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#I mean. ok well if we consider based on popularity metrics it's not but whatever
rotisseries · 11 months
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the fun thing about byler cannibalism is that I am actually not really a byler cannibalism truther in that there's just nothing about byler specifically that makes me go "oh my god I need them to eat each other" but I do support cannibalism from a general standpoint so when my mutuals make cannibyler posts well I'm in support
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margaretbeagle · 5 years
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How to Find a Fantastic Agency for Your Social Media Marketing
Some of the very best brands on social media get by with a little help from their friends — agencies and consultants and strategists.
If the agency route is one you’ve thought about exploring, then we think you’ll find a lot to love in this collection of agency advice, tips, and strategy. Or if you already have an agency on board, then hopefully some of our examples will inspire your next collaboration.
Keep reading as we discuss how to know if you need an agency, which factors to consider when looking for an ideal partner, and some examples of agency partnerships done well. We hope you find just the advice you need here!
The Social Media Agency Landscape
What’s been your experience with agencies and social media?
We’ve always done our social media marketing in-house at Buffer, so it’s easy to forget just how common it is to have an agency help out with one or more parts of the social media experience. 
Did you know: 28% of businesses use social media marketing agencies for their social media efforts.
Several of the most beautiful and effective brands on social media get the job done with a one-person social media team or a small group. 
Many brands have chosen to go the ultra-lean route: Hiring a single expert and giving her the resources to make things happen. More and more, those resources take the form of a marketing agency. 
And this fits with the way that the agency landscape has evolved, too. Most recently, there’s been a shift toward project-based agency work rather than the “agency of record” model that used to be the standard. This means that agencies are being used more and more for campaigns and individual experiences, which provides a lean way to test the validity of the agency model for you and your brand. 
Still, as brands are moving some agency work in-house, they’re often still looking for social media help.
Tumblr media
If you’ve yet to look into how agencies might work for you — or if you’re a seasoned pro who has this agency stuff figured out — we hope to provide some actionable tips for next steps as well as some inspiring examples of where to turn next for your agency-supported campaigns. A little something for everyone.
First things first, how do you know if you need an agency?
It can be hard to know when to go looking for help. There are costs involved: both monetary and time. Even moreso, you’re probably used to doing most social media work solo … it’s tricky to know when to ask for help.
If in doubt, we think these questions can be good to think on:
Are you struggling to get more followers?
Are you struggling to increase your engagement rate?
Do you need an outside perspective and expertise on your social media strategy and goals?
Are you unsure how to see or measure ROI for your social media marketing?
Do you feel unable to achieve your social media goals because of constraints on your time and resources?
Do you have extra budget for social media and aren’t sure how to get the best use out of it?
Answering yes to any of these questions would be a signal to give agencies a closer look.
It can also be useful to get a sense of what exactly a social media agency can do for you. They can do a lot! I know the list surprised me the first time I saw it. There’s a ton beyond merely content creation.  Just check out this list:
Agencies can help with the basics of social media management — using tools like Buffer to plan and schedule content, plus replying and engaging with users
They can come up with your social media strategy
They can execute your strategy
They can do paid social
Content development
Community management
Analytics and ROI analysis
The most common solutions that agencies provide are with social media management and paid social. But truly, whatever you can dream up for social media, an agency can help make it happen.
We mentioned the budget question a moment ago — “Do you have extra budget for social media and aren’t sure how to use it?” so we also wanted to add some ballpark numbers on what you might expect to spend on a social media agency.
The numbers can vary widely, especially when you consider the scope of what you’re looking for help with. When it comes to social media consultants — those who might help with strategy and growth analysis — there was a recent article on HubSpot that shed some light on the pay range.
$15-$50 per hour for someone with zero-3 years of experience
$50-$100 per hour for 3 plus years experience
$120+ per hour for advanced consultants with impressive portfolios
Ok, so now that you have a sense for whether or not you need an agency, let’s talk about the ways to find a fantastic one. There are two main parts to this decision: Researching a list of the best social media agencies to work with, and understanding exactly what it is you need and want.
Step one: How to research the best social media agencies to work with
When we think about finding the perfect agency to work with for your project, we tend to think of this three-point checklist. 
 Does their specialty match what you’re looking for
 Do they have experience in your industry
 Do they have a strong portfolio of case studies
If you can check the box on all three, then you’ll be in pretty great shape!
Let’s go a bit deeper into each.
First, you’ll want to understand the agency’s specialty. Another way to say this: How do they identify themselves? 
There’s a wide range of options here. Some agencies identify as digital marketing companies or content marketing companies or media companies. The list goes on and on.
If you’re after some serious social media results, be cautious of the broad categorizations of “digital marketing” or “content marketing.” Instead, it can be great to look for agencies that mention a particular focus on social media — whether it’s a social media marketing agency or a social content team or video and multimedia.
Additionally, you can see if they specialize within your industry. Some agencies might claim to work with brick-and-mortar stores, whereas others might work with technology companies. 
If they call out this specialty directly on their website, then great.
Otherwise, you can get a good sense of this by looking at the types of clients they’ve worked with in the past or by asking for work examples or case studies. 
You’ll want to see what types of results they’ve achieved by working with past clients, ideally on projects that are similar to the type of project you’re undertaking. 
Additionally, you can see how successfully they promote themselves on social media. This can be particularly helpful when assessing a social media consultant. Do they walk the walk? You can hop over to their Instagram profile and get a sense for their social media expertise quite quickly.
And if you’re putting together an interview template for your agency search, here are some good questions to include: , start here: 
What are your core competencies?
What are some examples of success you’ve had with clients in my industry? 
Bonus question: Can you make an introduction to any of your past clients?
How do you research and analyze my industry?
What are some examples of you adjusting a strategy mid-execution?
How do you measure reach? Growth? Engagement?
What is your reporting process?
Do you outsource your work?
H: And when in doubt, ask your network for referrals. According to research from The Manifest, the main way that businesses find social media agencies to hire is through referrals. It’s three times more popular to go this route than searching Google or reading content or any other way to find agencies.
Tumblr media
Step two: Know your needs and your project
In some cases, this might even be useful to do before you start your agency search. At any rate, when you’re assessing your needs, these are the three areas we think it’s great to look at:
 What specific type of work do you need done? This includes the scope, timeline, and budget.
 How will you measure the success the project?
 How do you want communication to look?
We shared a list earlier of all the different things that social media agencies can help with. It’s a long list, which is why it’s good to know exactly what you need before going into it. 
One of the biggest points of departure is whether you want help with strategy or execution.
This can change your path dramatically, so it’s good to have clarity on this point. If you’re seeking strategy, then a consulting agency can be great. If you’re looking for someone to create content or execute a strategy, then a studio or content creation agency can be a good choice.
You’ll also want to think about scope, timeline, and budget because these factors might exclude some agency partners right off the bat if their schedules don’t line up or if they’re too far out of budget.
Related to the specifics of your project, you’ll also want to know how to measure success. As you know with social media marketing, there are so many different metrics to look at. Generally-speaking, you’ll want good results across the board with your agency work, so in addition to having a key, North Star metric to guide you, you can also look at the overall health of social. Things like:
Social Media Reach: 
Follower Growth
Engagement
Website Traffic
Lead Generation from Social Media
And then you’ll want to spend a moment thinking on what ideal communication might look like with you and your agency partner.
Who is your point of contact?
How often do you two talk?
What tools and software do you use to stay organized together and communicate asynchronously?
As a remote company, we’re quite comfortable with tools like Trello, Dropbox, and Zoom. But not all agencies or brands might be. Whatever your particular style of communication is, make sure that the agency is comfortable meeting you there. 
Examples of great agency work
A lot of these examples come from Ad Age’s small agency of the year awards. If you’re looking for some really stellar agencies to add to your short list, we’d highly recommend starting with Ad Age’s list of the best agencies in the U.S. and worldwide. There’re some great ones! One of my favorite campaigns was from the agency No Fixed Address. They worked on a campaign with J.P. Wiser, a Canadian whiskey brand. For starters, they built a website experience where people could come and write personal toasts to friends. No Fixed Address then took these personalized toasts and converted them into 200 unique ads that were displayed on billboards, subways, even the radio. Then they targeted these ads so that the ads would appear on the commutes of the people who created the toasts — like a billboard on their way to work, for instance.
So you’d be driving down the road and see your toast on a giant billboard!  What was great about this campaign is that it included a very natural, organic social media component, too. It received a huge boost when people began sharing pictures of themselves with their ads on social media.
Tumblr media
There’re also some great ones that have to do with the amazing copywriting that agencies put together for social media campaigns. A couple of examples stand out to me:
The DesignThinkers Conference worked with an agency to come up with slogans for their event. The idea was to play on the stereotype that designers can be nitpicky and critical of design, so the agency purposefully chose clichéd slogans like “Why does Helvetica just feel so good?” to grab attention and spark conversation. The slogans worked great as content to share on social media and spread among the design communities.
Tumblr media
And another neat example was the agency that worked with Copper Mountain ski resort to promote the joy of outdoor lifestyle over digital distractions. One of the most fun lines I saw was“Keeping kids off social media since 9 a.m.”
Brilliant!
How to say hello to us
We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!
Heather-Mae on Twitter
Dave on Twitter
Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.
Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!
About The Science of Social Media podcast
The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!
The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.
How to Find a Fantastic Agency for Your Social Media Marketing published first on https://improfitninja.weebly.com/
0 notes
mariemary1 · 5 years
Text
How to Find a Fantastic Agency for Your Social Media Marketing
Some of the very best brands on social media get by with a little help from their friends — agencies and consultants and strategists.
If the agency route is one you’ve thought about exploring, then we think you’ll find a lot to love in this collection of agency advice, tips, and strategy. Or if you already have an agency on board, then hopefully some of our examples will inspire your next collaboration.
Keep reading as we discuss how to know if you need an agency, which factors to consider when looking for an ideal partner, and some examples of agency partnerships done well. We hope you find just the advice you need here!
The Social Media Agency Landscape
What’s been your experience with agencies and social media?
We’ve always done our social media marketing in-house at Buffer, so it’s easy to forget just how common it is to have an agency help out with one or more parts of the social media experience. 
Did you know: 28% of businesses use social media marketing agencies for their social media efforts.
Several of the most beautiful and effective brands on social media get the job done with a one-person social media team or a small group. 
Many brands have chosen to go the ultra-lean route: Hiring a single expert and giving her the resources to make things happen. More and more, those resources take the form of a marketing agency. 
And this fits with the way that the agency landscape has evolved, too. Most recently, there’s been a shift toward project-based agency work rather than the “agency of record” model that used to be the standard. This means that agencies are being used more and more for campaigns and individual experiences, which provides a lean way to test the validity of the agency model for you and your brand. 
Still, as brands are moving some agency work in-house, they’re often still looking for social media help.
Tumblr media
If you’ve yet to look into how agencies might work for you — or if you’re a seasoned pro who has this agency stuff figured out — we hope to provide some actionable tips for next steps as well as some inspiring examples of where to turn next for your agency-supported campaigns. A little something for everyone.
First things first, how do you know if you need an agency?
It can be hard to know when to go looking for help. There are costs involved: both monetary and time. Even moreso, you’re probably used to doing most social media work solo … it’s tricky to know when to ask for help.
If in doubt, we think these questions can be good to think on:
Are you struggling to get more followers?
Are you struggling to increase your engagement rate?
Do you need an outside perspective and expertise on your social media strategy and goals?
Are you unsure how to see or measure ROI for your social media marketing?
Do you feel unable to achieve your social media goals because of constraints on your time and resources?
Do you have extra budget for social media and aren’t sure how to get the best use out of it?
Answering yes to any of these questions would be a signal to give agencies a closer look.
It can also be useful to get a sense of what exactly a social media agency can do for you. They can do a lot! I know the list surprised me the first time I saw it. There’s a ton beyond merely content creation.  Just check out this list:
Agencies can help with the basics of social media management — using tools like Buffer to plan and schedule content, plus replying and engaging with users
They can come up with your social media strategy
They can execute your strategy
They can do paid social
Content development
Community management
Analytics and ROI analysis
The most common solutions that agencies provide are with social media management and paid social. But truly, whatever you can dream up for social media, an agency can help make it happen.
We mentioned the budget question a moment ago — “Do you have extra budget for social media and aren’t sure how to use it?” so we also wanted to add some ballpark numbers on what you might expect to spend on a social media agency.
The numbers can vary widely, especially when you consider the scope of what you’re looking for help with. When it comes to social media consultants — those who might help with strategy and growth analysis — there was a recent article on HubSpot that shed some light on the pay range.
$15-$50 per hour for someone with zero-3 years of experience
$50-$100 per hour for 3 plus years experience
$120+ per hour for advanced consultants with impressive portfolios
Ok, so now that you have a sense for whether or not you need an agency, let’s talk about the ways to find a fantastic one. There are two main parts to this decision: Researching a list of the best social media agencies to work with, and understanding exactly what it is you need and want.
Step one: How to research the best social media agencies to work with
When we think about finding the perfect agency to work with for your project, we tend to think of this three-point checklist. 
 Does their specialty match what you’re looking for
 Do they have experience in your industry
 Do they have a strong portfolio of case studies
If you can check the box on all three, then you’ll be in pretty great shape!
Let’s go a bit deeper into each.
First, you’ll want to understand the agency’s specialty. Another way to say this: How do they identify themselves? 
There’s a wide range of options here. Some agencies identify as digital marketing companies or content marketing companies or media companies. The list goes on and on.
If you’re after some serious social media results, be cautious of the broad categorizations of “digital marketing” or “content marketing.” Instead, it can be great to look for agencies that mention a particular focus on social media — whether it’s a social media marketing agency or a social content team or video and multimedia.
Additionally, you can see if they specialize within your industry. Some agencies might claim to work with brick-and-mortar stores, whereas others might work with technology companies. 
If they call out this specialty directly on their website, then great.
Otherwise, you can get a good sense of this by looking at the types of clients they’ve worked with in the past or by asking for work examples or case studies. 
You’ll want to see what types of results they’ve achieved by working with past clients, ideally on projects that are similar to the type of project you’re undertaking. 
Additionally, you can see how successfully they promote themselves on social media. This can be particularly helpful when assessing a social media consultant. Do they walk the walk? You can hop over to their Instagram profile and get a sense for their social media expertise quite quickly.
And if you’re putting together an interview template for your agency search, here are some good questions to include: , start here: 
What are your core competencies?
What are some examples of success you’ve had with clients in my industry? 
Bonus question: Can you make an introduction to any of your past clients?
How do you research and analyze my industry?
What are some examples of you adjusting a strategy mid-execution?
How do you measure reach? Growth? Engagement?
What is your reporting process?
Do you outsource your work?
H: And when in doubt, ask your network for referrals. According to research from The Manifest, the main way that businesses find social media agencies to hire is through referrals. It’s three times more popular to go this route than searching Google or reading content or any other way to find agencies.
Tumblr media
Step two: Know your needs and your project
In some cases, this might even be useful to do before you start your agency search. At any rate, when you’re assessing your needs, these are the three areas we think it’s great to look at:
 What specific type of work do you need done? This includes the scope, timeline, and budget.
 How will you measure the success the project?
 How do you want communication to look?
We shared a list earlier of all the different things that social media agencies can help with. It’s a long list, which is why it’s good to know exactly what you need before going into it. 
One of the biggest points of departure is whether you want help with strategy or execution.
This can change your path dramatically, so it’s good to have clarity on this point. If you’re seeking strategy, then a consulting agency can be great. If you’re looking for someone to create content or execute a strategy, then a studio or content creation agency can be a good choice.
You’ll also want to think about scope, timeline, and budget because these factors might exclude some agency partners right off the bat if their schedules don’t line up or if they’re too far out of budget.
Related to the specifics of your project, you’ll also want to know how to measure success. As you know with social media marketing, there are so many different metrics to look at. Generally-speaking, you’ll want good results across the board with your agency work, so in addition to having a key, North Star metric to guide you, you can also look at the overall health of social. Things like:
Social Media Reach: 
Follower Growth
Engagement
Website Traffic
Lead Generation from Social Media
And then you’ll want to spend a moment thinking on what ideal communication might look like with you and your agency partner.
Who is your point of contact?
How often do you two talk?
What tools and software do you use to stay organized together and communicate asynchronously?
As a remote company, we’re quite comfortable with tools like Trello, Dropbox, and Zoom. But not all agencies or brands might be. Whatever your particular style of communication is, make sure that the agency is comfortable meeting you there. 
Examples of great agency work
A lot of these examples come from Ad Age’s small agency of the year awards. If you’re looking for some really stellar agencies to add to your short list, we’d highly recommend starting with Ad Age’s list of the best agencies in the U.S. and worldwide. There’re some great ones! One of my favorite campaigns was from the agency No Fixed Address. They worked on a campaign with J.P. Wiser, a Canadian whiskey brand. For starters, they built a website experience where people could come and write personal toasts to friends. No Fixed Address then took these personalized toasts and converted them into 200 unique ads that were displayed on billboards, subways, even the radio. Then they targeted these ads so that the ads would appear on the commutes of the people who created the toasts — like a billboard on their way to work, for instance.
So you’d be driving down the road and see your toast on a giant billboard!  What was great about this campaign is that it included a very natural, organic social media component, too. It received a huge boost when people began sharing pictures of themselves with their ads on social media.
Tumblr media
There’re also some great ones that have to do with the amazing copywriting that agencies put together for social media campaigns. A couple of examples stand out to me:
The DesignThinkers Conference worked with an agency to come up with slogans for their event. The idea was to play on the stereotype that designers can be nitpicky and critical of design, so the agency purposefully chose clichéd slogans like “Why does Helvetica just feel so good?” to grab attention and spark conversation. The slogans worked great as content to share on social media and spread among the design communities.
Tumblr media
And another neat example was the agency that worked with Copper Mountain ski resort to promote the joy of outdoor lifestyle over digital distractions. One of the most fun lines I saw was“Keeping kids off social media since 9 a.m.”
Brilliant!
How to say hello to us
We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!
Heather-Mae on Twitter
Dave on Twitter
Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.
Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!
About The Science of Social Media podcast
The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!
The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.
Thank How to Find a Fantastic Agency for Your Social Media Marketing for first publishing this post.
0 notes
chrismaverickdotcom · 7 years
Text
Mav’s Big Fucking Oscar Predictions List – 2018 (Why can't my favorite movie win?)
Who wants to do an Oscar pool? I love the Oscars. Everyone knows that. Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, then you haven’t been paying attention… how the hell are you even reading this? To me the Oscars are almost as exciting as the Super Bowl (come on, last year’s last minute buzzer beater by Moonlight was amazing).. I watch them every year and I make Stephanie watch with me so we can fill out ballots and baton the winners. In 2015 and 2016, I posted my “Big Fucking Oscars Prediciton List” for the awards so that people could try to beat me. For some reason I seem to have forgotten to have done a predictions list online last year; I was probably too busy working on a conference paper or something. I’m busy working on papers right now, but you know what… fuck it.
I love the Oscars!
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
So I’ve written at various points about what it means to be an Oscar movie and why something like Wonder Woman, as much as I loved it, doesn’t deserve to be there. It just isn’t “good” enough in an objective sense… at least not in the any of the ways that the Oscars are meant to measure. The Oscars often take criticism for being “out of touch with the fans”and just being “the Hollywood industry just taking a chance to blow itself.” And well, YES! It is! It is totally Hollywood taking the chance to blow itself. That’s why I use the silly sex metaphor in my predictions. It is what it is, and that’s ok. The Oscars are the movie industry looking at the their peers and celebrating their technical and artistic merit. They’re about the artistic statement that the Academy wants to present. The Oscars aren’t about what people like. They’re not about connecting with the fans. That’s the People’s Choice awards and the Billboards. Wonder Woman was hugely inspiring to a great many people who needed that inspiration and will carry it with them for the rest of their lives. Black Panther is doing much the same this year. But you don’t get an Oscar for that. You get a different award. It’s called a billion dollars. And when you compare that billion dollars to a little golden statue that something like Moonlight takes home, well… it’s not that bad a trade.
Movies are a funny art form. Pop culture entertainment is in general, but especially movies. Pop culture fandom often develops such a sense of ownership over the media that it consumes that it feels entitled to demand that others see it the same way as they do. No one ever writes think pieces complaining that Pulitzer Prize should have considered Twilight or The Hunger Games or even Harry Potter series. And when’s the last time you read a hot take on someone being snubbed by the Dentistry Awards?  To argue that the popular choice film should get the award because the Academy is out of touch for wanting to celebrate their values rather than the public’s is much the same thing.
That said, I don’t always think the Academy gets it right. Sometimes I disagree with their choices, even within their own metric. Lots of critics do. Famously Shakespeare in Love beating out Saving Private Ryan back in 1999 and the Artist arguably should have lost to literally ANY of the other nominees back in 2012. So this year I figured maybe I’d offer two sets of picks when applicable: The pick I think will win and the pick I want to win when I disagree. It will be interesting to see if any of my wishes for will actually pull an upset.
Steph and I will be watching the show Sunday night and probably drinking a bunch (yay, I don’t have to work on Monday!!!!) so if anyone is up for Oscarsing and Chilling as the kids say (well, the cool kids say… ok… well they should say… whatever… fuck you!) let me know. And one way or the other, I’d love to see your Oscar Picks as well. Post them here, it’ll be fun to see if anyone can beat me. You can get a ballot here: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/02/printable-2018-oscar-ballot. For extra super awesome points, feel free to comment with your guesses before you read mine. That makes it more fun to compare.
And now my picks… Mav’s Big Fucking Oscar Predictions 2018:
Best Picture:
The biggest award of the night is probably the most obvious place where I’ll disagree, and it’s the place where the common viewer probably has the most problem with the Oscars. It’s where people think Wonder Woman got snubbed. But when you look at the other films there… films, which granted only 5-10% of the Wonder Woman audience saw, and you objectively judge them it doesn’t fit. If anything, the snub here for me was The Big Sick, which really probably should have snuck in here. It is worth noting that the Oscars allow up to ten nominations for Best Picture (instead of the five for most categories). This year they only chose nine, and so there was an open spot which has actually been pretty debated. In some respect, I guess everyone can just assume their favorite film should have been inserted there and was snubbed for political reasons. Or maybe it’s like saving a seat for Elijah? I dunno. Anyway Conventional wisdom is that this is a two dog race between The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I personally actually liked the latter film more, but for Best Picture, I think the visual artistry of former film is going outweigh the storytelling mastery of the latter. Especially since Three Billboards isn’t really “enjoyable” so much as it is “good.” The social issues being so unresolved and so present in Three Billboards is going to leave some voters uncomfortable for this category. Of course, if it were up to me, I’d go with Lady Bird. I do think it was the best film of the year in terms of storytelling and theatrical craft, plus it fit the social message of the time period and it was hella enjoyable. Lady Bird was like the first time you have sex. It was true love or what felt like it. Maybe you don’t totally know what you’re doing yet, but it was sweet innocent and beautiful. You’ll never forget it. But that just won’t compare to the mastery of what is Shape of Water, this year. After all, who doesn’t love the beautiful touching story of a woman fucking a fish. Everyone wants to see that, right? You know you do!
Mav’s wishful thinking: Lady Bird
Mav’s prediction: The Shape of Water
Best Directing:
Much of what I said under Best Picture applies here as well. This is the place where a lot of people thought Patty Jenkins should have been nominated for directing Wonder Woman (she shouldn’t have been). And it’s a place where I personally would love to see Greta Gerwig win for Lady Bird. She won’t. A lot of people are probably also probably pulling for Jordan Peele to get the Oscar for Get Out. He won’t. Hopefully Gerwig and Peele will have future opportunities. But as far as how this year is going to shake down, this is all about Guillermo del Toro. And this is for the same reasons that I think his film is going to take Best Picture. This is a movie that honestly isn’t all that innovative from a storytelling point of view. It was a cute little fairytale, that I’ve seen before (specifically it’s Splash… but if you want to take out specific plot details, it’s just a lot of star-crossed lovers romances), but what made it special was the exceptional craft of presentation and that was all del Toro. Who else could make such a beautiful visual statement out of woman fucking a fish? Exactly!
Mav’s wishful thinking: Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Mav’s prediction: Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
I try to see most of the movies that I think have Oscar potential. Partly because I want to make informed guesses here. Partly because I’m like the pop culture weenie guy so understanding the current zeitgeist is sort of my job. And partly because I just really like movies. I’m going to admit that I never got around to seeing Darkest Hour. I wanted to, it was just never the right time. So I’m kind of judging it based on trailers and clips. But I think I have the basic plot down. The story goes like this: Let’s dress up Gary Oldman in a fat suit and win him an Oscar. And something about Churchill too, maybe, but really what can we do to get Oldman and Oscar? That’s the story, and I think it’s going to work. The only thing could possibly fuck it up is that we know Daniel Day-Lewis is giving up acting after his latest movie (Phantom Thread), presumedly to continue to pursue his lifelong dream of being a cobbler (no, really!). And it’s possible that the Academy just wants a chance to blow Day-Lewis last time… you know how it is… sometimes the love of your life is leaving you… you know there’s nothing you can do to make them stay, but if this is going to the last night together, then you’re going to make it memorable and you’re going to fuck the shit out of them! Really work it this time. Suck harder than ever. No orifice is off limts. Maybe call in a friend as well. The Academy wants Daniel to know what he’s giving up. They want him to remember their name. But let it go, Academy. He’s already moved on. I mean, it’s not that he doesn’t care about you. He does. And if you beg hard enough… then sure… he’ll finish on your face one last time. But honestly, he’s doing that for you, not for himself. The magic is gone for Daniel. It’s over. If you love him let him go. But Gary… look at Gary over there in his fat suit. He’s doing that for YOU! Gary loves you. He just wants a little recognition. He just wants to know you love him. You don’t need to do too much. Maybe just a little hand stuff. He deserves it. Don’t make him beg. He will. And you know what that’s like. Besides, Oldman is totally ok with you having a side piece.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Gary Oldman for The Darkest Hour
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
And speaking of being a side piece. Sam Rockwell wants this bad and will do ANYTHING for you and I mean ANYTHING. All the stuff you’re willing to do for DDL plus stuff you’ve never even heard of and wouldn’t know to google. Filthy stuff. Sam’s going reach down your — Ok, I just want to break away from the sexual metaphor gimmick for a second. Same Rockwell, fucking owned his role in Three Billboards. No one else matters here. Not even a little bit. And yeah, there’s a little bit of controversy about “should we be celebrating someone in this day cultural moment for playing such a racist?” And the answer is yes. Rockwell embodied that character perfectly. That was the definition of acting and he did it in a way that made a character that was completely over the top seem very real and tangible. So much so that he caused the controversy. That’s craft and there’s just no question that he deserves this. Ok back to the sexual metaphor gimmick already in progress. — and you’ll both be walking funny for weeks afterwards.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
So there’s this problem in Hollywood. They favor the young, particularly among women. And really… I get it. Because given the chance I totally would totally fuck both Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. And if you don’t want to… well, something is wrong with you. But they’re both in their 20s. They’re skinny, white, blonde and pretty. Frankly, even if they weren’t talented (and they both are) Hollywood find something for them to do. Sally Hawkins is 41 and brunette, so she had to do a little something extra and fuck a fish on camera to get noticed (and again, I don’t want downplay the cinematic achievement there… it was beautiful… like, I mean, I’m questioning stuff about myself). But you know who’s willing to really work for it? A sixty year old France McDormand, who like her co-star Sam Rockwell (see above) was good enough that my whole stupid Hollywood orgy metaphor just kind of falls apart. She was just that good. It doesn’t matter who else was nominated. What? There are five spots and we only nominate four women? I don’t know, someone throw Meryl Streep in there for whatever she’s done most recently… because it doesn’t fucking matter. This is McDormund’s year.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
So this is a weird one. Here’s the one place that I feel like there was a serious snub this year. Holly Hunter really deserved a nomination here for The Big Sick. It didn’t happen. Probably just because the movie came out too long ago and no one really expected much to come of it. I’d argue it’s probably the biggest omission in this year’s nominations. She was amazing in it. The only things that come close are Allison Williams not getting nominated for lead actress in her role in Get Out (and she’s young, white and pretty… even without being blonde she’ll get another shot… especially given how talented she is) and Patrick Stewart not getting a nomination for supporting actor in Logan (but that’s a comic book movie… so probably a lot of Academy voters didn’t take it seriously even though he was very good). However, in each of these cases, including Hunter, it wouldn’t have mattered. Rockwell is taking the category that Stewart would have been nominated for. McDrormund is taking the category that Williams would been in. And supporting actress is coming down to one of two people. Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird and Allison Janney for I, Tonya. This one is kind of a steal. Janney is going to take it. And Janney totally deserves an Oscar. But even at 58, she’s going to get another shot. This is a body of work award. She’s paid her dues and she was good in this and she’s going to take it. I personally think Metcalf was better. And she’s 62 and doesn’t do as many movies (she’s a TV actress) so this is probably her last shot. But it’s not going to happen. This is Janney’s year. Everyone else should just be happy to be there. But this is the one place where I would have replaced a nominee. I like Octavia Spencer a lot and she has an Oscar win and another nomination for a reason. Shape of Water was not her best work. Hunter was better. So since they’re all going to lose to Janney anyway, I would have liked to have seen Hunter get a nod here.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird 
Mav’s prediction: Allison Janney for I, Tonya
Best Animated Feature:
Animated Feature is probably the one category in all the Oscars where being the super popular movie is actually the best way to guarantee a win. Sometimes this is deserved. Sometimes it’s not. This time it is. The answer here is Coco. Arguably, Coco deserves that 10th spot in the Best Picture race. There shouldn’t even be a contest here really. To continue the Hollywood orgy metaphor that I’ve been doing one last time (it doesn’t really matter for the awards after this) and be quite inappropriate for a film that is aimed very much at children, Coco is like deep sensual lovemaking while everyone else is still waiting for their first kiss. I mean, really… we’re comparing this to fucking Boss Baby. Are you fucking kidding me?
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Coco
Best Animated Short Film:
And now we’re getting down to the films and awards that most people don’t understand even a little bit. That’s why the orgy metaphor is hard to continue If you’ve got an Oscar pool going, this is where you win it. Animated short films are actually really hard to judge. Partly because it’s sort of like Best Picture in that there are a lot of different ways to win it. Sometimes it’s technical achievement. But it’s just as often to be awarded on grounds of making a really touching story or a beautiful piece of artwork. And sometimes you just give it to whatever random thing Disney or Pixar tossed out there just to win the award (this year, that thing is Lou). This was tricky this year, because I actually would kind of like to see Revolting Rhymes win in any given year. But not this one. Usually, this isn’t the kind of award that anyone that you’ve ever heard of matters at all. Best Animated Short Film is not about star fucking. But not this year. This year, I think it goes to Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball. Oh yeah, did you know Kobe Bryant was a film maker now? Well he is. And his short is a gorgeous and touching love letter to… well, himself… but it’s really good.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Dear Basketball
Best Cinematography:
If there is a fucking god, then this belongs to Blade Runner 2049. I loved that movie, and while I acknowledge it isn’t for everyone (and predicted that no one would see it when I reviewed it), if Blade Runner is about nothing else, it is about the beauty of the film medium. This category basically exists for Blade Runner 2049. I would argue that ninety years of fucking Oscars were all leading up to this moment when Blade Runner 2049 wins an Oscar for cinematography. But there is no god… so there’s a good chance that Dunkirk takes this instead. But I’m going against my gut… this is the one place where I’m going to put my wishes in instead and make my official prediction what I want it to be instead of what I expect the Academy to do. It’s the one award I’ll be least surprised to lose.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Blade Runner 2049
Best Costume Design:
Remember how I said that The Darkest Hour only exists to give Gary Oldman an award for best actor? Well, Phantom Thread only exists in order to win the award for Costume Design. No joking… it’s literally a movie about designing costumes. That’s it. I actually haven’t watched it yet (I should) but I mean, this is the most Oscar pandering concept ever. And by all accounts, they did a great job.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Phantom Thread
Best Documentary Feature:
This one is always hard. Generally I never get to see any of these until after the Oscars (if ever) and that’s true this year. A lot of the industry buzz is that this is going to go to either Icarus or Faces Places. But, I’m going with Last Men in Aleppo. The Documentary category is one where traditionally the Academy likes to show just how socially conscious they are. This is not not just culturally and socially relevant in this exact historic moment as a film, but it is notable because it is not only the first film ever nominated out of Syria, and the subject matter of the film itself, but because if it were to win, no one will be there to accept the award because Trump’s travel ban is keeping the filmmakers out of our country. And yeah, maybe you didn’t know that… but the people who vote for documentaries probably do.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Last Men in Aleppo
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Same issue with Documentary Short Subject. Here socially conscious and relevant matters. The two short subject categories (this and animated) are the only ones where all of the voters are required to see all of the films (since it doesn’t take long) and with documentary, this is a place where making a statement matters. I’m going with Heroin(e) purely because people are going to want to address opioid crisis.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Heroin(e)
Best Film Editing:
Remember what I said about there not being a god? If there were a god, then Baby Driver might have a shot here. Baby Driver is a movie that is all about craft. The magic of that movie is the way in which sound and visuals are expertly crafted together. The challenge was not only editing it together in a brilliant way that made for an engaging visual experience, but the technical expertise to make it work with the music and sound mixing. The film is a master class in craft. It is a singular achievement in film editing that absolutely deserves this almost as much as Blade Runner 2049 deserves the cinematography award. But I said I was only going to play that card and go against my gut once and I am sticking to it. So I think Baby Driver gets beat here just because it’s too genre and high concept and voters might never have given it a chance. So this award is going to go to the second best edited film this year, Dunkirk.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Baby Driver
Mav’s prediction: Dunkirk
Best Foreign Language Film:
Like I said, these categories are really hard. I’m going to go with A Fantastic Woman, because it’s the one I am most interested in seeing (I haven’t seen any of the nominees this year). There are a couple others that sound interesting (The Insult is getting some good buzz) but I feel like this one. And much like the documentary categories being a socially relevant can really help in this category. Not as much, but some. And this is a story focusing very heavily on transgender rights. This is something that can also tank it because… well, the Academy is a lot of very very old white men. So it might just be “icky.” But, I expect Foreign Language Film is one of the categories where a lot of the people who would be squicked out by it just don’t bother to vote, so I’m going with it.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: A Fantastic Woman
Best Live Action Short Film:
This is another one of my hard sections because I haven’t seen them. So on this one I’m judging purely on industry buzz and social relevance. I’m going with Dekalb Elementary. Honestly, a big part of this is because it will create a moment for the filmmaker to stand up and give an inspiring speech about gun control and how we have to do something to end the crisis of school shootings. And everyone will applaud and feel great… well, until he gets played off for giving a speech longer than ten seconds, because we have to make sure we have enough time left for the big names to give speeches at the end of the show. We care about school shootings… but only so much.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: DeKalb Elementary
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
This is usually a hard one. It’s not this time. Remember how I said that Darkest Hour was a movie about getting Gary Oldman his Oscar? Well, in order to that they had to transform him. And that took a massive technical achievement in makeup and hairstyling.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Darkest Hour
Best Original Score:
Original Score is a weird category this year. For obvious reasons, the industry sort of privileges the “Original” part of Original Score. And, so in a lot of ways it sort of makes sense to exclude Baby Driver from the category because the music is from preexisting sources. BUT, in the same way that Phantom Thread is a movie about costuming. Baby Driver is a movie about scoring a movie. That’s the whole gimmick of the film. And to exclude it is sort of the same thing as arguing a DJ isn’t a musician and well… that’s an argument. But in this specific case, I feel like Baby Driver at least needed to be on the conversation. Certainly more than Star Wars: The Last Jedi which I think is just sort of there because legally, Star Wars has to be nominated in this category. But Baby Driver is not there. And so I am forced to pick something else, and while I personally liked the Dunkirk score a lot, I think for what the Academy is going for, we go to Shape of Water again here. If nothing else, because it has momentum.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Dunkirk 
Mav’s prediction: Shape of Water
Best Original Song:
The music categories are hard at the Oscars. You have to sort of forget that you’re at movie awards and then apply the logic that you would use for making a Grammy pick. But then you have to remember that you’re picking an award for a movie and you are at the Oscars and it’s just a whole big thing. And also, it’s music so it kinda needs to sound nice. Anyway, for some reason, 21st century Hollywood loves a musical and The Greatest Showman was one.
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman
Best Production Design:
Like I said, there is no god, but there is momentum.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Blade Runner 2049 
Mav’s prediction: Shape of Water
Best Sound Mixing:
As I say every year, no one in the world really understands the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Not even the people who do it for a living. I think I understand… and if I do, then this is the one place where Baby Driver has a very real shot at winning an Oscar. And it deserves it. But again, remember, there is no god… and you’re not required to watch all of the movies to vote in this category. I can totally see old Oscar voters looking at the cover for their Baby Driver screener DVD and saying “oh fuck no” and moving on without knowing how much that movie needs this. It is a celebration of the art of film sound. But no… they’ll probably just pick Dunkirk.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Baby Driver 
Mav’s prediction: Dunkirk
Best Sound Editing:
Baby Driver was more about the sound mixing than the sound editing… you know… unless I got those backwards… because again, no one really remembers which is which. If I’m right, then Blade Runner 2049 had better sound editing. But it doesn’t matter, because the same deal as with Sound Mixing and the Academy will just pick Dunkirk and move on with their lives.
Mav’s wishful thinking: Blade Runner 2049 
Mav’s prediction: Dunkirk
Best Visual Effects:
Do you know why this category exists? This category exists to give trophies to Star Wars. Any year that there is no Star War is just a year that we’re standing around and waiting for a Star War to happen. And I am including the fifty years that the ward existed before the first Star War. And now that we have a Star War every year, you should be able to sort of pencil in the Star War to win this award. Only it hasn’t happened. See, the last time we brought back the Star Wars we were busy giving this award to Matrixes and Lords of Rings. And this time, now that we have a yearly Star War, we keep saying “oh, well, there will be another chance for the Star Wars, so let’s recognize an Ex Machina or a Jungle Book because we’ll totally get to the recognizing the Star War next year.” Well, this is not that year. Because this is the year of Blade Runner 2049. And frankly, there’s probably not going to be another one. In 1982, the original Blade Runner got bumped for this award by E.T. which for all intents and purposes (in this category at least) might as well have been a Star War. Well, this franchise didn’t wait thirty-five years for that to happen again. So you know… lets see how Solo: A Star Wars Story does next year (BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!)
Mav’s wishful thinking and prediction: Blade Runner 2049
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Sometimes it’s an honor to be nominated. Two of my own personal favorite films are in this category this year. Logan and The Disaster Artist. A movie about the X-man Wolverine and a movie about arguably one of the worst movies of all time. Neither of these things have any business being anywhere near the Academy Awards… and yet, in these two specific cases… they totally do belong. They’re just not going to win. In the past we’ve had a lot of Oscar controversy about things being too white. Too male. Too heteronormative. The Academy is trying to fix that… Moonlight last year was a big part of that. But they’re not going to burn the Best Picture spot on diversity every year. And a good place to do that is the screenwriting awards. So this is going to be the Academy saying “you want diversity? Fine, we’re so woke we’re going to give an award to a gay film that you’ve never even fucking heard of. That’s right, we’re going with Call Me By Your Name. You don’t know it! Not so woke after all, are you! Fuck you!”
Mav’s wishful thinking: Logan (though to be fair, this is partly me being a comic book weenie and I haven’t seen the film that is going to win yet either… though I want to) 
Mav’s prediction: Call Me By Your Name
Best Original Screenplay:
And they can consider demonstrating their wokeness with the other screenwriting award. And this is kind of a problem. Because as I said on my very first pick, Lady Bird was probably the best pure film of the year. And it really deserves and Oscar. But it’s not going to get one. It’s going to get shut out, and that sucks. Because it wasn’t the best written film. The Big Sick was actually better, and this is the only places it’s even nominated. And I really would have liked to see that get more recognition. And really, again, if there was a god, it would probably be a shoe-in here. But there is no god… and in the mind of the Academy voter, diversifying means tossing a vote towards a woman, a gay, or a black. But then when the voter looks at Kumail Nanjiani they say “what the fuck is that dude?!?!?  Pakistani? Uhhh…. no…  no no no… that’s just not going to happen here.” Wokeness only goes so far. But on a good note, it goes far enough that I think you can pencil in Jordan Peele to get recognized for Get Out. Oddly enough, of the three things I’ve mentioned here, Get Out is probably the LEAST well written. But it’s the one that I feel like can really get traction and win here. Of course, this is a tough category… and I wouldn’t be shocked if Three Billboards gets another nod here (and that would be reasonable) or Shape of Water because of its momentum (and this would NOT be reasonable. It’s not as well WRITTEN as the others). But I think this is one where the more diverse pick really can pull it out. Not just because he’s black, but because it’s such a different film than anything else that Academy has ever seen. And yet they liked it enough to nominate it anyway.
Mav’s wishful thinking: The Big Sick 
Mav’s prediction: Get Out
So those are my picks… What are yours? And if you’re interested in watching with me an Steph, let me know (we may even say yes 😀).
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Mav’s Big Fucking Oscar Predictions List – 2018 (Why can’t my favorite movie win?) was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom
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marie85marketing · 7 years
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9 Activation Secrets You Need to Be Using
Your problem isn’t what you think it is.
More traffic can definitely paper over some cracks. Likewise, more downloads, installs, or sign-ups always help.
But that’s not it.
That’s not the thing holding you back.
Because if 70% of free trials are useless (as reported by one study we’ll get to in a second)… more traffic or signups isn’t gonna help you. Pouring more water into a leaky funnel will won’t help you fill it any faster.
Instead, you gotta turn your attention to fixing those holes, first.
Specifically, starting with how to get more people successfully Activated and engaged to stick around for the long haul.
Here’s how to do it.
Revisiting The Top of the Funnel Fallacy
Less friction generally means higher conversion rates.
Example: Go from eleven down to four form fields and conversions shoot up 120%.
Pat yourself on the back. Fire off a blog post to GrowthHackers.com and call it a day. Plenty of artisanal stout beers to go ‘round.
But here’s the thing.
More isn’t always better. Over-optimizing conversion rates – taking drastic actions to boost one isolated number – don’t always pan out in the long run.
Just ask Moz, who found out that, “Many, many [website visits] visits are often correlated with high purchase prices.”
In other words, the most profitable customers didn’t convert after a single session or two. In fact, those that did were more likely to churn and bounce the quickest as well.
Instead, the most profitable customers often visited the website at least eight times prior to signing up for a free trial.
Totango ran a study years ago that illustrated a similar point. Their data showed that you’ll see a higher conversion rate (~10%) without asking for a credit card during sign up then you will when you do (~2%).
But that doesn’t matter. Because they don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
Only around 20% of those trials are actively evaluating the product and considering crossing your finish line. (While as much as 70% are completely useless.)
A similar study looked at how customer conversion rates changed when a credit card was required upon sign up. The results showed that as many as 50% of people who used theirs during the initial signup will convert. While only around 15% who didn’t use their credit card will go on to become a customer.
TL;DR?
Over-optimizing the top of the funnel is pointless if it doesn’t result in more bottom of the funnel customers. Otherwise, you’ll stand to gain more from focusing on the middle of the funnel. Because: loyalty economics.
Here’s where to start.
The Three Components of a Successful ‘Activation’
The middle of the funnel never received a ton of love before Dave.
Sure, self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’ loved to ramble on and on and on about this “engagement” thing. But they never bothered to stop and actually explain what it meant or how to prove it. Probably too many campfires to croon kumbaya around.
But then in stormed Dave, with his TV-MA, profanity-laced, multi-colored, seizure-inducing blog posts that undoubtedly crippled at least one poor epileptic.
His startup metrics presented a simple framework that connected the dots from Acquisition to Revenue.
This clever device practically made Activation and Retention household names for geeky growth hackers who didn’t quite yet have growth hacking to growth hack about growth hacking.
The Activation piece specifically focused on that all-important, yet least understood part of the funnel: delivering a ‘happy’ first experience so that people stuck around and came back to the site.
This is the ‘engagement’ part. It didn’t just mean signups. But a host of other behavior-based metrics like the number of pages people viewed prior to signup. The number of visits and the time on site. And the number of features used.
Fraser Deans, co-founder of Nickelled, breaks down Activation into three separate buckets in an excellent Medium post. (Also, he gets a +1 for squeezing “bloody brilliant” into the title).
Those three are:
Phase One: Pre-Signup: Messaging that ‘primes’. It introduces, teases, and prepares someone to take a successful action.
Phase Two: First User Experience: The ‘mission critical’ steps to take that deliver utility.
Phase Three: Post-Signup: The follow-on activities to ‘seal the deal’.
Simple and easy to understand. A good a place as any to start.
Phase One: Pre-Signup
1. Begin at the Beginning
As in, the place where peeps are coming from. Because it can tell you a lot about who they are, what they’re looking for, and how to best ‘prime’ them for a successful Activation.
For example, look up your business in Google’s Customer Journey to Online Purchase to understand when people use certain channels.
Great. Now pull up your analytics and check out current traffic over the past 30 days to six months. Where are they coming from?
Perfect. The majority of site visitors here are coming to the site directly or through Search (both Organic and Paid). That means a lot of ‘branded’ traffic.
Here’s why that’s important.
2. Find Out What that Traffic is Looking For
Someone’s ‘path’ through your website can tell you a lot about where they are in the funnel.
One way to spot this is the User Flow report inside Google Analytics. It’s not perfect, but it allows you to view which pages people are going to by the original Source.
Another way to look at this is by going to your most popular content and adding a secondary dimension based on the Source / Medium.
Isolating each Source and its destination helps you connect the dots. It helps you spot different segments and funnels. For example, that Social brings in new people to blog posts while those that click on a Branded Paid Ad already know all about you.
Then you can improve upon it.
3. Optimize these Funnels
Most companies obsess over the home page. Or they obsess over the latest blog posts from the past month.
But when you go through those first two steps, you’ll quickly notice that neither are among the most popular ‘paths’ through your site.
Instead, here are some from ConversionXL to look for:
Image Source
At each step you want to streamline/optimize/improve how people go from one to the other. Often that includes ‘priming’, which means getting your message match spot on, too. Here’s how it plays out with an easy eCommerce example.
Someone looks for a specific product in Google. Maybe it’s “mens chukka boots.” They see and click on the Special Offer.
Which sends them to a product page (because they clicked on a the shopping ad) that features language referencing not only the product but also the Special Offer that was alluded to.
Got it? Good.
On to the next one.
Phase Two. First User Experience
4. Outline ‘Success Milestones’
Now you got ‘em. The trick is to keep them around.
First, start by outlining those “customer centric success milestones.” These are the steps that people take which should equal a ‘happy first experience.’
Often that means the user takes action. They upload something. Add in some details. Or connect some accounts.
For example, Lincoln outlines creating an online store. Which makes my life easy, because now I don’t need to think up an example. ;)
So if I’m BigCommerce, maybe that starts with first helping people pick an eCommerce theme. That’s critical before anything else, because first impressions are design-driven.
Onboarding starts there…
Image Source
… before going to the other boring (albeit important) stuff like determining a URL, setting up payment gateways, worrying about taxes or shipping, etc.
5. Instrument Each Success Milestone
Now instrument these steps along the way so you can measure, iterate, and improve. (Using, oh, I dunno, Kissmetrics perhaps.)
For example, here’s what those individual milestones look like for Patrick McKenzie’s Bingo Card Creator:
Each step is concrete so you can measure which activities (or transitions) lead to the greatest drop offs.
Here’s an eCommerce example using the Shopping Analysis from Google Analytics.
Image Source
Different use case, same steps (or more or less).
Instrumenting these events gives you the ability to zero-in on where people are leaking outside your funnel. Here’s how to fix it.
6. Test Biggest Drop-offs First
Revisiting our online store example from a second ago, let’s say a major dropoff occurs on that initial “Pick Theme Design” step.
People are signing up but not, for whatever reason, moving past all the options they face. Maybe there’s too many options. More options = more complexity = less conversions in some cases.
Ok. So let’s simplify instead.
Where are those visitors coming from initially?
Let’s pass some referral data through the signup process. That way you can immediately show Fashion-related themes to those who just Google “Fashion online stores.” And apply that strategy across the board to increase the rate of users successfully completing that micro-step in your funnel.
Buffer, for example, found simplifying the onboarding process was key to their Activation, too.
Leo Widrich told Chargify that they found success in restraint. Instead of trying to make users actually share something (which is the entire purpose of their product), they instead just wanted them to connect their social accounts, setup timezones, and optimize posting times.
“So we rebuilt our onboarding process to focus on those items first and not push sharing and all other features instead. It made a huge difference in our activation!”
Phase Three: Post-Signup
7. Systematically Move People from A -> B
You’ve iterated on each Success Milestone now. Ran a few tests and know where the problem areas lie.
The next step is to make sure as many people as possible are attempting to complete each. And sometimes they require a little gentle prodding along the way.
This is classic marketing automation, where you’re automatically following up with people about completing the ‘next step’, until… you know… they complete the next step.
No need to overcomplicate this. See: 451% new qualified leads and 34% increase in sales.
So take your pick. HubSpot can do it. And the yet-to-be-release Kissmetrics Campaigns will be able to fire off emails based on certain conditions (e.g. signed up but no login) Stay tuned for the release. Same process (key word there) no matter which tactic we’re talkin’.
The trick is to ‘systemize’ follow-up at each step or milestone. Often in multiple channels.
8. Increase Messaging Frequency with Multiple Channels
Advertising 101:
Reach is the number of new, unique people.
Frequency is the amount of times you hit those same people.
Usually people get the first one. But don’t always do the second.
For example, sending one follow-up email every three days is fine. But often not enough. Not when you’re competing against a few trillion in the meantime.
You can increase frequency, without pissing everyone off, by looping in other channels.
Like reiterating the same messaging with live chat throughout your site or inside your app.
You can also supplement the process with longer, in-depth trainings, too. For example, Contactually is an awesome tool. But like many others, that utility is only gained if people use it consistently over a period of days/weeks/months. And sometimes people need a bit of a head start with some ideas of how to do that. Enter: training webinars.
9. Switch to 1:1 ASAP
A sign up is a conversion. Technically speaking.
But they’re not closed customers until they’re sticking around and you’re charging their credit card.
So you might have them on the hook. But you still need to close them.
The best tactic, bar none, for location-independent closing? Phone calls at 30-50%.
Every other step here emphasizes scale. And they all work well to one degree or another. But taking that final 1:1 plunge is worth it, according to Close.io.
So much so, that they recommend calling signups within five minutes!
“The quicker you can call someone after signup, the higher the likelihood of reaching them and being able to have them in the ‘product frame of mind.’”
Bonus points go to fanatical customer support. Close.io has engineers on their support team that will work outside of business hours in order to make sure each signup’s first experience is, in fact, a “happy one.”
“It’s not uncommon for us to be answering support requests at 4 AM.”
But doesn’t asking for a phone number lower signups initially?
Yes, it does. But it can often be worth it, too.
Conclusion
There’s nothing special about these 9 activation secrets.
They’re not especially clever. Not very impressive hacks.
What is uncommon, though, is the systematic application of each.
Activation, or creating a “happy first experience”, is fairly straightforward. You figure out what people are looking for. What they’re trying to accomplish in order to solve some pain point in their life. And then you make changes in order to better help them do that.
The concept is easy and straightforward. The hard part is doing the work.
About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.
0 notes
samiam03x · 7 years
Text
9 Activation Secrets You Need to Be Using
Your problem isn’t what you think it is.
More traffic can definitely paper over some cracks. Likewise, more downloads, installs, or sign-ups always help.
But that’s not it.
That’s not the thing holding you back.
Because if 70% of free trials are useless (as reported by one study we’ll get to in a second)… more traffic or signups isn’t gonna help you. Pouring more water into a leaky funnel will won’t help you fill it any faster.
Instead, you gotta turn your attention to fixing those holes, first.
Specifically, starting with how to get more people successfully Activated and engaged to stick around for the long haul.
Here’s how to do it.
Revisiting The Top of the Funnel Fallacy
Less friction generally means higher conversion rates.
Example: Go from eleven down to four form fields and conversions shoot up 120%.
Pat yourself on the back. Fire off a blog post to GrowthHackers.com and call it a day. Plenty of artisanal stout beers to go ‘round.
But here’s the thing.
More isn’t always better. Over-optimizing conversion rates – taking drastic actions to boost one isolated number – don’t always pan out in the long run.
Just ask Moz, who found out that, “Many, many [website visits] visits are often correlated with high purchase prices.”
In other words, the most profitable customers didn’t convert after a single session or two. In fact, those that did were more likely to churn and bounce the quickest as well.
Instead, the most profitable customers often visited the website at least eight times prior to signing up for a free trial.
Totango ran a study years ago that illustrated a similar point. Their data showed that you’ll see a higher conversion rate (~10%) without asking for a credit card during sign up then you will when you do (~2%).
But that doesn’t matter. Because they don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
Only around 20% of those trials are actively evaluating the product and considering crossing your finish line. (While as much as 70% are completely useless.)
A similar study looked at how customer conversion rates changed when a credit card was required upon sign up. The results showed that as many as 50% of people who used theirs during the initial signup will convert. While only around 15% who didn’t use their credit card will go on to become a customer.
TL;DR?
Over-optimizing the top of the funnel is pointless if it doesn’t result in more bottom of the funnel customers. Otherwise, you’ll stand to gain more from focusing on the middle of the funnel. Because: loyalty economics.
Here’s where to start.
The Three Components of a Successful ‘Activation’
The middle of the funnel never received a ton of love before Dave.
Sure, self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’ loved to ramble on and on and on about this “engagement” thing. But they never bothered to stop and actually explain what it meant or how to prove it. Probably too many campfires to croon kumbaya around.
But then in stormed Dave, with his TV-MA, profanity-laced, multi-colored, seizure-inducing blog posts that undoubtedly crippled at least one poor epileptic.
His startup metrics presented a simple framework that connected the dots from Acquisition to Revenue.
This clever device practically made Activation and Retention household names for geeky growth hackers who didn’t quite yet have growth hacking to growth hack about growth hacking.
The Activation piece specifically focused on that all-important, yet least understood part of the funnel: delivering a ‘happy’ first experience so that people stuck around and came back to the site.
This is the ‘engagement’ part. It didn’t just mean signups. But a host of other behavior-based metrics like the number of pages people viewed prior to signup. The number of visits and the time on site. And the number of features used.
Fraser Deans, co-founder of Nickelled, breaks down Activation into three separate buckets in an excellent Medium post. (Also, he gets a +1 for squeezing “bloody brilliant” into the title).
Those three are:
Phase One: Pre-Signup: Messaging that ‘primes’. It introduces, teases, and prepares someone to take a successful action.
Phase Two: First User Experience: The ‘mission critical’ steps to take that deliver utility.
Phase Three: Post-Signup: The follow-on activities to ‘seal the deal’.
Simple and easy to understand. A good a place as any to start.
Phase One: Pre-Signup
1. Begin at the Beginning
As in, the place where peeps are coming from. Because it can tell you a lot about who they are, what they’re looking for, and how to best ‘prime’ them for a successful Activation.
For example, look up your business in Google’s Customer Journey to Online Purchase to understand when people use certain channels.
Great. Now pull up your analytics and check out current traffic over the past 30 days to six months. Where are they coming from?
Perfect. The majority of site visitors here are coming to the site directly or through Search (both Organic and Paid). That means a lot of ‘branded’ traffic.
Here’s why that’s important.
2. Find Out What that Traffic is Looking For
Someone’s ‘path’ through your website can tell you a lot about where they are in the funnel.
One way to spot this is the User Flow report inside Google Analytics. It’s not perfect, but it allows you to view which pages people are going to by the original Source.
Another way to look at this is by going to your most popular content and adding a secondary dimension based on the Source / Medium.
Isolating each Source and its destination helps you connect the dots. It helps you spot different segments and funnels. For example, that Social brings in new people to blog posts while those that click on a Branded Paid Ad already know all about you.
Then you can improve upon it.
3. Optimize these Funnels
Most companies obsess over the home page. Or they obsess over the latest blog posts from the past month.
But when you go through those first two steps, you’ll quickly notice that neither are among the most popular ‘paths’ through your site.
Instead, here are some from ConversionXL to look for:
Image Source
At each step you want to streamline/optimize/improve how people go from one to the other. Often that includes ‘priming’, which means getting your message match spot on, too. Here’s how it plays out with an easy eCommerce example.
Someone looks for a specific product in Google. Maybe it’s “mens chukka boots.” They see and click on the Special Offer.
Which sends them to a product page (because they clicked on a the shopping ad) that features language referencing not only the product but also the Special Offer that was alluded to.
Got it? Good.
On to the next one.
Phase Two. First User Experience
4. Outline ‘Success Milestones’
Now you got ‘em. The trick is to keep them around.
First, start by outlining those “customer centric success milestones.” These are the steps that people take which should equal a ‘happy first experience.’
Often that means the user takes action. They upload something. Add in some details. Or connect some accounts.
For example, Lincoln outlines creating an online store. Which makes my life easy, because now I don’t need to think up an example. ;)
So if I’m BigCommerce, maybe that starts with first helping people pick an eCommerce theme. That’s critical before anything else, because first impressions are design-driven.
Onboarding starts there…
Image Source
… before going to the other boring (albeit important) stuff like determining a URL, setting up payment gateways, worrying about taxes or shipping, etc.
5. Instrument Each Success Milestone
Now instrument these steps along the way so you can measure, iterate, and improve. (Using, oh, I dunno, Kissmetrics perhaps.)
For example, here’s what those individual milestones look like for Patrick McKenzie’s Bingo Card Creator:
Each step is concrete so you can measure which activities (or transitions) lead to the greatest drop offs.
Here’s an eCommerce example using the Shopping Analysis from Google Analytics.
Image Source
Different use case, same steps (or more or less).
Instrumenting these events gives you the ability to zero-in on where people are leaking outside your funnel. Here’s how to fix it.
6. Test Biggest Drop-offs First
Revisiting our online store example from a second ago, let’s say a major dropoff occurs on that initial “Pick Theme Design” step.
People are signing up but not, for whatever reason, moving past all the options they face. Maybe there’s too many options. More options = more complexity = less conversions in some cases.
Ok. So let’s simplify instead.
Where are those visitors coming from initially?
Let’s pass some referral data through the signup process. That way you can immediately show Fashion-related themes to those who just Google “Fashion online stores.” And apply that strategy across the board to increase the rate of users successfully completing that micro-step in your funnel.
Buffer, for example, found simplifying the onboarding process was key to their Activation, too.
Leo Widrich told Chargify that they found success in restraint. Instead of trying to make users actually share something (which is the entire purpose of their product), they instead just wanted them to connect their social accounts, setup timezones, and optimize posting times.
“So we rebuilt our onboarding process to focus on those items first and not push sharing and all other features instead. It made a huge difference in our activation!”
Phase Three: Post-Signup
7. Systematically Move People from A -> B
You’ve iterated on each Success Milestone now. Ran a few tests and know where the problem areas lie.
The next step is to make sure as many people as possible are attempting to complete each. And sometimes they require a little gentle prodding along the way.
This is classic marketing automation, where you’re automatically following up with people about completing the ‘next step’, until… you know… they complete the next step.
No need to overcomplicate this. See: 451% new qualified leads and 34% increase in sales.
So take your pick. HubSpot can do it. And the yet-to-be-release Kissmetrics Campaigns will be able to fire off emails based on certain conditions (e.g. signed up but no login) Stay tuned for the release. Same process (key word there) no matter which tactic we’re talkin’.
The trick is to ‘systemize’ follow-up at each step or milestone. Often in multiple channels.
8. Increase Messaging Frequency with Multiple Channels
Advertising 101:
Reach is the number of new, unique people.
Frequency is the amount of times you hit those same people.
Usually people get the first one. But don’t always do the second.
For example, sending one follow-up email every three days is fine. But often not enough. Not when you’re competing against a few trillion in the meantime.
You can increase frequency, without pissing everyone off, by looping in other channels.
Like reiterating the same messaging with live chat throughout your site or inside your app.
You can also supplement the process with longer, in-depth trainings, too. For example, Contactually is an awesome tool. But like many others, that utility is only gained if people use it consistently over a period of days/weeks/months. And sometimes people need a bit of a head start with some ideas of how to do that. Enter: training webinars.
9. Switch to 1:1 ASAP
A sign up is a conversion. Technically speaking.
But they’re not closed customers until they’re sticking around and you’re charging their credit card.
So you might have them on the hook. But you still need to close them.
The best tactic, bar none, for location-independent closing? Phone calls at 30-50%.
Every other step here emphasizes scale. And they all work well to one degree or another. But taking that final 1:1 plunge is worth it, according to Close.io.
So much so, that they recommend calling signups within five minutes!
“The quicker you can call someone after signup, the higher the likelihood of reaching them and being able to have them in the ‘product frame of mind.’”
Bonus points go to fanatical customer support. Close.io has engineers on their support team that will work outside of business hours in order to make sure each signup’s first experience is, in fact, a “happy one.”
“It’s not uncommon for us to be answering support requests at 4 AM.”
But doesn’t asking for a phone number lower signups initially?
Yes, it does. But it can often be worth it, too.
Conclusion
There’s nothing special about these 9 activation secrets.
They’re not especially clever. Not very impressive hacks.
What is uncommon, though, is the systematic application of each.
Activation, or creating a “happy first experience”, is fairly straightforward. You figure out what people are looking for. What they’re trying to accomplish in order to solve some pain point in their life. And then you make changes in order to better help them do that.
The concept is easy and straightforward. The hard part is doing the work.
About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.
http://ift.tt/2nX1uef from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2oZonzM via Youtube
0 notes
ericsburden-blog · 7 years
Text
9 Activation Secrets You Need to Be Using
Your problem isn’t what you think it is.
More traffic can definitely paper over some cracks. Likewise, more downloads, installs, or sign-ups always help.
But that’s not it.
That’s not the thing holding you back.
Because if 70% of free trials are useless (as reported by one study we’ll get to in a second)… more traffic or signups isn’t gonna help you. Pouring more water into a leaky funnel will won’t help you fill it any faster.
Instead, you gotta turn your attention to fixing those holes, first.
Specifically, starting with how to get more people successfully Activated and engaged to stick around for the long haul.
Here’s how to do it.
Revisiting The Top of the Funnel Fallacy
Less friction generally means higher conversion rates.
Example: Go from eleven down to four form fields and conversions shoot up 120%.
Pat yourself on the back. Fire off a blog post to GrowthHackers.com and call it a day. Plenty of artisanal stout beers to go ‘round.
But here’s the thing.
More isn’t always better. Over-optimizing conversion rates – taking drastic actions to boost one isolated number – don’t always pan out in the long run.
Just ask Moz, who found out that, “Many, many [website visits] visits are often correlated with high purchase prices.”
In other words, the most profitable customers didn’t convert after a single session or two. In fact, those that did were more likely to churn and bounce the quickest as well.
Instead, the most profitable customers often visited the website at least eight times prior to signing up for a free trial.
Totango ran a study years ago that illustrated a similar point. Their data showed that you’ll see a higher conversion rate (~10%) without asking for a credit card during sign up then you will when you do (~2%).
But that doesn’t matter. Because they don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
Only around 20% of those trials are actively evaluating the product and considering crossing your finish line. (While as much as 70% are completely useless.)
A similar study looked at how customer conversion rates changed when a credit card was required upon sign up. The results showed that as many as 50% of people who used theirs during the initial signup will convert. While only around 15% who didn’t use their credit card will go on to become a customer.
TL;DR?
Over-optimizing the top of the funnel is pointless if it doesn’t result in more bottom of the funnel customers. Otherwise, you’ll stand to gain more from focusing on the middle of the funnel. Because: loyalty economics.
Here’s where to start.
The Three Components of a Successful ‘Activation’
The middle of the funnel never received a ton of love before Dave.
Sure, self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’ loved to ramble on and on and on about this “engagement” thing. But they never bothered to stop and actually explain what it meant or how to prove it. Probably too many campfires to croon kumbaya around.
But then in stormed Dave, with his TV-MA, profanity-laced, multi-colored, seizure-inducing blog posts that undoubtedly crippled at least one poor epileptic.
His startup metrics presented a simple framework that connected the dots from Acquisition to Revenue.
This clever device practically made Activation and Retention household names for geeky growth hackers who didn’t quite yet have growth hacking to growth hack about growth hacking.
The Activation piece specifically focused on that all-important, yet least understood part of the funnel: delivering a ‘happy’ first experience so that people stuck around and came back to the site.
This is the ‘engagement’ part. It didn’t just mean signups. But a host of other behavior-based metrics like the number of pages people viewed prior to signup. The number of visits and the time on site. And the number of features used.
Fraser Deans, co-founder of Nickelled, breaks down Activation into three separate buckets in an excellent Medium post. (Also, he gets a +1 for squeezing “bloody brilliant” into the title).
Those three are:
Phase One: Pre-Signup: Messaging that ‘primes’. It introduces, teases, and prepares someone to take a successful action.
Phase Two: First User Experience: The ‘mission critical’ steps to take that deliver utility.
Phase Three: Post-Signup: The follow-on activities to ‘seal the deal’.
Simple and easy to understand. A good a place as any to start.
Phase One: Pre-Signup
1. Begin at the Beginning
As in, the place where peeps are coming from. Because it can tell you a lot about who they are, what they’re looking for, and how to best ‘prime’ them for a successful Activation.
For example, look up your business in Google’s Customer Journey to Online Purchase to understand when people use certain channels.
Great. Now pull up your analytics and check out current traffic over the past 30 days to six months. Where are they coming from?
Perfect. The majority of site visitors here are coming to the site directly or through Search (both Organic and Paid). That means a lot of ‘branded’ traffic.
Here’s why that’s important.
2. Find Out What that Traffic is Looking For
Someone’s ‘path’ through your website can tell you a lot about where they are in the funnel.
One way to spot this is the User Flow report inside Google Analytics. It’s not perfect, but it allows you to view which pages people are going to by the original Source.
Another way to look at this is by going to your most popular content and adding a secondary dimension based on the Source / Medium.
Isolating each Source and its destination helps you connect the dots. It helps you spot different segments and funnels. For example, that Social brings in new people to blog posts while those that click on a Branded Paid Ad already know all about you.
Then you can improve upon it.
3. Optimize these Funnels
Most companies obsess over the home page. Or they obsess over the latest blog posts from the past month.
But when you go through those first two steps, you’ll quickly notice that neither are among the most popular ‘paths’ through your site.
Instead, here are some from ConversionXL to look for:
Image Source
At each step you want to streamline/optimize/improve how people go from one to the other. Often that includes ‘priming’, which means getting your message match spot on, too. Here’s how it plays out with an easy eCommerce example.
Someone looks for a specific product in Google. Maybe it’s “mens chukka boots.” They see and click on the Special Offer.
Which sends them to a product page (because they clicked on a the shopping ad) that features language referencing not only the product but also the Special Offer that was alluded to.
Got it? Good.
On to the next one.
Phase Two. First User Experience
4. Outline ‘Success Milestones’
Now you got ‘em. The trick is to keep them around.
First, start by outlining those “customer centric success milestones.” These are the steps that people take which should equal a ‘happy first experience.’
Often that means the user takes action. They upload something. Add in some details. Or connect some accounts.
For example, Lincoln outlines creating an online store. Which makes my life easy, because now I don’t need to think up an example. ;)
So if I’m BigCommerce, maybe that starts with first helping people pick an eCommerce theme. That’s critical before anything else, because first impressions are design-driven.
Onboarding starts there…
Image Source
… before going to the other boring (albeit important) stuff like determining a URL, setting up payment gateways, worrying about taxes or shipping, etc.
5. Instrument Each Success Milestone
Now instrument these steps along the way so you can measure, iterate, and improve. (Using, oh, I dunno, Kissmetrics perhaps.)
For example, here’s what those individual milestones look like for Patrick McKenzie’s Bingo Card Creator:
Each step is concrete so you can measure which activities (or transitions) lead to the greatest drop offs.
Here’s an eCommerce example using the Shopping Analysis from Google Analytics.
Image Source
Different use case, same steps (or more or less).
Instrumenting these events gives you the ability to zero-in on where people are leaking outside your funnel. Here’s how to fix it.
6. Test Biggest Drop-offs First
Revisiting our online store example from a second ago, let’s say a major dropoff occurs on that initial “Pick Theme Design” step.
People are signing up but not, for whatever reason, moving past all the options they face. Maybe there’s too many options. More options = more complexity = less conversions in some cases.
Ok. So let’s simplify instead.
Where are those visitors coming from initially?
Let’s pass some referral data through the signup process. That way you can immediately show Fashion-related themes to those who just Google “Fashion online stores.” And apply that strategy across the board to increase the rate of users successfully completing that micro-step in your funnel.
Buffer, for example, found simplifying the onboarding process was key to their Activation, too.
Leo Widrich told Chargify that they found success in restraint. Instead of trying to make users actually share something (which is the entire purpose of their product), they instead just wanted them to connect their social accounts, setup timezones, and optimize posting times.
“So we rebuilt our onboarding process to focus on those items first and not push sharing and all other features instead. It made a huge difference in our activation!”
Phase Three: Post-Signup
7. Systematically Move People from A -> B
You’ve iterated on each Success Milestone now. Ran a few tests and know where the problem areas lie.
The next step is to make sure as many people as possible are attempting to complete each. And sometimes they require a little gentle prodding along the way.
This is classic marketing automation, where you’re automatically following up with people about completing the ‘next step’, until… you know… they complete the next step.
No need to overcomplicate this. See: 451% new qualified leads and 34% increase in sales.
So take your pick. HubSpot can do it. And the yet-to-be-release Kissmetrics Campaigns will be able to fire off emails based on certain conditions (e.g. signed up but no login) Stay tuned for the release. Same process (key word there) no matter which tactic we’re talkin’.
The trick is to ‘systemize’ follow-up at each step or milestone. Often in multiple channels.
8. Increase Messaging Frequency with Multiple Channels
Advertising 101:
Reach is the number of new, unique people.
Frequency is the amount of times you hit those same people.
Usually people get the first one. But don’t always do the second.
For example, sending one follow-up email every three days is fine. But often not enough. Not when you’re competing against a few trillion in the meantime.
You can increase frequency, without pissing everyone off, by looping in other channels.
Like reiterating the same messaging with live chat throughout your site or inside your app.
You can also supplement the process with longer, in-depth trainings, too. For example, Contactually is an awesome tool. But like many others, that utility is only gained if people use it consistently over a period of days/weeks/months. And sometimes people need a bit of a head start with some ideas of how to do that. Enter: training webinars.
9. Switch to 1:1 ASAP
A sign up is a conversion. Technically speaking.
But they’re not closed customers until they’re sticking around and you’re charging their credit card.
So you might have them on the hook. But you still need to close them.
The best tactic, bar none, for location-independent closing? Phone calls at 30-50%.
Every other step here emphasizes scale. And they all work well to one degree or another. But taking that final 1:1 plunge is worth it, according to Close.io.
So much so, that they recommend calling signups within five minutes!
“The quicker you can call someone after signup, the higher the likelihood of reaching them and being able to have them in the ‘product frame of mind.’”
Bonus points go to fanatical customer support. Close.io has engineers on their support team that will work outside of business hours in order to make sure each signup’s first experience is, in fact, a “happy one.”
“It’s not uncommon for us to be answering support requests at 4 AM.”
But doesn’t asking for a phone number lower signups initially?
Yes, it does. But it can often be worth it, too.
Conclusion
There’s nothing special about these 9 activation secrets.
They’re not especially clever. Not very impressive hacks.
What is uncommon, though, is the systematic application of each.
Activation, or creating a “happy first experience”, is fairly straightforward. You figure out what people are looking for. What they’re trying to accomplish in order to solve some pain point in their life. And then you make changes in order to better help them do that.
The concept is easy and straightforward. The hard part is doing the work.
About the Author: Brad Smith is a marketing writer, agency partner, and creator of Copy Weekly, a free weekly copywriting newsletter for marketers & founders.
9 Activation Secrets You Need to Be Using
0 notes