Rnordman

The CB staff were split on this one. So we argued the other side too.

In one of her first acts as CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer made a visionary decision: She ended the company’s extensive “work from home” policies and required employees to show up at the office. “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side by side,” she wrote in an instantly leaked memo. “We need to be one Yahoo, and that starts with physically being together.”

The reception of the Mayer Doctrine was so electric she might as well have nailed it to the door of Harvard Business School. Squishy notions about the importance of physical proximity had been circulating for some time, but here, finally, was a founding document of the faith.

The idea takes different guises: Steve Jobs famously designed the Pixar offices to stimulate “unplanned collaborations,” while Google strives to make sure no one works more than “150 feet from food” so that snacking colleagues will swap ideas casually. Workspace designers now talk about fostering “collisions” and “serendipity” in high-traffic areas to encourage spontaneous interaction.

Research is starting to back up the feel-good Silicon Valley vibe. A recent MIT study of a pharmaceutical company tracked a sales team of 50 people using badges to monitor their location in the office. Sales reps who had more interactions—that is, they talked to more people throughout the building—had higher sales figures.

“All-electronic communication doesn’t foster the same sense of belonging that coming together in physical spaces does,” says Kylie Roth, director of workplace research and strategy at St. Louis–based office furniture maker Knoll. Business innovations that have their origins in elevator chit-chat or offhand remarks are hard to observe but all around us, the dark matter of the universe of work.

MORE ABOUT OFFICE DESIGN:

• Why modern offices should offer more privacy
• How MEC’s new head office encourages employees to stay active
• A clean office isn’t necessarily a more innovative one
• How Google’s Canadian office design encourages collaboration
• How video game developer Ubisoft makes play a serious part of work

The post There’s just no substitute for meeting face-to-face appeared first on Canadian Business.

“A sales rep, an accountant, and a data scientist walk into a bar…” Is there really a joke in here somewhere? A recent Research Report will search for common ground in the world of business analytics, and explore how both B2B sales professionals and their operational counterparts can benefit from the adoption of best practices that support the use of sales analytics solutions.

Traditionally, B2B organizations have regularly pressured their front-line sellers to report, up the food chain, on all of their current and pending deals, particularly regarding the size and timing of each anticipated closed opportunity. Unfortunately, all too often, reps tell their superiors what they think the bosses want to hear. They also tend to overly rely on their gut instincts, “happy ears,” and “sandbagging” when communicating such information. Influenced by pending commissions, spiffs, and President’s Club vacations, reps and managers alike unfortunately let their emotions dictate the contents of the sales forecast.

Sales Forecasting is No Laughing Matter

The problem with this scenario is that, to paraphrase Star Trek, it involves too much Capt. Kirk, and too little Mr. Spock. A sales forecast based on gut feelings – “I’ve got a really good feeling about this deal, so I’m moving it to 90% likely to close” – is far more likely to yield an ineffective estimate of near-term sales results compared with a data-centric forecast that is devoid of emotion. Aberdeen’s Big Data for Sales: Are We Ready?, highlights the fact that more accurate sales forecasting is directly associated with better business results such as higher quota attainment by teams and individuals, annualized growth in revenue, and average deal size. Stronger forecasts can also contribute to success in reducing typical sales cycles. This is because delivering a more accurate sales forecast is not an exercise conducted for its own sake. Rather, many other corporate lines of business – supply chain, logistics, customer service, human resources, etc. – are better able to deliver just-in-time services when they know more precisely how much business they will be supporting immediately following the close of the selling period.

Enter the world of the corporate finance department and their brethren in IT discover that the business intelligence (BI) capabilities provided by the analytics tools at their disposal offer a significant amount of data-centric guidance to sales leaders able to recognize this bigger picture. To support this theory, Aberdeen’s Business Intelligence research practice recently conducted its “Business Analytics 2014″ survey, which included 83 respondents (among 664 total) specifically holding sales and sales leadership responsibilities. In Figure 1, we identify the business pressures that companies most frequently cite as barriers to producing a sales forecast efficiently and accurately.

Figure I: Key Sales Business Pressures Associated with Accurate Sales Forecasting

Most of these pressures revolve around problems with data: not enough of it, insufficient ability to analyze it, and a disconnect – think “garbage in, garbage out” – between the content provided by the field and the strategic decisions being made based on its limited realism. The issues here need, even before considering the adoption of technology applications to support the forecasting process, to be addressed by some basic business competencies that the more successful companies within Aberdeen’s research are more likely to already have in place.

Leading Companies Adopt Smarter Best Practices

The sales-oriented survey respondents were segmented into Leaders and Followers in order to help understand how the most successful organizations achieve their business results. In Figure 2, we see the variance in adoption rates of three business capabilities that support the kind of data-driven decision-making required for better sales forecasting.

Figure 2: Core Competencies Support Intuitive Selling and Forecasting

Leaders are 17% more likely than Followers to have an open exchange of operational data across business functions. Aberdeen’s report, Analytical Collaboration: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts, details at length how all lines of business benefit when data is shared and folks in different roles put their heads together. A data point or insight from the sales team could have enormous value to analytical minds working in other functions, and vice versa. For example, customer service data on a particular client might tell a sales team why they are suddenly getting stonewalled and additional data could help mold a fresh approach. Open exchanges also help prevent the great analytical sin of data siloing.

Leaders are also 33% more likely than Followers (48% vs. 36%) to actively address the seamy underside of B2B selling – the cost of losing or exiting deals, and the harm caused by discounting. They also address the more positive activities associated with providing sellers and channel partners with both financial and non-cash incentives for both measurable achievements and desired behaviors. All of these common sales activities, ostensibly undertaken with the goal of maximizing quota attainment, are not immune from the kind of emotion-driven static referenced above. The use of analytical and business intelligence tools, however, can help isolate those individual contributors, sales regions, product lines, pricing strategies, and contest / spiff programs, which are more or less likely to support successful deal closures. For example, a well-oiled collaboration between sales and finance teams, supported by the kind of customer data integration described in The Path Best Taken: Leveraging CRM in Pursuit of the Elusive “Single View of the Customer” can more effectively identify which existing, high-value customers should be offered small discounts to motivate renewal deals. Additionally those unprofitable accounts that should only be re-sold at full cost, because of their slimmer existing profit margins, can more readily be called out.

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Self-driving cars generate a lot of headlines. But there’s already a new kind of car on the road that’s completely changing the vehicle market.

The connected car is equipped with Internet connections and software that allow people to stream music, look up movie times, be alerted of traffic and weather conditions, and even power driving-assistance services such as self-parking.

By 2020, BI Intelligence estimates, 75 percent of cars shipped globally will be built with the necessary hardware to connect to the Internet.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we take a deep dive into the connected-car market. We size the market for connected cars, determine the average selling price and how it will decline over time, and assess different manufacturers’ approaches.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The connected-car market is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 45 percent — 10 times as fast as the overall car market. We expect that 75 percent of the estimated 92 million cars shipped globally in 2020 will be built with Internet-connection hardware.
• But of the 220 million total connected cars on the road globally in 2020, we estimate consumers will activate connected services in only 88 million of these vehicles.
• Connected-car vehicle prices are out of reach for most car buyers, but they will drop significantly in the next few years. The high average selling price of $55,000 is driven by the fact that connected-car shipments tilt toward the luxury category.
• Connected-car technology is now split between approaches that put the Internet connection in the car and those relying on a secondary device. Embedded connections don’t require a phone’s data plan to operate, and consumers and carmakers gain access to a wider variety of features and data.
• Embedded connections will win, in part because they offer two clear advantages to carmakers. They allow auto companies to collect data on cars’ performance and send updates and patches to cars remotely, avoiding recalls related to the car’s software.

 

This story originally appeared on www.businessinsider.com.

The days of customers needing salespeople to get information about what a product does, how much it costs, and even make a purchases are long gone. To succeed, sales reps need to step up their game as consultative sellers and provide insight to buyers.

It’s been some two and a half years since I publicly introduced my concept of The Connected Brand.

Just to recap, my definition of a ‘connected brand’ is a person, company or organisation that:

• connects with the people who matter the most to the success of its business, or cause or issue;
• contributes to their lives in respectful and meaningful ways;
• cultivates relationships with those people who are already fans, advocates, supporters and allies; and
• collaborates with other like-minded brands as a means of reaching new audiences, as well as helping it to stay fresh, relevant and vital.

How do they do this?

Through content creation (and curation), by kick-starting, facilitating and participating in conversation with customers and stakeholders via social media and other mediums (events, for example), and building a sense of community (or what I like to call ‘village of support’) around its brand by being empathetic, responsive and inclusive.

Over time, the brand becomes better placed to instigate its commercial call to action.

In other words, it has earned the right to pitch its wares and thus has a ready-made market predisposed to its message.

Too often we see businesses go for the sales ‘kill’ straight away without going through any of the above steps; they pitch cold without putting in the groundwork to build any semblance of a relationship with people. It’s akin to someone interrupting you at a networking event, shoving their business card into your hand and pitching you their new product or service – and we all know how well that works!

But please allow me to push this idea a bit further … and I apologise in advance for the length of this post – consider it a ‘stake in the ground’ – I’m building a case for a different way to market your brand, and you can’t do that in 140 characters :)

I don’t know about you but I’m starting to see a growing number of businesses and organisations – let’s for the sake of this article call them ‘connected brands’ – that are taking a human, holistic and heart-first approach to marketing, and it’s really working for them and, more importantly, the public they serve.

Where more ‘mercenary’ businesses see people as prospects and leads to be nurtured and converted, connected brands see human beings and thus treat them accordingly, with empathy and respect.

So while the make-the-sale-at-any-cost merchants are focused on the hustle (but often with little empathy for customers), connected brands are busy delivering value over and above their products and services, and are generating a positive impact on the marketplace and their bottom line as a result.

Now before you say “but hey, businesses are there to make money and build shareholder value”, let me state right here, right now: I get it!

I get that business is about making the sale and churning out growing levels of profit year in, year out. That’s not what this is about – I’m more concerned with how businesses go about marketing their brand; I’m saying there is a better way to do that in today’s socially-fuelled ‘connection economy’.

Every time you call us “consumers” we feel like cows looking up the word “meat.” (Doc Searls and David Weinberger/BACKCHANNEL)

Continue in ‘old school’ fashion – the traditional marketing model – and I can almost guarantee you’ll be overtaken at some stage by individuals and organisations who demonstrate empathy and generosity, who lead with their heart first, calculator second.

Remember: People are now empowered and they love it! They have more information at their fingertips than ever before. They have connections and influence. In a world of abundance, they don’t need you or your products and services. So how are you going to appeal to this increasingly discerning customer base?

The answer is inject a spirit of generosity into your business, bring your people out from the shadows and humanise your organisation, add value by providing helpful and relevant ‘non-salesy’ information, and most of all lead with your heart!

I’m not the only one who veers down this path of ‘heart first’. This philosophy manifests itself in many different ways as we’ll see below, but there’s definitely a pattern forming. Allow me to elaborate – and I’d love to hear your take on this theme as well :)

Scott Stratten, in his book Unselling, talks about “community before commerce” (I often talk about ‘connection before commerce’ as per The Connected Brand theory above, but I like Scott’s quote way better).

Mark Schaefer has judiciously and enthusiastically leveraged the power of blogging and social media to build an international platform for his personal brand; today he’s a globally-recognised blogger, speaker, educator, business consultant and author. Schaefer has come from a traditional sales and marketing role but understands better than most the shifting sands underneath the feet of marketers.

In his book Social Media Explained, Schaefer writes:

In an always-on, real-time, global world of business communications, the priority is on human interaction that leads to connections. Connections lead to awareness. Awareness leads to trust. Trust is the ultimate catalyst to business benefits, as it has always been.”

How good is that?

Bryan Kramer is the author of the acclaimed book ‘Human to Human #H2H’, which focuses on helping CEOs and marketers to bring back the “human side of communication, in all its imperfection, empathy, and simplicity”.

Kramer believes “relationships are the new currency in today’s social world”. He recommends companies keep it simple: ”Just be helpful. Do what you say you’ll do. Become better storytellers,” he writes.

Gary Vaynerchuk understands …

Gary Vaynerchuk is a born entrepreneur who is all about the hustle but he still understands better than most that by putting value first, by interacting with your community and building relationships, you’re going to ultimately win the fight for people’s hearts, minds and wallets.

Adherence to this philosophy has seen Vaynerchuk skyrocket from liquor store obscurity to becoming a social media powerhouse – professional speaker, best-selling author three times over, in-demand media commentator, angel investor and co-founder of a social media branding agency that employs some 420 people and in 2013 generated revenue of $23 million.

In his book The Thank You Economy, Vaynerchuk writes:

If your organization’s intentions transcend the mere act of selling a product or service, and it is brave enough to expose its heart and soul, people will respond. They will connect. They will like you. They will talk. They will buy.”

Ted Rubin talks and writes not about ROI, but ROR – Return on Relationships.

Rubin says: “Return on Relationship (ROR, #RonR), simply put, is the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship, whereas ROI is simple dollars and cents. ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through loyalty, recommendations and sharing, and is used to define and educate companies, brands, and people about the importance of creating authentic connection, interaction, and engagement.” (SOURCE)

How do you build and strengthen relationships with your audience (as a whole, and as individuals) to increase your ROR? Rubin says:

1. Listen
2. Make it be about THEM
3. Ask “How can I serve you?”
4. Aim for Ongoing Engagement
5. Know the People in Your Audience

Sounds like a heart-first approach to me!

In Unselling, Scott Stratten writes enthusiastically about Big Ass Fans, a company that designs, engineers and manufactures overhead and directional fans for industrial, commercial and residential spaces.

Founder of Big Ass Fans, Carey Smith, is quoted in the book: “Relationship first – then making money is good business.” Be part of the community, Smith advocates.

When you invest in the community, you know the pulse of those around you – your customers and your employees.”

Marketing software company HubSpot is all about people and education.

The company’s co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah says: “The future of marketing is about being human”.

HubSpot walks Shah’s talk. With great emphasis on educating the marketplace and teaching people to become better marketers, HubSpot has earned its reputation as one of the world’s leading brand-led content publishers. Does it work?

Well, the company is certainly no slouch when it comes to generating leads and closing sales – its business booked $115 million in revenue last year (via HubSpot’s 2014 Year in Review).

Okay, so let’s recap:

We’ve touched on the power of connection and how brands need to use social media and online publishing platforms to build deeper relationships, or as Mark Schaefer says, to “provide consistent, small provocations and conversations through content that lead to engagement and interactions” (SOURCE).

But what does this look like in action?

Here in Australia, companies such as Firebrand Talent and Valerie Khoo‘s Australian Writers’ Centre are not just growing their audiences (their respective ‘villages of support’) via social media, but their businesses as well. I frequently refer to these businesses as being classic examples of ‘connected brands’.

Give away your IP – and reap the rewards

Cam McLellan and his team at the property investment advisory firm Open Wealth Creation give away a fair whack of their ‘IP’ via their blog and particularly their daily video series. In an industry known for its fair share of ‘sharks’ and hard-sell tactics, this approach is not only refreshing but stands out like a beacon in the night (a beacon, I might add, that people are attracted to).

Cam didn’t start with the mentality of: “How many leads will this blog post generate?” No, he looked at his audience, developed empathy for their issues and pain points, and created and published content that gave away all his ‘secrets’ (and in doing so empowered people with information they crave).

And the strategy is working big time: Business Review Weekly last year ranked Open Wealth Creation 13th on its BRW Fast 100 list; the business turned over $6.1 million in 2013-14, with growth pegged at 137 per cent.

The Honey Bar’s Steve Vallas: Building a ‘village of support’

Steve Vallas from The Honey Bar is a purist when it comes to social media. He’s all about using the likes of Twitter and Facebook to build relationships with people as well as a sense of community around the Honey Bar brand.

And while that works for him personally, it’s also a highly effective strategy in growing the Honey business.

Steve’s a businessman and he’s very cognisant the ROI that can be achieved by building relationships. On achieving an outcome with social media, he says:

If the outcome starts with ‘I want to get them here drinking’, then chances are what you produce and the sorts of conversations you have are very one-dimensional – you’ve got to add some value to people, and whether the value is conversation late at night or whether the value is the space I’ve got to offer or an introduction I can potentially do – it comes in many different forms – the value is the key proposition”

For a deeper dive into how Steve uses social media to grow his business, check out the video interview above.

Brian Goulet: How can I help the most people?

I love what US-based Brian Goulet and the team at Goulet Pen Company are doing – they are in my eyes the absolute epitome of ‘The Connected Brand’ philosophy.

Rather than approach their content marketing efforts from the perspective of “how much traffic and how many sales will this video generate?”, Brian asks: “How can I help the most people?”

And it works! Goulet Pen Company provides so much value to its ever-growing community of adoring fans, followers, supporters and advocates of its brand, it’s seriously impressive.

The lengths Brian Goulet and his team go to, to help people and answer their questions through content and social interaction, would put most larger organisations to shame.

If you want to know what people think about the Goulet brand, check out the comments on this blog post. Indeed, I urge you to take a look and see first-hand what a community of raving fans looks like, then ask yourself: Would this heart-first approach to marketing work for my brand?

“Goulet Pens experienced 200% growth during their first year of business and have continued to enjoy growth rates each year in the 50-100% range.” (SOURCE)

Buffer is brilliant!

Social tech business Buffer too is brilliant at being fun, human, useful and helpful beyond the call of duty. The passion the company shows for its community is obvious, and they’ve built a serious global reputation in a short space of time.

Companies could do worse than check out Buffer to see how they go about their business.

Becoming a social executive

Dionne (aka ‘The Social Executive’) Lew gives heaps without the expectation of getting anything in return. For example, Dionne is terrific at connecting people with common interests.

She takes notice of what people are talking/tweeting/writing about and then introduces them if she thinks there would be a ‘good fit’ intellectually and personality-wise.

Along similar lines, one of France’s leading marketing bloggers Gregory Pouy tells this wonderful story about the real-life ROI of Twitter. He writes:

Twitter is an incredible tool for managing customer relations, promoting your products, and following the discussions involving your brand. But perhaps most importantly, Twitter allows you to connect with people who may very well change your life or your business.

Mark Masters & The ID Group

And finally, we have the ever-cheerful Mark Masters (left) who runs a design and content marketing agency based in regional England.

Rather than always be pushing his promotional message on to people, Mark – who’s also a blogger, podcaster and author – prefers to explore topics and issues by creating content, telling stories and participating on social channels. ”Let’s talk about it”, he says.

He writes in one blog post (‘Make Deeper Connections, Not Throwaway Moments’):

It is time to discover the ways where we can make an impact on others and to cause a reaction where we can challenge, entertain and be seen as representing a credible source that can create moments for others to be part of.

It’s working for Mark as he’s quickly making a name for himself in international content marketing circles. His new book – THE CONTENT REVOLUTION: Telling a Better Story to Differentiate From the Competition – is set to be released any time now.

(I recently recorded an interview with Mark for my Reputation Revolution podcast if you’re interested in hearing Mark’s philosophies in more detail).

But I’ll leave you with a quote from marketing provocateur and professional ruckus-maker Seth Godin:

“What matters now:

• Trust
• Permission
• Remarkability
• Leadership
• Stories that spread
• Humanity: connection, compassion, and humility”

And yes, I underscored that last bit for a reason

Sorry this was a bit of an opus – consider it my ‘line in the sand’ moment for 2015! – but I think it’s a conversation worth having and as taking a ‘heart-first approach to marketing’ can manifest itself in many ways, I feel it’s a good idea for people to see the how this theme is emerging across the various different industries as highlighted above.

Over to you – what are your thoughts on this subject?

You’ve made the great decision to set up an automated email campaign.

But are you covering all of your bases with the appropriate triggers?

Are you sending the right emails at the right times to current and prospective customers?

Triggers are the best way to get specific emails to specific segments of people based on their behaviors, actions or stage of the sales funnel.

And the best part is that your system will do the work for you.

So what triggers should you include in your email marketing strategy? Let’s find out!

1. Downloaded Educational Content

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Your lead just downloaded your newest ebook, infographic or industry report, what better time than now to send them an email to say thanks?

Yes, you want to send your lead a confirmation of their download and the link to the PDF, but you should also take advantage of this opportunity to offer them other content, a demo request, or a free trial. Another option is to ask them to share the content with their network, increasing your campaign reach.

Whatever it may be, a call-to-action is a key component of your follow-up email. Now that you have their attention, don’t waste it.

In the example below, the Content Marketing Institute chose to accompany their download email with a link to sign up for their educational bi-monthly magazine. This is the perfect real-life example of using a content download to promote another action.

2. Clicked-Through your Email

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If your subscriber clicks through and opens the link in your email, you know the topic interested them. Follow up with that individual using content related to that link.

For example, when subscribers open your email and click through on the included article link (say, “The Introductory Guide to Facebook Ads,”) you should nurture those subscribers with a secondary article for the more advanced Facebook Ad user. Knowing what your subscriber has or hasn’t read is a great indicator of what to send them going forward.

If you want to learn how to segment your email subscriber mailouts by opens, check out the walkthrough from Mailchimp.

3. Viewed a Specific Page of Your Blog or Website

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If a lead views a specific webpage or article you know they are interested in specific topics or can infer that they may be in a particular industry (based on the content). Draw insights from the fact they are viewing or reading that page, and send emails based on those insights. You can do this in your email platform by creating lists based on subscribers who visit specific URLs of your site.

For example if a lead viewed my article on real estate landing pages, I may send them the links to other real estate marketing articles on social media, and real estate lead generation.

Here’s an example of a segment of our own contacts within our CRM who have viewed the Wishpond Pricing page at least once since signing up:

4. Has Been Highly Active

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If you notice that a lead has recently viewed a lot of your content, downloaded multiple pieces of content, or been a frequent visitor to your blog, you can tell they have an increasing level of interest. Use this to your advantage by sending them an email with related content or tips you have in relation to their activity.

5. Has Been Highly Inactive

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You’ve probably all received the signature “We miss you” email. In fact, I have an example below that I received from Starbucks.

If your system discovers a lead has been inactive for a specific length of time (say six months), an email is the perfect way to re-engage with that individual. Perhaps your brand has slipped to the back of their mind and they’re unaware of your current promotional campaigns.

A triggered email brings your business back to the top of their mind, reminding them that they’re valued with a special offer, invitation or incentive.

6. Completed a Purchase

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By now it’s pretty customary to get an email as soon as your purchase is confirmed online.

However this is still an incredibly valuable email to send. The confirmation and thank you email is one of the most important trigger responses, signaling completion of purchase and offering more.

Those who have purchased before are 60-70% more likely to buy from you again, so use this email to encourage future purchases. One great way to do this is to include a discount or coupon code to get customers to make another purchase in the near future. You can also show other products that may interest or offer free shipping on their next purchase.

An example of a “thank you” email that does more from GoDaddy.com:

7. Signed Up for a Newsletter

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Probably the most common automated email trigger, it’s crucial that you send your latest newsletter subscriber an email straight off the bat. This email confirms their registration and is also the opportunity for them to get to know you a little bit better. You want to give your subscribers a brief overview of what they can expect from you.

My personal favorite is Groove HQ’s newsletter signup email which lets each subscriber feel like they actually know the CEO Alex Turnbull.

Taking this approach makes subscribers feel like they can trust you from the start and that you’re actually interested in building a relationship with them, rather than just blasting their inbox with content.

8. Signed Up for a Free Trial

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Within minutes of signing up for a free trial, your welcome email should be in the inbox of a new subscriber. Now is the time to thank them for signing up and give them a brief synopsis of how they can find success during the trial period.

An example template from Wishpond’s own email automation system.

Subject: Welcome to Wishpond!

Hi,

My name is [XXX] and I wanted to introduce myself and welcome you, officially, to [your company]!

The whole [your company] platform is built to help businesses like yours find success online. Everything we create we try to create simply and efficiently, and I’m confident we can achieve your goals (whatever that means for you) in the coming weeks and months.

Before we dive in, I’d love to get a little feedback from you: Why did you sign up for [your company]?

Knowing why you’re here is hugely influential in making sure that we can deliver. Just reply to this email.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll also be sending you a few more emails to help you get maximum value from [your company]. We’ll be sharing some tips, strategies, how-to’s, and more. And of course I’ll be checking in from time to time.

That said, if you ever need anything or have any questions about [your company’s] software (or just want to chat) send me an email and we’ll see what we can do.

One more time, Welcome!

Cheers,

[Your Name]

9. Abandoned their Shopping Cart

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Sometimes people leave your ecommerce site with items still in their cart. It happens. But don’t let them slip by without addressing it.

An email reminding them that they left items in their cart is a very effective sales recovery method. Often times customers just forget, the website crashes or they run out of time. What’s the harm in sending an email to jog someone’s memory, when the other option is leaving money on the table?

A great example of triggered abandonment emails can be seen below from sportswear company Altitude Sports:

10. Registered for a Webinar

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A webinar registration confirmation email is where you want to thank your registrants for signing up and give them more information about what to expect. Use this email as a way to convince them that attending will give them educational benefits they can’t get anywhere else.

Give them a few teasers as to what they will be learning and actionable steps they can take to prepare for the big day. One example would be to attach a worksheet or fill-in-the blank document directly relevant to your webinar content, giving them a way to follow along. By showing them glimpses of what they will learn and involving them in the process, they also are incentivized to attend.

11. Attended a Webinar or Event

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Now that the subscriber has actually attended your webinar or event, don’t stop with the relationship building. Send them a follow-up triggered email to thank them for showing up and maintaining your presence in their mind. In this email you can include a link to the recording of the webinar or minutes from your event as well as links to related articles, videos or products.

Below is an email I received after attending Amy Porterfield’s webinar on attracting more Facebook Fans. She genuinely thanks attendees for giving her their time and includes the link to the video recording and her downloadable slides. She has correctly utilized this email to continue engaging with attendees, providing them with more content relevant to their needs.

12. Viewed a Product on your Website

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While similar to viewing a specific page on your website, it is possible to also send triggered emails when a customer looks at a product but then leaves that page. My coworker actually received this email from a sports retailer last week displaying the item she had been viewing before bouncing from the site. An email highlighting the product and showing its benefits gets potential buyers to reconsider making that purchase.

You can also use this opportunity to show similar products based on that product view.

13. Signed Up for a Product Demo

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Registering for a product demonstration of your business is a clear sign of interest from potential customers. They’re looking to gain more knowledge before fully committing themselves to you.

I recommend sending 2 triggered emails to your product demo signups. First, send one as soon as they choose a date and time, introducing yourself and explaining what they can expect to learn in your session. You may also choose to ask them for some more information about their business or situation so that you can be well-prepared in presenting the products in relation to their needs. At the same time you may ask them to prepare a list of questions to bring to the demo to be answered.

The second email should be sent 24 hours before the product demo, reminding them that you have an appointment scheduled and telling them that you’re looking forward to meeting them soon.

These two triggered emails build the relationship with the potential customer (before actually having met) and helps both you and them to get the most value out of the demonstration.

Conclusion

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Email triggers are the perfect solution to grab the attention of your leads’ by supplying them with the right content at the right time. Are there any other behaviors or actions you are currently using in your email strategy?

Feel free to let me know in the comments section below!

- Written by Claire Grayston

I was recently interviewed by Marketo for their Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing eBook, and I wanted to share some ideas that didn’t find their way into the guide as well as some additional thoughts on lead nurturing with you.

Here are a couple of questions they asked me that ended up on the editing room floor that I want to include here in the B2B Lead Roundtable Blog:

What is one of the most unique lead nurturing tracks you have heard of someone creating?

Paradoxically, the most “unique” nurturing tracks are the most basic and have been executed long before the concept of lead nurturing ever existed: where a sales, marketing or customer service professional sends a prospect information focused specifically on meeting the client’s need.

Think relevance.

This is the essence of lead nurturing.

Lead nurturing is based on relevance, and what is relevant differs — even slightly — from person to person because we all have unique needs and motivations. Without relevance, lead nurturing becomes just another marketing campaign.

 

What is the most impactful test you’ve run for lead nurturing programs?

A global IT leader provided us approximately 50% of their leads generated that year (1,500 leads) that had not engaged with the organization for at least 90 days. We reviewed each lead to identify what motivated them and then phoned them. The conversation was based on their last engagement, and we concluded the call by asking the prospect if the IT provider could serve as a resource.

After three months of calling, 40% wanted to continue to be in the IT company’s lead nurturing program, 15% moved further along in the sales cycle and 7% converted into customers.

For an investment of less than $50,000, within three months the IT company gained $1.2 million in sales from leads that had essentially been untouched or forgotten.

 

A few more thoughts to share:

And, here are some more recent thoughts on lead nurturing which I’ll likely expand on in the future posts:

• Lead nurturing supports the conversation of the customer before, during and after their buying process.
• Sowing + Nurturing = Reaping. As you sow, so shall you reap. A relationship properly sown, tended to and helped-along lead should reap a long and bountiful harvest.
• Lead nurturing is about building relationships through relevant conversations, not campaigns.
• If your sales team is following up on nurtured leads, give them relevant and related talking points to use. The first impression matters. So does the second. And so does every single touch after that.
• Consistency and relevancy are key. Don’t let up. Be consistent. No matter how busy you are, make time to do lead nurturing activities.
• Treat “leads” like “future customers” because that’s what they are.
• “Tell-and-sell” is a thing of the past. Become a trusted advisor by adding value with each interaction and sharing relevant information. Read what is and isn’t lead nurturing.
• Nurture your existing customers. Don’t just emphasize new account acquisition nurturing. You should look to nurture your current customers with the same energy and optimism as you do with prospects. You’ll be amazed with the results.

 

Photo Attribution for nurtured plant: englishme community

Photo Attribution for guide image: 2015 Definitive Guide to Lead Nurture

 

You might also like

Marketo blog: 2015 Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing

Marketing Research Chart: The ROI of lead nurturing [MarketingSherpa chart]

Content Marketing Tips for Lead Nurturing [More from the blogs]

Marketing Research Chart: Messaging tactics for effective lead nurturing [MarketingSherpa chart]

Lead nurturing via email series and content marketing [More from the blogs]

The post Lead Nurturing: Unique tracks and impactful tests appeared first on B2B Lead Blog.

Meeting demand generation goals can feel like drudgery. Chipping away at an enormous boulder that never seems to get any smaller…sound familiar?

Modern marketers have ambitious targets to hit, and those targets just keep getting higher. How can we keep pulling the right levers to continue delivering high-quality leads to sales? How can we tweak our subject lines and calls-to-action to get prospects to click? How many more reports can we run before our eyes cross?

Most of us didn’t get into marketing for the drudgery. We got into it because marketing is fun. We’re creative, analytical, fast-paced, people-person types, and we like to get things done.

Well, it turns out there are a few ways to have fun with marketing that still keep you on track to meet your goals.

If you’re looking for ways to mix more fun into your marketing, try a few of these techniques. You’ll be having fun in no time!

1. Riff on a holiday

If you’re stuck for blog, email, or social content, try taking inspiration from the calendar. There are holidays every day of the year, whether mainstream (Valentine’s Day) or obscure (President Lincoln’s birthday! In 2015, he would have been 206 years old!), that could inspire your marketing. SnapApp developed a workbook to help you identify the holidays you could work with based on your brand messaging, audience, and goals. Download it for free!

2. Bring in pop culture

On social, tap into trending topics that align with your brand to increase social visibility and click-throughs. It’s fun to be part of the conversation!

3. Interview your colleagues

Your coworkers have a wealth of knowledge about your product, company, and customers – but they are also interesting people with interests outside work. Your next blog post could be an interview with a colleague about an aspect of your company, or about an external interest. Video hosting company Wistia posts “Non-Sequitur Fridays,” a fun weekly series written by Wistia employees about something other than work. They’re always excellent, often funny, and a nice look into the types of people that work at Wistia.

4. Run a raffle or contest

Who doesn’t like getting something for free? Raffles or sweepstakes are a great way to engage your audience with a fun incentive. Contests let you collect user-generated content that can be impressive and powerful – Atmel did this with an innovation-oriented video contest and generated over 200,000 votes.

5. Embed polls in your blog posts

You’re posting regularly, but not collecting leads from your blog. One way to jump-start blog lead generation is by embedding lead capture opportunities right in the body of a blog post – and a fun, relevant poll is a great way to do that.

6. Find memes that fit your brand

Ah, memes. The hilarious currency of the internet. Use a tool like MemeGenerator to find popular memes and add your own twist.

7. Spruce up your blog and social posts

While most marketers aren’t graphic designers, many of us are creative and like to tinker with art projects. Enter Canva: the best tool for non-designers to build beautiful designs. Build something fun to go with your latest blog or social media updates – you can use their pre-made templates or get creative with your own brand assets.

With all the pressure to meet deadlines and hit numbers, modern marketing can seem like no fun at all. But we’re marketing to people, after all, and people like to have fun. Spruce up your marketing with fun tactics and interactive content to get the demand gen results you’re looking for.

Want more inspiration? Download the free Ultimate Marketer’s Guide to the Holidays!

This post originally appeared on the SnapApp Blog. 

There are many processes in business that require a delicate balancing act. And in marketing alone, the balancing act has a really potent emotional stake.

It might sound strange for those of you who still think that emotions don’t play much of a part in B2B sales and marketing. But at the very least, there’s a strong case for prioritizing satisfied customers over innovative marketing if you really want to keep generating sales leads in the long run.

Take an example from Twitter’s dilemma between satisfying its users and satisfying its shareholders. Now what does Twitter accomplish from the way it tries to deliver better user experience? It basically does what any other sensible business would do:

• Listen to them.
• Make the necessary changes and/or fixes to satisfy demand.

The truth about this approach however is that customers don’t really tell you everything you need to know on how to revolutionize your product. In fact, in the context of B2B products and services, your customers wouldn’t even care if something like lower costs would really improve the satisfaction of shareholders.

What’s more, you don’t necessarily need to be a public company to feel the draw of marketing something revolutionary.

It’s just that in order to carry out your revolutionary idea, you need to give the answers you still haven’t provided. The following are just a couple of sensible reasons to why satisfied customers come first when it comes to generating sales leads:

• Satisfied customers talk – You may have already heard of referral marketing before. So obviously, you’ll know that satisfied customers are the key. Alternatively, it’s not good to have them promote a new product if you can’t even fix the problems of the one you previously sold.

• They’re amiable to changes – If you want to try something new, who’s more likely to brush it off in case it doesn’t work out? Is it the customer you’ve already disappointed time and again? Or is it the one you’ve established strong rapport with and has reason to believe you reliable regardless of a few hiccups?

• New ideas have to start somewhere – Finally, why struggle for a source of new ideas when satisfied customers can be a good springboard? Sure they may lack the foresight but if you want to start somewhere, the feedback from satisfied (or dissatisfied) customers is already a good place to look.

It’s still often the default strategy to try the latest marketing technique or tool in order to expand the market and increase production of sales leads. There’s nothing wrong with this except when you do it while blindly turning away from too many issues you still haven’t resolved.

I’m not going to keep you for very long today, I know you have a lot to do. But I just knew that you would want to know about this new development.

Let me start with a question for you. What is the number one thing that you think of when it comes to Facebook?

• Keeping up with family? Sure.
• Marketing your business? Absolutely!
• Getting news? More are doing that every day.
• Ranting? You bet?

Maybe my question wasn’t clear enough. Think about the question not in terms of what you do with Facebook, but what Facebook does itself. If you said ticking people off with new rules and policies, you win the blue ribbon. From privacy rules changes to hiding non-paid marketing posts, there is never a shortage of ticked-off people directing their ire at Zuckerberg’s baby.

One of the more interesting, for lack of a better word, policies that the social giant has had over the years – and one of the least known – is in regards to their dead users.

Yes, dead users. Did you know that, on average, 10,000 Facebook users die every day? A morbid fact to be sure, but true nonetheless. So what happens to their accounts?

Well, until very recently, when Facebook was made aware of a user’s passing they would put the account in a state of ‘memorialization’, meaning it was locked as-is for evermore. Dad left you his password so you could delete it when he went to the big social network in the sky? Tough luck, not happening.

Thankfully, someone at Facebook was bit by the good taste bug, and things changed for the better in February.

Now you have two options. First, you can choose for your account to be deleted upon your passing (my personal choice). Second, you can assign a ‘legacy contact’ who will be able to control your account after you’ve stopped taking air in. Just go to your security settings to choose either option. A legacy contact must, of course, be a Facebook user.

I’m not sure exactly why anyone would want someone else to keep their account going after they’re on the other side of the dirt, but there’s a better option. After all, your half-crazy cousin Ida might not enhance your post-life reputation should they forget their medication one day.

If for some reason you want to do some post-mortem posting, just use Sendible to schedule your posts in advance. There’s no limit on the number or time-frame for scheduled posts, so go crazy. Of course, if this is your plan of action, that may not be a far trip.

The explosion of connected devices / sensors is creating an ever-expanding set of new and valuable data. In parallel the emerging capability of Big Data technologies to store, access, analyze, and react to this data is producing changes in business models under the umbrella of the Internet of Things (IoT). In particular within the Insurance industry, IoT appears positioned to enable deep changes by altering relationships between insurers, distributors, and the insured. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Michael Sick, a Senior Manager and Big Data Architect within Ernst and Young's Financial Service practice, to discuss how the IoT has the potential to shrink the distance between the insurer and insured by providing increased knowledge of the behavior of customers, prospects and distributors in the context of their surrounding environment. Usage Based Insurance (UBI) within auto insurance has been an early testing ground. Streaming vehicle data has enabled participating insurers to improve their understanding of driving behaviors and to adapt the pricing and management of these risks. Given the promise of the early findings, auto insurers are increasingly offering sensors that monitor individual driver behavior while asking consumers to trade privacy regarding their driving behaviors and locations for lower prices.

read more

What Is A Call-To-Action Button?

Call-to-action (CTA) buttons are the buttons you use in your website and on your landing pages to guide users towards your goal conversion. It’s the part of the landing page that the user needs to click in order to take the action you want them to take. CTA buttons can vary in style and size depending on your goal conversion and website style. Some common examples of call-to-action buttons are:

• Add to cart buttons
• Free trial sign-up buttons
• Download buttons

CTA buttons have a very specific goal: to get your web visitor clicking and completing a conversion. Today we’ll be discussing 17 call-to-action button best practices to help you get the most clicks out of your beautiful buttons.

1. Use Action-Packed Text. Call to action buttons should feature striking, action-oriented text. Substitute boring words like “submit” and “enter” for more action packed words like “get,” “reserve,” and “try.” Your action words should go along with specific text relating to your offer like:

• Try Our Free Trial
• Reserve Your Seat
• Download Whitepaper

Udemy’s “Take This Course” button text gives a a great offer-related action.

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has a nice site design, but their button text could be better. Instead of boring “Go,” why not try “Book An Event” ?

2. The Colors Duke, The Colors. Your button color matters. It matter a lot. In fact, if you’re going to take only one tiny single piece of advice from this post, it should be to give careful consideration to your button colors.

#ThingsOnly90sKidsWillUnderstand

Generally speaking, green and orange buttons are reported to perform best. Ultimately though it will depend on your site design, as contrasting colors work best to make striking buttons that stand out. You wouldn’t want a green CTA button on a green background.

Green and purple are contrasting colors – plus those dinos are adorable

If you’re not sure what looks best, run the super sophisticated squint test and see what comes off most appealing. However, if you really want to know what color CTA button will work best on your page, testing is the only way to go!

Check out this cool color psychology infographic from Kiss Metrics when you have the chance. It’s a pretty interesting study on how different colors inspire different emotions!

3. Snazzy Button Shapes. Button shape can also play a big role when attempting to craft the perfect CTA button. You’ll need to consider whether you want to go with a more rounded button shape or a button with square edges. Hard to say what works better here as both style are common and both can perform well in different settings. Ultimately you’ll have to test shapes and see what works best for your biz!

In ContentVerve’s test, a rounded green button did better than a blue rectangle

4. Large and Legible Text. Your button text should be large enough to read easily, but not so large that it looks obnoxious or intimidating. You want to avoid a “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” situation.

While it may seem absurd to imply that large text makes people feel anxious or uncomfortable, many users do experience subconscious distaste for threateningly large lettering. Your button text should be big enough to draw attention, but not so big that it completely overwhelms the rest of the content.

5. Button Text Shouldn’t Go On and On and On. We discussed earlier how it’s good to use specific action-oriented button text. Considering that, it may be tempting to stretch out your button text, but that’d be a bad move. Ideally you’ll want to keep that button text to two or five words.

this CTA button is probably OK, but it’s nearing the red zone

6. Go With 1^st Person Speech. Michael Aagard of Content Verve shared a study in which he discovered that changing button text from 1^st person (e.g. “get my free template”) to 2^nd person (e.g. “get you’re free template”) resulted in 90% increase in clicks! See how changing your CTA button to 1^st person speech affects your CTRs.

7. Create a Sense Of Urgency. Constructing a sense of subtle urgency in your call to action buttons can yield some impressive click-through rates. For example, you could use button text like:

• Sign Up and Get 50% Off Today Only!
• Download the Build Apps E-Course for $30 $10!

Even just adding “now” builds a subtly sense of urgency for users:

• Register For The Ultimate PPC Webinar Now!

The example below does a nice job of creating a sense of urgency. My only issue with it is the red X marks – they are there to denote points of information, but to me it looks like they are sold out or cancelled events. That’s a dangerous misinterpretation!

8. Keep it Above the Fold. You always want to keep your call to action button above the fold so that users never miss it. As noted in an earlier post about landing page best practices, the important vital information should always be kept above the fold. The additional extra info should stay below the fold, where it remains assessable but not distracting.

9. Natural Hierarchy. Sometimes you’ll have other buttons on your web page that are not your main call-to-action conversion buttons. Those buttons should be less attention-grabbing than your main CTA button. For your non-CTA buttons, try using gray scale buttons or monochromatic colors. Your main call-to-action button should always be the biggest and brightest.

Starbucks does a nice job of clarifying their main CTA button while keeping within their color scheme

10. Use Button Copy for Value Proposition. You may notice that many buttons include the word “free,” as in, “Get My Free Ebook.” “Free” is an enticing word, and using that word in button copy emphasizes your offer’s value proposition. Consider your offer’s value proposition and how it might best be displayed in your call-to-action button.

11. Get Fancy With Button Graphics. In some cases, small arrows or graphics on your CTA button can positively affect click-through-rates. If you’re going to use graphics, make sure that your icons clarify rather than confuse the offer for users. For example, you would want to avoid using a disk download icon for a user who is registering for a webinar.

12. Bonus Button Text. There are some situations where you may want to consider adding an extra line of information within your button text.

This practice is common with free trial buttons. For example, a free trial button might say “30 day trial, no credit card” in smaller text beneath the main “Start Your Free Trial” button text. This is valuable info that will encourage users to click through to begin their trial.

example from Dashboard

This won’t always be necessary with all buttons, but when it fits, this extra information can help CTRs a lot.

Alternatively, you can put that extra information underneath or beside a button. Copyblogger refers to these elements as “click triggers.” Some examples of click triggers include:

• Testimonials
• Anxiety-Suppressing Info (e.g. No credit card required)
• Key Benefits
• Data Points (e.g. users see a 40% increase in shares when using X)

Example from Social Sprout

13. Cart Call-To-Actions. E-commerce sites will want to spend the most time A/B testing their cart/purchase buttons. Even small adjustments in cart buttons can dramatically affect conversion rates. Be sure to offer buttons for other payment options like PayPal.

Having a PayPal button can be a huge incentive – there have been MANY times ordering food where I’ve been too lazy to fish out a credit card and only move forward by the grace of PayPal.

14. Less is More When it Comes to Choices. Us humans tend to suffer from the choice paradox – we enjoy choosing between an apple or an orange, but present us with apples, oranges, dragon fruit, grapes, pomegranates, bananas, clementine, and mangos and our heads may nearly explode with indecision.

In one study by Mark Lepper of Columbia University, participants who were asked to choose one chocolate from a box of six were happier with their selection than participants who selected one chocolate from a box of 30. Keep your users happy by giving them fewer buttons to choose from!

If you do want to include multiple button choices, give weight to once choice over others to help funnel users towards a specific path. It doesn’t even matter what path really – users just wanted to be guided!

Buffer offers several sign-in options, but emphasizes one over the others

15. Follow the Natural User Flow. In Western culture, we read top to down and left to right. Keeping this natural reading flow in mind can help influence smart button placement. Call-to-action buttons placed towards the bottom or to the right of content often outperforms alternative placements.

Most importantly, never force users to backtrack in order to click a button – CTA buttons should appear in appropriate places that align with a user’s experience. For example, you would want to put a “sign up now” button in a spot where a user would find it after reading about your offer or product, not before, as it would make no sense for a user to sign up for an offer they know nothing about!

16. Widen That White Space. Your CTA buttons should always have a healthy chunk of white space surrounding them. White space helps call the users’ attention to your button and helps it stand out.

This CTA button from Mixbook has plenty of white space

17. Test Buttons Like Your Life Depends On It. Testing with CTA buttons is absolutely vital! If you haven’t done much A/B testing before (tsk tsk), the call-to-action buttons are a great place to start as even small, easy-to-make changes can have dramatic effects. Test placement, color, style, text – if you can think of it, you should test it!

Warren Buffett's 50th annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders is out. 

In it, Buffett talks about the company's successes, but also its mistakes. (Mistake #1, in fact, was buying Berkshire Hathaway.)

Buffett's next mistake, however, ended up costing him and his partners $100 billion. 

Here's the deal:

In 1967, Buffett bought Omaha-based insurer National Indemnity Company for $8.6 million. Except instead of buying this company for Buffett Partnership Ltd., Buffett's investing vehicle through which he was investing at the time and which held most of his personal wealth, he bought this company through recently acquired Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett knew he wanted to be in the insurance business, and he knew the NICO deal would be a long-term success. But how he executed the deal was a huge mistake. 

"Jack Ringwalt, the owner of NICO, was a long-time friend who wanted to sell to me – me, personally," Buffett wrote.

"In no way was his offer intended for Berkshire. So why did I purchase NICO for Berkshire rather than for BPL? I’ve had 48 years to think about that question, and I’ve yet to come up with a good answer. I simply made a colossal mistake."

And so because Buffett bought this company through his Berkshire holding, and not BPL, NICO became 39%-owned by Berkshire's legacy shareholders, to whom Buffett says he and his partners had no obligation. 

"Despite these facts staring me in the face, I opted to marry 100% of an excellent business (NICO) to a 61%-owned terrible business (Berkshire Hathaway), a decision that eventually diverted $100 billion or so from BPL partners to a collection of strangers."

Even so: Berkshire's return over the last 50 years?  1,826,163%

SEE ALSO: The way Warren Buffett thinks of a great value is really gross

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How To Invest Like Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett just dropping his annual Saturday morning knowledge in the form of an annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

And he's also giving major love to one of the hottest startups in the world: Airbnb. 

For an investor who has traditionally shunned new technology plays, it is a surprise to hear Buffett talking this way.

Buffett — ever the penny-pinching CEO — extolled Airbnb for attendees of his annual conference, taking place this later this year in Omaha. Airbnb is also reportedly in the midst of raising a fresh round of capital that will value the home rental startup at nearly $20 billion, according to TechCrunch. 

Here's what he had to say: 

 "We get terrific help at meeting time from literally thousands of Omaha residents and businesses who want you to enjoy yourselves. This year, because we expect record attendance, we have worried about a shortage of hotel rooms. To deal with that possible problem, Airbnb is making a special effort to obtain listings for the period around meeting time and is likely to have a wide array of accommodations to offer. Airbnb's services may be especially helpful to shareholders who expect to spend only a single night in Omaha and are aware that last year a few hotels required guests to pay for a minimum of three nights. Those people on a tight budget should check the Airbnb website."

Here's a look at Airbnb's offerings in Omaha. There are a few hundred rooms available, at as little as $30 a night, right now. That's a big discount compared to what hotel chains in Omaha charge during his big conference: 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

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GUEST:

“I see no reason why video with mobile isn’t one of the most explosive forms of media over the next 12-36 months.”

That’s Kira Wampler, CMO of the popular ride-sharing service Lyft, at this week’s VB Mobile Summit in San Francisco. Wampler joined Zain Jaffer, CEO of video ad platform Vungle, on stage for a chat about video’s role in brand advertising.

The two companies have teamed up this year to deliver Lyft ads to mobile app users who might be in need of a ride.

“Your mobile device is always on you,” says Wampler. “[Video] can be relevant to where you’re standing. It can be social, something shared with you. As more tools come out that allow you to better discover, we’ll continue to see more people consume.”

Advertising that bridges education, awareness, and performance

For Lyft, running video ads on mobile was an obvious choice to attract new riders and educate the market on ridesharing. While ‘catching a Lyft’ may be commonplace in the company’s hometown of San Francisco, the average American isn’t sold on the concept.

Part of Lyft’s strategy is to change this public perception.

“When I grew up, getting in a car with a stranger was something your parents told you not to do,” said Wampler. “We have to educate people on what ridesharing is. But, at the same time we have to measure performance overall…With video, we buy on a performance basis and will continue, but we see video as hybrid tool of awareness and performance.”

Jaffer says that’s precisely mobile video’s sweet spot.

“For performance advertisers, it’s about driving installs and ROI. Getting your brand across in 15 or 30 seconds, that’s where video has power over pictures.”

Helping to lead mobile for consumer brands

Today, mobile advertising is mainly composed of gaming apps, says Jaffer. The entrance of companies like Lyft will diversify inventory and by doing so, ratchet up the consumer experience.

“Let’s say you’re playing Sega’s Sonic Dash,” he explains. “You hit an obstacle and the game gives players an option to watch an ad to revive the user. That’s a great opportunity to show people a brand ad – they’re going to be more engaged because they’ve chosen to watch it.”

The transition in ad dollars, however, is slow to come. While many brands have embraced online advertising, only 34% of advertisers polled in 2014 planned to move money from TV to mobile.

This makes Lyft’s innovative approach all the more important. “Advertising is big industry, but when you get advertisers like Lyft it changes the dynamic and you get a much bigger market size.”

The mobile industry in progress: An opportunity for experimentation

“We wanted to run Lyft ads during peak hours when people were riding it,” said Jaffer. What we found is, people don’t download and use the app immediately. The phone has so much potential, so much data we can tap into, and get more intelligent with campaigns.”

For Wampler, this experimentation is just part of the process.

“As a marketer, you should be using a blend of art and science. The art is about deeply understanding consumers, drawing insights out and using insights to build hypothesis around which you test. When you test, you’re using A/B, you’re using science to understand what’s performing and for whom….The key message for marketers is blending these two together.”

Next on the horizon

All of this data, experimentation, and the shift in mobile consumption is changing the future of advertising, says Jaffer.

“With performance advertisers, it’s about driving installs and ROI. We’ll soon be living in a world where everything is measurable. Advertisers will buy because they want ROI and that’s how ads should be.”

Kira Sparks is Content Marketing Manager at Vungle. Kira works to communicate the value of the start-up’s breakthrough video ad-serving technology as well as provide education and insight to its community of mobile app publishers and advertisers. 

 

While surveys are useful at collecting information on customers and how they feel about certain interactions, products or services there are other ways to gain meaningful insights.

First let’s define what we mean by customer insights:

Customer Insights Defined: a deep understanding of a customer’s needs and behaviors—both known needs that the customer can identify, and the latent needs that they cannot.

It also helps to begin by framing the type of customer insight you are looking to uncover. There are 4 main categories of customer insights that are useful to driving business performance.

1. Strategic Customer Insights – these are used to inform the company’s strategy by understanding what unique market segments exist in the marketplace. For example in the telecommunications industry there are a wide range of different types of customers with unique needs. Some customers now use smartphones as their primary internet device, their needs will be different from customers that still use cell phones primarily for phone calls and text messages.

A deep understanding of the needs of different market segments allows a company to determine which segments are most attractive. This customer insight also allows a company to identify where it needs to improve its own value proposition in order to attract and retain customers from each segment.

2. Program Specific Insights – these are insights specific to a component of a business strategy. For example, a manufacturer looking to roll out a training program to its retailers would need insight into the most effective methods to educate retailers. Should training be conducted in person, via a webcast or through a self service portal?

3. Product and Service Insights – these are direct inputs into how products or services could be improved. A great example of this in action is “My Starbucks Idea”, an online brainstorming tool driven by customers. Customers share ideas and other customers can vote on them so the best customer driven ideas rise to the top.

4. Insights for Marketing Communications – understanding what media and mediums customer’s use to get information informs how companies can more effectively reach and communicate with potential customers. For example if the customer group in question is predominantly focused on using social media, understanding which social media platforms they are most engaged in will help direct communication resources.

So now to the question of how to generate insights without surveys…

Customer insights can initially be generated from reviewing existing publicly available research and data as well as data internally available to the company. This often involves internal interviews with experts in markets and front line people that interact with customers on a regular basis. While this is useful it is secondary research, a review of what already exists and while it can generate new insights it is more useful for gaining alignment around what the company already knows about customers.

To gain deeper unique insights an ongoing process should be implemented that involves primary research. This doesn’t need to be complicated or only handled by marketing research profession in fact it is more impactful when people across the organization are involved.

Customer Immersion Activities

The most time and cost effective way to generate insights is to simply talk with customers. In today’s world this can include a range of mediums from one on one interviews to focus groups to online forums like the one Starbucks runs or Ideastorm, Dell’s equivalent.

Now I realize that technology products and coffee are highly engaging products with many willing participants, what if you sell toilet paper or a product that inspires less passion?

For these less inspiring categories a great source of insight can be customer complaints. Barbara Buchanan has written a great article titled “Mining Complaints and Negative Social Media May Have Positive Consequences” including some examples from the banking and manufacturing industry. The key is making it easy for customers to complain and provide feedback in real time, in the moment. For example a Hospital in California installed posters around the hospital with a QR codes. Patients can scan the QR code on their phones and immediately send a manager a message about an issue. Managers receive these in the form of text messages and commit to responding immediately and resolving issues as fast as possible. Patient satisfaction has doubled in the past several quarters as a result.

 

Going Deeper by Observing Customer Behavior

Ethnographic research can provide deep insights into people’s behaviors and unmet needs by taking a holistic view of customers in their own environment.

This is a more expensive technique but can yield unique insights. A great example comes from a day in the life analysis of women cleaning their homes in Italy. A US company after failing to gain success with an all purpose cleaner for the home in the Italian market, undertook ethnographic research to understand why the product was failing. It discovered that Italian women spent 4 times as much time cleaning their homes than US women. They were fastidious and extremely house proud. They used specific cleaners for specific jobs as they believed an all purpose cleaner simply would not get the job done. These insights allowed the company to reposition the cleaner to focus on meeting a more specific need – benchtop cleaning. The repositioning resulted in a much more successful launch into the italian market.

Piloting New Products or Services

This involves putting new products or services in front of customers to gain direct feedback. A modern version of this can be seen on websites like Kickstarter, where entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs can essentially describe a product or service and raise funding for the idea. This is really the ultimate way to test concepts, will customers pay for it? One of the most successful products launched on Kickstarter is the Pebble Watch. It launched 18 months prior to Apple announcing their own iWatch. It is now raising funding for its second version and has raised almost $10 million to date.

Mining Social Media

The last incredible source of rich customer insight exists within a wide range of social media including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, Pinterest and other online communities. There are a range of different companies that can help mine this online data and distill sentiment and feedback in a meaningful and actionable manner. A great list of the top 50 tools is provided here by Pam Dyer.

While surveys remain a great way to elicit direct feedback on specific topics of interest to the company, there are many other ways to generate insights that should be incorporated into every company’s way of doing business.

The content marketing strategy for B2B companies changes throughout the sales funnel. In this second part of an interview by the SD AMA, Jeremy Durant of Bop Design discusses how content can be tailored specifically for the Decision Phase of the sales funnel for B2B firms.

All interviews were by Jimmy Page, Vice President of Content and Analytics, at the San Diego Chapter of the American Marketing Association for the segment, This Week in Marketing powered by wsRadio.com. All recordings can be accessed on the SD AMA website.

Jimmy: We spent the majority of the first segment talking about an overview of the content industry. How B2B companies are looking at it, and a high level understanding of how you’re looking at stages of the buying process, and applying content to it. We’re going to start really digging into pieces of the funnel and how you design content and think about content for those specific pieces. We’ll start with high to mid-funnel. For people who aren’t as familiar with the marketing funnel, what we’re talking about there is awareness-style marketing. More sort of high-level, making people understand what you’re doing. People who are in an informational research phase, those kinds of things. Jeremy, you mentioned the first stage in the buying process is what you called, “Discovery,” in the first segment. How do you identify a customer that’s in Discovery phase, based on behaviors?

Jeremy: You actually almost have to look at the Discovery phase from both sides. As the business, you’re discovering that client, and you’re trying to qualify them. It’s really a two-way street where both sides are trying to discover and qualify the other. I’m looking at certain behaviors with content, just certain personality behaviors with the client that I think are important. If a client seems to know better than I do in terms of content, that could be a major red flag. You want to make sure that they’re hiring you as an expert. If you’re supplying content, and they either disregard it, or have better ideas, even though you, as that business, have a tried-and-true process, that can be a major red flag. I look for little “superficial” things like that from a personality standpoint that I think are very important. What you’re doing there is you’re trying to qualify that client from a personality standpoint, to know if you can take this project from start to finish. With most b-to-b projects, it’s typically a long-term partnership. You’re going to be working with this person for months, if not years, so you want to get that right out of the way immediately. That definitely is, from a content standpoint, just seeing the reaction to certain content is a big thing. If they’re eager to learn, and they actually look at you as that expert, that’s a great sign.

Also, what you’re looking at is you’re trying to set expectations. For most clients they don’t go, now this may be their first time hiring your product, or finding a product or service like yours. You need to make sure that they have the proper expectations, so in that Discovery phase, you’re just supplying them with educational pieces on everything from budget, to timeline, to number of decision-makers, basically setting the expectation from start to finish of what needs to happen, because if you don’t set that expectation up front, in terms of project timeline or project expectation, it’s going to be doomed for failure down the way. That’s another big thing in terms of educating the content. Supplying educational content in that Discovery phase to make sure that they have the right expectations going forward.

Jimmy: How do you know what are these content pieces that I supply to someone who is in this Discovery phase, this kind of initial learning phase? If you’ve got an example, I know you’ve got a ton of B2B clients, something that you could give us as a story about how you’ve approached Discovery content for a B2B software company, or something like that.

Jeremy: Tried and true, the best Discovery piece of content that I think you can create, and I feel like every B2B firm needs to have this, is a simple buying guide. I talked about taking control of the conversation, taking control of the sales process. If you can be the one that’s supplying that prospect with a buying guide of the right questions to ask, let’s say as a software firm, “Hey, you’re looking to hire just an out-sourced, contract software firm to create something. What are those questions you need to ask? What are potential red flags?” That allows you, because keep in mind, you’re putting that buying guide together, guess what, you already have those answers ready to go. Typically, they’re already in your content piece, and then you’re taking control of the conversation, dictating the questions that are going to be asked to your competition. A buying guide, that’s the first piece of the content that we almost do with every content marketing project, because most people don’t have that yet. They’re like, “Oh, I shouldn’t be creating the buying guide, that should be a third party.” I’m like, “No, there isn’t a buying guide out there, so you might as well be the one sponsoring that content, and taking control of the conversation.”

Jimmy: What obstacles are you facing when you’re in the Discovery phase? It sounds really easy to create content that’s a) going to sell for you, and b) give people the information, all type of content that they need, but it’s not that easy, and I think we all know that. I think a lot of people struggle with this. What are the biggest obstacles you see in this phase?

Jeremy: The number one obstacle is always going to be doubt. When you look at the sales process, you almost have to look at a scale of, once you can outweigh doubt with evidence, that’s where you can get the sale, and what’s evidence? Evidence is the content. That’s where you’re taking somebody from that initial doubt, to peace of mind through the process. “Hey, they seem to know what they’re doing, and if they seem to know what they’re doing, they’re probably going to get this project done.” I always tell my staff and our clients, any of our content marketing clients, that you serve like you sell. Really, your number one brand promise, you know people talk about brand promise all the time, it’s just messaging. One of the top brand promises, or the way that you present your brand promise, is through your sales process. If your sales process is disorganized, not responsive, chances are your customer service, and your actual service delivery is going to be consistent with your sales process. Keep that in mind. Doubt is always number one. It’s kind of a nebulous term, but really, you’ve got to remember that prospects don’t know you from anyone. Really, what you want to do is provide enough evidence through content to outweigh the doubt.

Another big thing is budget. Obviously, every time price is going to be one of the first qualifiers. “Hey, what’s your budget?” Do they have a realistic budget, and how do you educate a prospect, through content, about what an appropriate budget is? That can be things like an info-graphic about your process. What you want to do with content is build value. Talk about, “Hey, here’s how many steps are involved in this particular process. Here’s how many different specialists we need involved. Here’s the number of hours.” I think that a lot of prospects may underestimate the time it takes to get something done. They just see the finished product, and they think it’s just magic, and it gets done. The more you educate up front about the process, and this typically goes into even the consideration phase at this point, the more that you talk about all the intricacies, and all the steps in the process, the more they will understand the value, and the more their budget will expand.

Jimmy: It makes a lot of sense. Where does blog content fit in here? You talked about it in the first segment a little bit. I know there are probably multiple stages of the funnel that blog content touches, on the B2B website side, but I have to assume, especially from a search engine perspective, there’s probably some ability to catch, from an acquisition perspective, people who aren’t aware at all in this top funnel. Am I right?

Jeremy: Yes, exactly. We consider, in our process, the blog the center of your content marketing strategy. Really, the blog content almost touches all parts of your content marketing. What you want to start out with, with any sort of blogging strategy, is an editorial calendar, typically wrapped around the key words you want to target. I always advise to, from an SEO standpoint, I think a lot of SEO people want to spread themselves too thin with way too many key words they’re targeting. Just come up with a wish list of 4 to 5 key word phrases that are reasonable, that you think you can be top 3 on Google within the next 6 months to a year. Come up with those key words, and then design a blogging strategy around those key words. Each month, you go from one key word phrase, to the next that you’re targeting, with blog content around that. Then, what you want to do with this blog content is repurpose it on as many platforms as possible. Just getting blog content written down is 95% of the battle. Why just have it on your website? A B2B website is great, because it does address your on-page SEO objectives, but why not start addressing that content, utilizing that content for off-page SEO, for lead nurturing, for social media. Keep in mind, the people reading your blog content are typically unqualified prospects. They’re not even on your radar yet. They’re on your website, they haven’t converted yet. You don’t even know who they are. They’re really at that Discovery phase.

Meanwhile, people that might be reading your email newsletter, which is re-purposed blog content, are already strategic partners, current clients, or qualified prospects. You’re really utilizing the same content. Keep in mind, I know with the Discovery versus the Consideration phase, you’re utilizing different content, but there is sometimes content that can be used for both. It just depends. You want to repurpose this content and address marketing objectives from leading nurturing, to off-page SEO, because, keep in mind, with this blog content, a lot of it could be used for guest blogging opportunities on high domain authority websites that are going to help with back-links to your site. Some may be more newsworthy. I know news wire services now have diminishing SEO returns, but it’s still good to drive traffic to your B2B website, and basically utilize that blog content for a press release, for a third-party validation. “Hey, this publication, Yahoo Finance, has published our article.” The client goes, “Hey, these guys are legitimate. I think they’re credible enough to do the job.”

Read more about content marketing and how it relates to the Consideration and Decision Phases of the sales funnel in Part III of this interview on content marketing for B2B firms.

The B2B content marketing focus changes throughout the sales funnel. In this third part of an interview by the SD AMA, Jeremy Durant of Bop Design shares how content should be modified for the Consideration and Decision Phases of the sales funnel for B2B companies.

All interviews were hosted by Jimmy Page, Vice President of Content and Analytics, at the San Diego Chapter of the American Marketing Association for the segment, This Week in Marketing powered by wsRadio.com. All recordings can are available on the SD AMA website.

Jimmy: In the last segment, we touched on the transition to the consideration phase a little bit where the prospect starts to invest more time in understanding the solution, and we talked about some mediums that were touching the discovery phase, but also potentially starting to move people into this next phase, this consideration phase. How does the B2B content fit once someone has moved to consideration? What are the new hurdles that the marketer is facing in this new phase? What does it look like from a content standpoint?

Jeremy: So you’re really now working with content going from more rational, kind of metric-driven content, more kind of reasonable content versus more emotional content. This is where you can actually start presenting before-and-afters, let’s say, on a project, because at the end of the day, the buying process is emotional. They want to see what can be.

At the beginning, you’re just giving some stats and educating the client on the buying process and what they should look for. Now you’re getting more into their individual situation, reminding them of potential pain points they could be experiencing with their current situation and then here’s how it could be. That’s what the content needs to go after. That can be before-and-afters. That can be really status quo versus the new way, but really more appealing to their emotional side versus their rational side.

That’s a big thing that from a content perspective, and with a lot of B2B firms, they’ll struggle with that. They’re like, “Well, I’m not selling a Porsche here. It’s not an emotional buy.” I say, “No, absolutely, it is.” If you’re selling to a business owner that’s spending their weekends away from their families because they’re still dealing with some QuickBooks accounting issue that their accounting firm didn’t get done, that is reminding them of that current situation. What could be done through content is a great way to prompt you in the vetting process to get to the decision phase.

Jimmy: Think about a piece of content like a case study. Is that more consideration? Or is that discovery? Or can it be both? I don’t think of it as being emotional. I think of something like that as being rational, but I also think of it as kind of a mid-funnel selling type piece.

Jeremy: It can be both. With a case study, though, you’re typically, yeah, you’re going to have the rational points in there of maybe some metrics, some percentages, but then you’re also going to have the more qualitative information in there of, “Hey, this allows this much more time for this or that,” and you’ve got to remind people of their time and what time could be better spent with loved ones or with a hobby. I think people need to be reminded of that and connected to that.

As you go down the funnel, it’s typically a little bit more hand-holding, so a lot of the content that you’re presenting isn’t just being read remote from you; a lot of times you’re presenting this content and you’re actually guiding a prospect through that content and talking it through. You already know certain personality quirks, certain back story to a particular prospect, so as you’re going through that case study or a webinar or the before-and-afters, you already have notes in your head or wherever that you know you can appeal to the emotional side.

It may just say in the case study, “Hey, save 25 hours a month implementing this new process … Oh, hey, you know with that 25 hours, you know how you couldn’t coach your son’s little league team this year? You can do that next year.” Remind them of those emotional benefits from changing from the status quo to the new way.

Jimmy: Yeah. What’s going through my head at the same time is there’s probably a huge emotional impact in terms of just showing someone, “Here are guys that are similar to you that are winning, and you’re losing right now,” right?

Jeremy: Exactly. Exactly.

Jimmy: I think that’s a great point. Something we haven’t talked about, you talk about hand-holding and how it sort of increases as you move down the funnel. That relates a lot to time and the amount of time that they’re willing to spend with you or spend with your content, right? How do you think about time invested in consuming the content through the funnel and in this consideration phase? How much time do you think you can get from someone, and how are you making those calls when you’re designing the length of a piece of content, whatever it is, audio, video, text?

Jeremy: Keep in mind as you’re going from the consideration and in particular in the decision phase, what you want to do is you never want the content to be remote anymore. Because you’re doing that hand holding, you want to schedule time with that particular client to go over that piece of content. I think a lot of people forget that a proposal, an actual project proposal, is B2B content marketing.

That’s an opportunity to do content marketing and keep in mind, you’re not only just presenting the project components, you’re educating in that proposal about particular time commitments for a certain component piece, the value of that component piece. You’re also presenting in that proposal, typically, case studies, and before-and-afters.

Big mistakes a lot of B2B marketing firms do in the sales process is they allow a proposal to go out just by itself. You need to schedule a meeting, that’s the optimal situation, or you at least need to schedule a call. Until a a prospect is willing to commit time-wise to you presenting that proposal or that piece of content, you don’t send it, because they’re not that serious then.

I think people forget that everything from things that are considered more boring pieces of content, which can be a project schedule, just a sample project schedule just so they can see all the steps involved, that’s going to help in terms of their budget expectation, to even the service agreement. The service agreement’s another big thing. That shows you’re organized and typically mean business, that this isn’t just some fly-by-night organization, but you guys actually have a stated process all the way through from discovery, all the way through measurement.

Jimmy: You said discovery. You said measurement. We’re talking about consideration now. What’s between consideration and measurement? Where do you move after consideration? What does it look like when someone’s moving there?

Jeremy: Yep, so consideration and then you go into decision. That’s where you’re getting into, the content now is highly personalized. You’re actually already discussing, you’re almost assuming the business as it is. You’re assuming that this is going to go to the next step, and that’s when you’re presenting the project schedule and “Hey, how many days are allotted for each step? Here’s the service agreement and here’s our payment terms.”

I think a lot of people say, “Oh, that’s not B2B content marketing.” Absolutely, it is content marketing, because once again, you’re showing them, “Hey, we have a defined set of steps, not only once you start with a project schedule, but even with our service agreement, we actually have a process. We’re very organized in the way we bill. We have a payment schedule.”

Things like that, once again, what’s the whole point of B2B content marketing? Building credibility and gaining, and hopefully, having the client have peace of mind to commit to you over someone else, so yeah, when you look at that decision phase, it’s typically a little less the flashy content marketing. It’s just more content that you’re going to show that could be post-commitment that just assures them once again you guys know what you’re doing.

Also, you may have a couple calls here and there with other influencers. We talked about that sphere of influence. In the B2B sales process, you have people that aren’t the primary buyer, but they have a lot of influence. I was talking about, “Hey, you’re working with the VP of Sales, but you also have that CFO and COO that are involved.” Typically you’re going to need to on calls with them, and that’s where that other content comes into play, payment terms, things that are going to help ease their concern of going to the next step.

Jimmy: It’s very interesting that I think you just named a ton of things that are on people’s minds in this phase, and especially the salespeople, but not on their minds as being related to content. Obviously, it’s closing phase that you’re discussing now. It’s the biggest deal. It’s sort of the hardest piece to get past because it’s where revenue starts coming, right after this phase. What are the typical reasons that you see someone falling out that can be plugged by content? How is content fixing these problems in a direct way?

Jeremy: Two major problems that come up in the decision phase where you’ve already presented the proposal, most of time you’ve already sent the service agreement and you think they’re ready to move forward, the number one is low priority. All of sudden they’ve just deemed this, like, “Hey, we wanted to go through this and now it’s not that big of priority.”

The client could be a little disorganized, which can be a red flag anyway and can be a disqualifier because if they’re disorganized now, how are they going to be through the process. If you’re trying to get their QuickBooks from them every month or whatever, if you’re trying to work with them every month, if they’re already this bad now, this is a preview of how they’re going to be.

But on the low priority side is, they’ve just deemed this, “Hey, this isn’t a priority anymore.” We also have that last-ditch content of the process. You’ve got to remind them of the opportunity cost of making this a low priority, of indecision.

Also, keep in mind, B2B content marketing is literally just going out and it’s on the fly, literally going out to their competition and just reminding them, “Hey, this particular company just did this. Did you see this?” It’s third-party content that could just be news item that you see that they, that that particular competitor is a thorn in their side, and they need to be reminded of the opportunity cost of staying the same versus making a decision.

Also, lack of budget once again can be a thing where they thought they had the budget, then they don’t. Once again, it goes back to that opportunity cost. A lot of this isn’t going to be off-the-shelf content anymore. I think a lot of people think that, but really cater with more content specific to that client and reminding them of the opportunity cost of indecision.

Find out more about B2B content marketing and how to measure the success of your content through the phases of the sales funnel in Part IV of this interview with the SD AMA.

Hiring top sales talent is tough which is why over time, most hiring managers develop their own system of interview techniques and questions to prosecute would-be sales reps. While I’ve shared some my favorite interview techniques in the past, when it comes to specific interview questions, I’ve got collections of them sitting in an Evernote file that, much like a set of your aunt’s antique porcelain figurines, I’ve been carefully curating over time.

While many of these questions are what you might consider mainstream (e. g. “Tell me about a time when…..” “How would you approach a situation where….”), I do like to mix it up with a few abstract ones that I seem to ask with a fair bit of consistency:

1. What’s your super power?

I often see teams (especially sales teams) as a collection of super heroes, much like the Justice League or the X-men. While each team member can be highly effective and impactful on their own, each of them tends to brings their own unique set of skills; things they’re simply better at that their peers. For example, some are killer negotiators, some are consummate solution or product experts, some pride themselves as being outstanding in the deal qualification process, some may be adept at quickly connecting with executive stakeholders, and other people’s super power is simply being what I call “the best friend”s.

Regardless of what their super power is, asking a candidate to describe it (or how their current manager would describe it) is a great technique for three reasons:

1. It helps you understand what strengths and diversity the person will add to your team

2. It highlights the candidate’s degree of self-awareness. i.e. of their own strengths

3. It provides the opening for a related line of evidence based questions (e.g. “Oh, so you awesome at connecting with executive stakeholders? Tell me about an especially challenging instance where you had to make such a connection.”).

Oh, and it tends to be a fun ice-breaker question that puts candidates at ease.

2. What’s your kryptonite?

It’s always interesting to ask a candidate about their super powers and how they use them to win. It’s even more interesting to ask what they would do to win if they were selling against themselves! This technique works well after you’ve gotten them to describe their super powers and a deal win they were especially proud of. i.e. if I was your competitor on that deal, what would/should I have done to steal it from you?

This technique is great for 3 reasons:

1. It helps you understand the candidates degree of awareness of their weaknesses; either personal, professional, or organizational

2. It highlights how familiar the candidate is of the competitive landscape in their business or industry

3. It will help you identify potential areas for coaching and development.

3. If you were a plant, what care instructions would you come with?

I usually introduce this question with a build-up that goes something like this: suppose I were to call your current manager and ask them to describe you in the same way they’d describe a plant they wanted me to take care of while they went on vacation. You know like, “Oh Steve likes to be watered three times a day, indirect sunlight in the morning, and he really perks up when you play Mozart!” Essentially, what would your current manager tell me to do, the help you perform at your best?

Do you crave autonomy? Do you need constant encouragement? Do you consistently need advice at certain stages of the sales cycle?

This technique is great for 3 reasons:

1. It provides specific insights into how you’ll need to manage this person for maximum effectiveness

2. It provides insights into the affinity the candidate has toward their current manager and why (also very helpful for you!)

3. As with the previous technique, it helps you identify initial areas of focus for coaching and mentoring.

Hiring top sales talent is never easy, but injecting a little fun and creativity into the interview process can not only help you secure ideal candidates, but also help you get the most out of them once you do!

What are some of your fun and creative interview questions?

Want to learn the secrets of business growth from 3 successful entrepreneurs? Visit our website or download the free e-book.

I recently presented at a content marketing conference on the topic of content marketing personalization. I argued that personalized content was the key to defining the core job of marketing: to build relationships at scale.

And I made sure to differentiate personalized content from personas. So, one of my points in the presentation: Personas are great. Except when they suck!

Before you start ranting or raving, let’s start with some basics:

What Is A Persona?

I actually like personas. And I know a handful of consultants who are really helping their clients create actionable insights and programs and plans based on a deeper understanding of their buyers. So, I’ll start with a definition from one of those consultants, Adelle Revella:

Buyer personas are examples of the real buyers who influence or make decisions about the products, services or solutions you market. They are a tool that builds confidence in strategies to persuade buyers to choose you rather than a competitor or the status quo.

Another great definition of personas comes from Tony Zambito, who uses this definition:

Buyer personas are research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of who buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behavior, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions. (Today, I now include where they buy as well as when buyers decide to buy.)

And finally, I would be totally remiss if I didn’t refer to Ardath Albee who says that Personas must be focused on what the buyer is trying to achieve. And she suggests personas answer these questions:

• What’s important to them and what’s driving the change?
• What’s impeding or speeding their need to change?
• How do they go about change?
• What do they need to know to embrace change?
• Who do they turn to for advice or information?
• What’s the value they visualize once they make a decision?
• Who do they have to sell change to in order to get it?
• What could cause the need for this change to lose priority?

The reason these folks know what they are doing is that they emphasize the need for actionability from the exercise of building buyer personas.

Unfortunately, there is a large group of consultants and agencies out there taking large sums of money from brands to produce personas that produce very little action, do not inform content planning or distribution. They tap into a well-intentioned idea in marketing to get to know and understand your buyer, without delivering on the real need: defining how to reach them with content they want or need.

So I hope you understand when I say that buyer personas are great except when they suck!

Buyer Personas That Suck

In my personalized content marketing presentation, I used some fictitious examples of buyer personas that suck. While I made these examples up, I promise you that I have seen plenty of million dollar personas that look just like this:
 This is “Business Decision Maker Bob.” He has a wife, two kids, drives a red sports car and like to spend his weekend playing golf.

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This is “Technical Tom.” He’s very detailed-oriented. Tom doesn’t like surprises and appreciates being well-informed before making a decision. An introvert, Tom has adjusted the settings on his browser.

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Finally, we have Social Savvy Sally. She’s always chatting up her friends. She is also kind of a big deal on Instagram.

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Now, Buffer is one of my favorite blogs. When researching this post, I found their complete guide to personas, unfortunately their template fails to cover the main issue with personas that suck: actionability.

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These types of personas suck because they don’t really help any brand to connect with their target audience. Instead, they make your potential customers think:

And they make me think:

The Problem With Personas: Actionability

I hear all the time from brand marketers who are being advised by their agencies to conduct “mood board” sessions and to brainstorm on the names of their personas.

Many of these campaign-based initiatives simply fail to identify the key components of they buyer persona that you can define your content marketing plan.

My advice is always that “Personas are great, as long as they don’t suck.” I suggest brands define:

• What content your target customers use
• What topics, they are interested in
• What types or formats of content they prefer
• Which channels they use
• For each stage of the buyer journey
• Define the keywords they use to search and
• And finally, the actual questions they ask.

The answers to these questions can help inform content production and delivery where the goal should be to become a destination of insights for your target personas.

I also caution brands against having more than maybe two personas and focus more on the various topics your primary persona is interested in. Once you start publishing on the primary topics of your key persona, you can build out content that addresses the secondary ones.

If you believe that the future of marketing looks more like publishing and less like advertising, then check out Publisher sites as great examples of the importance of focusing on topics. Check out Mashable or HuffPo or Business Insider.

Great Marketing Gets Results

I have gotten into some heated debates on this topic. I believe the reason for the passion is the desire by some to hold on to traditional campaign ideas that you only get one shot at making a good impression.

The fact is that in today’s world, we have a very short memory and even shorter attention spans. The best headline right now is the one I click. And the brands I trust for news and information are the ones that deliver it consistently. That’s content marketing.

Personas are still very much important in today’s content-driven world.

But don’t take my word on it. Test these ideas out. And I know you’ll find that a steady, consistent, and regular cadence of content is what separates the winners from those who struggle to connect with their audience.

Today’s brands need to create continuous content that their target audience wants. Not only because that’s how we browse the web today (the customer perspective) but also because that approach is what yields results from a business perspective.

Are you fighting against personas that suck in your organization?

Every marketer from Boston to Bejing seems to be focused on something called the “customer journey.” A Google search on this two-word phrase returns over 627,000 results. It’s one of those “Eureka!” moments – organizations realize buyers start researching a firm’s products and services long before they reach the point of purchase. These firms are now scrambling to find and engage with those customers while they are still on the move and before they arrive at a sales destination decision. But I gotta tell you, this is not news to those of us in the online community world.

In fact, the customer journey has long been an integral part of the online community experience. Many – dare I say most? – online communities make “the journey” a key part of their mission, aiding the customer before, during and after the point of purchase or other key decision. Communities are dedicated to helping customers and other stakeholders understand, explore, question and learn about products and services.

This “Ah-Ha!” moment for the customer journey highlights two different but parallel approaches – let’s call them tracks – for understanding this process: one is mapping the customer experience; the other is building customer engagement. In our ever-more-connected world, these two tracks are now merging to become one.

Making the Connection: Online communities and the Customer Journey

In our new world of customer-focused and customer-driven interactions, many firms struggle to engage and communicate with prospective and existing customers at appropriate times and places along the customer’s journey.

For example, when a sales person reaches out to a prospective customer, often the sales person has no way of knowing where this prospect is in their purchase cycle. Another example: anyone who has worked in customer service knows that customers typically wait to reach out to a company for assistance only after they have reached a high degree of frustration with their purchase.

Now imagine if a firm were able to build a relationship with a prospect during their research phase, or engage with a customer before their purchase problem reaches the breaking point? This is what online communities offer: a way to break the cycle of mis-timed outreach and catch-up customer care. Community offers a powerful way to move the buyer’s experience from episodic chaos to a more consistent, confidence-inspiring and customer satisfaction-building trip.

As the two tracks of customer experience mapping and engagement come together, let’s identify the four phases of the customer’s journey: Awareness, Evaluation, Purchase and Retention.

Awareness

This is the initial phase, when the prospective customer hasn’t fully defined what she is looking for. She may not have a clear understanding of problem she is trying to solve, so identifying a possible solution is difficult. A community is especially well suited to supporting customers in this awareness phase. A vibrant and engaged community signals there is strong customer support for prospective buyers. User-contributed content – questions asked and answered – plus sponsor-contributed content speeds up the problem and solutions identification process, which might include specific product and service recommendations. All this occurs while the prospective customer is building relationships with community members.

Evaluation

During the evaluation phase the prospective buyer winnows the options and examines product and service offerings in detail. It is comparison shopping. One advantage a community can offer is creating a single point of reference and collaboration for a buyer’s team. Online communities bring together a wide range of content and conversations within a single environment. It becomes the place for a single buyer or a team to share information and compare options. The community supports information-gathering from many sources but places all this content in a collaborative framework which supports comparisons and discussions about needs, preferences and decision factors.

Consider this situation: our buyer posts a question directly into an online forum and receives a range of responses from other community members. Some of those members will have been through the evaluation phase and made a decision. Some will be in the same state of uncertainty as our buyer. Still others will have long-term experience with the outcomes of a purchase decision. Many voices, many shared opinions. Where is the voice of the firm?

Some advanced-thinking organizations have created specific discussion areas to talk with prospective buyers — dedicated forums staffed with knowledgeable sales people who can respond open way to a buyer’s questions. These skilled sales people must have incentives to participate and training in the techniques of consultative selling to interact successfully with customers in a community environment.

First Purchase

At last! The buyer makes a decision and becomes a first-time customer. The psychology is similar to other kinds of journeys; by turns exhilarating, exhausting and complicated. And once the traveler gets to the destination, the party can begin.

But this is also a delicate time for the company, because – as with a first-time traveler – the new buyer’s expectations are exceedingly high. Every new customer’s interaction with the firm is memorable. With a complex services purchase, for example, once the papers are signed and the buyer’s team dives into the project, the selling firm had better be ready. The new customers will begin making connections inside the company and with other customers outside. They become voracious learners. They are eager to prove this was the perfect decision — no pressure on the seller there!

An online community strategy can really pay off here. There are so many ways community interactions can accelerate projects and delight the new customer’s team. If there is a formal account management team in place, their presence in the community can help speed the pace of information sharing, support and relationship-building.

Another way to look at this is to consider the alternative: what if new customers were unable (no place to go) or unwilling (who are the people who sold us this?) to interact with your firm? They will take their questions and concerns to other online venues, such as: a community operated by enthusiasts or experts with no connection to your firm; an outside standards organization; a competing firm.

If your firm is not part of the conversation, it can’t answer questions; verify the accuracy of information shared or follow-up with customers. A community is your company’s opportunity to respond with accurate and authentic information.

Customer retention

Customer retention is the outcome of the three prior phases. It’s the desired end state for customer relationships — Gartner Group states 80% of your company’s future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing customers. What firm doesn’t want to create customers for life as part of their overall strategy?

But how many companies make building and sustaining that “customer for life” a goal? In a world of fickle buyers, loyalty is hard to come by. Switching costs are at record lows. The choice to remain a customer is critical for both the customer and the company. How does the customer feel? How did the interactions and support go? Were they listened to? Did they feel whole in the end? An online community attuned to these concerns is very powerful instrument for keeping customers.

Online communities don’t always replace traditional support models, especially with complex purchases. But well-executed communities can help the customer when they experience “The Middle Of the Night Problem,” when there is no one to call. And feeling heard and experiencing ultimate responsiveness goes a really long way with customer retention and how they feel about your firm.

The digital economy continues to evolve at a fast clip. New technologies are being introduced nearly every month. Startups are ascending while long tenured organizations suddenly find themselves on shaky grounds. New services and product introductions are falling flat. Making the pursuit of understanding why customers are buying or not buying most difficult for many companies today.

What we can be certain of is the buying behaviors of customers are changing. Companies today can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch these changes from afar. In essence, risking they will be left entirely out of the new digital playing field customers will engage in. Such a pressing issue raises important questions for executives leading organizations today in marketing and sales:

• How do we understand the new customer and buyer of today?
• How do we adapt to newfound customer buying behaviors?
• Why are customers buying or not buying?
• How do we gain critical customer insights needed to be informed?
• Where should we allocate precious and limited resources to engage customers?
• How do we redesign our organization to meet the new expectations of customers?
• How do we redesign and align our marketing and sales to respond to changing as well as new buying behaviors?

These are just a few of many questions business leaders are keeping top of mind. What they have in common is businesses today are confronted with having gaps in understanding changing and new customer buying behaviors.

How Do We Understand New Customer Buying Behaviors?

I have seen firsthand, through hundreds of qualitative buyer interviews, how rapid changes in customer buying behaviors are taking place. What is becoming evident is business organizations can no longer be content to a point of thinking they understand. To understand must be a constant endeavor for the new digital world continues to spin on its axis and become anew at each turn.

The implication for businesses is the need to have capabilities in place to make understanding customers and buyers a core competency. To date, some are building this core competency. Yet many treat understanding customers and buyers as a one-off study they can use for the next decade. This approach can prove to be fatal.

Let us take a look at seven new capabilities and approaches business organizations today will need to stay informed of new customer buying behaviors:

1. Immerse Yourself In The Business Of Your Customers

Companies today can no longer be content to just get to know customers via quantitative data or through win/loss oriented phone calls. Nor can they rely on the reports of their sales people entirely. Most cultural shifts (and we are in the midst of a big one) come with behavioral shifts, which must be observed. Meaning, organizations today need to find ways to immerse themselves in the business of their customers. One way is through immersive qualitative buyer research and ethnography. Whether using internal or external resources, a business will never truly understand until they walk in the shoes of their customers.

2. Return To Segmentation

Somewhere in the ballyhoo of excitement over content marketing, inbound marketing, and etc., business leaders in marketing and sales may be glossing over needed segmentation. This is fundamental to at least understanding the clusters of buyers and customers most representative of a segment. When it comes to understanding new customer buying behaviors, seeing how new behaviors differ between segments becomes of vital importance.

3. Get To Know The Many Situations Confronting Your Customers

There is much fluidity in terms of the situations customers and buyers are confronted with. Meeting customer expectations today means understanding the various situations and scenarios they are most likely to be in the midst of or see in the future. Scenario planning is a core element of buyer persona development and it should most certainly be a core competency of organizations intent on understanding changing and new customer buying behaviors.

4. Know How Customers Think And View The World

Every day, how customers think is influenced by a new vision of the world they live and work in. New thinking and a new view of the world ultimately reshapes the buying behavior of customers and buyers. Understanding the qualitative means of mental modeling, associated with buyer persona development, is important to getting at this crucial element. More important now than ever as executives are putting more weight on subjective human factors than on functional factors such as buying criteria, performance factors, and etc. when making decisions.

5. Understand The Customer Narrative

Customers and businesses today have unfolding stories about who they are, what they represent, and where they hope to go. It is important for businesses to understand the clear narratives of their customers and how they can contribute to the still unfolding story. More importantly, producing clear Persona-Based Customer Narratives help employees to understand their role in satisfying customers.

6. Follow The Different Paths They Take Towards A Decision

The shortcomings of the buzz around buyer’s journey are rising to the surface. When you start calling something the indirect or the circular buyer’s journey – it is no longer useful. Customers today take different paths to a purchase decision, depending on each unique scenario and set of goals. These paths can include digital and collaborative paths towards a purchase decision. An analogy would be this – if you are a hiker, depending on your goal, you will choose from among the 2-mile path, the 8-mile path, or the 20-mile path. You decide the 8-mile path fits your goal of hiking strenuously yet feasible to finish before it gets dark. You return a month later but bring a friend along. To accommodate your friend, you choose the 2-mile path in order to not overwhelm your friend on the first hike he takes with you. The problem with the “buyer’s journey” approach today is it presumes the buyer takes the same linear journey each and every time in a very physical world. In the digital and collaborative economy, this is not the reality.

7. Make Your Buyer Personas An Authentic Representation

Buyer personas created via the use of functional and factual profiling language such as buying criteria, key success factors, initiatives, and the likes are not providing an authentic representation of the very insights needed to understand customers and buyers – their changing and new buying behaviors. The purpose of buyer persona development is to get at the heart of goal-directed buying behaviors and not customer profiling. Many buyer persona development efforts have failed due to being led down this course of functional factors-based profiling as opposed to understanding buying behaviors.

Building A Clear Picture Of Customers

The above outlines seven points to consider in order to gain deep insights into new customer buying behaviors. An important point is they are interdependent to each other. To get the clear and graspable simple picture of changing and new customer buying behaviors, these elements help you to build upon each other so the picture emerges with bursting colors. If you stay on the path of older conventional functional profiling, you will have a picture, which slowly fades away.

(What follows is a talk given by Rachel Botsman, which touches upon the new collaborative economy and the rise of reputation capital. Getting to know how customers think includes the intangible of reputation. A recent Forbes Knowledge Group study points to nearly half of business executives surveyed relied on reputation in their decision-making. Although oriented to the consumer marketplace, it is a fascinating talk in which some of these ideas will crossover into the world of business-to-business before too long. Enjoy.)

There are millions of baby boomer business owners who have to transition their business to others in order to ensure business continuity and provide financial liquidity to fund the rest of their lives.  Owners sometimes ask us what the ideal transition is as if it’s a “one size fits all” proposition.  The “ideal” transition, in our opinion, is the one that most closely matches the transitioning owners’ goals, both financial and non-financial, and vision.  Here are five things owners should consider when they think about their ideal transition:

1. Desired level of involvement and timeline – Owners need to determine how involved they want to be in the business during the transition.  Some owners want to walk away completely while others want to stay much longer.  We encourage owners to find and groom a successor so the business is not dependent on them and many owners want to taper down their involvement over time as they determine what they will do with their extra time after the transition.
2. Legacy – It’s important to some owners to have the name and “tradition” of the business continue after they are gone.
3. Business continuity – There are lots of employees and their families dependent on the success and continued operation of your business.  Most owners want to sell to a buyer that will keep the employees on the payroll and the business at its current location.
4. Key employees/successors – Some owners have loyal managers and possible successors who have spent years or even decades of their lives working for the same business.  Many transitioning owners want to be sure these team members are offered ownership or at least “taken care of” by the new owner(s).
5. Wealth gap or how much money is needed – Owners have to “do the math” and figure out how much money they need for the rest of their lives and where that money will come from.  The business value may or may not be high enough to net them enough money, after taxes and fees. It will be critical for owners to understand how different transitions can be structured to avoid or at least minimize the taxes.  Some internal transitions may be even more tax efficient than sales to external buyers.

Getting the right amount of money from the transition is important but as you can tell, it’s not the only thing that owners should consider.  Most owners have spent the majority of their lives, time and money building their companies and they don’t want the business to go to “just anyone.”  They want their businesses to be owned and run by the “right” owner so they can achieve all of their goals and their ideal business transition.

Once upon a time, in a world in which oil was costly and energy sources seemed scarce, the International Energy Agency, a think-tank for countries which import fossil fuels, produced a special report heralding a "golden age of gas".

That was in 2011. It suggested that fast-rising demand, chiefly from emerging economies and in power generation, could lead gas to displace coal by 2030.

Big energy companies shared that optimism. High prices and rising demand in East Asia, especially China and Japan, encouraged them to pile into huge projects in places such as Australia and Papua New Guinea to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG), either from offshore drilling or, in the case of a $20 billion project in Queensland by BG Group of Britain, from gas found in coal beds.

America, awash with gas thanks to the shale boom, began rejigging coastal terminals originally built for importing LNG, so as to begin exporting it.

But something unexpected happened. Coal, despised as the dirtiest fossil fuel, underwent an unexpected renaissance, notably in Europe, displacing gas in power generation.

This was partly because of plentiful supplies of cheap coal on world markets, and partly because the European Union's regime for trading in permits to emit carbon dioxide was so flawed that coal was not getting taxed out of the market, as had been intended. (This week the European Parliament made moves towards reforming the regime.)

So demand for LNG has been broadly flat for the past three years.

The result is a buyers' market, intensified by the recent weakness in the oil price. Natural-gas prices are plunging (see chart 1).

This month the American spot-market price, as measured at the giant Henry Hub distribution node in Louisiana, has been around $2.75 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), the lowest since mid-2012.

The spot price of LNG in the vital market of Japan fell to $6.65 per MMBtu, the lowest level for five years--and below the European price for the first time in four years.

This is indeed a golden age, then, but for gas consumers. Investors in large gas facilities such as liquefaction plants are hurting. As with the oil price, the gas-price slump is the result of weak demand and booming supply (though without the added ingredient of a collapsed cartel). Millions of tonnes of new capacity are coming on-stream, as projects begun when energy prices were high reach completion.

Global export capacity is set to rise by a third, from 290m tonnes per year (mtpa) at the end of 2013 to nearly 400 mtpa by 2018. Australia will overtake Qatar to become the largest exporter, tripling its capacity to 86 mtpa by 2020.

America starts exporting this year. Two giant LNG projects that tap into gasfields off the coast of Western Australia are due to come on-stream next year: Chevron's $30 billion, onshore Wheatstone complex, and Shell's Prelude plant, based aboard a giant ship (pictured) and costing perhaps $13 billion. In Papua New Guinea, Exxon's $19 billion project began shipping gas last May, ahead of schedule.

Now, in what a report from Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, calls an "anxiety attack", new investment has stalled. No big, new LNG projects have been announced for months. The business is so capital-intensive that long-term contracts, which account for three-quarters of global trade, are essential.

Such contracts mean that weak spot prices are less of a problem for gas-producing countries than for oil states. But for energy firms, contracts are no longer providing the comfort cushion needed for big investments. Buyers are taking advantage of the weak market, and driving hard bargains.

Last year Japan, for example, signed contracts for gas at around $16 per MMBtu. Now, contract prices are forecast to fall to $11 or lower; and with the spot price below $7, such forecasts do not seem unrealistic. Given the cost of liquefaction and shipping, American exporters could face losses.

The LNG industry's hopes rest on a surge in demand. Latin America is showing an unexpectedly strong appetite; sales to Britain are up; and Indonesia, once an exporter, is now importing gas. But the short-term picture is sombre. Economic growth is slowing in China and weak in Japan. Even healthy economies are using energy of all kinds more efficiently.

Other fuels are competing strongly. Japan is likely to restart some nuclear capacity this year, and can burn cheap oil in some power plants.

China is pushing ahead with domestic gas production, as well as clean coal and renewables, all of which displace imported gas in power generation.

European customers can use LNG as a bargaining chip against suppliers such as Russia's Gazprom, but demand in Europe is declining, not rising.

With so many energy consumers looking for cleaner fuels but not yet ready to give up entirely on hydrocarbons, the long-term outlook for gas looks strong. Demand for gas as a transport fuel is set for rapid growth.

Some carmakers, such as Fiat Chrysler, are promoting gas-powered versions of their vehicles, whose fuel economy makes them attractive even at a time of cheap petrol. The motor industry is struggling to meet ever tighter emissions standards in America, Europe, Japan and China, and one way to comply with them is to sell more gas-powered vehicles. Sales of ones that run on compressed natural gas (CNG), such as motorised rickshaws, are booming in India and China.

Indian Railways has begun switching its trains to run on CNG. Worries about pollution from the heavy oil used by marine engines have prompted tough new emissions rules in the Baltic Sea and in American coastal waters.

This is prompting a switch to vessels that run on LNG. Timo Koponen of Wartsila, a Finnish company that builds gas-powered marine engines, says the main constraint now is refuelling. But America is opening its first LNG bunkering facility, in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. It carried out a trial refuelling earlier this month.

A switch towards generating electricity in smaller plants closer to consumers (which cuts distribution costs) is also increasing demand for gas at the expense of other fuels.

Richard Kauffman, the head of energy policy for New York state, notes that small-scale, gas-fired "combined heat and power" (CHP) plants are now more economical than ever. Some businesses and apartment blocks are beginning to install their own full-time gas generators, cutting their dependence on mains power.

The current freeze on new projects means that demand growth may begin to outstrip supply growth within a few years (see chart 2). Thereafter the current glut may dwindle, allowing producers to recover pricing power. It will take time, but they should enjoy a gilt-edged future, too.

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For young tech companies, there’s no higher honor than a spot on the annual Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. For marketing researchers, the Inc. 5000 represents a unique data set, ripe with opportunity to learn something about what great companies have in common.

Recently, I took some time to research the 2014 winners of the Inc. 5000 awards in the “Software” category. My unofficial study looked at each company’s website through the eyes of a marketer, with the goal of understanding what they might be doing differently than their non-ranked competitors. Overwhelmingly, I found evidence of inbound marketing across the board—of the top technology companies, most of them had a blog on their website, and many also featured a resource section with educational content.

So, what about their inbound marketing efforts stood out? I noticed two key themes throughout the companies I researched:

1. Humanization. This could mean anything from the use of buyer personas to featuring testimonials from real customers on your homepage. Essentially, it’s a commitment to strengthening your connection to the human element behind your products. Speaking to your website visitors as if they’re real people, featuring customer stories on your site, and tailoring your content to the different types of buyers who use and purchase your product are all examples of what I mean by humanization.

2. Consistency. A strategy that emphasizes consistency means your blog is updated regularly or, if a blog isn’t the right strategy for your audience, another educational resource on your website is regularly refilled with fresh content. Consistency shows a sustained effort to create new, relevant content on an ongoing basis, without major gaps in publishing dates. To your audience, it says you’re committed to being an up-to-date, reliable resource for information.

Each of the Inc. 5000 companies featured below elevated their inbound marketing strategies using both humanization and consistency. Read on to find out what they did.

Emphasizing Humanization and Consistency in Your Tech Company’s Inbound Strategy: 3 Examples

1. WebPT

Inc. 5000 Rank: #362
2010 Revenue: $1.2M
2013 Revenue: $17.1M

WebPT is a cloud-based electronic medical records (EMR) system currently in use in 6,000+ physical therapy clinics. In three years, the company grew its revenue by 1,316 percent. Its website shows a strong commitment to inbound marketing.

How it’s using humanization: Job title-based buyer personas using pictures of real people on the homepage, with quotes from each about how the software has made their lives easier
How it exhibits consistency: New blog posts published with a near-daily cadence

2. SmartZip Analytics

Inc. 5000 Rank: #42
2010 Revenue: $192,784
2013 Revenue: $11.4M

SmartZip Analytics helps real estate companies do more targeted marketing through the use of SmartZip’s technology platform. With 3-year growth of 5,811 percent, it is obviously doing something right.

How it’s using humanization: Personalized case study library featuring customer testimonials (each testimonial has a real customer’s name and picture)

How it exhibits consistency: Monthly educational webinar series for real estate professionals looking to grow their businesses

3. Acquia

Inc. 5000 Rank: #650
2010 Revenue: $8.8M
2013 Revenue: $71M

Acquia, which provides products and services for the Drupal community, has shown an ongoing commitment to inbound marketing over the years. The company’s content is always high-quality, non-sales-y and an overall excellent resource for its audience of often extremely knowledgeable developers.

How it’s using humanization: A blog with a rare and exciting human element that reads nothing like most corporate blogs. Authors are given bylines and use their own voices, making what could’ve been a bland blog into something you’d expect to see in a niche online publication.
How it exhibits consistency: Again, kudos to the blog for exhibiting the utmost consistency, with new posts across a variety of interesting categories appearing daily.

Across the Inc. 5000, these examples are plentiful. For more examples of 2014 Inc. 5000 alumni, see:
• Kareo’s truly humanized blog, featuring industry insiders with impressive credentials as guest authors
• Bigcommerce’s consistent blogging strategy, with a blog that’s updated daily (sometimes twice a day!) with new articles
• Good Technology’s personalized homepage, which uses buyer personas prominently to help website visitors have a more human user experience

If you’re a tech company doing inbound marketing and wondering where to focus your efforts, consider making both humanization and consistency a focus for your marketing this year. Do this well, and you might end up on next year’s list of winners! See you there!

PR’s role in the marketing mix is gaining more prominence as companies face steeper, global competition. Today’s PR executive is responsible for helping marketing generate qualified leads. Having revenue accountability is a major shift, yet a natural evolution of the PR function.

Companies are investing in content marketing to generate leads, which is where PR plays a starring role. Content marketing generates inbound awareness (vs. outbound) by creating and publishing a library of thought leadership materials. Online research of this content allows buyers to self educate on vendor products and services early.  Buyers are typically 70% through the buying process before making contact. What does this mean for today’s PR manager?

First, PR executives must understand the buyer persona – What type of content does your prospect require at each unique stage of the buying cycle? If you hard sell early you may scare away prospective buyers.  Meet with your marketing team and sales stakeholders to understand which pieces of content impact best at different points in the sales process. Then create fresh content or tweak existing content to handle the task. In addition, meet with your customer advocates in person or by phone.  Discover why they were attracted to your company and remain loyal –  Understand the Voice of the Customer to gain insight into what will resonate with future buyers.

Top of Funnel – Awareness (not sales ready leads)

PR shines at the top of the funnel where you are creating brand awareness. The top of the funnel is where you educate  on a broader topic and position yourself as a thought leader. This is not an opportunity to sell a specific product or service, but to demonstrate your industry knowledge. If people are unfamiliar with your company, leading with your products or services is too pushy.

Consider car buying as an example. Imagine your company sells green friendly cars. At the top of the funnel you publish a blog on “Commuting and the Environment” or write an article on this topic for an industry magazine.  You discuss the value of green friendly cars, but not the benefits of your green cars over your competitors’. This stage is subtle, sometimes subliminal.  For top of the funnel content, create easy-to-read, entertaining pieces like infographics, blogs or videos. Supplement with social posts and sharing of like-minded content on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social sites.

Remember your job in PR is to support marketing to drive awareness, which generates sales leads.  Top of the funnel leads must be qualified before passing to sales.  Never pass unqualified leads to sales.

Middle – consideration (possibly sales ready leads)

As customers move down the funnel and show interest, they will engage more deeply with your brand. This is an opportunity to create content for the consideration phase when prospects begin evaluating solutions that may meet their needs. At this point in the funnel, present your audience with customer case studies, testimonials, white papers, webinars, and ROI calculators. These types of content allow prospects to do relevant consideration discovery work about your products or services.

Remember: Your prospect wants to do business with a company they trust.  Work with marketing and sales to identify media-friendly customers who sing your company’s virtues on paper, i.e. customer testimonials, and grant media interviews.  Articles written by media are third party endorsements, which builds credibility … Priceless.

Consider a sales incentive program rewarding reps for securing customer testimonials. When managed by PR this program keeps communication lines open with sales about customers.  Sales will appreciate the money and you will gain valuable customer content to fuel your PR programs.

In the middle phase offer factual pieces about benefits of buying a green friendly car.  Partner with industry thought leaders to co-author these assets.  Prospects conduct research with third party experts they trust when comparing different options. Develop strong analyst or industry expert relationships to back up your value proposition.

Bottom – validation (definitely sales ready)

At this late stage, prospects demand proof points to support their purchase decision.  Develop a solid customer reference program. The best selling tool is a satisfied customer showcasing your brand. Identify news hooks to pitch your best customer stories to media outlets read by your prospects.  The third party credibility factor cannot be over emphasized.

Regardless of the stage in the funnel, meet regularly with marketing to gain insight into the digital body language of each engagement (how they are interacting with your content). This insight gives you a full picture so you can adjust your PR efforts and messaging – Understand what happened later in the sales cycle, when the marketing qualified lead is passed to sales.  This is where the rubber hits the road and you have done your job. Now it’s up to sales to close the deal.

This article was originally published in PR News.

Are your landing pages optimized for B2B lead generation? You need to focus on conversion rate optimization on your pages, even if all your other online efforts are designed to attract prospects. High-converting landing pages are versatile and you can apply them to a variety of different campaigns with some careful consideration.

Online marketing is often more difficult for B2B firms because of the longer sales cycle. Most people define this as the length of time between the first customer contact and closing the deal. This used to be a liner process, but the Internet has added more client touch points and complicated the cycle.

With this in mind, what goes into a successful landing page for business marketers?

1. Create Landing Pages For The Different Stages Of The Sales Cycle

The same offers and content won’t be relevant to all your leads. Consider what someone who just discovered your company would be interested in reading. It probably isn’t the same content that would engage a lead who is closer to making a purchasing decision. You need to carefully plan your campaigns and landing pages to get the most out of paid search. Each landing page should reflect the content in a separate ad.

2. Gate Your Most Valuable Content

Want an easy way to generate more leads? Entice prospects with a whitepaper, case study, or eBook and require them to fill out a form to download the content. This creates an opportunity for you to contact them in the future and you can get a better idea of how your most detailed content is performing.

3. Personalize

Even when it comes to business products, leads still want personal interactions with brands. However, you need to shift away from being overly promotional on your landing pages. Create content that is centered around your target prospects’ main interests.

In addition, landing pages can be used to give a real-life view into your organization, which helps leads establish a more emotional connection with your brand. One of the most important ways to do this is use conversational language rather than being overly formal.

4. A/B Test Everything

If you study your landing pages, you will likely to be able to find areas for improvement. How effective is your call to action? Is the page layout intuitive for how people are interacting with the content? A/B testing helps you answer these questions, as well as make adjustments to other areas of the content.

5. Adjust Your Call To Action

Much of the room for improvement on many B2B landing pages involves weak calls to action. Your CTA needs to clearly tell visitors what’s in it for them. Tell potential leads how the action will help them. It’s also important to limit the conversion actions to as few steps as possible. Using a graphic to support the CTA can be effective as well.

6. Streamline Forms

Lead-generation forms are one of the most important elements on a B2B landing page, but they can derail your efforts without optimization. Reducing the number of required fields typically increases conversion rate, but it may contribute to lower-quality leads.

However, too many requirements can scare away qualified leads. Test different aspects of the form, such as number of fields, placement, wording and the name of the asset for best results.

7. Support Multiple Buyer Preferences

Because B2B product offerings are often complex, a single landing page may not be enough. Include links to your blog or other relevant content to support the independent research process.

8. Remove The Navigation Bar

This tip may seem counterintuitive, but the landing page is a step in the sales funnel and the navigation bar can distract prospects from taking the desired next step. Streamlining the page can keep prospects focused.

9. Use Customer Testimonials

This creates a more personal connection with your brand and builds trust. B2B leads are more interested in what your customers have to say about you than content you publish about yourself in many instances.

10. Organize Your Page For Conversions

The best B2B landing pages are short and sweet, but you still need to think about the flow of the different elements. All the aspects on the page need to have a clear connection to drive conversions.

“Macro market changes within the healthcare industry are driving our biggest sales challenges. Our targeted buyers are facing a fluid economic situation as they make the arduous shift to a quality-based model.

Have you considered how to use strategically timed stories to nurture your leads and accelerate your sales funnel? This week’s infographic by Marketo focuses on how to use narrative to nurture leads and reminds us that it can take an average of 10 marketing touches for a prospect to move through the sales funnel to a purchase.

In the early stage of the funnel, our prospect is usually not ready to buy and has little knowledge of the products and services we provide. According to the infographic, we should be offering educational material at this time such as ebooks, blog posts, research data, infographics, curated lists and funny videos. If you are on the fence about using videos, 82 percent of marketers said using video had a positive impact on their business.

At mid-stage, the prospect has displayed some buying behaviour and engaged with the content sent to him or her. This is the time to offer materials that showcase your product or service sucy as a buying guide, templates, ROI calulators, analyst reports or an RFP.

The final stage indicates the lead is close to becoming a customer. At this point in time, offer materials to support the purchase process such as pricing demos, third-party reviews, and case studies.

To help inspire you to create and deliver this content, decide on the right story genre (via Sam Boush, founder and president of Lead Lizard):

Red Carpet Track: Give leads the celebrity treatment by showing them how we can cater to their needs.

Sales-Nado Track: Pick up stagnant “sales-qualified leads” and accelerate them through the sales funnel.

Detective Track: Build systems that can follow a lead’s trail to qualify them as leads and for sales.

Sleeping Beauty Track: Send targeted content to sleeping contacts to re-capture their interest.

Finally and most importantly, your story and message should be personal and incorporate these top five emotional factors:

• Curiosity
• Amazement
• Interest
• Astonishment
• Uncertainty

Which genre will you focus on and how has this information inspired you to revise your message to accelerate your leads through your sales funnel?