Rosemary, Author at Successful Blog Page

Book Review, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design

April 14, 2016 by Rosemary

Brian Solis is an award-winning author, blogger/writer, and futurist. His experience as principal analyst at the Altimeter Group research firm gave him wide ranging access to data, innovative technology, and business strategies that help companies connect with their customers.

His latest book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, makes the case that we need to move beyond just great products, creative marketing, and delightful customer experience.

We need to create meaningful experiences.

The book itself is an experience for the reader. It was designed with the intention of being surprising, engaging, and meaningful itself. The shape, the fonts, and the “chapter design,” all give the reader permission to create his/her own journey through the content.

Meaningful experiences don’t happen by accident

My favorite summer job was when I worked as a tour narrator in Washington, DC. The training was intense; we went through two weeks of learning every detail contained in a 3-inch thick binder of material.

Each morning we’d be tested on the previous nights’ assignment. We had to pass the fact memorization part of the training before we could get on the tram microphone.

The magical part of the process? There was no script.

Once we memorized all of the facts, we were responsible for weaving them into an educational, entertaining narrative for our audience of tourists on the tram. That meant that every time someone hopped on a tram, they would be getting a fresh experience, based on the specific tour narrator at that moment.

It was a complete rush for me, designing that experience on the fly, every time the tram left the station.

“Shared experiences have become a critical part of marketing.” -Brian Solis

How to create meaningful experiences for your customers

Map your customer journeys. You need to know what they are currently experiencing before you can offer a new perspective.
Align your organization. To deliver experiences that resonate, you’ll need to get the whole team on board. Marketing, sales, developers, everyone.
Create a plan. Decide how you will create an “experience layer” along the entire customer journey. Be sure to avoid any disconnects between pre-sale and post-sale experience.
Listen. The experience process isn’t static. Pay attention to the signals your customers send out along the way, to find areas where you can improve the experience.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to build a business that can survive and thrive into the future, as the power shifts from brand to consumer. It’s a deep dive, but very approachable. It makes a good reference book, since you can quickly pop into the structure at any point. There is also an interactive experience online to reinforce the messages.

Does your business strategy include the experience factor? What types of experiences could you provide for your customers?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

This book review was unsolicited and reflects my own opinion. I was not given a review copy of the book.

Make your blog worth bingeing like House of Cards

April 7, 2016 by Rosemary

My husband and I recently finished an epic binge of Breaking Bad (yes, I miss Jessy already). Next we’ve queued up House of Cards’ most recent season for the next binge marathon.

Now that quality shows are available in an instant, on any screen you choose, we can soak in three or four years worth of episodes over a few weeks.

No more waiting for the cliff-hanger resolution, no more slow reveal of the “will they or won’t they.”

When you binge, you are marinating in the characters, settings, and stories in a very intense way, and it increases your sense of closeness to the characters and the show.

Wouldn’t it be cool if your blog was like that? Maybe your bounce rate would be 10% instead of 75%.

Here are some ideas that will make your blog worth bingeing

Make it easy to binge

Give your readers easy cues for entering and browsing your site, like “start here if you’re new” pages, or boxes that highlight your most popular posts.

Put it all out there at once

Think about creating a blog series, and tease it in advance. Release the whole series at one time instead of one post per week. I know that I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve the night before a new season of Orange is the New Black arrives on Netflix.

Open a new window for links

This is a simple but often-overlooked technique. When someone clicks a link or image on your site, make it pop open a new tab or window. You don’t want people to be leaving your site and letting the screen door shut behind them. You want them to briefly check out the additional information and then resume the binge.

Include a call to action at end of content

What do you want your reader to do? Why does your blog exist? Make sure that you are telling them often. Give them a homework assignment, put a link to your latest book, or ask for comments/shares, but don’t just leave them hanging.

Promote, promote, promote

The House of Cards ads and promos were ubiquitous before the last season appeared. Teaser videos, interviews, and traditional ads were part of the PR blitz. When is the last time you thought about the way your promote your blog? Could you do an interview with a fellow blogger in your industry? Try a Facebook ad?

Surprise & delight to encourage word of mouth/sharing

Remember that time the major character was tossed in front of a speeding Metro train? You don’t have to go to that extreme, but your blog should include moments of surprise that make readers want to talk about it.

Make it easy to share

I can’t count the number of times I find a great blog, get very enthusiastic about a particular post, and can’t find the social sharing buttons (or even a subscribe button, sometimes). Once you’ve got me excited, don’t leave me hanging. Show me the buttons! (Apologies to Jerry Maguire.)

Tap into emotions

Emotion is the most direct way into someone’s world. Your blog should share (judiciously) personal tidbits that give your readers insight and attachment to your point of view. When Frank Underwood speaks directly to the camera, breaking the “fourth wall,” it brings us directly into the show.

Now I’ve confessed to some of the shows I’m bingeing. What is in your queue right now? Share your binge-worthiest shows and/or blogs with the rest of us!

If you have tips about how to make your blog worth bingeing, please share those too.

How to incorporate audio into your marketing content

March 17, 2016 by Rosemary

Periscope, Blab, Snapchat, Vine, and other apps are making it easy to create and share video clips.

But if you try watching a Blab while you’re jogging, you might end up eating pavement.

Allow me to propose audio as a great addition to your marketing content tool kit.

Audio clips and podcasts have some advantages over video:

Multi-taskers love to listen to audio (think treadmill, commute)
You don’t have to be “camera ready” to record audio
People learn well by listening, reinforces message
Intimacy, being in someone’s ear is a very distinct connection-builder

Audio also has a few drawbacks:

Can be harder to find via search (make sure you post a transcript to alleviate this issue)
More difficult to repurpose
Works best with special equipment (sound leveling, microphone)
Might be hard to monetize, need sponsorships
Some audio platforms don’t provide embed code for easy sharing

If you’re ready to give audio a try, here are some tools that will help you record and share.

Anchor

Anchor is like an audio social network, where members can post audio messages and receive audio replies from others. Consuming the content is like listening to a never-ending interactive talk show that covers a lot of random topics. The platform is still fairly new, so there’s lots of opportunity to get creative and become an “Anchor star.”

Once you’ve recorded a clip, you can share it to Facebook or email a link to yourself, but there’s no embed code as of this writing (which makes it harder to incorporate Anchor clips into a blog post or other content).

AudioBoom

AudioBoom is a global, streaming audio platform with a wide variety of content, from small local podcasters to big brands like the BBC. It’s mostly geared toward those big podcasters, but with a free account, you can still upload audio files and share them to Twitter and Facebook. If you upgrade to a paid account, you get access to all of the bells and whistles of a professional recording platform, with ad support, distribution, and social sharing tools.

Clyp

Clyp is a very lightweight, intuitive way to upload and share audio files. There are some social networking aspects, like voting up other members’ clips, but the thing I like the most is the ability to just drag an audio file onto their home page and instantly get a shareable link. Warning, since it’s free to upload, the list of popular clyps can be NSFW.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is the granddaddy of audio sharing sites, and has more recently skewed toward musician uploads, but still has great tools for uploading and sharing other audio files. What I like the most about SoundCloud is the nice embed code you get for each clip, making it super easy to incorporate sound clips into your blog or other web content.

You get up to three hours of free space to store your audio files, as well as the ability to engage with comments on your audio. Upgrading to a paid plan gives you more pro tools including analytics and unlimited space.

Next steps

You don’t have to launch a major new podcast in order to take advantage of audio options. With some of the tools I mentioned, you can just record a quick 10 minute audio note and include a link in your next newsletter. You can start engaging and interacting via audio on some of the social tools, to get used to the idea.
Remember that you still need to pay attention to your tone of voice, your enunciation, and make a good impression. It’s OK to use the microphone from your earbuds for those short, casual clips, but if you plan to routinely record audio, invest in an external microphone. They’re not that expensive, and will sound much more professional. Here’s a fantastic episode from the Content Pros podcast that will help you get started.
If you’re recording for business, try to find a space where there will be minimal ambient noise. Hearing your dog bark or your phone ring in the background will undercut your message.

Are you currently incorporating audio into your marketing outreach?

Feel free to share your handle or podcast name in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.

Featured image via Flickr CC: Patrick Breitenbach

Use this one simple tip to improve your content marketing

February 25, 2016 by Rosemary

There’s a behavioral phenomenon called “mirroring,” in which you subconsciously mimic your conversation partner’s body language, establishing rapport and making them feel more at ease.

He leans forward, you lean forward.

She steeples her fingers, you steeple your fingers.

Subconsciously, it connects the two of you, and makes you feel “in sync.”

That “in sync” feeling can lead to business relationships where you are a trusted resource, rather than an adversarial “salesperson.”

Today’s tip is the written version of mirroring.

Mirror Your Prospects’ Language to Improve Your Content Marketing

Write down precisely what your new client tells you when you open the conversation with “tell me about your project and how I might help.” Let her talk until she’s done, and take note of the exact words she uses to describe herself and her pain points. Important—don’t paraphrase, just write down exactly what she said, in her own words.
If you use a formalized support system or live chat, perform a monthly review to extract phrases that customers use to describe their problems, their situations, and themselves.
Tap into the words and phrases your prospects and customers use whenever you’re writing web content, social updates, and email newsletters. Use that same language when you’re talking with potential clients face to face as well!

That’s it. Simple and effective.

Are you mirroring your customers?

Heart Stories Sought For The Go For Heart Program

February 18, 2016 by Rosemary

By Jayme Soulati

When world news becomes so negative it pushes away positive vibe, it’s time to put a little heart in our marketing stories. That’s why my pal and cohost John Gregory Olson and I have launched the Go for Heart program of The Heart of Marketing podcast.

After I watched the entire show of CNN Heroes, I became inspired. Each of those individuals had single-handedly launched a heartful crusade to make their community a better place. As a result, they touched others’ hearts and emoted positivity and heartful connections.

That’s what John and I want to do, too.

In honor of our biggest milestone, the first anniversary of our epic (indeed it is and I encourage you to listen, heh) podcast, we are launching the Go for Heart program to recognize YOU, our fellow marketer who is at the core of heart marketing.

What is Heart Marketing?

You might think that heart marketing is hogwash; however, I offer you this…as we become more seasoned in our profession, the heart core becomes more critical to business success.

When you live, breathe and work with a loving heart you develop an authenticity for customer care and build a model for employees to emulate. Over time, there’s more happiness, there is more laughter, and there is more genuine authenticity for what makes a business successful.

Personally, I don’t think people take time to stop and smell the roses any more. Who has it? Time, I mean. There is a point on our path that forces a new sensitivity to emotions in business. Heart marketing doesn’t need to be woo woo; it can be honest-to-goodness authenticity (a buzzword done to death for sure, but relevant nonetheless). We’re on the path to find it with your help.

What is Go For Heart?

The Go for Heart program puts you front and center, and it allows us to share and shout kudos to the heartful marketer who:

Puts problem solving for customers above all else to create goodwill and loyalty
Creates remarkable experiences at all levels of engagement
Communicates a value proposition that delivers positive emotional response
Makes genuine connections that further brand engagement and relationship
Earns trust through authenticity

When was the last time you were recognized for positivity in marketing that connected with customers, earned fabulous results to advance change in a community, or delivered on a value-driven promise that no one really understood but you?

It’s pretty rare that professionals behind the scenes earn any credence for their work. Our program is pretty simple in that regard. If you are part of a marketing team making a heart story come to life, then we’d like to know about it. Once we review your submission and agree it’ll make for good podder (that’s podcast fodder, you know), we’ll feature it on the show.

Share Your Heart Story

We invite you to review more details at The Heart of Marketing and complete the contact form on that page with your heart story submission. You’ll hear from me as soon as you click send. If you’d like an example of the type of heart story we’re seeking, listen to our first episode in the Go for Heart program special edition where we feature Big Hug.

About the Author

Jayme Soulati strives every day to be a heartful marketer and find a positive vibe that emotes smiles, happies, laughs, and connectivity. She’s a public relations digital marketer, loves to start and needs help finishing. You can find her @Soulati and on all channels except SnapChat because she’s still wondering why.

Book Review: Hug Your Haters, By Jay Baer

February 11, 2016 by Rosemary

My grandfather would have called Jay Baer “a gentleman, a scholar, and a judge of good whiskey.” In other words, the highest compliment he could give.

Jay is all of those things, and his latest scholarly work is his new book, “Hug Your Haters.”

I was not given a free review copy of this book (what’s up with that?); I purchased it with my own hard-earned dollars because I have been hugging haters for almost 18 years.

Haters come with the territory if you expose yourself by starting a business or promoting an idea. They will come in many different forms, both in-your-face, in person, and anonymously, online.

If you don’t have a strategy for dealing with them, you can find yourself distracted from your mission or worse, with a damaged reputation.

Hug Your Haters teaches you who complains, why they complain, and how to capitalize on those complaints. And the book is built on a solid foundation of data that Jay collected in collaboration with Edison Research.

Capitalize? On complaints?

Do tell…

The research showed that “answering complaints increases customer advocacy, across all customer service channels.”

The book is packed with real-world case studies (refreshingly moving beyond Zappos and Nordstrom). You will be able to recognize your own “hater” situations, as well as some you may need to be prepared for down the road. It’s meant to be a reference book, and I already have highlighted numerous passages for my own future reference.

Below are two quick peeks into the strategies for dealing with offstage haters (private communication behind the scenes) and onstage haters (social media or public comments). You’ll just have to go buy the book to get the complete action plan (and I highly recommend it).

Dealing with OffStage Haters – H-O-U-R-S

Be Human
Use One Channel
Unify Your Data
and Resolve the Issue
with Speed

Hugging Onstage Haters – F-E-A-R-S

Find all Mentions
Display Empathy
Answer Publicly
Reply Only Once
Switch Channels

If you have a business, or if you are thinking of having a business, or if your job requires you to communicate directly with customers, you need to read Hug Your Haters.

You’ll thank me later.

And your customers might, too.