Rnordman

For more strategies that will help create more prospecting success, check out our Sales Accelerator Program.

In a regular feature I’ll be taking a look at brands from a particular industry to see how they compare with one another on various social media channels.

Last month I wrote about why Ford’s social media strategy is so good, in which I took a look at the 110 year-old car manufacturer and how it’s managed to transform its digital presence through expertly tailoring its content and connecting to each social channel’s audience with authentic engagement and a suitable tone of voice.

Let’s take a look at how other brands compare in the world of automotive social media.

Mini

Mini’s NOT NORMAL campaign was a huge success, helping to reestablish its brand identity and connect with audiences as a friendly and innovative brand.

Mini scoured the internet looking for its most loyal brand ambassadors and discovered hundreds of images and videos on social media, that Mini then used for its campaign. 

Followers could upload a creation to its Tumblr hub or by sharing it with #MININOTNORMAL, then within hours could see it on a digital poster or billboard anywhere in the UK.

As reported in The Guardian, within six weeks 230,000 engaged with the campaign via social media. 2,217 pieces of consumer content were shared. 29,420 new fans and followers were recruited. Mini’s Twitter following tripled. 3,853 visitors to the campaign hub went on to look for a new MINI on mini.co.uk. 11% of which became qualified dealership leads.

BMW 

BMW runs a fairly standard Facebook page with repeated links, images and reviews from its other social channels. However as David Moth reports in How BMW uses social media the manufacturer achieves quite a stunning amount of engagement from its followers.  

Most of the posts on this page average around 30,000. In one year, BMW has increased its Facebook following from 13.4m to 17.2m with very little engagement from the brand, just a steady strategy of uploading almost daily photo albums or images. It flies in the face of what we regard as how to market a branded Facebook page, but it’s difficult to argue with huge results as these.

Is this purely down to the brand itself? The perceived cultural cache that comes from being seen to be a BMW fan, whether one has one or not. 

Audi

Has a similarly uninventive Facebook strategy as BMW, but then doesn’t quite hit the sharing figures that BMW does with its 8.5m fans. 

Taking much more of a risk is Audi’s Instagram page.

Just like Ford, the content isn’t repeated anywhere else. If you want to see cool images of Audi’s cars from its entire history you have to follow this channel.  

However Audi’s current #PaidMyDues campaign is causing a little consternation amongst its followers

The campaign sees Audi promoting its new A3 Sudan by asking followers to tweet, Instagram or Vine their real-life triumphs over adversity, with the most inspiring ones being reinterpreted by a variety of artists during a six hour live event.

The finished works of art were then auctioned off for charity via eBay. A neat idea, but one that seemed to just confuse Instagram followers who were more used to cool pictures of cars rather than portraits of semi-obscure, unrelated artists. 

Although more people had a problem with the hair dangling into the salad rather than anything else. Give your followers what they want.

Citroen

It’s the world’s first crowdsourced car! 

In a baffling display of trust from the French car brand who’s marketing team clearly hasn’t seen that one episode of The Simpsons, Citroen let its Facebook fans design its forthcoming C1 Connexion.

Matt Owen covered this in his outstanding automotive campaigns post last year, and as he states the results were actually great, with the brand’s social engagement figures exceeding expectations, with over 24,000 different versions of the final car submitted and an extra 15,000 fans joining up for the ride.

The ultimate success of the campaign was the driving of 500 actual car sales. 

There were way more car puns in there than I feel comfortable with. I blame Matt. 

Porsche

Porsche ran a similar crowdsourcing campaign in 2013 as part of its ‘50 years of Porsche 911’ anniversary. Facebook fans were offered the chance to vote on a variety of different specs for a one-off model.

As a further gamified twist, fans could then enter another Facebook competition to win the chance of driving the unique Porsche 911 at Silverstone.

The initial post resulted in 16,000 likes and 1,200 comments deciding the colour of the car. A further ‘making of’ gallery achieved 53,000 likes. 

Toyota 

In my quest to find a car manufacturer that equals Ford for entertainment and innovation on Vine, I have found a worthy opponent… Toyota.

It helps that its running a particularly charming overall campaign with The Muppets, but Vine is a great place to see some exclusive content. 

There are also some great little retro ads marrying old Toyota’s with their relative era’s dance styles… 

Not to mention some sneaky glimpses into the future.

Vine is a fantastic channel for any brand wishing to offer a mix of lo-fi innovation, humanising behind the scenes footage and engaging hilarity. Brands could do a lot worse than following Ford and Toyota’s lead.

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks around — but can Pharma suppliers, consultants and recruiters really use it to find new clients? You bet you can, and here’s an infographic to prove it! Packed full of stats that show exactly which Pharma decision-makers are on LinkedIn, waiting for your connection request (did you know that there are more than 26,000 Pharma chief executives on the platform?), our infographic also shows the five steps you need to take to generate new leads.

As technology has advanced, so has the online marketer’s ability to shape website utility and brand perceptions.

Product recommendation engines were the first real move away from a one size fits-all website, but it wasn’t until the introduction of A/B testing that ecommerce professionals started to look at personalisation as more than just algorithmic product curation.

Ecommerce is graduating into a new phase of personalisation where customer segmentation capabilities and the ability to serve targeted content in real-time are a viable reality for most online businesses.

The bricks-and-mortar store is no longer the only place the customer can see the personal face of the business as personalisation bridges the gap between the clicks and the bricks.  

This guide aims to identify some effective personalisation tactics that ecommerce businesses can implement to improve the customer experience and drive conversions.

Targeted upsell

Upsell involves suggesting higher priced products to customers considering purchase. In most cases, customers are open to the idea of purchasing other items but to drive upsell you must target them with the right message.

Drive purchase and conversion rates by offering discounts, recommendations, free shipping or extra services like gift wrapping and insurance.

Think about tailored offerings and making the purchasing process for valuable in the eyes of the customer.

Recommending accessories, for example, allows customer to benefit from the natural synergies between products without having to travel all over the website, while free shipping (particularly over a certain threshold) increases average order values as customers purchase extra items to avail of the offer. 

You can also offer customers an additional free item once they spend over a certain threshold and personalise it by making it relevant or useful.

Toys R’ Us, for example, automatically sends any customer that spends over £100 a free £15 voucher. Not only does this encourage increased spending first time round, it also gives customers an incentive to return.

The six principles of persuasion

There are six principles of persuasion:

• Reciprocity.
• Commitment.
• Social proof.
• Authority.
• Liking.
• Scarcity.

Using on-site nudges directed at these principles can persuade customers to act in your favour.

Urgency messaging such as limited-time offers, countdown timers, live updates indicating low stock levels and information on current observers and recent purchases are easy to implement on your site and are highly effective in driving conversions. No one likes to miss out on a deal, after all. 

Similarly, information surrounding the number of current observers and recent purchases instils a feeling of scarcity in customers and encourages them to buy now.

Recent purchase information acts as a best sellers list of a sort, causing people to flock to popular items and validating the purchase decision.

Naked Wines, for example has a feed showing the wines that people have bought in the past few minutes. Customers can see the popularity of given products in real-time. Improve the ease of shopping by allowing customers to filter search results.

 

Too much choice can paralyse a customer and lead to abandonment, so allow them to view a more specific, relevant range of products.

Took this great post from Digital information World and turned it into an infographic! Google+ is here to stay and still lots of people and business are not on it. This infographic / post is here to convince you about the benefits of Google+. It is truly a great platform, I personally love to use it! Special thanks to Irfan Ahmad (www.digitalinformationworld.com) and Mike Swan (http://www.markupcloud.com/).

Every single email that you send out should have several CTAs that are designed to drive the reader back to your website. With so many businesses using email marketing to attract and nurture leads it is important to steer away from the generic “click here” or “buy now” CTAs that can be found in nearly every single commercial email. You don’t need your CTAs to be huge and “in your face” in order to attract attention. You will get a much better response with subtle CTAs throughout your email message.

Take a moment to think about your target audience and what kind of creative CTAs will help to drive the individual reading your email message over to your website. What kind of creative CTAs can you think of to help funnel those readers back to your website? Here are five examples to help get your creative juices flowing.

1. Use images and link them to your desired URL.

We are visual creatures, so make sure to include images that are clickable and direct them to specific landing pages or blog posts that you want to direct the reader to. The nature of the internet makes people want to click on images, so take advantage of that!

After making a specific point in your email, include a related image and link it to your destination page. Watch your click through rate go through the roof once you implement images in your emails.

2. Clickable text CTAs.

As mentioned above, people love to click on things, and the same applies to text. Now, a text CTA can be something as simple as an email address that when clicked opens up the readers email composer. You can also hyperlink text that reads like a strong CTA. Something such as “click here to read more information” can naturally push your email readers to your desired webpage. Clickable text is a great way to find out what leads are ready to close simply by presenting them with subtle CTAs that will identify their intention.

3. Jam pack your signature with multiple CTAs.

Your email signature provides you with prime real estate to list several CTAs, such as your phone number, social media profiles, or even a special promotion. Even if the reader doesn’t pick up the phone they might see your company Facebook and “like” the page, giving you another marketing channel to communicate with that lead.

Your email signature will most likely also be the very last part of the email your reader will see, so tie in a CTA that relates to the email subject, as this gives you one last time to attempt to push them over to your website. It is important that the very last CTA in the email is directly related to the subject of the email. If it is completely different the reader will lose interest.

4. Provide easy social sharing options.

We are all addicted to social media and sharing on social media, so make sure that your email can easily be shared across the popular social media channels. Many of the popular email list management programs have simple social sharing tools built in that can be added with a simple click.

When people see the social icons their natural instinct is to click and share. Make sure you give them that option, as it can lead to them introducing new people to your brand.

5. Encourage readers to forward the email.

One of the reasons you should include CTAs in your email is because your email will be shared. If someone is receiving an email from you they are already a lead. When someone forwards your email to a friend or colleague you want an opportunity to convert that person into a lead as well.

While some people will forward the email naturally, it doesn’t hurt to encourage your readers to forward it as well. You don’t even have to directly ask them to forward it. Simply include a “Share this email with your friends” link. Using a professional email management program will allow you to track clicks on specific links, so make sure you track the number of clicks and test different text variations to see what ones your list responds best to.

Your email list has already subscribed, so they are obviously interested in your product or service, so make sure to include CTAs in your emails that will push them onto the next step.

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Here are the 50 highest-paid CEOs of 2013, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive pay research firm:

1. Anthony Petrello, Nabors Industries, $68.2 million, up 246 per cent

2. Leslie Moonves, CBS, $65.6 million, up 9 per cent

3. Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, $55.3 million, up 294 per cent

4. Stephen Kaufer, TripAdvisor, $39 million, up 510 per cent

5. Philippe Dauman, Viacom, $37.2 million, up 11 per cent

6. Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $36.3 million, up 21 per cent

7. Robert Iger, Walt Disney, $34.3 million, up 46 per cent.

8. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications, $33.3 million, down 33 per cent

9. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner, $32.5 million, up 27 per cent

10. Brian Roberts, Comcast, $31.4 million, up 8 per cent

11. Mark Bertolini, Aetna, $30.7 million, up 132 per cent

12. Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil, $28.1 million, up 3 per cent

13. Brian Goldner, Hasbro, $27.4 million, up 188 per cent

14. David Cote, Honeywell International, $26 million, up 63 per cent

15. Steve Ells, Chipotle Mexican Grill co-CEO, $25.1 million, up 27 per cent

16. Montgomery Moran, Chipotle Mexican Grill co-CEO, $24.4 million, up 27 per cent

17. James McNerney, Boeing, $23.3 million, up 50 per cent

18. Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co., $23.2 million, up 32 per cent

19. Alexander Cutler, Eaton, $23.1 million, up 24 per cent

20. Laurence Fink, BlackRock, $22.9 million, up 13 per cent

21. Larry Merlo, CVS Caremark, $22.9 million, up 59 per cent

22. Trevor Fetter, Tenet Healthcare, $22.7 million, up 180 per cent

23. Sandeep Mathrani, General Growth Properties, $22.1 million, up 424 per cent

24. Paal Kibsgaard, Schlumberger, $22 million, up 30 per cent

25. Kenneth Chenault, American Express, $21.7 million, down 15 per cent

26. Brian Jellison, Roper Industries, $21.4 million, up 18 per cent

27. David Nelms, Discover Financial Services, $21.2 million, up 113 per cent

28. Robert Hugin, Celgene, $21 million, up 99 per cent

29. Miles White, Abbott Laboratories, $20.9 million, up 34 per cent

30. David Lesar, Halliburton, $20.9 million, up 20 per cent

31. Lamberto Andreotti, Bristol-Myers Squibb, $20.8 million, up 29 per cent

32. Randall Stephenson, AT&T, $20.7 million, up 10 per cent

33. Carol Meyrowitz, TJX Companies, $20.7 million, up 9 per cent

34. Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, $20.5 million, up 21 per cent

35. Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm, $20.4 million, up 2 per cent(asterisk)

36. John Watson, Chevron, $20.2 million, down 9 per cent

37. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs, $19.9 million, up 162 per cent

38. Lawrence Culp, Danaher, $19.7 million, down 11 per cent

39. Stephen Wynn, Wynn Resorts, $19.6 million, up 10 per cent

40. David Calhoun, Nielsen Holdings, $19.5 million, up 40 per cent(asterisk)(asterisk)

41. James Cracchiolo, Ameriprise Financial, $19.4 million, up 20 per cent

42. John Stumpf, Wells Fargo, $19.3 million, up 4 per cent

43. Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric, $19.2 million, up 264 per cent

44. George Chapman, Health Care REIT, $18.9 million, up 73 per cent(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)

45. Glenn Murphy, GAP, $18.7 million, down 24 per cent

46. Robert Niblock, Lowe’s Companies, $18.7 million, up 54 per cent

47. Richard Kramer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, $18.7 million, up 178 per cent

48. Richard Fairbank, Capital One Financial, $18.3 million, down 19 per cent

49. Louis Chenevert, United Technologies, $18.2 million, up 4 per cent

50. Ahmet Kent, Coca-Cola Co., $18.2 million, down 21 per cent

(asterisk) Jacobs stepped down as CEO on December 13, 2014.

(asterisk)(asterisk) Calhoun stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2014.

(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) Chapman retired April 14, 2014.

The post Top 50 highest-paid CEOs appeared first on Canadian Business.

This post contains excerpts from our ebook, A Practical Guide to Improving SEO with Google+. Download your own free copy right here.

With only so many hours in a day, it’s no wonder why many marketers consider Google+ an afterthought compared to other tactics like regular website maintenance, ongoing blogging, and publishing to major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. After all, where do you find the time to cultivate yet another social community, and why would you do so on Google+ if you’re not entirely sure it’s worth it?

It’s understandable why some marketers remain unconvinced, too. Some don’t believe their audience exists on the platform, and some think the platform’s a total ghost town. Some are wary of investing in Google+ given the 2014 announcement of Google+ creator Vic Gundotra’s departure.

All are valid reasons for investing marketing budgets into other social networks and inbound marketing tactics, but there’s still one reason why even the time-crunched marketer shouldn’t ignore Google+ entirely, and that reason is SEO. And, as Google+ evolves, it's wise to get all the foundational elements right so you can more readily adapt to change.

The Bottom Line

Google dominates the search market and has a bias toward Google+ content, so any business looking to boost their overall search engine visibility can’t ignore Google+. Even brands like Starbucks and The Economist have openly acknowledged their approach to Google+ is almost entirely geared toward boosting SEO. 

This guide will help you get the most out of Google+ without having to shirk all your other marketing responsibilities. And for those who are still skeptical, we’ll start the next section by exploring exactly how Google+ can boost SEO.

8 Simple Tips for Optimizing Your Google+ Page & Posts to Boost SEO

Feel free to flip through the tips in this SlideShare presentation in full screen, or read them in their entirety below.

The easiest and most effective thing you can do to get value out of your Google+ page is to regularly publish the great content you’re (hopefully) already creating to it. Remember: Sharing content to Google+ helps Google index more of your content faster, and ultimately gives it a greater chance of getting discovered by your prospects. That’s why our very first optimization tip is …

1) Publish to your Google+ page.

If you’re already creating and publishing content to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, publish that content to your Google+ page, as well. HubSpot’s Social Inbox tool allows you to schedule and publish to all four channels individually or at once.

2) Claim your page’s custom, branded URL.

If you have your page set up and you've got more than 10 followers, a profile photo, and your page is older than 30 days, you can claim a custom URL that matches your brand, making your page easier to share and easier to discover.

3) Link your website to your Google+ page.

Link your Google+ page to your website to not only create an inbound link from Google+, but to allow your Google+ page to appear on the right hand side of search results (as shown in the Starbucks and Home Depot screenshots earlier).

4) Fill out your page’s “Links” section.

Every Google+ page gives you the opportunity to add links that are important to your business in the “Links” section under the About menu. Along with your website, include your blog, social profiles, and any page you want to drive traffic to.

5) Fill out your “story” -- your tagline and introduction.

The first 45-50 characters of your Google+ post becomes that post’s page title in Google’s search results, so craft that first line as if you’re writing a blog post title.

6) Optimize the first 45-50 characters of your posts.

The first 45-50 characters of your Google+ post becomes that post’s page title in Google’s search results, so craft that first line as if you’re writing a blog post title.

7) Don’t skimp on the visuals. Include photos, videos, or animated GIFs.

Like other social channels, Google+ is very visual. Unlike other social channels (besides Pinterest), though, Google+ supports animated GIFs as shown in this post. GIFs stand out among static images or videos that need to be clicked to play, giving you additional opportunity to grab a prospect’s attention.

8) Have your blog authors sign up for Google+ authorship.

When the contributors to your blog sign up for Google Authorship, their Google+ profile photos show up in search results next to articles they’ve written, which builds trust, establishes credibility, and improves your clickthrough rate.

Want to learn more? Download our complete guide, A Practical Guide to Improving SEO with Google+, to learn more about how exactly Google+ can enhance your SEO, and what types of content to create and share to the platform to drive new business.

When you’re pursuing an opportunity and you earn that coveted time with a decision maker, you have to be ready to uncover their needs and articulate your value.  Often times, you only get one chance to get it right.

Ensure you hit the right target in your next sales conversation. Here are five ways to make sure you maximize your prospect’s time and guarantee a follow-up conversation.

1. Purpose, Process, Payoff

Ensure the right people take part in the conversation by reiterating the 3Ps in your communication leading up to the meeting.

• The Purpose – the goal of the meeting
• The Process – define how the time will be spent
• The Payoff – the relevant and tangible benefits that will pique the prospect’s interest

Articulating the three “Ps” demonstrates your business acumen. It lets your prospect know you won’t be wasting his/her time.

2.  Define the Outcomes

Start off on the right foot by asking everyone involved in the conversation, “What would be a good outcome for you from this meeting?”  We do this frequently at Force Management, even in our own internal meetings. In your sales conversations, it helps you maximize everyone’s time, while aligning the conversation with the goals of the prospect.  It also creates a benchmark to measure the success of the meeting. Did you meet expectations? If not, you can troubleshoot in your follow-up.

3.  Send an Agenda

Even our most seasoned sellers at Force Management prep their prospects by outlining the meeting’s agenda ahead of time. They reiterate the goals of the meetings and ask for agreement. Sending an advanced agenda accomplishes two things:

1. It ensures everyone is aligned on what and how the goals of the meeting will be accomplished in the given time.
2. It provides you as the salesperson the opportunity to troubleshoot if the agenda isn’t what the prospect is thinking.

Surprises can derail a meeting quickly. Sending an agenda mitigates the risk of not being on target with your conversation and therefore, upsetting your prospect.

4.  Be Audible-Ready

Even with great preparation, you can’t underestimate the importance of being audible-ready. When you call a meeting, make sure you’re prepared to ask the right questions, listen for customer problems, and guide the conversation in a way that demonstrates your ability to solve them. You never know who is going to be in the room, or the insight they’re going to share. Your prep work sets you up for success. Your ability to pivot when your prospect shifts the conversation will ensure it.

5.  Follow-Up

Your follow-up guarantees you close you loop with your prospect. It gives you the opportunity to reiterate your solution’s value and differentiation. It also gives you a second chance to respond to any concerns or questions that you didn’t execute well the first time around. During the call, make a list of the key components that will need follow-up after the call. Go over them as part of your next steps discussion.

Without apology, and without reservation, hear me on this:  I love Jill Konrath, and you need to grab a copy of her new book Agile Selling.

I love Jill because she’s a giver, and what she gives is beneficial beyond description. I read and follow a ton of sales gurus. But there are only a very select handful that I seek out when I need advice or help. And there are even fewer that I’ve brought into my own clients. Jill’s in that select group. Just as an example, a few years ago I needed fresh perspective and new ideas to help the CEO of a boutique firm trying to penetrate very large companies. Not only did I turn to Jill for ideas, I put my client on the phone with her — and what she shared was invaluable. Jill delivers. Always.

Jill gets it. Her books, her blog, her email tips (does anyone in sales not get these?), her free videos on prospecting, using the phone, leaving voicemails….they’re all fantastic. She’s the real deal, and, in my opinion, that’s why Jill is the rock star she is. She tells the truth and shares her best stuff, for free. As I said, she’s a giver.

With Agile Selling, Jill has delivered again! She has shared that Agile Selling is her most important book. And in a recent blogpost Jill listed reasons why that’s the case, even offering readers a personal money-back guarantee if you don’t find value in the book!

I really like this book because it’s as much as about life and learning and wisdom and success as it is about sales. This is not a trite, step-by-step “how to” book. I love the way Trusted Advisor Guru, Charlie Green, framed this question to Jill in a recent interview: “This book strikes me as out of sync with what’s usually written in sales books these days – and beautifully so. It’s about the art and craft of sales, not about the mechanics and plumbing. Is that how you see it?”

From her response, Jill liked the question, too:  “It’s totally out of sync with other sales books. Nobody is writing about this critical meta-skill of agile learning.  And thanks for your kind words too. To me, Agile Selling is about “being” a top performer. It’s about the mindset that enables people to thrive when they’re in the midst of change. It’s a skill set about being able to quickly assimilate lots of information or to pick up new skill. It’s also a discipline about creating an environment for success. The more you embrace agile selling strategies, the higher your likelihood of short-term success and long-term mastery.”

Personally,  I found this book a super-easy read. It’s structured and written in a way that’s not only accessible, but facilitates agile learning. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I love the short chapters (there are 63 of them) and succinct pithy chapter titles. My favorite section of the book is Part 4 and the string of chapters from 30 through 36 were just pure gold. Jill shares so many helpful brief stories of actual salespeople to illustrate her points. It’s a great read and a fast read. So fast that I need to go back through it again so I can pull out the many gems I want to incorporate myself or share with others.

Go grab a copy. You’ll thank Jill (and me for the recommendation) later. I promise.

Last week on #ExpoChat, a weekly Twitter chat for those involved in the trade show and expo industry, participants chimed in on best practices for using social media to market your show. I will get into why I think that concept is flawed in just a bit, but first let’s set the stage.

During the chat there was a passionate discussion about how some events can’t seem to get their attendees to participate on their show’s hashtag. Some felt there just wasn’t an audience interested in using Twitter.

I’ve heard this problem come up quite often when I speak to show organizers. The first thing I do is check out the hashtag and quite often I quickly identify two major problems.

The first most noticeable problem is that the hashtag is pretty much inactive throughout the year. There is no community organized around the hashtag and, therefore, no conversation taking place.

The second most noticeable problem is that weeks before the show, the only activity is exhibitors talking about what they will be giving away in their booth. In short, they are using the hashtag as just another advertising platform. This is most likely because of the first problem mentioned above.

So how do you fix it?

One of the best ways to build a community around a show hashtag is by hosting weekly Twitter chats. Chat topics should be focused on topics that your show attendees and potential attendees would find of interest.

Content Marketing World does a fabulous job with this. Last year, about ten weeks before their conference they hosted a weekly Twitter chat featuring speakers from the 5 industry summits, and 5 of their biggest tracks from the main event.

“Initially, it was going to be a 10-week project, and admittedly a marketing “campaign” for CMWorld. With every chat we did, we also transcribed the chat and created a blog post for contentmarketingworld.com. Then we also highlighted some key tweets from each question and created a slideshare presentation,” said Cathy McPhillips, Marketing Director of the Content Marketing Institute, in an email.

But those chats were so successful and participants received so much value from them both in information and connections they made to other content marketers there, McPhillips continued them throughout the year.

Now, every Tuesday at noon ET, marketers from around the globe pause their day to participate in these #cmworld chats.

McPhillips went on to say in her email, “While we obviously do have an end goal of having the participants make SOME action within CMI/CMW (i.e. signing up for our email program, attending a webinar or event, etc.), the benefits we have reaped have been worth it. It has spurred CMI blog post topics, given us guidance and direction, even just affirmation is always a good thing. It has sparked other conversations and has helped us build a nice community since many of us don’t see each other on a regular basis. It has been fun to see friendships and relationships form because of our chats.”

As a participant in these chats, I can definitely say mission accomplished! I feel I’m part of an intelligent community, I’ve made friends, and I feel as though I’ve missed out on an important part of my week when I can’t attend. And yes, I am going to Content Marketing World this September. It will be my second year in attendance.

This type of community doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and commitment from the event organization to pull it off. But it’s more than worth it in the long run.

If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat, I invite you to join us on #ExpoChat every Wednesday at 3pm ET. Not only will you get to see a chat in action, but also you’ll pick up and idea or two to use at your own events. We talk about anything and everything having to do with trade shows and expos.

Also, check out Cathy McPhillips’ blog post, “A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Twitter Chats in Your Content Plan.” While it is not show specific, there are great tips in there anyone can benefit from.

This episode of The Tim Ferriss Show is sponsored by HipDial. I use them personally, and you should check them out.

“Art is a subset of creativity.” – Chase Jarvis

Now, on to our amazing guest, Chase Jarvis!

Chase is a master photographer and the CEO of CreativeLIVE.com, where this episode was filmed.

Chase is the youngest person ever to be named a Hasselblad Master, Nikon Master, and ASMP Master. Since opening his own studio, Chase has photographed for Nike, Apple, Columbia Sportswear, REI, Honda, Subaru, Polaroid, Lady Gaga, Red Bull, and many more. He is known for a hyper-kinetic style and an emphasis on sports and portraiture.

CreativeLIVE, where he is CEO, is an online learning platform that broadcasts live, high-definition classes to more than 2 million students in 200 countries (!). All classes are free to watch while live and can be purchased for later viewing. They are amazing. Teachers include Pulitzer Prize winners, business luminaries, and beyond.  Check them out here.

This is my first video podcast test, and I’ve also included a transcript of this episode for my hearing-impaired friends (Click here: Chase Jarvis – Tim Ferriss Show – Transcript). Hope you enjoy!

In this episode, we explore:

• Chase’s personal story
• The most important choices he’s made
• Common mistakes of “creative” professionals (or people in general)
• How he reached the pinnacle of his industry
• And much, much more…

His lessons and principles can be applied almost anywhere.

Click here to subscribe/listen to the show on iTunes.
Click here to subscribe to the show via RSS (non-iTunes feed).

If you have a second, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking here. It will help the show tremendously, including my ability to bring on more incredible guests. Thanks!

Show notes and links are below, and please let Chase (@ChaseJarvis) know what you found most interesting or valuable.  He’s a good dude and would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!…

Show Notes and Select Links from Episodes 8 (Thanks, Ian!)

• A little about CreativeLIVE studios
• Chase Jarvis growing up, the making of a madman
• Transitioning from artist to entrepreneur, where so many creatives fail
• The amazing story of how Chase started taking pictures
• The story of his first sale in the photography game
• Main tipping points that led to him traveling the world with the greatest athletes… all while getting paid handsomely
• How to monetize your craft at the highest level
• Understanding negotiating skills, myths and realities
• The most consistent mistakes in the world of creative entrepreneurship
• How sharing his experiences of coming up as an artist was a tactic for differentiation
• The importance of looking outside ones industry to glean tactics you can use
• What it’s like shooting the top tennis players of all time, including Roger Federer and Serena Williams
• Dissecting the value and capacity to become an empowered polymath in today’s world
• How iteration is the key to navigating the transition from successful solopreneur to building out a company
• About the vision for CreativeLIVE and himself
• The top priorities for fulfillment/happiness for Chase Jarvis
• On the fascinating power of meditation and how Chase practices
• Chase’s catastrophic self-inflicted wound

SOME LINKS FROM EPISODE 8

• Check out Chase’s YouTube Channel
• Andy Warhol – Pop Art hacker
• Jean-Michel Basquiat – Taking graffiti off the streets and into the gallery
• Ramit Sethi negotiation techniques
• Learn more about Red Bull BC One
• In this show, Chase talks a little about Marc Ecko. Here’s a post on this blog by Marc himself: “10 Rules for Getting ‘Influencer’ Attention.”
• Learn more about Isaac Asimov
• Charlie Hoehn – CharlieHoehn.com | Play it Away
• Kelly Starrett – MobilityWOD.com
• The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
• Learn more about Chase’s CreativeLIVE

BOOKS FOR BRAINSTORMING, MENTIONED IN EPISODE 8

• 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim
• Business Model Generation
• Steal Like an Artist & Show your Work by Austin Kleon
• Crush It, Thank You Economy, Jab Jab Jab Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuk
• The Rise of Superman by Stephen Kotler
• Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler

Connect with Chase Jarvis: Website | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | G +

NO ITUNES? NO PROBLEM

Just listen on Stitcher, or you can listen using the player below –

GUEST POST

---

Twitter. Dropbox. Zynga. These name brand startups are part of the revitalization of previously underdeveloped and “affordable” neighborhoods in San Francisco.

However, if you are not one of the aforementioned startups, you probably can’t afford to blow through hundreds or even tens of thousands of dollars on annual rent (especially after hiring your developer and engineering teams). While the experts debate if we are in the midst of another tech bubble, it’s never a bad idea to take a more organic approach to growth and to analyze how efficiently you are managing your cash burn rate.

As it stands now, if you want to find a place to launch and grow your startup, moving to San Francisco has tremendous perks: the best and brightest engineering talent, plenty of free-flowing venture capital, and direct access to one of the most amazing startup ecosystems in the entire world.

Just one (not so small) problem.

Between the cost of living, the competition for talent, the bro culture and inflated valuations, the odds are stacked against the early-stage startup. And in the long term, given trends in global wages and the fact that software isn’t a winner-take-all industry, you might not need the geographical proximity at all.

As an entrepreneur, you can indeed successfully launch and run a company in the heart of the San Francisco tech boom. Here are four ways to do it:

1. Keep key players in Silicon Valley, but establish offices elsewhere

San Francisco is not an easy place to establish yourself during a boom, and that’s what we’re in right now. The problem with the Bay Area during a boom is that all of your expenses will go into overhead. A one-bedroom apartment starts about $3,000 per month. Before you even get your company started, you’re facing $36,000 a year in rent. That’s just to have a place to stay, never mind the $30/day you shell out for meals, laundry, and transportation.

If a worker doesn’t need physical proximity to the ecosystem here, there’s little point in forcing them to live here. Our development team abroad, for example, provides us with quality talent (many have PhDs in computer science) without the need to relocate. In fact, sometimes it’s easier to find talent abroad. We’ve had great success keeping our sales, marketing, and operations executives local, as well as myself, and keeping the rest of the team where they prefer to live. In fact, we think that’s one reason our turnover has been so low.

2. Note the value in other tech ecosystems

Any city with the vision and the motivation to build a tech-friendly ecosystem can become a member of the Silicon club. The Atlantic’s Richard Florida, who studies what drives startups and venture capital into cities, reported a predictable pattern. Startups are usually founded by college-grad knowledge workers who live in highly populated, diverse urban areas with a nearby university. This may explain why Boulder, Colo. has a higher startup density than San Jose.

Rather than classifying the Bay Area as the only place to find talent or establish offices, think about where others in your particular niche have successfully expanded. Think also about which lifestyle and culture you want to support within your company as it grows. Finally, think about which talent lives where. All of these considerations will inform your ultimate choice of destination and places to recruit.

3. Know that eventually, we all face ‘Silicon Obsolescence’

The ongoing “Silicon city” wars are indicative of a longer-term trend. Software, unlike oil or big-box retail, isn’t a winner-take-all market. It’s decentralized enough that we can have any number of different tech hubs. 

Cities now are hungry to bring talent, company headquarters, and revenue into their borders, but eventually, which city you end up in won’t matter at all.

In the long run, as competition becomes more globalized and compensation edges closer to a global mean, the need for geographical tech centers will decrease. In the future, tech won’t be a matter of physical location at all, as systems such as AngelList generate global transparency everywhere from funding to recruitment to going public. You’ll be able to access the same information everywhere, whether you’re in Silicon Valley or on a farm in China.

4. Locate based on your individual needs

Eventually, you won’t have to worry about being “Silicon” anywhere. While you should definitely factor in keeping your core team in the Bay Area, the argument for basing your entire team here is thinner than it used to be. When you start your company in the Bay Area, you’re vulnerable to an unappealing snowball effect: Start in the red, take on funding before establishing a revenue stream, lose control of the company, become a statistic.

Depending on the unique needs of your own startup and industry, establishing the majority of your team elsewhere, while keeping only the workers here who need to be here, might just be the safer and more practical option.

Marius Moscovici is the founder & CEO of Metric Insights. Follow him on Twitter: @MetricInsights.

Whether you are a front-line supervisor or C-suite executive, navigating the uncertainty of leading people in a rapidly changing world can be incredibly nerve-racking. Decisions are rarely black and white and not everyone will be happy with you all the time. That said, whether you succeed or fail as a leader is up to you. In my work with managers and executives over the years, I’ve found that the first step in becoming a successful leader at any level is being true to yourself and relying on a solid foundation of clearly articulated values.

Naturally, this begs the question: What are values?

Values are the principles and standards that guide your thinking and action. They are your basic convictions or beliefs about what is right, good, or of worth. Think of your values as that internal compass that guides you when you are unsure of where to go. Examples of commonly cited values include autonomy, affluence, family, relationships, and helping.

Strong leaders fall back on their values to guide them in making tough decisions, particularly when traveling uncharted waters. The challenge for most young leaders is actually being able to articulate their values in a meaningful way. This lack of clarity results in decisions that can be a bit erratic and may often appear to be inconsistent in the eyes of their constituents. It’s as if a magnet has been placed under their decision compass causing it to randomly spin. The unfortunate reality is most management training doesn’t touch on the concept of values. To combat this, I recommend taking the time to define your own personal set of core values and then examine the extent to which they truly align with who you are and how you make decisions.

Clarifying and articulating your values starts with reflection. Values can be shaped by any number of life experiences including upbringing, religion, culture, education. When exploring your values, it’s important to reflect how these factors have acted to influence your values and whether or not they have had too much influence. All too often we give lip service to values that were imposed on us rather than taking the time to really formulate our own.

I always recommend fleshing out your top five values and a quick web search will yield numerous lists out there that can be really helpful. When going through these lists, the simplest way to determine which values are truly a priority in your life is to ask yourself five questions:

• Am I willing to fight for it?
• Am I willing to sacrifice for it?
• Am I willing to pay for it?
• Am I willing to spend time on it?
• Do I actually live it everyday?

If you are unwilling to step up and fight, sacrifice, pay and spend your precious time on something, you have to question whether it is truly of value to you. And of course the most important question is do you actually live the values you espouse? It’s one thing to talk about values and entirely another to put them in action. Your team members should be able to clearly see your values reflected in every decision.

In discussing the role of values in leadership, former Medtronic CEO and author of True North, Bill George, writes “the values that form the basis for your true north are derived from your beliefs and convictions.” Orienting yourself toward your true north starts with knowing the values that form the foundation of who you are. No one should tell you what your values should be, that’s up to you to decide. Just be sure you know what they are.

Photo Credit: Flickr/howardlake

Journalism is one of those words that is rarely used anymore, evoking an image of typewriters, slender spiral notebooks, and smoke-filled newsrooms. But it’s no longer the 1950s.

Journalism today is a digital organism, easily crowd-sourced on Twitter from bystanders snapping pictures of a burning building, or shared on Facebook first from the reporter’s personal page while they report live and upload 20-second videos from halfway across the world.

The news organism has adapted for the digital age.

On May 14, Brandwatch held a panel discussion The Breaking News Organism: Social Media’s Latest Trends on Journalism, bringing together top reporters and communications professionals to discuss the ongoing evolution of news-making, news writing, and news sharing.

Christina Warren, senior tech analyst at Mashable, Victoria Taylor, director of communications at Reddit, and Maria Vultaggio, social media reporter with the International Business Times, hashed out their experiences with long form versus short form writing, the new news sources ranging from social media and Reddit communities, and the race to always be the first to publish.

Social media platforms are more than just places to share news, but sources to reach out to the public to ask for quotes and commentary on a specific topic, and find out what’s happening any where in the world in real-time.

The public loves being a major part of the news system, updating their followers and the Twittersphere if anything unusual occurs.

For reporters like Maria Vultaggio who thrive on being the first to write during the evening shift, Twitter sources and the use of social to amplify smaller stories to a bigger audience, are key to successful journalism.

Gawker even turns comment threads on popular articles into news stories in and of themselves, which isn’t surprising given since it’s always been a very comment-focused site, Christina Warren explained during the panel.

Another trend emerging is for sites to disable comments on long form blogs, claiming they aren’t necessarily adding any value to the conversation.

It’s true the comments section in news articles can sometimes (okay, oftentimes) veer WAY off topic as internet trolls and uninformed individuals jump into conversations to push their own agenda, add irrelevant links, and even inaccurately referencing the article if they didn’t read beyond the lede graf (that’s old-school newsroom-ese for “first paragraph”).

At the end of the day (or news cycle), money is the driving force as with any business. If a news site or print publication isn’t making money, it can’t survive in the competitive landscape with hundreds of thousands of new blogs cropping up daily.

“To be perfectly honest, for any news site, you need to have money behind it,” Christina explained. “Mashable was started in creator Pete Cashmore’s family home, when he decided he wanted to start a technology blog to talk about the new world of social media.

You couldn’t build Mashable today the way he did nine years ago, but just because you can’t be the next Mashable doesn’t mean you can’t be sustainable.”

Sustainability comes from flexibility, a keen sense of the social media environment, and leveraging social media to make even the smallest stories pick up steam.

“Social media helps smaller stories. If a story is good, no matter how small it is, it’ll get out there,” Maria explained.

Often writing just 300-500 words per story, Maria can write up a news item in about 30 minutes – on any topic from #MyNYPD’s Twitter hashtag fiasco, to the latest pop culture and social media news.

From a brand perspective, how does the ever-changing social media landscape benefit or effect large companies?

“For brands, Tumblr is the Wild Wild West, making Reddit a tiny planet, outside our solar system in their world,” explained Victoria Taylor, director of communications for the company.

“Reddit is like the ocean, it’s unfathomably huge, there are areas that are shallow like a coral reef and you can also dive in deep into the trenches.

Basically, it’s an ecosystem that has to be understood in its proper context and the communities on Reddit don’t want to feel used or exploited. That’s where listening comes in.”

She goes on further to say that for brands, listening is a great start to find out what people are saying online about a brand.

Reddit itself offers sponsored headlines, and conducts giveaways and contests with brands that are well-thought out, strategic, and address a specific topic being discussed in the different community threads.

Journalism, at its core, is a way to share (allegedly) unbiased news, and when brands get directly involved with news organizations or social media sites to speak to readers, those on the receiving end of the conversation don’t want to hear about a great new product or company news – unless they do.

That’s where listening comes in, it’s the most important action brands and individuals can take to address the right audiences, add relevant information for their followers, and become a part of the news and join the online conversation in a transparent and trustworthy way.

 

Wonderfully cheap and effective, QR codes are a re-emerging trend taking over!

QR codes or Quick Response Codes are those odd-looking barcode-like squares that contain information. I am sure you have seen them on posters, leaflets, magazines etc. You have probably thought that those codes aren’t for you and your business, but guess what? They are!

In the following paragraphs I will show you why and how to make the most of them.

What are QR Codes?

Quick Response codes are 2 dimensional barcodes first introduced in Japan in 1994. Similar to the barcodes you see on products, you cannot read them but luckily your smart phones can!

Nowadays QR codes are optimized and more advanced than the QR codes circa-1994. They allow for users to obtain information with a single click. Usually they contain a link or a website or a document.

So far, so good. But how are QR codes relevant to your business?

QR Codes for Business

The way it works, a smartphone is used to scan the QR code which is then converted into something useful, a website URL, for example or a pdf document. The possibilities are endless.

Marketers are on a never-ending quest of trying to find new and innovative ways to communicate with customers and with the huge number of people (you alike I’m sure) chronically attached to our smart phones, tablets and other digital devices, mobile has proved to be the next big marketing medium. So far we have email, Social and SMS marketing but they have found a new way to incorporate mobile into their marketing and sales strategies. And this new way is in the form of a square (literally)!

The reason why businesses like QR codes is because they are cheap to create (which makes them perfect for small businesses with limited resources), they are very popular (and their popularity is only growing), they are fun and interactive, and they can be placed almost anywhere!

There is a very real opportunity for people to see your QR code, scan it, view a product and purchase it there and then. No muss, no fuss, no coconuts. I am sure you don’t want to miss on that prospect!

I guess you are intrigued! But how can you make the most of QR codes for your business?

The use of QR codes has spread like wildfire and I think it’s time you caught up with the trend. The idea behind QR codes for marketing is that you offer something of value to the client. Nobody (or very few people) would scan a code just because it is there. As anything else, you will have to offer some kind of an incentive for people to scan the code. Is it a link to a free eBook, or a link to an online contest, maybe it takes you to the company Facebook page? As we said earlier the possibilities are endless! Here are a few suggestions of what your QR code may link to:

• Contest
• Sign-up form for you newsletter
• Facebook, Twitter or any other social media page
• Information page about the product
• A video
• How-to instructions
• White papers etc.

Fun and interactive, QR codes entice customers and potential clients to actively participate and interact with your business. They can obtain useful information with the click of a button!

In order to make sure that you get it right, here is some expert advice:

• Golden rule is that QR codes shouldn’t link to a desktop site, the content should be optimised
• Make sure you give people exactly what they expect, make your page laser focussed. If you are want them to fill in a sign-up form, make sure the link takes them to the sign-up page.
• Test it, track it. I have scanned QR codes only to come up empty-handed and being send to the wrong page. This would disappoint customers and wouldn’t make you look very professional. Always test the code once it has been printed on whatever surface or object you wanted it to be. Make sure it works before it’s too late! Also, to make sure you are getting some return on your QR investment, make the QR link trackable.

These are only some of the endless possibilities that come with using QR codes. You can find more information on how to incorporate QR codes into your marketing strategy here. Are you going to give them a go? Let me know.

Within three months I’ve heard two successful business people say:

“No American wants to pay another American a fair price for his products.”

“No one wants to pay you your price, yet they expect you to pay their price.”

Is this a disturbing new trend?  If so, what can we do about it?

Not new

I believe it is a trend, but one that’s been with us for some time.  Indeed for the past 3 decades or more we, as business leaders, have been almost exclusively focused on two things:

1. Market share.
2. Head count.

Ask virtually any business leader what the quickest path to market share is and he/she will respond ‘lower your prices.’  Ask that same leader what his/her greatest cost is and the response will be ‘people.’  Ask where their greatest competition lies and they’ll say China, India and Brazil.

Is it any wonder that this triad has led businesses to focus on cost control and price competition instead of innovation?  Couple that with Walmart’s success using a low price strategy and it’s little wonder that business leaders feel like hamsters running fast, but getting nowhere.

Fuel to the fire

This trend toward lower prices has been exacerbated by the protracted recovery.  Very few people, regardless of income level, feel as well off today as they did prior to 2007.  That perception, whether or not accurate, creates a sense of scarcity which, in turn, triggers a desire to stretch our dollars – the desire for low prices.

The solution?

As Einstein said “You cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.”  We need to become conscious of the things that created the dilemma in which we find ourselves as well as evidence of alternatives that work.  Then we need to shift our focus to the latter.

Problem creation

We created our problem by:

• Devoting our creative energies to cost control.
• Trying to mimic Walmart’s success with a low-price strategy.
• Trying to compete with developing countries when our cost structure is higher.
• Failing to recognize that Walmart has been trying to distance itself from its low-price persona for almost a decade.
• Ignoring the numbers showing that Amazon’s top line growth has come at a significant reduction in bottom line performance.
• Chosen to try to compete on price instead of innovation, thinking that innovation is more difficult to achieve.  (Given how hard you’ve been working with little to show for it, is that really true?)

Alternatives

At the same time we’ve:

• Viewed Apple’s success as an aberration instead of a guide to our success.
• Attributed Panera’s ability to raise prices throughout the recession as a function of its ‘newness’ rather than a well-thought out strategy.
• Ignored the fact that companies like Kraft Foods, Ritz Carlton, Nieman Marcus, Johnson & Johnson have long, storied histories of growing with premium prices.

Isn’t it time that you focused your attention on WOWing your customers with new, innovative ideas?  Isn’t it time to refocus the depth and breadth of your organization’s talent on creating things customers can’t wait to get rather than trying to compete on price like everyone else.

Amazingly, virtually every business owner I meet talks about the need to differentiate, then consistently behaves in ways that make his/her offerings appear like competitors’ offerings.

Reverse the trend

If you want to reverse this disturbing pricing trend:

• Become innovative in creating products/services that WOW your customers.
• Establish premium pricing to substantiate that value in customers’ minds.
• Create bundles of offerings so that when you get push back on the price, you have an option to offer but your customers have to give up something to get that lower price.
• Focus your attention on the practices of companies that are successful at growing with premium prices instead of those that employ a low-price strategy.

Follow these simple, timeless rules and you’ll find that customers are willing to pay a premium for what you have to offer.  Happy selling!

It’s inevitable that prospects will leak from your funnel. But just because they aren’t ready to buy from you now, doesn’t rule out the possibility they will buy from you in the future. The success of your funnel is not shaped by your wins, but how you handle your losses.  In this week’s blog, Hugh shows you how to build a robust recycling program. Staying positioned with leaked buyers is crucial so that when the time comes to talk to them again, they are perfectly groomed for your offering.

read more

This post is sponsored by xAd. 

People do almost everything with their phones these days, whether it’s searching for the closest Thai restaurant, looking up directions, or shopping online. What we do with our phones and where we go with them says a lot about who we are. And that's something every mobile advertiser wants to know.

The best way to encourage customers to take action after an ad is by making it relevant to what’s important to them. And the best way to know what’s important to them is to know the audience. By examining traditional demographic audience cues along with mobile and visitation behaviors, marketers can get a better understanding of what kind of consumer someone is — what he or she likes, what motivates them — and, in turn, target him or her more effectively.

Advertisers are now beginning to see the effects that combining location cues with traditional audience data can have on a campaign. xAd's quarterly report, "Mobile Location Insights Q1 2014," found that nearly one in three mobile ad campaigns used mobile location to reach consumers in the first quarter of 2014. It's telling that those campaigns ended up doing 14% better than industry standards.

One example in xAd's report highlights how Goodwill used audience targeting for its nationwide campaign. In early 2014, the nonprofit organization set out to raise awareness and encourage donations by reaching Hispanics and other likely donors. It did so by using xAd's SmartAudience™ technology, which allowed Goodwill to target advertising to people in a particular demographic or who behaved a certain way — all of which indicated that they'd be likely to respond to a Goodwill ad and visit a donation center. Ultimately, the campaign overperformed with their target audience by 60%.

Goodwill was also able to increase traffic into its stores by activating xAd’s SmartFence™ technology around those locations. If someone in the desired demographic was walking by a Goodwill store, an ad might pop up on their phone, getting them interested in visiting a nearby location. The campaign drove an additional 13,000 buyers into Goodwill donation centers.

“As we evaluate new mobile tools, we found xAd’s platform allowed us to identify and track key audiences over time to get a fuller picture of their behavior and preferences,” said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “Messaging these audiences at the right time and place strengthened our efforts and allowed us to identify the people most likely to donate.”

Read xAd's quarterly report to find out more.

Find out more about Sponsor Posts.

Join the conversation about this story »

Correctly diagnosing marketing problems is like walking up to a running hose in the forest. (Stay with me here, I know it sounds ridiculous.) All you can see is the water dribbling out -- the rest of the hose and the faucet it attaches to is hidden in the surrounding greenery -- and you've got to figure out what the problem is. 

It could be anything. Maybe there's a kink in the hose. Or a hole. Or maybe the faucet isn't even turned on at all. 

This "hose-in-a-forest" situation happens all the time in marketing. Even though in the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report we found that 20% of marketers say increasing total lead volume is their top priority this year, lead generation itself may not be the problem at hand. 

Sounds more ridiculous than a mystical hose running in the forest, right? 

But it's true. Often, lead generation problems can be addressed by fixing other problems -- like website traffic, for example. Lots of marketers aren't getting enough traffic to their websites to be able to convert enough people into leads. 

So if you want to turn your website into a lead generation machine, but also have a traffic problem, here's how you do it. You've got to divide your efforts into two parts.

Part 1: Get Traffic to Your Website

For a bit, forget about getting leads from your website -- you need to focus on getting people in the door before you get them to convert into a lead. So here's how you do that:

Create blog posts answering top questions your prospects and customers have. 

You shouldn't be blogging about your latest product release or company news -- your posts should be educational. Talk to your sales reps about what questions come up most often in the sales cycle. Then, answer those questions in a series of blog posts. That way, when people are doing research into your industry and they search for answers to those questions, they can click on your blog post. 

For example, let's say you're a tire manufacturing company. Most people, when buying tires, are concerned with the quality and the price of the tires. So you'd write blog posts on those topics. One post could be a comparison of the best tires for a 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. Another could be a roundup of the cheapest tires for a 2012 Honda Accord, and so on and so forth.

The key to generating traffic to your website is to write blog posts answering your customers' questions. Each new blog post you write gives you more and more opportunities to be found in search and shared on social media -- which'll result in website traffic.

Part 2: Convert Visitors Into Leads

Once you have that whole traffic-generation concept down-pat, you can focus on generating leads from your website. Here's how you do that:

Create an ebook (or other type of offer) to live behind a form on a landing page.

To get someone to become a lead on your website, you need to get them to fill out a form on a landing page. This form won't ask for a credit card -- you just need their contact information (name, email address, company, etc). 

But you can't just expect someone to hand over their information for fun -- you've got to give them something in return. Something that is worthy of giving up their information. We call that "an offer" -- most often, it's a free ebook, template, presentation, or whitepaper. 

If you want to make an ebook for your first offer (something I'd highly suggest), check out this step-by-step post. 

Use calls-to-action (CTAs) on your blog posts to drive people to that landing page.

Okay so now you have lots of blog posts and a landing page for your first offer, but no connection between the two. Enter calls-to-action -- these'll be text or images in your blog posts that'll direct people to your landing page. 

They often look like this:

Or even like this:

"If you want to learn more about optimizing your marketing, download the full guide here."

Regardless of whether they are images or text, your calls-to-action are how you can generate leads from the blog posts you write. Add them in throughout the post, at the very end, or even in your blog sidebar. (Need help designing them? Try out these templates.)

Repeat Parts 1 and 2.

And that's about it. Write blog posts. Use CTAs in those blog posts to direct people to your offer's landing page. People fill out the form to get the offer. You get a lead. Rinse and repeat.

Of course, there's much more you can do than just this. Active participation in social media. Personalized nurturing campaigns. Smart website content. This is the basics, that's all. Keep repeating this process over and over for new topics your audience wants to know about, and you'll build up a sustainable pipeline of traffic and leads.

Are the leads that your website generates of poor quality?

If so I can tell you why and offer ways to change this.

I work with many Sales and Marketing Directors and they tell me that a lot of their leads are of poor quality.

They tell me that their sales team are wasting time on people who are simply not interested.

This costs money and they want a way for their sales team to be spending time only on prospects who are actually interested.

Does this sound familiar?

Amazingly just 56% of B2B organisations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales.

ITSMA Online Survey: Increasing Relevance with Buyer Personas and B2I Marketing from ITSMA

Why are your leads poor quality?

The reason your leads are of poor quality is because all that your website does is talk about you and what you sell. This is great for people who are ready to buy.

What about everyone else who isn’t?

Most people when they visit your website are not ready to buy. They are researching a problem that they have and are looking to see if there is a service like yours that solves their problem.

So when they contact you the lead is of poor quality because your sales team is trying to sell to them and all they want is information. They are not ready to engage in a sales conversation at this point.

This is not to say that they will never be ready. If you do not nurture these leads to become marketing and sales qualified then they will simply go to one of your competitors.

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is really your ideal customer, a semi fictitious person who is the perfect person to buy your product or service.

When I explain this to our clients, a common response to this is “But we sell to everyone, we don’t have a specific kind of person who buys. It could be anyone”

We are not only talking about your ideal customers demographics, we are talking about a lot more.

• What does their day look like?
• Who do they report to?
• What industry blogs and magazines do they read?
• What are their goals and challenges?
• What are their communication preferences – email, telephone etc?
• What is their job role?

By understanding the answers to these questions you will have a better understanding of who your customers are and only then can you create content that actually talks to them.

example buyer persona, source: HubSpot

Why buyer personas are important to you

As I mentioned earlier not all the leads that visit your website are ready to buy. So by understanding who you are talking to you can create content that answers the questions they have before they buy.

By doing this everyone in your business understands who you are talking to.

You also need to create content that nurtures the prospects into Marketing and Sales qualified leads.

It is only these leads that you should pass onto Sales.

How buyer personas help your sales team

Buyer personas are great for your Sales Team because they then know who they are speaking to. You cannot effectively sell your products and services if you don’t understand who you are selling to.

A Sales Agent cannot possibly position your business as the solution if they don’t fully understand the problem. In addition this also means that sales are not wasting their time on people who are never going to buy.

They just concentrate on leads that are hot and have been nurtured by Marketing to a Sales ready lead.

If your Sales Team has a copy of your buyer personas they know what questions and needs they have.

They know what interests them and what doesn’t.

This means they can have more meaningful conversations with their prospects. As  Marketing are sending them better quality leads, the leads they do speak to are much more engaged and therefore a higher percentage will convert.

This also means your Sales teams are not wasting their time on people who are simply not interested in buying.

This will save time for the Sales Agent, Prospect and your Business.

What impact would this have on your business?

How buyer personas benefits your marketing ROI

This is one of the biggest errors I observe marketing teams making. They have not identified who their buyer personas are and are simply marketing to everyone.

Marketing Teams can really target their advertising when they know who to target, it also helps with your marketing message. They give a deeper understanding of the buyer’s journey.

A buyer persona can help with understanding which channels are the most effective in promoting your content.

Buyer personas create a better quality lead andcan help you convert more of your website traffic into leads of higher quality.

They can help you to target the messaging on your website and which content needs to be your main focus. It can help with SEO, as you will know what content and keywords are important to your audience.

Having well-defined buyer personas can help in training your marketing team and when outsourcing, gives everyone a clear idea of who you want to be talking to.

This will result in much more effective Marketing.

How buyer personas help with your Customer Services

Marketing works best when Sales, Marketing and Customer Services are all aligned. When each department speaks to each other regularly then everyone understand the needs of the Customer.

In my opinion, a marketing team cannot carry out effective marketing if they do not speak to sales and customer services on a regular basis.

Being on the front line, sales and customer services may understand your customers better than you or your marketing teams. It is these departments who normally speak to your customers every day and therefore understand them.

Your Customer Service team can work far better if they also have a clear understanding of your buyer personas, as they already have an understanding of the problems your customers face on a day to day basis and therefore can work out solutions in advance.

How to create your buyer personas to get quality leads

The best place to start when creating a buyer persona is with:

• Your customers
• Your sales team
• Your customer services team
• Your prospects
• Clients you did not convert

By conducting interviews with all of these sources you will start to build up a good picture of what your buyer persona will look like. Most businesses have multiple buyer personas, but start with one and get that right before you move onto another persona.

A buyer persona is not a do it and forget it task, you will need to revisit it regularly to build up a more accurate picture.

As a free gift for reading this post I have created this persona checklist for you to download which will give you some ideas on the right questions to ask.

Key Take Aways

Don’t think you can skip creating buyer personas, as this is why you have no or poor quality leads in the first place.

Create buyer personas by conducting interviews with your prospects, customers, customer services, marketing and sales to understand who you really are selling to.

Use these interviews to build a buyer persona of your best customers. You then need to create content that helps to answer their most asked questions and that addresses their needs.

If you want to find out additional ways to turn more of your website visitors into customers then why not read our free guide on “How to nurture someone from a website visitor to customer”

Now it’s your turn

I would really appreciate your comments and thoughts about this blog post.

Any questions? I’m more than happy to answer these in the comments below.

Source: 56% of B2B organisations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for marketing automation technology will expand from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $4.8 billion in 2015. It’s not surprising given that this technology can automate all the routine aspects of sales lead generation, lead nurturing, lead scoring, customer retention, testing, measuring, and optimizing marketing campaigns.

As amazing as it is, there’s one critical element that’s missing—human beings. That’s right—technology just can’t do everything. Marketing automation is best used for repeat tasks that require no judgment; steps in a process that need to happen like clockwork.

People, of course, have qualities that technology cannot duplicate. They can develop one-on-one relationships with your prospects and customers, ferret out the information you need to qualify leads, and add the judgment required to go beyond lead scoring, which is based only on a sales lead’s actions, and determine whether a lead meets your qualification criteria.

So how do you decide which marketing processes to automate and where you should be using people? Simply follow these two rules.

1. Automate the Routine

Not every prospect reacts the same way to your marketing offers. The beauty of marketing automation is that it enables you to set up different workflows depending on prospects’ actions.

For a simple example, suppose you invite a group of people to a webinar. Some people see the invitation and sign up on the spot. You immediately want to send them each an email confirmation of their registration and a reminder as to why it’s valuable to attend. But others wait and wait to respond. So a few days after you sent the invitation, you want to send a reminder to those that did not register. And on the day before and the day of the event you want to remind those who’ve registered to attend the event and those that did not register, the chance to register last minute. Finally, once the event is over, you want to follow up with attendees and non-attendees with different messages.

All these responses to different situations would be tough to keep track of and implement if we had to rely on people to do the job. There’s room for human error in the process and, on top of that, implementing a mechanical follow-up procedure is not the best use of living, breathing associates’ time.

1. Add Humans for Judgment and Relationships

Now that the webinar is over, you have a list of people who attended. They’ve invested time learning about how your product or solution can help them conquer a problem or exploit an opportunity. It’s likely that within that group of attendees are some hot prospects who’d like to learn more. But you don’t know who is ready to spend time with a field sales person, or who is not as far along in the buying cycle, but could benefit from talking with an inside sales person or telesales agent.

To discover the answers and start to build relationships, you want to add a human touch to your marketing. After the thank you email goes out, have your inside sales people call the event attendees, learn more about them and answer their questions. If during the conversation they determine someone is a sales-qualified lead, they can set up an appointment. If, on the other hand, someone is interested but not ready yet, your inside sales person can set them up on a personalized nurturing plan, providing helpful content and perhaps scheduling a future follow-up phone call either at a set time or after the prospect takes specific actions (i.e., opens a specific email and/or downloads a specific document).

The bottom line is that marketing automation is an extremely powerful tool, but you’ll add the greatest impact to your sales lead generation process if you combine it with a human touch.

Are you looking for new ways to generate leads through Social Media? Over the last few years, social media has emerged as an effective tool for generating leads. Existing and potential customers are using social platforms to discover new offerings and also educating themselves.

Businesses today have seen social media being a vital channel to engage with their customers, and amplify their messages across them to garner more qualified leads. In this article I am going to highlight how you can generate leads effectively through Social Media.

1. Create A Blog

Creating a blog is the easy part; you need to provide unique content about your company and industry to your readers. Your blogs content needs to empower the reader and deliver some value. It needs to educate them, solve their problems and queries, improve their situation and re-instate their belief that your brand is the one for them to trust.

You must have a ‘subscribe for this blog’, either on the right side of the blog or at the end of the article so when they are reading your content they can easily just type in their email address. Have valuable content on your blog that requires the user to provide information to access it – that’s where they can fill the form and continue viewing the information they were accessing.

2. Use Twitter Cards

Twitter cards are one of the best ways to interact easily with your audience. Twitter lead generation cards increase conversion rates by capturing in-app form-fills from your followers.

Given the fact that you will be able to achieve much greater sign up rates using these cards, compared to trying to get people to leave Twitter to visit your website. With this card it becomes like an embedded landing page on your tweet.

3. Facebook Offers and Custom Tabs

In order to generate leads, your Facebook page must be a steady source of helpful, shareable information. Facebook offers are a great way to promote products and services on this platform and collect quality leads. Very similar to Twitter Cards. Facebook Offers work well is because when someone claims your offer; it shows up in their News Feed. Friends of that person can then see that their friend just claimed your offer. You see the viral effect here?

Another way is to use Facebook Custom Tabs for your page. Use fan-tatting and other user details gating to allow your audience participate in contests, games, giveaways. Here are 6 kickass tools to create Facebook custom tabs.

4. Use Facebook Applications and Ads

Creating Facebook applications for your contest are great ways for lead generation. So when the user accepts to use a Facebook application you can fetch all their details like email address, interest and much more with just one click of theirs.

Running ads on Facebook today is like breathing on Facebook for businesses. Use Facebook’s promoted post feature to highlight the content from your Facebook page or website. Share a link to your blog posts, products and services and even about your campaigns. With the consistent visibility offered by Facebook Ads will help you garner more leads.

5. Linkedin

LinkedIn is the best way to attract leads when it comes to customers, investors, business partners, sponsors, affiliates, and more. You must begin with making sure that your profile on LinkedIn is completed and is impressive. Then you can start networking in various groups, browse the directory of groups and choose the one which matches your company’s interest.

Identify the key members of the group who are very active, ask questions and answer them as well which provide value. Add them to your network, keep networking with them on this platform religiously and turn the conversations you have with them into a potential lead-builder for your business.

6. Slideshare

There is a need for visual element on social media, as readers are constantly inundated with text. With 60 million visits per month, Slideshare provides the perfect visual element for your posts. This service can help with attracting audiences who normally ignore the text or just skim through it.

One of the most popular features in SlideShare PRO is the lead generation program called LeadShare. Using LeadShare it makes it possible to collect targeted leads by embedding contact forms inside presentations, documents and videos.

7. Clear CTAs (Call-To-Action)

Your call-to-action (CTA) has to be very effective and clear, as it is one of the most important parts of capturing potential consumers for your product or service. A strong CTA on landing pages entices the reader to your website for some value additions for them.

For example you can provide content which is so engaging and which provides value to them, that it entices them to click on the link to read more. Thus your CTA has to be concise and to the point, but also entices the reader to actively participate in what you’re trying to sell them.

8. Giveaways And Freebies

The word ‘Free’ is very powerful, when your audience see that they are getting some perks they will happily comply. Giveaways and freebies are a great and sure shot way to increase leads. Like we at Digital Insights have this free ebook to drive sales through social media.

For example you can have a giveaway promotion that requires a sign-up page. Not only will they have a chance to win a great gift or some other perks, they will also be signing themselves thus giving you a chance to showcase your brands product and services.

9. Social Listening

Most companies monitor online conversations to keep a track of the sentiment towards the brand, but social listening also reveals opportunities to generate leads. Thus you can make use of various third party applications to keep an ear out and monitor how your customers and prospects are behaving on social media. This can be a great research tool as well for your brand to generate leads.

Use tools like Talkwalker, Hoostsuite, Sprinklr, to get started.

10. Google Analytics -To Track, Analyse And Rework

Use Google Analytics to track, analyse and streamline the entire process of lead generation. Once you have set up all the valuable information with Google Analytics, you can start tracking your conversions. Make sure to understand where people are clicking more on your lead generation forms. Use ‘event tags’ read more here

You can monitor all the data and analyse if your marketing efforts are working towards your lead generation goal. If the results are not what you had anticipated, consider re-working on design/copy/strategy.

Lead generation is still the heart and soul of doing business, where the fact applies that eventually your audiences can be converted into your customers. With the above methods for generating leads online, should put your business at making headway and begin with generating substantial results according to your marketing plan.

Have any question about this? Need some suggestions to get started with Lead generation through social media? Let us know.

You’re the VP of Sales & Marketing and for the last 2 quarters, your high-priced sales team has failed to hit their numbers.

The board and your CEO are less than impressed and you’ve been told you’d better fix the problem fast.

Sound familiar?

The Old Ways Aren’t Working

When I started my career in sales, my job was pretty simple. All I had to do was dial the phone 100 times a day. If I did that, I’d get through to about 30 people, 10 of whom would agree to receive my stuff in the mail.

Of these 10, when I followed up, 3 or 4 would take a face to face meeting with me, and of these meetings I’d close one deal.

The math was pretty simple: 100 dials = 30 contacts = 10 prospects = 3 meetings = 1 client.

That was back in in 1992.

Before voicemail, the Internet, email, and social media.

In 2001, I started my first company. We sold IT services to SMEs and the business was launched using this very same approach.

We made lots of cold calls, got meetings, wrote proposals, and closed deals. As the business grew, referrals came in and everything was peachy.

In 2007, I decided that I was no longer happy relying on referrals alone, so I spooled up the cold call machine again.

This time, it flat out didn’t work.

Technology Has Changed The Game of Selling Forever

With the advent of automated attendants and voice mail, people have stopped answering their phones. Now they just listen to voice mails and selectively return calls.

Dialing for dollars just doesn’t work anymore.

Cold email, works moderately well, if done correctly, but it still is seen as an interruption.

With all the voicemails, emails, texts, Facebook updates, and tweets people receive each day, trying to interrupt your prospect with your sales message is nearly futile.

To succeed today, you need a new system for prospecting.

It’s Time to Become What People Are Interested In

If you are still trying to interrupt people from what they are interested in, you need to change your approach.

To succeed today, you need to become what people are interested in.

In 2006, two entrepreneurs joined forces to start a company called HubSpot. HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company that has gone from zero, to over $100M in sales in just 8 years.

How did they do it?

Did they build a huge sales force and go knocking on doors? Did they spend millions on advertising?

No on both counts.

Instead, they started a blog and began publishing articles that helped readers to get better at inbound marketing.

HubSpot’s blog, now one of the highly trafficked websites in the world, has become such a huge success because HubSpot focused on one thing: writing about topics that people are interested in. By doing so, they completely eliminated the need to interrupt their prospects in the way that traditional sales people have done for years.

Instead, they focused on the inbound methodology.

Their blog now generates over 50,000 leads a month and HubSpot is one of the fastest growing software companies on the planet. Traffic in the month of March 2014 was nearly 300,000 visitors according to Compete.com.

The type of marketing that HubSpot is doing is called Inbound Marketing, and they aren’t the only company doing it. In fact, inbound marketing, due to its effectiveness, is rapidly becoming the most popular form of marketing around.

Why Inbound Marketing Works

The reason that inbound marketing works so well is that people hate to be sold, and they love to learn.

When you write articles that are targeted to a specific audience and are written in such a way as to be genuinely helpful, people want to read them. And now, thanks to the power of social media, they also want to share them with others.

When done correctly, inbound marketing results in huge increases in website traffic.

When done correctly, inbound marketing results in a massive increase in the number of leads generated, while simultaneously lowering the cost of each lead.

Below are two charts from a report that HubSpot produced to show marketing benchmarks from 7,000 of their customers.

In this first chart, you can see that companies that publish at between 9 to 15 blog posts per month start to see a huge increase in inbound leads.

In this second chart, you can see that as soon as companies reach a total of at least 51 blog posts, the volume of inbound leads goes up considerably.

You can download the full report here.

Inbound is the New Prospecting System

Any sales veteran will tell you the sales is just a game of numbers. Make more calls, get more meetings, make more sales.

It’s all just a math equation.

Well, guess what?

Inbound Marketing is exactly the same math equations, except, instead of making calls to generate leads, your goal is to generate page views to generate leads.

57% of companies with a blog have generated a lead from it. @HubSpot

When a website is designed to capture leads, as opposed to being just an online brochure, it’s quite reasonable to expect 1-3% of total traffic to convert to leads. Depending on how well you’ve targeted your content, and what you sell, it’s also pretty reasonable to expect 15-20% of those website leads to become “sales qualified leads”.

The math is still pretty simple: 1000 unique visitors = 30 new contacts = 5 leads = 1 customer

When a website captures leads by giving value, and then nurtures these leads, with more valuable content, until they are sales qualified, the output is this: a list of qualified prospects who actually want to talk to your sales team.

Another significant benefit of inbound marketing is that the cost per lead is 61% less than the cost to generate leads using outbound marketing.

What happens to your close ratio when your prospects want to talk to your sales team?

What happens to sales team morale when they are given a steady flow of qualified leads?

What happens to revenue when your enthusiastic sales team spend all their time talking to qualified leads?

I think you already know the answer, don’t you?

Revenue and Profits Increase

Ask most any sales rep or sales manager what the hardest part of their job is and they will tell you it’s lead generation.

“Give me a qualified lead, and I’ll get the sale!” your sales reps will say.

When a company adopts the inbound marketing methodology, as HubSpot has done from day one, amazing things start to happen:

• Traffic to your website increases
• Lead generation become automatic
• The cost of generating each lead decreases by 51%
• Your company starts to be seen as a thought leader
• Your executives are invited to speak at industry conferences
• Your sales team closes more sales
• You have less turnover in your sales team
• You gain pricing power because you have positioned your company in a way that your ‘old school’ competitors have not

 

Let’s Recap: Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing requires that you successfully interrupt people from what they are interested in, and thanks to huge changes in the technology used in business, getting people’s attention has never been more difficult.

Even if you do manage to get their attention for a moment, the fact remains that people hate to be sold to.

Inbound marketing requires a shift in thinking. Instead of trying to interrupt people from what they are interested in, the inbound marketer focuses instead on becoming what people are interested in.

This is why blogging has become a mainstream business activity. When done correctly, like HubSpot does, blogging works extremely well.

Still not convinced? Think about the last major purchase you made. What did you do first?

I’ll bet you had a list of questions and you used the Internet to find answers. Then, once you had consumed enough content to make an informed decision, you went out and made your purchase from the company that provided you with the most valuable free content.

When Does a Customer Actually Become a Customer? written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

For most businesses a customer becomes a customer when they buy a product, sign a contract or agree to terms of a deal. But I wonder if that view of the journey to convert leads to sales misses the bigger reality.

What if, just for conversation sake, you began to view someone looking into your services as a customer. Or, better still, someone  just beginning to talk about what they learned at your free workshop as a customer?

Now, it’s true, neither of the above “customers” has paid you a dime, but what if you began to run your entire business as though your job was not one of selling someone, but one of doing everything you could to build trust in those who expressed interest.

What if that group became customers in your mind at that point and you created tools and processes to start serving them right then and there?

What if instead of telling prospects how great you are, you demonstrated just what’s like to be a customer?

What if one of your primary marketing strategies was to make it very easy for people to try what you do?

What if you made your free content, workshops and evaluations more valuable than the paid offerings from most organizations?

Do you think that might create an environment where customers would sell themselves?

For example, my company sells marketing consulting services. By its very nature, it’s hard to explain, hard to buy and even harder at times to convince someone they need.

Due to that, we spend a great deal of time creating content and processes that simplify the service, package it in ways that are practical and explain exactly how to do everything we propose to do.

This focus on education is what builds community, enables sharing and initiates the process of trust building.

Once someone begins to consume the content to the point where they start asking if and how this might work for them, we focus on showing them.

Depending upon the need of the “customer” we offer an evaluation process guaranteed to provide them with solid, actionable steps, at no charge. Or, we offer to conduct a full fledged “Discovery” session with their entire Executive Team. We treat both of these offerings as though we are serving a customer and know that no matter the outcome, the customer will feel as though they received tremendous value.

This is an investment we are willing to make because it offers proof that we deliver and it keeps us focused on creating the most remarkable experience possible.

It’s worth noting that when we switched to providing a service over pitching a service our rate of conversion went from about 10% to 50%. While some of this can also be attributed to better education that led to more narrowly targeted prospects, a great deal is do to the significant mindset shift of when we view a customer a customer.

I’ve written often about this concept I call The Marketing Hourglass and the viewpoint described in this post is really just a manifestation of taking an end to end view of the customer journey that is the essence of the Hourglass concept. Obviously, the job is not over at this juncture, this is simply one of the stops on the path to creating a community of customer champions.

 

In a fast moving digital world, standing still is not an option.

It means trying new tactics and experimenting. It means failing fast and often. The social web allows you to do that.

The challenge is that you will need to to handle the heat if you get it wrong.

Content inspiration and creation is an art and a science of revelation, experimentation and testing. You need to discover the type of content that resonates with your target audience and is an online game you have to play. It means finding what works on Facebook, Twitter and now even LinkedIn.

LinkedIn discovers content

LinkedIn has been providing a publishing platform for 100 global influencers since 2012, which it expanded to 500 in 2013. They announced in February 2014, that it was opening it up to another 25,000 members and then over the next few months giving access to all its members. As a creator of content this is great news.

It brings Linkedin to life!

Sure you could do a little update before on Linkedin that linked to other sites but now you have an interface that looks almost like WordPress. Its easy and quick to create and edit. It allows you to post an article with images and links.

Do you have access to LinkedIn’s publishing platform?

If you go to your LinkedIn homepage (not your profile page) you will need to look at the “Share an update” box and look for a pencil symbol next to the paper clip.

If that is visible you are ready to publish on Linkedin!

Just hover over the symbol and it will reveal the text “create a post“. Then you click on that and it will take you to a page ready to put your title in, write a new post or paste an article from your blog, website or a previously created article.

This is how it looks before writing the headline and the text.

This means you can start publishing content including images and links to the 300 million users on LinkedIn.

If you don’t have the function live on your account, then you can request it by visiting this page on LinkedIn and fill in a form to apply for early access. As part of that application LinkedIn will want two examples of professional content you have produced and written online.

Why should you publish?

Publishing online is only new in the scheme of things and it takes some courage to put your thoughts in front of an audience of millions of people. But the potential benefits of taking that step are mind boggling.

Launching my blog just 5 years ago was the first step in creating and exposing my thoughts on the open web. It was daunting, exciting and addictive. It still is.

This feature on Linkedin is another opportunity to participate but why should you do it?

Here are some to consider:

• Increase your credibility to your community on LinkedIn and also to the world
• Display your passion and insights to future employers
• Increase traffic to your other digital assets such as your website or blog by linking to some of your other online content
• You will also have access to some analytics to provide demographic insights including seniority, industries and regions that are viewing your content

Here is what my readership split looks like.

This will provide some insights and breakdown into the type of followers that is reading your content.

Here there is my demographic graphic which reveals the following split:

• 1,728 senior executives
• 1528 are from advertising and marketing
• 564 are from Sydney Australia (with New York at 299, being my next largest audience by region)

It’s not extensive at this stage but a cool and graphical high level snapshot of your followers

What have I learnt?

I have now published 23 posts and it has been fun to find out what works. My most successful post which was first published on my blog and was then published on Linked (“Why You Should Forget Facebook” ) hit a nerve!

The results so far:

• Appeared on the homepage of LinkedIn
• 250,000 plus views
• 10,000 shares on LinkedIn
• 956 comments
• 3,300 facebook “likes”
• 1,568 Tweets
• Became the #1 article for the week

Some insights after that experience and continuing to publish and see what works are:

• It helps to have a large number of connections on Linkedin. 500 plus is good. Bigger is better.
• A significant community on Twitter is important. This will drive traffic to Linkedin and promote more online sharing of your posts.
• They need to be insightful and quality posts. So pick your best. Fluffy is not going to cut it on LinkedIn.
• It helps if they are about business, careers or employment
• They need to be full articles not excerpts

The experiment continues.

What about you?

Are you ready to publish to LinkedIn. Do you have access? If you have been publishing posts on LinkedIn what has been your experience?

Look forward to your feedback, stories and insights in the comments below.

An authoritative-looking report has appeared that suggests bitcoin‘s meteoric rise late last year — from $200 to $1,200 in one month — may have at least partly been the work of bots, possibly associated with those running the melted-down MtGox online exchange.

The so-called Willy Report emerged on Sunday, claiming to demonstrate fraudulent activity at MtGox. Is it correct? Hard to tell at this point, though it is based on public logs and it does at least have in its favor an absence of accompanying malware (something that blighted the last bundle of alleged MtGox fraud evidence).

According to the report’s anonymous author, automated bots dubbed Willy and Markus spent much of 2013 repeatedly creating new MtGox accounts and using them to “buy” large amounts of bitcoin without actually spending any real money. In total, the two bots probably bought up a volume that’s “suspiciously close” to the 650,000 bitcoins MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles claims the company lost, the report notes.

The report’s author seems to think MtGox itself was behind this activity, based on discrepancies in leaked logs that suggest a cover-up, among other circumstantial details. Interestingly, “Willy seemed to be immune to network downtime,” suggesting the bot was running from MtGox’s own servers. The author characterizes all this as a Ponzi scheme, based as it is on fake liquidity boosting the bitcoin market.

It’s worth remembering how powerful MtGox was in the bitcoin scene last year, handling as it did the bulk of all bitcoin trades. Whether or not Karpeles was indeed behind this, the Willy Report does present convincing-looking evidence of heavy manipulation of the bitcoin price. That price is now around $580, which the report’s author reckons is its realistic “fair” valuation.

Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Bitcoin: why digital currency is the future financial system

To most people Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and the founder of the world’s largest software company Microsoft. However, there is more to the man who is said to have led the third wave of computing than this.

93% B2B buyers initiate their buying process through online search and out of these, 88% visitors land on your website by clicking on organic search results. With inbound marketing channels like SEO, SMM, Content Marketing you can engage even a casual visitor into a prospective buyer by providing more engaging and relevant information.
Inbound marketing is clearly the most effective marketing technique for lead generation but it’s hard to achieve long term marketing goals by solely relying on the same. Today, many B2B companies are using marketing automation which allows them to streamline, automate, and measure the performance of their marketing campaigns to increase their sales revenue. Marketing automation augments inbound marketing as illustrated below:

• Better Quality Leads translates to more revenue for your sales team. With inbound marketing campaigns you generate raw leads. For better sales conversion, you need to segregate high quality leads from low quality leads. With marketing automation tools like Marketo, you can identify your best leads based on different engagement activities like webpage visits, registrations etc.
• 80% of B2b business revenues come from a targeted customer base. Inbound marketing campaigns cast their nets wide, offering limited targeting options. With marketing automation, not only can you segment your lists and you clearly know which prospects are more engaged. Based on this, you can set up specific nurturing campaigns to target specific segments. Also, you can target more purchase- oriented content (like request a demo, set up a meeting etc.) to your hot leads increasing conversions.
• Reaching more prospects generates better sales. With inbound marketing, options for growing the number of customers are limited. Marketing automation helps you increase your prospect base by allowing you to share your marketing campaigns through social shares thus expanding your reach.
• In-depth reporting lets you make holistic marketing decisions. Inbound doesn’t let you identify where buyers are in different stages of your sales funnel. Marketing automation provides you in-depth reporting including website analytics, email performance and more. This provides you actionable insights about which marketing campaigns have performed better, giving you complete picture of your most successful marketing campaigns.

Inbound Marketing + Marketing Automation = Inbound marketing automation

Inbound Marketing, when leveraged with marketing automation not only improves the performance of your campaigns but also delivers measurable returns. Inbound marketing provides you a wide reach, while marketing automation provides you a deep understanding about the behaviour of each and every buyer, enabling you to build long term relationships. In addition, marketing automation increases the velocity of leads in the sales funnel, while social sharing capabilities allow you to increase your reach. In depth reporting allow you a 360 view of both campaigns and prospects leading to overall marketing success.

At Grazitti Interactive,we provide inclusive inbound marketing services, which includes PPC, Organic SEO, Content Marketing and social media. We can integrate your inbound marketing campaigns with Marketo’s automation platform to get better quality leads and improve your sales and ROI.

This post was originally posted at blog.grazitti.com