Category: Marketing

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Networking and Answering “So, what do you do?”

Networking. How do you do it effectively; and “what is the importance of being able to answer the question, “So, what do you do?” in a concise and interesting way?” queries and answers the team at Shepa Learning Company.

“Here’s an example: you are at a company reception with your significant other (who is off talking to someone else) and the person next to you asks what your partner does for a living. You should be prepared, rather than fumbling around for an answer.

“She works at an analytics/data company. I don’t really understand exactly what she does. It’s complex, algorithms and all that.” This is not a good answer.

“Stephanie is a data scientist with Meto Technologies. She designs machine learning models. Major brands use her models to accurately predict a customer’s next purchase. She’s a math wizard.”

The latter answer makes you look smart too. :)” ~ Shepa Learning Company

Networking To Sell

Further, being clear with your messaging makes it easier to sell. If you can connect with the emotional relevance, you will have a much higher close rate with your prospects.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” ~ Simon Sinek

Networking with Cortex Marketing

Networking Is An Art

Networking is an art because it requires imagination. In-person interaction — not social networking, which is a chapter by itself and complementary to in-person networking — is an indisputably critical part in the hunt, and it’s easy to make mistakes.

“Building a network that works is both an art and a science. It is an art in that it requires basic human skills in communication, connection, authenticity and the ability to be ‘in the present’ and engaged with people and conversation. Building a network strategically requires an ongoing analysis and audit of the people within the network and a sustained curiosity around the levels of diversity and connectivity within the group. It’s about seeing the lines that connect people and ideas to create opportunity.” ~ Janine Garner, entrepreneur and Fortune 500 mentor and author

Networking With Me

I love making new connections. You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook… not to mention that I always ask people to connect with me outside social networks, or simply be bold and call me direct at 1-888-502-3523.

Cheers to your success!

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Email Signatures That Drive Conversions

Email signatures can help you drive conversion — and yes, email not dead. An estimated 205 billion emails are sent and received daily, according to The Radicati Group Email Statistics Report.

keyboard email banner

Here are 4 email signatures that drive conversions and that can foster a personal relationship with prospective or current customers, partners, vendors, and industry influencers.

Email Signatures That Drive Conversions

1. Video 

Video content is dominating the visual marketing sphere with 52% of marketers worldwide naming video as the type of content with the best ROI.

So it would only make sense that your email signature is adorned with an awesome promotional video, even one that shows your company’s culture. The purpose of a video is to offer the recipient more information about your brand – in the form of a campaign, an offer,  event, etc. – in a more engaging way.

2. Share News

Got some news you’d like to share with your audience? Perhaps your company has been recognized for its accomplishments or received a nomination or industry award. Spread the good news! Add a tag on to your email signature the link to the news article, blog post, or press release in which highlights your company news or headline. It’s sure to spark interest and result in higher traffic to your website.

3. Include A Call To Action

One of the best capabilities of an email is that you can affix content that invites an actionable response. It’s clever and personable. For example, including a CTA to a case study, white paper, webinar or to schedule a consultation, tells your audience that you’re easily reachable, available, and ready to help them. Concurrently, you can get recipients to share your content.

4. Make It Look Social

While every email you send is an opportunity to acquire a new lead or customer, email signatures that drive conversions should never be without clickable social media icons. Being present (and active) on social media is no longer optional in today’s modern business world, so letting your audience know that you exist on various channels gives them the opportunity to connect with you on their favourite platform.

Email Signatures that drive conversions and Email That Is Not Dead YetSo you see, email is not dead – far from it. We are so fixated on writing the perfect message that we often forget about our signatures — they too can influence interactions, sometimes in a subtle way.

Ask me how you can email market to your target and get the results you desire from your marketing, You can also check out these other blogs about email marketing.

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Choice Paralysis — How It Affects Your Conversion Rate

Choice paralysis; it is one of the most common mistakes businesses can make in the development of their marketing.

What Studies Have Shown.

Have you ever gone to a shoe store and been unsure which sneakers to buy? Have you ever debated with co-workers what you should eat for lunch? If so, you’ve experienced one of the most common and understudied phenomena impacting a consumer’s pathway to purchase: Choice Paralysis.

“Back in 2000, psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar were involved in a study where two tables of jam were presented to grocery-store customers. One had 24 choices; people who sampled from this table got a $1-off coupon. The other table only had six choices, yet people ended up buying more from the table with fewer choices!” ~ Mark Schenker

Choice Paralysis and the Jam-Study Results

Are More Choices Creating Choice Paralysis?

Needless to say, helping client’s fix choice paralysis is one of the cornerstone needs of almost every business I work with. From Landing Pages to Email Campaigns, you will always get a higher conversion rate the less you distract your target form doing what you want them to do.

“Choice can no longer be used to justify a marketing strategy in and of itself. More isn’t always better, either for the customer or for the retailer. Discovering how much assortment is warranted is a considerable empirical challenge. But companies that get the balance right will be amply rewarded.” ~ Harvard Business Review

While choice paralysis does not affect all brands or all types of people in the same way, based on an analysis of more than 200 social media conversations, the data showed:

  • A majority of consumer indecision is around products consumers use every day.
  • 78% of choice paralysis conversations center around products consumers spend a moderate to a considerable amount of time within their everyday lives.
  • Fashion, gaming and mobile device purchase decisions showed the highest levels of choice paralysis, likely because they are directly tied to self-identity.
  • Nearly 1/3 of choice paralysis conversations were about products within the same brand.
  • Over 60 percent of choice paralysis occurs when a consumer must make a decision between one or two items. Most people know what they want, but have trouble pulling the trigger on a purchase.

The Choice Paralysis Analysis

Lastly, one concept that is often discussed when seeking solutions for overcoming the risk of choice paralysis is the concept of removing fuzzy messaging. Fuzzy Messaging tends to not speak to a clear choice adding to the paralysis. Read more about Conversion Rates and Scientific Marketing, and how we can now use methods and metrics to help us market more effectively!

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Technology and the Customer Experience

Technology and the customer experience is ever expanding and 2018 is being called the transition year.

Technology in 2018

“2018 looks to be a year of change for technology, and customer service will need to evolve with the advancements it brings. 86% of customers will pay more for a better customer experience, so there’s no question about the benefits of using the smart technology that 2018 will offer you.” ~ Roxanne Abercrombie

That is an amazing prediction as we have made amazing discoveries over the past 10-years. We discovered that technology alone is cold — and since about 2008, we tech-driven marketers have been wrapping our heads around how we can bridge the gap between human and computer interaction.

Technology and Artificial intelligence — in its many forms — has in itself, opened up many doors of opportunity.

Within the expanded ability to develop and implement seamless technology is moving faster than anyone can keep up with and the biggest benefactor (and also the biggest need) is customer service. I am surely not saying that customer service will not still be “human”, it is just that the interface will get smoother in all capacities.

The Ubiquitous Use Of Technology

Did you know that 88% of website visitors are unlikely to return if they have a bad experience? These things get updated all the time, and candidly, I didn’t know that it was being measured at 88%. My point is that stats like these are cold, and they only tell half the picture. The other half is about the engagement… invisible engagement.

Ubiquitous Technology

But, how do you get that invisible engagement?

That is the challenge. We don’t think about the interface with humans, but we still think about every encounter with the A.I. we engage with. Is it getting better? Of course, it is and at a startlingly fast pace. (Are you interested in Artificial Intelligence?)

So, bottom line, if you want repeat traffic and return customers, you need to optimize your website for customer service — and today’s A.I. technology can help.

Some of the Technology to Engage and Optimize

Tools are available to help mitigate the “immediate engagement needs” of today’s visitor to your main online hub — your website.

Many third-party systems offer engagement options and, for the most part, can all be fine-tuned to fit your typical visitor’s profile. Options include; Time to engage with a pop-up message; overlay, engagements; exit engagements; and much more.

One that I like is Sumo® for site engagement layers/popups. Right out of the box, it is pretty powerful. I also like Olark® for a professional chat.

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Explainer Videos — Easily Tell Your Story

So how do you easily tell your story? One of the best ways is to develop explainer videos!

YumYum Videos Banner

The video is often cited as a tool that helps drive various areas of business performance, and the numbers back up those claims:

97% of marketers say the video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

76% say it helped them increase sales.

47% say it helped them reduce support queries.

76% say it helped them increase traffic.

80% of marketers say the video has increased dwell time on their website.

95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.

81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

69% of people have been convinced to buy a piece of software or application by watching a video.

85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.

Thie following is more about explainer videos, whiteboarding, and marketing videos in general!

“Did you know that using explainer videos on your landing pages can increase conversion rates by as much as 80%? Explainer videos keep customers on your page longer giving your marketing message more time to sink in and ultimately creates the emotional relevance that converts clients.

Not all videos are created equal.

Let me put it this way, a marketing video is like the type of clothes you wear. You can’t wear the same outfit to go to a rock concert, a job interview, and your cousin’s wedding, right? Likewise, animated explainer videos come in all sorts of styles each tailored to different audiences.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular a screencast video is a simple low-budget type of video that showcases how your product or service works — they’re more about education than branding but these work well for prospects who like to try before they buy.

Cartoon-style explainer videos are all about storytelling.

Your company is the hero who saves the day by solving your customers’ problem. They’re usually pretty funny and are great for humanizing your brand and building trust. The characters represent your various brand personas, so it’s important to know the gender age and interests of your target market. If you’re targeting end users, small businesses or startups, cartoon style videos are a great choice.

Whiteboard animation is a super engaging technique because the content is created in front of the viewer’s eyes. These videos are great for explaining complex information in a straightforward way and ideal if your marketing IT solutions or computer software motion graphics offer an elegant and engaging style for businesses with a more serious profile like financial institutions. You can even add some 3d animation to make the video more impressive.

Now you have a better idea of what kind of video could work for your landing page to convert like crazy! As for what to wear to your next pitch sorry, YumYum can’t help you there.” ~ YumYumVideos

Let’s get your marketing actually working for you soon!

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