Published on: 23 May 2019
Last Updated on: 16 July 2024
Salespeople can be awfully laissez-faire about when (and if) they contact leads, which is baffling given that the job is so centered on conversion. Many reps take a full three days to follow up on a new lead, giving the competition ample time to swoop in and make that all-important first touch.
Sales are the lifeblood of any business organization. no matter the shape, size, or scale of your business, you need to work towards generating sales. However, for most businesses investing in training sales professionals can be a hectic process. A better alternative can be found by working with platforms and experts that work on commission only sales. This simply means that you pay the salesperson only when they are able to successfully execute sales and close deals on behalf of your organization.
In a modern online world, prospects can rifle between competitors’ pages, compare offers, fill out multiple forms and survey even the most saturated markets in mere minutes – it, therefore, becomes incumbent on you as a diligent salesperson to vie for top-of-mind awareness. The best way to do that is to boost your speed to lead.
Speed-to-lead, put simply, is the time it takes you to contact a new lead entering your system. It’s something you should be mindful of when considering how to improve your outreach efforts as the rapidity with which you contact a lead has been shown, across multiple studies (more on those in a moment), to have a profound effect on engagement success.
Speed-to-Lead, by the Numbers:
According to a study undertaken in partnership between the Telfer School of Management and a leading sales engagement company, engaging the lead within the first hour is seven times more effective compared to waiting 24 hours. The Harvard Business Review conducted the same study, and they found the exact same thing.
Quick, But Not Too Quick:
That same Telfer study comes with a caveat, though: you can’t pick up the phone within seconds and hope for the same engagement success. The sweet spot seemed to be between ten and 60 minutes of the prospect of becoming a new lead. The reason for this ten-to-60 minute delay could be because an instantaneous response seems automated and pushy, but, of course, it’s impossible to tell.
The best way to ensure that you make the first touch – and all subsequent touches – at the right time is with automated queue-based lead routing software. It’s a mouthful, for sure, but it’s essentially software that automates the prioritization of your sales reps’ leads to make sure that new leads are routed to the front of the call queue. The software then automates their call cadence to ensure consistent speed-to-lead and thorough follow-up.
The Psychology of Speed-to-Lead:
What is it about the speed that conveys value? From the prospect’s perspective, your speed might indicate a willingness to please, a certain eagerness they know will be valuable when it comes time for them to express their needs and pain points.
Alternately, it might simply be the fact that you were there first. As mentioned briefly above, top-of-mind awareness is an important principle in engaging a lead, and being the first to contact gives you a significant advantage. Not only over other competitors but over short attention spans (everyone has them occasionally).
Speed-to-lead is an important consideration for any sales organization looking to improve sales engagement and conversion. Automating rep workflow to contact new leads 10-60 minutes after they express an interest should have a profound effect on engagement success.
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Content marketing has been around for quite a long time, and it is the go-to marketing strategy for many businesses nowadays. But everybody uses it, and the results they get are more or less along the same lines…in terms of the time they take to materialize.
What if you’re looking to get better results from your content marketing endeavors? What if you want to do some smart work rather than hard work?
In this post, let’s take a look at some answers to this question.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is basically defined as the type of marketing that involves creating and publishing/distributing content to a certain audience. The purpose of distributing this type of content is to increase awareness of the product/services so that they can be sold more. While “content,” in this context, refers to the content of all types, mostly written stuff is utilized for marketing purposes.
This type of marketing takes different shapes and forms.
Some people can engage in content marketing by writing and publishing blogs regularly. Others can utilize their product pages as a medium to engage in marketing, i.e., by making the descriptions and the visuals, etc., appealing and attractive.
Actually, instead of mentioning them here somewhat haphazardly, let’s look at some of the content marketing methods in detail before moving on to the tips.
What Are Some Common Methods Of Content Marketing?
Here are a few of the common ways in which content marketing is employed.
Blogs: Blogs, especially when created by a professional writing service, have a key role that goes beyond just advertising products or services. Their main goal is to educate and engage readers. This approach helps grow a brand's readership and audience. By providing valuable and informative content, the brand naturally attracts more people. This isn't just a marketing strategy; it's about genuinely helping readers. As more people find the blogs helpful, they start to trust and follow the brand, leading to increased business opportunities. With the help of a blog writing agency such as Compose.ly, brands can consistently deliver high-quality content that connects with their audience.
Emails: Email marketing is technically a marketing strategy on its own, but since it almost always utilizes content of some sort, it can also be mentioned in content marketing. In an email marketing campaign, individuals are reached out separately by the brand. These emails can either inform the recipient about some sort of new product release, a sale or a special discount, etc.
Newsletters: Newsletters are technically emails, but they are not like other messages that are typically used and sent in an email marketing campaign. While the latter, for the most part, directly promote the offerings of a brand, newsletters are geared toward educating the readers. You can think about them to be a type of hybrid between a blog and a typical email marketing message.
E-books: While this one is a more elaborate step than what brands usually do, it is a good way to engage in content marketing.
Now, with all that out of the way, let’s take a look at some tips that you can follow to get better results from your content marketing endeavors.
Tips For Getting Better Results From Content Marketing
As we mentioned earlier, while content of all types can be employed in content marketing, written content is the most common…and perhaps the toughest to create. That is why our tips will be geared towards it in particular.
Don’t Write Like A Robot, And Don’t Write For Robots
In that rather wordsmith-is line, we’ve summed up one of the most important principles of writing online content.
Firstly, when you write content for marketing purposes, be it of whatever type and kind, you should make sure that your tone is friendly, communicative, and human-like. Mind you, there are exceptional cases where a totally opposite tone would be more suitable, but we are talking about the common cases here.
This is what we mean by not writing like a robot.
Here is what you can do to make your writing tone fall into this criterion. Of course, depending on the situation at hand, some of these tips may not be very applicable.
Try and refer to the reader as “you” and yourself as “I” or “we.” This is one of the basic and simplest ways to make your tone look more natural and human-like.
Since you have to make your written content look more like a conversation than a piece of written text, you should reduce your overall use of passive voice. People hardly use passive voice when they speak. I mean, I could have just said, “The passive voice is hardly used by people when they speak,” but I did just make my point.
Keep sentences short. Keeping your sentences short can also give a natural touch to your writing and make it more reader-friendly.
The second part of our tip was Don’t write for robots.
We should actually clear this up a little before moving on.
Nowadays, a lot of content marketing is done via search engines. When people write blogs, they channel them to their readers via search engines. The same goes for a lot of other types of content, like product descriptions and e-books, etc.
Now, in a bid to make their content look nice to the search engines, a lot of people can end up making it look too mechanical, erratic, and awkward for human taste.
Consider the following example:
We offer the best ramen in Tokyo. Our quality ramen store in Tokyo is very good. Buy quality ramen near me in Tokyo. (Note the atrocious keyword usage)
Good content? For the search engine, maybe. For the reader? It’s just gibberish.
You have to avoid doing this sort of stuff when writing content for your audience. You should strike a balance between making the content appealing for SEs as well as your human readers.
Do Proper Research…And Use It
When it comes to content marketing materials such as blogs and newsletters, your aim should be to provide reliable and educative content to your audience. This can only be done if you do proper research and then utilize it when writing the content itself.
In this part, let’s look at how you can do research properly and what benefits you can get from it.
Here are some things that you can do for effective research:
Look for popular and reliable sources on the internet. Before you start gleaning information from anywhere, you should establish its reliability first.
Once done, be sure to find out relevant facts and figures to add to your content. This tip is, of course, subjective. In some types of content, adding facts and figures may not be very suitable. However, it can be a good idea in things like blog posts, emails, and the like.
If you find yourself in a situation where you have to use some material from a source verbatim in its actual form.
(More important than implementing theoretical and conceptual information is the utilization of the data you get from audience research. In other words, you should conduct audience research and then use the details that you find to adjust your content as per the needs of the audience. When we say “audience research,” we basically refer to using analytical tools to find out necessary information and details about your audience, such as the details about their age, gender, location, and so on.)
Now let’s look at what benefits you can get by doing and incorporating research into your work.
Authority: When your content is backed with research, it comes off as authoritative. For example, when you present a stat for a certain situation or occurrence, it looks more grounded as compared to an opinionated guess.
Up-to-date information: Conducting research can also get you in touch with up-to-date information. By not researching your material before writing it, you can get stuck with old, outdated information that can neither help you nor your readers.
Value: When your content is based on research, it provides value to your readers. For problems, it can provide solutions. For choices, it can provide expert opinions.
This sort of content is a lot more potent in building a better readership and for growing your brand.
Aim For Content Perfection
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi
It’s a bit of a dramatic way to start off this heading, but it does make the point that we want.
No content is perfect because perfection (least of all in written content) is not achievable. But if you aim for the bullseye, you can land somewhere close to it.
That is why you should make all the effort possible to remove all types of imperfections from your content.
Grammar errors: Grammar errors are by far the most common and most harmful errors that you can make in your content. You should be proactive about avoiding such errors during the writing phase. And once you do write the content, you should take steps like proofreading the content and using an online grammar checker to weed out the remaining ones.
Clunky readability issues: Readability issues, such as confusing words, long-winded sentences, and weird phrase choices, can also adversely affect the quality of content. you can remove these types of imperfections from your content by using an online AI-driven paraphrasing tool. A good AI paraphraser can improve the readability of the provided content during the rephrasing process.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is like the diamondback of content imperfections. You can’t spot it quickly enough, and it can kill the quality of your write-up without you realizing it. Removing this imperfection is necessary and tricky at the same time. The best way to go about it is to use an online plagiarism checker and then analyze the results to take the steps you need.
Conclusion
A lot of brands do content marketing nowadays. But, to bring yourself a cut above the others, you have to follow some best practices. We’ve outlined a few of those in the post above.
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There are things at work that employees want to get and things that employees want to achieve at work, but they keep thinking that it is hard. However, there is something that employees can use to get the things that they want, and that is through strategic negotiation.
Negotiating is one of the things that people seriously don’t like. Whether it is a confrontation or mindset that they are people that don't deserve to win, there are a lot of people who avoid any situations which require negotiation. However, strategic negotiation doesn’t have to be always like that.
Negotiation can be helpful to achieve the things that you want. Here are the things that you can do to utilize strategic negotiation in getting something at work successfully.
Always Prepare
When entering a negotiation without a proper plan, strategy and preparation can already conclude your defeat. Always prepare for the battle. Start with yourself. Ensure that you are apparent on the things that you want. Conducting research is important. It can be helpful to understand their needs, as well as their weaknesses and strengths. Ask for your manager or co-employees for some help and opinions.
Take Your Time
Instant approval for any request at work can tend to be lousy. Some managers do not enjoy negotiating and want to get done with it as soon as possible. It is understandable. However, it is important to take time on asking for something. Just like SEO experts in NYC who take their job seriously, It’s much better when you don’t rush things.
Negotiating Process is Continual, Not an Individual Event
Excellent negotiating results are just an outcome of a healthy relationship with the involved party. It is necessary to cultivate a relationship ahead of time. For the same reason, it is important that you constantly look for opportunities that will grow your relationship with the management. There are cases that even before having any discussions, managers determine the outcome already.
Find the Bargaining Chip
In addition to taking advantage of someone’s weaknesses, focus on taking extreme advantage of your strengths. It is essential to establish a firm foundation while negotiating. You can also demonstrate your expertise and knowledge about things.
However, make sure that the skills that you’ll show will have a substantial impact on the thing or position that you need. It can determine a good result especially if the managers see that you deserve it.
You are already establishing your credibility at work. It is challenging playing catch-up while negotiating, so it is better to take the initiative and guide the process in the direction that will favor you.
Don’t Tag Your Ego Along
Employees who attain success in getting the things that they want don’t usually show that they care about the result. However, it is their strategy to make the other side feel that it is okay to reject them, just as long as they tried.
Timing is Everything
Timing is everything, so it is important to pay attention to it. Timing is key in any negotiation. It is important to know what to ask, but you also need to be sensitive when to ask for it. There are times that you can go forward, and there also times that you need to wait.
It is best to look for the best time before pressing for the thing that you want. However, watch out of pushing things too hard, because it may pollute a long-term relationship with you boss.
Go For a Win-Win Solution
Throughout the negotiation, always try to determine things that are acceptable for the management. It can be a mixture of various things that aren’t necessarily everything that you wanted. It is important that you understand the management or your supervisor's priorities, like how you also understand your priorities.
So it is better to think of the things that you would do if you were in their position. When constructing a negotiations or requests to your boss, it is okay to attempt in satisfying some of the company's priorities but make sure that it doesn’t weaken your position.
Always be ready to give up some things in exchange for the things that you want. It is smart if you know your limits, and how far are you willing to go just to get the deal.
Stick To Your Principles
As an individual and employee, you will have your set of values and principles that you don’t want to compromise. If you see that the negotiations will break some of those principles, then it can be something that you can throw away.
Getting What You Want
You can compare successful negotiation to a chess game. It requires different things like awareness, creativity, timing, and anticipation of your opponent’s next move. When using negotiation to get something from work, it is important to anticipate that your boss might have something up their sleeve to rebut and say no to your request. Your moves must be progressive so that you can expect the same from your boss.
While creating the plot of the strategy, it is important that you anticipate the end game. Also, you need to be ready for the outcome. After getting the job done, and getting what you want, it is appropriate to end the negotiation with a handshake.
Takeaway
As an employee, some requests and promotions seem too hard to attain. Negotiations can be helpful for employees to have an approval on the requests and promotions that they are aiming. With proper planning and an in-depth strategic negotiation, you can easily achieve it. The things listed above are the things that can help you get what you want at work.
Want to make a lot of money off of the world's money?
You're a savvy investor looking to diversify your portfolio. You want a market with fewer restrictions and lower transaction costs. A market is open 24 hours a day that covers the entire globe.
It sounds like you're looking for forex. The foreign exchange market is the global market of trading currencies. It determines the world's exchange rates.
This is a very hands-on market that requires a lot of attention and patience. But, if you're willing to put in the time and effort, you will be rewarded handsomely.
Forex can be highly volatile that can change in an instant. You need to educate yourself about this nuanced trading system. If you go into forex blind, you may come out broke.
9 Forex Trading Tips for Beginners That Save You Money:
Are you new to the forex scene? Before you start trading, read on to discover the 9 best forex trading tips for beginners that actually work and save money.
1. Go in with a Plan:
This goes for all trading markets. Don't start investing without a strategy.
What do you want to get out of the forex market?
This is not the time for pie in the sky thinking. You want to have realistic goals about how much you can make based on your available capital.
If you want to make money, you have to be disciplined. Especially in the forex market.
2. Test the Waters Before You Dive In:
Forex is not your father's stock market. There's a lot of new methods and approaches you need to learn.
The best way to thrive in this new world is to practice. It might sound silly to trade fake money. But, this is how you can be sure you won't waste real money when you begin.
There are many demos out there online. FP Markets allows you to trade for real but also has some great demos for you to practice with.
3. Find the Right Broker for You:
You wouldn't climb Everest by yourself without a guide. So don't embark on your forex trading adventure without a broker.
Be sure to take the time to find the right broker for you. There's a lot of phonies out there. They're either negligent or worse, malicious. Make sure your broker is fully authorized to trade.
You also want to be sure you are on the same page with trading platforms. Do you prefer an over-the-counter market or an exchange-driven market? Whatever your preference, it should be your broker's too.
4. Be Consistent with Your Methodology:
Whatever trading methodology you abide by is up to you. But, the important thing to remember is that whatever your mythology is, you need to stick with it.
When it comes to the global currency market, there's a lot of information out there. Everyone has their own idea of what the best strategies are to follow. If you try to incorporate everything, you'll be overwhelmed.
Do you prefer to keep a close tab on specific economies and wait for the right time to pounce? Or maybe technical analysis is more your speed.
Regardless of your approach, make sure to stay consistent. That's the only way to truly understand the market.
5. It Shouldn't be "You vs. the Markets"
Some traders like to take an upstream approach to invest. They go against the trends to try and guess what's coming next.
Don't try to be a soothsayer. Going against the market on a whim will only bring you stress and failure.
Safe, diversified investments in profitable economies are the sure-fire way to go.
6. If It Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Is:
As the forex market heats up, everyone is looking to get rich quick. This is not that type of market. However, that doesn't keep people from trying to take advantage of you.
There's robot software available that claims to have mastered the market. They invest your money based on their automated programming. You're just supposed to sit back and watch your money grow.
Snake oil products like this don't work. The forex market can't be broken by an algorithm. It needs the complexity and patience of the human brain to understand.
7. Be a News Junkie:
Since you can't use a robot to help, you need to turn yourself into one. That means always feeding your brain with current events.
The value of the currency is based on many factors. Weather can deplete its value. A popular new leader for the country could raise it considerably.
If you can keep up to date on what's going on in the world, you can spot a trend-right before it becomes one.
8. Step Away From Your Computer:
Forex is a 24 hour a day market. But, that doesn't mean you should be on it for 24 hours a day.
You need to stay sane and keep an objective perspective. Take breaks throughout the day to clear your head. Come back refreshed and ready to pounce.
Make sure to get a good night's sleep too. The forex market will still be there in the morning.
9. Don't Be Shy:
This article should help you get more comfortable with forex trading. But there's still a lot to learn. Another great resource is to go straight to the source.
Try interacting with other forex traders.
Maybe you're the type of person who hates asking for directions. Well, have fun being lost!
The forex community tends to be open and supportive of new traders. There are no dumb questions, only the dumb people who don't ask questions. Check out some forums online and make some forex buddies ASAP.
Use These Forex Trading Tips!
Take these forex trading tips and start by planning your strategy today. Forex is a new world of investing for you. So you'll only get better over time.
Did you enjoy this article and want to learn more? Then check out this beginner's guide to investing.
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