Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore new LinkedIn ads features and Snapchat partnering with Amazon on new visual search tools. Our special guest
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Want your Facebook funnel to be more profitable? Wondering how Facebook lead ads can help? To explore how to sell with Facebook lead ads in an unconventional way, I interview Oli Billson. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with
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You can make all the tweaks and changes in the world, but how do you know they're the best choice for the site you're working on? Without data to support your hypotheses, it's hard to say. In this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday, Will Critchlow explains a bit about what A/B testing for SEO entails and describes some of the surprising results he's seen that prove you can't always trust your instinct in our industry.
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Hi, everyone. Welcome to another British Whiteboard Friday. My name is Will Critchlow. I'm the founder and CEO at Distilled. At Distilled, one of the things that we've been working on recently is building an SEO A/B testing platform. It's called the ODN, the Optimization Delivery Network. We're now deployed on a bunch of big sites, and we've been running these SEO A/B tests for a little while. I want to tell you about some of the surprising results that we've seen.
What is SEO A/B testing?We're going to link to some resources that will show you more about what SEO A/B testing is. But very quickly, the general principle is that you take a site section, so a bunch of pages that have a similar structure and layout and template and so forth, and you split those pages into control and variant, so a group of A pages and a group of B pages.
Then you make the change that you're hypothesizing is going to make a difference just to one of those groups of pages, and you leave the other set unchanged. Then, using your analytics data, you build a forecast of what would have happened to the variant pages if you hadn't made any changes to them, and you compare what actually happens to the forecast. Out of that you get some statistical confidence intervals, and you get to say, yes, this is an uplift, or there was no difference, or no, this hurt the performance of your site.
This is data that we've never really had in SEO before, because this is very different to running a controlled experiment in a kind of lab environment or on a test domain. This is in the wild, on real, actual, live websites. So let's get to the material. The first surprising result I want to talk about is based off some of the most basic advice that you've ever seen.
Result #1: Targeting higher-volume keywords can actually result in traffic dropsI've stood on stage and given this advice. I have recommended this stuff to clients. Probably you have too. You know that process where you do some keyword research and you find that there's one particular way of searching for whatever it is that you offer that has more search volume than the way that you're talking about it on your website right now, so higher search volume for a particular way of phrasing?
You make the recommendation, "Let's talk about this stuff on our website the way that people are searching for it. Let's put this kind of phrasing in our title and elsewhere on our pages." I've made those recommendations. You've probably made those recommendations. They don't always work. We've seen a few times now actually of testing this kind of process and seeing what are actually dramatic drops.
We saw up to 20-plus-percent drops in organic traffic after updating meta information in titles and so forth to target the more commonly-searched-for variant. Various different reasons for this. Maybe you end up with a worse click-through rate from the search results. So maybe you rank where you used to, but get a worse click-through rate. Maybe you improve your ranking for the higher volume target term and you move up a little bit, but you move down for the other one and the new one is more competitive.
So yes, you've moved up a little bit, but you're still out of the running, and so it's a net loss. Or maybe you end up ranking for fewer variations of key phrases on these pages. However it happens, you can't be certain that just putting the higher-volume keyword phrasing on your pages is going to perform better. So that's surprising result number one. Surprising result number two is possibly not that surprising, but pretty important I think.
Result #2: 30–40% of common tech audit recommendations make no differenceSo this is that we see as many as 30% or 40% of the common recommendations in a classic tech audit make no difference. You do all of this work auditing the website. You follow SEO best practices. You find a thing that, in theory, makes the website better. You go and make the change. You test it.
Nothing, flatlines. You get the same performance as the forecast, as if you had made no change. This is a big deal because it's making these kinds of recommendations that damages trust with engineers and product teams. You're constantly asking them to do stuff. They feel like it's pointless. They do all this stuff, and there's no difference. That is what burns authority with engineering teams too often.
This is one of the reasons why we built the platform is that we can then take our 20 recommendations and hypotheses, test them all, find the 5 or 6 that move the needle, only go to the engineering team to build those ones, and that builds so much trust and relationship over time, and they get to work on stuff that moves the needle on the product side.
So the big deal there is really be a bit skeptical about some of this stuff. The best practices, at the limit, probably make a difference. If everything else is equal and you make that one tiny, little tweak to the alt attribute or a particular image somewhere deep on the page, if everything else had been equal, maybe that would have made the difference.
But is it going to move you up in a competitive ranking environment? That's what we need to be skeptical about.
Result #3: Many lessons don't generalizeSo surprising result number three is: How many lessons do not generalize? We've seen this broadly across different sections on the same website, even different industries. Some of this is about the competitive dynamics of the industry.
Some of it is probably just the complexity of the ranking algorithm these days. But we see this in particular with things like this. Who's seen SEO text on a category page? Those kind of you've got all of your products, and then somebody says, "You know what? We need 200 or 250 words that mention our key phrase a bunch of times down at the bottom of the page." Sometimes, helpfully, your engineers will even put this in an SEO-text div for you.
So we see this pretty often, and we've tested removing it. We said, "You know what? No users are looking at this. We know that overstuffing the keyword on the page can be a negative ranking signal. I wonder if we'll do better if we just cut that div." So we remove it, and the first time we did it, plus 6% result. This was a good thing.
The pages are better without it. They're now ranking better. We're getting better performance. So we say, "You know what? We've learnt this lesson. You should remove this really low-quality text from the bottom of your category pages." But then we tested it on another site, and we see there's a drop, a small one admittedly, but it was helping on these particular pages.
So I think what that's just telling us is we need to be testing these recommendations every time. We need to be trying to build testing into our core methodologies, and I think this trend is only going to increase and continue, because the more complex the ranking algorithms get, the more machine learning is baked into it and it's not as deterministic as it used to be, and the more competitive the markets get, so the narrower the gap between you and your competitors, the less stable all this stuff is, the smaller differences there will be, and the bigger opportunity there will be for something that works in one place to be null or negative in another.
So I hope I have inspired you to check out some SEO A/B testing. We're going to link to some of the resources that describe how you do it, how you can do it yourself, and how you can build a program around this as well as some other of our case studies and lessons that we've learnt. But I hope you enjoyed this journey on surprising results from SEO A/B tests.
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Who do you recommend?
It’s an innocent question. One that I rarely think about before I ask, whether presented to a restaurant server or posted online in a Facebook group. The answers we receive shape our own opinions, tweak our preferences and cement our decisions. When we ask other people for their recommendations or respond with our own preferences, we do so from a place of trust: trust between people, rather than the trust of an advertisement, spokesperson or brand.
Millennials are leading the way for person-to-person recommendations. 77% of all millennials have recommended a product or service to someone else in the past month.
Millennials are 50% more likely to recommend a product or service by word of mouth than the average American. #ChatterMatters
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This data point doesn’t shock me, but the follow up does. Millennials are 50% more likely to recommend a product or service by word of mouth than the average American. Say what?
Millennials make more recommendations than any other demographic group, by far. Word of mouth recommendations are commonplace habits for the generation that could be called the “Google Generation.” Millennials learned very quickly the answer to any question lies just beyond the search box—and a recommendation for almost anything is as close as one text message or Facebook post.
This is just one finding from our 2018 word-of-mouth report, Chatter Matters. In the report, we looked at the importance of word-of-mouth across variables, such as gender, age and online versus offline. While word-of-mouth affects everyone, it doesn’t do so equally or evenly.
Word of mouth occurs so frequently on Facebook that the engineers recently optimized a posting option to make it easier to ask for and answer recommendations.
Every day, millennials make recommendations on social media posts, Foursquare, and Google Reviews. Millennials save lists of favorite products on their phones and create “travel guides” for friends who visit their favorite cities.
I have several Notes saved on my iPhone that are ready to fire off when the opportunity strikes. Favorite clothing brands for toddlers? (What’s your price range?) Willamette Valley wineries not to miss? (How far do you want to drive?) A weekend in Austin, Texas? (Do you want tacos or bar-be-que?) Best cheeses from Trader Joe’s? (Try the Jalapeño & Honey Chèvre.)
Why are millennials more prone to word of mouth recommendations for products and services than any other American demographic group? Simply put: millennials are in their prime decision-making stages of life.
The current American millennial is somewhere between 18 and 38 years of age. They are consistently facing major life decisions, and I don’t mean, “where can I find the best gluten-free ice cream cone?” and “Which Cross-fit box should I join?” Think of all the things you did for the first time between 18 and 38:
As a whole, millennials are more comfortable with groupthink and are more open to feedback. I expect that upcoming generations (Gen Z) will naturally follow suit with giving and receiving recommendations for products and services, as their own needs require informed decisions.
Millennials and Gen Zers are so wired to help, to earn and build trust, that they are also more likely to recommend a product or service based on what they’ve heard from others, rather than their own experiences. Passive word of mouth, whether identified as such (“I’ve heard, I read…”) is fascinating.
When do you find yourself asking for a recommendation, or answering one? Try to catch the moment when you have the urge to respond with an answer that is passive (not based on your own experience), and understand the different motivations for answering with active or passive word of mouth recommendations. I’ve caught myself doing both in the same response, mixing “I’ve heard” or “A friend said” with “I like this best.”
A millennial myself, I audited my own recommendations in a single day—how I give them and ask for them myself.
On Facebook alone, I made (at least) six recommendations in a single day. I recommended my family’s photographer, my kids’ preschool and my acupuncturist to a new mom in our local community group. To a pregnant friend, I recommended the vitamins that took away my first-trimester nausea. In a social media group, I shared which portable ring light I like best, and weighed in on the Hello Fresh vs. Blue Apron vs. Freshly debate that was raging in my News Feed.
Ordering lunch that same day, I chose a salad with broiled goat cheese and poached pears. The reaction from my server was immediate: an emphatic head nod that validated my choice. He made sure to compliment my selection as one of his favorite things on the menu. Word of mouth is so ingrained in society; it comes even when we don’t explicitly ask for a recommendation.
Chatter Matters is a proprietary word-of-mouth report produced by Convince & Convert Consulting and the research firm, Audience Audit. It examines the word-of-mouth attitudes of 1,001 randomly selected Americans. The margin of error is approximately +/- 3.1%. Chatter Matters is a companion piece to Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin’s new book, Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word-of-Mouth. It will be released by Penguin Portfolio on October 3.
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Do you struggle to measure the return on investment (ROI) for your social media activity? Turns out you aren’t alone. In this article, you’ll discover insights from new research that addresses the age-old ROI challenge. #1: Measuring Return on Investment Remains Marketers’ Biggest Challenge Social Media Examiner’s 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report found that
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Have you ever struggled with setting a hard date to start something? Then watch The Journey, Social Media Examiner’s episodic video documentary that shows you what really happens inside a growing business. Watch the Journey In episode 4, Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner) and his marketing team are wrestling with a common theme—when
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The latest Wolfgang E-Commerce Report is now live. This study gives a comprehensive view of the state of digital marketing in retail and travel, allowing digital marketers to benchmark their 2018 performance and plan their 2019 strategy.
The study analyzes over 250 million website sessions and more than €500 million in online revenue. Google Analytics, new Facebook Analytics reports, and online surveys are used to glean insights.
Revenue volume correlationsOne of the unique features of the study is its conversion correlation. All website metrics featured in the study are correlated with conversion success to reveal what the most successful websites do differently.
This year we've uncovered our strongest success correlation ever at 0.67! Just to give that figure context: normally, 0.2 is worth talking about and 0.3 is noteworthy. Not only is this correlation with success very strong, the insight itself is highly actionable and can become a pillar of your digital marketing strategy.
These are the top factors that correlated with revenue volume. You can see the other correlations in the full study.
The marketing department is under new management. The only problem? Most people don’t recognize the new boss.
While most companies are busy inflating their paid social media budgets or expanding their video personnel, precious few are focused of the simple power of something less expensive, more personal, and typically more effective: word of mouth.
Some of the most successful companies have realized the most potent way to promote their brands doesn’t come with a big price tag; they rely instead on creating customer chatter. The amazing thing about word of mouth is that it influences 59-91% of all purchases, yet NOBODY has a strategy for it.
You have a marketing strategy. A digital strategy. A social media strategy. A PR strategy. But you don’t have a word of mouth strategy. We just take it for granted that our customers will talk about us. But will they? And what will they see?
We need to start doing word of mouth on purpose, instead of on accident.Consider the numbers. According to Ted Wright, CEO of Fizz, word of mouth can spread from one excited customer to 40,370 people in only a year’s time. That’s a tremendous wave that turns your customers into volunteer marketers, using their reach and relationships to get you new customers at nearly no cost.
According to Ted Wright, CEO of Fizz, word of mouth can spread from one excited customer to 40,370 people in only a year’s time.
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Imagine the potential if you were able to do the same thing for hundreds or thousands of customers on a daily basis. You can.
Every business should aim to create what my co-author, Daniel Lemin, and I call “talk triggers”. Talk triggers are strategic, operational differentiators that compel word of mouth. Your customers cannot help but tell someone about that special, different thing that you do.
A talk trigger could be a direct text line to your CEO, funny posters in your restrooms, or treats you leave on hotel pillows. It can be just about anything, as long as it’s consistently deployed, relevant to your brand positioning, and creates conversation reliably.
At The Cheesecake Factory, for example, the main talk trigger is the restaurant’s extensive menu. It’s an incredible 5,940 words long. We surveyed hundreds of customers and found that 38% of them have mentioned the giant menu to someone else, in the past 30 days. That’s a very effective talk trigger for the restaurant, and why you almost NEVER see an ad for the brand.
Care to guess how much of this multibillion-dollar company’s revenue goes toward advertising? A scant 0.2 percent. The Cheesecake Factory relies on word of mouth because research by David Godes and Dina Mayzlin found that a single conversation by each new customer generates about $200 worth of sales for a restaurant chain.
Here are three reasons word of mouth offers such incredible power:
1. Word of Mouth is Intensely PersonalIt’s nearly impossible—even with machine learning—to make an advertisement that’s personally targeted to each and every one of 40,000 potential customers. Yet that’s precisely what your customers can do through word of mouth. They know much more about their friends than you do; let them tell your story in a way that will connect to those friends in ways you cannot.
Even social media fails to achieve that same level of personal touch—it accounts for only half of all word of mouth conversations. Yet, direct spending on social media advertising in the U.S. is expected to increase from $4.3 billion to $23.6 billion in 2019. While other businesses are busy constantly boosting their paid social budgets, think about how you can instead give your customers something to talk about.
2. Word of Mouth Saves TimeWe’ve all been there on a Saturday night: you and your friends want to go out to dinner, but no one wants to take the time to comb through Yelp and research every available option. Instead, your friends shout out their favorite spots or mention a few new locales they’ve heard about from co-workers. Within no time, your group has picked a destination (and you’ve learned about a few new places in the process).
Nearly everyone would choose this sort of organic recommendation.
3. Word of Mouth Capitalizes on TrustConsumers are more than willing to take a friend’s word for it. While research from Nielsen and Edelman shows that barely half of all consumers trust businesses globally, 83 percent of Americans trust recommendations from friends and family. It’s simple, really.
Friends usually have no financial interest in pushing products or services, so the believability and persuasiveness of the recommendation or referral go up accordingly.
We live during a time in which the algorithms of advertising strategy have become infinitely complex. It’s far too easy to get tied up in those algorithms and forget the fundamentals of business growth. You simply have to get the word out. If your customers are eager to do that for you, you should be doing everything you can to help them. So what’s your talk trigger?
Lots more on this topic in my new book, written with Daniel Lemin. Go to TalkTriggers.com for free tools and downloads.
Also, we have a comprehensive new study about the power of word of mouth called Chatter Matters: the 2018 Word of Mouth Report. Grab it for free here.
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In 2018, e-commerce marketers are expected to spend more on Facebook than ever before. One of the reasons they are scaling their Facebook ad campaigns is that the social networking giant is introducing a number of new ad products that they want to experiment with. Collection ads are one of the newest solutions Facebook has started offering.
What Are Collection Ads?
Facebook introduced collection ads to provide a more immersive experience for mobile users. This advertising product differs from traditional ads in one huge way – advertisers can use multiple images. This gives them far more versatility and customizability than the traditional single unit ad.
There are a number of ways that advertisers can structure their creatives. The most common way advertisers use collection ads is by having a large cover image, followed by multiple images of products that they want to sell. Here is an example of a collection ad that Adidas was running.
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Wondering how to build an email list from your Facebook group? Looking for tips to help? In this article, you’ll learn four ways to collect emails from your Facebook group. Why Gathering Emails From Facebook Group Members Is Important Facebook groups can be an awesome way to share content, engage with your followers, and build
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My new book, written with my friend Daniel Lemin, is called Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth. You can get it all the places and ways books are available. Visit TalkTriggers.com for details and a ton of special bonus content.
Here’s how we made it, and why it will help you.
Why did you write this book?It started—as all my books do—by noticing a pattern in the questions clients ask me and my consulting team. They kept asking “what should we be posting in social media?” and “what should we be making content about?”
I realized that we have all spent so much time worrying about tools and tactics in recent years that we’ve largely left behind the real key: giving your customers a story to tell about your business.
Hasn’t word of mouth been around forever? Why do we need another book about it?Yes. Word of mouth is the original marketing. And yes, there are a number of great books about word of mouth out there. We interviewed the authors of most of them for Talk Triggers. The difference is that most word of mouth books talk about why it’s important. We do that, but also show you precisely how to create word of mouth, in any business.
What’s a talk trigger?A talk trigger is strategic, operational differentiator that compels word of mouth. It’s something special you do in your business that makes word of mouth involuntary. Your customers simply MUST tell someone else about it.
But a talk trigger isn’t marketing. It’s not a coupon or a contest. It’s not a price or a promotion. It’s an operational choice that, in turn, creates a distinct marketing advantage.
A talk trigger is strategic, operational differentiator that compels word of mouth. It's something special you do in your business that makes word of mouth involuntary. Your customers simply MUST tell someone else about it. #TalkTriggers
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Why are talk triggers so beneficial?
Your talk trigger is the memorable story your customers pass along on your behalf. And the best—and least expensive—way to grow EVERY business is for your customers to do it for you. In short, talk triggers turn your customers into volunteer marketers.
How important is word of mouth?Extremely. Research shows that between 50 and 91 percent of ALL PURCHASES are influenced in some way by word of mouth and referrals (online or offline). Yet, and this is the amazing part: NOBODY has a strategy for word of mouth. We just take it for granted.
Talk Triggers gives you everything you need to do word of mouth on purpose, instead of on accident.
Research shows that between 50 and 91 percent of ALL PURCHASES are influenced in some way by word of mouth and referrals (online or offline).
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What kind of examples are in the book?
Just about every kind! Daniel and I were very careful to represent the broadest possible cross-section of businesses in the Talk Triggers case studies. You’ll find compelling tales from businesses small and large. From companies in B2C and B2B. From organizations in North America, and from all over the world.
How do you know this word of mouth stuff works?First, the principles and processes in the book are the exact same ones we use in our word of mouth consulting practice here at Convince & Convert. We use the same systems every day to create new customers for our clients.
Second, the book itself includes findings from four separate research studies we conducted about what works, why, and how. In fact, we have an entirely separate research study about it you may like called Chatter Matters: the 2018 Word of Mouth Report. Grab it for free.
Is this another boring business book?No! The case studies are fun, there’s a lot of humor in the book, and while it’s a serious (and seriously important) topic, it’s an easy and breezy read.
It also includes a Quick Reference guide in the back so it’s easy to find key themes and stats later.
And, each hardcover copy includes pass along cards that you can rip out and give to your friends and colleagues if you want to recommend the book.
Who should read Talk Triggers?Everyone who owns or manages a business. And everyone in marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. If you want to read the book as a group, we have free study guides and presentation templates at TalkTriggers.com
What’s the talk trigger for the book Talk Triggers?We have two. First, the book has alpacas on the cover. Second, the back cover of the book says “If you buy this book and do not love it unconditionally, go to TalkTriggers.com and send a message to the authors. They will buy you ANY other book of your choosing.”
And we will.
So there is literally zero percent risk in buying this book.
Yeah, so what’s the deal with the alpacas?Our first cover concepts were … less than ideal. Daniel and I were messing around and I came up with something stupid featuring two ladies whispering. He took that and RAN WITH IT, and created the cover design of two alpacas talking.
Since then, it’s become a theme for the whole book, as you’ll see here:
Yes. There are five categories of talk triggers you can use in your business to create word of mouth among your customers. They are: 1) Talkable Generosity 2) Talkable Speed 3) Talkable Usefulness 4) Talkable Empathy and 5) Talkable Attitude.
For reference, the alpacas are talkable attitude. The money-back guarantee is talkable generosity.
Can any business use these ideas?We really believe so, yes. We’ve been doing presentations and consulting about these ideas all around the world and we’ve yet to find an organization that cannot implement a word of mouth strategy using talk triggers.
Grab a copy of Talk Triggers for yourself, your colleagues, your team, and/or your clients. Remember, money-back guarantee, too!
Any questions, leave us a note at TalkTriggers.com, and we’ll be right back at you.
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Facebook stories were launched in early 2017. If you’ are familiar with Snap Chat then you will have a sound understanding of how this feature works. If not let me explain.
Facebook stories is a microcontent creation feature inside of Facebook, (time sensitive) this feature allows us to take a very short video or image and post. The user-generated images or short videos can be viewed twice and are only available for 24 hours. It’s almost identical to Snapchat Stories, allowing you to heavily customise the posts with a selection of filters, text, drawings, stickers, frames, and masks.
Stories are the new black inside of Facebook. What I mean by this is that the engagement of your stories inside of Facebook will and does affect your algorithm. The easiest way to think about stories is to think of them having their own unique news feed.
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Do you know if your social media efforts are working? Wondering how to track link clicks from social traffic? In this article, you’ll discover how to use UTM tags to measure your social media traffic with Google Analytics. Why Measure Your Social Media Traffic? Measuring your social media traffic will help you determine which marketing
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22. That’s the number I want you to focus on today. It’s the number of Top 10 hits by Taylor Swift (Ironically, it’s also the title of one of those Top 10 hits). It’s the length of a cricket pitch if you’re measuring in yards. It’s the name of a 202-mile Interstate that runs from Birmingham, Alabama to northwestern Mississippi.
Let me tell you something else you don’t know about the number 22.
We know men and women are different, but I’ll add to that obvious statement with this: When it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, women depend on offline friend and family suggestions 22% more than men. Men rely more on web-based information like social media and ratings and review sites.
When it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, women depend on offline friend and family suggestions 22% more than men.
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When it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, men rely on web-based information—like social media and ratings and review sites—more than women.
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This is just one of the many differences we found in our 2018 word-of-mouth report, Chatter Matters. In the report, we looked at the importance of word-of-mouth across variables, such as gender, age and online versus offline. While word-of-mouth affects everyone, it doesn’t do so equally or evenly.
Use Content to Spark Offline Word-of-MouthThe majority of word-of-mouth happens in face-to-face conversations. Some reports estimate as much as 90% of all word-of-mouth happens offline. And according to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, an offline word-of-mouth impression drives at least five times more sales than a paid advertising impression.
Here’s the thing: many of those offline conversations happen because they’re sparked by something online. Content is a propellant for word-of-mouth marketing.
Content is a propellant for word-of-mouth marketing.
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You can approach that propellant in several ways, but I want you to approach it differently. Especially, if you’re marketing to women. The simple act of standing out makes a difference.
Here’s what I mean: In addition to having a great experience, or hearing about a great experience, women are more likely than others to engage in word-of-mouth when they are exposed to a product or service that is distinctly different. They are 49% more likely than men to discuss products or services they perceive as “different” from the norm. The goal isn’t to just be good but to stand out. In other words, same is lame.
Women are more likely than others to engage in word-of-mouth when they are exposed to a product or service that is distinctly different.
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Consider the family-owned restaurant chain, Cheesecake Factory. Did you know they spend five times less on advertising than any other competing restaurant chain? If you’re asking yourself how that’s possible, I asked the same thing.
Cheesecake Factory does something different, and their customers tell their friends and family about it. In fact, 83% of Cheesecake factory diners have mentioned this differentiator in just the past 60 days. Do you know what it is?
No, it’s not their tantalizing case of cheesecake that makes us all salivate. It’s actually their giant menu. The Cheesecake Factory menu is 5,940 words long. They make chicken 85 different ways. That menu creates online and offline word-of-mouth.
It’s human nature to ignore things that are average and to talk about things that are different. That’s why you have to create a talk trigger, a purposeful differentiator that compels people to tell their friends about you. You can learn more about talk triggers on October 3 when our new book is released. In the meantime, download the entire Chatter Matters report with the most recent word-of-mouth data for your very own strategy.
Chatter Matters is a proprietary word-of-mouth report produced by Convince & Convert Consulting and the research firm, Audience Audit. It examines the word-of-mouth attitudes of 1,001 randomly selected Americans. The margin of error is approximately +/- 3.1%. Chatter Matters is a companion piece to my new book, Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word-of-Mouth. It will be released by Penguin Portfolio on October 3.
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Social media isn’t just an amazing tool for connecting with potential customers, it’s also rapidly becoming the preferred method of customer service. Consumers love posting questions, praise (and unfortunately complaints) on company social accounts because it’s much easier and faster than traditional methods. This is fantastic when content is positive, but it can also drag issues out into the open that were hidden before the medium existed.
While a few complaints here and there are expected, the real damage is done when an angry mob forms. Trolls can destroy your Facebook or Twitter page by flooding your feed with comments and negative reviews that can be difficult, if not impossible, to contain. If you aren’t familiar with what social media mobs can do, take a look at what happened when Laura Ingraham was targeted with social media backlash:
Facing an Angry Mob
On March 28, Laura Ingraham took to Twitter to provoke Parkland shooting survivor and activist David Hogg after he was rejected by 4 colleges.
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Need to get a better grip on your Facebook ads’ performance? Do you know which metrics in Facebook Ads Manager to monitor? In this article, you’ll discover how to set up a Facebook Ads Manager report that quickly reveals which ads are working well and which you need to adjust. Why On-Going Analysis of Your
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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore the return of the chronological timeline on Twitter and new ways to sell your products directly from
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Which are the best social media conferences to attend in 2018 and 2019?
Rather than create a comprehensive list of every social media conference that exists, I provide you my annual list of social media conferences that I have vetted from either presenting at, attending, or knowing first-hand of the experiences from others who have attended. Conferences with a strong track record obviously are featured in this list, but I also went out of my way to add new and promising events to the list, especially some user conferences that aren’t specifically focused on, but will include a great deal of information about, social media.
If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of social media, these are the must-attend social media conferences in 2018 and 2019! Conferences are presented in chronological order for your convenience.
Dreamforce – September 25-28, 2018 – San Francisco, California
Four days of inspiration, giving back, and having the time of your life with fellow Trailblazers — that only begins to describe the most innovative software conference in the world.
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As technology makes it easier to connect and engage with brands, do customer expectations change? And how do these changes impact trust? This trinity of factors is the subject of a new report from Salesforce Research. In their 2018 “State of the Connected Customer” report, Salesforce Research surveyed over 6,700 consumers and business buyers worldwide and analyzed both B2B and B2C attitudes across these three areas.
While the findings aren’t necessarily surprising when taken individually, together they form a narrative that indicates that customer loyalty is more fickle than ever, and customer expectations are at an all-time high.
Let’s take a look at 8 key statistics from this report that help to bring this story to life.
1. 4 out of 5 customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.
Let’s start with the obvious stuff—this first statistic shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, there are more brands than ever before in just about any business sector you can think of. (Seriously, how many different companies offer meal kits now?!) Therefore, product/service features aren’t enough to differentiate, and businesses must look to customer experience to demonstrate their brand value and augment their brand perception in the eyes of their customers.
80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its product/services.
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Another number that shouldn’t surprise anyone: 84% of customers say “being treated like a person, not a number” is very important to winning their business.
It should go without saying the customers want to be respected and valued—simple, right? And yet, the following numbers, indicate that businesses have a long way to go.
2. Half of those survey say that most companies fall short of their expectations for great experiences.In an age when the largest brands offer free shipping, no-hassle returns, and 24-hour/on-demand service, it’s no wonder that standards are high. Businesses, both B2B and B2C, must come to terms with this new reality. If not, companies that fail to live up to their customers’ expectations lose repeat business; 57% of those surveyed said that they stopped buying from a company “because a competitor provided a better experience.”
If 20% of our customers make up 80% of our revenue (according to the Pareto principle), customer retention—through meeting customer expectations—is absolutely key to increasing customer lifetime value.
3. Just over 3/4 of customers say it’s easier than ever to take their business elsewhere.We shouldn’t be surprised that, in an environment in which expectations are high and the quality of experiences don’t meet expectations, customers aren’t particularly loyal.
But it’s not necessarily that customers have champagne tastes on seltzer budgets. A full 67% actually indicate that they are willing to spend more for higher quality experiences.
With that in mind, companies can go one of two ways:
If the airline industry is any indication, however, unbundling services may just create more unhappiness by nickel-and-diming customer experience. As my friend and colleague Jeanne Bliss says in her latest book, “Would You Do That to Your Mother?,” companies should look to turn “gotcha!” moments—in which customers are disappointed by added fees—into “we’ve got your back” moments—in which companies exceed expectations and go the extra mile to make customers feel valued.
4. 72% say they share good experiences, while 62% say they share bad experiences with others.Word-of-mouth can work both for and against your company. What do your customers say about you and what are you doing to influence their conversations?
With such high percentages of customers indicating that both good and bad experiences spawn chatter, companies must have proactive strategies to address WOM.
5. B2C customer experience is setting the standards for the B2B space too.According to the report, 82% of business buyers “want the same experience as when they’re buying for themselves” (as B2C consumers). Once again, big B2C brands are setting the standards, with 69% of B2B buyers saying that they expect “Amazon-like buying experiences” that are tailored to their prior engagements.
As an analyst for Convince & Convert, I work with some of the biggest brands in the world, and I often have conversations with B2B brand marketers who are only looking at their competitive set and what they bring to the table. The thing is, your customers aren’t doing that. They’re comparing your customer experience to every other customer experience they have on a daily basis. Can your brand live up to it?
Not only are B2B buyers looking for strong customer experiences, but almost 3/4 of B2B buyers expect vendors to personalize experiences to their needs.
6. In fact, personalization matters across the board.
For both B2C and B2B interactions, personalization is preferred by customers. You may have heard that customers don’t like the uncanny nature of tracking across different websites and experiences—and I agree that marketers must be aware of respecting customers’ privacy and setting expectations—but AI-driven recommendations for content, products, and even knowledge-base information increases satisfaction by making it easier for customers to find and discover resources they find valuable.
Looking for a place to start? Segment your email list by personas or interest areas and use automation and rules to showcase specific content and/or products for each audience group.
7. After-purchase personalization is important too.
Personalization goes beyond lead nurture. Being able to contextualize and personalize engagements with customers at the point of customer service is also highly valued by customers. (Again, the goal should be customer retention!) The report states, “70% of customers say service agents’ awareness of sales interactions is very important to keeping their business.”
In fact, it’s the little things that make a difference: don’t make customers repeat themselves; be sure to address them based on previous interactions. For instance, recently, I hopped on Amazon’s customer service chat, and I was pleased that it welcomed me back. The chatbot recognized that I had previously used the technology, and customized its responses accordingly. This ties back to the finding that people want to be seen as individuals and not just numbers.
8. Customers will share their data to get a better experience.
Finally, I think it’s extremely telling that “79% of customers are willing to share relevant information about themselves in exchange for contextualized interactions in which they’re immediately known and understood.” At a time when data privacy is an ongoing and evolving conversation, brands should recognize that customers are happy to provide information when it immediately and clearly benefits them.
79% of customers are willing to share relevant information about themselves in exchange for a better customer experience.
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As your company thinks about how it collects and uses data, be sure that the benefits to the customer are clearly articulated and defined. Demonstrate to customers how their experiences will be made better.
Turning these Stats into ActionsAs you consider your own business, here are 3 actions you can take right away:
This self-assessment is the first step to understanding how your company is addressing the changing expectations of customers. Ready for the next steps? We work with the world’s most interesting brands—let us help you build your plan of action.
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Want more people to watch, share, and comment on your live videos? Looking for tips on improving the quality of viewer engagement? To explore how to get more engagement with Facebook Live video, I interview Stephanie Liu. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and
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Are your clients your allies in SEO, or are they passive spectators? Could they even be inadvertently working against you? A better understanding of expectations, goals, and strategy by everyone involved can improve your client relations, provide extra clarity, and reduce the number of times you're asked to "just SEO a site." In today's Whiteboard Friday, Kameron Jenkins outlines tactics you should know for getting clients and bosses excited about the SEO journey, as well as the risks involved in passivity.
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Hey, everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday. I am Kameron Jenkins, and I'm the SEO Wordsmith here at Moz. Today I'm going to be talking with you about how to turn your clients from spectators, passive spectators to someone who is proactively interested and an ally in your SEO journey.
So if you've ever heard someone come to you, maybe it's a client or maybe you're in-house and this is your boss saying this, and they say, "Just SEO my site," then this is definitely for you. A lot of times it can be really hard as an SEO to work on a site if you really aren't familiar with the business, what that client is doing, what they're all about, what their goals are. So I'm going to share with you some tactics for getting your clients and your boss excited about SEO and excited about the work that you're doing and some risks that can happen when you don't do that.
TacticsSo let's dive right in. All right, first we're going to talk about tactics.
1. Share newsThe first tactic is to share news. In the SEO industry, things are changing all the time, so it's actually a really great tactic to keep yourself informed, but also to share that news with the client. So here's an example. Google My Business is now experimenting with a new video format for their post feature. So one thing that you can do is say, "Hey, client, I hear that Google is experimenting with this new format. They're using videos now. Would you like to try it?"
So that's really cool because it shows them that you're on top of things. It shows them that you're the expert and you're keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry. It also tells them that they're going to be a part of this new, cutting-edge technology, and that can get them really, really excited about the SEO work you're doing. So make sure to share news. I think that can be really, really valuable.
2. Outline your workThe next tip is to outline your work. This one seems really simple, but there is so much to say for telling a client what you're going to do, doing it, and then telling them that you did it. It's amazing what can happen when you just communicate with a client more. There have been plenty of situations where maybe I did less tangible work for a client one week, but because I talk to them more, they were more inclined to be happy with me and excited about the work I was doing.
It's also cool because when you tell a client ahead of time what you're going to do, it gives them time to get excited about, "Ooh, I can't wait to see what he or she is going to do next." So that's a really good tip for getting your clients excited about SEO.
3. Report resultsAnother thing is to report on your results. So, as SEOs, it can be really easy to say, hey, I added this page or I fixed these things or I updated this.
But if we detach it from the actual results, it doesn't really matter how much a client likes you or how much your boss likes you, there's always a risk that they could pull the plug on SEO because they just don't see the value that's coming from it. So that's an unfortunate reality, but there are tons of ways that you can show the value of SEO. One example is, "Hey, client, remember that page that we identified that was ranking on page two. We improved it. We made all of those updates we talked about, and now it's ranking on page one. So that's really exciting. We're seeing a lot of new traffic come from it.I'm wondering, are you seeing new calls, new leads, an uptick in any of those things as a result of that?"
So that's really good because it shows them what you did, the results from that, and then it kind of connects it to, "Hey, are you seeing any revenue, are you seeing new clients, new customers," things like that. So they're more inclined to see that what you're doing is making a real, tangible impact on actual revenue and their actual business goals.
4. Acknowledge and guide their ideasThis one is really, really important. It can be hard sometimes to marry best practices and customer service. So what I mean by that is there's one end of the pendulum where you are really focused on best practices. This is right. This is wrong. I know my SEO stuff. So when a client comes to you and they say, "Hey, can we try this?" and you go, "No, that's not best practices,"it can kind of shut them down. It doesn't get them involved in the SEO process. In fact, it just kind of makes them recoil and maybe they don't want to talk to you, and that's the exact opposite of what we want here. On the other end of that spectrum though, you have clients who say, "Hey, I really want to try this.I saw this article. I'm interested in this thing. Can you do it for my website?"
Maybe it's not the greatest idea SEO-wise. You're the SEO expert, and you see that and you go, "Mm, that's actually kind of scary. I don't think I want to do that." But because you're so focused on pleasing your client, you maybe do it anyway. So that's the opposite of what we want as well. We want to have a "no, but" mentality. So an example of that could be your client emails in and says, "Hey, I want to try this new thing."
You go, "Hey, I really like where your head is at. I like that you're thinking about things this way. I'm so glad you shared this with me. I tried this related thing before, and I think that would be actually a really good idea to employ on your website." So kind of shifting the conversation, but still bringing them along with you for that journey and guiding them to the correct conclusions. So that's another way to get them invested without shying them away from the SEO process.
RisksSo now that we've talked about those tactics, we're going to move on to the risks. These are things that could happen if you don't get your clients excited and invested in the SEO journey.
1. SEO becomes a checklistWhen you don't know your client well enough to know what they're doing in the real world, what they're all about, the risk becomes you have to kind of just do site health stuff, so fiddling with meta tags, maybe you're changing some paragraphs around, maybe you're changing H1s, fixing 404s, things like that, things that are just objectively, "I can make this change, and I know it's good for site health."
But it's not proactive. It's not actually doing any SEO strategies. It's just cleanup work. If you just focus on cleanup work, that's really not an SEO strategy. That's just making sure your site isn't broken. As we all know, you need so much more than that to make sure that your client's site is ranking. So that's a risk.
If you don't know your clients, if they're not talking to you, or they're not excited about SEO, then really all you're left to do is fiddle with kind of technical stuff. As good as that can be to do, our jobs are way more fun than that. So communicate with your clients. Get them on board so that you can do proactive stuff and not just fiddling with little stuff.
2. SEO conflicts with business goalsSo another risk is that SEO can conflict with business goals.
So say that you're an SEO. Your client is not talking to you. They're not really excited about stuff that you're doing. But you decide to move forward with proactive strategies anyway. So say I'm an SEO, and I identify this keyword. My client has this keyword. This is a related keyword. It can bring in a lot of good traffic. I've identified this good opportunity. All of the pages that are ranking on page one, they're not even that good. I could totally do better. So I'm going to proactively go, I'm going to build this page of content and put it on my client's site. Then what happens when they see that page of content and they go, "We don't even do that. We don't offer that product. We don't offer that service."
Oops. So that's really bad. What can happen is that, yes, you're being proactive, and that's great. But if you don't actually know what your client is doing, because they're not communicating with you, they're not really excited, you risk misaligning with their business goals and misrepresenting them. So that's a definite risk.
3. You miss out on PR opportunitiesAnother thing, you miss out on PR opportunities. So again, if your client is not talking to you, they're not excited enough to share what they're doing in the real world with you, you miss out on news like, "Hey, we're sponsoring this event,"or, "Hey, I was the featured expert on last night's news."
Those are all really, really good things that SEOs look for. We crave that information. We can totally use that to capitalize on it for SEO value. If we're not getting that from our clients, then we miss out on all those really, really cool PR opportunities. So a definite risk. We want those PR opportunities. We want to be able to use them.
4. Client controls the conversationNext up, client controls the conversation. That's a definite risk that can happen. So if a client is not talking to you, a reason could be they don't really trust you yet. When they don't trust you, they tend to start to dictate. So maybe our client emails in.
A good example of this is, "Hey, add these 10 backlinks to my website." Or, "Hey, I need these five pages, and I need them now." Maybe they're not even actually bad suggestions. It's just the fact that the client is asking you to do that. So this is kind of tricky, because you want to communicate with your client. It's good that they're emailing in, but they're the ones at that point that are dictating the strategy. Whereas they should be communicating their vision, so hey, as a business owner, as a website owner, "This is my vision. This is my goal, and this is what I want."
As the SEO professional, you're receiving that information and taking it and making it into an SEO strategy that can actually be really, really beneficial for the client. So there's a huge difference between just being a task monkey and kind of transforming their vision into an SEO strategy that can really, really work for them. So that's a definite risk that can happen.
Excitement + partnership = better SEO campaignsThere's a lot of different things that can happen. These are just some examples of tactics that you can use and risks. If you have any examples of things that have worked for you in the past, I would love to hear about them. It's really good to information share. Success stories where maybe you got your client or your boss really bought into SEO, more so than just, "Hey, I'm spending money on it."
But, "Hey, I'm your partner in this. I'm your ally, and I'm going to give you all the information because I know that it's going to be mutually beneficial for us." So at the end here, excitement, partner, better SEO campaigns. This is going to be I believe a recipe for success to get your clients and your boss on board. Thanks again so much for watching this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and come back next week for another one.
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It’s not often that a rock star gets looped into a marketing blog. But in this case, there is common ground. One number in particular.
55.
Get it?* If not, keep reading.
55% of people have made a word-of-mouth recommendation to someone else in the last 30 days. In fact, when asked to select just one source of information to rely upon when making purchases, half of all Americans would select online or offline word of mouth. However, the vast majority of businesses have no defined word of mouth strategy in place. That’s just nuts.
Be honest with yourself. How is word of mouth currently playing out for your business?
So, where is your company on that scale of 1-5? I’m willing to bet 55 tacos that most readers of this article cannot honestly score themselves a 5. Send me an email, and tell me your score.
Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases and influences as much as 90%. Read that again. Word of mouth influences as much as 90% of all purchases?!? Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions.
What is it then, that makes us talk, recommend, buy, and vote? We did the research, and we have the answers. The information contained in our 2018 Chatter Matters research report—downloadable here for free—provides remarkable insights into just how powerful and effective word of mouth marketing really is.
Do you think males and females use word of mouth equally? How about millennials vs. boomers? No, they do not. To really craft your word of mouth strategy, it’s important to identify your target audience(s), and use the information in this report to align your strategy accordingly.
And a key part of that strategy beyond knowing your audience is knowing exactly how to get them talking and saying the right things to promote your business. It’s not just about good a product or service is—it has to be something remarkable and repeatable.
Those are just two tidbits detailed in the book Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemon. This is the definitive, practical guide on how to use bold, operational differentiators to create customer conversations. It contains the step-by-step process and guardrails to get your customers talking about you in exactly the way you want them to. Your existing customers are your best, most cost-effective source for new customers so it only makes sense to have a well-crafted plan in place to capitalize on word of mouth.
The book provides plenty of examples of how other businesses have accomplished this, which can inspire you to develop your own Talk Trigger. At Convince and Convert, we’ve refined this process for clients who want to stand out from the competition and need some guidance in developing their talk trigger and putting it into place.
So, borrowing a bit from the song title, “I can’t drive 55… percent of people to recommend my business,” without a plan. We’ve compiled and distilled the data (download Chatter Matters for free), we’ve got the process (buy Talk Triggers online), and we’ve made it available to you.
*Sammy Hagar’s popular song from 1984 is “I Can’t Drive, 55!”
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Wondering how to optimize your marketing images for different social media platforms? Looking for a guide to help you make sure your image dimensions are correct? In this article, you’ll discover a guide to the optimal image sizes for nine of the top social media networks. #1: Facebook Image Sizes Facebook is a starting place
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Have you ever put off launching a project because you don’t have all your I’s dotted and all your T’s crossed? Then watch the Journey, Social Media Examiner’s episodic video documentary that shows you what really happens inside a growing business. Watch the Journey In episode 3, Michael Stelzner challenges his marketing team to launch
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