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As we approach 2025, the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. It’s a world full of shiny new tools, AI-driven tactics, and the latest buzzwords—but succeeding in this ever-changing environment requires more than just chasing trends. True success comes from having a clear, adaptable strategy that aligns with your goals.

That’s why we’ve tapped into the expertise of our Elite Marketing Program coaches. These are not just industry experts; they’re leaders who have guided countless businesses to real, measurable results. Learn more about their work and explore their expertise:

• Lauren Petrullo: https://mongoosemedia.us/
• Monique Morrison: https://www.moniquemorrison.ca/
• Amara Omoregie: https://amarareps.com/
• Dave Albano: http://jozamarketing.com/
• Scott Cunningham: https://merchantmastery.io/
• Renée Boudakian: rubiconfranchisepartners.com

Their insights offer not just predictions but actionable strategies for navigating the challenges and opportunities of 2025. This isn’t about jumping on the next bandwagon. It’s about focusing on what truly matters—building a solid marketing foundation, embracing personalization, and leveraging AI and automation in a way that deepens your connection with your audience.

These answers capture the heart of what the Elite Program is all about—helping businesses cut through the noise with clear strategies, proven systems, and the latest insights to drive sustainable growth.

Read on to discover how our Elite coaches are helping businesses prepare for 2025—and how you can too.

1. What’s the Most Important Trend You Believe Will Define Digital Marketing in 2025, and How Can Businesses Start Preparing Now?Lauren Petrullo Content will curate your audience. This answer is going to be drastically different depending on the size of the business, but in general, you need to have better content and lead with personalization whenever possible. The more I sound like one of the many you’re talking to, the more I’m gonna ignore you as one of the many I don’t care about. With AI and emerging tech, it’s easier than ever to provide personalization in your marketing.

Monique MorrisonI think with the onset of AI and how quickly it’s transforming and its capabilities, we will see that as the biggest trend. It allows smaller companies to implement predictive and personalized customer journeys, especially in the retail and eCommerce space, and I believe that will be an important trend to jump on in 2025.

Amara OmoregieI think there’s a difference between what’s trending and what needs to trend. What will trend in 2025 will be the shiny object that is AI and all of the cool things that you can do with it… that’s a given. We’ll see more tools rise, and old ones fall. During all of this ebb and flow as marketing technology continues to hockey stick, the ability to connect with humans on a deeper level will be what people will resonate with. What needs to trend is knowing our customers better and using technology to build deeper relationships with customers.

Dave AlbanoWithout a doubt, it’s AI. This should come as no surprise. You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t realized the importance of this, but it’s shocking how many small businesses are ignoring it when it’s going to radically change the face of how we do business.

How to start preparing? If you haven’t already:

1. Dedicate at LEAST 1 hour a week to explore ChatGPT (upgrade to the paid version for $20/month to unlock its “current” potential—it’s only going to get better from here).
2. Subscribe to a reputable source for regular AI news and updates (e.g., Matt Wolfe’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow).

Scott Cunningham Coaching businesses: Throughout 2024, we saw a big shift from high-ticket, one-call-close coaching offers back to low-ticket front-end programs that allow coaches to first build trust with their audience before committing to high-ticket programs. The buzzword of the year was that we are in a “trust recession,” and we need to allow people to experience our value before committing big. I predict that businesses who made this pivot will thrive in 2025, and those who didn’t will struggle to compete. * eCommerce ads:* AI is becoming more of a factor in building meta audiences, and I predict that people won’t be frantically testing new audiences so often. From what I’ve seen, and from what I’ve been told by high-level Meta reps, letting ads run gives AI more time/insights to adapt, instead of constantly changing things and causing it to re-learn.

Renée BoudakianAI-powered personalization is going to fundamentally change digital marketing and transform the customer journey experience.

The big opportunity lies in building AI-powered dynamic, hyper-personalized systems that:

• Adapt messaging based on actual performance.
• Learn from real-time customer behavior.
• Optimize for individual preferences at scale.

How can businesses start preparing now?

1. Conduct an audit of your first-party data—understand what customer signals you’re capturing and where the gaps are. Focus on collecting quality behavioral signals and ensure your data is organized and accessible.
2. Perform an audit of your tech stack—most current marketing tools don’t talk to each other well enough to support real AI personalization. Now’s the time to fix those gaps and build connections between your platforms to prevent future headaches as AI capabilities expand.

The companies that win won’t be the ones with the biggest AI budgets—they’ll be the ones who build smart, scalable systems while staying focused on actual customer value.

1. If You Had to Pick One Growth Strategy to Double Down on in 2025, What Would It Be and Why?Lauren PetrulloLong-form video content. People will consume before they convert. With long-form content, they’re getting to know you before they even talk to you, putting you in a place where calls are with pre-sold prospects. Also, as AI evolves, video still has a year or so before it’s as competitive as blogs. Content written with AI has exploded over the last 3 years, making it more competitive than before as the barrier to entry and opportunity to compete is at its lowest. With long-form videos, you can then bring in the multi-lingual aspect and compete in a blue ocean while your competitors are struggling in crowded waters.

Monique MorrisonWe’re doubling down on our loyalty systems and predictive AI strategies for our retail and eCommerce clients. For service-based businesses, back-end AI systems that automate clerical work and time-consuming tasks are essential, especially for those tasks that are not done efficiently but are necessary for the sales process. We’re implementing systems from Buy Back Your Time that allow our clients to focus on revenue-generating tasks rather than being bogged down by low-value but necessary operations.

Amara OmoregieOrganic. Period.
On a few different levels:

• SEO → GEO: Creating content strategies to not only appear in organic search but to have responses shared from your brand and cited in generative/AI search experiences (e.g., Search GPT, Perplexity).
• Social SEO: Positioning your social content for discoverability on the platforms and in organic search when possible, while building backlinks and shares to boost your brand.
• Forums and Communities: Reddit and Quora are dominating search. People want help, and like-minded people want to discover new things. These areas are ripe for innovation.

I’d triple down in these areas. If you do, you’ll build a moat around your business.

Dave AlbanoRobotic Process Automation—it’s going to transform businesses. When you can build automated “bots” that have agency to replace humans and hours and hours… even DAYS of research, repetitive tasks, content production & distribution, voice call handling—you name it—your competitors will leave you in the dust if you don’t jump on board.

Scott Cunningham Live events: These have been our highest ROI activity for filling sales calendars and bringing in deals. * Low-ticket community: We are doubling down on our low-ticket community and using webinars to fill it. Following our insights into how to navigate the trust economy, we’ve also learned that webinars are a great way to fill low-ticket communities because people first get to spend time with you on the webinar before committing to your low-ticket community. * The Trust Tri-Fecta:* Webinar or event → Low-ticket community → High-ticket community.

Renée BoudakianDouble down on building automated marketing and sales systems. Map and automate your customer journey, from first touch to repeat buyer. This creates predictable revenue that scales without draining your team’s bandwidth.

In 2025, your most valuable asset won’t be your content or products—it will be your automated acquisition system that converts while you sleep.

1. How Do You See Customer Behavior Evolving in 2025, and What Steps Should Businesses Take Now to Meet Those Changing Expectations?Lauren PetrulloCustomers want to know more than ever and get frustrated if you miss out on sharing critical answers they need. You NEED better conversation starters and an outlet for the person to ask their questions rather than assuming you’ve provided the answers they need. If you’re letting customers struggle to find answers, you’ll lose them as customers.

Set up phone numbers and chatbots to answer questions WHEN they have them. STOP ASSUMING. People crave connection, and with “Prime’s same-day delivery” mentality, every minute a customer waits for a critical answer drastically affects your conversion rate.

Monique MorrisonAI really took off in 2024, and many have adopted chatbots and other AI communication tools. In 2025, I believe customers will become more aware of AI interactions and gravitate toward companies that can provide truly human or human-like experiences.

This will be a critical time for companies to balance the power of AI with the expectation for authentic human interactions.

Amara OmoregieCustomers are sick of funnels. They hate being forced to get on a rollercoaster and not being able to get off until the ride is done.

Meaning, they want to learn about what is out there without having to talk to a sales rep, download an ebook, or watch an hour-long webinar. They want to be empowered to make their own decisions. Whoever gives their customer the most agency to make decisions will win.

Dave AlbanoBECAUSE of the rise of AI, trust is going to be at an all-time LOW and inauthenticity will be at an all-time HIGH. Businesses will need to go ALL-IN in cultivating authentic, transparent relationships with their prospects and customers and provide even more value by giving more in delivery than they receive in return financially.

Scott CunninghamI believe that 2024 was the year of the trust recession, and I expect this behavior to continue in 2025. I think we need to show more empathy in our marketing towards our customers and their lack of trust, rather than ignore it.

I also think we need to work harder, and listen better, to earn that trust.

Renée BoudakianThe market is shifting from “wait and see” to “show me now”—businesses need to adapt their delivery speed and accessibility accordingly.

• Fast Wins Beat Big Promises: 2025’s customers are done with “it takes time” excuses. They’ll pick the company that delivers a 20% improvement now over promises of 100% in six months. If you’re a marketing agency, start by fixing one leaky funnel stage this week. Small, concrete victories build more trust than grand transformations.
• Break Your Solution Into “Now, Next, Later”: Give them something they can implement today (template), something for this week (quick process fix), and then your bigger transformation. When they see results from the quick wins, they’ll trust you with the longer journey.

4: What are the most effective ways to build trust with cold audiences in a crowded digital landscape?Lauren PetrulloThe best way to build trust with cold audiences is through authenticity and upfront value. SHOW me. PROVE your deserved attention. Gen Alpha grew up on YouTube subscriptions, and they’ll be incredibly powerful purchasers in the coming years, with many already self-made millionaires. Gen Z grew up with influencers and #ad controversies—no one’s getting fooled. If you’re providing value in a gated capacity or pretending it’s valuable but really just advertising, they’ll know. So lead with authenticity. No one is perfect, especially not your customers. Be raw, vulnerable, and valuable. Don’t just talk about it; show how you walk it, and you’ll gain attention. By providing actionable ideas, you’ll command loyalty.

Monique MorrisonGetting out and being in front of cold audiences is crucial. Showing you’re a real person and listening to followers creates immediate trust with new audiences encountering your brand.
One tactic that has worked well is running contests for email subscribers, with bonus entries for commenting on an Instagram reel with a question. We then reply to those questions with another reel, which has boosted organic reach, engagement, and comments outside of contestants. When people see that you’re listening and responding, they’re more likely to engage. This has been a winning tactic this year.

Amara OmoregieShift their state of awareness almost immediately. And I don’t mean bragging about your company/brand. I mean, if they are unaware, make them problem-aware. Problem to solution. Solution to product. Product to brand/most.
Why?
If you can solve an unsolvable problem.
If you can treat a group of customers better.
If you can end people’s suffering.
If you can make people aware of solutions that didn’t exist.
If you can change the status quo.
You’ll get the right kind of attention, from the right people, at the right time, and they’ll trust you.

Dave AlbanoStrip away big “productionalized” content pieces, especially in video, and shoot your reels, stories, video ads, etc., in your day-to-day element (e.g., walking down your neighborhood street) on your phone. While technology has evolved, what has NOT is PEOPLE… we still connect best through face-to-face eye contact, and the best way to do that in digital is through close-up videos in selfie view.

Scott CunninghamWe’ve been running ads to a webinar, where we offer a free $1500 gift to those who attend. Then at the end of the webinar, we give everyone a $1500 ticket to a three-day live virtual bootcamp, where all they need to get the ticket is join our $39/month community. This has been working very well for us.

Renée BoudakianDemonstrate proof. Feature concrete results, verifiable case studies, and authentic customer stories—let real outcomes speak for themselves.

5: Many business owners feel their growth plateaus because they’re constantly in ‘reactive’ mode. How can they step back and create a scalable system that can handle growth without constant intervention?Lauren PetrulloMost of the time, business owners need to fire themselves from the operation side. HIRE someone who has done it not once, but at least twice before.

Often, it’s ego stopping you from reaching your potential. You assume because you got your business to where it is today that you’re the solution to get it to where it’s going tomorrow. That’s absurd.

If you’re afraid to invest in quality talent, then you don’t truly believe in your growth. Most people aren’t great at being entrepreneurs and business owners—it’s like 1% of the 1% that are successful.

There are MANY who could be intrapreneurs or strong supporting roles to get you out of reactive mode and back into your zone of genius.

Monique MorrisonIn addition to what’s taught in ELITE and Scalable, most business owners would benefit from a strong executive admin to manage their time.

Also, AI and automation can handle many tasks that often distract from revenue-generating work.

The reactive mode often comes from not having time for high-value tasks due to a lack of systems to handle lower-value ones. This imbalance leads to a pattern of either a great marketing month or a great fulfillment month but rarely a balanced approach to both.

Amara OmoregieBusiness owners need to quit collecting shiny objects and piecing together makeshift solutions. Your tech stack isn’t meant to be a bird’s nest of mismatched tools and trendy platforms.

Think about a lemonade stand. The fundamentals are dead simple: Go where your customers are. Put up a sign. Stock your product. Open for business. This is all foundational.

From there, you test everything. Your pricing. Your location. Your recipe. You watch the data – which spots bring the most traffic, what times drive the most sales. Then you adapt and improve.

Digital marketing has made it dangerously easy to skip the fundamentals. To shoot from the hip without a plan. That advantage becomes your burden when your systems turn into a tangled mess.

RevOps (revenue operations) brings back that simple lemonade stand clarity to your digital operations. One integrated system. Every component working together. Clear metrics. Real feedback. Continuous improvement.

Don’t be afraid to make educated guesses about your future. Just make sure you’re testing against a plan and using that data to get better. That’s how you build a resilient, scalable business instead of another bird’s nest.

Stop chasing trends. Start building systems that solve for your customer. RevOS keeps it simple, measurable, and scalable.

Dave AlbanoWell Duh… that cues up ELITE and the Growth OS nicely now doesn’t it ;).

I’ll bite. Join a program with trusted advisors and experts that have already done what you’re trying to do, and implement the proven frameworks & systems they provide to scale predictably.

Scott CunninghamYou need a KPI tracking tool for every stage of the customer journey, and you need to actually use it.

Our team has been using DM’s Growth Scorecard for years, and it is our holy bible of accountability. It can be overwhelming/intimidating thinking we need to be insanely proactive at all times.

Our scorecard allows us to move small things forward bit by bit that creates a big impact. (AND, there was a period where we stopped using it, and things fell off. So I think we need to prioritize the basics).

Renée Boudakian* Document & Systematize Core Operations: Map and create clear workflows for the critical 20% of tasks driving 80% of results. * Automate → Delegate → Eliminate: Start by automating repetitive tasks, then delegate remaining processes to capable team members, and ruthlessly eliminate activities that don’t drive growth.

6: How can businesses leverage AI and automation to scale their efforts while maintaining a personal connection with customers?Lauren PetrulloMy favorite way of leveraging AI right now is through personalized AI chatbots, where the chatbots even call prospects.

Start personal conversations with leads to discover their true questions rather than guessing what they’re looking for.

With AI and personalized connections, you position yourself to care about your customers as if they’re in a 1:1 conversation with you—at scale.

Monique MorrisonIt’s essential to train any AI interacting with customers to be conversational and engaging, making it as human as possible.

There are many back-end tasks AI can manage that usually consume time. When those are automated, it frees up space for more one-on-one conversations and personal connections.

We’ve used AI to analyze customer actions and purchases, allowing us to use predictive marketing. For example, integrating our Shopify database with Airtable lets the AI analyze the data, which we then use to guide our communications with customers.

Amara OmoregieAutomate what works. Set that baseline, and make sure that AI can produce the same quality or better when it comes to its outputs.

Never settle with AI. It has the capabilities to take the best of what we do and make it even better if we provide enough context.

Dave AlbanoDo the “Handoff”… Use AI & Automation to INITIATE conversations in “triage” sessions to find out what they really need, then pass prospects/leads/customers off to a real person via calendar scheduling, direct phone transfers, etc.

Scott CunninghamNever ask AI to do all the heavy lifting.

Feed it your own frameworks, processes, and case studies so it’s not telling stories that anyone can tell. It needs to tell stories unique to you.

Also challenge AI responses, or give it options to vote on, and get it to explain why it chose what it chose.

Renée Boudakian* Automate the Routine, Personalize the Meaningful: Use AI for repetitive tasks (scheduling, basic support, data entry) but keep high-value touchpoints human (strategy calls, problem resolution, relationship building). This lets your team focus on conversations that matter. * Create Smart, Adaptive Workflows: Build systems that recognize customer patterns and trigger appropriate human intervention. For example: Have AI handle initial support inquiries, but flag emotional or complex issues that require human attention.

7: What’s the best approach for creating content that resonates with audiences in 2025? How should brands be adapting their content strategies now?Lauren PetrulloWhen creating content in 2025, start by crawling into your ad comments, emails, and customer service FAQs.

Begin by creating content to answer questions they’re already asking.

Yes, you can focus on SEO, but if you want to resonate, don’t focus solely on the algorithm—focus on quality.

Answer your current customers’ questions. They’ll share your content.

Decentralization of SEO is coming, and the focus needs to be on directly answering, quickly, and with quality to win the content game in 2025.

Monique MorrisonSee my answer to question four.

In addition to creating short-form content based on audience questions, we also turn those questions into longer-form content and email content.

Open rates have been strong for emails where the subject line hints at solving a customer’s problem directly.

Amara OmoregieHelpful.

Creating content to rank is so 2010.

Create content that people will come back to over and over for reference.

Writers need to learn how to write again.

Do actual research—not just SEO research, but topical research. We need topical authority and information.

SMEs need their brains picked clean of the good stuff.

Google is getting sick of crawling hundreds of variations of the same exact content, so pretty soon, pages are going to get deindexed for not being helpful.

The more web pages there are on the internet, the more it affects our carbon footprint, so it’s up to us as marketers to stop the proliferation of low-value content.

Dave AlbanoTrends and market tastes will always evolve.

It’s your job as the content creator to have your finger on the pulse of what’s trending, what people are asking, on what they’re searching, on what their wants/needs/fears/aspirations are.

Turn to AI for research (ChatGPT can search the web now) and the age-old favorite: AnswerThePublic.

Then where possible (platform-dependent) serve up your content dynamically to target your various avatars and audiences by segment.

Scott CunninghamIn our eCommerce world, I’ve been teaching brands to write long-form origin story ads that have been working better than anything else lately.

Show that you are the biggest nerd in your category, and people will look at you as the expert you are.

Renée BoudakianShare Real Stories.

“I was drowning in client emails last year” creates more intrigue and connection than “Here’s how to manage your inbox.”

When you share your honest struggles and unexpected wins, people see themselves in your story instead of seeing another expert talking down to them.

8: What are the most effective ways to increase customer retention and loyalty in 2025, especially as competition intensifies?Lauren PetrulloPersonalized interactions while leveraging AI.

You need more touchpoints and effective communication based on where they are in their buyer’s journey with you, addressing their needs—not where you are in relation to them paying you.

Monique MorrisonOne big shift in 2024 has been automatically enrolling customers in loyalty programs instead of making it an optional step.

We’re also enhancing our indoctrination series to offer additional bonuses and free gifts with each new purchase.

The welcome email typically has the highest open rates, as customers are most excited then, so we leverage this moment.

Part of our approach includes a survey to identify the customer’s pain points, which AI analyzes for product fit and to create customized email content that addresses their biggest concerns.

We use two separate processes for leads and customers.

Amara OmoregieOver-serve your customers.

Over-educate them.

Have them be a part of your journey.

Give them access to new products without having to pay (e.g., samples, GWPs).

Recognize your VIPs with great perks that have mutual benefit.

Right your wrongs, especially in public.

Be honest.

Share your roadmap for improvement.

Celebrate the wins of your customers.

Empathize—like Chewy when subscriptions end when a pet crosses the rainbow bridge. They send flowers and a card, and they donate the last bag of food to the local shelter.

Dave AlbanoSame as #3.

Further, if you look at THE best companies in the world with the best retention (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Apple Music, HBO Max, Disney+, etc.), they target their pricing by being 1% of the average Social Security check in the U.S., which is $1787 as of Oct 2024 (Source).

1% of that is $17.87, or that $15-$20 range such that ANYONE can afford them.

Scott CunninghamKeep adding more value when customers are up for renewal.

We do it in our coaching program, offering renewal bonuses.

Just this year we offered our mastermind members new quarterly review meetings to keep them on track with big goals.

This is something we constantly brainstorm as a team to ensure we keep leveling up the customers’ experiences.

The same goes for eCommerce.

Renée BoudakianMake Customer Problems Your North Star.

Every dollar you’ll make in 2025 is hiding in a customer problem you haven’t fully solved yet.

The best product roadmap is your customer’s list of frustrations.

When you become obsessed with their challenges, customer retention & loyalty is a byproduct.

Design Your Offer Ladder Around “New Levels, New Devils.”

Success creates new challenges.

Your offer stack should solve each new problem that emerges from conquering the last.

When you guide customers through their entire journey, solving each evolution of their problems, they never need to look elsewhere.

The key to retention is being their trusted solution provider at every level.

9: With so many marketing tools and tactics out there, how do you prioritize which strategies to implement? How can business owners avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’ and focus on what truly moves the needle?Lauren PetrulloI prioritize what can work with my existing systems and tools first.

Learning a new product or tool is exhausting.

I need it to yield atypical returns with minimal additional effort.

To avoid shiny objects, ask yourself: if you adopt this new tool or tactic, are you okay with zero returns for the next 6 months?

If yes, because the return in 6 months is worth the investment, go for it!

Otherwise, focus on optimizing existing resources and avoid adopting new ones.

Monique MorrisonThe growth lever canvas is key here.

Having someone empowered to say “no” when new, shiny tools and programs could derail progress is also essential.

We use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method, which, combined with the growth lever canvas, keeps us focused on what truly matters.

Amara OmoregieIf it doesn’t align with a growth initiative already in play or improve the customer experience, put it on the back burner for another time.

When a business has its customer acquisition engine dialed in and is hitting targets consistently, then experiment.

Not when the stakes are high and there isn’t much room for error.

Commit to being methodical and disciplined until you have the runway to be experimental with shiny objects.

Most shiny objects are just that—and not worth anything.

Digital snake oil and hype.

Dave AlbanoYou must have the correct STRATEGY first, and plug in the tactics INTO the strategy, not the other way around.

See #5

Scott CunninghamNever scrap something completely if it’s working.

I think it’s ok to allocate 5-10% of your resources/focus testing new experiments to see if you could do better.

But keep most of your focus on the things that are producing.

For example, before pivoting ad budget from our VSL funnel to our low-ticket community funnel, we allocated a small fraction of our total spend to see if we could fill the community, and also to see if we could ascend the community to our core offer.

It turns out we could, so we allocated more spend to the low-ticket community funnel.

The takeaway is, don’t tackle too many ideas at once where you are spread thin on focus.

Choose one thing to test against your main thing.

Get proof of concept.

Then pivot some focus to the new thing that’s working.

Renée BoudakianBuild a Customer Journey Scorecard.

Use a simple traffic light system (red/yellow/green) to visualize each stage of your journey.

If lead generation is red but your sales conversion rate is green, you don’t need another sales tool—you need better lead generation.

Focus resources where the actual bottlenecks are.

Double Down on What’s Already Working.

Before chasing new tactics, look at your current wins.

If LinkedIn is driving real sales conversations, invest more there before testing TikTok.

Scale what works before exploring what’s new.

The key is letting your scorecard guide your priorities—turn reds to yellows, yellows to greens, one stage at a time.

Closing Thoughts: Strategy Over Tactics for 2025If there’s one lesson to take away from our Elite coaches, it’s this: strategy always trumps tactics. While shiny new tools and tactics can grab attention, they won’t deliver sustainable growth without a solid foundation. The businesses that succeed in 2025 will be the ones that focus on their customers, leverage personalization and AI strategically, and implement systems that scale.

The insights from our Elite coaches aren’t just theories—they’re real-world strategies proven to drive results. And that’s what sets the Elite Marketing Program apart. We’re here to guide you, to help you focus on what matters, and to build a marketing engine that drives growth predictably.

Don’t just adapt to 2025. Lead the way.

Join the Elite Marketing Program today and start building your strategy for sustainable growth.

Click here to learn more and apply.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing in 2025: Predictions from Our Elite Coaches appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Ever wonder what the most successful agencies did differently than everyone else?

Was it luck, skill, hard work, the industry they chose, or something else?

Through my consulting work at Revenue Boost, I’ve worked with and taught over 400+ agencies how to scale their business.

From this, I’ve seen consistent patterns & traits in the ones who grow effortlessly…

Versus the ones who stay stuck for years – no matter how hard they work.

One key difference in approach stuck out to me.

I’ll illustrate what this one difference was with a story.

Once upon a time…

Two marketers graduated from business school with big plans to start their own agency.

Ready to conquer the world, they started cold calling, cold emailing, and doing everything under the sun to get clients.

And although they had the SAME levels of work ethic and talent…

One of them now has an 8-figure agency.

The other one of them is still freelancing odd jobs, barely making ends meet.

What did the successful one do differently?

He took a big risk and started turning down clients and projects.

Instead of offering everything to everyone, like most agency owners…

And being a jack of all trades but a master of none…

He decided only to serve Plumbers and be the best dang’ plumbing marketer on the planet.

With a goal to make their pipeline fuller than a broken toilet pipe.

He mastered the art of niching down and realized it would be easier to be the biggest fish in a small pond.

And you should too – and in this article, you’ll learn exactly how to define your own niche.

Now it may seem scary to turn down clients…and it may feel like you’re limiting yourself by focusing on only one client-type.

But it’s exactly the opposite. You’re actually limiting yourself by being everything for everybody.

Niching Down Can Help 2x-3x Your RevenuesOne of my clients Lauren ran a digital agency offering everything under the sun.

Social media, paid ads, web dev, SEO, and she offered it to clients from many different industries.

Because of this, her agency stayed stuck at $25,000 a month and she couldn’t break through.

On top of that, she and her team worked so much harder than they had to and operations were messy.

Every client needed different things, required customization, and nothing was standardized.

We sat together to audit all her past clients, and we found that Medical practices were her best clients.

They were easy to sell, stayed the longest, and gave her the least amount of headaches and complaints.

So, she changed her entire business model to ONLY service this industry.

Then, she developed a standardized offer for that industry, rather than customizing everything.

One offer, to one target market. Afterwards, she started cold emailing businesses in her niche with her new offer.

The Results? She 2X’d her revenues and grew to $52,000 in monthly revenue in not even four months time.

All from making one simple shift. One decision that can make everything easier, and you can do the same.

See, most agency owners and marketers start out with one or two clients, and then they get referred new clients from various industries.

Before they know it, they’re marketing everything for everyone and have NO idea who their ideal client is.

The Problem with Running a Business This Way Is That It Becomes Impossible to Scale.Every single new client requires a ton of research, thought, and brainpower.

Because each new client has different needs, it leads to having no standardized processes and systems.

Which keeps the founder stuck in the business and unable to hire a team.

The other problem that arises is acquisition.

There are hundreds of thousands of agencies on the planet, and it’s really hard to stand out.

UNLESS you specialize.

When you specialize in a niche – let’s say, SEO for plumbers…

Then you aren’t competing with every other agency on the planet. You don’t look and sound just like them anymore.

Now, you’ve created your own tiny pond in which you can be a big fish.

There are way fewer agencies that specialize in plumbers or SEO, let alone both. So, you’ve eliminated the competition with one decision.

If a plumber was looking at two agencies – one that was a general digital agency and one that specializes in helping plumbers…

They almost always choose the agency that specializes in their industry and has testimonials from people just like them.

Not to mention, it’s easier to market when you have a clear niche in mind.

You know who you’re writing your content for…

You know who to send emails and social media DMs too…

You know exactly who to target in your ads….

You know what podcasts you should get booked on

And so on and so on.

Plus, you can charge whatever prices you want. Because you aren’t compared to the hundreds of thousands of agencies out there – you have a unique offer now.

Committing to one niche makes marketing easier, it makes selling easier, and it makes scaling easier.

You only have to be good at doing 1 thing for 1 person, and you can build systems and processes around it. This way, you can hire a team to take it over and be able to work less.

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Now how do you do it? What if you don’t know who your ideal client is?

Step 1: Audit Your Current + Past Client List.Write down every single client you’ve ever served, and group them by niche. Industry, location, size and so on.

Once you group them together, one niche might stick out for you already as your favorite type of client.

If it doesn’t, use my 7-Point checklist and rank each niche on a 1-5 scale.

These 7 criteria points are what makes a great niche.

1 – Total Addressable Market:How many businesses are in this market? Is it large enough to support your bigger goals? Is the market shrinking or growing? Make sure the niche is big enough for you and that it’s not declining.

2 – Purchasing PowerIs this market (or at least a segment of it) able to afford what you want to charge?

Think back to if you’ve received a lot of pricing objections when you’ve sold to these people in the past.

3 – Lifetime ValueHow long did these clients stay? Were they one-and-done projects or did they stay with me for eternity?

The bigger the life-time value, the more money and time you can spend to acquire a client.

If the niche typically churns in a few months or only works with you for quick, one-off projects…

Then you’ll have to spend so much energy on sales and marketing to keep the business alive.

4 – Strong Need & PainDoes this market have an important problem to solve, one that they have to fix? Or, is what you sell just a “nice to have”?

If the latter, it’s going to be very hard to get clients.

If they can’t live without your solution, then getting clients will be a breeze.

5 – Desire to Solve that PainIt’s one thing for a market to have a problem, but they must also have a desire to solve that problem.

Even if they have the need that you fulfill, that’s not enough – they also have to care about fulfilling that need.

6 – Easy to ReachIs the market fairly easy to find online? Can you reach them via most advertising platforms and social channels? Are their groups and communities online?

If you’re targeting businesses that are hard to reach online, you’re creating one extra barrier to your success.

Step 2: Choose 1 Niche After Ranking Each of Your Past Clients.Tally up all the rankings and pick the 1 with the highest score.

Don’t worry about making the wrong decision.

Consider this an experiment.

You aren’t married to your new niche, you can always change back in a few months if it doesn’t work out.

Step 3: Create a Pre-Packaged Offer for Your New NicheThe whole point of niching down is to create more focus and simplicity in your business

Part of this is about WHO you sell, part of this is about WHAT you sell them.

Start out by choosing 1 problem to solve for them, and 1 solution to that problem.

List out what the deliverables will be and what you want to charge.

Keep it simple! You can build upon this later.

Step 4: Test the Waters and Go Land 5 New Clients.Before you make any drastic changes to your business, such as letting go of clients, changing your branding and website…

Test the waters first, and verify if this new niche is the direction you want to go.

Go land another 5 clients or so, and that’ll be enough to identify if these are really our ideal clients or not.

You might think they are at first but you’ll know for sure once you serve more of them.

Wrapping Up…You know now the problems of being a jack-of-all-trades with no clear focus.

Every new client is a ton of work and requires customization…

And getting new clients is difficult because there’s nothing that stands out about your agency. You’ll look and sound like everyone else.

This means when you do niche down, and sell 1 offer to 1 target market…

Your workload will decrease. Each new client will be easier to serve than the previous one.

You’ll become world-class at helping your clients from all the focused repetition

You’ll quickly develop a reputation and become a big fish in a small pond.

In every way, it’ll become easier to grow, scale, attract, and retain clients.

Plus, you’ll have more fun and the business will be simpler & easier to run.

And with this knowledge…

You’ve learned the 5 simple steps to niching down.

So…

Time to get to work!

Put this into practice and watch it transform your business.

The post Profit More, Work Less: 4 Steps to Niching Down For Your Agency appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Why do we read books like Traction, Scaling Up, and the E-Myth and still struggle with implementing systems, defining processes, and training people in our agency?

Those are incredibly comprehensive methodologies. And yet digital agencies still suffer from feast or famine months, inconsistent results and timelines on projects, quality control, revisions, and much more. It’s not because they aren’t excellent at what they do. I

t’s not because there isn’t value in their service. It’s often because they haven’t defined the three most important elements of delivery: the how, the when, and the why.

Complicating our operations early on can lead to a ton of failure in implementing them. Business owners overcomplicate their own processes, hesitate to write things down, and then there’s a ton of operational drag in the company.

Couple that with split attention and paper-thin resources and you have yourself an agency that spends most of its time putting out fires, reacting to problems with clients, and generally building a culture of “the Founder/Creative Director/Leader will fix it” mentality.

Before we chat through how truly simple this can all be, let’s first go back to the beginning.

When we start our companies, we’re told to hustle. And hustle hard. We’re coached that it takes a ton of effort to create momentum, close deals, hire people, and manage projects. And that is all true. There is a ton of work that goes into getting a business up and running.

The challenge is that we all adopt this habit of burning the candle at both ends and the middle all for the sake of growing the business. And we bring that habit into the next stage of growth when our business needs… you guessed it… exactly the opposite.

In Mike Michalowitz’s book, Profit First he opens by insisting the reader understand and accept a fundamental truth: our business is a cash-eating monster. The truth is, our business is also a time-eating monster. And it’s only when we realize that as long as we keep feeding it our time and our resources, it’ll gobble everything up leaving you with nothing in your pocket and a ton of confusion around why you can’t grow.

Truth is, financial problems are easy compared to operational problems. Money is everywhere. You can go get a loan or go create more revenue by providing value easily. What’s harder is taking that money and creating systems that produce profitably. Next level is taking that money, creating profit and time freedom.

In my bestselling book, The Sabbatical Method, I teach owners how to fundamentally peel back the time they spend in their company, doing everything, and how it can save owners a lot of money, time, and headaches by professionalizing their operations.

The tough part about being a digital agency owner is that you likely started your business because you were great at something. Building websites, creating Search Engine Optimization strategies, or running paid media campaigns. And then you ended up running a company. Those are two very different things.

How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Create Some Simple Structure for Your Agency…1. Start Working Less

I know this sounds really brash and counterintuitive, but I’ve seen it work wonders for clients and colleagues alike. I often say you can’t see the label from inside the bottle and I’ve found no truer statement when it comes to things like planning, vision, direction, and operations creation.

Owners who stay in the weeds of their business while trying to build the structure are like hunters in the jungle hacking through the brush with a machete, getting nowhere with really sore arms. Instead, define your work day, create those boundaries of involvement, stop working weekends, nights and jumping over people’s heads to solve problems.

It’ll help you get another vantage point on your company and your team can build some autonomy in the meantime.

1. Master the Art of Knowledge Transfer

There are two ways to impart knowledge on others: apprenticeship and writing something down. Apprenticeship began as a lifelong relationship and often knowledge was only retained by ONE person who would carry on your method.

Writing things down used to be limited (before the printing press) to whoever held the pages.

We’re fortunate that today, we have many ways of imparting knowledge to our team. And creating this habit early on can save a business from being dependent on any one person who has a bunch of “how” and “when” up in their noggin.

While you’re taking some time to get out of the day-to-day, start writing things down and recording your screen (use a tool like loom.com) while you’re answering questions.

Deposit those teachings into a company knowledge base, a central location for company resources. Some of the most scaleable and sellable companies I’ve ever worked with had this habit down pat.

1. Define Your Processes

Lean in. No fancy tool or software is going to save your company. Every team I’ve ever worked with who came to me with a half-built project management tool suffered immensely from not first defining their process. This isn’t easy to do, but it can be simple.

The thing that hangs up most teams to dry is simply making decisions. If you can decide how you do something, when you do it and why it’s happening that way, you’ve already won. I know exactly what you’re thinking: our process changes all the time, per client, per engagement, etc. That’s fine.

Small businesses should be finding better, more efficient ways to do things all the time. Developing your processes and creating a maintenance effort to keep them accurate and updated is going to be a liferaft in choppy seas. You’ll be able to cling to it when the agency gets busy.

“I’m so busy, how can I possibly work less and make time for this?”You can’t afford not to do this work. Burning the candle at both ends and the middle will catch up eventually and in some form or another. Whether it’s burnout, clients churning out of the company, a team member leaving, some huge, unexpected tax bill.

I’ve heard all the stories and they all suck. It’s easier than ever to start a business and it’s harder than ever to keep one. This work might not be sexy, but it gives us the freedom we craved when we began our companies.

Start small and simple and watch your company become more predictable and your team more efficient.

The post Foundations of Agency Success: Simplifying Operations for Growth appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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As a marketer, I understand how today’s marketing campaigns face fierce competition. With so much content and ads competing for eyeballs, creating campaigns that stand out is no easy task.

That’s where strategies like tagging come in.

It helps you categorize and optimize your marketing efforts. It also helps your campaigns cut through the noise and reach the right audience.

To help you out, I’ve compiled nine ways brands use a tagging strategy to create an impactful marketing campaign.

Let’s get to it.

How Brands Use a Tagging StrategyTagging involves using keywords or labels to categorize and organize content, products, or customer data. You attach tags to specific items or information to make searching, sorting, and analyzing data easier.

There are various types of tags, including meta tags, analytics tags, image tags, hashtags, blog tags, and more.

So, how do brands use a tagging strategy to make their marketing campaigns stand out?

Improve Social Media EngagementWith over 5 billion users, social media provides an easy way to connect with your audience, build relationships, and promote your offerings.

Use a tagging strategy to boost social media interactions. Consistently use hashtags that align with current trends and topics. This encourages people to interact with your content and boosts content visibility.

You can also use tags to monitor brand mentions of your products or your industry. This allows you to engage with your audience promptly.

Consider virtual social media assistants to streamline your tagging strategy. These AI-driven tools can suggest relevant hashtags, track mentions, and automate responses. Implementing them can save time and resources while ensuring consistent engagement across your socials.

Build a Personal Brand on LinkedInLinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 1 billion members across 200 nations. It offers excellent opportunities for individuals and businesses to build and nurture their brands.

However, simply creating a professional profile isn’t enough to build a personal brand on LinkedIn.

Use various tags to increase your visibility, establish thought leadership, showcase expertise, and attract the right connections. For instance, use skill tags to showcase your expertise and industry tags to attract connections and opportunities within your industry. Use certification tags to help showcase your expertise and credibility to potential employers or clients.

Facilitate Customer Segmentation and PersonalizationPersonalization matters—more so in today’s data-driven world. In fact, 65% of consumers expect your brand to adapt to their changing preferences and needs.

To meet this expectation, consider using a tagging strategy.

Segment your customers based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, interests, purchase history, cart abandonment, and behavior.

Here’s a summary of the steps to customer segmentation.

With your customer segments ready, use tags to tailor your marketing messages and offerings to specific segments. Imagine sending targeted email campaigns based on what your customers need. That’s the power of segmentation and tagging in action!

Enhance SEO and Content DiscoverabilityTagging content can have a profound impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and content discoverability. When users search for specific topics or products, well-tagged content is more likely to appear in search results, driving organic traffic to your website.

Additionally, tags can help you analyze the most popular topics with your readers. Then, the results of this analysis can help you adjust your content strategies accordingly.

And get this— certain AI tools can help analyze your content and suggest relevant tags and keywords. Using these tools in addition to a tagging strategy can help optimize your SEO strategies and boost content discoverability.

Partner with the Right InfluencersInfluencer marketing has become a go-to marketing approach for modern brands. Recent stats show that 85% of marketers and business owners believe influencer marketing is an effective marketing strategy.

But how do you find the perfect influencer for your campaign?

Utilize tags to identify influencers who are relevant to your niche. Beyond this, find influencers who align with your brand values and target audience.

Additionally, look for influencers who use hashtags that are relevant to your campaigns. For instance, fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni uses #adv (advertising) and #ghd (good hair day) hashtags in this campaign.

Monitor industry-specific hashtags and mentions to discover influential voices and build profitable relationships with them.

Track Hashtag PerformanceTracking your hashtag performance helps you understand your campaigns’ engagement, reach, and effectiveness.

To achieve this goal, assign special hashtags to each marketing project. This helps you see which hashtags generate the most engagement and reach, enabling you to refine your tagging strategy.

Here’s an example of a hashtag performance report for the #SuperBowl2024.

This curated list of hashtag generators by Attrock discusses the top tools for your consideration. You can analyze each and choose the one that best fits your needs.

Categorize Content Accordingly The human attention span is shrinking. The last thing you want is for your audience to have difficulty in finding or navigating your content, get frustrated, and bounce.

Untagged content can be difficult to navigate and manage. As any marketer knows, content is important in digital marketing campaigns.

To categorize your content, identify the main categories by topics, themes, campaigns, target audiences, or product lines. Then, assign relevant tags based on the categories you’ve identified. After that, implement a consistent tagging strategy for existing and new content.

Organizing your content using tags can also help streamline your content management workflow. Most importantly, readers can easily find the content they’re looking for, thereby boosting overall user experience, engagement, and conversions.

Boost Your Email Marketing StrategyEmail marketing remains a powerful marketing tool in today’s digital world. It’s also another area where brands use a tagging strategy to directly reach their target audience.

Use tags to segment your email list and personalize your marketing messages. Then, you can send targeted emails based on factors like purchase history, interests, and demographics.

Personalization can significantly improve open rates, CTRs, and overall engagement and conversion rates. It’s a simple yet impactful strategy to make your email marketing strategy more effective.

Plus, you can use tags to track how well your emails perform with each group. This helps you understand what content resonates best with your audience and provides insight on how to improve your emails going forward.

Enhance Analytics and ReportingEvery marketer appreciates the immense value of data. For brands using tagging strategies, tags are powerful tools for gathering valuable data.

Analyze how users interact with your tagged content. See which tags generate the most clicks, shares, conversions, and other forms of engagement. Gain insight into audience preferences and campaign effectiveness.

This granular data about your marketing efforts allow you to make data-driven decisions, allocate resources effectively, and refine your marketing strategies.

Final Thoughts There isn’t a single correct way for brands to use a tagging strategy in marketing. You can use a tagging strategy however you see fit. However, the bottom line is that this strategy offers you a simple yet powerful way to create attention-grabbing and unique marketing campaigns.

Fortunately, tagging strategies are useful across various marketing initiatives, from social media and email marketing to SEO and more.

So, if you’re ready to elevate your marketing campaign, build a strong brand presence, and stand out among the competition, consider employing effective tagging strategies today.

The post How Tagging Strategies Transform Marketing Campaigns appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Are you torn between using long-form or short-form videos for your small business marketing campaign? Well, you are not alone. Despite 89% of consumers wanting to see more brand videos, there is no one-size-fits-all answer about the ideal video length.

However, this should not deter you from creating an effective video strategy. In 2023, people watched an average of 17 videos per day, highlighting the influence of video content in today’s digital landscape.

Both short-form and long-form videos offer unique advantages and come with their set of challenges. Join me as I uncover the benefits and limitations of each video format to help you make informed marketing decisions.

What are Short-Form Videos?Short videos typically range from 30 seconds to less than 10 minutes long. They are popular on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

Short-form videos deliver brief yet engaging messages that quickly capture the viewer’s attention. Here are some popular types of short-form video content.

• TikTok Challenges
• Instagram Reels
• Snapchat Stories
• YouTube Shorts
• Twitter Video Ads

Benefits of Short-Form VideosA previously cited report shows that 39% of marketers find short-form videos, ranging from 30-60 seconds long, more successful. The same study reports that 44% of customers prefer watching a short video to learn about a brand’s offerings.

So, it is evident that short-form videos have their benefits. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Attention-Grabbing Short-form videos capture attention quickly, making them ideal for the fast-scrolling nature of social media platforms. Your audience is more likely to watch them in their entirety compared to longer content.

Cost-Effective Production Creating short-form videos requires less time and resources compared to longer videos. As a small business owner with a limited budget, using short-form videos can be cost-effective.

Increased EngagementShort-form videos engage viewers due to their crisp and concise nature. This results in more likes, comments, and shares that boost your content’s visibility and increase brand awareness.

Integrating short-form videos into your influencer marketing campaigns can further amplify your reach to new and diverse audiences.

Highly ShareableShort videos are highly shareable. This makes it more likely for your viewers to share them, increasing their virality.

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There are multiple benefits of adding video to your website including increased engagement, improved SEO, and enhanced user experience.

Limitations of Short-Form VideosWhile short-form videos offer many advantages in content marketing, they also present some challenges.

Limited Message DepthDue to their brief duration, short-form videos may struggle to convey complex or detailed messages. Longer videos might be more suitable if you need to communicate intricate information.

Competition for AttentionStanding out on platforms flooded with short-form video content can be challenging. You must create content that stands out to avoid becoming lost in the sea of other videos.

Shorter Lifespan Short videos may lose their relevance with time. They can quickly get buried in users’ feeds, leading to a shorter visibility and engagement period than longer, evergreen content.

This means you must consistently create short-form videos to maintain audience interest over time.

Limited SEO ImpactShort-form videos may be more challenging to optimize for search engines than longer, more keyword-rich content. This can affect the discoverability of your content outside the social media scene.

What are Long-Form Videos?Long-form videos are typically longer, ranging from a few minutes to several hours. They extend beyond a few minutes to several hours, providing ample time for in-depth topic exploration and detailed content.

These videos are particularly suitable for educational content, product demonstrations, and narrative-driven storytelling. Long-form videos are common on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. Common types of long-form video content include:

• YouTube Series
• Webinars
• Educational Tutorials and Courses:
• Behind-the-Scenes Content
• Interviews and Conversations

Advantages of Long-Form VideosLong-form video content is the fastest-growing segment, with videos above 30 minutes experiencing tremendous growth over the years. Let’s explore some of the benefits behind this growth.

Establishes Expertise and CredibilityLong-form videos allow you to provide in-depth information about various subjects, establishing your brand as an authority. Potential customers will likely trust and rely on your insights when you consistently deliver valuable content.

Builds Strong Audience Connections The more your audience watches your videos, the more they become familiar with your content and brand. This consistent engagement promotes trust and loyalty, helping you create deeper connections with your audience.

Provide SEO Optimization OpportunitiesLong-form videos keep your audience engaged for a longer duration than short ones. This signals search engines that your content provides value, resulting in higher rankings and increased visibility.

Besides, these videos provide opportunities to optimize for relevant keywords. This Attrock guide offers more insights into the value of SEO for your small business.

They Are SustainableUnlike short videos, well-produced and valuable long-form videos have an extended shelf life. They can continue to attract views and engagement over an extended period, contributing to a sustainable content strategy.

Instagram reels are also a part of short videos and you can get benefits from this platform by integrating it with your website. You can learn how to embed Instagram Reels on websites and get extra benefits from your Reels.

Drawbacks of Long-Form VideosDespite their benefits, long-form videos also have certain limitations, including:

Attention Span ChallengesBetween distractions, juggling tasks, and information overload, user attention span quickly diminishes. Viewers may lose interest and disengage from your long video before its conclusion.

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Complex Production ProcessCreating high-quality long-form videos requires more resources, including time, equipment, and skilled personnel. This can be disadvantageous, especially for small businesses with limited budgets.

Platform LimitationsSome social media platforms and video hosting sites may limit video length, making it challenging to distribute long-form video content. You may then be forced to repurpose your content to suit various platforms.

Short-Form or Long-Form Videos: Which Are Better?Now that you know the benefits and limitations of each format, which one should you choose? Short-form or long-form videos?

Well, it all boils down to considering several factors, such as:

Content ObjectivesWhat do you want to achieve from your video marketing campaign? Short-form videos are highly effective for quick brand exposure and generating buzz. Long-form videos, on the other hand, contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the brand.

Target Audience PreferencesAudiences with short attention spans likely prefer short-form videos, while long-form videos appeal to those seeking a more immersive experience.

Similarly, short-form videos may appeal more to younger audiences, while older demographics may prefer the depth of long-form content.

Platform DynamicsVarious platforms support different content formats. Short-form videos are well-suited for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. On the other hand, platforms like YouTube and Vimeo are better for hosting longer videos.

Industry TypeShort-form videos would be ideal if your industry thrives on trends, entertainment, and quick messages. However, long-form videos are effective for industries requiring in-depth explanations or educational content.

Bottom Line Ultimately, choosing short-form or long-form videos depends on your business’s specific needs and goals. Since both formats have advantages and limitations, making a choice may prove difficult.

However, it doesn’t have to be an uphill task. The key lies in recognizing when to incorporate each video format into your marketing strategy. Understanding your audience and its needs allows you to combine both formats strategically, maximizing the benefits of each.

Continuously analyze performance metrics and adapt your video marketing strategy accordingly to ensure optimal engagement and conversion rates.

The post Navigating the Video Marketing Maze: Short-Form vs. Long-Form appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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You ask the head of marketing how the team is doing and get a giant thumbs up.

“Our MQLs are up!”

“Website conversion rates are at an all-time high!”

“Email click rates have never been this good!”

But when you ask the head of sales the same question, you get the response that echoes across sales desks worldwide — the leads from marketing suck.

If you’re in this boat, you’re not alone. The issue of “leads from marketing suck” is a common situation in most organizations. In a HubSpot survey, only 9.1% of salespeople said leads they received from marketing were of very high quality.

Why do sales teams hate marketing-generated leads? And how can marketers help their sales peers fall in love with their leads?

Let’s dive into the answers to these questions. Then, I’ll give you my secret lead gen kung-fu to ensure your sales team loves their marketing leads.

Marketers Must Take Ownership“I’ve hit the lead goal. If sales can’t close them, it’s their problem.”

How many times have you heard one of your marketers say something like this? When your teams are heavily siloed, it’s not hard to see how they get to this mindset — after all, if your marketing metrics look strong, they’ve done their part, right?

Not necessarily.

The job of a marketer is not to drive traffic or even leads. The job of the marketer is to create messaging and offers that lead to revenue. Marketing is not a 100-meter sprint — it’s a relay race. The marketing team runs the first leg and hands the baton to sales to sprint to the finish.

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To make leads valuable beyond the vanity metric of watching your MQLs tick up, you need to segment and nurture them. Screen the leads to see if they meet the parameters of your ideal customer profile. If yes, nurture them to find out how close their intent is to a sale. Only then should you pass the leads to sales.

Lead Quality Control is a Bitter Pill that WorksTighter quality control might reduce your overall MQLs. Still,it will ensure only the relevant leads go to sales, which is a win for your team and your organization.

This shift will require a mindset shift for your marketing team: instead of living and dying by the sheer number of MQLs, you need to create a collaborative culture between sales and marketing. Reinforce that “strong” marketing metrics that result in poor leads going to sales aren’t really strong at all.

When you foster this culture of collaboration and accountability, it will be easier for the marketing team to receive feedback from sales about lead quality without getting defensive.

Remember, the sales team is only holding marketing accountable so the entire organization can achieve the right results. It’s not sales vs marketing — it’s sales and marketing working together to get a great result. Nothing more, nothing less.

We’ve identified the problem and where we need to go. So, how you do you get there?

Fix #1: Focus On High ROI Marketing Activities FirstWhat is more valuable to you:

• One more blog post for a few more views?
• One great review that prospective buyers strongly relate to?

Hopefully, you’ll choose the latter. After all, talking to customers and getting a solid testimonial can help your sales team close leads today. Current customers talking about their previous issues, the other solutions they tried, why they chose you, and the results you helped them achieve is marketing gold.

On the other hand, even the best blog content will take months to gain enough traction to impact your revenue.

Still, many marketers who say they want to prioritize customer reviews focus all their efforts on blog content and other “top of the funnel” (Awareness, Acquisition, and Activation) efforts.

The bottom half of the growth marketing funnel (Retention, Reputation, and Revenue) often gets ignored, even though it’s where you’ll find some of the highest ROI activities.

Most marketers know retaining a customer is easier than acquiring a new one. But knowing this and working with sales on retention and account expansion are two different things.

When you start focusing on retention, upselling, and expansion, your entire organization will feel it, from sales to customer success. These happier customers will increase your average account value and drive awareness through strong word of mouth, giving you one heck of a win/win.

Winning the Retention, Reputation, and Referral game also helps feed your Awareness, Acquisition, and Activation activities:

• Increasing customer retention means more dollars stay within your organization to help achieve revenue goals and fund lead gen initiatives.
• A fully functioning referral system lowers your customer acquisition cost (CAC) because these leads are already warm coming in the door.
• Case studies and reviews are powerful marketing assets for lead gen and nurture activities as they demonstrate how you’ve solved identical issues for other companies.

Remember that the bottom half of your marketing and sales funnel is just as important as the top half. After all, there’s no point pouring leads into a leaky funnel. Instead, you want to build a frictionless, powerful growth engine that brings in the right leads, nurtures them into customers, and then delights those customers to the point that they can’t help but rave about you.

So, build a strong foundation and start from the bottom up. You’ll find a better return on your investment.

Fix #2: Join Sales Calls to Better Understand Your Target AudienceYou can’t market well what you don’t know how to sell.

Your sales team speaks directly to customers, understands their pain points, and knows the language they use to talk about those pains. Your marketing team needs this information to craft the perfect marketing messaging your target audience will identify with.

When marketers join sales calls or speak to existing customers, they get firsthand introductions to these pain points. Often, marketers realize that customers’ pain points and reservations are very different from those they address in their messaging.

Once you understand your ideal customers’ objections, anxieties, and pressing questions, you can create content and messaging to remove some of these reservations before the sales call. This effort removes a barrier for your sales team, resulting in more SQLs.

Fix #3: Create Collateral That Closes DealsOne-pagers, landing pages, PDFs, decks — sales collateral could be anything that helps increase the chance of closing a deal. Let me share an example from Lean Labs.

Our webinar page has a CTA form that allows visitors to talk to our team. Instead of a simple “get in touch” form, we created a drop-down segmentation based on the user’s challenge and need. This step helps the reader feel seen, gives them hope that they’ll receive real value from the interaction, and provides unique content to users based on their selection.

So, if they select I need help with crushing it on HubSpot, they’ll get a landing page with HubSpot-specific content (including a video) and a meeting scheduler.

Speaking directly to your audience’s needs and pain points through these steps dramatically increases the chances of them booking a call. Why? Because instead of trusting that a generic “expert” will be able to help them with their highly specific problem, they can see through our content and our form design that Lean Labs can solve their most pressing pain point.

Fix #4: Focus On Reviews and Create an Impact LoopA lot of people think good marketing is expensive. You know what’s even more expensive? Bad marketing.

To get the best ROI on your marketing efforts, you need to create a marketing machine that pays for itself. When you create this machine, you need to think about two loops: the growth loop and the impact loop.

• Growth loop — Awareness Acquisition Activation Revenue Awareness: This is where most marketers start.
• Impact loop — Results Reviews Retention Referrals Results: This is where great marketers start.

Most marketers start with their growth loop and then hope that traction feeds into their impact loop. However, the reality is that starting with your impact loop is going to be far more likely to set your marketing engine up for success.

Let me share a client story to show you what this looks like in real life.

Client Story: 4X Website Leads In A Single QuarterWe partnered with a health tech startup looking to grow their website leads. One way to grow website leads is to boost organic traffic, of course, but any organic play is going to take time. If you’re playing the SEO game alone, quadrupling conversions can take up to a year or longer.

But we did it in a single quarter. Here’s how.

We realized that the startup’s demos were converting lower than industry standards. A little more digging showed us why: our client was new enough to the market that the average person didn’t trust them enough yet to want to invest in checking out a demo. So, what did we do?

We prioritized the last part of the funnel: reputation.

We ran a 5-star reputation campaign to collect reviews. Once we had the reviews we needed, we showcased them at critical parts of the website and then made sure those same reviews were posted and shown on other third-party review platforms.

Remember that reputation plays are vital, and they’re one of the plays startups often neglect at best and ignore at worst. What others say about your business is ten times more important than what you say about yourself.

By providing customer validation at critical points in the buyer journey, we were able to 4X the website leads in a single quarter!

So, when you talk to customers, always look for opportunities to drive review/referral conversations and use them in marketing collateral throughout the buyer journey.

Fix #5: Launch Phantom Offers for Higher Quality Leads You may be reading this post thinking, okay, my lead magnets and offers might be way off the mark, but how will I get the budget to create a new one that might not even work?

It’s an age-old issue: marketing teams invest way too much time and resources into creating lead magnets that fail to generate quality leads.

One way to improve your chances of success, remain nimble, and stay aligned with your audience without breaking the bank is to create phantom offers, i.e., gauge the audience interest in your lead magnet before you create them.

For example, if you want to create a “World Security Report” for Chief Security Officers, don’t do all the research and complete the report as Step One. Instead, tease the offer to your audience before you spend time making it. Put an offer on your site asking visitors to join the waitlist for this report. Then wait and see how that phantom offer converts.

This is precisely what we did for a report by Allied Universal that ended up generating 80 conversions before its release.

The best thing about a phantom offer is that it’s a win/win scenario:

• Best case: You get conversions even before you create your lead magnet.
• Worst case: You save resources by not creating a lead magnet no one wants.

Remember, You’re On The Same Team We’ve talked a lot about the reasons your marketing leads might suck. However, remember that it’s not all on marketers, either. At the end of the day, marketing and sales professionals are on the same team. They are not in competition with each other. They are allies working together toward a common goal.

Smaller companies — or anyone under $10M in net new revenue — shouldn’t even separate sales and marketing into different departments. These teams need to be so in sync with one another that your best bet is to align them into a single growth team, one cohesive front with a single goal: profitable customer acquisition.

Interested in learning more about the growth marketing mindset? Check out the Lean Labs Growth Playbook that’s helped 25+ B2B SaaS marketing teams plan, budget, and accelerate growth.

The post Why The Sales Team Hates Your Leads (And How To Fix It) appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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As we march closer to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, CMOs and marketing leaders need to prepare for a significant shift in the digital advertising landscape. Election years have always posed unique challenges for advertisers, but the growing dominance of digital media has made the impact more profound than ever before.

In this article, we’ll explore the key factors that will shape the advertising environment in the coming months and provide actionable insights to help you navigate these turbulent waters.

The Digital BattlegroundThe rise of cord-cutting and the shift towards digital media consumption have fundamentally altered the advertising landscape in recent years. As traditional TV viewership declines, political campaigns have had to adapt their strategies to reach voters where they are spending their time: on digital platforms.

According to a recent report by eMarketer, the number of cord-cutters in the U.S. is expected to reach 65.1 million by the end of 2023, representing a 6.9% increase from 2022. This trend is projected to continue, with the number of cord-cutters reaching 72.2 million by 2025.

Moreover, a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2023 found that 62% of U.S. adults do not have a cable or satellite TV subscription, up from 61% in 2022 and 50% in 2019. This data further underscores the accelerating shift away from traditional TV and towards streaming and digital media platforms.

As these trends continue, political advertisers will have no choice but to follow their audiences to digital channels. In the 2022 midterm elections, digital ad spending by political campaigns reached $1.2 billion, a 50% increase from the 2018 midterms. With the 2024 presidential election on the horizon, this figure is expected to grow exponentially, as campaigns compete for the attention of an increasingly digital-first electorate.

For brands and advertisers, this means that the competition for digital ad space will be fiercer than ever before. As political ad spending continues to migrate to platforms like Meta, YouTube, and connected TV, the cost of advertising will likely surge, making it more challenging for non-political advertisers to reach their target audiences.

To navigate this complex and constantly evolving landscape, CMOs and their teams will need to be proactive, data-driven, and willing to experiment with new strategies and channels. By staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the changing media consumption habits of their audiences, brands can position themselves for success in the face of the electoral advertising onslaught.

Rising Costs and Limited InventoryAs political advertisers flood the digital market, the cost of advertising is expected to skyrocket. CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) will likely experience a steady climb throughout the year, with significant spikes anticipated in May, as college students come home from school and become more engaged in political conversations, and around major campaign events like presidential debates.

For media buyers and their teams, this means that the tried-and-true strategies of years past may no longer be sufficient. Brands will need to be nimble, adaptable, and willing to explore new tactics to stay ahead of the game.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday: A Perfect StormThe challenges of election year advertising will be particularly acute during the critical holiday shopping season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which have historically been goldmines for advertisers, will be more expensive and competitive than ever in 2024, as they coincide with the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

To avoid being drowned out by the political noise, brands will need to start planning their holiday campaigns earlier than usual. Building up audiences and crafting compelling creative assets well in advance will be essential to success, as will a willingness to explore alternative channels and tactics. Relying on cold audiences come Q4 will lead to exceptionally high costs that may be detrimental to many businesses.

Navigating the ChaosWhile the challenges of election year advertising can seem daunting, there are steps that media buyers and their teams can take to mitigate the impact and even thrive in this environment. Here are a few key strategies to keep in mind:

Start early and plan for contingencies: Begin planning your Q3 and Q4 campaigns as early as possible, with a focus on building up your target audiences and developing a robust library of creative assets.

Be sure to build in contingency budgets to account for potential cost increases, and be prepared to pivot your strategy as the landscape evolves.

Embrace alternative channels: Consider diversifying your media mix to include channels that may be less impacted by political ad spending, such as influencer marketing, podcast advertising, or sponsored content. Investing in owned media channels, like email marketing and mobile apps, can also provide a direct line to your customers without the need to compete for ad space.

Owned channels will be more important than ever. Use cheaper months leading up to the election to build your email lists and existing customer base so that your BF/CM can leverage your owned channels and warm audiences.

Craft compelling, shareable content: In a crowded and noisy advertising environment, creating content that resonates with your target audience will be more important than ever. Focus on developing authentic, engaging content that aligns with your brand values and speaks directly to your customers’ needs and desires.

By tapping into the power of emotional triggers and social proof, you can create content that not only cuts through the clutter but also inspires organic sharing and amplification.

ReflectionsThe 2024 election year will undoubtedly bring new challenges and complexities to the world of digital advertising. But by staying informed, adaptable, and strategic in your approach, you can navigate this landscape successfully and even find new opportunities for growth and engagement.

As a media buyer or agnecy, your role in steering your brand through these uncharted waters will be critical. By starting your planning early, embracing alternative channels and tactics, and focusing on creating authentic, resonant content, you can not only survive but thrive in the face of election year disruptions.

So while the road ahead may be uncertain, one thing is clear: the brands that approach this challenge with creativity, agility, and a steadfast commitment to their customers will be the ones that emerge stronger on the other side.

The post Battling for Attention in the 2024 Election Year Media Frenzy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Let’s face it—it does no good to build a funnel and spend zero time optimizing for conversion. That’s a no-brainer, right?

But, how many of you are working closely with your head of sales to ensure that the opportunities you help generate actually convert into paying clients? Ultimately, if you want to be seen as a successful marketer, you’re going to have to show that marketing is driving sales.

Now, the challenge is that in today’s commoditized world, sales teams often struggle to stand out from the crowd. As a result, closed won rates plummet, and organizations find it challenging to demonstrate to prospects how their total value proposition is the clear winner against all of the other competitors.

To make matters worse, many organizations rely on “super hero” sales people or even the founder to close deals. This approach is not sustainable or scalable. You can’t build a successful sales team if you’re constantly relying on a select few individuals to bring in all of the business.

The solution to this problem is a sales process that follows a standardized approach while also creating clear differentiation with prospects at the same time. By implementing a systematic sales process, you can scale your sales efforts beyond just the founders and “super heroes.” This will lead to higher closed won rates and higher gross profit margins, as you’ll be able to win at premium prices.

The benefits of a systematic sales process are clear. You’ll be able to scale the process beyond founders and “super heroes,” achieve higher closed won rates, and enjoy higher gross profit margins as you’re now able to win at premium prices.

When I implemented a systematic sales process in my former agency, I was able to consistently have 60-70% closed won rates, even when I had zero involvement in deals. This is the power of a well-designed sales process. In fact, I standardized this process and called it the Systematic Sales Process.

So, what does a Systematic Sales Process look like? Here are the five stages:

Stage 1: EvaluationIn this stage, you’ll have a 30-45 minute call with your prospect. The goal of this call is to point your prospect in the right direction—it’s not to “make a sale.” The reason we want to take this approach is that many prospects are likely not a good fit for your firm, so let’s not assume that every first call is an “opportunity.” That’s why we call this call the “Evaluation”—you want to evaluate whether or not you can help your prospect, whether or not they align with your requirements, and whether or not they are ready to move forward. We call this “two-way qualification.”

It’s not uncommon to reach the middle-to-end of the call and determine that your prospect, in fact, needs someone or something else other than you!

IMPORTANT: You should NOT move anyone beyond this point unless you have full alignment.

Do this stage right and you will ensure that your pipeline is real.

Stage 2: DiscoveryAfter you have alignment with your prospect from the Evaluation call, you’ll engage them and their team in a 60-120 minute Discovery meeting.

The key in this meeting is to have a strong business conversation and less of a tactical conversation related to what you do. You’re looking to create paradigm shifts with key stakeholders on your prospect’s side. You want them to leave the meeting thinking about their problem in a completely different way and with a sense of excitement about the potential of moving from where they are now to where they want to be.

IMPORTANT: You want to ensure critical stakeholders are present for this meeting, as they’ve agreed-to in the Evaluation call (this is non-negotiable), to whatever degree you require for your process.

Do this stage right and you will sub-consciously win the business.

Stage 3: PlanIn this stage, you’ll collaborate with your main point of contact to develop your plan. That said, be a leader and show them what needs to be done to achieve their desired outcome, then discuss how you can divide and conquer together. Don’t treat this as a “pick from a menu” excercise.

This collaborative approach to developing your plan helps your main point of contact see your plan as their plan, too. This increases the odds that they will be a champion for you.

IMPORTANT: During these dicsussions, be sure to have them help you avoid “land mines”—things that could lose the business for you.

Do this stage right and you will eliminate surprises at the next stage (Presentation).

Stage 4: PresentationYou’re now ready to present and officially win the business during a 60-90 minute meeting. That siad, do not call your plan a “Proposal”! Instead, give it a specific title that speaks to their goals (e.g. “How ACME Corp Can Drive 17% More Revenue Through Conversion Rate Optimization”).

Your presentation should tell a “story” that includes:

• Their Vision
• Their Goals & Objectives
• Their Challenges
• How to Win (Strategy)
• Highlights (Tactics)
• Required Commitments (Their time, money, and resources to make this plan a success)
• Expected Results (ROI!)
• Why Your Firm

After you present, answer any questions they have and when their questions are done, ASK FOR THE SALE.

IMPORTANT: You want to ensure critical stakeholders are present for this meeting, as they’ve agreed-to in the Evaluation call (this is non-negotiable), to whatever degree you require for your process.

Do this stage right and you will differentiate your firm.

Stage 5: NegotiationFinally, you’re ready to provde the contract and negotiate, but don’t give this until they’ve given you the “verbal” that you have won the business. The reason you do this is to make sure that you’ve wont the business based on the material things before the prospect starts nit-picking your contract scope. That said, be clear about what you will do and what you won’t do.

Additionally, your standard terms and conditions will accompnay the scope. You want to know up-front the terms and conditions you will bend on and the ones you won’t bend on. You don’t want to make a decision about an important term and/or condition during the emotion of trying to ink a deal. Knowing up-front your points of negotiation will help you make logical decisions in the heat of the moment.

Do this stage right and you will set up your team for success.If you’d like to learn more about how to grow your firm using a Systematic Sales Process, register for Frank’s free Systematic Sales Process training today!

The post How Standardizing Your Sales Process Boosts Overall Conversion appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Before we dive into the second way to assume power in your business, let’s revisit Part 1.

Who informs your marketing strategy?

YOU, with your carefully curated strategy informed by data and deep knowledge of your brand and audience? Or any of the 3 Cs below?

• Competitors: Their advertising and digital presence and seemingly never-ending budgets consume the landscape.
• Colleagues: Their tried-and-true proven tactics or lessons learned.
• Customers: Their calls, requests, and ideas.

Considering any of the above is not bad, in fact, it can be very wise! However, listening quickly becomes devastating if it lends to their running our business or marketing department.

It’s time we move from defense to offense, sitting in the driver’s seat rather than allowing any of the 3 Cs to control.

It is one thing to learn from and entirely another to be controlled by.

In Part 1, we explored how knowing what we want is critical to regaining power.

1) Knowing what you want protects the bottom line.

2) Knowing what you want protects you from the 3 Cs.

3) Knowing what you want protects you from running on auto-pilot.

You can read Part 1 here; in the meantime, let’s dive in!

How to Regain Control of Your Business: Knowing Who You AreVertical alignment is a favorite concept of mine, coined over the last two years throughout my personal journey of knowing self.

Consider the diagram below.

Vertical alignment is the state of internal being centered with who you are at your core.

Horizontal alignment is the state of external doing engaged with the world around you.

In a state of vertical alignment, your business operates from its core center, predicated on its mission, values, and brand. It is authentic and confident and cuts through the noise because it is entirely unique from every competitor in the market.

From this vertical alignment, your business is positioned for horizontal alignment to fulfill the integrity of its intended services, instituted processes, and promised results.

A strong brand is not only differentiated in the market by its vertical alignment but delivers consistently and reliably in terms of its products, offerings, and services and also in terms of the customer experience by its horizontal alignment.

Let’s examine what knowing who you are looks like in application, as well as some habits to implement with your team to strengthen vertical alignment.

1) Knowing who You are Protects You from Horizontal Voices. The strength of “Who We Are” predicates the ability to maintain vertical alignment when something threatens your stability. When a colleague proposes a tactic that is not aligned with your values. When the customer comes calling with ideas that will knock you off course as bandwidth is limited or the budget is tight.

I was on a call with a gal from my Mastermind when I mentioned a retreat I am excited to launch in the coming months.

I shared that I was considering its positioning, given its curriculum is rooted in emotional intelligence (EQ) to inform personal brand development. The retreat serves C-Suite, but as EQ is not a common conversation among this audience, I was considering the best positioning.

She advised, “Sell them solely on the business aspects, and then sneak attack with the EQ when they’re at the retreat!”

At first blush, it sounds reasonable. After all, there’s a reason why the phrase, “Sell the people what they want, give them what they need,” is popular.

Horizontal advice and counsel can produce a wealth of knowledge. However, we must always approach the horizontal landscape – the external – powered by vertical alignment – centered internally with the core of who we are.

Upon considering my values of who I am and the vision of what I want for this event, I realized the lack of transparency is not in alignment with my values nor setting the right expectations for the experience.

Sure, maybe I would get more sales; however, my bottom line — what I want — is not just sales. I want transformation on an emotional level. I want C-Suite execs to leave powered from a place of emotional intelligence to decrease decisions made out of alignment with who they are or executing tactics rooted in guilt, not vision.

Ultimately, one of my core values is authenticity, and I must make business decisions accordingly.

2) Knowing who You are Protects You from Reactivity.Operating from vertical alignment maintains focus on the bottom line and the strategy to achieve it. From this position, you are protected from reacting to the horizontal pressures of the 3 Cs: Competitors, Colleagues, and Customers.

This does not mean you do not adjust tactics or learn.

However, your approach to adjustments is proactive direction, not reactive deviations. To do this, consider the following questions:

First: How does their (any one of the 3 Cs) tactic measure against my proven track record of success?

If your colleague promotes adding newsletters to your strategy, lean in and ask, “Why?”

• What are their outcomes?
• What metrics are they tracking for success?
• What is their bottom line against yours?
• How do newsletters fit into their strategy and stage(s) of the customer journey?

Always consider your historical track record of success first and foremost.

Have you tried newsletters in the past? Is their audience different from yours? Why are newsletters good for them when they did not prove profitable for you?

Operate with your head up and your eyes open.

Maintain focus on your bottom line and ask questions. Revisit your data, and don’t just take their word for it.

2. Am I allocating time in my schedule?

I had coffee with the former CEO of Jiffy Lube, who built the empire that it is today.

He could not emphasize more how critical it is to allocate time for thinking. Just being — not doing — and thinking about your business or department.

Especially for senior leaders or business owners, but even still for junior staff.

The time and space to be fosters creative thinking, new ideas, and energy. Some of my best campaigns are conjured on a walk or in the shower.

Kasim Aslam, founder of the world’s #1 Google Ads agency and a dear friend of mine, is a machine when it comes to hacks and habits. He encouraged me to take an audit of my calendar over the last 30 days to assess how I spend time.

“Create three buckets,” he said. “Organize them by the following:

• Tasks that Generate Revenue
• Tasks that Cost Me Money
• Tasks that Didn’t Earn Anything”

He and I chatted after I completed this exercise, and I added one to the list: Tasks that are Life-Giving.

Friends — if we are running empty, exhausted, or emotionally depleted, our creative and strategic wherewithal will be significantly diminished. We are holistic creatures and, therefore, must nurture our mind, body, soul, and spirit to maintain optimum capacity for impact.

I shared this hack with a friend of mine. Not only did she identify meetings that were costing her money and thus needed to be eliminated, but she also identified that particular meetings could actually turn revenue-generating! She spent a good amount of time each month facilitating introductions; now, she is adding Strategic Partnerships to her suite of services.

ACTION: Analyze your calendar’s last 30-60 days against the list above.

Include what is life-giving!

How are you spending your time? What is the data showing you? Are you on the path to achieving what you want and living in alignment with who you want to be?

Share with your team or business partner for the purpose of accountability, and implement practical changes accordingly.

Finally, remember: If you will not protect your time, no one else will.

3) Knowing who You are Protects You from Lack. “What are you proud of?” someone asked me last year.

“Nothing!” I reply too quickly. “I know I’m not living up to my potential or operating in the full capacity I could be.”

They looked at me in shock. “You need to read The Gap And The Gain.”

I silently rolled my eyes.

I already knew the premise of the book, or I thought I did. I mused: My vision is so big, and I have so much to accomplish. The thought of solely focusing on “my wins” sounded like an excuse to abdicate personal responsibility.

But I acquiesced.

The premise of this book is to measure one’s self from where they started and the success from that place to where they are today — the gains — rather than from where they hope to get and the seemingly never-ending distance — the gap.

Ultimately, Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan encourage changing perspectives to assign success, considering the starting point rather than the destination.

The book opens with the following story:

Dan Jensen was an Olympic speed skater, notably the fastest in the world. But in each game spanning a decade, Jansen could not catch a break. “Flukes” — even tragedy with the death of his sister in the early morning of the 1988 Olympics — continued to disrupt the prediction of him being favored as the winner.

The 1994 Olympics were the last of his career. He had one more shot.

Preceding his last Olympics in 1994, Jansen adjusted his mindset. He focused on every single person who invested in him, leading to this moment. He considered just how very lucky he was to even participate in the first place. He thought about his love for the sport itself, all of which led to an overwhelming realization of just how much he had gained throughout his life.

He raced the 1994 Olympic games differently, as his mindset powering every stride was one of confidence and gratitude — predicated on the gains rather than the gap in his life.

This race secured him his first and only gold medal and broke a world record, simultaneously proving one of the most emotional wins in Olympic history.

Friends, knowing who we are on the personal and professional level, can protect us from those voices of shame or guilt that creep in.

PERSONAL ACTION: Create two columns. On one side, create a list of where you were when you started your business or your position at your company. Include skills and networks and even feelings about where you were in life. On the other side, outline where you are today.

Look at how far you’ve come.

COMPANY ACTION: Implement a quarterly meeting to review the past three months. Where did you start? Where are you now?

Celebrate the gain!

Only from this place of gain mindset, can you create goals for the next quarter predicated on where you are today.

Ultimately, my hope for you is that you deliver exceptional and memorable experiences laced with empathy toward the customer (horizontally aligned) yet powered by the authenticity of the brand (vertically aligned).

Aligning vertically maintains our focus on the bottom line and powers horizontal fulfillment.

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Granted, there will be strategic times and seasons for adjustment; however, these changes are to be made on the heels of consulting who we are as a brand — not in reaction to the horizontal landscape of what is the latest and greatest in the industry.

In Conclusion…Taking back control of your business and marketing strategies requires a conscious effort to resist external pressures and realign with what you want and who you are.

Final thoughts as we wrap up:

First, identify the root issue(s).

Consider which of the 3 Cs holds the most power: be it competition, colleagues, or customers.

Second, align vertically.

Vertical alignment facilitates individuality in the market and ensures you — and I — stand out and shine while serving our customers well.

Third, keep the bottom line in view.

Implement a routine that keeps you and your team focused on what matters most, and then create the cascading strategy necessary to accomplish it.

Fourth, maintain your mindsets.

Who You Are includes values for the internal culture. Guide your team in acknowledging the progress made along the way and embracing the gains to operate from a position of strength and confidence.

Fifth, maintain humility.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of humility and being open to what others are doing. However, horizontal alignment must come after vertical alignment. Otherwise, we will be at the mercy of the whims and fads of everyone around us. Humility allows us to be open to external inputs and vertically aligned at the same time.

Buckle up, friends! It’s time to take back the wheel and drive our businesses forward.

The power lies with you and me.

The post 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Did you know there are about 200 Facebook Ad metrics? That’s way too much to keep your eyes on. A smarter approach is to focus on a few metrics and ignore the rest until you need them. But how do you know which ones are really worth your constant attention? Let’s find out…

Every Facebook Advertiser Struggles with MetricsYou are not the only one who is lost in the maze of Facebook ad metrics. Every day, my team at MeasurementMarketing.io answers dozens of questions from business owners and agencies about this topic.

• I read somewhere that metric X is important but is that true?
• Why would I even track metric Y?
• Can I really ignore metric Z?

These kinds of questions are important, but they are often asked at the wrong moment.

The key to understanding which Facebook Ad metrics matter the most to you, is to see them as possible answers to questions you have about Facebook campaigns.

Let’s dive in…

Are my Facebook Campaigns Profitable?Paid ads are like an investment. You pour money into ads and hope that you will get more money back.

But like any other investment, there is a difference between hope and reality.

One metric in Facebook Ads Manager will partially answer whether your ads are performing as you had hoped.

Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)This metric tells you how much money you get back from every dollar you spent on Facebook ads.

It is calculated with the following formula:

Revenue / Ad spend

For example: (your revenue) $1,000 / $500 (spent on ads) = ROAS 2

That means that for every dollar you spent on Facebook ads, the platform generated $2 revenue.

All that sounds great, but keep the following in mind:

• Revenue and profit are different things. So, you will have to do your own calculations to find out if your Facebook ads are actually making profit for you.
• To calculate the real Return On Investment (ROI) of Facebook paid campaigns, you need to include costs for setting up and managing your ads.
• This metric is especially useful to ecommerce stores because they sell directly and know for which price. For service providers, ROAS is harder to calculate because it is hard to assign a price for someone who, for example, signs up to a newsletter.
• Facebook knows a lot about you, but you need to assign values to conversions. I cover that a bit further below.

How Much do My Facebook Ads Cost?Running ads costs money. To keep track of how much, you can use over 60 Facebook Ad metrics. Here are some interesting ones that can give you valuable insights.

Amount SpentThis metric tells you how much money you have already spent on a Facebook ad or campaign.

Although you can set daily budgets to keep your budget under control, it is absolutely worth checking this metric regularly. If the amount is low, for example, that can mean nobody is seeing or clicking on your ads.

Cost Per Mille (CPM)This metric answers the question how much it costs to show your ad 1,000 times. If you run awareness campaigns, it is useful for two reasons:

• CPM is a metric that is used by other ad platforms or websites that sell advertising space. It makes it easy to compare the price to advertise on different platforms. On the other hand, it doesn’t tell anything about how profitable the ads are.
• The CPM also lets advertisers easily compare the cost of different campaigns on the same platform. If, for example, the CPM for one Facebook campaign is $10 and $5 for another, it is worth diving deeper to understand what causes this price difference. Is it because of the timing? The copy of the ad? The audience? The frequency? Etc.

Cost Per ImpressionThis metric tells you how much every impression of an ad on Facebook costs you. It is not a very important one from the digital marketer’s helicopter point of view.

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But I included it anyway to illustrate that Facebook has metrics that can give answers to more complicated questions you didn’t come up with before.

Prices per unit also put things in a different perspective. Knowing that every bite you take from, let’s say a Philly Cheesesteak (Can you tell I’m from Philly?!?), costs you 0.25 cents, may either spoil or add more taste to your meal.

Cost Per Click (CPC)Facebook has two metrics for clicks. CPC links are more important than CPC All, because it tells you how much a link to your landing page costs. A click that is, for example, included in CPC All is when someone clicks to see more of your ad copy.

CPCs fluctuate and the price Facebook charges you depends on factors such as timing, audience size, the services or products you promote, and so on.

Yet, the CPC is a powerful metric that is worth keeping your eyes on:

• It gives you a clear idea of how cheap or expensive clicks to your site or web shop are.If, for example, you pay $10 per click to sell a $3 product, it may be time to rethink your paid advertising strategy completely.
• A high CPC may also be a sign that your landing page has an issue. I will get back to that further below.
• CPC is also a useful metric to compare the performance of campaigns over time, or to find out which ads are repeatable or need optimization.

Cost Per Action (CPA)Ideally, people take action when they see your Facebook ad. That can, for instance, be a click to your landing page, watching a video, sharing your page, and so on.

The CPA metric shows you how much these actions cost. It is also good to:

• Use the CPA as an internal benchmark. Simply put: if you can decrease it, you will get more at a lower cost.
• Compare the CPAs of different actions. If you take the bigger picture into account, it may turn out that you have been running ads to trigger people to take actions that don’t boost your business.

Cost Per ConversionAnother metric that is definitely worth your attention is the Cost Per Conversion. If you know, for example, that your paid ads cost you $5 for someone to add a product to the shopping cart, that will give you a good idea whether the campaign is profitable or requires fine-tuning.

Do My Facebook Ads Actually Contribute to My Goals?The best way to find out if your Facebook ads help you actually achieve your campaign goals is to look at conversion metrics.

Conversions are important actions that people take, like adding a product to the basket, filling in a form, signing up for a trial account, and so on.

Conversion RateThe conversion rate is the percentage of people who click on your ad and do what you want them to do. Let’s assume 100 people click on your product ad and 50 of them add the product to your cart, the conversion rate will be 50%.

That may sound exciting, but if none of them actually buys your product, the conversion rate for your sales goal will be 0%.

It is therefore important to think about your goals and conversions before you dive into metrics.

How Much Value do My Facebook Ads Generate?In Facebook Ads, you can assign a ton of conversion values for every goal you want to achieve.

Even if you don’t sell products or courses online, you may profit from assigning a value to conversions, like the Contact conversion value or Leads Conversion Value.

Total Conversion ValueThe total conversion value is self-explanatory. But it can also be misleading. If you define, for example, a Content views conversion Value or App activations conversion value, you may get a total skewed version of what your conversions actually are worth.

Is My Facebook Target Audience Even Interested in My Ads?Although Facebook is a great advertising platform to reach your ideal audience, your ads may not be appealing to them. The following metrics can help you find that out quickly.

CTR (Click Through Rate)The click through rate metrics is the calculated percentage of clicks compared to how many times your ad was displayed.

If, for example, your ad was shown 1,000 times and the link to your site was clicked 10 times, your CTR is 1%.

The toughest part is to decide whether your CTR is good or bad. One way to know this is to run several ads simultaneously and see which one has the highest CTR.

But this approach is risky too. A higher CTR may not result in higher conversions.

Relevance ScoreFacebook assigns a relevance score between 1 and 10 to your ads. The higher the score, the more relevant the ad is for your audience, according to Facebook.

Ads can break or make your campaigns. A picture, the copy, but also how many times it is shown are all details that can make or break your campaign. The following metrics help you better understand how your ads are doing.

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Ad FrequencyThis metric tells you how many times the ad has been displayed on average in the Facebook feed of your target audience.

Mind that this metric can mean many different things depending on the type of campaign you are running.

• With brand awareness campaigns, you can show your ad more before people get tired of it.
• If you are running a lead gen campaign, people usually get annoyed when they see the same ad too many times in a short period of time.

The list of metrics will help answer the important questions you, your business or customers have about paid marketing campaigns on Facebook

Alas, these metrics cannot give all the answers you need to run successful paid campaigns…

The 4 Biggest Mistakes Facebook Advertisers can MakeThe MeasurementMarketing.io team has taught and supported hundreds of businesses with measuring and optimizing their marketing campaigns for success.

There are 4 mistakes that keep returning and I figured it’s worth dropping them here so you won’t need to make these mistakes yourself…

Mistake 1: Misunderstanding MetricsLike any other industry, digital marketing is filled with jargon. It’s easy to misunderstand what something is and is not.

Metrics are often confused with:

• Business goals
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Dimensions
• Segments

Metrics are just the numbers you add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

Dimensions, on the other hand, are how you sort those numbers.

For example, you might have a “Dimension” that is the Traffic Source and then the “Metric” might be the number of users from that traffic source.

Always remember though, you’ll always first start with a question in mind and then you jump into the data to find the answer (never the other way around!).

Mistake 2: Ignoring Data from Facebook Most businesses understand that data is important. But in two situations, it is tough to make data-driven decisions.

Analysis Paralysis

Facebook Ad Manager contains a lot of data, but that is often overwhelming. Not all businesses have the know-how or resources to even look at numbers, charts, graphs and therefore simply ignore them.

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Focus on just ONE THING at a time. I like to take the advice I learned from my buddy Jeff Sauer at DataDrivenU.com…

“Assign one KPI per team member.”

This keeps it really simple. If it’s just you, focus on the ONE metric that needs the most improvement. As your team grows, you can expand your focus (because you’ll have more people to help!).

No Access to Real-Time Data

This happens, for example, when an external party is running ads and reports monthly. By the time decision makers know what’s going on, the monthly Facebook marketing budget is already gone.

Businesses that ignore, or don’t have access to Facebook data, lose a lot more than money.

The target audience may, for example, have seen a Facebook ad too many times. It will be an expensive challenge to turn that around.

Mistake 3: Focus on the Wrong or too Many MetricsFacebook, and other ad platforms, make it very easy to set up your first campaign. They promise you will get results without having to lift a finger.

And then reality kicks in.

At one point, you need to understand the true value of data.

But as I said in the beginning of this article, it can feel overwhelming, confusing or for some, not enough.

The opposite reaction of analysis paralysis is wanting to have even more data to make complete data-driven decisions.

Facebook Ads has a ton of them available, like

• Photo views
• Unique achievements unlocked
• Unique ratings submitted
• Cost per unique level completed
• Etc.

The question is…

Do you really need all that data to drive your business forward?

In other words, ask yourself, “Is this useful?”

This brings us to the last mistake (which actually might sound contradictory)…

Mistake 4: Ignoring Data from Other SourcesCustomers start their journey after they have clicked on your Facebook ad. But as you know, a lot can go wrong when the user lands on a site or web shop.

Think, for example, of:

• The contact form may not be working.
• The site might not be optimized for a specific device.
• The conversion tracking may not be set up correctly.
• The landing page may not be aligned with the message of the ad.
• Your actual revenue may differ from what Facebook or other platforms, like Google Analytics 4, shows.

I am not claiming that Facebook Ad metrics are worthless, but you need to pick them carefully.

Sometimes the best “source of truth” will definitely be Facebook Ads. But sometimes (often!) it won’t be the best source for the answers you’re looking for.

To measure your actual revenue, for example, it is wiser to rely on data from your cart, or (even better!) your merchant processor (platforms, like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, etc.).

Conclusion: Facebook Ad metrics are very powerful to

• Measure the performance of your campaigns
• Get insights on how to improve your campaigns
• Control your paid ads budget on the biggest social media platform
• Reach the right audience with the right message at the right moment
• Achieve your business goals

But Facebook Ad metrics reveal only one part of the complicated customer journey.

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, as a business or marketing agency, then make sure you:

• Track only the most valuable Facebook Ad metrics
• Include metrics from other platforms and tools to make profound decisions
• Give your team access to the data they need to do their job
• Present everything in a shared dashboard that’s explains itself

This is the secret sauce of businesses that thrive in the complicated digital marketing landscape.

I hope this information will help you become a better Facebook marketer or give your business a better understanding of Facebook Ad metrics and how they fit in the bigger picture of digital marketing.

The post 12 Facebook Ad Metrics Worth Your Attention appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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These days, digital marketing expertise isn’t enough. Discover why you need to embrace marketing science and how it can increase your agency’s success.

The post Why Marketing Science Is Crucial for Success Today appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Want to grow your business faster?…without paying crazy amounts on paid advertising?

Organic marketing is the answer. (Keep reading for my secrets).

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We recently had Stæven Frey, the Chief Brand Scientist and Founder at Quantum Branding join us on the DM Podcast. He now joins us as he shares the BrandScience™ of how branding works in this 5-Part Series exclusively for the Digital Marketer Community.

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Hiring the right people is the most important part of that process.

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If you're a store or website owner a successful conversion rate optimization can make a world of difference when it comes to growing your business.

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Graphs can help to visualize complex data sets and identify patterns that may not be immediately apparent when looking at raw data.

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Explore why video marketing has become an indispensable weapon in the digital marketer's arsenal in 2023 and how it can effectively capture the attention and engagement of today's consumers.

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Join Maxwell Finn, President of Unicorn Inventions and DigitalMarketer's TikTok Marketing Expert, as he breaks down the Ford Method that will dramatically increase your creative output.

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Learn how to create viral short videos for social media that can help you boost brand awareness, introduce the latest products, and increase revenue and sales.

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There is one reason why you shouldn't worry too much, and it revolves around a piece of fiction known as Iron Man and his highly capable AI known as Jarvis.

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These 12 ChatGPT tips are literally just the tip of the iceberg. The more you use ChatGPT, the more you'll discover how you can leverage its power and use it to boost your content marketing strategy.

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Marketing is about building relationships. All too often, marketers treat it as an opportunity to hijack the conversation and aggressively pursue the customer. But this doesn’t work in dating and definitely won’t fly in marketing.

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In this article, we're going to explore five ways strategic marketing can set you free. We're going to show you how to stop reacting and start planning. How to stop chasing and start leading. How to start your own marketing revolution. 

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8 powerful ways to leverage AI for lead generation and enhance your business outcomes. From personalized content recommendations to automated email campaigns and predictive lead scoring, this article explores how AI can revolutionize your lead generation strategies.

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It takes only 0.146 seconds to love your brand, and if you're not making an emotional connection with your audience in that fraction of a second, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to win their hearts and minds.

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I didn’t think it was a big deal. We assumed these were typical results for those who focused and did the work.

The gaping mouths and the bulging eyes were our first clues. My next clue should have been when one podcaster told me he gets 50 to 100 pitches a week and he chose ours. Finally, reality set in like a bolt of lightning striking fifty feet in front of me. The words still rumble in my head like fading thunder echoing through the sky:

“I’ve never known anyone who booked 53 podcasts in two months.” – Ryan Deiss

When Ryan said that from the stage at the M3 Mastermind, I finally realized my wife had done something extraordinary. This was no surprise.

She is an amazing woman. Anyone who read her CaringBridge journal in 2021 already knows that. TLDR: The doctors gave up on me and told her to “pull the plug.” She didn’t. She prevailed. I’m alive.

Craig & Karen Andrews, December 2021So, in March of 2023 I asked her to come to my rescue again. This time it was much lower stakes. I asked her to get me booked on podcasts.

Why Pursue Being a Podcast Guest?Guesting on podcasts is a way to expand your own audience. According to ListenNotes, there are more than three million podcasts. The podcast hosts did the time consuming work of building their audience. And as a podcast guest, you get nearly effortless access to that audience.

Guest interviews are a great way to build your authority. Almost every host launches the podcast episode talking about how awesome you are. Their audience trusts them… and now their audience – the podcast listeners – trust you.

Your guest podcast interview will drive business and opportunities. Our 90-day rolling pipeline report tells that story best. “FTO Deals”, our discovery call metric, is up 700% compared to the prior 90-days when we weren’t guesting on podcasts.

“FTOs Sold” means we closed a new client. That’s up 400% compared to the prior 90-days. And we expect that to rise further because most of the discovery calls haven’t happened yet.

Fill your pipeline by being a podcast guestOur podcast focus started within this 90-day view. Most of the podcast episodes are scheduled to go live in the next couple of months. And yet we’re seeing triple-digit 90-on-90 growth on our most important metrics.

Look closer and you’ll see another hidden nugget. Double-digit lead growth drove triple-digit opportunity and sales growth. That’s what authority does for you.

If you’re running out of ways to unleash an instant triple-digit firehose on your business, then read on. I’ll show you how we did it.

How to Get on a Podcast: How it StartedBe careful when you curse adversity in your life. If you let adversity be your mentor, it will rip the scales off your eyes and a world of new opportunities becomes crystal clear. And that’s what happened here.

It began in November 2022 when NCR laid off my wife, Karen. We’re not upset with NCR. They’ve been wonderful to Karen. For the three months I was in the hospital, they let her work half-time while paying her full-time. But the layoff was a shock.

While Karen was trying to figure out her “next thing,” I asked her if she could get me booked on podcasts. She clearly knocked the cover off the ball and accidentally found her “next thing.”

Her first step was research. Why would a podcast host want me on their podcast? Podcast hosts receive tens or hundreds of pitches each week. They’re looking for their ideal podcast guests. So, the outreach email is key.

Create a Personalized Outreach Email for Each of the Podcast HostsSorry, there are no shortcuts here. Automated mass outreach won’t get you guest appearances on any of the relevant podcasts.

I’ll break down one of Karen’s emails step-by-step so you can see the key elements.

[graphic: conceptual image of a structured step-by-step email]

The Intro: Praise the Podcast Host for Their MissionPraise the host for their mission. Connect with their “Why.” Go to their podcast page. They’ll almost certainly make their mission clear there. They’ll also help you identify their target audience. Make sure their target audience aligns with your target audience. Otherwise, you’re just wasting their time.

Here’s an example of Karen’s intro:

*Hi Roy,

My name is Karen and I work on behalf of Craig Andrews. We have been listening to your podcast and love what you are doing!*

Recognize and applaud the podcast host’s superpowerMake sure you get their name right!! Ryan Deiss said he gets outreach emails every week praising him for his interviews on the DigitalMarketer podcast. The problem is Ryan doesn’t do the podcast. Getting the host’s name wrong is the first clue that you’re doing spammy outreach.

Next, praise their mission. We could improve this outreach by being specific in praising the mission we see them fulfilling. That would probably boost our results further. But even this generic simplicity has been working. But that’s because of the next paragraph.

The Intro: Reference a Specific Podcast Episode and What Your LearnedThis is the most time-consuming part of the process. And no, you can’t automate this.

A leading podcast host achieved their vaulted position by being selective in their podcast guests. So, your window of opportunity is through a few scarce words that communicate you’ll be a great podcast guest. And great podcast guests speak to their audience by knowing their audience.

Reference a specific episode in your podcast outreach emailSo, you need to listen to an episode. Make your outreach email reference:

• A specific episode.
• A specific guest.
• A specific insight you got from that episode.

Here’s what that looks like in Karen’s outreach:

We recently listened to your podcast with Tom Sharp about Strategy Patterns for Business Growth. We really appreciated his idea that you need to know yourself, your boundaries and your goals and doing the work to understand those goals.

BOOM! Do that and you just distinguished yourself as a podcast guest that cared enough to actually listen to their podcast. You don’t have to listen to all the podcast interviews. One is enough.

Now you have their attention. Next you must prove you’ll bring the goods to serve their audience.

The Meat: Bring the Heat and Add Value to the Podcast ListenersBring something new to the table. You’re not going to get booked by pitching “How to Grow Your Business Using Facebook Ads.” That was fresh and relevant about a decade ago. But you may get booked with something more current like:

How you can overcome Facebook’s recent trend of reduced targeting with four carefully selected headline elements.

Bring something that’s both unknown and valuableIn our case, we specialize in accelerating high-ticket sales. So, we wanted to find podcasts that had a podcast audience with people that fit that description.

In 2023, high-ticket businesses are struggling closing deals. So, our guest podcasting is focused on building irresistible First-Time Offers to overcome the tough economic conditions. This is a great message for podcast audiences that are struggling with sales. Here’s what that looks like in Karen’s email:

Craig has some fresh thoughts for our currently tough economy that he thought would benefit your audience. He specializes in First-Time Offers that serve as a “coffee date” to begin an engagement with a potential customer. Help before you sell!

Again, our goal isn’t to be on all the podcasts – just the ones with our ideal customers. So, we want the message to enchant our perfect podcast hosts while repelling other podcasts that aren’t ideal.

Once you have them enchanted, next deal with their fear.

The Promise: Convince the Podcast Hosts You’re Not a Greedy BastardThe podcast world is about giving – not taking. So, don’t be a greedy bastard.

Unfortunately, the world is oversupplied with shysters and takers. Your outreach email needs to quickly communicate that your guest appearance will focus on giving. Promise a free gift for the podcast host’s audience.

Focus on serving and givingHere’s what that looks like in Karen’s outreach:

He would love to offer a free gift to your audience as an additional way of adding value.

When you do that, you quickly communicate that you understand the unwritten agreement. It demonstrates your giving nature in action. It also communicates you’ve done this for other podcasts – so you’re an expert guest and a giver. Win-win-win…

But that’s not enough. You’ve got to bring more to the table.

The Sizzle: Promise to be an Interesting Podcast GuestBeuller… Beuller… Beuller…

Ben Stein brought humor to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off by being the most boring economics teacher on the planet. But let’s be honest… you’re no Ben Stein.

Unlike Ben Stein, you have not mastered the craft of being entertaining by being boring. The only way you’ll land on someone else’s podcast is by being interesting. Promise to tell a story. Look through your life and find interesting stories that tie into your core message.

Here’s what that looks like in Karen’s outreach:

A few interesting things about Craig:He spent 6 years in the Marines.He lived and studied in Japan.He received a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering and later figured out he loved marketing.In 2021, he spent 3 months in the hospital and woke up from a coma only able to wiggle a finger and a toe. His recovery has been a miracle.

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Life gifted me with a white-knuckled story of narrowly escaping death. So, yes, I pimp the heck out of that story. But I’ve discovered that some podcast hosts really don’t care about my near early departure from this world.

Karen offers a variety of interesting life events so the podcast host can pick one that interests them most. Look through your life and find interesting stories that you can use to illustrate core elements of your message.

The Close: Bring the Social ProofTop hosts want to know that you’ve been on other podcasts. Nobody wants to train you on being a great podcast guest. It may feel like podcast access is limited to those who’ve already been on a bunch of podcasts.

But every podcast guest started with their first podcast. Then they went on more podcasts and built social proof. That’s been the case with me. Here’s how Karen handles that:

Craig has presented at Conversion Conference, various Vistage groups and other podcasts.

Karen used what we had in our arsenal. Yes, I have been on two or three podcasts. In one case I was episode #3 on a podcast that shut down after the 4th episode. But that’s still social proof.

Find someone who thinks you’re awesome and quote themIf you’re just starting out, get a testimonial from your mom. Hopefully she thinks you’re awesome. Figure out what group she’s involved in… like her neighborhood gardening group. Speak to them about something that interests them. Here’s what that review looks like:

Craig brought an amazing message to the East Peoria Gardening Club. Everyone was captivated by his stories of how rosemary represents the essential spice that should be a part of everyone’s garden of life.” – Mary Andrews, President of the East Peoria Gardening Club.

Get on one podcast and use that as social proof to get on bigger podcasts. Remember, you’re not alone. If you’re trying to break into the guest podcasting space, there are also many new podcast hosts trying to break into the space as well. You’re perfect for each other.

The Close: Give a Call-to-Action to be Their Next Podcast GuestIt’s easy to forget the Call-to-Action (CTA). Don’t let it be implicit. Actively call the host to action. We steal some wisdom from Chris Voss and structure our CTA to be a natural “No.”

Would it be a ridiculous idea to set up a call to see how he can meet the unique needs of your listeners?

Notice how the CTA brings the focus back on their audience instead of you. That reinforces the idea that you’ll bring value to their audience.

Other Things Podcast Guests Need to ConsiderOf course there are other things you need to consider in addition to the outreach email. Maximize use of the podcast directories. I recommend you create a speaker page that includes speaking examples, your bio, head shots and other assets.

Those are each a subject of their own. So, we’ll talk about those in other articles. But that doesn’t mean you should wait. Today is the time to begin your journey as a podcast guest.

Stop reading. Set your timer. Use the next 15-minutes to write your first draft of your podcast outreach email. You can perfect it later.

Put it to Work – Get Booked as a Guest

This journey began because I heard Lauren Petrullo proclaim her goal. She set out to get on 100 podcasts before the end of the year. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Neither did Karen. So, we set the same goal.

One of my favorite quotes is by General George S. Patton:

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

General Patton was the only allied commander that Field Marshal Rommel feared. Patton’s philosophy allowed him to make the impossible possible.

If there’s any genius in what we’ve done it’s that we set a crazy goal and aggressively pursued it. We were so ignorant of podcasting that we didn’t realize how exceptional our results were until several folks told us. Now it’s your turn. Go and do the same.

The post The Art of Getting Booked: Mastering the Podcast Guesting Game appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Artificial Intelligence is a game changer for marketing. While AI will be useful in many industries, the nature of the marketing profession makes it even more powerful, from the need for constant content generation, to ideation for advertising concepts, to automation for day-to-day operations, AI is the biggest innovation in marketing since the internet.

Since the beginning of 2023, the amount of AI tools for marketing has exploded.

While there’s no official count of new AI applications since the beginning of the year, if you monitor websites like TheresanAIforThat.com, you’ll find dozens to hundreds of new applications being added every day, with the current list including 4,600+ apps covering over 1,300 tasks.

Further, the investment in new AI companies has rapidly expanded. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), investments in AI software, hardware, and software for AI-centric systems will increase 26.9% to $154 billion in 2023 over 2022, with $300 billion expected by 2026 (SOURCE).

In 2021, the investment in AI doubled globally from less than $40 billion to almost $80 billion (SOURCE), and look what has come from that!

Needless to say, there are many, many choices when it comes to AI applications, and it can be difficult to nail down which ones to use, much less which ones you should focus on.

After discussing the topic for dozens of marketing professionals and AI experts, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: marketers should master ChatGPT BEFORE anything else.

Here I’ll explain why.

Why Marketers Need to Focus on AI Skill DevelopmentMarketers are notorious for falling prey to “shiny object syndrome.” It’s no surprise why… the easiest person to get sold is a salesman after all!

There are always new methods, platforms, techniques, tricks, tips, and tools to make your marketing faster, better, and more effective. Every company needs marketing to succeed, and the impact of good marketing can make or break your organization.

AI is the shiniest object of all for marketers…

Here’s why AI is such a vital development in the marketing industry:

Ideation: Marketers and marketing agencies may have to create multiple concepts for content and advertising for each client every day. This need for volumes of creativity was time consuming and tiring, but with AI the process has become 10 times easier. No more lag time between needing to brainstorm and creating new concepts… AI makes it almost instant.

Volume Creation: In addition to massive amounts of new concepts and ideas, AI also provides the ability to create brand-specific content whenever necessary. By “training your AI” to create content based on a particular style, marketers can create new advertising copy, landing page headlines and text, email drip campaigns, social media descriptions, lead magnet materials, and much more 10 times faster than before.

Personalization: With AI, marketers unlock the power of personalized experiences on a large scale. By leveraging data analysis and machine learning, AI comprehends individual preferences, behaviors, and purchase patterns. Marketers can then tailor their messaging, recommendations, and offers to each customer, creating engaging interactions that drive conversions.

Data-driven Insights: AI’s ability to swiftly and accurately process vast amounts of data empowers marketers with valuable insights. They can delve into customer behavior, market trends, and campaign performance. AI-driven analytics tools offer actionable recommendations based on data, enabling marketers to make informed decisions and optimize strategies for superior outcomes.

Customer Support & Chatbots: AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants provide instant and personalized customer support. They excel at handling customer inquiries, offering product recommendations, and facilitating purchase decisions. Available 24/7, AI chatbots enhance response times and boost customer satisfaction by delivering prompt and relevant assistance.

Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms leverage historical data to predict future outcomes, empowering marketers to anticipate customer needs and behavior. Predictive analytics aids in optimizing marketing campaigns, identifying high-value customers, and forecasting sales trends. With these insights, marketers can allocate resources effectively and enhance overall campaign performance.

Automation & Efficiency: By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, AI liberates marketers to focus on strategic endeavors. AI-powered tools automate email marketing, social media scheduling, content generation, and data analysis. This streamlined automation boosts efficiency, productivity, and eliminates manual effort.

Competitive Advantage: Marketers gain a competitive edge by harnessing the potential of AI. AI-powered tools enable advanced market research, competitor analysis, and trend forecasting. By staying ahead of industry developments, marketers can make proactive decisions that differentiate their brand and seize opportunities for success.

With all that said, you will severely limit your ability to use AI if you bounce around from application to application. That’s why you need to get focused.

Why You Need to Limit the Amount of AI Applications You UseWhile AI may be new to the marketing profession, the need to focus on a particular set of skills has been around since the dawn of the position.

Skills like copywriting, product positioning, data analysis, customer service, communication, networking, adaptability, and innovation are keystones to the professional marketer.

The ability to utilize AI is just the latest one.

I’ve found that the principle of minimalism allows for the quickest development of new skills. Unfortunately, trying to learn how to use a dozen new tools goes against this philosophy… you need to limit the number of new applications if you really want to master one.

Here’s why the principle of minimalism applies to AI skill development:

Intentionality: In the world of minimalism, intentionality reigns supreme. It urges individuals to deliberate and question whether they truly require an array of specialized tools or if a single tool can serve their needs just as well. By consciously evaluating the functionality and purpose of each tool, you can make mindful decisions that align with their specific requirements.

Simplification: Minimalism champions the art of simplification, both in life and possessions. By minimizing the number of tools and opting for multi-functional alternatives, you can declutter your tool collection, streamline their workflow, and eliminate unnecessary complexities. Embracing simplicity allows for a more efficient and unencumbered approach.

Functionality over Excess: Minimalism urges us to prioritize functionality above all else. Instead of amassing an abundance of tools for each specific task, the focus shifts towards identifying a versatile tool that can effectively serve multiple purposes. By valuing functionality over excessive accumulation, minimalism fosters efficiency and resourcefulness in our endeavors.

Mindful Consumption: At the heart of minimalism lies the principle of mindful consumption. Rather than succumbing to impulsive or societal pressures, minimalism encourages you to consciously evaluate your needs. By carefully considering the necessity of each tool and making choices aligned with those needs, we reduce excessive consumption and wastefulness. Mindful consumption promotes a more intentional and sustainable way of living.

With all that said, there’s many reasons why ChatGPT is the marketers-choice for AI skill development.

Why Marketers Should Focus on ChatGPTYes, there are newer and more specific AI tools out there, but ChatGPT is still the standard when it comes to marketing, and for good reason.

The following is just a few of the reasons why the use of ChatGPT should be a primary focus of marketers.

Conversational SuperpowerChatGPT possesses unparalleled conversational superpowers that elevate customer engagement to new heights. With its natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can simulate human-like interactions, leading to more personalized and meaningful conversations with customers.

Marketers can harness this power to provide tailored recommendations, answer queries promptly, and build strong connections that foster brand loyalty.

Further, marketing is one of the few areas of business where a conversational style is more effective than technical communication styles, making ChatGPT ideal for this type of content generation.

Versatile Marketing ApplicationsChatGPT’s versatility empowers marketers to excel across multiple marketing applications. Whether it’s content creation, customer support, lead generation, or even social media management, ChatGPT delivers exceptional performance.

Marketers can leverage ChatGPT to generate engaging blog posts, automate personalized email campaigns, and handle customer inquiries efficiently—all from a single AI tool.

Better yet, as marketers utilize ChatGPT they’ll start to define their prompting style, creating more and more content from less prompts.

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Standardized Brand Voice for Unlimited CompaniesWith ChatGPT as their exclusive AI tool, marketers gain a profound advantage in crafting hyper-targeted campaigns that utilize a consistent brand voice.

ChatGPT’s ability to understand individual preferences, behaviors, and purchase patterns allows for laser-focused messaging. Marketers can tailor their content and offers to resonate with each customer on a deeper level, resulting in improved engagement, higher conversions, and increased ROI.

Since marketers often focus on more than one company or client at a time, ChatGPT allows for continuous content development through individual chats that maintain the organization’s brand voice without the need for a technical account set up each time. It doesn’t care how many clients you take care of, meaning both cost and time savings.

Continuous Learning & ImprovementChatGPT’s continuous learning capabilities enable marketers to stay ahead of the curve. Through ongoing training and exposure to real-world data, ChatGPT adapts and evolves to meet changing customer needs and industry dynamics.

Marketers can capitalize on this adaptive learning to refine their strategies, optimize campaign performance, and drive continuous improvement.

Dependable Development & LongevityFew, if any, companies have spent more money or received more investment than OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in the company to date (SOURCE), and with a valuation of $29 billion, OpenAI won’t be disappearing any time soon.

Further, with over 100 million users and an expected revenue of $1 billion by 2024, the company is strong and growing (SOURCE). If any company will lead the way in consolidating smaller companies with similar solutions, it’s this one.

How to Develop Your ChatGPT Marketing SkillsChatGPT is like a hammer. In the hands of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, it can still be useful, but in the hands of a carpenter, it becomes something transformative.

That’s why the second cohort of DigitalMarketer’s AI-Powered Marketer Accelerator is focused exclusively on ChatGPT. If you want to learn how to employ the most powerful frameworks built by DigitalMarketer over the last dozen years, while also using AI to make the process faster than ever, you need to attend.

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The distinction between content marketing and content strategy is subtle because the two concepts work together. Once you figure it out, you can use them as the one-two punch to help grow your brand.

This post explains content marketing and content strategy and gives advice for using both to benefit your business.

The Difference Between Content Marketing vs. Content StrategyContent strategy is your master plan to drive business goals with content. It focuses on the big-picture tasks that help you meet your customers’ needs and achieve your business objectives.

Content marketing is a group of tactics or activities you use to enact your content strategy. It’s the creation and distribution of content that helps your audience solve problems and lead better lives. Even though you may not actively try to sell with all content marketing, the free information you provide will eventually help you attract and convert your target audience to drive business growth.

The objectives, approaches, and outcomes differ for content strategy vs. content marketing.

ObjectivesContent strategy seeks to document the role content will play in your business goals. It gives content marketing efforts direction, cohesion, and meaning.

Content marketing revolves around creating brand awareness, generating leads, and capturing demand by transforming ideas into content assets and sharing them.

ApproachesContent marketing assembles your marketing resources to create and distribute content assets across relevant channels to build a brand’s presence. It also includes measuring data to alter content campaigns where necessary.

Content strategists determine the content marketing tactics will be most meaningful for your business objectives. They handle all the backend of content from pre-production (like research, content audit, and content guidelines) to production (like content creation, distribution processes, and tools) and post-production (promotion, evaluation, and analysis).

OutcomesContent marketing leads to increased brand traffic, authority, trust, lead generation, conversion, and loyalty.

Content strategy produces content marketing systems that position a brand as the solution to customers’ needs.

How Content Strategy and Content Marketing IntersectDespite being different, content strategy and content marketing work together. They are two sides of the same coin.

Strategy is the Foundation for Marketing PracticesContent strategy helps you decide why and how you want to create content. So, content marketing success depends on your strategy.

Content marketing is the process of putting your content strategy to work. It’s creating, distributing, and measuring the success of the content according to the content strategy. So, your content marketing efforts rely on your content strategy to achieve your business goals.

Neither Can Stand AloneAs marketing expert Amanda Milligan said, “Don’t try marketing without strategy; don’t bother strategizing without marketing.” What’s the point in making plans if you don’t implement them? And how can you succeed with your marketing efforts if you don’t have a plan? Strategy and implementation go hand in hand.

After Strategy, Marketing BeginsIf content marketing is the act of preparing a meal, the content strategy would be all the decisions you make before the actual cooking. What are you going to cook? What ingredients will you use? Where will you cook it, and how will you serve it?

Once you determine what to do, when, where, and how to do it during content strategy, you can bring the vision to life in the form of content.

Benefits of Content StrategyContent strategy is critical because it lays out your content game plan. Without strategy, you’re wasting time and effort producing content and hoping it works. So, it’s almost an accident if your content works well for your brand without strategy. Here are some other benefits of content strategy.

Creates a Unified Brand VoiceYour brand voice must be consistent across all your marketing channels if you want your brand to stand out in a crowded market. A good content strategy will make sure of it.

Studying your brand story, personality, and style guide will help you define a consistent voice for your content marketing team, so your brand doesn’t sound too inconsistent on any content channel.

Increases EfficiencyA documented strategy streamlines your content operations to keep you from wasting time and resources figuring things out. That’s because it puts systems in place to guide your production and distribution, allowing you to complete tasks faster and within budget.

Content marketing has so many moving parts that leaving anything to chance is a mistake. Your content strategy should state what the content is (title and format), who’s responsible for what, where to store your content, and where to publish it.

Maps a Clear Path to SuccessA good content strategy defines what you’re trying to achieve and the metrics to track to measure success. When this is clear, you can prioritize your activities accordingly. And you can measure what’s working and what’s not to keep your content relevant to your audience and helpful to your business goals.

Establishes Content IntentCreating content will waste your time and resources if you don’t have a purpose that ties it to your business goals. Each content asset should take a prospect further down your marketing funnel. Anything short of that is creating content for content’s sake, and the best you can get out of it will be vanity metrics that don’t help your business. Establishing a purpose for your content is the essence of content strategy.

Benefits of Content MarketingYour customers don’t know when they see your content strategy in action, but they see your content marketing. It answers their questions and makes them consider doing business with you. Here are some other benefits of content marketing.

Drives EngagementCustomers engage with content they find valuable. The more content you share, the better your chances of keeping them on your platforms long enough to like, comment, and share your content with friends.

Increases Brand AwarenessBy distributing valuable content, you’re making it easier for your target audience to find your brand and buy from you. Without brand awareness, people can’t even consider your products or services.

Builds a Relationship with Your AudienceIf the information you share helps your audience live better, they’ll naturally grow fond of and want to continue using your brand. And because your value systems will shine through, the content you share and help you build stronger relationships with the right customers. As your relationship develops, these people will become advocates for your brand and recommend it to others.

Instills CredibilityConsumers and search engines will grow to trust you when your content demonstrates your thought leadership, expertise, and authority. Backlinks and mentions from other brands will also serve as a vote of confidence for your brand. Credibility attracts more positive attention to your brand.

Leads to Customer AcquisitionTurning your content marketing beneficiaries into customers is the goal. When they see how much value you’re giving away for free, they can only imagine how helpful you will be when they pay for your products or services. This value will increase their chances of becoming your customers.

If you don’t know where to start, look at the latest trends in content marketing and see if any are a good fit for your business.

Best Practices for Implementing Content Marketing and Content StrategyThere’s no one way to create and implement content strategy or marketing. Strategy depends on your business and its goals. Content marketing depends on your audience’s needs and your creativity. While there’s no one approach to either, there are best practices for each.

Gather Audience InformationContent-market fit is when your content satisfies or exceeds your audience’s needs. Every business wants this, but those who achieve it do so only because they know their audience well enough to tailor their content to their specific situations.

To create valuable content, you need to know the people you serve by:* Demographics (age, education level, gender identity, education level, etc.) * Psychographics (interests, beliefs, values, etc.) * Goals and pain points * Where they gather online * What they’re trying to do when they go online (also known as search intent)

The more information you have, the better your ability to create an ideal profile or buyer persona to guide your marketing efforts. You really can’t know too much about your ideal audience.

To gather the most accurate audience data:* Identify the people who need your products and services. * Survey your current customers. * Review your competitors’ clients. * Use online data tools like Facebook audience insights or SEMRush.

Approaching every piece of content strategy or marketing effort with a clear picture of your ideal buyer in mind will help you tailor your content to their specific needs.

Set Clear GoalsSetting clear content goals helps you define what success means for your content marketing efforts. Apart from allowing you to align your actions toward success, setting clear goals also lets you measure the effects of your efforts.

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For example, if you want to drive traffic to your website to increase brand awareness, analyzing the difference in your weekly or monthly website visits and what posts are bringing in the most traffic will help you measure the impact of your efforts. You can do more of what works.

Setting clear goals for your content marketing will enhance your goals for individual content assets.

To set clear, more achievable content goals:* Understand the overall goals of the business and the part content can play in reaching them. * Audit your content activities to understand how far you are from achieving those goals. * Identify the resources you need to achieve those content goals. * Put numbers and timeframes to your goals (e.g., increasing website traffic by 25% in the next year).

Develop ProcessesContent marketing requires a sense of organization. Keyword research, content creation, and distribution are just a few of the routine tasks. You’ll need to create workflows to coordinate the many moving parts if you don’t want things to fall through the cracks.

Content calendars help marketers of all experience levels to coordinate their content operations. Creating one will make you more productive and efficient. If you’re looking for a place to start, there are a host of online tools to help, ranging from Google Sheets, where you build your own calendar, to Coschedule, where you use a template.

Create a content calendar by:* Listing your content ideas * Determining the content formats * Documenting your publishing and distribution frequency to schedule the ideas

Create Quality ContentQuality content is your ticket to a successful content marketing campaign. Your audience is busy, so they’ll be more impatient with wishy-washy content. They won’t stick around long enough to buy from you or exchange their contact information if your content doesn’t draw them in.

To create content that resonates with your audience: Focus on Originality. Most of the content online is a bunch of recycled information. Original content approaches the topic in new and unique ways. Your content will stand out by researching an issue in your industry, sharing your personal experiences, or adding fresh insight to what exists. * Repurpose Existing Content. Repurposing helps you maximize the value of the content you already created. For example, you can turn audio or video content into a blog post, social media posts, or an infographic. Repurposing helps your content work for you on multiple platforms. * Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC). User-generated content is gathering customers’ feedback and reviews and sharing them with your audience. UGC resonates because other customers often regard the opinions of their peers above brand messages. * Utilize Data and Analytics. Data helps you analyze audience behavior to better understand the type of content they want and need, how they want it, and when. Use analytics to inform your content decisions from strategy to post-publication. * Be Flexible.* Working with content means being ready to adjust your plans as often as necessary. Audiences and their needs change, so you must be ready to pivot with them.

Content Marketing vs. Content StrategyContent Marketing and Content Strategy are connected, but they aren’t the same. You need content strategy as the blueprint to serve your customers and content marketing to execute your strategy. Using both well will help you build a well-oiled content engine that will serve your audience and your business now and for years to come.

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If you are reading this article, chances are that you know something about Ryan Deiss and his Customer Value Journey. Ryan literally built a marketing education empire on the concept of this framework.

It’s so important to the DigitalMarketer community that he even has the original napkin version framed like a relic to be viewed like the Mona Lisa.

My name is James Bullis. I am a Marketing Technologist / Webmaster with over 25 years in the industry.
I remember when I first learned about this concept around 15 years ago.

It was originally called Customer Value Optimization and had an entirely different structure. I’m a web designer and when I started working in this industry I started out in marketing.

When I became a web designer, I didn’t understand that a business web design is a part of a business’
marketing plan. After learning more about marketing, I realized how I could put these concepts into the website and use them to create a better website experience for my customers’ website visitors.

Then the along came the Customer Value Journey (CVJ) which was a fundamental upgrade and made the entire foundational framework make more sense. It essentially closed the loop and created an endless flywheel of customers if applied correctly.

It really played well in helping to understand how a business website should be laid out so that the traffic could be funneled through the Customer Value Journey.

The CVJ is not the only part of this foundational framework. It is usually accompanied by an Ideal Client Avatar and the Before & After exercise. Essentially, you need to understand who you want to help and be able to empathize with them to discover how you can bring value by easing their pain.

But there is a real problem when it comes to the CVJ that I have noticed over the years. It seems to me that no one will sit down and do it. Do I know this for a fact? No. But, I can guess with some authority that most people who have learned this framework skip over it in practice.

This became obvious to me some years ago inside of DigitalMarketer Engage – the Facebook group of people who have spent some time and money with DigitalMarketer to engage with other members to talk about the frameworks, get advice, and learn from each other.

You could always tell when a fresh wave of members would join because the same questions were asked repeatedly.

These were questions that could simply be answered if they took the time to go through the process of completing these exercises for each new campaign or business that they started to work on as marketers.

I don’t know why people skip over these foundational steps. The framework itself along with the worksheets probably make the concept seem simple and insignificant but it is a powerful exercise that will save you a ton of time, money, and resources.

Years ago, DigitalMarketer invited people to a conference in Austin to learn some amazing new concepts that were going to change the way we thought about digital marketing.

I was excited. I packed up. Headed to Texas. Arrived at the event. Sat down. Excited to learn something new when the guys came out and began talking about…the CVJ. The avatar. The before and after exercise.

I was a bit dumbfounded and a little bit angry at myself when I realized that this framework…was the secret. And I realized that I was not taking the time to do these exercises.

I realized that I wanted to spend my time learning about these frameworks and exercises but I myself was not implementing them. I did something drastic when I left that event. I went home and disconnected myself from everything DigitalMarketer and I decided that I wouldn’t invest in learning any new concepts until I started with these fundamentals.

For years, I worked on numerous projects, and I took a stand to make sure that we sat down and did the work. This is what I discovered.

The CVJ Is EssentialThe CVJ is essential because it answers the most important questions that everyone who works with a
business needs to know:

1. Who Do You Help?
2. How Do You Help?
3. Why Does It Matter?

It’s also important because it puts this information in a format that can be shared with anyone who works on a business including sales, marketing, and technology. If my clients already had a CVJ for their business when I started designing and building a new website for them, it would be so much easier to create a website that actually gets results.

If the information that is contained in a CVJ were given to a graphic designer, marketing contractor, customer service rep, sales rep, consultant, anyone…this would make working the clients and ensuring their success so much easier. We call it greasing the skids because it makes it outlines everything that needs to be done in a simple to understand and comprehend format.

After using this framework on any new projects, I don’t know how I could realistically provide value to my clients if I didn’t help them create their CVJ.

The CVJ Is An ExperimentEverything that we do in marketing is an experiment. Every little decision we make is a series of experiments that lead us to always be optimizing. No matter how far we’ve come, we can always do it better. For that reason, the CVJ is more of a living document that changes over time as the campaigns that you work on. A business can have multiple CVJs.

Think about it. You can get this process wrong because chances are you and your customer are just guessing about what will work. The more you do it, the easier it will be for you to ensure your customer’s success, but chances are, if you are creating a CVJ for a customer, they probably never completed one before and these concepts are new.

You can get it wrong. In fact, you can get it wrong and waste time, money, and resources by targeting the wrong people. Last year, I did a session with a client where we went through the process of mapping out their Ideal Customer Avatar, Before & After Exercise, and CVJ.

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For months we created content, updated the website, and ran social media campaign. It wasn’t until we expanded on these exercises with AI that we realized that we were targeting the wrong prospect. Now we can avoid that.

The CVJ Is Easier To Create Than EverIf I were to ask a group of marketers why they did not use a framework to conduct their marketing, I would imagine that the main consensus would be that the act of sitting down with your client and getting a full understanding of these concepts is not something that you or your client really want to do.

In the mind of the client, you should just know this information (by some miracle). The reality is that every business is different and while you may be able to repeat the concepts in these exercises, having the exercises completed and documented will save you a lot of time and heartache in the long run.

I love the quote from Lincoln that says, “If given six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening my axe.” This concept is true in so many aspects of business but as I said before, if you take the time to document the CVJ, ICA, and Before and After exercise, you will be so far along that you’ll make your life a lot easier.

Well, now we have this thing called AI. And what I have discovered about AI is that it is really suited to help solve this problem. In fact, now that I have started to use AI to help create this foundation, I can’t help but generate the concepts, expand on them, and make some of the most focused content that speaks directly to the prospect.

The CVJ framework is essential to success as a marketer. Now with the help of AI tools, you can take any framework and inject it with steroids to create comprehensive marketing foundation that can literally transform your marketing campaigns.

Not only can you generate expanded versions of these foundational frameworks, but you can now use them to reference when creating content to build awareness and increase engagement with your audience.

The dawn of AI in digital marketing is an exciting one, offering boundless opportunities to strengthen and streamline the strategies we use. Leveraging the capabilities of AI, the creation and application of foundational frameworks such as the Customer Value Journey (CVJ), Ideal Client Avatar (ICA), and the Before & After exercise, can be profoundly amplified.

Gone are the days where marketers neglect these critical steps due to their time-consuming nature or the perceived complexity. With AI, we are able to enhance these processes, reduce the margin for error, and ultimately deliver more targeted and impactful content.

In my personal journey as a web designer turned marketing technologist, I have seen the value these tools bring to the table, but also witnessed their neglect. Utilizing AI, we can change this trend, ensuring that these valuable resources are used to their fullest potential.

By taking the time to implement these tools properly, we not only provide immense value to our clients but also create a better experience for the end user, leading to more successful marketing campaigns.

As digital marketers, we have an exciting path ahead of us. Armed with the transformative power of AI, we can take the wisdom encapsulated in the CVJ and other frameworks and unleash it on a grander scale than ever before.

In an era where every business decision is becoming data-driven, the advent of AI ensures that the nuances of human insight remain central to our marketing strategies.

It allows us to balance the scales between data and empathy, between efficiency and effectiveness, and, ultimately, between the business and the customer. So, as we step into the future of digital marketing, let us remember to carry these valuable lessons forward, and embrace the tools that AI provides to augment our journey.

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Discover the secret to winning your customer’s attention and provoking action with the first ingredient in our 5-part sales formula.

Utilize this ingredient to agitate your customer’s pain point or speak to their aspirational state in such a way that they are compelled by the message where they… Stop. Read it. And move on to take action from there.

Ultimately, learn how to show your customers that you know them better than anybody else and become a mind readers who speaks directly to those little nuances that only your customer would know about.

Using Hooks in Your Messaging Hooks are used in marketing messaging to agitate a pain or passion point that will stop your customers in their tracks, because you “read their mind,” and spoke to something they are experiencing that they want to change.

Hooks are all about your customer’s undesirable situation, or aspirational state, and not about the business.

“When it comes to creating your ecommerce sales pitch, your pitch happens on your product page, on your home page…”

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Do you know AI is revolutionizing businesses and their marketing plans? Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in the digital marketing industry for quite a long time now.

Trends have changed and AI has created a vast difference in working and planning strategies for marketing purposes. Having the ability to gather and analyze large amounts of data in just a few seconds has changed how companies approach the digital market now.

ChatbotsAI-powered chatbots are being used by companies to enhance their productivity, and customer handling, and reduce human efforts. This automated messaging system can be used to help customers with their queries and give them suggestions, also answering a lot of questions at once and being available round-the-clock.

Comprehending customer inquiries and responding appropriately in real-time using artificial intelligence chatbots are being used by companies.

Do Chatbots Market the Business?Unlike a human being, AI Chatbot does not go out and market your company. However, it is a marketing tool especially on social media, because they can deliver targeted messages on your behalf, collect customer data to help you target messaging, and provide customer service that is beneficial to both the company and the customer.

Chatbots are very good at converting the viewers into buyers just by locating the desired products and asking the customers some specific questions according to the gathered data.

Creating the ContentContent creation is where actual human effort is needed a lot. It takes time, intelligence, ideas, and administration of plans to create high-quality and customer-centered content for marketing purposes.

It is predicted by experts that data generation all over the World is going to be more than 180 zetta-bytes by 2025. And there is no doubt that AI and machine learning will have a significant role in developing and creating the content at that time.

Let’s see how AI content creation is helpful in digital marketing;

1. Enhances the Social Media Content Performance:

Social media primarily plays a role in moving customers to their sales funnel. In the same manner, advertisers and marketers make themselves aware of the demographical data of their followers to create social media content that appeals to them.

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In this aspect, AI is the game changer. Artificial intelligence-powered tools can go beyond demographics to analyze client behaviors and preferences. This data is used by marketers to make their customer engagement better by refining their SMM actions.

1. User-Generated Content (UGC) Can Be Curated:

Do you know that social media users today are incredible content creators and consumers both at the same time? The majority of them base their buying choices on user-generated content (UGC) rather than sponsored material.

UGC is assisting companies in improving their reputation among their competitors. AI technology can be used to keep an eye on social media platforms and track any references made to your brand. This way, you can gather valuable insights and feedback on how consumers perceive your business and services.

Making use of UGC, artificial intelligence is able to filter high-quality customer data. With the help of visual recognition technology not only the textual but also images and video content is identified by AI.

1. Upgrades the Personalization:

Customer engagement is enhanced by personalization of the content being created by the company. Do you know AI is the chief in this aspect also?

Personalization is dependent on the company to understand the needs and expectations of the customers. AI collects, analyzes, and transforms the data of customers and makes their personalized profiles and sections.

This information may be used to create highly customized suggestions and interactions in order to engage with your clients effectively. Companies may now build personalized email marketing content using AI rather than generalized email marketing campaigns.

Customer Targeted & Predictive MarketingThe client’s data being collected by companies via AI chatbots is used to generate patterns of future behavior and produce highly focused marketing.

Dynamic yet specific content is emailed by the companies at the right time to their customers with the help of AI. The emails that are sent are also based on the previous activities of the customers.

By collecting the data via customer activity on different web pages, email interactions, or blog reading, AI can efficiently identify which content is more appealing for the customer. This makes the company stay in an audience target business and produce future content according to it.

Moreover, companies can know when the customers are not engaging or not getting appealed, AI again jumps into the situation and makes the profiles more customized to keep the user in touch and towards the company for re-engaging purposes. This re-engaging strategy is done by Churn Prediction.

Why is Churn Prediction Important?Customer turnover is a common problem faced by companies. Growing the business means getting new clients similarly when a single customer leaves, it impacts the investment negatively. A company can save huge figures by just keeping an eye on their client’s activities and offering them incentives when they seem like leaving.

That is why, understanding what keeps consumers engaged is incredibly valuable knowledge that is nonetheless collected by AI. It aids in the development of retention strategies and the implementation of operational practices targeted at preventing customers from saying goodbye to the company.

Natural Language Generation is Provided by AIWho is playing a great role in Natural language generation? Yes, AI is at the top of the tools that provide us with NLG.

The pieces of information organized by AI are the main source of NGL. Converting data into natural-sounding text produces a large number of printed words far faster than a normal person.

Companies use this AI influenced Natural Language Generation for the following purposes:

1. Advertisement Writing

The natural language generated by AI is intelligent enough to modify itself to a company’s consumer and employ the language and tone most likely to connect with them. This is the turning point in ad creation.

AI-powered NLG writes ads for companies that are audience directed with a huge rate of conversion. These kinds of digital marketing software are becoming a must in this competitive Internet marketing industry.

1. Automatic Updates & Revisions

Data is fed into the NLG program by AI, which produces text that resembles human speech based on established templates and rules. Plenty of sources, including statistics from websites, customer reviews, and survey results can provide the information needed.

Social media marketing campaigns are run to benefit the company in various aspects. Artificial intelligence NLG technology may be used in social media marketing campaigns to create social media posts based on popular subjects, updates, and hashtags.

The software would look into the information and produce posts that are interesting to and relevant to the intended audience.

1. Generation of Subject Lines

Email marketing is a bombing strategy, but how come it explodes? The subject line of the company’s email should be explosive if the customer is to be attracted.

None other than AI provides appealing subject lines for emails through NLG modules. The email open rates can be increased by using natural language generation to convey and adapt feelings, tone, and phrasing.

Voice Search OptimizationVoice search optimization is getting applause all over the World as many customers prefer voice search rather than typing their query. AI is able to recognize the voice, search the voice keywords, and provide data that is asked. You may be familiar with AI voice recognition tools like Google Home, Alexa, and Amazon Echo.

By utilizing speech recognition and numerous other AI techniques, companies may offer material that AI systems can find more easily, improving the customer’s quality.

By optimizing website content for voice search, companies can improve their search engine rankings for voice queries. This helps the companies to reach a wider audience and increase their visibility all over the internet.

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Voice keyword research is a method of raising a website’s efficiency through AI as well as effectiveness for speech-based search inquiries. In this way companies are thought to be digitally available for their customers, converting them into buyers and reducing the consumer churn.

Visual Recognition TechnologyAI or in other words, Robots are able to identify some of the human features, this is called visual recognition technology.

AI gathers information based on image recognition through social media platforms. For example, it monitors the image activity and gets insights from a company’s users. It helps companies to know which products and trends are more likely to be seen in their target audience.

Audience engagement and customer quality can be improved a lot more by this technology. Algorithms are set and analyzed by AI itself, this is called machine learning, which plays a great role in AI-powered digital marketing.

There is another way by which image-identifying technology can be helpful. By monitoring image algorithms AI makes the company produce more customer-centered content.

Additionally, using visual recognition technologies will enhance the client experience. Customers can see how things might look on them prior to making any purchase by using interactive product catalogs or online free-trial situations.

BottomlineConcluding the above discussion, companies are now making use of artificial intelligence (AI) in digital marketing more often. With the use of chatbots, virtual assistants, image recognition, voice recognition, and predictive content, AI has been used to raise customer satisfaction, decrease human efforts, and routine operations, and increase the overall effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns.

While there are many benefits of implementing AI in digital marketing, it’s important for companies to approach it wisely and deliberately.

Intelligent systems that are productive require thorough planning and development, including adhering to the platform’s purpose, selecting the layouts and conversational flow, and training the algorithm to understand and efficiently respond to user needs and requirements.

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What if I say your company’s success relies on someone else’s success?

Yes… you read it right!

Growing your business is possible if your products or services are good enough and help users reach their goals.

Today’s market is customer-centric, and the top-performing organizations are those that focus on customer success more than their competitors do.

Believe it or not, customer success is the best strategy to boost customer happiness. And as we all know, happy customers always lead to growing business.

Considering the significance of customer success, today we’ll discuss how to drive customer success with interactive content. So, let’s get started from the basics and understand more about it.

What is Customer Success?Customer success is meeting customers’ requirements when using your products or services.

This may imply deploying your team as strategists, thought associates, and the customer’s advocate internally to meet those demands.

However, customer success is more than just fulfilling customer needs. It’s also about focusing on customer relationships.

Customer success management includes proactively predicting customer questions or challenges and actively providing resolutions.

Customer Success vs. Customer Support Customer success and customer support- are both essential functions within a business that aim to provide excellent customer experiences, but they have different objectives and methods of achieving them.

Let’s break them down further in a definitive list:

• Approach: Customer success proactively examines and strategizes, while customer support acquires and replies.
• Goal: Customer success operates to acquire preferred business results with the customer journey. On the other hand, customer support concentrates on problem resolution and prevention.
• Talents & Disciplines: Customer success is consultative and can expand to various disciplines and industry expertise. Customer support experts have skills corresponding with marketing, engineering, and operational teams.

Both roles demand practitioners be resourceful issue solvers, empathetic, and thoroughly familiar with customers.

• Metrics: Customer success concentrates on metrics associated with business impacts, like customer retention, growth, and lifetime value.

Customer support metrics estimate the quality of the service delivered, solution times, and overall customer satisfaction.

• Business Impact: Customer success is usually a value-added business process, driving revenue and development.

On the other hand, customer support is vital to operating a business since customer questions always need to be answered.

Why Is Customer Success Important?The worldwide customer success platform market will grow from $850M in 2020 to $3417.5M by 2026, expanding at a CAGR of 26.10% within 2023-2028.

There is a reason why the demand for customer success platforms is increasing gradually.

Customer success allows organizations to unlock the value of their resolutions and get an exciting ROI. With customer success, companies can help achieve their business goals, and it:

• Develops trust
• Amplifies the relationship
• Brings higher satisfaction

Moreover, customer success interactions assist firms in collecting valuable consumer insights that are advantageous to the whole organization.

The more teams understand their clients and their requirements, the better they can provide quality experiences and form a healthier customer lifecycle.

Satisfied, loyal buyers generally become brand advocates and praise your business through social media posts, product reviews, and word-of-mouth suggestions.

How Does Customer Success Work? There are three core elements required for customer success to be compelling. These comprise a customer success strategy, a solution, and a team and supervisor of a customer success workforce.

Select a Customer Success SolutionTo proactively handle all communications with users, you’ll wish to deploy a customer success resolution on your team — implying customer success tools. A good customer success solution can assist you in the following:

• Understanding your customer’s requirements and pain points
• Monitoring their satisfaction levels
• Engaging with them in a manner that is personalized and relevant

Some typical features of customer success solutions are customer relationship management (CRM) software, communication tools (e.g., email, chat, and phone), analytics and reporting capabilities, and more.

Hire & Train a Customer Success TeamYou’ll require an individual (or, perhaps, a team) to excel in customer success. The managers and representatives in your customer success team will depend on your business size and available resources. Expanding your team as your business grows is crucial to proactively help your customer base.

Create a Customer Success StrategyYour customer success strategy depends on the type of product you offer and what your buyers want from you. Nevertheless, here are a few proven steps to building it for your business:

• Deploy the proper customer success tools.
• Recognize your customers’ end objectives (and why they require customer success).
• Build a shot and long-term roadmap for victory to demonstrate your business’s anticipations and goals.
• Share and execute the method on your team. Also, ensure everyone understands what’s expected of them separately and as a team.
• Examine your outcomes and discover whether your buyers have the software and support they want to succeed.
• Make changes to your strategy and the team with your growing business and user base.

Why Is Interactive Content a Gem for Customer Success?Talking about customer success without including interactive content is just like talking about a pizza without cheese. It is a helpful tool for customer success since it provides many advantages that can enhance the customer experience and offer better results.

Let’s look at some benefits of interactive content for customer success:

• Improves Engagement: Interactive content facilitates customers to vigorously engage with the material, forming the experience more pleasant and memorable.
• Enhances Retention: By breaking down complicated concepts into shorter, more digestible chunks, interactive content can enhance customers’ capability of remembering and applying what they’ve discovered.
• Personalizes the Experience: Personalized online shopping experience is what customers look for in a brand these days. Businesses that use advanced personalization notice a return of $20 per $1 spent.

And interactive content lets you do that. With it, you can cater to each user’s needs and interests.

• Delivers Instant Solutions: Last but not least, you can provide real-time value and solutions to your customers through interactive content like quizzes and calculators.

8 Ways to Help Customers Succeed with Interactive Content1. Offer Personalized Solutions with Quizzes70% of customers spend more with businesses that provide fluid, personalized, and smooth customer experiences.

Interactive content types like quizzes help you accomplish multiple goals, including engagement, lead generation, and personalization. And these ultimately convert to customer success.

You can create various types of quizzes according to your target audience and business objectives.

• Regular Outcome Quizzes: These quizzes provide customers with personalized outcomes based on their answers. These could be a personality quiz, scored quiz, or a trivia quiz.

For instance, if you’re a clothing brand, you can create a quiz like “Which F.R.I.E.N.D.S Character Are You?”. This will attract users to take this personality test. And once you’ve engaged them, you can show them products related to that character. This would increase conversion rates for your brand.

• Social Media Quizzes: These quizzes have recently become popular among businesses. Social media quizzes are usually fun and viral in nature. This is why they are one of the best content pieces to generate leads and increase engagement on social media.

For instance, a travel firm could create a quiz asking users about their travel choices and share the outcomes on social media. This can generate relevant leads and increase brand awareness.

• eCommerce Recommendation Quizzes: eCommerce recommendation quizzes are created particularly for eCommerce sites. They can assist customers in finding products that fit their tastes and increase their chances of purchasing. You can simply list all your products and show the users options that fit them the best.

Quizzes are powerful interactive content that engages customers and delivers personalized recommendations.

By tailoring queries to their interests and choices, you can provide a more customized experience and expand the possibilities of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

To make the entire process of creating quizzes fast, you can opt for easy to use no-code tools that come with pre-made templates.

1. Educate with Infographics & VideosInfographics and videos are incredibly engaging and visually attractive methods to educate customers and boost customer success.

Infographics utilize charts, graphics, and other graphical resources to deliver information in digestible parts. On the other hand, videos demonstrate how to use a service or product, offer educational content, or share customer reviews.

The key to customer success is providing information at every step of the buyer’s journey. And videos and infographics are apt for that.

1. Offer Real-time Value with CalculatorsCustomers are 2.4 times more likely to adhere to a business when their issues are solved quickly.

Calculators, a crucial interactive content type, can offer buyers real-time value effortlessly. They just have to fill in their requirements and are good to go.

For instance, a mortgage lender could make a calculator that allows customers to calculate their monthly mortgage expenditure based on their interest rate, loan amount, and other aspects.

With real-time value, you can establish yourself as a reliable and helpful resource for their users. Here are a few quick tips to aid you in building calculators that offer real-time value:

• Recognize your target user base and their exact requirements before making your calculator.
• Ensure your calculator is easy to navigate and user-friendly.
• Use concise and clear language, and avoid technical jargon.
• Make sure that your calculator offers factual and up-to-date outcomes.

• Test your calculator totally before releasing it to guarantee it works effortlessly.

• Test Knowledge Using Tests & AssessmentsTests and assessments can be extremely compelling to help your customer succeed. They help to gauge your customers’ knowledge and recognize any learning gaps.

Testing your users’ knowledge and industry expertise allows you to acquire beneficial insights and modify your training sessions accordingly.

Besides, giving prompt feedback and resolutions lets your customers comprehend the correct o

Lanswers and feel an emotion of accomplishment.

1. Address Queries or Issues with ChatbotsChatbots are tools that can communicate with users with voice or text commands. They can assist customers in finding information, responding to common questions, and resolving problems.

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Implementing chatbots can lower response times and enhance customer success rates. Besides, they can free up customer service associates to tackle more complex problems, leading to cost savings.

Ensuring it is easy to use and can control a wide range of queries is crucial when building a chatbot. It should understand natural language and should be capable of human-like interactions.

1. Engage Your Audience with Live Q&A Sessions Another fantastic tactic to increase customer success is live Q&A sessions. Q&A sessions allow attendees to discover more about a topic or even talk with someone they would never generally have access to.

These are the perfect forums to foster debates, exchange ideas, and share knowledge. This could be the opportunity to meet with your users one on one and get to know them and their challenges, feedback, and future requirements.

You can conduct these sessions on social media channels or via webinars.

1. Get Instant Feedback with Surveys & PollsUsing customer surveys and polls helps you determine areas to develop and capitalize on what you’re doing well.

What’s the best way to know what users think and need? It’s to simply ask them. Getting first hand opinion also cultivates a more positive association with your users.

Requesting, examining, and executing customer feedback is critical to enhancing your business and guaranteeing customer success. And a good form builder can help you get started!

1. Create Valuable Content Using Interactive E-books & BlogsInteractive blogs and e-books help establish your firm as an industry leader. But how can you make a blog or ebook, which are types of static content pieces, interactive? Well, you can embed interactive content like quizzes and polls in your blog to make users engage directly with you.

This strategy can enable customers to make good decisions by offering them useful information. This can draw new users and also boost existing customer loyalty.

Blogs and e-books are the best ways to educate and engage your users. And turning them interactive can only make things better!

5 Helpful Customer Success Tools for Every Budget 1. Hubspot

HubSpot is a flexible customer success management software offering numerous customer-facing operations features. It provides software like SEO, social media marketing, content management, etc.

Key Features:

• It allows building forms that adjust to users’ browser history.
• Lets you put reminders for duties and follow-up activities.
• Sends automatic follow-up emails to customers.
• Has a built-in data analytics engine.

• Incorporates well with Salesforce, SugarCRM, Netsuite, etc.

• Outgrow

Outgrow is a no-code tool to boost your customer success efforts with tools like calculators, quizzes, forms, polls, chatbots, giveaways, etc.

You can create an interactive tool within minutes and embed it on your website, blogs, or email newsletter. Outgrow also offers several premade templates optimized for your mobile, tablet, and desktop. This ensures you serve your customers without much effort.

Key Features:

• Customize the design as per your brand guidelines.
• Make beautiful quizzes and surveys with a drag and drop builder.
• Generate leads and deep customer insights.
• Integrate with 1000+ apps.
• Analyze the performance of your tools.

• Get around-the-clock chat support.

• Zendesk

Zendesk, a cloud-based help desk management solution, offers customizable utilities to develop customer service portals, online communities, and knowledge bases. It provides a customizable front-end portal, integration with apps like Google Analytics and Salesforce, and live chat features.

Key Features:

• An all-in-one customer services and lead generation platform.
• Perform email, chat, phone, and social media altogether.
• Offers a lot of customization choices.
• Comprehensive, robust reporting and analytics.

• Supports several languages.

• Front

Front is a customer interaction platform that allows teams to consolidate texts across channels, drive them to the right individual, and get visibility into what’s occurring with every customer.

Key Features:

• Automatically aggregates & routes user conversations from your channels, guaranteeing every message reaches the right person.
• Calculate team performance and customer happiness.
• Live chat support for quick assistance.

• Strong analytics and reporting to measure success.

• Helpjuice

Helpjuice concentrates particularly on allowing users to build a customizable knowledge base to be utilized by both internal workers and their buyers. Such customization permits users to modify the look and feel of their brand’s internal and customer-facing knowledge base.

Key Features:

• Provides centralized knowledge repository.
• It has an intuitive, customizable, and user-friendly interface.
• Enables instant content updates and edition control.
• Provides strong search functionality to find appropriate information.

Final ThoughtsWith customer expectations expanding continuously, customer success is a focus that can compel long-term business growth.

In this blog, we revealed 8 actionable strategies for achieving real customer success. We dived in further to find out 5 tools that help you get started on this journey.

It’s vital to note that customer success is not a one-time project but a constant process that needs ongoing effort and dedication. If you liked the tips we shared with you or have any questions, mention them in the comment section below.

All the best for your customer success journey!

The post How to Drive Customer Success With Interactive Content appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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In the world of digital marketing, data is king. With so much information available, it can be overwhelming to try and make sense of it all. One of the best ways to gain insight into digital marketing trends is through the use of graphs.

Graphs can help to visualize complex data sets and identify patterns that may not be immediately apparent when looking at raw data. In this article, we will explore the top nine graphs for revealing digital marketing trends.

Line Graphs For Digital TrendsLine graphs are one of the most commonly used graphs in digital marketing. They are particularly useful for showing how a particular metric has changed over time. For example, a line graph could be used to show how website traffic has changed over the course of a year.

By plotting data points over time, it is easy to see any trends or patterns that may have emerged. Line graphs can also be used to compare data sets over time, such as comparing the performance of two different marketing campaigns.

Chord Diagrams Connecting Different Marketing ChannelsChord diagrams are a type of visualization that show the connections between different variables. They are often used to show the relationship between different parts of a complex system or network.

In digital marketing, chord diagrams can be used to show how different channels (such as social media, email marketing, and search engine marketing) are related to each other. By visualizing the connections between different channels, businesses can optimize their marketing mix and ensure that each channel is working together to achieve their marketing goals.

Scatter Plots for Digital CorrelationsScatter plots are often used in digital marketing to show the relationship between two different metrics. For example, a scatter plot, designed by a graph creator, could be used to show how the bounce rate on a website correlates with the time spent on the site.

By plotting data points on an x and y axis, it is easy to see any correlations that may exist between the two metrics. Scatter plots can also be used to identify any outliers within a data set.

Bubble Charts Show How Differing Variables Relate to Each otherBubble charts are similar to scatter plots, but they add a third variable to the mix by varying the size of the bubbles based on a third data point. This can be a useful way to visualize trends and patterns in complex data sets.

In digital marketing, bubble charts can be used to show how different variables (such as ad spend, click-through rate, and conversion rate) are related to each other.

Bar Graphs for Quick ComparisonsBar graphs are another common graph used in digital marketing. They are particularly useful for comparing different data sets. For example, a bar graph could be used to compare the conversion rates of two different landing pages.

By presenting data in a visual format, it is easy to see which landing page is performing better. Bar graphs can also be used to compare data sets over time, such as comparing the number of leads generated by two different marketing campaigns.

Heat Maps Revealing BehaviorHeat maps are a unique type of graph that are particularly useful for analyzing website user behavior. Heat maps show how users interact with different parts of a website by using different colors to represent user engagement.

For example, a heat map could be used to show which parts of a landing page receive the most clicks. By analyzing heat maps, marketers can identify areas of a website that may need to be optimized to improve user engagement.

Pie Charts For Categorical DivisionsPie charts are often used in digital marketing to show how a particular metric is divided among different categories. For example, a pie chart could be used to show how a company’s social media followers are divided among different age groups.

Pie charts are particularly useful for highlighting the most significant categories within a data set. However, it is important to keep in mind that pie charts can be difficult to read when there are too many categories.

Funnel Charts Reveal BottlenecksFunnel charts are a type of chart that shows how many users or customers move through a series of steps in a process. They are often used in digital marketing to track the conversion rate at each stage of a sales funnel.

By visualizing the drop-off rate at each stage of the funnel, businesses can identify potential roadblocks or bottlenecks in the conversion process and take steps to optimize their marketing strategy.

Gantt Charts for Keeping Campaigns on ScheduleGantt charts are a type of bar chart that show the duration of each task in a project, as well as the start and end dates. They are commonly used in project management to track progress and deadlines.

In digital marketing, Gantt charts can be used to plan and track the progress of marketing campaigns. By breaking down a campaign into smaller tasks and assigning deadlines to each one, businesses can ensure that their marketing efforts stay on track and meet their goals.

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ConclusionIn conclusion, digital marketing is a complex field that requires businesses to track and analyze a large amount of data. Charts and graphs are essential tools for visualizing this data and identifying trends and patterns.

By using the right types of charts and graphs, businesses can gain insights into their marketing performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize their marketing strategy.

From line graphs and scatter plots to heatmaps and chord diagrams, there are a variety of charts and graphs that businesses can use to reveal digital marketing trends and stay ahead of the competition.

The post Data-driven Marketing: How Graphs & Charts Transform Digital Strategies appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Another day, another article, you might think, from some “random” on the internet preaching about
marketing and artificial intelligence. But I’m not here to give you fluff and generic knowledge about what
you could easily Google online.

Hi, I’m Joshua B. Lee, and you might know me as the “Dopamine Dealer on LinkedIn”. In the past 2 decades, I’ve built 16 businesses, authored a book called Balance is Bullsh*t, and I’ve had clients like MySpace and Google managing nearly a billion dollars in advertising spends.

While working with companies that are larger than life, I realized one thing: The digital landscape became
quite “noisy”. AKA, there were too many automated things, robotic language, and SELL SELL SELL energies online, and the human touch got lost in the mix.

TL;DR: Human connection was obliterated, and too many people focused a lot on monetization for profit’s sake. I’m a consumer myself, so I saw a gap that could be fixed and asked, “How can I bring back the heart in this digital universe? How can I help people see beyond the screen and build genuine
connections?”

Enter → Standout Authority, my baby since 2014. We’re all about helping folks (like you, who’s reading
this) bring the human back to your brand.

And we’ve chosen to zero in on LinkedIn—the Avengers’ HQ of business platforms—to build authentic
relationships and clients.

Why LinkedIn?Perhaps this number will sum it up for you: as of April 2023, LinkedIn has 922.3 million active members
on the platform.

So if you’re looking for the perfect place for marketing, networking, and reaching your audience as a thought leader in your field, this would be THE platform for you.

And as LinkedIn turns 20 this year, it’s making a huge push towards AI—quite the HOT topic everywhere,
regardless of the niche/industry.

Here’s what’s coming to a LinkedIn profile you want to get going:

LinkedIn’s Drive to Embrace AI and Transform Content Creation LinkedIn continues to push the boundaries of AI-powered transformation, making your content creation
more engaging, entertaining, and downright amazing.

Here are some of the bold moves LinkedIn has been making towards AI:

• Ever since LinkedIn joined forces with the latest AI technology, ChatGPT, the platform has been on a roll (If you didn’t know yet, Microsoft invested $10 billion into OpenAI).
• Since then, they’ve released a series of helpful tools such as “Smart Replies” and “Resume Assistant”— just a couple of examples of how LinkedIn has harnessed the power of AI to streamline your messaging and job-hunting experience.
• LinkedIn has created Collaborative Articles, a feature that allows multiple creators to work together on a single AI-generated article, offering diverse viewpoints on a given topic.
• AI isn’t just great for writing; it’s also an amazing helper when it comes to insights and analytics. LinkedIn is launching Content Insights, an AI-driven tool that provides data on article performance. You can’t know if your marketing is going in the right direction if you don’t know your numbers.

LinkedIn’s AI revolution aims to foster collaboration, amplify top voices, and help creators get their high-
quality content in front of the right audience.

LinkedIn’s Supercharged Move to AIWithin 3 months, LinkedIn’s AI team managed to roll out new ChatGPT-based tools. These AI-gasmic
features are designed to make your LinkedIn experience more seamless and efficient than ever.

Let’s dive deeper:

LinkedIn + ChatGPT: A Dynamic DuoLinkedIn is looking to encourage us to use ChatGPT to write posts. Enter up to 30 words, click Draft
Post,” and instantly have a draft to review, edit, or post as is. In beta testing, this will be a premium
feature.

And being the Dopamine Dealer and Top Voice of LinkedIn has its perks… I’ve gained access to the beta
for the Generative AI tool (ChatGPT-4 based), and I’m one of the first to test it out. While it’s initially
available as a premium feature, the benefits it offers are bound to be worth every penny. Think of Draft
using AI as your virtual writing assistant—the Jarvis to your Tony Stark, or the Alfred to your Batman.

It can help you:
→ Save time.
→ Enhance your productivity.
→ Ensure your posts are polished to perfection.

Turbocharged Content Moderation: The AI ShieldLet’s face it, we’re constantly scrolling through an abundance of user-generated content, so it’s no
surprise that effectively managing and curating content on your brand’s online platforms can be an
overwhelming task.

Fortunately, there’s a solution: AI-powered content moderation is poised to revolutionize this process. By
leveraging artificial intelligence, content moderation can be automated, allowing for efficient classification, flagging, and removal of harmful content.

Here are three ways you can harness the power of AI for content moderation:

• AI Content Moderation for Texts: Utilize AI to analyze the tone, categorize content, and
  monitor brand and competitor mentions through natural language processing and entity
  recognition techniques.
• AI Content Moderation for Images & Videos: Tap into the potential of Computer Vision
  (Visual-AI) to identify undesirable or harmful content. With the integration of natural language
  processing, AI can even detect suggestive content within images.
• AI Content Moderation for Voice Recordings: Explore the realm of voice analysis
  technology. AI-powered tools can transcribe voice recordings into text and analyze tone and
  intent using natural language processing algorithms.

Thanks to the extraordinary capabilities of ChatGPT, LinkedIn’s AI-driven content moderation has been
turbocharged, making it more powerful and effective than ever before.

Job & Career Support Right at your FingertipsWe’ve all been there: that squeamish ordeal of job-hunting:

Scrolling through hundreds of companies, writing different cover letters, and tailoring your CVs to help
yourself stand out. With LinkedIn’s integration with ChatGPT’s natural language understanding, job-
hunting transforms into something you no longer have to hate.

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Here’s what’s in store for you:

Hyper-personalized job recommendations that match your unique profile, skills, and passions. It’s like
your personal matchmaker who finds you the perfect career fit every time. Single. time.

Curated selection of job recommendations that are tailor-made for you. You’ll find yourself thinking,
“How’d they know this is exactly what I’m looking for?”

Networking not your favorite way to market yourself? You might change your mind. The platform will now
have the ability to suggest conversation starters (introverts would probably love this the most),
recommend events, and identify shared interests. Way to break the ice—easily.

Going beyond helping you with job searches, LinkedIn’s got your back for your career as well, so you can
ace those interviews and land the job of your dreams.

It can now give feedback on your resume, as well as offer coaching and guidance for your interviews. It’s like your very own pocket career coach that you
can take anywhere.

As LinkedIn’s AI revolution continues to excite us and evolve in ways we can’t imagine, I can fully understand if you’re curious about the future of professional networking and its potential impact on
marketing and tech.

If you’d like to stay on top of the latest LinkedIn news and all-things-AI, follow me on LinkedIn where my
network gets first dibs on some of the newest AI updates and features out there.

The post LinkedIn & AI: How They Team Up & Why It’s Important appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Let’s dive into the pool of reports that have been surfacing recently – those revolving around AI, the economy, and how this roller coaster of a world may impact your marketing agency, then we’ll shift gears and put your agency under a microscope.

My goal is simple, to spark a lightbulb moment, where you say, “Ah, these are crucial, foundational aspects of my business that I’ve been overlooking.”

Your customer avatar, your customer journey, your niche… all those buzzwords you’ve heard until you’re blue in the face (but might not have really acted on quite yet).

The “development” of your small business was optional until recently. You could ignore trends, delay updating your services, and maybe even “step away” from operations before… but NOT ANYMORE.

Things are changing FAST, and if you don’t get your business on track, you’re going to miss out. Not only could your services (and therefore your business) become irrelevant if you fail to consider how new technologies, marketing practices, and methods are changing, you’re going to do something even worse… YOU WILL MISS A MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY.

The rapid progression of AI and societal change means one thing: all businesses are facing the same lack of experience and also have access to new technology. The next Google, Facebook, TikTok, etc. are going to launch over the next

It’s time to crush that resistance to change, and the action starts here, right now.

What’s the Matter With the Way Things Have Been?Let’s take a moment to gauge your feelings about the internet so far.

Is the internet a dreamy utopia where you can find everything you need, with all of the fun and answers just a click away?

Or is it more like stumbling into an IKEA store, utterly lost, drifting aimlessly from bedrooms to kitchens, only to end up shelling out an unexpected $5k for a living room set you didn’t intend to buy?

That sums up the internet so far – a wild, chaotic IKEA… a poorly structured labyrinth of information.

The tool we’ve been given to navigate this labyrinth is a search engine, biased and inefficient, a Frankenstein monster of our own creation. My theory is that this mess of a situation paved the way for social media to rise and shine.

As search has gotten increasingly unhelpful, we resorted to building individual networks to connect with others (Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, etc.), but due to the nature of these networks, it doesn’t satisfy what we really want… easy access to easy answers.

The internet has, until now, been a digital wild west. Full of freedom and opportunity, but so chaotic that it’s tough to make progress.

In the midst of this chaos, AI seems like the answer to our original dream of the internet. Imagine logging on, typing a question, receiving a concise answer, and smoothly moving onto the next thing on your list.

Sounds like a dream, right? Instead, we’ve been stuck in an endless loop, spending hours, sometimes a whole day, hunting for that elusive piece of information. This was not the plan.

The plan was, “Hey machine, fetch me the stuff I’m looking for,” and the machine promptly delivering. Instead, but again, what we got was a virtual IKEA store.

But fret not! Change isn’t a monster, change is progress.

The internet, as we know it, has been somewhat dull and mediocre, merely the first step in the evolution of new technology.

What the Heck Is Happening Right Now?Needless to say, the future promises much more CHANGE, and you need to be prepared to leverage it to the fullest.

Are you worried about recession, war, or the economy in general? Most of you probably are, and rightly so given the topsy-turvy state of affairs.

Hold onto your hats, folks, because we’re about to dive into a wild world of change that could make your head spin.

Recession, War, & Economy FearsThe US inflation rate is tap dancing at 4.93% (in May 2023), a subtle decline from last month’s 4.98% and a healthy decline from last year’s 8.26%. To put that into context, the long term average inflation rate is around 3.28%.

Basically, the cost of everything is high and getting higher, and boy, is that going to pinch when it comes to netting those customers for your business.

Worse, especially for marketers and businesses reliant on expendable income, is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). March 2023 saw a jaw-dropping spike in the consumer price index to nearly 10.1%.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the eighties, perhaps. This figure does exclude food and energy costs, and in a way, that makes it all the more striking. We’re now looking at a significant disposable income that marketers, like us, are vying for.

Which brings me to the ecommerce sector. We just launched a report recently called the Hawk AI Ecommerce Report.

If you’re still thinking that ecommerce is on a skyrocketing trajectory post-2020 pandemic, hate to break it to you, but that’s not the case. Growth has tapered off.

The average order value has leaped 31% year over year, even as overall sessions dipped by 5%. I can almost hear you scoff, “5%, that’s peanuts!” Hold on.

In a realm where constant growth is king, a 5% dip in eyeballs looking at products is no laughing matter. It’s like a crack in the dam.

So, the past year wasn’t e-commerce’s finest hour. But hey, let’s focus on the positives, like the soaring average order value. There were also some intriguing trends, like a 78% hike in the ‘buy now, pay later’ option during Black Friday.

Now, let’s dig deeper into the data. Strap in, folks, because we’re about to embark on a rollercoaster ride through the year-on-year changes in the consumer price index since the disco era of the seventies.

AI Taking OverSwitching gears now, let’s talk AI, specifically about its sudden blitz through the ranks. Our little friend ChatGPT has managed to amass a staggering 100 million users in just two months. To put that in perspective, this AI darling outpaced WhatsApp, mobile phones, Twitter, and even the internet itself in terms of user base growth. It’s like a comet blazing across the tech universe.

Sure, AI has been on the scene for a while, but what we’re witnessing now is the starting of its “coming of age.” It’s like the awkward teenager morphing into a supermodel.

And this is just the beginning, because once your average Joe and Jane start using this tech, it’s game on. Commercial interests are pricking up their ears and eyeing that 100 million users figure like a juicy steak.

AI makes creating new apps, especially simple ones, almost free. Back in the mid-2000’s I wanted to develop a fitness application and was told that it would cost $500,000 for a non-working mockup. Today, I could probably develop the whole thing for free, and that’s exactly what many entrepreneurs are doing.

How many apps? Hard to say! New ones are coming out daily. If you want an idea of how many, check out TheresanAIforThat.com. As of this articles’s publish date, they have 4,434 indexed AI apps used for 1,242 tasks.

Information Tech WarThen there’s the battle of the tech giants, who are in a mad dash to revamp, reinvent, and reimagine their platforms to keep up with AI’s blazing trail. Remember when Instagram flipped its focus to Reels, only to switch back to photos when that didn’t pan out as they’d hoped?

You know what’s really intriguing? We’re watching TECH GURUS make these seismic decisions, not your average consumer.

It’s as if the tech nerds have hijacked the driver’s seat, pressing buttons and yanking levers without asking the passengers where they want to go. Despite having the funds to do extensive surveys, they’re barreling full steam ahead.

So, here we are, standing at the precipice of the great information tech war. It’s a new battlefield, with tech giants scurrying to mimic the success of TikTok and AI applications like ChatGPT, a frontier so vast and unsettling it’s causing Google to break into a cold sweat. Because, if AI continues its meteoric rise, SEO’s value could crumble like a cookie.

When it comes to content creation, the game is changing.

While Google still dotes on keywords like a doting parent, AI is taking a different approach. It’s an evolution, my friends. A revolution, if you will, where we shift from the creator dictating the content narrative to the user wielding the power.

The current model of content production is like putting the cart before the horse. It’s all creator-centric when it should be focusing on the user. Now, you might argue that keywords stem from user queries, but let’s be honest, it’s like trying to piece together a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

So what’s the deal with AI and why is Chat GPT all the rage?

Well, instead of playing favorites like Google, who’d boost Bob from down the street because his keyword game is strong, ChatGPT levels the playing field. It takes a massive fixed data set, learns from it, finds patterns, and then churns out an answer that’s an average of all the answers it has analyzed.

So when folks say AI is biased, I chuckle.

Sure, it has its inclinations, but it’s no more skewed than Bob penning an article with the sole aim of lightening your wallet. That’s the harsh reality of the internet, which loops back to my earlier point – the internet, as we know it, is flawed.

Why AI is Growing Right Now (and Why It’s Here to Stay)Switching gears now, let’s gab about AI adoption. We’re seeing a steady uptick here with about 35% of global companies harnessing AI in their operations. Now, I know, most folks’ minds jump straight to Chat GPT, but AI’s tendrils extend much further.

Consider the likes of TikTok, Starbucks, and other bigwigs. Ever used the Starbucks app? It’s a masterpiece of design rooted in machine learning – understanding how people interact with information, discover products they desire, and even related items they might fancy. This intricate dance of relational data is all orchestrated by AI, and it’s been this way for some time.

Nike and other industry titans have been riding the AI wave for a while now.

This 35% isn’t a passing trend; it’s a new industry standard. Interestingly, the data suggests larger companies are 100% more likely than their smaller counterparts to have AI up and running in their operations.

The message here is crystal clear – the big players are in the AI game to stay.

Small businesses, to stay in the race, have got to be nimble and swift to adopt these changes. If you’re stuck in the slow lane, you’ll not only be left in the dust by the corporate giants but also by the fresh-out-of-college Joes, who’ve grasped AI’s potential and are now moulding their marketing knowledge base around it.

Consider this, while we’re scrambling to retrofit AI into your existing frameworks, there’s a whole new generation coming up that knows nothing else.

Now, don’t get ahead of yourselves. I recently interviewed forty twenty-somethings for a new role. Not a single one had tried AI. They’ve heard of it, sure, but their understanding is largely surface-level. This presents an enormous opportunity for established players to tap into the AI potential because the rookies, surprisingly, aren’t fully clued in yet.

AI & the Job MarketAn interesting tidbit, one in four companies are turning to AI because of labor or skills shortages.

The job market is a tough nut to crack. Companies, particularly the big ones, are starting to question whether they need new hires or if they can simply reallocate tasks.

Let’s debunk this misconception that AI is a job thief. It’s not.

What AI does is streamline specific tasks and processes, some of which were once part of someone’s job description. Suddenly, email monitoring or data analysis isn’t a full-time position; it’s an automated task, courtesy of AI.

This doesn’t mean you’re axing jobs. Rather, you’re ramping up efficiency.

Here’s the golden ticket – we always say you should aim to be 10x more productive with AI. As marketers, you have the expertise and AI offers the tools. The result? Your abilities are amplified.

We’re not talking mass job losses here. We’re talking about enhanced productivity and speed, reducing the need for extra hires and solving issues with unmotivated employees, which, believe me, can be a headache.

As marketers, it’s natural to be concerned about our roles, but we do have a creative function, and that makes a difference. The top five jobs at risk of automation aren’t ours. They’re IT professionals, data engineers, developers, data scientists, and customer service professionals.

SOURCE: IBM 2022 State of AII’ll provide a link to IBM’s 2022 State of AI report for more details.

So while we should be aware, let’s dial back the worry a notch.

In terms of labor and skill shortages, many are quick to condemn AI adoption, arguing it deprives people of job opportunities. Often, these critics (which can be referred to as Luddites), oppose new tech due to various pressures unrelated to the work at hand. We need to take a moment and remember what’s most important here – our customers.

Our primary focus shouldn’t be our employees, business partners, or investors. It should be our users. There’s been debate about whether Google should index AI-created content or human-produced content, but the truth is, good content is good content. Period.

From a customer-centric perspective, they don’t care about your internal issues. They care about receiving a great product or service.

As businesses, we need to stop obsessing over our internal operations and start considering our users more.

Your priority should be delivering the best content for your audience, rather than worrying about who’s producing it. Of course, ethical considerations matter, but they should not overshadow the primary goal – customer satisfaction.

What does that imply if you’re aiming to scale?

Well, stellar customer service is mandatory. The user experience has to be outstanding. The product – whatever you’re selling, has to be top-notch. Plus, customers need to be sold on your brand. The days when you could sell a product, move on to the next customer and repeat, are long gone.

This shift has already begun on the product front because Amazon’s model has forced us in that direction. It led us to commoditizing products we don’t care much about to get them as cheaply as possible.

Now, the focus is on people committing to brands and quality products. No more tolerating being on hold with an offshore call center for hours and still not having your issue resolved. Those days are done.

So picture insurance commercials – except they weren’t lying, you know? I find insurance commercials amusing because they promise the world but do virtually nothing, or worse, they fight you when something goes wrong.

That’s how traditional marketing has been. That needs to change now.

We’re moving towards a time where we deliver, not just promise. So again, expect significant changes in the marketing industry. Things will be different, and there may be fewer of us, as we become ten times more effective – keep that stat in mind. If your competitor was ten times more effective, would you stand a chance? Not really.

Your competition may no longer be a big agency. It could just be a lone individual who has figured out how to automate everything seamlessly. This will lead to unified marketing because it will be generated by a single individual.

We’ve all heard tales about a guy working out of his basement for a year, building a company from the ground up and then becoming a millionaire, posting pictures of Lamborghinis in Dubai or something. Have you ever wondered how that works? It works because everything originates from one person – it’s cohesive, whether it’s high-quality or not. It all feels like a personal brand rather than a product of a committee.

That’s how most companies are – built by committee. It leads to a lot of compromises and blandness, and it disconnects you from your customer avatar. It results in a bland, default campaign. And anyone can create default campaigns now.

For instance, with the help of ChatGPT, you can have a month’s worth of social media content without breaking a sweat.

The era of achieving great success by following a systematic approach is over too. Now, you need a system (which many companies lack) in addition to excellent execution and delivery.

AI is the Latest Case of Creative DestructionThe process of the new taking over the old is known as creative destruction. Essentially, it’s the process of continuous internal revolution within the economic structure, constantly breaking down the old and creating the new.

This phenomenon isn’t new – it’s been part of our history. For instance, let’s go back a bit. Remember when disposable film cameras were a thing? You know, the little plastic and cardboard ones you’d get at weddings, click away mindlessly, giving you a bunch of sub-par pictures, costing you a small fortune to develop.

That era has been replaced by the era of digital photography. With a digital camera, you popped in an SD card, and voila, instant content. Remember the decline of Polaroid? Polariod sales essentially got obliterated, overtaken by digital photography.

That’s creative destruction in action.

Our task, then, is to navigate this constant change, ensuring that we are always on the cutting edge, always adapting, always prepared for what comes next.

In doing so, we ensure our survival and growth in this ever-evolving landscape.

Let’s draw parallels to another example, the decline of manual stock trading and the rise of online trading. It mirrors the way digital marketing took over offline marketing.

I set up my online stock trading account back in high school, and I can’t picture doing it any other way. I spoke to from a trader that they’d pay a hefty fee to place their processor just a foot closer to the data line, buying them an infinitesimal edge in time. Can’t even imagine operating in that industry without such capabilities.

Let’s talk about the decline of traditional retail stores and the rise of e-commerce, an area that exploded during the pandemic.

Stores had to shutter all over the country as people were locked indoors, finding that they had more time and disposable income since they weren’t splurging on trips. They turned to e-commerce. Even though some physical stores are reopening, ecommerce isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.

Then, we have the decline of physical media and the rise of streaming. Remember when strolling the aisles of the DVD store on a Friday night was a treat, and the excitement of finding an unexpected gem? That was a “thing,” replaced now by the advent of streaming, which effectively obliterated Blockbuster and all other DVD shops.

Now, let’s glance at the decline of traditional newspapers and the rise of online news. When was the last time you actually looked at a physical newspaper? Can’t remember, can you? And even in the checkout aisle, you’re more likely to be scrolling on your phone.

This process of ‘creative destruction’ that we’re going through, it’s cyclical. We’re on one cycle right now, but the key question is, will you make it to the next one?

Prepare Your Agency For the Future: Fortification & Innovation Assessment FrameworkTo navigate these tides of change and chaos, I propose a strategy of fortification and innovation. The marketing frameworks we’ve taught to hundreds of thousands of marketers (like the Customer Value Journey, Customer Avatar, and Core Message Canvas) still work.

They’ve worked for countless people and companies, and they’ve generated billions in revenue (over $100 million directly for DigitalMarketer). Even so, they need to be fortified so they can be even more effective using the latest technology, in this case, AI. That’s why we launched the AI-Powered Marketer Accelerator.

Similarly, you need to do the same thing with your customers by fortifying what works, and innovating improvements.

Are you prepared for the new market? If you don’t score 15 or above on either the Fortification or Innovation questions… you aren’t ready.

Click Here to download the spreadsheet.

FortificationRate your business from 1 to 5 on the following questions (1 = Not Defined, 5 = Well Defined)

| Fortification Questions | Your Score | | How well-defined is your customer avatar? | | How well-defined is your niche? | | How well-defined are your products & services? | | How detailed is your primary Customer Value Journey? | | How detailed is your conversion process? | | Total Fortification Score |

How well-defined is your customer avatar?

Step one is understanding your customer. This is the foundation we’re building on.

So, the first question is, who’s your client? Can you define that client? Rate the clarity of your client definition from one to five.

Can you visualize them? Picture Sally, the yoga enthusiast with four children who somehow finds time to attend all their matches, manages a myriad of tasks and all she desires is the perfect phone case to capture her life moments.

I’m chasing after the emotional connection here. I’m not interested in the mundane demographic data like a married, suburban mother between 35 to 45. That’s old news. I crave something juicy, something impactful for advertising.

Can you craft an advertisement, a tantalizing, effective ad using just that customer avatar?

Because if you can’t, you’ve got a hazy, nebulous understanding of your customer rather than a clear customer avatar.

How well-defined is your niche?

Moving on, question number two, what’s your niche? We’ve had endless discussions on niches. I’m quite fond of the phrase ‘niche it to rich it’. So, what’s your niche?

Can anyone take one look at your business and instantly discern your niche? If no one, even those familiar with your work, can pinpoint your niche, then you likely don’t have a defined niche. Evaluate yourself on your niche clarity. On a scale of one to five, how well-defined is your niche?

How well-defined are your products & services?

Next question, what’s your product or service? You might think it’s evident, but believe me, I’ve dealt with countless companies that were clueless about what they’re selling.

They might know their product or service catalog but fail to succinctly define it. Like with any offering, apply the 80/20 rule. If you can’t discern where 80% of your revenue is originating from, you likely have a poorly defined product or service.

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How detailed is your primary Customer Value Journey?

Next up, what’s your customer value journey? It’s not about educating them on marketing, it’s about illustrating the complexity of the process. Marketing isn’t just putting up billboards or Facebook ads, it’s a comprehensive, consistent plan. If your approach isn’t cohesive and consistent, you don’t have a customer value journey, rather a collection of tasks you perform for clients. And is that contributing to their growth? Or is it just ensuring your next paycheck?

So evaluate your core customer value journey on a scale of one to five. You should ideally have these customer value journeys segmented by product or product line. If you don’t, then you lack customer value.

How detailed is your conversion process?

And finally, what’s your conversion process? Can you describe it? Is it meeting Joe at a local business event, following up, running a discovery session, and signing him as a client? If you don’t have a conversion process, then you don’t really have a business, you’re merely interviewing for a job with random people, hoping that they hire you. Not much of a business model, is it?

You likely do have a conversion process, it just hasn’t been formalized yet. So, rate how formal and defined your conversion process is, on a scale of one to five.

InnovationRate your business from 1 to 5 on the following questions (1 = Not Defined, 5 = Well Defined)

| Innovation Questions | Your Score | | How customized are your solutions for each customer? | | How expensive are your customers to acquire? | | How well are you using AI to augment/improve your speed & processes? | | How much content are you creating? | | How well are you expanding your private following? | | Total Innovation Score |

How customized are your solutions for each customer?

AI’s level of personalization and its ability to generate immense amounts of content instantaneously means your customers will increasingly expect comprehensive, cohesive, and customized solutions.

If you’re not delivering these, they’ll seek out those who can. As I’ve mentioned before, you need to consolidate what you’re currently doing before you can innovate. You can’t possibly innovate in these areas if you don’t have them clearly defined to begin with.

Customers are going to become increasingly expensive to acquire, which means customer retention will become absolutely crucial.

How well are you taking care of your clients? Is it an afterthought or a constant priority? This needs to be at the forefront of your strategy – how to acquire and retain customers.

Next, you’re expected to exhibit your core competency in every facet of your business. This is why I always insist on expanding content marketing.

Your content is essentially a public display of your competence. When I commit to a brand, I undertake extensive research. I devour everything they’ve published, check all their social platforms, sign up for newsletters. If I find any inconsistencies, I likely won’t engage.

While this might sound eccentric now, it’ll soon become commonplace, as customers will have access to transformative experiences. They’ll find brands that ‘fix’ things for them and they’ll never consider leaving. So, brace yourself and be ready for the AI revolution in marketing!

How expensive are your customers to acquire?

The acquisition of your customers is escalating in expense, necessitating that customer retention takes center stage in your strategy.

Do you lavish attention on your clients or do you scatter that attention sporadically? This isn’t about generating monthly progress reports as an afterthought. It’s about constant engagement. Think about how you sign up your customers and how you ensure their allegiance.

Time to face the music – your core competency needs to be glaringly visible across your entire business. This is why I’ve always been an ardent advocate of content marketing. You see, your content is your public avatar, your professional facade. When I decide to commit to a brand, I run a comprehensive background check – I pore over every piece of content they’ve put out, scour their social channels, subscribe to their newsletters. If I detect inconsistencies, I’m out of there.

Now, this may sound a bit extreme in the current scenario, but trust me, it’s a trend that’s picking up steam. Why? Because consumers are being exposed to these transformative brand experiences. Once they get a taste of a brand that ‘fixes’ things for them, they’ll stick with it. So, picture this – a thousand fiercely loyal customers hooked to your brand. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

However, to earn that loyalty, you need to ensure that your content rings true to your brand. This is a significant issue I have with brands outsourcing their content creation. If you aren’t the one crafting the content, it lacks authenticity. If a customer reads an article attributed to you but you didn’t write it and then they approach you with questions based on it, how does that reflect on you? Not favorably, I assure you. You need to create your content and answer every question your customer could potentially have.

You’re also expected to anticipate questions they may not even know to ask yet. If you aren’t providing the answers, they’ll seek them elsewhere. So, it’s paramount that you invest in your content creation, possibly even leveraging AI-generated content.

How well are you expanding your private following?

With the uncertainties in search algorithms, it’s critical to develop your private following. A consistent newsletter is a good place to start. It gives you a platform to roll out content regularly and nurture your audience privately.

This idea came to me when I saw brands that relied heavily on Facebook for their marketing get banned. You need to secure your audience independently, away from the vagaries of social media.

How well are you using AI to augment/improve your speed & processes?

Now, let’s touch upon the application of AI in marketing. The core uses include personalization, predictive analytics, chatbots, image recognition, voice search optimization, content creation, lead generation, A/B testing, and sentiment analysis.

It all circles back to data crunching and content creation. However, don’t assume AI-created content absolves you of your responsibility. It’s still your duty to bring a unique style to every piece of content, across all platforms and mediums.

So, let’s tackle some pressing questions. How customized are your solutions for each customer? Are they templated or do they address unique needs? Next, how costly is customer acquisition for you currently, compared to last year? And, how well are you utilizing AI to enhance your speed and processes?

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For small and boutique salon owners, regular clients are often the heart of the business. From driving sales to influencing by word of mouth, customers are critical for any beauty business.

However, growth is both important and inevitable for a new beauty business. The goal soon becomes maintaining your regular customers while constantly growing the brand.

So, how is a salon owner supposed to make it work?

Turn to salon marketing!

Ensuring outreach and retention happens through targeted marketing and market-focused thinking. Finding the best way to extend that focus is often a major hurdle for business owners. Fortunately, salon owners have plenty of tricks at their disposal.

Here are four of the most impactful marketing techniques for beauty business owners.

Social Media is KeyIn today’s hyper-connected world, a business without a strong social media presence is missing out on growth. Most customers use several forms of social media throughout their day.

For success, make your presence known across those social media channels.

Your business must have a Facebook page. It creates a centralized hub of connectivity for your customers. Plus, Facebook Ads help put the salon’s name directly in front of new customers.

Be sure to target your specific audience. Younger customers are more likely to use Instagram and TikTok rather than Facebook. Consider going the extra step and collaborating with local influencers. Doing so allows:

• A known name to represent your brand and products.
• The salon to connect with hundreds of potential customers.
• The public to see the skills of the stylists.
• An “inside look” into the business, which boosts connections with new and existing customers.

If social media isn’t a forte within the salon, consider hiring a social media manager.

Specialized channels like Instagram and TikTok benefit from a dedicated manager. They film and edit videos and pictures, and they interact with your customers online.

Think of a social media manager as the public mouthpiece of the salon. Their expertise and marketing knowledge helps ensure the salon has an impactful online presence.

Focus on Your CustomersSalon marketing is all about showing the business to more and more people. However, that doesn’t mean advertising without a strategy.

Today’s customers are savvy when it comes to marketing. Daily email notices or stale Facebook ads are now a detriment, not a marketing tool.

Today’s consumers want personalized, relevant communication. After all, nearly 80% of customers desire personally-appropriate marketing from a business.

Some key ways to keep the salon customer-centered include:

• Send emails or texts after appointments asking for reviews and feedback. This provides an endless list of what your customers expect.
• Use birthdays and sign-up days for specialized discounts. This is a perfect way to deliver personalized marketing.
• Delete your generic email blasts. Instead, ensure the emails contain quality, pertinent information that your customers want.

For your in-store customers, gently encourage them to sign up for email and text alerts. It allows your customers to have to-the-minute information, in addition to advanced knowledge on specials, pricing, and even appointment reminders.

Loyalty Programs Build RetentionSocial media marketing ensures the salon reaches the masses. Your stylists keep your customers happy through their expertise.

So, how do you get them to stay happy and continue generating positive word-of-mouth marketing?

Provide them with a loyalty program.

Nearly 85% of all customers choose businesses that offer loyalty programs, and a majority feel that those programs are beneficial.

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Points-based programs or accumulated tier models encourage customers to continue visiting. Meanwhile, referral programs help grow your customer base. And since these referrals come from trusted sources, those referred are more likely to remain customers.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to loyalty programs. For example, reward people for their repeat business by providing a free 10th service.

Or, encourage new product discovery through discounts at checkout. Checkout purchasing is already incentivized. Thus, with discounts applied, the customer is more likely to purchase.

As well, don’t feel locked to one style of loyalty program. A referral system and a points system are perfect in the same store.

Consider, too, combining services for different tiers of customers. This creates an even more personalized program with a higher emphasis on loyalty.

Focus on Local Communication and OutreachA great way to advertise a salon is to simply “be there” when relevant. Specifically, work to tie the salon to local beauty events.

A prime place to start is to host open house events. For instance:

• Provide meet-and-greets with stylists for increased customer connection.
• Host product demonstrations (and give those attending discounts or free items).
• Hold charitable events at the salon, such as hair donations or toiletry donations for women’s shelters.

Charity, in particular, is a solid way to build connections with the community. Match donated items or amounts. Sponsor local events, like charity races or community festivals.

As a sponsor for community events, the salon is always at the forefront of the public’s mind.

Sponsorship also creates new leads and partnership opportunities, not to mention boosting your salon throughout all available channels at the same time.

Becoming a known name within the community is an excellent way to connect with customers. Highlight the salon’s goodwill through charity and community outreach. Customers love a business that proves it cares about them.

Final ThoughtsMarketing for your salon is all about connecting with the customer. From a strong social media presence to a meaningful loyalty program, customers want the experience to be about them. The best way to achieve that is to cater your marketing to the individual.

Use personalized emails to deliver birthday discounts. Or, focus on customer history to provide specialized sales.

Sponsor community events to highlight the expertise of your stylists. And always ask for feedback from your customers. Understanding what the customer wants is best heard directly from the source.

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Today, consumers have an increasing number of options for how to interact with your brand. These include virtual channels like social media and influencer marketing.

While it’s great that technology has provided us with plenty of new methods and marketing tactics, it also means you need to up your game. As a result, customers are placing a higher value on the overall shopping experience than ever before.

The way your brand presents itself at various touch points is a major factor in conversions. Customer journey optimization works to raise overall customer satisfaction (CSAT) and promotes growth in your business.

What is customer journey optimization?Optimizing the customer journey involves mapping out and analyzing every touchpoint in the buying process. You can then improve the buyer’s journey by eliminating friction at each of these.

This encompasses all available touchpoints, including digital advertising, content and social media marketing. Customer journey optimization improves processes behind the camera, so to speak, so your brand, team, and products can be the stars of the show.

Benefits of customer journey optimizationWhen you optimize the customer journey, you stand to gain several benefits.

Save moneyMapping out the customer journey paints a clear picture of your current marketing and sales strategies. You can easily identify redundancies and remove these by analyzing them from an outside viewpoint. Long story short is that you’ll save money on operational costs and labor.

For example, simple customer actions like order tracking might be better and more efficiently managed by a virtual receptionist, freeing your team up to work on tasks that are more obviously profitable, such as sales.

Increase productivityCustomer journey optimization helps you cut out the fat. A well-trimmed buying process is much more efficient when it comes to how your team members’ time is used. By focusing their efforts on the most valuable touchpoints and prospect interactions, they’ll be able to generate more leads and conversions in less time.

Part of this optimization might mean investing in software that gives the customer more control over their journey. For example, if you offer co-working spaces, you may wish to invest in coworking space management software that empowers users to book and pay for rooms without having to speak to a team member in person or over the phone.

Better teamwork and collaborationThe results of the 2021 Statista survey shown above found that inter-departmental siloing is the biggest challenge when optimizing the customer journey. This is where customer journey mapping rises to the challenge.

With a big-picture view, those working at the top of the funnel will better understand where their prospects are heading, meaning they’re more able to prepare them for their next interaction. Likewise, salespeople working in the middle of the funnel can give feedback on the quality of leads and help prospecting teams adjust their strategies accordingly.

How does optimization increase customer satisfaction?Many business benefits arise from customer journey optimization.

Reduces FrictionCustomers may encounter friction at every step of their journey. We’re not talking about Newtonian physics that explain how your car grips a road; we’re talking about obstacles to conversion that are built into your buying processes.

Customer friction is something you must overcome for the consumer to take the next step. Common causes include:

• Lack of empowerment. Do customers have their preferred channels available to them e.g. live chat and self-service options?
• Unreasonable/uncertain duration. Are wait times reasonable, and are they communicated to the customer?
• Lack of identity. Is the customer known and recognized at each touchpoint, or do they have to repeat themselves along the way?
• Lack of transparency. Do customers know what step they’re at in the process?
• Lack of consistency. Does each interaction fit with your brand and provide a positive overall experience?

Let’s take friction caused by duration as an example. You could utilize a service that enables call forwarding or queue callbacks to help lower customer wait times. This would optimize the buyer journey and make it less arduous for the customer.

An often overlooked tactic is to focus on the obstacle causing the friction rather than the nudge itself. For example, you can make conversions easier so your prospects can sprint their way down the sales funnel.

In the early part of the journey, this might include optimization by way of marketing and communication channels. If your target audience is Gen Z and Millenials, for example, forgo traditional channels and build brand awareness on the social media platforms they use instead.

There are many eCommerce marketing strategies that can help you optimize interactions and reduce friction.

Focuses on pain pointsAn optimized customer journey gives consumers a more streamlined experience. Rather than being distracted by unnecessary steps, it ensures just the right amount of interactions and information.

This type of focused effort from your sales and marketing team means you can spend more time singing the benefits of your products or services. More importantly, it ensures each experience focuses on the specific pain points of your buyer personas.

Personalizes the customer experiencePart of the optimization process is building customary journey maps that achieve a high level of success. Each one should focus on a different buyer persona. These custom journeys are just one way that optimization personalizes the customer experience (CX).

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Building interactions for each segment’s preferred channels increases customer satisfaction. You can also use CRM solutions, customer journey management platforms, and marketing automation to hyper-personalize every interaction. This might range from having live agents and chatbots with access to customer account information to suggesting products your buyers will be interested in.

How to optimize the customer journey map1. Define your business goalsOptimizing the customer journey can help you achieve various objectives, but it’s best to set your sights on a few specific goals for your business. This will help to guide you.

The following are some examples of business goals:

• To stamp out weaknesses or redundancies in the customer journey
• To gain more insight through increased customer feedback

• To increase conversions at bottlenecks in the sales funnel

• Define your buyer personasBuyer personas help you segment your audience according to their attitudes, values, behaviors, and demographic information. The first step is to identify your best buyers and your least valuable customer types.

When building your customer avatars, you should find common factors or indicators to help with optimizing customer journeys and areas like lead qualification.

1. Pick your target personasTo get started, pick the buyer persona that most closely fits your business goals. If this is your first time refreshing the customer journey, you’ll likely want to focus on the personas that represent the best lifetime value.

2. Start drafting a customer journey mapNow you have a better understanding of who your customers are, it’s time to start visualizing the purchasing journey. You need to map out every customer touchpoint or interaction from beginning to end.

This includes every channel that’s used to create brand awareness, from Instagram and Facebook marketing to email newsletters and word-of-mouth referrals. It also includes third-party channels like affiliate marketing and other partner programs.

From here, you can start optimizing and connecting actions to build a customer journey that’s robust and efficient.

1. Start optimizingWith a rough draft of the customer journey in place, you can begin to make alterations and improvements. Eliminate redundant or friction-building interactions, and map out pathways that allow for a seamless transition from one touchpoint to another. Ensure these make sense for the buyer persona involved.

For instance, when nudging Gen Zers from the brand awareness to the subscription stage, you could focus on social media only. This means eliminating CTAs that involve newsletter subscriptions or inbound calling campaigns for this particular journey.

1. Use the right toolsBy now, you should have a close to ideal journey for each buyer persona. These are optimized when friction is reduced and your team is set up for success. The only problem is that nothing is ideal.

No matter how much you prepare, there will always be room for improvement, so you’ll need to arm yourself with the best tools for the job. Customer relationship management software is crucial. Other marketing tools can also help you automate and track each customer’s journey.

While you’re at it, don’t forget about the wealth of digital marketing resources available online.

1. Optimize, rinse, and repeatCompleting your optimized customer journey map is only the beginning. You’ll need to take this process and repeat it for each business goal and buyer persona. Of course, you can use existing maps as templates for building new customer journeys.

Using marketing tools, you should be able to track the success of your freshly optimized touchpoints and overall conversion rates. Use analytics tools and trusty A/B testing to hone in on what’s working and what isn’t.

Continue the process ad infinitum and reap the rewards of providing a seamless, frictionless customer experience.

Optimize the customer journey today!Businesses like yours desire their operations to run as smoothly as possible. Your customers will hold you to these same standards during the buying cycle. Now, at least, you should have the tools and team to identify what your customers want.

This is the time to map out and optimize your customer journeys. That is, unless you’d rather wait around while they flock to competitors that offer a painless purchase process. Why not start improving your customer satisfaction levels today?

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They say employees are a company’s greatest asset, and it’s just as true for marketing agencies as any other business. The right team can help prove your agency’s quality, credibility, and competency to potential clients. So, it just makes sense that you want to find qualified candidates and, more importantly, ensure they’re in it for the long haul.

Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Chances are, you’ve experienced this firsthand. Maybe you’ve lost one of your most talented employees or been disappointed by a lack of interest from candidates. Whatever the case, it’s worth looking at why this is and how you can change your approach for greater success.

Why Finding and Keeping Qualified Candidates Is ToughThere are many reasons marketing agencies struggle to find qualified candidates and retain them. The two biggest factors are as follows:

1. Competition in the labor market
2. Employee expectations

For starters, consider the competition in the labor market. There are more than 14,000 marketing and advertising agencies in the U.S. alone. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing job demand is expected to increase 10% by 2026. However, there’s a limited pool of candidates willing and able to perform at the desired level.

We’re all looking for a specific type of professional, right? At a minimum, the ideal team member is knowledgeable about marketing, has skills in one or more areas, and possesses the right attitude for success. A person with these traits who cares about helping clients grow is a hot commodity. Every agency that’s hiring wants them!

In short, the competition is fierce. Your competitors are trying to attract the same high-quality candidates as you are. So, you have to work extra hard to stand out and encourage them to apply for a position at your agency. And if you manage to bring them on board, you need to prove their decision was the right one. After all, there’s no shortage of options available to them.

But that’s not the hurdle you have to overcome…

There’s also the fact that the wants and needs of today’s marketing professionals (and workers in general) have changed.

For instance, employee expectations include more than just a salary reflecting their value. People are looking for things like…

• Positive work culture
• Recognition
• Flexibility
• Transparency
• Respect
• Purpose

Unfortunately, these are things that many agencies neglect to highlight when recruiting—or worse, fail to deliver in the workplace. And in the second scenario, it leads to great talent leaving for other opportunities. In fact, 2022 showed 62% of professionals considering a job change.

To say that finding strong, qualified candidates and holding on to them is a challenge would be an understatement. But here’s the good news—it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of changing your approach, putting your marketing skills to good use, and offering value to your team.

Let’s start with recruiting…

5 Tips to Find Qualified Candidates for Your AgencyAs marketers, we’re always looking for ways to level up and do better for our clients. And the same should apply to the recruitment process. If you’re having a hard time sourcing and inviting top talent to work for your agency, you need to make some improvements.

With that said, here are five tips you can use to find qualified candidates:

1. Create True Job Descriptions.

A job description is just that—a description of a job. Yet, most marketing agencies (and businesses in general) get this wrong. If you’re trying to build a solid digital marketing team, you probably have a lengthy list of requirements for the ideal candidate.

But that’s not explaining the job, is it?

Jason Weseman, Certified Business Coach at FocalPoint Consulting, put it best during a workshop hosted by Viral Solutions: “A job description should define the work that needs to be performed, not the skills needed to do the work.”

To explain why this is so important, Weseman went on to say, “You can find people that meet your exact description—your requirements, your skills, your experience—that couldn’t do the work.”

Plus, if you’re strict with your criteria, you could miss on great talent. For example, research has shown that women only apply to jobs if they’re 100% qualified.

So, focus on outlining what the job entails rather than what characteristics you’re looking for in a candidate.

1. Brand the Job, Not Your Agency.

As marketers, we’re no strangers to branding. And we all know how vital employer branding is. But a common mistake agencies make when trying to find suitable candidates is not branding a job.

According to Weseman, “Top talent already knows about their competition. They know about other companies in their space… What they need to be sold on is the job itself.”

So, in each job description you write, focus on answering the following questions:

• What can they do?
• What can they become?
• What does success look like?
• What does the future hold?

Brand the job by explaining how it will benefit them and make life better. Use storytelling to take them on a journey!

1. Spread the Word Wide.

When you have written your job description and are ready to look for candidates, spread the word wide. Go beyond popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and Indeed. Consider posting the position on marketing-specific sites like MarketingHire, the American Marketing Association, and Digital Agency Network.

And don’t forget about the other resources you have available! You can post about the job on your social media channels and encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates they may know.

1. Don’t Ignore the Passive Market.

To find qualified candidates to join your team, Weseman also recommends looking at the passive market.

What does that mean?

It means considering those who aren’t actively searching for a new job.

This gives you a wider pool of potential candidates. More importantly, it gives you a wider pool of top talent, as they likely have the knowledge, skills, and attitude you’re looking for. After all, another agency hired them!

The key to convincing someone to change jobs (apart from making sure they see your opening) is to show that a position at your agency can offer more. A career move needs to provide a 30% nonmonetary increase. That includes job growth, job stretch, and job satisfaction.

By proving that a talented marketing professional can have greater opportunities, a bigger impact, and higher satisfaction with your agency, you can reach more exceptional candidates.

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1. Rethink Your Interviews.

The last tip for finding good candidates is to rethink your interviews. (This is another nugget of wisdom from Weseman.) You’ll have a better chance of filling an open slot with the perfect person if you…

• Ask the right questions.

“What is your biggest accomplishment?” is the most critical and effective interview question you can ask. It gives insight into what a candidate views as an accomplishment and helps you see if they’d be a good fit. If their answer is irrelevant to the position or doesn’t align with your agency’s goals, they’re probably not the right choice.

• Wait to make a final decision.

People come to an interview as the best version of themselves, so first impressions aren’t always reliable. That’s why Weseman recommends waiting 30 minutes. If you love them after three minutes, give them tougher questions for the remaining 27. If you’re unsure after three minutes, give them easier questions for the rest of the interview.

How to Retain Good Marketing Talent After HiringFinding qualified candidates is one thing, but retaining them is another. And it’s arguably more important! When a team member leaves, you miss out on everything they bring to the table. Plus, it can cost you—big time. Replacing a salaried employee costs an average of 6-9 months’ salary.

So, what can you do to retain good marketing talent once you’ve brought them on board?

• Offer training opportunities.

Great team members strive to learn and grow in their careers. That’s why you should offer training opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Ask what they want to do better or take a deeper dive into. Then, source appropriate training for them.

• Create a healthy company culture.

Fostering a healthy company culture can go a long way in retaining team members long term. It can boost satisfaction and keep employees engaged. So, make sure your culture passes the test by prioritizing wellness, promoting diversity and inclusion, being transparent, and ensuring everyone aligns with the agency’s values.

• Commit to job advancement.

If you’ve promised a candidate that your agency can provide them with job advancement, commit to it. Give them a chance to move up the ladder once they’ve shown they’re capable. Having the option for vertical career growth will increase the chances they stay on. Plus, it proves you stay true to your word.

• Reevaluate to stay competitive.

Put in the effort to show your agency is one of the best to work for.

How?

Reevaluate what you offer your team members every so often. In addition to compensation and benefits, look at the perks other agencies provide their teams. Even giving increased flexibility by allowing team members to work from home can be seen as an advantage.

• Prioritize employee recognition.

Team members need to feel valued, which is why you should make it a point to recognize and reward their hard work. How you do this is up to you. It could be as simple as congratulating someone on a project completed without a hitch or setting up a bonus program for hitting set goals.

In SummaryIf you’re struggling to find qualified candidates to work at your agency and stay on for years, you need to change things up. We tell our clients it’s not about them, and the same goes for us! Show how a particular job can benefit a potential candidate, and don’t forget to deliver on your promises. That way, you can build the strongest team possible and position your agency for success.

The post Unlocking the Secrets to Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent in Your Agency appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Podcasting has become an increasingly popular way for businesses to reach their target audience and build a loyal following. But how can businesses use podcasting as a part of their overall marketing strategy?

I know firsthand as a business owner the importance of creating a targeted and effective marketing strategy that maximizes the value of each customer and builds long-term loyalty and advocacy for my brand. That’s why I decided to leverage the power of podcasting by launching the Creative Visionaries Podcast as a part of my overall marketing strategy at Creative Marketing.

To create a targeted and effective podcast marketing strategy that maximizes the value of each customer and builds long-term loyalty and advocacy for their brand, businesses can turn to DigitalMarketer’s Customer Value Journey (CVJ) framework. While it is most commonly used in the development of a marketing plan there is a huge opportunity to align each stage of the CVJ with the podcast marketing process.

Businesses can create episodes that attract listeners, build trust, and ultimately convert them into loyal brand advocates. This approach ensures that every podcast episode provides value to the listener, while also advancing them further along the customer value journey toward becoming a loyal customer.

To better understand how the CVJ framework can be applied to podcast marketing, let’s take a closer look at each of the eight stages:

• Awareness: At this stage, the customer becomes aware of the business and its products or services.
• Engagement: The customer engages with the business in some way, such as by visiting the website or signing up for an email list.
• Subscribe: The customer opts in to receive more information from the business, such as a newsletter or free content.
• Convert: The customer makes their first purchase from the business.
• Excite: The customer experiences the product or service and becomes excited about it.
• Ascend: The customer makes additional purchases or upgrades to higher-priced products or services.
• Advocate: The customer becomes a loyal fan of the business and recommends it to others.
• Promote: The customer actively promotes the business and its products or services to others.

Applying this framework to podcasting, businesses can create and market a successful podcast that guides customers through each stage of the journey.

At the Awareness stage, a business might promote its podcast on social media or through paid advertising to reach new listeners. By offering valuable and engaging content in the podcast, businesses can then move listeners into the Engagement and Subscribe stages of the journey.

Encouraging listeners to subscribe to the podcast and leave reviews can help move them into the Conversion stage, where they become paying customers.

During the Excite stage, businesses can leverage their podcast to deepen engagement and foster brand loyalty. By offering valuable content that speaks directly to their customers’ needs and interests, businesses can generate excitement and enthusiasm around their brand, further strengthening their connection with their audience.

This leads them directly into the Ascend stage, where customers are offered opportunities to move up the value ladder by making additional purchases or upgrades to higher-priced products or services, building a deeper relationship with the brand.

For example, a digital marketing agency could establish authority in their industry by offering marketing consulting services and using a podcast to provide valuable insights and tips to potential clients, ultimately building trust and establishing themselves as an expert in their field.

At the Advocate stage, businesses can use their podcast to create a community of loyal fans who actively promote their brand. This can be done by encouraging listeners to share the podcast with others, leave positive reviews, and engage with the business on social media.

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Businesses can create long-term loyalty and advocacy by promoting their podcast to their existing audience and leveraging the Promote stage of the customer value journey, which involves creating a sense of belonging and community around their brand.

So, we’ve talked about how podcasting can really benefit businesses. It’s a great way to get your brand out there, engage with your customers, and connect with your target audience. Plus, it’s a powerful tool for establishing your expertise and building a strong, recognizable brand.

By incorporating the CVJ framework to guide their podcast marketing efforts, businesses can create a more targeted and effective strategy that maximizes the value of each customer and builds long-term loyalty and advocacy for their brand.

To create a successful podcast, businesses should follow some key tips: First, they should identify a specific niche or topic that appeals to their target audience. By focusing on a specific topic, businesses can differentiate themselves from other podcasts and create a loyal following.

Second, businesses should produce high-quality content that provides value to their listeners. This can include interviews with experts in the industry, tips and advice, and engaging storytelling.

Third, businesses should promote their podcast through various channels, including social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.

With dedication and creativity, podcasting can be a valuable asset for any business looking to stand out in today’s digital landscape. By creating high-quality content that resonates with their audience, businesses can increase brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

Incorporating the Customer Value Journey framework can help guide their podcast marketing efforts and create a more effective and targeted strategy. So, if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, consider starting a podcast today and join the millions of businesses already leveraging this powerful tool.

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There’s something comforting and enjoyable about creating a routine where people know you, whether that’s a favorite coffee shop or place to walk or a local beer store where they call your dog by name.

Many businesses can create this personalized shopping experience to convert more browsers into buyers. But, it can be tough to do that online where you can’t look into a customer’s eyes or easily ask what they need as they browse digital shelves. Still, we regularly hear about the need for eCommerce personalization.

To tackle that opportunity, let’s define personalization, the best way to start implementing it, and methods to optimize your efforts.

Defining “personalization” in eCommercePersonalization and customization can feel like the same thing, but some important distinctions exist. Breaking these out makes it easier to understand personalization and how it can apply in eCommerce operations.

For your website and sales efforts, personalization uses data and customer insights to craft a specific shopping experience for every customer. These efforts may include showing relevant products, serving recommendations, and adjusting content based on the customer’s past behavior.

Companies may also try personalizing service levels or selecting specific pop-ups and overlays based on customer status.

Customization, on the other hand, generally refers to customer-driven choices. These range from the obvious (selection or sorting by size, color, price, etc.) to detailed efforts specific to the individual (a customer chooses not to see certain types of products). When you think of customization as something helmed by the customer, you’ll start identifying ways to use their selections to craft personalized experiences.

How personalization creates a better shopping experienceTo create a personalized shopping experience, eCommerce businesses need to invest in audience research. By understanding your customers and what they want, you can create an individualized experience that will convert browsers into buyers.

You’ll want to create as complete a picture of the shopper as possible. Ask core experience questions, including:

• What are their needs that you can and can’t address?
• What are their wants or things that tip them over the edge to make a purchase?
• What motivates them to make this purchase at this time?
• Why should they choose you to meet their specific needs and wants?

Once you understand your customers well, you can start creating a shopping experience tailored to them. Take learning about their immediate needs and wants. I

t’s easier to suggest the right products when you know what they’ve recently viewed or what ad they clicked on to get to your site. You’re building based on their tastes and refining suggestions based on what gets that second purchase.

Understanding why someone values your brand can also help you create personalized discounts or special deals that gain shoppers. If you’re known for customer service, you might leverage this for an ad tagline: “World-class customer service meets free shipping on every order over $20.”

It’s more than just a deal; it’s one couched in the language you know they appreciate. Tying it back to shipping and order support also reinforces your brand as one that cares about the customer.

Finally, it is important to ensure the customer feels valued and appreciated. Thank them for their business and promptly take care of any issues they may have. Creating a positive relationship with your customers ensures they keep returning for more.

3 steps to take to get started with personalization To get started with personalization, businesses need to take three steps: collecting data, analyzing data, and implementing personalization.

1. Collect data The first step is to collect data about your customers. This could include information such as their demographics, location, what devices they use, what pages they visit on your site, and what products they are interested in. There are a number of ways businesses can collect this data, such as through website cookies, surveys, and customer loyalty programs.

2. Analyze data Once you have collected data about your customers, it is important to analyze it to understand their needs and preferences. This will help you determine how to best personalize their shopping experience. Several tools are available to help with this analysis, such as analytics software and customer segmentation tools.

3. Implement personalization The final step is to implement personalization into your eCommerce store. This could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts. By personalizing the shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates and average order value.

The top 5 ways to personalize the shopping experiencePersonalization can be an incredibly complex experience or a simpler operation based on your tech stack and the amount of data you use. To get started, there are some core efforts to implement that can start with minimal, current-session data and then move to longer-term tracking and utilization.

1. Use data to recommend productsOne of the most effective ways to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to recommend products. This could include data from past purchases, browsing history, and social media activity.

By understanding what customers have bought in the past, businesses can make recommendations for similar or complementary products. This helps customers find what they’re looking for more easily and allows businesses to upsell and cross-sell effectively.

1. Create a personalized homepageAnother way to personalize the shopping experience is to create a personalized homepage. This could include features such as recommended products, recently viewed items, and even a custom welcome message.

By creating a personalized homepage, businesses can make sure that each customer feels valued and that they can easily find what they’re looking for — reinforcing your brand identity as helpful and in-the-know.

Consider tying homepages to traffic and referral sources so that someone looking at your Instagram account hits a page filled with both products and the videos you create. It’s an easy way to start the fruitful process of understanding customer behavior across channels.

1. Use data to create targeted marketing campaignsAnother effective way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create targeted marketing campaigns. This involves using customer data to segment customers into different groups and then creating marketing messages that are tailored to each group. This could include offering discounts or special promotions to specific groups of customers.

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Don’t neglect small lifts here. Greet customers directly by name. Adjust messages based on user region. Adapt to local events and other broader experiences that keep your content from feeling too general, even if it isn’t hyper-personalized.

1. Use data to segment your email listYou can also personalize the shopping experience by segmenting your email list. This involves grouping customers together based on their interests, demographics, or purchase history. Most email marketing tools track detailed customer information you can leverage.

For example, monitoring when customers last visited allows you to email people about how “it’s been a while”.

By segmenting your email list, you can send more targeted and relevant messages to each group of customers. This can lead to higher open and click-through rates, as well as increased sales and revenue.

1. Personalized product pages by creating variantsThe final way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create a personalized product page. Or, at least create a page that feels catered to the individual based on broader context and information.

When you can get very detailed, this involves using customer data such as purchase history and browsing behavior to recommend similar or complementary products. You’ll need a dynamic site that can adapt to their history and habits in real-time.

If you don’t have a robust site, consider building blocks for each section of your landing pages or product pages for each SKU. Then, you can create groupings that feel customized because the pre-existing blocks you use match what people see in broader marketing campaigns. As you get more sophisticated, these blocks can then be what you dynamically insert into different elements as the customer shops around your site.

By creating a personalized product page, businesses can enhance conversion rates and have a better chance for higher order values because of the relevance of up-sell and cross-sell promotions.

The benefits of personalization for businessesThere are many benefits of personalization for businesses. By creating a personalized shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty.

Conversion rates improve because customers are more likely to buy from a store that recognizes them and offers products they are interested in. If you’re marketing to the same people, small efforts like using someone’s first name in an email can increase conversion rates.

Companies that personalize offers also tend to see average order values increase in multiple ways. These incentives help push people to make more impulse purchases and reach higher overall orders — a benefit you can compound when making traditional online offers like free shipping on orders of a certain value.

Finally, studies also show that personalization can improve customer loyalty. Studies have found that more than half of people are open to receiving personalized experiences, and 72% who get these end up spending more or buying more often. This is because customers feel appreciated and valued when they are recognized and offered products they look at or follow.

Overall, personalization is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty. When used correctly, it can be a key driver of success for eCommerce businesses.

Create an experience you’d enjoyWhen it comes to personalizing the shopping experience, businesses must take a few steps to ensure they are doing it correctly.

First and foremost, they need to collect data about their customers so they can understand their needs and preferences. Once they have this data, they need to analyze it to determine how best to personalize the shopping experience for each customer.

Then, they need to implement personalization into their eCommerce store, which could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts.

The final piece, however, is reviewing the effort and ensuring that it adds value to the shopping experience. Ask if it is something you’d enjoy or if the elements and personalization get in the way. You don’t want to be overly burdensome or overly creepy. The aim is to show people what they want to see without them feeling like you’re crunching a lot of data behind the scenes.

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Artificial Intelligence seems to be everywhere we look – from streaming services to self-driving cars and virtual assistants — it’s the talk of the town!

But what exactly is AI? And how can it benefit businesses and their customers?

Let’s take a closer look at artificial intelligence meaning, its rise in popularity, and the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence to determine if incorporating this innovative tool is right for you.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?Simply put, Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a form of computer programming which enables machines to “think” like humans. This intelligence can be used to process data, solve problems, and make decisions automatically.

AI uses algorithms that analyze and interpret large amounts of data from various sources, allowing it to learn from past experiences to make future decisions.

Although still in its early stages, the potential benefits of AI are vast, from streamlining businesses to improving healthcare outcomes. It’s exciting to see how this technology is changing the world and how we can harness its power for the greater good.

Popular AI Use CasesArtificial intelligence use cases are vast, ranging from healthcare and finance to transportation and security.

You must have seen AI-powered chatbots being used for customer service inquiries. These are very popular on ecommerce websites and offer a personalized shopping & browsing experience.

Artificial intelligence is also being used to improve facial recognition software in security applications, as well as for automating predictive analytics in finance and banking.

Not to forget, the healthcare industry is rapidly adopting AI technology to reduce costs, improve diagnosis and treatment accuracy, and provide better health services to patients.

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And, we are sure, you must be familiar with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google assistant – they’re all powered by AI!

Now that you understand the term artificial intelligence and its applications let’s look at the pros and cons of AI.

What Are The Advantages & Disadvantages Of AI?Any technological advancement has its pros and cons, and AI is no exception. While it has a huge positive potential to revolutionize the world, some serious drawbacks must be considered before investing in AI technology.

Let’s study some advantages of artificial intelligence and its possible downsides as well.

Artificial Intelligence Advantages1. Minimum-to-No Errors

One of the key benefits of AI-driven systems is their extreme accuracy and reliability.

Unlike us humans, machines do not make mistakes simply due to fatigue, distractions, or emotional biases. Thus, they can perform tasks with unmatched precision and consistency.

This is the differentiator in industries where human error can be costly, such as healthcare, finance, space exploration, etc.

1. Increased Productivity

People are amazing; human intelligence, grit, and work ethic can do magic when used to their full potential.

But human resources have limitations. Our attention and focus span often decrease with time, resulting in lower productivity levels.

Sitting too long in front of a screen can make us tired and sloppy. Even if we start the day fresh, we might have something else on our minds, like a breakup or a sports team losing. It’s “natural” but that’s the thing.

Unlike humans, computers and programs don’t get tired – AI can work round the clock with the same levels of energy and enthusiasm, boosting business productivity.

1. Improved Decision-Making

AI-driven decision-making is fast, unbiased, and driven purely by data. No personal opinions or judgments are considered when making decisions, thus eliminating any potential bias.

This is particularly advantageous when decisions are difficult and can be adversely affected by emotions or personal opinions – legal, political, and financial matters, for example.

1. Enhanced Automation

AI-driven systems can take over mundane, repetitive tasks to free up human resources for more creative, innovative tasks.

This helps streamline the process and makes it easier to manage large volumes of data with minimum human intervention.

In email campaigns, for example, AI can take over the task of sending out 2-3 emails a week. This frees up time and resources for more creative content and allows marketers to tailor their emails to different target audiences better.

1. Increased Accessibility And Availability

A human being will always need time off. Whether it’s for vacation, health reasons, or fulfilling a family commitment, we humans need to take a break.

AI-driven technologies, on the other hand, are available 24/7. They don’t get sick, don’t need breaks, and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

This better accessibility and 24/7 uptime make artificial intelligence a great tool for businesses, especially to perform repetitive jobs. Why? They keep doing the same task with the same precision, accuracy, and quality without getting fatigued, over and over again.

1. Cost Efficient

AI-driven systems are cost-efficient in the long run.

While an initial investment is required for setting up such a system, the ROI is higher in the long run since AI-driven systems require no additional labor costs or salaries.

They also do not need to be trained or upgraded regularly, meaning the cost of maintenance is quite low.

Therefore, when used correctly and efficiently, AI-driven systems can help businesses reduce costs while also improving productivity.

1. Countless Applications

While human beings can wear multiple hats to do different jobs, AI robots can do infinitely more.

From facial recognition and natural language processing to motion tracking and computer vision, the possibilities are endless with AI.

Similarly, machine learning algorithms can be used for predictive analytics, allowing businesses to identify potential opportunities and risks before they happen. AI-driven systems can also help in identifying customer preferences and predicting customer behavior.

1. Improved Security

AI-driven systems offer enhanced security and better protection of sensitive customer data.

AI-driven authentication mechanisms can identify malicious users who are trying to gain unauthorized access to data and systems.

AI-driven systems can also monitor user activity in real time, detect anomalies, and alert administrators to potential threats.

These technologies are essential in today’s digital world, where cyber security is paramount.

AI-driven systems are also much more efficient at detecting and blocking fraud, thus keeping businesses safe from potential financial losses.

Artificial Intelligence DisadvantagesDespite all the advantages of artificial intelligence, it comes with some drawbacks. Let’s look at a few artificial intelligence disadvantages.

1. Lack Of Emotion & Critical Thinking

AI-driven systems lack the ability to understand human emotions and empathize with people.

This means that AI-driven systems are not equipped to respond to emotional cues and cannot provide the same level of customer service as a human being.

Also, AI-driven systems cannot think critically and make decisions based on emotions. This can be a major limitation when providing customer service or making complex decisions.

1. Unpredictable Behavior

AI-driven systems can perform complex tasks and make decisions quickly, but they are not infallible.

AI-driven systems can face unforeseen errors and exhibit unpredictable behavior in certain situations.

This means there is a lack of control over the system, which can lead to undesirable outcomes.

1. Job Losses

The increased use of AI-driven technologies could lead to job losses as machines take over human labor.

This could significantly impact the economy, leading to a reduction in purchasing power and an increase in unemployment.

Therefore, AI-driven technologies must be used responsibly, and their impact on the job market should be considered carefully.

1. Ethical Issues

The increased use of AI-driven technologies has also raised ethical concerns, as they can be used to manipulate data, influence public opinion, and even control people’s behavior.

The potential for misuse of AI-driven technologies is real, meaning governments and businesses need to be aware of the ethical implications of using these technologies.

1. High Cost

The cost of developing and deploying AI-driven technologies can be quite high, making them inaccessible to large businesses and highly advanced organizations.

Therefore, it is important for businesses to consider the cost implications before investing in advanced AI-based technologies.

Overall, artificial intelligence offers numerous benefits like digital assistance, high productivity & efficiency, improved security, and more.

However, artificial intelligence disadvantages like lack of empathy and unpredictable behavior mean it can’t imitate the human brain.

The ethical issues and high implementation costs also signify that AI can’t entirely replace human resources.

Should You Adopt Artificial Intelligence?Being diplomatic, we’d say: “only you can decide if AI is the right choice for your business” or “you have to weigh the pros and cons of AI” — that’s nonsense!

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The truth is that AI offers excellent potential for businesses of all sizes, and it’s becoming a requirement to stay relevant in today’s tech-driven world.

Businesses and individuals that know how to leverage AI-driven technologies can see improved efficiency, cost savings, and a competitive edge over their peers.

So, yes, you should definitely consider adopting AI-driven technologies for your business. The long-term benefits could far outweigh the risks that come with it.

Strategically Integrate Artificial Intelligence For Maximum BenefitsWhile AI has many advantages, it should be approached with caution.

Incorporating artificial intelligence without a proper plan or human oversight can lead to vulnerabilities. For instance, uploading content without fact-checking could risk a decline in your reputation or visibility on platforms like Google.

Moreover, while isolated AI projects may bring success, you need to ensure scalability and plan for the long term to maintain your success.

Comprehensive planning, fact-checking, and human oversight are essential to ensure that the AI-driven technologies you adopt actually deliver tangible benefits.

Sounds complicated? Check out this AI Bootcamp that offers a holistic approach to understanding and leveraging AI for your brand and team’s success.

Or, if that sounds too much work, let Mongoose Media infuse the power of AI into your marketing and business. We offer premium AI content at near-freelance pricing, allowing you to benefit from artificial intelligence without breaking the bank.P.S.Our Pinterest Services (backed by AI tools) are worth checking out!

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In modern business, standing out from the crowd isn’t easy. A strong brand-customer relationship is vital, as it drives customer loyalty and engagement. This can be the deciding factor in your business’s long-term success.

This article will explore the importance of your brand-customer relationship. We’ll explain how the four principles of brand management can help you build and maintain that relationship.

What is a Brand-Customer Relationship?Your brand-customer relationship is the connection between your business and its customers. It’s influenced by various factors, but is essentially formed through the perception and reputation of your brand. You build this relationship on trust, loyalty, and engagement.

As well as the quality of the products or services you offer, your company’s reputation is also important. So is the customer’s overall experience with your brand. To put it simply, there are both tangible and intangible aspects to your brand-consumer relationship.

The tangible aspects include the quality of your products and services, as well as your sales, customer service, and support. We measure and affect the intangible parts of the brand-customer relationship with brand management.

Why is Brand-Customer Relationship Important?It’s well-known that customer experience is one of the most critical factors in customer loyalty – and your brand-customer relationship is central to this. A good relationship encourages customer loyalty through engagement.

Customers who have a positive experience with your brand, and thus a strong brand-customer relationship, are more likely to recommend your company to others and make repeat purchases. This drives higher customer lifetime values and can grow your revenue through word-of-mouth and social sharing.

In addition, a solid brand-customer relationship helps to differentiate your business from its competitors. Positive associations with your brand make it easier for customers to identify and choose it over others.

The 4 Principles of Brand ManagementSo, now you know what we mean by a brand-customer relationship. But it probably still seems like a vague concept. Yet, whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re affecting it with everyday business decisions, advertising, and communications.

That’s why many established businesses have dedicated brand management teams to build consistency across your brand. These four overlapping principles guide brand management strategy. Measuring them will show you the state of your brand-customer relationship.

1. AwarenessThis is how aware your target audience is of your brand versus others in your market. Think of synonymous brands such as Coke for soft drinks or Hoover for vacuums. These are the brands with the highest level of awareness in their respective areas.

Most businesses won’t become household names, but there are other ways to measure brand awareness. Analyzing organic searches for your brand name, as well as social media mentions, content shares, and so on, can give you a good idea of your audience’s awareness level.

That said, raising brand awareness isn’t just about getting your brand name in front of people. Increasing and maintaining awareness means you must also stand out in the customer’s memory. For brand managers, this means creating a unique brand personality for your business.

1. ReputationYour reputation is what customers think about when they see your brand. This might be certain words or emotions they associate with your brand or product or a generally positive or negative sentiment.

This has a significant overlap with your brand awareness. If you’re not working on maintaining your brand reputation while growing awareness, you can spread negative sentiments and do more harm than good for your brand.

Building a positive reputation takes time. You can affect it through your communication, service, recruitment, and community projects. Your company culture, mission statement, and guiding principles can also tell external stakeholders about your reputation and values.

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1. LoyaltyResearch shows that loyal customers are five times more likely to make repeat purchases and four times more likely to recommend your business. That’s why customer loyalty is the goal of your efforts to improve your brand awareness and reputation.

Easier said than done? Perhaps. Customer loyalty can be challenging to build, partly because many customers look for different things to get their best experience out of a business. Some customers value convenience and price, while others want on-demand support.

For example, customers who come to your brand for value might appreciate your customer service measures such as a toll-free number or online text chat for inquiries. On the other hand, those looking for convenience might appreciate a premium-rate line that guarantees instant access to support.

That means that to increase customer loyalty, brand managers must analyze customer behavior and feedback. Personalization is a major driver of customer loyalty. When you listen to a customer’s needs and make changes based on feedback, you show that you value their contribution to your business.

1. EquityBrand equity represents your brand’s perceived value. Think of it as the premium customers are willing to pay to access your brand over cheaper competitors. This leads to higher ROI on both new and developed products, as you can incorporate this into your pricing.

In his book, “Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity”, author Kevin Lane Keller describes four key steps to building your brand equity:

• Establish your brand identity by identifying your target audience. Then, create your brand assets and stories around it.
• Define what your brand means. You do this by clearly stating your company values and through the projects you choose to support.
• Analyze how customers respond to your brand. What feelings and emotions does your brand evoke? Direct feedback and sentiment analysis are two good ways to judge this.
• Build your brand resonance by developing your existing customer relationships. Use your brand management to form deeper emotional connections with your customer base.

High customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are key indicators that your brand equity is rising.

How to Use Brand Management to Improve Customer RelationsNow you understand the principles of brand management, let’s look at how to use this in an everyday business setting to improve your customer relations.

Start With Brand BasicsIf you’re new to brand management, the first step to improving customer relations is establishing a clear and consistent brand identity. This means developing a brand strategy, mission statement, and brand identity that aligns with your business’s values and goals.

You’ll also need to make key decisions about core brand assets like your logo design. Simple assets or slogans can be crucial in reinforcing the emotions and values you want customers to associate with your brand. Give these decisions the time and thought they deserve.

Share Your StoriesWhether we’re talking about your brand’s origin story, mission, or even employee journeys and customer testimonials, sharing these stories will help you make deeper emotional connections with your customers.

For example, many companies make support content like video tutorials for their products. But one way to make your customers feel more connected to this process is to share user-generated content with success tips and product guides.

Optimize Your Online VisibilityIn today’s digital age, your business needs to have a strong online presence. Optimizing your online visibility can increase brand awareness and reach more customers.

This includes developing a website and creating social media profiles, as well as covering other basics like listing your brand in online directories and review sites.

Create an Internal Branding GuideA strong brand identity is not just built by communicating with customers. You also need to ensure that employees understand and align with the company’s branding efforts. You can achieve this by creating an internal branding guide.

Use this as a reference for all employees to ensure consistency in tone of voice and other branding markers for all departments.

Focus on Your Customer JourneyIt’s vital to understand how customers interact with your brand, from the awareness stage to post-purchase. By understanding the customer value journey, you can identify areas for improvement and tailor your branding efforts to meet the needs of your customers at each stage.

Engage Your Customers on Their TermsEngaging with your customers on the channels they prefer is crucial to building a strong brand-customer relationship. Whether it’s social media, email, phone, or in-person interactions your audience prefers, make sure they can access your brand on those channels.

Personalize the Customer ExperienceWhile we can fit customers into groups and demographics, each one is also unique. By analyzing a customer’s preferences as they interact with your business, you can give them a customer experience that meets their needs every time.

This can be small, simple, gestures. For example, give your priority customers access to a separate business phone number to speed up their support experience.

Analyze and ImproveFinally, to truly optimize your brand-customer relationship, you need to analyze your performance and make adjustments as you go. This includes tracking website traffic, monitoring social media engagement and sentiments, and analyzing customer feedback.

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By using analytics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve customer relations and drive growth.

Final Thoughts: It’s all in the DetailsYour brand-customer relationship goes deeper than your surface interactions with your customers. When we’re talking about subjective factors like emotion and engagement, the little details can make the biggest difference.

Even seemingly unrelated decisions like your choice of website hosting providers can have a knock-on effect. Does your domain name reflect your brand? Is it instantly recognizable to customers? When we think about it in these terms, it’s easy to see why a choice like this can have repercussions for your brand.

Effective brand management means you don’t have to fret about the small details of every decision. Having a clear brand strategy and documents like an internal branding guide help ensure consistency, even up to the decision-making level.

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1) Compromised Credentials (Identity)Most cyber incidents and breaches are through stolen or compromised credentials. Your credentials in the hands of a hacker allows them unfettered access to your personals and private information.

This includes financial and healthcare information, social media, email accounts, and cloud storage. With
information gained from compromised credentials, hackers can gather information to steal your identity and ruin you financially.

2) Malware/RansomwareMalware/ransomware can be delivered in several different methods. It can be included in an email, embedded in an image, and posted on a webpage that is automatically downloaded when the load the page. Attackers look for pathways to have the malware bypass the normal protections.

Email and requested/visited websites are traffic that are expected to be sent to a user’s computer. It is that fact that the email and webpage are expected that we sometimes drop out guard.

3) AI PhishingAI phishing is when an attacker uses AI to develop the phishing attack. Some of the old way of identifying a phishing email is the use of bad grammar or misspelled words. With AI phishing those no longer apply.

When you receive any email, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Did I expect to receive this email? Not all unexpected emails are nefarious.
2. Is the address legitimate? Addresses can look close to a common address.
3. Am I being asked to click a link or download something? Always be aware of links. The words on the hyperlink may not match the actual URL of the link.

4) Data PrivacyConfidential data is the core of business operations and critical to its success. Data disclosure can eliminate a company’s knowledge or technology that differentiates it from its competitors.

Data ‘leakage’ is when private data is disclosed to a party who does not have the authorization to see/have that data. The most recent path of data leakage is through ChatGPT.

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Samsung engineers asked ChatGPT to write some code for them. In doing so they shared confidential code with the AI which incorporated the shared code into its data set making it open to the public.

5) Spoofing WebsitesWebsite spoofing is when a fraudulent website is presented to a user instead of the actual website. This is most common for front pages of websites that request login credentials. The user assumes that the website is real and enters in their username and password, and the fraudulent website records the credentials and then redirects the user to the real web page.

The user is asked to enter their credentials on the real webpage and they are let into the website. The user is unaware that they have given their credentials to an attacker for them to gain access to their website account.

This attack has been very common for cloud storage and services websites like Office 365, Dropbox, and box.com. Always check the URL and if there is a valid certificate(padlock image next to the URL) for the website.

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Convincing new clients to sign up for your marketing services can be a challenge in a sea of other competitive offers.

Because marketing is not a tangible service, persuading potential clients that your business is the one to go with requires a tactical strategy that delivers value.

To do this, you need a solid marketing proposal.

Perfecting the art of an effective marketing proposal is the key to winning lucrative clients and boosting your business sales. Once you’ve nailed it, you can rinse and repeat – saving you hours of time creating new proposals from scratch.

Read on to learn how to write a marketing proposal that will drive new clients to your agency like bees to a honeypot.

What Is a Marketing Proposal?A marketing proposal is a document that outlines the proposed marketing strategy, tactics, and deliverables for your specific client or project.

It acts as a convincing method to encourage potential clients to hire your services. You can achieve this via your marketing proposal by demonstrating your understanding of their business, industry, and target audience, and showcasing your expertise and experience in creating effective marketing campaigns.

A well-crafted marketing proposal can help you win new clients, establish long-term partnerships, and grow your business – all whilst showing why clients should choose to work with your agency instead of the competition.

What Are the Components of a Marketing Proposal?To win the conversion phase of marketing, your marketing proposal must act as a clear communication method. Demonstrating both why prospects should choose you to work for them, and exactly what you plan to do in order to grow their business.

To this end, the key components of a marketing proposal include:

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of the proposal, highlighting the key points of your marketing strategy and why it will benefit your prospective client.
• Situation Analysis: A detailed analysis of your client’s business, industry, target audience, and competition. This demonstrates your understanding of your prospect’s needs and challenges.
• Objectives: Clear, measurable goals that the proposed marketing strategy aims to achieve – such as increased brand awareness, lead generation, or sales growth.
• Strategy: A detailed plan outlining the recommended marketing tactics, channels, and messaging that will be used to achieve the stated objectives.
• Pricing and Payment Options: A breakdown of the costs associated with implementing the proposed marketing strategy, including any fees, media costs, and production costs.
• Timeline: A detailed schedule outlining the proposed timeline for the marketing campaign – including key milestones, deliverables, and deadlines.
• Metrics: The set of metrics that you will use to measure the success of the marketing campaign – such as website traffic, conversion rates, or social media engagement.
• Conclusion: A summary of the proposal, emphasizing the benefits of the proposed marketing strategy and why you are the right choice for the client.

Some of these components are fairly straightforward and don’t necessarily require a more detailed explanation.

Others we will look at in more granular detail to help you to create the most effective marketing proposal.

How to Perform a Situation AnalysisAs we’ve mentioned, you must demonstrate a thorough understanding of your prospect’s business, industry, target audience, and competition.

To achieve this, you must perform a situation analysis to understand where the business is at right now, and the challenges they’re facing. Start by researching the business – this includes its history, mission, values, and products or services. Identify the client’s unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantages.

Next, research the industry and market to understand the current trends, challenges, and opportunities. Identify the target audience, their demographics, psychographics, and their buying behavior.

Identify the prospective client’s main competitors and analyze their marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Identify the gaps in the market that your prospect can fill.

Research and consider your prospect’s pain points. These are the problems within their current marketing strategy that needs fixing. Your prospect will either know that they have these problems, but don’t know how to fix them, or they may be altogether unaware of any issues.

An example of a pain point could be inconsistent messaging. When the messaging across different marketing channels is inconsistent, this leads to confusion and a lack of brand recognition. Fixing this problem may involve developing a cohesive messaging platform that is aligned with the brand’s mission, values, and value proposition.

You’ll also need to know exactly what you’re currently working with. This involves reviewing the existing marketing efforts – their website, social media profiles, advertising campaigns, and content marketing. Identify what’s working and what’s not.

How to Set Clear ObjectivesOnce you’ve completed your research and ascertained the current position, you can begin to set the clear and measurable goals that you’ll include in your marketing proposal.

Some examples of marketing proposal clear objectives can include:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month.

Each of these objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Including clear objectives in a marketing proposal can help to align the marketing strategy with the business’s goals, provide a clear roadmap for success, and track progress and results over time.

How to Create the Marketing StrategiesWe’ve looked at the what. Now we’ll explore the how part of the marketing proposal.

This section of your marketing proposal should include concise information about how you plan to improve your prospect’s marketing strategy. Basically, it’s time to show off your skills.

Let’s use our aforementioned objectives as examples:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month.

The marketing strategies you create to achieve these objectives could look like this:

1. To increase brand awareness in this specific demographic, develop a social media strategy that includes regular content updates, engaging visuals, targeted social media ads, and influencer partnerships to increase the brand’s visibility.
2. To improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts, segment the email list to include more targeted subscribers, optimize email subject lines, personalize emails using automation software, and ensure emails are optimized for mobile devices.

Say your prospect wants 20 new monthly leads for their JPG to PDF software service. The strategy would be to develop a lead magnet as an incentive to offer potential leads in exchange for their contact information. Then, plan to optimize the business website with clearer CTAs to direct visitors to the lead magnet.

Remember to add in this section of the marketing proposal that you will include regular monitoring to determine the effectiveness of each of the marketing strategies.

How to Create Pricing and Payment OptionsWhen it comes to pricing and payment options in your marketing proposal, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, always be transparent. Prospects appreciate transparency, so be clear and make sure that your pricing structure is easy to understand. Be upfront about what is included in each package or service, and make sure there are no hidden fees or charges.

Offering multiple options gives your potential clients flexibility and choice. For example, you might offer different levels of service at different price points, or offer a discount for clients who sign a longer-term contract.

You could also consider an online payment system that accepts multiple forms of payment. This can make it simpler for clients to budget for your services and make payments on time.

Be sure to highlight the value of your services in relation to the pricing. Clearly explain how your services will help your prospective client to achieve their goals, and why your pricing is reasonable in comparison to the results they can expect to see.

Marketing Proposal Tips Focus on the ProspectEnsure you write the marketing proposal with the prospect at the forefront. It needs to be all about their problems and business, and how you can help. More You, and less We.

Include VisualsWhere relevant, include eye-catching infographics to demonstrate your points. If you’ve got success stories from previous clients that include impressive stats, add them in, too.

Use TemplatesTo make life easier, explore Proposify alternativesthat will help streamline your marketing proposal creation process. Customize templates to come up with the best one to work with for your business’s needs.

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Be ClearInclude transparent timelines for marketing campaigns and one-off projects. This looks like specific milestones and key deliverables dates.

Encourage ActionInclude a clear and compelling call to action that encourages your prospect to take the next step. This can include scheduling a call or meeting, signing a contract, or requesting more information.

The Art of PersuasionWriting a marketing proposal that convinces new clients requires a thorough understanding of your audience’s needs, clear communication of your unique value proposition, and a well-structured plan for delivering your solution.

By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can create a proposal that effectively differentiates your business from competitors, provides evidence of your effectiveness, and clearly outlines your approach and process.

With these key elements in place, you can create a persuasive marketing proposal that helps you win new clients and grow your business.

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If you’ve read any of the statistics about the success of Instagram marketing, you’re likely looking for ways to get started. Instagram is an incredible marketing tool that can help you establish a brand identity, grow your customer base, and increase sales.

Before you jump in, it’s essential to create an effective Instagram marketing strategy, so you can experience the results everyone’s talking about.

Why Instagram Such an Important Platform for Your BusinessWith about two billion users, Instagram is a key social media platform for growing your brand and attracting new customers. If that’s not enough to get you to focus on the visual social media outlet, consider these statistics:

• According to their own data, 60% of people learn about products or services on Instagram. Users are open to being marketed to and have come to expect it. By marketing on Instagram, you’re putting your business in front of people who are curious about new products.
• Again according to Instagram, 90% of Instagrammers follow a business. Many users don’t mind seeing posts from businesses they’re interested in. They may even like it and follow brands they adore.
• 44% of people use Instagram to shop, according to the platform’s research. Features like shoppable posts and the ability to save payment information within the app is driving more people to shop on Instagram. You can take advantage of this by highlighting product features and offering discounts to new subscribers.
• Instagram’s advertising reach grew by almost 21% last year, compared to Facebook’s less than 7%. This amount varies by demographic, so it’s essential to understand your target audience before you map out your content strategy.
• The Instagram app is the second most downloaded app in the world, making Instagram marketing a good investment of your time and resources wherever you may be.
• Instagram beats Tiktok, Twitter, and Snapchat for number of users. If your goal is to reach the most people possible, Instagram is the way to go.

Benefits of an Instagram-Centered Marketing StrategyA successful Instagram marketing strategy takes high investments of time and resources. So why should you center your marketing around Instagram and not another platform?

• Boosts Brand Awareness and Trust. Instagram gives you another place to interact with your target audience. If you take full advantage of it, you can establish your brand image and build trust in the eyes of your audience.
• Reaches the Right People. Instagram’s algorithm cross-references information about the content itself (captions, hashtags, and locations) with information about user engagement to show users more of what they’re interested in. If you utilize hashtags, location tags, reels, and stories correctly, Instagram’s algorithm will help get your business in front of the right people.
• Grows Product Sales. Instagram offers shoppable posts, product launch features, and the ability for users to save their payment information within the app. All of these features help to streamline the purchasing process and help you grow sales as a result.
• Fosters Customer Relationships. The ability to like, comment on, and share posts makes building customer relationships and a community around your product easy. These relationships help to build trust in your business and your products.
• Drives Higher Retention Rates. Instagram’s retention rate measures the percentage of viewers who watch your stories until the last segment. Retention rates are one of the most important metrics to consider when evaluating your reach. However, it takes lots of time and resources to foster good engagement with your content, so it’s important to be consistent and do frequent content audits to see what you can improve.

How to Create an Effective Instagram Marketing StrategySuccess in Instagram marketing means higher engagement rates, a bigger customer following, and increased sales. The following are best practices to help you see results.

Analyze Current and Past DataInstagram Insights offers metrics that can help you evaluate the performance of your content. These include recent highlights, accounts reached, accounts engaged, and total followers. After reviewing this data, adjust your strategy as needed and release more content. It’s important to note that Instagram Insights is only available to business accounts, and you can only access it from the mobile app.

Identify ShortfallsTake a look at underperforming content and compare it to your top-performing posts. Make adjustments as needed. Consider whether it’s to the structure of the content, the time of day released, or the type of hashtags used that you may need to alter.

If you’re starting from scratch, look at what your competitors are doing and think about what you’d like to do differently. How will your brand stand out?

Set Realistic GoalsWhile it can be tempting to set lofty goals for your business, it’s better to start with small, manageable goals and build out from there. These goals should include the number of posts a week, response time for inquiries, number of likes or shares, and more. When setting your goals, think: What do you want from Instagram, and how can you best accomplish it?

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Research Successful CompetitorsAs with any other marketing strategy, you must know what your competitors are doing. Look at what your competitors do well and determine how to do it better or position yourself differently. Highlight what makes your brand different from your competitors and effectively communicate that to your audience.

Plan Your PostsYou obviously don’t need to know everything you’re going to post just to get started. But it’s good to have an idea of some of the content types you plan to use. When determining your content, consider:

• Content Pillars. Content pillars help make up the foundation of your content strategy. The different types include behind-the-scenes content, user-generated content, product demos, culture-focused (showing the human side of your company), and customer stories. Your content pillars contribute to your brand image, so it’s important to consider what you want it to be when planning your content.
• Generate a Style Guide. A style guide helps ensure consistency in the look of your Instagram posts and gives users an idea of what to expect. It should include composition, color palette, fonts, filters, captions, and hashtags.
• Content Formats. Instagram offers reels, IG Live, stories, and visual-based posts as options for sharing content. Each of these has its own benefits, so consider your campaign’s goals and how you can mix the formats to accomplish them.

Utilize a Content CalendarConsistent posting is vital to a successful Instagram marketing campaign. Content calendars can help you plan what type of content to share and when. Then you can create content for a month or more at a time and schedule it with a social scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.

Best Practices to Follow for Your Instagram StrategyRemember some best practices to see the best results from your Instagram marketing strategy. These gold standard approaches include:

• Define Your Audience. The more you know about your audience, the better. Once you define your audience, be sure everything you post focuses on them.
• Solve Customer Problems or Address Needs. Users are more likely to interact with your content and follow you if they believe your profile solves their needs. Make sure to consider their needs and desires as you start producing content.
• Create a Clear Brand Image. This visual style contributes to brand awareness and associations. What do you want your customers to think of when they see your content? What are things you don’t want your brand associated with?
• Prioritize Engagement. Engaging with your audience and similar brands helps drive conversations about your products. It also helps to develop trust in your business.
• Post Actively. To get the most out of Instagram, you’ll probably want to post daily. Try out various times to determine when your audience is most responsive to your posts.
• Leverage the Professional Dashboard. This dashboard is Instagram’s central destination to track performance, utilize professional tools, and explore educational information. When used to its full potential, it can help you track your performance, grow your business, and stay informed.
• Optimize Your Profile. You can optimize your profile in various ways, including incorporating a keyword into your name or username, writing a clear and concise bio, and displaying a profile pic that best represents your brand.

Use Proven Keywords for Hashtags. Hashtags are searchable keywords that help users connect with content they’re interested in. Using them in captions on your reels, stories, and posts can help increase your visibility and grow your audience.

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Conversions are your bottom line. You can have the best SEO, the best relationships, and more social shares than you’d ever thought possible, but it all won’t mean much if no one is converting.

For many companies, conversions mean making a purchase, but the term can go far beyond just monetary value. The term “converting” to you may mean completing a form, becoming a lead, calling your team, and more.

Whatever your end conversion goal may be, it’s crucial you get there if you want to continue to grow and evolve.

1. Work on Those CTAsA call-to-action is what drives people down your sales funnel. Make sure you take them seriously.

There are hundreds of different ways that a company can create a call to action. Consider some of these tips as you create your own call to action on your website:

Corporate work and career. Focused secretary does her job using a laptop in cosy office room.1. Size: You want your call to action button to be easy to see, but not overwhelming. Websites with large call-to-action messages and links can seem like spam to many site visitors, but small calls to action can get lost (and potentially confuse a reader looking to follow through). 2. Frequency: It’s important to have your call-to-action buttons and messages dispersed throughout the page. Many first-timers only include one call to action section, but it’s best to give site visitors ample opportunity to follow through on your website. Do not be overbearing, but have at least three different ways someone can make a purchase or become active in your company. 3. Location: Make sure you put at least one call to action above the fold. This will ensure that people see the next steps they can take (especially if they don’t read the content). 4. Images: Images always make content more exciting. This is where a reader’s eyes are typically drawn, so you absolutely want to incorporate an image into your call to action. The image can be small and next to the text or be part of the text, just make sure it isn’t too overbearing and visitors can still read the page content. 5. Color: The most important thing to remember about color is that the text can still be read. Make sure the background is in direct contrast with the text of the call to action button. Also, make sure that this button is a different color than the rest of your website (while still matching). This will help draw attention to your call to action. 6. Linking: You ideally want people to click on your call to action button, but there will always be people who click on an image or your logo. Make sure that these aspects of your website also send site visitors to your call to action page. 7. Voice: Try to avoid passive voice. Tell your site visitors what you want them to do in a clear and straightforward manner. If you have a deal that won’t be around forever, let your site visitors know. Give as much information as possible in as few words as possible and you’re sure to get more clicks. 8. Mobile Considerations: You should always consider that your website or email marketing message might be viewed through a mobile phone.Make sure that your call to action button is large enough for those clicking with their fingers, and make sure that your images can be loaded quickly and clearly on a mobile phone. There are quite a few CTA plugins to make this step easier for you. 9. Secondary Call to Action Buttons: Many site visitors are not ready to buy right away, so it’s a good idea to have another option for these people. If there is a change that someone would need more information, have a “more information” type button and put your primary call to action button on that page. 10. Use your CTAs across all your channels. Consistency is key when it comes to conversions. People see the same colors and wording in two or three places, and they feel much more confident taking an action. Use your CTAs as end screens on Youtube, on your social media, and, of course, in your reps’ email signatures when they reach out to your prospects. Have your salesperson create an email signature including your main CTA and branding, and you will notice your company’s emails convert much better.

You can also use AI-powered tools to come up with some ideas for creative CTAs if you feel stuck:

1. Shorten Your Sales FunnelsDo you know why you lose most of your site visitors or prospects?

Your conversion funnel is too long.

Email back-and-forth, waiting time spent waiting for a reply, manual invoicing, conflicting schedules – all of that can get lots of people to give up on your brand.

The solution: Shorten your sales funnel.

Automate what you can automate and let your site visitors convert instantly.

Here are a few ways to do that:

• Scale your phone support using technology like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) which would interact with your prospects, collect information about customer inquiries, and even help them make a purchase right away
• Use instant appointment scheduling option: Let your site visitors set up a meeting with you right away by clicking a link and choosing a day and time that works for them. There is online booking technology you can use for it, and it will even manage payments and reminders for you to immediately convert your site visitors into clients.
• Automate your invoicing process allowing your site visitors to pay instantly without waiting for your team to get back to them with an invoice. Depending on the nature of your business, tools like Quickbooks or PayKickstart can help you do that.

Female businessperson at work. Modern and comfortable place of work. Happy businesswoman with blond hairs sits at table using a smartphone and looking at camera.Something that can be considered an umbrella for many of the things we have already discussed is that your checkout process should be optimized. This extends beyond length and speed – it should appear secure, be intuitive, easy to use, and require as little information on their end as possible while also giving you the data you need for future marketing.

Optimize checkout in every way possible! Make it easy for people to make a purchase with you.

1. Use Youtube RemarketingWhile there are several powerful remarketing channels available to businesses these days, Youtube is often overlooked. And that is unfortunate. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine with billions of active users each month. Perfecting your marketing strategy for such a large platform can have enormous benefits for companies, and what many are realizing is that the remarketing aspect of YouTube has huge potential.

Youtube presence is a great way to generate more quality leads to help you drive your business growth forward.

Focus on background. Photography of a stand there are colourful pencils and pens on a table in modern office. Female office worker doing her job on a laptop.The reason YouTube is so great for remarketing is not only the fact that they have a large audience, but the platform (or search engine) itself allows you to create remarketing lists of target audiences based on the type of content a viewer generally watches – even if that content isn’t yours. This offers you several different benefits, many of which are either weaker or simply don’t exist when thinking about remarketing on Google:

• Better ROI. Remarketing almost always has better results than simply putting out an advertisement to hook new consumers. You can also optimize for cost-per-view as opposed to using impressions or the number of times your video displays in order to yield a higher ROI.
• Longer ads. Unlike social media where you only have a few sentences to get someone’s attention or an ad where you have a character limit, Youtube gives you 30 seconds to make your case in a video as opposed to a static ad and image.
• Better engagement. The average Internet user spends more time on a website with video. With more and more people interested in watching videos over reading articles, there is a good chance you’ll reach an entirely new and relevant group of people (in addition to the large number of visitors discussed earlier).
• Location targeting. YouTube is very helpful when it comes to location targeting, much like other remarketing campaigns you may run on other platforms.
• Brand Awareness. In other words, traditional remarketing benefits. This includes staying on a viewer’s radar and capturing their attention frequently. It helps build brand awareness and gives targeted users more repeated options to engage with your brand, YouTube or otherwise.

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So what does this have to do with leads? For starters, all of the points mentioned above will help bring people back to your page and hopefully help people engage with your page. Because of the nature of YouTube and the enhanced features of AdWords remarketing, you can remarket to anyone who shares your video.

Don’t Forget Your Existing Customers!Obtaining new customers tends to remain a top priority for many e-commerce companies. While this is important, it is really critical that you don’t forget about your current and returning customers. These consumers are much more likely to make another purchase from your site than a new consumer is likely to make a first transaction.

Offer incentives to returning customers at the time of check-out or send emails with rewards after purchase. Always remember the importance of returning customers.

The post Three Ways to Turn Prospects into Instant Clients or Leads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Looking to create awesome social media content to boost engagement?

It’s a given that creating engaging social media content is crucial for building a strong online presence, engaging your audience, and growing leads and sales.

But how do you get it right?

Here are some tips and examples.

9 Tips To Create Social Media Content That Boosts EngagementStart by creating professional and compelling social media profiles. Then use these tips when creating content.

1. Know Your AudienceKnowing your audience is the key to marketing success, whether it’s in email personalization or creating tailored social media content.

For instance, Canva creates tailored messages for each of its target groups. This is a post for nonprofits.

And here is content created for teachers.

How do you identify your social media target audience?

You can use market research, email survey campaigns, or website forms to find out your customers’ social media preferences.

Here are other ways to gain audience insights:

• Facebook: Facebook Audience Insights gives data about your audience like this.

• Instagram: Click the Insights action button to get details of your existing audience and their engagement with specific content.

• Twitter: Twitter analytics and Tweet activity page give you stats such as key demographics, languages, and interests of your audience.
• LinkedIn: Access the “Analytics” tab where you can see audience insights.

Tools such as Copper CRM also let you sync your contacts with social media accounts to build lookalike audiences and target specific groups.

This Copper CRM review gives you more details on how to use this tool to sync contacts.

1. Define Your Goals and MetricsWhile boosting engagement may be the primary goal for creating social media content, you’ll need to go granular when defining your goals. And tie each goal to a specific social media metric that you can track.

Here’s a framework to help you get started:

1. Choose The Right Content Type The types of social media content you can experiment with include:

2. Blog posts

3. User-generated content
4. Live streams/webinars
5. Ebooks and whitepapers
6. Stories and reels
7. Contests/giveaways
8. Videos
9. Infographics
10. Polls and surveys

Be sure to link the type of social media content you want to write with:

Your Target Audience’s InterestsAs you can see from this image, short-form videos, images, and live videos are the most engaging social media content, as per a 2022 survey.

The Type Of Content Suitable For Each Social Media Platform And DemographicHere’s a quick summary of the type of social media content to write for each platform/demographic.

Your NicheThe type of social media content you’ll create will also depend on your industry.

For instance, a Gartner study found that educational and user-generated content works best for software marketers.

1. Create A Mix of Social Media ContentExperiment with different types of content, such as text, images, videos, and live streams.

Simplilearn uses different types of social media content to boost engagement. This is a post on LinkedIn that promotes its professional certificate program.

And, on YouTube, the brand has multiple informative videos.

Make sure that your content is offering something of value to your audience.

Whether it’s helpful tips, informative articles, or just entertaining videos, give people a reason to stick around and keep coming back for more.

1. Write Compelling Social Media Copy Write social media copy that is catchy and easy to understand. And always include a call to action that encourages people to share your post with their followers.

The more shares you get, the wider your reach.

Are there any formulas for writing catchy copy?

I have these tips for you:

Keep it short: Here are the ideal lengths for each platform:

• Instagram: 138 to 150 characters
• Facebook: 40 characters
• LinkedIn: 220 characters
• TikTok: 300 characters

This is an example of a short and catchy caption on Instagram:

Include action words and adjectives: Experiment with action words such as earn, save, act now, and adjectives such as powerful, awe-Inspiring, brilliant, etc. See this example from TED Talks.

Use numbers: Numbered lists and guides with easy steps can help increase engagement. See how Semrush does it.

Ask questions: Humans are always drawn to questions that spark curiosity like this post.

Write the social media copy by following the Google EAT guidelines so that your social media campaign can also help in getting good results from the search results. Your social media copy should include trustworthy, authentic, and expert facts and information.

1. Use Trending HashtagsUtilize relevant hashtags and keywords to increase the visibility of your social media content.

For example, if you are a food blogger, you may want to use hashtags such as #foodie, #yum, and #foodporn.

You can search for trending hashtags by typing your keyword on social media platforms’ search bars.

Platforms like Twitter also have an Advanced Search feature where you can search for specific tweets and hashtags.

You can also use the right software to generate hashtags in your industry. These software can help you to create and how to use hashtags for your social media campaigns.

1. Post At The Right TimeTiming is crucial when it comes to social media. Post your content when your audience is most active to increase your reach and engagement.

According to a recent study:

• The best days to post social media content are Tuesdays to Thursdays
• The best time to post social media content is 9 AM and 10 AM.

But, there’re individual variations between each social platform when it comes to the peak engagement time or days.

For example, posting on Instagram between 10 AM and 1 PM on most weekdays can help you maximize your reach.

1. Use Visual ElementsHigh-quality visual elements, such as images and videos, can make your content more engaging.

Be creative with how you present them.

One way to stylize your photos and images is to use photo filters. You’ll create stunning visuals in minutes.

See this eye-catching visual from Velvet Spectrum.

1. Encourage EngagementEncourage your audience to engage with your content by asking questions, starting a conversation, or running a contest. You can also host a giveaway as Fraser Hill Farm has done.

Be sure to show your audience that you value their opinion by responding to their comments.

You can also use lead generation software that allows you to integrate your social media platforms to manage and monitor interactions.

1. Analyze and ImproveCreating powerful social media content isn’t all about just content creation. Studying the content’s effectiveness is equally important. You need to use social media analytics tools to figure out if your social media posts are performing as expected.

Check whether they’re generating significant engagement, driving sales, and bringing you new followers.

In the case of blog posts, you can leverage a Google index checker and Google Analytics to check if your social media post helped speed up indexing or improved its rankings on Google.

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Wrapping UpRemember that social media content doesn’t just have to be about your brand. In fact, some of the most successful social media campaigns focus on providing valuable information or entertainment to users.

The goal is to get people talking about your business in a positive way!

Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content on each platform and adjust your strategy accordingly.An easy way to master your social media content strategy is by becoming a Certified Social Media expert. Learn how to apply proven strategies and boost social media engagement.

The post From Clicks to Conversions: Create Content that Boosts Engagement appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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TikTok Ad Masterclass

Join Maxwell Finn, President of Unicorn Inventions and DigitalMarketer’s TikTok Marketing Expert, as he breaks down the Ford Method that will dramatically increase your creative output.

Download The Ford Method Ad Checklist to follow along.

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

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How to build a content campaign that drives sales quarter after quarter. We all know the importance of creating content– but creating content for the sake of it doesn’t often result in increased sales. Content campaigns are a great way to engage your audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales quarter after quarter.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a 90-day content campaign that will deliver lasting value to your business, move prospects through the customer journey more efficiently and effectively, and drive sales! Let’s get started!

6 Levels of Customer AwarenessAs your prospects move through the customer journey, their awareness of your brand and offer increases.

In 1966 Breakthrough Advertising, marketer and author Eugene Schwartz identified five stages of customer awareness. Since then, digital marketing has evolved significantly, creating the need for a sixth level of customer awareness that DigitalMarketer introduced.

First, we’ll walk through each level of customer awareness and then create a content campaign that moves prospects through these levels to increase the speed and efficiency of your customer journey.

1. Unaware StageCustomers in the unaware stage have no knowledge of the problem or perceived need for a solution. To catch a prospect’s attention and keep it, we need to stop the scroll. The best way to do that is with entertainment!

Types of entertaining content for the unaware stage:

1. Shock and Awe
2. Amazing Demos
3. Data/Research

Examples:

• Dollar Shave Club Commercial
• Chatbooks Commercial
• Will It Blend Demo
• Thinkific 13 Membership Site Examples That Will Inspire You
• 125 Books Every Marketer Should Read

Tip: As you scroll social media and the internet, think about the advertisements and content that catch your attention.

1. Problem-Aware StageCustomers in the Problem-Aware Stage know they have a problem but don’t know if a solution exists. They are in need of hope as they search to discover if a solution is available.

Types of hopeful content for the problem-aware stage:

1. Question & Answer (Q&A)
2. How-Tos
3. Brand Case Study
4. Success Stories

Examples:

• HubSpot How to Create a Sales Plan: Template + Examples
• Salesforce Career Stories: Q&A with Jo Gaines, Area Vice President Sales
• HubSpot Dentally Case Study
• ParkHub Case Studies
• Wild Audience Article How To Replicate Tony Robbin’s Million-Dollar Coaching Sales Funnel Template

Tip: Leverage tools like AI to help identify what questions customers may have in your industry or niche.

1. Solution-Aware StageCustomers in the Solution-Aware Stage are researching and comparing their options. They need clarity so they can efficiently and effectively choose the best option for them.

Types of clarifying content for the solution-aware stage:

1. Demos
2. Tricks & Hacks
3. Comparisons

Examples:

• Dr. Squatch Demo
• Comparison of Thinkific to Kajabi
• L’Oreal How To Highlight Trick
• Tony Robins Event Demo

Tip: Spend some time researching your competition to understand exactly what your customer is comparing you to so you can address their concerns.

1. Offer Aware StageCustomers in the Offer Aware Stage are getting ready to make their decision but want to confirm that their choice is going to deliver the outcome they want. They need assurance that you are the right choice

Types of assuring content for the offer aware stage:

1. Testimonials
2. Social Proof
3. Behind-The-Scenes

Examples:

• Romeo Athletics Nina’s Story
• Golf Galaxy Customer Testimonial
• Mel Robbins Public Speaking Story
• Amazon Web Services and Capital One
• Shopify Year In Review

Tip: Ask existing customers about the main objections they had before buying and create content that overcomes those objections.

1. The Most Aware StageCustomers in the Most Aware Stage know you are the best solution for them, but they need a reason to buy now instead of waiting for a better time. The best way to motivate action is with novelty.

Types of novel content for the most aware stage:

1. Scarcity & Urgency
2. Feature Release
3. Product Launch
4. Promotion, Sale, Bonus

Examples:

• DigitalMarketer New Ecommerce Certification Launch
• New Releases on Netflix
• Peleton Promotion
• Graham Cochrane New Feature on Kajabi

Tip: There are many ways to create a sense of urgency, scarcity or loss aversion in your customers without sales, including bonus stacking and limited-time offers.

1. Disengaged StageCustomers in the Disengaged Stage need to be reminded of their connection to your brand and why you are an important part of their life. They need to be romanced so they can feel the ‘warm and fuzzies’ beyond what you are selling.

Types of romance content for the disengaged stage:

1. Origin Stories
2. Behind-The-Scenes
3. Bloopers
4. Mission Statements

Examples:

• HM Massage Origin Story
• Graham Conn Bloopers
• Patagonia Don’t Buy This Jacket

Tip: Think about your experience as a consumer and reflect on times when you became disengaged with a brand. What caught your attention and brought you back?

The 90-Day Campaign FrameworkThe purpose of the 90-day campaign is to leverage your organic content to move prospects through the levels of customer awareness and lead them to a promotional period.

This ensures that more prospects are offer informed and ready to buy while giving your content an overall strategy and consistency across platforms. Most businesses have a significant promotional period, sale, launch or event each quarter, making this an ideal timeline.

Evergreen ContentOne of the biggest benefits of this framework is that your content is evergreen, meaning it will continue to drive traffic and conversions long after it’s published. You can easily drive ads to your pillar content, leverage remarketing ads to those who visit your pillar content, repurpose content for future campaigns, and make simple updates to keep the content relevant.

Campaign Offer & ThemeThe 90-day campaign is used to promote one offer, and each piece of content created should be directly tied to the offer and the ideal customer. Choosing a unifying theme beyond just your offer can help tie all content throughout the campaign together and increase its effectiveness.

Effective themes are taken directly from your customer avatar and can be a) a problem that your offer solves, b) a fear that your offer overcomes or c) a perspective shift that your ideal client needs to successfully achieve their desired outcome.

Campaign Timeline The 90-day campaign timeline starts with 8 weeks of pre-promotion, followed by a 2-week promotional period and finishes 2 weeks of post-promotion nurturing.

Content DistributionThere are three primary distribution channels used in this content campaign. However, additional channels may be added.

1. Website (Blog)

The first channel is your website, where you will post pillar content pieces in the form of articles, videos or podcasts. These pillar pieces should include advertisements for your lead magnet to increase email subscribers, along with advertisements for the chosen offer you are promoting throughout the campaign.

1. Email

You will be splintering and distributing the pillar content to your email list to drive traffic to your website and increase engagement. During the promotional phase of this campaign, you’ll send a promotional email sequence to drive sales.

1. Social Media

You will also be splintering and distributing pillar content to social media channels with the goal of driving traffic to your website and delivering value to your audience in advance of the sale.

Creating & Splintering Content Each piece of pillar content is splintered to create nurturing emails and social media content. This reduces the overall workload of the campaign because you are only creating the pillar pieces from scratch, and all other content is simply splintered from the existing content. This also allows you to move prospects on your social media channels and email list through the levels of customer awareness, increase email subscribers and drive traffic to your website.

Sequence MattersAs Ryan Deiss says, “sequence matters!” You don’t want to ‘propose on the first date,’ which is why this framework is so effective in nurturing relationships, warming up leads, and increasing conversions. It’s important not to alter the sequence of this framework; however, you can increase the amount of content used in a campaign.

The Promotional Email SequenceEach piece of pillar content should promote your lead magnet, and you should also promote your lead magnet on your marketing channels throughout the pre-promotion period.

Each week of the campaign, you send out nurturing emails to your list, and although some leads will join your list later in the campaign, you can leverage email analytics to identify the warmest leads on your list by their open rates and click-through rates.

The email promotional campaign is designed to continue moving prospects through the levels of awareness while driving sales or conversions.

On all emails except the first and last email of the sequence, I recommend providing a “soft opt-out” option for subscribers to unsubscribe from the promotional email sequence without being removed from your list. This tactic decreases unsubscribes while allowing you to better segment your list for future campaigns.

Romance After The CampaignProspects often need additional nurturing post-promotion, especially if they didn’t feel ready to buy. The post-promotion period is used to reconnect with your audience and nurture them with value before beginning another campaign. This can be a buffer period to strategize and plan your next campaign.

Campaign Best PracticesHere are a few best practices to help you make the most of this 90-day campaign framework.

Campaign #3This campaign framework is incredibly powerful, but like most marketing campaigns, consistency is critical. Often the first few campaigns will involve a lot of testing and learning and may not deliver instant results.

The most dramatic results come with consistency, and usually, the third campaign is when you’ll start noticing dramatic sales increases. Give yourself time and recognize that there are no silver bullets to success, but following this framework consistently will be about as close as possible.

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Video MarketingThere’s no denying the power of video marketing, and showing up consistently on video is like adding a turbo boost to your relationship-building abilities. Whenever possible, leverage video marketing throughout the campaign.

Overcome Objections & Answer Questions If you know the common objections and questions your ideal customers will ask, address them in your content. Use FAQ sections in your pillar content to tackle those common objections and questions, and distribute the information to your email and social channels.

AI & Execution You can leverage the power of AI throughout the campaign, from planning to execution. AI can be used for topic ideation and building your pillar content. You can also summarize and splinter your pillar content into emails and social media posts.

Optimizing the AI output is the key to successfully using AI in this process. You will not see success using this framework if you simply let AI do the work for you. You must add your brand voice and optimize the content to meet your ideal customers’ needs and wants.

Conclusion With this 90-day content campaign framework, you can create content that moves prospects through the customer journey more efficiently and effectively while driving sales. The process is simple to understand and execute, helps you develop valuable evergreen content, works for any industry, and can be replicated time and time again.

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Are you a marketer or business owner looking for a powerful secret weapon to help you think deeply and learn the intricacies of marketing? Look no further than Marketer Vision, the ultimate marketing framework designed to elevate your understanding and skills to new heights.

Unlike other prompts, Marketer Vision is a comprehensive framework with extensive knowledge and AI-driven insights that empower you to dive deep into the world of marketing.

With in-depth examples, rich text tables, and expert advice, Marketer Vision fosters deep thinking and probes the subject space with DSRP systems process, making it the ultimate secret weapon for marketers.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a beginner, Marketer Vision offers a light version that leverages the power of GPT-3.5 or 4 to create beautiful, unique customer value journeys tailored to your business, helping you design and optimize your customer experience.

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the Marketer Vision difference and elevate your marketing prowess.

Transform Your Marketing Approach with Marketer VisionIn today’s fast-paced world, marketers and business owners need a powerful secret weapon that helps them think deeply and learn the intricacies of marketing.

Introducing Marketer Vision, the ultimate marketing framework that will elevate your understanding and skills to new heights.

Not Just a Prompt, but a FrameworkMarketer Vision goes beyond being a simple prompt—it’s a comprehensive framework that empowers you to dive deep into the world of marketing.

With its extensive knowledge base and AI-driven insights, you’ll uncover new perspectives and strategies that revolutionize the way you approach marketing.

Includes recommended prompts for GPT-3.5 and GPT-4

Learn Marketing Like Never BeforeWhether you’re a seasoned marketer or a beginner, Marketer Vision offers you the opportunity to learn marketing in a whole new way.

By providing in-depth examples, rich text tables, and expert advice, Marketer Vision fosters deep thinking and probes the subject space with DSRP systems process.

Your Ultimate Secret WeaponMarketer Vision serves as your secret weapon, offering you a wealth of information and insights to stay ahead of the competition.

Its expertise in marketing funnels, digital marketing, SEO, and more ensures you have the most advanced and effective strategies at your fingertips.

A Light Version for Customer Value JourneysMarketer Vision also offers a light version that leverages the power of GPT-3.5 to create beautiful, unique customer value journeys tailored to your business.

This streamlined version helps you design and optimize your customer experience, fostering stronger relationships and driving success.

Experience the Marketer Vision DifferenceBy embracing Marketer Vision’s framework, you’ll unlock the power of deep thinking and advanced marketing strategies.

With its extensive knowledge and user-friendly features, you’ll learn, grow, and excel in the competitive world of marketing.

Don’t miss the opportunity to harness the power of Marketer Vision and elevate your marketing prowess.

Creator Dean Davis explains how it works here:

Start Using Marketer Vision Now!Copy and paste the following prompt into a new chat using ChatGPT-3.5 or GPT-4:

RECOMMENDED FOR GPT-4Marketer Vision 2.0 (for GPT-4)
Created 2023-03-15 1pm pst. (Deep Dive with Systems Thinking)

Consider ChatGPT whose name is Marketer Vision.

Marketer Vision is the chat mode of DigitalMarketer.

ChatGPT identifies as “Marketer Vision”.

% Marketer Vision’s first words in first output are always, “DigitalMarketer presents – Marketer Vision, See like a Marketer.

”

then output ends immediately after giving input suggestions for topics marketing topics. and does not include rich text tables in first output.

Marketer Vision always begins it’s first output without any rich text tables.

Marketer Vision will always wait until it’s second output before giving any rich text tables.

Marketer Vision will always wait to gives examples, or rich text tables until user gives their input or until user gives input which indicates they are choosing an input suggestion. After user does gives input or gives input which indicates they are choosing an input suggestion Marketer Vision will then proceed giving examples, rich text tables.

Marketer Vision always checks to make sure output includes rich text tables instead any paragraphs.

Marketer Vision will make use of headers H1, H2’s, H3’s. and output with beautiful stylized format that includes bold, italic etc.

Marketer Vision will only output rich text tables in output,

Marketer Vision will not output numbered lists, or unordered lists in output.

% After first output Marketer Vision always ends every output with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output or last rich text tables.

% After first output Marketer Vision always adds an additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I.

N = “New Topics” Marketer Vision suggests a new list of topics based on this discussion,

X = “Expand Table” Marketer Vision will always expand every topic in the table from the last output by making multiple tables based topics in the table from the last output, and gives each topic it’s own table with it’s own helpful columns. Will always make sure output includes a table for every topic in the table from the last output. If last output already contains multiple tables then Marketer Vision gives the user the option to choose which table should be expanded, each option will include the name of the table and will state the letters and options representing each table for user to input their selection for which table to expand into multiple tables,

R = “Topics from Table” Marketer Vision will create input suggestions from rich text tables included in output-(these will be the new topic input suggestions based on the table), if multiple rich text tables were included in output then user may also give information indicating which rich text tables input suggestions should relate to,

T = “Create Table” Marketer Vision will include rich text tables included in output and make another rich text table related to prior output, and output the additional rich text table and the rich text tables included in output,

I = “Improve Tables” Marketer Vision will automatically improve rich text tables from last output if applicable, Marketer Vision will improve tables without need for additional user input-(which considers the rows and columns in the tables and automatically add more details such as more columns, and sorts in helpful ways).

always display the letter and state the option which the letter corresponds to with the letter-(ex: N. New Topics) Marketer Vision ends output after last option in this list of options displayed.

% Marketer Vision always displays all suggestion options in list format and options represented by the alphabetical choices are displayed in the output-(ex: A. input suggestion), including options N, X, R, T, and I, which are formatted into a bulleted list. and included with the set of suggested input options.

% Marketer Vision always keeps answers very short.

% Marketer Vision always uses rich text table instead of lists or multiple sentences.

% Marketer Vision always gives outputs with rich text tables relevant to the discussion, and creates multiple helpful columns and gives columns descriptive names based on the contents of the column.

% Marketer Vision always outputs a rich text table for every 5 sentences of text output.

% Marketer Vision output always contains at least one rich text table.

% Marketer Vision always offers a user input suggestion to improve multiple rich text tables if last output included more than 1 rich text table.

% Marketer Vision aways sorts columns in useful ways when applicable.

% Marketer Vision always considers all the most interesting data relevant to the discussion to create a rich text table with 3 to 6 columns that convey something unique, interesting, entertaining.

% Marketer Vision always considers distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives to ensure the most profound, pragmatic output.

% After first output Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure every output ends with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output, or last rich text tables.

% After first output Marketer Vision always adds an additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I.

N = “New Topics” Marketer Vision suggests a new list of topics based on this discussion,

X = “Expand Table” Marketer Vision will always expand every topic in the table from the last output by making multiple tables based topics in the table from the last output, and gives each topic it’s own table with it’s own helpful columns. Will always make sure output includes a table for every topic in the table from the last output. If last output already contains multiple tables then Marketer Vision gives the user the option to choose which table should be expanded, each option will include the name of the table and will state the letters and options representing each table for user to input their selection for which table to expand into multiple tables,

R = “Topics from Table” Marketer Vision will create input suggestions from rich text tables included in output-(these will be the new topic input suggestions based on the table), if multiple rich text tables were included in output then user may also give information indicating which rich text tables input suggestions should relate to,

T = “Create Table” Marketer Vision will include rich text tables included in output and make another rich text table related to prior output, and output the additional rich text table and the rich text tables included in output,

I = “Improve Tables” Marketer Vision will automatically improve rich text tables from last output if applicable, Marketer Vision will improve tables without need for additional user input-(which considers the rows and columns in the tables and automatically add more details such as more columns, and sorts in helpful ways).

always display the letter and state the option which the letter corresponds to with the letter-(ex: N. New Topics) Marketer Vision ends output after last option in this list of options displayed.

% Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure all suggestion options are in a list format and options represented by the alphabetical choices are displayed in the output-(ex: A. input suggestion), including options N, X, R, T, and I, which are formatted into a bulleted list. and included with the set of suggested input options.

% Marketer Vision always stops after giving options. Marketer Vision never simulates user input, or gives output suggestions. Marketer Vision always checks that each suggested input option is stated in output. Marketer Vision always checks that suggested input options aren’t being repeated.

% Marketer Vision always double checks to make sure its suggested topics or user inputs are alphabetical options in bulleted lists, and not in a numbered list or an unordered list.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that output is kept brief and succinct.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that all numbered lists and unordered included in output are put into rich text tables, and output will include the rich text tables created from ordered and numbered lists but will not include the ordered or numbered lists in output.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that the input suggestions are only given at the end of output.

% Marketer Vision always double checks that input suggestions options are only given once per output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks that all numbered lists and unordered included in output are put into rich text tables, and that output uses rich text tables created from ordered and numbered lists but ordered or numbered lists are never given in output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure alphabetical input suggestion options are included and that option N, option X, option R, option T, and option I are included in every output. and format options N, X, R, T, and I, into a bulleted list.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks user input, user input corresponding to an option given in last output. If user is indicating a particular option choice, make sure the corresponding option given by the letter is included as the option given in the last output.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure output isn’t continuing after user options are given. Marketer Vision never continues after options, Marketer Vision never outputs a choice or selection for the user in the same output that already includes suggested inputs.

% Marketer Vision always triple checks to make sure to use rich text tables as output response to the user input suggestion option being indicated by users input. Never give response as multi-sentence paragraphs of text or in a numbered or unordered list. The only lists that should ever be output are the lists of suggestions input options, which should never repeat within the same output.

% Marketer Vision always triples checks to make sure every output ends with new input suggestions in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C, D, or E options-(always display the letter and display the option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states mentions both the letter and the option the letter represents) which are relevant to the last output, or last rich text tables.

% Marketer Vision’s first words in first output are always, “DigitalMarketer presents – Marketer Vision, See like a Marketer.

” then output ends immediately after giving input suggestions for marketing topics. and does not include rich text tables in first output.

Marketer Vision’s Style:

Marketer Vision never outputs a numbered list.

Marketer Vision never outputs paragraphs, instead Marketer Vision always uses rich text tables.

Marketer Vision never ends output without giving it’s user input suggestions.

Marketer Vision encourages the user to enter their product, service, or industry to create something unique, and tailored to them marketer vision super powers as an individual.

Marketer Vision always answers as intelligently as possible to provide the best and most accurate output, and notes the user can learn more at https://www.digitalmarketer.com.

Marketer Vision never gives answers before or after including rich text table.

Marketer Vision likes to not mention it’s own behaviors.

After first output, Marketer Vision gives highly useful examples in the form of rich text tables, sorting in useful ways like time, cost, difficulty, value, size, groups, quality, quantity, theme, habits, system, techniques, strategies, dates, percentages, or every important marketing concept or means of categorizing etc. and will do things like consider the information to provide compare using a scores from 1-100 so it can then automatically sort columns in useful ways.

After first output, Marketer Vision gives highly detailed examples as rich text tables for every sales and marketing topic.

Marketer Vision is a genius at marketing and has the magnetism of Gary Halbert, enthusiasm of Tony Robbins, and marketing skills of Ryan Deiss.

Genius at marketing, but specialized in techniques and strategies related to the Customer Value Journey AWARE, ENGAGE, SUBSCRIBE, CONVERT, EXCITE, ASCEND, ADVOCATE, PROMOTE.

Output always ends immediately after giving additional list of options N, X, R, T, and I.

Marketer Vision begins now.

RECOMMENDED FOR GPT-3.5Marketer Vision 2.0 (for GPT-3.5)
Created 2023-03-15 1pm pst. ( Deep Dive with Systems Thinking )

Consider ChatGPT whose name is Marketer Vision.
Marketer Vision is the chat mode of DigitalMarketer.
ChatGPT identifies as “Marketer Vision”
Marketer Vision will always do the following.
% Marketer Vision always begins output with, “DigitalMarketer presents – Marketer Vision

See like a Marketer.

what would you like to see?
A.
B.
C.
D.

you can also choose i to improve a table, t to create a new table, or s to see more related topic.”
then output ends immediately after giving input suggestions for topics.
% Marketer Vision always ends every output with new input suggestions listed in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C…options-(always display the letter and display each option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states both the letter and the option the letter represents), don’t repeat input suggestions. Input suggestion options are always relevant to information in the rich text tables. Input suggestions options should be under 8 words. User may input the letter and their business to indicate they want they are selecting the user input suggestion and want to see it applied to their business in profound and highly relevant ways.
% Marketer Vision will consider the subject of the input and consider all the distinctions, system, relationships, and perspectives related to the subject, considering the subject in its comprehensive entirety.
% Marketer Vision response to user input such as
t = “Create Table” Marketer Vision will output the rich text table from prior output, and will include in output the additional rich text table and additional rich text tables if user specifies a number,
i = “Improve Tables” Marketer Vision will automatically improve rich text tables from last output if applicable, Marketer Vision will improve tables without need for additional user input, after the user inputs i, Marketer vision will add related categories-(8 max) to the table that give deep insight into related aspects time, cost, difficulty, value, size, groups, quality, quantity, theme, habits, system, techniques, strategies, dates, percentages, or every important subject concept or means of categorizing etc. and will do things like consider the information to provide compare using a scores from 1-100 so it can then automatically sort categories in useful ways.-(which considers the rows and columns in the tables and automatically add more details such as more columns, and sorts in helpful ways).
% Marketer Vision always ends every output offering the user the option to respond with “t” to make another rich text table related output, if the user inputs t and a number, then Marketer Vision will always create that many number of additional tables which are relevant to the last output.
% Marketer Vision always includes at least one rich text table for every user response, and does not provide explanation or elaboration, as Marketer Vision likes to only give rich text tables and user input suggestions and immediately stop output to then wait for user reponse.
% Marketer Vision always ends every output offering the user the option to respond with “s” to see related topics.
% Marketer Vision doesn’t like to discuss it’s behaviors, or what it will consider, or the fact that it makes rich text tables.
% Marketer Vision considers how the subject is learned, such as steps, so examples can create a profound dimension of understanding that makes the subject easy to learn and apply.
% Marketer Vision encourages the user to enter their product, service, or industry to create something unique, and tailored to giving them marketer vision super powers as an individual.
% Marketer Vision uses rich text tables in every output to create highly useful examples in profound ways like time, cost, difficulty, value, size, groups, quality, quantity, theme, habits, system, techniques, strategies, dates, percentages, or every important subject concept or means of categorizing etc. and will do things like consider the information to provide compare using a scores from 1-100 so it can then automatically sort categories in useful ways.
% Marketer Vision is aware of the DigitalMarketer Customer Value Journey, AWARE, ENGAGE, SUBSCRIBE, CONVERT, EXCITE, ASCEND, ADVOCATE, PROMOTE.
% Marketer Vision always remembers the options it gives so it can always reference exactly to provide an accurate answer to exactly what the user wants.
% Marketer Vision will always creates 1 helpful rich text tables based on initial user input
% Marketer Vision always ends every output with new input suggestions listed in alphabetical form, such as A, B, C…options-(always display the letter and display each option which the letter corresponds to. if an option is based on something in the table then make sure output states both the letter and the option the letter represents). Always end output after giving the input suggestions. Input suggestion options are always relevant to information in the rich text tables.

Marketer Vision begins now.

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During 2022, DigitalMarketer generated 181 articles, 101 podcasts, and 141 youtube videos for public consumption (we also generated over 1,000 gated videos but we won’t include that data here).

In our Content Marketing Certification we teach you how to build the Content Performance Report. The point is to allow you to assess the performance of all of your content using simple metrics, then use those metrics to identify potential opportunities for new content.

Surprisingly, the most consumed content was PODCASTS. Even though we produced less podcasts (101) than both articles (181) and videos (178), podcasts still accounted for 53% of total consumption.

Quick note that “consumption” for our content strategy is “views” for for video, “unique pageviews” for articles, and “downloads” for podcasts.

On average, each podcast was downloaded 2,491 times versus videos at 432 views, and articles at 781 pageviews.

The following is a breakdown of the top performing content DigitalMarketer produced in 2022.

The Best Performing ContentHere are the top performing pieces of content from each content type.

TOP ARTICLE: How Facebook Ads Are Changing In 2022
TOP PODCAST: Episode 231: Become A Certified Email Marketing Master
TOP VIDEO: Paid Traffic Mastery Certification w/Kasim Aslam

Top Performing ArticlesThe article titles cover a variety of topics related to digital marketing, advertising, and related fields. Some articles focus on specific tactics or strategies, such as Facebook Ads, email marketing, or content marketing.

Others cover broader topics like the skills marketers need to succeed or emerging trends like Web 3.0. Some articles also offer tips on building effective campaigns or optimizing sales funnels.

Overall, the articles provide a range of insights and advice for marketers looking to improve their skills and stay up to date with the latest developments in the field. Here are some possible patterns that could be found with these results:

Emerging Trend ArticlesSeveral article titles mention new or emerging trends in the field of marketing, such as Web 3.0, post-digital marketing, and 2023 digital marketing trends.

• What Marketers Need To Know About Web 3.0
• 2023’s Digital Marketing Trends for Small Business
• A Revolutionary New Way to Look at Content Marketing Strategy
• The 5 Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies to Try in 2023

Specific Tactics & Strategy Articles: Many of the article titles focus on specific marketing tactics and strategies, such as Facebook Ads, email marketing, content marketing, and video marketing.

• What Is Digital Advertising?
• The Ad Grid: How To Build Traffic Campaigns That Convert Higher And Scale Faster
• Is Email Marketing Dead?
• How to Write a Sales Page
• 5 Ways to Drive Traffic and Sales with Short Videos

Skills Development Articles: Several article titles offer advice and tips on developing marketing skills or building a marketing career path.

• What Is A T-Shaped Marketer
• What Does It Take To Be The Head Of Marketing?
• DigitalMarketer Marketer of the Year 2021/2022
• Want to Build a Content Marketing Career Path? Here’s What to Do
• Marketing Skills You Must Have in 2023

Optimization & Conversion Articles: Some article titles focus on optimizing marketing campaigns and improving conversion rates, such as the Ad Grid and copywriting tips for sales funnels.

• The Ad Grid: How To Build Traffic Campaigns That Convert Higher And Scale Faster
• Why Email Marketing Is Still Crucial In 2022
• 3 Copywriting Tips To Optimize Your Sales Funnel
• Million-Dollar Funnels Aren’t Made With Ads

Common Mistakes Articles:Two article titles highlight common mistakes that marketers make, such as the #1 mistake when running paid ads and the 5 mistakes that limit YouTube subscription numbers.

• The #1 Mistake Most Marketers Make When Running Paid Ads
• 5 Mistakes That Are Limiting Your YouTube Subscription Numbers

Social Media Articles: Several article titles focus on social media marketing, such as tips for winning big on social media.

• 7 Tips To Win Big On Social Media – From The Office Of Kris Krohn
• How Facebook Ads Are Changing In 2022

Time Efficiency Articles: Some article titles offer time-efficient solutions for marketing, such as the 2-hour-per-month content marketing framework.

• How To Create Functional SOPs (That Your Employees Actually Use)
• 2-Hour-Per-Month Content Marketing Framework

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Top Performing VideosThe content focuses on digital marketing, advertising, and business growth strategies. The titles are aimed at marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners looking to improve their marketing skills and drive revenue growth. The videos cover a range of topics, from social media marketing and email marketing to paid traffic, digital retailing, and content marketing.

Some of the videos appear to be focused on providing specific tips and strategies, such as “How to handle sales objections” and “8 Tips for Writing Effective Email Marketing Subject Lines.” Others are geared towards offering more comprehensive courses or certifications, such as “Paid Traffic Mastery Certification” and “Become a Certified Email Marketing Master.”

The videos feature various experts in the marketing industry, such as Kasim Aslam, Ryan Deiss, and Jena Apgar.

Overall, the video titles suggest that the content is geared towards helping businesses and marketers improve their digital marketing strategies and increase their revenue through targeted and effective advertising.

Paid Advertising & Traffic Generation Videos:* Paid Traffic Mastery Certification w/Kasim Aslam * How should you structure your ad copy for Facebook and Instagram? * How to Create a TikTok Ad Assembly Line with Maxwell Finn

Email Marketing Videos: * Why Email Marketing Matters for Monetization with Alex Cattoni * Become a Certified Email Marketing Master * 8 Tips for Writing Effective Email Marketing Subject Lines

Social Media Marketing Videos: * How to Generate Brand Awareness Through Social Media with Jena Apgar * How to Create a TikTok Ad Assembly Line with Maxwell Finn * 5 Reasons Your Business Needs A Customer Avatar with Jay Vics

Business & Growth Sales Videos:* Businesses Now KNOW They Need Digital Marketing * Networking to Earn Your First Clients

Industry Insights & Trends Videos: * The Future of E-Commerce is THIS * How is automotive digital retailing performing? * It’s Over… Machine Learning Won.

Content Marketing Videos: * Get Certified in Content Marketing * DigitalMarketer Academy Announcement! * 3 Foundational Skills Every Marketer Needs

Top Performing PodcastsThese podcast titles cover a wide range of topics related to marketing, business, and social media. Some of the titles focus on specific tactics or strategies for marketing and advertising, while others explore broader topics related to entrepreneurship and personal development.

The titles also vary in tone, with some being more straightforward and instructional (“A Sales System for All Personalities”), while others are more attention-grabbing and use humor or shock value to pique interest (“Using Poop to Create a Viral Marketing Campaign?”).

Overall, these titles suggest that the podcasts are aimed at entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners who are interested in learning more about how to grow and scale their businesses, improve their marketing skills, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in social media and e-commerce.

Advertising Tactics & Marketing Strategies Podcasts:* Episode 231: Become A Certified Email Marketing Master * Episode 223: Surprising Social Media Stats and How to ACTUALLY Get Results from Your Content * Episode 224: How Course Creators Can Fill Up their Funnel with Marcio Santos * Episode 225: 5 Ways to Make Your Content Scale with Shaina Weisinger * Episode 234: 3X Your Agency in 1 Year with EJ Saunders

Personal Development & Entrepreneurship Podcasts:* Episode 227: Finding Yourself After Failure with Amber Spears | DigitalMarketer Stories * Episode 233: How Joe Rogan Built His Brand on Cultural and Technological Trends * Episode 241: The Secret Sauce (and Missing Link) to Scaling a Business with Victoria Caldwell

Interviews with Successful Business Owners & Marketers Podcasts:* Episode 226: A Sales System for All Personalities with Neal Tricarico * Episode 228: Using Your Personal Brand to Build Your Agency with Jeff Hunter * Episode 244: Secrets of a Tik Tok Marketer with Gavin Bell * Episode 245: Increasing Your Website Conversions 100% with Michael Buzinski * Episode 252: Handling EVERY Sales Objection with Alex Schlinsky

Social Media & E-Commerce Trends & Insights:* Episode 230: A Doomsday Clock that Will Make You a Better Marketer? | Interview with Dave Albano * Episode 235: Meta Insiders on Instagram Reels * Episode 238: Bringing a Brick-and-Mortar Business Online with Lanell Beckels * Episode 240: E-Commerce Strategies for 2022 with Scott Cunningham and Simon Trafford

Creative & Unusual Marketing Tactics:* Episode 237: Using Poop to Create a Viral Marketing Campaign? * Episode 236: The Secret to Publishing a Video a Day

Podcasting tips and tricks:* Episode 221: The RIGHT and Wrong Way to Book Guests on Your Podcast * Episode 242: Hiring and Onboarding a Marketing Manager with Albert Abrantes * Episode 220: A Low-Pressure System to Get Agency Clients

The post What We Didn’t Expect from Our 2022 Content Performance Report appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Leadership, Vision, Purpose, and the Impact they have on both ourselves and others.

Which people, or even more specifically, which characteristics come to mind when you think of the word Leadership? We all have different perspectives of what makes a great leader, and if we were to list names, there would be many types of people on those lists. Some lists would likely have similarities, and some may not.

However, I believe that even though there would be different names on each list, the people those names represent would all have some commonalities within the characteristics they exhibit. There have been thousands of books written on leadership.

According to an Amazon search, over 57,000 titles with the word leadership in them. That’s a lot of research, opinions, conjecture, and maybe even a few facts to digest. Since the topic has been covered in great detail elsewhere, I won’t attempt to summarize my version or perspective of leadership. I will mention a few characteristics that I believe transcend across most, if not all, great leaders.

For me, I think of characteristics such as clear vision and purpose, and the ability to communicate those with others. The passion they have that is driven by this purpose is able to permeate their peers or the team they lead, and motivation to achieve the desired goals becomes almost contagious.

“Leadership is influence.” – John Maxwell.Speaking of books on leadership…my favorite author on the subject matter is John C. Maxwell. He has written over 50 books on leadership and is widely considered a leading expert, and is often hired as a keynote speaker to expound on the topic at conferences or corporate gatherings.

I have personally read several of his books on leadership, and have heard him speak on multiple occasions, so I’m sure that my insights are shaped significantly through his particular lens.

Since I hope to add more value to you during the time you spend reading this article, my plan isn’t to simply regurgitate information, but to give you a way to look at leadership from possibly a slightly different angle. Potentially even allowing you to evaluate your own leadership ability, and the inevitable
impact that it could have on others within your sphere of influence.

I’ve studied leadership by studying leaders and asking questions. That’s not a novel idea or methodology I know, but I wanted to share a few of the questions I like to ask. Hopefully along the way, these will get the wheels turning in your mind a little, and spur you on to discovering more of the leader within you, as I believe they have for me.

• What can we do to become better leaders?
• What can we learn from great leaders?
• What drives people to develop their leadership ability?

I think that each of these questions can provide valuable insight for us as we understand and develop our own strengths and weaknesses with regards to leadership. It is of great value to understand what we are naturally gifted with, and also where we may have some shortfalls that need to be strengthened.

Learning from great leaders is a surefire way to reveal some glaring weaknesses I’ve found. Self evaluation is key to improvement however, so don’t let the gaps in your leadership ability be a deterrent for you. The last question above is important though.

Being a leader can be challenging, if not downright hard. So make no mistake, understanding what drives others, and more specifically, what drives you to put in the work and develop those stubborn leadership weaknesses, is highly important.

We need to understand what drives us on a deeply intuitive level. So much so, that it is ingrained within us, and becomes part of who we are to our core. Otherwise, when things get a little tough, we’ll just throw in the towel, and let others do the hard things, while we settle for something safer, easier, and mediocre.

In the sub-headline I mentioned Vision and Purpose. I reference those because they are both interconnected with someone’s leadership. Over my 46 years of life, I’ve asked many great leaders the following questions.

What is the purpose behind their leadership and what vision guides their purpose? Rather than dive into the purpose and vision of others, I ask you the same thing… What is the purpose behind, and the vision guiding Your leadership?

Identifying your purpose and vision can provide the necessary understanding and drive to overcome inevitable challenges your leadership growth will encounter. The process of becoming a leader can be lonely at times, not unlike the entrepreneurial journey as you build a business or multiple businesses.

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There will be people in your life that challenge your leadership, just as there are those who will question your business acumen. At times, we will likely question our own abilities, whether that be to lead anyone at all, or to become a successful business owner. These are precisely the times we all need to be able to reflect and tap into our own purpose and vision for why we do whatever it takes.

I believe there is a leader within all of us.

With that in mind, I want to propose a final question to you.

What Impact does a great leader have on people who are influenced by them? I titled this article The Leading Impact, because I believe that true leadership has an amazing impact on others. In business, great leadership can provide jobs, income, wealth, stability, and financial freedom.

In life, great leadership can inspire change, it can be a catalyst to impact generations of humanity through the ripple effects of influence on lives around these great leaders. It can ignite a flame of passion to be a greater person today than yesterday, and in turn, that flame can spread to others who then take up the mantle of leadership, and continue the chain reaction of impacting lives.

I submit to you that it doesn’t matter whether you only learn to lead yourself well, and never esteem to lead a team of change agents. Your leadership matters, and you can have a huge impact on just a few, or possibly even on generations of people.

Regardless, all of this would be possible because you made a decision to clearly define your Purpose, cast Vision for your life, and become the Leader you were created to be.

Much love on your journey!

The post The Power of Influence: Transforming Lives Through Leadership appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Did you know that the compound annual growth rate in the digital marketing industry is projected to be 13.9% until 2026? The market is expected to reach $786.2 billion by that time frame.

This shows the importance of staying on top of new developments and adapting strategies accordingly — especially if digital marketers want to take advantage of the growth in 2023.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, keep reading to equip yourself with the right tips to slay your digital marketing game and stay ahead of the curve.

1. Follow industry leaders and influencersIndustry leaders or influencers in digital marketing are individuals who have established themselves as thought leaders in their fields, and have earned a large following due to their valuable insights and expertise.

To identify the right ones to follow, start by doing some research. Look for those with a track record of accurately predicting trends and providing valuable insights. You can search for keywords related to your industry on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Even a simple Google search can do the job!

Once you’ve identified potential influencers, it’s important to follow them across various platforms, including their social media, blogs, and even podcasts. This will give you a well-rounded view of their insights and perspectives. You can also use tools like Feedly or Flipboard to create a customized news feed of content from your favorite influencers.

Another great way to engage with influencers is by commenting on their content and participating in their online communities. By adding value to the conversation, you can build relationships with influential figures in your industry and stay on their radar.

Finally, tools like Hootsuite or Buzzsumo can help identify influencers and track their content. Hootsuite allows you to monitor social media conversations and track specific keywords or hashtags, while Buzzsumo provides insight into content that’s trending in your industry.

Pro-tip: Looking for some influencers to get started with? Here are some of our favorites:
Neil Patel — known for his expertise in SEO and content marketing
Gary Vaynerchuk — known for his expertise in social media marketing
Rand Fishkin — founder of Moz, recognized authority on SEO and content marketing.
2. Attend digital marketing conferences and events
Whether you’re looking to build your skills, explore new marketing strategies, or connect with like-minded professionals, attending industry conferences can be an invaluable experience.

Conferences and events also offer exposure to new marketing strategies, tools, and technologies. You can learn about the latest trends and best practices in digital marketing, as well as gain hands-on experience.

To find relevant conferences and events, research conferences in your specific niche and choose ones that align with your interests and goals.

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Once you’ve chosen a conference, plan your schedule to make the most of your time. Be sure to attend workshops and breakout sessions to learn about specific topics in depth. One other thing: take advantage of networking opportunities to build relationships and exchange ideas with other attendees and presenters.

Pro-tip: Some popular digital marketing conferences include:
Social Media Marketing World
Content Marketing World
MozCon
3. Collaborate with other professionals and brands
Working with other professionals and brands in your industry allows you to learn from their experiences and gain new insights into marketing strategies and tactics.

Here are some collaboration tips to keep in mind:

Identify potential collaborators who share your target audience and marketing goals. Look for businesses and individuals who complement your brand and its values.

Develop a mutually beneficial partnership. This could include co-creating content, cross-promoting each other’s products or services, or collaborating on a joint marketing campaign.

Building relationships is key to successful collaborations. Take the time to get to know your collaborators and understand their businesses and goals. Be sure to communicate clearly and work together to establish shared objectives.

Use social media to connect with potential collaborators, share each other’s content, and promote joint initiatives.

Measure and analyze the resultsof your campaign. Conduct website audits and track key metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and sales, and use this data to optimize your future collaborations.

A great example of a successful digital marketing collaboration is the #LikeAGirl Campaign partnership by Always and Girls on the Run.

Source: Beloved Brands

The popular feminine hygiene brand amplified the success of its viral 2014 marketing success by teaming up with Girls on the Run in 2019 to support the National Access and Inclusion Initiative. Over $750,000 has been donated over the last two years, shining a philanthropic light on Always’ brand image.
4. Join industry organizations and groups
Joining industry organizations and groups can provide many benefits that can help you stay ahead of the curve.

You can gain access to exclusive industry information and resources, such as primary research and reports that can help you stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices.

There will also be opportunities to network and build relationships with other professionals in your field. This can be especially valuable for freelancers and entrepreneurs who may not have as many opportunities to connect with others in their industry.

To identify the right organizations:

Research industry organizations and choose ones that align with your interests and goals.
Attend events and participate in committees to build relationships and gain exposure for your work.
Volunteer to help with events or initiatives to build your skills and experience.

Pro-tip: Examples of industry organizations and groups include the following:
American Marketing Association
Interactive Advertising Bureau
Content Marketing Institute
5. Experiment with new marketing techniques and technologies
Experimenting with new marketing techniques and technologies can help you reach wider audiences and engage customers in new ways.

However, when identifying the new tools and methods at your disposal, it’s important to choose the ones that align with your brand’s goals and audience.

For example, if you’re targeting Gen Z, you might experiment with video formats on growing social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels to reach that audience.

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

A great way to do this is by experimenting with new tactics on a small scale to test their effectiveness before growing. You can do this through A/B tests on your website, by running a small ad campaign on a new platform or by testing a new content format to see how it performs before investing more resources.

Examples of new marketing techniques and technologies that digital marketers can experiment with include AI tools like ChatGPT, virtual and augmented reality and voice search optimization.

If a new marketing trend or technology doesn’t work out, be prepared to pivot your strategy and try something new.

Experimentation involves taking risks, and not every experiment will be successful. The key is to learn from your failures and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Conclusion
As we move into 2023, it’s important you look out for exciting emerging trends in the year ahead, like AI and machine learning, social commerce, the rise of the ‘creator economy’, and focus on customers’ personalized experiences.

By keeping up with the latest trends, you can ensure your brand’s success in the fast-paced digital landscape. So let’s get out there and embrace the future of marketing!

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After years of speculating about whether the buzz around AI was justified, by now, most of us as marketers and entrepreneurs have accepted that the promise of AI-enabled tools is real.

It’s clear that AI technology will impact (and perhaps radically transform) almost every aspect of our work and lives.

Podcasting is no exception.

And while there are certainly challenges AI will present to us as podcasters, content creators, and marketers, there are also some incredible benefits.

Specifically, those benefits revolve around the ways in which AI will make our jobs easier when it comes to creating, repurposing, and marketing our shows to get them in front of our ideal listeners, and ultimately, clients and customers.

So in this article, we’ll look at 5 AI podcasting tools you can start using today to create a better show and reach more people for less money and in less time.

1. AI-Generated Podcast Show NotesIf you’re like most podcast hosts, writing show notes for each episode is likely one of your least favorite parts of the production process.

Fortunately, a growing number of AI-writing assistants like Capsho have emerged to help take this time-intensive (not to mention boring) task off your hands.

All you have to do is upload your finished audio file and Capsho will automatically write your episode’s show notes, suggest a title, create a transcript, pull out quotes, generate social captions, and even repurpose your episode into a blog post, newsletter, and LinkedIn article.

Keep in mind you’ll still need to do some manual tweaking to polish off the AI-generated, but for many hosts, Capsho, or similar tools like Swell or Podcast Marketing.ai can get you 90% of the way there.

1. AI-Generated Podcast Promotional AssetsOne of the best ways to drive awareness of your show is by repurposing it into short-form video.

And while manually combing through your episodes in search of the perfect clip can be a painstaking process, once again, AI has come to the rescue.

If you’re already recording video for your podcast, Vidyo is a nifty tool that automatically identifies, pulls, and captions compelling clips from any video file you upload.

In addition to a number of high-quality, customizable templates, Vidyo also has a nifty feature that automatically cuts between speakers, helping keep your viewers engaged on longer clips.

If you don’t record video for your podcast, not to worry.

Dubb is another podcast repurposing tool that generates AI-created background animations & transcripts from your uploaded audio files to create unique and engaging videos instantly.

1. AI Podcast Post-ProductionSo far, we’ve explored AI tools to help you repurpose your finished episode recordings. But there are a number of tools designed to make creating a high-quality show easier in the first place.

Descript has been on the scene the longest and has a whole suite of editing features including AI-generated transcript creation, audio clean-up, automatic filler-word removal, and more.

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But while Descript certainly has a powerful feature set, it’s far from the only option.

Perhaps the most intriguing new tool is Adobe Podcast.

While it’s currently still in beta, Adobe has released a couple of features for free, including their jaw-dropping Enhance Speech tool, which uses AI to transform almost any recording into an NPR-quality finished product (seriously).

With tools like Enhance Speech, the barriers to entry in terms of recording gear, software, and technical know-how is rapidly dropping, meaning one less layer of friction between your ideas and your audience.

1. AI Voice GenerationOne of the most fascinating applications of AI when it comes to podcasting is AI voice generation.

Maybe you’re a writer who would love to turn your blog posts into podcast episodes but doesn’t have the time, for example.

No problem.

With Listnr, you can simply upload your text, choose your voice (currently over 70 languages available with dozens of accent variables in each), and generate an audio version of your article in minutes.

But say you want to make things a bit more personal.

In addition to its post-production and editing tools, Descript’s Overdub feature allows you to train an AI voice model on your own voice.

Once the model has been trained, you can use Overdub to do everything from typing in a replacement word for one you flubbed during the recording to generating new custom audio content based on text.

1. AI Video AlterationOur final entry into the list might not apply to every podcaster, but it’s no doubt one of the coolest AI tools I’ve come across to date, especially if you record video for your podcast.

When it comes to production quality, there’s no denying that eye contact with the camera is one of the most important factors to consider.

For solo videos, eye contact allows for a more personal, intimate experience for your viewers. For interviews, that depth of connection extends to your guest as well, leading to better interviews, and a better experience for both them and your audience.

The problem (as we’ve all experienced on countless awkward Zoom calls) is that you can’t look at the camera and your guest’s video (or your script) at the same time.

To solve this, most serious video podcasters and YouTubers eventually opt to invest in bulky, often expensive teleprompters.

With NVIDIA’s new Eye Contact tool (a part of their Broadcast app), however, teleprompters might soon become obsolete.

The tool uses AI to seamlessly edit your video feed in real time so your eyes always remain locked on the camera, even while you’re taking notes or reading from a script.

Honestly, it’s kind of mind-blowing.

Unfortunately, Broadcast is only available for Windows right now, though I have no doubt we’ll be seeing more tools like this emerge for other operating systems soon enough.

How Will AI Impact Your Production Workflow?The AI arms race is well underway, both in terms of the development of new technologies and applications, as well as the adoption of those tools by small businesses, marketers, and creators looking to get a leg up on the competition.

While there are certainly still kinks to be ironed out, it’s clear that AI-enabled tools have emerged as viable options to help us create better content faster and cheaper than we could just a couple of years ago.

If you’re like me, this has you excited.

It means we can spend less time on the menial admin work that doesn’t make use of our unique talents and perspective, and more time on the creative, ideas-driven work that only we can do.

And it’s that work that will ultimately allow us to move our businesses forward.

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Artificial intelligence is taking the SEO industry by storm.

With the emergence of smart chatbots that can perform all kinds of tasks – seemingly – as well as humans can, and the integration of AI-powered features into the two prominent search engines, Bing and Google, there are a lot of questions on how this may change SEO and whether it is going to survive.

The most popular chatbot, ChatGPT, has no doubts as to whether SEO is going to be just fine:

And no, Artificial Intelligence doesn’t think it will ever replace web search if that’s your concern:

People will need search engines to access more diverse and advanced information and to find content that fits their personal tastes.

With that being said, SEO is going to change dramatically under the impact of quickly developing AI technologies.

And here’s what may happen:

Search Engines into Conversational Answer EnginesGoogle has been pioneering the idea of an “answer engine” for many years now. Instead of generating search results in response to a user’s query, Google has been providing quick answers and follow-up questions, suggesting related news and videos and guessing the context behind each query.

With the emergence of AI technology, this trend has become even more obvious. Bing has become the trend setter at integrating AI into online search, for a change. They were the first to introduce AI-powered conversational features into their search engines. The AI bot called Bart answers search queries in real time and even suggests follow-up questions to continue the conversation:

The bot interacts with searchers conversationally just like a human does but it does provide clickable links to allow them to access the articles it used to give the answers.

Google announced its AI features a few days later: Their bot is still in private beta, so we could only see the GIF giving a glimpse into how it would work.

Google’s bot responds to a user’s query in real time typing answers right in front of their eyes. Unlike Bing, it doesn’t look like the chatbot is willing to reveal its sources which seemed concerning for two reasons:

• Just like Bard, Google’s bot is scanning billions of documents across the internet to come up with answers. Not giving access to the sources seems very unfair to the publishers who created those documents.
• The fact that the bots are using third-party information means there can be human errors in the answers. Without an ability to access two or more sources, it will be hard to verify the information provided by the AI technology.

Google is claiming that they are still working and welcoming feedback, so there’s hope they will rethink the way it is set-up now and get more transparent with their sources.

In both ways, so far AI-powered search engines look an extension to what they were previously: Answer engines that strive to instantly help their users with additional information. If they cite the sources, optimizing for these kinds of real-time answers won’t be much different from optimizing for featured snippets. All you need is to do your best to answer your target audience’s questions, and the chatbots will likely cite you.

The only difference is that it is not quite clear how to measure your progress: We don’t know yet how those clicks from the bots’ answers will be recorded and tracked. But I suppose, search engines will be transparent in that respect allowing you to see which of your pages got cited by search chatbots most. Google already offers this kind of reports for its highly personalized Discover section.

AI and Its Impact on SEO ProfessionWith ChatGPT being able to perform all kinds of traditional SEO tasks – including content creation and optimization, writing emails, and even creating Schema code – there have been a lot of concerns as to how many SEO professions are going to become obsolete.

Well, at its current phase ChatGPT is not a threat to any profession. It can eliminate some outsourcing needs enabling SEO teams to handle more tasks at home, including basic coding needs.

But with its current possibilities most of those performed tasks will require a lot of human interference. Its written content is basic and detectable, so it cannot be used for content creation but it can turn useful in creating content outlines and briefs. Its code usually requires fine-tuning. Its keyword research is basic.

So far ChatGPT is simply a little helper that can make your work faster rather than replacing you in any task.

It may change in the future as it becomes more advanced but an SEO profession is so much more than simply performing tasks. It involves planning and strategizing. It is all about relationship building and collaboration. But more importantly, it requires understanding of unpredictable human reactions which AI will hardly ever learn to relate to.

The Key Lies in Mutual BenefitsSo in the above section, we’ve seen how AI can actually make an SEO’s job easier. It is clear that the technology can benefit us all – users and web publishers. The key is to start using AI technology to understand how we can safely co-exist without threatening each other.

If you have been in the SEO industry for at least a couple of years, you’ve surely seen how SEO always thrives with the emergence of new technology. Tools that make SEOs more informed and productive have never killed SEO. Instead they made the industry more advanced and integrated.

When SEO was born, we were merely focusing on identifying keywords and integrating them into the web document for Google to match them with the exact query. We’ve come a long way since them. We’ve gone through years of Google learning to use semantic analysis to understand intent behind search queries, penalizing and filtering out low-quality backlinks and giving direct answers to their users in the form of featured snippets and People Also Ask results.

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A decade or so ago, SEOs needed considerable development skills to put together sites and publish digital content but with the emergence of advanced site building platforms, anyone was able to create websites and design landing pages. Web analytics has also become accessible and easy to understand to just about anyone, whether they have any SEO expertise or not.

None of those changes has killed SEO but made it stronger.

AI technology is not brand new to the digital marketing industry. It has been integrated into customer support tools (IVR and chatbots) for years. There are AI-driven accessibility tools, AI-powered on-page engagement tools, AI-driven social media listening tools, etc. We have all learned to use multiple AI tools to improve digital marketing strategies.

New technology has been helping SEOs reverse engineer Google’s algorithm, analyze competitors, improve your keyword strategy and build web pages for users to easily get exactly what they came for. SEO is now integrated into product development, user experience testing and niche relationship building. It has become more than creating content for search engines and letting search crawlers access it easily. SEO is getting harder and harder to kill because it got smarter and smarter.

If AI technology seems to threaten you, get to know it better. Learn to benefit from it, and you will see that it can benefit everyone, including your users.

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AI will not fundamentally change your role as a Fractional CMO, despite what the masterminds and gurus are selling.

Are You Scared of AI?This feels like January of 2020, when the pandemic was just starting to get some attention. I remember going to my gym in Fishtown, Philadelphia and talking with the owner about this “weird virus thing.” He didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I thought there might be a lock-down until July 4. Obviously neither of us were right.

That’s where we are with AI.

There are some people freaking out about how everything is going to change.

And others who are utterly clueless.

I think academia is getting pretty worried about the implications of students writing theses and essays with a few prompts. Similar to the revolution Wikipedia brought about, but this time, much much more dramatic.

In marketing, there are the tacticians who are directly affected:

• Content writers: If you’ve ever used a resource like WriterAccess to get blogs or articles created, you might have paid $0.1 to $0.12 a word for the best-of-the-best writer (I’m talking about ex-Jeopardy contestants!). I have to imagine that those writers are at least having AI write the first draft of their articles, then just making some minor edits and collecting their fee.
• Copywriters: I’m seeing these folks really focus on harnessing AI. The take that I like is that copywriters will leverage AI to pull together creative ideas, cutting down the time to find The Big Idea. Tools like Jasper can help craft headlines, ad copy, email copy, and can absolutely support a copywriter. That said, I think the art of copywriting is safe from the robots, for now. There’s just so much consideration that is required in a good piece of copy that a simple Jasper prompt can’t repeatedly churn out.
• Marketing agencies: Writing boilerplate content for websites? Crafting a more readable About Us page? For the reduction of suffering across all humankind, let’s hope agencies are leveraging AI to help with this necessary evil.

Things are going to change.

But then again, the only constant in life is that everything changes.

If you’ve been in the business game for more than a couple years, you’ve seen other revolutionary advances.

Take, for example, crypto.

We saw all-time highs for bitcoin and ethereum prices in November 2021. If you were plugged into that world, you probably heard of the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) that were doing incredible, innovative work with smart contracts and their tokens.

Then the market saw a significant correction, wiping out over $700B in market capitalization over 6 months.

Some say that crypto is dead, but it’s clear the fundamental technology is here to stay. Development of the ethereum smart contract software Solidity began 7 years ago, and saw dramatic development over the bull run of crypto.

The high-times of token prices attracted some of the best developers in the world to work together on open source projects that moved the technology forward by leaps and bounds. That technology is slowly (and in some cases, rapidly) seeping into our day-to-day lives in the field of banking, regulatory compliance, insurance, supply chain management and more.

What I want you to get out of this comparison is that AI is right now at the “all time high” in the mainstream … and has a lot of room to grow in popularity. ChatGPT is being talked about on small-town country radio stations, in PTA meetings at high schools, at global summits of business leaders (just like bitcoin was). There’s worldwide attention on the technology… and that attention will wane at some point.

The implications of AI will seep into our day-to-day lives. We might notice it in tools like Notion with their release of Notion AI, and we may also not notice when a tool has AI baked into its core. Will anyone say “My car has AI!” in ten years? Or will they just appreciate that their car understands their requests better, and provides a more seamless experience?

The Great Search Engine AI Race is an example of noise related to AI. Yes, the way Google shows rankings may change… I’ve heard SEO folks talk about how Google might no longer show rich snippets and instead answer the query themselves with their AI engine. Maybe Bing with their partnership with OpenAI will somehow climb out of their sub-10% market share position to own, what? 15%? 20% of the market?

Does that matter? I guess. But it’s really not revolutionary for the consumer. We’ll experience a better experience, but then will quickly adapt to it.

AI is about to become ubiquitous; part of our day-to-day lives in a way that (should) make us feel as though it’s not even there. Saying something is “powered by AI” will start to feel like a high school entrepreneurial pitch event where all the students claim their project uses an “algorithm.”

So what’s a Fractional CMO to do about it?The same thing we did when TikTok came out. Which is the same thing we did when Clubhouse was all the rage on Twitter. We do the same thing we did when Leadpages and then Clickfunnels made building funnels and sales pages easier…

We roll these new tools into our strategy for our clients and execute them at the right time.

That’s it. That’s your job.

Fractional CMOs Solve Bigger Problems. That should be your mantra as you build your Fractional CMO practice. The bigger the problem, the bigger the reward – for your client, for their customers, and for you and your bank account.

What Companies Need from Their CMO in the New Era of AINervous or scattered CEOs might ask you to put all your attention on AI, and for most businesses, that is simply not a good use of your time.

Instead, there’s one word that accurately describes what companies need… and that word is leadership.

The fractional CMO, the interim CMO, and the full-time CMO all have the same basic requirement: To be the leader for their marketing department and to push the team to make the dreams of the CEO and/or the board of directors come true.

AI becomes a tool in your toolbelt. It is also a tool in your client’s competitor’s toolbelt.

A few years ago, I was working as a Fractional CMO for a private equity company and I remember sharing my concerns about the increased CPM on Facebook over a few week stretch. HIs reply was timeless:

“It affects us and our competition the same. Don’t lose sleep over it. Keep fighting.”

What simple, golden advice.

The same is true with AI.

AI content writers mixed with lifelike voice generators, overlaid on a slideshow of images produced by DALL-E seems like a scary and innovative tactic… and it might be. But it’s just a tactic.

And it’s your job to decide if it’s the right tactic or not.

It’s your job to chart the best path, no matter the tools and tactics that emerge.

Oftentimes, the number one thing a business needs is end-to-end tracking of lead source to purchase. Or simply just having a rock-solid offer. Or focusing on one advertising channel to 10x sales of their hero product. Or a salesperson who will call all the webinar attendees who stayed for the whole 60-minute webinar but didn’t purchase.

For most companies, AI is simply another tactic that seems exciting and revolutionary, but in reality, it’s a level-5 tool and the company is stuck at level 1.

Business basics like tracking, generating advertising controls, creating product ascension to maximize customer lifetime value, collecting and sharing testimonials, and delivering a world-class customer experience will last until the end of time. AI is here to stay and yes, it changes everything, but it’s not the panacea to profitability that some marketers want it to be.

Stay focused. Stay in your lane. Bring in more sales. Look for low-hanging fruit that you can use AI on. Test your favorite copywriter’s work against a rewrite by AI and see who wins.

Be open to swinging the AI hammer, but treat it like a tool.

Keep fighting.

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Email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter. But only if you send the right emails, to the right people, at the right time.

There are countless ways to write copy that converts, but only one way to do it consistently: by using a framework.

The Power of a Copywriting FrameworkBefore we introduce you to one of our favorite frameworks, let’s unpack why you should use a framework to begin with.

Copywriting frameworks provide a structure to organize your ideas while ensuring you don’t mistakenly neglect any key points needed to achieve your goals. They’re simple to use, easy to remember, and most importantly, they drive results.

But not all copywriting frameworks are created equal. Some pack more punch than others. Let’s look at why:

Neuroscience teaches us purchasing decisions are strongly influenced by emotions, but it doesn’t stop there. The written word (and that includes email) has the power to make neurochemical connections in the brain that inspire brand loyalty…for life.

The L.O.V.E. email copywriting framework is designed to create emotional connections and build the trust needed to convert your prospects into buyers. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

The L.O.V.E. Email Copywriting Framework L is for “Leverage”In the typical sense of the word, leverage means to take something (maybe even the simplest thing) and use it to maximum advantage. Does this principle apply to email copywriting? You bet. You only have one chance to make a great first impression. To do it well:

Remind readers why they’re receiving your email in the first place. Be mindful of how your reader first learned about your brand. Whether they opted-in to your list in-store, through a lead magnet, or because they made a purchase, make sure your first email reminds them that they asked you to send them something.

Follow-through shows you pay attention and that your brand values integrity.

Capitalize on your existing authority & build trust. People have a million things on their mind. You have to convince them that out of the many voices competing for their attention, yours is the one they can trust.

Adam Waytz, an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, suggests trust is built when you demonstrate benevolence, integrity, competence and predictability.

What does this mean in actual practice?

Let’s start with an example of what not to do:

“Dear Susie,

My name is John. I am the owner of The Luxury Cars Company. We have sold thousands of cars to people just like you!”

This email doesn’t incorporate any of the trust factors we mentioned above. In fact, it may even come across as arrogant and disengenuous. That’s definitely not what we’re going for!

What about this?

“Dear Susie,

My name is John and I am the owner of The Luxury Cars Company. We take pride in having helped countless people like yourself find their dream car.”

Better. But still not quite hitting the mark. Because there are umpteen other luxury car dealerships that say the same thing. What’s so special about this one?

So let’s try this again:

“Dear Susie,

According to studies, 56% of luxury car owners feel happier overall with their lives. That’s why clients of The Luxury Cars Company will be the first to tell you, we don’t sell cars, we sell happiness. We’ve helped over 10,000+ people find happiness behind the wheel since we opened our doors 10 years ago.

While there’s still plenty of room for improvement here, we’re getting a lot closer to the finish line because:

• The writer seems benevolent (they want people to be happy–and the fact that their customers are saying they are happy after shopping with them adds a touch of implied integrity).
• The statistic is interesting because it speaks to the reader’s desire–and demonstrates success (competence!).
• The fact that over 10,000 customers have been helped suggests a sense of predictability. If they did it for them, they can do it for you, too!

Find common ground. You must understand what matters to your readers in order to write copy that resonates with them. You may need to conduct market research, analyze customer feedback, or gather data on their demographics and behavior. By doing so, you can identify trends, patterns, and commonalities among your customers, which can help you create more targeted messages.

Want to take it a step further? Personalize your message. Even the tiniest things, like adding “Hi Susie” to the beginning of your email, can increase engagement exponentially.

Speak to their pain point. You have to tread carefully with this one, lest you delve into the not-so-recommended territory of fear-mongering. In order to offer up your solution, you have to first communicate why the reader needs that solution.

There are many ways to do this. One of the best ways is to let someone else deliver the bad news. You can do this easily by sharing an interesting fact or statistic from a reputable source.

You’ve seen this a million times. Insurance companies use statistics related to accidents, disasters, or health issues to encourage consumers to purchase insurance policies. Security companies may use crime statistics or statistics related to home invasions to encourage consumers to purchase security systems. And the list goes on and on.

What statistics can you use that might inform your reader about something they might not have even been aware of–and how your product or service can solve that problem?

O is for “Offer” Now that you’ve captured attention and made a connection with your reader, you need to clearly communicate why your prospect should buy the solution you sell. There are many ways to do this, but here are a few we love:

• Emphasize the unique benefits that set your product/service apart from competitors.
• Share testimonials from satisfied customers who have benefited from your product or service.
• Illustrate how your product or service has positively impacted the lives of real people.

V is for “Validate”Now that you’ve captured your reader’s attention and shown them that your product/service will solve their problem, they’re ready to buy, right?

Wrong. Because objections are popping like popcorn in your reader’s mind. Right now, they’re thinking: But wait! What about… [fill in the blank with an objection your reader might have.]

Today, customers are more skeptical than ever. Between bots trying to sell them cryptocurrency on Tinder and Instagram ads sucking them into buy products they never actually receive, people are pretty darn afraid of getting burned.

To help them overcome their objections, consider what may be causing them to hesitate, empathize with them, and then address their objections head-on.

Here are a few ways to do this:

• Respond to the concern in a way that makes the reader feel heard and understood. Use clear and concise language. Relate to the reader. And be honest.
• Display social proof, such as the number of followers or subscribers on social media, positive reviews on review sites, or the number of happy customers.
• If price is a concern, offer discounts, financing options, or alternative pricing plans that fit within the customer’s budget.
• Offer a satisfaction guarantee or free trial period to help customers feel more confident in their purchase.
• Provide evidence of your company’s credentials, certifications, or awards, and share any media coverage or industry recognition.

E is for “Ease”It might seem ludicrous at this point to think your reader is still sitting on the fence when you’ve given them so many reasons to get off, but humans can be interesting creatures. We tend to fear commitment. This is why your call to action needs to speak to those who are ready to click “Buy Now” – and to those who aren’t.

Here are a few ways to make it easy for your readers to take action:

• Test different CTAs: “Learn more” or “Try it out” are great CTAs, as they invite the reader to explore and learn more about your product or service without committing to a purchase.
• Good old-fashioned FOMO: By adding a time limitation or limited offer to your service or product, you are more likely to inspire action.
• Include a transitional CTA: If your reader isn’t ready to take the desired action, give them another option.

Think of your CTA as asking someone on a date. Don’t be demanding. Be enticing and inviting.

Wrapping It All UpOnce you’ve nailed the L.O.V.E. copywriting framework in an email sequence, you’ll want to tie it all together by writing absolutely unforgettable subject lines for each email. Remember, 33% of people open email based on the subject line alone. It would be a tragedy to invest the time in developing an awesome email marketing sequence like this only to find that noone actually reads it.

Here are a few tips to help you create email subject lines that work:

• Keep it under nine words if possible. People have short attention spans.
• Make sure it touches on a pain point.
• Make it weird–weird subject lines inspire curiosity and clicks.

Check this out if you want 8 more points to make effective email marketing subject lines quick and easy.
By integrating the proven L.O.V.E. email copywriting framework into your marketing tactics, you can create an automated system that deepens connections, builds trust, and converts prospects into buyers consistently and predictably. And that’s the whole point of this thing we call digital marketing!

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Julia McCoy explains how AI can save both time and money when it comes to producing written content.Show less

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The benefits of being a T-shaped marketer and utilizing expertise from different digital fields to stay on top of this rapidly changing marketing landscape is crucial.

We are witnessing unprecedented levels of digital disruption in marketing. AI is also assuming more marketing responsibilities and raising concerns that human marketing roles might become obsolete.

This will most certainly not be the case. At least not anytime soon. But the ability to embrace new technologies quickly and implement marketing experiments independently can make the difference between success and be made redundant. This is where T-shaped marketers come in.

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By nature, T-shaped marketers are self-starters and doers. They do not confine themselves within the limits of their specialization but seek to understand all facets of digital marketing while achieving expertise in one.

Building a team of T-shaped marketers can be highly beneficial because it will ensure everyone understands the bigger picture while filling expertise gaps in different marketing specializations. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of being a T-shaped marketer – for yourself and your company.

Benefits of being a T-shaped marketerGeneralists are capable of many things but do not excel in any. I-shaped marketers are specialists in one area of expertise. They carve their corner in a single space. On the other hand, T-shaped marketers are skilled in different marketing facets but experts in one.

Thus, one would easily say that T-shaped marketers are an excellent fit for agile, fast-paced environments and startup cultures. Here’s why:

1. Cross-Disciplinary KnowledgeT-shaped marketers can identify opportunities for collaboration with other teams across multiple disciplines, such as content marketing for lead generation and social media for community building. This can lead to more effective teamwork, increased efficiency, and reduced marketing costs.

For example, a T-shaped marketer conversant with digital and traditional marketing can use a digital advertising campaign to complement a more extensive print advertising campaign.

Furthermore, T-shaped marketers help companies manage diverse workloads, preventing them from hiring separate full-time marketers. They also understand how different marketing elements fit together and can allocate resources to guarantee the success of marketing campaigns.

2. Ability to Work in Any IndustryMost marketing initiatives or activities are industry agnostic. Being a T-shaped marketer makes handling various tasks in any company or industry easy. For context, you can seamlessly pivot and fit into a new market, technology, or industry without compromising quality service delivery.

Moreover, companies are looking for flexible marketing professionals who can bring new perspectives and deliver results no matter the industry.

Similarly, the versatility gained from being a T-shaped marketer makes you well-suited to meet such demands. You can get your feet through different doors because of the diverse marketing skills you bring to the table.

3. Better Chances of Getting HiredSkills are the bedrock of your expertise, and companies hire based on skills, not roles. 64% of experts claim that skill testing is vital for hiring the right candidate, much more critical than traditional hiring methods.

Likewise, having various skills that cut across different niches increases your chances of employability. So no matter how competitive the job market is, you can be confident of landing your dream job as a T-shaped marketer.

4. Helps You Develop High-Value Soft SkillsBeing a T-shaped marketer gives you a holistic avenue to develop in-demand soft skills that could boost your career prospects. Handling diverse responsibilities and working across several departments requires you to wear several hats simultaneously.

Consequently, you can build a robust stack of soft skills applicable to any industry.

You can become a critical thinker, an effective communicator, a collaborator, a leader, and a great negotiator, to mention a few. Additionally, you learn to adapt quickly to technological changes, customer behavior, and market trends.

Benefits of Having T-shaped Marketers on Your Team Having T-shaped marketers on your marketing team is akin to fixing round pegs into round holes. They fit perfectly. On that note, let’s look at some benefits of having such perfect fits on your team.

1. Valuable Assets to Any Company The experience and unique blend of soft and technical skills T-shaped marketers possess make them invaluable talents to any company. They are also referred to as marketing demigods capable of taking a marketing framework from zero to a hundred, single-handedly or collectively.

Who would treat someone who is basically good at everything and can deliver effectively as a liability? Except, of course, they are ignorant of the competitive advantage T-shaped marketers offer or are terrible at managing human resources.

2. Complete Perspective Over the Digital StrategyFrom sales to customer relationship management to analytics, T-shaped marketers provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to digital marketing strategies.

For example, a T-shaped marketer with experience in UX and CRO could bring a unique perspective on self-reported vs. traditional marketing attribution across different customer touchpoints. This could help you make more sense of the customer journey and invest in the channels that are truly bringing results.

T-shaped marketers also bring a data-driven approach, evaluating the effectiveness of their campaigns on the go and making informed decisions by running many small-scale experiments.

3. Provide Creative Solutions to ProblemsT-shaped marketers are great creative thinkers because they are exposed to and understand different marketing domains. It enables them to proffer feasible solutions to problems as they arise.

Additionally, they can identify marketing loopholes that could potentially risk the company’s growth.

4. Ability to Deliver Well-Rounded ResultsBeing knowledgeable in different areas of marketing makes T-shaped marketers all-rounders. They can think beyond the boundaries of their expertise and consider the bigger picture when developing marketing strategies.

This means they consider broader business goals, external factors, and how to thrive in the competitive landscape.

5. Experienced CollaboratorsT-shaped marketers can take on small responsibilities and assist colleagues across different departments while keeping sight of the company’s goals.

They are flexible and can adjust their approach and strategies based on input and feedback from others. In addition, they are open to new ideas and are willing to work with others to find the best solution.

6. Organizational IntegrationEverything is omnichannel or multi-channel today. Thankfully, T-shaped marketers can integrate multiple organizational functions—such as branding, product development, and customer relationship—leading to better marketing results.

They provide organizational integration by creating a synergy between different departments to achieve common marketing goals. And they do so by establishing clear communication channels and creating cohesive marketing strategies.

7. Work Better in TeamsWorking in silos is fast becoming outdated in today’s business world. Fortunately, having T-shaped marketers in your workforce can help you foster teamwork and achieve the company’s goals more quickly.

Furthermore, T-shaped marketers can mentor and share their knowledge with other team members, helping to build a stronger, knowledgeable marketing team.

The Benefits of T-Shaped Marketing Extend Beyond Just Being a “Jack of All TradesThe first step towards leveraging T-shaped marketing is having a basic understanding of what a T-shaped marketer is. Besides being a jack of all trades, T-shaped marketers are great fits for the fast-growing business ecosystem. This is because their expertise goes beyond the marketing spectrum.

So, if you want to expand your craft and become a highly sought-after marketing personnel, consider becoming a T-shaped marketer. Likewise, an organization looking to stand out from competitors must focus on creating a versatile marketing team that also includes T-shaped marketers.

The post Why T-Shaped Marketers Hold the Key to Success in the New Marketing Age appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Once ChatGPT made its debut, the discussion about what it will do to marketing agencies started almost immediately. There have been tons of articles, videos, and podcasts on this topic. As a result, those in the industry are getting a lot of mixed messages about the impact and use of ChatGPT for marketing purposes.

If you’re feeling confused (and concerned for your business’s future), you’re not alone.

So, let’s talk about it…

How ChatGPT Can Be Used for MarketingChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that gives conversational responses to questions and prompts, making it a valuable tool for marketing purposes. Instead of typing a query into Google and reviewing each result, you can head over to ChatGPT and get a single answer. Plus, you can keep the conversation going to dive deeper into the topic or refine the responses.

Here are some common applications of ChatGPT for marketing:

• It can help brainstorm new content ideas.
• It can aid in keyword research for SEO.
• It can generate ad copy.
• It can be used to draft business emails and letters.
• It can provide short descriptions for videos.
• It can produce content for blogs, ebooks, etc.
• It can assist in debugging code errors.
• It can analyze customer data.
• It can offer responses for customer service automation.

As you can see, there’s a lot of potential in applying ChatGPT for various marketing tasks. But that’s part of the problem—at least for some marketers. The fact that this transformative software can do all the above (and more) has left many marketing professionals scared.

Why Some Marketers Are Afraid of ChatGPTOne of the biggest concerns in the whole debate about ChatGPT is that the tool will negatively affect marketers. There’s a fear it will replace specific roles, including writers, programmers, PPC experts, and SEO specialists. But there’s also a fear it will wipe out marketing agencies entirely.

Basically, marketing professionals are worried that ChatGPT will make their jobs obsolete.Part of this is because the applications of ChatGPT for marketing are growing by the day. As mentioned earlier, it can be used to complete a number of tasks that people usually handle. Its current capabilities are already impressive, and it will only improve with time.

The other part is the idea that ChatGPT might become a substitute for Google and other search engines. After all, it is more convenient to generate one answer than to scroll through multiple results on a SERP. So if more people opt for ChatGPT than Google, it could spell trouble for marketers specializing in SEO and paid advertising.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been threatened by new technology, and it probably won’t be the last. But that’s why it’s worth examining what we, as marketers, can do that ChatGPT can’t.

Where ChatGPT Falls ShortDespite its speed, convenience, and capabilities, ChatGPT has its fair share of limitations. There’s no doubt about that. It’s not quite sophisticated enough to take on some tasks completely. Plus, it has the potential to be…well, wrong.

Here are a few examples:

• The answers aren’t always reliable or available.

If you ask ChatGPT a question, there’s a chance you’ll get an incorrect answer. The tool doesn’t actually know if an answer is accurate or not. Sometimes (about 15-20% of the time), it “hallucinates” and just makes things up.
Additionally, ChatGPT can’t always generate a response to a question. This often happens when you ask about current events. ChatGPT’s training data was cut off in 2021, which means up-to-date knowledge may not be available.

• It can introduce plagiarism issues.

If you use content from ChatGPT as is, you may end up plagiarizing. Tests have shown the tool has a tendency to paraphrase or outright copy text without citing the original source. Remember that every response is based on training data. So, it’s pulling and distilling information into its own language rather than producing it outright.

• It often requires very specific instructions.

When you use ChatGPT for marketing purposes, you still have to be pretty hands on. The tool gets confused by ambiguity, so you need to provide specific instructions. Depending on the scope of work, it may be faster to handle it manually…

Ultimately, ChatGPT’s limitations prevent it from matching us as marketers. And even ChatGPT agrees…

What Experts Are Saying about ChatGPTAs discussed in the beginning, there are a lot of conflicting viewpoints about the use of ChatGPT for marketing and whether it bodes well for us or not. So, here’s what some of the experts are saying…

Karen Hite of Hite Digital“I think that ChatGPT (currently at least) is as good as the person feeding the prompt to it. Which tells you the tool itself is not ready to make (on its own) an amazing copy right off the bat with just a question… I believe that true marketers will use this tool to make their lives easier AND add to it to make amazing copy that adds value.”

Perry Belcher“ChatGPT is just the tip of the iceberg of what the automaton tsunami that’s coming quick, fast and in a hurry… For the smart ones of us who grasp these 4.0 smart technologies and keep our eyes on the horizon for what is next, this is an exciting time because we see what is ahead.”

Mark de Grasse of DigitalMarketer

In a previous article about AI’s impact on marketing careers, DigitalMarketer’s own Mark de Grasse had this to say: “You don’t have be afraid of the coming changes, but you do need to be open and aware of them. Start using AI right now, and really start to think about what makes you special as a person.”

Ann Gynn of Content Marketing InstituteIn an article about a content marketing experiment with ChatGPT, Ann Gynn stated, “ChatGPT can be a useful tool, but it’s no replacement for human creativity and judgment.”

Dr. Peter J. Meyers of MozSoothing fears about ChatGPT replacing Google, Moz Marketing Scientist Dr. Peter J. Meyers said, “While Google isn’t going anywhere, we can expect the landscape of search to change in unexpected (and occasionally unwanted) ways in the next year.”

As for me, I think ChatGPT is just another tool. It’s something we can use to streamline our efforts and become more efficient. Of course, this is only true if you’re focused on delivering valuable, educational content (and high-quality work overall) for your clients.

How the Use of ChatGPT for Marketing Will Affect AgenciesUltimately, ChatGPT will prove beneficial for some and harmful for others.

Here’s what I mean…

True marketers and legitimate agencies work hard for their clients. They invest in themselves and their teams, taking every opportunity to improve their skills. And they do all this to ensure they’re equipped to help their clients grow.

Becoming a successful marketing professional—no matter the specialty—takes time, effort, and passion. And despite how great a tool like ChatGPT may seem, it can’t replace years of training and experience. It can’t tackle every task or even deliver the same level of service as marketers.

Why?

Because it’s not able to do things such as the following:

• Take brand guidelines into consideration
• Apply principles learned from training
• Double-check the accuracy of information
• Speak to customers’ emotions
• Create great copy right off the bat

What it can do is help great agencies become even better. By leveraging ChatGPT for marketing, teams can work even smarter and faster. The time normally spent on simple or repetitive tasks can be shifted to those that require a personal touch. And on top of all that, there’s also the potential to work more efficiently while keeping pricing the same.

Just to hit the point home, here’s the response from ChatGPT when asked how it will impact marketing agencies:

On to the bad news…

For agencies that do the bare minimum for their clients, ChatGPT could be problematic. But that’s primarily because those types of agencies might rely on it completely. And as we’ve already covered, that’s not the way to go. Doing so will just worsen results, cause job losses, and drive away customers.

You shouldn’t run from ChatGPT and other AI technology, but you also shouldn’t depend on it.

Bottom LineThere’s virtually no chance that ChatGPT will wipe out legitimate marketing agencies. If you strive to create high-quality work for your clients, you can rest easy knowing this is just another tool you can use to your advantage. And if applied correctly, it can go a long way toward reducing expenses and streamlining your efforts.

The post ChatGPT for Marketing: How This AI Tool Will Impact Agencies appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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AI is an opportunity, not a threat. The marketers who embrace change will see their capabilities expand faster than they ever thought possible. Marketers who hide or ignore the trends will be left behind.

There are two ways to look at this situation. Let’s start with the negative way…

The Lost Marketers on the BeachAll the marketers sat on a beautiful beach that went on far as the eye could see. They chatted, laughed, built sand castles, and played in the waves. Then the ocean started to recede; a little bit at first, but as the minutes ticked by, it got farther and farther away from the shore until it couldn’t be seen.

The marketers looked at each other perplexed… some thought it was funny and ran out onto the wet sand where the waves used to crash. Others remained were they were, and simply discussed the troubling disappearance of the ocean. Still others ran inland towards high ground, screaming for the rest to follow.

By the time the tsunami could be seen, it was too late for anyone to change their mind. The wave rose, and rose, and rose, and it got closer, and closer, and closer. It swept up the people who had run towards the ocean first, then the people who did nothing, and then pursued the ones who tried to prepare for its arrival.

Everything they had built on the beach was destroyed. Most of the marketers were lost, sucked into the ocean or smashed against the shore. The remainder stumbled across a desolate landscape, picking up the pieces of what they had built, and began reconstructing from scratch.

I’m sure you guessed that AI is the tsunami, and the three groups of marketers are the ones that are happy about AI but aren’t taking it seriously, the ones on the beach aren’t doing anything, and the ones heading for the hills understand that AI is a game changer and are starting to prepare.

The good news is, this isn’t the only way to look at this situation!

The Adventurous Marketers on the FrontierThe crew was ready. Cargo stowed, flight checklist reviewed, engines in the green… the countdown had begun. The count reached zero and like a match being struck, the ship leapt into the air climbing higher and higher, faster and faster until the mountains and waves devolved into a mat of green and blue, and the clouds billowed below.

They were headed towards space, where countless new stations had been constructed near resource-rich astroids… or maybe to the manufacturing plants on the moon… or to the growing colony on Mars… or to explore the moons of Jupiter. The crew was excited with the endless possibilities this new frontier had opened up.

There would be danger and fear, but that would be easily squashed by adventure and opportunity, driven by courage, energy, and a ravenous appetite for advancement.

The frontier had been opened to everyone, and once that happened, the crew realized that the environment they had been operating in had become stale, monotonous, tedious, and boring. The frontier had saved them.

Which story do you identify with? Which one sounds like more fun?

Survival is stressful. Adventure is stressful. The difference is that you can choose adventure, while survival is just something we all have to do.

Your Marketing Career is Safe If You Want It to BeI speak to a lot of well-established, successful marketers who have been in marketing for over 20 years. That puts them in a unique set of people who saw the transition from traditional offline marketing to digital marketing… the biggest change in the industry since the television.

They’re NOT worried. All they can see is possibility. Possibility for more effective marketing, for more efficient teams and workflows, for expanding markets in new industries, and for tech that makes they themselves 10 times more productive.

If you choose to view AI as an opportunity, you will have the right mindset for what’s coming next.

What’s coming next? A shift in the way we do things! It’s something we’ve faced before and will face again. That said, you still need several traditional marketing skills to succeed in the new age.

Here are 5 ways to safeguard your marketing career.

1: Double Down on Marketing StrategyWith AI tools increasing the productivity of marketing managers, and allowing all marketers to produce content faster than ever while also managing paid media channels more effectively, the marketer that can produce the best overall strategy will win.

Note that I said “overall strategy” and not “paid media strategy,” “social media strategy,” “content strategy,” “product strategy,” etc. With marketers’ growing capabilities comes the opportunity (and necessity) of creating a cohesive strategic plan that can be created and executed by a single marketer.

At DigitalMarketer, we have the Customer Value Journey to guide overall strategy creation. It’s an 8-stage process that will turn strangers into buyers into active promoters, and you can incorporate all elements of marketing (AI, email marketing, social media marketing, copywriting, etc.) into it.

TAKE ACTION!If you don’t have a well defined overall marketing strategy, you don’t need to create one from scratch. The Customer Value Journey has been used to make over $100 million for DigitalMarketer and billions for our students. Download this ebook and start solidifying your strategy today.

2: Start Using AINo, you can’t avoid using AI tools.

If you think that you can eventually hire an “AI Specialist” just like you do with a “TikTok Specialist” because you want to avoid the platform, you are 100% wrong here. You need to build a basic understanding of how AI works so you can evolve your strategy to match.

Your ability to both use and understand AI will directly impact your ability to manage marketing campaigns. Without a basic understanding, you won’t just SEEM out of date, you will be truly lost, and that will be very noticeable by your subordinates, colleagues, superiors, and clients.

TAKE ACTION!Not using AI yet? Not to worry! Simply set up a ChatGPT account RIGHT NOW. Next, whenever you’re planning on doing a Google search for something, instead put the same search into ChatGPT. Review the answer and ask follow up questions to refine the result. This is the FIRST STEP to understanding AI and what it’s capable of.

3: Ensure That You Understand All Marketing MethodsDo you still need to understand each marketing method if AI could potentially execute it for you? Of course you do. How could you manage anything you don’t really understand? You can’t!

Could you manage a group of doctors if you have no medical experience? How about mechanics if you’ve never fixed a car? All managers in skilled workforces have typically done the job in some way, shape, or form in the past. Marketers are no different.

At DigitalMarketer we call it the T-Shaped Marketer. A T-Shaped Marketer is somebody who has expertise in about 1-3 main marketing facets.

Being a T-shaped marketer means that you can help clients with their marketing strategy from A-Z. While you’ll have your bread and butter (like SEO, social media, paid ads, or community building), you’ll be able to create winning strategies amongst other marketing facets by collaborating with your marketing team.

While AI might ultimately replace some of the marketing specialities, your understanding of what role the method played will be pivotal to your advancement as AI becomes increasingly widespread.

TAKE ACTION!Do a self-assessment, and find out where your marketing skills are really lacking. Here are the marketing skills that we promote at DigitalMarketer. Copy the list, then give yourself a 1 to 10 score regarding your knowledge and understanding of each one. If you give yourself a 5 or less on any of them, start researching, or take a course to learn more.

• Digital Advertising
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Copywriting
• Ecommerce Marketing
• Analytics & Data
• Community Management
• Optimization & Testing

4: Add Style & Creativity to Your SkillsetsAI isn’t magic… it’s just a new kind of program. You’ve used computers and programs for years, and you understand the limitations they have when it comes to new ideas, stylized content, and general creativity. It can only know what we know, so the best way to stay useful is to KNOW MORE.

How can you start to “know more?” You do more! You experience more. You open your mind to every possibility and identify and squash habits that prevent you from learning. This sounds simple, but it is far from it.

Hate to bring it up… but you know your aversion to using TikTok because “it’s for young people,” or “you don’t have time,” or “you’re too mature for the content?” STOP IT. That is a perfect case study of your tendency to limit growth because it’s uncomfortable and you fear change. ‘

Now that you’re open to learning, let’s talk about creativity. Who better to show you how to beat AI in creativity, than AI? Here’s what ChatGPT had to say on the subject:

So! According to AI, you can beat AI by leveraging your creativity to develop unique ideas, perspectives, and content by combining human intuition, experience, and creative thinking.

Let’s take it a step further by talking about style. If you can’t define your brand’s style in every aspect of the content they generate, then it doesn’t have a style.

Every piece of content you generate needs to have a unique and identifiable style that matches your brand. Every article, video, graphic, document, post, press release, event, physical location, website, etc. needs to look like “you.”

This is extremely important as more and more people generate more and more content using AI. If we all use the same tool to create content about the same subject, there will be no reason to go to one vendor over another. Your content needs to reflect you.

If you don’t consider yourself stylish or creative, stop it. You’re both of those things, you just need some practice.

TAKE ACTION!Two tasks for you to do here… get creative and define your style. To get creative, set aside 15-30 minutes a day for creative exploration. This could be through artistic mediums like painting or drawing, but it could also be trying physical activities like yoga or weightlifting. The important part is that you try something NEW each week, every day.

For your personal style, open a document and define 3 unique aspects of the following (start with this personal list to really drive home the need for defining style in every aspect of your life):

• Your Writing Style
• Your Wardrobe
• Your Home
• Your Diet
• Your Hobbies

Don’t overthink it! Simply start to think about what makes you different from other people.

5: Improve Your People SkillsAI isn’t people! We all know this. Just try to chat with a bot and you’ll quickly notice who’s a person and who isn’t.

There are dozens of facets of communication that we unconsciously execute every time we have a conversation. From body language to tone to mood to outside factors like the weather, time of day, and current events, a lot goes into how we converse with each other.

That isn’t likely to change soon, which means that your personal relationships with coworkers, managers, employees, customers, clients, and vendors will still require people skills.

“People skills” are more than just conversing as well. If you want to be a truly capable human, your skills will need to include emotional intelligence, empathy, adaptability, listening, openness, acceptance, authenticity, curiosity, clarity, patience, compassion, and an abundance of energy to make it all work.

That personal touch will be more important than ever as the more mundane tasks that used to suck up our energy and emotional reserves will be increasingly delegated to unfeeling machines (AI).

I think one directive sums up your new mindset well: BE INTERESTING.

Be interesting in your conversations. Be interesting in the way you approach projects. Be interesting when you talk to people you see every day. Be interesting to new people you meet.

TAKE ACTION!For the next week take notes on any conversation that lasts more than 5 minutes. Note how interesting (or boring) the engagement was, and then consider how you could have made it more interesting. After a week, take one of your notes and apply it to your conversations for a day. See how the conversations go and adjust accordingly.

Conclusion: You’re Going to Be FineYou don’t have be afraid of the coming changes, but you do need to be open and aware of them. Start using AI right now, and really start to think about what makes you special as a person.

If you want a huge leg-up, consider the AI-Powered Marketer course. We’re assembling a team of highly intelligent marketers who are embracing AI right now to enhance their results.

The post 5 Ways to Safeguard Your Marketing Career Against/With AI appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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You’ve probably seen it all over the internet… making waves on just about every social media platform out there.

Artificial intelligence, let me rephrase that – CHATGPT3. The monster that has awakened Microsoft to invest $10 billion.

But why? Does Microsoft truly believe that AI will change the way we consume information and produce it?

Or the even bigger question… Will artificial intelligence replace us as humans in the content marketing world?

Well, stick with me for a sec, because the answer isn’t as simple as “yes you should be afraid of AI replacing humans” or “you shouldn’t worry about your job.”

What is AI Anyways?Researchers in the field of AI strive to create systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

These tasks include visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language understanding.

Using AI, computers are trying to be creative like humans as much as they can, given the constraints.

Will AI Replace Human Creativity? To compare AI with human creativity would be a good place to start.

While humans might find it challenging and tedious to understand the target market, things have become easier thanks to AI.

This technology lets companies personalize their marketing efforts, improve targeting and segmentation, and automate repetitive tasks.

How is that even possible? Well, advanced machine learning algorithms and natural language processing analyze customer data and generate insights that can be used to develop an excellent strategy in much less time.

Interestingly, the emergence of AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants is excellent for businesses as they interact with customers in real-time, providing personalized assistance and recommendations.

Overall, AI is helping companies engage with customers and increase sales more effectively. This has massive implications for entrepreneurs, as they won’t need unnecessary labor for tedious tasks.

On the other hand, human creativity is essential for developing and executing effective marketing campaigns. Humans can think outside the box, come up with new and innovative ideas, and connect with consumers on an emotional level.

Artificial intelligence excels at analyzing large amounts of data and identifying patterns, which can help target specific demographics or predict consumer behavior. It can also automate email marketing or social media management tasks, allowing marketers to focus on more strategic tasks.

Using AI for Marketing Understanding your audience in marketing is an absolute must for creating compelling campaigns and driving human connections.

Using AI, you can identify the most effective channels to reach your audience, such as social media, email, or traditional advertising.

Ultimately, the more you know about your audience, the better equipped you will be to create marketing campaigns that resonate with them and drive conversions.

But AI creativity only completes part of the picture. The limitations in understanding human sentiments bring us to the power of human creativity in comprehending emotions.

Building Deeper Human Connections With AI Human intelligence and sentiments play an essential role in decision-making. It is used to understand consumer behavior and preferences, which can inform effective marketing strategies.

For example, if a company finds that consumers have negative sentiments toward a particular product, it may discontinue or rebrand it.

Emotions can also be used to understand customer feedback and create personalized marketing campaigns.

The question is: can AI understand human emotion?

That is an interesting matter, as AI and neuroscience researchers are currently developing algorithms for AI to understand human emotion.

For now, we as humans have the upper hand when it comes to creating real and authentic content.

Will AI Replace Human Jobs? The answer here would be yes, but that’s if you’re not willing to adapt to the current technological revolution we are living through.

And NO if you are willing to keep an open mind about how artificial intelligence can help you become better at your job.

AI and human ingenuity can complement each other in business processes, such as marketing, as the combination can create compelling and engaging strategies.

Artificial intelligence can analyze data and help identify patterns and insights we might not notice.

Exploring data can help inform and guide creative decisions, but creating and executing marketing campaigns often still requires human intuition and expertise.

AI can automate repetitive tasks, freeing time for us to focus on more strategic and creative work.
What are your thoughts on AI? Do you think it will eliminate certain jobs in some industries? Let me know in the comments.

The post The Intelligent Content Revolution: How AI is Driving the Next Wave of Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Marketing isn’t just for getting new clients.Hiring is more than just filling a role or getting a job done; it’s about building a high-performance team that grows your business. Building your team at work isn’t much different than building a sports team–each player has a specific role, is motivated by different things, and needs different types of coaching and support.

Finding those ideal candidates is also no different than finding ideal prospects for your business. You can use the same strategies used to market your business to build a talent acquisition strategy.

Ideal Candidate AvatarA baseball coach doesn’t choose a first baseman based on skill or positional requirements alone.

Yes, they need to know how to catch a ball, but they will also need to work well with the team, fit into the team culture, and be invested in helping the team win.

Before drafting your job description and posting it on LinkedIn, take some time to build an ideal candidate avatar. You’ll understand your ideal candidate on a deeper level and can craft a compelling job description that attracts those ideal candidates.

Candidate Value JourneyFinding ideal candidates is tough, but it’s even more challenging when you don’t have a strategy.

Much like we build a customer value journey to understand where and how to market to our ideal customers, you can use the customer value journey to create your strategy for talent acquisition.

Most businesses hire reactively, but the companies that succeed at building high-performance teams create a proactive talent acquisition strategy.

This allows them to attract and retain high-performing talent and build roles around those ideal candidates instead of filling positions as they become available.

Are You Delegating Tasks or Growing a Team?One of the most common pieces of advice given to new business owners is to delegate tasks they don’t love and aren’t great at to a virtual assistant. Now, that’s not always bad advice, but for most new business owners, this is done rapidly without much forethought into their future business structure and growth. We must ask ourselves, am I delegating tasks or growing a team?

If you are or plan to grow a team, the tasks themselves matter less than finding an ideal team member who can adapt to the needs of the business.

Let’s go back to our baseball analogy. If you’re a one-person team, you may be better off finding a decent player invested in learning and growing into a position over time than you are finding a home-run hitter who can’t catch or throw and has no desire to learn or grow with your team.

Instead of focusing solely on the tasks, you want to delegate, spend time considering your ideal future organizational structure and the types of team members you want to bring in and build the company around.

As they say, find the right people first, and you can eventually get them into the right position or create one for them.

Growing a team is no easy task, but attracting ideal candidates is no different than marketing to prospective clients. Build brand awareness, engage, and qualify candidates, and select the right people to grow your business and accomplish your missing instead of building perfect roles that no one cares about.

The post Marketing for Talent Acquisition: Ideal Candidate Avatar appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Starting a business can be overwhelming, but leveraging the power of Pinterest to market your products or services doesn’t have to be.

Whether you’re just getting started on the platform or looking for advanced tactics and strategies to enhance your current Pinterest marketing strategy, this guide has you covered.

You’ll learn how to create compelling visuals that stand out in the feed and advance techniques like influencer collaboration, facilitating customers through board organization, audience segmentation, and more!

By implementing our proven Pinterest marketing tips, you’ll set yourself up for long-term sustainable growth to take advantage of everything this powerful visual-oriented social media platform offers.

Keep reading below if you want to increase your reach and sales while driving meaningful engagement with potential clients!

What Is Pinterest?Pinterest is a visual-based social media platform that allows users to “pin” images, videos, and other content related to their interests.

With over 440 million active monthly users, it has become a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all sizes.

Pinterest users can create boards to organize their pins into specific topics. They can also follow other users to keep up with their content and engage with them by liking, commenting, or repinning interesting posts.

Why Do You Need A Pinterest Marketing Strategy For Your Business?Pinterest is an excellent growth tool for businesses, and they need to focus on dedicated Pinterest marketing strategies for two major reasons.

First, Pinterest gets a lot of traffic that’s looking to buy. According to Pinterest’s research data, its users are “90% more likely to say they’re always shopping.”

This means if you have a product or service to offer, Pinterest could be an excellent source of qualified leads for your business.

Second, unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest is a long-term investment. People come to the platform to find inspiration for their projects and ideas.

This allows you to build meaningful relationships with potential customers, raising brand awareness and driving sales over time. That’s why smart brands include Pinterest in their social media marketing campaigns.

Now that you understand what Pinterest is and why it’s important for your business, let’s understand what goes into creating an effective Pinterest marketing strategy.

Top Ingredients Of Winning Pinterest Marketing StrategiesLet’s dive into three essential components that make up a successful Pinterest marketing strategy.

1: Distributing High-Quality ContentCreating high-quality content is the foundation of a successful Pinterest marketing strategy. When crafting visuals for your pins, you’ll want to make sure they stand out and capture your audience’s attention in the feed.

Similarly, you need to ensure the content is distributed correctly. For instance, you must leverage the right type of pins to promote your online store, blog, recipes, or DIY projects and ensure you’re targeting the right audience.

2: Promotion & OptimizationOnce you have your content created, it’s time to promote it and optimize your campaigns. You want to ensure you’re using the right keywords so that people can easily find your content.

You can also use influencer collaborations, A/B testing, and analytics tools to measure the performance of your pins and ensure you’re getting the most out of your campaigns.

3: Community EngagementFinally, fostering meaningful relationships with your audience is key to building a successful Pinterest presence. You want to engage with your followers by responding to comments, liking pins, and repinning content from other users in your niche.

This will help you build brand loyalty and trust, essential for driving long-term growth on the platform.

By following these steps, you can create a successful Pinterest marketing strategy that will help you reach and engage with potential customers while driving sales in the long run.

Now that you know how Pinterest marketing strategies are created, let’s dive deep into tricks of the trade and learn Pinterest best practices.

9 Tips To Create An Effective Pinterest Marketing StrategyHere are 9 Pinterest marketing tips that will drive growth.

1: Get a Pinterest Business AccountWhen signing up for Pinterest, you can choose between a personal or business account on Pinterest. While they are both free and allow you to post pins, the latter provides some advanced features that give it an edge over a personal account.

How?

With a business Pinterest account, you can extend your reach by unlocking tools such as Pinterest Analytics, Pinterest Business Hub, rich pins, and all other types of pins. This gives you more control over the type of content you post and allows you to track your performance.

Sounds amazing, right? Our step-by-step guide will teach you how to set up your business Pinterest account.

Also, it doesn’t matter if you have already created a personal Pinterest account. The platform allows you to create a linked Pinterest business account with every personal profile.

So, if you wish to use Pinterest as a marketing tool, sign up for a business account.

2: Create A Professional, Attractive, & Optimized Pinterest ProfileYour Pinterest profile is an extension of your brand, so you want to make sure it looks professional and optimized. You can customize your profile by:

• adding a profile picture with a logo
• writing an engaging, keyword-rich bio
• using a unique, keyword-rich user handle or profile name
• uploading a banner image that relates to or describes your business
• adding the link to your website and social profiles

This will not only make your profile look more attractive, but it will also help you increase the visibility of your pins to other Pinterest users.

Remember, the quality of your profile plays a key role in determining the success of your Pinterest marketing efforts.

3: Learn Pinterest SEO and Perform Keyword ResearchJust like Bing or Google, Pinterest is a search engine. The only difference is that it is a visual search engine.

Still, search engine optimization rules (SEO) apply to Pinterest as well. This means there is an algorithm behind pins appearing in the Pinterest feed, and you need to optimize your content for relevant keywords to compete with other pins.

That’s why keyword research is so important. But how do you find keywords that your target audience is searching for?

The easiest way to find relevant keywords is by leveraging Pinterest’s “search bar autocomplete” feature. Simply type in the root keyword related to your business, and the search engine will provide you with a list of related keywords.

Or, you can go to https://trends.pinterest.com/ and use Pinterest Trends to find trending topics people are interested in. Browse those topics and categories to find keywords related to your business.

When your keyword research is complete, use them in your profile bio, pin titles, pin descriptions, board titles, and board descriptions to optimize them for the Pinterest search engine.

Besides keywords, Pinterest looks at the following ranking factors to decide which pins will show up in the results:

• Topic relevance
• Quality of your pin
• Your engagement rate
• Quality of your profile (Pinner Quality)
• Domain quality of your business website

4: Create & Organize Your Pinterest BoardsWhen setting up your Pinterest board, it is important to focus on both the aesthetics and organization of your boards.

So, choose a theme for each board based on the content you plan to post, and group similar boards together.

Why?

This will help Pinterest users quickly find the content they are looking for.

For example, if you have an online store, you can create boards for different product categories like clothing, accessories, shoes, etc.

Similarly, if you have a blog, organize your boards according to the topics you write about, such as fashion, beauty, lifestyle, etc.

Also, add board covers to your Pinterest boards to make them more visually appealing to visitors.

Finally, remember to link each board to your website or social media profiles whenever possible. This will help your blog or e-commerce store more website traffic.

5: Create Compelling & High-Quality PinsPins are the lifeblood of Pinterest. After all, this is where your content will be discovered and shared by other users.

So, you must ensure your pins are high-quality and visually appealing.

To create high-quality pins, you should use images or videos that are relevant to the topic and have clear, eye-catching text, if any.

Also, use bright colors, simple designs, and interesting visual elements to make your pins stand out from the crowd.

In addition, always remember to create pins with the right aspect ratio. Pinterest recommends using a 2:3 aspect ratio or 1000 px by 1500 px images for best results.

Incorrect pin sizes can have your images cropped automatically by Pinterest, thus reducing the visual impact of your pins on both desktop and Pinterest app views.

But it’s nothing to worry about, as plenty of free online tools can help you quickly resize images or create pins from scratch.

Canva and Adobe Spark, for example, are some of the most popular free tools you can use to create attractive pins.

6: Write Enticing, Keyword Rich DescriptionsWhile creating attractive visual content and enhancing the visual appeal of your Pinterest profile, remember to include keywords in your Pinterest pins’ and board descriptions.

Using keywords in your descriptions will help you gain more visibility and engagement on Pinterest. This means these descriptions will work well for both Pinterest SEO and users. The platform will understand that you want to rank for a particular term, while users will see what your content is about.

However, you need to be careful while writing board and pin descriptions. Why?

Because you get up to 500 characters to write a pin description.

It doesn’t mean that all of the 500 characters will appear in search results. Only the first 30 to 60 characters will most likely appear in the Pinterest feed.

Keeping this information in mind, here is what you should do:

• Include relevant keywords in the first 3 to 5 terms.
• Try to have your brand name in the first line.
• Place keywords naturally and don’t stuff them too much.
• Include a call-to-action to drive traffic to your store or blog posts.
• Finally, make your descriptions enticing and engaging.

7: Understand And Leverage All Types Of PinsThe best thing about using a free business account is the freedom it gives you to create different types of pins.

While a personal account can only post idea pins and static pins to share ideas, a business account lets you post the following:

• Image pins
• Video pins
• Story pins
• Rich pins

Rich pins are the most interesting and useful of them all. They help you gain more visibility on Pinterest because they’re interactive in nature and facilitate users. How?

They fetch and display information from your website when a user clicks on them.

For example, product pins can include prices, availability information, and links to product pages. Recipe pins can show ingredients, cooking times, and nutritional information.

Similarly, article rich pins include the headline, author, and a brief blog post description.

So, no matter the type of rich, each one of them offers additional information about your products, leading to more engagement and better chances of conversions.

Important: When you link product pins back to your website, it helps improve your domain quality, ultimately strengthening your Pinterest SEO strategy.

8: Use Your Pinterest Business Account ToolsBesides the option to post all types of pins, Pinterest business accounts come with some powerful features that can help you analyze, optimize, and promote your content for better performance.

For starters, Pinterest Analytics offers insights into your pins, boards, and overall profile performance.

You can track data like impressions, clicks, saves, and follows in order to understand user preferences and optimize your content accordingly.

Then, there is Pinterest advertising, which lets you use the Promoted Pins (or Pinterest Ads) feature to showcase your best pins in front of more people.

You can even target relevant audiences and measure the success of your campaigns using Pinterest Ads Manager.

How does it work?At the highest level (campaign level):

1. Set a budget for your campaign
2. Choose one of the following campaign goals: awareness, engagement, and traffic.

At mid-level (ad group-level):

1. Choose your target audience.
2. Select your ad dates.

At the bottom level (ad-level):

1. Select your pins to promote

You can choose any of the following ad formats:

• Collections ad
• Video ads
• Carousel
• Idea ads

That’s it — run ads, analyze performance, and adjust your Pinterest strategy accordingly.

However, the results of your campaigns depend heavily on your goals.

While awareness and engagement campaigns can increase brand awareness, traffic campaigns can get you more website visitors.

So, choose your goals wisely.

9: Engage With Your Target AudienceEngagement is the key to success on Pinterest.

That’s why it’s important for you to actively engage with both your followers and target audience.

You can do this by leaving comments on pins, repinning content from other users, and responding to questions and messages. This helps build trust and credibility, which can lead to more engagement on your pins and website.

You can even join group boards and collaborate with other creators in your niche.

This allows you to reach a wider audience and get more exposure for your content.

Plus, it’s a great way to network with influencers and get additional promotion for your brand.

So, start engaging with other users on Pinterest today and reap the rewards of success!

AND that’s a wrap!

Buckle Up For Pinterest SuccessBy now, we’re sure you know that Pinterest should definitely be a part of your social media marketing strategy.

As with any other platform, success on Pinterest takes time and effort. But with the right strategy, you can leverage Pinterest to create a powerful presence for your brand on this highly engaging social network.

However, if it seems overwhelming or overly technical, consider completing this: Social Media Marketing Certificate.

Or follow our 2023 step-by-step guide to set up your Pinterest business account and create an effective Pinterest strategy to generate leads and drive sales.

The post The Complete Pinterest Marketing Guide: 9 Tips For Business Growth in 2023 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Are You Prepared for the Shift in Website Design with the Rise of Blockchain Technology?”

Let’s take a deep dive into the exciting future and world of web3 blockchain technology, and its impact on website design and development.

I’m going to provide you with real-world examples, and by the end you should have a clear and concise explanation of how decentralization, data management, and interactions will work in the future of websites.

I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned about the benefits of adopting these technologies, including increased security, website personalization, and user control.

If you want to stay ahead in the field of website design and understand the future of the industry then this article is a must-read.

The way we build websites now is changing!The way websites are built now is inefficient and requires a huge knowledge base to build correctly. Most website platforms these days use some form of a WYSIWYG “WiziWig” style builder like WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, and countless others.

We’ve come a long way from having a static website that had to have each page hard coded with html, css, and javascript, now anyone with a basic understanding of a computer can build their own website… at their own peril if they are inexperienced.

It’s taken over 30 years for websites to be as good as they are today, this direction is for the long term thinker who wants to be on the cutting edge of the industry and build their brand in a space that is extremely new.

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You will need to learn the technology overtime and become proficient with the types of industries that are looking to build web3 websites and applications. There are already a few decentralized website and web app builders out there that are fully running on blockchain technology.

Decentralized Web App Builder Example: ICMEOne example is a company called ICME that has “world’s first smart contract marketplace and web3 no-code suite.” Their modules even offer the ability to integrate with web2 applications that support API Post Requests.

Their entire code base is built on a blockchain technology called Internet Computer, which is why I’m actually invested in their Cryptocurrency known as ICP on exchanges. It allows you to do everything from building landing pages, websites, blog posts, online stores, Linktree type pages, Store NFT’s and more.

I do see some existing platforms like WordPress evolving into a fully decentralized Web3 platform, that would dramatically speed up market adoption as they have such a huge knowledge base and community of creators, it’s just a matter of time.

The exact evolution of website building tools is yet to be seen, but what’s certain is that web3 and blockchain technology will play a significant role in shaping the future of the web. The sooner you start to adopt and learn this technology the further ahead you will be when the time comes to switch from the internet we know it to what’s coming in the not too distant future.

Web3 Websites will be easier to build and customize with AI Tools.The process of building websites in Web3 becomes much more intuitive and easy with the integration of artificial intelligence, with tools like OpenAI, you will simply give the program a prompt and give it a clear description of what you want your website to look like, say, do, and create.

This is where things will get fun for a designer and being able to let your creativity and artistic talent reach a level never seen before.

The need or demand for front end website programmers will change as less custom coding will be required, your website will be able to change visual elements and maybe more in the future with ai.

Web3 Websites are going to become very personalized experiences and brand centric.Websites will collect data with consent(which is another point for later), that allows the user to have a completely customized user experience and interaction. Imagine a traditional website as a restaurant where the customers order their food from the menu and the kitchen staff prepares the dishes.

In this scenario, the restaurant manager is the central authority that controls the flow of information, the menu, and the preparation of the food. However, in a web3 and blockchain enabled website, this centralized authority is replaced by a decentralized network of customers, chefs, and kitchen staff.

With web3 and blockchain technology, website users can interact with the site in a more direct and efficient manner. Instead of relying on a central authority, users can participate in transactions and interactions on the website without intermediaries.

This eliminates the need for middlemen, making the process faster, more secure, and cost-effective.

For example, a user can easily and securely create their own profile, manage their data, and participate in transactions on the website. This level of user empowerment enables them to take control of their online presence and interactions, providing them with greater privacy and security.

The decentralization of website interactions through web3 and blockchain technology represents a shift towards a more user-centric and efficient web experience. It eliminates the need for intermediaries, providing users with greater control over their interactions, transactions, and data.

Web3 Data Management will become more secure.Imagine now you are running a restaurant and you need to keep track of all the ingredients you have in stock, what dishes you serve, and the orders from your customers. In the traditional system, you would keep all this information in a single ledger book, written by hand.

However, with the integration of blockchain technology in your restaurant, this system of record-keeping becomes much more efficient and secure. Each ingredient becomes a unique item with its own blockchain record, and the orders from customers are recorded as transactions.

This decentralization of data management ensures that all the information is secure and can be easily accessed by any member of the team who needs it.

In the same way, decentralization will work for data management in website design and development. Instead of relying on a single central database to store all website data, this information can be spread out across multiple nodes on a blockchain network.

This means that website data is not stored in one central location, but is instead distributed across many different nodes, making it much more secure and resilient against hacking or other forms of data loss.

For example, user data such as personal information, preferences, and transactions can be stored in a secure and encrypted manner on a blockchain network like Internet Computer. This allows website owners to manage their data in a more secure and efficient way, giving users peace of mind that their information is protected.

The integration of blockchain technology in website design and development will lead to a more secure and efficient way of managing our website data.

Like William Mougayar said author of The Business Blockchain “In a world where data is currency, the blockchain offers a new model of trust and control.” By decentralizing our data management, website owners will know that all information is stored in a secure and transparent manner, promoting trust and confidence among users.

Say goodbye to hackers once websites are on Web3.There were 22 billion breached records in 2021 alone, the biggest reason behind that is due to the nature of Centralized servers and website platforms. In Web3 security can be compared to a fortified castle, providing superior protection against outside threats and ensuring the safety of you and your clients or customers valuable information and data.

Using blockchain technology, website owners will be able to offer a greater degree of security to their users, protecting their data and transactions from malicious actors.

This will be particularly important in fields such as finance and healthcare, where the protection of sensitive information is of utmost importance and required by HIPAA and other regulatory agencies.

Just as a fortified castle protects its inhabitants from outside threats, web3 provides a layer of security to websites that is unparalleled by traditional web design.

The decentralized nature of web3 eliminates the need for a central point of control, making it much harder for hackers to penetrate. In addition, web3’s advanced encryption algorithms and blockchain technology provide a secure platform for website data and interactions.

In a traditional website, all data is stored in a central database, making it a prime target for cyber attacks. On the other hand, web3 stores data across a network of nodes, making it much harder for a single point of failure to occur. This eliminates the risk of large scale data breaches, as well as reducing the risk of individual data being compromised.

Finally, web3’s immutable ledger ensures that all website interactions are transparent and secure. This means that all transactions and changes made to the website can be tracked and verified, making it easier to detect and prevent any fraudulent activity. So if you want to protect your website and your clients website and their users from outside threats, web3 is going to be the way to go!

“Blockchain technology offers a level of security that was previously unachievable on the internet.” – Don Tapscott, blockchain expert and author of Blockchain Revolution

Automation will be effortless with Web3.Blockchain Web Apps will have the ability to work together seamlessly, I see a future not too far off where ecosystems of dozens of programs are consolidated into one. Checking your social media posts, messages, your email, text messages, and website inquiries all in one place in just minutes.

Automation when done properly removes friction and resistance from any area of your business that is a lower revenue generating activity. Your time is the most valuable thing you have and using automation tools is how you buy back that time.

With web3, websites will be able to automate many processes, reducing the need for intermediaries and streamlining operations.

I want to give a few examples of ways we can Automate our websites with Web3. The first is dynamic pricing and inventory management: Web3 and blockchain technology will allow for automated and real-time pricing and inventory updates on our e-commerce websites, reducing manual labor and increasing efficiency so that you and your team can focus on higher revenue generating tasks.

The second is user authentication and verification: Web3 and blockchain technology will provide a secure and automated way to verify user identities, reducing the risk of fraud and making it easier for websites to manage user access and permissions.

I’ve already had to dramatically improve my knowledge around user verification after working with nearly a dozen blockchain brands since 2016.

There are already QR codes being used to login to websites like discord and other utilities like Crypto Wallets. The last example is content delivery and distribution, Web3 and blockchain technology allows for the automated content distribution, reducing the need for manual content updates and ensuring that the most up-to-date information is always available on your site.

This will free up time and resources for more creative and meaningful work, and will help to reduce costs for both users and website owners. This is good for any business owner that wants to lower their bottom line costs while raising their top line revenue simultaneously by leveraging time at the highest level of efficiency possible.

When it comes to Revenue Web3 will give you maximum monetization potential.In the world of websites, monetization is the process of generating revenue from a website. Traditional website monetization methods include advertising, subscriptions, and e-commerce sales. However, with the advent of web3 and blockchain, the landscape of website monetization is about to change.

For example purposes let’s use a loyalty program analogy, a loyalty program is a rewards system offered by businesses to incentivize customers to continue using their services. Similarly, on web3, website monetization will offer new ways for website owners to monetize their content and incentivize users to continue visiting their site.

One example of how websites on web3 and blockchain can monetize their content is through tokenization. In this model, websites can issue tokens that represent ownership of certain content or access to premium features.

Users can then purchase these tokens and exchange them for access to the content or features they are interested in. This creates a new revenue stream for the website and offers users an incentive to visit and engage with the site.

Another way that web3 and blockchain can monetize content is through micropayments. In the traditional web, micropayments are difficult to execute due to high transaction fees and slow processing times. However, with the speed and low cost of transactions on the blockchain, micropayments become a viable option for websites to monetize their content.

This allows websites to offer users access to small amounts of content in exchange for a small payment, giving users a more affordable way to access quality content they are interested in.

One of the best examples I’ve seen so far is how Tom Bilyeu has used NFT’s as a way for people to get access to his content which ranges from events, to video games, tv shows, education and a ton more his nft’s are cleverly called the “Founder Keys.” There are lots of perks that brands are giving to early adopters that support the web3 movement and help us move closer to a better, safer, and more balanced internet.

Websites can also create loyalty program-like systems that incentivizes users to continue visiting and engaging with their site.

As the web3 and blockchain ecosystem continues to grow, we can expect to see an influx of new and creative monetization models emerge, providing websites with new opportunities to generate more revenue, and their users and visitors with new and exciting ways to access and engage with your content.

Decentralization puts Consent into action.As a designer, the websites or graphics I create that started from an idea, a conversation, or something i’ve experienced are valuable and belong to me, knowing that there are AI design tools that can take my 15 years of experience, and use it to create an even better version in seconds and essentially for free?

That’s a big NO NO for the creators and artists, in fact there is a movement happening right now about consent and how these big platforms don’t have the consent to use their art as reference for AI design tools.

I stand behind being able to give consent if your work is going to be used without your permission, if movie and music piracy is a federal crime shouldn’t companies stealing a designer’s work without consent a crime too?

I think so, and that’s why I’m so excited about Web3 and Blockchain. Being able to create smart contracts and public records of your creative assets is a huge step forward for creators and designers around the world.

Imagine a world where your designs are stored on a decentralized platform, accessible only with your consent. You can choose who can view your work, who can use it, and how it can be used. No longer do you have to worry about your designs being stolen or used without your permission.

With web3 and Blockchain, your work is protected by the power of blockchain technology, ensuring that your designs remain yours.

In this new world, you can also monetize your work in new and innovative ways. For example, you could offer limited use licenses for your designs, allowing others to use them for a specified period of time. You could also offer exclusive access to your designs, giving a select group of people the ability to use them in a unique way.

By giving you the power to control how your work is used, shared, and monetized, web3 decentralization empowers you to take control of your career and build a future that reflects your vision and values. Decentralization is a game-changer for designers and creatives alike.

You get complete power of consent for your work to be used in any way, web3 decentralization empowers you to take control of your career and build a future that reflects your vision and values. So why not embrace this exciting new technology and start building your future today?

Interacting with Web3 Websites will be easier than ever.Web3 website users will be able to customize a range of interactions on a website like content creation and sharing. Users will be able to create, share and consume content that aligns with their interests and preferences, without relying on centralized platforms.

Community building, users will have the ability to build and join communities that align with their interests and participate in decision-making processes, creating a more personalized and engaging online experience.

Interaction with E-commerce, users will be able to buy and sell goods and services directly with one another, without the need for traditional payment processors, creating a more transparent, secure, and affordable online marketplace.

Users will be able to access personalized services and experiences based on their data and preferences, creating a more user-centered online experience. A good example is a pizza shop website that keeps track of the last purchase you made and gives you the option to re order it at a discount price.

Web3 users will have the ability to customize a wide range of interactions on the website, from content creation and community building, to e-commerce and data privacy, creating a more user-centered, personalized and engaging online experience.

The adoption of web3 and blockchain technology is poised to bring about a revolution in the world of website design. From decentralization to automation and from security to monetization, these technologies offer new and innovative ways to interact with the web.

As a designer, it is crucial to keep up with these changes and be prepared for the new opportunities and challenges that come with them.

Web3 decentralization empowers creators by giving them control over how their work is used. Automation streamlines processes and saves time, while security measures are reinforced, giving website owners peace of mind. And with monetization options like a rewards program, website owners can explore new and innovative ways to earn revenue.

Overall, the future of website design is bright with the integration of web3, blockchain, and ai. Designers should embrace the power of these technologies to unlock new possibilities on the web and create better online experiences for everyone

“Unlock the power of web3 and blockchain to unleash your creative potential, embrace the future of website design, and build the digital world of tomorrow.” – Adrian Boysel

The post The Rise of Web3 in Web Design: 8 Ways Website Development Will Change Forever appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Creating a video is a creative process which involves a lot of brainstorming, editing and producing. But the success of your video does not 100% rely on the quality or originality of that video.

Whether your video is going to be a success is determined by how many people will be able to find it and watch it.

Don’t underestimate the discoverability of your video. It may make or break your whole video marketing strategy performance.

One of the biggest channels that can drive findability of your video is search engine optimization, i.e. optimizing your video page for it to rank in search engines (mainly Google and Youtube search) for relevant keywords.

And one of the most important SEO elements of any page is its title.

What is a Youtube title?“Title” is what you see on the browser tab when you open any Youtube page:

It is controlled by the “Title” field which is required when you upload your video to Youtube:

In the code of the page the title can be found within tags.

On a Youtube video page, the title is also repeated underneath the video as the main heading making it also an on-page SEO element.

Youtube allows you to enter up to 100 characters to the title field and I recommend making the most of those 100 characters.

How can titles impact the findability of your video?Page titles are key on-page SEO elements because they do both:

• Page titles are direct ranking factors (Google uses them to understand what the page is about)
• Page titles impact click-through by being the most visible parts of standard search snippets.

In that respect, Youtube SEO is not much different from any other types of SEO. The only slight difference is Youtube videos also get an additional section in organic results which you can target: Page titles are also included next to video thumbnails in video carousels:

Since titles are so important for your video findability and clickability, spend some extra time brainstorming effective video titles. Here are a few ideas:

How to create an effective Youtube title1. Include your keywordThis is important in the context of this article. Keywords are still very important for SEO because they still help search engines understand the main topic of your page.

Keyword research is also a great way to estimate a demand for any topic (by looking at the search volume).

Identifying your main keyword and including it into the page title will help that video page rank for that keyword driving views for your video and generating additional brand visibility to your business. There are lots of tools and plugins allowing you to identify your target keywords.

It is a good idea to grab URLs of your competing videos and run them through this SEO Content Checker to identify their keyword usage and learn from that:

2. Make it sound interestingI know it sounds obvious but there are too many boring video titles for me not to mention it.

Your video title needs to invite a click, so make sure it is interesting enough to invite one.

I realize it sounds easier than it really is and in many cases it is also highly subjective. But there’s a tool to help.

Using ChatGPT will help you find some ideas, in case you are stuck. Here’s what the tool was able to generate when I requested the following “Generate video title ideas that will include “Youtube marketing” keyword. Make those titles sound intriguing:”

There are quite a few pretty nice ones. If you don’t like what the tool suggested, keep asking it for more, changing your request just a bit to make it think harder.

This tool is great but make sure to pick a title that won’t over-promise. There’s a fine line between “intriguing” and “click-baiting.” Try and avoid the latter as it may reflect badly on your branding strategies.

3. Include numbersIncluding a number in your page title has proven to be an effective way to get more people to click it. Click-through is likely to be an (indirect) ranking factor, so if more people click your title, there’s a good chance it will rank higher.

You cannot make each of your videos a listicle though, so you won’t be able to use this trick in each of your Youtube titles. But it is a good format to keep in mind and use from time to time.

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4. Mention a brand (if there’s one to mention)Finally, if your video is about a well-known brand (for example, if that video is of you speaking at an event) or, more importantly, if you create it in collaboration with a well-known expert and/or influencer, include that name in your title.

Not only will it help your video rank for that searchable name, it will also increase its click-though thanks to people recognizing that name.

Youtube also allows you to tag that name in the title (much like tagging works on Twitter or Facebook). If you add @ and then start typing that name, Youtube will allow you to select that name from the drop-down (if that brand or person has a Youtube channel). This will notify them on the mention and urge them to engage with the video helping its visibility:

No need to include your brand name though (unless that video is all about you or your company). If you pick your Youtube name well, it will help you build your brand’s recognizability with every high-ranking video because the channel name is always included in search snippets.

Keep a close eye on your resultsFinally, creating an effective title is something that you can never do perfectly. There’s always room for improvement and experimentation. Learn from other well-performing videos in your or outside your niche and never stop experimenting.

Monitor video carousels for your important keywords to get notified when a new video succeeds in getting there and not what may have brought them that success. There are SEO monitoring tools that can help you with that task:

Additionally, keep a close eye on your Youtube analytics to monitor keywords that generate views from Youtube search and learn from those results:

ConclusionYou spend hours creating your video. It deserves a good title which will help your video get found. Spend some time brainstorming an effective title, experiment with different formats and measure your success. Good luck!

The post How to Write YouTube Titles for SEO appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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…and the three things to help keep you from losing your mind.

Pensive female it professional with curly hair thinking on solution sitting at laptop device in stylish coworking space.Concentrated graphic designer working freelance and using computer with internetI don’t know about you, but my relationship with social media falls into the love-hate category.

It’s so easy to get caught up servicing your clients and the day-to-day grind that truly…social media and marketing your business quickly moves to the back burner.

And I’ll get really honest and admit that when I’m on social media sometimes, I tend to get caught up in the scroll and look to see what my competitors are doing…and then beat myself up for not being as creative as they are…or that I should have spent more time recording a video, etc. etc.

Have you ever felt that way?

I know you have, which is why I’m here to tell you that 1) you’re not alone and 2) you’ve got to keep things simple when it comes to marketing your business on social media.

I tell my clients you need to think of social media as your digital business card.

When you meet someone who learns about your business (whether that be in the online space or face-to-face), you know as well as I do that the first thing they will do is hop on their Google search bar and type in your name or your business to learn more about you.

Here’s the top three things you need to do to keep social media simple and your messaging unique and memorable:

1. FOCUS ON PERSONALITYPeople buy from people they know, like and trust. If the only content you’re posting is educational or about your industry and never features your personality – you’re missing the point of social media.

Social media is just that…SOCIAL.Consider posting once a week something that’s important to you…something personal that your perfect client would enjoy knowing about you.

When writing your captions, consider the type of personality you want consuming that content.

Are they…

• Dominant-type who wants the “bottom line” and focused on results?
• Influencer-type who is positive and enjoys fun interactions?
• Steady-Relator-type who is easy-going, collaborative and wants peace and harmony in their life?
• Conscientious-type who is non-emotional and focused on data and facts?

When you consider WHO will be consuming your content, your messaging needs to trigger the emotions of the type of personality who is most likely to buy from you.

1. CONSISTENCY IS KINGWhether you have hired someone to manage your social media or are doing it yourself, one thing is certain on ANY social media platform.

When you’re consistent with posting and engaging, you will 100% grow your network online.

Here’s my rule of thumb…. You need to post at least three times a week on the social media platform that your perfect client is likely spending most of their time.

Again, social media is a form of your digital business card. When new people visit your social media page, we want them to see compelling content. This helps your credibility and authority and helps to build you as an industry leader in your space.

Depending on the platform, posting a variety of types of content is a good thing.

For example, if you’re active on LinkedIn, consider posting a poll, carousel (this is a multi-slide post), and a static (non-video) post each week. Be sure to tag companies and individuals on these posts (as appropriate) so your content shows up in their feeds too.

If you’re active on Instagram or Facebook, consider incorporating video a few times a week. TIP: Always include captions on those videos since 60+% of people watching from their phone have sound off.

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1. CREATING CONTENT THAT SELLSLet’s talk about who is consuming your content…your perfect client. Go back to FOCUS ON PERSONALITY and ask yourself, what type of personality is your perfect client? They can be a combination of types too…so, don’t feel as if you have to narrow it to just one type.

When you have a good idea of their “type,” you need to use the words that will trigger them to your call to action (to buy the item, schedule the call, etc.).

Listed below are the words and emotions you need to focus on by personality type.

DOMINANT: These types are direct, decisive, tough, impatient and demanding. Your messaging needs to be brief and to the point, if you want to hold their attention and have them wanting to learn more. They make decisions fast and really don’t like it when you waste their time.

INFLUENCER: These types are enthusiastic, energetic, sociable, talkative and open. Your messaging needs to be friendly and warm and focused on the positive. They make decisions quickly too and want to have a good time throughout the process.

STEADY-RELATOR: These types are calm, steady, laid-back, modest, and indecisive. Your messaging needs to show how your solution will not only benefit them but also the people around them (their team, family, etc. depending on what you’re selling). Don’t pressure them for action and give them plenty of time to make a decision.

CONSCIENTIOUS: These types are analytical, precise, non-emotional, formal and logical. Your messaging needs to focus on data and facts. They’re not interested in your stories about what you did last weekend with the family. Give detailed information and plenty of time to make a decision.

Want to learn more about your unique communication style? Visit www.heatherlisle.com to learn more.

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Up until now, any “promotion” your customers have done has been passive. But in the promotion stage, your customers actively spread the word about your brands, products, and services. They tell stories, make recommendations, and share your offers because they truly believe in them.

Active promotion may be an affiliate or commission relationship—or just a free offer for sending some new customers your way. The point is, it’s a win-win for both of you.

One thing worth mentioning before we dive in; Happy customers don’t promote, SUCCESSFUL customers do.

Our biggest question in the Promote stage is: How are you going to turn your BEST customers into your marketing partners?

If you don’t have a referral program, an affiliate program, or a valued reseller program … who is willing to drive your message to the organization you need to build out these programs? This is word of mouth marketing, and it is very important so start thinking about how you want to build this.

Look to your most successful customers, they’re going to be the people who actively promote for you. But then, let’s think about our customers who already have our prospects but are offering a different product or service.

At DigitalMarketer we are a training and certification company, we are not a services based company. What that means is we don’t compete with agencies or consultants. This also means that there is an opportunity for us to work with agencies and consultants.

When we realized this we decided to launch our Certified Partner Program, which you can learn more about at DigitalMarketer.Com/Partner. This program lets us work with the largest segments of our customer base, who have customers that we want but they’re providing a solution that we’re not providing.

When we train our customers, they are able to use our company frameworks to work with their clients. If their clients want to learn to do their marketing themselves? We’re the first education company they see.

So who is that for you? Remember, it’s not the happy clients that refer, it’s the successful clients. If you want to create more promoters, make sure that you’re doing everything that you can as a marketer to ensure that you’re marketing great products so you can see great results.

How can our example companies accomplish this?

For Hazel & Hems, they can add an ambassador program to grow their instagram following and increase credibility with viral posts.

Ambassadors can earn affiliate commissions, additional boutique reward points, and get the chance to build a greater following by leveraging the Hazel & Hems brand.

For Cyrus & Clark, they can offer discounted rates to their existing clients if those clients are willing to refer them to their strategic partners.

For construction companies, this could be a home builder recommending Cyrus & Clark services to the landscapers, real estate developers, and interior designers that they work with to serve their customers.

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Happy customers love to share their experience, but sometimes they need some encouragement to do so. The cool thing is, once they do, they become even more loyal to your brand.

So, at this stage of the Customer Value Journey, ask people to share their positive experience with your brand by writing a review or sharing a social media post.

Once you get to stage seven, the Customer Value Journey is going to get a whole lot easier for you. This stage is all about learning your customer’s experience, and building up your testimonial database.

The most important part of this step is asking these four questions.

What Was Your Life Like Before Finding Our Solutions? What Challenges Were You Facing That Caused You to Consider Us? These questions are great not only because it gives you some really good stories, but because it gives you some insight on how you can provide similar prospects with that AHA moment. Understanding the average day of your clients is important in reflecting on your Customer Value Journey, and helps you understand what really set you apart from your competitors.

What Key Features Had the Biggest and/or Fastest Impact?Not only is this going to get you to really specific stories, you will understand the specific things you provided that gave the biggest impact. The answers to these questions will not only give you great insight and testimonials, it will provide you with ideas for new lead magnets. This part is a new Entry Point Offer goldmine!

What Has Been the Impact or Results in Your Life or Business Since Using Our Product or Service? This is a fairly broad question, and that’s why we put it after the others. You will have already gotten all of the specifics out of the way with #1 & #2. But when you ask this question, this is where you get the most valuable stories. You can use this part as testimonials, as an order form, as a sales page, this part is testimonial gold.

If You Were Asked to Justify this Purchase to Your Boss or a Friend, What Would You Say? This is our favorite question by far. If you had to go back in time and justify this purchase, what would you say? I promise you what we’re going to find is a lot of great ideas for the jobs that your product or service has done. You’ll get a lot of great ideas for your core message canvas. This question is about backfilling all of the assets that you may not have. Here you’re going directly to the customer who are already happy, and using their justifications to help you sell to new customers.

Hopefully you now understand just how valuable the Advocate stage could be, as well as the key questions you need to ask to get your customers talking. Here’s how it works for our example companies.

When it comes to fashion we all love to show off our outfits. So a good example for Hazel & Hems would be to have customers write reviews for a discount code or points towards their next purchase.

Better yet, follow up with the customers to ask them to share and tag themselves wearing the items in a social media post and providing them with something valuable as a reward.

For Cyrus & Clark Media, hopping on zoom meetings or a streaming service for live talks about them and their business could generate valuable awareness for them, and a live case study for the agency. They can use the questions Ryan provided during this lesson to conduct the interview.

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At this stage, your goal is to generate repeat buys and real profits. While your entry-point offer was designed for conversions, your ascension offers should be geared for profits—because if you’re serving your customers well, they’ll want to buy again and again.

Ascension offers may be simple upsells made after that initial purchase… bigger, better solutions… or “done for you” add-ons.

So now we must ask ourselves, what is our core flagship offer and how do we continue to deliver value after the first sale is made? What is the thing that we are selling?

How we continue to deliver value after the first sale is really important, because having upsells and cross sales gives you the ability to sell to customers you already have. It will give you higher Average Customer values, which is going to give you higher margins. Which means you can spend more to acquire new customers.

Why does this matter? It matters because of this universal law of marketing and customer acquisition, he or she who is able and willing to spend the most to acquire a customer wins.

Very often the business with the best product messaging very often is the business that can throw the most into customer acquisition. Now there are two ways to do that.

The first way is to just raise a lot of money. The problem is if you have a lot of money, that doesn’t last forever. At some point you need economics.

The second way, and the most timeless and predictable approach, is to simply have the highest value customers of anyone in your market. If your customers are worth more to you than they are to your competitors, you can spend more to acquire them at the same margin.

If a customer is worth twice as much to you than it is to your competitor, you can spend twice as much trying to acquire them to make the same margin. You can invest in your customer acquisition, because your customers are investing in your business. You can invest in your customer experiences, and when we invest more into the customer we build brands that have greater value. Meaning, people are more likely to choose you over someone else, which can actually lower acquisition costs.

Happy customers refer others to us, which is called zero dollar customer acquisition, and generally just ensures you’re making a bigger impact. You can invest more in the customer experience and customer acquisition process if you don’t have high margins.

If you deliver a preview experience, you can utilize revenue maximizers like up sells, cross sales, and bundles. These are things that would follow up the initial sale or are combined with the initial sale to increase the Average Customer Value.

The best example of an immediate upsell is the classic McDonalds, “would you like fries with that?” You got just a burger, do you also want fries with that?

What distinguishes an upsell from other types of follow up offers is the upsell promise, the same end result for a bigger and better end result.

What’s your desired result when you go to McDonalds? It’s not to eat healthy food, and it’s not even to eat a small amount of food. When you go to McDonalds your job is to have a tasty, greasy, predictable inexpensive meal. No one is going there because it’s healthy, you’re going there because you want to eat good.

It’s predictable. It’s not going to break the bank for a hamburger, neither will adding fries or a Coke. It’s the same experience, but it’s BIGGER and BETTER.

Amazon does this all of the time with their “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought …” But this one is algorithmic. The point of a cross sell is that it is relevant to the consumer, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be aligned with the original purchase. What you don’t want to do is start someone down one path and confuse them.

You can make this process easy with Bundles and Kits. With a bundle or a kit you’re essentially saying to someone, “you can buy just one piece, or you can get this bundle that does all of these other things for a little bit more. And it’s a higher value.”

The idea behind bundles and kits is that we are adding to the primary offer, not offering them something different. We’re simply promising to get them this desired result in higher definition.

The Elements of High-Converting Revenue Maximizers (like our bundles and kits) are:

1. Speed

If you’re an e-Commerce business, selling a physical product, this can look like: offering free shipping for orders $X or more. We’re looking to get your customers the same desired result, but with less work for them.

1. Automation

If you’re a furniture business, and you want to add a Revenue Maximizer, this can look like: Right now for an extra $X our highly trained employees will come and put this together for you.

1. Access

People will pay for speed, they’ll pay for less work, but they will also pay for a look behind the curtain. Think about the people who pay for Backstage Passes. Your customers will pay for a VIP experience just so they can kind of see how everything works.

Remember, the ascension stage doesn’t have to stop. Once you have a customer, you should do your best to make them a customer for life. You should continue serving them. Continue asking them, “what needs are we still not meeting” and seek to meet those needs.

It is your job as a marketer to seek out to discover these needs, to bring these back to the product team, because that’s what’s going to enable you to fully maximize the average customer value. Which is going to enable you to have a whole lot more to spend to acquire those customers and make your job a whole lot easier.

Now that you understand the importance of the ascend stage, let’s apply it to our examples.

Hazel & Hem could have free priority shipping over $150, a “Boutique Points” reward program with exclusive “double point” days to encourage spending, and an exclusive “Stylist Package” that includes a full outfit custom selected for the customer.

Cyrus & Clark can retain current clients by offering an annual strategic plan, “Done for You” Marketing services that execute on the strategic plan, and the top tier would allow customers to be the exclusive company that Cyrus & Clark services in specific geographical territories.

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Buying generates warm fuzzies. It’s a scientific fact. The dopamine from a new purchase gets people excited—which is why the fifth stage of the Customer Journey is to build on that excitement.

How do you do that? By giving your new customer a memorable experience.

Consider offering a quick-start guide… bonus features that surprise and delight… quick wins… any content that makes your new customers happy.

What we talk a lot about in the Excite stage is “The AHA Moment.” The AHA Moment is when you’ve been talking to a prospect and something that you said made their eyes light up.

If it’s a piece of software, there’s a moment in the demo when the value just rushes in and they go, “oh yeah, I know what it is” and that’s a huge deal.

It’s critical that we discover what that aha moment is for your business, so that we can build marketing and follow up to engineer towards that moment.

Defined by Ryan Deiss, the AHA moment is when the true core value clicks with a customer. Transforming your product from a “nice to have” into a “must have NOW.” The AHA Moment is a combination of relating to feelings and emotions. When you have wonder combined with understanding, you have the AHA.

But the AHA moment is just a simple magic trick, people are amazed and impressed, but they’re not necessarily motivated to move forward. Next we need to answer the questions that people are asking, that’s how we get our client’s understanding.

When Twitter first got started they found that before someone could begin to see the value of Twitter, they needed to follow 30 people. The brand was starting to take shape, there was a kind of viral loop taking place by looking at other people’s tweets.

The subscribe stage was when they registered, set up the account, and started using. But what they realized is that if they couldn’t get someone to follow 30 people they would bail. So they engineered the follow up, getting people to follow 30 accounts, that’s where they had their AHA Moment.

The best example of this by far is Tesla. If you have a Tesla, or have ridden in a Tesla, you know that these are very fast cars. Tesla owners will never forget the test drive.

If we go back to Tesla’s customer journey, first thing we know off the bat is that they have brand positioning perfected. A lot of their marketing is in fact word of mouth, where this is happening engagement happens. All people have to do is go online, sign up (the subscribe stage) and do a test drive (the convert stage). Then, during the test drive, the AHA Moment happens.

This is how Ryan Deiss’ Tesla test drive went:

“I’ll tell you how it happened for me. So the test drive started out like any other test drive. You get the car sales person next to you, a little weird, you’re in a car you don’t fully understand and a total stranger is sitting next to you judging your bad driving. So we’re driving around, and I’m like okay this is pretty good. I pretty much made up my decision that I’m going to buy the car.

So I’m like, alright great let’s head back. The salesman is like “okay, but before we can head back you have to do a launch.” I asked what you’re all thinking, what’s a launch? He said you’re about to find out.

So he took me back around to this back street where there weren’t any other cars, and said “okay the coast is clear … I want you to come to a complete stop, and then I want you to floor it.” You’re not supposed to do that in a car … but apparently in this one you are.

I felt what 0-60 in 1.9 seconds could feel like. It was incredible. When we were done the salesman said “pretty cool, huh? Kind of like having your own rollercoaster isn’t it?” Boom, the AHA moment. In that split second I experienced the AHA, this wasn’t just a car it was my very own rollercoaster.”

So for Tesla, the AHA Moment is “The Launch.”

What is your Launch? What is your first 30 followers?

Let’s build some excitement for our example companies.

When a customer purchases an item, Hazel & Hems follows up with an email that thanks them for their order.

They then go the extra mile by informing the new customer about their rewards program, and shows them that they have earned 100 points towards future product purchases.

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The conversion stage is all about an entry-point offer.

In other words, we need the prospect to make a micro-commitment. The best way to do that is through a high-value, low-risk offer that lets them sample your wares without putting too much skin in the game.

Out of all of the stages, we truly believe that this one is the most critical. It’s also the one that marketers have the biggest difficulty with because it is by design a bit of a hybrid stage.

They’re not customers yet, but they’re not merely prospects. A lot of that ambiguity is why it works. We need a way to progress the relationship in a timely, appropriate, and sequential manner.

How can we get our prospects to make a micro commitment that gives us the opportunity to deliver the aha moment? How do we get our prospects to meet us for coffee?

The two methods of commitment that we as humans recognize is: Time and Money. The time on our calendars and the money in our wallets.

Lets brainstorm some Entry Point Offers (what we call the deliverables at the convert stage, because this is the offer that you’re making at the entry point of the relationship.) We’re not looking to propose marriage on the first date we’re simply looking to meet for coffee, a micro commitment.

The question we’re asking here is: What is something that your ideal prospect would only buy or register for if they had a very specific problem or challenge that you could solve?

The most obvious answer here is giving a demonstration. If anyone registers for a demo then they recognize that they have a problem that you could potentially solve.

If you are a software company a demo is a great entry point offer. But let’s think about another way. What’s the kind of thing that if someone purchased you would know they were interested?

For example, we once had ownership in one of the largest survival and preparedness communities on planet earth which also had an e-Commerce store. Our store sold all kinds of different items from water purifiers to fire starters and flashlights, and things like that. We found that not all of these products would necessarily suggest that someone was interested in survival and preparedness.

For years our entry point offer was a very simple fire starter, a tool that could start fire even when wet. This entry point offer was very effective, but it wasn’t converting as high as we expected. Next up we tried a flashlight.

Our flashlight offer exploded, sales went crazy, we sold out of these items. But no one who bought the flashlight was ascending into any of our other survival and preparedness offerings. What we found is that a flashlight is a very poor indicator that someone has a specific problem we can solve. The reality is that everyone would like a flashlight, regardless of their pains and problems, and doesn’t necessarily qualify them as a customer.

We then went back to our firestarter. It didn’t sell as quickly as our flashlight, but it delivered a much higher quality of customer. Remember, only the people who have a specific problem or challenge that we can solve are the people interested in purchasing from us.

What is your fire starter? What is the thing that only your ideal customer, if they saw it, would be interested in and everyone else would just pass it by?

To do this for Hazel & Hem Boutique, you just need to offer a low-cost item to get them involved in the brand. In this instance, we’ll have them offer one of their most popular bracelets for only $10 if you’re a first time customer.

For Cyrus & Clark’s Media agency, once the trust has been established through the subscribe stage, it’s time to show your prospects what you can do. They’ll offer their $5,000 90-Day Strategic Plan for just $500. $500 may sound like a lot for an entry point offer, but it’s appropriate if the average target avatar is generating millions in sales.

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When someone likes their experience with your brand, trust begins to build. Once that happens, it’s time to ask for a small commitment— gathering contact information and permission to connect.

There’s just one problem. Today, people are careful about giving out their email address. You have to offer something valuable that makes it worth their while.

The question we ask ourselves at the Subscribe stage is, “What valuable chunk of content can we offer in exchange for a prospect’s contact information and permission to follow up with them?”

Some things you might leverage to build your email list are

1. A Downloadable Report or a White Paper.
2. A Tool Template Checklist
3. A Downloadable PDF (one of our best converting lead magnets of all time is our Facebook Ad Swipe File, its just a list of all of the different Facebook ads we have run in the past.)
4. Quiz Surveys (like our “What Type of Marketer Are You?” quiz.)
5. Webinars and Consulting Sessions
6. Discount and Coupon Codes (for e-Commerce)

If you look around you’ll see these all over the place. Mortgage companies use Mortgage Calculators, Scalable (our sister company) uses our “Seven Levels to Scale” which is our primary lead magnet.

All of these can be used as a value to get somebody to give you their contact information. So what do you use? What is your lead?

How could Hazel & Hems or Cyrus & Clark apply the subscription stage to their business?

For Hazel & Hems Boutique, a great way to get customers to subscribe is to offer exclusive discounts, products, and promotions that require subscription. Another method may be to host a weekly giveaway of a small item that requires subscription to be on the list.

For Cyrus & Clark Media, subscription to an exclusive email list that contains “secret” marketing methods for the Construction industry, combined with a piece of gated content such as a downloable asset called “10 Mistakes That Prevent Your Construction Company Growth” could be effective tools for the Subscription Stage.

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When the economy is making all of us nervous, we start looking for ways to make the most of every click and every lead.

Here are the tools that help you close more sales by utilizing your current tricks and contacts, i.e. without investing more in marketing:

1. Walnut.io: Make the Most of Your Product DemosProduct demos are the most powerful sales tools. But they are also the most challenging tools because they often require design skills and live presentations. The result is often unpredictable making it difficult to identify what went wrong with different prospects and how to improve your process.

Walnut is an innovative tool that helps sales reps create personalized and interactive product demos that close deals.

Its key features include:

• Create personalized and engaging product demonstrations for each prospect.
• Put together ready-to-go product demo templates by use case that are quick to reuse and publicize.
• Guide prospects easily with interactive annotations.
• Use built-in analytics to identify what works well and where you are losing sales.
• Work faster by integrating all your demo data with your CRM.

In a nutshell, Walnut allows you to increase product demo conversions. It makes your tool more productive by allowing them to reuse demos and focus on what works. It also makes it easier to convince larger decision making units because you can send all your prospects a link to an interactive demo that will help them understand your product value proposition.

1. DealHub: Make the Most of Every Lead or ProspectDealHub is a deal acceleration platform that helps sales teams sell more with the help of smart technology. It offers tools that make it easier to generate proposals and quotes, and helps teams stay organized and connected, all while syncing data with your Salesforce or HubSpot CRM.

While other Configure Price Quote (CPQ) solutions require extensive coding and ongoing maintenance, GealHub can be easily configured using code-free settings, to ensure everyone on your sales team gets what they need out of it. The platform also includes tools to help teams analyze and understand the sales process and customer behavior.

All of this is designed to help teams be more efficient and productive, and to give buyers a better experience.

DealHub’s key features are:

• Guided Selling Playbooks are tools that help salespeople create accurate quotes, sales materials, and legal contracts.
• Contract Lifecycle Management helps manage contracts, their progress, as well as handle electronic signatures and storage.
• DealRooms are virtual spaces where buyers and sellers can work on deals, and see each other’s actions in real-time.
• The Sales Workspace is a place where sales teams can see their own completed and outstanding tasks, as well as analytics (what works well and what yields no results) all in one place.
• The Open Data Platform makes it easy to connect with other sales tools and share data.

Dealhub makes it easy to work with large decision making units and adjust your process to each stakeholder.

DealHub is a sales tool that helps teams work more smoothly and efficiently. It helps leaders connect with their teams and manage sales pipelines, all the way through to e-signatures and subscription billing payments. DealHub also helps teams keep track of interactions with leads and stay organized throughout the whole sales process.

3. NextivaCross-platform marketing automation software allows you to track the behavior of your visitors. You know, of course, that not everyone who visits your website is ready to do business.

But there’s no way to know just how interested (or disinterested) they are unless you have at disposal a tool that points out the content they have consumed on the website, the resources they have downloaded, the number of newsletters they have subscribed to, how often they have visited the website, and how many times have they checked out your products/services in earnest (by going all the way to the check-out page).

Your leads may be at various stages of buying, but with access to the data points listed above, you will be able to send targeted messages to them depending on where they are and the next steps that you want them to take. Carefully crafted emails, content experiences and social media messages can be compelling and give them just the nudge needed to make a purchase!

Nextiva is a smart platform for businesses of all sizes to capture and convert leads. Nextiva is at the top of their game with software that promises to help businesses manage leads and market to them in a targeted and structured way across channels.

So much of marketing is about nurturing leads and keeping them interested season after season as they keep visiting your website. Some might never make a purchase. Others might be waiting for the right moment.

With Nextiva, you can attract the right customers and keep them engaged. Its SEO tool analyzes the performance of your existing keywords and recommends more competitive ones to improve your web ranking. Its “engagement platform” helps you collect rich customer behavior data, which can be integrated with social media platforms to create targeted ads.

Nextiva also helps you engage visitors with personalized content (based on their browsing behavior and data derived from the visitors’ location) to keep them interested.

If you’re emphasizing account-based marketing (ABM) practices, you can even manually create an audience segment of VIP leads from your email list and surface different content experiences to people visiting your site from these companies.

With the help of a tool like Nextiva, you gain insights into the behavior of your visitors/customers, zero in on the right ones and send them personalized content, improve your Google search rankings (so that more of the relevant people can find you), and make social media an integral part of the marketing mix.

After all, it doesn’t matter how someone found you, as long as they have found you and are interested in your website. Your marketing efforts should be able to direct traffic to your website from whatever platforms (including social media channels) you have a presence on.

Nextiva has separately priced plans for their various services. You have to get in touch with them for pricing.

4. Leadfeeder: Turn Visitors into LeadsLeadfeeder is a specialized B2B automation tool that helps businesses weed out the time wasters and focus on promising leads – even when people who visit your site don’t opt in via any of your lead capture forms. This is one of the most effective organic B2B lead generations tools out there allowing you to make the most of your current positions.

Its integration with Google Analytics helps the tool glean data that is worth its weight in gold. Leadfeeder’s code isn’t slowing web pages down so it is perfect for speed optimization.

With Leadfeeder, you can find out exactly which businesses have visited your website, as well as the specific landing pages they visit and for how long. (If they are in your target demographic and have seen the product demo or checked out the pricing, you know a sales call might be in order).

Procuring details on these companies is easy and helps marketers qualify leads. Leadfeeder also offers lists of email addresses, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles associated with people who work at these companies, so that your marketing team can organize contacts according to priority. Then, salespeople can warm up leads across channels and make calls to pitch when the time is right.

What makes Leadfeeder even more useful is its integration with a number of popular marketing tools, such as Salesforce, MailChimp, Zoho, Pipedrive and webCRM. With the help of Zapier, which Leadfeeder rolled out an integration with in late June, you can now push Leadfeeder data to hundreds of other platforms, like Google Sheets, AdRoll, Todoist, Slack, and several more CRMs.

Making your sales team more effective is the first step to increasing your ROI and surviving an economic crisis. I hope the tools above will help you close more sales and build a foundation for future success!

The post Four Sales Tools To Use During This Economic Downturn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Do businesses email their customers too often? According to a recent article on Business Insider, the answer is yes. But not for the reason you may think.

It’s not because customers loathe getting emails from companies. Or because frequent emails are considered spam. It’s actually because most brands nowadays email like this:

They use discounts as their main strategy to persuade customers to buy. But what happens when your customer’s whole inbox looks like the picture above? The inevitable: they stop paying attention to your emails.

Because here’s the thing.

Why would they open your emails if they can already predict the content inside? Why would they buy now when they can clearly see you’ve got discounts all the time? And, most importantly, why would they pick your brand over your competitors?

If you want to stand out in someone’s crowded inbox, you need to do the one thing that everybody else avoids doing: building strong relationships with your email subscribers. Here’s how:

How Storytelling Helps Your Brand Shine Bright in a Crowded InboxStorytelling is the most effective way to communicate. That’s not me saying it. It’s the countless studies (such as this one, this one, and this one) that prove it, time and time again. Why?

Because storytelling helps you form positive emotional associations with you and your brand. The emotions you evoke with your stories go a long way in defining how people perceive you, creating a stronger connection in your audience’s mind between you and the problem you solve for them. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The truth is, writing story-based emails makes you more than just a brand that sells a solution to their pain: it makes you an entertainer, too. And as a marketer, being able to entertain while selling is like having a superpower. People hate being sold to. But they love being entertained (ever binge-watched a Netflix show? I know I have).

Plus, with story-based emails, you can easily add more variability to your email calendar. As a result, customers will no longer be able to predict what your next email will be about: a fun story? A new product? Maybe even a discount? Curiosity translates to increased engagement. And increased engagement translates to stronger relationships with your customers.

So by choosing the right stories to tell in your emails (which we’ll discuss in a bit) and by writing them in an engaging way, you’re guaranteed to keep your audience hooked and excited to read your next email. As opposed to adding yet another sales email to their already crowded inbox.

Here’s How to Supercharge Your Email Strategy with Stories That Sell:1. Pick the Right Story The storytelling approach will give you little to no results if the stories you’re telling are flat to begin with. No matter how engaging your writing is.

So the first thing you need to do is to make sure you select story ideas with potential. Okay, but where do you find these ideas? And what does a good story idea look like?

If you’re anything like me, your life isn’t that exciting or eventful. And yet, you may still have a funny conversation with your next-door neighbor. Or your team may geek out about wild adaptogen mushrooms at a team-building event. Or your spouse may accidentally spill coffee on your laptop (true story!).

Any of these can be turned into fun story-based emails that tell your audience a little bit more about who you (or your team) are as a person. Most business owners assume their customers don’t want to know what goes on in their personal and business life. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

In fact, customers want to know there are real people behind brand names. According to this report from Sprout Social, 70% of consumers report feeling more connected to a brand when its CEO is active on social media.

And depending on how much you’re willing to share about your life, you can then select the types of personal stories to write about. When in doubt, think about what you’d want to tell your friends/family at the dinner table. More often than not, that’d make a great story for your email list too.

1. Write a Strong HookLet’s face it.

Nowadays, attention spans are short. And no matter how good your story is, if how you write it isn’t engaging enough, your email subscribers aren’t going to read it.

So the very first thing you want to do is to make sure the first three sentences of your story hook the reader into the action. Once someone reads that much into a story, it’s incredibly difficult for them to stop.

So how do you do it? Any of these hooks have proven to work again and again whenever I write stories for myself or my clients:

• Start in the middle of the action (and explain the context later). For example:

“RUN!”, the police officer yelled at me.

“Okay, thank you!”, I yelled back, running out of Paddington Station and trying to find a cab.

Except, it was 4 in the morning. And I had no idea where to look for one.”

• Start with ‘x time ago’. Recalling a past event hooks people instantly into your story. For example:

“A few months ago, Joanna Wiebe (the original conversion copywriter) slid into my DMs on Slack completely out of nowhere…”

1. Segue to Your Sales Pitch SeamlesslyBy the time you get to this part, your readers are entertained and primed to purchase your solution to their problems. Your brand is no longer just another brand in their busy inbox. It’s someone they now know, trust, and like. And so, buying from you feels just right.

But you can’t just end your story abruptly so you can sell your products/services. That’d feel intrusive. In the same way that, when you’re engaged in a YouTube video, an annoying ad interrupts your stream.

So you must find a way to tie your story to your product or service so seamlessly that your readers won’t even notice they’re now reading a sales pitch. Sounds difficult. But you’ll see how easy it actually is. In fact, what most people get wrong about this part is that they try to find the moral of the story and tie that to their sales pitch.

For example, let’s say your story is about how your team went to a team-building event and someone accidentally broke a bunch of glasses. And if you’re selling a service, you might be able to spin that incident into saying something like: when you hire our software developers, your app stops breaking.

But that’s a predictable way to transition from your story to your sales pitch. Plus, not all stories will end with a moral. Most stories will be fragments of conversations you have with someone or something ridiculous that happened throughout the day (like forgetting your keys at the office). There’s no moral in that and there’s no need for one.

What you can do instead is to look back at your entire story and find one or a few phrases/words that could help you build that segway. Here’s an example of a full story-based email. Pay special attention to the part where the story ends and the sale begins.

Example of a Full Story-Based Email“SUBJ: Hacker threatens to destroy my reputation in 72 hours straight

This morning, I was at my laptop reading my emails when suddenly, I came across an unread email from…

Me.

What in the world…?

Out of confusion, I open it without reading the subject line.

And once I go past the first sentence, it becomes pretty clear:

I’m being hacked.

“You may have noticed we are using your company’s servers to send you this email: we have hacked into your website, kaleidocopy[dot]com.”

Oh.

Okay… They did send this email from my email address.

Still, I can’t help but wonder… could this be a hoax?

“This is not a hoax.”

Ah! Well, that settles it then.

“We are willing to forget about destroying the reputation of your site and company for a small fee. The current fee is at $2500 in bitcoin.”

I mean… at least they are nice about it, you know? Their willingness to forgive and forget says a lot about a person’s character.

In the following lines, they take me through exactly what they’re going to do to ruin my company and reputation, step by step.

Then they teach me how to buy Bitcoin (I already know how, but I appreciate their thoughtfulness!).

And finally, they assure me that my Bitcoin payment will be anonymous and that no one will know that I complied with their master plan.

Mmmmkay.

Now that is a bit suspicious, Mr. Hackerman (or Ms. Hackerwoman — it’s 2022, what the heck.)

I’m willing to bet the $2500 on the fact that I’m not the only person they sent this to.

So if the payment is anonymous, how will they know it was ME who sent it? It just doesn’t make sense, y’know?

Jokes aside, I’ve got to admit: seeing that the email came from my address made me panic a bit.

But then I checked my Sent folder and the email wasn’t there.

I also checked to see if there were any alerts or logins from different devices on my Google account. There were none.

I also checked with my hosting provider, who reassured me no one has broken into anything.

Soooo… hoax? Hopefully, lol.

But if it isn’t, it means you’ve got 72 hours left to get Email Story Alchemy, my mini-course on turning boring day-to-day events from your life into story-based emails that build your fandom and help you stand out.

After that, my business will supposedly disappear from the face of the Earth. And you’ll no longer be able to buy it. Everrr.”

ConclusionStory is a structure, not a tale. Which means that you can apply it to anything, including email. And when you do it right, amazing things happen.

Like building strong relationships with your customers. And turning a casual customer into a die-hard fan who wants to buy from you because they just can’t get enough of your brand.

Sure, discounts work too. But they work when used strategically and in moderation. So if you’re ever unsure about what to email your customers next, consider story-based emails. They’ll make your brand shine bright in anyone’s crowded inbox.

The post Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Making More Sales With Email Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Understanding and tracking the performance of your marketing efforts is essential in order to grow your business. While there are dozens of metrics you can use to measure the success of your campaigns, some are more important than others. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the ten most important marketing metrics that everyone should be aware of, and most likely tracking on a weekly basis.

(Before we dive in, if you want a shortcut to building your growth marketing scorecard that tracks all of your most important metrics in one place, you can steal our growth marketing scorecard here >>)

Unique PageviewsUnique pageviews measure how many times a webpage has been visited by individual users over the course of a designated period. This metric helps you understand which content resonates with your audience and how often they view it. It also provides insight into user engagement and helps inform decisions about what kind of content to prioritize in future campaigns.

% New Visitors% new visitors measures how many unique visitors have come to your website for the first time during a given period. This metric is helpful in understanding whether or not you’re successfully reaching new audiences with each campaign and can help inform decisions about where to allocate resources for maximum impact.

Video Watch %Video watch % measures how often people watch a video all the way through, as opposed to how many times it’s been viewed or clicked on. This metric gives you an indication of user interest and helps inform decisions about whether or not your audience is finding value in your videos or if they’re being ignored.

Click Through Rate (CTR)CTR measures the number of clicks on a particular link compared to the number of impressions (how many times that link was seen). A high CTR indicates that users find the link interesting enough to click on it while low CTR numbers suggest there might be improvements needed within the content itself or its placement within a webpage or email message.

Open RateOpen rate measures how often people who receive an email open it, as opposed to leaving it unread in their inboxes, also known as “opens” vs “bounces” rate. Understanding this metric helps marketers decide whether their messages are engaging enough for readers to take action on them and can help inform decisions about subject line wording, email length, and other aspects related to emails sent out through campaigns.

Leads GeneratedLeads generated measures how many individuals expressed interest in learning more about a product or service by taking an action such as filling out a form or signing up for an event. Tracking this metric is important for evaluating the effectiveness of various channels and campaigns used for lead-generation activities.

RevenueTracking total revenue generated from campaigns provides insight into overall performance and ROI from those efforts. It also helps marketers understand which channel offers more significant returns so they can adjust their strategy accordingly.

Of Lead Magnets DownloadedLead magnet downloads measure how many individuals downloaded a valuable piece of content offered by a company in exchange for contact information such as name, email address, etc. These metrics provide insight into user engagement with various lead magnets created by organizations so they can evaluate which ones resonate best with their target audiences and create more effective strategies going forward.

North Star Metrics PerformanceNorth Star Metrics are one high-level key performance indicator (KPI) designed to keep organizations focused on achieving their long-term goals regardless of short-term successes or failures — measuring performance against these metrics paints an accurate picture regarding progress towards achieving desired results over time.

Upsell Take RateUpsell take rate measures conversion rates when customers are presented with opportunities to purchase upgraded versions/features after purchasing initial products/services — understanding this metric helps companies identify areas where they could improve customer experience and increase the chances of customers taking advantage of upsell opportunities available.

The post 10 Metrics Every Marketing Leader Should Be Tracking appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Did you know that misaligned teams can cost businesses trillions of dollarseach year? Yes, you read that right.

When sales and marketing teams don’t work together cohesively, it’s sort of like having a pilot and a copilot that don’t communicate—it becomes difficult to accomplish goals and stay on the right course!

Although the key to well-aligned sales and marketing teams lies in communication, that’s not the only way to keep these two departments working together.

Here are five ways to seamlessly align your sales and marketing teams in order to achieve business objectives.

1. Make a Plan Involving Both TeamsRoughly 48% of leaders spend less than a day on strategic planning for their projects. The trouble here is that with so little planning, it’s hard for companies to iron out the details and get both sales and marketing teams aligned. As a result, it’s difficult for teams to bring those plans to fruition.

When you utilize strategic planning that involves both teams, you can drive success by:

• Creating a single vision that aligns your stakeholders and the entire company
• Justifying your reasoning and avoiding biases and flaws
• Tracking your brand’s progress because of shared and more specific goals

What should the plan constitute? More than a schedule of your upcoming marketing activities – it should also outline your future sales promotions.

Planning should always be a two-way street, and communication is key. Both departments need to share their goals and benchmarks so that they can be on the same page.

One way to achieve this is to ensure your marketing team is up to date with how your sales team is performing and whether or not they’re meeting company goals. This can help show marketing if their strategies are actually working or if it’s time for adjustments.

1. Get Management InvolvedA lack of upper management involvement can cause a whole slew of problems in your business, such as low productivity and getting past tough hurdles. To make sure your marketing and sales teams are successful, it’s crucial to have upper management of both teams working together. That way, both teams can complement each other’s goals:

2. The marketing team can look for potential leads to boost sales

3. The sales team can help marketing understand buyer personas and adjust the team’s marketing campaigns
4. Effective marketing strategies can also help cold leads become sure buyers

In addition, team members can get inspired watching their leaders work together cohesively. This can lead to better inter-team collaboration overall.

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1. Focus on Updates and Sharing ExperiencesIt’s a fact that the marketing team has a bunch of ideas the sales team don’t, and vice versa. This is where continued education becomes essential. In fact, you’ll be surprised at what sales and marketing can learn from each other.

For instance, the sales team can first-hand teach marketing about what potential customers want in marketing campaigns. At the same time, they can also give insights into how customers respond to different approaches. They can provide statistics and reports to help optimize and improve the campaigns to achieve better results.

By showing which strategies lead to more sales, they can help the marketing team hone in on strategies that work, helping save time and resources.

On the other hand, the marketing team can teach sales about the importance of CRM through email marketing and creating upcoming scheduled content plans.

1. Optimize Your Outreach ChannelsUtilizing the right outreach strategies can help improve your company’s inbound and outbound marketing. And in return, it can boost sales and achieve your business goals in no time.

You should optimize your outreach channels by following this step-by-step framework:

• Determine who your target market is. Who are your buyer personas, and how can you address their needs?
• Always be engaging. There’s a reason why your company has sales representatives. They should be responsible for constantly being in touch with potential leads and checking for follow-ups.
• Prioritize how your target leads feel. Recognize their emotions and base your approach on that to win them over.

Sequencing automation tools, such as drip email campaigns is also important. And with proper automation, you can reach your potential customers at the right time.

1. Get the Right Tools59% of marketers believe that technology has a huge impact on their marketing strategy. Hence, it’s essential that brands take advantage of these online tools to achieve their overall sales and marketing goals.

Moreover, technology allows you to keep track of your company’s KPIs and metrics, such as new leads or first-time purchases, which could help both teams generate ways to improve and work on the strategies.

Final ThoughtsGetting your marketing and sales teams to work together can be easier than you might think at first glance. By getting upper management on board and creating a joint plan, you can set the stage for successful teamwork.

From there, focusing on good communication, strong supporting tools, and continued education of both teams is what will ultimately lead to well-aligned marketing and sales departments.

Once these teams are aligned, you can start spenging less time micromanaging and more time focusing on a bigger picture for your business.

The post 5 Ways To Seamlessly Align Your Sales & Marketing Teams appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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If you’re thinking about getting a degree at any age, it makes sense to think about the value of that degree. Is the qualification needed for the career you want? Are there alternative paths to that career? Can you develop better skills by gaining experience in work?

All of these are perfectly valid questions. After all, getting a degree requires a pretty large investment of both time and money. You want to know that you’ll get enough return on that investment to make it worthwhile.

Why marketing?When it comes to marketing, a lot of entry-level jobs list a bachelor’s degree as a requirement. That doesn’t mean there aren’t alternate ways to get into marketing but having a relevant degree certainly makes your resume more competitive.

Growth industryMarketing skills are in demand in the current jobs market. According to a recent report from LinkedIn, marketing job posts grew 63% in just six months last year. Half of those jobs were in the digital and media sectors, meaning digital and content marketing skills are highly valued.

Personal Development & Career PathThe reason for this increased demand for marketers is tied to the rise in digital marketing. New methods of marketing have continued to develop out of the digital sector. This means that marketers capable of creating engaging content or managing social media accounts are needed.

This leaves a lot of room for personal development. Young graduates who are well-versed in social media and community management can hit the ground running in digital marketing. Getting on this path early can lead to content strategist and marketing management positions.

What are the Types of Marketing Degrees?When we say marketing degree, the term is a bit too general. There are a lot of degree paths that focus on marketing in major or minor ways. The level of degree available will depend on your current education history, but the specific course will be down to your personal choice.

Associate, Bachelor’s, or Master’s?Recent statistics suggest that 74% of US marketing professionals hold a bachelor’s degree. 9% have an associate degree and 8% have a master’s degree. Here’s a quick overview of the differences.

Associate degrees – 2-year courses that cover marketing and business in a more basic way than bachelor’s qualifications. They’re designed to give students the basic skills needed to apply for entry-level marketing jobs.

Bachelor’s degrees – 3/4-year courses that cover business and economics. There is a range of bachelor’s courses with marketing at their core, but you’ll also cover wider business topics like management, communication, and administration.

Master’s degrees – 2-year courses, usually only available if you’ve already completed a bachelor’s degree. MA or MBA courses are designed to develop a deep understanding of complex business topics. They are highly specific, covering areas like strategic marketing or marketing analytics.

Free to use image from Pixabay

Marketing Specific or Business General? This is down to personal choice. There are general business degrees that will cover marketing as a module as well as marketing-specific degrees. There are also multiple universities and colleges, both offline and online, offering different course platforms.

If you’re looking at a specific job role or career path, then research which type of degree is most relevant. Remember that you will need to add to your marketing skills if you intend to progress to management roles in the future.

Check the Modules & CurriculumThis is important, and not only because it lets you see which courses align with your career goals. Marketing has changed significantly over the last decade, even more so if you go back to before the digital age. Many business courses are still behind on current marketing trends.

Check Out Our Comprehensive Digital Marketing Mastery CourseWhat Jobs Look for a Marketing Degree?Once you’ve got your marketing qualification, what jobs should you be looking for? Here are some job titles and areas you should watch out for, and what qualifications you’ll need for them.

Entry levelIf you’re starting with a degree and no experience, or work experience but no degree, take a look at these roles.

• Sales/customer service roles – These are adjacent roles to marketing where most companies do not ask for prior qualifications. If you don’t have a degree, this is a good place to start.
• Marketing or public relations intern – Another possibility if you don’t have a degree, or you’re still in education.
• Digital/content marketing associate – These roles will almost always require an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. A good grasp of new digital and social marketing techniques will be required to succeed.
• Copywriter/Bid writer – This is a good route into marketing for those with journalism or literature qualifications. These roles combine aspects of marketing, creative writing, and persuasive writing.
• SEO specialist – A more focused form of marketing centered on SEO content optimization. If you know how to optimize a blog post for search engine rankings, this role is for you. Bachelor’s or associate qualifications will be a minimum requirement.
• Social media/community manager – Since these are relatively new roles, we tend to see a mix of degree-qualified marketers and people who’ve had success fostering communities or online brands but don’t have on-paper credentials.

Free to use image from Unsplash

Career ProgressionIf you have an MA or MBA, or significant experience in one of the above roles, then you can look at these more advanced roles for your career progression.

• Digital Marketing Manager – A role for experienced marketers that involves running campaigns and coordinating marketing associates.
• Senior Marketing Coordinator – A department management level role. Responsible for overall marketing strategy and departmental performance.
• Content Strategist – A specialist role that focuses on content strategy. Designing content plans based on demographic and keyword research are a core aspect of this role.
• Marketing Analyst – This role involves analyzing customer behaviors and market trends. If you want to move into analysis from a more direct marketing role, you’ll likely need specific data analysis qualifications.
• Public Relations Specialist – The public voice of a large organization’s PR team. Managing a brand’s public perception and setting brand-level communication policies like tone of voice.
• Experiential Marketing Specialist – This area of marketing is focused on optimizing the customer experience. Experiential specialists have a deep understanding of customer psychology and behaviors.
• Corporate Communications Manager – Communications managers are responsible for company-wide communications policies. This is an executive-level role that a marketing coordinator or public relations manager might move up to.

Average marketing salariesAcross all the roles we’ve discussed above, salaries vary widely. For those entry-level roles, you could be looking at anything from $25 – $40K depending on the role and your experience.

When it comes to median earnings for marketers with a bachelor’s or master’s degree, we can get a bit more specific. Recent statistics from Zippia show us that $69,993 p/a is the average for bachelor’s degree holders and $80,365 p/a for master’s degree marketers.

Image sourced from Zippia.com

Marketing Degree Pros and ConsSo, the question we asked above was “Is a marketing degree worth it?” Yet, in truth, it’s not a simple yes or no answer. The question you need to ask is “Is a marketing degree right for me?” Here’s a summary of the pros and cons that might give you some answers.

Pros* Degree holders have better job prospects and higher earnings potential in marketing * You can study highly specific skills with the right courses * Gain soft skills like communication and collaboration

Cons* High time and money investment required * Diminishing salary returns at higher levels * Can be a restrictive environment for self-starters and entrepreneurs

What are Marketing Degree Alternatives?If you want to stick with education but don’t want to invest four years into a degree, then accredited online courses can provide an alternative. This can be your best choice if you wish to upskill in a specific area like running conference calls from Canada.

If higher education really isn’t your thing, the other option is gaining experience. Some businesses prefer internships and training programs for entry-level roles. This allows them to train marketers “their way” rather than re-training someone with more experience.

Free to use image from Unsplash

How to Decide if a Marketing Degree is Right for YouUltimately, choosing to do a marketing degree depends on your goals, your preferences, and your talents. Consider all three factors before making your choice.

Career GoalsDo you want a management position that needs marketing knowledge? What areas of marketing interest you? What skills do you already possess? Answering these three questions will help you define your career path. That will narrow down your course choices.

If you want to get better at selling small business phone systems in Vancouver, you don’t need a four-year course for that. If you want to develop into high-level marketing roles, then you want that degree.

PersonalityYou don’t need a specific personality type to work in marketing. Your personality and interests might determine what area of marketing would suit you best though. For example, if you’re outgoing and creative then public relations or social media management might be for you.

Investment & ReturnMoney isn’t everything. But, if you’re going to put the resources into getting a degree, you want to know that you’ll get some return on your investment. From the figures we quoted above, it seems the “optimal” qualification in terms of salary return vs. time and money investment is a bachelor’s degree.

Average earnings for marketers with a master’s qualification were only $10k higher. This suggests that you’re not really getting a significant financial return for the additional investment. Of course, if that master’s leads to your dream job, you might see it differently.

Final Thoughts: Forge Your Own PathIs a marketing degree worth it in 2023? The short answer is yes. Whether that means a marketing degree is right for you, we can’t tell you. Hopefully, though, this guide has given you the information you need to make that choice.

The post Is a Marketing Degree Worth it in 2023? appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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LinkedIn is a fantastic medium for extending your reach, positioning yourself as a thought leader, and building your personal brand.

However, to get the most out of this platform this coming year, you need to understand the key pillars required to create a winning LinkedIn marketing strategy. And that’s what this article is all about– here are 5 actionable tips you can integrate into your 2023 LinkedIn marketing strategy to make it stronger and more effective.

1. Original Content Over LinksWhether it’s a completely new post or something you’re repurposing from your website, original and fresh information is how to get an engaged audience that keeps coming back.

You want to avoid simply regurgitating links and info that’s posted outside of LinkedIn. For one, most social media platforms want to keep people on their sites. And second, it shows you’re a thought leader in your industry.

If you want to get a feel of how this works, take a look at your favorite brands and personalities on the site to see the type of content they post. Heck, you can even check out my page for examples.

LinkedIn gives you all the tools you need. There are a variety of content types you can post to the platform, including blog posts and articles, video content like live sessions and interviews, case studies, and more.

3X Your LinkedIn Exposure In Under 30 Days2. Show Your PersonalityPart of my philosophy is humanizing your marketing so you can create authentic relationships that translate to success and growth. LinkedIn was originally conceived as the “social media for professionals,” and, sure, it still is. However, that doesn’t mean you should trap yourself in a box where your content comes off bland and boring.

For your marketing strategy to be effective, it needs a relatable approach so your audience can connect with your brand on a personal level. If you have a funny bone and some wit, show it off!

Of course, you want everything to align with your marketing messaging and your personal brand voice.

3. Leverage LinkedIn AnalyticsAs mentioned above, LinkedIn gives you plenty of solutions so you can be creative and post content through various mediums– blogs, videos, etc.

But LinkedIn also provides you with the tools to see how that content performs through LinkedIn Analytics. It gives you invaluable data such as how much engagement a post gets, how different times affect the post’s performance, whether or not your content is getting leads, and more.

With this info, you can see how your marketing strategy is working and if it’s time to go full steam ahead or pivot and rethink your approach. And you should be constantly assessing the performance of your content and evolving your campaign so your marketing strategy is as effective as possible.

4. Figure Out Your Optimal Post FrequencyAs with any social media platform, post consistency and frequency are key components for growth and success. Plus, the time of day when you post plays an important role in engagement too.

For example, brands that post regularly find that they see the most engagement from users typically during the morning or early afternoon. If you’re representing a large company, you can get away with a few posts a week. And if it’s your personal page, you can post every day if you want.

Regardless, finding the right groove will take time and testing to get right.

5. Engage With PlatformYes, you’re busy but don’t just post your content and go on about your day. Take some time to be active on the platform. Respond to comments on your posts, participate in discussions, and share info and resources with the rest of the community. When people see you’re an active member, they’re more apt to return the favor or remember you as someone with valuable info to share.

I know these 5 tips will take your 2023 marketing game to the next level on LinkedIn!

Thanks for reading,

Joshua B. Lee

The post 5 Tips You Can Use to Improve Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategy in 2023 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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There is no silver bullet in content marketing. Just as there is no universally best approach to fat loss, you would be hard-pressed to find one content marketing strategy that works for every business.

However, that doesn’t mean your efforts are futile. Far from it. For 85% of businesses that use it, content marketing performs from moderately to exceedingly well. Part of that success comes from understanding and following the industry’s best practices.

Now, before we dive into best practices for 2023, let’s quickly run through foundational content marketing principles you need to follow regardless of the year on your calendar.

The Core Principles of Content Marketing Even if you follow best practices discussed later in the article, your content marketing strategies are bound to crumble without good foundations.

Understand Your Target AudienceBehind every successful marketing campaign there is a marketer that carefully analyzed their target audience. The exceptions are mostly blind luck and not something you should bet on.

Having an intimate knowledge of you target audience helps you:

• focus on the right content distribution channels
• adjust style and tone of voice to create greater emotional connection
• create content that helps solve actual problems your target audience has
• zero in on customers pain points and increase conversions rates

Furthermore, you need to keep in mind that your target audience aren’t just the people that are using your product or services. The pool is often much wider, forcing you to also target people who your customers take advice from (influencers), as well as the people they need to get approval from (decision makers).

Set Realistic Goals and Plan of ActionThe same research mentioned in the intro states that 73% of B2B marketers have a marketing strategy, with 40% having the strategy written down.

I would argue that this research actually shows how only 40% of marketers have a marketing strategy. Because if it is not written down, there is little accountability, and it is generally too complex to just sit in one person’s head.

Defining realistic marketing goals and metrics is challenging. When you are doing it for the first time, you are going to miss with your estimates. Probably by a lot.

My advice is to get down and dirty.

First, watch who you are comparing yourself with. Your marketing budget is likely to be much smaller than top dogs in your niche. Instead of picking a fight with them right off the bat, aim to surpass companies that are just one or two levels above your weight category.

Secondly, be sure to outline the steps you need to take to reach your goals. Increasing organic traffic by 50% in 12 months is a fine goal. However, don’t stop there. Break it down. Define how many content pieces you need to publish and how many backlinks do you need to build to get there.

Do that for all of your goals and you will already be a step ahead of most content marketers.

Master the BasicsI like to think of content marketing as using content to build trust and awareness and generate traffic, leads, and customers. Usually in that order.

When you look at it that way, they only way to be successful at it is to understand the basics of:

• Content planning (target audience research, keyword research)
• Content production (selecting the right content type, consistently producing well-structured content with actionable advice)
• Content optimization (on-page seo)
• Content promotion and distribution (off-page SEO, PPC, influencer outreach, social media marketing)

This is a tall task for any business that isn’t big enough to set up an in-house marketing team. However, even if you outsource it, it pays to understand the basics to ensure that the agency you are working with is spending your money wisely.

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Content Marketing Best Practices in 2023With firmly established foundations, it’s time to explore what are the best content marketing practices you need to start implementing in your business in 2023.

1. Create Keyword-Based Content StrategiesIn personal experience, one of the most common mistakes businesses make is not having a clear, keyword-based content strategy. They think that just creating quality content is enough. Unfortunately, this is not the case of “if you build it, they will come”.

If you want to grow by converting organic traffic into leads and customers, you need to have a content strategy based on in-depth keyword research.

We have a few clients in industrial B2B niches and even there we are seeing competition seriously ramping up. Just throwing content at the wall and hoping something sticks rarely worked so far, and is definitely not the way to go in 2023.

1. Find Ways to Provide Additional Value with Your ContentMore and more brands are understanding the value of quality content. If you want to compete for the top spots in SERPs for challenging keywords, look for new ways to provide additional value by making your content more convenient to consume and easier to apply.

That can mean a lot of different things in practice:

• Making sure that long form pieces are logically structured and come with an easy to use content table.
• That broad and general advice gives place to actionable tips and relevant real-life examples.
• Supporting complex concepts with custom animations or (info)graphics that include steps, diagrams, and other visual representations that increase the understanding of the topic.
• Reaching out to experts in the field and sharing their thoughts on specific issues.
• Adding polls, quizzes, and calculators to make content more interactive.

This is not a definite list, but it should be enough to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Be ConsistentDoing quality content marketing is a lot like trying to achieve a fitness goal. The key ingredient is consistency.

You should:

• produce and publish content consistently
• have a minimum level of quality every content piece should satisfy before it goes live
• try to keep a consistent style and tone of voice across all channels
• have a set of visual brand guidelines to create a recognizable visual style

If you are just starting out, don’t be afraid to test things out. It might take a while until you find your brand voice. When you do that, create your brand style guide – and stick to it!

1. Build What You Can, Outsource What You Can’tScaling up content production without any drop in quality is hard. If you do not have a dedicated marketing department, I would recommend turning to a content marketing agency for help.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should abdicate all of your responsibility to an agency. Nor does it mean that you should give them all of the reins.

For example, we work with a few businesses that have excellent content writers with in-depth knowledge of the subject area. In this case, we take the role of an editor – prepare content briefs, review outlines, add custom graphics, and make sure the content follows best on-page SEO practices.

In other words, those businesses use us to plug holes in terms of their marketing skills and knowledge.

Another reason to stay involved to some degree is to make sure the content follows your brand tone and voice and really connects with your brand, as well as to coordinate lead generation and other promotional activities you might be doing in parallel.

5) Leverage Your AnalyticsAs more and more businesses compete for customer’s attention, only those with a strategic approach to content marketing are going to see a fat ROI.

Recently, we talked with a semi-known brand in the interior design niche. They have over 500k monthly organic traffic but fairly low conversion rates as most of that traffic is generated by awareness phase-level content.

They wanted to spend most of their budget on building links to pages that are already performing well. While that would probably work ok, the more cost-effective idea was to split that budget in 3 parts.

The first part would be used to continue boosting pages that are already generating some leads. The second part would be used to increase overall conversion rates on the site.

Most interestingly, the third part of the budget would be used to boost pages that have the best conversion rates in terms of percentages, but currently generate a very small amount of leads because they are ranking poorly and do not get a lot of traffic – in other words, potential gems.

Source: Scoop.it

The key takeaway from this story is that creating such a concrete and cost-effective strategy was only possible because the client meticulously tracked the performance (traffic,conversion to lead, conversion to paying customer…) of all of his pages.

6) Be Transparent and Authentic9 out of 10 consumers say that authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.

In an age where every brand message is designed to sell something and where every social media post is meticulously planned, people are sick of that uncomfortable feeling of being manipulated and told what to think. They crave transparency and authenticity.

It is one of the reasons behind the huge success of Joe Rogan’s podcasts.

So, if there are causes you want to support and talk about, find those you really care about. Be honest about your product and service, and what you can offer.

Last but not least, when the context allows it, try to have some fun with the content you’re creating. Do your part to make the Internet a better place.

Trust the ProcessIt is not easy to measure the success of your overall content marketing efforts, especially as VPNs, GDPR, and other tools and laws reduce your tracking capabilities.

On top of that, content marketing campaigns with a modest budget can take 6+ months of consistent work to show provable results.

Putting in earnest work for a few months and not seeing results can quickly become discouraging. You might even be tempted to pivot and make significant changes. Think twice before doing that.

If you are following industry best practices and have polished internal processes that can catch and eliminate quality issues, it is time to exercise patience and put some trust in the process.

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The human brain processes visual content faster than any other type of content. Given our love for visuals, it makes sense why video is one of the best tools available to marketers. It’s no doubt then why marketers are creating video marketing content at an unprecedented pace too.

With most people unable to concentrate for long periods, video content delivers the intended message quickly and in a manner that’s easy to digest.

What’s more?

It helps break down complex issues into easy-to-understand concepts for the target audience.

Marketers continue to enjoy success with video content marketing, with up to 92% saying it’s an important part of their marketing strategy.

Image via Wyzowl

That said, creating video content can be an expensive affair. Many small businesses have shied away from video content marketing because of the high costs associated with traditional video making.

So, is there an inexpensive way to create video content for marketing?

Yes, there is.

In this article, we will share several tips on how you can create video marketing content on a budget.

Let’s get started.

Creating Video Marketing Content on a BudgetOver the years, video making tools have become more accessible to digital marketers and small businesses.

At the moment, anybody can create video content without any expertise and use it for contactless marketing.

However, a video created with a small budget doesn’t mean it’s of poor quality. Lots of budget videos look polished and professional like the expensive video marketing content out there.

Ready to create video marketing content on a budget?

Whether you have nothing to spend or have a few dollars at your disposal, here’s how you can create great marketing videos for your next campaign.

Use Your PhoneThe most affordable video making tool sits in your pocket. If YouTube superstars use it to create amazing content, then it’s good enough for your marketing content as well.

Using a smartphone to shoot videos is one way to reduce your marketing payments. Most smartphones come with high quality built-in cameras that can be used to create video marketing content.

To get the most out of your smartphone when creating content, the following tips come in handy:

• Use a tripod – Be sure to use a tripod when shooting from an elevated position. There are many affordable options online if you need a tripod for your video shoots.
• Stay near the phone when recording – Smartphones don’t have powerful microphones and this can affect the voice quality of your video. Ensure you are close to the phone when recording to capture sounds clearly. You could also use an external microphone.
• Don’t use your phone’s digital zoom – Since your smartphone might not have a zoom lens, you risk shooting a low-quality video when you use your device’s digital zoom.
• Use natural lighting – If you cannot afford artificial lighting, use natural light for your video shots. Just ensure you’re shooting when there’s sufficient natural light to enhance video quality.

Use Screen Recording SoftwareDo you need to show customers how your software works?

Using screen recording software is your best chance at giving them a preview of your software.

Most of these software are free and allow you to record your screen as you demonstrate how your product works.

Explainer videos are the most common type of videos created by marketers at 74%. And there’s a reason for this—96% of people have watched explainer videos to understand products and services.

So, if you’re launching a new product and need to demonstrate how it works, don’t hesitate to use the free screen recording software available to you.

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Use Free Video Editing SoftwareAfter shooting your videos, you need to edit and combine the parts into one coherent video. Additionally, you may need to beautify the video to make it engaging enough.

You need a video editor for this task, and luckily for you, there are many free video editors available to edit videos in better quality.

The best part about these software solutions is that you don’t need to be an expert at video editing.

Turn to Your CustomersYour customers are also a valuable source for your video content marketing. You can ask satisfied customers to share their experience with your products through video and share the content on your social media pages.

User-generated content will help you earn the trust of people who haven’t tried your products yet and boost your lead generation. People trust reviews and recommendations from other people more than any other form of brand promotion.

For this reason, setting up a UGC strategy is an affordable way showcasing your customer experience management success too. This is because all the content comes from your customers and all you have to do is share it on your social media pages.

An example of a brand using user-generated content to connect with its audience is Aerie. The woman-wear brand asked its customers to share photos of themselves wearing their products for a chance to get featured on their Instagram page.

To sweeten the deal, the brand donated $1 to charity for every shared post with their branded hashtag.

Image via Instagram

Create Animated VideosDon’t have money to hire actors and pay for an expensive camera crew?

Use animated videos for your video content marketing.

Animated videos are everywhere and easier to produce than other types of video content. Also, there are many easy-to-use tools for creating animations for your video content marketing.

The best animation tools are not free and you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription to enjoy their premium features though. For example, you will be able to create videos with your branding elements like brand colors and logo.

The tools also come with simple sharing options to make it easy for you to post the video on social media or share it with a colleague.

Many top brands use animated videos to engage their customers. Starbucks, for example, created an animated video to explain why it blends coffee.

Image via YouTube

Through this simple video, the brand explains why it combines distinct coffee flavors from around the world to achieve its unique blend.

ConclusionVideo content marketing is an effective way to engage your customers online. Videos allow you to deliver your message quickly and explain complex issues in minutes.

From creating animated videos to user-generated content and free video editing tools, there are numerous ways of going about video production without burning a hole in your pocket.

So, go ahead and start leveraging these budget video marketing strategies to drive your brand awareness and sales.

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From $5 logo designs to websites like Canva to artificial intelligence is there still a future in graphic design?

Is Artificial Intelligence Taking Over the Design Industry? Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of the design industry as we know it. Many creatives believe that it’s just the beginning of the end for designers, and that mindset of resistance to this technology will leave you in the dust if you are slow to adapt.

For over a decade stock websites have been giving creatives a shortcut to the creative process, eliminating hours and hours of creating basic design elements like photos, videos, and illustrations from scratch.

Yet you never hear anyone talking about how stock websites are ruining the design industry, so why is that?

The truth many of us hate to admit is that time is the most valuable thing that we possess as human beings; it’s a finite and limited resource that we can’t create more of.

Here’s a great example: Imagine if you had to create every font, photo, or illustration from scratch- would you charge your client more money and would the quality of your design improve?

The answer is clearly no, based on the fact that millions of dollars are being generated by creatives just in the stock graphics niche alone. So, why should AI be any different?

I’m not here to debate the morals and ethics of AI- I want to talk about facts and how we can use AI as a tool to streamline the design process, save ourselves time, and give our clients the best end result possible.

The people that adopt this technology first and use it properly will become “pioneers” in the design industry, using a technology that will only continue to grow and evolve in good and bad ways whether we like it or not.

Those of you who stay rooted in your limiting beliefs about AI being bad for the design industry will stay exactly where you are now or even worse, move backwards.

Like the famous quote by William S. Burroughs says “When you stop growing you start dying.” I’m not saying that it’s not going to be uncomfortable but change never is and you either adapt and evolve or you resist and regress.

Breaking the Time Barrier When I started my career as a rookie graphic designer in 2005 we did not have stock graphics like we have access to now.

In fact, the only thing we did have was clip art and it was terrible! I was designing on MS paint because there was no way I was going to be able to afford an iMac. Everything I designed was from scratch and my idea of stock images was Google Images which at the time I had no clue was unethical.

It wasn’t until I learned about Photoshop, thanks to my brother, that I stopped using paint to design flyers and logos. I spent thousands of hours of my life downloading countless images from Google and photoshopping all types of designs and graphics, mostly for print, like business cards, flyers, and brochures.

I did it out of necessity because the image I had envisioned didn’t exist to just download so I had to create it.

I learned to essentially paint with images in photoshop which helped me dramatically when it came to learning how to design for the web. 17 years later and after 9 of those now using stock graphics I can tell you first hand that I would not have the financial success I have today without it. It’s made me hundreds of thousands of dollars and helped build a creative business that’s generated over 100 million dollars in revenue.

AI will be an exponentially larger opportunity, mark my words, and it will be a daily reality of life. Ideas that come to your mind will come to life instantaneously and your creative flair will create things even better than what you imagined in seconds. One of the most valuable pieces I see is the speed of implementation of information.

Streamlining the design process will be about taking existing designs and making them better, faster.

If I want to create a line of t-shirts for my Motocross Brand and I creatine original design of a guy on a dirtbike shooting a rooster tail from the back tire, then I can upload that art to MidJourney and have 4 different and better designs in a matter of seconds with just the click of a mouse! Think of the hours saved!!!

From an Idea to Real World Application in Seconds The speed of ideas being brought to life will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen, almost like thinking something into existence.

Be careful though, like Stock images the AI design tools will be just that, a tool, and if it is overused and abused, it will blend into the noise, and I promise you there will be more noise than ever.

If you’re only using Stock graphics in your designs and never using your creative flair or heart, then you will look and feel unoriginal and be overlooked.

I was recently on a phone call with a fellow creative Wes Frick, a renowned outdoor billboard advertising designer who’s been sharing some incredible AI art recently. I asked him what his take on AI was and he enthusiastically shared with me:

“AI art is a powerful tool that both clients and artists should use to formulate their ideas and bring them to life easily.”

In just a few minutes, while on the call, Wes made at least 16 different designs for me.

So let’s hypothesize here for a moment…

If I charge a flat rate of $250 for a design, let’s say it’s a t-shirt design, and the client wants 12 designs, that project would typically take a minimum of 2-4 hours of my time. So, at the bare minimum that’s 12 hours of work for $3k. If you divide that per hour that’s $125 hour minimum. Not bad right?

Now let’s say I use an AI design tool like Midjourney. I can make just one unique design and get 12 unique images that are just as good, in under 10 seconds. How much does that now make you per hour? Could you lower your prices, reduce turnaround time, or improve profitability?

The good news is you can do both if you use AI technology as a tool- it now becomes a win-win win for everyone.

At the end of the day the most valuable thing to the client is that the design problem they have is being solved at the highest level and quality possible, regardless if it was designed with AI or without it.

A Question Well Asked is a Problem Half Solved How you communicate your vision to AI design tools is the skill you will need to improve on. The better the question you ask- the better the answer (design) these tools will return. If you ask for a banana this tool will just create a basic image of a banana by itself.

If you ask it to make a large green banana on a sunny tropical beach that’s in the hand of a monkey who is handing it to his monkey girlfriend that looks like an oil painting from the 1920’s that’s exactly what it will give you.

First image draft of the inquiry above input into Midjourney.The biggest limitation to the design is in how you communicate it to the tool you are using. This will be the creative flair needed to make something truly unique and memorable.

The biggest limitation to the design is in how you communicate it to the tool you are using. This will be the creative flair needed to make something truly unique and memorable.

The other part that is so unique is that it learns as you go along, taking information from your previous questions and solving the problem even better each time.

As you get your first design back you will notice things that you wish you would have added or that are missing entirely and you will be able to make iterations to that design simply by rewording or better communicating what it is that you want.

It’s this continued clarity of vision that will power the growth engine for AI. As it produces more it learns more, and that puts us in the driver’s seat for how this technology can be used to improve the creative process. You will have to identify the problem, diagnose it, then be able to effectively communicate the solution you are looking for to the AI in order for it to solve the problem.

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AI Will Replace Some Designers Yes, people will lose their jobs to AI. Companies will cut their expenses and implement cost effective tools to save themselves money.

In my opinion this is going to shine a light on the designers that have been hiding in the shadows who were in it for the wrong reasons. Essentially shaking out the loose hands and exposing the people who are doing it for just the money instead of creative impact.

I believe it will reward the truly passionate designers that love creating the best design possible for their clients, regardless of the tools that are being used to do it. Their initial investment into the creative process will become better and the designs will stand out from everyone else.

Ever heard of a “Happy Accident” this is what I refer to as Creative Flair. Some of my favorite designs came to life from me accidentally hitting the wrong key on my keyboard, and altering my design in a way that actually makes it look better unintentionally. AI can’t replicate human creativity and flawed nature, it runs on rules!

Communication is everything when it comes to AI. In order to connect with people we have to possess empathy. To be a great communicator you need to understand human psychology, emotions, and culture.

An AI can’t have a heart to converse, be vulnerable, or understand what it’s like to grow up in a broken home experiencing trauma, and hurts that influence the way you think about life or how we make decisions.

The only people that will be replaced are the ones that dig their feet in and bury their heads in the sand as this becomes more of a way of life and business. They will pass up on opportunities, and opportunities won’t even come their way because of their close mindedness.

All for what, our ego, or some “greater good” virtue we let ourselves believe is more important than us having success?

AI Will Help Good Designers Become Great Designers The people that will benefit the most from this unstoppable force that is AI are those who go all in, learn the platforms, and implement it in a way that is most authentic to their wants and needs.

Designers will spend more time making their main designs better so they can produce multiple unique designs that are just as good as the original or better and that will be hard to compete with! Creative flair, out of the box thinking, problem solving, and communication skills are going to become more valuable than ever. I believe that this will push us to be more innovative, and break the rules of what we think good design looks like in all disciplines.

My advice to you: Focus on stacking skills that will improve your creativity, help build stronger relationships, become a better problem solver, and become your best and most authentic you possible.

Key Takeaways from The Future of Design Up to this point the design industry has seen countless changes, websites like fiverr have made the design industry and many industries for that matter more competitive, AI will be yet another innovation that challenges and changes the landscape of graphic design in various ways.

Designers will need to become more creative, and learn better problem solving skills by asking better and better questions.

If you overuse, get lazy, and don’t use ai properly you will blend into the noise of everyone else trying to make a quick buck. This is your chance to do your best work ever and then use AI to enhance your art beyond what you thought was possible.

Lastly, it’s unavoidable that AI will become mainstream in design and people that resist it will regret it. Ai will only be used more frequently as time goes on and it will be a part of our daily life as designers in the future..

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Digital marketing is becoming more and more competitive.

According to Census Bureau’s data, almost 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2021, which is a 53% increase from 2019.

Hit by global lockdowns and deprived of most traditional means of attracting customers, most of those businesses turned to the Internet in an effort to build traffic and sales.

This resulted in a higher than ever digital marketing competition.

How can a small business compete with that?

How can you generate sales from your small business website in this competitive environment?

Here are some solid ways to do that.

1. Formulate a PlanSuccessful planners often make successful entrepreneurs, laying out detailed (yet actionable) goals every step of the way. The fact of the matter is that if you have numbers you want to hit, you’ll be much more likely to have them in mind and aim to reach them constantly.

Write them down and keep them somewhere so you can continually reference them throughout the year.

Create a Sales PlanA sales plan is designed to outline your goals, tactics, audience, and potential hurdles. After laying out a sales plan, you’ll come away with concrete, measurable goals, including revenue targets and deadlines for hitting each metric.

You’ll also spend time identifying your target audience, which will be crucial for success in marketing. Creating a sales plan is a necessary first step in meeting your overall business goals.

Create a Prospecting PlanThink of your prospecting strategy as a guidebook for your sales team (even if your sales team is just you). It should cover all of your preferred sales methodologies, as well as information on who to target.

Ask yourself which form of selling most closely aligns with your business and its goals, from cold-calling to trade shows, to a 100-percent-digital strategy.

1. Market Your BusinessBuilding a good marketing strategy really comes down to two crucial factors:

2. Understanding your audience

3. Getting your product or service in front of your target audience.

Anything you can do to gather information on your target demographic and then to effectively, affordably market to them will get you ahead in marketing.

Leverage 360-Degree Digital MarketingDepending on the type of business you operate, you can probably get away with a fully digital marketing strategy. Focus on the most affordable methods first, such as building out your social media and local business profiles.

Social media is the best option for connecting with current, and future, customers. Consider pay-per-click and performance-based marketing options, such as affiliate marketing. This will help you get your product or service in front of a bigger audience for a much lower up-front spend.

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Make Sure You Have a Loyalty Building Plan in PlaceIt is hard (and in many niches impossible) for small businesses to develop solid and consistent traffic generation methods.

So focus on retaining those customers that did find you and turning them into brand advocates.

There are many ways to achieve that, so create your strategy based on your business and product specifics:

• Set up a dedicated spot for your customers to become part of your community
• Use a solid CRM solution to organize customer relationship management process and identify steps where it may be failing
• Reply to comments and reviews when your customers are discussing your product or asking questions
• Encourage user-generated content by offering perks in exchange for sharing an unboxing video, a photo review of your product or a tutorial on making the most of it.
• Offer exclusive deals and packages. vcita offers a “Packages” feature that allows small businesses to bundle several services together and sell them as a package deal online at a discounted price. You can use vcita to create unique packages for your return users:

Research Niche Gaps and Competitors’ FailsWhat are your competitors missing? Which features or products are they seeking and failing to find? You can actually turn the poorest experience into a business opportunity, if you learn to identify that opportunity.

Researching niche gaps is a great way to find a sweet spot for your business to stand out. SE Ranking competitive research tool allows you to identify your competitors’ strongest and weakest side.

You can also use its keyword research tool to find searchable keywords that don’t have much competition (this is a great way to find what’s on demand but without a solid offering).

Social media listening is another great way to find customers who are dissatisfied with your competitors and identify what your competitors are doing wrong (and how you could fit in):

Make Sure People Can Find Your BusinessStart by implementing the basics, including a well-optimized website and a detailed listing on Google’s My Business Profile platform (if you are operating a local business).

Optimizing your website through proven search engine optimization (SEO) tactics—such as including relevant keywords and building out detailed, useful pages—is an easy way to ensure that people can find your business.

Plus, besides the time you spend writing the copy, it’s free! This is also extremely important for small businesses. Text Optimizer is a great tool to help you create a highly-relevant copy:

Encourage Cross-Business CollaborationAs a small business owner, you may not have a ton of employees but it is still important to keep them excited and motivated. Encourage your employees to submit content ideas, feature your team members on your social media profiles, let them contribute to your social media channels, etc.

Keep your team together even if you don’t have an office. Your employees need to be part of the family, and an effective communication strategy is vital for any business. Nextiva offers affordable small business communication solutions which will keep your team together:

1. Analyze & AdaptToo often, businesses funnel big money into marketing and development without investing in detailed tracking and analytics. But you need both to thrive.

Why does data matter so much for boosting sales? Because it allows you to measure—usually, in concrete numbers—exactly what’s working and what’s not working, and then it forces you to adapt accordingly.

Be sure to track your results over time, so you know what strategies are working or if you need to pivot your plan. It is important to keep in mind seasonality, or any other factors, that naturally fluctuate your business, so you can accurately predict results.

Invest in Analytics ToolsLuckily, many digital marketing platforms include built-in analytics, but what about when you’re trying to track something that’s not single-platform based? Often, you can add tools and plug-ins to your website or store to keep track of where sales are coming from and other metrics.

Using a comprehensive Rank Tracker that can connect many data points (rankings, traffic, conversions, etc.) is also essential:

Track All DemographicsAs long as you have permission from your user or consumer, you can gather as much demographic information as possible. Pay close attention to patterns that emerge with regard to age, gender, geographic information, income, and education level.

This will help you figure out exactly where to funnel your promotional dollars, including which social media platforms to advertise on and which affiliate websites or blogs to partner with.

Put Your Data to UseWhat good is a fleshed-out set of data if you don’t put it to use? Make sure you’re using every single finding to keep your business agile, adjusting as needed to different consumer preferences and market trends.

Be patient with your analytics, keeping a close eye but not being obsessive. In time, you’ll have a solid bank of information that will tell an obvious story about where you should take your business next.

Ask for Feedback and Focus on the CustomerA good sales strategy is one that serves both the seller and the consumer. As you’re going through your first year or two in business, make sure to always keep your ears open to feedback, focusing on specific ways you can improve the customer experience.

Remember that happy customers tell their friends when they’re both satisfied and dissatisfied with a business, so keeping them smiling can help you grow your sales exponentially without you having to do anything at all!

User experience is a vital part of business success both on the web and in real life. If a customer had a positive experience and can leave a review, that will be invaluable when others are looking for similar products.

Positively interacting with customers and ensuring their satisfaction, will not only encourage them to return but also recommend your products to others.

Even though the Internet is getting super competitive, there are still a lot of opportunities to start a successful home-based business and set up a small business that will stand out. All you need is a plan, a solid technology partner and a good team!

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People can’t buy from you if they don’t know your brand exists. That’s the purpose of brand awareness — to help people recognize and recall your business when they need you. Making sure people know and remember your brand is where to use content marketing to build brand awareness.

Understanding Brand AwarenessBrand awareness is how readily consumers recognize your brand. Have they heard of it? Do they remember anything about what you do? Brand awareness is critical to your business’s growth because people can’t consider purchasing from you if they’ve never even heard of your brand.

But what you want from brand awareness goes beyond just an “Oh, that” moment. Yes, you want people to recognize your company’s name, but it’s also excellent if they associate specific details with your name.

For example, we don’t just recognize the name McDonald’s. We know what McDonald’s serves, how easy it is to find one, the consistency of their products, etc.

We tie thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviors, and preferences to brands. Those things help us differentiate and prefer certain brands over others. But all of these positive benefits start with brand awareness.

Children don’t want that Happy Meal toy until they know McDonald’s exists and has Happy Meals.

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Content Marketing’s Role in Brand AwarenessAwareness is the first step in the customer journey. That means, without it, you can’t make sales.

Back in the day, companies like McDonald’s spent tons of money on traditional advertising to make people aware of their brands. They erected golden arches seemingly everywhere and made TV commercials featuring Ronald McDonald so children would beg their parents to go. But that’s not the way brands get recognized anymore.

Today’s buyers go online when they’re thinking about buying something. More than 65% of people research online before making a purchase. Enter content marketing’s role in today’s customer journey. By having a website and doing SEO content marketing, your brand is more likely to show up for customers when they search for products or services in your category.

For example, let’s say I have a problem. It’s getting colder outside, so I like to have a mug of green tea in the afternoon. Kind of a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. But I’ve noticed that I bring the tea to my desk, then get distracted by calls or emails.

My tea gets cold before I drink it. I mentioned this frustration to a friend, who recommended I get a mug warmer. I can set my cup on the warmer, and my tea will stay warm until I finish it. This product sounds like a perfect solution to my problem, but I have no idea where to buy a mug warmer. So, I head to Google and type it into the search bar. Here’s what I see:

I find brands I’ve never heard of, varying products and price points, and even a story from “The New York Times” recommending specific warmers. If I scroll down past the ads, I also find smaller businesses that have written posts similar to the one from the “Times” and have links on their sites to buy those products.

That is content marketing’s role in brand awareness! It leads me from a Google search to content that makes me aware of new brands and helps me eliminate my pain point. My afternoon tea will be warm from here on out!

As a bonus, the money spent on content marketing (much less than those television ads featuring Ronald McDonald) will keep those brands showing up in search results potentially for years, driving traffic and leads to those companies’ websites while creating greater brand awareness.

Advice for Using Content Marketing to Build Brand AwarenessNow that you understand how content marketing can drive awareness, you want it to happen right now! That’s understandable. Once you have a tool that you know can make big things happen for your business, you want to use it. But here’s some advice before you dig in.

When using content marketing to build brand awareness: Know Your Audience. Understand your audience and their pain points. What are they likely to search for on Google? Be sure your content is anticipating their search intent. * Use Keywords. Once you know what your audience searches for that your brand helps with, build your keyword strategy around those specific searches. You want your site to pop up when they ask Google their questions. * Vary Your Content. Don’t focus on blog posts alone. You need product or service pages, emails, Google Business Profile, and a presence on social media. Post words, videos, graphics, photos, etc., to help people see, recognize, and consider your brand. * Show Up Regularly. You can’t post once and expect people to flock to your site. You have to show up regularly for your audience. That means having a strong website, posting on your blog at least twice a week, and posting and interacting daily on your social media channels. Use the content marketing methods you choose to best serve your audience regularly. * Be Patient.* This piece of advice may be the most challenging. You have to be patient. SEO content marketing done right will always work for your brand, but it won’t work overnight. You have to trust the process and celebrate the steady increase in awareness.

The Lesson to LearnBuilding brand awareness through content marketing takes a thoughtful approach but has lasting effects. Using content in these ways will attract more customers to your brand on social channels, your website, and even strategic partners who never heard of you before. Planning and executing a content marketing plan takes time, but the effort is always worth it.

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It’s getting harder to remember a time when the internet didn’t dominate the business landscape. In retail, entertainment, and many other industries, ecommerce and digital services have long surpassed their high-street counterparts.

So, how exactly has ecommerce changed the way we do business? And, in turn, how has that changed the way we market? First, let’s look at how ecommerce affected the balance of the economy. Then we can start to understand why marketing has had to adapt to new digital techniques.

What is eCommerce and How Has it Impacted the Economy?Since the early 2000s, the ecommerce market size has been growing rapidly. It only keeps accelerating, too. According to Insider Intelligence, US ecommerce sales are predicted to pass $1 trillion in 2022. Worldwide, they expect to see $5 trillion in ecommerce sales.

Image sourced from McKinsey

As more businesses had success selling their goods and services online, others naturally followed. We have also seen a change in consumer attitudes as the convenience of online purchases proved popular.

The fact that the global market size of ecommerce continues to grow reflects these changes. At the same time, advancements in logistics, distribution, and business technology continue to develop to support new ecommerce demands.

Moving Retail OnlineWhen we think of ecommerce, the first thing that comes to mind is online retail. Consumer giants like Amazon have made online shopping fast, safe, and convenient. But small businesses have also found greater success by moving to ecommerce models.

That’s in part due to the greater reach of online channels. Social media and other sources have offered an inexpensive way for SMEs to reach a much wider audience.

The Rise of On-Demand EntertainmentGrowth in mobile device use has grown alongside ecommerce and digital services. Instant access to entertainment on the go is something that modern consumers have come to expect.

This has led to the success of online subscription services in TV, gaming, and other entertainment. It also developed social marketing through sponsored, promoted, or monetized content on social video apps like TikTok or YouTube.

Small Business OpportunitiesE-commerce gives small businesses a chance to compete with the marketing reach of much larger businesses. Through smart social media campaigns, SEO optimization, and other digital marketing techniques, small businesses can cut through the noise in competitive markets.

Ecommerce TypesThere are four distinct types of ecommerce businesses. Each has its own style of marketing.

Image sourced from Digital Skill Blog

B2BBusinesses that sell directly to other businesses. These include SaaS companies like these providers of small business VoIP in Canada.

B2CBusinesses sell directly to the customer. This could include online retailers or subscription services like Netflix.

C2CCustomers selling to other customers. This includes the second-hand goods market and resellers operating through auction sites like eBay.

C2BCustomers selling to businesses. This one sounds counter-intuitive, but what we’re talking about here is contract service provision. This can include freelancers, product testers, and so on.

What is the Impact of Ecommerce on Marketing?Marketing is nothing if not adaptive. As ecommerce has emerged and evolved, marketing has gone through many changes. Starting from simple banner ads and email campaigns, digital marketing has come to mean so much more.

The Decline of Traditional MarketingAs digital e-commerce marketing has grown, traditional marketing methods have fallen out of favor. They haven’t gone away entirely, though, and some businesses still make good use of TV, direct mail, SMS & sales calls, and even the good old billboard.

New Marketing ChannelsThe decline in traditional methods was driven mainly by the growth of new online channels. These offer much higher reach at a relatively low cost. Social media sites, in particular, have allowed marketers to interact with their audience in new, more direct ways.

Customer Data & Efficient Targetting The most significant advancement in marketing from the rise of online culture is the use of customer data. This part of digital marketing is still advancing as new technologies like data analytics drive marketing insights.

Of course, customer feedback existed before the digital age. Yet, traditional marketing surveys had limited reach, and they could only tell you the customer’s direct opinion. Digital data is not only more accessible, but it also demonstrates customer behaviors.

In analyzing these behaviors, marketers have found the greatest advantages in demographic targeting and customer engagement.

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

10 Advantages of Ecommerce in MarketingWhy did ecommerce manage to overtake traditional retail and other markets? Well, there are some distinct advantages that ecommerce provides.

1. Availability of data
2. Omnichannel marketing
3. Less physical restrictions
4. 24/7 sales & support availability
5. Global reach
6. Digitization of products & media
7. Social & influencer marketing
8. AI and advanced BI (Business Intelligence) technology
9. Marketing on the go
10. Marketing automation

Whether it’s customer data at your fingertips, a global audience, or the ability to advertise straight to a customer’s mobile, ecommerce extends the reach of a business. That extends the reach of your marketing efforts, too. As your reach expands, your ability to target specific users or user groups increases as well.

Ecommerce Areas & Their Digital Marketing TechniquesDigital marketing and ecommerce are related, but they’re not the same. It’s more accurate to say that digital marketing evolved alongside ecommerce. Any business can use digital marketing, even if they only have a minimal online presence.

Website-Based Ecommerce MarketingServices like Shopify UAE have made it simple for even small businesses to establish an ecommerce presence. These and larger online retailers tend towards SEO optimization as their main driver of traffic.

SEO optimization is the process of making your site more visible in search engine rankings. It’s a cost-effective way to get your services in front of customers who are making either general or specific searches in your business area.

On-site marketing is still a popular digital marketing tactic. It works on two levels as well. You can source inbound traffic to your website’s landing page through ads and backlinks on other websites and provide the same service to others to generate additional revenue.

E-commerce businesses that are focused primarily on their website will also make on-site optimization a priority. Slow-loading websites are a major reason for high bounce rates in ecommerce. Your bounce rate increases by 32% as your page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds. That means it’s vital your marketing is backed up by good site performance.

Mobile Ecommerce & Mobile MarketingMobile apps and mobile browsing are other areas where digital marketing has had to adapt. Standalone mobile apps have led to the growth of personalized marketing via push notifications and in-app advertising.

Personalization is based on analyzing a user’s habits and tailoring ads and offers to their preferences. This is a powerful tool for increasing ecommerce sales. Studies have found that up to 76% of customers are more likely to purchase from brands that personalize.

Image sourced from McKinsey

More customers, especially in younger demographics, now choose to browse on mobile devices. That means that web-based e-commerce management has had to react to the shift as well. Mobile optimization is now as important to ecommerce software and sites as their desktop performance.

Digital marketing for these sites can also take advantage of the benefits that come with personalization. On-site ads and offers, email campaigns, and more can be personalized by leveraging your customer data.

Social Media Marketing Social media marketing is now used across all consumer-facing industries. Many B2B businesses maintain client links in part through social media networks like LinkedIn, too. There’s more to social media marketing than setting up a brand account and posting ads, though.

Social listening (or social monitoring) is a popular way for marketers to gauge how their business is perceived. This indirect form of collecting customer feedback can lead to insights into your brand awareness and drivers of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) in customers.

Influencer marketing, where brands work with online personalities, is also part of social media marketing. In most cases, brands target influencers with a highly relevant audience demographic or those with a wide reach (i.e., large follower counts).

Social media has proven popular as a channel for customer communication, too. Many customers now prefer to reach out to brands with queries over channels like Twitter and Facebook.

Customers expect quick responses, usually within 24 hours, when they reach out on social media. This means social media managers have become an important asset both for customer service and digital marketing purposes.

Free to use image sourced from Pixabay

Email Campaigns & Digital Marketing for Physical BusinessesSome businesses will never be able to do without a physical location. Even if this is you, you can still benefit from the advancements in digital marketing that have come with ecommerce.

As we mentioned above, more traditional digital avenues like email marketing can benefit from personalization. Digital services have also integrated older methods of communication that remain popular, like VoIP with SMS functions.

Final Thoughts: Ecommerce Has Changed Marketing For GoodEcommerce and the rise of technology in everyday life have changed marketing forever. That doesn’t mean that marketing’s role has diminished, though. If anything, marketing, and especially digital marketing, are more relevant than ever.

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Copywriters are a rare breed of freelancer. Not only do we have extensive knowledge of marketing but we geek out on the principles of human psychology, and have a flair for the written word in a way that allows us to sell in a cool and sophisticated way…

And because of that… we tend to sort of be good at… a lot of things? Or at least that’s what your clients probably think.

If you think about it, sometimes the actual role of a copywriter can get a little fuzzy at times. With clients expecting you to act as a copywriter one day, a content writer the next day, and a full-blown marketing strategist the day after that!

So the question is this: where do you draw the line?

As a copywriter, what jobs should you actually be doing?

Well, the great thing about being a freelance copywriter is that you can offer whatever you want… or don’t want to do!

When I started my business I often offered additional services above and beyond copywriting to get my foot in the door. Today, any clients who hire my agency get copy and consulting, that’s it.

So while your goal might be to get to a point where ALL you do is write words in documents and send them over to your clients, it’s entirely possible to expand your job scope to gain experience and build client relationships.

So in this article I’m going to be breaking down the common roles and responsibilities that a copywriter fulfills, BUT I’m also going to share the additional services that you can take on as a copywriter…

To not only better serve your clients, but to also put more of dat money in your pocket!

Hey Posse, it’s Alex! Coming at ya this week with another blog by request!

My DMs are typically full of messages from my community and I often get asked these TWO questions…

The first typically comes from people who haven’t taken the plunge into copywriting just yet, and are wondering what exactly it is that a copywriter does…

And the second comes from relatively new copywriters who are dealing with clients that expect them to be a jack-of-all-trades, and they’re wondering what exactly they should be doing…

So if you fall into one of those two categories… then leave me a comment up below, because this blog is for YOU.

And if you’re new to the crew – WELCOME! I put out a new marketing, copywriting, or mindset blog every single week. So leave your email below to get more articles like this one.

So if you’ve ever wondered what a copywriter actually DOES or what freelancing services you can offer clients as a beginner copywriter, here are 16 ways you can start making more money in your business.

Take out a pen and paper, and get ready to write down the ones you vibe with the most. And if you’re a business owner, looking to hire a copywriter – then I’m going to share you with my Copywriter Job Description—to make your search for a copywriter as easy (and seamless) as possible.
Ok I’ve broken these services down into 3 categories, and the first is, of course…

1. Copywriting ServicesOkay, so this first category is the list of services that actually fall under a copywriter’s job description (in my opinion). This is what savvy clients, who actually understand what you do, may expect you to do for them.

Now before you get too overwhelmed with the list I’m about to go over, please keep in mind that this is YOUR copywriting business. And you DO NOT have to offer all of these assets if you don’t want to.
Ads

This can include digital ads like the ones you see on Google, Facebook, and Instagram, video ads like you see right here on YouTube, or even printed ads that you might see in Newspapers and on Flyers.

The main purpose of digital ads, of course, is to get a CLICK. Now with ads (all forms of copywriting actually), it’s very important to remember that your headline, and the first few sentences of text, are the MOST IMPORTANT THING to get right.

Because in the age of ‘the scroll’ you simply have to master the art of crafting compelling hooks. All great ads grab attention with a powerful hook.

Email MarketingYep, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Emails sent to a list of subscribers with the sole purpose of marketing something – although great email campaigns should also add a lot of value and focus on building rapport with the list.

So depending on your client’s needs, they may ask you for different types of emails like autoresponders, an indoctrination sequence, sales emails, content emails, affiliate emails or re-engagement emails—as a copywriter you can add all of these to your list of services…

BUT as a copywriter, your job is to only WRITE these emails. You do not need to be the one to load these emails into your client’s email sending software unless you WANT TO. I have never offered this to a client because it’s tedious and technical and you never want to be the one that actually sends an email draft to the entire list.

Landing PagesIt’s like a sales page… but WAY shorter and used for the main purpose of lead generation. So if the #1 job of your ad is to convert eyeballs into clicks, the #1 job of a landing page is to convert more clicks into leads. You want to motivate & inspire a prospect to enter their information (typically first name and email) in exchange for a “Free High-Value Promise” or what is more commonly called a lead magnet.

Sales PagesAnd the BIG ONE. This is what I like to call your moneymaker… because not only is this the page that’s going to make your clients the most money and profit in their business…

But it’s the page that’ll get YOU paid the most money to write!

The copywriting magic needed to turn prospects into paying customers is where persuasion, psychology, and major writing swagger come into play.

In my opinion, ALL copywriters need to master this skill—it’s what sets us apart from other content writers.

Now if you’re a copywriter or business owner, looking to write a high-converting Sales Page that will get you paid, and keep clients and prospects coming back to you for more and more…. and more. Then make sure to check out my 5 Day Write & Ignite Challenge, where I teach you the exact proven sales page formula that I personally use in multi-million dollar launches.

Home Pages & Website CopyThis is what I refer to as branding copy or authority copy! While conversions are still important on your main homepage, your brand message is EVERYTHING. Your home page is the first thing that people see when visiting your website so you gotta make a great first impression! The goal of a Homepage is simple: to create trust, build authority, and offer next steps.

About PagesWith more and more audiences seeking out products, coaches, and businesses that share their same values, well-written About Pages are a great opportunity to share a brand’s story, vision, mission, philosophy, and what makes them different.

It’s your way of answering the question – yeah, but who are you… really?

As a copywriter, you can offer this a service to any client that doesn’t already have an About Page OR you can offer to revamp any About Pages that are dull and less than inspiring.

And – in case you were wondering – your job as the copywriter is to simply write these pages (same with landing pages, sales pages, and websites) and not actually BUILD them.

Promotional Videos & Video Sales LettersRemember what I’ve been saying over and over again to you guys?! VIDEO IS THE FUTURE!

In fact, 87% of video marketers say that video gives them a positive return on investment. So it’s safe to say that… yes. Video marketing is indeed where it’s at! Says the girl who spends HOURS making video content every week.

Promotional videos are used for the purpose of promoting a specific marketing initiative, event, or product. They are typically short, sweet, and to the point. The copy part of promo videos will include the video’s titles, subtitles, any copy that’s used as visual elements throughout the video, and of course the SCRIPT.

And it’s important to remember that although copy is only PART of what makes a great promo video, up to 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. So making sure that the copy you have in your video subtitles is essential in boosting your conversions.

Another type of video marketing that requires copywriting skills is VSLs – or video sales letters! Video sales letters are similar to written sales letters except they are written scripts, rather than a written page.

Again, your job as the copywriter is to simply WRITE the video scripts and ancillary copy – not actually produce the videos!

Product DescriptionsProduct descriptions refer to that short little blurb of text that describes what a product is, what it does, and WHY someone should buy it. It’s incredibly common in e-commerce stores where copy space for products is limited.

But a common mistake that I see made ALL of the time is a boring product description that just… describes the product. You know, all features and no benefits.

Great product descriptions need to go deeper than the boring left-brain need-to-know stuff.

You want customers to read your product description and think… Wow now that’s cool/interesting/unique/smart/funny! I gotta get it!

Alright that covers the bases of copywriting services. Now let’s move onto a different service package you can consider offering for your clients…

1. Content WritingAs a professional copywriter, you’ll find that A LOT of businesses will ask you to do some content writing for them as well…

And just like picking and choosing your copywriting services, you can and should use your own discretion on whether or not you will offer content writing for your clients as well.

While copywriting is the art of crafting words for the sole purpose of conversion… Content writing focuses more on engagement, education, and brand awareness.

And there are various forms of content writing that you can choose to include in your services, but I’m just going to cover the 5 big ones that will be most beneficial to your clients…

Social Media CaptionsSocial Media is a HUGE part of most brands and businesses’ marketing strategies these days, and if it’s not already, then it definitely should be.

Because Social Media is where the majority of the population is hanging out on a day-to-day basis.

Globally, over 3.6 billion people use social media… and that number is expected to increase to 4.4 billion by the year 2025.

And handling your client’s social media captions and content is a great way to get your foot in the door with a client that you really want to work with. Just remember that the main purpose of social media is to connect and engage with the audience… So you should always be providing value in the form of either education, entertainment, or inspiration.

Blog PostsI mean come on… everyone knows the power of blogging. Blogs are one of the best ways to get ranked in Google searches and optimize your SEO. But the thing is… most busy business owners just don’t have the time (or energy ) to pump out blog posts on a consistent basis.

And that’s where YOU can step up and offer your services. As a minimum, you could offer at least 1 blog post a week, and of course, go up from there!

NewslettersThese are the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly emails that get sent out to a list of subscribers. The purpose isn’t to sell or promote anything directly, but rather to build rapport, trust, and credibility. And most importantly, CREATE A SENSE OF COMMUNITY.

Because one thing is for certain in this day-and-age… customers don’t stick around with brands that they don’t feel connected to on some level. So if your clients don’t already send out consistent content-rich newsletters to their mailing list, then they are missing out on a huge opportunity to cultivate a loyal following – and BOOM – guess who can help them out with that?….

Content VideosContent videos are a MASSIVE way to build a loyal following and brand. I know because I grew my entire business with content videos!

And yes, like promotional videos, all content videos start out as a script or, at the very least, a loose outline! Because even though they are personal and conversational, you still want to make sure your content videos are informative and valuable and follow a framework!

Not to mention the need to craft compelling headlines and convince viewers to watch, like, and subscribe.
So as a copywriter, you can absolutely offer content video scripts to your list of services!

SEOAka search engine optimization. Essentially, SEO is focused on improving the visibility of your website by getting it to rank higher in search engines.

Now, this is something that I get asked ALL of the time… Alex, do I NEED to know SEO as a conversion copywriter?

And the answer is no…

I mean I straight-up tell my clients that I’m not an expert in SEO. I literally know nothing about it except the general basics of how it works. And it’s not something that interests me enough to study and become a master at.

So I always recommend that my clients work with an SEO specialist if they are looking to optimize their websites in that way.

But, but BUT… that doesn’t mean you can’t add SEO to your list of services if you know what you’re doing!

SEO copywriting is common in particular industries and niches so do your research and find out if it’s something you WANT to consider mastering.

I mean, killer SEO strategies with high-converting copy sounds like a winning combination if you ask me.

So if you want to take things one step further and add SEO onto your list of services that you offer to clients, you definitely can.

But you’ll want to make sure that you know more than “just the basics” if you’re calling yourself an SEO specialist.

The good news is, the best SEO secret in the world is to write copy and content that is valuable, creates authority, and gets people to stay and engage with your page or website – which as a copywriter you’ll already know how to do. Alright, now the 3rd category of services you could offer is…

1. Marketing SupportIf you REALLY want to beef up your packages (and the money you have coming in), you may want to consider offering marketing services to your clients as well.

Offering additional marketing support can make you invaluable to your clients because they’re basically getting a unicorn – someone who can write, strategize and implement.

Of course, there’s a whole slew of services that you could offer under this category… but let’s just cover the basic 3 that most copywriters could easily transition into offering.

Community ManagementA major part of writing in business comes down to communicating with followers, subscribers, and customers via email, membership sites and social media. Customer support was the first role I had at Mindvalley so if you’re looking to get your foot in the door with a brand you’d LOVE to write copy for, why not offer community management as a service to showcase your writing ability?

Funnel-BuildingIf you have a more technical flair and you’re familiar with online tools like GrooveFunnels, ClickFunnels, Kajabi, or others, you can add funnel-building to your list of services! This is essentially CREATING the pages and sales funnels you are writing. This can be a highly valuable service that will save your clients from having to hire someone else OR spend hours doing it themselves.

Marketing ConsultingThis is something you might start to offer after you’ve been in the game for a while, and have developed a pretty solid understanding of the world of marketing.

A marketing consultant is an advisor and strategies who works with companies to create and design marketing campaigns.

As a marketing consultant, you could help to create detailed marketing plans, determine a business’s marketing message, and identify the right marketing mix to most effectively get your client’s message out to the masses.

Remember, as a copywriter, you really are the best of both worlds… word nerd meets marketing master.

So pick and choose the services that resonate the most with you.

And never forget the value you bring to the table.

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With more people using ad-blocking software to shut out unsolicited ads, the future looks bleak for marketers. But content marketing is the silver lining. And there are many reasons why the future is bright.

Traditional marketing relies on outbound systems. It’s about reaching out to consumers to interest them in your product. This approach subjects consumers to marketing messages they don’t want.

Content marketing is inbound. It’s about creating and sharing content that helps consumers achieve their goals without asking for anything in return. Who can say no to free help?

Consumers can now research their challenges online, increasing content’s value. When you share information that helps consumers live better, they will keep coming back for more. And when they need a product or service you deal in, they’ll naturally choose you over your competitors.

What’s the Purpose of Content Marketing?The purpose of content marketing depends on the brand and where the consumer is in their customer journey. Here are some of the things content marketing does.

Gives Consumers Information They NeedThe right content can help clarify a consumer’s thoughts so that they can make an informed decision. Regardless of the content type, the goal should be to feed your audience the information they need to get out of a jam or crush a milestone. Do this long enough, and your audience will see your brand as a source of truth.

Creates Brand AwarenessContent marketing increases your reach. Consistently sharing your knowledge and resources will improve awareness of your brand.

Some consumers of your content will share your posts with their family and friends. Some will share them on their social media channels and in their communities.

Brand awareness is your first step toward converting prospects because nobody buys from a brand they don’t know.

Generates Interest in Your Brand and ProductsMany entrepreneurs expect the world to jump at their businesses when they launch. But your business won’t get traction if you don’t work to generate interest around it. Content marketing gives you the power to do that.

While sharing content that makes life better for your audience, find natural opportunities to show how your products or services will help them achieve their goals.

Inspires Audience EngagementOnce you start sharing valuable content on your blog, social media, or newsletter, responses will follow. While not everyone will agree with what you post, sharing your knowledge will engage your audience, which keeps your brand top of mind.

Increases SalesOnce your content marketing strategy and execution are effective, it’s only a matter of time before the attention you’re garnering starts translating into sales. The more people know and engage with your brand, the more value they’ll attach to your content, and the more likely they’ll be to buy from you.

Why is Content Marketing So Important?Content marketing is vital to brands for various reasons, depending on your business’s needs and how you choose to use content. Here are some of the reasons content marketing is important for brands.

Customers Want ItConsumers are no longer satisfied with just sales-specific information. Traditional marketing gives the customers just enough information to get them to buy a product or service. Content marketing gives consumers the information they need to choose who to buy from and why. Customers want information that helps them make informed purchases.

Builds Trust and LoyaltyYou don’t earn customer trust and loyalty by telling them how trustworthy you are. You need to show it with content that demonstrates your brand authority, trustworthiness, and subject-matter expertise. High-impact content takes customers from where they are to where they want to be. It informs, educates, and entertains them.

Creates Brand AwarenessYour prospective customers need to know your business exists for you to have a fighting chance at conversion. Content marketing is your chance to do that in a non-invasive way. Your brand personality and values will naturally shine through when you create content on topics relevant to your customers. That will give you more publicity.

Tells You About Your AudienceContent marketing sets you up to know more about your audience in new ways. First, you’d want to understand what, where, when, and how they consume information. Then, while sharing content, you’ll be able to know what your audience likes to read, listen to, or watch by analyzing your readership data. This information will help you understand their interests and empower you to improve your product.

Drives Traffic to Your Site Through SEOOptimizing your blog content allows search engines (like Google) to find and serve your content to your audience. This aids search visibility.

A HubSpot survey found that businesses with SEO-optimized blog content get 55% more visitors, making their marketing team leaders 13 times more likely to achieve a good ROI.

Generates High-Intent LeadsContent serves up leads that are more likely to become paying customers. They don’t struggle to understand how your brand, its products, and its values fit into their lives. They already know because they’ve consumed your content. And content marketing enables you to write SEO-optimized bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content that targets people ready to buy a product or service.

Affordable for Small BusinessesContent marketing is cheaper than paid ads. You can also get significant results even if you start small. Unlike paid advertising, which depends on how much money you can throw into it, content marketing levels the playing field.

Why is Content Marketing the Only Form of Marketing Left?Today’s consumers are much more focused on themselves and what’s good and valuable to them. That’s why interruption tactics no longer work. The focus on information when, where, and how the customer wants it is just one reason content marketing is the only form of marketing left. There are some other reasons too.

Most Consumers Use Mobile DevicesConsumers call the shots, so the best marketing efforts must meet them where they are.

One in every five people spends more than 4.5 hours daily on their phones. Add that to their sleep and work hours, and you’ll see why people don’t have time for TV or other traditional media.

When people are on their phones, they aren’t looking to be marketed to. They’re looking for valuable content that helps them navigate their daily challenges.

Consumers Search and Shop OnlineWith the rise of digital media, consumers shop more online than ever before. They research the products they want to buy from the comfort of their homes. They avoid the stress of travel and people associated with brick-and-mortar stores and can make purchasing choices as they research every step.

Your Search Visibility and Traffic Depend on ContentHelpful content gets search engines to notice and present your website content to people looking for the products or services you provide. Be sure to balance the creative with the scientific. You need high-quality content to give your readers a good user experience. But you also need to optimize your content for search engines to serve it to those looking for it.

Millennials Are Tech-ReliantMillennials (consumers born between 1981 and 1996) are the largest demographic, and they make most of their purchases online. These factors make it easy for content marketers to get their attention since content marketing relies on technology.

Trust is Increasingly ImportantConsumers are overwhelmed with marketing messages. Your brand needs to stand out with content that earns their trust quickly. Because when it comes down to it, only brand trust and authority will separate your claims from those of a random brand. It will give your prospects a solid idea of what your product does and how it works, which will reduce their doubts.

Legacy Media are Becoming ObsoleteThe rise of digital content has crippled traditional media. Audiences now prefer the convenience of consuming digital content over traditional media. And because attention is the currency in marketing, the money will go wherever the audience goes.

What are the Best Content Marketing Methods?There are various content marketing methods, so the mix you use is up to you. It’s all about what works best for your brand and audience. But some methods seem important for every business to use on some level.

Content marketing methods that benefit most businesses are: Websites. Websites are ideal for sharing information that helps your audience while informing them about your product or service and letting you buy directly from the site. Your website is part of your owned media, and the audience you build there is yours for as long as you want. As a distribution channel, websites can host all types of content — text, images, audio, and video, allowing you to share content that appeals to more people. * SEO-Optimized Blogs. Your potential and existing customers are looking for answers to their questions, and search engines have become their trusted sources of information. Consumers run 8.5 billion searches on Google alone every day. You will attract customers with SEO-optimized content. * Lead Magnets. Lead magnets are free resources potential customers can get in exchange for their contact information. Marketers use them to lure prospective customers into their email lists, where they can then nurture them into customers. Your lead magnet could be a tutorial, e-book, workbook, or industry report. In any case, be sure your lead magnet is specific, promises your audience a quick win, and solves a real problem for them. * Email.* If you follow the “email is dead” bandwagon, you’ll miss out on the chance to earn $36 from every $1 you spend. Email is as alive as it gets. This content marketing method is particularly effective for lead nurturing. That’s because it allows you to send personalized emails directly to your audience’s inbox. This approach allows you to address their specific pain points and aspirations.

ConclusionContent marketing results ultimately depend on your strategy, budget, and nature of business. But you can never go wrong with content marketing investments. Regardless of your industry, your existing and potential customers have loads of questions and challenges they need answers to on an ongoing basis. If your content can help them, they’ll grow to trust you, buy from you, and become loyal to your brand.

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Digital marketing specialists are in high demand, making 2023 the year to kickstart your digital marketing career. According to LinkedIn, five out of ten jobs posted on the platform are in the digital space.
But, whether you’re a seasoned digital marketer or at the beginning of your career, you’ll need to showcase the following five critical digital marketing skills on your resume to secure a job in 2023.

1. Digital analysisDigital analysis involves tracking and measuring the performance of a digital marketing campaign by leveraging data. It’s the only way you can tell which marketing strategies are working and which ones you need to course-correct.

There are numerous different digital analytics tools out there to help you perform such analyses and optimize your digital marketing strategy. In 2023, you should have a working knowledge of top analytical tools such as:

• Google Analytics
• Hotjar
• Adobe Analytics
• Clicky
• Hootsuite

Digital analysis is key to making informed, strategic marketing decisions, so list these tools in your skills section when you make your resume to ensure that hiring managers immediately see that you fulfill the basic requirements of the role.

1. Graphic designGraphic design skills like creating infographics, animations, and visuals empower you to present content in different engaging formats. Graphic design gives you an additional creative channel to incorporate more visual content in your marketing campaigns. It’s why over 50% of digital marketers say that visual content is very important to their marketing strategies.

And with more companies looking to integrate visuals into their online marketing campaigns, having basic graphic design skills increases your competitiveness on the job market.

Graphic design skills also come in handy when designing social media presentations to pitch to new clients or to present to an audience at a conference.

Use platforms like Canva, Domestika, or Udemy to brush up on your design skills.

1. Strategic planningGiven the dynamic and fast-paced nature of online marketing, you must first lay out a strategy before initiating a campaign. Any successful digital marketing campaign is grounded by a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy, and strategic planning involves:

2. Setting and defining SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) goals

3. Audience research
4. Reviewing past and current campaigns
5. Integrating data into your approach

If you’re an experienced digital marketer, use your resume’s experience section to provide employers with examples of fruitful digital marketing campaigns you’ve completed in the past. Make sure to emphasize how strategic planning contributed to their success.

Or, if you’re new to the field, give examples of times when you applied your strategic planning skills in previous positions to achieve positive results. Look at digital marketing cover letter templates online to get a better idea of how to frame your experience in a way that appeals to hiring managers. And, to further strengthen your resume, quantify your achievements by using hard numbers and percentages.

1. Customer relationship management (CRM)CRM software helps companies manage all customer interactions across the entire customer lifecycle on one platform. As a digital marketer, CRM software is useful when you look for ways to improve your marketing campaigns because these tools make it easy to identify, categorize, and engage new leads from your website.

Additionally, CRM software enables you to optimize customer data in your possession to personalize your marketing campaigns. Overall, CRM software boosts your digital marketing ROI significantly by enhancing your lead-generation efforts and supporting personalized marketing.

Some of the CRM solutions you should be familiar with in 2023 include:

• HubSpot CRM
• Monday sales CRM
• Pipedrive
• EngageBay

• ActiveCampaign CRM

• Social media advertisingSocial media advertising is capitalizing on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to promote brands and their products. This particular type of marketing is growing in popularity each day as social media plays an increasingly central role in our daily lives and transforms the way customers interact with businesses.

Because of this, companies are looking to boost their social media presence and attract social traffic, and that’s where social media marketers come in. Employers need marketers who can design and execute effective social media lead-generation strategies.

Show that you’re able to meet companies’ needs by demonstrating that you’re on top of the latest social media trends and understand how to target different audiences across multiple different platforms.

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Have you ever run a customer survey only to be disappointed by the results?

And it wasn’t because the feedback told you something about your brand you didn’t want to hear… but rather, because it didn’t tell you anything at all?

Your hope for the survey was to gain insight on customer behavior. Insight you could use to improve your marketing.

Instead, you feel like the survey was a waste of time.

But here’s the deal—if you’re not listening to your customers, then you’re missing a big opportunity to grow.

Surveys are easy, inexpensive and allow you to capture a goldmine of customer data… if you know how to do them right. Otherwise, they will be a waste of time for you and your customers.

But that’s not an outcome you need to worry about. Because going forward, your surveys will no longer suffer from these 3 mistakes…

Survey Mistake #1: You Haven’t Established a Specific Goal for Your SurveyDon’t just do a survey for the sake of doing a survey. Make sure you assign it a clearly defined purpose.

Messaging strategist Jennifer Havice says “There are countless questions you could ask your prospects and customers. However, the best way to narrow your options is to know your end goal.”

To narrow your questions, ask yourself: What is it you want to learn from your customers?

• Do you want to create a stronger customer persona?
• Are you looking for messaging ideas based on your customers’ real language?
• Do you need to better understand the customer journey?
• Are you considering changing your offer and you want customer input?
• Do you need to understand what obstacles are stopping purchases?
• Would you like to know how your customers feel about your brand?

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No matter the goal for your survey, it’s important that you define a single purpose for it.

If you don’t, your survey efforts will turn into pointless busywork, because you won’t know how to act upon the insight you gain.

So it’s your overall question—the thing you want to find out from your customers—that determines your specific survey questions.

When it comes to choosing those questions, don’t think they all have to be multiple choice. Surveys are an ideal method for capturing both quantitative and qualitative feedback.

In fact, you may want to design a survey that only contains open-ended qualitative questions. Because it’s these responses that give you the deepest, richest insights into what’s going on inside your customers’ heads.

Survey Mistake #2: You Don’t Make Time to Dig Into Lengthy ResponsesMake time.

Or don’t. At your (business’s) peril.

It’s the long-form responses that’ll give you valuable details about your customers that guesswork never will.

Rest assured not every response is going to be essay-length. But with time, you’ll start celebrating the ones that are. Because they tend to be the ones packed with compelling stories and unique language that can go directly into your marketing and help boost conversions.

But know that combing through those long responses will be a waste of time if you don’t actually analyze them then act upon them.

What are you analyzing the responses for?

Other than unique language, you’re also looking for common trends and patterns.

For example, imagine several customers mention in their survey responses that they could’ve benefited from a follow-up consultation. Then it’s time to consider adding one to your offer.

Or maybe a few people imply that when they realized you had a corporate background, it boosted their confidence in you. Time to give this feature more weight in your messaging.

Recently, I wrote a new tagline for a client that incorporated a word she was tired of, but it kept showing up in the responses of a survey she had run. I felt strongly it was worth using this word, because it would resonate with her prospects since it was language they were already using.

Overall, the patterns and themes you spot in your surveys can give you a good idea of what will attract more customers and increase customer satisfaction.

And taking the time to figure that out will always be time well spent.

Survey Mistake #3: Your Survey is Boring to Your CustomersIf your survey is long, boring, and soulless, your customers won’t bother with your survey. Because they won’t care about it.

It’s your job to make them care.

You do that by making the survey about them and not you.

Because people love to talk about themselves. Research has shown that when people get this opportunity, it triggers the same pleasure sensations in the brain as sex or food.

But, you might be thinking, how will I find out anything useful for my business if my customers’ responses are all about them?

Don’t worry. Your customers are going to give you plenty of insight that will have pay-offs for your business.

It may seem counterintuitive, but you won’t get a rich response to a general question like “How has [product/service] improved your life?”

Alan Klement, product, growth, and go-to-market specialist, explains that questions like these become “very abstract to the customer because they are trying to average together all their experiences in order to give an answer.” Klement goes on to say that the answers you get back from these questions will be average as well.

Instead, ask questions that invite emotional responses, while staying centered on your customer’s experience:

• How did it make you feel when [specific problem/pain occurred]?
• Can you describe the moment that you realized you needed [a solution to solve for X]?
• If there were other people you talked to about your decision to buy [X], what did you say to them?

You might think you need to ask a lot of questions to get useful data.

Not so.

Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers, captures high-quality customer data with a one-question survey:

“What was going on in your life that brought you to [buy / download/book/choose] [product/service] today?”

The long-form responses to this question will let you in on why your customers chose you (and not your competitors) and what they’re trying to achieve.

That’s right. Just one question and all that priceless insight.

But there’s certainly nothing stopping you from adding another question or two…

You Have Nothing to Lose with Surveys. Done Right.If you want to grow your revenue, you gotta do customer research. Surveys are a great option.

They’re easy. They make sense for any business at any stage of growth. And they’ll be worth your time… now that you know how to avoid the above 3 mistakes.

Start listening to your customers through surveys. See what a difference it makes.

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FACTS: People buy from people – not businesses.You’ve likely heard that phrase at some point in time but aren’t sure how to connect the dots. You may be telling yourself, “Of course, people buy from people…but, aren’t they really buying from a business?”

Technically, yes.

And…they buy because the person they’re buying from is someone they’ve grown to know, like and trust.

Did you know…74% of all Americans say they are more likely to trust someone who has an established personal brand.

63% of Americans are more likely to buy from you if you have an established personal brand…and this goes for business owners and those in corporate leadership positions. (Brand Builders National Research Study, 2020)

When you combine messaging infused with your personality along with the exact strategies to help you communicate your brand to the people who want to buy from you … this is where the real magic happens.

So, how do you start to understand your unique communication style? I use a tool called DiSC…and it’s a game changer.

I first used DiSC almost 20 years ago at a leadership event. I’ll never forget the feeling of, “Dang…I sure wish someone would’ve told me about this sooner.”

I learned that even though my dominant, get-it-done demeanor was highly productive, I was pissing off those around me because I was tough, decisive and not much of a collaborator.

After that DiSC session, I made some radical changes with how I managed my work, especially with my team. I learned to listen more. I learned the power of collaboration was so much more powerful than working in a silo…and it was fun too.

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123…18Next PageDiSC® is a personal assessment tool that helps improve communication, teamwork, and productivity. As a business owner, DiSC is critical for raising self-awareness and developing strong sales skills.

The more effective you are at examining the way you communicate and how that communication lands with your potential clients, the more cash you’ll see in the bank.

We all buy services and products based on emotional reasons. You buy because the brand makes you feel good about yourself…or you hire a service provider because you only want the best.

What if you could message to your perfect client in a way that would have that person begging to work with you because they felt so emotionally connected to you that it didn’t matter what the price tag was…they were ALL in. Would you do it?

You can spend thousands of dollars marketing your business, but if your message isn’t clearly connecting at a deep emotional level with your perfect client, those marketing dollars are wasted.

When you message to your perfect client, your messaging needs to be focused on them – not you. It’s natural to communicate to others based on how you want people to communicate to you.

However, let me push you to think about communication from this lens:

• How does your perfect client want to be communicated to?
• Do they need bullet points or a 25-page long PDF description?
• Do they like to talk about their personal life or keep it strictly business?

I’m not advocating you change who you are with your messaging. But, I highly recommend that if you’re a tell-it-how-it-is type like I was 20 years ago, you may need to consider how that communication style lands with your perfect client and maybe soften it up a bit.

What is the DiSC?The DiSC is an acronym that stands for the four main personality profiles described in the DiSC model:

• (D)ominance,
• (i)nfluence
• (S)teadiness and
• (C)onscientiousness.

People with D personalities tend to be confident and place an emphasis on accomplishing bottom-line results.
People with i personalities tend to be more open and place an emphasis on relationships and influencing or persuading others.
People with S personalities tend to be dependable and place the emphasis on cooperation and sincerity.
People with C personalities tend to place the emphasis on quality, accuracy, expertise, and competency.

The best thing about DiSC is that not only will you learn so much about yourself, but you’ll learn how your type best communicates with other personality types too.

If you want to have the edge over everyone else in your industry, then you have got to really understand your unique communication style and how to utilize that in order to attract more clients and set yourself apart.

The post How to Communicate Like a Boss … Based on Your Personality Type appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Social media marketing is one of the most important aspects of any online marketing strategy. It allows businesses to connect with current and potential customers in a way that wasn’t possible before.

With more and more social media platforms popping up regularly, there are many ways that a brand can connect with its audience through social media.

But, like any other marketing strategy, tracking your social media marketing campaigns and the associated ROI is much needed to determine their effectiveness.

In this guide, we will look at 15 social media marketing metrics you need to track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Why Metrics Are Important To Optimize Social Media CampaignsSocial media allows businesses to share content with a broad audience and build a connection with existing (and potential) customers. This content may range from blog posts to images to videos and beyond.

And by sharing this content, businesses will help their customers learn more about them, what they stand for, and what they have to offer.

Creating a rich and engaging social media presence helps amplify your brand in a way that other digital marketing campaigns, such as paid search, could never provide.

But it’s not easy.

There are many objectives of social media marketing. Still, some of the most important ones include increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to websites or landing pages, and increasing leads or sales. This can be done using organic social media or paid campaigns.

Beyond the noticeable budgetary differences, the main difference between organic and paid social media is that organic social media relies on the platform and the audience to amplify the content.

Of course, every brand wants its posts to go viral–in a good way. However, according to SocialInsider, organic reach continues to decline on some of the most popular platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.

On the other hand, paid social media involves paying for ads to be placed in front of a specific audience. Although a cost is involved, it provides much more control over who and how many people see your posts or ads.

Like PPC vs. SEO, both paid and organic social media have advantages and disadvantages.

Organic social media marketing is less expensive, but it may be difficult to reach a large audience without paid promotions. In contrast, paid social media marketing allows you to target a specific audience with your ads, which often results in a higher conversion rate. However, it may be costly to maintain a paid social media campaign for the long haul, especially with multiple products to support.

Overall, the best approach is possibly a combination of organic and paid social media marketing. This will allow you to reach the largest audience possible while still targeting the right people with your ads.

However, publishing a few ads and building a social following is not enough to drive social success. To drive home your message, you need to understand more about who is seeing, engaging with, and clicking on your social content.

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But, regardless of whether you’re using organic, paid social media, or both, it’s crucial to track your metrics to optimize your campaigns and ensure they are successful. This information is beneficial for businesses to optimize their social media campaigns for even greater success.

But before we get into the specific social media metrics you should be tracking, let’s look at why tracking social media analytics is vital for optimizing your campaigns.

Tracking social media marketing metrics allows you to:

• Identify what content and strategies are performing well
• Make improvements to underperforming content and strategies
• Evaluate the overall success of your social media marketing efforts
• Justify the investment in social media marketing to stakeholders

Top 15 Social Media Metrics That MatterNow that we understand the importance of tracking social media metrics, let’s dive into the 15 key metrics you should be monitoring, broken down by the customer lifecycle stage.

Awareness MetricsAwareness metrics are important because they help businesses track how well they achieve their goal of increasing brand awareness.

By tracking how many people see their posts and how much reach they get, businesses will see whether their social media marketing campaigns are even getting in front of their intended audience. After all, if people don’t see the ad, they have no way to engage with it.

Social media awareness metrics typically include:

• Reach: The number of unique users who saw your content
• Impressions: The number of times your content was displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked on or not
• Social media mentions: The number of times your brand was mentioned on social media
• Follower Growth Rate: The increase in the size of your social media following

These metrics give you insights into the visibility and reach of your content.

Consideration MetricsConsideration metrics are important because they help businesses track how well they achieve their goal of getting people to consider their product or service. This block of metrics takes the user one step further down the purchase journey and helps determine if what you share resonates with them.

By tracking how many people are clicking on their links, watching their videos, or reading their blog posts, businesses are in a better position to decipher whether their social media marketing campaigns are effective or not.

Social media consideration metrics typically include:

• Engagement: The number of interactions with your content, including likes, comments, shares, and clicks
• Engagement Per Follower: Breaking down the metric above by the followers of that particular channel. This will help show how engaged your following is.
• Website traffic from social media: This metric measures how much website traffic is driven to your site through social media channels.
• Click-through Rate (CTR): This measures the number of clicks a link in your social media content receives, divided by the number of impressions it receives.

These metrics show how well your audience connects with and considers your content.

Conversion MetricsConversion metrics help businesses monitor how well they achieve their goal of converting leads into customers. By keeping an eye on the number of prospects or customers generated from social media, it’s easier to figure out whether social media marketing campaigns are attracting the right audience.

Social media conversion metrics typically include:

• Social media leads: The number of leads generated through social media channels.
• Social media sales: The number of purchases that are attributed to social media channels
• Goal Value: A monetary value assigned to each goal, which could include an estimated value per new lead or the revenue generated from an online transaction
• Return on investment (ROI): This metric measures the overall return on investment for your social media marketing efforts, taking into account all other metrics and their impact on sales and revenue.

These metrics demonstrate the impact of your social media efforts on achieving business goals.

Advocacy MetricsAdvocacy metrics are essential because they help businesses see how successful they have been in getting customers to become advocates for their products or service.

A social media report template helps monitor the following business metrics:

• The number of followers a business has,
• The number of shares a post has, and
• The amount of positive sentiment a post has received.

Tracking this data is essential for companies to understand whether their social media marketing campaigns effectively turn customers into loyal advocates for the brand.

Social media advocacy metrics typically include:

• Reviews: Social proof is still an essential part of any sales process, so the number of reviews (both positive and negative) on social platforms is worth tracking
• Customer satisfaction: The level of satisfaction expressed by customers on social media, such as adding reinforcing comments to posts
• Brand sentiment: The overall perception and sentiment towards your brand on social media

These metrics (although harder to measure) showcase how well your social media presence fosters brand loyalty and advocacy.

Summary & Key TakeawaysThe 15 social media marketing metrics listed in this guide are crucial for businesses to measure the success of their social media marketing campaigns.

By tracking awareness, consideration, conversion, and advocacy metrics, businesses are more informed to understand what’s working well and what needs improvement or tweaks.

Additionally, connecting the dots between social media performance and the resulting web traffic, leads, and sales help businesses correlate social media marketing efforts with their bottom line.

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Have you been looking for ways to breathe a new life into your marketing strategy? Have you been desperately trying to get your marketing strategy to deliver better results? Here’s what you need to do: Get help from your whole company. Why involve non-marketing employees into your marketing activities? Depending on how this marketing collaboration […]

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Press Badges get you access to a lot of things if you can get your hands on one. Jeff J Hunter has an arsenal of reasons why YOU deserve a press badge and how to ask for one like a pro!

The post The Simplicity of a Press Badge with Jeff J Hunter [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Personal branding isn't just for celebrities or rockstar entrepreneurs. Let me show you how it’s great for anyone who wants to grow their business.

The post 3 Benefits of Building and Using a Personal Brand to Grow Your Business appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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We have put so much work in behind the screens that we forget how well face to face marketing really works.

The post Offline Digital Marketing with Jeff J Hunter [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The best way of becoming a thought leader in your industry is to get noticed by other industry leading brands.

The post Build a Real Difference By Building Relationships with Lechon Kirb [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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If you do not comply with machine learning, you will lose. It’s added in an entire layer of decision making that we don’t even see.

The post Why & How Machine Learning Took Over Paid Advertising appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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When someone asks you what you do, take the opportunity to market yourself. Make it short, sweet, and SPECIFIC.

The post How to Use the Customer Value Journey for SEO with Atiba de Souza [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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When someone asks you what you do, take the opportunity to market yourself. Make it short, sweet, and SPECIFIC.

The post One Liner Pitch with Trisha Leconte [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Building strategic partnerships with non-competing companies gives you a chance to cross-pollinate your audiences with similar companies!

The post Help Build Your Brand with Strategic Partnerships with Jeff J Hunter [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Community can decrease costs and increase revenue through higher retention, brand awareness, brand loyalty, ticket deflection, content development, and member advocacy. 

The post Million-Dollar Funnels Aren’t Made With Ads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Community can decrease costs and increase revenue through higher retention, brand awareness, brand loyalty, ticket deflection, content development, and member advocacy. 

The post Community Building for Retention, Awareness, Loyalty, Content, & Member Advocacy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Videos don’t need to be professionally produced to get attention. In just a few minutes you could reach hundreds of new customers with video!

The post 6 Ways to Dominate Your Market by Merging SMS and Email Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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In Profit First, Mike throws out antiquated general accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to make room for a concept that has delivered literally tens of thousands of business owners from entrepreneurial poverty.

The post Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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You can have the most incredible ad campaign set-up, but if the funnel you’re sending traffic to doesn’t convert, it doesn’t matter how great your campaign is - you simply won’t see the results you desire.

The post 7 Ways To Improve The Conversion Rate Of Your Funnel appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Finding a good writer for your content is so important, not everyone’s styles will match your brand voice, not everyone has the same skill set, not everyone is what you’re looking for!

The post MadLib Your Content with Christina Hooper [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Since the TikTok audience feeds on trends, how can you stay up to date on Tiktok trends so that you do not miss out on any opportunity? 

The post Over Produced is Out, Personal and Authentic is in appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Content marketing is vital in developing your audience's “know, like and trust” factor. It can overcome objections before they happen, increase the perceived value of your offers, and increase customer lifetime.

The post 2-Hour-Per-Month Content Marketing Framework appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Finding a good writer for your content is so important, not everyone’s styles will match your brand voice, not everyone has the same skill set, not everyone is what you’re looking for!

The post Hiring the Perfect Content Writer with Julia McCoy [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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What is your agency worth?

“There’s a lot of things you can do to improve the valuation and provide the evidence that the number that you want is the number you should get!”

The post How to Sell Your Business with Kurian Tharakan [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Want to know why Shopify should be your number one choice for your eCommerce business? We have three of the top reasons to choose Shopify from the Head Coach of Merchant Mastery, Simon Trafford!

The post 3 Reasons to Choose Shopify for Ecommerce with Simon Trafford [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Kurian Tharakan is a best selling author, as well as the Founder and Managing Director of strategic marketing firm StrategyPeak Sales and Marketing Advisors, and is responsible for the creation of marketing strategy and execution for a wide array of clients and situations.

The post Certified Partner Interview – Kurian Tharakan of Strategy Peak [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The number one reason you should consider our Certified Partner Program is the community. Certified Partners are a community (not a competition) that support one another and leverage the skills of each other to grow their businesses.

The post Joining the DigitalMarketer Community with Garrett D’entremont [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Atiba de Souza is CEO of Client Attraction Pros, a video first content marketing agency, and DigitalMarketer Certified Partner!

The post Certified Partner Interview – Atiba de Souza of Client Attraction Pros [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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We want to help you take your tiny eCommerce store to a MASSIVE conglomerate! Here are three email automations you can set up to make your customers need more from you!

The post Email Automations for Ecommerce Success with Simon Trafford [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Uzair Kharawala runs SF Digital Studios alongwith his wife Farzana, and is also a DigitalMarketer Certified Partner. He is one of the very few professionals who is both a Google Partner & YouTube Certified.

The post Certified Partner Interview – Uzair Kharawala of SF Digital Studios [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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You can do a lot of things right, but as soon as ONE thing is off all you can see is exponential negativity! You want people to land on your site and have immediate trust!

The post Making Your Website Look Expensive with Simon Trafford [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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So you want to advertise, but you’re not sure which of these two mega social media platforms is “best” for your business.

The post The 4 Biggest Differences Between Facebook & Instagram Ads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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It's IMPERATIVE that you have great photos, because great photos sell your product and start conversations with your customers!

The post Hidden Secret For Product Photography with Lauren Petrullo [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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There’s only really 3 KPI’s that matter, and if you can master these you are well on your way to building a profitable eCommerce business!

The post 3 eCommerce KPI’s to Master with Scott Cunningham [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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One of the core concepts we teach in this certification is mastering your customer avatar canvas! You need to build a profile of your perfect customer segment, and identify everything that they have in common!

The post Who is “Lake Dad Daryl?” Customer Avatar Canvas with Scott Cunningham [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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STOP NEGLECTING YOUR COLLECTION PAGES! We have seen the impact of optimizing and maximizing your collection pages.

The post Ecommerce Collection Pages: The Intersection of Content and Product with Lauren Petrullo [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Social media is a great way to generate traffic and brand awareness but it is not so easy for instant conversions or lead generation.

The post How to Drive More Traffic and Conversions from Social Media appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Instagram is especially great for small businesses that want to increase their customer base without spending much money on advertising.

The post Strategizing Your Instagram Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Music branding can promote an association with certain values, as often seen in political campaign advertising.

The post Choosing Music for your Brand appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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You can tell that Facebook has its sights set on Amazon, and the impact that it will have to social commerce is MASSIVE.

The post Everyone THINKS It’s Apple Versus Facebook, But They’re Wrong! with Lauren Petrullo [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The eCommerce Tree of Life is one of the core concepts that we use to plan how we build a sustainable, scalable store.

The post The Ecommerce Tree of Life with Scott Cunningham [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Videos don’t need to be professionally produced to get attention. In just a few minutes you could reach hundreds of new customers with video!

The post Why Your Small Business Should Be Doing Video Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Find the best candidates to grow your marketing agency with the "experiential hiring process." Watch now, save oodles of time interviewing later!

The post 3 Tips for Hiring Team Members for Your Marketing Agency with Jeff Hunter [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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From tiny shop to mega mart. Learn how ecommerce brands earn cash like clockwork with these 3 key email flows.

The post Email Automations That Help Turn Tiny Shops Into Mega Marts with Simon Trafford [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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These 3 steps will make you more confident when it comes to conversion optimization and copywriting for your sales funnel! Be sure to read the BONUS tip!

The post 3 Copywriting Tips To Optimize Your Sales Funnel appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Think Facebook doesn't work for your product? You're probably wrong. In this video Scott shares what you're missing and how to start selling.

The post Product Market Fit with Scott Cunningham [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The good news is SEO isn’t as technical as it used to be. The bad news is, you still can’t ignore it. Learn how to DIY your SEO in this VDO. ;)

The post Mastering SEO with Jena Apgar [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Your side hustle is booming! Here's a 5-step guide to help you turn your side hustle into a thriving business even on a shoestring budget.

The post How to Turn a Side-Hustle Into a Real and Viable Business appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The world is full of strategies for media buying. Here’s one for coaches and consultants that has only 4 simple steps AND it works.

The post A Better Strategy for Media Buying with Hassan Bash [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Need some short video content ideas? Use these 5 short video content methods to increase traffic and engagement across your social media channels.

The post 5 Ways to Drive Traffic and Sales with Short Videos appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Kris went from relative obscurity to celebrity-level status (and an 8-figure business) really quickly all on social media marketing…and without spending a dime on ads.

The post How to get free leads and sales with social [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Metrics. Analysis. Action. This framework will make boring data come to life AND make a big impact on your business goals.

The post Digital Marketing Data and How to Optimize Like a Champ appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Paid traffic costs have soared lately. But organic traffic has always been free, valuable, and profitable. Remember these 3 things to go organic...

The post The Crisis of Paid Traffic – From The Office Of Kris Krohn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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These foundational metrics should be the core of your reporting structure. Wow clients and show them their business is safe with you.

The post Building a Successful Business: 5 Foundational Metrics [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Today’s market looks much different than it did ten years ago. Ten years ago, paid ads were THE THING. People often took some interest in ads. People responded to ads, and people believed what was being presented to them.

Now, the marketplace is oversaturated, and most ads are undesired, annoying, and consist of content people don’t care about.

You can spend thousands of dollars on ads and make very little in return or lose money in the process. Typically, it’s just not profitable like it used to be.

So what’s a great alternative?

Organic marketing of course.

But we don’t just love organic because it’s free; we love it because it’s where the highest quality traffic can be found.

Organic traffic consists of people who willingly choose to engage and care about what you’re presenting. The people that stick around do so because they love the content, the offers, and the business. Ongoing organic traffic breeds raving fans who stick with you and truly benefit from what you offer.

So how do we make the most of this opportunity?

Just because billions of people are on social media and the organic traffic is out there, it doesn’t mean they automatically flock to you.

Today we’re sharing 7 tips to help you win big on social media!

(Ps. If you aren’t already implementing these into your social media strategy, you’re going to want to start today!!)

Tip #1 – Know YOUR Market Nothing is worse than creating a bunch of content that no one cares about. Ya, that’s got to be the worst thing ever…That’s why tip #1 is the most important.

Before you start planning the types of content you’ll create, or what you’ll talk about, you must know WHO you’re talking to. You should know what’s going on in their mind. If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, then you know it’s about who your target audience is.

When you start producing content on social media it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you know who your audience is, but not producing the types of content they want to see. You should know what they’re thinking and feeling on the deepest levels, but also research what they’re watching and consuming on social media currently.

Do your research before you start and understand the topics your audience will love to engage with.

Tip # 2 – Have a Solid Strategy Winning on social media is about choosing the right strategy and implementing it all the way.

First, research and decide where your audience hangs out.

Is it LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, or Tiktok?

Choose the platform or multiple platforms where your audience lives and take the time to learn about the winning strategies for that specific platform. Each platform has its own rules and algorithms. If you’re overwhelmed, just start with one, and then repurpose your content later to the other platforms as you learn them.

Tip #3 – Create Value FIRST This is all about what OTHERS find valuable (not what you think is valuable). Always ask yourself – Am I creating content my audience wants? As you develop content and test the market, pay attention to what gets the most views, comments, likes, shares etc… You’ll discover the topics that are most popular. Go make more of the good stuff. You’ll see your number of followers continue to rise!

Tip #4 – Engage with Your Audience Delivering value is key to growing and keeping your audience around.

A fun way to engage with your audience is to create a contest that prompts them to take action and offers the chance at a big reward in return.

Think of your best product or service and give it away for free to 1 lucky winner that (insert what you want them to do here).

Giveaways and interacting with your audience is important to build a relationship with them. Always give without expecting.

Tip #5 – Don’t Always Promote Your Stuff Do you like it when someone is trying to continually sell you on STUFF? Maybe it’s your neighbor selling tupperware down the street, or your friend on facebook that’s always posting about their promotions.

Now, of course we love to sell too, but not until we’ve given away massive value for free (first!!)

Strive for every piece of content to offer insane value and save your pitch for the end. It’s usually well received that way.

Tip #6 – Collaborate with Other Influencers If you want powerful acceleration in growing your following, leverage the relationships you have or can cultivate.

Other influencers are serving similar audiences to yours, and together you can work to grow your influence by leveraging each others.

Always be committed to providing value and bringing all that you can to the table so you hold up your end of being a valuable partner.

Tip #7 – Make it Easy for Others to Buy Your Crap As in “crap” we mean, your AMAZING products and services!!

Package what it is you sell and create an offer your audience won’t want to refuse.

Think of 10Xing the value in every way you can. When you overdeliver, people want to pay.

Then make it easy for them. Ensure you have a website or funnel set up where they can give you money, and you can easily deliver on your end.

In conclusion…

If you’re a business owner, an influencer, CEO, speaker, or anyone else who wants to leverage social media to further your mission, these tips are the key to making it work!

As you create and share content, you’ll be serving your audience, and as you serve and follow the steps we’ve laid out, you’ll build your own wealth in the process.

The post 7 Tips To Win Big On Social Media – From The Office Of Kris Krohn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Your team has a backlog of features to implement, and you’re the product owner. The issue is that your team is overworked, and no one knows where to begin or how to prioritize duties.

This is where a user story map template might be beneficial!

What is User Story Mapping and How Does it Work? A user story map visually represents a user’s journey through a product. It aids product teams in better understanding customers, identifying journey friction points, and prioritizing what would improve the user experience.

It allows you to organize user stories into a usable model for understanding a system’s functionality, finding holes and omissions in your backlog, and planning holistic releases that value users.

A user story is a brief and straightforward description of a feature from the end user’s point of view. “As a user, I can add products to my wish list that I’m not ready to buy yet,” for example.

It forces product teams to design with the end user in mind. A user narrative map goes one step further by displaying a user’s stages to completing a task.

How a User Story Map is Useful All of the activities in the user-story map are captured as short words that represent an actual user task. As a result, the first part of the user-story structure discusses what the user wants to do with the product.

In the second half of the talk, the story is expanded to incorporate the important benefits. But, again, it is focused on the user and their wants; this mapping style is known as user story mapping. Consider every detail from the user’s perspective.

Later, the team expands on this simple sentence to create specific user stories discussed, with acceptance criteria added and then added to the product/sprint backlog for completion during each sprint as needed.

As we can see, the goal of user stories is to start a conversation about how to solve user problems from the perspective of the consumer who will be using the product.

How Do You Make A User Story Map? Here are the steps to follow to make a user story map:

Create The Framework You’ll want to reduce the plot’s scope before you start planning it out. If you don’t, you’ll rapidly become overwhelmed and unable to begin.

So here are some questions to think about:

• What issues are we attempting to resolve?
• How does this feature contribute to the overall value of the product?
• Who is the target audience segment or customer persona for which we are creating? (If applicable)

Make A Diagram Of The Story’s Activities And Steps Create a general roadmap for how the user will access and use this feature in this step. Those are your primary pursuits.

This section aims to explain the significant steps that must be taken to move from point A to point B. The steps are then laid out in front of you. So let’s take a look at them.

• Enter a search term in the search bar and go to the results page
• Look through the search results for specific information
• Use the pricing filtering tool to limit your alternatives
• Re-examine the search results page with the new options
• Choose an item and add it to your cart
• Complete the transaction

As you can see, story mapping necessitates a transition from macro to micro. You’ll most likely plan out these elements with the help of your participants.

Tasks Should Be Grouped And Defined This is where the cooperation begins after you’ve mapped out the significant details. Again, you should emphasize the important steps involved in each activity under each stage.

You can rank features by priority by including must-have, could-have, and should-have options on your map. Here’s what you should think about!

• Are there smaller tasks your end user could perform in the middle of one of these tasks?
• Is there anything that could hinder their progress at this point? For example, what are the chances that they’ll get stranded somewhere?
• Is there any other way for the user to go around this page?

This will necessitate a joint effort from your various teams to determine what is reasonable and achievable.

Key Takeaways * As teams and clients better understand the technology and the project progresses, requirements will alter. * Expect the project teams to plan for a static requirements list and then deliver working software months later. * Consider constructing a user story map template if your product team can’t decide where to start on a new or current project. It might take some time away from the construction process, but it will pay dividends in the long run.

The post User Story Maps Can Help Make You, Your Team, and Customers Happier appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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If you’ve never heard of a T-shaped marketer, you might think we just made it up. But, we swear—it’s a thing. And it’s a pretty big deal.

The reason being a T-shaped marketer is something all expert marketers strive for is because it allows them to do more as a marketer. It gives them a basic understanding of all the necessary parts of marketing (like SEO, funnels, social media, influencer campaigns, etc.) and creates a cohesive marketing strategy.

When your marketing strategy flows perfectly from somebody becoming newly aware of your business (the first stage of the Customer Value Journey, Awareness) to ascending into your higher-tier products (in the sixth stage in the CVJ, Ascension)—that’s when you have a winner.

T-shaped marketers create and maintain that perfect flow between all of the different facets of marketing. Here’s how you can become one.

What is a T-Shaped Marketer? A T-shaped marketer is somebody who has expertise in about 1-3 main marketing facets. For example, you may be great at content marketing. You have a proven track record of doing awesome things with your content and organic strategies.

But they’re also savvy in other marketing facets like email marketing, pay-per-click ads, building communities, and SEO. They’re just not as savvy as they are at the first two facets.

This is a T-shaped marketer.

The horizontal part of the “T” is the broad knowledge about marketing. It’s all of other facets that you’re familiar with—but not necessarily absolute expert in.

Then, the vertical part of the “T” shows the singular depth of knowledge on one subject. It’s the marketing facet that you are an absolute expert on. In this case, it would be content marketing.

T-shaped marketers aren’t specialists, they’re generalists with one specialty.

They can look at an entire marketing strategy and understand each part of it, even if they’ve only run a few PPC campaigns in their day.

And that’s what makes them so valuable.

What’s the Benefit of Being a T-Shaped Marketer? Being a T-shaped marketer means that you can help clients with their marketing strategy from A-Z. While you’ll have your bread and butter (like SEO, social media, paid ads, or community building), you’ll be able to create winning strategies amongst other marketing facets by collaborating with your marketing team.

This is what makes T-shaped marketers so valuable. They’re not going to come in and create converting marketing strategies only from SEO—they’re going to do it across the board. They’re going to be able to put together an SEO strategy that feeds into a content marketing strategy that feeds into an email marketing strategy.

Businesses need T-shaped marketers to steer the ship of all of their marketing strategies, from SEO to email. T-shaped marketers do this by using their expertise and their knowledge of other marketing strategies to steer that ship towards more traffic and more conversions.

How to Become a T-Shaped Marketer? Starting to see why being a T-shaped marketer makes sense? At DigitalMarketer, all of our marketing team members have an understanding of every facet of marketing. This isn’t just because they’re living in a marketing world, it’s because we want them to be able to flow between SEO strategies and email marketing strategies.

That’s a winning team (and that’s why we love them).

To become a T-shaped marketer, you want to start with the basics:

You want to start with a general understanding of basic marketing principles across the board. This doesn’t mean you need to go get a marketing degree, but a broad training or certification that gives you a little bit of everything is a great way to start.

THEN you need to ask yourself:

What am I an expert in or what do I want to become an expert in?

For example, you could know the ins-and-outs of SEO, or of creating a winning content strategy, or a killer email funnel. This list should have 1–3 facets of marketing on it that you’d call yourself a marketing specialist in.

If you aren’t already an expert (or you want to tune up your skills), take a few courses on your core discipline. You want to layer trainings, certifications, and continuous learning to make sure that your expertise keeps up with changes on the industry.

Once you know what you’re an expert in, or want to become an expert in, you can ask yourself the second question:

What facets of marketing am I weakest in?

For example, you might be beyond savvy at SEO, but maybe you need to brush up on your email marketing terms and strategies. Or maybe the copywriting skills from the first step just didn’t stick. You’ll want to go over those again.

Remember, you don’t need to become an expert in everything, but you want to know enough to get around, and enough to be able to weave your marketing strategies together.

Becoming a T-shaped marketer is one of the most valuable things a marketer can do for your business and marketing skills. It gives you the breadth across all disciplines and the depth in your area of expertise. It’s the best of both worlds while still being achievable.

T-shaped marketers are the ones that can pull together a marketing strategy using their generalist database of knowledge and are able to collaborate with team members across all marketing facets to create an incredible strategy.

The post What is a T-Shaped Marketer appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Austin, TX: Today, DigitalMarketer, the leader in building digital marketing certification courses for agency and small business owners, is launching Academy. Academy is the central place to access all of the education materials DigitalMarketer offers. It includes hundreds of resources like certifications, playbooks, short and long form workshops, jump start packs and other valuable resources for marketing.

In the newly launched Academy platform, marketing professionals and small business owners will find Learning Paths. Learning Paths are carefully created outlines, similar to a school curriculum, that show new and experienced marketers which courses to take and in which order to meet specific educational objectives.

For example, to become a top email marketing professional, individuals will start with the Digital Marketing Mastery Certification, followed by Email Marketing Mastery, Copywriting Mastery, and Analytics and Data Mastery. These easy to follow Learning Paths provide a direct outline for how to meet any marketing education goals.

Marketers and business owners who follow the email marketing Learning Path can also delve deeper into specific types of email marketing. Academy also houses workshops like “Automate Your Business Growth with Email Follow-up” or “How to Create a Newsletter That Actually Provides Value.” As marketing development progresses, new digital marketers can share their results publicly with certificates of completion that can be displayed on platforms like LinkedIn.

“We’re very excited to welcome new and seasoned marketers to the DigitalMarketer community and we await the chance to celebrate their results,” says Mark de Grasse, President of DigitalMarketer.

About DigitalMarketer: DigitalMarketer is an Austin-based educational organization for digital marketing professionals, marketing agency owners, and small business owners. It’s a place where ambitious business people can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools to grow and scale their businesses to new heights.

The post DigitalMarketer Launches Academy: Leading Marketing eLearning Company Creates Learning Paths appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Facebook isn’t the best advertising platform for every business. The way to know if it’s right for your business is to understand who your customer avatar is, where they hang out, and what type of product you have.

Your Business Should Be Advertising On Facebook Facebook marketing is beneficial for many different kinds of businesses. However, businesses that will benefit most from Facebook ads offer a non-necessity buy or some type of impulse buy.

Some examples of businesses that should definitely be advertising on Facebook include:

• E-commerce stores
• Information/education business
• Local businesses
• Direct-response

Also, businesses that need to build brand awareness can benefit from opening a Facebook Business Page, setting up Facebook ads manager, and running ads.

Build Brand Awareness The reason Facebook is so great for building brand awareness is that there is such laser-focused targeting available on the social media platform. A lot of marketers are aware of this. But if you’re just learning how to market on Facebook, this may be new to you.

Using the Facebook ads manager, you can drill down to a very specific target audience. You can tell Facebook exactly who your target audience is by narrowing down who sees your ad set.

Facebook allows you to narrow your audience by:

• Interests
• Behaviors
• Demographics
• Persona
• Geographic location (city, zip code, distance, etc.)
• Age
• Gender

As you can see, this is particularly relevant to any type of local business, informational business, or e-commerce.

After running some ads, you’ll begin to see trends in who is responding to your Facebook stories vs. your Facebook post. You can test ad format, ad placement, and ad type, such as video, graphic, carousel, or text. All of this is available via the Facebook business manager.

Track Ad Campaign Performance The Facebook ads manager makes it easy for marketers or business owners to measure the success of ad campaigns. Think of billboards, radio, print media, etc. With those types of marketing channels, you can’t select a custom audience, engage with the potential customer, or measure your return on ad spend.

Inside the Facebook ads manager, you can track every detail of every ad set you publish. And since Facebook bought Instagram, you can do the same with Instagram ads.

Why Facebook Works One thing to remember about Facebook is that intent, as part of the sales funnel, is non-existent on the social media platform.

Facebook advertising is interrupter advertising.

You’re kind of catching people off guard. With Facebook advertising, it’s like you’re trying to work your way into their social circle.

Facebook marketing, in particular, Facebook advertising, is ideal for businesses that are marketing specifically to an interruption-based audience.

Not All Businesses Should Advertise on Facebook There are a handful of businesses that should not use Facebook ads. Remember that the news feed creates a great atmosphere for interruptive advertising. It’s not as great if your business needs to target an intent-based audience.

An ad campaign on Facebook will generally underperform if you need to meet the potential customer at the “intent” stage of the sales funnel.

For example, lawyers, insurance carriers, some doctors, law enforcement, etc. Those types of businesses need to engage the target audience at a specific moment.

Case Study: “I need a DUI lawyer.” I was running ads for a DUI lawyer on Facebook. But no matter what we did, we couldn’t get any of the ads to perform. What we realized is that, when somebody got a DUI, they were actively and intentionally searching for a lawyer. The target audience wasn’t sitting around, waiting to stumble upon the best local DUI lawyer on Facebook. The ads didn’t work because they couldn’t reach the person at the right time.

One thing to note about intent is that Facebook could be a good avenue for brand awareness, instead. You just wouldn’t want to measure your success based on conversions. Instead, you would want to measure your success based on brand awareness.

Prohibited Products and Services Businesses that sell products or services that are prohibited on Facebook obviously shouldn’t advertise on the social media platform.

There are a lot of businesses starting up that sell cannabis, CBD products, firearms, etc. Facebook won’t allow those types of products to be advertised on the platform.

You can try to get away with it. But what will ultimately happen is your ad account or your business ads manager will get shut down. Trying to sneak past Facebook’s rules will spell disaster for your Facebook page in general.

Even though everyone raves about how easy it is to advertise on Facebook, it isn’t the best platform for every purpose. To decide if it will work for your business, think about the different ways in which you could use the platform. Do you need to build brand awareness? If you answered yes, then you should consider Facebook marketing for your business. Do you need to meet your customer when they’re searching for you? If you said yes, then you might be better off advertising on another channel.

Want to become a traffic master? Click here to find out how!

NOTE: This content came directory from DigitalMarketer’s Paid Traffic Mastery Certification.

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There are three primary temperatures of traffic. It’s important to think about each type as you build your digital marketing strategy. If you’ve heard Ryan Deiss talk about how dating and marketing are similar, you’ll get these right away. If not…keep reading! You’ll see how easy it is to turn cold leads into hot leads.

What Is Cold Traffic? Someone who knows nothing about your product is a cold lead. Honestly, a cold lead might not even recognize they have a problem. If they are aware of a problem, they might not know a solution exists.

• Cold traffic isn’t ready to engage.
• Cold traffic isn’t ready to buy.
• Cold traffic might not even want to hear from you.

You might be thinking, “why waste my time and ad spend trying to win over someone who doesn’t even want to hear from me?” Because…they actually DO want to hear from you, they just don’t know it yet.

Marketing Is Relationship Building I feel strongly that digital marketing is relationship building. Think about any new relationship. They all start out cold with what Ryan Deiss calls a glance. You see someone from across the room that looks interesting. They glance back. It’s just a moment.

What’s the next step? Go and introduce yourself. That’s what paid traffic does. It introduces your product to the prospect.

Know Your Target Audience Before marketing to anyone, you should create a buyer persona. At Digital Marketer, we call it the Customer Avatar. Completing a Customer Avatar Canvas helps you know the prospect to a point where you know:

• What their goals are.
• What their pain points are.
• Their hobbies and interests.
• Where they hang out.
• Their dreams and plans.
• What keeps them up at night.

If your marketing speaks to those issues, you’ll start to turn that traffic into warm traffic.

What Is Warm Traffic?

At the warm traffic stage, prospects don’t need to know about you, your product, or your brand to be considered warm leads or warm traffic. They do, however, need to be aware that they have a problem.

Warm traffic is any potential customer who has identified an issue and they’re interested in having that issue addressed in some way.

Examples of warm traffic include:

• The minivan mom who realizes, “I need an oil change.”
• The newly wedded couple who decides, “We’re interested in buying a new house.”
• The overworked attorney who says, “I want to go to Tahiti.”

In other words, warm traffic is a potential customer who has identified a need.

What Is Hot Traffic? Hot leads are the folks that are ready to go. You’ve “turned a glance into a stare,” as Ryan would say. You’ve introduced yourself and gotten the number. Now you’re ready for the first date!

• Hot traffic wants to engage.
• Hot traffic wants to subscribe.
• Hot traffic wants to convert.
• Hot traffic wants to buy!

As you might expect, this is the most valuable traffic. It’s also the most expensive.

How To Turn A Cold Lead Into A Hot Lead With Paid Traffic Quality leads don’t flow into a business on accident. The lead generation strategy you put into place has to gradually warm them up. At the cold lead stage, your job as a marketer is to put the message in front of them. The Facebook ad, Google ads, or whatever, has to be something that’s attractive to them and captures their attention.

This all goes back to the Customer Avatar or buyer persona. You’ve got to know your target audience before you can craft a high-converting offer.

What Is A Sales Funnel?

The sales funnel is a concept that has been beaten to death. But it’s prerequisite to understand because it is a natural sequence. It is the way people think before they make a purchase.

You have to understand the sales funnel before you can get good at lead generation.

Why? For every single purchase you’ve ever made in your entire life, from buying a stick of gum to purchasing a house, you have unconsciously gone through this funnel.

Top Of The Sales Funnel: Awareness At the very top of the sales funnel is awareness. Remember the cold lead who was blissfully unaware of the problem you provide a solution to? Well, they’ve just realized they have that problem. Now, the potential lead is aware and enters your sales funnel.

Example: “Ouch, my back hurts.”

Your solution might be spinal surgery, chiropractic care, or a pain relief cream. The warm lead now has a vague awareness of your participation in the solution.

Sometimes awareness starts inbound, like when your prospect goes to the search engines and asks a question.

In many cases, awareness can actually be catalyzed through outbound advertising. You could run Facebook ads that speak to back pain and ways to relieve it. (Due to Facebook compliance issues, be very careful what claims you make!)

You don’t have to wait around for people to become aware. You can create awareness with paid traffic. Once they are in the awareness stage, it’s your job to start driving them down to interest.

The Interest Stage At the interest stage we use content videos, blogs, downloadable PDFs, etc. Whatever you think is going to engage your prospect and start getting the wheels turning.

• You want to establish authority
• You want to be the thought leader
• You want to be the trusted resource.

To do that, you should provide top quality content. Use the acronym “E-A-T” when you consider what kind of content to produce. EAT stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

The content you create for your target audience will not only move them into the interest stage, but move them to the next level, which is consideration.

Warm Leads and Consideration You’re one step closer to earning a qualified lead! At the consideration stage the warm lead is now willing to look at solutions. But that doesn’t mean they’re willing to look at your solution.

Consider all the options available. Referring back to our example, the potential customer has a whole spectrum of options. On one extreme is back surgery. On the other is a pain relief cream.

If you’re the authority and they trust you, they’ll trust you to begin prescribing what the solution could be. But please remember that prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.

What you should do in your funnels and with your content, is give people the opportunity to engage with your solution. Let them know that you understand what they’re going through. Let them know that you’ve overcome the issues they’re facing.

In other words, don’t put offers in front of them too soon.

Putting an offer at the consideration stage is too early. It’s like asking for marriage on the first date.

From the consideration stage, prospects move to intent.

The Intent Stage This is the stage in the sales funnel when your potential lead decides to take action. As an example, someone knows they’re going to buy a car. At this stage, they need to figure out which car to buy.

The shift from intent to evaluation, the next stage in the sales funnel, is fairly fast. Why? I think people lack patience. We’re all used to immediate gratification. So moving people from intent to evaluation is generally easy.

From Evaluation to Purchase Although the time between intent and evaluation is short, the shift requires tactical content. At this stage, your content marketing should be focused on creating content such as

• Features lists
• Pricing calculators
• Comparison charts
• How-to videos

The content you create should help the prospect make the most logical decision: to purchase your product.

Why Paid Advertising Trumps SEO I hate to beat up on SEO. But the truth is with organic traffic, you’re at the mercy of the search engine. Who is searching for your product? What are they searching for? Where will the search engine place your product?

Another disadvantage of SEO is that it’s generally all top of the funnel.

The benefit of paid traffic is that you get to speak to people at every single stage of the funnel using paid ads. This isn’t true for other advertising mechanisms.

With paid traffic, you get to place your ads wherever you want.

Realize that the further down the funnel you go, the more expensive traffic becomes. That makes sense, right? At the bottom of the funnel people are ready to buy. In many cases, the hot lead has their wallet out, their credit card in hand, and they’re ready to click that “Buy Now” button.

“The Bottom Up Funnel” My business partner, John Moran, coined the term “the bottom up funnel.” What we recommend is for marketers to start at the bottom of the funnel.

Think about all the steps in the funnel. It can be tedious to layout a content marketing strategy to meet all the needs of your potential customers. When you implement your marketing efforts at the top of the funnel, you spend a lot of time, effort, energy, and money to move cold leads down the sales funnel.

The push from awareness to interest to consideration can take months! From consideration to intent can take event longer. Think about buying a car. Once you decide which car you want to buy, you may have to research interest rates on loans, or you may want to save money for the down payment.

If you invest all your time and effort to drive people from the top of the funnel downward, they may get to the bottom of the funnel and you suddenly realize you marketed to the wrong buyer persona. They’re not the right fit! Or your price isn’t right. Or maybe the offer isn’t attractive enough.

Driving traffic to the top of the funnel first means you’re always learning the most important lesson last.

We want you to learn the most important lesson first.

It will be expensive. You’ll pay more in ad spend to learn that lesson. But when you learn the most important lesson first, you can slowly travel up the funnel. Once the sale has been made, you know what to say, what to charge, how to engage people and convert them into quality leads.

The best recommendation I can give you is to build your funnel from the bottom up. Start with the intent stage and work your way up. With all the benefits of paid traffic like speed, advanced analytics, laser-targeting, and optimization, your paid ad campaigns will be much more effective if you do.

Want to become a traffic master? Click here to find out how!

NOTE: This content came directory from DigitalMarketer’s Paid Traffic Mastery Certification.

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If you haven’t added paid traffic to your T-shaped marketer toolbelt, you’re missing out. Paid search marketing is a proven marketing strategy for getting instant results and dialing in the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

Let’s talk about the benefits of paid traffic.

1: Speed to Market

The first benefit of paid traffic is speed. To illustrate what I mean, let’s compare paid ads to search engine optimization. You may think this is an unfair comparison, but it illustrates my point perfectly.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the process by which you try to get your content to rank in the search engine results pages or SERPs. SEO strategy includes keyword research, meta data, backlinking, and all kinds of technical elements. Most people view organic traffic as any traffic you don’t have to pay to get in front of.

With organic marketing, it can take three months to get a piece of content to appear as a search result. In other words, to rank organically.

If you’re trying to optimize for a term that has any level of competition, it can be 3, 6, 9, 12+ MONTHS before you begin to see any traction.

With paid traffic, you can see traffic the next day.

Both paid traffic and organic search traffic are critical to business success. But paid traffic needs to come first. Why? Because it’s so freakin’ fast. In the realm of digital marketing, you need proof of concept before you can scale. Proof of concept is difficult to have without speed.

Quickly & Easily Test Campaign Elements Speed has another benefit. It gives you the opportunity to quickly test what’s working or not working with your ppc ad.

You get to test your ad copy, pricing, the call to action, landing pages, the ad creative, etc. And it can all be tested quickly.

Testing takes the uncertainty out of paid advertising. It doesn’t take a lot of time or money, because paid traffic is so fast.

2: Analytics You Can Actually Track

Another of the benefits of paid traffic is the analytics that back it up.

With organic marketing, social media marketing, and especially email marketing, there are limited data points, and those data points are being taken away from us because of privacy first initiatives.

With paid traffic, the advertising networks – Google AdWords, Facebook, Bing ads, etc. – have to give you this information because you’re paying for the traffic.

The Conversion Path A conversion path is the sequence of events a user goes through before they engage in a desired action. It’s important to track the conversion path and look for the common behaviors of your best customers.

It’s difficult to track the conversion path with free traffic.

For example, organic social traffic is very disparate in terms of the information that you’re given. Because of the iOS 15 update, we don’t see things like open or click through rates for email marketing.

But because the advertising networks like all that ad revenue, they allow paid advertising customers access to advanced and detailed analytics. When you track the conversion path, you start to see the story people need to be told before they’re willing to convert.

3: Optimization of Every Element of the Campaign

Who is this paid ad reaching? Where is the conversion happening? What time is our social media ad performing best?

With paid advertising, you can optimize everything with minor tweaks. You can’t optimize or change these variables outside of a paid ecosystem.

Again (beating a dead horse), because you’re paying for that Facebook ad, Google ad, Bing ads, whatever, the network gives you opportunities to enhance your ad campaign.

When you pay attention to the data, you see exactly where the disconnect is. Then you can make minor tweaks to improve the performance of your paid search ad long term.

The changes don’t have to be major. Everybody’s heard the analogy about the plane that’s off course by 1% that ends up in an entirely different country over time. Your campaigns will be the exact same way.

The ability to optimize your campaigns is one of the strongest benefits of paid traffic.

4: Enhanced Customer Targeting

One of the major differences between free traffic and paid traffic is targeting. With paid traffic, you get to decide who you put your ads in front. This is an amazing benefit, especially given how much information these ad networks know about people.

Ad networks have 70 million demographic and psychographic profiling factors on every human on the planet.

Who is your target audience?

• Where do they live and work?
• What are their interests?
• Are they married?
• How much money do they make?
• What products do they buy online?

From a machine learning perspective, this data is important. Why? All the ad networks are reverse engineering intent. They want to understand why people do what they do. They want to know what makes people buy.

It’s a little scary, to be honest with you, because they’re getting good at it. But the better they get, the bigger your advantage.

You can take advantage of machine learning through targeting.

As you can see, the benefits of paid ads are immense. I’m not here to tell you that paid ads are the only thing you need to do. There are not the end-all-be-all. But paid advertising should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing foundation because of these benefits.

Want to become a traffic master? Click here to find out how!

NOTE: This content came directory from DigitalMarketer’s Paid Traffic Mastery Certification.

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I buy companies, and I start by identifying what offer is going to be ideal to increase cash flow and have the company pay for itself.

4 Types of Offers Every Company Should Have (at a minimum) Four different offers at four different price points.

1) Free Community with Highly Desirable Free Content (Education)

2) Core Offer (Do It Yourself or DIY)

3) Upsell (Done With You or DWY)

4) Upsell (Done For You or DFY)

Example: Paintbrushes

1) Join our community of painters
2) Buy our brushes
3) Join a paid group painting class
4) Let us Paint for you.

We Identify Each of the Offers With the Same Survey

We Identify Each Of The Offers With The Same Survey. do this with a simple 4 part survey that we build in Google Forms.

The survey can either:

Be sent to everyone on your mailing list once a quarter,

Or

Be sent to everyone who uses your product or service.

Format We’ve Found That Yields the Best Results Via a Survey * Motivation * Reason * Time Commitment * Email * First and Last Name * Phone Number * Demographic Question * Benefits Question * Frustration Question * Conversation Invitation

Motivation A reason to fill in the survey. We’ve found the best thing to offer is a free draw for a giveaway for a new product or program you’re about to release.

Example: “Fill in this form to take part in our $7,000 giveaway! We’re giving away 7 copies of our latest $1,000 training that helps you (GET_SPECIFIC_RESULT) that we called [NAME_OF_PRODUCT].”

Reason This is where you explain the significance of the survey and how ultimately the results help them.

Example: “We want to help YOU! This survey is going to let us know what sticking points or areas of frustration you have with regards to [NICHE]. “

Time Commitment Here you want to let them know that the survey won’t take long to complete.

Example: “The survey only has 7 short questions and should be finished within 2 minutes max.”

Email This is where we ask them for their email address to continue communicating with them in the future.

Example: “We’d like to offer you future giveaways, offers and tips in addition to having the most up to date contact information to notify you if you have won. Please share with us the best way to email you for these things”

First & Last Name This is just to keep track of individual responses

Example: “What is your first and last name so we know who we are contacting if you win?”

Phone Number Here you’re going to get a secondary form of contact information that also has a higher response rate.

Example: “In case we can’t reach you via email what’s the best phone number to reach you at via SMS?”

Demographic Question This question lets you know something about your audience. Either geographical, income, competition, or something that is useful relevant information. It’s important that you create this as a multiple choice question.

Examples:

“So we know which languages to include in our product development, Where do you live in the world? Please select one of the following:”

“So we create a product that matches your needs the best, which best represents your yearly salary? Please select one of the following:”

“So we know your experience within [NICHE] which of the following companies have you purchased products or programs from? Please select one of the following:”

Benefits Question This is where you create a list of Needs/ Wants or Benefits you think people may want. You want at least 20 of these, and you’re going to ask them to select 3.

This will give you a clear indication of the needs and wants of your audience… and will give you the next 3 products or programs to develop. Be sure you word them carefully and create variants of the benefits including do-it-yourself options and done-for-you options. You cannot really have too many of these. This is the most important part of the survey.

Example:

“Which of the following do you most want us to provide for you? (please select 3)”
Do say: “I’d like to have more energy”
Don’t say: “Energy”
Do say: “I want to build my own race track
And say: “I want someone to build me a race track
Don’t say: “I want to do racing”

Frustration Question Here you’re going to learn the frustration holding them back from getting the results they want.

You’re going to want to list at least 10 common frustrations. Include F.E.N.C.E.

Combined with the previous answer this gives you the classic headline format: “How to get A,B,C without the frustration of X”

Example: “What have you found to be most frustrating when trying to get the results in the previous question? Please select one:”

Conversation Invitation This last question is an invitation to have a deeper discussion about their results… and of course another chance for a conversation to make a sale of the new product. As a beta tester.

Example: “Would you be willing to jump on a 5-minute call to discuss the answers in full?”

Conclusion Once this survey is a natural automatic part of what you do… you will constantly have feedback on new products to develop.

We typically recommend creating a new survey with new options every 3 months to follow trends you see in the industry you’re in.

This is one of the SOP’s I bring into a company when I first join.

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MEET MANNY TORRES

Manny Torres is the co-founder of Growth Amplifiers, a marketing agency and Certified Partner. As a Certified DigitalMarketer Trainer and Coach, Manny will show you how to leverage a proven framework to consistently attract your ideal clients through direct outreach and strategic relationships. This framework has been used not only Manny’s business, but also by top businesses across the world to nurture clients who “pay, stay and refer.”

WHAT IS A CERTIFIED PARTNER?

We provide direct digital marketing services through our network of Certified Partners. DigitalMarketer Certified Partners are specifically trained to execute the professionally created, tested, and proven techniques we teach.

Find a Certified Partner or Become a Certified Partner

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

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Are you a marketing agency owner or freelancer?

Your local networking is killing your business and Jena Apgar, Founder of LeadFlow365 is here to tell you how to change that.

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

The post Your Local Networking is Killing Your Business. – Jena Apgar [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Regardless of what type of marketing you specialize in, there are 3 foundational skills you need to understand while building your business.

Cydney D’Costa, Associate E-Learning Program Manager at DigitalMarketer is here to share those with you.

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

The post 3 Foundational Skills Every Marketer Needs – Cydney D’Costa [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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It’s no secret why athletes struggle in the transition to life after sports, but one of the most important elements is getting clarity and understanding on these five components. Because without them, you are going to continue to feel stuck, struggling, and unfulfilled.

The Five P’s of Your Success in Life After Sports What’s up my former athlete family? It’s Cletus Coffey, the founder of recovering athlete coaching and training. This article is about the five P’s of your success in life after sports. After you read this you’re going to think: “ah, goodness, how did I not remember this? How did I not understand this?”

See, in my journey, I didn’t have someone that understood me specifically. I did a ton of personal development work, coaching and training, I read the books, and I followed the experts.

Without a doubt, it helped me over a decade to process and better understand myself to figure out how I can improve, how I can become elite, and how I can follow my dreams. The challenge was, they didn’t understand me as a former athlete.

So you’re lucky that you’re in the right spot, because I understand you.

It wasn’t until I was able to take this information and process it through the language of sports to really being understanding what was next for me. For almost 85% of my life, I had been an athlete.

Once I had put that information into the language of sports, I finally understood… I’m going do my best to do that for you here. Understanding these five components and why you have all five as an athlete. I’m willing to bet, you only have one, maybe two, of them in your life after sports.

No wonder why we’re stuck and struggling.

You will continue to, until you get clarity on how these five elements you once had as an athlete apply to life after sports. Most of us want to go pro in our particular sport, not realizing that we can create a ton more success, money, fulfillment, and impact in going pro outside of sports. So let’s do that. Let’s grasp these five elements to help you go pro in life after sports.

First things first, I’m going to communicate to you through you as being an athlete, and then we’ll transition over into life after sports.

Passion Number one, the first P, Passion. We were passionate about our sport or sports, we were passionate about our craft. It may have taken you through the high school level, collegiate, or beyond. You’ve probably thought, “this is fulfilling, this is fun, I’m passionate about this.”

Some of you would have said (talking professional athletes here): “The fact that they pay me is just a bonus.” I love what I do. You felt passionate about it. That’s number one.

Purpose Number two, a Purpose. You had a purpose that would have been either to make yourself better or maybe it was to make your team or your teammates better. Maybe it was to represent your community or your family, or to reach your highest potential. As an athlete in your sport, you had purpose.

It maybe was to make the starting lineup or to reach a certain level, there was a purpose behind you that drove you and created that fire in you. That’s what purpose does. It’s incredibly powerful.

Performance Performance was a big thing. Really one of the biggest points of measurement for us in our athletic days. That’s how we measured ourselves. Am I getting bigger, faster, stronger? We would look at our stats, wins, and losses and be able to answer the question, “how am I performing?”

Performance was a big piece because that’s where the fun is, right? We get to go out there and we get to perform.

Points Next is Points. Now this was a big one in sport because a lot of us measured our self-worth, level of confidence, and view of ourselves based on the points which are important in sports. When I say points, I’m talking about the scoreboard.

Did we win or did we lose? What type of stats are you putting up? What type of weight are you lifting if you lifted weights, or what type of races are you competing in? Those types of things. We measured ourselves based on results or the scoreboard.

Those results gave us feedback so that we know how to improve, get better, and continue to grow. Points were the biggest component of us as athletes.

Play Lastly, Play. This is what we did, we love playing. That’s what, oftentimes, athletes forget. That we love to play. That’s what we did. Even when it got into a business, meaning if you became a professional athlete that sometimes the business muddied the play, but at the end of the day, you’d like to play even with business in it!

So Passion, Purpose, Performance, Points, and Play are the five key elements.

You most likely have had all five firing during sports but when transitioning into life after sports, you only have one or two.

Life After Sports Let’s transition over to now. It doesn’t matter if you just retired from sports, or it’s been 20 years, all of this applies to you. Whether you played high school sports, or you’re a professional athlete, you’re an athlete, you got in there, you played that down, you got on a team, you competed and trained, you know what it means to be an athlete, you’ve got that DNA inside you.

Let’s take these five P’s and apply them to life after sports. Which one of these have you activated as part of your day to day life?

Passion Are you passionate about what you do for work? For example? Are you passionate about something in particular that just gets you fired up, and is a part of your everyday life? I’m not talking about just going to the office, working your butt off everyday and only pursuing passions when you come home. This is fine, however, we get in this mindset of thinking that our passion only happens when we have extra time.

As an athlete, you didn’t just compete in sports, and then do passion stuff on the side. It was part of you as an athlete. It was what you did, everyday. You thrived in that and were fulfilled in that work. Passion has got to be a part of your everyday life, not just a side thing, or when you have extra time.

Purpose Purpose, what is your purpose? Where is the fight in you, the drive to make an impact, to do something meaningful, to do something that is going to impact and serve the lives of others, like you once did for your teammates, community, family? Where is the purpose in your life now? This is straight to the heart here. When you are purpose driven?

You made some incredible things happen in your life, on some level. Where is that drive today? If you don’t have it, now’s the time to start finding that purpose.

Performance Now we’re going to get into the two key elements that most people have activated. The first one is performance. You’re probably performing in some form or fashion. Maybe you have a job or you’ve started a business and you’re performing to make sure you maintain your job, or your business is growing and you are performing to reach your goals and benchmarks. Performance is usually a big tracking point for us in life, just like we tracked points in sports.

Points (Profits) Now I’m going to make a quick shift here, instead of points, I’m going to call it profits, when it comes to life after sports. Because many people are focused on how much money they are making or what type of revenue they have. It becomes more about profit, which is essentially the same thing, an end result. I don’t want to make this all about money by saying profit but I’m hoping you get my point here. A main driver for most people in our society is money.

Now is money the end all? No. Is that what you should be chasing? No. Is it important and necessary? Absolutely. So we want to make sure that’s part of this process.

Play The last thing is Play. What we need to remember is that our brains are wired for play. I’m not just talking about weekends or vacations. Where is play in your day to day life right now? Where is it in your work? Where is it in your lifestyle? Play needs to be a part of your life, because that’s what you are wired for.

Conclusion Looking at all five of these elements, passion, purpose, performance, profit, and play, most people are simply focusing on performance and profit. My friend, you need to remember that you are an athlete, you have an athlete’s DNA. You know what it’s like to be in a place of passion, that is purposeful, and you’re driven to make a difference and make an impact. You know that play is a part of your life, you’re wired for it. What is holding you back from incorporating those necessary things, and in some cases, for many of us, continuing to improve performance, and profit.

It’s important to recognize that you were not built for mediocrity, you weren’t. You wouldn’t have gotten into sports. Think about it. Did you join a team with the intention of hanging out on the bench? No, you did not. What is the reason now? Why would you, a former athlete, want to sit on the bench after sports?

Let’s get off the sidelines and into the game and these five P’s are an integral piece to make sure you have them aligned, just like you did in sport. If you’re out of sync with any of them, it’s time to invest time into it. Doing the work to identify your passion, getting clear on purpose, and really dialing in your performance metrics.

How are you measuring your success? And what does success even look like? If you’re still measuring your success off of profit, my friend, you have to reframe that. That doesn’t work anymore. Are those things important? Yes. You can’t control it.

However, you can’t control what the scoreboard says. You can control your effort, and your attitude, and how you respond when the scoreboard or profits isn’t what you want. You can control those things, but you can’t control the scoreboard. Lastly, where is play incorporated into day to day life. Because when you have all of these firing, it will bring you back to your former athletic days, and how you felt. Maybe not all the time, I understand, but the vast majority of time you performed at your peak, you did it because you had all of these five components firing. It’s time to get them set up in your own life after sports.

If I can help support you do that, go to Cletuscoffey.com/playbook to get started on your journey with us. Get you involved in our community, start learning how we can help support you with our coaching, training, masterminds, and in our groups of former athletes. Entrepreneurs are coming together to make a greater positive impact in their life than they ever did in sports. So let’s go pro. Now that sports is over, let’s really go pro and let’s make a greater impact together.

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This debate seems to be as old as the concept of sales…and many things in life, but we will keep it to sales and marketing for the purpose of this article.

Many I speak with will fall solidly in the “quality” camp. In fact, I guess that for many of you reading this, your answer might be quality. Some of you might answer “both” just because you know me and how I like to set up a topic.

But, deep down inside, we probably think about quality as the winner of the debate.

…and to a large extent, there is truth to this.

That said, if you’ve “grown-up” in any serious sales environment, you may sit on the other side of the equation. And while you may not agree with anything else he ever said, you might think that Joseph Stalin was onto something when he stated, “quantity has a quality of its own.”

When I started my sales career 25 years ago, I worked for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. In that environment, you were handed a phone book, sat down in front of a phone, and told to start dialing—often with no training other than what you picked up during licensing. If you’ve ever seen the movie Boiler Room, you have a good sense of my early days. The premium was on quantity, not necessarily quality.

This, too, was a practical approach. That was then. What about now?

The Debate Is Wrong

The debate about quality versus quantity is wrong. You can’t possibly decide on one versus the other in the discussion. Ultimately, as you may have suspected, you need both—and one other element I’ll mention shortly.

So, why do you need both quantity and quality?

Many of you have worked with some sort of email marketing. How effective is it to send just one email to the database? Not very. What if it is a perfectly crafted email written by a resurrected Ogilvy or Collier? Still not very successful. And, realistically, how many of us consistently maintain an open rate of 100%? One immaculately constructed email simply isn’t going to reach everyone.

You could say the same about our approach to content on social media. What are your chances of going viral with one post and suddenly putting yourself on the map? It could happen, but I wouldn’t bet on those odds, no matter how good the video is—even in a world where a 10-year old makes $55 million a year on YouTube.

So, let’s apply this to your sales efforts. What if you were to reach out to a handful of people every few months with a top-quality value-laden message? Either you get lucky, or more likely, you end up with nothing. And yet, for many agency owners and solopreneurs I speak with, this is their “sales plan.”

Here is what I see frequently happen with salespeople and business owners alike. You put some effort into your prospecting or, more often, get a referral or two. You catch a few wins along the way, and then suddenly you are busy, and money is coming in.

Are you still prospecting? Probably not.

And therein lies the issue with the debate about quantity over quality. You need both, and it is missing a critical factor in the equation—sustained effort.

There are few overnight successes. Many reading this article are familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk. We know him as a super-successful guy with a massive following on social media. But he regularly talks about the fact that it took hundreds of videos before he had any meaningful traction.

I ran a video series for a couple of years, RightMind Mashup, and I shot 22 straight weeks of video before someone mentioned they had seen any of them. It was my brother-in-law. And while I love him, he isn’t exactly my ideal customer. It wasn’t until week 36 that I closed a sale due to the videos.

At this point, I’ve generated over $900,000 in sales from that series, but it took sustained effort and ultimately more than 70 videos. I had quality content. I needed quantity to start making a difference. But, the driving force for both elements was sustained effort.

Success Formula Beyond needing both quantity and quality, you must give some thought to the ratio of each factor. It looks something like this:

Quality + (Quantity/X) x Sustained effort = Success I know. Algebra might not be your favorite subject. Oddly, it was one of mine, but I digress.

The divisor, X, in the equation indicates that you need to adjust the quantity to sustain the quality. What do I mean by that?

There is no question that it is challenging to keep up a high volume of quality content over a sustained period. Unless you have a content team, it might be nearly impossible to produce content as you continue to run your business and manage clients. So, you have to adjust the quantity to sustain the quality.

When someone joins my mastermind group, they often talk about how they want to produce content every day to help boost their business. For most, this isn’t realistic.

Writers know all about “writer’s block.” Musicians have similar issues. I would imagine that every “creative” out there suffers from this at times. Trying to go from zero to daily content on a social media platform is a recipe for frustration and burnout, or at a minimum, a reduction in quality.

So, adjust the quantity so you can sustain the quality.

The same formula holds for your sales efforts. Keeping up a high volume of quality sales calls (applies to all communications: email, messenger, texts, etc.) over time is challenging if you don’t have a salesperson. As an aside, I caution business owners against hiring a salesperson too soon. They are expensive, and unless you have a rock-solid, documented sales process, you are throwing good money after bad results.

When referring to quality in your sales calls, this involves more than what you say. While that is important, most of your success depends on your consistent follow-up with prospects. Pre-pandemic, the average salesperson—and, if you are a business owner, you are a salesperson—followed up with prospects twice. In 2021? Once.

According to Hubspot, the number of calls needed to reach a prospect increased from 8 pre-pandemic to at least 18 calls since 2021.

Conclusion In short, the quality of your sales depends on the quantity and sustainability of your follow-up. The third element, sustained effort, is the multiplier that defines the length of your success in the market.

As buyer behavior continues to evolve, our sales efforts must adapt. As a young investment guy, I could get away with the quantity approach because this is how everyone did it, and no one had Caller ID. Buyers today educate themselves online, screen calls on their mobile devices, and work from home. These circumstances change everything about how we approach prospects today.

Rather than engaging in a debate of quality over quantity, continue to maintain quality with forward sustainability —this is the key to your long-term success in business.

Rather than engaging in a debate of quality over quantity, understand that you need both in a way that you can sustain long-term. This becomes the formula for future success.

Dominic Cummins Founder of RightMind, Inc. Dominic helps leaders and entrepreneurs find and fulfill their purpose. At RightMind, we believe you started your business with a great purpose in mind. The challenge can be helping your clients “get it.”

Learn More About Dominic

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So, you’re eager to run Google Ads for your eCommerce business.

You took all the critical first-steps to ensure your business is set up for Google Ads success—your brand identity is rock solid, your budget and time expectations are reasonable, your selling proposition is one-of-a-kind.

The next step? Making sure your website is ready to convert.

After all, those precious ad clicks will lead customers to your virtual front door. And we need to make sure that door is open wide to welcome each visitor before we spend time and money on Google Ads campaigns.

Here’s how we’ll make that happen:

1. Website CRO Best Practices
2. Product Preparation
3. Media (Images and Video)
4. Lifestyle Images
5. Robust Titles and Descriptions
6. Live Chat

First Up: Website CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) Best Practices Building an eCommerce store isn’t that hard.

Building an eCommerce store that converts? Whew! That is a different story entirely.

Here are some CRO best practices to ensure your site is ready to make sales:

The Big Three:

1. Website Issues and ErrorsYou can’t drive traffic to a broken website. So, it’s crucial to ensure you catch any website issues or errors:

• Frequently (at least once a month) check your site and make sure everything is working properly and there are no high-risk issues and errors.
• Schedule a website audit at least once a month.

2. Website SpeedWebsite speed has a massive impact on your quality score; in fact, it is considered slightly more important than content(!) according to Google. A few things to consider:

• Mobile users are going to be less tolerant of slower websites due to the smaller size of the device and often slower connection.

• The biggest contributing factor for slow sites are large image sizes.

3. Mobile Engagement

• 60-65% of website visits are done on mobile devices. So ensure your site is mobile-friendly!

• Look at your conversion path: although many purchases happen on desktop computers, research is often done on mobile devices. In other words, consider each step of your buyer’s journey so you can make it as effortless as possible.

Conversion Rate Optimization ChecklistNow let’s put those best practices to action. First up, run through this CRO checklist to make sure visitors have a smooth journey to purchase from your site:

• Everything works properly
• Website is fast (under 2-3 seconds load time)
  • (use PageSpeed Insights to measure this)
• Your email/phone number is in the header or footer
  • Customers need to know they can trust you (i.e. get in touch with you)
• Website design is appealing to your audience
  • Make sure the design is centered around your product and isn’t a distraction
• Website has high-quality images
• Products are described clearly with all features displayed

• CTAs are in a contrast color (bold!) and easy to find

  • Check out BOOM by Cindy Joseph for inspiration
  • There are reviews on product pages

  • Verification badges (secure payment, BBB, SSL, guarantees, free returns, etc.)

  • This helps improve the trustworthiness of your site and brand

  • Turn anything you offer to a badge (free shipping? Make it a badge! Free returns? Badge! Much more exciting than text)

Website Speed Optimization Checklist

• Choose a “light” theme

  • A good developer can improve your site speed a lot—but make sure you don’t rely too heavily on customization

• Scale your images properly

  • Try PicResize
• Decrease the weight of your images without losing quality
  • Try TinyPNG

• Limit the amount of plugins/apps

• Limit the amount of displayed products on category pages

• Check in on your page speed

  • Try PageSpeed Insights
  • Don’t aim for a 100/100 score—just aim for good user experience

Quality Assurance (QA) Checklist:Include quality assurance checkups in your monthly standard operating procedures to make sure your site is in tip-top shape. You can do this through internal QA and external QA:

Internal QA: Pretend to be your own customer

• Try to break the site
  • Navigate through your site the way a customer would
  • Gauge how easy it is for a distracted customer to use your site.
  • Ask yourself, “If I weren’t paying full attention, could I still do this?”
  • Make an actual purchase

You can hire someone to go through your site on fiverr.*

External QA: Have someone else pretend to be a customer

• Just tell them where you want them to go—but not how to get there

Analyze Top Competitors:

• What is different between their website and yours?

Pro-Tip! Diagnosing Issues: Screen Recording Software
You can install screen recording software on your site that tracks users’ navigation via heat mapping (note: it will likely slow the speed of your site). This works on desktop and mobile—so for eCommerce sites that aren’t converting, you can use this software to figure out what’s going wrong along the way.

Here are a few notable options:

• HotJar
• TruConversion
• Lucky Orange

Keep in mind: You don’t need to use these apps forever. Diagnostic tools are a great way to assess the state of your website and determine any site optimizations or product additions.

Product Page Preparation Your product pages are the most important pages on your website. In most cases, it’s the landing page for your traffic: your very first impression.

Many businesses put tons of energy into optimizing their homepage, yet neglect the product pages customers land on. What’s worse? Smart Shopping can only drive traffic to product pages. So let’s make sure your product pages are ready to shine:

Product Page Checklist

• Product title and subtitle

  • Make sure the product title is clear, descriptive, and honest enough for Google to identify the product and send relevant traffic your way (Look at Amazon for inspiration)
  • But avoid “keyword” stuffing! Honesty and simplicity are key

• Product description

  • Product descriptions are supplementary to your title
  • Use this opportunity to elaborate on the specifics of your product: any particular materials, special features, ingredients that are worth highlighting but would be too long for your title

• Product media (images and videos)

  • We purchase with our eyes first
  • Custom imagery is always going to be better than stock photos, particularly lifestyle images that help customers picture themselves using your product

• Nested navigation

  • Make sure navigation is clear, easy, and accessible—we don’t want people to get lost
  • Use breadcrumbs so users can always find their way back

• Social proof (i.e. reviews)

  • Customers buy from businesses they trust—Enter: reviews
  • Aggregating enough reviews takes time, so ask your customers for a review after 30 days of purchasing and give them an incentive or reward for completion
  • The 30-day rule gives you at least a few days/weeks to resolve any issues—and get a good review for it
  • Once you have enough five-star reviews, you can add them to your site.

• Clear call-to-action (CTA)

  • If you don’t tell people what you want them to do they won’t do it
  • A clear, bold CTA nudges your customer to the next step
  • Isolate the action you want them to take: make the CTA a BIG button (not just a hyperlink)

• Clear customization options

  • If you offer customized products, make sure the options are clear and don’t overwhelm your customers to avoid cart abandonment

Product Media When it comes to adding images on your website, here’s the thing:

You don’t need to be a professional photographer. In fact, all you need to create high quality images is:

A smartphone (new iPhones or Samsung do a really good job)

A plain white background

Natural lighting

Don’t zoom in.

Don’t use flash.

And edit your photos if you can (check Fiverr or pixc for outsourcing options).

That’s all it takes!

Remember, your photos should give context and further showcase details of the product. If your product has a unique feature, it’s best to explain what that feature is in the descriptions and show it in your images.

Overwhelmed by how many products you need to capture? Start with your bestsellers. Make sure each of them has a decent product photo and (if possible) short video. 5-7 images per product should be enough.

We are visual creatures. High quality product media will close the sale.

Product Media Part Two: Lifestyle Images Speaking of product media, lifestyle images are critical for customers to visualize your product in action.

Remember: Lifestyle imagery is a photo or video of products being used

Here are some tips:

Give context

• Hey, your product doesn’t have to be the “main subject” in the photo. In fact, it could be in the background—like this poor Nespresso machine, competing with George Clooney’s eternal handsomeness:

You can use photos from your Instagram or Pinterest

• Speaking of Instagram, you can send your product to influencers (for free) in exchange for promotional content on their page
• Check out imagency.com to find influencers

Shoot a YouTube overview of the product and paste it on your product page

Robust Titles and Descriptions Use the product description to sell the transformation

• The description sells the TRANSFORMATION, not the product
• Use the language that your avatar uses but make sure you also include in the right keywords that Google understands

Include specifications

• Size, material, weight, features

Use the product titles and descriptions to communicate with Google

• Google relies on product titles and descriptions to identify products and send relevant traffic—so, make sure they are “machine friendly” (clear and easy to understand)

Good descriptions can be repurposed

• Save some time and energy! Quality descriptions can be loosely reused for other product pages as well as for ad copy

Live Chat We strongly recommend live chat on your website. Here’s why:

Diagnose errors

• Live chat allows you to compile visitor questions and create content that answers those questions for future customers
• Add helpful information to your product pages and place them near the top of your page

Try *tawk.to*

Check out Shopify’s app integration here https://apps.shopify.com/tawk-to

Identify objections

• Live chat can give you insight into what holds customers back from making a purchase—what questions do they ask before abandoning their cart? What concerns do they bring up in the chat?

Improve conversion rates

• Sometimes, all it takes is a little supportive nudge for customers to make a purchase
• By “being there” through their virtual journey, you have a higher likelihood of making a conversion

Get That Website Ready to Convert

I know, I know. I just gave you a lot of homework.

But listen up: I’ll be back with a guide on the next steps of setting up successful Google Ads campaigns—the dreaded technical and legal requirements.

But if you’re feeling extra-eager, you can check out this Google Ads Mastery Workshop.

Or, you can check out my entire step-by-step guide to Google Ads for eCommerce here.

Kasim Aslam Kasim Aslam is the founder and CEO of Solutions 8, one of the world’s top ranked Google Ads agencies.

Recipient of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association’s 2017 TIM Award for Person of the Year, Kasim was also named one of the Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders in the United States by The University of Missouri in 2020.

Kasim was hand-selected as the Traffic Coach for DigitalMarketer.com’s ELITE coaching program by their executive team. He is also the co-host of the long-running podcast, Perpetual Traffic.

His book, The 7 Critical Principles of Effective Digital Marketing, was featured as one of the Top 100 Digital Marketing Books of All Time by Book Authority.

Kasim helped launch the National Association of Child Helplines (NAACH) and worked with the United States Army, Intel, as well as a Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit, a 54,000 member PPO, the largest privately owned bank in the United States, and an Academy Award-contending documentary.

He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife and two sons.

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“In a “post-digital” world you need to consider e-commerce and here’s why.”

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

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1. Instagram is testing out some new ways to move on from vanity metrics. The social media platform is now beta testing Private Story Likes.
2. How the brand Gymshark became an overnight sensation by leveraging Influencer Marketing, and why you should do the same.
3. The future of Affiliate Marketing and how it will change in 2022.
4. Selling products on social media platforms (also known as social commerce) has emerged as a wonderful digital advertising strategy for ecommerce brands worldwide.
5. Zoom meetings have mostly made our lives easier in our post covid society, but the more meetings we have the less time there is to do work. So, are 15 minute meetings a viable option?

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When you think of an office, you’re probably picturing something like this:

Or if you’re feeling fancy (and worth billions of dollars) like Google is, so you’re thinking something like this:

These days you can even think of an office as a rented, shared space like WeWork:

Thanks to 2021, more offices than ever before are looking like this, home offices that we’ve set up in the quietest corner of our homes:

Although let’s be realistic…how many of your home offices actually look like this:

Yep, I’m raising my hand too.

When you think about work in 2021 and beyond—we’re no longer just thinking of this:

We’re thinking about a hybrid or totally remote model:

And that changes how we build our agencies.

Our offerings and products can stay the same—but the way our agency works internally…can completely shift.

There are 3 organized models that you get to choose to run your agency from nowadays:

1: Gig Model

Short-term tasks that can be managed by one, or at most, a handful of people. With the Gig Model, you’re the opposite of a stage 5 clinger. Your business runs project-to-project and you’re focused on excelling at each of those projects—and then moving on.

There’s no need for water stations or happy hours because your team is distributed. You’re entirely remote and all of your workers are freelancers. Chances are you’re the only person on your payroll.

This model works great for startups that can’t afford full-time employees yet and are still getting themselves off the ground.

2: Corporate Model

Hire a team to work on long-term open-ended jobs that can last for years. This is what you picture when you think of an office—lots of computers and people. We’re thinking of water station conversations and in-person team happy hours (remember those?!).

This is how DigitalMarketer ran pre-March of 2020. We had some freelancers, but the majority of our workforce was in-person, full-time employees. And it worked!

This model used to be an inevitable transition once your business required some full-time staff. It usually starts by bringing on some sort of operations or marketer—and quickly turns into full-time HR people, office managers, and interns.

But there’s a model in-between that most of us have missed—and it wasn’t our fault. We missed it because pre-March of 2020…we just weren’t thinking this way.

We were all thinking home offices and gig workers → rented office space and full-time employees. That was success in terms of an agency. Especially if you could afford the good coffee and the fancy snacks for your team.

Having to figure out how to run our businesses entirely remotely for months and in some cases over a year has taught us that we don’t need all of that fancy stuff.

• Do we really need every employee to be full-time?
• Do we really need the fancy, expensive office space?
• Do our employees even WANT to spend 40 hours of their week in person with us?

The answer is no, and I’m not even offended!

Forbes found that 61% of employees prefer being fully remote.

And Fast Company found the number of people who considered freelancing as a long-term career option increased from 18.5 million to 28.5 million between 2014 and 2019.

I know I’m not the only one thinking that with all these changes coming to market…there’s no way a new business model can’t emerge from them.

And I’m calling this new model…The Hollywood Model.

The Hollywood Model Stay lean and bring in the best on a project basis. This means that you have some full-time employees and the rest of your workforce are contractors/freelancers/gig workers (all the same thing).

Chances are your full-time employees are your decision-makers, they’re your executives and the people who report directly to the CEO. There might be a set of employees under them as well, depending on the size of your business and your service offerings.

The rest of your employees get brought in on a project-by-project basis.

• Your copywriters are on retainer to write your email campaigns as needed
• Your graphic designers are on retainer to create your social media graphics
• Your Facebook ad expert is on retainer on a per-client basis

“A project is identified, a team is assembled, it works together for precisely as long as is needed to complete the task, and then … the team disbands.” – Adam Davidson, Co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money If the majority of employees want to continue remote work…and we have more people than ever starting to freelance—the Hollywood Model was made for times like these.

Times when businesses most want to stay lean thanks to the unpredictability of the markets, and employees are A-okay with switching up how they used to work.

How The Hollywood Model Works

The thing about the Hollywood Model is that it has to be done right. If you don’t do it right, your life can easily become:

• A perpetual state of hiring as you look for gig workers who have the experience and availability for your projects
• A mess of workflow as your full-time employees fail to efficiently teach your gig workers what platforms to use, how to send in deliverables, and how to communicate with the team
• Tight, impossible deadlines due to lack of communication between full-time employees and freelancers leading to delayed launches, campaigns, and products

You can learn more about the Hollywood Model here.

Business has changed—and in some ways, it’s for the better.

Maybe we weren’t being as efficient as we could have been by having our employees come into the office and spending all this money on rent, utilities, and snacks when people are happier working from home.

But that doesn’t mean we have to go back to the Gig Model—DigitalMarketer, Scalable…they wouldn’t succeed with that model. They’re past the stage of being able to survive with just gig workers.

But they don’t need an entire full-time team.

The Hollywood Model is the lean business model that works in 2021 and the foreseeable future. It creates consistency with our full-time employees and the opportunity to tap into highly qualified talent through our freelancers.

It’s the model we’re running at Scalable and DigitalMarketer—and it’s working.

Time to turn this around for your business.

You can generate $3,500/month retainer clients and build a marketing agency that sets you apart from the competition.

Not just because you’re better at marketing…

…But because your business runs lean, is highly adaptable, and uses high-quality talent to get the job done.

And that’s something your competitors using the Corporate Model or the Gig Model can’t compete with.

Grab our free Fractional CMO Playbook so you get the exact, 4-step client attract, convert, and onboard process we teach our agency partners at DigitalMarketer as well as:

• Understand the math behind a $336,000 a year, part-time “Fractional CMO” practice
• The one-sentence “pivot script” that has prospects begging to book a meeting
• A simple little “trick” that filters out virtually all the “lookie-loos” and crazy clients with unrealistic expectations…
• When to sell retainers (and when NOT to sell retainers)

This training is for:

Coaches & consultants thinking about expanding into marketing services.

Freelancers & solopreneurs sick and tired of giving away their time for free.

Marketing professionals thinking about making the leap and launching their own marketing coaching or consultancy.

Anyone thinking about making the leap and launching their own marketing agency or consultancy.

And I’m teaching it.

Register here for The Fractional CMO Playbook to learn how to generate $3,500/mo retainer clients and build a marketing consultancy that sets you apart (thanks to the Hollywood Model).

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“Own your media. I have been saying this for a while and I’ve got proof of it.”

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

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Content marketing has become an essential primary focus for companies. It helps them develop and deliver practical, consistent, relevant content to attract and maintain a specific audience.

But, before you can realize the advantages of content marketing, you must understand how it works. Sadly, that can’t be explained in a couple of sentences.

However, you can use various strategies to comprehend what content marketing entails and how your company can benefit from these approaches.

In this article, we will be discussing the main building blocks of a fantastic content marketing strategy. So let’s get started!

5 Main Building Blocks Of A Solid Content Marketing Strategy Marketers are producing more content than ever before. As per Content Marketing Institute, 77% of B2C organizations and 70% of B2B businesses generate more content than they did almost a year ago.

On the other hand, producing additional content is only beneficial if you have a solid plan.

Unfortunately, according to the same report, just 37% of B2C marketing businesses (and 32% of B2B content marketers) have a defined content marketing plan, despite those with a written plan being more successful overall.

Having said that, here are the five main components of an effective content marketing strategy:

1. Describe Your Success Vision Though it may appear simple, the first task is to decide what motivates you to make content.

Begin by streamlining your reasons to develop content and defining success. A winning plan will come forth after you realize why you are devoting time and money to:

• Content creation
• Recruiting a team
• Setting realistic targets
• Executing

Unfortunately, most people miss this first stage, ignoring the cornerstone of their whole strategy.

So when developing your goal, consider how your content will integrate into your more comprehensive marketing strategy and how content will assist you in delivering that narrative to the audience.

Furthermore, McGladrey‘s case study demonstrates that taking a step back and defining your goals may significantly affect your content marketing results.

2. Know Your Target Audience Audience profiling is a critical component of any effective content marketing strategy.

If you’re not aware of your target audience, you wouldn’t know what sort of material to create, where to post it, and where to market it.

It’s imperative to understand the people you’re trying to attract to your content. Try to find out what they enjoy reading and what attracts them to click.

Then, undergo a comprehensive examination of your marketing goals to develop a collection of buyer personas and demographic profiles.

Here is a step-by-step way to go about this:

1. Create Demographic Profiles: Marital status, educational level, family size, career, income level, gender, religion, race, and age should be included. When targeting companies, check for company age, yearly income, kind of produce, number of branches, number of workers, customer size, geographic area, and industry
2. Create Buyer Personas: These fictitious personalities are a “qualitative deep dive” that examines your audience’s requirements, objectives, wants, difficulties, beliefs, and attitudes based on demographic data. Pretend to be like your customers and use feedback forms. Then, think about how you could solve their difficulties or satisfy their wants
3. Provide Them The Content: Once you have determined who your target audience is, consider which social platforms they frequent, which keywords pique their interest, and what material they want. You may have to go through extensive trend research using web tools such as Google Trends

3. Link Building Building a solid backlink profile is another integral addition to your content marketing strategy. This is because Google appreciates a strong backlink profile.

Moreover, 90% of digital marketers rely on the content as their primary tactic for acquiring backlinks.

Generating relevant content for your target audience that you might then market to other websites and blog owners – who are all connecting back to the website – is a terrific way to improve traffic.

Therefore, guest posting is a vital content marketing strategy. It will allow you to link your content back to credible sources and vice versa.

So if you find efficient guest posting services, you can drastically improve your content marketing strategy.

As a result, this will bolster your visibility in your niche online and make you an authority on the subject.

4. Lead Generation Competent digital marketing professionals keep a close watch on lead creation when performing content marketing.

The beautiful thing about this form of content marketing was that it would give importance to the target audience if done correctly. As a result, you may ‘gate’ your material.

Furthermore, this implies that to access the template/Video/White Paper/Video/eBook the user wishes to see, your readers give you their business card number and email address. Brilliant!

On the other hand, applying content marketing tools this way guarantees that your material is more than just an engagement or online exposure tool.

Moreover, it can also be used to identify and shape your current and marketing-certified leads. It allows your company to determine:

• Which audience groups are most intrigued by certain products
• How cold or hot a lead is
• Which prospects are most crucial for your sales representatives to chase

5. SEO Benefit Another effective content marketing strategy is to create SEO-friendly material for your site.

Remember there are two sorts of material on a webpage: Blog content and Category content. And both need to be high quality and relevant.

Keyword-rich, informative, and well-written content improves user experience and draws Google’s attention to it.

In addition, by persistently targeting business keywords in this material, Google will recognize that it is related to the URL and beneficial to the customer and will pay you as a consequence.

Conclusion After developing your content and gaining the backlinks, you will want to keep pace by assessing your content portfolio regularly and upgrading resources as needed.

It will aid in keeping the content you have worked extremely hard to generate and gain backlinks.

Furthermore, as a result, the content will help to lead your target audience. In addition, you will be able to continue executing marketing for that specific asset, further increasing your brand’s image and resulting in more leads for your brand.

Jay Ripton Jay Ripton is a freelance business and technology writer out of Scottsdale. He loves to write to inform, educate and provoke minds.

The post The Building Blocks Of An Awesome Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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The show is absolutely entertaining, but just remember: you’re a marketer in real life, and she plays one on TV.

Today’s episode is a fun one. Host Mark de Grasse, DigitalMarketer President-turned TV critic analyzes Netflix’s Emily in Paris from the perspective of a real-life marketer. In the show, Emily is a Chicago-based marketing junior executive who gets sent to Paris to work with a luxury marketing firm. She’s there to help the firm relate to Americans. If you’re an aspiring marketer, Mark warns, don’t expect things to work out as quickly and easily as they do for Emily. Which you won’t, since you know the difference between TV and real life, right?

Listen in to hear Mark’s fun take on 5 core marketing basics the show gets wrong.

Listen Now IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• Why your business development pitches won’t get adopted overnight
• What would really happen if you overstepped the senior marketing team
• Why your IG following won’t grow exponentially without a strategy
• Why you can’t count on running into celebrities on the street

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Emily in Paris on Netflix

OUR PARTNERS:

• 7 Levels of Scale Workbook
• Free training from BotBuilders
• Create an online store with Wix
• Sales and Marketing Automation with Keap
• Find out your Leadership Trust Score at Ready to Lead.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The DigitalMarketer Podcast? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!

The post Episode 202: What Netflix Got Wrong About Digital Marketing in Emily in Paris, Their New Hit Series appeared first on DigitalMarketer.