Do you ever feel like your day consists of endless meetings? Even worse, do you ever think some meetings are redundant? You meet about the same thing repeatedly yet never seem to conclude with any call to action.
Back in 1998, it was estimated that in the U.S., an average of 11 million meetings were conducted each day, with a typical employee spending six hours per week in one. Research indicates the length and frequency during the past 50 years has risen over 10 hours to the point where the average executive now spends over half of their working hours in meetings alone.
Many argue that meetings are necessary to innovate, create and brainstorm. Others claim they lead to a lack of personal productivity and are often ineffective at driving conclusions or momentum. I watched a hilarious YouTube video from comedians Tripp and Tyler that summarized every meeting across the country: ineffective, unorganized, inefficient, and unproductive. While the video is meant to be a parody, it accurately summarizes what so many believe they experience in the workplace.
When meetings end without clear next steps, confusion ensues. This results in more meetings to further the discussion and clarify the miscommunication. Professionals can stop the never-ending meeting cycle with strong calls to action.
A call to action creates momentum by providing the next steps for all participants. When a meeting host ends each gathering with these clear scopes of work, they influence attendees to act upon what was said. Here are five tips to end meetings with strong calls to action that influence your listeners:
1. Be clear and direct
A call to action should be clear, not something your audience needs to decipher. Be direct with your language to eliminate the chances of confusion or misunderstandings.
Instead of: “Who would you be willing to call and ask about the process?”
Try: “Janet, please call and ask about the process.”
This type of call to action assigns the task to a specific person. It is clear, concise, and provides all attendees with next steps.
2. Establish deadlines
The greater your relationship with attendees, the more direct your calls to action can become. For instance, a sales professional can’t tell a prospect what to do, but they can be specific in their request for a call-to-action deadline.
Instead of: “Will you contact me once you reach a decision?”
Try: “Will you be deciding by Friday?”
This helps establish a timeline and lets everyone attending know who is responsible for what action and the expected deadline. Don’t push deadlines out too far. Motivation is lost when too much time is provided to act upon your call to action. Providing shorter deadlines ensures continued momentum.
3. Remove barriers
When you host a meeting that requires attendees to fulfill your call to action immediately, provide them with the tools needed. For example, if you want participants to sign up for specific tasks, bring the forms and pens with you, providing immediate means to fulfill your request.
Instead of: “I’ll have a sign-up sheet in my office if you can stop by when you get the chance.”
Try: “I brought the sign-up sheet and some pens with me so everyone can sign up now.”
If clients need approval before they can sign, make the first call to action an organized stakeholder meeting as soon as possible.
Providing a means for listeners to fulfill your requests can prevent barriers from stopping the meeting momentum.
4. Focus on benefits
When creating calls to action, put the listeners’ needs first. Make your requests about meeting their needs, not just your own. Attendees are more likely to act quickly if they believe their own best interests are at stake, not only yours.
Instead of: “It would make my day if you would follow up with the client by the end of the week.”
Try: “Get an answer from the client by the end of the week to ensure the sale counts toward your quarterly quota.”
Putting their needs first will help them remain motivated and focused on accomplishing the tasks necessary to continue the momentum.
5. Customize for each listener
It’s tempting for meeting organizers to avoid assigning tasks to specific people and avoid being pushy or demanding. On the contrary, calling on people individually allows them to know precisely what you expect of them and the importance their role plays in the entire group. Calling on a group of people to act is vague. It allows everyone to avoid responsibility and leave the call to action open for others to act instead.
Instead of: “Would someone call accounting and get the final numbers?”
Try: “Scott, will you call accounting to get the final numbers, then provide the answer to the team by Monday? This will provide clarity for your budget needs this quarter.”
Calls to action are a clear way to influence your listeners to act upon what you said. It will provide actionable steps and avoid future misunderstandings. Your meeting will be effective, productive and a great use of everyone’s time.
Are you tired of hearing the word “no” from your kid?
You know how it goes: suddenly your sweet toddler discovers this dreaded two-letter word and begins using it as much as possible—and then keeps using it for the next 16 years!
NO, she refuses to eat broccoli for dinner.
NO, he won’t put pants on.
NO, he doesn’t want to eat, sleep, or take a bath.
NO, she won’t say “I love you” to Grandma.
It’s perfectly natural for kids of all ages to not just do as they are told or follow orders—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for parents and caregivers to deal with. That’s especially true when you don’t have the right tools to cope with and redirect this frustrating behavior.
Deconstructing Your Child’s “No”
Toddlers and teenagers are alike in their desire to assert their independence.
For toddlers, this defiance stems from them acknowledging their own individuality for the first time and trying to gain some control of their lives. They’re learning the basics of simple cause and effect and using this knowledge (combined with their newfound independence) to test their boundaries in every possible way: If they push their sippy cup off their high chair, it will fall.
When they refuse to open their mouth to take a bite of carrot, they won’t have to eat it. And if they say “no” to Mommy’s request for bath time—well, they may not get what they want, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try!
Teenagers also want more control, though for different reasons. They’re at a time in their lives when they lack control over their emotions and bodies and have a legitimate need for self direction and autonomy. Their reaction to any power and control being imposed over them is often to rebel, resist, and retaliate. (Psst—this is no different for younger children and adults. It is the human response, and children are people, too.)
As parents and caregivers, it’s our duty to empower our children to develop a solid sense of self. Healthy autonomy leads to confident adults capable of setting good boundaries, making wise decisions, and having fulfilling relationships with others.
How to Cope with Your Kid’s “No” Phase and (Occasionally) Get a Yes!
You’re probably still wondering how you can possibly maintain your own sanity in the midst of all your kid’s never-ending “no” phase. Here are some strategies for dealing with defiant behavior, whether you have a toddler or a teenager:
Let your child practice healthy autonomy. Your child is craving self direction, so allow them to have it within reason.
When bedtime rolls around, ask your toddler if they’d rather bathe or brush their teeth first. To a certain extent, the same approach applies to your teen: instead of telling them to go do their chores right now, ask them if they’d rather mow the lawn or tidy up their room today.
Just be sure to include everyone in the conversations about how to help out so they always feel empowered as the one choosing.
If you didn’t arrive at the chores collaboratively, however, then start there first before you do anything else. Remember that if you are the one deciding who does what and your kids are supposed to line up and do it, you are likely to fail.
Be vulnerable and ask for their help. Good news: you don’t always have to be a super mom or super dad!
Contrary to traditional belief, children respond positively to seeing their parents vulnerable. Letting your kid see that you’re human helps them relate to you better, so don’t be afraid to ask for their help when you need it.
Explain to your child that you’re extra tired from work today and will need them to pitch in around the house—whether it’s your toddler setting the table or your teen doing the dishes after dinner.
Kids like feeling helpful. Give them the opportunity to step up and meet someone else’s needs before they even think about saying “no.” Dr. Marshall Rosenberg used to say that there is a profound need for all humans to make a contribution, and we all are moved to meet this need. That includes all of us: children and adults.
Listen to what your child is saying “yes” to. When your child is saying “no” to one thing, they’re saying “yes” to something else—and it’s important to pay attention to what that is.
A no to you is a yes to something inside themselves. Get curious about what the yes is inside. Is it a need for choice? Rest? Belonging to or with someone?
Is your toddler refusing family movie night because she would rather play independently?
Is your teen saying no to tennis practice because he prefers to play violin?
Read between the lines to identify your child’s preferences so you can better understand their likes and dislikes.
Give your requests a positive spin. Think about how much better you respond to a positive request than a negative request. Kids are the same way, and they deserve to be treated with kindness and respect.
Here are some examples of reframing a negative request positively:
Negative: You can’t go out with your friends until you’re done studying!
Positive: As soon as you’ve finished your homework, you’re more than welcome to go see your friends.
Negative: Stop yelling, you’re disturbing the neighbors!
Positive: I think our neighbors might be sleeping now, so let’s try to use our indoor voices.
Practice “No, thank you, because.” Teach your kids to identify what exactly they need in the moment when they’re refusing something else.
Help them practice saying, “No, thank you, I’d rather not _______ at the moment because _______.”
Effective communication prevents misunderstandings and temper tantrums, and leads to more positive interactions between parents and children.
Don’t let your child’s endless “nos” defeat you. As their parent or caregiver, you have the power to promote harmony and understanding to help everyone in the family through these challenging phases.
There are so many ways to attract more website traffic, but when it comes to learning how to manage traffic to your blog, the sky is the limit. Here are some of the most promising methods we have been experimenting with for years to increase traffic to your # site.
In this article, we will look at the 10 best ways to increase organic traffic to your small business website and whether or not it actually works.
If you have your own tips for increasing traffic to your websites, I would love to hear about them!
1. Use AnswerThePublic.com
Go to answerthepublic.com and discover what people are already searching for on your keyword topic.
People are already searching questions around your content topic in search engines. Just enter your subject matter and Answer The Public will kick you back a report of the most commonly researched questions.
Just Enter Your Content Keywords
The Power of Google Analytics Delivered to You
Answer The Public scraps Googles algorithm to itemize the most frequently searched questions around your keyword. Find the top questions and simply create content that answers the questions.
Eventually if you do this long enough, Google will start to organically connect your content to people already searching for your answers.
Create Content People Are Actually Looking For!
Seriously, you can get a years worth of content ideas that people are already searching. All you have to go is go to the site, enter your keywords and get instant feedback at your little fingertips.
And it’s a completely free!
It’s Important to Know What People Are Already Searching For
For Google to Connect Your Content to the User
2. Gotta Build Those Links
Link building plays an important role in bringing more traffic to your website and improving the ranking of your website.
Links to pages that lead to other pages on the site increase traffic and increase your SEO, and potentially also increase valuable referral traffic.
Flat out, internal links are key to getting more Google traffic from your websites.
WARNING: Nerd Alert
Search engines use domain names – linked hrefs as ranking signals, and if you include a href that leads to a domain on a website in a separate domain, it has the potential to increase traffic to that website.
Basically, when Google sees that you are doing out of your way to provide helpful links to data sources, you perform better with their algorithm.
These internal links can also play an important role in directing traffic to your website and increasing valuable recommendations and traffic that you can potentially increase as a source.
In short, by building more links into your site and content, you increase your SEO effectiveness, increase your clicks, and possibly even increase referral traffic from other websites.
Using the tactics listed above to direct traffic to your website will help you get more leads, customers and revenue for your brand.
You will attract the right kind of traffic, both in quality and quantity, and you will bring traffic to the site and your visitors will keep coming back to see more.
3. Promote On Social!
Don’t skip over this one cuz you’ve heard it a thousand times and stop outsourcing it.
Social media is not just a great place to promote your content, it is the place to promote your content.
Add social sharing buttons to each blog post to direct traffic to your site via social media.
Advertise Your Content on Your Accounts
Use PPC and social media advertising to bring more traffic to your site and increase your visibility in search engines like Google.
Facebook is probably the easiest place to start.
For example, you can set an ad budget for as low as $10 per day and simply choose one interest your audience likes and Facebook’s algorithm will get your content in front of who will like it.
4. Host a Webinar
Combined with an effective social promotion campaign, webinars are a great way to increase traffic to your website.
Normally a live webinar provides very valuable content for free and is one of the best ways to increase traffic to a website because it is free.
In combination with your PPC and social marketing campaigns, your webinars can be a great way for you to increase traffic and increase it to the website, especially in the early stages of development.
We host webinars and digital event (16 per month!) and is one of the largest sources of traffic for our company site.
5. List Your Business on Online Directories
Another way to increase traffic to your website is to be listed on online directories and rating sites.
One of the free and easy ways to increase traffic to your websites is to be listed in a free online directory that features local business. But while that may sound complicated and time consuming, it’s not.
Long before the infamous AMC show, the term “mad men” was originally coined in the late 1950’s to describe the advertising executives of Madison Avenue.
They studied consumer behavioral psychology and were masters selling products by associating them to things customers cared about.
And they still exist. And they have some fascinating stories.
Meet Rory Sutherland.
Introducing Rory Sutherland
If you haven’t heard of Rory Sutherland yet, you have heard of his agency.
Sutherland serves as the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, the historically infamous ad agency founded by the original King of Madison Ave, David Ogilvy.
Sutherland became Internet famous a few years back after his Ted talk video went viral criticizing Europe decision to spend £6 billion to construct a high speed rail in order to increase consumer satisfaction.
Because of his knowledge of consumer behavior, he could have achieve the goal in and sixth of the cost.
Here’s the video:
Perspective is Everything
So a few years ago the UK greenlit a massive engineering project to improve the journey of the Eurostar rail line.
Why?
In order to increase commuter satisfaction, the UK decided the best way to increase the journey was to spend an enormous £6 billion to construct a high-speed rail track from London’s St. Pancras station to the coast of Kent.
This train would shorten the commute from Paris to London by a grand total of…40 minutes on an overall three and a half-hour trip.
Sutherland’s cheeky critique on the project was that the UK made a fundamental mistake (like most businesses do).
His argument was that consumer satisfaction could have been achieved much cheaper by altering consumer perception. Heres the argument:
Consumer Satisfaction. I Don’t Think That Means What You Think it Means…
The UK assumed customer satisfaction would be achieve to shorten the length of the commute and the quality of the experience was not relevant or even an option given for them to consider.
Rory suggested rather than write a £6 billion check to make the experience shorter (the proposed brand promise), the capital investment would have been better spent using a fraction of the budget to simply make the journey 10 times more enjoyable (his proposed brand promise).
Considering the budget they were consider, for a fraction of the cost (£1 billion), they could have hired male and female supermodels and pay to them serve free Chateau Petrus at $4,000 a bottle to every adult passenger on board
Effectively salvaging billions from the original budget, and in turn, passengers would have demanded the train to be slowed down, rather than save an extra 40 minutes of travel time.
There’s a War on Marketing?
Sutherland suggests that the war we face in marketing and advertising today, is that every operational role today believes that what they do is a rational science.
When human behavior economics proves we are anything but rational.
Sutherland has spent his career studying behavioral economics, a field that attempts to explain why people do what they do or more importantly why people purchase one product over another.
Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory makes the assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider real value.
For marketing to be effective, we must become as irrational as our customers perception. In a rather odd unassuming parallel, Sutherland compares this marketing mindset to military strategy. Here’s why…
What You Didn’t Know About Military Strategy
If you follow military strategy, the first thing you can’t be, is logical and efficient.
Wtf? Because that’s exactly what your enemy will expect you to do, making you susceptible to walk head-on into every trap the enemy sets for you in anticipation of your most obvious attempts to win the war.
Today’s consumers, while far from the enemy, are waiting for our much anticipated and obvious marketing tactics. They see right through them.
The strangest element which marketers face is the psychological one.
Rather than focus on rational improvements, we must make an effort to look at the far less obvious psychological innovation.
Don’t make the following mistake.
The Modern And Wrong Assumption of Consumer Behavior:
Sutherland states that the modern business assumption of the economics of a consumer purchase is as follows:
“Every purchase or exchange arrives as a standalone, individual, utility optimizing transaction between two people in a state of perfect information and trust. The conditions of which don’t exist and never happen.
The current business model sees marketing as an inefficiency, an added hard cost in the value chain because the current business framework assumes every consumer knows exactly what they want to buy and exactly what they want to pay to acquire it.”
Economics Don’t Care About Your Feelings
The economics doesn’t calibrate for human experience of emotions, feeling and instincts like trust and perspective.
The weirdness of human perception is that you can create high levels of satisfaction without high levels of expenditure if you really know what floats the customers emotional triggers.
This is Why Mirrors Are on Every Elevator
Ogilvy worked with a Midwest company that received a high level of complaints that their elevator was too slow.
So, naturally they went to Otis, (one of only 14 elevator companies in the US) who said for a few million dollars, they could replace and update the current elevator infrastructure decrease the time it took people to wait for the elevator.
Makes sense… but just before investing $2,000,000 on the project, someone said no.
Instead, they suggested, installing floor to ceiling mirrors on the walls outside the elevator. While people waited for the elevator, they participated in small acts of voyeurism and would pass the time looking at themselves in the mirror.
And that’s when they discovered something weird.
What they discovered was that people were complaining about the speed of the elevators. But what they meant was they were just getting really bored waiting for the elevator to arrive.
Once the mirrors were installed, all complaints about the elevators completely vanished. Proving again psychological insight is just, as if not more powerful, then high-cost physical advancements.
Advertisers have become masters at creating intangible or “perceived value.” But intangible value gets a bad rap in business operations because it’s much more difficult to quantify.
When Marketing Fails. Take It From GoPro
Most marketing goes wrong when we focus on solving external conflict resolutions to solutions that are really internal.
For example, GoPro didn’t reinvent the video camera.
They changed the experience we had with every camera prior to GoPro. Before GoPro, it was difficult to simultaneously capture and experience life’s greatest moments while others participated with us as we captured our adventures through our own lens in a way that was never before possible.
One of GoPro’s greatest features is its easy-to-use video editing software that users access for free.
In addition to sharing life experiences, GoPro simplified producing and distributing videos with ease.
Conclusion: Marketing is, oftentimes, seen as creating a form of “fake” value…
But the truth is, all value is perceived.
Businesses that better understand consumers and what goes into their purchase decisions have the advantage.
When addressing innovation, it is critically important to know consumer psychological behavior.
The observable problem about most marketing is that we have been making ourselves the subject of the story and not the customer. And so the message falls on deaf ears.
Most marketing messages make the brand the hero of the story and that’s where we get stuck. Our marketing message fails because the customer needs to be the hero of the story.
If you want to be the hero for your customers you have to be their guide, not hero.
In Star Wars lingo; your customer is Luke Skywalker and your brand is Yoda. Yoda is the most important person in Luke’s life because he shows him how to overcome obstacles and get what he wants.
You don’t want to be the hero of the story. The Hero is constantly getting his or her butt kicked. Be the guide instead.
Then create content and resources to help the hero (your customer) reach the destination they desire.
But Don’t Take My Word For it
If you need advice on your heart, you see a cardiologist. When you need help with your marketing message, you go to the New York Times bestselling author and former screenwriter, Donald Miller.
Miller teaches that the biggest mistake businesses make is when most marketers give the business the hero roles of the story, instead of the customer.
Brands should play the role of the guide their customer needs. In turn, consumers come to view the business as the hero for guiding them on their journey.
How Tell Your Brand Story Like an Expert?
A Harvard study found that people spend half of their thoughts just daydreaming (except during sex). People are stuck in the stories we believe.
Stories are how homo sapiens process information. We’re a story telling animal. That’s why marketers turn to stories for maximum impact.
Thus, the customer is the hero in their story and needs to be the hero in yours.
People want everything to be about them. Miller advises businesses to invite people to take a journey, rather than telling them ours.
WATCH THIS!
WARNING. This will change how you communicate to your customer forever (in a good way).
Capture What Your Audience Feels Like
When we frame our solutions into a story, it allows us to capture the experience our audience is feeling. People don’t buy products. They buy the products they understand.
In Lisa Cron’s book, Wired For Story, she says that story was more crucial to our evolution than the opposable thumb.
Opposable thumbs let us hang on; stories tell us what to hang on to.
Story is what enabled us to imagine what might happen in the future, and to prepare for it. It’s a feat no other species can lay claim to; opposable thumbs or not.
To form a bond with customers, knowing what’s important to them is key.
Next, is to identify where those customers can be reached. Where do they spend their time online?
Then it’s important to develop the story, the type of content that speaks to them.
When people ask, “What do you do?” They are really asking:
Does what you do matter to me?
If so, why?
What should I do about it?
A good guide understands their hero’s conflict and offers an alternative plan for dealing with it.
The only marketing strategy you need is to create a plan to help your customer overcome the obstacle in their way. Only then, they will connect with the story we’re telling them.
Only then, they will see visions of the brighter future we offer them.
If we can identify the internal frustration our audience feels, write it into words, and offer to resolve it, then something special happens, magic. We bond with our customers. They feel understood. They engage with the rest of our message in a more meaningful way.
But before we can identify what our audience is dealing with, we need to ask the following questions…
10 Questions to Help You Understand Your Customer Better
What tasks does your customer dread doing, as it relates to your industry?
What is your customer’s ultimate dream? What do they want to accomplish?
What confuses your customer, as it relates to your industry?
What keeps your customer up at night?
What makes your customer upset or angry?
How would your customers life look differently if they had more leisure time?
What regrets does your customer have as it relates to your industry?
What makes your customer feel embarrassed or self-conscious?
How does your customer want their friends to perceive them?
What makes your customer nervous as it relates to your industry?
Great Brands Sell Stories, Not Stuff
We don’t buy fortune cookies to eat them; we buy the stories inside them, even though the story is far more powerful than the cookie.
What message should we really tell our customers? It’s not like we’re reading them a book, but it’s how to craft a message the way humans think – in story form. When people realize they are at a point where they need help, they ask themselves the following questions.
What is the conflict I am confronting?
What different outcome do I really want?
Which guide can I turn to and trust to help me achieve my dreams?
Humans understand conflict. With the exception of lawyers, the majority of the human species hate it.
We want to avoid conflict and look for tools to solve conflict. Most businesses talk about what they sell, not which internal conflict people need resolved.
But as everything else in life, it’s a lot easier said than done…
How to develop your content strategy like a media company?
Develop a Media Mindset
In order to create a content strategy like a major media publisher, you first have to start thinking like one.
If you’re in the financial services industry for example, think about your website and content strategy as if you were running Forbes Money.
Starting today, and continuing into the future, your business requires a customer-focused content marketing plan.
Start thinking like a media publisher, by answering these questions for your business:
Who are your customers?
What is their conflict they need resolved?
How will you resolve it?
What does your customer really want to learn, purchase, use?
Which platforms are your customers using?
How will you attract them to consume your content?
Content as the Sales Funnel…
Business today are attracting new leads and customers by designing content that solves a need or interest for the prospect they want to attract.
If people are searching for common questions as they relate to your industry, those are good indicators they are potentially interested in your services. Creating content can bring people into the top of your marketing funnel.
To generate awareness at the top of the funnel, highlight success stories focusing on the outcomes from people and companies who have achieved the ultimate desire your customer wants and that you can help them solve.
Once they see “proof,” the relationship starts to build because you have created a clear path of how to reach the same results for the outcome they really care about.
Increase Traffic to Your Sales Funnel
Businesses that invest in writing blogs for their customer receive 3x the amount of leads than those who don’t.
According toBrightEdge, more than 75% of B2B traffic is coming from organic and paid search alone.
Most people are searching for information to learn more about a subject; very few are actively seeking to take action, just yet.
Create content that answers questions and teaches consumers what to look out for. By being the most helpful source of information, who do you think they will want to work with when they are ready to buy?
That’s how companies are using content to add value to prospects.
The “Content Bridge” Strategy
Move your customers up the value ladder with informative content using the “content bridge strategy” to guide your customers to their ultimate goals with content designed to reach your desired success.
Think about your content strategy as the bridge to get your customer to the destination they want for themselves. What tips and insights can you create to help them achieve their results faster?
During the manufacturing economy, the “value chain” was defined as the full range of activities needed to create a product or service.
For companies that produce physical goods, value chain were all of the necessary physical steps required to develop a product from initial conception, through the procurement of raw materials, and then, manufacturing the final product.
But today, in the services economy, the value chain on the internet is literally content. Here’s why…
The Digital Economy Runs on Content
Does the world need more content? Absolutely not but it’s the only currency to doing business online.
Information-based service businesses comprise over 80% of the private sector. The service business used to be called the “Knowledge Industry” because buyers in the knowledge industry want solutions.
Therefore, the value chain for the service industry is sharing solutions, tips, and informational content.
This chain leads prospects into the traditional sales funnel by attracting an audience based on interest and turns them into advocates.
The purpose of analyzing a company’s value chain, is to increase productivity efficiency, in order for a company to deliver maximum value for the least possible cost.
Small and medium-sized service businesses are taking massive advantages of content marketing by providing content that drives value to their target audience and minimizes the costs associated with traditional advertising and marketing methods in the process.
But What’s the Catch?
In one word, time.
On average it takes over 6-9 months to begin to see organic results with your content strategy.
But the good news is that if you can persist and outlast others in your space. You win long term.
The other good news? Aside from the fact that it’s free, your competitors probably wont put in the extra effort.
For example, there are over 900k podcasts that have started since podcasting became “a thing” in the early 2000s. Many of which are business podcasts (no one knows that exact number). But the funny thing is, only 34% of podcasts have more than 10 episodes.
Most people start a content strategy and then give up.
But for those who have the stamina and willpower, there has never been an easier time to produce content that drives you to become the most helpful, and, in turn, most valuable authority in your industry.
What is the ROI?
But how does this benefit my bottom line?
The ROI of contributing content in your field produces the following benefits:
Establishes domain authority on your subject matter
Builds brand awareness
Engages your target audience
Generates leads and customers
If you want to be considered an authority in your business and increase leads and sales, then producing content is necessary.
This is one of those cliche instances where it helps to ask the same question in reverse, what will it cost you not to participate overtime?
Content Marketing Example: Vayner Media
Vayner Media
If you don’t know him, Gary Vaynerchuk, he is the founder & CEO of VaynerMedia.
He started his organization by focusing on creating valuable content in order to get the attention of an audience to sell to.
He went from solopreneur as a one-man operation to a team of now over 1o00 employees and doing over $135M in annual revenue through his digital marketing agency.
Which needless to say is pretty impressive…
Even more so knowing they did it predominantly off of the success of Gary’s personal content that he creates.
Gary challenged his industry by confronting the biggest elephant in the room in the advertising industry.
Confronting the Status Quo
Gary confronted the status quo by helping corporate America overcome a serious marketing problem.
Brands are still spending $70.3 billion dollars a year on traditional TV ads, and no one is watching them!
Nobody cares about traditional TV programming anymore and if they do, they’re more likely to go to the bathroom during an ad than pay attention to one.
His agency produces a daily YouTube show (for free) that now has 2.5M subscribers. Their content strategy isn’t complicated either. His team answers any and all questions about digital marketing, how to grow a business, and even life and career advice.
By teaching other people how to overcome their digital marketing, and life problems, “Gary Vee” (as his fans call him) instantly became the most valuable person in this industry.
Any other agency would charge you for the right to meet with them or give you their advice. VaynerMedia gave it away for free and made all of their competitors instantly less valuable.
In 2018 alone, VaynerMedia took in $131 million dollars in revenue.
And what’s even more impressive? That’s not the first time he did it…
Wine Library TV
Before launching VaynerMedia, Gary worked at a liquor business his parents started when they arrived in America from Russia.
When YouTube launched in 2005, Gary instantly saw a potential to grow a new base of customers online. He started distributing a weekly video series called Wine Library TV.
He provided weekly video reviews of wines you could order directly from the website.
When recording his very first episode, his plan was to pitch everyone why they should buy whatever brand he was going to review in the video. When the camera turned on something changed Gary’s mind.
Instead, he offered the rawest review possible of the brands he was selling, and even referring to some brands tasted like tires, and dogshit.
Gary Isn’t Afraid to Fight Back
Naturally, his comments offended some of the sellers in his space, but to the customers and wine enthusiasts, it was gold.
He said what they were all thinking. His real perspective was refreshing, and people loved it.
The only other platform reviewing wines at the time was the Wine Spectator, which were infomercials on why you should buy everything they sold. Gary took the opposite approach.
In just five years, Gary grew their family business from $3M to $60M in revenue.
In so doing, he transitioned the company to one of the first e-commerce platforms for alcohol in the country resulting in unusual and explosive top-line growth.
Gary strategically built his content library based on questions and suggestions that he received from viewers in the comment boxes.
Wine and Cereal Anyone?
At some point, a fan mentioned it would be fun to watch a wine pairing against non-traditional foods.
So, Gary produced an entire 20-minute episode on which wine pairs best with cereal. Yes, that’s right he paired the best wine for Lucky Charms, Cap N Crunch, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That video alone received 25 thousand views.
“Whether you like it or not, every person is now a media company because the tools are easy, free, and everywhere. More importantly, producing content is now the BASELINE for all brands and companies, and if you’re not producing content, you basically don’t exist.”
– Gary Vaynerchuk
Do People Actually Want Your Content Though?
After attending Vidfest, a conference designed to help people start professional YouTube channels, one of the biggest questions posed to one of the leading speakers was:
“How do I know if people will be interested in my content?”
The response from the “experts” was stunning: People are watching videos on literally any subject imaginable.
For example, you can go on YouTube right now and find videos about how to pack a school lunch.
That’s right, a lunchbox. This one video on packing a school lunch has 14 million views!
Here’s What We Found:
We found hundreds of videos detailing exactly how to pack a school lunch…
The top 5 suggested videos had well over twenty-four million combined views. As it turns out people are seeking answers to all of life’s questions, including how to pack a lunch. Chances are someone, right now is typing a question for which you know the answer.
It’s certain, if you find something interesting, there are millions more who will likely share that opinion, too! It’s never been easier to find people who share the same interests.
But you can only get “discovered” if you’re willing to put in the effort to building your content marketing strategy and sharing your content for the people you’re making it for.
For more content tips, check out the following articles:
Meet the brands growing insanely fast using this marketing tactic…
The Best Advice I Got on Building a Brand
I met Russell Brunson in Las Vegas in 2008 at a small business event where he was talking about how digital marketing works online.
While I could tell that he knew what he was talking about, what I didn’t know at the time, was that he was about to build a $360 million company (called ClickFunnels), deploying the lessons he was sharing at the event I was attending.
The Sass Company That Created a Movement
One of the many things that made ClickFunnels successful is that rather than promoting their software subscription, they intentionally created a movement for their customers to follow instead.
ClickFunnels is a software that enables entrepreneurs to sell and promote products in an easy to manage platform anyone can use without needing a developer.
Basically, it’s just a landing page builder. But what’s weird is that over a million people follow them online, wear their T-Shirts, and are in love with the company.
Because instead of promoting their company they invite people to join their movement teaching people how to grow their business and change their lives instead.
Inside Expert Secrets
Russell detailed the entire process in his book for anyone interested in copying the model.
If you haven’t read his book, Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson, then you need to stop what you’re doing and order it now.
It’s one of the most informative books on marketing I’ve ever read.
The UnderGround Marketing Playbook
Expert Secrets is the underground playbook for creating a mass movement of people who will pay for your advice.
Brunson outlines a comprehensive guide on how to become the expert in your niche and build a tribe of loyal followers who resonate with your message and ultimately buy your products.
Russell believes that you can make money when you challenge yourself to help others in the biggest way possible, and why it’s beneficial to create future opportunities for people to join in on (ie, a mass movement).
You’ll get plenty of examples and stories illustrating how he created his own loyal following that turned ClickFunnels into a $360 million business.
One of the biggest takeaways of the book is knowing what and how to communicate your message in a way people want to take part in your success.
The most successful brands communicate their mission as mass movements of change or something you can join and be apart of.
This is a Game Changer if You’re Building a Brand
To start building a mass movement, begin by thinking about how you can help the most people overcome the challenges of selling a product versus selling a service.
It’s a game changer for thinking about how we communicate our marketing message.
Take it from the Steve Jobs who created a movement with Apple when he started a computer company in the 90s:
“To me, marketing is about values.
This is an extremely complicated world; this is a very noisy world; and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us or about our company,
so you have to be really clear on what you want others to know about you and your company.”
Focus on What You Believe in
Talking about features and costs or how your company beats the competition is not the right approach.
The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you.
Sales continuously declined for 20 years.
Then, they launched the “Got Milk” campaign, which didn’t even mention the product.
In fact, it actually focused on the absence of the product.
Apple is Committed to Passion
“To me, the best brand that tells a story is Nike.
Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. Or so you would think.
But in their ads, they never talk about their shoes, nor the soles, nor why they’re better than Reebok.
What does Nike do in their advertising? They honor great athletes. That’s who they are and what they care about.
At Apple, people want to know what we stand for. Apple’s core value is that we believe people with passion can change the world forever.”
– Steve Jobs
Elevate Your Customer
Remember when RedBull spent $65 million to produce one video so we could watch someone skydive 24 miles from outer space?
Felix Baumgartner became the first human being to break the sound barrier when the energy drink company sponsored the stunt.
But why would they do that?
They don’t sell their product. They sell stories of what’s possible.
Red Bull doesn’t rely on advertising. They have been creating a movement to inspire people.
They promote stories of people breaking the limits of what’s possible. It’s not a gimmick.
They don’t spend time explaining the benefits of their product and why you should buy from them.
They tell stories of what’s possible. They are leading a movement that people want to follow.
What Does Your Brand Actually Stand For?
RedBull doesn’t position themselves as a beverage company.
They are a peak performance movement that happens to sell five billion cans of their product to customers every year. They don’t create content for “why” to buy from them.
They sell passion, they sell energy, and they promote content from peak performing athletes.
So, when you’re at a store ready to buy an energy drink, you “choose the one that gives you wings!”
Attract Customers Like RedBull
The founder of RedBull has a net worth of $19.5 billion and is ranked #53 on the Forbes list of richest people.
He created a movement for consumers to follow.
He became the richest man in Austria and is easily the most famous individual to come out of his country since Arnold Schwarzenegger became Mr. Olympia.
How Did He Do It?
He knew that to attract the most customers, he would have to think unlike anyone in the beverage industry.
He focused on building a movement that would rally people together with a common purpose for a common result.
RedBull no longer competes on speed, quality, and price.
Their community or “tribe” is comprised of the most driven people on planet earth.
The product is just caffeinated water, but what they sell and promote is actually peak performance.
The more we make the customer the hero of our brands, the more likely they are to join our following and the more likely they will want to buy from us.
Make Passion Your Product (Even If You Sell Insurance)
Okay but would a more relatable business do this?
How would an insurance company create a mass movement?
Patrick Bet-David, an Iranian born entrepreneur and founder of PHP Agency turned the financial world upside down when he set out on a mission to save the insurance industry from their own up-tight self-destruction.
How does one make an insurance company “cool” to work with?
By creating a movement of change instead.
Instead of fitting into an industry that lacks consumer excitement, Bet-David redefined the customers’ expectations about his insurance company.
Meet The People Helping People (PHP Agency
He founded PHP in 2009 at the height of the recession.
In addition to launching PHP, he also launched one of the most viewed shows on YouTube with over 2,000,000 subscribers, called Valuetainment.
Their show has around 3 million subs and they are putting out high volumes of insanely valuable content to help other business owners. One of their original videos went viral with over 23 million views.
WATCH THIS:
The popular YouTube show, has a cult-like following, by helping other entrepreneurs grow their business.
By sharing his passion for building businesses, he was able to create a community of like-minded business builders.
Passionate entrepreneurship is his mantra for their show, company, and community. He didn’t simply launch a YouTube show.
He created a movement for people to follow and redefined how business leaders should communicate.
Bet-David doesn’t sell insurance through his content. He celebrates, encourages, teaches, and inspires other people to grow their businesses.
His team intensely shares valuable, in depth insights, and encouragement to continuously grow. They’re an example that nothing is impossible.
Invest In Your Audience
His company invests time to inform and inspire other people. This is why his followers are loyal and love Valuetainment.
He turned what he learned into four bestselling books and gained a ridiculously large digital audience.
Now, Valuetainment is a leading voice of business information online. They interview everyone including celebrities, pro-athletes, Mafia bosses, and the most interesting people who have endless passion to achieve the life of their dreams.
Patrick became a multi-published author, global speaker and internet celebrity by focusing on how to deliver content to other people who share a similar passion for running and growing businesses.
Thus, turning his passion into a movement worth following.
Even Hotel Brands Are Doing This
Marriott is known for serving those who love adventure.
After launching a successful blog from their chairman, Marriott International learned the power of pivoting their marketing strategy to approach people based on their passion for travel and love for adventure.
Upon recognizing its success, Marriott shifted to become a full media publisher and invested in a team of storytellers to produce and launch their own TV show, “ The Navigator Live,” a popular short film titled, “Two Bellmen,” and then ultimately, the “Marriott Traveler.”
In turn, Marriott International became a mass media site that shares and promotes content for millions of travelers with a shared interest in culture and adventure.
“In 2018 alone, Marriott Traveler attracted 3 million unique visitors, a 78% increase from the previous year. Visits via Traveler increased visits to individual hotel landing pages by 80%, and revenue from hotel bookings skyrocketed to 200% compared to the previous year. These results certainly make a solid case for content marketing.”
– Inc. Magazine
Lead Your Movement to a Better Opportunity
As Russell Brunson proudly stated in Expert Secrets, everything is based on beliefs.
It’s easier to influence people to embrace the opportunities available to them when your beliefs are clear, compelling, and honest.
The best way to build a mass movement is our ability to promote what we believe.
Also, every movement needs a leader, which Brunson calls “The Attractive Character.”
Becoming the Attractive Character
And if you’re the CEO, it’s almost certainly going to have to be you!
Thinking through how you, the CEO, positions yourself as the “attractive character” may sound vain, but it’s not.
The attractive character of your company is not about looking cool and popular. Its purpose is to provide the platform to explain your story in a “why” (or with reasoning) that communicates directly to your audience to prove that you understand what they care about in their interests.
Honest and authentic connections are key to the success of these types of initiatives. Consumers want to know you are a real human being and that you struggle through the same issues.
Share Your Experiences
Sharing both positive and negative experiences is a good approach to connect closely with your ideal customer base. Be open and share topics similar to these:
Articulate the frustration you experience
Share the approach and outcome about the wall you ran into when you confronted your industry to address the “elephant in the room”
Goals
Achievements
Ultimately, by opening the curtain to the inside of your company, you will convey truth.
With that truth, you will attract empathy, solidarity, and engagement.
Answer The Following Questions to Start Your Mass Movement
How are you creating a new opportunity for them by providing them with the services, tools, resources, and information to help them achieve their goals?
Which type of challenges did you face that allows you to help them prevent taking the same path?
How can you convey that you are not like everyone who is trying to pitch them some service; that you are one of them
The Conclusion
The next time someone asks you what you do for a living, explain the outcomes you provide rather than what you sell.
As consumers, we need to really care about the ultimate outcome provided, not the process it takes to get there.
The attractive character is to explain the desired outcome people really want through the content they produce to help their customer overcome the conflict in their way.
Our job if we are to build a brand, is to take our customers on a journey.
Since publishing the book, 52% of companies on the Fortune 500 list cease to exist. However, it wasn’t the apocalypse everyone feared.
Companies for example didn’t just vanish leaving millions unemployed and unable to adapt to new tools and technology like a bunch of drooling luddites.
Rather, we retooled and slowly evolved to a changing landscape of running businesses in a post-digital economy.
In the last 12 months alone, most of us have had to find completely digital ways to doing business on zoom and digital meetings.
So it’s not that older companies cease to exist; they just ceased to exist doing business the old way.
We are in a never ending evolution to remain more relevant.
It’s also important to note that we’re also the same consumers who are choosing to work with the brands who are worth following and engaging over ones that stop innovating and finding new ways to make us happy.
Is Marketing Working?
The degree of disruption in businesses over the years has largely impacted how we communicate to the marketplace we serve.
The truth is businesses fail when we’re not creating the most compelling offer and message in our competitors’ spaces.
We’ve been tricking ourselves into the false belief that marketing isn’t working.
That would first imply that it ever was “working.” Since the beginning of time, marketing has only been a series of attempts at communicating our ideas.
Marketing at a crossroads to choose one of two paths.
Businesses can choose either the traditional path and continue renting audiences through ads or take the new path to publish content on desired networks.
On the promotional playing field, publishing free and value-added content is the name of the game.
For the past decade, we’ve been a bit selfish. The mistake we make in publishing content for ourselves is making the subject about our businesses, instead of focusing on the customers we want to attract and serve.
If we’re not publishing content that puts the customer first, then it’s just selfish. Consumers know it and leave it alone.
Having an audience is a privilege. It’s not about us anymore, it’s about them.
A Major Shift is Underway
Throughout the world, we see the simultaneous redefinition of the media and content industry and a reinvestment by many companies in media to produce their own content.
These major shifts won’t stop anytime soon; the single most important decision for businesses to make is to decide which game to play.
Do you continue to just buy ad and interrupt content or publish content to build and grow a community and scale a network?
This is the New Game Now
If businesses don’t contribute volumes of valuable content, it makes the effort almost downright impossible for customers to organically find businesses online.
17 new websites are added online every single second. Businesses competing only have no choice but to compete on volumes of content.
Obviously, if we’re truly looking to build awareness, convey quality and increase a healthy reputation, deciding to cut against the grain is not a recipe for success.
In today’s digital age, the customer experience begins online, and those brands that are easiest to find are the most helpful. The most creative brands get all of the attention.
Where Does Your Company Fall in This Space?
Today, the people and businesses that are capturing customer attention online are those communicating the clearest message. Additionally, they have the greatest plan to guide their audience to the solutions they solve, which leads to increased launches of digital movements.
Help Scout reports that 74% of people are likely to switch brands if they find the purchasing process too difficult.
And 51% of customers will never do business with a company again after a negative interaction.
“Self-publishing grew at a rate of more than 28% in 2017 and is still climbing.
In 2018 alone, book titles grew from 786,935 to 1,009,188, surpassing the million mark for the first time in human history!”
Then why isn’t anyone celebrating?
It’s never been easier and more affordable to publish a book to share our knowledge with the world.
Mass printers can get book costs down to $1-$3 per book.
On-demand printers that most independent authors use can get costs around $6-$7 per book before adding the author markup.
This Is a Good Thing Right?
We have more legit subject experts than any time in human history.
This is the single greatest achievement in book publishing since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1454, over 500 years ago!
The reason no one wants to talk about this is that there’s a dirty little secret in book publishing…
A majority of books don’t actually make any money.
Seriously, it’s true.
With the introduction of e-commerce, authors can no longer rely on traditional retail, especially with the demise of brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Publishers Weekly is an American trade magazine which has been providing industry insights to publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents since 1872.
The industry has been keeping the sales numbers close to their chest for awhile now…
Book Sales By The Numbers:
Recent reports indicate that the average independent or self-published author will sell less than 250 books.
The average published author will sell less than 2,000 books, and only 62 out of 1,000 book titles will sell over 5,000 copies in its lifetime.
And someone you’ve heard of took notice a few years back.
The Birth of Amazon
Very few people would have guessed the quiet introvert who worked at the local McDonalds in high school would one day become the world’s most successful and wealthiest man to walk the planet.
The $126 billion dollar man by the name of Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1996 with the wild idea to sell books online.
Bezos started Amazon with the brand promise as “the world’s largest bookstore.”
In the Beginning it Was Just An Idea
Amazon started in 1994, when at the age of 30, Jeff quit a high paying job at a quantitative hedge fund company on Wall Street to pursue a life-long love of computers.
No one knew he would become one of the early pioneers of the internet.
At that time, Bezos and a handful of others were watching internet usage skyrocket at a rate of 2300%. He had to get involved.
Bezos relocated to Seattle with nothing other than an interest to start an online business.
In June of that same year, Jeff came up with arguably the lamest namefor a business in the history of the human race, “Cadabra Inc.”
…Yes, like “Abracadabra.”
He then pivoted to “relentless” for about a day, until friends convinced him otherwise.
He ultimately landed on the name “Amazon” reportedly for two reasons:
To suggest the immense scale he was hoping to eventually accomplish; “Earth’s Largest Bookstore” (which is what Amazon was in the very beginning)
Back then, website listings were often alphabetical, so he wanted something that started with the letter “a,” which was a straight-up marketing strategy from the Yellow Pages era.
The Vision Grew and So Did Bezos’s Ambition
The vision for the company was to be the “largest bookstore in the world.”
Building an online bookstore wasn’t exactly a grand master chess decision. However, it made sense at the time because there were three million active book titles in circulation.
These numbers have only increased since.
Major bookstores could only hold a max of 150,000 titles in retail locations.
While that’s an impressively large volume to logistically support at retail level, there was still no way for most bookstores to profitably sell more books that were growing ever more niche in nature.
Thus, traditional bookstores couldn’t keep up with the large and growing circulation.
In addition, books were a relatively low price-point, the perfect combination for an e-commerce play. Therefore, the founding idea was a universal selection of books.
A literal “online library.” But the idea needed funding.
The Idea Needed Seed Funding
With the concept in place, Bezos raised seed capital to turn his idea into a working model.
Like everyone raising money does at first, he turned to friends and family to borrow money. The initial $250,000 investment from his parents to start Amazon.
When explaining the concept of his internet store to his father his dad asked Jeff, “What actually is the “internet?”
…Clearly, they were not betting on an ROI from the internet. They were betting on their son, Jeff, a powerful vote of confidence, in their willingness to invest in his judgment and ability to make something out of nothing.
Jeff raised another $1M from 20 additional initial investors who each contributed $50K for shared equity of 20% in the business.
Bezos Launched Amazon From His Garage
Well technically the garage part is in mostly a myth. But close enough, he launched from his new home in Bellevue, Washington.
In 1996, Amazon sold their first book and quite possibly the most boring name and niche book of all time.
Two months later, Jeff was selling books to all 50 states in the US and 45 countries worldwide with weekly sales up to $20,000.
Amazon Expanded Out of Book Sales
By October, that same year, he announced his decision to take the company public. Amazon swelled to 11 employees, and the company started expanding outside of book sales into music and videos.
Wondering what to sell next, the small team emailed 1,000 randomly selected customers for what they would like to see Amazon sell outside of books.
The results were interesting and surprised everyone working for the e-commerce startup.
What the customers wanted was the most randomness of anything happened to need or desire in that very moment including obscure things like windshield wiper blades.
That was the feedback the team needed. This was no longer a book play. This consumer feedback changed the world as we know it.
At that point, Bezos realized the true potential for Amazon.
From Selling Books to Selling…Anything They Wanted
They were going to fulfill and deliver every purchase of any product their customers wanted right to their front door, including front doors from door manufacturers.
The doors literally flooded opened with orders of the most common and most obtuse products. Amazon was in a dead sprint to connect their customers with EVERYTHING their shopping cart hearts desired.
When Amazon’s Success Threatened the Status Quo
The following year, in May of 1997, the company issued their first stock option valued at $18 per share. Today, the stock price is over $2,000 per share.
They were well on their way to becoming a major player.
However, business is business, and the excitement was met with resistance from the industry when Barnes & Noble sued the new company over their slogan claiming to be the “largest bookstore on the planet” when they didn’t in fact have a physical store.
Their case was that Amazon was not a bookstore rather they were a “book broker.”
While they were technically correct, Amazon is a broker, and Amazon eventually settled the claim out of court.
What the retailer, and others to this day, would soon come to learn, is that to us, the consumers, brick and mortar bookstores were also “just brokers.”
We’re All “Just Brokers” Now
At it turns out, people prefer to order products from the comfort of their own homes rather than venture out to do all the tedious brokering themselves for products in massive retail locations.
To think we should somehow value going into a retail store over having whatever we want delivered to our front door for FREE SHIPPING, is absolutely ridiculous.
Convenient e-commerce shopping and delivery has been the driving force behind why more than 9,300 retail stores closed their doors in 2019 and more since, as the retail apocalypse peaked.
BARNES & NOBLE RETAIL CASE STUDY
In 1996, Amazon became a major threat to bookstores with $16 Million in sales.
Barnes and Noble took in $2 Billion that same year.
Today, Amazon controls half of the entire print book marketplace, while B&N has only one-fifth remaining. Amazon’s sales jumped to 84% for e-book sales, while B&N held at 2%. Amazon’s e-commerce revenue is around $1 Trillion in market cap while B&N has dropped to $475 Million, a .05% of Amazon’s revenue.
Today, people claim Amazon is the biggest threat to retailers
But in my humble opinion, retail disruption wasn’t Amazon’s fault. Amazon was simply the first company to offer the first online retail experience; and consumers have accepted the alternate shopping experience and prefer the convenience of it!
Amazon capitalized on the way people prefer to shop today.
The customer is not always right, but they have options for how they prefer to consume products now.
By 2010, Kindle sales exceeded print sales for the first time in the history of the company.
Amazon didn’t kill the book publishing industry!
The consumer did when we made a choice to add a premium on preferred digital consumption.
At the start, Amazon employed a handful of workers.
Growth accelerated at lightspeed with 30,000 employees in 2010, exceeding 750,000 employees today; not too shabby considering when he started, Bezos hoped that at one point, Amazon would be large enough to purchase a forklift for the warehouse.
In 2013, Amazon’s site went down for 45 minutes, and the company lost out on $5.7 million in revenue!
Since 2014, Cyber Monday has been the “online Black Friday” post-Thanksgiving holiday online shopping day. History was made, again. Analytics showed Amazon sold over 300 products per second on the first Cyber Monday.
Bezos can now afford to buy 105 million forklifts. Just saying…
Bezos made a fortune by building the most efficient platform of the era by focusing on one core principle…
“Give the customer what they want. The way they want it.”
This is the advice marketers should wisely and carefully consider.
People don’t buy most books because most people don’t want to consume them in the manner they are offered.
In today’s media world, when the consumer can consume limitless amounts of content on their own terms and devices, they have many other avenues for consuming the information they want.
Often times on platforms that make it easier to consume the information like YouTube and Podcasts.
