Tag: 2017 Strategies

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Lists — Are You Making Them? Experts Say They Are Crucial to Success!

Ah, the dreaded lists!

Most of us make lists — shopping, chores, and important dates to remember are just a few. So why do many not make lists for their business? And even worse, why are some touting that task-lists are not good?

List of ListsIt is well established that making lists can assist you in reaching your goals.

The list methodology has driven many to achieve success in business.  Kevin Kruse, author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management asks, “Do you really think Richard Branson and Bill Gates write long to-do lists and prioritize items as A1, A2, B1, B2, and so on?”.

So with all things being equal,  Simon Sinek says, “If we think of everything we have to do, we feel overwhelmed. If we do the one thing we need to do, we make progress.”. While Simon is not specifically talking about list making, I believe this speaks to the positive side of making a list.

Regarding lists, I believe that Kevin Kruse’s Richard Branson and Bill Gates example is not true, not to mention lacks insight.

Of course, these two powerhouse leaders do not make a list themselves — at least as we see lists.

Big Picture Thinking

That said, I can guarantee you that their staff does. Further, “big picture thinking” and running worldwide companies, is drastically different than the daily lives most of us lead.

I ask, “Have you ever had a successful day without a list?”. I have, but it is only on the bigger tasks of running a business. Doing things like reconciling finances and other business necessities. And all my lists range from big-picture to the micro-list within a task.

Not all lists are created equal!

My most successful days are all done via task lists that are in a time-blocking format with ‘to-be-completed’ items or contain a host of details that need to be included in a project.

I happen to use “the listing methodology” for everything in my life. In fact, I even use my calendar to create reminders for me throughout the day. At the end of the day, however, that is simply another kind of list.

Regarding Simon’s point of being overwhelmed, for many, lists are just the fix to keep you and your business on track.

It is true that being overwhelmed is a road to non-productivity — however — a simple task list will help you organize with the same efficiency of your simple shopping list, checking off items as you do them.

lists and Business EfficiencySo, lists are bad?

In my opinion, “No.” — In fact, experts on business efficiency say that operational efficiency is about making the best possible use of all resources.

“Operational efficiency is the capability of an enterprise to deliver products or services to its customers in the most cost-effective manner possible while still ensuring the high quality of its products, service, and support.” ~ Webopedia

For most of us, I propose that list-making is crucial to completing your job with efficiency.  As, with every position, there is a constant influx of new things to do and older things to remember.

Pros and Cons of ListsThe Pros and Cons of lists

  • PROS
    • Better focus
    • It can help not feeling overwhelmed
    • Easier to recall conversations
    • Better manage multiple projects
    • Easier to present idea’s to business associates
    • Big picture understanding of the needed task flow
    • The pleasure of seeing completed tasks
  • CONS
    • It takes time out of your day
    • It can feel overwhelming
    • Your list is lost in the shuffle
    • Relying on it can be a nightmare if you lose it
    • You keep adding to the list and it never ends

I would love to hear your feedback on how you work best. Do you make lists or not? Message me, or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

You can also connect directly with me on LinkedIn.

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Marketing Trends of 2017 and 2018… Are You Up To Speed?

Here Are The Top-5 Marketing Trends That Are Hot in 2017 & 2018

Regarding marketing trends, it is surely a unique time in business marketing. What is hot in marketing is the people and technology that help cut through the din of message noise that we are all plagued with.

1 – Marketing Trends — Increased focus on customer experience.

Whatever you decide to call it — UX or CX — this aspect will be a ‘make-or-break’ component of your vision’s success. You can’t make promises your business cannot keep and this factor will become increasingly important as the global market continues to grow.

The average user will be focused on themselves more than ever before — which is saying something — and video will be the big influencer in the visual side.

Marketing Trends - The Facts

Learn from the experts about the current marketing trends

“Not convinced video marketing is the way of the future? Here are a few statistics to help you understand exactly how popular video marketing has become in recent years, according to news shared by HubSpot: 

 – Video is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019.

 – Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%.

 – Embedding videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%.

 – 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions.

 – According to YouTube, mobile video consumption grows by 100% every year.

 – 64% of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.

 – 87% of online marketers are currently using video content in their digital marketing strategies.

 – A third of all the time people spend online is dedicated to watching videos.

 – Video ads now account for more than 35% of all ad spending online.

 – 59% of company decision makers would rather watch a video than read an article or blog post.

 – Digital marketing expert James McQuivey estimates that a single minute of video content is the equivalent of 1.8 million words.” ~ Forbes Online

2 – Marketing Trends – Engaged and effective measuring of data

If you are in almost any marketing position you will recognize the value of data collection. It drives many decisions in the business world and how it markets to its audience.

Today, both the sources and volume of data collected have exploded. We define “big data” as a capability that allows companies to extract value — and make sense — from large amounts of purposefully collected data design to deliver a more personal experience. But does it really do that?

Marketing Trends - The Success Cycle

3 – Marketing Trends – Lean on the new marketing lieutenants: marketing technologists and data scientists.

So how does all this affect my world, you ask?  Well, for the most part, you will never know it is happening until you venture onto a site that displays advertisements. You will then be faced with ads that serve your interests… coincidence? No, not in the least!

In today’s marketing world, the power and knowledge often lie with the person with the best data access and deepest understanding of that information. As such, all marketing departments should have a data scientist. Data scientists are the equivalent of the traditional ‘senior’ department head.

Marketing Trends - Data Scientist

 4 – Marketing Trends – Personalized everything is no longer ‘coming’, it is here!

Have you ever clicked on a link and then 5 minutes later you are getting ads that represent your clicking and URL behaviour? I would not be surprised by that as almost every behaviour online is now tracked. Not by some nefarious as originally projected, but by entities that resell the value proposition of understanding your customer.

But really, can you understand it all? I say “not easily” and the experts agree.

SOURCE: Kissmetricsthe big data problem

The issue with big data: too much, too slow, too complicated

5 – Marketing Trends – Better video content…and more of it.

As mentioned above, a video is currently being used by 87% of marketers today. But that does not speak to the quality of relevant feed of that video.

I speak of this often regarding the right timing on your messaging — and while video can be used earlier and earlier in the marketing funnel/sales cycle — relevance is going to be key in capturing interest.

I encourage you to download this PDF that shows the relevant timing of your messages.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Customer Experience

Artificial Intelligence — It is no surprise that technology is amazing, but when technology out-thinks, out-creates, and out-plays us humans, are we ready?

Artificial Intelligence

What’s Next? Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Customer Experience… oh yeah, that is already here.

As a professor of human nature — I am not really a professor — Artificial Intelligence (or AI) fascinates me.
The level of “computations per second” needed has been exponentially increasing over the past 30 years and most recently we have begun to have the understanding of the quantum world and entangled particles, which is what led Dr. Feynman to have a vision.

“In quantum physics, entangled particles remain connected so that actions performed on one affect the other, even when separated by great distances. The phenomenon so riled Albert Einstein he called it “spooky action at a distance.” The rules of quantum physics state that an unobserved photon exists in all possible states simultaneously but, when observed or measured, exhibits only one state.” ~ LiveScience.com

The research being done on this is still in its infancy, however, quantum computers tap directly into an unimaginably vast fabric of reality—the strange and counterintuitive world of quantum mechanics.

Artificial Intelligence - Quantum ComputingThe story behind the theory of ‘quantum computing’ is about 35-years-old when Nobel Prize-Winning physicist Richard Feynman fostered the idea of a ‘quantum computer’. 

Physicists — like Feynman — have a unique way of looking at things and while the thought of increasing a computers speed had — in 1982 — been around for about Forty-years, the theory of quantum computing blew the best minds of the day, and in many ways shaped the path we have been on ever since.

Artificial Intelligence in MarketingThe Next Big Step For Artificial Intelligence

It seems that there’s no question that AI will play a large role in humanity’s future. In fact, it is already here. Cortana, Siri, Alexa, Google’s voice all are early AI. But what is it missing? There are many schools of thought, however, there are two main agreed-upon hurdles — computation speed and Interface.

The fastest computers can do 33,860 trillion calculations per second — or in computing terms 33.8 petaflops.

Artificial IntellegenceArtificial Intelligence — Where Are We Today?

In 2010, the Tianhe-2 knocked the US Energy Department’s Titan machine off the No 1 spot. The Titan achieved a paltry 17.59 petaflops per second by comparison. By comparison, even further, the Quantum D-Wave 2 Is 3,600 Times Faster than Tianhe-2.

“Quantum computing differs from classical computing at its most fundamental level. While traditional computers rely on the alternate bit states of 1 and 0 to store data, quantum computers exploit the fuzzy effects of quantum mechanics, allowing its “qubits” to exist as a 1, 0, or both simultaneously, a.k.a “superposition.” So while a traditional computer will sequentially explore the potential solutions to a mathematical optimization problem, the quantum system looks at every potential solution simultaneously, known as quantum annealing, and returns answers—not just the single “best” but nearly 10,000 close alternatives as well—in roughly a second.” ~ Read more about the D-Wave

Artificial Intelligence needs Quantum Computing not because of speed, but because of the interface.

 

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July 2017 — Message From The President

2017 will Surely be an interesting year — in fact, I predict that by year’s end, we will not recognize [its] beginning.

“Alignment between Marketing and Sales is potentially the largest opportunity for improving business performance in 2017. ” ~ Marketo

2017 Loading BarSo What Does It Take To Market Effectively Within The 2017 Business Landscape?

To simply say that Sales and Marketing departments in 2017 are two very unique entities, underserves the depth of this understanding.

Marketing is more aligned than ever to be able to elicit the engagement, in-turn delivering MQL’s (marketing qualified leads) to the sales department whose job it is to make the offer and ultimately close the deal.

The digital and physical process of marketing is — and has always been — about creating and opening a dialog (albeit rarely a direct conversation) to generate leads/prospects who are interested in your widget or service.

This process typically goes something like this:

  • Marketing
    • Make a plan and strategize the campaign process
    • Determine the message target/s and deliver targeted message/s
    • Create and engage the target with compelling messages
    • Create and engage the target with a strong call to action
    • Track & ID conversion/user engagement
    • Pass the baton to Sales
  • Sales
    • Discover prospect’s “exact problem”
    • Discover prospect’s “solution awareness level”
    • Offer solution/s
    • Ask for the money/close the deal

2017 Strategies — Effective Planning For Aligning Your Sales And Marketing

The balance to the Marketing effort has been how the Sales department can then — with the prospective customer having a high solution awareness level —  provide the offer

“No matter how the CRM industry evolves, getting the sales and marketing teams to synergize is organizational goal number one. Every success grows from their collaboration and free exchange of ideas because you can’t serve the customer right when your best people are working blind.” – Marshall Lager (@Lager), Managing Principal, Third Idea Consulting

New Buying FunnelAt the top of the funnel (TOFU), your audience is aware of your brand. Through marketing, they eventually start to see themselves as friends of your brand – they have a relationship with you and feel that they can trust you.

The middle of the funnel (MOFU) is where the traditional sales funnel begins – with a bunch of names in your system. Not every name in this stage is your friend – someone who is “engaged” has had a meaningful interaction with your company, but a “target” is a qualified potential buyer. When your lead scoring process indicates that it’s time to contact someone, he moves further along in the cycle. After talking to an SDR, that prospect is either moved along as a sales lead or is recycled to the “target” stage for further nurturing.

2017 Lead LifecycleSimilarly, a sales rep decides which leads move forward as “opportunities” at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), and which leads get recycled back for more nurturing by the team. The sales rep is also in charge (hopefully) of turning the opportunities into very happy customers.

“One way to build trust between Marketing and Sales is to make them accountable for the same company goal – revenue. In our book, Fire Your Sales Team Today, we refer to this blended team as The Revenue Department. Now, Marketing HAS to deliver quality leads, and Sales HAS to follow up on all leads. These two teams work together to understand the challenges associated with turning leads into new customers, and both teams work toward driving more top-of-funnel leads, close more deals, and shorten the sales cycle – all because they want to meet monthly revenue goals.” ~ Mike Lieberman (@square2), Co-founder and Chief Marketing Scientist, Square 2 Marketing

Because Sales has the option to recycle prospects that aren’t ready to move forward, Marketing has to provide good leads and Sales has to follow through. Everyone works together toward the same goal.

Four 2017 Best PracticesFour Best Practices to Ensure Sales/Marketing Alignment in 2017

  1. Shout it from the C-suite.
    The first step in aligning the 2017 sales and marketing teams is to make sure the goal comes from on high within the company, so the very first [step] is an executive agreement.
  2. Create “pushy” content.
    Content marketing’s role, as it concerns sales, is to push potential customers further down the sales funnel before a salesperson even contacts them. Since customers today research purchases in the early stages of the buying cycle, content marketing takes on the education role once held by sales professionals.
  3. Rethink lead gen in 2017
    Lead generation suffers when sales and marketing aren’t aligned, often resulting in a “spray and pray” strategy that wastes everyone’s time, experts say.“There’s a whole process that needs to be in place where prospects come in from marketing, marketing attracts them to the product or service, and then hands them off to sales,” … “Sales is then able to effectively understand the person’s needs and interests and how they can close the deal.” ~ Jeremy Boudinet, Director of Marketing  at Ambition.
  4. Tie ROI to marketing.
    With a properly aligned marketing and sales alliance, marketing gets a huge help in one area that’s long been a challenge — “Reporting ROI”. Marketers’ budgets are increasing every single year, but it’s very difficult for most CMO’s to really tell what their contribution to revenue is because most marketing leaders are still thinking about the number of leads and not showing what we contributed to revenue.
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