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If you have seven minutes to spare, I encourage you to watch “The Expert.” It’s absolutely worth your time. A customer and her design specialist have a meeting with a service provider, represented by a salesperson, a project manager and an expert. The customer has budget for a new marketing project on market penetration, brand loyalty and intangible assets. According to the customer, this project requires a drawing with seven red lines, which consists of two with red ink, two with green ink, and the rest with transparent ink – and all have to be perpendicular to each other. The rest of the conversation makes for hilarious parody on sales calls.

Understanding the customer’s context

The conversation offered many opportunities to get a deeper understanding of the customer’s specific context. But the salesperson did not use the opportunity to ask a few simple questions to understand the context at all. The salesperson’s primary focus should have been to discover this context and the project’s specific scope, to create a common foundation for all. Why and how should seven red lines serve the project’s goals? How should they fit into the overall picture? If the salesperson had used this time wisely, he could also have raised the question whether seven red lines were the right approach or not. Instead, they were all totally focused on the task – the seven red lines. Even worse, the salesperson and the project manager – who did not add any value at all – did a great job to blame the expert who seemed to be the only one who saw the ridiculousness of the request.

Understanding the customer’s concepts

What was it really that the customer and her design specialist tried to accomplish, fix or avoid? What about their desired personal wins? The only one who tried to understand their concepts was the expert. He did it according to his expert role from a solution perspective, not from an overall situational perspective. Also here, the salesperson should have established a common foundation before even bothering the expert with some seven red lines. Even the members of the customer team were not even aligned at all. The design specialist had no idea of the overall picture, she was only focused on the lines in the form of a kitten and how to inflate a balloon, surrounded by having no idea what perpendicularity means in the first place.

World Class sales performers

According to our Miller Heiman 2014 Sales Best Practices Study, world class sales performers don’t provide a solution before they clearly understand what the customer’s needs actually are. Additionally, World-class salespeople have a solid understanding of the customers’ business needs. That requires to make some research prior to the meeting, to define what needs to be accomplished in the meeting. As in so many sales conversations, salespeople focus directly on a solution without having accomplished a deep understanding of the customer’s specific context and their concepts. As we have seen here, those behaviors add no value and lead to nowhere. World-class sales performers lead a customer stakeholder network through such an awareness phase to be able to provide a unique valuable perspective that helps the customers to achieve their desired results. Then, it’s about discussing potential “seven red lines,” but not earlier.

 

 

I recently had dinner with a group of startup founders who are tackling challenges in various creative industries — digital art, electronic music, cooking, shoe design. At one point, the conversation turned toward the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The question was asked: How is Kickstarter able to get people to donate money so willingly to strangers online?

Five years ago this month, Kickstarter launched in New York City to very little fanfare. In fact, the biggest headline the company got during its launch week was “Kickstarter Launches Another Social Fundraising Platform” [emphasis mine]. Sixty months and 59,000 successfully funded projects later, the company is now responsible for the successful launch of thousands of new products, inventions, and businesses — with over a billion dollars pledged in total.

(screenshot from https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats on April 13, 2014)

While Kickstarter certainly enjoys some network effects (people start projects and then invite their friends to donate), most of the money given to projects comes from complete strangers. Why are so many of us willing to take such chances on strangers’ science projects and crafts?

“It’s commerce,” one group member pointed out. There is a transactional element to every Kickstarter campaign. Project owners set rewards for various threshholds of money given. The reward is often the product that’s being developed (and therefore the money paid is essentially a pre-order), but just as often a simple thank-you acknowledgement somewhere. Kickstarter requires this, and every Kickstarter copycat platform seems to include this feature.

You’ll notice that Kickstarter doesn’t call its users “donors” or “investors.” The word the company uses is “backers.” When you give money to a project, you’re not receiving a return on an investment — at the most you’re getting a slightly better deal on a product that will one day come out. But usually, you’re getting a bad deal and a long wait. In fact, many or mosts projects involve transactions where the backers are not getting their money’s worth — in tangible terms, at least.

“It’s collaborative artistry, a way for people who can’t invent to participate in art or invention,” said another member of the group. Though we may not be getting our money’s worth from the projects we back in terms of goods “purchased,” there’s something fulfilling about being part of the creation process. And that’s a reward in itself. Coincidentally, I think a lot of people who participate in backing projects get subsequently inspired to do creative work themselves. I’m curious if Kickstarter knows the percentage of its projects that come from people who were previously inspired by other Kickstarter projects.

That brings us to the next argument for Kickstarter’s success:

“This isn’t new behavior,” said the venture capitalist at the table. Artistic patronage has been a thing since the Renaissance, and even earlier. The wealthy have oft supported the arts out of philanthropy, personal passion, and boredom. So there’s precedent for the Kickstarter backer model. But people aren’t giving money toward crypto USB drives and rock albums and stretchy shoe laces out of philanthropy. Often, we’re not passionate about these things prior to encountering them on Kickstarter. (Though I will admit I’ve browsed, and then backed, a project or two out of boredom.)

“It’s Kickstarter’s hand-vetting process”, someone else added. The reason Kickstarter projects attract patrons is because the company carefully screens each project, so that sketchy inventors or rubbish projects aren’t put in front of the community. This is certainly a smart business move, and counter to popular VC wisdom, this human filter hasn’t prevented Kickstarter from scaling.

Those are all true. But they still don’t answer to the real question. Sure, a Kickstarter project might purport to give us value in products and creative fulfillment, and sure, we might be inclined to support art if we have the discretionary funds and if the art is high quality. The real question is, why would we believe these people who say they’ll build these things? And perhaps more importantly, why would we believe in them?

The answer has to do with something deeply ingrained in our biology. Kickstarter is successful because its creators tell great stories. And stories are how we humans form relationships.

We are physically programmed for stories. Stories are what bind us to our national identities, our families, our friends. We share stories all day long; every time we sit down to dinner with friends and acquaintances, we retell the dramas and tragedies and comedies of the day. And that brings us closer to each other, causes us to trust each other, even.

The Kickstarter founders did not invent crowdfunding. They improved on it. And they did a lot of things right, including all of the above suggested by the entrepreneurs at my dinner. But Kickstarter owes its rapid growth to the fact that it required all project owners — the people asking for money — to submit personal videos telling their stories. Instead of simply asking, inventors and artists and entrepreneurs on Kickstarter had to get in front of a camera and explain who they were and why they were passionate about their projects. They were forced to tell great stories. And that’s what’s caused 5.9 million backers to take a billion leaps of faith on strangers in the last five years.

Brand storytelling is a drum I’ve been beating on quite a bit lately. The more I’ve looked at the ways great businesses use stories, the more I’ve realize those stories’ power. A few months ago, I said that storytelling was going to be the #1 business skill of the next five years. But lately, I’ve been thinking it’s going to be important for a lot longer than that.

What’s the deal with the Content Strategist? At Contently, storytelling is the only marketing we do, and it works wonders. It could for you, too. Learn more.

Smart marketers know that there can never be too many ways to reach customers. That’s why your social and email marketing efforts should not be thought of as competing for resources, but as complementing and enhancing one another. Social data and activities provide a wealth of information to power targeted, personalized, and timely email outreach, and insights gleaned after an email open and clickthrough should be used to populate even more relevant stories in a customer’s social feed.

Caught up in the buzz that social is overtaking more established channels? Rest assured: email is far from dead. Glib dismissals that the under-30 crowd has no interest in email are way off the mark, because virtually all Millennials still use it (Net Atlantic). Not to mention, today’s growth in social users is coming not from the young but the middle-aged, who have historically had an even stronger affinity for email. Facebook and Google+’s biggest new segment is 45-54 years old, and Twitter’s is even closer to the Golden Years at 55-64 (BufferApp).

The Mobile Email Revolution

With today’s consumers wielding more power than ever to dismiss irrelevant messages with the flick of a finger, modern brands are personalizing emails like never before to provide succinct and relevant information that drives acquisition and loyalty. Mobile consumption of email has played a huge role in this transformation. Today, 62 percent of emails are opened on mobile devices — more than any other platform (Heidi Cohen) — presenting marketers with the unprecedented opportunity to reach consumers with pertinent, real-time email campaigns.

Email Automation

One way to leverage first party activity data to inform email campaigns is to use targeted emails to invite customers back to complete unfinished business. If a customer fills his shopping cart but bails out, he may have had to turn his focus elsewhere. Send an email prompting him to complete his purchase, and even include a coupon to incentivize checkout.

For example, when users sign up for an account but fail to complete the installation process, Dropbox sends the below email about 20 minutes after the initial registration.

Changes in shared social status, like birthdays and anniversaries, can also be instructive email triggers. For instance, retailers can acknowledge a consumer’s change of current city by sending a personalized email welcoming her to the neighborhood. NFL.com sends birthday email to its users with a personalized jersey and 15% discount enclosed.

These are the types of tactics that get results. Research from the Direct Marketing Association shows that targeted email accounted for 39 percent of all email marketing revenue in 2013, up from 30 percent in 2012 (DMA). Targeted email was also the only type to gain revenue share last year. Social data provides the richest available source of relevant and timely consumer insights.

The Virtuous Cycle: Social and Email Marketing

Social data feeds email personalization. Email response feeds the social experience. It’s a virtuous circle, and an opportunity you shouldn’t ignore. So where do you begin integrating social and email strategies? We’ve outlined a few tips to help get you started:

Remove Barriers

Eliminate organizational barriers that prevent social and email marketers from fully collaborating. You are all on the same team — create a list of common goals and a game plan to achieve them.

Be Responsible with Customer Data

Leverage a permission-based social data collection solution, like Social Login, and be selective about the data points you request from consumers. Ask only for information that will enable you to effectively segment your audience and create more relevant experiences.

Tear Down Silos

Select a centralized database that aggregates consumer data from multiple channels to build out complete, actionable user profiles that can be used to more effectively segment your audience according to your unique goals.

Embrace Big Data

Invest in a database that allows you to easily export user data and segments into your existing third-party marketing platforms to send highly targeted campaigns – without the help of IT.

Additional Resources

For more information about how to create complementary social and email marketing strategies, download our white paper, Using Social Data to Win at Email Marketing.

A new study on what B.C.‘s LNG revenues could add up to reinforces what many thinking citizens have already surmised — that the provincial government’s optimistic projections are far from a sure thing, and maybe just pie in the sky. The predicted royalties and LNG tax revenues — enough over 30 years to wipe out the province’s debt and fund a $100-billion prosperity fund — aren’t impossible, says Marc Lee, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ B.C. office. But they will materialize only under optimum conditions, and such a cheery scenario isn’t at all likely.

Welcome to our new E-Commerce Insider newsletter, a morning email with the top news and analysis on the e-commerce industry, produced by BI Intelligence. 

Click here to sign up for E-Commerce Insider today, and receive it every morning in your inbox.  

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CONSUMERS ARE BUYING MORE ON EBAY: eBay first quarter earnings were released yesterday, and the company showed healthy growth in volume and user base. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) of items sold via the eBay Marketplace grew 12% year-over-year to $20.5 billion, and the number of people who are actively buying on eBay topped 145 million, an increase of 14% over the same period last year. See our latest chart for more on eBay's first quarter.

EBAY SEES A JUMP IN PAYMENT VOLUME: eBay’s first quarter earnings report also showed strong growth in its payments business (PayPal and subsidiaries). Total payment volume grew 26.7% to $52 billion year-over-year. See our latest chart for more on PayPal's first quarter. 

ETSY SETS LAUNCH DATE FOR WHOLESALE MARKETPLACE: Etsy's business-to-business marketplace, where artisan sellers can take wholesale orders from merchants via the site, will officially launch on August 1, reports Internet Retailer. We first covered Etsy's jump into the wholesale business two weeks ago when it was still in testing. The new marketplace should expand Etsy's business significantly, as currently it only supports direct business-to-consumer sales.

SMALL TWEAKS BOOST E-COMMERCE SALES: The secret behind the success of some of the fastest-growing e-commerce sites is that they continually make small tweaks to site features, according to Internet Retailer which spoke with a number of top e-commerce executives. For example, an executive for kitchen cookware e-commerce company Sur La Table said they boosted sales by improving the search function on its site and implementing a personalized shopping tool powered by a shopper's interests on Pinterest and Facebook. Apparel and accessories retailer Uniqlo, one of the fastest growing sellers online, said it boosted sales last year by implementing one-click shopping and responsive design, which makes its website more consistent across devices. The lesson here is that relatively inexpensive website improvements can boost top-line results. 

FACEBOOK E-COMMERCE ANNOUNCEMENT: Facebook's f8 developer conference is today, and TechCrunch reports that the company might roll out a new API that lets e-commerce sites use an autofill feature, that uses payment information Facebook has on its users. The social network is already partnering with PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe for billing information. Facebook's autofill form is intended to make checking-out on e-commerce sites easier, for both the buyer and seller. There's also a possibility that Facebook could become a payment processor itself, but there are all sorts of regulatory and consumer trust issues that come with that, and Facebook would be competing against its aforementioned payments partners. 

CHINESE CONSUMERS SHOP ACROSS CHANNELS: Despite Chinese consumers' passion for smartphones and other mobile devices, shoppers in the country still value bricks-and-mortar shopping, according to a new report from Boston Consulting Group. Retailers need to integrate a seamless experiences across smartphones, tablets, PCs, and stores in order to succeed in China. The report also says that Chinese consumers tend to mistrust official brand websites. This is why many go to online marketplaces such as Alibaba's Tmall.com, where shoppers can browse online stores from thousands of retailers worldwide.

AMAZON LAUNCHES WEARABLES MARKET: Amazon has launched a dedicated section of its website solely for wearable devices. In this section, Amazon will be selling all smart watches, fitness tracking bracelets, and even wearable cameras like the GoPro. Though wearable adoption is still limited to a niche audience, the introduction of a dedicated storefront for wearables on one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms will help nudge these devices a bit further into the mainstream. (The Next Web)

SQUARE ADDS ORDER AHEAD AND PICK-UP FEATURE: Merchants that use Square can now give their customers the option to order online and pick items up in bricks-and-mortar stores, according to TechCrunch. The feature looks to be targeted at restaurants, which means that Square will be going head-to-head with food ordering apps like Seamless, though Square is not offering a delivery option. Square will charge an 8% processing fee for orders made through the feature, which is inline with fees for similar services.

TARGET DUMPS VISA, PARTNERS WITH MASTERCARD FOR CHIP-AND-PIN REDCARD: Target announced yesterday that it would partner with MasterCard on store-issued debit and credit cards and accelerate its rollout of more secure chip-and-pin store cards to early 2015. Also announced was the appointment of a new chief information officer, Bob DeRodes, a payments industry veteran. Coming on the heels of Target’s massive December data breach, the moves are targeted at shoring up the company’s payment security efforts. 

Target's move could also signal that security concerns are prompting U.S. retailers to speed up rollout of EMV, the card technology standard popular in Europe and Asia. Merchants have been given an October 2015 deadline to make the switch to EMV, but Target is starting early and competitors may do so as well. EMV cards have an embedded computer chip that makes transactions more secure, but merchants are able to choose whether to require consumers to enter a PIN number, or sign a receipt. Visa and MasterCard both told us they support EMV transactions authenticated by either chip-and-PIN or chip-and-signature, depending on merchant preference. But chip-and-PIN is widely considered more secure. “Target chose chip-and-PIN to provide the highest level of security available,” said Chris McWilton, MasterCard president of North American markets, in a statement provided to BI Intelligence. 

IN-APP PURCHASES DRIVE SOARING APP REVENUE. Mobile app revenue is expected to reach over $70 billion in 2017, up from just over $20 billion in 2013, according to a new report from Digi-Capital. In-app purchases, or digital goods, account for 90% of revenue on both iOS and Android, which helps explain the tight restrictions both companies place on in-app payment options. Both Google and Apple take 30% commissions on purchases within apps in their ecosystems.

WELCOME, E-COMMERCE INSIDERS: This is our new newsletter covering all things e-commerce. Please email csmith@businessinsider.com with news and tips. Click here to sign up for E-Commerce Insider today, and receive it every morning in your inbox. 

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“Engage your audiences.”

It’s the #1 commandment of content marketing. We’ve heard it repeated a thousand times, and we all know exactly what it means.

Yep, and I’m the queen of France.

I’m betting if you were to gather a half-dozen marketers in a room and ask each one to define the phrase “audience engagement,” no two answers would be alike.

In fact, some marketers believe the term “engagement” has lost its meaning altogether. (I highly recommend Jonathan Crossfield’s pointed takedown of this and other overused and abused industry buzzwords.)

Truth is, the word “engage” has many shades of meaning. In the interest of serving audiences and advancing marketing goals, content creators need to internalize them all.

“Engage” Is a Complex Term

If you look up the word “engage,” you’ll find these five definitions:

1. Enlist (someone) to perform a particular service.
2. Occupy, attract, or involve (someone’s attention, interest, etc).
3. Start fighting against (an opponent).
4. Establish a meaningful connection.
5. Move into position so as to come into operation.

So which definition is most relevant to content marketing? In my opinion, it’s a five-way tie.

Engagement Is a Many-Splendored Thing

When you engage target audiences, you’re doing more than enlightening or entertaining them.

1. You’re enlisting their help.

With every piece of content you publish, you’re asking audiences to give you their time and consideration, trust your authority and integrity, and share your message to help elevate your brand. Further down the funnel, you hope they’ll give you their business and become outspoken brand advocates.

Since you’re asking so much of them, you owe them the moon and stars—content that’s authentic, useful, entertaining, and superbly written. And that’s exactly what your audiences demand. If you waste their time with dull, insincere, self-absorbed, pretentious, or error-riddled content, they won’t lift a finger for you.

2. You’re capturing their attention and interest.

Doing so requires knowing your audiences well and being committed to serving them. If this isn’t your starting point, you might as well hang up your hat.

To make audiences sit up and take notice, you need to:

• Establish rapport and resonance by way of empathy, sincerity, and a flash of personality.
• Enthrall them with a creative angle, a unique perspective, an intriguing position, and/or compelling facts.
• Speak directly to their pain points and professional concerns while demonstrating the utmost respect for their intellect, needs, biases, and values.
• Make your point clearly, dynamically, and confidently. Show that you’re fully engaged in the effort of content creation. Remember: Passion is contagious.

3. You’re fighting their cynicism by disarming it.

Every day, audiences are bombarded by shallow, self-promotional blather masquerading as content. Not surprisingly, they’ve developed a reflexive resistance to marketing. Their cynicism is your fiercest enemy.

Good content marketers know how to slay the beast in its sleep. They not only anticipate and address audiences’ questions and objections, but they also acknowledge audiences’ inherent distrust based on past experience—not explicitly, perhaps, but by virtue of delivering practical value and a uniquely rewarding experience.

4. You’re establishing a meaningful connection.

Making an emotional connection with audiences isn’t easy. But great content creators—those who love what they do and love meeting audiences where they are—make it look easy.

“Love works in business,” writes Brian Sheehan, a 25-year veteran of Saatchi & Saatchi and author of Loveworks: How the world’s top marketers make emotional connections to win in the marketplace. In his view, the most endearing brands share the following traits, tendencies, and abilities:

• Purpose-driven
• Inspirational
• Emotional (offering an “irresistible human touch”)
• Truth seeker
• Creative leader
• Driving “purpose to action” with a rallying cry
• “People Power” (igniting passions or “capturing the popular imagination”)
• Mystery
• Sensuality (i.e., “gateway to the real world”)
• Intimacy

If you aspire to make a meaningful impact and foster brand loyalty, it’s worth determining how well your content stacks up against this list.

5. You’re moving them into position.

Normally when we talk about engaging a piece of machinery—turning it on, putting it into gear, and locking it in place—we mean readying it for action. (How many times have Trekkies heard Captain Kirk’s order to “engage” the ship’s warp drive?)

Similarly, you should use content as an instrument to turn people on, to get them thinking about their needs (and how your brand can best meet them), and to solidify your relationship with prospects so you can convert them into buyers.

Andy Crestodina, strategic director at Orbit Media, offers some great advice for transitioning “suspects” into “prospects,” building trust, inspiring visitors, and starting a conversation.

• Write stories that explain your brand’s deeply held purpose and mission.
• Provide visitors to your site with concrete data and client testimonials.
• Address prospects’ most common questions in a white paper or FAQ section.
• Include links to marketing pages within blog posts to “guide visitors deeper into your funnel.”
• Encourage contact by way of a quick call to action on every page.

While your content should be devoid of marketing speak, it should speak volumes about why your brand is worthy of your audiences’ time and trust—and should gently and amicably guide them toward the desired result.

What Does “Audience Engagement” Mean to You?

More importantly, how do you go about achieving it? Please weigh in below!

For Progressive Persona Profiling, a short, succinct description of the target is developed first. For this example, the target is the CMO of a Fortune 1000 technology company. The description of the target reads as follows:

“My goal is to never be satisfied with the status quo and to be a leader of positive change for my organization, never allowing us to fall behind while the world moves ahead, as I am not intimidated by technology. I embrace it as I position our marketing organization to create the future that I envision.”

This description was informed by primary research consisting of interviewing dozens of CMOs to understand their greatest challenges as a result of the complete redefinition of B2B marketing in 2014.

Next, we need to account for each stage of the modern buyer’s 10-stage journey. Then, five different states of thought are developed to completely understand the buyer as they move through their journey. The five different states of thought are:

1. Need: This is also known as a “want” state
2. Thinking: This is also known as a “logical” or “thought” state.
3. Feeling: This is also known as an “emotive” or “evoked” state.
4. Experience: This is also known as an “experiential” state, which can include prior experiences that impact current thought or emotive processes, or the current or perceived future experience based on the stage in the journey.
5. Consideration: This state is based on the need, thinking, feeling and experiential states. What are the likely considerations that the target is contemplating during each stage of the journey?

Let’s look deeper in the first stage of the modern buyer’s 10-stage journey in our CMO example, which is the stage of “Distraction.”

Stage 1: Distraction
1- Need (also known as a “want” state): What is the need or want of the buyer in each stage? We have found that posing the need or want in a question helps to frame the actual need. In our example of a CMO Progressive Persona Profile, the following questions are posed for each stage:

Do I have confidence that our marketing is effective? For this question, the need is obvious: the CMO needs to be confident that his/her marketing is effective. The implications of this need state include a need to be able to understand the ROI of the marketing through analytics and analysis to determine if, in fact, it is effective. What are the CMO’s reasons for not being confident or for questioning his/her confidence?
Need:
“My inbox is cluttered with news of marketing reports and surveys. I opened one today that asked if I had confidence that our company’s marketing is effective. Do I have confidence? Another prompted me to think if I am able to state my primary goal in one sentence. I can’t.”

2- Thinking (also known as a “logical” or “thought” state): Based on the need of gaining confidence in the effectiveness of his/her marketing, what is the CMO likely to be thinking at this stage of distraction?
Thinking:
“I’m here to be the leader of positive change for my organization, yet very little has changed. We still do the same old stuff, albeit with better tools and not much better results.”

3- Feeling (also known as an “emotive” or “evoked” state): This state is often overlooked and ignored, yet, we can argue that the emotive state is one of the most important. In our example, the CMO feels stagnant. He/She feels like there hasn’t been any movement in their marketing’s effectiveness and that there is a desire to change—to move forward toward the goal of confident effectiveness.
Feeling:
“Regarding positive change, I feel as though we’re stagnant. I know we can’t do everything, but we certainly can do something to improve. The question is what, how and when do we begin?

4- Experience (also known as an “experiential” state): This state can include prior experiences that impact current thought or emotive processes, or the current or perceived future experience based on their stage in the journey.
Experience:
“With each new year comes the resolution-driven ideas as to how to move our marketing forward, yet we are still in the weeds trying to sort out campaigns and other minutia.”

5- Consideration: Based on the need, thinking, feeling and experiential states, what are the likely considerations that the target is contemplating during each stage of the journey?
Consideration:
“I need a better plan to accomplish my goals and objectives for this year. I’d really like to have 100-day, 6-month and 12-month plans in place to get us where we need to be.”

Our research has shown that CMOs operating in a B2B marketing environment are being challenged like never before with the greatest change in marketing happening over the past two years. The rules for creating a demand generation campaign have taken a 180-degree turn. Previously, prospects were formally being marketed to with gated assets that required registration to obtain any information. Now, in the age of the empowered and emboldened consumer, marketers must find a way to provide relevantly compelling content to these buyers for each of the stages in the 10-stage modern buyer’s journey. Many recent studies indicate that a modern B2B buyer has decided on a product or service far in advance of speaking to a sales representative. Furthermore, modern B2B buyers are conducting that research on their own terms, without registering to download white papers or watch videos.

Various outputs can be created from the Progressive Persona Profile, which include content strategy, media strategy, messaging and positioning, and even overall campaign strategies.

If you would like to learn more about this important innovation in the evolution of persona development and how KERN can help your marketing organization with Progressive Persona Profiling, please contact Scott Levine at KERN at slevine@kernagency.com.

More information regarding Progressive Persona Profiling will be included in the new book written by Russell Kern and Scott Levine, which is expected to be published in the summer of 2014. Please download the complimentary Executive Preview of The 8 Pillars of Demand Generation for Revenue Acceleration.

Below are links to Scott Levine’s earlier articles on BEYOND PERSONAS: PROGRESSIVE PERSONA PROFILING.

Part 1: A New Process in the Evolution of Marketing Persona Development

Part 2: Deeper Insights Through Better Persona Profiling

The post BEYOND PERSONAS: PROGRESSIVE PERSONA PROFILING appeared first on KERN.

You invested money, time and effort into creating what you thought was an irresistible offer. You mapped out a well-planned promotion. You started marketing it but the response was flat.

Well, you thought, I could reinvent and create a new strategy – so out went another investment of money, time and effort. Still, not many more bites. There are people who are interested and asking about your product. However, no one’s buying. You start asking yourself: where did I go wrong?

I am going to ask you a question.

Did you ever run your offer past your imaginary friends?

No, I am not crazy but I do talk to my imaginary friends. Well actually, they are my imaginary buyers and their names are Catherine, Steve and Nicola.

What I am talking about are Growth HQ’s buyer personas.

When marketing efforts fail to make a splash, it means that you have not checked in with your buyer persona. One fundamental concept that you must keep in mind, when developing new products and processes, is an in-depth understanding of your buyer persona.

What is a Buyer Persona?

What do you say when asked who your ideal customer is? You may answer: a mother or a CEO of a multi-million dollar company or a teenager who is still getting an allowance from his parents. These descriptions are part of what makes up a persona but they are not enough. Buyer personas are so much more dynamic than this. They have to become real to you.

There are different perspectives about what a buyer persona is. It is an ever-evolving concept. There should be a continual shift and transformation in regards to your ideal customer, as your business progresses. You may have created a buyer persona at the initial stage of developing your company, but she or he will constantly change and you need to be aware of that.

According to Ardeth Albee, a persona is really focused on the roles and responsibilities of particular people, which you are going to try to establish dialogue with. They are part of the purchasing process.

Tony Zambito, an authority for buyer personas in B2B marketing, defines buyer personas as research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of who your buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behaviour, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions including where and when they buy.

Adele Revella, a marketing expert and foremost evangelist of buyer personas, recommends looking at buyer persona in two perspectives. The first perspective is the “Core Buyer Persona”. This seeks to understand the buyer in his own environment – without reference to whatever you might want to sell him. It tells you whether the buyer is looking for solution like yours, or is busy with other priorities. The second perspective is the “Product Persona Connection”. It reveals attitudes about your product and company.

As you can see from these different perspectives, a buyer persona is more than just a demographic or profiling of a customer. A buyer persona is a vision of your ideal customer based on intensive qualitative research.

In order to identify your buyer persona you have to do in-depth research of your customers. You then answer the ‘whys’ because ultimately, this will point you to how they arrived at the decision making point for the first initial sale and why they came back for more.

How Important is a Buyer Persona for NZ Businesses?

Buyer personas play a central role in business sustainability and growth. We all know that customers are the lifeblood of our business.

In creating a buyer persona, you will form a strong insight into your buyers. This will provide a substantial difference when planning for effective marketing campaigns. You can then adapt strategies to suit seasons, purchase decisions and buying behaviours.

Your buyer persona will help you tremendously when aligning your content to the interests of your market. Effective content increases social shares, which amplifies your reach to new and potential markets.

Understanding your buyer persona addresses gaps in the decision making process. It allows you to understand the issues and concerns that can stop your buyers from going through with the transaction. It allows you to create a solution for these issues and concerns.

The Four Essential Questions

1. Who are your buyers?

2. What are their goals?

3. What are their problems or challenges?

4. Where do they source information?

Who are your buyers?

The buyer persona concept is a model based on actual customers. However, it may not be who you initially think it is. It may be one type of person who is looking for a particular solution to a certain need, or several people with different needs.

What are their goals?

Depending on whether your business is B2C or B2B, there are varying goals. B2C persona goals are based on personal initiative. B2B are based on common ground arrived at by several decision-making bodies.

What are their problems or challenges?

There are many problems or challenges that buyers have to hurdle over before they arrive at a definite decision. We don’t exactly know how buyers think, we can only assume what these problems or challenges are and identify them by observing.

Where do they source information?

Buyers use multiple channels to source information and new ones are sprouting up all the time. Knowing where your buyers get information from is important, so that you know where to market your products or services. You will also gain an understanding of how they consume information and how to effectively engage them.

Have you created your buyer persona?

If you have any questions on how you can properly identify your buyer persona, drop us a comment or email us and we will be happy to help you out.

We can prepare a buyer persona for your business and an action plan on how to reach them with a Growth 360

Got anything else to add? Go for it and share your knowledge.

As a business owner, it’s crucial to be able to evolve and adapt along with changing times. Just because your business model was effective with one generation doesn’t mean it will be with another. This has never been more glaringly obvious than it is with the huge rift between how businesses operate versus how the Millennial generation shops. If you think you can afford to overlook Millennials, think again. They wield way more power than you probably realize, and that’s only going to become truer as time goes by. Without taking steps to appeal to them through multiple shopping mediums now, you run the risk of losing out to the competition.

Why Millennials Matter

Like many business owners, if you’ve focused your marketing efforts on any generation in particular, Baby Boomers and/or Gen Xers have probably received most of your attention. Until recently, Millennials – who were generally born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – were considered by many to be too young to matter. That’s changed, and age isn’t the only factor that counts. What’s even more important is that Millennials were among the first people to grow up with computers in the home, and they tend to be among today’s most connected, Internet-savvy consumers.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 Millennials revealed some stunning facts about them that are of particular relevance to today’s retailers. Before delving into the results of the survey, consider these points:

• There are more than 105 million Millennials in the world today
• Millennials will make up 46 percent of the workforce by 2020 and more than 75 percent by 2025
• All told, Millennials boast more than $200 billion in buying power per year

It’s plain to see that Millennials are a force to be reckoned with, and retailers stand to enjoy many advantages by catering to them.

Millennials Embrace Omnichannel Shopping

Unlike any generation that came before them, Millennials have practically grown up with online shopping. As a result, they are incredibly comfortable with it and often expect it to be an available option no matter where they shop. According to the survey, 33 percent of female Millennials and 40 percent of male Millennials stated that they’d buy everything online if they could. Now that mobile shopping is so well-established, most Millennials also expect to be able to buy what they need through their smartphones and other mobile devices. In this way, Millennials fully embrace three shopping mediums – in-store, online and mobile – and expect to be able to pick and choose from them at their leisure.

Unfortunately, many retailers miss the mark when it comes to offering options to Millennials. Incredibly, many don’t have an e-commerce presence at all. In 2013, those retailers missed out on more than $262 billion in e-commerce sales. Those that make an effort to establish and maintain online presences often fail to design them to suit the needs of Millennials and other savvy shoppers. The biggest problem lies in the fact that many retailers fail to realize the importance of offering a seamless shopping experience. Whether someone is making a purchase online, in a store or through their mobile device, they expect to enjoy a certain level of service. Retailers that fail to offer this type of seamless omni-channel shopping experience stand to alienate Millennial shoppers. Making this mistake now could cost your business dearly in the years to come. Making certain changes now, on the other hand, can lay the foundation for incredible long-term success.

How are Retailers Striking Out with Millennials?

By now, you should be convinced of the considerable buying power of the Millennial generation. What can you do to make the most of it? One way is by being aware of common mistakes that retailers are making and adapting your business to avoid making them yourself.

A few ways in which retailers miss the mark with Millennials include:

• They’re Anti-Showrooming – It’s understandable to be averse to having people use their smartphones while browsing your store. Won’t they just find what they need for less online and walk out without buying anything from you? That’s always a risk, but savvy retailers are learning to embrace showrooming. One way to do so is by offering a price-match guarantee and prominently promoting it in your store. Another way is by simply having a top-notch e-commerce presence that shows in-store shoppers that you’re also the online authority to trust. One thing’s for sure: Attempting to ban or discourage the use of smartphones and other mobile devices in your store is a great way to scare Millennials away for good.
• They Lack an E-Commerce Presence – When a Millennial steps into a brick-and-mortar store, he or she expects to be able to check online for additional products and other information. Retailers who don’t have e-commerce sites come across as relics from a distant past to Millennials. Furthermore, without a decent e-commerce site, people who search for your goods in the local area are far less likely to find your store and may never step foot into it in the first place.
• Their E-Commerce Sites Leave a Lot to be Desired – If your e-commerce site is little more than a static online catalog, it’s probably doing more harm than good. It’s well worth it to invest the time and money that are needed to create a strong online presence. The best sites are interactive and incorporate social media channels into their designs.
• They’re Not Accessible via Mobile – Mobile shopping is bigger than ever, and it’s getting more popular by the day. Expecting people to access your regular site through their mobile devices is a mistake. All too often, standard websites load slowly or are rendered incorrectly on mobile devices. One solution is to create a mobile friendly version of your site. An even better option is to revamp your site to have a responsive design, which means it automatically renders correctly across all devices.
• They Don’t Offer a Seamless Omnichannel Shopping Experience – The retailers who appeal the most to Millennials do so by delivering the same shopping experience across all channels. Buyers can seamlessly make purchases online, in stores and through mobile devices without having to contend with confusion of any kind. Someone should be able to just as easily find out if something is in stock online as they could in your actual store, for instance.

Additional Tips

There are all kinds of ways to appeal to Millennials, who are considered to be the most mobile-savvy shoppers out there. Encourage people to post and share reviews. Encourage customer loyalty with a rewards or loyalty program that is accessible online and via mobile. Stand out from 88.8 percent of retailers by accepting mobile payments. Offer mobile coupons that are designed with your best customers in mind. Most importantly, strive to create a shopping experience that is consistent and effective in store, online and via mobile. Taking these steps may involve decent investments of time and money now, but they are sure to pay off again and again as the Millennial generation gains more and more clout.

While the B2B world has been somewhat slower to adapt to social and marketing practices, that is not the case anymore. B2B companies have learned that investing time and money in social media, blogging and marketing is paying off.

Here are the top B2B social media and marketing stats for this year:

Why does your B2B company need a blog? From the slides, you can see that B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. Your blog can educate buyers on your perspectives, your achievements and what you are doing. From learning more about you through your blog and seeing your thought leadership content, buyers will be more compelled to contact you; therefore, you will get new leads.

The top three organizational goals for B2B content marketing:

1. Brand awareness
2. Lead generation
3. Customer acquisition

The metrics used to measure success:

1. Website traffic
2. Sales lead quality
3. Social media sharing

What if you could achieve your key metrics in the top three areas and exceed your top organizational goals?

How? Influencer marketing in combination with your content marketing.

By reaching out to very targeted, niche authors for your B2B blog, you can move their audience to your blog which will increase traffic, increase social media shares of your content and generate valuable leads from the content the influencers create.

Movable media reaches out to the targeted authors/influencers, the influencers create content for your brand site, the influencers move their audiences to your brand site. You will begin to reach the other businesses and customers you were already trying to reach.

Use these stats and information at your next company meeting to prove B2B marketing and social media works and how others are seeing results. These stats can be used to start your marketing plan for your B2B company with goals, strategies and tactics to show success.

Have questions about working with targeted influencers for your niche B2B company? We can help. Contact info@movablemedia.com.

We all want to sell our product or service. If you don’t you’re in the wrong place.

You know the phrase “Knowledge is power”

Knowledge helps you sell more.

We’ve already talked about knowing your customer.

You also need to know your product or service.

A simple way to align this thinking is to go back to the ancient philosophers and take another look at their ultimate wisdom: “Know thyself.”

This time let me angle it a little bit and declare this: “Know thy product.”

By the end of this article you will be able to determine the unique selling proposition (USP) of your product or service. More than that, you will be able to sell more with purpose and confidence.

What is a USP and how can it Help Your Business?

What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? I don’t need to beat around the bush and give a long-winded definition of USP. Simply said,

USP is something that differentiates your product or service from all the millions of similar products and services out there.

It is very easy to be unique if you have a unique product or service from the very start. If you do not have that, you can either develop unique promotions or unique guarantees for your customers.

Aside from that, how can you make your product or service stand head-and-shoulders above other similar offers?

The lesson here is to find out what makes you unique.

This is where composing your USP comes in:

1. Write down your USP. Do not think it. Write it. Write down your USP in whatever way it comes out of your head. You may write down a thousand words, that’s ok. You can cut it down later and distill it to what is essential and unique about your business.

Make it a point to be the devil’s advocate of your own business. Think about why your product or service is not worth anyone’s time. This will actually help you think about what will make it unique and what will make your buyers go gaga over it.

2. Be the customer and answer this question as you write: “Why should I buy from you?” According to Corbett Barr of Sparkline fame, if you can’t answer this question quickly, your potential customers will move on. It’s not a good thing.

You haven’t even launched your product or service and you are losing already. So put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Be the distasteful critique. Be the killer editor. Be the discerning customer.

3. Let your personality shine in whatever product or service you have. Look at Gary Vaynerchuck as an example. He took his family’s wine business from a million dollar company to a multi-million dollar company because of his social media savvy and standout personality. His personality reflects in his books and in his businesses. People recognise his signature personality.

Your personality is your signature.

4. Look at patterns and learn from them. You can look at the top 10 pre-made USP’s on the Internet and you will see how focused and narrow their copies are.

It is Easier to Understand When You Know

Once you know your USP you will have a better grasp of your product or service. Knowing your product or service will help you understand it better. The better you understand your offer the better you can explain what it is to other people.

Communicating your offer to potential customers is essential if you want to skyrocket sales. When you have a good grasp of your product or service it is very easy to be enthusiastic about it.

How many salespersons do you know that make a sale by being excited about what they are selling? On the other hand, how many half-hearted sales pitches have you read or heard that really moved you to buy?

Enthusiasm and knowledge will boost your potential customers’ confidence in your product or service.

Faith is very powerful. It is especially powerful when it comes to sales.

You may have heard about the placebo effect in medicine and healing. The conceit of the placebo effect is to have patients take inert forms of medication that they were made to believe would relieve symptoms of any specific disease or pains.

Not surprisingly, placebos tend to work on 30% of patients.

Why? Because of the power of suggestion. The mind believes that taking a certain medicine will heal. That faith alone is powerful enough to activate any form of healing factor in a body.

When selling products and services, we are not selling placebos.

However, if we are confident that our service can help other people and relieve whatever pain points we can address, then that confidence will reflect in our copy, our speech, and whatever external manifestations we share and communicate to our potential customers.

Knowing our own product or service and whatever pain points we can relieve will help us sell them by orders of magnitude better than any half-hearted attempts at marketing and promotion.

In summary, you can get more sales when:

1. You know your product.

2. Knowing your product is as simple as writing your USP.

3. It is not really simple to write your USP but it is worth it.

4. When you know your USP you can communicate your product or service better.

5. Better communication can help you or your sales team boost enthusiasm about your product or service.

6. Enthusiasm in your product or service instills buyer confidence.

When you create a product or service that can actually address pain points of your customers, then all you really need to do is differentiate yourself from the competition and reap the rewards.

Want to unlock your customers’ minds so you can really accelerate your USP? You need to read this.

Being a business owner, you may have a b2b marketing team or a b2b marketing professional responsible for handling all marketing tasks in your business. You allocate a certain proportion of your company-wide budget for marketing, review a new digital marketing campaign proposed by the team and give them the go ahead. Soon they ask you for more funding to develop a different campaign, to support the existing campaign or for a different product / service altogether.

Essentially you and your marketing team spend a considerable amount of time and money to ensure marketing happens. Through it all, do you or your marketer(s) stop to think if marketing is delivering results, contributing to revenue and helping you grow?

Not really, because there is no time to do so. As we get too busy doing things, we forget the most important thing, which is to make sure we’re getting results from our efforts.

So, I’d like you to take a moment and ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Is marketing generating sufficient qualified leads?
2. Are marketing generated leads converting into customers?
3. Is marketing bringing in revenue to the business?

If you can’t answer these questions with a confident “yes”, marketing isn’t helping your growth; so you should ask yourself: is marketing preventing your growth?

In this blog, we discuss the three key reasons why your marketing could be hindering your growth:

1. No clear marketing plan

One of the main causes of marketing failure in an organisation is the lack of a clear plan. All too often, marketing is deemed to be an easy feat that organisations dive into without the right support. For marketing to generate any positive effect, organisations must start at the beginning: a marketing plan which has goals to be achieved by the marketing department, both in terms of number of sales and revenue.

This plan must be centered around your buyers, not your company or your product / service. It is critical that you first define your buyer persona, and then work out the key problems they face in relation to the product / service you offer, their needs and their buying preferences at each stage of their buying journey. This information will help you build out your content plan, as well as the tactics you can use to engage them. With this in hand, you have the ability to develop a fully fledged lead generation map that integrates the different tactics, making sure one flows to the next seamlessly.

2. Outdated techniques

It’s easy for businesses to get stuck on the idea of promotion through advertising and print brochures, because that’s what’s been used in the past. But consider the changes in the buying process. In this day and age, buyers are smarter, faster and empowered through technology and the Internet. Research has found that B2B buyers complete 60% of their buying process before engaging a salesperson. So to survive in the market, businesses must let go of promotional style marketing and embrace digital marketing to stay up to date.

But simply using digital channels isn’t going to cut it. Gone are the days when marketing materials only consist of information about your company or product / service. To engage buyers, the content you put forward through these channels must address the problem they are facing and their needs at the different stages of their buying journey. This means that when you target new buyers, you must share with them insights and tips on how to cope with the problem they have, before you bombard them with sales-y material about your product / service. After all, you wouldn’t buy a new computer for your office unless you had a problem that required a new computer, whether it be a new staff member or that your existing computer broke down.

3. Ad-hoc efforts

If there’s one thing that indicates the failure of marketing to deliver results, it’s ad-hoc marketing. You must understand that your business isn’t the only one vying for your target audience’s attention. You are fighting a myriad of content to be seen. One-off digital campaigns, irregular blog posting, and random social media posts will not bring you any leads. If your marketing is only done when you have the time for it, it’s as good as doing nothing at all. For marketing to generate results, you must put in a real effort by prioritising marketing activities.

Consistency is key. Develop a schedule for your digital marketing efforts to ensure you are maximising the reach of your content. If you lack the resources to achieve this consistency, invest in an automation tool. One automation tool allows you to create emails, blogs and social media posts in advance and then schedule them for publishing at the frequency that suits your buyer persona.

To ensure marketing is helping you grow, you and your organisation must be focused on it. Start with a clear plan, and when executing, be current, relevant and consistent. But this is not all, you must have the right foundations for successful marketing: the tools and the skills.

To better understand the status of your marketing, take our free marketing health check by clicking on the link below.

The real question we’re getting down to is…
If I spend time and money on creating a blog and driving traffic to it… how do I see a positive ROI?

Well let’s go over the four primary reasons it can work for your business.
(And the changes you need to make on your current site.)

You’re adding value

A lot of business websites are just promotional. Simply telling visitors about the company. With very little educational or customer focused content.

If you write blog posts to answer your customers most common questions and objections you’re actually meeting customers where they are at. Answers to questions they already have. So if your customer goes to 3-4 sites including yours – You’re automatically standing out as your actually helping instead of just promoting.

No matter what you’re doing you have to think like the customer not your company. Customers don’t care about your company. They care about what you can do for them.

= Standing out from your competitors

Becoming a trusted advisor

The goal is to write articles and create content around your industry to demonstrate that you understand the customer and can help them meet their needs. It’s as simple as that.

People will become familiar with your company and trust them when it’s time to purchase.

You’ll find that your sales cycle becomes shorter because customers get to know you and already answered many of the questions they’ll have for you.

= Shorter sales cycle

Improving your SEO (more people will find your site)

SEO of the past is gone. No longer does hiring a company to provide a bunch of spammy backlinks to your site, work.
It’s all about creating great content consistently. The more articles you have on your site, the greater likelihood you’ll show up in Google searches.

= More traffic, more leads

Follow up and better retention

When you have a blog you’re going to want to have a way to collect email addresses (lead magnet) [link]. Whether this is through a simple updates request, white paper, or email course you have to implement something.

You’ll convert at least 2% of all your traffic to give you their email address.

From there you can follow up with those people as much as you would like.

= Repeat customers

The only major personality trait that consistently leads to success is conscientiousness. 

"It's emerging as one of the primary dimensions of successful functioning across the lifespan," Paul Tough writes in "How Children Succeed." "It really goes cradle to grave in terms of how people do." 

Tough says that people who test high in conscientiousness get better grades in school and college, commit fewer crimes, and stay married longer.

They live longer, too, he says. And not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

There's a staggering amount of research linking conscientiousness with success. A National Institute of Mental Health study found that conscientious men earn higher salaries. The National Institute on Aging also found that conscientiousness is linked to income and job satisfaction. Other studies show that conscientiousness is the most important factor for finding and retaining employment. 

How do you know if you're conscientious? Conscientious people tend to be super organized, responsible, and plan ahead. They work hard in the face of challenges and can control their impulses. 

Psychologists classify conscientiousness is one of the "Big 5" personality traits, with the others being agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The other traits can predict certain workplace outcomes — extroversion is a great fit for highly social gigs like sales and openness to experience often leads to creativity — but conscientiousness is remarkable for the way it cuts across roles.

Research shows that arriving on time, doing thorough work, and being thoughtful toward your colleagues helps people regardless of their job function or workplace situation. "Being on top of deadlines is almost universally a good thing," one industrial psychologist told us.

Moreover, within conscientiousness are the narrower traits of self control and "grit," which University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth has found to be more integral to children's scholarly success than IQ. 

Why conscientiousness people are so successful

"Highly conscientious employees do a series of things better than the rest of us," says University of Illinois psychologist Brent Roberts, who studies conscientiousness.

To start, they're better at goals: setting them, working toward them, and persisting amid setbacks. If a super ambitious goal can't be realized, they'll switch to a more attainable one rather than getting discouraged and giving up. As a result, they tend to achieve goals that are consistent with what employers want. 

Roberts also owes their success to "hygiene" factors. Conscientious people have a tendency to organize their lives well. A disorganized, un-conscientious person might lose 20 or 30 minutes rooting through their files to find the right document, an inefficient experience conscientious folks tend to avoid. Basically, by being conscientious, people sidestep stress they'd otherwise create for themselves. 

Being conscientious "is like brushing your teeth," Roberts says. "It prevents problems from arising." 

Conscientious people also like to follow rules and norms. You can spot the conscientious kids in the classroom. They sit in their chairs, don't complain, and don't act out — which also, of course, contributes to earning good grades from teachers. While conscientiousness doesn't correlate with high SAT scores, it does predict high GPAs. 

To spot conscientious people at work, Roberts says to look for punctuality. If someone shows up on time, that's a great clue toward conscientiousness, since a punctual person has to be organized enough — and care enough — to arrive on time. 

The bigger, and less visible, indicator is how people deal with setbacks. Do they give up or redouble their efforts? 

"The conscientious person is going to have a plan," Roberts says. "Even if there is a failure, they're going to have a plan to deal with that failure."

SEE ALSO: 14 Surprising Things That Affect Your Willpower And Decision Making

Join the conversation about this story »

Blogs have been around for nearly twenty years by now. Starting from the first blog ever to hit the web – Links.net (it’s been around since 1994), to the roll out of Blogger five years later, to the first ever ads on blogs in 2003 with the entry of AdSense, blogs have had a colorful and often controversial history.

Check out this cool visual timeline showing the main milestones in blogging. It’s a slightly old resource, but it’s fascinating to see how many of its predictions are now absolutely true!

So moving from a humble ‘Dear Diary’ beginnings, in twenty years blogs have been transformed into an essential part of the online marketer’s tool kit. Come to think of it, in 2014, no self-respecting brand would be caught dead without a blog!

Does that mean that you have to somehow manufacture a blog and spew it out on the rest of the world? Absolutely not. The large majority of blogs on the world wide net could be called casual or hobbyist blogs, with just 14% of bloggers actually earning a salary via blogging. However, if your blog is meant to market your brand, make sure you don’t fall into this “casual blogging” trap.

Writing about your last visit to the zoo with your 3 year old simply is not going to sell your printer-copier-fax machines. Not classy blogging. Not happening.

Image Source: NRK P3 on Flickr

Your job as a marketer is to ensure that your blog is not just another hot mess of every random musing under the sun. Let your blog be a curated version of your best side than a haphazard tally of your every itch and scratch.

Here are five time-tested rules to create a classy blog that works hard for your brand, without spending a fortune in the process.

Blog = Step 1 of Content Marketing

According to the marketing mavens at HubSpot, by the end of 2013, at least 60% of all marketers had adopted Content Marketing as an integral part of their marketing strategies.

It’s all about creating valuable content that will attract potential customers to your website, gain their trust as an authority in your field, build a relationship with them over time, and eventually convert them into paying, loyal customers.

Being one of the most easily accessible and executable tools of content marketing, blogs are often considered the first step to an effective content strategy. Take a look at this simple infographic by HubSpot to get an idea of where blogging sits on the Content Marketing process flow.

Image Source: State of Inbound Marketing 2013, Hubspot

A blog has many things going for it that makes it a content marketing favorite, including:

• No restrictions on blog topics – you can blog about anything under the sun
• No length restrictions, unlike Twitter
• No entry barriers – anyone can read a blog, most blogs don’t require a visitor to sign in to proceed further
• No technical expertise required unlike traditional SEO or PPC marketing

Success is Spelt C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-T

If you’ve heard this once, you’ve heard this a million times – BLOG REGULARLY!

And for very good reason too. As per this nugget from CodeCondo:

“Blogs that post daily get 5 times more traffic and 4 times more leads than sites that post weekly or less.”

The logic behind this is pretty simple:

• More blog posts = more indexed pages on your site
• More indexed pages = more interesting your site becomes to search engine spiders
• More interest from search engine spiders = higher rank on search results pages
• Higher rank on search result pages = more traffic, more leads

Blogging might be mostly fun, sometimes easy and creatively satisfying every time, but unless your blog attracts enough daily traffic, it’s simply not doing its basic job.

Keep it Interesting and Relevant

Be honest, how many brand stories do you bother to share every day? Compare that to the unending flow of blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, and Tumblr feeds we are subjected to every minute of the day. The one giant reason that overshadows all others when it comes to sharing content online is that sharable content is interesting content.

Now, what is interesting to you may be a dead bore to your neighbor. The easiest way to maintain the ‘interesting-ness’ of your posts, would be to first create a clear demographic and behavioral profile of your ideal customer. Use this customer profile to then create content that your customers would enjoy.

Interesting content would ideally be:

• Contextually relevant to your audience profile
• Informative and educational
• Out-of-the-box
• Funny or outrageous
• Entertaining or gossip worthy

The gigantic social media win that Samsung scored with this year’s Oscar selfie by Ellen DeGeneres is an example of great contextual placement of a brand in a highly anticipated event and executed by an extremely popular celebrity who roped in more celebrities that made the gossip worthiness of the selfie to skyrocket off the charts.

Want to be the source of the next big viral wave in your industry? Check out this interesting article by Shopify about creating controversial blog posts to pique your readers’ interest.

Outsource if Necessary

As mentioned in the beginning of this post, your blog needs to be a reflection of your brand and all that it stands for; a personal ramble in the woods will not sell a tech product any more than a swimsuit will help you fly.

Image Source: Social 4 Retail

It’s simple. Quality content attracts quality readers. You may feel that you are in the business of running your business and posting blogs that conform to a laundry list of must-haves is beyond your capacity. That’s perfectly fine. As long as you recognize the importance of having a blog that promotes your business, you can always have someone else do it for you. It could be an employee, a team of freelancers, or even a content marketing agency that also handles other aspects of your content strategy. You can use an inexpensive web-based project collaboration tool such as WorkZone or Asana to manage the whole process.

Don’t Scrimp on Security

According to a statement by WordPress last year, 170,000 WordPress sites were hacked into. The intentions of the hackers may or may not be malicious, but a breach opened up by even an ‘ethical’ hacker can expose your content and your personal information to misuse by the not-so-scrupulous variety of hackers and online miscreants.

With the recent Heartbleed hack on major sites around the world, ensuring that your online footprint stays secure has gained prime importance. Here’s some ways in which you can ensure that your blog is not adversely affected by hacker attacks:

• Choose your blogging platform wisely. There are a ton of free and paid blogging platforms out there like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, etc. each with their own pros and cons. Do your research and understand which one is the best fit for your business.
• Choose a strong password, change it often. Even passwords that are random combinations of alphabets, numbers and special characters may fail in the face of systematic brute attacks by hackers.
• Be careful before installing third party apps or templates. These are often created by hackers to force pop-ups, log behavioral data, and other malicious purposes. Go through app reviews or even the code in the apps before you install anything on your blog.
• Delete or rename the default ‘Admin’ account. This prevents a hacker from locking you out of your own blog by changing the credentials.
• Keep your blog version updated to the latest one available. Don’t display the version of your blog template on your site.
• Backup your blog. That’s the only way to ensure that all your hard work does not go down the drain in a matter of minutes. If your hosting service does not allow you to do that (which is rare), make sure you have a backup of your content on your desktop.

A good blog will get you eyeballs from people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. It has the power to set you up as a thought leader in your line of work. It even has the ability to endear you, over time, to your regular readers. The one thing you blog will not do is make people buy your product the minute they land on your blog. Remember, your blog is your brand guy and not your sales guy. Expecting your blog to just sell, sell, sell is like expecting your perfume to ape an Axe commercial. Sadly, real life does not work like that!

In a recent companywide meeting at Ve Interactive US HQ, we discussed Steve Job’s secrets to great presentations.  At the top of the list was: “Answer the one question that matters most, and that is, ‘Why should I care?’”  As sales and marketing professionals, this should always be our number one concern.  It doesn’t matter if we work in B2B sales and marketing or provide sales and marketing for B2C clients.  Why should our prospects/leads/customers care about what we do? And why should they continue to care? And the biggest question, what value do we provide?  As Albert Einstein said, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” Therefore, value should be at the core of all our sales and marketing efforts.

Overlap #1: Finding the Right Leads

Qualifying leads in B2B sales is hard.  After grinding out the research, sending endless emails, and facing repeated rejection, we just have to do it all over again.  Getting leads to not only answer your emails, phone calls, and tweets, but also be willing to give a few minutes of their time for an appointment can sometimes seem daunting and unrealistic.  Teleprospecting and inbound marketing companies like AG Salesworks can help bring your qualifying lead percentage way up by using not only the best technologies but also the best techniques to target specified leads in their time of need.  For e-commerce companies that are selling to consumers, their issue is attracting and converting visitors.  With the same principle in mind, they must target visitors when they need your product or service.  Amazon and Google are paving the way for delivering the right information for each customer’s search.  Amazon is even bringing you what you want before you know you want it.  Yes, the future is here.

What can B2C learn from B2B techniques?

• The right technology can help.  Acquiring new business isn’t just about how great your products are, but about using the best technology to ensure visibility and attract the precise target market.

What can B2B learn from B2C techniques?

• Make your products accessible and easily consumable.  The same buyers who buy that expensive pair of shoes are usually the same decision makers at B2B companies.  Lose the complication and make the buying process simple.

Overlap #2: Sending the Right Message at the Right Time

Sending the right message at the right time can make all the difference for your company.  This means providing value at the time of need.  In B2B Sales and Marketing, communicating the correct message can get you the appointment, can move free trials into conversions, and can turn current customers into repeat customers. For B2Cs, this can mean sending retargeting ads based on searches, sending re-marketing emails offering promotions and personalizations, and providing real-time artificial intelligence chat boxes to provide promotions and additional questions to help the site visitor click: “Buy Now.”

What can B2C learn from B2B techniques?

• Use your e-commerce site as a personalized salesperson.  B2B companies have active sales researching the best target markets, making calls, and guiding leads through the sales funnel.  Even without a personalized sales person, make your e-commerce site seem like a personalized sales representative for every visitor.  Make the experience customized and personal.

What can B2B learn from B2C techniques?

• Be generous with your content.  67% percent of your buyer’s journey is done digitally. Like B2C websites, make sure your site shows all of your product offering in a clear and concise way, so when your lead does want a “demo” they are educated exactly how you intended.

Overlap #3: Creating the Conversion

And now for the moment of truth…  In the world of B2B, the conversion means signing on the dotted line.  Your lead has been changed in the CRM and will be on-boarded with your product.  They will be assigned an account manager who will guide them through your product offerings, or any other ways that your product works. For B2C, the conversion means your visitor just booked their anticipated trip on your airline, bought a coveted pair of shoes, completed a loan form from your financial institution, or donated to your alumni fund or favorite charity.  The world of e-commerce is big and no sector is without opportunity.

What can B2C learn from B2B techniques?

• Continue to make your customers feel valuable, even if they don’t get account managers to stay with them after they have bought products.  Make them feel like they have a contact point to assist them if they ever are in need.  Using product assist feeds can help continue to make their experience feel customized and personal even after purchase.

What can B2B learn from B2C techniques?

• Make the conversion process simple (or as simple as possible).  Buying from an e-commerce site is usually simpler than buying products and creating implementations for B2B companies.  Streamlining the purchase funnel to make it less complicated can help push legal or any other holdups in the chain.

We really aren’t that different at the end of the day.  Similar techniques are applicable for B2Bs and B2C and B2B2Cs. Choosing the best technology, communicating effectively, and simplifying the buying process will always be part of a successful business plan.

Today is stressful -- it's the end of the month. Maybe you had a fabulous month where traffic and leads flowed in without you lifting a finger. Maybe you worked your tail off to hit your goal and you just made it. Or maybe, despite your hard work, you came in under the waterfall line. 

Regardless of how this month went, today is stressful. Tomorrow, your score gets set back to zero -- but first, you've got to figure out what your leads goal is actually going to be. 

You shouldn't just pick a number out of thin air, or even assume that you should be increasing your previous month by X%. There's a much better way to figure it out that's rooted in your company's larger goals. Keep on reading to figure how to simply and scientifically calculate next month's lead goal. 

(If you want an easy-to-use template to calculate these numbers for you, download one here.) 

Find Your Leads Goal by Working Backwards

The key to figuring out your lead goal is all about working backwards. Figure out how much revenue your team needs to contribute to the company's bottom line, and then use some simple math to work your way back up the funnel. Here's how you can calculate it.

Step 1: Figure out how much revenue your team needs to contribute. 

Ask your sales leadership how much revenue Sales needs to book this month and how much of that needs to come from inbound marketing. For this example, let's say your sales team needs to generate $100,000 in revenue with 80% of it coming from inbound.

$100,000 in revenue * .8 = $80,000 inbound revenue. 

Step 2: Figure out how many customers you need to close to satisfy that revenue. 

Next, you need to figure out roughly how many customers you need to close to generate that revenue. To do that, you'll divide the number from the previous step by the average revenue generated per customer. 

Here's what that looks like in the example we're using:

$80,000 inbound revenue / $16,000 revenue per customer = 5 customers

This means that you need to close five customers to create that much inbound revenue. 

Step 3: Figure out how many leads you need in order to close that many customers. 

Then, you need to work your way up one step in the marketing funnel to figure out how many leads you need to get to generate that many customers. To do this, you'll need your average lead-to-customer conversion rate -- aka the percentage of leads that become customers. 

For example's sake, let's say your lead-to-customer-conversion rate is 2%. Then, you'd figure out how many leads you need by completing this equation:

5 customers / .02 lead-to-customer conversion rate = 250 leads

Ta-da! You have your lead goal for the month, unless you choose to complete the next step. Otherwise, skip to Step 5.  

Step 4 (Optional): Adjust the goal to reflect the previous month's progress.

Some people prefer to adjust this number based on whether they hit the goal the previous month to help increase employee morale -- if your team isn't hitting your goals one month, it can be demotivating to see the waterfall line climb even higher the next month. That being said, adjusting it each month could give your team a false sense of security if they're trending each month, as it may make you still miss your long-term lead goals. It's all personal preference on what you decide to do, but keep these considerations in mind while you're setting these goals. 

Step 5: Add your leads goal to a waterfall graph. 

Last, but certainly not least, you should add your final lead total to a waterfall graph that gets distributed to your team. This way, everyone can see how you're trending toward your end of month goal throughout the month and react accordingly. If you have HubSpot, setting up a waterfall graph is easy to do in the Reports tool, and you can automatically send out daily waterfall updates to teammates. Otherwise, you can use this Excel template and manually update your team on their progress. 

And that's it, folks! You don't have to guesstimate your goals anymore. You can use this simple, scientific calculation every month to give accurate projections to your sales team and encourage your team to drive significant, measurable results. 

Good luck next month!

 

Are you using landing pages to generate leads for your B2B service or tool?

An optimized lead gen page can make the cost of a lead drop like a stone, if you know what you’re doing.

This article will dig deep into three landing pages from some of the biggest B2B companies in the world and uncover how they’re generating leads and how their pages are optimized (or not!)

Let’s get rolling!

Here are 3 examples of B2B landing pages that exist for the purpose of generating leads.

#1: Salesforce’s lead generating landing page offers free demos

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Salesforce (the world’s leading CRM service) is looking to generate leads with an ebook. Here’s what their B2B lead-generating landing page looks like:

 

 

What I like:

The USP - It’s clear and to the point. This selling proposition tells you exactly what you’re going to get. I also like the nuance of peer pressure with “#1 sales app”, which basically says “if everybody else likes us, you will too!”

The simplicity - There are no distractions here, such as a navigation bar or multiple different call-to-actions (CTAs). The B2B landing page is all above the fold, which is appropriate for their focus.

The benefit list - It’s succinct and tells you the specific percent increase in revenue, productivity, etc. Numbers in general are eye-catching, and specific numbers help assure legitimacy when it comes to

The entry form - This entry form is a great balance of generating the information they need to maximize their sales funnel’s effectiveness, but not asking too much that engagement isn’t worth it to their possible lead.

The trust symbols - The TRUSTe and Norton Secured logos (right beneath the entry form) are seriously effective for leads who are giving their private information. Along with the “Salesforce does not share, sell, or rent… identifiable information” they create an essential trust between company and lead.

The CTA copy - Any CTA that steers clear of the standard “submit here” or “buy now” deserves a gold star in my book. I like that Salesforce uses unique CTA copy that excites people.

What I’d change or test:

Contrast the color scheme more – especially when it comes to the entry forms CTA. Use an orange or yellow to make the CTA stand out against the blue entry form.

The entry form – I mentioned above that I like the balance Salesforce has found, but it’s always worth testing your entry form fields. Is getting more demographic and lead information worth the increased bounce rates? Test this for yourself!

A visually-appealing or eye-catching image – Best practice is of a person smiling. Perhaps one of their sales associates on the phone?

Making the benefit list more visible – I’d recommend testing bullet-points of a contrasting color or larger font.

Social share buttons – Social share icons would increase the spread of Salesforce’s free demo option. They require literally no maintenance once they’re set up, and even if they drive only a couple dozen visitors a year, they don’t hurt at all.

#2: Salesboard requires no commitment with their free trial

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Salesboard, another CRM service, is generating leads with a free trial. Let’s take a look at their B2B lead-generating landing page:

 

 

What I like:

Well-organized landing page – It’s simple and straightforward with easy to read, encapsulated buttons, CTAs and information.

The USP – The USP itself is pretty average. What I like about it is that they’ve incorporated the idea with their B2B landing page design and formatting by creating a landing page that is both visually appealing and simple itself.

The videos – Videos are incredibly effective at communicating a brand story, how your service or product works, as well as making your business more personal.

What I’d change or test:

The CTAs – I’m actually a bit confused by this page. At the top we have “sign up free”, which is a great value proposition CTA. However, at the bottom we have not only a monthly rate, but our CTA has lost the word “free,” which is unfortunate because “free” is a tried and true practice when it comes to value propositions.

Customer testimonial or trust symbol – Your landing page visitors need to know you’re for real. I’d definitely recommend testing a more solid trust factor, such as a trust symbol or customer testimonial equipped with an image of the client. Trust symbols on landing pages have been known to increase conversions by 42%.

Focus on the benefits of their service as opposed to the features – This really helps visitors understand the value that your service gives them. This will prompt your visitors to become leads. For more on using benefits vs features, check out Wishpond’s article “Landing Pages, How to Sell without Selling”

#3: Marin Software generates leads by offering insight to clients

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Marin Software, an online advertising tool, uses one of their valuable whitepapers to get lead information from visitors. Here’s their B2B lead-generating landing page:

 

 

What I like:

The benefit list – Listing the benefits rather than the features of the ebook makes potential leads realize what it can offer them.

The contrast of the CTA – The orange CTA button color is extremely effective at attracting the eye. Your CTA should be one of the things the eye of your visitor lands on (after the USP and, arguably, the image).

The formatting – The short paragraphs, subheader, bullet points and different sized fonts communicate the white paper’s value in an easy-to-read and see format.

What I’d change or test:

Get rid of the navigation bar – This distracts from the purpose of the landing page, as it is a step in the sales funnel and not a home page. The purpose of this page is to generate leads and the navigation bar is only losing them.

Try less form fields – There are a lot of form fields for their visitors to fill out in order to download this white paper. Taking out a field or two might help increase click-throughs.

A more obvious trust factor – It’s mentioned that Marin Software is Google’s largest search advertising API partner in the first paragraph, but they should separate it from the white paper info and encapsulate it.

Test the use of an image – Images go a long way in grabbing the attention of your landing page visitors – just make sure the image has a purpose on your landing page.

Test the CTA copy – “Continue” doesn’t encourage action as much as something like, “get your free ebook” would. Don’t tell your potential leads what to do, but tell them what they’ll get by clicking through. Changing your CTA text could increase your CTR by 161%.

Include social share buttons -Give landing page visitors an easy way to share your free white paper.

Conclusion

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Hopefully that gives you a better idea of the do’s and dont’s of your B2B landing pages.

Remember that testing is key when optimizing your page, and what works for your competitors will not necessarily work for you. Stick to the best practices I’ve given above, and test the rest.

Recently, I wrote about the rise of video marketing and the perceived threat of video taking over nearly every other form of media. As the top two contenders in this fight, YouTube and Vimeo have been vying for the world’s top video platform for nearly a decade. With marketers everywhere focused on producing quality video content, the choice between Vimeo and YouTube has been a difficult one. But, when it comes down to it, which option wins? Coming to an informed decision involves a comparison between nine factors. Courtesy of Wpromote, a related infographic accurately illustrates the details of the two top contenders. Let’s check it out!

Age

Some say age is just a number while others believe real age is determined by experience. Trailing a year behind Vimeo in age, YouTube was founded in 2005. Since that time, YouTube grew by leaps and bounds, quickly surpassing Vimeo’s modest user base. Currently, Vimeo’s decade-long history has earned it a user base of 100 million, a mere 10% of YouTube’s total user population. Though a year older than YouTube, Vimeo earns more than 90% less revenue annually.

Popularity

YouTube, the undeniable winner of the video popularity contest, soars past Vimeo in total hours of video content hosted and average monthly visitors. Largely due to having an audience 10 times larger than Vimeo’s, YouTube earns more than a billion monthly visits. From the business side of the equation, YouTube’s popularity may be due in part to its high accessibility, as it is available in over 60 countries. Unlike Vimeo’s free plan, YouTube videos can be used to distribute and promote business content.

Global Reach

When it comes to global brands, YouTube remains the leader in total reach. Unfortunately, Vimeo is banned in India and its overall presence in countries outside of the US is minimal. Comparatively, YouTube is most popular in the United States, but also has a significant fan base in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain and the UK. Thus far, a major factor in YouTube’s widespread global reach is its availability in 61 languages. If Vimeo plans to seriously go toe-to-toe with YouTube, making the platform available in multiple languages is a priority.

Social Signals

With the ability to share content faster than ever before, social media has become the highway on which shareable information travels. One of the best platforms for real-time engagement, Twitter leads the viral video revolution and is a significant contributor to the popularity of online video. Though Twitter does not disclose its total number of users, nearly 325 million tweets referenced YouTube since 2006 compared to Vimeo’s 7.5 million.

User Experience

The unexpected winner in this category, Vimeo’s user experience has a competitive edge against YouTube’s. Featuring a large video player, simple navigation and minimal ads, Vimeo content accentuates the creativity behind video production by concentrating the viewer’s attention on content. For many marketers, user experience is at the top of the priority list. Providing visitors with an uncluttered interface, Vimeo rises above YouTube in quality of user experience.

Video Quality

YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world, definitely reigns in the quantity department. However, Vimeo’s platform is best known for its quality. Featuring built-in video editing tools, Vimeo’s video quality is believed to be superior to YouTube. With definite benefits over other video-heavy platforms, like Flickr and Instagram, Vimeo has earned a loyal community of customers.

Content

When it comes to content, Vimeo and YouTube are tied. Both feature a wide variety of video content, from funny and adventurous to artistic and compelling. On the viral video front, YouTube has a decided edge on Vimeo, as the majority of viral videos make their way to the Google-owned video superpower. A priority resource for those seeking the latest trending video, YouTube is the preferred platform for the latest content.

SEO and Advertising

In what seems like an unfair advantage, YouTube emerges as the best option for advertising and SEO. Though smart SEOs can go far with Vimeo, YouTube’s videos earn more shares, views and internet-wide attention than their Vimeo-hosted counterparts. In terms of video advertising and position in SERPs, YouTube remains victorious. Thanks to being owned by the largest search engine in the world, YouTube receives preferential treatment when it comes to online visibility.

Monetization

As one of the most striking differences between the two platforms, the ability to monetize videos is approached traditionally by YouTube, while Vimeo remains focused on quality with its Tip Jar function. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo makes it possible to “tip” video content creators in appreciation for remarkable work. Filmmakers who choose Vimeo also benefit from Video On Demand, an aspect of Vimeo that allows the sale of video content. In partnership with Getty Images, Vimeo simplifies the process of licensing video content as stock footage.

And the Winner Is…

Clearly, YouTube knocks online video out of the park in many categories including popularity, accessibility and social signals. With approximately 99% of total voice in the video platform industry, YouTube is the definite overall winner. Between reach, social signals and unrivaled SEO benefits, YouTube offers irresistible benefits for brands seeking increased exposure, site traffic and conversions.

Will You Follow the Crowd?

Although YouTube is winning the numbers game, your brand doesn’t have to follow suit. Vimeo definitely wins in the quality and user experience departments. YouTube’s elder competitor boasts a highly engaged community interested in quality filmmaking – an ideal choice for businesses in niche markets. When getting to the heart of the matter, the real question is, “Which platform is right for my business’ audience?” After evaluating the differences between Vimeo and YouTube, you be the judge.

If you were betting on a match between Vimeo and YouTube, on which platform would you put money?

It’s easy to think that getting a flood of sales leads is living the dream. It’s also easy to see how that dream turns into a nightmare. Think of a sudden stream of gold pouring all around you but you then realize you might just drown beneath it.

But of course, sales leads are still sales leads. Any amount of them is better than having none that your business finds itself sailing to bankruptcy.

So instead of a stream of gold, now try imagining your sales leads as customers swarming into your store. They all want a piece of your merchandise. They’ve all got money and they just want you to shut up and take it.

Unfortunately, you can only have so much in stock. Pretty soon you’ll have a mob once it runs out. That’s why most retailers don’t just stock up on the inventory when they know a crowd’s waiting right outside. They hire guards, hire more part-timers, and even pass around an extra set of rules so that customers can organize themselves.

So what can your B2B organization do to keep you from drowning in your own sales leads?

• Understand the cause of the flow – The first and immediate step you should take is to see where the surge is coming from. Are you doing something illicit or are you just that good at generating demand? In any case, knowing what you did to get every prospect running to you should mean you already saw the crowd coming.

• Hire more salespeople – It’s either that or you call in all the ones you’ve got but aren’t closing anything at the moment. You know a huge wave of potential customers is heading your way so why not explain the situation to the very people making use of these leads? The more people who can close the deal, the less unsatisfied prospects you’ll have to worry about.

• Guide them to your competitors – Okay, this sounds crazy but is there really anything else you can do when your resources have reached their limit? A competitor providing similar products and services can be your savior when they can take any excess off your hands.

It’s natural for any businesses to want crowds of customers at their door. But in reality, that crowd is like an eating challenge. The food looks yummy at first but those who actually take part know the kind of preparation you need to keep yourself from throwing up after.

By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

One of the opportunities offered by the web 2.0 world, or as many around sales like to call it social selling, is to leverage a number of tools to improve and accelerate the quality of interactions, especially at the early part of the sales cycle. The challenge is how to leverage the various tools, integrate them into your daily sales-flow and work-flow, without adding, or being forced to alter your work-flow in order to get benefit.

In the process of lead-gen, lead gathering, evolving and lead conversion, some sales people and organizations are often faced with a choice, find an all in one tool that has key features and elements offered by other tools and apps built in, in effect a Jack-of-all-trade approach. Alternatively, use the best of breed tools, but be left on your own to integrate them on a work-flow level. Add to this the challenges around functionality, and something that should be fun and productive ends up being work.

One tool I have discovered allows me to keep using my favourite tools and apps, integrate them into a work-flow that matches my approach, and reflects my style of lead-gen and prospecting, is Salesformics. Here a couple of examples that will illustrate what I mean. Twitter is great gleaning and mining all kinds of executable information and insight about prospects, issues, and more. While there are some great tools for slicing and dicing twitter feeds, there is often the issue of shuffling that with other information, and creating action. With Salesformics, I am alerted to specific key words or phrases by potential leads, current prospects or clients. I can then initiate a sales-flow, either constructed or in response to the way things are unfolding.

As someone who delivers events, I am a user of Eventbrite, great tool. Eventbrite helps me grow your network and email lists by promoting my live or web events, and even allows me to do a great initial follow up. Salesformics takes that a step further by integrating with Eventbrite, one can enhance the follow-up, and ensure that I don’t miss a chance to follow up with a contact well after the event.

I also use Constant Contact, and have had to deal with some of the manual realities of using both Eventbrite and Constant Contact, given the overlap. With Salesformics, I can get the best of both, and keep my hair, more importantly, automate, use the work-flow, and gain back my most valuable resources, time, and all while gaining effectiveness as well as efficiencies.

A lot of people struggle with segmenting their social media followers and then adding them to email marketing services like Constant Contact, but Salesformics has a marketing automation platform that allows you to build workflow that bridge across third-party solutions, including the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Buffer, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Dropbox and more.

In the end, we only have two hands and 24 hours with which to win sales, any tool that helps with that is a bonus, a tool that helps me get more out of and across all my tools and apps, like Salesformics, is a triple bonus.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto 

Well, it’s happened again. Your sales team missed its first quarter number.

Round up the usual suspects. Schedule (the inevitable) quarterly tongue lashings. Alert the HR firing squad.

Someone is to blame. Someone must pay.

Wait a minute!

Is the problem the people or the processes? Figure that out first.

Do an audit. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Then, take action.

Replacing processes is a whole lot easier (and cheaper) than replacing people.

An effective sales organization is a well oiled machine. The gears (sales reps) run smoothly because they are lubricated by good processes.

The gears of your sales organization may be just fine. But they may be clogged with sand and grime. Add some oil.

What to Audit in Your Sales Organization

The problem is not that you missed your revenue goal. That is merely a symptom.

Look for the underlying causes. Here are six areas to audit:

1. Opportunities
2. Compensation
3. Sales Roles and Responsibilities
4. Sales information
5. Proposals/Contracts
6. Sales Message

“Opportunity Management”—Who Ya Gonna Call?

Are your reps pursuing the most promising and strategic opportunities or are they chasing the low hanging fruit?

The best opportunities are not necessarily the accounts that generated the most revenue last year. The best opportunities are the deals with both short-term and long-term value.

They are also the companies with the best strategic fit with your offering.

For more on analyzing opportunities, check out my blog post “What Are Your Reps Working on?”

Compensation System–You Get What You Pay for

Does your compensation system reward sales reps for pursuing the most promising opportunities? If they are chasing the easy stuff and ignoring the long-term opportunities, perhaps you are paying them to do just that.

If your compensation plan pays the same commission rate for all types of business, your reps will focus on the quick hits. Consider paying varying commission rates depending on the value of the business.

You could pay a higher commission on the larger opportunities that often take longer to close. And you could pay a lower commission on other business.

Sales Organization Roles & Responsibilities—Who’s Doing What

How much time do your reps spend selling as opposed to generating leads and handling administrative tasks?|

If your reps spend a lot of time on routine customer service and doing low-level prospect research, other, lower paid, staff members may be able to handle these tasks. That will free up your highly compensated sales reps to do real selling.

Take a hard look at what your reps do all day. Then, see how you could shift some of the more mundane responsibilities elsewhere.

Sales Information—What’s Going On

Are you getting the right information from your reps to make accurate sales forecasts? Do your reps keep all their sales information in a centralized system (such as Salesforce.com) or does each rep keep his/her own spreadsheet.

If it’s the latter, you’ve got a problem. In fact, you’ve got a lot of problems.

You can’t get good forecasts. You don’t know what your reps are doing. They are wasting time with a manual system. In fact, you’re all wasting time.

They’re missing opportunities because they are not tracking them properly. If a rep leaves, all her information goes out the door with her.

Shall I keep going…? I don’t need to. I think you get the idea.

Proposals and Contracts—Standard, not Custom

Sales reps can be very creative proposal writers. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Customizing proposals is a waste of time and it puts your company at risk. Reps need standardized proposals with standardized, pricing and terms and conditions.

Of all the six areas mentioned here, creating standardized proposals may be the easiest to execute. Do it ASAP.

The Right Message—You Gotta Believe

Your reps need to deliver the right message to your prospects. But first, the reps must drink the
Kool-Aid. They must believe in the value proposition.

They need to convince themselves before they can convince your prospects. Then, they must deliver the message with conviction and authority.

Make sure they’ve got the message.

Have you been noticing a few unhappy faces in your marketing meetings lately? Some droopy shoulders, bags under the eyes, a few too many yawns? Chances are, your marketing team is pretty stressed out.

Why?

Well, being a marketer ain’t always sunshine and rainbows. With numerous channels to monitor, tons of content to produce, a budget to keep in check, and a handful of lofty goals they’re accountable for, marketers have a lot going on, and that can often lead to some pretty high stress levels.

So how can you help reduce your employees’ stress levels to make them both happier and more productive? Take a look at these reasons they’re getting stressed out, and how you can help them be more effective in each situation.

Marketers are stringing together too many different tools.

It’s hard enough to have to manage so many different marketing channels these days -- social media, blogging, landing pages, SEO, paid search, email -- but imagine using a different tool for each one of these. Not to mention needing an additional two or three separate analytics tools to try to glean some bits of insight into how each of these channels is doing. Having a multitude of different tools makes your marketers’ lives harder, not only because it’s a lot to juggle, but also because having all these separate tools means that they likely don’t work together. It makes it much more difficult to get a unified view of your results and how the channels support each other.

Solution: Help your marketers streamline their efforts and get a clearer, fuller picture of their results by using an all-in-one platform for your marketing. Having all the tools they need in one place will take a lot of the hassle out of your marketers’ day-to-day routines, better organize their efforts, and get insightful analytics to guide their strategy going forward.

Marketers are publishing to social media in real time, all the time.

While it's important to monitor your social media accounts for opportunities to delight a customer, answer a question, or suggest a helpful resource, your social media manager shouldn’t be doing everything in real time. With so many social media networks to manage, it’s extremely stressful to try to keep up with each of them, publishing to each one with the right content and the right positioning at the right frequency.

Solution: Recommend a social media publishing tool that allows your social media manager to plan and schedule posts in advance. That way she can, for example, schedule all her tweets for the week, set the timing for each one, and let it all happen automatically from there. This frees her up to focus on monitoring the channels, newsjacking, and improving your social media strategy, instead of constantly worrying about getting another post together a few minutes before publishing.

Marketers are running out of budget and aren't sure what to do without it.

You’ve likely heard enough requests for more budget from your marketing department that I don’t need to tell you that happens fairly often. And while it's okay for your marketing team to be utilizing some budget, they shouldn’t be relying on more and more of it to do marketing effectively.

Solution: With the rise of digital marketing, budget has become less and less of a factor in being able to do marketing well. Teach your marketing team about the concepts of inbound marketing. They should be making use of organic (ehem, free) marketing channels to get the job done, like SEO, email marketing, website optimization, social media, and blogging. You can also send them some resources on these topics to get them up to speed. And feel free to deny that next budget request for some extra motivation.

Marketers are strapped for ideas and resources to keep creating new content.

Content creation is an essential part of a strong marketing strategy. If your marketers understand that, they’re well aware that they need to be maintaining a good publishing frequency for your blog, and also creating content for the various audiences that you sell to, and the various points of your sales cycle in which they fall. Not to mention the pressure to keep it all fresh and original. This can be a big cause of stress for your blog managers and content marketers.

Solution: First, make sure that your writers are equipped with the content creation tools they need to help them optimize their blog posts for SEO and make publishing easier. Then, have them do an audit of what content they already have, and more importantly, where the gaps are that they need to fill. Once they have a clear picture of the audience segments that they haven’t focused enough on, or they identify a weak collection of blog posts that your sales team can use to help them nurture qualified leads into customers, they’ll have a better idea of where to focus their efforts.

You can also recommend that they set up an editorial calendar to plan their content schedule for the month ahead of time, so they can focus on writing instead of constantly being under stress to think of new content topics to cover.

Marketers are spending too much time formatting emails.

Email marketing is another important piece of the marketing puzzle, and an important one to do really well. Your email marketers are already tasked with using email marketing for lead generation and lead nurturing, finding the right content to send, segmenting your list effectively, implementing email optimization best practices, and measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing. Shouldn’t it at least be easy to format the emails?

Solution: Invest in a good email marketing tool. A lot of the email tools out there claim to make it simpler to craft an email, but actually end up focusing on the wrong features and overcomplicating the matter. Set your email marketers up for success by finding a tool that allows them to craft well-designed emails without needing to know HTML and without the help of a designer, and one that has a focus on features that make your emails more effective, like personalization and smart content, rather than simply offering extraneous tools.

Marketers are still waiting to hear back from the website designer.

Did you hire an external website designer? Or perhaps you have one at your company, but he’s not on the marketing team? Either way, one of the biggest sources of stress for marketers these days is not having control over their websites.

Your website is the front door to your company, one of the most, if not the most important marketing asset you have. So whether it’s overseeing a complete website redesign, or just implementing a few quick changes on one of your landing pages, your marketers shouldn’t have to sit around waiting on someone else to do it for them, crossing their fingers that the designers will get it right this time.

Solution: Your marketers need a content management system that gives them an easy, intuitive editing and design interface, with built-in templates for creating optimized landing pages. Marketers should be able to design a great website without being a designer or knowing how to code. Equip them with the right tools, and save them the hassle of another round of feedback to "please move that button a little to the left."

Marketers don’t know which metrics to report on… or how to report on them.

Whether it stems from having too many different tools that don’t inform each other, not having the right analytics tools, or simply not knowing which metrics matter, it’s easy for marketers to get confused and overwhelmed when it comes to measuring their efforts. And yet, reporting is a crucial part of marketing. It’s what allows you to tie every dollar of revenue back to its original source, to identify which channels are (or are not) generating traffic, leads, and customers, and to learn which channels are growing and which are underperforming.

Solution: First, make sure your marketing team is clear on their top priorities and overarching goals. If they don’t know what it is they’re trying to achieve, good luck getting them to achieve it. Hold monthly or bi-monthly team meetings to discuss which metrics the team should be focusing on that month, and set clear, numerical goals.

Then, once they know what numbers they’re solving for, it’s simply a matter of making sure that they have the best tools to measure their efforts effectively. Look for an analytics tool that integrates data from all of your marketing channels so you can get a holistic view of your overall marketing performance, along with a more granular, detailed view of the performance of each of your channels.

Your marketing team doesn’t need to be so stressed. Just make sure that they have the right resources and the right tools, and you’d be surprised how many more smiling faces you’ll start to see. Not to mention, happy, productive marketers likely means more leads and more revenue. It's good for everyone.

The best time of the day to send emails may be around 2pm, according to data from email marketer Mailchimp. That's the time people are most likely to read and respond.

Read more...

There are lots of posts on the internet detailing free tools for marketers.

In this one, though, I thought I'd throw in some that aren't necessarily for marketers, but which I use regularly.

I've called this post 'tools for beginners' but in reality the tools aren't for beginners, they're for everyone. It's just that if you're a beginner you might not have found your set ways of working yet, and you might want to pick something up before you've ground your way into the groove.

From meme makers to some in-depth analytics, here's what I find useful.

Copywriting, content and search

1. Google Trends Hot Searches

All of Google Trends is useful, of course, but I thought I'd highlight Hot Searches.

You can keep your finger on the pulse and find inspiration for social media engagement, newsjacking blog pieces, etc. One can also access a lovely visualisation of what's hot.

2. Soovle

Whack some keyphrases into Soovle to find other popular keyphrases.

Its ease of use makes Soovle very handy for ideation on the hoof.

3. Google image search filters

Starting out as you mean to go on is important. Make sure you create web pages with the correct mark-up and tagging, as well as using images that are licensed for reuse.

This 'labeled for commercial reuse' Google filter in image search allows you to find images you can use without sweating.

4. Awesome screenshot

Does what it says on the tin. Allows you to edit the shot before you save or copy it.

5. Paint

Awesome screenshot was included as the antidote to Microsoft Paint. But, the print screen button is often your only option if you want to accurately capture a still from a dynamic webpage.

On a PC, I defy you to find a simpler program to paste into, resize in, and then save from as a JPEG, PNG or GIF.

6. Jing

An Apple computer is ideal for screencasting, using QuickTime. But if you can't do that, try Jing. The screencast is uploaded to the Jing servers, but you can link to it and embed it.

7. Piktochart

Piktochart is a very powerful way to create infographics. You can do a lot of it for free. It also helps with posters and more. I did this one in five minutes.

8. An iPhone

I've found that if you're in the business of using apps and mobile media, an iPhone is really the only device you need.

David Moth, our deupty editor, uses an Android but often has to borrow my phone when testing an iOS-only app.

Of course, there are some advantages of an Android. For a while, you needed one to sync with Google Glass, though MyGlass is in the Apple app store, now.

Just something to bear in mind.

    

Social media and relationship building

9. Followerwonk

It does many things. Below you can see followers' activity over the day, so you know when best to tweet.

Followerwonk will also show you how many followers you've gained and lost over a period of time.

One of the most useful features is the bio search, which you can use to find like-minded individuals, particular job titles you'd like to connect with, or people who love your brand so much they mention it in their profiles.

10. Google hangouts

Hangouts are a bit annoying, in that they are limited to nine users if you want to have them privately. But public hangouts are fine for a lot of uses, and you can record straight to a linked YouTube account.

Click through for a tutorial.

11. Meme generator

Memes are very important. And this is the easiest way to make them. Click the meme below (one of mine) to go to my favourite generator.

12. Undo button in Gmail

More of a way to prevent the undoing of relationships, this button is my constant companion. For any newbies afraid of saying the wrong thing, you'll have five seconds to repent and undo.

Click the pic for this hack and more.

13. IFTTT

You can use IFTTT for many things. With social media you can identify churn, autotweet a blogpost and lots more.

The acronym stands for 'if this then that' and the tool allows you to set up rules based actions. If you want an email every time it's raining in your neighbourhood, you can do it.

Reading

14. Econsultancy Beginners’ Guides

These are a handy intro to core subjects and many are free to download. The Econsultancy Buyer's Guides also have a good amount of background reading on the topic in question.

A personal favourite report of mine, if you're skilling up on new trends, is Programmatic Marketing: Beyond RTB.

15. Feedly

Pocket is extremely useful for saving reading for later, but an RSS feed is the best for creating one place to visit when you want to devour everything that's new, in the search for fresh ideas.

Feedly is one of the best, and you can sign in with Twitter. If you do so, it'll automatically suggest reading based on who you follow on Twitter. Very handy.

16. The Daily Pulse

Sign up for Econsultancy's daily skill pill (email) by clicking below.

17. Some smart blogs

There's lots of reading out there, but I thought I'd nod towards Avinash Kaushik, for no-nonsense marketing and analytics best practice, and MIT Tech Review, if you like looking forward to things yet to disrupt the market.

You can add these first to your RSS of choice.

Analysing

18. Google Chrome DevTools

If you want to see what's going on in the site code, just right click and 'inspect element' when using Chrome.

You can then debug JavaScript if you know what you're doing, or you can just use it to check what other sites are up to by clicking the network tab. This will show you what's firing on the page at what time.

19. Open Site Explorer

Amongst other things, you can use this Moz tool to check out backlinks to a webpage. One can use the 'just discovered' tool to look at recent links to your site.

20. MozBar

Another Moz tool, the MozBar plugs into your browser and delivers SEO metrics on site, as well as a search results page overlay.

21. Wordle

A simple tool but I find it very powerful. Copying and pasting all the text from a webpage into Wordle and then creating a word cloud is just one of the potential uses.

I find this gives me a good understanding of the copy and messaging on a particular page. Can be useful for checking your own work, or for the creative process.

Tracking

22. Realtime Google Analytics dashboard

Here's a dashboard showing realtime blog traffic that we use a lot at Econsultancy. Click the screenshot to get the dashboard. There are plenty more dashboards rounded up by Graham Charlton.

23. Search columns in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck

A simple one but if you're not constantly looking at brand mentions on Twitter, not just your at-replies, you'll miss positive and negative sentiment.

24. Google alerts

You need to know if your PR is actually working, right?

Here you can avoid the shame of having to Google your own brand. Nobody wants to feel like Ed Balls.

Recently we posted about a study that showed the power and necessity of follow up in building relationships with buyers who ultimately do business with you. A startling fact, presented over and over in b2b studies shows that most sales reps do not follow up enough – despite the few we know of who seem to overcall – or follow up too many times with unqualified opportunities.

If you know that you have a “more probable” prospective customer – a potential buyer who is in the market niche where your company does its best work, and there are industry peers of your prospect company already working with you – it’s upon you to follow up and make connections in this company. The same is true for companies in your geographic territory who fit one of your buyer profiles. Instead of just marking in your notes that you could not reach anyone, keep reaching out to various buyers or those connected to your buyers and learn more to see if there could be an opportunity.

Thinking about both art and selling in sales, you must be smart in how you strategize reaching your targeted buyer. I know at least one colleague who, in getting no reply time after time, found that her buyer was speaking at a local event. After he finished his talk, she approached him. First she thanked him for a great talk and then she told him she had been unsuccessful in reaching him so she wanted to meet him in person. They set a time to meet and ultimately his company became a client.

Here are three ways to follow up better and gain more opportunities:

Look at Data

If you have been in your sales role for some time, look historically at how long it took from first dial to closed deal with past clients. This will give you a sense of your sales cycle and an idea on when to stop calling on this company. If you don’t have any historical data, start now by clearly noting as much detail in your CRM system as possible so that you can make some decisions based on actual data. Monitor the data moving forward and help

If you have little history or past clients in your role, look to your peers for benchmarks and data. Without that, you need to just call and reach out more than you might think.

Mix it Up

.A good rule of thumb is to contact a targeted decision maker (someone who you know is involved in a decision for your products or services) five times by phone with a varied message. Each message should add some value or insight for your buyer. There are numerous strategies on how to do this – we’ll post some of them shortly. Add in some emails with insight if you have that person’s email address. These tie in with the voice messages you are leaving. If someone contacts me five times by phone and email I know they are working to reach me above and beyond all others. If you get no response, look for the next person in their company who may be on the buying team for your product / service (there are typically 5-8 people involved in complex product purchases). Try them five or six times as well – a mix of voice mail, email, calls, and perhaps a LinkedIn message or mailed message.

Create a Targeted List

I’m most successful when I have a visual list of my targeted prospects – not an entire list of prospects but those ten or twenty companies I have decided I want to work with and where I think I can do great work for. In past sales roles, I always had this list, sometimes called a hit list, other times my “top 10”. Post it, make it visual with their logos, and have it in front of where you normally do your prospecting. Put a time in your calendar EVERY WEEK to contact people in and around your targeted companies and make progress toward meeting with their decision makers. Follow these companies on social platforms and find insight about their industry or job roles to share.

Because we don’t contact prospects enough, these ideas, in addition to others spoken about previously WILL help you close more business.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Lori Richardson is recognized on Forbes as one of the “Top 30 Social Sales Influencers” worldwide. Lori speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside sales teams in mid-sized companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog and the “Sales Ideas In A Minute” newsletter for sales strategies, tactics, and tips. Increase Opportunities. Expand Your Pipeline. Close More Deals.

email lori@scoremoresales.com | View My LinkedIn Profile | twitter |Visit us on google+

The post 3 Ways for Better Follow Up in Sales appeared first on Score More Sales.

Since The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out, I think now is good a time as any to quote: “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

And if your software leads grant great power to your ERP firm, you should know the great responsibility they carry with it.

But since we’re on the topic of superheroes (with Marvel already releasing two films in this month alone), how we take the powers associated with software lead generation and tie them to the responsibility they entrust you as a result.

The Power of Promises

Whether you’re in a B2B industry like EMR software or just another retailer, making promises and guarantees is pretty much in every marketer’s script.

“We promise to reduce your overhead.”

“Our database is guaranteed to be the finest fit for your practice.”

You’ve heard these lines before (too many times even). Yet still, you attract those who are either just desperate or actually carrying the hope you will keep that promise.

This is where the responsibility lies, obviously. Why else do you think these pitches aren’t always landing on open ears? (And even if they were, why do they keep coming out the other?) It’s because not everybody lives up to the promises they make.

Sure, it’s worth celebrating when a prospect comes in highly interested and then your salespeople engage them to make the sale. However, do you want that celebration short-lived if you end up with an unhappy customer in the end?

The Power of Persuasion

Both sales and marketing are fields schooled in the art of persuasion. You identify pain points, understand hesitation, and use your knowledge to formulate the best case for your prospect’s decision.

But even if you did, what happens when regret comes in the picture. What if the problems of the implementation start proving the stronger argument? Your presentations looked better on paper. What if the reality seems to hit harder?

Are you prepared for the many times your new customers will question the things you’ve earlier said? Preparing rebuttals isn’t only the job of telemarketers, appointment setters, or your other software lead generators.

The Power of Pricing

Finally, you have the habit of engaging in price wars. Suppose your innovative genius lies less in software engineering and more on getting the right numbers on your ledger.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Even the most ingenious of today’s technology is still a little ways away from the cost and practicality department. (Case in point: the USS Enterprise.) Sometimes it’s just better to improve on an old tech idea by making it cheaper (and greener if you’re into Captain Planet).

One thing you have to be wary of however is the risk of cutting too many corners. There’s cheap and then there’s too cheap. Good quality tech at an insanely low price is really too good to be true. Nobody buys it as much as they don’t buy easily on flowery promises. In this case, the power of pricing is another one that suffers from excessive, abusive use.

That’s just three marketing superpowers by the way. I got a feeling that there’s more out there but like these three, they carry the responsibility of their consequences. From raised customer expectations to relationship building, your great powers of pitching and selling have their own price of responsibility.

I have a very common request from sales leaders. Recently I was speaking with a client in Beijing. This manager said they really needed our help in the area of time management.

The four key areas most sales professionals have to focus on are:

• Prospecting or Developing Opportunities
• Qualifying
• Presenting
• Negotiating/Handling Objections

Of course, there are plenty of other things we have to do, but I think we can all agree that these four areas cover the basic framework of a sales professional’s day-to-day activities.

However almost 100% of the time, when we begin to investigate where time is being wasted it is around the first two areas above: Prospecting and Qualifying. What we also find virtually 100% of the time, the issue is not a need for a class on time management, but the lack of logical and repeatable processes to be proficient at how they are spending their time.

Four Ways to Win or Lose a Sale

• Win Fast
• Win Slow
• Lose Fast
• Lose Slow

Of those four, only one is truly unacceptable: Losing slow

If I win fast or win slow, either way…I win. Losing fast is even more ideal in terms of time-management because it affords the ability to quickly move on to other opportunities that can be won. It’s the death by a thousand paper cuts that drains the lifeblood of time out of us.

When we dig into most organizations, we find the absence of logical, repeatable processes masking as time management issues. The fact of the matter is the real problem involves a lack of skill or knowledge of those logical and repeatable sales processes. Once the knowledge or skill issue is addressed, the Lose Slow problem is resolved giving the rep back ample time to work on more productive endeavors.

It’s About the Leads, Right?

I’ve worked for many managers who said, “Throw as much against the wall each month and see what sticks” or “double or triple the number of calls you’re making each week if you want to sell more.” It’s like the guys in Glengary Glen Ross telling their boss they need the Glengary leads to be successful. Not true. There is certainly a case to be made for more activity. It’s a critical component of the job. However, if you’re exponentially ramping up your activity but lack proficiency in your activity, the activity itself is wasting time.

The key to sales success is very simple.

Activity x Proficiency = Sales

In order to build a robust database of leads for you or your sales team that you can reach out to at any time, you need to get people to sign up for something on your website -- an ebook, a whitepaper, a webinar, a newsletter, a blog subscription, etc. But there are certain mistakes you might be making that are keeping people from signing up.

Here are the biggest mistakes I've seen people make on their websites that are hindering their lead gen progress:

1) You didn't put your great offer behind a form.

Have you ever poured your heart and soul into creating several ebooks or whitepapers, uploaded them to your website, and linked to all the PDFs from a single "Resources" page?

Don't pretend to look all innocent.

Don't worry -- if this sounds familiar, you're not alone. When many marketers first begin their inbound marketing journeys, they're told to create remarkable content ... but not what to DO with that content. So after you create your fabulous content, the next logical thing to do is to publish this content to your website. 

But once people download and enjoy your content, how will you follow up with them? How will you know how many people downloaded your content? How will you make sure they know what to do next on your site?

You can't do any of those things if you just give your content away willy nilly. If you've been doing inbound marketing for a while and have tons of leads, you can strategically give away form-free content at specific points in the buyer's journey. But in most cases, you should make website visitors fill out a form on a landing page to get your awesome content. That way, you can follow up with them, know how many new leads you've acquired, and will be able to show them the next step to take via a confirmation page.

2) You didn't make your landing pages ... interesting.

You might think the ebook you slaved over for a month is a brilliant masterpiece with secrets that will revolutionize how your prospects think of your industry. And hey, maybe it is. But if your landing page isn't interesting, your website visitors won't care to fill out your form and bask in its brilliance.

The worst landing pages are those with no images, dense paragraphs of text, and long forms. Think of how busy you are day-to-day. Do you have time to read tons of text and carefully weigh the pros and cons of filling out a long form in order to get ... wait, what's the offer again?

You don't have time. Your prospects don't have time.

Make your copy punchy and short. Add an enticing image of your offer. Keep your form as short as possible.

3) It's not obvious what the offer is on your landing page.

There are certain elements of a landing page that should SCREAM what the offer is:

• The headline
• The image of the offer
• The call-to-action text above the form

Go to one of your landing pages in a new tab right now and check out these three elements. If any of them do not indicate what the offer actually is, or if any of these are missing, you have work to do.

4) Your form is too long.

If your form is too long, you'll dissuade people from taking the time to fill it out, even if they genuinely wanted to get whatever you're offering. Time is valuable, and people are inherently lazy when it comes to completing long forms. If you are offering something for people who currently know nothing about your business, perhaps First Name, Last Name, and Email Address are enough.

On the other hand, you might have a good reason to include many form fields. You might get so many leads that you need extra fields to:

• Qualify leads. The answers in each field might help you determine lead quality, and which you should reach out to.
• Assign leads to reps. The organization of your sales team might depend on some of the criteria as determined by answers in your form fields, such as location or company size.

Obviously, this is a good problem to have, but until you do get a high volume of leads, keep your forms short and let lead nurturing email campaigns do the lead qualifying for you.

5) Your form is broken.

Always test your form after you create your landing page. Always. So many times, I've come across landing pages that didn't properly redirect to a confirmation page after clicking "Submit." This also means that my contact information probably didn't make it to their lead database. 

6) You left "submit" as the submit button text.

All text on your landing page is an opportunity to convince your visitors that they should fill out the form and get whatever it is you're offering. Leaving "submit" as the submit button text on your form is a missed opportunity. You should customize this copy based on whatever the offer is.

Here are some examples:

• Download this ebook
• Sign me up for a demo
• Show me this presentation
• Claim your coupon
• Save your seat

Those are all much more enticing calls-to-action than "submit."

7) You forgot to add CTAs to your website.

Your landing page may look fabulous, but it won't matter if your website visitors can't even find it! Here are some places you should include call-to-actions (CTAs) leading to your landing pages:

• Your homepage
• Your blog's sidebar
• The bottom of each blog post (possibly as a slide-in CTA)
• Each of your product/service description pages
• Your about us page
• Your pricing page

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It is easy to have grand ideas about how incredible the customer experience could be.

These ideas can be quickly brought to ground by legacy IT issues that plague so many enterprises.

When Econsultancy released the Integrated Customer Experience report, I took the opportunity to analyse the data further to discover what behaviours had created the greatest benefits to the customer experience.

From this research I identified seven behaviours and attributes that were published as a whitepaper.

Of these habits, the one that has resonated with readers is the need to have a unified technology platform.

The reason for this connection with readers is that for many organisations the customer experience is being held back by legacy IT systems. The complaints I commonly hear centre around integration, data access, adaptability, performance and resource availability.

In some organisations these legacy platforms were implemented 10 to 20 years ago and can only be accessed via a text prompt in a secure bunker.

Another common issue is that these legacy systems sit right at the heart of the organisation where they are responsible for core operational processes. Like a heart transplant, removing these systems requires expertise, expense and comes with a degree of risk.

Let me elaborate with an example based on a real story.

The requirement was relatively simple; when a prospective customer requests a quote and then doesn't accept it, the marketing team want to send an email with a personalised offer to encourage conversion.

Marketing make a strong start by procuring an industry leading Email Service Provider (ESP) capable of sending a personalised, triggered message.

Now all they need to do is feed the ESP with customer and quote data. It's at this that things get complicated.

Regardless of the source, all quotes are generated and stored in the Quote Management System (QMS). QMS was cobbled together by an IT contractor some 10 years ago using several off the shelf industry components.

Documentation is scant and the contractor is no longer on the scene. After all this solution was only meant to be a temporary solution until investment for a new system became available. Unsurprisingly the investment never arrived.

While the QMS holds details of every quote generated by the company, it doesn't hold customer data. That's in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution.

The CRM was built recently using an industry standard platform. As an operational system, data held in the CRM is copied across to data warehouses for reporting and analysis. We'll call this the Marketing Database (MDB).

As you'll have worked out; the ESP is going to require quote information from the QMS and customer data from the MDB. Getting these two sources into the ESP requires the union and analysis of data from both systems. This can't be run during business hours as it may have a negative affect on the QMS.

Diagram showing the data transfer process that takes two days.

The net result is a process that takes two whole days for data to be passed between systems, processed out of hours and then handed to the ESP. Two days is far too long and in many cases customers have already gone on to use a competitor.

Sound familiar? It certainly is for the CMOs and Marketing Directors I speak with. Whether it's retail, financial services, B2B or utilities the problems remain.

Overcoming the legacy system headache

When faced with these issues there is a temptation to accept the problem and carry on. After all customers return to the business despite the lack of a joined up customer experience right?

That's the wrong answer. Let me assume that because you follow and read Econsultancy you know that a multichannel customer experience is critical to business success.

In which case the right answer is to not give in. To find a way to change the status quo and create an incredible, integrated, multichannel customer experience.

From the seven habits research and my anecdotal experience as a consultant I'd recommend three approaches to take.

1. Focus on the multichannel customer journey

Focus on building the idea and concept of the ideal customer experience.

With the customer experience sketched out, begin to share and improve it. Include others in the design process and gain their buy in. Map organisational silos against the journey to understand who does what.

Identify where the customer experiences pain and pleasure in their journey and how the business creates value for the customer. Seek to understand which IT systems are involved in each phase.

Specifically work out when and where customer data is captured and stored.

Whilst this may not address the specific issue of legacy system issues, it will give you a shared vision of where you're trying to get to. Having a simple to understand vision will be vital in the next stage...

2. Break down the marketing vs IT silo

Our analysis of data found that companies that were successfully delivering an integrated customer experience had built multi-disciplinary teams.

Depending on the make up of the company this could include people with backgrounds in IT, marketing, operations or finance.

Despite the importance of these relationships, the marketing vs IT relationship is often under serious strain. Having worked in both camps, I can understand the clash of personality types and working practices that leads to poor collaboration.

The priorities and objectives of each team are often different. IT has to ensure the lights remain on for critical business systems and ensuring a level of operational efficiency. Marketing carries a responsibility for lead generation and top line sales.

I appreciate that many CIOs are realigning their departments with overall business objectives but this may create further blurring of responsibilities. Similarly CMOs are making greater technology investments to reach and connect with customers.

Again this selection of technology by non-technicians can build a level of conflict between the parties.

Whatever the cause of the contention, both parties need to unite around the shared vision of the customer experience. The benefit of this is ability to find solutions to legacy system challenges.

Whether the system needs fully replacing or extending, the case that marketing and IT can make together is so much stronger than a single business case.

3. Find value fast

Swapping out a legacy system is likely to be expensive and difficult. As I stated previously, this type of work is fraught with risk and disruption to the core business. Because of this it's preferable in the first instance to prove that their is value in changing the system.

In the example above a new piece of integration software could have improved processing time. Alternatively some on page Javascript that scrapes form fields and completion status could offer near real time marketing.

It is likely that creating such workarounds will require some trade-off with the original requirements. However having achieved the workaround you can prove that the approach can create value.

Use this evidence to build the case for further investment in replacing or at least improving legacy systems.

Your experience with legacy systems

What's been your experience of integrating legacy systems into the customer experience? I'd love to hear your anecdotes, successes and war stories. Please share in the comments below.