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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Facebook Wants to Charge Users, Grok Debuts, Brand Loyalty Drives Purchases

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope you are ready to have a productive week! Here’s a few business stories that have caught my eye over the last few days:

 

If you haven’t noticed, we are transitioning from social media being free, to being paid.  First Elon bought Twitter, which he claims was in huge financial distress (I believe him) and ever since he has been attempting to monetize basic features of Twitter which had always been free. Now, it looks like Meta is trying to do the same thing with Facebook and Instagram.  Under the guise of ‘we have to do this, we have no choice!’  Remember Elon has framed many of his initial monetization attempts as being necessary ‘to combat bots’ on Twitter. This is a big topic and I will have more to say on it in a full post on Thursday.

 

Elon has debuted Grok, X’s attempt at a ChatGPT/Claude AI rival.  And shockingly, it will be a feature only available to Premium X subscribers, tying into the first story.  Again, more on this on Thursday. The big advantage that Grok could have will be real-time access to tweets that can inform answers.

 

People buy from brands they trust. You can say that’s common sense, but if that’s the case, why is 99% of advertising aimed at acquiring NEW customers versus appealing to EXISTING ones? Also, note that for customers aged 55+, the only two significant drivers of purchases are past experience/trust in a brand, or a recommendation from a friend or family member.  That’s it. Which shows that advertising a brand that the customer is unfamiliar with has almost no impact on purchase behavior if that customer is 55 or over.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute, thanks for reading! Tomorrow will be the November Power List update for the Tourism industry, and on Thursday there will be a post on the trend of social media sites moving from free to paid.

There might be a Bible-related post on the weekend, I honestly haven’t decided yet. I do have a new app recommendation I want to share, and will do so if I write a post.

I hope you have a great week, please return tomorrow for the Tourism Power List for November!

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How to Begin Reading the Bible

Hello! In January, I made a commitment to read the Bible every day. It’s been an amazing experience, and I like to share some of my thoughts on what I am learning here on Sundays.

I’ve blogged about this before, but before I started reading the Bible in January, I did some googling on what the recommended starting point was.  Most people suggested to either start reading the Bible in Genesis at the start of the Old Testament, or they suggested starting with the New Testament. After spending the last 10 months reading the Bible daily, I wanted to back up and share my thoughts on how I suggest you should begin reading the Bible.

My advice would be to begin reading the Bible in the New Testament.  The Old Testament is quite valuable, but I think you can fully appreciate its value after first getting a solid handle on the writings of the New Testament. Personally, I started reading the Bible with Genesis, then Revelation, then Exodus, then I went to the New Testament and read it through. At first, I found the New Testament to be more relatable and easier to understand. But as I began to get a better understanding of the New Testament, it actually helped me understand the Old Testament. This is why I suggest reading the New Testament first, getting a solid handle on it, then reading the Old Testament.

One thing I am noticing as I continue reading the Bible…this is an absolutely amazing piece of literature. It has so many layers! You have to understand, I am notorious for not reading books. I just don’t do it, I simply cannot find a book that can hold my attention long enough to finish it. Yet I’ve been reading the Bible every day for the last 10 months AND…I’m spending MORE time with it daily in November than I did in January. That is mostly because on my second and third readings of passages, I am discovering a key word or phrase and what it actually means that I totally missed the first time I read it. It’s almost like a treasure hunt, you do research on the text, and you discover that a phrase means something that you didn’t realize. Then you discover 3 other references to that same phrase in three OTHER books of the Bible, that all link together to form a larger story that you totally missed on your first reading. As I said, the Bible has many layers.

So if you are ready to start reading the Bible, here’s what I would suggest you do:

1 – Download the Bible Project app, and the Angel Studios app.

2 – Watch the Bible Project Video for the Book of Matthew.

3 – Read the Book of Matthew.

4 – Repeat these steps for the books of Mark, Luke and John.  First watch the Bible Project video for each book, then read the book.

5 – After you have read the four Gospels and watched the videos for each, then go and watch The Chosen.  Through the end of season three goes about a third of the way through the gospels.

 

What’s interesting about the four gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) is that they are essentially telling the same story (the birth and death of Christ, then His resurrection) from 4 different viewpoints. So by reading all four gospels, you get a pretty developed picture of Jesus’ life on earth. And each gospel is slightly different, and told in a slightly different way. One gospel may describe events in chronological order, another highlights events to tell a larger story.  There’s a slightly different theme and voice that each gospel is told in.

By watching the Bible Project video for each of the 4 gospels, then reading each and watching The Chosen, it gives you a very solid grounding in understanding the first 4 books of the New Testament.

From there, I would continue through the New Testament and finish it. At that point, the choice is up to you as to where you go next.  You may want to start reading the Old Testament at that point, or you may want to read the New Testament again. Either way is fine, I would just go with whichever feels better for you.

I will say this: The Old Testament is absolutely worth reading. In fact, the more I learn about the Bible as a whole, the more I appreciate the true value of the Old Testament. An interesting tidbit: Once you watch The Chosen, I think that will help you appreciate the audience that the Old Testament was written for.  The Old Testament was mostly written for the Jewish people in and around Israel.  The New Testament is written for everyone, but it’s important to understand the entire Bible, and how the Old Testament transitions into the New Testament. In very simple terms, I think the Old Testament is about God’s Covenant with Israel, and the New Testament is about the new Covenant that God created with all of mankind through Jesus.

As I stated when I first started reading the Bible, I was amazed at how different the Bible was from what I thought it was about. I assumed the Bible was mainly a collection of stories about amazingly righteous believers who rarely, if ever, sinned, and who lived near perfect lives. I assumed these people and their lives would be provided as examples of how we should live our own lives.

Instead, the Bible, if anything, is a collection of stories about how God uses sinners to achieve His will. It’s a wonderful testament to how God can do amazing works through anyone, and how no one is lost that wants to be found. If you seek out God and let Him into your heart, you will be saved. Some of the most amazing stories in the Bible come from people who committed sometimes horrific sins.

When you begin reading the gospels, one of the earliest stories will be about Jesus having dinner with tax collectors, sinners and harlots. The religious leaders discovered this and where outraged that Jesus would do this! They asked Him what in the world He was thinking associating with such filth?

Jesus responds that He did not come to save the righteous, He came to save the sinners. One of the parables that Jesus tells is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep. If one of those sheep goes missing, the shepherd will drop everything till he finds that one lost sheep and brings him back. Jesus said in much the same way, Heaven rejoices over one lost sinner being saved. Perhaps the key lesson from the Bible is that if you think that you aren’t ‘good enough’ for God, you don’t understand that you are the exact person that Jesus came to see.

So please consider reading the Bible if you have not. I think you will be amazed at what you discover. Follow the above plan of watching the Bible Project videos, then reading the gospels, then watching The Chosen, and I think you will be hooked. It’s an absolutely amazing story, and perhaps the best part of all is, the story is still unfolding, and each of us plays a role in its development.

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The Technology Power List for November

The Power List for Tech

Welcome to The Technology Power List for November! You can view past Tech Power Lists here.

Why have a Power List for the Tech space? Because I wanted to highlight workers that are doing a great job of leveraging social media to connect with customers, partners and clients. It’s damn hard to work in the tech space and still carve out time to create engaging content for social media. I am hopeful that by putting a spotlight on a few of the tech all-stars, it will make their jobs a little easier.

If you want to view all the candidates for the Tech Power List, follow this list on Twitter. If you work in the tech space and would like to be considered for the Power List, then follow me on Twitter and reply to me and ask to be included.  Please state clearly in your profile bio what company you work for in tech, and your position. And the Power List isn’t limited to just big brands, startups and smaller tech companies are just fine.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Power List for Technology! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

The Top 10 will be ranked 1-10. There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last.

Here’s the Tech Power List for November:

1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 91 (-). Another solid month for Pat. I think Pat’s account is a good template for any executive or manager who wants to learn how to use Twitter effectively as a communication tool. He has a very solid volume of tweets, around a dozen a month. And his tweets are varied in content, some are RTs, some are focused on his company, some are personal observations. Great volume and a great mix of content. Pat is 3 for 3 in leading the Tech Power List at #1, congrats Pat!

2 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 86 (+6). Banger of a month for Lauren. Volume of tweets up again, and she has a better balance of work and personal content this month. Gotta reward the effort, great job Lauren!

3 – Sergio Raguso, Regulation Manager @ Siemens, Power List Score – 85. (-1)  Every month I struggle a bit with where to rank Sergio. Of all the Power Lists I’ve done for multiple industries, Sergio’s volume of tweets puts everyone to shame. But the issue is, almost all of his tweets are retweets. Sometimes less is more, and I think that would apply to Sergio’s tweets. If he cut his volume in half, and sprinkled in a few more personal thoughts on his retweets, I think his engagement would jump as a result. Still, a mid-80s score is nothing to scoff at.

4 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 84 (-). Pretty consistent performance from Sushail, as he has been at 84 all three months. His volume was down a bit for the first half of the month, but jumped at the end. That darned ‘work’ thing getting in the way of tweeting, it seems. If his volume continues at a higher pace for all of next month, I would assume his score will go up.

5 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 83. (-2) A bit of a slow month for Greg, although he did close out in the final few days with a jump in activity.  Hopefully this will carry over into this month.

6 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 82 (+6). Big month for Jennifer, a nice jump in volume, good mix of content. Well done, Jennifer!

7 –  Meagen Eisenberg, CMO @ Laceworks, Power List Score – 81 (-). New entry alert! Actually Meagen made the first Tech Power List back in September, so she’s returning, congrats Meagen!  Strong month for Meagen, a ton of tweets, mostly retweets. If Meagen mixes in a few more tweets with her original thoughts, the sky is the limit for her score.

8 – Stella Low, Chief of Corporate Affairs and Communications @ HP, Power List Score – 79 (-). A decent month for Stella, and her position at #8 is more a statement on how the quality of this Power List is improving than anything else.

9 – Krithika Muthukumar, VP of Marketing @ OpenAI, Power List Score – 78 (-). Same thing for Krithika as I said for Stella.  She had a good month in October, her position is more about how strong this list is versus her performance.

10 – Sarah Luden, Communications @ Dell Tech, Power List Score – 76. New entry alert! Sarah joins with a solid first month, mix of reposts and some shares with her thoughts included, which I like. Well done and congrats Sarah!

 

One final note: This is the first Power List I’ve done where a couple of people didn’t make the cut based solely on their activity in October. Normally, I struggle on how to rank the top 5 spots in a Power List, and the bottom 5 are usually a lot easier. Not so with this edition of the Power List.

Please make sure you are following each of these wonderful people, you can click on their name and follow them from there. All the candidates for the Power List are on this Twitter list.  If you aren’t on the list and want to nominate yourself or a peer, follow me on Twitter and then tweet me and let me know so I can add you to the list of candidates!

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Marketing and Movies: The Book of Eli

web3 rabbit hole

One of the driving forces in our lives is to find our purpose. Our ‘higher calling’, or something that motivates us to get up in the morning and do something. We all have a longing to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. It gives our lives meaning, comfort, and hope. These themes along with faith, perseverance and love are explored in the wonderful movie The Book of Eli.

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers about the movie The Book of Eli. If you have not watched The Book of Eli, please do so before reading this post. It’s wonderful and well worth your time.  You can read the other posts in the Marketing and Movies series here.

The Book of Eli centers on a man named Eli (played by Denzel Washington). Eli lives in a post-apocalyptic world. At first, we know very little about Eli, the world he is living in, or his purpose. As the movie progresses, we learn from Eli that sometime before the movie is set, nuclear war happened, and in order to survive, people like Eli went underground to avoid radiation contamination. The planet was devastated, and the majority of earth was turned into a wasteland. Clean water for drinking and bathing is now a prized commodity, one that Eli, along with everyone else in the movie is desperately seeking.

Eli’s purpose in the movie is revealed to us gently. At first, we are simply told that Eli has the single-minded purpose of going west. Later, we learn that Eli has in his possession a King James Bible. Eli enters a town and while there, the owner of the town, Carnegie, discovers this fact as well, and asks Eli to give him the Bible. Eli refuses, and Carnegie instructs his henchmen to kill Eli.

A huge gunfight ensues, that sees Carnegie’s henchmen shoot Eli multiple times, but the bullets inexplicably miss Eli, or seem to be deflected off him. At the same time, Eli seems to have almost supernatural precision in his shooting, killing the entire gang in just a few shots. Eli leaves the gang in the streets, and continues out of town.

Outside of town, a girl from the town named Solara meets up with Eli. Solara is the daughter of Carnegie’s mistress, Claudia.  Eli tells her to go back to her mom, his journey is too dangerous for her. She says she will take Eli to find water if she can go with him. Eli never agrees, but follows Solara to a nearby spring. Eli gets all the water he can carry, then locks Solara in the spring. He reminds her that his journey is too dangerous for her, and leaves her.

Solara later escapes the spring, but instead of going back to her town, she continues after Eli. As she is traveling, she comes across a woman screaming for help. She goes to help the woman, but as soon as the woman sees that Solara is also a woman, she panics and begs her to leave immediately. Solara does not, and a group of bikers come out and attack Solara. Just as they are about to subdue Solara, Eli finds them and kills the group before they could assault Solara. Now Eli has no choice but to let Solara join him on his journey.

They continue west, and the next night they rest at a long abandoned nuclear plant. There, Eli explains more about the Bible. He says that one day he heard the voice of God in his head. God told him to go to a spot, and that he would find the Bible there. God told Eli to take the Bible, and to ‘go west’. Eli explains that God told him that He would protect him on his journey. It turns out, this is the last Bible in existence, but Eli still doesn’t know why he is taking it ‘out west’, just that God told him to, and that’s enough for him. Solara is stunned that Eli would do all this for a book, and would ‘go west’ based on simple faith.

Eli and Solara continue west, but Carnegie also continues to track them. Eventually, Carnegie finds Eli and Solara, and takes the Bible from Eli, and then shoots him. Carnegie kidnaps Solara, then heads back to his town with Solara.

Along the way back to his town, Solara is able to attack the driver of the truck that’s carrying her, and she takes over the vehicle and heads back toward the house where Eli was shot. Carnegie’s driver tells him that they have just enough gas to make it back to his town, so Carnegie decides to let Solara go.

Carnegie returns to his town, and gives the Bible to the engineer to open.  The Bible has a large gold lock on it. At the same time, Solara returns to the house where Eli was shot, and finds that he’s gone. Solara starts driving past the house, and after some time she encounters Eli walking down the road. She asks him where he is going and he says “West. Gotta go west”. So Solara continues to drive Eli west. Eventually, they come to the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge’s middle section is destroyed, so they start rowing a boat across the water and eventually come to Alcatraz Prison.

Back in town, Carnegie has opened the Bible, only to discover that he cannot read it. There’s a good reason why he can’t. And in the process, he also discovers something amazing about Eli:

Eli and Solara enter the prison facility, and the person running it informs them that they have a vast library and a printing press. Eli informs the man that he has a copy of the King James Bible. Then Eli proceeds to dictate the entire Bible to the man, as he meticulously records his every word. Once the process is finished, the printing press can then begin to print copies of the King James Bible, for the first time since they were destroyed during the nuclear war. This was Eli’s mission from God.

The movie implies that Eli died soon after his copy of the Bible was transcribed. Eli quotes 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

The Book of Eli and the Secret of Great Marketing

For almost two decades I have consulted companies on their marketing strategies. One of the core teachings I try to stress to clients is that you aren’t marketing a product, you are marketing how your product fits into my life. Your goal as a marketer should be to make sure I understand the impact that your product will have on my life.

Because at the end of the day, our material possessions aren’t what drive us and give us happiness. It’s something bigger than that. It’s our experiences, our accomplishments.

It’s the life we live.

Throughout the movie, we watch as Solara reacts to understanding what Eli is doing, and why he is doing it. At first she experiences disbelief, and views Eli’s trek out west as being ridiculous. But later as she learns more about what Eli is doing, and witnesses firsthand his dedication to his journey, her disbelief gives way to awe, and finally to admiration.

At one point early on in the movie, Solara laments that her town is corrupt and people are being hurt, as an appeal to Eli for him to leave his mission and stay in the town and help them. Eli simply responds “Then change it” and continues west.

The movie ends with Solara paying her respects to Eli at his gravesite. She then turns on his music player, picks up his weapon, and begins her own journey, back to her town. Eli had a mission from God to perform, and in performing that mission, he also inspired Solara to find her own calling, her own mission.

Your calling as a marketer is to lead your customers to live better, more fulfilling lives. Selling products is a byproduct of that, not the goal. The marketing goal is to market how your product fits into the lives of your customers, how it makes their lives better and more meaningful.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: CMOs Invest in AI for Branding, Twitter Adds Subscription Options, AI Writing Product Reviews

Happy Monday y’all! I hope you have a wonderful week as we end October and begin November! Here’s some business stories that have caught my eye the last few days:

 

Interesting insights into the technologies that CMOs will be investing in to create a better brand experience for customers. Not surprisingly, AI is tops on the list, but that of course doesn’t mean it’s the best option. The technology is far from mature, but it has the hype and money is flowing into the space now, so that will drive improvement and innovation.

 

Twitter is revamping it’s subscription tiers.  Here’s a general outline of your options:

Basic – $3 a month. You can edit tweets and post longer ones. Small boost to replies, small reduction in ads.  No blue checkmark, no ad revenue share.

Premium – $8 a month. Same as basic, plus you get a blue checkmark, fewer ads, more reply boost, and can participate in ad revenue share.

Premium+ – $16 a month. Same as Premium, plus bigger reply boost, and no ads.

No ads will be the key draw of the new $16 tier. I have serious doubts as to how well that tier will sell.  I will say this: If Twitter still had the same experience in 2023 as it did in 2008-2010, I would totally pay $16 a month for it. Now, you would have to pay me far more than that a month to spend as much time on Twitter now as I did in 2008-2010.

 

AI will be coming to product review! 67% of consumers say they would be fine with using AI to write product reviews. My quick take is that giving consumers the ability to use AI in writing product reviews will result in more positive product reviews, not negative ones. People generally writing product reviews after having an amazing or horrible experience with a product. The people that have had a terrible experience with a product don’t need motivation to write a product review. They have a chip on their shoulder about their product experience and are ready to tell the world. And to a lesser degree, the customers that have had an amazing experience with a product typically want to tell others.

But what about those of us who have had a ‘pretty good’ or ‘not bad’ experience with a product? I think a lot of us have had these experiences, and I think we typically don’t share them. The motivation factor just isn’t there. I think offering AI assistance in writing the review will lower the difficulty, and encourage more reviews.

 

So that’s it for this week’s Monday’s Marketing Minute! There will be a new post up tomorrow (TBD) and on Thursday, November 1st, we will have the Technology Power List for November! I hope you have an amazing and productive week!

 

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Why Did Jesus Send His Apostles Out With Nothing?

Good morning! In January, I made a commitment to begin reading the Bible every day. I’ve done so throughout the year, and it’s been an amazing experience! I like to share my thoughts on what I am reading (and learning) here on Sundays.

Today I wanted to talk about when Jesus took his 12 disciples, and told them they he was sending them out to preach the Good News about the kingdom of Heaven to others. Here’s how Luke 9:1-6 explains it:

1 One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. 2 Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 

3 “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money,or even a change of clothes. 4 Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town. 5 And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.”

6 So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick.

Now as you read this, you immediately note two things. One point Jesus makes is that if a town refuses to welcome you, leave the town and move on to another. I think this clarifies that one of the main purposes of these trips by the apostles was to identify towns and communities that were receptive to Jesus’ teaching. Jesus would use these trips by the apostles to help identify the communities that were hungry for His teaching, then He would later go there personally to spread His ministry.

But there’s another key point in these scriptures, and I think it’s THE key point: Jesus was quite clear that the apostles would leave for their journey with NOTHING. No money, no food, barely the clothes on their backs and that’s it.

Why would Jesus do this?

Before I give my answer, let’s look at how The Chosen handled this scene:

I believe Jesus sent the apostles out with nothing in order to teach them to trust that God would provide for them.

One of the most common teachings of the Bible is that God instructs us to fear not. Here’s a great trivia question, do you know how many times the Bible tells us not to be afraid?

365 times. One for every day of the year. A daily reminder not to be afraid. Because if we completely trust in God, we have no reason to be afraid.

As a consultant, my income can fluctuate wildly. It’s not uncommon to go weeks or months with little or no work. Other times, I may have more work than I can physically do, and have to turn away projects. It’s definitely not a life for someone that prioritizes a stable, consistent income. I’ve talked to many peers over the years who refused to make the jump from the corporate world to consulting, and almost always they cited the ups and downs of money flow as a main reason why.

One time, I was waiting on some money to come in. I knew the date the money was supposed to hit my account, everything had been arranged. I was literally waiting on this money to pay several bills as soon as it arrived. The day arrived…and the money did not. I immediately panicked. My mind raced, how would I pay these bills that were soon due?

After a few minutes, a thought came into my mind: Why was I worried? Why didn’t I trust that God would provide for me?

This thought helped calm me. Over the next few days, I tried to focus on trusting God, as best I could. Then a few days later, the money came through, and more than I had expected! Then, an additional source came a few days later. Then another.

I’ve talked before about what the Bible says about worry. Earlier this year when I began to read the book of Matthew for the first time and his writings on worry, I was struck by this thought: “Worry and faith cannot exist in the same space.”  But more than that, God doesn’t want us to worry because when we worry, it means we are focusing our attention on this world. When we act out of faith, it means we are focusing our attention on God. When the money I was expecting didn’t arrive, I immediately began to worry, because I was focused on this world, on what *I* would need to do in order to get a new source of money in, and quickly. But God had already sorted that out for me. He had already taken care of the money, and ensured that I would have even more than I was expecting.

So my worry, even for a little bit, was pointless. And I think you could say it was a test from God. Who knows, maybe there was an even greater reward that God wanted to give me, if I hadn’t worried at all.

The next time something doesn’t go as planned and I am tempted to worry, my first thought will hopefully be “Remember what happened the last time I worried? God took care of me.”

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Revolutionizing Travel and Hospitality: Crafting an Intuitive, Frictionless Tourism Booking Experience

Tourism booking

In the ever-evolving world of tourism and hospitality, one key element remains timeless – the power of a seamless and intuitive booking experience. For key decision makers in these industries, ensuring that potential travelers can effortlessly plan their getaways is essential for success. In this article, let’s look at some strategies you can leverage to create an intuitive, frictionless tourism booking experience that will captivate your audience and drive conversions.

Understanding the Essence of a Seamless Tourism Booking Experience

Tourism and hospitality decision makers know that every detail counts when it comes to attracting and retaining customers. Your website’s booking experience is often the first and most significant interaction a potential traveler has with your brand. To make a lasting impression and encourage bookings, an intuitive and frictionless booking process is imperative.

Crafting User-Centered Design

Designing a successful tourism booking experience begins with putting the user at the forefront. Here are the key steps to ensure a user-friendly booking process:

  • Know Your Audience – In the vast landscape of tourism, understanding your diverse audience is paramount. Tailor your website to accommodate the typical visitor to your area or destination. Create personas for the audience you want to target, then create content and a visitor experience that meets the needs of this group. BONUS: Here’s a detailed guide on how to create personas in your content marketing strategy.
  • Streamlined Navigation – Your website’s navigation menu should be clear, intuitive, and labeled with descriptive titles that cater to the info your visitor wants. Help users find what they’re searching for with labels like “Accommodations,” “Activities,” and “Special Offers.” Implement new terms as needed based on user feedback.
  • Mobile Optimization – Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. It’s no longer 2010, a mobile-responsive website is no longer an option, it’s a necessity.  A mobile-optimized site provides a consistent booking experience, regardless of the device used, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.  If your website defaults to ‘desktop view’ on mobile devices, it immediately sends a bad message to visitors, and many will immediately leave your site as a result.
  • Simplified Booking Forms – Keep booking forms concise and straightforward, requesting only necessary information. Utilize autofill features to expedite the process and save travelers valuable time. Simplicity = convenience.
  • High-Quality Visuals – In tourism and hospitality, captivating visuals can evoke wanderlust and entice bookings. Utilize high-resolution images and engaging videos to create a sense of anticipation and encourage travelers to commit. Pro tip: Work with professional photographers to visually capture your destination or location. If your budget is limited, consider working with a local college or university in an internship program that could give you access to photography students. A good photographer will understand how to take pictures that tell a captivating story about your destination.

Building Trust and Credibility

In an industry heavily reliant on trust, conveying credibility is of utmost importance. To build trust with potential travelers, consider these strategies:

  • Transparent Pricing – Display pricing for accommodations, activities, and services clearly. Include any additional fees or taxes upfront to foster trust and transparency.  Travelers expect to see content that is clear and easy to understand. If you make it difficult for the visitor to properly assess the costs involved with securing a trip, they are less likely to spend money with you.
  • Guest Reviews and Testimonial – Satisfied travelers are your best salespeople. Leverage visitor recommendations and testimonials on your site, and especially promote this content on order pages or any page where the visitor tends to leave the site without confirming a reservation. Remind the visitor that other travelers committed to the trip, and enjoyed it.
  • Secure Booking Process – Implement robust security measures to safeguard your website and user data. Display trust badges and security certificates to assure users that their information is safe. Clearly promote and detail your privacy policy to put visitors at ease.
  • Accessible Customer Support – Provide easy access to customer support options, such as live chat, email, or a dedicated phone line. Responsive customer service can swiftly address traveler inquiries and boost confidence in the booking process. Also include an FAQ so travelers can do their own research and proactively answer questions that may arise during the consideration phase.

Optimizing the Booking Experience

A frictionless tourism booking experience depends on several factors working together harmoniously. Let’s explore these critical components:

  • Clear Calls to Action – Strategically position clear and enticing calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your website. Employ action-oriented phrases such as “Book Now” or “Reserve Your Stay” to prompt immediate action. Survey visitors and identify potential bottlenecks in the UI. Often, a visitor is ready to commit to a reservation, but the page they are on may not have a clear CTA. Add when necessary.
  • Progress Indicators – Progress indicators can help visitors see the progress they are making, while bringing clarity to the booking process. The additional level of transparency helps create trust while also encouraging the visitor to complete the booking process.
  • Personalization – Offer personalization options, such as room preferences, meal plans, and activity choices. Allowing travelers to customize their experiences enhances engagement and satisfaction.
  • Dynamic Pricing – Consider offering dynamic pricing options based on demand, seasonal events, and local packages. This gives the traveler more options, and it increases booking opportunities for your destinations and attractions.
  • One-Click Bookings – Simplify the booking process for returning travelers by offering one-click booking options. Returning guests can make bookings swiftly, enhancing their user experience.

Leveraging Data and Analytics

Data-driven decision-making can significantly improve the booking experience. Always make use of data and analytics to fine-tune your website’s UI. Areas to consider include:

  • Conversion Tracking – Implement conversion tracking to identify which parts of your website and booking process are most effective in converting potential travelers into guests. Also, identify areas where travelers are leaving without booking. Attempt to diagnose why the traveler abandoned the booking process, and rectify the situation by adding the appropriate support, content or CTA that the traveler was looking for.
  • A/B Testing – Conduct A/B testing to experiment with different elements of your website, such as button colors, form fields, and layouts, to optimize for conversions. Again, survey visitors to get insights into potential improvements. Then publish and A/B test different options to find the one that leads to more conversions.
  • User Feedback – Solicit user feedback regularly through surveys, on-site feedback forms, and online reviews. Valuable insights can reveal pain points and areas for improvement.

Addressing Common Challenges

As the traveler goes through the booking process, there are a few common issues that may crop up. Work to address these potential issues proactively, to help ensure a frictionless booking process for the traveler:

  • Booking Modifications – Implement clear and user-friendly booking modification policies to accommodate travelers’ changing plans and reduce booking-related stress. Clearly communicate what happens if a change is made in their itinerary, as well as the process for any changes the traveler might make. Giving the traveler options to change after booking helps ensure peace of mind with the decision to commit to the booking.
  • Local Regulations – Stay informed about local regulations, such as tourism taxes or accommodation restrictions, and ensure that your website complies with these rules.
  • Multilingual Support – For international travelers, provide multilingual support. Translated content and multilingual customer service can enhance the booking experience for non-English-speaking travelers. Also, regularly survey your visitors to make sure the most frequently used language options are available.

Commitment to Ongoing Improvement and Innovation

Staying at the forefront of the tourism and hospitality industry means being committed to continuous improvement and innovation:

  • Competitor Analysis – Keep a close watch on your industry peers. Analyze their booking processes, website designs, and user experience to identify opportunities to outperform them. If something is working for a competitor, attempt to determine why, and see if changes can be implemented in your own booking process.
  • Embracing New Technologies – Stay updated with the latest technologies and trends in web design and user experience. Implement innovative solutions to enhance your booking process. Focus first on user-feedback to find potential bottlenecks in the booking process, then investigate if emerging technologies could help in these areas.
  • User-Centered Workshops – Organize workshops or focus groups with real travelers to gain insights into their booking experiences and gather suggestions for improvements. Mack has been conducting on-site workshops, focus groups and breakout sessions with customers and users for over a decade. Email Mack to get more information on setting up a custom user feedback system for your CVB or destination.

Conclusion

In the highly competitive tourism and hospitality industry, crafting an intuitive, frictionless tourism booking experience is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. By implementing user-centered design principles and continuously optimizing the booking process, you can maximize conversions and leave a lasting, positive impression on potential travelers. As the tourism landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve in user experience innovation will help ensure the success of your destination or attraction.

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Innovative: Inside Elon’s Plan to Turn Twitter in 2023 into CompuServe in 1996

The slow, incrementalist march toward turning Twitter into a ‘pay to play’ platform continues. Here’s the latest news, which I mentioned in yesterday’s Monday’s Marketing Minute:

Call me a cynic, but it seems pretty obvious to me that this is simply part of a larger plan to eventually have all Twitter users pay a fee to use the platform. I think Elon knows that this will be another in a long line of highly unpopular moves, so he’s easing Twitter users into this. First he does it in select countries, like New Zealand and the Philippines, and it only affects new users. Later, he claims the trial in those two countries was a rousing success, and rolls it out worldwide to all new users.  Later, he claims that move has also worked, then he expands it to ALL Twitter users, regardless of how long they have been on the platform.

At that point it’s simply a matter of raising prices as much as he feels he can.

This whole episode reminds me of my days on CompuServe on the mid 90s, with a twist.  When I started using CompuServe in the mid 90s, its pricing was $25 a month, for 10 hours. If you went over 10 hours of access, you paid $2.50 for every hour over. Imagine my shock that one month when I received a $100 bill, yikes!

That bill was for about 40 hours on CompuServe for that month. I cannot remember the last month that I spent 40 hours on Twitter.  It’s been years, maybe over a decade.

And that’s the point: While CompuServe was expensive, it was also FUN TO USE! I got entertainment, business and social value from being on CompuServe. It was an experience worth paying for. We could argue how much, but it was worth something.

The experience on Twitter, honestly isn’t worth much, and hasn’t been for a long time. In the mid 90s, AOL became a competitor to CompuServe by offering similar functionality and features, at a LOWER PRICE.  While CompuServe charged $25 for 10 hours, AOL charged $25 for UNLIMITED access. It allowed AOL to quickly take massive amounts of market share from CS, and within a few years, AOL dominated the online services space and CS was all but done.

Elon seems to be attempting to do the opposite with Twitter in 2023. He’s taking a platform and differentiating it from his competitors by CHARGING users when they can get a similar experience on a competing site…for free.

Let’s go back to the AOL/CompuServe example. Let’s say AOL and CS were both offering unlimited access (I believe CS later switched to this model, but by then it was too late) in 1996. AOL announces it is launching AOL Plus, and it will be $50 a month for 50 hours a month of access.

What would need to happen in order for that move to be a success for AOL?  Obviously, AOL Plus would have to offer a MUCH better experience for users than they could get from AOL or CompuServe. Right?

Yet, Elon is trying to move Twitter from being free to paid…and he really isn’t improving the experience that much, if at all. Bots are still a massive problem on the platform. Every new ‘feature’ rollout that Twitter adds that charges users has the same disclaimer that ‘this is necessary to combat the bot problem’. Yet the bot problem continues, apparently unabated. As do the moves to charge users for features that have been free for the last 17 years.

A few months ago, Elon announced that users could participate in revenue sharing. They could actually make money from using Twitter!

Then the fine print: You had to be a Twitter Blue subscriber.

Moving from a free to paid model for a social media site only works if its users can see a clear value in the fees which they will be required to paid. I’m not seeing the clear value in any of Elon’s moves so far.  We finally got the ability to edit tweets…and you have to pay for it. Bots are still a problem. Censorship is still a problem. Porn and trolls and toxicity are still problems.

But I did lose my verified status, so there’s that.

This was Elon’s biggest mistake

He never embraced Twitter’s user community. To be fair, neither did Dorsey and his crew.  Elon came into Twitter, guns blazing, and made a ton of sweeping changes to the platform. And he did so without really consulting Twitter’s users.

That was a big mistake. One of Elon’s top priorities when joining Twitter and BEFORE making huge moves should have been to establish a board or council of Twitter users and let that board/council have a say in his decisions. This would have ensured that Twitter’s user community always had input into moves, and they could have helped communicate the need for any moves to the larger community.

Instead, Elon came in shooting from the hip, making decisions with little or no input from users, and as a result many of those moves were a disconnect to the Twitter userbase. Then we watched as Elon made move after move that wasn’t aligned with what we wanted for Twitter, or what we thought it needed.

The reality is, Elon had a lot of supporters when he first took over Twitter. Many of those supporters have since left Twitter as a result of the moves he’s made.

I remember in 2009 having a conversation on Twitter with several other users about why Twitter needed a Community Manager. We concluded at the time that Twitter was really starting to grow, and now was a good time for Twitter to invest in its community and incorporate feedback from users into its decisions.

Almost 15 years later, and we are still waiting for Twitter to make that commitment to its users. I hate to say, but if it hasn’t happened by now, I don’t think it ever will. As a result, Twitter has never reached its full potential.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Twitter Begins Charging Users to Tweet, NICKMERCS’ Massive Kick Deal, B2B Marketing Growth Slows

Happy Fall, y’all! We are just 8 days from Halloween and this is my favorite time of the year! The days are warm but crisp and the nights are cool but not yet cold. Here’s some business stories that have caught my eye over the last week:

 

It just feels like the long. slow march toward irrelevance is underway for Twitter/X. Elon seems determined to turn X into a pay to play platform. Since taking over, he’s been introducing numerous ways to charge users for services that were formerly free.  First there was Twitter Blue. Now, he’s begun hinting that users will eventually have to pay to tweet. In fact, such a program is currently being trialed in select countries. New users in New Zealand and the Philippines are being charged $1 a year to tweet. The name of the program is called ‘Not a Bot’ and Elon’s spin is that this will help fight the proliferation of bots on the platform.  The same justification he gave for Twitter Blue, limiting daily tweets, etc. The reality is, bots are just as big of a problem as they ever were.  This is about Elon introducing the idea of paying for Twitter. It’s incrementalism, once the idea has become accepted that core services now will cost something, then he can over time raise the price as much as he wants. I may have more thoughts on this tomorrow, I want to mull this over, but it seems like Twitter is entering that long, slow death spiral.

 

If you’ve read this blog for the last few years, you know I am a big fan of NICKMERCS. He just signed a $10 Million, one year deal with Kick, a Twitch rival. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this deal is that it’s apparently NOT exclusive! Nick will still be streaming on both Twitch AND Kick. Nick is one of the most popular streamers in the world, and he is a masterclass in building and leveraging a community. Nick started streaming in 2010, with an audience of zero. On one of his streams I watched, he mentioned that when he was first starting he would go to a local gas station and buy $20 Amazon gift cards to give away to subscribers during his stream. And his parents were NOT happy with his initial decision to become a full-time streamer. So he went from zero to being one of the wealthiest streamers on the planet, in under 15 years. And a big part of that was due to him creating and SUPPORTING his community of fans. He has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe more?) to his fans over the years. He loves the people that love him.  Well done, Nick, now how long before that first Nick/Doc/Timmy stream???

 

The economy is hitting B2B Marketing spending as it is all areas of our lives right now. Projected spending on B2B marketing data in 2023 will be almost half what it was the last two years. Spending growth is forecast to see a marginal improvement in 2024, before increasing solidly in 2025.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute. I hope you have an amazing week, look for a new post tomorrow and another on Thursday. Oh and likely a post on the Bible over the weekend. Have a wonderful and productive week!

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Mapping the Ideal Omnichannel Journey: How Retailers Can Delight Customers Across Touchpoints

omnichannel retail customer journey

Today’s consumers expect seamless shopping experiences engaging with retail brands across devices, channels and physical locations. Crafting and optimizing a successful omnichannel retail customer journey is difficult, but can be a solid revenue driver for your retail organization.  Companies that can deliver superior omnichannel customer engagement realize a 9.5% yearly increase in annual revenue.

Yet mapping and optimizing a unified omnichannel journey is complex for retailers. This article will help you map out and optimize a superior omnichannel journey for your customers.

Conduct In-Depth Journey Mapping

Your retail brand can gain a granular understanding of all touchpoints and customer pain points through:

  • Creating detailed omnichannel customer journey maps from the user perspective across web, mobile, in-store, social media and beyond.  If you want to get started creating a customer journey map for your retail brand, this link has a great primer.
  • Performing observational research and usability tests to uncover gaps and friction points in key journeys. Monitoring users as they navigate your website and other digital presences (such as your mobile app) can help uncover issues that are slowing or stopping the flow of the customer along the purchase journey.
  • Surveying shoppers on difficulties experienced and desired improvements in their omnichannel journey. Ask shoppers where they hit a ‘snag’ in the buying process. Most often, a shopper can identify an exact point that triggered a decision to end purchase consideration. Use this valuable feedback to improve the flow for all shoppers.

Journey insights help your retail brand design a customer journey that flows with little or no bottlenecks.

Bridge Platform and Channel Gaps

Eliminate transition friction across digital and physical by:

  • Enabling tight integrations between platforms to maintain context. Allow moving activities between channels seamlessly. Crafting a seamless experience is the name of the game. The shopper should view the journey as one process, they shouldn’t be able to notice when they move from one device or location to another. If they do notice, it’s because their experience changed, for good or bad. Try to eliminate this so the experience is consistent across all touchpoints.
  • Providing consistent commerce capabilities like buy online pickup in-store or return in-store. This is a convenient that modern retail shoppers demand. Allowing customers to buy and return in a more convenient fashion results in higher sales, customer loyalty and satisfaction.
  • Sharing customer data and history across channels to enable personalized, contextual interactions. Don’t silo customer history, make it equally accessible across all devices. Tie to the customer account, if possible.

Frictionless cross-channel experiences feel unified and that leads to more convenience for the shopper, which increases the number of purchases as well as loyalty and engagement.  Starbucks does this well, the brand allows ordering ahead via app, picking up in store, earning and redeeming rewards across channels. Messaging is integrated in its app for real-time support. All of this provides a consistent experience from app to in-store.

Design Consistent Branding and Messaging

Inconsistency across channels causes confusion. Consumers expect and demand a brand that gives them a consistent experience across channels and touchpoints. Maintain alignment through:

  • Auditing each touchpoint to ensure visual identity, voice, tone and terminology are aligned.You are looking for a smooth flow from one touchpoint to another. Try to identify ‘breaks’ in voice and branding, and correct those snags so that the flow continues.
  • Creating knowledge bases, style guides and templates for human and automated engagements. This not only provides more value and convenience for the customer, but it also meets an anticipated need: Some customers will visit a website, for example, needing support moreso than product information. By giving customers access to both product information and material for self-support, you are meeting two potential needs at once.
  • Monitoring across channels frequently to rapidly address inconsistencies. Keeping a close eye on customer flow through every channel helps you quickly identify potential problem areas. These can be corrected and a smooth customer flow can be maintained.
  • Coaching associates and optimizing AI chatbots to represent the brand appropriately. Remember that the point of AI isn’t to replace the human connection that your brand has with its customers; It’s job is to enhance it. Leverage AI to provide more convenience to customers, but it shouldn’t be obvious when its a human or AI helping you. Consistent branding, voice and tone is paramount.

Consistent experiences build familiarity and trust as shoppers traverse channels.

Personalize Intelligently

Leverage data to tailor experiences across the journey, Analyze the data you collect from the journey your customers take, and apply it to improve the process by:

  • Individualized content recommendations based on interests, purchase history and browsing behavior. Offer customers a unique content experience based on their interest and behavior patterns on your channels.
  • Omnichannel promotion consistency:  For instance, offer discounts synchronized across online and in-store. Customers should see no break in the promotion flow just as they wouldn’t expect it for other forms of content.
  • Contextually relevant assistance like help messages at decision points. Track user patterns and note where visitors abruptly leave your website. See what triggered their decision and attempt to correct by giving them access to additional content that meets their needs.
  • Recommendations aligned to buyer lifecycle stage based on past purchases and activity. Promotion of complimentary products is appreciated, if relevant.

Personalized journeys can help the customer feel appreciated and lead to higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

Drive Mobile Experience Excellence

With mobile dominating, relentlessly optimize mobile apps and sites through:

  • Streamlined navigation, minimal data entry, and contextual help for seamless completion of key tasks. Keep in mind that mobile apps are primarily used when the customer is mobile, or on-the-go. Factor that in when considering how the customer will be using the app and in what environment.
  • Core functionality availability offline for convenience. Give mobile app users the ability to access basic functionality when offline or mobile coverage is inconsistent.
  • Location awareness bridging digital with nearby physical interactions like in-store pickup prompts. Additionally, add in-store signage to encourage app usage. Making customers aware of the convenience of a mobile app helps drive adoption.

Optimizing the mobile app experience leads to a more dynamic and profitable customer journey for your retail brand.

Orchestrating seamless, personalized journeys across an exploded digital landscape is complex yet invaluable. We hope this article provided insights into excelling at networked omnichannel experiences that powerfully differentiate your brand.