When was the last time you gave any real thought to your approach to search engine optimization? If you’re having trouble remembering, that’s a sure sign that you need to make some changes. With the help of a professional with one of the Toronto firms offering SEO services, it’s possible to take an objective look at what you have in place and decide what needs to change. Here are some of the reasons why you should call a professional now.
Old Methods No Longer Work
SEO is not a fixed science by any means. Over the years, things change in ways that make older methods obsolete. That’s not obsolete as in no longer working. It could mean obsolete as in methods that now hurt rather than help your search engine rankings.
Stepping away from old methods is the first thing that needs to happen. The next thing is replacing those older and now worthless strategies with new ones that fit into today’s world. When that happens, you will notice that traffic to your pages begins to increase again.
People Search in Different Ways Now
You also need to understand that people search for things online in different ways today. Using a search engine is still one of the major ways to find everything from places to eat to where to purchase gift cards. The thing is that they may be conducting those searches using social media sites or apps designed specifically for searches.
You need to tap into each of these options. That includes establishing social media accounts and using practical SEO methods to create posts. It also means using SEO to attract attention from those apps so that your business shows up in those searches. A professional will know how to help you with both approaches.
There are Tools Available Today That Didn’t Exist a Few Years Ago
You also need to learn about all the SEO tools that help you capture data about visits to your pages, where mentions of the company are showing up in social media and other online spots, and even how many of those visits in mentions are converting into cash. You’ll also need to learn how to use tools to see how effective your banner and video ads are these days. All this information will help you make better decisions about your online marketing efforts.
Your Blog and Website is Looking Dated
The layout for your blog and the website is still good, but it’s beginning to look a bit like a turn of the century effort. Now is the time to talk with an expert and see what can be done to refresh the look of those two important parts of your online presence. Along the way, you can also look into what it would take to ensure those pages display properly on smartphone and tablet screens. Given how many people use those types of devices to access the Internet, this change would be in your best interests and possibly boost the traffic.
An expert can help you identify and evaluate the immediate constituents of any SEO strategy and what they mean for your business. With a few simple changes and adding a few new things to the mix, you could reach many more consumers and enhance along with your revenue by a significant margin.
Email marketing has been running strong for decades, but as social media and other digital channels continue to influence marketing strategies, email has become a second thought for many brands. Thing is, email is still as powerful as ever, and your email list is the secret sauce that bring your brand tons of new business.
A solid email list can benefit your brand by helping to reach customers beyond social media or traditional marketing. So, if you’re ready, grab another cup of cold brew coffee, and let’s chat about how to build your email list up to success.
Use an email marketing tool.
Email marketing can be confusing enough as it is, so why not recruit a tool to help you get organized? Getting organized is a crucial step in the process of building your email list and, luckily, there are plenty of email marketing tools out there to help you with this step. Although every platform is different, each offers a place to store your email marketing content and information about your email list to help make every email campaign an experience for subscribers.
All platforms have a price range for their services that is structured according to the size of your email list, and almost every one offers some version of a free plan. That’s right- email marketing services that don’t even cost you a penny, at least until your email list grows beyond what the free plan allows (sigh, the price of being successful). Take your time to research all options and decide which one is right for your email marketing strategy. Once you’ve chosen a platform, sit back, relax, and start to build that email list in peace knowing that your email marketing functions are well managed.
Add an opt-in form to your website.
There are customers who actively want to find a way to sign up for your email list—we love those people. We also don’t want to lose them by making the process so complicated that to sign up seems more like a task than an opportunity. To make it easier for wannabe subscribers, create a user-friendly opt-in form. An opt-in form essentially gives the company consent to send emails to an address, and this is often achieved by a subscriber simply entering their email and pressing “submit.” Sounds easy, right?
Simplicity is key when creating an opt-in form; no one wants to jump through hoops just to be on an email list. To make it even more accessible, display the opt-in form in a highly visible place, such as your home page. This will prevent the form from getting lost in the mix with all of your other web content, and make visitors more likely to sign up.
Offer an incentive for subscribing.
Who doesn’t love free stuff? Obviously, most people do and the same applies to your customers. Full price never seems that attractive, but it sounds much more doable with a discount offered at the small price of entering an email address. Offering incentives is a fantastic way to grow your email list, as it makes customers feel that they’re getting something in exchange for receiving your brand’s emails.
Make sure the discount being offered is well worth the customer’s time, as many will breeze past an offer if they feel it simply isn’t worth the pennies off their purchase. Another trick is to make them second guess their decision to close your pop-up by getting creative whit the buttons. It’s easier to turn down an offer when a button simply says “No thanks” rather than, “No, I don’t want 20 percent off and exclusive access to subscriber-only sales.” This will encourage the user to rethink their decision, giving them their prized discount while simultaneously building your email list.
Send a welcome email.
Sit back and think about a time that you truly felt welcomed into a store, home, or event. What made you feel like you were appreciated, just for stepping foot through the door? Let’s apply those experiences to your email list. Much like attending an occasion or visiting someone’s home, your subscribers should feel that your brand is excited that they’ve joined the party.
And nothing puts a stop to that wonderful feeling quicker than a simple “Please confirm your email address” message landing into their inbox. Your subscribers should feel appreciated from the second they hit the “submit” button to join your email list. The good news is, it’s much easier than you’d think to give that warm, fuzzy feeling in an email. Thank your new subscriber for joining and add relevant, up to date information about the valuable content they’ll receive from now on.
Create a pop-up form.
We’ve all seen it before: you’re shopping on a website when suddenly, the page you were viewing is blocked by a peppy welcome window that offers a discount if you enter your email. Once again, you’ve been lured into a common email marketing trick: the pop-up form. Popup forms are an excellent tactic to build your email list with an easy hook; like taking candy from a baby, except we would never do that because babies are adorable and no one wants to deal with the temper tantrum aftermath.
When designing a pop-up window, it’s important to think like the customer rather than someone who needs to build an email list. It’s simply not enough to say, “Hey there stranger, sign up to subscribe to our daily emails now,” because very few customers will go for something that doesn’t benefit them. Instead, consider including something to catch their attention such as a discount code for their first purchase (reference #3). This will build the foundation for a good relationship with your new subscriber, and help you grow your email list quickly.
Advertise the email newsletter on social media.
Remember how I mentioned at the beginning that social media plays a large part in marketing? Good, I’m glad you were paying attention because you’ll need to remember that as you build your email list. Although social media tends to get most of the marketing credit, that doesn’t mean you should totally neglect it when developing your email marketing strategy; it may just be the key to boosting it. Many potential subscribers are actually sitting in your follower count right now, which means promoting your email newsletter will reach further than traditional pop-ups or opt-in forms ever could.
Remember, when promoting your email newsletter on social media, users must be given a good reason to subscribe, else you risk your social media efforts going to waste. To help users feel like they absolutely must subscribe to your email list, push discounts and other offers that users can only get when signing up with their email. Better yet, detail how subscribers will benefit from signing up, such as sale privileges and exclusive brand content. When subscribers feel that they’re becoming a member of something worthwhile rather than a daily spam email, they’ll be more likely to stay subscribed and tell their friends, too.
If you’re unsure about how to grow your email list, you’re not alone. With marketing shifting towards other popular digital channels, it can seem that email is in the back of consumer’s minds. However, email is still a successful way to reach your customers, and there’s enormous value in putting time into building an email list. Figure out what techniques work best for you and watch your email list grow!
The past several months have forced businesses in every industry to assess their preparedness and flexibility. For some, that involved scaling quickly and becoming fully digitized; for others, it meant focusing on digital to bridge the gap while shelter-in-place orders were in effect around the globe. From what I’ve seen, the event industry experienced both kinds of changes. I have worked in the digital video industry for more than 20 years, and I had never seen such a quick, dramatic shift.
Events and conferences around the world have been cancelled, postponed or transformed into full virtual events. We are nearly six months in, and there still does not appear to be an end to social distancing in sight. As leaders, we want to remain optimistic, but the odds of being able to travel and attend in-person conferences and events remain low for the foreseeable future. It’s also worth considering how comfortable people will be with attending in-person events in the future. Will they want to go? Will attendees shake hands? How many people will be permitted indoors? These are all valid questions and conversations the industry is having.
As we think about reopening and what the future of networking and events will look like, it’s important to note that there is no going back. It’s unrealistic to think that the planning and learning curve that marketers and those of us in the event industry have experienced will be forgotten. However, the forced adoption of digital events has generated additional marketing opportunities and identified new ways to enhance the overall experience and maximize the potential for those participating.
Adapting to change is hard, and business leaders have been trying their best to understand what the new normal will entail. Change requires people to push themselves beyond their comfort zones, and because of that, not everyone is always in agreement. Not everyone will adopt a virtual event strategy, and some may be slower to transition. We’ve seen other industries experience similar changes like this. For example, in the early 2000s, digital media was on the rise and was considered to be the demise of print publications. Today, both print and digital remain. I do not anticipate that in-person events will fade from our future calendars and lives completely. Instead, I see virtual and physical events working together in tandem — as a hybrid, an insurance policy or another way to expand reach and capitalize on marketing to specific audiences globally.
Entering uncharted territory can be intimidating. Prior to the pandemic, virtual events were used in a limited fashion. Today, millions are attending virtual events from their homes, saving time and money and allowing themselves to comfortably partake in sessions and engage when they choose to. While the shift to virtual events may sound rather simple, there are several different elements involved that require coordination, collaboration and direction.
Here are some tips and suggestions for those looking to combine in-person and virtual events in 2021 and beyond.
Plan In Advance
We’ve seen events get cancelled completely or postponed due to severe weather, travel restrictions and now a pandemic. Rather than having to shift your strategy and revamp an entire event in record time, consider planning to have both in-person and virtual events from the beginning. By having the in-person event team and virtual event team collaborate during the initial planning phase, you’ll be one step closer to providing a smooth experience regardless of circumstances beyond your control.
Make The Experiences Complementary
Both events should have a creative element to them, but they should also intertwine and complement each other. If you are branding a venue a certain way or unveiling something special, be sure to marry the branding and hype across both events. Bring online and in-person attendees together by encouraging them to engage in your app and in chat rooms during live Q&As and more.
Give Sponsors The Chance To Reach Both Audiences
In-person booths now have the opportunity to become digital as well. Having an on-the-ground team go live on location at the sponsorship booths for those attending virtually can be a win for all parties involved. Organizers may also consider hiring an audio-visual team to set up projection screens throughout the venue to showcase online programming, questions, sponsorship reels or product demonstrations taking place from different locations throughout the world.
Catalog The Content
Map out what content will be available both in-person and virtually, and devise a marketing plan to promote the materials and maximize content distribution. This makes it convenient for attendees to access what they want when they want, and it also can decrease printing costs for vendors. Whether it’s marketing materials or recorded videos from on-site sessions, make sure the content is easily accessible for both virtual and in-person attendees. This gives the latter the opportunity to replay sessions and presentations they may have missed while attending other activities in different halls or networking.
While we wait for the world to return to some form of normalcy, it’s evident to me that we will not go back to where we once were. The events industry has evolved. Marketers, event organizers, attendees and businesses should embrace the new format, which blends the best of both worlds — physical and virtual. To continue to deliver exceptional experiences, consider the different audiences and their locations, and get creative in combining both in-person and virtual events.
Execution of an idea is easier than generating the one. The idea will remain the same for web app idea creation and implementation. If you are a startup, then it is important for you to introduce web applications with a unique idea or less popular concepts. Companies are exploring all possible horizons to introduce new solutions almost every day.
It seems quite challenging to stay competitive by launching a unique idea when a high competition out there. Moreover, it is difficult to find the untouched one when the online platform has plenty of web app ideas.
Actually, it’s tough, but not impossible. All you need to do is to go the extra mile to analyze your different business aspects. It helps you to identify the gaps and fill them by launching the right web solution.
Here are a few practices that you can consider to generate unique web app ideas.
7 Ways to Generate Unique Web App Ideas
1 – Analyze Yourself
Your Company/Business
Whether you own a well-established company or startup, to stay competitive it is very important to find out and nurture the new web app ideas. For that, you need to closely analyze the challenges and needs of your business that create hurdles in the path of your success.
Nobody understands your company better than you. So, first of all, start exploring who your company has developed to be. You need to identify the strength and weaknesses of your company.
Moreover, define the unique capabilities of your company in terms of product, service, or technology that make you different from other companies like you. Analyze the other business aspects and identify which affect or disrupt your business development.
Your Employee
Another most important aspect of any organization is its employees. Spend time to understand your team members. Allow them to be part of the software development process. Collect the different perspectives and ideas shared by your team.
You will realize that everyone gives a different yet unique point of views if you allow your employees to be part of your business plan. They provide you many of the idea that you would never ever think of it and a large number of resources that you have missed while generating the idea.
Here are a few questions that you have to ask yourself to generate a potential web app idea.
What are the weaknesses and strengths of my company?
What field does my company operate in?
What does help my company to win over my rivals?
What values does my company attempt to uphold?
What is disrupting my company’s development?
2 – Listen to Your Customers
The key crux for identifying the excellent web app idea is to stay in connection with your target audience to whom you need to serve. You need to learn many things from your customers. All you need to do id just listen to them and observe their behavior. Here is how you can do it.
Focus on where your customers spend most of their time
Identify how customers interact with your products/services and brand
Analyze the journey of the customers while using your product
Moreover, you can learn about the great web app ideas by analyzing the pain points and issues your customers are facing and develop a web platform that resolves their challenges. Interaction with your customers helps you to generate more web app idea.
For example; if your customers are facing challenges related to customer services, then you can consider adding a chat section in your web application or website. It allows customers to have a quick chat with your executives and resolve their issues. Customers find this a more convenient way to contact your company.
To understand the needs and challenges of your customers, you can schedule calls or send a questionnaire to them in order to collect their suggestions. This will help you to know what you should do next.
3 – Analyze your Business Strategy
For either the startup or the established firm, a business roadmap is very essential. While defining your plans define your long term and short term goals, clarify your vision and mission, and create strategies for future development.
Utilize your experience and current knowledge base to evolve new solutions to attain your future business objectives and plans. The next step would be to find out the way to execute them through a robust web solution. Define the design, features, functionality, and support that your web application needs to achieve your business goals and drive success.
Before designing a business plan for your organization, you should ask the below questions to yourself.
What are the long term goals of my company?
What are the short term goals of my company?
How will I achieve the goals of my company?
Have I attained any goals since I have started my company?
Which operations of my organization the web application amplify?
4 – Analyze Your Marketing
Have a close look at your marketing processes and analyze if you can transform any manual activity at the web application.
Identify the marketing activities that require a huge investment. You should investigate how to reduce such expenses by transforming marketing activities to a web platform.
For example; you can consider the web application for your loyalty program that helps you to eliminate the expenses of the printed material for the product or service marketing. It is proven that digital material has a wider reach than the printed one. You can engage more target audience by transforming your marketing activities to the web platforms.
Will the web app be supported to add a new revenue stream?
Will the web app help accomplish your business goals?
What operations of my business can shift to web applications?
5 – Analyze Your Industry
To generate new web app ideas, it is very essential to watch the changing industry trends closely. Get profound insights into the changing beliefs and expectations of your target audience.
Today, there are plenty of resources available that you can refer to understand the latest trends of your domain. You can keep referring the websites like Entrepreneurs, Springwise, and Trendwatching.
All these platforms cover the global trends so it will be difficult for you to evaluate and identify the trends that are relevant to the local target market of your business.
6 – Analyze Your Competitors
Competitors are technically rivals but many times they help in achieving business success. They apply different strategies to outshine you. To stay competitive, they continually check the latest trends, explore new and innovative methods, and copy any of your ideas to boost business growth.
You can go with the react approach if you find your competitors’ business grows due to the implementation of certain strategies, you should adopt it. You do copy but copy smartly. Don’t simply implement their strategies as it is. Twist the strategies as per your business needs and nature.
Here, I don’t nor want to encourage you to copy the ideas. All I mean is to consider the competitors’ strategy as a base platform. You need to break it down into different components and apply reverse engineering to create your own strategy for success.
The invention of new ideas or mechanics is not the only way to generate fresh web app ideas. You can identify the gaps that your competitors are not able to fill and build a solution that brings that gap.
Questions you need to ask yourself while analyzing your competitors.
What strategies has your competitor implemented?
What strategies help them to attain success?
What strategies have not delivered them potential results?
What faults and gaps do you identify in your competitors’ strategies?
How to create your own strategy based on the experience you have learned from your competitors?
7 – Analyze the Businesses Outside Your Industry
Just like you, the business of different domains focuses on their industries. They spend considerable time in defining the best practices for their sector. Eventually, they all end up by creating a similar type of experience in the long term.
Please understand, considering an identical idea and adding a new coating over it is not the only way to identify the new concept for our web applications. Sometimes, bridging the gaps between the two different concepts and industries also helps you in creating a unique web app idea.
Stay different from the crowd by merging more than one concept from irrelevant industries in a single web app. This will definitely spark a unique idea.
List of questions you should ask yourself while analyzing the irrelevant industries.
Can I consider different concepts from multiple industries to create a robust strategy for my business?
Can I break out of the industry I belong to and discovering outside influences?
Final Thoughts…
Generate potential web app ideas by following the above mentioned ways. You can discover, develop, and implement it to stand out from your industry crowd. Along with helping you stay competitive, it helps you deliver value to your domain and target audience by addressing unresolved issues and unfilled gaps.
Once you are done with the idea generation, you need to connect with reliable web development service providers that help you in bringing your idea to life by developing the exact web applications as you expected.
Sagar holds the position of Chief Technology Officer at Credencys Solutions Inc., a Mobile App Development Company. He is responsible for all the technical operations, as well as leading the company’s revolutionary offerings. He is helping companies navigate the Digital journey in an Agile environment. Share your app idea at [email protected]. Sagar has two main areas of focus – Technology and Processes. He has worked in leadership positions in various Fortune 500 companies and has been instrumental in driving success through digital transformation. He is also an enthusiastic Agile Coach.
I opened my first digital marketing company in 2001, and it was one of the first of its kind. We didn’t offer web development, graphic design or even hosting — we just did digital marketing, and we did it well. As word got out, we quickly started growing with agencies all over the state and had them calling to white label our services to their clients. At the time, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to generate new weekly clients without any real effort. Some of the larger traditional marketing agencies were giving more than I could handle, and we had to upgrade offices three times in two years.
Everything was great until a larger client asked me to jump on a call and help him with an unhappy client who was threatening to quit. I didn’t want to upset the reseller, so I spent an hour preparing all the research and data to show them how we helped increase search engine rankings, conversions and almost every other measurable metric. I presented everything to the client and thought, “There is no way they can complain about the results.” And then the client said something I’ll never forget: “I’m sorry, but this isn’t worth the $30,000 I spent in the last three months.” You see, we were only charging the agency $1,000 a month, and unbeknownst to us, the agency was charging a 1,000% premium to the client.
That day I sat with my employees and told them we were no longer going to white label but were focusing on owning the entire relationship. We tripled our prices, ramped up sales materials and never looked back. From my years of owning a white-label digital marketing company, here are the top ways I learned a small to medium-sized business can reduce their marketing costs while actually increasing performance.
1. Go Straight To The Source
Every agency I have ever worked with has outsourced much of the heavy lifting, whether it disclosed it or not. While its team may have organized or handled the high-level items, the majority of work was done via freelancers or outsourced overseas. If you bring in your own specialists, you can avoid paying $150 to $200 an hour for the same work you can get for $15 to $20.
2. Set Up Tangible Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Most digital marketing companies will tell you it takes time to generate sales on a new campaign, which is 100% true — but what they leave out is that there are many other metrics you should be watching to make sure the campaign is scaling. Here are some of the things you want to monitor every week:
• Pay-per-click (PPC)/search engine marketing (SEM): Engagement, cost per lead, cost per click, quality score.
• Content marketing: Social shares, time on page, off-page clicks.
3. Use Independent Reporting
Most digital marketing agencies cherry-pick the metrics and data so there is always something positive to show the client. I highly recommend everyone install their own independent reporting so they can see what is really happening on the account. Even if you just use free options like Google Analytics, you will have a much better understanding of the effectiveness of the campaign.
At the end of the day, digital marketing is not an exact science, and there are many variables as to why some campaigns succeed and some fall flat on their face. However, if you are willing to follow the simple suggestions above, you should have a much higher chance of success on your next campaign.
Feature Image Credit: Getty
By Phil Laboon
A serial entrepreneur and currently the CEO and co-founder of the fast-growing performance marketing company Growth Stackers.
Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs 45 and younger. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co. Questions about an article? Email [email protected].
There is always that time when we have to find someone else’s email address. We may simply be looking for a way to contact an old acquaintance via email, reach out to a business that is unable to conveniently provide their contact details, or maybe you just want to fill in the gaps in your email list — the list goes on and on.
More often than not, email addresses can prove to be rather elusive creatures, but do not ever let that frustrate you. There are so many ways to track down the address of anyone online, and here are some techniques that you will certainly find useful in your quest:
Do some googling
If you are looking for someone’s email address online, using search engines like Google to do so is anyone’s logical first step. You can start with this very useful search format:
“Person’s name”+“email”
You can also add in their company’s name or their job title. If you want to go more in-depth with your search, however, you can always use one of Google’s really handy search operators such as site:, inurl:, and double quotes (“”).
Ask a mutual acquaintance
If you know someone who are acquainted with the person whose email address you are looking for, you can simply ask the former for the latter’s email address. This especially works if the said mutual acquaintance is your friend or one of your colleagues. You can also ask them to introduce you to your prospect prior to any attempts at email outreach. In this way, they will end up anticipating your email and be more receptive.
Find it in your prospect’s company website
Some company websites provide the contact information of some, if not all, of the members of their staff. This is especially true with educational institutions, who tend to list down in their site every single one of their employees. As such, it will be wise for you to start looking for your prospect in their company’s site. The About Us page, in particular, often holds a treasure trove of staff email addresses. Now, if the email address that you are looking for is nowhere in the site but the staff emails present follow a consistent format, you can simply refer to this format to make an educated guess.
Look in your prospect’s social media page
It is quite unheard of these days for someone to not have a social media profile, and a good chunk of these social media users own a page. Page owners, usually people who run a business or lead a cause, often display their contact information — including their email addresses — in their pages. That said, if your prospect happens to run a page, don’t waste time to head over to their page and, hopefully, uncover their email address.
Use an email search tool
Perhaps the fastest way to find anyone’s email address is to invest in a good email finder tool like ContactOut. This, however, is the most expensive option in the list as email search tools tend to be SaaS (software as a service) that costs a certain recurring payment. This is best if your efforts to find email addresses result in profit, e. g. if you are building an email list or are updating an existing one.
A company must ensure everyone on the team is working to support your brand promise — what it is that you are committing to delivering for your ideal customer. The more a company consistently delivers on that promise, the more its value will grow in the minds of both their customers and employees.
Aspart of my series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Pearson, Executive Career, and Mindset Coach. Elizabeth Pearson is a professional life coach, spiritual seeker, writer, wife, and mother. Elizabeth specializes in getting women “unstuck” so they can achieve their highest goals in all aspects of life. Throughout her 13-year sales career, Elizabeth has built brands such as Vitamin Water and Coca-Cola, as well as managed national accounts such as Amazon, Target, Whole Foods, Walmart, and others. Elizabeth parlays her corporate and entrepreneurial success into her coaching of Powerhouse women in C-suite and above level roles.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I owe my “start” to a couple of people who took a risk on me when I was a junior at The University of Missouri-Columbia. If they hadn’t given me an internship in Boston with a then startup Vitaminwater, I’d never be where I am today. Those key figures become mentors and friends who I relied on throughout my 13-year sales career — a career where I managed incredible brands like Smartwater, Coca-Cola, Pirate’s Booty, and Skinfix.
I had achieved both professional and personal success — a handsome and successful husband, two healthy daughters, and financial security — but in 2013 I had a realization that none of it felt like enough. It was then that I started on my journey towards a deeper understanding of who I was and what I was put on this earth to do — because my gut was telling me it wasn’t to sell things.
My awakening led me to follow my passion for helping women uncover their purposes, so I began my coaching business. Fast forward 3 years later, my husband and I moved our kids across the country to sunny southern California, my coaching business is thriving, and I’m writing my first book — life is good.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take always’ you learned from that?
I don’t know if it’s funny “ha-ha”, but the biggest mistake I made was expecting everything I set out to achieve to manifest very quickly. I have never been a patient person but becoming an entrepreneur has really forced me to check myself and surrender to whatever timeline the universe has mapped out for me. When I’ve tried to force things to go faster, it never ends well. Now, I try to go with the flow.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful to who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I’m going to cheat and give you two people: my husband and my mentor, Mike Repole.
My husband, Ryan, is the most steadfastly supportive person I’ve ever known. He listens to my non-stop flow of new business ideas and offers brilliant, loving advice.
Mike Repole was the co-founder of Vitaminwater (and current co-founder of Body Armor) and is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing or working for. When I was a young and inexperienced intern, he spoke to me with respect and actively listened to my ideas on how we could better target new accounts.
He taught me to take risks, chase my dreams, and never forget the “little guy”. He’s wildly successful but remains humble — often rejecting credit for his achievements and is always quick to return a text or email.
Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and great customer experience is essential for success in business?
Customer loyalty is everything — period.
The effort and money it takes to acquire a new customer is typically a significant drain on a company’s resources — making it critical to retain customers and turn them into repeat purchasers.
It’s not good enough to deliver at the customer expectations; You must consistently over-deliver in order to solidify their brand loyalty. The competitive landscape we now have with Facebook and social media ad targeting make it essential to keep customers engaged and feeling appreciated so they are less likely to go to a competitor brand.
We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?
In my opinion, companies who aren’t investing in customer experience are focused more on quantity than quality — a “turn and burn” model, if you will. The potential downside of focusing on driving new sales, versus retaining their existing customer base, is that they put themselves at risk for an onslaught of negative reviews and feedback, which can ultimately drive them out of business.
We all remember seeing that viral video of the man being forcibly removed from a United flight, right? In one fail swoop, United’s reputation for customer service went out the window with that viral video. It’s an example of how a company’s image can plummet — 1.4 billion dollars in United’s case — if they don’t value customer experience and satisfaction above all else.
Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?
Absolutely. Zappos is a perfect example of a hugely successful company that’s made customer satisfaction the cornerstone of their brand image. They’ve trained customers not to expect to pay for shipping — which no-doubt has inflicted some pain on other online shoe retailers.
They’ve invested in live, 24/7 customer support and are quick to refund a customer’s money if there is even a hint of a problem with their order. You can’t buy that kind of brand loyalty — not with an ad campaign or “influencer” marketing. Zappos has made it so any other online retailer almost automatically has to offer free shipping if they hope to convert a customer to make a purchase with them.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
It’s always been my missing to over-deliver for each and every one of my clients — whether it be a 1:1 coaching client or business I’m conducting a workshop or delivering a keynote for. It’s not lost on me that they are inundated with options when they seek out a coach, so I make it my priority to give them an incredible return on their funding.
It’s hard to pinpoint only one example of this, but some ways I ensure clients’ feed is supported is by giving them my cell number and allowing them to access me by text 24/7. I know this may seem like I need to establish better boundaries with clients, but I want them to know that any concern or question they have is one we share, and I’m always here whenever they need me — day or night.
Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?
The long-term effects of consistently over-delivering for clients are that they happily refer me to their friends and colleagues. I’m proud to say that my business is now 90% referrals — which means I spend almost nothing on advertising and marketing, and I have the pleasure of coaching my ideal clients.
I never even have to ask them for referrals. Rather, new clients actively seek me out and happily pay my fee because they have confidence in my abilities after hearing their friends sing my praises.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a founder or CEO should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.
1.Target a specific customer
We’ve all heard that you can’t be everything to everyone — but often companies are so focused on profits that they make the mistake of playing to the masses and not focusing their marketing towards their ideal customer base.
When I started my coaching business, it was very tempting to cast a wide net and label myself as a “life coach” — and try to get as many clients as possible. Thank goodness I listened to the advice of my coach at the time and played to my skillset and focused on career coaching for executive women — a group I had the most experience with.
2.“Dance with the one who brought you”
It’s a huge mistake to shift focus away from the group of a company’s initial customers — AKA the ones who brought them to the dance in the first place. Product and service evolution must happen in order to remain competitive, but be careful not to tweak your product or service so much that you lose your initial customer base.
An example of this would be if I all of the sudden started creating content and programs that were more specific to a male audience. My clients are a specific group of Senior Director to C-suite level women — not male hedge fund managers, so if I started doing videos about things that aren’t front-of-mind with women, I could risk losing my customer base.
3.Define your promise
A company must ensure everyone on the team is working to support your brand promise — what it is that you are committing to delivering for your ideal customer. The more a company consistently delivers on that promise, the more its value will grow in the minds of both their customers and employees.
In my coaching business, our brand promise is to fully support each client, so they feel that they are the only client we have. I never want a client to feel as if they are competing for my attention. I want them to feel as though their success is my singular focus and I’m constantly working to get them to their goals — which I strive to do. Even though I can have as many as 20 one-on-one clients at a time, plus workshops, speaking gigs, and press — I never want them to see me tired or unenthusiastic about their journey. The truth is, each of their journeys is incredibly personal to me and if they don’t feel like they got a huge return on their funding— I see it as a personal failure.
4.Be accessible at all times
I’m not saying everyone needs to give out their cell phone number, but I do think it’s hard to create a memorable customer experience if the customer can’t get a hold of anyone when needed. Often, email support or a live chat will suffice and ensure the customer feels “heard” and valued.
I have a policy that I will always respond to an email from a client within 24 hours of receiving the inquiry. In case an email falls through the cracks or gets buried, they are encouraged to text me or my assistant and will get an almost immediate response. This shows them they are important to me and I value them — and it’s not enough to say it, you must walk the walk every day.
5.Utilize social platforms
Companies must use Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in order to serve the customer “on-demand”. This goes along with being accessible, but it’s important to separate these platforms as a whole other area of customer support that will need attention.
Why? Because there will be customers who, when they don’t get the service they feel they deserve, complain. They may not complain to you, but they’ll complain to the rest of the world on Instagram about how displeased they are with you or your product.
There is an upside, though. I’ve had past clients rave about me on their social media, which has led to — you guessed it — new clients.
Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?
Absolutely. I always encourage clients to speak about their experience to others who they feel could benefit from their story.
There still seems to be a bit of a stigma about admitting you work with a coach or sought some sort of external help — which is ridiculous. I think the more people can proudly share their path to success, the more they can inspire others to expand their professional support system — which can ultimately increase their joy and fulfilment.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Acceptance — not tolerance. I think our world would benefit tremendously if everyone strived to practice radical acceptance… of others and ourselves. We are all connected and the sooner we acknowledge that, and act accordingly, the more love and freedom we will all enjoy.
Linking News is a press-release service that gets your info noticed by media outlets that matter.
One of the most challenging aspects of running a business is getting the word out about your product or service. You may be sitting on something that is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if people don’t know about it, they can’t buy it.
Linking News is a white label press release distribution service that gets your press releases published on hundreds of top tier media outlets, including ABC, NBC, FOX, USA Today, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, the Associated Press, Yahoo, and many more.
Why press releases?
Press releases have been an essential marketing and public relations tool for entrepreneurs and business owners for more than a century. And while you might think they’d be outdated in the age of digital media, the opposite is true. The rise of social media has actually created more publishing options for press releases, making them even more valuable.
Amazingly, the basic idea behind a press release has not changed much over the last century. A press release is still an official statement created by a business or organization and issued to news outlets for the purpose of informing the public about something noteworthy, whether that’s an upcoming event, an innovative new product, or a new business undertaking. What has changed is how entrepreneurs and businesses make use of this tool.
Before the rise of digital media, if your company didn’t have any contacts or connections in journalism, your only option was to submit a press release to as many news outlets as possible and hope that one of them would agree to run it. Today, press release distribution services like Linking News do all the legwork for you and provide guaranteed access. All you have to do is make sure your product and pitch are on point.
Today, the press release is especially useful for startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses that are just starting out and trying to build a brand. It’s basically the modern equivalent of making cold calls or selling your product or service door to door, only instead of telling one person at a time, you’re telling an audience of thousands and sometimes even millions of people.
Linking News’ white label press release service
Image credit: Linking News
When you publish a press release with Linking News, you get access to a network of more than 300,000 publications, 900,000 journalists, and 90-million social media influencers. Exactly which media outlets your press release gets published on depends on which package you subscribe to. However, all packages guarantee publication on over 100 sites, including many top tier outlets, within 24 to 48 hours. And all clients receive a full publication report with live links within one-to-three days.
Best of all, unlike other press release distribution services, with Linking News all publications are strictly white label. That means your press release will not be published on linkingnews.com, and their brand will not be mentioned in your press release and report. All your press releases will appear under your brand, so your clients, customers, and competitors will never know you used a third-party distribution service.
So if you’re looking for an easy, cost-effective way to build your brand, take a look at Linking News White Label Press Release Distribution. It could be just what you need to take your business to the next level.
Following up on its effort that allowed small businesses to buy advertising times through a self-serve ad manager, Hulu has launched creative advertising services for small and-medium-sized businesses.
The effort looks to either repurpose existing video for streaming TV or to provide services for businesses that want to start from “scratch.”
Hulu will provide these businesses with access to creative partners who can create unique commercials — rather than ads from standard-looking “templates.” Creative partners include video services — Genero, Shuttlerock, QuickFrame and VidMob.
In July, Hulu began offering the Hulu Ad Manager program for small and medium-sized businesses in a beta effort.
Companies can make media deals for as little as a $500 media campaign on Hulu.
In June, Hulu announced a new video advertising management platform — Disney Hulu XP, available October 1 — that allows marketers to make cross-media deals across all Disney networks and platforms.
Hulu pulled in $670 million in paid advertising — and $1.27 billion in subscription fees — according to an analysis of Walt Disney’s yearly 10K filing for 2019.
Hulu has said it has made advertising deals overall with the top 200 brands in the United States.
Imagine this: You step into an elevator and find yourself face-to-face with a potential client such as P&G. You have just a few floors to win their interest, just a few floors to make an impression and convince them you are worth a second look. Beyond your agency name, what would you tell them?
Some agencies want to showcase everything they do, hoping that something will stick. But my advice, after speaking to dozens of small agencies, is that you should focus on your “superpower”-that thing your agency does that it’s especially good at and that clearly differentiates it from other agencies. It’s your superpower that will be most memorable when being considered for a new project.
So how do you know if your agency has a superpower? Many small agencies tend to work incognito, like Clark Kent. So, to help you discover your superpower, I suggest looking in these five areas:
1. Your heritage story:
What premise was the agency founded on? What has been the heritage and history of the agency? What is the story behind the name of the agency? Any of these can give a prospective client insight into your philosophy and approach-and lead you to the answer of what sets you apart.
2. Your client base:
Do you attract a certain type of client or category? Some agencies have multiple clients in healthcare, food or beauty. These multiple projects demonstrate a proficiency that might be applicable to the new project. Or maybe your agency has developed a strength among a specific group of consumers, a geography or even a style of advertising. This by no means is designed to pigeonhole you into always working on that kind of project, but it can indicate where your superpower might be hiding. Many superpowers can translate into adjacent areas that clients may be looking for. Maybe you have a talent for dealing with taboo topics or new products, or maybe comedy is your preferred advertising tone.
3. Your best work:
What is some of your best work and who were the clients? When you showcase this work, what is it that makes it your best work? What are you most proud of? Is there a common thread?
4. Your people:
Look around your office at the people you have attracted. Is there something consistent in the interests, experience or skill sets of your team that can help you identify the agency’s superpower? Are you animal lovers, copywriters, fans of improv, foodies, musicians or escapees from big agencies? Do you tend to hire more makers, illustrators, writers or data analysts? Look around the office. What adorns the walls? Is there a clue to your superpower for potential clients to see?
5. Your products:
What are your clients willing to pay for? Is there a certain service or product that brings clients in the door? When you complete a project, what service gets the most praise? This may help you zero in on where your agency brings the most value.
These are a few tips for finding your superpower. Personally, I find it far more memorable and helpful to hear about an agency’s superpower as brands and clients are often looking for something specific versus an agency that can do everything. Those superpowers are often the best thing to showcase what you can do. So, what are yours? We only have a few floors, and we really want to know.
But please, leave the superhero costumes at home.
About
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.
Matt Lumb is vice president, Brand Building Integrated Communications department at The Procter & Gamble Company, an in-house strategy, production and communications consultancy, consisting of seasoned professionals. In his more than 25 years with P&G, Matt has worked on numerous global brands and his career has taken him from Australia to Asia and the U.S.A. View all articles by this author
