How to Increase Conversion Rates with Google Shopping Feeds

If you sell tangible products online, you already know how crucial Google Shopping feeds can be. But did you know that with just a few simple tweaks, you can greatly improve your products’ visibility in shopping feeds and thus get your products viewed (and possibly purchased) by more customers – thereby increasing your conversion rate?

And perhaps the best part is that it doesn’t require any deep development or programming experience. Ready to learn how? Let’s take a closer look.

Improving Your Feed with Attributes

According to a report recently released by ROI Revolution, simply having a shopping feed is no longer enough. Your feed is your product’s packaging in a world where customers can’t always try it on or feel it. From their point of view, they’re putting themselves at a huge risk simply by choosing to potentially do business with you. A quality feed can show them that you’re just as invested in their satisfaction as they are.

A properly optimized feed means that you don’t just have more data than anyone else, but that your data is better quality.

Your individual product attributes can make a significant impact, so taking the time to do them properly can be the difference between “just browsing” and “I have to have that”. Of course, many merchants settle for filling the basics – title, description and keywords – with whatever’s on the label.

But even doing the bare minimum is doing a huge disservice to your product and sabotaging it before it even gets out of the gate.

So let’s look at how to properly optimize those points before moving on to the more technical aspects (it will be painless, I promise).

Title – Unless you’re the manufacturer of the product itself, don’t waste time or space putting in your company name. Customers don’t care. Use words that they would use when searching for the product, including the brand. Look at these shopping ads for the Samsung Galaxy S6 smart phone:

Image Source: Whoopapp

Here, the customer is most likely to search the exact brand and model – Samsung Galaxy S6. Since you only have 70 characters, it pays to prioritize since only 25 of those show in the feed. So prioritization goes Brand Name > Exact Type of Product > Features/Characteristics – so the full product listing ad might read “Samsung Galaxy S6 Android Smartphone 4G”

Description – Here it pays to look at your product from the perspective of the customer again. Since they are likely only scanning quickly to find a match, it’s a good idea to make your description as visually digestible and helpful as possible.  This is a great place to put features that may not have fit in the title. Here, you want to do your best to answer any questions a customer may have about a product before they click.

Keywords – this is the perfect opportunity to dig deep into those reports and see which words your customers are using to find your product in the first place. Look at the terms that convert best and use those in your description where applicable.

Make Optional Attributes Part of Your Feed

Oftentimes, retailers mistakenly assume that if an attribute is optional, it isn’t necessary. But according to the ROI Revolution Google Shopping report, just because it’s optional doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include it anyway.

Google has a quality score for feeds – and while we don’t know the “secret sauce” of what makes up the algorithm, we do know that products which have all their information complete will have a better quality score than those who do not.  And according to ROI Revolution, certain optional attributes can help further optimize your feed and improve its performance and quality score.

The Alphabet Soup of UPCs, MPNs and Brands

The Universal Product Code, Manufacturer Product Number and brand of your items won’t likely be searched for by customers. They will, however, be used by Google to group and optionally compare products, like the cookware below:

Image Source: ROI Revolution Google Shopping Feeds report

Here you can see that even big-name brands like Macys, Sur La Table and Bloomingdales haven’t exactly done their homework on optimizing their product feeds. But as the report notes, take a look at Austin Kayak. Not only is it a Google Trusted store, which is an added bonus, but it also highlights their offer of free shipping and no sales tax.

You’d be forgiven for cringing when the thought of being stacked up there with your competition comes to mind. But Google Shopping calculates sales tax and shipping as part of the total – found in the “Total Cost” column. Businesses which offer free shipping and no tax automatically become the lowest price – even if they hadn’t highlighted their offer

Now the question becomes, can Google find your products and accurately compare them with others in the same price/feature range? Not if you haven’t taken the time to fill in the alphabet soup of brand, UPC and MPNs.

Size (And Color, and Material) Matter

Merchants are reluctant to input their products’ sizes into their Google shopping feed because they feel like they have to painstakingly measure things like width, height and depth. But at this stage in the shopping experience, customers only need to know the basics.  Consider these examples from the report. Size is important on all of them, but only general information is there for filtering purposes.

Image Source: ROI Revolution Google Shopping Feeds report

The same applies to color. Even if one of your products is “charcoal grey” and the other is “ash grey”, customers are likely going to simply look for “grey” and filter their choices accordingly;  not to mention that even Google’s filtering options tilt toward the very basic:

Image Source: ROI Revolution Google Shopping Feeds report

Material is another matter. Like size, you don’t have to be specific. As the report notes, customers aren’t going to care (in the beginning) about your 90% organic cotton blend when they’re simply searching for “cotton”.

There are many other attributes you can set that will greatly enhance your product’s performance (and therefore its sales and conversions) in your feed, including custom labels. To learn precisely how to set these, you’re encouraged to download the official report from ROI Revolution’s website (email required).

Are You Using Your Google Shopping Feed to the Fullest?

It can seem overwhelming to dive head-first into the details of your shopping feed, but as this report has shown, it’s the little things that matter most. Whether you have 5 products or 5,000, taking the time to submit them right can make all the difference in search, product listing ads and paid ads.

Are you using Google shopping feeds for your own products? How has adding attributes improved your products’ performance overall? Share your triumphs with us in the comments below and let us know your thoughts!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today! Follow @sherice on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ for more articles like this!

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The One Customer Experience Stat That All CMOs Need To Know

Here a stat. There a stat. Everywhere a stat, stat. We marketers sure love our stats. And why not, the right stats can reveal a lot and help us all do our jobs better or at the very least cause us to sit up and take notice. Notice I used the word right in my previous sentence. 

That's because stats are like data in that it's not the big data, it's the right data that matters most. Same logic applies here. 

Like any other topic under the sun there are no shortage of stats when it comes to customer experience (CX). Here's a few before I get to the headline act. 

• 91% of organizations said they aspire to be among the customer experience leaders in their industry, yet only 37% had started a formal CXM initiative.
• By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of its relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human.
• 91% of organizations said they aspire to be among the customer experience leaders in their industry, yet only 37% had started a formal CXM initiative.
• In the U.S. alone, brands lose approximately $41 billion each year due to poor customer service.
• 92% of organizations that view customer experience as a differentiator offer multiple contact channels.

Trust me, there many more stats akin to these that all speak to - no scratch that, scream to the vital importance of the CX in a brand/consumer relationship. 

And before I go on, please don't make the mistake of thinking that CX applies to B2C brands only. Last time I checked there's not one single business in the whole world that's being run entirely by a machine. In other words, just because it says B2B doesn't mean there's not a human on the other end of the line. 

The One Customer Experience Stat That All CMOs Need To Know 

Before I get to the headliner, one more "opening act" — 78% of marketers say they try to differentiate through customer experience.

And without further ado... 

Three out of four (74%) consumers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive customer service experiences.

Let's let that sink in for a moment, shall we? 

Now, go back to the 78% of marketers who say they try to differentiate through customer experience. Sorry kids, as Yoda says you do or do not. There is no try. Not when so much as it at stake. Think about it, there 78% who say they are trying, which means not all 78% are succeeding of course. Then there's the remaining 22% who are not even trying. 

Really?

Just what exactly are these marketers doing? 

This is the bottom line we're talking about boys and girls. The ultimate KPI. The big kahuna of metrics. When I see a stat that shows that 3/4 of people saying they spend more money with my brand based on the right kind of CX... I think I'm going to sit up and take notice, to say the least. 

One final stat, if I may: Over half of all customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey.

That should come as absolutely no surprise to any CMO or marketer of any level. And it speaks to, and yes screams to the need to have the right technology in place and it's why you need to download The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms. There's too much at stake not to. 

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How to Implement Kinder, Gentler Marketing: 4 All-Natural Truths

I have a love/hate relationship with a soap company.

About five years ago, I stumbled across their products online. They boasted rare and unique scents and naturally-sourced ingredients. They were irresistible (to me, anyway). And their prices seemed reasonable.

So, I placed an order. And that’s when my troubles began.

I had to share my email address to complete my transaction. You know, to “receive an order confirmation.”

Within days, I found myself receiving marketing email after marketing email. Coupons. Special sales. New soaps. New scents. Free shipping.

I imagined their marketing department high-fiving one other and saying, “We’ve got one on the line. Quick! Reel her in!”

And you know what? The products I received were exceptional. They smelled amazing (I’m a sucker for a unique scent). So, I stuck it out for a while. But not forever.

Because I knew how wrong my experience was. I knew there was a better way to market your business. A kinder, gentler way — one that doesn’t alienate the very people you want to nurture.

Time went on.

I sent dozens of their catalogs to the landfill — a new one came in the mail every few weeks.

Finally, I gave up. After placing a few orders, I contacted the company and asked them to please — for the Love of All that Is Holy — stop sending me catalogs. I clicked the unsubscribe link in one of their many emails and used the form on their site to let them know why I was unsubscribing.

Then, I stopped hearing from them.

Here we go again: relearning a lesson

A lot has happened in the meantime. Life went on, and I forgot about this company’s overzealous marketing efforts.

A few weeks ago, when my husband asked me what I’d like for Mother’s Day, I said, “How about a gift certificate to (The Soap Company in Question)?” And my husband — smart man that he is — got me the gift certificate.

And guess what? It started all over again. Within just a couple of weeks, I have received three catalogs.

I take full responsibility for the situation. I got myself back on their radar and now I’m paying the price. I do still love their products, but I wish they understood modern marketing techniques as well as they clearly understand the soap business.

It’s obvious to me that they don’t read Copyblogger. Because if they did, they’d know the four basic truths of modern content marketing.

Let’s review them.

Truth #1: Content pulls; it doesn’t push

Rather than blanket prospects in catalogs and crowd their inboxes with sales emails, modern content marketing offers valuable, helpful, and even entertaining information.

The information is so helpful that prospects purposely sign up to receive it. And they stick around when the content they receive is consistently useful.

Read these posts to learn more about creating content that pulls (and doesn’t push):

• How to Attract, Nurture, and Grow the Business-Building Audience You Want
• 5 Remarkable Qualities of Effective Online Content
• 5 Ways to Get More of the Online Attention You Crave

Truth #2: Content offers; it doesn’t demand

Solid, effective content marketing doesn’t stomp its foot and demand in a whiny voice that you pay attention to it.

Instead, it confidently offers a hand — the exact information you need, right when you need it.

One way modern content marketers do this is by using marketing automation.

If my soap company had sent me a little brochure about how to save money on laundry day (and a coupon for their laundry soap), I would have held on to that piece of content. I might have posted it next to my washing machine! It wouldn’t have gone to a landfill like all those product catalogs.

Read these posts to learn more about making offers (not demands):

• Landing Pages: Turn Traffic Into Money
• How to Be a Copywriting Genius: The Brilliantly Sneaky Trick You Must Learn
• 6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons

By the way, our Rainmaker Platform makes marketing automation a snap.

Truth #3: Content entertains; it doesn’t annoy

One of the foundational truths about content marketing is that it must serve your audience if you want it to be effective (more on this below).

And one way to do this is to meet your audience — wherever they are — with content that is so compelling they want to consume it.

At Rainmaker Digital, we do just that with our podcast network, Rainmaker FM.

Podcasting isn’t a requirement, but it’s a great fit for those who are comfortable with audio — who are more comfortable talking than writing.

Read these posts to learn more about creating entertaining (not annoying) content:

• The Art of Being Interesting
• 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue [Infographic]
• 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love

Truth #4: Content is about the consumer, not the producer

Please repeat after me:

“I will resist the urge to constantly write about me, my offers, my company’s history, our goals, our mission statement, or our new products. Instead, I’m going to focus on writing about topics that serve my prospects and customers.”

It’s tough for traditional marketers to wrap their brains around this one. But your customers’ #1 concern isn’t you … it’s them.

That’s why, for example, if the soap company had sent me information about alternate ways to use their soaps (Perfume your pajama drawer! Hang one in your closet! Use it to repel mosquitos!), I would have stayed subscribed.

And an occasional offer woven into the helpful content wouldn’t have fazed me one bit.

A highly effective technique for serving your prospects’ and customers’ ongoing needs is creating a series of cornerstone content pages on your website.

Cornerstone pages serve up foundational information that your prospects and customers need to understand your field of expertise.

Read these posts to learn more about creating cornerstone content pages that serve your audience:

• A Practical Approach to Using Powerful Cornerstone Content on Your Site
• Your Cornerstone Content Blueprint: Answers to 9 Common Questions
• 11 Essential Ingredients Every Cornerstone Content Page Needs [Infographic]

True confession

Here’s the painful truth: I spent the first part of my career creating exactly the kind of marketing materials my soap company is annoying me with now. Direct mail postcards. Sales catalogs. Promotional brochures.

But now I know there’s a better way. A kinder, gentler way to market your business, serve your prospects and customers, and create marketing that is valued, not sent straight to a landfill.

That’s the kind of marketing we teach inside our Authority program. To learn more about it, click the button below.

Learn to create kinder, gentler marketing
inside Authority

The post How to Implement Kinder, Gentler Marketing: 4 All-Natural Truths appeared first on Copyblogger.

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A Day to Be With Family and Remember

“At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. fought in the Civil War, enlisting with the Massachusetts militia during his senior year of college. He suffered numerous wounds and nearly died of dysentery.

After three years, in 1864, Holmes was able to walk away from military service. He would go on to live another 71 years, ultimately becoming one of the best-known and most oft-cited U.S. Supreme Court Justices in history. (He defined “clear and present danger,” for example.)

Holmes would serve all the way until just a couple of months before his 91st birthday. His was a full and vibrant life.

Unfortunately, so many of the men Holmes fought with and against in the Civil War did not make it home. Nor have so many of the men and women who have fought in the wars that have occurred since. So much life unlived. So much potential unable to be fulfilled.

Today, those of us in the U.S. pause to honor these men and women — those whose lives ended, as Holmes wrote, “at the grave of a hero.”

As Ronald Reagan said, “It’s a day to be with the family and remember.”

We’ll be back tomorrow with our usual content schedule.

*****

By the way, if you’re interested in learning the history of Memorial Day — did you know it was originally called “Decoration Day” or that a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time? — here is a short video and article from the History Channel.

Flickr Creative Commons Image via A Nowak.

The post A Day to Be With Family and Remember appeared first on Copyblogger.

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Rainmaker Rewind: Henry Rollins on Entrepreneurial Art

We have a special treat for you on Rainmaker FM this week …

Music legend and entrepreneur Henry Rollins joins Brian Clark on Unemployable to discuss how his career (including his role as frontman of Black Flag) has thrived due to a DIY-producer ethic, why he formed his own publishing company, and how he became a self-made media personality.

There’s a lot of other great content on the network these days, so be sure to check out the rest of the shows highlighted in this week’s edition of Rainmaker Rewind.

1. Unemployable. Henry Rollins joins Brian Clark for a second time to discuss music, entrepreneurship, and the art of self-promotion: Henry Rollins on Entrepreneurial Art
2. Copyblogger FM. Sonia Simone dives into why focusing on email opt-ins is one of the most important content marketing practices: Content Marketing Best Practices: Getting Email Opt-Ins
3. The Digital Entrepreneur. Brian Clark and Jerod Morris explain how you should be using social media to connect with your audience: Does Your Social Media Strategy Need a Mindset Shift?
4. Hack the Entrepreneur. Jon Nastor chats with Paul Kortman about the transition from office life to entrepreneur life: The Reluctant Path to Becoming an Entrepreneur
5. Elsewhere. Charlie Gilkey welcomes Sonia Simone to The Creative Giant Show to chat about marketing, careers, and digital business: Sonia Simone on The Creative Giant Show
6. The Missing Link. Jabez Lebret and Steve Anderson discuss building authority and becoming an influencer on LinkedIn: An Influencer’s Guide to Building Your Authority on LinkedIn
7. Zero to Book. Jeff Goins and Pamela Wilson review the various means of publishing and identify which route is ideal for authors — especially first-timers: Artisanal Publishing and the Hidden Power of the Beginner’s Mind
8. The Showrunner. Jerod Morris and Jon Nastor explain how and why booking guests for your podcast is well-worth the sometimes overly complicated booking process: How to Execute Engaging Podcast Interviews
9. Confessions of a Pink-haired Marketer. Sonia Simone talks web traffic, sales pages, and the one element you need to master if you want your content to work: The Context of a Successful Content Strategy: The Harpoon and the Net
10. Youpreneur. Chris Ducker shares the top five reasons why originality is so important in business and gives away one of the keys to long-term business success: How Being ‘Original’ Can Boost Your Business Faster than Anything

And, one more thing …

If you want to get my Rainmaker Rewind picks of the week sent straight to your favorite podcast player, subscribe right here on Rainmaker FM.

See you next week.

The post Rainmaker Rewind: Henry Rollins on Entrepreneurial Art appeared first on Copyblogger.

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How to Retain Your Customer’s Attention Throughout the Onboarding Process

Onboarding never ends.

Some SaaS teams may approach onboarding as an activity－a one-time event for each consumer.

However, it’s time to change your perspective. Consider onboarding as an ongoing process that continues beyond initial setup.

Whether it’s teaching loyal consumers about new integrations or training newbies about your dashboard, it’s vital that you have their undivided attention.

John Waldron of markITwrite believes that the onboarding stage is “one of the most perilous phases in the whole conversion process.”

So, don’t lose customers just because you failed to capture your audience’s attention. Here are four techniques to get your team started:

1. Offer Ongoing Training

Every customer is different.

Some will adapt quickly to your software. They will learn every feature in one day and possibly point out inefficiencies in your system.

On the other hand, other customers will take longer to learn your platform. They may desire a step-by-step guide to understand everything. And they may need additional content resources to be successful.

To serve both types of consumers, segment training programs based on the customers’ behaviors. This gives everyone an opportunity to learn according to their needs. Moreover, you retain their attention.

“Proactive customer success training is delivered through online courses and on-demand training designed to get your new customers up to speed from acquisition to activation in as short as possible timeframe,” says Miranda Lievers Chief, Customer Officer of Thinkific.

Hubspot offers their customers the option to refresh their learning. The inbound marketing software company has a YouTube playlist dedicated just for product tutorials.

Visage creates training with the help of strategic partnerships. For example, the data visualization company teamed up with Hubspot to help their users tell better stories with visuals.

However, be mindful not to push your customers towards training. It should be at their own pace, not yours.

“[Y]ou should be careful not to take progressive onboarding too far. Let the customer navigate in their own time. There shouldn’t be a need to provide hints on every screen. If you excessively prompt new customers with obvious hints, you risk annoying or distracting your customers,” writes Hannah Levenson, Community Manager at Appsee.

Keep your customers focused. Engage them with ongoing training.

2. Leverage Multiple Communication Channels

Years ago, it took months to communicate with someone. But today, we live in a highly-connected society. And we can talk to someone in a matter of seconds.

In addition, there are various forms of communication channels available to us. With so many ways to get our brand message across, teams forget that the consumer is the one with the ultimate decision.

“By giving people a choice how to reach you, you make your website more user friendly and can drive more leads and sales. Users get to choose the way to communicate that’s most convenient for them, which makes it easier to connect with you and further the relationship,” states Corey Pemberton is a copywriter and marketer.

Experiment with different communication channels, such as text, in-app messaging, and email. If you don’t, your team may risk losing the customer’s interest.

Shopify offers support services via email, live chat, and phone.

Jim Marous, co-publisher of The Financial Brand, says, “Leveraging multiple channels […] allows you to appeal to a customer’s channel preferences while delivering a highly personalized message that will positively impact results.”

Mobile platforms are a popular platform for customer support, with more than 60% of people using smartphones to connect online. Research also shows that “more than 20% of people using Facebook and Twitter seek information about different products and services.” Thus, it may be time for your SaaS to discuss mobile and social solutions.

And here’s a pro tip: Don’t inundate people with bulletins on a dozen different channels. Choose a few and concentrate on delivering attention-getting messages.

3. Incentivize the Process

People like receiving rewards. From an early age, we’re conditioned to expect incentives for positive behavior.

“Everyone loves new and free stuff, and your users aren’t any different. One of the best ways to adopt users or keep them interested in your software is to offer an incentive,” says Omri Erel, Lead Author & Editor of SaaSAddict Blog.

Similar to grade school when earning a passing score may get you an extra recess, reward your customers with a small token for completing a step in the onboarding process

Take advantage of people’s “need to complete.” It’s a powerful psychological driver in customer engagement.

In our brains, completion equates to success. It gives us a sense of relief and accomplishment.

And it can bring back good memories, like when we completed our high school classes or a certificate program.

Offer that same joy to your users. Add a progress bar to the onboarding process.

Each milestone should be simple, yet informative for the customer. You can encourage them to complete their profile or persuade them to learn a new tool.

When setting up an Etsy shop, the brand displays a progress meter showing the next steps in the onboarding process.

It’s essential to reward them for their positive behavior.

“Whether it’s a discount, promotion, or an enticing statistic to show how the steps you suggest they follow will boost conversions, save them money or any other applicable metric. By providing a relevant incentive, people are much more likely to take action,” states Slava Rudenko, Project Manager and Marketing Executive at myTips.

Go the extra mile. Give your customers incentives for choosing your brand.

4. Build Real Relationships

Your SaaS team is told over and over again to build relationships with your customers. But what does that really mean?

For starters, don’t treat your customers like a number. Referring to someone as Ticket #12438 isn’t going to retain your customer’s attention.

Learn more about their goals and interests to create a better customer experience. That means gathering data from several sources.

“The key is to use the quantitative data that you are collecting through your analytics tools, and the qualitative data that you are collecting through customer interaction and in-context messaging to create a individualized experiences that excite and delight your users,” states Brian Rogers, former Director of Customer Success at Evergage.

Real relationships also translate into unbelievable customer service. No one likes waiting 12 days for their concerns to be addressed.

“New clients are going to have a lot of questions. If you want to earn their trust, you need to be prepared with quick responses. Minimal response time should be something you strive to deliver, and it’s even more important when your clients are still getting to know you,” writes, Ron Williams, Business Success Strategist at ConnectWise, Inc.

Customers need a reason to stick around. A good product is a start, but an authentic relationship is better.

Onboard With Purpose

Customer onboarding is an integral part of the conversion process. It’s the difference between higher retention or higher churn.

Offer users ongoing training to help them easily navigate your platform. Deliver customer messages on multiple communication channels. And focus on building genuine relationships rooted in value.

Retain customer attention. Onboard with purpose.

About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.

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Tips For Getting More Out of Marketing Automation

The Friday Five —a collection of five curated articles from around the Internet — topic this go round: Marketing Automation. 

5 TIPS FOR GETTING MORE OUT OF MARKETING AUTOMATION

The good news is that of the 62% of companies under $100 million in revenue that have adopted a marketing automation platform, 85% are happy with their solution,according to a recent survey from Salesfusion. But the bad news is that 15% are shaking aspirin from a bottle, complaining about their tech’s inefficiencies and scaring off the 38% that haven’t yet invested. Here’s a few simple tips to help those in the latter category find marketing automation success.

Read the full story on Chief Marketer. 

Guarantee your marketing automation success with persona-based content

If you really tried to automate all of your marketing, the results would not be good. We have all seen examples of over-engineered, algorithm-based communications, and it always seems to have some element of whatever Hollywood “computers take over the world” scenario is most burned into your brain. Depending on your age, it could be the computer from “WarGames,” “Skynet,” or when the Cylons infiltrated the Colonial fleet.

Marketing automation is not science fiction. It is really about adding technology to marketing in smart ways and automating processes that happen in the background, like collecting data or sending emails.

Read the full story on Marketing Land.

Improve Your Leads, Clean Your Data & More Marketing Automation Secrets

B2B marketing automation success usually comes down to three factors: leads, leads and leads. CMSWire author Michael Rooney reported that according to research by Regalix, the top three objectives for marketing automation in the B2B sector are improving lead nurturing, improving lead quality and increasing lead generation. 

Read the full story on CMS Wire.

How Marketing Automation Streamlines Sales and Marketing

Combined with your customer relationship management (CRM) database, marketing automation software can improve, simplify, and accelerate your sales and marketing efforts. Although marketing automation has been wrongly associated with spam, businesses and customers both benefit from the personalized, timely, and dynamic messages this powerful software enables. 

Read the full story on PC Magazine.

4 tips to help switch marketing automation systems

What's more nerve-wracking than selecting a marketing automation system? Switching from an old platform to a new one. The transition process can be painful, but these four tips can help you avoid some of the most significant pitfalls.

Read the full story on CIO.com.

Be sure to take a close look at a vendor’s analytics, customer service, reporting, and custom dashboard capabilities. These are just some of the factors to know before you buy. Download Busting Common Myths of Marketing Automation: The Reality of the Marketing Technology Journey to learn more. 

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The Price of Digital Commerce Academy Goes Up Today

The day I first told you about last week is now here.

It’s Friday, May 27, 2016 … which means that the price you will pay for an annual investment in Digital Commerce Academy goes up today at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. Mountain Time, 7:00 p.m. Central Time, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time).

The current price is $395 per year. That’s still our early adopter introductory price.

Today at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the price will go up to $595 per year.

The crazy thing about the price is that when we start selling the full courses that are inside of Academy on their own, we’ll charge $495 per course. So the current annual price ($395) is less than the price of one course — and you get immediate access to all four courses.

Plus, you get access to all of the courses we add in the future, plus all of the weekly case studies and coaching Q&As, as well as the community. And it’s a fact … current members tell us that these aspects of Academy are even more valuable than the courses!

To get started with Digital Commerce Academy right now, so you can lock in the low price (for the lifetime of your account, even when the price raises again, which it will), click the button below:

Digital Commerce Academy
Build the Digital Business of Your Dreams
If you’re interested in creating digital products, please don’t hesitate. Your first step will never be this affordable again.

So take this step (before the price goes up), or keep hoping and wishing you’ll someday have the digital business of your dreams, instead of doing what you probably already know you should be doing … which is actually building it.

We’re here to help you with the how, which can sometimes be tricky without a proven plan and some ongoing guidance. We know. We’ve been there.

I hope you’ll take us up on this offer to help.

Click here to learn more about Digital Commerce Academy and join today.

Take action today. Lock in the low price. Then take your next step by digging into the course or case study that is most appropriate for you at this moment.

There’s zero risk with our no-questions-asked 30-day refund policy. Try Academy out and see what you think:

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I’m looking forward to interacting with you inside Digital Commerce Academy!

The post The Price of Digital Commerce Academy Goes Up Today appeared first on Copyblogger.

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How Long Should Your Business Take to Earn Revenue? (FS164)

I heard some advice from an entrepreneur about how hopeful entrepreneurs should pursue their first business idea. (That advice is explained in the podcast below.)

It made me think about how long it can take before your business starts earning revenue.

How long is too long?

Should you be fighting for revenue right out of the gate?

Should you keep a job so you have some financial stability while you get your own business off the ground?

In this episode we share our advice about these question. We’ve been, done and seen a lot in the world of small business, and this episode brings some excellent perspective.

Enjoy!

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How Long Should Your Business Take to Earn Revenue?
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Show Notes

If I’m so Smart Why Aren’t I Successful Yet? (FS159)

How to Afford an Entrepreneurial Lifestyle: A Comprehensive Guide to Minimum Viable Income

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Why B2C Marketers and Agencies Need to Work Together

This is not breaking news by any means but there are currently 7 billion people on our planet right now. And by the year 2100, it is expected to reach over 11 billion according to the United Nations. It is also not breaking news to say that a great number of current 7 billion inhabitants of Earth are consumers; buyers; purchasers of goods, services, wares and so on. 

For example did you know every 30 seconds in the US alone, over 700 McDonald’s burgers, 2,200 Dunkin’ Donuts, and 2,700 Starbucks coffees are sold? The point is with so many consumers making so many transactions around the world there is an undeniable need for consumer brands and their agencies to be closely aligned—now more than ever. 

It used to be that a brand’s internal teams did their thing and their agency partner(s) did theirs. Oh sure there was some collaboration—there had to be. But the lines were pretty clear as to who did what.

That Was Then... 

Those days are gone. Forever. A key finding of a Forbes Insights global study—sponsored by Oracle Marketing Cloud—speak loud and clear as to the changes that are happening, literally as we speak:

• 60% of brand and agency executives say their roles and responsibilities have changed significantly over the past two years. 

As a result, both groups are reengineering their internal organizations and forging new ways of working with their respective agency or brand counterparts. At the same time, the research found that technology is ingrained in marketing operations and—perhaps most significantly of all—agency and brand stakeholders are challenging themselves to analyze and apply consumer data in more sophisticated ways.

Any change is bound to cause either an opportunity or a challenge disguised as an opportunity. And this is no different with:

• 48% of marketing executives stating that evolving brand and agency roles are making successful collaboration more difficult.

One brand that looks at this challenge as an opportunity is PayPal. In fact, agency and brand teams have become so fully integrated that they’re often seen as a single, fully integrated resource for the business.

“Whether it’s the digital agency that’s helping us drive our acquisitions or the creative team, each is immersed with our internal marketing team,” says Patrick Adams, head of consumer marketing at PayPal North America. “I often don’t delineate between my full-time employees and my agency people. They’re all seen as one and the same as the relationships become tighter and more significant.”

Make no mistake about it, however. At the heart of these efforts is a drive to effectively gather and mine rich sources of customer data. 

Kevin Koh, CEO of DDB Group Korea says the coming together of all data is vital. “We are aware that a client will have their own data and their own opinions on what they believe will be best for their brand. But we will also have our own data. We need to collaborate together so that we can share the data and create campaigns and strategies that will create long-lasting impact with consumers.”

There is more to this story including the obstacles brands and agencies face to have better working relationships and how to overcome them—that you need to read it all to truly get the big picture. Download The Age of Brand, Agency & Customer Collaboration to see what I mean. 

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