Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • 6 Email Marketing Tips for Virtual Association Events

    This is a guest post from Fonteva.
    Effective email marketing strategies are vital for associations, nonprofits, and businesses alike—especially in a time of uncertainty. Organizations everywhere are trying to stay top-of-mind for consumers, and the amount of digital clutter has only increased. That’s why walking through some top tips (and mistakes to avoid) for event marketing is crucial.
    This article will provide a deeper understanding of effective email marketing tactics. You will learn how to:

    Personalize your messages.
    Leverage intriguing subject lines.
    Use graphic elements wisely.
    Establish a drip campaign.
    Ensure mobile-friendliness.
    Conclude with a clear call to action.

    As a result of COVID-19, organizations across the globe have shifted to virtual events to maintain engagement levels while social distancing. However, it’s important to recognize that even once things begin to settle down and return to a “new normal,” virtual engagement will continue to be a communication strategy for associations and other organizations.
    Whether you’re planning a brand new virtual event for your association, or pivoting an existing event to the virtual realm, spreading the word is crucial for the best turnout. Ready to dig in? Let’s get started.
    1. Personalize your messages.
    When it comes to crafting an effective marketing email, personalizing your messaging is vital. Consumers, members, and other recipients get so many emails every day that it can be too easy to slip through the cracks. To avoid this, you have to make sure your messages stand out— and personalization is a great way to go.
    Here are two ideas you want to implement as you begin drafting your email copy:

    Address recipients by name. Any effective email starts out with a personalized greeting. “Dear John,” is always going to be a better opening than “Dear member,” or worse, “To whom it may concern.” After all, this is your chance to make a first impression on the reader as they skim over your message and decide whether to engage. From the beginning, it’s important the recipient feels that it is a personal invitation to your event, rather than a blanket, pre-written message. 

    Segment your audience. Personalization can go farther than just your greeting. Be sure your entire message is customized based on content type and relationship to each recipient. That’s where audience segmentation comes in. For event marketing outreach, you may choose to segment based on whether the recipient is registered already (you can send detailed event information) or not (send a generalized overview and an invitation). Further, you can segment based on a recipient’s previous event history as well.

    Each of these tasks, while possible to complete by hand, can be streamlined by using the right email marketing software—thus saving your team time and effort to be used elsewhere. For even better results, be sure your marketing tools and CRM are fully integrated. When you start your engagement off on the right foot, your readers are more likely to respond to your marketing attempts in the way you seek.
    2. Leverage intriguing subject lines.
    A well-crafted subject line for your email is one of the most important elements in your entire campaign. After all, the subject line is what originally grabs (or loses) the reader’s attention even before opening the email.
    If you’re overwhelmed or unsure of where to start, here are some examples of strategic subject lines to market your event:

    Hurry! Register by midnight for 50% off your ticket price. This subject line expresses a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out which can lead to increased clicks and conversions.

    Introducing our virtual event series: [Name of series]. This subject line makes it clear that the contents of your email include new information that the reader does not want to miss out on.

    7 reasons to attend our annual event. This subject line implies that the body of the email will clearly spell out a string of reasons why the reader should attend the event, which inspires the curiosity to continue reading.

    8 out of 10 association members want this one thing. This subject line peaks the reader’s curiosity, encouraging them to open the email and find out more. What exactly do 8 out of 10 members want? If they’re a member too, it will be relevant to them!

    Warning: Event may cause too much fun. This subject line combines shock-value and humor to grab the recipient’s attention. Of course, the reader will want to know what kind of exciting event necessitates this type of warning.

    [Recipient’s name], we want to see you at this event. This subject line uses personalization (as described above) to position your marketing email as an individual event invitation.

    On the other hand, here are some not-so-great examples:

    [Name of event] Association Event. Not only is this subject line bland, it gives no information about the event or even why the reader should open the email.

    [Name of organization] weekly newsletter. If you’re trying to drive registrations for your event, this subject line will do no good. An event marketing email should be independent of any regular newsletters and demonstrate that with a unique subject line.

    Event on [Date of event]. Stating the date of your event is not enough to convince recipients that they want to attend. What’s happening at your event that will inspire registrations?

    Register for our event here. This subject line is simply telling the reader to register but fails to tell the reader why they should register (or even open your email in the first place!).

    Writing the best email subject lines can be tricky, but it is of utmost importance for your marketing campaign to yield results. Doing some research on businesses and organizations that have seen success in their email marketing is a great way to gather inspiration and emulate effective strategies.
    3. Use graphic elements wisely.
    Studies show that communications containing visuals see up to 650% higher engagement levels than those solely composed of text. That’s because visual elements are a great way to grab the attention of the reader and they provide a more aesthetically pleasing experience overall.
    Email campaigns should use several types of graphic content to take your messages to the next level, including: 

    Images: Images are a classic example of graphic email content, whether it’s your own photography, stock photos, or clipart. Including pictures is a great way to brighten up your emails and increase engagement rates.

    Videos: Video elements can be an excellent contribution to email marketing content, especially when you’re promoting events. You might include a video recap of a previous event, or a series of interviews with past attendees sharing their favorite memories and urging members to register.

    Gifs: As a sort of combination of photo and video, gif content is a new and exciting way to grab the reader’s attention. There are plenty of pre-made gifs you can find online, or use online tools to turn your own short video clips into unique gifs!

    However, visual elements can also have negative consequences when used incorrectly, as they can lead to sensory overload and distract the reader from the message in the text. Finding a solid balance between too little and too much graphic content is a great way to optimize your content for engagement.
    4. Establish a drip campaign.
    A drip campaign is a marketing strategy that utilizes a predetermined cadence of emails to nurture leads and eventually direct recipients toward a desired action. In this case, the action is registering for your upcoming virtual association event! 
    These examples of successful email drip campaigns demonstrate the way in which triggered emails can effectively lead to higher levels of recipient engagement. Simply put, the process is as follows:

    Your association team comes up with a collection of created emails.

    You utilize an email marketing automation tool to schedule emails at particular points in time.

    A recipient receives their first email in the campaign.
    Depending on whether they opened the first message, they might receive a second email pushing them further down the conversion funnel.
    If the user does not open the first, they might receive a follow-up email or the campaign could stop there.
    The process continues based on your predetermined email sequence.

    Email drip campaigns are a great way to engage with your network without becoming too overbearing to those who are uninterested. Because the campaign takes cues from a user’s own behavior, the strategy allows you to pursue leads that continue to show interest and are the most likely to become registrants.
    5. Ensure mobile-friendliness.
    Did you know that more than 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices? That means if your association’s materials are not mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your online registrations.
    Be sure these two elements are as easy to use on mobile devices as they are on desktop:

    Emails: Most smartphone users have their email accounts signed in on their mobile devices for ease of use and increased accessibility. As soon as they receive an email notification, they can quickly decide whether to engage or ignore it. If a user opens your marketing email on their cell phone only to find that reading it involves endless scrolling and zooming, they’re likely to click out and never return. Instead, mobile-friendly emails are more likely to be consumed and responded to. Check out our responsive email templates!

    Registration forms: For your event marketing campaigns, not only should your marketing materials be mobile-friendly, but your registration tools should be too. Using mobile-friendly event registration software allows association members to register and pay on-the-go, rather than waiting until later (which may never come). 

    In order to ensure the most conversions, it’s important your campaign is easy to engage with. A member may have the desire to attend, but if the registration process is too difficult, they have a much higher risk of abandoning the process altogether.
    6. Conclude with a clear call to action.
    There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a marketing email and thinking “so what?” The next steps in a marketing campaign should never be unclear— especially when it comes to event promotion. Because the end goal has a clear deadline (the date of the event or close of registration), it’s more important than ever to include a clear call to action in any email you send.
    Large, colorful, and easy-to-read CTA buttons with actionable language are a great way to encourage recipients to take the next step in the registration process. Even if the reader starts to skim the text, the CTA will still be clear and persuasive.
    Wrap up
    By employing these tips in your next event marketing campaign, you can ensure higher levels of virtual event registration and attendance for your association. When you personalize your messages, grab the recipient’s interest, and design an easily accessible campaign, you’ll create a system of communication that each recipient will actually want to read and take action. 
    The post 6 Email Marketing Tips for Virtual Association Events appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

  • Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Which is Better for Your Brand?

    If you’re reading this article, it’s likely because you’re considering running digital ads.
    You’ve heard about Facebook Ads and Google Ads but you’re still unclear on the difference between the two platforms.

    In this article, we’ll cover each platform’s unique features, the key differences to keep in mind, and the factors to consider when deciding which ad platform to use.
    Let’s get started.
    These platforms are often pitted against each other but in fact, Facebook Ads and Google Ads are complementary, each offering unique benefits to marketers.
    If your team can only focus on one, there are a few things you’ll want to consider.
    Your Campaign Goal
    What do you want to accomplish with your campaign? Is it brand awareness, leads, sales, or something else? Knowing this answer can already steer you in the right direction.
    Google Ads is ideal for demand capture – meaning reaching users who have high purchase intent. For instance, if I’m looking up the keyword “water bottle,” this may signal an interest in purchasing one.
    With that in mind, the ads below align well with search intent and can lead to sales.

    Facebook Ads, on the other hand, is ideal for reaching consumers who are near the top of the funnel, (i.e., great for brand and product awareness).
    So, you could use both platforms at the same time to target users at every stage of the journey. But if that doesn’t align with your broader objectives, knowing the main goal of your campaign will help you determine which platform is better suited to achieve it.
    Your Budget
    With any ad campaign, your goal is to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS). It’s easier to do that on some platforms than others.
    With Google Ads, you’ll have to look at keyword competition and keyword price. If the keywords you’re targeting have high cost-per-click (CPC) and you have a small budget, it may not be the best place for you to invest your money.
    For instance, let’s say you have a $100 daily budget. You want to rank for “hardware store” in your local area but the cost for that keyword is $20. This means that you’d get a maximum five clicks per day – pretty limiting.
    With that same $100 budget, you could potentially reach more people on Facebook Ads and conduct experiments to learn more about which strategies work for your target audience.
    It’s all about finding where your dollar will go the furthest in relation to your goals. Tools like HubSpot’s ads software can help you measure your campaign’s ROI and allow you to make adjustments to optimize its performance.
    Stages in the Buyer’s Journey
    As mentioned above, certain platforms align better with certain stages in the buyer’s journey.
    With Facebook being a social media platform, most users are not actively looking to purchase products. However, they do explore and share their interests on the platform. With that in mind, it’s a great place for users to discover your brand, especially if you don’t think it relates to a topic users will be searching.
    In contrast, it’s estimated that Google receives over 5 billion searches every single day. These searches can fall anywhere on the buyer’s journey stage, but certain keywords indicate a high purchase intent.
    For example, if I search “best water bottle” or “water bottle price,” this suggests that I am interested in purchasing this item. With this approach, marketers can reach users they know are near the bottom of the funnel.
    Historical and/or Competitor Data
    As you develop your playbook for your next campaign, it will be helpful to look at historical data to inform your strategy. Knowing what has worked in the past, what hasn’t and what is left to explore can serve as a reference and benchmark.
    If you’ve never run a campaign before, look at your competitors. What ads are they running? Where are they running them? What do their creative assets look like? What’s their messaging?
    This competitive intel may highlight some areas for opportunity and give you insight into the strategies your competitors are using.
    Benefits of Facebook Ads
    In a 2019 HubSpot State of Marketing Report, marketers revealed that the paid channel offering the highest ROI was Facebook. Let’s dive into some of the reasons why.
    For starters, Facebook is the number one social media platform with over 2.7 billion monthly active users, according to a 2021 Statista report. In addition to its large audience base, the platform offers granular targeting capabilities, allowing marketers to reach users based on demographics, behaviors, life events and interests.
    Before launching a campaign on the platform, you can create a “lookalike audience,” which is essentially your user persona. Facebook Ads will then show your ads to audiences who match your description.
    That’s one advantage the platform has over Google Ads – it’s much more detailed in who you’re able to target for your ads.
    Beyond that, you may also be able to reach more users and get a better clickthrough rate (CTR) through Facebook Ads. Smart Insights reported found that in Q1 of 2020, the median CTR for a Facebook ad on the newsfeed was 1.11% – compared to .47% for Google Display ads in the same time period.
    Benefits of Google Ads
    In 2019, Google estimated that for every dollar a business spends on ads, it earns $8 in profit. Let’s see why that may be and how the platform can be useful for brands.
    Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, initially offered only very simple text-based ads on the search engine. Now, it’s evolved to include features that can drastically improve clickthrough rates, such as reviews, detailed contact information, a shopping function, and mobile optimization.
    In Q1 of 2020, Smart Insights found that Google search ads had the highest CTR at 1.55% when compared to display ads and Facebook ads. This is likely because Google prioritizes ads based on relevance.
    While you do have to bid on keywords, the highest bid doesn’t necessarily always win. Your bid gets your foot in the door, your ad’s relevance to the keyword the user’s search intent gets you in the house.
    Remarketing, which is reconnecting with users who have interacted with your brand before, is now much easier using Google Ads. So, let’s say someone visited your site and added something to their shopping cart but didn’t complete their purchase. You can now re-engage users as they search on Google, watch a YouTube video or navigate a site within Google’s Display Network.
    In addition, the platform’s simple interface and advanced features like search term report, ads editor and auction insights make it easy to build, launch and track campaigns.
    With Facebook Ads and Google Ads, one isn’t inherently better than the other. Once you account for your goals, budget and target audience, you will find that each one offers unique features that can be useful to your brand at various points in its growth.

  • A Marketer’s Quick Guide to Dynamic Ads

    Remember when you’d go to the mall, see something you liked, but then leave without it? Then you’d leave the mall and think about it the whole drive home, wondering if you made the right decision until you forgot about it. That was until you saw someone else with the exact item we wanted. Ah, the good ol’ days.
    Today, you can’t leave an item in your cart without it following you everywhere online. Who do we have to thank for that? Technically, a lot of people – marketers, retargeting tools, Al Gore’s internet – but for the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on one: dynamic ads.

    Dynamic ads allow brands to change the ads shown to users based on their behavior.
    Let’s dive into what exactly dynamic ads are, their benefits, and how to use them on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
    Dynamic ads are often used in remarketing campaigns to reach users who have already interacted with a brand. More on that here.
    Static ads, on the other hand, do not adapt based on external data, so they tend to target broader audience groups for brand awareness or product launches.
    A banner ad can look like this:
    Or like this:

    They range in size and placement depending on the platform on which they’re displayed.
    The Benefits of Dynamic Ads
    Ad personalization is one of the biggest advantages of using dynamic banner ads. In a 2020 study by Innovid, 43% of respondents agreed that ads should be personalized.
    What’s more, 30% of respondents said they liked brands more when ads were personalized. It’s easy to understand why – there’s nothing more annoying than getting an irrelevant ad that doesn’t relate to you or your interests. In fact, it’s a major reason why people get adblockers.
    In 2020, AudienceProjects surveyed people in the US, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland and found that avoiding offensive or irrelevant ads was the second most popular reason why they got adblockers.
    The more personalized the ad, the better the chances it will resonate with the audience. This brings us to the next benefit of dynamic ads: relevance.
    While an ad may be personalized, it may not be relevant to that user’s current stage in the buyer’s journey.
    For instance, imagine you’ve heard of a brand but aren’t exactly sure what they do or what they offer. Getting an ad to request a product demo may be too big of a jump. You may need more nurturing before you reach that level of interest in their products.
    With this in mind, dynamic ads can help you only present ads that will meet the user where they are. Doing so can move them further down the funnel and help generate more revenue for your brand.
    This brings us to return on investment (ROI). Because of the reasons outlined above, your dynamic ads can optimize your return on ad spend (ROAS) because they are more targeted and relevant to each user.
    How Dynamic Search Ads Work
    What are dynamic search ads?
    Dynamic search ads (DSAs) are dynamic ads that show up on search engines like Google and Bing based on the content of your website, not keywords.
    When marketers set up search campaigns, they bid on specific keywords and create ads that match the intent behind the keywords. For instance, let’s say you’re a website operations company and you want to rank for the keyword “best WebOps platforms,” you’ll need to bid on it and win to show up on the search engine when a user searches that keyword.
    With dynamic search ads, you don’t have to bid on the keywords. The search engine will analyze the user’s search query and scan your website for relevant content. If the search engine determines it’s a match for what the user is looking for, it will automatically generate the ad with a headline and text based on a relevant landing page from your website.
    The main benefit of using DSAs is that it allows marketers to target audiences who may fall outside of the keywords they’re already targeting in their campaign.
    Think of a dynamic search as a safety net; even a well-designed search campaign won’t target all of the keywords your user persona might search for. The dynamic ad identifies new targeting opportunities and fills that gap by aligning your content with the right users – earning you extra traffic and more reach.
    It’s also a time-saver. With dynamic ads, you don’t have to go through the process of mapping out keywords, setting up bids, and creating copy for every single ad.
    My latest browsing sessions have involved a lot of furniture and home decor websites. This is why my Facebook feed includes ads like this:
    And why I see ads like this when browsing online.
    They work just as regular dynamic ads do, adapting their content to the user for better results.
    You can take your display ads one step further by creating responsive dynamic display ads. It’s a mouthful, I know but the concept is simple to understand: A responsive ad adjusts its size based on the space on the page.
    For example, you’re on a website and you minimize the page to make space for another window. A responsive ad would adapt its shape based on that new space – just like a responsive website.
    This creates a better user experience and ensures your ad will be displayed correctly no matter the screen size.

    Dynamic Remarketing Ads
    Let’s say I visit the Sabai Design website to look at furniture. Then, I put a beautiful emerald green couch in my cart but don’t complete the purchase.
    If the brand sets up dynamic remarketing ads, I’d see that couch, and similar styles, as I’m scrolling through social media or browsing through websites over the next few days or weeks.
    The way dynamic remarketing works is by pulling the product feed from your website and leveraging user data to show your visitors ads that will move them down your funnel.
    You can target various ad groups, ranging from visitors who’ve only visited your product pages to those who have already purchased items from you.
    Then, once you generate the ad copy and the offers, the ad platform you use will do the rest. This means pulling the relevant product information to show that specific user.
    LinkedIn Dynamic Ads
    When creating a dynamic ad on LinkedIn, you will target users based on their profile, including demographics such as location, work experience, company, and job title.
    There are three main formats to use when creating ads on the professional network:
    Follower Ads

    If you want to gain more followers on your LinkedIn Company Page, create a Follower Ad. This will encourage users in your ad group to follow your Page and learn more about your brand.
    Spotlight Ads

    Want to drive traffic to your website or landing page? Use a spotlight ad. You can also use it to promote upcoming events, highlight your products or services, or gain new email subscribers.
    Content Ads
    Content offers are great lead magnets. This dynamic ad format allows you to generate leads through downloadable offers. You can manage those leads in the LinkedIn Campaign Manager or export them to a CRM like the HubSpot Marketing Hub’s Ads Software.
    You’ll notice that none of these ads show up as a carousel image, single image ad, video, or text ad. That’s because dynamic ads on LinkedIn are only formatted to show up on the right sidebar on desktop view. Like this:

    Facebook Dynamic Ads
    On Facebook, things work a little differently. In this case, dynamic ads are ideal for brands with a large inventory of products and/or services. Unlike LinkedIn ads, when creating a dynamic ad on Facebook, you can choose any ad format, including single image, carousel, stories, or collection.
    Here’s how Facebook dynamic ads work: You can create a retargeting campaign to reach consumers who’ve had previous interactions with your brand, or reach a broader audience that matches your user persona and may be interested in your products or services.
    To set up a dynamic ad on Facebook, you’ll need:

    A catalog – This contains the products and services you want to promote, with descriptions, prices, images, availability, and other relevant information.

    Facebook pixel or DSK – You must install a Facebook pixel on your website or SDK for your mobile app to capture how your users are behaving on your webpages or app.

    From there, you will set up your campaign in the Ads Manager to outline your ad objectives, ad format, copy, and calls-to-action (CTA) by product set.
    Every time a user fits your targeting parameters, the machine learning program will use the pixel to gather user data and pick relevant products or services from your catalog to display the ad on mobile, tablet, or desktop.
    This saves marketers time, as they don’t have to create an ad for every single product or ad group.
    You may no longer need those drives home from the mall to decide if you really should have bought something. With dynamic ads, you get multiple chances to reconsider your decisions.
    Whether that’s a good thing varies from person to person, but from a marketing standpoint, it’s another opportunity to win over a consumer. Why not take it?

  • Five Lessons I Learned About Scaling a Business With Reid Hoffman

    How great would it be if you had a panel of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders you could turn to whenever you needed help getting unstuck, or needed a daily dose of inspiration?
    Fortunately, that’s exactly what the new Masters of Scale Courses App offers — expert advice from some of the world’s best and brightest minds, guided by Reid Hoffman.
    The first course is all about The Mindset of Scale. Here’s what I learned from the first two lessons.
    1. Ask “Why not?” and “What if?”
    Start by asking two important questions — “Why not?” and “What if?” — whenever you encounter something that makes you feel a strong emotion.
    For instance, think about the last time you experienced sticker shock or frustration over waiting in a long line. Those simple questions have sparked countless successful products and businesses — including Virgin Airlines. In his own words, here’s Richard Branson:
    “35 years ago, when we started [Virgin Airlines], the big carriers were dreadful. And on one of those flights coming to the Virgin Islands, I got bumped, which is a sort of typical thing that airlines did in those days.”
    Of course, being Richard Branson, he didn’t pass the time by staring woefully at the departures board. Instead, he asked one of those powerful questions: What if? What if he didn’t have to wait for the next flight? What if he created a flight of his own?
    “So I hired a plane and filled it up with all the people who had been bumped and called it Virgin Airlines as a joke. And we arrived in the BVI, and during that flight, I just thought, ‘Airlines do bump people, maybe I should ring up Boeing the next day.’ Which I did, and asked if they had any secondhand 747s for sale.”
    As you can probably guess, they did, and Virgin Airways was born. Now, you may not be in the market for used 747 jets, but that doesn’t mean these questions can’t create similarly impactful results for you. So next time you find yourself feeling any powerful emotion, pause for a second, think about the situation, and ask yourself, “What if?”
    2. Have an idea, act on it, and never look back.
    Even though many people talk about the power of ideas, what the world actually rewards is action.
    Generating ideas is often the easy part — and with the right mindset, it’s a process that can become second nature. But, what separates daydreaming from living your dream is taking action.
    Richard Branson has been an entrepreneur since he was 14 and launched his first business: a student magazine. After the magazine, he went on to found a record label, a video game publisher, and many other ventures — each one a product of taking action.
    If you’re like me, even just reading that list of accomplishments sounds daunting. To overcome that feeling, Reid Hoffman offers this helpful advice: “Next time you have an idea that you can’t stop thinking about, act on it immediately.”
    After asking yourself “Why not?” or “What if?”, identify the smallest or most immediate action you can do right now to act on your idea.
    By starting small and taking action right away, you can avoid the dreaded “analysis paralysis” and start building momentum towards your goal instead.
    3. Need a big idea? Get intentional about looking for one.
    Before founding Spanx, Sarah Blakely was stuck in a dead-end job — making door-to-door fax machine sales were far from fulfilling. She knew she wasn’t on the right path, but she just wasn’t sure what that right path looked like.
    After a challenging day, she decided to try something different. In her journal, she wrote down, “I want to invent a product that I can sell to millions of people that will make them feel good.” According to Blakely, “This was something that I set an intention for; I had really asked the universe to give me an idea that I could bring to the world.”
    Blakely kept asking herself, “Is this my big idea?” until the answer was “Yes.”
    With her newfound intention, Blakely began finding the opportunities and ideas all around her. One night, after getting frustrated with her undergarment options, she cut the feet off of her pantyhose and discovered that her DIY solution was exactly what she was looking for — in more ways than one.
    4. Fill knowledge gaps with the people around you.
    After discovering her big idea for Spanx, Blakely faced a new challenge: How to build a business in an industry she knew almost nothing about. It wasn’t an easy problem to solve, but Blakely wasn’t about to let a lack of domain expertise get in her way.
    Instead, she started digging deeper. In the words of Reid Hoffman, “She knew that to succeed, she had to be continually open to information and ideas — always in search of the insights and people who could help her turn her idea into a reality.”
    It’s okay not to know everything about your business, as long as you get help from people who can fill in your knowledge gaps. You’ll go faster and further with the help of other people.
    Ask lots of questions to find your idea — and then keep asking them.
    5. Find a place or time where you do your best thinking, and set aside time to be in that space.
    Creating a successful business, launching a new product or campaign, or just keeping up with a highly demanding job all require a lot of decision-making. And good decision-making rests on a foundation of good thinking.
    According to Hoffman, “Wherever, whenever and however, the point is this: an idea won’t come looking for you, and it won’t perfect itself. You have to put yourself in spaces and places and frames of mind, where you can find and shape the idea.”
    For more lessons about scale, download the Masters of Scale Courses app for 50% using the code HUBSPOT at join.mastersoscale.com/hubstpot. Offer is valid through 5/15/21. 

  • What The Data Says About Salesforce and Messaging (Slack + MS Teams)

    CRMs and messaging tools are a match made in heaven. Right? They must be if recent news is any indication. So now the $28 billion acquisition of Slack by Salesforce has left many wondering…what’s next? And it’s not just Salesforce people are questioning. Microsoft invested… Read More

  • Top 6 Best Practices for Customer Service in Retail

    Don’t let your business fall short when it comes to delighting customers with great customer service.
    Every time a customer interacts with one of your sales associates or call center agents, the outcome will impact how shoppers perceive your retail brand. Here are 5 best practices for customer service to empower your associates.
    1. Master the “FAB” Formula.
    This technique is a great way to sell products to customers without sounding too ‘salesy’, and it is the cornerstone of a well-architected customer service approach. The “FAB” formula, which stands for “Features, Advantages and Benefits” helps your associates to easily remember how to present each product to customers.

    The FAB formula is a technique that can helps your agents and associates remember how to present each product to customers. @shoppopdisplays #CustomerService #RetailClick To Tweet

    Features are the characteristics of a product while advantages concern what the features can do. The benefit is the most important element, telling customers what they can personally get out of the product and its features. It is always best to personalize the benefits to match the unique circumstances of each individual customer, and doing this well requires listening to customers and then matching the right product.
    For example, let’s say you’re selling shampoo to an outdoor enthusiast. Features could include the fragrance, the ingredients it’s made from, or the fact that it restores a scalp’s pH balance. The advantages could be the dual cleansing plus conditioning action of the product. Finally, the unique benefit could be that it protects hair from the harmful UV rays in sunlight—something of particular benefit to this individual customer. Encourage your agents and sales associates to familiarize themselves with the top sellers in your store, as well as product trends, so they will always have these products in mind when customers ask for recommendations.
    2. Upsell products that match a customer’s need.
    This shouldn’t be about pushing products. On the contrary, upselling and cross-selling are natural next-level customer service boosters after a successful FAB presentation. Once you have explained the unique product benefits, and convinced the customer about the solution your product provides—why not introduce a logical add-on product?
    Customers will appreciate your suggestion, since it follows logically from their original enquiry. In the example above, an outdoor enthusiast may also be interested in sunscreen, if your agent or sales associate presents the product right by tailoring the recommendation to the unique customer’s needs. Start by encouraging your contact center agents and sales associates to practice active listening, and determine what other products may fulfill their unique requirements. Understanding customer needs combined with a knowledge of best-selling products is a sure-fire combination that will help you deliver excellent customer service and brisk sales.
    Why Active Listening is the Best Customer Service Skill
    3. Be readily available for your customers.
    If your customers have questions about products or online orders, they need to be able to reach you quickly and easily. 60% of customers feel that long wait times are the most frustrating parts of a service experience. Your team must be equipped to quickly answer questions via phone, email, or even SMS to provide a good customer experience and increase brand loyalty.
    Call-back technology is one of the best ways to tackle call queues and hold times. It’s as simple as offering the customer a call-back as an alternative to waiting on hold. This way, your customers can go about their day knowing an agent will reach out to support them later. Learn more about call-backs here.
    4. Find a way around stock-outs.
    There will be times when products are not in stock or services are unavailable. This may be out of your team’s direct control, but you can help your agents and associates create a positive experience using  customer service techniques.
    Having a backup plan for stock-outs is key. When a customer asks you for a product that is not available, always be ready with substitutes so you don’t lose the momentum of the sale. You can also try to find the item in another location or channel, and then have it shipped to the customer for free — for example, from your online store. Once you do this, don’t forget to follow-up and make sure that your customer has received it on time. Agents and sales associates should have a tracking system that lets them keep an eye on the status of customer orders and shipments. This way, they can stay ahead of any situation and proactively reach out to customers when shipments go awry.
    5. Appreciate repeat customers.
    80% of retail profits are generated by the most loyal 20% of customers. These repeat customers are the life-blood of any successful business, and showing appreciation will encourage their loyalty. A sincere note of gratitude for making a second purchase is one way you can do this — however, it’s important to be creative in your delivery.
    Customer relationship management (CRM) software is one of the best tools to achieve this. It is so important to keep track of not only your customers’ contact details, but also their purchase history. You can put that information to good use in your customer service strategy. For example, when you see an order from a customer who has already made a recent purchase, acknowledge them by sending a note of gratitude, or even a discount or free product.
    A Complete Guide to Customer Perception
    6. Empower your associates with training.
    The heart of great customer service is to be helpful, rather than hard-selling your products. But do you know how your agents and sales associates rank in terms of customer-centricity? Empathy is very important, which follows when sales associates listen to your customers’ needs with humility. If regular reminders to listen and be empathetic are not working, training may be in order.
    Take some time to investigate and identify any gaps in training, product knowledge, and/or processes. Is your team in touch with the needs of your customers? Do they know enough about your product line to make quick decisions and recommendations? When providing additional training and coaching, utilize tactics that will help instill confidence in your agents and associates and allow them to use their best judgement when service customers.
    Retail consumers have more choices than ever before, so building lasting relationships with your customers is essential. Don’t underestimate the value of agents and sales associates who are good at person-to-person customer service. Attitude is more important than skills here — as long as your team possesses the right values and service-based disposition, you’ll have a strong foundation to provide winning customer service for your retail brand.
    Ray Ko is the Senior Ecommerce Manager at ShopPOPDisplays. With years of experience in the retail space, Ray is an expert in formulating and implementing ecommerce strategies to increase revenue.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

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  • Jobs to be done

    The dog needs to be fed, there’s a blog post to write, a report is due, there’s a meeting at 10, this form from the bank has to be submitted…

    We can measure our performance (and our days) by how well we’re doing the jobs to be done. They focus our attention and our effort and create positive outcomes when we do them on time (and negative ones when we don’t).

    12 or more years of school are nothing but this. Training in awareness of jobs to be done, and applying the minimum amount of effort to get those jobs done. Show me your list of jobs to be done and I’ll have a good idea of how you spend your time and the impact you’re making.

    Easily overlooked, though, is the process of how something gets on our agenda or doesn’t. Working on voting rights, paying attention to voices unheard, grabbing possibilities for learning or growth or contribution–these are easy to ignore if they’re not on the list of jobs to be done.

    And the people who do have these on their list… part of their job is to put their issue on our lists.

    As soon as you sign up for a social network, it becomes a job to be done. And the moment you take investment for a new company, your jobs to be done completely change.

    This gets meta pretty quick: one of the jobs to be done is to be clear about what the jobs to be done are, and whether or not they are the right jobs.

    And another one of the jobs to be done is helping other people see that the things we care about belong on their list of jobs to be done.

    If all you’re doing is the jobs you used to do, you’re certainly missing out on the contributions you’re capable of.

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    The post New Research: Salesforce Delivery Teams Excel in Speed but at the Expense of Quality appeared first on Automation Champion.

  • Getting better

    The optimism and possibility that come from training and learning in groups is a miracle. It means that, with a little effort, we can level up, become more productive and enjoy the work more tomorrow than we did yesterday.

    The folks at Akimbo are offering some proven and tested workshops… here’s their schedule for signups in April:

    The altMBA is the first and most powerful workshop of its kind. The July session has its Early Decision Deadline tomorrow, Tuesday. Ask someone who has done it–70 countries, 5,000 alumni so far.

    The magical Podcasting Workshop, with Alex DiPalma, has enrollment beginning tomorrow. It’s now in its eighth session, and there are thousands of podcasters out in the world today because of the foundation and framework this community workshop created for them. It will clarify your thinking and help you find your voice.

    And the fabled Freelancer’s Workshop begins in about a week. You can sign up today and be sure you don’t miss a thing. If you are working on your own (like most of us) this workshop will help you stop running in place and find the clients you deserve.

    This might be your moment to move forward.