Author: Franz Malten Buemann

My Setup: Input Features: Various media spends and its lagged version Target Feature: Sales Objective1: Predict Sales (got decent performance) Objective2: Find Feature Attribution ML Model: DNN Architecture using TF Keras Attribution Tool: Integrated Gradients My Issue: I’m getting -ve attributes for features where common sense tells us that it should be +ve. For example, I’m getting -ve attribution for tv ad spend. How to fix this issue? submitted by /u/eternalmathstudent [link] [comments]

In the world of B2B marketing, podcasts are quickly rising to the top of the content demand scale. Since 2004 when software engineer Dave Winer and MTV video jockey Adam Curry figured out how to download online radio programmes to an iPod, podcasts have been around. submitted by /u/oxpertech [link] [comments]

Are you feeling anxious about your job search? You’re not alone. The competition for jobs is fierce and the search can be grueling.

In this article, we’ll cover the warning signs that you may be experiencing job search anxiety and the ways to reduce it.

What is job search anxiety?
Job Search Anxiety Warning Signs
How to Deal with Job Search Anxiety

Job Search Anxiety Warning Signs
It’s important to know the difference between the frustration and nerves that happen during any job search and the anxiety that can impact your mental health.
Here are some warning signs that you may be experiencing job search anxiety:

Difficulty getting out of bed and/or focusing
Increased irritability
Disinterest in usual hobbies
Feelings of helplessness and/or worthlessness
Cluttered and/or dirty space
Procrastination

It’s important to note that these feelings can arise for anyone during the job search process. It becomes a more important issue once it persists and impacts your ability to live your daily life, as you used to.
In the next section, we’ll cover ways to reduce your anxiety and regain control over your job search.

How to Deal with Job Search Anxiety

Follow a routine.

When you have a full-time (or even part-time) job, you’re expected to stick to a schedule. That can be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., or something else. The point is, you stick to those hours.
When it comes to searching for a new job, treat that as your job. This means working for a set number of hours, taking regular breaks, and clocking out at the end of the day.
The issue many job seekers face during the job hunt is that it bleeds into their everyday lives. Just as it’s important to have work/life balance, it’s key that you follow a routine that allows you to disconnect.
This will ensure you have time to nurture yourself outside of “work” through socializing, hobbies, and more.
2. Fit in small wins in your schedule.
When you’re looking for a job, you’re not just looking. You’re sending emails, researching companies and hiring managers, reaching out to your network, making new connections, and more.
It can be overwhelming and that can translate into anxiety.
As you tackle your tasks throughout the day, fit in some wins that will keep you motivated. This can be related or unrelated to your job search, like:

Reading a chapter from a new book.
Connecting with someone in your industry on LinkedIn
Getting to a new level on Duolingo.

Whatever it is that you can accomplish and brings you joy, fit it into your schedule.
Pro-tip: Schedule it whenever you tend to experience slumps in your day. The boost of energy you’ll get is arguably better than any cup of coffee.
3. Remember that it’s not personal.
Looking for a new job means facing rejection.
Although it’s hard to keep this in mind, there are so many factors and variables – outside of your control – that impact the candidates hiring managers consider for a role. As such, just because you were rejected, doesn’t mean the team didn’t like you.
Catch yourself when you think or say things like “What am I doing wrong?” Instead, take every interaction with companies as an opportunity to learn.
It can also help to remember that every “no” gets you one step closer to your “yes.”
4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
When you find an opportunity that seemingly aligns with what you’re looking for, it’s easy to get excited and start to fantasize about it.
Say you get to the third round of an interview process. You may stop interviewing elsewhere because you have faith that this one will work out. Resist that urge.
As mentioned before, there are countless factors that influence hiring managers’ decisions. Don’t commit to one company unless they’ve committed to you via a job offer.
Operating with flexibility and adaptability will allow you to stay motivated despite the disappointment that can come with job searching.
5. Destress every day.
Once you’ve clocked out for the day, it’s important to participate in activities that will destress your nervous system and re-energize you.
While you may be tempted to go on social media, don’t. Often, we end up distracting ourselves with stimuli from binge-watching Netflix or scrolling on TikTok rather than relaxing.
Here are some better alternatives:

Go for a walk, run, or bike ride in nature.
Listen to music or a podcast.
Color or read a book.
Catch up with friends and family.
Meditate.
Complete a puzzle or sudoku.
Play board games.

6. Switch up your strategy.
If your current strategy still has you feeling anxious, switch something up.
For example, maybe sitting at home all day isn’t productive for you. Perhaps, you’ll work better at a coffee shop or in a park.
Not getting much traction with your resume? Try hiring a resume writer or having a colleague review it.
It’s common to feel stuck during the job search, which can lead to anxiety. Adapting your strategy can help ease some of this and make you feel empowered during your process.
7. Ask for help.
If you find yourself still struggling and don’t know where to go next, reach out for help.
Job search anxiety is incredibly common and you shouldn’t face it alone. Consider reaching out to a therapist who can help you discover new ways of experiencing this journey.
Within your own community, reach out to friends and family. While they won’t always understand what you’re going through, they can offer the support you need.

As inbound marketers, we care about creating frictionless experiences for our website visitors that will also generate leads. Most of the time we can do both but in the case of pop-up forms, conflict does emerge.

Over the past few years, pop-up forms have re-emerged as a popular marketing tactic for promoting content, driving blog subscriptions, growing email lists, and fueling lead generation. The question is, do pop-up form work? We’ll cover that and more below.

What is a pop-up form?
Pop-Up Triggers
Do pop-up forms work?
Tips for Crafting High-Converting Pop-Ups

What is a pop-up form?
A pop-up form is a window that appears while a user browses a website. It can be triggered by a number of actions, including interactions with an element on the page, scrolling, and inactivity.
Pop-ups have become so prevalent that back in 2016, Google weighed in to announce it would start penalizing websites using, what they call, “intrusive interstitials.”
But here’s the thing: not all pop-ups are bad. When executed well, they can be part of a healthy inbound strategy.
However, because of the intrusive and disruptive nature of pop-ups, marketers should be careful of when and how they appear as well as the type of content they present. In other words, context.
When they’re appropriate context mixed in with added value, pop-up forms can enhance website visitors’ experience and boost conversion rates.

Pop-ups come in many shapes and sizes, but here’s a graphic that depicts the most common ones you might see on a web page:

Let’s dive a little deeper into these pop-up formats:
1. Welcome Mats
These are full-screen pop-ups that slide above the page content.
The biggest advantage to using a welcome mat pop-up form is that ig brings the offer front and center. Consider doing this if the offer is highly relevant to your content and important to your strategy.
Otherwise, a welcome mat pop-up may be a little too intrusive, as it may not be what users expect when landing on this page.
2. Overlay Modals
As close to the traditional pop-up as you can get, these are center-screen pop-ups that appear on top of page content.
Unlike the welcome mat, overlays don’t block the rest of the content from being shown, but the user will have to click out of the pop-up to continue what they’re doing. While some users do feel that overlay modals are intrusive, they often have high conversion rates if the offer is compelling.
3. On-Click Pop-Ups
An on-click pop-up is a specific type of overlay modal that pops up with a form when a user clicks a call-to-action or other page element.

They’re perfect for when an in-line form would clutter the page but you want to decrease friction to a particular offer. The UX tends to be easy, which reduces friction on the conversion path.
4. Gamified Coupons
Another type of overlay modal, gamified coupons will let you play a game for a discount or prize of some kind in exchange for the users’ information.
They often come in the form of a prize wheel or scratch-off ticket and are best for fun ecommerce store brands (since the coupon can then be applied at checkout).
5. Top Banners
Also known as sticky bars, these are small banners that manifest as a bar at the very top of the page, asking the user to take action on something.

They are typically a more permanent conversion element than other types of pop-up and are best used for broad offers such as newsletter subscriptions, coupons, or even general announcements.
6. Slide-In Boxes
Slide-ins are small boxes that slide in from the side/bottom of the page, similar to an overlay modal but with less obtrusive behavior.
These are great for presenting offers as the user is scrolling through the content of the page.

Pop-Up Triggers
Among the most popular pop-up triggers are:

Page entrance: Pop-up appears when the visitor first gets to the page. These can be considered disruptive but can be used effectively with less-intrusive formats such as the top banner.
Page scroll: Pop-up appears when the visitor scrolls to a certain point on the page. These are great for long-form content when you don’t want to embed CTAs in the content.
Element interaction: Pop-up appears when the visitor clicks on or hovers over a specific element. These are highly effective since the user took a specific action with the intent to convert.
Time on page: Pop-up appears when the visitor has been on the page for a specific amount of time.
Exit intent: Exit intent pop-ups appear when the visitor scrolls towards the top of the page to leave. Consider it a last-ditch effort to capture their attention before they leave.
Inactivity: Pop-up appears when the user has not taken action on the website in a while.

Now that we know a little more about pop-up forms, let’s get back to the core question: Should marketers be using them? Let’s dig in.

Do pop-up forms work?
I’ll answer this one right off the bat: The answer is yes. Pop-up forms do work, and this is the main reason so many marketers are using them.
In 2019, research conducted by Sumo found that the top performing 10% of pop-up forms convert at a whopping 9.3%.
In 2021, Klaviyo analyzed over 80,000 businesses using its software and found that overlay modal pop-up forms convert at 3.2% and slide-out pop-ups at 2.2%.
To dig into why some pop-up forms perform better than others, we surveyed 100 consumers to learn about their habits.
50% of respondents say what draws them most to a form is a clear indication of what they’ll receive for completing it. I.e. the offer.
The length of the form along with an engaging description will also play an important role in the conversion rate. In fact, 50% of respondents say a pop-up form’s length can cause them to abandon it.
The longer the form, the higher the odds they’ll disengage. 20% say they’ll abandon a form if they feel they’re asked invasive questions.
Although this can vary by form, it’s much easier for users to offer a name and an email than it is to give a phone number and home address.
Knowing which questions to ask is key to how well the pop-up form converts.
Find below additional tips on creating effective pop-up forms.

4 Tips for Crafting High-Converting Pop-Up Forms
1. Offer something relevant and valuable.
The problem with most pop-ups is they get in the way of the visitor’s experience on a website, rather than enhance it.
This is likely because the offer in the pop-up is either not valuable to the visitor or isn’t relevant.
To boost engagement with your pop-up, make sure you follow these steps:

Understand your persona and what they’re expecting from this page.
Know which offers will align best with their needs.
Ensure the offer lines up with the content of the page

For example, if I were writing a blog post on social media, I would offer a free ebook on the same topic – as seen below.
Image Source
In this example, the article is all about growing an audience on TikTok as a brand. The pop-up offer aligns perfectly by offering readers a free TikTok growth checklist.
While an offer on social media statistics could work, the conversion rate would likely be much lower as it doesn’t directly target their current needs.
2. Think about the way people engage with your pages.
Another common mistake marketers make with pop-ups is having them appear at the wrong time, which adds to the annoyance factor. ‘
Be strategic about the timing and trigger of your pop-ups. Think about the way that visitors interact with certain types of pages on your site.
For instance, when someone engages with a blog post, they do so by scrolling down the page as they read the content. If you want to catch your visitors while they’re most engaged, then you should customize your pop-up to appear when someone has scrolled halfway down the page.
Similarly, you might find that people who stay on your product or pricing pages for more than 30 seconds are highly engaged because they’re taking the time to read through and consider their options.
In this scenario, you could use a time-based pop-up that appears when a visitor has been on the page for a specific number of seconds.
To better understand exactly how your visitors engage with different pages on your site, try looking into Google Analytics data, such as bounce rate and average time on page.
Better yet, use a tool like HotJar or Crazy Egg to record users on your site to build heat maps of where they click and scroll. This will give you a better sense of how people engage with your content.
In addition, consider the tool you’re using to build your form. A tool like Typeform will help you create branded and customizable forms that match your brand identity and will increase conversions.
3. Use language that’s specific, actionable, and human.
Most pop-up forms have a fairly basic layout. You get a headline, some body copy, and maybe an image. In other words, you don’t have a lot of real estate to work with.
This means it’s super important to nail the copy on your pop-up form. In order to do that make sure your copy is specific, actionable, and human:

Specific: Specify exactly what a visitor is going to get if they click on your pop-up. Don’t tell them it’s a guide; tell them it’s a 10-page guide with actionable tips. Don’t encourage them to join your email list; ask if they want to stay updated on industry news and trends.
Actionable: Let visitors know exactly what you’d like them to do. Instead of “Click Here,” try “Download our Free Guide,” or better yet, “Get my Free Guide.” Craft a compelling call-to-action that will inspire your visitors to take action.
Human: Remind visitors that there’s a real person behind the pop-up form. Use colloquial language to make your forms friendly. Instead of “Join our email list,” try “Mind if we email you twice a week?”

4. Don’t ruin the mobile experience.
When building out your pop-up forms, it’s critical that you consider mobile. With most consumers accessing the internet from their smartphones nowadays, that could be a costly oversight.
To ensure a user-friendly mobile experience and avoid being penalized by Google, be sure to exclude your pop-up forms for mobile, or use pop-ups that don’t take up the entire screen of the page on mobile devices.
Most pop-up tools already offer this type of functionality, but if what you’re currently using doesn’t, you may need to find a new solution.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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