Archives for April 2015

Strategic Planning | Marketing to a mobile audience

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Today's consumer carries a device that understands their behavior and preferences. Information travels with them and follows them. Today's digital marketer has been waiting decades for that kind of instant knowledge. Before you get too excited about this opportunity, there is much to understand. First and foremost, the customer has greater expectations. They expect and demand real-time digital information on things that concern them and that they care about – at the moment they choose to participate. This means the mobile era comes with gigantic responsibilities. Responsibilities that are tied to consumer expectations and legal liabilities. Unlike many other marketing eras, consumers can be touched at multiple points, challenging marketers to understand the sensitivity of the mobile touch-point. The challenges for digital marketing success has been set at lofty levels.

In this post, we are going to discuss how traditional marketing channels can work together as a uniform and cohesive marketing strategy.

Your Avatar and their interaction with your brand. Marketers need a complete understanding and view of their perfect customer, yes they always have. The consumers mobile device is considered highly personal, more so than any touch point in history – okay maybe the posted bill in the public bathroom deserves mention here. We need to understand, the complete picture of our perfect prospective customer that is interacting with our offer, often through multiple touch-points, rather than their interests, behaviors. Marketers must have a central view of the consumer rather than isolating data from the tactic used – the lens of the mobile device.
Let's put this into context. A few decades ago your customer engaged with your brand only in-person through a physical presentation or location. Fast forward to modern times, on the other hand, your customer engages primarily in digital electronic formats. Those electronic formats could be your website, your social media channels, your email marketing and an sms message. If your avatar, while experiencing your brand across all these channels, is not tracked and understood – redundant or irrelevant messages will only annoy them.
How can you understand your perfect prospective customer as people? With a central point-of-view of your consumer, data points become important to track. The sophisticated

POWERFUL TARGETED MOBILE ENGAGEMENT

“There is no greater desire of marketers and business owners today than to be heard above their competitors. We all know that a greater audience for your content and sales message, translates to more leads and ultimately more business – plain and simple. We enable your content to reach more places, across more channels and devices so your message can be heard, to generate more leads, win more sales and grow your business” ~ Sean McDonald


marketer will align their strategy to meet today's mobile first environment by gathering three key pieces of information.

  1. How do they interact?  Your data should show you where they interact with your message and content. You should have a system that can tell you if they move from mobile to desktop, from social to email and so on. Are your blog articles being read on a tablet? The answers should give you a good indication of your engaged audience's habits and preferences.
  2. What content and message are they receiving? When your view is focused on the person, you should know the volume of emails they are receiving. This metric should be watched for a falloff in engagement rate – that happens when you push. To take advantage of each environment where the consumer touches your brand, your content should be tailored to take advantage of the device they are using. Adjust your delivery vehicle to their touch point. Change the call to action to match the device.
  3. What response is coming from your messages? Do they prefer email? Do they prefer mobile sms? Do they prefer social media? Which channel gets which user to engage? When you can answer these questions your customer's affinity to your service will increase.

Choosing the right channel to deliver your message.

In our current mulch-channel communication world, your delivery should run like a well oiled machine. Each channel option you have has unique qualities. Some channels can play together and some should not. Your goals and objectives will play a part and often require combination channel delivery. Your motive should be to enhance the end user's experience.
Here are three approaches to a unified delivery:

Here are the reasons why it’s necessary to be extra sensitive to the effects of your communications:

Your reach is now 24/7. Where you are is irrelevant. Your customer is more mobile than ever. With power and knowledge come responsibility. Your perfect prospective customer is less tolerant

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

As you may know, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in the United States has introduced new rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) that went into effect on October 16, 2013. The TCPA makes it unlawful for a person to “initiate” a telephone call to a residential line and to wireless numbers for non-emergency purposes without the prior express written consent of the called party. In lay terms, for people using the MOBIT or any other text service for marketing, this means you must adhere to the new rules when marketing in the USA via text/SMS. The TCPA applies to both voice and short message service (SMS) text messages, if they are transmitted for marketing purposes. The TCPA provides for a private right of action with damages ranging from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per unsolicited call/message.


for poorly timed and uninspiring messages. If your message does not catch them right, you will harm your relationship – evidenced by quick opt-outs and complaints. Example, breaking mobile sms laws can easily wipe out a large organization.
Mobile communications are very personal. Peoples reaction to your bad timing will feel overblown – that is a nature of the channel. Make sure your interruption in to their daily routine is welcome. Know what annoys and entertains your mobile user.
Mobile relationships are fast and full of opportunity. This is the Mecca for brand loyalty. It is also the channel where some will lose interest just as fast – and more likely do something about it just as damaging.

How do you take this on?

The mobile marketing platform ushers in huge opportunities, new complications and greater risk reward ratios. The world of on-demand, instant information and interaction, means a faster build for your brand. This vehicle is more personal than any channel we have ever used. You need to think deeper about the person on the other end. You need to not just simply move content from email to sms – they could not come with more unique expectations by the recipient. You can soar with this tool, as long as you understand your end user's tolerance and your obligations.

Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer

thomas von ahn viral solutions

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Order our Free Guide Hiring an Infusionsoft Consultant
 

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: , , ,

Strategic Planning | Marketing to a mobile audience

by

Today's consumer carries a device that understands their behavior and preferences. Information travels with them and follows them. Today's digital marketer has been waiting decades for that kind of instant knowledge. Before you get too excited about this opportunity, there is much to understand. First and foremost, the customer has greater expectations. They expect and demand real-time digital information on things that concern them and that they care about – at the moment they choose to participate. This means the mobile era comes with gigantic responsibilities. Responsibilities that are tied to consumer expectations and legal liabilities. Unlike many other marketing eras, consumers can be touched at multiple points, challenging marketers to understand the sensitivity of the mobile touch-point. The challenges for digital marketing success has been set at lofty levels.

In this post, we are going to discuss how traditional marketing channels can work together as a uniform and cohesive marketing strategy.

Your Avatar and their interaction with your brand. Marketers need a complete understanding and view of their perfect customer, yes they always have. The consumers mobile device is considered highly personal, more so than any touch point in history – okay maybe the posted bill in the public bathroom deserves mention here. We need to understand, the complete picture of our perfect prospective customer that is interacting with our offer, often through multiple touch-points, rather than their interests, behaviors. Marketers must have a central view of the consumer rather than isolating data from the tactic used – the lens of the mobile device.

Let's put this into context. A few decades ago your customer engaged with your brand only in-person through a physical presentation or location. Fast forward to modern times, on the other hand, your customer engages primarily in digital electronic formats. Those electronic formats could be your website, your social media channels, your email marketing and an sms message. If your avatar, while experiencing your brand across all these channels, is not tracked and understood – redundant or irrelevant messages will only annoy them.

How can you understand your perfect prospective customer as people? With a central point-of-view of your consumer, data points become important to track. The sophisticated

POWERFUL TARGETED MOBILE ENGAGEMENT

“There is no greater desire of marketers and business owners today than to be heard above their competitors. We all know that a greater audience for your content and sales message, translates to more leads and ultimately more business – plain and simple. We enable your content to reach more places, across more channels and devices so your message can be heard, to generate more leads, win more sales and grow your business” ~ Sean McDonald

marketer will align their strategy to meet today's mobile first environment by gathering three key pieces of information.

  1. How do they interact?  Your data should show you where they interact with your message and content. You should have a system that can tell you if they move from mobile to desktop, from social to email and so on. Are your blog articles being read on a tablet? The answers should give you a good indication of your engaged audience's habits and preferences.
  2. What content and message are they receiving? When your view is focused on the person, you should know the volume of emails they are receiving. This metric should be watched for a falloff in engagement rate – that happens when you push. To take advantage of each environment where the consumer touches your brand, your content should be tailored to take advantage of the device they are using. Adjust your delivery vehicle to their touch point. Change the call to action to match the device.
  3. What response is coming from your messages? Do they prefer email? Do they prefer mobile sms? Do they prefer social media? Which channel gets which user to engage? When you can answer these questions your customer's affinity to your service will increase.

Choosing the right channel to deliver your message.

In our current mulch-channel communication world, your delivery should run like a well oiled machine. Each channel option you have has unique qualities. Some channels can play together and some should not. Your goals and objectives will play a part and often require combination channel delivery. Your motive should be to enhance the end user's experience.

Here are three approaches to a unified delivery:

Here are the reasons why it’s necessary to be extra sensitive to the effects of your communications:

Your reach is now 24/7. Where you are is irrelevant. Your customer is more mobile than ever. With power and knowledge come responsibility. Your perfect prospective customer is less tolerant

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

As you may know, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in the United States has introduced new rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) that went into effect on October 16, 2013. The TCPA makes it unlawful for a person to “initiate” a telephone call to a residential line and to wireless numbers for non-emergency purposes without the prior express written consent of the called party. In lay terms, for people using the MOBIT or any other text service for marketing, this means you must adhere to the new rules when marketing in the USA via text/SMS. The TCPA applies to both voice and short message service (SMS) text messages, if they are transmitted for marketing purposes. The TCPA provides for a private right of action with damages ranging from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per unsolicited call/message.

for poorly timed and uninspiring messages. If your message does not catch them right, you will harm your relationship – evidenced by quick opt-outs and complaints. Example, breaking mobile sms laws can easily wipe out a large organization.

Mobile communications are very personal. Peoples reaction to your bad timing will feel overblown – that is a nature of the channel. Make sure your interruption in to their daily routine is welcome. Know what annoys and entertains your mobile user.

Mobile relationships are fast and full of opportunity. This is the Mecca for brand loyalty. It is also the channel where some will lose interest just as fast – and more likely do something about it just as damaging.

How do you take this on?

The mobile marketing platform ushers in huge opportunities, new complications and greater risk reward ratios. The world of on-demand, instant information and interaction, means a faster build for your brand. This vehicle is more personal than any channel we have ever used. You need to think deeper about the person on the other end. You need to not just simply move content from email to sms – they could not come with more unique expectations by the recipient. You can soar with this tool, as long as you understand your end user's tolerance and your obligations.

Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC

by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer

thomas von ahn viral solutions

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Order our Free Guide Hiring an Infusionsoft Consultant

 

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: , , ,

How Do You Find Your Purpose in the Work World?

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Many of us have had an existential crisis over our purpose at some point in our lives. One day, you might have a sudden epiphany that you don’t like what it is you’re doing, or that you feel like you should be doing something with more meaning.

But how exactly do you go about finding your purpose?

Chances are, your purpose is at the intersection of the following factors:

When all four of these areas intersect, you’ve found your purpose. This is, of course, way easier said than done. Many of us are never lucky enough to find a career that we feel gives us the sense of purpose we’ve been looking for. But if you’ve found it, you should do everything you can to keep it.

Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC

by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer

thomas von ahn viral solutions

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Order our Free Guide Hiring an Infusionsoft Consultant

 

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: , ,

Engaging Your Audience: Understanding how to segment users by state

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Marketing your list can be a push of a button today. However, it shouldn't be! You know you need to segment your list by interest and numerous demographics. Whether your marketing efforts use email or mobile sms, it is important to also segment those who engage in your content by their engagement state. Users respond differently based upon their real-time engagement level with your message.

In this post, we will discuss the basics of segmenting your valued list of contacts by engagement state and the best messages to send each and every one of them.

What do we mean by “engagement state“? An engagement state is a degree of interest, interaction or responsiveness that a recipient of your message displays or takes by way of action or inaction.

The four engagement states of your content subscribers and recipients:

The four engagement states of your content subscribers and recipients

Today, Viral Solutions’ mission is to provide its clients with the assistance needed to experience bursts of growth in their operations, and a big part of that is through the use of technology. When business owners feel overwhelmed, burnt out or unmotivated, Viral Solutions steps in to give them the tools they need to achieve new levels of success. At Viral Solutions, we help small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again!

Did you know 75% of Neophyte churn happens in the first few days?

Did you know that 90% of your audience becomes Comatose because you did not have a complete engagement strategy beyond their opt-in?

Did you know 40% of Engaged users will not register for continuity programs?

Did you know that 80% of Observers will engage in the first 24 hours of opt-in?

Successful marketers engage with users at every state of the lifecycle. What is crucial, is that successful digital marketers tailor their communications to each user's current engagement state with their content and personal voice. How do they message each of these states?

All of us have experienced the erroneous email, poorly timed text message or spammy push notification. These poor quality deliveries damage the experience of all end users and have given the best digital marketers a bad name. Successful digital marketers use personalized, highly refined and targeted content delivery to guide their audience on the path of regular engagement.

Knowing your audiences engagement level can ensure your audience receives your communication that is inline with their needs, their wants, their expectations and their perceived value. Each engagement state should always receive a different message.

Top Campaigns by Engagement State:

Top Campaigns by Engagement State

You require and deserve the best tools available to achieve your goals and find success for your business. You deserve to work with a company that will not compromise your professional or personal ethics and integrity. Simply put, you have a right to the best business advice available, and we have a duty to provide that to you. The time is now for you to take a look at your business and consider what needs to be done for you to find your motivation once again and turn your business back into a well-oiled machine.

Understanding how often users engage with you is foundational to messaging about your trip wires, core offers and profit maximizer. Once you have mastered this segmentation process, you are ready for more advanced segmentation messaging. Successful digital marketers send notifications to hyper-targeted user groups to enhance their ability to keep a list engaged. Make sure your message is on point.

Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC

by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer

thomas von ahn viral solutions

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Order our Free Guide Hiring an Infusionsoft Consultant

 

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Types of Useful Blog Posts to Use for Your Company

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Depending on the route that you want to go with your company blog, there are all kinds of different posts that you can use. You can take a human approach and create posts that are motivational, off-topic or give a glimpse behind the scenes of your company. You can take a promotional approach to showcase products, talk about the benefits of your services or deliver company updates. You can take an entertaining approach and post stories, satire or cartoons.

But one approach that will always be appreciated by your readers, regardless of the type of company you have, is a post that features useful content.

Here are some examples:

Again, what’s great about these types of posts is that the information rarely goes out of date, and that people will come back to them to remind themselves of the information they contain.

For more information about effective types of blog posts, contact us today at Viral Solutions.

by Christine Kelly

CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC

Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC

Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.

 

 

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Order our Free Guide Hiring an Infusionsoft Consultant

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: , , , , ,