Coming up with creative ideas is tough enough as it is, but coming up with good ideas is even harder. Everyone has their own little system for this, and in a blog post, Amjad Masad shares what he learned from programmer John Carmack, most famous for his work on games like Quake and Doom.
If you do a lot of printing, the Arial font can use up your ink a lot faster than others. Here are three fonts you’re better off using.
Skip the time-consuming lectures and the expensive tuition: You can earn college credit or even a full, accredited degree using the experience and knowledge you already have. Compared to the usual route, competency-based education (CBE) is an often faster and cheaper path to a diploma, designed by colleges and universities with busy working adults in mind.
Just because you’re a dividend investor, it doesn’t mean you have to chase yield.
Income can be found in every sector, but many dividend strategies are lopsided in terms of where the yield is found, often favouring interest rate-sensitive areas like utilities and telecom.
Sri Iyer, portfolio manager at Guardian Capital, which acts as a sub-adviser to the BMO Global Dividend Fund, believes a much better strategy is to go outside this traditional comfort zone.
“You don’t want to play that tactical timing game when U.S. rates start to go up,” he said, highlighting the roughly 90-name portfolio’s recent shift away from the banking sector.
Particularly in Europe, very low interest rate policies from the ECB have made it difficult for banks to generate high levels of free cash flow. Insurance companies, particularly those in the reinsurance, and property and casualty space, are much more attractive to Iyer.
“They have strong balance sheets and are able to price their products very competitively on a global scale,” he said, noting that most European insurers pay yields between four and seven per cent.
“So rather than look for capital market exposure in Europe, where you want to hide out and capture income is in the global insurance space.”
The fund has positions in names like Swiss RE, Scor S.E. and Munich Re. The latter, a German-based global reinsurance franchise, has replenished most of its balance sheet since the 2008 sub-prime crisis.
Iyer doesn’t think the market has recognized this yet, and as a result, is not paying a premium for companies like Munich Re.
“That’s because investors view Europe with a broad lens, but this company has good revenue generation, strong pricing power, and its global footprint is growing, so the sustainability of the dividend is high,” he said.
Validus Holdings Ltd. is a U.S.-based P&C insurer that doesn’t pay a lot of yield, but was targeted as a way to protect the portfolio during market downtrends.
“That’s where the focus needs to be as we see a lot of turbulence in global markets,” the portfolio manager said. “It’s part of a shift away from higher-beta momentum names, into more defensive names that pay a sustainable dividend.”
This approach doesn’t mean Iyer is avoiding growth-oriented companies, particularly those in the technology sector.
Whereas investor focus had been with high-yielding names such as Seagate Technology plc and other semiconductor stocks with big dividend payouts, he sees a much better opportunity in companies like chipmaker Avago Technologies Ltd.
“We want to be where the puck is going, not where it is or was,” Iyer said, noting that Avago is a good way to play the shift from high density drives in desktop computers, toward solid-state drives that power devices like tablets.
Avago only pays a dividend yield of about two per cent, but Iyer is confident that its payout is both sustainable and able to grow in the future.
We want to be where the puck is going, not where it is or was.
He has a similar approach to the energy sector, where the fund is slightly underweight compared to the MSCI World Index’s roughly seven per cent exposure.
“We are being extremely choosy in getting back into energy,” Iyer said. “But not being in energy right now and speculating that oil will go down to US$20, becomes even more risky.”
As oil prices start to see some signs of stabilization, Iyer has begun to cherry pick names that he thinks will do extremely well down the road. That includes Statoil ASA, which recently kept its dividend unchanged and has among the highest leverage to oil prices in the global energy space.
“We want to make sure we don’t time ourselves out of the ability to create sustainable income from the energy sector,” Iyer said.
He also been adding to the fund’s telecom exposure, but avoiding high-yielding names in the U.S., highlighting European-based Swisscom AG, Israel’s Bezeq, and Spark New Zealand.
These stocks pay yields of roughly five per cent and Iyer believes they also offer good downside protection.
“These are high yielding stocks, but they are in countries that are not raising interest rates,” he said. “If anything, they are cutting rates and printing money.”
Public opinion on the fur trade may have changed, but in Canada’s north hunting and trapping remain deeply entwined with history, culture – and survival. Over one long winter, National Post photographer Tyler Anderson travelled to remote regions from Quebec to B.C. to explore this way of life, where a marten means money, a moose means food.
See more of Tyler Anderson’s trip to the north – accompanied by a brief history of the fur trade by Conrad Black – in the April issue of The Walrus, on stands Tuesday. Or visit their website thewalrus.ca
Caring – Defined as displaying kindness and concern for others. It’s a term not often heard in the sales process. In fact, for most businesses, sales is just a means to an end. A way to get a potential customer to buy your products and services and bring in the bacon. But Dale Carnegie said it best: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Honestly caring about the people who buy what you have to sell is the key to success in sales. So if you are looking to increase sales in your small business, here are a few ideas that can help to win the hearts of your prospects and customers:
People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. It is a truism in life and in sales. Before you try to persuade your prospects and customers to buy your product or service, they need to first know that you truly care about solving their problem. Showing your prospects and customers that you care is not just about being all mushy and emotional. It’s more about being a genuine and authentic at every step of the communication process and being a great listener.
That means asking questions with a sense of curiosity and truly looking for ways to provide valuable solutions to your prospects challenges.
At the end of the day, caring about their needs first might just lead you to tell a potential customer that your product may not be the best for them or that a competitor’s product might be. Either way people will appreciate your refreshing approach to solving their problem, giving you a better chance to earn their trust and their business down the road or maybe even a referral.
When a new prospect engages with you or your business the first thing that goes through their mind is can I TRUST you? Trust between you and your potential and current customers only happens when your business delivers on the promises that have been made. It is one of the golden rules of sales-Do what you say you were going to do. That means follow up when you said you would.
Whether it’s a response to a simple pricing request or delivering your service on time, every time, prospects become repeat customers when they can depend on your word. In fact, there is nothing worse in sales than when a business promises something in the sales process and doesn’t deliver. It is a surefire way to show a prospect that you care more about making the sale than keeping your word.
Think about promises you need to keep with your customers and work hard to keep them everyday. For example at Hatchbuck, we share our promises on our website so we can build trust and confidence with prospects and customers. It is a great way to keep us accountable and reminds daily that promises made to our prospects are promises kept once they become a valued customer.
When it comes to caring about people in sales, don’t forget about everyone that is required to make a great customer experience happen.
After all sales doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. It involves relationships. That means your customer, your customer service team, your vendors (just to name a few) are key to pulling of a successful sale. So with every sale that’s closed there is a ripple effect to the decision of signing the right customer or force fitting a solution into the wrong situation.
For example, let’s say you own a bike manufacturing company that decides to sign a new customer that that is looking to buy 1000 new mopeds. So who wouldn’t want a 1000 new units right? By just focusing on the sale and not on the customer needs, it causes a huge problem for the business in it’s ability to keep a happy customer long-term.
Showing care for everyone involved in the sales process will go along way to helping your business find and keep the right kind customers and ultimately deliver a better customer experience.
Being a business that cares will make a lasting impression if you show that you care about people in general and not just those who are interested in buying your products. Look for ways to make an impact within your community by sponsoring non-profits when you can or even by offering your support during area disasters or tragedies.
For example, if a youth sports team needs funding, be willing to offer what you can and if a major storm leaves many people struggling, offer to donate food and bottled water. The more active you are in the areas where your presence is not a requirement but a voluntary action, the higher your reputation of being a caring business will climb with your prospects and customers.
Success in sales is not just about closing more customers for your small business. It’s about demonstrating that you care about the needs and interests of your prospects and customers. Authentically caring about people is the key to sales and business success.
After your company’s website launched, setting up your Google Analytics account was probably one of the next items on your list. Whether you worked with an agency throughout the process or got things up and running on your own, you knew that Analytics was an essential tool to put on your site.
But once the code was installed on each web page, you might have been left scratching your head. “What do I do now?”
Despite how easy it may have been to create your account and install the code, this isn’t one of those “set it and forget it” kind of tools. Sure, Analytics automatically collects a wide variety of data to put together a detailed audience analysis, rank pages by traffic, and show you how people arrived at your site in the first place. However, there are several things you have to do in order to collect this data in a way that you’ll actually be able to work with it.
Google Analytics might seem a bit daunting at first, and that’s ok. There are dozens of features and reports available, so it’s practically impossible to tackle them all. The good thing is you don’t have to do it all to be successful. But before you dive in to which reports are most valuable to your business, here are some basic items to take care of first.
At the administrative level, there are three tiers within your Google Analytics profile. Click “Admin” at the top of any page and you’ll see the hierarchy within your login. Account is the highest level of organization in Analytics, and you can have more than one within the same login information. Under most circumstances, you’ll only need one Account – unless you’re a business that oversees Analytics accounts for clients.
Within each Account, you can create one or more Properties to represent each website or app under your company name. So if you have a corporate website and a separate ecommerce site or a website and a mobile app, you can track this data separately while still keeping it all under the same Account. At the View level, you can set more specific goals, adjust settings, and segment your website’s audience. For example, in Mainstreethost’s Google Analytics account, we have created Views for all traffic, blog-only traffic, and website-only traffic. This allows us to look more closely at audience demographics and behavior across different types of content.
Once you have the structure of your profile organized, one of the most important things to do next is to filter out your IP address. This will prevent the data from being skewed due to traffic from your own employees. After all, it doesn’t really matter what your team is doing on your website; you want to know what potential customers are doing! The sooner you can set this up, the better, to ensure the most accurate data collection by Google Analytics. Luckily, it only takes about a minute to do so.
At the Account level, click the “All Filters” link, followed by “+ New Filter” and “Create New Filter.”
From there, you can select the IP blocker from the Predefined Filters list and enter in your company computer’s IP address. You can find your public IP address by asking your network administrator or searching “What is my IP address” on Google. Simple as that!
Now that you’re familiar with where to find the View section of your Analytics account, it’s time to start setting some up. Views allow you to segment data so you can focus on specific traffic or goals, and compare and contrast to other groups. In the past, our blog was on a subdomain (blog.mainstreethost.com) of our main website’s domain (www.mainstreethost.com). So, we created a View that combined the two together as well as separate Views for each. This allowed us to look at both our web traffic as a whole and laser in on a specific behavior of one of these audiences.
In the View dropdown, select “Create new view” at the bottom. Each Property can have up to 25 Views, which is probably more than you could ever need.
Next you’ll choose which data to track (website or app), name your View, and select a country and time zone. Once it’s created, you can go back to the Admin page and edit specific settings (like the URL associated with the View) and link up your Google AdWords account.
Even if you haven’t started a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign through Google AdWords yet, it’s important to create an account and link it up to Analytics. That way when you do start running campaigns, you can see the impact of your investment right alongside your Analytics data. You’ll be able to see the percentage of traffic that arrives at your site through PPC compared to direct and organic search traffic, as well as how a user’s time on site varies based on traffic source.
To link up your account, go to the Property column and click on “AdWords Linking.”
Next, click on “+ New Link Group” and you can enter in your AdWords account information. Unless you have multiple accounts, you will only need one Link Group.
Once you start an AdWords campaign, the data will pull over to Analytics and you’ll be able to access it in the Reporting section under the Acquisition heading.
Here you can look at the specific search queries that led to a user clicking on your ad and arriving at your website. You can also see which landing pages (destination URLs) and times of day led to the most clickthroughs to help you adjust your strategy as needed. It’s a great way to uncover unexpected successes and make the most of your PPC investment.
Once you have some of the basics under your belt, you need to get yourself more familiar with the Analytics platform itself. You certainly don’t need to know where every report and data type is located, but having a general understanding of where things are will help make it a bit less intimidating.
First is the main navigation at the top of every page in Analytics, which you already have some familiarity with from setting up some of the previously mentioned features. There are four links that will direct you to the main sections in Google Analytics: Home, Reporting, Customization, and Admin. The Home link takes you to the list of Views that you’ve set up so you can see a very high-level overview of how each is performing.
The Reporting tab takes you to all of the Analytics reports and dashboards available for viewing and analyzing data. Here you can look at audience behavior, page performance, and conversion data to determine the strengths and opportunities of your website. You can narrow down your audience by metrics as specific as location, demographics, traffic source, and technology used to view your website.
Google Analytics also lets you dig deeper into specific behaviors such as conversion rates, landing pages, bounce rates, and much more. These are key pieces of information to help determine if your website is laid out in a logical manner, is easy to navigate, and provides enough engaging content to keep visitors around.
Next is the Customization tab, which you probably won’t use until you’re more familiar with the reports already provided by Analytics. However, this is an area with significant opportunities to expand your research and data collection, so it’s worth checking out when you’re comfortable with the tool. Here you can create custom reports, allowing you to choose how data is displayed as well as which elements of user behavior you want to focus on. This is a way to collect the same types of data as the Reporting section, but this time it will be catered to how you want it organized and filtered.
We already covered the Admin section a little bit, but this is where you can view the hierarchy of your Account, add or edit Properties and Views, edit user permissions, and much more. This is the powerhouse of your Analytics account and is where all of the high-level changes can be made.
In the top right corner of every page, you’ll notice gear and bell symbols located next to the email address associated with your Google account.
The gear allows you to edit user settings, send feedback, and get answers to your questions directly from Google. The bell indicates notifications of any Google-generated messages with maintenance requests or errors within your account. Make sure you pay attention to these notifications, as they could have a significant impact on your account in terms of Google rankings, penalties, AdWords campaigns, etc.
Within the Reporting tab, all of the various Analytics reports are located on the left-hand side of the page. You can either click on each section to view the dropdowns of more specific reports or use the search bar if you already know what you’re looking for.
Once you’ve selected which report you want to look at, you can add segments to filter the data more narrowly. For example, if you want to look only at the traffic that resulted in a purchase from your site, you can go to a report and add a segment for those that made a purchase.
To do this, simply select any report from the column. For this example, I clicked on “Mobile” within the “Audience” section, then on “Overview.” Right above the data you’ll see a link to add a segment. If you click on that, you’ll see the screen below.
You can either choose from Google-provided segments or create your own (by clicking “+ NEW SEGMENT”) based on a specific goal or target audience you want to analyze. Then after setting up one or more segments, you can look at that report’s data with all of the traffic combined or by one segment at a time. It all depends on what you’re trying to uncover with this data. If you’re just getting started with Google Analytics, it’s best to stick with the preset segments. Once you’ve more specifically defined goals for your website or made some changes, you can dig a bit deeper into your audience’s behavior.
After your Google Analytics account has been up and running for some time and you’ve been able to familiarize yourself with the plethora of options and data it provides, it’s time to analyze this data. There are so many different reports available, how do you know where to begin? This is certainly not a comprehensive list, but these four reports can provide value to any organization using Analytics.
This report shows you the breakdown of where your web traffic is coming from (organic search, direct, social media, etc.), which can help identify opportunities for improvement and potentially uncover an audience you didn’t realize was there. To access this report, go to the Acquisition section, click on “All Traffic,” and then on “Source/Medium.”
In the example below, you can see that direct traffic outperforms Google in terms of total sessions, but a larger percentage of this traffic was new users. You’ll also notice that even though Bing doesn’t drive as much traffic as the other sources, the average time on site is a bit higher compared to social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.
These insights are incredibly valuable to guiding your future marketing strategy because they show you where your time may be best spent. For us, we may want to focus on our organic search traffic since these individuals are spending significantly more time on our site than other visitors. These users are a large percentage of our total traffic and represent some potentially very qualified leads. We would want to look into ways to increase traffic from organic search, such as paid advertising, to see how this impacts both traffic and conversions.
The All Pages report can sort your web pages based on traffic volume, time on page, bounce rate, and entrance and exit percentage. To access this data, go to to the Behavior section, click on “Site Content,” and then on “All Pages.” For websites that have a blog, this feature is essential. You can see which content performs the best to help generate ideas for future posts. For example, our “Social Media Image Cheat Sheet” is by far our most-visited piece of content, so we can infer that our readers are very interested in social media marketing and/or graphics, and cater our content accordingly.
This is also a great place to look at which pages are underperforming. Maybe you thought a blog post would speak to your target audience or that a particular page layout would be effective. This is where you can see the traffic that page received or if a previously top performing page took a dip after a redesign. With the data that this report pulls you can not only see what information was a hit with visitors, but where you may have missed the mark and could improve.
Aside from which pages or pieces of content are successful on your site, it’s equally important to understand where people are leaving your site (and try to figure out why that is). Like the previous report, you’ll go to the Site Content section, but instead click on “Exit Pages.” This will show you where to investigate your content further to determine if visitors are finding what they need or if the content isn’t as high-quality as other pages.
In this screenshot, we can see that our social media, SEO, and web design services are the services with the highest number of exits, and visitors also leave from our About Us and Contact pages quite a bit. Knowing this information, we would want to look at the number of contact form completions we received on these pages to see how it compares to the amount of traffic. If users are getting to these informational pages and not reaching out to us, then we know that we need to reassess our calls-to-action to increase those conversions. It is also an indication that we should look at our services pages to make sure that users know what the next step is and hopefully stick around a while longer.
We briefly touched on this before, but when looking at our website’s traffic sources, we noticed that direct traffic was the most popular source. Digging into this a bit further is the New vs. Returning Visitors report, which you can find within the Behavior dropdown of the Audience section (don’t confuse the Behavior dropdown with the Behavior section).
This report compares how these groups spend their time on your site and how many pages they view. For us, we can see that a returning visitor is not only a more qualified lead because they came back, but they view more pages and spend a lot more time on our site than a new visitor.
This doesn’t mean that new visitors are completely worthless, of course. After all, you have to get your return visitors from somewhere! Fresh eyes on your company’s website mean viable opportunities to educate and hopefully convert them into satisfied customers. It’s important to approach your website from both of these perspectives. If you had never heard of your company before, what are some of the first things you would want to know? Make those pieces of information eye-catching and easy to find.
If you were returning to your website, what would you be looking for? Items like pricing, your blog, and customer reviews would likely be top-of-mind, so it’s important that those things are easy to locate as well. It can be hard to cater to such a wide audience with varying needs, but the key is making the path to conversion as simple as possible and all of your content easily accessible. This is where using this report in conjunction with the others can come in handy. Getting a better sense of who your audience is and how they’re currently behaving will help you immensely when it comes to better tailoring your marketing strategy.
Mastering Google Analytics takes time, so it’s important to prioritize the features and reports that are most important to what you’re trying to accomplish at the present time. If your website is relatively new, you might be focusing on traffic sources to see how you’re ranking in search engines and how your social presence contributes to visits. A more established site might prompt you to pay more attention to specific user behavior and conversion rates so you can fine-tune your website and marketing strategy.
Wherever you are in the process, there’s no question that Google Analytics is absolutely critical to a successful online presence. You’re hard-pressed to find a tool that’s as comprehensive and easy to use (and you certainly can’t beat the price), so taking the time to learn all that it has to offer is well worth it.
Layoffs are rippling through Silicon Valley tech startups as the venture market cools, and today Optimizely joined the list, cutting about 40 workers from its staff of 400.
Optimizely makes software for testing different web site layouts against one another in real time to see which performs best — called A/B testing. It's received $146 million in venture funding, including a $58 million round last October. In a blog post CEO Dan Siroker says it's now the most-used web site optimization platform in the world.
But Siroker also delivered a tough dose of reality in his email to employees about the layoffs.
He wrote (emphasis ours):
In August 2015, we began our journey to Control Our Own Destiny, which means controlling the path we are on as a company without having to depend on anyone but ourselves. In order to do that we must build a business that makes more money than it spends. We set a goal of getting to cash flow breakeven and we have made tremendous progress toward this goal.
Later:
I’m incredibly thankful we embraced this journey in August because on February 5th, our entire industry got a wake up call. On that day, public cloud companies collectively lost $28B in market value on a single day. Some of the market value has recovered since then, but the market has clearly shifted.
February 5 was a brutal day on the markets in which public tech companies Tableau (which helps companies analyze business data) and LinkedIn both lost about half their value after disappointing earnings report.
This doesn't mean that every venture-backed startup will have trouble raising more money at higher valuations — just yesterday, it came out that real estate leasing company WeWork is raising more than $400 million and is now worth $16 billion, the same as Snapchat.
But WeWork, like Uber, is exceptional. For most tech startups, the time has come to prove that they can build a sustainable business now, rather than depending on the idea that there will be endless rounds of venture funding to help sustain them.
You can read Siroker's blog post, which includes his entire email to his employees, here>>
SEE ALSO: February was a bad month for tech layoffs
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: This woman is getting famous for building hilariously terrible robots
Landing pages have long been central to content marketing; the idea is to develop small, individual Web pages that are narrowly focused on accomplishing one specific goal—converting users into clients, most often.
There is a new way of thinking about landing pages, however—a new mindset that suggests every page on a company website should be a landing page; every page should be specific and purposeful and attempt to convert users into customers.
How can you accomplish this, though? There are a few strategies that are important to making every page function as a landing page.
Make Every Page a Landing Page
First, make sure every page has a purpose. Basically, you should think of your website as a resource for visitors. Every page of it needs to offer value; it needs to help your user in some way—so how do the pages of your site help the visitor? If you can’t answer the question, maybe some of those pages need to go.
Align every page with your central branding. Are you branding your company in terms of thought leadership? Its small-company nimbleness? Affordability? Every page of your site should reflect that central branding message. For example, your About Us page shouldn’t just be a corporate history; it should underscore those branding points that are central to your marketing.
Give every page a goal. Having a purpose isn’t enough; your pages should also have goals. They should lead the visitor to a new level in the sales funnel—whether that’s getting them to read your blog, order a product, or pick up the phone and call you. Give each page an end game.
Ensure easy navigation. In leading visitors through the sales funnel, it’s important to provide easy ways for them to move from one page to the next, and to get supplemental resources as needed; this means sleek layout, but also smart internal and external linking. Provide readers with resources, but don’t distract them from the central topic and purpose of the page.
Finally, and most importantly, don’t forget the landing page basics. Every page of your site should have two key elements to ensure its landing page efficacy—full contact information for your website, and a strong, clear call to action. These elements are non-negotiable.
Beacons. They’re small, unobtrusive devices that can communicate with smartphones and tablets via bluetooth low energy (BLE). By deploying them in a store or other brick and mortar location, brands can gather information about customer movements that are far more granular and accurate than traditional, GPS-based location-tracking. Which allows for smarter, more detailed data collection and deeply responsive, personalized messaging.
That’s the idea, anyway.
When Apple announced its beacon technology back in 2013, the reception was rapturous. Wired and TechCrunch and Forbes and The Verge all wrote enthusiastic pieces about the launch and the impact this tech could have on mobile marketing in general and retailers in particular. The Washington Post went even further, publishing an article titled “How iBeacons Could Change the World Forever.”
Three years have passed. Beacons still exist. Google has their own now, too. Some companies are using them. And if you read marketing industry sites or subscribe to industry newsletters, you hear a lot about beacon marketing. (I received more than 100 email newsletters referencing beacons in the past year, for instance.) But it also doesn’t really feel like we’re living in a world that beacons have changed forever.
So, what’s the deal? Are beacons still the location technology of the future, or is it all just hype? And why haven’t they made more of an impact? Here’s what we know.
Imagine that it’s 2013 and your brand is a long-established retailer with brick and mortar locations. Mobile is already very much on the rise, giving you new tools and new opportunities to reach, monetize, and build relationships with your customers, but also making it possible for emerging, mobile-first companies to compete seriously with you. With mobile, your brand has the ability to collect detailed information on customer behavior and then use it to power targeted, personalized campaigns that drive customer retention and higher revenue. That’s great, but what about all of your brick and mortar stores? Are they just going to be left behind as mobile use rises?
Then you hear about beacons. And suddenly, it seems like there might be a way to bring the in-store experience into the modern era. According to PC Magazine, “This technology could provide retailers the long-desired solutions and insight needed to incorporate mobile commerce and improve your shopping experience.” That sounds pretty good. But how are beacons going to do that?
Forbes suggested that beacons would be “especially useful in places (like inside a shopping mall) where GPS location data may not be reliably available” and noted that “BLE allows for interactions as far away as 160 feet” with greater sensitivity than GPS or Wi-Fi tracking methods. That should make it possible for you to understand how your shoppers are engaging with your brand’s physical location just as well as you understand how they’re using your app or website.
A well-designed beacon network should allow you to track how customers move through each store, aisle by aisle, display by display. With that kind of detailed data, you’d be able to optimize the design of every store, understand what is and isn’t working about your in-store experience, and take advantage of granular information about what displays a given customer stopped in front of (and how long they paused) to improve your audience personalization and targeting, among other benefits.
According to Wired, beacons were poised to have a big impact on the “world of retail, where there’s potential for shops big and small.” The piece cited responsive messaging as an example of that potential, noting the beacons could allow retailers to “make specialized offers to customers depending where they are in the store.”
Think about what happens when a customer expresses interest in an item or adds it to their cart on your mobile app, but leaves the app without buying. On mobile, you can use push notifications and other messaging channels to send them a campaign that nudges them to complete the purchase, increasing the odds that they end up buying. In your retail stores, however, a similar non-sale is probably a lost cause. Even if a sales associate notices that a customer is lingering in front of a display, or has picked up an item, if they can’t convince the shopper to complete the sale before they leave the store, there’s no effective way to gather that customer information or act on it later.
But with beacons, that could change. If a customer pauses in front of a particular display, you could automatically send a message to their smartphone offering them a discount if they buy the item today—or encouraging them to check out complementary products you have on sale two aisles over. And when a customer leaves a store without buying, your brand could reach out to them later on mobile, offering a discount on the product they looked at.
It all sounds pretty great. Automated, in-person data collection. More responsive messages. Integrating your brand’s mobile and in-person presences in ways that enrich both. But now it’s 2016 and the impact of beacons hasn’t caught up with the hype: while BI Intelligence projects that 85 of the top 100 largest retailers will be using beacons by the end of 2016, only 3% of U.S. retailers were using beacons in 2015 and only 16% had any plans to start using them.
A lot of brands have installed beacons in their physical locations, or announced trials of the technology: Macy’s. Yelp. Sephora. CVS. Barney’s. And according to eMarketer, most brands that have tried beacons are satisfied with them.
So why haven’t beacons taken off the way everyone expected? We dug into more than 40 beacon-focused articles written over the past three years and identified these possible factors:
Installing, managing, and maintaining beacons in large numbers across a vast network of locations is a major undertaking that requires significant planning and testing to carry out. But even using beacons in a single location can present significant issues.
In a piece on the Brooklyn Museum’s blog, Shelley Bernstein, the museum’s vice director of digital engagement & technology, detailed the widespread issues that she and her team dealt with while trying to deploy beacons. Saying that “the practicalities have been difficult,” Bernstein noted that, in her experience:
While Bernstein said that the beacons have provided value, the Brooklyn Museum nonetheless expects to replace them with another location technology in the short term.
When retailers were polled on their reasons for being interested in beacon technology last year, 65% cited the ability to track their customers aisle by aisle as a major factor. But while the benefits of that kind of tracking are obvious, it’s less clear that beacons have the ability to accurately and consistently provide that detailed customer data.
According to Bernstein, her team at the Brooklyn Museum found that beacons’ bluetooth low energy (BLE) signals were often blocked by physical objects. “The problem is so bad, in fact,” she said, “that I can be standing directly beside a beacon on the wall, and will find a stronger signal coming from one across the room.” In order to improve the accuracy of the information provided by the beacons, Bernstein’s staff has had to carry out significant additional coding in order to improve the odds that the beacon that interacts with a customer’s device is actually the closest one.
A customer steps into one of your stores. Walks toward the menswear section. Pauses in front of a display showcasing bell-bottoms. You’ve put a beacon there, allowing you to automatically trigger a message offering customers 10% off all lime-green bell-bottoms if they buy now. But in order for a customer to receive that message, they need to:
That’s a pretty tall order. Even getting a customer to download your app and opt in for push notifications can be a difficult proposition. And while BLE uses far less energy than traditional bluetooth, it’s not at all uncommon for people to leave bluetooth turned off. (Check your phone right now and see if you have bluetooth activated—I didn’t.) Every additional action that a customer needs to take will increase the number of people who don’t bother, significantly limiting the reach and effectiveness of your beacons.
And while people are so attached to their phones that 71% sleep with or next to them, that doesn’t necessarily mean that shoppers will have their mobile devices accessible while they shop in person. Venkat Gopalan, senior director of architecture and development at Sephora, said that his company found that most of their shoppers “carry their phones in their purse,” making it hard to capture their attention with beacon-driven notifications. He also noted that customers often “walk so fast from one department to another [that it becomes] pretty tough to message them.”
That means that for a lot of shoppers, a printed sign declaring a sale may well do a better job reaching and engaging customers than a network of beacons can.
According to Tim Zimmerman, research vice president at Gartner, “many [beacon] projects have failed because the architect was enamored with the mobile application capabilities and back-end application functionality without understanding whether the beacon components could broadcast the right information to the right constituency.” Because customers have to opt in multiple times for brands to get the full value of their investment in beacons, using beacons in a way that doesn’t add value can negatively impact perceptions of beacons and make it harder to convince customers that they should opt in.
And getting customers on board with beacons is proving to be a struggle. When polled, 30% of people said that messages like the notifications triggered by beacons are “very annoying” and 62% don’t want brands to track their in-store movements. For beacons to have a major impact, brands are going to have to find ways to overcome customers’ skepticism. That hasn’t happened yet.
It’s hard to say whether beacons will ever live up to their early promise. Some retailers have bypassed the technology, preferring to use Wi-Fi to keep track of their customers’ in-store movements, and others are waiting to see whether beacons take off before making an investment.
Whether beacons take off or not, the attention they’ve commanded is a sign that brands are looking seriously for a way to understand and respond to their customers’ in-person activity. Maybe that’ll be beacons. Maybe not. If beacons ARE going to play a major role in the future of marketing, here are a few developments that might lead the way:
While concrete numbers on the ROI associated with brands’ rollout of beacons have been hard to come by, there’s at least one small success story. At Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, the installation of 1,000 beacons made it easier for ticketholders to find their seats and to have food and drink delivered to them, increasing the stadium’s concessions revenue by $1.25 million.
In fact, using beacons to assist customers in finding their way, instead of messaging them as they wander, seems to be on the rise, with multiple airports, Germany’s Panorama Berlin trade show, and the University of Oklahoma’s college library, among others, taking advantage of the technology. In addition, some brands have begun using beacons to better assist customers with accessibility needs: a bank in Australia and a bus company in Romania are using beacons to notify staff when people with mobility issues need assistance.
According to Appboy co-founder and CTO Bill Magnuson, beacons could be used to boost customer service—at least in certain industries—if they’re used to message staff members, rather than customers. “For luxury brands, car dealerships, and other companies where strong customer service is essential,” he said, “beacons could be a real asset. By setting them up near the entrance and messaging sales staff with information about the people who enter, such as their preferences and purchase history, brands can deliver a more personal, more responsive experience that customers will actually appreciate.”
One big obstacle to beacons’ usefulness is that customers have to download a given brand’s app in order for them to be tracked and messaged using beacons. But in recent years, a few brands have begun taking advantage of the growing platform economy to increase the impact of their beacons. In China, Pizza Hut rolled out beacons in more than 1,400 locations—but instead of requiring customers to have a proprietary Pizza Hut app, they partnered with messaging app WeChat to deliver outreach to their in-store audiences. Similarly, grocery store chain Food Lion has partnered with the popular Shazam music app, making it possible for Food Lion coupons triggered by beacons to appear within Shazam for customers who have the app.
In 2015, reports leaked out that Google had canceled a planned beacon-focused initiative—known as Google Here—that could have allowed brands to piggyback on the popularity of Google Maps. Under the plan, Google would have distributed beacons to businesses and allowed those brands to send push notifications via the highly popular Google Maps, increasing the chances that customers would be able to receive beacon-driven notifications; however, Alphabet CEO Larry Page reportedly canceled the program due to concerns about sending push notifications via Google Maps, among other issues.
But it turns out that Google isn’t done with beacons. After launching its own beacon format, Google recently announced plans to support third-party beacon notifications—not through Google Maps, but using Chrome for Android (and eventually iOS). Under the plan, customers will be able to opt in for beacon-triggered notifications on Chrome, allowing brands to reach them via their browser. That could significantly expand the number of people that beacons can track and engage, making it easier for the technology to reach its potential.
Enterprise mobile applications are on the path to becoming the next $100 billion market opportunity. Already, companies have taken a top-down approach to implementing mobile-first strategies including vast investments in smartphone and tablet technologies that help sales teams engage in their daily tasks, and with their customers, faster and more effectively. Yet when it comes to selecting the best applications for these devices, sales, marketing and IT must choose wisely. Optimizing return on investment requires that the software supporting a salesperson’s daily activities do more than simply work on mobile devices. They must embrace a mobile-first design center, and keep in mind the following principles.
Time. For sales reps, field service personnel and contact center agents, time is money. Ensuring that applications are built for the way sales people actually work includes streamlined workflows and the ability to put critical information at their fingertips instantly. Delivering high levels of productivity and engagement requires that applications be first intuitive and easy to use, but also highly relevant and non-disruptive to selling time. True mobile-first applications are designed to work that way – eliminating the onerous task of navigating an enterprise application not optimized for mobile’s small screen.
Convenience. According to a recent study by Deloitte, the average person checks their mobile device 46 times per day. By applying sales enablement methods to native apps and Webmail, organizations can reach sales reps they were previously unable to engage with traditional methods. The use of push notifications based on an employee’s profile offers another great convenience, eliminating the need for reps to go looking for content, and alerting them to important updates or next steps in a sales cycle. There is an emerging class of mobile sales communication tools that incorporate workflows such as these, that are designed to serve up the right content at the right time for the right prospect using any mobile device.
Motivation. Many of today’s most successful mobile applications for sales have embraced features that prey on extrinsic motivation. These are designed to keep reps continuously engaged, and include the use of social, reputation and game mechanics or other rewards. Simple tactics such as scoring and leaderboards have been found to be to highly effective at driving desired behavior among reps.
Other applications offer powerful intrinsic motivation, such as the value they provide to the rep through continuous reinforcement of core knowledge, sales skills development via scenario-based challenges pushed to their mobile device. Software like this helps reps to have better client interactions, and improve the reps’ own ability to drive buying decisions.
Management Insight. When you look at the impact of technology like mobile on data collection and analytics, we’re still only scratching the surface. A growing number of mobile software applications now incorporate powerful onboard analytics that synthesize thousands of data points in real-time on the skills, behaviors and activities of the individual reps and teams who are using them. The reporting of this data delivers some amazing – and sometimes unexpected – insights into the behaviors of their teams. Some tools do a nice job bubbling up specific activity data for sales managers. This type of insight not only drives manager coaching actions, but can provide confidence to senior sales leadership that their teams are aligned and ready to win.
Even though the mobile world has been dominated by consumer apps, enterprise applications continue to gain prominence across all areas of business. With the ability to streamline processes, increase productivity, and drive competitive advantage, it’s safe to say that the trend toward mobile-first strategies will continue. And, with the right applications, ROI is just around the corner.
Effective communication helps you forge strong connections, present your ideas in meetings, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, close deals, and convince people to share your views. It's critical to your success, whether you're a sales leader, manager, or front-line rep.
So what makes you an effective communicator? You must be able to explain complex ideas simply and clearly, speak in your own voice, tailor your message to your audience -- and that's just to start.
Improve your communication skills by watching these TED talks. They touch on every aspect of communication, from what we say, how we say it, whom we say it to, and equally importantly, what we don’t say.
If you think the United States Army is a rigid organization where decisions and orders come from the top and must be followed without exception, you might be surprised by former U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s TED talk.
In this talk, McChrystal -- who joined the Army at age 22 -- shares the different leadership styles he encountered as he rose through the ranks, then shares the lessons he’s learned as a general. As the armed forces changed, McChrystal found himself leading groups of people who had vastly different experiences than himself.
“We’re operating a force that must have shared purpose and shared consciousness, and yet [direct reports] have different experiences, in many cases a different vocabulary,” McChrystal says.
To bridge gaps of understanding, it falls to leaders to build credibility through being transparent, willing to listen, and open to being reverse-mentored, McChrystal says.
Productive communication doesn’t require agreement -- in fact, some of the best meetings I’ve ever had involved disagreement. And that’s to be expected when you work with smart people who have strong opinions. But in order to have productive discussions and keep your team moving forward after conflict, people need to feel heard and appreciated.
In this TED talk, doctor and life coach Laura Trice poses a simple question -- why don’t people ask to be thanked for the value they bring to the table, whether in their personal or professional lives? She thinks it’s because by asking for praise, we make ourselves vulnerable.
In this talk, you’ll explore the value of saying "thank you," asking to be thanked, and the implications of freely giving gratitude.
In this powerful spoken word TED Talk, Clint Smith addresses what happens when we simply don’t communicate. Smith, a teacher and poet, gave up speaking for Lent one year -- and realized how much he’d already silenced himself.
How many times do you see something happening in the workplace or your personal life that makes you uncomfortable? How many times do you speak up for yourself, a coworker, or a customer? In his TED talk, Smith argues that the price of staying silent is injustice -- and that’s too high a price to pay.
Whether you’re in sales or not, you pitch people every day. Want to hire more people on your team? A promotion? A new project? You have to influence the people around you to get your way -- and that’s where Nancy Duarte comes in. Duarte, a presentation expert who helped Vice President Al Gore with “An Inconvenient Truth,” believes that all great presentations follow a specific arc.
As a presenter, it’s your job to tell a story that draws in your audience and convinces them of something. In this TED talk, Duarte shares actionable tips to rework how you tell stories -- and hopefully help you get closer to what you want.
Communication is a good thing. Transparency and openness are both good things. Pulling people from different teams to give input on important projects is a good thing. So you would think that the concept of the work meeting -- something designed to deliver information, gather opinions, and make progress, would be good as well.
Unfortunately, there is such thing as too much of a good thing. David Grady, a cybersecurity manager, believes that we’re being deluged by pointless meetings that waste our time. In this TED talk, you’ll learn Grady’s “No MAS” technique for making meetings more productive and valuable -- so that when you’re communicating with your coworkers, you’re only talking about what really matters.
We live in a world where it’s easier than ever to reach out to people across generations, cities, and even continents. Yet go to any restaurant, concert, or even funeral and you’ll find people disengaged from their companions because they’re on their phones, MIT social sciences and technology professor Sherry Turkle says.
Besides the fact that it’s bad manners, this increasingly common behavior is preventing us from relating to each other and self-reflecting. In Turkle’s TED talk, you’ll hear about how being overly connected is actually isolating us from our communities, and what we can do to unplug from our phones and plug back into our relationships.
Words are our primary way of relating to other people -- whether it’s building strong friendships, getting into arguments, or persuading coworkers to follow your plans. And yet we suck at it -- a Pew Research study found that Americans are more polarized than we’ve ever been.
Radio host Celeste Headlee has some experience using words to move people. In her TED talk, Headlee explores the components of a truly great conversation and shares 10 strategies to improve conversational competence.
Of course, true connections can’t be formed if we don’t bring our whole selves to our relationships -- no matter how conversationally competent we are. In this TED talk, Brené Brown, who researches vulnerability, courage, and shame, suggests that only by confronting what we’re most afraid of can we truly connect with other people.
In her research, Brown found that her subjects who felt the most love and belonging had one thing in common -- they were willing to make themselves vulnerable. It’s not easy to get to that point, but Brown argues that if we’re willing to put in the time and effort, we’ll be able to reach a kinder, gentler world.
When I was younger, I thought Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show were just funny. And they are, but they’re also shows that delivery commentary in a way that makes people laugh and think at the same time.
In this TED talk, standup comedian Chris Bliss explains that comedy isn’t just about entertainment, although humor is obviously central. The elements of comedy -- misdirection, its inherent virality, economy of language, and deliberate juxtaposition of seemingly opposite or unrelated concepts -- make it a delightful way to entertain people and convey important messages.
Nice, a comedian, speaks about the many wonders of technology and the unintended consequences of social media.
He blends the draw of future technology with the stark reality of how hard it is for us to interact face-to-face -- and shares tips on how to overcome these obstacles in day-to-day life.
Stevenson shares how racial literacy, or the ability to read, recast, and resolve tense racial situations, helps reduce and manage racial stress and trauma.
Whether you have children you're teaching to stand up for themselves and others in productive ways, or you want to hone those skills in your own communication arsenal, Stevenson's talk is a thoughtful and powerful first step.
We've all battled "group think" -- or the group itself -- in meetings at one time or another. Neuroscientist Sigman wonders how humans interact to reach decisions, and performs experiments on live crowds to find out.
In this talk, Sigman shares the results of his experiments and conclusions about how to construct a healthier democracy -- starting with your next Monday morning standup.
Let me tell you a fascinating story about John.
He’s a fictional character but a good example of the type of people I help every day. In fact, if you pay close attention, you might realize you relate to him in more ways than one.
John is a developer. He writes code day in and day out for a large company.
He doesn’t think of himself as a copywriter. He essentially just codes, all the time. But John also has a strategy up his sleeve. In fact, he uses content marketing every day.
What John might lack in overt marketing skills, he makes up for with an ongoing list of small side projects. He spends hours of his free time building small code snippets and software. Then, he makes them free to download on the popular code-sharing site GitHub.
One day, John wakes up to hundreds of emails in his inbox — job offers, questions, and positive feedback all yell at him through his still-groggy eyelids. He might not be on his third cup of coffee yet, but John is smiling wide.
However, he isn’t surprised by his now-packed inbox; it was just a matter of time.
So, what really happened?
Recently, a big-time developer noticed one of John’s code snippets and decided to share it with his own audience.
This led to thousands of visits and additional links to John’s work, which exposed him to a larger audience, drove traffic to his website, and then resulted in a plethora of potential clients, fans, and leads.
John simply utilized content marketing in a fundamental way:
He provided free solutions to common problems.
Content marketing and copywriting are certainly a powerful combination.
But you can also find content marketing in unlikely places — produced by people who don’t touch the marketing department of a company.
When you offer a free solution to a problem and invite further dialogue by providing a way to contact you, you have the possibility of attracting previously unattainable business opportunities.
And this illustrates one wonderful truth: content marketing strategies can be applied by anyone.
While the above story of John the developer is inspirational, it might be difficult to understand how it relates to you and your own endeavors — especially if you’re not a developer!
In light of that, I’ve broken down this principle into three steps. Use this process to leverage content marketing to your advantage and grow your audience.
First, develop a list of problems you know people struggle with.
You could survey customers, run polls, or research your target market.
But there’s another tried-and-true method: take note of the problems you face each day.
I know, you’ve already got 50 problems in mind. It seems we humans have a surprisingly efficient ability to complain.
Once you’ve clearly defined a problem, ask your audience for feedback — even if that’s just your family members.
Here’s an example:
I recently had an idea for an application I wanted to build. It was a perfect opportunity to both solve a repetitive task I found myself doing and learn a new JavaScript framework.
So, the first thing I did was jump on Twitter and tweet out a poll. I asked if anyone would find the idea useful.
The answer? Eighty percent thought the idea had already been done.
Sure, my idea was likely not worth pursuing — but I got instant feedback and saved myself a lot of trouble.
Keep doing this, all the while keeping these ideas in a safe place. Eventually, you’ll stumble upon a few problems that get a resounding, “Yes, please!”
The second step is to review your new list of problems and decide which ones you have the ability to solve.
Throw away the ones you don’t know how to solve (or save them for later) and create a revised list with the ones you do know how to solve.
With this process, you need to decide which problems you can solve absolutely free of charge.
At this point, you might be thinking about all of the free time you don’t have to produce free solutions.
But if you are strategic and smart with your time, you’ll be surprised by the value you can provide — it just takes focus and diligence.
Now, select one problem that:
This will be your baby. You’ll nurture it at every free moment you can spare. (I have three hours before work every morning dedicated to side projects like my newsletter for web designers.)
This problem, which you hate, should now be your favorite thing in the world.
Developing a solution to your problem is the shortest step in the process but undoubtedly the hardest and most crucial.
Solving problems is hard. Solving problems with excellence is even more difficult, as any entrepreneur will tell you.
But solving problems is the essential ingredient to success, and the quality of your solution will be what markets your capabilities.
Finally, once you’ve solved the problem — and double-checked that the solution is excellent — you’re ready to provide it for free.
With this process, don’t ask for anything in return, but don’t be a stranger either — always offer ways to connect and an easy way to get in touch with you.
Remember the inviting further dialogue part I mentioned earlier?
Make yourself available. Inviting further dialogue is your call to action.
By following this system, you not only benefit your industry and community, you will also indirectly build authority.
John was just a typical developer before that morning of email bliss. He was regarded as the “company guy,” rather than a content marketer or entrepreneur.
Yet, over time and as a result of consistency, prospects recognized him as a trustworthy resource they wanted to do business with.
By following this process again and again, you’ll not only benefit everyone who cares about the problems you can solve, you’ll also gain loyal customers who trust you. They’ll respect you, support you, and market your expertise and products for free for years to come.
The best part of it all? Absolutely anyone in any industry can do it.
You just have to start.
Additional reading: If you found this article useful, you may also like How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free.
The post 3 Surprising Steps to Help You Think Outside the Content Marketing Box appeared first on Copyblogger.
Think it’s time for a new logo? Why…and Why Not?
There are the three reasons you may need a new logo:
1. You’re starting a new business
2. You’re doing business in a new way
3. You’ve changed the name of your business
One reason you don’t need a new identity? You’ve decided your business needs a new look. That’s just dressing up the same old business…making customers think you’re doing something different, when you’re not.
But if, in fact, you are starting a new business (or changed the name of your company or are doing business in a new way), your logo creation probably begins right after you 1) name the company and 2) get an appropriate URL. In other words, it’s the fun part: the part where a simple visual will be the identifier for your brand. The logo plays a pivotal role in any company – it’s the visual representation of a brand and will convey, in one quick peek, all the emotions, thoughts, connections, offerings, benefits and value of that particular brand.
Because a logo is so important, it’s crucial to spend the time and effort on creating a new identity. The design may end up looking simple, but a logo is serious business and should be approached methodically, with creativity but also with practicality in mind.
Before creating a new identity for your company, generate a brand positioning statement or brand profile that includes:
What’s your company’s differentiator? What do you offer that your competition does not offer?
The Logo Design Process:
Establish a deadline, determine available in-house personnel to manage the project and verify budget requirements (keep in mind that beyond creating a new logo, you may need to develop a style guide demonstrating the colors and usage of the logo, plus design and print new business cards and letterhead and apply the logo to existing online and print promotional vehicles).
Once you’ve determined your brand audience, defined your brand attributes and ascertained resources available, you’re ready to select and work with a graphic designer.
Finding a Logo Designer:
Hiring a Logo Designer:
The designer you hire should be willing to review your current promotion, that of your competition, and the brand profile you’ve completed. You will want them to provide an initial design presentation (including exploration of several different directions and their reasoning behind each design); presentation of different type treatments; exploration of proposed color usage; at least one additional round of revisions to your favorite design(s) and delivery of final digital artwork of the logo (and any required type) in black & white and color in multiple file formats.
It’s also helpful to have the designer create several applications of your selected logo (for example, digitally show how it might look on packaging, a business card or the side of your company truck). Specify everything your designer will provide, for what budget and on what timeline – before you start. And of course, get it in writing.
Once you’ve hired your designer:
Keep it Simple – logos need to reproduce and be readable at sizes from ½” to 20 feet; logos that have too much going on will not look good at all sizes (think about how your logo will look as an app button on your phone)
Orientation – a logo that fits in to a square outline is most versatile – going too vertical or too horizontal may limit its usage
Color – many studies have been done about color and its psychological effects on buyer perception and response; a combination of research, personal preference and the desired “feel” you’d like your brand to project all enter color choices
Your logo can reflect what your company does (hammer = construction) but is not required (think about the strong, identifiable brands of Target, Nike or Disney)
Logos can be an icon, a stylized typeface, or some variation with both
What’s your brand style? Will your logo’s look reflect the “attitude” or “perception” of the brand that is discussed earlier?
Readability also applies to the font you select to appear as part of your identity
Trendy or not? While it may be tempting to follow current design trends, it’s preferable to go with a design that will look good 5, 10 or 50 years from today
Memorable – when your logo pops up, viewers should immediately recognize it (this, of course, is a function both of design and marketing budgets)
Market Research:
Think of your new logo as the visual ambassador for your business. It’s well worth it to spend the time, money and effort to make sure you’re company is well represented.
A recent lab test discovered that Jessica Alba's company's laundry detergent contains SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate), Serena Ng of The Wall Street Journal reports. The company previously claimed its detergent didn't contain that ingredient.
McDonald's is building a loyalty program into its smartphone app. The program is still in its early stages, but it will likely reward customers with deals based on the number of visits they make to McDonald's every month, Nation's Restaurant News reports.
Prosecutors are accusing William Powell of giving away $3,000-plus in soft drinks as a waiter at a Brooklyn, New York IHOP, reports New York Daily News. Powell says he was "looking out for the community" by handing out free beverages during the eight months he worked at IHOP
Starbucks is making a TurboVote digital tool that allows for speedy voter registration accessible to the company's 114,000-plus US employees — the equivalent of about 20% of Wyoming's state population.
According to data from RealtyTrac, not only does living near a Target instead of a Walmart mean your house is probably more valuable, but it also means its value is most likely going up much faster.
After NPR mentioned the magic wake word — Alexa — on the air during the program, some Echo owners said that their gadgets began behaving strangely. One listener told NPR their Echo reset their home thermostat.
A $20 add-on for your MacBook charger, called the "Blockhead" reorients your charger so that it hangs flat against the wall rather than stick out — and potentially fall out.
Nearly three million boxes of frozen DiGiorno pizzas, Stouffer's lasagnas and Lean Cuisine meals are being recalled after customers said they found pieces of glass in their food.
In an effort to expand its product line, Chobani will begin selling drinks and dips made with yogurt in July, according to Bloomberg.
Gatorade showcased a few of its future inventions at SXSW, including protein bars, vegetable-based nitrate boosts, protein-enriched yogurt, and a new smart bottle that tracks your rate of hydration, according to Fast Company.
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In 1995, I published The Digital Economy, a book that became one of the first best-sellers about the internet in business. To mark its 20th anniversary, my publisher asked me to write a dozen mini-chapters for a new edition. As I revisited it, I was struck by how far we’ve come since 1995 and by how many concepts in the book have withstood the test of time. “The digital economy” term itself has become part of the vernacular.
The book was pretty breathless about the opportunities of the digital revolution, but it equally warned of some huge dangers ahead — and this dark side has indeed emerged over the last two decades. Back then, I wrote:
The Age of Networked Intelligence is also an age of peril. For individuals, organizations, and societies that fall behind, punishment is swift. It is not just old business rules but also governments, social institutions, and relationships among people that are being transformed. The new media is changing the ways we do business, work, learn, play, and even think. Far more than the old western frontier, the digital frontier is a place of recklessness, confusion, uncertainty, calamity, and danger.
Some signs point to a new economy in which wealth is even further concentrated, basic rights like privacy are vanishing, and a spiral of violence and repression undermine basic security and freedoms. Pervasive evidence exists that indicates the basic social fabric is beginning to disintegrate. Old laws, structures, norms, and approaches are proving to be completely inadequate for life in the new economy. While they are crumbling or being smashed, it is not completely clear what should replace them. Everywhere people are beginning to ask, “Will this smaller world our children inherit be a better one?
While the digital revolution has brought us many wonders, in hindsight my somewhat discouraging conclusion is that the “promise” of a more fair, equal, just, and sustainable world has been unfulfilled. It has become clear that the original democratic architecture of the internet has been bent to the will of economies and societies in which power is anything but distributed. If anything, the power has become more concentrated, and the main benefits of the digital economy have been skewed.
Let’s look at a few concerns I raised in 1995 and assess what has actually happened in the years since.
In the book, I warned that technology might actually destroy more jobs than it was creating. I asked, “How will we manage the transition to new types of work and a new knowledge base for the economy?”
Now, for the first time in modern history, economic growth in OECD countries is not generating a commensurate number of new jobs. Young workers are taking the biggest hit. Arguably, structural unemployment will be the biggest public policy issue for decades.
It appears that the biggest culprit is digital technologies themselves. We’ve already seen knowledge work such as accounting and legal services being shipped offshore to cheaper employees. Soon the work will stay here but be done by computers. For example, IBM’s Watson computer diagnoses cancers with much higher levels of speed and accuracy than skilled physicians do. The same software combined with robotics, 3D printing, and myriad other innovations will continue to eliminate jobs throughout the workforce.
Technology is also the foundation of new species of businesses that are capable of wiping out entire industries. Spectacular digital conglomerates such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and others are taking over a dozen industries, partly because they do a better job with a fraction of the employees. Service Aggregators such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb hold the power to wipe out jobs in industries ranging from taxis to hotels. Data frackers such as Facebook are acquiring vast treasure troves of data that position them to dominate multiple industries.
Factoring in the hangover from the financial collapse of 2008, we’re witnessing youth unemployment levels across the western world from 15–50%. This situation is not only immoral; it is creating a massive powder keg. Rather than a Schumpeterian “creative destruction,” we’re seeing structural elimination of entire labor markets.
I believed this topic to be so important that I devoted an entire chapter to it. I wrote: “Most of us believe we have the right to decide what personal information we divulge, to whom, and for what purpose. Left unchecked, the internet could render such thinking irrelevant.”
Safeguarding privacy is now a major concern on people’s minds. So-called “data minimization,” or limiting what information we give away, is no longer feasible. Everywhere we go and in everything we do, we leave a trail of digital crumbs. Today, what happens in Vegas, stays…on YouTube.
Rather than restricting what we input, every country needs better norms and laws protecting our privacy. For example, we should own the data we create. And if we give it to social media companies, it should only be used for the purpose for which it was collected — not sold to others without our permission.
Two decades ago, the book warned of a “severe bipolarization of wealth” that could foster a two-tiered society where the benefits of the digital age are asymmetrical and where wealth creation does not lead to prosperity for all.
Today, income inequality is one of the hottest topics on the planet. It was listed as the number one global risk by the World Economic Forum’s 2014 meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It is the subject of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the New York Times best-seller by French economist Thomas Piketty. While many people disagree with his socialist conclusions, Piketty’s scholarship has been pretty much unassailable, showing that growing social inequality is endemic to capitalism, even in the digital age. More people today are questioning whether the digital revolution might actually accelerate inequality.
In 1995, I wrote, “Bureaucracies by definition resist change, thinking that heads-down is the route to survival. Can government become electronic, transforming the way government services are delivered?”
Have the operations of governments changed fundamentally in the past two decades? Sure, there are improvements, but most governments have spent time making existing models of government digital — paving the cow path — instead of rethinking the system in a digital age. (The same applies to many legacy businesses that are struggling with their digital transformations but lack market forces to compel change.) The economic crisis of 2008 has made it more urgent for governments to think seriously about both how they can use open data and social media to alter the deep structures of government and how we orchestrate capability to create public value.
These questions are still relevant today: “Will the electronic town hall become an electronic mob? Will cyberdemocracy become hyperdemocracy? Or can we craft a new age in which networked intelligence can be applied for the good of the people?”
The problem is hardly too much citizen engagement through digital media, as I worried; the opposite is occurring. Industrial-age governments have clung to the “you vote, I rule” model, where politicians broadcast their views to passive citizens. This is leading to a crisis of legitimacy among democratic institutions (of which the U.S. Congress is Exhibit A). This matters. Seymour Martin Lipset, the American political sociologist, wrote that legitimacy is “the capacity of a political system to engender and maintain the belief that existing political institutions are the most appropriate and proper ones for the society.”
The ongoing abuse of trust by office holders is not simply a series of isolated incidents; it is the manifestation of a deep and widespread rot. And people have had it. During the past 20 years, voter turnout has dropped in most western democracies, particularly among young people, who are looking for alternative ways to bring about social change.
To restore legitimacy and trust, we need to do what The Digital Economy advised two decades ago: build a second era of democracy based on integrity and accountability, with stronger, more open institutions, active citizenship, and a culture of public discourse and participation.
Technological utopians are being proven wrong by the facts: technology does not create prosperity, good democracy, and justice — humans do. To ensure that the digital economy fulfills its promise, we’ll need a new social contract that guarantees opportunities for full employment, protects our privacy, and enables prosperity not just for the few but for everyone.
We all know that the business world changed permanently as a result of the recession that began in 2008. We’re all familiar with the enhanced power of purchasing, emboldened strategic procurement practices, and very deliberate attempts to squeeze most, if not all, of the profit from suppliers who compete fiercely and are often desperate. We have come to accept that there is generally far more supply than demand in the industries into which we sell. And, that the ever-mounting noise and hype in every market leaves buyers frustrated, confused, and often distrustful of anyone trying to sell anything to them. As all of these forces converge, we sellers find ourselves in an increasingly difficult position.
My Beyond the Sales Process co-author Steve Andersen and I, based on a significant number of sales effectiveness improvement projects with companies—from start-ups through the Global 100—as well as a series of revealing interviews, have learned a great deal during the past seven years. By talking with and capturing the best practices of the world’s most successful salespeople and account managers, and interviewing their customers, we’ve drawn some sobering conclusions:
Steve and I have asked hundreds of customers what they care about, and they consistently tell us that they value authentic relationships based on transparency, competence, credibility, and trust—and that they’ll pay more for these qualities, even in today’s highly competitive selling environment.
We’ve gone inside some of the world’s premier companies to determine just how the “best of the best” are achieving success, and it’s clear that top sales performers and account managers on the front line of customer engagement are upping their game to include a focus before, during, and after each of their sales. Simply winning the deal isn’t enough. Their success provides a compelling case for the effectiveness of stronger alignment, collaboration, innovation, and mutual value creation in this new era of customer engagement. Beyond the Sales Process documents some of their accomplishments through nine revealing case studies that feature details of their relationships with their customers.
Today’s top performers have learned how to shape their customers’ perception of them and their offerings by not being out of sight or out of mind for too long. They know that when they pay careful attention to the “other” 98 percent of their customer’s time (when the customer isn’t actively buying from them), they can strongly position themselves to impact that highly leverageable 2 percent (when they are engaged with their customer in an active opportunity).
Customers today want more effective engagement with their most important suppliers. Beyond the Sales Process serves up 12 proven strategies and tools for competing and excelling in this demanding and pressurized selling environment, along with instructive examples of how to do it.
If now is the right time for you to have a change of mindset, a change of attitude, and a change of heart regarding how sellers and buyers engage and do business together, you need to dispense with what no longer works and deliberately strive to meet the new requirements of our customer driven world.
The original version of this post appeared on PipelinerCRM.com‘s blog.
Graphic source: http://sales-survival.com/
The design point for your B2B sales content strategy must be your buyer’s engagement model, mapped against your sales strategy. Fundamentally, it must be conversation centered. Without well-defined and documented sales use case requirements, effective sales content strategy is not possible. Rarely do we meet companies that have even considered this, let alone defined and documented specific requirements. You can find an introductory explanation of this idea at Need Better Content? Define Use Case Requirements. This post will step you through a process to define and document requirements. Pre-requisite to use case definitions are two competencies we identify in our 6 Competency Framework for Business Level Content Strategy. These are Understand Audiences and Buyers Competency and Conversation Support Competency. Essentially, sales use case requirements define the purpose and context in which sales content will be used. Sales Use Case Requirements Context The general context for your use case requirements are: Who’s the audience for your conversations and content — audience segments, industry, functional role or “persona” What is their interest — their business problem, issue, defined solution approach or product category (for active buyers) Why are you speaking — what’s the purpose of the conversation, of content, the desired outcome and decision the buyer will make at the conclusion of each engagement. We refer to this as the “job” both the sales rep and the buyer want content to do for them at that moment When is this engagement — at what stage of the buying decision process — or perhaps […]
The post How to Define Sales Use Case Requirements for Your Sales Content Strategy appeared first on Avitage.
The sales profession has changed as buyers are driving a different journey. They move at a different speed and don’t respond to slimy, pushy or aggressive tactics. The most effective salespeople use their skills, tools and insights to help their customers evaluate options, present trade offs and identify the right solution in ways far too complex for Google.
We recently met up with Nicole and Ned – they are two top performers at Guidespark and we found them willing to share with us how they do it.
Sales Development Reps are tasked to meet the demand of a new kind of buyer that primarily lives online, buys faster, and spends more on cloud services than ever before.
Successful SDRs are educators who leverage insights to assist solving a real problem customers are having.
Successful SDRs are educators who leverage insights to assist solving a problem customers have
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But for good reasons, customers won’t share their real challenges – until you have demonstrated you understand their business. And you don’t understand their business, unless you talk to them.
Chicken or Egg.
Finding out the real problem requires knowledge with insights shared in the right way. However, in most organizations salespeople are trained to pitch – the worst ones share how amazing their solution is, and how much better the customer would be with their product…. pitch, pitch blahblahblah.
SDRs are arguably the most important part of the sales team because they “bring customers out of thin air.” Without them, the other members of the team wouldn’t have contracts to send, or customers to make successful.
SDRs have to be quick on their feet, excel in having online conversations, master tools, be great content finders, and have a positive outlook not brought down by a bad interaction.
Here’s a breakdown of a typical day for Ned and Nicole:
Whether you snooze 9 times, or set 4 different alarms, days start earlier for sales professionals with customers across timezones. Some get inspired by 8 things to do before 8am. Did you know that many SDRs start their day as early as 6am?
Taking the bus provides a few hours a week to read, listen to podcasts or scan social media for the latest news that could be interesting to your team or customers.
When Ned from GuideSpark arrives at the office, he starts off by checking email, scanning for priority messages, then grabbing a coffee and granola bar from the kitchen.
Over coffee, he checks social outlets and uses Buffer to share great articles and insight throughout the day on Twitter and LinkedIn.
If it will take him less than two minutes to respond to an email, he gets it done right away. Then he prioritizes questions that need a researched answer to handle later.
Pitfall to avoid: Don’t spend too much time on email or social media. Some things can wait.
Ned is partnered with an AE in New York. They collaborate as a team and establish 1-3 key priorities. After agreeing what can wait, they share what worked or didn’t work yesterday, then focus on something they’re going to improve today.
Ned is a professional who cares about helping customers, so he’s not “spraying and praying” semi-personalized template emails with automation tools. Through research, he finds the most relevant insights based on personas, and based on what he has found resonated with similar people in the past.
He checks his LinkedIn profile views for any customers that may have visited his profile. He does some quick research to find uncommon commonalities or interesting aspects of their profile, responds to comments on his posts, and sends thank you’s or personalized LinkedIn requests.
Pitfall to avoid: Don’t send the default LinkedIn “Add you to my network” – show the customer you care with a quick note on why you’re connecting.
The coffee Ned had earlier has now kicked in, it’s time to get on the phone. He uses this time block to call based on tasks scheduled in Salesforce.
Pro Tip: Avoid getting distracted by constantly checking your email during this time slot – that can be a big time sink.
Pro-tip: Organize your calendar with color blocks for emails, calls and breaks. Here’s an example of how Chad from Infer schedules his week to maximize productivity.
To maximize productivity, Ned breaks up his day with scheduled breaks. Get to know your coworkers if they are also taking a break, take a walk, or perfect your coffee making skills.
Next 75 mins, Ned gets after it. He remembers he is NOT selling. He is helping to educate customers and solve their problems. He’s their “doctor” that did the research for them.
Pro Tip: Do not prescribe your solution before a diagnosis.
*Emails: Half as long twice as powerful, provide value.
*Phone calls: Personable and to the point, provoke thought.
*Social media: Help through providing customized/relevant insights
Ned won’t let it linger. He shares insights, includes a valuable article in all of his emails to truly be helpful to customers. Then schedules follow up emails using tools that delay send to next day in your defined sequence.
Nicole and Ned grab lunch. Now it’s time to do something fun with the team or get a quick workout or run 3.5 miles. On the way back, wolf down the post workout burrito you earned.
Pitfall to avoid: Do not eat at your desk.
Nicole doesn’t do this every day, but doing this every now and then makes a huge difference. She sees if there are any pressing issues that need to be dealt with and if there is, she asks how she can help.
She then does more research about her customers to be strategic with her time to focus on the right people.
Nicole scans her LinkedIn and email. Same as Ned, she deals with urgent issues right away, deletes spam and marks what needs to be done later based on research. She then pops a Diet Coke (or Diet Dr. Pepper…. or Red Bull) in preparation of the 2pm AWESOMENESS she is about to deliver. Practices her pitch, objection management and it’s game time.
Next batch of qualification calls is happening, she is fueled, ready, and excited. Each call is based on research. She has the customer’s LinkedIn profile up, knows which value props will potentially resonate based on their persona, and she is handling common objections like a boss in a customer centric way.
Pro Tip: Have real conversations. Keep going, don’t look back… you are in the zone.
The weather is gorgeous. Celebrate a win with your coworkers
Nicole recognizes knowledge is power – and research is the name of the game. Nicole schedules targeted emails in small batches, targeting similar customers using tools as a force multiplier to scale her thoughtful outreach.
Nicole only focuses on prospects she identified that could benefit from her solution. They are “delay sent” to go out tomorrow morning about 30 minutes before she arrives at work so she can prioritize her outreach based on who opened/clicked to schedule her time based on who is most interested.
Pitfalls to Avoid: Do not write emails to “check-in” if they got your last email – or worse, a “mass personalized check-in” email.
Exercise, have a social life. Read books and become an expert in your industry and in sales. Attend events to share best best practices and make connections.
Wait … the day is NOT done yet… as an SDR there is another important window…
While on the couch binging through your favorite Netflix series, keep that phone handy. If you have earned it, several of the executives you are working with are getting into their email window. They now are responding to your emails! You don’t want to let it wait until next morning as you’d enter into one of their potentially 700 daily.
Make sure to get enough sleep. You have a big day tomorrow.
Friday afternoon
No follow-up, any action can be “delay-sent” over the weekend. Unless it is urgent, you’re better off waiting until the Sunday night window.
Monday
Skip all social activities on Monday afternoon, check-in calls etc. Just don’t bother. Monday is 100% business day, to GSD.
Sunday evening
Great email productivity window on Sunday eve to get through to executives. You may want to do some prep work for the week. 1 hour should do it.
Note: There is an incredible amount of nuance depending on who and what you sell, and who your customers are – so take it all with a grain of sales.
The post A Day in the Life of a Sales Development Rep appeared first on Sales Hacker.
When it comes to generating new business, most professional services firms rely on referrals. In fact, according to our study of 530 professional services firms, generating referrals ranked highest in terms of current marketing priorities.
But sadly,most of that marketing effort may be destined to fail.
Our recent Referral Marketing Study exposed an interesting truth. Much of what referral marketing gurus preach—from attending networking events to asking for referrals—is ineffective, or simply wrong.
There are ways to ensure you keep the referrals coming in. Here are some of our favorite research-backed tips.
1. Stop asking for referrals.
Asking clients and fellow professionals is a very common piece of advice from those referral gurus. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work in the professional services context.
When we asked more than 1,100 referral sources (professional who make referrals) what drove them to make a referrer, we found that a meager 2% would make a referral when asked.
Why so low? The answer is actually quite simple and rather intuitive.
You’re asking for a favor and giving nothing in return. There is no pay-off, especially when you consider that making a referral can be risky for the referrer. They are sticking their neck out and putting their reputation on the line.
There is another reason to stop asking for referrals from clients. When you ask, you can easily switch from a trusted service provider dedicated to their interest to a “salesperson.” That can be a vibe that is hard to shake.
So, if you can’t ask, how can you generate a steady stream of business-building referrals? We actually found that more than 80% of firms actually get referrals from people they have not worked with or even met.
Read on.
2. Share your expertise by speaking at industry events.
We found that speaking engagements are a top source of referrals.
The reason is speaking at conferences and other industry events raises your visibility as an expert. You may even find that some attendees approach you directly. Like a kind of “self referral.”
More importantly, others in the audience will learn of your expertise, and when asked by a client or colleague, will be able to make the referral based on what they learned from you.
3. Write educational articles and blog posts.
Another great way to get non-clients to make referrals is to educate. Just remember that your audience for your educational content is prospective clients not fellow professionals. For maximum effect publish or post in publications read by your target audience and their influencers.
4. Give more referrals.
People often make a referral to a firm that sent a referral their way. So, to get more referrals, give more referrals. This remarkably consistent relationship is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Reciprocity’s affect on referral generation
The impact of reciprocity is evident when looking at the top 20% of referral makers compared to the bottom 20%. Professionals who make more referrals receive more referrals.
Reciprocity works well, but only if you are in a position to give a lot of referrals to someone who can make the appropriate referrals to you. Make sure both conditions are true before your invest your time, resources or reputation.
5. Deepen social relationships with selected referral sources.
Referrals can come from social relationships and friendships, but only if the referrer is familiar with your expertise. The notion of meeting new people and developing friendships to get referrals is destined to fail if it is not based on understanding your expertise.
That is why we suggest you concentrate on those individuals who both know your expertise (such as a client or fellow professional that you have worked with) and are in a position to make referrals to you.
6. Conduct an industry-leading research study.
Professionals who are seen as industry trend setters are in the best position to get referrals. And among the best ways to demonstrate your thought leadership is to conduct a research study that addresses an important industry issue.
If the research is well publicized it can become a significant magnet for new referrals.
7. Promote the successes of clients.
One of the ways to communicate your expertise is to showcase the clients you serve and the results that you produce. Just be mindful of the limits to what can or should be disclosed.
To avoid such limitations, invite your client to speak at an industry event where the work you have done together is described by the client. Such engagements are actually beneficial for both you and your client. They gain exposure, your gain credibility and referrals. It’s a win-win.
Also consider promoting the successes of your high-profile client in an article or a video case study. Maybe nominate them for a prestigious award. If the story is compelling, potential clients will ask your client about you. These questions often turn into referrals.
8. Avoid untargeted networking.
Most professional services providers will go to any number of networking events. These can be costly because of the time commitment involved. But in our referral marketing research, we found that going to such events is likely to produce insufficient results.
Only about 5.5% of referrals come from someone you’ve meet at such an untargeted networking event. You are much better of attending an event attended by your target audience, especially if you speak at the event—remember Tip #2.
9. Be crystal clear about how you can best help potential clients.
Getting the referral is only the start. Once you get a referral you need to keep it. And to keep it, you need the referred prospect to start a conversation. Unfortunately, more than half of referrals never make it to this next critical step.
According to another Hinge study, potential clients rule out providers they have been referred to without talking with them. When we asked why, the number one reason given was a lack of understanding how the referred firm could help them (see Figure 2). That is why you must be very clear about what you do, who you do it for, and why clients would choose you in all your communication channels.
Think that’s obvious? Think again. Just look at professional services websites—the most likely first stop when someone gets a referral. Often the language on these sites is vague and general. In an attempt to appeal to everyone, such sites end up being appealing to no one.
Figure 2. Why buyers rule out a referral
10. Educate rather then sell.
Quality educational content is a magnet for referrals. The lack of it is a key reason people rule out firms they have been referred to. Clients want information and an air of collaboration. They don’t want a sales pitch.
Quality educational content— articles, webinars, books, or white papers—can actually help bring in business three ways: it helps you generate new referrals, it prevents prospects from ruling you out, and it can help tip the scale in your favor.
Let’s face it: Technology buyers are a savvy group. To grab their attention, you must be quick, cunning and charismatic. Give your audience what they want, in the most fascinating way imaginable. And of course, make it as short as you can to get them to stick with it to the end.
Dazzling your audience is no small feat, so how can you deliver your message in a new way? There is so much more to content marketing than just blogs. As a technology content marketer, it is up to you to get inside the minds of your audience and create (and deliver) a message that will resonate most with them.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box; you may just find your efforts will drive more traffic to your website than ever before. Here are four ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Creating a large production costs both time and money, and may not always bring the results anticipated. To avoid making a huge and risky investment, look at where the trends are headed and consider micro videos as a first step. Outlets like Vine present a whole new territory for your marketing strategy. With an estimated 40 million users, the platform features 6-second videos that play on a loop. While that might not seem like much time, it presents a creative challenge to marketers and audiences alike.
GE asked followers, “How much science can you fit into 6 seconds?” and was met with some amazing responses. The challenge to create and submit science projects as Vine videos made science fun to new audiences and fit in well with the company’s regular technology crowd. The campaign launched on Tumblr using the hashtag #6secondscience. This worked well for GE because it encouraged engagement and was not a direct commercial for its services, and yet it shed light on the cool, hip side of the tech industry.
GE
While 6 seconds is not a lot of time, these short snippets can spark interest and conversations for your brand.
Everyone reads reviews these days before purchasing a product. So why not include customer success stories as part of your content marketing strategy?
Key Difference
Post these testimonials on your social media pages where engagement can be encouraged and others can also post positive experiences with your brand. These stories will undoubtedly include emotion and inspire others with similar experiences to share their stories and describe why your technology means so much to them and how it affected their lives.
Take it one step further to increase interaction with your followers by creating a campaign for the best success story. Have your customers send in a video or post a message on your wall illustrating how your software or technology helped them, and offer a prize for the best story. Then sit back and wait to be humbled by the impact your offering has on the world.
Outside the box here means beyond the major three—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Which one, however, will be determined by your audience. Depending on what demographic you are targeting for a specific effort, try Snapchat, WhatsApp or tech industry favorite, Quora.
While not a traditional form of social media, Quora is a Q&A-style forum where brands can establish themselves as experts in their field by answering questions about their products and services. It is easy to see what others are saying about your technology products and take part in the conversation. Likewise, it also enables companies to view what their competitors are being asked, which helps you stay current on industry trends.
Quora
Google engineers frequently answer questions on the Google Quora page with full, high-quality answers, promoting the levels of knowledge and expertise Google is known for. The higher the quality of the answers, the greater the opportunity to increase your followers and your reach within the network. Reach the right audience by including tags with your questions. Interact with some of the industry’s best and get your questions answered.
Earned media—aka publicity, PR, word-of-mouth or media relations—is the unpaid mention of your technology or software by a neutral third party. One type of beneficial earned media is an employee’s bylined article on a third-party site (think Mashable). This lends your knowledge and expertise on a subject to another source, making both your brand and the publisher shine.
You frequently see guest contributors to different outlets with credentials that qualify them as a trustworthy source (see my byline above?). This has proved to make a solid impact on buying decisions. According to a study by Nielsen and inPowered, 85 percent of consumers regularly or occasionally seek out trusted expert content when considering a purchase, espcecially in the technology field.
Technology is an industry always on the cutting edge. Never be afraid to try something new to get your ideas out there. Your customers want to see you at the forefront with your marketing efforts and will be more willing to take the plunge and buy your latest product if they see you, too, are taking the plunge into uncharted territory. At worst, it may not be a super successful effort, but none of these cost much more than time. At best, you will drive more traffic, attract new leads and gain more customers.
With the near-universal embrace of content marketing—93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing, and B2C marketers are close behind—the amount of brand content being produced has exploded.
But the capacity of buyers to consume content hasn’t changed, making content quality (as noted by several contributors to the 2016 B2B Marketing Trends report) the focus of differentiation moving forward. The top challenge for content marketers will no longer be producing more content, but rather creating relevant content, in the right mix of formats, that connects with buyers on an emotional level.
Image credit: MarketingProfs
Already widespread, content marketing will continue to grow. Because content marketing is increasingly essential (buyers now complete two-thirds of their purchase journey online before ever contacting a vendor) and popular (90% of B2B buyers say online content has a “moderate to major effect” on their selection process), spending on content marketing is expected to nearly double by 2019.
Here are three more key takeaways from the 22 content marketing stats and facts below:
Words today, pictures tomorrow. In B2B purchase decision making, text still rules (for now): 80% of business decision makers say they prefer to get vendor information in a series of articles, and 85% prefer text over video. But that won’t last. Already, nearly half of all B2B researchers are Millennials, and 42% of B2B searches are on mobile devices. Visual and video content will become increasing important.
Video is vital. The most popular type of video content is instructional, how-to videos; 67% of consumers want to watch these. 34% watch product and informational videos. Product videos and presentations are also the most popular types of content used by B2B marketers, in both product introduction and growth stages. Because of the popularity of online video, it’s predicted that 80% of all Internet traffic will be devoted to video by 2019.
You can’t manage what you mismeasure. There are significant disconnects between the types of content buyers want and what marketers are (too often) delivering. 75% of global business leaders say they turn to content to research complex business ideas (peer practices, business strategies) within their industries—not just product pitches. Yet more than 90% of marketers connect their content directly to a product or service, and nearly three-quarters measure content marketing success based on the number of leads generated—which causes marketers to produce even more of the types of content buyers want least.
Get more details on these insights and others in the 22 tantalizing content marketing stats and facts below.
1. 67% of the typical B2B buyer’s journey is now done digitally, and 9 out of 10 B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on their purchasing decisions. (Lenati)
2. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Stratabeat)
3. Global content marketing revenues (money generated by operators who provide content marketing services) rose 14.4% during the first half of 2015 and are expected to more than double over the next five years. Adding in-house spending to the mix, the content marketing pie is projected to expand from $144.81 billion in 2014 to $313.42 billion (+116%) by 2019 (MediaPost)
4. Content between 3,000 and 10,000 words receives the most social shares—even though publishers are producing 16 times more short-form content than long. (ClickZ)
5. The two most popular types of brand content for consumers/buyers are images (22%) and video (15%). Ebooks and white papers are least favored (at 3% each). (SocialTimes)
6. In terms of social media content produced by small-business marketers, blogging and visual assets nearly tied at 70% and 71% respectively. Just 10% of these marketers use podcasting. (Social Media Examiner)
7. Traditional digital content mediums still work best for reaching global business leaders. 85% prefer text-based articles (vs. 5% for video) for helping to make business decisions. (MarketingSherpa)
8. But that won’t last forever. Nearly half of all B2B researchers are Millennials, and already, 42% of total B2B searches are via mobile. (Branding Bricks)
9. 73% of B2B marketers use video in their content marketing. (Content Marketer)
10. Product videos and presentations are the two most popular types of content used by B2B technology marketers in both the product introduction and product growth stages. (MarketingProfs)
11. 67% of consumers want to watch instructional, how-to or tutorial videos, making this the most popular type of video content. 34% want to watch product or informational videos. (Marketing Think)
12. Every minute, YouTube users upload 300 hours of new video. (DR4WARD)
13. By 2017, video will account for 69 percent of all consumer Internet traffic, according to Cisco. (Forbes)
14. 79% of Internet traffic will be video content by 2018. (MarketingProfs)
15. By 2019, more than 50% of the world’s population will be online, and a whopping 80% of all Internet traffic will be devoted to video. (V3 Broadsuite Blog)
16. 38% of digital marketers say content marketing is one of their most effective tactics—but 42% call it one of the most difficult. (TNW News)
17. Brands spend 25%-43% of their marketing budget on content, yet only 23% of CMOs feel they are producing the right information for the right audience, and delivering it at the right time and correct format. (Business2Community)
18. 93% of brand marketers plan to maintain or increase their budget for content marketing in the coming year. Yet despite this heavy investment in content creation, less than a third believe the purpose of the brand’s content is highly understood within their organizations. (MarketingSherpa)
19. According to IDC, more than 40% of marketing materials are not used by sales teams. (e-Strategy Trends)
20. There is a significant disconnect between the content buyers want and the content marketers are creating. 75% of global business leaders say they turn to content to research complex business ideas (peer practices, business strategies) within their industries. But 93% of marketers connect their content directly to a product or service. (MarketingSherpa)
21. 85% of marketers say the primary purpose for creating content is to build brand awareness and positive company image. Yet 70% measure the effectiveness of their content by number of leads generated. By evaluating the success of content marketing strictly by leads, brands end up creating the exact type of sales-centric content that business leaders dislike. (MarketingSherpa)
22. Only 30% of B2B marketers said their organizations are effective at content marketing in 2015, down 8% from 2014. However, companies that report being clear on what success or effectiveness looks like also show a higher effectiveness rate (55%). (Forbes)
HALIFAX – A pair of Nova Scotia researchers are close to producing a “bionic” knee brace that enhances ability and reduces fatigue, and have now landed a lucrative contract to produce a beefed-up version for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Full production is expected to start this summer on the Levitation brace, which stores energy when you bend your knees and releases it as you straighten.
“It packs the power of a robotic exoskeleton, but it’s roughly one-hundredth the cost,” said Chris Cowper-Smith, the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of Spring Loaded Technology, makers of the two-pound brace.
Spring Loaded said this week it has secured $1.9 million in venture capital, as well as a military contract worth $1 million to produce a reinforced version of the consumer-grade brace at its Dartmouth plant.
The military brace will have reinforced rods to make it stronger and a knee-pad that will complement the military’s tactical gear.
“Lots of soldiers are regularly crouching and standing back up, and they often have very heavy packs on — 120 pounds. Our brace can help reduce the burden of all that weight,” said Cowper-Smith.
He said the company is also looking at producing a special brace for paratroopers, one that can withstand the high-impact stress associated with military parachute droops.
The brace, which can be worn under clothing, is made of light-weight carbon fibre. A high-strength Spectra cord extends from the bottom of the brace through a series of gears at the joint and up to a so-called liquid spring at the top.
The civilian product, to be sold for $2,500, is intended for athletes going through rehabilitation, workers needing to alleviate knee stress and fatigue and older people with worn-out knees.
Cowper-Smith and partner Bob Garrish, the company’s chief technology officer, joined together while working on their PhDs at Dalhousie University.
Cowper-Smith, studying neuroscience, and Garrish, studying mechanical engineering, were part of a program called “Starting Lean,” that brought together people from various disciplines to form teams that developed business ideas.
Both men had knee issues. Garrish suffers from osteoarthritis in both knees, and Cowper-Smith was suffering at the time from anterior knee pain, which is also known as runner’s knee.
They got the idea for the brace in late 2012.
“We talked to hundreds of surgeons and physiotherapists to see if the idea was worth pursuing and we determined it was,” Cowper-Smith said.
There are similar braces on the market, but Cowper-Smith insists Levitation is unique. He said no other brace includes a strong enough spring to actually assist when wearers extend their legs.
“We augment the power of your quadricep muscles. Other braces just provide stability … or prevent hyperextension.”
Their first investor came on board in January 2013, providing $100,000.
Other money came in from private investors, Nova Scotia’s Innova Corp., ACOA, the National Research Council and through winning a series of business model competitions.
Last June, the pair won $100,000 from the Business Development Bank of Canada through its Young Entrepreneur Award.
More recently, a one-month online fundraising campaign through Indiegogo raised more than $200,000. It finished on Thursday.
The Indiegogo site offered buyers the chance to pre-order the Levitation brace for as little as $1,149, which brought in pre-orders from 25 countries.
One of the company’s partners is Build Ventures, a Halifax-based, $65-million venture capital fund focused on Canadian tech start-ups, which has anted up $1.9 million.
“Spring Loaded Technology has the potential to revolutionize the marketplace,” Rob Barbara of Build Ventures said in a release.
The company’s plant employs 15 people, who have made hundreds of prototype braces.
“We have to make sure our production line works perfectly. We don’t want to ship out a bunch of faulty product,” said Cowper-Smith.
Spring Loaded plans to branch out to more traditional retail within the next year.
-with files from Michael MacDonald
The post Buzz building around N.S. firm’s performance-enhancing ‘bionic’ knee brace appeared first on Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News.
Sales presentations are rarely exciting events. For the person giving the presentation, it’s a terrifying time where they have to remember to say every word that comes to mind. For the people watching, it’s the time where you have to pretend not to fall asleep.
But a sales presentation done right can make a sale and it can lead to big things for your company. You need to engage your audience and make sure that your words resonate, though. There’s a reason why 80% of the sales are gained by 8% of salespeople. This guide is going to show you how to succeed.
Nothing annoys a buyer more than having to jump over unnecessary obstacles to join in the meeting. Make sure that joining an online meeting is easy. Send the link to all interested parties and allow them to watch on a platform that doesn’t require them to sign up for an account. Also, there should be no need to download anything.
Ensure that the platform has the capacity for people to come and go as they please without any friction.
There are two different ways to deliver a presentation. You can email a presentation that someone can view at their leisure or you can provide a physical, live presentation. Emailed content has to have a story all on its own. But a live presentation relies on the color and context coming from you.
With a live presentation, you don’t need to explain much before the person actually makes it to the presentation. With an emailed presentation you would explain the whole thing in vivid detail. But a live presentation should be all about leaving some mystery. Use compelling imagery to get people’s interest.
Video marketing has taken over the Internet. You can no longer do anything without including video content. With many people now using mobile devices to view content, you need to go out of your way to cater to them. The chances are your buyers will be using a tablet or smartphone to interact with you. They don’t want to read hundreds and hundreds of words.
A video can say what an entire book can say in just a few minutes of content. Presentation slides that use video instead of words are more likely to engage your audience. Add in videos personalized to that general audience to really get people going.
You use analytics for your website. You use analytics for social media. Why would you not use analytics for your presentations?
It’s unbelievable when you think about it that analytics seemingly never comes to the front when it comes to presentations. But it’s the same audience and the same principles apply to presentations as they do to content marketing. To understand what your audience wants, you have to conduct research.
If you have conducted presentations before, you can use your previous experiences to inform what happens next. Find out which parts buyers skip and what really engages them. Use the same trial and error process to produce better content.
The presentation that holds the audience’s attention always wins.
The buying process is a journey. This is a journey that everyone embarks on sooner or later. But you don’t want to repeat the same information over and over again. This tends to happen because presentations don’t take into account where people are in the buying process.
Ideally, your audience should be segmented based on where they are in their journey. If you are approaching someone for the first time, you should have a different presentation to approaching a repeat buyer about a new product.
Your target audience wants a presentation personalized to their needs. If all you are doing is repeating the same nonsense, you can’t expect them to want anything more to do with you.
So how are you going to make sure that your presentations gain results again and again?
The best salespeople learn from their mistakes. They go through their previous presentations in detail so they can find out what worked and what didn’t. They are not afraid to make mistakes. In fact, they welcome mistakes because they know they can learn from them.
If you are preparing for a presentation soon, follow these tips and you’ll be amazed at the results you come up with.
What are your biggest challenges when conducting a sales presentation online or offline?
Want more tips to crush your quota in 2016? Download the e-book with 100 sales tips.
Facebook is one of the most desirable companies for job-seekers.
Engineers are attracted to the company because it gives developers a chance to start making an impact on day one.
The company has 13,000 employees across 64 offices, and continues to scale in size and ambition. If you'd like to join Facebook's engineering team, you should start preparing now.
Job applicants will first have a phone interview with a recruiter to assess experience and interest and then have a second phone interview with an engineer that focuses on more technical questions. If those go well, the candidate will be invited to the office they're applying to, where they'll have a tour and then a coding interview.
An engineer will present the applicant with a question and then watch them work it out with a dry erase marker on a white board.
Sound intimidating? Don't worry. Software engineer Dwayne Reeves, who has worked at Facebook for four years and has helped develop its internal Hack language as well as enhance its privacy system, has shared his top tips to ace this final-stage interview in a video.
Here's what you'll need to keep in mind when you go in for your coding interview.
You will be presented with a scenario, such as that you're working on an auto-correct feature and want to take care of common mistypings of the word "hello." You'll then need to write a function that, given a string, returns all of the nonsense words someone may type.
It's important to realize that the exercise takes place on a white board in front of the interviewer, rather than in front of a computer screen by yourself, because it's meant to be interactive.
"A common mistake people make during technical interviews is thinking that asking questions is bad," Reeves said. "In fact, this couldn't be further from the truth." Scenarios will often be ambiguous, and you're encouraged to clarify as much as possible before you begin.
"Remember to think out loud," Reeves said. "How you arrive at an answer is as important as the final result."
Before you start writing your answer to the problem, explain your approach so your interviewer knows what you're trying to accomplish.
You'll generally be able to use any language you feel most comfortable in, Reeves said. The interviewer will be focusing on your reasoning abilities and attention to detail.
Plug a sample entry into your code and follow it through your commands.
"As long as you find your bug before your interviewer does, you're in good shape," Reeves said.
If there are no bugs, your interviewer will ask, "How would you go about testing this?"
Reeves said he expects all candidates to undergo edge case analysis, in which they pick extreme cases and see if the code would still work given those circumstances.
Your interviewer will ask you to analyze your code's time and space complexity, and then ask you to explain its pros and cons, as compared to alternate solutions that exist.
They want to see that you can envision multiple ways to tackle a problem and then decide which you consider best.
Even if you aced the problem, your interviewer will consider it a red flag if you've got nothing else to say. Prepare questions about Facebook's culture, work flow, and mission.
Reeves said that when he's talking to a candidate after they wrap up the coding exercise, he's "looking to see what motivates them and why they are interested in joining Facebook," because the company's hiring philosophy is that talent is a requirement to be considered, but genuine passion for the company is what gets you a job.
Here's Reeves' full video, where he breaks down the example problem in further detail:
How to Crush Your Coding InterviewPosted by Facebook Engineering on Thursday, October 30, 2014
Join the conversation about this story »
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The problem with investing in smart, connected devices like Wi-FI color-changing light bulbs, internet-enabled power strips, and wearables like Fitbits is that you need a dozen apps for them all. Stringify is an iPhone app (Android is on the way) that links all of it together. Imagine it: one app to manage them all, one app to automate them. Here’s how to set it up.
I was introduced to a new sales tool called Sales Envy about three weeks ago, and I was skeptical…until I started using it. They called it a CRM tool, a sales automation tool, and frankly I have walked away from every CRM tool I have ever used and there have been dozens of them. I am working with salespeople every day. They look at them as a burden to use, help their sales management team more than themselves and are clumsy and difficult to use.
After three weeks of using Sales Envy, I now have a tool that I can actually use myself. I actually enjoy using it and the results have already been noticeable.
After my own experience I wanted to get this in front of every sales organization I could. I have partnered with the creator of Sales Envy and colleague Mark Thompson for a very limited promotion that is unheard of in our business, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Check out these features:
Sales Envy integrates the advances in tech to provide all of the key components that I need in my selling efforts and do it from one app, on my Windows PC. I make outbound calls, record those that require it, send follow up emails, schedule appointments in my calendar, set reminders and manage my overall pipeline.
My entire setup process was less than twenty minutes, without a manual, and I have been using it ever since. I have uploaded my customer and prospect lists, and am working with them all day, every day since I installed the software.
I encourage you to explore Sales Envy and learn about the limited 7 day special offer I have negotiated for Fill the Funnel readers.
One of the many reasons I am so positive about this is that a lot of sales people work in small companies or are independent contractors. Up until now, there have been limited options for an individual salesperson to have a powerful CRM application that they can install themselves. This solves that problem.
Check out Sales Envy and let me know if you pick up a license.This is usually sold as a monthly subscription, but for the next seven days, you can grab a copy for a one-time fee that is over 80% off. Feel free to share this with your sales friends but do it quickly because the special price is only for a few days. For this price, you’d be crazy not to grab a personal copy, or a license for your whole team before the lifetime option goes away and the pricing goes back up to a monthly subscription.
I already have a group of insiders from my newsletter subscribers that got access and we are talking about a live web training and orientation session so everyone can learn tips and tricks. So if you pick up a copy send me an email to let me know and I will make sure to include you when we get that scheduled.
Original article: New Sales Tool Completely Changed My Experience
©2016 Fill the Funnel. All Rights Reserved.
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Medical Professionals Using The Cloud The presence and value of Cloud tools have seeped into virtually every industry, and the medical profession is certainly no exception. However, because of the special rules regarding patient privacy, specifically those found in HIPAA, people handling patient information must follow specific guidelines that in many cases, are violated by […]
This post Medical Professionals Face Unique Challenges Using The Cloud appeared first on CloudTweaks Connected CloudTweaks.com.
How great would it be if customers showed up in your store or on your website with a sandwich board on their shoulders, advertising their level of interest in what you have to offer.
“I’m keen to buy now!”
“I’m in research mode.”
“I’m totally just browsing.”
Well it might not be a sandwich board, but there are some ways get a good sense for this buyer intent.
Today’s marketing specialists have a great grasp on sales funnels, the way that customers move from awareness to purchase (and beyond). These funnels cover all the different touch points, marketing channels, and key metrics that go into a buying decision and help you have a better sense for what messaging and content makes the most sense at different points of the customer’s journey.
And the big question on our minds at Buffer: Where does social media fit within this sales funnel?
We’ve got some thoughts on this, as well as some examples and steps to help you build your own sales funnel, with a clear social media focus.
Let’s get started.
You’ve maybe seen the traditional sales funnel: an inverted pyramid that gets narrower and narrower the closer you get to the sale. Here’s a typical example, from the Impact blog:
And here’s a streamlined (and sideways) variation from McKinsey & Company:
So where does social media fit in these funnels?
In my experience, social media has typically appeared at the top, at the exact polar opposite from the sale. Maybe it’s no wonder then that bosses, clients, and teams have a difficult time being fully on board with prioritizing social as a channel. According to the funnel, you don’t make your money from social — at least, not directly.
Unless …
Maybe it’s not as cut-and-dry that social is always top-of-funnel?
Maybe it’s not as cut-and-dry that there even is a funnel!
Some of these thoughts have a bit of data behind them, thanks to an exploration from McKinsey & Company where they analyzed more than 20,000 customers and how they experienced the sales funnel. McKinsey & Company found that the funnel might be more of a circle.
The funnel concept fails to capture all the touch points and key buying factors resulting from the explosion of product choices and digital channels, coupled with the emergence of an increasingly discerning, well-informed consumer.
This leads to four primary phases of the circular buyer journey:
Even here, while there is less of a top-down approach in this model, still social media primarily appears only at the beginning, in the Initial Consideration phase.
How does this jive with your experience with social?
For us, we’ve observed a slightly different take on things, both with where social media fits within the funnel and possibly with social media having a funnel of its very own. I’d love to share more.
We believe that social media doesn’t always have to be top of funnel. Or that there even is a funnel!
We’ve seen plenty of social media strategies that bring traffic into the top of the funnel, and we’ve personally tried plenty of others that fit in the middle (social media customer service, AMAs and live chats, etc.) …
… and even some that fit at the bottom (things like the Pinterest Buy button, for instance).
From what we’ve seen, there are just so many different types of interactions on social media that it’s hard to pigeonhole social into any particular element of the funnel.
Social media covers the full spectrum of the buying process, everything from awareness all the way through to advocacy.
And what’s more, we’ve seen that social media has its very own funnel.
Everything on this spectrum from viewing a profile to selling a product can happen with social media. Just as a user moves through from awareness to interest to engagement and beyond, so too does a social media lead go from viewing to following to interacting to buying.
What does this mean for the traditional funnel?
Well it’s certainly still a valuable exercise to think through the buyer’s journey (more on those exercises below). At the same time, it might feel great to recognize that your customers — especially those from social media — are taking a less-and-less linear journey toward closing the deal.
We feel there is no one right way to make a funnel. Every brand is different, and every potential buyer’s journey is unique.
It can still be useful to examine and reflect on how customers become customers and how your marketing efforts helped them get there. One of the most helpful series of questions that I’ve come across is this set from Eric Siu. Reflecting on each different stage of the buyer’s journey, he asks:
Answering these questions will go a long way toward settling in with a uniquely “you” sales funnel. Here are a few options for getting a very official or unofficial funnel in place.
“Here’s the blueprint for making a funnel”
The above graphic from Visual Website Optimizer makes for a pretty standard-looking sales funnel.
Strangers → Visitors → Leads → Customers → Promoters
Attract → Convert → Close
It’s been said any number of additional ways, too: Awareness → Consideration → Decision; Acquisition → Activation → Absorption; TOFU→ MOFU→ BOFU; etc. And it turns out that different customers progress through these stages in different ways, perhaps starting at the top and working down (classic) or jumping back and forth between stages (unorthodox).
The traditional sales funnel process starts with an understanding of your buyers.
Then it transitions into choosing the different parts of your funnel (the TOFU, MOFU, BOFU parts above).
Then you can determine the content, both based on the type of buyer you have in mind …
Analytical thinkers appreciate having all the facts, and will read thoroughly to get them. Whitepapers, use cases and case studies are great for these buyers.
Impulsive buyers don’t want to read everything – they just need the gist, preferably in bullet-points.
… and the location in the funnel.
TOFU
MOFU
BOFU
The different KPIs for each section will help you determine how customers are interacting with your content within the funnel, what’s working and what’s not. In general, the following KPIs tend to make for great choices at different stages:
TOFU
MOFU
BOFU
And when it comes to analyzing this data to see what works, one great way to further evaluate is with a matrix of the types of visitors, leads, and customers you’ve been able to pull in.
Here’s a matrix from Eric Siu’s article:
Low interest and low fit – The leads don’t meet your company’s target criteria and are unlikely to make a move soon. A common example of these types of leads is the low level employee who’s browsing solutions out of curiosity, not an immediate need.
High interest and low fit – These MQLs are often people who are searching for a solution, but are unlikely to ultimately go with yours. If, for example, you sell a cloud-based software program and the prospect will clearly be more comfortable with a desktop solution, you could be dealing with this type of MQL.
Low interest and high fit – Typically, these leads closely resemble your target customer, but aren’t actively seeking solutions. Even though they may not be a good fit right away, it may still be worth pursuing them to create brand awareness that will pay off down the road when their need becomes apparent.
High interest and high fit – These MQLs are the “sweet spot” of people who are actively seeking your type of solution and are likely to convert to buyers. These leads should be the highest priority of your sales team.
“There is no funnel!”
or
We take a lot of inspiration from our friends at MailChimp, who came up with the idea of an upside down funnel.
I could also see it being the case that some companies might not want to have any funnel whatsoever.
A couple years ago, there was an interesting article on Harvard Business Review talking about how the funnel is no longer an accurate way to describe a buyer’s journey. And I have the sense that things have only become more muddied with online marketing in the two years since!
Consider items that come recommended on an e-commerce site. With a click you can add them to your cart, moving straight from awareness through consideration to purchase in only a few seconds. The same holds true on items discovered in a Tweet, Facebook post, or Pinterest board.
In both B2B and B2C businesses, customers are doing their own research both online and with their colleagues and friends. Prospects are walking themselves through the funnel, then walking in the door ready to buy.
In this way, there really is no traditional funnel. Everyone’s journey is unique.
And the takeaway for marketers is to simply keep on doing what you’re doing. Find what’s working well and double down, without thinking too much about how the funnel is supposed to look.
“A funnel exists. Let’s not get too crazy about it.”
Many thanks to Social Media Examiner for this idea; I found their guide on the social media sales funnel to be wonderfully concise and easy to follow, like a minimalist’s version of a funnel.
There’s not a lot of heavy lifting to get set up. Here’s how to get started:
Start by making a list of all the different social media marketing channels you’ve currently got going on.
In our case at Buffer, this would be something like:
Then figure out what one goal each of these have, relative to some of the aspects of a buyer’s journey. I’ll use the “Acquisition > Activation > Absorption” method.
Once these categories are in place, you then add your key stats to each area so that you can monitor the success and performance of each. This’ll be critical later on when you come back to analyze your tests and experiments.
Here’s an example of what the finished product might look like for us at Buffer:
Interested in making your own? You can grab a free Canva template here.
Once the sales funnel is in place (or, never mind if you’re working from the contrarian model), now comes my favorite part: Testing!
Knowing the KPIs for each channel and section of your funnel makes it super simple to run experiments and see what works. We’re big fans of the Brian Balfour growth machine here at Buffer. There’re a ton of other frameworks that might be helpful, too.
Some of my favorite tips on what to try come down to the different types of materials to test at different stages of the funnel.
Susan Su of 500 Startups has some awesome ideas here, especially. These are a few favorites:
Keep in mind that most ppl buy on the backend:
– capture emails w/ clear CTA + offer
– send clicks to a targeted landing page
– welcome / activation messages that are offer- and landing-page specific
and
Increasing conversion rates from 0.9% to 1.1% doesn’t matter if only 100 people come to ur site every day.
Much more important is getting 1,000 people (OR TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE) in the top of ur funnel every day.
If ur early, aim to 3X ur One Metric That Matters. U can always micro-optimize later.
and
Use lead magnets (special offer in exchange for email, more info or addnl engagement) that are tailored to each stage of your conversion funnel.
1. TOFU (top of funnel) – convert visitors into leads.
– cheat sheet or checklist
2. MOFU (middle of funnel) – separate true leads from mildly interested prospects
– white papers or case studies
3. BOFU (bottom of funnel) – CONVERT.
– trial offer or promo
As you can see, there are huge number of ways to think about sales funnels — if you want to think about them at all!
I’m excited to say that you can pursue any of these paths you want, whatever makes the most sense for you and your brand.
What do you currently have in place? What might you try out?
I’d love the chance to learn a bit more from you. Feel free to leave a comment below or drop me a note on Twitter. Thanks a million for reading!
Image sources: Pablo, VWO, Impact, McKinsey, SME, Iconfinder
