Customer Development Articles

Sales Metrics Matter If You’re Using the Right Ones

By No Responses

For more than a decade, the use of sales performance measurements has increased significantly. Yet, for a good percentage of companies employing those metrics, it hasn’t always resulted in a corresponding uptick in sales performance and management control. That doesn’t mean that those sales metrics are useless. It usually means that companies aren’t establishing and using the right ones. All too often, companies either fail to maintain their metrics or become metric obsessed, overusing and blindly applying them. In those cases, executives get bogged down by useless numbers and improperly analyze or interpret them. But by selecting a handful of…

Humanizing Disassociated Social Media

Via Brian Solis on No Responses

Avoiding social media in your business is, for all intents and purposes, impossible.

Image provided by: Stephen Poff

Whether it’s launching campaigns or trying to hide your poor customer service from the social media masses, you’re really at the mercy of social media. For this reason, countless social media strategies were created, solely to deal with the medium. But these were borne out of necessity and not desire. The many hands grasping and tugging at every company’s social media campaign have convoluted it and removed the human element from it, replacing it with large-scale campaigns and…

Tools of the Trade: Getting Your Company Noticed

Via Fast Company on No Responses

Today’s web 2.0 world is a seemingly endless landscape filled with opportunities.

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There aren’t any legitimate excuses for companies to explain why they’re not getting publicity. With all of the tools at a company’s disposal, there certainly isn’t an explanation for not getting noticed. Here are some ideas to help you promote your company: Make sure you story is compelling. If you can get people to believe in you, you can leverage influence marketing. Don’t get buddy-buddy with reporters. Their interests lie with their story, and if you say something on the…

Facebook and Bing: SEO will Never be the Same

Via Venture Beat on No Responses

When worlds collide, something usually has to give.

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Such is this case with the Facebook and Bing partnership. Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg have really come to reach an innovative juncture. Both companies have little in common on the outside. But upon further review, you see some commonalities emerging. How will the combination of social media and search engines play out? What will the competition do? That much remains to be seen. What we do know is that the two companies will use Facebook friends’ likes to determine how search results will be…

Get Found — Go Inbound (Marketing)

Via The Marketing Spot on No Responses

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With the advancement of technology — especially the Internet — marketing strategies have changed significantly. Though outbound marketing still has its place in business, inbound marketing is quickly becoming the go-to for expansion stage start-ups. Why’s that? The Marketing Spot explains: “The true power of inbound marketing is the mindset of that customer that found you. With inbound marketing the customer has made the decision to find you and seek you out. Therefore, they believe it’s their idea that they found you.” Inbound marketing, therefore, empowers the customer, makes them feel as…

The Differences Between Traditional and Content Marketing Explained

Via Content Marketing Institute on No Responses

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Content marketing … you know what it is, but how are you describing it? The Content Marketing Institute has you covered. In a post that captures quotes from many different professionals, the CMI gives some engaging ways to describe content marketing and its differences from traditional marketing strategies. Out with the old, in with the new! Katie McCaskey says: “Traditional marketing is to gas-guzzling vehicles as content marketing is to retro-fitted, french-fry-grease powered vehicles. At first glance the latter seems fringe and unworkable despite the former’s agreed need to drastically evolve to…

Walk Away … And Build Business

Via Copyblogger on No Responses

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Sales — the obvious goal for any marketing strategy. But sometimes the best way to generate sales is to know when to fold ‘em. Doesn’t sound like a great customer retention strategy, but by whittling down your options — and delving into your true target audience — you might discover that you’re better off with a sharper focus. First you have to ask yourself a few questions about your product and target market: Who, specifically, is your product designed for? How much prior knowledge do your customers need to benefit from your…

The 4 Expectations and Benefits of Professional Writing Services

Via Idea Launch on No Responses

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If you want to keep your blog updated, fresh, and full of content, you may consider hiring some freelancers. And while outsourcing a large portion of your copywriting duties might be nerve-wracking at first, done right, you can have a rich, effortless content stream in no time. But what should you expect? Idea Launch believes that, first and foremost, you’ll see professionalism. “Professional writing services carefully screen the writers who work with them. This means that you can be certain that your content is being created by people who have demonstrated professional skills…

Improve Website Conversions Through Usability

By No Responses

As a website visitor navigates their way along a website conversion path, there are numerous points along that voyage that may cause the prospect to have positive or negative experience. If a company hopes to convert that prospect to an opportunity or a customer, the key is to make the path to conversion as short and smooth as possible. One of the best ways to accomplish that goal is to make your website more usable. If a visitor finds a website difficult to navigate and can’t find what they’re looking for, you’ve lost them. A few months ago, I worked…