editor, Author at Mediastreet

In Jobs

International Marketing Director – Performance Demand Generation

January 2, 2020 No Comments

Groupon, Dublin.

Groupon provides a global marketplace where people can buy just about anything, anywhere, anytime.

We’re enabling real-time commerce across an expanding range of categories including local businesses, travel destinations, consumer products, and live or lively events. At the same time, we are providing advertising options and tools that merchants can use to grow and manage their businesses. Culturally, we believe that great people make great companies and that starting with the customer and working backward moves us forward.

We are looking for an expert in Paid Marketing to lead our International markets. You will have experience managing / optimizing performance marketing campaigns, building and leading a team, and partnering with analytics and engineers to scale these efforts through automation. You are a marketer and a leader of teams who’s particularly energized by performance marketing, growing efficiently and looking for new areas to optimize. If this sounds like you, please reach out to us.

Key Responsibilities:

Manage all aspects of Paid Marketing for our International businesses, including strategy, forecasting, and technology.
Develop the strategic roadmap for paid marketing and SEO while partnering on overall multi-channel strategy
Collaborate with engineering and product to drive automation for the channels
Build and optimize Paid marketing campaigns for specific KPIs
Create and manage relationships with internal and external partners (cross functional teams and external teams)
Integrate and align the channels into a unique customer centric approach.
Establish and track key performance indicators and other supporting metrics to measure digital marketing effectiveness and ROI

Champion analytical insights and dashboards that demonstrate the specific value of digital platforms and channels
Manage the digital marketing budget and create compelling business cases for future investment

Lead, develop and manage the internal SEM, SEO, Display and Affiliates teams
Partner with cross functional Ad Tech team to build automation, optimization, and scalable tools for the online marketing team
Champion excellence within online marketing team and our cross functional partners

Who you are:

Minimum of 10+ years of work experience in a global organization as a Digital Marketing or business leader, including the strategic management and hands on execution of Display, SEM, SEO and Affiliates, and other digital advertising platforms
At least 5-7 years of people management experience, excellent leadership skills with the confidence to lead, manage and engage team members (both direct and indirect reports)
BS degree in Business, Economics, Math, Engineering, Statistics or related field preferred. Masters degree is a strong plus
Expert in online advertising management and budget optimization
Strong ability to manage external vendors and agency partners
Ability to synthesize data and analytics from a wide variety of sources into concise, actionable insights and recommendations
Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams and influence decision making across all levels of the organization
Strong ability to develop and implement plans while continuously monitoring results and implementing continuous improvement methodologies
Innate ability to stay in tune with and take advantage of emerging technology trends and platforms within web/digital marketing

Click HERE to apply for this job.

In Jobs

Hotel Market Executive (Ireland, UK & Italy)

January 2, 2020 No Comments

Ryanair, County Dublin.

Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline, and No.1 travel website, carrying more than 140m customers per annum, operating more than 2,000 daily flights from 86 bases, connecting more than 200 destinations in 40 countries and operating a fleet of more than 400 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Ryanair has recently announced firm orders for a further 200 new Boeing 737 aircraft, as well as options for 100 more Boeing 737 MAX 200s, which will enable Ryanair to lower fares even further and grow traffic to 200m p.a. in 2024. Ryanair currently has a team of more than 19,000 highly skilled aviation professionals, and has an industry leading 32-year safety record.

The Role

Ryanair is looking to hire a Market Executive, Hotel Supply (Ireland, UK & Italy), to join the Ancillary Revenue team at the most exciting time in its development. The successful candidate for this role will report to the Hotel Market Manager, and the role will be based in our Ryanair Head Office, Dublin.

Results oriented, you will be responsible for delivering direct hotel supply for Ryanair, as we aim to disrupt the established accommodation market in Europe, by offering hotels lower commission rates, passed directly through as savings to customers, as we move closer to being the “Amazon of Travel”. You will join the best team in the industry and work closely with your counterparts in our Digital, IT, Marketing, CRM & Legal teams to deliver your objectives.

The Role

Manage a defined geographical territory of hotels in Ireland, UK and Italy
Sign up new hotels & groups, meet the hotel acquisition and retention targets.
Ensure hotel listings are optimised with engaging content, all room types and rate plans when set live on the Rooms platform.
Contact hotels to get special promo rates (e.g. mobile-only, package, closed-group rates) and ensure our direct rates are positioned to convert on Ryanair Rooms (growing market share of Rooms bookings)
Contact hotels to resolve inventory & rate queries as well as ensure invoices are fully paid.
Provide extranet self-service support for hotels & manage 3rd parties such as suppliers & channel managers
Forecast sales for your portfolio of hotels, and prepare and deliver weekly management reports against agreed KPIs
Work with our Labs team to add features and functionality to the Ryanair hotel extranet & connect to channel managers.
Visit and travel to meet with hotel groups at least 20% of your time

Requirements

Fluent in English & Italian, advanced excel and excellent communication / presentation skills
Relationship builder, business developer, problem solver, results oriented, numbers focussed
5 – 10 yrs experience in Hotel / Travel industry
Degree level or equivalent required

Click HERE to apply for this job.

In Jobs

Creative Studio Account Executive

January 2, 2020 No Comments

Brandface, 47 Terenure Rd E, Rathgar, Dublin.

The Studio is the creative engine within InSight Marketing and breaths visual life into the many campaigns we create for our clients. Aside from supplying the design and artwork to the agency client service teams, Studio also has an enviable list of direct clients. We are looking for a Studio Account Executive with a very unique set of skills.

Inside the Studio, you will work closely with the Creative Director to help develop and deliver POS suites, packaging projects, site branding and brand activations to our own list of Studio clients. We will require you to be able to manage and traffic work flow in and out from the Studio Design team. This involves a close working relationship with the designers and ability to take a brief from the client services teams in the agency. As a candidate you will need to know and be comfortable with design, print & production management, and be very organised with the ability to deliver on timings and quality.

Outside of the studio walls, you will be required to project manage a team of installers and printers, making sure we have everything we need in place ahead of site activations and branding, while also being just as happy sitting in front of and dealing with clients on a daily basis.

Remuneration for this role is €35,000 with 21 days holidays outside of public and bank holidays. Based in our offices in 47 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, D06 Y672, with hours of opening between 8.30am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday.

If you are super organised, great with clients and love working in a creative environment show us how you shine!

Click HERE to apply for this job.

In News

The best persuasive speech ideas & tips

January 2, 2020 No Comments

By Meghan Ryan

Persuasive speech is a form of communication where you convince the audience to agree with your argument and motivate them to take action. The best speeches will feature topics that are thought provoking and interesting to both you and your audience. Check out our list of great persuasive speech ideas to help you get started, as well as general tips to make any presentation more persuasive.

Top 8 persuasive speech ideas

Below are 8 persuasive speech ideas, each with the potential to spark discussion and engagement with your audience.

Does the working environment affect employee productivity? Many have heard the old adage, “A happy worker is a productive worker.” Much of an employee’s happiness can come down to the environment they work in. Discuss how improving the company work environment can help increase employee happiness and, in turn, their productivity. Make suggestions on ways certain businesses can improve their work environment.
Are innovation and adaptation crucial to driving a business forward? In almost any market, it’s important to stay on top of current trends as well as to continue to innovate, offering products and services that your company’s target market will need. Discuss the importance of adapting to the changing market and focusing on innovation to stay competitive in the industry. Talk about some ways in which a company can drive innovation.
Is brand awareness the most important part of a marketing strategy? Marketing is how you present your company to your desired target market. While there are a number of factors of marketing that create this presence for your customers, brand awareness can be one of the most critical. Discuss the ways in which a company can improve its brand presence and how consistency is vital to success.
Should businesses outsource more or keep all they can in-house? Outsourcing is becoming more and more prevalent in business. Many companies try to tackle all they can in-house, whether to save money or to maintain total control over how the company is presented. Discuss the pros and cons that come from outsourcing and make some suggestions on which types of work are more commonly outsourced than others.
Is it better to cater your business marketing to a niche audience? Determining your company’s target market is one of the most critical steps when establishing a marketing plan. While all companies are happy to have every consumer as their customer, trying to cater to everyone is often difficult. Discuss the pros and cons of catering to a niche market versus a wider market.
Should all businesses eventually focus on global expansion? Businesses are designed to grow and evolve, and often that means the possibility of global expansion. But is this option right for every type of company? Discuss some situations and business models where global expansion should be a primary focus and situations and businesses where it does not need to be the end goal.
Is online marketing as effective as it once was? In the modern workplace, the quickest and easiest way to reach your target market is through digital means. Yet, with an increasing barrage of emails and online ads, it’s hard to tell how effective this type of marketing still is. Discuss when online marketing can still be effective and other marketing methods that can support it and help improve your marketing plan.
Should a business focus on its online presence more than any other marketing facet? Some companies rely completely on an online presence while others make online marketing a key component of their marketing plan. Discuss the benefits of maintaining an effective online presence in the digital world and provide some ways that a company can improve its online presence and strengthen it.

Persuasive speech tips

When preparing a persuasive speech, try to keep the following tips in mind so that you stay focused on your goal and deliver a convincing speech.

Always keep your end goals in mind

The purpose of a persuasive speech is to engage your audience and convince them to believe in something that you believe in. Keep your goal in mind throughout the whole presentation and make sure that your word choice and each fact you share backs up your argument. A key persuasive speech tip is to stay focused – avoid spending too much time on backstory and anything that can be construed as a complaint. Your audience needs to know why they should side with your argument. If there is something bad you are mentioning in your speech, don’t just inform them about it or complain about it, convince them to take action.

Speak to your audience

Know the audience that you will be speaking to. Your material should be in a format that can directly speak to them. For instance, if your audience knows little about the topic of your speech, use a problem-solution format to first inform the audience of a problem and then provide a valid solution. This, along with citing credible sources, will give your argument more sway.

Use persuasive language

Word choice is an extremely important element of a persuasive speech. In order to convince your audience to side with your argument, you need to convey confidence and evoke emotions. Some types of persuasive language include:

Exaggerations
Expert opinions
Alliteration
Anecdotes
Appeals
Rhetorical connotations

Support your message with visuals

You can use as many words as you want to articulate your argument, but one powerful image can evoke strong emotions and shift a person’s mindset in a second. For this reason, make sure to incorporate a visual element in your persuasive speech. Prezi’s storytelling format and zoom animations weave visuals into your presentation seamlessly and give your presentation a more conversational feel. This is important in a persuasive speech when you want your audience to feel comfortable and open to new ideas. Learn more about incorporating visual design into your Prezi presentation.

Establish credibility in your opening

You will want to establish yourself as a reliable source as early as possible at the beginning of your speech. The sooner you gain your audience’s trust, the easier it will be for them to see the validity of your points. You can build credibility through storytelling – use a specific instance where a situation occurred or provide examples that resonate with people on an emotional level.

Practice as much as possible

The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll feel and the more confidence you’ll project. Practice with friends or family members and ask them to provide constructive feedback on areas that can be improved. If you prefer to practice alone, consider recording yourself or delivering your speech in front of a mirror.

The best persuasive speech ideas are almost always something that is interesting to the speaker. Their natural excitement about the topic helps them win the audience over with their argument. Choose a topic that is close to your heart and use Prezi to bring your ideas to life.

By Meghan Ryan

Sourced from Prezi Blog

In News

The End of Targeting As We Know It

January 2, 2020 No Comments

By Lance Porigow,

In a fundamental way, a target market is like a galaxy. Both seem like comprehensive, discrete entities, complete unto themselves, until we look closely. But ultimately, a galaxy is an aggregation of micro-phenomena – stars, planets, comets – each with its own discrete existences and properties.

This is true of target markets as well. A target market is a personification of the audience we think is most likely to buy our product. But the reality is that all members of this “market” have unique characteristics, and they often respond to different stimuli.

The New Age of Exploration

Ultimately, then, if we really want to understand either a target market or a galaxy, we need to zoom in and focus on the individual objects and phenomena that compose it. The good news is that just as powerful telescopes and discoveries in physics have allowed us to see into the depths of our galaxy and predict cosmological events, advances in tracking, ID resolution and data science allow us to expand and refine our vision of our audiences, enabling us to understand – and thus better serve – the entire range of people who might be interested in what we have to offer. In this way, we significantly expand our potential universe of consumers, while improving every communication and interaction.

Marketers have historically determined the most likely buyers for their brand by defining the demographic and behavioral patterns of their best customers. This has involved researching preferences, understanding passions, examining purchase motivations, and more.

But there are known flaws with this approach. Specifically, we see time and again that stated purchase intent has been shown to have low correlation to actual sales. And the limiting nature of a lowest common denominator target segment is an even bigger problem. We know there are always people who don’t fit neatly into our target market, but who would still be interested in our product.

The Expanding Universe

Now that computational processing power and data science techniques can simultaneously make sense of the thousands – or millions, or billions – of data points we have about the members of our audience, we have opened up a much more robust form of marketing intelligence; one where there are really no limits to whom we market our products to. This enables us to move past the limitations of targeting to a handful of segments. With all of this data, why not open up the potential to acquire all audiences that we can responsibly identify, reach, and profitably convert?

To test the idea of a single audience versus multiple audience approach, marketers will need to experiment more with pitting traditional research directly against behavioral data targeting. While traditional research may show that an audience is performing well, automated testing with multiple undiscovered audiences may perform just as well – and often exponentially better.

The Final Frontier

As we move into what is conceivably the end game of marketing – a future where a target market is a segment of one, where virtually every individual can be precisely targeted with highly relevant messages (albeit anonymously and with appropriate permissions) – brands need to begin executing at the intersection of data science and creativity. This means rethinking the relationship between disciplines – branding, media, creative, production and data science – If we are to leverage our new, expanded consumer pool. To operate in this new world order, we need to recalibrate how all of our marketing disciplines adapt to enable the individualization (as opposed to personalization) of communications.

For companies of all sizes, new audience identification modeling can generate significant new revenue. The time to experiment with marketing to many audiences is now. By doing so, we can more deeply understand and better communicate with an entire human galaxy of individuals who find value in our brand.

Cosmic.

By Lance Porigow

Sourced from MediaPost

In News

How I Went From Consultant To Coach And Others Can Too

January 2, 2020 No Comments

By Sheryl Lyons,

My entrepreneurial experience as a consultant has been quite a wild ride with many ups and downs, both financially and emotionally. I have learned by now that business is cyclical with ebbs and flows. So how can other consultants like me make the best use of their excess capacity when business is not as strong as they would like? Personally, the answer was “invest in yourself.”

For the past four years, I have run my own consulting business that focuses on helping leaders to manage their workplace culture. Last year, I had an increasing number of clients and colleagues ask if I could provide individual coaching services. As a leader and entrepreneur with a background in human resources and leadership development, their requests seemed logical and in alignment with my skills and talents. However, I have hired my share of coaches in my own career with mixed results. I knew that whatever I chose to do, I wanted to do it with the right knowledge, credentials and credibility. My journey to coaching and my advice to others can be summed up in five essential steps:

1. Find a coaching course.

In an initial online search, I learned that demand for coaching was growing faster than supply. That gave me confidence in my timing. To ensure I was doing it properly, I researched coaching certification providers and enrolled in an online class. There were many certification classes available, so I selected one that fit all of my criteria: It was accredited by the International Coach Federation, had positive student reviews and offered courses online with a feasible class schedule. I loved it so much that when the first class ended, I immediately signed up for the next one. These courses commanded a good chunk of my time for two months, but because my client count was manageable, I had the time and energy to commit.

As I progressed through each class, I also rediscovered a love of learning. This was the first investment I had made in myself since completing my MBA some 12 years ago, and I had forgotten how fulfilling and rewarding it was to venture into something new. At the end of the courses, I became a Certified Master Coach (CMC), thereby taking the first step in creating a completely separate business line to complement consulting.

2. Define your target market.

In addition to learning the ethics and proper techniques of effective coaching, the courses helped me define my target market, which was different for nearly every student in the class. Coaches specialized in health and wellness, marriage and relationships, career transition and — my specialty — business leadership and executive coaching. Knowing your target market will help inform your overall marketing strategy and approach.

3. Create a coaching agreement.

Next, it was time to establish packages and pricing and create my coaching agreement. I conducted my own anecdotal research in my hometown of Houston, Texas by polling my network on whether they had ever hired a coach and at what price point. That data, coupled with my own experience of previously hiring two coaches, solidified my pricing structure. The coaching course also allowed participants to review and compare one another’s agreements. From that exercise, I streamlined and reduced my lengthy legal document and took pieces from several in our cohort to include clauses I hadn’t considered, such as cancellation, refund and record retention policies.

4. Market yourself as a coach.

Once I had those components solidified, I strategized with my marketing team on how to showcase our new coaching offering and build a client base. We began with an email campaign announcing coaching opportunities and my new coaching credential. We then updated all sales documents and my website to include the coaching option as a complement to consulting. I also worked coaching into the conversation with existing and prospective clients to practice and hone the messaging.

5. Encourage others to invest in themselves.

This journey has served as a reminder that our employees desire to be invested in as well. That feeling I had rediscovering a love of learning is not unique to me, and it inspired me to be more intentional in supporting my clients and my employees in their ongoing development. I was reminded that, as leaders, we have the privilege of setting the example and showing our employees that you’re never too old or too established in your career to try something new.

There’s a saying that goes like this: What you choose to do when you have nothing else to do reveals your true character. Today, I have as many coaching clients as I have consulting clients. It is my hope that other professionals can learn from my experience and use a slow season to master a new skill that can propel you forward.

By Sheryl Lyons

Founder and President,Culture Spark, LLC. Culture Spark helps leaders build culture as competitive advantage and turns managers into leaders

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Go-To-Market Strategy [The Ultimate Guide]

December 20, 2019 No Comments

By Aashish Pahwa

If you are an experienced entrepreneur, you’d probably know that having a brilliant team, building a disruptive business model, and designing an impressive business plan isn’t enough to woo investors to fund your startup. They also want detailed answers to whom you are going to target and why will they buy your product, why is this the right time to launch your product, and how you’re planning to create a demand for your product.

Well, if you were unaware of this, here’s a complete guide explaining what is go-to-market strategy and how do you bring a product to market to make it stay for long.

Table of Contents [show]

What Is Go-To-Market Strategy

A go-to-market strategy is an action plan that specifies how a business will utilize its internal and external resources to penetrate into the market and take its value proposition to the end consumer to achieve a competitive advantage.

Few keywords that should be focused on in this definition are –

Action Plan – Go-to-market plan is a detailed plan outlining all the actions required to accomplish the desired goal. It includes all the answers to ‘what to sell?’, ‘where to sell?’, and ‘how to sell?’.
Market Penetration – A go-to-market plan is usually associated with the brand or product launches where either the company plans to create a demand for its product by disrupting the industry or catering to the existing demand in a different manner by highlighting its value proposition.

Competitive Advantage – GTM strategy is all about establishing a competitive advantage in the market to create a sustainable demand for the brand in the long run.

Why Do You Need A Go To Market Strategy?

If you’re planning to bring a new product to the market, the last thing you would want to do is go out unprepared.

Remember this – There’s always a right time and a right way of doing things. And, there’s always a strategically decided market where the product is initially launched.

A GTM strategy is a carefully thought step-by-step plan which guides the company on bringing its product in the market to reach market penetration, revenue and profitability expectations.

It reduces the risk of the product being failing in its initial stages and also opens the doors to improve the product according to the response and feedback from the initial launch.

What Does A Go-To-Market Plan Include?

A go-to-market strategy is the what, why, when, where, and how of the product launch. An optimum go-to-market plan includes but is not limited to the following –

What?

What is the problem your target market faces right now?
What’s your solution?
What is the actual product?
What’s your vision?
What is the value proposition?
What is the alternative to this product today?
What’s the pricing strategy?
What are the channels you’ll use to distribute the product?
What are the roles of different teams during the product launch?

Why?

Why is this the right time to launch the product?
Why will they choose you?
Why is this the right market for the product launch?

Where?

Where is the product launch scheduled to happen?
Where did customers find their solutions until now?

When?

When is the product launch scheduled to happen?
When are the next steps scheduled to happen? What’s the timeline?

How?

How are you planning to market the product initially and after the launch?
How do you plan to expand?
How do you plan to collect feedback and improve the product?
How the product will solve users’ problems?
How will the product stand out?

The Process Of Building A GTM Strategy

Without a doubt, there’s no one-size-fit-all go-to-market strategy. Each product and market are different, therefore each GTM strategy differs from others on the basis of –

Nature of the product,
Nature of the market,
The target market,
Existing competition,
Existing demand,
Company’s vision and mission, and
Future projections.

But at the same time, building a GTM strategy is as important as developing your product. You’ll never know if it’s the right time to launch or if the market is even ready for your product until you plan your GTM strategy.

Identify The Perfect Target Segment

Identifying and defining the right market segment for the product is very important before the actual GTM strategy is even drafted. In the case of a new product, the company has to decide whether there are existing customers that might be sales prospects or whether it has to seek an entirely new set of target customers.

Understand Who Influence Buyer’s Decisions

Once the target market is identified, the company needs to identify the buying center next. Not everyone in the target market is the buyer. The set includes –

Initiator – The one who starts the buying process. He shows the initial interest.
User – The actual consumer of the product.
Influencer – The one who convinces others that the product is important and is needed.
Decider– Who gives the final decision for the purchase.
Buyer – Who buys the product from the company.
Approver – The authoritative person who authorizes the actions of deciders and buyers.
Gatekeeper – The person who controls the flow of information. He’s the one the marketer has to pass through before he reaches the decision-maker.

These together are known as the buying center. Identifying them and creating their personas help the company form a detailed hypothesis on who to target, who to market, and who to sell.

Understand The Buyer’s Journey

A usual buyer goes through six stages before making an actual purchase

Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Intent
Evaluation
Purchase

His mindset and activities during each stage need to be considered by the company to find the barriers which stop him from buying the product.

However, in a marketer’s perspective, these stages can be divided into just three parts –

Top of the funnel (Lead Generation) – where the customer is made aware of the product.
Middle of the funnel (Lead Nurture) – where interest is aroused in customer to buy the product
Bottom of the funnel (Sale) – the result of marketer’s efforts and the customer’s journey.

Define The Value Proposition

Once the target market hypotheses are formed. The next step is to map value for every member of the buying center and for every stage of the buying process. A value proposition is the promise of tangible benefits which a customer will receive from consuming or experiencing the offering.

Defining value propositions for every member of buying center and for every stage of the buying process makes it easy to create a communication message for everyone and every stage and eventually makes it easier to sell the product.

Find The Product-Market Fit

Next, the company has to work on validating these hypotheses either by conducting first-hand surveys or by releasing an MVP to analyse audience response and take feedback.

Product-market fit involves validating that the product is desired by the market and has the capability to satisfy its need.

Finding the product-market fit is a very important strategy as it decides whether the efforts of the team were in the right direction or not. It helps in saving a lot of effort and resources which could have wasted if the product had been launched for the wrong audience or focus had been on a wrong value proposition.

Choosing The Apt Marketing, Sales, & Promotion Strategies

This stage involves looking closely at the external and internal environment of the business to find out –

The right time to release the product
The most efficient channel of distribution
The most profitable pricing strategy
Effective sales strategies
The scalability model
Effective communication messages, channels, and strategies

The next step involves looking again at the buyer’s journey and forming strategies to create demand within every stage of the marketing funnel.

And then comes the product launch.

Bottom-Line?

In this era where 3 new startups launch every second, there is a huge need for planning things out to find a position in this over-crowded world. The go-to-market plan is just that. It helps you plan what, when, where, why, and how are you going to penetrate the market with your offering and why the market will love it.

By Aashish Pahwa

A marketer, a dreamer, a traveller and a philomath. I prefer stargazing to spending nights in clubs.

Sourced from FeedDough.com

In News

How to Write Digital Marketing Copy Which Attracts the Right Consumers

December 20, 2019 No Comments

By Lena Elkins

People often ask me how I’m able to write such compelling copy – which is funny to me because I remember a time when a second-grade giraffe could’ve strung together a better sentence than I could.

Sitting down at my computer to force out a Facebook post which sounds inspirational, but not cheesy, but still value-centered, but not too sales-y, was a daily struggle for me. Writing a sales page that articulated all of the necessary elements – the testimonials, the program break-down, the fast-action bonuses, the emotionally triggering personal before-and-after story – combining all of that without it coming out a complete mess is tough at the best of times.

Sound familiar?

You too might feel like you pour your blood, sweat, and tears into every email, every lead magnet, and every social media post. But when it comes to a reaction, it’s crickets.

That’s what we’re looking to fix here.

In this post, I’m going to outline five core elements I’ve implemented which have enabled me to start producing copy that has gone on to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, attract thousands of die-hard fans and gain the attention on massive international publications.

Essentially, these are my hacks for attracting “Believers” – which, in my digital community, is what we call enthusiastic buyers – over and over and over again.

1. Before worrying about copy, make sure your target market is right for your offer

“Lena, everyone says they can’t afford me. How do I attract better people with my content?”

I hear this a lot – but sometimes (actually, a lot of the time), the issue isn’t the people. It’s your offer that’s making the crucial mistake.

Ask yourself – are there really Believers who will buy what I’m selling?

Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how brilliantly written your copy is – if your product isn’t built for Believers, they won’t buy. This comes down to the “50 to 100 Rule”, which I’ll explain further in a minute. But first, let’s start with some examples of offers which are inherently designed for people who are not going to buy, no matter how many times you flip it.

You’re selling vegan educational courses that teach people how to be vegan on a budget
You’re coaching college students on how to study better
You’re showing travelers how to backpack across Europe on $7 a day

These audiences are not going to become paying customers – no matter how good your copy is, it will never change the fact that…

They can find a lot of resources on all three of those topics for free on YouTube, blogs, and Pinterest, and will opt for free options 9 out of 10 times
These issues aren’t urgent or pressing for the potential buyer
Even if they do buy, they won’t invest at a high-ticket level, since they’ve framed their entire lives around the Budget Mindset

In order for your offer to attract High-Ticket Believers, your offers need to get people from 50 to 100, not 0 to 50. Not beginners. Not budgeters. Not half-in-half-out folks.

People who are already committed to your area of expertise, people who have already put their money where their mouth is, people who feel the urgency of solving their problem and a commitment to improving their lives.

People who are already 50% of the way there – they just need to get to 100%.

Three offers that would be aligned with the 50 to 100 Rule, verses 0 to 50, are…

A vegan health retreat for older women who are committed to losing weight and regaining their energy through natural lifestyle choices. They also want to come together with like-minded women to eat delicious food, have a relaxing vacation and learn from various vegan experts on its benefits.
A coaching program for busy CEOs and executives who want to be more focused, organized, and energetic throughout their workdays. They know that if they don’t get a hold of this now, they’ll be completely burned-out by the time they’re 60, and will feel that they’ve wasted their lives away.
A course on how international speakers and experts can leverage credit cards and airline points to get extra vacations throughout the year.

See the difference? These are all people who are already invested in their goals, people who urgently want to solve a problem, and people who walk their talk, and are committed to reaching a solution.

So before blaming the wrong people for being attracted to your offer, examine what you’re selling and see if it’s inherently designed to attract low-commitment, low-budget people. And if that is, in fact, the case, change it up.

2. Learn which language to avoid

Certain phrases, ideas, and words will attract plenty of people, but most of them, again, will be low benefit consumer at best. Once you eliminate them from your vocabulary, it will drastically change your conversions.

Here are some classic topics you want to avoid in any format:

Struggling to pay for rent, car payments or bills
Just “scraping by”
Feeling limited by finances
Feeling broke
Struggling with debt
Operating on a budget

Any topics that will resonate with uncommitted people – who are generally looking for a quick, overnight solution – is what you want to avoid.

At the same time, you also want to avoid big, shiny, general promises that fall into phrases like:

“You can make X amount of dollars in X amount of time”
“Zero risk to you”
“10X your income this year”
“Make sales/change your life/lose 10 pounds/fix your relationship this week”
“Building a business/losing weight/fixing your relationship has never been easier”

Why?

Because:

Low target audiences love quick, easy overnight solutions
Believers can spot “its too-good-to-be-true-ness” from a mile away and won’t opt-in
The above statements are “easy access” – they aren’t dialed into a particular demographic, which means that anyone can say “Yes Please”. You don’t want to attract everyone, and by stating broad, shiny promises, like these above, there is a low barrier for entry.

Think about it – when you go to the nail salon, do you want a big sign out in front that says “We do all nails, including those that are covered in warts, for free, no risk to you”. Obviously not. Access to all is not what you want for your business. Stay exclusive. Have standards. And if that means “scaring” people a bit by showing that the transformation you’re offering isn’t easy, and it requires hard work, then do it.

In my business, we would rather be blatantly transparent and turn people off – but have the right people join our high-ticket offers – then have everyone be booking sales calls with us.

This is why it’s important when people are reading your sales pages or applying for your programs, to clearly state who this offer is not for. Why it isn’t for everyone.

Remember: Only use language that attracts 50 to 100 Believers.

3. Become obsessed with your target market and their whole experience as humans

Once you fully understand this, you can embody it, and empathize with their experiences to the point where you can articulate it better than they can. And the more specific you can be in your copy, the better.

Answer the following questions to get to this level with your target market, as it pertains to your expertise:

What are your target market’s deepest fears? What keeps them up at night?
What excuses (or “barriers” in their minds) prevent them from taking action in your area of expertise?
What motivates them on a daily basis? If they solved the problem that you helped solve, how would that change their lives?
What are their ultimate life goals? Where do they want to be five years from now?
Why have they not achieved that goal, or made progress, on their own?

You want people to read your copy and say, “Wow, I feel like “so and so” knows me so well – how is that possible?”

The deeper that your target market feels that you truly understand them and their struggles, triumphs, and goals, the closer they will feel to you – and the closer they will become Believers.

4. Get hyper-specific with your target market and/or your strategy

If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one. Get clear on one of the two in order to attract the Believers you want:

The specific person you serve

The specific strategy you teach

This is what will attract Believers, and turn you from being a generalist into a specialist.

For example, if you’re a mindset coach for women, you want to identify the target market or strategy within that market sector which you’ll focus on.

Potential Target Markets:

Women in corporate jobs struggling with time management, overwhelm and burnout
Women who are mothers and are having a hard time prioritizing themselves and have lost their self-worth
Women who are full-time entrepreneurs and are scared to become leaders. They need help gaining confidence around getting on stage and speaking, going Live on Facebook and positioning themselves as an expert

Potential Strategies:

Practical thought work application
Journaling and reflection
Meditation and yoga
Mantra development

If you’re a mindset coach who serves all women, you won’t attract the women you want. So again, get clear on your niche and work that into all of your copy. Don’t be afraid to turn people away. The more specific you get, the higher quality leads you’ll attract.

5. Read

I personally have read dozens of autobiographies written by women I love, and the ways in which they’ve articulated their stories, experiences and values have resonated with me so deeply that it’s influenced how I connect with my audience.

Basically, I didn’t re-invent the wheel with my approach – I studied what I saw others doing well, and adopted what I liked.

Aside from practicing, the best way to improve your copy is to read the copy of those you admire. If there are specific entrepreneurs you look up to, study their lead magnets, blog posts and email blasts. If there are specific authors you admire, read their books repeatedly, if there are specific journalists you admire, read all of their articles.

This is the “behind the scenes” work, which isn’t sexy – and it’s work that no one sees. But it’s what turns an average writer into someone who can create engaging, effective content.

I also recommend reading physical books, not just listening to them on AudioBooks or some other app. The reason why is because you pick up a lot of grammar tricks and see how to break down ideas in a way that isn’t overwhelming, but compelling.

As you can see, this is not an ‘easy trick’, there’s work that goes into being a better writer, and appealing to the right audience. But if you put in the time and effort, you’ll eventually see the results. Take my word for it.

By Lena Elkins

Sourced from Social Media Today

In News

How to Use Twitter to Promote Your Business

December 20, 2019 No Comments

By Thomas Griffin,

When trying to get the word out about your business, you might feel discouraged by all the competition out there. Thanks to the rise of social media over the last decade, Twitter and platforms like it are no longer just for user entertainment; rather, businesses can benefit from using them to promote their brands and further their reach. With more than 330 million monthly active users, there are endless opportunities to meet your objectives.

Twitter is a valuable resource you can use to reach your desired business goals, but if it isn’t used correctly, you’ll fail to see positive results and return on investment (ROI). It’s a great asset to have to promote your business because its users are constantly looking for new, fresh content to devour from brands they love, and that brand could very well be your own.

Let’s look at the different ways you can leverage your Twitter profile to promote your business and drive results.

Lay out your goals.

No matter where your business is at in terms of success, it’s essential when you create your business account that you know what you want to accomplish with it. Without a clear idea of the results you want to see, it’s difficult to form a marketing strategy that helps you reach your objectives.

What do you hope to achieve through your Twitter account? A few common goals businesses have with their profiles are:

Providing customer service
Furthering reach
Increasing sales
Building brand awareness
Keeping up with industry trends
Improving engagement rates

Once you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, it’ll be that much easier to create content that brings you closer to reaching your goals.

Optimize your profile.

Promoting your brand doesn’t just have to do with creating a content marketing strategy and posting as frequently as possible. If you don’t have a solid foundation to go off of first and foremost, very few people in your target audience will be able to find you in the first place. That’s why you need to optimize your Twitter profile.

There are several components to pay attention to within your Twitter profile, including the:

Bio
Header image
Profile picture
Location
Website

It’s important to note that while filling out all the information you can is important, offering value straight off the bat is the most important thing you can do for your profile. Instead of simply stating what your business does or what niche it’s in, go a little further and tell users how it benefits them.

Turn on Twitter analytics.

How beneficial would it be if you could see exactly how your followers interact with your social media content? Thanks to Twitter analytics, you can monitor user engagement, explore your audience’s demographics and measure individual tweet activity. With this information readily available, you’re able to decipher what they’re most interested in and what they don’t care much about, which helps you create a refined content marketing strategy that boosts your following.

It’s essential to track your social analytics and monitor them regularly because, just like your brand grows, so will your audience’s interests and needs. Without staying on top of the content they’re most engaged with, you won’t be able to optimize your content marketing strategy accordingly.

Add video.

If you want to increase engagement on your posts, incorporate more video content. Twitter reports that tweets with video are six times more likely to be retweeted than tweets with photo and three times more likely to be retweeted than GIFs. Your videos should be relevant to the post you’re creating and spark interest in your audience enough to boost engagement.

Coca-Cola used video in its ads and, as a result, received a 53 percent viewing rate from its target market. Video, and visual content in general, outperforms other types of media because it’s good at catching people’s attention and keeping it there. Make sure your video content isn’t too long, preferably no longer than a minute, so users don’t lose interest and are encouraged to check out your brand further.

When done correctly, businesses can use Twitter as a valuable avenue to increase engagement, improve ROI and build brand awareness. It’s essential to optimize your profile, monitor analytics and incorporate video into your content marketing strategy if you want to have the best possible chance of reaching your target market and achieving your goals.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Thomas Griffin

Thomas Griffin is co-founder and president of OptinMonster. He is an expert software architect with a deep knowledge of building products for the mass market.

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Brand Management: 5 Effective Principles

December 19, 2019 No Comments

By Oshin Kamble

With digital marketing becoming an influential approach for most brands, the importance of brand management is often underrated. Simply put, brand management is the science of creating a positive relationship with the target market. However, it also entails the various facets of the customer’s association with the brand and even the relation to the purchasing process. There are five effective principles of brand management which are important for most brands to effectively manage their target market and garner a positive response from the consumers:

Know your USP

Each brand has a unique selling point. This USP sets your brand apart from your competitors. For instance, Idea’ “India ho Gaya hai 3G me busy” ensured that they came up as the leading telephonic brand for the 3G technology. Similarly, the affordable rates offered by JIO for 4G technology set the approach as a brand differentiation key. In order to create it, the product’s position needs to be fit properly in the market. Here, the demographics of the consumer base will play a huge role in understanding what kind of branding will intrigue them.

Relate your marketing communication to brand awareness

Very few people understand the difference between marketing messaging and effective marketing communication. All the communication that goes out through your brand should include your USP and be associated with the brand awareness that you are trying to create. Do not target just traction from your branding approach, instead, include targeted consumer traction for your brand. This will ensure that your brand does not fall prey to false growth but instead sees the qualitative approach.

Keep developing your brand internally

The main idea behind conquering the right market is that you would need to keep evolving with times. Everybody involved in brand development should learn to collaboratively ideate and keep introducing changes from the very inside. One way to do is to get buy-ins from the other departments which co-create the core of your brand. You can also get a buy-in from the external stakeholders. Learn to incorporate different views into your brand which you may have ignored initially. Also, always include the R&D department. Your research and development team can tell you what is being appreciated in the market and how changes can be incorporated to align your brand with the same.

Create a winning influential marketing strategy

Word of mouth is a strategy that never loses. With our entire world revolving around following the right influencers and following targeted propagators- approaching a strategy that includes influential marketers would be very helpful. There is such a thing called a third-person effect. Just ensure it does not look like an obvious product plugin. Have a subtle influential marketing strategy where the influencers you choose do not look sold and your brand management is done subtly.

Do not underestimate a brand management software

One important pointer to remember is that even though a brand may evolve, the core of it never changes. Simple elements like colour, messaging, the shape of the logo stay in the minds of the consumers. So, they start to resonate with them. With brand management software, you can adopt evolution while keeping the core principals the same.

Summing up

While brand management has a lot of facets, the simplest of principles can give you the much-needed head start. This simple approach would surely help you in making an effective and influential brand management strategy. While most of these are already adopted, but there are a lot of simple mistakes pertaining to these principles that we make on a regular basis.

By Oshin Kamble

Sourced from iamwire