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Which Hogwarts House Are You? Content Marketer’s Edition

Hogwarts houses sorted for content marketing

Every marketer today is hearing about the importance of brand personality — or the way a brand is personified in human terms. In both the B2B and B2C worlds, brand personality is more important than ever as buyers seek a real connection to the companies they purchase from.

Here’s why:

  • 84% of buyers want to be treated like actual people, not numbers
  • 82% say they want brand values to align with their own
  • 73% say they’re more likely to buy when they love the brand

To build the type of emotional connection (yes, even for business buyers) your customers now seek, you need an authentic brand personality that exemplifies who you are.

Fortunately for you, Marketing Insider Group is here to help evaluate your brand personality by the only standard that really matters — your Hogwarts House, of course.

If the all-powerful Sorting Hat can put human (okay, fictional wizard) students in the right place, it can do the same for your brand.

But honestly, we’re not totally joking here — some experts suggest that the Hogwarts Sorting Hat is just as accurate (and even more consistent) than the Myers-Briggs test for understanding personality traits.

And when you know your true personality, you can embrace it and be more authentically you as you engage with your audience.

So — is your brand a brave, determined Gryffindor? A wise and brainy Ravenclaw? A trustworthy and hardworking Hufflepuff? Or a shrewd, ambitious Slytherin?

You’re about to find out!

The Content Marketer Sorting Hat — Which house are you?

Gryffindor: Brave and Determined

Gryffindor House SealImage Source: Wizarding World

Everybody wants to be a Gryffindor. Not only is it Harry Potter’s house, but Gryffindors are the most courageous, determined students at Hogwarts according to their official Wizarding World description.

Gryffindors are brave enough to face danger when it arises and willing to challenge authority when it’s warranted. They stick up for the little guy, and take necessary action even if they don’t have all the time they want to think it through.

Those traits, when you translate them to brand personality, can result in a serious competitive edge. Why? Because while many people wish they could be Gryffindors, they’re not all willing to take the risk that comes with acting like one.

Harry Potter saying "You wish!"

That’s why when we think about brands who embody the Gryffindor spirit, we think of serious content marketing trailblazers — ones whose daring content has made them well known by just about everyone.

Let’s look at a few Gryffindor-esque content examples.

Red Bull

It’s hard to think of daring brands without thinking of Red Bull — especially when it comes to content marketing. They’re one of the first brands who understood the importance of selling an experience rather than a product, and they used their content as the main avenue to do it.

Whether it’s through their massive YouTube library, engaging social media, or in-person sporting events, Red Bull has mastered the art of telling people how their product can make them feel — and making them want to experience it firsthand.

As a result, we all know today that Red Bull gives you wings.

Nike

At first glance, it’s easy to think of Nike in a similar way to Red Bull. Their “Just Do It” slogan became synonymous with the likes of Michael Jordan in the 80s and 90s, making them the brand of the world’s best athletes.

But what we find most Gryffindor about Nike is their more recent emphasis on the fact that greatness isn’t just born — it can also be made. Even “the little guys” can be great when they put their best foot forward and work toward their goals.

This message is huge for building connection with customers. It tells them Nike isn’t just for great athletes and huge superstars, but that it’s what helps to make them (and, by the way, that anybody can “Just Do It”).

Nothing says this more than their official “Find Your Greatness” campaign.

AirBnB

Gryffindor brands don’t have to be about athletic prowess, and AirBnB is a perfect example of how daring can be embodied just by taking an innovative content leap. Not only did they flip an ages-old business model (the traditional hotel) on its head by just existing, but they made their content totally about their target audience.

How? By asking them to create it.

AirBnB was a pioneer of user-generated content (UGC), now a staple with brands who want to resonate with consumers. By asking customers to share their AirBnB stays and reposting the content on their brand platforms, they proved authentic and motivated people to find their own perfect AirBnB vacation.

Instagram example from the AirBnB platform showing a reposted UGC photo.

Image Source: Pixlee TurnTo

Alt-Text: Example of an Instagram post from AirBnB highlighting user-generated content, which helped them massively grow their brand.

Ravenclaw: Brainy and Wise

Ravenclaw house banner.

Image Source: Wizarding World

Ravenclaws are known as the brainy students of the bunch. They use their wit and a knack for quick learning to navigate tough situations and get ahead. They know their stuff, always able to add to the conversation with interesting facts and settle any debate by acting as the expert.

But intelligence isn’t the Ravenclaw’s only advantage — they’re also known to be innovative and overachieving, natural problem solvers, and charmingly eccentric. Perhaps most importantly, Ravenclaws are unapologetically themselves, secure in their own knowledge over anyone else’s.

Hermione Granger saying "Honestly, don't you two read?"

When we think about brands, this type of confidence and authenticity is essential. It translates to thought leadership — being the type of brand people turn to automatically when they need answers or solutions.

Here are some Ravenclaw brands we love:

Moz

Moz is a comprehensive SEO software publisher that helps leading brands to optimize their content — so they know a thing or two about how to do it. But rather than keep their SEO smarts to themselves, they decided to share it far and wide with Whiteboard Fridays.

Whiteboard Fridays is Moz’s weekly YouTube series (now about 500 videos) covering SEO-related topics to help their audience improve content performance. They break down would-be complex topics in ways average marketers can understand. Instead of gatekeeping the technical SEO strategies that are their specialty, Moz makes them accessible for everyone.

The result? People trust them more. They’ve established themselves as go-to experts. And undoubtedly, when Whiteboard Friday viewers need SEO help, Moz comes to mind as one of their top potential providers.

Merriam-Webster

What gets more Ravenclaw than the dictionary? And if you think reading the dictionary sounds boring, Merriam-Webster’s social media content is here to tell you to think again. They’re keeping the dictionary relevant to modern audiences with #WordofTheDay, #WordofTheWeek, and interactive quizzes that provide a fun way for people to test their vocabulary prowess.

They’re even keeping pace with hard-to-please Gen Z audiences (see: the definition of “yeet”).

Screenshot of a Merriam-Webster tweet that shares a quiz on weather-related words.

Image Source: Twitter

Google

We couldn’t round out Ravenclaw brands without mentioning Google — the authority of all authorities on every topic a person could want to know about. Have a question? Can’t remember that important fact? Not a problem — just google it. Thanks to Google, everyone can be a fact-spouting Ravenclaw if they really want to be.

It’s worth mentioning that Google’s actual content is just as helpful as their search engine. The Google Search Central website and blog is chock full of resources to help content marketers and web developers optimize their performance and reach.

Screenshot of Google Search Central, the company’s blog and resource center for content marketers, developers, and SEO professionals.

Image Source: Google

Hufflepuff: Trustworthy and Hardworking

Screenshot of MIG blog highlights featured on our website homepage.

Image Source: Wizarding World

Hufflepuffs are the friends you can count on most. They’re loyal, hardworking, and humble, and they let their accomplishments speak for themselves rather than shouting them from the rooftops. And they’re onto something — after all, actions speak louder than words (in Wizardry school and in business).

Further (and not to be minimized) Wizarding World says that Hufflepuffs are known to have the best snacks.

Luna Lovegood saying "I hope there's pudding."

Image Source: Giphy

The takeaway: People know they can trust a Hufflepuff, and for brands this is no small trait to have. When people trust a brand, they’re more likely to make a purchase, buy more frequently, stay loyal over time, and recommend the brand to others.

Let’s check out a few Hufflepuff brand examples:

General Electric

General Electric (GE) is 130+ years old, meaning it’s already got an advantage as far as familiarity with the public goes. But GE has never rested on its laurels when it comes to using marketing to create real connection with their audience — General Electric Theater was a groundbreaking show in the 50s and 60s that featured story segments and wove GE products in between.

Today, GE continues to show its savvy with their content marketing. They maintain the same reliable brand image they’ve had for more than a century, while translating it to modern content that audiences are looking for.

This is particularly true for their GE Reports, which tell real-world stories about how GE products are making an impact in the world across industries and geographic boundaries. In true Hufflepuff fashion, GE refrains from shouting about their products and features, instead leaning on human interest stories to make customers want to choose their brand.

The result is a sense from the public at large that GE is not just a brand, but an integrated part of the human experience.

Screenshot of the GE Reports home page.

Image Source: General Electric

John Deere

Also founded in the 1890s, John Deere is another trustworthy brand that’s been ahead of the content curve since its founding. They started publishing The Furrow in 1895 to share farming advice and stories, and today it’s published in 14 languages and over 100 countries.

Like GE Reports, the secret of The Furrow is that it doesn’t hard sell John Deere products. Its first priority is to deliver helpful resources to their audience, thus building the trust required for them to want to make a purchase.

In recent years, John Deere has expanded its content efforts to include UGC to demonstrate how their products are being used by current satisfied customers, further highlighting their brand authenticity and using storytelling (rather than overt advertising) to build their brand.

Screenshot of the digital version of The Furrow, John Deere’s century-old magazine offering farming tips and advice.

Image Source: John Deere

Marketing Insider Group

You didn’t think we’d leave ourselves out of the Sorting Hat fun, did you?! We may not be a century old, but at Marketing Insider Group, we strive to provide the type of reliable, consistent, high-quality content you need to grow your own brand.

We publish 5+ blogs every week covering topics our target audience cares about — everything from SEO tips to how to create high-value content to templates and examples (and more). For our clients, we aim to do the same with full-scale content services that help them generate leads and build search visibility that lasts.

Screenshot of MIG blog highlights featured on our website homepage.

Image Source: Marketing Insider Group

Slytherin: Shrewd and Ambitious

Slytherin house banner.

Slytherins get a bad rap thanks to the small problem of too many dark wizards graduating from their house. They’re known as troublemakers, but this is mostly just a misunderstanding of a Slytherin’s true nature. In reality, Slytherins are smart and ambitious — clever enough to stay a step ahead of their competition.

They do tend to keep their cards close to their chest and have a darker sense of humor. To some, this might seem to spell trouble, but it also gives Slytherins an advantage in most situations.

For brands, Slytherin qualities translate to edginess — a willingness to produce content that pushes the envelope and may even be controversial by some standards. They’re also not afraid to go directly at the competition to spell out why they’re the better alternative.

Draco Malfoy elbowing Harry Potter out of the way while playing Quidditch.

But Slytherin-esque brand content is also fun and engaging thanks to its unapologetic style.

Here are a few examples:

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club exploded onto the scene with their first ad — now a viral sensation — poking fun at their direct competitors (with a side of slight political incorrectness). It grabbed attention right away.

Both their business model and the ad were risky for certain, but it worked because they got straight to the heart of a real problem in the razor market, and one that rang true for consumers: that brands were charging too much for product frills their customers didn’t actually need.

The day the ad launched, Dollar Shave Club’s website got so much traffic that it crashed, and the rest is history — the company was acquired in 2016 for a staggering $1B.

Apple

Apple is a clear (if not the) leader of the tech product market, and they’ve managed to do so while always maintaining a bit of a villain reputation. Part of this has been due to the fact that they’ve never been afraid to say outright that no competitors comes close to their quality, capabilities, and style.

They did it with comedy in their Mac vs. PC series that successfully made traditional PCs (and Microsoft in particular) look outdated and slow.

Spotify

Last but not least, we think Spotify is a sure Slytherin thanks to the shrewdness they show in competing with the likes of Apple and Amazon — without the adjacent massive platforms to depend on.

Spotify has managed to become known as the people’s choice for music consumption, largely because they’ve dialed into personalization. This is especially evident in their annual Spotify Wrapped campaigns, which automatically build playlists for each user based on their top listens from that year.

The real secret to success of Spotify Wrapped lies in its shareability — it encourages users to share their Wrapped playlists on social media (it earns a whopping 60 million shares each year), which undoubtedly earns the brand new sign ups and re-engagement from existing users.

That shows some serious Slytherin resourcefulness!

Image showing what the Spotify Wrapped campaign looks like for the platform’s users.

Image Source: Tech Crunch

So what’s the point?

This article was certainly written in a lot of fun, but also to impart a serious lesson from the Sorting Hat that brands would be smart to remember — that not all brand personalities are the same, and that’s the real beauty of (and secret to) successful content marketing.

The power of content lies not in any one specific trait or personality, but rather in knowing your unique strengths and being true to them in the content you deliver.

Considering your brand in the context of the four Hogwarts Houses is just one fun way to start thinking about what makes your brand authentically resonate with customers and discover new ways to showcase those traits to your audience.

So — which Hogwarts House is your brand? Tell us in the comments!

We are a top-ranked content marketing agency helping companies like yours to reach, engage and convert quality leads. Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service to learn more, or schedule a quick consultation with me to get started!

The post Which Hogwarts House Are You? Content Marketer’s Edition appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/?p=5687

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8 Effective Ways to Drive E-Commerce Lead Generation

cowboy roping in ecommerce leads

The internet– amplified by the pandemic– has revolutionized the way people acquire goods and services, thus giving birth to a robust e-commerce industry. There are 3.9 million e-commerce companies in the US, creating some heavy competition.

With all these options available at customers’ finger tips, the right lead generation strategies should be in place to make sure you are reaching (and roping in) the right audience.

Even then, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink it.. But you probably could by telling him the water will be gone in 30 minutes! The e-commerce industry requires more specific methods of generating and converting leads that other industries do not.

Key takeaways: 

  • Cookies are great– for now. Use the data while you can, but prepare for a time when user information is less accessible.
  • Don’t underestimate email marketing. Build your subscription list and entice customers with psychological tricks (the good kind, of course).
  • Create content your consumers can use! Capitalize on social media with paid ads and online with quality blog posts to improve SEO rankings.

Here are some techniques you can apply to generate more leads for your e-commerce business:

Use Cookie Data While You Can

While they’re still here with us, cookies are an excellent tool for retargeting. If your visitors don’t purchase after their first visit, encourage them to return by quickly reminding them of a product they viewed even when they are on a different website (i.e. Facebook).

The cookies demise has been pushed back a few times now, so their future is uncertain. At least for the rest of 2023 you can capitalize on the benefit they offer. But looking ahead…

Plan for a Cookie-less Future

That future is zero-party data. Zero-party data is information that a user consciously shares with a business or website. This data can be acquired through surveys, editing a website or apps preference centers, purchase intentions and more.

Zero-party data is different from first-party data in the fact that zero party data is volunteered while first-party data is collected by a website tracking user activity. The user is being observed rather than offering their own information.

zero party data vs first party data chart

Image Source: Bloomreach

The difference is important to note when we beg the question, why are cookies dying in the first place? The answer is plain and simple; people are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy online. Zero-party data is the most ethical way to acquire information about your consumer.

If you want to remain relevant and successful in the cookie-less future that is sooner than you may think, start collecting zero-party data ASAP.

Optimize Your Email Marketing Efforts

An email address is much easier to obtain than a sale, so make sure you’re taking advantage of it! Don’t let a potential buyer’s email address collect dust. Email addresses are the gateway to talking to your customers.

Send a welcome email, follow-ups, a newsletter and throw in a few discounts. This gives your potential customer a few opportunities to circle back and cross the finish line to purchase your product. The most effective means of email communication…

Offer Discounts and Deals– for a limited time only!

The way you talk about products on your site affects what visitors think of them. By creating urgency around your product, customers will be psychologically influenced to purchase faster. FOMO is real people!

shopping on amazing and seeing 50% off ends in 3 hours and 41 minutes

Image Source: Optinmonster

People will do anything for a deal, so use this to your advantage. Encourage both first-time visitors and existing customers to sign up for your newsletter. The key is to give them something instantly in return, like a 10% discount voucher. This strategy is a popular incentive for email collection, which should be a top priority in your lead generation efforts.

Optimize Your Web Design

If your website’s UX design isn’t polished, visitors may get confused. The primary goal is to make things simple and straightforward so that your buyers can successfully go to the checkout page without getting lost. The same goes for your call-to-action buttons. Use big fonts and colors that are attention-grabbing yet pleasing to the eyes, so they know what to do.

Another design consideration to take into account is the need for conversion rate optimization. This means regularly analyzing your conversion performance and running experiments to find the best-possible strategies for enticing sales.

Don’t forget to optimize your website for mobile. People shop on the go, all the time. If your text is too difficult to read or your site is too tricky to navigate, you may risk losing a customer’s interest.

Increase Social Media Presence

E-commerce is living in a world of social media and the internet. Most people spend an accumulated 2.5 hours or more on their social media accounts. Take advantage of this by investing in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram ads. Most platforms allow you to include a link to your website and showcase your products in a carousel format.

Additionally, offer a sneak peak of your collection on social media. Features such as the Shop on Facebook Pages and Instagram Shoppable make things convenient for your audience. Plus, these tools can help boost your brand awareness by putting it in front of as many people within your target market as possible.

Improve Your SEO Ranking

If people aren’t visiting your site, there will be no emails to collect, surveys to conduct or people to target! The best way to drive traffic is to ensure you have good SEO practices in place, so your store ranks well on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

When it comes to brand visibility, search engines are your bread and butter. If you can successfully rank your website well organically, that’ll mean a steady flow of visitors to your site and consistent growth of your sales funnel, for free!

Research the most commonly used keywords and search phrases and incorporate them into your product descriptions. Continuously monitor the SEO trends and invest in SEM and paid search ads to propel your lead generation efforts forward.

Create Quality Content for Your Website

Take your SEO optimization a step further and start blogging! Answer your customers’ questions, not only about your product but about the space you’re in. When people look to you as a source of trustworthy information, your traffic will increase. Even just posting at a regular cadence increases your traffic significantly.

traffic directly increases with # of posts per week

By answering questions related to your industry, even in a broad sense, you target top of the funnel consumers who might be your next perfect customer. And with more specific topics, bottom of the funnel, ready-to-purchase consumers will find your page and hence, your product.

Get started today!

Competition in the e-commerce industry is fierce, but finding new and improved methods of attracting the right buyers and turning them into leads will help you stay in the game. Contact information is the currency of a great inbound marketing strategy for e-commerce.

Focus on the customer and use real insights to improve your value proposition. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor-fit your processes, increase delivered value, and generate more e-commerce leads.

Need help developing quality content to reel your next customer in? You’ve landed in the right place. Check out our SEO blog writing service or schedule a free consultation to learn more about how blog writing can help your e-commerce business grow.

The post 8 Effective Ways to Drive E-Commerce Lead Generation appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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Busting The Social Media Ruined Our Average Attention Span Goldfish Myth

goldfish <a href=social media attention span myth” />

I published this article titled “Thanks social media – our attention span is now shorter than a goldfish” all the way back in 2014.

At the time this myth was running around the world that scientists had measured the attention span of humans and found that it dropped from 20 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds. They had borrowed on an old myth that goldfish have the attention span of 9 seconds. And so the assumption was that – thanks to social media which had taken off in the early naughts – our attention span was now shorter than a goldfish!

The implication for marketing was to create shorter content, more entertainment, more humor, more images, more direct promotion. The assumption that our attention span was shorter than a goldfish has since been proven untrue.

In fact the research showed that our ability to process information has actually increased, despite the many and increasing number of distractions we face today. So what’s the implications for digital and content marketing: focus on what works. Helpful content still attracts and converts more than promotional content. Stories beat snippets. Facts beat jokes.

Read on to hear why we need to be vigilant about busting this “Social Media ruined our attention spans and they are now shorter than a goldfish” myth.

Quick takeaways:

  • No one has ever really measured a gold fish attention span
  • Research actually suggest our ability to process information has gone up as has the number of distraction we get from social media
  • Effective content marketing still focuses on helping people as much as possible

Quick Personal Goldfish Story

On October 9, 1999 I married the love of my life. The following day we were whisked off to beautiful Hawaii for an amazing honeymoon trip we still talk about now 23 years ago.

2 days into our trip, I was videotaping the sunset and noticed on the date stamp on this old camcorder screen that said it was October 12th.

October 12th? That’s my birthday! OMG I forgot it was my birthday!

This was 1999. Before Facebook. Before Twitter. Before iPhones.

You see, we have always been a distracted bunch.

Quick Professional Goldfish Story

For years I had talked about this one amazing example of content marketing that really focused on my industry. I used them as a proof point for why we should use content marketing at SAP – to reach and convert our target audience. I used them as an example in my keynotes and content marketing strategy workshops.

Then a few months after I started this company, they called me and asked me to write for them, and help them take their strategy to the next level. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. Then the editor left. Then my main contact left. Then her replacement left. (What was going on?)

Finally I had a call with their Managing Editor. The so-called “VP of Thought Leadership.” And she said to me that they didn’t need me. In fact, they didn’t need the type of content we believe very strongly in. Expert content that balances both quality and quantity. She didn’t believe in thought leadership content. (Ummm, your title is . . .)

The most shocking part was her reason: she said that they had looked at the analytics. And they found that shorter content was found to have more engagement. And her main KPI. Her entire annual performance was based on increasing engagement.

Her conclusion: they were going to write shorter posts. Turn the site into more like a news feed of flashing and sexy content that would drive engagement up through the roof.

I actually said to her that based on her description, she should post single word articles and videos of porn. Because that would boost engagement.

I was not invited to continue working with this company. And this shining example of OG content marketing no longer exists.

What does this have to do with goldfish? The desire to want to chase shinier objects, shorter content, flashier visuals, will always be there. There will always be a metric or a myth or an influencer that will try and sell us on this belief that content marketing is too hard, takes too long, costs too much – when all the evidence shows the opposite.

Origin of The Goldfish Myth

Goldfish having short attention spans is more like an urban myth. We say “you have the (short) memory of a goldfish) because I guess we assume them swimming in a bowl, darting from one thought to another.

No one ever actually measured the attention span of a goldfish. Recent research even shows that goldfish can remember things for up to 5 months! That seems pretty impressive to me for such a little fish.

Apparently, it all started when Statistic Brain apparently reported (the original page no longer exists) on a study by something called “National Center for Biotechnology Information, at the U.S. National Library of Medicine,” (nothing on their website about it) said the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. This is one second less than the attention span of a goldfish. OMG, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds – 1 second more than you and I.

According to the original source, this was all due to the “external stimulation” of all the content we’re producing and distributing across all the social media channels. The research stated (again you can’t find it now):

“Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one’s goals. It’s no surprise attention spans have been decreasing over the past decade with the increase in external stimulation.”

The bottom line: this was all a load crap!

This Doesn’t Mean We’re Not Distracted

Since the dawn of modern women and men, there have been sirens screaming that there is too much information out there. Our heads are going to explode. I’m sure it happened when the first person uttered the second word. The first word was cool. But the second word? How many might there be.

This was true when we invented writing, the printing press, the internet, social media, and it’s happening now with web 3.0 and the dawn of practical applications of AI. The human brain is seeing more, learning more, consuming more, and yes therefore we are scanning more. But hey, I still sat down and binged the whole season of The Watcher like it was nothing. Ok seriously, go watch that trailer. And then the show, and call me. Insane!

Oh wait. Ok stay focused with me here.

Yes we are distracted:

  • We check our phones more than 200 times per day
  • The average office worker (poor schmuck) spends 3 hours per day distracted by non-work activities
  • 25% of teenagers report forgetting important details about their friends and family
  • 7% of people forget their own birthdays from time to time (at least I’m not alone)
  • Most people check their email 30 times every hour

But we’re consuming more information than ever before. The average person today consumer more information in a DAY than the average person did 500 years ago in their entire lifetime and the average person 50 years ago did in one month.

Information gets consumed and leads to progress and that leads to more information. This loop has played out since the beginning of human evolution.

The Content Marketing Imperative

So what does all this mean for content marketing? For marketing? For business?

One of my very first public speeches was titled the Battle for Customer Attention and ironically it included an image of a goldfish. Not one representing short attention spans. But one that sticks out.

How do we best stick out in a crowded world of marketing content:

  1. Create the content people actually want
  2. Tell stories that reach and engage new buyers
  3. Use research and thought leadership instead of promotion and banner ads no one wants
  4. Publish as often as you can, content that is as helpful as you can
  5. Tell personal stories of your triumphs and failures (like I did in my book Mean People Suck)
  6. Measure the ROI of what works and then test new ideas
  7. Have the courage to fight for doing good work you can be proud of

If you’re trying to stand out from the crowd and grow your business, check out our SEO blog writing services or set up a free consultation with our team!  

The post Busting The Social Media Ruined Our Average Attention Span Goldfish Myth appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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6 Types of Social Media Content That Your Audience Really Needs

social media content types

Social media in 2022 is just part of the way we live. People spend more than two hours scrolling their feeds every day, and they use 7+ different platforms every month!

It’s a huge opportunity for brands to grow their visibility and connect with potential customers where they already are.

But figuring out the types of social media content to post can feel complicated. There are so many options! What works well for one platform might not perform well on another. Users have different preferences depending on their age and other demographic factors. Not to mention that social media trends and best practices change at a rapid pace.

Before you figure out exactly what your social media plan will look like (or how you’ll update it if you already have one), it’s important to know what types of social media content are already getting the most traction. That’s what we’ll cover in this article. In the sections that follow, you’ll learn why social media is so critical to your content strategy, plus 6 types of social media your audience needs to see on your platforms.

Let’s dive in!

Quick Takeaways

  • Finding content (i.e. articles, videos, etc.) is one of the top five reasons people use social media.
  • Social media stories are a great channel for sharing more casual, everyday content with your audience.
  • Infographics are shared 3x more than any other type of visual content on social media.
  • You can use social media to amplify your blog articles and other content to drive more traffic to your website.
  • Half of adult internet users report they purchase products from social media ads.

What’s the deal with social media and content marketing?

It’s kind of crazy to think about the ways social media has evolved in the nearly 20 years since MySpace (what’s that, again?) and Facebook put it on the map. What used to be a way for young people to connect with their friends became a way for anyone to share updates on their everyday lives and eventually evolved into the massive platforms for sharing and consuming news and media that we now know today.

Social media is critical to your content marketing strategy because it meets your audience where they already are — and where they’re going specifically to look for brand content! Recent research from Hootsuite found that “finding content (e.g. articles, videos) landed in the top five reasons internet users aged 16-64 use social media platforms.

Finding content is one of the top five reasons internet users use social media platforms.

Image Source: Hootsuite

For brands, social media is a place to share original posts and amplify your content from other channels (i.e. your blog, video library, etc.). It’s also a way to connect with your audience and engage with them in an ongoing way. This is important — about 90% of consumers report that they’re more likely to visit a brand’s website, buy their products, and choose them over a competitor when they follow them on social media.

Image Source: Sprout Social

The foundation of any brand’s ability to succeed with social media marketing is to create and share tons of engaging, high-value content on a frequent basis. To do that, you’ve got to know which types of social media posts your audience wants to see.

In the next section, we’ll walk through 6 of the top-performing types of social media content and how you can incorporate them into your strategy.

6 Types of Social Media Content That Your Audience Really Needs

Videos (with captions!)

Video is the most-consumed and most-preferred type of online content for internet users. Cisco predicts video will account for a whopping 82% of all online traffic by the end of 2022. Even more importantly, 9 out of 10 people report wanting to see more videos from brands. On social media, video posts earn 48% more views than posts without them.

In other words: the numbers are hard to ignore.

HubSpot also found that social media is the second-most common purpose for videos created by brands.

Social media videos are the second most common purpose for the videos created by brands.

Image Source: HubSpot

Fortunately, creating video content is simple today. Smartphones are the only tool you need to record HD videos. You can post videos from external channels (like your YouTube page or website) or you can do it directly on the platform (like social media stories and live streams).

It’s a good idea to experiment with different types of videos to see what your audience responds to the most!

Stories

Stories are one of the best channels for video content on social media, but they’re also a great place to post photos, highlight important posts, and share interacting content like surveys, polls, and other more.

The great thing about stories is that by nature, they’re a more casual way to interact with your audiences. While of course you need to maintain the same level of care and quality standards you do for other types of social media content, you can also share more everyday-type content that keeps your brand visible and top-of-mind to your followers.

Interactive posts

Interactive posts have huge potential to boost your social media marketing ROI. There are many different ways to be interactive on social media, but here I’m referring to more than just comment sections. I’m talking about content that’s interactive by nature — live streams, polls, surveys, Q&A content and more.

The exact way you can post this type of content depends on the platform. Instagram, for example, pioneered interactive social media stories with features like rating scales, Q&A boxes, polls and more. Twitter is known for its in-tweet (and anonymous) poll feature where people can be totally honest in their responses. Facebook Live was one of the first places we saw users interacting directly with brands over live streams.

Interactive content is an awesome way to grow engagement. They also present an opportunity to collect really valuable insights from your audience about product preferences and other opinions that matter to your larger strategy.

Infographics

Infographics are great for condensing complex, detailed content into a digestible social media post. If you’re covering a technical topic, lots of numbers and statistics, or just a high volume of information that needs to be in one place, infographics can be a great tool for doing it.

Infographics lend themselves especially well to social media as the most shareable type of visual content — they’re shared 3x more than videos or any other type of regular images on social media.

Here’s a list of 40 great infographics to inspire you.

Links to external content

Social media should absolutely be leveraged as part of your larger content strategy to amplify the content you create in other places — on your blog, YouTube channel, website and more.

I recommend sharing every blog post on social media. You can also revive older content or timely topics when it makes sense. Encourage your readers to share your content, too, by adding social share buttons on your blog article pages.

Social sharing buttons appearing at the top of a recent MIG blog post.

Image Source: Marketing Insider Group

You can also consider sharing content from other brands and news sources to give your own take on current events and topics. It’s a great way to encourage discussion and engagement with your audience.

Promotional content

Say what?! Promotional content? You might be wondering why this one’s on the list. After all, organic traffic is best, right?

Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean promotional content is never a good idea — especially on social media. Here’s why:

  • 40% of internet users between the ages of 18-34 report having bought a product on a social media platform
  • 80% of consumers report purchasing a product after seeing it recommended by an influencer
  • 50% of all adult internet users say that social media ads help them find products and services that interest them

Promoting content by paying to boost posts or running social media ads increase brand awareness and help drive traffic back to your social pages and website. Don’t shy away from mixing promoted content with other content you share organically.

Boost your social media success with great content

You can’t share great content on social media unless you create it regularly! The team of writers and SEO experts at Marketing Insider Group can deliver you optimized, ready-to-publish content every single week for a year (or more!).

Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service to learn more or schedule a quick consultation with me to get started.

The post 6 Types of Social Media Content That Your Audience Really Needs appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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The Way To Raise Your Prices Without Losing Customers

The Way To Raise Your Prices Without Losing Customers written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Jeb Blount

jeb blount guest on the Duct Tape Marketing PodcastIn this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Jeb Blount. Jeb is the CEO of Sales Gravy and the author of 14 books including Fanatical Prospecting, Sales EQ, Objections, Virtual Selling, and his brand new book — Selling the Price Increase: The Ultimate B2B Field Guide for Raising Prices Without Losing Customers.

Key Takeaway:

A lot of small business owners struggle with charging enough, and that price increase conversation is something many people avoid. The payoff for increasing your prices and retaining your customers and clients along the way is massive. But the problem is, price increase initiatives bring forth fear and anxiety in both your salespeople and you as a business owner — especially if you’re the one who has to communicate that message to your customers.

Yet, when you approach the initiative effectively, customers gladly accept price increases, remain loyal, and often buy even more from you because they see your value. In this episode, CEO of Sales Gravy, Jeb Blount, reveals the strategies and tactics that allow you to successfully master price increase initiatives.

Questions I ask Jeb Blount:

  • [1:21] A lot of small businesses I work with aren’t charging enough — would you say that’s an idea in their head that they don’t think they worth it?
  • [3:18] As a business owner, how do you move past that idea?
  • [5:50] What’s changed in this current climate when it comes to pricing and everything almost seeming like an emergency?
  • [12:01] What’s your advice for people for setting the table for price increases?
  • [16:59] How do you suggest a salesperson handle a price increase when there’s no particular rationale or reason for it and it’s happening simply because the company can?
  • [18:48] Could you talk about your DEAL framework and system you’ve created?
  • [21:12] Where can people find out more about your book and your work?

More About Jeb Blount:

  • His brand new book — Selling the Price Increase: The Ultimate B2B Field Guide for Raising Prices Without Losing Customers.
  • JebBlount.com
  • Salesgravy.com

Take The Marketing Assessment:

  • Marketingassessment.co

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!



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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by business made simple hosted by Donald Miller and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network business made simple, takes the mystery out of growing your business. A long time, listeners will know that Donald Miller’s been on this show at least a couple times. There’s a recent episode. I wanna point out how to make money with your current products, man, such an important lesson about leveraging what you’ve already done to get more from it. Listen to business made simple wherever you get your podcasts.

John Jantsch (00:46): Hello and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Jeb Blount. He is the CEO of sales gravy, the author of 14 books, including fanatical prospecting, sales, EQ objections, virtual selling, and his brand new book. We’re gonna talk about today, selling the price, increase the ultimate B2B field guide for raising prices without losing customers. So Jeff welcome to the show.

Jeb Blount (01:15): Well, thank you so much for having me back. I always love to be on your show. It’s one of my favorite podcasts.

John Jantsch (01:20): Thank you. Thank you so much. So, you know, one of the things interesting, I know a lot of the book, you talk about a salesperson that has an account that has to go out and you know, it’s like, oh, we’ve had this cost come. We have to raise prices, but I will tell you working with so many small business owners, they’re not charging enough right now. And one of the things I tell them all the time is you’ve gotta go raise your prices. So a lot of that’s kind of in their head, isn’t it? I mean, it’s like, I don’t think I can get this, or I don’t deserve this or whatever it is.

Jeb Blount (01:49): Yeah. You know, there, there is the, I don’t deserve it. And I think that’s, I think that’s a very common feeling with small business owners, especially when they’re dealing with bigger companies. And I know that as a small business owner, as you know, a company that’s growing I’ve, I’ve often felt the same way that maybe I don’t deserve this and that to somewhat some, you know, some extent is something that is totally in our heads, right? That it’s a lie that we tell ourselves. And I mean, there may be some cases where we don’t deserve it, but in most cases we do. But on top of that is, you know, the constant fear of the business owner that if I go ask for a price increase, I’m gonna lose my customer. I’m gonna lose the orders. Maybe they’ll throw in my face. Something that went wrong in the past and well, there’ll be conflict. And, and of course there’s a potential that they just say, no, and I get rejected. Yeah. And that makes me feel really bad. So, and those fears by the way, are things that we make up in our own head that we have to get past. And some of those fears could be true. I mean, you could go in and create a lot of problems if you haven’t been taking care of your customer and then you go ask for a price increase.

John Jantsch (02:51): Right. Well, and so, so the sales rep of course like a business owner, a lot of times I tell them, you just gotta, you gotta understand the value you bring and go ask for the money. But a sales rep, a lot of times, I mean, somebody told them, go tell the client, the right is going up. Right. It’s not, you know, it’s not my fault, but I’m the one that has to deliver the bad news. And I might lose that commission. Right. Because they go somewhere else. So, you know, how do you, I mean, be in that particular instance, you know, how do you get over that kinda head thing? It’s like, it’s not my fault, but I gotta deliver the news.

Jeb Blount (03:23): Yeah. Well the, with the salesperson, the same fears are in play. So the, one of the biggest problems for salespeople is the boss says, you gotta go get a price increase. Right. When I, it wasn’t uncommon. You know, when, back when I was working for a boss that they would come in, bring you your accounts and say, we need 6% across the board. Go figure it out. Right. And you know, you’re sitting there like rolling the dice on which customer are gonna take the price increase too. And very much like when we were talking about, you know, the business owner says, well, I kind of don’t deserve this. I think salespeople get the same thing in their head. We don’t deserve this. Or in a lot of cases, they feel like they’re doing something to their customer versus doing something for their company. And by the way, that’s, that is exactly true for the business owner as well.

Jeb Blount (04:03): Sure. So for me, you know, the, I, you know, I just like everybody else, I’ve experienced the anxiety of having to do a price increase as a salesperson. And I’ve experienced the anxiety of having to deal with price increase as a business owner. And one of the things that helped me really get over that hump is understanding the power of a price increase. So there’s a reason why you tell your clients, you gotta go get a price increase. And one of those reasons is that a price increase is almost pure drop through to the bottom line. Now forget about a time that we’re in right now, where we’ve got inflation or, you know, there are supply chain issues. Whenever you get a price, increase the drop through on a price increase versus going out and getting a new piece of business is about 400% higher to your bottom line.

Jeb Blount (04:47): That’s a big number. So what I had to do as a salesperson and later on as a P and L owner, is to really understand what the purpose of a price increase is also it’s important. And this is also important for business owners who have salespeople working for them. And you gotta go tell your salespeople to go, to get a price increase is understanding how that new profitability helps the health of the company. And for, especially for, you know, for the group of people that pay most attention to you at duct tape marketing, you know, there’s nothing in the world that is more important than free cash flow, right? And a price increase is instant cash flow in instant revenue increase. And that is by the way, as long as you keep your customers, you may have to get the price increase and keep your customers and keep your orders. And essentially that’s what the book is all about. Yeah.

John Jantsch (05:34): So you mentioned the current climate we’re in, you know, it used to be like the annual price increase, but obviously people are dealing with weekly and monthly. I had a remodeling contractor give me a bid on something. And he said, this proposal is good for 24 hours because I don’t know what it, you know, the door’s gonna cost tomorrow. Right. So, so what’s changed in this current client about, you know, the approach. I mean, because some of it’s just like emergency, right?

Jeb Blount (05:58): Yeah. You know, there, when you start thinking about approaches or you’re thinking about is messaging, right? So there are, there’s essentially a couple of different ways that we deal with price increases. One is a price increase that we just give to our customers and then we defend it. So we tell our customers, you’re getting a price increase. And then we deal with the objections. We message it. We talk about it, but we give everybody the same price increase. And typically you do that when the risk of losing your customers or the orders is relatively small against the gain that you get on the price increase. And typically the price increase itself is gonna be small relative to what your customers are spending. The other is when you, the price increase may be negotiable or there is some risk. You may either present the price increase as if it’s non-negotiable, but you’d be willing to negotiate.

Jeb Blount (06:43): Or you go in and you ask your customers. So for example, if you’re a small business like mine and you’re dealing with big multinational fortune 500 companies where the risk of losing that company to my company is really high. Then I’ll typically go sit down with my customer and I’ll message it. Like I’ll build a business case for why I deserve the price increase. And that could be based on past value I’ve delivered. It could be on some future value that I’m going to deliver, but in a time like this often it’s an economic fairness message. In other words, what I’m doing is I’m laying out to them where my costs have gone up, where I’m getting impacted. So for example, in my world, because we fly all over the place, it’s travel, you know, the cost of travel has gone up exponentially over the past few months.

Jeb Blount (07:25): So we have to go to our customers and say, we’re raising the price on what we charge when we travel someplace. And this is why, and the good news is that because most people, this is humans. Okay. So most humans have an innate sense of fairness when you can articulately lay out the case, the economic fairness case for why this should give the pricing increas. In most cases, the probability is relatively high. They’re gonna say, yes, you just have to be able to make that case. And in a time like ours, where it’s, it is an emergency in some cases, and it is a moving target. What you really have to be prepared to do is to deliver that message. So you wanna sit back, practice that message. And by the way, deal with any objections you might get and have rebuttals for those objections. So

John Jantsch (08:10): One of the cases I make sometimes where we’re getting people to raise their prices to, to a level that might be fair is that they actually might be better off losing some of the clients that leave for that. I mean, you talked about the bottom line, right? If, you know, drop 20% to the bottom line, but you lose, you know, 3% of the customers doing it, right. You’re better off. And in some cases, not always, but in some cases, in my experiences, that’s a client that you probably didn’t have a great relationship with anyway, and that may be your fault, or it may just be that it wasn’t a good fit anyway.

Jeb Blount (08:42): Yeah. I use, uh, to analyze where, which customers I’d like to lose. I just use a, basically a four quadrant. I call it a fit matrix. And at the very top right hand quadrant is, it’s a, it’s easy to work with. Yeah. And high profit. Yeah. And right below, that would be easy to work with low profit. Yeah. On the left hand side, it is hard to work with high profit. And on the bottom left hand side, it is hard to work with low profit. Yeah. It’s the hard to work with low profits that I typically go after. And this is, you know, me as a small business, I had a fortune 100 company that we were working with. We had closed a deal. We celebrated it in about a year into it. We realized that we made a grave mistake. They were killing us.

Jeb Blount (09:23): They wanted so many of our resources. You know, they had 20 people for every one of my people and they would just had this endless just line of requests for us. And my whole team said, we gotta fire this customer, cuz we were really hard to work with. We weren’t making a lot of money. And so I didn’t wanna go burn the bridge because I just felt like it would be a bad thing just to go tell a big company like that when I’m a little tiny company, just go away. So I went in with a 300% higher price than I had previously given them when we signed the deal in the first place. And I expected them to throw me out the door. And when I gave it to them, the buyer simply the person that I was dealing with with the contract and procurement said, how can you justify this?

Jeb Blount (10:04): I, then I explained it. I said, you guys are really hard to work with. Were a small company. You asked for all these things. A lot of the things you ask for are off contract and we feel obligated to do it for you because you’re, you know, you’re the big gorilla and you know, your team needs things done right now. And the only way that I can keep serving you is I gotta hire more people in order to come in and do this. And the procurement person just, you know, they just looked down at the contract for a minute and looked at me and goes, you’re right. We are really hard to work with signed the contract. And then we were good again, like it felt, I mean, I felt like we didn’t resent them. They signed up for more, which was a good thing for us.

Jeb Blount (10:38): And I found that happens often that in a lot of cases, you’re undervaluing yourself. Yeah. That’s the first thing you and I talked about. But if, if you can, if you can put your customers in segments like that, it’s a lot easier when you look at it and you realize I’m not making any money at this, it doesn’t make a difference how much revenue you’re making. If you’re not dropping to the bottom line, you have no cash flow. You have no cash flow, you’re dead. So you can at least look at it and go, okay, that gives me the courage to go in and have a conversation with them cuz I’m not making any money. And oh, by the way, if a few of these went away, I could probably spend those resources right on the easy to work with high profit customers and make them even more profitable and sell more things to them.

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John Jantsch (12:02): So one of the things you, uh, mentioned already also was this idea of relationship building. And I think it’s like a lot of things you get that next sale or that price increase months before it actually happens. Right? Yes. And so, you know, what’s your advice to folks to say, look, it’s inevitable. You’re gonna have to go ask for this. How do you set the table?

Jeb Blount (12:23): Well, if you think about price increases in the suite of things that we sell, price increases are on the expansion side of the, of the equation. In other words, I already have the customer, I need to expand the relationship. So price increases should not be, as we think about this time that we’re in right now, something that we’re thinking about right now, price increases are something that we’ve gotta be thinking about forever because we’re always looking to expand those accounts. And when we’re in that boat, it’s in our best interest to make sure that we’re managing our accounts in the book. I just break down something really simple, but I just tell you the truth. And that is that about 70% of the time when you lose a customer, it’s because of neglect. Yeah. And that would be true is if you go in and you ask for a price increase or you present a price increase and your customer gets mad at you is probably because you weren’t taking care of them.

Jeb Blount (13:13): So the easiest, fastest way to get price increase is just manage your accounts. You just take care of them, do the things that you’re supposed to do as a business, delight your customers, deliver a great customer experience, make sure you’re constantly solving problems. And if you’ve ignored an account for a long time, and that happens in business and it happens with salespeople as well in their portfolios, if you’ve ignored it, don’t let the first conversation you have with that customer in six months, be about a price increase, put yourself together, a campaign, go in and set the stage, go solve some problems, do an account review, rebuild a relationship and then come back in with a price increase. But the biggest problem that we, you know, that we see in with price increases across the board is that because they’re unpleasant for both parties, the, the party that has to bring the price increase to the customer has a tendency to put it off.

Jeb Blount (14:03): Yeah. So they end up dropping a price increase in the customer’s lap, but don’t really give them any time to deal with the price increase. Yeah. And if you’re just, if you’re a business, you know, you’re and you buy things from other, from vendors, like most of us do, you can imagine that what, that the sort of, what that would put you in terms of a, you know, a bad spot or how it might back you into a corner. If one of your vendors came with you as came to you with a price increase at the last minute, and you didn’t have time to figure out how you were gonna absorb it or pass it on to your customers or deal with it. And that typically happens because we, we just don’t want to confront our customer with the truth.

John Jantsch (14:40): Yeah. It’s funny too, because nobody likes change. It’s really funny of any kind. I mean, I swear there have been times when I’ve tried to give somebody something for free and they were, you know, suspect. I hadn’t told him why I hadn’t said because. And I think that’s, you’ve been talking about this price increase. Like it’s just a unilateral kind of price sheet kind of thing. But as I listened to you, describe this. It’s almost like you can, if you have the right conversation, you can actually come to an agreement together on what’s the right approach. Can’t you?

Jeb Blount (15:09): Yeah. I mean, if you’ve got a great relationship with your customer and in, in the book, I give you eight different narratives, right? That can be woven together in ways that allow you to have that conversation with your customer. But if you’ve got a great relationship with your customer, and I think, you know, that most of us do what I found is that the thought of going in and having the conversation about the price increase is way worse than the actual conversation itself. and it’s a lot better. If you can go in and you can make your case, just build a good business case and sit down with your customer and work it out with them that in most cases, because human beings are inherently fair to each other, that you’ll be able to work something out without a lot of objections. And it’s also important.

Jeb Blount (15:53): I think that you start thinking about how do you set the stage? Because what you talk about is you don’t really like change. Nobody likes change. If you spring it on someone, you’re likely to get a really tur response or you may get pushback. If you start setting the stage forward, if you start talking about the marketplace and your price is going up and you know, I’ll even say to someone, you know, we’ve been raising our prices on our other customers right now, we’re holding the line with our existing customers, but there’s a pretty good chance that we’re gonna have to come to you with a price increase sometime in the near future. I didn’t actually put a price increase in their lap, but I began to get them accustomed to the fact that it’s gonna happen. Yeah. And they’re thinking about it. So, and that typically makes it a little bit easier for them to absorb the price increase in our conversation or notice, I guess probably a better way of saying that.

John Jantsch (16:41): All right. What about the sales rep that’s faced with the situation? We all know there are companies out there that, that do this where the real reason they’re raising the price is because they can. Right. And so now the sales rep is faced with that’s their only, I mean, they’re obviously not going to go in and say it. That’s why we’re raising the price, but that’s their only real talking point. So, you know, how do you suggest somebody handle that when they really don’t have a great rationale?

Jeb Blount (17:04): Well, first of all, you wanna make sure that you are being professional and you’re being nice and that you don’t walk in already defensive. I’ve had that happen where I’ve had a salesperson come with a price increase and they’re te and they’re, you know, they’re cold because of their own emotions rather than mine. Yeah. And you don’t wanna do that at all. And certainly right now, if you’re in a situation where you can raise your prices and drop more money to the bottom line, you absolutely should. I mean, as a business, that’s your job to make profit. And by the way, there’s a difference in, you know, doing that. And then, you know, shoving something down someone’s throat and doing, you know, doing something that, that lacks in the integrity. I’m just talking about. Yeah. The regular course of doing business, you’re in a situation where you can drop more profit in and continue to serve your customers.

Jeb Blount (17:47): You should do that. So you start off with again let’s so let’s start setting the stage. Let’s build a campaign, let’s start, preframing the price increase early. Let’s be professional. Let’s be super nice. And then go back to our narratives. One of the narratives that you want to use in a situation like that is past value. Here are all of the things great that we have done for you. Yes. You’re gonna be paying more for the same thing you were getting before, but look at all the things that we have contributed to you and your business over the years. And, and when you use that approach, most people will accept the price, increase most business people, especially people that you know, that are in the B2B world, right? They get it, they understand what’s happening. They don’t like it. And they’re not gonna be, you know, jumping up and down and, you know, bringing in a bras band to welcome your price increase in, but they understand and they get it. The key is the way that you approach it, relaxed, assertive, professional confidence. It wins the day. Every single time

John Jantsch (18:48): You have a framework and I’ll just kind of tease it and you can talk about as much as you want, but obviously it’s a big part of the book and that’s, so there is actually a system, you know, for going out into, and you actually call it deal, you know, an acronym for that, that has four parts. So I’ll let you just kind of take that as far as you want it to.

Jeb Blount (19:05): Yeah. The deal framework is simply a framework for negotiating a price increase. So in, in some cases, especially with your higher risk customers, and there’s also a risk profile matrix inside the book that allows you to take your accounts and drop ’em into that risk profile, to make a decision about how you want to approach them with the price increase. But the deal framework is simply the process of if you begin negotiating and they, you typically sounds like this, John, they’ll say something like, um, Jeb, like, like I totally get that. You gotta give a price increase, but we’re, we can’t pay this much. We haven’t, we don’t, we’re not budgeted for that. Okay. Well, that’s great. So you’ve accepted the price increase because you said I get it, but I’m not paying that much. Now I gotta work out something with you. So I wanna get onto the table what their issues are.

Jeb Blount (19:52): So I, I don’t wanna negotiate before I do that, then I want to give them, you know, my point of view. So, so I want to, I wanna explain the price increase and the reason why I’m doing the price increase and the business case behind it, even though if I’ve already explained it before typically a negotiation, people get amnesia. So I wanna come back and explain it again. And then what I wanna do from there is I want to get to a place where we can both agree. And for me, the one thing that I wanna protect during a price increase negotiation is my points. So let’s say I’m doing a 10% price increase. If I give up five points, that’s 50% of my price increase. So the way that I do that is I try to find things like funny money. And what funny money is something that I have that I can give my customer’s valuable to them, but really doesn’t mean that I’m giving up anything on my end.

Jeb Blount (20:42): So for example, let’s just say that I’m a business and I offer training for my customers and I’m giving a price increase to a big customer and the training typically they have to pay for, and they don’t, they haven’t paid for it. I might say, I’ll give you the training in exchange for the price increase. Well, the training’s probably online. It’s not costing me a whole lot of money to, to run it. And I didn’t give up my price increase points. Cause you gotta remember those price increase points. Those are, you know, those are gonna be adding up. Those are they’re they’re, they’re, they’re, you know, they accumulate over time. So giving up five points over months and months of time can be a really big number for you. So I, compoundings the number of the word that I’m looking for, but they compound over time.

Jeb Blount (21:22): So, so you want protect your points at all costs. And so that’s typically what I’m doing. So, so deal is just discussing the issue. It’s explaining my, you know, my situation or my business case. It’s aligning on an agreement typically a little bit of give and take. I want to give away things that don’t cost me anything while I’m protecting my points. And the L just stands for locking it down with a handshake or an agreement or a signed contract or money in the bank or something that, that symbolizes the fact that we have come to an agreement.

John Jantsch (21:55): So I know you work with a lot of sales managers who are tasked with coaching, a group of people around doing this. And so you do finish off the book with a nice section for those folks as well. And I, so if you’re a salesperson sales manager, there’s gonna be something in, in you in, in this book for everyone, J Jeb, you wanna tell people where they can find out more about your work at sales gravy, and then obviously all the books and, uh,

Jeb Blount (22:18): Yeah, absolutely. Well, the best place to find out about books is go to Amazon Barnes and noble, wherever you buy books. And you’ll be able to find selling the price increase there and my other books. And then if you wanna learn more about me, you can go to my website, jlu.com. My last name is spelled B L O U NT, or to sales, gravy.com, where you can check out all of our resources that we have for sales and sales people and anyone who is customer facing.

John Jantsch (22:44): Awesome. Well, Jeb’s great to appreciate you taking some time to step stop by the duct tape marketing podcast. And hopefully we’ll run into you one of these days soon out there on the road.

Jeb Blount (22:53): Yes, sir. Thank you.

John Jantsch (22:54): 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.


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Rethinking the Recruiting Journey

Rethinking the Recruiting Journey written by Shawna Salinger read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Small businesses need to rethink the way they are recruiting employees today. In good times, companies thrive by being in the right place at the right time. But in tough times, organizations grow by being important in the lives of their customers. The same is true for recruitment, retention, and the hiring journey. 

Recruiting as a Marketing Function 

Marketing is not a one-time event. It’s an ongoing process that requires commitment and patience. Ad buyers often think of marketing as a vending machine—you put some money in, and out pops customers—but that’s not how it works.

Recruiters do the same thing when they go to job boards like Monster or Indeed and just buy and run ads. You can’t just throw money at the problem; you have to build a repeatable system that lasts. That is how you build a full-proof recruiting system.

  • Fewer than 15% of all jobs advertised on popular job boards are filled by candidates who apply through those boards. (Empire Resume)

  • 50% of candidates say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation, even for a pay increase. (Randstad)

  • 79% of candidates use social media in their job search (Glassdoor)

  •  92% of consumers will visit a brand’s website for reasons other than making a purchase. (Episerver)

  • 71% of employees would accept a pay cut for a better work experience. (Hays Recruiting)

  •  80% of employers think employees leave for more money, but 12% actually do. (Gallup)

These statistics show that people in the market for a job have very similar experiences to consumers looking for a product. Their search for a job is more than one event or one moment. It is composed of a complete end-to-end journey. 

Example:

Someone might first see your ad on a job board, but they will also verify your online reviews, look through your social media accounts, and visit your website. 

People aren’t candidates or consumers; they are both. People are just people and they can be marketed in the same way. So you need to take the systems you use to attract consumers to your brand and start using them to help you attract employees to work for you. 

The MOST important thing to figure out if you want to GROW your business…

Rethinking the Customer & Employee Journey Workbook


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 In this post, you will not read about “quick hacks you can do find people” or “easy fixes.” Instead, I will focus on the strategies behind your hiring process. These are the strategies you need to know, and this is what will help with your recruitment strategies in the long run.

Three Steps to the Perfect Recruiting Strategy 

  • Narrow your Focus to the Top Ideal 20%

  • Promise to Solve a Problem

  • Create a Full End-to-end Journey

Narrow your recruitment focus to your top ideal 20%  

I preach this to our clients to help them attract customers. It is vital that you fully understand who makes a completely ideal customer for your business. The same is true about who makes an ideal employee for your organization.  

Consider the top 20% of your employees, and ask yourself: Who drives the most profit? Who is the most productive? Who is the most committed or satisfied in their work? Who has the most comments, reviews, or shoutouts? Then make a list of common traits that you see among these people.  

Create Three Lists

After identifying the common characteristics of your top 20% of employees, you’ll want to create three lists. The first two are: “nice to have” and “ideal to have.” What are some things you’ve found that are nice to have in an employee? And what are some ideal things? This information will help you create a culture fit.

Then take note of any experience or technical requirements needed. Try to only let this part sway your opinion if it is absolutely necessary.

This exercise will certainly help you determine who is an ideal fit for your organization. In addition, going through these motions will teach you how to market to your ideal candidate and give clarity on what to look for during the recruiting process.

Tip
When recruiting you should focus on creating diversity but aligning culture. Somebody who believes in your company’s mission has ideal behaviors that will better serve your organization. Which, in turn, will better serve your customers compared to all the experience, background, and technical training.  

Promise to solve a problem 

Nobody wants what you sell, they want their problem solved, period. The best candidates for employment usually have a job already, but they want to find a better one. They want to get out of an environment that is not right for them. So you need to market that your business solves the problems they have in their current role.

What is the problem that your organization solves for employees?

How can you find out what your company’s unique hiring proposition is? Or what problem can you solve? First, survey your current employees. Then build an employee branding strategy based on their answers.

Here is a list of sample questions to ask employees when recruiting;

  • Why did you come to work with us?
  • Why are you still working with us?
  • What factors were involved in your decision to work for us? 
  • What do you like about working at this organization? 
  • Is there anything you don’t like about working at this organization? If so, how can we fix it?

The information received from this type of interview will offer valuable insights and better prepare you for your hiring journey. Therefore, it is crucial to keep the employee survey anonymous in order to collect the most accurate and authentic answers.

Focus on your employee branding strategy 

Take a look at your main marketing message. Does it focus on your product or the service your people provide? Customers experience brands through direct contact with employees. So, unless you are just flat out selling a product, your main marketing message should highlight the people in your organization and how they help your target audience solve a problem.  

Then you will want to see what your customers are saying online about your employees. Mine online reviews or feedback surveys. Are there any employees that customers mention by name? What are those employees like, and what are they doing that customers love? Promote those people and promote what they do for your customers and your brand through social media, newsletters, and your site.

These actions will help you figure out the problem you solve for your employees and double down on it during your recruiting and hiring process. It will also show that you value and act on your employees’ feedback and appreciate their work through public and personal recognition. 

All these things working together help you build a customer base that wants to do business with you, a dedicated staff that wants to work for your company, and new hires that want to join you.

Create an end-to-end journey  

The cold, hard truth is that customers and employees don’t change companies; they change experiences. Your recruitment strategy should not be a one-time hiring event. You have to build a pipeline and create an end-to-end journey or a complete experience.  

I use a model that depicts the end-to-end customer journey called the Marketing Hourglass. Customers first have to know about you, and then they need to decide if they like and trust you. Next, they actually buy from you. Then, if they have a good experience, they hopefully come back and buy again and maybe even refer you to others. 

You can apply the overall customer journey strategy to the recruiting or hiring journey. Today, people learn about businesses through several different avenues, and it is not always a straight line. Many times, it is just the opposite. How people come to know, like, trust, and ultimately work for your company is inherently out of your direct control. As a result, you must be intentional about how your business shows up at each stage. Actively guiding the experience candidates have with your organization.

The stages of the recruiting journey hourglass are; know, like, trust, try, hire, retain, and refer.  


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The first three stages create employee relationships through awareness and relatability; know, like, and trust.  
Know

This is where employer branding comes in. Is your organization referred to as a great place to work? And if so, are you talking about it?  

Do you share that you are hiring on places other than job boards? Do you mention it on your social channels or during interviews? 

Advertising and posting on job sites is an obvious way to attract candidates, but there is no reason to be on these sites if you do not have a clear path to conversion.  

Like

When potential employees come to your site or social profiles to check you out, what story do they find? Do they see that you value your employees through your content? Who is the first point of contact in the hiring process? How fast is the follow-up? How easy do you make it for them to find out more? 

Trust 

At this stage, candidates want to know what other people say about your organization. Take stock of your social media mentions and online reviews. This is also a good opportunity to take control of the narrative and have your employees share their experiences with your target audience.  

You must intentionally implement these steps as part of your brand’s marketing and recruiting strategy.  

The following two stages are the bridge to long-term employee success: Try and Hire 

It can be extremely costly to have a lot of employee turnover, especially short-lived employee turnover, not to mention bad for your business’s image and culture. So that is why it’s essential to get these stages right.  

Try

Take a look at your application process. Does it attract the best candidates or just eliminate the ones applying? Are there long surveys, or is it a rigorous phone screen? Is follow-up more than a week after applying? Do you set clear expectations at every stage of the hiring process? 

Hire

Don’t let your organization be a victim of hires-remorse. Have you evaluated your onboarding process? What does the training process look like? Don’t just put systems in place that check off boxes; put the effort in and make these experiences exceptional.   

The main takeaway is to hire people with the same care that you put into customer acquisition. For example, you would not have an extensive pre-qualifying questionnaire for your customers or not follow up with them after they purchased, so you shouldn’t do that to your potential hires.  

The last two stages are the keys to growing with your team: Retain and Refer. 
Retain

Year after year, the number one reason employees leave companies is a lack of respect or investment in their personal development. Growing with and investing in your team is how you build a stable business.  

Refer

If your employees trust the hiring process they went through, they are more likely to refer others for open positions. They are also more likely to refer people they know if there is an excellent incentive. The incentives for referral hiring should be creative and benefit both the referrer and the new hire to be effective.  

People don’t change jobs they change bosses. 

Solve for the issue of respect. What if we came to view our customers and employees more like members. Guide people from where they are to where they want to go. 

What else can be impacted in your business by doing this?  

Investing in your recruiting journey will bolster your mission, solidify the messages you share with your audience, help in sales and training, increase services and help grow your business. It will also help with your hiring process.  

What can start doing today today?

Go through each Recruiting Journey Stage of the and ask yourself, “What am I currently doing to build a pipeline of people interested in my organization? How am I nurturing that process?” 

I use this workbook every day with clients. It has all of the tools described in this post. It is also a great planning document that you can use to create your customer and your employee journey.


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