MackCollier.com

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The Top Concern CEOs Have in 2021 and Beyond is…

remote work…managing remote teams. Numerous surveys of CEOs have found that the C-Suite and upper management at many companies are struggling to maintain productivity levels among remote teams. This makes perfect sense, since many businesses were forced to adopt remote learning out of necessity due to precautions over covid. Remote working isn’t something that many companies can embrace and see seamless results. But unfortunately, many businesses didn’t have a choice in 2020, and were thrown into the fire and had to adopt and adapt to remote work for their teams as quickly as possible.

Add in that many companies had to layoff or furlough employees as cost-savings measures, and it often made the remote work environment even harder for businesses to manage.

Remote work affects extroverts and introverts differently

As your business is reviewing your options for keeping your remote workers engaged and productive, don’t overlook how being isolated at home can impact the mental health of your workers based on them being extroverts or introverts. Suddenly being forced to work from home for months or even a year can be a bit depressing to all your workers. But keep in mind that your more extroverted workers thrive off in-person contact and collaboration. With that suddenly being taken away from them, it creates a negative impact on feelings, and can even lead to depression. On the other hand, taking introverted workers from an in-office work environment and having them work remotely, may actually increase their productivity. So if some of your newly remote workers seem to be less productive, consider that maybe they are extroverts who are simply missing the in-person contact and collaboration that they thrived off of.

 

Remote work is here to stay

Recently, Buffer surveyed remote workers to find out what they thought of the process. There were some interesting takeaways that your company should be aware of. Such as:

  • Almost 98% of respondents said they want to continue to work remotely, at least part time, for the rest of their working careers
  • 97% of respondents would recommend working remotely to others

What this means is that from this point forward, when your company courts candidates for open positions, those candidates will want, and likely expect, that you offer them the possibility of working remotely. If you can’t offer candidates remote work in most positions, it will begin to become a detriment for your company. Obviously, some jobs can only be done in-person and on site. But there are many jobs where you may want the candidate to be on location at all times, that could actually be done remotely, if necessary. You need to consider that starting now, it’s become necessary to offer a remote option for any work that can be done remotely. Not offering a remote option for such work will cost you qualified candidates to competitors that can offer them such possibilities.

 

Remote workers are facing difficulties

Remote work comes with some issues for both the employer, and the remote employees. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work in 2021, some of the issues that remote workers identified as problems include:

  • Not being able to unplug – 27%
  • Difficulty collaborating and communicating with co-workers – 16%
  • Loneliness – 16%
  • Staying motivated 12%

These difficulties that remote workers are facing seem to overlap a bit with the concerns that CEOs have toward remote workers, don’t they? CEOs are worried about managing remote workers and keeping them productive and engaged. While remote workers are facing difficulty collaborating with co-workers and loneliness. And I think a lack of motivation can tie into those feelings of loneliness and struggling to collaborate and communicate with your team.

All of this points back to finding ways to better communicate and engage your remote workers. This seems to be a problem that runs through multiple issues that both workers and management face.

First, consider again if you are dealing with introverts or extroverts as your remote workers. Introverted workers are more likely to enjoy working remotely and the autonomy that comes with it. You may likely see their productivity actually increase. On the other hand, you may see the opposite for extroverts that are suddenly put in a position of working remotely. Extroverts thrive off in-person contact are likely more productive and happier with their work when it involves in-person collaboration. So you will need to think about how you can work with them to help facilitate the interaction with their co-workers that they are missing with remote work.

 

Consider adding ways for workers to engage outside of work

One of the best things your company can do to build morale and keep your employees motivated is to give them ways to engage with each other outside of work. We become more productive when we actually like the people we work with. Focus on finding ways to facilitate engagement among your workers and time for them to be social that doesn’t revolve around their work.

Some ways to do this could include:

  • Slack channels devoted to any topic OTHER than work
  • Facebook groups devoted to non-work topics
  • Zoom birthday parties for co-workers
  • Organizing online gatherings for workers such as playing games together online, participating in hobbies such as sports, genealogy,

Another option is to create an Employee Advocacy/Ambassador Program that can contain some or all of these elements. Such programs are designed to allow your employees to promote your business to customers and potential candidates, but it can also be used to keep your employees engaged and motivated.

 

GE created an employee ambassador program to recruit better job candidates

I did a write-up on GE’s employee ambassador program two years ago here. This particular program was focused on helping GE better promote its brand and working environment to potential job candidates. But the employees who were involved in the program became more engaged and excited about working for GE. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We all want to feel useful and that we are playing a role in something important.

And I think an employee ambassador program helps your employees better understand what your business is doing and why its important. Let’s be honest, if your workers understand your company’s mission and the positive impact it makes on the world, that motivates them to work harder on your behalf. Too many people hate their jobs mainly because they feel as if their work doesn’t have a higher purpose or meaning. On the other hand, if you believe that your business is making a positive impact on the world, it motivates you to work harder to see that impact take hold.

Adopt a proactive mindset toward remote work

Since remote work is now a reality for business, embrace it as an opportunity to grow. How can you incorporate remote work into your company’s culture in order to improve it? What are the opportunities to leverage remote work as a way to actually increase productivity? We’ve already talked about how offering and embracing remote work could help the hiring process. Another example is your company’s annual retreat. Having your teams meet in-person for the first time in months or possibly even a year could have a huge positive impact on bonding, communication and culture.

Remote work is here to stay, so embrace it as a potential asset to your business, not as a problem to be dealt with.

 

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I Need Help Driving Sales to My Website

I Need Help Driving Sales to My WebsitePeriodically, LinkedIn will send me digital and content marketing leads from LinkedIn users who have said they need help with a project. One of the most common requests these users make is: I need help driving sales to my website.

Generating sales online is a process. You need several pieces in place before you can create sales.

Before you can sell products, you need a platform

Let’s say you want to open a retail store and sell clothing.

First, you need a supplier for your clothing.

Once you have that, then you need a store.

Then you need to hire salespeople to convert visitors into buyers.

Finally, you need foot traffic.  You need people to visit your store, looking to buy.

In order to sell clothing, you need all of the above pieces in place. You need a store.  You need a supply of clothes. You need people to visit your store, and finally, you need salespeople who are skilled enough to convince them to buy your clothing, and to facilitate the purchase for them.

If you’re missing one of these pieces, you can’t expect to have sales.

So before you turn to social media to be the silver bullet to give you sales, you need to figure out why you aren’t generating sales now.  What areas are you missing now, that you need to get sales?  Because that will be the areas that you will be depending on social media to help you with.

You can’t sell products until you have a platform. 

What do I mean by ‘platform’ in this case? In terms of online, your platform is the audience for your content. How many email subscribers do you have?  How many followers on social media sites?  How many readers of your blog?

That’s your platform.  If your website gets 150 visitors a month, you can’t expect social media to suddenly drive website sales for you. You have to first build a platform with social media sites, tools and content.

Once you’ve built a platform, then you can sell to the people on that platform.

Social media is a great way to build a platform. So don’t think of social media as a way to generate sales. Think of social media, of the content you create, as a way to build a following, an audience.

A platform.

Once you have a platform in place, then you can convert some of the people on that platform into customers. The more people on your platform, the greater a chance for converting more sales.

What’s the best way to build a social media platform?

When you start building your social media platform, you want to consider what sites and tools you will use to build a following. I always advise companies to focus first on their blog, simply because it will be a channel your business will have control over. The great tradeoff in using social media sites like Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to build a following is that you lose control over your content and your ability to create new content. Yes, you will have access to a potentially large audience of people, but that access can be controlled by those sites.

When you create and publish content on your blog, you have far more control. Since building a platform on social media is a long play, you want to first invest in the tools that you have direct control over. Such as you blog, or an email newsletter, or maybe a podcast.

This isn’t to say that you can’t use social media sites to help build your platform. You absolutely can, and in most cases you should. But use social media sites as the spokes to drive traffic back to your hub (blog, email newsletter, podcast), which you control. Remember the example of how Harry uses social media sites to drive email newsletter signups. He’s pushing people from social media, back to his hub (email newsletter) which he controls.

The Two-Step Plan for Social Media Success

Step one: Build your platform.

Step two: Convert the following.

First, build your platform. We’ve already talked about how to do this.

Second, once you have a platform, then you want to convert the following you have built into sales.

Let’s go back to the beginning of this post when I mentioned what if your website gets 150 visitors a month. What if, you decided to build a social media platform. The heart of that platform was a blog, that in six month’s time. was generating 1,000 visits a month, and referring 150 visits a month to your website.

So in just six month’s time, you have effectively doubled the traffic to your website. You did this by creating a social media platform, including a blog, which is now driving 150 visits a month to your website.

But what happens after those 150 visitors come to your website?

Ideally, you want those visitors to convert. A conversion could be downloading a white paper, it could be completing a purchase, it could be signing up for your newsletter.

Let’s go back to the earlier example of a retail store that sells clothing. One of the we needed for that retail store to be successful was foot traffic. We need people visiting the store, looking to buy.

If we could effectively double foot traffic to the store in six month’s time, is that a good thing?

It depends. If the foot traffic doubles, but the sales (conversions) don’t increase, then we have a problem.

So you want to build the platform, then convert the following. You want to focus on creating content and a customer experience that drives people to your platform, but once they are on your platform, you need to convert them.

If you do both correctly, then your social media platform can generate conversions, including sales.

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Think Like A Rock Star Named the Ninth Best Marketing Strategy Book of All Time!

Well this was a pleasant surprise to see earlier this week on Twitter:

I did some checking on the site and found that not only was Think Like a Rock Star named the 9th best Marketing Strategy book of all-time by Book Authority, it was also named the 7th best Content Marketing book of all-time, and the 30th best Marketing book of all-time!

According to Book Authority, here’s how they decide which books make their lists, and in what position:

“How are the books in the list ranked?
Books that were chosen to be featured on BookAuthority are ranked (#1, #2, #3) based on their star rating.
The star rating for each book is calculated based on multiple signals, such as:
✔ Public mentions of the book on social media
✔ Recommendations, ratings and reviews
✔ Analyzing user behavior and sentiment
✔ Book popularity, sales history and velocity”

 

In short, sales, reviews and public mentions drive the placement and rankings on Book Authority’s lists. I could not be prouder to see that Think Like a Rock Star, published in 2013, is still creating this much excitement for its readers.

Thank ALL of you for your support and kind words. It means the world to me, and it is such a gift to create a book that has created value for so many others!

I have to share a funny story. A colleague of mine told me she was talking to a CMO she had met about the power of embracing your customers. The CMO immediately got all excited, said his CEO had turned him on to this great book that talked about the power of leveraging your customers as fans and letting them drive sales. My colleague said wow that’s so interesting, my friend Mack Collier has written a book just like that, called Think Like a Rock Star!

The CMO immediately exclaimed THAT’S the book! That’s the book that caused my CEO to completely change our marketing to focus on embracing and empowering our customers and turn them into fans!

I love it! If you would like to order a copy of Think Like a Rock Star, you can get it from Amazon as an ebook, or if you want a paperback copy, you can order it online from Books A Million, or online from Barnes & Noble.

Also, here’s a video review of Think Like a Rock Star from earlier this week by Christoph:

Again, thank you to everyone who has bought, read and shared Think Like a Rock Star over the last 8 years. If you have not read Think Like a Rock Star yet, please do check it out, it’s honestly such a fun book to read, just as it was to write. I know you will love it!

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The Risk of Using Social Media

It’s never been riskier for a company to use social media than it is right now. Social media requires a disciplined, and purposeful strategy and governance to guide and manage it at the corporate level. Any company that uses social media needs to view it as a serious investment, which must be managed properly to realize maximum returns.

What is Keeping Your CEO Up at Night?

Business as usual flew out the window around a year ago, and may never fully return. Business leaders are focused on how to better control and manage everything from marketing communications to even work forces that are suddenly remote for the first time. In fact, Inc. found that managing remote workers was one of the top concerns that CEOs have in 2021.

Today, I wanted to focus on helping you regain control of your digital content, and show you how to lower the risk associated with being a business and using social media. The lure of social media for marketers has always been that you will, in theory, have access to a large audience of current and potential customers. How many billions of users are on Facebook? A bunch! Which means billions of potential customers just waiting on our marketing messages! Or so the story goes…

This thinking has led to far too many companies over the years adopting a digital marketing strategy where social media sites like Facebook and Instagram served as the foundation, with support coming from owned media channels such as your blog or website.

The problem with this ‘social media as our foundation’ approach is that you don’t have control over your foundation. If your Facebook brand page is your de facto ‘website’, then what happens when Facebook changes its algorithm and lowers the organic reach that content originating from a brand receives?  That’s right, your brand’s reach suffers. So how do you get your reach numbers back to previous levels? Why Facebook can help with that, let us tell you about Facebook ads!

So now you are paying to get back the reach that used to be organic. This is what happens when you marry your digital marketing efforts to a channel that you don’t control.

Wait, why is my business page restricted? 

I follow several marketing/content/social media groups on Facebook. I do this as a way to get a barometer on issues that companies are dealing with when it comes to their social and digital efforts. I want to see what questions they have and what issues they are facing.

You would be surprised at how often members of these groups are sharing how they were recently locked out of their Facebook business page or maybe from running ads, and want to know what the issue could be. Often, the issue will be that the brand owner (often the CEO or maybe the company’s social media manager) posted something on their personal Facebook profile that violated Facebook’s rules, so as a result,Facebook then restricted their ability to manage their brand page as a result.

Recently, Twitter and Facebook have suspended the accounts of thousands of users for what it claims were violations of its content policies. Whether you view these actions as censorship or completely appropriate, the reality is that social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can pretty much suspend any user that it deems is violating its user agreement. So if your business is using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as the foundation of its digital communications, you are effectively ceding complete control of those communications to these social media platforms. If these platforms decide that your content isn’t acceptable, then you are gone from those platforms. Simple as that.

Regain control of your social media and digital communications

Let’s focus on taking back control of your social media and digital communications. The foundation of your digital marketing strategy should be your Owned Media channels. Such as your website, your blog, your newsletter, your podcast. These are the channels where you control the content creation, and distribution.

Social media channels should never be the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. Social media channels should SUPPORT your owned media channels, not replace them.

Remember, we want to give you MORE control over your digital communications and LOWER the associated risk.  Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are NOT your social media strategy, they are tools you use to support it.

How Harry’s Marketing Examples Grew Its Newsletter From Zero to 19,000 Subscribers in One Year

Harry’s Marketing Examples is a great site you should check out. I noticed this article on how Harry grew its newsletter from zero to 19,000 subscribers in one year. That’s pretty impressive!

Harry had a very simple, three-pronged strategy for his content distribution:

1 – Customize all content for the platform he was sharing it on. For instance, content shared on Twitter would be threaded and long-form. The same content shared on Facebook would much shorter and more visual. This is honestly something I am terrible at, I tend to share a link to my latest post and a picture on every platform. I need to get better about this and Harry’s strategy has got me thinking about how I can improve.

2 – Move everyone from the social media platform where they see your content, to your platform. Give everyone a reason to leave Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, and go back to your website or blog. Remember, the social media platforms should SUPPORT your digital marketing strategy.

3 – Convert visitors into newsletter subscribers. Create content that engages users on the social media platforms where they are. Get them to engage with that content and GO BACK to YOUR platform (blog/website). Then once they are on your platform, convert them into an email subscriber.

Why is this so important? Because once Harry has the social media user converted into an email subscriber, then the can connect DIRECTLY with them VIA EMAIL! He no longer needs Twitter and Facebook to connect with this person, he’s got them locked into his email newsletter.

Remember, this is about giving you MORE control over your digital communications and LOWERING the associated risk.

Social Media will continue to be volatile in 2021 and beyond

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’ve been warning for a while now that 2021 will be a pretty volatile year for social media. Over the last couple of years, there will be #DeleteFacebook movements that gain steam quickly then die out just as fast. As touched on at the start of this issue, there’s a growing sense among many Twitter/Facebook/Instagram users that the companies are getting a little too ham-fisted with their moderating or policing of content. In fact, as I’m writing this, I just learned that Instagram has admitted that it is reading private messages from users and suspending users for sending messages that violate its terms of service.

Earlier this year, Clubhouse seemingly came out of nowhere to become the hottest social media app available. While its popularity has definitely waned the last few months, it shows that people that use social media regularly are hungry for new experiences and context. Gone are the days where social media simply meant, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The rise of Clubhouse shows that social media users will support new apps and sites, and that they aren’t locked into Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Twitter and Facebook are very well aware of what’s happening, and they are trying to make moves to counter a potential exodus of users:

Twitter can see that its user growth is slowing, and is anticipating a potential decline in revenue. So the site is considering its options, including adding a charge to some of its basic features that have been free up till now. Also, Twitter has considered charging for Tweetdeck, a popular standalone viewer that many users enjoy to better organize and follow tweets on Twitter. This is a risky move if Twitter goes ahead with it. The only way I could see this working is if Twitter added significant functionality to Tweetdeck or its basic Twitter account as a way to justify wanting to charge for previously free features. Either way, it signals that Twitter understands that it’s user base isn’t as predictable as it once was.

Earlier this year, both Facebook and Twitter decided to get into the newsletters game:

Twitter and Facebook can see how popular newsletters are becoming, and are attempting to incorporate newsletter functionality into its sites as a way to keep users in their ecosystem, and generate more revenue from users.

This is a big part of the reason why I want your company to seriously assess its dependence on major social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You should absolutely leverage these tools to support your owned media channels if it makes sense, but don’t become so dependent on them if they experience massive changes, or force you to change how or if you can continue to use the sites.

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The One Thing I Hate About Content Creation

Content CreationThe one thing I hate about content creation is writing about the same topic over and over again.

I hate doing this. When I do, it always feels like I am being lazy or repeating myself. I mean, I covered this same topic back in 2011, why revisit it?

As it turns out, there’s actually several good reasons to create content around the same topic, more than once. So if you are like me, and it gives you the willies to create content about the same topic over and over again, strap in and let’s talk about why this is actually a good idea.

Why you should be creating content about the same topics over and over again

1 – Your audience changes. I’ve been blogging since 2005, across three different sites. The audience I wrote for at each site was vastly different. I’ve now been blogging here for over 12 years.  The people I am writing for today are vastly different than the readers I wrote for back in 2009. It makes complete sense to cover the same topics repeatedly because there are constantly new eyeballs on your content.

2 – Your expertise changes. I look back at a lot of the content I created back in 2005-2007 and realize now that I had no earthly idea what I was talking about. I certainly thought I did, but over the years I got to work with many companies and clients and put what was theory, into practice. My skills improved and grew, and as such the point of view I had for the work changed as well. I could go from presenting other people’s case studies to illustrate a point, to referencing the work I had personally done with clients. My knowledge and understanding of the topics greatly improved, and as a result it makes sense to revisit those topics to add what I have learned.

3 – You have better examples. Tying in with the previous point, as your expertise grows, your ability to illustrate concepts and ideas does as well. You become aware of better examples either through your own growing experience, or simply by being exposed to new case studies.

For instance, when I first started blogging, I often wrote about the value of using influencers on-site to drive interest in a conference or event. After a few years of experience working with companies such as Adobe as an influencer to promote their events, I could then point readers toward the results from that work. This resulted in my being able to create better content, and back up the concepts with real-world results.

4 – It helps your SEO. Yes, writing for search engines still matters. Depending on your blog, anywhere from 30-80% of your traffic comes from search engines. Those are numbers that are simply too big to ignore. By consistently creating content around certain topics, you are telling those search engines what the focus of your blog is. That makes it more likely that the content you create for those topics will place higher in search results, leading to more traffic from search engines.

The plugin I use for my blog to help me rank higher in search results is Yoast SEO. I cannot recommend it enough.

5 – It helps readers understand what the focus of your content is. It’s important to write for search engines, but it’s even more important to write for your readers. Consistently writing about the same topics helps readers understand where your focus is. Once they know what topics you write about, they can help tell their friends and colleagues about you as well.

So it’s vital to think about, from a strategic standpoint, the key topics you want to focus on. This will be the 3-5 topics that you want to be known for. I call these Topic Buckets. I pick 3-5 Topic Buckets that will be the main focus of the content I create here. This helps me focus my content. Additionally, this makes it easier for others to understand what the main topics are that I cover here.

 

There’s five reasons why it pays to focus your content creation efforts on the same topics, over and over again. Pick 3-5 Topic Buckets, then consistently create content that fits into one of those Topic Buckets. This will not only help drive more search traffic to your blog, but it will drive more direct and referral traffic as your readers better understand the focus of your writing.

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5 Reasons Why I Always Ignore Your Email Pitches

Unsolicited email pitches from companies and PR firms are the bane of my existence.

Every day, I get emails from people I don’t know, asking me to promote either their company or their product or a thought leadership piece by their CEO.

I reject 99.9% of these requests.  If you work in PR or in any capacity in which you pitch bloggers on writing stories for you, please pay attention to these 5 steps.  These are the 5 reasons why I never promote you.

1 – You never ask if you can email me before you do. I’ve been blogging now for 15 years. I can count on one hand the number of times someone has emailed me and asked my permission to pitch them BEFORE they pitched me. It simply doesn’t happen.

If it did happen, I would reply to that person, and thank them. I would then ENCOURAGE them to pitch me on a provided list of topics.

Instead, I get pitched by people I have never heard of. And since they don’t know me, that leads to #2….

 

2 – You pitch me on topics that are completely unrelated to what I cover. Anyone that reads this blog for any amount of time knows the topics that are covered here.  Anything concerning customer behavior, brand advocacy, content strategy, ambassador programs, etc.

If you pitch me on the exciting new line of cooking utensils you are rolling out for the Fall, I cannot mark Report Spam in my inbox fast enough.

Take 10-15 minutes to read my blog. Familiarize yourself with the topics I cover.  Then email me, ask if you can pitch me on topics that are in line with what I cover.

I promise you that I will say ‘Absolutely!’

 

3 – You never mention how I will benefit from covering your story. What’s in it for me? We both know what you get out of it, a link and publicity. What do I get?

When you pitch me, think about how *I* will benefit.  What value are you creating for ME?

If I can clearly see the value in your pitch, I will act on it. Every. Single. Time.

 

4 – You pitch me on a story from a SME that I could write better than the SME. This goes back to understanding the topics I write about. If you pitch me on having your SME talk on a topic I discuss regularly, I will probably say no. Because I can likely cover the topic better than your SME can.

So instead, pitch me on how your SME would like to share how his or her company built an employee brand ambassador company. Or the results from building a Voice of the Customer initiative. That I would be interested in.  But don’t pitch me on your SME explaining how to build an amazing brand ambassador program. I’ve already written that post.

 

5 – Don’t try to followup with me on a pitch that I’ve already written about. Honestly, this just happened to me and it’s what prompted me to write this post.

As I said above, I reject 99.9% of the email pitches I get. Usually because the topic of the pitch is completely off topic for what I write about. And I don’t waste time replying, which leads to a followup email in a day or two asking if I am interested.

Well recently, I actually got a pitch on a topic I cover. So I immediately wrote and published a post on the information I was pitched on. I then thanked the person who pitched me, and encouraged them to continue to send me pitches, and gave her a list of topics I wanted to be pitched on.

See how that works? When I get a relevant pitch, I work with the person to ensure that they keep sending me MORE pitches on topics I want to cover.

So I emailed this person back.  She replied immediately, thanking me for the post.

The VERY NEXT DAY, she emails me asking if I had reviewed the study that she pitched me on the day before.  The same study I wrote about that same day, and which she thanked me for doing so.

All that did was confirm to me that I am just a name on a list to her, and she had no appreciation for me actually answering her pitch and replying.

So what do you think the chances are that I will answer a second of her pitches? Yeah, not good.

 

If You Want Me to Answer Your Pitch Every Single Time…

1 – Read my blog. Familiarize yourself with the topics I cover.

2 – If you or your clients don’t cover the same topics I do, then DO NOT PITCH ME.

3 – If you or your clients DO cover the same topics I do, then EMAIL ME and ASK IF YOU CAN PITCH ME. Tell me what topics I cover that you have pitches for. I promise you that I will reply to you, and be elated that you took the time to ask. If you catch me in the right emotional state, I may be so overcome that I ask for your hand in marriage.

4 – Once you’ve established that you have a relevant pitch AND that I am interested, give me all the information and resources I need to create a better pitch. Such as custom graphics, quotes from relevant SMEs, access to relevant stakeholders at your company.

 

Now if you are reading this list and thinking to yourself “Aw Mack, that sounds like a ton of work!”  No shit, doing a good job TAKES PUTTING IN THE WORK.

Do you want your daily job task list to show that you sent out 200 email pitches, or do you want it to say that you got 20 bloggers to say ‘yes’ to your pitch?

Conversions is the name of the game. Follow the above guidelines and you’ll get far more conversions on your email pitches. Keep following these guidelines and you’ll see you actually send out FAR FEWER pitches as most of the people that say ‘yes’ to the first one, will likely say yes to the second and third one as well.

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Research: 54% of Online Shoppers Read Customer Reviews Before Every Purchase

A new research study by Digital.com found some interesting insights into how buyers are leveraging customer reviews to drive purchases. One of the key findings was that 54% of online shoppers read customer reviews before making any purchase.

That’s significant, and it again proves that customers trust other customers more than they trust brands.

Where Do Customer Reviews Fit Into the Buyer’s Journey?

Let’s revisit the Buyer’s Journey for a moment:

Buyer's Journey

The Interested stage is where the customer does their research into the product or service that they are interested in purchasing. Typically, the average online shopper will use two sources for their research:

1 – Customer reviews

2 – Product information on the company website

The typical online shopper will usually go back and forth between these two sources.  Once they are interested in a product, they will begin to look for content on the website that is product-specific. Then they will consult customer reviews to see what other customers thought about the product. Maybe they will find some customers complained about a certain product feature failing, or others might praise a certain feature.  The online shopper will then go back and review product information to see if the product has those features.

The point is, the typical online shopper wants and seeks input from other customers before committing to a purchase. So think about how you can either incorporate customer reviews into your website alongside product information, or think of ways to engage your customers to give them the tools they need to sell on your brand’s behalf. A good brand ambassador program, for instance, gives your brand a way to empower your customers to sell to other customers.

Let’s look at some of the other key findings from Digital.com’s research:

88% of Online Shoppers Read at Least Three Customer Reviews Before Making a Purchase

Notice that two thirds, 67% of respondents, read 4+ customer reviews before committing to a purchase!

Other findings:

  • Good reviews play the biggest role in online purchasing decisions
  • 100+ reviews make a business trustworthy, say 39% of online shoppers
  • 88% of online shoppers read at least 3 reviews before purchase

And I love this quote from Digital Marketing Executive, Huy Nguyen: “Review sentiment is important because consumers trust experiences of real users shared through images, video, and detailed explanations over what a brand might promote on their own.”

You can review all the findings from the research here.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Tik Tok Stories on the Way, Faze Clan/McDonalds Partnership, Amazon Replaces Google For Shoppers

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope everyone is ready to have an amazing week! Here’s a few marketing stories that caught my eye:

 

You knew this was coming. Tik Tok is getting ready to roll out its version of Stories. What interesting about the timing is this comes as Twitter just sunsetted its version of Stories, Twitter Fleets, last week.

As I wrote about last week with tips for how businesses can better use Instagram, I think Stories and its clones on other social sites are worth investigating for brands because it gives their content a new way to stand out. And getting noticed is half the battle (knowing is the other half, obviously).

 

I find this fascinating, but for US online shoppers, products searches are done with Amazon over search engines by a roughly threefold clip. Amazon has done a lot of smart things in its years as a company, but perhaps the smartest thing was incorporating customer reviews into the site. Customer reviews are such an integral part of the research we do before buying online. Amazon’s move to combine reviews on the same page where you can make the purchase was brilliant. It’s all about understanding your customer and the experience they want, delivering that experience and leveraging it into purchases.

 

Have I mentioned that esports is exploding from a business and marketing standpoint? Yes I have. The latest proof is in a content creation deal that McDonalds has struck with Faze Clan, one of the top teams in esports. I will continue to bang this drum until everyone hears it, but some of the best influencer marketing happening right now is happening in the esports space. The content creators have an ability to create and cultivate community that we just don’t see from other influencers on other online platforms.

 

Finally, here’s a bonus sports-related pick. This one shows that great content was being created long before the internet.  Check out the copy writing on this mini-profile of HOF QB Ken Stabler from the late 70s.  I love the caption and it ties perfectly with the image. You can almost see Stabler with a gun and holster just inches from his right hand, ready to draw!

 

 

So that’s it for this week, I hope you have a wonderful and productive week. I know a lot of you will be getting in those summer vacations this month, so if you do travel, have a great time and be safe!

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5 Common Mistakes Businesses Make on Instagram (And How to Fix Them!)

In the early days of social media (2006-2010), most businesses created content for three channels; Their blog, Facebook and Twitter.

All that changed in 2010 with the introduction of an app called Instagram. What made Instagram stand out from the social media crowd was its focus on visual content. Today, Instagram boasts over a billion users, and it has revolutionized social media, forcing all competing platforms and apps to adopt more visual content options in order to compete.

Yet as businesses are rushing to use Instagram, they are still making many mistakes.

5 Common Mistakes Businesses Make on Instagram (And How to Fix Them!)

 

1 – You business uses Instagram the same way it uses every other social media channel. Instagram is about visual content. The focus of your content should be images and videos, obviously. You can’t just post the same image that you did on Facebook and Twitter and expect the same results.

More than anything, Instagram is a wonderful platform for visual storytelling. If you are reading this post and want to know how to get better at using visual content, I would suggest reading The Power of Visual Storytelling, by my friends Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio.

Want to see an amazing example of using Instagram for visual storytelling? Check out what Whole Foods did to its Instagram feed.

2 – Your business focuses too much on itself, and not enough on your customers. Keep in mind that social media is best used as a way to build awareness. Who do you want to build awareness with? Your customers! So why not have your customers create your content for you?

For instance, the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association has partnered with ambassadors throughout North Alabama to photograph the sights of the area. This partnership gives AMLTA access to much more content, and the photographers have a vested interest in promoting that content to their friends and followers. (Disclaimer: I advised AMLTA on their ambassador program as it was being created and launched)

By focusing on your customers, either in creating content about them, or letting them create the content directly, you are giving other customers a reason to engage with your content.

Instagram AMLTA

3 – Your business isn’t using Instagram Stories. If no one sees your content, then they can’t engage with your content. One problem that businesses face when they first join Instagram is building a following. Building a following in necessary to get more visibility and engagement. But there’s another way you can improve both: By using Instagram Stories.

 

Look at the top of that picture.  The bubbles for Amber, NickMercs, Donna and Stephanie are Instagram Stories. The big benefit to using Instagram Stories is that the Stories are moved to the top of the IG feed of your followers. That means better exposure and visibility. If you are simply posting to Instagram, then your updates are going to the regular feeds of your followers. With Instagram Stories, your content stands out and is more likely to be seen.

4 – Your photos are poor quality. Instagram is a visual medium. Your content is competing against businesses that are investing in creating top-notch visual content, both photos and videos. If you want your images to stand out, they must be top quality. If you don’t have a photographer on staff, or access to high quality images, you should make an effort to acquire them.

instagram

5 – Your posting is erratic. Success in building awareness and engagement with social media content is rooted in consistency. You need to create a schedule for when you post content on Instagram, and stick to it! Keeping a consistent schedule ‘trains’ your followers to know when your new content will be posted, so they know when to look for it.

 

So there’s 5 common mistakes that businesses make on Instagram, and how to fix them. If you want to learn more about using Instagram for your business, check out all the posts I’ve written on how businesses are using Instagram.

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10 Simple Ways to Boost Engagement on Your Business Blog (For Free!)

business blog engagementBlogging, especially for a business, can often feel like a very lonely endeavor.

Ten years ago, blogs were where conversations happened on social media. I could write this same post in 2010, and it would likely have 30 comments in a week. This one will be lucky to have a tenth of that in a week.

It’s just the nature of the beast. Blogging has changed, how people engage has changed. Those of us that blog for our business, need to adapt to meet those changes.

 

What does ‘engagement’ mean for a business blog?

There’s a big misconception about what engagement is in terms of business blogging. Many people view engagement for a blog, personal or business, as simply being about comments. Nothing could be further from the truth for a business blog.

For a business blog, engagement is defined as any action that a reader takes that creates value for your business. This could be leaving a comment, but it could also be sharing your post with a colleague or signing up for your newsletter.

So don’t limit your view of engagement on a business blog as simply being about getting more comments. In fact, before we talk about boosting engagement on your business blog, let’s list some of the types of engagement that we want to boost:

  • Comments
  • Shares of your post or article with colleagues
  • Signing up for a company newsletter
  • Leaving your business blog to visit the company website or a product specific area of the company website
  • Emailing or calling your company to ask a product-specific question
  • Downloading a white paper

Now we have an entire list of ways that visitors can engage with the content on our business blog. We can now structure our content to encourage one or more of these types of engagement.

10 Simple Ways to Boost Engagement on Your Business Blog (For Free!)

1 – Simplify your content. Content that’s easier to grasp and understand, is more likely to engage your audience and hold their attention.

The easiest way to do this is to is to focus on topics that are written at a more 101-level than advanced. That’s because its easier for people to form and share an opinion about 101-level content than it is say 401-level content.

Case in point, which question do you think would receive more comments?

  1. What’s your favorite movie night snack; burgers or pizza?
  2. Who was the better military strategist; Alexander The Great or General Robert E Lee?

Obviously, more people would feel confident engaging with content around the first question, than the second. Ultimately, you want your audience to feel comfortable engaging with your content. So creating content that’s easier to digest and understand, will lead to higher engagement rates.

2 – Focus on improving the readability of your content. Content that’s easier to read is easier to understand. Simply organizing your content so it is clear and easy to read will enhance understanding, and that improves engagement.

This is where I want to share one of my content creation secret weapons with you. It’s the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. Yoast SEO has a Readability checklist it creates for each post you create. That checklist gives you a list of items you need to do in order to make the post easier to read. It’s been a huge help to me and if you compare this post to ones I wrote even a year ago, you can see a stark difference in organization and readability.

3 – Make it clear how you want readers to engage with your content. Do you want more comments? Then ask for them. Do you want more newsletter signups? Then include a signup form in or around your content (There’s one at the end of this post). Do you want them to download your white paper? Then include a link where they can.

Think about how you want readers to engage with your content, then craft your Calls to Action so that you encourage those forms of engagement.

4 -Reply to comments. This one is so simple it hurts. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, answer them! It’s incredibly hard to get anyone to leave a first comment. If they do, and you respond and engage them, that increases the chance that they will comment again.

5 – End your post with these three words; “What do you think?” That encourages the reader to engage you in the comments. You can make it even easier by asking them to leave a comment OR email you any thoughts they have.

6 – Write about your audience, not your company. Remember that your business blog is a great tool for building brand awareness. Awareness is at the top of the sales funnel. To get customers into your sales funnel via content, you want to create content that focuses almost completely on the customer.

Write about what your customer goes through every day. Talk about the problems and issues they face in their lives, without talking about how your company solves those issues. At least not yet. You want to focus completely on the customer in order to get their attention and engage them. Then, once they are on your business blog and engaging with you, then you can create content that helps the customer understand how your company can solve the problems they are facing every day.

7 – Use social sharing buttons on every post. Not every reader wants to comment, but many will want to share your article with friends and colleagues. Giving them social sharing options is an easy way to encourage more visitors to your site. When deciding which buttons to add, always remember to add a button to share via email. Old school still works!

8 – Add Related Content to the end of every post. This is an easy way to help the reader find more content you have written on the same topic. It works perfectly, because if they read the entire article, it signals interest, then you include Related posts at the end for them to read next. I use the Jetpack plugin(Affiliate link) to add three Related posts at the end of each post.

9 – Write good headlines. Your post headline should be engaging, interesting and even a bit provocative all at the same time. But above all, your headline should make a specific promise to the reader, and that promise should compel them to read your post.

Too many bloggers use the post headline to simply summarize the topic of the post. Understand how your content will be spread: It will show up in search results, it will be shared on social media feeds. In most cases, your headline is all a person will read before deciding if they want to click your post and read it.

Spoiler alert: Boring headlines don’t get clicks. I’m using the Headline Optimizer Test from Thrive Themes to create the headline for this post. I entered multiple variations of the headline, the Headline Optimizer serves the headlines randomly, and the one with the best engagement ‘wins’ and is chosen as the headline for this post. So as I’m writing this post now, the most engaging headline hasn’t been chosen yet! You can get the Headline Optimizer Test for your blog as part of the Thrive Themes Suite(Affiliate link), which I also use on this blog.

10 – Publish new posts when your audience will read them. Think about who you are writing for, and when they will be reading blogs. For instance, if your business is a B2B, you likely want to reach customers who are at work, so publish new posts during the workday. Publish new posts when you think your audience might be free to read them, such as in the morning before lunch, or in the afternoon before they leave for the day.

 

So there’s 10 easy (and free!) ways to start getting more engagement on your business blog as early as today! Want more advice on how to grow your business blog? Check out all the posts under the Business Blogging category.