Working in the non-profit field can sometimes make you feel like an athlete. Your coach (or immediate supervisor) is calling the plays. The fans of your team (or donors, volunteers, and members) are yelling at you from the sidelines on what they think you need to do. Your teammates (fellow co-workers) have their own opinion on strategy and if not following the play as outlined by the coach, might try to take you down a different path. And, as the athlete, you have your own perspective of what you need to do. With so many voices coming at you from many directions, who do you listen to?

This has been a dilemma we all face as we grow through our professional career. Early in my career, I hung on the words of my immediate supervisor because let’s face it, none of us want to get into trouble by not listening to our supervisor with the fear of losing our employment. But those voices… they grow larger over time and as you grow professionally, you look towards those other voices for advice and guidance.

But, which voices should you listen to and which voices should you ignore?

I have a litmus test for the advice people give me. It isn’t a perfect test, but it works for me most of the time and additionally, I am not shy about sharing this litmus test with people who throw ideas my way. It goes, basically, like this:

1. Is the idea mission-related?

It seems pretty straight forward. If the idea doesn’t fall in line with your mission or advance/promote your mission, why would you consider doing it? But, inevitably, what can happen, and usually does, is that a major donor, board member or key volunteer has an idea and we feel obliged to implement their idea. Instead, what we should be doing is listening to their idea and asking them, “How do you feel that this fits with our mission?”

2. Do we have the time to make it happen?

After we determine that the idea is mission-related, we need to start looking at the feasibility of implementation in terms of manpower. How much staff time will this take? If we have a volunteer run with it, how much staff oversight will be required?

3. Do we have the financial resources to make it happen?

After we determine that the idea is mission-related and that we have the manpower to implement the idea, now we have to look at the money. How much will this idea cost the organization? Is there a revenue stream that will offset some of these costs?

If you determine that the idea is mission-related, you have the time, and you have the financial resources to make it happen, then start going down the road of moving forward with the idea. However, if you say that the idea is mission-related and you have the time, but you do not have the financial resources, you have to ask one last question:

4. Is it worth raising the capital or securing the donations to bring the idea to life?

What I like about this strategy is that it allows me to be very transparent in terms of how I make decisions for the organization. I can have open discussions with the people bringing these ideas to me and run them through the litmus test with the them.

One of the hardest things to do is to tell someone important to your organization that while their idea has merit, it doesn’t align with what we are working to accomplish. But leadership isn’t about saying yes to every idea that comes your way, leadership is about making decisions that keep your organization or business focused. And, just because I tell you “no” it doesn’t mean that I don’t like or admire your idea, it just means that it isn’t a good fit for us at this time.

Imagine spending months writing a novel and having an esteemed journalist for the New York Times review your book. You are a nervous wreck waiting for the criticism or praise. After several weeks, you finally get a hand written letter from the writer stating that it is a masterpiece and one of the greatest books he has reviewed.

There is one problem though. The New York Times writer will not go public with the review since he is retiring in two weeks. You know you have a masterpiece since this journalist is one of the harshest critics, but how are you going to promote it now?

Would you be upset if you wrote one of the greatest novels of all time but couldn’t get anybody to read it? You better believe it!

This is an issue that exists with social media marketers in 2015. Users are creating great content but nobody is seeing it unless a solid strategy is in place to promote it.

The decline of Facebook organic reach

One of the reasons for the lack of reach is the decline of organic posts for businesses on Facebook. Nonprofits have even referred to the Facebook organic decline as “Catastrophic” as their newsfeed visibility vanishes.

Here is a chart from everything-pr.com showing the big impact of the decline in Facebook organic reach.

Facebook has the potential to be a great source of web traffic for your business that can increase brand awareness and generate leads. If you have the extra change in your pocket, start investing $10 per week onto this social channel; otherwise, nobody will see your masterpiece!

Below are 10 reasons why you should start shelling out $10 per week for Facebook advertising.

1. More traffic to your website

It is one thing to get great interaction on your Facebook page after posting a picture of a cute dog. It is a completely different ballgame when you can drive high quality traffic to your site from social efforts.

According to Facebook, pages organically reach about 16 percent of their fans on average.

A boosted post will hit a lot more of your followers along with their friends.

When you boost a Facebook and do it in a clever way to draw people to your website, there is also the potential that people will share your message, which will result in a greater reach.

MGM Resorts was able to accomplish amazing results by driving people to its website through Facebook advertising.

• Over five times return on ad spend using Custom Audiences targeting its customers on Facebook.
• Four times return on ad spend using lookalike audiences.
• Three times return on ad spend using Facebook Offers.
• Fifteen times return on ad spend using Facebook Exchange.
• Two fans acquired organically for every fan gained through Facebook media.

If your goal is to generate website traffic, there will be an option to “Drive Traffic to Your Website” in Facebook’s advertising portal and they will optimize the campaign to get more people to your site.

Without a Facebook advertising campaign in place, MGM would have never achieved such great success on social.

2. High quality traffic

With Facebook’s advanced targeting options, you have the capability to drive people to your website who will be interested in your product or services.

If you own a baby clothing retailer, promote the posts and target mothers with children ages 0-2 years old, your exact demographic.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Find your target demographic; create compelling content and start to see the high quality traffic flood into your website. Just like the Peter F. Drucker quote mentioned about, you need to understand the customer so well that the Facebook advertisement will seem native within his or her newsfeed.

Gauge Google Analytics to determine how long the user is staying on your site and set-up conversion tracking on Facebook to see if they reach the end goal. If you can’t get the user to stay on your site for a long period of time or generate a conversion based off of your goals, it is time to go back to the drawing board.

High quality traffic on Facebook would be tough to come by for a business if they are not promoting a post for at least $10.

3. No more wasted time

Does it make sense for a company to hire a social media specialist for $40,000 to create compelling social content and give this person a $0 advertising budget? Absolutely not, this will result in a disastrous hire.

The biggest mistake we see businesses make is they invest in the resources to create the content but there is no strategy or money behind it.

With a $10 weekly budget, you can test what works and what doesn’t work on Facebook. You won’t be like this guy who wasted $600,000 on Facebook advertising. If your advertisement fails, it is only $10 down the drain.

Once you start to see success with the small budget, you can always increase the budget if there are positive results.

Create a compelling strategy and promote one post per week for $10. Take notes of what works and what doesn’t work and continue to tinker with your campaign until you have found success!

4. More exposure

We ran an experiment where we made two similar posts on Facebook…One post had a $10 budget behind it and the other received no promotion at all. The promoted post, which targeted Facebook “Likes” of a specific page and their friends, reached 146 times the amount of people!

The messaging was literally identical and the small budget behind the post was a game changer.

There have been claims where the organic reach on Facebook only reaches two percent of fans. Even more reason to start boosting your posts for $10!

Please tell me how you can invest $10 more wisely when it comes to advertising than to reach 146 people with a message instead of one? I think you’ll be hard pressed to do so on a shoestring budget.

5. Social shares

I’m sure you have all heard the saying, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, on social media, there kind of is!

According to Kiss Metrics, more than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month. When you start advertising your content, you can get in on the sharing fun! With a greater reach and more visibility, your brand will start to receive more exposure in the news feed and more people will share your content (if it is compelling).

The beauty of social media is the sharing element. If you have great content and put some money behind it, the possibilities are endless. The larger your audience, the greater likelihood there will be for more social shares.

6. More sales

Some people might have a simple goal of driving more traffic to a blog while others might go more in-depth trying to generate sales form social. If you have fans on your page that are already brand advocates, if you promote a post to this audience for $10, the majority will see the message and if the offer is good, make a purchase.

MGM saw a three time return on ad spend using Facebook advertising. Even though they are a large brand, they made a great offer to a defined audience and reaped the benefits.

Before diving into creating a sale, Facebook offers great tips on defining your goals, measuring your ads, tracking conversions and creative tips.

After you pondered all of the objectives for your campaign, try promoting an irresistible special offer to just your Facebook fans for $10 and start tracking the sales. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results if you execute the strategy properly.

7. Better content

Focus on promoting just one piece of content per week. You need to make sure this Facebook post is darn good so you get the best bang for your buck. Instead of making seven mediocre posts over the course of the week, if you put all of your energy into one post and promote it so it can gain some traction, you will see much better results.

Avinash Kaushik, the author of Web Analytics 2.0, stated that, “content is anything that adds value to the readers life”.

Take this quote to heart when you are targeting a specific audience on Facebook.

8. Landing pages

When you are promoting a post for $10, ask yourself how are you going to capture the lead so they either make a purchase or enter their contact information that you will have for future marketing purposes.

Signing up for a service like ShortStack, Unbounce or Lead Pages is a great way to create custom landing pages that will relate to your advertising copy.

According to Unbounce, only 44 percent of companies use split testing software when it comes to advertising. If you truly want to capitalize on your paid traffic from Facebook, start creating landing pages where you can send the traffic to!

9. More chatter

What happens when your Facebook posts reach more people and start to get shared by your audience? More people will talk about your brand! Just look at the comments the next time you make a $10 promoted post.

Businesses can actually improve conversion rates by replying to comments. This was a feature that was added by Facebook in May of 2013.

Prompt the users to answer a question and you will be thrilled with the response compared to an organic post.

10. More fun

Social media marketing is fun! But there is nothing worse than thinking of a great idea for a social campaign and nobody recognizing it.

If you are a Facebook marketer, I can GUARANTEE you will be more fulfilled with your marketing efforts if you start advertising with at least $10 per week. Try boosting a post compared to trying to generate organic social chatter. With gas prices being low and consumers saving money at the pump, investing into social media marketing can be a great way to increase your business!

Don’t be like the author with the great book that nobody ever read. Start promoting at least one Facebook post per week for $10 and you will start to see a drastic difference in your social marketing efforts.

Entrepreneurs are often told that they shouldn’t take no for an answer—and not just entrepreneurs. If you’ve ever worked in sales, you know that no is most typically interpreted as try again later. Accepting an answer of no is seen as a sign of weakness, or at the very least a certain lack of tenacity.

But sometimes, no really is the right and final answer—and recognizing it as such can be helpful and valuable in its own right.

Interpreting a No

The tricky thing for entrepreneurs is recognizing when no is really a no, and when it’s best to push your luck. It can be helpful to consider the reasons why someone in your business circle might tell you no. Often, it’s seen as the simplest and safest answer. You might ask a supplier or a vendor to help you with something, and the answer might come back as a no because the vendor or supplier simply doesn’t want to go out on a limb to help you with an ambitious project.

But that no may not be definitive. What you’re asking for may be wholly possible—and frankly, the best vendors are going to be the ones who will say yes even if they don’t necessarily see how the thing can be done. When there is a willingness to collaborate toward a yes, rather than dismiss an idea without even trying, that’s when entrepreneurs find their worlds opened up to all kinds of creative ideas.

How Informed is the No?

Something else to consider: Exactly how well informed is the no answer you receive? When you ask for something and the no is immediate, that suggests that not a lot of effort has been put into thinking through the different options and opportunities—so really, why should you accept no for an answer?

But what if you ask for something to be done, and after a day or two you receive a thorough report detailing the reasons why your request simply isn’t feasible? This isn’t a cowardly or a casual no. This is a thoughtful one—so maybe it’s best to just accept it. It can be disappointing, yet that no can also have value. It gives you resolution, and allows you to move on to the next thing rather than getting hung up on something that really might not be possible.

There may also come instances in which a no constitutes simple unwillingness—an unwillingness that is definitive and final. Sometimes a customer or a sales prospect will tell you no, and you need to accept it and move on rather than waste your time. It’s not about throwing in the towel, or wimping out. It’s about being reasonable and making the best use of your time.

And again: That’s the value in a no answer. A no always gives you information to work with, and in some cases even a sense of resolution. You just have to be careful in how you interpret the no answers you receive.

Repurposing is a key strategy of the lean content marketing methodology. Megan Marrs has 11 interesting best practices and ideas on how to repurpose content efficiently in this great post which made me want to elaborate on this topic.

So here’s the take of several other content marketing experts on the value of repurposing content, a cheat sheet that summarizes key ideas to repurpose content (Megan’s 11 plus 4 others I added) as well as the ROI analysis of two of our own experiment with content repurposing.

What top marketing experts say about repurposing content

Mark Schaefer

Social Media Author & Consultant, Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer) practices content repurposing himself and highlighted key benefits from the point of view of SMBs in our latest our lean content marketing handbook for SMBs:

“In my small business, I have many old blog posts that still have valuable ideas. I can “re-use” this basic content a number of ways, including: 

• Assembling several posts into a free eBook or whitepaper
• Using the base content as a guest post on another site
• Designing a Slideshare presentation based on the content
• Narrating those slides, recording it, and posting it as a YouTube video
• After a year or so, re-writing the original ideas into a new post
• Using the posts as chapter in a book or customer guide

Re-purposing content can give you a powerful return on your original investment.”

Rebecca Lieb

Altimeter’s analyst Rebecca Lieb (@lieblink) uses the now famous Thanksgiving turkey analogy to get you thinking about content repurposing.

“You cook up this giant bird to serve up on one glorious occasion and then proceed to slice and dice this thing for weeks on end. If you are like most families you are going to be repurposing this bird as leftovers for quite some time creating everything from sandwiches, to soups, and more. Your content marketing strategy can be thought of in the same way.”

Lee Odden

The CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, Lee Odden (@leeodden), is a big advocate of repurposing content. He not only recommends to do it but to design your content in a modular way in order to facilitate the repurposing process.

“With normal content repurposing, you go from a collection of ideas in a larger content object and then break that collection down into smaller ideas, remix and reimagine them to create other smaller content objects.  What I’m suggesting is that you try the reverse.

Curation of micro-content is easy, provides useful information to your target audience and can fit within a social content workflow designed to roll up to a larger content project.”

Jason Miller

LinkedIn’s Content Marketing rock star Jason Miller (@jasonmillerca) applies content repurposing to his “big rock” concept that he defines as:

“[Repurposing] can be taken a step further and applied to what I refer to as “Big Rock” pieces of content, or a content “Stake in the Ground.” The current trend in content marketing is to develop an all-encompassing guide incorporating your top keywords or topics and written strategically instead of instructionally.” 

“Imagine the pieces and parts you can pull out of a “Big Rock” piece of content such as this and remember that this is the foundation that is going to fuel your campaigns for quite some time.“, he adds citing the example of ebooks he created while at Marketo that were repurposed into 15 blogs, two infographics, two webinars, two videos, two slideshares, etc…

Erika Heald

Erika Heald (@SFerika), the head of social media and content marketing at Anaplan, doesn’t want your content to be lazy:

“Make all your content work double or triple duty. That great content you shared on social can be aggregated with other snippets on the same topic to create a round-up blog post, a SlideShare, or even build out side bars in your longer-form content.”

15 Efficient Ideas To Repurpose Content for Marketing ROI

I like to summarize things visually so here’s what I drafted as a cheat sheet for my own use that you hopefully will find useful to:

Does repurposed content perform equally well?

One of the best things I found about repurposing is it’s easy to experiment with. On our end, at Scoop.it we’ve been repurposing a lot of content so we’ve collected many data points on how efficient this can be. Let me go into a couple of examples and lessons learned.

• Repurposing blog content to SlideShare

In this post last year, we shared a number of lessons we learned on using SlideShare as a sort of visual blog. Among the many things we tried, we repurposed blog content in the form of a visual presentation and measured how it performed compared to original slideshares. Here’s what we found:

That’s right: our repurposed content performed equally well as original SlideShares that took much much longer to create (about 5 to 10x longer).

• Repurposing blog content into an ebook

This is one of the most common repurposing technique and we’ve tried too, like many other content marketers for our latest guide: ROI or RIP: The Lean Content Marketing Handbook for SMBs.

Is it meta to use content repurposing to create a guide recommending lean content marketing techniques that include content repurposing?

Yes.

But we’re shameless about it and more importantly, it worked:

Of course, this 88 page ebook contains a lot of original content:

• new content we created specifically for it;
• new content 15 of the world’s top influencers kindly contributed to (we’re also big believers in participation marketing);

But we also repurposed a number of our most successful blog posts as we felt they belonged there and not everybody had seen them – in particular not in the context of a guide that takes marketers from A to Z on the topic of lean content marketing.

Overall, we were able to produce a much longer ebook than the previous one – a “big rock” as Jason would say or a turkey as Rebecca does – for about the same time investment as the previous ones we had published. And as of today, it’s already performing better.

So over to you now: have you practiced content repurposing? Have you measured comparable results? What would be your best practices when repurposing content?

For more lean content marketing tips from Mark Schaefer, Rebecca Lieb, Lee Odden, Jason Miller, Erika Heald on many other inspiring content marketing influencers, download our free ebook.

The other day, I was browsing through LinkedIn (something I do at least once a day, for various reasons). I came upon this post from Dustin McKisson, vice president at something called First Resource.

It’s a familiar story.

Person starts publishing on LinkedIn out of curiousity. Person published one story that nets thousands of hits. Ego is stroked. They publish more. And more. Until, they are basically blogging on LinkedIn, as I like to call it.

And, most importantly, these folks who are publishing on LinkedIn are seeing real business opportunities, as a result.

Sure, there’s no direct line of sight to ROI. There’s no links to sign-up forms. No e-newsletter sub links. Nothing like that. After all, that’s what blogs are for, right?

But, I’ve heard this same story over and over again for the better part of the last six to eight months.

I heard it from Shel Holtz the other day on our Talking Points Podcast. Shel made a great post in February defending the internal/employee communications function. On his blog, the post had 7 comments, 29 likes, and 92 retweets. Not bad, but nothing crazy for a guy like Shel who’s been blogging for years and who is widely considered a thought leader in our industry.

Then he cross-posted to LinkedIn. There the post garnered 1,247 views, 126 likes, and 24 comments. Not bad.

Again, this isn’t a new story.

So, why aren’t we seeing more company leaders using LinkedIn publishing as a tool to drive awareness and leads for organizations?

We’ve seen a few–notably a lot of “LinkedIn Influencers” (I blogged about this before).

And, after Target CMO Jeff Jones brilliantly used LinkedIn publishing to share the company’s perspective on a culture-issue last year, I really thought we’d see more.

But we really haven’t. And that perplexes me.

Clearly, LinkedIn publishing is a tool that holds great value and promise for people that use if often and well.

Clearly, it can lead to developing new relationships and nurturing existing ones (think: employees for company leaders).

Clearly, it can also lead to new business. After all, LinkedIn is still THE social network for the business world.

Yet still, many leaders aren’t publishing that often.

My hunch: Three factors are at play.

1: Time. Most company leaders simply don’t have the time. That’s legit. But who said they have to write the posts? Corporate communicators have been penning memos and messages from company leaders for YEARS. How is this any different? I mean, what are the chances Jeff Jones wrote that message last year all on his own? (I’ll take that one–nil and none).

2: Skepticism. Despite the stories I hear, and the stats from LinkedIn, I still think leaders have a healthy dose of skepticism about the platform and tool. And, despite anecdotal claims that it can lead to business, I’m sure ROI is an issue. It’s hard to measure. Sure, I can look at those impression/like/comment stats. And those are great. But, is it going to move the business needle? That’s what leaders are probably wondering.

3: No/Limited LinkedIn profile. The sad reality is many corporate leaders (especially at the C-level) don’t even have a viable LinkedIn profile. Brian Cornell, new CEO at Target? No profile. Doug McMillion, CEO at Walmart? A ghost of a profile. Mark Fields, CEO at Ford Motor Company? No profile. Now, I know we’re talking about the biggest of the biggest companies, but you see similar results at lower levels. Pretty tough to publish on LinkedIn when you don’t even have a profile.

I’m hopeful we’ll see corporate leaders use LinkedIn publishing more in the year ahead. I continue to think there’s a HUGE opportunity here from a recruiting and retention. But, other opportunities exist from a business perspective. Think about Walmart’s recent news on wage increases. Wouldn’t that have been a perfect opportunity for Doug McMillon to share that news on LinkedIn (especially since they so deftly used a create integrated model to share that news)? It would have–if he had a LinkedIn profile. See #3 above.

Guess we have a ways to go…

Gig worker startups such as Uber, Homejoy, and Instacart have taken the world by storm. But as companies employing this model continue to scale, they are discovering that managing large, independent workforces requires competencies beyond building software.

Having grown up in the direct sales industry, first as a sales manager at Dupree and then in my own startup, I’ve wondered why these startups have not adopted the successful worker retention strategies that companies like Avon, Tupperware, and Amway have employed for decades. While these types of businesses may seem like dated pyramid schemes to many, in 2013 they accounted for record high industry sales in the USA of $32.67 billion, representing 16.8 million 1099 workers and a 2.5 percent YoY growth rate over the past four years.

What is the secret sauce that has enabled these businesses to remain relevant so long?

Two Products

Ask any direct sales executive what they sell, and they’ll tell you they have two products: the products in their catalog, and the business opportunity of joining their company. This is because in this industry, sales rise concurrently with the number of workers joining the business opportunity and selling product. Knowing this, direct sales companies have put workers at the center of their business model.

Gig worker companies have a different model. Their primary challenge tends to be attracting the customer demand side of their business directly from HQ, and as a result, contractor earnings and relations are often left as an afterthought rather than being used to create the most end-user value possible.

In the long term, as these companies continue to grow to IPO levels, high levels of churn and dissatisfaction among workers will make it difficult to retain a talent pool that can provide quality service at scale economically.

The Key to Retention

The difference between what one expects when joining an income opportunity vs. what one experiences has been statistically proven to be the key controllable driver behind retention. What this means is that it’s not necessarily how hard a job is or how much you earn that makes a difference in whether you stay, but instead, it’s about how your expectations when joining a job match your on-the-job experience.

In practical terms, this insight translates into two key best practices for 1099 worker retention.

1. Start with the equation

In direct sales, every decision related to the salesforce is usually aimed at increasing income and incentives opportunities while reducing time and effort required by the salesforce.

Income + Incentives > Time + Effort

The rule of thumb for a healthy direct sales business opportunity is earnings of $25/hr. This, of course, takes into account hidden costs, like the time required to get to customers and fulfill orders, and is why you see companies selling high margin, repeat purchase nutritional and cosmetics products with subscriber or collectible sales models baked in.

2. Support their dream

Perhaps most importantly, for sellers who want to put more time and effort into an opportunity, the number one selling point of direct sales is “the dream” that you can earn recurring revenue in the future by earning commission on others that you recruit to sell for your company.

This is why, when you join a direct sales opportunity, company reps explicitly ask you what your dream is, and according to this, provide weekly goals and targets for your first 90 days. Supporting this are complex compensation plans and social support systems crafted to encourage behaviors that align with the company and provide a path forward, including generous use of cheap but effective incentives like prizes and verbal recognition.

Applying Best Practices

Although these best practices are universally applicable, how each gig economy company implements them depends on the operating margins they are able to generate. Via product innovations that increase worker utilization and customer willingness to pay, companies in the gig worker economy can provide worthwhile earnings opportunities for their workers. Those that enable people to earn and build towards a better future for themselves will be the ones that last beyond the hype.

Jonathan Friedman is a Partner at LionBird, an early-stage fund investing in digital health, commerce, and enterprise software. He blogs at Venture Capital Point of View.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma is standing his ground. The man who famously said “competition is for fun” and that he wanted to “win eBay, buy Yahoo and stop Google” is trying to position his Chinese e-commerce platform as the best in the world.

But given the recent challenge from competitor Wanda E-commerce, it might be time for Ma to take competition a little more seriously. After all, Wanda recently raised $161 million in funding, and it has the potential to seriously threaten Alibaba’s market position.

If your small business takes Ma’s laissez-faire approach to competition, you could find yourself overtaken by rivals. When competitors start to knock at your market’s door, you better be ready for the challenge.

The first step is to identify and assess your competition to determine how you’ll come out on top. Here are six categories you should analyze:

1. Motivation

The first step is learning your main competitor’s motivation, or its “why.” Why is it in business, and what is the main goal?

Once you’ve figured that out, you can determine if your competitor is living up to its lofty aspirations. You should also assess how (if at all) its value proposition differs from yours. Then determine if it’s a compelling, attractive proposition.

2. Revenue

This one is key. What are your competitor’s main sources of revenue and profitability? How does it make its money, and why is it successful?

The answers to these questions should dictate your response. You can either copy its methods or try to stay one step ahead. You’ll make money either way, but you’ll have to anticipate your competitor’s tactics or quickly innovate to continue to lead the market.

3. Relationships

Companies need strong relationships to grow. Look into your competitor’s relationships with customers, clients, vendors and more.

How rich is its social capital? Are these relationships making a difference? To monitor these relationships, you’ll need to connect with customers and tap into as many sources as possible.

4. Reputation

How do stakeholders, employees and customers perceive your competitor? Compare that perception to the way people respond to your brand. Is your competitor’s customer service better? Does the brand have a loyal following? Why?

5. Resilience

The way your company handles conflict says a lot about your strengths. But how does your competitor manage crises or threats to its reputation? Does it anticipate customer needs and trends?

You can learn a lot from gauging your competitor’s resilience. It might even help you be more aware of marketing dynamics, local nuances and global trends.

6. Rousers

Rousers are the talented individuals who get the most out of their teams. Who are your competitor’s rousers? How do they get employees on board with the company vision? Do you have rousers in your company?

Ma views competition as a positive thing, and he’s right! It pushes your business to be unique and more relevant. Then again, it can also push you out of the market if you don’t respond appropriately to secure your position.

If you’re alone in your niche or market, relax and enjoy the ride (but don’t get too complacent). Otherwise, you better be fit and ready to compete. A big part of that preparation involves asking the right questions so you can assess your competitors. When you know a competitor inside and out, you can counter with a winning strategy.

In the late nineties, technology was first introduced to the world of sales, but it did little to shake up the tie-wearing, briefcase carrying industry. Recently, however, we’ve seen a rapid transformation occur… an upsurge in sales acceleration technologies.

Why is that? What makes “now” the right time for technology to spur the selling industry?

We think we know the answer. We didn’t come up with it ourselves. The experts weighed in on the popular Sales Hacker LinkedIn group.

Let’s take a look at a few elements that have contributed to this perfect storm, making technology and sales ripe for a union.

Sellers and CEOs of today’s companies are millennials (and you know what they’re good at…technology.) From networking to news to finances — millennials do it all with technology! Having spent the majority of their short lives using it to communicate, they find it easier to close a deal with phone, email, or video rather than their three wood.

Sales leaders have come to realize the benefits of using technology. With increased technology comes a rise in efficiency and productivity, while unnecessary expenses decrease. The days of sales reps taking cross-country trips, expensing meals and happy hours, and wining and dining their prospects are few and far between. If sales reps can be as effective and persuasive in the office, then why spend hundreds of dollars to fly them across the country to play 18 holes with your buyer?

Sellers are shifting their audience. Mark Roberge made an insightful observation that while sales software has been sold for years, it “focused on the needs of the sales executive, as they were the folks that made the purchase decision.” One of the biggest changes in the market today is that sales software is meeting the needs of the salesperson — not just the decision maker.

New media is in play. Employees today, mostly from Generation X and Y, are pros with social media. From Myspace and AIM to Twitter and Instagram, sales professionals have mastered the gamut of networking sites.

With a larger browser and an increasing number of sites used for both professional and personal networking, the access to information is limitless. “All of this adds data that can be used in a sales context,” points out Anders Fredriksson. You can find the same information from a prospect’s Linkedin profile — their alma mater, work history, and common connections — that you can learn over lunch.

Gary Swart writes in the SalesHacker discussion that another reason for increased technology in sales is that buyers are slammed with information and solutions. “Traditional sales techniques are not working like they used to” and many companies are searching for technology solutions to identify and reach out to qualified prospects.

—

As all of these elements occur simultaneously, the sales field readies for explosive growth. This perfect storm of factors will drive up productivity and efficiency of employees while old school business leaders will continue to adapt to the new sales industry where everything is bigger, better, and faster.

What do you think? What are other reasons for the surge of technology in sales? Let us know in the comments below or chime in here.

The post Businesses are Spending $2,280 Per Rep Each Year on Sales Acceleration Technologies. Here’s Why. appeared first on SalesLoft.

In today’s world, there is no such thing as an effective one-size-fits-all content marketing approach anymore. Recently, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) surveyed businesses about the state of their content marketing strategies and found nearly two-thirds reported their organizations had no documented strategy. This statistic is surprising because given the recent rise of inbound marketing, business that have no solidified content marketing strategy are missing out on one of the best ways to attract, intrigue, and convert customers. In today’s digital marketing environment, a well-defined and executed content marketing strategy is an essential component to the success of any business.

Building Blocks of Content Strategy

A well-defined content marketing strategy requires proper structure, deep customer research, and consistency. Strategy needs to be “properly interwoven into every step of a content marketing campaign and form the backbone of the decision-making process,” says Adam Vowles, head of content and outreach at SUSO Digital. According to the CMI report, nearly nine out of ten respondents said they use content marketing. In the report, CMI defined content marketing as the “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Compared to last year, a lot more raw content is being created. The CMI report notes how over three quarters of respondents said they are creating more content now than they did a year ago. Given the fact that so much content is being created, making your content stand out from the rest is becoming a challenge. However, granular personalization and targeting can help make your content unique and particularly useful for select groups.

While email and social media marketing might work for a certain business’ customers, whitepapers or webinars might work better for another. No matter what your company’s area of expertise is, your content marketing strategy should reflect the personas of the customers you’re targeting. Maximizing the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy depends on targeting the right customers with the right content on the right platform.

Content Personalization and Social Media

Social media has become a valuable platform for distributing personalized content, but simply distributing content across every social media platform is not the most effective approach. Instead, you should take a more targeted approach by first determining which social media platforms your customers frequent most often. For example, for B2B marketers, LinkedIn is more effective for distribution than Facebook, which is a better platform for B2C marketing. The reasoning behind this is that LinkedIn is more business oriented, while Facebook is dominated by consumers and their personal interests. When it comes to social media, choosing the right content distribution channel can make a big difference.

According to HubSpot, there are three stages of the buyer’s journey. They are as follows:

1) Awareness

Buyer has realized and expressed a potential problem or opportunity.

–Research is focused on gathering basic information.

2) Consideration 

–Buyer has clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity.

3) Decision

–Buyer has defined a solution strategy, method, or approach.

Brands should target their personalization strategies around these three stages. If you understand the buyer’s journey, you’ll know which interactions are appropriate for each stage. So, if a buyer is still in the awareness stage, approaching them with an offer for a trial or demo of your product isn’t a good idea. Rather, a demo or trial offer would be appropriate when you buyer reaches the decision stage.

Takeaway

Creating content is only the first step towards marketing personalization. Next, you must research your buyers and develop a strategy based off of the data you’ve collected. At this point, you can begin personalizing your content. Without data and research, we would not know what to market, when to market, or who to market to. Data fuels personalization. The more you have, the more you can personalize the user’s web experience. After you’ve identified your buyer personas, ideal platforms, and content distribution points, you’ll begin to see the benefits of your content personalization initiatives.

We’re living in an advanced world, where people are becoming more accustomed and accepted in cloud-based technology, and are willing to send payment details digitally in order to make a purchase. As a result, a record amount of online orders have been issued, and businesses and marketers are putting more focus on digital channels to entice customers in the early phrases of their research.

According to research conducted by Investp in 2013, more than 80 percent of the online population has used the internet to purchase something, with sales rapidly growing yearly by more than 19 percent. Surprisingly, the research shown that the EU accounted for 34 percent of e-commerce sales, following closely behind was the USA 29 percent, and Asia 24 percent.

As technology advances, buyers are increasingly using the world-wide web to research into their products before purchasing. While many buyers search for reviews from leading industry bloggers and/or features in magazines.

Customers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations

A recent study conducted by Search Engine Land focused on consumer usage and attitudes towards online reviews showed that 88 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. The study hope to understand how online reviews directly impact the purchase of local (or unrecognized) businesses.

88 percent of those surveyed said reviews help them to determine the quality of the service before purchase; 85 percent of which read up to 10 reviews. Additionally, 72 percent of consumers say positive reviews allows them to trust that business more, and only 10 percent chose to take no notice of online reviews.

The trust which drives this 88 percent of consumers is split 50/50. For one half, trust can only be granted if there are multiple reviews to read. The other half, this trust is dependent on the reviews being authentic. In this case, quality is equally important as quantity.

Such results show that reputation management cannot be ignored and reviews are important to all businesses. Negative reviews will directly affect customer acquisition, and in turn, company revenue.

Online Reviews Generate Brand Trust And Increase Conversion Rates

Reviews are made by real people, in the real world, who have physically experienced the service away from their computer screen. Customer reviews can help answer questions that other sources cannot, such as the service reliability, quality, value and life endurance.

Customer reviews from peers is the most trusted source of information online; must more valuable than professional endorsement and anything the brand may say. Customer reviews are now an established part of the online journey. It’s commonplace to see e-commerce websites boasting customer reviews to the extent that a website with no reviews seems strange.

If customers cannot find reviews on your website they’ll head elsewhere to find them, such as Google. Customer reviews increase conversions. They eliminate doubts potential customers may have about a product, or can help with the product selection. Quite simply, customer reviews help customers to buy with more confidence.

Putting faith in your reviews does mean you loose control of what is being said about your brand, as buyers can leave both positive and negative reviews. You must overcome reluctance and your bravery will pay off.

• Fake Reviews. The subject of fake reviews is in the consciousness of the average consumer. When a business practices fake reviews extensively, the trust of potential customers is forfeited.
• Bad Reviews. Bad reviews allow for businesses to keep on top of their game by continuously improving their noticed flaws. Always try to publicly resolve complaints as this will demonstrate a good customer service skills which can help to re-build relationships. Further, negative reviews help to build credibility in the opinions they read.

Online Reviews Improve The Customer Experience And Help To Improve Rankings

Customer reviews are a necessity to use across all marketing channels. They help to improve the customer experience and can improve the content of your website:

• Fresh And Exclusive Content. Search engines like unique content which is regularly updated, and customer reviews are a great way to attract more content. Most e-commerce websites have the same standard manufacturer description and product specifications, so user-generated content will help differentiate the product page, and therefore increases the chances of ranking well in the search results.
• Improved Rankings For ‘Product’ + Review. If a user searches on a search engine for a particular product plus the word ‘review’ (or another related word such as ‘ratings’), and you have reviews of that product on your website, you will stand a better chance of picking up on this traffic.
• Keyword-Optimized Webpages. The additional content generated by customer reviews will contain additional keywords and phrases. These words and phrases may be used by searches, meaning your webpages are further optimised to reach searchers naturally.
• Increased Click-Through On Snippets. If a review content is correctly formatted, the rich snippets will help to increase click-throughs from search engine results pages. According to Distilled, these rich snippets can produce a 10-20% increase click-through rate. Reviews help with search engine rankings, but ultimately increase the chance of a click through resulting in a conversion.

Money can’t buy you love, but you need to feel (and keep) the love of your clients in order to make money. Below is a list of recommendations to help your small business flourish and maintain the client relationships you have worked so hard to build. Hint: Communication is key!

Developing Client Lists

1. Know Your Market

Understand how your services relate to the people you want to reach. Knowing this helps determine the best places to reach them, even down to using the right social media sites.

2. Foster Your Network

Reconsider what makes up your network and then change it to increase your client base:

• Does it reach out across many different industries?
• Have you artfully incorporated relatives and friends in your network?
• Does it include community leaders?

Building a solid client base depends upon a strong, vibrant network.

3. Practice Patience and Restraint

4. Communicate

After meeting a contact, bolster their memory. Never assume you made such an impression on someone that they will recall you a month, a week or even a day later. Send an email; the content should be friendly, open and encouraging, but not overbearing. Building any meaningful relationship takes time, so trying to “rush it” likely will only push away a viable potential client.

Learning when to back off is a fine art. If possible, incorporate in the email a unique detail from your initial discussion. One of the greatest strengths of small businesses is the ability to connect on a smaller, one-to-one basis with clients. Emphasize that with all your communication.

Maintaining Current Clients

1. Communication is the Key

Keep in touch with clients. Update them on industry trends potentially affecting them, as well as your take on upcoming issues. Let them in on your visions for their (and your) success, and then explain your take on achieving it.

Social media is a great common connector, so use it wisely to keep the channels open. However, making a person-to-person connection means much more. Be a person, not a talking head on a website. Humanity trumps digital every time.

2. Become the Go-To Person

Develop skills and knowledge that makes you an authority. A reputation for expertise means the ability to provide valuable resources to clients unobtainable elsewhere: your knowledge. Provide guidance even when there is little chance it will mean any business gain for you. Doing so almost always pays off down the road.

3. Redefine Your Concept of “Client”

Clients are much more than a roster of potential purchasers of products and services. Retaining clients requires fostering the relationship aspect over the short-term money making possibilities of a set of individuals. Instead, recast the relationship more as a long-term partnership. Then, be prepared to meet client needs by adjusting your business services.

4. Take Care of Clients at All Levels

Making the commitment to retain your clientele means onboarding all members of your team in the effort. Make sure employees have the same commitment to clients care. All it takes is one bad experience with someone in the office to send a client looking for services elsewhere. Take the time to train them not only in how to provide superior services to clients, but also how to properly greet them, treat them and deal with them.

Never let your clients think you take them for granted. Under promise and over deliver, especially with deadlines. Imagine how thrilled your clients will be when you consistently have things done a day earlier than expected. It shows dedication and commitment.

Treat clients well, and reward loyal ones with something they value, even if it is just a handwritten thank you note. Make sure every client is one of your most important ones; because they all are.

5. Pay Attention to Feedback

Ask for feedback. Bad feedback hurts the ego. However, constructive criticism is a powerful tool for assuaging the anger of a dissatisfied client as well as providing a clear channel of responsiveness. Great feedback is the most effective and cheapest way of “advertising” available; Not to mention a great way to understand what’s “working.”

Helpful Tools

While some businesses handle client relationship matters organically, others require a framework for success. Luckily, there are some options available, particularly customer relationship management systems. Typically cloud-based, these help businesses “…manage and nurture their customer relationships” according to the Guardian.

A CRM system stores client and potential client data in a format accessible by a number (or just one…) individual. They also monitor things such as customer satisfaction, and may provide overviews of sales and such. If you choose this option, commit to it and use it exclusively.

Dedication Pays Off

Spending money on leads, marketing campaigns or even CRM systems can be valuable tools to success. But, unless you make the effort to nourish these relationships, your monetary outlay will provide minuscule results. Developing a valuable relationship with each and every one of your clients ensures a small business’ success during various economic climates.

Ultimately, when you stick by your customers, they stick by you!

A structured guide to improving leads and sales from your website

You'd think Conversion Rate Optimisation would a “no-brainer”. You can get more leads/sales from your website without spending extra money on marketing for new visitors. Sold.  But it seems as if the jargon and complexities of analytics can get in the way of understanding approaches how to improve conversion rates.

To help demystify what’s involved with a structured approach to improving conversion, we’ve created a 6-step process, which is the foundation of all our client projects, dubbed Conversion Architecture. To help explain to non-specialists what’s involved in a typical conversion project, I’ll be sharing how we approach each step in a series of articles on Smart Insights.

In the first in this series, we'll cover Step 1 - Analyse

Step 1 Analyse

This is probably where most people start to get a glazed look over their eyes and make a mental note to read the rest of this post when they have more time. But analysis can be fun, so read on!

Like trying to build a house without foundations, attempting CRO without first analyzing the current state of play in your business, your overall marketing strategy, your macro environment and, yes, your website performance, would be not just a red herring, but actually quite pointless.

Setting and reviewing your KPIs

Most companies will have KPIs in place for each marketing strand and for the business overall. In most cases, your digital KPIs will be probably come down to the commercials that need to be measured (how many sales/ leads/ subscriptions, profit value, Cost-per-sales/ lead/ subscription etc).

Most of you will have this information to hand, but print it out and stick it on your desk. This is now your ‘rules of the game’ – it tells you what numbers you have to play with when thinking of where/ how to spend your money, what you set your PPC limits to and so on.

Analysing your use setup of analytics and usage

There are many great articles already written about setting up analytics, including Dave Chaffey’s article on 5 success factors for Google Analytics to Dan Barkers article on using the new version of Google Analytics. So I’m not going to try and repeat their great work in this post, but rather just point out the key data you want to look at for CRO.

The trouble with analytics is that many people don’t look past the first couple pages. The sheer amount of data contained in there puts most people off looking too deeply. So it starts to become a reporting tool, not a rich set of data that you can mine. To try to simplify, I'll look at just 5 key areas of reports which should feature in your analysis.

The 5 key areas you must cover in your analysis

While I appreciate that many marketers don’t have the time to sit down and really study every bit of your analytics, there are 5 things that you should try and find the time to look at:

1. Set up and review your goals
2. Look at your traffic sources and then list them by goal conversion
3. Look at your top entry/ exit pages
4. Look at bounce rates on your top entry/ exit pages
5. Set up and study your goal funnels

If you’re pushed for time, taking 20 minutes a week to check these will give you enough ammunition to know where to focus your efforts. If you need help setting up goals and funnels then you can use this tutorial from Dave Chaffey to help you.

So, what are you looking for? At a top-level you’re trying to find what parts of your site work the best and what parts don’t work at all. For example, do more than 10% of people in your funnel drop out on a particular page? Are the bounce rates on your top landing pages over 40%? Do any of your pages have Exit rates over 20%? What traffic sources are performing well and which ones badly?

There is a load more you can learn from your analytics, but these are excellent starting points on the road to improved conversions.

For example, one of our clients (a major holiday company) was converting at just under 10% - not bad at all – but within a quarter hour of looking at their analytics we spotted a major flaw in their funnel, which caused over 60% of people to drop out. It took us another 2 hours to get it fixed and since then they have averaged 19% conversion rates. Two-and-a-bit hours to nearly double their online sales… that’s got to be worth anyone’s time.

Competitor research and analysis

This is another of those, “Sounds obvious, but don’t have the time to do it often,” tasks. Like analytics, try and put aside some regular time in your working week (or even month) to do a quick check.

All of your competitors are in the same boat as you. They will all be testing their online performance and trying to find ways of improving their site and marketing, so make use of their research and learn from them. Obviously, I’m not saying you should just rip off their content (that’s just lazy and plain wrong), but put on your ‘customer hat’ and ask, honestly, whether their design, messaging, layout or CTA’s would persuade you to convert more than your own do.

Perform some Google searches on your top keywords and follow the links to some of the sites that appear at the top. What can you learn from them (good and bad)? Ask yourself why they are taking that angle and if it would work for you if you were a customer.

Conclusion

This first phase in the Conversion Architecture process isn’t the most glamorous. In fact, crunching data and trawling your competitors’ sites probably isn’t fun at all. But, it will give you the basis for knowing (roughly) what you need to look at changing to improve your performance.

Twitter is an fantastic tool to market your business on the web to attract new leads and customers, however most people are under using the potential of tweeting because they’re not using the right resources to support their social marketing efforts.

We’ve compiled the ultimate list of what we consider to be 50 of the hottest Twitter marketing resources, so try some of these out to spice up your Twitter timeline…

1. Meerkat
One of the newest crazes on Twitter. Install the app and start broadcasting a live video stream directly into Twitter from your mobile phone or tablet.

2. Twitter Native Video
Twitter recently incorporated the ability to share a video directly from it’s mobile app.

3. Vine
Share a short looping video with your followers, great for quick viral content.

4. Tweetdeck
One of the most popular free Twitter management tools on the planet

5. Hootsuite
Looking for a more scaleable way to manage Twitter (and other social media) within your company? Hootsuite is a paid for alternative to Tweetdeck.

6. Commun.it
Track how you’re doing on Twitter. Analyze the relationships you have with your followers.

7. SocialBro
Another great tool to gain insight into your Twitter community marketing

8. SocialMention
Track what people are saying about you and your business on Twitter and across other social media.

9. Topsy
Search and analyze the social web. Search every tweet that’s been published since 2006 just like you search for websites on Google.

10. Tweetstats
Get the statistics of your Twitter account laid out in easy to understand graphs.

11. Retweetability
Test whether that tweet you’re just about to publish will get retweeted or not.

12. MyTopTweet
Analyze your (or any other) Twitter account to find the most retweeted tweet from the last 3200 tweets on the account.

13. Twitter Advanced Search
Many people forget that Twitter is a great research tool too. Do your advanced searches directly on Twitter itselff. search.twitter.com

14. Twitter Search For Firefox
Search Twitter directly from your browser. A plugin that adds Twitter as a search source in the Firefox search bar.

15. WhatTheTrend
Want to know what’s trending on Twitter? Jump in to the conversation and get maximum engagement on the topic of the day.

16. #OwnTheMoment
Stuck for ideas on what to Tweet? Check out Twitter’s own OwnTheMoment calendar tools for topical ideas to write about on your timeline.

17. Foller.Me
Get rich insights into any public Twitter profile. Particularly useful for creating tag clouds about what users are talking about in their Twitter timelines.

18. NearbyTweets
Find out what people are talking about near you. Great for hyper local engagement

19. Twilert
Get real time alerts via email when a keyword or hashtag is mentioned on Twitter. Great for monitoring what’s being said about your company or brand.

20. Twubs.com
The go to search engine for Hashtags. Discover who’s talking about what on Twitter

21. Hashtagify
Find the best Twitter hashtags to reach your audience. A great visual tool to research and discover hashtags that could be relevant to your business.

22. Ritetag
Find the perfect hashtags for your tweets in real time. Add this to your Twitter timeline and get instant hashtag analytics as you type your tweet.

23. Tweriod
Find out the best time to tweet. Tweriod analyses your tweets and your followers tweets so you can find the best time to reach others on Twitter.

24. Klout
Measure how influential you are on Twitter (and other social networks)

25. Keyhole
A more comprehensive real time keyword and campaign tracking tool for businesses using Twitter.

26. Mention
Another comprehensive real time tracking tool for businesses that want to monitor brand mentions on Twitter.

27. TwitterCounter
Keep track of your twitter accounts, get stats on impact, progress and reach every hour.

28. Followerwonk
A free tool from Moz Analytics to run advanced Twitter bio and profile searches

29. Buffer
Schedule your Tweets for maximum visibility across time zones and to reduce your manual workload on Twitter

30. Tweetmyevents
Promote your events on the Twitter platform and get more people attending.

31. Nurph
The simplest and easiest web based Twitter Chat client

32. Tweetchat
Another great web based Twitter Chat client

33. #SproutChat
One of the best social media Twitter chats, organized by @SarahNagel at SproutSocial. Jump in at 2pm ET every Wednesday

34. Bit.ly
The most popular URL shortening service, save those precious characters in your tweets

35. Sniply
A clever URL shortening service that allows you to embed a message overlaid on the page that your links direct to (even if that page isn’t yours)

36. Twitter Mobile App
Twitter in your pocket 24/7, available on Android and iPhone devices

37. Paperli
Create your own online newspaper in minutes, publish it on Twitter and other social media.

38. Storify
Pull together your Twitter content and publish it in a digest on the web.

39. Twibbon
Allows users to add a Twitter Ribbon to their Twitter avatar. If you’re garnering support for a cause, gather a tribe and spread the word with a Twibbon.

40. TwitDoc
Ever wanted to share a document easily on Twitter? Twitdoc to the rescue.

41. Imgly
The easy way to share your images on Twitter using less of those precious 140 characters http://img.ly/

42. TwitterFeed
Feed the RSS feed of your blog automatically to Twitter (and other social media). Never forget to share that post again. twitterfeed.com

43. ClickToTweet
WordPress plugin that lets you create click to tweet boxes anywhere in your blog post. Get your blog readers sharing your content with one click.

44. AccessPress Twitter Feed
Display real time Twitter feeds on your website with widgets and sliders.

45. Revive Old Post
Use your blog archives to feed your Twitter timeline. Get more mileage out of your content and tweet it automatically on a regular basis to your following.

46. Social Media Feather
If you want to add Twitter and other social media sharing and following buttons to your WordPress website this lightweight plugin will help get your content shared by your readers.

47. Slick Social Share Buttons
Another easy to use Twitter (and other social) sharing plugin for WordPress, this time in the form of a floating or sliding panel.

48. Twitter Hover Tweet
Quickly and easily add hover-over Tweet buttons to your images on the fly making them instantly “Tweet-able” on Twitter.

49. Tweetable Shortcode
Make sentences within your blog posts instantly tweetable with this Twitter plugin for WordPress. Uses shortcodes so easy to use for beginners.

50. TweetDis
Another great plugin to make the text in your WordPress posts Tweetable. Get your readers tweeting notable quotes from your content.

Twitter was the first social media platform that I really fell in love with. I love the simplicity of the platform, the fast-moving stream of information that I always find valuable, and the information and insights I can take away from it in just a short period of time that always help me do my job (or serve my clients) more effectively. I’m less active there than I have been in the past, but it’s still an important platform for me and my team overall, as well as for our clients.

According to Internet Live Stats, there are some 6,000 tweets sent per second on average, which translates to over 350,000 tweets per minute or about 500 million tweets per day. That’s no small amount of tweetage. Ever wonder whether your content shared on Twitter is actually reaching your target audience or having any kind of an impact at all? If not, you should. And you can figure that out by conducting a Twitter audit. If that’s not on your plan for 2015, maybe it should be. Here’s how to do it.

What is a Twitter audit?

A Twitter audit is the process of examining your current Twitter content marketing efforts to determine if what you’re doing there is moving the needle in any way, as well as to explore areas for improvement. There are some key elements you should pay particular close attention to when you are conducting an audit, including the efficacy of your content overall, your audience, and the perception of and sentiment about your brand.

Content

An important part of your audit is a review of the content you share and an evaluation of how much engagement (or response) you are generating from it. You can always confirm this by using the Twitter built in analytics tool or, if you use a URL shortening service (and you should), check how many people shared or clicked on the links you shared.

It is also good to see what type of content resonates with your audience. Does your audience respond when you ask them a question? When you ask for opinions, does your audience interact with you? Do they comment on things that you share and engage in conversations with you? Do you initiate conversations with them, based on content they share? Does your audience share articles you post by retweeting you? Do they favorite your content? Do you get sales leads or opportunities of some nature as a result of what you’re doing on Twitter?

By being aware of what resonates with your audience, you’ll better be able to share relevant content and generate maximum engagement. All of these are important things to audit regularly, take note of and focus on moving forward.

Audience

It’s also important to truly know your Twitter community. An audit will help you understand who follows you and allow you to segment that audience into lists based on specifics that are important to you from a sales and marketing standpoint. An audit is also very important when it comes to regularly sweeping your Twitter followers and clearing out bots and undesirable followers that somehow manage to creep in when you’re not looking. There is nothing more embarrassing from a brand standpoint than discovering you’ve got porn stars or other undesirables following your business account and/or that you’re following them in return.

An audit of your audience will also show you what you might be missing in terms of your industry in general and help identify targeted accounts to follow. You can do some quick hashtag searches for things that are important to you and your industry and make sure you’re following those people or corporate accounts and you’ll no doubt also discover conversations and content that’s industry specific that you should be paying attention to but that you’ve been overlooking. Twitter and its user base are constantly changing, so this is definitely not something to approach with a “set it and forget it” mindset.

Brand Messaging

Your brand message also matters when it comes to what you’re doing on Twitter. When conducting an audit, be sure to take some time and look at your messaging and make sure it is doing what you want and need for it to do. Check your profile image. Is it more than a couple of years old? Has anything about your “look” (whether it’s a photo or a logo) changed? If so, it’s time to update it. Also, don’t forget your cover photo. Look at how your Twitter page looks on a mobile device and how your profile image looks in conjunction with the cover photo you’ve used. Look at the information provided on your cover page – is it relevant, helpful, and provide a way to contact you?

Thinking about your overall brand messaging doesn’t stop with your corporate Twitter page. Think also about your team members using Twitter, especially your sales (or marketing) team. Do they use their personal pages to promote the company? Do they want to? If so, look at their bios and evaluate how effective they are. A case in point on this topic, I was reviewing a new client’s personal Twitter account just this weekend. This was someone who really likes Twitter and who wants to use the platform as a way to build relationships and to establish himself and his company as thought leaders (and solution providers) in their industry. His bio contained not one mention of the company or his position (CEO) and, in fact, contained some odd reference to jumping off buildings. As you might imagine, fine-tuning that is near the top of my list of things to do as we work with this CEO and his sales team.

So as you’re doing your audit, think about these things. Think about someone using FollowerWonk (or some other tool) or searching Twitter for the products or services you and your company provide or the market you serve. Are you using applicable hashtagged terms in your Twitter corporate bio and in the bios of your most visible Twitter users (or sales team) so that they can find you? If not, this is an important part of not only your brand messaging overall, but also how you’ll be able to most effectively develop the kind of reputation and audience you’re interested in building.

Engagement

I know that a lot articles out there on how to “set it and forget it” when it comes to social media marketing because, well, of course nobody has time to actually do this stuff. Am I right? The reality is that if you’re using Twitter as a broadcast channel to blast out your content or your brand messaging or your sales pitches or your boasting about how great you are – well, Twitter isn’t going to be able to deliver much in the way of an ROI for you. In order for the platform to deliver tangible vallue, you’re going to have to actually engage with the audience you’re building or want to build. As such, an important part of any Twitter audit is taking an honest look at your engagement, evaluating it, and figuring out how you can improve that. A tool we use is Hubspot’s Marketing Grader, which is not only free, it’ll provide you with a quick look at what you’re doing in the social media space (and more) and it’ll give you a bird’s eye view of what your Twitter presence looks like from the outside looking in. Here’s a snapshot of a report I just ran on myself:

Note that you can see your following/follower base, how many times you’ve been mentioned in the last 24 hours (the higher the number, generally the better), and which of your most recent tweets have been replies to someone else and/or a RT of content shared by someone, both of which signify real engagement. We run this report for prospective clients all the time and find it to be very helpful when it comes to opening their eyes about the current value they’re getting out of what they’re doing on Twitter, and how to improve it.

In summary, if you’re already using Twitter as part of your social media marketing efforts and/or are planning on doing that moving forward, take a hard look at your presence on Twitter, and what it looks like to an outsider – or a prospective customer. Look at the audience you’ve built and/or are building and how targeted it is based on your overall goals. Take a look at how effectively you’re engaging with them or whether you’ve fallen into the trap of using Twitter solely as a broadcast channel. Look at your brand messaging, and the messaging of key individuals on your team, and think about what that says about your business and your capabilities and how you might fine-tune that moving forward. And, of course, look at the value Twitter is delivering to you in terms of traffic to your website or a particular landing page, leads, opportunities, conversations,

We recommend you conduct a Twitter audit at least twice a year. If you’re looking for more tools to help you conduct a deeper analysis and don’t have much time to do it, check out this awesome SlideShare presentation by Ian Lurie: Confirm, Observe, Adjust: How to Audit Your Twitter World in 1 Hour or Less.

Have you conducted a Twitter audit lately? Did you find anything that surprised you? Were there any tools that you found helpful? Look for a follow up post on tools you can use to more effectively identify and find influencers and conversations that you’ll want to be a part of, tools to make monitoring more manageable, and information on how to build and manage lists.

photo credit: net_efekt via photopin cc

Every once in a while, it's good to take pause and evaluate how you use technology in your everyday life. One way of doing so is to do a " technology cleanse": get off the grid, if only for a little while, and see how it affects you. But you shouldn't just quit cold turkey. Here's how to prepare for your digital detox.

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Finding a good paying job with just a few college courses (or less) under your belt can be daunting. Even so, you may be surprised to hear that employers still want basics like Excel and Word before other, more advanced skills. Land those and your chances of scoring a gig with a living wage rise significantly.

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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – A tycoon from Egypt’s wealthiest family said Friday that they are putting up a fifth of the country’s investment needs this year because it is the most stable place in a turbulent Middle East.

Naguib Sawiris, who built a telecommunications empire and whose family-founded Orascom Group is the country’s largest private-sector employer, said the government’s economic plan emerging from an international conference hosted by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi required an ambitious amount of investment but that it could be raised.

“Of course it depends on the amount of investment we can collect — the plan calls for $15 billion a year in investments, and I believe it’s doable,” he told The Associated Press. “To give a ballpark figure, my family will provide this year, or at this conference, 20 per cent of that figure, in the energy sector.”

Egypt’s economy remains in the doldrums since a 2011 revolt, which was followed by the rule of elected but divisive Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. He was overthrown by then-army chief el-Sissi in 2013. The economy is picking up slowly but the government hopes the conference will spur investments to generate desperately needed jobs.

Sawiris said preliminary contracts would be signed between his brother Nassef’s construction company and investors from the United Arab Emirates.

“There will be announcements for a power plant of around $2 billion and I’m doing a solar plant for $120 million,” he said from the conference, at Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Orascom Construction employs about 50,000 people in more than 20 countries, and is Egypt’s largest publicly traded company.

Sawiris said that given the region’s current upheaval, Egypt stood out as stable.

“Egypt is the most stable country in this big mess. We’ve acknowledged the mess in Libya, the mess in Iraq, in Syria,” he said. “The fact is, Egypt is solid, Egypt is stable. We are actually the last pillar of resistance against uncertainties.”

He lauded amendments to investment laws which were approved on the eve of the conference, streamlining corporate and income taxes.

The post Tycoon from Egypt’s wealthiest family ready to invest billions to boost ‘solid state’ appeared first on Canadian Business.

Regardless of what kind of prospecting you’re doing – whether you’re calling back in-bound leads who have contacted you, or old accounts who haven’t purchased in a while, or just straight cold calls – you’re still going to get a good dose of the blow off objection: “I’m not interested.”  While I’ve provided many different ways of handling this in the past, here are eighteen new, customized responses for each of the lead categories from above.  Here they are:

For “warm” leads who have filled out an online form or reached out to you in some other way:

“I’m not interested”

Response one:

“That’s perfectly O.K., _________, you’ve probably forgotten that you (filled in a form, requested info, etc.) so I don’t expect you to be interested in what you must think is a cold call.  But just to remind you – on (date/time) you (visited our website/dropped by our booth/filled out a form, etc.) do you remember that?”

[If Yes]

“What did you need at that time?”Response two:

“No problem _________, I also forget half the things I request info on.  Just to remind you, we (what you do), and on (date/time) you (visited our website/dropped by our booth/filled out a form, etc.) do you remember that?”

[If Yes]

“Do you remember what prompted you to reach out to us at that time?”

Response three:

“That’s fine, quick question though: When you filled out (our online form, etc.) has anyone else from our office contacted you about it yet?” 

[If No]

"I see.  Well I do apologize for that.  Just out of curiosity, did you get that handled yet or are you still looking?”

For inactive accounts or people you’ve not spoken to in a while:

“I’m not interested”

Response one:

“That’s fine _________, and I’m simply calling to update your account information for our records.  Quick question: Are you still the right contact person who handles ordering the ________ for your company?"

Response two:

“Oh that’s O.K., I’m not calling to sell you anything today.  Just want to make sure you still know we’re here in case you do need something down the road.  By the way, do you guys still carry/use/order ________?”

Response three:

“I get that all the time, and just know that the only reason I’m calling is to introduce myself as your contact should you ever need to check pricing or availability on an item.  Quick question: are you the right contact for _________?”

Response four:

“No problem _________. I’ll simply email you my contact information in case you ever do need anything, and then I’ll get out of your hair.  By the way, would you be the best person to email this to, or is there someone else who is handling ________ now?”

Response five:

“That’s no problem at all – quick question: is it that you don’t need anything just now, or do you even order/carry/use ________ anymore at all?”

[“We do order, we just don’t need any now.”]

“Great.  When you are in the market again, could I be one of the vendors/suppliers/sources you go to for a quote?”

For cold calling or prospecting calls:

“I’m not interested”

Response one:

“Quick question: Does that mean you’re not interested at this moment, but in a few months things could change, and I should keep in touch?”

Response two:

“Who else at your company do you think might have a need for something like this?”

Response three:

“I’m with you – quick question though: are you the right contact for this, or is there another department (or person) I should check with?”

Response four:

“When should I check back with you?”

[If given a date]

“Great.  So I can be more prepared for that, quick question: are you the right contact for this?” (Then add other qualifying questions)  

Response five:

“If you were to be interested, what is the typical (volume, amount, frequency, etc.) that you normally order/use/need?”

[If they tell you]

“And who do you normally get that from?”

Response six:

“When was the last time you were interested in something like this?”

Response seven:

“And what would have to change for you to be more open to something like this in the future?”

Response eight:

“Should I lose your number or put you on a 6-month follow up call?” (Say with a BIG smile!)

[If call back in 6 months]

“Great.  What should I keep an eye out for in between then?”

Response nine:

“The next time you are interested in (your product), could I get back with you and see if we can help?”

[If yes]

“When should I follow back up with you?”

Response ten:

“Thanks for letting me know up front.  If I were to get back with you in the future, what would I have to have to get you to be more open to something like this?

So there you have it.  Eighteen more ways of handling the “I’m not interested” objection.  Make sure to customize these to fit your product or service and to fit your personality.  Once you find one that feels right, and that gets your prospects to open up, then stick with it and practice it over and over again.  Remember: practice of the right responses will always make perfect. 

If you found this article helpful, then you'll love Mike's Completely Updated and Revised eBook, “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts.” Now over 130 pages of powerful and effective scripts to help you easily get past the gatekeeper, set appointments, overcome objections and close more money!

A weekly digest of the most important stories and ideas in advertising and media, from our colleagues at Marketing.

This week in Ads You Must See:

Other items of note from Marketing:

Coors Light is looking to bring fun back to its brand by calling on millennials to “climb that mountain.” But they’re not talking about actual mountains. The brewing company is hoping the new ad—called ‘The Mountain Speech’—will “inspire millennials to conquer their own personal (and more light-hearted) summits, like getting on stage for amateur comedy night or ordering food at a drive-through window, on foot,” writes Marketing’s Rebecca Harris. There are actual mountains in the TV spot, but Greg Major, marketing director of Coors Family of Brands, Coors Light said they’re meant to be symbols of “endless possibilities.”

Watch the ad here.

Loblaw is selling blemished, misshapen and undersized produce under the “No Name Naturally Imperfect” brand. The ugly vegetables and fruits were previously reserved for dehydration, juices or sauce soups, but the grocery chain is now making them available to customers at a discount. Bags of Naturally Imperfect apples and potatoes are already being sold in select grocery stores in Ontario and Quebec, and cost up to 30% less than other fruits and vegetables.

Read more here.

Finally, Canada Goose’s chief marketing officer Kevin Spreekmeester shared the secret to the brand’s success: being authentic. At Toronto’s Dx3 digital marketing conference, Spreekmeester said that the starting point for Canada Goose’s digital strategy is to use digital platforms to tell stories that stayed true to the brand. The company launched three short films late last year as part of its ‘Free Air Life’ campaign, which focused on “a different person sharing the story of their love with and connection to the outdoors,” writes Marketing’s David Brown. Canada Goose had “become a little bit too street” according to Spreekmeester, and the campaign was a way for Canada Goose to re-establish its position as a true outdoor brand:

Similarly when Canada Goose was approached by filmmaker Greg Kohs about being part of a feature length documentary on champion dog sled racer, Lance Mackey, they saw a good fit for the brand. “We don’t’ have brand ambassadors, we have what we call Goose People,” said Spreekmeester. “We believe they live and breathe for something bigger than themselves.”

Mackey is a cancer survivor whose treatment left him unable to feel his extremities — a particular danger for any athlete who competes in extreme cold.

Watch one of the short films here.

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The post Must-See Marketing: Coors Light and Canada Goose look to inspire appeared first on Canadian Business.

Doblet is an on-demand phone charging service at your favorite bars, restaurants, hotels, malls, cafes and businesses. Using patent-pending technology, Doblet is the world’s first app-driven portable battery network, available in thousands of venues, right where you live, work and play. We spoke with Doktor Gurson, CEO and Co-Founder, on scaling business quickly to meet market demands and getting inspiration in bars.

Share a little about your company. How did Doblet get started?

The idea came about in a bar one day. I brought my clunky USB battery pack up to the bar and the person next to me asked to use it, in exchange for a drink. Then, another person next to him asked the same thing and offered to buy me a drink as well. The bartender said, “You’d be surprised how many people ask to charge their phone; probably 10x a day.” I started talking to more restaurants and bars. Why had no one had done this before? There were lots of barriers to think about. How do you distribute? How do you create a business?

I started working on this initiative and brought Jeff Chang on-board (co-founder and CTO), who is an incredible guy. Doblet is available throughout the city, everywhere you go. Just pick one up, plug it in, $3 per charge or $30/year for unlimited use. We give it to venues for free — they love that! It solves problems for both venues and consumers. Once the consumer has downloaded the app, it lets them know where the nearest Doblet is if their battery is getting low.

What are the top company priorities that you focus on?

Ideally, we want to build something that solves battery life issue, a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon. We are also working to build a great product that venues and consumers can be excited about, as well as our employees!

What keeps you up at night? How are those challenges impacting your business?

Battery life is very fluid. Many companies are trying to solve the same problem. The biggest impact to our business could be waking up one day and realizing this isn’t a problem anymore — no batteries! I also want to ensure that we’re building a good company and culture, where people enjoy working together.

What are the keys to your company’s successful growth?

We’ve made the value proposition very clear for both venue and consumer. It’s very simple for the venue because we give it to them for free to make available. On the consumer side, it’s as simple as paying for service. It’s a win-win for everyone.

What is the one piece of advice that you want to share with SMB executives?

Many SMBs don’t spend enough time figuring out product market fit. They might build a great team, but if they don’t have a decent idea, it can be very difficult to succeed, even with a good team. Figure out if it’s viable early on!

How does your company think about customer service? What does it mean to you to be a customer company?

Customer service is critical to making sure people are happy with the service. Our business is built on people coming back, so it’s important that we’re providing good, efficient service with enough support being provided for ease of use.

What was your company’s biggest business problem or challenge before engaging with Salesforce?

We started off using spreadsheets to keep track of venues. After reaching 100 venues, we realized this wasn’t scalable. We started using Salesforce for tracking because the API allows us to easily pull information and connect to our backend. Now, it’s our main tool for tracking sales and venues. We’re able to see the full life cycle and metrics of our product, using that information to see what types of venues make the most sense. We also recently discovered a cool feature in Sales Cloud that helps us find new locations. Eventually, we want to use it for tracking service issues and venue promotions. Overall, Sales Cloud has streamlined a lot of the things we want to do!

What’s next for Doblet?

In San Francisco, we’ve already signed up over 1,000 venues, after only launching 2 weeks ago! We’re live in 40 venues today and by April, we should be live in 200! We want to perfect the experience in San Francisco, and then anticipate moving into other markets. We’re also looking at other complimentary products and services like wi-fi, power, and data, because we’ll have a dense network established in place.

Doblet’s expanding to a bar, restaurant or coffee shop near you! They’ve pre-signed more than 1,000 new venues in and around San Francisco since August, and will be live in 200 venues by April 1. Download the iOS or Android app to find Doblets closest to you when your battery runs low!

At this point, content marketers don’t need to be convinced of the importance of Twitter, but what might be less clear is how to get the most out of it.

We talked to Stacy Minero, Twitter’s Head of Content Planning, about how content marketers can maximize their impact on Twitter, which brands do the most impressive work with Twitter and how to stand out during events like the Super Bowl.

Why is Twitter an ideal platform for marketers to connect with their audience?

There are over a billion Tweets sent every two days about what people care about most — and the savviest marketers recognize that these conversations are powerful signals of intent that they can leverage to connect with potential customers.

The live, public and conversational nature of Twitter makes it a unique platform for brands. It’s a place that fuels discovery.Unlike other platforms — which are more suited for communicating with a closed network of friends and family — users come to Twitter to discover new things, including brands and products.

Are there companies or individuals who are finding truly inspiring or creative ways to use Twitter in their marketing efforts?

Absolutely — I’m constantly blown away by the ways individuals and brands use Twitter to create meaningful, impactful connections. A couple of examples:

John Legere of T-Mobile epitomizes what it means to be a CEO in the social media era. We see him using Twitter to humanize himself and his brand, and to connect directly with his customers. His unfiltered style and refreshing accessibility is something we don’t see often from high level executives — and this has really helped to create great momentum for T-Mobile.

A great brand example is Unilever, who has proven to be one of the most innovative teams I’ve worked with. Earlier this year, Unilever launched the ‘Recitweet’ campaign in Brazil that encouraged users to Tweet the contents of their fridge with the hashtag #PreparaPraMin, which is ‘Prepare for me’ in Portuguese.

Unilever then responded with a recipe that included those very ingredients, paired with Hellman’s mayonnaise. Unilever is constantly pushing creative boundaries, but in ways that are strategic and that always add value and utility to the consumer.

What tools work best for marketers when they are using Twitter for content marketing?

One of my favorite tools is Twitter Cards, which allows you to attach rich media to their Tweets. Twitter Cards provide brands with a visually appealing canvas that can be tailored toward specific actions, like driving a qualified lead, showcasing a new product or distributing video content.

The Tweet Activity Dashboard is another incredibly useful tool that gives brands insight into how their content is performing on Twitter, all the way down to the individual Tweet level. By identifying what type of content gets the most engagement, brands can Tweet more of what resonates with their audience, and eliminate what doesn’t.

Given the sheer amount of competition during the Super Bowl, how can marketers and brands leverage Twitter to make sure their message reaches the right people?

From a paid perspective, a smart targeting strategy can help brands get the right content in front of the right audience, at precisely the right time. On Twitter, you can target by location, interests, keywords and more to make sure your message hits at moments of receptivity.

Are there long-term steps that marketers can take when using Twitter as a marketing tool?

First, establish a marketing mission. What are your campaign goals, and how will you measure success?

Once you’ve established your goals, do a comprehensive content audit, and take time to map the moments that matter to consumers, which will ensure that your content starts with audience insights. Think about both personal and cultural moments.

Then, use data to measure performance. On Twitter, advertisers have access to valuable analytics that allows for real-time optimization. Dive deep into your insights to understand which tactics are working well aren’t so you can course-correct if you need to.

While data can inform a creative strategy, it will rarely generate a creative idea. Remember to take a step away from data to be imaginative, and think about how to make your campaign fun. At the core, people want to be informed, inspired and entertained in ways that are unexpected — if you have fun with your campaign, your audience will too.

Given the staggering number of people who use Twitter in content marketing efforts, how does the company itself utilize content marketing?

Although there are multiple teams at Twitter that contribute to our content marketing efforts, the underlying goal across teams remains the same: to create content that provides value to our users, partners and advertisers.

For example, we have an amazing data communications team that creates powerful visualizations of news and cultural events like #Ferguson and the #SuperBowl to show how conversations grow and evolve on Twitter. You can follow that team at @TwitterData.

We also have a global business marketing team that works tirelessly to create educational content to help advertisers of all sizes and industries succeed on Twitter. You’ll see this team Tweet industry articles, marketing tips and product updates from @TwitterAds.

This post originally appeared on ScribbleLive’s Engage Magazine.

Learn what it takes to succeed in sales today in this exclusive Sales Expert Interview Series. In this episode, RainToday Editor Michelle Davidson talks with Andrew Sobel, an authority on client relationships, about what it takes to capture buyers' interest and earn client loyalty.

This post by Nick Persico was originally posted on CloserIQ's blog. CloserIQ is a sales career platform connecting top sales talent to startups.

If you run an early-stage startup, your first sales hires—and how you train and introduce them to your company—will set the tone for the next stage of your startup’s growth. After all, it’s likely that this will be the first time your product will be sold by someone other than you or your cofounders. It’s the first time that people without the context of your company’s history will represent you.

And these early team members are especially critical because they’ll become leaders for the next batch of salespeople that follow them; their habits, skills, and experience will rub off on new team members to come. So think of your first salespeople as founders of the sales team.

And as a founder, it’s your job to put your new salespeople in a position to be successful. (After all, poor sales management leads to high sales churn.) They need to feel inspired and involved. Here’s what you can do to make that happen:

1. Always hire more than one salesperson at a time.

Any time you’re hiring salespeople, hire more than one. In your company’s early days, you won’t have data to help measure a sale hire’s progress. You won’t know what, exactly, “good” or “bad” performance means. Hiring two or three people can help you figure this out, create competition among them, and also protect you if someone quits or needs to be let go.

Hiring a batch of salespeople will also benefit your new hires. Being the lone first salesperson at a new company is hard: there are no precedents in place, no examples of success. So make sure your first sales team is a pair or a group of peers who can experience the job together.

2. Schedule their first day for a Saturday.

First impressions are everything. The chaos of a Monday morning should not be the way your new team members interact with you for the first time. (This works in your favor, too; you know that running a startup is a constant battle against time, so why waste a precious weekday on training?) Instead, plan to have your new sales team start on a Saturday when you can really focus on teaching them the basics and introducing them to the rest of the company.

Here’s how a Saturday spent onboarding your new sales team might go:

• 9:00 a.m.: Have breakfast, make introductions, and fill out legal paperwork.
• 9:30 a.m.: Give a fun presentation on your company’s history and how you got to this point. Don’t forget to take questions!
• 10:30 a.m.: Tell your new team about your industry. Who are they selling to? Who are the players? Why are we doing this?
• 11:00 a.m.: Go over your email and phone scripts and what they’ll be expected to accomplish by the end of their first week.
• 12:00 p.m.: Have lunch.
• 1:00 p.m.: Train them on basic CRM and sales tools, like how to contact people and use lead lists.
• 2:00 p.m.: Review the scripts and make mock calls so your team can start making calls and sending emails Monday morning.
• 3:00 p.m.: Get drinks as a team, and invite investors and even customers, if possible.

Now when your new sales team comes back in on Monday, they’ll already know what they have to do to be successful in their new jobs.

3. Don’t overload your new sales team with information.

All your new sales hires need to know at this point is how to be successful in their first week. If their first task is to schedule product demos by making cold calls and sending cold emails, train them only for that. This early on, there’s no need to show them every aspect of your sales process, how to send an invoice, or even how to conduct a demo (and even if you do teach this information right away, it likely won’t be retained).

Instead, cross each bridge when your salespeople actually reach these points with real prospects. Practice scripts with them so they get better at scheduling demos; once they’ve nailed that, then they can conduct demos themselves. Essentially, learning the next step in the sales process should be a reward for mastering the previous one.

(You can see this tactic at work in the movie Boiler Room. Each new hire is only allowed to cold call prospects. Once they qualify a prospect, they have to watch a senior salesperson take the deal from there. After they master that first step in the sales process, they earn the right to close their own deals.)

4. Document everything (and we mean everything).

Starting as a salesperson at a new company is like drinking through a fire hose. Retaining the amount of information necessary to do the job is impossible. So help them out by carefully documenting every part of your sales process, including scripts, frequently asked questions, CRM processes and definitions, and even trivial things like proper email signature structure.

Give your salespeople the ability to look up anything on their own. When they ask you a question, refer them to the materials. (It may seem mean-spirited, but it’s the best way to establish that they are expected to follow directions.) Plus, it’ll save you from having to answer the same questions over and over again.

Encourage your sales team to contribute to the documentation too. As they learn new tips and tricks on how to sell your product, they should be sharing it with everyone.

As a real-life example, here’s what the sales onboarding documentation at my company, Smart Host, looks like:

The “Sales Onboarding” document explains all of our sales processes and definitions, including getting set up with Close.io, our CRM.

Yes, we’re thorough. Over-communication is key. If you want your sales team to operate with a certain level of professionalism, give them a step-by-step guide of how to operate at that level.

5. As the old adage goes, lead by example.

Organization and attention to detail will rub off on your team and create a culture of excellence. If you lead by example, and follow the above steps, your new sales team will practically onboard themselves.

Further reading:

The sales rep onboarding hack
Want to accelerate your sales ramp up, train new reps in less time? Here's a scalable strategy for onboarding new sales hires.

The Ultimate Sales Hiring Guide For B2B Startup Founders!
When to hire sales people, who to hire and how to manage them at every stage of your sales process. If you haven't read this post yet and are a startup founder hiring sales reps... this is a must-read!

Should you use a sales script?
Don't listen to script-opponents who proclaim: sales scripts don't work anymore! They just don't know how to use scripts effectively. Here's how...

Sales Question: "Can you PROOVE that leaving voicemails are worth it? What have you found to be the average % of returned calls? What are the statistics?"

SalesBuzz Answer: 

Here’s my concern with your question… 

Are you looking for stats to defend your stance to not leave voicemail messages? Or are you truly looking for data to determine if you should start leaving them?

If you’ve already decided that you don't want to leave a voicemail message, I’m not here to try and change your mind. If, however, you are looking for facts in order to make a sound business decision, my question to you is this:

“How many callbacks do you get if you DON'T leave a voicemail?” 

Of course, the answer to that is ZERO. 

So if I left a message with every new sales call I made in a day that went to voicemail, and I only received ONE call back per day, that’s 100% more than you would get.

I look at it this way… If you are fishing, you have to cast your line. If you’re going to cast your line, you might as well have bait on the end of it. 

Not leaving a voicemail is like casting your hook with nothing on it. 

HAVING THE RIGHT EXPECTATIONS

When I’m in “making sales calls” mode, I understand there are several factors outside of my control regarding when a prospect will be ready to buy. My goal is to find the ones who are ready now. 

The one’s who aren’t, I at least want to make sure I’m on top of mind with them so that when a trigger event does happen, they call me to help them solve it. Leaving a compelling voicemail might not get you a call back today, but it can help you get a call back when the prospect is in high problem solving / buying mode. 

With that said, I’ve found that the ones that DO call back the same day are the ones that are further along in the buying cycle and THOSE ARE THE LEADS I want to be talking with anyway. 

Here’s something to think about as well, Prospects have this thing called: CALLER ID.

If you keep calling and don’t leave a message, isn’t it a safe bet the prospect would become agitated, always seeing your company name pop up, but never knowing why you are calling? The more you call and DON’T leave a message, the more you appear to be a pesky salesperson.

Annoying your prospect before ever talking to them is not a successful strategy.

If a prospect is worth chasing, they are worth a creative voicemail message. Something that has a WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM, mixed with a little bit of your personality that will entice them to want to call you back. 

Make sure you have at least three solid first time call messages in your playbook as well as three coinciding emails that you send right after each voicemail. 

Don't give up after leaving one message. I can’t tell you how many times a prospect has taken my 2nd or 3rd attempt only to hear them say “sorry I haven’t gotten back to you till now, things have been crazy busy.” Your prospects are busy and they want to grow / improve their business. Be part of the solution to help them get what they want and you will end up getting what you want: A call back that leads to new business relationship.

Are your landing pages converting as well as you’d like them to? If the answer is no, maybe it’s time to go back to the basics. Let’s examine the building blocks of a good landing page and take a look at five best practices for creating landing pages that get great results.

Before we get started, we should first define what a landing page is and why you need it. Simply put, it’s a web page you’ve designed, usually to make an offer to a visitor who comes to your site by clicking a link from an online source. It might be a link in a tweet, a blog post, an email, a pay-per-click ad, another site, or a page on your own site (and so on).

Most of us use landing pages as conversion tools, and they’re among the most potent ones we have. The copy around the link makes a promise (such as “Learn how to…”), and the landing page pays that off by offering something of value (an eBook, video, podcast, or any kind of content your ideal buyer will appreciate). Your visitor has to want the content enough to trade their contact information for it. They get valuable information in return – and the better it is, the more it fulfills the promise, the better you look to that potential buyer. You get at least the name and email of someone who’s motivated to investigate your product, service, or industry. That’s a nice start to a reciprocal relationship.

Like everything else in marketing, landing pages are a blend of art and science. The investment you make in time and talent means that you need these pages to pay you back with leads that convert, and useful information. Let’s look first at making a landing page, and in the next part of this series we’ll look at how optimizing copy and making the right offer can improve results.

The anatomy of a landing page

Landing pages consist of common elements. These include the offer, copy, the form, and the design of the page itself. When creating landing pages, think of these elements as your building blocks.

1. Create a compelling offer

The offer is the most important part of your page. It’s what you offer to prospects in exchange for them sharing information about who they are and what they’re interested in. The better the offer, the higher the conversion rate. The offer should also be closely tied to your brand’s value proposition, in order to attract the people most likely to want what your company sells. If you sell industrial solvents by the carload, your offer might be related to health and safety management concerns that your company takes care of, for example. Test your offers. One eBook might convert much better than another, and a video might outperform them both.

2. Fine-tune the copy

Your headline should be simple and specific. It should offer a benefit, not a feature, and ideally be so strong that the motivated reader will jump to the form right then and there. Your body copy should describe the offer and the benefits that it will deliver to your prospects. Keep your copy simple and specific, make your sentences short and active, and support the headline and call to action. Test your headlines, at the least. Ideally, you should test every element of your page.

3. Develop your landing page form

The landing page form will have fields that allow you to collect information about your prospects. You should ask for a name and email address at a minimum. What else you ask for depends on all kinds of factors, including your industry, what you sell, how long your sales cycle is, and usual size of a deal, as well as the value of the content you offer.

You’ll usually get more conversions from a shorter form. Longer forms can put people off; you don’t want to ask for too much, too-personal information, in what feels like too-short a time frame to the prospect. If you need more information, you can use a series of progressive profiling forms to get it, which is slower but seems friendlier. Of course, if someone is willing to fill out a long form, they may be a better-qualified prospect, or have a more urgent problem to solve.

Note: If people often give you false names and email addresses, then don’t provide the reward (the download, or whatever) on a thank-you page that follows the form. Instead, let them know that you are sending them an email with a link to the download. This allows you to verify that their email is real before you add it to a list, and also allows you to send that email immediately, demonstrating how responsive you are.

4. Create a strong call to action

Make it easy for people to know what to do next. Your call to action, whether it is text, a button, or an image, should clearly indicate the action and the reward. This is another thing that’s important to test, so you’ll know whether “Download now” or “Get the eBook” is going to deliver more conversions.

5. Design with conversion in mind

With an offer, copy, and form specified, you can design your page. It’s important to design the page so that the visitor’s attention is centered on the form. Don’t let your page get cluttered with too many images or too much text. Use lots of white space and bullets so that the page is easy to read. Make sure it looks like your brand, and that the page looks like it belongs on your website (and only your website). Use your standard colors, and use the same fonts as you use on the rest of your website pages, in the same sizes, with the same spacing.

6. Optimize the design for mobile

Make sure your landing page looks good on mobile devices. In fact, if you aren’t yet using responsive design, you might want to design with mobile in mind. Use bigger text and make sure the buttons are large enough to tap with a finger. Plus, there’s no “above the fold” anymore – or at least, different size screens make it difficult to know where the fold might be. That’s why you may want to create a smaller version of the CTA right at the beginning – one that jumps to the web form.

Landing Page Case Study

Now let’s take a look at a real-word landing page makeover — in this case, an Act-On survey landing page with a chance to win a MacBook Pro.

This survey landing page demonstrates five best practices for forms – and resulted in significant improvement in our conversion rates. We tested these different elements to optimize our landing page. Keep them in mind when you are designing your landing pages.

Form fields: Test different types of forms. We tested using a drop-down list instead of check boxes. This made the form much smaller and less overwhelming to the viewer. The drop-down list was also much easier to submit on a mobile device.

Pre-filled information: If you have any information on the submitter, pre-fill it in for them to minimize the amount of information they have to input themselves. This saves them time (always appreciated) and also subtly reminds them that you already have a relationship. Include only the fields required by your sales team or CRM.

Responsive landing page: Having a responsive landing page makes it much easier for mobile viewers to read your landing page and submit forms. If you don’t have a responsive landing page, design with mobile in mind. Make sure you understand what the page is going to look like when viewed on a mobile device.

Call to action button: Test various calls to action. Doesn’t “Enter to Win” sound more fun than “Submit?”

Design elements: Try adding animation or some interactive element to your landing page to catch the viewer’s attention. We added an animated GIF to the landing page to add movement and reinforce the copy. Just make sure it doesn’t distract from the form but rather supports the call to action.

Interested in learning how to get more conversions from your landing pages? Read this eBook and learn how to turn every visit to your site into a lead – and a sale.