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its-a-writer-thing · 5 years

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How to Build an Author Website – Learning to Build a Site

In our last installment of “How to Build an Author Website,” we discussed finding the right hosting provider, the details of securing a domain name, and how to ensure you were getting a good deal that has everything you need!

This time, we’re down to the nitty gritty – learning how to build a site. As mentioned in the “Budget” article of this series, you do have the option of hiring a professional designer who can handle all of this for you. For that matter, they may be able to make the site far more complex and ‘beautiful’ than what you can manage personally. They’re professionals, after all; it’s their craft. They could probably write their own very nice stories, but if they wanted a bestseller, they’d come to you!

Nonetheless, they want a pretty penny for their expertise, and if you lack the budget or have confidence in your self-teaching abilities, you can certainly create a fantastic author site all by your lonesome. After all, that’s what Lena did, author of Behind Closed Doors: Trusting The Unseen and the dynamite gal providing us with some insider knowledge on building your own author site.

Here, we’ll dive into learning to build our own author sites, from scratch, with no previous experience.

Custom Build or Pre-Built

Now ‘from scratch’ can absolutely mean from scratch. However, we don’t recommend starting with a blank page and a dream, as this would require more coding knowledge than any of us are really willing to gain (unless you want to dual as a web designer and a writer; then by all means!). That leaves you with two other options:

Custom Build

This involves taking one of the most basic templates you can be given via your hosting provider and completely redeveloping it.

Pro-Tip from Lena: “I would suggest any of the WYSIWYG websites (“what you see is what you get,” in the industry’s shorthand). A lot of hosting providers offer these types of websites nowadays, and they are very easy and straightforward to build and design with. You design these sites with blocks and image or text boxes, and it’s so much easier to both build and edit the site with these functions. Many providers also offer functions with easy drag and drop function that can add things like dividers, social media galleries, videos, widgets, plug-ins, etc.”

Divi on Wordpress, for example, is one such plug-in. Though it does charge a fee to use, it makes web designing more intuitive and less coding intensive.

This option will also allow you to create, nearly from scratch, your own ‘shop function’ – should you decide to sell your works off the site itself, as well as link to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and so on.

Pre-Built

This one is about using an existing template that has the look and features you like, and then redesigning it to be personalized to your tastes. This will be less thorough than the above option, but can still achieve the purpose you’re seeking. So, for example, the template you choose may have a social media plug-in, two set dividers, and then a few pre-set locations for photos.

In this, you’ll mainly aim to change the color scheme, add a banner or picture section higher or lower in the layout, and customize what other features it allows you to work on.

Advantages

Less investment. You don’t need to buy plug-ins such as Divi for more advanced reworking.

Faster to set up. With fewer customizations and less time necessary for learning how to customize, you can have your site up and running in two days or less.

Leaves room for later improvement. As time goes on, if you decide you’d like to upgrade to a more customized layout, you have all the opportunity in the world. For now, it does the job pretty well.

Disadvantages

You may end up looking similar to other sites, who also sought to lower costs and time.

May not be as custom-tuned as you’d like it. Since this site will be your digital ‘first impression’ on readers, you may be disappointed that it doesn’t emulate your aesthetic as well as you’d prefer, or that it doesn’t provide as many options as you’d like to treat your viewers with.

Online Classes vs. General Internet Research

If you choose the custom-build site, or decide on a more in-depth approach to designing your own website, you’ll need some extra know-how.

Of course we rely on the internet for a lot of our answers, including some things that could put us on a watch-list (hey, that information about C4 was really important for the one scene!). But then again, the internet can only offer so much for a single query. Would you be better off seeking online classes to show you the ropes? Let’s weigh the pros and cons.

General Internet Research - Advantages

Well, it’s free! If you’re willing to type in enough queries, follow enough links recommended in articles or videos you find, and can Google terms that fly over your head (with a willingness to follow those rabbit holes as well), you can absolutely become more fluent in designing a site without spending a dime.

You get more opinions, and that means more options. While an online class will perhaps give you a more thorough look in a shorter span of time, you are limited to the knowledge and opinions of that teacher. Maybe they have a bias to a certain hosting provider, or perhaps they dislike certain widgets. Google will give you all sorts of insights and opinions, which translates to a better-rounded look at the practice. You may even find someone willing to offer you uncommon but useful hacks! (Life-hacks, not regular hacks. Those are in bad taste.)

More control over your learning process. If you’re quick to pick up new concepts, then general internet research allows you to go where your knowledge level takes you. Skip ahead and become well versed in the terms, take advice on one plug-in and run with it before exploring the others, or get a feel for the entire process and then dive into practice! You get to choose your own pacing, so while some may need a several-week class, you could arguably do it in a week.

Disadvantages

Unreliable, to an extent. The internet being the internet, not everything you find will be entirely helpful or factual. As such, you’ll have to look up multiple sources and then compare notes by yourself to decide what is really helpful and what can be discarded.

Beginner’s guides aren’t always beginner friendly. Since you’ll be asking a broad question in an even broader room, you won’t get a customized answer every time. This means you’ll have to swift through a lot of information and try to figure out what’s beginner friendly and what’s way over your head! That leaves you with the task of then finding something beginner friendly.

Takes time. Sadly, since you’re looking to glean knowledge ‘needle in a haystack’ style, this will take a fair amount of time – and time that you can’t necessarily schedule in advance. You just have to start and see when it is you feel confident enough to put that knowledge into practice.

Online Classes - Advantages

Concise. By entering a class, you’re avoiding all the fluff and white noise of the internet. You know exactly what you’ll be taught and how long you can expect it will take.

You have peers just like you, and a teacher to answer specific questions. While the internet leaves you to ask the void over and over again until you find someone who maybe answered a question similar to yours, a class gives you a closed group of people just like you, who may ask the questions you’re thinking. At the minimum, you likely have access to a teacher who can answer your questions - or at least guide you to an answer.

Trackable. Most classes offer a promise of what you’ll find at the end; you’ll be able to do ‘this’ amount of web design, or build a site like ‘this.’.

Disadvantages

Costly. While you can certainly find free classes, most of those which give you the advanced tools necessary to fully customize your site will cost money. It’s an investment, but it still hits the budget.

Limited. Sadly, you will be limited to what this exact class teaches, and that may leave gaps in your knowledge that must be filled with other classes or even internet research! You may also be restricted to that specific teacher’s opinion on web design, which, while valuable, could result in you missing out on a life-hack that may have worked perfectly for you.

Time consuming. While this seems counter-intuitive to the facts above, a class will be scheduled over several weeks. It’s unlikely to find a quality one which takes only days, and that means you’re committed to waiting for more information. The internet could let you speed along at your own (perhaps much faster) pace.

Resources

Whichever you choose, here are a few great places to start:

Website Builder Expert

Research-Backed Web Design Tips

The Site Wizard

Free Web Development Courses

All in All

That finishes up this article, so check out our next installment in this five-part series, where we discuss how large or small your author site should be according to industry standards, as well as explore whether or not a site negates your need for social media.

Thanks for reading, and happy writing!

#website building #author site #author website #self publish #writing advice #L S Andersson #Behind Closed Doors #Behind Closed Doors: Trusting The Unseen #iawt #building an author site #learning to web design #web design from scratch

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ofdcvils · 7 years

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INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY —

Characters: Matt Murdock, Karen Page ( @darlingkarenpage ), Bart Allen ( @impulscs )

Mentioned: @connorxhawke, @wonderasms, @dmianwaync, @supersonjon, @redwiiinged, @ofconnerkents

Triggers: Imprisonment

Timeframe: Night, 3/13/2017

Bart Allen: Bart had made his phone call, but now all he could do was sit in his cell. He didn't feel like he belonged here as all he has ever done was dedicate his life to putting only those that deserve it in the same place. Now he was no better than the rest of them as he looked at the other people that were in here as well. They looked like they have seen some shit, and he didn't want to find out. Some of them looked at him as if they knew he didn't belong, which just made him more nervous. In any other situation Bart would be laughing and making jokes to ease the tension with everyone, but he was totally feeling the mode. It didn't help that the boy had cried so much – from when they arrested him to making his phone call, he looked a mess like he was much too vulnerable. He tapped his hands against his legs, keeping his gaze low, wondering if this was all a nightmare. Bart knew it wasn't, but he wished it was. He was scared about what could happen to him going forward from here. What if he never saw any of his friends again? He had to stop thinking about it before he just ends up crying again.

Matt Murdock: Matt was moving as quickly as he could into the police station, using Karen's guiding hand so he could go a little faster without seeming suspicious. After hearing the boy in tears over the phone, he didn't waste a second in calling Karen and Foggy and making sure that they knew what was happening. Of course, Foggy was still in New York—there wasn't much he could do, though he said he'd hopefully be flying out that night—but Karen had shown up right away to make sure that both of them could go down to the station together to post bail for Bart. As he walked into the station, an officer tried to wave him away, but he just took out his California Bar Association ID and flashed it at him. "Matt Murdock, of Nelson and Murdock. You have my client in custody and I have a right to see him. Immediately."

Karen Page: Karen wasted no time in getting to Matt the moment she heard about Bart being detained. She couldn't believe her ears. Bart was such a good kid who wouldn't hurt a fly. The moment she arrived, she helped Matt get ready quickly and the two made their way to the station. She wanted to snap at the officer but Matt took charge as always. Still, she glared, eyes narrowing at the officer who had tried to wave them off. "His name is Bartholomew Allen." She added, her concerned expression now replacing the one that had been almost full of rage

Bart Allen: There seemed to be a little commotion going on, and one of the police offers came around to unlock the door. His gaze looking up as they said his name – normally he would have cringed at the use of Batholomew coming out of someone's lips, but he was much too terrified to care. He stood up slowly from the bench, making his way over towards the large man who held his arms behind his back to put some handcuffs on his wrists to take him to one of the interrogation rooms. “You're awfully lucky your lawyer is here.” He said, as he practically nearly shoved him into the dull room. It made his skin crawl, but they took the cuffs off him. “Don't think about running, kid.” He said as he shut the door. Bart took a seat at the table, waiting for Matt and possibly Karen to come in. He would be happy to see a friendly face for once, even if he looked like a mess between his red hair in every which way and his pajamas.

Matt Murdock: Matt touched Karen's arm with the tips of his fingers, his cane in one hand as he followed her towards the interrogation room, listening to the sound of Bart's heart. It was racing, he was obviously panicking—and how could Matt blame him? Here he was, just an 18 year old kid being treated like some hardened criminal when that wasn't even close to being the case. He pressed his lips together, addressing the officer as he walked out. "Treat my client like that again and I'll be forced to speak to your captain," he said quietly, his voice almost dangerous in its delivery. He pressed his lips into a thin line as he walked into the room, sizing it up carefully. "Bart? How are you doing?" he asked, his hand reaching out for the cold metal chair before he carefully eased himself into it.

Karen Page: Karen walked in with Matt, her heart pounding, anticipating seeing Bart again. She had been worried sick. Did they feed him? Were they kind to him?When she finally laid her eyes on the boy, she sighed out of relief, glad that Matt threatened the officer. She placed her hand over Matt's, giving it a gentle squeeze in support and waited for him to sit so she can take the seat beside him. "Hey Bart. We're here now. We're going to help you." Karen placed her briefcase on the table and pulled out a manila folder,opening it to begin her notes, mindful to flash the young boy a soft smile or reassurance.

Bart Allen: It was a sense of relief seeing Matt and Karen, people who would be nice to him! Two of his favorite people who knew he wasn't a criminal! He took a deep breath as he leaned against the table, still unsure how all this legal stuff works. It wasn't like he had the time to read up on laws when the world was ending back in his time. “Man, am I happy to see you guys. I've had better days, I don't like it in here.” He frowned as he looked down for a second, already missing his own bed and the comfort of his own home. He felt like maybe he took everything for granted as he got comfortable. “What's going to happen? How long will I be here?”

Matt Murdock: Matt folded his hands together on the table, listening for the officer to leave the doorway before he started speaking. "I'm going to try and get you out of here tonight, Bart. We already called in a favor with a judge to see if they'll set a bail amount for you tonight, but the worst that it's going to be is that you're going to have to stay here tonight. Have they been treating you all right? Because if not, Karen and I can take care of that for you. We'll make sure that they start treating you properly. You don't have to feel like some criminal."

Karen Page: Karen took a deep breath as she began going to work, pulling out her laptop and searching for a bondsman. If they posted bail before midnight, they'd get Bart out. "He's right, Bart. It's too late for booking. You'll spend the night here if we can't post your bail before midnight but we will post it before booking tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. I'll make sure to be there when those court doors open." It was moments like this that reminded her why she wanted to do this for a living. "You haven't done anything wrong, Bart. Okay?"

Bart Allen: Bart listened, trying his hardest to remember every detail they told him. He wasn't sure what they had on him exactly detail for detail, but it can't be good if they arrested him for it. It had to deal with that team up he did the other night right? He couldn't think of something else that would have been as bad. Sure once he sped off to get Cassie a drink, but he wasn't wearing the suit at the time. He used it one other time too, but he wasn't crime fighting at the time even though he had the suit on. Fighting alongside his new found friends was the only lawbreaking thing he could think of, but then again he wasn't sure what they considered to be 'lawbreaking' after all. “I don't feel like I did something wrong, but I used my speed and that makes me the bad guy doesn't it? I used it once to get a friend coffee, but I didn't have my suit on. The only other time though … I teamed up with some other kids to take down some bad guys. That's what got me in here isn't it? I honestly thought it was the right thing to do at the time … I'm so stupid.”

Matt Murdock: Matt shook his head. "You're not stupid." He paused, pressing his lips together as he processed the information. "Do you think those other kids might be in the same situation? Have you talked to any of them since you got the threat?" He tilted his head, pausing for another moment before turning to Karen. "Judge McFadden is the one we want, but if we can't get him, Judge Mulroy might be willing to see us, too," he said, wanting to remind her of it before the thought slipped from his mind. He listened to the sound of a heartbeat outside the door, and his lips curved down into a frown. This was privileged information—if anyone was listening in, they were breaking the law. "Karen, can you go make sure that none of the officers are listening? I get the sneaking suspicion that our friend who treated Bart poorly might consider himself above the law." His was bitter—this was the last thing any of them needed. He'd had enough of dirty cops back in Hell's Kitchen.

Karen Page: Karen pulled up the profiles for both judges, already setting up the letter templates seeking an immediate hearing. She had already drafted the letters and simply changed the names before sending them to each assistant. It'll only be a matter of time. "Judge Mulroy is a professor. I'm sure I can get him." She muttered as she typed away. Matt caught her attention once more and she nodded before standing up and walked towards the door, pressing her ear against it first, brows furrowing when she heard whispers only to open it and click her tongue. "Have you been listening the entire time?" She raises her voice, her glare intensely burning into the officer. "I'd like to speak to your captain. I promise you I will make this your worst day on the force if you don't get your captain here in the next 5 minutes." She looked down at her watch and then flashed it to him. "Thank you."

Bart Allen: It was amazing to Bart that Matt already knew what Judge they should have because far as he was concerned they were all the same, waiting to sentence him to a life to his worst nightmare. That might just be an overreaction on his part though now as he was realizing there was still things he needed to learn. “I haven't gotten the chance to talk to them before I got arrested. I wish I could have.” He frowned as he worried about what could be happening to Cassie, Damian, Jon, and Connor. Another part of him was worried for Tim and Conner his best friends from his old team. He didn't want anyone getting hurt, but if he had to take the fall for everyone should he? His thought process broke as Karen got up and from what he could tell, was yelling at the cop that had been rude to him. He knew there wasn't something right about that guy. Bart flashed a smile because Karen was a badass and if it were appropriate he may have cheered her on, but he had to behave in here.

Matt Murdock: Matt nodded. "After we get you out of here, get in contact with them. I don't want them to end up in the same position." He listened to Karen telling the officer off and a smirk lifted up at the corner of his lips. He knew it was a good thing that he brought Karen along—especially since asshole cops always thought they could pull one over on the blind guy. At least with Karen around, he didn't have to pretend he didn't know what they were doing. He tilted his head slightly. "Make sure you tell the captain that we'll have his ass for this if those officers aren't put on probation," he added. "I don't want to get IA involved, but I will if I have to." He turned back to Bart. "Is there anything else you think we should know right now? We can talk more after you get out, too."

Karen Page: Karen stepped to the side so that the officer could hear Matt as well, a smile pulling at her lips. The other's smug expression disappeared immediately and he went off to do as he was told. "He has five minutes starting...now." She walked back in the interrogation room and sat beside Matt once more, glad to see her outlook flashing. It was Felicia,Judge Mulroy's assistant sand she couldn't help the smile forming on her face. "Matt..." She pulled his the sleeve of his jacket gently. "We've got a hearing. Tonight. In an hour." The judge had agreed out of a favor to Karen who had interned with him during her undergrad. Quickly, she wrote down the names Bart had mentioned before she forgot them, still smiling from the news. They were going to at least get the boy back to his own bed soon and if luck was on their side, the bail would be posted before midnight.

Bart Allen: This was a good thing right? Bart smiled again, “A hearing is that good?” He wondered if his pajamas were okay for whatever a hearing was it would have to be because that's what he had on at the moment. He ran a hand through his messed up hair, trying to keep his hands busy. This seemed to be a step in the right direction so the boy wasn't going to question it too much. “What happens during a hearing?” He asked the dumb question, but he had a feeling it was like professional arguing. Bart knew he would probably have to prepare for some people to say some nasty things about him and people like him if the other side of this would be present too.

Matt Murdock: Matt nodded. "A hearing is really good. If we can finish the hearing and get your bail posted before midnight, you're going to be out of here tonight." He turned to Karen. "Who's our judge?" he asked, listening to Bart's heart rate slow down slightly and feeling a small smile quirk at the corner of his lips. "Do we have clothes we can get Bart into? I think I have a button up and pants at the office that will fit him if he's not dressed for court." Of course, bail hearings were usually fairly informal, but he still needed to look presentable. Their case started now — they had to show that Bart was a nice, clean-cut kid, not deserving of jail time. "During the hearing, you'll just have to sit there. I'll be making arguments on your behalf on why you should be let go and why you should have a low bail amount."

Karen Page: Karen nodded. "It's very good,Bart. We got Mulroy, Matt. So I think we'll be okay. Hopefully we'll get a decent ADA who will see this is ridiculous." Karen mused over Matt's question and added, "I have one of your jackets in the office closet. You had given it to me the other night when it was cold and we were on our way to the office. I think we'll be okay." She looked down at her watch. They had three minutes now. "And you don't have to worry about the money...Matt and I..." She looked over to Matt after discussing this already. "We'll post the bail for you." She had some money saved up and together, they would be okay.

Bart Allen: Bart knew that he would start saving money if he was lucky enough to get out of this. He could save money from his two jobs – and eventually pay them back at some point. It was the least he could do because he felt awful that they would probably end up using their own money to bail him out if he can get out. “I work with you guys and I work with Clint, they'll have to see I can be responsible right? I know I'm reckless sometimes, but I try my best to stay focused, honest.” He commented, taking a deep breath as he felt a little more relaxed about how good this was starting to look, and they'll have nice clothes for him to change into! His luck was turning around. “Oh good I was worried about having to show up in my pajamas. They have burgers on them and I don't think that's court appropriate no matter how much everyone loves a good burger okay.” He rambled, but mentally slapping himself to tell himself to stay focused.

Matt Murdock: "They'll know you're a good kid, Bart. You're a really good kid." He nodded at Karen's words—the had agreed that they would pay whatever bail was necessary for Bart to get out of jail. The kid didn't have a family or anyone to look out for him, so they were going to have to do it. Matt remembered being on his own at 18, and he couldn't imagine having to go through something like this back then without any help. He wasn't going to make Bart do it, either. "Mulroy is pretty lenient when it comes to kids like you," he said. "I mean, rumor has it he used to be a hero himself, but no one's ever confirmed it," he added absently. A soft chuckle huffed out of the back of his throat. "As cool as I'm sure your burger pajamas are, we'll get you into some decent clothes before court."

Karen Page: Karen couldn't help but chuckle at Bart's words wanting more than anything to pull him into a hug. She listened to Matt, smiling at the trivia about Mulroy. "He is one my favorite professors and very fair. And I'll see what I can do about the ADA. I can charm just about anyone." She grinned and then looked down at her watch one more time. "If you two will excuse me, I have some matters to handle with the captain." She gave Matt's shoulder a gentle squeeze and exited the room to raise hell. "Captain, Karen Page, paralegal of Nelson and Murdock. It has come to our attention that officer McFadden here forgot everything he learned in the academy..." Her words drifted as she closed the door, leaving the two men behind for a few moments.

Bart Allen: Bart just felt lucky they got someone who might be on his side. Not to mention he might have been a hero once upon a time? Maybe that was the solution, everyone becoming judges … so no one else could be wrongly convicted again. It was a long shot, but that sounded like a good idea to him anyway. “This Mulroy sounds like a cool guy., I can't wait to meet him!” He said with a smile, “Thank you for all you're doing for me, really, you didn't have to help me, but you're doing so much and I promise I won't make you regret it!” He said like he was taking some important oath. Bart didn't get nervous when Karen left the room because whoever she was talking to would feeling regret for getting on her bad side. He was rooting for her as now he was left alone with Matt.

Matt Murdock: Talking to Bart made it easier for all of them to get through this. Riding with him in the squad car to get to the courthouse, sitting there while they were waiting for the judge to come into his chambers, everything, it was all made better by just chit chatting with Bart. All of their nerves seemed to calm a little bit after that, and after managing to scrape together the cash to post Bart's bail, they were finally leaving the police station, Bart's belongings in hand. Matt had insisted upon having Bart stay with him that night, and thankfully, Bart didn't argue—and so, the three of them made it back to his place, and Matt felt relief wash over him. "You can sleep in that room," he said to Bart, gesturing to his room. "I'm going to be up working for a little while, anyway."

Karen Page: Karen was asked to come to Matt's apartment to get Bart settled even though she didn't need to. She could have left the boys alone. It was nice to see them bond but Matt insisted. Once they arrived, it was close to 2 a.m. and she fiddled with the keys in her hand as she watched Matt show Bart his room. She stood in his living room, a smile pulling at her lips and she looked down bashfully as if she had been caught by him even though she wasn't. "You're great with him, Matt." She looked up at her best friend. "He really likes you. I mean...can you blame him?" She laughs softly and looks around. "I should go. Those 2 a.m. drivers are such a nuisance!"

Bart Allen: Bart has seen a lot in his short life, seen what the world comes to, and how much pain there is when you're surrounded by everything the Reach had done. This night was one of the worst memories he would have, up there with the conversations he would have with his mother about how unfair it was that he never got to know her. However, despite that, he can't be too upset when he starts to miss her because as he looks back at Karen and Matt he realizes that he has people that do care for him in a way that he was missing, and can look out for him in the ways he would need. He felt like he owed them everything, but he was just really happy to be here. Bart thought Matt's place was so cool, and he wanted to look at everything, almost tempted to just let himself race around to quickly look at all the details. He didn't though because he respected the privacy. Bart moved away from the room he was going to stay in for the night to give Karen a hug before she left. “Thank you again, I don't know what I'd do without either of you.”

#[ kp4 ]#[ karen page ]#[ ch: kp ]#[ ba3 ]#[ bart allen ]#[ ch: ba ]#[ innocent until proven guilty ]

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michaelfallcon · 5 years

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Funding Your Cafe Dreams

Have you ever wanted to launch your own coffee business but didn’t know quite where or how to seek funding? While this perennial question can present major challenges to all aspiring business owners, there are myriad methods to choose from—or mix and match—to get the launch money you need, each bringing with it a unique set of pros and cons. In this piece, I’ll outline some first steps to apply to your business before you pursue funding, then explore a handful of the countless pathways to acquiring the funds you need to bring your vision to life.

First Steps For Everyone

1. Create a Business Plan

Before pursuing any kind of funding, you’ll need to make a formal business plan. This step is especially critical for obtaining bank loans, but also important for crystallizing focus and gauging needs and costs no matter your funding strategy.

Puerto Rico-based Café Comunión co-founder Ábner Roldán studied business administration before getting into coffee and opening his own cafe; even so, he still felt intimidated by the process of crafting a business plan. Roldán used the online platform liveplan.com to help him with focus and format. “They have templates that you can use, and they give you examples for every part of the plan to help you to write out your idea. When I first sat down to write out my business plan I got stuck, but once I started using this website I did it in no time.”

Coffee veteran Anne Nylander has previously launched two consulting services and is currently in the process of opening her own cafe. She recommends that people drafting business plans be as detailed as possible. “If you’re thinking about starting a business, get as much as you can on paper,” says Nylander. “And don’t be surprised when people expect you to provide more details than you’d ever imagined. The process can take a very long time, so if you want to do it, start now and chip away at it.”

2. Build Your Following

Another thing many business founders I spoke with recommended is developing clientele and/or gauging interest before investing large sums of money in your business. “Build your audience first. Do pop-ups on loaner gear, tastings, whatever,” says Kalle Freese, founder of the now-closed Freese Coffee Co. “This way, you can be sure you’re making something people actually want. ‘Build it and they will come’ is not a good move 99% of the time.”

Getting The Money (And there’s no one right way)

Many of the founders I spoke to raised funds multiple ways, so don’t be afraid to mix and match funding methods—they each provide their own benefits and challenges.

Method One: Small Business Loans

One of the most popular tools for funding a new business are SBAs, or small business loans granted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. There are different types of SBA loans and all of them offer many benefits over conventional business loans, but they also require more paperwork.

Equipped with a thorough business plan, Roldán applied for an SBA loan in May 2016. “After a lot of paperwork, quotes, calls, and stress, my loan was approved on September 2016,” he said. He thought that meant he would receive his money the next day, but instead, he had to go through what’s called the closing process. “It meant that I needed to submit a lot of more paperwork. The closing process was done on December 2016, and we started to get checks to start the construction work on January 2017.” Although Roldàn’s experience shows one timeline, the multi-stage process can move faster in other cases.

“It took a lot of time and stress but it was worth it,” Roldán said. “You need to be very prepared with your concept, plan, numbers, and business idea and ready to answer extensive questions.”

While SBA loans offer freedom from investors, a major pro listed by Roldán, it can be challenging for certain entrepreneurs to get them. Factors like credit score and ability to put down collateral can make it difficult to get approved, especially for people from marginalized groups.

Method Two: Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a popular and versatile option for many first-time founders. There are many different crowdfunding platforms specifically geared toward launching businesses and products, each with its own pros and cons. Some, like Kickstarter, work through a single fundraiser for a one-time capital injection, and some, like Patreon, allow patrons to support monthly and provide consistent capital injections. In general, crowdfunding offers a way to obtain money without being accountable for recouping the investment of a bank or investor.

Crowdfunding is a great option for people who, for any number of reasons, have a hard time getting a traditional business loan or SBA loan. It’s also a great way to build your audience and make sure the interest is there before you sink a lot of money into your business idea, and it offers the benefit of being able to fund specific parts of your venture, like an espresso machine, or the whole enchilada.

Luke Tomlinson, co-founder of Grindsmith Coffee in Manchester, used crowdfunding to launch his company. Having previously founded a coffee cart through a traditional bank loan, he met his current co-founder in 2013 and raised 10k in 30 days in order to get their space. On top of that, they raised another 10k through a government startup loan program in order to fund equipment. “Utilizing the Kickstarter platform allowed us to experience the ups and downs of fundraising without becoming a debt-heavy business so early on,” said Tomlinson. “It helped us appreciate the value that people are willing to invest into your brand and idea. If we’d failed to deliver a strong brand value, people wouldn’t believe in our concept and wouldn’t have backed it.”

It’s important to note that many crowdfunding platforms involve the fundraising party laying out a series of rewards for supporters, so make sure to think about what you’ll be able to sustainably offer in return for support. Another constraint to keep in mind is your community’s income: can your community offer the funds to make your fundraiser successful?

Method Three: Investors

Investors are another popular way to gain revenue for a business launch. There are different pathways to finding investors for your brand.

After their initial crowdfund and loan combo, Grindsmith went on to launch another shop, then a roastery and lab, via private equity fundraising. “It’s hardest with your first business: it’s difficult to get funding for a business that isn’t yet tangible,” said Tomlinson. Just as with crowdfunding, he says that if investors can’t get behind the idea, then maybe that’s a good indicator that it isn’t ready yet or isn’t strong enough.

Freese went a very different route: using a family member as an investor. Only 17 when he launched Freese Coffee Co., he had already been working in coffee for four years. After holding a lot of pop-ups and events to establish an audience, he partnered with his father in order to be able to qualify for a bank loan, using his parents’ apartment as collateral. “I was a little unsure about working with my dad as a business partner for the first time, but it worked out well,” said Freese. “It was also scary taking a loan from the bank and being personally liable for it.” He emphasized that personal compatibility is a must when partnering with a family member as an investor, and that, especially in the case of family, using a primary residence of you or a parent as collateral is not a sound idea (his parents used a former residence).

Another way to get investment money is from your social network. Alex Merrill founded Hammerhand Coffee with help from an angel investor he met through a mutual acquaintance. “I had a business plan and was looking for funding and a location,” says Merrill. “[My investor] owned a building in a budding historic downtown area (among other investments he has downtown) and wanted to find someone to open a coffee shop. It was the perfect scenario for both of us.”

Looking back, Merrill, who manages Hammerhand while not technically owning it, can’t imagine funding the business any other way. After a series of unfortunate events wherein the building collapsed, they experienced major clerical errors around taxes, and construction eliminated parking and walkability for over eight months. They had to find another location, and it cost much more than intended. “If we had used a bank loan, we would have been belly-up in six months,” said Merrill. “If my investor had been more eager to get his money back or run, we would have been out in the second six months, but he believed in me and in the brand. We’ve finally leveled out and got ourselves in the black. We have become a staple of the community and that was [our] main goal: to create a space for people of his community to connect and converse over a product that is prepared with thought and care.” While the plan was to move Merrill into a 20% ownership position over the first year, he is holding off in conjunction with his investor while the business earns back lost funds.

One major potential drawback of working with investors is that you lose sole control of your business. Investors may—and likely will—have their own opinions on the best use of their money. “Technically, my investor could come in and change everything I have built and I couldn’t say no,” said Merrill. “Even if I owned 20%, he could out-vote me. This is a real and honest danger doing things this way. You must have a trusting relationship with your investor.”

Eric Squires helped open Three Crowns Coffee in Warsaw, IN, although he’s since parted ways with the business. Interested in starting a coffee company, he was approached by an angel investor through a mutual friend. The investor, who already owned a successful social club and wanted to build in a coffee shop, was a perfect fit for Squires. “It lined up with what I was hoping to do almost exactly. I had no capital to start a business and [my investor] Dave didn’t have the coffee expertise. So Dave bankrolled the project and I ran the shop,” he said.

While the arrangement was a great way to bring a dream to life, Squires ended up leaving the business. “At the end of the day, I didn’t have complete control over how things were done and how money was spent,” he said. “While I had autonomy day to day, there were a number of things that eventually led to myself and Dave parting ways. His vision changed over time and some of the ideas I had were rebuffed. It’s easy to forget that investors are simply trying to turn a profit and their priorities may not always line up with yours.” However, he doesn’t want his story to act as a cautionary tale. “For me, having an investor was good for a season, but if I could give anyone advice on it I’d say know your non-negotiables and get everything in writing.”

Savings

The last major funding option I encountered certainly isn’t for everyone: opening your business out of savings, potentially while working another job. This option depends entirely on your personal situation: cost of living, debt, income needs, and more. However, it’s worth mentioning because many are able to do it and find success.

Davis Sears is currently in the process of launching Welcome Coffee in Portland, OR, with co-founders Sarah Ricks and Justin Boek. The trio is launching solely on savings earned while working as baristas and servers, jobs in which they are still employed while gearing up for launch. Davis acknowledged that this funding method is far from universally accessible. “We’re lucky. We live in a city that has two separate shared roasting spaces where you can rent time on a roaster, two of our owners are in double-income households, and there are three of us, which makes a huge difference. All of these factors are what enabled us to create a plan for growth, and make a timeline for when we’re going to invest how much. But I do think it’s important to note that it can be done.” Sears emphasized that Welcome’s approach revolves not around an expensive brand identity and buildout, but on creating relationships with guests and wholesale partners who view their mission as authentic and valuable to the community.

. . . . .

As you can see, there are many different ways to approach funding a first-time venture. The constants from method to method are that you as a founder need to know what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what parts of your vision you’re willing to compromise. Once you know that, there’s no shortage of ways to get your launch money and bring your vision to life.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Funding Your Cafe Dreams appeared first on Sprudge.

Funding Your Cafe Dreams published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

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shebreathesslowly · 5 years

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Funding Your Cafe Dreams

First Steps For Everyone

1. Create a Business Plan

2. Build Your Following

Getting The Money (And there’s no one right way)

Many of the founders I spoke to raised funds multiple ways, so don’t be afraid to mix and match funding methods—they each provide their own benefits and challenges.

Method One: Small Business Loans

Method Two: Crowdfunding

Method Three: Investors

Investors are another popular way to gain revenue for a business launch. There are different pathways to finding investors for your brand.

Savings

. . . . .

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Funding Your Cafe Dreams appeared first on Sprudge.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/2MeYSck

#Sprudge

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prue632bloog-blog · 5 years

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3 Errors In COMPETITION That Make People Seem Stupid

The Major Gaming Blogs Of 2015 Castaliahouse.com

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3 Ways To Have (A) More Influence GAMING

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dorothydelgadillo · 5 years

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Why You Need to Know What Problem You're Solving for Every Single Design Project

Designers. We are all elusive, creative geniuses right?

Well of course we are, but I’ll let you in on a little secret, we weren’t born this way.

Design is a skill. Sure, it comes with plenty of gut feelings and innate talent, but the best designers aren’t strictly artists, they’re also great critical thinkers.

The best designers understand how to identify a problem and use their skills to solve it in the best way possible for the user.

Problems Are The Secret to Good Design

No matter what the project, identifying the goal or problem is a must.

If there is no problem to solve, you’ve set your designer off on a directionless path that may produce visually beautiful results, but lacks intention.

Here at IMPACT, we see this time and time again with brands who come to us for website redesigns.

Their sites look amazing! Some serious attention to detail has been put into each pixel that completely delivers aesthetically.

But while it may deliver visually, it completely lacks in user-oriented solutions.

These websites usually have some similar traits:

They use a lot of “we” as opposed to “you” phrasing

The order of on-page elements serves to highlight the brand (awards, press-releases, products), as opposed to helping the user alleviate their pain points as quickly as possible

They aren’t converting leads, and why would they since they are focused on what a brand offers versus how they can help

Because there was no specific problem identified at the beginning of the design phase, the designer simply created a beautiful online brochure that never had any intention of helping the user solve a problem or in turn, helping the brand achieve a goal.

The intention of any website should be the same every time: solve for the user.

Without the user, there would be no need for design at all. You need to make sure your website or project’s aim is to deliver answers and value to the user.

But, solving for the user is trickier than it sounds. To do it effectively, you must understand your user, their wants, needs, and most importantly the desires they don’t know they have.

So, how do you even begin going about solving for the users unknown intentions?

Well, I’m glad you asked...

Tackling Design Problems

What is a design problem exactly?

Design problems aren’t your average dilemmas In fact, they usually have a single component that sets them apart from all others: the need to solve for unconscious desires.

One of the most famous examples of this is Henry Ford upon building the Model T. He said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Ford understood that horses were too slow, but that wasn’t the problem to be solved. There was a much deeper need that his customers couldn’t articulate because they couldn’t fathom the solution.

Design problems focus on the user’s purpose, not just the unwelcome pain or situation.

Ford ultimately understood that his customers needed to get from one place to another faster.

This unique distinction helped him create something that didn’t exist rather than improve what already was.

Framing the Problem

Once the problem is identified, you need to give it context in order to fully understand it.

Framing a problem with a statement narrow enough will bring focus to a designer, but it also needs to be broad enough for creativity.

When a problem is properly framed and deeply seeded in your user’s purpose, you can easily see the types of barriers that are in the way of reaching your ultimate goal.

Better yet, it acts as a very necessary filter. It rules out the superfluous and irrelevant ideas (you know, the “make it pop” ones?) and only allows room for ideas that meet the user’s needs.

Framing problems also brings a shared perspective. When everyone is working towards the same goal, the process becomes more efficient.

So, how do you get started framing a problem effectively?

You gather your stakeholders and you ask four simple questions:

Who is affected? Who is experiencing the problem and how specific can we describe them?

What is the problem? What are the struggles and what ultimately needs to be accomplished? Are there pain points that need to be relieved?

Where does it happen? What context does the user experience this problem?

Why does it matter? Why is this a problem worth solving and what value does this bring to the user?

All of these questions will lead you to the goal of creating a problem statement.

Problem Statements

Problem statements are kind of like MadLibs, structured sentences with blank spaces to fill with your specific insights.

This “template” helps to create a statement that is concise, but also fully rooted in your own research.

Remember, you want to be specific enough to share a vision of the solution, but be broad enough to allow for creativity.

Here are two examples:

From the point of view of the user:

“I am (persona) trying to (verb), but (pain point or barrier) because (a specific cause) which makes me feel (emotional response).

From user research:

“(Persona) needs a way to (user’s need) because (insight from research).”

Every single problem statement should always be human-entered. Every problem is about the people you are trying to help, first and foremost.

Technology and revenue are byproducts of great problem statements that have led to the most innovative of solutions.

So, how do we ensure that we are approaching every design project with a problem to solve?

We utilize the Design Thinking methodology.

I know, breaking design down to a methodology feels weird; it lacks all that creative edge, but hear me out.

What Is Design Thinking?

Stay with me, I’m going to break down the “why” and the “what” of this process, so you can go back and determine the “how” for your organization.

Design Thinking is a methodology that can be applied to more than just design.

It is a methodology used for both practical and creative problem solving that is user-centric, existing to focus on humans.

It seeks to understand a user’s needs and determine the most effective solutions to meet those needs.

You can think of it as a solution-based approach to problem solving.

What Is the Design Thinking Process?

As you can likely conclude, the Design Thinking process is meant to be both iterative and highly user-centric.

It consists of four principles and five phases.

The Four Principles of Design Thinking

These four principles were laid out by Chistophy Meinel and Harry Leifer of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute of Design at Stanford University, California. You can access their full research here.

1. The Human Rule

Design is a response to the user’s social circumstance; a decision made based on usually negative consequences endured by someone. Any innovation to this will still require action from someone trying to solve for the user first.

2. The Ambiguity Rule

Ambiguity is inevitable and this cannot be removed or oversimplified. Experimenting at the limits of your knowledge and ability is crucial in being able to see things differently when faced with it.

3. The Redesign Rule

All design is redesign. While technology and social circumstances may change and evolve, basic human needs remain unchanged. We only redesign the means of fulfilling these needs.

4. The Tangibility Rule

Making ideas tangible in the form of prototypes enables designers to communicate them more effectively. (Think of this as the “I’ll know it when I see it” rule!)

Now, if you really think about and embrace them, these principles are quite liberating.

With them, as the problem solver, you’re free from the pressures of having to have the exact right answer every single time you approach a problem.

This set of principles is specific, but doesn’t tell you how to go about solving the problem.

They establish guidelines that need to be met, but allow the problem solver to experiment, embrace naysayers, stay humble, and most importantly, stay focused on solving for the user.

The principle set is specific without

The Five Phases of Design Thinking

Based on the four principles above, the process of Design Thinking can be equated to five steps or “phases” as per the aforementioned Hasso-Plattner-Institute of Design at Stanford.

Phase 1: Empathize

Empathy is the critical starting point for Design Thinking. As a problem solver, you have to understand the needs of your users.

What do they want? What do they need? What are they trying to solve for themselves?

Set your own personal assumptions aside and collect data about your users on an emotional level. Suspend your own view of the world around you and see it through your user’s eyes.

Trying to replicate their emotional journey, do you understand where their frustrations lie?

The ultimate goal is to better understand your user’s motivations and that isn’t always obvious. It requires an extreme effort to observe your users with a blank mindset and a genuine curiosity to understand “why.”

Phase 2: Define the Problem

What you may have had in mind as “the problem” could have changed entirely after the Empathize phase.

In the Emphasize phase, we analyzed everything we observed and discovered into smaller components: what, why, and how.

In the define stage, we bring those smaller components back together to synthesize our findings to create a highly detailed overall picture.

This overall picture is your ultimate design challenge and the first step to creating a well-defined problem statement.

Problem statements (we’ll focus more on these later in the article, they are extremely important!) Frame the problem or need in a way that is actionable for designers.

Phase 3: Ideate

This is where all that elusive, creative genius happens.

In a strict, judgement-free zone, problem solvers will identify as many new angles and ideas for a solution as they can muster.

Sometimes the right call might be brainstorming, or mind mapping, or sketching, the possibilities are limitless. Ideating is different for every designer and every organization.

But what’s the same is that at the end of this session, you should have your ideas narrowed down to a handful you can move forward with.

Phase 4: Prototype

This phase is all about tangibility.

You’ll want to experiment with how to best implement the solutions found in the previous stages and actually create a tangible product that you can test.

We call this a prototype. It allows designers to showcase their work through an interactive and engaging product resulting in a much better understanding of the solution for everyone involved.

How far you take your prototype is up to you, but to get the most value out of these phases, it may be best to have the prototype be usable and not just conceptual.

Here is an example from proto.io. As a potential user, you can click around inside of the mobile device to see how the site would potentially function on mobile.

This step can actually be comprised of many steps. Just because you’ve prototyped an idea doesn’t mean it stands as is. Continue to experiment and challenge your solution.

You may quickly find that some ideas are best left in this stage, while others merit enough of a refined solution to move on to Phase 5.

Phase 5: Test

After finally landing on a few prototypes that you feel are indicative of the best solution possible, send it out into the wild!

You’ll want to test your prototypes to see if they hold up to all of your assumptions.

Testing can be a tricky phase. yYou’ll want to make sure your test is planned, your participants have been properly vetted as the best subjects for testing, and then you’ll want to have a plan in place for how to analyze your data and inform next steps.

Often you’ll find that this phase takes you back to one of the previous phases. That isn’t a defeat! It’s simply narrowing down the problem and potential solutions.

If your tests are successful, congratulations! You’ve solved for the user in the most effective way possible. You’ll likely move on to finalizing the product and launching it in the “real world.”

Even if you make it to a successful launch, however, keep your head in this phase. Design can always be improved upon, and don’t forget you’ll need to change your solution based on social circumstances.

Always be testing and always be trying to find the next solution.

It’s a Non-Linear Process

While there may appear to be a very linear sequence to these phases, you can often find yourself looping back and around these phases. With every new discovery, you may need to challenge phases you already thought were set in stone.

The only rule is to keep a user-first mentality.

Why Does This Matter?

I know, we’ve listed a lot of fancy terms and methodologies, and all of that is great and maybe some of it is even clicking. But honestly, why does this matter so much?

Your website exists solely for your users. Let that sink in.

Your website isn’t your crowning glory. It’s not there for your sales team, it’s not there for your CEO, and it certainly isn’t there for your marketing team.

Your website must solve your users’ problems.

When a user lands on your website, they are there to help alleviate a very specific pain point. Is your content, design, and overall UX focused on helping your users?

If it isn’t, take a step back.

Think about all of the principles and phases we’ve discussed in this article.

You can’t start trying to solve for you user until you have a complete understanding of your user’s behavior, their desires, and their needs. You have to define this as the problem you are trying to solve.

Otherwise, you are never going to design a solution that alleviates their pain points.

If you approach your next website redesign as simply a task, telling your designer, “you’re the expert, go make it fabulous” you aren’t only doing your business a disservice by ignoring your users specific pain points, but you’ve taken the stance that your potential customers aren’t worth a tailored solution.

We designers are visual problem solvers. Not just task takers who will make things look and work the way you want them to.

If you don’t allow your designer to help identify and solve a problem for your user’s, you’re wasting their potential as critical thinkers. More importantly you’re wasting your design spend on a product that will not achieve your goals.

Would you do that for a marketing plan? For PPC activity? For a social campaign?

Absolutely not.

Stop talking to your designer as “one of those creatives” who just knows Photoshop well. Start involving them in discussions about your users.

Ask them to explain how they arrived at certain solutions and work together to creative problem statements moving into creative redesigns.

Take these principles back to your co-workers and brainstorm ways to implement them into new or existing processes.

Caring deeply for and about your users will always create the best possible product.

Don’t design without understanding your problem statement. Seriously, don’t.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-you-need-to-know-what-problem-youre-solving-for-every-single-design-project

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chrissyrholmes · 6 years

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Writing Perfect Web Design Proposals

If you’re a freelancer, then you’ve probably experienced the anxiety of staring at the blank white space where your cover letter or proposal needs to go. Not only do you have to sell yourself, but you have to show that you can do the work, that you understand the client’s needs, that you can fill them in a specific timeframe, and that you’ve specifically tailored your proposal to them.

Before I started being successful at getting freelancing gigs, I made the big mistake of having a generic pitch that I would copy and paste into each cover letter section of Upwork while applying to a bunch of jobs all at once.

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I hardly got any work because the clients could not only tell that I was just recycling something I’ve used before, but also could tell that I had not fully read their proposal. If you want them to take the time to hire and work with you, then you need to take the time upfront to invest in writing a solid proposal.

Maybe you’ve seen that 20 other people have already applied for the project you’re absolutely sure that you could easily and successfully accomplish.

Proposal Template by Darian Rosebrook

The competition for freelancing gigs is fierce, but at least half of those proposals were generic copy/paste applications, and the others were a sentence or two about how they’re qualified without much more detail.

We’ve compiled a set of tips to help you take the time to craft the perfect proposal that will get you your next freelancing gig. Remember: presentation is everything.

1. Read Through the Proposal and Take Notes

You’ll need to do your research before writing your proposal. Read through the entirety of their posting to determine several things:

What their timeline is

What their budget is (and if it’s even worth your time!)

What product their ultimately asking for

Who their target audience is

What skills they’re requiring or seeking

What previous projects they might want to see

Once you’ve done your due diligence in parsing apart their request, then you can set out to writing a proper proposal. Though we urge you not to use a generic, copy/pasted proposal, it is always a good idea to have a set outline for how to structure your proposals to make writing them faster while simultaneously demonstrating that you understand the needs of the client.

Once you get the job, it might be a good idea to have a standard form like this one you can send the client to show you’re professional and that you care about their input.

2. Create a Standard Form for Applying (But Only a Wireframe)

We recommend something like the following:

I am a(n) [specific word for what they’re looking for, like designer, writer, or developer] with [skills] and with experience in [jobs or projects specifically related to the kind of project they’ve established] which you can view here [provide links to your project]. I also have experience working with/for [their target audience, and what experience you have writing for them, etc.]. I can complete your project in [insert timeframe] for [your price point].

It does not need to look like this, but having a standard form is different from recycling the same proposal insofar as this way you have a quick and handy guide to turn to so you’re not working on a proposal for hours, while also being able to be original and specific in your proposal.

Don’t forget to be specific about your skill-set. Do you have 5 years of experience in graphic design, or did you get your B.A. in Professional Writing? Don’t make them sift through 300 pages of your skills – make it simple, easy to read, yet expansive enough that they see you can handle every component of their job.

Remember that the client has work to do, too. Communicate this to them and make sure you get what you need from them.

Soulmates Proposal by Charlie Isslander

3. Be Original and Specific

You don’t have to spend 40 hours a week writing one proposal, but you do need to spend more than a few seconds crafting something up if you really want the job.

Think about how much time the client spent in crafting their proposal and posting it to find people to help them – you should ideally be spending however much time you imagine they spent on their job posting as you do on your proposal.

Let us first reiterate: do not copy and paste. Yes, it’s an easy way to quickly get your name out there, but clients can see right through that. The worst offense is when you don’t even mention their project or what specifically about their project you could provide value for.

Your client will be able to see through your vague, generic proposal in a few seconds. Sometimes, this is such a problem that clients will request in their proposal for a freelancer to put words like “pineapple” or “unicorn” at the beginning of their proposal before submission to make sure they’ve read and understand everything about the job posting.

Showcase your work! If you don’t have many samples to send in, especially if you’re just getting started, then it would be a good investment of time and energy in developing some mock-ups to provide to a client when they ask. Better yet, don’t wait for them to ask – show them upfront! Get a website to direct your clients to in your proposal.

Redesign a few of your favorite websites, draw up a few logos for fake companies, write a few blog posts about anything – this will largely depend on what you do and what you’re applying for, but make sure you have something to prove you can do the job.

4. Present a Timeline

This is crucial, and is more than just saying that you could finish the job in two weeks. Be as specific as possible by parsing apart their project into smaller tasks and provide a timeline for each. For instance, you could say that research and brainstorming will take three days, with a little time for communication with the client on your ideas and working their feedback into it, and wireframing will take two days, and so on.

The client will appreciate not only that you’ve taken the time to adequately think about your commitments and their needs, but also will appreciate that you understand the complexities and nuances of what they’re asking. It will demonstrate your seriousness about the job, and will help the client better understand what working with you will be like, and what the greater process of the project will look like.

Last Thing

Remember that as a freelancer you’re selling yourself and your services, and you have to see yourself, your work, and what you provide as a business.

Don’t make your proposal five pages long. Keep it short, sweet, succinct, and economic. You want to be as specific and narrow as possible, as well as descriptive as possible when explaining your process and their project, while also being as succinct as possible so that they know quickly and immediately that you’re the right freelancer for the job.

Think about it this way: pick 3 skills, pick 3 recent projects, and break the timeline into at least 3 tasks for your client. Now go forth, and get working!

The biggest takeaway? A little extra time spent on a proposal can bring you much better contracts, meaning fewer jobs with higher payout. You can work less by working better.

from Web Designing https://1stwebdesigner.com/perfect-web-design-proposals-every-time/

0 notes

rodneyevesuarywk · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In theory, it makes perfect sense. Consumers trust one another more than they trust messages from brands. Thus, if we can get human beings to carry our marketing water on behalf of the company, not only do costs go down, but persuasiveness goes up simultaneously.

There are some critical challenges with this type of marketing, including scalability, disclosure, and the tendency of companies to confuse influence with audience when selecting persons with whom to align. But the genie is not going back in the bottle. With hundreds of influencer marketing software firms in play, powered by venture capital, this is a marketing sub-genre that’s going to be around awhile.

But the overwhelming majority of influencer marketing software and industry chatter focuses on the use of influencers to pitch consumer-focused products. Instagram is rotten with influencer appeals (many of them ham-fisted) for all manner of B2C doo-dads and gadgetry.

In reality, however, influencer marketing is more important for B2B than for B2C. After all, the average purchase size in B2B typically dwarfs that in B2C, and the impact of referrals and word of mouth are more critical to the success of the organization. Note that 19 percent of the overall US economy (B2B and B2C) is driven specifically by word of mouth, but 91 percent of B2B transactions are at least influenced by word of mouth.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Because the factors that go into a B2B purchase decision are often more nuanced and comprehensive than consumer purchases, the impact of B2B influencer marketing will naturally take longer to take root. Consumers goods companies can—in theory—pay some models to hawk bikinis on Instagram, and purchases will roll in almost immediately. It doesn’t work like that for B2B.

Further, because most B2B purchases involve multiple decision makers, it is likely to take longer for the impact of B2B influencer marketing to touch a plurality of those people. This is why, incidentally, we all should be using more influencers in cooperation with account-based marketing.

In the estimation of me and our strategist here at Convince & Convert, you shouldn’t expect results from a B2B influencer marketing program for at least six months, and you should seek to work with B2B influencers one year at a time. This differs a lot from B2C influencer programs, which can be as short as 30 days.

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

Categorically, I’ll say that companies are too eager to look outside their existing ecosystems to find “fresh” influencers. In many cases, outstanding advocates with pre-baked topical knowledge are already associated in some way with the brand.

The first step—once you know why you want to engage in B2B influencer marketing at all—should be to carefully analyze and evaluate your existing customers, fans, business partners, and employees for evidence of advocacy and influence.

Something as simple as using a tool like Cision (a Convince & Convert partner) or FollowerWonk to examine the relative social influence of everyone who follows the brand on Twitter can yield remarkable insights. Social chatter is so diffuse now that it’s entirely possible influencers are routinely talking about your brand without you even knowing about it (until you make a specific effort to identify them).

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

If you want to figure out who is really going to resonate as a B2B influencer—and you do—it really helps to know who your customers are already listening to, reading, and watching. I love the Affinio software for this purpose, as we used it to determine who influences fans of Convince & Convert, and used that list to help select podcast guests, among other outcomes. It’s slick.

But, if you don’t want to purchase a software license to do that kind of analysis, launch a quick survey of your customers using Typeform or something similar. Ask them specifically who they listen to, read, and watch. We’ve done this kind of research too, and I suggest you add a question about trust—something like, “Among this list of B2B influencers you’ve acknowledged you listen to/read/watch, please rank them by how much you trust them.” This is incredibly helpful information, as influencer marketing is all about trust for B2B.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Of course, social media reach is often used as a key measure of influence, but it’s by no means the only way to gauge B2B influencer marketing viability. In fact, some of the most powerful influencers in the world are not active at all in social media. On the marketing front, for example, Seth Godin is, by any measure, a massive influencer. Yet his use of social media is modest to non-existent.

When we create B2B influencer marketing programs for clients, we also look at potential participants who may not be social mavens but are respected authors, speakers, thinkers, podcasters, and researchers. Yes, using social footprint as the sole criteria makes it easier and faster to run a report to “find” influencers, but I can absolutely guarantee that doing that alone will miss a lot of truly influential people that your customers respect.

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

Once you have a list of potential influencers, it’s incredibly useful to be able to compare them using consistent data and a common format. This is why I always strongly suggest preparing influencer dossiers.

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Many B2C influencers make all or part of their living doing just that: recommending products. That is not the case with B2B influencer marketing. Most B2B influencers have a “day job” and are influential in part because of that position.

In some cases, the influencer may be a sole proprietor or may run a company, but she is still tied to that organization. Consequently, B2B influencer marketing programs are much more likely to have circumstances whereby a proposed influencer cannot participate, or at least can’t participate in a way your brand would find ideal, due to existing relationships, company partnerships, or job restrictions.

This is another reason why you need to make sure you give yourself enough time to find and activate B2B influencers. In our estimation, 60 days is the minimum lead time necessary to research and approach influencers, and then figure out what’s possible, what creates an untenable conflict, etc.

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

When working with a B2B influencer for the first time, it’s wise to build those bonds incrementally. Unless they are already huge advocates, they’re unlikely to jump immediately at the chance to work on something together.

A better approach is to tap into the influencer’s wisdom and connections by putting together a curated collection of influencer thoughts. You’ve almost certainly seen these kinds of pieces, like “23 content strategists predict 2018 trends” or similar. Here’s one we created for Cision, called “Listen: 5 Audiences Brands Can’t Afford to Ignore.” It features Scott Stratten, Jeff Bullas, Mark Schaefer, Neal Shaffer, and myself.

This is a great first step when building relationships because it doesn’t require a ton of the influencers’ time, and it’s a nice entrée into the brand, its products, and its messaging. After finding success with an initial trends/predictions report, expand and enhance the relationship to include more detailed and comprehensive content co-creation and promotion. Also, if you have a brand-led podcast, that’s another good way to break the ice with potential influencers.

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

When you’re ready to expand the relationship beyond a trend piece, it is imperative that you spend time truly educating the people in your B2B influencer marketing program about your company, products, customers, competitors, and culture. This step, unfortunately, gets overlooked quite a lot. I think it’s because brands think they may be imposing on their influencers if they require so much education time. But in my experience, if the influencer is truly engaged with the company, they want to know as much as possible, for two reasons.

First, the best influencers have genuine passion for the industry and for the company, so spending time learning more about the ins and outs is a joy rather than a burden. Second, B2B influencers—especially those who have some experience with these kinds of programs—know that the more they learn, the more effective they can be because they’ll be able to better tell company stories in their own words.

Focus on Co-Creation

B2B influencers aren’t just supposed to parrot your party line and retweet your brand account word for word. If that’s the game plan, just buy some ads. The more influencers put their own spin on the benefits of the products and services, the more impactful and persuasive they are on your behalf.

The best way to move the needle with B2B influencer marketing is to find the right people and educate them. Next, explain clearly what you are looking to accomplish with influencers, and why. Then, just listen. Let the influencers come up with ideas on how to create interesting content, how to promote your events, how to engage with key customers, how to enable your sales team, and more.

Let them pitch you ideas. This works so much better than you and your marketing team concocting a content initiative and just recruiting influencers to amplify it. Influencer led co-creation breeds better outcomes and is much more interesting for the influencers, as well.

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

This piece last year from LinkedIn called “Great Marketing Stories Read by Top Influencers” is one of my all-time favorite examples. In that program, the company worked with a dozen marketing influencers and asked them to select a favorite, recent digital marketing blog post or articles.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

In most cases, you’ll go out and “recruit” people for your B2B influencer marketing program. But it doesn’t have to be that way every time. In fact, some of the most successful influencer programs in history turn this relationship on its head. In these cases, the company creates enough great content and community that influencers show up and participate without having to be asked to do so.

Hubspot’s recently deceased Inbound.org community is an example of this influencer attraction in practice. The best conferences do the same. Joe Pulizzi’s Content Marketing World and Mike Stelzner’s Social Media Marketing World collect digital influencers like Kim Kardashian collects weird baby names.

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

It’s by no means a certainty that you’ll be able to pull off the reverse attraction. It requires a huge commitment to killer content and a truly thriving community. But it can work, and when it does, it creates self-perpetuating momentum that you rarely see in B2C.

B2B influencer marketing can be a tremendous boon to your brand, and many of the best practices are similar to how you’d handle B2C programs. But there are important differences you should keep in mind. I hope this article will help you along your journey. And if the team and I can help you, please do let us know.

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

mercedessharonwo1 · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

fairchildlingpo1 · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

dainiaolivahm · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

maryhare96 · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

christinesumpmg · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes

mariasolemarionqi · 6 years

Text

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

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kraussoutene · 6 years

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11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

Because paid advertising is increasing in expense and, in some cases, decreasing in effectiveness, companies of all sizes and shapes are turning to earned exposure through influencer marketing.

In short, without word of mouth and influencer marketing, B2B purchases would grind to a halt, because nobody takes a flyer on B2B products and services the way they gamble on consumer-focused items.

Many of the tenets of influencer marketing work the same for B2C and for B2B. But there are several important differences that I’ll focus on in this piece.

11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing (and Why It’s Different from B2C) Lengthen Your Time Horizon

Don't expect results from your B2B influencer marketing program for at least 6 months. Click To Tweet Look First for Existing Advocates

These people constitute the first pool of potential B2B influencers because they already have a proven affinity.

Look Second for Who Influencers Your Customers

Advertising is about influencing potential customers. Influencer marketing is about influencing the people that influence your potential customers. It’s one step removed.

Don’t Focus Only on Social Strength

Create B2B Influencer Dossiers

This is a document—usually in Keynote for us, but it doesn’t really matter—that discusses the strengths, weaknesses, history, and passions of all candidate influencers. For each person, chart:

social channels

engagement ratios

topics covered

hashtags used

geography

best-performing relevant posts/content

history of influencer work/relationships in the industry

any red flags or warning signs

non-social influence platforms like books, speaking, podcasts

media coverage

results of your research into how relevant this person is for your customers

(If you’d like a sample dossier template, send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll send it to you.)

Be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Build Relationships with Trends and Predictions

Spend the Time to Educate on Products

Focus on Co-Creation

It’s Okay to Have Fun with B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B doesn’t stand for “boring to brainwashed.” Almost universally, the best B2B influencer marketing programs are those that have a heavy dose of creativity.

Then, each influencer created an audio recording of themselves performing a “dramatic reading” of the blog post, which the company then published as a holiday-themed playlist.

Discovering that Scottish marketing genius Chris Marr chose to read my blog post (in full brogue) about why you shouldn’t post quotes of yourself in social media was a delightful surprise.

Attract Influencers to Your Brand

The events are good enough that influencers want to be there.

(We’re doing the same thing at our CONEX event we’re producing with our partners at Uberflip. It’s going to be a KILLER event. August 20–22 in Toronto. Tickets on sale now.)

https://ift.tt/2INd0aA

#11 Things You Must Know About B2B Influencer Marketing

0 notes