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When Your Startup Should Pivot (and When it Shouldn’t)

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“Pivot” may be the one word that entrepreneurs and the television show “Friends” have in common. In either case, you hear it all the time. But a pivot isn’t always the best choice for your startup. How can you tell?

pivot

I’m going to share with you how to know when your startup should pivot. I’ll touch on the battles I went through with my own company when deciding whether or not to pivot, and cover:

  • What is a pivot?
  • What are signs telling you to pivot?
  • What other options do you have instead of a pivot?

What is a pivot?

A “pivot” is a massive change in what you do as a business

Instagram is a great example.

The company started off as Burbn, a social check-in app. Over time, its founders saw that their users didn’t care much about telling friends where they went – but they did constantly share photos of those places and what they did there. So Burbn pivoted to focus on that one feature (social image sharing) and rebranded as Instagram.

But you don’t have to rebrand to pivot. Take Text Request, for example.

We’re an online business text messaging software (SaaS). We started as a customer service tool for the hospitality industry. We thought, “If I’m a customer, I’d much rather text your business than call for help.”

But texting for customer service was not a big need for these particular businesses at the time, so the sales process was difficult and lengthy. What we found, though, was that other types of businesses really needed a texting solution to make sales and schedule appointments.

So we made a pivot. We went from a customer service tool for hospitality to a sales and marketing tool for home service businesses. We changed our product to meet the needs of home service businesses. We changed our messaging, and our sales and marketing strategies.

That’s the only pivot we’ve made, but we’ve since done a lot of refining.

“Refining” is changing how you do something as a business

You can refine your sales strategy, your product design or feature offerings, how you target your market, and more, but it doesn’t change the direction of your business.

A pivot changes direction, while a refinement improves how you get there.Is a pivot right for your startup?

Your startup is constantly looking for traction. You’re looking for a target market, product, channel, etc. to start performing well.

An indicator of if and when your startup should pivot is when you’ve given the above segments time and effort to work, and you’re seeing no traction from any of them. That can tell you:

  • You have a product people don’t want
  • You’re targeting the wrong people
  • Or that you’re using the wrong avenue to find customers

Myth #1

Slow growth does not mean you should pivot. We often hear new startups saying they’ll get to a half million in sales and be profitable in year one, or something similarly bold. That’s probably not going to happen.

The average successful startup begins seeing exponential growth around year four. Until then, most are stair-stepping their way to growth. And in most cases, this is also a good and sustainable path.

If you know you can reliably get customers doing XYZ, you probably do not need to pivot. You should keep doing what you’re doing, and work toward more effective ways of doing XYZ. In that case, you’re in a good place to refine.

Myth #2

I often hear new entrepreneurs say something to the effect of, “I just need to get this product in front of more people for them to see how great it is.”

There’s a lot wrong with this mentality, but the main issue is that it normally leads founders to think a pivot is necessary. They’ll spend a ton of money on trade shows, press releases, or advertising, get nothing in return, and then decide they have to pivot to survive.

But that’s not necessary. What is necessary is working slowly with one customer to give them the product and experience they need to make their life better. Then, do that with another customer in the same market. Then again.

It’s a slow process in the beginning, but it consistently builds startups into sustainable and profitable businesses.What should my startup do instead of pivoting?

“Pivot” is not a bad word. It can be a helpful choice that leads to a very successful business. But too many startups are often pivot-happy. They try something for a few months, see no results, change everything, and repeat.

In any case, these massive and constant changes can be bad for business. If this sounds like you, take a step back and hone in on the goal of your business, as well as your target audience. Who do you serve? Why and how do you serve them?

Instead of pivoting multiple times, look to refine. Startups often know who their target customer is, they just don’t know how to sell to them. So try different methods, such as:

  • If email blast marketing isn’t working, try emailing individual targets
  • If networking events aren’t yielding, try one-on-one meetings
  • If your website isn’t bringing in targeted traffic, change up your message and content approach
  • If there’s interest but nobody’s buying, target different positions within an organization
  • If customers don’t use some of your features, ask them what would be most helpful

Examples like these are limitless. The main point underscoring all of them is that something in your business has to remain constant for you find footing and grow.

Multiple pivots keep you from grounding who you are and what you do. Once you find your base (i.e. your target market, ideal use case, etc.), you should no longer consider pivoting at all. Any change thereafter should be refining a process or strategy.

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Can You Start an Online Business with No Money? Yes, You Can! (Here’s How)

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By Lilian Chifley, 

Starting an online business is just like preparing a dish. If you follow a proven recipe, the dish will be delicious. It does not matter who is doing the cooking. With an online business, all you have to do is follow the five steps outlined above. This system works until proven otherwise and it will not fail you.

Starting a Business

Starting a business is every person’s dream. The excitement you get when you think of becoming your own boss is propelling you to start your business. But then, there are several obstacles that are keeping you from doing it. Among this is the lack of capital or money to run the business.

Before you start a business, there are several areas you need to analyze. Your business has to be perfect on paper before you start actually working on it. A business, just like the mind can be the biggest asset or liability you have. You need to plan. Creating a business plan is important as it will enhance your clarity and take you through all the important aspects of your business. When it comes to an online business, planning is everything.

Whether you have money or not, your plan will hugely determine the success or failure of your business. When you plan, always use strategies that have been proven to work. Do not be the one reinventing the wheel. Learn from the mistakes that others have made in the past.

Will you launch the business alone or will you have a partner? It is important to consider finding a potential partner to help you start your business. If you are a lone wolf it will be better if you just do it alone. If you want to have a partner, go for someone who is as ambitious as you are. Just like employees on ResumesPlanet, Essayassistant.org, essaymama.com, or even freeessaywriters.net your goal should be to take the business to the next level.

Ensure that you have common goals. Get to know what your partner will expect in the end. A perfect partner can greatly improve your chances of success. And the relationship will always get better.

So you already have a business idea in mind, but you just don’t have the cash you need to start it up. Guess what, you are not alone! Most people across the globe find themselves in such a situation at one point in their lives. But they do it anyway. As the saying goes, there is always an excuse but never a good reason.

Today, I am going to share with you five detailed steps that every successful entrepreneur with an online business followed to reach where they are today. Most of them started with no money, followers or even email lists. They just followed these five steps.

The Broke Entrepreneur

It is important for me to share a short story about an entrepreneur from Singapore who wanted to start an online business but he did not have money. Just a year ago, Tommy started his online business that dealt with educating entrepreneurs with online businesses.

Today he has more than eight thousand people who attend his online conferences. Before he started his online business, he was a co-founder of two different companies in Singapore. And they both failed. He was totally broken.

So when he started his online business, he had very little money for marketing and other essential business expenses. He had to come up with a way to start and grow the business without money, employees, fame or following. Majority of people find themselves stuck in this position. They have mortgages to pay, bank loans, children’s education; the list is endless.

A great thing about an online business is that you get to save a lot of money as compared to the traditional business which requires you to pay office rent, part-time and full-time employees, equipment, insurance, and furniture. Similar to writers on top essay writing services, like cheap essay service or essayhave review, it is possible for you to start your online business with no money if you follow the five steps below.

1. Get to Understand What Your Business Will Be About

What are you interested in? This is the first question you need to answer to discover what you are good at. Are you experienced in marketing? Sales? Software development? Maybe e-commerce? Most successful entrepreneurs earn a living from what they love to do.

Starting a business that deals with something you do not love will just lead to failure. In Tommy’s case, he had over seven years’ experience in marketing and four years’ experience in running his businesses. He loves anything related to marketing and being a successful entrepreneur. And so he created an online educational business for entrepreneurs.

2. Going Niche

After figuring out what you love doing, it is now the ideal time to start thinking about niche. So, let’s say you love teaching people how to attract and retain more clients. In your mind, you may be having the thought that every person who is in the business of providing service wants to have more clients and therefore you should be targeting everyone who may be interested in the service you provide such as a lawyer, coach and teacher right? Absolutely not!

A major mistake that most entrepreneurs make is targeting a very broad market. Do not join the herd! Go for a niche market instead. Just as a writer from AssignmentMasters understands who he or she is writing for, you should understand clearly the small group of people that you will be targeting.

So, instead of teaching everyone how to attract and retain clients, you can be more specific by teaching for example female trainers in New York, how to get and retain more clients.

Since you have a clear idea who your target is, you can now focus your time and energy on discovering where your target is located and how they can grow their businesses exponentially. You can now start creating content that specifically targets this small group of interest. Later, when your business has grown bigger, you can broaden your target audience. But for now, focus on a small group.

3. Choosing Your Products

Any online business falls under two categories namely online services and informative or digital products.

Online Services

An online service simply involves you providing a type of service or doing a job for your clients. It could be providing software development services or social media marketing. In our example, it could be providing a specific service to help fitness coaches attract and retain clients. Many online businesses which offer online services succeed because of the determination of the entrepreneur.

Digital Products

You can think of digital products as things such as e-books, online memberships, videos and online courses. There are those digital products that are quite easy to create such as videos, audio files and e-books and there are those that are more complicated and may require a huge amount of money especially if you do not have an idea on how to code or use WordPress.

So if you are going to teach other people how to attract and retain clients, you can write an e-book about attracting fitness clients or you can teach an online course about it. You can write the whole book in Google Docs or Microsoft Word and then design the cover with Canva.

Starting an online course is quite easier than you think. What you have to do is record videos and prepare a few notes. You also need a good camera and microphone. The camera does not need to be professional. You can start by using your phone camera. You can also watch videos on YouTube on how to prepare and sell your online courses easily.

4. Making People Aware that Your Business Exists

After creating your digital product or defining your service, it is now time to move to another crucial section: Marketing. Your marketing strategies will determine your success or failure. It is important to ensure that every strategy you use has been well thought about and has proven to work in the past. Marketing is very expensive. Have you noticed how big organizations spend a lot of money on marketing?

And just because you have completed your online course or e-book does not automatically mean that people will start buying from you or paying for the services you offer. You need to take some time to make your target market aware that your business exists. You also need to make them trust you.

When it comes to your marketing strategy, the first thing you need to find out is which medium will reach your target market best. Are you going to use a website? YouTube channel? Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn?

Choose a marketing channel that your target market loves to visit on a regular basis. Do not waste time marketing your business on Instagram if your target market does not exist there. Most entrepreneurs reach their target audiences easily using YouTube because any person can find all the answers he or she wants. Most people also visit YouTube for entertainment.

YouTube is currently the second largest search engine in the world. Why should you not use it to market your business? It is cheap, easily accessible and easy to use.

5. Give Your Target Audience Free Useful Content

After figuring out which medium you will be using to reach your target market, you will need to create free content that your audience can read or watch. There are some people who never give free content to their target market because they are afraid no one will actually buy their products or services. But is this true?

Take a moment and remember the last time you were surfing and you came across something interesting such as a book or an audio recording. You tried to get a summary or something related to the product for you to review but the site only insisted that you buy. No free content. Would you go ahead and buy such a product? Personally, no! Who wants to spend money on something he or she is not really familiar with?

Take another scenario. You are surfing the web and you come across a book that interests you. When you try to get a short summary, you are given a free e-book, a short video for you to watch and the summary you had requested. Would you go ahead and buy the book? Personally, I would purchase it because I now understand what I am buying and what I expect to see in the book.

People are curious. They want to get to know you better before investing their time and money on your products or services. If you fail to give them free useful information, your product or service is dead!

My friend Tommy gives away two free sessions on average for every online conference he runs. He gives away videos, articles and interviews as free content and in return, he gets to build the awareness of his brand, trust and personally connect with his audience.

You do not need to spend your money on creating content. You can use your phone, so long as its camera is in good working condition, a mic and video or movie software. Most phones have these software nowadays.

You also do not need to spend your money shooting pictures for your Instagram or writing articles on your blog. Other types of free useful content include free e-books, guides, workbooks, email, worksheets and infographics.

Does Creating a Website or Paid Ads Cost Money?

You have definitely heard that creating websites cost a lot money, right? Or Paid Ads like those we come across on Facebook. Thanks to advancement in technology, we have several options to choose from. If you currently have no money to start your online business, all you need to do is invest more time in it and work harder.

You can create your website for free using WordPress. So if you do not know how to create a website using WordPress, you should be ready to invest your time to learn how to use it. As the saying goes, there is no thing such as something for nothing in this world. Take your time and watch YouTube videos. Get to learn how to create your website using WordPress so that you do not have to spend your hard earned cash paying a website developer or designer.

You should always keep in mind that simplicity is key to success. It is better to create a website with few pages. The website should be so simple that it can be used by a seven-year-old child. Spending a lot of time creating a very attractive and complicated website will lead to disaster. Before making it too fancy, get several clients first. If you desire something that is easier to create than a website, go for a landing page.

If you have a digital product that you want to sell, you can look for platforms that do not charge monthly fees. With the internet, you can find anything you want. If you have online courses, you can host and sell them on platforms such as Teachable. FetchApp is also great platform for your e-book.

Do not start using paid ads at the moment. There are very many ways in which you can promote your service or digital product at no cost. Don’t think of using paid ads now because you have no money. As an entrepreneur, you only use what you have right now. Focus on free but effective marketing strategies now.

ConclusionSo there you have the five simple steps to start your online business with no cash. It all starts with you thinking about what you enjoy doing and what you are good at. Secondly, you think of a small group of people who will be interested in buying from you, that is your target market. Thirdly, you choose what you are going to sell, either a service, digital product or both.

Fourth, you decide which marketing channel you will use to reach your target market easily. And fifth, you create free useful content which you will give away. Remember, when you stop giving away free useful content, your business starts to die at that very moment. Your customers want to know who you are and what they are buying. If you refuse to share with them what you have, they will also refuse giving you their money.

Get to understand what works and what does not work for you and your business. You can only do this by practicing what you learn. Do not waste your time on strategies that you find them difficult to understand. There is always an alternative way to making something happen.

You will definitely reach a point where you will feel like giving up. Maybe your customers will not buy your products or services as fast as you anticipated or you might find it difficult working on a job while creating your business. Do not give up. Do what you can every day to the best of your abilities. Be patient. As an entrepreneur, you will definitely need to be patient most of the time to reap the rewards. As the saying goes, patience pays.

Starting an online business is just like preparing a dish. If you follow a proven recipe, the dish will be delicious. It does not matter who is doing the cooking. With an online business, all you have to do is follow the five steps outlined above. This system works until proven otherwise and it will not fail you.

By Lilian Chifley

Business Adviser, Professional Content Writer, Lilian Chifley is an IT specialist, teacher, and blogger from Sydney. She loves to talk about artificial intelligence and modern education.

Sourced from Thrive Global

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Six Reasons Why Video is The Most Persuasive Form of Content Marketing

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There are several reasons video marketing is a very effective content marketing strategy to relay your business story and messaging.

Highly Engaging

One of the most powerful advantages of video marketing is the fact that it is highly engaging. The human brain is programmed to pay more attention to moving images and sound.

Have you noticed times when you are talking to someone and think they are paying attention, but they aren’t? Instead, they are actually looking straight past you at a television screen behind you?

Even if the sound is off, the moving images on the screen still draw in their attention away from you.

They usually aren’t doing this on purpose; it is just human nature to look at moving images.

Think back to your youth when you were in school. Remember those days when the teacher would show a movie or video in conjunction with a lesson?

Even when the topic wasn’t something particularly interesting to you, just the fact that you were able to watch it, drew in your attention.

This is a powerful reminder to business owners to utilize this advantage of video marketing to attract the attention of their target audience.

It’s Passive

Watching videos doesn’t require the viewer to do anything and requires no effort. This means it is a passive act of receiving information.

Once exposed to a video, especially those that play automatically, you are immediately drawn to look at it.

How long a viewer stays and watches the video, depends upon how engaging and compelling it is.

It is up to the business to make sure that once they grab the attention of their target, they can keep them watching long enough to see or hear your message.

Establishes Your Authority and Creates Relationships

Using videos is an excellent opportunity for your business to create a relationship with and develop your authority with your target market.

Even though it is common knowledge that videos are a powerful marketing initiative, not all businesses utilize them.

There are many reasons why not all companies use videos, including not having the time, money, or expertise to create them.

Put your brand in front of your competitor’s by making sure that you are doing video marketing.

Stand out from the crowd in your niche by including videos on your website and sharing them on the social web.

Cost-Effective

Not all videos are created equal. Simply throwing anything on your website is not going to help you.

In fact, poor quality videos can actually hurt your brand by making you look unprofessional and sloppy.

Creating videos doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. If your company has a large budget and can afford to hire a professional videographer to come to your office and take live footage and use professional narration, go for it.

If, however, you have a limited budget, there are numerous ways to create quality videos. You can use high-resolution imagery or video animations to deliver your business message.

Highly Persuasive

Your first job is to capture your audience’s attention and impressed them with your professional videos. However, the onus is on the business to make sure their message is persuasive enough to keep them watching.

Remember, you are talking directly to your target market. It is your chance to explain to them. Whether you are speaking your message or letting animations do the talking for you, why you are the answer to their problem.

Use your brand’s personality in any video you create. Some companies choose to use humor as part of their brand, while others prefer to be more business-like.

Many Ways to Use Video

Another use of videos in marketing is to educate. Not all videos should be about selling your products or services. Doing so can turn off your audience.

Some other ways your business can use videos are:

  • Messaging: Blogs are abundant on the web. Try creating a video that relays the same type of helpful or relevant information as a blog post. You can even re-purpose blog content into a video.
  • Culture Videos: This is a great way to show your companies personality by showing videos of events in your office. Some examples are:
    • Employee interviews
    • Office pranks
    • Birthday parties
  • Interviews: Conduct interviews with others who are either in your niche or a complementary one. You can leverage their knowledge to provide value for your target audience and create content for you.
  • Tutorials: Showing your target market how to do or use something that they find helpful, will keep them coming back for more.
  • Events: Take a video at your next holiday party and share it with your potential and current customers. The next time you go to or exhibit at a trade show or conference, take candid video shots and share them.

Don’t forget about the power of music in eliciting emotional responses. Adding music to your videos will draw in the viewer even more and will appeal to their human side via emotions.

Any message delivered in the video format is received better than plain text. Provide value in the form of helpful information, tips and tricks, or any other relevant message that will contribute to your target market seeing you as a trustworthy source and an authority in your niche.

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How To Use Strategic Partnerships For Faster Growth

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By Stephanie Burns

When my business partner, Jody Greene and I were in the infancy of creating Chic CEO, we found out very quickly that when we leveraged partnerships – things moved a lot faster. I credit Jody for this growth strategy, as she was a master in creating partnerships.

Organically, we’d meet lots of people who had their own following and offerings, most of them synergistic to the female entrepreneurship space we were in. Jody was able to spot that synergy quickly and propose a partnership plan that helped grow all of our businesses. By partnering up with like-minded entrepreneurs, we could use our collective networks to fill events, gain subscribers and offer new products. Our email list grew faster and our events were easily filled.

We created so many partnerships that we developed a framework of how we selected partners and how we proposed our partnerships would work.

Aligned Target Markets

When we proposed a partnership, or were evaluating a partnership proposal that was pitched to us, the first thing we needed to assess was target market. Making sure that it made sense to the people we were serving. For example, we partnered with Dress for Success, Inc. to collect workwear for women at our networking events. In turn, Dress For Success promoted our event. We both served professional women in different ways. Our networking event brought together their women to connect, and look for new opportunities, while our network of women brought donations they very much needed. They helped us fill our event, and we helped them get more donations. Win win.

Getting a partnership proposal from a company that builds backyard swimming pools wouldn’t make sense. It doesn’t have anything to do with female entrepreneurship or the professional world for women. So we would wish them well, but pass.

Assess the target market to see if it aligns with yours, otherwise, you may end up confusing your community and customers. The purpose of a strategic partnership is to help get your business in front of more potential customers, so be diligent here. Putting in the effort to create a partnership just to have your message/product/event placed in front of people who aren’t your potential customers is a waste.

WIN WIN WIN

When we considered a partnership, we assessed it to make sure it benefitted everyone. Benefitted Chic CEO, benefitted our partner, and benefitted the Chic CEO community. Any offer of partnership that came through must benefit everyone. Conversely, if we were proposing a partnership, we only did so if we could make it a win win win for everyone.

If a potential partner wanted us to promote an offer for a discount on their product to our community of 100,000 entrepreneurs, we considered that a win win lose. The partner wins by getting their product promoted, the community wins by getting a discount, and Chic CEO lost due to dedicating time and resources without being compensated. Everyone needs to win.

Exchange of Value

Every partnership should have an exchange of value. It doesn’t have to be money, but something that you both find valuable to your business. There are lots of ways partners can be valuable to each other. For example, an email swap with another business that isn’t a direct competitor, but has the same target market. Fresh eyes that may not have heard of your business is quite valuable to you both.

We never proposed a partnership without adding value first. If you are proposing a partnership, it’s important to address what’s in it for your partner before ever asking for anything. The value exchanged should be balanced, fair and benefit you both.

Memo of Understanding

Lastly, if a partner agreed, we created a Memo of Understanding. This isn’t a contract or something legally binding, it was simply a document that outlined what we’ve both agreed to so everyone is clear on action items, due dates and responsible parties. It keeps everyone on the same page so all details are clear and documented.

Everyone appreciated this level of clarity and it kept our team organized. We never wanted to drop the ball on what we promised a strategic partner. Our partners were very important to us.

Working with partners helped us rapidly grow Chic CEO. We loved helping other like-minded businesses and creating creative ways to work together. Identify a few strategic partners in your space and develop a way to work together where everyone wins and value is exchanged. You’ll see a big difference!

By Stephanie Burns

My company, Chic-CEO.com, is an online resource for over 100,000 female entrepreneurs. As a startup, we had to get scrappy in order to hit our goals and make an impact. When we started asking for the impossible and getting the green light, I knew we had stumbled on something magical – something I call ‘Unreasonable Requests.’ I write about female entrepreneurship and how to brand yourself. I live in beautiful Ozark country with my amazing husband and two brilliant children. Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

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4 Social Media Strategies That Can Help Bring in 23 Percent More Profits

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By Linda Orr

Everything you need to know about effectively and efficiently targeting your audience through social media.

40 percent of the world’s population and 69 percent of Americans aged 18-29 are active users of social media. Social media has revolutionized how companies communicate with, listen to and learn from customers, much like TV advertising did in the 20th century.

A marketing strategy involves identifying a target market, establishing actions to reach that target market and continual analysis and adjustments. A social media strategy, on the other hand, educates engages, and excites your customers and builds brand loyalty. Excited and engaged customers bring in 23 percent more profits. Through video sharing sites customers can quasi-experience products as well, making a purchase more likely. Here are four areas of social media that all entrepreneurs should know.

1. The power of blogging and content marketing.

According to the book M: Marketing, 78 percent of customers prefer to get to know a company through articles rather than ads. Content marketing has six times higher conversion rates and has the potential for a 7.8-X boost in web traffic than other social media tools. In 2018, U.S. adults spent an average of 3 hours, 35 minutes per day on smartphones. Most of this time lends itself towards content marketing. For example, customers spend 11 percent of this time on personal productivity and finances. Customers want content marketing about personal finance management. They want to read it.

If you sell medical devices, you should have articles about any health issue surrounding the problem that your product solves. If you sell makeup, you should have how-to articles about makeup application and likely skin care guides. If you own a restaurant, provide information about food trends, dieting, or perhaps event planning.

To start a content campaign, figure out what your customers might care about and start writing. Local experts may be happy to provide articles because that is free social media advertising for them. Also, content marketing generated toward a political or charitable cause is impactful because 73 percent of all customers want to buy from companies that communicate upstanding moral philosophies.

2. Read and respond to reviews and complaints.

84 percent of customers trust online reviews. Ask your customers to review your company. You can manually check sites, like Google, or use reputation management software to track online comments and reviews. Respond to comments on social media rapidly! 53 percent of customers from all sites and 72 percent of Twitter customers expect a response in one hour, according to M: Marketing. Social media is now the number one place where customers want their complaints handled. No response or a template response are bad responses. Someone inside your company should personally address each complaint.

3. It’s not just about Facebook anymore.

All other social media channels should be used based on your specific target market. 68 percent of Americans use Facebook. Overall Facebook usage has been slowly declining and may be unprofessional. If you have a good webpage, there is no reason to have a Facebook page. It can confuse and overwhelm customers.  A local farmer’s market announces events, like strawberry picking dates, on different sites like Facebook and Twitter at different times. Confusion and added time searching turn customers away. 32 percent of Americans not on Facebook will give up as well. Stick with a robust homepage.

M: Marketing says that the average cost per click on a Facebook ad is $1.72. There is a 0.77 percent conversion rate on these clicks. That means that it costs $223.37 to gain a customer from Facebook plus the cost to create and manage the ad. You will likely not get a return on this investment although there are exceptions.

Two hundred sixty million people use LinkedIn each month; 40 percent daily. Use it for business-to-business content marketing! LinkedIn users prefer more word count per article than other sites. The most read articles, by more than a factor of three, were articles over 1,900 words. LinkedIn also has the highest conversion rate of all the sites. The lead to conversion rate is 2.74 percent versus Facebook (0.77 percent) and Twitter (0.69 percent).

Since Google bought YouTube, it shows up prominently in searches. Seventy-three percent of Americans use YouTube, the highest percentage of all social media forms. With video, you can engage emotion and excitement better. You can post a how-to and other useful videos. Even incredibly professional companies like the Cleveland Clinic use YouTube to demonstrate their innovations and accolades.

Dr. Dre launched “Beats by Dre” using social media. Instagram was influential in building brand awareness, attracting approximately 2.5 million followers. 35 percent of Americans use Instagram. Instagram, like YouTube, is a place to build excitement quickly.

Sites like Twitter and Pinterest have an audience of less than 35 percent of Americans. Pinterest is a great place to show home décor products and vacation pictures and would be helpful in those markets. Twitter can be a low investment place to respond to user comments rapidly.

Third-party bloggers are like a combination of content marketing and online reviews. Disney is famous for its use of Disney Moms. A group of 1,300 select moms receive perks, but not compensation, to visit and blog about their experiences. The moms talk about real issues, like dealing with food allergies or what to pack for a day in the park. Third party blogs are more credible and relatable.

4. Use data to learn, analyze and adapt.

An advantage of social media usage is the available data. You can use social media metrics to gauge attitudes, preferences, and trends. Available metrics are hits, page views, bounce rates, click paths, conversion rates and keyword analysis. There are numerous software packages available to examine each metric. Do not put too much weight on keyword optimization. Google regularly changes its search algorithms so sites should never be designed to game the Google system.

Use social media strategically. Make sure you know your target market. Use the tools to communicate in an engaging, informative, and caring way. Content marketing and responding to online reviews are the most important social media tools. Use the available metrics to revise your actions.

Feature Image Credit: jayk7 | Getty Images

By Linda Orr

Dr. Linda Orr is a Marketing Professor at the University of Akron. She has taught marketing and sales courses for over two decades and is the author of five books and many articles. Dr. Orr has experience in the record, restaurant and finance industries, along with numerous consulting experiences.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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4 Things You Find In Every Successful Marketing Plan

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By Nurdin Budi Mustofa

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been going for a while and you’re considering expansion, your business needs a solid marketing plan. If you don’t have a clear strategy that outlines how you’re going to keep your existing customers and attract new ones in the future, your marketing efforts won’t have a direction and they’re not likely to be very successful. If you think that your marketing plan needs an overhaul or you’re just about to write your very first one, these are the key things that you need to include.

Identify Your Target Market

You can’t run a marketing campaign if you don’t know who it’s aimed at, so understanding your target market is the first thing that you need to do. The best way to do that is to use master data management. What is master data management, you may be wondering? It’s a process that you can use to bring together all of the data that you hold about your customers from sales and marketing, accounts, and social media. By looking at the general trends in your customer data, you can get an idea of exactly who they are. This is essential if you’re going to create a marketing campaign that really resonates with them. If you don’t understand your customers, you can easily end up wasting resources on a marketing campaign that doesn’t connect with them at all.

Understand Your Marketing Goals

The next thing that you need to do is think about what your marketing goals are. If you’re just starting out, you should be aiming to get your first customers and promote your brand identity. If you’ve already been operating for a while, you might be focused on a new product launch or perhaps trying to break into a new market segment. Whatever your goals are, it’s important that you’re clear on what they are from the outset so you can focus on them and not waste resources on other areas.

Research Marketing Tactics

Different marketing tactics have their own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important that you do some research. For example, if you’re trying to increase sales to the older generation, advertising on social media might not be the best route. You will probably have more success with traditional marketing techniques. Think about what your goals are and who your marketing campaign is aimed at and then look at which techniques are best suited to those things.

Set A Budget

The biggest mistake you can make is going in without a budget. If you don’t have a cap on your spending, it’s so easy to keep funneling money into marketing campaigns indefinitely. But it’s important that you’re weighing up the cost of marketing with the return on investment that you’re seeing. If you spend more on the marketing campaign than you get back in sales, you’re losing a lot of money. That’s why it’s essential that you set a realistic budget and stick to it when you’re running marketing campaigns.

If you can include all of these things in your marketing plan, it should be a huge success.

By Nurdin Budi Mustofa

Sourced from Digital Hints

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Why The Best PR Works Hand In Hand With Sales

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By Leslie Licano

You might think that public relations and sales are two separate facets of your business, but you may be surprised to hear that PR works best in direct collaboration with sales to create one congruent experience for your customer. Here are a few ways in which PR and sales can work together.

Sharing Information: Your sales team is out in the field every day getting tremendous feedback and insight into your target market. Why let all that good information remain siloed? Let your sales team help inform the PR strategy by sharing insights, such as what your target market cares about, what they’re reading and what resonates with them. This might help develop a pitch, drive story angles and even identify new media outlets.

Exposure Is Good For All: It’s hard being a salesperson, especially when initially getting in the door to introduce the company. However, PR can lay the groundwork by helping your company get exposure. Instead of getting, “You’re calling from where?” from customers, how refreshing would it be for your salespeople to reach out to a target market that’s already familiar with the brand?

Building Credibility: Thought leadership is the name, and credibility is the game! When your leaders are featured in reputable publications, it can open the door for sales, as it proves that the company is at the top of its game and knows what it’s talking about.

Following Up: Coming up with a reason to follow up can be a struggle for your sales team. However, a PR win, such as a placement in a publication or thought leadership feature, can be a great lead-in to reopening a conversation. Sales teams can forward these wins with a note saying they thought the client might be interested in the information.

Creating Social Content: PR wins are also a great item to promote on social media. Because they provide such valuable third-party credibility, most companies will share their media placements online to increase exposure for wins. Many also invest in “boosting” the posts to reach specific target audiences or decision-makers. Right message, right audiences, right time.

Website Content: Any articles that don’t secure placement in a publication can be featured on your website. This type of content can become a part of the lead generation funnel, guiding potential customers to your website, helping to collect emails and providing more leads for your sales team.

As Seen On: When a PR firm secures a placement that has a big name attached, such as being featured in Oprah’s magazine or on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the company will be able to include that in their marketing. This can be a very high-performing strategy that can really help the sales team tie everything together for the customer.

PR And Sales, Unite!

Gather the team, and start generating some business. These are just a few ways in which PR and sales can work together to help grow revenue and build business. Make sure that your sales team knows what placements are at their disposal and how they can use PR content to their advantage. Additionally, any insights your sales team would like to provide will surely be appreciated.

By Leslie Licano

Co-Founder of Beyond Fifteen Communications, a SoCal PR and communications firm known for taking clients beyond their 15 minutes of fame.

Sourced from Forbes

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2 tips to increase traffic to your website (without spending money)

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Sourced from Alison Wolf.

Getting organic traffic to your website firstly takes time and patience to do. You will NOT get any overnight success with this!

By being consistent and having a long term strategy, you can start to see you ranking on the search engines and have more traffic to your website.

Top two strategies to driving traffic to your website are:

1. Social Media Marketing

2. Content Marketing

Here I will dive into how both tips can work for you and what steps you should be taking.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a popular way of targeting specific groups of people. But it is also a way of truly engaging with them and turn them into high-quality leads.

92% of small businesses use social media as they consider it an important part.

When it comes to using social media, unless you are a large business with large teams of staff, only stick to 1 or 2 platforms and dominate them.

Every platform is targeted to different segments of society, so you need to be strategic in choosing which platform is best for you.

– Facebook Targeted towards B2C and generation Y and older (so people born no later than the mid-1990s)

– Twitter Used by a whole variety of different segments of society. Though some businesses will find Twitter more useful than others. To find out if Twitter is a good path for you to take, look at your direct competitors and your target market.

– Instagram A mainly visual platform that is mainly used by Millennials. As a business, you can take advantage of this by using ‘influencers‘ to market your product.

– Pinterest Another mainly visual platform, where you can post a picture that gets redirected to your website. Pinterest is also great for SEO, as Google images show Pinterest images.

– LinkedIn The ultimate B2B platform, where businesses are networking with businesses. If you are in the B2B industry then LinkedIn is the only platform you should be taking advantage of.

Don’t know where to start?

My business partner Josh Turner has done for you LinkedIn campaign management services. You will get a pipeline of clients consistently full of 10-15 appointments every month with high-end clients.

Content Marketing

Content is all about creating content for your target market that they will love and want to use you as their go-to resource, then eventually buying from you. The biggest trick to content marketing is to stay consistent, give value and be useful!

Here is a little guide to how you CAN do content marketing in your business.

– Keyword Research

Keyword research is a must done starting point for any content creator. To do keyword research effectively look at Facebook groups and forums with your target market in and look at what the hot topic of discussion is.

– Blog or Vlog Regularly

Blogging or vlogging (video blog) regularly then you will start to attract regular visitors to your website. Make sure you optimize your blog or vlog with specific keywords (in the vlog description).

– Optimize Your Meta Description

Meta descriptions are the small piece of text under the site title on Google search results. Adding the keyword in the meta description so that you rank higher for the keyword. Using a tool such as Yoast SEO (a WordPress Plugin) will help you to do this effortlessly.

– Linking (internal and external) To Create A Structure

What Google loves the most is when websites have a structure. Google wants to see you linking to other pages or posts within your website. Also, Google wants to see you linking out to other websites. Using external websites to back up what you are saying in your post or an affiliate link is the normal method to do external links.

Those are my top 2 tips for driving more traffic to your website. If you have enjoyed this post then please share it on social media or comment below.

Looking for a blog writer in the B2B niche, then send me a message by clicking here

Sourced from Alison Wolf

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Facebook pulls Conservative Party adverts for breaching rules

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By Neil Shaw.

“Good. My thoughts on this kind of stunt are unprintable.”

Facebook has taken down Conservative Party adverts which used edited versions of BBC content.

The corporation told the social network that the adverts infringed on its intellectual property rights, after claiming they could “damage perceptions of our impartiality”.

“We have removed this content following a valid intellectual property claim from the rights holder, the BBC,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.

“Whenever we receive valid IP claims against content on the platform, in advertising or elsewhere, we act in accordance with our policies and take action as required.”

One of the adverts the BBC was concerned about included an edited clip of BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg saying “pointless delay to Brexit”, followed by newsreader Huw Edwards stating “another Brexit delay”.

It also used a caption, saying: “A hung parliament = gridlock. Stop the chaos. Vote Conservative.”

Mr Edwards welcomed the move, tweeting: “Good. My thoughts on this kind of stunt are unprintable.”

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said last week that it was “clear” the footage was “not edited in a manner that misleads or changes the reporting”, adding that viewers can “judge for themselves”.

The move comes at a challenging time for Facebook, as the tech giant faces pressure to ban political adverts altogether in the midst of a General Election.

It’s rival, Twitter, has banned political advertising on its platform, while Google has said it will no longer allow voters to be targeted by advertisers based on their political affiliation.

Last month, the Conservatives edited a video of Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer to make him appear unable to answer a question on Brexit.

In the minute-long video which was posted on the party’s Twitter account, Sir Keir was questioned on ITV’s Good Morning Britain by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid over Labour’s Brexit policy.

The video ends with Sir Keir staring at the camera after being asked by Mr Morgan: “Why would the EU give you a good deal if they know you are going to actively campaign against it?”

However, in the original interview Sir Keir replied to the host.

Feature Image Credit: Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at a press conference in Millbank Tower, London, while on the General Election campaign trail.

By Neil Shaw

Sourced from WalesOnline

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Tips From A CEO and Top Influencer On Developing A Best-In-Class Influencer Program

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By Kimberly A. Whitler

One of the most enjoyable parts of shifting from practitioner (GM/CMO roles) to professor has been the opportunity to connect with a variety of people I would not have otherwise met. Once such person is Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium and a leading influencer of CMOs (see here). As somebody who works with firms around the world and has amassed a very strong social following (@TamaraMcCleary – 307,000 twitter followers), she is an expert with deep insight. I have had a series of discussions with McCleary regarding her perspective on influencers and “influence” more generally. Below, McCleary provides advice to CMOs on how to develop an influencer marketing program for their brand. To read Part 1, which identifies the six different types of influencers and how to spot a “real” from a fake influencer, see here.

Kimberly Whitler: What tips can you provide a CMO who wants to develop a best-in-class influencer program?

Tamara McCleary:

1. Have an outcome for success defined before starting the program. What do you want to achieve? How will you measure success? When I consult with brands, I reverse engineer success by clearly identifying desired outcomes, understanding executive-level expectations, and evaluating KPI’s the program will ultimately be measured against.

2. Do your due diligence when seeking out an agency to help you organize a successful program. Obtain multiple bids (get a second or third opinion, you may be surprised). Look at various companies and don’t just settle on the first one that comes to you. In order to not only make your initiative successful, but secure a bigger budget for your next round, engage with companies that have demonstrated success. Don’t go for the least expensive (or the most expensive), but rather, go with the one which can prove and has demonstrated success and which you are most comfortable with.

3. Think through the compensation structure. Paid, unpaid or hybrid? Are you going to pay your influencers to be involved with your program or just provide inside knowledge, invite them to special events, etc.? Will you go with a hybrid approach where many of your influencers are unpaid but a limited number are paid for their participation? There are a variety of different ways to go when it comes to working with influencers.

4. Understand the process. Make sure the company you decide to work with explains their process thoroughly, and get your results in writing. If the company you are considering is not utilizing analytics in the selection of influencers beyond vanity metrics, you’re not working with pros and abort mission. At my organization, Thulium, we employ a heavy emphasis on engagement metrics to weed-out the false appearance of influence. Remember the purpose of an influencer program: you deserve substance for your spend, so don’t settle for empty fluff.

5. Have a plan for your influencers. Do you know what you want your influencers to do? Do you have a clear strategy for utilizing them? One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when bringing in influencers is a lack of focus and specificity. You run the risk of not getting the most bang for your buck if you leave it up to the influencer to know what you expect of them. Clarity of vision, and focus, paired with a well-defined strategy and most importantly solid execution and continued follow-up are mission-critical to the success of any influencer program.

6. Think long-term. It’s important to look at an influencer program as a long-term relationship-building program. A long-term program will allow your brand to create true brand advocates, powerful brand evangelists, and raving fans.

In prior articles I’ve written about why U.S. marketers are losing the influencer battle, what marketers can learn from top CMO influencers, and mistakes marketers make when working with influencers, there is a common theme—relationship development. The more marketers approach influencers with a partnership mentality versus a transactional/legal mentality, the more likely they are to generate authentic influence. And this is one place where the east is beating the west (see Harvard Business Review article here and HBR podcast here).

Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler and @TamaraMcCleary

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Kimberly A. Whitler

Sourced from Forbes

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