How to Use Your Content to Reach Millennials Posted on May 5, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk There’s a reason you’re constantly hearing and reading about Millennials—those born between about 1980 and 2000—because they are an enormous group of consumers with enormous buying power. According to a report by the consulting firm Accenture, there are about 80 million Millennials in the U.S. and each year they spend approximately $600 billion. They’re not just self-involved teens anymore either, Millennials now include those in their 20s and 30s, those with careers, homeowners, parents. By 2020 Accenture projects this generation’s spending as consumers in the U.S. will balloon to $1.4 trillion annually and represent 30 percent of total retail sales in this country. This cohort of customers has also redefined marketing, resetting expectations of what people will get from brands both on and offline. What worked with their parents and their grandparents doesn’t work for Millennials. Google Think talks about “Gen C”, which it also calls (somewhat self-servingly) “The YouTube Generation” as a “powerful new force in consumer culture…. people who care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community.” Although Gen C isn’t defined by age, 80% are Millennials. Reaching them is both easy—Millennials are plugged in to every social network via every known device on the planet—and tricky. What works is content that’s engaging, clever, useful and/or entertaining. One example is Tasty, Buzzfeed’s food and recipe video network that launched less than a year ago and is now the largest food network in the world. Its success has to do with its ability to connect with its audience, largely Millennials, by delivering to them what they like in the way they like it—videos about food that are short, visually engaging, easy to understand and potentially do-able. You may not need a food network to reach your Millennial consumer, but you can create the kind of content that connects with them and that they want to share on social media. Here’s how: Get their attention. To get anyone to take an action, you first have to get their attention. That’s not easy to do with Millennials, who are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages each day. They generally tune out what doesn’t feel relevant or compelling. Your job is to get them to engage with your business and your brand, and that’s where high quality content comes in. Millennials are the first generation to be open to engaging with ads and content (not just receiving them). They will share them, but only if the content is worth sharing, which it often isn’t. A study by Yahoo, Tumblr, Razorfish and Digitas found that 45% of Millennials don’t find ad content worthy of sharing. That means marketers need to do a better job of understanding what resonates with this generation. Another study done by youth market research firm Voxburner, The Youth Trends Report 2015, found that short, concise, visual and collaborative content is what will get the attention of Millennial consumers. Create ads or content campaigns (whether that’s blogs or email newsletters) that are short, clever and insightful. Give them something of value. Millennials consume a boatload of content each day in a variety of forms—blogs, news, online shows, social network posts and video. They watch a lot of videos, on a variety of platforms and devices. Your business needs to have a multi-platform marketing strategy that pulls Millennials in with content that engages, entertains and informs. Most of all, you should be creating and distributing non-commercial information that consumers find useful. Content marketing shouldn’t be self-serving (although ultimately it will serve the business). About 40% of Millennials don’t mind seeing ads if they are relevant to their lives, according to a YouTube-Nielsen multi-screen audience study, but they are highly sensitive to being played—if the brand’s message doesn’t resonate with them, that content or ad will be dismissed as noise. The information you send out should enhance their busy lives in some way, from offering an easy recipe for a weeknight dinner to a 6-second Vine video that makes them laugh. Create an active community. Millennials are inherently social creatures, and their social interactions—as in social networking—give them a sense of self. Google Think’s report said that “they are what they like, share, +1, tweet, comment on, retweet….” It also is how Millennial consumers determine what they will buy. They depends on others—whether that’s friends and family or review platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor or Angie’s List—to get information, advice and recommendations. Your content will create a community around it by telling the story behind your business and the people who make it great. When your audience gets to know you and your company’s expertise, they are more likely to trust you and want to be part of that community. Encourage them to comment on blog posts and other content and then share their comments with other customers and readers. Provide teasers to your content on social media, invite them to your blog. Let them choose to sign up for your emails because the really like what you have to say. Keep it real. In every piece of content you create to promote your products, services and brand, be authentic. What you want is to inspire some kind of emotional attachment to your brand, but the only way to do that is to be straight with your Millennial customers. They are eager to share content that’s funny, poignant, speaks to their lifestyle or spurs them to action. It gives them credibility and validity within their communities, which is why content that’s pithy, smart, shocking, beautiful—you get the idea—will be readily shared and commented upon. Perhaps most importantly, it will begin the conversations you want to be having with your customers.
Can Snapchat Help You Reach More Customers? Posted on May 3, 2016October 12, 2017 by Jessica Lunk Snapchat is the photo-sharing app that lets users send vanishing content to their friends and followers. These photo or video “snaps” can be viewed for up to 10 seconds before disappearing from the screen – with the caveat that recipients can save snaps or capture a screenshot. Snapchat caught fire with the millennial set, and today nearly 1/3 of all U.S. millennial internet users access Snapchat regularly. In addition, Snapchat boasts 100 million daily active users. With this many eyeballs on the app, marketers are trying to leverage the platform to reach more customers. So is your business missing out on an opportunity to engage with customers and prospects on Snapchat? Well, that depends… Does it fit your audience? Sure, teens and millenials love sharing vanishing photos on Snapchat – but can you find your customers there? Snapchat hit the 100 million user mark, but it may be more conducive to some audiences than others. In fact, 45% of Snapchat users are between the ages of 18 and 24. That makes it a bit of a stretch for B2B companies who would typically target an older demographic. So if you decide you do have a viable audience on Snapchat, the next question to ask is… Do you have the bandwidth? If you’ve built a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you know how difficult it can be to build a network of followers. Do you have the bandwidth to replicate those efforts on Snapchat? Growing your Snapchat following means incorporating Snapchat in all of your marketing efforts – from adding it to your About page, to including it in email signatures and even talking about your Snapchat presence on other social networks. For small businesses with small teams, creating content for a single channel might be a stretch. But maybe you can tap into a pre-built audience… Can you reach influencers? Maybe building a customer following on Snapchat isn’t in the cards. But if influencers in your industry are engaged with the platform, it could be a opportunity to reach them with your message and get them to talk about your brand. Influencers can help you create and share your content with their audience on Snapchat and other channels – giving major lift to your brand. Nick Cicero, CEO & Founder of Delmondo, a Snapchat analytics and influencer marketing company, specializes in matching up brands with Snapchat influencers to tell their story. He highlights the benefits of co-creating content between brands and influencers on Snapchat: So for a brand that may not want to jump right into manning or staffing a channel like Snapchat—or having somebody that has to sit there and take the time to understand the audience and think about it—they can work with influencers who are already named to the platform to really save them a lot of operational costs and get a significantly better outcome. What’s your Snapchat strategy? When a new social network bursts onto the scene, the first instinct of many marketers is to create an account, brand the profile page, and start sharing. The only problem is, all too often the result is a desolate Tumblr feed, crickets chirping on a Google Plus page or a half-empty Pinterest board. While being an early adopter has lots of advantages, without a strategy, the initial excitement and ambition will fizzle. When it comes to your Snapchat strategy, here are a few things to consider: Does my business have timely updates to talk about? For instance, if you’re in real estate, you could send a snap to tease a new listing before it goes on the market. Can we leverage Snapchat for live events? Geofilters make Snapchat content even more relevant and engaging. Geofilters are photo overlays only available to you if you’re in that location. For example, if you’re on the tradeshow circuit, you could use Snapchat Geofilters to create an instant bond with other people at the conference. On the flip-side, sharing behind the scenes travel snaps or action pics of your booth can make a global audience feel like they’re there. Can we get more personal with our audience using the platform? I really like SurePayroll‘s example of introducing new employees to your audience with a snap. If your business is growing and you’re ramping up your team, this could work for you. Do we have a promotion strategy that we could use in tandem with Snapchat? If you’re a software company, for example, you might share a coupon code for a free upgrade to get prospects to sign. Could Snapchat be your secret to building an engaged following of prospects and customers? I think the jury is still out for small businesses, especially B2B. Unless Snapchat starts attracting a more diverse audience to their platform, it’s going to be best left to B2C companies marketing to millennials. Check out this infographic for a thorough overview of the ins & outs of the app and how you can build your own Snapchat following:
How to Use Email to Leverage the Promise of Video Marketing Posted on May 2, 2016June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk If you aren’t already leveraging video marketing in your emails, you’re behind the marketing curve. In a 2013 ReelSEO study, 93 percent of respondents said they were incorporating video in their marketing campaigns — and 60 percent claimed to use videos specifically for email marketing. Since then, the prevalence — and sophistication — of these video marketing efforts has only increased. The reason for the rise in video marketing is simple: it’s effective and affordable. Research from Diode Digital indicates that video marketing is 600 percent more effective than print and direct mail efforts. However, the wrong strategy can compromise your entire marketing campaign. Harness the power of video and keep the following essentials in mind as you incorporate rich media into your marketing emails: Map out your strategy for using video in your emails. If you have a smartphone, you have the ability to create a marketing video for your business. However, there’s a lot more that goes into video marketing that capturing two minutes of footage. It takes time to script out your video, plan for your shoot and edit your video post-shoot. Then you have to figure out where to host your videos and create the emails that deliver video to your audience. Having a strategy in place before you start production will ensure that you get the most out of the time and resources you put into your videos. Here are some tips for mapping out your strategy early on: Define the goal of your email campaign Decide who your videos are for and the purpose they serve. Goals like: Engage top-of-the-funnel leads. The strategy may be to create a how-to video series or email course – check out our email course for inspiration. Create a sales tool. Your strategy might be to record a product demo or to produce an interview series with your key employees. Re-engage customers. A strategy may be to enhance your customer knowledge base with how-to product videos. Choose a video host Your overall strategy might influence how you decide to host your videos. For instance, YouTube is perfect if you want to reach a large audience and allow others to share and embed your videos. A host like Vimeo is ad-free and offers privacy settings – which may be ideal if your strategy is to create a new revenue stream by offering a video email course. Wistia video hosting tracts engagement stats and allows you to add a call-to-action link at the end of your videos – a great option if your strategy is to create a product video with a call to action at the end. Map out your campaign With your goal in mind, chart out your email strategy. Is it a simple drip campaign that visitors can sign-up for on your website? Or are you adding a video to an existing campaign to boost engagement? Mapping out the email strategy from the beginning can help clarify how to shape video content – which is super important, because you only have 10 seconds to capture your audience’s attention (according to Video Brewery). Keep short attention spans in mind. Email recipients must wade through dozens or even hundreds of messages. They have no time to spare for lengthy videos, but they will set aside a minute or two for a concise clip. The ideal email video is, at most, two minutes long. If you struggle to fit your entire message in just one short video, consider creating a series of videos, with each lasting between 30 and 45 seconds. These short videos can quickly hook email recipients and get them excited for what’s to come. Be sure to let viewers know that they should expect follow-up videos in the near future. Be authentic, but edit yourself. The quality over quantity cliché definitely applies to video-based email marketing. A short video will be completely ineffective if it includes blurry footage, shaky camera work, unnecessary noises coming from offset, or distractions in the camera background. Expensive recording equipment and a dedicated studio are not required, but good video and audio equipment can definitely make a difference. More important, however, is your message, so be sure to edit out any awkward moments. Stay true to your personal brand and your company brand by editing out things that distract from the purpose of your video and your overall message: Avoid unnecessary distractions – like a barking office pet or water-cooler discussion getting picked up in the background. Take note of your surroundings – if filming in your home office, for instance, get that laundry basket out of the shot. Deliver value – Know your message backward and forward and don’t dance around the point you want to make. If your video goes on too long without delivering value, viewers are going to tune out. Now that you have their attention, tell your audience what to do next. Merely linking to video in your emails is not good enough. Your should also feature a call to action, ideally within the actual video or, at minimum, in the email’s text. Video-based calls to action are especially effective, as they encourage viewers to check out other videos, thereby further exposing them to your brand. The easiest video-based calls to action are verbal, with the subject encouraging viewers to click provided links or view follow-up videos. However, brands with more developed YouTube channels can achieve greater response rates by editing in annotations. When clicked, these annotations lead viewers directly to the next video. Additionally, video-based calls to action can include links that encourage viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel or check out your social media pages and official website. Create your email for the 99%. Now that your video is ready to go, it’s time to add it to your email. With the latest HTML 5 standards, you can technically embed a video in an email that will play right in the recipient’s inbox. And while that seems like a simple solution, keep in mind that email clients are a fickle bunch. What looks great in one email client may appear wonky in another. Email clients are notoriously hard to please, and getting your emails to render correctly across all of them is always a chore. In fact, email delivery service, SendGrid, advises to not embed video into emails. Video hosting service, Wistia, also has some solid arguments against embedding video into your email. Instead, SendGrid, Wistia and most others with authority on email and video recommend simply using a thumbnail or GIF link to your video. As a bonus, when you use a link to your video in your email, you can track who has clicked to watch your video. If your goal is to cultivate a dedicated following, using video in your email marketing strategy can transform any run-of-the-mill email into an effective tool for increasing customer engagement.
13 Leadership Books that Every Business Owner Should Read Posted on April 29, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Too many business owners start their businesses feeling as if they’re alone; they shouldn’t feel that way, as history has provided many people and stories to learn from. Whether you’re starting your business and deep into the process, consider reading these 13 books to arm yourself with knowledge and power. 1. Who Moved My Cheese? He knew sometimes some fear can be good. When you are afraid things are going to get worse if you don’t do something, it can prompt you into action. But it is not good when you are afraid that it keeps you from doing anything. Dr. Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? has gone down in history as one of the most iconic, important, and highest-selling business books in history. The core value of the book, which is told through a parable, is the need of adapting to and benefiting from change. 2. How to Win Friends and Influence People If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity. Another advice classic is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. As its title implies, the book advises readers on how to change others’ behavior by altering personal behavior. Tips on making friends, changing opinions, and inspiring others are include. 3. Built to Last The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core. This book, by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, details a six-year research project that takes eighteen enduring and exceptional companies and discovers what qualities and choices made them succeed. 4. The Startup of You Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’. If you’re not growing, you’re contracting. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Created by the combined efforts of Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn’s co-founder) and Ben Casnocha, The Startup of You excels at giving advice on how to stay ahead in today’s fast-paced, socially-driven climate. 5. Virtual Freedom Succeeding in a business leader does not mean doing all the work yourself, it means knowing how to share that work. Virtual Freedom, written by Chris Ducker, focuses on this idea and teaches readers how to outsource, even while on a budget. 6. The Wisdom of Failure There’s no making lemonade out of this. The Wisdom of Failure, by Laurence G. Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey, is a reverse take on the preceding Built to Last; it, through a seven-year study, remarks on failed companies and teaches how to avoid repeating those failures. 7. Speak and Get Results Your primary task is to direct your listeners’ change so it leads them to the result you want. Not every business owner’s skill is in speaking; still, if you’re planning to run a business, it’s vital to have the means to effectively—and confidently—communicate with your team. Sandy Linver’s Speak and Get Results is key reading to improving your speech. 8. Entrepreneurial DNA “If it worked for one entrepreneur, it will work for every entrepreneur. After all, entrepreneurs are all the same.” But, are all entrepreneurs really the same? Author Joe Abraham—successful founder of over 20 companies—asks readers a wide variety of questions to discover their leadership type in his book Entrepreneurial DNA. Introspection is a key facet to self-improvement, and Abraham uses his incredible experience to help guide others through their personal growth. 9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. Leaders with a preference for structure—both in leadership and literature—should consider giving Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People a read. Covey provides direct answers to many of the questions business owners may ask themselves on a regular basis and guides these answers with interesting and relatable anecdotes. 10. The Innovator’s Dilemma Three classes of factors affect what an organization can and cannot do: its resources, its processes, and its values. Precious, soft advice does no business owner any good, it’s the pragmatic, hard-hitting stuff that matters most. That’s a key premise in Clayton M. Christenen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. He very bluntly explains how businesses that do everything correct on paper may still fail in the long-term. To circumvent this failure, he provides practical advice on how leaders can navigate through tricky scenarios in economics and investment. 11. Leadership and Self-Deception Whether at work or at home, self-deception obscures the truth about ourselves, corrupts our view of others and our circumstances, and inhibits our ability to make wise and helpful decisions. As a leader, it’s important to never let self-confidence ever become delusion; otherwise, you’ll lose your clear judgment and ability to make realistic decisions. Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute expands on that concept and teaches readers how to believe in themselves without deceiving themselves. 12. Quiet Leadership They need leaders who help them shine, who help them fulfill their potential at work. This six-step guide by David Rock tauts the importance of careful, considered thought. Leaders should know how to work intuitively and inspire their employees to do the same. Asking your peers and employee base to engage with their work critically will boost morale, buoy productivity, and foster a healthier business environment. 13. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere. As its title implies, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell breaks down leadership into clear, concise, and bold rules to live by. The book contains law application exercises, many relatable stories, thorough research, and an evaluation tool designed to give you a realistic look at your leadership strengths and weaknesses. Which book helped you move forward as a leader? Tweet it at us!
4 Data-Driven Strategies to Improve Your Sales Process Posted on April 27, 2016June 28, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Could your sales process use a little fine-tuning? From poor follow-up to limited lead nurturing, numerous problems in the sales process may be destroying your conversion rate. The leading cause of a broken process is the lack of access to your data. These four simple data-driven strategies will significantly boost your bottom line by simplifying, automating, and optimizing your sales and marketing process. 1. Attract better leads Many businesses set their sights on getting as many leads as possible, but it’s not worth sacrificing quality for quantity, as a great deal of time and energy can easily be wasted on cold leads that never had any promise in the first place. Instead, aim for those targeted niche leads that actually have a chance of becoming hot prospects. Start by surveying your customers to drill down to why your best customers love your product or service and compare them to your detractors. It’s important to get an what people don’t like for a full picture. Build out your buyer personas based on this data. Once you have locked in on your buyer personas, you can create more targeted content and marketing campaigns to bring in more quality leads. Attract these leads by focusing in on SEO, PPC, and social media. These three channels are fueled by content but are refined by looking at your data for optimization. Check out our 5-day email course on lead generation to get a deep dive into how to attract more leads. 2. Quick — and repeated — follow-ups One of the biggest and most devastating mistakes businesses make is neglecting to follow up with leads soon after capturing their contact information. Your leads are craving personal attention and need to hear back from you soon after you’ve made contact; otherwise, they’ll forget why they were so interested in the first place. The sooner you follow up with leads, the sooner you’ll get them in the sales funnel and on the way to becoming promising prospects. Gathering data to send targeted follow-up emails is simple. Through your SEO efforts, you should have at least 3 main keywords you are working on improving. Create targeted landing pages for each of these keywords with a call to action to attract your leads. To increase your open rates and responses to your triggered follow-up campaigns, tailor them for each of these landing pages. That way, the contact remembers exactly why they gave you their information. As you can see, hooking your email marketing up to your CRM is crucial to starting a successful data-driven sales process. 3. Nurture leads — and determine when they become prospects Cold leads may express mild interest in your company’s products or services, but they are by no means ready to make a big investment. In fact, 50% of leads are qualified but not ready to buy. Pushing for a sale when an early lead still has no intention of purchasing will only result in the complete loss of that important lead. Instead, it is important to nurture your leads and monitor them to determine how close to purchasing they really are. Marketing automation software can prove quite useful in this regard, as it gives you a good idea of where in the sales process your leads and prospects are located and whether they’re ready for a serious sales discussion. Producing content with each stage of your sales funnel is key to funnel movement. Utilize contact scores to get a glimpse of how your contacts are interacting with your content in your marketing automation strategy. Based on these scores, contacts can move themselves down your sales funnel. Impersonal email blasts won’t give you the same results as an email nurturing strategy. 4. Analyze sales data — and optimize As you nurture leads, you should know exactly how many make that essential transition from cold lead to hot prospect — and how many stall at the very beginning of the sales pipeline. Through extensive tracking of conversions, you can determine which aspects of your sales process are working — and which are causing leads to stall. Track the lead source for each of your contacts to see the number of leads generated from each marketing channel as well as which marketing channels have the highest conversion rate of lead into customer. So, when you identify a marketing channel with high conversion rate, you can accelerate your spend with that channel, netting out more customers. Sales and marketing software can also help you track the performance of your sales team and identify bottlenecks in your process – who’s performing well and who could use some help. A good sales process begins with high-quality leads and continues with an efficient and effective sales pipeline. Through careful strategizing and use of an all-in-one sales and marketing tool at all stages of the sales funnel, you can significantly streamline your sales process and improve conversion rates.
STAHP the Email Blasts! Why You Should Use Email Nurturing Posted on April 26, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Every day, I go through my email and delete email blast after email blast. With every email I send into trash without opening, I think, STAHP, STAHP, STAHP! Your leads are probably doing the same if you are taking the blast approach instead of a nurturing campaign. According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at email nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. By using marketing automation software, it’s possible to create effective B2B email campaigns that keep prospects and customers engaged by providing them with the most relevant information when they want it. When you practice email nurturing, you S.T.A.H.P. Here’s how you Strategize, Target, Adapt, Humanize, and Progress your emails with nurturing campaigns and leave those blasts to the past. Strategize How much strategy goes into an email blast? Not much it seems. It’s an easy way to get your message out there, sure. However, email nurturing allows you to be more strategic in choosing when those messages are delivered. On a basic level, you can use the appropriate marketing software to make sure that clients do not receive too much email too frequently, setting limitations such as one message per week so that they don’t feel bombarded. On a more advanced level, nurturing emails can be delivered via marketing automation software after certain triggers, such as the client downloading something from your site. This may trigger an email confirmation of the download, additional information about the download, or additional calls to action as you see fit. Thus, the customer receives relevant, useful information exactly when they need it. Target One of the best parts of email nurturing is that marketing automation software allows you to customize messages to clients that you have separated into targeted lists. Clients are likely to delete that email blast they feel is generic and that doesn’t offer content that is uniquely valuable to them. Conversely, relevant emails to targeted groups improve revenue. In fact, Juniper Research discovered that relevant emails “drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails.” (Broadcast emails is the marketing euphemism for the dreaded email blast.) This is due to targeted, email nurturing makes clients feel like they are in a relationship with a business that understands their unique needs. Adapt Perhaps the best reason to use email nurturing is that the more you use it, the more useful it becomes. The practice helps you to collect data which, in turn, helps you create more effective email campaigns. For instance, you may start by sending lapsed customers a light-weight engagement email that contains at least three different links they may click on. Use your marketing automation software to monitor the actions they take, and assess the needs they are expressing based on what they click. With this information, you can begin segmenting this client list and sending customized content to different groups, moving from the initial lightweight engagement to later attempts to convert them once again. Collecting this data will help you refine future email nurturing campaigns and to adapt your email marketing to the exact needs of your specific audience. Humanize These days, the first interaction someone will have with your business is going to be online. More times than not, prospects feel like they are talking to a machine. You don’t have to lose that personal element of a handshake (or a high-five). Email nurturing puts the human touch back into your business while staying organized. Hand in hand, you get to know one another as you guide your prospects down the sales funnel. They receive a personalized email campaign and you take that relationship to the next level by building trust. Busting down their door with an email blast kills your online humanity Progress Sending nurturing messages using marketing automation software allows you to create a more natural progression through the conversion of a client. In conjunction with the criteria your sales team has set for sales-ready leads, you can strategically offer things like free trials or software demos to customers after their initial conversion. In this way, entire email nurturing campaigns can be customized to bring customers fully through the sales funnel by continuously offering them both educational content and relevant tools based on their specific needs. Your leads and prospects are wanting the same personal service they would receive if you took them out to lunch. Nurturing your leads with a marketing automation tool allows you to build better relationships and close more deals by giving you insight into what your prospects and customers need.
The Most Effective Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team Posted on April 25, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jonathan Herrick In sales there is a constant pressure to drive results, after all it’s one of the few gigs that resets to zero at the beginning of every month. Making sure your sales team is achieving their sales goals is key the success of any business. But what can you do to get the best out of your salespeople? What incentives make your stars want to sell more, and what incentives make your average people want to be great? Here are five effective ways to motivate your sales team to build better relationships with prospects, turning them into customers to boost sales: Include Sales in Company Decisions One way to motivate your troops is to include your sales people in company decisions. In most businesses, decisions are made in a vacuum, but if revenue is vital to growing your business then you need to find a way to include your sales staff in more than just the sale. Let your sales people sit in on customer success meetings, join marketing meetings, or give their input on the direction of your products and services. Remember, your sales team is on the front lines speaking with prospects and customers every day. Their voice is extremely valuable to the business. In addition, involving your sales leaders in company decisions can prepare them to join your business’s leadership team. They gain a better understanding of how your business works, they have opportunities to contribute to the company, and you get to observe how they interact with the other leaders in your organization. Promote Your Best If you have a sales rep who is deserving of recognition, promote them. Give them a bump in salary, give them a new title, and make certain they know that you have seen the work they do, and that is why they are moving up. Showing other employees that there is an opportunity for advancement can help foster an engaged culture that fuels results and builds more leaders in the future. Reward with More than Just Money Getting commissions on the paycheck is a big driver for most sales people. However, motivating a sales team to drive more revenue for your business comes down to more than just money. After all if money was the only performance driver then your sales staff would be blowing out their quota already. In the era of recognition that we now live in, non monetary rewards can be a huge driving force in getting your people to commit to the mission of your business and to grow sales. Such incentives could be as simple as gift cards, a trip to the spa, or a day off to recharge the batteries. Another great way to give recognition to your sales team for achieving their monthly goals is to have a team day where you and your sales staff take the day off and participate together in a fun event. It is a great way to build morale, foster teamwork and reward everyone for a job well done. Talk to Your People Talk to sales and engage with them — don’t just treat them like a means to drive more revenue. When you see a team member doing something above and beyond reaching their monthly quota, encourage and support them to keep it going. Let them know they are appreciated. That means be specific about a time that they stepped up and did work that was above and beyond what was expected. A simple conversation will often do more for your sales team’s morale than almost anything else you could offer. Recognition for a job well done a respected boss can go a long way toward reinforcing the work that earned that pat on the back, and it can increase loyalty to the boss and the company. This is especially true if you have a younger sales team, as millennials thrive on meaningful feedback and check-ins. An important part of the conversation is to ask your sales staff what they need to blow out their goals. Do they need additional training? Do they struggle with lead generation? Do they believe in the products or services they are selling? When you break down the silos and communicate with your sales team, you are in a better position to deliver the resources they need to bring in more customers and hit their targets. Give them the RIGHT tools One of the greatest challenges for sales leaders is to expect them to drive revenue and results without having the right tools in place. By giving your sales people the RIGHT tools you allow them and their team to do what they do best – build deeper relationships – not mindless endeavors like cold calling, organizing their contacts, or manually tracking their performance. Software such as a CRM and marketing automation with built-in reporting allow your salespeople to focus on building relationships with hot prospects instead of working through administrative tasks that don’t move the needle. The right tools can optimize your overall process so even your top performers can increase conversion rates and boost revenue. Sales and marketing tools can also help you track the success of your salespeople so you know who to incentivize, who needs a little more guidance in meeting their goals, and the specific areas where a team member might be struggling. With the right tools facilitating a better process and helping your people do their best work, your whole organization becomes a well-oiled revenue machine. Taking time to build up your sales staff is a worthwhile investment. Speak to your best people, include them in the decision making process, and give them the tools they need to succeed. Motivating your salespeople with the right incentives creates high performers that remain energized about their work and stay loyal to you and your company.
How to Evangelize Customers: Beyond the Bottom of the Funnel Posted on April 22, 2016August 12, 2022 by Jessica Lunk The process of gaining customers and generating sales is long and time-consuming – especially for B2B companies with a long sales cycle. By the end of a closed sale, it can be easy for both the sales and marketing teams to figuratively “wash their hands” of the customer and move on to closing the next batch of leads. But there’s a problem with this approach. The problem is that some of the greatest value generated from a customer comes after the close—or beyond the funnel. Entrepreneur and business leader Rory Vaden explains it like this in his article, The 7 Stage Customer Evangelism Lifecycle: You don’t need customers who are pleased with their experience and so they tell no one. That’s neutral and neutral is negative. What you need is customers who are so on fire about what you have provided to them that they have no choice but to take to social media and spread the positive love to all of their friends in the same way they would tell them about a great movie. Here’s how sales and marketing professionals can create go beyond the funnel to evangelize customers and boost revenue: Provide Excellent Customer Service It may be obvious, but the first step to evangelizing customers is to provide great customer service. Customers are much more likely to come back if they enjoyed their purchasing experience – that’s a no-brainer. After they have purchased, however, there is even more you can do to bring them back for future purchases: Offer special discounts: Your customer’s purchase history indicates which products and services they are most interested in. Email customers when the things they normally purchase from you are on sale or in season, or reach out to customers when their renewal or anniversary date comes up. Reward their loyalty to your business with special customer-only discounts or perks. Follow-up: A follow-up call or email ensures that everything went well with their first purchase and gives your business the opportunity to nip and issues in the bud before your customer turns to social media to voice any frustrations. Following up also keeps your brand top of mind and reinforces your relationship with the customer. Survey: It’s easy to develop products and services in a vacuum, but you don’t know for sure how they will be received until you listen to your customers. Collecting anonymous survey data can help you pin-point areas you can improve to make the customer experience better. Taking time to listen to customer feedback can turn one-time purchases into repeat business and referrals when your customers tell their friends and connections about their exceptional experience. Generate Customer Referrals Acquiring a new customer takes a lot of time, money and hard work. That’s why customer referrals are so important to your business. Consumers are much more likely to invest in products and services when a peer makes a recommendation – here’s how to boost your customer referrals: Ask for referrals directly: Getting referrals can be as easy as asking a question. After speaking with happy customers, a member of your team can simply ask the question, “would you recommend our product to others?” The worst they could say is “no.” If they answer, ask them who you could call about the product. You can also create a simple email that asks your satisfied customers for referrals – after all, sometimes the happiest customers are the ones you never hear from. Keep a list of references: Sometimes a reference from a happy customer is the final incentive a prospect needs to do business with you. Ask your happy customers if they would be willing to be a reference so you have a running list of folks you can reach out to and a moment’s notice. Try to build a list that includes references from each vertical – for instance, try to have a reference in each industry you serve so you can tailor the reference to the prospect’s unique perspective. Collect testimonials and reviews: A simple email campaign to satisfied customers can help you gather testimonials for your website or reviews for industry review sites. Tip: Don’t bombard your customers with too many asks at once – they’ll get burnt out. Track your communication so you’re only reaching out quarterly or yearly. Tap into social media: Peer-to-peer referrals are most widely generated by social media. Reward your customers for tweeting or posting about their experience to their social network. Using social media networks, you target your customers’ acquaintances or partner-companies and offer the same results you gave your customers. Make sure it’s easy to share your message. This includes social share buttons on your website and in your emails. When it comes to post-close success, the greatest achievement you can make is to create product evangelists out of your customers. These customers will actively invite others around them, whether in person or online, to try out your product. They become mini-salespeople and also your most valuable relationships. A successful sale takes work. An evangelized customer takes even more work, but the rewards are well worth it. Apply the principles above to ensure your customers keeping giving you value well beyond the bottom of the funnel.
Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Start Developing Your Brand Posted on April 20, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Procrastination is a natural human tendency, but in the competitive world of small business, it can prove devastating. The waiting game is particularly damaging when it comes to brand development, for, the longer you go without clarifying your brand and targeting the right audience, the more time and money you waste on ineffective marketing campaigns. From fear to indecision, your reasons for stalling may vary, but no matter you excuse, your failure to define and develop your brand is causing your business irreparable harm. The following are a few of the most common excuses for stalling on brand development — and why those excuses are invalid. There’s Not Enough Time Small business owners never have enough time, and while it’s true that life as an entrepreneur is crazy busy, some things — including brand development — need to be prioritized. Ultimately, the upfront time commitment you place in creating your brand will pay off, as it will ensure that you do not waste precious time on pursuits that do not support your long-term goals. You’re Lacking Financial Resources When it feels like your new business can fold at any time, the last thing you feel like doing is focusing on big picture issues such as developing your brand. However, a clear vision can ultimately make it far easier to secure the resources you require. Investors have absolutely no interest in supporting entrepreneurs who lack direction. They’ll be far more likely to give your pitch the consideration it deserves if you present a polished, confident image. A focused brand allows you to immediately demonstrate what you’ve accomplished thus far, and where you’re going. You’re Still Working on Team Building Instead of gathering an unorganized team of employees and then trying to pigeonhole them into a suddenly defined mission, your vision needs to be clear from the beginning. This will ensure that those who join your team are truly on board. A loosely-defined brand will attract similarly-minded individuals who lack passion and are simply working for the paycheck. Is that the type of person you want on your team? It’ll Shutting Out Consumers Many entrepreneurs hesitate to focus on a target market because they fear excluding other prospective customers. This is a viable concern, but if you fail to identify a target audience and tailor your message to fit that audience, your brand will not strongly appeal to anybody. Focus your vision and watch as your customer base grows, both in size and loyalty. The longer you wait to define your brand, the more opportunities will pass you by. From potential investors to employees, the best and the brightest want to be associated with easily-identifiable brands created by entrepreneurs who are clearly passionate about their respective industries.