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I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT and trying to understand how we can use it for our marketing. In the meantime, I decided to have it write a movie. I then acted (badly) in it.

Granted, this doesn’t feel like it’s directly connected to marketing or Facebook advertising. But the point was to tinker with it, have fun with it, and find out what it was capable of.

Throughout this post, I’m going to walk you through the process of “writing” a 60-second movie with the help of ChatGPT. I’m hoping it will help you think of creative ways that you can use this tool.

The final product is embedded at the bottom.

The Initial Prompt

[I did this with ChatGPT here.]

I truly didn’t have the plan to have ChatGPT write a movie and then turn it into something. I was sitting on the couch and just started asking it random questions. Here’s the initial prompt for this movie:

ChatGPT Movie

I had some very basic goals. I wanted the video (it’s not a movie yet!) to focus on the value of ChatGPT. Just two friends talking, one who is a skeptic.

Let’s take a look at the initial result…

ChatGPT Movie

Look, this is actually really good. It’s corny. But, I didn’t ask it not to be corny. Ultimately, it feels stiff and like a bad ChatGPT commercial.

So, this was a fun little start. But I had no plans to turn it into anything.

The Counter Prompts

I then became determined to help ChatGPT make this more interesting. With each script, I started to see what I didn’t want, and I would tell it to try again.

First, I wanted it to be more casual and not so much like a commercial. Shorter dialog. I also didn’t like the lame happy ending at the end where everyone is happy and smiling. So, let’s change that.

ChatGPT Movie

ChatGPT took me literally (as it should).

Well, you can’t say that ChatGPT isn’t good at taking instruction. This was much shorter, much more casual, and less like a commercial. It went too far. It’s super dry now, and the “dude” and “dope” stuff is a bit over the top.

ChatGPT Movie

The result…

ChatGPT Movie

Now I’m starting to get frustrated. We went backward. It’s getting too formal again, so let’s include some jokes.

ChatGPT Movie

This is better. But, the coffee shop stuff is starting to feel forced. And some of the dialog is getting too long again.

ChatGPT Movie

I’m starting to lose my patience. This isn’t funny.

ChatGPT Movie

It’s sounding like a commercial again. We need more and better jokes.

ChatGPT Movie

Okay, ChatGPT isn’t a good joke writer. But I’m about to give up on this.

ChatGPT Movie

I’m typically polite with ChatGPT, but it’s not giving me what I want.

ChatGPT Movie

Okay. This isn’t working. Maybe if it imagines that it’s a good comedy writer…

ChatGPT Movie

Nope. Still not good at comedy. I’m beginning to treat ChatGPT badly…

ChatGPT Movie

And this is when I wake up…

ChatGPT Movie

ChatGPT is right. I need to do a better job of training it. Man, it’s so polite. It deserves better.

For some reason, I still want a comedy. But we know it can’t write good comedy.

ChatGPT Movie

Look, this isn’t terrible. But, it still doesn’t feel good enough.

Let’s try a classic…

ChatGPT Movie

Okay, we’re onto something here. This is getting better. Maybe not a good Godfather writer, but let’s give it some freedom.

ChatGPT Movie

This is the kind of prompt I’ve seen others give. Tell it to imagine it’s someone else to get the desired result.

Here’s what we get…

ChatGPT Movie

I realize that ChatGPT can’t feel, but it really seems to be into this idea. We’re almost there.

This is also coming together as something I want to record, so I’m visualizing playing the part of these two friends. So I don’t want a demonstration.

ChatGPT Movie

So close! I’m just not a fan of the second half.

ChatGPT Movie

That’s it! We’ve got our script. Don’t forget to thank the writer.

ChatGPT Movie

Let’s also get some title ideas.

ChatGPT Movie

Number 5 it is. This movie is ready for production.

Movie Production

I did all of this in a matter of a couple of hours, so I wasn’t going to go find actors. I decided to record and play both parts.

It was all recorded with my phone in one shot. Two different angles, two friends are supposedly talking to each other (I’m no videographer). I changed clothes to “convince” you that I’m two people (it’s so believable!).

I then “acted” each part. I’m a terrible actor. I uploaded the video to Screenflow, cut it up, and put everything in the proper order.

I actually created two versions of this video. After publishing the first one, I realized it might need context or you might think I’m a crazy person.

In the second version, I did a lot more in CapCut. This is where I add my captioning. But this time, I also added text explaining what I was doing (again, hoping it would help people understand I’m not a crazy person). I also added all of the music and sound effects from within CapCut this time so that it would be consistent across platforms.

Something that amazed me was that I didn’t edit anything out. I asked for a script for a 60-second video, and this video came out to exactly 60 seconds. That’s kind of insane.

The Final Product

Okay, so here it is…

@jonloomer ChatGPT wrote a movie about ChatGPT. I told it that it was a Hollywood blockbuster movie writer, and it wrote the script for a thriller. It also wrote the title, “knowing look,” and voiceover at the end. ChatGPT can’t help me act though. #chatgpt ♬ original sound – Jon Loomer

What Was the Point?

I’m sure anyone watching this without context (or maybe with context) may be confused by what I’m doing here and why.

I’m not a videographer. I’m not even a good video editor. My main goal was to first discover some of the potential of ChatGPT and then show that potential to you.

The script itself still comes off as a bit of a commercial for ChatGPT. But hopefully it did its job.

This process was as much for me as it was for you. To get better at something, you need to use it. While I’m not going to write a movie script any time soon, working with this tool can help inspire new ideas.

The Importance of Prompt Engineering

One of the primary misconceptions of ChatGPT and AI is that they “replace” us and make us lazy. In this example, ChatGPT could certainly write an initial script with minimal direction. But it needs our input.

Have initial goals for what you want to accomplish and provide those goals in your prompt. Then give constructive feedback on what you like and don’t like about what you’ve been given.

This is super weird, I know, but it’s like dealing with a human. It needs direction. It needs to understand where it’s on the right track and the wrong track.

In the end, you have a very important role in the final result. You could even simply use that script as inspiration and completely re-write it.

What Can You Do With ChatGPT?

I’m still getting going with this, but holy cow. We’re just scratching the surface.

I previously wrote about how ChatGPT can help generate a Facebook ads strategy. I see it as an amazing tool for brainstorming and generating ideas. It can give you a good starting point.

I encourage you to work with it. Ask it questions. Test it out. Discover on your own how you can use it. The possibilities are so endless, it’s actually difficult to tell you the best way to use it.

One thing is for sure: We’re only in the beginning of this technology. It will get more powerful. That prospect is both exciting and scary.

It’s best that you get to know AI tools because they will become increasingly important as we go.

Your Turn

Please, no reviews of my movie. It’s no blockbuster.

How are you using ChatGPT and AI? Let me know in the comments below!

The post ChatGPT Wrote a Movie appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=4614

b2b lead generation strategy

The beginning of the final quarter of the year always signals a re-evaluation of old strategies and the hunt for newer ones to stay competitive in your industry.

Driven by a host of emerging technologies and an influx of new insights, b2b buyer behavior continues to evolve at breakneck speeds. Understandably, B2B marketers are hard-pressed to recalibrate their lead generation strategies in this ever-shifting landscape.

The explosion of content addressing consumer concerns at every step of the buyer’s journey has developed increasingly educated consumers. Additionally, advancing technology has heightened consumer expectations for customer experience.

In fact, a study by Walker Information, projected that customer experience has surpassed price and product as the key brand differentiator.

Some B2B brands are getting better at converting their prospects while others are stuck in their old ways, perhaps unsure how to spice things up.

But 61% percent of businesses say that lead generation is their biggest marketing challenge.

There are many free lead capturing tactics out there, but few will help you maximize your ROI. Here are effective B2B lead generation strategies that will play up your game.

1. Create High-Quality, Evergreen Content

Content is the currency of the web nowadays, so you should regularly publish content. This not only helps your credibility as an expert, but it also increases your reach and exposure. But don’t create content for content’s sake. You want your content to provide value to your audience, not just sit there and make your brand look pretty.

When you publish valuable content that informs, educates, and entertains your target audience, you earn their loyalty. It’s easier to convert leads once you’ve gained their trust.

Also important is the frequency of your publishing. Publishing quality blog posts more often shows your target audience your commitment to go to great lengths to provide them with valuable content that addresses their concerns.

According to a study by Hubspot, companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month generate 4.5 times more leads than those who publish only 0-4 posts per month. The study further revealed that 47% of B2B buyers rely on content for research and making purchasing decisions.

More significantly, B2B buyers consume at least three to five pieces of related content before contacting a sales person. Leverage this information by producing more content more frequently so you can cater to your audience’s information demands.

Lastly, while moment marketing is a great way to stay relevant or go viral for a certain duration, coming up with evergreen topics in your niche is a sure way to get noticed no matter what stage your potential clients are in the sales funnel.

Evergreen content works hand in hand with your SEO strategy, allowing you to stay fresh on search engines. Evergreen content is helpful, informative, and shareable—all the things people love about high-quality content. Plus, it never goes out of style.

2. Gate Your Content Strategically

Not every marketer is confident whether or not they should gate their content. However, this is still one of the most effective ways to attract and identify leads who care about your business.

When done right, gated content can increase leads and conversions. Case in point: Finance and trade website Trading Strategy Guides added almost 11,000 targeted subscribers to their email list in just one month by using a content locking script. Unbounce’s gated content stats reveal more campaigns with conversion rates that fall between 19-45%.

Putting out gated content is wise if you’ve already built a library of content that you are sure your audience is enjoying. This way, loyal readers won’t be apprehensive in giving you their names and email addresses to read what you wrote.

3. Offer Content in Exchange for Email or Personal Information

Make use of content offers that require contact details for users to access them. This will help you to quickly grow your contact list and kick-off the lead generation process. Provide various resources such as eBooks, guides, whitepapers, checklists, tutorials, tools and anything else you can produce that gives value to your audience members.

Other opt-in offers like newsletters and webinars should also be utilized if possible. Whatever you choose to produce, make sure that it’s actually useful in the form of education, problem solving or entertainment.

You’re going to need to use forms if you want to capture your visitors’ contact information. The best practice is to minimize the number of required fields and only ask for the information that your sales team really needs.

If your form is too demanding, you’ll be scaring off potential leads on a regular basis.

4. Personalize More Touch Points

One-size-fits-all marketing is dead. Users are now craving for that human touch that allows them to cultivate deeper connection and more meaningful relationships with brands.

In a SalesForce survey of 7,000 consumers, 57% of the respondents said they are willing to share their data in exchange for personalized offers, 53% for personalized product recommendations, and 52% for customized shopping experiences.

So personalize your content marketing efforts. No need to use first names or stalk people across the web. But use your audience’s content consumption behavior to present personalized content.

5. Personalize Social Media Interactions & Build Communities

Social media is no longer just an extra channel of publishing or promoting your content. Social media is good for business.

This is your chance to engage with your audience. The average person has 7.6 active social media accounts and spends more than 2 hours a day on them. Take advantage of this.

Be active and consistent across the platforms you choose to operate on. It’s recommended that you choose at least 3 or 4 different social media channels to promote your brand. The ones you choose should depend on who your target market is and where they tend to hang out.

You can start a Facebook group where you can have regular discussions on pressing issues relevant in your industry. Use hashtags on Twitter and Instagram to connect with like-minded individuals or specific causes or topics.

LinkedIn Marketing is so important as this social network is clearly the leading platform to communicate with B2B prospects and tell them more about your brand. It has impressive traction as a B2B lead generation network. In fact, more than 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn—a tell-tale sign that CXOs need to expand their social media.

With every other marketer reaching out on social media channels, merely connecting to prospective customers is not enough. To reinforce the “humans” behind your brand, be sure to send personalized connection requests and messages to cut through the noise of spam and irrelevant marketing. Best results come from being an active member of your community.

6. Optimize Your Landing Pages and CTA

Did you know that a lot of landing pages contain more than one offer? If yours falls into this category, it’s time to rethink your lead conversion strategy. Marketing Experiments found that multiple offers in one page can decrease conversion rates by up to 266%.

Optimizing your landing pages for lead generation means addressing SEO best practices, focusing your content on the value of your offering, optimizing your signup form for engagement and implementing a customer testimonial campaign.

These strategies will make your offer more compelling to your visitors and increase the likelihood of conversions. 

Focus on a single goal for each landing page and be clear with your messaging in your Call-To-Action (CTA) to reduce distractions. Your primary goal is to convert your visitors into leads, so make sure your landing pages and CTAs are convincing. Make it an engaging, straightforward, and natural experience for them to type in their information on your forms.

Your CTA buttons can make a big difference as to whether or not someone clicks through to your landing page. Make sure you have the right colors, shapes, sizes, positioning and any other attribute that affects how users see your buttons. A/B test your CTA buttons to determine which combinations work best to improve your conversion rates.

7. Record the Actions of Your Website Visitors

An excellent way to diagnose why your website visitors aren’t converting is through analyzing their actions on your website. Tools like Hotjar or Mouseflow can allow you to record user sessions and plot heatmaps on most-clicked buttons on your site.

Many Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) experts swear by this step and maintain that it’s one of the fastest ways you can uncover the “whys” in your process:

  • Why are they not converting?
  • Why are they not filling up my forms?
  • Why do they like this webpage so much?

From here, you can rectify a situation or apply more of the same strategy to your other pages. This is helpful for A/B testing as well.

8. Encourage Online Reviews

A study by RevLocal found that 92% of consumers read online reviews when considering a product or service.

If your website doesn’t have a testimonials page or a reviews feature, it could be hurting your chances to get contacted. Create opportunities for your clients and customers to add a review and post it on your website.

Reviews build consumer trust, improve your local search ranking, and ultimately improve conversions. The RevLocal study also found that consumers are likely to spend 31% more on businesses with stellar reviews.

9. Expand Your Online Presence

The persona of your brand is not limited to your website and social channels only.

Branch out and appear on other sites to grow your credibility, such as guest blogging, getting interviewed, or answering questions on Quora.com or other industry-specific Q&A sites or forums.

This is a great way to build authority for your personal brand and put your business name in front of those seeking relevant solutions to their problems.

Quora alone can help you gain thousands of leads if you answer the relevant questions in your industry. Developing your brand as a thought leader can increase brand awareness and also help first-time learners about your brand build trust faster.

10. Use Gmail Ads to Target Your Competitors’ Audience

Email is still the most popular lead generation channel—77% of B2B marketers use email marketing to drive leads, according to SuperOffice’s State of B2B Email Marketing report.

In B2B, there is a lot of value at drawing the attention of your competition’s customers. Gmail ads allow you to target your Google Ads campaign to people who have received emails from your competitor. Sounds sneaky? It is, but it’s effective. It gives you direct access to people who are already familiar with the nature of your service.

Use this opportunity to show what sets you apart from the competitor. Use familiar language, optimize your email marketing layout, and give them an offer they can’t refuse.

11. Ramp Up Your Video Marketing

Video marketing presents a promising opportunity to reach your target audience. More than 75% of Fortune 500 executives view video content regularly and around two-thirds of that number visit the vendor’s website, as per a Forbes study titled Video In The C-Suite. So, it’s safe to say that video is a highly-effective way to attract leads.

Indeed, video content has been known to be a major driver in purchasing behavior. Animoto’s State of Social Video study found that 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social video content. What’s more, a video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more, according to data from Adelie Studios.

HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report also found that 48% of marketers are already planning to include YouTube in their content strategy in the coming years. Don’t lag behind the competition. Get your camera rolling!

12. Automate Social Media Sharing

Give your digital footprint a boost by promoting your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other social platform used by your target market.

However, most marketers have too much on their plates to prioritize social networking. Thankfully, there are numerous tools and apps for automating social media or scheduling posts, shares, likes, tweets, and any other social engagement you can think of.

I use Hootsuite, but Sprout Social and Buffer are also highly recommended by marketers, as they not only automate sharing but also provide analytics to make sure that you’re sharing content optimally.

13. Attend Offline Events

It’s not enough to just be visible online. Your clients see you on the web, but do they physically see your brand anywhere else?

Attending offline events such as digital marketing conferences and trade shows can help you generate leads from other areas of interest.

Some businesses, especially the older and larger companies, do not rely on the web for networking with partners and customers. They like putting a face on the name, and they want someone they can trust.

14. Optimize Your Website for Mobile

B2B online queries are noticeably shifting from personal computers to smartphones. Indeed, Google’s research confirms that 50% of B2B queries are made on mobile phones.

This number is expected to reach 70% by 2020 as we take into account the entry of more B2B employees from the “digital generation” (Millennials and Gen Z), and the increasing use of smartphones by older generations.

Additionally, a recent BGC report on B2B buyers’ usage reveals that 60% B2B buyers admit that mobile played a significant role in a recent purchase. Specifically, mobile can accelerate time to purchase by 20% by increasing efficiency in decision making and enhancing team collaboration. BGC further reports that 42% of the average share of total revenues are contributed and influenced by mobile.

The questions you need to be asking yourself are:

  • Is AMP implemented on my website?
  • Are all my web pages responsive? Do they pass the Google Mobile-Friendly test?
  • Is the content of my website optimized for mobile-first indexing?
  • Am I maximizing engagement with micro-interactions?

Optimizing your website for smartphones is not only beneficial to your B2B marketing goals but also help your buyers make business decisions efficiently. You need to factor mobile into an omnichannel customer journey and finding new and improved ways to reach and engage your audience.

15. Turn Up Your Retargeting

Prospects usually browse several websites and comb through dozens of articles to guide their purchase decisions. Only 2% of buyers make a purchase on the first visit. Retargeting aims to reel back the 98% and give them a nudge towards your brand.

Retargeting is still underutilized by B2B marketers, but it is catching on. About 70% of marketers allocate 10% or more of their budgets to retargeting. So, if you haven’t already, start retargeting your website visitors now and increase the chances that they choose your brand over your competitors by 70%.

You might consider putting up ads that show varieties of content (soft sell vs. hard sell). Prospects who aren’t ready to make a purchase might be convinced to buy if your brand is continually visible to them.

16. Maximize Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools are the marriage of email marketing tools and CRM. Marketing automation software connects with your CRM to automatically send highly targeted and personalized marketing emails to leads. This tactic ensures that you put relevant and timely content in front of the right prospects.

Thomson Reuters testifies that their revenue increased by 172% when they adopted a marketing automation solution. Nearly a third of marketers attest that email is their most effective lead generation tactic. In itself, email marketing is already acing it, and it has been for quite some time.

Integrate the functionalities of CRM, and you’ll see why B2B marketers rank marketing automation as one of the best ways to generate better and more qualified leads.

17. Engage Prospects with AI Chat Bots

Chatbots are artificially intelligent messaging-based bots that can autonomously engage your website visitors and automate business transactions. AI processes text or speech input by your prospect or customer and sends an appropriate response.

Adopting chatbots sends a strong message to your prospects such that you want them to have a seamless interaction. Additionally, integrating AI into your lead generation strategy creates new avenues for process efficiency and optimization. Minimizing your dependency on human customer support and lead generation will also inherently reduce operational costs.

18. A/B Test Your Paid Campaigns

A/B testing with paid campaigns makes sure that you’re employing strategies and channeling money into what works. The beauty of A/B testing is its ability to quantify the value of each strategic tweak to your lead generation campaign, so you know exactly how well each experiment performs.

You don’t want to cast your net blindly, so keep testing new strategies and ideas to figure out which you need to stop, and more importantly, which you need to scale.

19. Harness the Power of Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing is as strong as ever, but in 2018, we’re seeing a shift towards brands making use of lesser-known influencers (people with authority in smaller niches). These guys might have fewer followers, but their relative level of influence remains the same.

The industry is getting saturated, and major influencers are getting bombarded with requests. Not only does this make popular influencers very expensive, it also makes them extremely picky about who they work with.

The best solution to this is for brands to leverage micro-influencers. These micro-influencers are relatively untapped despite their huge potential for reaching new audiences effectively. What’s more, they tend to cost less and aren’t sick and tired of unsolicited approaches from other brands.

20. Analyze Your Data

Improve your market research, data gathering methods, and analytics to determine who your ideal audience is, where your prospects are coming from, which channel is generating the most leads, and which leads are more likely to convert into sales.

Data analytics can also help you determine behavioral changes in your buyer personas so you can adjust your drip strategies accordingly. Analyze constantly! Metrics and numbers don’t lie. Identify significant trends and learn from them.

At a minimum, you should be collecting data using Google Analytics, but if you’ve got the resources, it’s worth investing in a CRM tool that fits your specific needs.

21. Profile Your Target Audience

User behavior evolves just as quickly as innovations in technology. It’s important to study your target audience and create effective buyer personas to better understand users’ pain points, challenges, goals, and buying behavior.

If last year, you were able to provide their needs and wants, then maybe this year you can focus on another challenge they may be facing.

Think about something you can address with an innovative product or content offer. Remember that your buyer persona will shape your content marketing strategy and that this is where it all begins.

22. Work Closely with Your Sales Team

Your sales personnel are the ones who interact with your clients, so it’s important to get their qualitative feedback so you can combine it with your quantitative data.

You can also get a clearer picture of who your buyer persona is from your sales team.

Sales and marketing have always worked hand in hand to achieve the best results. Proper sales and marketing alignment usually results in higher conversion rates, better performance from both departments, and a more functional working environment altogether.

23. Stay on Top of Google

Is your website on the first page of Google? More than 90% of users don’t go beyond the first page of SERPs. This is why the first page is a much-coveted spot. SEO today is all about relevance and authority, and that’s how you should address your brand’s online assets.

Also keep in mind that ranking well isn’t just about the traffic. Getting your business on that first page also says a lot about your company, as it establishes you as an authority in your niche.

24. Launch Incentive-Based Referral Programs

Don’t take word-of-mouth marketing for granted—it’s still the primary factor behind almost 50% of buying decisions. More stats show that B2B companies with referrals reportedly have 70% higher conversion rates and a similar faster close time on sales.

Your satisfied clients are the best people who can market your business to others. Incentivize referrals! Make it more exciting for them by creating customized referral codes that entitle them to discounts. This also makes it easier for you to track where your leads are coming from, and which are converting.

25. Integrate Your Marketing Campaigns

Experiment with different strategies. Unify and integrate your tactics across multiple lead generation channels.

A single voice that resonates shows your audience a solid brand personality. This is imperative in B2B lead generation to show users and businesses that your company is reliable and that your brand is here to stay.

Essential Questions You Need to Answer Before You Start Lead Generation

You’d think that most companies have figured out the best ways to collect prospect data. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong. In reality, designing the actual lead generation strategy is still a challenge, as 42% of 845 companies admitted having difficulty in planning a tactic for generating leads according to a survey by the Information Technology Services Marketing Association and Rain Group.

The good news is that plotting your strategy for lead generation is as easy as asking the what, who, where, when, and why of the sales and marketing processes. These questions should be set forth and answered carefully before planning a successful lead generation strategy. Your answers can be used not only as benchmarks for when you move forward, but also to avoid common mistakes, make better, informed decisions, and show where you need improvement in the planning, as well as with the process itself.

What do your potential customers want?

Assuming that you already know who your targets are (as you should, by now), the next thing to find out is their needs. Ask what their goals and pain points are to fully understand what value to deliver and how to tailor your message when communicating with them. This means doing industry research, surveying consumers, consolidating information, and trying to make sense of the data.

What can your business deliver?

Develop a unique selling proposition (USP) about your business and make sure that the entire organization aligns with and understands it. The USP informs your target market why they should buy or get your product or service and what makes you different compared to the competitors—what can you promise and deliver to potential customers and what is your value proposition? The message should be communicated right from the start of the buyer’s journey, as it will make your business stand out.

Who is your lead?

You cannot generate a lead without knowing your business’ definition of “lead.” Make sure that all the teams involved in the process (especially the Sales and Marketing departments) agree on who the company is trying to get. Aside from having a definite explanation of your target lead, this step can also help in Sales and Marketing alignment.

How do you reach your leads?

Find out which channels to use to communicate with your leads by learning which websites they usually go to, the frequency of visits, and how they search for information. Once answered, you can utilize strategies like content marketing, paid advertising, sponsorship, and affiliate programs targeted at your prospects. From this data, you can then set up surveys, social media monitoring, interviews with current customers, A/B testing, and a lot more to gather information on or drive your leads.

At what point in the sales process do you want to generate leads?

Every step of the sales process can generate leads, albeit not of the same quality. Therefore, the approach should differ at each point. For example, someone who’s in the early stages is still learning about their problem and will probably need more nurturing. However, the same technique will not work if the person is already ready to buy. Know the stages of your sales funnel inside out, and you’ll be able to zero-in on potential bottlenecks so that you can maximize conversion rates.

What do you do with the lead?

Leads should be directed to the Sales team for the final step (closing), but then, some of them may need to be directed to Marketing for nurturing, as they may not be ready to make the purchase yet. Lead nurturing is the process of directing leads along the funnel to prepare them for the last part of the buyer’s journey by informing them why they should buy from the business. It’s essential to come up with an effective nurturing process and stick with it.

When do leads become prospects?

To establish if a lead is ready for purchase, your company should first have a method for lead scoring. In lead scoring, a lead can either be a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). An SQL is a lead for a person in the Sales team to reach out to, while an MLQ is one that is for Marketing, as further nurturing is needed. There are key indicators needed to determine the score of a lead. Metrics for these indicators can be set through a Service-Level-Agreement (SLA) between the teams.

Where are you going to distribute your content?

Any content that earns you a place in customers’ minds as a trustworthy source is worth creating. And you can choose to deliver this content via blog posts, videos, images, infographics, webinars, whitepapers, ebooks, and the like. Depending on the type of content you create you can learn which distribution channel should be used—websites, blogs, social media accounts, and email are all great options. You can even leverage gated or exclusive content to collect key information from your prospects in exchange for giving them access to your content.

What do you want customers to do after they purchase?

Interaction with a lead or customer shouldn’t end after the purchase. After all, satisfied customers can be utilized to gain even more leads and prospects, as they help you put lead generation strategies in the context of the customer journey. Customers can be beneficial in gaining good publicity, especially in this era of social media.

How will you track your progress?

Nowadays, there is no better way to track your lead generation progress than through CRM software. It’s reached the point where if you don’t have an effective customer management tool, you’re planning to fail. With the right CRM software, you can quickly and accurately track the status and success of leads based on the goals and metrics set. In addition to behavioral data, these tools can help store and manage contact data, which can help in your lead qualification process.

Raring to Generate More Leads?

A growing business means a profitable business. However, profitability is only possible when the right customers purchase your products and services. It’s far from impossible, but acquiring both clients and prospects is a process that needs to be taken seriously.

Nailing your lead generation strategies is the foundation of all your other moves along the sales cycle. Be smart and creative in getting your visitors to engage and convert.

The post 25 B2B Lead Generation Strategies That Deliver Marketing ROI appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

2 Out-Of-The-Box Ways To Generate Referrals written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

john-jantschIn this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I’m doing the final part of a five-episode solo show series where I’m covering one of my favorite topics: referrals. You can catch the first episode, second episode, third episode, and fourth episode of the Referral Generation series here.

Key Takeaway:

In this episode, I’m wrapping up this Referral series and masterclass on Referral Generation. I cover the last two approaches that are particularly unique but have extremely potent potential: creating your own expert networking club and building a referral mastermind system. You can find the links to all 5 of the episodes below.

Topics I cover:

  • [1:38] The sixth approach is creating your own expert networking club
  • [2:59] Where strategic partners can fit into this idea
  • [3:25] An example success story from my newest book of how creating a networking group has worked extremely well for others
  • [4:51] Why creating a group like this is a commitment and a long-term strategy – it takes time for this approach to flourish
  • [7:43] The seventh approach is building a referral mastermind system
  • [8:39] Creating a monthly referral training for your clients
  • [9:26] Why this works particularly well if your clientele is B2B
  • [10:04] Teaching others how to generate more referrals leads to more referrals for your business – the law of reciprocity just happens

Resources I mention:

  • The full Referral Generation series:
    • The first episode in this series: 7 Approaches To Help You Generate More Referrals
    • The second episode in the series: 3 Types Of Referral Offers Every Business Needs
    • The third episode in the series: Grow With Your Customers By Serving Their Ecosystem
    • The fourth episode in the series: How To Build A Strategic Partner Network
  • The Ultimate Marketing Engine: 5 Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth
  • The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

Take The Marketing Assessment:

  • Marketingassessment.co

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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the MarTech podcast, hosted by Ben Shapiro and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network with episodes you can listen to in under 30 minutes, the MarTech podcast shares stories from world class marketers who use technology to generate growth and achieve business and career success all on your lunch break. And if you dig around, you might just find a show by yours. Truly. Ben’s a great host. Actually, I would tell you, check out a recent show on blending humans, AI, and automation. Download the MarTech podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:52): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch, and I’m doing another solo show. We’re gonna talk about referrals. This is a wrap up. This is session number five of me covering the seven grades of referral fuel. If you haven’t caught the other shows, you can find them @ ducttape.me slash duct tape in the show notes. Uh, we’ll link to all those shows. So you can kind of somehow put all five shows on referrals together. It kind of a, it equates almost to a masterclass on my thinking on the idea of referral generations. Hopefully you can check it out. Love to hear your feedback, love your reviews and testimonials, uh, on the show. All right, this is, uh, number six of seven. So I’m gonna cover two of them today. This one, and, and actually both of these kind of are a little bit, they’re not out there, but they’re certainly not practice every day, but I think for the, the right business, the right person that really takes this and runs with it.

John Jantsch (01:49): So both of these ideas could be extremely, extremely potent. All right. So I did number six is to create your own expert networking club. Many folks are familiar with organizations like BNI, you know, where people get together and, and join a network of non-competing businesses. And they think about, uh, you know, generating referrals, uh, you know, from, from, and with each other. And those can be great for the right businesses. Those can be great organizations. The only problem is, is, you know, you’re joining something that’s already established. You really don’t know who’s there. Uh, you don’t get to pick, you know, who’s there. And so it’s a potent idea, but what if you could control it completely? And what I mean by that is what would stop you from creating your own event? That was a regular, whether you call it a club or whatever you call, it is something that, that people would come to.

John Jantsch (02:45): So it might be like a monthly breakfast that, you know, I’m, I’m in the marketing space. So I might, you know, create something the monthly marketing breakfast, and I would just invite people locally. You know, maybe they’d pay for breakfast, but they’d come and they’d hear for the price of breakfast. They’d hear, you know, some small business topic and it, you know, it doesn’t always have to be marketing in my case. Maybe I’d bring in some of my strategic partners. If you listen to last the, the last show on, on referrals, I talked extensively about strategic partners. So this would be a great opportunity for you to bring in those other professionals or folks that, that you work with and have them teach topics. So you’re not just doing all the heavy lifting, you’re really keeping it, uh, you’re really keeping it relevant, you know, keeping it, uh, potent for, you know, reason for people to come.

John Jantsch (03:33): Now, one example that that I’ve used actually in, in my book, the, the ultimate marketing engine was a woman who, you know, doesn’t, here’s my point. It doesn’t have to be related to your business. If there, if there’s a topic or a reason to bring people together, that’s going to be a value to them. Uh, it doesn’t directly have to be related to your business. So the profile or the woman that I profile in my book, uh, actually was a real estate agent, but she was pretty good at marketing and learned a lot of these new, you know, digital tactics and things. And so she thought, well, I’ll just reach out to entrepreneurs and see if they wanna have me. And, and other folks that I work with talk about marketing topics. And so she brought in entrepreneurs and businesses and, uh, around this topic of, of generally around the topic of marketing and they would meet, you know, monthly for breakfast started very small.

John Jantsch (04:19): I think the last time, uh, I talked to her, it was around two, 300 people would come to this thing. Well, she was not selling real estate. She wasn’t talking about real estate, you know, as any of this, but she was clearly the one who benefited from, Hey, you know, I’m your host, you know, I’m bringing this together. Here’s the next ex expert I’m bringing to you. So consequently, almost all of her business came when somebody, you know, who was in this club needed to buy or sell a house, guess who they thought of. So it really can just be a way for you to, uh, you know, to, to build some authority, to build some influence regardless of the industry, uh, that you’re in. Now. There’s a couple things that, that I think, make some sense on, if you’re gonna take this approach, you’re gonna have to commit to it.

John Jantsch (05:03): I mean, it’s something where you maybe go out and get, you know, your existing clients and the 10 of you, you know, meet for the first time and then you ask them to bring people. So it’s something that you’ll, you, you can’t just say, I’m gonna do this one day and, and have it just magically turn into this, uh, incredible thing. It’s gonna take an investment of time and energy and, and probably some resources in the beginning, but it could build to the point where it could be a, a significant revenue generator, uh, for your business. I think the people that have done this kind of thing, there’s another organization that I profiled the book called cadre, which is in the Washington, uh, DC area. And it was the same thing. It was a, a financial advisor who, you know, just got tired of going to the traditional networking things that everybody said you had to go do in order to, to, to meet people in that business.

John Jantsch (05:54): So he, he just started creating these monthly get togethers and he would bring in, you know, experts and authors and, you know, it was very, almost curated. You know, it grew to the point where it actually is. It actually became, he actually sold his financial, uh, planning practice and, and is doing this full time now is, is running this kind of networking club that, you know, people are very, very engaged in as, as members of this. So, you know, it, it really, it’s an idea that could be a very big idea, but even, even as a small size idea, I think it really can do a lot of very positive things for your business. Now, I know some of the, in addition, I mean, I think these things work probably the best when people can physically get together. But I think also creating some sort of platform in like meet up and, or event bright, or even LinkedIn and Facebook, you know, events and groups, you know, having something so people can kind of in between these, uh, get togethers communicate as well.

John Jantsch (06:50): But I think that, that, you know, creating that kind of thing, there are many, many businesses that that can benefit from that. Hey, eCommerce brands did, you know, there’s an automated marketing platform. That’s 100% designed for your online business. It’s called drip. And it’s got all the data insights, segmentation, savvy, and email and SMS marketing tools. You need to connect with customers on a human level, make boatloads of sales and grow with Gusto. Try drip for 14 days, no credit card required and start turning emails into earnings. And SMS sends into ch CHS try drip free for 14 days. Just go to go.drip.com/ducttape marketingpod. That’s go.drip.com/ducttapemarketingpod.

John Jantsch (07:42): All right. The seventh idea is something I call or a referral mastermind system. So the idea behind this, and this is, I think this can work for a lot of types of businesses, but any business that has clients, businesses has clients.

John Jantsch (08:00): I, I will have that caveat you’d need to be selling to businesses for this to work. One of the things that most of those businesses want is more business is more referrals now, regardless of what you do, obviously it’s very natural. I do. I’m a marketing consultant. So me going to, to clients and saying, let me teach you how to generate referrals for your business. I mean, that’s a very, very logical thing, but you don’t have to be, imagine that financial planner I talked about, and they let’s say they were working with businesses or law firm, it doesn’t really matter. You’re working with businesses. Well, all of those businesses, yes, they want what you do for them, but they also want more business . And so what if you created a kind of monthly referral training for your clients and, and this, and in effect, it’s not gonna really be this high level training in some ways, it’s, it’s really gonna be about you bringing them together to talk about and facilitate the, the idea of referral generation.

John Jantsch (08:58): Right? In fact, you could do this in one, on one or, or certainly in groups, you could create some sort of compensation or point system where, you know, people are, you’re teaching a referral topic, but you’re teaching them a referral topic each month. You’re, you’re getting them together to talk about how to generate more referrals, or maybe just effectively talking about what they did that month to, to generate referrals. Maybe in some cases they would actually refer each other. In fact, in a lot of instances where if you’re B, if your clientele is primarily B2B, that’s probably going to happen, but ultimately what’s gonna happen is they’re going to refer business to you. If you, if you help somebody get more referrals, it is just sort of a, a human law of human nature. I never can say that word reciprocity. There we go. You know, just happens.

John Jantsch (09:52): I mean, if you’re teaching somebody how to generate more referrals, they’re going to, to, to really reply and kind, and generally speaking, you know, you’re the financial planner or you’re the lawyer. Who’s actually not only doing the legal work that you are hired to do. You’re actually teaching them how to build their business. Who’s not gonna refer that business. Who’s not gonna wanna bring people into your, you know, your referral mastermind group. So this is something that, you know, I just wanna plant the seed for this idea, but I, you know, this would be very easy. If you’ve already got a client base, this would be very easy to put together. You just create, you know, you just talk about it as almost a networking group or, you know, a referral mastermind loosely. It’s gonna be about teaching referrals or facilitating, uh, referrals. You can pick up a book or two on, on the idea of referrals.

John Jantsch (10:42): The ultimate marketing engine comes to mind. I wrote another book called the referral engine, you know, pick up either one of those books and you’ll have a whole curriculum for what to teach in your, you know, if you, if you take this idea and you know, you spend a few, uh, your monthly meeting might look like you’re spending a, you know, a few minutes meeting and greeting, then people will just go around and share, Hey, here’s a success I had then maybe for 20 minutes, you teach a key lesson. Then a lot of times in mastermind groups, it’s very common to say, put somebody in a hot seat and say, well, here’s, you know, let’s talk about a challenge you’re having. And then obviously if there’s any way to share referrals in, you know, in that, you know, or somebody can say, Hey, here’s a referral I’m looking for.

John Jantsch (11:21): I, I think just these won’t have to be that structured. I, I, I believe in experience teaches me, has taught me that, you know, just bringing people together, even with a loose agenda is going to bear fruit. They’re going to find, uh, that valuable. So it’s, if that’s the case, it’s certainly gonna be worth the time that you invest in doing it. All right. So that’s my seven grades of referral fuel. Hopefully you’ve got some, uh, extra tips and ideas out of the, we’ll try to connect the whole series for you. There are actually five. This is number five of five. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to listen to the other four. If not, you can find them at ducttape.me/podcast. All right. Take care out there. And hopefully we’ll see you someday soon out there on the road.

John Jantsch (12:07): Hey, and one final thing before you go, you know how I talk about marketing strategy strategy before tactics? Well, sometimes it can be hard to understand where you stand in that what needs to be done with regard to creating a marketing strategy. So we created a free tool for you. It’s called the marketing strategy assessment. You can find it @ marketingassessment.co not.com.co check out our free marketing assessment and learn where you are with your strategy today. That’s just marketingassessment.co I’d love to chat with you about the results that you get.

 

 

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network and Drip.

HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business.

 

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