The Benefits of Switching to Solar Power

As our lives become increasingly dependent on electricity to keep our needs, it seems that we must be careful how we get a profitable renewable. While other forms of “green energy” are only practical on a commercial level, solar panels are easy to install-power for residential consumers. Sunlight is a natural source of clean energy that is abundant worldwide so there is little reason not to enjoy. Simply switching to solar panels for 25 percent of its electricity, emissions overall average consumers will be reduced by more than 1.5 tons, helping to conserve energy for future generations, while saving thousands of dollar homes in the long term.

While this may seem like an expensive investment installation of solar energy systems, the average life of the solar system is more than 25 years, during which you are less dependent on a grid. In fact, if installed optimally in the right conditions, the solar panels are able to create the surplus electricity to sell to electric companies.

At the first change solar panels, many consumers decide to buy 1-3kw system, which accounts for about 25-40 percent of its current energy consumption. While this may not seem like much, the amount of electricity generated even a panel can lead to annual savings in electricity bills. In a few years, solar power has completely paid for itself and has 20 years to reduce energy costs for consumers.

A common concern about solar energy is that the cloudy regions receive good sun and force the end user to use only electricity from the grid of the utility company. Although there is a reduction in the amount of electricity produced during cloudy days, the panels installed optimally will collect enough energy to be a worthwhile investment. If the solar system is not able to gather enough electricity to power your home, the houses are without electricity. As a precaution all solar panels will be able to store excess electricity to use the reserve and are able to draw from the grid, utilities connected to ensure that a home is never without electricity. Another common concern is that residents with flat roofs may not get adequate sunlight, but the use of systems modern panel mounting for maximum power, regardless of how the tilt sunroof.

Although the transition to renewable energy appears to be a dangerous investment for the development of modern solar technologies they are both the environment and a great way to save money, even for residential users. The long-term savings from the solar panel to move not only help to maintain a healthy environment for future generations, but also economically benefit the end user.

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The Best Resources for Account-Based Marketing

I’ve spent the past few weeks discussing account-based marketing (ABM), a powerful but under-implemented strategy. My first post covers the history of account-based marketing, from the “Mad Men” days of the 1950s to today. My second post reviews the reasons B2B firms should implement account-based marketing.

Of course, understanding why you should implement account-based marketing and actually doing it are two different things. Knowing how to implement the right technology stack is essential to unlocking the true power of ABM. For the final post in this series, I’ll go over the best resources for setting up account-based marketing.

What’s ABM, again?

Let’s quickly review the definition of ABM:

• Account-based marketing focuses marketing and sales resources on a defined set of targeted accounts, where personalized campaigns are tailored to each account.

Now that we understand what account-based marketing is, the next step is incorporating the right technology. Many times firms adopt technology without understanding its real purpose, sometimes without any real marketing strategy. Before you fall into the same trap, you need to take a hard look at the health of your Marketing and Sales departments.

Understanding Your Experience with Technology and Training

Every marketing firm is different. From client experience to employee expertise, your firm is going to have unique resources and know-how. While this might include SaaS, you have to be willing to admit when you aren’t ready for new tech.

Is your staff experienced enough with SaaS solutions to adapt to new systems and processes? Do they have good habits in place with existing SaaS solutions, like LinkedIn Business? Have you introduced new systems in the past?

After answering these questions, you’ll be able to realistically determine what you’ll need for ABM. Asking yourself the hard questions will help you determine the right resources and training for your team’s success.

Make Sure Marketing and Sales Speak the Same Language

No matter the firm, Marketing and Sales should be on the same page. Marketing and sales alignment is necessary for marketing to ensure their campaigns align with the needs of prospects identified by sales, and for sales to make sure they’re selling the right stuff to the right contacts. Both departments need to have the same success metrics, otherwise efforts from one could be counter-productive for the other.

Implementing a technology stack makes this relationship more important than ever. Solutions are built to streamline processes such as updating lead and contact information and streamlining campaigns, so the more you have your ducks in a row, the better. (And let’s not forget the cost of purchasing new SaaS.) As with any investment, you need to make sure you’re getting the most value you can.

Understand the Purpose of Your Technology Stack

It’s not uncommon for many companies, big and small, to jump on new technology. The enthusiasm is great—the fallout, not so much. Many Marketing departments don’t have a clear purpose or strategy for incorporating their chosen technology into their existing sales and marketing pipeline.

Before adding a tool to your technology stack, ask yourself what value it will add to your sales and marketing efforts. Do you want to use ABM because of its laser focus on lead generation and management? Are you looking for automations tools to help with campaigns? Many account-based marketing solution companies offer more than one product. Knowing what you need will help you and your potential provider find your ideal solution.

Identify Tools to Help Achieve Your Strategy

Finally, we’ve arrived at the most important question: What should you look for in an ABM solution? Some important features may include:

Action-Oriented Insights

Any ABM solution can slice and dice data into metrics and charts. However, these insights are useless if you can’t create actionable plans from them. Solid account-based marketing programs will provide straightforward metrics that you can readily understand and use effectively. Ideally, the system will also offer flexibility for you to create customized drill-down reports as you become familiar with your particular needs.

Lead and Contact Data Automation

The very objective of having an ABM stack is to reduce time-consuming tasks so you can focus on engaging your targeted segment. Good ABM solutions will help manage contact and lead information, such as automatically updating contact information or mapping new contacts into the appropriate accounts.

Reliable Support and Services

Just as your firm focuses on marketing and tailoring your services to your customers, your ABM provider should offer reliable real-time support. While this includes a traditional help desk, some firms go so far as to provide consultant services and host educational events.

Integration with Existing Solutions

We’ve already mentioned that account-based marketing requires constant communication with sales. ABM tools that integrate with existing solutions like Salesforce and marketing automation solutions like Marketo will keep your teams running smoothly.

ABM Technology to Add to Your Stack

Now that you understand what to look for in an account-based marketing system, I’m sure you’re wondering where to even begin looking for the solution that’s best for you. Fortunately, there aren’t too many out there right now:

• Engagio – Though new to the ABM scene, Engagio delivers reliable automation and analytics no matter the size of your target segment. This solution connects to your existing Salesforce and Marketo accounts and your website to keep track of leads, marketing programs and site visitors. The utilization of metrics such as “engagement minutes,” allow for a more straightforward way of tracking lead interest.
• LeanData – This California-based company delivers two ABM products. Sales Accelerator focuses on lead management, including automated lead conversions and contact owner assignments. Demand Management focuses on account-based reporting and nurturing, ensuring you have the proper data to adjust campaigns and properly target leads.
• DemandBase – DemandBase offers a full suite of solutions, called the Marketing Cloud, to help teams streamline every step of the marketing process. Solutions include advertising, personalized site experiences and account-based measurements. DemandBase also provides consulting services by experts that will help create a marketing plan that’s best for you.

Before You Hit “Start”

Finally, we come to the $6 billion question: Is it time for you to implement account-based marketing? To review, here’s what’s on the table:

• The opportunity to target “whale” accounts with tailored marketing campaigns.
• The power to engage contacts and create organic referrals within accounts.
• The confidence to sell more than ever before once you’ve set up your stack and hired in the right talent.

Like I’ve said before, ABM really is a no-brainer. But you have to be prepared.

Jumping the gun and setting up an ABM stack the wrong way will just make life harder for Marketing and Sales. Take the time to review your existing solutions and align your firepower with your targets. ABM will help you get where you want to go, but you need to be facing the right direction, first.

About the Author: Alp Mimaroglu is a Marketing Luminary. He specializes in marketing automation, demand generation, analytics, and marketing technology. Alp has extensive experience with both business and consumer marketing. He’s passionate about how technology is rapidly becoming the key to success in both the corporate sales and marketing landscapes. Follow Alp on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The 10 Challenges Facing a CMO Faces When Trying to Lead the Customer Experience

Today's CMO faces a multitude of challenges and at or near the top of the list is overseeing the customer experience, assuming you believe the CMO should oversee it in first place. Last week in fact we posed the question Should the CMO Oversee the Whole Customer Experience?

The entire topic is at the heart of a recently-released report entitled, surprisingly enough Should the CMO Oversee the Whole Customer Experience? The report addresses the rewards and risks for a CMO to step into an all-encompassing role to deliver the end-to-end customer experience. Conversations with CMOs highlight 10 challenges that can inhibit a CMO’s success if an organization decides the CMO should step into this expanded role without changing how the business is run and the role of the CMO.

The 10 key challenges are as follows:

1. Ownership of the customer experience. Confusion abounds on who should lead (own) the customer experience. Many organizations are facing the issue of who should lead the “collected” customer experience.

2. Agile, design- thinking. Agile, design-thinking is required to lead changes needed for successful customer experience. Design thinking fosters cross-organizational collaboration, brainstorming, and execution.

3. Communication vs. innovation. Marketing is often focused on communications rather than innovation, product development and business innovation.

4. Measurement and metrics. Marketing only recently became more accustomed to being highly measured, so building the business case for the additional responsibilities of the “new” CMO role may be difficult. 

5. Consumerization of IT. The Consumerization of IT has created often unfulfilled customer experiences.
Great customer experiences require technologies beyond traditional email and marketing optimization. 

6. Immediate analysis and action. The abundance of data requires immediate analysis and action to provide meaningful mass personalization at scale.

7. Data management and utilization strategy. The plethora of data requires a data management and utilization strategy. Digital media serves as a strategic resource for sharpening customer focus because it is full of highly differentiated market and customer data, providing critical information from around the world, 24/7 and at a minimal cost.

8. Breaking down isolation. Marketing can be isolated from other departments that affect customer experience and that isolation hurts the ability to lead change. It takes a village to deliver superb customer experiences because there are so many touch points along a customer’s journey that are not “owned” by marketing.

9. Customer experience drives top-and bottom-line. Customer experience means bottom-line business, so it should be taken more seriously. Research has shown that it is less expensive to keep existing customers than to obtain new ones.

10. Cross-functional collaboration. Customer experience requires a highly collaborative individual to lead cross- functional collaboration. The role of Chief Customer Officer is all encompassing and requires a varied and vast skill set.

Download Should the CMO Oversee the Whole Customer Experience? and learn a lot more including the risks that come with the rewards for the CMO who steps into the Customer Experience role. 

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Content Marketing Tactics: Earned Media Pros, Cons, Examples & Best Practices

For any brand, reputation is everything—and reputations are often built (or torn down) with earned media. From a glowing news article about one of your products to that horrific Yelp review, every brand experiences the benefits and drawbacks of earned media.

And in today’s socially connected world, marketers are increasing their use of earned media as a contact marketing tactic as it continues to be a crucial factor in consumer decision making.

In fact, a study by Nielsen and InPowered shows that expert content—credible, third-party articles and reviews—is the most effective source of information in impacting consumers along all stages of the purchase process across product categories. The study also showed that earned media is 88 percent more effective than owned media content alone.

Definition of Earned Media

Earned media, also referred to as media relations, word-of-mouth, PR or publicity, is an unpaid brand mention or recognition such as a news article, published interview, or online review by a third party. In addition, earned media can also refer to a byline or article written by someone associated with the brand that is published by a third party.

Earned media is one of three major marketing categories, with the other two being owned media and paid media. Owned media is any content created and managed by the brand such as a website or blog. Paid media is–as it sounds–any publicity, advertising, or content published by a third party that’s paid for by the brand. Many would call earned media the Holy Grail of the three media types, and often earned media is the result of your paid or owned efforts. (e.g. running a promotion (owned) on your website that results in people around the web talking about it (earned).)

These days, social media and review curation sites are major earned media platforms. Everything from that nice tweet about your fabulous customer service to Facebook shares to poor reviews on independent review sites is part of earned media. And viral content is probably the ultimate example of earned media.

Pros

As a content marketing tactic, earned media is one of the most affordable and impactful strategies that a marketer can take advantage of. Here are just some of the benefits of using earned media in your content marketing strategy:

• Expert content allows brands are able to build reputation, credibility and trust with new customers, while reinforcing current customer relationships.
• Since credibility and trust are established, earned media also inspires customer action.
• Earned media is incredibly cost effective because it requires your time, not a large budget.
• Social signals such as likes and shares send positive juice to search engines and organic search results can be positively impacted.

Cons

While earned media can be have a positive impact on your brand, it does have its drawbacks, too. Here are some of the disadvantages of earned media:

• Since you don’t own the content, you can’t control the message—which can include negative press, reviews, and comments about your brand.
• Cultivating quality relationships with your customers and media outlets who cover your business is time consuming and doesn’t happen right away.
• Newsrooms are slimmer on editorial staff than ever and earning placements is also more difficult.
• The cost to pay a media relations firm for earned media in major publications does not bring a guarantee.

What Experts Are Saying

“Content is the currency for building social relationships with journalists and bloggers that can boost earned media. Companies that invest in content marketing through brand publisher models are able to attract more inbound media coverage due to their demonstrated expertise. Brand content also enables those same companies to bypass traditional media and connect with consumers directly.”

Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing

“Content marketing can be a powerful tool for brands, but the key is to ensure that the messaging is relevant and consistent to the brand narrative. Otherwise it can become extra noise in an already loud space.”

Mark Delcorps, Public Relations Manager at Overstock.com

“The earned strategy, or publicity gained through editorial influence, is something that has been around for awhile but has become more important due to the advent of social media. Not unlike earning coverage in an industry magazine article, gaining shares, ‘likes,’ re-tweets, posts, and every other social signal related to your business has become an important criteria for promoting your business’ authority. It provides Google with an opportunity to understand if your content is important and, in return, helps to move that content up higher in relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). Online earned media has taken the place of the “word-of-mouth” advertising we all coveted.”

Christopher Baldock, contributor to Content Marketing Institute. (Source: contentmarketinginstitute.com)

Brand Examples of Earned Media

TopRank Marketing

TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden has established himself and the agency as thought leaders and innovators in content marketing. As a result, his expertise is often sought after for interviews, contributed articles and webinars. As an example, last year Lee participated in an interview with Content Standard by Skyword.

Budweiser

During the 2015 Super Bowl, Budweiser aired its “Brewed the Hard Way” advertisement that challenged the craft brewing industry a bit. The LA Times wrote an article titled “How the ‘Proud to be macro’ Budweiser Super Bowl ad got it all right.” Not only did the article make the beer company look great, but the LA Times is also a very trustworthy source. This is also a perfect example of earned media working with owned and paid media.

Copyblogger Media (client)

In early 2015, Copyblogger Media—a well-known content marketing software and training organization—was preparing for its second annual Authority Rainmaker conference. With the conference still in its early years, Copyblogger partnered with TopRank Marketing to create an eBook that would leverage event speakers to raise awareness and attract registrations for the event. Promotion of the eBook included several earned media guest posts to industry blogs such as Kapost, SlideShare, and Simply Measured.

Combining earned media with other content marketing tactics, the eBook had a total of 26,859 views, more than 1,000 shares, and 139 downloads. A total of 19 referrals were logged as assisted conversions, with an additional 4 direct conversions.

Earned Media Best Practices

• Create awesome, share-worthy content. Remember, content is king. Create quality, engaging content that serves a useful purpose. If you can address a paint point, provide valuable insights, or educate your audience, they’ll share.
• Build and nurture relationships. Reach out to publishers, editors, journalists, influencers, and any other relevant third-party. These are the people who can cover your business when a new product launches, as well as special events, industry news and so on.
• Be prepared to work on someone else’s deadline. Journalists and editors are always working on hard deadlines. Be prepared to speed up or delay your own efforts to fit with their needs.
• Earned media should be just one part of your content marketing strategy. Think about how your owned and paid media efforts can result in some earned media. For example, Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign that launched last summer was a huge multi-faceted campaign—that got a whole lot of people sharing photos of their Cokes on social media platforms.
• Share positive press and reviews. If people are saying awesome things about your brand, show people. Add customer reviews to your website and share on your social media pages.

Software & Resources

The following resources can help you connect with media organizations and journalists, craft quality content ideas, and track the publicity you’re getting on social media.

Software

• Cision
• Prezly

SEO and Analytics

• Google Webmaster Tools
• Moz
• Majestic SEO
• ahrefs

Social Media

• Hootsuite
• Followerwonk

Content Distribution

• PRNewswire
• Marketwired

The reality is that earned media is really just a part of doing business. Every brand will earn some type of publicity simply for being. But, marketers have an opportunity to grow the amount and the quality of earned media they receive by making it a part of their overall content marketing strategy.

Cultivating earned media is certainly not without its challenges, but it definitely needs to be a consideration since consumers are looking to that content for guidance before they buy.

How does your brand use earned media within its content marketing strategy? What are some of your best practices? Please share in the comments section below.

If you liked this post, check out our content marketing tactics index page with links to more than 25 helpful posts just like this one!

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Solar Panels A Safe Investment Option

Green energy sources are more sustainable energy production resources. These renewable energy sources can be used several times and do not cause environmental pollution. These are not very expensive. On the other hand, non-renewable energy sources can not be renewed. At the current rate of consumption, the future generation will be under the threat of energy. While green energy sources such as solar energy should be used to meet energy demands.

One of the main dangers of using fossil fuels such as coal oil and natural gas is dramatically affects nature. Carbon emissions through the use of fossil fuels causes global warming and many other health risks. Vehicles and households contribute to global warming. Over the years, people have realized the harmful effects of using them and they are slowly changing to other energy sources that are friendly to the environment. Other sources, solar energy is becoming increasingly popular because it has many positive factors. The sun’s energy is used to generate power here. Solar panels are used to exploit the sunlight, which is converted into other forms. This is also the best method to get rid of electricity bills as the power to homes and commercial organizations can be recovered by the solar panels. People slowly recognize the many benefits of using this technology and make investments in solar panels to produce energy.

Usually, a lot of energy for heating and cooling in the summer and winter use. The use of solar panels for heating, a lot of power and money can be saved. The use of this alternative energy, you help the environment welfares. Green energy sources can also be used for lighting and running appliances. The only drawback is that solar panels can not be used when sufficient sunlight is not available. However, if the sunlight received during the day can be stored in solar cells and can be used at night to power generation. Most people have a misconception that these panels are very expensive and difficult to install. Installing solar panels is not a difficult task if the right help is requested. In addition, the installation cost is not very high in relation to future prospects. Considering all these factors, the investment in solar panels is a good investment to make.

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7 Ways to Use Cognitive Biases to Increase Email Signups

Are all of the decisions you make rational?

You’d like to say yes, but I’ll let you in on a secret: none of us make rational decisions 100% of the time. As human beings, we are not perfect in the way we act or in the way we think. As such, from time to time we make suboptimal decisions that we are unaware of! Our brain finds a way to stray away from rational thinking, and instead acts on cognitive biases as a result of trying to simplify information.

The existence of cognitive biases is not something you and I can change. What we can do is use these cognitive biases to increase email signups and the conversion rates of your sign up forms.

I don’t want to keep you waiting longer, so without further ado, here are seven cognitive biases that can be countered to help you hack your email signups.

1. Loss Aversion

This cognitive bias refers to the excess influence that the fear of losing out on something has over the positive effect of gaining something. According to Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (the first ones demonstrate the effect), the pain from losing ‘X’ is greater than the joy of gaining ‘X’.

Regardless of whether or not you actually sell a product/service, or just blog, this irrational way of thinking can be attacked to help you grow your email lists.

Bounce Exchange puts this bias to work by simply asking visitors if they are okay with losing out on revenue. The overlay does not directly ask the visitor if they want to monetize their traffic, rather points to the loss, and uses that as a trigger to persuade.

Use of loss aversion

In order to combat the loss aversion that visitors may have, you need to rewrite your copy to reflect the loss that visitors will encounter if they do not opt-in to your offer. If you convey a message to visitors that they are losing out on more leads and revenue you’ll strike fear and urgency in the visitor. When you are able to create a sense of urgency, your conversion rates are sure to increase. So let’s take a look at how to do that with the Framing Effect.

2. Framing Effect

The framing effect is an irrational way of thinking, in which people react to one offer, presented in different forms – depending on the light in which the choice is presented – in completely different ways.

The bottom line, in this case: people tend to avoid risk when a positive frame is presented but seek risks when a negative frame is presented.

Let’s go back to that last example.

“Do you want to convert your bounce traffic into revenue?” The question is asked in a positive frame; they don’t come out and state a risk rather they point to a benefit. As such, the large majority of the visitors will look to avoid risk, leading them to select, “Yes, let’s do this.”

3. Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect is in essence the same thing as ‘social proof’. The bandwagon effect is what leads to an increase in the acceptance rate of ideas and trends based solely on an increase of acceptance by others.

Tapping into social proof is the best way to combat the bandwagon effect. When someone sees that either a large group of colleagues has bought in or a group of well-known influencers has joined the deal too, the visitor is likely to sign up for what you are offering.

The following is a partial view of the homepage of the 4 Hour Work Week. Aside from properly using the call to action, ‘Start Here’, the site also makes terrific use of all the site’s real estate. The two longer testimonials are placed to the right, while three shorter, and very well known publications are placed to the left. Coincidence? No, it’s capitalizing on the F-Pattern that ensures social proof is noticed.

Using social proof to hack email signups

Anyone doubting the benefits of GrowthHackers is instantly convinced otherwise. Not only do they mention the quantity, but they also mention the quality.

Social proof to increase email signups

Whether or not they were going to join before, the tide has turned to a point that not signing up seems almost inconceivable.

4. Commitment Heuristic

“Don’t be a quitter” is a statement that all of us have probably heard from others or something we tell ourselves. The commitment heuristic causes us to believe that since we’ve already invested in a decision or a certain project, we should continue to do so.

At the last startup I worked at I fell victim to the commitment heuristic. I worked at the same startup for almost three years, even though I could tell after a year and a half that it was going nowhere. Why did I stay? I did not want to be a quitter. I told myself that I had to stay the course as I had already invested time and energy into it.

When it comes to lead generation, your business should capitalize on this mindset. Here’s an example from Neil Patel from his website Quick Sprout. He knows that the majority of his visitors create content. He also knows that what they need is for their content to be “king”.

The phrase “better content” makes perfect sense. Pointing out to potential leads that they can take their game to the next level – whatever that might be – is a great tactic to implement in order to use this cognitive bias to increase email signups.

Getting the visitor to strive for improvement

5. Anchoring Effect

The anchoring effect is in essence our mind taking in a first piece of information and attaching to it too much weight when we then make a decision later on. That first piece of information is acting as an anchor (our brain is at a standstill).

The most common use of the anchoring effect for business growth is in sales. As pointed out by Neil Patel in an earlier Kissmetrics post on psychological tips that improve product pricing, “For example, if someone mentions “$300” in regards to a SaaS product that you are considering buying, then your mind is anchored by that number. Thus, when you see the true price — $30 — then you might think “Wow! That’s a great price!” Why? Because you were thinking $300 before”.

This idea however can also be implemented to increase email signups. For example, let’s say you sell a digital product. Either on the page that the visitor is on, or one he/she was directed from, the product was advertised for $59.99. Once the person has seen that price, this is the “anchor”. To convert the visitor into a lead, you offer the same product for $45.99 (for example) in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter.

Here’s an example from DaPulse. You’ve got your standard pricing tables. No big deal.

Acts as an anchor

The goal is for every visitor to pick a plan. That however won’t happen. After seeing the above prices, the visitor continues to scroll down, and here is where DaPulse makes use of anchoring to instantly generate new leads.

The visitor came to their site knowing that he/she was looking to improve their project management process. The highlighted “Standard” plan acts as an anchor for this free offer, enabling the company to maximize email signups.

6. Confirmation Bias

The confirmation bias is, in short, one’s fear of new information, and thus leaning on current views to make decisions. Technically speaking, this is our tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms our current train of thought instead of trying to see if our current belief is correct or not.

Here’s a relevant example for our daily life: If you’re convinced that caffeine makes you more alert, you’re going to feel more alert when you take in caffeinated beverages —and you won’t when you are given anything else.

Like the other cognitive biases, in this case too, you can capitalize on this type of thinking in order to increase email signups by assuring the visitor that their current beliefs are correct. Singing up to your newsletter will only strengthen that belief.

Case in point, Groove. In the “Startup Journey” blog, the text refers to their success and uses it as a selling point to other entrepreneurs. The takeaway for me (someone that is subscribed to their blog) is that they are hitting these results. If we join them for lessons, we’ll be able to do that too. There is no need for me to go elsewhere.

Using the confirmation bias

Whether or not what they experience becomes reality for me and others is another story. The same goes for that third cup of coffee – that caffeine may or may not be kicking in (though you think it is).

7. Belief Bias

Have you ever come across an offer and skipped on opting in because it sounded “too good to be true”. Even if the offer is the exact same thing you are a promoting, an offer that gives off a vibe of being too good to be true won’t convert at as a high of a rate as you would have expected.

In order to capitalize on this bias, the email signup form that you are using must focus on showing visitors the overall result that the product or newsletter will have on them. Don’t promise anything or zoom in on the benefits, rather relay the realistic results of its use to the visitor (like in this example).

Here are two overlays from Cloudways, one older and one that was in action recently. I don’t have results for either campaign, but odds are that overlay number two was much more successful because it’s more realistic (sorry, don’t completely buy the “double” aspect).

Too good to be true
Believable offer

I’d like to think that I am rational, but this is one example in which I would have skipped a great offer because it was “too good to be true”.

Time to Implement

The different psychological tactics and strategies that we can implement are endless. In working on this post I was blown away by all the different biases and irrational ways of thinking that cloud our minds on a daily basis.

We are an imperfect breed and now it is your time to pick out one of these cognitive biases to capitalize on in order to grow your business. I’m curious, which one will you be choosing?

About the Author: Ty is a digital marketing enthusiast that can’t get enough social media marketing and content marketing. He is the inbound marketing manager at StoreYa where he spends his days searching for the newest social marketing scoop and creating amazingly awesome content. If you’d like to chat with him, feel free to connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Duct Tape Marketing’s Most Shared Posts of 2015

Duct Tape Marketing’s Most Shared Posts of 2015 written by Alex Boyer read more at Duct Tape Marketing

2015 was an exciting year for the Duct Tape Marketing team. Our team internally grew, we expanded the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, launched the Duct Tape Marketing System course and community, and even restructured our website and launched the all-new Duct Tape Marketing Content Community. That’s a lot of major changes for us in just 12 short months, but a lot has also stayed the same. We still strive to bring you great small business marketing content weekly on our blog.

Every week we feature posts from John Jantsch, the Duct Tape Marketing team, and guests from around the world. Here are the top-5 most shared posts of 2015 (via Buzzsumo):

Top 4 Content Marketing Metrics

Knowing how to use Google Analytics is the #1 tool any content marketer needs to have in their arsenal. The best part about Google Analytics is that it shows us everything we need to know about our websites and then some.

Unfortunately, it throws a lot of data at us and sometimes it can be overwhelming and difficult to interpret.

The good news is you don’t need to follow all of this data closely. There are a handful of metrics you can use to get an idea about whether or not your content marketing strategy is working. These 4 metrics are great numbers to track.

21 Blogs I Turn To When I Need to Learn How To Do Stuff

No shock in this statement – John is a big fan of blogs and blogging as a core marketing, content and SEO practice. He subscribes to many blogs, reads blogs daily and generally finds that when he searches for things blog posts offer the most useful solutions.

These 21 blogs are helpful blogs that John turns to regularly to help him find information he needs to complete projects, do research or even just read up on something interesting.

16 Step Checklist for the Perfect Blog Post

You work hard to create content – sometimes on the fly in the midst of the raging storm that is entrepreneurialism.

In the rush to get the thing out though you can diminish its impact through oversight and sloppiness. You might even do your brand more harm than good. And then all that hard work has less payoff.

Use this 16-point checklist to make sure you do everything you need to do to get the most from your blog posts.

Email Marketing Best Practices for Lead Generation

Leads, leads, leads. Everybody wants them and once you have a few, you will want more. When you do get more, you will want better quality ones. It’s all part of doing business.

In the only guest post to make this list, Brian Sutter of Wasp Barcode Technologies breaks down how to generate new leads with email marketing.

10 Ways to Use One Piece of Content

The idea of content marketing begins and ends for so many with – “It’s Monday, what the heck should I write today?”

What if instead you thought a little bigger – what if you thought we want to be seen as the trusted, go-to service provider for what we do and our value proposition is that we bend over backwards to make you happy when nobody in our industry even tries to.

John breaks down 10 ways to repurpose a single piece of content. Now you can save time and still create great content for your readers.

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