The (Unwelcome) Death Knell of First and Last Attribution

I gave the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe to our nephew for Christmas. Poe is a great American poet and author, who undoubtedly, left his morbid mark on many of us. I figured our nephew was about the right age to get freaked out about the amount of effort needed to creep across old floors without someone noticing.... 

First and last touch attribution is quickly dying.

Figuring out how to attribute performance to an asset or campaign is a tricky subject for marketers. In the olden days we had to decide which one-touch attribution we would use – first touch was when a new lead was created and last touch was right before we passed the lead to the sales team.

Our dashboards and repots looked great. We could pull them up and present to management the ROI of any given marketing campaign. While we loved our attribution model, but I bet a lot of us (secretly) hate it now.

The rise of multi-touch attribution (measuring all touches across the buying journey) is challenging our ability to make informed decisions about our marketing channels, to incentivize our inside sales teams, and to make a case for ROI.

For B2B marketers, multi-touch attribution is an even bigger issue. As we take an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach to plan campaigns, we acknowledge that not only is there more than one person at an account involved in the sale, but it takes many online and offline interactions to close the deal. With multiple people and multiple touches as the framework for ABM, we can no longer use any one touch (first, last or fifth) to measure our effectiveness.

 

Long live multi-touch attribution!

I am confident that we are not fully prepared for multi-touch attribution. And there are good arguments for continuing to record first and/or last touch – we should continue to track these metrics because they serve as a data point about the asset or campaign. But we can no longer rely on them to tell us the ROI of our assets and campaigns. For that, we need to bring all touches into the model.

This is the marketers’ mantra: ”Help us, world, find the right person, at the right time, with the right message!” As marketers, we are quick to take up promising new technology and methods, and so too must we be willing to give up our tried and true methods.

Multi-touch attribution is a gigantic effort. Many of us have been involved in a Lead Scoring or Lead-To-Quote process creation, and we know how painful it can be to operationalize, even with a simpler first/last attribution model. Multi-touch makes it even more complex, and you will need many cohorts across all marketing, sales and operations to make it happen.

I advise all of us to think of this as an ongoing process improvement. We don't have the technology yet to make this model push-button. But we can change the mind-set in our organizations and advocate for incorporating multi-touch attribution in our marketing operations. 

Let’s all channel our inner Edgar Allan Poe and let the death knell toll for one touch attribution.

Tried and True

As a B2B Marketer, you spend a lot of your time coming up with new ways to reach the right prospect, at the right time, with the right message. Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a tried-and-true strategy to help you do all three.

And for more ways ABM an help you up your marketing game, download The Account Based Marketing Guide For Modern Marketers. 

Image source: melbournefringe.com.au

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Online Marketing News: The Age of Mobile, Cheetos Snackware & Twitter Expands Pre-Roll

Why Creativity Matters More in the Age of Mobile [Infographic] Based on Facebook's new 'Why Creativity Matters in the Age of Mobile' report, this infographic shows four big shifts that are driving the way that we consume media, including that consumption is no longer linear, our visual-first evolution and more. Social Media Today Goodbye Forever, Orange Fingers -- Eating Cheetos Could Get an Epic Upgrade Cheetos and Betabrand are coming together to solve a long-time snack crisis -- Cheeto fingers. The mix of brilliant understanding of the user experience from a product standpoint, and creativity in finding a resolution involving user-interaction, is an inspiration for marketers everywhere. Inc. Expanding Pre-Roll Ads to Periscope Video Twitter is expanding their pre-roll ads as their video viewership continues to grow. The platform is now giving publishers the opportunity to monetize content while allowing brands to advertise against that content with pre-roll ads on Periscope. Twitter Mobile now accounts for nearly 70% of digital media time [comScore] comScore recently released a report that shows 70% of digital media time is spent on mobile, with less than one third being consumed on desktop devices. 60% of that mobile time is spent within ads. However, while less than one third of digital time is spent on desktop, 80% of ad dollars are being spent there. Marketing Land Introducing Pinterest Propel for successful advertising Pinterest has announced a new program called Pinterest Propel to help train soon-to-be Pinterest advertisers from agencies and brands alike. In order to qualify for the benefits, like 30-day one-on-one phone support, advertisers must be prepared to spend $100/day or more on Pinterest ads. Pinterest More Ways to Share with the Facebook Camera On Tuesday, Facebook rolled out two new ways to share photos and videos: a new Snapchat-esque in-app camera that allows users to add effects and dynamic objects to their photos, and they've added Facebook stories to the main Facebook app. Facebook Google AdWords Rolls Out 3 Important Upgrades to Dynamic Search Ads Google AdWords has released three new improvements to Dynamic Search Ads. These changes include page feeds that allow advertisers to specify exact URLs within DSAs, expanded text ads and showing more relevant ads by default. Search Engine Journal What Consumers Really Think About YouTube’s Offensive Content Problem and Its Advertisers AdWeek recently commissioned a survey of 502 consumer respondents to show what they really think of the ongoing controversy of advertiser's content being shown prior to offensive content: "the questionnaire shows that enough people (36 percent) view ads as endorsements by brands to cause concern among marketers. At the same time, 55.1 percent of survey participants said their opinion didn’t change about such brands." AdWeek What were your top news stories this week? We'll be back next week with more top online marketing news. Have something to add? Share your thoughts in the comments to Tweet to @toprank.

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7 Tips that Will Make You a Successful Content Marketer in 2017

7 Tips that Will Make You a Successful Content Marketer in 2017 written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

In today’s marketing, content is king while many previously successful SEO techniques are irrelevant or even harmful. If you expect that keywords included in titles of publications, alt tags, and descriptions will bring your website to the top of Google, you’re behind the times! Wake up – this SEO doesn’t work although some techniques still have power.

Attacks of the search engines against the old SEO tricks led to the fact that many optimizers declared that SEO is dead. However, these rumors are greatly exaggerated – SEO, oddly enough, is alive although in a somehow changed form. The greatest difference is that SEO and content are now interconnected as never before.

So what are the tricks to be on the crest of a wave in 2017?

1. Behavioral Factors as Litmus Test for Your Website

Google has long been dreaming about teaching the crawlers to assess the usefulness of the content. Although artificial intelligence still can’t cope with it, the search engines are rather close to achieving this goal.

A part of this evolution was the refusal of the semantic analysis and taking into account the interaction indicators such as the bounce rate and the time that the visitor spends on a website. For example, if a user comes to a website from the search, remains on it for a while, and then goes to another page of the same website, that means the content is informative, useful and original.

Behavioral factors are almost impossible to imitate, but they show the quality and informative value of the content. What does it mean? Obviously, well-written content is a more accurate way to reach to the top of Google than uninformative nonsense stuffed with keywords.

In 2017, the ability to study the actual problems of the audience and solve them is paramount.

2. Content Effectiveness

All sorts of measurements and analysis will continue to play an important role in the development of content strategies. For example, content managers will have to carefully monitor the attractiveness of the content by the geographical factor.

Also, you need to be aware of how each article, image, video, etc. affects the conversion, that is, it is necessary to delve into how these components affect the buyer’s actions on the website, from the first click to the purchase of goods and services.

The metrics of behavioral factors will show you how users interact with your content.

3. Video-Content

As platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube continue to grow in popularity, it is easy to understand that video content will become an increasingly important part of the marketing plan for any business. Live broadcasts will continue to be in trend, which is proved by the fact that Facebook has added features for live streaming.

Video content is also great for improving behavioral indicators – a ten-minute video better holds the visitor’s attention than an article of 2 000 words in length.

4. Creativity and Originality

Creative ability is now more important than ever (and for sure more important than SEO tricks). Earlier it was believed that websites need some special “SEO-texts,” but in the era when the time spent on the website as well as a response is social networks affect rankings, it is very important to fill the website with high-quality materials written by talented copywriters.

Appealing headlines, intriguing subheadings, unique author’s style and corporate posts – all these will catch readers’ attention.

5. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)

LSI is the ability of crawlers to use mathematical methods to decipher the patterns and relationships between the various components of text and assess their relevance to the subject of the website and the search criteria. This intelligent search for conformity of the keyword with the rest of the article and the website helps Google better understand the content of the article. Although the LSI principles known since 1988, they are still very effective.

6. Relevant Links

The presence of links to your articles in other materials of high quality remains an important factor that affects search rankings. There are a few dozens of ways to get backlinks, but the main idea is to create content that your readers will share, and which will be referred to influential people or companies in your industry.

Getting natural links is quite simple: constantly keep track of what people are interested in, what facts they share with friends, what’s important in your niche today and use this information o create something valuable and relevant.

7. Social Response

Social signals will retain their value. To achieve success, you’ll have to allocate some amount of marketing budget for social promotion of your content. The key here is to find reputable people whose blogs or personal pages have a large number of readers. You can pay them to tell people about your publications, thereby ensuring the growth of your audience and spread of information about the product or service.

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About the Author

Lucy Adams is an online writer from a custom essay writing service. Email this beautiful woman at lucyadams@buzzessay.com with your best ideas and suggestions. Don’t miss a brilliant chance to get a high-quality article at no cost!

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Rule the Room: 5 Tips for Facilitating Meetings that Generate Results

The work world is simultaneously in love and hate with meetings – from congratulatory mugs for surviving ‘another meeting that could have been an email’ to the mandatory ‘check-in’ meetings that seem to plague event the tightest of calendars. It is generally accepted that meetings are necessary for effective work to be done. However, not all meetings lend themselves toward empowering productivity. What’s an organization to do?

It all comes down to planning. There’s a specific formula that needs to be followed in order to push attendees toward action. The outline described below is tried and true. In fact, it has saved many of my own meetings from the pits of meeting despair. If you have a plan, focus on the actions required to carry it out and clarify tasks along the way, you’ll be on the road to great results in no time. Better yet, this framework can help you empower your team to become more effective, focused and productive.

#1 – Come Prepared

Always prepare for your meetings, whether they’re internal, with a client or with a vendor. To maintain control of the room, you must be prepared to address any and all topics that may come up. First, determine what the outcome of the meeting needs to be, and assemble those items into a list of actionable talking points. Next, determine what information needs to support that list of talking points. For example, if you’re meeting to discuss next year’s marketing budget, come prepared with the results of this year’s marketing efforts, recommendations for improvement and spend allocation, and a few discussion points to keep the room engaged.

This level of preparation prior to the meeting can help you gain valuable insights into next steps as well as build your credibility within the group of meeting attendees. If you put in the work ahead of time, there is much more time for discussion and decision making in session.

#2 – Set Your Agenda

Great meetings begin with an agenda. Using the talking points described in step one, make a list of topics to be covered and a key to describe who will lead that particular discussion. Creating your agenda before the meeting allows you to determine the length of time needed and will set the tone for the people involved.

Each agenda item should be action oriented, ‘review and approve design mock up’ vs ‘design mock up’, for example, to clarify the expected outcome of each discussion. At the beginning of the meeting, review the agenda with all attendees and ask if there is anything else to add. This ensures all necessary topics are covered prior to the meeting coming to a close.

#3 – Discourage Multi-Tasking

It may seem counter-intuitive, but multi-tasking is a notorious productivity killer. The focus of all attendees is required to produce and efficient and effective meeting. Ask those attending in person to close their computers. Ask remote attendees to avoid checking email or other distractions. Ask questions that encourage interaction. The person facilitating the meeting should take notes as needed. The larger the meeting, the more opportunities for distractions, so don’t hesitate to politely rein in a wayward discussion when needed.

If closing computers isn’t possible, set your expectations right out of the gate. A simple statement like ‘For the next 30 minutes, I want us all to put our full attention toward solving this problem. Let’s focus on the task at hand and avoid multi-tasking so we can really make this meeting count.’ This will give all in attendance a shared sense of purpose and set a tone of collaboration and results-oriented problem solving right away.

#4 – Document Action Items

When you take meeting notes, be sure to document any action items that may arise. Make sure you are clear on the action needed, and then reiterate to the team after the action is discussed. For example, in a discussion about SEO, the idea of an analytics audit may come up. When it does, document the task, ‘conduct analytics audit’, and the person assigned, ‘analytics specialist’, then repeat to the room, ‘OK – I’m taking an action for our analytics specialist to conduct an analytics audit.’

When the meeting comes to a close, always end with a summary of actions. For example, you could say something like ‘Great, thanks for your time today team. I want to take a minute to run through our post meeting actions and answer any additional questions. For my team, the actions are to conduct an analytics audit…’ This gives the attendees their final marching orders on the way out the door, clarifies expectations for all involved and inspires immediate action once the meeting wraps up.

#5 – Send a Post-Meeting Summary

When the meeting concludes, always send a post-meeting summary to those who have attended. This email serves as a reminder of discussion topics as well as a documented assignment of tasks for the team involved. It’s often helpful to reference the same post-meeting email when preparing the agenda for your next meeting to keep progress moving forward.

Following this formula helps drive meetings toward an action-oriented conclusion.

Ensuring all attendees are aware of the purpose of the meeting, the desired outcome and the follow up tasks will provide a helpful framework for the meetings to follow. What are your tried and true meeting tips? Share them in the comments or Tweet to @toprank.

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How In-App Messaging Converts Trial Users Into Paying Customers

Communication.

It’s the only way to demonstrate your product’s value to potential customers. Your goal is to convey information about new features, successful case studies, and industry trends.

Converting B2B free trial users into paying customers involves lots of communication about why your product trumps competitors. In-app messaging is a powerful tool to send on-time, contextual messages to connect with users.

“Customers are focused on your product at the moment of [in-app] communication, and can be delivered immediate, direct information that is targeted specifically to them and their patterns of behaviour,” states Alex Cohen, managing director at Xander Marketing.

Take full advantage of in-app messaging. Here are five ways to gain more paying customers:

1. Upgrade Your Onboarding

Trial users are ready to get started with your platform. Convinced by your promises to deliver, it’s your responsibility to exceed users’ expectations.

First, let’s debunk the notion that it’s easy to transform free trial users into customers. They still need guidance toward the sale.

That’s why onboarding is so important to the success of the user. You want these initial interactions with your product to showcase the best of your brand. To keep them hooked, your team must continue to offer solutions.

With in-app messaging, you can pinpoint targeted actions to activate the user sooner. Send tailored messaging to help the individual learn how to gain quick wins from your platform.

The CoSchedule team executes this strategy well. During the trial period, users receive tidbits on how to improve their experiences.

What’s also vital is celebrating small accomplishments with the user. A note of congratulations makes them feel part of your brand family. While the achievement is fresh on their minds, you also can ask users to complete another action.

Delivering ongoing value means setting expectations and understanding the user’s business goals. When tackling the onboarding process, strive to guide the user to a positive outcome.

2. Feature Product Updates

Alienating trial users is one mistake businesses make when interacting with this specific group. Giving them limited information won’t help them become customers faster.

While you may attempt to create exclusivity, trial users don’t like hearing the phrase: “Oh, you’re just a trial user. That’s unavailable to you.” Instead, look for ways to involve them in your brand community.

Work with your team—product, marketing, and sales—to include trial users in announcements about your application. It’s an effective way to show these potential customers that your product is constantly evolving, and you want them to be part of your growth.

Broadcast new product features within the application to encourage immediate use. Make sure to give specific instructions on how to use the feature and how it will benefit the individual. If not, you risk them ignoring every message you send.

Try giving simple examples to exhibit the ease of use. Depending on the complexity of the feature, you may want to add screenshots or a short video tutorial.

Check out the example below from Slack. When the company announced its video call feature, the message contained simple steps for users to follow.

Moreover, invite users to ask questions or report bugs regarding the new feature. It helps your team improve the product, and trial users know that their concerns are addressed.

3. Provide Educational Training

Education is the foundation of converting trial users into loyal customers. You need to properly train users how to gain value from your product. Without it, people will get frustrated and decide to churn.

SaaS companies must ensure that the learning curve isn’t too steep for their audiences. No one wants to feel like they are taking an advanced math class. Plus, people don’t want to waste hours (or even days) learning how to get your platform to work correctly.

So it’s not good enough to just say your product is easy to operate. It actually has to fulfill that promise, or you risk losing your trial user to a competitor.

In-app messaging works as another distribution channel for your marketing team to teach trial users. You can deliver helpful content to guide people throughout the journey.

And you don’t have to explicitly say that your message is for educational purposes. In the screenshot below, Hint Health frames the message in a “Did You Know…” format.

Image Source

With the power of data, your team also can decide who needs more training. Segmentation is an effective strategy to personalize the learning experience. That way, the advanced user isn’t getting bored with beginner content.

“One of the main benefits of in-app messages is the capability of hyper segmentation, so why wouldn’t SaaS companies take advantage of that? Sending the same message to every user without even knowing if they’re interested can be a huge shot in the foot,” says Gabriela Tanuri, Content Hacker at Pipz.

Be ready to train your trial users when they sign up, and customize the education to fit the user’s needs.

4. Gather User Feedback

In-app messaging is one of the best channels to collect user feedback. It’s a chance to speak directly with the user inside your platform.

You can learn about user challenges in real-time. So your team knows exactly when the individual used the specific feature and how the problem is affecting the user’s progress.

You’ll also gain insight on which benefits matter most to the user. Then, you can target more content resources around those particular benefits.

“From VIPs to free trial users and more, in-app messages have quickly become the best way for our team to get feedback from customers in the right place at the right time — and we’re noticing that the feedback is better when we can get really specific with both our targeting and messaging,” writes Dave Gerhardt, marketing at Drift.

You can employ the 1-10 rating scale to get feedback from your users. It’s quick and easy for the person to participate, and your team receives qualitative data to improve the product.

Image Source

Part of the sales process is listening to your users. Therefore, pay attention to user feedback to boost your revenue.

5. Leverage Sales Opportunities

Most companies want to create new channels to gain sales. In-app messaging helps facilitate the sales conversations with the trial user.

Like any sales call, there’s an appropriate time to ask users to explore your pricing plans. Avoid solely using in-app messaging to just convert users. Your audience will spot this tactic immediately and will start ignoring your messages.

If direct sales doesn’t work best for your company, try using it to take the conversation offline. Message users about setting up an appointment for a tutorial to demonstrate the product’s value. You also can offer special discounts or bonuses to this targeted group to clinch the sale.

Train your support team to spot opportunities to show trial users benefits only for paying customers. It’ll spark the user’s curiosity about upgrading his plan.

Another idea is to send customer success stories via the messaging platform. Users will become inspired to achieve similar results as their paying colleagues.

If the user doesn’t seem interested in buying at all, experiment with using in-app messaging to ask for referrals. Read this message from the Nickelled team:

Image Source

Messaging for More Conversions

Building quality relationships with your audience starts with communication. In-app messaging offers an opportunity to connect and support your trial users in the customer journey.

Strive to educate users about your product and respond to users’ concerns to improve the overall experience. In-app messaging is your pathway to more conversions.

About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.

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How to Negotiate As If Your Life Depended On It

How to Negotiate As If Your Life Depended On It written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Chris Voss
Podcast Transcript

The idea that you might negotiate deals and jobs and even pay raises like a hostage negotiator might seem a little crazy, but when it comes down to it, understanding and dealing with human emotions in slightly charged environments is something most of us address daily.

What if you were able to simply use a few proven tactics to better communicate and read reactions of others? Would that make you a more effective salesperson, leader, parent?

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Chris Voss. Voss is the Founder and CEO at The Black Swan Group, a former FBI top hostage negotiator, and the author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. He and I discuss how his experiences and tactics in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations can be applied to the business world and everyday life.

Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He is also a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service.

Chris currently teaches business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Questions I ask Chris Voss:

• Can people have negotiation as a street skill?
• Are there certain types of people that are better at negotiating than others?
• What skill should you master to be a good negotiator?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

• Why emotional intelligence is important for mastering negotiation
• Why negotiations are predictable, not rational
• Why one-line communication can be so impactful

Key takeaways from the episode and more about Chris Voss:

• Learn more about Chris Voss.
• Learn more about The Black Swan Group.
• To receive the free monthly newsletter with negotiation tips from Chris, text ‘ThatsRight’ to 22828.
• Read Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It.
• Follow on Twitter.
• Connect on LinkedIn.
• Email chris@blackswanltd.com.

This week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by Klaviyo. Klaviyo is truly a game changer. Unlike traditional ESPs or marketing automation platforms, Klaviyo offers powerful functionality without long implementation or execution cycles. It gives ecommerce marketers access to all relevant data from a variety of tools and makes it available to power smarter, more personalized campaigns. Bottom line, Klaviyo helps ecommerce marketers make more money through super targeted, highly relevant, email and advertising campaigns.  Learn more at klaviyo.com.

This week’s episode is also brought to you by ActiveCampaign. This is my new go-to CRM, ESP, and marketing automation platform. With its low cost, any size of business can use it. Starting at $19/month, you can keep track of your clients, see who’s visiting your website, and follow-up based on behavior. Learn more here.

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