How to Design a Sales to CSM Handoff That Works

Once the deal is closed, you must ensure that new customers use your product as effectively as possible.

If not, they’ll think your product or service is no good and that you made empty promises during the selling stage, resulting in your retention rate going down the drain.

This is where customer success managers come in. It’s crucial for your retention rates that your customer success team coaches new customers through using your product or service. This is important since the ease of interpretation and implementation is one of the customers’ most important concerns.

However, most businesses drop the ball when handing over a client to customer success. They’ll ask the same questions that sales asked, and the new client won’t be able to utilize your product or service to their advantage.

What is a sales to CSM handoff?

A sales to CSM(Customer Success Manager) handoff is when new customers transition from pre-sale to post-sale and implement your product or service.

Sales reps’ specialty is using persuasion to get a prospect to buy. However, they might not have the know-how to coach a new client on leveraging the product effectively.

This is where customer success takes over. They coach your customers on how to use the product, and this increases your retention rates. Handoffs take place over a kickoff email or video call.

Why is it important?

Efficient handoffs are essential, especially if you’re selling something that requires knowledge and training, like SaaS products.

As soon as a new customer jumps on board, they’ll understand the benefits of your product; however, without proper guidance and training, they can’t take advantage of these benefits. This causes them to get frustrated and lose interest.

They might cancel their subscription before it’s time to renew. Depending on your refund policy, you’ll lose a large amount of money. By then, it’s already too late to educate your customer on how to use your product.

This is why salespersons and customer success must work in harmony to ensure that customers use your product without any frustration. They are also more likely to renew their subscription with you.

Now that we understand why effective handoffs are essential, let’s look at where most businesses go wrong.

This is what most businesses do wrong

Designing a sales to CSM handoff isn’t complicated. The simpler it is, the fewer hoops you and your customers have to jump through. However, many businesses tend to overcomplicate this process, resulting in miscommunication and annoyance.

This is where many businesses drop the ball:

1. There’s no team rapport
2. Sales don’t introduce customer success at the right time
3. Sales don’t set realistic expectations

#1. There’s no team rapport

You want your sales reps and customer success managers to work in perfect harmony.

This is because up until this point, the prospect’s experience is personalized, and you want to maintain that tailored feel and consistency through the handoff and customer success process.

To maintain this experience, your sales and customer success departments must have a strong bond.

Sales reps need to trust customer success to continue providing a personalized experience, while customer success needs insight on how to confidently complete the handoff.

The best way to ensure a seamless handoff is to build team rapport and encourage communication between departments. If you aren’t already, consider using an internal messaging system so departments can discuss how to improve.

Also, try matching up random people from each department and have them chat over a 30-minute video call. Doing this allows your employees to build a strong connection and get insight into each other’s work. This insight is crucial since it’ll equip them with the knowledge for a perfect handoff.

#2. Sales don’t introduce customer success at the right time

If a sales rep is struggling to close a deal, then introducing customer success before the close can give the prospect peace of mind knowing that experts will help them on their journey.

Sometimes a lead knows you’re the right fit, but they have doubts about the beginning stages of using your product. They are thinking you might leave them on their own as soon as you receive payment.

By introducing customer success before closing a deal, you put your prospect’s mind at ease, knowing that you’ll help them leverage your product to reach their goals.

#3. Sales don’t set realistic expectations

It’s super important for sales reps to tell each prospect precisely what happens after the deal is closed since it puts the customer’s mind at ease. They’ll know what’s going to happen and when.

Now that we know what most businesses do wrong, let’s look at ensuring a seamless handoff.

Here’s how to ensure a seamless handoff

Designing a sales to CSM handoff that works is quite simple.

After the deal is closed, the sales team should ask new clients to fill out a form that captures all the client’s critical information. This could be name, business size, expectations, etc.

Next, the sales team should book a kickoff call with the new customer and the customer success manager. Also, it’s essential to send an introduction email so clients know the name of the customer success manager.

During this kickoff call, sales will lead at the beginning and verbally hand over to customer success. Customer success informs the client about what’s happening going forward and sets expectations. Customer success then closes the meeting, clarifying that they are the point of contact going forward.

Last, customer success should send an email to the client and recap everything that happened in the meeting and what happens going forward. It’s also vital to CC sales so they can answer specific questions.

Common mistakes to avoid

Although designing a sales to CSM handoff is relatively easy, try to avoid a few common mistakes:

1. Inform the customer about the handoff
2. Allow your team to get to know each other

#1. Inform the customer about the handoff

It’s important to let your prospect know exactly what will happen and when. This prevents any surprises. Also, explain to your client what the customer success manager does and how they’ll coach them.

Allow your team to get to know each other

The biggest tip for designing a sales to CSM handoff is to ensure your team knows each other and works in harmony. For example, it’ll look unprofessional if sales reps ask a set of questions, but customer success isn’t informed and asks the same questions.

To avoid this, encourage your team to chat with one another and get to know the other department’s procedure.

Final word on designing a sales to CSM handoff

The handoff between sales and customer success is one of the most crucial customer experiences. Depending on how your handoff is, your customer will either be happy and renew their subscription when it expires or cancel it before the expiration date.

However, designing a sales to CSM handoff shouldn’t be challenging. With a combination of team rapport and clear communication, you’ll be well on your way to coaching your customers to success.

Guest author: Yaseen is a personal trainer turned professional writer and he’s obsessed with everything health, fitness, and business-related. If he isn’t at the gym, you can find him playing video games or spending time with friends and family.

The post How to Design a Sales to CSM Handoff That Works appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Use Video to 3X Your Instagram Growth

Instagram used to be just a square photo-sharing platform. You took a photo, edited it in Photoshop, and posted.

Well, those times are gone.

And it has all started with Adam Mosseri’s announcement about how videos will take Instagram by storm as they begin to highly promote this feature.

It doesn’t mean that photos will no longer work… but videos will be better.

Let’s take a closer look at how it’s going to look.

Instagram CEO’s announcement

As I mentioned before, just a few weeks ago, Adam Mosseri (the Instagram CEO) said that Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app and that their main attention is going to be around videos.

After that, a huge way of promotion for Instagram reels begun.

Not just because they have created a separate tap on the bottom menu to discover more reels, but because they even started to suggest them in your feed, and they started to appear on the explore page.

In short, video is something that has such a massive growth potential now that if you abandon it… you might miss an opportunity you’ll never be able to get any time in your life again.

Without any ads, shoutouts, or sponsored posts you can reach tens of thousands of people the organic (free) way!

But now you might ask, “What kind of a video should I use? There is IGTV, Reels, I can do IG Live… what’s the difference?”

No worries. I will show you now.

Instagram Reels

I would be a liar if I said that reels aren’t dominating the Instagram platform.

Reels are short-form videos that are a maximum of 30 seconds long.

It seems like Instagram has created them to beat TikTok at their own game as they did with Snapchat and their “story” feature… and it works pretty well.

They get an incredible amount of reach, the engagement is over-the-top, and they often go viral which makes them a fantastic way for you to get your company discovered by new potential customers.

To be honest, I literally saw new people grow from 0-7,000 followers in just 14 days by using Instagram reels. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It is crazy!

The problem is how can you create reels that will get the reach, engagement, and go viral like this?

It is really simple:

1. Be Entertaining
2. Show Your Face
3. Use Popular Music (you can go to tokboard.com to get some great tips)
4. Add Subtitles to The Reel
5. Write an Amazing Caption
6. Record The Reel About a Topic Your Audience Likes or Wants
7. Get Your Lighting Right
8. Make Sure The Video is High Quality
9. Remember, You Only Have 30 Seconds So Do It Quick

This is the science behind creating amazing reels. Instagram has also created a great editor that you can use if you don’t have an app that you use to create the video in its entirety.

It can take some time to figure out your “reel” style, but once you do, your page’s growth is going to explode.

IGTV

IGTV (Instagram TV) has been around for a while now, yet it has massive potential.

You could sell on a webinar you upload to Instagram or go into depth about a certain topic with an amazing tutorial.

However, it takes some skill to get good at it.

Instagram is not promoting IGTV as much as Reels now, but the views of videos are definitely on the incline.

The most interesting part is hidden in the description that you can write for IGTV.

For marketers, this little thing that Instagram allows us to do is a game-changer.

When you create an IGTV video (it has to be longer than 60 seconds), you can put a CLICKABLE link into the description.

This can be a massive source of traffic for you if you leverage it!

So, definitely go and try using IGTV now.

Instagram Live

Instagram Live is really powerful for three main reasons.

First, when you start an Instagram Live, you can be easily seen as the first person in the “Instagram Stories menu“ which means that your Instagram Live is going to be exposed to virtually all of your followers.

Second, you will be able to build a huge bond between you and your audience if you are willing to go live and talk directly to them.

(The whole thing feels way more personal than just a conventional post or story.)

And third, Instagram decided to let you MAKE MONEY by going live! “What? Did I hear that right?” Yes, you did!

Instagram is supporting video content so much, that they have created a feature called “badges“.

When you go live, your followers can buy badges and support you as a creator/marketer. That way, you can make a lot of money from your live videos without even selling anything.

So, try going live and use this feature now.

Final thoughts

Instagram has started to promote videos at a rapid pace and if you are going to use them, you can see some astonishing benefits.

With Reels, you can easily reach hundreds of thousands of your dream customers without having to pay a dime for advertising as Instagram is trying to beat TikTok at their own game, so they promote them like crazy.

With IGTV you can drive way more traffic to your website and sell to your followers effectively as you can put links into the description.

And with Instagram Live you can make money directly on the platform.

The time to use Instagram video in your content strategy is now and if you don’t, the chances are that you are going to regret it forever.

Guest author: Filip Konecny is an experienced marketer, copywriter, and author of 4 astonishing books. After years of learning and building his skills, and after writing many sales copies and working on a lot of marketing projects, he had decided to start helping other people to improve their marketing skills and achieve massive results.

The post How to Use Video to 3X Your Instagram Growth appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Leverage Local Business Directories

Businesses always seek out the “next big thing” to capitalize on their investment. It could come in the form of a production method or a successful marketing campaign to turn their endeavors into money.

In business, if something can be done to grow your revenue, it should be done. That’s why companies invest their resources to make their existence more sustainable, financially speaking.

The marketing field has become an arena of cut-throat competition, where an ever-increasing number of businesses are fighting for the same pie. They are exploring avenues to stand out from the crowd to either increase the size of the pie or just grab it off the hands of the competition.

Local business directories have come a long way since their inception. Now, they serve as a solid marketing tool to improve a company’s overall digital presence.

What are local business directories and citations?

These are online platforms that, traditionally, contain the authentic Name, Address, Phone (NAP) of a business. These days, the given information may also include work hours and other related information that could help prospects connect with the company.

In most cases, local business directories offer a free platform for companies to create their profile but it must be claimed to fully enjoy the perks.

Since local business directories are repositories of search keywords and are visited by millions of people every month, they have the trust of both humans and bots.

Following are some of the most popular online platforms for local business citations:

1. Google My Business
2. Yelp
3. CityLocal Pro
4. Better Business Bureau
5. Bing Places for Business
6. Yellow Pages
7. Yahoo!
8. Angi
9. Foursquare

How to leverage local business directories for different purposes

In theory, marketing is as simple as trying to give out your message loud and clear. But, when you need to do it, it is a technical process combined with some art to persuade. There are many facets to it and every aspect must be addressed to create a well-rounded well-oiled marketing strategy.

Here are some of the ways companies can use local business citations and directories to leverage their position in the market.

Business Directories for Branding and Reputation Management

A company is all that it stands for and its perception in the minds of the public. The internet can be a cruel thing sometimes and a business must tread decisively to take the next step.

Social media platforms and local business directories are used to create a brand image. The most frequently used strategy is the marketing funnel strategy. In this, companies cast a wide net through educating the masses about their brand and then close in on it, resulting in lead generation and conversions.

Tips:

A company can improve on its branding and reputation management as follows:

• After every transaction, ask your client or customer to review your service on your page at local business directories.
• Positive reviews are great but companies are often bombarded with negative reviews. In this case, follow up on that review publicly and let others know that you do not turn your back on your customers once the job is done.
• Rumors can become news on the internet. To curtail misinformation regarding your brand and its activities, make sure you claim your profiles/listings, and use consistent NAP across the board.
• Local business citations can fetch your prospects by giving you a spotlight to showcase your achievements. You can upload your portfolio in the form of images and links so that anyone can access and evaluate your skills.

Business Directories for Traffic and Leads

All local business listings combine to form a web of links over the internet with your official website at the center. This gives an impressive boost to the organic traffic directed to your website.

Marketers always rely on listings to augment the leads and traffic you can get. Get started by claiming your business and eliminating the duplicates.

Tips:

Here are some pro tips to get the most of your local business citations:

• Get alerts when someone on a listings websites gives feedback on your business profile.
• Always look for new directories and listings to list your business in order to enhance the brand’s digital presence.
• Smart devices and mobile devices are now leading the pack. When deciding which platform to pursue, keep in mind its integration and compatibility with mobile devices.
• All business listings and citations platforms are not created equal. Always lookout for the most relevant and active ones and sever your ties from the websites that have become redundant.

Business Directories for Local SEO

Every local business marketing strategy is under-performing if it hasn’t covered its bases for local SEO. Since a whopping majority, 4 out of 5, users rely on search engines to buy goods or hire services, your business needs that advantage in your corner.

Simply put, if you want to improve the search rankings of your business, which is the key in the digital realm, you need local SEO.

You can employ local business directories to improve on local SEO. It starts with creating a business profile and then linking every profile back to your business website. This creates a web of links that improves the authority of your brand which is at the center of the web.

How to build local citations

Building local citations means creating profiles on local business listings and managing them. There is no cap on what you can achieve by doing this and no restriction on how many listings you want to employ. The rule of thumb is to prefer quality over quantity because these citations will give positive signals to the search engine. Moreover, it is good to represent your brand and business details in an optimal way on quality platforms.

For a citation to trump the competition and the algorithm, it should be credible, relevant, and localized.

Some pro tips:

• There is an intricate network of categories, both primary and secondary. To get the maximum from the listings, it is best to choose the categories properly so that your business is shown against the relevant search results. This is especially helpful if your business name is novel and does not give the idea of work.
• Local SEO relies on locality. It means you need to be consistent and true to the location of your business. Otherwise, it won’t fly.
• The majority of business listings websites cater to all kinds of businesses. Still, there are some niche platforms that can help your company stand out from the competition.

Wrapping up

Local business citations and directories are a great way to boost the online local presence of your brand.

It doesn’t take much time and effort to create or claim your profile. After that, it is just periodic updates and editing when needed. The benefits of local business listings are hard to fathom head-on. But the key is that your brand can grow and multiply in a cost-effective and hassle-free way.

In short, it is an all-in-one scenario. Branding, lead generation, local exposure, and SEO benefits can all be achieved by utilizing local business directories efficiently.

Guest author: James Luis has been serving the digital marketing industry for the past 4 years. He works for different niche clients and is currently working with an IT company. His passion keeps him motivated to keep excelling in his field of content writing and marketing.

The post How to Leverage Local Business Directories appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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The 6 Best eCommerce Website Builders in 2021

Long gone are the days when you had to pay thousands of dollars for a web developer to get an eCommerce site up and running.

There are now dozens of eCommerce website builders with beautiful templates, easy-to-use editors, and helpful marketing tools.

The website builder ecosystem has come along in leaps and bounds over recent years, with new players popping up and big brands doubling down on a space that is growing in popularity.

You can develop a professional-looking and well-optimized website with very minimal design experience.

The trouble is, there are so many website builders available, it’s hard to know which one is the best for you. In this article, I’ll list the 6 best eCommerce website builders on the market and give you an insight into which one is most suitable for your situation.

Let’s jump in!

#1. BigCommerce (Recommended)

BigCommerce is a one-stop shop for online store owners and our number one pick as an eCommerce website builder. On top of its easy-to-use and highly functional site builder, BigCommerce acts as a web host and marketing engine, too.

One of BigCommerce’s top-selling points is its flexibility. What you’ll find as we make our way through this list is that most site builders have limitations in terms of site design – meaning you could end up with a very similar-looking site to your competitors. BigCommerce enables you to differentiate your site with a more open and flexible solution.

Here are a few more of its key features:

• Drag and drop visual editor – Easily create site pages without technical experience.
• Customizable URLs – Don’t get stuck with a store builder generic URL for your website.
• No transaction fees – Pay a subscription rather than a fee every time you make a sale. This is particularly important as you scale up.
• Product variations – Add over 600 products to your store.
• Sell to businesses – Use its B2B functions to ramp up your wholesale business.
• Multi-currency – Sell to a global audience with over 100 supported currencies.
• Increase conversions – Access 70+ native coupon promotions, send customizable abandoned cart emails, and have blazing fast site speeds using Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.
• Integrate with other platforms – BigCommerce integrates with WordPress, Amazon Multi Channel Fulfillment, and more.

All in all, BigCommerce provides a feature-rich eCommerce site builder that will scale with your business. It’s the best solution for a high volume of products.

If, however, you’re building a blog or have a lot of non-product pages, then you may want to check out the other builders on this list.

Try BigCommerce Here.

#2. Squarespace

If design is your thing, then Squarespace won’t disappoint. It’s extremely easy to use and its template library is stunning. While BigCommerce focuses on the nuts and bolts of running an eCommerce site, Squarespace is all about branding and how it looks.

While Squarespace can be used to build eCommerce websites, it’s most popular with designers and creatives looking to launch portfolio websites.

Here are some of Squarespace’s features for eCommerce:

• Templates specific for eCommerce – Created by world-class designers.
• Built-in store functionality – Add products, services, subscriptions, or digital content and collect payments on your website.
• Smartphone app – To manage your store on-the-run, track inventory, and connect with customers.
• Marketing tools – Built in email marketing and SEO tools to expand the reach of your store.

You can get started with Squarespace on a 14-day trial to see if it’s right for you.

Try Squarespace Here.

#3. Zyro

Getting an eCommerce store up and running is super-easy with Zyro. In fact, I’d almost say it’s the easiest process of any builders on this list.

While Zyro doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of BigCommerce, it’s perfectly adequate for launching an online store and is very affordable. Just be aware that you’ll run into some limitations with functionality and may need to upgrade if your store grows.

Some of Zyro’s notable eCommerce features include:

• Multi-platform selling – Set up your store on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon.
• Ready-to-go templates – The Zyro online store templates are pre-built and easy to use, but don’t have a ton of flexibility.
• Money-back guarantee – Try out Zyro for 30 days and if you’re not happy, get your money back.
• Smart automation – For shipping and delivery updates.

If you’re launching a basic online store with only a single or small group of products, then Zyro could be the builder for you. While it’s simple, it looks nice and functions smoothly.

Try Zyro Here.

#4. Duda

For the most part, Duda gets the job done. It has a clear interface, mobile optimization, and even comes with an option for a free site. Much like Zyro, you can launch a store with Duda in a fairly pain-free manner.

Where Duda falls behind is with its limited eCommerce templates (only three) and integrations.

In saying that, here are a few of Duda’s best eCommerce features:

• Flexible finance options – You can use 40+ payment gateways and Duda takes 0% commission on all sales.
• Omni-channel – Automatically sync your products with multiple platforms including eBay, Facebook, and Amazon.
• Convenient shipping costs – Get real-time shipping quotes from leading carriers such as UPS and FedEx.

Try Duda Here.

#5. Shopify

Out of the box, Shopify offers a powerful website builder with a strong reputation and long list of features. It has a library of professionally designed eCommerce templates, a 14-day free trial, and functionality to build out an entire website – with product pages, a blog, and more.

A key area where Shopify falls behind our top recommendation, BigCommerce, is with the user experience of the site builder. Even though it has tons of customization options and apps – the site editor is a little clunky in my opinion.

Some interesting eCommerce features with Shopify include:

• Custom domains – You can host your site elsewhere but still use a unique domain name.
• Marketing tools – Optimize your site for SEO, run ad campaigns, and analyze reports all from the Shopify dashboard.
• Sell offline – There is a Shopify point-of-sale app you can use to manage sales at a physical store or marketplace.
• Mobile app – The Shopify mobile app lets you manage inventory, track orders, and stay on top of your business.

Shopify is a widely used eCommerce website builder that won’t let you down.

Try Shopify Here.

#6. Wix

If you’re looking for a free website builder with tons of features, Wix might be a good place to start. It has paid plans, of course, but its free starter pack is one of the best options available.

The Wix editor is beautifully designed, it has over 500 eCommerce site templates categorized by industry, and an extensive app market that requires no coding skills to increase the functionality of your site.

Here are some of Wix’s best eCommerce features:

• Simple set up – You can be up and running with a Wix-built store in seven easy steps.
• Source dropshipping suppliers – Expand your range of products by searching the Modalyst marketplace which easily integrates with Wix.
• Critical business insights – Wix has an integrated analytics dashboard that helps you track and analyze your sales.
• Automated promotion – Access a new audience with automated Facebook and Instagram advertising or increase conversions with built-in email campaigns.

Without a doubt, you can build the eCommerce site of your dreams using Wix, but it’s not the simplest site builder on this list and lacks in some other areas. Yes, the drag-and-drop editor is intuitive but when it comes to advanced eCommerce features, Wix simply can’t compete with BigCommerce.

Try Wix Here.

Wrapping up

This list of eCommerce website builders could go on forever. There are so many alternatives in the market, it’s extremely overwhelming for business owners who just want to get a site up.

I’ve chosen these 6 site builders to reduce the noise and simplify your choice. The truth is, all of them would probably be an adequate solution for you. But as you can see, each has its pros and cons depending on your needs.

My recommendation is BigCommerce because it is jam-packed with features, specifically optimized for eCommerce, and will scale with your business.

The post The 6 Best eCommerce Website Builders in 2021 appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Create an Impactful Triggered Email Workflow

Triggered emails can help to build long-lasting relationships with prospects and customers alike. According to GetResponse, these emails show a 38.03% open rate and a 6.76% click-through rate.

One of the biggest advantages of triggered emails is their longevity. It is quite possible that visitors who receive these emails engage with them some months later. According to statistics, around 18 to 23% of engagement is noticed after 24 hours of deployment.

So, how will you make your triggered email campaigns more impactful for readers?

Here is a detailed article to help.

#1. Segment your audience according to the customer journey

The spray-and-pray technique of email marketing is no longer effective. Instead, marketing professionals must take a customer-centric approach and try to send triggered emails that are relevant for the readers.

According to a 2017 report by Mailchimp, segmented campaigns exhibit better performance when compared to non-segmented ones.

They show:

• 31% higher open rates
• 64% higher unique open rates
• 37% lower unsubscribes

While segmenting, you can start with basic customer journey parameters like:

• New subscribers
• New customers
• Active subscribers or customers
• Inactive subscribers or customers
• Re-engaged subscribers or customers

If you want to go for complex segmentation criteria, you can consider demographics, geographical location, purchase history, products browsed for, and resources downloaded.

#2. Send relevant emails based on user behavior

Your triggered emails must be aligned with the trigger event. In other words, if a customer has placed an order, he or she will expect a confirmation email with all the necessary order details. No wonder, these emails have a 60% open rate.

Let me share an example with you.

A few days back, I searched for plus-size products on an eCommerce store. They sent me a triggered email promoting their “Plus Size Store”.

#3. Use data to create a personalized experience

The key to sending impactful triggered emails is data. If you collect more data about the customer’s interests, purchase preferences, and behaviors, you will be able to target them better. After all, 71% of customers believe that personalized experiences will affect their decision to interact with emails.

Having enough data will help you set engaging triggers that are more appealing for your customers. For example, if you are in the banking and finance sector, you can send out triggered emails whenever an EMI payment is due or there has been an update to the credit report.

Executing triggered emails at different stages of the buyer’s journey

First Stage: Brand New Subscribers

Visitors who have filled out your sign-up form in the expectation of getting a freebie or discount can be categorized as new subscribers.

Optimove suggests that 80% of prospects complete the first purchase on the day they register. 7% of them do so within the first week of registration. You must aim to crack the purchase within the first seven days.

Welcome emails help to build a strong relationship with the new subscriber. Through these emails, you can let your subscribers know about your offerings and encourage them to make their first purchase from you.

Take a look at this welcome email by Moo in which they have offered a discount coupon code and featured their unique selling points (USPs).

Image Source

Second Stage: New Customers

Leads who make their first purchase on your website will be considered new customers.

According to research, only 15% of first-time online customers will become repeat buyers. Repeat buyers contribute to one-third of online shopping revenue and spend three times more than one-time shoppers.

Use triggered emails to nurture these customers and make them purchase yet again. You can even incentivize them with an exciting offer.

eCommerce email marketers can trigger a post-purchase feedback email to increase subscriber engagement.

Similarly, SaaS business owners can ask customers for their input about how they liked the services.

See how HubSpot has sent out a short, yet engaging feedback email to interact with their customers.

Image Source

Third Stage: Active Customers

When a customer downloads several resources from your website and makes repeat purchases, you can categorize them as active customers. They are likely to be brand evangelists who will help you acquire new customers.

You can make loyal customers feel special by sending out VIP offers and bonuses. In addition, you can also invite them for exclusive interviews and then include their responses on your website testimonials or blog posts.

The BuzzSumo team, in partnership with Mantis Research, sent a survey invitation email to their loyal audience asking them to participate in it and invite their friends and family too.

Fourth Stage: Dormant Subscribers and Inactive Customers

Subscribers who have not engaged with your emails in the last few months are considered to be dormant. Lost customers, on the other hand, are the ones who have not purchased from you in quite some time.

As obvious as it may seem, the longer the inactive time, the tougher it becomes to revive them.

You can reactivate such users with the help of re-engagement emails. Remind them that you are grateful for their association with your brand. You can also share all the USPs that make you stand out from the competitors.

Take a look at this re-engagement email by Noom that works like a charm to bring back inactive customers.

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Wrapping up

Hitting the marketing triad of delivering the right content to the right person at the right time has become a breeze by setting up triggered email workflows. They not only help to engage prospective and existing customers but also assist customer retention.

If you have not started investing in triggered email workflows just yet, now is the right time.

Tools like Salesforce and Marketo can prove to be extremely useful for this.

Guest author: Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

The post How to Create an Impactful Triggered Email Workflow appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Create an Effective LinkedIn B2B Strategy (Little-Known Tips That Really Work)

LinkedIn is, undoubtedly, the best platform to generate leads and grow your business – hands down!

B2B marketers and other businesses have undervalued this platform for a long time but since it has been acquired by Microsoft, its business-friendly features have made it the top platform for B2B lead generation. 

• It is one of the top platforms for relationship building. 
• By publishing personalized content, and taking part in industry conversations, LinkedIn helps you establish a great reputation. 
• 90% of B2B marketers have acknowledged that LinkedIn is great for lead generation, and it has brought significant improvements in their sales pipeline.
• LinkedIn is responsible for 80% of total B2B traffic. 

Now that you know how important LinkedIn is for B2B marketing, you must be wondering how to craft an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy for your business. 

This article includes a list of tactics and ideas that you can use to create an effective LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy in 2021.

#1. Build a professional brand

This sounds like a very obvious strategy yet many B2B marketers seem to miss it. 

If you want to create a large network of relevant people or build relationships with them, it’s very crucial to build a strong brand that people will like and trust. 

For that, make sure your personal LinkedIn profile is professional, attractive, and optimized. While setting up your personal profile or company page, keep in mind the needs and interests of your target audience. 

Add all the details about what you offer and how your offering can solve your customers’ problems. When they visit your profile, they should be able to quickly get what they have been looking for. Be genuine and personal. 

Add a proper headline and well-thought summary. Get more endorsements and recommendations as it will add to your profile authority and help you build a trustworthy personal brand. 

#2. Publish quality content that drives engagement

Posting personalized content on LinkedIn can generate amazing results. The more genuine and relevant your content is, the better your engagement rate will be. 

Good content that includes strategies about how customers can grow their business or solve business problems attracts people’s attention right away. 

On LinkedIn, you can post content in the form of articles, images, and videos. It’s better if you use all of these three options to offer your followers and connections some value. Take some time to create informative and useful content that provides a unique perspective to your audience. 

To create interesting and relevant content, you first need to understand your target audience and their interests. If done right; you can easily establish your brand authority in the industry. 

#3. Let LinkedIn automation tools do repetitive tasks

A great part of the success of your B2B lead generation depends on how much effort you have put into connecting and building a relevant network. There are more than 760 million+ prospects and finding the right ones is challenging. 

Sure, you can use basic filters and find your prospects manually, but it will take a lot of time, energy, and resources which as a B2B marketer you can’t afford. 

A single keyword search such as ‘B2B marketing analyst in New York’ will give you thousands of results. Now, do you have the time to look through each profile, collect data, send connection requests, type notes or messages? It will consume hundreds of hours. 

So why not save yourself a lot of time by automating such repetitive and boring tasks using LinkedIn automation tools. 

A great number of successful B2B marketers and businesses are already using the best LinkedIn automation tools to perform these tasks such as searching, connecting, sending messages, running campaigns. 

The benefit of using these tools is that they perform tasks more efficiently in a short time thus speeding up your B2B lead generation process. 

#4. Leverage the potential of LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups are great places where you can find blocks of B2B leads. Search for groups that are relevant to your industry using specific keywords. Choose a group that is active – its members actively post and comment in the group. 

Once you have found relevant groups, you will get a chance to interact with like-minded people from the B2B world. You can make efforts to foster relationships with them.

Participate, comment on posts, and once you have established a reputation, you can start posting in the group as well. However, make sure you don’t post sales or promotional content, post content that will establish you as an industry leader. 

#5. Build a network and foster relationships

Above all, know that LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform when it comes to networking and building relationships. It’s a professional network where millions of professionals belonging to 150+ industries are present.  Find relevant people and try to engage with them. Don’t bombard them with spammy sales messages. 

Build a community of relevant people where you can share things related to B2B. Eventually, you will gain authority and then you can easily move leads down the sales funnel.

Remember that using social selling practices on LinkedIn has become the most popular way to build relationships and B2B marketers are actively using these practices to gain long-term benefits. 

Wrapping up

LinkedIn is an ideal platform for B2B marketing, and it offers countless opportunities. However, without the right strategy, it will become just another time-consuming and useless platform. To leverage the potential of this platform, you must think beyond the traditional way and start using the latest strategies that will really turn leads into sales. 

Guest author: I’m a content writer and marketer strategist at LinkedCamp with 4 years of experience in the SaaS and automation universe. I am passionate about automation and how it will change the future of the world. Other than that, I am a traveler who loves to explore the world.

The post How to Create an Effective LinkedIn B2B Strategy (Little-Known Tips That Really Work) appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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How to Create the Perfect Pitch Deck

If you’ve launched a startup, chances are you’ve heard of a pitch deck. A pitch deck is a marketing presentation designed to convince investors or lenders to give your business capital. Ultimately, it provides potential investors with a high-level overview of your business plan, success thus far, and growth potential.

Any time you land a meeting with an investor, expect to present your pitch deck to several people – and expect them to ask plenty of questions. Think of your pitch deck as the bridge between your company and future startup financing. And oftentimes, financing plays a critical role in your business’s ability to grow. With half of all small businesses failing within five years, your pitch deck can mean the difference between establishing a fruitful brand and becoming another statistic.

Pitch decks are typically created using presentation software such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Keynote, or Google Slides. Within a span of a few slides, your pitch deck should be both informational and compelling. Your slides should be clear, include high-resolution images, be visually aesthetic, and stay light on text. But creating the perfect pitch deck is easier said than done. Here’s what you need to know to increase your chances of success:

#1. Company introduction

The first part of your pitch deck should be an introduction to the company. Your goal here is to attract potential investors with just a few sentences. This is where your elevator pitch comes into play. An elevator pitch is a quick description of your company that allows the listener to understand its concept within a short period of time. It shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to get your pitch across.

This was an introduction included in Facebook’s original pitch deck, and while the platform has changed over time, you can see that Facebook’s objective was to deliver a clear message. Overall, there are three elements your introduction must include:

• Your elevator pitch
• A description of your company and what it does
• Your value proposition.

#2. Problem and solution

Next, it’s time to talk about the problem your target market faces and the solution you can offer. Ideally, your business would provide a solution that addresses a gap in the market. No investor wants to hear about a problem that already has several solutions in the market (and if this describes your business, your solution should be unique).

A good way to describe the problem is to create a narrative and put yourself in the shoes of your target customer. How would a real person experience the problem and what would they do and/or need to find a solution? You should find two to three problems and solutions and keep your slide text simple and easy to follow.

Here’s a pitch deck sample of a problem and solution for Airbnb:

And this is an example of a problem-solution slide for Castle, a property management startup:

At the end of the day, investors want to be involved in projects that solve real issues. They want to work with you to create innovative solutions, but they need to be convinced that your company is the one to do the job.

#3. Market opportunity

No matter how great your product is, if there’s no market for it, there’s no money for it. The “Market” section of your pitch deck should be anywhere between 1-4 slides, depending on market size, segments, and deck design. Because of this, your market size will be one of the most crucial data points in your presentation.

There are several ways to present market data in your deck. They include:

• Value theory, which predicts the consumer’s willingness to pay;
• Existing in-house market data, and
• Industry-based research.

Many companies will use a combination of these tactics to illustrate their market potential. Your key statistics and industry revenue numbers will help potential investors understand market potential and trajectory. 

#4. Product

This is the part of your pitch deck where you go in-depth about your product or service. Up until this point, you’ve talked about your company, the problems it solves, and what makes it stand strong in your industry. Create a simple statement with images, screenshots, or videos to communicate what the product is and how it works. Highlight the features and key differentiators of your product and what differentiates it from comparable products. Here’s a sample illustration of how Uber could communicate their product:

#5. Traction and growth potential

At the end of the day, investors want to see a return on their investment, and the success you’ve achieved thus far is one of the greatest indicators of future success. Traction describes what your startup has achieved so far. Essentially, the traction slide presents data that proves your product or service is desirable. For example, you might display a graph that shows your sales growth or rise in customer adoption.

It’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to have sales to show traction. This is common for early-stage startups who need funding to achieve future milestones. If you don’t have revenue, there are other ways to show traction. Trial sign-ups, beta sign-ups, pre-orders, and letters of intent are viable options. You can also show how many people are visiting your website, as site traffic is a good demonstration of heightened interest.

#6. Competitors

Your potential investors need to know what they’re up against. Your “Competitors” slide shows who your competing businesses are and what makes you different. Many startups choose to use a “Magic Quadrant” graph to show where they stand against competitors. Developed by Gartner, this graphical representation consists of a graph with a vertical and horizontal axis, which creates four quarters.

Another option is the Power Grid, which offers a more detailed analysis of how your startup beats the competition. In a Power Grid, columns represent competitors while rows represent benefits or features. Here’s an example from Dreamit:

#7. Team

This is the part where you get to talk about the core people behind your product. Describe their role, mention previous accomplishments, and the value they bring to the business today. Though this slide is fairly straightforward, it goes a long way towards humanizing your company and helping investors understand not only what they’re investing in, but who they’re investing in.

#8. Financials

The financials slide helps investors understand what projected revenue will look like over the next several years. It should contain detailed numbers about your business and finances. At this point, you should have already completed a business plan, and you can pull plenty of data from the financials section of your plan. Take a look at a startup business plan template if you need to create both a pitch deck and an official business plan before your investor meeting.

Because this section is so numbers-heavy, it’s important for you to create financial models that are easy to read and simple to understand. After you’ve left the room, your potential investors are going to spend the most time analyzing these details, so it’s important that your economic plan – including your distribution channels and operating structure – are clear.

#9. Investment ask and use of funds

This slide tells investors what you need and what you’ll do with the money. Being transparent about how you intend to use your funds helps build credibility and trust early on.

Your investment ask should be realistic and purposeful; don’t ask for a high number for the sake of getting more money. On the other hand, don’t ask for less money than you need to reach your goals for the sake of increasing your chances of investment. Asking for less doesn’t make your business any less risky. Instead, focus on asking for the right amount to cover your goals.

Guest author: Dave Lavinsky is an internationally renowned business plan consultant who specializes in capital raising and new venture development. He is the co-founder of Growthink, a firm that has helped over 1 million companies develop business plans to start and grow their companies.

The post How to Create the Perfect Pitch Deck appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

* This article was originally published here

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