#BetterBusinessAlliance

[altajackuniverse]

Ensure That Sustainability is Part of Your Business Plan

Inject Sustainability into Your Business Plan 

  Sustainability Can’t be an Add-on Sustainability can't be an add-on or simply tacked onto your companies business plan.  It needs to be infused into the core of your companies culture and central your the companies business plan.Sustainability will be handled differently for different companies.  Whether your company is a startup or an established company reevaluating your business plans matters.  You need to identify what the source of the problem is that you are trying to address.  An established company needs to look back as far as possible to establish what should be changed as your company moves into the future.  Doing this leads to a better understanding of who your stakeholders are, what compliance issues you face, and better prepare you for reporting requirements.The four key components to adding sustainability to your business plan are listed below.    Your Business Problem Statement  First is a problem statement.  Startups or companies reevaluating their business plans should identify what the source of the problem they are trying to address is, going back as far as possible.  This leads to a better understanding of who your stakeholders are, what compliance issues you need to worry about and better prepare for reporting requirements.    Practice Business Environmental Stewardship Also to be added are environmental stewardship, social responsibility and reporting and metrics. Environmental stewardship is all about reducing the environmental impact through all business aspects and minimizing the use of non-renewable natural resources.Social responsibility covers internal programs and conditions for employee safety and rights, external initiatives and partnerships that better communities and supplier relationships, and business ethics to promote honesty, fair trade and integrity.  Your Business Sustainability Requirements Looking at all of those issues at the same time can be overwhelming to some.  In teaching sustainability at Regis University, Fell developed seven exercises to follow in order to tackle what needs to be done.Define your problem statement.Map our your stakeholders.Conduct a product life cycle assessment.Create a facilities management checklist.Develop a program to illustrate positive and safe employee treatment.Develop a program for community outreach and relationships with suppliers and vendors.Make an ethics policy.   Sustainability is Your Key Business Factor Sue Kunz, CEO of BioVantage Resources, a company that creates systems that grow algae for wastewater treatment and research, explained how her company, which is the fourth startup she's been involved with, makes sustainability a key factor.For their products, they look at if components are recyclable, what their appropriate life spans should be, if they are scalable, if they work off the grid and what their water and carbon footprints are. In manufacturing and distribution, they focus on globally-available parts, local manufacturing and suppliers that are also focused on sustainability.  Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Sustainability Must be Your Business Core

 Sustainability must be a common thread in your business plan inspiring all employees to also focus on it, and everyone in the company asks sustainability-related questions about products and operations. Your Employees Must Be Sustainability Focused Every company employee must embrace sustainability and be focused on developing the processes to promote sustainability in all company business practices.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Unique Selling Proposition's Develop Personal Relationships

5 Unique Selling Propositions

  Learning is often best done by example.  Below I’ve highlighted a small selection of brands that use their unique selling proposition to stand out and succeed in some tough marketplaces.   Read on to learn how ThinkGeek, Saddleback Leather, and other great brands set themselves apart from their competition.  Each of these examples applies their unique selling proposition in a different way that differentiates them and sets them apart from their competitors.   ThinkGeek   Hobby stores for geeks are another example of an industry with a lingering reputation for personality defects.  They are often characterized as weird and filled with snooty employees who look down on beginners. ThinkGeek, in comparison, is all about community, with unique features like customer action shots and an emphasis on novel products that build on already existing communities.  As a guy who still owns a Super Nintendo, their retro gaming section is much appreciated.     Take a lesson from ThinkGeek’s playbook and closely examine the needs and wants of your ideal customer.  Ask yourself, “What often stops people from buying?”  When you have your answer, you will find your unique selling proposition.   Saddleback Leather   Saddleback Leather’s company tagline is, “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.” Combine this with an “Our Story” webpage that includes a picture of a machine gun, and no one can accuse Saddleback of being a company lacking personality. One of my favorite pages on the site is the “Our Rivals” page, where the owner invites customers to compare products with his biggest competitors: I’m so confident that you’ll find our classic look and over-engineered durability so hard to resist that I want you to shop around.  Go ahead … the more you shop, the better we look.”     The positioning here isn’t done for fluff.  The company sells expensive leather goods.  To justify these premium prices it makes sense to boldly call out your competitors.  The owner wants you to see the difference in quality to showcase why that bag you covet costs $500. Saddleback isn’t all about testosterone-driven declarations.  The owner also displays a very personal side with a webpage dedicated to his dog Blue.  This serves as a great example of putting your personality into your business in a way that won’t lead to any Mike Jeffries comparisons.   Ellusionist   Can a company really make a playing card deck interesting?  Ellusionist can.  Their whole business is built on selling things that are different, a must given that what they sell are 52-card decks!  How do they make these interesting and profitable?  By appealing to a highly specific customer: magicians.     One of the cardinal sins of selling physical products online is offering something that consumers can find at any ol’ store.  Ellusionist countered this by offering flashy, unique decks of cards that you really can’t find anywhere else. And since they cater to those interested in showmanship via card tricks, and the occasional extravagant poker player, they’ve cornered a niche market.  They own their market segment, instead of just being another producer of cheap decks of playing cards.   Everlane Apparel   As previously mentioned, the way you build your product and the values you stand for can be important parts of your unique selling proposition.  Everlane apparel stands out from the crowd in this respect. The company culture wholeheartedly promotes what they call radical transparency.  They pride themselves on a diligent, upstanding process for the manufacture of their goods, with the motto, “Know your factories. Know your costs.  Always ask why.”     Since Everlane sells what they call “luxury basics,” product differentiation isn’t achieved through flashiness.  They excel through a sincere interest in how the company makes their goods, conducts business, and gives special attention to their craft… down to the last v-neck.   Man Crates   In a stellar example of machismo made fun again, Man Crates is an online store that ships “stuff guys like” in wooden crates that have to be opened with a crowbar. While their items themselves make great gifts for guys, such as customized beer mugs, grilling equipment and beef jerky.  It’s the unique positioning that really sells this brand. Man Crates oozes personality at every turn, and as a customer myself I had a hearty laugh at the company’s help page, which boldly declares "try harder if you can't open your crate."     Few companies could get away with a help section that tells you to try harder.  However when it’s guys buying gifts for other guys, not following directions and not asking for help is simply part of their message.  It's as if it was your rite of passage, just opening their package. The bravado here is welcomed and doesn’t cross over into areas where it doesn’t belong.  When I contacted Man Crate’s customer service about an misdirected delivery, their customer service representative was quick, helpful and friendly.  This shows that exceptional service takes priority over their brand’s image.   Visit Our Web Accessibility BlogVisit Our Business Sustainability Blog

It’s Still about Selling

  Just as relationship marketing is as much about the marketing as is it about the relationships.  The same applies for creating a unique selling proposition.  A unique selling proposition is a form of differentiation that needs to be built around actually selling more products and services. A unique selling proposition is not just to make your business into a quirky brand that stands out but can’t get traction.  In the book Reality in Advertising, advertising executive Rosser Reeves lays down three rules that unique selling propositions should follow if they wish to be more than just creative branding: Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer not just words, product puffery, or show-window advertising.  Each advertisement must say to each reader:  “Buy this product, for this specific benefit.” The proposition must be one the competition cannot or does not offer.  It must be unique, either in the brand or in a claim the rest of that particular advertising area does not make. The proposition must be strong enough to move the masses, by attracting new customers.   Ensure that you stand out for the right reasons.  Ensure that your brand’s positioning is intended to sell, not just to stand out.     It's Your Turn   My curiosity has gotten the best of me, I want to hear what your business does differently!  Share your story in the comments below.  Or, tell us about a business you love that stands out among the competition.       Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Not Just the Law Web Accessibility is Good for Business

What Defines Web Accessibility?

  Web accessibility is ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites on the Internet by anyone with disabilities.  Correctly designed websites, using Universal Design principles, that are properly coded and edited, should provide all users equal access to information and functionality. Web Accessibility is About Inclusion   Inclusion demands the use of Universal Design to ensure web accessibility issues are properly addressed and requires the elimination of barriers to ease accessibility for all. What Does Web Accessibility Address?   When sites are built using Universal Design Principles, all users will be accommodated without lessening the website usability for non-disabled users.     Web Accessibility’s goal is to address the following categories of needs: Visual:  Blindness and other visual impairments, low vision variations, poor eyesight and color blindness; Motor/mobility:  the inability or difficulty to use the hands, including tremors, muscle slowness, loss of fine muscle control, etc., due to conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy; Auditory:  Hearing impairments or deafness, including those individuals who are hard of hearing; Seizures:  Photo epileptic seizures which can be caused by flashing visual effects or visual strobe lights; Cognitive and intellectual:  Learning difficulties such as dyslexia, etc. developmental disabilities and cognitive disabilities which affect memory, attention, problem solving, logic skills, and developmental disabilities. Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

The Legal Side of Web Accessibility

 Plenty of legal issues are involved when it comes to web accessibility.  The bottom line for web sites is that being accessible is the smart choice for any business. Unaddressed Web Accessibility Legal Issues We won't be addressing Web Accessibility legal issues or requirements here, just doing what's right.  And what's a good business practice.  For information about Web Accessibility legal issues check out some of my other blog posts at Accessibility International.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Not Just the Law Web Accessibility is Good for Business

What Defines Web Accessibility?

  Web accessibility is ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites on the Internet by anyone with disabilities.  Correctly designed websites, using Universal Design principles, that are properly coded and edited, should provide all users equal access to information and functionality. Web Accessibility is About Inclusion   Inclusion demands the use of Universal Design to ensure web accessibility issues are properly addressed and requires the elimination of barriers to ease accessibility for all. What Does Web Accessibility Address?   When sites are built using Universal Design Principles, all users will be accommodated without lessening the website usability for non-disabled users.     Web Accessibility’s goal is to address the following categories of needs: Visual:  Blindness and other visual impairments, low vision variations, poor eyesight and color blindness; Motor/mobility:  the inability or difficulty to use the hands, including tremors, muscle slowness, loss of fine muscle control, etc., due to conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy; Auditory:  Hearing impairments or deafness, including those individuals who are hard of hearing; Seizures:  Photo epileptic seizures which can be caused by flashing visual effects or visual strobe lights; Cognitive and intellectual:  Learning difficulties such as dyslexia, etc. developmental disabilities and cognitive disabilities which affect memory, attention, problem solving, logic skills, and developmental disabilities. Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

The Legal Side of Web Accessibility

 Plenty of legal issues are involved when it comes to web accessibility.  The bottom line for web sites is that being accessible is the smart choice for any business. Unaddressed Web Accessibility Legal Issues We won't be addressing Web Accessibility legal issues or requirements here, just doing what's right.  And what's a good business practice.  For information about Web Accessibility legal issues check out some of my other blog posts at Accessibility International.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Your Digital Marketing Strategy Builds Trust in Your Brand

7 Ways to Build Brand Trust Through Marketing

 Anyone with marketing in their blood dreams of developing a brand which would have the strong name and visual recognition the original Volkswagen Beetle has around the world.  Don't we all want to build a brand that our customer’s trust?  Let's examine seven ways you can solidify trust in your brand, and build a strong customer base. 

Why is Brand Trust so Important?

  Today we're in a brand trust crisis.  This is because of an unprecedented drop in the trust customers place in the companies they deal with.  A study in 2018 by the Edelman Trust Barometer, found that only 48% of Americans trust businesses.  That's a huge drop from the 58% brand trust posted the previous year.  Over the previous decade the downward spiral was an accelerating consumer trend. This couldn't be worse news for established brands.  Brand trust has been a pretty big deal when it comes to customer acquisition and loyalty.  In a recent study, PwC found that more than 30% of consumers said that other than price, they ranked ‘brand trust’ among their top three reasons they decide to shop at a particular retailer.   Competition has Never Been More Intense A decade ago, the brand trust number among consumers would have been much higher.  Then, consumers didn’t have thousands of brands competing in the 24/7 web environment we have today. That was also before brands became more than simply merchants.  Brands have morphed today into our trusted sources of information.  Today consumers turn to brands to keep them up-to-date and informed.  This information may come through the brand's blog content, social media interactions or YouTube channel.  Today's brands are having a 24/7 conversation with the consumer's they are fighting to reach have purchase their product or service.  What are you doing to develop your brand trust and compete?  Todays Customer's Are Demanding Proof   Before they reach a decision, today's customers are demanding proof.  They have to have a solid reason to choose your brand over the others in your space.  A well known name alone is no longer enough to ensure a strong customer base.  Don’t believe me?  Just look at how Facebook has faltered.  After the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, consumer confidence in Facebook plummeted.  The once unquestioned social media giant reported a 20% decrease in their stock value.  The growing distrust concerning “fake news,” has led to many wary would-be customers.  Today brands are rushing to prove they can live up to their promises.  Since trust takes time to build, brands can no longer afford to wait for that trust to build organically.   Instead, brands must adopt a proactive strategy to more quickly develop trust among their customers.   

Developing Trust Begins With Your Value Proposition

 Your value proposition defines who you are as a brand.   It communicates what your brand does for your customers.  If your Value Proposition concise, well developed, or understood by your audience, it's impossible to build the customer relationships and brand trust which you require from the very beginning. An interesting study identifies two primary components of trust.  These are competency and benevolence.  Competence represents your brand’s ability to understand and deliver on your promises.  Benevolence represents how your intentions and motives beneficial to consumers are accepted by them. Both of these trust components should be embodied in your value proposition.  What matters most to your customers and how they should buy from you?  Despite the important role that value propositions play, it's also critical that you optimize and apply your value proposition to every action you take.   Your Value Proposition is Your First Promise Your value proposition is the first promise you make to your customers.  You can’t break your promises.  Instead, put real effort into the creation and optimization of your value proposition.  Think about the specific challenges your product or service is designed to meet.  How can you express that clearly and concisely to your target audience. 

You Must Next Focus on Your Content 

 Creating and promoting high-quality, relevant content isn’t a new marketing concept.  Using content to build trust is a newer focus for marketers.  Content can build trust in several ways.  First, you need to establish yourself as a thoughtful leader and give your audience content that addresses their problems.  Your content must also offer them actual strategies and solutions to their problems.  Doing this will create confidence and establish you as a valuable and expert resource. Once your audience is convinced you do know what you’re talking about, they’ll feel more confident buying from your brand.  To achieve this, your content can’t come from a sales or promotional place.  Your content should always be designed to establish a dialogue or conversation between your brand and your audience.  It should never be "preachy in it's approach."   Your Content Should Be Authentic and Educational Your content needs to be authentic and educational, focused on helping the user.  It should not be about selling your product or services.  Content like this is incredibly effective at building consumer trust.  A study released by Conductor found that 65% of consumers feel a brand is trustworthy after they read educational content from that brand.  The study also found that a week after reading a piece of educational content from a brand, there was a 9% increase in consumers who identified the brand as “trustworthy.” Incredibly, as time passed brand credibility actually increased from 65% to over 73%.  Your Content Creates Your Brand Identity That's the great thing content marketing does?  Your great content creates and solidifies your brand’s identity.  Today's consumers want to know who you are as a brand.  They want to be able to recognize the faces and voices behind the brand.  Do you know what's the best way to be heard?  The best way for your brand to be heard is through your content.  Developing a consistent brand identity is crucial to building brand trust.  Your audience should easily be able to recognize you through your content.  That means you need to be creating messaging across all your channels that reinforces your core values. Ensure that your content checks all of the following boxes.  Does your content mirror your company’s core values?  Is your communication consistent?  Do all your channels sound like you?  Do your customers know what your values are?  How can you be sure that they know? 

Return to the Basics and Embrace Authenticity

  Do yo remember the early days of social media when it was just Facebook?  It was a simple time when actual conversations took place in the new and evolving text shorthand.  Back then a few brands were the trailblazers.  Consumers and businesses discovered that using social media put the human back into the business conversation.  Social media has evolved, and brands continue to battle to be the “best.”  Then it meant including the most polished images and updates.    Brands Lost Their Authenticity As social media evolved, brands lost their authenticity in the transition.  The ‘human’ element disappeared from social media.  Instead companies focused on slick creatives and messaging and building a politically correct brand voice.  That’s not the message which resonates with people. Shorthand does.  A missed comma here or there does.  A video from your mobile phone as you’re suddenly hit with inspiration while on a grocery run does.  Consumers react positively to messages that are creative and authentic.  From the heart, often speaks stronger than from the brain.  Customer's Want Brand Authenticity A recent survey by Social Media Today revealed that 86% of people say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.  Additionally, 90% of Millennials say brand authenticity is important.  This demonstrates that younger consumers prefer ‘real and organic’ over ‘perfect and packaged’.It's all about telling your brand’s story.  Origin stories are all the rage now that we inhabit the Marvel universe.  People love to understand how something was born and how it’s grown.  That’s true too of your brand.    Your Brand Identity Matters Consider a well known brand like Ford.  The company is forever tied directly to it's founder Henry Ford.  Ford has found success not just because it’s a solid car manufacturer, but because people relate to the all American story of the rise of Henry Ford and his vision. While your business may not have a lengthy history, share what you can.  Tell the story of how and why you started the business and the ups and downs along the way. You have to make your brand's story human at it's core, and your audience will feel more connected because of it.  

Social Media and Reviews Build Your Brand 

 Imagine you’re planning to go out for dinner and looking for the best restaurants close to your home.  Would you choose the restaurant with a line of waiting customers?  Or would you choose the one with more empty tables than full?  Most likely you would choose the first. Even though it’s less convenient, you would choose that one because it’s level of business indicates that it's a liked and quality place to eat.  We would call that social proof.  We view everything in a situation while comparing it to how we see others engaging with it.  If we see a crowded restaurant with people lined up out the door, from the evidence we see, it's a great restaurant.  The idea of social proof is all part of building your brand authenticity.  When it comes to content, 60% of consumers say that user generated content is the most authentic form of content.That's why social shares, reviews and likes have so much weight in establishing your brand trust and credibility.  If other people like your product or service, customer's naturally assume that they will too.  Based on the evidence provided by your other customers..   Display Your Brand's Social Proof There are many ways that your brand can use social proof.  You could display follower counts, subscribers, fans, etc. on social media.  Collecting customer reviews and testimonials is another method.  User generated content, and working with an influencer can also be used build your social reputation. Collecting social proof might seem like an uphill battle, especially when you’re new.  Start small, with whatever you can.  Get certified in whatever provides authority for your niche.  If it’s Google Analytics, AdWords, etc. and display the badge prominently on your website. Look for and take some guest blogging opportunities.  Once you begin building momentum, you can begin to add some more prominent publications to your rotation.  Don't forget to prominently display a “featured in” section on your homepage to highlight other notices, reviews or publications where you are mentioned.  Growing Social Proof Builds Brand Trust Build up social proof to increase your brand trust.  Develop a strategy for collecting reviews built into your marketing plan from the beginning.  Statistics suggest that 61% of consumers read reviews before they complete a purchase.  People look for a reason to trust your brand, so make it easy for them to find. Include surveys with your emails to customers.  Ask them to return them, this allows you to learn why they chose your business.  To help make this easier, use software designed to automate the process for you.  Or you can reach out individually to loyal clients and ask them for a testimonial. 

Embrace Values that Set You Apart 

 When you think of major airlines that you actually like, what airline comes to mind?  I’ll bet that Southwest Airlines is at the top of most lists.  From their first day of operations, Southwest did things different than any other airline.  No assigned seating, low fares, and friendly, fun employees.  Even in 1967, Herb Kelleher was thinking outside the box when he founded Southwest.Guess which airline, customers and the business world were talking about.  Yep, Southwest was in everyone's conversations because they were doing everything differently.  Customer's Embrace Doing Things Better From their first day, customers loved Southwest's radically different policies.  Southwest created their own path.   As other airlines were raising their prices, Southwest consistently offered lower fares.  I remember flying one way from Houston to Dallas for $19.  No other airline could match that.And they did it without compromising their customer service.  All the other airlines assigned seating, Southwest let you choose your own.  When other airlines started charging for checked baggage, Southwest kept their bags free.  This ability to defy the norm set them apart.  Their willingness to adopt policies benefiting their customers, often over their business, made their customers embrace them and trust them even more.   The Message is Don't be Afraid to be Different   The message behind the Southwest Airlines story?  Don’t be afraid to be different.  And don’t be afraid to do things just for your customers.  Give your customers value, don’t try to get it out of them.  So when every other restaurant is charging an extra dollar to add chicken to an entree, don’t. Or when every other company charges an initial fee, offer a free consultation. Remember, little things go a long way in setting you apart from your competition.  Placing the value on your customers that they deserve will help make them your strong brand ambassadors.  

Embrace HTTPS and Use Trust Badges

  Consumer’s faith in the safety of their information is a big deal right now.  With data breaches and measures like the GDPR being enacted, it’s crucial that you do everything you can to make your users feel that their information is protected.  Even if you’re only asking for an email, and especially if your site takes sensitive info like payment information, be overprepared.  The best thing you can do is make sure you’ve switched over to the HTTPS protocol. Your customers expect it and it's quickly becoming a requirement that your site must offer to your customers..   Your Customer's Deserve Information Security In a recent PwC Global Study, respondents were asked how they reduce the risk of online security issues and fraud.  57% said they only use credible and legitimate websites.  51% said that they choose providers they trust when making payments.  Switching to HTTPS gives you the green secure lock in the URL field and your users the peace of mind that their data is safe if they use your site.  HTTPS Security Builds Brand Trust   Switch to HTTPS to build brand trust.  Do even more if you accept online payments, switch to HSTS.   You can also add trust seals to your site.   Trust Seals are proven to increase conversions, however it's important to ensure that whatever you do it is proven to be safe and effective in the protection it provides.  Once you’ve decided on a badge, it’s simply a process of choosing the plan you want, letting them authenticate your website, and installing the badge on your checkout page.  

Be Transparent and Over-Deliver 

 Bottom line, it's important that you deliver what you promise.  If fact, deliver more than you promise.  This all starts with your value proposition.  Whatever benefits you promise?   Make sure you deliver them.  That PPC ad you ran advertising a low-cost solution?  Deliver on your promise.  Send them straight to a dedicated landing page, and don’t make them hunt to find what was promised to them.   Deliver More Than You Promise If you promise in-person quarterly meetings, weekly phone calls, or daily updates. Deliver.  And don’t ever be misleading.  If you’re advertising a free product, don’t surprise your customers with hidden fees along the way.  If you plan to increase your prices, give existing customers fair warning.  Explain your reasoning and their value to you as a customer.  Chances are, you're dealing with adults.  Treat them like it and make sure they’re informed.  This is the transparency principle, and it’s big because your customer's hate surprises.  Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Wrapping Up Brand Trust 

 Be transparent with your customers to build your brand trust.  If something goes wrong, own it.  If you make a mistake, don't dodge the issue.  Step up and own any errors you make, don't try to lessen them.  Most of your customers understand that people make mistakes, they're just expecting transparency and honesty.Show them you are and explain what did or what could have gone wrong.  It's not about making excuses.  It's about honest answers to address legitimate concerns.  Customer's Expect and Respect Honesty Your customers will respect your honesty, and hopefully your attempts to right any wrongs.  There’s no denying the huge impact consumer trust can have on your business.  Make it a priority, and your customers will see and embrace the difference.   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Embrace Your Community Growth Using Social Media Branding

Social Media Builds Your Brand Develop a Social Community Mindset To build a successful Social Media Community, you have to think like a community builder.  Throw out your old marketing ideas when it comes to Social Media Marketing.  You have to develop the social mindset essential to achieving your goals.  You Need to be Social We all understand the opportunities Social Media presents for businesses.  It allows them to convey their message to a broader audience.  However, using Social Media as only a broadcast channel is only achieving  half of your goal.  Without interacting with others on social media, you're not making the real connections that you need to make.It's all just making digital noise if you are not connecting with people, carrying on the conversations that you need to use to have your message resonate and even be shared and liked by others.  It's not enough to say "Look at what we're doing, this is really great."  You actually have to respond to comments, answer questions, and embrace the one-on-one conversations that are the real goal of your social media presence.  If you’re not doing those things, you’re wasting your and others’ time.  Social media really is for socializing.  If you're not answering questions and having one-on-one conversations, you're wasting your time on social media.  Make your time spent on social media productive and interactive.  You Need to be Fearless Many don't really understand what it means to be a marketing expert.  Being a marketing expert is constantly evolving as market conditions and technology change and expand.It would surprise you how much energy we put into trying new things at the Better Business Alliance.  We don’t know everything and are constantly reading blogs and searching for the best new marketing ideas and the technology to make marketing better, quicker and more engaging.Right now we are working on a messenger bot for our page, hoping it can become a tool to enhance our service to others.  So we’re doing a lot of research about bots and how we can apply to enhance visitor engagement.Even marketing experts need to try new things for growth.  Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog Maintain a Social Media Perspective Learn to Focus and Pace YourselfWhen I first started doing this, I had a hard time turning things off.  I’ve gotten used to the idea that at some point you must sleep.  If someone tweets at 2 a.m., they’re not going to get an answer.  I want to do the best possible job I can, and my definition of that has evolved.  Doing the best job doesn’t mean I have to stop and answer every tweet because then I lose my focus on everything else that’s important.  Use Native Analytics to Gauge Your Success People underestimate the usefulness of Twitter and Facebook native analytics.  These give us critical demographic information about our audience.  You need to try different thing, constantly testing and checking the results achieved against your expended effort.  Only experience and analytics will educate you on what works for you.  Invest your time wisely.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

How Your Slow Blog Page Speed Loses You Visitors and Money

Unleash Your Blog's Page Speed

  Your page load speed needs to be a rocket ride, so fast that your visitors feel like they're hanging onto the handlebars.  We all wonder?  Are my pages loading too slowly?  Is my site's page loading speed affecting search traffic?  Are slow pages costing me money?   I'll try to help you answer these questions and much more.  You’ll discover how to assess and improve Your website or blog page speed and learn how to assess the mobile friendliness of your pages.   Use Social Media to Boost Your Traffic We all understand the numbers.  Marketers and bloggers primarily use our social media presence to increase traffic (78%), generate leads (64%), and improve sales (53%).Social media audiences expect a fast experience and immediate results.  Your audience is not willing to wait for slow pages to launch.  If your page is slow, they just click away to find what they want.  And, if your blog or website doesn’t meet their speed expectations, you've probably lost them forever.If you measure the success of your social media campaigns using metrics, you may be surprised to learn that the average mobile website in 2018 took 15.3 seconds to load.  That's too slow and Google has the metrics to prove this.According to Google, 53% of all mobile visits are abandoned if a page doesn’t load within 3 seconds and half of all of your visitors expect pages to load in less than 2 seconds.  Those are very high expectations to meet. 75% of Users Rate Speed as Most Important Additionally, 75% of users rate page load speed as the most important part of their user experience (UX).  In real life situations, mobile conversions drop by 20% if there is just a 1-second delay in page loading.  Making this even worse news, a negative experience on your mobile page means people are 62% less likely to buy from you in the future.So even if your social media marketing game is great, a slow blog could be costing your company thousands of dollars in potential income. Google has Shifted Toward Mobile Search Google is focused on serving up fast mobile experiences.  In July 2018, they made mobile search page load speed a ranking factor and introduced mobile first indexing.  This means that the mobile version of your website takes priority over the desktop version when it comes to ranking and indexing.These developments reflect how committed Google is to improving the mobile experience.  For businesses that ignore mobile optimization, these changes will have a huge negative impact on their revenue. 

Your Sites Mobile Friendliness Matters

 Understanding Google’s emphasis on mobile speed, you’ll want to ensure that your blog is living up to their expectations.  Are you providing a mobile experience that is fast enough for your audience?   Run the Mobile Test on Your Site The first thing you need to do is run the  Google mobile-friendly test.  Plug your blog or website URL into the search field and click Run Test.  In less than a minute the search is run and your results will display.  On the results page, you’ll see a screenshot of the page on mobile and a list of usability issues for mobile devices such as small fonts, Flash usage, clickable elements that are too close together, and so on.  You may be surprised by the results.  Run Google's Page Speed Test Second, you’ll want to test your blog’s speed using Google's PageSpeed Insights.  Google has made a big change to this tool and how it measures page speed.  Instead of focusing solely on technical elements, PageSpeed Insights now scores your site according to two separate criteria, it's looking at your page speed and your page optimization.Optimization is a new name for the same old optimization tips you’re used to: avoid redirects; compress images; minify CSS, HTML, and JavaScript; and so on.Speed is something new. It’s measured using two new abbreviations: FCP (First Contentful Paint) and DCL (DOM Content Loaded).  You can’t get these two metrics through local tests.  FCP measures when users first see a visual response from your page.  DCL measures when an HTML document has been loaded and parsed. Chrome's CrUX Metrics Matter Both metrics are based on the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) database, which includes the aggregated results of millions of real users opening websites in Chrome browsers.  The numbers collected depend not only on the speed of your website but also on users’ connection speeds and their devices.So even if your tests show an optimized page speed, when a user with a slow Internet connection or outdated smartphone lands on your blog, Google may consider your website to be “slow.”The bottom line is that Google has fully switched from lab data to field data, assessing page speeds based on real user measurements.  That’s why increasing your site’s optimization score is a must if you want to stay competitive, especially in the light of these latest findings.  Your optimization score, not just your page speed now plays a role in your rankings.To run a PageSpeed Insights test, simply enter your URL in the text box and click Analyze.After PageSpeed Insights evaluates your page, you’ll see real-world performance data and suggestions for improvement.  Remember that the results page has two tabs now, for Mobile and Desktop.  And your mobile optimization is pivotal for user experience.    Your Page Speed Affects Revenue To instantly discover how fast your blog loads and determine the potential effects that page speed has on your conversions, use the Mobile Speed Scorecard and Impact Calculator.  The Mobile Speed Scorecard lets you compare your blog’s speed to your industry peers.  You can include up to 10 domains in the test.Run the Impact Calculator tool to discover how much potential revenue you’re missing out on based on your blog’s loading speed.  Fill in your current speed from the Mobile Speed Scorecard along with your average order value, monthly mobile traffic, and mobile conversion rate.Drag the Minimum Speed slider to see the potential annual revenue impact from improving speed by a certain number of seconds.  It's very motivating when the metrics can visually show the speed effect on revenue. 

Assess Page Speed With User Data

  If you’ve never gathered Real User Measurements (RUMs) before, then Google’s CrUX database is your new best friend.  To get started using it, go to the Google BigQuery public project page. If you don’t currently have a project, you’ll need to create one.  To do this, go to Google Cloud Platform and click Create a Project.  Then name your project and click Create. If you’re prompted, provide billing information. (CrUX is free, but there are limits to the free tier.)   Study the Metrics   Now you can query the dataset to learn things such as connection type, device usage, and granular data about FCP, DCL, and other useful metrics. Because CrUX gives you the ability to look at the performance of 3 million sites, you’ll be able to use this tool as a competitive benchmark.  You can find out how you stack up against your top competitors.  For more information about querying the dataset, visit the official Google page.  

Tools Improve Your Page Speed

  Now that you know how important a fast website is to your blog’s ranking and conversions (and, by extension, the ROI of your ad campaigns), it’s time to look at what you can do right now to improve page speeds for your blog. Install the Smush WordPress plugin to compress and optimize images (and thereby improve page speed) automatically.   Chrome has Tools to Help   Use Chrome DevTools to remove redundant JavaScript. This tool, which is built into the Chrome browser, will track JavaScript elements and remove whatever you can afford to. To access the list of your JavaScript elements, open a page you want to check in Chrome and go to Settings > More Tools > Developer Tools. Then click Network > JS and sort the elements by Time. At the top of the list, you’ll see the elements that make your blog most vulnerable. Items marked in red are canceled JavaScript elements, which still take a considerable amount of time to load. You should consider removing them.  

Eliminate Non-Essential Third-Party Items

  Third party items can drag down your page load speed.  It's important to minimize your reliance on items that you load from third-party websites.  Examples are such as social sharing buttons, ads, and video player embeds.  You don’t have any control over how fast a third-party server and assets on that server load.     Balance Need vs Speed   It’s not always possible to get rid of these elements altogether because user experience and your business goals may suffer.  You’ll need to find the right balance.  For example, you can’t get rid of social sharing buttons on your blog altogether, but you can keep only the most popular ones. Use Lighthouse to instantly improve the quality of web pages including basic performance audits, accessibility fixes, PWAs, and more.   More Tips to Boost Your Speed   Other tips include resource minification, browser caching, and eliminating redirects, but I highly recommend that you ask an SEO expert to help you identify and implement these fixes.  For more information, see Google’s nine recommendations for improving page speed. What do you think?  Have slow speeds ever impacted your user experience, organic reach, or overall marketing approach?  Have you tried any of these tools to assess and improve your page speeds?  Become A Marketing Rockstar for Your Business, embrace the options you have learned about.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

You Can't Afford to Lose The Page Speed Race

  People’s expectations for faster and better digital experiences are on the rise.  And the mobile web is no exception.  But the thrill of the hunt, whether it’s researching the best hotel deals for spring break or buying a new pair of running shoes, is often hindered by slow mobile websites. We’ve all been there, eagerly waiting for a mobile site to load and then abandoning it out of frustration.  It’s a challenge most businesses struggle with.  In fact, the average mobile webpage takes 15.3 seconds to load.     Don't Loose Customer's   Count that off to yourself.   15.3 seconds feels like an eternity, doesn’t it?  If people have a negative experience on mobile, they’re 62% less likely to purchase from you in the future.  And it doesn't matter how beautiful or data-driven your marketing campaigns are.  Speed matters......   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Narrow Your Customer Gap While Widening Your Business Gap

What is the Business Gap?

  I’ve written about creating a gap between your company and your competition.  This is how most businesses judge their success in their relationship to competitors.  If you were widening the gap, it meant that you were outdistancing the competition and gaining market share.   Instead Narrow Your Customer Gap It's a pretty simple strategy to widen the gap between you and your competition.  Instead it might be a better strategy to narrow the gap between you and your customer.  This isn’t about growing your market share and adding new customers.  It is about developing stronger customer loyalty.  Think about it this way.  The closer you get to your customer and the more you meet their needs, the smaller the gap becomes between you and your customer.  That ultimately puts a wider gap between you and your competition.  What a simple way of looking at building customer loyalty to your brand.  The closer you come to your customer, the more you will learn about your customers.  Very specific things such as buying patterns, special needs and more.  The more you know, the better equipped you are to deliver what you sell the way they want it.  It's About Product Share   Market share may be about getting more customers, but “product share” is about a customer buying all of their products from you, and no one else.   It's About Wallet Share   A stockbroker sells investments.  Market share for a broker would mean more clients.  But “wallet share” is about an individual client having the confidence and trust to invest with just one broker, who becomes the trusted advisor to take care of all of the client’s financial and investing needs.   It's About Body Share   Coca-Cola sells soft drinks.  Market share was getting more consumers to buy their soft drinks.  Then they came up with the concept of “body share,” which is about how much Coca-Cola product is consumed by an individual.   That is why Coke’s list of products continues to grow, even including fruit juices and water.  Their strategy is that if a consumer drinks anything, it should be a Coca-Cola product.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog It's About Your Customer   Focus on what your customer wants and needs.  What are they asking for?  Narrow the gap between what you offer and what the customer wants and you will widen the gap between you and your competition.   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Why Your Content Marketing Needs to be Snackable

Make Your Content More Snackable

  We're no longer the family of the 1950's and 1960's all gathered around a single TV set for our news and entertainment.  Those days are long gone, and our new reality is so much different. Today everyones's attention is divided.  I know in my own home, everyone has their own devices and is engaging with different media.  It's not unusual for my three grand children to each be surfing on their own iPads while their parents are scanning their phones.   While my 5 yo grandson binge watches Ryans toy videos, his older cousins are playing Fortnite or checking out the latest gymnastics videos on YouTube.  The adults are busy checking Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, on their phones.  We're constantly bombarded with endless new content to keep us preoccupied and disconnected from actually living.  That's why all devices are banned from the dinner table at my house, to give us all a chance to connect personally.   Content Comes at Us in Multiple Streams   According to eMarketer, millions of American's are surfing the web while they watch TV.  Consumer attention spans are now measured in seconds, with most spending less than a minute on any website.  Mobile technology, where brief content is gold is a growing segment of internet traffic.  Mobile now accounts for over 56% of all traffic on the internet. Brands are fighting harder than ever to attract and retain consumer attention, while attention spans are at their lowest.  Engaging a distracted audience requires a strategy using the concept of “content snacking”.  You need to be delivering small but highly relevant bits of information that people can consume on the go. Following are four tips for making your content more snackable.   Add Multimedia Using Different Formats   GIF's are a great example of snackable content that we’ve seen emerge over the past few years. “Marketers are creating GIFs to help consumers express themselves through these humorous, snackable videos, which make them a shareable utility versus an ad,” Moving Image & Content Founder Quynh Mai said.  “GIFs are an economical way for consumers to express their moods, and smart brands are creating GIFs as a utility for that purpose, making these shareable personal expressions and not just a six-second video.” There’s a world of snacking possibilities beyond just GIFs.  Creating content in multiple formats will help you reach consumers in whatever way is most convenient for them. Text-based content is the easiest to produce, but you should consider creating visuals such as easy-to-digest charts, infographics, audio, video or even live video content.  Remember, though, to always tie it back to your audience’s needs.  The type of content that works best for you depends on who you’re trying to reach. Millennials, for example, are more likely to connect with a funny meme, while Baby Boomers may be more interested in an informative infographic. If you end up creating text-based content, make “easy-to-skim” your mantra.  Rather than deliver a wall of text, use bold formatting, numbered lists and clear, easy-to-understand language to get your message across.   Deliver Value to Create Brand Loyalty   You can't just deliver a funny meme or GIF and call it a day, particularly if the delivery is disruptive.  If you want to promote your brand, your content needs to be snackable delivered in small bites.  It's also critical that your audience finds your content to useful.   Don't bombard consumers with irrelevant marketing messages, it's like forcing them to eat their vegetables.  According to research from Google, a full 51% of smartphone users indicated that they’ve changed a purchasing decision simply because one brand proved itself useful.  Google also found that 73% consumers said useful information was their deciding factor when making a brand choice. Bottom line, make your content snackable and "thumb-worthy."   Cater to Various Consumption Habits We all understand that consumers do approach content in different ways, adjust your strategy to deliver on those different preferences.Make it easy for consumers to save your content for later consumption.  Don't limit user engagement to just those able to react in the moment.  Integrate your content with tools such as Flipboard, Pocket, or Feedly and enhance user accessibility and engagement.  Double down on accessibility to your content.  Include closed captions on your videos for those who might want to watch but not listen, and create audio versions of your long-form text content for those who prefer to listen, rather than read.Always look for ways to refine your marketing strategy and make it easy for consumers to find you.  Ensure that your content is optimized for search engines.  Be sure to optimize for all types of searches including image search, mobile search and voice search.  Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are growing in popularity, and by 2020, it's predicted that 30% of browsing will be conducted via voice.  Diversify Your Distribution If you want your snackable content to be truly convenient, you can’t host it all in one place.  Your audience members should be able to easily find you, regardless of where they surf.  Maximizing your content amplification early, such as during the first three days following publication, is critical to long-term visibility.First, consider your owned media, which includes promoting content via your website, email list, blog and social media pages.  Then, work on earning mentions from credible third parties like industry blogs, independent media publishers, Reddit users or social media influencers.  Content creators and PR teams should coordinate their efforts to find effective third-party partners.  Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Great Content Continues to be Relevant

 Distribute your content as long as it’s relevant, you can even breathe new life into older pieces of content when there is a surge in relevancy or interest.  Use A/B testing to determine what headlines attract the most clicks. You're Competing for Content Views With so much new content spewing from the internet these days, the competition for consumers’ eyes is fiercer than ever.  Brands can’t expect consumers to invest in long-form blog posts.  Adjust your delivery methods, cater to consumers’ cravings for bite-sized pieces of content.  If your brand succeeds now, you'll connect with users more effectively as their consumption habits continue to evolve.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Your Brand's Authenticity Must be Unscripted and Genuine

You Can't Script Authenticity in Your UX

  Your Authenticity is Customer Focused It’s easy to know when you are dealing with a customer service representative who is less than sincere.  They lack authenticity which goes hand in hand with their insincerity.  They tend to repeat themselves saying things like, “I'm sorry for your inconvenience and I can understand how you feel." Reading from a script is how they sound, because more likely than not that's what they are doing.  It can be tiring and frustrating to hear these phrase, after all, the reason you called is important to you.  And it would b nice if you felt that it was important to the Customer Service Rep.They don't really sound sorry, and don't appear to be.  They seem to be repeating what comes up on their computer screens and what they learned in. their training.  Perhaps they are sincere, but their company forces them to go by their script.  You can't script sincerity.  Authenticity Can't be Taught The best customer support people, aren't the best or become the best being fake or insincere.  The best people have empathy, are concerned about fixing problems, and genuinely care about great business practices and doing the right thing.  They sound real and their advice comes across as an authentic effort to solve a problem.If you can’t script sincerity, you surely can't teach it either.  If people aren’t empathetic and caring, you probably won’t be able to teach them to embrace those traits. Certainly not before they would damage the relationship with the customer.   Authenticity Can't be Faked   Some people can seem to fake sincerity, but it never really sounds authentic.  Unfortunately the effort and pressure to be someone they’re not will come out, and can do so in possibly negative behavior.   That’s why if they are put under pressure, some employees just seem to lose their cool.  It’s not that they're not nice.  It’s just that they don’t have the patience or empathy to deal with confrontational customers, especially if they are upset and unreasonable.   Lacking Authenticity is a Loyalty Killer     The bottom line is that lacking authenticity and showing insincerity is a loyalty killer.  While a customer may tolerate insincerity.  Customers shouldn’t have to tolerate a representative who is scripted, apathetic, and isn’t customer focused.   A customer can't have a positive emotional connection to your company if your employees are perceived as fake or insincere?  How do you get empathetic, good, caring people?  It starts before you even hire someone.   Your leadership defines what good customer service looks like in your organization.  Once defined, you must hire good people who support that initiative.  Then you train them.  Support from you for a job well done makes employees feel good, especially after handling complaints and problems on their customer interactions.     Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

You Need Customer Focused People

 Great customer focused people is the most important task at hand.  The best customer focused people are empathetic and actually care about reaching a good outcome for the customer and the company.   Hire for Attitude, You Can Teach Skills Hire customer service reps that care, and who already have the personality to succeed in a customer service position.  Teach your customer service reps the necessary skills.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

SEO is Central to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Why Search Optimization is Vital

  What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) determines the amount of online visibility which your website or a web page will garner in an organic search results.  An organic search engine response is different than the paid results getting higher placement because a fee was paid to obtain a higher search ranking.  Higher is Better in Search Results   The higher you are ranked on the search results page, the better it is for your website or a web page.  The frequency of a website's appearances in the search results list is also a vital statistic.  Appearing with several results is a crucial factor in determining the visibility of a web site.   For a website, the more search appearances near the top of a search the better.  More appearances at the top of a search should translate into more visits your website will receive from the search engine's users.  The goal is to have as many visitors as possible, hopefully some of these visitors can then be converted into customers.    

Targeted Searches Are Varied

  SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. A vertical search engine is different from a general internet search engine, because it focuses on a specific segment of online content.   An example of a vertical search engine would be the Library of Congress search which is specifically designed to retrieve documents from the national archives.   Global SEO is the Broadest Type of Search Optimization   SEO differs from local search optimization, local search is focused on optimizing a business' online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when a user enters a local search for its products or services.  SEO instead is focused on national or international searches. Local SEO however, is focused on optimizing a business' online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when users enter local searches for its products or services. Ranking for local search involves a similar process to general SEO but includes some specific elements to rank a business for local search.     Search Algorithms Control Search Results   As part of a Internet Digital Marketing Strategy, SEO considers how search engines work.  The prime factor in the workings of a search engine are the computer programmed algorithms which control search engine behavior and the results returned from a search. It is the search algorithm which determines the results garnered from a specific search.  The algorithm examines what people search for and the search terms or keywords that are typed into the search engine, and decides what is returned as search results.   The algorithm also determines the order or ranking of the returned results with the goal to appear as high as possible in the search results.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Website Promotion is Vital to Your Success

  Promoting a web site or web page is done to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. A backlink is a link from another web resource (the referrer) to your website (the referent).  A web resource could be a website, web page or a web directory.   When a website is indexed, the search engine examines and scores the sites content.  It also looks at and follows any links from a website to other sites and scores these links and the backlinks from other sites for their importance and relevance.   Website Optimization is Crucial to Your SEO Success   Optimizing a website involves editing your sites content to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the web indexing of your content by the search engine. Web indexing or Internet indexing refers how a search engine reviews the content of a website or a specific web page.  This review enables the search engine to make a website or web page part of the results returned during a web search depending upon the specific keywords used for the search.   Mobile Search has Grown in Importance   Mobile search is a rapidly growing component of web searches that is centered on mobile platforms and mobile phones.  Web search abilities in a mobile form allows users to find website content available to mobile devices on mobile networks.   As this happens mobile content shows a shift toward mobile multimedia.  Mobile search is not just a shift of PC web search to mobile equipment, but is experiencing a treelike branching into specialized segments of mobile broadband and mobile content, both of which are rapidly evolving.   Mobile Search is Tops With Google   By 2015 mobile search had surpassed all other search types with it becoming a key consideration in the development of search capacity moving into the future.  Because of this shift toward mobile search, many brands are beginning to take a different approach to their Internet digital marketing strategies. The shift toward mobile search capabilities has also caused a rethinking of website design and function moving into the future.   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

How Web Analytics Measure Your Digital Marketing Success

Web Analytics Measure and Quantify

  Web Analytics Measure Your Success   Web analytics is the measurement, data collection, analysis and reporting of web data.  This tracking and analyzing of data is done to help understand and optimize web usage.   Using web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business andmarket research.  You can also use analytics to assess and improve the effectiveness of your website.   Web Analytics Dissects Your Web Traffic   Web analytics applications can also help measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns.  Google Search Console analytics help to quantify changes in traffic to a website after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views.  It helps gauge traffic and popularity trends which is useful for market research.  

Four Steps to Your Web Analytics Success

  Most web analytics processes come down to four essential stages or steps.   Collection of Your Data   This stage in the Web Analytics Process is the collection of the basic, elementary data.  Usually, these data are counts of things.  The objective of this stage is simply to gather the data.   Processing Your Data into Useful Information   This step of the Web Analytics process take counts and makes them ratios, although there still may be some counts.  The objective of this stage is to take the data and form it into useable and actionable information, specifically metrics.   Developing Your KPI Data   This stage focuses on using the ratios and counts and infusing them with business strategies, referred to as key performance indicators (KPI).   Many times, KPIs deal with conversion aspects, but not always.  It depends on the organization. A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement.  KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives in which it engages.   Formulating Your Online Strategy   This stage is concerned with developing your online goals, objectives, and standards for your organization or business.  Your strategies are usually related to making money, saving money, or increasing marketshare.  

A/B Testing Identifies Your Success

  There is another essential function developed for the optimization of websites.  You can perform experiments and testing including A/B testing.  A/B testing is a controlled experiment using two variants, in online settings, such as your web development.   Your A/B Testing Goals   Your goal using A/B testing is to identify changes to web pages that increase a statistically tested result which you are interested.  As the name implies, two versions (A and B) are compared, which are identical except for one variation that might affect a user's behavior. Version A might be the currently used version or control, while version B is modified in some respect by changing or treatment.  An e-commerce website's purchase funnel is typically a good candidate for A/B testing.  Even marginal improvements in drop-off rates can represent a significant gain in your sales. Significant improvements can sometimes be seen through testing elements like copy text, layouts, images and colors.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Web Analytics Provide Your Answers

 Web analytics applications can also help you measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising.  Analytics also help to estimate how traffic to your website changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign.   Analytics Tell You Who's Visiting Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to your website and your number of page views.  Web Analytics help you measure your traffic and popularity trends which is useful for market research.  Without Web Analytics you are basically driving blind, without a clue about who is visiting your site.Your web analytics tell you who is visiting.  How many are visiting.  What they are looking at.  Information that you need to make the decisions that will guarantee your success.  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Can You Name Ten Reasons Your Customers Do Business With You

Can You Give Me Ten Reasons to do Business With You?

  It's a very valid question that you should ask yourself.  Can you give me ten reasons I should do business with you or your company?  I’m talking about good reasons that have substance and are unique.  Reasons that would make me take notice.  Reasons that would be memorable, remarkable and relatable.  Reasons that would make you stand out from your competitors.   Why do People do Business With You?   Recently I did an exercise in my business that helped me focus on why people should do business with me.  You need to know about it, not the reasons but the exercise.   The mental exercise is actually the important part.  It's important because you should be able to come up with compelling reasons for why your business exists.  

What Made Me Think About This?

  I was Reading a Marketing Article I was reading an article about marketing and selling and one of the comments was that any salesperson should be able to list ten reasons to buy their product.  I realized that you don’t have to be a salesperson to benefit from this exercise.  The ten reasons can be about anything.  Why should I buy from you?  Why should I hire you?  Why should I promote you?  Why should I work with you?  The list of reasons creates credibility, persuasiveness and even purpose.  Guess What My First Reaction Was?   The first thing I did was to make my list of reasons.  I quickly had a lot more than ten reasons.  Next I asked a friend and they came up with even more great reasons. Between us, we had come up with a pretty lengthy list.  Some of our reasons were boring, and anybody in my business might repeat some of the same things.  I felt that my reasons should be compelling, and more importantly, the reasons had to deliver a clear benefit to my customers.   Your List can Just be for Your Benefit   Your list doesn’t have to be something that you share with others.   Creating this list can be just for you.  You could adopt your list as part of your personal mission statement.  Your list should be a work in progress, being updated periodically so that it remains current and relevant.   You should want to keep finding ways to be better and to make your business better.  That’s good for you as well as your customers.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

What You Need to do Right Now

  Sit Down With Paper and a Pen   Get out paper and a pen and begin creating your list of reasons that will make people take notice of you and your company.  Write at least a short paragraph to expand on what these reasons really mean to you. My list originally consisted of a short ten lines.  This quickly became two typewritten pages of my compelling business story.  Customers, clients, and employees all want to know and relate to your story.     Include Others as Part of Your Story   Others want to understand how your experiences helped create your business. They want to know what experiences and decisions brought you to where you are now.   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

How Influencers Can Help You Crush Your Competition?

Stay Competitive in the Growing World of Influencer Marketing

  It seems as if Influencer Marketing is everywhere.  Just this week, I read and commented on two pieces about Influencer Marketing.  One of these from Jeff Epstein was called "How to Stay Competitive in the Growing World of Influencer Marketing." Internet marketing recently was all about affiliates.  Affiliate marketing was an effective way to reach a large audience.  Brands were able to compete with each other using an affiliate publisher, or web portal, which increased their exposure and helped drive their sales. Now, ordinary individuals can gain massive reach through a single social channel.  Brands that once relied on affiliates to promote their products online are turning to influencers to lend more legitimacy to their wares.   Influencer marketing is the new wave of affiliate marketing.  The most engaging of influencers leverage the newest, most exciting technologies to provide a better experience for their audiences.   Why do Influencers Matter?   Why is influencer marketing so important?   First, paid advertising is more expensive than ever, and yields fewer results in most cases. Second, with content marketing investments increasing, your content has to be seen.  Influencers are thought to be a good way to make your content be seen. And third, social media algorithms are throttling exposure from brand-created posts.  The idea is that third party influencers and other real people have a better chance of spreading your brand centered posts. All of these are true....   What is the Future of Influencer Marketing? It doesn't take a crystal ball to see the future.  Just by looking at marketing trends you can see the direction things are moving.  Your analytics will also confirm the trend.  More and more consumers are “cutting the cord” from cable television, instead creating their own viewing experiences using their phones, tablets, and computers. Those still tied to the tube now have the ability to skip what they want and consume digital content whenever they desire.  Cord-cutting and a growing skepticism about what brand messages has strengthened  the impact of user-generated content.  This is making celebrities or mini-celebrities out of people with the knack for taking selfies and videos of themselves.The influencer marketing space is continually evolving.  Especially as people continue consuming more and more digital content.  Greater sophistication will emerge regarding the methods that brands use to customize their messaging and measure the impact of their marketing efforts.  This is particularly true among the new breed of media personalities created on a daily basis.  Which Platforms are used to Influence? Curated newsletters and blogs are growing in popularity.  If you follow business influencers on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, you will most likely find them promoting an article in a newsletter or a post on a blog.  If you trust what you read, you’ll keep going back. Eventually, the authors of that content will become your trusted sources of information.  With time, what they say will have some sway over your thoughts and decisions.  When they begin promoting a product or service, it might become a viable purchasing decision.Newsletters and blog posts are nothing new.  What I’m getting at is the importance of thinking outside the box to reach your target audience.  It’s becoming clear that traditional marketing methods are no longer enough to increase your brand awareness. You need to employ the people who have influence with your ideal customers. 

Use These 3 Tips to Influence Others

 How can you use these influencers to your advantage?  To do so keep these three strategies in mind.  Be Selective in Your Influencer Choices. Influencer marketing is like other forms of marketing.  You must understand who your audience members are before you can reach them.  Only then can you provide them with anything of value.  Segment your target audience into personas based on their likes, interests, and hobbies.  Then, find influencers who already appeal to those personas, rather than selecting influencers solely for their reach.  You must target your audience with the correct influencer.Athletic shoe brand ASICS successfully targeted a variety of personas by harnessing influencers at different levels of expertise.  To promote FrontRunners, its global health and fitness initiative, it sourced content from amateur, semi-professional, and professional runners.  These influencers created profiles and blog pieces the brand used to target a wide range of readers, from those interested in distance running to those just in the market for a shoe.  Relevance is still the most important element in your relationship with any influencer.  Reaching the right people requires choosing an influencer who shares the same target audience as your brand.  While 83 percent of consumers trust friend and family recommendations, it’s not always easy to tap a source that has authority over purchase decisions.  Followers of influencers often regard their videos, photos, and other posts as endorsements from a trusted friend.  Select a Niche For Your Influence.   Lots of influencers reach millions of people, however partnering with them doesn't provide you with the right content to your targeted audience.  Getting same results as other “mass” marketing efforts may not be the results you need.  You spend lots of bucks for a small amount of bang, at least in your results. Instead, search for influencers or channels with smaller followings.  These influencers often offer a more engaged and devoted fan base.  They should also know their audiences well and communicate in ways that will generate more and better responses. Shoe maker Sperry embraced this method when it decided to go smaller with a 2016 campaign that partnered with more than 100 Instagram micro-influencers.  The boat shoe brand sought loyalists who were already sharing primo photos of the shoes via their personal Instagram accounts and asked the customers to create similarly alluring photos for Sperry’s own account. The approach had less to do with ROI and more to do with widening the brand’s social imprint.  This approach can produce greater financial rewards in the long run.  Sperry saw what possibilities would come from investing in niche influencers, like what Amazon did when it invested in the live-streaming video platform Twitch. Twitch viewers watch other people play video games.  The platform currently has more than 100 million monthly visitors, with nearly half clocking more than 20 hours of viewing each week.  All to watch someone else play a video game. Amazon saw so much potential in Twitch’s ability to drive game sales that it bought the service for nearly $1 billion in 2014.  Influencers on the channel feature products they like, earning commissions on any resulting sales.  Twitch has proved an easy way to tap a big potential audience.   Create Your Own Mix of Content. Think of influencer marketing like you would content marketing.  Influencer marketing provides just as many types of content, and each content type connects you to a different portion of your audience.Don’t rely solely on short-form content platforms like Snapchat or Instagram.  Although these platforms have viewer influence, depending exclusively on them means you might miss out on opportunities that only long-form content can provide. Instead, consider using sites like Medium to strike the right balance with your mix of content.  Unlike Snapchat or Instagram, Medium provides a channel for your audience to dig deeper into topics.  Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Give Influencer Marketing a Try

  You should always be curating your own content marketing material.  It's important to remember that any good collection has more than one form of content.  The real trick is knowing when to use a picture, video, article, or even email to further your conversation.   Influencer Marketing is a Powerful Weapon   Influencer marketing is quickly becoming the most powerful weapon in a marketer’s arsenal of strategies. However, using influencer marketing does come with a learning curve.  It may take time, energy, and a whole lot of research to find the right influencer to promote your brand.  Once you have mastered it, Influencer marketing can be a great match to help bolster your bottom line.   Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

How A Great Customer Experience Energizes Customer Validation

Your Great Customer Experience Creates Customer Validation!

    Your Customer Experience is a Philosophy!   Many people think of customer service as a department.  I believe that customer service is part of a companies philosophy, not a company department.   Customer service should be embraced by every employee, regardless of their job and how long they’ve been with a company.  The focus on this topic should be about what many consider to be the customer service and support department, the people who have contact and interact with the customer.   Technology Changed, Your Customers Haven't!   When it comes to the outcome of a customer service experience, the customer’s expectations haven’t changed.  They just want to be taken care of. The difference today is how many ways we have to communicate with the customer and reach the desired outcome.  What has changed is the way we go about delivering service.   We’ve figured out how to do it faster, and even better.  Back “in the day,” which wasn’t that long ago there was typically just two ways that customer service was provided.  Customer Service was done in person or over the phone.   Then technology kicked in and we started making service and support better and more efficient.   Delivering Customer Service is Unchanged.   A lot that is changing about how we deliver customer service.  If you look at what customer service is today, it is the same as it was fifty years ago.  Will it still be the same fifty years from now? Customer service is just a customer needing help, having a question answered or a problem resolved. Answer the question or resolve the problem and the customer is happy.  That’s it. When it comes to the customer’s expectations, they are the same.  In other words, nothing has changed in customer service!   How do You Interact With Your Customers?   Times have changed and direct interaction with customers can come in many forms.  It can be the traditional customer service team who fields questions and complaints.  Interaction can come through a customer simply calling, for any reason, to connect with someone inside the company.   The customer may reach out to the company via social media accounts, a company website, or a text message.  It's really any interaction with the company. Does your company just answer questions and manage complaints, or do they validate the customer’s decision to do business with you?  In other words, when the interaction with the customer is over, does the customer think, “I love doing business with this company”?  

Compare Your Metrics vs. Customer Validation?

  Don't Allow Metrics to Kill Customer Validation!   That makes common sense, but here is where some companies get it wrong.  They focus on metrics, or even worse, the wrong metrics.   Metrics are an important way to measure performance, they can tell you a big part of what you need to know.  However if one of your key metrics is about getting the customer off the phone as quickly as possible, that could be shortsighted in attempting to achieve customer validation.   Answer Your Customers Unasked Questions.   The best customer support does several things.  First, it answers the customer’s question.   Second, it gives an opportunity for the service provider to make suggestions, answer future questions the customer may have but doesn’t know it yet, and much more.  This can't  happen if your metric for measuring customer service performance is built on a foundation of rushing to complete a customer's call.   Focus on Your Customer, not the Clock.   Customers will call for help and support, and possibly even to complain.  The customers call is an opportunity for your company to shine and build your reputation and brand.   You can engage the customer using your knowledge, communication skills, patience, willingness to help, and ability to build rapport to build validate the customers choice to do business with your company.   You can ensure the customer is not only happy but has also made the right choice.  Validate the reason a customer chose to do business with the company in the first place.   That can’t happen if efficiency is how you measure success.  Instead, the focus should be on the customer’s level of satisfaction and eagerness to do business with you the next time they need what you sell.   Customer Validation is not Measured in Minutes.   Validation must be a part of the customer experience.  Customer validation creates confidence, which will lead to greater customer loyalty!   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Customers Still Seek Validation.

 Wrapping up, customer expectations haven’t changed.  They still want to be taken care of, regardless of how you do it.  It all begins with someone needing help, dealing with a problem, upset about something or just wanting to have a question answered.  It ends with that person walking away knowing they made the right decision to do business with you.  How you get from the beginning to the end is not nearly as important as how they feel when they walk away, hang up the phone or turn off their computer. Customer Validation Hasn't Changed It’s actually the same as it’s always been.  If you really do it correctly, it's Customer Validation because their Customer Service Experience exceeded expectations!  Read the full article

[altajackuniverse]

Is Your Company Customer Focused or Operations Focused

Is Your Business, Customer or Operations Focused?

    Give Your Customer's a Great Experience   Do you understand what it takes for your company to give customers a great customer service experience?  It takes a lot of effort to create the business culture which can give the best customer experience possible.  To give your customer's a great user experience you have to selectively hire great employees, you have to properly train your employees, and then you have to deliver a great and memorable experience.    Be Memorable, and be Remembered   You have to understand, your customers are comparing you to the best and worst customer experience's that they have ever received.  Today your customers level of expectations is high, and this is a comparison which you can't allow yourself to fail. Many companies claim to give great customer service, but do they deliver what they promise?  Many times they don't, and they have set themselves up to fail.  Their company culture is built with an operations mentality with rigid rules, policies and procedures that just don't allow for flexibility. Frequently companies inflexibility prevents them from being more than just average or satisfactory.  Lets examine a few of the differences between customer-focused companies versus operations-focused companies.  

5 Steps to a Great Customer Experience

    Build Your Culture on Leadership   It's impossible to build a customer-focused company culture without leaders who set the vision and mission of the company, and then lead by example.  Setting the example you want followed is key to establishing the culture you desire.  Then it's a matter of encouraging employees to embrace the culture and follow in your footsteps. Leading an operations-focused company takes a different approach.  Again the leadership sets the vision and mission of the culture, but often the vision is coupled to an attitude which stresses following a rigid set of rules and procedures.  often stresses that employees need to follow a “Do as I say, not as I do” approach.  This behavioral approach can be at odds with what they want to achieve, often leaving employees confused and less motivated.   People Must Always Come First The customer-focused company knows the importance of putting people first, especially employees.  They encourage a culture of happy, engaged and fulfilled employees who deliver a better customer experience.  Customers recognize this, embrace it and continue to come back.  Customers can feel when a business values them, and knows when it doesn't.  An operations-focused companies culture is focused on developing rules and procedures.  Instead of placing people first, the focus and measure of success is always and only the bottom line.  While a strong bottom line is crucial to any company’s success, not focusing on the people misses the culture part of the equation.  Hire Employees to Fit Your Culture   A customer-focused company hires people who enhance and will embrace the company culture, this simply means that any employee's hired must have the personality and values that align with the companies vision and mission.   Certain jobs may require skill, but skill alone should not get an applicant hired who does not possess the necessary people skills.  An operations-focused company will hire for skill, filling a position with technical strengths.  The applicant’s personality may or may not fit with the corporate culture.   Train Your Employees for Success   A customer-focused company spends time and money training for soft skills such as relationship building and customer service. The company recognizes that it takes both, technical and soft skills, to break away from being average.  The operations-focused company spends most of their training dollars and time on technical skills and product knowledge.   Empower Your Employees   A customer-focused company empowers employees to make decisions that are for the benefit of the customer.  The company establishes guidelines rather than rigid rules.  It's an approach that allows employees to deal with each customer in an open and flexible manner.  The companies guidelines allow employees to take independent actions as long as it isn’t illegal, immoral, won’t cost the company money, and won’t harm the company’s reputation.  The company focus is on serving the customers needs, and doing whatever it to takes to satisfy the customer.  The operations-focused company requires a manager’s approval for anything that is outside of their policies or typical way of doing business.  Employees are unable to provide customer care if it does not fit the companies rigid set of rules and procedures.   Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

What's Your Customer Experience Choice?

    How do You See Your Customer Service Are you a customer-focused company that sees customer service as a philosophy to be embraced by every employee of the company, recognizing that there are both external and internal customers.  Or, are you a operations-focused company that sees customer service as a department.The differences are huge and are focused squarely on the type of business culture that you would choose to follow.  Read the full article