially, at least, you represent a learning curve, change, and risk.

Many of today’s CEOs are not comfortable online. They did not necessarily come of age in a collaborative, open networking system. They are concerned about privacy, breaches and the list goes on. Younger CEOs are far more likely to be open to connecting. Know your audience.

Everyone says start at the top. Sometimes it works but often it doesn’t. Consider starting where you have a champion, a well-respected champion.

Here are three ways to earn trust and make the most of your current network.

1. Ask for referrals, you may or may not receive them but at least you asked. Consider who you are asking and why they would refer you in. Have you treated them well?

2. Be good at what you do, do more than what was expected, and create a reputation that begins to precede you (can you find a market niche, for example). You will receive some good referrals.

3. Be so good, you receive referrals without asking for them. It’s a bit like the Holy Grail, right? This is where you have earned the trust in an area, geography, market.

For CEOs

You are the people that business development, salespeople, consultants, and job seekers need to reach. You can’t possibly talk to everyone nor should you. You need to be discerning, no doubt, and you need to manage those parameters. But you may also need help, advice, new solutions, or products, and these business development/salespeople, consultants and job seekers have what you may need. You may also need to replace a supplier for poor performance, inferior products and services, etc., or you may need to transition into systems, solutions and products that did not exist a few years ago (CRM, marketing automation, content management system, etc.) and you need to vet your options.

Business development and other folks are here to bridge the gap. Find the good ones and you are golden. Having a vetting process is important. One of the major reasons business development folks push to get in front of you is obvious. You are the final authority, you sign the checks.

If you don’t understand and endorse the solution, it will most likely fail and that is a reflection on you and your team, although the fault usually falls on the product or service being delivered.You need to buy in, support, and be an ambassador for the rollouts in your organization.

Even with that said, you should want to better manage the flow of people reaching out to you on LinkedIn. If so, read on. There are ways to manage how you show up and whether people can reach you.

CEOs Change Your Settings

If you are on LinkedIn change your Settings (upper right corner under your photo or silhouette). Click on Communications >> Member Communications >> Types of messages you’re willing to receive.

Choose what you are comfortable with related to messages, opportunities and advice. The content you add to the advice area will show up on your Profile. I really like this because if you actually read my Profile and know how I discern invitations, you hopefully won’t think I’m a jerk if I don’t accept or respond.

Choose who can send you invitations. If you prefer to keep those invitations limited, choose from two or three.

Additionally, go to your LinkedIn Inbox and rather than accepting the invitation, click on the dropdown box next to Accept and hit reply without accepting and send them a quick message saying you prefer to know the people you connect with and ask why you should connect or suggest a conversation.

I really like this option and use it often. Remember, it’s important that your network means something and is more than an address book.

Another tip? Consider what you put in your headline area. Don’t put your title. Add keywords related to your industry and focus and let your title rest in the experience area.

I recognize the plight of business development and sales, as well as the plea of CEOs. Everyone needs to figure this out especially when it comes to LinkedIn. Professionals on LinkedIn should want to leverage their personal and professional connections and the greater network to further business goals.

If you missed my earlier post, Why CEOs Need to be on LinkedIn, check it out. Nothing has changed, CEOs need to be there as leader and the best development officer and spokesperson for the organization. Don’t be dismissive, be open minded to the opportunities LinkedIn affords you, your colleagues and organization.

And, hey, to all sales, biz dev people, consultants and job seekers, act like an owner, think like an owner, and reach out like an owner. Make it count, be valuable and memorable in the best possible way.

The great cloud computing war of 2014 is in full pitch. Cloud storage providers continue to jockey for the chance to store all your digital data, they’re giving away more for free and dropping the prices for their paid add-ons. Microsoft wants to remind everybody that it has significant stake in the game. Today, Microsoft announced that it is now offering 15 GB (up from 7 GB) of storage on its personal cloud storage service OneDrive for free. If you use Office365, Microsoft ups the ante to one terabyte. Microsoft also decreased paid storage options by up to 80%.

“If you use Office, you don’t need to buy storage from anyone else,” said Angus Logan, director of marketing for OneDrive at Microsoft. “We give you more than enough to do what you need to do.”

But is it enough to make a difference? By most accounts, Microsoft’s cloud storage offering is decent, but it may be also-ran in a very crowded field. Data on the personal cloud storage market share is fairly scarce, but in a report released in March 2013 by Strategy Analytics, Microsoft didn’t even show up in the top 10. Apple was the leader, followed by Dropbox, Amazon Cloud and Google Drive.

You might think that Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up with Apple, or even Dropbox, which claims to have more than 300 million customers. OneDrive may not be as obviously popular when it comes to downloads, but it has one definite advantage—because Microsoft includes OneDrive with Office365 and Windows 8.1, Redmond claims more than 250 million people store data in it and that figure is about a year old.

“If you use Office, OneDrive is the best cloud for you,” Logan said.

OneDrive Digs At The Competition

Of course the director of marketing for OneDrive at Microsoft would tout it for Office users. That's his job. But this isn’t the 1990s when option were limited. Users have plenty of other cloud storage options. Microsoft knows that customers don’t want to be locked in to a vendor’s product line and publishes application programming interfaces (APIs) so that developers can integrate their apps with OneDrive. “Customers can choose to save to Dropbox if they want,” said Omar Shahine, principal group program manager. OneDrive’s software development kit details ways for developers to integrate their apps with OneDrive so that a user can open or access files, or save documents to OneDrive. “We do have APIs and we think it’s important,” Shahine said. “If they are going to trust us with their information, they want to be able to access it it where it matters to them.”

When discussing competitors and alternatives to OneDrive, Logan compared OneDrive’s offerings to a few others, pointing out that Google also offers 15GB for free, but that storage gets shared among Google Drive, Gmail, and Picasa apps. He mentioned iCloud, with its free 5GB and Dropbox, which offers 2GB, but customers can earn more storage by referring other users. “You can go to work for them to earn more,” Logan said, in an apparent dig.

Strangely, Logan and Shahine didn’t mention Box as a competitor. I asked why. “I am not sure what Box does,” Logan said. “They’re an interesting one, because they are really an organization-focused product and they have a consumer proposition to spin up some demand,” he said, adding that they are “lopsided.” Box currently offers 10GB for free.

It is unclear how many Office365 and Windows customers are regularly using OneDrive. They may be using other cloud backup and sync services for their Office products like Excel and Word. Microsoft isn’t saying, but Logan did say that OneDrive’s daily mobile usage statics have increased threefold in the last six months. Of course, it’s easy to make large gains from small numbers.

Connective Tissue, Rather Than Storage

In the cloud wars, free storage is a way to lure you in. But Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, DropBox and the rest of the cloud competitors have a different payoff in mind: your long term business via software subscriptions. Microsoft wants you to view OneDrive more strategically, more than just storage. “We don’t think it’s that interesting to sell someone a storage subscription, but a productivity solution where storage is a capability, and they can have 100% of what they want in the cloud,” Logan said.

People need one place for all the stuff they care about, including photos, videos, music, and documents, for work and for their personal lives and they want and a way to share it with friends. Microsoft, of course, wants OneDrive to be that one place where you can store everything you need.

To that end, Microsoft is adding some new features: photo and video sharing native to OneDrive, and a partnership with Walgreens to print photos directly from OneDrive without having to set up an account or handing over a credit card (Walgreens has long had an app that allows you to print your smartphone photos and pick them up at the store).

OneDrive is the “connective tissue for collaborative experiences,” Shahine said.

All In The Cloud

When Microsoft first launched SkyDrive, the predecessor to OneDrive (which Microsoft had to rebrand over trademark concerns earlier this year) it offered 25GB of storage for free, but a spokesperson said they noticed no one was using that much, so they lowered what they offered for free to 7GB, which was enough for many people at the time.

Times have changed. With the proliferation of smartphones, people taking more pictures and shooting more video and we need more space to store that digital data. Microsoft decided to increase the amount of free storage to 15GB value after watching the way people used Windows computers and smartphones via data they collected telemetrically, which told them that 75% of their users have less than 15GB on their local drives. Microsoft, like Apple and Google, wants you store all that data to its cloud.

With its links to Office365 and Windows 8.1, Microsoft OneDrive may gain ground against its competitors. Despite its various faults and stumbles, Office and Windows are still widely use in corporations and organizations around the world. With OneDrive's lower prices, it may attract more paying customers. If you don’t have an Office365 subscription, but want to buy extra OneDrive storage, Microsoft just lowered the price by 80%, from 9.99 to $1.99 per month for 100GB. For a family sharing an account, up to five people get one terabyte each for $9.99 a month.

Microsoft wants you to know that they’re thinking beyond cloud storage. “What people actually need is really powerful experiences on top of the data that’s in the cloud," Logan said. "They want to upload their photos and share them easily, or work on a document anywhere and collaborate with someone in real time.”

“A lot of the other players are doing straight up storage,” Logan said.

Logan and Microsoft lay the OneDrive branding on pretty thick. But with the price drop and increase in storage capabilities, Microsoft is serious about getting users in to its personal cloud service while remaining competitive in the ongoing cloud wars.

Photos of Microsoft Build 2014 via ReadWrite

It is the jobs that businesses create which are the issue

Apart from the usual nonsense of people claiming “email is dead”, there appears to be a growing number of people saying we should give up email altogether. Indeed in the space of one day several leading publications have told us how we can all live without email. Firstly, there was Fast Company magazine which suggested “How to Live an Email Free Life“. Then there was Inc Magazine which told us “What You Gain When You Stop Using Email“. And then there was the highly influential “MH Blog” which explained “How I Cut the Amount of Email I Receive by 83% in Less Than a Week“. It is as though someone has started a campaign against email.

So what are the facts about email?

Well, it started a long time ago. The first emails were sent in 1962 – that’s right 52 years ago; even then, the systems were dealing with 30m messages a month. Email is established; it is not some modern whim. It is older than most people who read this blog.

Another fact about email is its commercial value. Various studies point to the supremacy of email marketing over and above web marketing. It appears that people respond more positively to emails than to web pages. In turn, the conversion rate from email marketing is higher than from web marketing generally. Email marketing alone is responsible for several billions of dollars being spent each month on Amazon, for instance. And consider for a moment why spam exists. It exists because it is commercially successful. You may have switched on spam filters to avoid receiving email messages about various anatomical enlargements you might yearn for. But enough people do not filter these messages out and enough people click on them and buy the dubious products to help make sure a global multimillion dollar business exists. Whatever you might think about spam, it is hugely successful and profitable for the people who send it – that’s why they send it. Whichever way you look at email, it is undeniably profit producing, both for spammers and for legitimate businesses.

Furthermore, email is immediate and ever-present. If you want to get a message to someone who is not in the office and who has no mobile phone coverage, email will more likely reach them thanks to Wi-Fi. Even if they are in an aircraft, out of mobile phone signal range, they can still get your messages. Email is more instant than text messaging today. If you need to communicate quickly, email works.

Email productivity is a problem

In spite of the obvious benefits of email, there are plenty of reasons to suggest it is also a problem. After all, I suspect you think that you spend too much time on email. The notion of the “zero inbox” is a long and distant dream for many people, And even those who do end the day with nothing in their inbox probably wish they didn’t have to spend so much time doing the organising it requires. On average we spend several hours a day dealing with email. That is much more than we ever spent on handling the morning post when the envelopes arrived on your desk. Snail mail was a lot less time-consuming.

Furthermore, there is a psychological issue with email that we did not have with printed mail. Printed mail came into your office once, maybe twice, during the day. Most office workers spent a concentrated period of time dealing with the post and then the rest of the day “working”. Now, though, email interrupts most people constantly. As a result their brain has to switch attention – this takes time; indeed studies suggest that attention shift for most workers is now taking an hour a day away from their work.

But just how much of a productivity problem is email? Research compiled by Career Builder suggests that it is not as great as we might believe. It turns out that “gossiping” in the office is much more of a problem than email. Indeed, general web surfing or going off for smoking breaks are more of a disruption to our work.

Personal feelings get in the way

When you look at this Career Builder data, together with their earlier work on personal Internet use, you can see that what gets in the way the most is doing personal stuff. We spend an hour a day of each working day surfing the web for non-work related information. And other studies show that around a quarter of our emailing time at work is for personal emails, not business related ones.

What does this all show? It demonstrates that we are drawn to things we like. We find those personal things more appealing than the work we are supposed to be doing. Far from email being an issue, it is the kind of email that’s the problem. Those personal emails, those marketing messages enticing us to buy are all so much more interesting than the work we are supposed to be doing. We cannot help ourselves.

The real issue is job design. Far too many jobs are badly designed, making them less interesting than doing personal stuff online. Not only that, recruitment practices often seem to put round pegs in square holes – getting anyone to fill the job rather than the right person. That means the only thing they are really interested in is the money they take home.

Poor job design and bad recruitment combine to make personal Internet use at work more appealing.

And what is the response of business leaders? To monitor email usage or ban mobile phones. That is shutting the stable door.

If your business has an email productivity issue then the first place to look is at the kind of jobs you have created and the kind of people you have doing those jobs. Get those issues right and the negative side of email will be lessened and its huge benefits made to work better for your company.

Graduation season is just around the corner. A new generation of engaged, talented individuals are about to enter the workplace. Today's smart organisation knows that that maximizing the value of their fresh talent means getting people up to speed quickly and effectively, and keeping them engaged.

During a recent webinar I received an excellent question which really deserves more attention: “Why is content syndication imperative for a B2B marketer?“ The simple answer is that syndication is just another tactic in a modern content distribution system. The greater your content distribution network, the greater opportunity your content has to create more sales leads.

Our friends at Curata have found that on average 10% of leads generated by B2B content marketing have come from syndicated content. As content syndication is a growing trend, I wanted to share the response I gave this content marketer.

What is syndicated B2B content marketing?

The most basic syndicated B2B content marketing uses “Really Simple Syndication” or RSS to distribute content. RSS feeds, for example, can enable content from one source (like your blog, social feeds, or webinar platform) to be published into your partner’s destinations. Initially publishers and news organizations used RSS as an easy way of distributing news headlines and additional content quickly and efficiently. The result is scalable distribution to a variety of audiences which is easily replicated by content marketers. For B2B marketers, wider distribution equals more opportunities for reaching new audiences without a price tag. Within marketing, RSS for social media is the most often utilized feed type, however syndication options for other content types, specifically webinars and videos are becoming increasingly valuable.

What are the benefits of content syndication for B2B marketing?

Content syndication is an easy win for content distributors for the following reasons:

1. Distribution is automated
2. Content remains unaltered
3. Syndication results are measurable

Corporate publishing spaces, such as the corporate Twitter handle, are not the ideal use of others’ RSS feeds. Ideally, the only information coming from the corporate Twitter handle is information that has been reviewed and approved by the corporation. However, publishing spaces that belong to individuals are the best RSS feed use cases because professionals are more likely to pay attention to what other professionals in their network are sharing than what brands are sharing.

How can I encourage people to syndicate content?

Although some people may be hesitant to syndicate your content, you can increase your results by giving incentives and addressing potential concerns. Consistently deliver quality content to build trust in your content being worthwhile. Set expectations for the frequency of your content by publishing content at a consistent pace. By setting clear expectations for what is being shared through your RSS feed and staying consistent with those expectations, you are setting yourself up for RSS syndication success. Keep in mind, the people who are most likely to syndicate your content are people who have consumed multiple assets. Invite people you already know to syndicate content such as customers, partners or industry influencers.  Here are some ideas for earning content syndication organically:

1. Make the RSS feed easily available
2. Reward or acknowledge RSS users
3. Offer to reciprocate by implementing their RSS feed

Why should I syndicate someone else’s content?

We are syndicating other people’s content into our social publishing feeds all the time. An example of this would be when we retweet content on Twitter. Using an RSS feed is simply a way of automating this experience over a period of time.  Here are the top 3 reasons I personally would syndicate a vendor’s content:

1. My social network would find it entertaining or useful
2. Less of my time is dedicated to managing my publishing channels, i.e. Twitter or LinkedIn
3. It creates a stronger relationship with an interesting vendor

I mentioned in my monthly growth report that I am now a partner in a SaaS (Software As A Service) with two other guys.

As this is quite a new business for me, I thought it would be great to share my experiences with being involved in a software company as it isn’t as commonly written about as say, content marketing/blogging/seo.

So let’s start with the beginning; idea extraction.

What Is Idea Extraction?

If you want to build software that people will buy, you have to have a problem that it solves and a market that is interested in paying to have that problem solved.

There are two ways to go about this.

Come up with the problem, and then find the target market it applies to.

Come up with a target market, and find out what problem they want solved.

Idea extraction is the process that applies to the latter.

It is the process by which, having identified a target market, you extract an idea from them.

The brilliant thing about this method is you have already identified the buyers and come up with the “perfect” solution, since it was drawn up by the market itself. In theory, if you can find enough people who describe the same problem, then you have a winner (as well as a group of potential buyers).

If done right, you never have to worry about not having any customers – because you don’t build the software without them.

As many people usually approach business from the former (here’s my idea, let me find someone who is interested), and we all know how tough that is, this logic probably resonates with a lot of you.

But hold on, it’s not that simple, first you have to identify an industry.

How To Identify An Industry For Idea Extraction

Idea extraction is a term coined by Dane Maxwell from The Foundation – a very successful (at least financially) course on software. If you follow their methodology, then identifying an industry for SaaS boils down to seven criteria:

Criteria Number 1: Lucrative industries are preferred
Criteria Number 2: Profit driven businesses
Criteria Number 3: Roughly 5,000 to 10,000 businesses (or more) in the market industry
Criteria Number 4: Reachable by phone, email, facebook, linked in, twitter, or message boards.
Criteria Number 5: Can get person with pain point on the phone
Criteria Number 6: The average successful business earns at least $100k per year in revenue, and ideally profit (guestimate this)
Criteria Number 7: The business currently pays for software of some kind

Examples: property management companies. physical therapy practice, chiropractors, pilates or yoga studios, graphic designers, realtors.

Seven criteria may seem like a lot, but if it were up to me I would add a few more. Really – this doesn’t exclude that many businesses.

I’ve read quite a bit about people who chose industries that seemingly fit all the bills, and then discovered things later on that made idea extraction incredibly difficult.

I can also validate this from my own experience identifying industries and going through the idea extraction process.

Here are the criteria I would consider adding:

1. Not overly technical – If your industry is say construction, or engineering, and you are not already an expert in those industries you are going to be in a world of pain when you try to find their pain. Now it’s true, that these are killer industries such that if you did create a software that solved a major problem, you would probably be an instant millionaire. Getting to that point, however, is incredibly difficult as a result of how technical and complex these industries are. This is why I recommend trades like painters, lawn care, etc. These concepts are relatively easy for anyone to understand.
2. Decision maker (director level and up) understands his/her business at a high and low level – Here’s the problem. You want to speak with someone who makes business decisions, because ultimately you are going to try and sell them a product. At the same time, a lot of people who make business decisions are not the people who use software day to day. For example, the waitress who uses the software to create receipts is not the person who decides whether or not to purchase it. You want a decision maker who knows what entry level people are doing on a day to day basis, which in my opinion lends itself to smaller companies.
3. Industry you are interested in – At a minimum you should be interested in the industry. This is potentially you going into business with people from this industry. If you don’t like what the industry is about, or the people that are in it, then don’t create a business around it. This seems obvious but a lot of people, when they get started, don’t actually get the idea that they might be creating a business down the line (it’s still not real for them). This makes it easier for them to overlook this fact. Additionally, if you have connections (relatives who are in the industry) this can make all the difference.

Why Is Idea Extraction Hard?

Now you may be thinking that all of the above sounds easy enough.

Well, think again.

Idea extraction is anything but easy. I’ve talked to dozens of industry professionals (having called dozens more) and only walked away with two ideas that seemed even remotely promising. One of them I am going to be sharing in an audio at the end of this post.

Here’s what makes IE hard, and what you can do to help:

Cold Calling And Cold Emailing Sucks

If you have never cold called someone, it isn’t very fun. These are business professionals. They are either too busy to deal with you, or think they are too busy. Either way, you have to convince them why they should hang around on the phone with you for even 5 minutes, let alone 20-30 minutes which is what it will take to derive anything useful.

Naturally, expect the response rate to be very low – like, single digits low.

Ideally, you are trying to get someone on the phone. I am not an expert, but here are two ways to go about it.

First, you can try sending an email to break the ice and introduce yourself. Then try to transition into a phone call.

Second, you can try cold calling. Often you will catch the person at a bad time. That is OK though. You have made yourself known. Offer to follow up with an email, and then transition that into a phone call (now that they know who you are).

Getting The Right Person On The Phone

You are looking for the persons who make business decisions. You also want them to be aware of how the business operates day to day (at a low level, like, what are the mundane tasks that get done, for which software might be a solution). These people are not easy to find, and depending on the size of the company might have “gatekeepers” i.e administrative assistants who put you through. Be persistent and follow up. Picking the right industries really helps.

Getting The Information You Want

OK so you got the right person on the phone – now what?

Well, you have to identify their problems. Unfortunately, not everyone is super willing to share them with you.

I mean, imagine some stranger called you and asked you what you were struggling with today. You’d probably hang up – right?

The key is to warm the person up, build a rapport with them, and slowly transition into the problems area. When you’re there, you have to dig deep. A lot of people have problems. Not everything can be answered by software.

I had one person tell me that seasonality was a problem for their business. Perhaps there is more there, but at least on the surface, software cannot change the seasons.

How To Make Idea Extraction Easier

There are a few tips I picked up from doing calls that definitely make the process easier.

Have Scripts, And Keep Them Handy

Don’t go into every call cold unless you are some sort of smooth talking James Bond. Every time I made a call, I had my script written out in front of me. Not to sound rehearsed, but to sound confident and to speak without interruption. Confidence is key. Not just having it, but exuding it. It’s what makes a person want to talk to you. This is super important for the intro.

Additionally, I always keep a list of questions handy. Again, not to just rattle them off one by one, but to not ever be in a situation where I didn’t have a question to ask, as long as someone was willing to answer.

Record All Your Calls

It is definitely difficult to lead a conversation and internalize everything, on the fly. Record your calls and then you can always refer back to them. It is particularly useful if you are going to have multiple calls with the same person. Since I am traveling I used Skype. I actually bought a Skype number from Framingham Massachusetts to look a bit more local (since I was calling companies in the Boston area). It also allowed me to leave a call back number, which is very important when leaving voice mails. This recorder works well for me. I would set it to auto record all calls I initiated.

Organization Is Key

You will be calling and emailing dozens of people, and you want to have an organized way to keep track of them.

• Who has been emailed?
• Did they respond?
• If they didn’t respond, did you follow up?
• Did you get on the phone, what did they say?
• Where did you record that call?
• When did they schedule the meeting?

I created a Google Doc for myself to keep track of all this. Take it slow and steady and after each call make the appropriate notes.

Choose Multiple Industries At First

At first, I recommend choosing different types of industries. Eventually, of course, focus is key, however, I think it’s a bit ridiculous to think that you can just nail an industry on your first try.

If you choose a couple to go after you can get a feel for different things, like, which people are easier to talk with on the phone? Who is more likely to respond? Can you get in touch with a decision maker?

Once you have figured that out, go all out on that industry until you have an idea of have a reason to change.

Ask For Referrals

A referral is the easiest way to get someone to give you the time a day. After each call, ask for a referral. People in the industry know other people in the industry.

Use Their Name

As you are trying to build a rapport with someone, it is best to try to use their name when appropriate. Obviously don’t go overboard here, but little things like “Thanks Tim, I really appreciate that” help people warm up to you. If you don’t already have a Point Of Contact, usually someone says their name when they answer the call – remember that because you only get one shot.

Scripts For Idea Extraction

Here is a script for the cold emailing I would send out.

Subject: Can you help me Anthony?

Message Body:
Hello Anthony,

My name is Dave and I’m a software engineering student at Harvard University. I’m doing a research project on the Test Prep industry to see if there are any big problems for which software could be a solution.

Is it possible to put me in contact with someone who can answer a few questions?

Essentially, I’d be looking to understand.

- A bit more about your industry and business
- Some of the day to day activities, specifically the ones that seem repetitive, dull, or boring
- Understand how you are currently handling them

This is not a sales call, and if you would prefer to simply answer these questions in an email, that is also fine – I don’t want to take up your valuable time, but I am hoping to deepen my understanding of the industry.

Thanks!
Dave

Here is a script for the introduction on the phone. There is a bit of a white lie here in that I am no longer a student but graduated a few years ago. I figured people, especially in the test prep industry, would respond better to students.

Hello my name is Dave and I’m a software engineering student at Harvard University. I’m doing a research project on the Test Prep industry to see if there are any big problems for which software could be a solution. Is there anyone available to answer a few questions, because I would really appreciate it?

Here is a script that I would send after a cold call (if the person suggested I send them an email to set up a time).

Subject:Follow Up From Today’s Call

Message Body:
Hey Lauren,

My name is Dave and I spoke with you this afternoon. Sorry to have caught you at a bad time!

Just a reminder, I’m a software engineering student at Harvard University. I’m doing a research project on the Test Prep industry to see if there are any big problems for which software might be a solution.

If you have a few moments to spare, I was wondering if we could set up a brief call.

Essentially, I’d be looking to understand.

- A bit more about your industry and business
- Some of the day to day activities, specifically the ones that seem repetitive, dull, or boring
- Understand how you are currently handling them

This is not a sales call.

Thanks!
Dave

Here is a list of key questions I might ask, depending on the conversation.

• Tell me a little about your business and the test prep industry?
• What does a typical day look like for you?
• What do you like the most and what do you like the least?
• What activity in your business takes you a lot of time?
• What is the biggest problem in the industry?
• Are you currently using any sort of software?
• Are there any features missing in your current software that you wish existed?
• How much time/income could that generate/save?
• What would you pay for a solution to $$ problem?

Case Study – An Example Of Me Doing Idea Extraction

The following is an example of me doing a quick idea extraction on someone in the lawn care/snow plow industry. It’s about 13 minutes long, and it’s actually a call back from an email that I sent.

This is definitely not a perfect call. It is also not super typical, because I was able to wrap it up very quickly by just getting straight to the point as it was 5PM his time and I didn’t want to keep him with all the usual questions.

I guess it goes to show that there is no typical idea extraction call.

I chose it because it actually reveals a viable business idea that Chris said he would pay for.

Today's post is by Bill Wallace, vice president of Revenue Storm, a global sales consulting and revenue acceleration firm. Why Executive Messaging Fails Your messaging should capture an executive’s attention within eight seconds. Miss the mark, and you’ve not only wasted the executive’s time but created a negative impression. Unfortunately, many sales and marketing professionals don’t communicate well at this critical level. Instead of giving executives the information they want, sales and marketing professionals often share what they want executives to know about them. Executives don’t care about you, your products, or your services. Quit talking about yourself and make...

A question for you…

What’s one of the single most important points to focus on for short-range and long-term success in your online marketing?

The answer? Customer experience.

Giving your customers a smooth, enjoyable buying experience, followed by great customer service after the sale, combined with ethical, low-pressure marketing to your current customer base with the goal of making add-on and repeat sales of products that will add strong value to their lives can help pave the way for long-term profitability.

On the other hand, repeated poor customer experience during and after the sale and a near-sighted focus on first time sales only, at the expense of repeat sales, can put you out of business. So I think you’ll agree with me it’s critical you focus on providing your customers with a great experience before, during and after the sale. Let’s talk about how you can do that.

We’ll discuss some customer experience “best practices” as well as some missteps to avoid.

Please keep this in mind: Social Proof

In this age of social media, hordes of people, including many of your customers, go to their favorite online social outlets and talk… a lot! They talk about a myriad of topics, including products they buy online. They also talk about their customer experience related to the purchase and use of those products.

If you provide a great customer experience, not only will you have happy customers, they’ll tell their friends and social media connections. You could very well wind up with a flood of potential buyers eager to know more about you and predisposed to become your customer because of the social proof of the “brand evangelists” – i.e. – your loyal current customers who told them how wonderful it is to do business with you. How cool is that?!

If you burden your customers with an unpleasant customer experience…? 89% of buyers,according to one survey, switched to a competing company after a poor customer experience with another one.

Understanding Your Customers Needs

In marketing, whether online or offline, relevance is your friend. If your customers view your product or service to be relevant to them and their needs, if they believe you can offer them a valuable solution to a painful problem, their perception of the customer experience they have with you will skyrocket.

So do what you can to be perceived by them as highly relevant. Understand what they need and want and offer it to them. Hint: Do surveys!

Don’t try to sell them on something they don’t want and are highly unlikely to buy. Let’s illustrate our point with an “offline” sales example that’s relevant to the online marketing world: say you’re selling cars.

A “soccer mom” in her late 30s with two kids, ages 7 and 10 walks into your dealership and is in the market for a “family friendly” car. She wants a safe, reliable SUV or minivan. You’ve got plenty of those on the dealership lot. But, you are focused on the kind of car you like and would prefer to drive, not on what’s important to her (BIG MISTAKE!).

You try to sell her on a cool, fast, high performance sports car or convertible. She protests that she wants and needs an SUV or minivan, but you don’t listen. Finally, she walks out in frustration and buys what she wants from another dealership.

Her opinion of you, your dealership and the customer experience you just provided is pretty dismal right now. But it could have been so much different. If you had forgotten about what you like, paid attention to her, asked her relevant questions and offered her what she wanted, you would both have enjoyed a classic win-win situation.

You would have won because you would have made the sale and begun a relationship with a new customer that could lead to more sales in the future. She would have won because her need for safe, reliable, roomy transportation for her and her family would have been met.

So whether you are marketing online or offline, always seek to be perceived as relevant to your target market. This is one of the cornerstones of providing a great customer experience, in my opinion.

Speaking of factors critical for building online marketing relevance, your copywriting and content play a pivotal role in the customer experience you offer your potential buyers. Another important part of your online marketing is obviously your website. As is the case with your copywriting and content marketing, your website can also win you positive customer experience points, or it can put you “in the doghouse”.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

When reviewing any part of your online marketing to make the determination of the experience you are giving your customer, put yourself in his shoes. Try to think like he does. Imagine you are the customer, and be honest with yourself. Do you honestly feel you are giving him a great customer experience?

This review process is important for every “link” in your online marketing “chain”; one place it’s often overlooked is on the website itself. Thoroughly look at every page of your website and ask yourself these questions:

• Do your pages load fast or slow?
• Are your graphics clean and simple or confusing and cluttered?
• Is your copy and content focused on the reader and his problem  and how you can help him, not on your company or product?
• Is your site super easy to navigate?
• Is your contact information easily accessible?
• To submit a message through your contact form, do site visitors have to “jump through hoops” by filling out a bunch of fields that require information they don’t want to give you?
• In order to join your email list, do you require more than just their email address and first name(doing so may make your email signup conversion rate plummet)?
• Are your images relevant (there’s that word again) to your content?
• Do you use custom, high quality images that aid in the sales process, or are you using cheap, generic stock photos as space fillers?

After your customer buys, are you sending him a “fulfillment” email thanking him for his purchase,  a message that also shows him how to enjoy maximum benefit from your product? Doing so demonstrates to him that you care about his satisfaction; this could pave the way for future sales.

At the point of sale, when your customer has just bought from you and is still in buying mode, are you offering add-on items? This could increase his level of satisfaction, not doing this could cause his customer experience to be far less than optimal.

Like we discussed earlier, you need to evaluate every part of your online marketing process to determine what kind of customer experience you give. Customer experience counts post-sale and also pre-sale.

As we’ve often said on this blog, the online marketing process is fragile. If buying from you is hard work, your prospects won’t do it; they’ll quit on you and go to one of your competitors.

If they have a negative view of your pre-sale customer experience, your sales will plummet. Do your very best to give them a smooth, pleasant customer experience before and after the sale.

Nowhere in your online marketing is this more important than with your landing pages. A well-presented landing page can help you give your customer a great experience.

Happy Marketing!

Everyone’s always being asked to demonstrate ROI, to improve ROI, to deliver more revenue at lower cost for any marketing method at all, but most especially those methods at the top of the funnel such as public relations and advertising. Retargeting is one of the best methods available to increase the ROI of PR, and Twitter’s new website remarketing tools are the latest tool for doing so.

Let’s recap how remarketing works. Let’s say you’ve got a new product launch. I’ll use our webinar, How to Market Your Blog and Brand, as an example throughout this post. Say we do a massive PR campaign around this webinar. Thousands of people swing by the website, look at the webinar’s signup page, but only a few actually sign up for it. Even though PR has done its job of attracting new audiences, there will be little ROI to demonstrate because not enough action happened in the middle of the funnel. Not enough leads were generated (a marketing problem) which means that not enough sales will occur (a revenue problem).

How can remarketing help? Assume we fix the landing page once we know it isn’t working and improve it to a point where it meets its conversion goals. Remarketing allows us to reach out to the people who visited that page from our PR campaign and show them an ad with a call to action to come back to the landing page. It helps boost the ROI of your PR efforts by letting you reach out to people you’ve already attracted and get them to come back, rather than seek out and warm up new audiences.

Let’s look at a tactical example of how to do this. To ensure that you’re focusing on the ROI of PR specifically, be sure to set up separate landing pages for different methods of attracting new audiences – your pay-per-click landing page should be different than your PR campaign landing page! You’d first log into your Twitter advertising interface and find the conversion tracking menu. Choose to create a new website tag. It’s important to do this step prior to launching your campaign; remarketing technology cannot work retroactively. Create a new website tag:

In this case, we’d choose to name it after our webinar, How to Market Your Blog and Brand. Make sure the box for Remarketing is checked:

Once done, you’ll get some sample code you copy and paste onto that specific page on your website. Do so by any means that works for you; some companies like to use tag managers, while others just edit pages directly. Once the remarketing tag is set up, run the public relations campaign to get a lot of new audience showing up to learn more about your product or service.

Once a thousand unique visitors have visited the landing page, you can set up Promoted Tweets to that tailored, custom audience and show them ads to get them to come back to your landing page:

In this manner, you’re retargeting people who have visited the landing page with ads. The more who come back, the more who may convert after seeing your content again.

Typically, retargeting campaigns cost significantly less than standard advertising campaigns and often have very high click-through rates because you’re appealing to an audience who already knows who you are and what you do. In recent retargeting tests with clients, we’ve seen costs as low as $0.75 per click and click-through rates as high as 15%.

Give the new Twitter Website Remarketing features a try as a way to maximize the value of the audience you’ve worked so hard to build!

Have you ever seen a website that you just couldn’t stand? Or maybe it all looked good on the first page, but then you had a hard time finding what you were looking for. If I had to guess, you left the website and looked for a better website that was more suited to helping you obtain your goals. The reason you left is likely because the website you were on didn’t represent it’s business personality well. It was uninteresting and most of all, unhelpful. Such experiences are a good reminder that it’s important to make sure your website tailors to the business you represent. When you do this, you represent your own unique business personality, and increase your chances of having more customers visit, and taking action on your site.

Read these tips to learn how you can bring a personal touch to your business website. You may want to also look at our previous article to learn exactly what website personality is all about, and don’t forget to read our next article explaining how BoostSuite can help you with all of your website personality needs.

Get to Know Your Audience

To design or tailor your website personality, you need to understand your audience first. Therefore, it is a good idea to ask for feedback at the end of your blog posts, or to allow customers to leave reviews of your products and services directly on your site. Doing this not only allows you to gain a better idea of who your customers are and what it is they want, it also helps to instill trust in your company’s products and services. You can even post a “like” button on some areas of your website where certain products are displayed. Go here to find out how. Remember, all of these things will help you to better know your audience.

Learn From Your Competition

There are a couple of ways you can learn from your competition about how to shape your website personality.

First, you can read your competitors’ websites to see exactly what they are saying/doing. Pay close attention to the websites that have a lot of comments and positive feedback.These are the people who are successful in your industry because they’re using personality. While you can’t directly copy them, you can implement some of their tactics on your own website.

Also, be sure to look for what your competitors are not doing that you could be doing instead. For example, if you find none of your competitors offer discounts, offer a small discount to potential customers on your website. By doing this, visitors will likely buy from you, rather than from those who you are competing with. Those same people will also be more likely to return in the future, since they know they were able to purchase your products and services for a good deal in the past.

A Picture is not Just a Picture

How you choose to represent yourself visually on your website says a lot about who you are, and what your company stands for. In fact, according to boxcarstudio, our brand is “your personality, your voice, and your message to your audience.” So, when creating your website personality, you want to think intently about what type of message you are trying to display to your visitors. Whether your message is serious, funny or empathetic, you are going to want to display that to your visitors through your images.

For example, if your website’s purpose is to get people to adopt dogs from local shelters, you may want to post a picture of a little girl standing next to a shelter, holding a puppy and smiling. Posting the right images are essential, because as boxcarstudio also explains, “A high visual aesthetic establishes your credibility and authority in your field.” So, always make sure your images are professional and relevant.

Show Your Audience What Makes You Different

Web users don’t want to weed through the mundane and irrelevant websites before finding the website that will help them with their specific needs.In order to make it so visitors are more likely to stay on your site, you are going to want to tell them what makes your products and services unique. To accomplish this, it is important your potential customers get to know and understand your business personality. Afterall, if a website has a personal touch, more people are likely to use that site to help them with their business and personal needs, than another website that has no personality behind it at all.

For example, if you’re selling a product that other people sell, you need to clearly explain to potential customers why your product is better, and how your product differs from your competitor’s. If your audience understands how and why your product is unique, they will be more likely to buy it, rather than a similar product from someone else.

Show Buyers the Part of Your Personality that Appeals Specifically to Them

If you are selling a tablet, it is important to recognize that a student is going to be interested in purchasing your product for a different reason than a high powered business person.

If your goal is to sell your tablet to both of these people, you have to figure out who your buyer personas are. Buyer personas are fictional representations of who your real potential customers might actually be. Be sure to speak to all of these people on your website, and speak to them individually. To learn more about buyer persona, read this article written by the BuyerPersona Institute.

A great way to create Buyer personas is to have separate visual images / links visitors can click on, which lead each visitor to the respected content that appeals to them. Using the tablet example, one picture might be of a student holding a textbook, and the other picture might be of a business person holding a briefcase. Depending on which picture is clicked on, the website visitor will go to either the landing page of your website that contains information on why using a tablet is extremely helpful for students, or the landing page explaining why using a tablet is extremely helpful for business people who travel. Since the student and businessperson are likely going to each to click on the particular icon that leads them to content which suits their particular needs, each person will most likely learn why your product is helpful particularly to them. When this happens, there is a good chance your sales will increase.

Are you designing your landing pages based on where their traffic is coming from?

Have you even thought about that?

Don’t be concerned if you haven’t. You’re not alone.

Your landing page is affected by the source of traffic coming to it. Unless you keep in mind the values, wants and needs of your landing page’s audience, you’ll struggle to find long-term success.

This article will dive into optimizing your landing page for five different traffic sources:

• Facebook
• Google Adwords
• Facebook Ads
• Search
• Email

Let’s get rolling!

 Why Do you Need to Optimize for Traffic Source?

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Honestly, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to any business. Many business decisions you make are based on where your business is coming. For instance:

• E-commerce companies know that they’ll find more success promoting swimsuits in late spring than they will in January. This is nothing more than knowing your audience, recognizing what they’re thinking about, and acting accordingly.

• B2B companies know that exclusively posting product and service-related content on social media will lose you fans (and fast). This, again, is all about knowing your audience, recognizing their mindset depending on platform, and responding intelligently.

Landing pages are the same. Here are five examples of how traffic source can affect your landing page design and conversion:

 Facebook Posts

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Designing your page for traffic from Facebook is significantly different than from other sources, and can be actually more difficult, as social media users aren’t normally comfortable being sent off-platform (which can increase bounce-rates).

This is why you need to be incorporating Facebook landing pages tabs in to your online marketing sales funnel. Many landing page template providers have this integration built in, and it should be a simple matter to publish an existing landing page template to the Facebook platform.

Making a landing page tab within the Facebook platform means that people can engage with your business in a concrete way without being sent to your website. This has a huge influence on bounce rates, because as soon as you move someone off-platform they lose trust immediately.

 Google Ads

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It’s absolutely essential that your Google Ads and your landing pages are part of the same campaign. Keep it tight.

Creating a cohesive ad and landing page campaign increase conversions on both.

This is because the performance of your Google Ad depends (in part) on the optimization of your landing page.

Here’s what I’m talking about (and how to optimize your landing page for Google Ads):

• Make sure the copy on your landing page is owned by you and matches the object of your adword (for instance, let’s say you have an adword that has been performing well and has a high quality score. It would be the height of bad practice to start using that ad to send traffic to an under-performing landing page). It would ruin the landing page’s SEO (if it’s a ‘dofollow’ page) and also the quality score of your ad.
• Ensure your adword headline matches your landing page title/USP/headline (and remember your landing page header should be in )
• Make sure your ad’s keywords are closely related to your landing page’s subheaders
• Don’t jam keywords into your landing page copy at random to “increase SEO”. Google will notice and drop both your ad’s quality score and your page’s SEO instead of increasing it.

 Facebook Ads

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Facebook Ads are a great way to drive people to a landing page, especially companies looking for lead generation.

The reason Facebook Ads are so great for lead gen is because the platform allows you to show your ads only to people who are likely to be interested in your content. Very few people will be searching for ebooks or email-gated content on Google.

Facebook Ads allow you to show your content to people who have expressed interest in your subject but may not be searching for it (for instance, showing your ad exclusively to small business owners interested in customer relationship management brings you a perfectly-sized audience for your ad with a 70 cent/click cost).

I recommend driving traffic (like with a Facebook post) to a Facebook landing page tab. This keeps traffic on the platform and will increase conversion rates on the page.

 Search

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The most well-known traffic source for landing pages, designing for Google Search is actually the most complicated process, as it’s a bit more technical than others.

Here’s what I recommend:

• 1 out of every 10 – 25 words of your landing page copy should be keywords. Space them naturally throughout (don’t keyword mash!)
• Ensure your page’s headline matches well with a likely Google Search (if a search is “buy handmade leather boots in New York”, choose a headline like “leather boots handmade in New York”)
• Ensure your landing page’s URL path has the keywords of your offer (like “www.boots.com/handmade-leather-boots”)
• Use your offer’s keywords in the meta-tags of your landing page’s images and videos
• Optimize for SEO by increasing the load speed of your page: don’t use long videos, complicated, extensive code, or large, unnecessarily high-res images
• Prioritize keywords by placing them higher on your page and with different header tags.

 Email Blast

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Despite the explosion of online marketing strategy in the past five years, marketing emails still have one of the best ROIs available to us. When you use both an optimized landing page and an optimized email blast strategy, you’re talking a seriously effective campaign.

Here’s what I recommend:

Use segment-specific landing pages in conjunction with audience-specific emails.

Here’s an example:

• Let’s say that you run a fancy sandwich place. You have a couple locations (one downtown and one close to your city’s university).
• You’ve recently run an online social sweepstakes, directed at university students in your area . You’re promoting a 20% discount to students who show a valid student ID.
• You’re also running Facebook and Google Ads at professionals in your area, promoting an email-gated coupon code.
• Both these online campaigns have generated a list of very distinct and segmented leads (students and professionals)

Here’s how you use email and landing pages in tandem:

To your lead list of students, send a series of emails promoting “student Sunday” in which you give a further 25% discount coupon on your sandwich platter (5 or more sandwiches)

Use this email in conjunction with an audience-specific landing page which includes the headline “Fight the hangover with our Student Sunday sandwich platter!” and the copy “Get 25% off with a valid student ID. This month only!”

To your lead list of professionals, send a series of emails promoting “We’ve got lunch covered”, where you offer the same discount on the same sandwich platter.

Use this email in conjunction with another audience-specific landing page which includes the headline “Office hungry and work slowing down?” and the copy “We’ve got you covered with 25% off our sandwich platter. This month only”

Note:

In order to ensure that your audience-specific landing page isn’t found through search (as you don’t want people taking advantage of your deal without first giving you their lead information), you need to be making these landing page’s “no-follow”. If you’re curious how that works, read Wishpond’s Guide to No-Follow Landing Pages.

 Advanced Strategy (Beware, Coding may be Included!)

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Hidden Fields:

Hidden fields allow you to track, exactly, how many people are coming to your landing pages from an individual source (or several individual sources).

Here’s how it works:

• Code in a “hidden field” within your landing page (or several, depending on how many traffic sources you want to track) or your landing page’s “thank you” page (the one that opens from a conversion)
• Set, within your ads’ or link’s URL string, a particular coded value
• When internet traffic engages with those links and your landing page opens, that page will be able to, essentially, “see” the URL string as different from others. It then sends that information to your analytics tool
• You can then see exactly how many people are being driven to your landing pages by each individual traffic source

And why is that cool?

Basically hidden fields show you, in concrete terms, the ROI you’re getting from each of your traffic sources:

• If you’re using both Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to drive traffic to a lead generating landing page, you can see which of those platforms is giving you the best return on your investment
• If you’re using both Facebook and Google Ads, you can see which source of traffic is converting better than another (by putting a hidden field on your “thank you” page)

Pretty awesome, huh?

 Conclusion

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Hopefully you now have a better idea of how to optimize your landing pages for different traffic sources. Doing this increases conversion rates and, even more than that, increases relatability and personability of your business’ online presence.

Any personal touch you can add to your online campaign is a touch worth doing. Have you found success with designing for traffic source? Let me know in the comment section below.

By James Scherer

Do you give social media a wide berth because it sucks up your time? Do you have more important things to be getting on with? Or maybe you just find it all too complicated.

As social media has evolved, and the number of platforms has increased, keeping on track of all our fans, followers and connections has become increasingly challenging. Finding the time to post and tweet at the same time as actually doing our work is near impossible.

But, don’t give up in it yet! Used smartly, social media has some really great benefits to offer your business. It can help you:

• Boost brand awareness
• Help your customers by answering their questions and resolving any issues, almost instantly
• Help potential new customers from around the world
• Raise awareness of your expertise
• Increase web traffic
• Boost sales!

Luckily, there are some rather splendid social media tools around, designed to help streamline, automate and simplify. The problem is there are hundreds of them! Wading through them, testing and comparing would take weeks. So, we’ve done the hard work for you – because we’re nice and we get a kick out of that kind of geekery.

We’ve tracked down a handful of robust, feature filled solutions that won’t break the bank. We haven’t mentioned the tiny tools which do just one thing on one platform – instead opting for tools which offer the full monty, and then some. After all, why cobble something together and end up paying a small fortune, when there are some storming options out there?

So, what can we expect these bad boys to do? This will do for starters:

• Give you an easy to digest overview of all your activity across your twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook accounts
• Manage all your pages and groups across different platforms and post to all your groups quickly and easily
• Bulk schedule social media messages in advance
• Track relevant keywords across different networks, enabling you to engage new leads. build relationships and solve problems
• Make it easy to curate and share inspiring and interesting content
• Monitor conversations that are happening simultaneously on different networks
• Track progress with detailed reporting

So, before we crack on with our recommendations, at this point I will just say that these are our favourites, and there may be others that you prefer. Don’t get cross if we’ve missed something you enjoy using, just share it below :)

1. HOOTSUITE

If you feel like your social media is overwhelming you, Hootsuite will save you many hours per week, for a very minimal cost.

• All your accounts shown in one dashboard
• Loads of add ons and integration, many of which are free
• Super useful bulk scheduling from a spreadsheet – so you can get to the pub more often
• Post to all your LinkedIn and Facebook groups in one click (even the ones you are a member of, but not managing)
• Mobile app for iPhone and Android
• ​To get access to bulk scheduling you’ll need the Pro package – just $8.99 per month for up to 100 social profiles

• However, Hootsuite can be tricky to get the hang of and the design can feel a little overwhelming. Plus,
• You’ll be working with tabs, rather than an inbox

2. SOCIOTA

Sociota is one of the best looking tools around, and it’s great value for money too. Here’s what it can do:

• Manage lots of different accounts from one simple dashboard
• Lovely fluid interface and easy to use with drag and drop functionality
• Magic Box monitoring tracks who’s saying what about your brand, or keywords
• Advance scheduling is easy to use
• Bulk updates allow you to post lots of messages at set times
• Good reporting features
• Free package and a great $10 per month package

3. SPROUT SOCIAL

Sprout Social is, in our humble opinion the best social media management tool around, but it is the most expensive of our recommendations, and may be beyond your budget. But, we had to include it, because Sprout does everything you could possibly ask for and then some.​

· Manage and schedule posts

· Monitor keywords across all your networks relating to your brand and your competitiors.

· Find potential new clients, and keep up to date on your industry by joining relevant conversations and tracking key words

· Response Rate metric gives you an idea of how well you’re doing at responding to messages and identify anything you’re missing

· Feedly integration makes it easy to share interesting content with your audience

· Smart inbox brings all your social channels into one place, making it easier to keep up with everything. No crazy dashboard to mess with your head!

· If you work as part of a team, Sprout will help you turn messages into support tickets

· Extensive analysis and reporting tools

· See instantly every conversation you’ve had with a particular person, across different social networks.

· Get suggestions for people on Twitter who may be interesting for you to follow, based on your past activity.

· Mobile app for Android & iOS (including iPhone & iPad)

· $59 per month for up to 20 profiles (that includes all your groups) The next package up costs $99 per month, per user.

4. SENDIBLE

If you can’t quite stretch to Sprout Social, but you like the idea of one inbox and extensive keyword monitoring, then Sendible may be right up your street. We liked it so much, we can’t stop using it!

Yes, it’s not the best looking kid on the block, but it’s features are AMAZING. And we hear there’s a new version coming very soon.

• Sendible brings together all your social media accounts, including lots of extra ones you wouldn’t expect to see including Flickr, Plurk, Delicious, Ning, Slideshare – the list goes on!
• Like Sprout, you have one inbox, making it super easy to keep on top of everything
• Unlike any other product we’ve come across, Sendible also offers email marketing tools as well as SMS services to help you grow your business. We love the idea that we can email our database and manage our social media conversations all from one product.
• Amazing keyword monitoring across loads and loads of social networks, blogs and forums. If they don’t currently cover a blog or forum you’d like to monitor, you can request that it be added. Amazing. See what’s being said about you online, respond directly or follow links to relevant sites.
• Powerful reporting function tracks your campaigns and show you what’s working and what could improve
• Lots of useful extras, like Twitter autoresponders and autofollow to save you even more time. Sendible is easy to use with fantastic live support on hand to answer your every question. Mobile App for iPhone.
• Easy to use – we worked it out very quickly, and any questions we had were answered instantly via live chat
• Mobile app – which was the clincher for us!

The design is a little bit outdated, and the email marketing bit needs a few tweaks, but the team are currently working on a relaunch at the moment – the shiny new Sendible will be out soon.

The Start Up package costs just £24.99 per month – for up to 40 social profiles/services and includes 8,000 emails per month. You can add more emails to your package for an additional fee.

And that’s it! Our four favourite social media tools. We hope you find them useful and that you’re able to work smarter and grow your businesses as a result.

Let us know which of these kick ass products you choose!

The message is a clear one. Technology has an ever greater role in all our lives, and that includes our professional ones. Not knowing where IT can make a difference in your organization is dangerous. Change is happening fast. Are you ready to protect your market share?

The concept of competition is now on a whole other level. In the digital world, anyone can look anywhere for the right partner to get a job done. Only the very, very best is now considered good enough. Luckily, a worldwide market also means more potential customers. More than enough even when you narrow your focus.

However, this competitive shift places enormous pressure on your relationship with the digital world. The internet is your medium to touch the global audience. Do you know how to use it effectively and ensure you pump enough leads into the sales funnel?

Your start-up competitors do. They are broadcasting their message and harvesting leads with an efficiency older companies can only dream of. They understand the power of social media, of being 24/7 available, of listening to customers, of never saying no. It costs them no effort to use the latest technology and implement it in the most effective way. They only know flexibility, change, adjustment. Changing strategy to adopt the latest and greatest is their strategy.

Taking the first steps to catch up
The first is to accept that to prosper from now on, you need to properly understand and implement the tools available to you. At least part of your organization needs to live in the digital world. It needs to learn, for example, what social media really is all about, what it can achieve and what it can’t. About what people do and do not do on their smart phones. About what today’s expectations are around digital communications. It’s the only way you’ll be able to find and properly support next generation customers through profitable, sustainable relationships.

Partnerships and people
If this sounds intimidating, remember that this doesn’t all need to be organized in-house. Look for new, innovative, energetic companies who can complement what you have to offer – those who understand digital media, the modern customer experience and the world of 24/7 communications. Work together, learn from each other and become stronger together. Your experience and reputation. Their enthusiasm and mobility. Share and combine your tactics, and see where it can extend your reach.

Then make a conscious effort to bring the internet generation in-house. Today’s graduates will bring freshness and energy – a totally different way of looking at challenges. They probably won’t even understand the sluggish processes you still battle away with for no reason other than it being the way it’s always been done. They might just bring a shocking level of insight into how much time you’re wasting. ‘Why don’t we just do it like that?’ Er…

A practical advice
Considering the need to embrace change can be intimidating. Nice theory, but I need something concrete – something I can do tomorrow. With that in mind, top tip number one has to be your website. If you can’t be found easily online, if customers can’t get at the information they want easily, if they can’t organize and pay for your services easily, your business doesn’t exist.

The figures for mobile internet usage are significant here. Some suggest nearly 20% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices. Others tell us it’s 40% of total web time. The next statistic is the kicker though. According to Restive LLC, 3% of all websites are both fast and responsive to mobile use. That’s 3% of websites that won’t lose impatient, irritated potential customers.

Unless you’ve got an IT group with significant budget and genuine excitement about optimal web design, the chances are you’re in the 97%. This is both worrying, and exciting. Worrying, because you’re failing people trying to do business with you. Exciting, because most of your competitors are doing the same. Getting this right gives you a chance to get the jump on them.

Conversion conversion conversion
In a word, it’s about conversion. Take some time to look at flow in your website. How easy is it for people to find what they want? Once they’ve found what they want, how easy is it for them to seal the deal? And indeed, how easy is it for them to end up buying three other things they didn’t even know they wanted? These sound like retail concepts, but even service providers can learn from the philosophy. You’re also familiar with the concepts of cross and up sell. Are you giving complimentary services a chance?

In short, invest whatever budget is available in creating a smarter online presence. Make sure the most important aspects work well on a phone, ensure the sales funnel can be easily negotiated, and try to make sure no-one ever goes away with an unanswered question. Spend 20 minutes looking around bol.com. It should help.

Walk before you can run, but get moving
Readying a business for the next wave of innovations is not a process that can happen overnight. That said, simple steps to make sensible use of what’s available now will make a difference. Ensuring todays hunger for mobile, anytime, anywhere interaction is satisfied is a must. We may not know what the future looks like, but we do know that failure to embrace these trends may stop you from being there yourself.

Do you treat all leads equally? Are you measuring the success of your marketing based on how many leads you generate no matter who the leads are?  One more question . . . Does your sales team complain to you about the leads they get?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it is time you find out what a marketing qualified lead (MQL) really is. You may have heard of the term, but it can be simply defined as any lead that has a better chance of buying from you than other leads. According to the official web definition, a marketing qualified lead is “a lead [that] has been deemed worthy of hand off to sales.”

A marketing qualified lead is the kind of lead that sends sales into utopia when the profile crosses their desk.  However, what a marketing qualified lead is exactly will vary by company.

What Is Your Company’s Definition of a Marketing Qualified Lead?

To identify what a marketing qualified lead is for your company, you can use existing marketing analytics (if you have them) and information from sales to help you and your sales team find the definition of a marketing qualified lead.  It is important to gain insight from your sales team early in the process because what marketing thinks is qualified may differ significantly from what sales perceives as qualified.  For example, marketing may see a lead as qualified when they’ve downloaded three of your eBooks; however, sales sees that the lead isn’t a decision maker and immediately disregards.  Asking your sales team who their ideal prospect is will help you to identify your company’s marketing qualified leads.

What Attributes Can Sales & Marketing Utilize to Identify MQLs?

Although the attributes for an MQL will differ for each company, the following are some common identifiers or attributes of a marketing qualified lead, which can be identified by talking to sales and using marketing analytics:

• Demographics: Characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, employment status, marital status, income level, industry, company size, job title, or interests. Using lead intelligence forms on offers, you can gather many of the demographics needed to identify MQLs on your website.
• Behavior: Another way to determine a marketing qualified lead is the level of activity that lead has with your company and website. To identify where a lead is at in the buying cycle and thus more qualified, you can review the type of content they downloaded.  For example, a lead that has downloaded a top-of-the-funnel offer like a how-to guide is likely just learning about their problem and not as qualified. However,  a lead that downloads a middle-of-the-funnel offer like a case study shows they are more qualified because they are interested in how your company has helped customers. In addition to content downloaded, you can also include other behaviors like email clicks, social engagement, views of your pricing or FAQ pages, and subscriptions.

Once you’ve identified what a marketing qualified lead is for your company, you should not set it and forget it. The definition will need updates as your company grows, but it is also likely to need more revisions early in the process as you work out any flaws.

I’m pretty sure by now you’ve heard all about the wonders of content marketing.  Maybe you’ve approached your CMO about testing the waters?  Back up your reasons for switching focus from traditional marketing to inbound marketing strategies with this compilation of compelling stats of content marketing success.

First, let’s lay the foundation: What is content (aka inbound) marketing?

Inbound marketing strives to convert website visitors to customers through tactics that align content with customer interests, nurture these leads along conversion paths into customers, and delighting these customers so they become outspoken promoters of the company.  If you want to read more about the basics of inbound marketing, check out this article.

Otherwise, here are the following impressive stats that will convince any reluctant boss that inbound marketing is definitely worth the time, money, and effort.

5 Stats About How Consumers Feel About Inbound Marketing

Knowing where your consumers are spending their time online, how they assimilate information, and how they are influenced is the first step to formulating an effective inbound marketing strategy.

1. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Exact Target)

2. 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content and are also more likely to buy from that company. (Custom Content Council)

3. 90% of consumers find custom content useful. (McMurry/TMG)

4. 78% of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. (McMurry/TMG)

5. 50% of consumer time online is spent engaging with custom content. (HubSpot)

4 Stats Showing Increased SEO, Website Traffic, and Conversion Rate

Understanding your consumers is a great first step, but does inbound marketing actually improve your website rankings, drive traffic, and compel visitors along the buyer’s journey?  The following stats answer that question with a resounding “Yes!”

1. Blogs give websites on average 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. (Inbound Writer)

2. Year-over-year growth in unique site traffic is 7.8 times higher for content marketing leaders compared to followers (19.7% vs 2.5%). (Kapost)

3. Website conversion rate is nearly 6 times higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%). (Kapost)

4. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total. (HubSpot)

9 Stats Proving Inbound Marketing Increases Lead Generation

Not only does inbound marketing improve your online presence, it can dramatically increase the number of marketing qualified and sales qualified leads.

1. 78% of small businesses attract new customers through social media. (Relevanza)

2. 34% of all leads generated by marketers in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources. (HubSpot)

3. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices. (HubSpot)

4. 54% more leads are generated by inbound than by outbound. (HubSpot)

5. HubSpot customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing. (HubSpot)

6. Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (HubSpot)

7. Businesses with 31 to 40 landing pages got 7 times more leads than those with only 1 to 5 landing pages. (HubSpot)

8. Those with over 40 landing pages got 12 times more leads than those with only 1 to 5 landing pages. (HubSpot)

9. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Forrester Research)

5 Stats Proving Inbound Marketing Increases Sales

Increasing the number of leads is nice…but it’s all about the bottom line—sales.

1. Customers who receive email newsletters spend 82% more when they buy from the company. (iContact)

2. Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (The Annuitas Group)

3. Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Gartner Research)

4. Companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate. (CSO Insights)

5. Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunitiesversus non-nurtured leads. (DemandGen Report) 

3 Stats Proving Inbound Marketing Increases ROI

Swimming in sales is euphoric, but take it a step further by showing your boss that inbound marketing actually costs less per lead compared to traditional marketing with the following stats.

1. Content marketing produces 3 times more leads per dollar. (Kapost)

2. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. (Mashable)

3. Within the first 6 months, SmartBug Media raked in the highest client ROI in HubSpot history with an overall 1,047% ROI. (SmartBug Media)

These are just a handful of compelling stats out there proving that inbound marketing is too important to ignore.  Do you have any other stats to add?

Do you offer a high-end product or expensive service? Should you be designing your landing page differently because of it?

The answer, it turns out, is yes.

Price-point matters (who knew!?) in the consumer decision-making process. It also matters in how you design a landing page for conversions, the elements you need to include, and much more.

This article will discuss the landing page differences between companies promoting high-end, high-price products and services versus promoting mid-range, low-price products.

Let’s get rolling (in dough!).

 

Why Money Matters

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Landing page traffic is not all created equal. There is a theory in marketing that 80% of a company’s profits come from a crucial 20% of their customer base. These are those customers who (if you’re brick and mortar) you see buying a new car every five years; those customers who have bought exclusively from your dealership for 30 years now and whose children have started to do the same.

These are those customers who (if you’re SaaS or B2B) you got when you were still in an unheated loft with nothing more than a PC you could barely get up the stairs in two trips; that client you bagged when you were still an acne-faced junior accountant at a firm with 14 partners.

Why is the Pareto principle relevant in high-end landing page design? Because you’re designing for that 20%. They’re the ones that up your business’ retention rates and stick with you through server crashes, bug fixes and the Toyota car recall.

This means making your landing pages intuitive, easy-to-navigate, and your business friendly. This means A/B testing, mouse-tracking and heat-mapping to determine what sections are being ignored, what’s resonating, and what elements you need to bring higher, drop lower, or move to the opposite side.

 

How Price Affects Landing Page Design

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High-end services or products are rarely bought immediately upon entering your website. Car buyers want a test-drive (if not four or five). Home-owners need consultation with their bank, multiple walkarounds, the full history of the home and the neighborhood. Businesses need to know they’re getting a positive ROI, entering into a legitimate contract and that your customer service staff will be there should a problem arise.

This means we’re not designing (most of) your landing pages for a concrete sale. We’re designing for a free trial, a one-on-one free demo, a lead submission, a sales call or an appointment booking.

It also means we’re designing for our traffic to fall as much in love with our business as they do the products or services we offer.

 

Here’s how that affects our landing pages designs:

• Consider color psychology: ensure you’re using visually appealing colors that resonate with your target audience.
• Consider the art of selling without selling: promote but don’t push, soft-sell, and make it 100% evident how your possible lead is getting a far better deal out of engagement than your business is.
• Make it personal for your traffic: Selling a winter jacket to someone who’s cold is easy; it’s far harder to sell an expensive software tool to someone who isn’t even entirely sure they need it (or what it does). Make it clear what problems you’re solving, and remind your traffic how those problems affect them personally or professionally.
• Make your business friendly: Many B2B companies, SaaS, and high-end product or service providers are in direct competition with equally talented businesses with the same resources, staff, and unique selling points. So what makes your business different? Usually, it’s your people. Sell your traffic on your business’ personality and you’ll increase trust, increase conversions, and watch your business’ retention rates hit the roof.

 

How Price Affects Landing Page Elements

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The landing page elements you need don’t change for higher cost brands vs lower-priced services and products. What they look like, however, may.

Here’s how price affects your landing page elements:

• Don’t be afraid to ask for more information (form fields): A one-on-one demo of your tools, for instance, is often an incredibly valuable thing. An experienced customer success lead may be able to save your clients thousands and thousands of dollars in that demo, so don’t be afraid to ask for more information in your form fields. Talk to your sales team and figure out what details matter in their sales process (company size, job title, biggest marketing issue, etc.)
• Use jargon where necessary (in your USP for instance): For higher cost-goods and services, don’t worry about using words that are unknown to the masses. It’s probable that your truly valuable leads are those who understand the jargon you use anyway. Leads who don’t understand sector-specific language may not actually be valuable in the long run.
• Trust symbols: I’ll go into this a bit more with customer testimonials below, but it’s essential that (where you can) you use as many trust symbols as possible. When a lead is investing large amounts of money towards your product or service, they want to know it’s a wise investment. Show the large, household name brands you’ve worked with before. Showcase the awards you’ve won and official partners you have clearly and obviously.

And here’s how price affects your landing page sales campaign:

• Focus on professional color schemes. Avoid bright colors in favor of more sincere tones like grey, black, and dark blue. CTA’s should be green or orange rather than red.

• Err on the side of caution rather than releasing a campaign too early. Don’t start promoting a sales campaign (ads, landing pages, email automation) before they’re ready. The “move fast and break stuff” works for your burgeoning competitors, not you.
• Keep up with the times. Higher cost brands shouldn’t skint on their marketing budgets so long as you’re receiving a positive ROI. Implement advanced landing page strategies that your competitors may not know about yet (like automatic exit-pop-ups, pre-filled form fields, retargeting campaigns, auto-register links, etc).

 

How Price Affects Customer Testimonials

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Normally this would also be the section where I’d talk about how you need to use customer testimonials to convince your landing page traffic to convert.

However, studies are showing that, when it comes to high-price products or services, user reviews (or reviews from “people like you”) aren’t actually as influential as they are for low-price products.

Here’s the effect of different types of content on high-end purchase decisions (from a 2014 Nielsen report):

And here’s the effect of different types of content on mid-range and low-price products and services:

What does this tell us?

For higher cost brands, it’s far more important for your testimonials to come from clients who are recognized authorities or impartial experts. Don’t focus on previous customers that will relate with your possible customers. Focus, instead, on previous customers that are looked up to and trusted (whether that’s because of a job title, a recognizable brand name, or an impressive pedigree).

 

Conclusion

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Hopefully that’s given you some insight into how the landing pages of higher cost brands should differ from those of other businesses. Remember to test your customer testimonials carefully to see the format that resonates most with your target market.

If you have any questions, start the conversation below!

By James Scherer

When I was suckered into got started in network marketing, I was always taught ONE thing.

ABC, ABC.

Always Be Communicating, Always Be Closing.

Of course, to be closing people, you have to communicate what the offer is that you have.

Problem was… I was involved in selling legal plans that no one (in their right mind) needed or wanted.

My upline would tell me “always infect people”. Of course, he wasn’t talking about some infectious disease (even though that company was like one big gonorrhea)… that you need to INFECT people with this “vision” this company tried to instill into these feeble minded idiots new associates.

Who did they recommend that I infect?

My warm connections – my friends, family, colleagues, fellow school alumns, etc. The people that know me who I am and are more “receptive” to what I have to say.

There was a problem with this strategy. Actually THREE:

1. I had ZERO experience in marketing or selling.. even if I copied their marketing strategy down to the dot, there are always moments when I have to open my mouth or say something over email.
2. Testing your message first on people who MIGHT buy from you is a TERRIBLE idea. It’s like trying sell stuff on Facebook when they have no idea who you are or if they even need your stuff.
3. Eventually every marketer or salesman’s network is TAPPED out, which means you need to tap into the COLD market.

This concept of inbound marketing isn’t something that your everyday Joe Schmoe marketer practices. Because it’s slow and requires patience. But yet, it is by far the most effective.

When you start out your business (if you have congrats), you’ll notice that your warm network will eventually be depleted and you have to venture into the world of paid ads.

Problem with paid ads is that it’s no different than emailing some random person on craigslst… the level of receptivity is MUCH less.

But there are ways to increase your conversion rate on cold traffic.

1) Have a video pre-sell page

If pictures are worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a billion.

Videos work.. and they work well.

Here are some interesting stats on how well video works in marketing:

80% – According to the Online Publishers Association, that’s the percentage of Internet users who recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. It gets even better. Of that 80%, 46% took some action after viewing the ad. In fact:

• 26% looked for more information about the subject of the video
• 22% visited the website named in the ad
• 15% visited the company represented in the video ad
• 12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad

64% – That’s how much more likely website visitors are to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. In addition, visitors who view videos stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don’t view videos, comScore says.

403% – An Australian real estate group reports that real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos. In other words, real estate ads with videos generate quadruple the leads of those without videos.

59% – According to Forbes Insight, that’s the percentage of senior executives who’d rather watch a video than read text. About 65% of those who view a video click through to visit the vendor website, 50% look for more information and 45% report that they contacted a vendor after seeing an online video ad. About 50% of those who viewed an online marketing video went on to make a purchase for their business.

Now, do they have to be videos with YOU in there? Ideally, yes. But required? Not really.

There are infinite possibilities, but here are some ideas that can explain your offer

• replay of past webinars
• desktop screen shares that shows a demo (like this one that explains copy/paste/share tool Share My Quote)
• animations that tell a story (like this one at GrowthGenius)

Use the video in two ways

1. explain the benefits or what it does ON the lead capture or sales page page
2. explain the benefits BEFORE the checkout/form page

Sometimes separating the video from the call to action page can actually INCREASE conversion rates.

But remember.. you gotta TEST on your own offer against your OWN market.

2) Match landing page to the (non search) traffic source

In search, relevance is king.

In another words, if I search for “red shoes” and I click on your ad, you better show me the page for “red shoes”. Not red shoes for dogs… NOT red shoe soles… NOT red haired shoe eating monster…

This is “experience matching”. What I see should match what I expect to see.

You can replicate this on NON-search traffic sources.

Here’s a great writeup from WebPresario:

If your traffic source is Facebook, then…

• Optimize your landing page to create a similar socializing experience to the one they’ve been having on Facebook
• Match message and picture in ad or sponsored story with what’s on landing page
• Use pictures of people
• Use the “Connect with Facebook” button as the primary call-to-action and make other calls to action the secondary option (such as signing up with their email)
• Use Facepile to generate social proof which shows the faces of the visitor’s friends who have liked your page. People are much more likely to sign up for things their friends have signed up for.
• Add a “Like” button to your landing page or post conversion page

If your traffic source is Twitter, then…

• Optimize your landing page for the “Twitter-like” experience of discovering the latest news
• Make the headline on your page newsworthy (Headline makes them feel like they have stumbled upon breaking news)
• Use the “Sign-in with Twitter” button
• Try making your primary CTA (call-to-action) a “pay with a Tweet” and the secondary CTA could be asking them to sign up with their email.
• Display testimonials with tweets from satisfied customers and people with “social authority”.
• Position “tweet” button on the page next to highlighted text that’s optimized for a tweet

If your traffic source is Google, then…

• Optimize your landing page for the experience of discovering new information
• Match the copy shown in your Ad or in the Google search results
• Make sure to include the same keywords or “trigger words” they were searching for on Google in your headlines and landing page copy
• Structure your page to be more informative
• Use the “Connect with Google” button
• Use the “Google Plus” button

Can you see how experience matching your landing page to your traffic source creates a seamless transition for your visitors to sign up for your free offer or trial?

3) CTA Button: Benefits over Instruction

Remember, what is the #1 rule in copywriting?

WIIFM: What’s in it for me?

Why does anyone sign up for a free ebook, webinar, or download?

They want something in value.

On your call to action button, dont’ say “sign up” or “submit”… those are INSTRUCTIONS. Instructions are for robots, dogs, and kids.

No, your (potential) customers don’t need or want instructions.

Instead, tell them what they GET as a result of taking that action.

Conclusion

Cold traffic needs to be “coaxed” before starting a conversation with you. Give them value with a marketing video that explains who/what you are, match the experience of where they are coming from, and of course, answer the good ol’ “what’s in it for me” if you want their information and have much higher conversion rates.

I know how many problems email can cause for emerging businesses. Your business might not be large enough to warrant outsourcing customer service, but it might be too large to handle without an automated system. Sooner or later, your startup will outgrow email as a quality customer support solution. You can effectively use a shared inbox as a cost-effective way to address customer service requests when you have a manageable customer base.

As your business continues to grow, you will start to see signs that you need online custom support software for your emerging business to thrive.

1. Email Has Certain Limitations

Email does not have the ability to fully automate the customer support process. You cannot rely on an inbox to effectively distribute emails between different employees. Additionally, you cannot work around glitches associated with emails in spam folders or emails lost in cyberspace after your business has reached a certain size. You will start to waste too much time on email-related issues at the cost of growth.

2. Bad Customer Service = Bad Public Relations

Your customers can bash you on social media in a matter of seconds. After all, isn’t that a large reason why people love major social media platforms so much? Inadequate customer support can have a substantial negative impact after a highly influential Tweeter decides to write a few characters about how your business was created by evil forces. Or an angry customer posts your dirty laundry to their Facebook account straight from their smartphones. Conversely, you can leverage the power of social media by giving customers a reason to create positive buzz.

3. Customers Love Social Media

Invest in software that will organize customer requests via social media. It’s nice to see how many people think your business is cool, but it can be a tour de force effort to sift through hundreds of comments to find specific requests and concerns.

4. General Email Confusion

Hitting the same customer with support twice can make a poor impression. Shared inboxes make agent collision more likely. Additionally, emails routinely get stuck in spam folders, accidentally deleted, saved instead of sent, or sent to the wrong person. It’s the nature of email.

5. Track Customer History

Many customer concerns appear a bit strange. Is a concerned customer hopelessly confused? Is your staff hopelessly confused? Tracking customer history through email may be possible, but it would require customers to sit back and wait for you to dig through an expansive inbox. Help desk software can expedite customer concerns by efficiently tracking orders.

6. Keep Your Sales Team In the Know

Online custom support software is a great way to keep your sales team in the know. Email does not tie into sales support by design. Spend less time addressing email confusion, and spend more time closing sales. Identify qualified leads and repeat customers instead of trying to find out what happened to some email from a few months ago.

Focus on Sales Instead of Email Confusion With Cayzu Helpdesk

Get your small business over the emerging business quandary with online custom support software from Cayzu. Contact us today for more information about how we make businesses thrive.

Most businesses think of loyalty as repeat sales. But, many businesses also get those sales through repeated discounts. When the discounts dry up, so does the loyalty, even if the customer base doesn’t immediately evaporate. Here’s how to protect yourself from that kind of disaster:

Don’t Drop Prices Indiscriminately

Some companies opt for the lowest price possible. It’s a race to the bottom. You’ve probably seen this before in slogans like, “we’ll match or beat any price.” This is bad news for almost any company. It means that it’s desperate for a sale.

And, like wild creatures, customers can smell a wounded animal. They aren’t loyal to a company that is only there to offer them a discounted deal. Sure, they may show up for the discount. But, they’ll never look at you as the “go to” business when they really need help solving some problem. Even if you sell the solution, real problems need real experts and that’s not you – not if your big thing is selling something for the cheapest price.

Offer Multiple Payment Options

Today, people use multiple payment processors. They don’t just use their Visa or Mastercard. They also use Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, and of course Paypal. If you don’t have a POS setup, like the Vend iPad POS system for instance, odds are you’re not accepting any of these alternatives. Why is this important? Because it shows you are flexible. Even if customers never use one of the lesser-known options very often, it’s nice to know that it’s available.

Provide a Shopping Experience

A shopping experience is something that you can’t fake. Amazon knows how to do this the right way. Think about how it treats you when you’re shopping there. You log on, it already has your payment and shipping information. You choose your items, and you start the checkout process.

Wait. Amazon is offering a discount on something that’s overstocked. Great. It’s passing on the savings to you. Oh look, it’s also recommending other items that are related to your item. You bought a tennis racket, but you don’t have tennis balls.

Amazon will recommend them to you. Do you see the power behind this selling strategy? They’re not bombarding you with advertisements all over the web, trying to sell you something you don’t want or need. They’re not trying to sell you something just to sell you something. They’re trying to be helpful. They’ll even give you free shipping if you top off your order.

So, instead of being sold to, you’re engaged in the buying process. Amazon is like an e-consultant rather than an e-seller. When you do finally pay for everything, it feels good. You feel like you accomplished something important instead of feeling like you just emptied your bank account – which you probably actually did. But, you don’t feel that way, and that’s what’s important. Give your customers the same kind of experience, and they will love you and become loyal customers for life.

Give Stellar Customer Service

Apple, Inc. knows customer service. It’s one of the few companies that puts 60 percent of its employees in retail locations, encourages them to not be pushy, and actually has a protocol for the customer service experience. Apple employees are taught to build rapport with the customer first, then politely probe to figure out all of the customer’s problems, present a solution the customer can use today, listen for any other problems, and end the conversation with a “fond farewell” while inviting you back in the future.

If you’re going to copy someone’s approach to customer service, this would be the company to model. That or Zappos – that company has legendary customer service. From sending flowers to customers to overnighting products for free in emergency situations, this company goes the extra mile.

A Zappos employee once broke the record for the longest customer service call in history – 10 hours. Unbelievably, the employee took breaks during the call and the whole thing ended with a sale of Ugg boots.

Most companies view long customer support calls as bad. They measure satisfaction by time on the phone. In customer service, however, you can’t do that. It usually leads to poor customer service, which is why so many companies have poor customer service – management tends not to “get” the value of allowing support staff to stay on the phone until the customer is legitimately happy.

Zappos employees also don’t read from scripts, which is unusual in the customer service business. But, it also helps service reps connect with customers. Don’t you hate it when it’s painfully obvious that the person on the other end of the phone is just reading off a script and doesn’t really care about you? Yeah? Your customers hate that too. Fix that, and you’ll be building loyalty without spending any more money on cheesy loyalty programs.

Sell Value, Not Price

Value is hard to come by these days. Many companies don’t even know what constitutes good value. But, if you can crack that code, you’re “in” with your customers – usually for life. That’s why Apple has so many “fanboys” and why companies like Microsoft (and Mac haters) don’t get it.

Apple has worked hard to create a value that surpasses what everyone else on the market offers, and they’re rewarded with undying loyalty from their customers. Do this, and you can have the same kind of following.

Apart from the home or landing page, your business’ about page is arguably the most powerful and influential of all pages upon your site. This frequently-trafficked area holds a crucial key to the success of your business online.

Yet so often when visiting a promising site you will be ultimately underwhelmed by the information provided. Companies seem uninformed about the truly transformative power an about page can have upon growing their business and building a successful, long lasting brand.

If your own site features a cookie-cutter three sentence summary of your company, be prepared to encounter some disruptive yet ultimately beneficial ideas for your own business in this article. Hopefully the strategies and styles presented help you grow and succeed in building a solid business base.

What are your goals?

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There are three primary reasons every business must have a killer about page:

• To demonstrate authority
• To build rapport
• To generate more leads or business for your company

Before considering how to craft your about you page, you have consider its intended goal. There are dozens of successful strategies one may employ when working to create a spectacular, lead generating about page.

But these are not all created equal.

You must understand the purpose and consequences of your actions in order to succeed. Ecommerce clients, for example, often seek to increase trust and cultivate higher conversion rates by connecting with visitors on a more intimate and personal level.

For client-based service businesses their about page is ultimately geared towards lead generation or emails opt ins to allow for potential sales later in the buying cycle. Ask yourself what is the call to action or positive result you wish to generate from every potential visit to your site.

Additionally, an about page may be used to strategically eliminate visitors who may be unsuitable to becoming customers. For those offering premium services or selling high-end products, it may be beneficial to distance yourself from customers unable to afford your services. By showing exactly whom you do and do not wish to deal with you eliminate the possibility of customer service nightmares and allow more time to allocate working with and selling to potentially profitable purchasers. This is the 80-20 Pareto principle at work.

 

Demonstrate Authority

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When writing your about page you need to consider the authoritative consequences of your words. A primary purpose of crafting an about page is to showcase yourself and your stellar company as thought and action leaders in your industry. This success and self-positioning must be reflected in your tone and form as well as content.

Here are a few recommendations for how to demonstrate authority on your about page:

1. Showcase past customer testimonials: Nothing puts consumers more at ease than seeing past successes. By knowing other clients have been happy enough to leave glowing reviews of your product or services people understand the satisfaction your company values. The testimonials alleviate the stress and fear people inherently have when purchasing online and will work to boost conversion rates across your site.

2. Share your story: People love an engaging story and will gain confidence and trust through seeing the legacy of your business. Battle tested businesses have a history of success. Unlike the ecommerce merchant who popped up overnight or the less than trustworthy internet marketer, your company has an established history of delivering to customers. This, like the testimonials, demonstrates the satisfaction clients can expect with your brand.

3. Tone: You are the industry leader. You are confident and successful at helping clients achieve amazing results in their business. Once having walked the walk it is important to talk some of the talk. Do not overemphasize successes or results but rather strive for a balance of humble hero and confident entrepreneur to show substance and demonstrate ability to produce.

 

Build Rapport

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Rapport, or the connectedness of bonding, is a powerful force in business. Too often we forget that human beings wish to relate and therefore deal with others in their daily lives. By humanizing your business and positioning yourselves on the same level or just slightly above your customers you can gain an emotional edge.

Here are a few ideas on how to build rapport on your about page:

1. Share your mission: People rally and support others with similar ideologies. If your company stands for something you must showcase that and inspire others to stand with you. All great brands have competition, but building support with those who follow your business’ goals and passions helps you build a loyal customer base. This is the ideal situation for any business or brand and will help with long term longevity and brand reputation.

2. Show the people behind the mission: One powerful strategy to cultivate customers is to show the humanity of your company. Highlighting the entire team and sharing their stories can help create a bond with the company based around its amazing employees. This is especially powerful with pictures. We human beings are highly visual creatures and are drawn to images. Studies have found enormous conversions rates bumps and subsequent trust by simply including pictures of other people. Whether you choose to show individual shots of your team or schedule a large team photo these will benefit in building bonds with the customers.

3. Personality: Personality is another slippery slope when it comes to building a successful, business generating about page. Here you must consider the exact outcomes you wish to accomplish. For some businesses looking to build a brand and a more emotional connection with customers, especially in ecommerce and physical goods, this can be amazing. Well placed quips or funny little jokes share a bit of personality with the audience. However, I recommend testing this, as it can quickly backfire if unsuccessful or even push away prospective clients.

 

Generate Leads

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Trying to sell on an about page is often a fatal mistake and can destroy trust and relationships built with prospective clients. Instead I recommend strategies to soft-sell with optional engagement.

Here are a couple recommendations on how to generate leads on your about pages:

1. Opt In Form: While product promotion is often unsuccessful on about pages you can connect with clients through email. After reading your story many visitors will feel at ease enough to enter your email opt in. Nurture these prospects into warm leads as they enter your funnel and in the end this can be a powerful process of finalizing sales.

2. Phone Numbers: By placing pertinent contact information for your company you capitalize on individuals interested in reaching out for a consult. In the area of service or software businesses even one new prospect can be potentially lucrative.

 

Conclusion

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Hopefully this insight into the strategic acquisition of additional leads and building better conversion rates for your business has forced you to consider your About page in a new light. This prime piece of real estate can become a potent lead generation machine for your business and allow you to grow.

In my own work with clients I have seen conversions rate increases as much as 89% overnight(though this is highly atypical). In spite of this overly successful result you can still certainly expect to see elevated growth in your business and additional prospects entering your funnel by employing several of the strategies above. Not only will these techniques allow your business to become more profitable but they will also enable you to better connect with and your prospects into happy, paying customers for higher lifetime values.

Author: Matt Ward

There is a paradigm shift that is happening, and it’s changing the way marketers carry out their daily responsibilities. The days of the Don Drapers are over, and we have moved on to the days of the Neil Patels, Jay Baers, Michael Brenners, and so on.

A marketer now has to be a jack-of-all-trades. While content marketing is now the main focus of most marketing strategies, it has evolved and grown out of its original, singular focus. Additionally, the goals of content marketing have shifted.

It has been discussed (on this blog and others), ad nauseum, that content marketing is no longer about writing “hard copy,” but has transitioned to digital media such as blogs, white papers, case studies, yes, even social media (see “social content marketing”).

However, a refresher is warranted.

One early example of content marketing is soap operas. You may not know it, but soap companies actually produced soap operas. They created interesting (to some) content – in this case TV and radio shows, that appealed to their target market. While they were not overtly promotional, soap operas helped soap companies capture the attention of stay-at-home moms (their target market) and leverage the commercial breaks and product placement within the show for their own promotions.

Things have changed… considerably.

Nowadays blogs have taken over as the main form of content marketing, which is quite a shift from the days of soap operas. Content marketers, at least the good ones, use these blogs to create original and valuable content for their target market. These posts are not overtly promotional (again, as long as we are talking about a knowledgeable marketer); they are a place to establish thought leadership. If this goal is achieved, when it comes time for a potential customer to make a purchasing decision, your brand will be at the top of their list.

As with other marketing tactics, thought leadership is the Holy Grail. Often times, marketers fall into the trap of only pushing their own products or services within their content. This tactic the opposite effect, and ultimately diminishes the respectability and potential of a brand being considered a thought leader.

Beyond creating content, content curation has emerged as another powerful weapon in a content marketer’s arsenal.

Content curation – namely, distributing external content through your own channels as part of your content marketing strategy, has various benefits.

This practice establishes you and your social channels, as a source of valuable information that will bring prospects coming back for more. It also develops thought leadership, and encourages readers to associate the valuable content you share with your position in your industry. Thought leadership has various benefits, but most importantly it will place you at the top of potential buyer’s mind. When it is time for him or her to make a purchasing decision, that person will immediately know that your company is the best option.

But, content curation has additional benefits as well.

While often seen as a separate practice from content marketing, outreach is an integral part of a content curation strategy. While this may seem strange to some, the connection between the two is actually quite self-evident.

Researching content for curation requires laborious sifting through posts from across the web, and in-depth analysis of said content to make sure it is relevant. The great by-product of this type of research is discovering relevant individuals that can help grow your business and bring awareness to your company.

Content curation doesn’t necessarily need to be a prolonged process. While real thought and research must still be put into it, tools like Oktopost’s Content Curation Engine make it easier by suggesting relevant content, and making it easy to share directly through the platform.

Here are 3 great ways to leverage content curation for your business:

Coverage

A marketer scours the web for content to curate, but how does he or she decide on what to share? This type of analysis involves research and extensive reading of various types of content. One great benefit of this type of research is that it allows you to identify writers that cover relevant topics in your industry. The logic here is that if they write about something relevant to your brand’s expertise, they may want to write about you as well.

Generating great content is fantastic, and an effective method for marketing, but getting covered by a well-read blog is an amazing way to create awareness. When you come across a piece of content that is relevant, take a look at the writer, do some background research on who they are, what they write about, and where they usually write. If it seems like the writer might be interested in your company, and would possibly write an article about it, it is time to reach out.

The importance of getting media coverage for your company cannot be emphasized enough. Save for a few (lucky) companies that have millions of people visiting their blog every month, getting written about in a top industry blog can increase awareness ten-fold. It is important, however, to realize that media coverage is not a sustainable marketing tactic in and of itself – it must be coupled with a strong content marketing strategy, and other marketing tactics as well.

However, getting a write up in a top tier blog is something companies pay thousands of dollars to PR agencies for. By doing it on your own, you can help cut costs while saving countless hours and resources.

Often times the contact information for writers can easily be found on the bio page for whichever blog they write for. However, there are times when such information is unavailable – and it’s difficult to tell whether or not the writer is purposefully hiding their details. Don’t fret if their information is not immediately provided.

A few options exist for finding the writer’s information:

Google

Search Google to find anyone’s contact details, writer or otherwise, is always the first option. The Internet is a big place, and if said writer has left his or her email on any other sites you will be able to track it down.

Rapportive

This is a great and little-known resource. Rapportive is a LinkedIn-owned Gmail add-on that shows a person’s image, social profiles, and various other details on the side of the Gmail dashboard after you type in their email address. This add-on is fantastic for many reasons, but it can also be used as a “hack” to find a person’s correct email address, since you will only be able to see someone’s information if you input the correct email. This allows you to go through a trial and error process in order to find their contact information. The starting point for this process would be trying variations on their first and last names (firstname@company.com, first.lastname@company.com etc.), until their picture and information pops up. Once it does, you know you have the right email.

Though it seems that some of Rapportive’s functionality will be removed in the near future, the main strategy for finding someone’s correct email address will remain in tact.

Social Media

A lesser-known tactic is to go through a writer’s social profiles, particularly on Twitter, and see if he or she has published contact details there. A writer will frequently provide details within a social exchange on his or her feed. Occasionally, that person will replace the standard “@” with “at” so that programs which scrape pages for email addresses will not pick up on it.

If you are unable to find an email address, reaching out directly through a social channel can also be an effective tactic. The key to this strategy is to reach out in a way that doesn’t seem creepy or “stalker-ish.” Writers, especially top-tier blog writers, are wary of this type of outreach – since they are often inundated with requests from people jus like you. However, if done with tact, it can sometimes be more effective than email.

An even better strategy is to combine both email and social outreach. First, find the writers email information and send them a short email. Next, reach out via social media (in this case Twitter is preferable) and let them know you have reached out to them and would love to get in touch. Again, this must be done in a way that does not seem annoying or overbearing.

Prospect

Traditionally, sales people worked with two types of leads: hot and cold. Hot leads were those people who actually filled out requests to find out more about a products or services. Cold leads, on the other hand, were people who, for one reason or another, ended up on a list of leads that was purchased from an external source.

With the advent of social selling – basically, identifying and reaching out to potential leads via social media, the paradigm has shifted. What better potential sales lead is there than one who is writing about exactly what you’re doing? While curating content, you may come across a writer who fits the exact description of your target customer.

Utilize the same tactics described above to find the person’s contact information and reach out to them. Once you begin to engage, mention your product and how it relates to the blog post or story they wrote. Often times this can lead directly to a sale.

Interview

Even if you find a great piece of content, but the author is not a relevant sales prospect, or cannot write about your company for whatever reason, you can also try to get them to agree to an interview. Recorded interviews, in the form of podcasts, are a great way to leverage another person’s social media popularity.

Along with creating a recording, a written interview is a fantastic addition to any blog. Don’t worry – podcasts can be coupled with a written interview by utilizing iframes.

One great tool for uploading and publishing interviews is SoundCloud. SoundCloud is relatively new, and not as well known as other social networks. While this channel is most often used for music, more and more people are utilizing it as a conduit for podcasts.

One of the great things about SoundCloud is that you can take the recording and embed it into a blog post. While this may seem a daunting task to those of us who are not as technologically inclined, it is actually quite simple. All you need to do is click the “share” button on the SoundCloud recording, click on “embed” and copy and paste the code provided within the HTML of your blog post. Readers will then be able to play the podcast directly from the blog post.

SoundCloud is not the only option for podcasts; you can also utilize the app store. However, it is not possible to embed such a podcast and therefore you won’t be able to harness the power of creating both a written blog post and a related podcast.

There are 2 additional benefits of conducting an interview for your blog:

Leverage the Interviewee’s Popularity

When you interview someone, especially if they are an influential figure in your industry, you will benefit from their popularity and social following. It is human nature for your interviewee to want to share their interview with his or her followers, who will in turn share it with theirs.

Additionally, a post with a well-known name attached to it will garner far more shares and tweets by virtue of the popularity of your interviewee.

Solidify Relationships

Conducting an interview can be a very personal experience. Taking time to ask probing questions is a great way to break down barriers between you and the interviewee, and this can be a great way to build a strong relationship.

As opposed to an email relationship, an interview can often lead to a real friendship, which can be mutually beneficial. They say that it’s not about what you have done, but about who you know. Creating strong relationships with thought leaders in your industry could bear fruits in ways that you can’t imagine. The key is to maintain contact after the interview.

Content curation is a necessary tool in all content marketing strategies. However, it cannot be looked at in a vacuum – the benefits of such a strategy go far beyond just establishing a social presence. With limited resources, marketers must be able to harvest as many benefits as possible from each tactic being utilized, and with content curation, the possibilities are numerous.

As I showed in a previous Business2Community post, search engine marketing is incredibly important for B2B companies. (You can download the study here.) But where to begin? What types of campaigns should you run? This post breaks down the four search engine marketing campaigns you should be doing if you’re a B2B software company, using Marketo as an example. I call them the four Cs: Company, Category, Content, and Compete.

Company

Simply, these are people who are searching for your company or misspellings. Otherwise known as “brand keywords” or “brand terms” these terms are generally high-performing and deeper down the the sales pipeline, since searchers are already familiar with your brand.

Here’s an example of a company ad when searching “marketo” on Google.

Category

These keywords are when people search for a solution or related terms to your product, but probably don’t know about your company yet and tends to be more exploration. This is a good opportunity to land prospects on a high-level overview, with options to dig deeper into specific ares your product or download relevant content.

Here’s an example of a category ad when searching “marketing automation” on Google.

Content

These keywords are when people search for specific content (aka “whitepaper” or “guide”) related to you to your industry. Like category ads, this tends to be more exploration and top of the funnel.  This is a good opportunity to land prospects directly on a content download page and initiative a sales development process and/or lead nurturing.

Here’s an example of a category ad when searching “marketing automation guide” on Google.

Compete

These keywords are when people actively look to compare options and competitors. Searchers tend to be much deeper in the funnel as options have been narrowed down. This is a good opportunity to have pre-built pages that only focus on the competitor being compared against and make it easy for prospect to understand key differences. Learn from your competitors using a site such as spyfu.com to win new business piggybacking off their initial work.

Here’s an example of a category ad when searching “hubspot vs marketo” on Google.

In conclusion, creating strong a strong search engine marketing requires planning, dedication, and optimization, but can have huge payoffs in the end.

I sat pondering another in a burst of self-serving emails sent last week by salespeople who obviously lack any discipline in prospect research or the energy needed to attempt meaningful personalization. As one of the emails was from a company I’d thought “got it,” it occurred to me that the salesperson just screwed up my perception of the company they work for.

This made me wonder how much salespeople may be screwing up marketing performance now that more marketers are being tasked with proving contribution to revenues and business objectives, not simply lead generation.

Before sales-oriented, progressive types take issue with me, let me explain.

First – why there’s need for concern:

• Buyers are self-serving content for a longer portion of the buying process. This means, if marketing is doing its job, marketing content and strategies are helping to attract and engage those buyers, building their perception of the company as helpful, credible and experts in their field.
• Buying cycles are lengthening and the size of the buying committee is growing. This means that content must be produced to engage more people with differing perspectives and responsibilities. For example, a technology purchase is often driven today by business executives, not just IT executives. Marketing is tasked with engaging as many on the buying committee as they can in the most relevant way they can.
• The amount of content buyers engage with during buying is also growing. Marketing is working hard to help increase the amount of content their prospects engage with. If they’re reading yours, that’s less time to read the competitor’s – just saying.

Given those three reasons and assuming that a buyer has been nurtured and qualified before being handed off to sales (although research shows this doesn’t happen for most companies who toss form completions to sales – but ignoring this) then it’s up to the salesperson to capitalize on the work that’s already been done. Or to screw it up.

I’m seeing more and more sales communications that are screwing it up.

In my work I do a ton of resarch which usually includes submitting a lot of forms to download white papers and reports that help me learn about an industry, market or solution. I get a lot of email as a result. Just this last week, I received a dozen or so examples.

I’ll share a couple them to illustrate my point:

The first is a bucket approach. I hate this type of email. This is the lazy email that tries to make you feel bad by saying you’re non-responsive and then asks for you to expend effort because the salesperson can’t be bothered to do it themselves. Below is the email copy with only the brand name removed to protect the guilty party.

Hi,

Good Afternoon. I have tried contacting you in regards to [brand] software.

Would you be so kind as to provide me some guidance, as I do not want to be a bother and will gladly follow your direction. Which of the below describes where you are at:

A – You have made a decision regarding [brand] and want to chat now. Great End of Month Incentives.

B – You want to schedule a call at a future date

C – You are no longer interested in [brand]

I appreciate your feedback and hope all is going well.

Thanks.

This same email was sent three times in one day. It was also sent by a salesperson who works at a company that I’ve talked about as having a truly engaging marketing approach. I assume that I was subjected to this salesperson because I downloaded a bunch of content to see what they were doing. I will not be inclined to mention them again as their marketing processes don’t seem to cross over to their sales processes. And, I’m irritated.

The first problem with this approach is that the salesperson couldn’t even bother to include my name in the salutation. The second is that it puts the onus of effort on me. The salesperson is obviously cutting and pasting a template. A poorly written template at that. Or, God forbid, it’s automated. And, until he sent the above three times in one day, I’d never heard from this salesperson before – so the first sentence is a lie. He hasn’t been trying to contact me.

The second problem is that 5 seconds on Google would’ve told him that I’d never be his customer. As a consultant, I don’t buy 5 figure BI systems. But because he did no research and sent a lazy email, not only did he waste his time, but he cost his company an advocate. Advocates don’t come along every day.

But here’s what’s worse. Imagine if I was a buyer. I can tell you that their marketing content is very good. It’s informative, well written and interesting. It’s a considered purchase so what if I’d been a prospect for months, learning what I need to know, getting all my questions answered… and then I receive that email.

There’s nothing helpful. It’s like the anti-experience of the company in question. And I, as that primed buyer, decide to move on to my second choice, thinking that the quality of what I’d seen so far is a smoke screen. Could this be happening in your company?

Here’s another example:

Hi Ardath,

I had a note you registered for the recent webcast, “Name of Webinar I Never Registered For”, about [XYZ] in the  enterprise. I’m not sure if you were able to attend, but I’d like to avail myself as a resource in case you were interested in learning more.

We’ve helped clients find great efficiencies for business users, reduce complexities for the IT organization, while mitigating risk for the organization as a whole when [doing XYZ]. 

If you’re open to a brief conversation, I’d love to learn about your business objectives in these areas. Would it make sense to speak? If you’d like, test the system with your own [trial]

Thank you.

Best Regards,

First off, if he thinks I registered for the webinar then he should know whether or not I attended. That data is in every webinar attendee report. But, in reality, my one interaction with this company was to download a white paper, so his information is faulty. And, you can tell it’s a template he lifted because of the double sign off. He pasted it in and didn’t even take the time to notice.

Now, if this was a one-off, I’d just delete it and not pay attention. But, I received this email twice plus a voice mail. And I took a look at his company. Once again, five seconds on Google would have told him not to bother with me.

So this is when it really hit me. Because of the repeated irrelevance, I will automatically delete any email from this company. If I was a potential prospect, marketing wouldn’t have a shot. No matter how good their content or communications. In fact, the next day, I received a marketing email and immediately unsubscribed.

If your salespeople can’t even be accurate about the type of interaction had with your company, what will your prospects think? And why, after one white paper download, do salespeople pursue leads? And, if they’re going to do so, they’d damn well better figure out something more relevant that the email above. Which actually could be from any company, it’s so vague.

So I ask you: How much damage are your sales team’s practices doing to your marketing performance?

And, I’m not putting this all on sales, either. Marketing shares responsibility, in my opinion. With sales enablement that teaches salespeople how to effectively engage prospects based on a continuation of the story marketing is telling, this can be avoided.

If we want our marketing performance to contribute to revenue, we need to help salespeople have a better shot at not screwing it up.

And to all the salespeople out there who do “get it” and do their research and work hard at relevance, bless you!

Much has been written about how the internet in general, and the explosion of content marketing in particular, has changed the nature of b2b marketing. In less than a generation, information has gone from being scarce to overabundant. Today’s b2b buyers are typically 70% of the way through their purchase process before they contact a vendor’s sales team.

Information proliferation means buyers are better-informed than ever about potential approaches to solving problems, and the related product and service alternatives. But the increased availability of data means vendors are also more knowledgeable about what matters to buyers, how they conduct research, which content resonates with prospective customers (and what types of content fall flat), how to refine and act on key measures and metrics, and most importantly, how decisions are ultimately made. The old “sales funnel” model is giving way to more sophisticated analytical frameworks.

How should b2b marketers adjust their strategies to keep up with this evolution? What types of messages matter most to today’s buyers? Which long-held beliefs of b2b marketers need to be discarded? What do elite marketers do well that their more average counterparts don’t?

Find the answers to those questions and others here in more than a dozen insightful guides to b2b marketing strategy from the past year.

How To Market For the Top Four B2B Business Growth Strategies by g2m Solutions

Sarah Pern examines “four major business growth strategies identified by the Ansoff Product-Market Matrix and shows you how to develop marketing strategies that are aligned with achieving the business goals you want.” For example, recommended marketing strategies for the business growth approach of market development include market research to help develop rich buyer personas, and awareness building using “online advertising…PR, SEO, Social Media, attending exhibitions, sponsoring events” (basically all of the elements of the web presence optimization framework) plus outbound tactics.

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How To Do It Right: Demand Generation by Forbes

Patrick Spenner brilliantly makes that case that b2b marketers should focus on “improving the connections among stakeholders at customer organizations” rather than those between the supplier and individual stakeholders. He astutely notes that personas are often created as isolated individuals, with the connections between the different stakeholders who make up the B2B customer buying team left unexplored and unaddressed.

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New Study Shows That Most B2B Marketing is Talking Past Customers by Ideas@Work

Glenn Taylor reports on the disconnect between what B2B companies tend to say about themselves and what potential customers want to hear (that is, what types of messages contribute most to perceived brand strength. He advises vendors to take the “opportunity to dig into your positioning and try to tell your story and the ‘why’ of what you do. Statements like ‘driver of innovation’ or ‘leader in our field’ are over done and past their prime. Most marketers cannot deliver on these and almost no customer believes them.”

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4 Ways Elite Social Brands Separate Themselves From The Pack In B2B by MediaPost

John Lee details four practices used by the most successful social brands in B2B, such as using measurement to drive integration (“Lack of measurement is the number one reason that social fails…Nearly 90 percent of brands measure volume and engagement (likes, followers, etc.), but only 31% measure it against revenue”), and developing individual strategies for each social media platform.

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B2B Marketing Trends That Will Shape Your Strategy by Anders Pink

Noting that B2B marketers have been gradually shifting effort and budget from outbound to inbound marketing channels “as buyers increasingly manage the early stages of the buying process without contacting vendors by reviewing websites, talking to peers in the industry and reviewing resources. This allows them to often filter and shortlist without ever talking to a sales rep,” Steve Rayson details eight strategy-shaping trends, including changes in buyer behavior, SEO, and corporate websites, along with the growth in content marketing and social media.

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B2B Marketers Need To Step Up Emotional Connections by MediaPost

B2C marketing is often perceived as emotion-based, while B2B buyers decide based on facts and logic. The reality turns out to be quite different though; Laurie Sullivan reports on recent research which found “Emotional connections are much more ‘intense’ for business-to-business clients compared with B2C…Between 40% and 70% of customers feel emotionally connected to brands like Oracle, Accenture, FedEx, SAP, and Salesforce, compared with between 10% and 40% for CVS, L’Oreal, and Wal-Mart.” B2B marketers need to become more adept at presenting the professional, social, emotional, and personal value of their products and services.

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Everything We Thought We Knew About B-to-B Marketing Is Wrong by Forbes

Expanding on the findings reported in the post above, Scott Gillum reveals that “The company customers say that they are most emotionally connected to is…Cisco.” B2B purchases involve professional risk, particularly for the internal champion, and Cisco is very good at reducing risk for buyers. Furthermore, “Cisco is able to create…’personal value’ consisting of four parts: professional, social, emotional and self-image benefits.”

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6 Persuasion Techniques: Science in B2B Marketing by Ideas@Work Blog

Following up on the post above, Vann Morris describes half-a-dozen techniques for tapping into B2B buyer emotion, such as liking: “Research shows that we are more likely to say yes to people we like, and we tend to like people who are similar to us, people who complement us, and people who cooperate with us toward a common goal.” Creating the vision of that “common goal” (and the buyer’s emotional attachment to it) is a powerful marketing technique.

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7 Tactics that Are Working for B2B Lead Generation Today by CustomerThink

Louis Foong shares seven tactics that work in b2b marketing today, among them lead scoring using behavioral data (“For example, when a prospect signs up for a free trial, you should attach a higher score to that behaviour than when a new subscriber gets added to your email newsletter list”); progressive lead profiling (asking for new, additional information each time a specific prospect converts); and social retargeting (“If a prospect is just about floating at the top of the funnel, gated content won’t work—you need to give away something valuable, easily, with no strings attached. Gated content will work for prospects that are already quite convinced that your company has the knowledge to educate them on specific problems they are challenged with”).

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The Myth of the Infinite Selling Universe by DemandBase

The always-insightful Ardath Albee exposes the myth (often used when raising venture capital) that the pool of prospective buyers for a company’s product or service is infinite; why this myth is dangerous (“it costs more to generate more leads. It costs more for salespeople to spend more time following up with more leads. This increases the cost per opportunity.”); and suggests how marketers should focus their time on the small set of ideal prospects.

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Five Ideas on the Business-to-Individual Concept for B2B Marketers by MarketingSherpa

Reflecting discussions with industry experts including Brian Carroll and Brian Solis, David Kirkpatrick offers “five lessons on why you should be marketing to the individual, even as a B2B marketer,” among them: “Creating relationships should be a philosophy, not just a marketing strategy”; relevance matters; and the customer is now completely in charge of the buying process, so b2b vendors must “make it easy for those prospects to conduct self-discovery and self-service…provide content and tools that enable those potential prospects to make the decision to buy from you.”

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5 Buyer Behaviors Reshaping B2B Marketing by iMedia Connection

Frequent best-of honoree Tony Zambito delves into five buyer behaviors that marketers need to be aware of and respond to, including that buyers embrace collaboration; they want to be involved in the co-creation of products and services; and “buyers want less content – yet desire smart content.”

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B2B Marketing’s Measurement Problem by B2B Digital Marketing

Writing “It is called a complex sale for a reason, but B2B marketers keep trying to fit it into a simplistic measurement framework: where did we get that lead?,” Eric Wittlake explains why simple B2B marketing metrics are not just ineffective but also misleading, and offers recommendations on how to “more effectively measure the impact of marketing on your business.” (We would agree that a new breed of marketing metrics is needed to understand cross-channel impacts.)

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The Forgotten Stars of B2B Lead Conversion by Business2Community

Warning about the dangers of forgetting the “less glamorous but vitally important tactical elements that do a lot of the the hard, relentless work of attracting and converting visitors to real leads,” Christabelle Tani outlines three simple yet vital components of lead generation, including social proof (“evidence that other human beings are advocating your company and what you sell”) and their role in each stage of the sales funnel.

Marketing is NOT selling. However, some companies may still get confused between the two. They may have salespeople with the job titles of “marketing executive” or “sales and marketing cum business development executives”; because they may think that marketers are also salespeople.

This is not true. A marketer is not a salesperson.

I came across a medium sized company in Singapore which is currently recruiting someone who can do triple job scopes in marketing, selling as well as business development. For many weeks, the company is still not able to find a suitable candidate for that multi-tasked position because a salesperson may not want to do a marketer’s job while a marketer may not want to do direct sales either.

As the saying goes, “a jack of all trades is the master of none.” That is why it is pretty important for companies to understand the difference in functions between marketing and selling so as to get the right talent for their organization.

7 Things Marketing is Different from Selling

1) The goal of marketing is to make the selling environment better, while the goal of selling is to make a sale from a customer.

2) Marketing is about making consumers buy because of the brand first, then the product and the person. While selling is about making consumers buy because of the person first, then the product and the brand.

3) Marketing is about planning a strategy to become the market leader of a group of consumers. Selling is about closing a customer through one-to-one interaction, one at a time.

4) The process of marketing started long before the selling takes place such as consumers segmentation, planning and creating brand strategies. While the selling process takes place only when the salesperson meets with the prospects.

5) Creating a brand that is relevant to the targeted group of consumers is marketing. Interacting and pro-actively asking an individual consumer to consider one’s products and services is selling.

6) Marketing involves influencing consumers’ buying decisions through subtly educating the consumers to like the brand. Selling is more of asking the consumer to buy based on the benefits of the products and services through one-to-one interaction.

7) The end product of a marketing campaign is to create prospects, potential customers or leads. While the end product of a sales campaign is to convert the prospects, potential customers and leads into a buying customer.

“When marketing is done well, is selling unnecessary?”

This is often the most controversial statement of all and the most debatable one between the marketing professionals and the sales professionals.

In my opinion, marketing is important as it makes consumers understand more about what our brand really stands for. But selling is not totally unnecessary either, if marketing is done well. For cases such as E-commerce and blog-shops, marketing may make selling unnecessary as there is little or no face-to-face interaction between the business’ salespeople and the customers. However, for B2B kind of businesses, where client relationships values the most and prospects are more analytical than emotional, good salesmanship will therefore be necessary.

In some B2C businesses which I observed, good marketing and branding strategies can make the products sell by its own. Literally, the salesperson may simply be seen as an “order-taker” because the consumers, from the brand’s marketing efforts, already knew what they want to buy long before they meet the salespeople. However, some form of convincing from the salesperson is still needed in order to make the prospects sign on the dotted line quicker.

We can also see a huge difference when we compare a B2C company without good marketing but good salespeople, and with another B2C company with good marketing strategies but with only average salespeople. The one with good marketing strategies always wins the one without even though they only have average salespeople; this is because selling tends to easier and consumers are more convinced to buy when we have a good marketing strategy.

In summary,

Marketing is definitely not selling. Selling may be a part of marketing as it involves one-to-one customer interaction, but it is not marketing. By understanding the differences between a marketer and a salesperson, companies can therefore plan better, market better and sell better!