Author: Franz Malten Buemann

I remember when I found out the Tooth Fairy wasn’t real. My whole world was shattered. Granted, I was about eight, but I was furious to find out that my parents had been putting a quarter under my pillow every time I’d lost a tooth, not a sweet fairy named Daphne who lived in a castle made out of my pearly whites.
Luckily, believing in the Tooth Fairy is pretty harmless. Other myths, especially those that affect your business, are not.
In previous posts, we’ve debunked myths about marketing automation, social media, blogging, SEO, and A/B testing… but we’ve never touched on landing pages.
Keep reading so you don’t miss out on information that’ll help you convert visitors into leads and leads into customers. We’ll debunk the most common landing page myths and arm you with information to take your landing pages to the next level.

Myth #1: You only need a few of them.
Lots of people think that you don’t need many landing pages. Maybe you have a ‘Contact Us’ page and a demo page, and that’s pretty much it, right? Wrong. If you only have a few landing pages, you’re missing out on traffic, leads, and customers big time.
Every new landing page you create is another opportunity for you to appear in search engines and get your link shared on social media — and better search engine rankings and social media posts mean that you’ll have more opportunity to drive traffic and conversions for your website.
Additionally, besides landing pages on your website, you’re going to need landing pages to convert leads. These pages are probably not available on search engines, but will help you track how many leads have clicked into an offer and how many have downloaded your content offers.
Need more convincing about the importance of having more landing pages? Check out this post.

Myth #2:Short forms are better than long forms.

No form length is the “best” — it all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with the form. Are you trying to get a ton of new leads? Keep the form short. Are you trying to get really qualified leads? Make the form longer. One is not better than the other — they just address different goals.
Your form length will most likely end up somewhere in the middle. To find your form length sweet spot, run A/B tests and adjust your form length according to their results.

Myth #3:If I copy someone else’s landing page, my conversion rates will go up.

Landing page examples and templates are great jumping off points for your own landing pages, but you shouldn’t expect to plug your content into someone else’s landing page and end up raking in the conversions. A landing page is successful because of interaction of many nuanced elements — the content on the page, the design of the page, and the audience viewing the page.
If you’re going to copy a landing page layout, use best practices to tweak it to help your audience convert on your offer, then test it and test it to make it better.
Ultimately, a landing page will only succeed if the content offer matches the intent of the customer.

Myth #4:You need to have all conversion elements above the fold.

Lots of people believe that all of the important content on your landing page should appear above the fold — supposedly, people won’t scroll to fill out the form or find out more crucial information about what lies behind the form.
But the fold doesn’t really affect conversion — KISSmetrics found that when people are motivated to convert on a page, they do, regardless of where the form submit button is. According to that article, the biggest factor in increasing motivation is compelling copy, regardless of length. So forget optimizing only for the fold — through A/B testing, figure out how much information people need to convert.
Myth #5: Trust seals always increase conversions.
Think about the situations in which you often see trust seals. You’re usually giving over your credit card number or some other sensitive contact information, right? It makes sense to get a little visual reminder that your information is safe, because you really are giving over sensitive information.
But what if you saw a trust seal on a page where you weren’t giving over sensitive information? It’d be out-of-place, making you wonder what the heck the company was really collecting from you, right? Trust elements can help tremendously on pages that need them — but they can also deter folks if they’re included on pages that don’t.
Myth #6: If you change your form button from green to red, you’ll increase conversions.
Full disclosure: we’ve run this test and found that a red call-to-action (CTA) outperformed a green CTA … but that doesn’t mean that red buttons are always better than green ones. That test worked for that page, with that page’s design, for that page’s audience. If you run the same test on your site, you might find that the opposite is true.
This myth goes for any color test really –there is no one right color that’ll convert tons and tons more people. Test out colors yourself to see what works best.
Myth #7: Landing page copy should always be short and sweet.
Like color, there’s no right length of landing page copy. We kind of touched on this in Myth #4, but the copy length myth is perpetuated enough it deserved a section of its own.
Landing page copy length is like what your teachers would say when you’d ask them how long an essay should be — however long it needs to be to cover the subject. In the case of landing pages, it should be however long you need it to be to have people convert on your landing page’s form. For complex offers that require people ponying up a lot of money or their sensitive information, more information could be better. For simple offers, like an ebook, you probably don’t need a ton of landing page copy.
Like almost all of these myths, this one’s nuanced. Run tests on your landing pages to find out what copy length your visitors need.
Myth #8: Conversion rate is the only metric to watch.
Landing pages are a stepping stone in your marketing funnel. You’re not just trying to get people to fill out a form. You’d hope that eventually they’ll become a customer from you.
So if you’re trying to get the most out of your landing pages, you shouldn’t just look at the percent of people who converted on that form — you want to look and see what happens after.
What percentage of them become customers? By looking at your closed-loop analytics, you may find that a landing page that has a low initial conversion rate actually brings in customers like crazy, or vice versa … which is something your boss would care to know and fix.
Myth #9: You should include as many things as possible on your landing page to get people to convert on something.
Your landing page isn’t a last-ditch effort to capture someone’s information. It’s there to get people to convert on your form and move down your marketing funnel. You don’t want to give people too many options because they’ll get distracted and your conversion rate goes down. This means you should try removing your navigation and any extraneous forms. More is not better when it comes to landing page elements.
Myth #10: You build ’em and leave ’em.
You could probably guess this last myth from one piece of advice I’ve repeated over and over throughout this post: Test your landing pages. There are almost always ways you can tweak and improve them. If you build them and leave them alone, you’re losing out on valuable conversions. Landing pages support the backbone of your marketing funnel — so make sure you’re getting the most you can out of them by running A/B tests often.
Building a landing page can feel like a daunting task with the contradictory advice out there. That’s why you should use a landing page builder to assist you.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Did you know that over the last couple of years Black Friday sales constantly grow in popularity in Europe? Nowadays it is obvious that it is one of the European spending peaks. Black Friday, November 27 this year, should be written on each trader’s calendar in bold. Though it might look a bit different in 2020, undoubtedly it is still worth preparing your business thoroughly and using the commerce potential of this day to the maximum. Below, we have collected a handful of information that will be useful for our clients in order to do so!

Get ready for high traffic- automate your processes

It is possible that your website will turn into a marketing highway on this day. Prepare for much more traffic than usual with the maximized automation of existing processes. A non-working and overloaded website can unfortunately quickly discourage customers and chase them away to your competitors, so test your servers and don’t let yourself get surprised. Also take care of getting more products ready for shipment and a smooth sales process. Bare in mind, that a new, satisfied customer may come back to you in the future.

It is pretty obvious that taking care of your regular customers pays back – literally! Prepare your website marketing by showing them products selected according to their previous interests. For this purpose, use available dynamic content such as personalized recommendation frames, banners and pop-ups. Let a familiar product grab your customer’s attention during this chaotic day. 

Remember that Black Friday brings some expectations. According to research, most customers expect a discount around 50%. Consumers are bombarded with offers from all sides, so it is also worth creating a competitive offer and presenting it in a visually attractive way. Graphics, colors and fonts are important but they are not everything. Nowadays, many people display content not only on computers but mainly on mobile devices. Make sure that your website works flawlessly on your phone or tablet.

Let yourself be noticed in the mailboxes – prepare a successful mailing campaign

When you have an offer prepared, it is worth planning an appearance of your mailing campaign. It will reach customers who have consented to receive marketing content from you, and some of them are already your regular customers. Everyone likes to feel special, so it’s worth offering them something extra. Maybe a free delivery or some accessory?  Up to 49% or potential customers have been proven to decide for the purchase if the delivery is not additionally paid for. In fact, even a small thing will change the reception of your shop in the eyes of the customer, so choose something that is beneficial for both parties and do not hesitate to do it!

Next, prepare the email itself. A short, catchy text can be a much better option than a longer message. Remember that on this day you will be one of at least a few, if not a dozen, e-mails in your recipients’ mailboxes, so take care of the … SUBJECT! Make the subject of your message more visible, use 65 characters or less, and avoid cliché words like “bargain” or “promotion”. Think outside the box and prepare a message as unique as your product.

As in the case of the website, it is also worth taking care of attractive graphics in the message. Pay attention to matching the color of the email to your website. At this stage, our Drag & Drop wizard will help you. You can create an email from scratch or support yourself with one of the many ready-made message layouts we prepared for you to use.

Finally, define your audience and schedule the send-out. It’s a great practice to do this in advance. If you schedule your messages at least a day prior, then by Friday your emails will be filtered and ready to be sent at the time you choose – we’ll take care of it!

Work on your uniqueness, be creative, let your offers stay in their heads!

Nowadays the Internet is overflooded with medium-quality content. Show your customers that you are doing your best, especially on a day like Black Friday. Make your content thoughtful, correct and consistent. Take care of advanced content marketing – maybe it would be a good idea to prepare a few entries with lists of products recommended by an expert? Let your website leave a mark in your client’s memory and make it easier for him to remember about you in the future. 

Start promoting yourself on Social Media even two weeks in advance – use general content and don’t post too often, but it is worth signaling that prizes are about to drop in your shop. Work on multiple channels, the more roads lead the customers to you, the greater the chance that they will reach their destination!

Black Friday can also serve as a great excuse to do more. Maybe this is a good time to launch a brand new product that will attract more consumers on that day? Or maybe you want to donate part of your income to charity and warm up the image of your company at a time when it is visible for more people than usual? There are many possibilities, think, plan, be creative and don’t let yourself be limited to any strict patterns!

marketing automation

marketing automation

It’s no surprise you want to become a paid Instagram influencer — heck, the average price for a sponsored Instagram post is $300, and if you become more successful, like yogi Rachel Brathen, you could be making $25,000 per post.
But the idea of getting your posts sponsored might seem laughable to you. You’re not posting pictures skydiving in Australia — you’re posting pictures of your brunch. However, you could be more marketable than you think.
Instagram has become an insanely popular channel for brands to promote their products. In fact, Influencer Central found consumers consider Instagram to be the sixth most effective at influencing their purchasing decisions.
Instagram’s popularity might make you feel the platform is already too crowded for you to stand out. But here’s the thing — brands are quickly realizing the power of normal people to promote their products. Micro-influencers, or people with a small number of followers compared to the big players, see the most engagement out of their audience.
Think of it this way: I’m going to trust my best friend’s advice over Kim Kardashian’s when I’m purchasing a product. I trust my best friend, we share similar interests, and I know she’s genuine with her advice (no offense, Kim … ).
It’s the same concept for micro-influencers — with the right strategy, your audience will begin to see you as one of their real friends. The more they trust your advice when seeking out purchasing decisions, the more likely you are to get sponsored.
Here, we’re going to show you everything you need to do to get sponsored on Instagram, even if you currently have zero followers. Keep reading to get started or click the links below to jump to a specific section of this article.

How to Get Sponsored on Instagram
What’s a Sponsored Instagram Post?
Using #ad and #spon Hashtags

1. Define your brand.
You’ll see the best engagement if you’re able to define your niche. Do you want to post food and health related content, or focus on fashion? Whatever the case, it’s important to establish your brand.
Besides the type of content you post, branding has a lot to do with your overall aesthetic. How do you want to style your posts? What’s your messaging? To further solidify your brand, you might want to consider creating a cohesive feed theme (use these feeds for inspiration).
Specificity is key. A good influencer’s posts are distinguishable and unique — when a user is flipping through her feed, she’ll be able to pause and recognize every time she sees a post from that influencer. As she continues to see similar content, she’ll grow to trust that brand as an expert in the field. If the influencer suddenly and randomly changed course, the user might not understand or trust the content anymore.
Additionally, you might want to connect your Instagram brand with an online presence. Creating a website with similar aesthetic and messaging is a good way to do this — the more you unify your social media accounts, the easier it will be for brands to distinguish how you can help them.
2. Know your audience.
Knowing your audience is critical for convincing a brand to work with you. It’s mutually beneficial for you, as well — if you understand your audience, you’re able to correctly identify which brands will see the most success from using you as their sponsor.
Start by gathering the basics — what is the gender, age, and geographical location of your core demographic? Which of your posts do they like the best? What times of day do they respond best to content, and what can you infer from this?
The demographic information you gather will help you pitch partnerships with brands. Brands want to know who they can reach if they work with you. Explaining “You’ll be reaching thirty-something, working women, primarily from New York, who often use Instagram first thing in the morning and prefer fitness content” is certainly more powerful than saying, “You’ll be reaching women.”
3. Post consistently.
CoSchedule gathered research from 14 studies to identity how often you should post on social media sites. For Instagram, they found you should post a minimum of once a day, but can post upwards of three times a day.
CoSchedule also found 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, and 2:00 AM, are the best times to post.
To grow your following, it’s critical you post at least once a day. Instagram’s algorithm favors new and fresh content, and you don’t want your audience to unfollow you or forget about you from lack of consistency.
However, you’ll need to figure out what works best for you and your audience. Perhaps your audience feels bombarded when you post three times a day, or maybe they prefer it. Maybe your audience engages most with your posts at noon. It will take some trial and error, as well as Instagram metrics tools, to figure this out.
4. Use hashtags and geotags.
Hashtags make your content more discoverable, so they’re necessary for growing your following. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but TrackMaven found nine to be the optimal number for boosting engagement.
You’ll want to use hashtags as relevant to your content as possible. You’ll also need to check to make sure the hashtags you use aren’t broken or banned (take a look at this list of banned hashtags if you’re unsure).
It’s critical you choose hashtags that aren’t too broad. #Healthyliving, for instance, has over 20,000,000 posts, while #healthylivingtips only has 13,000. The less competition, the easier it will be for your content to get discovered.
When you peruse a hashtag’s page, you can also get a deeper sense of what types of content your post will be up against. #Healthylivingtips might typically feature posts with food recipes, while your post is about cycling — this could defer you from using that hashtag.
Geotags are equally important, but for a different reason. Geotags can help people find you if they’re interested in a certain location. This helps you gain more followers, and it also helps you appeal to brands that are interested in reaching a certain demographic. For instance, maybe a boutique sees you often post fashion tips from the California area, and they’re looking to appeal to people in that region — it’s a win, win.
5. Tag brands in your posts.
Okay, now you’re officially ready to begin reaching out to brands. You’ve defined your brand and audience and have created some quality, authentic posts. Now, you should have a pretty good idea what types of businesses would benefit from a partnership with you.
It’s important to start small. If you’re interested in skincare, don’t go straight for Estee Lauder — instead, try tagging small skincare start-ups you’ve seen across Instagram already.
Let’s take a look at an example — @Tzibirita, a travel influencer, posted this image of herself wearing a Paul Hewitt watch. The image is high-quality and fits with her brand, and she tags @paul_hewitt in her description. Even if you’re not paid by Paul Hewitt, you can still post the same type of content and tag their brand in the post. Ideally, it will at least put you on their radar.

Begin with small brands and tag them in your descriptions. Engage with your audience by responding to comments like “Where can I get one?” or “How much?” and the brand will soon see you’ve proven yourself a suitable sales partner.
6. Include contact information in your bio.
Consider your bio a chance to signal to brands your interest in becoming an influencer. Include an email or website so they can reach you, and include a press kit if possible.
For instance, @tzibirita doesn’t waste her bio space. She includes her email and website, and even adds a title — “content creator”. Brands will have no doubt she’s open to doing business with them.

Furthermore, you should use a website or blog as your chance to expand on your brand and demonstrate your versatility. Consider adding a Press Page to your website, so brands can take a look at your services. Once you begin sponsoring brands, you can add them to this page so brands can see you have influencer experience.

7. Pitch paid sponsorships.
There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to brands and offering your services. With the right pitch, you might be able to land some gigs without waiting for brands to find you.
Look for brands that clearly invest time and money into their Instagram presence. You might start by researching what similar influencers in your industry already sponsor. Remember, it’s okay to start small. Working with smaller brands will allow you to build a portfolio.
Once you’ve curated a list of brands that might want to partner with you, send them an email. In your pitch, clearly and briefly outline who you are, what you do, and any achievements you have in the field that make you an expert. Then, explain why you’re a good fit for the brand, and include data such as follower count and average engagement rate.
Alternatively, you might consider sending a brand a DM straight from Instagram. It’s certainly more relevant to the job you’re vying for, but it might get lost if a brand get hundreds of DMs a day.
8. Know your worth.
Make sure you know how much you’re going to charge when brands reach out to you. The industry standard is $10 for 1,000 followers, but it could also vary depending on how many likes you get per post. Additionally, as you grow, you’ll be able to charge more.
While you’ll want to have a minimum set, you can negotiate to encourage brands to pay more. Perhaps for $300, you’ll throw in five Instagram Story posts, and a link in your bio to their website for 24 hours. You can use other Instagram features to sweeten the deal.
Once you have your pricing structure nailed down, you’ll need to know how to sponsor a post on behalf of the brand you’re working with. Now, keep in mind there are two different kinds of “sponsored” posts: those for which brands pay Instagram, and those for which brands pay another user.
Confused? Here’s what I mean:

What’s a Sponsored Instagram Post?
A sponsored post on Instagram is paid for by the poster to reach a wider audience. There are two main types of sponsorships: In one, a brand creates a post and pays Instagram for access to a custom audience. In the other, a brand sponsors another Instagram user — often called an “Influencer” — who creates a post that features the brand in some way.
Here’s more detail on each type of sponsored post:
Promoted Posts & Ads
Just like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, Instagram comes with a native ad management platform. Advertisers can use this tool to customize a target audience — using attributes like age, sex, location, and interests — and invest a specific amount of money to getting their post in front of Instagrammers who identify with this audience.
The thing to remember here is that the advertiser is making and publishing the post. They’re paying Instagram for the audience they want access to, but the post is theirs to create.
Paid Sponsorships
Paid sponsorships take place between a brand and another Instagram user. Typically, this user has a personal brand and attracts an audience of his or her own. This user is often called an “influencer.”
This person can then use the steps explained earlier in this article to find and work with brands that appeal to a similar audience. When they find a brand who wants to sponsor them, they can charge this client a certain amount to create a post that features their product or service. Think of it like social media product placement; just like a business might pay a TV show to have their brand of soda on the countertop in the series finale, they can also pay a person on Instagram to hold that same soda in a picture on their Instagram feed.
Clearly there are more creative sponsorship ideas you can come up with — I decided to go with a cliché …
Influencers are similar to Instagram’s ad manager in the sense that they both draw an audience that brands might not otherwise have access to. However, the differences in this type of sponsorship are that the brand is paying the influencer — rather than Instagram — for access to their audience, and the influencer — rather than the advertiser — is the one creating and publishing the post.
There are numerous influencers for each industry. Here’s a big list of today’s known influencers and the types of audiences they attract.

Using #ad and #spon Hashtags
In the past couple years, brands have come under fire for hiring influencers but not making it clear to the audience that these influencers were getting paid.
Department store Lord & Taylor, for instance, settled charges with the FTC in 2016 after paying 50 influencers to wear a dress in their posts without hashtagging #sponsorship or #ad.
Influencers are supposed to hashtag #ad or #sponsored in posts they’re being paid for, but these tags make some brands uncomfortable because it makes the post appear inauthentic.
In 2017, Instagram released a paid partnership feature to combat this issue — if you tag a brand in a post and the brand confirms the relationship, the ad will be marked at the top with a “paid partnership” label. This also helps the brand gather data regarding how well the campaign is performing.
It’s critical your followers know if you’re getting paid to promote a product. Ethics aside, it could destroy your account’s credibility if you’re caught, and lose everything you’ve worked hard to build — namely, an authentic, trusting community.
If you truly don’t want to post #ad or #spon, there are some ways around it — for instance, Airbnb created the hashtag #Airbnb_partner, to signal a paid partnership without using the word “ad”.
When in doubt, adhere to Instagram’s policies. You can read Instagram’s branded content policies in full here.
Ultimately, getting sponsored on Instagram isn’t easy — it takes time, effort, and perseverance. But if you work hard to differentiate yourself in the industry, and connect on a personal level with your followers, it can be extraordinarily rewarding.

Whether your focus group is there to give feedback on a product or service or help you assess how your brand stands out in your competitive landscape, thought-provoking, open-ended questions are essential to a productive discussion.
However, it’s easier said than done. What can you ask beyond “What do you think of our product?” that can provoke the most useful answers?
Here, we’ve pulled together 53 questions you can ask in your next focus group to pull the most interesting and useful insights you can out of your participants.
Simply copy-and-paste the questions you like below into the notetaking template for a ready-to-go, printable document you can bring to the session.
Featured Resource: Market Research Focus Group Template

Download the Template
For a free template for notetaking during focus groups, a guide on conducting market research, and several other templates, download our Market Research Kit.
Questions for Building Trust Among Focus Group Members
Before diving into deeper questions, it’s best to warm up the group with a couple of open-ended questions that allow participants to get to know each other a little bit. Participants should be able to decide how much they want to share with the group — don’t force anyone to share something they may not feel comfortable sharing.
By including a question that allows people to talk about something tangential to the topic of the focus group, your participants will begin to build empathy for each other. That empathy can grow into trust, which is key for eliciting honest insights out of your group.
Here are a few questions you might ask to build trust:

Share an aspect of your work or life experience that’s brought you here today.
Why did you decide to join our focus group today?
When and how did you first come across our brand/product/service?

Questions to Encourage Follow-up and Continuation of Ideas
The most helpful insights that come out of focus groups are often the most specific points. Challenge your participants to reflect more on the points they’ve made if you hear something that you’re curious about. For instance:

That’s a fascinating point that [name] just said — what do you all think of that?
Do you agree or disagree with [name]’s statement, and why?
[Name], you’ve been a bit quiet recently. Did you have any thoughts on this topic that you wanted to share?

Questions for Understanding Customer Perception of Your Product or Service
These questions will help you understand how people truly feel about your brand, product, or service. The focus here is on your company — not the larger industry landscape or your competitors.
Avoid stopping conversation here unless the group gets completely sidetracked. Open-ended questions can be daunting at first. Participants may not know where to start. However, hearing from the other participants will spark reflection on various aspects of your product or service. Be sure to allow each group member who has something to say to speak up before moving on to the next question.

How would you describe our company to other people?
How would you describe our product/service to other people?
What words or feelings come to mind when you think about our company?
How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend?
How well do you feel we incorporate feedback from you, our customers, into our service/product?
What ultimately pushed you to purchase this product/service?
Where would you buy this product/service?
What do you like about this product that you may not find in a similar one?
When you think about our industry, which brands come to mind first?
Which other brands in our industry did you consider when you were shopping around?
Why didn’t you go with one of our competitors?
What other products/services come to mind when you look at this one?

Questions to Learn What Your Leads and Customers Want to See From You
Listening to your customers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement is crucial to retaining customers and turning them into promoters of your brand. It may be difficult to hear the answers to these questions, but turning customer pain points around will elevate your product or service to the next level.
Avoid defending your product or service or setting any limitations on these questions. Instead, frame them in a way that allows anyone to voice anything at all that they’re feeling. Recognize that it can be daunting for anyone (especially people with whom you’ve built relationships) to share negative feedback, so thank them for their candor.

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about our product/service, what would it be?
What would you most like to add to or improve about this product?
What do you envision is the lifespan of this product/service before you upgrade or replace it?
Is there anything we haven’t touched on today that you’d like us to know?

Questions for Understanding Your Buyer Personas
The following eight questions will help you understand what motivates your target buyer persona, their habits, their responsibilities and decision-making power, and their preferences.
These questions are written to spark discussion about topics other than your company, product or service, and the competitive landscape.
Don’t worry if the conversation seems to stray far from your brand, as the insights that people end up sharing will likely reveal what’s significant to them in their life and work. However, it’s important you keep the group focused on the specific question you’ve asked.

Describe your job title and your day-to-day responsibilities.
What’s one task on which you feel you spend way too much time?
How do you define success in your role/your life?
What is the biggest challenge you face in your role/when it comes to the problem to which this product is a solution?
When you’re browsing online, on which websites do you spend most of your time?
What are the first three apps you open on your phone in the morning?
How do you prefer to receive communications from our company? (Specify what type of communication here — product updates, renewal notices, product/service coaching, meeting reminders, urgent alerts, etc.)
Would you be the one using this product/service most in your household/job? If not, who would be?

Questions for Getting a Better Sense of the Competitive Landscape
These questions are intended to spark discussion about the brands in your industry that are top-of-mind for consumers. These are helpful in removing any biases that you and your team might have as people who work in the industry and know various players very well.
To encourage honesty, avoid agreeing with any disparaging comments that your participants make about your competitors. Instead, use the opportunity to ask follow-up questions about exactly what the participants don’t like about a specific product or brand.
If you’re looking to do a complementary research-based analysis of your competitors, download our Market Research Kit to gain access to a S.W.O.T. analysis template.

Download the Template
Questions for Generating Content on Your Industry
You might be looking to develop a content strategy for your brand, branch out into a new content medium, or simply generate new content ideas. Any successful content strategy prioritizes what’s most engaging and interesting for your target buyer persona, so a focus group can be an effective way to be sure that you’re producing material on the right topics and in the medium that your audience wants to consume.

What is one recent trend you’ve noticed in our industry?
What’s one strategy or tactic you think is underrated in our industry?
Where do you go to get a pulse on the things going on in our industry?
Who are the people in our industry who you look to as experts?
What format of content do you consume to keep up with our industry? Social media posts? Blogs/long-form posts? Podcasts? News outlets?
Which specific sources do you go to for information on our industry?
What gaps do you see in the content about our industry online? What are the topics on which you’d like to see more education?

Questions for Understanding Product Demand for Something You Haven’t Yet Put Out in the Market
These eleven questions are intended to help you understand the demand for a new product or service. These questions will uncover buying habits for a product like the one you’re envisioning and whether there’s true product-market fit.

What is/was your first reaction to the product?
How often do you/would you use this type of product?
Would you be the one deciding to purchase this product/service? If not, who would be?
When and where do you use our product?
When you think about the product, do you think of it as something you absolutely need, something you could do without, or something that’s somewhere in the middle?
How much would you be willing to pay for a product like this?
How would you ideally like to buy this product? Would you talk to a sales rep, or would you rather purchase it on your own?
What do you think this product is missing?
How would you describe someone who you think would use this product/service?
If you ended up liking your experience with this product, could you see yourself repurchasing it? If so, how often?
If you could either have this product/service or the equivalent dollar value for you/your business, which would you choose? Why? (Specify the dollar value of your product/service when asking this question.)

Questions for Establishing (or Re-establishing) Your Name and Branding
The following questions are helpful for running word association brainstorms and generating potential names or parts of names for a new product or company.

What words come to mind when you think of our product category? (Example: “What words come to mind when you think of food delivery?”)
What words come to mind when you think of [insert a word that symbolizes the main value prop of your product/service here – for example, ‘efficiency,’ ‘speed,’ ‘health’]?
If you have candidate names already:

What is your initial reaction to this name?
What words come to mind when you hear this name?
How would you pronounce this? (Spell out the name on a piece of paper or whiteboard.)

And there you have it! 53 questions you can ask in your next focus group. If you’re unsure how to conduct a successful focus group, take a look at How to Run a Focus Group for Your Business.

Last Updated on November 19, 2020 by Rakesh GuptaOnce upon a time, Salesforce was a simple customer relationship management (CRM) tool that could be easily managed by a single person or a small team. But that time is well in … Continue reading →

Consider one of American Express’s company values — “Customer Commitment”. Ideally, if you’ve had a positive experience with one of American Express’s customer service reps, you’ve seen this value displayed first-hand.
Alternatively, take a look at one of Google’s values — “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”
Any Google search will show you they stand by their purpose to serve the user. Undoubtedly, you find most answers to your common questions on page one of Google, and more recently, it’s likely separated in its own featured snippet, as well.

Having core company values can help you ensure each of your employees, from top leadership to entry-level, are working towards the same common goal, and share a bigger purpose.
Purpose is undeniably critical for employee satisfaction. In fact, an Imperative survey of LinkedIn members found 73% of purpose-oriented members are satisfied in their jobs, compared to 64% who are not purpose-oriented.
Plus, purpose doesn’t just improve employee satisfaction — it also increases your bottom line. The same Imperative survey found 58% of companies with a clearly articulated and understood purpose experienced growth of +10%, compared to just 42% of companies that don’t prioritize purpose.
Ultimately, core values are critical if you want to create a long-lasting, successful, and motivating place to work.
Whether you work for a new company in need of core-value inspiration, or an older company in need of a value revamp, you’re in luck — here, we’ve cultivated a list of some of the best company values. Additionally, we’ll examine how some companies truly honor their values.

Company Values

Integrity
Boldness
Honesty
Trust
Accountability
Commitment to Customers
Passion
Fun
Humility
Continuous Learning
Ownership
Constant Improvement
Leadership
Diversity
Innovation
Quality
Teamwork
Simplicity

Examples of Companies with Inspiring Core Values
1. American Express

Customer Commitment: We develop relationships that make a positive difference in our customers’ lives.
Quality: We provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service that, together, deliver premium value to our customers.
Integrity: We uphold the highest standards of integrity in all of our actions.
Teamwork: We work together, across boundaries, to meet the needs of our customers and to help our Company win.
Respect for People: We value our people, encourage their development and reward their performance.
Good Citizenship: We are good citizens in the communities in which we live and work.
A Will to Win: We exhibit a strong will to win in the marketplace and in every aspect of our business.
Personal Accountability: We are personally accountable for delivering on our commitments.

American Express doesn’t just hit the bare minimum when it comes to polite, helpful customer service — they go above-and-beyond to solve for their customers, even when there’s no protocol in place.
For instance, Raymond Joabar, the Executive Vice President at American Express, recently told this story in a Forbes interview: “One time, a hotel café manager [an Amex merchant] alerted my team that he had accidentally sold a display cake with harmful chemicals and needed to find the customers before they ate it. Obviously, there’s no procedure for that, but our team took ownership of the problem. They gathered all the information they could from the record of charge, identified 21 Card Members who used their cards at the café during that time frame, reviewed the accounts to find the right match, and then called the Card Member in time before they served the cake at an anniversary party.”
“The important point here,” Joabar noted, “other than that everybody ended up safe and sound — is that there isn’t a script for every situation, so we empower our care professionals to do what’s right for the customer. And we recognize what they do with this empowerment as well. We give awards to employees who go above and beyond to help customers and we share their stories across the company.”
This anecdote exemplifies American Express employees’ commitment to their customers even when it’s not easy, and demonstrates the company’s dedication to living by its values.
2. Google

Focus on the user and all else will follow.
It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
Fast is better than slow.
Democracy on the web works.
You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
You can make money without doing evil.
There’s always more information out there.
The need for information crosses all borders.
You can be serious without a suit.
Great just isn’t good enough.

On Google’s philosophy page, they don’t just list their core values — they also provide examples.
For instance, consider their value, “You can make money without doing evil.” While many companies likely tout the benefits of integrity, Google references strategic efforts its made to avoid “evil” business, including — “We don’t allow ads to be displayed on our results pages unless they are relevant where they are shown … We don’t accept pop–up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you’ve requested … [and] Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a ‘Sponsored Link,’ so it does not compromise the integrity of our search results.”
Ultimately, a core value doesn’t have much power if your company can’t list intentional, calculated decisions it’s made to put values ahead of profit.
3. Coca Cola

Leadership: The courage to shape a better future.
Collaboration: Leverage collective genius.
Integrity: Be real.
Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me.
Passion: Committed in heart and mind.
Diversity: As inclusive as our brands.
Quality: What we do, we do well.

Coca Cola demonstrates its diversity core value with its public Global Diversity Missionpage, which lists the company’s diversity-related efforts, such as, “[collecting employee] feedback through formal surveys and informally through their participation in our business resource groups, various diversity education programs and our Resolution Resources Program, where associates can work to resolve issues they face in our Company.”
Additionally, Coca Cola’s Global Diversity Mission page exemplifies their commitment to accountability, as well — they’ve publicly included pie charts with statistics regarding their global employee gender and race ratios. By acknowledging both their efforts and their shortcomings, Coca Cola is able to show their desire to live up to their values, while taking responsibility for any mis-match between their ideals and reality.
4.Whole Foods

We Satisfy And Delight Our Customers — Our customers are the lifeblood of our business and our most important stakeholder. We strive to meet or exceed their expectations on every shopping experience.
We Promote Team Member Growth And Happiness — Our success is dependent upon the collective energy, intelligence, and contributions of all of our Team Members.
We Care About Our Communities And The Environment — We serve and support a local experience. The unique character of each store is a direct reflection of a community’s people, culture, and cuisine.
We Practice Win-Win Partnerships With Our Suppliers — We view our trade partners as allies in serving our stakeholders. We treat them with respect, fairness and integrity – expecting the same in return.

Underneath each of its values on its core value page, Whole Foods provides a link, such as, “Learn more about how we care about our communities and the environment.”
Ultimately, their page demonstrates their ability to walk the walk. For instance, to exemplify their commitment to local communities, Whole Foods created a Local Producer Loan Program, in which they provide up to $25 million in low-interest loans to independent local farmers and food artisans.
Additionally, Whole Foods provides a list of environmentally-friendly efforts they’ve practiced since 1980, including “Printing and packaging using recycled paper and water- or vegetable-based, composting to decrease landfill waste, and no single-use plastic bags at checkout since 2008”.
If you’ve ever been to a Whole Foods, you know they’re serious about their efforts to reduce waste and help the local community. In fact, its part of the reason so many customers are brand loyalists — because they support those efforts, too.
Ultimately, good core values can help an audience identify with, and stay loyal to, your brand, rather than flipping between you and competitors. To ensure long-term success andlong-term employee retention, it’s critical you create — and live by — certain non-negotiable company values.