Getting closer to your customers just got easier. Highly functional. Affordably priced. Insanely sexy!
There is sooooooooo much information in this infographic and the directions are so clear. Even if you choose not to handle your own conversion rate optimization project, this will absolutely give you everything you need to have an informed conversation with whomever you engage to manage this.
Credit has to go to Daniel Gonzalez of Conversion Love. (Be sure to scroll to the bottom to share!)
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edgerank (Photo credit: bug_girl_mi)
How many times have you been asked over the last month to “Like” a Facebook page? If you did “like” the page, maybe as a favor to a real or virtual friend, have you ever revisited the page?
Really, what’s the point?
And, that’s what 96% of people who like a page ask themselves. They never return.
However, a full 16% of fans, those who’ve liked your page, on average will see your posts, even if they’re a few days old. That’s because Facebook throttles page updates to keep new posts to your timeline manageable. Otherwise, the sheer volume of posts would probably make you delete your account!
How does Facebook decide what you see? Edgerank! Oh, you want to know what Edgerank is? It is the term given to the algorithm Facebook uses to determine when and what shows up on each user’s newsfeed. The variables that make up Edgerank measure:
Keep in mind that Facebook weights new features more heavily to encourage usage. So, stay up-to-date and be early using those new features.
The good news is that you can increase the visibility quotient of your Facebook page. Facebook even gives you the tips and metrics to improve your Edgerank!
There are those who will tell you not to waste your time with Facebook because of that grim statistic at the top of this post – 96% never return to a page they’ve liked. But, I will maintain that those are missing the point.
It’s not about the Likes, it’s about the network you’re building and their networks, and so on, and so on. It’s about building Audience Reach into your strategy. Just as you want to have a strategy for whom you follow on Twitter and entice them to follow back with great content so their followers just might see your tweets/posts, too and attracting those to join your tribe, read what you write, buy what you’re selling.
The Venntive Social Deck makes it super easy to draft, schedule, and post to Facebook as well as Twitter and LinkedIn and then, track campaign metrics.
As a hard-working single female entrepreneur living and working from home in San Francisco, I take advantage of MeetUp to
Image via CrunchBase
not only extend my professional network but also help me actually have a social life and ideally, build a network of new friends.
So it is that a new MeetUp for a Singles Unprofessional Network where ideas for events totally went against the norm was very
appealing. And then, the first event was scheduled – a Quiet Party. What’s that? It’s a get-together where all conversation is conducted via handwritten notes. And, this one was going to be in a bar on a Friday night? I’m in!
Working from home means that there are days that go by where I don’t actually speak to anyone directly, by phone or in person, so by the time I go out, I’m really ready to talk. This was going to be a challenge.
Of course, I was late arriving, so the 50% of confirmed people who showed up were already heads down in a large booth, immersed in writing and passing notes. I don’t know anyone! How do I “join the conversation?” Jumped in with a note that I showed to everyone, “Hi. I’m Lydia. So sorry I’m late.” Everyone smiled in welcome and we were off. A generous Manhattan from the bar helped, as well as plenty of paper, a trusty pen.
Since I was late, we actually repurposed some notes that same way you’d repeat certain conversational conventions at a cocktail party. Over the next hour, I got to know a little about Abhi, Christiane, David, and Karl. In fact, Karl even made me a little word puzzle! We were blissfully unaware of anything and everything else going on around us as we shared our private joke and conversations. As time went by, the urge to speak became stronger. Notes work well between two, but we hadn’t really figured out how to have a conversation that included everyone at once plus we really wanted to discuss the experience.
The pens were laid down, the notes were gathered. (This is where I should insert of photo of the table covered in small pieces of paper. Unfortunately, that photo doesn’t exist.) We started a verbal conversation. And, guess what happened?
All of a sudden, we were aware of how noisy the bar really was and how hard it was to hear what we were saying to each other. We were having a much harder time communicating. We were missing the gist of our conversations.
So, why am I writing about this here? A couple reasons. As the title and the date of the last blog post here tells you, I’ve been struggling with a bad case of writer’s block. Tons of ideas…then I confront a blank page…until the Quiet Party.
The Quiet Party forced me to think about what we were “saying.” We wanted to keep a conversation going so that meant distilling notes to the essentials. We had to be 100% committed to active participation. We had to get the other person’s attention to pass our note. And, then, we watched that person’s expressions very carefully because we might not be speaking aloud, but we were communicating a lot. And, I think we were much more open to engagement, acceptance, and deriving real pleasure from our exchanges. We really got to know each other very quickly and in a very real way.
It emphasized the depth of communication that is possible if we just focus and pay attention.
How different would your professional (and personal, for that matter) relationships be if you brought this same focus and commitment to every conversation? How would this attitude impact your marketing and sales strategies? Would it change your customer relationships?
Yes, we used paper and pen. No texting. No typing and holding up a screen. Made all the difference!
Oh, yeah, this writer is unblocked!
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This great LinkedIn Boot Camp Infographic compliments of Brent Csutoras is a great primer on exactly what you need to be successful as a personal marketer on LinkedIn.
I’m always surprised to see that people have not customized the URLs to their websites, Twitter account, etc. It’s also a good idea to connect the appropriate Twitter account to your LinkedIn account. What? You only have one Twitter account? Change that now! No matter how transparent some of us are, if you’re working to build your professional brand, it needs its own voice on Twitter and elsewhere. Conversely, you don’t want personal tweets and comments posting to your LinkedIn account.
Joining and participating in relevant groups is important. But, also consider starting your own LinkedIn group around a topic relevant to your interests or business. Just make sure people aren’t hearing crickets when they visit the page.
Speaking of pages, do be sure to invest the time to set up a page for your business. Same rule, no crickets!
And, don’t forget to have fun!
My friend, Tony Shin has sent me another of his great infographics. It graphically illustrates the high cost of tiny delays, online and offline. There are so many lessons to be learned from these stats, but I’ll focus on the ramifications for businesses. One question – When was the last time you measured page load times for your web pages and correlated that with web traffic and conversions? Do you know what your Bounce Rate is?
A delay of one second can cost Amazon $1.6 Billion in annual sales.
You might say you’re not Amazon, but seriously, do you really want to watch money walk out the door because your website isn’t optimized for fast download?
The infographic Do Consumers Have An Advertising Breaking Point? reveals a lot of interesting findings about behavior relative to electronic advertising. It isn’t surprising that people most dislike receiving ads on their smartphones or mobile devices. But, what I, as an inveterate email marketing fangirl, was happy to see is that email still wins, by a large margin, as the preferred vehicle for receiving ads.
So, you say you don’t include ads in your newsletters or emails? Depending on your emails, your subscribers might or might not agree. Certainly, a B-to-B newsletter delivers valuable information, but it’s also one big ad for your company or your newest products. Your subscribers are willing to trade information for the advertising, as long as this relationship is respected. Beware! Too many emails and they’ll opt out!
The major points are:
Enjoy the infographic!
Image via Wikipedia
When you check your website tracking analytics, you can see the number of unique visits, when they happened, where they came from. What those analytics don’t tell you if whether it’s a lead or prospect you’ve been cultivating. Google analytics can tell you which pages have been viewed, but not who viewed those pages and whether they’ve come back to a particular page multiple times. Additionally, you have to log in to your web analytics account to retrieve this information which could have aged several days if not longer.
We all have that list of target accounts that we want to land. These days, we likely have complete contact information, including their emails, phone numbers, etc. We’ve emailed, left follow-up voicemails, maybe even had a couple phone conversations or a meeting over coffee. But, each time, for whatever reason, the timing just isn’t right. And, then…the day comes when they decide it’s time to make a change and they go online to look at all the websites of all the vendors that may potentially fit what they need.
But, the web analytics only give us aggregate information that we see when we log in or when the person who has the responsibility for compiling a report on web analytics distributes it. What if s/he starts to fill out an inquiry form and gets interrupted and doesn’t complete the form?
What if you could get almost instant notification when one of these elusive prospects visits your site? And, what if you knew exactly which pages s/he visited? What if an email is triggered if s/he abandons that inquiry form? What is all this data is automatically added to a profile in your CRM application and is shared between sales and marketing? Would that be valuable to you and your company?
It’s actually easy when you have the right tools. Heh, how many times have you heard that? But, that’s because it’s true. Would it make you really happy to know that you can do all of this easily, cost-effectively, and with one integrated application? This is just a small part of what Venntive delivers.
Import your target database. Drop a few lines of code into each page of the website. Rank your pages. Set a target score. Enter an email address and check a box to receive alerts. Build a kick-ass email to automatically go out to those that abandon. Oh, that email is, of course, trackable. Done!
If this seems like that elusive missing link in your marketing-sales initiatives, get in touch! We’d love to show you how you can make this happen in just a couple days.
This is a great infographic illustrating what we all stand to lose from just one, albeit extraordinary website, Wikipedia, if the misguided, benighted Congress decides to kowtow to the movie and music industries.
Please note that the Cheezburger Network, the definitive source of all things feline adorable, is blacked out today and could be gone…forever!
Created by: Online University
Neil Patel via CrunchBase
No, I haven’t gone off the deep end. I’m a huge advocate of smart social media marketing. But, I got a great email from Neil Patel of Kissmetrics a few days ago with the subject line, Wasted. These emails are not published anywhere. You have to subscribe to Neil’s personal brand newsletter. So, I asked for permission to share “Wasted” with you. As with most of Neil’s emails, it is jam-packed with information that you can easily and immediately put to use.
Enjoy! And, be sure to use the link at the bottom to subscribe to Neil’s newletter…if you aren’t already a dedicated fan like I am.
Hey Lydia,
Here’s one of the downsides of working in social media like Twitter and Digg and Stumble Upon and Facebook… You sometimes feel like a whirling dervish don’t you?
Like you’re just jumping from one project to another project to another project… and it doesn’t feel like you’re getting anything done.
Well, today we’re going to make that kind of thinking a thing of the past.
You’re going to learn the 2 biggest ways people waste time trying to grow traffic and what you should do instead.
These tips might sound simple… and that’s because they are. But while your competitors are looking for the newest or “most underground” way to build traffic… you’ll be steadily increasing it day after day after day…
And the best part is… a good deal of this can be automated 
BIG DARN TIME WASTER #1
By far the biggest time sink people experience (including huge corps — they might be the worst at this) is coming up with new and good blog topics.
Here’s the deal: STOP. Stop wasting time trying to generate ideas on your own.
Instead, create an Excel spreadsheet that lists all your competing blogs. Then list out the blog posts they’ve published in the last few weeks along with how many tweets/facebook likes those posts got. If they don’t have Twitter or Facebook buttons you can find out how well that post did by typing its URL into twitter.
This shows you exactly what your target traffic WANTS.
And then that’s what you give them: once you see which posts did the best, you can write content related to those topics and they’ll typically preform well.
Not only will you avoid wasting time on content your market doesn’t care about… but is also increases your chances of writing a big hit.
If someone just read an article about Topic X, then chances are they’ll be interested in a related article as well (especially if it builds on or goes contrary to the original article they just read). Just think about the dozens and dozens of articles that got written after Steve Jobs passed away.
Let’s say your competitor’s most popular article last week was about “7 Common Headline Strategies.” Clearly your audience is interested in headlines, so you could build on that by promoting your own article on “7 Common Headline Mistakes.”
And that’s all there is to it. Of course, it will take some work to get the relationships that help this… but that will come with time.
Now, I understand this is dead simple. But hopefully you understand it’s also a systematic method for building content your audience showed it WANTS. You’ll know exactly what your market wants. You’ll consistently delight them with content that satisfies those desires. And you’ll be able to do it quickly with no stress.
People often ask me how I come up with my blog ideas… how I can keep writing for as long as I have… and how my articles get so popular.
Well, now you know. I consistently give my audience content I know they want. And I can do it quickly and stress-free, so I never burn out. This is exactly how I grew my blog. It got me far. It’ll probably do the same for you
BIG DARN TIME WASTER #2
Another way people waste loads of time is link building.
(In case you’re new: link building is important because it’s a huge factor in search engine optimization.)
Your competitors are probably trying to build links by emailing websites they think should be linking to them. And they’re doing this with absolutely no way of knowing how likely they are to get it.
Here’s a better way: why not search for websites who LIKE linking to other sites and email them a link request?
For example if I am looking to build links to my Las Vegas website I would search for websites that talk about “Las Vegas” and have a links page.
Here’s the search command I would use on Google:
intitle:”las vegas” inurl:”links”
For each result I found, I’d send a custom email to see if they would be interested in linking to my website.
I know this sounds like a tedious task, but you can get ~ 10-15% of the websites you email to link back to your website. And on average you can typically hire a college student for 10 dollars an hour and have them send out at least 100 emails in an 8-hour period.
That means I roughly pay $6.67 to $10 a link, which is a GREAT deal for links of that quality.
Again, that’s all there is to it.
Don’t let the simplicity disappoint or fool you. The key to traffic victory doesn’t lie in doing things that are hard or take a long time. It’s about following a straightforward plan.
Now you have one.
Last thought.
You can generally tell how much of an expert someone is by how well they distill their methods.
If someone teaches you something and it sounds really complex, they probably haven’t taken the time to think through how to boil it down. Be careful with folks like that. There’s a difference between being good at something and being good at teaching it.
I am doing my darndest to make this easy for you to learn… and the biggest reward is seeing my readers get results. So take action right now… and then hit reply to let me know what happened so we can celebrate together.
Talk soon,
Neil
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