Something I get asked a couple of times a week and usually has a lot of engagement when I share it on social, is the topic of voicemails. There is always a debate if leaving voicemails still makes sense in 2018. The answer, for a number of reasons, is yes.
Why you should leave a voicemail
Look, I get it, no one calls anyone back anymore. Many people don’t even have desk phones at this point, so why should you even bother leaving voicemails? There is one main reason I still leave voicemails and it’s not because I expect a callback. It’s because my e-mail response rates go up when I leave voicemails. Here are some other reasons to consider:
Practice
Voicemail can be a great opportunity to practice your “pitch” or value statements and getting them down to a short, concise message that gets people’s attention. The more you practice the more confident you become in your approach, so when you get someone on the phone and only have a few seconds (less than you even have on a voicemail) you have a chance at getting them engaged.
It’s a good idea to cold call yourself every once in a while as well so you can hear what you sound like. I used to cold call myself and leave a message for the last call of the day, so when I got into the office in the morning it was the first message I heard and I could evaluate whether I liked it or not and make adjustments as needed. I also recommend cold calling your boss every once in a while, leave a message and then ask for feedback. Not only will you hopefully get some good coaching, but it’s a great way to win some brownie points if you’re looking for some.
I also wrote a few months back about how the reps who have been leaving voicemail are going to crush video.
Maybe your prospects like voicemail
I keep seeing this commercial with this guy who really likes when people notice his new haircut talking about people who like things and he says “Maybe you like when you get a voicemail, I know I do.” You never know what a prospect likes, and they may value that you took the time to leave them a message over someone who doesn’t. For example, as a GenXer I grew up on the phone and so I don’t mind talking to people.
Also, different people like communicating in different ways. There is a study on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that talks about how there are three types of communication types: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Each type of communication style has a preferred communication method. For example, Visuals talk fast and use their hands to communicate. They use words like aim, blind, blush, and show. Auditories are slightly slower paced and use words like rave, resonate, and articulate. These are people who will talk to you all day long but their emails are only one or two lines. The best way to sell to them is over the phone. Kinesthetics are much slower paced and really think through their answers before they give them to you. They use words like cut, tackle, and concrete. The best way to sell to a Kinesthetic is face to face. The second best way is email because they can touch it and take their time. The worst way is over the phone. These are the people who will write well thought out, very detailed emails but almost never want to talk to you.
The impact of NLP is why you need to mix up your contact strategy between emails, calls, social media presence, and even sending something in the mail every once in a while. If you send multiple emails to an Auditory your chances of them responding drop. If you make multiple phone calls to a Kinesthetic your chances of them responding drop. Mix up your communication methods; it increases your chances of making an impression.
Little additional effort
Good voicemails should be no longer than 20-30 seconds and focus on getting someone’s attention, not trying to sell them on your solution. If you make 200 dials a week (which is over 10,000 a year!) and you leave a voicemail for everyone (which would never be the case) leaving voicemail takes a maximum of an additional 100 minutes a week, that’s less than 20 minutes a day. In my opinion, we all have 20 minutes throughout the day.
Guarantee
Here’s an example my old boss gave me to help hammer home why voicemails were important. Let’s say we have two different reps – Rep A and Rep B. Rep A makes 20 phone calls and leaves 20 voicemails. Rep B makes 20 calls and leaves zero voicemails. What can I absolutely guarantee tomorrow? I can’t guarantee Rep A will get a callback, but I can 100% guarantee Rep B won’t.
Qualities of a good voicemail
A good voicemail is long enough to cover why you’re calling, and your contact information. One of the most common mistakes that reps make while leaving a voicemail is making them too long. There is no reason a voicemail needs to be longer than 20-30 seconds.
Not trying to sell
The reason voicemails get too long is that many reps are trying to sell the client on their solution, which you fundamentally can’t (and shouldn’t) do on a voicemail. What you CAN sell is time or a callback. Your voicemail needs to get their attention and then peak their interest with something that they can see value in as well as be relevant to them or their business. Time is the most valuable asset any of us have. If you want someone’s time, it better be pretty clear that I’m going to get something of value out of calling back. “Understanding my 2018 priorities and how you can help me achieve my goals” is not adding value to my life. At least add the word “share” to your message and say something like …” and share with you some of the work and results we’re driving for other companies like yours.”
Have a Reason
Don’t just call to “touch base” or “check in.” That actually does far more harm than good. It means there is no reason for your call, so therefore there is no reason for me to listen or call you back. One of my favorite nuggets is to start all your calls or voicemails with the phrase “The reason for my call is…” because if you cannot finish that sentence you should not be making the phone call. It also gives you a lot more confidence when making calls if you have a reason.
Contact information at the End
This is one of my favorite nuggets, leave your contact information at the end. If you leave it at the start, it’s more likely the person will hang up or delete the message when they realize it’s a sales call and never listen to the rest of the message. If you have a strong attention grabber, and THEN leave your contact information, it will keep your prospect’s attention until you tell them who you are. Here’s an example of how I leave a voicemail:
Hi Bill, the reason for my call is one of my clients similar to you used our prospecting techniques during one of their call blitzes to drive 25 net new meetings with target prospects in less than an hour and I wanted to see if you’d be open to a discussion to see if we can do the same for you. Could you call me back at 555-555-5555? By the way, this is John Barrows with JBarrows Consulting. 555-555-5555.
This is not an easy technique to master since it is so ingrained in us to start our voicemails with “Hi, this is John Barrows from…” but I promise if you can figure this approach out it will make a difference.
Easy to transcribe
Be aware that not all voicemails are listened to. Many are transcribed to text or email. Keep this in mind as you leave your voicemail that they may be read instead of listened to.
Conclusion
Leaving voicemails isn’t a game changer, but if done right it gives you a better chance at success and helps you become a more well-rounded sales rep.
Here’s how we scaled our approach to converting low-touch leads at Appcues. We call them “low touch,” although you may refer to them as semi-qualified, self-service, low-ACV, etc. It’s a framework you can use to create your own product activity-based automation workflows. This will massively increase the effectiveness of individual sales reps and help you shorten your sales cycle.
At Appcues—as in many SaaS companies—our sales team operates on an entirely inbound model. One of our founders, Jonathan Kim, spent his early days at Hubspot and so our team is fully immersed in the content-driven, freemium, product-led world of new-age software sales.
Like many Software companies, we chose to allow anyone to trial the product, and so we opened the gates to about 1000 leads per month. This means hundreds of unqualified and semi-qualified leads (70%), alongside our target demographics and ideal buying persona (30%).
Without proper safeguards, these leads can brutalize sales efficiency and create a big burden for support, but, we largely mitigated this with enrichment from Clearbit and predictive lead scoring via Madkudu. Big wins—and big growth—all around.
So, we’re able to assign our top 30% of leads to our Account Execs, and they close that business at exceptional rates. In 2017, however, hundreds of leads unqualified for personal outreach by an Account Executive were left untouched outside of marketing.
Low-ACV leads seldom justify a sales rep’s time
There’s a growing juxtaposition in software sales. As freemium and scalable pricing models become commonplace, addressable markets grow. The problem with these low-ACV leads, though, is that they almost never economically justify salesperson-time. The volume was there, but we needed to test a strategy for addressing these leads efficiently.
The Breakdown
We were averaging 700 low-touch leads per month with conversion sitting around 1% of the last 2 months’ leads.
If we could get conversions to 2%, that would mean a significant boost (in the six-figures) to ARR booked in 1Q’18.
Now we’re talking.
Jason Lemkin said, “an inside sales rep who doesn’t have to generate his/her own leads can easily contact and further qualify 100-150 leads/month,” But we had way more than 150 leads coming in each month.
Engaging the low-touch leads
When they bought, they bought on small plans, without much individual time, but there was enough business there to make us wonder if we could be engaging these low-touch leads with a pseudo-sales process.
Historically, leads given to our sales reps converted at 20% higher rates than those that only get touched by marketing. We now needed to create a method by which our worst-rated leads would be given mostly-automated “sales” attention thus improving conversion.
Introducing the low-touch sales rep
I was hired to build out that semi-automation, scale myself to handle hundreds of leads moving through individual buying processes, and get the low-touch conversion from 1% to 2% in 2018.
We did it in 3 months.
Shorten Your Sales Cycle with the Low-Touch Sales Model
1) Define what a person needs to do before they buy
Product/UX teams call this activation. David Skok has published invaluable content on this topic.
For us, this meant:
Creating their first piece of content on Appcues.
Viewing our pricing page more than once in a single day.
Installing our SDK into their web app.
Publishing their first piece of content live to their users.
If two of the above happened, then the expiration of a trial also counts as an event in the sales lifecycle. Otherwise: dead lead.
2) Make it easy for the product to talk to salespeople
We defined several of the key activities we knew were converting in our app (see above). And then created segments (in Hull.io) consisting of users who had completed each of them. A new segment was made for each activity, by lead owner (AEs and low-touch).
(Hull.io Screenshot)
Now, when each user enters an activity segment, a ping goes straight to the Slack DM of the assigned rep (Hull does this). If the lead is low-touch, the low-touch rep gets a ping.
The result? Real-time product alerts for sales reps.
In this way, the product keeps the salespeople in the loop. This also opens the door for the kinds of semi-automated workflows that multiply the productivity of a single rep.
3) Give one salesperson autonomy over the content + leads
We iterated on many campaigns; gauging reply rates, open rates, conversion rates, and efficiency. We landed on the below strategy.
A note here: Bucket three is not fully “automated.” This is intentional. Over-automation creates awkward mistakes. Contacting leads at inappropriate times (when they have an active support ticket, or you’ve just spoken on the phone) reveals the impersonal nature of automation. It also removes the charm of the otherwise personal, relevant-feeling communication.
Bucket three—when done right—leaves the impression that there is someone keeping an eye out making sure trial users are successful with their product. Done wrong, it becomes a standard marketing drip. A highly enabled salesperson-gatekeeper is the answer.
Send a personalized tour of your product
Everyone who enters our trial gets a personalized, role-based, automated tour of Appcues (built with Appcues.). This tour drives them to learn key functionality by DOING. This converts 20% better than email on average because the learning is contextual. Appcues builds muscle memory for our users.
Follow this up with a basic email drip
All low-touch leads receive a basic 3 email drip from the low-touch rep. It’s important this comes from a rep (even if the rep isn’t a real human) and gets distinguished from marketing emails. Sales attention feels different.
Here’s what our drip looks like (we built this with Customer.io):
Day 1, instant: A simple welcome message with a link to our on-demand video demo. If the lead requests a real demo, send a calendar link with the video link just above it. Most small leads opt for video when given the option again.
Day 3: A framework containing the first five workflows we think they should build with Appcues, with screenshots and explanations.
Day 7, if no replies: A final reach-out, mentioning that the lead has been silent and offering next steps in case they want to engage.
(Customer.io Screenshot)
Add more context with another follow-up
Upon completing some intent-revealing activities, semi-automation allowed for a few more messages from the same rep. These were queued as drafts, vetted, and sent by an actual person in under a minute:
3 Pricing page views: An email asking if the lead has any questions on pricing.
Installation of our SDK: An email congratulating the lead on a successful installation and offering a piece of “custom” built content.
Content published: An email applauding the lead’s work and asking if there were any issues.
Trial expired + content published: An email asking if there were any final questions before the lead started their subscription.
(Slack Screenshot)
4) Measure results and iterate
Using Hull segmentation, we can retroactively measure conversion between each of our different lifecycle buckets. This included conversion from lead to customer, time to conversion, MRR, ASP, and potentially dozens of other metrics of success around each of our experiments. At the end of the day, the important metric always depends on the experiment that’s being run.
Using the above process, low-touch sales conversion rate increased 70%, ASP increased 25%, and ARR closed in the quarter increased 60% over our 4Q’17 levels. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars converted to ARR.
Build Automation to Create a Highly Enabled Salesperson
Sales has fallen behind our counterparts in product and marketing when it comes to true capacity-creating innovation. With automation alone, you can get a few quick wins, but you can also rack up some very costly mistakes as complexity levels increase.
Using the framework above, you can figure out where automation works and where a highly enabled salesperson can hold the keys efficiently.
To summarize, the framework looks like this:
Define what a person needs to do before they buy and get them there with the product.
Establish mechanisms for the product to communicate with salespeople.
Give a salesperson control over the content and the leads.
Measure results and adjust.
Think I’m full of it? Reach out and I’ll show you how it all works. Already using semi-automated tactics of your own? Share them in the comments below!
If your first question is: What is a pre-order campaign? then you’re in the right place. If you’ve done a pre-order campaign in the past but it wasn’t successful, then you’re also in the right place. Below are the 13 strategies that will ensure success when it comes to selling your books.
Including pre-order campaigns in your author marketing plan is a great way to build buzz. Additionally, it’s an excellent excuse to engage fans and draw in new ones. And perhaps most importantly, pre-orders can prove very lucrative for sales, when done right.
It’s important to note that a lot of these strategies include a request that people email you a copy of their Amazon receipt in exchange for an offer or prize. Not only is this a simple way to verify who’s really buying, you get the added bonus of building your mailing list with their email addresses. A mailing list (and subsequently, your newsletter) is an author marketing goldmine when it comes to opening doors to sell more books.
Pre-order campaigns are a great way to increase book sales! Use these 13 strategies to sell more… Click To Tweet
So, let’s go through the list of my favorite (and most successful) pre-order strategies:
Update Your Content
Effective author marketing requires you to stay current. And that means keeping your already published titles updated as well.
In preparation for a new release, update your eBook files for any of your previously published titles in the same genre. Why? To ensure they’re directing people to the new book via a link to the product page.
You should already have your current titles in regular marketing rotations. So the effort you’re already putting in should benefit your upcoming book as well, right?
Advertise Special Pre-Order Pricing
Everyone loves a deal, right? And one of the most effective ways to sell more books during a pre-order promotion is to offer the book at a discounted price. The next step is to constantly remind people through all your other efforts that the book goes back to full price on the release date.
Offer Cool Swag Packs
People love free stuff! If you want to sell more books, there’s a good chance you’ll see a better return if you get a little more generous with your brand swag.
Swag is a good author marketing investment in general, and when compounded with a pre-order campaign this ‘gimmick’ can become a successful strategy. It doesn’t have to be super expensive with some smart planning. Once you have some swag on hand, you’ll be amazed at how many ways you come up to use it, which will enhance your marketing efforts on every level.
Give Away Digital Swag
If you don’t have the budget to mail out physical swag, don’t sweat it! You can do something fun with digital material too.
Poster-quality art downloads, excerpts, deleted scenes, etc, are all pieces of content that intrigue your readers. There are so many options and this is a great way to strengthen your brand as well.
Create a Teaser Excerpt
Build the excitement for an impending release by sharing an excerpt from your new book! And don’t be stingy – if you’re having them buy the book on pre-order, then give them the first few chapters for free to really get them excited!
Collect Some Deleted Scenes
We’re all suckers for a good BTS (Behind the Scenes) glimpse of the books we love. This is more for authors who write series, or write in a very defined genre, but readers love insider info. And deleted scenes from previous titles can be fun ways to reward established fans for pre-ordering.
Do a Cover Reveal
Another great way to milk a pre-order campaign and potentially sell more books is with a cover reveal. Covers can make or break a book. Plus, they strengthen the psychological connection to your brand.
Discount and Cross-Promote
If you really want to ramp up to sell more books during a pre-order campaign, consider discounting other titles.
You’ve already updated the back matter of your previous titles to announce the new release. So limited-time promotions will help you get those books into more hands to help spread the word.
Update Your Social Images
Be sure you’re updating your website and social media headers to represent the new book, promote the cover, advertise the pre-order dates, and especially bring awareness to pre-order pricing.
Are you using social media the right way to help you sell more books? via @bookgal #authortips Click To Tweet
Start the Countdown
This is a super simple strategy that doubles as your social media marketing as well. Schedule posts that push the pre-order and remind people when the pre-order ends. This strategy is particularly effective for selling more books when combined with a special pre-order discount price.
Run a Branded Contest
Sometimes selling more books isn’t about selling more books. Let me explain. Show your followers that you truly appreciate their loyalty, no strings attached, by giving them something just because. But this doesn’t mean you can’t still get some immediate benefits.
Author Leigh Bardugo did a contest (image below) and simply asked people to follow her blog and comment on the post with the “rules” to be entered. And, of course, she reminded people about the pre-order.
You can ask people to follow you on social and share a post of your book release announcement. There are lots of ways to benefit from reader engagement aside from just asking them to buy the book directly.
Give out ARCs to Drum Up Early Reviews
Just like the contest, this is a great way to generate early reviews. Ask fans to do something for you: share a post, sign up for your newsletter, follow your blog, etc. Then, start handing out advance copies of the book with the understanding that you really want people to get on Amazon and write a review as soon as the book is officially released.
Insider Tip: A personalized note goes a long way to communicate the importance of reviewing, I assure you.
Run a BOGO Offer
I love running BOGO (Buy One Get One or Buy One Give One) offers because it essentially doubles the amount of people being brought into your fold.
I like to do buy one, give one. So I ask people to pre-order my book, and send me the receipt plus a name and email address of friend or colleague I can gift a digital copy to as well.
People love to share books they enjoy, and you can be a part of that while also getting introduced to new potential fans and followers.
I’ve even invited people to include a short note they’d want me to include, to take the personalization up a notch when I’m gifting.
Running a BOGO offer is an awesome way to engage readers and draw in new ones! via @bookgal… Click To Tweet
Create a Video
Video content is essential to social media exposure, in regards to generating interest and engagement.
Here’s how to use video in your pre-order strategy: First, make an official announcement about the pre-order. Next, publish videos that announce discounts or describe a giveaway or swag offer. There’s really no reason you can’t do a video to accompany any of these strategies. Plus with proper planning, you can record all these in one afternoon and release them as appropriate.
So get camera-ready and get to work!
The Takeaway
Pre-order campaigns are about being prepared. Now that I’ve gone over some really strong strategies to sell more books during your pre-order campaign, you can prepare a lot of what you need in advance.
That way, when it’s time to pick a publication date and pre-order date you’ll have an arsenal of material and ideas at the ready to keep this part of your author marketing plan stress free.
And if it seems like there’s a lot of moving parts, you’re right. There can be. So I definitely recommend downloading my free monthly book marketing planner. It will help you stay organized and keep your promotion moving so that you can sell more books.
Quick question: Would you like to boost your email list by 500% with minimum effort? Who would say no to that, right? Well, you’re in for a treat.
In this article, you’ll learn how you can use quizzes to supercharge your lead generation process and grow your email list.
Quizzes are a powerful way to increase email signups. In fact, the University of Alberta grew their email list by 500% using a simple survey-style quiz on their website.
You can use the same strategy to get more people to subscribe to your email list. We’ll show you how it works.
How quizzes help increase subscribers
Many websites, like Buzzfeed, uses quizzes to increase user engagement and generate traffic by boosting social shares. And it works great because people love interactive content. It helps keep them entertained while also keeping them fully engaged with your website.
However, quizzes can also be used to capture emails and grow email lists as well. It’s mostly done by asking users for their email at the end of a quiz in order to send them the results of the quiz.
Blogger and funnel expert Chanti Zak has also managed to grow her email list by over 10,000 subscribers creating quizzes and embedding them in blog posts. According to LeadQuizzes, quizzes actually deliver an average conversion rate of 33.6%.
Many brands, businesses, online stores, and universities use quizzes to effectively promote and generate leads from their websites.
As you can see, there are many ways you can use quizzes to supercharge your email list. Creating a quiz is not a difficult task either. There are plenty of tools and plugins you can use to get that job done.
Here are some of the best plugins and online tools for creating different types of quizzes.
WordPress Viral Quiz is a lightweight WordPress plugin that allows you to create unlimited quizzes and collect unlimited responses for as long as you like.
Using the plugin, you can create beautiful image-based quizzes and polls with a lead capture option to collect emails. It also easily integrates with MailChimp, Aweber, and ActiveCampaign for exporting the emails.
WordPress Viral Quiz plugin costs a one-time price of $35 and no monthly charges.
Riddle is another powerful quiz making WordPress plugin that comes with a set of advanced features, including the ability to create polls, personality tests, surveys and more.
The plugin supports integration with MailChimp, AWeber, and Zapier for syncing the gathered emails with your email marketing services.
Riddle costs $9 per month for creating unlimited quizzes and gathering unlimited leads.
LeadQuizzes is an online quiz making tool that also comes with a WordPress plugin for easily embedding your quizzes in your blog posts.
LeadQuizzes supports all the popular email marketing services for exporting the subscribers to your email lists and even allows you to create segmented quizzes to gather emails more effectively.
LeadQuizzes pricing plans start at $16 per month for generating 100 leads and 5,000 views per month.
Typeform is one of the more expensive options for creating quizzes and polls. Typeform is a cloud-based tool, which means you can easily embed the forms you create on your website, emails, and share them on social media as well.
Typeform also features quizzes with gorgeous designs. Although, all those great features come at a heavy cost.
Typeform free plan only gives you limited access to the platform. In order to use the email lead capture feature, you have to switch to the $30-per month paid plan.
Similar to Typeform, SurveyMonkey is another cloud-based platform for creating beautiful and responsive quizzes online.
SurveyMonkey features a set of advanced tools for getting deep insights into the responses of your quizzes. It also supports A/B testing and advanced answer piping as well.
SurveyMonkey free plan also doesn’t allow you to use lead capturing in your quizzes. And its $35-per month paid plan also only supports 1000 responses per month.
Where to embed your quizzes
The position where you embed your quiz is also important to help increase engagement. Depending on the type of quiz you create, you should embed your quiz in your blog posts where it’s most convenient for your readers.
For example, if you create a quiz on “which iPhone is best for you” to complement a blog post related to iPhones, then you can embed it at the end of the blog post to encourage users to stay on your website.
If you were to create a general quiz, like a feedback-based questionnaire or a poll, then you can embed your quiz on the sidebar of your website or show it as a popup message to show the quiz to all visitors across your website.
Conclusion
Quizzes can help make even the most boring topics fun and entertaining for your audience. It will also help decrease your website bounce rate by encouraging your website visitors to stay on your website for longer periods of time.
Capturing emails with quizzes can be a bit more challenging. Instead of creating quizzes that help people figure out which Game of Thrones character they are, focus on creating more useful and informative quizzes that provide more value.
Editor’s Note: This post is part one of a three part series covering global marketing expansion.
As a company grows, most marketing teams expand from a centralized corporate office to placing marketers in country or at least on different continents to support growing sales organizations. The timing, goals, and implementation of this program is critical for success. In this series, we’ll examine the pressures on marketing leadership to “go global”, the key tipping points to make the shift, and some ideas on how to be successful with this move.
Global Marketing from a Central Location
The reality is that for most high velocity, inbound sales models, marketing teams are already going global from day one. While search engine marketing, advertising and email open rates can show some differences based on time zones, a highly functioning marketing team can make significant progress in global marketing from a central location. English reach is pervasive especially with information technology users. Most advertising networks are global in nature and simply requiring turning on or off particular countries. Webinar programs can be easily adapted for different time zones. Email marketing sends can be time sliced to maximize open rates for particular time zones. For trade shows, unless your team is doing a massive number of shows, most geographies are within an 8 – 10 hour plane ride of North America or Europe depending on your base of operations. The ROI of hiring people in country vs. flying people in for an event will almost always favor flying people in on a limited basis. Plus, who doesn’t like a trip to a great location for a trade show?
In addition, running a centralized team is significantly more efficient that splitting a team over multiple geographies. Access to centralized services like the web team, creative team and corporate marketing is much easier to accomplish when they are a cube away and not 8 time zones away. Finally, many inbound sales models expand by continents not by countries. A North American based sales organization might decide to cover all of Europe from one specific country. This might not solve language translation problems if the European headquarters is located in a regional city without a strong multinational presence. It could actually be easier to find a multi-lingual qualified marketer in the home country, depending on the metropolitan area, than the continental headquarters. For example, it is probably easier to find a top notch Spanish speaking inbound marketer in New York, than in Cork, Ireland (no offense to any Spanish speaking inbound marketers living in Cork – this is just an example).
An Argument Against In-Country (At First)
The net of it, to run an inbound model, at least at the beginning, you don’t have to be in country, in a time zone, with local language speakers. Don’t believe it? Look at your site statistics by country and see if the % of traffic you are getting by country roughly matches the market potential for your product in that country. For countries that are underrepresented, consider why you aren’t getting the traction required and take steps to correct it. For an inbound model, buyers don’t know or really care if the company’s marketing team is in their country or halfway around the world. They do care if emails arrive at the right time, in a language they can read, promoting webinars at the right time with products that are localized so they can use them. All these goals can be accomplished from a centralized marketing team almost anywhere in the world.
In part two of this series, we will talk about the tipping point for global marketing.
Web-based technologies have been advancing at a rapid pace. Many of the latest disruptive technologies in different industries exist because the internet made them possible.
These five industries are on a course toward full disruption. They will affect the way you live. You can thank the seismic change in internet and mobile technologies.
1. Cable TV
For decades, cable companies enjoyed a monopoly over television entertainment.
Once DSL data transmission speeds made it possible for people to purchase high-speed internet and start streaming video entertainment via another “pipe” into the home, cable companies realized they needed a new game.
Cable companies bundled TV and internet packages. This successfully kept most cable TV customers happy. Who wants to sign up for a new company when you can get both TV and high speed internet through a single provider?
However, with high speed cable internet came the influx of online services that let you stream high-quality entertainment. The quality of services like Netflix, Hulu, and now YouTube TV became so good, in fact, that more people started dropping the “cable” part of their cable and internet package. When you can watch TV on your computer, what’s the point of cable TV?
Unfortunately, it’s taking a long time for the technology to catch up with demand. Joel recently described the many limitations of streaming services that keep many customers tied to their cable TV:
Slow internet speeds and data caps
Poor coverage of live events
Too many streaming package options
Rising prices of those streaming services
Geographical restrictions on content for many countries
As streaming services overcome these technical limitations, cable companies then turned to the government to put a stop to the creeping competition.
As Ben explained in his overview of net neutrality, cable companies went after the laws that prevented them from slowing down traffic from competitor entertainment services like Netflix or Hulu.
Under heavy pressure from the cable television industry, the FCC eventually repealed net neutrality laws at the end of 2017. Despite congressional efforts to overturn this repeal, the net neutrality rules officially came off the books on April 23rd, 2018.
At this point, things are looking bad for the future of online entertainment streaming services. It’s only a matter of time before cable TV monopolies make a move to recapture control over the streaming entertainment domain again. Is this the end of the story?
Mobile Internet to the Rescue
The only reason cable companies are winning this battle is the backbone technology.
The ability to stream shows and movies depends upon the large bandwidth provided by cable internet. Up until recently, there was no other technology available that could challenge that. Communication companies continue building a fiber network infrastructure that could offer consumers an alternative. But the growth of that infrastructure is slow, and availability remains limited.
However, there is a glimmer of light. In 2019, the mobile communication industry is set to release the next generation of internet data: 5G.
The next time you’re out in public, take a look at how people are already using their mobile devices. Now that most mobile carriers offer unlimited data packages priced on par with most cable internet packages, making the transition to a full mobile internet solution will be seamless.
The only thing holding most people back from using the 4G internet at home is bandwidth. But when 5G (and later) mobile internet technologies overcome that limitation, services like YouTube TV and other live TV streaming solutions will fill that market. The need for a cable internet package will disappear entirely.
Wireless high speed internet will open up a world of possibilities in entertainment delivery. We could see a world with the following technologies:
Smart earpieces that stream music to your ear without the need to carry a phone
Smart eyeglasses or contacts that wirelessly deliver augmented content
Streaming entertainment screens inside every new vehicle on the market
Countless new products that connect to your mobile data plan for streaming content
Once people can switch over to a wireless internet capable of transmitting the same quality and amount of data as cable internet, cable television will become an archaic concept. This rise in the competition will mean the freedom and flexibility of choice for you.
2. Brick-and-Mortar Car Dealerships
The traditional method of buying a car is to drive around to local dealerships and search for a car that strikes your fancy. In the process of doing this, you’re usually accosted by a car salesperson whose job is to draw you inside the dealership where they can make a deal.
The internet brought more knowledge to the consumer. Before heading to the dealership, car buyers would browse sites like Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds. This allowed consumers to walk into a car dealership fully aware of what a “good price” for a particular car looked like.
Unfortunately, you still had to go into the dealership and negotiate with a salesperson, as she tried to convince you why all of the bells and whistles on this particular car justify a higher price.
However, more services are cropping up that are bringing Amazon-style consumerism into the auto sales industry.
Carmax: Lets you search an online inventory of almost 200 locations across the country, set a fixed price, and have the car delivered to a local Carmax location.
Vroom: Shop for a car online and have it delivered directly to your home or a nearby location. You can even apply for financing.
NowCar: Pick a type of car or truck you want, add or remove features, set a budget, and browse. Surprisingly, delivery is free.
Carvana: You can browse, take a virtual test drive, and get the car delivered to your home. They even allow a “seven-day test own” so you don’t have to keep a car you’re disappointed with.
These services bring the convenience of click-and-deliver Amazon-style shopping to the car buying experience. Even with a delivery fee, paying a premium for the luxury of avoiding a car salesperson would be worth it.
Unfortunately, as these services become more popular, it could lead to the end of physical car dealerships and remove the need for on-site sales staff. This means you’ll be able to shop for a car in your pajamas, and never have to haggle over a car purchase again.
3. Taxi Services
It’s clear at this point that services like Uber and Lyft are disrupting the taxi service industry.
Even people who might have been nervous to use a taxi service, or confused about how to call or find one, are the same people who feel completely confident opening up an app on their phone and summoning an Uber ride.
Some of the things that make these services so much better than a traditional taxi service include:
The convenience of a simple mobile app to request a ride
Non-stressful payments and tips via the mobile app
Availability in areas that have never had taxi service
Once public confidence with these services became mainstream, adoptions rates grew rapidly. In 2017, Forbes reported that Uber had over 40 million active monthly riders, and an app install rate of at least 150,000 new installs a day.
The collapse of the taxi industry has already started. Just a year earlier in 2016, Business Insider reported on San Francisco’s Yellow Cab filing for bankruptcy. It also reported in 2017 that taxi rides in New York City over the previous twelve months dropped 11 percent.
This is most likely only the beginning. The technology that forms the platform for services like Uber and Lyft are allowing other startups to compete:
Curb: This is the taxi industry’s answer to public demand for convenience and ease-of-use. The mobile app works in 60 cities across the country and allows users to quickly request a professional taxi or for-hire car service.
Via: An interesting, new take on commuter ride-sharing. Via drivers follow a route defined by the company, not by drivers. The algorithm creates a stress-free commute for as many people as possible, and a relaxed driver who is working for an hourly rate, not racing around to pick up as many fares as possible.
Hitch-a-Ride: This app lets people offer a ride to anyone along their daily commute, at a fraction of the cost of a taxi or other services.
When you boil this technology down to its basics, these are simply services that make use of the mobile internet for ride-sharing purposes. Because of this, ride-sharing apps are likely to multiply as time goes on.
This may lead to a full collapse of the taxi industry, but what it means to you is that in many communities it may no longer be necessary to even own a car. This will not only bring many people newfound freedom, but it could also contribute to a better environment.
4. Traditional Currency
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency built upon the foundational technology known as a “blockchain”. The concept of a blockchain was first developed by someone going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
The technology can transmit a digital unit of currency via a peer-to-peer system. Multiple nodes of a network (miners) validate every single transaction in the system, with every transaction stored in a public ledger.
The validation introduces a level of security for both the sender and the recipient that surpasses most existing transaction security protocols. But the most compelling, disruptive elements of the technology is that it removed the need for a “middleman”—such as a bank—serving as the manager of those transactions.
Individuals own “wallets”, which serve as the endpoints of transactions. The unit of currency used in each transaction is a Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency), which holds its own value based on the market demand for it.
If the use of blockchain is adopted by the mainstream as a secure method of sending and receiving money, how will that blockchain disrupt the banking industry?
Bank accounts won’t be necessary as endpoints in a cryptocurrency scenario
There will be no need for an institution like the Federal Reserve to manipulate the value of financial units
Governments will have no method to interrupt or interfere with an individual’s financial transactions
Thieves can’t take money from a central storage facility—the only way to steal cryptocurrency is through hacking
It’s that last point that many observers disagree on. Many say the major issue with cryptocurrency is that it’s susceptible to hacking. Also, since many users store their cryptocurrency “wallets” in exchanges like Coinbase, the danger of theft from a hack is just as high. The theft of Bitcoin from Mt. Gox is a perfect example.
At the beginning of its history, many people were saying that Bitcoin could mark the end of the banking industry. The reality is that cryptocurrencies may only change how people look at currency, and how currency is valued.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t really the disruptive technology. The disruptive technology is the blockchain. Both large banks and small startup companies have recognized the significant value of blockchain security. In 2017, Financial Times reported on the biggest areas banks are looking to capitalize on blockchain technology:
Handling financial settlement without the need for an escrow account
Providing more secure financial transactions
Modernizing paper-based trade finance
More secure customer identity verification
Managing loans more efficiently.
Outside of the banking industry, small companies are building new products on top of blockchain technology. This has birthed a whole new area of startups known as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), analogous to the Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the stock market.
Companies are developing use cases for their own proprietary “coins” for uses like gambling and real-estate transactions, and using the blockchain to provide customers with more secure methods to use their services.
Yes, this may lead to new forms of currency that hold value all on their own, but the bigger news is that entirely new products and services will be launched in coming years that will allow self-enclosed economies to grow and flourish.
Imagine a virtual world where a “virtual coin” holds as much or more value than gold, and those coins can be exchanged between users of that virtual world in a transaction that’s just as secure as one that took place between two bank accounts.
This is an exciting new area of technology, and it’s only in its infancy.
5. Grocery Store Cashiers
If you’ve been in a grocery store lately, there are two technologies showing up that provide some clues into the future of retail shopping,
The first is the row of self-serve kiosks without a clerk available to scan items for you. It’s clear that grocery stores understand that long lines at the checkout are the number one complaint from customers.
It’s this fact, combined with the demand for more at-home-delivery options like Amazon, that many new companies are now offering grocery-delivery service.
My wife and I first noticed one of those green Shipt shirts while we were waiting in a long checkout line at Meier. The alien space ship logo caught my eye, so I Googled the brand.
When I learned that it’s a grocery-shopping service, I started wondering why we were wasting our time walking through the grocery store for an hour or two every week. We could just have someone else do it for us.
So far there are a few companies that offer this service in more populated areas throughout the US:
Shipt: For a yearly or monthly membership fee, you can have any grocery orders over $35 delivered to your door for free. There’s a small service charge at checkout.
Peapod: This grocery delivery service also offers free delivery of groceries for an annual fee. The service remembers past orders and there’s also a “specials” area for saving some money. They also double manufacturer coupons.
Instacart: This same-day grocery delivery service has been partnering with major grocery chains, like Whole Foods, to offer delivery to loyal shoppers. Instacart is only available in major cities, and the service fee is from 5 to 7.5 percent of the total bill plus a delivery fee. For an annual membership, the delivery fee is waived for orders over $35.
In our instant-gratification, consumer-based society, these services are becoming wildly popular. This popularity is also fed by the availability of mobile apps that make ordering groceries just as simple as ordering pizza delivery.
In a strong economy, when families have more income available for groceries, paying a small fee to avoid spending hours in the grocery store is a very tempting proposition.
This trend will likely lead to fewer customers in the grocery stores, and fewer cashier jobs for local communities. But on the upside, there will be lots of grocery delivery jobs!
The Impact of Disruptive Technologies
It’s never easy to predict how things will go in the future. But current technology trends in the areas of industry described above point to some very big changes in the coming years.
These changes will result in more flexibility and convenience for customers. Unfortunately, it also means a dramatic shift of available jobs for workers, and the strong need for retraining and career adjustment.
Predicting the future is hard, but the disruptive technologies in these five areas of our lives are almost mainstream. They will only evolve in the years to come.
Most business owners understand the importance of customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty means that people who buy from you will keep coming back, choose you over the competition, and spread the word on the benefits of being your customer.
Once you have loyal customers, the hard part is over – but the work is not.
The key to keeping customers loyal, beyond great products, services, and customer service, is to continually show your appreciation. But how can you consistently say “thank you” and reward your devoted customers while dealing with the time constraints that come along with running a small business?
When you use email marketing as part of your loyalty strategy, it allows you to send personalized emails and build stronger relationships with your customers. And you can automate much of the process, allowing you to get back to the millions of other things you need to be doing for your business, all while helping your customers feel appreciated and top of mind.
Here are some ideas to build customer loyalty with email marketing:
Welcome new contacts
Say “welcome” and “thank you” with an automated welcome series when new contacts sign up to your list. Let them know you’re glad they purchased from you, and offer to help them with anything else they might need, including questions about the product or service, any aftercare, or whatever else they might want to know. You could also include some background information on your business, like your mission and why your customers are important to you.
Lastly, make sure your customers know how to reach you if they need you. Provide office/store hours, contact information and even social media handles. Your customers will feel comforted to know you want to be there for them, instead of just forgetting them as soon as they leave your store.
Recognize anniversaries
Customer longevity is certainly something to celebrate. Considering how many one time buyers you run across, the customers that stick around for years yield the highest return over time. So let them know how much they are appreciated by creating a recurring anniversary email to celebrate their becoming a customer.
Send a “thank you” email, and include the number of years since they became a valued customer. And with this approach, the anniversary email will send automatically every year!
Celebrate birthdays
When it’s a customers’ birthday, join their family and friends in saying “Happy Birthday!” Just like the anniversary example, you can create a recurring birthday email based on the dates of your customers’ birthdays. You can even make sure they feel extra appreciated on their special day with a coupon or a discount. They’ll be sure to thank you the next time they see you, or by purchasing from your store!
Share exclusive content
Another way to nurture loyalty among your customers is to provide them with exclusive content and tips. As the business owner, you offer a unique perspective and knowledge that your customers are sure to appreciate.
Use email to share some tips and recommendations on topics related to your business. For example, a garden center could include the best times of the day to plant certain bulbs, or suggest a garden design for small areas. A cheese store could recommend recipes or how to host a wine and cheese party.
Content like this will certainly help the customer to feel appreciated, and in return, continue to be loyal.
Consistency is key
Keeping in constant communication with customers in a personalized way keeps your business top of mind, while keeping them loyal. So, for a small amount of effort, launching a customer loyalty strategy will create a cycle of repeat buyers who spread the word about your business. Email marketing allows your customers to feel the love, even if you don’t have the time.
Customer value propositions are an essential part of a company’s business strategy and the foundation for all of its marketing and sales efforts. Unfortunately, many companies don’t devote enough time and energy to defining their customer value propositions, and as a result, their marketing and sales efforts aren’t as productive as they could be.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of compelling value propositions. In Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin argue that a business strategy is essentially the answers to five interrelated questions, the two most important of which are:
Where will you play?
How will you win?
Lafley and Martin write, “These two choices, which are tightly bound up with one another, form the very heart of strategy and are the two most critical questions in strategy formulation.”
Customer value propositions are the answers to the “how to win” question. As Lafley and Martin put it, “To determine how to win, an organization must decide what will enable it to create unique value and sustainably deliver that value to customers in a way that is distinct from the firm’s competitors.”
What Makes Customer Value Propositions Weak?
Despite their undeniable importance, many companies don’t do a good job of identifying their customer value propositions or developing content resources and sales messaging that articulate those value propositions in a compelling way.
A few years ago, CEB conducted a survey of decision makers in B2B companies and found that only 57% of the “unique benefits” touted by sellers were seen by potential buyers as having enough impact to create a preference for a particular seller.
Over the past 25 years, I’ve reviewed hundreds of the value propositions used by clients, and what I’ve consistently found is that weak value propositions fall into three main categories:
They are too generic. They don’t speak to how value is created for specific types of companies or buyers.
They focus on product or service features rather than on the tangible results a customer obtains by using a product or service.
The don’t include credible supporting evidence.
Not surprisingly, strong B2B value propositions exhibit the opposite characteristics. They describe specific elements of value for specific types of companies and buyers, they focus on business/economic results or outcomes, and they include credible evidence to support their value claims.
How to Develop Compelling Customer Value Propositions
Defining strong customer value propositions comes down to answering six fundamental questions about each major type or category of product or service that you offer:
What are all of the significant reasons that people have for purchasing a product or service like mine? What problems or needs motivate the buying decision?
What kinds of companies are likely to have the problems or needs that underlie these reasons to buy?
Who within the prospect organization is affected by each problem or need? Who has the most to gain if the problem is solved and the most to lose if it isn’t?
What specific outcomes are these people seeking?
What features of my solution will produce these desired outcomes?
What will the business/economic benefits be if these desired outcomes are achieved?
Using these six questions to define your customer value propositions will provide the essential foundation for developing effective marketing and sales content and messaging.
“Hyper-personalization.” “Hyper-connectivity.” As marketers, it is a bit staggering to watch the continued growth of communication across so many different digital locations. Touches from Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, websites, mobile phones, apps, and more are not something of the coming future anymore, they are becoming the present-day reality. While digital marketing through an ever-growing number of channels can seem daunting, previous successes and experience developing multi-channel marketing strategies is a core strength that holds value over time.
In this blog, I’ll describe three historic marketing concepts that are vital even in the context of the current digital environment. It may be surprising to see that regardless of your technical prowess, these core principles still apply to modern digital marketing. When planning out campaigns, make sure to reference these ideas within your design to deliver reliable and measurable results.
Define Your Audience
The Who, The What, The When, and The Where—that is essentially what a lot of marketing boils down to. While acknowledging that there is certainly a science to the art, digital marketing often appears intimidating simply because it is new. A return to what we already know well may be the best start to embracing the digital age.
Much of campaign strategy and even the value of marketers is identifying “who” we want to communicate with, “what” they are interested in discussing, and “why” they are motivated to connect with our brand to fill a particular need. This is something that we excel at as marketers, and digital strategies need audience definition as much today as in the past.
Without a clear understanding of your audience, it is impossible to develop personalized communication, which is a crucial driver of modern marketing results. The more appropriately an audience is defined, including their interests and preferences, the more accurately messaging can be aligned. In the age of “hyper-personalization,” where audiences desire that messages tightly align to personal interests, it is more important than ever to know who is being targeted so that communication has the highest potential for generating responses.
Feeling a little overwhelmed with the rollout of your new digital strategy? Start with your audience. Focus on defining the “who” during your strategy sessions, and this can significantly improve your ability to impact the direction of campaigns as well as your contributions to digital strategy meetings.
Identify Your Channels
Fundamental marketing practices focus on aligning your audience with the appropriate medium of communication. Also known as “reach,” channel management is a crucial part of defining a winning marketing strategy. Demonstrated skills identifying the preferred channels for consuming targeted messaging still apply to a digital strategy.
Closely related to channel definition is the concept of “impressions.” When planning your marketing strategy, it is essential to consider how many times an audience may need to see your messaging before they are likely to take action. This concept has long been a central part of planning go-to-market strategies. The medium of communication may have shifted. Still, the process and analytical skills for developing a channel strategy remain very valuable.
In the age of “hyper-connectivity” where consumers communicate across channels and expect brands to be able to mirror personal communication preferences, it is vital to plan out a channel strategy that can adapt and mirror preferred styles for engagement. With the right marketing engagement platform, it is possible to coordinate communication and impressions across a wider variety of channels within a shorter period of time.
Feeling overwhelmed with the idea of digital communication? Leverage planning approaches that include previous successes in channel management to help focus the marketing strategy and optimize spend while maximizing impact.
Track Your Conversions
Correlated to audience and channel management is the concept of conversion tracking. Marketing initiatives must move audiences along towards a result. Consistently targeting a specific call-to-action (CTA) within campaigns continues to be vital for producing marketing impact—the great news is that modern digital marketing makes it easier to track performance.
When managing modern marketing approaches, it is easy to lose sight of the objective while developing the experience. Senior marketers know that the absence of a clear CTA within a campaign can lead audiences to abandon the campaign and become disengaged.
Feeling overwhelmed with the number of places to communicate with audiences? Focus on helping the team identify the right call-to-action, then reuse this CTA at critical points within the customer journey. Standard approaches for monitoring conversions and impressions can indicate if programs are having the desired impact or if customers are choosing a different path for evaluating what your company has to offer.
One Import Adaptation—Engagement
While we’ve highlighted the consistent values that carry over from traditional marketing to digital marketing, it is important to note that digital audiences want to be communicated with as individuals. Audiences are interacting with brands across an ever-expanding number of digital touchpoints. Being able to mirror-and-match communication style and channel preferences is important.
To match expectations and ensure that your CTAs are everywhere your target customer is at, marketers must turn the typical “interaction” into an “ongoing experience.” This includes listening, learning, and engaging with audiences using relevant messaging that matches their personal interests. Strengths in multi-channel marketing can elevate such approaches to drive a connected experience and make historic marketing backgrounds that much more valuable to defining a connected digital strategy.
Closing Thoughts—Use What is Known, Grow into What is New
“Hyper-personalization” and “hyper-connectivity” make our jobs as marketers that much more valuable, though we do need the right platforms to deliver campaigns at scale. Given everything that has been highlighted, this is why it is essential to have a marketing engagement platform that reduces your dependence on learning new technology and frees up your marketing team to continue leveraging their demonstrated skills in identifying audiences, aligning communication channels, tracking conversions, and developing compelling messaging. The right platform can help turn individual messages into experiences over time that build rapport, learn from interactions, and engage people as individuals.
As a marketer that has lived through the digital transformation, the core approaches and principles of multi-channel marketing still steer the vast majority of planning conversations that I have on a daily basis. I’m sure there are many others that we could point out as having equal value to the three that are described in this post. Please feel free to add your comments and the principles you use for guiding your marketing strategies below.
By the end of 2017, Yelp had amassed more than 140 million reviews of local businesses. While the company’s mission focuses on helping people find local businesses more easily, this wealth of data has the potential to serve other purposes. For instance, Yelp data might help restaurants understand which markets they should consider entering, or whether to add a bar. It can help real estate investors understand where gentrification might occur. And it might help private equity firms with an interest in coffee decide whether to invest in Philz or Blue Bottle.
The potential value of the large data sets being amassed by private companies raises new opportunities and challenges for managers making strategic data decisions. While there are plenty of well-publicized examples of data repurposing gone wrong, we think it would be a shame for companies to decide the only option is to hoard their data. Before you decide that your data can’t be put to a new use, consider how it might help augment public data sources.
The science of storytelling and brand performance.
For example, in a recent paper, we explored the potential for Yelp data to measure local economic change and augment the official data, often from the U.S. census, which has long been the bread and butter of economic analyses. Our motivation was simple: Census data is valuable but can be slow-moving and coarse. Public-facing census data can tell you whether more restaurants are opening in a ZIP code, but only after several years. Yelp data can tell you, almost in real time, not only whether restaurants are opening in a ZIP code but even whether more-affordable restaurants are opening on a specific block. We found that Yelp data can help to meaningfully predict trends in the local economy well before census data becomes available, especially in more urban, more educated, and wealthier parts of the country.
This speaks to the broader potential for data from online platforms to improve our understanding of all of America. Just as Yelp can shed light on local economic changes, Zillow could inform our understanding of housing markets, LinkedIn could provide insight about labor markets, and Glassdoor could teach us about the quality of employment options in an area. Companies increasingly recognize the possibility of repurposing their data in these ways for the public good. But repurposing data can have benefits for a company far beyond the warm glow of having done some good. As researchers work with the data, new insights about their data and platform design choices may surface. As policy makers rely on the insights from the data, new relationships can form and facilitate valuable collaborations. Public-facing data efforts can also increase awareness of a company’s brand — allowing companies to do well by doing good.
Of course, there are times when repurposing data is not an option, because the data is either sensitive or not that useful. But we often see examples in which a potentially successful use of a new data source fails to deliver because of poor execution.
Drawing on our academic research assessing repurposed data sources, as well as our work with organizations, we see that simple guiding principles can help companies understand how to successfully repurpose their data.
Principle 1: Understand your unique perspective. When deciding whether and how to use your data, it’s crucial to take the time to understand whether it has real value relative to the information people already have access to. Start by looking for the best data available. Choose a broadly accepted benchmark, and set a narrow goal to see whether and where you can meaningfully add value.
When looking at Yelp data, for example, we considered census data a significant benchmark, since it is something commonly used within research and policy work. And we set the narrow goal of understanding whether Yelp data can augment existing data points with additional variables and provide more up-to-date information (since it’s updated in real time, while the census happens every 10 years). This flavor of incremental improvements can, paradoxically, lead to the largest gains, by making sure that you are going down the right path.
Principle 2: Develop credible analyses. For every exciting new use of digital data that we’ve come across, we’ve seen countless others fail to deliver. Successfully repurposing data requires taking benchmarks seriously and cross-validating against them. If your data doesn’t match existing benchmarks, then you have to understand why. If the differences are irreconcilable, then you might reconsider the value of your data on that dimension. And if you do go forward with using the data, it’s important to think through the best approach to analysis, taking the mismatch into account.
Credible analytics also requires understanding — and being transparent about — the strengths and limitations of your data. Returning to the Yelp example, we highlighted the strengths above. One limitation is that Yelp coverage varies over time and across places. Maintaining credibility and making the most of the data requires understanding and factoring this and other limitations into the analysis and conclusions drawn from the data.
Principle 3: Build partnerships. Even a company that has a great internal data team may not have the right skills to produce public-facing data that will have a real impact. Working with outside researchers and policy makers can help you gauge general interest, build a product that will have credibility, and develop insights that will create value for a broader audience.
There is no such thing as a perfect data set. This is both why new data sources are valuable and why repurposing data can be hard. Tech companies are now collecting unprecedented amounts of data, and they have the potential to greatly improve our understanding of the economy and policy. Yelp ratings are now being used for a variety of purposes, from predicting which restaurants are most likely to have health code violations, to helping understand which businesses are going to be impacted by increases to the minimum wage, to shedding light on how gentrifying neighborhoods are evolving. Other platforms have similar potential. And when done carefully and incrementally, each platform adds one piece to the puzzle, leading to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the economy — all the while harvesting benefits for the company.
You can try to run a sales organization without a sales leader, but you will never generate the results you are capable of without one. All of the problems and challenges that will prevent you from acquiring clients and growing your revenue will stem from the lack of a leader. It isn’t a good idea to try to build a sales organization without having a leader in place.
You can build a sales process designed to help you compel change, create value for your dream clients, and win new business. Without a leader to help salespeople learn, follow, and make adjustments to that process, the process is meaningless, worthless. With a leader, a process can provide an excellent framework for winning new deals.
If you want to hire people without providing them a leader, you may as well take the money you would spend on that sales force, pour gasoline on the money, strike a match, and burn the money. Without a leader to set priorities, to set the cadence, to coach and develop them, salespeople will not perform to their true capacity. With a leader, you will have a sales force with priorities, an operating rhythm, and a coach who will improve their skills—and their results.
Maybe you will do others have done before you, try to change the process, train the sales force, install a new methodology, or maybe fire the whole sales force and start over. Doing any or all of these will leave you exactly where these decisions have left the entrepreneurs and executive leaders who tried to change everything instead of hiring a leader. They were left in the same place as where they started, namely, lacking a sales leader.
It is important to get things in the right order. Without providing the sales force with the leadership they need, you are not giving them a fair chance to succeed. Nor are you giving yourself that same chance. Hire the leader first, and then work on building around them.
Reduce angst by creating a client file retention & recovery policy! Steal my sample policy.
It’s great when past clients return for future work—but what about when they reappear demanding immediate access to deliverable files your agency already sent them years ago? That’s less fun.
It’s also an entirely predictable situation, which means you and your team shouldn’t reinvent the wheel each time. My solution? Save time—and reduce client and employee angst—by creating a client file retention & recovery policy.
In a Facebook group for agency leaders, an owner asked for advice about a former client who did the reappearing act:
“Let’s say a client comes back to you after a six-month hiatus from billable work and requests that you send all files (which you’ve already shared at the end of the project). Seeking and posting those files would be time consuming, and there is no suggestion of future work. How do you handle this?”
Short version of the advice I gave him: Pick your battles—give them the files (and find a long-term solution, because this situation isn’t a surprise). Below, I’ve outlined a sample file retention & recovery policy to help you make this a higher-value opportunity.
NOTE: In this article, I focus on client deliverables and working files. Keep in mind that you may need to retain accounting files and legal documents under different terms—ask your accountant and attorney for advice on your situation.
Pick your battles: Be helpful… and firm
As an agency PM earlier in my career, I jumped to bill clients for this. They’d be unhappy, and wouldn’t want to pay the $250 we’d quote for it. Years later, I now think it’s a “pick your battles” situation.
Call your client’s senior contact—this isn’t an “email about it” situation, because it requires nuance. Let them know you’re glad to share the files again, but that a future request would be billable; how can you help them keep the files handy when they need them?
The same is true if you keep getting requests for files from random people at a client company, or if your original client sponsor left the company and their replacement needs help.
Vendors nitpick, but partners… partner
If you were in their shoes, how would you feel? More to the point—if you want clients to treat you like a partner instead of a vendor, stop acting like a vendor.
Find a longer-term solution to the file retention and recovery problem. Let’s take a closer look at doing that.
Be prepared: This isn’t a surprise
Many agencies struggle with this, but it’s an entirely predictable problem—clients inevitably want copies of files at some point in the future.
The original agency owner’s question raises an important point about file management—why aren’t things in a “share a single link” location? That wastes your team’s time, too, and leads to situations where employees keep key files on devices that aren’t backed up properly.
Video production agencies run into this a lot—they have gigabytes of raw video files that they can’t afford to keep forever, even as storage prices continue to drop.
After creating my speaker demo video, my video agency gave me a few options—they can store the files on-site on a flash drive for $X, put them on an external hard drive (I ship them the drive, and they charge for shipping back), or they can delete them. I opted for both the flash drive and “load to an external hard drive” option, as a belt-and-suspenders solution.
Fixing this with a client file policy
To fix this at your agency, create a policy for file retention and recovery, including how things get billed—or not billed. File recovery and retention will never be a major revenue source—but by describing it as billable (even if you typically waive a recovery fee), you value-anchor that it’s not forever-free.
When an agency owner complains about old-file requests from a client, there’s usually a lot of baggage. Agencies don’t resent sending files to someone who was been a good client. But when someone was a difficult nitpicking cheapskate, it’s different.
That resentment seems short-sighted—sending files to a bad client means you don’t need to deal with them again. (Assuming you have a policy that limits how many free shares they get, of course.)
Reduce employee angst
Even if you opt to frequently waive the fee, creating a client file retention & recovery policy has another key benefit—it makes work easier for your agency’s employees.
How so? When clients make difficult requests, your team has to decide what to do—and where to fall on the Warmth vs. Competence spectrum.
This consumes mental overhead and contributes to decision fatigue. The “what should I do?” decision is easier when they have agency values to follow, but it’s hard when they feel like they need to make a decision in a vacuum. They ask their coworkers, ask their direct manager, and worry about what to do. Each person might be following a different process, which doesn’t make for a good client experience.
Having a policy is a kindness to your employees—you want them worrying about big problems, not whether to bill for a small request or wonder if they should “waste” time on recovering files. (You’ll benefit, too, since you won’t have to make as many one-off decisions.)
[SAMPLE POLICY] Client File Retention & Recovery Policy for Your Agency
Here’s an outline of a potential policy—feel free to “steal” this, but be sure to customize it to your situation (including whether you give clients access to the editable files):
1. During our work together, we’ll create a number of electronic files. Depending on the project, this could range from dozens to hundreds of files, potentially requiring gigabytes of storage space.
2. We’ll send you a link to a Dropbox archive of the files. We recommend you download this within 30 days, ideally to multiple locations so you have extra backups. We’ll retain the files for one year.
3. Our policy is to retain files for at least one year, barring technical difficulties. We may delete them after that, unless you’ve agreed to pay us for long-term storage.
4. If you need access to the files again, we’ll share once more, as a waived-fee courtesy. If you need access more often than that, we’re glad to help—but additional requests are billable at $250 per request.
5. At the end of the project, you have several options for what we do with the files.
Option A: We retain your files on a dedicated USB flash drive at our office for five years, for $500. If we haven’t heard from you before that period ends, we may dispose of the drive.
Option B: We put the files on an external hard drive, and send the drive to you. This is $100 plus shipping; we’ll supply a Mac- and PC-compatible hard drive.
Option C: We delete the files after a year, and you send them back (from the Dropbox link you downloaded) if you need us to work on things in the future (or we charge to recreate things, if necessary).
6. If we store the files and have moved storage to our off-site facility, it may take up to a week to recover the files.
7. Please let us know within a month which option you prefer. If we don’t hear from you within a month, we’ll assume you chose Option C.
Applying a file policy at your agency
Ready to make this avoidable headache go away? Keep these points in mind.
Customize your policy, getting input from your team on likely issues and what’s doable. Get feedback from your attorney about the right language—including whether you’re creating bailment—and how to protect yourself if something catastrophic happens to your office.
Plan to share your policy during the client onboarding process, ideally getting a signature confirming receipt. When you give clients options up front, it makes it easier to charge if they change their mind later.
If you promise to retain files, you must be sure you deliver on the promise. As fertility clinics have found, you can get sued if you promise to retain something but fail to deliver.
Again, be sure to get advice from your accountant and attorney on retention requirements for financial and legal-related files!
Question: What’s your agency’s client file retention and recovery policy?
They say you only get one chance to make a first impression. Whether it’s the first day at your new job, meeting your significant other’s parents, political campaigning, or introducing yourself to new people in general, you want to come across as personable, likeable, and polished.
The same is true for a new product. Yes, it’s possible to recover from a disastrous launch, but it takes time, money, and effort. It’s much better to start on the right foot and build from the good vibes you generate from day one … because there’s a lot working against you, even when you launch flawlessly.
Somewhere between 80-85% of new consumer-packaged goods (CPG) fail each year.
So even at the “low” end, you’re staring down the barrel of an 80% fail rate.
Now, I am not in any way trying to dissuade you from bringing your idea to life and launching your product. But I do want you to know what you’re up against, and to be prepared.
“The biggest problem we’ve encountered is lack of preparation: Companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game.” ~Joan Schneider, CEO at Schneider Associates
Do everything you need to do prior to launch, and you can focus on spreading awareness and building momentum after you launch. There’s no catching up or fixing mistakes that take attention off your shiny new product.
Step 1: Mind the Gap
Fill the need. Make absolutely certain your product fills a gap in the market or fixes a problem for people. How does yours stack up?
Look at the similar products already out there. Why would someone opt for yours over those? What’s its USP?
The best way to test your product idea is to talk to people. Real people. Your target market. Create a quick and easy email or social media survey with a service like SurveyMonkey. What are people looking for, what features do existing products lack, what could they live without, what might they be willing to pay more for? Collect and analyze that data.
Talk to friends. Talk to family. Talk to colleagues. If demand and interest is there, it’s time to push forward.
Step 2: Competitive Pricing
If your product has legs in step 1, it’s time to price. And proper pricing is not something you can do quickly, nor should you try.
There’s a lot to consider: how much do similar products cost, how much will it cost you to manufacture your product, what are your overhead expenses, and on and on.
Your price needs to be competitive, but you also need to make enough profit with each sale to stay in business. It’s a fine line.
Psychological Pricing (also known as charm pricing) = ending your prices with .95 or .99 for the perceived value. $99.95 feels cheaper than $100.
Premium Pricing – intentionally pricing at round numbers to give the illusion of luxury and status. Also known as prestige pricing.
Then, of course, you can experiment with discounts, fragmented pricing (cost per month versus price per year), bundling, and more.
Are you aiming for the budget buyers – where you undercut other products – or the luxury crowd – where you price slightly higher because you’re offering a “premium” product (just make sure you can deliver what you’re promising)?
Your price needs to reflect how you’re marketing your product. Budget. Luxury. Volume. Repeat purchases.
And don’t forget that price is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. An important part of business is monitoring competitor pricing. Ever notice that prices on Amazon can change multiple times each day? Ditto with Walmart and Target.
If, after selling for a while, you determine the current price is leaving you short, you can either increase your price, decrease your costs, or increase your volume. Think carefully before you decide.
Your price is like your headline. It deserves the lion’s share of your time and effort.
Step 3: The Right Crowd
Ask yourself: who is my ideal customer?
You need to target those people. A great product with the wrong target will fail. Guaranteed.
And why do businesses and brands run out of money? Because they’re wasting time, money, and effort on the wrong people. Target those who would actually benefit from your product, and many will buy it. Target the wrong folks, and you’ll be ignored after throwing buckets of cash in the wrong direction.
That’s obviously unsustainable.
You need to create detailed buyer personas before you launch. Before you spend a penny on marketing your product.
Ask questions. Go looking for answers. Build detailed personas to guide your efforts.
Identify your target market and go after them and only them in the places both real and digital where they spend their time.
Step 4: Make a (Marketing) Plan
This is not a “wing it” situation, and far too many new companies and product launches do just that. In their eagerness to get the product “out there,” they give little thought as to how they’ll market it once it is.
Big mistake. A marketing plan is as important as the product itself.
What are your marketing goals? What channels and tactics will you use? How will you measure success? Be concrete, specific, and write it down.
A few things to remember:
Make sure your product messaging emphasizes the benefits to the user.
Never exaggerate or promise what you can’t deliver.
Where will you reach out and engage with your target? Mobile app?
Answer the “relevancy question” early in your marketing: why should your target care?
Educate your customers and leads on your product, its benefits, its USP, its advantage over the competition, and more.
A better product than your competition + a better marketing plan = a more successful business.
Step 5: Can You Handle It?
Plan for failure, yes, but don’t forget to plan for success, too.
If the product takes off, if it resonates with your target market, if it exceeds your wildest expectations, are you ready to scale up and meet that demand?
You have to be. Nothing can derail a new product faster than delivery delays and out-of-stock notices.
Those issues will generate as much – if not more – word-of-mouth buzz and kill your momentum. Before you launch, put systems and plans in place to scale up and meet the demand you hope is in the mail.
Launch before you’re ready, and you’re dead in the water.
Ask them questions on everything from marketing and the product itself, to pricing and value-added services. Ask them how you can improve your service. Ask them how you could improve your product once they’ve had a chance to use it for a while.
Ask. Analyse. And implement.
A product launch is hard enough without making it worse. Take the six steps outlined here to set yourself up for maximum success with minimum stress.
Look at good product launches for inspiration. Learn from bad ones and avoid their mistakes. Do your homework.
Launch that product the right way: in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time.
Anything to add? What tricks did you pick up during your last launch? Leave your comments below.
I’m sure you’ve heard about the disruptive forces of mobile in manufacturing and distribution companies, it’s a hot topic and for good reason. The importance of mobile in B2B eCommerce continues to grow and many companies continue to get it wrong. Unfortunately, many manufacturers and distributors think that developing a responsive site is enough.
Recently I wrote about The Top 7 Points of Failure in B2B Commerce. Only 5% of B2B eCommerce initiatives within manufacturing and distribution are actually meeting their goals and it’s largely because of a misunderstanding of B2B eCommerce. One of the failures I mentioned was that companies are stuck in a website mentality.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers and distributors view their website merely as a point of sale site for potential customers and aren’t realizing the transformational nature of eCommerce to their business as a whole. While websites can be a valuable tool for providing customers an easy way to make purchases, seeing them only as virtual cash registers can undercut the ROI of the commerce initiative itself. When it comes time to develop a mobile experience, the problems become exponentially worse. Even when organizations develop commerce experiences that incorporate more than a shopping cart, they often think that mobile responsivity is enough.
Customers are demanding robust mobile experiences, which puts the pressure on many mid-sized B2B companies. Luckily, developing a feature-rich mobile site has become a much more affordable endeavor than it was in the past. By embracing a fully capable mobile eCommerce experience, manufacturers and distributors can give customers the experience they desire, and capitalize on some fairly massive productivity gains as well.
The Customer Experience
If the customer is always right then the initial perception of your mobile eCommerce site should be your first priority. I like what Blake Morgan explained in her Forbes article: the perception your customers have of your brand is defined by their customer experience. To me, this means that a mobile site must be robust – and so much more than responsive.
Customers need to identify the brand, on the spot, and have a smooth transaction process – but the organization also has to discover value beyond the transaction to really drive strong ROI for their eCommerce system. Functionality customers expect from their B2C experiences (like list management and quick re-ordering) needs to live alongside efficiency boosters like real-time access to historical transaction information, contracts, and customized catalogs.
Productivity and Efficiency Benefits
The mobile experience has to be fully integrated with backend systems, so anyone in the field(link to field service tech blog) can have the information they need at their fingertips, without having to call the office, flip through print catalogs, or sign in and search within multiple portals.
Transaction history is only a small piece of the information that can be gained from a mobile site. Analytics and customer feedback can also be valuable tools for indicating how customers are using the mobile application. A robust B2B eCommerce native app should provide at a minimum detailed product information, purchasing options, shipping, and exchanges and returns information for manufacturers and distributors.
Out-of-the-Box Mobile Capability
Manufacturers and distributors can deliver a powerful mobile presence to customers without making a huge investment. Customizable native apps that contain the majority of core B2B eCommerce capabilities take the cost-prohibitive exclusivity of singular design out of the equation. User-friendly tools and sophisticated analytical data gathering on mobile sites create new opportunities to increase sales and enhance the customer experience by suggesting unique promotions, offering timely warranty and service options, and providing other add-on revenue possibilities.
B2B commerce includes a number of complex roles that operate in the field, from service technicians to CSR’s to salespeople. For that reason, the B2B mobile experience has to be user-friendly but also has to provide a robust capability that integrates seamlessly with backend systems.
A powerful mobile experience does contribute to the overall brand perception. Done well, it can do even more than that for manufacturers and distributors. In fact, it can transform how companies do business by accelerating productivity and efficiency throughout the B2B commerce buying journey.
Small-scale developers are the entrepreneurial spirits quietly working to make towns stronger across America. They’re young people like my colleague Kea, who just bought a four-family apartment near her home in St. Louis and is fixing it up for affordable, high-quality housing. They’re seasoned developers like Monte Anderson who, rather than taking the easy path of luxury real estate, chose to stay in their struggling neighborhoods and fill empty storefronts and apartments with new businesses and families.
Taking a structure to the next increment of development is how we create lasting wealth that will support a town for generations to come.
Unfortunately though, while converting a single family home into a modest duplex or renovating a vacant storefront for a new shop should be some of the most basic, simple processes for anyone to undertake, our cities make these sorts of developments very challenging. Rules about everything from how many parking spaces a property needs to how big a bedroom must be end up crowding out so much potential development in our communities. Even the very processes by which a developer gets approval for a project or learns what’s required for that project in the first place can be prohibitive for a small time developer without a team of lawyers and a bottomless bank account.
It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Towns and cities of any size, with any budget, can make basic changes to their local laws that would allow for a blossoming of the type of incremental development that would benefit everyone — from the young couple that can now afford a home to the business owner who can open up shop to the city that gains property taxes from a newly renovated building.
If your city requires a stack of papers this thick just to get approval for a simple addition on a home or business, something is wrong. (Source: Niklas Bildhauer)
I chatted with small scale developers from across the country for their recommendations on basic changes that any city can make to encourage and welcome development. Here are the four things that rose to the top of the list:
1. Simplify the permitting process.
A number of developers I chatted with brought up the convoluted, expensive and lengthy permitting process that so many cities require for even something as simple as adding an extra bedroom to a home or building a patio in front of a restaurant. As developer Andrew Gibson shared, “One of the most frustrating parts about dealing with most municipalities is the arbitrary nature of the process. It is nearly impossible to accurately predict review time, required documents, and total costs associated with permitting and agency required public improvements. I’ve been building for 15 years and am very diligent about trying to nail down the variables, but I am inevitably hit with some new or slightly modified requirement on most jobs. [It's] endlessly frustrating.”
The developers I talked with suggested expediting and simplifying these processes so that they can be clearly followed — and don’t require a dictionary to understand. And if your city is still requiring paper copies of proposals, move it into the 21st century and put that process online.
Cities can also ensure that permitting occurs more smoothly by having all requests and questions go through one office. Many developers I spoke with mentioned that their cities have multiple offices handling different aspects of permitting, and a basic question requires them to run around to five people just to get an answer.
House permitting in one place with a clear and simple step-by-step process and you will make developers’ lives a whole lot easier — and probably city employees’ lives easier too.
2. Reduce or waive fees for small projects with low impact.
For a small developer implementing a small project — say, converting a duplex into a triplex — the impact fees involved can be utterly cost-prohibitive. “Make impact fees actually correlate to something,” developer Danielle Zeghbib requests. “In Portland, builders pay $20k in system development fees per unit, regardless of whether the unit is a 250 sq ft microunit in an apartment building, or a 3,500 sq ft [single family home].”
When you account for the fact that infill development does not require new roads, street lights or sidewalks, or add much to the municipal budget at all — especially in relation to the tax value per acre that these sorts of developments provide — lowering impact fees is a no-brainer if it means that more vacant spaces will become productive places.
These sorts of requirements drastically limit the ability of a developer to do simple things like add a small unit onto an existing home or build a second story onto a one-floor commercial space. Most of these requirements stem from imagined concerns about over-crowding. In reality, the majority of neighborhoods will not suffer or even look much different if every house is no longer required to have a large front lawn and a two-car garage.
And any concern over a house that looks slightly different than the others on the block should be mitigated by the knowledge that removing requirements about lot size, parking, FAR and open space will allow more people to be affordably housed and more businesses to be able to open. Get rid of these requirements and you open the door to lots of valuable development in your city.
Quiz: Does this neighborhood have single family homes or multifamily apartments? Answer: Both. In the above picture, duplexes and single family homes blend seamlessly with one another. (Source: Tim Evanson)
4. Allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and accessory dwelling units in single-family zones by right.
Permitting the next increment of development — like a single family home becoming a duplex — is the simplest, most low-lift and high-return step we can take in growing our cities. So many of our neighborhoods are full of single family homes that are either empty or occupied by a family that is barely scraping together their mortgage payment each month. Imagine how many more people could become homeowners and live in housing they can afford if we allowed for the creation of some smaller, lower cost units in our neighborhoods. Suddenly, seniors who are getting too old to live alone wouldn’t have to give up their homes and move to a senior center on the edge of town, but could instead live in a unit on the same property with another family member. Suddenly, young families who can’t afford to buy a whole single family home could live in a duplex and gain rental income from the other unit.
Furthermore, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can blend seamlessly in any single-family zone so any concerns about “neighborhood character” changing if these developments are allowed by right can be put to rest immediately.
“Allow things to be built by-right, without having to go to a planning commission or city council,” says Strong Towns member Grant Henninger. “That’s the hardest thing for cities to give up, but if there is a good code that ensures the types of development that the commission/council would approve anyway, then there is little risk of giving up that control.”
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If you’re interested in learning more about how to adjust the codes in your city to be more welcoming to developers, check out these resources:
CNU’s Project for Code Reform seeks to streamline the code reform process by providing local governments place-specific incremental coding changes that address the most problematic barriers first, build political will, and ultimately create more walkable, prosperous, and equitable places.
Lean Urbanism offers several helpful resources for encouraging small-scale, incremental development.
The Incremental Development Alliance educates small scale developers and also works with cities to conduct “stress testing” on local regulations and helps them create a near term pathway for the legalization of small scale development.
I’ll close by adding a final word of caution to local government leaders who might be reading this article and thinking: “Development? We don’t want more development in our city. We just want things to stay the same…”
Let me offer another way to frame development: “expanded tax base.” Whether it’s new homes or new businesses, an occupied, fixed up space will contribute far more to your community’s tax base than a vacant, empty one. That tax base means the ability to provide better police and fire protection, put more teachers in classrooms, fix up local parks… you name it.
So before you shake your head at the prospect of “new development” because you’re worried that neighbors might oppose it, remember that that new development should be an asset for your community. Of course, some businesses — like a liquor store or a strip club — might not have a positive influence on your city. But chances are, that small apartment building someone wants to fix up and that new shop someone wants to build on a street corner are going to offer far more benefit for your city and your residents than any gut reaction against change might suggest.
Take any one of the four simple steps above and you'll be putting your city on track to welcome more productive development and, in doing so, to become a stronger town.
LinkedIn profile tips to leverage the new 2018 layout design
Once again LinkedIn has updated the profile design.The top header of your profile now shows more relevant details you want people to learn about you immediately upon viewing your profile. Here are some LinkedIn profile tips to help you make the most of the new update.
Edit Your Header Image
You notice your profile picture now is on the left side versus the middle of the header. You may have to edit your header images if the placement of your picture covers up any text. The header image is 1584px X 396px. The image size has not changed.
LinkedIn profile tip one is to leverage this header space to brand yourself and your company. A great image attracts people and helps you stand out from the crowd. You can create a custom graphic using a tool such a Canva or upload a favorite photo that speaks to who you are, just don’t leave the space blank with the default blue space.
Here is the updated version you see from desktop:
Create a Compelling LinkedIn Headline
Your LinkedIn profile headline is now left justified. Be sure your headline includes your keywords that identify your title or what you do. I encourage you to add words that are interesting and compelling and avoid the most overused buzz words that I share in my article, Is your LinkedIn Profile Dominated with Overused, Meaningless Words?
You have 120 characters to let people know who you are, so use them wisely. Please do not add the name of your company after your title as it is not necessary because your company name is in your experience section.
NEW to the right of your headline now shows your current company, where you went to school, your complete contact info and a link to our connections. Your contact information is the most important part of this section and you want to make it easy for people to get ahold of you.
In addition, add your website URL’s, phone and address if applicable. In the example above, I do not want to add my address, so I have added additional keywords to describe what I do. Take advantage of all the contact space available and make it easy.
LinkedIn Summary Section – Tell Your Story
Notice in the new profile design you see above three full lines from your summary description show up before the ‘show more’ link. Previously you only saw two lines as shown in the image below. This is prime real estate in your LinkedIn profile so be sure those first lines are speaking to your ideal connection if you are prospecting or start to tell your career story. The goal is to encourage the profile visitor to click on the ‘show more’ to learn additional details.
With the summary section you are allowed 2000 characters to tell your story. Be creative, informative and clear. Know your objectives for being on LinkedIn. It could be as simple as relationship management, brand awareness, building authority in a niche market or prospecting. LinkedIn profile tip – some of my colleagues suggest putting your contact information at the beginning of your summary so it appears front and center, I however like the idea of using language that tells the visitor right off how you help because the contact information is now to the right of your headline. It is something to test and see if you gather feedback.
Put yourself in the shoes of the visitor, will they know where you work, what you do and something more about? Will they know your career history, what you’re good at and how you serve others?
Add Multi-media in Summary
Three thumbnail images of your multi-media are now being show directly under the first three lines of your summary (see the first image at the top of the page). Previously there were no images showing unless you scrolled down into each section of the profile. You want to be sure the image, video or PDF shows something interesting enough that the visitor may click on them.
Multi-media in general adds visual interest to your profile coupled with the visual adding some value to your visitor. This is a great section to add a company informational video, images of your product or service or a PDF white paper that a visitor can download.
Update LinkedIn Skills Section
Have you noticed the updated version of the skills section? LinkedIn is now dividing your skills into topic categories. They are industry knowledge, tools & technologies, interpesonaal skills, and a all encompassing bucket titled “other skills.” LinkedIn is using some form of artificial intelligence to sort and categorize. Remember, you can search by skill and recruiter especially use this feature to find and vet candidates. I encourage you to update this section of your profile and be sure it is up to date.
LinkedIn Endorsements
As a strategy to stay top or mind with specific people in your network such as clients and prospects I recommend you go directly to the individual’s profile and endorse some of the skills you have knowledge about. It helps their profile in terms of credibility and they are notified that you took the time to endorse or I like to say, recognize them. Often, those same people will reciprocate and endorse you back.
The desktop version is what is shown above, however, mobile version is different (see below).
You are asked to rate the skill and confirm how you know they have this skill.
LinkedIn Experience Section
Often, I see LinkedIn profiles that have the name of the business and the individuals title and little to no description. Don’t assume the visitor knows what your company does or what your role is with the company.
Be clear about what your company does, and bullet point out your services. When I update individual profiles I also like to articulate who the types of clients the company serves along with the type of results they can expect working with the individual and company. If a visitor must guess what you do, they most likely will move on and not take the time to ask.
Conclusion: LinkedIn Profile Tips
Think of your LinkedIn profile as a resource so when visitors open it, they know who you are, what you do and why you are credible. Tell your story in both words and multi-media. Don’t be afraid to be both unique and willing to share your accomplishments. Remember, people are most often meeting us online before we meet offline and first impressions matter and it starts with a profile that is complete, engaging and informative.
Managers value predictability; it gives them a sense of control over external events. In my experience, results that do not match initial expectations are not normally welcomed, and actions are quickly put in place to restore performance to expected levels.
Even results that are way above original forecasts are treated with suspicion and scepticism. Once, when I was leading a trial of a new retail format that delivered 25% sales growth, several executives bent over backwards to find reasons why the results weren’t credible and should be ignored!
Unusual events can, however, be the catalyst for innovation and growth. They represent an opportunity that should be exploited, not a random variation that should be quashed.
Spotting such opportunities requires an open, experimental organisation that is dedicated to delivering new growth, rather than simply protecting the status quo. Here are five sources of unexpected opportunities – which of them could help accelerate growth for your business?
Unforeseen successes.No7, the skincare brand of UK drugstore retailer, Boots the Chemists, enjoyed a dramatic sales increases when one of the products in the range, Protect and Perfect, was shown on a TV documentary to actually reduce wrinkles. Boots massively ramped up production to meet the queues forming outside its stores and has since leveraged this success with further brand and range developments to drive further growth.
Unexpected failures.Failures as well as successes can be a source for new growth opportunities. Despite favourable market research, sales of Coke declined when Coca-Cola introduced ‘New Coke’ in 1985. The company, however, re-introduced the old recipe, telling customers it had listened to them and re-emphasised the qualities of the original product. As a result, the company delivered significant sales uplifts.
Small victories within bigger defeats. When Lou Gerstener joined IBM in the mid-1990s, he led a company that was making record corporate losses. Within the core computer hardware business, however, he realised that the technical support teams were highly valued by IBM’s customers. Gerstener used his consulting background to turn this cost centre into a new business unit and, within 10 years of its launch, IBM Global Serviceswas delivering 35% of the group’s profits.
Unexpected side-effects. 3M, perhaps the avatar innovative company, only became successful when it moved into abrasives in the early twentieth century. This move was driven by a desperate desire to do something with the minerals and grit the company had on its hands from its failed mining business (3M’s name comes from its original title – Minnesota Mining and Minerals Company).
Unforeseen external events.Economic shocks, technology breakthroughs, political changes and shifts in customer tastes can all dramatically affect product and service markets. Instead of bemoaning your fate, your focus should be in identifying what opportunity these changes create. Waitrose, the high-end UK grocer, for example, responded to the 2008 economic crisis by creating and launching its lower-priced Waitrose Essentials range which accounted for 15% of its total sales within a year, attracted new customers to its stores, and increased the number of items purchased by shoppers on each visit.
So, how do you turn unexpected events into innovation and growth? Here are three steps you can take tomorrow:
Review your business and your markets for each of the five sources of opportunities. Identify both where you have made progress and where you haven’t seized the initiative, and agree to specific plans for missed opportunities.
For those areas where you haven’t identified new opportunities for growth, review and identify possible new business ideas and select those with the greatest potential for further development.
In the face of unexpected events, create a mindset and approach that looks for the growth opportunity rather than one that merely seeks to minimize the risks.
There will come a time when you, as the business owner, need to start saying no. It’s far too often than I see business owners running themselves ragged for projects that don’t make them money. Or, I see them taking deals that, quite frankly, are not fair to them.
If we expect to actually make money, we need to learn how to start saying no. This seems counterintuitive, and I admit that I didn’t understand it for a long time. After all, aren’t we supposed to take every opportunity that comes our way? Isn’t that how you build a successful business?
The answer is yes and no. In the beginning, we definitely have to say yes to opportunities. This is because we’re just getting started. Additionally, we don’t yet have the experience to know what works for us and what doesn’t. We may also want to try our hands at different things until we figure out what actually makes us money. I know this is something I definitely did for years as I uncovered what my business should be. Those days of experimenting were really valuable for the brand I have today.
However – and this is a big however – at some point this needs to stop. This is because at some point you need to narrow your focus otherwise your message becomes muddled. Additionally, at some point, you’re simply too busy and your time is too valuable to do stuff that won’t move the needle forward.
It’s business owners who don’t know when or how to start saying no that usually suffer from the following:
I know because unfortunately I see it all the time. I also used to do it myself until I learned how to get more comfortable with saying no. Here are some of my hard-learned tips for learning how to say no as a business owner.
Accept the fact that you will feel guilty.
A lot of us are people pleasers. We want to make sure we look good and do our best by people. Sometimes this leads us to overextending ourselves to our own detriment. Because of this, we often feel pangs of guilt when we say no because we feel like we’re letting someone down.
It’s time to get over it. Or accept the fact that yes, you’re going to feel guilty, but it’s not the end of the world.
The reality is that we need to take care of ourselves before we can be there for other people. Kind of like the airplane oxygen mask instructions where they tell you to put your own mask on first. You need to make sure you’re breathing and don’t pass out before you can help someone else with their mask.
Think of it this way. If you’re overextending yourself one of two things happens. Either you start dropping the ball and do shoddy work or you start resenting the people who are asking you to do stuff. Either way, it affects the quality of work. So, in actuality, saying yes when you should be saying no doesn’t serve anyone.
Determine your priorities.
If you’re overscheduling yourself, it’s likely because you don’t have any priorities. At some point in your life and business your priorities become pretty basic. For example, my priorities include making money, spending time with friends and family and catering to my own health.
This means that at this stage in my career if it doesn’t make me money somehow then I’m not doing it. This tends to really narrow down the list for me. Additionally, if it gets in the way of personal time or my health, I’m not doing it either.
This is one of the reasons I’ve taken a break from so much travel this year. First, it was getting in the way of making money because I was distracted and burned out. Second, my priorities shifted toward focusing on some things in my personal life and that requires me to be in one place for a while.
The less time I have, the more valuable it becomes. Which segues into my next point.
Realize your time is literally money.
As a business owner, your time is literally money. You’re not getting paid a salary therefore you need to actually be productive with your time. It also means you need to focus on projects that are a fair exchange of value for your time.
For example, earlier today I saw an email go out for some spokesperson work for a major brand. The requirements were absolutely included having influencers shut down the ads on their sites and exclusivity for three months. The requirements themselves weren’t that crazy had they offered proper compensation. Instead, they had a low-ball offer which makes the effort pointless because you’ll probably lose money in the end due to the requirements.
The sad part is, someone will take that gig. They will take it either because they don’t know they should be getting paid thousands for this kind of work or because they will take anything. In either scenario, they’ve said yes to something that takes away their time, energy and money.
Another example is continuing to do things that have already proven not to yield any revenue. Granted, this looks different for everyone, but you know what that is for your business. Why continue doing it? Especially when you likely don’t need any exposure as you already have plenty.
Set boundaries and stick to them.
As a business owner, taking back your time means you need to stick to the boundaries you put forth. This means that saying no is only one part of the equation. You need to say no and act accordingly.
This may look like walking away from a project because it doesn’t pay enough, even though you’re worried you’re blowing it. Either they come back offering more money or you don’t have to waste your time. It’s a win win either way.
If you don’t do that, you send the message that you don’t value yourself therefore they shouldn’t either. One way in which business owners do this is by immediately offering discounts on their services when no one even mentioned it. Or, someone says they can’t afford it and instead of saying no and walking away, the business owner lowballs themselves.
It may also look like doing things that make you uncomfortable. Like not immediately answering every email that comes in. Or saying no when colleagues are in town because you’re burned out from business travel. Or in some cases, setting someone straight.
Final Thoughts
Setting boundaries isn’t just a radical act of self-care, it’s a radical act of self-respect. And, in the business world, having respect will get you really far. Not only will it help you earn more money, but you won’t be constantly stressed out by things that are completely unnecessary.
So either you make more money or you have more time. In most cases, it’s both. It’s taken me five years to see how this actually works, don’t make the same mistakes I did and start saying no from the beginning.
Email marketing has long been the crown jewel of digital marketing; for all the advances we’ve seen in social media and targeted ad-buying, email is still the most effective way to reach out directly to consumers. It’s no surprise, then, that so many marketers still say email marketing is their top priority, their secret weapon.
But maybe you don’t see what all the fuss is about. Maybe your own email marketing efforts don’t yield those strong results. No worries: With a few simple tweaks, you can discover what makes email marketing such a gamechanger. Here are a few suggestions that are easy to implement and can make a huge difference in your email marketing ROI.
Think About Mobile
Statistics show that mobile devices have overtaken desktop computers in terms of overall Web use—and that certainly includes email. Just ask yourself: How often do you receive and read emails on your mobile device? Chances are, quite often. So, the emails you send should be optimized with mobile users in mind.
Some specific recommendations:
Keep it short! All your content—from the subject line to the body of the email—will appear much longer on the mobile screen, simply because the screen itself is narrower. Keep subject lines to six or seven words, if possible, and your body content to around 100.
Be careful with the images you use. Think about how they’ll look on mobile screens, especially when the phone is held vertically.
Ensure that all your CTAs are easy to tap! Big buttons are ideal.
Think About Timing
Another important email marketing consideration is when you send your messages. There are specific times that occasionally work better; the members of your target audience are more likely to read the emails they receive at certain junctures in their day. The tough part is figuring out when those prime times are.
Some tips:
Look at your campaign data. Experiment with some different sending times and see if you can identify a correlation between send time and open rates.
Also bear in mind your buyer personas. Walk yourself through a day in the life of your target consumer and think about when you would be most likely to open and read an email.
Think About Your Audience
The value of email marketing is that it allows you to send the right message to the right people—but of course, this is contingent on you segmenting your email list properly. When we talk about email segmenting, we simply mean dividing your list into different groups, allowing you to match your message to your recipients. (For example, Grammar Chic, Inc. has marketing and copywriting clients, and we have resume clients—two discreet groups with different interests, and thus, two distinct groups for email marketing messaging.)
There can be some overlap between segments, and you probably want to refine and revise your segments over time. The important thing is to ensure that the content you deliver matches the interests of your recipients, as well as their location in the sales funnel.
Last month, an annual gathering of top manufacturing experts took place at MODEX, one of the world’s largest conferences for manufacturing and supply chain solutions. This year’s theme was “future-proofing your business,” and suppliers presented the next-generation of equipment and technology that will propel companies into the future of manufacturing.
Although the idea of automation excites many in the industry, it can also be met with apprehension and distrust, especially among factory workers who fear that their jobs might be replaced. The reality is that these innovations actually help move workers out of dangerous and mundane jobs and into new, more strategic jobs that empower them through more cerebral work and management roles.
A robot workforce may seem like the distant future, but even today the human-robot workforce is already at work for many global brands, creating safer and more efficient supply chains worldwide.
Here are four benefits that robots will bring to the manufacturing workforce.
Empower Workers to Do More Engaging Work
Automating dirty, dull, and dangerous tasks frees up employees to focus on aspects of their jobs that require creativity and decision-making skills – in particular, areas that truly add value to the organization. For instance, in an automated work environment, employees that once spent most of their time driving forklifts are being trained to operate software that oversees robot movement throughout their factories and learning to optimize supply chain automation. As manufacturers continue to add automation, human employees will enjoy more fulfilling and productive work.
Support Worker Safety On The Job
In the United States alone, someone dies in a forklift accident every three days, not including near-misses and the 120,000 additional injuries per year. Workers are also often required to perform physically taxing maneuvers to complete tasks, including lifting, pushing, or pulling heavy loads. Over time, these types of repetitively straining activities can lead to back problems and other chronic health issues. Automating heavy, dangerous jobs with vehicles that are smart enough to safely work alongside humans significantly improves working conditions within manufacturing plants.
Increase Efficiency Through Data Collection
By using robots for everyday tasks, companies gain performance data and other metrics that give a deeper view into the efficiency of their supply chain operations. Production workers and management can leverage insights to continuously improve performance and processes. Consistently showing gains in productivity and efficiency not only helps the business but also improves worker morale – especially as they are no longer burdened with all the dull and repetitive tasks to achieve that efficiency. Better data leads to better overall performance and individual career advancement.
Fill Labor Shortages
Many U.S. factories are having trouble filling open positions for a variety of reasons, and robots can help fill the void for companies that are unable to find humans to do the job. When automation closes labor gaps, it helps current workers by relieving the daily burdens and pressures associated with being understaffed. When production is adequately staffed, facilities are able to meet business goals, stay competitive, and support local economies by keeping the doors open. Robots are also a lot more scalable when there are spikes in demand. For example, self-driving vehicles can be up and running in less than a day–with routes trained and replicated across a fleet, while training for powered industrial truck drivers can take weeks.
The introduction of automated technologies will undoubtedly lead to a shift in the responsibilities of the human workforce, but this does not mean that human workers will become obsolete. Rather, shifting undesirable, repetitive, and dangerous work to robots frees up human workers to take on roles that allow them to showcase their creativity and problem-solving skills. It is imperative that companies realize the positive impacts that automation can bring if they hope to compete in tomorrow’s economy.
The following post is copyrighted by Return On Now – Austin Internet Marketing Consulting Services
Think about the last item you purchased a product or service. Then consider why you chose that specific option. Nine times out of ten, you were influenced by the review or advisement of someone who had experience with the product.
According to study conducted by TrustRadius, 76 percent of respondents who were in an active buying cycle used reviews to help them evaluate, discover, or select items.
People care about what other people think regarding products or services. Why? Because they feel they are getting an unbiased opinion from fellow customers.
This is why it is essential for companies to include customer reviews in their marketing strategy. Not only will reviews provide tangible marketing benefits, but you can also see improvements to the bottom line with this strategy in hand.
Seven Ways To Encourage Customer Reviews
According to this survey, a one-star increase on Yelp leads to a five-to-nine percent increase in business revenue. The positives are there, so here are seven ways companies can encourage customer reviews within their overall marketing strategy.
Ask them
This may seem like too straightforward of an approach, but it can go a long way. Companies can send follow-up emails after customers receive a product or service, asking them to enter their testimonials or feedback.
Email marketing tools, such as MailChimp and SendGrid, can help automate this process. With automation, you can collect reviews at scale.
Make existing reviews easy for sales reps to access
Ensure that your sales representatives and staff know exactly where they can grab the best testimonials to use with prospective clients. Always label your testimonials according to type of review and associated product.
With the proper organization, your internal teams will be able to easily use them in email correspondence, phone calls with prospects, and demo training. You can even go so far as to make these statements a part of your company culture.
Use negative reviews to showcase customer service
Direct your marketing teams to spend time visiting sites like Yelp or Google, in order to thank customers when your business receives positive reviews.
When your company gets a negative customer review, don’t be too concerned or apprehensive about it. Use it as an opportunity — this is an excellent time to showcase customer service.
Marketers can directly respond to negative reviews and even give customers a number or email to call to receive better service. According to TrustRadius, 65 percent of customers look for negative reviews to see how companies manage feedback.
If you handle it properly, it can actually work to your advantage down the road.
Incorporate reviews into webpage copy and marketing collateral
Once you collect a number of reviews, be sure to include reviews in as many places as possible. You can use them in blog posts, web copy, brochures, landing pages, email newsletters, etc.
You’ll even be able to benefit the company by pointing out the ways you’re improving on negative reviews and comments over time.
Use it to increase SEO rankings
SEO practices help companies organically rank their websites high on search engines like Google and Bing. SEO requires marketers to intelligently mix in keywords throughout the webpage copy and blog posts to rank for various keywords.
Your website stands to benefit from ranking on a wider range of keywords if you decide to weave in customer reviews on website copy. In this way, reviews can stand to help you generate ongoing copy additions without having to craft entirely new web pages or blog posts on a daily basis.
Reach customers in the discovery process
In the poll referenced earlier, 62 percent of “shoppers” were early stage buyers in the discovery phase. Customers use this phase to find out as much as they can about a product.
You can help potential customers move forward through the discovery process by providing current product descriptions with reviews available for each item.
Think like the customers, and you’ll better be able to present them with the right information to consider when they are searching for an item that fits their needs.
Include comparison reviews
Comparison reviews, i.e. those that compare competitive products to your own offerings, can be massively beneficial to winning over new customers.
These types of reviews can draw a picture that explicitly details how the products differ from one another. And that, very often, will give you a leg up on the competition.
By showing how customers hold your product(s) in high regard, you will position yourself very strongly in the eyes of prospects and customers.
Conclusion
People want to feel they can trust companies. The voice of an unbiased customer is a huge benefit to you in earning that trust with new prospects.
By employing this strategy, you will enjoy an improved reputation and a high level of authenticity among your target audiences. What’s more, it has become much easier to collect customer reviews than at any time in the past.
Companies who prioritize customer reviews will position their businesses for increased conversions and a growing number of favorable reviews.
Reviews, in turn, help customers save on a precious resource: time.
If customers can spare the time of intensive research by reading a customer review on your website, it will be an added benefit as these same consumers look for the right product.
If you’re in Sales and you get your leads from Marketing, quit trying to kid anyone. You like it that way. Let’s come clean on the reason — you hate having to prospect.
It’s time to grow up, put on your big boy or big girl sales pants and accept responsibility. As much as you don’t like having to prospect, by having Marketing gather your leads it gives you an easy out when you miss your number.
You can admit it quietly. Nobody will hear you. But by having Marketing gather your leads, they become an easy scapegoat when you fall short on your sales quota.
I’m tired of this nonsense between Sales and Marketing.
It’s time for Sales to take control and own the entire prospecting process, including all lead generation. Don’t go whining over your quarterly spreadsheet about this, but rather own up to it.
If those of us in Sales are going to be responsible for quarterly numbers, then we need to own the entire process from start to finish.
We in Sales are the best ones to identify who is a good prospect and even who is a good lead to check out. We’re the best ones, because we know who makes the best customer.
Once we in sales make the move and assume control, we can’t then create an even bigger problem by making lead generation be the responsibility of the newest person on the sales team. This is a recipe for failure. Why would anyone put the person who knows the least be the one who determines what goes into the top of the funnel? This logic doesn’t make sense.
Solution to all of this is every member of the sales team, regardless of their tenure or size of accounts they handle, needs to be have a prospecting quota objective. High-performing salespeople know what a perfect customer looks like. They know this because they’re selling to them regularly. Because they know who a perfect customer is, it only makes sense for them to be able to identify who a perfect prospect is.
It’s time we in Sales own the entire prospecting process and allow Marketing to do what they do best, and that is to build awareness and educate the marketplace.
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When you’re looking at hundreds or thousands of sales leads and accounts over the course of a year, getting the information you need on them even a little bit faster adds up.
Today, we want to share a new set of capabilities designed to improve the Sales Navigator experience and get you closer to the information you need.
New Lead Page — Fewer Clicks. More Insights.
We completely redesigned the Sales Navigator lead page to highlight the most important details. You can quickly check if a lead is relevant, discover the best person to reach out to for a warm intro and even jump directly to the matching record in your CRM system.
On the new lead page, you are one click away from sending that lead an email or LinkedIn message, jumping to their social pages or website to learn a bit more about them, or opening up a Google Map of their office location. You can see additional emails, phone numbers, website URLs, social handles and office addresses pulled from both their LinkedIn profile and your CRM in one place. And if you add, say, a social handle for a person in Sales Navigator, that information is shared with other team members on the same Sales Navigator contract, so your whole team becomes more productive.
In short, the new lead page is more than just a pretty face — it helps you get your work done faster.
New Mobile Account Page — Company Information at Your Fingertips
In our first QPR, we announced a brand new account page experience for desktop. And now we’re doing the same for the Sales Navigator mobile app.
With the new mobile account page we highlight the most important information on top, and not only let you see a description of the company and the number of employees, but also let you jump directly to the company website or open up driving directions in Google Maps or Apple Maps.
We also added sections that let you drill down on unique Linkedin information like department sizes and growth rates, recommended leads at that company, and the most recent and relevant company news.
Sales Navigator Application Platform — It’s Becoming a Movement
Ever since we launched the Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP) program, we’ve seen incredible adoption by customers and partners alike. Our partners are providing key Sales Navigator insights within the applications sales professionals use daily in categories like CRM, Marketing Automation, Business Intelligence, Sales Acceleration, Web Conferencing and eSignature.
Our ecosystem continues to grow and we’re proud to introduce several new partners who have Sales Navigator integrations that are live as of today:
CRM: SAP Hybris, Pegasystems
Marketing Automation: Oracle Eloqua
Business intelligence: Clari
Sales Acceleration: Groove
GDPR — We’re Ready
Last, but certainly not least, we’ve taken a number of steps to make sure Sales Navigator meets GDPR requirements not only for our European customers, but for Sales Navigator customers around the world. We already had a head start as a members-first company, but we’ve recently made additional changes that let you export or delete Sales Navigator data and outlined the full set of permissions and changes on a GDPR FAQ page for Sales Navigator.
Finally, we’ve recently obtained full ISO 27001 and 27018 certification for Sales Navigator, reinforcing our commitment to the privacy and security of your data.
To learn more about the updates in today’s announcement, visit our page here.
In the early 1900s Henry Ford pioneered mass production of automobiles. He divided the roles of workers so that they each specialized in one aspect of production, thus increasing productivity and lowering costs.
Similarly, companies now seek to bring efficiencies to their lead management and sales processes. The purpose is to close more deals faster and more cost-effectively. Just as Ford used specialization on the manufacturing floor, sales and marketing leaders are learning the value divvying up sales roles to achieve higher revenues.
There are two reasons why narrowly defining your sales roles can increase your success. First, each sales associate is empowered to become an expert in their more focused position. Second, different sales functions require unique skills and personality characteristics. If you split up the responsibilities, you can hire people who are most likely to succeed in each specialty.
The Four Sales Roles
Inbound and outbound business development representatives (BDRs) are responsible for the top of the sales funnel. They ensure a lead is qualified — worth the time for an account executive to pursue it. Once the BDR qualifies a lead, he or she manages the handoff to the account executive, who is responsible for closing the sale. After that, an account manager is assigned to retain and grow the customer.
Below is more detail on the four roles necessary to implement this sales process.
The Lead Farmers: Inbound BDRsInbound BDRs are responsible for qualifying leads that come from incoming calls and from those who fill in forms on your website. Their job is to ensure these leads are interested in solving a problem which fits with the company’s expertise, have a budget to invest in the solution, the authority to make the decision and the urgency to take action. Once they qualify the leads, BDRs set up appointments with them for your account executives.
Because a quick response to incoming leads significantly increases the chance of qualification, the inbound rep must follow up rapidly — within five minutes of a phone call and 30 minutes of a content download. Sometimes BDRs can qualify leads immediately. In many cases, however, the BDR needs to nurture the lead via email, content and phone calls. As nurturers, they are the farmers of the sales and marketing process along with the marketing team that may supplement their efforts by sending automated emails.
Once a lead score is high enough to indicate they are ready to talk with an account executive, the inbound rep ensures all background notes about them are clear, summarizes next steps and either introduces the two parties by email or makes a phone appointment or arranges an online meeting.
When looking for inbound reps, seek professionals with the competencies similar to those of customer service reps. They must have excellent communication and active listening skills, be quick learners and possess a customer-first attitude. Also, because they need to react quickly to new leads, they must have a sense of urgency.
The Bloodhounds: Outbound BDRsOutbound BDRs are the bloodhounds of sales who have to track down their leads on LinkedIn, market intelligence software, business directories and more. Then they doggedly pursue them via emails, social media and cold calls. Once they qualify leads, like inbound BDRS, they are responsible for handing them off to the account executives.
Note that the research and cold outreach make the outbound rep’s job more challenging than that of the inbound rep. However, because these reps can target businesses that are the best fit for the company, and who otherwise might not find your organization, the rewards from their work may be more significant. If you do not separate inbound and outbound business development, reps are likely to gravitate toward the low-hanging fruit — the leads handed to them on a platter. Since the juiciest fruit may be dangling from the highest branches that only outbound reps can reach, it’s beneficial to separate these functions.
Outbound BDRs are hunters — good researchers who can engage in a conversation about your product or solution with someone who may know little or nothing about your organization. They enjoy selling, think out of the box, want some flexibility in their sales approach and have strong communication skills.
The Deal Makers: Account ExecutivesAccount executives close the sales. They usually have their areas of specialization, such as by geography, product or industry. As such, they can talk in depth about how your solution can help an organization, educating prospects on the benefits, overcoming objections and negotiating the deal.
These individuals are competitive, persistent, persuasive and results-oriented. Also, they have empathy for buyers, are good listeners and can think on their feet.
The Customer Cultivators: Account ManagersLanding an account is one thing. Keeping that customer and expanding your company’s sales to them is another. An account manager who is responsible for cultivating the account can handle this task. They do so by making sure the customer gains the highest value from your product or solution and by introducing them to other products and services that can help. Account managers build relationships, serve as the customer’s advocate within your organization and keep their ears to the ground for new opportunities.
As with all sales roles, your account managers should have effective communication skills. They also must be good organizers, relationship builders and strategic thinkers. Finally, they must be willing to push clients beyond their comfort zones and have the credibility to do so due to their depth of experience.
Separating sales roles helps make your sales organization more productive, plus it enables you to search for people with the right skills, knowledge and experience for each position.
The last year has seen business organizations reviewing data policies, implementing reforms, and strengthening data privacy and security measures in their companies.
All these to satisfy one document–the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The GDPR is an EU policy for the protection of personal data that’s set for enforcement this coming May 25. By now, we’re well aware that the GDPR will have huge impacts on marketing and IT. But how should sales teams adjust to the GDPR? Will sales teams be affected, or should sales go on as usual?
In business, everything is connected, and so we expect the effects of GDPR on marketing and IT to trickle down to sales, the lifeblood of any company.
Here are five things sales teams should know about the GDPR and its possible impacts on their work.
Data subjects have expanded rights under the GDPR.
The GDPR introduces these rights for data subjects:
Right of access. This refers to a subject’s right to know details about the use of his/her data.
Right to rectification. Controllers have a responsibility to correct inaccurate data or complete information about a subject.
Right to erasure or right to “be forgotten.” This means that a subject can request the immediate erasure, deletion or removal of his/her personal data.
Right to restriction of processing. With this right, a subject can request controllers to limit processing done to their data.
Right to data portability. Controllers are obligated to provide data in a “structured” form, or simply, in an easily digestible form.
Right to object to processing. This means that subjects can, at any point, object to processing done to their data.
Right to refuse automated decision-making and profiling. A subject can refuse to let non-humans (read: AI) process his/her data.
Understanding these rights is essential to grasping the full impact of GDPR on your sales funnel. If you know what the subject is entitled to, then you can adjust your sales process and prepare for possible conflicts.
You’re likely to get fewer but higher-quality marketing leads.
If you source leads from third-party sources, then chances are high that those are acquired without consent– a possible violation of the GDPR.
Requirements regarding consent will force marketers to be more conscientious in lead generation. Instead of grabbing every searchable email, marketers would need to secure permission from prospects before inputting their names and emails in your marketing list.
This will inevitably lead to sales teams working with fewer but warmer leads. This can yield higher conversion rates, but the smaller pool means salespeople may also need to source leads on their own.
You need consent for cold emailing and email tracking.
Cold emailing and tracking both involve the recording and use of personal data and are thus subject to the GDPR. They are complicated as they can be construed as spamming, an absolute no-no in the GDPR.
To be on the safe side, it’s best to get your subjects’ consent for these purposes. Explicit consent is one of the six lawful grounds for processing data cited by the GDPR. You could get consent by sending prospects opt-in forms and explaining why you’ll be sending them emails and tracking their email activity.
Contacting prospects via phone isn’t prohibited–but it needs to be justified.
Chapter 2, Article 6 (1)(f) of the GDPR recognizes the intention of companies to market their products or services as a legitimate reason for contacting prospects. This sounds like a win for sales, but this recital is countered by the EU’s Data Protection Working Party with a document emphasizing checks and balances regarding “legitimate interest.”
So, to be clear: you can still cold call but you need to justify it. A tip here would be to record calls and secure consent first before uploading personal data obtained during these calls to any database.
Sales teams have to work closely with marketing to reduce risks of violating the GDPR.
Personal data flows into an organization from various channels. Sometimes, they’re collected by the marketing team from second or third-party sources. Sometimes, sales reps get personal information directly from prospects. This multichannel situation isn’t a problem–it’s just part of reality.
The GDPR, with its stricter regulations on personal data privacy and security, challenges sales and marketing teams to work together to ensure that every bit of info we have on our customers is properly acquired (with the consent or lawful basis) and stored for a legitimate purpose. To avoid fines and penalties, we have to scrutinize sales and marketing processes, bridge gaps, and align overall data policies and procedures with the GDPR.
With the GDPR coming into force soon, it’s imperative to get the whole organization on board with GDPR compliance. When all teams are actively engaged for GDPR compliance, your business will survive this new wave of data regulations–and possibly, benefit from it.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly making a massive impact on the world, and creating new and unexpected ventures in marketing. Naturally, AI is driving marketers to wonder how their careers will be impacted by it. The rise of this technology brings a sense of uncertainty for marketing talent, leaving them concerned in some cases about the security of their jobs.
So, what is the likelihood of marketers being completely replaced by machines and robots? How much time do marketing professionals have to prepare for a possible takeover?
Digital Talent Agency Shares How AI Helps Marketers Work Smarter
Fortunately, as a digital talent agency, we can assure that AI isn’t sophisticated enough to completely replace humans in marketing. While the full potential of AI is still obscure and unfolding, there are certain human traits and characteristics even the most advanced AI applications lack. Advanced human skills like storytelling, leadership, empathy, creativity, communication, and imagination are irreplaceable.
Instead of thinking of AI as a disruption in marketing, it’s better to think of it as a way to transform and improve how you work. AI amplifies the capabilities of marketing professionals and creates new opportunities for them to make a bigger impact and contribute to the business in more valuable ways.
Staying ahead and picking up key skills is necessary in securing your value as a marketer in the midst of the AI boom. However, to truly adapt, digital marketing talent will need to comprehensively understand exactly how it’s going to impact their role and its responsibilities.
A New Level of Personalization
In today’s customer-centric world, personalization is critical in building genuine, long-term relationships with customers.
AI can help marketing teams build the right messages for the right audiences at the right time. With more data processed faster and AI’s capability to track patterns that no human is able to identify, marketers can drive enhanced personalized, one-to-one messaging. Whether it’s through social media, email, or websites, marketers can utilize AI to build better connections and create the most valuable experiences for their target audiences.
However, robots and technology lack the emotional intelligence and creativity humans inherently have. Thus, it is up to marketers to use their human storytelling and creative skills to craft the right messaging so it aligns properly with the brand’s voice and connects with the customer.
A Deep, Deep Dive Into Data
Data is key in understanding your audiences and customers. AI makes it easier for marketers to analyze massive streams of data also known as big data. Once it was quite impossible to sort through all of the vast amounts of data available, now AI can efficiently process it.
In order to properly make use of big data, organizations need digital marketing talent who is not only able to implement AI technology, but make sense of the data to draw actionable insights. While AI provides trends, insights, and patterns that may have not been possible before, it is up to marketers to incorporate their human knowledge and emotion to get real value out of them. The combination of technology and the human element opens the door for a deeper understanding of the customer like never before.
Cutting-Edge Strategic Planning
Marketers now have access to tools that can automate, monitor, and organize tasks and data for them. Thus, instead of spending time on tedious, repetitive tasks, they can shift that valuable time to more creative and strategic thinking. This in turn allows marketing teams to better focus on building cutting-edge strategies and digital growth.
As a digital talent agency, we know the demand for marketers who have the capability to tackle strategic execution and planning is high. CMOs seek talent who is able to build scalable growth strategies that support the brand’s goals and connect with their target audience – something a machine or robot can’t skillfully do.
Marketers who encompass both emotional intelligence (EQ) and cognitive intelligence (IQ), and who have a balance of left- and right-brained skills will succeed in crafting strategies that drive results. AI is able to provide great data and insights, but isn’t sophisticated enough to drive a comprehensive marketing strategy into fruition throughout the organization.
Increased Support of Sales
By improving the process and quality of marketing efforts at the top of the funnel, marketers are further able to support the sales team in closing deals. Generating and nurturing qualified leads allows the sales team to close more business, bringing in more revenue, and ultimately benefits both sides.
Sales teams may find it difficult to truly keep up with customers along the sales journey. Working together with marketing, sales reps can keep leads engaged at all times. With the help of AI, sales teams can use the insights and strategy marketing provides to improve the customer experience by knowing what content and message to deliver based on the unique personas in their audience.
Leadership
Human to human interaction is never replaceable, and certainly can’t be replaced by robots. AI technology lacks in intuition, empathy, and overall emotional intelligence – which are all key traits of an effective leader.
Marketing has always required personable, relatable connections, and it requires no less from marketing teams. Whether they have an official status of a leader or not, marketers must communicate with their peers and work as a team in order to drive impact. The ability to guide and work with other people (in and outside your team) in a productive manner is something AI or any other technology can’t ever replace.
Conclusion
When leveraged properly, the immense potential of AI technology opens up many exciting opportunities. AI makes processes more efficient by eliminating time-consuming, administrative, routine tasks – giving marketers more room to focus on creativity and other things that robots can’t do. By automating routine tasks, marketers can ultimately focus better on the buyer and valuable priorities that deliver the best customer experience and ROI.
Ultimately, marketers need to be lifelong learners to assess, learn, and adapt to AI development overtime. But no matter how advanced, technology can only enhance and complement human capabilities, not replace them.
Here's the recording of today's webinar how top sales reps use conversational selling to close more deals, with Drift, Chorus.ai and Close.io.
The theme of today's webinar is that sales is changing. Prospects no longer want to fill out forms and wait hours (or days) to have their questions answered—so we're exploring all of the different ways you can optimize your sales process to better serve your prospects and leverage conversational selling to close more deals.
While Steli couldn't make it to join us today due to a change in travel plans, Nick Persico from our sales team here at Close.io hopped in to replace him and we had a great session.
Dave is the VP of Marketing at Drift, the conversational marketing platform that eliminates forms, reduces friction with your prospects and makes it easier to book meetings with qualified leads—freeing up your sales team to focus only on converting the best leads into customers.
Joe is the VP of Sales at Chorus.ai, a tool suite that's built to securely capture, store, analyze and optimize your team’s sales calls (and meetings) so you can focus on what really matters—your customers and your business.
Nick is the Head of Revenue here at Close.io, the inside sales CRM of choice for startups and SMBs.
Want more webinars like this?
We're continuing this series of conversations with leading sales and marketing leaders from the world's top B2B startups. You can sign up right here for updates on our next webinar.
Micro-influencer marketing is one of the most powerful ways to reach and influence your target market on social media and in the blogosphere. But finding and managing a team of the right micro-influencers for your niche can be a challenge.
In a perfect world, we’d all be using the same tools that Coca-Cola and Sephora use to find micro-influencers and manage their campaigns. But we’re not all ready to break the bank for our marketing tools.
Luckily, there are plenty of low-cost (or free) options out there that can help you scale your micro-influencer campaigns. Here are 10 to check out.
1. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo’s search tool is a completely free way to find blogging or social media influencers in your niche. Just type one of your keywords in, and it will return a list of popular content on that topic. Look at the domains they’re published on. These could be popular bloggers who are already writing about topics related to your niche – you can reach out to them as potential influencers.
If you head over to the “Influencers” tab on Buzzsumo, then you can search for influencer profiles directly based on your niche keywords:
Buzzsumo returns important data like their page authority and number of Twitter followers as well, so you can make an informed decision when vetting potential influencers.
Pricing
Buzzsumo does have a lot of advanced features you could make use of, such as content backlink analysis, but their Pro plans are pricey, starting at $79/month. You can still get a lot done using their totally free search features to find influencers.
2. Buzzstream
Buzzstream is a contact management and prospecting tool – perfect if you’re manually searching for and reaching out to influencers.
With their browser tool, you can add blogs and social media profiles to your Buzzstream database while you browse the web. Come across a potential influencer, and Buzzstream will discover important information about them automatically, such as their contact details, website statistics, and social metrics.
You can then organize and segment your contacts based on key metrics that matter most in influencer marketing, such as domain authority and followers:
You can also discover which influencers have already promoted you in the past. Once you start reaching out to likely influencers, Buzzstream will track your relationship stages for you.
Pricing
Buzzstream offers a free trial, after which their starter plan costs $24/mo for up to 2 users. With it, you’ll get access to nearly all of Buzzstream’s features for your first 1,000 contacts.
3. Followerwonk
Followerwonk is a great tool to analyze the makeup of your current Twitter audience and find influencers that can help you reach a new one. Followerwonk’s search feature allows you to find Twitter profiles based on keywords in their bio/name, or their location and URL.
With the tool’s analysis features, you can also segment your current Twitter followers by location, bio, and who they follow.
Probably Followerwonk’s coolest search feature is the ability to compare Twitter accounts. For example, here’s Followerwonk’s analysis of my Twitter profile vs Crazy Egg’s VP of inbound, Sean Work:
You can use this feature to find influencers whose followers likely have similar interests to yours, but not too much overlap in audience makeup.
Followerwonk also offers some advanced features to optimize your marketing efforts based on follower growth, etc.
Pricing
You can do some basic analysis of your followers, search Twitter profiles and compare accounts all for free on Followerwonk. With a $29/month Pro account, you’ll get access to advanced analysis and optimization features as well.
4. Dealspotr
Dealspotr is a crowd-sourced database of the latest deals and coupons around the web. Anyone can post, edit, and curate deals on the site. Dealspotr’s Marketplace is where brands can connect with top bloggers and other influencers to help promote their latest deals.
To promote your deals, you can ask influencers to create a blog post or YouTube video then promote it on their social channels. Here’s an example of a recent campaign posted by Simple Contacts:
Here are a few of the ways the Dealspotr Marketplace can help you scale your micro-influencer marketing campaign:
Finding effective influencers who are ready to share your deals.
Keeping track of conversions from individual influencers to optimize your strategy.
Automatically calculating influencer fees for you based on their performance.
Automating and managing campaigns all in one place.
Pricing
Dealspotr is free to sign up for as a brand or influencer. Depending on what you’re promoting, you’ll compensate influencers with a free product sample and/or a small financial incentive. Dealspotr will calculate how much you should pay influencers by using our unique algorithm.
5. Influence.co
Influence.co is a platform where brands can discover, evaluate, and contact potential influencers. With a searchable database of profiles across social media platforms, you can find the right influencers based on location, category, and other demographic factors.
Influence.co also paints a deeper picture of influencer social reach, engagement rates, and other factors that can help you decide if they’re the right person to collaborate with. You can also use the platform to reach out and track your influencer contacts.
Pricing
The basic version of Influence.co is completely free, offering 2 influencer contacts and campaign applications per week. If you want to scale your search and outreach efforts, you’ll need the Pro version for $24.95/month.
6. Social Crawlytics
Social Crawlytics is a great tool to help you vet your blogging influencers. You can use the tool to crawl a website or blog, then see a report detailing which/how many pages are being shared on social media.
The tool can also identify authors on the site and organize them by social share count. Their simple reporting feature picks out the most popular blog posts and displays them in order of social shares.
Many marketers use Social Crawlytics for competitive analysis, but it’s also a great tool to vet your blogging influencers. Or, you can scan a popular site in your niche and identify guest contributors whose content receives a lot of social shares. These would be good influencers to target.
Pricing
Amazingly, Social Crawlytics is a completely free tool.
7. Kred
Kred is a social profile evaluation tool that influencers use to compare themselves to others, but it’s also a great place to find and evaluate potential influencers to work with your brand.
Kred measures “influence” based on a variety of Twitter metrics, including:
Followers
Social mentions
Replies
Retweets
Etc.
The platform also hosts “Kred Communities” based on specific topics or interests. Join communities related to your niche and you’ll have access to influencer leaderboards for that group. These display the top influencers that you might want to reach out to for your influencer marketing efforts:
Pricing
Kred offers a 30-day free trial, then costs a very reasonable $19/year after that. With it, you get unlimited conversations, a customizable profile, up to 10K contacts and 100 requests per day.
8. Famebit
Famebit is a platform that connects brands with YouTube influencers. It works like this: you post a brief of your product and campaign details. Then potential influencers submit proposals to you describing what kind of creative video they can make about your product/promotion.
You pick the proposal that interests you most and then start a collaboration.
Pricing
Famebit’s pricing is very encouraging. It costs nothing to sign up and list your brief. After you pick an influencer, agree on payment terms, create the content and publish it, Famebit takes a 10% service fee.
9. TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a great tool for managing Twitter accounts, but it also has features that can help you research potential influencers.
It allows you to easily see how many followers an account has, and how many Twitter lists they’re on. This is a good indicator of an influencer’s value to their audience.
TweetDeck also has a search tool to help you find tweets based on hashtags or keywords. Of course, you can do this right on Twitter with their search feature, but TweetDeck allows you to narrow your search only to Tweets that have high retweets, likes, or replies.
That’s a real time saver to weed out relevant but low-engagement tweets from your search.
Pricing
TweetDeck is also a completely free tool!
10. TribeGroup
TRIBE calls itself a self-service marketplace for brands and micro-influencers. As a brand, you can team up with their network of Instagram, Facebook or Twitter micro-influencers (3,000+ followers) to create engaging branded content.
All you do is create a brief of your product/promotion, then invite influencers to submit a creative post about it. Pick the ones you like, the influencer will publish it, and then you pay them a small fee.
Pricing
It’s completely free to set up an account and create a campaign brief on TribeGroup. For each influencer post you approve, TRIBE simply charges a 20% fee. According to their website, small business campaign budgets normally range from £500-£3000.
Wrapping up
The great thing about micro-influencer marketing is that you can get a lot done on a small budget. Micro-influencers charge very reasonable fees to help broaden your brand reach. At the same time, there are also plenty of affordable/free tools out there that can help you scale your efforts and really maximize ROI.
You don’t need to spend a ton of money on an influencer marketing agency to scale your micro-influencer marketing campaigns. Take advantage of these tools to find the right influencers, manage your campaigns, and track results.
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on the StatusQuota blog here.
Let’s face it – customer churn is a reality for subscription businesses. Even with great product, amazing support, and top-notch training, some customers are just going to leave. Budgets dry up, companies go out of business, your internal champion moves to a new role, etc.
For a lot of companies, a lost customer drops additional responsibility on the plate of the sales team. One customer out means you better find a new customer to fill the gap, right? Wrong! The best SaaS companies can do the impossible: generate negative revenue churn despite losing customers each month.
In other words, they are generating more revenue from existing customers than they are losing each month. Let’s dive into exactly how they make that happen.
The Mathemagic Behind Negative Churn
Here’s a simple example to illustrate the point. Say we have a SaaS company with 1000 customers. Each customer pays $10 per month for the service. Despite their best efforts, the company loses 2% of its customers to churn each month. And worst of all, they are making no new customer sales. But they are extremely effective at getting customers to spend more with them – revenue per customer grows steadily at a 10% month-over-month clip. You can see the result of this trend below:
By the end of year 1, the company has lost 20% of its initial customers. Worse yet, it has acquired no new customers to plug the gap.
In most situations, that would be a recipe for complete disaster. However, steady growth in MRR per customer more than plugs the gap. In fact, the company finds MRR up 37% by the year’s end despite shedding nearly one fifth of all customers. As each individual customer grows more valuable, you can get away with having fewer of them.
Once you layer in some customer acquisition (hey there, sales team), the magic really begins:
In the new example, steady 7% monthly sales growth leaves the company with more than twice as many customers at year end than in the previous example. And with the increasing value per customer, that translates to 2.1x the revenue of the previous example too. So instead of 37% MRR growth at year end, the company reached 192%, a 5x improvement.
That is the type of crazy growth VCs drool over. So how exactly do you make that happen?
Three Paths To Negative Churn
The math behind negative churn is undeniable. But how do you actually make the dream a reality? Your business has three roads to the promised land.
Expansion Revenue
If your company charges on a per user/per seat basis, then expansion revenue is the name of the game. You want to focus energy on driving adoption within an organization to drive self-perpetuating revenue growth.
Some adoption can be driven top-down via your account managers. By speaking with business leaders across different departments, you can gradually scale up pilots across the organization into an enterprise-wide deployment.
This slow & steady, human led approach makes the most sense when there is meaningful effort required to onboard a new set of users onto the platform (e.g., integrating new data systems).
If you have a simple SaaS solution with minimal integration requirements, a much better way to drive expansion is to build organizational virality directly into the product.
One way you can approach this is requiring all users to create an account before viewing data inside of your tool. As new enterprise users are brought online using company email addresses, you can quickly expand your user footprint and incremental revenue.
One final lever to consider is pricing. If you can charge more for the same thing, you can rapidly deliver expansion revenue rapidly.
While expansion revenue requires you do more of the same, upsells present a different challenge. The focus is now on uncovering higher value use cases for your solution and getting the customer to buy them. That typically means layering in additional features to drive the incremental benefit.
Just as before, there are a range of sales & product tactics you can use to generate upsell revenues.
On the personal side, customer success managers can use their deep understanding of a client’s business to identify gaps and suggest higher value service offerings that can meet the need. But be warned – if customer success is seen as “pushing” product, it will lose its status as a trusted advisor committed to client success. And damaging that relationship will increase the risk of churn in the future.
On the product side, “hidden” free trials can be powerful tools. Here’s how they work. Provide a customer access to all the features she has paid for, as well as a few that she has not. Once the customer starts using the “free” features regularly, push an in-app message notifying her that one of her favorite features is not included in her current plan and will be expiring in a few days. Include a link to the “Upgrade Plan” page and voila! Upsell revenue acquired.
The key to making this strategy work is giving the customer time to really play around with the feature and see the full value before taking it away. So rather than offering a standard 7 or 14-day free trial, you should examine your product usage data to understand the typical time required before the customer has an “A-ha!” moment with the feature.
Cross-sell Revenue
The last strategy for negative revenue churn is based on product cross-sell. If your company has a big portfolio of solutions to offer customers, there is a big opportunity to layer in cross-sell revenue into your mix.
Of all the negative churn strategies, cross-sell is definitely the most “sales-y”. That’s because it usually requires probing hard and outside the scope of your current work to find new sales opportunities. So you’re better off making this the responsibility of a dedicated sales team rather than giving the responsibility to your customer success managers.
When it comes to building a cross-sell strategy, one critical metric to keep in mind is the product attach rate. That represents the frequency with which one product is sold in conjunction with another.
To highlight how this works, let’s look at an example for a SaaS company with three products: sales automation, email marketing, and social media monitoring. The table below details the respective attach rates:
In the above example, you can see that there are two identified cross-sell opportunities. The first is selling the sales automation product into existing users of the social media monitoring tools. The second is selling the social media monitoring tools to existing users of the email marketing product. That’s because both have a very high organic attach rate to each other.
This suggests that there is a certain use case/value proposition that resonates within these customer groups. To confirm what the common link is and develop a refined sales strategy, effort should be taken to speak with those customers who purchased both products (as well as those who did not) to refine the target profile.
The Positives of Negative Churn
When growing a subscription business, negative churn provides you a vital lifeline. It reduces the pressure on your sales team to continually hunt for new customers, enabling revenue growth with minimal net new acquisition.
As SaaS becomes more mature, negative churn is the key to driving amazing results. Now is the time to open the door.
Ah, the often overlooked middle of the marketing funnel — even the most thoughtful marketers often fail to create dedicated content that speaks to the unique needs of buyers in this critical step between helping your audience realize they have a problem and that your company has the best solution.
In this second post in a three part series, we are diving into B2B marketing campaigns that will help you activate buyers already in your orbit and push them down to the bottom of your funnel and into the hands of your capable sales team.
First, let’s remember the job of middle of the funnel contnet in relation to other content and campaigns in your marketing mix:
Top, Middle, and Bottom of the funnel
Top funnel: Light, widely-appealing, brand-building campaigns that appeal to an audience that has the potential to be interested in what you’re selling.
Miss the first piece in this series? Check out campaign types and examples to power the top of your funnel here
Mid funnel: Campaigns that connect the dots between the prospect’s pain and interests and your product’s benefits.
Bottom funnel: The potent, high-converting stuff. Case studies with compelling statistics and super-relevant, industry-specific scenarios.
With top funnel content bringing in leads that resonate with your demand gen material, the middle funnel content is where you start tying those needs and pains to your product or service.
Middle funnel marketing talks directly to your audience, and convinces them you’re the only solution for them.
For this reason, competitor comparisons and qualification campaigns are used to facilitate the hand-off between marketing and sales; a prospect with more knowledge of your product benefits is a prospect more likely to buy.
Here are some of the most effective middle funnel B2B campaign types.
Competitor comparison campaigns
Competitor comparison campaigns aim to position your company ahead of the competition by providing one-to-one feature/ benefit comparisons.
The KPIs to track include demo requests, lead quality, and attribution by source.
Example: Formstack
The SaaS form market is a crowded space, with many established names vying for dominance both against each other and against widely-used free incumbents like Google Forms.
Jay Baer shares the strategies behind this great middle funnel tactic in a detailed blog post. In it, he advises:
“Don’t just create landing pages that shout “We’re better than they are!” Another page that hypes your benefits doesn’t differentiate this campaign from the rest of your site. Instead, research the real differences between your product and its competition. Then, share your findings.”
Here’s the variation for Google forms…
…But when it comes to how the company stacks up against Survey Monkey, Jay took a different approach:
Both snippets from these two related landing pages use the same structure, but agitate the lead’s pain points in different ways.
Google Forms users are looking for more form field types (“Do more than Google Forms with Formstack’s 15 field types”), whereas a Survey Monkey user might be frustrated with the rigidity of the tool (“Formstack lets you do so much more than just surveys. Streamline your department’s workflows by…”).
Social Proof retargeting campaigns
According to AdRoll, only 2% of prospects convert when they first meet your brand.
So what can you do to re-engage the 98% of lost opportunities?
Short answer: retargeting.
Retargeting allows you to reach prospects that have shown some sign of interest in your content or website. While they might not strictly be 100% ready to buy, they’re more qualified than someone who found you through top funnel campaigns because they’ve already shown enough interest to engage with your brand.
How much more qualified, you may ask? According to Criteo, website visitors that are retargeted with displays ads are more likely to convert by 70%.
One powerful driver of conversion is social proof.
The social proof psychology principle says that when people are uncertain, they’ll most likely look to others for behavioral guidance — Angie Schottmuller
BrightLocal found that 88% of people trust the opinion of your consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. Social proof retargeting campaigns leverage this element of human psychology and trust by association.
Example: Pipedrive
This Pipedrive ad lays the social proof on thick with reference to its 50,000 customers and claim that it’s the leading sales management tool for small teams.
Any small teams that are also evaluating bigger, more expensive CRMs would be more inclined to give Pipedrive a closer look after seeing it reframed as a tool for a business of their size.
Example: AdEspresso
AdEspresso used facebook ads to retarget people who had already visited the website. The ads use customer testimonials to build social proof and move leads further down the funnel to a free trial:
There are a couple things I really like about this mid-funnel campaign example:
The social proof directly addresses the friction points of potential customers
The user can get a free trial without entering their credit card information
The ad builds trust, clearly communicates the value proposition and overcomes objections.
This campaign generated 38,456 impressions, 181 clicks and 40 conversions with a budget of $98.18!
Opportunity-to-close Campaign
Just because you’ve piqued a lead’s interested doesn’t mean you can give up the marketing and let sales take care of the rest. Similar to retargeting, there’s a lot to be gained from turning your attention towards your existing database instead of chasing more new leads.
Equipped with CRM data, you can create more personalized campaigns that improve response rate and guide the lead to your sales team.
An opportunity-to-close campaign uses your existing open opps as a custom audience to get re-establish mindshare and build credibility.
To measure the campaign, you’d look at whether the leads who have seen the ads or content have been in touch with sales again, or signed up for a demo.
Example: Sumo
This campaign targeted a very specific set of users — those that have tested Sumo and have under 5,000 visits per month. Perhaps the low traffic to their site put them off, but Sumo’s here to sell a solution for 40% off when you buy an annual plan.
This ad is effective because it’s targeting such a tiny segment of Sumo’s audience with messaging that would appeal to small, conversion-hungry businesses that have already made an investment by installing Sumo on their site.
Self-Qualifying Campaign
Leads are often happy to share more information about themselves, especially if it’s framed in a way that benefits them. That’s where self-qualifying campaigns come in.
The goal is to get some kind of input from the lead which indicates their current stage in the buying cycle. With that information in your CRM, the marketing team will be better equipped to serve the right nurturing campaign, and your sales team go in for the close only when the lead is hot.
Examples of self-qualifying campaigns include calculators, assessments, or even email marketing campaigns asking the reader to click a link that best describes an aspect of their business.
Example: Iron Mountain
This calculator is ideal middle funnel content to help ease the hand-off between marketing and sales. It gathers specific information about the lead’s recurring costs, office size, and staff salaries before presenting the user with a savings estimate.
This helps overcome the lead’s ROI doubts, and asks them to share their email address before redirecting to a slide deck download.
The deck is packed full of hard benefits and the phone number of Iron Mountain’s sales team, which will help guide prospects to purchase more quickly and with less friction.
Soft Qualifier
Want to generate more leads with viral content and collect invaluable data your sales team can use to close deals? Use a soft qualifier in your campaign, such as a quiz. These campaigns generate wide awareness and qualify prospects without the friction of long-form gated content.
To judge how successful a soft-qualifying campaign is, look at both middle funnel metrics like sign-ups and demos, but don’t ignore awareness KPIs like social shares and page views.
Example: Paradigm Life
Paradigm Life is a digital wealth management firm with clients all over the US and Canada. The company uses SnapApp to create “soft-qualifying quizzes”.
For users, these quizzes combine the fun of knowledge tests with a learning experience. Marketers love the quizzes because they provide information that helps educate and nurture the lead, helping the sales team by convincing the user of the benefit of the services:
With an average click rate of 50%, and lead conversion rate of 40%, interactive content like quizzes work on autopilot, feeding you the contact details of leads that come educated, qualified, and ready to buy.
Competitor direct mail campaign
Email marketing is the standard, proven way to nurture leads and generate sales, but in the age of inbox overload it’s the marketer who isn’t afraid of getting personal that stands out.
Let’s face it, in this climate it’s unlikely your competitor is trying to engage and convert leads with direct mail.
So, why not use that open opportunity to give your target market the attention they’re missing?
A competitor direct mail campaign agitates common pain points, and its goal would be to direct recipients to a custom landing page URL which they’ll find printed in the letter.
Example: Workfront
This is the perfect example of a brave company seizing a big opportunity. When one of Workfront’s competitors announced it was closing down, the management software company ran a targeted direct mail campaign using predictive analytics to identify premium prospects.
The campaign wasn’t something simple like a postcard, though. It had a Valentine’s day theme.
“Many of the premium prospects enjoyed receiving the flowers, especially as these were unexpected. The biggest problem with DM is getting people to open it, but who’s going to ignore a big bouquet of roses on their desks?” explains Workfront’s marketing director, Jada Balster.”
The DM referred recipients to uniquely-named URLs and used the Valentine’s day metaphor to make prospects feel like they were being ‘dumped’ by the competitor.
The campaign was a smash hit. From the 2,000 recipients (500 with flowers, 1,500 with Valentine’s day cards), Workfront generated 7 qualified sales opportunities with a pipeline value of over $370,000.
The Power of the Middle of the Funnel
Planning to incorporate some of these middle of the funnel B2B marketing campaign ideas into your strategy will help your buyers connect your solution with their pain points.
But remember, the middle of the funnel, while critical, is only one step for your buyers.
(Hull.io Screenshot)
(Customer.io Screenshot)
(Slack Screenshot)
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