SIIA-amp-network-feature-photo

‘The Landing Page Is the Critical Part’; Bailey Talks Sales Funnels and Websites

by Media
Something—maybe a reminiscence about his narrowing down your main marketing message to six words (try it)—led me to Matt Bailey’s excellent blog last week, Endless Coffee Cup. The subject was the sales funnel. Apparently there has been some doubts raised about it.
“I can’t imagine why someone would say the sales funnel is dying,” he told his equally lively co-host Ashley Schweigert. “Maybe we’ve seen a flattening—the places people are coming into the funnel—[but if anything] it’s getting greater.
“The reason we’ve had the funnel to begin with is that we need a visual representation of what’s happening. Just looking at numbers alone is not an understandable way about where are people in our sales process. How are we acquiring? Where are they? What stage do they go to next?”
That made me want to call Bailey—an accomplished speaker, trainer, author, marketer and founder of Site Logic—and ask him a few of my own questions. It was good to see him, even if it was just in his man-caved office on the Zoom window.
“It’s funny because Ashley had been asking for that podcast for months,” he told me. “I’m not sure,” he mimicked himself weakly saying to her. “’I’m being a little evasive. Sell me on it, Ashley, sell me on it.’ When she started by saying that ‘Hubspot says it’s dead,’ [I said,] ‘okay, let’s go.’”
Here’s more of the Q&A between Bailey and I:
RONN LEVINE: I love your podcast—44 episodes, that’s impressive.
MATT BAILEY: Thanks. It’s been great to get feedback from it. Which shows people listen to, what’s downloaded the most. Themes definitely start emerging.
RL: I’m sure anything about revenue diversification plays well now, given the state of in-person events. 
MB: Yes, in-person event revenue is obviously down. But there are so many ways to make money on the Internet. Look and see how others make money. Before COVID, 80-90% of my business was in-person events. Training, conferences, then all this hit. It’s definitely the longest I’ve been home. What enabled me to make the transition is that I look at 5, 7, 10 years ago, developing additional streams of revenue—training products, classes, exercises—that can now be on Zoom.
RL: How have you adapted to doing everything on Zoom?
MB: It’s been good but I’m more exhausted by the end of day, working from home, than all the traveling I was doing. [He spends an average of 4-5 hours a day on Zoom.] I’m constantly thinking, ‘how do I make this more exciting, more entertaining, and communicate more efficiently, more effectively.’ As Marshall McLuhan famously said, ‘the medium is the message,’ and that’s Zoom right now.
RL: How has it changed how you do your training?
MB: Some of the training that we’re doing, we try to make fun. We have an active chat channel, and then there’s also a Whats App back channel, and I find the most engaging sessions we have is where people respond by voice. They have their cameras on, they’re talking that way, but at the same time there’s an active chat going on. So it’s demanding that you are paying attention to questions, you’re answering questions, you’re also watching the chat, you’re also managing the discussion, and so it’s truly demanding this multitasking approach to presentations.
RL: On the good ones I’ve been on, that chat takes on a life of its own. Another theme I’d like to get into is websites. Are websites still as important as they’ve always been?
MB: Absolutely. It’s a core of content for inbound marketing. In the analytics that I look at for different companies, search is still your number one source for visitors—very rarely do I see a social channel. Honestly, the only social channel I see compete with Google is Pinterest. I’ve never seen another social channel peak at the level or even near the level of search. So it tells me that content marketing, inbound marketing is more than alive and well and because of that you’ve to have a system to filter those people through, answer their questions, present your company, get the lead, move through there.
RL: So is it still about the landing page or is the homepage still important?
MB: The landing page, it’s one of those things, it can become its own science. The landing page is the critical part that a lot of people forget about in this type of lead marketing or content marketing or even dealing with the funnel. I just saw something the other day that showed up in my email about landing pages. [Reading.] “At Dell, every new landing page is a multi-faceted project that requires several handoffs taking 6-8 weeks to customize and globalize for testing. Contact form completions rise 50% and increases as high as 300% on dedicated landing pages.”
RL: Wow, 6-8 weeks. That does say a lot.
MB: I deal with so many companies, very focused on being at the top of the funnel. Let’s get people there with our content, let’s answer their questions, let’s give them great content. And then they forget about their landing page, throw up the same one they used last year, change a few words and I’m done, not realizing that landing page is just as important as the content you used to get them there. And now you have to convert them. Testing your landing page, testing your call to action, testing your offer. All of these things are just as vital as the content you use.RL: You do get the feeling that companies focus more on home pages. 
MB: Yes, and I think most people don’t even view the home page. They get into the content or they get to that landing page. They may go to the homepage after they finish a conversion or exchange.

Again, check out Endless Coffee Cup at this link.
SIIA-amp-network-feature-photo

Doesn’t Take Harvard to Tell Us We’re Working More, But They Can Help

by Media
In a conversation I had with Putman Media’s Erin Hallstrom a couple weeks ago, she talked about the Influential Women in Manufacturing program she runs, a business podcast she puts together and hosts (Food for Thought), a personal podcast, a book she’s writing, plus all her daily SEO and digital duties, etc.
How can you do all these things, I asked?
“I’m training to be a lockdown Olympian, doing all these things,” she said, both proudly and with a bit of incredulousness. When her sister got married in July, she was maid of honor, and for the two days she was taking off, her boss made her promise not to check in. “I wrote a blogpost about how anxious I was for being off for two days,” she said.
Erin, you’re not alone. A new Harvard Business School study says that we are working longer hours with more emails and meetings than ever before. Not surprised, I take it. Okay, let’s delve in a little deeper.
That’s a lot of extra minutes. “An analysis of the emails and meetings of 3.1 million people in 16 global cities found that the average workday increased by 8.2%—or 48.5 minutes—during the pandemic’s early weeks. Employees also participated in more meetings, though for less time than they did before COVID-19 sent many workers home.”
Remember when Zoom used to just be a kids TV show. “There is a general sense that we never stop being in front of Zoom or interacting,” says Raffaella Sadun, professor of business administration in the HBS Strategy Unit. (She spent the spring advising the Italian government about how to reopen its economy post-lockdown.) And that has an effect on us, she added.
9-5 workday? Where? Shifting to remote work took away whatever was left of the “elusive 9-to-5 business day and replaced it with videoconferencing and ‘asynchronous work,’” Danielle Kost, senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, writes. She reports that “at least 16% of Americans plan to keep working from home part of the time after COVID-19 abates.” That sounds low to me, from the conversations and non-scientific surveys I’ve seen and done.
No office, no… ? “The role of an office is to congregate and help people work together,” Sadun said. “For us, the question was, ‘What happens when you cannot have that physical space anymore?’ How do people adjust their work patterns?” Three results:
  • Employees sent 5.2% more emails a day.
  • Emails had 2.9% more recipients.
  • About 8.3% more emails were sent after business hours. (That’s a big number when you consider all the emails we send.)
We’re becoming a meet market. They also analyzed meeting invitations—the quantity, duration and number of attendees—and observed that:
  • People attended 13% more meetings.
  • Each meeting was 12 minutes—or 20%—shorter.
  • The number of people invited to each meeting rose by two, or 14%.
Boundaries are needed. The longer workdays result from there being less boundaries. Most of us don’t really have to be anywhere anymore. “Unless you really are able to create distinct boundaries between your life and your work, it’s almost inevitable that we see these blurring lines,” Sadun says.
Who are better off? “This is one of those things where it’s hard to make one statement for everybody,” Sadun says. “If you have a large house, life is good. If you have to combine your bedroom with your office, it’s not as good.”
Too much screen time? “The issue with Zoom is that you’re always on there. You have to show a concentrated face the whole time,” Sadun says. “It’s very unnatural to be constantly looking attentive for hours.” I’ve conducted interviews on Zoom and it is strange that when you aren’t looking at the screen, it looks like you’re not paying attention—as opposed to in-person where it’s awkward to stare at someone for too long.
Three pieces of advice to leaders of remote workforces:
  • “Empathize with workers’ unique circumstances. Managers need to know what their employees are juggling to provide the right professional support.”
  • Focus on output and quality, not hours.
  • “Expect wide differences in productivity across employees, for now.” Some may find working from home energizing while others crave that in-person interaction. (I’m in the latter and I cringe at friends who tell me how much they are enjoying the lack of a commute, their pets around all the time, etc..)
SIIA-amp-network-feature-photo

Virtual Events Are Different, so Sponsor Packages Should Be as Well

by Media
With publishers and media organizations still wary of charging too much for their virtual events—and some like this week’s Atlantic Festival charging nothing at all—sponsorships become that much more important to financial success. But should we be approaching sponsorships in the same way that we have for in-person events?
Two groups, Ricochet Advice and Bruce Rosenthal Associates, have partnered on a white paper to say no. Titled The New Sponsorship Model for Virtual Events, the report offers a new blueprint for recruiting your virtual event sponsors.
“During the pandemic, the traditional benefits offerings repurposed for virtual events are not likely to be of interest. The old way of courting sponsors has likely come to an end for most events and [organizations],” states the report. “An enhanced sponsorship approach that takes advantage of the unique characteristics of digital events to create better engagement between [organization] members and event sponsors can deliver more value to sponsors.”
Let’s go through their ideas. They break the benefits up by categories.
For data and analytics, sponsors would be given access to:
• registrant information and permission to “add your advertising tags to our event web pages”;
• the virtual event platform tool with ability to collect and export select data to use in your own marketing and sales systems;
• poll answers: attendee responses to periodic event polls, including free text comments; polls are an excellent engagement tactic for virtual events.
For engagement, sponsors would get:
• alerts of event chats including ability to monitor conversation key words and phrases;
• one-to-one direct messaging capability that permits engagement with any attendees;
• option to supply company-branded prizes to be promoted through the event. (Is there such a thing as virtual cornhole? Trivia games translate well to virtual.)
• demo scheduling;
• a breakaway room, promoted often during the event, that allows attendees to “duck out” and join in informal sponsor conversations.
For content distribution, there would be:
• intermission interviews that sponsors can either be a part of as subject, moderator or presenter;
• session interstitials: live educational presentations, related to a substantive area, with sponsored content. (The industry has found that done right, sponsored content has a welcomed place in the information pantheon.)
• panel participation: as long as a sponsor can bring a subscriber/member partner they have worked with;
• discussion groups: advertised leadership/participation in a substantive topic.
For conference advertising, there would be:
• logos and recognition on event promotions and registrant emails. “Underwriters” are all over the Atlantic Festival communications and website. For BVR’s Virtual Divorce Conference, a sponsor page allows visitors to download a marketing guide and video.
• pre- and post-event promotions. Even though the gist of BVR’s conference was Sept. 9-11, they are providing value-add sessions for Sept. 17, 24 and 30. No reason why sponsors can’t remain involved for those, in addition to the on-demand requests.
• online advertisements.
• sponsored sessions. This could be as simple as maybe speakers using coffee mugs of the sponsor.
• sponsored awards. Many emerging leader and “20 Under 35” awards are given out at events. Sponsorships for those could be attractive.
Associations Now, which wrote about the report, also emphasized the need to better adapt digital marketing tactics for sponsors. “While you may not be able to re-create the impact of an in-person appearance, digital events put different tools at your disposal—whether it’s short interstitials between virtual sessions, email marketing campaigns, or sponsored chat messages during livestreams. With a little bit of workshopping or the right links to the right places, these can be effective messages for trustworthy voices.
“That said, virtual events differ greatly from physical ones, and that should inform how you roll out these messages. ‘Treat virtual events as something new. You have the framework of what you are used to doing, but think outside the box and reimagine as you go,’ Cvent’s Madison Layman writes.”
SIIA-amp-network-feature-photo

Keys From Pro Farmer’s Successful Crop Tour Event Pivot

by Media
In a just-released events survey, Sophie Holt, global strategy director, Explori, said: “Online and hybrid seem to have a complementary role to play alongside [in-person] events. Not only will they give reassurance to visitors who are concerned about safety in the short term, but still want to connect with their community, but they may also have an important role to play in bringing new audiences to established events.”
JoeMay_1309997.jpg

That was exactly the case for Pro Farmer’s first-ever virtual Crop Tour held last month, Joe May, their marketing and sales director, told me yesterday.

“It went really well. We went into it with no idea how well it would be received and were very pleased. We’re lucky enough to be part of Farm Journal, so their TV crew produced a really professional looking broadcast for us each of the four nights. We never had a live broadcast component before.”
Historically, the typical audience to attend the in-person meetings across the four days and seven Midwest locations has ranged between 2,000 and 3,000. For the four online, 90-minute broadcasts, more than 18,000 total viewers watched—coming from all 50 states and 12 countries. (Crop Tour has always had a good global following, May said.) A total of 340,000 minutes were streamed, a number that even May sounded surprised to hear himself say.
“You can’t get that kind of reach in person,” said May, indicating that, as the above-mentioned survey predicted, Pro Farmer will most likely keep some of that digital component in future Crop Tours. “We would consider combining the two for next year. The farm audience has a reputation for being slower in participating with newer technologies for the most part. But our audience is also business people not just farmers. Adopting [new things] is part of their business strategy.”
For the post-COVID future, hybrid models make sense. If farmers are tuning in, then audiences that are in offices—home or business—all day probably would as well, if the content is good. Speaking of that, 52% of virtual event attendees surveyed in that report felt online-only events are as good, if not better than live events with respect to the content offered. And almost 80% have at least some interest in attending a hybrid event online in the future.
In the past, the decision not to stream an event live came partly from a worry that it would discourage people to attend in person—and publishers were reluctant to charge as much virtually. But given that content is proving to be just as strong virtually, that reluctance might dissipate.
Of course, the survey also reported that attendees cherish the in-person networking and virtual does not replicate that—though hopefully technology will continue to improve there. So May said that they really didn’t try to replicate any networking features.
“Pioneer has been a premium sponsor for 10 years, hosting a big meal and networking social before the meeting,” May said. “We were able to get them to still sponsor the digital broadcast with content items published and promotional items. In fact, we kept all the sponsors except maybe one—and they pulled out for a different reason—and added a couple new ones. And again, it was really well received.”
Having the experienced Farm Journal TV crew proved to be a huge benefit. They had been sending a crew for Crop Tour for many years, getting interviews and footage to use, and doing live setups. So setting up the live broadcast came naturally.
“We would have 15-20 minute segments, then maybe a commercial break, and then live questions from the audience, all highly produced and planned,” May said. “We kept it to 90 minutes, which is still a long time for a virtual broadcast, but people watched. There was just one technical glitch over the four nights that affected maybe five minutes. Some viewers reached out to tell us”—which may be a good thing because it means they are watching and they care.
,
Another advantage was that Pro Farmer could put their leaders from both the Western and Eastern tours on camera, and then patch in studio hosts from South Bend, Ind. Another reporter took questions from Twitter and Facebook with the Crop Tour hashtag, breaking in with live questions and screen questions too.
“We had [ample] questions every night,” May said. “It’s not like they were just sitting there. Sometimes people are intimidated in person to ask questions. Can be easier sitting behind a computer.
“We learned a lot—it really was continuous learning. You never know for sure [how something will turn out]. But this gave us the best of both worlds.”
SIIA-amp-network-feature-photo

‘Here Are Your 29 Tips, Jane’; 7 Keys to Getting Better Email Opens

by Media
What do the following words have in common? 100%. Congratulations. Don’t. Get started. Innovate. Problem. Quickest. Success. Vacation. Volunteer. According to CoSchedule, they trigger spam alerts.
For what works well, a recent GetResponse survey revealed that the top words for inducing opens in a subject line are “pdf,” “newsletter” and “ebook.” “If you’re promoting a piece of content or a valuable resource, you’re probably better off if you mention it in the subject line.” But for click-to-open rates, “infographic” scored huge at 35.1%—very easy to digest—followed by newsletter at 31.4%. “Sale” and “free” also fared well—the latter drawing this comment: “This phrase, previously believed to cause deliverability issues, seems to work well for quite a few marketers… People still enjoy receiving free things.” Amen.
What can we do to improve engagement and deliverability of our email? Let us count some content-oriented ways here.
The Hubspot blog lists 29 ways to ways to avoid spam and improve your email deliverability. Here are three.
1. Don’t use all caps anywhere in your email or its subject line. “Don’t yell at people. It’s not nice. Using all caps in your subject line might get the recipients’ attention, but probably not in a good way. Using all caps can really rub people the wrong way. It’s annoying and can seem spammy.” They suggest “personalizing your emails, establishing relevancy, and using catchy and delightful language.”
2. Don’t use exclamation points. They are “unprofessional and spammy”—especially a whole bunch of them in a row. “And when 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line, you’ll want to stay away from triggers like this as much as you can.”
3. Avoid spam trigger words. You saw a few of them up top. “A good rule of thumb is this: If it sounds like something a used car salesman would say, it’s probably a spam trigger word. Think ‘guarantee,’ ‘no obligation’ and so on.” Instead, they encourage creativity and being informative—without giving too much away.
Here are three from Campaign Monitor.
4. Include a number in your subject line. A recent study looking at 115 million emails surmised that email open and reply rates go up when there’s a number in the subject line. “Numbers and data get your emails noticed, demonstrate a clear and straightforward message about your offer, and set the right expectations for your readers, helping draw them in.” Some I’m seeing today: 20% off new kitchen designs; 5 ways to win back lost customers; ViacomCBS to sell CNET for $500 million.
5. Utilize preheader text to boost subject line open rates. Preheaders summarize the content in your email for added explanation and enticement. Your readers gets an opportunity to preview the email, even while it sits unopened in their inbox. I just started doing this for another newsletter I send out. When done right, the subject line and the preheader complement each other. One example: “Innovative event ideas – Coffee mugs for speakers, drive-in meetings and year-round platforms highlight new twists for the virtual age.”
6. Keep your email subject lines relatively short. Here, as is often the case, it’s best to know your audience. If the majority are opening your emails on their phone, then go short. iPhones show about 35-38 characters in portrait mode, and Galaxy phones show roughly 33 characters in portrait mode. CM’s best practice suggests that “subject lines that are 17-24 characters long are most likely to boost your email open rates.” But that can really feel short sometimes. The main lesson in that is to be direct. Language cuteness has its place, but subject lines need to make an immediate impact.
And finally…
7. Emails with video still generate the highest email engagement rates. But only around 8% of the emails in a recent study from GetResponse contained links to videos. “For now, the best workaround is to use an image (maybe even a GIF) that looks like a video player and links to your page,” they suggest. “That way, you’ll boost your click-throughs and enhance your contacts’ experience as they’ll watch the content in their default browser or video player.”