Category: Marketing Automation

Dear CRM experts, I come to you today as I am currently writing my master thesis on the future of CRM software. Following several interviews, I have been able to draw theories on the future of CRM, and now need your help to refine my research. You will find below the link to a short survey: (5 minutes) https://forms.office.com/r/XwgpYfjHA2 I would greatly appreciate your insight as you could provide what I lack in matter of years of experience ! I thank you by advance for your participation and would be delighted to share my research once my thesis completed if it raised your interest.
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That often misunderstood and downplayed role of Chief Customer Officer can help you make a real difference in your business. Learn exactly what the CCO role is and how to leverage its potential.

 

What is a CCO?

 

We’ve become accustomed to positions such as CEO, CMO, or CTO. However, in recent years, we often come across a completely new acronym that makes most of us scratch our heads in an expression of helpless wonder. I’m talking about CCO. 

 

CCO stands for Chief Customer Officer. Just 20 years ago, this position was practically non-existent, and today it is a group of over 6,000 people on LinkedIn. Its sudden appearance has a lot to do with the evolution of business. As the value of customer experience has rapidly increased, it has become the biggest asset for companies, replacing things like product quality. 

 

According to a Deloitte study, customer-focused companies are 60% more lucrative than those that do not prioritize their customers and the experiences they may face during the buying process. That’s why introducing CCO has become a burning issue for many companies providing all kinds of B2C services.

 

The job of Chief Customer Officers

 

One of the biggest challenges for both customers and executives is to properly define what CCOs are and what they are doing. Here we are, rushing to explain! Now, even when asked about the Chief Customer Officer, half-asleep in the middle of the night, you will give a flawless answer! 

 

The main challenge CCOs are facing is to improve the interaction between the company and the customer. As part of the board, we can see them as, to some extent, key influencers. A Chief Customer Officer often referred to as a Chief Client Officer is primarily responsible for designing, building, and implementing a remarkable customer strategy for business. 

 

What it means, that from the moment the company hires a CCO, this person has real-time influence over different company departments related to customers. It can be either Customer Success or Service, Customer Marketing, and even Technical Support, as they do contact the clients directly. 

 

In terms of responsibility for specific workflows, the CCO bears the burden of several key processes such as:

 

increasing Customer Lifetime Value – increasing the total amount of money the customer is expected to spend on the brand, 
ensuring Customer Retention – establishing a set of actions to increase the number of repeat customers,
maintaining Customer Loyalty – assuring that the customer will remain loyal to the brand,  
increasing the likelihood of recommendation – the likelihood that the customer will recommend the company to others,
keeping an eye on the renewal rate – % of the revenue that has been renewed in a given period.

 

Coming down to the merit of what CCOs do, it’s a combination of many tasks swirling around customer’s needs, such as:

 

managing teams that are customer-facing, 
overseeing marketing activities for clients, 
working with customer service representatives,
discussing new releases with developers, 
supporting customer service and customer success management.

 

5 Reasons to hire CCO

 

54% of U.S. consumers say customer experience at most companies needs improvement. For this exact reason, you have to hire a CCO. Here’s what a Chief Customer Officer can do for your company:

 

1. Enable cross-functional cooperation to break down silos

 

In most companies, departments are siloed and do not work together. This often leads to an excessive focus on their own issues, forgetting what is most important: the customer. 

 

The CCO’s job is to make sure that all departments are working together for a common cause, putting the customer at the center of everything. This way, marketing, sales, customer service, and even developers have a unified vision of a customer-centric approach.

 

2.  Improve relationships with customers

 

You might think of the Chief Customer Officer as the representative and voice of customers. In our work culture, when everyone is weighed down by their tasks, it’s easy to lose touch with the customer. The CCO’s job is to advise customer success teams on how to maintain a strong, valuable relationship.

 

3. Manage loyalty programs and feedback

 

CCOs are the people responsible for listening to feedback and increasing customer loyalty. Since customer feedback is what should drive a company’s actions, a person who listens and learns from it is sorely needed. 

 

Without well-addressed feedback, customer-focused activities would simply go in circles without a clearly defined path. The COO can identify the right feedback tools to close the information loop.

 

4. Enhance the process configuration

 

Once the feedback is collected, CCOs can focus on interpreting this data to get to the true customer point of view and develop new processes that incorporate the data. 

 

New processes will help track and map customer expectations, ensuring alignment with customer needs, and redesigning existing, broken processes.

 

5. Invaluable Help in communicating with employees

 

Satisfied customers are the glue that holds together every company that strives to be the best in the market. But we must not forget that the happiness of employees is equally important. An awesome Chief Customer Officer ensures that both customers and employees are treated equally. 

 

The COO’s job in this regard is to make sure they are both up to date on changing company policies, implementation of new procedures, or data ethics, prior to implementation. 

 

And there you go – 5 reasons why you should hire a CCO for your business. I hope you’ve come to understand their role in both – growing and established businesses because they can make a real difference in how you handle the communication, transaction, and loyalty processes with your customers.

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a new blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of Black business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
The support for Black-owned businesses has increased drastically over the past year due to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of the Black Lives Matter protests that took place last summer to combat racial injustices in the nation.
Consumers have been actively seeking to buy from Black-owned businesses to help them stay open and increase the economic advancement of Black Americans.
As a result, the search for Black-owned businesses increased by 7,043% on Yelp, and the search term for “Black owned” on Google reached a value of 100 last summer.
Since then, Black-owned businesses have been proactive in increasing their visibility and accessibility through marketing strategies to optimize their outreach.
I spoke with Dana James Mwangi, the founder of Cheers Creative LLC and a Grow with Google Digital Coach, to learn about effective marketing strategies, tools, and approaches Black business owners can use to promote their businesses.

Marketing Strategies for Black-Owned Businesses
1. Use social media platforms to connect directly with your consumers.
Social media is one of the top tools businesses use to promote their services or products. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have unique features. Black business owners can use these networks to connect directly to their customers, and to the broader community.
Although some businesses want to have a strong presence everywhere, Mwangi suggests entrepreneurs focus on one platform where they receive the most visibility, instead of trying to be present on all of them at once.  
“You want to use social media to get people to your website,” Mwangi said. “You can also use it to get people to sign up for your email list, or both.”
For instance, check out how Rihanna promotes her Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Savage X Fenty brands on Instagram with catchy captions and visually appealing posts. Her content is not only relatable, but inclusive to people of all backgrounds.

This tactic can help you secure a potential sale and maintain continuous, effective engagement with your audience. It also enables you to expand your brand reach.
2. Create targeted ads for high-converting audiences.
Social media platforms and search engines like Google offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to create ads that show up on their targeted audience’s timelines or feeds. Mwangi says ads are a great way to market yourself to receive a faster return.
One benefit of using ads is it allows you to choose what audience you want to target. Facebook and Instagram, in particular, offer the option to market to people who follow your brand, or you can customize your targeting preferences by choosing specific details, including age, location, and search behavior.
This gives you more control over who sees your ads, so you can ensure you’re only serving your ads to those most likely to purchase your product or service.
3. Generate an email list, and send out unique case studies or behind-the-scenes information.
Email lists have plenty of benefits for businesses — ultimately, email is one of the strongest opportunities for lead generation and nurturing.
Once you’ve begun growing your email list, consider sending emails with exclusive information, such as your business’ story, or what your company stands for and what matters most to your employees.
Mwangi also recommends companies provide case studies, advice for email subscribers, or sneak peeks of products and services ahead of launches.
Alternatively, you might consider highlighting a consumers’ story to demonstrate the impact your business can have on your email subscribers’ if they choose to purchase.
4. Become a thought leader in your space.
Another way businesses can market themselves is by participating in public speaking, podcasts, or blogging engagements. Although this form of marketing has a slower return to influence sales, Mwangi says it leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for people to reach out online.
This strategy also gives potential collaborators or customers the chance to warm up to the company because they’ve already gained some value from the brand.
For example, take a look at how Tiffany Aliche, the founder of “The Budgetnista”, has been able to use speaking engagements to promote her company and teach women how to properly handle their finances.

Aliche has spoken at 300 events across the country and over 1,000 globally, including EssenceFest and multiple hospitals and colleges.
5. Have an effective, well-designed website.
Once you’ve used the strategies listed above to drive traffic to your website, you want that traffic to feel delighted by what they find. It’s critical, then, that you pay as much attention to the design of your website and its usability as you would to a physical storefront.
A few Black-owned businesses that have aesthetically pleasing websites are Teflar, Pyer Moss, and Bevel.
All three websites incorporate attention-grabbing visuals and videos that immediately catches visitors’ attention once they visit the site. Business owners should not be afraid to stand out when it comes to securing a sale on their webpage.
If you already have a website but don’t feel it’s doing the job, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Building a Website Redesign Strategy.
6. Use Google My Business and Google Analytics.
Google My Business is a helpful tool for business owners to create custom content to advertise to their target audience. Owners can also use the service in collaboration with Google Analytics to track data and see where people are accessing content.
For instance, Mwangi says that Google Analytics has helped her learn that people come to her website based on the content she posts on her Instagram Stories.
Not only is it showing her that people love her storytelling from this specific feature, but she’s also able to share certain links and information. Google Analytics is a beneficial service to collect data and figure out what’s the best platform for your brand to use.
Black-Owned Business Tips to Keep in Mind
Mwangi emphasizes that the marketing strategies listed above are all valuable pieces of the pie. Still, there are also specific approaches business owners must keep consistent across-the-board to promote company growth.
Let’s dive into those, now. 
7. Be authentic.
Authenticity is an integral approach to ensuring a company’s success. Mwangi says a benefit in garnering customers is a company informing its audience on where it stands.
An example of a Black-owned business that consistently leverages this approach is Black-owned, plant-based feminine care product line, The Honey Pot Company. The Honey Pot Company has always been transparent about where they stand and who they make their products for, which has helped them maintain loyal customers over time.
Black women, in particular, stood in solidarity with the company’s owner, Bea Dixon, when she received bad reviews from predominantly white buyers after Target featured her in a Black History Month commercial.
While people were trying to sabotage her brand, Black women not only took the initiative to combat the company’s rating with positive reviews, but they also spread the word on social media. Although the events that occurred were unfortunate, the publicity ended up working in the company’s favor because people became more aware of the company’s purpose and knew what Dixon stood for.

“Her brand values saved the day for her because her customers knew what she stood for,” Mwangi said. As a result, they supported her and bought out the shelves.
8. Define your target audience.
When entrepreneurs first launch their business, they have the goal to serve everyone, but Mwangi states that “if you’re trying to talk to everyone, then you are talking to no one.”
It’s okay for a business to choose a specific community it wants to advertise to and be unapologetic about it. The benefit of being an entrepreneur is that it guarantees a person the freedom to choose who they want to serve.
“You get the liberty to be as specific as you want and be niched as you want,” Mwangi expressed. “There is still a lane for you to make incredible amounts of profit.”

9. Speak your customers’ language.
The language of your business is also crucial, especially now. With all of the events currently taking place, Mwangi proposes that business owners need to be aware of what’s going on within the community and market accordingly.
Despite current events, business owners should keep in mind that their language should cater to their customers’ identity.
For example, the Black-owned cosmetics line, The Lip Bar, uses its platform to dispel mainstream standards of beauty.
Mwangi highlights how the brand is unapologetic about its purpose, and it takes pride in catering to customers who like to be bold with their makeup and define their beauty standards.
10. Start by marketing one (or a few) products.
Additionally, marketing one product rather than multiple products at once has proven to be effective. Mwangi recommends that customers sell one product in different ways or colors to avoid spreading marketing dollars and gain fast momentum.
Mwangi also used the founder of The Lip Bar, Melissa Butler, as an example of this approach. Butler first sold lipstick in different shades, then expanded her product line to lip liners, foundations, tinted moisturizers, eyeshadows, and more.
Another Black-owned business that used this approach is mesh body exfoliator product, Luv Scrub, founded by entrepreneur Caroline Owusu-Ansah. Owusu-Ansah sells cloths in a variety of colors.

“This marketing strategy is also an offering strategy or a product strategy,” Mwangi said. “You don’t have to give people all of these choices when you say that you can fix a problem. You can have one great product that fixes the problem and when you have that, what that means is now your marketing is super concentrated on that product.”
11. Maintain engagement with your community.
An essential factor for staying in business is maintaining customers and keeping them coming back for your product or service. One way to keep people buzzing about a company’s brand is by promoting various offers such as giveaways, contests, hosting Q&As, and doing customer features. Business owners can conduct these offers via social media and newsletters or their website to garner participation.
“Not only are you getting people engaged, but you’re also getting ideas on how to refine [your product or service],” Mwangi said. “They’re literally telling you what they want, how to refine your current products, and what they want out of the next product from you. If you look at it, the people will tell you what they want. You don’t have to make stabs in the dark.”
“Interacting with your customers is good because it’s showing people that you care,” she added. “It also helps you to get information on what your customer is thinking. Now you know even more about what they talk like, what they sound like, and you can make your website talk directly to them because you’ve been talking to them all this time. And listening and asking them questions.”
Overall, when it comes down to marketing, customer service is also needed to cater to customers fully.
Mwangi notes that customer relationship management software helps with this effort.
“Marketing is how you deliver that story, and customer relationship management software helps you back up who you say you are with excellent customer service,” she said.
The above marketing advice, branding, and customer service helps business owners develop successful business strategies and keep up with the demands of the business to attract customers.  

While it can be difficult to define the traits of a good employee, it’s easy to describe the perks.
A good employee, for instance, gets raises, promotions, and praise from managers. She is often a role model for her peers, gets selected for unique projects, and makes the whole work thing look easy.
But what does it mean to be a good employee? And what skills can you work on developing to ensure you’re considered a good — or even great — employee at your own company?
Here, I spoke with HubSpot employees and managers to determine the soft skills required to be a good employee in any role, to ensure you’re earning some of those perks we discussed earlier. Let’s dive in.

1. A growth mindset and willingness to learn.
One of the biggest strengths of any good employee is an eagerness to learn and a growth mindset.
A growth mindset, a term first coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, means you believe you can develop and refine skills and become better at something over time. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, means you feel that your intelligence and skills are inherent and unchangeable.
In the workplace, a marketer with a growth mindset might decide to take a few analytics courses to develop skills related to data, even if her background is more creative in nature. Alternatively, a marketer with a fixed mindset would avoid those courses, claiming “I was never good at math. It’s just not something I can do.”
A growth mindset can influence an employee’s motivation, work ethic, and how well she responds to constructive feedback. As Dweck writes, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
Ultimately, a good employee is someone who is eager to try new things, adopt new skills, and grow.
As HubSpot’s Marketing Manager of the Website Blog, Anna Fitzgerald, says, “A good employee is someone who can notice opportunities where it would make sense for your manager to delegate a task or project to you. It’s a win, win. You take something off your manager’s plate, and the new responsibility helps you grow and develop new skills.”  
2. A positive and solutions-focused attitude.
Employees enjoy working around people who are positive and solutions-focused when challenges arise.
It can be stressful to work around someone who focuses on the negative, or demotivates the rest of the team. For instance, at a previous company I used to work with someone who didn’t feel fulfilled in his role. As a result, he often expressed his criticisms for the company to the rest of our team — which wasn’t a great motivator for anyone.
A positive attitude can inspire your peers to work harder, and lift your team’s spirits when you’re confronted with a frustrating obstacle. Plus, happiness is correlated with greater success. In fact, one study found happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees, and happy salespeople produce 37% more sales than their unhappy counterparts.
A positive mindset also helps you shift more quickly into a solutions-focused attitude. For instance, negativity might cause you to feel frustrated when a roadblock presents itself. You might resort to self-blame, criticism, or simply a lack of motivation to alter your strategy.
A positive attitude, however, can help you remain confident, calm, and level-headed when a challenge arises. Positivity can help you reframe the problem in your mind, so you’re able to say, “This challenge is actually an opportunity for us to rethink our strategy and create a better solution as a result.”
Of course, everyone is allowed to have bad days, but the sign of a good employee is someone who doesn’t let that bad mood get in the way of problem-solving or building strong team morale.
3. Empathy and emotional intelligence.
HubSpot’s Marketing Manager Kristen Baker told me she feels that empathy is a critical trait for becoming a good employee.
She says, “A good employee demonstrates empathy when engaging with both colleagues and customers. Additionally, a good employee shows she cares about the impact her work has on those around her.”

Baker adds, “Empathy can help you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, which can increase motivation and purpose. When I understand our customers’ challenges better, I see how much my own role can help serve those needs, and that motivates me to work harder.”

Additionally, emotional intelligence is a vital skill for employees and leaders to hone. The ability to regulate your own emotions — as well as the emotions of others’ — has proven invaluable in the workplace.
To increase your emotional intelligence, try taking an EI quiz to determine how emotionally intelligent you are, and then identify areas for improvement. (HubSpot even offers one!)
To practice empathy in the workplace, consider asking colleagues how they’re doing, and practice active listening skills to develop rapport over time. For instance, if a coworker mentions he’s celebrating his birthday this weekend, remember to follow-up and ask how it went.
Additionally, take the time to understand how your products or services meet your customers’ needs. Put yourself in their shoes. Listen to customer interviews or read survey responses to better understand your customers’ challenges, which will naturally enable you to feel more empathy towards your customers.
4. Accountability.
Being accountable simply means taking responsibility for your actions, and this is an incredibly important skill in the workplace.
People mess up every day — it’s how you handle your mistakes that matters. Go directly to your boss, outline the issue at-hand, and explain how you might’ve created or contributed to the problem.

Showing you’re not afraid to admit when you’re wrong is a sign of a good (and honest) employee. It doesn’t help anyone when you try to hide problems or point fingers.

Additionally, it’s impressive if you take the time to self-reflect and consider how you might change your approach so you meet your goals next time.
For instance, if you’re responsible for getting 12 posts published per month and you only manage to get 10 completed, you’ll want to figure out what prevented you from meeting goal.
Then, when you approach your manager, you can say something like, “I had a difficult time with the last two pieces because I didn’t accurately account for how long each piece would take, particularly the pieces that require external quotes. Now that I’ve reflected, I’ve recognized that I’ll need to write three pieces per week, and give myself an extra couple days to conduct outreach and collect quotes before I begin writing my quote pieces.”
5. Critical, big-picture thinking.
A good employee takes the time to pause in his day-to-day and assess bigger-picture goals, always ensuring his work aligns with the company’s goals and has a positive impact on the company’s bottom-line.
Even if you’ve just started at a new company, it’s never too early to ask questions and take an interest in the larger organization. Strategic, big-picture thinking is a sign of a good employee, and your boss will take notice if you take the time to think critically about the problems or tasks at-hand and how they fit into your company’s overarching strategy.
6. Ambition.
Charlene Strain, a HubSpot Associate Marketing Manager for Global Co-Marketing Acquisition & Partnerships, considers ambition to be a vital trait for any good employee.
Ambition can look differently for everyone, but in this case, we’re talking about ambition as it relates to scalability.
As Strain notes, “To be a good (and even great) employee, you have to look for scalability in every aspect of your role. Find ways to make a process smoother, or implement processes where there isn’t one.”

Strain adds, “If you move up or out to a different role, think about if someone else could fulfill your day-to-day duties easily and grow the role and program. If not, think about ways to lessen this friction.”

A good employee considers how she can make her role more efficient for the company at-large. She also considers how she might create new processes to make her whole team’s outputs easier.
For instance, I’ve seen colleagues clean up outdated filing systems and create new, streamlined Google Drive folders for easy access to critical information. I’ve also seen colleagues re-shape how they tackle their own daily tasks for more efficiency, which has then been used at-scale to rework how HubSpot writers create content.
When you’re in a new role, take the time to consider inefficiencies or small details that could lead to problems as you scale. Those issues could become growth opportunities.
7. Good communication skills.
Finally, a good employee is clear and direct with colleagues. She practices good communication skills — including active listening, setting clear expectations, asking questions, and showing interest in what the other person is saying.
We’ve all worked with colleagues who don’t seem to listen when we speak, or don’t follow-up on something they said they’d do. It’s frustrating, and can reduce trust. A good employee practices strong communication skills every day — both in-person, and online.
A good employee is also able to articulate when she can, and can’t, take on additional projects. This is part of setting clear expectations.
As Jen Stefancik, HubSpot’s Team Manager of Channel Promotions, tells me, “You can say ‘no’ and still be helpful. For example, you shouldn’t take on work you cannot or should not prioritize, but you can still put in the extra effort to suggest other avenues, resources, or advice to the person asking for help.”
It’s important to note — becoming a good employee takes time, and there will be setbacks.
As Clint Fontanella, Manager on HubSpot’s Blog team, puts it, “Most people want to get ahead fast. They want to make more money, get a better job or promotion, and they start to measure themselves on that, rather than day-to-day performance. You’re going to have bad days. There are people who are going to get promotions before you do. Your friend might land a new job and make more money.”
“All you can do is focus on you and be as consistent as possible — both in your work and in your attitude — and good things will happen.”

Creating connections with potential customers is essential when it comes to driving interest and boosting sales. Making these connections can sometimes be difficult, though, as it’s one thing to want to create them and another to figure out how to establish them.
However, one of the great ways to establish these connections is through copywriting, where you use words to speak to consumer emotions and try to entice them to take action after reading your words.
While it may seem simple to write something that you think will resonate with your audience, there are essential principles to follow to ensure that you can effectively convince them. In this post, learn what SEO copywriting is and discover best practices for the process that will help you draw in customers, convert leads, and drive more sales.

SEO copywriting differs from other SEO content writing you may be familiar with, like blogging, as the end goal is to convert leads rather than generate organic traffic. In addition, SEO copywriting is shorter; where a blog post may have almost a thousand words, copywriting content may have less than half of that.
However, the two can go hand in hand. You might create a blog post that includes a CTA created with SEO copywriting principles in mind, and the words entice users to click on what you’re offering to learn more, like downloading a free ebook or another related source.
Here are some examples of content types that may be created with SEO copywriting principles in mind:

Final checkout screens
Product descriptions
On-site navigation instructions
Advertising content
Website copy
Brand messaging
CTA buttons
Landing pages

As with all types of SEO, it’s important to understand best practices.
SEO Copywriting Tips and Best Practices
Strong copywriting is a combination of a variety of factors, which we’ll discuss below.
Know your audience.
The first step to successful copywriting is knowing your audience. Without this information, it will be impossible to compel them with your writing as you don’t know who they are or how to appeal to them.
Finding your audience for SEO copywriting follows the same processes you would when creating a targeted marketing campaign, or any type of content you would create for your business: buyer persona research.
Buyer personas are fictional representations of what your ideal customer looks like based on market research and your existing business data and customer profiles. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool can help with this, as it will guide you through a step-by-step process of outlining who they are, discovering their main pain points, and the solutions they look for based on their needs.
Conduct keyword research.
Keyword research is a critical component of any SEO strategy.
As a refresher, keyword research is the process of uncovering the words your target audience uses when searching for products and services similar to what you offer, and using the keywords in your content to attract those same users to your site.
For copywriting, this research is essential because it helps you uncover user intent behind the keywords your audience searches for so you can write copy that resonates with their needs.
Write for your audience.
The goal of copywriting is to entice your audience to take action. So, as mentioned above, it’s important to always write with your audience in mind. Your buyers are looking for solutions, so you’re writing to tell them why you’re a solution.
For example, say you offer an all-in-one marketing tool. Your persona and keyword research lets you know that your target audience often queries “easy-to-use marketing tools.” You’d want to incorporate that search term into your copy to speak directly to user intent in the hopes that they’ll follow through with the desired action (purchasing your product) because you’ve convinced them that you’re the best fit solution to their needs.
Use intent-relevant action words.
Just as it’s essential to write for your audience’s intent, it’s also important to use intent-relevant action words. You want your copy to let them know why what you have to offer is the best solution, and then lead them to the action you want them to take.
This simply means that you want your copy to draw your audience to make a final decision, maybe by saying something like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Here,” at the end of your product descriptions.  
Be concise and straightforward.
The harder your copy is to read, the less likely it is that you’ll achieve your ultimate goal of converting users. If they have to put in a significant amount of effort to understand what you have to offer, you’ll likely lose them along the way.
This means avoiding jargon and wordiness and only including what is most relevant to what you’re creating copy for. This can be a difficult skill to develop, so it can be helpful to consider what you would and wouldn’t like to see when browsing for solutions to your pain points and model your strategy off of that.
If I were to take this tip to mind and listen to my own advice while writing this section, I would simply say this: leave no room for confusion or misunderstandings; be straightforward.
Continuous testing.
Something that you may have thought would perform well may not be as aligned with audience intent as you thought, and continuous testing allows you to iterate on what you create to ensure that you satisfy consumer needs.
Testing also  ensures that you’re maximizing your effectiveness. Your copy should help your audience seamlessly come to the solutions you’re providing without putting in extra effort because your copy already explains it all.
An example of continuous testing can be creating multiple versions of CTA’s, each with different copy, that you place on different website pages to see which drives better results.
All-in-all, SEO copywriting comes together like this: the SEO aspect are the keywords you know align with your audience user intent and already have high traffic, and the copywriting element is writing for the user intent behind the keywords that have traffic.
When you utilize this strategy, you’re directly showing your audience how you’ll solve their pain points and entice them to become a customer.

Whoever said “All publicity is good publicity” lied.
The only truth in it is that bad publicity can bring attention to your brand and expand your reach.
However, first impressions (and every impression) after that can last.

So, if your brand is associated with negative traits and concepts, it can be difficult to change that perception.
Learn what makes up a brand association and how to build a positive one.

Several factors influence brand association, including:

Brand identity and messaging
Brand assets, such as logo and colors
Customer experience
Product and service quality
Word of mouth
Reputation
Advertisements
Social media presence

You’ll notice that most of these factors are controlled by the brand itself, which is good news. This means that brands play a key role in how consumers perceive them.
It also signifies that if the association with your brand isn’t particularly positive, you have the potential to change it.
Brand Association Examples
Here are a few common brand association examples.
Charmin – Bears, soft, toilet paper
Google – Search, answers, information
Wikipedia – Information, biography
Anima Iris – Luxury, black excellence
Canva – Graphic design, easy, templates
Rhum Barbancourt – Quality, Haïti, classic
As you can see, most of the associations are a mix of services or products the company may provide along with certain traits and concepts. The hope is that the associations made with your brand are both accurate and positive.
If you find that it’s not, you may need to conduct some consumer research and work to create stronger messaging around your brand.
Brand Association Map
A brand association map is a visual representation of the attributes and concepts associated with your brand. You can also use it to identify threats and opportunities, as well as how you fare against competitors.

Image Source
With a brand association map, you can quickly identify the words tied with your brands and which are the closest, based on proximity to the inner circle.
For instance, the above picture features Nike at the center. It shows that the two biggest associations with the brand are: “Adidas,” a competitor, and “shoes.”
You then have the term “comfortable” which is more closely associated with Nike than the word “long-lasting.”
This can be a great start to identifying where your brand currently stands in consumers’ eyes, and start making changes in your branding and marketing strategy.
If Nike wants consumers to view it as a long-lasting brand rather than one that creates comfortable clothing and shoes, it can take this information to create messaging surrounding this concept along with targeted campaigns.
If it’s unclear what consumers associate with your brand, run a survey.
First, you’ll need a pool of respondents who are familiar with your brand. This can include consumers at every stage of the buyer’s journey from a lead to a customer.
Then, ask your respondents to provide the terms they associate with your brand. You can gather these answers through open-ended questions as well as list questions. You can then ask your respondents to rank the terms by closeness to your brand.
Alternatively, if you already have a list of positive, neutral, and negative attributes relating to your brand, you can use them to craft your survey questions and include your competitors.
Once you gather, clean, and analyze your data, you can produce a brand association map to visually represent your associations.
1. Have a robust branding strategy.
Your branding strategy is a key pillar in building a positive brand association.
For starters, you want to have a strong brand identity. This means knowing your mission, values, personality, unique brand positioning, and voice. If there isn’t much clarity on these, you may leave consumers to make their own guesses, which may not be accurate or favorable.
Your brand identity will then impact your brand assets, namely your logo and brand colors, which tell a story about your brand.
Then, you have your messaging, which highlights the value you offer, communicates the benefits of your brand, and should differentiate you from your competitors.
In addition, you have your brand voice, which is how you communicate with your audience and the impression you leave. This is one of the more concrete factors impacting your brand association.
If your brand voice is friendly, warm, and young, this will translate to the concepts, feelings, and traits your audience ties to your company.
2. Review all customer touchpoints.
Think about how you interact with your target audience.
Online, this includes social media, your website, email, chat, and even on business review sites.
How you nurture your community can play a big role in how they view you. The same goes for how you address unsatisfied customers who voice their concerns on social media, or those who ask questions.
Offline, this looks like phone conversations, in-person meetings, and in-store interactions.
To ensure your brand is putting its best foot forward, make sure you have proper training surrounding customer interactions.
The better your customer service and relationship management, the better reputation you will leave – this then translates to positive brand associations.
3. Consider your partnerships.
The brands and influencers you partner with are also reflections of your brand.
Nowadays, consumers expect brands to be more vocal about social and political issues. This also means being vocal when staff or external partners exhibit behaviors deemed socially unacceptable.
It’s why we often see brands sever ties with celebrities and known figures with whom they had ongoing marketing campaigns.
As such, be selective about who you collaborate with.
4. Identify threats to your brand.
After strengthening your brand strategy, there’s still more work to be done.
You have to be proactive about identifying and neutralizing threats to your brand. This can happen on both small- and large-scale.
On a small scale, this can look like responding to a negative review on Yelp. On a big scale, this can be responding to reports of discrimination within your business.
Social monitoring and listening will be instrumental in keeping your eye on the ball and making sure that you have a plan in place when a threat to your brand shows up.
5. Have a crisis management plan.
You’ve identified a threat to your brand. Now what?
If it’s a big threat, you’ll likely need to refer to your crisis management plan.
When a crisis happens, every minute counts. You want to control the narrative to ensure that your brand isn’t gravely damaged and doesn’t face long-term backlash.
With this in mind, devise a plan early on with actionable steps to address the issues, resolve them quickly, and repair relationships.
Building a positive brand association is a never-ending process as your company grows and evolves. The great news is, the biggest factor influencing your brand association is you.

Most people receive a lot of emails every day. Sifting through what’s relevant and what’s not is a big job that, for obvious reasons, has been dialed back into a rote process: Do I know this sender? Did I ask for this? No? Click delete and move on. This method works great for culling our…
The post Permission-Based Selling: What Is It and Why Does It Work? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Every business owner’s goal is to get the website ranked high in the SERPs, and they can generate massive ROI through search engine optimization. Creating data-driven and unique content around specific keywords can make your site more attractive to search engines and visible to potential customers. Network Events: Although search engine marketing is a great strategy in this day and age, not all marketing is online. The best results sometimes come from moving away from your computer screen and meeting people face to face. Contest Marketing: It is a type of marketing that benefits significantly from online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Everyone likes to compete, so you should be able to drive traffic to your website and thus increase your conversion rate.
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Implementation of a marketing strategy is quite a challenge. Before you start reaping the rewards, you need to prepare and plan thoroughly. During execution of tasks you must also keep your eye on the ball, because while running several campaigns at once even the best marketing specialist can easily get lost. Command Center dashboard from SALESmanago, can help you arrange, automate, and optimize the campaigns that make up your marketing strategy. See how to do it!

 

Marketing strategy is a crucial element of company development. It outlines the course of action and indicates how particular strategic goals will be achieved. On your way to the top, you should use technologies and solutions available on the market. Let it sink in: one of the biggest trends we are seeing in lead generation is the increased use of automation software. According to recent reports, 80% of marketers who use automation software generate more leads (up to 451% more), and 77% of them convert more leads than those who don’t use automation. (Source: APSIS)

 

One of those tools is the Command Center by SALESmanago

 

What is Command Center

 

Command Center is the new UI standard for managing KPI-oriented, omnichannel, multipurpose and multitool marketing processes. It gives you a centralized view of all your marketing processes and goal-oriented solutions. It allows you to use advanced planning of campaigns to create their template, in a cockpit to manage all processes and mailings available in SALESmanago.

 

How to use Command Center to execute your marketing strategy

 

Despite its suggestive appearance, Command Center by SALESmanago is not JUST a marketing planner. Properly used, it can become a real management center and a great tool for executing your marketing strategy. Here are 12 tricks that will help you intertwine the Command Center with your strategy.

 

1. List your marketing goals

 

An essential part of any marketing strategy is to define its main objective. It may happen that the strategy is divided into several parts, such as lead generation strategy, retention strategy, sales support strategy, etc. Each of these parts will have a separate objective. Sometimes these goals will somewhat overlap or even stem from each other.  List all these goals and indicate the relationships between them. Determine which can be pursued independently and which are connected to the others. This will give you a clear visualization and the outline of your action plan.

 

 

2. Break down goals into smaller steps

 

Now that you know what you are going to do and in what order, work out what needs to happen for each objective to be achieved. This approach will allow you to be methodical and focus on logistical planning of resources. An additional advantage of outlining the steps to achieve each goal is that they no longer exist only on paper and instead take on a real shape. It is also easier to express them in figures and describe them as SMART goals. Use SALESmanago analytics to accurately describe expectations and run estimates. This will give you a realistic perspective on your dreams, and provide you with practical tools to turn them into plans that work.

 

 

3. List the ways to achieve each step

 

Every task can be solved in many ways. Marketing is no different – there is no single right way to generate leads or increase conversions. Marketing uses a myriad of tools and channels that help – together or separately – achieve individual strategic goals. So for each of the smaller steps, describe in as much detail as possible how you can achieve it. Consider what you will do in sequence, what tools you will use, and how you will measure progress. Target group analysis is very helpful in this context. It helps you identify the activities that will engage your audience the most and are most likely to get them to take action.

 

 

4. Write down the scenarios

 

After the planning stage, it is time to get down to implementation. This is the time to think about what needs to happen step by step for you to achieve your goals. Answer the questions:

 

What resources will I need to accomplish specific steps (graphics, landing pages, templates, etc.).
How long will it take to create them?
Do I have the resources to do this internally or do I need to outsource?
What should the customer path look like at each stage?

 

Based on your answers, you can prepare specific paths that can be easily translated into a schedule.

 

5. Gather resources

 

Before putting tasks into the system, prepare the tools you will work with. Plan the creation of banners, emails, layouts of landing pages, etc. All these elements must be prepared to automate the execution of strategic goals.

 

Consider the tools you are already using, such as:

 

lead nurturing cycles,
birthday emails,
loyalty programs,
Web Push notifications,
on-page content.

 

You may discover elements that have worked well for years and will fit nicely into prepared scenarios.

 

 

6. Organize and group activities in folders

 

It’s way easier to keep control of processes that are organized. You can immediately see what is already done and what is still waiting ahead. It also helps to implement recurring activities for multiple audiences.

 

In SALESmanago Command Center, you can create separate folders for each strategic objective, and inside them add folders where you will plan each scenario.

 

 

7. Add individual steps and schedule them

 

In individual folders, you can now start adding the steps you want to automate. From the side menu, you can select and drag pre-made elements that you want to use. Remember that you can use the Command Center to quickly go to edit the selected item and, for example, link it with an automation rule, banner, or tag to another element from the scenario. This works very well in action sequences where one marketing action results directly from, for example, a user action.

 

*Of course, some tasks will be performed outside the system, such as creating graphics for banners – and you won’t do them through SALESmanago.

 

 

8. Make sure you don’t overload your audience with messages

 

Even the best campaigns won’t work if you overwhelm your audience with messages. In Command Center you can quickly switch from campaign view to calendar view and see if you have 5 messages to the same groups scheduled for the same day. The system itself shows how many actions and what types of actions are scheduled for a given day. If necessary, you can optimize the schedule so that you have a smooth and natural communication.

 

 

9. Measure KPIs

 

Marketing can and should be measured. And I’m not just talking about PPC campaigns here. Every marketing activity gains a new meaning if you assign specific KPIs to it. Real-time analytics allows you to react in one go to actions that don’t bring the intended results. It’s also much easier to spot errors and missteps.

 

Measuring your marketing efforts is key to achieving your strategic goals. Without it, you’ll have a hard time finding the tools and channels that work best and are worth investing in.

 

 

10. Optimize your activities

 

Less effective campaigns do not always have to be jettisoned. Often small changes can significantly improve results. Optimization of actions is permanently inscribed in a marketer’s life. A/B tests are a standard on CDP platforms. They help to adjust creations and campaigns to the tastes of the target group to the greatest possible extent.

 

This seemingly simple operation has a huge power itself. You – as the sender of the marketing message – can only predict whether a particular action will influence your audience. It is their reaction that verifies whether you are right. A/B testing involves measuring how a group of recipients react to the same creation in two different versions. To easily interpret the results, limit yourself to testing one element at a time. For example, you should show the banner with different CTAs or place the recommendation frame in different places on the page and check which combination generates more desired reactions. Through elimination, you can then identify the best-performing ones.

 

PRO TIP: When choosing actions to optimize, also make use of AI-powered Marketing Insights, which provide marketers with practical tips and data-driven recommendations

 

 

11. Easily add well-performing elements from other campaigns

 

The great thing about Command Center view is that without wading through several dashboards, you can easily supplement your campaigns with actionable items that you already have in the system. It’s a bit like a marketing buffet. It streamlines your workflow considerably.

 

You simply select the items you want to add to specific folders from the side drop-down menu, drag them in and you’re done.

 

12. Edit, copy and arrange actions from one place

 

Once you have your scripts prepared and organized, you may decide that they will work well for other activities too. Command Center allows you to copy, edit, and freely combine all available elements within a single dashboard (it’s called Command Center for a reason). A quick preview of statistics, scenarios and sequences helps you compose campaigns that efficiently deliver on your marketing goals.

 

Implementation of the marketing strategy – wrap-up

 

Developing and executing a marketing strategy involves a considerable amount of money and time. However, it is an investment which in the long run brings great benefits. It sets a clear goal, organizes the chain of activities and gives executors a ready set of tools and instructions for conducting effective marketing activities. Additional use of software supporting these activities on many levels can greatly reduce the burden on marketing teams. And using software based on AI will allow them easier use of the full potential of the marketing strategy.See how easy you can prepare your Command Center – register to DEMO

Serving as your company’s virtual front door, this page is responsible for drawing in a majority of your website’s traffic. Still, despite its prominence, many businesses struggle to optimize it properly.
You see, your homepage needs to wear a lot of hats. Rather than treating it like a dedicated landing page built around one particular action, it should be designed to serve different audiences, from different origins. And in order to do so effectively, it needs to be built with purpose. In other words, you’ll need to incorporate elements that attract traffic, educate visitors, and invite conversions.
To improve the performance of your homepage, check out these elements every homepage must have.

12 Critical Elements Every Website Homepage Must Have
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What You Should Include in Your Website Homepage Design
1. Headline
Within three seconds, a website needs to tell visitors what the business has to offer. That’s where your headline comes in. It may only be a few words, but it’s one of the most important pieces of copy on your website.
Many types of people might visit your website, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a few words that hit home for everyone. Instead, write your headline to target a third of those people who are most likely to be happy with your product.
Keep the headline itself clear and simple. Dropbox’s headline is a great example: “Everything you need for work, all in one place.” It’s simple, yet powerful — no need to decode jargon to figure out what Dropbox really does.

2. Sub-headline
Your sub-headline should supplement the headline by offering a brief description of what you do or what you offer. This can be done effectively by zeroing in on a common pain point that your product or service solves.
Here’s an example of a great sub-headline from Mirror: “Hiding in plain sight.” It hones in on the primary selling point of the mirror gym: It’s a full at-home gym, personal trainer, and workout plan all in the comfort of your home without taking up precious square footage with equipment.
To optimize your headlines for mobile, use larger fonts to give visitors a better experience. Small fonts could force mobile visitors to pinch and zoom in order to read and interact with the content on your site. Our advice? Use the heading options in your page editor. H1 headings are perfect for page titles — there should only be one H1 on a page. Subheadings should follow the order of the hierarchy, H2, H3 … H6, and so on. You can have several of these headings, just make sure they’re in order. For example, you won’t want to jump from an H1 to an H3 — choose an H2 instead.
3. Primary Calls-to-Action
The goal of your homepage is to compel visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them down the funnel. Include two to three calls-to-action above the fold that direct people to different stages of the buying cycle — and place them in spots that are easy to find.
These CTAs should be visually striking, ideally in a color that contrasts with the color scheme of your homepage while still fitting in with the overall design. Keep the copy brief — no more than five words — and action-oriented, so it compels visitors to click whatever you’re offering. Examples of CTA copy are “Sign up,” “Make an appointment,” or “Try it for free.”
Afterschool HQ’s website features two CTAs above the fold, both geared toward program directors who are interested in promoting their after-school programs to families on the site. The note below the longer CTA “Create Your Free Profile” gives visitors the nudge they need to create an account — the first step to becoming an Afterschool HQ provider.

4. Supporting Image
Most people are visual. Make sure to use an image (or even a short video) that clearly indicates what you offer. Use images that capture emotion, drive action, and visually tell the story you’re writing about.
To optimize your images for mobile users, use high-quality images that have a reduced file size. (HubSpot customers don’t need to worry about this, as images uploaded to HubSpot’s software are automatically compressed. Otherwise, tools like TinyPNG will do the trick.) Also, always add alt text to your images to make them more accessible to visitors who use screen readers and to take your SEO efforts up a notch.
The 4 Rivers Smokehouse homepage is a great example of emotional imagery: It features a series of short, high definition, and mouthwatering videos that play on a loop behind a simple headline, sub-headline, and primary CTA:

5. Benefits
It’s not only important to describe what you do, but why what you do matters. Prospects want to know about the benefits of buying from you because that’s what will compel them to stick around.
Keep the copy lightweight and easy to read, and speak the language of your customers. Evernote does a great job of listing benefits on their homepage in a way that’s compelling, visually pleasing, and easy to understand:

6. Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful indicator of trust. Your product or service could be the best in the world, and it’s okay to lay that claim — it’s just that people may not believe you unless they hear it from other people, too. And that’s exactly what social proof does.
Include just a few of your best (short) quotes on the homepage, and link to case studies if applicable. Adding a name and photo gives these testimonials more credibility. Lessonly nails this on their homepage with glowing testimonials from actual clients.

7. Navigation
The design and content in your homepage navigation could mean the difference between a website conversion and a bounce. To decrease bounce rate, give your visitors a clear path to the pages they need right from the homepage. Make the navigation menu visible at the top of the page, and organize the links in a hierarchical structure.
No one knows your website better than those who helped design it, so be sure to conduct user tests to make sure it’s simple and intuitive for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your site. Include a search box if you can. (Read this blog post for more helpful website navigation tips.)
Here’s an example of a clear, well-structured navigation design from Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria homepage:

8. Content Offer
To generate even more leads from your homepage, feature a really great content offer, such as a whitepaper, ebook, or guide. Folks who may not be ready to buy might rather download an offer that gives them more information about a topic they’re interested in. If you need inspiration, here are several different content types to pick from.
9. Secondary Calls-to-Action
Include secondary CTAs on your homepage to offer additional conversion opportunities for prospects who aren’t interested in your primary objective. Think of them like the contingency plan: They offer another path for visitors who are not yet ready for something as high-commitment as you’re asking.
While your primary CTAs should be above the fold, place secondary CTAs below the fold to give visitors things to click on when they scroll down. For example, below the fold on Spanx’s homepage, you’ll find three, clearly labeled calls-to-action that give folks who’ve scrolled that far a few more options to click on. These secondary CTAs are for two different types of conversions: one on the far left for $20 off and another, “shop now” to explore the online catalog.

10. Features
In addition to benefits, list some of your key features. This gives people more of an understanding of what’s provided by your products and services. Again, keep the copy light and easy to read. Dropbox for Business, for example, doesn’t shy away from showing off a features matrix right on their homepage below the fold.

11. Resources
Again, most visitors to your website won’t be ready to buy … yet. For folks who are looking for more information, offer a link to a resource center where they can browse relevant information. Not only does this keep them on your webpage for longer, but it also helps you establish your credibility as a thought leader in your industry.
Lovesac adds a resources link to the footer below the fold. Notice how each of these secondary CTAs cover multiple stages in the buying cycle: a credit card link to help customers buy their furniture easily, a fabric swatch guide for those who are still looking for the perfect color before making a purchase, and an online catalog for people who are in the market for new furniture but aren’t yet ready to make a purchase.

12. Success Indicators
In addition to customer success stories, both awards and recognition can also help inspire a good first impression. Is your company a critically acclaimed restaurant? Were you voted best new app this year? Let your homepage visitors know of your accomplishments. Like social proof, it’ll give your business more credibility to those who don’t know you.
On Calendly’s homepage, for example, you’ll find the names of famous organizations that have recognized them, like Gartner and Dropbox.

A Homepage Worth Visiting
The homepage of your site is the first introduction each visitor will have to your business. Before they make up their mind to become a customer, they’ll review your homepage to get an idea of what you sell, why that matters to them, and how they can benefit from what you have to offer.
Make a brilliant first impression with a homepage that incorporates the elements outlined above. And for more inspiration, check out stunning examples of homepages by downloading the free lookbook below.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.