Should You Buy Social Media Followers for Your B2B Business? Posted on May 18, 2018 by Allie Wolff The notion of buying social media followers for your business seems too taboo to even put in writing. After all, isn’t B2B social media supposed to be about connecting with real business owners and helping them solve real problems? Technically, purchasing followers isn’t illegal — at best, it’s just a quick way to make your business appear more popular than it really is. But at worst, it can be downright harmful to real users. Let’s take a look at the notion of buying social media followers (and its recent focus in the news), and then examine whether this is a good practice for your B2B business. Purchasing Followers on Social Media There are different ways to do buy social media followers, some involving real people, and others involving bots. There are companies that sell fake accounts directly to those who want more followers, and then there are companies that take a more subtle approach, like Devumi. In January 2018, a small company named Devumi made headlines for engaging in a shady business: selling fake followers (bots) derived from real social accounts, including those belonging to minors. Devumi’s clients ranged from PR firms to celebrities, and for pennies, would boost their clients’ Twitter followers, views on YouTube, and more. When contacted, those of Devumi’s customers who responded gave some version of the statement, “it’s no big deal, everybody does it.” And while plenty of businesses are doing it, this doesn’t mean that purchasing followers will actually give you the ROI you’re looking for in your B2B business. The Pros and Cons of Buying Followers The main benefit of purchasing followers on social media is that it makes your brand or business look more popular or influential than it actually is. Potential customers, clients, and employees are far more likely to be “wowed” if you have thousands of followers rather than a few hundred. In some regard, having more followers — even if they’re fake — can lead to increased engagement among real social media users. And in B2B industries that hinge on influence (social media management, or marketing), this bump in followers may actually land you a slew of new clients. But because there are so many more potential negative outcomes of purchasing followers, let’s talk about those now. First, there’s no way to ensure (without a lot of hard work on your part) whether your purchased followers are real people or bots. Obviously, bots aren’t going to make a purchase from you. Secondly, even if your followers are real people, they may not fit your target market. In the case of Chef Michael Symon, after he purchased followers in 2014, he realized that his new followers were both bots and humans who were completely uninterested in his industry — doing little to drive meaningful traffic to his digital channels. And when you’re a B2B business, it’s essential that you’re connecting with the right stakeholders at legitimate businesses rather than random individuals on social media. An Alternate Way to “Buy” Social Media Followers Rather than paying for a specific headcount of new followers, there are other ways to invest your money in growing your social platform. Here are a few of them: Use an app to manage who you follow. Rather than manually sifting through profiles, use an app or hire a service to follow relevant users (and unfollow those who don’t follow you back). Crowdfire, DoesFollow, FollowFly, and ManageFlitter are examples of these types of services for Twitter. Hire a social media management service to grow your following. You’re not an expert in everything within your business, so why spend hours becoming an expert at social media? Work with a reputable social media manager or company to help you grow your following organically. It will take longer than buying followers, but may be well worth it. Use a social media management tool. If the logistics of posting valuable content across multiple channels is dragging you down, use an automatic scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to streamline things. Use paid ads. All major social media platforms offering advertising options. Whether it be for brand awareness, followers or sales conversions, paying for legitimate ads through these platforms allows you to get your brand in front of a more targeted audience who can choose whether or not to give you a follow. Finally, despite the fact that most social media platforms prohibit people from creating fake accounts or abusing the system, social media companies unfortunately still profit from having more users (whether they’re real or not). A 2018 Bloomberg article by Leonid Bershidsky offers a solution that would eradicate this extreme competition for likes and follows: social platforms could simply make stats about number of followers unavailable to the public, which would “remove the temptation to inflate them.” And if more people continue to manipulate these systems, there’s a chance social media companies will actually remove these stats anyways — at which point, what will matter is the content you’re posting, not the number of likes, retweets, and followers you have.
5 Ways to Rebound from a Missed Sales Opportunity Posted on May 17, 2018May 17, 2018 by Tegan Arnold There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a solid ‘no’ from a prospect – especially one you’ve put a great deal of time and energy into converting. Like it or not, there will always be situations in which your efforts ultimately don’t pay off. How you respond to those missed opportunities, however, can have an impact on your future success. Let’s take a look at five tips that will help you bounce back after experiencing a tough break. Let yourself be human. You aren’t a machine. You are human and chances are right about now you’re experiencing some feelings and emotions that aren’t so great. Recognizing and acknowledging these feelings can be the first step in getting over them and moving forward. Don’t pressure yourself to bounce back right away. Give yourself room to breathe, allow yourself a little bit of time to regroup and then, when you’re ready, get back in the saddle. It may take a little longer, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Create and cultivate a supportive environment. Feeling like a failure is never a great experience. Having someone there to pick you up, help you dust off and keep you focused on the positive can make all the difference. Surround yourself with others who are supportive, not competitive. This will enable you to let your guard down, admit when you are struggling and reach out for help when it’s needed. With the right team culture and a positive attitude, missed opportunities won’t threaten to derail your progress. Understand the reasons why. It can be painful to relive a lost deal, but it’s crucial to improving your chances of landing those big sales in the future. As difficult as it is, try to look at missed opportunities as a learning experience. If possible, ask the prospect why they chose not to move forward. You might be surprised to find that it’s got nothing to do with you. For instance, it could have simply been a cost issue. If it was something you did, take the feedback and turn it into an opportunity to learn, grow and improve. Reset and get back to basics. When deals fall through, it’s easy to become hyper-focused on the negative. To avoid this, try temporarily shifting your focus from the “big picture” to smaller, more easily achievable components of the sales process. By doing this, you’ll experience a sense of accomplishment that can help you build up your confidence again. Remember – one of the strongest negative emotions is the feeling of a loss of control. Activity-focused selling can help you regain that sense of control and work toward improving. Learn how to spot red flags. One important lesson that can be learned from a missed sales opportunity is what red flags may have existed that you didn’t notice. Perhaps the prospect was too price-sensitive right from the start or signaled that he or she wouldn’t have the final say in the decision-making process. Recognizing what these warning signs are can help you identify them in advance for future deals, enabling you to cut your losses and avoid wasting precious time on a dead-end deal. Missing out on a sales opportunity stinks. Knowing how to respond to the disappointment and learn from your mistakes, however, can help you develop into a more effective salesperson and improve your performance going forward.
3 Pitfalls of AI Technology No One Is Talking About Posted on May 16, 2018June 12, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick “Alexa, order me a pizza.” If you’re anything like me, you’ve already tapped into the power of AI for simple tasks like ordering food or playing your favorite jam. The truth is artificial intelligence (AI) is behind countless aspects of modern life, both in business and at home. It’s the reason we have personalized social feeds or automated recommendations advertised to us based on previous purchases and pageviews. Artificial intelligence is here to stay, and it can be immensely helpful across a range of industries. It also has a number of potential pitfalls. But before we delve into those, let’s define the different types of AI. Defining AI Technology There are two types of AI technology: narrow (weak) AI, and general (strong) AI. Narrow AI is designed to perform a specific task, like playing poker or facial recognition. Most of the AI technology we use, as of 2018, is considered narrow AI. It’s often swapped with terms like machine learning or automation. Because of its granular applications, narrow AI can be incredibly effective at saving time and money on bland or repetitive tasks. In contrast, general AI has a more comprehensive knowledge base, similar to that of a human. However, it’s capable of processing information faster and more accurately. General AI is the type often portrayed in sci-fi movies — think Data from Star Trek, or Schwarzenegger’s android character, the “terminator.” Google’s search engine, though immensely complex, is a primitive example of general AI. These days, you can search for items using slang and natural speech, and Google can typically derive your intent from your query. Just a few years ago, Google AI was incapable of understanding nuances in search queries; it could only match keywords with other similar keywords. The Pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence People have been talking about the big ethical implications of general AI for years. Obviously, if a self-driving car or piece of medical equipment became self-aware and made an autonomous decision, people could get hurt. Narrow AI, by contrast, is designed to specialize — meaning we won’t have to worry about it developing consciousness and taking over the world anytime soon. However, there are still pitfalls to narrow AI as we know it, especially when it’s being used to improve workplace efficiency and grow your business. Here are the pitfalls of narrow AI that may not seem as obvious. Pitfall #1: It takes time to set up. “Automation” is a promising word. And the businesses who have successfully automated some of their menial tasks are, undoubtedly, saving time and money that they otherwise would have spent on salaries and training. But implementing new apps, systems, or processes require time to research, set up, and test properly. After that, the AI system carries a learning curve for each human who will be interacting with it — meaning both your employees and your customers will have to learn how to get the most out of it. This isn’t to say that artificial intelligence is waste of time. However, if you plan on automating some of your manual business tasks, you can count on a mile of preparation and maintenance upfront in exchange for an inch of reward. Pitfall #2: There are so many possibilities. The vastness of narrow AI may sound like a positive feature, but when you’re new to AI, it can be hard to sort effective uses from not-so-effective ones. Do you really need to send an automatic email every time a customer takes a specific action? Can (and should) a computer be syndicating social media, reaching out to new leads, nurturing old ones? Once all of the possibilities start to arise, they can feel overwhelming. It’s also difficult to estimate ROI before you’re actually implemented a new AI system and had some time to gauge whether its speed and accuracy can really replace a human doing the same work. Pitfall #3: AI may not (yet) be ideal for customer service. Chatbots have been hyped up over the last couple of years, and for good reason: they’re potentially very profitable for companies who manage a large customer service staff or handle a lot of the same customer inquiries. And chatbots that use deep machine learning, like Cortana or Siri, can be extremely helpful. However, custom chatbots that are programmed to answer a limited range of questions (specifically, those delivered through messaging apps) can be unhelpful to customers and downright creepy, at worst. Customers seem to be the most frustrated when they’re led to believe a chatbot is a human. According to a DigitasLBI report, 73 percent of Americans said they wouldn’t use a chatbot again after a bad experience — and further, 61 percent would actually become more frustrated with a chatbot than a human if it couldn’t answer their questions. It seems, then, that when dealing with processes that involve nuances of language, emotional intelligence, or very complicated products, humans are still much better suited for the job. Like with any cutting-edge technology, the only way for a business owner to reap the rewards of AI is to research, plan, and test. Enlist an automation expert if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, and keep experimenting and tracking ROI to make sure artificial intelligence is serving you rather than costing you.
9 Signs Your Customer Service Needs a Reboot Posted on May 15, 2018September 22, 2022 by Eric Weiss Your sales are up. You’re scaling your company. You’re adding staff. Your marketing team is bringing in new leads every day. Things are looking great – what more could you need? The answer, of course, is great customer service. If you’re not looking at your customer service data, you’re missing a critical part of modern business – one that can say more about your company than just your front-facing employees. Here are nine telltale signs your customer service may need a reboot: 1. You aren’t getting much customer feedback. In customer service, no news is not necessarily good news. You want to engage with your customers, to hear suggestions for future products, more features, things they love and – yes – things they hate. Fresh app overhaul? Product design suggestion? General Insta-love? Feedback is good, because it means people are engaging with your product or brand. Hearing nothing is a warning sign. Your customer service could be structured in such a way that discourages people from interacting with your brand, which closes off a possible direct link between you and your audience. 2. You are getting customer feedback – and it’s crappy. The flip-side to hearing nothing, of course, is hearing only bad things. This one is fairly self-explanatory: an overwhelming amount of complaints is not a good thing. Not only is it indicative of a problematic product, but your customer service reps will be taking the brunt of this abuse, and only their response can turn it around. An ongoing assault is a bad sign all around. 3. You’ve got a surplus of new customers, but a dearth of returning ones. Who’s engaging with your product? How long are they sticking with it? In the digital world – apps and media sites – we’d call this “user retention”, or “engaged users.” It gets foggy in other industries, but it’s possible to monitor. Start with Google Analytics to see how long people spend on your website or app. If your primary customers are new (you’ve got so many fresh leads, right?), whoever’s in charge of lead generation is doing well. But if nobody is sticking around, then you’ve got to look at two things: first, whether your leads are properly qualified, and second, why they’re dropping off. If there’s a design flaw or customer service problem, this is your chance to analyze and repair it. 4. You care more about the size of your social following than what it represents. Congratulations, you hit 1,000 Facebook followers! Now, tell me: are any of them liking your content? Is anyone leaving a reply? Is there anyone alive out there? Buying social media followers is a quick recipe to destroy your social following. If you’re trying to build engagement, focus on interactions instead of sheer size. Respond to every comment, engage with others’ platforms, share relevant media. Work on building a quality platform with a distinct voice, and make sure you’re using social media as both a customer-service platform and a customer-delighting platform. 5. Your customer service agents aren’t acting or thinking like marketers Word of mouth is often the strongest sales technique. This “earned media” revolves around genuine excitement and authentic promotion of your brand out in the world. How can you get it? Create a good product, sure. Design a cool website, yeah. But customer service – that’s what gets people talking. A friend of mine recently told me about Ring, the camera-doorbell company. She likes the product fine, but what she couldn’t stop raving about was their customer service: fast, friendly, and trusting. She ordered the product on Amazon and it never arrived; rather than ask for a receipt or drag her through red tape, the agent simply believed her immediately and sent her a new one. You might think that’s an easy way to bleed money, but all it cost was a single product – maybe $100 with shipping – and they easily earned more than that in her genuine adoration and promotion. Transform your customer service a sales channel by making it something worth bragging about. 6. Conversely, your customer service is too salesy. Have you ever called your bank to resolve an issue, and at the end been presented with a sales pitch for a new credit card? Often, this feels annoying because it’s irrelevant – you’re not calling about a credit card, you’re calling to reset your PIN. Be wary of transforming your customer-service agents into hawkers spilling the same company line. You can create better sales channels for that. 7. Your customer service focus is speed. If your number one concern is getting through long lines of phone calls, you have two problems: first, you probably have too many angry people calling in; second, your agents are probably more concerned with quickly solving a problem than actually hearing out your customers’ concerns. What would you rather have: a high-quality but slow-speed response to a problem, or a quick and sloppy response? The latter, by the way, also comes with the bonus of problems potentially not being fixed, meaning the customer will just call back again – this time angrier than before. 8. Your customer service agents have no authority. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes: let’s say you’ve been overcharged. You call a product’s customer service hotline, and ask for a refund. The agent tells you they can’t offer refunds, and put you on hold – for another 10 minutes, after you’ve already waited 20 – to speak with a manager. Even if this exact scenario hasn’t happened to you, something similar almost certainly has. Agents require authority to do their jobs well. More than that, authority will inspire them to be better workers. Generally, the more empowered employees feel, the more dedicated to the company they will be. Give them the freedom to make one-on-one decisions with customers, and they will be more likely to please others as well as themselves. 9. Your agents hate their job. A side effect to the above worst-case scenario, as mentioned, is that your employees will probably resent both you and their jobs if they’re trapped in a specific role with little control or input. But that’s not the only reason they might hate their jobs. Customer service has long been a derided industry – reps often have to listen to people get angry all day. It’s a tough job, and one that can grind pretty hard on the best of employees. Counteract this with creating a supportive, grateful work environment. Make things bright, fun and rewarding. Motivate them. After all, if they genuinely love your company, they’ll be far more likely to win over your customers.
What Is the Difference Between Leads and Prospects? Posted on May 14, 2018March 26, 2025 by Jessica Lunk Every customer or client starts as a complete stranger. It’s only through a consistent sales process that you can take a stranger and move them down the funnel, from lead to prospect, and into that hallowed place called conversion land. The terms “lead” and “prospect” are just two of many terms used to describe the status of a business relationship. A lead is someone who may fit your target market but is not ready to buy just yet. Through your own research, you’ve handpicked (literally, or through automation) a pool of people who may fit your target market. If the lead is responsive to your offer, there’s a good chance they’ve become a prospect. However, if they don’t respond, or if they’re unwilling or unable to buy just yet, they’ll remain a lead. If they continuously ignore your efforts to get in touch, these leads are sometimes called “cold leads.” Leads vs. Prospects: Why Does it Matter? In your sales and marketing, leads and prospects are two different categories of people — who require two different types of communication. Communicating with leads is all about generating awareness of, and interest in, your offering. To streamline this process, many businesses utilize appointment setters, which play a crucial role in reaching out to leads and scheduling initial meetings, moving them closer to becoming prospects. If you’re unfamiliar with the role of an appointment setter, here, you can read more about what is an appointment setter. Communicating with prospects is about turning interest into a relationship, and moving that relationship into the sales funnel. So, let’s talk about communication. Leads are those you’ve engaged in one-way communication. They are: The strangers on your email list or SMS blast New connections you’ve messaged on LinkedIn Commenters on blog posts People who have liked or shared your social posts Names on a list you purchased from a marketing firm Leads have the potential to become customers, but they haven’t spoken to you or your sales team yet. Communication is very one-sided. Prospects, on the other hand, have engaged and indicated interest. For example, a prospect is: A lead you’ve spoken with on the phone Someone who has responded to one of your emails A lead who has clicked a link in an email to visit your website A person who fits your target market, who you’ve chatted with at a trade show Someone who has asked about your product or service in a social media thread In terms of the sales funnel, prospects are a little farther down than leads. From Lead to Prospect: Crossing the Line If you want to attract more clients or customers, you’ll want to transform your leads into prospects. In sales, this process is called qualification, or prospecting. In order for a lead to become a prospect, they need to fit three criteria: they must match your target market, have intent to buy what you’re offering, and have the authority to make a purchase. These are the factors you have to determine in your research and your sales conversations in order to move your leads down the funnel, so let’s look closely at each. They match your target market. If you’ve done your marketing right, you’ll know the traits and characteristics of your target market. Historically, target markets were all about demographics — think middle-aged suburban women, millennial gay men, or urban teenagers. But the modern way to think about your target market is that they have a need or desire to buy what you’re offering. Therefore, someone goes from “lead” to “prospect” when you can pinpoint that they have some reason to seek out a product or service like yours. Example: You’re a sales and marketing consultant for self-published authors. A lead would be someone who was interested in self-publishing — maybe they’re part of a Facebook group for self-pubbed romance authors — but they haven’t released a book yet. A prospect would be someone who has self-published a book on Amazon and wants to sell more copies but needs help with sales and marketing. They have the intent to buy. According to research, the thing leads want to discuss most in their first call is pricing. It’s for good reason: your offering doesn’t fall within their budget, it’s tough to convert them into a sale. However, a price-related objection doesn’t mean “no, forever” — it just means “no, for now.” If you nurture these leads over time, there’s a chance you can still transition them into prospects. If you run into this problem repeatedly, however, this could signal a problem with your pricing or your choice of target market. Example: You run a small digital agency, and you have a lead: a solopreneur launching a new product. After a conversation, you learn that they don’t have the capital to afford your package — so they’re probably better off finding a more affordable service. The have the authority to buy. A prospect has to be the decision-maker for purchasing your solution — otherwise, they’re just a lead. In your sales conversation, ask a lead about their role, pain points, and goals are. It should become clear through their answers whether they have the authority to make a buying decision or not. Example: You’re a freelance marketing video producer for nonprofit organizations. You’re in touch with a marketing assistant at a large nonprofit organization who is very interested in your service, so you schedule a phone call. On the call, you learn that the assistant has done research on the effectiveness of video marketing and really wants to hire someone like you. However, she reports to the marketing manager — who is in charge of hiring contractors. To convert this lead into a prospect, you’ll have to get the contact info of the marketing manager and schedule a call with them. Moving leads through your sales funnel and turning them into prospects takes a focused approach. When you understand the difference between a lead and a prospect, you’re one step closer to getting inside the heads of your customers — empowering you to customize your communications and ultimately close more sales.
4 CRM Hacks Every Entrepreneur Should Be Using Posted on May 11, 2018June 12, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick Brands depend on personal relationships to turn leads into customers and to deliver a great customer experience. And for budding businesses, that personalization process has often relied on gathering customer data from third-party sources — but that era may be coming to a close. Thanks to the backlash from its dealings with Cambridge Analytica, in which the personal data of millions of Facebook users was improperly accessed, Facebook is ending advertisers’ ability to supplement targeting data from third-party sources with its own data. (Brands can still infuse third-party data with Facebook targeting, but they’ll have to buy the data themselves because Facebook wants no part of it.) Most businesses that used this service did so because they aren’t leveraging data from their internal customer relationship management (CRM) system properly. That’s why Facebook’s policy changes might actually be a blessing in disguise: Startups can be far more successful using their CRM to access customer insights than buying data from any third-party source. Read Jonathan’s full article on Entrepreneur.
Is Your Business Prepared for GDPR? Posted on May 10, 2018June 12, 2018 by Erin Posey In case you haven’t heard, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the first significant change in data privacy requirements in over 20 years — and it will impact businesses all over the world. What’s more, enforcement begins on May 25th of 2018, meaning you could get smacked with a massive fine if your business is non-compliant. The GDPR was established to help protect the personal data of internet users in the European Union. It was adopted in 2016, and has since been in a two-year transition period. The GDPR, though established to protect data from internet users who live in the European Union, is enforceable all over the globe. The bottom line? If your business handles data from any EU residents, you must abide by GDPR. The regulation affects both controllers and processors — “controllers” being the organization that collects the data, and “processors” being anyone who stores data on behalf of a controller (like a cloud storage service). Learn more about GDPR in the video below and read on for recommended steps to prepare your business. https://hatchbuck.wistia.com/medias/s8kexgc1ok Steps for Businesses to Get Ready for GDPR As a business owner, you’re handling a lot at once — meaning you may not have the time or resources to become an expert on GDPR in the short time before it becomes enforceable. Though we’ve listed some basic steps you should follow to ensure your organization is compliant with the new regulation, it’s still a good idea to consult your lawyer to make sure all of your bases are covered before May 25th. Determine if you’re housing data from EU residents, or if you are likely to be in the future. The GDPR applies to organizations all over the world — not just those in the EU. However, if you aren’t working with sensitive data belonging to EU residents, you may not have to worry about GDPR. But before you can determine if the GDPR applies to you, it’s helpful to understand which types of data the GDPR regulates. “Personal data” refers to anything that can be used to identify a person. This includes: Names Social media posts Photos Email and physical addresses Phone numbers Bank account information Medical information Computer IP addresses Take a look at the data you’ve collected from clients or customers. Are any of these users living in the EU? If yes, you’ll need to update your terms and conditions according to GDPR standards. If not, you may be able to continue doing business as usual — but keep in mind that the fine for non-compliance is 20 million Euro or 4 percent of worldwide turnover, whichever is higher for your business. It may be better in the long-run to ensure your compliance now, in the event that you start handling EU user data later. Update your terms and conditions. It’s time to do away with lengthy legalese and convoluted privacy policies. One of the GDPR’s objectives is to make it far easier for people to understand exactly how their data will be used. For example, if you have an opt-in form that requires a user to enter their email and name, the GDPR would require you to include a statement that says what you’re going to do with this person’s information. This could be as simple as saying “we will only use this information to send you our monthly newsletter.” However, in the event that you’re collecting sensitive data (like bank account information), the rules regarding language are a little more stringent. The GDPR distinguishes between two types of consent that users must give in different scenarios: Explicit consent. When you’re asking consent to collect someone’s personal data, language must be intelligible and easily accessible. It must use “clear and plain language,” and it must be equally easy for users to withdraw consent or give it. Unambiguous consent. With this type of consent, the person sharing their data knows exactly what you’ll be using it for. The rule is that if you’re processing sensitive information, explicit consent is required. For all other data, unambiguous consent is enough. Determine if you need to appoint a DPO. A data protection officer (DPO) is someone whose job is to ensure your organization is compliant with data protection regulations. You aren’t required to have a DPO by default, but the GDPR does require you appoint one if: You’re a public authority. You engage in “large-scale systematic monitoring.” You engage in “large-scale processing of sensitive personal data.” If none of these sound like you, you don’t need to hire a DPO. For more information on the GDPR, check out the EU GDPR Information Portal.
12 B.S. PPC Metrics That Are A Complete Waste Of Time (And What To Measure Instead) Posted on May 9, 2018June 12, 2018 by Guest Author When it comes to PPC metrics, there are over 100 AdWords metrics to consider. Facebook has another 75 at least. They’re helpful. Kinda. Sorta. But not really. These leading indicators can help you figure out where things are trending. And if you’re on the right track or not, but they’re not business metrics that move the needle. You could track them all, if you had time. But you don’t, because these bad PPC metrics pull you away from what’s really important (like making money). Here are 12 to avoid like the plague and what you should be tracking instead. Stop Obsessing Over These 12 PPC Metrics ASAP There are three categories of useless PPC metrics. Those include traffic metrics, micro metrics, and then the completely bat s— crazy ones. Check them out. Traffic Metrics You can’t sell without traffic. But optimizing campaigns around traffic metrics like these only do one thing… get you more traffic. Instead of, you know, $$$. 1) Clicks You know the age- old saying: Clicks get chicks. ? No one can resist them…The up-and-to-the-right graphs…The blog posts throwing around 100k / monthly visits like it ain’t no thang. Of course, none of this is true. Visits are one of the ultimate vanity metrics and prioritizing them in ad campaigns is an even worse idea, because you’re paying for each and every single one. Instead, clicks should be a byproduct. Your goal is revenue, more customers. So, it doesn’t matter if it requires only 10 clicks or even 100+. What matters is the total cost of those clicks in order to net a sale. 2) Impressions PPC impressions are the theoretical number of people who’ve seen your ad. I say ‘theoretical’ — because in reality, this number is complete B.S. The ‘impressions’ metric is a holdover from display ad dayz. As in, “This ad unit’s got a CPM of $3.50.” CPMs are a cost per thousand impressions. In other words, your payment here is linked to the amount of people you have the potential to reach, the number of people ‘see’ your ad, eyeballs. As opposed to the results. That’s the beauty of AdWords: it’s performance-based. You’re paying for X number of clicks to get Y conversions. Therefore, ‘impressions’ become completely irrelevant in this context. Don’t just take my word for it… “Impressions don’t matter if you ain’t convertin’” — Mahatma Gandhi. Ok, maybe he didn’t say that. So, maybe just take my word for it, because it’s true. Quit worrying about how many people see your PPC ad and focus on getting them to convert, instead. 3) Click-Through Rates A click-through rate is simply the number of clicks you’re getting out of all those (meaningless) impressions. Point is: if impressions aren’t helpful, dividing any number by those impressions isn’t going to be very helpful, either. Here’s why. Let’s say your ad gets 5 clicks and 1,000 impressions. So, your CTR is 0.5%. Clicks are quite tempting, we know. – image source That’s low. But does it matter? Meh. Not if the costs work out. Not if you can net a Cost Per Sale that still pencils out at the end of the day. CTRs help you figure out which ads are resonating. So, an incredible ad might fetch a 10% CTR (that’s impossibly high, btw). But if your conversions are still in the toilet, who cares? Stop focusing so much on CTR, and focus on how many people converted (read: bought) and at what cost per sale. Now, in saying all that, CTR does have some influence in one additional metric: your Quality Score. So, in theory, a lower CTR might ding your Quality Score, which might mean your ad position will drop and/or cost per click will raise. This means now is as good a time as any to have this talk… 4) Quality Scores Oh, that talk… – image source The AdWords Quality Score is one of the most misunderstood metrics. Yet, clients and PPC aficionados alike freak out over them, demanding them to be as high as humanly possible. But why? And how do they work? Here’s a quick recap of your Quality Score: Expected click-through rate (CTR): How relevant your keyword is to your business, product, or service. Calculated by looking at historical data for the keywords performance. Ad relevance: How good your ad is at keyword stuffing conveying the relevance of the keyword used. Landing page experience: How engaged visitors are on your landing page (i.e. did they bounce immediately?). Impact of extensions and other ad-formats: Your ad bid, extensions that increase CTR, and auction time signals. All this stuff is helpful to keep an eye on. It’s helpful to tweak and hack and improve. Consistently raising those ‘micro metrics’ over time can have positive long-term benefits. But…it’s not the end-all, be-all PPC metric that it’s often made out to be. Because, at the end of the day, there’s only one of those. Would you rather have a higher Quality Score or bottom line? Sacrificing short-term Quality Scores in order to drive more conversions is an OK bet I’m willing to make. 5) Relevancy Score Relevancy Score, in the social world, is like the AdWords Quality Score. They attempt to measure how ‘relevant’ your ad is to the audience you’re targeting (on a scale from one to ten). People often get tripped up, though, because they think it refers to the quality of the advertisement creative itself. When in reality, it doesn’t mean that at all. Instead, the same ad can have different relevancy scores in different campaigns, because of the audience targeting you’re using. So yeah, audience targeting is critical. But relevancy scores can be another red herring because the score has zero direct impact on conversions. And many times you’ll need to be OK with a low campaign Relevancy Score as you try to find new profitable audiences. Once again, it’s another example of a helpful ‘micro metric’ that matters in a few instances, but is often taken too far. Micro Metrics Micro metrics are supposed to let you know how ‘efficiently’ your campaigns are performing. The only problem? Efficiency doesn’t matter in the big picture. Buckle up, this is going to be a bumpy ride. 6) Cost Per Engagement Cost Per Engagement is your total spend divided by the total number of ‘engagement’ actions. An ‘engagement’ is defined by any number of actions a user might take with your ad, including: Comments Link clicks Page likes Photo views Post likes Post shares, etc. In other words, pretty much everything else besides the *actual* results this ad is generating. So, if you spend $50 bucks on a campaign and you got 50 engagement actions, your cost-per-engagement (CPE) would be $1. Cool. People are ‘engaging’ with your brand. That’s good, I’m told, by Kumbaya-chanting, self-appointed “social media gurus.” But in the PPC world, it’s next-to meaningless. There’s some argument to be made if you’re using these interactions to reach new audiences that you’ll later use to create high-converting custom audiences. Otherwise though, these surface-level metrics can become just another distraction away from what truly matters. 7) Budget Per Ad Budget Per Ad is exactly what it sounds like: The amount of money you allocate to a specific ad to spend–so that you won’t spend more than that number set. So, it’s helpful for an accountant or your CFO. If your budget is $5k, they probably don’t want you blowing through $10k. But otherwise, as a measure of your PPC performance, it’s again irrelevant. Are you making more money than you’re spending? That’s a good sign. Keep going in that direction. 8) Consistency of Ads Published Consistency of Ads published is ___. Honestly: WTF is it?! I mean, I get that it’s talking about the number of ads you’re creating and published. But why? For what purpose? I guess there’s a connection somewhere to potential ad fatigue on Facebook. But publishing more ads (i.e. quantity) isn’t the solution to solving that problem. The less said about this metric, the better. My blood pressure is already too high and we still have four more completely irrelevant metrics to go. Completely Irrelevant These final PPC metrics fall in two categories. They either lack context to provide any actionable insight–or worse, they’re completely bogus (see: wasted ad spend). So, I’ll try as hard as possible to not have a complete meltdown on these last four, but I can’t make any guarantees. 9) Landing Page SEO Score Oh boy, where do we begin with this one? We feel you, Michael Scott. – image source Your Landing Page SEO score is a metric of how ‘SEO friendly’ your landing page is (whatever the hell that means). Let’s get a few things straight before we dive into this cesspool of crap: Landing page success is not derived from SEO. This is PPC we’re talkin’ ‘bout, ‘member? Landing page success = the PPC traffic temperatures and the actual offer/audience match, not SEO. Landing pages should focus on conversion paths AND NOT SEO. Therefore, if you’re concerned with how ‘SEO friendly’ your PPC landing page is, you’re doing it wrong. SEO shouldn’t be your focus on landing pages. You (should) have different ones for that. You’re already driving specific traffic to these pages from ads. Focus on matching your ad copy, CTAs and offer to the right audience instead of jamming keywords and alt tags for some extra page views. 10) Negative Keyword Usage Negative keywords are good. They help you ‘control’ what search terms you’re actually spending money on, so that you can hopefully avoid completely wasting your budget. But ‘negative keyword usage’? Yeah, you got me too. Negative keyword usage isn’t something you really track, which means the odds of a tool being able to notice how many junk searches are slipping through your negative keywords are somewhere between slim-to-none. So, let’s just ignore it completely, shall we? 11) Wasted Ad Spend If you ever see a “Wasted Spend: $xx,xxx,” run for the hills. Don’t stop. Just keep going. – image source Wanna know how to be a slick software sales genius? Try to quantifiably show how much money someone’s wasting currently, so you can sell them the solution. Like so. They get an A for sales effort and a big, fat F for math. PPC attribution is why. Certain campaigns or ad groups often assist other campaigns and other ad groups in the conversion process. Their goal isn’t to convert directly per se, but pave the way for other campaigns to ‘clean up’ at the finish line. Wasted Ad Spend doesn’t take this into account, because it can’t due to the fact it’s another made-up, hypothetical metric that fails to grasp the context of what’s happening inside an account. Instead of giving you keyword and search terms as well as their possible discrepancies and how to bridge the gap, it tells you that you suck and need someone to fix it for you for a cost. How convenient. 12) Competitive Benchmarks Competitive benchmarks (of any Shade of Grey) can help you determine if you’re on the right path or not, or if you’re trending in the right direction (or not). But in PPC, it’s misleading. It’s nice to know that your Big Bad Competitor has a 6% average CTR on their campaign, or that their estimated Cost per Click is only $3.50. But what can you actually do with this data? Almost nothing, besides copy them I guess. That’s what happens and why most PPC accounts all get the same, average results. Instead of matching pixels with competitors, come out with a better offer. Double down on your compelling benefits that set you apart. Conversions, not click-through rates, pay the bills. Phew. Finally done. Almost didn’t make it through the last few. Here’s my final salute to those twelve. Let’s try to focus on some positives now. PPC Metrics to Track Instead You should be concerned with one thing and one thing only when it comes to PPC. In a word: money. If you just want more traffic, PPC isn’t your tool. Your bottom line in PPC should be: if it you ain’t makin’ money, you’re wastin’ money. Look: PPC ain’t cheap. You’re going to need to pony up thousands of dollars (on the low end) in order to even get your campaigns off the ground. So, the only reason to take that considerable risk is to bring in more money than you spend. That’s it. Not traffic. Not ‘landing page relevancy’. And definitely not your landing page SEO scores. Fancy stats like these are fine…to a point. Glancing at them every now and then is OK. But reporting on them and obsessing over them? That’s not. Here are a few examples of PPC metrics you should be tracking instead (and why). 1) Cost Per Sale Cost Per Sale is pretty straightforward. What’s the amount that you, as an advertiser, paid for each sale? How many dollars did it take you to get one sale? This one single metric tells you (almost) everything you need to know about how your PPC campaigns are performing. It’s the secret to if you’re ultimately succeeding or failing. All sales have a theoretical ‘cost’ associated with driving them. Forget PPC for a second. Outbound sales? Add up those salaries and tools and trips, divide by number of sales generated, and you’re getting closer to figuring out how well you’re performing. Cost Per Sale helps you set the appropriate context, too. For example, is a $50 cost per click expensive? Maybe. Depends on who you’re trying to reach and what you’re selling. If you’re selling bro rompers that retail for $50 bucks (what a bargain, right?!), your answer is no — you shouldn’t spend $50 on a single click. But let’s definitely #romptogether. – image source But if you’re selling high-priced insurance with fat commissions and 20+ year retention, you’re good to go. ROI > cost per click, click-through rate, and every other metric above. 2) Close Rates Not all AdWords ‘conversions’ are actual, you know, conversions. They might just be leads. And only a tiny percent of those are ever going to become a paying customer. So, you know that Cost Per Sale you just came up with? It’s wrong, because it doesn’t take into account your effective Close Rate. This is why it’s meaningless if you’re paying 2x per click than your competitor. You both undoubtedly have different close rates. And that, ultimately, plays a bigger role in determining your AdWords ROI. 3) Average Order Values Average Order Value is the average amount ($) spent by a customer on the conversion action. It’s similar to Cost Per Sale. For example, if you’re running a hotel business, and your average booking through PPC is two nights at $100 per night, your average order value = $200. So far anyway. Let’s stick with this hotel example for a second. Because the cost for rooms at your hotel isn’t the only source that can determine the true, effective order value. What about resort fees? What about parking fees? What about room service? The lobby bar? And on and on and on. It can get really scary when the fees add up. – image source Now that average order value keeps edging up, closer to $300 or even $400 bucks a pop. That changes things. You might not want to break-even on the initial $200 (that’s cutting it a little close). BUT that does mean you might be able to be a little more aggressive in order to push up your occupancy rates, bring down vacancy, and make up for it on the back-end when people are spending money in your property. 4) Lifetime Value A customer’s lifetime value (LTV) tells you how much money someone is worth to your business over the long-term. We’ve just seen a few examples that illustrate this perfectly. The life insurance client who sticks with you over 30 years (unless of course, they die) is a good example. Not only do you get a commission, but you also get annual payments over the life of that contract. Another example, the hotel who’s able to increase average order values with on-property up-sells. Multiply that number by one annual trip for ten years. Now, that ‘expensive’ PPC campaign is looking a whole lot more affordable. It means a higher-than-average CPC is a little more stomach-able. A low Quality Score is less of a big deal. And your ‘landing page SEO’ score is still completely irrelevant. Wrap Up on PPC Metrics It’s easy to get bogged down by the weight of 1,000 PPC metrics. 10k clicks a week has you feeling like a badass and your CTR is sky high, so what could go wrong? Well, a lot in reality. Like I said before, those leading indicators are helpful…to a point. But in the grand scheme of things, they’re not as instructive as you think. Instead, turn your obsession to the profitability metrics like Cost Per Sale, Close Rates, Average Order Values, and Lifetime Value that tell the real story. The goal of PPC isn’t traffic or ‘efficiency’ or even saving ad spend. It’s making it rain. – image source Author Bio Johnathan Dane is the Founder of KlientBoost, a PPC agency focusing on CRO and aggressive testing. If you like what you just read, you should see what their custom growth proposal looks like.
4 Emerging Technologies B2B Entrepreneurs Should Know About Posted on May 8, 2018February 7, 2024 by Jonathan Herrick While B2B entrepreneurs have always geeked out about new ventures, today’s entrepreneurs get to geek out about both new ventures and mind-blowing technologies. Whether you’re an app developer, service provider, or physical products entrepreneur, it’s smart to keep up with technological developments that are disrupting businesses and economies across the world. The options can be dizzying, so we’ve broken our top emerging technologies down into four main categories — along with examples of how businesses are using these innovations today. Internet of Things (IoT) The “internet of things” is a network of items embedded with sensors, software, and other devices designed to exchange data with one another. Here’s a simple example: a customer in a retail store picks up a product from a display case, where a sensor indicates to a computer which product the customer has touched. The computer triggers a video on a nearby screen that shares details about that product. Further, a store associate is notified that this customer is interested in Product XYZ, informing their sales process. But the IoT is not just an innovative solution for B2Cs, it’s making waves in the B2B sector as well. A B2B IoT system can include objects such as printers, switches, and televisions or unconventional, industry-specific items like biochips on farm animals, manufacturing equipment, medical devices and deeper insights into product usage. Blockchain Technology Cryptocurrency has been all over the news in 2018, so you’re likely to have heard about blockchain, the technology that makes Bitcoin trading possible. But did you know that blockchain technology is having an enormous impact on far more than banking? If you’re unsure of how it works, here’s a refresher: the blockchain cuts out the middleman (a central authority) when two entities exchange value with one another. For example, when you make a purchase from a store with your debit card, the card and your bank serve an important role. They verify that you are who you say you are, that you have enough money in your account to cover the purchase. They also often help protect you from purchasing a fraudulent product or service. Traditionally, having a central authority like this was necessary for trust between the two parties. This need for trust is even greater when digital transactions take place, considering the ease and prevalence of digital identity theft and fraud. In the case of Bitcoin, blockchain technology uses encrypted ledgers for each user that prove, instantly and anonymously, that any given user has the money that they claim to have — without the need to involve a third party. Blockchains are far more difficult to hack than conventional banking systems, and there are implications for its use far beyond finance. Blockchain could make it possible to institute a reliable digital voting system for government elections, or for marketers to better analyze customer behavior. Here are other potential uses for blockchain technology: Passports, driver’s licenses, and other identification B2B contracts Tracking medical patient health records Emergence of a global currency Imagine any situation in which identity verification (or a lack of trust) provides a major hangup to a transaction, and blockchain may be the solution. Alternate Reality No, we’re not talking about alternative facts and the state of U.S. government — alternate reality refers to augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technology. Here’s a breakdown of each: Augmented reality is an overlay on your actual reality, displayed through a headset, tablet, mobile phone, or another device. Think Pokemon Go! In which various critters pop up in your house, at the grocery store, or at the park. Virtual reality presents an entirely different reality from the one around you, through the use of a headset — riding a rollercoaster or swimming with dolphins on your living room couch. There’s a third type of Mixed reality combines virtual reality with the real world around you. Digital objects (viewed from a headset) overlap with real objects, allowing you to interact with both your physical and virtual worlds at the same time. The B2B applications of alternate realities are exciting — especially in businesses or industries where being able to visualize a project is key to a successful sales meeting. AI Technology As of 2018, artificial intelligence is empowering entrepreneurs in a variety of forms — most notably from a customer service, sales, and marketing perspective. Artificial intelligence includes everything from human-like robots (think voice-activated bots like Siri and Alexa) to apps and machine learning systems. Chatbots can dramatically expand the reach of your customer service and sales teams, answering your customers’ frequently asked questions around the clock or scheduling calls with your sales team. However, a subtle but possibly more effective use of AI in B2B business is machine learning. Machine learning algorithms help to better manage, structure, and utilize big data to make informed decisions across all aspects of business — and plenty of startups have caught on to the demand for machine learning. Machine learning as a service (MLaas) offers cloud-based predictive analytics, voice and face recognition, and more for businesses in a variety of industries. It is a data-driven world these days, and tech innovations are occurring at a record pace. As an entrepreneur of a B2B organization, it’s more important than ever to leverage cutting-edge automation technologies like AI, blockchain and IoT to scale your business into 2019 and beyond.