Rnordman

This week brought some sobering news on the near future of our planet and species. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued an important new report about how dire the consequences of climate change are becoming, and how fast we need to move to avoid the worst.

The report’s beginnings trace back to 2009, when the annual UN global climate conference resulted in an agreement that the world should hold warming to 2.0°C (3.8°F) — a level that seemed politically feasible, but still leads to vast damage, including the death of all coral; even more deadly storms and heat; and rising oceans covering low-lying island nations and major coastal areas. By the time of the Paris climate meeting in 2015, which resulted in the more robust global agreement now supported by every country in the world except the United States, it was clear that we needed to consider a more ambitious target, 1.5°C (2.7°F). The UN then asked the IPCC to study what it would take to achieve that goal.

This week, the report came back, and it’s not pretty. The scientists put out a helpful document with FAQs, but in short, the primary takeaways are these:

• While the world has already warmed 1.0°C (1.8°F) since pre-industrial times, holding the world to 1.5°C (2.7°F) is still technically possible.
• Keeping the world at 1.5 degrees will still result in devastation (e.g., 70-90% of coral dying), but is far better for us than 2 degrees (both in terms of overall well-being and economic impacts).
• Getting to 1.5 degrees will require “rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure (including transport and buildings), and industrial systems” and this transition will need to be “unprecedented in terms of scale…and imply deep emissions reductions in all sectors.”

We will need to cut CO2 emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, the report says, and get to no emissions by 2050.

Keep in mind that this would need to happen as the world most likely adds a couple billion people, with a billion or more entering the middle class. We will need to produce a lot more stuff to feed, house, clothe, and entertain everyone, but with drastically lower emissions.

So, what should companies take away from this latest warning? What should they do?

First, companies must accelerate ongoing efforts to decarbonize their businesses. The list of actions companies take is well-developed and documented, and most large companies do the following:

• Slash energy use and emissions in operations. This includes investing in more efficient lighting and HVAC systems; using new software and AI to make buildings and operations more efficient; improving fleet logistics and introducing greener vehicles; and reducing packaging and product weight.
• Engage employees, through awards and incentives, to innovate, find operational savings, and develop products that cut customers’ emissions as well.
• Embrace renewable energy. More than 150 big brands that have already committed to use 100% renewable energy in their electricity.
• Set science-based carbon reduction targets for operations. Nearly 500 companies have signed on to set emission reductions in line with science.
• Work with suppliers on systemic reductions across the value chain and set big goals for them as well.
• Set internal prices on carbon to incentivize reductions, preferably imposing an internal tax that collects funds or using “shadow” prices to influence investment decision making.

These actions are becoming the norm because they’re just good business. But what this new report is saying, loud and clear, is that it’s not enough. With a few exceptions, most companies are only doing the things that pay off in traditional return-on-investment terms — for example, when solar and wind get cheap enough, they buy it. Really sticking to the latest science, however, requires an accelerating pace of carbon reduction.

So, let me suggest four somewhat uncomfortable actions that companies must take to truly shake things up and accelerate climate action.

Lobby for aggressive pro-climate policies at all levels of government. Today, most companies use their significant lobbying influence (on their own and through trade groups) to fight regulations and defang government. But that has to change in the face of this crisis. The first priority — which the IPCC makes clear — is to put a price on carbon. Companies must lobby for escalating prices on carbon everywhere.

In parallel, the way companies approach all regulation should shift. Consider the example of the U.S. auto industry. As soon as the 2016 election was over, an auto industry group asked the new administration to give them some more wiggle room on aggressive fuel efficiency standards established by the Obama administration. The current administration gave the auto companies way more than they wanted and froze the fuel efficiency levels. It puts companies in a weird position where they want to make improvements, but have no regulatory pressure that moves the whole sector upward.

But imagine if auto companies approached the issue not through a lens of “how do we structure regulations to help us?” but through a lens that recognizes an urgent global climate crisis. They could say to government, “We need much higher fleet efficiency to help the world hold warming to 1.5 degrees. But we’re having some trouble selling the mix of cars that would get us there (people are buying too many big vehicles). What policies can we put in place to make it much more attractive for buyers to get the EVs and smaller cars? Can the government help build the charging infrastructure? Provide aggressive tax breaks for EVs and good incentives for trading in older cars? Can we invest in public-private R&D to bring the cost of batteries down even faster? Could the government commit to buying EVs in all of its fleet? Or, even more radical, how can we work together to greatly increase the availability of all public mobility and transport?”

But even if companies come to the table with an outside-in, climate-change-first approach to their policy goals, a conversation requires two sides. So, to go even further, companies need to also consider who they support for political office. Candidates that don’t advocate for action on climate are not allies, no matter what other issues they support.

Publicly and loudly support truth, science, and scientists. In the era of claims of “fake news,” and attacks on science, companies must help support a key pillar of a working democracy and economy. Most companies let it be known clearly that racism or sexism is unacceptable — why not send a similar message to employees and suppliers about anti-science behavior? They could also support efforts like Let Science Speak and call out government or any institutions that reduce the role of science in policy and decision-making.

Use all available platforms to engage consumers. Within companies, the level of internal conversation about sustainability and climate change is rising. But how many big brands use their advertising, social media, or their packaging to talk directly to consumers about climate change? Besides a few messages around Earth Day, not many. It’s time to break some taboos on what mainstream companies can talk about; they can and should encourage consumers to make better day-to-day choices that reduce their footprint.

Rethink investment decisions and heavily bias them toward carbon reduction. This could mean different things depending on the business, but we have to release ourselves from the arbitrary two-year hurdle rates and capital return ratios that hamstring more aggressive action. Solar and wind power are becoming easy investments, but there are always new efficiency techs that may not be “in the money” yet, like on-site power storage. And what if companies and governments retired some energy-hogging assets before their asset life was up?

In the end, governments and companies have a basic choice: One, move very quickly with large-scale investment in deep transitions across all sectors of the economy, investing trillions to reduce energy costs, improve health, and avoid many other risks. Or two, ignore these warnings and decarbonize the economy at the pace of change that simple-ROI economics allow, not retiring any existing assets early, and transitioning technologies at the pace they would naturally shift under normal market conditions.

Pathway two is what we’re doing now, and it sounds so tranquil and market-based. But it has one heck of kicker: that path will require spending some indeterminate future amount, and soon, on greater levels of adaptation, on resettling people away from coasts, on reduced health, and on managing extreme weather impacts on our communities and supply chains. Pathway two also likely takes us beyond the 2.0°C mark, leading to the non-trivial chance that the world will become uninhabitable by humans.

None of this is easy, but the IPCC report shows we’re truly out of time now. We’re not talking about theoretical models on a computer, but larger versions of the weather horrors we’re already seeing around the world. Business can take the lead here. It has the tools, resources, and the responsibility to help make this rapid transition happen. The improvement in long-run economics and human well-being is more than worth the effort.

Do you own a mature business? Or, are you just getting started? If you want to grow it’s crucial that you’re totally clear about who is your ideal customer.

Who’s your ideal customer? An individual who immediately sees value in what you offer and is willing and able to pay you for it. It’s that simple.

Here’s another reason why you should nail down the identity of your ideal customer: people tend to hang out with people who have similar interests and lifestyles. When your happy customers tell their friends or colleagues about you, it’s like you have a free sales force out there working for you.

The more you serve your most ideal customers, the more referrals you’ll receive.

But figuring out who your ideal customer really is can be mystifying.

I’m an expert on ideal customer identification, and my entire business is built around helping businesses with this often frustrating exercise. If you haven’t gone through the process, or if you’re ready to re-define your ideal customer, the 5 steps below will help.

[The following is a quick and dirty version of the deep dive exercises I conduct with my private clients.]

Who Is Your Ideal Customer? Start here:

1. Scan your customer list and choose one customer you would love to clone. Tip: This person happily paid your full fee, was thrilled with what she gained from your product or service, and sent you referrals afterward.

2. List every characteristic that you can think of which describes this customer—demographics, lifestyle, and psychographics. Tip: What did he or she want more than anything in the world when it comes to what you offer?

3. Write down how that customer found you. Was it from a referral? Through your website? At a networking event? Tip: Whatever it was, do more of it!

4. Make a list of what you offer and why your company is the perfect choice for this customer. List as many as features and benefits you can think of. The list will help you create your value proposition. Your value proposition answers the question, “If I’m your ideal customer, why should I buy from you instead of one of your competitors?” Tip: Interview your ideal customer.

5. Print out a photograph of your ideal customer and pin it up where you can see it while you’re working at your computer. Tip: Make believe that you’re having a conversation with that person whenever you create marketing such as blog posts, website content, and emails.

Just Launching? Here’s what you can do to find your ideal customer:

If you’re launching a new business, I’ll bet you have a pretty good idea about the identity of your ideal customer. In fact, your ideal customer may be you! Many successful companies were launched because some enterprising person identified a need that wasn’t being met for him or her.

Go through the same process as above but pretend you’re Dr. Frankenstein! Create a prototype of the person who will see immense value in what you offer and will be willing and able to pay you for it. Do your best to be precise.

Listen, folks, I know this for a fact. Being totally clear about who is your ideal customer has a long-term positive impact on every aspect of your business. It’s the secret sauce to create websites that connect, blogs that are found, engaging social media posts, and a brilliant elevator speech.

The five steps above will get you started. When you’re ready to really dig in, reach out to me!

Neuromarketing assesses how our brain reacts to stimuli, not simply what we self-report in qualitative surveys. These are truths that our impulses write onto MRIs. Sometimes, as several studies below illustrate, those two systems—the conscious and subconscious—offer conflicting interpretations.

Importantly, scientific knowledge is almost always built incrementally. Don’t expect a single paper to define, for all time and every business, the ideal pixel width for product images or sample size for accurate sales forecasts. Every study is a step or building block or book page—pick your preferred metaphor—toward consensus.

These ten steps, one for each study, are some of the latest contributions from neuromarketing. All were published between 2016 and 2018. For practitioners, they reveal the potential of neuromarketing research and help guide heuristic analysis.

1. “Multiple ‘buy buttons’ in the brain: Forecasting chocolate sales at point-of-sale based on functional brain activation using fMRI”

Takeaways

• Small-scale neuromarketing tests for product messaging may accurately forecast sales.
• Qualitative research on consumer preference for messaging may be a poor predictor of sales.

Study details

Which is a better predictor of purchasing behavior—qualitative research or fMRI scans? Simone Kuhn, Enrique Strelow, and Jurgen Gallinat began their study with 18 women between the ages of 23 and 56, all self-described weekly chocolate buyers.

The women were shown a product picture and six related communications, including a control (a toothbrush). The product picture appeared for 2 seconds, followed by a 3-second display of a marketing communication, then the product again for 2 seconds. Researchers used fMRI imaging of several brain areas during the test.

The fMRI imaging of participants during marketing communications (B) predicted sales (D) better than subjects’ stated preference (A).

Afterward, the participants were asked to order the communications according to their liking. The researchers created three sales forecasts: one based on stated preference, one based on brain activity during viewing of the communications, and one based on fMRI changes to product viewing before and after communications.

German supermarkets displayed each test treatment for one week, with researchers recording actual sales. The strongest correlation between forecasted and actual sales came from the fMRI signals during communications; the pre- and post-messaging fMRI data was second. The subjects’ stated preference finished last.

While the researchers drew only tentative conclusions about the ability of neuroimaging tests to predict sales and the poor correlation between stated preference and sales, they highlighted the potential power of small sample sizes in neuromarketing:

The present results demonstrate the feasibility to use neuroimaging methods in a relatively small sample of participants to forecast the influence of communications on the actual consumer behaviour at the point-of-sale.

Read the full study here (gated content).

2. “When Brain Beats Behavior: Neuroforecasting Crowdfunding Outcomes”

Takeaway

• Troves of online market-level data make it possible to validate individual neuromarketing tests against collective, real-world consumer decisions.

Study details

Can neuromarketing studies of individuals predict mass behavior? Alexander Genevsky, Carolyn Yoon, and Brian Knutson used the crowdfunding site Kickstarter “to test whether neural activity could forecast market-level crowdfunding outcomes weeks later.”

For their study, they showed 36 crowdfunding requests to 30 subjects. Subjects decided whether they would fund each project, with real money taken from their study compensation for projects they supported. During the initial selection process, researchers recorded subjects’ brain activity.

Afterward, the subjects rated their opinion of each project (positive or negative), the strength of that opinion, and whether they thought the project would ultimately reach its crowdfunding goal.

Weeks later, researchers compared subjects’ ratings and brain activity to the crowdfunding projects’ success or failure. The results? Brain activity was the only successful predictor of crowdfunding outcomes:

• “Neither average ratings of project likeability nor of perceived likelihood of success were associated with Internet funding outcomes.”
• “Only [Nucleus accumbens, or NAcc,] activity generalized to forecast market funding outcomes weeks later on the Internet.”

As researchers noted, “These findings demonstrate that a subset of the neural predictors of individual choice can generalize to forecast market-level crowdfunding outcomes—even better than choice itself.”

Researchers replicated their findings in a second study.

Read the full study here.

3. “Measuring narrative engagement: The heart tells the story”

Takeaway

• Audio content (e.g. podcasts) may have the potential to create stronger connections with consumers, even if their stated preference is for video content.

Study details

Does audio or video content generate more user engagement? What people claim versus what their biometric data shows, the authors found, doesn’t align.

For their study, the researchers identified equivalent audiobook and film scenes from adaptations such as Game of Thrones and The Silence of the Lambs. They selected “emotionally charged scenes” in which the audio and video were nearly identical.

(The audio portions, inevitably, lasted longer than their video counterparts; the authors evaluated relative time charts that aligned scene content.)

While participants rated the video segments as, on average, 15% “more engaging,” the physiological measures suggested otherwise:

In terms of raw measures, their average heart rate was higher when they were listening to audiobooks by about two beats a minute; they had a greater range of heart rate by about 4 beats per minute; they were roughly 2 degrees warmer in their body temperature (1.66°C), and their skin conductance (EDA) was higher by 0.02 microsiemens.

Audio content may engage users more because it requires active participation to create a scene in the mind’s eye.

Why? The authors hypothesized that “listening to a story is a more active process of co-creation (i.e. via imagination) than watching a video.” Thus:

The act of listening to the narrative recreated the same basic pattern of brain activity as telling the story, suggesting that listening to the story is qualitatively and quantitatively similar to experiencing the speaker’s memory of the events. Moreover, activation was not limited to regions of the brain classically related to language, but also involved emotional, sensory and motor systems consistent with the notion that at some level, the listener actually experiences the story.

Read the full study here.

4. “Willingness to pay lip service? Applying a neuroscience-based method to WTP for green electricity”

Takeaways

• “Neuropricing has been significantly better in predicting population behavior than reaction times, which in turn are significantly better than questionnaires.”
• Neuropricing may better assess consumer valuation of non-core product benefits like ethical production, region-specific origins, use of organic materials, etc.

Study details

How does qualitative data on willingness to pay (WTP) compare to neuroscience data? Carsten Herbes and three co-authors tackled a narrow topic—consumer willingness to pay a premium for electricity from green sources—that has broader implications.

In the 40-participant study, the researchers first provided participants with a questionnaire to rate their willingness to pay between 90% and 130% of their current energy costs to source their electricity from partially or entirely green sources.

Then, researchers monitored participants’ brain activity when presented with a series of images that showed an electricity package, a price, and the word “expensive” or “cheap,” to which participants could respond “Yes” or “No.”

Neuropricing research showed that consumer willingness to pay consistently rose to the high end of qualitative estimates.

Researchers monitored brain activity and reaction time to each participant’s choice for 50 random combinations of packages, prices, and binary descriptors.

Based on the study results, neuropricing showed a tolerance for a price increase of up to 15%; in comparison, qualitative data ranged from 3 to 19%. The result, according to researchers, highlights the value of neuromarketing research over traditional methodologies:

Neuropricing delivers higher WTPs by the same respondents and thus apparently avoids the effects of strategic behavior. This yields a fundamental insight. Namely, a range of potential biases in and limitations of self-reported WTPs can be eliminated by our methodology.

Additionally, the researchers suggest two other potential benefits:

1. The potential to “magnify the granularity of WTP research,” by “examining, for example, detailed product features such as proven regional origin or the effects of specific claims in marketing communications.”
2. The ability to obtain valid results with a small number of test subjects.

Read the full study here (gated content).

5. “Intuition, risk, and the formation of online trust”

Takeaways

• “‘Simple changes’ (such as page layouts and choices of fonts, images, and colors) may be far more critical to associative trust-formation processes than we previously understood.”
• “What seem like merely aesthetic design choices may actually be the way your customers learn to trust you (or don’t).”

Study details

How does the level of risk affect consumer trust? Authors Mahdi Roghanizad and Derrick Neufeld identified two hypotheses:

1. “When evaluating whether to trust a website while making low-risk decisions, consumers tend to rely on deliberative and explicitly logical reasoning processes.”
2. “When faced with higher-risk decisions, online consumers are more likely to turn to associative (intuitive) reasoning processes.”

To test their hypotheses, they divided 245 research students into six groups. Each group saw a different version of a website for an actual bookstore—some saw the real version, others viewed iterations that lacked security seals or return-policy information.

Subjects were asked to make two decisions:

1. Low risk: Determine whether, hypothetically, they would purchase a book from the site.
2. High risk: Determine, in reality, whether they would provide their personal information (name, address, phone number) to the site in exchange for a $20 gift card.

The research confirmed the hypotheses: “When making decisions involving risk, such as an online purchase from a website, consumers tend to rely more on intuition than on deliberation.” (Deliberative actions were those that qualified as “rule-based, logical, rational.”)

In other words, the “look and feel” of the website mattered more than explicit trust guarantees when it came to high-risk decisions.

Read the full study here (gated content), or the related Harvard Business Review article here.

6. “A Neuropsychological Study on How Consumers Process Risky and Secure E-payments”

Takeaway

• Offering familiar, trusted online payment options, such as PayPal, may reduce buying friction for reluctant customers.

Study details

Do different payment options make users more or less confident? Authors Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, and Juan Sánchez-Fernández tackle this topic—one they argue has been largely ignored.

Their work focuses on two primary means of payment: debit cards and PayPal. Using MRIs to identify the “neural effects,” they invited 30 participants to complete simple online purchases.

What did they find? “The analysis reveals that perceived risky e-payments activate brain areas linked to negative emotional processing, while areas involved with reward prediction are strongly triggered by secure e-payments.”

More specifically, the research reveals

not only a greater intention of use toward PayPal, but sees it as more secure, rewarding and affective [sic]. Debit card e-payments, by contrast, elicit brain activations associated with negative and risky events. Interestingly, the right cerebellum response (responsible for value encoding) covaried with more positive use intention toward Paypal.

Read the full study here (gated content).

7. “Graphical elements that can invoke trust in online web shops”

Takeaway

• The most consistent design element associated with site trustworthiness—more than any single choice in color, font, or layout—was effort. Cheap design looks…cheap.

Study details

Which design elements make an online store trustworthy? Gustav Bergman and Felix Noren, in their study, focus on the design aspects that generate trust upon a first impression.

They created various combinations of colors, background patterns, trust badges, and address information (or lack thereof), then showed participants the website for seven seconds. Participants were given a binary “yes” or “no” option to answer, “Does this web shop seem trustworthy to you?”

A study design without (above) and with (below) a trust seal.

In addition to recording the answer, the researchers also recorded the amount of time it took subjects to respond to 31 randomized versions of the page. (They found no correlation between time-to-response and perceived trustworthiness.)

For the researchers, a primary challenge was managing the personal preferences of their participants—high saturation colors and fonts like Comic Sans, based on qualitative responses, reduced the perceived trust.

However, there was a consistent, quantitative data point associated with trust: the amount of time it took the researchers to create the sample websites:

We can see a difference in how much time we took to make one image look nice. The more time, the more “yes” it got [. . .] So, there is a certain connection between the expression “professional” and the amount of time we laid down on the image in question.

Read the full study here.

8. “How consumers are affected by product descriptions in online shopping: Event-related potentials evidence of the attribute framing effect”

Takeaways

• Negative framing for product pages may initially generate higher levels of engagement but fail to convert more visitors.
• For products in a highly competitive market, positive framing increases the perception of value.

Study details

Does a potential loss or gain make a product seem more valuable? Authors Jia Jina, Wuke Zhangc, and Mingliang Chen investigated how framing impacted consumer attention and decision-making when it came to mock product pages featuring wool coats.

An important dividing line in their study was the early versus late cognitive stage. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure event-related potential (ERP) waveforms, the researchers found that negative framing generated the most activity in the early cognitive stage—but that same heightened level of interest also led to more difficult decision making.

In contrast, positive framing, while generating less early-stage interest, made decision-making easier. In the late cognitive stage, it also generated a perception of greater product value based on higher expectations for future performance.

Read the full study here.

9. “Failure to CAPTCHA Attention: Null Results from an Honesty Priming Experiment in Guatemala”

Takeaway

• Any form may be an opportunity for influential messaging, but the cognitive distance between the message and the intended action may have the greatest impact.

Study details

Can you add a message to your CAPTCHA to influence user behavior? It’s an obscure opportunity, but in conversion optimization, you might as well turn over every stone.

Stewart Kettle and his four co-authors (in addition to earning “Academic Article Title ‘Pun of the Year’”) tried to see if CAPTCHA messaging could improve tax collection in Guatemala.

As their title suggests, the answer was no. The researchers compared the amount of tax declared among a randomized group of more than 627,000 taxpayers to the messages the taxpayers saw in the pre-form CAPTCHA.

One of many CAPTCHA variations. This one states, “Your taxes help pay for schools, hospitals, and the police.”

However, none of their six treatments (in addition to the message-less control CAPTCHA) had any impact on the total tax declared. Treatments ranged from messages highlighting the public use of tax funds to subtle threats of enforcement against tax evaders.

Researchers concluded that the cognitive gap between when the CAPTCHA appeared and the decision-making on the tax form likely weakened its impact:

The fact that all of the six treatments were found to be ineffective (rather than some) supports the hypothesis that the setting in which the information was conveyed may have been crucial here, rather than the content of the messages.

Read the full study here.

10. “Measuring advertising effectiveness in Travel 2.0 websites through eye-tracking technology”

Takeaway

• Recall for ads may be low across all platforms, but those with a simpler interface may earn more user attention.

Study details

Which platform—website, social media, or third-party review site—has the “stickiest” ads? Authors Francisco Muñoz-Leiva, Janet Hernández-Méndez, and Diego Gómez-Carmonac, sought to answer the question by measuring the visibility of ad banners on three sites: a hotel blog, its Facebook page, and TripAdvisor.

Using eye-tracking measurements and self-reported recall, the authors found that the ad banner on the social profile—more than the blog or TripAdvisor—earned the most attention and generated the highest (albeit limited) recall among participants.

Regarding Facebook:

We could say that participants not only focused on the banner sooner, but also more times and for longer, although it was located in the same position on all the websites. This may be due to the fact that the complexity of a website’s design (text size and format, position of images, etc.) can have an effect on the viewing patterns. [. . .] In our case, the Facebook profiles had less editorial content than the rest.

In all instances, however, overall banner visibility and recall were low. As the authors suggest, if users are seeking information, an advertisement may seem like an “obstacle,” not an offer.

Read the full study here.

Conclusion

A single research study is rarely the defining opinion. Instead, for experts, each study adds to a baseline of knowledge—sometimes aligning, sometimes conflicting with past research.

For conversion optimization, heuristic analysis is the starting point. The quality of that initial, subjective analysis, which ultimately guides test selection and prioritizes implementation, depends on the depth of your expertise.

There are always salespeople who believes they can convince those who do not buy and use what they sell to buy what they sell. Even when there is little evidence that this is possible and more than enough evidence to the contrary.

They believe that the people and companies that aren’t already buying what they sell will recognize their need when presented with their product or solution. They think that what they sell will serve anyone and everyone. Why wouldn’t it? If some other company buys what they sell and benefits doing so, undoubtedly other company should be doing the same, right?

But They Just Need Time

These poor, lost souls spend time with contacts and companies that have never purchased what they sell before. They sincerely believe they can help, continually sharing their value proposition, working to convince the unconvinced to see the error of their ways.

When they leave the customer meeting, they report, “That call went very well. They asked many questions, and I think they’re interested. They need more time to decide.” You must be optimistic and sales, but not delusional. Non-buyers aren’t often making a mistake. Instead, they recognize that what you sell isn’t valuable to them, even if it works well for others.

The Three Sins

Three sins are being committed here. First, you’re wasting the non-prospect’s time. That’s time that they can never recover, and that would be better off devoted to something that is important to their business. Second, you’ve wasted your own time, time that you should be spending with people and companies that already buy and value what it is you sell. For most of us, we’re in a competitive displacement business, meaning we have to take customers away from our competitors.

Third, and finally, you are depriving your real dream clients of the time and attention they need from salespeople who can improve their results and who can help them create a better future.

Engagement is essential, but it isn’t enough to indicate you are selling. There are some you should not try to sell.

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Email segmentation and personalization help you deliver targeted messages to your subscribers based on their behaviors, preferences, purchase history, and other data.

Once you start building a database of information, it will pay off in dividends. You’ll be able to study your particular audience in-depth and create marketing campaigns tailored just for them.

But how do you go about collecting that valuable information in the first place? As it turns out, collecting information can be pretty painless. You just need to know the right strategies to make your audience want to hand over their details.

And research shows that consumers respond well to personalized messages. A Magnetic/MyBuys survey found that 58% of consumers were fine with data collection as long as retailers gave them a more personalized experience in return.

Additionally, 60% said using their data to expedite their on-site shopping experience was desirable, and another 60% said the same of receiving relevant offers.

In this post, we’re sharing 6 ways to collect data so that you can drive personalization efforts using email marketing.

1. Use incentives in your offers

One of the best ways to collect customer data is to incentivize the process. This means you’re offering something of value in exchange for a few details, such as their name, email address, occupation, demographic information, etc.

You could offer your audience a freebie like a report or a way for them to save money on their next order.

For example, Birchbox offers their subscribers $10 towards their next purchase for referring a friend. This not only incentives them to refer more customers to their business but will bring them back to spend more on their next order.

The key here is that the incentive is valuable. This offer not only gives the current customer a monetary incentive but also creates a more loyal customer who may even become an advocate for your brand with their friends.

Keep your own incentivized sign-ups similarly valuable for best results.

2. Ask for newsletter sign-ups

Newsletter sign-ups are a tried-and-true way to ask for information. It’s also easy—just provide a super-simple sign-up form asking for names and email addresses. In exchange, your subscribers will receive your regular email newsletter.

While it seems bare-bones, getting the most basic contact information is huge. This lets you connect with subscribers directly and follow-up with them about their experience with your brand (good or bad).

Don’t underestimate this data collection opportunity—it will make email segmentation possible for you in the first place.

Additionally, just like your offers, don’t forget to make your newsletter value-packed. You don’t necessarily have to come up with new content for it – just make it useful.

This is a good example of a newsletter from Rolling Stone Australia where they provide summaries and links for their recent articles:

3. Create a loyalty program for better data for email segmentation

Offering a loyalty program is a great way to collect customer details, track transactions, and tie them to customer accounts.

A common way this works is to offer a point-based system, where a customer earns a set amount based on how much they spend per transaction. Eventually, a customer can cash in their points for tiered rewards (the more points, the better the rewards get, such as free gifts or special coupons). They receive a loyalty card to keep track of their points and rewards.

A great example of a successful loyalty program is Starbucks Rewards. According to Access Development, this program gives Starbucks “access to a complete data set of the behavior of their best customers and a way to communicate directly with them.”

More specifically, the coffee giant can tailor their communications based on customer segments the rewards program helped them define, which leads to more sales.

4. Try digital behavior tracking

Another opportunity for data collection is tracking your customers’ digital behavior—their actual actions as they surf the web, read their email and browse your website.

This is valuable information because your customers’ self-perceptions and actual habits/behaviors don’t always match up.

For example, they may answer a survey question about how many hours per week they spend on a computer on the low end (say, 5-10 hours), when, in reality, their computer use is much higher (20-40 hours).

You can track consumer behavior in many different places, including across your website, in the emails you send them, and across the wider internet.

All of the above can be accomplished with analytics/tracking software, like Google Analytics.

6. Use data from customer service

Another place where it makes sense to collect customer data is during customer service interactions, whether over the phone or through email or chat. Your team can collect useful information via simple conversations, help sessions, troubleshooting, and more.

Often, this process is as easy as having the customer service representative ask a few questions about how the customer discovered your brand, what they like and dislike about it, or whether they would recommend you to a friend.

Wrap up

Email segmentation, personalization, and automation all require customer data to work. Strategize your collection methods and take the opportunity to gather information at the right moments. Arm yourself with customer data and give your brand a better shot at making marketing work.

80% of all B2B leads generated via social media come from LinkedIn, according to this Oktopost infographic. Being recognizes as a thought leader or influencer through mastery of LinkedIn B2B marketing can deepen engagement with high-value audiences and provide significant visibility for your company and brand. Of the network’s 500 million members, 61 million hold senior leadership positions and 40 million are B2B decision-makers.

The LinkedIn marketing tactics that were effective in 2016 are unlikely to work today. The LinkedIn algorithm now rewards high-quality content creators with visibility, while significantly limiting the exposure of lower-quality LinkedIn users.

Although you can certainly find tips and tricks on how to “beat the algorithm” with optimized posts, you can’t really hack your way to hard-earned status as an B2B marketing influencer with genuine engagement by posting sub-par content.

If you really want to be perceived as an industry thought leader and build a LinkedIn following, there are some top B2B influencers who provide some valuable cues to help you network your way to the top.

8 Influencers Who Rock at LinkedIn B2B Marketing

1. Trish Bertuzzi | CEO at The Bridge Group, Inc.

With over 216,000 followers, Trish Bertuzzi’s LinkedIn presence is among the most prominent in B2B marketing. Her posts emphasize the value of human relationships and trust in marketing through compelling anecdotes and stories. Followers can anticipate a mixture of insights through podcast links, videos and other highly relevant content.

Trish has mastered the art of creating compelling, multimedia content which is easily consumable for LinkedIn users – including stories, anecdotes and short-form video. She’s also an engaged member of conversations around B2B sales, marketing and entrepreneurship who actively comments and shares content from within her network.

2. Sangram Vajre | Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Terminus

Aside from his role at Terminus, Sangram Vajre is well-known for his daily “#FlipMyFunnel” podcast on B2B marketing, sales and customer success. While his LinkedIn presence and social media strategy for sharing content reflect a broad mixture of B2B insights, his podcast’s promotion on his LinkedIn profile is particularly inspiring.

Aspiring influencers may want take a cue from Sangram’s mastery of LinkedIn. His podcast is well-optimized for search with a well-written description and visually appealing links to recent content.

3. Aaron Ross | Co-CEO at Predictable Revenue, Inc.

With over 30,000 followers, B2B marketing influencer and author Aaron Ross is an excellent LinkedIn source for webinars, videos and articles on sales conversion optimization.

Aaron takes full advantage of LinkedIn Pulse to share his thought leadership efforts, frequently publishing insightful interviews with B2B sales leaders who get to the heart of issues such as customer experience, revenue forecasting and prospecting best practices.

4. Matt Heinz | President at Heinz Marketing, Inc.

In addition to his role at Heinz Marketing, Matt Heinz is well-known throughout the demand generation and ABM verticals for his work as a keynote speaker, author and host of Sales Pipeline Radio.

With over 34,000 LinkedIn followers, Matt focuses on sharing stories and insights through long-form posts which are optimized for visibility on the network. His thoughts spark engagement and conversation among his followers, not only increasing his own visibility but encouraging more connection between marketers and sales pros.

5. Jon Miller | CEO and Co-Founder at Engagio

As one of the original co-founders of Marketo (which as we all know recently landed a massive acquisition by Adobe) Jon is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and recognized influencer in topics such as marketing automation, predictive analytics, ABM and demand generation for B2B marketing.

Jon regularly shares high-value content with his LinkedIn followers to help them up-level their strategies and rethink their current marketing tactics.

6. Peter Isaacson | Chief Marketing Officer at Demandbase

With over 25 years of experience in B2B marketing and account-based marketing (ABM), Peter Isaacson is widely recognized as a key expert in topics such as demand generation, multi-channel marketing, lead management and more. His LinkedIn updates include valuable insight into the future of ABM, best practices for account-based marketing success, industry news and emerging research. Peter regularly contributes to LinkedIn Pulse to further share his expertise in account-based strategy.

7. Scott Vaughan | Chief Marketing Officer at Integrate

Near and dear to our hearts at Integrate, Scott Vaughan is recognized B2B marketing influencer. His areas of focus include integrated marketing at the intersection of art and science, sales enablement, thought leadership marketing and strategic positioning.

Scott’s actively shares an array of industry news, trends and research, while always including his own thoughtful analysis on each piece of content.

8. Ann Handley | Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs

And last but far from least, with over 338,000 LinkedIn followers, Ann Handley is among the most influential thought leaders on LinkedIn. Ann’s posts garner hundreds to thousands of interactions on LinkedIn. She shares content that teaches, enlightens and inspires us to all be better marketers, writers, professionals and people.

If you’re looking to add someone to your feed whose posts will often make you think or smile, and who can help you step up your game, Ann is definitely a LinkedIn influencer worth following.

For more insight on how the most effective B2B organizations are leveraging LinkedIn for influencer marketing, social listening and other strategies, we recommend The 4 Critical Roles of Social Media in Demand Generation Marketing.

How to Measure B2B LinkedIn Marketing Success

Although there are several social media analytics platforms for business, they aren’t really built to measure the success of your personal LinkedIn strategy.

Brian Honigman, Forbes Contributor and NYU Professor, recommends individuals adopt the following metrics to measure individual effectiveness on LinkedIn:

1. Followers
2. Followers Acquired
3. Impressions
4. Interactions: Likes, Shares, Comments
5. LinkedIn Referral Traffic
6. Engagement Rate
7. Engagement by Post Type

Creating a Winning LinkedIn Presence for B2B

For demand generation professionals who aspire to be thought leaders, LinkedIn is the ideal platform to create an optimized profile, develop a content strategy, engage with others and build an audience. Not only does LinkedIn offer strong B2B lead generation potential for businesses, but it’s also among the ideal channels for people to develop their reputations as subject matter experts. And after all, it’s our presence as leaders in the industry that truly amplifies the presence of our brands.

While LinkedIn algorithms are in a state of rapid flux and the role of social marketing is evolving quickly, influencer status is worth striving for. At the end of the day, what’s really important is to be authentic, find your voice, share helpful content with your unique point of view and engage with others who are adding value to the community.

As a blogger, you experience two big hurdles with every post you publish: getting blog traffic and landing new leads. Your job security, marketing strategy and overall business growth often depends on these daunting metrics, and you’re tasked with not only getting your business’s content to rank, but also doubling each post as a sales tool.

Even if you have a large audience who consistently sees your content, or you’re already getting organic hits, page views aren’t everything. What matters most is how well your blogs are generating qualified leads.

If the answer is, “not very well!,” it may be because you’re:

• Not engaging your readers
• Not fully answering searchers’ questions
• Not talking to the right audience
• Not sharing unique information to separate your brand from your competition
• Not optimizing for search engines (SEO)
• Not being present when your searchers need immediate assistance through means of instant-chat, etc.
• Not giving readers a “next step” to convert
• Not offering an enticing or relevant call-to-action (CTA)

Tips for Getting Found & Keeping Readers Engaged

Before you can get leads, readers must first find value in your content. Let’s explore how to get traffic to your business blog that keeps people reading.

Discover Each Post’s “Why”

Before you even start writing, understand why this topic is worth writing about. If “to get more traffic to my website” is the only thing that comes to mind, you better go back to the drawing board. You need to be attuned to the “why” of your readers.

Searchers typically read blogs for guidance, advice, entertainment or authoritative support. They’re problem-solving first and foremost— and looking to do it themselves. Ask yourself: what information does my audience need to grow or solve their problems?

To be a successful blogger, you must stop writing posts about the features of your products and services. People don’t want to be sold to. Only after you show them you can provide solutions to their problems, will they start looking into what it is you do. Find your buyer’s “why” and be hyper aware of their pain points and motivations in order to drive more traffic to your website.

Dominate Your Topic & Gather Your Own Evidence

In order for your blog to rank, it has to explain something better or differently than the posts already on page one of the search engine results (SERPs). Let that marinate; it’s important to understand. You have to provide more detailed or unique information that’s better than your competitors.

That might mean that you have to really research your topic and shake things up with more in-depth data. Let’s say your competitor’s ranking blog lists the top five things to do in your target city. You may need to talk about the top fifteen things to do, and elaborate further than they did about the original five.

Perhaps your blog post takes a new perspective on a topic. If all your competition thinks software A is the best, maybe you argue that while A is best for one thing, software B is actually better at X, Y and Z.

Another idea: make it original by running a long-term study or by conducting your own research. Stop reading the blogs already in the top positions on Google and rehashing their content. Dig deeper by creating it yourself and being original. Interview specialists, conduct case studies or shoot video to show what words can’t explain. Paint a new picture instead of trying to replicate a Picasso— that’s how to get traffic to your blog.

Do Keyword Research BEFOREHAND

You may have heard some marketers saying that keywords are dead. Well, they’re not. Although Google is getting smarter and topic clusters are becoming imperative, keywords are still the guiding light to your page rankings.

Each one of your blogs should have one target keyword, and at least two semantic (related) keywords. When talking about seafood, Google might expect to see the words lobster, crab, shrimp, etc. and will judge your relevance based on these common associations.

Strategize beforehand with data to support your direction. You have to weave keywords into your content in a way that’s authentic, not robotic, and that’s easier to do as you write, rather than awkwardly placing the terms in later. Here’s all you need to know to get started choosing the right keywords for your business and increasing your blog and website traffic, organically.

Really Spend Time on Your Title

Your title is the first thing a reader will see to entice them to click on your blog. If you’re an active blogger, you likely already know some of the best practices for creating irresistible titles, but here are some refresher tips.

Titles showcase your brand’s tone, so you should establish a consistent method of delivery that fits your company’s voice. Do you want to position yourself as an expert? Does your brand use humor? Are you capitalizing on fear-of-missing-out (FOMO)? Whether you are creating a sense of urgency, authority, keeping it simple, triggering controversy, aiming for a laugh, etc. — make it sexy and appealing.

Also, think like a searcher. Try to make a title that answers a specific question or soothes a pain point. And let’s not forget adding your keywords in that juicy SEO real estate. Here’s some ideas for crafting better article titles to get more traffic to your blog and tempt curious clickers.

Embed a Video or Sprinkle Visual Media Throughout the Post

Modern user’s threshold for attention is changing. With movies switching camera angles and shots every few seconds, mixed media in newsfeeds and a new distraction only a click away, 1,300 words of text can seem stagnant. You have to use a variety of intermediately changing stimulus to keep your readers engaged.

Do this by breaking up written content with other visual elements, like videos and graphics. In a how-to article, show pictures that demonstrate each step. For a very visual idea, use a brief video to add sound for auditory learners. Even animated gifs break the eye away from text and can trigger an emotional response before readers dive back into the written content.

Even with your written content, you can add colored headers, bullets and bold text to decorate your words. The reader wants variety in order to keep them reading, interacting and wanting more: AKA, converting.

How to Get More Blog Conversions

Once you’ve got website visitors reading your content, the journey shouldn’t end there. Whether it’s filling out a form, subscribing to your newsletter or chatting with your team online, after you get traffic to your blog, don’t let viewers leave your site without at least sharing their name and email.

Getting leads starts with a solid generation strategy! Let’s look at ways to foster a blog conversion with the right planning and optimization:

Know Your Target Audience (Personas)

If you don’t know what a buyer personas is, read our article. Basically, they’re fictitious representations of your ideal customers.

You have to understand who you’re helping, in order to craft blogs around your target customers’ specific challenges and interests. To ensure your blog matches your audience, each post should focus on at least one persona.

Create Blogs for Every Stage of the Funnel

Once you have your personas, you’ll need to also remember to think in terms of their journey through the inbound marketing funnel. This means you have to tailor your content around different stages in the sales process to help people at every level: awareness, consideration and decision.

When planning your content marketing calendar, make sure you’re developing blogs around each persona in the different stages of their journey: learners, shoppers and buyers. Start thinking of your blog topics in terms of stages of the buyer’s journey.

Ask Readers to Do Something!

Your article should help the reader, but what’s the point of offering this information if you’re not aiming to get something in return? This doesn’t mean hard-pushing your products or services, but it does mean guiding your reader along a conversion funnel. You went through all this effort to get traffic to your blog! Don’t make the mistake of helping them and then letting them bounce back to the SERPs.

Not only will a CTA boost traffic to related pages, but keeping users on your site longer (while increasing views and pages per session) can also generate a new lead. At the end of each blog post— or even splashed throughout— give viewers that call-to-action. Whether it’s downloading a supporting content offer on a linked landing page or requesting a consultation, your blog should guide them to another spot to learn more.

Your CTA could even be a small, clickable graphic or short video. Again, think beyond the monotony of a text block and break up your content with new stimuli.

Consider Using Chatbots

Buyers viewing your blog are on a knowledge quest. When you’re in the middle of researching a topic, when do you want your answers? Right then and there. But, unfortunately, questions sent via email can often take a few hours or days to be seen and answered. For someone on the prowl for a quick answer, they’ve likely moved onto the next resource to find their solution. Avoid these bottlenecks with conversational marketing.

Many chat services have bots that can send automatic responses for simple inquiries. For more complicated questions, the bot can toggle the conversation over to a real person, who can live chat with the interested reader and instantly offer assistance.

Improve Your Blogging Strategy!

These tips can help you drive traffic to your business blog and justify the need for consistent content creation. Although strategic blogging takes a great deal of time and commitment, it could be the key to increasing your website traffic and closing new customers.

Still pretty new to blogging? We can teach you how to find the right content to blog about, create landing pages, how to optimize and promote your blog posts, measure your blog’s performance and more. Simply download our Beginner’s Guide to Blogging for Business today.

The marketing department is often tasked with more than just maintaining a quality brand reputation. For many organizations, the B2B marketing team is responsible for providing quality inbound leads to the sales team. The key term here is quality. Provide quality leads and the sales team is quiet, provide low-quality leads and the sales team becomes vocal.

In this blog post, we explore 4 strategies to improve the quality of your B2B marketing leads (and win the favor of the sales team!).

What Is a Quality Lead?

First, let’s address what a quality lead is. A quality lead is not a whale of a deal that will cover your sales quota for the month.

For many B2B organizations, a quality lead can include various types of leads. In general terms, a quality lead is a prospect who is in your target market and wants to buy your products or services. It might not be a huge sale to start with, but a quality lead often has the potential for a larger lifetime value for sales.

Alright, now that we have a good idea of what a quality lead is, let’s look at how to improve the quality of leads you are getting.

Refine Your Message

So much time and effort are spent on building out CTAs, crafting killer blog copy, and drafting the perfect opening email that the overall messaging is diluted or overlooked. Take a serious look at the main message on your B2B website and marketing materials and answer a few questions:

• Is it clear what products/services you offer?
• Do you discuss the value/benefits of your services/products?
• Do people outside of your organization understand your business from your website’s homepage?
• Is your message clear and concise? (It should be 5 – 6 words tops!)

If you answered no to any of these, take another pass at refining and clarifying your message. You may need to look outside your organization for help on simplifying your message.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

A smart business model, particularly in B2B, is specific and clear. Your B2B marketing and sales team should know what you sell and what you do not sell. Don’t be afraid to tell website visitors what your company does not offer (and why, if necessary). This will help the prospect to qualify themselves.

Don’t work with companies that have revenue under $500,000 because your services have a higher price tag? State that you only work with companies with over $500K in revenue because they get the most value from your services. Saying no is the best way to be considerate of a potential leads’ time.

Forget Visit Quantity and Focus on Quality

Driving website traffic for the sake of traffic is an ineffective technique for improving leads and will never improve the quality of your leads. Instead of focusing on driving more traffic to your B2B website, focus on driving quality traffic.

A strong B2B marketing strategy is continually being refined and looks to exclude non-viable prospects. For example, a company that works exclusively with non-profits will not benefit from driving traffic from companies in the for-profit sector.

Our best advice here is to get specific – in your website copy, in your ad copy, in your search ad targeting, in your email campaigns, etc. Being specific ensures that you miss out on certain types of website visitors – but those folks aren’t in your target market.

Speak Your Prospects’ Language

Don’t talk about what matters to you, talk about what matters to your target market. This includes creating B2B marketing copy that addresses your prospects’ needs and pain points. Don’t talk about features – talk about the end results.

Another big mistake we see B2B companies make is to create their own terminology. Unless you are Microsoft, Twitter, Apple, or Samsung – no one is going to adapt to your terminology. It’s OK to use abbreviations that are common in the industry, like SaaS or ROI, but if your team creates an acronym to use internally – do not use it on any marketing materials. If your prospect can’t understand what you are saying, they will assume you don’t understand them and won’t be the right partner for them.

Don’t Just Drive Leads, Drive the Right Leads

At Bop Design, our mantra is to help B2B marketing teams garner quality leads. We never promise to drive X amount of leads because that doesn’t speak to the quality of the leads. By following the strategies here, you can start improving the quality of your B2B marketing leads and build a successful brand.

By the time you have reached college or probably even high school, you should be quite familiar with academic writing. It is necessary for a student in the later stages of their education to be proficient in academic writing. Because if there is one thing that is memorable in your college years, it would be the equally abundant amount of booze and paperwork, particularly if you have a thesis as a requirement.

You will find, however, that academic writing has a lot more uses outside of the university or the academic circle. In fact, it can be one of the most effective skills you can tap into in writing, particularly in blogging. Of course, that is assuming you became a freelance writer or a blogger, or something along those lines, but why else would you be here? Anyway, we have compiled for you the benefits of academic writing proficiency in the world of blogging.

You learn the importance of citations

One of the most persistent problems ever in the writing industry is the ever-present plagiarism. However, having learned about the importance of citations and references in academic writing or in one of your English homework help stints, you already have an edge against writers who have not. It is never too late to learn though, there are plenty of ways you can practice academic writing, especially making yourself familiar with citing sources, better yet, do an academic blog.

Research will come naturally to you when writing

Photo by My Assignment Services

When it comes to blogging, it is not just your personality poured on the text or the quirky introductions that will attract readers. It is also the amount of interesting or useful data that you present them with. In that case, nothing can beat the good old-fashioned research which academic writers are very much proficient with. Deeper investigative researches always yield a lot of interesting results, and being prepared to do this will help you with blogging in the long run.

Presenting information is easier

So you did your research and came up with a lot of interesting facts, however, you can’t just pour all of them at once. That certainly is one way of confusing your readers in a blog. Which is why you have to stage how your data gets presented, no matter what it is. This can be different from the usual news writing method of the inverted pyramid, as blogging is not just about news. When it comes to presenting the information you gathered in the most efficient way, the tried and tested structures and outlines of thesis and term papers are there at your perusal, feel free to modify them too.

It helps you get accustomed to a routine

Photo by Government Executive

If you have been a writer or blogger long enough then you will surely get some dry spells when it comes to ideas. It can range from the problematic writer’s block to the more destructive procrastination. The thing is, being used to writing on a schedule and under pressure actually helps, and academic writing is rife with both of those. Basically, you are groomed to following your own set deadlines and routines once you have gotten used to academic writing. This can help in blogging immensely once your readers have started expecting more frequent posts.

Logic is as familiar as the back of your hand

Nothing can turn off an intelligent reader-base more than an illogical writer. You can even see those a lot lately these days, particularly in political or religious blogs where opinions and arguments are often presented without reasoning and perspective. The thing is, doing something like that in academic writing is one way to have your work rejected, meaning you are more likely to avoid unsupported reasoning once you have gotten used to academic writing. After all, being logical and showing the merits to your points is crucial and rare these days, but it is valued a lot.

It teaches you critical thinking and objectivity

Photo by Lifehacker

Quite similar and connected to the last point above. Being able to practice an objective analysis and constructive criticism of something or someone is paramount to maintaining the integrity (and dignity) of your blog. As such, one-sided posts that do not leave room for arguments can be quite damaging to the reputation of your blog. That is also something academic writing shuns, after all, everything should be defensible there, even some simple homework help answers.

Being meticulous becomes second nature to you

Observing attention to detail is one of the basic and most important rules ever when it comes to academic writing. That means proofreading, checking your facts, and even checking your particular writing style and the message you convey. If you are able to carry over this attention to detail in blogging, then you surely will be praised by a lot of critics and readers alike, giving your blog an overall merit.

You might also like:

Rookie Mistakes That Could Be Turning Readers Away From Your Blog

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With January rapidly approaching, many sales leaders have started thinking about the team goals they will be setting for 2019. Team goals are important, of course …  but it’s essential to bear in mind that they are, by definition, the sum total of individual goals, and the individuals on your sales team are motivated by different things. Here are three critical steps sales leaders can take to support their team members’ personal goal-setting process in the coming year.

How to Use LinkedIn to Generate Sales Conversations written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The video above is a replay of a recent live webinar I hosted with guest Viveka von Rosen. Combined with the text below you should have a pretty good feel for how to use LinkedIn to generate sales conversations.

LinkedIn is the oldest social network. Everyone seems to be on it, but no one seems to know quite how to use it to generate sales conversations.

To help us take advantage of this massive opportunity, today I brought in Viveka von Rosen. She is the co-founder of Vengreso, a leading digital sales transformation company. She is also the author of two books on this very topic, LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day and LinkedIn: 101 Ways to Rock Your Personal Brand.

She talks with us about how to use LinkedIn to generate real sales conversations by sharing meaningful, engaging content. While she speaks specifically to LinkedIn today, the principles behind her advice can be applied across all other social networks.

Why is LinkedIn Important?

Ninety-four percent of B2B buyers view multiple pieces of content from the vendor they ultimately select. This means that if you’re not sharing content on LinkedIn but your competition is, your prospects will likely pass you by. Additionally, 75 percent of B2B buyers conduct research in social channels for products and services.

Meanwhile, the percentage of salespeople actually meeting their quota has dropped over a five-year period—it’s down to 53 percent. However, those salespeople who are using social selling have a 50 percent higher chance of reaching quota.

Building Your Personal Profile

On LinkedIn, you can’t just rely on a company page; you need to have a personal page in order to really connect with others. It’s between personal profiles where the conversations that lead to sales really occur.

This means that you need to create a strong personal page that showcases your brand. If your personal page is unappealing, sloppy, or lacks the appropriate information, you could lose a prospect.

• Does your profile build credibility? People want to do business with those they know, like, and trust.
• Does your profile show how you solve problems? LinkedIn is not the same as a resume—people viewing your profile want to know how you can help them. Think about including real-world examples of how you’ve helped past clients address their pain points.
• Does your profile create conversation? Your profile should have rich content that attracts viewers. Once they’re there, make sure there’s a way for them to reach you. It seems basic, but make sure your phone number or email are on your profile so that people can actually get in touch!

The Importance of Sharing Content

If you go into LinkedIn with tunnel vision towards sales, you’re missing the entire point. Think about LinkedIn as a networking event—would you go up to someone at a conference and immediately ask them to buy your product or service? Of course not! The same principles of offline networking apply on LinkedIn.

The best way to get to know people on LinkedIn is to educate your audience. This positions you immediately as helpful and useful, which in turn builds positive sentiment. Suddenly, you’ve transformed from pushy salesperson to an advocate and thought leader in your industry.

What Does Content for Sales Engagement Look Like?

When thinking about content, it’s important to consider both the content you create yourself and the content you share that comes from other sources. Each type of content has its own set of rules to create the greatest levels of engagement and generate real interest and real conversations.

Whatever type of content you’re sharing, you want to be sure you’re doing it consistently. You should be sharing content at least once a day. One way to help you reach this goal is to establish a sharing community. Contact friends and influencers in your network, asking them to make a pact to share each others’ content. This will give you a steady stream of curated content to share with your network and will help to ensure that the content you’ve created is getting a wider reach.

Status Updates

Status updates on LinkedIn are very similar to updates on other social networks. There are a number of best practices for creating status updates that will get greater reach. Following these tips can help your posts get ten times greater visibility.

• Include hashtags. Hashtag communities is a newer feature on LinkedIn that allows business owners to follow the topics they find most relevant. If you create content with a particular hashtag attached, it will likely be shared with the individuals who are members of that hashtag community. This gives your content a wider audience beyond your personal connections. The trick here is to not over-hashtag. Aim for three or four hashtag community hashtags and one additional hashtag that is unique to your brand.
• Make mentions. When you’re talking about someone specific in your post, mention them so that they’re notified. You can mention others who are not directly a part of the update, but who might find it useful. Again, moderation is key; keep mentions to a handful of people who are influential and will find the material relevant.
• Use all the characters. You’re allowed up to 1,300 characters per post. Be sure to use them! More characters means more keywords, which in turn means greater visibility. Research has also shown that longer posts are more likely to be read.
• Use emojis. Emojis can be a great way to add some visual interest to your post and set you apart from the sea of text-only updates. Keep your audience in mind, and select emojis that are appropriate for your business and clientele.
• Add native video, images, and links. Doing so will limit you to 1,200 characters, but the added visual interest can also help you to stand out from the crowd.

Native Video

Native video is uploaded directly from your browser or your phone and imbedded in LinkedIn. It is not the same as sharing a link that sends users to an outside video site, which LinkedIn discourages as it drives traffic away from their platform. Sharing native videos gets you more views and attention on the site.

Because video content can take a bit longer to create, it’s not necessary to share video each and every day. But know that native video garners incredible results, so the more regularly you can create and post video content, the better.

From tips and tricks videos that can help your audience solve relevant problems, to interviews with thought leaders, to the relatively new “about us” videos that you can put on your company page, there are a lot of great ways to create native video.

LinkedIn Articles

LinkedIn Articles used to have far greater reach. In recent years, LinkedIn has shifted focus to other forms of content, and so posting articles does not have the same kind of power to create visibility as it once did.

However, if you’re already writing a blog post for another forum and want to put it into LinkedIn as an article, it can help to amplify your reach beyond your company’s website. The posts are searchable, can possibly be distributed on a pulse channel, and the content becomes a permanent extension of your personal brand.

Amplify Your Content With Ads

LinkedIn advertising can help you to raise awareness and get the word out about your brand to a new audience. LinkedIn now allows you to sponsor content on your company page, which can help to build followers and reach for your content.

There are a number of different types of ads available to companies on LinkedIn.

• Sponsored content. When you share an article, video, or images on your company page and you want the content to get greater visibility, you use this type of ad.
• Dynamic ads. This option allow you to personalize your messaging to prospects, with ads that appear on the side bars of users’ LinkedIn pages.
• Text Ads. Similar to the dynamic ads, but smaller and not personalized. Split testing on text ads is very simple. These are best utilized for top of funnel content.
• Sponsored InMail. This allows you to send targeted messages to those who are most likely to have an interest in your business.

Dynamic ads, text ads, and sponsored InMail are significantly more expensive, so for small business owners, sponsored content is generally the most viable option. There are several types of sponsored content you can create: you can drive traffic to your website or content, build lead generation forms to collect contact information, or increase video views.

From there, LinkedIn will prompt you to select the specific post or video you’d like to promote. Next, you can indicate to LinkedIn who your desired audience is and establish your budget for the campaign.

It’s better for you to be specific in identifying your target audience. Establishing five campaigns to 1,000 people each is more effective than creating one campaign for 5,000 people. Creating audience groups allows you to segment your audience, personalizing the description on the same content you shared with other audience groups. This personalization can attract greater attention from each subset of your audience.

The other LinkedIn ads trick is that if you want more views, you should select pay-per-click, and if you want more clicks, select pay-per-view. This is a way to get the most out of your marketing dollars.

Mine Your Engaged Network

It’s not enough to just create and curate great content; once people begin reacting to what you’re sharing, you need to follow through! Keep an eye on who’s liking and sharing your sponsored content. Hover over their names to learn more about them: Do they seem like they might be a good prospect for you? If so, reach out with a request to connect, thanking them for engaging with your content and opening the door for further discussion.

By Mark Schaefer

I don’t think there has ever been a day filled with more excitement and anticipation than that time seven years ago when Google launched Google+. The company doled out private invitations, leaving the masses eager to gain access and we all scoured the web looking for invitations. The Facebook killer!

A handful of my friends even bet their careers on Google+. It seems strange now, but they actually specialized in Google+ consultancies and training for businesses. Even as the decline seemed inevitable, they vigorously defended the platform as a more refined and business-friendly social network.

But just a few years later, all of that seems dream-like. After millions of dollars of investment, Google abandoned the effort to take on Facebook.

The day Google+ launched — before I ever tried it out —  I wrote a blog post predicting it would fail. I was absolutely skewered by the rest of the social media bloggers, but as it turns out, the reason I thought it would fail was spot-on.

As we bury our old friend today, let’s reflect on three critical lessons from this Google failure that are applicable to any startup.

1) Switching costs

The primary reason I predicted that Google+ would fail was that Facebook was already so dominant that the psychological switching costs of moving to the new platform were too high.

I had pointed out in a post pre-dating G+ that it would be easier for most people to move into a new house than to switch their social network. Moving to Google+ meant you would also have to move your tribe there too. While G+ attracted Facebook haters and niche networks of hobbyists, it didn’t bring in families.

We didn’t need a new social network because the one we had worked just fine. We don’t need another Twitter. We don’t need another LinkedIn. And we didn’t need another Facebook.

But even with this huge challenge of taking on the dominant player, I do believe Google had a chance with the proper strategy. They needed to execute in two areas, but they failed there, too:

2) No significant IP

The first strategic failure was that G+ didn’t solve a unique problem. It was a wonderful collection of technical capabilities in a clean design, but there was no “must-have” idea there.

In the early days of Google+, can you guess who the biggest power user of the network was? The person with the most followers? Mark Zuckerberg. Why? Because he wanted to copy whatever G+ was up to.

To take on Facebook, Google had to have some meaningful intellectual property that it could protect, some whiz-bang idea that would draw the masses. The closest thing they had to that was video chat functionality, but again, this was something you could do in other places. It wasn’t a unique draw or a technology that couldn’t be duplicated.

3) A rudderless brand

A year after the platform launched, I wrote another post saying that G+ was Tom Hanks when they needed Jay-Z.

What did I mean by that weird analogy?

For G+ to make it, they had to convert the cool kids. Somehow, they would need to create a movement among the digital natives that would lead people to an emotional connection to the new platform.

Years later, this is exactly how Snapchat moved young users away from Facebook. It didn’t try to copy any other platform. It wanted to be a cool, safe place for young users and they tapped into the digital native culture.

Google did a terrible job marketing G+. Their worldview was completely arrogant (a trait they also displayed with the Google Glass debacle).

Instead of creating a cool new place for the “in” crowd, they delivered Tom Hanks. Nice. Clean-cut. Safe. Somebody you’d like to bring to dinner.

But if you’re going to take on Facebook, you’re going to have to forge a relevant and bold new identity.

Could it have worked?

Despite my skepticism of Google+ from the beginning, I do believe it could have worked. Without question Google has the technical capabilities to deliver breathtaking, meaningful, new features. But they didn’t listen to their customers.

They could have connected to young influencers and created a uniquely awesome space for them, as Snapchat did. But they didn’t really have a clue about this. They just thought their elegant engineering would deliver an audience. They thought they mattered simply because they were smart, because they were Google.

Arrogance killed Google+. Arrogance may be the fatal flaw that ultimately kills the whole company, in fact.

The primary lesson is, Google+ had no customer-centered marketing strategy. They kept adding bland features, re-organizing, and changing leaders at the top when they should have put an emphasis on developing a meaningful brand that developed an emotional bond with its users.

And that’s a lesson for all new businesses. Why do you matter to your customers?

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Three lessons all new businesses can learn from the Google+ failure appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

        

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• Becoming a CEO means you were probably already good at whatever executive position you held previously within your company. 
• But leading the company as CEO requires a few different skills that you might not yet know.
• Rich McBee, CEO of Mitel since 2011, shares six things he learned about the role and what it takes to succeed in the top job.
• First-time CEOs might not know that you'll constantly be judged, you serve many masters, and how to navigate people issues from the start.

As a kid, I had one answer when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up: a CEO of a public company.

Funny as that may sound, I had my sights on the corner office for as long as I can remember. I didn't know what the job would entail back then, but even in my earliest years I'd pore over the Wall Street Journal, absorbing as much business knowledge as possible.

I finally achieved my childhood dream in 2011, when I became CEO of Mitel.

Was I ready? I sure thought so — I had the operational side wired. But there are a lot of things you can't be trained for; some things you must experience for yourself.

Fast forward seven years, and I've learned  countless lessons I'm happy to share with first-time CEOs and those who aspire to the role. I won't share insights from a strategy or operations perspective here. You are probably already good at that, or you wouldn't be in your role.

Instead, I'll just offer some observations from the chair.

1. Develop a thick skin

Get ready for judgment. In the role of CEO, you're no longer the giver; you're now the receiver. Internal pressure and public criticism come with the job—both sometimes appropriate and sometimes unfounded. Either way, count on being second guessed consistently.

In my early days at Mitel, a blogger made a comment online criticizing me personally, something along the lines of: "McBee couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag." I won't lie, this stung for a minute — or maybe a bit longer. But you have to get over it. At the same time, we were getting a lot of accolades from industry and financial analysts for executing our strategy and delivering results. You know if you have the right strategy and whether you're delivering on it. It's all about having a thick skin and staying focused.

2. You are in a league of your own, yet you serve many masters

Making the move from senior executive to the CEO is a more significant transition than many realize.. For one, you're in a league of your own. As an executive, you're a member of a team and you drive a piece of the company strategy. As a CEO, that strategy —good or bad— is ultimately yours. You own it. You lead the team. Employees look to you for the direction they will execute against.

That said, don't be fooled into thinking the CEO is his or her own boss and operates with free reign. In fact, I have more bosses today than ever. As a member of the executive staff, you have one boss. As a CEO, the board of directors is your boss, so you may have five, seven, or more on the board to report to — and,there are also the shareholders.

When it comes to board members, they do work together, but they also  exert their independence. Each board member may want to review something different — or they may want to review the same thing, but in a different way. You may have to learn six or seven ways of reviewing the same material for someone with a different perspective or preference.

Developing a relationship with each member is critical, and so is speaking with each one before board meetings. You'll want to be aware of their concerns to head off issues, or at least be prepared when the topic comes up.

3. Nothing is more important than putting the right people in the right place, at the right time

There's a fine line between showing compassion and doing what's right for your team and the company. It can be easy to give people too much time to fix a situation, or to jump in and do their job for them. But you need to trust your gut and recognize when something isn't working out. Don't waste time—make the change and do it quickly. When I talk with other CEOs, the most consistent regret is not moving fast enough on the people issues.

If you are brought in to accelerate or lead through a time of significant transition, take a hard look at your management team. It's critical to determine quickly who will be effective, and who may not have the appropriate skill set and experience to take the company forward with you. Nothing is more important than putting the right people in the right place, at the right time—for them and the company.

4. You are the roadshow

As an executive leader at a public company, you may have participated in investor roadshows. As the CEO, you are the roadshow.

They want to hear from you and understand your strategy. Then, they're going to judge you on whether it makes sense and if they think you can execute it.

I've always said, a company's stock price is equal to its Fair Market Value + Greed – Fear. I'll give you an example of what I mean. Some time ago, I was waiting for my turn to present at an analyst event while a CEO in front of me was giving his pitch. At one point, he said something that caused a chilling effect. He said his company had the right strategy, but cautioned it was going to be very difficult to execute. That one word, "difficult," caused instant fear.

As I looked around the room, people were picking up their mobile phones, while he was still presenting, and giving instructions to sell.

Never forget: Everything you say, every tone in your voice and your body language ,is being observed. Make sure you're projecting what you mean—all the time, every time.

5. Your values can determine your value

In today's world of instant communication and social media, it's easy to broadcast every single thought without an understanding of who it is reaching. It can also blur lines between your opinion and what your company stands for. If your stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, etc.—get wind of your views and don't agree, they may factor these views into decisions they make about you and your company.

Your personal communications strategy should be considered a key aspect of the company's overall reputation management. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a voice or an opinion on issues impacting your industry and your company. You just need to carefully consider what you're saying and how it could be perceived by the various stakeholders, especially at a time when people are constantly trying very hard to read between the lines.  

6. Have fun

Being a first-time CEO is exciting; you've worked hard, so enjoy it. You're opening the door to new possibilities and providing a fresh perspective to impact the future of your company.

However, you must be prepared to face the added internal and external pressures to succeed in the role. Never ever fail to admit when you're wrong. Admit it and move on. Face the dynamics of being a new CEO and approach the ever-evolving business landscape head-on. You can't know it all, but you can assemble a team that does. Look to retain or hire, in every position, a person who can do that job better than you (and yes, there is a person out there who can do that position better than you.)

Have fun, set high expectations and be deliberate. Most of all, remember it's all about the people. THEY are the company.

Rich McBee brings more than 25 years of experience in telecommunications to his position as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitel, leading Mitel's strategy, business performance, and global execution. Appointed to the role in January 2011, Rich is responsible for advancing Mitel's evolution and leadership in the business communications market, driving revenue growth and profitability, and devising and executing business strategies.

SEE ALSO: I'm the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and training for a half-marathon taught me 3 major business lessons

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By Maria Geokezas, VP of Client Services at Heinz Marketing

I’ve been marketing for longer than I care to admit.  Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to have met and worked with many smart and talented business leaders and entrepreneurs.  Most of these folks, regardless of their experience or education, have good instincts and realistic expectations when it comes to B2B Marketing.  But, some do not and they generally fall in the following four categories:

1. Value ideas over execution. B2B Marketing ideas are relatively easy to produce.  Determining if those ideas will deliver the results you want and then executing on them, takes a little bit of time.  Give your marketing team the runway they need to execute the program in way that serves your idea well.  Then, give it some tome to work.  Measure the impact, tinker and test.  Don’t immediately abandon your idea until you’ve explored every avenue to make it successful.
2. Lack of empathy. Empathy is an important marketing skill.  Understanding your ideal customer is a basic requirement for all marketers.  This is your starting point for each and every marketing decision.  It’s not enough to understand the ideal target account firmographics (like industry vertical or company size) or the ideal customer profile (like title and level).  You really need to understand what your ideal customer is motivated by and the challenges he or she faces day-in, day-out as they try to do their jobs.
3. Talking about your yourself. Not to sound pessimistic, but people generally don’t care about you or what you have to say.  Marketers have to earn the right to be heard.  Stop talking about what you do and instead start talking about the pain points and challenges your prospect faces.  Start by auditing your website, and count how many sentences start with “We” or “Our”.  This will give you a good indication of the relate-ability of your marketing message.
4. We need leads now. Well, you probably should have started thinking about this moment months ago.  This short-term thinking prohibits your ability to sell and succeed in the long-term.  Let’s be honest — it’s relatively easy to send an email.  But, purchasing a list of email contacts and expecting one email drop to generate new business is just naive.  It may get you what you need today, but it is not going to deliver a sustainable stream of B2B leads.  Nor will it support a scalable or repeatable B2B Marketing model for the long term.

For me, the fun part about B2B marketing is that it’s not a “hard science”  –  there are no absolute black-and-white truths or rules of marketing.  There are only shades of grey – meaning that your marketing efforts can drive varying levels of success depending on a wide range of factors like your audience, your product or service, your message, time frame, etc.  This is also the scary part about marketing – in that you could spend a lot of time and money and NOT get the results you expect.  This is why experience matters.

The post 4 Common B2B Marketing Mistakes Made by Business Leaders, Bosses and Bigwigs appeared first on Heinz Marketing.

Google+ Is Officially Done

What began as a promising idea – a social network that was ad-free, clean, and devoted to giving users control over their experiences – Google+ has now officially been terminated.

In an announcement on the Google blog, the “consumer Google+” has been scheduled for termination within 10 months (h/t Jeff Sieh), by August 31, 2019. Citing ongoing security issues and maintenance challenges, while repeatedly pointing out the extreme lack of mainstream acceptance and consumer usage, Google stated that the consumer version of Google+ will be shut down. Meanwhile, enterprise usage of the platform has grown sufficiently to warrant continuing, with new features being promised.

Over the years, many Google+ users have taken advantage of the platform’s robust image editing and categorization features & storage, as well as video, so mechanisms and instructions will be provided for them to download their assets. For those folks, like David Amerland, who have used Google+ for years to create and publish long-form content, this is a terrible development. They’re now faced with the prospect of migrating that old content to a new platform, or giving up on it entirely. Considering how easily and effectively some Google+ posts were able to rank in Google searches, this is no small concern.

What Happened To Google+?

The stories about the death of Google+ have literally been circulating for years. “Farewell, Google+, We Hardly Knew Ye” —The Daily Beast, and “Google Further Distancing Itself From Google+” —PCMag, to name just a couple. And for years, those stories were far from the truth.

In the early days of Google+, it was a rapidly growing network, with widespread adoption and well-known influencers like Guy Kawasaki and Mike Elgan singing praises. The network showed tremendous promise for being able to connect like-minded individuals from all over the world, and create a platform where meaningful, uncluttered conversations and discussions could take place.

Technology-wise, Google+ was poised at the forefront of all networks with the addition of Hangouts and Hangouts On Air – the ability to broadcast live video with up to 10 participants to a captive audience, simulcast and saved to sister-network and video powerhouse, YouTube. (Years later, most other networks still only support broadcasting 2 people at a time, and even then only from mobile, unless you’re using a third-party app.)

Yet the lack of monetization, and the challenges of maintaining such a platform, proved to be too heavy a burden. When a commercial slant failed to materialize, Google’s head of Google+, Vic Gundotra, stepped down, and the platform was changed dramatically. It was scaled back, features were removed or migrated, and the user base declined dramatically.

What was once a thriving platform for networking, Google+ became the ghost town that it had so long been accused of being.

“This was bound to happen. Despite the many of us (and yes, there were MANY more than people thought) who understood the value of Google+, it was a product that most didn’t understand. It had incredible value from the perspective of “social media meets SEO” and many savvy marketers took full advantage of the benefits. Heck, my agency worked with over 450 businesses over the years to make undeniable improvements to search engine results just by utilizing the platform in a semantically (and socially) relevant way.

“It just never caught mass user adoption in key markets. And that’s what ultimately became it’s doom.

“Google+ was too complex, lacked focus, suffered from under-developed features, and never allowed the level of developer access to get significant buy-in.

“As someone who can say I’ve built many lasting friendships, business partnerships, and memories on this platform, even I have stopped using it over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, I will be sad to see it go. And I hope that Google doesn’t give up on social–they had something truly special for a little while, and if they learn from this, they will do better next time.” – Dustin Stout

What’s worse, while conducting a massive internal audit, Google’s team also found a huge security fault that potentially exposed significant amounts of users and user data – but conveniently deleted all records within two weeks of the finding in March of 2018. They’ve admitted that over 500,000 profiles were potentially compromised. Since this event was included in Google’s announcement as a reason for the closure, it seems evident that Google does not wish to deal with the backlash and controversy that befell Facebook around the same time, and would rather just shut the whole thing down.

“I’m the first to admit that I went from zero to sixty with Google+. I pushed back, didn’t see the value, dove in, and from there it was growth at a lightning pace. It became a major player in my social media and SEO strategy.

“That’s because of it’s unique abilities. Google+ wasn’t only a social network, it was a key component within the Google ecosystem. And as a blogger, the platform was this relationship marketers dream. In fact, the relationships I established so many years ago are still thriving today.

“The Google+ we all knew and loved has been (and will be) missed.” – Rebekah Radice

What’s Next For Google+ Users?

Frankly, most Google+ users stopped using the platform long ago. Personally, when it became evident that the community of a quarter million people I had created there were no longer tuning in, I refocused my time and effort into Facebook and Twitter. We’ve known for years that that monthly usage data for Google+ was dated and inaccurate. And we could easily see the difference in engagement.

For those who are still using Google+ daily, the options are clear and limited. Facebook is the only existing network that functions similarly to Google+ AND has the kind of widespread usage to assure someone of finding people they know and being able to create connections. With Facebook you can connect with friends, join Groups to meet new people, share photos, create video, and have the kind of networking experience you used to have on Google+.

Facebook also offers a robust private messaging system that’s actually superior to Google+ in every way.

More important than features though is longevity. Facebook has over 2 billion users and is clearly profitable thanks to a robust ad platform. No matter what other networks are formed, or what challenges Facebook faces, the network will not be so easily dismissed.

Sadly, there was so much perceived competition between Google+ and Facebook that it became a rivalry much like Android vs. Apple, with consumers taking sides and having pitched debates (many of which I participated in!). The result though is that many current and former Google+ users have a stated hatred for Facebook which will never be quenched. While I’d advise burying those feelings, I understand that many won’t. They may choose to turn to Twitter or even LinkedIn, which is already experiencing a renaissance and may receive even more attention and usage now.

“All sociotechnical platforms have a finite lifespan (http://bit.ly/2OPatwA). The only way they can extend it is by evolving with the need of their users and in this case, Google+, sadly and evidently, did not. If anything, for some time now it has been ran on autopilot with some of its most cohesive and compelling features (Google+ photos, Hangouts) ripped out and span as stand-alone products.

“Nevertheless, as an experiment it has been useful and incredibly revealing: People are hardwired to connect. Give them an environment where they can do that free of ads and with sufficient functionality and you will get the most unlikely communities coming together and the most unlikely people forming friendships, sharing information and exchanging ideas. These are all value-driven, values inspired, human activities. With Google+ going away and Facebook still being a privacy-free zone where no individual is ever made to feel they matter, it feels like we are regressing in our connectivity instead of progressing.

“This is not the case however. The web matures as we do. Technology is evolving rapidly and we, as digital natives, are also acquiring new skills. Our world is, once again, morphing. The skills we learnt in Google Plus: the openness, the free sharing of information and ideas, the willingness to take a risk and openly share our thoughts, are going to be there as we float across the web. The Google+ diaspora will be transformative and despite the sadness of its closure those of us who experienced its power to transcend barriers and bridge cultures will always consider it a success.” – David Amerland

For those who have images or video or other assets they’d like to save from their Google+ profiles, more details will be released in the coming months, and I will update this article accordingly.

However, even though I hadn’t been using Google+ for a long time myself, this announcement has me very concerned for other reasons. This is not the first tool or service or even social network that Google has ramped up, gotten people existed to use and incorporate into their daily lives, and then pulled the plug on. Do you remember Wave? Reader?

What Google product will be terminated next? Which tool that I’m using today will be gone tomorrow? Google Analytics? Drive? How Google handled Google+ will certainly make me think twice before investing heavily in another Google-powered platform or tool.

What about you? Will this closure impact you? Are you concerned about Google My Business or other Google products? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.

Growth-oriented B2B organizations need to drive revenue in repeatable, predictable ways. How can they implement account-based infrastructure that scales? In research for our Clear and Complete Guide to ABM Analytics, I chatted about practical starter tips with Eric Wittlake, senior analyst at TOPO, an analyst first focused on helping Sales, Marketing, and Sales Development adopt the patterns and plays that drive revenue growth.

Eric has 15+ years of experience developing and executing B2B demand generation, marketing and advertising programs, which was why I was so excited to chat with him. Our conversations are always enlightening, and he’s a pleasure to spend time with.

Here are some of the key takeaways from my conversation with Eric based on his industry knowledge and his firm’s approach to business growth.

The target account list defines your target market. The target account list used to be an ad-hoc tactical list. Now it represents a strategic, data-driven set of accounts the entire organization will focus on. It effectively represents your target market.

Use an existing asset. Nearly all B2B organizations currently have content behind a form — an eBook of best practices, for example, or a benchmark based on data. Re-purpose the asset for ABM campaigns with industry-specific introductions, or send printed copies to target accounts with hand-written notes. ADRs can flag a particular page, stat, customer story, or example.

Use content that’s already delivered an initial proof of value. Just zero in on what’s most likely to get interest.

Customize existing tactics and campaigns. “Account-based marketing uses tactics you already use today.” Eric recommends targeting strategic activities that already exist, such as outbound emails, direct mail, ads and outbound SDR activity against a specific set of accounts.

Start with a “good enough” list. For an initial account-based pilot, create a list of accounts everyone believes are a better fit and higher value than the average customer. This list, when agreed to by both marketing and sales, is the foundation for the initial account-based effort while Ideal Customer Profile and full account list are developed.

Use the ICP as a formula for long-term growth. The ICP, or ideal customer profile, creates an aligned, scalable approach to building and maintaining the target account list over time. Organizations need to be comfortable investing outsized resources against certain accounts and not others. Without the focus this allows, an account-based strategy will not deliver its full potential.

Investments in tools and technology need to support a thoughtful go-to-market strategy. As more companies look to invest in technology to execute their ABM strategies, most are still in the early stages. Technology doesn’t make a strategy, only thoughtful planning and market considerations do. Organizations should establish a solid strategic foundation, then build the tech stack in support of that broader strategy.

Consider a different context for the initial touch point. Often we joke about sales selling through connections at their kid’s school or little league, but there’s some truth to it – rapport can be established before a business context is ever introduced. Finding new, novel ways to change the context of the initial outreach can lower the instinctive skepticism by prospective customers.

Account engagement is the leading indicator of account-based success. Successful programs engage accounts via well-designed experiences throughout the customer lifecycle. For example, marketing may increase engagement through programs specifically designed to improve late-stage funnel metrics (e.g. pipeline velocity).

Account-based strategies maximize the customer lifetime value (LTV). At the end of the day, this is the most important metric, and we’re not talking about the most important ABM metric – we’re talking about the most important business metric for the entire organization. is the ultimate indicator of how valuable an account is today, as well as how valuable that account might become over time (potential LTV). Account-based strategies not only help you land net-new, but it also helps you expand existing accounts, resulting in significantly higher customer LTV.

stevepb / Pixabay

In complex B2B sales environments – particularly ones that involve multiple stakeholders and lengthy and often complicated buying journeys – it’s unwise to rush to propose your solution the moment a prospective customer acknowledges or implies that they may have a need that you might be able to solve.

This tendency towards “premature elaboration” has been the ruin of many apparently promising sales opportunities. If it is a significant purchase, and if your customer takes their decision-making seriously, they are going to take their time. rather than racing ahead of their buying journey, you would be far better advised to first establish your distinctive value.

But before you can position the distinctive value of implementing your solution, you first need to position the value of addressing your customer’s issues …

It’s vital that you establish the full cost of their problem before you promote the value of our approach. Kahneman’s research into buying behavior concluded that decision-makers were 2-3 times more likely to take action because of the threat of loss as opposed to the opportunity for gain. Other studies have concluded that a decision to do nothing and stick with the status quo is the most common outcome for complex B2B buying journeys.

It should be obvious that before you attempt to persuade your customer of the distinctive value of your solution, you first need to build the case for change. And that requires a different sort of conversation from the need > solution track that might work in simple transactional sales. It requires a progressive, intentional and thoughtful approach – one that spans the following phases:

[1] Key trends

First, you need to become familiar with the most important industry and market trends that are affecting your target customers. You need to offer fresh perspectives on these trends that will be both interesting to your customers and allow you to progressively develop the conversation towards the recognition that they need your help – but at this stage it is vital that you resist the “itch to pitch” and be very careful not to rush into presenting your solution prematurely, before they have even acknowledged they have a problem.

[2] Key issues

Then, you need to identify the key issues that these trends are likely to be creating for their organization. These are likely to include threats that if ignored are likely to have a negative effect their business performance, as well as opportunities that – if implemented – could have a significant positive impact on their business. Once again, you need to focus our attention on threats and opportunities that – if recognized – you have proven answers to but you need to continue to lead towards rather than with your solution.

[3] Potential obstacles

Having identified some significant threats or opportunities that you are well-positioned to help them to address, it’s now worth exploring the existing and potential obstacles that could be preventing them from achieving their goals. Perhaps they have already tried to deal with the issue, but have not been happy with the outcome? If so, you need to understand why. Alternatively, they may want to deal with the issue, but feel that current circumstances are holding them back. Once again, you need to understand why.

[4] Consequences

All of the above is a prelude to identifying the consequences of their current situation. If they feel that there are few negative consequences associated with sticking with the status quo, they are unlikely to see the need for change. And even if they do recognize some important consequences, they may feel that they are insufficient to justify action. You need to amplify the perceived pain of staying as they are by introducing previously unrecognized implications and consequences and in doing so making a compelling case for change.

[5] The need for change

By now, you should have persuaded your customer – if persuasion was necessary – of the need to take action. You now need to help them to think through the changes they will have to make to their business in order to address the issues, threats and opportunities they have acknowledged. These changes may involve their people, their organization, their behaviors or their systems. Any change is always seen as carrying potential risk – so you must reassure them that the benefits of change will more than justify any short-term disruption.

[6] Potential options

Your customer will always have options, and these options will not necessarily be restricted to merely other vendors or suppliers that might at face value look similar to you. They will often include alternative approaches to achieving the goals your customer has established. They may believe that developing an “in house” solution is a credible option – or they could choose a completely different path. You need to understand what your customer regards as their credible options, and to help them weigh up the pros and cons of each approach.

[7] Critical capabilities

You’ve now laid the foundation for introducing your key capabilities as “must have” minimum requirements for addressing their issues, threats and opportunities, eliminating their obstacles and avoiding negative consequences. And because your capabilities can now be positioned within a clear business context, your recommendations will have far more power and credibility than if you jumped the gun and attempted to propose your solution the moment that your prospective customer acknowledged a potential need.

[8] Business value

And because your unique capabilities now have a clear business context, you can associate them with a clear business value. Because you have helped your customer to acknowledge the significant costs, risks and consequences of their current situation, you can establish a powerful contrast with the significant business benefits of adopting your approach and implementing your solution. And because you have highlighted the full potential value of the project, you can help your champion to justify its approval.

Contrast drives change

I’m not suggesting that the sales conversation needs to be perfectly linear in following these phases, or that all of these steps can or should be completed within a single conversation. But this progressive framework encourages and equips your salespeople to invest their time in truly understanding the nature of their customer’s challenges – and allows you to establish the maximum contrast between the customer’s current situation and what they could aspire to if they decided to adopt your approach.

When you think of database apps, your mind probably pictures Microsoft Excel first. The app has been the de facto market leader for at least two decades.

But it’s not the only show in town. There are plenty of web-based database apps that are just as simple as using a spreadsheet. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses and are targeted at different types of users.

Why Use an Online Database?

Databases can be about so much more than simple rows and columns. You can use databases to control workflows, manage your stock and inventory, provide the backend to an app, track newsletter subscriptions, and more.

So, if you’re wondering which online databases are worth your time, keep reading. We’re going to talk about a few different options.

1. Airtable

Airtable is designed for people who want to organize their daily workflows in database form. It’s like a cross between Trello and Excel. Anyone who works in marketing, project management, ad agencies, and product experience teams will find the app useful.

Airtable has five primary tools: Grid (like Excel), Calendar, Kanban, Gallery, and Form. The app also has a unique feature call Blocks. It lets you mix and match various parts of the five primary tools to create a workflow dashboard that exactly matches your needs.

Pricing: The app has a free tier. It restricts you to 1,200 records per base, 2GB attachments, and two weeks of revision history. The paid plans start at $10 per user, per month.

2. Ragic

Microsoft Excel has a few key drawbacks when used as a database tool. Errors are notoriously hard to audit and correct, it’s hard to work on two worksheets at the same time, at it lacks native “big picture” tools.

Therefore, Ragic positions itself as a more streamlined and easier-to-use replacement for Excel. As long as you’ve used Excel in the past, you will feel right at home using the app.

Designing a database in Ragic is just like developing a spreadsheet in Excel, but the end result is more powerful.

Ragic comes with dozens of ready-to-use templates, or you can also design your own. Other noteworthy features include mobile access, advanced search tools, user management, and compatibility with the other Microsoft Office apps.

Pricing: If you’re happy with three custom sheets and 1,000 records per sheet, Ragic is free.

3. Caspio

If you need to create a database application, you should try Caspio. It lets you get create forms and publish databases online, even if you don’t have any coding experience. It’s perfect for both internal documents and customer-facing apps.

Caspio supports database deployment on a number of platforms, including content management services, personal blogs, a company portal, and even Facebook and SharePoint.

If you do have coding experience, you can extend your database application using any programming language thanks to the open API.

Pricing: The basic plan allows unlimited users. It costs $59 per month.

4. Knack

Knack is another business-focused app. Some of its clients include Intel, Seattle Seahawks, and Harvard University.

Once again, it’s easy to draw parallels with Excel. Like the Microsoft products, you have control over the structure of your data and how your data connect together. You can also add your own equations and formulas to get the outputs you need.

However, Knack also offers a frontend, letting you interact with your database in a way that Excel does not allow. For example, you can use Knack to make apps such as customer portals, donation managers, event calendars, store locators, and a whole lot more.

Pricing: The Starter plan costs $39 per month. It lets you create 20,000 records and three apps. It also throws in 2GB of storage.

5. Zoho Creator

Small business owners looking to unify their data should check out Zoho Creator. It’s another online database that straddles the divide between spreadsheet and app.

Naturally, the backend is a great way to store data. But the 31 types of collectible information mean you can also create customized front-end apps for all parts of your company. The data itself covers everything from barcodes to location coordinates.

If you don’t want to make your own apps, Zoho offers the App Deck tool. It’s a repo of ready-made apps. Example apps include Logistics, Support Desk, Employee Management, and Project Trackers. Zoho adds new apps on a regular basis.

Zoho specifically recommends the app for people who work in education and non-profit.

Pricing: The entry-level plan costs $10 per month. It can hold 25,000 records and lets you make three apps.

6. Sonadier

Sonadier offers a drag-and-drop app builder. Therefore, once you’ve created your database, it’s straightforward to access and interact with it in many different ways.

The app also deserves a special shout-out for its Zapier integration. Zapier is like a more powerful version of IFTTT. As such, it’s easy to tie your database to real-time events and keep it automatically updated accordingly.

Other features include extensive sharing management options, a built-in file manager, and support for mentions and comments.

Pricing: Sonadier is free to use for up to five users. The first paid plan starts at $5 per month, per user.

7. Anvil

We end with a slightly more complex app—Anvil. It requires knowledge of how to work with Python. However, because you can code directly into the app, Anvil is arguably even more customizable than the other six services in the list.

And, unlike the other apps, Anvil also gives you control over HTTP, CSS, and JavaScript. It means you can make your public-facing apps look exactly the way you want without losing access to Anvil’s powerful backend.

You can run your code on servers and client devices, and you can easily integrate your database with other third-party services by using Anvil’s APIs.

Pricing: Anvil is free for light traffic. Paid plans start at $49 per month.

A Lack of Free Options for Online Databases

As you’ve been reading, you’ve probably noticed the lack of outright free options. That’s not an oversight on our part—there simply aren’t any 100 percent free online databases apps that are worth recommending.

If you don’t fancy paying for one of these options, and instead would like to learn more about how to get the most out of Microsoft Excel, check out our articles on how to collect survey data with Excel, and then how to do basic data analysis with Excel.

Read the full article: The 7 Best Online Databases as Simple as Spreadsheets

As an email marketer, you always want to send highly effective messages. You want your emails to stand out, resonate with your recipients, and deliver value. But no matter how hard you try to send something relevant, you can’t control when your emails are opened. Some people will read your email right away on their phones. Others may check their emails on their desktop in a day, a week or more. And in that timeframe – even if it’s just an hour or less – a lot can change.

Even if your email is as relevant as it could be when you send it, it doesn’t mean that it will still be relevant when it gets opened. What can you do about that? That’s where open-time personalization comes in. Rather than personalize an email at send time, you can personalize it at open time. That way, no matter when the email is opened, it will reflect the most up-to-date information available.

How does open-time personalization work?

Ordinarily, when an email is opened, the recipient’s email client (such as Microsoft Outlook or Gmail) sends a request to a server to provide any image to display. If you are using open-time email personalization, the personalization platform would make a smart decision about what image(s) to show the moment the message is opened (or re-opened). This decision would be based on everything it knows about the recipient, taking into consideration all of that person’s up-to-the-minute behaviors across channels. The decision can also take into account product inventory, catalog changes, geolocation, weather, and more. The resulting personalized in-mail experience could be product recommendations, promotional offers, eBook or video suggestions, or simply informational messages.

Let’s say, for example, that a retailer sends an email containing three product recommendations to a regular customer. Between the time the company sends the email and the moment the customer opens it, the customer has purchased Product 1 via the mobile app, Product 2 went out of stock, and Product 3 dropped in price. When he opens the email, Products 1 and 2 would be substituted with different (but still relevant) recommendations, and Product 3’s price would be updated.

That’s what open-time personalization is all about.

In the rest of this blog post, I’ll explain the four main benefits you can receive from personalizing your emails at open time.

1. Show prospects and customers that you know them

When a company sends me an email that doesn’t make sense to me, I question whether or not they actually know me very well. That may be ok for your occasional shoppers (if you’re a retail company), but it could be upsetting to your loyal shoppers, current customers, or prospects at a critical stage of the buying journey.

Between when you send an email and when it is opened, a person’s circumstances can change. She may have already bought that product, or removed it from her cart — indicating she no longer has no interest in it. She may have originally browsed content in one area of your B2B site, but later started showing interest in a completely different topic. That shift in her preferences should be reflected in the emails you send, otherwise it will seem as if you don’t really understand her.

Open-time personalization allows you to show your recipients that you know them by not sending them content that is clearly irrelevant or behind-the-times.

For example, you may originally send an email reminding a shopper about a printer he was interested in the last time he was on your site.

But, if he has already purchased the printer by the time he sees the email (or if he reopens it later), it can be updated to thank him for his purchase and suggest complementary items he may be interested in.

2. Stop confusing your customers and prospects

Sometimes an inappropriate email can be confusing. Let’s say you signed up for a webinar on a topic you wanted to learn more about. Later, you received an email suggesting you sign up for that same webinar. Is this a mistake? Or did your initial registration not go through? Should you sign up again just to be safe? It’ll make you stop to think about it.

You don’t want your prospects or customers to be confused by your emails. By updating the content of your emails at open time, you can account for anything that may have changed that could confuse your recipients. It sounds obvious, but if someone has already signed up for a particular event or offer, don’t promote it to her! If she has already requested a demo of your product, don’t include that in a CTA in future emails to her. Not only do you risk confusing her, you waste an opportunity to promote something else.

3. Never promote anything that’s no longer available

It can feel like a bait-and-switch when you click on a recommended product in an email only to find that it’s out of stock. Yet it’s completely possible that a product that was in stock when you sent the email is no longer available when the recipient opens it.

You can avoid frustrating your customers by leveraging open-time personalization. In this case, any product that goes out of stock can be replaced by another, relevant product recommendation when the email is opened.

For example, you may send the following email to a shopper interested in heels.

But if the “Paula Pump” sells out, you can replace that recommendation with a similarly relevant one for the recipient (the magenta “Kervisky Pump” in the image below).

And it’s not just limited to products. If you send an email containing a promotion for a sale that is no longer taking place when the email is opened, you can swap it out for another relevant promotion. If for some reason you have had to remove or retire a blog post or eBook from your site, any recommendation for it can be swapped with other relevant content instead.

With this approach, you can make sure you’re only promoting items — whether those items are products, promotions, content, etc. — that are still available on your site.

4. Accurately reflect information that can change regularly

You may encounter moments when you want to include dynamic information in an email — meaning some sort of content that changes frequently. The most obvious instance is pricing. A product’s price could change between when an email is sent and when it is opened. Open-time personalization allows you to ensure that whatever product recommendations you display in your emails, the price is always up to date (for an example of this, refer back to the shoe example above. The “SuzyD Series” shoe price drops between the first image to the next).

But there are other instances where content isn’t static that aren’t immediately obvious. The weather is a good example (I included a good real-world example of this in my last email-related blog post). The weather changes all the time, so if for any reason you want to include the weather or any weather-related content in your email, open-time personalization will allow you to ensure that it is always accurate when the email is opened.

You may also consider open-time personalization for things like betting odds or fundraising efforts that will change as time goes on. If you’re trying to raise money for something, you may want to include the results of the efforts so far. Open-time personalization allows you to display the most up-to-date progress so the email is always relevant, no matter when it is opened.

Final Thoughts

There’s no reason for your emails to be outdated or irrelevant when they’re opened. Think about it this way: open rates are often low enough as it is. When you get someone to open your email, you don’t want to waste your chance to provide value to that person in the moment. Open-time personalization allows you to ensure you’re always showing the most relevant content in that moment.

It takes a lot more than clever mobile messaging to appeal to today’s app users. While an anecdotal push notification may have seemed novel to consumers in the past, tailored app experiences like this are now the norm — not the exception.

Without specialized content that engages users on a regular basis, consumers adopt an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality toward their apps — the hallmark of failed mobile marketing, and a recipe for high churn. But one of the most effective ways to drive personalized engagement and avoid upticks in app abandonment is location-based messaging fueled by geofences.

A geofence is a digital perimeter that brands place around physical environments that offer unique opportunities for “in-the-moment” engagement with their users. What better way for a retailer to drive brand awareness, for instance, than alerting app users to an in-store promotion when they’re near the brand’s brick-and-mortar? Or better yet, using geofences to divert users from purchasing elsewhere by enticing shoppers with push notifications before they enter a competing storefront?

While the implications for retailers are clear, geofences can be applied to apps across sectors to drive user engagement. In fact, mobile campaigns that leverage location targeting outperformed non-location targeted campaigns by a factor of two-to-one, while geofenced ads have proven to be up to 12 times more cost effective than bidding for keywords — regardless of the industry or sector.

However, simply using geofences to send out a blanket message to all local users is no way to harness the true power of geofencing. For the best results, here are a few tactics that brands should consider when using geofences.

Creating a Lifestyle

For starters, geofences — and triggered app messaging in general — don’t have to explicitly be about driving (or thwarting) immediate sales. Even for retailers, much of the value of effective geofencing is derived from creating a lifestyle around the app, or at the very least inserting the app into the user’s day-to-day in a meaningful way.

Take the outdoor apparel brand The North Face, which was among the first retail brands to implement geofences on a large scale. While the company leveraged geofencing in a conventional way to send push messages to app users when they were in proximity of The North Face stores, the brand also used this technology to update their customers about the weather and their environment — a natural fit for a retailer that’s all about the great outdoors.

By sending customers weather-related geofenced alerts, the company saw a 79 percent increase in foot traffic from app users, with 65 percent of those users ultimately completing a sale. More importantly, however, this helped The North Face become a more than just an outfitter, but a resource for information about their target demo’s outdoorsy habits that lends the brand authority among potential shoppers.

Bringing Brands to Omnichannel

Geofencing is also a great way for brands to foster the omnichannel relationships with users that that will be essential to their success in the years to come. Studies show that even when users are in a brick-and-mortar storefront, they’re likely engaging with that brand on mobile, and that when users aren’t using their phones to surf the web, 86 percent are engaging with their apps.

The challenge here is ensuring that users are stimulated by the brand at all of these physical and digital touchpoints, which geofences can help orchestrate. Walmart, for instance, has one of the largest physical footprints of any retailer globally, yet also has emerged as a wildly successful ecommerce operation over the past decade.

A unique characteristic of Walmart’s customer base is that roughly one in five of the sales completed online with the company are picked up in stores. The Walmart app has geofences around the brand’s physical locations that triggers coupons and e-receipts to users who may only be intending to pay a quick visit to the store in an attempt to get the to stick around for a while. The key to success here is that the app is catering to buyers with specific habits, delivering promotions that align with a shopper’s purchase history, while only triggering the alerts when the user is local, not around the clock.

Harnessing More Data

Walmart’s success with geofencing hinges on analysis of user data, which geofences are great at helping brands collect. The data sets created by geofences paint a more detailed picture of each app user’s day-to-day, which brands need to leverage intelligently to keep their apps relevant and avoid that “out of sight, out of mind” mentality among users.

Geofences are also a practical tool that delivers value to brands beyond marketing. The Honeywell Lyric, for instance, isn’t the first smart thermostat to enter the increasingly crowded market. But Honeywell leverages geofencing to distinguish itself from more established providers by intuitively tracking the number of app users within a designated environment and moderate fuel consumption automatically. The Lyric automatically delivers savings to users without inundating them with push messaging, making it an asset to homeowners.

For all the value that geofences offer, they are surprisingly simple to implement, making them an essential asset for any mobile marketing initiative.

• TV executives spent much of Advertising Week last week vowing to work together to battle the FANG titans.
• The industry is trying to adopt some of Facebook, Google, and Amazon's digital ad buying efficiency and powerful targeting capabilities, less it risks getting bowled over.
• It's also promising to cut down on how many ads it shoves in way of consumers, who are streaming tons of ad-free content.

It was the week that the TV industry sounded the alarms. 

Work together. Change who you are. Or die at the hands of FANG.

There's no doubt that executives are talking up a big game when it comes to defending the ad industry against Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Netflix. The question is, how fast do they really want to move?

Indeed, amidst a sea of panels and keynote presentations during Advertising Week New York last week, two persistent themes emerged regarding the TV industry's glaring need to change in order to survive the coming FANG onslaught:

• Big TV companies need to work together in some capacity, whether that's coming to agreement on how best to measure ads in 'connected TV' or selling ad space collectively via some sort of digital marketplace.
• TV needs to dial back how many ads it shows people, or risk losing an entire generation or two to ad-free streaming.

On the first point, TV companies seem to be realizing what they are up against long term. It's easy, efficient, and precise to buy targeted ad space via Google, Facebook, and, increasingly, Amazon.

Buying ads that way on TV is gaining steam, but is still clunky and fragmented. 

And over the long term, TV needs to have an answer for the media buyer who's accustomed to buying ads on those digital platforms with a few clicks, and wants to do the same across TV, not network by network, or TV company by TV company.

"The biggest challenge to television as a platform is the various players within television," said Marcien Jenckes President, Advertising for Comcast Cable, during an Advertising Week session. "If we don't kind of set aside our differences and our territorial rivalries, somebody else is going to come along and eat our lunch. Period. Full stop. No question about it."

Easier said than done. Currently, there are loads of ways to buy more targeted, data-driven TV ad in bits and pieces. There's NCC, a data consortium between Comcast, Charter and Cox. There's AT&T's ambitious new Xandr division. 

And there are also specialized advanced TV groups at Viacom, NBCUniversal, Turner, Discovery Communications, and so on. Not to mention Roku and Amazon.

"Everyone is doing it their way," said Marissa Jimenez, president of Modi Media, a division of the ad buying giant GroupM which specializes in advanced TV ads. Jimenez noted that different media companies use different data sets and methodologies for selling targeted ads. "We need synergy."

TV giants know they are fighting against bigger giants

Last week, prominent media M&A banker Terry Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners, gathered 80-plus TV and digital executives at a dinner aimed at tackling some of TV's thorniest issues in light of the growing FANG power.

The event was seen as constructive, but undoubtedly "there was some tension," said an attendee.

"Today it feels like we are gearing up for a battle between TV incumbents and the digital giants where one side is playing offense and the other defense with decidedly different tactics," said Kawaja during a presentation

So can can TV get its act together in time? Does it need to?

Rino Scanzoni, CEO of Modi Media, told Business Insider he's both optimistic and frustrated. Addressable TV ad spending is growing fast. And that's a front where TV can compete against Google and Facebook, he believes, since it blends data targeting and powerful, big screen TV advertising.

But it's hard enough to get the industry to agree on how to count how many people are watching TV ads on various OTT outlets, let alone getting all the players to work together on some sort of TV buying platform.

"It comes down to price," he said. "The price differential [paid by different advertisers] in TV is quite significant. So there is no incentive for TV networks to expose that [in a programmatic exchange]."

That factor, coupled with competitive data models and general inertia, is holding up TV from changing.

"There is so much talk, yet the industry moves so slow," he said. "It's frustrating. We all talk about this and meanwhile years are going by."

Everyone wants fewer TV ads

Meanwhile, live TV viewing is losing ground quickly to streaming. The fall TV season is off to a scary start.

"As everyone at this point knows, linear video consumption continues to decline," said Krishan Bhatia, EVP, Business Operations and Strategy, for NBCU's Advertising Sales division.

Something's gotta give. And if there was consensus during Advertising Week, it was on the idea that TV needs to run fewer ads to compete with streaming, without blowing up the $70 billion US TV ad market overnight.

David Levy, EVP, Non-Linear Revenue for Fox Networks Group, said during a panel discussion on Wednesday that FX network has reduced ad time from 16 minutes-per-hour for on-demand viewing (not linear TV mind you) to just two. 

Plus, FX has been heavily promoted its own ad-free streaming subscription offering of late.

"All we are trying to do is get more efficient with consumers' time," he said. He urged other companies to follow suit.

"When you go home at night, I want to make sure that the Netflix show and the Fox show are comparable to you, and that advertising isn't changing your mind one way or another."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Everything we know about Samsung’s foldable phone

geralt / Pixabay

Let’s cut right to the chase. The answer to the question, “At what point in the Buyer’s Journey should sales get involved?” is simple. Sales has the opportunity to get involved at every stage in the Buyer’s Journey, although the way in which sales engages should change based on where the buyer is in his or her journey.

Before we dig into some tactical examples of how sales can engage at each stage of the Buyer’s Journey, let’s take a step back and make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to the Buyer’s Journey.

The Buyer’s Journey is the process that buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service. There are three main stages of the Buyer’s Journey—awareness, consideration, and decision—and your buyer is likely experiencing the following thoughts and feelings at each stage:

Awareness Stage

“Hmm … I’m realizing that I have a problem. Things aren’t 100 percent the way I would like them to be.”

Consideration Stage

“Now that I know I have a problem, I need to explore options for solving my problem. I think I’ll start with some Google searches and check out a few company websites. I can’t be the first person in the world to be experiencing this problem.”

Decision Stage

I have a few options for how to solve my problem, so now I need to select the option that makes the most sense for me.”

How Sales Can Help During the Awareness Stage

The biggest mistake sales professionals make when navigating the Buyer’s Journey is offering a decision-stage solution for a buyer who is just starting out in the awareness stage. I’ve seen it play out time and time again, and this scenario only frustrates both the buyer and the salesperson. Although this is typically the stage where marketing will be creating content and campaigns to attract relevant buyer personas, sales does not need to be waiting in the wings. A sales professional working with a buyer in the awareness stage can and should be sharing helpful content that further assists the buyer in his or her self-discovery. The goal of the salesperson should be to help the buyer realize her pain, rather than jumping ahead to try to solve the problem. Salesperson translation: This is not the appropriate time to schedule a demo of your product.

How Sales Can Help During the Consideration Stage

Yes, the buyer knows something is awry and is interested in solving the problem, but she’s still not ready for a product demo. After all, perhaps her problem could be solved by hiring an intern, by altering her current process, or by working from home one day a week. A salesperson may think he has the answer to all of her problems, but the buyer is still in a fairly broad exploratory mode. The most helpful thing a salesperson can do during this stage is provide highly relevant, educational resources, such as the following:

• Product comparison guides
• Live interactions (webinars, podcasts, live video)
• Case studies
• Product or service FAQs
• Data sheets
• Industry reports
• Cost calculators

The salesperson’s goal is to help the buyer connect the dots between her problem and a potential solution. During the consideration stage, the buyer is comparing solutions in general.

How Sales Can Help During the Decision Stage

This is it. The decision stage is classically known as show time for a salesperson; however, the worst thing a salesperson could do at the decision stage is treat the buyer like any other buyer and ignore the journey that this particular buyer has traversed. During the decision stage, the salesperson has the opportunity to share experiences with the buyer that are focused on a very specific product or service. For example, the salesperson could share vendor comparison guides and offer product demos or free trials, or perhaps audits or consultations.

The key to successfully supporting a future customer along her buyer’s journey is to focus on that individual buyer’s personal needs, pain points, frustrations, and goals, keeping in mind that her needs will vary depending on where she is in her buyer’s journey.

rawpixel / Pixabay

There are many reasons B2B revenue teams choose to shift their strategy upmarket. Focusing on larger accounts can produce increased average customer value (ACV), reduce dependency on individual evangelists (which can cause churn when those evangelists change roles), extend your referral network, and increase revenue predictability.

Challenges of Moving Upmarket

Selling into the enterprise poses well-known challenges, especially for revenue teams used to the quick, sub-45-day deal cycles and high-volume funnel metrics of an SMB-driven pipeline. These challenges include:

• Initial pipeline volatility (the very thing you’re trying to avoid) due to smaller initial pipeline with a high variance as large deals are won or lost.
• Lower close rates due to more stakeholders in the typical buying center and a more complex procurement process.
• Reduced funnel velocity due to increased buying center complexity.

So, when B2B companies decide to move upmarket, they are often faced with the very challenges that the strategy was meant to eliminate.

Luckily, there is an answer!

Account-based programs, and especially precision account-based advertising flows, are an ideal way to combat some of these upmarket pitfalls so your team can realize the benefits of larger deals, lower churn, and a more robust referral network.

If you are a marketing leader charged with supporting an enterprise deal cycle, here are three account-based tactics you can’t ignore.

1. Drive Awareness Among Known and Anonymous Buyers

In the enterprise funnel, marketing plays a critical role in engaging every stakeholder in a buying center, whether they are a known contact or not. Email is not the answer, especially for engaging upper-level stakeholders who rarely respond to cold outreach.

This is where account-based advertising can dramatically improve awareness in your target accounts. By targeting named accounts with display advertising, you can reach each buyer persona with the right message at every stage of the funnel.

At Terminus, we use our own ABM platform to drive awareness in target accounts with display advertising served to pre-engagement accounts (accounts who may not yet be aware of our brand), segmented by the core personas in our target buying centers.

Our unique targeting abilities let users target both known contacts in target accounts and people for whom you don’t have contact information. As a result, we’re able to deliver high-level benefits messaging that is hyper-targeted to each stakeholder at the high-priority accounts that your sales team is going after.

2. Accelerate Funnel Velocity with Stage-Based Messaging

Once an account enters the buying process, pipeline acceleration campaigns served across display networks, video ads, and LinkedIn can drive key decision-makers to action by delivering the right information — like a case study, industry report, or promotion — at the right time.

These may be designed to help your primary contact move the rest of the buying center to action, add urgency, educate buyers on use cases and success stories, or simply keep your brand top-of-mind with peripheral stakeholders (such as finance or operations) for whom your solution may be a lower priority.

3. Use Engagement Signals from Your Target Accounts to Reach Out When it Matters Most

Email is powerful, but decision-makers are flooded with inbound email every day. We all know the importance of personalization and speaking to a buyer’s pain points. Even more important, though, is timing.

You don’t want your reps flooding the inboxes of stakeholders at random intervals. Even when the emails they send are useful, they too often end up in inbox purgatory, mentally marked, “I’ll get to that eventually.”

As go-to-market teams, what we really want to achieve is email that presents a solution at the exact moment the prospect is trying to solve their problem. You don’t want to offer someone a steak dinner right after breakfast; you want to offer it to them at 6 p.m., when it occurs to them that they’re starving and their fridge is empty.

This is where account-based predictive insights — which we call Engagement Models — come into play. The idea is to define all of the very early indicators that members of a target account’s buying center are in-market for a solution like yours. These signals include:

• Web searches for related keywords
• Searches for competitor brand names
• Views of product-specific pages on your website
• Site visits from multiple members of the buying center happening in close temporal proximity
• Email opens or clicks from previous campaigns

Once you have defined what these high-intent activities are for your brand, our Engagement Spike feature automatically establishes a baseline of activity within your target accounts and notifies your sales team when the entire buying center of an account exhibits engagement that is significantly above the norm. This indicates that internal discussions are happening, or that buyers are moving to the next funnel stage.

This is the perfect time to connect, and by leveraging tracking across an entire account — as opposed to from individual and incomplete contacts — you can easily see this activity and deliver it to your sales team for action.

It’s now clear that thought leadership content is having a major impact on B2B buying decisions. Several recent studies have confirmed that business buyers are consuming more thought leadership content, and that thought leadership affects decisions at every stage of the buying process. However, many of the same studies have also found that business buyers are becoming more selective about the thought leadership content they consume.

The reality is, thought leadership is a classic double-edged sword. Great thought leadership makes a significant positive impact on potential buyers, but poor thought leadership can have a major negative impact on a company’s demand generation performance. In a recent survey by Edelman and LinkedIn, over a third of C-level respondents (35%) said that a company’s poor thought leadership content had directly led them not to do business with the company.

Thought leadership marketing is challenging because buyers have high standards for thought leadership content. In a survey by The Economist Group, business executives were asked why they consume thought leadership content. The top reason chosen was to encounter thoughts that go beyond current thinking. When the executives were asked what qualities make thought leadership compelling, the most popular attributes identified were innovative, big picture, transformative, and credible.

In a recent survey by Grist, senior executives were asked what qualities were most valuable in thought leadership content. The three most favored attributes identified by survey respondents were fresh thinking, forward-thinking, and evidence-led.

These high buyer standards mean that effective thought leadership content must provide buyers with information and insights that they cannot get from other sources. But developing such content on a consistent basis is challenging for most companies.

One of the most potent and reliable sources for compelling thought leadership content is original research, and a new study by Buzzsumo and Mantis Research indicates that original research is becoming an integral part of the marketing mix at many B2B companies.

This study consisted of a global survey that produced 698 responses from marketers. More than half of the respondents (53%) were affiliated with B2B companies, and another 26% worked for hybrid B2B/B2C companies. The focus of this survey was to understand how companies are developing and using original research in their marketing efforts.

In this study, nearly half of the respondents (47%) said their marketing team had created and published original research in the previous twelve months. The study also found that B2B marketers were significantly more likely to have used original research than B2C marketers (50% vs. 35%).

Most of the respondents who had used original research were satisfied with the results. Over half (56%) said their research had met or exceeded most or all of their expectations. Given this level of satisfaction, it’s not surprising that nine out of ten of the respondents who are using research plan to conduct additional research in the coming twelve months.

The Buzzsumo/Mantis Research study also suggests that the use of original research is poised to increase. Half of the survey respondents who are not currently using original research said they are considering adding original research to their marketing efforts in the coming twelve months.

Finally, large majorities of the survey respondents in this study indicated that original research provides important support for their content marketing programs. Seventy percent of the respondents said that original research produces more content/editorial ideas, and 67% said it produces higher quality content/editorial ideas.

When reviewing any survey, it’s important to consider how the demographics of the respondents may affect the survey results. In the Buzzsumo/Mantis Research survey, nearly two-thirds of the respondents (65%) worked for advertising or marketing agencies, technology companies, and professional services/consulting firms.

In my experience, these types of organizations tend to be relatively heavy users of original research. Therefore, this survey may somewhat overstate the use of original research in the overall population of companies. That being said, there’s no doubt that original research is becoming increasingly important as source material for compelling thought leadership content.

Image courtesy of Thomas Haynie (www.phlebotomytech.org) via Flickr CC.

Originally published here.

The Cautionary Tale of James and Kim

The call came in. It was like so many calls I had received before. Kim* was fed up because James,* the star salesperson her organization promoted, wasn’t making it as a sales manager. James had been killing it at sales. It was clear he knew the industry and how to convert leads into sales. When James’ supervisor left he made it clear he wanted to move up in the organization and Kim and the other members of management thought it was clearly the right thing to do.

And James showed even some initial signs of success. But then people on the sales team started leaving. James’ sales numbers slowed dramatically as he was spending more and more time with the team. And finally, a big account left at renew time as the sales team struggled to come together.

The moral? There is an allure to promoting someone from within, from your own sales team, to manager. But, as with James, it can prove to be a grave mistake.

I’ve spent most of my career as an outside advisor to companies. Prior to building my companies all I did was help other companies with their issues – first as a corporate attorney as some of the largest law firms in the United States and my own law firm (still going strong) then as a business strategist.

Calls like this come in all the time. So how do you avoid falling for the top performers trap? When is a top performer really going to make a great manager, and when are they going to bomb?

The good news is there are 5 clear signs to know that a sales star might make a bad sales manager. Here they are below:

The 5 Signs A Sales Star will Be a Management Dud

1) Caught up on approval more than getting the job done

Many great salespeople provide exceptional results because they are approval -oriented. They want to make a customer happy, so they sense what the customer needs and goes the extra mile. Maybe it’s a call on the weekend to meet with client’s schedule, or fighting to get an extra discount to close the deal or showing up for an installation to make a client just a little more comfortable with their purchase decision.

This can lead to extraordinary results as a salesperson. However, in a sales manager role, where you can never make everyone happy, this need for everyone’s approval can lead to stress, anger and overwhelm for the star salesperson turned manager.

Sometimes one employee will have to work up to a holiday weekend to close a sale and won’t be happy with that decision, sometimes there will have a bonus pool to allocate and the sales manager will have to pick winners and losers, and sometimes as sales manager you can’t attend every sales call your team wants you to attend.

RELATED: The Best Sales Development Reps Don’t Suffer from a Lack of Focus

2) Too intense on giving up control

Many great sales people control the sales process. They know just where the customer is in the buying process, what they need, and when they need it. And, of course, they know how to close.

Controlling a sales process is a great skill. But a sales manager doesn’t have the time or attention span to control everything with every customer. As a manager, you have to be able to delegate, let go, and trust that others can play a role in getting the job done.

The salesperson that lives – and thrives – on controlling the sales process usually struggles with the lack of ability to control the sales process as a manager, or worse, tries to control their sales reps and their processes to a frustrating extent.

3) Lacking external motivation (outside of employer/pay) to succeed

There are many reasons people sell. Some sell to get approval of customers. Some sell to get the approval of their team back at the company. Some even sell for money (go figure!)

We find that salespeople that are in it solely for the money often can do great in the salesperson role. However, in the sales manager role, where compensation and rewards are more long-term, it takes a deeper motivation to success.

An external motivation for being successful, such as a love of the company’s products, a career dream to advance, or family motivation, is often key for the sales manager. Star salespeople that are missing this motivation often fail as a manager.

4) Always getting things done at the last second

Great salespeople often love stress. The thrill of the hunt. Making that deadline. Living off that last-second adrenaline rush often is the difference between a so-so salesperson and a star.

But in the world of a sales manager, procrastination becomes less of a sexy motivator and more of a career-ender. You have to be on the ball and planning at all times. There are myriad schedules and priorities to manage.

Waiting for the last second when you have multiple people reporting to you is a recipe for disaster: unsurprisingly all of your team will be struggling with issues to close sales at the end of the quarter (and you can’t help all of them), the company’s accounting department will still want expense reports and filings, and more than a few sales managers have complained to me that they feel like they are always chasing the next deadline, just to name a few of the issues we see regularly.

5)  Failing to plant seeds for their future

Let’s face it: in modern sales teams and organizations we rarely have to plant seeds for the future. Salespeople live in a 30-day cycle. The key is to close sales and make quota.

Many star sales people are very good at bringing in the harvest of sales. However, in a sales manager role, not only does the company need to harvest, they need to plant seeds.  Investments in the future are key: that newbie salesperson needs training, schedules need to be adjusted for employees on leave, new systems need to be implement and the list goes on…

A salesperson that doesn’t plant seeds for the future is often going to struggle to plant seeds to build a nurture a team as a sales manager – a role where painting a bold picture of the future and fulfilling it is so much more important.

Do’s and Don’ts for Promoting the Right Salespeople

The 5 signs above give you some key things to look for in deciding whether your star salesperson will be a good or bad sales manager. To help you along, here are some Do’s and Don’ts for the promotion process.

Do:  Look at why the star salesperson is successful

Why is this person making it? What do you think is causing their success? What do they think is causing their success?

Sometimes the success is in the hustle or in personal communication skills. While these can make a star at salesperson, they may not make a star manager

Do: Look at transferable skills

While some skills don’t transfer, there definitely are a common set of characteristics held by both great sales reps and great sales managers. Sales reps who exhibit traits like discipline, long-term focus, and communication skills may indeed become amazing sales managers. Another example of a transferable skill is great time management: sales reps who manage their time well will be able to adhere to the disciplined schedule a sales manager must follow to be successful.

RELATED: What Qualities Make for a Good SDR?

Do: Focus on the needs of the Sales Manager role

The sales manager role is about the future of the sales team and the company. It’s not about a reward for being great at sales. Focus your attention on what is needed in a sales manager.

Take inventory of what skills will make a great sales manager in your company (this will vary by industry and company culture).  Does the star show these skills?

Don’t: Look at success in the salesperson role alone.

Many company equate success at the salesperson role with success at future levels. And it is true that some people will be successful at most anything they try. But success alone is not enough to ensure future success in a very different job.

Don’t: Be afraid to promote a non-star with the right skills

Sometimes the person with the right mix of skills to be a great sales manager is a mid-performer that has well-rounded skills – not the star that is great at one thing. You might have a great sales manager in the making on your team and not even realize it because you are focused on the star seller.

Look at the overall skills of everyone your are considering for sales manager – not just their history of sales.

*Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality

The post 5 Signs Your Star Salesperson Will Make a Terrible Sales Manager appeared first on Sales Hacker.

I have to admit being consumed with CSO Insights latest Sales Performance Report. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read it, make sure you take the time to download and study it. It’s filled with fascinating analysis, each chart presents huge opportunities for performance improvement.

The chart I keep coming back to is their 2018 SRP Matrix, reproduced below:

Usually, as we look at charts like this, we focus on comparing Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 performances, perhaps being somewhat self-congratulatory it we are at a Level 3. There are profound differences between poor performers and top performers in the percent of people making quota and win rates of forecast deals.

Ironically, the difference in poor performers and top performers in making plan is probably within the boundary of survey error, even if it isn’t the difference is only 2.1%.

But, as one looks at the data, one can’t help being struck by the huge wastes built into selling. It begs the question, “Would we tolerate the same level of waste or non-performance in any other part of the organization?” Clearly, the answer is, “Absolutely not!” But why do we let this happen in sales (and my guess in marketing.)?

Complex sales is unlikely to be as predictive (even with AI) as a manufacturing process. There are just to many opportunities for variance that are outside the control of sales.

But that’s not an excuse for the level of “waste” we see in sales.

Let’s focus our discussion on Level 2 performance–since that’s right in the middle and since the majority of organizations fall into that performance level. But the same discussion applies to Levels 1 and 3.

We see, organizationally, most of these organizations are actually making their overall goal. 94% is a very high level!

But as we go deeper, that attainment is a result of only 54% of sales people making or exceeding their own goals. This is a little difficult to assess, part of it is impacted by the games managers play in setting quotas. A certain amount of over-assignment is necessary, we know 100% of people won’t make their individual goals, but too often, the numbers are arbitrary or way too high. But beyond that, there are other challenges. What’s happening with the other 46%? Why are so many not making their goals?

Imagine the overall revenue growth and performance improvement we would get if we could get more of them meeting their goals? While 94% are meeting their goals, one could/should argue they are dramatically underperforming the potential, they should be over-achieving their goals.

Alternatively, if we are in a low/slow growth market, we could restructure to reduce what we are spending on selling–accomplishing the same results with fewer people, at significantly less cost.

But then we drill deeper into the data. We win only 46.2% of forecast deals! Are you as astounded as me? That’s forecast deals! These are deals well into the buying/selling process. They are deals that salespeople and sales managers have high certainty about they will be won–enough to commit to a forecast! How are we so far off? 53.8% of the deals we are “certain” we win, we actually lose or the customer doesn’t reach a decision.

Piling on, these are only the deals we forecast we will win. But then there are all the other deals that we work, that we compete on, that we invest our time on. These, probably, represent the majority of sales time and resources, since what we forecast is a small part of what we compete in.

Imagine the sheer amount of resource dedicated to failure. Imagine either harnessing that resource to be more successful, or in the least balancing our spending on selling.

It seems that trying to understand what causes these huge failure rates and massive overspending should be the focus of management. We should be asking ourselves:

Why are we making plan, yet 46% of our people aren’t? What can we do do reduce that number? What would our performance and growth be if rather than accepting 54% of our people making plan, we raised it to 75%? What would that mean to our investors and shareholders? What would that mean to our market share?

Why are we actually winning only 46.2% of our forecast deals? What happens to the 53.8% of the deals we thought we were going to win, but didn’t? How can we reduce this number? How do we win more of what we forecast?

Finding the answers to these questions can lead us into profound improvements in sales performance and productivity.

This analysis is tough, it requires deep understanding of what our people are actually doing and where we can improve performance. It means both sales managers, sales ops, and sales enablement need to do deep analysis.

Instead of doing this analysis, trying to assess these performance gaps and what causes them, instead, we focus on doing more. We accept these performance levels as though they are fundamental laws of physics. Simplistically, to reach higher levels of sales, we simply have to do more of everything that we are currently doing—not look at how we do it much better.

We drive for increased activity levels—more emails, more calls, more meetings. We drive for more content, more leads, more tools. If doing X critical activities produces certain results, the thought is, to increase results by 20%, we simply increase X activities by 20%.

We don’t assess non-performance or non-performers. The data shows only 5.4% of our sales turnover is involuntary or performance related. But if we are performing so poorly, might it be that a much larger number of our people aren’t performing?

I don’t understand the focus on more and the absence of focus on performance.

Based on this data, it appears we are under-exploiting what we already have. It seems if we just do better at what we already are doing, we have massive opportunity for performance improvement, growth, and over-attainment.

Why is it that the average tenure of a CMO is so much less than other C-suite executives?

According to the CMO Impact Study, over 40% of CMOs have been in their roles for less than two years and 70% less than four years. There is much speculation as to why marketers have a shorter lifespan than their executive colleagues, but one stat from the Marketing Performance Management Survey, 2017 particularly caught my attention and could be related: only 23% of marketers earn top ratings from their C-suite on proving impact, value, and contribution to revenue. Think about that: just two out of 10 marketing leaders are making a solid connection between marketing activity and profitable growth and in that process, communicating the ROI of their salary. On the flip side, this same study shows an alarming 38% of marketers earn average or below average ratings from their CEO’s—those who focus on the internal agency approach and create campaigns on demand vs. aligning activity with organizational objectives. Likely, these are the marketers whose salaries are viewed as a corporate expense.

As CMOs struggle to quantify and communicate the value of marketing, it also creates a credibility gap with their superiors. Given this information, perhaps the limited incumbency of CMOs isn’t that surprising.

So what’s the answer? How can marketing leaders reverse the trends, build confidence, demonstrate value, and increase position longevity?

Delivering Metrics that Matter

As marketers, we all have our go-to reports—those that help us gain an understanding of campaign performance, answer fundamental questions, and guide our next steps. However, are our stock metrics the ones we should be communicating upward? In a recent Marketo webinar, Lori Wizdo, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, recommended aligning the report with the business objective of the stakeholder who’s receiving it. For example:

(Source: Lori Wizdo, Forrester Research. Note: some reports listed may be exclusive to Bizible.)

Prioritization of Attribution Tools

Granted, reporting by stakeholder requires more sophistication in analytical tools, which many marketers lack. According to The Marketing Measurement and Attribution Survey,  52% of marketers are manually generating reports using excel spreadsheets, 54% use their marketing automation system, 51% rely on reports from their CRM, 63% use web analytics, while only 15% are using a dedicated attribution solution.

In today’s complex marketing environment comprised of multiple channels, devices, and touchpoints, manually-generated reports from siloed data sources are time-consuming, open to inaccuracies, and can lead a marketer to incorrect conclusions. 58% of marketers say their current ability to measure and analyze marketing performance “needs improvement or worse” but the good news is marketers also recognize the need for more sophisticated solutions. How do you know if you’re ready for a more advanced tool? Marketers surveyed in The Marketing Measurement and Attribution Survey reported the top drivers for investing in a dedicated attribution tool as follows:

• 70% desire to show marketing’s impact on pipeline and revenue
• 67% want to demonstrate ROI from all marketing investments
• 38% seek to improve marketing and sales alignment
• 27% hope to gain actionable insights into buyer interests

The Attribution Ripple Effect

Naturally, when marketers are more informed, they make better decisions: more strategic spending, focused campaign adjustments, enhanced customer experiences, and efficiencies in staffing, to name a few. Moreover, when marketing is optimized, the organization benefits—more efficient use of resources and more leads fueling the sales pipeline, both of which lead to exponential growth—for the organization and for marketing leaders.

Want to dive deeper into the benefits of attribution? Please join Perkuto and Marketo for our Marketing Impact Talk, “Leveraging Attribution for Better Results” touring Canada this Fall. Registration is free—reserve your seat:  Montreal: October 11, 2018 | Toronto: October 18, 2018 | Vancouver: October 23, 2018 | Calgary: October 24, 2018

The post Is Attribution the Key to Professional Success? appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

It’s a simple concept. Those who are motivated are those who are disciplined.  When it comes to prospecting, that means the one who will be most successful is the motivated, disciplined person.

“Motivated people exhibit discipline in what they do and how they do it. With regard to prospecting, that means they have established times to prospect in their day and they do it.” — Excerpt from my book, High-Profit Prospecting.

Discipline and motivation start with having a plan. I don’t care what the situation is,  you won’t exhibit either without a plan.  This is a key reason why I wrote the book, High-Profit Prospecting.  I’m saying it as strong as I can — you need to read the book and apply the strategies shared.

Too many salespeople struggle when it comes to prospecting. How do I know?  I hear everyday from salespeople struggling.  I find it hard to help people when they haven’t taken any steps at all to create a process. In a second I can tell if the person reaching out has read my book. I’m not saying reading the book will eliminate all prospecting issues. No, what I’m saying is reading the book and applying the strategies will help you better understand what areas you need to be focusing on.

Recently I did an interview for Best Seller TV.  You might have seen it recently on United Airlines or a wide range of other media outlets.  If you have not, you can find it at this link.

I am passionate about sales, and I think you will see it my passion in the interview.

Check out the interview and let me know what you think.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results

“It’s hard enough to get my sales team to use our CRM, how will I get them to log into LinkedIn too? Is there a way to integrate our CRM with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and should I?”

Explain why they need to use both tools and how it will help them.

Potentially.

Definitely.

The more you can weave your various tools together, the better. There is no question that it’s becoming more and more challenging to manage platforms effectively. LinkedIn’s SNAP program brings together your company’s key sales applications with LinkedIn Sales Navigator within a single selling experience. SNAP increases selling time, adoption, and places LinkedIn as the backdrop for insight throughout your sales workflow and cycle.

SNAP partners fall into the following categories:

• CRM
• Marketing Automation
• Business Intelligence
• Sales Acceleration
• Web Conferencing
• eSignature
• Other

In this post, let’s focus on the CRM category.

Choose the Right Product

Be sure you know the difference between LinkedIn Premium and Sales Navigator. LinkedIn describes the two products this way: LinkedIn Business is a paid subscription service that elevates the LinkedIn experience for an individual member.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator, available for individuals or teams, is the best version of LinkedIn for sales professionals. Sales Navigator features a powerful set of search capabilities, improved visibility into extended networks, and personalized algorithms to help you reach the right decision maker.

There are three versions of Sales Navigator; Professional, Team, and Enterprise. At this time, only the Team or Enterprise versions of Sales Navigator integrate with CRMs.

Ten Steps to Integrating Sales Navigator with Your CRM

1. Review and update your sales teams’ LinkedIn profiles
2. Read our blog posts on profiles and downloading your network
3. Determine who on your team will have Sales Navigator
4. Make sure your CRM connects with Sales Navigator
5. Purchase the Sales Navigator Team (or Enterprise for large sales teams)
6. Set up specific KPIs for Sales Navigator
   1. Connection Acceptance Rate with prospects, customers, referral sources
   2. Conversion from connection to a phone call
   3. Conversion from connection to a face-to-face meeting
   4. Conversion to proposal
   5. Conversion to new business
7. Create or modify your sales process to include Sales Navigator
8. Outline your Sales Navigator workflow
9. Develop a training and coaching plan to ensure everyone is confidently using your CRM and Sales Navigator
   1. Set up Sales Preferences
   2. Save key 1st-degree connections as “Leads” so they appear in Sales Navigator
   3. Create Lead Builder searches
   4. Save your current clients as “Accounts”
10. Begin to work Sales Navigator in conjunction with your CRM

Learn more about the CRMs and other partner applications that are available within the Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP) program.

As of this writing, these CRMs are a part of the SNAP program:

• Hubspot
• Infor
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Oracle Sales Cloud
• SugarCRM
• Zoho CRM
• SAP Hybris
• PEGA Sales Automation

There are, of course, other ways to potentially integrate Sales Navigator with your CRM if it’s not currently in the SNAP program. For example, two popular CRMs; Pipedrive and Nimble integrate through Zapier. If you are not familiar with Zapier, you can learn more here.

If you don’t have a CRM but use Microsoft 365, you can now view a contacts’ LinkedIn profile, save the contact as a lead or connect with them, see TeamLink connections, and view highlights to spark a conversation.

Upcoming Posts: Later in the month, our LinkedIn Outreach Specialists are going to share specific features they like and don’t like about Sales Navigator. If there are Sales Navigator Ninja’s, it’s Sydney, Charlotte, Liza, and Sarah, so don’t miss these upcoming posts so you can learn how to maximize Sales Navigator for your selling initiatives.

Disclaimer: The information shared in this post is current as of the publication date. To ensure you have the most up-to-date information, refer to the sites we mention.