4 behaviours that set top-performing marketers apart
Earlier this year the Harvard Business Review published a research paper that set out the top behaviours of the most successful CEOs. With many business leaders failing in their roles (from 2000 to 2013 25% of the Fortune 500 chief executives who left their firms were forced out) the authors conducted a study based on research conducted over 10 years with a database of 17,000 C-suite executives - including more than 2,000 CEOs - which covers all major industry sectors and a full range of company sizes.
It’s a fascinating article based on some really interesting research, revealing that one of the major reasons for CEO failure is that there’s a disconnect between what boards of directors think makes for an ideal CEO and what actually leads to high performance.
After reading the article it occurred to me that many of the problems, causes and behaviours…
Here’s how to attract more brand ambassadors and let your customers do the marketing for you
Many people — even professional marketers — confuse brand ambassador and influencer marketing. Although they share many traits, they are fundamentally different approaches and require different strategies to scale.
Influencers are paid, spokespeople. They create content for a short period of time on a contract, then often remove the content from their social media feeds after the contract ends.
Influencers have their uses, but for long-term impact, brand ambassadors offer superior ROI. Unlike influencers, brand ambassadors are unpaid customers. Their genuine love for a company and its products inspires them to share their passion, driving sales through word of mouth.
Any successful marketing strategy is worth continued investment. Brand ambassador programs are no different.
During test phases, marketers should not be concerned about scale — only evidence that a program works. Once the program proves effective, however, scale becomes a…
4 areas where leaders can effectively manage the chaos
Project managers are faced with an ever-changing landscape of new technology, media outlets, and remote workforces.
Some people end up in very static careers. They do the exact same tasks for 30 years, because the job itself barely changes. For better or worse, project managers don’t fall into that group of professionals.
Project managers face constant changes that they must respond to. The nature of their job, technology they use and compliance requirements can change on any given day with little notice.
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A lot of major changes have shaken the career in 2017. Here are some of the biggest things project managers must prepare for in 2018 and beyond.
Agile management is expanding into new fields
Agile management has been the cornerstone of…
Acquiring an existing website is much less work than creating one from scratch; how can marketing managers ensure their success online?
Web businesses are certainly an attractive proposition for business owners and marketing managers looking to take on a new brand. One thing’s for sure – it’s much easier to acquire a website than it is to purchase a traditional business, what with staff, leases, and so on. When you buy a website that already has a name for itself, perhaps even a following, the effort required to publicize it comes right down.
Find a website that already has some strong backlinks, traffic, and a popular niche, and you’ll be well on your way to running a lucrative business which, with a smart marketing strategy, will draw in customers and earn money in far less time than a brand new website.
First things first: what customers are looking for
When you’re scouting for a…
Referral marketing is a great way to harness the love that customers have for your brand and in turn drive new customer acquisition
Research consistently shows that consumers are most likely to listen to recommendations from friends and family than traditional advertising channels.
Of course, for someone to refer your product, it needs to be something they love and believe their friends will love too. Nobody wants to put their name behind something that might damage their reputation.
Whilst a quality product or service means that refer-a-friend can drive new sales, there are some elements which can take referral to another level.
So, what are the secrets of highly referable brands?
1. Unique
Disruptor brands typically identify a pain point for customers and seek to remedy it with a unique solution. These brands tend to extremely referable. Not only are they solving an issue with a great customer experience, people love to share something they feel…
How to successfully source and create an influencer marketing plan for 2018
Who are you more likely to trust before buying a product?
Pose this question to contemporary audiences, and they’ll predictably — and understandably — say friends, family, and people who have previously used the product. Consumers have hit a new level of advertising fatigue, making us wary of any traditional messages and advertisements sellers throw our way.
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That hasn’t stopped customers from buying though. It’s just that now those purchases get nudged along thanks to recommendations from the tweets, images, and posts a potential buyer sees online. After all, those aren’t talking at you; they’re talking to you in a subtle, casual, and unscripted way.
This is a familiar trip through the sales funnel for the customer, except this time the guide isn’t…
Learn the benefits of progressive web apps (PWAs) and why you should be using them
This year has been huge for the mobile web. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which have enabled the rapid delivery of news content, have muscled their way to the top of Google search results. Furthermore, Comscore reports that mobile is the leading digital platform, with 52% of mobile media engagement being made via apps.
As mobile consumption continues to grow, providing users with a fast and efficient experience is paramount in boosting impressions, conversions, and sales.
It is because of this that Google is seeking to blur the lines between a mobile website and the native app experience, with the introduction of Progressive Web Apps (PWA).
There is a problem with the mobile web
Think about how quickly the Facebook, Instagram or BBC news apps load on your phone. A world of information is available almost instantly with just one…
How you can use push notifications to increase your online conversions
You already know about email, social media, affiliate marketing, SMS, ads (Google Adwords, Facebook, Bing). All these channels have their own piece of the marketing promotion pie, where you can deploy different kind of campaigns to reach and engage users.
Online businesses use all or a part of these channels to attract visitors to their website, as well as engage with the ones who have already visited it. But there’s a new one that looks very promising for both businesses and users: push notifications.
Push notifications have a short history in the world, coming from mobile apps, where IOS and Android used them as the default way by which mobile apps communicate with their users.
The advantage of delivering the message in real…
Which of these design elements are you using to enhance your web experience and conversion?
If you're launching a new site or refreshing an existing site it's important to ensure your site looks contemporary and appealing. Since website design styles and technologies change so rapidly, can quickly appear dated.
A site that meets your business goals, communicates your key messages and provides a great experience is most important as explained in the Smart Insights guide to improving results from your website. But to design a successful web site, it is also essential to know what trends are emerging and what elements are important to consider. Surely, different web pages are created for different purposes, so they will not, probably, have much in common. However, there will be certain generally used elements that can be added to a webpage to make it more successful.
Here is a checklist of features to consider.
1.Sizeable and…
How to increase conversions with an SEO audit
Focusing on SEO while neglecting your conversion rate is a great way to wind up with a website that ranks highly for keywords your audience doesn’t use or attract a bunch of users who aren’t really looking to buy what you’re selling. That’s why you have to think about choosing the right SEO tools for you and focusing on more than just the technical aspects of your audits.
That’s right: you can use your SEO audits to improve not just rankings, but your conversion rates as well.
Smart Insights have just launched their latest Quick-Win, SEO Technical Audit. Carrying out an audit is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like incremental improvements, but when combined, they can make a significant impact on your site’s performance…
