Better Business Blog

The Art of Crafting a 15-Word Strategy Statement

In the January issue of HBR, Roger Martin sets out some rules for avoiding common mistakes in strategy making. As he writes in “The Big Lie of Strategic Planning”, the first rule is “keep the strategy statement simple.” Rather than a long, often vague document, the company’s strategy should summarize the chosen target customers and the value proposition in one page.

I couldn’t agree more. In my consulting work, I take this idea even further by asking my clients to summarize their strategy in less than 15 words. This statement must identify the target customer, the value proposition, and how the latter fits two requirements:

• Focus: What you want to offer to the target customer and what you don’t;
• Difference: Why your value proposition is divergent from competitive alternatives.

Sounds simple. But it’s more difficult than it seems. The 15-word constraint is a test that often reveals a profound lack of alignment among managers. In a 100-page strategy document you can state everything you want, which makes everyone in the organization feel comfortable. The trouble is that managers then interpret the 100 pages according to their view and aspiration of the company’s strategy. The result: one planning document, many different strategies.

All great business strategies can be summarized in a short headline. Easy to understand and communicate, they convey clarity internally and externally to the customer. Clarity is so important for good strategies that companies should make an effort to understand what it means and how to achieve it.

Click Here to Read More on Harvard Business Review Blog
 

Michael Stelzner on Capturing Emails and Committing to Quality

From nothing to Technorati’s #1 business blog in a little over four months.

That’s quite a story.

It’s Michael Stelzner’s. And on the latest episode of The Lede, he shares two of the most important ingredients in his online success — ingredients that too often get overlooked.

Capturing emails and committing to quality … Stelzner has been steadfast with both since launching Social Media Examiner, and the site’s sustained success is a testament to their importance.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Michael’s early commitment to email
• The specific strategies he used (and you can, too) to attract 10,000 email signups in four months
• The “hardest part” about email campaigns
• How Michael and his team get the information that lets them plan their editorial calendar
• The meticulous editing process each piece of content goes through
• Tips you can implement today to improve your own content quality

We also discuss the upcoming Social Media Marketing World event Michael is hosting in San Diego, where Brian Clark is among the loaded list of presenters.

Click Here to Read More  

 

 

 

Jon Levine on Keys to Affiliate Program Management Success in 2014

Meet Jon Levine, a 13-year veteran of the online marketing industry, who currently works for All Inclusive Marketing as their Director of eCommerce. At the upcoming Affiliate Management Days SF 2014 conference (March 19-20) Jon will speak on how to “Engage & Activate Affiliates Who’ve Since Gone Cold.”

Question: If you were to emphasize one area that every affiliate manager should be paying attention to in 2014, what would it be, and why?

Jon Levine: Mobile and mobile app affiliates. I believe that 2014 will be a big year for affiliates in the mobile space.  With more and more eCommerce being done via mobile, affiliates who specifically target this market or develop apps that leverage affiliate relationships will be successful.

Question: What do you see as the main areas of opportunity for affiliate marketing (and affiliate marketers) 2014?

Jon Levine: I think a big area of opportunity is in data, but I don’t know if 2014 will be the year it becomes relevant. I think that merchants are sitting on so much data, but they’re unwilling to share it.  I believe that this data can be harnessed and used by affiliate partners to see trends or uncover synergies that the merchant never thought possible.

There’s some big hurdles that need to be overcome before merchants begin to freely share their data, but I think there’s a huge opportunity if they do.

Click Here to Read More 

 

Five Tips for Creating Videos That Build Brand and Drive Sales

 

Storytelling through video has become part of the required content marketing toolkit for brands looking to create awareness in their market. Old Spice, for example, sought to refresh a sleepy brand; Jack Dorsey launched a whole new product category with Square Cash; and Red Bull created a movement with its "Gives You Wings" campaign.

The power of video to move consumers to act has played out nicely in the numbers. YouTube users watch more than 6 billion hours of video per month; that's up 50% over last year according to YouTube execs. Meanwhile, Cisco predicts that two-thirds of the world's mobile traffic will be video by 2016. So, clearly, this ship isn't sinking any time soon.

Short-format videos are in 

Let's start with the short-format videos being used on platforms such as Vine and Instagram. They're hot, they're new, and users are flocking to them in droves. Some 59% of the world's top brands are now active on Instagram alone, according to Simply Measured.

What's great about these platforms is that they allow you to tell visual stories in the form of "content snacks," or bite-sized bits of engagement. Much as Twitter has done for microblogging, these platforms force short-form storytelling by limiting the length of the video clip to mere seconds. They also seem much more conducive to sharing, and they're perfect for branding. 

"Brand vines are shared 4x more than other online videos," Heather Taylor, a vice-president at Ogilvy, claims. Furthermore, 40% of the most shared 15-second videos are marketing efforts, Unruly Media found in a recent study. Here are some examples:

Click Here to Read More on MarketingProfs.com 

 

 

9 Virtual Ways to Thank Loyal Customers

If you have ever been retweeted by someone you admired, you know how much a small, simple gesture can mean. If you are going to take the time to thank your customers for their loyalty, you might as well make it count.

Don’t have time for a three-course meal in the middle of the workday?

No worries. We asked nine entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

“What’s a fun, entirely virtual way to reward loyal customers?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. VIP Clubs

“We’ve helped clients set up VIP clubs for their best customers where the customers receive exclusive perks such as free shipping or special discounts. Model companies include Amazon (Prime) and Zappos (VIP members), which do a fantastic job of recognizing and incentivizing their best customers.” ~ Patrick Conley, Automation Heroes

2. Virtual Lunch

“If you can’t meet clients face to face, then video conferencing works. But it gets old — fast. A great way to reward your clients is to “do lunch” virtually. Call in a delivery order to their favorite restaurant and give them a special treat instead of a boring call.” ~ Steven Place, InvestingWithOptions.com

Click Here to Read More 

 

 

15 Cringeworthy Email Marketing Mistakes – And How To Avoid Them

Email marketing is by far one of the most effective ways to reach out to your online audience, and yet many businesses commit gaffes that are nothing short of cringeworthy when it comes to their marketing emails. We’ve put together a list of the 15 most common email marketing mistakes, along with advice on how to avoid making each one.

Mistake #1: Not having an email subscriber list in the first place.

Email addresses are extremely valuable assets to have. In fact, after your website, they’re probably most important. Social media pages are vital, but you don’t actually own them, so they get to make the rules as to what your fans see and how you can contact them. With an email subscriber list, on the other hand, you have a direct way to contact your online audience on a regular basis, and you own that list – no one can ever change an algorithm or create a new policy that cuts you off from them.

Mistake #2: Having a list – but not sending out regular emails.

Almost as bad as number one, not utilizing your email subscriber list to the fullest is another cringeworthy mistake. Yes, having that list in place is the all-important first step, but it won’t do you any good unless you are actively cultivating an email relationship with the people on that list by sending them emails on a regular basis.

Mistake #3: Not offering an incentive for sign-up.

As we said, email addresses are valuable – so you should be willing to give people something of value in exchange for that information. No one likes spam, so everyone is hesitant to sign up for yet another email newsletter – unless it’s truly worth their while. Make it worthwhile by offering something irresistible as a motivation to sign up, whether that’s a free white paper, an online workbook, or some other valuable free content.

Click Here to Read More 

50 More Business Jargon Fixes for Bloggers and Content Writers

Have you ever turned up to a corporate event, read  a PR release or a blog post and the cliched communication made you wince? Creating clear conversational writing and content sometimes means that old habits need to be unlearned!

So here’s another batch of business jargon, along with suggestions for how to replace these overused, confusing, vague, pretentious and/or misleading terms. If you’d like to see more, here are my first 50 epic jargon solutions.

1. Actionable. An actionable item is one you can take action on. Whether the action is desirable is another story. For that reason, an item may be more clearly described as practical, useful, realistic or workable.

2. Around. Don’t have a discussion around an issue; have a discussion about an issue.

3. Balls in the air. Sound less like a carnival act and more like a business professional by saying that you are busy or have several projects underway.

4. Best of breed. “Of breed” adds nothing to “best.” Just say you’re the best.

5. Big bang for the buck. A sleazy fast-talker’s way of saying this or that product or service has exceptionally high value.

6. Bring to the table. This is an overused way of saying a person contributes this or that specific thing to a project or work group.

7. Business case. Redundant. If you’re talking business, you should simply say case.

8. Check the box. Replace with complete the task.

9. Compelling. Overused! A 90 percent discount is compelling, but a 5 percent discount is merely interesting. Don’t describe something as compelling unless it is.

10. Competitive advantage. This phrase is a puffed up, boardroom-y way of saying your company excels at something.

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This Is How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media

The roughly 1.3 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) in North America generate a gobstopping $5.5 trillion in annual revenue. And according to a new study conducted by LinkedIn, social media is increasingly becoming the vital axis upon which this community turns.

LinkedIn partnered with market research firm TNS to survey decision-makers at approximately 1,000 North American SMBs -- or enterprises that garner between $1 million and $50 million. They discovered that 81 percent use social media to drive growth, while nine percent intend to use social media in the future.

Its uses are as valuable as they are varied. Ninety-four percent of SMBs said they use social media as a marketing tool, while 49 percent said they use it for educational purposes, and to derive business insights.

The growth in new media is accounting for swelling budgets in the social sphere: 56 percent of SMBs increased their social spend over the past year, LinkedIn said.

The study also provided data about the kinds of shares that SMBs found the most valuable to consume. Seventy-nine percent sought industry-specific news, while testimonials and reviews from both customers and industry experts followed closely behind.

Finally, SMBs preferred practical guidance and news articles about other companies.

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9 Tools to Discover Influencers in Your Industry

The tide of influence hunting on the web is rising beyond public relations and social media to digital marketing at large.  In particular, there’s growing attention being directed towards influencers as gateways to new audiences.

Influence as the ability for a person to inspire action amongst a community is a very powerful thing and therefore, increasingly appreciated by digital marketing and PR pros alike. An influencer program that identifies, qualifies, engages and maintains relationships with industry influencers can serve as a formidable “force multiplier” for everything from content amplification to product feedback to content co-creation. 

Beyond the “brandividual endorsement”, people with a strong center of influence can provide valuable context and credibility to a company seeking to connect with an audience of buyers. But in an age of information overload and the ability for anyone, anywhere to publish, finding those influential connections in your industry can prove to be a challenge.

Here are 9 of many tools that can be used for the initial task of finding influencers aligned with specific areas of subject matter expertise. Several go beyond discovery and also support filtering, managing, engaging, monitoring and reporting.

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8 Ways to Create a Virtual Water Cooler to Increase Engagement

 

Whether it be because of far flung offices or simply heavy workloads, a growing volume of work is done by teams who rarely see each other in person. Even when teams are in the same building, I’ve observed many that simply don’t get much of a chance to see each other, much to their chagrin.  While cloud based collaborative tools have facilitated how teams can work virtually together, a critical piece often remains missing – the social glue that brings teams closer – the informal chat that happens by simply running into someone at work.

When colleagues can’t catch up over lunch, coffee or even the water cooler, the natural opportunities to nurture deeper social bonds disappear.  This is unfortunate because it is precisely these informal chats that foster the personal chemistry required for great working relationships.  It’s always helps to feel that the person that you’re skyping with regarding a client issue isn’t a complete stranger.  Knowing what that they spent Sunday afternoon at a BBQ or their kids baseball game helps you to dive into a conversation right away.  So what can one do to create this social glue?

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5 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know

Google Inc.’s Eze Vidra has seen many start-ups come and go over the past 12 years, first in Israel, then in New York, then San Francisco and now London. He’s about to bring that knowledge to startups across Europe in his new role as the European head of Google for Entrepreneurs, which supports startup communities around the world. Mr. Vidra also runs Campus London—an East London building that houses a café, events and co-working spaces Seedcamp and TechHub. Mr. Vidra gave a rundown of his top pieces of advice for entrepreneurs.


UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR MARKET WANTS

Just because entrepreneurs think they have a great solution, it doesn’t mean the market agrees.  “Most products fail not because they fail to develop a product, but because they fail to develop their market,” Mr. Vidra said. “The first piece of advice would be: Build stuff people want. So if you think you have a great solution for a problem, talk to people who are encountering the problem, and find out that this is really the solution that they want.”

KEEP IT SIMPLE, BUT THINK BIG

Click Here to Read More at WSJ.com  

Eight Email Marketing Tips for the Events Industry

Ask anyone in event management how they promote their events and in 90% cases email marketing is going to be near the top of their list. Despite being one of the most effective and reliable marketing channels for the promotion of events; email marketing is often neglected.

I love email marketing; without it my events would be a fraction of the size and popularity they are now. I’ve only scratched the surface of email marketing and e-crm but I want to share with you some practical advice about making more from the email marketing channel.

1. Start Building Your List Now

Seriously if you don’t have an email capture form up on the home-page of your site stop reading now and get it sorted. If someone’s managed to come along to your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to get more information about your event.

As soon as we decide to host an event, we get up a holding page with an email capture form to start collecting the details of people interested in the event. I’ve heard of event companies taking this to it’s logical conclusion, putting up email capture forms for “events coming soon” not having any venue booked or any other prep carried out. They use the rate of email sign ups to decide whether to host the event in the first place.

Click Here to Read More:  

4 Simple Ways to Make Sure You’re Writing Mobile-Friendly Emails

The biggest thing that will affect email over the next year is undoubtedly mobile. Consider consumers’ typical morning: After they hit snooze on their alarm clock and brush their teeth, they likely turn to their mobile devices to check email. Then, whether it’s at a coffee shop or on the train to work, there’s ample time to check emails, and smartphones and tablets are the easier option. More and more, the on-the-go worker is utilizing email on the phone instead of simply on the desktop.

According to a 2013 study by Litmus, 44 percent of emails were read over mobile devices—having shot up from just 11 percent in 2011—while only 33 percent were opened on a desktop and 23 percent on a webmail server. Despite this inevitable mobile transition, 39 percent of marketers still have no strategy for mobile email. Nowadays, emails need to be just as effective on the tablet or smartphone as they are on not the desktop.

How to Write a Successful Mobile Email

Small businesses put a lot of focus on email marketing and creating mobile apps and a mobile website, but writing actual emails is also something that should get some attention. Below is a look at some ways to gain an edge when writing for a mobile screen:

1. Be concise

Having a clear message that gets to the point early is essential for any email, but it should become a staple for an email catered to the mobile reader considering there’s limited amount of space on a smaller viewing and click-through rates are generally lower on mobile than on desktop. This goes for both text and design. Simple layouts with a single column work best because they look sharp on all platforms and there’s no annoyance of excessive scrolling when reading on a device. Try to preview the email beforehand so you’re certain the mobile email isn’t neglected or too punchy. Additionally, there’s a bevy of response email tablets available for small businesses, which you can learn more about here.

2. Avoid the clutter

Try to avoid over-doing it. Specifically, shoot for one very transparent call to action that’s at the top of the email. Multiple calls to action might work on desktop reading, but it comes off way too cluttered on mobile. There should be no confusion with your main objective—whether it be luring customers to your website or buy something. Coinciding with the call to action are links. Keep in mind there’s no mousepad on the phone so an obvious call to action like a button [i.e. click here] is recommended. Links are beneficial because they allow you to still be concise yet still draw people someone. That being said, an overabundance of links is completely offsetting, especially on mobile or tablet. So pick a happy medium.

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6 Habits Of Great Connectors

The second part of the 1936 Dale Carnegie classic book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People," is called “Six Ways to Make People Like You.”

All these years later, connecting with new people remains a vital skill for any entrepreneur hoping to grow her network. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, especially for introverts.

Not long ago entrepreneur Scott Dinsmore formed a list of the habits he’s observed in skillful connectors. In the spirit of Carnegie’s “Six Ways,” here are six habits from Dinsmore’s list, supplemented with timeless tidbits from "How to Win Friends."

1. Smile.

"Smiles are contagious and the simple act makes people feel better,” writes Dinsmore. Carnegie goes one step further: “The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back.” Carnegie even cites an old training program that phone companies provided to teach selling over the phone. “They suggest you smile when talking on the phone,” he writes. “Your ‘smile’ comes through in your voice.”

2. Make friends.

"Ask, ‘How would I treat this person if they were my close friend or someone I’d want to be a close friend?’” explains Dinsmore. Carnegie stresses the practice of empathy. He tells the story of a Philadelphia fuel salesman named C.M. Knaphle who hated the advent of chain stores because a chain in Philadelphia bought its fuel from out-of-town dealers, instead of him. At Carnegie’s behest, Knaphle agreed to debate other students in Carnegie’s courses about whether chain stores were good or bad. The catch? Knaphle had to defend the chain stores. He went back to the store that wasn’t buying his fuel and asked the buyer for advice that could help him in the debate. “I must confess that he opened my eyes to things I had never even dreamed of,” wrote Knaphle. The buyer grew to like Knaphle personally — and ultimately became a customer.

 

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Read more: http://thebuildnetwork.com/leadership/great-connectors-habits/#ixzz2tErQuiZ1

10 Marketing Tasks You Should Be Delegating

If you’re running a business, there’s no doubt that you have a lot of marketing tasks on your plate.  Yes, there are some things that only you can do, but there are also many marketing tasks you can delegate to an assistant. Yes, you really can!

Here are 10 Marketing Tasks You Should Be Delegating
 

1.     Blog Management

Have you ever wanted to start guest blogging to get your name/site out there but don’t have the time to implement it? Have someone else do it.  Someone else can easily do things like research blog topics, find images for your posts, find contributors for your blog, or even write posts if you are finding yourself short on time or really don’t like writing.

Do you find it a hassle to manage your editorial calendar? Don’t even have an editorial calendar?  Have someone create one for you and then manage it.

2.     Social Media

Is there a Twitter party you think would be good to participate in but don’t have the time?  Let your assistant do it.  He or she can also create a social media strategy and track and report on the progress.

An assistant can easily post and engage with your audience on any and all social media outlets on your behalf.

Click Here to Read More on ducttapemarketing.com 
 

Six Reasons Why Your Brand Needs a Social Voice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connecting with your target audience, tweeting updates to your followers, and sharing information with your supporters are tasks every business should be doing nowadays. Not only has social media revolutionized the way we can communicate with our customers, it has also changed the way brands are being built.

You can be a master in getting Likes on Facebook, subscribers on LinkedIn, and followers on Twitter, but the truth is that if you don't have a social media voice that fits your brand, your marketing efforts may be wasted.

Conveying a tone that represents your brand in the best possible way is crucial to both your marketing collateral and social media posts. You need to establish what goals you wish to accomplish for your business, and make sure your brand is genuine in the voice you want to present to potential and loyal customers.

1. A social voice puts your customers in the right frame of mind

When closing a sale, having your customers in the appropriate frame of mind is vital, and that depends heavily on the voice you use. With the right voice, you can educate, advise, recommend, encourage, and influence a prospect.

Take BarkBox, for example. This company sends out monthly pet care packages, in which the contents of the box are not known to their owners. BarkBox uses its "good boy" attitude for its pet-friendly brand to its advantage. The company addresses customers in a non-demeaning way, with a dog-friendly focus, which puts the customers in the dog frame of mind. The company also make all its marketing posts dog-related, which creates a type of emotional tie in all its marketing messages.

Click Here to Read More 

Stop Getting on My Nerves! Tips to Deal with Impossible Clients

We all keep bumping into them, don’t we? What’s worse is that we can’t always (or rarely, if ever) speak our mind about them. And yet here we are, stuck with a client that simply doesn’t get it. A client who thinks it’s alright to call you whenever they want and give you an earful, or who never thinks a deal is fair and is convinced that everybody, including you, is out to get them.

Don’t lose heart. If you are new to realty brace yourself to come across some real characters. It can even be fun, if you take it all in the right spirit. Good realty is all about management – time management, resource management, and people management. People being the clients you deal with, the other realtors, their clients, your sources, contacts, etc. It’s all about relationships.

A lot goes around by the word of mouth in this field, so it’s more than worth your time polishing your communication and people skills. Your credibility with fellow realtors, glowing reviews from previous clients, and your charming and professional conduct will take you far. You will get into disagreements all the time. But your test as a realtor is how you handle these conflicts.

There are two sides to every story. It may well be that your client is impossible; it may also be the case that you don’t know how to handle them. Read on to find out what to do when you are faced with “difficult” clients and not lose your perspective in the process.

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A 3-Step Formula for Captivating Your Audience With a Few Opening Lines

You’ve worked so hard.

You’ve written an incredibly helpful post.

You know your audience will be delighted, as your tips are easy to implement and you’ve proven they work.

You’ve tweaked and polished until you found the perfect headline. It grabs attention. It arouses curiosity. It’s powerful. You’re happy.

But then a nagging doubt creeps in …

What if your opening is so boring that nobody reads on? What if your openingsucks and everyone clicks away?

The thought can paralyze even the most experienced bloggers.

You can do it

As writers, you and I are battling for attention in a distracted world.

We need to work damn hard to captivate and then keep our readers’ attention. We need to mesmerize them so they ignore the emails popping up. We need to hypnotize them so they don’t hear their phones ringing.

Sometimes it may feel like an impossible task. How can we pull readers into our blog posts so they keep reading?

Well, it might be easier than you think.

In the past two years I’ve studied hundreds of blog post openings and I’ve found a simple 3-step formula that almost guarantees your opening paragraph will be hypnotic.

Sound good?

Click Here to Read More on Copyblogger.com 

 

The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing (Infographic) from Forrester Research

 

Click Here to Read More on MarketingTechBlog.com 

 

 

Are You Doing Email Wrong? Just Four Steps to Increase Sales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email marketing is similar to social media in that it's a marketing tool that's most effective for follow-up, not lead generation.

Consider these statistics about follow-up: 2% of sales are made on the first contact; 3% of sales are made on the second contact; 5% of sales are made on the third contact; 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact; and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

Yet... 48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect; 25% of salespeople make a second contact, then stop; and just 12% of salespeople make more than three contacts.

Effective follow-up equals more sales, yet most businesses do not follow up enough with prospects. Enter drip email marketing: To nurture leads, you can send a series of emails on a set schedule—a drip email campaign—to your prospects until they become ready to buy.

Now, let's talk about how to create effective drip email campaigns. It only takes four simple steps.

Step 1: Choose an email software program

The first step is choosing an email marketing program to use for your drip email campaigns.

Here are some of the most popular ones:

• MailChimp
• AWeber
• Constant Contact
• iContact
• Infusionsoft
• Emma

Each of those has pros and cons, depending on your particular situation, so you should research them for yourself to see which one best fits your business needs and budget. For example, MailChimp is a more user-friendly program that helps beginners in the campaign creation process. On the other hand, Aweber is a bit more complicated, but it has more advanced capabilities. Many have free options as well as premium paid versions, so you can choose the program that fits your budget.

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Seven Ways to Awe Your Audience With the Element of Surprise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a time when we—and our audiences—are trying to keep up with hundreds of emails, dozens of news publications and blogs, and countless social media posts, we marketers don't have the luxury of simply blending in with the crowd.

Each email we send, blog post we draft, and tweet we send takes effort, and we want it to be heard, read, or at least seen by others, right?

So how do you set yourself apart and break through the noise? By adding an element of surprise. And each time you do, you'll be surprised how you can be not only seen but also remembered—for the better (but, if you're not careful, sometimes for the worse, too).

Who could forget that Super Bowl when Janet Jackson surprised us with a controversial halftime show? In a more recent example, Miley Cyrus was a trending topic because of her shocking performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards that made us cringe and cover our eyes in dismay. Though not setting the best example, it did go to show that a little unexpected twist can go a long way toward giving you the social media spotlight and your audience's attention.

So how do we add the element of surprise to our marketing efforts without tarnishing our brand or image? Here are a seven tactics you should consider, along with some real-world examples.

Click Here to Read More on MarketingProfs.com

12 Fantastic Facebook Contest Ideas To Grow Your Email List [INFOGRAPHIC]

According to recent research published on Marketing Sherpa, 4 out of 7 possible ways to grow your email lists are connected to incentives. Just like Jeff Bullas does here on the right-hand side of this page, where he offers an eBook in exchange for your email address! (Tip: it’s worth it!)

These small bribes might also take the form of coupons, or a chance to win something within a sweepstakes or contest or a guaranteed gift.

Some facts and figures to consider

Here are the most important stats from the infographic that place some perspective and highlight some important elements you need to consider for Facebook contests.

• 78% use Facebook from mobile, but apps can’t be opened on mobile by default, so make sure that your app has a mobile compatible version. (Source.)
• 77% of Facebook marketers’ top goal is to drive brand awareness. Contests are perfect for this as typically friends of fans are invited to vote. (Source.)
• 42% of Facebook marketers think discounts and special offers, which require fans to share and interact with their networks, are effective. (Source.)

Read more at JeffBullas.com

7 Unconventional Behaviors Of Inspiring Leaders

There are very few great managers. And even fewer great leaders. Making your team happy by displaying behaviors that are expected from you as a manager is hard. But it is even harder to inspire people to follow you, especially if you don’t have direct authority over them.

Leaders are not always perfect. And, sometimes, they are downright quirky. But they display a set of behaviors that make them admired and loved. Let’s look at some of the rare ones.

Great leaders:

Play Devil’s Advocate

Have you ever seen a leader who continuously pushes you to look deeper and challenges status quo by regularly and passionately taking the other side of the argument, even if s(he) agrees with your point of view? My guess is your answer is no. Playing devil’s advocate and ferociously challenging your assumptions works well in scientific experiments, but we rarely see it in business.

Great leaders play the game of 10 “why?”s, asking the question over and over again to test their understanding of the underlying strategy. They defend the opposite point of view just to explore what else their teams forgot to uncover that may be critical to their mission or a project.

It is easy to think that we are right, it soothes our egos. But it takes courage to stand up to and challenge your own experiences, knowledge, ideas.

Click Here to Read More on Forbes.com

 

Why Dumbing Down Your Message Isn't Dumb

Bono, the U2 frontman and uber-ambassador to Africa, once was asked how he manages to hold his own in conversations with economists and heads of state when discussing debt relief and financial plans for Africa. He replied, “If someone can’t explain to me very quickly what this particular theory is, I’m not coming up to the conclusion that I’m stupid and they’re smarter than me. I’m just saying, ‘You’re not very good at explaining, try it again.’” This same philosophy holds true for entrepreneurs. 

No one -- and we mean no one -- outside of your business cares about your “optimized processes,” “monetized solutions,” or self-anointed “leading provider” status. Using this sort of jargon, fancy words or contrived language is not the way to move your company forward with people outside your comapny. And don’t come back at us with the “but everybody talks that way” excuse. That’s a cop-out, and it’s dangerous. If you’re using the same words as everyone else, you’re not differentiating yourself from the competition: You’re just using commodity language to describe your commodity service. 

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4 Simple Ways to Make Sure You’re Writing Mobile-Friendly Emails

The biggest thing that will affect email over the next year is undoubtedly mobile. Consider consumers’ typical morning: After they hit snooze on their alarm clock and brush their teeth, they likely turn to their mobile devices to check email. Then, whether it’s at a coffee shop or on the train to work, there’s ample time to check emails, and smartphones and tablets are the easier option. More and more, the on-the-go worker is utilizing email on the phone instead of simply on the desktop.

According to a 2013 study by Litmus, 44 percent of emails were read over mobile devices—having shot up from just 11 percent in 2011—while only 33 percent were opened on a desktop and 23 percent on a webmail server. Despite this inevitable mobile transition, 39 percent of marketers still have no strategy for mobile email. Nowadays, emails need to be just as effective on the tablet or smartphone as they are on not the desktop.

How to Write a Successful Mobile Email

Small businesses put a lot of focus on email marketing and creating mobile apps and a mobile website, but writing actual emails is also something that should get some attention. Below is a look at some ways to gain an edge when writing for a mobile screen:

1. Be concise

Having a clear message that gets to the point early is essential for any email, but it should become a staple for an email catered to the mobile reader considering there’s limited amount of space on a smaller viewing and click-through rates are generally lower on mobile than on desktop. This goes for both text and design. Simple layouts with a single column work best because they look sharp on all platforms and there’s no annoyance of excessive scrolling when reading on a device. Try to preview the email beforehand so you’re certain the mobile email isn’t neglected or too punchy. Additionally, there’s a bevy of response email tablets available for small businesses, which you can learn more about here.

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