The value of sending snail mail is something that was ingrained in me from a very young age. After birthdays or Christmas, my parents would expect me to send thank-you cards to friends and relatives who gave me presents. When I started working, I stuck with it: I sent cards after job interviews and to colleagues who had especially impacted my career, and I realized it was a quick way to stand out in a world where most people don’t send snail mail. So, when I launched my business a decade ago—a resume review side hustle on Fiverr—it felt very natural to integrate greeting cards into my client experience. Even though people were only paying me $5 for a resume review, I could afford to march down to TJ Maxx and buy a dozen cards for a few bucks to send a thank you card, along with a congratulations note when they landed a job.My business has changed a lot since then, but my reliance on snail mail has not. Through my career coaching business, I’ve been able to help more than 1,000 clients with their careers and share advice with over 250,000 followers on social media. (Plus, I now charge a lot more than I did in my Fiverr days.) But I still carve out the time to send hundreds of holiday, birthday, and congratulations cards each year. It may sound like a slow way to market a business in our digital-focused world, but it’s been instrumental to my success.Read on to learn how snail mail plays into my marketing strategy, the tactical details of how I implement it, and how any business owner can adapt this for their own client experience.How sending cards has helped my business growthMost of my work comes from referrals or return clients, and I attribute that in no small part to the cards I send out.For one, it makes my clients feel special and seen, which is especially important in a relationship-based field like coaching. Often, clients will snap a photo of the card and share it on social media, commenting that they love working with a coach who recognizes them as more than a number. That’s a feeling that really sticks and makes them want to work with me again next time they need support. (Not to mention, their post serves as free word-of-mouth-marketing to all of their followers.) I also think this offline approach amplifies the impact of my online content—when clients see my social media posts, they’re more excited to engage with them because of the personal relationship we have built. The cards also emphasize the impact of our work together. Too many people are bad at celebrating wins, but when they receive a card congratulating them on the new job or promotion they landed, they have an excuse to pause for a moment and be really proud of themselves. Clients have told me that they’ll keep my cards to look at in difficult moments and remind themselves of the things they’ve been able to achieve in the past. In addition, continuing to stay in touch on holidays or birthdays helps me regularly remind them I’m here for them in a non-salesy way. Physical mail also makes it easy for my clients to refer me to family, friends, and colleagues. I eventually upgraded my snail mail to include a custom cork coaster that says “you are fabulous” and has my website printed at the bottom. I’ve had many clients hand these off to contacts who are looking for career support, or even ask for extra coasters so they can have them on hand anytime they meet someone looking for a coach. They’re more expensive than business cards, but people actually keep and display them for years and see them as a daily reminder of the experience they had working with me. Kylie’s custom cork coasterI think of this approach as planting seeds. Do I always see immediate ROI from the mail I send out? No. But I’ve also had potential clients reach out saying they saw my coaster on their friends’ desk—one I had sent months or even years before. By creating something that people like to keep around, I’m top of mind when they’re looking for what I have to offer.How I integrate this habit into my busy scheduleSo how do I send all this mail without it taking up all of my time?For starters, I always keep the materials I need on hand. I’ve since upgraded from packs of discount cards to custom branded cards that I worked with my designer, Christa Fleming, to create, which makes the experience more polished and keeps my brand front and center. I have a custom birthday card, as well as a more generic card I can use for congratulations or other purposes. For my holiday cards, I design something new each year using a photo of me and my partner.The birthday cards Kylie’s clients receive I also keep a simple Excel spreadsheet with addresses for current clients and past clients from the last few years, as well as industry colleagues, people who send me referrals, and anyone else who had an impact on my business or life. I’ll also add their birthdays to my calendar. Once a year, I like to go through my calendar and add to my spreadsheet anyone I had a good conversation with, so I can re-spark the relationship. Then, each Friday, I’ll spend about 30 minutes sending cards. I’ll send birthday cards for everyone on my calendar for the subsequent week, plus congratulations cards for anyone who reached out to me sharing a win or who I noticed an exciting update from on social media. I’ll spend a few minutes writing a short personalized note—mentioning their recent accomplishment or something I appreciate about them—and then send it off!Holiday cards are a bigger lift since I’m sending hundreds of cards at once, so I save myself time by not writing personalized notes in every card. Sometimes I’ll hire someone to help me label and stuff envelopes, while other years I’ll set up an assembly line with my partner and Nana Hallie and we’ll spend a few hours prepping the cards together.Kylie’s custom holiday card I’ve thought about not sending cards anymore, especially as my physical mailing list grows, but every time I do it and see the results, it feels so worth the effort.How to make this your ownDo I think every small business owner should start sending cards? Not necessarily. If snail mail doesn’t fit your brand or you think you’d dread this task each week, then don’t do it!But what I do hope small business owners take away from my experience is the value of creating personalized experiences in marketing. I’m a big Disney fan, and I’m always thinking about how I can create a Disneyland experience for my clients—something special that they won’t find with anyone else. This comes across in the cards that I send, but in other moments, too. For instance, when someone schedules a consultation with me, I send them a short welcome video helping them prep for the meeting.Even if you’re not sending cards, ask yourself: What little memorable moments can you create? How can you develop a more human relationship with your clients or potential customers? How can you show up for them in a more personal way? And how can you do this in a way that will allow your personality, brand, and the value you add to their lives shine through?So many business owners focus on growth through automation, through getting in front of more people, faster. But I truly believe it’s these human relationships that build strong, fabulous businesses for the long haul.
Author: Franz Malten Buemann
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20 Artificial Intelligence Statistics that Marketers Need to Know in 2023
The world of artificial intelligence and machine learning is expanding, and marketers should pay attention. AI is being implemented in nearly every industry to improve business processes, and the data surrounding this tech are staggering.
To help you better grasp AI’s most recent advancements, we’ve compiled a list of interesting AI statistics to consider before you use it for your own company strategy. And if you’re in a pinch, jump straight to the section that you need.
Interesting AI Statistics
AI Adoption Statistics
Marketing AI Statistics
AI Chatbot Statistics
Attitudes Toward AI StatisticsInteresting AI Statistics
To understand the importance of AI, you have to look at it from a broad perspective. Here are some stats about the global artificial intelligence market, and which companies are prioritizing the technology.
1. The market for artificial intelligence (AI) has a current market value of nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars and is expected to grow twentyfold by 2030, up to almost 2 trillion U.S. dollars.
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2. Artificial intelligence (AI) is heavily used for service operations and product & service development-related functions in the high-tech and telecom industry.
3. The current AI market race is led by IBM, which holds a more than nine percent global market share.
4. IBM is the leading company in active machine learning and AI patents worldwide, with over 5,500 patent families as of November 2020.
5. Next to IBM in the global AI patent race are Microsoft and Samsung, each within 500 patent families from IBM.
AI Adoption Statistics
Businesses are beginning to streamline processes using AI — just look at the significant increase in implementation over the last few years.
6. Artificial intelligence (AI) saw a staggering growth in adoption rates from 2017 to 2018, and it has leveled off significantly since 2019. It grew nearly 2.5 times in 2022 compared to its adoption rate in 2017.
7. In 2022, many companies are using AI to improve their hiring policies and needs, reduce the need for redundant hiring, and enable more efficient recruiting methods.Marketing AI Statistics
Marketers are leveraging the technology for their own business strategy. Check out these stats to see how you can put AI to use in your company.
8. In 2021, the market for artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing was estimated at 15.84 billion U.S. dollars. The source projected that the value would increase to more than 107.5 billion by 2028.
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9. More than 80% of industry experts integrate some form of AI technology into their online marketing activities.
10. When asked about marketers’ main application areas of AI in a recent survey, roughly 50% of respondents from the U.S., Canada, the UK, and India mentioned ad targeting when asked about marketers’ main application areas of AI.AI Chatbot Statistics
The customer service industry has changed with the introduction of AI chatbots. Whether used to improve customer service or auto-populate data for internal reporting, this tech yields some surprising statistics.
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11. The chatbot market is forecast to reach around 1.25 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, a significant increase from the market size in 2016, which stood at 190.8 million U.S. dollars.
12. 26% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers using chatbots in their marketing programs gained between ten and 20% more lead generation volumes.
13. A survey in October 2022 in the United States found that 57% of B2B marketers used chatbots in their demand generation programs to understand their audience better.
14. Another 55% said they did so to generate new leads.
15. An additional 43% of American marketers stated that chatbots helped educate prospects.Attitudes Toward AI Statistics
So how is artificial intelligence being perceived by your average customer or prospect? Does the general public have reservations about the use of AI? These statistics may help you better grasp the most common perceptions of it.
16. In a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, 48% of respondents stated that neither Photoshop nor Generative artificial intelligence (AI) images of faces/people should be used in social media advertising.
17. Another 25% of respondents said both image software was acceptable for social media advertising.
18. 45% of responding consumers did not understand how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies worked.
19. 73% of respondents said that they believed that AI and ML had the potential to impact customer experience (CX).
20. 48% of respondents stated they would interact with AI more frequently if it made their customer experience with a brand more seamless, consistent, and convenient.
Introduce AI into Your Marketing Strategy
Artificial intelligence will continue to grow more prevalent in the business world.
Its influence on our daily lives has shown us the potential to improve how we work — and how we can let technology work for us. -
Boost your “Digital” CX by bridging the gap between AI and EQ
The modern era of technology and computerisation has made us neglect the human intellect and emotions. AI is evolving – and seemingly unchecked. Its supporters highlight promising advancements in customer service, data processing, and decision-making. On the other hand, detractors are quick to point out the wide-ranging effects of job loss and the concern that…
The post Boost your “Digital” CX by bridging the gap between AI and EQ appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
Reinventing retail experiences with Conversational AI
Retailers face significant challenges today as they strive to remain competitive. They are grappling with macroeconomic forces such as inflation, labour shortages, rising wages, and the cost-of-living crisis. These pressures are compounded by the decline in brick-and-mortar operations and the increasing digitisation of shopping. With rising consumer expectations, retailers must find ways to adapt to…
The post Reinventing retail experiences with Conversational AI appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
The ghost in the machine
“The computer wants you to click this button.”
“It thinks you asked for something else.”
“He’s mad at you.”
Thousands of generations ago, we evolved our way into a magnificent hack. It turns out that we can more safely navigate the world by imagining that other people have a little voice in their heads just as we have one in ours.
By projecting the narrative voice to others, we avoided fights that could be fatal. It’s a powerful shorthand that allows us to use limited brain processing power to interact in complicated cultural situations.
It worked so well, we began applying it to dogs, to lizards and even to the weather. It’s a great place to find the origins of bad decisions and superstitions.
The truth, of course, is that your cat doesn’t have a voice in her head. But we still act like she does. And that cloud doesn’t really have an angry face in it, a bug we see so often that we even gave it a name. Pareidolia is proof that the mistake is almost universal.
And now, AI chat is putting the common sense of this to the test. We know exactly what the code base is, and yet within minutes, most normal humans are happily chatting away, bringing the very emotions to the computer that we’d bring to another person. We rarely do this with elevators or door handles, but once a device gets much more complicated than that, we start to imagine the ghost inside the machine.
If it’s working, keep at it.
The problems arise when the hack stops working. When we start making up stories about the narrative intent of complex systems. Sooner or later, we end up with conspiracies, misunderstandings about public health and opportunities missed in the financial markets.
Emergent behaviors (like the economy and computers and the natural world) aren’t conscious.
It’s hard to say, “I know I’m making up a human-centric story to explain systemic phenomena, but it’s a shortcut I use… do you think the shortcut is helpful here?”
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[Webinar] Achieving High-Performing Salesforce DevOps With Metrics
Are you part of an elite Salesforce DevOps team? One thing elite teams have in common is software delivery metrics. Join Salesforce MVP Gaurav Kheterpal (Founder, CEO of Vanshiv Technologies), Andrew Cook (Technical Salesforce Instructor, Salesforce Ben), and Veroljub Mihajlovic (Senior Product Marketing Leader, Flosum)… Read More
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Driveway – a chrome extension that automatically creates step by step training guides with screenshots by recording your brower based workflow
submitted by /u/Downtown-Repair-805 [link] [comments]
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Shields up
Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book.
While their periodical was weekly, it certainly wasn’t news. They were just four people in a small office in Florida. They gleefully made stuff up every week. They had a few filing cabinets of stock photos, and they invented stories featuring UFOs, aliens, “scientists” (in quotation marks) and various other diversions for folks trapped in the checkout supermarket line.
And now, of course, we are all trapped in that line. And now, the algorithms are pushing spineless profit-seekers to bombard us with junk, junk that shows up on the home page of search engines, in our social media feeds and in our email.
Adblockers are one of the most popular innovations of the last few years. What I want is a junkblocker. A big button on my browser that says “shields up.” And just imagine if it was set to on by default.
No celebrity gossip. No conspiracy theories. No weight loss breakthroughs. It would automatically block fist fights, trolling, urgent but unimportant breaking news, insights about the royal family, discussions of whatever happened to a star from thirty years ago, aliens, UFOs, MLMs, the latest pump-and-dump schemes, things that are true but irrelevant, things that are relevant but didn’t actually happen and stories designed to demean, degrade or intentionally inflict distress with little recourse available.
When you put it that way, who doesn’t want a button like that?
Somehow, we survived as a culture for centuries without exposing ourselves to thousands of profit-driven manipulations dumped on our living room carpet all day, every day.
No wonder we’re exhausted after a day online.
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The gap between impossible and normal
It keeps getting shorter and shorter.
This video couldn’t have been made, at any price, 18 months ago. 18 weeks ago, it would have required a thousand hours of work.
Now, here it is. This impossible is going to happen faster and faster and faster.