How to make your blog posts breed like rabbits
Wouldn’t it be a great trick if you could turn one blog post into 10 blog posts? Using a gallery post can accomplish something quite similar to that kind of magic. I know that you’ve seen these posts. They are most often used to show you the pictures of 10 child stars and how they look today or similar posts. However, they can be used to deliver useful information – they don’t have to be totally relegated to the click-bait world. Almost any list post can be translated into a click-through gallery. Here’s the magic: When you post a standard list post, your visitors see one page on your website. When you make a gallery out of the list post, every time they click to see the “next” image, it’s almost like they are seeing another page. You need to have images to accompany your points, but they don’t need to be literal “how-to” images, they can simply set the mood for the points you’re making. Further, not every slide in your gallery needs to be a pure image. You can use type as well. Here’s a quick example of using a general illustration to express an idea, then using the same illustration as a background to make an editorial point: Below is a gallery post I recently came across that illustrates some important concepts and benefits. When you plan a gallery post, lay out your page in a way that keeps your social sharing buttons always in view. Maybe the fifth image or point you make will be the one that triggers the urge to share in your visitor. Further, if you run ads on your page, make sure they are always within sight. On a regular blog page, when readers scroll, sometimes the ads and the social share buttons disappear from view – or they are located at the bottom of the page and the reader may not even get that far! Do you have some list posts on your site already? Why not revisit those and see which ones can be easily converted into a gallery post. And, if you don’t have time to do this yourself, find a freelancer who will put them together for you. A good freelancer will simply need the URLs of the posts you want translated into a gallery to pull off your...
read moreDiscounts, deals, and advance access: Keys to increasing sales
Are you shooting all the different kinds of ammunition you have in your sales arsenal? I’m going to go over what I believe are three of the most important ways to achieve a sale. For the purpose of this article, I want to focus on the initial sale, so I’m going to skip upselling and cross-selling. As I wrote in the headline, the three topics I want to cover are: Discounts, Deals, and Advance or exclusive access. But, before I flesh out some details, I want to point out another important reason for using each of these strategies. If you have a system that connects customers to the offers they have accepted, you have another way to segment your list. For example, you might find some people are extremely receptive to getting advance access to offers and products, while others never bite on these offers. That knowledge gives you the power to better target your sales and marketing communications. Now for some specifics. Discounts Getting a product or service for less than its usual retail price is the most fundamental way to encourage a prospect into making a purchase. However, there are many ways to “package” a discount and understanding which ways work best with your customers is critical knowledge. Do your customers respond best to a percentage discount, dollar amount reduction, coupons, Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO), or quantity discounts? Take time to uncover the answer to that question so you can determine which one or two are your biggest producers. Deals A BOGO discount, might be considered a deal, but let me give you the way I like to classify an offer as a “deal.” Every deal in life hinges on the word if – as in If you do this, then I’ll do that. So, sales deals can be things like: If you buy this, then we’ll give you this other thing half off. If you buy now, then we’ll extend our warranty one year. If you upgrade, we’ll give you three extra months for free. If you buy today, we’ll lock in your pricing for as long as you continue your service. Take some time brainstorming “If” deals; you might come up with some original applications that your competitors haven’t yet considered! Advance or exclusive access Being able to obtain products and services before everyone else is a huge motivation to buy. In the same way, being singled out as part of an exclusive group that is being given access to a product or service will often boost sales. You could give your “best customers” early or exclusive access to a new product or service. Or, you could share some inside information with a “small group” of your customers because you aren’t yet set up to handle the demand that would result if you let everyone in on the offer. Combinations of these strategies Why not shoot two barrels at one time? How about an offer like: Get 20 percent off with your preorder! In boxing, the “old one-two” can be a knockout punch; stacking up a couple of these strategies can be very powerful Important: This article expires in 10 days! Along with combining two of these strategies, you can add time elements to all of these to boost their power. A ticking clock is always a...
read moreDo this now for 2018 team-building success
I have a two-part assignment for you: Decide how many special, engagement-boosting activities you would like to organize in 2018, and Put them on the calendar…in “ink.” By “special, engagement-boosting activities” I’m talking about the events you treat your team to that are fun or encourage either professional or personal growth. These are the things that make your company special. They are the activities employees will boast about on their social media accounts. I think most businesses are sold on the importance of these events, but many get so bogged down in the regular planning required to get the day-to-day work done that they don’t invest sufficient time in these morale-boosting activities. Therefore, decide how many you can afford to hold and then put them on the company calendar. A few ideas may come to mind immediately. Perhaps you’ve done this before and you have a sense for the kinds of activities your team enjoys the most. If you have some good ideas, schedule them. You can also get volunteers to do some planning or ask employees for suggestions. To prime the pump, here are some ideas that I believe will build loyalty and enthusiasm for your business: Volunteer work. Send out teams to work at some of your favorite nonprofit community organizations. This gives people a greater sense of meaning and folks who don’t normally work together can get to know one another. Games. Have a game night or conduct an ongoing tournament of some kind. I heard about one organization that had a Connect Four tournament. Games were played between individuals during lunch or breaks and then everyone got together to witness the championship match of the tournament. Maybe you could do something like this in parallel with March Madness. Take me out to the ball game. Take your crew to a local professional sporting event. Businesses use these to entertain clients, but in the long run, you’ll may get better bang for your buck by treating your team members. Spa day. I’m hearing about more and more companies bringing in a masseuse to squeeze the stress out of employees. Sounds like a good idea to me. Health and wellness counseling. Exercise and nutrition coaches are the rage today. Having a more healthy team delivers many benefits. First, your employees and their families benefit from improved health. Next, you tend to suffer fewer sick days. Finally, more fit and alert employees turn out better work. Consider adding a gym membership or discount to your benefits package. Company picnic. This is a traditional way to boost employee morale and engagement. However, if you’ve gotten into a rut, do something different this year: change locations or splurge on the catering. Create office themed days or weeks. Halloween is the model here, but don’t be restricted to that old stalwart. Maybe you could have a bakeoff week where the expert bakers on your team bring in samples of their best creations. Check out a National Day Calendar for some inspiration – some of the special pet days might give you some ideas. DIY TED Talks. Find team members who have special knowledge and an enthusiasm for sharing it, then get people together for a short presentation. The topics can be business related, but perhaps someone would love to share knowledge...
read moreA simple strategy to make more progress this year than ever before
Want to blast into the new year or the next season at your company with a real bang? Consider having an “If only…” brainstorming session with as many members of your team as is practical. Here’s what you do: Announce a week or so in advance you’re going to have an “If only…” session. Tell everyone to think of their jobs and your company as they complete statements that start with the words “If only…” Give them some examples, such as, “If only we had a better system of logging customer service calls we could reduce mistakes,” or “If only we had enough money to buy a better printer we could send out great looking, updated product brochures.” Get everyone together for a meeting to share their “If only…” statements. Capture them all and put together a team to prioritize them. Encourage your team to think both big, small, and in between. No idea is too big – or expensive – to be considered and no idea is so small that it doesn’t have the potential to make a positive difference in your company. In fact, the “bread-and-butter” progress in companies generally happens via a continual chain of incremental improvements. This isn’t to discount the big, bold moves you need to make from time to time – they are very important – but there is no improvement too small to be implemented…even if it something as seemingly insignificant as changing the brand of ball point pens you stock to one preferred by those on your team who are constantly filling out forms. When you have compiled your list, circulate it or even post it in a place where everyone will see it. Then start working on it. Have a way to note when initiatives are in progress and when they are completed. Seeing that you actually follow up on suggestions from your team will improve employee morale and loyalty; these improvements alone will boost productivity. You see, this system pays off in two ways: by making the improvements themselves and by boosting your team’s commitment to the success of your company. As you go into this process, let everyone know that you don’t have any sacred cows. Just because you’ve “always done things a certain way” doesn’t mean that you won’t consider another approach to accomplishing your goals. Encourage people to look at legacy operations from a fresh perspective. Encourage people to think across department lines. Try it. What do you have to lose? You don’t want to be sitting at your desk a year from now thinking, “If only I had held that ‘If only…’ meeting, we might have had a more robust and progressive...
read moreHere we go again: Facebook edges businesses out of news feed
Sometimes I think Mark Zuckerberg sees the people and businesses who inhabit his world – aka Facebook – like dolls at a 4-year-old’s tea party. He sits us where he likes. He makes us interact with each other however the mood strikes him on any given day. Currently, Zuckerberg is in the mood to decrease the amount of time you spend on Facebook (this caused FB stock to drop, costing Zuckerberg $3.3 billion) and to accomplish this, he ordered his people to feature less content from businesses, brands, and media in users’ news feeds. The reasoning behind Zuckerberg’s decision is that he wants Facebook to bring us closer together with the people “who matter to us.” The boom in public posts from businesses and other entities started to claim too much territory on our news feeds, according to Zuckerberg. Of course, we’ll have to wait to see what the ultimate impact of this may have. His pronouncement could be more PR than priority, if, for example, the decrease in public posts is very small. On the positive side, Zuckerberg gives businesses a pretty good hint if they want their public content to work their way into people’s news feeds. The content “should encourage meaningful interactions between people.” He gives examples of how there are communities of Facebook users around TV shows and sports teams. You can probably relate to these kinds of groups. (As I’m writing this, the NFL playoffs are well underway and I imagine many Minnesota fans – after their team’s last-second win – are making comments to some public Facebook content posted by the Vikings organization.) The point is that what you post as a business should have the potential to create general interest and engagement within your desired audience. A mere business pronouncement of some sort would probably fall short of these criteria. Post content that starts a conversation. Zuckerberg also points out that live video creates more interest than recorded video. That should be further encouragement for you to explore how you can leverage Facebook Live. I wonder if these kinds of moves weaken Facebook and social media marketing because they make planning difficult for businesses. If your audience exposure can change at the whim of one person, how can you budget or measure results? It’s not crazy to believe that investors and accountants are shooting Zuckerberg emails right now asking him what he thinks he’s doing. After all, virtually every move Facebook has made up to this point is to encourage more business involvement in the social media platform. If he weakens Facebook as a marketing channel, perhaps someday – although not soon – a competitor will rise up. Mark Zuckerberg on stage at Facebook’s F8 Conference image by Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia...
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