Blog

Have you been tasked with the job of creating a request for proposal, or an RFP?
Whether you have no idea what that is or haven’t written one in awhile, today’s guide can help.
We’re diving into the specifics of what an RFP actually is, why you might need one, and how to create your very first one today.
To start, you should understand what all these letters even mean.

 

When your company has a new (often large) project, or one that’s more complex and requires a bit of outsourcing, an RFP can help you get the job done right the first time.
The RFP doc becomes a way for you to quickly uncover the strengths and weaknesses of potential vendors in relation to your project without having to spend too much of your time hunting for them yourself.

RFPs can also give you a sneak peek into different strategies you may not have considered since each vendor will include their own unique action plan along with their bid.
And you’ll have this information before you ever have to commit to the vendor.
Keep in mind, this should not be confused with an RFQ.
RFP vs. RFQ
An RFQ, or request for quotation, is slightly different than an RFP since it’s just the quote itself. Here, companies solicit multiple price quotes from various vendors to compare services based on price alone. While an RFP includes a price quote (along with several other specifics), an RFQ does not detail anything other than price.
As opposed to an RFP, an RFQ is a request for quote or quotation.
Here’s how to understand the difference:
While you’re technically receiving a quote in an RFP, you’re also getting information like the action plan, timeline of completion, deliverable schedule, and the list of services provided as well.
But with an RFQ, you’re only receiving the quote itself for the service or products you’re interested in purchasing.
In most cases, simply comparing quotes is not enough to see if a potential vendor is the right fit for your company, which is why an RFP is more appropriate in these situations.
What is an RFP in marketing? 
In Marketing, an RFP is often used to outsource any marketing activities that could help your brand increase reach. These activities include anything related to marketing that you can’t do internally. 
For instance, if you work at a small startup, you might create an RFP to find a full-service communications and marketing firm to create an integrated marketing plan for your business. If this is the case, you’d outline in your RFP that you’re looking for a firm to help you “increase SEO presence” or “attract social media followers”, etc. 
On the flip side, if you work for a marketing agency, you’ll want to keep an eye out for RFPs in your area related to services you offer. For instance, if you work for a web design company, you’ll want to look for businesses that have created RFPs for web design services. 
What is an RFP in sales?
In sales, an RFP is often created when a business is looking to purchase a product or service to suit its needs. For instance, if an enterprise company is looking for a new CRM software, the business might release an RFP that outlines what it’s looking for, and what it’s hoping to achieve with new CRM software. 
For this reason, RFPs can play a critical role in the enterprise sales cycle. Enterprise companies that issue RFPs are often looking for businesses that can provide them with IT support, security, onboarding and training, and other additional services. To close these larger accounts, it’s vital your sales team is prepared with an RFP response process, and is able to efficiently respond to these large companies within the time allotted. 

The RFP Process Explained

Before potential bidders can submit their proposals, an RFP must be drafted by the company requesting the work. (P.S. We’ll show you how to do this later in this guide)
This gives potential contractors a better idea of what your company is looking for.
Once your RFP is sent out, contractors or vendors can review it and submit their best bids to compete for the job.
In these proposals, vendors generally include the following items:

An action plan of how they’re going to solve the issue
A timeline of what you can expect
Any necessary background information
How much they expect the entire project to cost

In certain cases, bidders may come back and say specific components of the RFP need to be adjusted based on their experience in the industry.
At this point, you can either review their feedback and create a new RFP to adjust for the changes, or you can leave the original as is and keep it in mind while considering the other submitted bids.
Once you receive all the proposals, it will be almost effortless to compare each one and determine which vendor is the best fit for your company.
Out of the stack of bidders, you’ll want to narrow this down to a handful of your top three, five, or 10 favorites to consider, depending on how many you receive or are interested in.
From here, you’ll want to spend time vetting potential vendors further to determine who’s really the ideal fit for the job.
Some companies may request one more best and final offer from their top vendors after they’ve started this negotiation process to ensure they’re not only getting the right person or company for the job, but at the right price, too.
While this may sound like an extra step, it’s one that may save you money, time, and headaches down the road.
But this also leads us to a big question: Is all of this really necessary?
Can’t you just spend time reviewing two or three vendors on your own?
As you’ll see next, that route is definitely not in your best interest.

Why Issue a Request for Proposal?

Let’s briefly compare these two scenarios:

Option #1: Spend time finding the perfect vendor on your own.
Option #2: Use an RFP to get potential vendors to come to you.

Choose the first route, and you’ll probably use your coworkers, friends, and networking groups to help solicit possible referrals for the job.
Or you might perform a Google search to check out the top vendors in your area.
After you review the website of a possible candidate for the job, you’ll craft the perfect message to reach out and learn if they can even help.
Then, you’ll have to explain the specifics of your project and you may or may not ask them to submit a proposal before deciding to choose them for your project.
It’s not a complicated process, but did we mention you have to repeat it for every promising referral or vendor you come across?
Imagine how long that’s going to take!
Now, what if these potential contractors already knew your project details and they came back with their best plan of action and a formal bid for you to review?
So instead of having to explain your needs each time, you would simply outline it once, and send it out to the masses.
And to save you even more time, it would be up to potential contractors — not you — to reach out.
The RFP route also gives you a sneak peek into each vendor’s real plan of action, not the one they talk you into over the phone or in person.
Since potential candidates have to submit a formal bid, they’ll need to spend time outlining the solution and really working through the problem at hand.
And if they don’t, you have an easy way to weed out vendors and cut through the stack of options fairly quickly.
But, to get to this point, you can’t make this next mistake.
Here’s What Not To Do With an RFP
If you want to find the right vendor, you need your RFP to be specific.

Only asking “yes” or “no” questions won’t get you anywhere.
That’s why you must create specific questions that require thoughtful answers.
Try to use sentences similar to these:

Can you share an example of how you’ve solved this problem or a similar one for another company? Did you encounter any unforeseen roadblocks? What would you do the same or differently this time?

With your proposed redesign, how long would it take a non-tech savvy person to complete the new registration form? How much time do you estimate this could save?

With these tips in mind, you’re ready to draft your first RFP.

How to Write an RFP

Here’s the basic structure of an RFP and what to include in yours:
1. Project Overview
Before you go into the specifics of your company, you should give a brief introduction to the project itself so vendors know right away if it’s something worth bidding on.
2. Your Company Background
This shouldn’t be a long history of your company. Rather, it should give contractors a better idea of what your company does and who you serve as a target market.
3. The Goals of Your Project
Clearly identify what you hope to accomplish with this project and what you see as a “win” so everyone is on the same page.
4. Project Scope
The details of the project are essential in an RFP. In the same way you don’t want to use vague questions, a vague project scope won’t help you find the right vendor either.
Spend time really detailing your project scope so there’s no surprises later on.
5. Target Deliverable Schedule
Even if your deadlines aren’t super tight, you should still have a target deliverable schedule in mind. This needs to be included in your RFP so potential vendors can properly gauge if they have the resources and bandwidth to complete the job on time.
6. Possible Roadblocks
Don’t hide your existing or potential issues under the proverbial rug if you want them to disappear. A successful RFP is explicitly clear about any technical issues or possible roadblocks, such as: Are you dealing with custom coding or an outdated platform? Does your team have limited resources?
By explaining these up front, potential vendors will know exactly what they’re getting into.
You’ll also naturally weed out contractors who can’t handle the task due to those constraints.
But you’ll also connect with companies that know how to work around these common issues with skill and finesse.
Remember, it’s far better to find this out now than after you’ve accepted the bid and started work.
7. Budget Constraints
It’s also important to be upfront with your budget too. The more you can eliminate surprises, the better for all parties involved.
8. What You’re Looking For in Potential Vendors
Another way to reduce or eliminate surprises is to explain exactly what you’re looking for in potential contractors.
All you have to do is outline what matters most to your project (i.e., time, solution, budget, etc.) and show how you’ll be evaluating their proposals based on that.
We’ll show you how this is done soon, but before we do, there’s one more thing to add here: an RFP cover letter.
Just like a cover letter for a resume, an RFP cover letter creates a professional image for your brand and sets the tone for prospective vendors. It signals that they should take the proposal and the project seriously.
The good news is there are a number of tools to make creating RFPs easier and less stressful than you’re imagining.
Sample Responses to RFPs
If you’ve issued an RFP and are collecting responses, you might be wondering what you should look for in effective RFP responses. Here, let’s look at a few examples of impressive RFP sample responses. 
Example One: General RFP Response for Web Design Services
Dear [author of RFP]:
Regarding your request for proposal (RFP), [our company] is thrilled about the opportunity to provide you web design services. Having worked with [brief list of past clients], we believe a partnership with [company you’re writing to] would have a tremendous impact on your customer satisfaction and bottom line.
As one of [client’s industry] leading providers of [client’s main service], you know just how critical this time of year can be for your customers. On average, the cost to deliver is $[xxxx.xx], and [client name] is committed to “[client’s mission statement].”
As these challenges become more common, it is increasingly important to provide customers with a powerful, SEO-optimized website to atttract new leads. With this in mind, [our company] intends to help [client’s name]:

Create a sleek, impressive website that is clean, user-friendly and mobile responsive to work on all devices, so web viewers have a strong first impression of your brand regardless of the device they use to find you. 

Help you strengthen brand identity through a new logo and a new, cohesive color palette. 

Ensure each of your web pages are SEO-optimized to rank quickly, which will attract new customers to your website and demonstrate your leadership in the industry. 

As stated in the executive summary, [our company] intends to help [client’s name] [brief allusion to client benefits outlined in executive summary]. To do this, our team has outlined a proposed set of deliverables, an order of operations, division of labor, and expected dates of completion to ensure the partnership between [your company] and [client’s name] is successful.
[Your company] can’t wait to work with you to help [client’s name] in addressing [client’s challenges described in Executive Summary]. To recap, please see below a brief overview of the services included in this partnership.
This sample response clearly and succinctly explains how the vendor’s service will solve the buyer’s critical pain points when it comes to creating a strong website. By outlining the key benefits, you’re showing the client how you’ll put them first and focus on their needs to get the job done. 
Example Two: Video Production Company Offering Its Services

When responding to an RFP from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Paul Horton Visuals chose to create a full webpage dedicated to their RFP response. The webpage format enabled the team at Paul Horton to create a full sample video treatment and process to show Anthem what they’d be able to deliver if Anthem chose them. The page also includes an embedded video to highlight the strengths of Paul Horton: video production. 

Proposal Software Tools to Help You Manage RFPs

In this article, we outlined 10 tools to help you manage and create professional looking proposals in less time.
For today’s purposes, the following five tools are great places to get started:
1. RFPIO

RFPIO Solves the problem of responding to RFPs, from project management to collaboration, to integrating with other software.  Their solution includes reporting dashboards, auto-response features, and automated generation of proactive proposals from within your CRM. RFPIO also includes an intelligent answer library that turns previous RFP responses into on-demand intelligence that empowers revenue teams with enterprise content at their fingertips wherever the work. 
And what’s better? RFPIO has an integration with HubSpot that will automatically sync your RFP with your portal, making it easy to share information with your team. 
2. PandaDoc

To create customized RFPs with your own branding, consider using the proposal software PandaDoc.
Here you can set up your first RFP within minutes and even collaborate with team members using real-time updates within the document itself.
3. Nusii

Similar to other proposal software on the market, Nusii uses a drag and drop editor that makes building RFPs a breeze — especially for beginners.
Thanks to its clean, modern, simple design, it’s also really easy to figure out too.
One of the most helpful features of Nusii is using it for re-working existing RFPs to save you time. Just copy the content from an RFP you like and edit information to fit your new request.
4. Loopio

How do you plan on organizing all the responses to your RFPs?
One standout feature with Loopio is its RFP response library, which gives you instant access to all your answers from previous RFPs. This saves you the hassle of digging around to find what you need in a crowded inbox.
Their magic feature will even help you auto-populate a response if it appears similar to one you’ve already done.
Plus, you can manage your entire RFP process — including sending automated responses — and collaborate with your team all in one place with their intuitive dashboard.
And if proposal tools are out of the budget right now, or if you’d like to try your hand at creating your own first, use this template as a starting point.
5. RFP360

RFP360 streamlines your approach to RFP response management. Their intuitive knowledge management, workflow and collaboration features make it easy to create, review, update and approve compelling responses in a single library. Proposal automation and answer intelligence (AI) capabilities accelerate your ability to answer questions, suggesting the best possible responses and automatically completing them in bulk.
You can also import RFPs in various formats and generate polished final proposals, and integrated extensions allow anyone across your organization to use content from your knowledge library in Microsoft Office files, online questionnaires and forms — without leaving those applications.

Free and Editable RFP Template

Download a free, editable RFP template.
To use this template, simply download it here or fill out the form below. You can remove sections or pieces of information that don’t pertain to your project and add whatever else you need for your RFPs.

Over To You
Now that you have a better idea of what an RFP is and how to create your first one, you’re ready to get started.
Sit down with your team to narrow down your project’s specifics, goals, and scope of work. Then determine when the project needs to be completed and your budget before moving on to the drafting phase.
With this intel gathered, you’ll be ready to plug everything into our template.

You can also use this tried-and-tested proposal formula to ensure your RFP is professional and polished too.
Follow these steps and you’ll have an RFP template you can quickly update. Your next project will be a success that much faster. 
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August, 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Read: https://nexuses.in/ways-to-enhance-customer-experience-in-b2b-e-commerce/
submitted by /u/ShivaliR [link] [comments]

Today, most marketing teams are focused on driving traffic toward websites in hopes that this traffic then converts into qualified leads for sale reps to close. But that’s only half the battle.
Getting more out of existing traffic and leads (versus entirely new traffic) can propel companies toward long-term, sustainable growth. That’s where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in. In this guide, you’ll learn about the power of CRO, why your business should focus on improving your conversion rate, and how to get get started.

What is a conversion rate?
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like completing a web form, signing up for a service, or purchasing a product.
A high conversion rate means your website is well-designed, formatted effectively, and appealing to your target audience. A low conversion rate could be the result of a variety of factors related to either website performance or design. Slow load times, a broken form, or copy that doesn’t convey the value of the offer are common reasons for a poor conversion rate. 
What is a good conversion rate?
A “good” conversion rate depends on your industry, niche, goals, traffic channel, and audience demographics, among other factors. For example, the average conversion rate of ecommerce sites globally was 2.17% in the third quarter of 2020, which was down from 2.37% the previous year. The ecommerce conversion rate in the US was higher, however, at 2.57%.
The average not only differs by year and by country — it also differs by niche. For example, the average conversion rate of ecommerce sites in the food and beverage sector is 5.5% whereas the average in the haircare sector is 3.5%. 
If your conversion rate is lower than you’d like — maybe it’s below average in your industry, or lower than your top competitors, or simply underperforming against your own goals — then it’s time to optimize. 
What is CRO?
Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of enhancing your website and content to boost conversions. 
The process of optimizing for conversions allows you to boost your number of highly-qualified leads, increase revenue, lower acquisition costs, obtain greater value from your current leads and customers, and, simply, grow better.
Conversions can happen all over your website: on your homepage, pricing page, blog, landing pages, and more. To maximize the potential of converting website visitors into paying customers, you should optimize each location. 
Before we take a look at the benefits of CRO, let’s walk through how to calculate your site’s conversion rate. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of how much time and resources to invest in a CRO strategy. 
How to Calculate Conversion Rate 
Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors and multiplying that number by 100 to get a percentage.

As long as you know how you’re defining a conversion, then calculating your conversion rate is easy. You just plug in two values and multiply by 100. 
Let’s say you’re defining a conversion as a newsletter opt-in, and you have an opt-in form on every single page of your website. In that case, you’d divide the total number of newsletter form submissions by the total number of website visitors and multiply it by 100. So if you had 500 submissions and 20,000 visitors last quarter, then your conversion rate would be 2.5%. 
You can repeat this process for every conversion opportunity on your site. Just make sure to only count the number of visitors on the webpages where the offer is listed. For example, if you want to calculate the conversion rate of your ebook offer, then you’d divide the total number of downloads by the number of people who visited webpages where the ebook offer is listed. 
Alternatively, you can calculate your website’s overall conversion rate by dividing the total number of conversions for every conversion opportunity on your site by the total number of visitors on your site.

How Websites Benefit From CRO
Here are four areas of your website that have the potential to largely benefit from conversion rate optimization.
1. Homepage
Homepages are prime candidates for CRO. In addition to making a first impression on visitors, the homepage is also an opportunity to retain those visitors and guide them further into your website.
You can do this by emphasizing links to product information, offering a free signup button, or even incorporating a chatbot that solicits questions from visitors at any point during their browsing experience.
2. Pricing Page
A website’s pricing page can be the make-or-break point for many website visitors. CRO can help a pricing page convert visitors into customers by modifying the pricing intervals (e.g. price-per-year vs. price-per-month), describing the product features associated with each price, including a phone number for visitors to call for a price quote, or adding a simple pop-up form. 
Hotjar, for example, added a simple email opt-in popup form on its pricing page and got over 400 new leads in just three weeks.

3. Blog
A blog is a massive conversion opportunity for a website. In addition to publishing thoughtful and helpful content about your industry, a blog can use CRO to convert readers into leads.
This process often includes adding calls-to-action (CTA) throughout an article or inviting readers to learn more about a topic by submitting their email address in exchange for an ebook or industry report.
4. Landing Pages
Since landing pages are inherently designed for people to take an action, it makes sense that they have the highest average conversion rate of all signup forms at 24%. An event landing page, for example, can be optimized with a video of last year’s event to encourage visitors to register this year. A landing page that’s offering a free resource can be optimized with preview content from that resource to encourage visitors to download it.
Now that you know where you can optimize for conversions, you may be wondering how you know when your business is ready to start the process.

When is CRO right for your business?
The short answer: CRO is important for any business online. That’s because, no matter how established or large your company is, you want to convert your website visitors into qualified leads, customers, and brand advocates — and you want to do so in the most effective, impactful, and reliable way.
With conversion rate optimization, you’ll get more out of your existing website traffic while ensuring you’re targeting qualified leads.
Although this is a straightforward concept, setting a conversion goal isn’t as easy as saying, “This page converted 50 people this month, so we want to convert 100 people next month.”
You don’t just want 50 more conversions from a webpage. Instead, you want 50 more conversions for every X amount of people who visit it. (This is your conversion rate — the percentage of people who convert on your website based on how many people have touched it).
To provide a better understanding of where you stand at any point in time in regards to conversion rate, here are three commonly-used formulas your business can use to understand, analyze, and improve.

CRO Calculation 1: Conversion Rate
As we mentioned earlier, to calculate conversion rate, you must divide your number of conversions (or leads generated) by your number of visitors (or web traffic), and then multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage.
Leads Generated ÷ Website Traffic x 100 = Conversion Rate %
CRO Calculation 2: Number of Net New Customers
To calculate your number of net new customers, you’ll want to divide your net revenue goal by your average sales price.
New Revenue Goal ÷ Average Sales Price = Number of New Customers
CRO Calculation 3: Lead Goal
And lastly, to calculate your lead goal, take your number of new customers and divide it by your lead-to-customer close rate (which is your total number of leads divided by total number of customers) percentage.
Number of New Customers ÷ Lead-to-Customer Close Rate % = Lead Goal
Here’s an example of these formulas in action:
If your website has 10,000 visitors per month that generate 100 leads — and subsequently, 10 customers each month — the website visitor-to-lead conversion rate would be 1%.
What if you wanted to generate 20 customers each month?
You could try to get 20,000 visitors to your website and hope that the quality of your traffic doesn’t decrease — although, that’s a risk you’ll likely want to avoid. Rather, you could obtain more leads from your existing traffic by optimizing your conversion rate. This is less risky and is more likely to produce better results for your bottom line.
For instance, if you increase your conversion rate from 1% to 2%, you’d double your leads and your customers. The following table is proof of this — you can see the positive impact that results from increasing your website’s conversion rate:

Company
a
B
c

Monthly Site Traffic
10,000
10,000
10,000

Conversion Rate
1%
2%
3%

Leads Generated
100
200
300

New Customers
10
20
30

Notice the drastic increases in number of leads generated and net new customers when you boost your conversion rate.
Not only that, but it’s clear that generating more website traffic isn’t necessarily the right approach when trying to improve your conversion rate — in fact, this chart shows you that you can grow your business substantially without increasing traffic at all.
Hard to believe? Think about this way: Pretend you were trying to fill up a leaky bucket. If you pour more water into the bucket, you won’t fix the root cause of the issue — instead, you’ll end up with a lot of water that’s wasted (not to mention, a bucket that will never fill up all the way).
Are you ready to take the first steps toward CRO at your company? Review the strategies below and start experimenting.

CRO Marketing Strategies to Try
Here are some applicable conversion rate optimization marketing strategies to test and implement at your company.
1. Create text-based CTAs within blog posts.
While it’s considered a best practice to include CTAs in a blog post, they sometimes fail to entice visitors to take your desired course of action. Why?
Banner blindness is a real phenomenon related to people becoming accustomed to ignoring banner-like information on websites. This lack of attention coupled with the fact site visitors don’t always read all the way to the bottom of a blog post (rather, they “snack” on content), means a different approach is required.
That’s where the text-based CTA comes in handy. Here at HubSpot, we ran a test with text-based CTAs — a standalone line of text linked to a landing page and styled as an H3 or an H4 — to see if they would convert more traffic into leads than regular CTAs located at the bottom of a web page.
In HubSpot’s limited test of 10 blog posts, regular end-of-post banner CTAs contributed an average of just 6% of leads that the blog posts generated, whereas up to 93% of a post’s leads came from the anchor-text CTA alone.
2. Add lead flows on your blog.
A lead flow is another conversion rate optimization element you can include on your site. Lead flows are high-converting pop-ups designed to attract attention and offer value.
You can select from a slide-in box, drop-down banner, or pop-up box, depending on your offer. We experimented with the slide-in box on the HubSpot Blog back in 2016 and it achieved a 192% higher clickthrough rate and 27% more submissions than a regular CTA at the bottom of a blog post.
3. Run tests on your landing pages.
Landing pages are an important part of the modern marketer’s toolkit and, as mentioned earlier, integral to conversion rate optimization.
That’s because a landing page is where a website visitor becomes a lead or an existing lead engages more deeply with your brand. To optimize a landing page, run A/B tests to identify your best design and content features for audience members.
For instance, with A/B testing you can quickly and easily test different versions of your website copy, content offers, images, form questions, and web pages to determine what your target audience and leads respond to best.
Thanks to A/B testing, China Expat Health was able to increase their lead conversion rate by 79%. One of the most impactful changes was swapping out the headline “Health Insurance in China” for “Save Up to 32% on Your Health Insurance in China,” which immediately conveyed a value proposition to visitors. This proposition was then supported by customer testimonials.
Get everything you need to start effectively A/B Testing your website today.
4. Help leads to immediately become a marketing-qualified lead.
Sometimes visitors want to get right down to business, skip parts of the typical buyer’s journey, and immediately speak with a sales rep (rather than be nurtured).
There are specific actions you should encourage these high-intent visitors to complete so they can easily become marketing qualified leads (MQLs) — and they can take action through a combination of thoughtfully designed web pages, compelling and clear copy, and smart CTAs.
For instance, at HubSpot, we discovered that visitors who sign up for product demos convert at higher rates than visitors who sign up for free product trials. So, we optimized our website and conversion paths for people booking demos or meetings with a sales rep.
Admittedly, this depends on your product and sales process, but our best advice is to run a series of tests to find out what generates the most customers. Then, optimize for that process. The key here is to look for ways to remove friction from your sales process.
5. Build workflows to enable your team.
There are a number of automated workflows you can create to enable your team with the help of marketing automation software.
For example, with marketing automation, it’s possible to send automatic emails with workflows. Then, leads can book meetings with reps in one click. Meanwhile, reps receive notifications when leads take high-intent actions such as view the pricing page on your website.
Or, if you work in ecommerce, you can send an email to people who abandon their shopping cart as a reminder.  According to research from Moosend, abandoned cart emails can be very effective. They have a high open rate of 45%. Of the emails that are opened, 21% are clicked. Half of the people who clicked make a purchase.
Here’s an example of an abandoned cart email by the Dollar Shave Club. 

Image Source
6. Add messages to high-converting web pages.
Use live chat software to chat with your website visitors in real-time and offer support and guidance as needed. To increase conversions, add these messaging features to your high-performing web pages — such as your pricing and product pages — so leads get the information they want in real-time.
You can also make your messaging and chat bots action-based. For example, if someone has spent more than a minute on the page, you may want to automatically offer to help and answer any questions they may have (again, a live chat tool, like HubSpot, makes this easy).
7. Optimize high-performing blog posts.
Again, publishing blog articles opens the door to a big opportunity for conversions. Even more so if you already have existing blog content on your site — in fact, at HubSpot, the majority of our monthly blog views and leads come from posts published over a month ago.
To get started optimizing your blog content, identify your posts with the highest levels of web traffic but low conversion rates. (Possible causes of this issue may be related to SEO, the content offer you are promoting, or your CTA.)
In one instance, we at HubSpot added an inbound press release template offer to a blog post about press releases — as a result, we saw conversions for that post increase by 240%.
Additionally, look at your blog posts with high conversion rates. You want to drive more qualified website traffic to those posts and you can do so by optimizing the content for the search engine results page (SERP) or updating it as needed to ensure it’s fresh and relevant.
8. Leverage retargeting to re-engage website visitors.
It doesn’t matter what your key conversion metric is: The cold, hard truth is that most people on your website don’t take the action you want them to. By leveraging retargeting on Facebook and other platforms, you can re-engage people who left your website.
Retargeting works by tracking visitors to your website and serving them online ads as they visit other sites around the web. This is particularly impactful when you retarget people who visited your highest-converting web pages.
The normal inbound rules still apply here — you need well-crafted copy, engaging visuals, and a compelling offer for retargeting to work.
Take United’s retargeting campaign for example. Using insights from previous ad campaigns, United focused on reaching people who had viewed their ads and were already considering booking a vacation. To this select audience, they promoted a 15-second video ending in a call-to-action.

If viewers felt inspired enough to book their vacation, all they had to do was click on the CTA to be taken straight to the United website. This proved to be a huge success. In just one month, 52% of conversions attributed to YouTube were click-through conversions directly from the ad.
(If you’re a HubSpot customer, take a look at how the AdRoll integration can improve your conversion efforts.)
Now, let’s talk about how you can get started with CRO at your company.

How to Get Started with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Maybe you’re wondering, “Where do I start with CRO?”
Enter: PIE framework. Before starting a CRO project, prioritize your efforts by ranking each element on Potential, Importance, and Ease.
Use the PIE framework to answer the following questions for every strategy outlined in the previous section. Then, assign a score between one and 10 (one being the lowest and 10 being the highest) to each strategy.

How much total improvement can this project offer?
How valuable will this improvement be?
How complicated or difficult will it be to implement this improvement?

Once you’ve assigned a score for each strategy, add up the numbers and divide the total by three — this gives a score that shows what project will have the greatest impact. Then, work on the projects with the highest scores first.
The PIE framework isn’t perfect, but it’s easy to understand, systematic, and offers a starting point for CRO collaboration and communication among colleagues.
Frequently Asked Questions About CRO 
We’ve covered a lot about conversion rate optimization, but not everything. If you still have questions, then check out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions below. 
What is the purpose of a conversion rate optimization?
The purpose of conversion rate optimization (CRO) is to improve the likelihood of visitors taking a desired action on a webpage.
What is a CRO strategy?
A CRO strategy is designed to convert more of your visitors into paying customers. While each CRO strategy will vary company by company, the general steps will not. You have to identify key metrics and your target audience. Then you have to collect user feedback and other data to decide what you’re going to test. Finally, you’ll run A/B tests to improve different pages and parts of your site for conversion.
What are CRO tools?
CRO tools are designed to simplify or automate the process of optimizing your conversion rate. They might help with lead capture, research, analytics, mouse tracking and heat maps, feedback, or running experiments.
What is a CRO test?
A CRO test involves adding, re-arranging, and redesigning elements on your website in order to maximize your conversions. Different CRO tests might focus on optimizing the copy, design, or placement of your CTAs, or the length of your headlines, among other elements. 
Begin Using CRO
There are many “best practices” out there when it comes to CRO but, ultimately, you need to find out what your customers respond to, and what drives results for your business.
Keep these three follow-up actions in mind when getting started with CRO today:

Use the three formulas to start the CRO conversation.
Experiment with CRO strategies to discover what works for your business.
Leverage the PIE framework to help prioritize your strategy.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you want to curate others’ content from social media or just make your own visual social media content work harder for your overall content strategy, you need to know how to embed HTML code onto your blog or website.
But wait a second … before we get into the nitty-gritty of this tip, what the heck does “embed” mean? And what is HTML? If you don’t know how to code at all, no worries — embedding external content is extremely easy. Let’s take a second to break down the basics.
What does embed mean?
Embed means to integrate external content into another website or page. You embed something when you place a block of code — called an embed code — into the HTML editor of another website. When you hit ‘Save’ or ‘Publish,’ the media then renders on the published page.
Embedded content is referenced with HTML. HTML is one of the most basic languages used on the web to design and lay out web pages.
You often see this code when you’re in the “back end” of your blog post. There’s where you’ll add your embed code.
Most social and multimedia websites have an option to generate an embed code right in each individual post. Here’s an example of an embed code for a HubSpot YouTube video:

And here’s the embedded result.

Want to do the same thing on your blog posts and pages? Let’s go over how you can generate an embed code for the top social sites.
Below, we cover these steps in more detail for each platform. In general, you’ll want to:

Generate the embed code.
Access your content management system and paste the embed code in your HTML viewer.
Finished! You have embedded content into your website or blog.

Let’s dive into each step.
1. Generate the embed code.
Before embedding external content, you must first generate an embed code for the post or page you want to embed on your website.
We’ll go over how you can do that on most of the major social and content networks.
Embed a Facebook Post
To embed a Facebook post, do the following:

Navigate to Facebook on your desktop browser and go to the post that you’d like to embed.
Click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post.
On the drop-down menu, click Embed.

A pop-up will appear, where you have the option to include the full post and access advanced settings. For beginners, we recommend leaving the options as they are and simply clicking Copy Code.

Finished! You’ve got your embed code.

Embed an Instagram Post
Want to embed an Instagram post? The process is similar to Facebook’s. Note that you can only embed posts from the desktop version and not the mobile app.

Click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post.
A popup will come up with several options. Click Embed, the second-to-last option.

A pop-up will come up with your embed code. You have the option of including or excluding the caption.
After you’ve finished customizing your options, click Copy Embed Code.

Complete! You’ve got your Instagram embed code.

Embed a YouTube Video
YouTube videos can take your blog posts to the next level, and the best part is that you can embed its wealth of content on your blog posts for free.
To do so, take the following steps:

Navigate to the video that you’d like to embed on your website.
Under the video, next to where the likes are located, click Share.

A pop-up will come up with several options, including sharing the post to other social networks. Click Embed.

YouTube will create an embed code, which you can customize. You can start the video at a certain point or hide the player controls.
After choosing your options, click Copy on the lower right-hand corner of the pop-up.

Complete! Your YouTube video is ready to get embedded.

Embed a Tweet
If you embed a Tweet on your website pages or blog, you can generate engagement for your Twitter profile without relying on your Twitter followers. Website visitors can engage with your Twitter content, too.
To embed a Twitter post, do the following:

On a desktop browser, navigate to the post that you’d like to embed.
Click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post.
A drop-down menu will appear. Click Embed Tweet.

Twitter will take you to an external page on publish.twitter.com, where you can then further customize the look of the Tweet before embedding it on your site. For instance, you can set it to dark mode and change the display language of the Tweet.

Once you’ve customized it, click Update.

Click Copy Code.

Finished! The Tweet is ready to embed on your site.

There’s another way to generate an embed code for Twitter. Go to publish.twitter.com and insert the URL of the post that you’d like to embed. Twitter will then generate the embed code, and you can customize it using the same process as the last method.
Embed a Pinterest Post
Embedding a Pinterest post can lead website users back to your Pinterest profile and help you grow your Pinterest following. To get started, do the following:

Navigate to the Pinterest post you’d like to embed.
Click on the three dots right next to the image (or under the image, if you’re using the mobile website).
On the drop-down menu, click Get Pin embed code.

A pop-up will appear with the embed code. You have the option of creating a small, medium, large, or extra-large embedded pin.

Once you customize the size, highlight the code and click Command + C or CTRL + C.
Finished! Your Pin is ready to get embedded.

Embed a SlideShare Presentation
While SlideShare presentations are not as popular these days, they can still be a handy multimedia tool for spicing up blog posts and pages. Here’s how to embed a SlideShare presentation:

Go to the SlideShare presentation you’d like to embed.
Click Share under the presentation.
In the same window where the presentation appears, you’ll see the option to share it via social channels. The embed code will be underneath that.

Choose the size of the embed window and which slide you’d like the presentation to start on.
Highlight the embed code and click Command + C or CTRL + C.
Ready! You can now embed the SlideShare presentation in a web page or post.

Embed an External Webpage
Don’t want to embed a social post but rather a web page? You can embed an external web page using the iframe HTML tag.
All embed codes, including the ones for social sites, use iframe tags. This is what they look like:

You can use these same tags to embed an external webpage. Here’s how:

Navigate to the webpage you’d like to embed into your site.
Open up the notepad app on your computer. Paste the following code into it:

Return to the webpage and copy the URL.
Paste the entire URL where it says url in your iframe code. Don’t forget to include https:// at the beginning of your URL and to place the link inside the quote marks. Here’s what your code should look like:

Change the width and height of the frame if desired.

Copy the entire line of code. After, the webpage is ready to get embedded on your website.

2. Access your content management system and paste the embed code in your HTML viewer.
Although every CMS is different, you can probably find the HTML viewer with similar steps. We’ll go over how you can do it in CMS Hub and WordPress.
CMS Hub
In CMS Hub, you actually don’t need to add your embed content using the HTML editor (although you have the option to). Here’s how:

In your HubSpot dashboard, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog. If you’re planning to add the code to a website page, navigate to Marketing > Website > Website Pages.

Find the post or page that you’d like to add the embed code to. Hover over it, then click Edit.

Click into the module where you’d like to add the embed code. An options bar will appear near the top of the screen. In the right-hand side, click Insert.
Choose Embed from the drop-down menu.

A pop-up will appear. Paste the iframe code into the text bar.

Click Insert.
Finished! You can edit the width and height of the embed content to customize it further.

To access the HTML editor, complete steps 1-3 above. On the top options bar, click Advanced > Source Code. You can then paste your embed code manually. Note that the end result is the same.
WordPress
To paste an embed code into your WordPress website, use the following steps:

Access your admin area and go to either Pages or Posts.
Click the title of the post that you want to add the embed code to. This action will take you to the post editor.
Click the Text tab on the upper right-hand corner of the text editor.

Paste your embed code where you want the module to appear.

3. Finished! You have embedded content onto your website or blog.
Once you reload the page, your embedded social post will appear.
Add Embedded Content to Increase User Engagement
By embedding external content on your pages and posts, you can increase engagement on your website and get your site visitors to interact with the content you post on social media. The best part is that it’s easy to do — simply generate the embed code, paste it into your HTML editor, and watch your user engagement grow.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

This piece was originally published by AppExchange on Medium.
Our community knows that AppExchange is all about doing more with Salesforce. Whether you’re looking for a solution with no code, low code, or lots of code, AppExchange is the most trusted enterprise cloud marketplace to accelerate your digital transformation journey.
And one of the most powerful Salesforce platforms for marketers is Pardot, a B2B marketing automation solution that helps companies build and nurture relationships with prospects and customers. So we’re excited to announce that a Pardot collection is now available on AppExchange, featuring a growing selection of Salesforce Pardot apps from some of our most trusted partners. 
For Prasanna Vijayakumar, Pardot’s senior director of product management, the beauty of AppExchange is its flexibility and scalability. 
“In conversations with our customers, they talk about the sheer number of systems they touch every day. Salesforce research shows that the average enterprise has 900 different applications. And the martech space isn’t getting any smaller. Building native integrations for every solution just isn’t possible,” Prasanna explained. “So we want to make sure that we have the right set of hooks for our customers and partners to come in and design what they need to improve their workflows, get access to better data, and help them achieve their goals.”
This new Pardot collection on AppExchange brings apps together in a central location and improves their discoverability. “We’re excited to see how the improved visibility extends their impact,” Prasanna said.
The Pardot collection launches with essential solutions for everything from data privacy to account-based marketing (ABM). Take a look at the starting lineup and learn more about the value they bring.
Email Digest for PardotCreated by Sercante
This is the first of two Pardot apps coming from Sercante. Get an easy-to-read weekly summary of your activity in Pardot, and use the insights to plan system improvements or keep stakeholders informed.
Vidyard – Video for SalesforceCreated by Vidyard
Now you can easily add video to email marketing programs and landing pages inside of Pardot. Track every piece of individual viewer data right inside the contact record. Score leads, create dynamic lists, and build drip nurtures based on what they watch.
TranscendCreated by Transcend
This app automates privacy requests by connecting and managing data across different systems — helping teams comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA and giving individuals more control over their data.
6sense Sales IntelligenceCreated by 6sense
Uncover which companies and contacts are in-market and ready to buy now based on data insights into the buyer’s research journey. Then, accurately predict what and when a company will buy through time-sensitive predictive modeling.
Traction Complete Leads: Lead to Account Matching & RoutingCreated by Traction on Demand
Get your leads to the right sales rep the first time with smart matching capabilities that handle complex situations, make any custom assignment flow possible, and drive more revenue growth with access to key metrics like lead response times and conversion rates at your fingertips.
Automated Opportunity Contact RolesCreated by Sercante
This is the second Pardot app from Sercante. Fill the gaps between Contacts and Opportunities to unleash native Salesforce Campaign Influence reporting and greater segmentation ability in Pardot. It’s a great option for marketing teams that need to show value and need more options for targeting contacts throughout the sales cycle.
Terminus B2B Account-Based MarketingCreated by Terminus
Orchestrate ABM campaigns to engage key decision-makers at best-fit accounts, and find the right decision-makers within target accounts to serve them ads across the web, mobile, video, and social channels.
Demandbase ABMCreated by Demandbase, Inc.
This app offers a seamless, integrated ABM experience, giving B2B marketing teams access to Demandbase’s AI-enabled account-level data and intent signals so they can get a full view of target accounts, build actionable segments, and launch engagement campaigns.
Scan to Salesforce/Pardot – Business card scanner for iOS & AndroidCreated by Sansan, Inc.
Store vital data to empower your organization’s marketing with a simple business card scanner. Scan up to four business cards at once, validate data, zap new Leads, Contacts, and Accounts to Salesforce, and trigger a Pardot campaign — all based on a scan.
Send360 Direct Mail, Gifts & Kits for Customer 360 (formerly PrintSF)Created by PrintSF.com
Make sending direct mail, gifts, and kits as easy as email with the most popular direct mail solution in AppExchange — no APIs to code or IT resources needed. You can also send and track in any Salesforce Cloud, journey, or flow.
Vision-e – Scan business cards, Event badges to Salesforce, PardotCreated by Vision-e
Scan any business card — once the image is in Salesforce and Pardot, users can easily add text and create a Contact or Lead on the Queue page. Get VCard files by email, text message, or AirDrop, then Share Contact to open in Vision-e Scan to process as a Lead or Contact.
Opensense – Email Signatures/Branding/Campaigns/Disclaimers/Analytics & TrackingCreated by Opensense, Inc.
This app offers a centralized, no-code way to manage the branding of all Salesforce and Pardot emails and email signatures. It also allows you to drive cross-sells and upsells with targeted signature campaigns and benefit from the most accurate email tracking and analytics.
Looking to the future
AppExchange presents great opportunities for Pardot customers to get creative about issues they want to solve. And when it comes to what’s possible, the sky’s the limit.
“If you’re a Pardot customer, look to your existing partners in the ecosystem and have a conversation about what it would take to integrate them more directly into Pardot and Salesforce,” Prasanna said. “If you’re a technology partner, take this opportunity to plug yourself into the ecosystem. If you’re a development organization, talk to customers to explore new custom solutions, especially those with fewer technical resources on staff. Opportunity is everywhere.”
The Pardot collection will grow over time with new apps and integrations. The first expansion is slated to coincide with Dreamforce 2021 — be sure to check back once Dreamforce is in full swing. 
Want more Pardot? Join us at ParDreamin’
You’re invited to the second virtual ParDreamin’ conference’, a community-driven conference dedicated to all things Pardot. Mark your calendar for Oct. 27-29 and reserve your spot today.

Group FiO works with clients to augment their entire marketing process from concepts to execution, or on a specific campaign, service, or product. ​ Managed Marketing Services We are offering Managed Marketing Services (MMS) for two main reasons. Small and Mid-Sized Companies may not have the infrastructure or staff to adequately execute all the functions needed. Secondly, as larger companies continue to look at ways to cut headcount and look for ways to improve efficiencies and ROI, they turn to MMS. Know more: https://www.groupfio.com/managed-marketing-services/ (OR) Call : +1 8003469549 Mail: [sales@groupfio.com](mailto:sales@groupfio.com)
submitted by /u/Bubbly-Cauliflower-8 [link] [comments]