7 TED Talks to Help You Seize The Day Posted on November 6, 2017June 13, 2018 by Allie Wolff TED Talks have become transcendent. They inspire people in tech, the arts, business, politics and science; they speak to people stuck in desk jobs or starting their own company; they tell us stories with uplifting endings and horrific details. TED stands for “technology, entertainment and design,” but the talks cover much more. The best ones are often the motivational ones because they shoot beyond industry specifics and speak to what the human race is really like. They’re motivational speeches without the sales pitch. So if you want to get inspired, scroll down, click a few and enjoy. Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation What motivates us? That’s the question at the heart of Dan Pink’s talk, in which he asks why rewards-based motivation only sometimes works. Rewards, he argues, only work when the problem is straightforward. Creative problems, on the other hand, have oblique circumstances and non-obvious answers. Those kinds of problems aren’t solved faster by rewards—in fact, complex cognitive problems are solved at a slower pace when a reward is offered. Dan himself is a fantastic speaker, getting riled up and passionately arguing for a better way to motivate workers, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse. A must-watch for any manager or small business owner. Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability Shame is a powerful emotion. Brené Brown, who deals with social science as a hands-on researcher, equates this feeling with what she calls “excruciating vulnerability.” In her sometimes funny, often poignant personal story, she dives into her own misconceptions about shame, the origins of the word “courage” (hint: it has to do with emotions) and how our society has grown to numb itself vulnerability. Rejection and hard decisions make us feel shame, and we tend not to talk about these things—but it would make us stronger, more competent and more human if we did. Majora Carter: 3 stories of local eco-entrepreneurship There’s no better way to get inspired than by hearing inspiring stories. Majora Carter lays out three entrepreneurial success stories, all of which deal with local businesspeople and environmental protection. The bulk of her TED Talk isn’t as sexy or emotional as some of the topics above, but it’s hard-hitting: she uses real data and case studies that prove ecologically-minded entrepreneurs are making a difference in their communities, from beekeeping to cultivation of green spaces. Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator If you’ve ever knowingly procrastinated on a project, this talk will resonate with you. And if you don’t think of yourself as a procrastinator, this talk may surprise you: many of us, in fact, are procrastinators in some way or another. Tim Urban is great at laying out all the ways people put off major life decisions because there are no looming deadlines to kick us into high gear, and it’s this terrifyingly profound ending that will make you want to turn off the computer and get to work. But the big revelation comes after 10 minutes of hilarious psychological setup, making it well worth the full viewing time. Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers If you’re feeling bad about procrastination after that talk, this one will make you feel a bit better. A sort of complementary piece to the above video, Adam Grant’s talk adopts the vantage point of someone who gets things done early, and analyzes why they might be less original thinkers. This sets up the idea of the brain as an incubator that needs time to generate creative ideas—not necessarily until the deadline, but after a period of time. As he puts it: “Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.” Margaret Heffernan: Why it’s time to forget the pecking order at work The story that kicks off this talk is a simple one: a man grew two distinct groups of chickens for six generations. One group was normal for the chicken farm, while the other was handpicked from the onset to only feature the best-performing chickens. After six generations, the average group was excelling; the super-chickens were mostly dead. “The individually productive chickens had only achieved their success by suppressing the productivity of the rest,” Margaret Heffernan says. The system most countries and companies rely on is to hire only the best, to fire the worst, the self-select our groups and educational systems, and to cultivate that class system. This inspiring talk dives deep into the psychology of productivity and the power of social cohesion. So next time you’re feeling uninspired or unproductive, listen to one of these talks (or one of the hundreds of others) to reignite that entrepreneurial spark.
5 Ways To Avoid Distraction in a Crowded Workplace Posted on November 3, 2017November 3, 2017 by Tricia O'Donnell You’ve worked out, had a healthy breakfast, and downed your morning coffee. As you stroll into your office, you’re full of energy and ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work on a big project. But life has other plans for you. As soon as you sit down at your desk, your team member asks you to take a customer’s urgent call. You start mapping out your project, but a junior team member stops by and needs advice. Thirty minutes later, you get rolling again, but the building manager stops by with an update on new security procedures. Now, it’s 11:50. You decide to eat lunch at your desk when everyone else is out, so you can actually get some work done. It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are three ways to get things done when it feels like you’re conducting business in a busy airport terminal. Start with a plan. Staying focused on what’s most important to get done every day will help you keep distractions from derailing you. Start every work week with an idea of the most important thing you need to get done, advise Ron Carson and Scott Ford in their book The Sustainable Edge. Then, each day before you leave work, create a list of the six most important things to accomplish the next day, in order of priority. These priorities will, ideally, support your big-picture goal for the week. Don’t start working on number two until you’ve accomplished number one, they recommend. You probably won’t get through every item on your list every day, but if you set out with an idea of what you really need to do, you’ll start finding ways to cross less-important, distracting tasks off your list or find ways to delegate them. If your #1 priority is, for instance, getting a proposal to a new customer–and the building manager drops by–you might decide to schedule a meeting for the next day when you have more time or to delegate the discussion to someone else on your team. Understand what really distracts you—and plan around it. We all have unique triggers that can distract us. It may be noise, an uncomfortable office temperature, renovations going on in the office or a host of other things. Knowing what tends to throw you off can help you plan around it. If, for instance, your landscaping team usually shows up on Thursday mornings with a noisy leaf blower and it’s hard to make phone calls or concentrate on written work, block out that time for more mundane tasks that you need to get done that week or schedule your out-of-office meetings then. Create an interruption-free zone. If you’re getting distracted by your workplace environment, chances are your team is, too. If your office is very cramped, consider setting aside the conference room as a quiet place where you and other team members can work on projects without distraction during certain hours of the day, kind of like the quiet car on a train. Don’t have a conference room? Consider bringing headphones to work. As the leader of your company, you don’t want to convey the message that you’re tuning people out, but using your headset once in awhile during crunch time isn’t likely to do that—and listening to music you find energizing or relaxing will help you keep plowing through the work until it’s done. Consider rotating your seating. In some offices, the workplace is noisy because cliques have formed and team members in those groups are very chatty. While it’s great to see office friendships blossom, if there is constant talking going on and not a lot of work being done, it may be a good idea to rotate the seating arrangements from time to time. It’s a great way for everyone to get to know other coworkers so there is more cross-pollination of ideas. Build mental discipline. Taking up a new interest that helps you build focus and concentration—whether it’s meditation, yoga or martial arts—can help you to find the mental space to get things done when your office is especially chaotic. They’ll also help you with handling work-related stress. We can’t always control our workplace environment, but we can control how we react to it. Being able to do that is a powerful tool when it comes to getting things done.
4 Ways to Determine Your Strongest Customer Acquisition Channels Posted on November 2, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jessica Lunk Every sale can be traced. Before e-commerce, the cashier at a small clothing boutique might ask customers at the register, “How did you hear about us?” The answer—a billboard, TV ad, newspaper article, what have you—would be a strong indicator of that shop’s customer acquisition channel. If nobody mentioned the TV ad, that ad could be considered a waste of money. Between Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Mixpanel or any other number of analytics software, sales are more transparent than ever. But being able to compile the data is one thing; making sense of the numbers is another. Obviously, you want to save money on acquisition channels that aren’t working, and double down on channels that deliver new customers. But it’s not quite so simple: if your pay-per-click advertising efforts are bringing in 2,000 new customers a month for a spend of $2,000, are they worth the cost? Maybe your organic inbound traffic is only reeling in 1,500 new customers a month, but your monthly spend is $1,000. That would make inbound a far better cost per acquisition. So how do you figure out your strongest customer acquisition channel? Track Every Referral Path The first step is to set up a detailed path of goals (to use Google Analytics lingo) that will note any time a customer reaches a point of the journey you’ve laid out for them. Setting up these paths is crucial to understanding acquisition. Specificity is important: email traffic is notoriously vague unless tracking links are set up in newsletters, referral emails, discount codes, etc. Seeing that “Gmail” is your biggest source of email traffic is useless. Whenever possible, with each social platform and marketing campaign, set up a unique tracking system that will clarify how people found your content. Some businesses also offer a survey during a checkout, soon after or when a lead signs up with their email. This will obviously be incomplete data as not everyone will respond, but surveys can be useful tools for gathering this sort of information at a critical moment. Set Up a Spreadsheet Tally up all your marketing receipts for a given period (a month, a year, a quarter) and separate them by acquisition channel. You’ll have a huge swath of channels to deal with, but the biggest (and easiest to evaluate) will be hard costs such as social media, SEO, content marketing, PPC, outbound advertising and email marketing. Each one of those sectors will have a price tag attached to it. Get as specific as possible—if you can break down your social spend between Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram, then do so. Now you’ll need to match those spends against their results. Turn to your analytics software to monitor the active users you’ve received through each channel. Even if people don’t become paying customers, you might notice that they’ve engaged with your website enough to strike you as a promising lead. Make a note of how many users are engaged, as well as how many actually become paying customers. This will give you a solid rough idea of your strongest customer acquisition channels—but it’s far from complete, because it only shows you one piece to the puzzle. Remember the Long Game and Keep Checking These Numbers Customer acquisition isn’t a one-and-done deal. Repetition is key. Maybe referral traffic might lead to your cheapest new customers, but the benefits of SEO could be long-term, as people will read your content and appreciate your brand as time goes on. Because it’s sometimes difficult and vague to pin exactly where customers come from, it’s helpful to re-check these data. You might find your SEO acquisition numbers growing as your referrals die down. (Maybe it was just early buzz and your user base is levelling off?) This is also why businesses tend to evaluate people in terms of their customer lifetime value (CLV), which estimates a customer’s value to your business over time. Determining a hard cost of acquisition using the spreadsheet model above is a start, but knowing that number is fairly useless unless you consider your other costs, including how much that customer is actually worth. Don’t Give Up on Channels with Ancillary Benefits Customer acquisition can be difficult to evaluate because, frankly, it’s sometimes vague. You might see a huge influx of sales from people arriving at your website directly—as in, just typing your URL in their browser—and leaving you wondering how they found your company in the first place. That’s why, when calculating the value of your acquisition channels, it’s important to consider the ancillary value that may not have a direct monetary figure. Public relations is a great example—it may take you months of networking, meeting writers, pushing press releases and getting organic news coverage to receive a few mentions in local or international media. And all that might not have a direct cost associated with it. (Unless you count every hour you and your team spends trying to drum up attention, which even then can get messy.) But the benefits to good PR can be long-lasting and far more influential than traditional outbound marketing. Moreover, it can be impossible to tell when it works. If someone reads about your dog-grooming business in the local paper and buys a dog brush online, they’ll likely be counted as a mysterious “direct” customer in your Google Analytics dashboard. And while you can’t calculate the value of that customer exactly, the value of appearing in an authoritative news source and having your brand mentioned to thousands of people is incalculable. So it’s important to never discredit channels, even if they seem like they aren’t your strongest. There may be indirect benefits that you don’t want to lose. Consistently measure the health of your customer acquisition channels so that when things go well, or things go awry, you can dive in and make intelligent adjustments.
6 Signs It’s Time To Start Your Own Business Posted on November 1, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick It feels like everyone and their college roommate is starting their own business. Once upon a time, the dream was finding a comfy 9 to 5 and moving your way up. Now, startup founders and entrepreneurs grace the covers of business magazines. And maybe you’ve got what it takes to join that list of successful people. But how do you know it’s time to put in your two weeks notice and start hustling? Well if you’ve noticed one of these six signs, it may be time to get going. You can’t stop thinking about your “big idea.” For some time now – maybe even years – you’ve been thinking about a specific business idea. You’ve researched the industry, thought about how you’d do it, imagined the final product, and you can’t get it out of your head. Starting a business shouldn’t be done as a way to take a break from your day job. Sure, you’re your own boss, but being your own boss comes with ample responsibilities and sacrifice, especially in the early days. You probably won’t make much money, you’ll encounter a lot of doubt and disinterest, and the long hours will be incredibly exhausting until you can afford to hire employees. If you have a “million dollar” idea you’re passionate about, you can use it to power through the practical challenges of starting a business. You’re decisive and willing to make tough calls. Unless you work in a managerial position, the tough day-to-day decisions of your day job don’t fall at your feet. Certainly, you have to put up with the consequences of those decisions, but you aren’t the one tasked with making them. Being a boss is different. If you waffle, hesitate to take action, or lack the backbone to make tough calls, your business suffers. A good boss has to know when to take risk, take responsibility, cut out darling ideas that aren’t working, and fire hires that aren’t a good fit. You’ve created a nice nest egg and thought about your exit strategy. If you have a financial cushion and you’ve contemplated how you’d go about leaving your job, it may be time to pursue that business idea. Despite rags-to-riches startup success stories, the smart thing to do is to make sure you have just enough to get by while you’re getting your business off the ground. Moreover, if you’ve taken time to think about how you would mindfully leave your job (i.e. avoid burning bridges, maintaining potentially useful connections) it’s a sign you’re serious about starting this business and not just entertaining the thought after bad work days. You understand the risks and evaluated the economic climate. While leaving your cushy job to open a cupcake shop sounds like a lovely idea, it’s important to consider the risks and the demand for the product. If there’s an economic downturn, people won’t be flocking to your shop to purchase high-end cupcakes. Additionally, if there are three other cupcakes shops in your neighborhood, you’ll have a hard time bringing in enough money to stay afloat. Someone who’s ready to start their own business has taken a sober look at the economy, their personal financial situation, and the risks inherent in the sort of business they want to open. You’ve developed a network in your desired industry. Have you spent your spare time meeting people in your desired industry? Have you developed relationships with people that you could turn to for advice or mentorship? Most importantly, have you spoken to people who’d be your potential customers to validate your idea? If this is the case, you’re looking at a huge sign that it’s time to start your own business. You understand that there’s demand for your product and you’ve got the professional network to get the word out and gain some traction. You’ve drafted a business plan. Writing a business plan is hard work, and it forces you to ask some tough questions about your precious business idea. If you’ve written a first draft of a business plan where you’ve conducted a competitive analysis and thought seriously about how you’d market the product, you are ready to give this business idea of yours a shot. Starting a business is no small feat, and it carries a gargantuan amount of risk. Choosing to leave your job and launch your own venture requires careful consideration, thorough planning, and of course, a lot of guts.
9 Ways Your Agency Can Save Money In Q4 Posted on October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 by Jeanna Barrett Let’s face it, as an agency owner, your main focus is top-line sales. You don’t typically have time to think about saving money or areas that could use some reevaluating because you’re too busy trying to gain new business and grow your revenue. Well, Q4 is here, and there’s no better time than now to reevaluate how your agency can save money. We’re here to offer you tips that you can implement to help boost that bottom line and save a few dollars in preparation for 2018. Some of these tips will have you reevaluating processes and expenses, while others will help you take a look at your overhead and team efficiencies. 1. Review all purchases in progress. Are you in the middle of looking for a software upgrade? Or did you place a large order for supplies? Before those purchases are set in stone, take a look at the associated costs. You may not be getting the best deal for that office supplies — test out new vendors or products. Or is there a software out there that can provide a multi-faceted benefit? It’s worth doing the research. Many vendors and suppliers are competitive and are willing to work with you to gain your business. Use that to your advantage. 2. Evaluate your business expenses. Similar to the above point, work with your accounting team to help evaluate your business expenses in 2017, and identify the areas you can make cuts or improvements. Think, utilities, phone or computer expenses — even maintenance fees and cleaning services. Do you need a cleaning service daily? Maybe cut down to every other day. 3. Cancel unnecessary monthly services. Take a closer look at industry publication subscriptions, membership and club dues. It may be a common agency practice to subscribe to industry and trade publications — but are there any that just don’t apply anymore? For example, you may have moved on from a client in the construction business and no longer need for those pubs. Cancel them! 4. Evaluate the tools you’re using. How much are you spending on tools for your agency? Tools such as content management platforms, account and proposal software, etc.? Take inventory, noting their monthly or yearly costs, or even per-user costs. Is there a new or competing tool that’s willing to offer their services for a better price? Can you get rid of a tool you don’t use? There are so many free or very minimal cost tools out there now. Task someone on your team to do a bit of research into the best, most cost-effective marketing tools and business tools out there. 5. Collect on accounts receivable. Are you borrowing money while you wait for your clients to pay? If so, you’re most likely paying excess interest. Identify ways to get that money in the door faster. Some ideas to consider are retainers, financing options, or deposits. You could also incentivize your clients by offering quick-pay discounts just to help keep cash flowing as forecasted. It will help reduce your excess interest expense and improve that overall bottom-line. 6. Evaluate your team. This money-saving tactic is challenging but very necessary. How are your teams performing? Are billable hours projecting as anticipated? Can you do outreach and find someone more efficient/skilled to hire for a better hourly rate? Unfortunately, there may be a position filled at your agency that doesn’t quite get the amount of work you planned for. In that circumstance, would it make sense to hire contractors or freelancers on a need-only basis? 7. Assess situations to up-sell your clients. Evaluate your current clients plans to identify any opportunities to up-sell within the marketing channels, to help grow their business, and yours, in 2018. Add this topic to your agenda to bring it up during the next analytics call. When reviewing analytics, there is always room to improve. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce new tactics or the chance to pilot new marketing initiatives to improve those metrics. You can also consider adding this to your clients 2018 plans. For each tactic, consider adding a tactic that will complement and enhance that initiative. 8. Sell what you don’t use. Many offices have old equipment laying around. Sell it! If you have extra space (office or parking), consider renting it out. Any assets you have that are not useful to you may be useful to another. This will help you consolidate and cut excess costs at the same time. 9. Lastly, cut back on those “free lunches.” And not necessarily just lunches. Happy hours, coffees, dinners. Use those “special” opportunities to celebrate new business. The infamous saying “what you don’t know can’t hurt you” does not apply when saving money. What you don’t know CAN hurt you and your business’s bottom line. Start with these nine money-saving tips to position yourself for success in 2018. AUTHOR BIO Jeanna Barrett is the Founder & Chief Strategist of First Page, an award-winning online marketer and an expat entrepreneur. Through content, social media and SEO, Jeanna uses the power of words and data to drive growth in brand awareness, organic traffic, leads, revenue and customer loyalty. She has a combined 12 years of inbound marketing experience at venture-backed startups, digital agencies and Fortune 500 companies, with an expertise focus on small business and technology. She’s been named ‘Top 40 Under 40’ of brand marketers and ‘Best in the West’ for financial technology marketing. In 2016, Jeanna left the U.S. to lay roots and build her business in Belize.
5 Ways Your Small Business Can Create Content on a Budget Posted on October 30, 2017June 20, 2018 by Allie Wolff It’s not enough to create a lot of content. You’ve got to create good content for it to be shared, start a conversation, and attract leads. But creating good content takes time to research and time to write, so what’s a company on a shoestring budget to do? Well, you can start with these five strategies. Enlist team members from different departments. Incorporate other departments into the content writing process. For many content writers, the most time-intensive part of producing content is researching it. Develop a process in which experts within your organization cover specific topics. If the initiative’s pitched well, employees will see it as a company-wide way to boost the brand’s profile, not as an interruption of their work. Additionally, it’s up to the content manager to create a process that makes this run as smoothly as possible so employees keep contributing. Provide guidelines so employees know what’s expected. Make it clear that you will handle things like image sourcing, posting, and proofreading. Let it be as easy as possible for employees to contribute. Create guest posting submission guidelines. A guest posting strategy helps boost quality content production while cutting costs. Of course, the only way you manage this is by offering something in return, namely your audience. If you have a large enough social media following, you can offer other people or companies access to your platform in exchange. But doing this isn’t as simple as putting out a call for submissions. What do these articles have to be about? How will you ensure people aren’t explicitly hawking their products via articles on your site? How can you incentivize the arrangement for other people? To answer all of these questions, you need to create a guest posting submissions guideline. Such a document would include criteria like: The word length and expected number of credible sources The length of time it’ll take to hear back if the article is selected for publication What topics the article should be about. If you’re a travel company and you’ve already produced a lot of articles on top travel destinations, you may include a note that says you’re specifically looking for travel budgeting tips or advice on choosing travel insurance How exactly companies can mention their product How you’ll share their work on your social media channels, newsletter, etc. What type of links are allowed. Who your audience is. Make sure the author knows who they will be writing for. Essentially, you need to think hard about what you do and don’t want from your guests posts. You also want to guarantee a positive experience for guest posters so that others are encouraged to submit something, too. Crowdsource your content, especially for platforms like Instagram. Encourage people to share photos of your product with a unique hashtag. If you sell a service instead of a product, come up with a campaign around your service (i.e. a campaign for a travel agency called #mysummerlookslike) and encourage people to share appropriate photos with the hashtag. Choose the best photos, assign credit to the original poster, and there you are: You have a campaign without hiring any models, photographers, or renting out sets. It also appears more authentic to other users giving you the added advantage of social proof. Look at frequently asked questions. Stuck for content ideas? Look around you. Pay attention to your customers and talk to your team. Check out what your customers are saying on social media and what their biggest frustrations are then produce content that helps solve those problems. Moreover, talk to other people in your business, particularly your sales associates, to understand what people are asking for or objecting to the most. This regular interaction with your customers and the rest of your team will allow you to create in-touch content. Review your existing content. You most likely have a treasure trove of physical content. Training manuals. Marketing materials. Sales collateral. All of these things are blog posts, infographics, and videos waiting to happen. Take inventory of all the materials you have in your arsenal, identify what’s useful, and then spend some time repurposing it for your digital content strategy.
Are You A Servant Leader? Posted on October 27, 2017October 27, 2017 by Jonathan Herrick “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln A servant leader, as the name might otherwise suggest, is far from being someone who follows along blindly. In fact, some of the greatest leaders of our time embody the true definition of leaders that serve first. From Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, a servant leader is an incredibly strong figurehead who focuses on serving and empowering others and leads with their team in mind. Although the phrase ‘servant leader’ is nothing new (coined in the 1970s) it is still hyper-relevant in today’s modern business world. Let’s break down the individual traits of a servant leader, so you have a better foundation of what it takes to lead and serve your people. Listen to other’s opinions. A servant leader is one who values the views and contributions of others. They actively solicit feedback and weigh any possible decisions carefully before reaching a conclusion. They have remarkable observation skills and are very perceptive to what is occurring around them. Servant leaders understand the fact that people feel respected when they are listened to. Value trust above all. A servant leader believes that everyone is valuable and is deserving of trust and respect. They live by the “Golden Rule”- treat others as they would wish to be treated and lead with trust. Trust is the very cornerstone of all they do, and they perceive the need to be empathetic towards others. They treat everyone in the organization the same – from the administrator to the general manager. Encourage others. As a leader people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. A servant leader cares about the well-being of others and finds ways to lift their team mates up, not bring them down. They look for opportunities for team growth and are not afraid of competition or sharing the limelight. They want everyone to be successful and encourage everyone to work together on projects which are bigger than themselves. Servant leadership means encouraging others often and making people feel like they are part of the greater mission of the organization. Act as a mentor. Servant leaders are willing to share wisdom freely and understand that their knowledge can help others improve both personally and professionally. They are passionate about growing other leaders others and like to think of their team or organization as a community, rather than a workplace. They are committed wholeheartedly to every person in the organization or team and believe that the growth of the “group” both individually and as a whole, firmly rests on their shoulders. Rather than seek to control others, the focus shifts to coaching and on teaching others. Reflect on the long-term. A servant leader can focus on more than tomorrow’s goals. They care about the future success of the organization and will adopt choices representative of that fact. They check in regularly to see that their team is thriving and meeting their set benchmarks without issue. Servant leaders constantly look at the big picture. They understand that today’s decisions will have far-reaching consequences in the future and choose to focus on productivity and results. Demonstrate tenacity. Persistence is a necessary trait in the world of business today. Although servant leaders are encouragers by design that doesn’t mean they aren’t determined. They don’t give up easily and believe that the mission of the organization is too big to let go of. Servant leaders lead with a sense of purpose that drives them to make everyone around them better. Be accountable for mistakes. Servant leaders are humble. They are not afraid to hold themselves or others accountable. If they make a mistake, they own it. Humility is a daily practice, and they learn from failures quickly. Their standards are high, and ideals such as truth and transparency are fundamental to them. Servant leaders tend to focus on the positive and appreciate everyone’s worth, regardless of what roadblocks they face. Does this sound like you? If you would like to develop your skills to be a better servant leader then it is worthwhile to focus on these skills: Empathy Listening Persuasion Humility Commitment Foresight Awareness The strongest and most successful companies are built on the backs of servant leaders. Encouraging others, establishing trust and being accountable are paramount in becoming an effective and respected leader. Robert Greenleaf says it best: “The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.”
9 Email Fixes That Will Improve Your Click-Through Rate Posted on October 26, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jessica Lunk As any human with an email account knows, the inbox can be overwhelming. There are the emails you act on because you want to and the emails you act on because you have to. As for the remaining hundreds or so? You’ll get to them when you get to them…if at all. So if you have something to pitch, how do you get your emails into that enviable “want to/have to” category? We’ve collected some commonly agreed on strategies to win at the email pitch. Do it right, and email can actually be quite effective. According to an Optinmonster report, 66 percent of users made a purchase because of an email marketing campaign; 20 percent did so via Facebook, and 6 percent did so via Twitter. Here’s how to make your email work for you. Write a standout subject line. It needs to be succinct and clear, for starters, and it needs to pique people’s curiosity (“read what our customers are saying about us”), pose a burning question (“What are CTOs raving about?), convey a sense of urgency or timeliness (“Get it while it lasts”), or offer something (“first month free!”). Make sure that what they see in the email body corresponds to what’s promised on the subject line or people won’t want to open your emails again or, worse, they’ll unsubscribe. Use emojis. Don’t overdo it of course, but sprinkling your subject line with a star or two when appropriate (or a balloon if you’re sending a birthday promotion) helps you stand out in a crowd. Use cleverly but avoid cheesy. Ditto the preview text. Summarize your email. If you leave it blank, it will simply show the first few lines of your email, which is not taking advantage of precious space. You might even want to include your CTA, so email recipients know right away what to do if they’re interested in your pitch. Personalize your pitch. This doesn’t necessarily mean calling your recipient by name or feigning that you’re pals with them (which, in fact, can annoy people). Rather, it’s about sending a pitch that she’ll actually be interested in, based on the information you have (such as past purchases or downloads). For instance, if you’re a software company, and she purchased and cancelled a subscription from you, then perhaps showcase a couple of new product features to help in your next re-engagement campaign. Offer something up. People are more willing to opt in if there’s something in it for them, such as a freebie or discount. It’s human nature to love a bargain. Interestingly, the subject “sale” delivered 23.2 percent opens, but “save” delivered only 3.4 percent, according to research conducted by Phrasee, a company that uses artificial intelligence to generate email marketing language. Keep the email short. No one has time to read long emails. Get to the point. Encourage sharing. By including social media buttons and even a ready-made forwarding button, people are likelier to spread the word and increase the chances of someone clicking on it. Make your pitch mobile friendly. That means having the text run in a one-margin format, using a font size that’s easy to read on a smaller screen, and creating a call-to-action button that’s easy to tap. More than 50 percent of email addresses are read on mobile devices, according to a 2016 Consumer Adoption & Usage Study by Adestra, so you better be sure those emails are responsive to all devices. Use images. Avoid clutter, but use thoughtfully chosen eye-catching graphics with your content: for instance, an image of your product, or simply colored boxes as background, to break up text and encourage reading—and clicking. It’s easy to drown in a sea of emails. Make sure your next email rises to the top of the inbox.
How are Chatbots Impacting the Customer Experience? Posted on October 25, 2017October 14, 2022 by Erin Posey The way consumers interact with brands is evolving at a rapid pace. This is due in large part to the incredible advances we’ve seen in technology over the past decade or so. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the face of customer engagement, and it’s catching on like wildfire. In fact, one study predicts that 62 percent of organizations will have adopted AI in some form by as early as next year. What does all of this mean for businesses? Specifically, how will intelligent automation impact the customer experience? Let’s take a closer look at the rise of chatbots and what the future looks like from a consumer relations standpoint. A new comfort level When the use of chatbots for support was initially introduced, it was not surprisingly met with mixed feelings. For businesses, the ability to shift a large percentage of support activities from human to machine was an attractive option, both in terms of cost and efficiency. For consumers, on the other hand, the idea of having a robot handle their needs seemed much less appealing. As a result, adoption was slow at best. Over time, however, that has changed, mainly because customers are simply becoming more and more accustomed to AI. People have come to recognize that while they may lose the human touch, they’ll gain convenience, speed and ease of use. Millions of people now turn to AI every day for assistance with any number of their routine activities. This is evidenced by the growing popularity of virtual support applications like Siri and Alexa. For businesses, chatbot technology is much more affordable than hiring, training and employing human agents to handle basic customer support functions. Thankfully, consumers are also recognizing and embracing the enhanced efficiency and ease of use that AI technology affords. Rather than having to dial in and wait on hold for a call center representative, chatbots are available on-demand to quickly answer questions and resolve issues that don’t require human input. Technology is improving at lightning speed Not only is the adoption of AI increasing at a rapid pace, but the technology that drives these tools is also evolving at an equally impressive rate. For instance, there have been leaps and bounds made in how computers can understand the human language. The ability to recognize and respond to speech at a conversational level has further driven the growth and widespread acceptance of chatbot technology. Striking the perfect balance Ideally, the optimal use of AI will see humans and robots working in tandem toward a shared goal of delivering a superior customer experience. With the right balance, the two can complement one another, with chatbots handling the simple, time-consuming tasks that don’t require human input and then turning over the reins to human agents when and if the need for more comprehensive support is required. For instance, a human can step in when a complex question is posed. Some emerging chatbot technologies are even capable of detecting frustration in a caller’s voice and can subsequently offer to transfer the call to a live agent. In an age when customer experience is now considered the ultimate benchmark against which the majority (89 percent) of businesses will be measured, being able to deliver at the highest level possible and on a consistent basis is absolutely critical. Finding a way to marry the convenience of AI technology without losing the human touch will ultimately become the secret to success.