Focus on the following big sales drivers this year, and you’ll position your business for massive growth

Whether your business is year ‘round busy or has its ups and downs throughout the year, you’re probably always on the hunt for more sales. Sales and the related revenues are the lifeblood of the business, and even a modest increase in sales can trigger downstream benefits to your bottom line that can support bigger marketing spends, more sales staff, a better online presence, and more. Here are five innovative ideas to boost sales:

1. Get social

Ok, we get it. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years you probably know all about social media and its influence on the buying public. Engage your audience via social media and create compelling interactions between the public and your business. Partner with a reputable online marketing firm to help drive your social media persona; they’ll know the areas in which to invest to net the biggest returns.

For instance, they’ll probably tell you that YouTube delivers the highest levels of engaged website traffic, as most users spend several minutes visiting pages on the site. They may also tell you that 93% of shopper buying decisions are driven or at least influenced by social media. To boost sales this year, invest in a robust social media marketing program to supplement the grassroots marketing activities you’re already doing.

2. Automate your marketing activities

While many business owners focus on the most basic and accessible marketing principles available, those who really want to boost sales will invest in automated marketing systems that can take sales to another level. These automated management steps can integrate direct mail, online marketing, advertising, customer service, email marketing, distribution management, and more, leaving you with less to worry about and more to gain. The idea is to increase marketing productivity, not to spend more money on marketing. If you boost sales while simultaneously reduce your per-customer marketing expense, you’ll see improvements in bottom-line profit and operating efficiency.

3. Create a rewards program

When designing a rewards program, you have to think about your business model and what you’re really looking to achieve. For example, credit card companies offer cash back as a way to entice spending, which can translate into significantly higher levels of interest income down the road for the financial institution. Quick serve restaurants often create punch cards that offer a free meal for every ten bought. The fundamental driver behind a rewards program is to create repeat business and enhanced customer loyalty, so determine what it is you want and design the program around that!

4. Sponsor community events

What better way to boost sales than by creating greater local visibility for your brand? To do so, partner with businesses in your immediate market to create compelling events and marketing opportunities that can spur growth for all partner companies. Sponsor a bowling night, offer promotional giveaways at an upcoming regional sporting event, or support a business mixer that can connect businesses in your local area. Make sure that you deliver a stunning visual presentation to complement your promotional ideas and activities: think tents, tables, banners and the like. Once you have the support of the community, you’ll find that it is much easier to drive sales and earn more money.

5. Become a resource

If you primarily sell a product or service and are looking for ways to increase sales, consider becoming a “go-to resource” for your valued clients. It isn’t enough to simply list a bunch of items for sale and hope that they sell, you must also deliver client support, information and guidance. For instance, if you own a plumbing parts business, consider creating short, web-based instructional videos on ways that homeowners can complete small projects themselves. They’ll appreciate the support and guidance as well as probably come to you for the necessary parts in the future. You’ve become the resource and you’re poised to boost sales.

The five ideas above can help to form the foundation for an amazing sales strategy. Prioritize your activities and your marketing dollars and get ready to reap the rewards this year!

Every sales team needs leads — but the best sales teams know how to make every lead count. Our e-book, Get More From Your Leads, shows you how to jumpstart your lead management strategy.

Mosquitoes choose their prey — you — based on a whole bunch of factors. But there's good news: Some of the things that might make you especially attractive to them are things you can actually change. Scientific research has found evidence supporting several reasons why mosquitoes may seek you out.

These studies are often on different kinds of mosquitoes, however, so the actual things attracting them to you may vary depending on which species are nearby. And many of these studies are small, so these are preliminary hypotheses about what might be going on, not ironclad conclusions.

Since — depending on the types of mosquitoes in your area — these little flying beasts can transmit deadly diseases like Zika, malaria, yellow fever, dengue, Chikungunya, and West Nile virus, it would be wise to try to reduce your allure as much as you can. Here are seven things that could make you irresistible to the pests:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Mosquitoes are the most dangerous creatures on Earth — should we kill them all?

A new NMR microscope gives researchers an improved instrument to study fundamental physical processes. It also offers new possibilities for medical science, for example to better study proteins in Alzheimer patients’ brains.

This is a major step forward towards the ultimate goal of a device that can measure variations at the nanoscale to study the properties of the inhomogeneous electron systems which are at the forefront of modern condensed-matter physics, such as the surface states of topological insulators, oxide interfaces and other strongly correlated electron systems including the high-Tc superconductors

If you get a knee injury, physicians use an MRI machine to look right through the skin and see what exactly is the problem. For this trick, doctors make use of the fact that our body’s atomic nuclei are electrically charged and spin around their axis. Just like small electromagnets they induce their own magnetic field. By placing the knee in a uniform magnetic field, the nuclei line up with their axis pointing in the same direction. The MRI machine then sends a specific type of radio waves through the knee, causing some axes to flip. After turning off this signal, those nuclei flip back after some time, under excitation of a small radio wave. Those waves give away the atoms’ location, and provide physicians with an accurate image of the knee.

NMR

MRI is the medical application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), which is based on the same principle and was invented by physicists to conduct fundamental research on materials. One of the things they study with NMR is the so-called relaxation time. This is the time scale at which the nuclei flip back and it gives a lot of information about a material’s properties.

NMR microscope, consisting of a thin wire and a small magnetic ball (fake color purple). The purple ball induces a uniform magnetic field, so that the surrounding atomic nuclei all line up with their axis pointing in the same direction. The researchers send radio waves through their sample, causing some nuclei to flip the other way, and measure how long it takes before they flip back again.

Arxiv and Physical Review Applied - Probing the Nuclear Spin-lattice Relaxation time at the Nanoscale

Read more »

Traveling with work is, for many, stressful. Whilst those back in the office often think business travel is nothing but over-dinner meetings and nights on the town with clients, in reality, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. On many occasions, such traveling involves long journeys, next to no time between arriving and a meeting or conference and rarely time to grab much more than a sandwich before heading back!

Add to that the need to accurately record and file business expenses, find your way around a place you likely aren’t familiar with and a whole host of other ‘issues’ and it’s easy to see why many don’t enjoy traveling with work as much as many assume they should.

If this sounds like you on a regular basis, you’ve probably found your own ways of making things a little less hassle-free and implemented a number of your own ‘hacks’ for staying sane, however for those who are infrequent travellers, a little guidance from those who would class themselves as veterans can be a huge help!

Every Business Traveler Owns A Smartphone & Tablet

Luckily, perhaps, in 2016 you’d be hard pushed to find many business travelers who don’t own a smartphone and a tablet and for this reason, help is at your fingertips; often for free!

Whilst many associate ‘apps’ with the likes of Facebook and Angry Birds, spend a few minutes taking a look around the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and you’ll see that there are thousands upon thousands of business, productivity, and travel apps. This, in many ways, is great as it means there really is an app for just about everything; however, it also means that it’s difficult to sift out the gems from the drivel!

5 Recommended Apps

I recently read a post titled ‘15 Apps Every Business Traveller Needs To Know About‘ which got me thinking about the gems found on my iPhone and I thought it was worth sharing! Of course, whilst there’s 15 there, there are literally hundreds which are nothing short of great, however my top 5 must-download business travel apps are:

1. Uber

   A smartphone without Uber on it in 2016? Are you kidding? If you’ve not yet tried Uber, you’re missing out! Never again will booking a cab be difficult!

2. WiFi Finder

   Don’t you just hate it when you urgently need to send an email but are either struggling with roaming or there’s a large attachment? WiFi finder will help you to easily and quickly locate the nearest public WiFi spot.

3. Google Translate

   If you’re traveling abroad there’s a good chance it’ll be to countries where you’re not fluent in their native language. Whilst Google Translate isn’t perfect in terms of translation accuracy of full paragraphs, that’s not what it’s there for and it’ll do a great job of helping you to understand road signs, menus, and the likes.

4. Evernote

   Much like Uber; Evernote is a must-have app for any businessperson at all who needs to take quick notes, write simple to-do lists or simply collate a number of different document together. Free and simple to use!

5. GateGuru

   Whilst perhaps not as established as the others, GateGuru is perfect for keeping up-to-date about your flight without having to sit and watch the departure boards. Give it a go and never again will you wonder if you’ve got time to grab a bite to eat.

That’s mine, but the question is, what are your must-download travel apps?

Instagram is a photo-sharing platform that gives users the ability to post photos in real-time via their mobile device. As its popularity has grown, business owners have taken an interest in using Instagram to promote their company, engage with potential customers, develop a fan base and ultimately, increase revenue

What follows is a list of six tools that work with Instagram, which you can use to perform a variety of tasks, either on a mobile device or desktop computer.

The tools enable you to upload images from your computer, schedule them for publishing, and, in some cases, update Facebook or Twitter. Two of the tools even help you choose the right hashtags to use in your Instagram description.

1. Gramblr

Instagram only permits you to post photos from your mobile device. Gramblr is a free program that enables you to upload and share photos to Instagram directly from your desktop or laptop computer and post updates to Facebook and Twitter as well. The tool also has a clean and easy to use interface that many users will appreciate.

The main difference between Gramblr and most of the other tools on the list is that it is a downloadable program, not web-based. That means that you will need to install it on your computer before being able to update Instagram.

On the downside, Gramblr only allows you to upload one photo at a time and, unlike the native Instagram app, does not provide photo filters. Neither does it notify you when a photo uploads successfully.

Cost: Free

2. Later

Later lets you schedule photos from your computer or mobile device for posting to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The application functions as an editorial calendar in that it does not post to Instagram for you. Instead, it lets you schedule Instagram updates via the website and sends a notification to your mobile device when it’s time for you to post. When clicked, the notification takes you directly to the Instagram app so that you can upload your image.

The program utilizes a web-based interface where you can schedule Instagram posts to go out at specific intervals. It also supports multiple Instagram accounts and allows additional members of your team to access the program if needed.

Later requires you to download its mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android versions.

Cost: Free for up to 30 uploads per month. For $19 per month, you can upload as many as 250 images.

3. Crowdfire

Crowdfire enables you to schedule your Instagram and Twitter posts. You can choose to post manually, or it will choose the best times to post based on when your followers are most active. Once you have created your post and written a description, Crowdfire will analyze the information and suggest the best hashtags to use.

The app limits you to 10 posts a day. Photo filters are not available. It has apps for iOS and Android devices.

Cost: A free plan is available, although limited; premium plans start at $9.99 per month.

4. InstaPic

InstaPic, made exclusively for Windows, mimics Instagram in that it lets you perform all of the same actions that you would as if you were using Instagram on a mobile device. Instead, it is all done on your Windows 10 computer.

InstaPic does not allow you to schedule posts and only works with Instagram. However, it is a helpful program to have available if you want to use Instagram on a visually larger scale.

Cost: Free (with ads); $2.99 to remove ads.

5. ScheduGram

ScheduGram allows you to upload pictures and videos and then schedule them for posting to multiple Instagram accounts. Once uploaded, you can crop images, add filters or text, and rotate images before posting. Like the other tools, you can post immediately or schedule pictures to go out later. You can also manage multiple accounts, which includes giving access to multiple users.

Cost: ScheduGram offers a free 7-day trial (credit card required), then $20 per month for up to 10,000 followers. Monthly pricing increases as your follower count increases.

6. Onlypult

Onlypult also lets you schedule and post Instagram updates. With this web-based application, you can upload images from your computer, apply filters, manage one or many Instagram accounts, and invite team members to use the program.

You schedule posts using the “Planner” feature, which lets you select the dates and times to post to Instagram. Once you chose an image, Onlypult suggests relevant hashtags for use in your descriptions.

Onlypult works solely with Instagram.

Cost: Pricing starts at $12 per month and offers a 7-day free trial.

Writing a blog post isn’t easy, but writing a blog post that converts is even more difficult.

You have audience data to dig through, experts to find and quote, data from case studies and reports to find and include to support your topic. It’s really not the quick, few steps process you follow to write a personal opinion post.

A 2015 study by HubSpot shows that, on average, most marketers worldwide take 1-2 hours to get a well-researched, quality 500-word blog post done.

Yes, the data is for a 500-word blog posts. Double, triple, quadruple that time for lengthy posts (like the one you’re reading).

Sometimes you can dilute writing effort over several days, but what happens when you are writing on a short, non-extendable deadline? Maybe you have a guest post to write, an article to get done for a client or a sponsored post to publish by a specific date.

All these cases demand strong time management skills and strict adherence to a schedule.

But it doesn’t have to be stressful! You don’t have to grind your teeth. The solution is to work smarter, not harder.

And you work smarter when you write faster and more efficiently.

In this post, you will find 8 methods to structure your post and speed up your writing that I personally use when I work on my blog posts. Whether you use all of them or just some, according to your personal writing process, you will write more quickly and efficiently, without stress.

Also, if you, like me, suffer from anxiety and depression, you may want to combine the techniques in this post with the 7 coping strategies to write an outstanding blog post when you’re broken inside (no fluff, those are 7 real strategies I use to get writing done when my mind is not in good shape).

1. Get Analytical on that Headline

You came up with a great headline that you know will suck readers right into the copy.

Here’s the thing, though – how can you quickly go from your headline to full copy? How can you structure your content in a way that it delivers what your headline promises?

The analysis method takes your headline and breaks it down to produce a first outline of your blog post. Here’s how the method works:

• Take a look at your headline. What is it telling you? How can you tackle everything it promises in the copy?
• Grab a piece of paper and write your headline down in a centered position, so that you can write all around it
• Let your mind go wild during this stage and brainstorm as many ideas as possible

Here is a live example applied to one of my upcoming posts for n0tSEO.com:

This is an almost exact digital version of the messy notes on my paper notebook.

Here’s what I did:

1. I tore apart the headline and separated words and phrases by concept
2. I analyzed each word and phrase to go deep into what I want to talk about (the notes the arrows point to)
3. I used the analysis to come up with a first post outline where I touch upon every point mentioned in the headline

I do this with every post I write for WHSR, for my blogs and when I pitch guest posts. It makes writing incredibly easier, because I then I know exactly what points to talk about and I don’t have to guess or second guess what I’m saying.

For more ideas, also see how Terri Scott breaks down her thought process on how to create captivating posts from headline to final draft in her post at BidSketch. She also shares the questions that guide her writing process.

2. Voice Record the Key Points Of Your Post

Don’t write – talk. Use your phone, your computer microphone or other recording devices to record yourself while you explain your topic to your audience, as if you were holding a conference.

I started using this method when I was bedridden after an accident in February and I read Bryan Harris’ post at Videofruit talking about how he could write a 10,000-word post in a few days by recording vocal notes. I was amazed at how simple and effective this method was and I wondered why I didn’t think about it before.

While Bryan’s post describes the entire process in detail, here’s a hint of how it works:

1. Write an outline of your post (use the method I described in #1 to make the process faster)
2. Record your voice as you explain the points in your outline and expand upon them
3. Transcribe your vocal notes and adjust, cut or expand where needed
4. Make another round or two of editing, add images, videos and anything you need to call your post done

With this method, you’ll get a lot more done (and way more ideas) in a short time.

A tip: if you can, be in front of a mirror as you record the key points. You’ll be both the speaker and the audience of yourself, and it will help you speak with more clarity and record better notes (plus, you can use hand gestures to help your speech).

For more ideas, also read Ginny Soskey’s post at HubSpot on how she wrote a 1,000-word post in 10 minutes.

3. Organize the Key Points Into Sections and Subsections

Don’t start writing your piece right away. Structure it first.

What would you say to someone asking what your piece is about? Of course, you’ll want to just give the key points, the meat, leaving everything else.

This is exactly what you do when you structure your post with subheadings: it’s the core of your post, its “elevator pitch”, the essential information you want to convey.

If you already used method #1 in this post, you’ll have a first outline that you can further develop in sections and subsections. For my example above, that will be:

[Intro: How I noticed a certain use of biased words by Google with webmasters and how they influence the “Google culture” on the Web]

X Biased Words and Phrases Google Uses With Webmasters

[list of words + analysis]

The Problem With Guidelines Enforcement (Should They Even Be Enforced?)

Google’s “how the Web should be” is a non-universal bias

Putting Words Back Where They Belong: Tips to Reread Google’s Guidelines

The perspective of an independent webmaster

A Last Word About the Danger of the “Google Culture”

If you are writing a piece that doesn’t have to be divided into sections and subsections, and you don’t feel like doing this work just for the sake of structure, you can do what David Leonhardt, president of THGM Writers, does:

[I structure] Mostly in my head, before I ever start writing. An article I’m writing now was all organized into two sections. The first section, I had an idea of how the intro would go, and a list of three types of situations. The second section was a list of tips.

When it came to writing, I was pretty much able to just whiz through the first section, then I wrote down the list of tips, doing a bit of research to expand upon it. Once I had the structure for that section, I began to write.

4. Add Research and Statistics Before Writing

Statistics and expert quotes not only guide you in the right direction and help you avoid biased assumptions, but they also give authority to your post and make the rest of the writing easier, because you have numbers, facts and experts to support your topic and you don’t feel like you’re building on fluff.

In other words, research and statistics lay the foundation of your blog post and make the rest of your writing as easy as building upon solid points.

Research can really drive your writing. Here’s what Anna Fox from Hire Bloggers does before she writes:

Before even trying to write an article, I use Google to search for:

• Keyword stats
• Keyword trends

For many topics (food, DIY, motherhood) it makes sense to also search Pinterest because I always end up finding some infographics that would change the angle of my overall article.

With MyBlogU in place now, I also create a brainstorming project because those user-contributed tips may change the future article angle as well.

Finally, I use Answer The Public to see which questions there exist on that topic: that may steer my writing as well.

I only start writing when I do all of that and feel excited about the narrow angle I’ve decided to focus on.

David Leonhardt also readies his information before writing:

Sometimes I gather up links and notes in WordPress ahead of time. Then when I am ready to write, I have all the information right there. This usually happens when I read something interesting and say to myself, “Oooh, I want to write about that!”

Here is how I handle research and writing for my blog posts:

1. After coming up with a headline and outline, I start researching other authority articles about my topic and assign some of these to the sections and subsections of my post (sometimes I might create a new subsection on the basis of an article I’ve just read that gave me a new idea to talk about)
2. I tell other bloggers and experts that I’m writing a new blog post around a certain topic and I invite them to contribute a quote
3. I write my first draft and I stay away from further research. In this stage, I only rely on what I learned, the sources I have and what I already know to write. I will add placeholders like [find info about ABC here…] whenever I feel that some points need further research
4. I include experts’ quotes and I research to fill the placeholders I left in my copy or to expand upon my points a little whenever I feel the reader might need further information
5. I run one or two editing sessions and review all the sources and links I included

Sometimes I will do number 4 before number 3 in this list but, in general, this is my workflow.

5. Develop Each Subsection as if It Was a Standalone Post

This technique works like a charm, especially if you feel tired and overwhelmed, have anxiety or you are dealing with writer’s block, because it narrows your goal and makes the effort seem smaller.

As my Programming professor used to say at the university, “you can tackle a big problem better if you divide it into smaller problems and focus on one small problem at a time”.

There are two ways you can go about this:

1. Focus on the subsection of choice in your post draft
2. Copy the subsection to a brand new file and write it there

I use both methods, but I tend to prefer the second because it helps me focus quickly and doesn’t let other subsections distract me or work against my attempt to keep anxiety at bay.

Developing subsections like standalone posts also places you in the right mindset to develop bigger guides, tutorials and ebooks, which is exactly what Casey Miller of The Best of Fitness does:

I have been creating my posts around each subsection and then putting all my subsections together as if it was a book. I found that by doing this, I can create more content around a whole subject easier and it gives the reader more value than a simple 200-word post. For example, my post “What is Crossfit: Learn Now with this Ultimate Guide”, I have 18 chapters and a total of 5000 words. I created links to each section so someone can jump right to it if they wanted.

When I create posts like this, I typically only create 1 per month as it takes time to find content/create for each section and to put the layout together. Although the nice part about it is, I only have to create one post a month and a post of this size can easily bring in 25,000 plus visitors due to the content and keywords used.

6. Write Your Subsections Starting From the Last One

It might sound counterintuitive, but developing your points in reverse order will help you write more efficiently because it will improve your focus, reduce stress and anxiety, and make your mind more attentive to details you might otherwise overlook as you go with the flow, including grammar and typos.

It’s like switching positions in bed to make your body feel more relaxed – switching order will give your mind new energy and relax you at the same time, as if you had some good rest before starting a new project. The reason is that by changing the order you break the flow and reset your expectations, forcing yourself to see things from a new angle.

Of course, this works better when subsections are standalone (see #5) and not sequential. If they are sequential, I recommend you outline them all before you use this technique.

7. Use Self-Dictation to Reduce Spelling and Grammar Errors and Improve Focus

I began to do this recently and I like doing it, especially when I’m writing big, difficult blog posts. It gives me confidence in how I argue my topic. With the self-esteem boost, I also sharpen my eye to catch typos and grammar errors.

Talk while you write, as if you were dictating your post to someone else. This method helps you keep your focus, eases your stress and doesn’t let your mind wander, because you are actually freeing your mind from the added burden of having to keep up with an ‘inner voice’.

If you have been jumping from paragraph to paragraph while writing as it might have happened if you followed #5 and #6 in this post, your confidence as a writer will also benefit from reading aloud because your post will take on a finished shape in your mind, as if you were reading someone else’s work.

Jean Margaret Walker at BeingJean.com says:

In order to make sure posts read well, reading them aloud is so helpful. You’ll notice missing words much easier than if you skimmed over posts while reading quietly in your head. It’s especially a good idea to read the content aloud to find missing articles… the smaller words like a, an, the, etc.

8. Leave Links or Minor Citations as Your Last Step Before Editing

This is important to not interrupt your focus as you write. You may not realize it, but when you open a new tab to search for a resource or an expert quote to include in the text, your focus is switching to the new task and getting back to the flow of writing will be more difficult. Going back and forth will slow you down and, if you are an anxious writer or have a hard time regaining your focus, make your condition worse.

If you followed #4 in this post, you know it’s better to do most of your research before you start writing the post. You can always add more later, but after you have written your draft, not as you write.

Adding new links and quotes is part of the editing phase. As David Leonhardt says:

The links I need for research, to get the data, I find before writing. Then, as part of my first edit, I note anything that might need further explanation, clarification or examples, and I search for a link for that.

BONUS Tip: Start Your Post With “Dear {insert audience here}…”

When I started writing this post, my first words were:

“Dear blogger…”

Whether you own a business, write as a part of your marketing activities or you blog in a niche, you are still a blogger.

You are my audience. I write for you.

This humble beginning has a great power over your thought process as you write: it switches your mindset, so that you are no longer a person sitting at a desk typing on a keyboard to fill a blank screen with words, but you become a speaker who talks to an audience, and the audience is in front of you, and you deeply care about them and their future.

The switch in mindset turns on your empathy antenna and you are less likely to write fluff, because you know the people listening to you are waiting for the words that will make a difference.

You can edit out that “Dear blogger…” before you publish your piece, but I urge you to keep it there at the top of your post until the very end, because it sets the tone and quality of your post and it will help greatly in the editing process, when you read your post all over again.

Yes, it will sound like a personal letter; that is what it will make it work.

I don’t know if Eli Seekins used the “Dear blogger…” technique to write his post at Writers Village – An Honest Letter To The Writer Struggling To Make It – but seeing the way he created a connection to his audience, something tells me he did.

Takeaway

Writing faster and more efficiently is a matter of hacking your writing habits to discover what works best for you, when you are more focused during the day and how to manage your energies and thought process to keep your mind active and productive from start to finish.

The 8 ways described in this post are all hacks that work, but don’t limit yourself to blind application – study your habits, your daily rhythms and the way your mind works to build discourse around a topic. Then, find the right combination that works for you.

You are unique! What matters is that:

• You can manage your psychological blocks to minimize their effects on your writing
• You can break down your thought process so that writing efficiently becomes a simple matter of following a plan

You may not be the fastest or most efficient blogger in the world, but it doesn’t matter – as long as you can get your work done and that work brings results, you are a good blogger.

To cite the HubSpot study I mentioned at the beginning of this article:

Some quick posts could take under an hour to write; others might take several hours if they require you to go really in-depth.

You may also want to read Jerry Low’s guest post at Blogging Wizard, Blog Efficiently And Productively: How To Blog More In Less Time for writing habits, tools and blog management tips.

The best way to make a great infographic? Make sure it has great data. It’s the key to telling a good story and—when properly visualized—makes that story more memorable. But where do you get that data? You may have some in-house. You may have come across an interesting study. Or you may need to start from scratch. If you have no data to start with, don’t trip. You can always turn to your dear friend, the Internet, to find fantastic (and free!) data from a ton of solid sources. To help you keep your sanity—and avoid perpetually rewording your keyword search—we’ve rounded up 100 free data sources. We even broke them down by category to help you find the data you need as fast as possible. You can thank us later. Just remember to check out our 5 tips for sourcing your data when you’re ready to turn those stats into great visual content.

Free Data Sources: General/Academic

1. UNData: A statistical database of all United Nations data.

2. Amazon Public Data Sets: A repository of large datasets relating to biology, chemistry, economics, and physiology, including the Human Genome Project.

3. Pew Research: Public opinion polls, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.

4. Google Scholar: A wide array of information, including articles, theses, books, abstracts, white papers, and court opinions.

5. Datasets Subreddit: A dive into anything and everything, from English grain prices of the 14th Century to U.S. homelessness rates.

6. FiveThirtyEight: Statistical analysis that tells compelling stories about elections, politics, sports, science, economics, and more.

7. Qlik DataMarket: A place to check out data related to economics, healthcare, food, agriculture, and the automotive industry.

8. The Upshot by New York Times: News, analysis, and graphics about politics, policy, and everyday life.

Free Data Sources: Content Marketing

9. Content Marketing Institute: The latest news, studies, and research on content marketing.

10. Buffer:Data insights on digital marketing.

11. Moz: Insights on SEO.

12. HubSpot: A large repository of marketing data.

Free Data Sources: Crime

13. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Information on anything related to U.S. justice system, including arrest-related deaths, census of jail inmates, national survey of DNA crime labs, surveys of law enforcement gang units, etc.

14. Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics: Statistics on violent crime, such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault; has decades of data at city, county, state, and national levels.

15. FBI Crime Statistics: Statistical crime reports and publications detailing specific offenses and outlining trends to understand crime threats at both local and national levels.

16. National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: Original research based on archived data concerning criminal justice and criminology.

Free Data Sources: Drugs

17. Drug Data and Database by First Databank: Drug data and drug databases provided with the hope of drug knowledge inspiring change in the medication decision-making process.

18. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Drug approvals and databases, including therapeutic equivalence evaluations for approved multi-source prescription drug products.

19. National Institute on Drug Abuse: Resources that cover a variety of drug-related issues, such as drug usage, emergency room data, and prevention and treatment programs.

20. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Research, trend analysis, and forensics with global and regional data collections.

21. Drug War Facts: Thorough look at drugs and drug policy, applied to public health and criminal justice issues.

Free Data Sources: Education

22. National Center for Education Statistics: The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

23. Government Data About Education: Education datasets, apps, resources for the classroom, and details about paying for college.

24. Education Data by the World Bank: Comprehensive data and analysis source for key topics in education, such as literacy rates and government expenditures.

25. Education Data by Unicef: Data related to sustainable development, school completion rates, net attendance rates, literacy rates, and more.

Free Data Sources: Entertainment

26. BLS: Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: Related industries at a glance, with statistics and datasets relevant to arts, entertainment, and recreation.

27. Million Song Dataset: A collection of 28 datasets containing audio features and metadata for a million contemporary popular music tracks.

28. The Numbers: Detailed movie financial analysis, including box office, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, and release schedules.

29. BFI Film Forever: Research data and market intelligence focused on the UK film industry and film culture.

30. IFPI: Global statistics about the recording industry.

31. Statista: Video Game Industry: Statistics and facts about the video game industry, ranging from global gaming software expenditure to U.S. brand equity of Nintendo Wii.

32. Statista: Film Industry: Statistics and facts about the film industry, from the number of movie tickets sold in U.S. and Canada to the number of 3D cinema screens worldwide.

33. Statista: Music Industry: Statistics and facts about the music industry, ranging from concert revenue to record company market share.

34. Academic Rights Press: A repository of historical and current music sales data with insight on how such numbers can be applied.

Free Data Sources: Environmental/Weather Data

35. Environmental Protection Agency: Information for more than 540 chemical substances, containing information on human health effects that may result from exposure to various substances in the environment.

36. National Center for Environmental Health: Nationally funded data systems that have a relationship to environmental public health.

37. National Climatic Data Center: Quick links from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, covering everything from storm data to climate indices.

38. National Weather Service: Climate data, including past weather conditions and long-term averages, from specific observing stations around the United States.

39. Weather Underground: Tracked weather by regional radar, regional severe weather, and global temperatures.

40. National Centers for Environmental Information: Weather record published since 1927, including monthly mean values of pressure, temperature, precipitation, and station metadata notes documenting observation practices and station configurations.

41. WeatherBase: Travel weather, climate averages, forecasts, current conditions, and normals for 41,997 cities worldwide.

42. International Energy Agency Atlas: A look at climate change that focuses on how each country produces and consumes energy.

Free Data Sources: Financial/Economic Data

43. Google Finance: Real-time stock quotes and charts, financial news, currency conversions, or tracked portfolios.

44. Google Public Data Explorer: Searchable large datasets on economic development worldwide.

45. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: U.S. economic statistics, including national income and gross domestic product.

46. National Bureau of Economic Research: Macro data, industry data, productivity data, trade data, international finance, data, and more.

47. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Quarterly datasets of extracted information from exhibits to corporate financial reports filed with the Commission.

48. World Bank Open Data: Education statistics about everything from finances to service delivery indicators.

49. Financial Data Finder at OSU: Plentiful links to anything related to finance, no matter how obscure.

50. IMF Economic Data: Global financial stability reports, regional economic reports, international financial statistics, exchange rates, directions of trade, and more.

51. The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Analysis of trade flows and the sectoral composition of an economy with data visualizations.

52. World Bank Doing Business Database: An incredibly useful source of information that evaluates business environment indicators around the world, including trade capabilities and costs.

53. UN Comtrade Database: Raw data on high-level trade with visualizations.

54. Global Financial Data: Covers 60,000 companies across 300 years, analyzing the twists and turns of the global economy.

55. Visualizing Economics: Data visualizations about the economy.

Free Data Sources: Government/World

56. The CIA World Factbook: Facts on every country, dependency, and geographic entity in the world; focuses on history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.

57. U.S. Census Bureau: Government-informed statistics on population, economy, education, geography, and more.

58. Data.gov: Open data of the U.S. government, focuses on everything from agriculture and ecosystems to manufacturing and science.

59. Unicef: Evidence on the situation of children and women around the world to inform national and global decision-making.

60. Data Catalogs: Comprehensive list of open data catalogs in the world, curated by a group of leading open-data experts.

61. European Union Open Data Portal: – Data pulled from European Union institutions.

62. Open Data Network: Government-related data with some visualizations tools built in.

63. Gapminder: Massive collection of data sources that cover everything from agriculture and employment to aid given and death.

64. Land Matrix (Transnational Land Database): A meticulously developed database of international land transactions with plenty of visualization tools.

65. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators: Huge collection of national data on hundreds of indicators, with data on every country.

66. UNDP’s Human Development Index: A ranking of country progress under the lens of human development.

67. OECD Aid Database: Visualized data regarding aid collected from governments.

Free Data Sources: Health

68. HealthData.gov: High-value health data for entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers; includes data on Medicaid, Medicare, clincial studies, and treatments.

69. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Public health data and statistics by topic, from alcohol use to viral hepatitis.

70. World Health Organization: Information, data, statistics, and reports concerning international public health.

71. President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition: Information aimed to promote, encourage, and motivate Americans of all ages to become physically active and participate in sport.

72. Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce: A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries.

73. Health Services Research Information Central: Selective links aimed at providing information and data regarding health services resources.

74. MedicinePlus: Health statistics ranging from percentage of obese citizens to rates at which people are catching the flu.

75. National Center for Health Statistics: Datasets, documentation, data access tools, growth charts, and resources for further vital records.

76. America’s Health Rankings: Health reports that view the nation holistically, with in-depth data and analysis.

77. Health & Social Care Information Centre: National provider of information, data, and IT systems for health and social care.

78. Medicare Hospital Quality: A database on complication rates by hospital for interesting comparisons.

79. SEER Cancer Incidence: Cancer-related statistical summaries, interactive tools, and publications.

80. The BROAD Institute: Cancer program legacy publication resources and cancer-related datasets.

Free Data Sources: Human Rights

81. Amnesty International: Human rights information, run independent of any political ideology, economic interest, or religion.

82. Human Rights Data Analysis Group: Nonprofit, nonpartisan group applying rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world.

83. Harvard Law School: A collection of links that cover a variety of topics, including everything from international relations and human rights data, from political institution databases.

84. The Armed Conflict Database by Uppsala University: A look at fragile and conflict-affected states that dives into minor and major violent conflicts around the world.

Free Data Sources: Labor/Employment Data

85. Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S. government’s data collection of employment-related stats across regions, states, and local areas.

86. Department of Labor: Closely watched measures of employment and unemployment.

87. U.S. Small Business Administration: Employment data from business owners’ perspective, including economic indicators and projections.

88. Employment by U.S. Census: Data that measures the state of the nation’s workforce, including employment and unemployment levels, as well as weeks and hours worked.

Free Data Sources: Politics

89. Open Secrets: Nonpartisan, independent, and nonprofit; nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.

90. Crowdpac: Calculates objective scores for political candidates showing their overall political position and their position on specific issues.

91. Gallup: Data-driven news based on U.S. and world polls.

92. Real Clear Politics: A look at everything from policy support to election polling data.

93. Intro to Political Science Research by UC Berkeley: Statistics and data for those interested in political science; an ideal starting place.

94. California Field Poll: Independent, nonpartisan, media-sponsored public opinion news service that examines California public opinion.

95. Rand State Statistics: Social science data for the U.S. at the national, state, and local levels.

96. Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: U.S. and international polling and public opinion survey data.

Free Data Sources: Social

97. SocialMention: Real-time social media search and analysis.

98. Google Trends: Data and trends by search engine engagement.

99. Facebook Graph: API that pulls data about Facebook engagement.

Free Data Sources: Travel/Transportation

100. Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Transportation statistical data, research activities, and budgetary resources.

101. Monthly Tourism Statistics – U.S. Travelers Overseas: A look at U.S. international air passenger statistics.

102. SkiftStats: Latest statistics, research, and data about the travel industry.

103. Search the World: Statistics, population, weather, webcams, and travel information for millions of locations worldwide.

104. U.S. Travel Association: Covers a wide variety of travel-related topics, from impacts of travel on state economies to analysis of what a stronger dollar means for the travel industry.

Do you know some great data sources? Comment to let us know and help us share the data love.

The business world is getting quickly crowded and people are putting a higher value on their time because we as a society have turned into a country that is consuming more and more information. Think about it for a second. Would you ever leave the house today without your smartphone? Can you watch TV without a smartphone nearby?People are wanting and consuming more and more information every day.

Look at the recent Pokemon Go phenomenon. Overnight, Nintendo resurrected its brand and it added $7.5 billion to its market value.

The Internet can quickly resurrect old brands and create new brands. This should get the attention of owners and executives of all kinds of businesses. It certainly has my attention.

My takeaways from this recent news are that I need to make sure we continue to work at putting our company brand in a position for our clients to be able to see and access our service offerings at their convenience. At least start the conversation and shorten the decision-making time. Yesterday, we gained a client because we were able to answer his question within an hour of it being received. Our competitor never responded to his question. This is not an isolated incident. This is the new economy and culture.

The Right People

I think it is going to take a special group of people to work in this type of environment and understand how important it is to work with a sense of urgency. In addition, I believe we are going to need to get more creative and more innovative. Discussions need to be continually occurring about new opportunities and continuous improvements.

A More Interactive Experience

I am working on a newer, better web experience for clients. This takes a lot of planning and work up front, but it is critical going forward.

Marketing is becoming more Service

Product, Price, Place Promotion is an old system. Today the factors of time and client control need to be considered. It is a different model altogether. Service is the differentiator that brings time and client control together. Better service to clients is critical. It really can be summed up in creating a better client experience.

The Unknown

The days of the five-year plan are really disappearing fast. Think about the last five years. I know there are some areas of our company that did not change much and we are certainly paying the price today. This is just the way things are today.

Building Influence

I think the best way to learn more in this area is to get out and try things. A number of things will not work, but it is important to find out why. I try reading and discovering new ideas and everyone has a different answer when it comes to this topic. Right now, I have several projects going on at the same time and the results are very interesting. There is no magic bullet here and I have learned that I cannot put all my energies into one area like social media, content marketing or video. In addition, I am finding myself investing more and more resources in this area.

I am making it a point to be more active and set a presence at work, outside the office, online and on different social media channels. In the past, I found myself doing the same type of activities and seeing similar results. Today, I am raising the bar some more. I am not someone who likes things the way they are. I prefer to be someone who stretches himself farther and is not afraid to take risks. For this reason, I am looking closer at Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. In addition, I have a new respect for different platforms and I am learning to break my old habits and establish new ways to better communicate.

Writing good content takes time. Whether you are a subject matter expert or an experienced writer, putting your knowledge into a coherent story and format takes minutes off your clock.

Often, my writing ideas are born out of people I train consistently asking the same questions. Hence, this topic; in the last six months, I have observed an increase in professionals’ interest in publishing their own content. LinkedIn is a tremendous tool to publish and promote content that you author.

Are you already publishing on LinkedIn, but wish you had more eyeballs on your authored content? Did you just start publishing on LinkedIn and want to make sure you are capitalizing on your work? Here are five ways to get more visibility on the content you work hard to write:

Start with LinkedIn Analytics

I believe one of the most overlooked areas regarding LinkedIn’s publishing capabilities lies within the analytics. I will dive into this section of LinkedIn deeper in an upcoming post, but for now, I want to show you how to access this rich information. When you hover over Profile in the top navigation bar and then click on Who’s Viewed Your Profile, you will come to the page shown below. Click on the middle tab, “Who’s Viewed Your Posts.”

In one place, not only do you get access to who is liking, commenting and sharing your post (Tip: Thank these individuals and send them another post you have written that they may be interested in reading), but you also get the demographics of your readers. One trend I pay attention to when looking at the demographics is: Are the people I want this published content in front of, seeing it? In the case below, I would like to increase my Business Owner and CEO/Executive Director percentages. Now, I have a starting point to take action on #2 in this list…Keep reading.

2. Share with Your Networks

To hop onto my LinkedIn soapbox for a moment: I have said thousands of times that my favorite LinkedIn feature is the pop-up share window. While it may sound super nerdy to some of you, let me explain the reason why: In a single window, you can share your content with more than four audiences. You can share it with your LinkedIn network, your Twitter network, multiple Groups, and individuals – all at the same time.

Remember from #1 how I wanted to increase my views with Business Owners and CEOs? I will use this pop-up window to share this article within LinkedIn Groups where those professionals are members.

It is an incredibly simple way to get more eyeballs on your published post.

3. Post on Your LinkedIn Company Page

In addition to posting a healthy mix of third-party generated content (i.e. content from outside publications) and mixed media (i.e. white papers, videos, etc.) I recommend sharing your published content on your LinkedIn Company Page. If your Company Page has 300 followers, all of whom are not necessarily your first level connections, then consider sharing with this audience.

While this may go without saying, some things are worth stating: If the content you are writing is relevant to your industry and would bring value to your Company Page followers, it may be worth posting. However, if your content is in a completely different vein and topic than that of your company industry, then you may want to reconsider posting it on your LinkedIn Company Page. Feel free to comment at the bottom of this post if you have further questions about this or need more clarity.

4. Add Your Authored Page to Your LinkedIn Profile

Since LinkedIn gives us three slots to include websites on our LinkedIn profile, I recommend adding your LinkedIn Author Page as one of those websites. Remember that you want to customize the website titles; this will let people know where you are taking them and thus, increase your click-through rate.

Unlike your email and phone number, your websites are visible to anyone on LinkedIn within the Contact Info tab of your Profile. Add a direct link to all of your published posts to let people browse your “LinkedIn library.”

5. Add to Your Email Newsletter

Before and after workshops, my team and I send our clients a customized MailChimp email. These emails serve as preparation for our time together and as a follow up for accountability. Both emails include additional resources and often we use our published posts.

Prior to the LinkedIn publishing platform being available to all members, we would direct clients to our blog posts. Now, we can use our pre- and post-workshop emails to get more visibility on our LinkedIn published posts. What’s more is that we are directing them into the tool we train on: LinkedIn!

To recap, here are 5 simple ways to get more eyes on the content you work hard to create:

1. Start with LinkedIn Analytics
2. Share with Your Networks
3. Post on Your LinkedIn Company Page
4. Add Your Authored Page to Your LinkedIn Profile
5. Add to Your Email Newsletter

While I recommend sharing other peoples’ posts, commenting on them and sending them to individuals you know who may benefit from them, do not forget to promote your own work. LinkedIn created these functions so that you can do just that. Take advantage of them and get your content in front of the people you want to impact.

Do you have additional ideas? I would love to hear them. Please share in the comments section below.

With terrorist attacks and hotel security issues having become a very real concern around the world, it's crucial you do what you can to ensure your safety while traveling in a foreign country.

We've put together a list of tips for doing just that, consulting Anthony Melchiorri, host of Travel Channel's "Hotel Impossible"; John Rose, an aviation and terrorism expert and COO of travel risk management companyiJET; Daniel Durazo, the director of communications for Allianz Global Assistance USA; and Daniel Smith, a security researcher at Radware. 

From what to do if you get arrested abroad to mistakes you shouldn't be making at a hotel, here's how to make sure you stay safe on your next trip. 

SEE ALSO: The top 20 hottest markets for vacation home buyers

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Grab an extra business card from the front desk of your hotel.

The information on a business card will come in handy if you're ever lost or need to contact someone. 

If you're in a place where you don't speak the local language, you can at least ensure that you have your hotel's address and phone number.

Consider travel insurance for cruises.

According to Durazo, while cruise ships have an infirmary to take care of guests when they get seasick or have the flu, they don't have a full hospital that can treat more serious injuries like broken bones or heart attacks.

If one of those injuries does happen, the cruise ship will disembark at the closest port, but the type of hospital you end up in might not always be suited for your care.

Having a travel insurance provider helps alleviate costs and provides additional assistance for issues like language barriers or medical discrepancies. It'll especially come in handy if you end up requiring an evacuation back to the US. 

Use your phone to test the front desk when you get to your hotel room.

To see how safe hotels keep your information, Melchiorri recommends that you use your cell phone to call the front desk and ask if you can speak to yourself.

If the staff gives you your room number, that's a red flag. The response you want is: "Let me connect you."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

As part of LiveHive’s onboarding process, we write sales email templates for our customers. Customers love this value-added service. It gets them up and running faster and gives their reps an instant productivity boost for their first SmartPath automated email sequence.

Subsequently, I write a lot of sales emails, and I’m always searching for new ways to write better emails. I look at research, read best practices, and also have learned a lot through my own experience and talking with the sales team here at LiveHive. Because customers often ask what works best and – in the spirit of summer sales wellness – we’re sharing a dozen of our top tips.

#1. Keep email copy short.

Two thirds of us check email on our phones. Keep that in mind as you write your email. Copy should be short and easy to read, broken out into paragraphs not just one big bunch of text. In general, three paragraphs are ideal. You want to catch your audience’s attention and give them something of value quickly.

#2. Keep subject lines short.

In general, we put too much copy in the subject line. Keep it short – research shows that shorter subject lines are opened more. When you write subject lines, think about what’s going to be most compelling for your prospects. Also, don’t ask a question in a subject line, particularly for initial touch points – as they’re shown to have lower open rates.

#3. Use A/B testing for your subject line.

With sales engagement analytics, such as LiveHive, you can test different subject lines for the same email template to compare open rates. This is an excellent way to get insight into the messaging that resonates most with your prospects and lets you see what subject lines are working best.

#4. Don’t overuse your company name.

Just as in a sales call, the focus should be on the customer and their pain points. While you need to communicate the value of your solution or service, it should be conveyed in a way that is customer centric. Starting every other sentence with your company name sounds like an advertisement – not a professional sales email.

#5. Include links and attachments to deliver value with content.

Always give prospects something of value. A sales email is an excellent opportunity to share company content. Include or attach videos, white papers, or customer stories that are relevant to your prospect’s situation. With LiveHive, you can also see if an attachment is downloaded, or a link is clicked, to gain more insight into a buyer’s interests and interest level. When I get an email that links to an interesting asset, I save it! You want your prospects to do the same.

#6. Address the pain points and show the benefit.

Support your email with research that shows why this issue is of importance to prospects right now and why they need to pay attention and act on it. Take the time to research and address their pain points. Be sure the benefit is clear, as well as the downside of doing nothing.

#7. Validate your story with data.

Use numbers and statistics from reputable third parties – or share results from your customers. Having data strengthens and validates your story.

#8. Include customers.

If you have high profile customers you can name drop in your email, do so. Case studies are sales assets of gold.

#9. Personalize with recipient’s name and company.

With data merge fields, there’s no excuse for not personalizing. Use the prospect’s first name in the email. Include the company name if appropriate. By doing so, your email stands out.

#10. Provide context

If you’re following up on marketing leads, provide context in your sales emails. You want to pick up the conversation where marketing left off, especially from webinar and tradeshow leads. Look at tradeshow notes and webinar interactions to understand their interest levels and where the conversation was headed. Pick up where the last person left off.

#11. End with a clear call to action (CTA).

Your email should always have a clear call to action, and it should be as specific as possible and require the least amount of effort from your prospect. Give them a day/time for a ’10 minute call’ to discuss the value you can provide for their business. If you have a calendar app, such as Calendly, use that to let prospects set up their own meeting.

#12. Use power words.

Power words evoke emotion. Power words aren’t long words that you think might make you look smart. In fact, they’re generally very simple. Here are five examples from the “Top 20 Power Words That Sell” in my order of preference: “you,” “easy,” “savings,” “get,” and, of course, “free.”

Have we forgotten anything? If you have tips for writing good sales emails, we’d love to hear them!

Original Post

Which water is safer and healthier to drink?

Canadian Living noted that tap water is the worst water type to drink. Chlorine treatment may kill unwanted bacteria in it but may contain lead or aluminum as it passes through extensive piping prior to coming out of the faucet. On the safe side of the list is Bottled water which is treated through distillation, reverse osmosis or ionized, and Charcoal filtration but which is also prone to bacteria breed when filters are not changed regularly.

The course of IT and Software companies in choosing between Lead Generation and Demand Generation as to which best marketing strategy would work for their business seems turbid as the question which water type is best safe for drinking. Although much informational scripts have already been penned for both tactics, for some reasons, some IT and software companies still remain reserved in taking new grounds and instead settle in the comfort of old tools and processes which they are already much familiar with. Who can argue on that?

However, competition mainly in the aspect of customer acquisition is getting stringy as (other) aggressive companies look for more prospecting options and bravely invest in the powers of advanced technologies to grab all the chances of dominating the market.

What are their reasons and what are the baselines in deciding whether to take Lead Generation or opt for Demand Generation as the best fit marketing strategy for IT and Software companies?

Below are some insights that would help you discern which marketing tactic would best work for your IT or Software business.

What is your Goal?

Customer acquisition is the major and most commanding need in a business but realizing that goal may require a stern process in order to get all points leading to that goal.

You may have to answer the question “Is your product not known to your target market or is your target market not well aware about your product?”. Affirmation to the question would mean that you need to create awareness among your target customers about your product and its capabilities and features that would benefit them – that is Demand Generation.

However, if you already have a good demographical and psychological profiles of your target customers and at the same time they are already well aware about your product and its benefits to their business, it’s perfect time to drive interest among these customers via Lead Generation. This is an important factor in the sales funnel.

What are the Success Qualifications?

Operational procedures or processes may come similar for Demand Generation and Lead Generation but Success Criteria may differ.

As discussed earlier, demand generation aims to create awareness among your target customers. With the help of automation and nurture tools, and regardless of the number of leads generated, such awareness must not only get your message to your targets but at the same time lead your marketing efforts into substantial discussion between you and your prospects.

Lead generation may require a specific success criteria like the BANT which stands for Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. Most IT and Software companies would require these important information to qualify a lead in order for them to tailor fit the best solution for their interested customer. One or two criteria like Budget and Timeframe may sometimes be missing but the lead may still be considered for as long as the Need and the Decision Maker are identified.

What is your target Result?

Demand generation will provide you a room to exist in your target market which will pave the way for your business to engage and to know them better – their thoughts, their behavior and their business perception. A successful demand generation campaign will result a profiled list of qualified candidates whose trust you have gained through nurturing.

For lead generation however quality and quantity matter. The number of leads generated and the quality of each lead which is determined by the success criteria play important roles in the business’ sales funnel and are considered to be non-negotiables.

Lead Generation and Demand Generation may have distinct differences in terms of Goal, Success Qualification and Result but at a certain point may be fused together as one efficient process that would realize success for your IT or Software business.

So why so picky with the water type you drink? I won’t mind at all for as long as it would quench my thirst…Success!

Source: http://www.canadianliving.com/health/nutrition/article/the-healthiest-water-to-drink

Customer advocacy has undergone a wonderful transformation

Customer advocacy is the practice of leveraging your Customers to endorse you and with the right tools it has become a very powerful source of lead generation for businesses. These endorsements can come in many different forms ranging from product reviews on third party sites, to sales references, to referring your product to someone in their network. Sales and Marketing have been begging Customers for these things for years but they haven’t been able to turn it into a significant lead generation resource.

Now there is software available that allows you to get Customers advocating at scale, software for getting content and software that drives referrals and they are working. SiriusDecisions recently highlighted some customer advocacy programs that are impacting revenue in this presentation. It isn’t just influenced revenue. ADP stated that customer advocacy via referrals is their top source of leads that turn into revenue.

But with the onset of customer advocacy adoption and companies realizing the value of it, it’s highlighting a big problem with reseller partnerships. Specifically, with reseller partnerships you get revenue, but don’t have any relationship with the end users of your product. They aren’t your Customers, they are the Customers of your Reseller.

These Customers may be some of the best and happiest users of your product, but they have no relationship with you so they can’t be leveraged for customer advocacy. If you don’t own the relationship, you can’t control it.

This is one of the reasons why companies are moving away from Reseller Partners and transitioning toward Referral Partners.

How to leverage referral partnerships with customer advocacy

Referral partnerships benefit both the Partner and brand/Customer Marketer. With referral partnerships you can still leverage the value of your partner network, while keeping the customer relationship direct. The way this works is that your Partners act as a trusted adviser to your target buyer. They can recommend your product to them and can get compensated for that recommendation if they end up buying your product. This generates a high quality lead in your sales pipeline that gets sold by your sales team.

And now there is software that can manage the complexity of that relationship from delivering the referral experience and tracking that referral, rewarding and fulfillment process with variations as needed by Partner. Relative to Resellers, this drives incredible value for Partner Marketers, Sales, your Partners and your Buyers.

Partner Marketers can drive incredible value from your partner network while making your brand and Customer Marketers BFFs. By transitioning to referral partnerships, you are extending their pool of potential Advocates that can take actions to make referrals and endorsements. And this of course, drives more revenue.

As customer advocacy becomes a more common and expected part of the lead generation and buying experience, I predict that companies will find it difficult to justify their investment in reseller partnerships.

Justify your investment in customer advocacy by trying out the ROI calculator to discover the ROI you can achieve with a referral program.

Are you aware of how insanely popular Pokémon Go is?

(If you're trying to snag a Zubat as you read this, you know.)

According to Time Magazine, the game is

[b]igger than Tinder and on its way to smashing Twitter’s 'daily active users' ceiling. That’s how nuts this Pokémon Go augmented reality experiment has become since it was unceremoniously loosed on the iOS and Android app stores on July 6.

In fact, it’s become so big that, according to NBC News, police departments country-wide are issuing proactive warnings in order to protect the safety of players. People are walking into the streets and exploring all sorts of dangerous places to find the elusive Pokémon.

What does this have to do with sales? On the surface, nothing. Your first reaction might be “the heck with that -- I’m busy making my calls today, thanks.”

But wait a second. The hardest part of the sales process is prospecting, according to HubSpot's 2015 State of Inbound report.

And this is where things get interesting. You can use Pokémon Go to bring leads to you! I know it sounds crazy, but it works.

Here are three tactics you can try this weekend to increase sales. (And if you do, please share your stories in the comments section.)

1) Create a “lure” to bring people to you.

For a small cost you can create what is known as a "lure" near you, or near your place of business. Lures essentially attract Pokémon ... who then attract customers.

Here’s what one store manager wrote on Reddit: “PoGo is amazing. SO. MUCH. FOOT TRAFFIC. Time to invest in some lures.”

If you’re selling in a store, automobile dealer, restaurant, etc., go and create some lures.

But what if you're not in retail? Steve, a sales buddy of mine, told me that he had been trying to break into an account for some time with limited success. He decided to create a Pokémon lure in his office's parking lot, and watched people congregate to play Pokémon Go during lunch.

Guess who he chatted with? The CFO of his target company. Not bad considering that he couldn't even get him on the phone before!

2) Go to Pokémon gyms with your products.

A Pokémon gym is a place where you can fight other users’ Pokémon to make your pack stronger. These fights are a way of advancing in the game, so gyms are a place where a lot of people have been gathering since the app launched.

Find a gym near you in the app, and network with the potential buyers engaged in Pokémon battles. Virtual fights, real connections.

3) Create some Pokémon-friendly messaging.

Maybe you’re rolling your eyes and saying “my prospects don’t care about Pokémon,” but consider that as many as 9.5 million of the U.S. population is playing Pokémon Go every single day.

You surely have a prospect who's playing. So why not insert a line about the Pokémon phenomenon into your next prospecting email? Your line about capturing a Caterpie might just help you build rapport and expand your relationship. Hey, crazier things have happened.

You might also consider testing the Pokémon waters on social media. Walter Chen suggests “tak[ing] in-game screenshots and post[ing] them on the social media platforms where you’re active. Use hashtags like #pokemongo and #pokemon to get the message out to your potential new customers.”

No doubt the Pokémon craze will fade away, so take advantage of this trend while it’s hot.

(Pssst -- there's a Rattata right behind you. You're welcome.)

Editor's note: This post originally appeared on the Spiro blog, and has been published here with permission.

Sales development reps (SDRs) are an integral part of any B2B sales team. It’s their job to act as the front line of sales, focusing on the early stage of the sales cycle and bringing in qualified leads. They may not be the ones following up and closing, but without their efforts, new leads would dwindle.

So how can you measure whether your SDRs are effective? And better yet, how can you empower them to become more so?

We’ve identified three top SDR metrics and how to optimize them, so your sales development team can accelerate your bottom line.

Number of Net New Leads

The simplest, and most visible, metrics for sales development is often the number of new leads being brought in. Your organization can look at each rep, each channel, and each lead to determine how effective your sales program is, but it’s best to start with knowing exactly how many new leads are coming in.

To inspire your team to bring in more leads, you should set aggressive but attainable goals. Be clear with your expectations, and understand why goals are – or are not – being met. This way, your team can adjust their strategy to meet the goals, or you can adjust the goals to match the reality of your team’s efforts.

Number of Opportunities Created

Some organizations measure their SDRs based on the number of calls made, or emails sent – and this is misguided. Instead of focusing on channel-specific actions, you should be focusing on what those actions produce: opportunities.

In order to optimize the number of opportunities created by your sales team, consider ignoring altogether the number of calls each rep makes. Give them an incentive to book meetings, rather than just leave a voicemail.

Also, you should ensure your SDRs are bringing in qualified opportunities. The prospect should be someone who is in a position, and who has a need or desire, to purchase your company’s offering.

Number of Opportunities Created Over Time

In order to empower your sales development team to thrive, you have to develop a long-term vision of what their success looks like. This means not simply counting the number of opportunities they create, but comparing that to days, weeks and months past.

If a rep’s numbers remain consistent or decline over time, that might indicate that they are stagnating – and this could be a result of a morale problem, a disconnect between the marketing leads they are being fed, or any number of other reasons. If you catch it early, you can right the ship.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other metrics that sales development teams can look at, but too much data is often overwhelming and can lead to teams getting “stuck.” By zooming in on these three metrics, you’ll create a solid picture of how your SDRs are performing, where they need to improve, and how you can support them going forward.

Leaders involved in the Industrial Internet of Things technology development are looking at the next important step in IIot technology, which is figuring out the process of creating application testbeds. From a technological standpoint, many milestones have been met. However, there is a need for feedback from application developers in order to hone the technology.

See Also:  What is the Internet of Things?

The Industrial Internet Consortium has recently sponsored a testbed that many travelers can appreciate. The testbed plans are to study the possibilities of smart airline baggage management.The purpose of this testbed will be to gather a better understanding of the lifecycle of a smart bag, from check-in at the airport to delivery at a flight destination.

The system will place smart luggage with passengers and flights, using GPS to track baggage locations in real-time and generate alerts. The testbed should show how luggage is tracked and monitored during an entire trip. Airlines should be able to see all of the smart bags on all of their flights, and travelers should see data associated with their bags by using their smartphones and the web.

The second part of the testbed phase will investigate sensor use on luggage conveyer belts and trucks, which should make it easier to spot bags heading for the wrong flight.

Fewer missing and damaged bags makes everyone happier

The goals outlined for the Smart Airline Baggage Management testbed are to reduce the amounts of delayed, damaged and lost bags, which will lower the risk for airlines.

“The testbed focus is to bring together fragmented applications and systems to drive solutions to make the airlines and airports more efficient during check-in and subsequent baggage handling across the aviation ecosystem for the benefit of passengers,” states the Industrial Internet Consortium website.

With this in mind, the solution needs to incorporate cloud-based airline applications and databases, cloud based analytics, and M2M and IoT platforms to manage, connect and secure real-time information from the smart baggage

“Smart connected baggage will reduce the instances of delay, damage and lost bags leading to lower economic risk exposure to the airline and agony to the passenger. Today about 6-7 bags are lost for every 1,000, per statistics from SITA survey and Department of Transportation. It costs airlines $100 to repatriate a delayed bag, and risk exposure for a lost bag is as much as $3300 per bag in the USA. With global airline passenger travel targeted to double in the next 20 years, any such efficiency added to the baggage handling system will have a big economic impact,” states the IIC website.

The IIC is currently involved with 17 testbeds for diverse application areas including Edge Intelligence, Smart Energy and Connected Care.

The post IoT means never losing your bag again appeared first on ReadWrite.

Pricing plays a huge part in profit growth. After all, once you get your customers to pay more, you have more left over in your pocket.

If only it were that simple.

Pricing strategy has gotten so complicated that enterprise-level businesses have hundreds of professionals focused solely on identifying the perfect price for each transaction.

Fortunately, small to mid-size companies can maneuver their businesses into a profitable position by just following the fundamentals. You can start with these seven basic rules of a profitable pricing strategy.

1. Avoid the Tired Cost-Plus Pricing Formula

Many companies take the easy way out with a cost-plus pricing formula. They have a baseline cost, add a certain percentage to it, and voila! They have their final price. It’s simple, drives short-term profit, is easy to explain to customers, and takes very little time to implement.

But it’s a major pricing strategy mistake. It completely devalues your business and its services. It ignores specific customer needs. This archaic and formulaic approach alienates customers and makes it impossible to increase prices in the future.

Instead, focus on value when building your pricing strategy.

2. Understand and Leverage What Your Customers Value

Your offering is not a commodity. It doesn’t matter what you sell. You should never believe it’s a commodity. If you do, your ability to sell on value is lost. Once that’s lost, your ability to turn a profit is also lost.

Work with customers to determine why they choose to do business with your company. Is it your high-quality products, your superb customer support, or your always-on-time delivery? Identify these value propositions, and then make them the cornerstone rationalizations for your pricing strategy.

Once you can articulate and quantify value increases, you have a much stronger foundation for asking for a proportional price increase and defending your existing pricing in the face of competitive pressures.

Your sales and account management teams shouldn’t emphasize value only during deal negotiations and price conversations, though. They should sell value constantly, emphasizing it at least once in every conversation. This puts customers in a value, not cost, mindset. Their appreciation for your unique offering grows, and their reluctance to pay for these perks wanes.

3. Implement Price Increases Slowly

Your team can’t just wake up one morning and decide it’s time for a price increase. Launching a successful price change takes months of planning and research. Companies should start thinking about their next price increase as soon as they implement a new one.

First, they must start with research at least six months to a year out. This is crucial to a successful increase. Unfortunately, McKinsey estimates fewer than 15% of companies commit to pricing research. Give yourself a leg up on the competition by studying up beforehand.

Then identify which products and customer segments are ripe for an increase. A good place to start is with accounts and products requiring few, if any, price negotiations. If your current prices are going through with little resistance, it’s a sign you could increase them. During this time, focus on adding more value propositions to your offering. These additions justify higher pricing.

If you feel ready to move forward, it’s time to test your most loyal customer segments with an increase. Pay close attention to their reaction. If they barely bat an eyelash, it’s time to move forward with a full launch. If they do balk, emphasize value you’ve added throughout the year. If your most loyal customers still resist, it may be time to go back to the drawing board for a different pricing strategy.

But make sure you give your existing customers time to react and plan for the increase. They have their own budgets to handle, and you don’t want to catch them off guard. Prioritize transparency.

4. Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Everyone wants big margins, so they often go for big price increases. It’s a dangerous and often unnecessary pricing move. Many businesses run into problems with it.

Instead, focus on small, incremental price increases. After all, according to Harvard Business Review, a 1% price improvement results in an 11% profit improvement.

You could increase your prices 3% every three years, or you could increase your prices 1% every year. To which strategy do you think your customers will respond best? A minor but well-planned price increase results in major margin growth for your business. Take small steps in pricing to keep customers on board and engaged.

5. Segment Your Way to Pricing Success

Your customers, product lines, and market areas are all different. They should have equally unique prices to achieve their maximum profitability.

Some companies seeking simplicity within their pricing strategy apply a “peanut butter” approach. This applies the same pricing to all customers or all products. It’s easy, but it rarely works. Businesses often end up falling short of their margin potential by neglecting to set higher prices for some customers as well as losing customers who seek a lower price.

Some companies customize pricing by customers but not by buying situations. This strategy still falls short, because every customer values every buying situation in a unique way.

Planning prices customer by customer, product by product, and by buying situation requires much more effort but it also returns much larger long-term margins. Segment your prices as narrowly as possible to maximize your revenue and build customer loyalty with personalized deals.

6. Discount Responsibly

Some businesses put all of their energy into identifying and launching profitable pricing strategies only to shoot themselves in the foot later with terrible discounts. According to research from Vantage Partners, almost 60% of companies reduce pricing for half of their deals. 25% of companies include price cuts on almost all of their deals.

Why work so hard to find your most profitable target prices if you’re just going lower it during deal negotiations?

Massive discounts damage more than margins too. They put customers in the driver seat on pricing strategy, minimize possibilities for future price increases, and can even trigger price wars if they get completely out of control.

Motivate your sales teams to avoid discounts by adding target price achievement to their incentive programs. Build an incentive formula that measures how close your sales reps close deals to target prices. Price-focused incentives keep unprofitable discounts at bay. They train sales reps to sell on value and convince customers your company’s products are worth more than the market-assigned cost.

Put alerts in place that catch deals with unprofitable discounts before the customer signs on the dotted line.

7. Analyze, Adjust, Repeat

The best way to build a successful pricing strategy is to keep a close eye on it and its effects on margins. Then tweak prices as needed to increase success and profitability in the long run.

Closely monitoring pricing performance helps teams understand the intricate details of pricing challenges, successes, failures, and opportunities. It promotes early corrective action and minimizes unprofitable strategies.

Measuring price increases can get difficult. You must review actual price achieved, customer by customer and product by product. You have to look past discounts, rebates, and customer mix. This effort requires powerful yet intuitive analytics. Your teams must strive for ongoing evaluation and optimization, though, if you want to develop a successful pricing culture for your company.

Profitable pricing starts with a commitment to both thoughtful planning and powerful sales data analytics. Learn more about how to sustainably grow margins with better pricing practices in this white paper titled “A Complete Guide to Managing Your Pricing Strategy.”

It can sometimes feel like the only thing that's truly unacceptable in sales is failing to hit quota. Any means to that end is kosher. Right?

Nope.

While hitting your number is important for the business, there are right and wrong ways to do it. For instance, it's easy for a rep to make quota if they lie to buyers and promise things they know the company can't deliver on. But is it ethical? Not in the least.

SalesLoft has collected the seven deadly sins of sales in the following infographic. Are you guilty of any of these problematic sales practices? If so, your success in sales depends on you renouncing these bad habits -- commit to making a change today.

According to HubSpot’s 2018 State of Inbound report, 40% of salespeople report getting a response from prospects is more difficult now than it was two-to-three years ago.

And it makes sense -- in an age where buyers know more than ever and everyone is incredibly busy, it’s harder and harder to get someone to pick up your call or respond to your email.

Dan Muscatello, a HubSpot enterprise sales rep, has a unique strategy that makes this painful process a little easier and more effective: His prospecting emails are all two sentences or shorter.

Here’s why Muscatello does it:

1. It’s mobile-friendly

Fifty-four percent of emails are opened on mobile, so it’s critical that your email reads well on a phone screen.

Keeping prospecting emails shorter than two sentences makes them far easier to read on mobile, and guarantees that the entire message is displayed without your recipient having to scroll. Here’s an example of a pitch email I received recently that wasn’t written with my reading experience in mind:

And here’s an email clearly optimized for mobile:

If your prospect can read your entire message with minimal effort, it’s much more likely they’ll read the entire email and then perform the action you want them to take. Research shows that the ideal length of a sales email should be no more than 125 words, a limit you're unlikely to hit in two sentences.

2. It matches decision makers’ and executives’ tones

Every month, HubSpot Chief Sales Officer Hunter Madeley posts a sales update summarizing the previous month’s performance on our internal wiki, then emails the Sales, Marketing, and executive teams when it's done.

Here’s a screenshot of Madeley's email with June’s sales update. As you can see, it’s short and sweet:

Executives and busy decision makers don’t write paragraphs-long emails because they don’t have time -- which means you shouldn’t expect them to read an email that’s really long.

A short email also acknowledges that you understand their role, the demands of their day-to-day, and that you respect their time. The more you can address these decision makers at the level they operate on, the more likely they are to respect you.

3. It looks less like a template

Today’s buyers have access to more information than ever before, but it’s also the golden age for salespeople -- sales blogs and publications abound with free resources, webinars, courses, and sales templates.

This is good news for new sales teams and inexperienced salespeople. Seeing what’s out there is a great way to learn and get new ideas for outreach, and the wealth of information makes it easy to write effective prospecting emails.

But the good news cuts both ways. Instead of taking the core ideas from popular templates and customizing them to their company’s unique situation, many salespeople simply copy and paste these templates and send them along.

Prospects know this all too well, because chances are if you’re reaching out to a buyer, other salespeople are too. And if you’re all using the same templates you’ve lifted from the same blogs, your buyers will notice. Even I’ve gotten duplicate or extremely similar emails from reps at different companies.

Keeping your prospecting emails short forces you to condense your message and get right to the point, but it also allays your buyers’ suspicions that you’ve just copy and pasted a generic template you got from someone else’s blog. After all, if you’re sending two hyper-customized sentences to a prospect, it’ll seem more personalized -- even if you’ve sent the same or a similar message to multiple people who are similar to that particular buyer.

4. It lowers the psychological burden of responding

I don’t know about you, but when I read a long email, I immediately get a little anxiety. Am I going to pick up on everything the sender wanted me to? Am I going to miss important information unless I stop everything and read the message incredibly carefully? Am I going to have to write a magna carta in response?

A short email with a clear ask removes all of this anxiety. Its length assures the reader they’ve seen the whole message. It also means you can’t confuse your prospect with multiple asks or too much information they’ll have to prioritize themselves. And most importantly, it means that they’ll be more likely to respond.

Because you’ve given your prospect a clear, singular center to your message, they know they only have to respond to one thing. They don’t need to sift through your 17 questions and determine which ones they want to answer, if at all -- they can just shoot back a two-sentence response.

If you're having a hard time keeping your emails short, try actually writing your emails on your phone so you can see what your prospect sees. It's also harder to compose longer messages, so you'll force yourself to be concise.

In a world where we’re all inundated with information, it doesn’t matter how good your paragraphs-long emails are if they don’t get read and responded to. The easier you make a sales process for your prospects to kick off, the more likely you’ll successfully start a conversation -- and that’s the entire point of prospecting in the first place.

Going into 2016, the B2B sales landscape is continuing to evolve. Digital sales technology, for example, is attracting significant investment. Similar studies also suggest that 56% of buyers are now taking longer to complete the sales cycle due to the fact that they are conducting their own research. With an array of new factors to consider, we’ve chosen four key B2B sales tips for you to consider in the context of your own company’s sales processes.

A key trend is the merging of traditional sales roles and processes with new technologies. The demand for personalization, the use of multiple devices, and the growing prevalence of data and analytics are all influencing how reps and salespeople achieve their aims.

Before diving in, it’s worthwhile to distinguish between two terms that are often conflated: “marketing” and “sales.” Though there is a degree of overlap between the two, for the purposes of this post, we understand “marketing” to refer to the strategies that are responsible for publicizing a company and its products to new prospects. The term “sales”, on the other hand, refers to the processes by which prospective customers are converted into customers and repeat customers.

B2B Sales Tips for Manufacturers & Suppliers

1. Customer-centricity and personalization is key.

“Customer-centricity” is one of the big buzzwords of 2016. It refers to an approach to sales that is geared around the individual as opposed to a standard customer experience that is the same for everybody. Think personalized order histories and recommendations, tailored promotions, and customizable sales interfaces, along with the use of data to feed back directly into an understanding of customer desires.

It’s important that you build personalization into your customer-facing sales journey. In particular, modern marketing software allows for a high degree of segmentation, which is applicable to those suppliers that still rely in large part on email marketing campaigns aimed at their established customers. As integration across company software becomes the norm, the data available to achieve a high degree of customer-centricity will grow more readily available.

2. Take advantage of multi-device preferences.

The myriad of opportunities that comes with the widespread use of portable devices like mobile phones and tablets has been written about extensively on this blog. Buyer habits and preferences are highly dependent on the type of eCommerce platform that is being used at a given time.

Mobile sales, for example, are much more likely to be the result of a decision made on the shop floor when compared to desktop sales. Similarly, other mobile-specific features, like push notifications and barcode scanning, open up new opportunities for B2B suppliers to reach their customers at points when they were previously inaccessible. The first step for B2B sellers is to make sure that omnichannel capabilities are actually offered.

3. Use data to seal up “sales funnels.”

It’s important that you build feedback mechanisms, in the form of questionnaires, product reviews and customer satisfaction ratings, into your sales cycles. When you consider the statistic that 7 in 10 B2B customers have never been asked for their opinions regarding a sales experience, it’s easy to see that B2B sellers are missing a huge opportunity. Any good “sales funnel,” which comprises the journey across numerous touch points from initial lead to loyal customer, needs to be flexible and subject to continuous testing and improvement.

The sheer range of variables that can be measured makes it possible to take an agile approach to designing buyer journeys––one that changes with the inflow of data.

4. Build trust in the long-term.

Just as it’s important to have well-developed processes for pitching new clients, it’s equally key that reps are involved in maintaining relationships with existing buyers. Loyalty incentives, such as VIP promotions and rewards, are important, and it’s the responsibility of reps to make sure that as much as possible is done to offer the maximum amount of value to repeat buyers.

To bring things back to our first two points about personalization and multi-device capabilities, it’s important to be able to offer customer-specific pricing, discounts, and promotions across all touch points, whether your customers are placing orders on the web from a desktop computer, from a mobile device, or with a sales rep.

What are your thoughts about our B2B sales tips? Let us know in the comments section below!

That’s right, lead lists suck. Too many marketers look at lead lists as “necessary evils.” But I’m here to tell you there’s a better way.

Let’s say you’re selling car insurance. People who are actively looking for new insurance policies fill out forms online and get placed on lead lists. They most likely want information as soon as possible, but the lead list might only fall on your desk two months down the line.

Now, they’ve already found a new policy, and they’re super annoyed at your phone calls. In fact, they’ve probably been receiving phone calls for the past two months from other companies who bought that lead list.

That’s the big issue with buying lead lists for cold calling. They’re full of contacts that are outdated and no longer interested. The solution is to reach your prospective customers when they’re most interested, and that’s where live inbound leads can help.

The Problem With Lead Lists

Buying a list of seemingly qualified customers may sound like a great idea, but what you don’t always know is how long ago those people actually showed interest in similar product or services.

You also don’t know how many times a list of contacts has been resold and recycled. The leads on the lists you’re purchasing might not be exclusive to you.

Plus, if you’re buying leads on a list, they’re outbound leads, which means you have to call all of them. Of those leads, only 1.7% of outbound leads actually convert. It takes extra manpower and time to make that even remotely successful, which is something that most businesses don’t have.

The Contacts Could Be Outdated

Say you’re an insurance company looking to acquire new clients, so you buy a list of people who have all filled out inquiry forms online about auto insurance. But for all you know, the majority of the people on the list inquired about auto insurance over six months ago, and have already been called by multiple other insurance companies. Chances are, they’ve already settled on a new insurance plan, or they’re completely tired of being called again and again by insurance companies.

Source: Quickmeme

You have no idea if this is the case when you purchase a lead list, but if it is, that means you’ve spent hundreds buying old leads. These leads will not only never convert, but you’ll be putting in a lot of time and effort to call each lead before you finally figure that out.

If you’re purchasing cold calling lists specifically for B2B sales, you’re also at a disadvantage. Once again, you don’t know how old the list is, and there’s a very good chance the contact information could be outdated. The person on your list could have quit or been promoted. And you don’t know if you’re actually buying the contact information for the decision maker, which is who you really need to talk to.

Sure, a lead list might seem like a great deal at the time. They’re generally inexpensive and only cost $0.10 to $3.00 a lead. But if you keep buying hundreds of those, you’re still wasting a good chunk of money.

You Could Damage Your Company

Telemarketer. That’s probably a word that makes you cringe. If you’re buying lists with hundreds of leads on them and just calling each one without any preface or previous conversation, guess what? You’re just as cringeworthy as those telemarketers who pester you with calls at dinnertime.

Source: Memegenerator

Whether you’re a B2B company or a B2C, nobody really likes being called out of the blue. Essentially, you’ll be annoying people by trying to get business from them that you haven’t earned.

When you’re cold calling a potential customer, you’re asking for their business when they’ve never actually shown interest in your company; they’ve only expressed interest in your type of service or product.

Not only could lead lists damage your credibility by annoying potential consumers, but there’s also a legal aspect to lead lists that could be risky for your company. If you’re purchasing outdated contacts, you may find yourself accidentally violating compliance rules.

Plus, most people are on “Do Not Call” lists, so even if they technically agreed to be contacted by filling out an online form, the chances of them actually wanting to talk to you are slim, especially if it’s months after they inquired.

Lead Lists Have a Low Conversion Rate

With all the potential issues that come with purchasing a lead list, this means that they ultimately have very low conversion rates. The names on the lists aren’t exclusive to you, and chances are those potential consumers don’t want an unsolicited phone call from yet another business.

Source: Kappit

In this day and age, cold calling is outdated. It’s annoying, ineffective, and frankly, it’s a waste of money. They are inexpensive, and that can be tempting, but I’m sure you’ve heard the saying: You get what you pay for.

The Solution? Live Inbound Calls

Pay per call advertising works much differently than lead lists. Instead of just purchasing stagnant names in a document, you’re buying inbound calls that are coming to you in real-time. In other words, you’re getting connected with the potential consumer immediately after they fill out an inquiry form online.

What’s the Difference?

It’s usually a matter of minutes (not months) after the prospective customer initially fills out a form before they’re contacted by a call center and filtered through to your business after being pre-qualified.

The exclusivity and prequalification process is what makes live calls so much more successful than leads on a cold calling list. The customers have already been vetted out and matched with your company, so they’re automatically so much more likely to convert.

When you’re connected to a consumer who is still actively searching, you’re talking to someone who is beyond just the interest stage of the sales funnel. They’re informed and ready to take action.

Plus, those calls are exclusive to you. You’ll know those customers haven’t hit the call fatigue wall just yet, because you’re the first person they’re talking to.

How Does It Work?

When a consumer fills out an inquiry form online, that information is sent to a call center, which then calls the consumer. Then, the call center sorts and prequalifies the consumer in order to transfer them to the most relevant business.

So, by the time your phone rings, it’s already been predetermined that the consumer is a good match for what your company has to offer. Cold calling from a list only has a 1-3% success rate for even getting an initial appointment. But live inbound calls have a conversion rate of 30-50%.

However, unlike lead lists, the average cost of calls is anywhere from $25-$35 for quality calls. But the good news is you only pay when the phone rings.

My VSL campaign last week bombed – and I know why…

Facebook’s targeting is now second to none.

You can test campaigns for as little as $5 a day and find customers with diamond-cutting precision.

BUT…

that doesn’t mean they’re going to rush to download your report when they have no clue who you are.

You’ve got to build the relationship first.

Selling via Facebook is the same as bringing a new client onboard in real life.

You don’t want to tell them how much you’ll charge in the first email.

In the wise words of Homer Simpson, “If you want to make your move, you’ve got to play it cool.”

You invite them out for coffee first. Discuss their challenges over Skype or email them back to explain why their current strategy isn’t working.

Only then can you start thinking about presenting your offer.

I did none of this.

Instead, I bought my way into their newsfeed and expected people to hand over their email address.

I rushed things and got the door slammed in my face.

I won’t be making the same mistake again.

Now that’s been said…here’s my entire VSL report published and offered up front with no strings attached.

We live and learn in this marketing game.

You’ve dropped $10k on a copywriter, another $15k on full animation and then watched in HORROR as views of your VSL fall off a cliff in the FIRST minute.

It’s enough to make even the steeliest of marketers cry.

Why aren’t people watching?

Can it be saved?

You have questions. I have answers.

Take a deep breath, have a seat and let’s see if we can’t turn your VSL car crash into a conversion monster…

Why VSL’s are so powerful

VSLs are probably the most effective way of selling right now (particularly for converting cold traffic).

Why?

Because you control the thought process.

Instead of allowing viewers to flick through the sales page, skimming and missing out all the best bits, you have them locked into a predetermined path.

Like a conveyer belt that takes them from curious to convinced and ready to buy.

BUT…

as any seasoned salesmen will tell you – you can’t convince someone to buy something unless they feel it in their gut.

You can’t just TELL people how wonderful your magic beans are and expect them to hand over the cash.

You have to find a way of standing by their side and explaining how that numbing pain or itch will never go away unless they take action – TODAY!

To do this, your VSL has to engage the conversation already taking place in their head.

It has to prod their pain, build their hopes and feed on their nightmares before you can hope to sell them anything.

But to do any that – people have to WATCH IT.

All the way from start to finish.

In this report, I explain the 7 simple tweaks that can ensure people keep watching and you can skyrocket your conversions and sales as a result.

1) GRAB their interest with a goldfish

It’s now scientific fact that people have shorter concentration spans than goldfish (seriously, they’ve done studies on it).

So it’s ironic that presenting them with a goldfish in the first three minutes could be the best way to keep them watching.

What the heck am I talking about?

Let me explain…

The Tao of Badass is a dating VSL, which for no clear reason, starts with the introduction of a goldfish.

The viewer’s mental response is something like this:

“Why has he shown me a goldfish?”

“What can this possibly have to do with dating?”

“I’d better keep watching to find out!”

Creating an unresolved question (or ‘open loop’) is a powerful way of keeping people watching to get the answers.

And the best time to ask an open question is right at the start.

Why?

Because most people quit VSLs within the first 3 minutes.

But if you can keep them watching for that long they tend to watch for longer because they feel they’ve invested so much time already they might as well keep watching.

So best practice is to create three different intros of 3 minutes to see which keeps people engaged the most.

This will naturally result in more conversions at the end.

Along with showing something weird like a goldfish to create a WTF moment, try sharing some SHOCKING stats, reveal an industry conspiracy or have a short video clip of a skateboarding dog to suck them into your presentation.

2) Give them a REASON to keep watching

VSLs bomb when they completely miss the viewer’s pain buttons.

This typically happens because you haven’t done enough research.

Even worse, you’ve ASSUMED you know all the answers.

No matter how well you think you know the market, you still need to find out about their pains, complaints and problems they need solved.

The first step is to check forums, Facebook groups, Amazon reviews and perhaps even using Survey Monkey to find out.

You can then create a ‘buyer persona’ of who your VSL is targeted at.

You can then fine tune your message based on their ‘awareness scale’ of the problem your product solves.

You can find a more detailed explanation in Michael Masterson’s ‘Great Leads’. But for the sake of brevity, they are:

Awareness Level Best Approach for the VSL’s Pitch Most Aware Make an offer Product Aware Outline how your product helps Solution Aware Explain the problem your product solves Problem Aware Option 1 Expose a secret they didn’t know about Problem Aware Option 2 Pitch your VSL as a big announcement related to their problem Unaware Use storytelling to discuss their problem and your solution

When you understand who your customer is and where they are on the awareness scale, you can make your VSL’s main message more laser-focused on hitting their pain buttons.

3) Tell them a STORY to create emotional connection

People buy with emotion and justify their decision with logic.

Everyone in sales knows that.

So you need to make our viewer FEEL the need for your product if they’re going to keep watching and to imagine what their lives will be like when your product fixes that pain.

What’s the best way to do this?

With a STORY!

We are hardwired to respond to stories ever since our ancestors spent long nights around a campfire or painted their walls.

When we hear a story we imagine ourselves in the same predicament and this naturally triggers our emotions.

Beverly Hills MD is one of the highest converting VSLs in skincare.

It does a lot of things right, notably its use of a story about how someone rediscovered their youthful looks and confidence with its face cream.

Presenting the product in this way is a powerful way of sidestepping people’s normal cynicism or marketing.

It just seems more believable and gets the viewer to imagine the same outcome in their own life. They’re also more open to buying into the VSLs other claims, thinking they could just be true.

4) Focus on ONE key message or BIG idea

Ever heard the saying ‘keep it simple stupid’ (KISS)?

KISS is a popular copywriting acronym that reminds us to keep our sales copy as simple as possible.

Your VSL is not an episode of Lost.

It needs to take viewers on ONE logical path of thought.

Your viewer probably has lots of other windows open, chat messages, mobile pings and maybe even have the TV – all at the same time.

They are NOT going to absorb a complicated message.

Imagine that each idea in your VSL is a ball, which you’re passing to them. The more balls they have to manage the harder it gets to juggle them all in their head.

Throw them too many balls and the whole pitch falls apart.

So focus on ONE key message or one BIG idea on why your product matters.

5) Provide PROOF so buying becomes logical

People are more jaded, cynical and downright distrustful of marketing than ever.

It’s no use just making CLAIMS that your supplement will make them beach body ready, turn them into Einstein or make them rich – all overnight.

You’ve got to PROVE it.

Just making stuff up is also a fast track to a court date with the FDA.

Imagine Dr. Richard Dawkins is watching your VSL and what claims will make him furrow his brow then rip your VSL’s pitch to pieces.

Or imagine your viewer’s doubts are fences between them and the buy button. And think about what you need to say to resolve each one so that their confidence is won and their path to buying is clear.

Write down all the possible objections they may have then make sure you remove each one so that buying is the only route they can take.

6) Create SCARCITY so they buy now

By the time they finish watching your VSL, you want viewers to be jumping up and down in their seat in anticipation of what your product can do for them.

You don’t want them pondering for a minute longer. Or close the video, thinking they’ll buy it later.

They won’t!

So, you need to light a firecracker under their chair, and make it clear why they MUST buy RIGHT NOW!

How can you do this?

A few tactics to try:

• Offer a 24-hour discount they can only get through the video.
• Tell them you have limited stock and the buy button could disappear any second.
• That the ingredients are in high demand and the price could rise.
• Add a timer that shows when the price will go up.

People HATE to feel they’re missing out.

So try to create a sense of SCARCITY and that the door is closing so they’d better hit that BUY button fast.

7) FRAME the price

You’ll have done most of the hard work by the time you announce the price.

By this stage, they should be jumping up and down in their seat with their credit card out.

But if you present the price in the wrong way, you can still easily lose them.

So you need to FRAME the price in a way that makes it appear like excellent value for money.

If it’s a supplement, a popular tactic is to compare it to a cup of coffee, and reinforce how it will be much healthier and cheaper for them then a stimulant they’re relying on for performance already.

Or you could discuss how it will save them thousands on future medical bills by slowing the decline in their mental or physical health.

If it’s a training aid, you could say how it saves them the cost of coaching, or the hours of time they’d have to practice to get the same results.

If it’s an eBook you could frame how much time it will save them on collating the information themselves, or trying to complete a task without a roadmap.

Compare it to the alternatives and reinforce why winners invest in their own success.

Then explain why your product is such an investment and how it will save them vast amounts of time and money in the long run.

That’s 7 for starters…

Implementing these seven changes are key tactics that can improve engagement and response rate for any VSL.

Extra advice I’d add is to not underestimate your customer’s intelligence. Be aware of the sales messages your competitors use that your customers have heard millions of times before.

Claiming a skin cream is ‘anti-aging’, for example, can be a big turn off to baby boomers,.

They’ve been bombarded with these claims so many times that they no longer believe them. It’s better to say ‘skin enhancement’ instead.

Also, be bold in your ideas.

Look for ways to challenge your viewer’s preconceptions, while backing up the things they may have been questioning already.

A conspiracy angle about how big pharma buries natural therapies is a classic example.

As always, the key is thorough, detailed research into both your product AND your customer.

A good rule of thumb is to keep researching until you’ve convinced yourself to buy the product. This will naturally come across in your copy.

Turning a VSL into a Million Dollar Business

VSLs are great at converting even cold traffic, whether from Facebook, Google, Outbrain, Taboola or any other ad network.

They can also be the entryway to a sales funnel (also known as the ‘backend’). This is where the big money is made and what can take a business from thousands of dollars a week to millions.

Even a $7 eBook can be the entryway for a six or seven figure business when you have a solid email series and enough upsells in place.

To give you some examples:

The Truth About Abs VSL generates around $1million a month for its product creator, Mike Geary.

The Tao of Badass VSL took the business from making a few thousand dollars to becoming a best seller on Clickbank

Text Your Ex Back helped dating coach Michael Fiore to build a business empire in one of the most competitive niches on the internet.

And the list goes on…

What’s more, when have a high converting VSL, traffic takes care of itself as affiliates will be desperate to promote you to their email list.

I just want to give you some insight into what is possible with a VSL.

It has the potential to be a MAJOR profit generator that can take your business from small scale to prime time.

Help, my sales team has lost their energy and focus! Come and motivate my team, please!

A typical result of a sales lulls, decline in deals, fewer phones ringing, fewer deals closed. In summary, your once active sales team’s focus and energy have gone dormant. How long are you willing to wait till your team erupts again with sales?

There are only two options; let your team slowly become extinct or supercharge your team to drive sales performance each and every week!

The most successful organisations develop and live by “Sales and Client Focus” as a central theme for their business. There is no use having a list of tips unless we also have something to aim for, so I have included the goals and objectives of a sales and client-focused business as a starting point. You may wish to refine these to make them relevant to your business.

Sales and client-focused businesses typically have two goals for their sales teams:

• Create and maintain long term mutually rewarding client relationships
• Sell an agreed number or value of their products/services/solutions profitably

These businesses typically have four measurable objectives or key performance indicators (KPI’s) for their sales teams:

1. Generate sales opportunities (Sales Leads)
2. Qualify sales opportunities
3. Develop profitable sales opportunities
4. Close profitable sales opportunities

Could you ask them how they think they are going and what else they believe that they could do to improve their sales performance? By asking, you cause them to think about their performance and set some higher standards. The strongest need we have is to remain consistent with our beliefs. So help your team to build some expectations around doing more/pushing themselves to.

Here are 10 Tips to drive your Sales Performance every week:

1. Know and believe in the products/services/solutions you sell. You can’t transfer your confidence about your solution to your clients if you don’t have confidence your company can deliver accordingly. You need to know how your solution will help, and why it’s worth buying.
2. Show your clients you care about making a difference for them. People buy from people they respect and trust.
3. Create and maintain a positive attitude. People avoid negative people because they have enough stuff of their own to deal with; you don’t need to exhaust them further. People are attracted to individuals who are confident and positive because we all want to be like that.
4. Always be networking and prospecting. Get your face out there, develop your personal brand. You can’t close it if you haven’t found it.
5. Take responsibility for a successful outcome. You can make sales and provide excellent client service to exceed their expectations, or you can make excuses, but you can’t do both.
6. Do more listening by asking questions. Uncover your clients’ wants, needs, and pain. You will make more money when you align what you deliver to how your clients make their money.
7. Know and understand your company values; ensure all employees including those in higher-end management are following them. If you or those in your team are feeling lost, find time to sit down with the salespeople and re-familiarise the values to ensure you are following and upholding them. It could steer them towards future sales and save them from possible disaster.
8. Go face-to-face more often! If deemed important or you want to leave a lasting impression on the client, try to find time to do a face-to-face meeting. You can follow up over the phone and only use email for an audit trail. Remember, if you’re not, someone else (one of your competitors) is.
9. Focus on setting and managing client expectations. Set price/value expectations early. Remember, never give away value because it’s almost impossible to get it back.
10. Always be up selling. Your clients need you to be up selling; they can’t afford to forget anything that may put their project at risk.
11. Always be seeking completion. Your clients are busy; they want you to assist them in crossing things off their to-do list, I mean who doesn’t like crossing things off their to-do list.

I threw in one for free! Now how can you use this?

Here are some ideas on how you could use the info above this week:

• You could print out the list and discuss it with your management and your sales meeting. Look for ideas to implement that will help your team drive sales performance.
• Your team could print a copy and carry it with them in their folders as a reminder to help them keep focused.
• Your sales managers could use the points as a checklist to assist them coaching their team and as a review list after sales calls.
• The goals and objectives could form part of your sales team’s job descriptions.
• If you haven’t got sales metrics in place or if you need to review your sales metrics you could consider the objectives/KPI’s listed above.

Developing and establishing your organization’s sales and client-focused structure helps to leverage your sales team to deliver more than modest results quickly. We all know that people perform better when they are doing what they enjoy. Driving your team to success will create a more focused and energized workplace and culture giving your team a change of pace and supercharging their performance weekly.

Develop salespeople who are confident and focused on winning; your clients will thank you for it.

Originally published on LinkedIn

For more tips like these, follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

We already know that Big Data is a big deal, and it’s here to stay. In fact, 65% of companies fear that they risk becoming irrelevant or uncompetitive if they don’t embrace it. But despite the hype surrounding Big Data, companies struggle to make use of the data they collate. Read on to find out what the problems are with big data implementation.

Problems with Big Data

Pioneers are finding ways to use Big Data insights to do such things as stopping credit card fraud, anticipating and intervening hardware failures, rerouting traffic to avoid congestion, and guiding consumer spending through real-time interactions and applications.

61% of companies state that Big Data is driving revenue because it is able to deliver deep insights into customer behavior. For most businesses, this means gaining a 360° of their customers, by analyzing and integrating existing data.

A recent CapGemini report agrees, stating “Digital customer experience is all about understanding the customer, and that means harnessing all sources – not just analyzing all contacts with the organization, but also linking to external sources such as social media and commercially available data. For the digital supply chain, it is about collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data from the myriad of connected devices.”

The biggest problems facing organizations is how to get value from this data. Only 27% of the executives surveyed described their big data initiatives as successful. This indicates that there is a huge gap between the theoretical knowledge of big data and actually putting this theory into practice.

So what’s the problem?

Top 5 Big Data Problems

1. Finding the Signal in the Noise

It’s difficult to get insights out of a huge lump of data. In order to use Big Data, Data Scientist and author of the book “Social Network Analysis for Startups”, Maksim Tsvetovat said that “There has to be a discernible signal in the noise that you can detect, and sometimes there just isn’t one. Once we’ve done our intelligence on the data, sometimes we have to come back and say we just didn’t measure this right or measured the wrong variables because there’s nothing we can detect here.” He went on to say that in its raw form, Big Data looks like a hairball and scientific approach to the data is necessary. “You approach it carefully and behave like a scientist which means if you fail at your hypothesis, you come up with a few other hypothesizes, and maybe one of them turns out to be correct.”

2. Data Silos

Data silos are basically Big Data’s kryptonite. What they do is store all of that wonderful data you’ve captured in separate, disparate units, that have nothing to do with one another and therefore no insights can be gathered from this data because it simply isn’t integrated on the back end. Data silos are the reason you have to number crunch to produce a monthly sales report. They’re the reason that C-level decisions are made at a snail’s pace. They’re the reason your sales and marketing teams simply don’t get along. They’re the reason that your customers are looking elsewhere to take their business because they don’t feel their needs are being met and a smaller, more nimble company, is offering something better. The way to eliminate data silos? Integrate your data.

3. Inaccurate Data

Not only are data silos ineffective on an operational level, they are also fertile breeding ground for the biggest data problem: inaccurate data. According to a recent report from Experian Data Quality, 75% of businesses believe their customer contact information is incorrect. If you’ve got a database full of inaccurate customer data, you might as well have no data at all. The best way to combat inaccurate data? Eliminating data silos by integrating your data.

4. Technology Moves Too Fast

Larger corporations are more prey to data silos, for such reasons as they prefer to keep their databases on-premises, and because decision making about new technologies is often slow.

One example cited in the CapGemini report is that stalwarts like telcos and utilities “…are noticing high levels of disruption from new competitors moving in from other sectors. This issue was mentioned by over 35% of respondents in each of these industries, compared with an overall average of under 25%.” In essence, traditional players are slower to move on technological advances and are finding themselves faced with serious competition from smaller companies because of this.

Big Data is also fast data. Paul Maritz, Pivotal Chief Executive Officer of the EMC Federation, wrote in a recent CapGemini Report that, “If you can obtain all the relevant data, analyze it quickly, surface actionable insights, and drive them back into operational systems, then you can affect events as they’re still unfolding. The ability to catch people or things “in the act”, and affect the outcome, can be extraordinarily important, valuable and disruptive.”

The ability to make snap decisions and quickly move on Big Data insights is the advantage SMEs have over large corporations.

5. Lack of Skilled Workers

CapGemini’s report found that 37% of companies have trouble finding skilled data analysists to make use of their data. The best bet is to form one common data analyst team for the company, either through re-skilling your current workers or recruiting new workers specialized in big data.

You need to find employees that not only understand data from a scientific perspective, but who also understand the business and its customers, and how their data findings apply directly to them.

Data Integration is Key

Data integration – or to be technical, data harmonization – is absolutely essential for getting the full advantage out of your Big Data. Data integration addresses the backend need for getting data silos to work together so you can obtain deeper insight from Big Data.

In the book Big Data Beyond The Hype, the authors Zikopoulos et al. found that “…we see too many people treat this topic as an afterthought—and that leads to security exposure, wasted resources, untrusted data, and more. We actually think that you should scope your Big Data architecture with integration and governance in mind from the very start.” (p.26)

Not only will this save the janitorial work that is inevitable when working with data silos and big data, it also helps to establish the fourth “V” – veracity. In other words, the trustworthiness of your data, which will underpin the authority of any insight you gain from analyzing your data.

The first step to integrating your data is to ensure you’ve got clean data. Big Data Consultant Ted Clark, from the data consultancy company Adventag, said that “80% of the work Data Scientists do is cleaning up the data before they can even look at it. They’re data custodians rather than analysts. Anything you’ve done more than three times, you should automate – it might take longer the first time but the other times you will save time and focus on an analysis.”

How to Clean and Maintain your Data

1. Remove Duplicates

If you’re using multiple channels to capture data, such as through your website, customer care center, and marketing leads, you’re running the risk of collecting duplicate information. There are tools to help you remove duplicate data. For instance, if you work with Google Contacts you can merge your contacts.

2. Verify New Data

Set company-wide standards on verifying all new, captured data before it enters the central database. Put in checks to see if the customer isn’t already in the system, or that they’re not in the system under a different name or under their email address.

3. Update Data

Keep your data updated. You can do this by using parsing tools, which scans all incoming emails and updates contact information as it comes to hand.

4. Implement Consistent Data Entry

Ensure that all employees are aware of company-wide data entry standards. For instance, each customer record has to have first and last names.

Originally published at blog.piesync.com

There is no one single approach to converting more leads to real opportunities, it takes a blend of technology, messaging, and the dynamics.

You are invited to learn how to best combine these elements to generate more opportunities and sales. On Thursday July 21, join Paul Alves, Co-Founder & CRO of Quota Factory, and I, as we present concrete steps to “Increase Outbound Conversions with Objective Based Selling”.

Paul and I will present how to increase the number of lead you actually connect with, how to convert more of those leads leveraging Objective Based Selling and managing the dynamics of the call.

If you are using the phone to sell or set appointments, you need to attend.

• What a sales development representative needs to be successful and optimize their time
• The need for, and positive effects of implementing a workflow management system for sales
• The difference in dialing techniques and selecting the best kind for your sales team
• How to transform your messaging from solution-based to persona-based
• Persona-based objective selling techniques
• How to understand and translate prospects’ dynamics

If you have a team of SDR’s this webinar will help you understand how our clients increased conversions by over 20%.

 

The post Need to Convert More Leads To Opportunities? appeared first on Renbor Sales Solutions Inc..

Using social media to engage your audience is one of the best ways to convert leads or make sales. However, instead of doing this directly from Facebook or Twitter, it can still be done the old-fashion way; through email. Incorporating opportunities for social engagement in conjunction with your email marketing is a great alternative to reach out to people who might not spend their time on social media platforms. Of course, it also works just as well for people who are on social media.

1. Include Sharing Icons

Put sharing icons in your emails. This makes it super easy to share content without needing to do a bunch of copying and pasting. Likewise, don’t forget to put an email sharing icon on your site’s content. Many people will insert social media icons for Facebook, Twitter, maybe even Instagram, but some forget to one for email. Though it’s hard to think of anyone who’s not on a social media platform this day, the truth is, some people are still just using their email accounts.

2. Place Blog Posts Into Emails

Have you written an interesting blog post lately for your website? Content marketing is essential in business, if only if everyone who’s meant to see it does. To make sure this happens, try embedding your blog posts into your emails. The great thing about this is that you don’t need to copy and paste the entire thing. You can only copy an excerpt, and encourage people to visit your site to read the rest. Of course, include share icons within the email as well. Even if the reader doesn’t have a social media account, perhaps they’ll forward the email to someone who does!

3. Give Offers or Rewards for Sharing

A good way to increase social engagement through email marketing is by offering rewards to those who share. Offers and rewards can come in all kinds of packages, and you can choose how you want to go about this. But, encouraging others to share content by using an incentive that you announce in your emails can do wonders for both your customer and you.

4. Provide Exclusivity for Subscribers

It’s one thing to give offers and rewards, but it’s another to have access to things that others don’t. Let your audience know that if they subscribe (which should be very easy with a strategically placed CTA button), they will also have access to special features or content. These would be only accessible by email of course. Discuss these benefits on social media platforms, and encourage users to share their own perks of being a subscriber.

5. Just Ask!

There’s no harm in asking your audience directly to share on social media, via your email marketing. If you want to push for social engagement, then that’s exactly what you need to do. Push. Write a short sentence or blurb in your emails suggesting your audience to spread the word. Don’t be shy!

A strong email marketing system can do a lot for your social engagement, as long as you know how to go about it. Request a demo with Mission Suite to find out more.

The following is an excerpt from a brand new eBook from Ambition, PersistIQ and LeadGenius – Bridging the Gap: The Basics of Account Based Marketing and Selling.

What happens after a lead comes inbound?

Just because a lead converts on a piece of website content doesn’t mean he or she is necessarily a hot prospect, ready to buy now. The chances are greater that an inbound lead will close, but pursuing each and every single inbound lead is not always worth the time. How a marketing and sales rep spends their time is crucial to their success. That’s why it’s important to establish a clear and well thought-out protocol for handling inbound leads.

However, we see many salespeople making mistakes with inbound leads that cost them time and money. As a lead comes in and goes through your sales funnel, mistakes along the way jeopardize your chances of closing. Let’s walk through the five most common and costly mistakes with inbound leads.

1. NOT DELEGATING THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INBOUND LEADS TO A SPECIFIC TEAM OR DEPARTMENT

In order to build an effective sales development machine, you must implement a process for dealing with inbound leads. If you’re like most companies, you have a dashboard for all untouched inbound leads, and they’re all up for grabs. But if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible.

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With #inbound leads, if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible.
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Who should own the inbound leads?

Every organization is structured a little differently, so the first line of response could actually be Sales, Marketing, Operations, or even Sales Operations. The bottom line is that there needs to be a clear cut process in place.

In order for a process to work effectively and efficiently, there needs to be a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between all the teams that touch your inbound leads, namely sales, marketing and account management.

Once an SLA is in place and responsibility is delegated, a proper follow up process can be effectively implemented so that no opportunities are missed.

2. NOT PROPERLY QUALIFYING INBOUND LEADS

You must establish and clearly articulate criteria for what is considered a qualified inbound lead. We already talked about scoring leads with qualifying criteria in the previous section, but don’t forget this needs to happen with inbound leads too.

Simply put, is this inbound prospect a good match for your product/service or not?

If the answer to these three questions is “no,” then put the lead into a marketing drip campaign; there’s no use following up at this point. However, if the answer is “yes,” then it’s time to pass the lead onto Sales.

If the answer is “maybe”, this could be because you don’t have all the information to confidently make a decision. From here, you can choose to put that lead into a marketing drip campaign and offer additional valuable information to progressively profile the lead until you can qualify him or her. It’s probably worth segmenting these leads with the information that you do have and put them in specific dip campaigns based on your target personas for your best chance of nurturing them into a buyers.

Alternatively, you can manually do background research and qualify him or her.

Beyond some of this general demographic information, we can start to assess some of the psychographic and behavioral factors. That’s the beauty of inbound – you have a little more information to add color to the prospect. (More on this in mistake #3).

3. NOT CONDUCTING PROPER RESEARCH BEFORE REACHING OUT

Now that you’ve qualified the inbound lead and passed him or her along to the sales team, it’s important for the sales rep responsible for the follow up to do more research. Another big mistake we see sales reps make is reaching out blind. Sure, you may know what company the person works for, but do you know what that company does?

This is where digging into some of the psychographic and behavioral factors really comes in handy. Here are some questions to ask for uncovering psychographics and behavioral factors:

• What type of content did this lead develop on?
• How long has this lead been in your system, and what other content have they viewed?
• What is their referral source?
• How are they currently solving their problem? (If you’re using a service like BuiltWith or Datanyze, you can see if they’re using a competitor, thus giving insight to whom you’re selling against.)

Just as with traditional prospecting, it’s very important for a rep to perform proper research on an inbound lead before reaching out.

4. NOT PERSONALIZING FOLLOW UP COMMUNICATION TO INBOUND LEADS

If you weren’t able to get in touch with that inbound lead immediately, no problem. Though your chances of connecting may drop, if there’s one thing that we know, it’s this: persistence wins.

There’s a lot of focus on creating and sending effective emails to sourced prospects, but salespeople don’t often take those same principles and apply them to inbound leads. The reason you’re reaching out is a given: they requested some information and you’re following up with them. However, they still want to connect with a human, so you must personalize your messaging. Automation kills rapport — no matter what.

You can even take some of your best-performing email templates, do a little re-tooling, and use them with inbound leads. For example:

Hi {{first name}},

I noticed that you {{action}} {{piece of content}}.

I wanted to reach out because we help companies [one-sentence value proposition]. We’ve already helped {{customers}} achieve i

Do you have 15-20 minutes on {{date}} to explore how we can help {{company}} do the same?

Thanks, {{your name}}

To get more examples of outbound sales emails you can re-tool and tweak for inbound leads, check out the Cold Email Generator.

5. NOT FOLLOWING UP CORRECTLY

Though there’s no golden rule for the number of follow-up attempts or a follow-up tempo you should make with sourced prospects, any smart sales rep knows persistence is important. But most reps don’t think of applying this same mentality to inbound leads as well. Effective follow up strategies can and should be used for managing inbound leads too.

There are 4 critical factors for successful follow up:

1. Number of touchpoints: We advocate for 7 or more touches for each prospect, even with qualified inbound leads.
2. Channel Diversity: Go beyond phone and email by adding social to the mix. But don’t overlook some other less conventional ways to get in front of your prospects, like direct mail, fax, conferences and industry tradeshows, door-to-door, etc.
3. Time between touch points: We recommend being a little more persistent early on, then tapering off if the buyer hasn’t responded. We’ve seen great results sending the second touch a day or even 12 hours after the first.
4. Content of touchpoints: Sending “just checking in” and “just following up” gets really old really fast. Instead, offer value by providing new insights, educating your prospects, sharing relevant news or reemphasizing business value.

Here is an example of a workflow that has been effective for follow up with inbound leads:

• Day 1: Call and email
• Day 2: Email and Twitter (favorite a tweet)
• Day 3: Twitter (Follow and retweet)
• Day 5: Email and LinkedIn (connection request)
• Day 7: Email
• Day 10: Call and email
• Day 17: Email and Twitter (tweet at or retweet)
• Day 21: Blog and/or LinkedIn (comment of content)
• Day 28: Call and email

The bottom line is when you’re following up, you must continue to offer value at each touch.

The post The Top 5 Common Mistakes With Inbound Lead Routing appeared first on Sales Hacker.