Tag Archive for: nab

 

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and/or other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS, social media, and apps.

In 2016, the inevitable happened, and mobile overtook desktop as the primary device used to access websites. This didn't come as a huge surprise because, as far back as 2015, Google reported that more searches were conducted on mobiles than on any other device category.

Mobiles are disrupting the way people engage with brands. Everything that can be done on a desktop computer is now available on a mobile device. From opening an email to visiting your website to reading your content, it's all accessible through a small mobile screen.

Consider these stats:

- Mobiles now account for nearly 70% of digital media time [Source: comScore]
- Up to 60% of searches come from mobile devices (Source: Hitwise)
- U.S. consumers spend 87 hours/month browsing on smartphones (Source: Smart Insights)
- 53% of American consumers use their smartphones to access search engines at least once a day (Source: Google and Mobile Marketing Association Survey)

What Do Top Marketers Think About Mobile? Surveys from Salesforce, V12data and Adestra:

- 68% of companies have integrated mobile marketing into their overall strategy
- 79% of marketers believe mobile is essential for their business
- 77% of marketers say mobile generates return on investment
- 71% of marketers believe mobile marketing is core to their business
- The two most popular ways companies are optimizing for mobiles are (1) using a simple template that works for all devices (52%) and (2) creating a mobile responsive email template (39%)




I think we need to pay attention!

... And if we don't optimize for mobiles?

- Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor's site instead. (MicKinsey & Company)
- 57% of consumers say they won't recommend businesses with poor mobile site design. (Source: socPub)

Here's what to take into account to optimize for mobile:

Your company website or blog MUST BE "RESPONSIVE": If you use WordPress, WIx, SquareSpace, Weebly or Shopify, make sure the Template or Theme "responds" to device screen size: Desktop, Tablet, or Mobiles.

Yet, while responsive design has been around for a while now and is fairly well-established, the majority of sites tend to fall down on usability. That is, the majority of sites are still built for desktop and then dialed back for mobiles. That form-fill that was mildly annoying on desktop is an absolute pig on mobiles. Even if it is responsive.

TIP: BUILD YOUR PAGES WITH MOBILE IN MIND FIRST. TEST ON MOBILEs. THEN DESKTOP

Avoid Flash or Java: Apple products do not support Flash and have declared that they have no intention to do so in the future.Many phones do not support Java, and even if they do, using Java can be a huge drag on load time.

Optimize Your Images for Mobile Devices: Do not use HUGE files size images which will cause your page to load slower or visitors will leave for another site! You can use WP Smush to detect and compress large images files on your site.

Google Analytics: Make sure Google Analytics code is installed on your website so you can see mobile activity. You will be amazed.

Writing for Mobile Devices:

Tablet for writing

 

Website

- Phone screens are small. Write in a way that's easily readable
- Use bullet points
- Write short, punchy headlines
- Keep paragraphs brief
- Use text size that is legible

Email

- Short email Subject line
- Use mobile responsive email design template
- Headline Analyzer is a great tool to preview subject lines

Test Your Mobile Site with Google




If your pages aren't optimized for smartphones, they won't rank in mobile search at all. With over half of Google queries coming from mobile devices, that's not something you can put up with in 2017. The focus on mobiles will likely continue with Google's commitment to switch to mobile-first indexing.

There are three great tools that Google offers to test your website:
- Test Your Mobile Speed: Most sites lose half their visitors if loading is slow.
- Analyze you website performance with PageSpeed Insights so you can identify ways to make your site faster and more mobile-friendly.
- Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly: Test how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device.

Mobile Marketing with SMS (Short Message Service)

SMS or Short Message Service is undoubtedly an excellent strategy for businesses wanting to connect with more customers.

If boosting sales and improving communication with customers are on your list this year, but you don't have a hefty budget and hours of spare time; SMS is a small, yet powerful, marketing tool not to be overlooked:

90% of SMS messages are opened within 3 minutes (compared to 90 minutes for email)
The open rate of SMS is 98% compared to 22% for emails
Text messages are 8x more effective at engaging customers
Almost 50% of consumers in the US make direct purchases after receiving an SMS branded text

REMEMBER:

Marketing directly to mobile devices is more personal than targeting an audience through other channels.
When reaching someone on a mobile device via SMS you are reaching that person in his/her pocket or purse
Be personal, respectful, and clear
Keep the text under 160 characters
Don't use slang or abbreviations
Offer the recipient something of value
Make it clear who is sending the message
Craft a clear call-to-action

Start collecting mobile numbers from your clients to build your SMS list!

You can check out this full list of 3rd Party vendors to work with - here are the top ones:

TRUMPIA
TEXTEDLY
EZTEXTING

Is your business ready for mobiles? If you're not there, you're nowhere!

Don't wait. Go mobile today!

 

By Yasmin Bendror   Please contact me today at http://www.ymarketingmatters.com

 

How unreasonable are you?

Odd question, isn't it? I for one try to be reasonable most of the time, though my loved ones may not agree! Still, it's a worthy goal, right?

That reasonable approach doesn't always work. Sometimes, it pays to be unreasonable. On purpose.

Why? Being unreasonable in your goal setting can bring you to a whole new level in your business.

Don't just set a goal - set a 10x mega-goal.

 

Is this your reaction: Wha? I've got enough to do to reach the modest goals I've set.

If it is, that's the whole point. Setting modest goals may be holding you back. Big time.

Setting a mega-goal can launch you forward, waving merrily at those modest goals as you whiz by.

Here's how it works.

What would you do differently if your goal was to increase revenue 10x instead of 10%?

That's the point of 10x goals - to push the edge of ordinary, and to nudge you into thinking differently about your business.

It's true, setting nothing but 10x goals will drive you to distraction. You're best to have one or two mega-goals.

Make your mega-goal achievable by setting interim goals. The point is, your interim goals are very much informed by your mega-goal, and will be substantially different now that you're on the path to your mega-goal. It's a path that you wouldn't have taken if you hadn't set your 10x goal.

This 10x approach doesn't mean you should abandon all reason at the door. Continue to make your 10x goal, like every other goal, measurable, so you can determine if you're making progress.

Create short-term objectives that do make sense, all with your mega-goal in mind.

So how do you determine your 10x mega-goal? Simple.

Let's start with income. Say your income last year was $50,000. Your 2017 goal has been to increase revenue by 10%, to $55,000.

To get that incremental increase, you may have been planning some tweaks, some adjustments.

What if your goal was 10x rather than 10%? $500,000. Wow. That's a big leap! And it's not one you can take in one bound.

Instead, with that goal of $500,000 in revenue in mind, what would you need to start doing to get there?

Instead of improving your sales, your conversions, by a few percentage points, what would you need to do to shift that improvement by an order of magnitude?

Challenge yourself to come up with new ways to approach this heightened goal.

See how being bold opens you up to new possibilities?

And it's not just possibilities for your business. It's possibilities for you too.

So much of making more income and moving your business to a new level is changing yourself. In order to be the person who makes $500,000, you'll be different from who you are now. You'll grow.

Consider the ways you'll have to grow to be the businessperson who has a $500,000 business. What can you do, starting right now, to become that person? What would you have to learn? What skills would you have to develop? What mentoring would you need?

Having a business is so much about your own personal growth. Here's an opportunity to define for yourself where that growth is going, and how you can achieve it.

You may be tempted, if you've had a few setbacks, to be cautious in your goal setting.

Instead, be unreasonable! Mega-goals will give your business a mega-lift. Set 10x goals that will motivate you to more than you've ever imagined in your business.

Ursula Jorch, MSc, MEd, mentors entrepreneurs starting their businesses and seasoned entrepreneurs in transition to create the business of their dreams. Her coaching programs provide knowledge, support, clarity, inspiration, and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs to empower you to reach your goals. Start with a free guide and other valuable info at http://www.WorkAlchemy.com.

 

A 20-year study at Stanford University examined the career paths of thousands of executives to determine the qualities they had developed that enabled them to move ahead rapidly. Researchers concluded that there were two primary skills that were indispensable for men and women who were promoted to positions of great responsibility.

The first was the ability to function well in a crisis. It was the ability of the executive to keep his or her cool when the company or the department faced serious challenges or setbacks. It was the ability to calmly analyze the facts, gather information, reach conclusions, make decisions, and then mobilize other people to respond effectively and solve the problem.

The second skill these fast-trackers had developed was the ability to use their knowledge and talents to contribute to the success of a group of people in accomplishing a specific, common goal. In other words, they knew how to function well as a member of a team.

In this sense, you and your spouse are a team. When you volunteer in any charitable organization, all the people you work with are members of a team. If you have a social circle and you plan activities together, you are functioning as a team. And, of course, you and your coworkers make up a team.

Over the last few decades, the concept of teamwork in business has been evolving.

We came out of World War II with a strict "command and control" mentality. Most of the heads of American corporations, large and small, had been military officers, of various ranks, during the war. They brought their training into the workplace. Their approach to management was the pyramid style, with the president at the top, the senior executives below him, the junior executives below them, and so on - all the way down to the workers and support staff who made up the base of the pyramid. The orders traveled in one direction: downward. Information filtered up slowly. People were expected to do their job, collect their paycheck, and be satisfied.

However, with the advent of the computer age and, thus, the increasing complexity of even the smallest business operation, this management approach is changing. Just about every employee now has critical skills and knowledge that contribute to the overall success of a business.

For example, in our office, our receptionist has been promoted to the position of "front-office manager." Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however, her job is far more complicated.

Since she is the first contact most customers have with our business, her personality and temperament are extremely important. The prospective client who telephones begins forming an impression of us the instant the telephone is answered. Then, because we do so many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how the caller may be best served and who to direct the call to. She also handles requests for further information and follow-up phone calls.

Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages, and to act as the core person in a network of communications, makes her job so important that it is essential for her to sit in on all staff meetings and be aware of everything that is going on.

Your job, too, probably requires you to know a lot about what is going on in the rest of the company. And the fastest and most accurate way of keeping current is to develop and maintain a network of contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.

The old methods of command and control now exist only at old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their very survival. Today, men and women want to thoroughly understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated in setting in the first place.




If you want to achieve anything of consequence in business, you need the help and cooperation of lots of people. Your main objective should be to structure everything you do in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating and working well with others, they are continually open to helping you achieve your goals as well.

Remember, in all your interactions with your team, to be supportive and helpful. The best team players I have ever seen are those whose comments to the other members of the team are in the form of suggestions on how things can be done better. The best team members are always offering to help other people after the meeting to get on top of some aspect of their work. This focus on collaboration and cooperation is seen by everybody and marks you as a person to be both liked and respected.

Many men and women have kicked their careers into the stratosphere by taking on a small responsibility and doing such a good job with it that they came to the attention of important people both inside and outside their organizations.

Author:  Brian Tracy

 

trust

 

Being well entrenched in the Digital/Internet Revolution we are in today, one thing has become more important and paramount than ever before in history... TRUST. The other name for this period of time we are in is "The Customer Revolution"... and for the same reasons. If your customers don't trust you, you are at high risk of extinction in the not too distant future.

TRUST has become the ultimate prize for businesses today. If your customers trust you, they are choosing to work with you over anyone else in your industry... even if they have to pay a higher price. And one of the biggest reasons Trust is so critical to people is because of TIME. As I have talked about in several earlier posts, Time is the most valuable asset for people today (according to Forrester Research and others). People don't feel they have enough of it and they can't afford to waste it. Those that can help them keep more of their time are more trusted and become the winners in the new Revolution.

If your customers Trust you, they don't have to spend the time searching around and checking out other options... they can simply buy from you. And they are proving this by their willingness to pay more for the same products/services. This is a HUGE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE for businesses today.

But how do you create more trust with your customers?

The underlying core of this answer is very simple... yet many businesses seem to ignore this simple message. The underlying foundation of Trust is PROMISES MADE = PROMISES KEPT. While this is an easy concept to grasp and understand, it appears to be an incredibly difficult formula to execute on a consistent basis throughout one's business. I refer to this often as playing the "Whack-a-Mole" game... where you have a bunch of holes in front of you and a different mole pops up randomly out of each hole... when you hit one, another one pops up. This is the same situation many companies face on a daily basis... having several things under control but another one pops up for you to deal with.

This isn't any more evident than in the area of CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. One of the biggest challenges businesses face today is delivering a CONSISTENT AND REPEATABLE customer experience. Look at your own business and you can see exactly what I am talking about. There are areas that seem to be doing OK and areas that area a disaster when it comes to delivering an awesome, incredible, amazing experience. I can almost guarantee you that there isn't consistency in your customer experience throughout your company... and if there is, you are in a very small minority today.

The CUSTOMER JOURNEY is the collection of customer experiences throughout your company... all working together to deliver an "overall experience" to your customers. The Journey is the "sum of all experiences" you offer to your customers. This includes the experience from your call center, sales, accounting, shipping, marketing, distribution, and every other area of your business. The customer touches each of these areas to some degree at one point or another throughout their overall experience with you when purchasing and/or using your products/services.

So here's the big problem for the majority of companies and why TRUST becomes an issue.

There are usually areas in your business that do better than others when delivering a customer experience. Some might knock it out of the park where others cause great pain for your customers. A good example of this is the Sales group vs. the Accounting group. The Sales department is usually the most "customer centric" in how they treat their customers... it is usually required as part of their role. Accounting, on the other hand, probably doesn't even have it as part of their job description/processes. Their role is to get the bills out, pay the invoices, and make sure all the money is accounted for within the company. Providing an awesome and incredible experience to the customer when they call isn't probably high on their list even though it should be. Regardless of how they treat the customer, they are part of the CUSTOMER JOURNEY inside your company.

When you deliver an awesome and incredible and remarkable CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE... demonstrating how much you care about helping your customers... you build TRUST. When you don't deliver this level of an experience you erode the trust you have with your customer or don't establish any if it is the first interaction.

And when you make PROMISES to your customers through your marketing and advertising, in addition to what your employees tell your customers... and you don't keep them... you lose/erode TRUST. When this happens over and over, your customers lose TRUST IN EVERYTHING YOU DO... not just the few areas that are causing the issue. To the customer, it is a JOURNEY OF TRUST.

Customers don't segregate out the departments in your business... they view their entire experience as a Journey. When different departments don't deliver this incredible experience and don't keep their promises the customer simply says, "They promise things they can't or won't deliver... I don't trust them or anything they say or do." This is even the case when you have one or two departments delivering a experience. The ones that aren't delivering this experience are the ones that bring the company down to the lowest common denominator... a low level of trust for the entire Customer Journey.

If you want to INCREASE THE TRUST OF YOUR COMPANY, YOU HAVE TO DELIVER ON YOUR PROMISES AND DELIVER AN AWESOME CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE THROUGHOUT THE COMPANY. This is the core behind building trust with your customers.

Change the JOURNEY to one where every area of the company is honoring and delivering the promises they make and give your customers a WOW Customer Experience and you will change the level of TRUST. The concept is simple... the execution isn't. If it was, everyone would be doing it. The research wouldn't be telling us that customers don't feel they get an awesome experience. The customer is telling us loud and clear what the answer is to EARNING THEIR TRUST... the question is whether or not we will listen and change our CUSTOMER JOURNEY to one that creates TRUST rather than erodes it.

I would encourage every leader to take inventory of their company's customer experience and how consistently they are delivering on the Promises the employees are making every day. If the experience isn't awesome and you see promises being made that can't be delivered, you have your answer as to how much your customers really trust your organization. This is one of the most valuable "audits" of an organization a leadership team can do to truly understand the level of trust they have with their customers. Give me a call if you have any questions and I would be happy to steer you in the right direction.

Author:  Blaine Millet

If you found this helpful, please share it with your friends so they can also learn from the material. It not only means a lot to me but it helps other people see the story. And if this resonated with you, please visit my http://www.WOM10.com site and read more posts like this one.
We used to get excited about moving our companies from being GOOD to being GREAT... but today, being GREAT isn't good enough... it's a commodity. Today, if you aren't on a path to move your company from being GREAT to being REMARKABLE and MEMORABLE, you don't get talked about.
My PASSION and MISSION is to help INSPIRE, GUIDE, and HELP you move your company from being GREAT to being REMARKABLE... and create Word-of-Mouth on STEROIDS so you get talked about... a lot.
I have a model that helps get you to REMARKABLE. In the core of the model is creating unbelievably incredible amazing and awesome Customer Experiences... you can learn about it in my book, "Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences." With this as a foundation, you are well on your way to being REMARKABLE.
I get to SPEAK about it, WRITE/BLOG about it, and HELP leaders understand it, aspire to it, and achieve it. There are four key components to help get you to being REMARKABLE... getting talked about in the market... and ultimately letting your CUSTOMERS DO YOUR MARKETING FOR YOU.
Are you ready to become REMARKABLE? Shoot me a message... we'll have an awesome conversation!

 

1. Size matters.

The purpose of a headline or subhead is to seize the reader's attention. Larger and bolder heads generally seize attention better than smaller, lighter ones.

2. Dazzle 'em with color.

The judicious use of color can add big impact to your headlines and other attention-getting copy. Entire libraries of books have been written on color psychology. In a nutshell, most say that cold colors - blues and pastels, for example - tend to relax us. Hotter colors - highly saturated oranges, reds, and earth tones - warm us up.

3. Look him in the eye.

Since we were kids, we've been taught to look at people who are talking to us. And we've been taught that people who do not look us in the eye are not to be trusted. Including a photo of a person talking to your reader - and putting the headline in that person's voice - is a powerful way to seize a prospect's attention.

4. Less is more.

Too many graphic devices will only serve to confuse the eye. When everything is emphasized, nothing stands out. Create a focal point - the main headline - and drive the reader's eye to it.

- Clayton Makepeace

[ Clayton Makepeace offers help in reaping maximum profits through the Internet, direct mail, and print advertising every week in his e-zine The Total Package. Learn his surprising secrets that have doubled and quadrupled his clients' profits in his Quick-start copywriting system.]