7 Ways To Get People To Visit Your Business Website

Getting a new website is an exciting time for any business, but that joy can soon be overshadowed when you find out that visiting numbers are small and conversions are few and far between. In this post we highlight several methods that you can employ to ensure that your website is a hot bed of activity!

Short, Snappy and to the Point!

If you plan to use your website as key tool in your sales cycle, providing valuable information, giving potential clients the opportunity to learn more about you and the way you do business, or quite simply to buy your services and products then you need to make sure that the name of your website or your domain name is memorable. If your domain name is overly complicated or difficult to spell then you may find that a large percentage of potential clients go somewhere else.

Go Offline to Drive Online

The purpose of a website is to attract business from the hundreds of millions of users that are already online so why would you want to advertise offline? Because dependent on your target demographic there may be a large percentage of your market that still prefer, read and react to offline advertisements.

Advertise in your local newspaper, send out a press release about your new site to the local newspaper or a trade magazine, or place an advert on the local radio station with a strong call to action directing the reader back to your website.

Notify Your Existing Client Base.

Your Business website is a not just a tool for lead generation. It is also a valuable resource for informing existing and past clients about your business, providing useful information about the services they receive and valuable resources on how to get the best out of your services. It can also be used for informing clients how and where they can contact you if and when a problem arises, outlining the process and procedures that are in place for them to follow to reach resolution in a shorter time scale. This is important in aiding the customer and reducing the impact on your customer care department.

Send an email or a series of emails to your existing database, or invest in a mailing list so you can inform those that have showed interest in the past, or people who fit your targeted demographic, about your website. Make sure that you follow the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations:

• Have the person's permission to send the email
• Provide a means for the recipient to unsubscribe from future mailings.

Email should be an integral part of your marketing campaign, as such there should always be a method for new visitors of your website to sign up to your mailing list to learn more about your business. A good way to incentivise this is to provide a free giveaway; this could be a series of videos, a report or an eBook that would be of value to your potential clients and in the process help highlight your expertise in your field.

Market using the Search Engines

You can use a service such as Google Adwords to pay for a short advert that provides a link back to your website in the Google search results when somebody searches for keywords and phrases related to your business and or niche. You only pay for this service when an interested party clicks on that link and visits your website.

Search engine marketing can send a lot of traffic to your website in a short amount of time and therefore it is very important to have a plan in place as to how you deal with those visitors when they arrive on your site. Consider the following to improve your conversion rate of visitors to leads:

Select the right keywords or phrases

1. Use targeted ad text
2. Provide a call to action in the ad
3. Send the users to a specific landing page.
4. Provide a free giveaway to gain access to the users email address.
5. Make it extremely easy for the user to contact you or leave their details.

To learn more about Pay Per Click Advertising click here!

Optimise your website for search engines.

Search engine optimisation is where you optimise the content on your website to appear higher up in the natural search engine results. The net effect is similar to search engine marketing; effectively your business website gets the vast majority of clicks from people searching for your keywords or phrases.

The main difference being that with search engine optimisation you do not pay for each click as your website is deemed a trusted authority for the keyword term and the clicks and visitors are free. This means you can benefit from search traffic without worrying about daily costs per click advertising budgets.

Although this may seem a far more sensible option than Pay per click advertising it can often take months of hard work and investment to get your website to be deemed as the authority. And, as is the case in business there is always a new website or a new business that is looking to challenge and take your place; search engine optimisation is not a set and forget strategy! It requires constant work in order to maintain and improve.

Get Social

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are great ways for your business to connect with your target audience and build an enthused community of people that share in the interests of your business.

Social media is also a great way to disseminate messages to your existing customer bases and share great news stories and of course fun events that make people smile and share with their friends and family.

Make sure that you have a plan for your social media campaign because although social media is a free resource, the time needed to develop and maintain interests on social media can be a significant drain on resources.

Ask Your Clients to Tell A friend

Encourage your happy clients to share their great experiences of your business to their family and friends, ask your happy clients to share their experiences by leaving reviews and testimonials of your business and then use these positive endorsements to attract more targeted clients to your website.

Your existing customers are the best advocates for your business or your brand so encourage them to share your website with people that they know. Word of mouth marketing is one of the best marketing sources on the planet!

Your Sales Kick Off ' It's A Lot Like a Good Email

Some things in life are just inevitable: death, taxes and of course your annual sales kick off meeting. In many cases, you receive an email around December 23^rd highlighting the meeting, the rough agenda, and the set of presentations you need to pull together. It is in this moment you say to yourself ' crap. How am I going to pull off putting together all this content and presenting it in a way that the sales team does not pass out on the spot?

Because this has happened to me too many times to count, my hope is I can put a new spin on this for some of you. Think of approaching your sales meeting presentations like great email marketing. Here are some things to consider:

1) Segment, be targeted.

Not all reps are the same.They cover different territories and sizes of business. Keep that in mind when you are developing your content. Have content that is relevant and personalized for what they care about. A sales rep that covers large enterprise accounts will have different concerns than a rep that covers small start ups.

2) Have an enticing subject line or opening to your presentation.

Everyone has a lot going on, especially in a sales meeting. Reps are there to learn, but they are still working deals and have lot to do. Grab their attention! You have 30 seconds at the start of the presentation to hook your audience. Give them a reason to feel excited about your marketing programs. If you are successful getting folks interested upfront, it is more likely they will stay engaged.

3) Tell a story.

Think about your message and make it relatable. People respond better to a story rather than a list of bullet points. You can talk about objectives and programs, but map them to fun images and analogies because it will increase the likelihood your key points are understood and remembered by the team. How many times have you seen slides that are in an undesirable font (like Trebuchet) and there is not a drop of white space left on the slide? We all have a lot to convey ' but you can speak to it. Like a good email, keep text to a minimum.

Exhibit A ' Not so good.

4) Be brief.

Everyone is busy and most people have a limited attention span. In John Medina's Brain Rules book, he states most people can pay attention for about 10 minutes and you have to capture their attention in the first 30 seconds! Identify the top three things you want to convey in your presentation. Focus on those.

5) What is the CTA?

What do you want the outcome of your presentation to be? What are you asking of your team? Make sure you articulate next steps or what you need your audience to do to ensure you are driving towards the desired outcome.

Here's wishing you a great Sales kick off. Make them effective, but make them fun!

Three Reasons Marketing Is the First Budget Cut

Marketing budgets are often one of the first budgets cut, time and time again, yet marketers continue to claim companies are making unwise decisions. To support the case, you point to research and cases showing companies who invest in marketing during a downturn come out stronger.

Is the answer turning marketing into a profit center, as some have claimed? For a few companies, particularly those with a direct response marketing model, this might work. But it isn't the solution in most cases.

The truth is, most companies can temporarily reduce their marketing budget. Here's why.

1. Your Brand Equity Lives On

Awareness of your company, understanding of your solution and intent to purchase your goods or services don't just drop to zero, even if you stop ALL marketing.

When marketing budgets are cut, a cumulative benefit from your years of marketing remains.

2. Your Marketing Infrastructure Still Works

Assuming your infrastructure has been maintained over time, your current email solution, marketing automation implementation, community platform and so on are still working.

If you have been putting off much needed investments for years and still have a computer in the back corner running Internet Explorer 5 just to use your outdated tools, all the duct tape fixes may finally disintegrate, but most marketing infrastructure doesn't need a major overhaul right now just to continue functioning.

Similarly, investments in rebranding or a brand new website can often be delayed as well.

3. Competitive Investments Are a Key Factor

If marketing budgets are being cut back because the economy or a specific sector is struggling, the case is even easier. Marketing is in part a relative activity; when a category cuts marketing spending overall, a reduced investment can deliver the same share of voice in the category.

However, unless other changes dramatically improve the cost effectiveness of your marketing, a reduced marketing budget will take its toll over time.

Your Turn

Hopefully this presents a clear case, but if you are in marketing you likely still disagree. So rather than pointing out the benefits of investing in marketing during a downturn, share your solution: when businesses have already cut out the fat and need to further reduce expenses, where should they look?

Share your suggestion in the comments below or with me on Twitter (@wittlake).

Photo Credit: jDevaun cc

What You Need to Do Right After You Get Laid Off

With the way the economy is these days, you can not only no longer count on working in the same place for the rest of your life, you may not even be able to count on working in the same place for the rest of the week. Getting laid off can happen to anybody in the workplace.  So what can you do if it happens to you? Here are some tips:

Make sure you get what you are entitled to

Don't think that you are too proud to negotiate a severance, get your vacation time paid, or apply for unemployment. Or think that you will somehow be sticking it to your old employer by not taking any money from them on your way out. Not only are these things all items you are entitled to, but they could keep you afloat until you find another job. In addition, make sure you sign up for COBRA (continued health insurance coverage.) It can be expensive, but it will be priceless if you need it.

Take some time for yourself

Sure, you will need to look for a job soon, but you also need a little breathing space. So if you want to do nothing for a few days, or go to an amusement park or a spa day or a weekend trip or whatever, feel free to do so, within reason. That doesn't mean, of course, that you can decide to spend the next six months getting caught up on 'Real Housewives' episodes , but spending some time attempting to regroup is fine.

Reach out to your contacts ' but watch what you say

Tell family members, friends, old classmates, previous employers, and whoever else that is a potential networking contact that you are in the market for a new job. However, keep the venting and the griping with your loved ones, and not with potential job contacts. You don't want to come across as bitter or vindictive. And you don't want to badmouth your old employer, even if you are in the right. Here's the thing ' people who could potentially help you find a new job will think less of you if you are griping about your old boss. They will think in the back of their minds that you will be talking that way about them one day.

Think about what you want to do for your career

It may be annoying to hear from others about how getting laid off from your job can be a positive thing ' and you will indeed hear that from people ' but you can potentially find your calling now. Some people would never have the guts to start their own business or seek out their dream job if they weren't laid off. Why not try to find a new, better life for yourself? You can also talk with a career coach (click here for more information) for career clarity.

Along those lines, you may want to update or completely redo your resume, go back to school, or do some other next step. Don't beat yourself up if you don't know what you want to do right away, though. It may take time to decide what you really want to be. Just give yourself lots of opportunities to learn more about what to do next.

This article is an original contribution by Lisa Swan.

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4 Lessons in Humanizing Business I Learned Overseas

One would be in the wrong to think there isn't anything to learn from the forgotten areas of the world. I spent a two-year stint in the Peace Corps living overseas in the Kyrgyz Republic. I went to help the people who lived there, but there is no doubt I gained more from them than they gained from me. I even learned some lessons about humanizing business from their business owners.

What is Humanizing Business?

Chris Brogan is one of the foremost experts in humanizing business. He has created a successful business and provides his expertise to companies in all sectors. The premise he begins his work from is the fact that, in his words, 'We don't simply buy to fill a basic need. We want to belong' We buy from people we know, and more so, we buy from people we think are like us.' The trick is getting your business to satisfy that innately human quality and turn your efforts into happy customers and great sales.

Before social media, it was much easier for consumers to see businesses as faceless giants, concerned only with their profits. This still happens today, but with efforts by larger companies to get involved on social media, it's easier than ever to create a human side to your brand. Small businesses are also able to take advantage of their predisposition to creating relationships and a sense of belonging, by using social media to show off their talents and include even more customers.

I would argue that it has always been beneficial to nurture these relationships of belonging, and treat customers as people rather than walking sources of revenue. There are lots of businesses that got away from this mentality, however. Now they are trying to get back into it. As Chris writes again, 'Human business resets the core building block from 'customer' to 'relationship.'

Thinking about humanizing business, I realized that I had experienced some of the finest examples of the power of creating a sense of belonging in the consumer while living in Kyrgyzstan. I won't bore you with generic how-to about steps you can take to humanize your business. I do want to share some of the most impactful memories I have of dealing with businesses in the country I consider a second home.

1. Engage Your Customers on a Personal Level

Many cities and large towns in Central Asia are peppered with 'Gamburger stands.' Yes, that's how hamburger is pronounced in Russian. They aren't quite like hamburgers, but they are affordable and tasty and just what I needed from time to time. I had plenty of options to choose from, but I went back to the same guy every time.

This one vendor was genuinely interested in who I was and how I was feeling. He took the time to engage with me in a more than this-is-only-a-financial-transaction sort of way. He wanted to know as much as he could about me. He asked questions about my day, my work, shared some of his opinions about things. He was selling me food of course, but that was secondary to building a human relationship.

You can bet I went to him and only him for my gamburgers.

While you can't literally ask every single customer how they are doing and get to know them personally, making an effort is simple and easy. All it might take is regular updates to social media about events that affect people's personal lives. Encourage them to share birthdays and other events with your social media and recognize them. Small businesses certainly have a much easier time of this, as they more frequently interact with customers in person. Still, larger businesses can benefit from taking their customer engagement to a higher level.

2. Reward Loyalty

I can still remember one of my first trips to the bazaar ' a large open-air market ' in a city near my village in Kyrgyzstan. I was understandably nervous about going to a crowded market area; there were a lot of vendors there. All of them clamoring for everyone's business, and I had a target on my face since I was a foreigner.

Then I found a Tajik man, whose name I can't remember for the life of me. Anyway, he was immediately confident in the quality of his goods. He insisted that I try anything I wanted ' he wasn't afraid to let his product (aka content or services) speak for itself. No strings attached.

This simple gesture upon first meeting him stuck with me. I continued to visit his stand in the bazaar over any other option I had. And believe me, I had plenty of options, too! So do your customers.

What happens when a relationship develops through humanizing is that both parties reward each other's loyalty. I still remember one day he insisted I share his lunch with him. The interaction wasn't about him making money; it was about him making a committed and long-term customer who was more than just a source of profit.

Of course your business won't be able to buy lunch for everyone, but you can do things that reward their loyalty. Random acts of kindness or rewards once a transaction has been made can go a long way in making your customers feel like they belong ' and more importantly, want to belong ' with your brand.

3. Freebies Build a Connection

On one occasion, I was heading to a gathering of fellow volunteers empty-handed. I needed to bring something with me; drinks, food, anything as long as I wasn't empty handed. I found a small store under an apartment complex with two of my friends and we promptly entered to make our purchases. The woman behind the counter was very pleasant.

In fact, she was so happy that she decided to provide the three of us with three very large shots of vodka. We futilely tried to refuse for a minute and then quickly drank the vodka for fear of offending. The store owner was jovial and treated us as friends first and customers second. You can bet I remembered that store for the rest of my time in the country. It got more of my business.

I'm not suggesting that you provide free alcohol to new customers (although that might work pretty well), but freebies, samples, and unexpected gifts or giveaways can make a business seem more than just a moneymaking machine to a customer. You can get pretty creative with this ' just make sure whatever you offer is useful to your customers. It doesn't even have to be related to your products, but could be something that customers would appreciate receiving.

4. Small Gestures Mean A Lot More than You Think

I don't have a single overriding example of this message, but multiple small examples of how small gestures made me remember a business and want to go back. If your business has the opportunity to surprise customers with random discounts, go ahead and do it. It shows them that you appreciate their business. It's always a warm and fuzzy feeling when you realize you've been given a deal when you weren't expecting one.

Doing this from time to time, like the countless small business owners I ran into in Kyrgyzstan did for me, will help create a relationship with your brand or your business in a consumer's mind. You will be remembered. Even if your business is online-only, you can think of ways to make yourself stand out for your customer by including notes or discounts in orders.

People love to be recognized or feel as if they are getting special treatment. It's human nature. Taking advantage of that in a genuine way can help to humanize your brand in so many ways, ultimately helping your bottom line.

People Will Keep Coming Back

The stronger of a bond you can create between your business and your customers, the more likely customers will be to continue their business with you. Social media has made it incredibly easy to keep in touch with consumers. But there are still plenty of actions businesses can take that go beyond sharing content. Humanizing is one way to bring business back to its roots.

How do you humanize your business?

Sneaky Ways To Boost Web Traffic

You want more traffic. Who doesn't? The problem is that, sometimes, it's pretty difficult to pull off. The first thing you need is good content. That's pretty much a given, right? Wrong. Content is king, but only if it's relevant content. What's relevant content? It's content that inspires people to click through to your website. You can't pay people to write boring 'how to' articles for you anymore. Spun content is out. Even snoozer content that contains unique information or first-hand research won't work. Nope. What you need ' sometimes ' is to be sneaky.

Get Wiki Links

Wikipedia is a great source for traffic, if you can get your links to stick. How do you do that? You set up a website that's purely research-focused. No ads, no offers. Nothing like that. Pure information. You don't need to make it a huge website, but a credible one. A nice secondary link back to your flagship site might be nice too, as long as the link is well-placed alongside other authority sites in your niche.

Some topics on Wikipedia will turn a fire hose of traffic onto your site. Topics that deal with life insurance, for example, are great. Dogs are another hot category. Articles on Wikipedia that naturally appeal to desperate markets also work well for this kind of thing. Think about topics that would embarrass most people: personal hygiene topics. Money topics. Topics that naturally have enthusiasts that have a drug-like addiction to their hobby or sport (i.e. golfers, poker players, etc.).

Here's the tricky part. You have to add something of incredible value to Wikipedia and you have to build up your reputation over time there. You have to be seen as a trustworthy editor. Once you've made numerous non-self-serving edits on Wikipedia, perhaps you rewrite a page on the site or make substantial edits to a page. Then, you drop your link. Then, monitor your target pages for any changes. Watch the magic happen. Free traffic for life.

Post Radical Videos

Your videos can't put people to sleep like half of the videos on YouTube. You have to say something truly controversial. Pick an angle on a topic that's sure to raise someone's ire. Then, create a video about that topic. If you have to, pay a few of your friends to promote it via social media. If it's truly controversial, it's going to spread like wildfire.

Answer Questions on Blogs and Social Networks

Be helpful. Really helpful. Yahoo answers used to be an excellent place to answer questions. LinkedIn is another good place. When you provide a meaningful, detailed, answer to someone's question, drop a link to a relevant page on your site. For example, let's say you're answering a question on LinkedIn   about how to market on Facebook (which is darn-near impossible to do). You answer the questioner with a long and detailed response, provide reasons for your advice, and then link back to your site. The link isn't a link to the homepage. It's a link to a page that gives even more information about Facebook marketing.

How many visits will you get from this? Maybe only a few per week. Maybe only a few per month. But it's steady traffic, and guess what? You can answer as many questions as you like. It will only increase the traffic.

Publish Articles

Publishing articles on article directories is a little dated. Google doesn't favor those sites like it used to, and it's not really something you want to hang your hat on. Here's a better idea: write for publications in your industry. Yes, trade publications. Better yet, write for trade publications filled with your ideal customers. If those publications have a print edition, consider getting published there. Even though it's print, it can still drive traffic to your site if you're allowed to put your website in your author's bio.

Use Little-Known PR Outlets

Most people are familiar with PRWeb. What about URLwire? URLwire is a service run by Eric Ward. He is about the whitest white hat link builder you'll ever meet. He will send out press releases to his own private list. That private list has asked to receive good quality content. The key word being 'quality.' If you have nothing newsworthy to say, and no good content on your site, don't even bother. If you're a legitimate business, this could unleash a tidal-wave of traffic onto your site.

What about you? What sneaky traffic ideas have you used in the past to boost your web traffic?

This article is an original contribution by Stella Robinsons.

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How to Avoid the 9 Pitfalls of Thought Leadership Marketing

When done well, thought leadership marketing can elevate your brand, engage buyers at crucial stages in the sales cycle and help your company achieve a competitive advantage.

But, if you're an experienced marketer, you've probably been around long enough to see a thought leadership project go off the rails at least once. I certainly have.

Early in my marketing career, a VP had our marketing team develop a series of white papers for every vertical industry the company served.

His brainchild was to use virtually identical content for each white paper, except for the name of the industry, a few minor details and a different colored cover on each one.

Of course, our cookie-cutter white papers flopped. That's because they were created based on the faulty premise that prospects from any industry faced the same general set of business challenges. Not surprisingly, they gathered dust in the marketing closet.

9 Pitfalls of Thought Leadership Marketing

So why does thought leadership marketing miss the mark? Here are the 9 pitfalls and how to avoid them:

1. Reactive mode. How many times do we start a marketing initiative in response to another department's request or an executive's decision that the marketing team needs to produce some thought leadership content to address a new business issue and help drive lead generation? More often than not, marketers plunge into the project without first establishing a strategy.

How to fix it: Make sure you lay out a clear strategy, messaging platform and process before you produce any communications. Then, build an integrated marketing campaign that includes multiple tactics and touch points for reaching your target buyers.

2. One size doesn't fit all. Buyers, prospects and customers aren't all alike. Just as in our white paper example, you cannot deliver the same content to drastically different target audiences and expect it to resonate with everyone, let alone anyone.

How to fix it: Take the time to interview buyers and customers to find out about their business challenges and priority initiatives. Based on your conversations, build buyer personas to use as a guide in developing relevant content tailored to each of your target audiences.

3. Admit it, you're just regurgitating. Some companies think thought leadership means compiling a bunch of research and serving it up in a 50-slide PowerPoint deck or a 12-page white paper. But real thought leadership doesn't just report or educate; it also conveys a distinctive point of view.

How to fix it: Be sure you have something new to add to the industry conversation before you develop your content. Take a strong stand or at least bring a fresh perspective on an old problem.

4. The snooze factor. Boring thought leadership often results from playing it too safe. It can also happen when you haven't done enough research and don't know the subject well enough to deliver insightful and lively content.

How to fix it: Make an effort to add a dash of personality to your content. Spice up presentations with striking images or video clips. Hit the delete key on empty jargon like 'robust' or 'flexible' wherever you find them. And develop an ear for utilizing authentic language that buyers would actually use if they were telling the story.

5. No practical value. Your thought leadership shouldn't just describe business trends or problems; it should also offer the buyer useful advice and a roadmap for addressing these issues.

How to fix it: Make sure your thought leadership content always contains actionable tips and guidance, no matter whether a prospect ends up purchasing your company's solutions or not.

6. Salesy. Real thought leadership isn't a thinly veiled sales pitch.

How to fix it: You'll have plenty of time to trot out the sales presentation or the product collateral when the prospect is finally ready to evaluate your company's solutions. The role of thought leadership is to engage buyers and to get them to buy into your approach. That means telling, not blatant selling.

7. Lacks credibility. If you or your company isn't already an established subject matter expert, then you will have to do the hard work of earning the industry's respect and credibility over time.

How to fix it: Securing speaking opportunities at meetings and conferences is a good way to build up your company's 'street cred' You can also partner with an established thought leader such as an industry analyst to deliver a co-branded white paper or webinar. However, keep in mind that there are no real shortcuts for becoming a thought leader. It can take many months or even years to become a trusted and well-known industry authority.

8. Disorganized. Dull. Death by PowerPoint. There are a million and one reasons why content doesn't measure up. Whatever the reason, don't play the excuse game. Just resolve to improve your thought leadership content.

How to fix it: Create a strong team of subject matter experts that you can leverage for speaking, blogging, press interviews and other opportunities. And tap into internal and/or external resources like freelance writers, PR professionals, speaking coaches and graphic designers to help you deliver quality content marketing.

9. Fails the leadership test. If it doesn't lead, it cannot be called thought leadership.

How to fix it: Real thought leadership dares to take a bold position and take us somewhere we haven't been. It gets out in front of an issue to provide buyers with novel solutions and a better understanding of where the industry may be headed. Most importantly, thought leadership must lead and attract followers to your company and its approach.

The bottom line is you need to develop a clear strategy and invest in the necessary resources to create provocative, insightful thought leadership that will engage your prospects and get them to buy into your approach.

What other thought leadership marketing pitfalls have you experienced? How do you avoid them?

Your Top Event Marketing Questions Answered

We recently held a webinar to show marketers how to rock their online and offline events, featuring insights from Marketo thought leaders Heidi Bullock, Director of Marketing, Sandra Freeman, Director of Marketing Cloud, and myself (@dayroth). We had so many great questions from the first webinar that we didn't have time to answer, so here are answers to the top event marketing inquiries.

1. How do you identify the people you are marketing to for events? Do you grow your list organically or are you purchasing lists?

Heidi Bullock: It is really important that you get the right people to your events. For the events that we host or participate in at Marketo, we market to relevant segments in our database. We also suppress other segments if the content is not a good fit. First ask yourself some questions about the event itself, and then focus on some key demographic areas when determining your segmentation strategy. Some things to focus on would be job title, industry, company size, and location.

As for how we grow our list, we use a mix of organic and paid efforts. To name a few, we mix in SEO and social marketing with PPC and other paid programs such as content syndication to always add new names. Our database is something we are always working on to grow and maintain.

2. Do emails drive the majority of your webinar efforts? What other ideas for promotion have been working?

Dayna Rothman: We drive the majority of our webinar registrations through email marketing and social. We typically begin promotions about 2 weeks out by sending an email to a segmented part of our database, and then we mix in social closer to the actual webinar date.

For social, we find that visuals work really well, especially on Facebook. We have a small graphic made to promote each webinar. These graphics are much more shareable vs. just your traditional post. Additionally, we will do some promoted tweets and posts, especially if it is a large webinar.

We also use the blog to promote our webinars. We do this by writing a related post the day before to drive attendance. Just remember that you don't want the blog post to be only promotional, so take your topic, write a thought leader piece, and then promote your webinar towards the end.

3. Can you elaborate more on security for parties? What problems/issues have you experienced? What issues do security usually handle?

Sandra Freeman: For our Masterpieces party at Dreamforce in October 2012, we had a very large crowd at the San Francisco Museum of Art. One of our goals was to assure everyone that pre-registered guests would receive priority access. We rented crowd control stanchions to help guide the crowds around the museum and had separate lines for pre-registered and walk up guests.

We hired additional security to help walk the lines and to make sure people were in the right lines, answer questions, and to check for Dreamforce badges. While the museum provides it's own security inside to ensure all the art is protected, we also wanted to have extra very visible security for larger crowd control.

Issues involved managing capacity inside the event so that guests were comfortable, turning away party goers without badges or any form of identification (yep, it happens!), limiting any unauthorized vendor access to soliciting our guests in line (really, that can happen too!), and being available to walk out guests that may have over-indulged. Bottom line, we want to be sure all our guests are happy and safe, so the extra security is very worth it!

4. What are some examples of creative ways you've driven people to your booth at tradeshows?

Dayna Rothman: For Dreamforce 2012 we worked on a variety of engagement tactics to drive attendance. One tactic we used with great success was a meme generator. We set up a camera with a backdrop in our booth, and attendees could take their photos and choose from a variety of memes. Once attendees took their photo they could load them to social profiles. Our meme generator got so popular that we ended up having a line wrapped around the booth, which of course drove people to stop and check out what was going on.

Another way we drove traffic to our booth was through a luggage tag contest. In the attendee bags we included a purple luggage tag and we urged people to go to the booth, get scanned, and be entered to win $1000. Not only did this drive attendance to our booth, but it was also great branding all over Dreamforce as thousands of people were wearing our purple Marketo luggage tags!

Thank you so much to everyone who attended our webinar and asked some really great questions. Be sure to check out the next installment, Creating a Flawless Event Promotion Plan, and our new Definitive Guide to Event Marketing to learn more.

The Best Advice I Ever Received for my Business, and My Blog

I was recently asked by an interviewer, 'Who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth?' Pretty good question! But the answer was easy. In fact, there was one lesson I learned from one man that has had a profound impact on my approach to life, my business, and my blog. I'll share that important lesson with you today.

Sensei and sensibility

When I lived in Los Angeles, I desperately wanted to attend the MBA program at Claremont Graduate University for one reason ' Peter Drucker taught there (in fact, the school was named for him). If you have never heard of Peter Drucker, discovering his books and articles might be the most important thing you can do for your career.

I applied for entry to the college, but was told I was too young to be accepted to this prestigious program. I would not quit that easily, however, and went through an appeal process, arguing that they needed my youth (27 at the time) to add to the diversity of the program! I made an unlikely stand on the grounds of EEO, which was quite a stretch, but incredibly, I was admitted! Perhaps my tenacity amused them.

Peter Drucker was one of the handful of people I have known who could distill vast complexity into simple wisdom. The scope of his knowledge was breathtaking. He would sit on the edge of his desk and lecture for three hours straight without a break, and without notes. He generally lectured about one of his books. My favorite was Innovation and Entrepreneurshipa remarkable book that still holds up today.

A new approach to leadership

Professor Drucker taught via the Harvard case study method. We would be assigned to read a long, detailed, real-life business case and then dissect it in class to discover the true nature of how business worked.

The students in this class were high-flyers ' the brightest business executives in the Los Angeles region ' and they were always trying to 'solve' the business case. Nothing made Professor Drucker angrier than that! 'What makes you think you are smarter than the people in the case?' he would ask, 'Smarter than people who have worked in this industry for decades? How can you be that arrogant?

'Your job as a business leader is not to provide the right answers. It is to provide the right questions.'

Over and over he would pound this truth into our heads until it became part of our DNA. And he was so right ' so profoundly right. There is not a week that goes by that I don;t think of some lesson from Professor Drucker, but this was the most important of all.

Think of the power of leading people to the most effective solution, not by pontificating and telling them what to do, but by distilling the issue down to the essential question and letting them discover the answer themselves.

Adopting a strategy of professional humility is anathema to our modern Western culture. We may associate humility with weakness, when in fact it is strength.

The essence of blogging?

Like most young people starting out in business, I felt a need to know all the answers, especially when I was promoted to a leadership position. But from Professor Drucker I learned that being vulnerable, involving others in the process, coming up with a better solution together, sharing the weight of decisions ' those are all benefits of humility. Being deeply human, instead of trying to wear the Superman cape, is powerful and liberating.

This is also a key to effective blogging I think. Most bloggers adopt a mantle of invincibility and that is certainly the easy path to take: 'I publish, therefor I'm correct.'

But being a humble blogger leads to meaningful social media engagement and ultimately, crowd-sourced wisdom. I almost never have the answers. But I think my blog posts do present the essential questions: Does every business need a social media strategy? What is the value of social media engagement? How do we measure success?

And then YOU provide the answers through your comments. A much better system, don't you think? How could I possibly sustain this blog for the last four years by only giving you answers? Nobody is that smart.

I hope this resonates with you in some small way. How does this idea land on you? Could being a humble leader become a key to making you a better leader, a better parent, a better blogger?

Photograph courtesy Claremont Graduate University

Mark Schaefer is a educator and marketing consultant specializing in social media workshops. He blogs at {grow} and is the author of several best-selling markting books including Return On Influence.

Building The Tower Of Babel Through Results And Artistry

It's hard to believe that back in 2000, *NSYNC sold an impressive 9.9M albums, while the highest selling artist of 2011 was Adele with 5.8M albums sold'almost half the volume.

In the early 2000s file sharing inundated the music business, and the entire industry was affected, resulting in dramatic sales reduction. One of the upsides was the breadth and depth of music that was now available to those who were previously reliant on their local Sam Goody. There was, and still is, a fine line between stealing and curiosity, but as time has gone on and illegal file sharing curtailed, the legacy of the Napster period has been extremely positive for music. Boy bands began to lose their enormous status and true musicians began to emerge.

With such a huge range of music readily accessible through stores like iTunes and subscription models such as Spotify, the landscape has changed in tandem with tastes. A new organic, home-cooked wave of acts has materialized, displacing many of the manufactured artists, and paving the way for a new breed of artists who are representative of our times and those ahead. These are primarily acts writing and performing from the soul, yet they are definitely results-minded (often on their own labels) and balancing commercial goals with true artistry.

Consider Mumford & Sons'the Brit roots-based phenomenon that has taken the industry by storm over the last 3 years. I firmly believe that their rise would have been impossible around 2000 due to the formulated shackles the music industry had imposed on itself.

Their success has been based on a carefully managed results-based approach to selling music through writing 'real' music and creating bonds with an ever-broadening audience. The appeal of their act, and others like Adele, is extraordinary. Their authenticity and credibility of their music is recognized and loved by dedicated fans'from 16 year olds to 60 year olds.

As Billboard Magazine recently stated, 'This is a storybook rise for an unlikely act who has proved that results truly count.' Musically, they're not exactly pushing the boundaries. They're essentially the same flavor as Bob Dylan, the Buckleys, and early Wilco'roots-driven with an ability to bring people together united in music and message. But on a relative scale, they've achieved more than most of their predecessors in a shorter period of time.

When they got their first break, it was opening for Brit indie band, the Macabees, in the UK in 2007. Brit audiences are notoriously skeptical about opening acts, often preferring the bar to the stalls. But they responded overwhelmingly, enabling the band to play the festival circuit as well as opening for acts associated with the new Brit folk movement such as Laura Marling.

Organic to the end, the band financed their own first album 'Sigh No More' to enable them to have creative freedom. Word of mouth, online recommendations and endorsements from credible UK radio presenters helped to spread the word, and brought the band attention in the U.S.

But it wasn't a fast ride to fame. The band toured the U.S. relentlessly, conducting 10 separate stateside tours since 2008. Each month the live audience not only grew but also widened as their appeal reached new demographics. 'Sigh No More' entered the Billboard 200 at #127 in February 2010, selling a humble 5,000 records. It has now sold a cumulative 2.5M copies in the U.S. alone and hasn't fallen out of the top 75 on the Billboard 200 since July 2010.

The singles 'Sigh No More,' 'Little Lion Man,' and 'The Cave' grew slowly on the radio while the band and the label continued to dig into the results they were achieving, looking for new opportunities on which to build. From college rock stations to festivals like Bonnaroo, to TV appearances on CMT's Crossroads alongside Emmylou Harris, they found the warmest of greetings.

Their slow-build strategy has paid off, after scoring two 2011 Grammy nominations (including best new artist), Mumford & Sons notched four more in 2012 and were a focal point of the broadcast. Mumford & Sons were up there in the echelons of not just rock, but of all music worldwide'organic music with commercial sense.

Usually the launch of the second album is fraught with concern and doubt. Bands often have years to develop and tweak material for the first album, and then have to deliver the second in a much shorter time. But the band used their intense touring schedule to refine the new tracks, and they listened carefully to the audience reaction.

The Mumford & Sons second record, 'Babel,' was released in September 2012, debuting at number one following a performance on The David Letterman Show. Spotify Chief Content Officer Ken Parks stated that 1 out of every 10 U.S. Spotify users played a song from Babel in its first week of release.

It has since become the fastest selling album of 2012 in the UK, selling over 158,000 copies in its first week, and was the biggest selling debut of any album in 2012 in the U.S., selling 600,000 copies in its first week, and over a million worldwide.

Mumford & Sons have become the proof of the pudding'that commercial success based on a careful results-based strategy can still be rooted in beautifully crafted and uncompromised music. A far cry from the pre-Napster world and its manufactured acts, it's a sign of the future laden with brilliant artists who are musically driven yet marketing-aware and fully tuned into the results of their creativity.

It's a win-win for all.

The Cost of Delaying Marketing Automation

You're not a marketer if things aren't hectic and your organization isn't busy. In fact, it's likely that you'll encounter some resistance when you're making a business case for marketing automation, whether stakeholders push back directly or simply get distracted. But don't let the delay go on too long. Once you've determined you'll benefit from the investment, you stand to suffer the cost of lost opportunity.

Here are some common reasons why people may delay investing in marketing automation, and how you can overcome them.

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Of course, at this level of usage you won't get the same ROI as highly-sophisticated users, but you can certainly do better than you would without marketing automation. And if you pick the right system, you can do more sophisticated work and get even more from the system as your staff grows in size and skill. 'We don't have enough content in place.' Most companies don't start with tons of content. What's needed is a plan to create that content. For example, say you want to send out content every 3 weeks, and you have 4 pieces at the moment. You have 12 weeks to create something new. Simply commit to building a new piece of content every month. Re-use old blog posts. Divide newsletters into bite-sized chunks. With this approach, you'll grow your content library over time.

In short, there's never a perfect time to roll out new software or start a new project. You'll always be busy. But the longer you wait to implement marketing automation, the longer you'll wait to see your revenue move up and to the right.

Top 50 B2B Marketing Influencers On Twitter

Who are the top B2B Marketing influencers on twitter?

To answer this question, I looked at a variety of factors including twitter followers, profiles that included 'B2B marketing,' the focus of their tweets including the hashtag #B2BMarketing, as well as a variety of social scoring tools using the keyword.

Earlier this month, I released the 20 B2B Marketing Blogs you need to read. (And I quickly found that no list is perfect.)

So if you feel you should be included on this list, please add yourself to the comments below. I hope you find this to be a valuable resource for your B2B Marketing efforts. The list is not in any particular order and I've created a B2B Marketing Influencers Twitter list as well.

Top B2B Marketing Influencers ' Companies

These company Twitter accounts provide updates on some of the latest B2B marketing strategies and tools and can add some B2B Marketing knowledge into your Twitterstream.

@Forrester ' Forrester Research, Inc ' An independent research company that provides pragmatic advice to global leaders in business and technology.
Cambridege, MA ' http://www.forrester.com/community

@Hubspot ' HubSpot ' Hubspot in all-in-one marketing software that brings your whole marketing world together in one powerful, integrated system. Presenters of Inbound Conference.
Cambridge, MA ' http://www.hubspot.com

@Marketo ' Marketo.com ' Marketing software. Easy. Powerful. Complete. Marketing automation, social campaigns, inbound marketing, sales apps, ROI reporting ' all in one place. You should also follow their co-founder @JonMiller
San Mateo, CA ' http://blog.marketo.com

@Comscore ' We provide analytics for a Digital World, turning information into insights and actions for our clients to maximize the value of their digital investments.
Reston, VA ' http://www.comscore.com

@ExploreB2B ' Explore B2B ' A publishing platform for professionals. Write articles, share knowledge and make connections. Account run by @erincnelson and @dreckbaerfrau. #B2B
Berlin, Germany ' http://www.exploreb2b.com

@BtoBmagazine ' BtoB Online ' The resource for #marketing strategists.
New York City & Chicago ' http://www.btobonline.com

@MarketingB2B ' B2BMarketing.com ' Where the B2B marketing community comes together to share information, news, insights and knowledge.
London, UK ' http://bit.ly/b2blive

@Marketingcloud ' Marketing Cloud ' An extension of SalesForce.com, an integrated way of utilizing SalesForce in the Cloud.
New York, NY

@BtoBsocialmedia ' BtoBSocialMedia (b2b) offers daily tips on using Twitter, Facebook and other social media to increase brand awareness and social influence.
San Francisco, CA · http://www.bizo.com

@GeniusRocket ' Genuis Rocket ' There's a better way to do advertising. A curated production process + a fully-vetted community of creative pros = outstanding and affordable video content. ' Washington, DC · http://geniusrocket.com

@Savvy_B2B ' Savvy B2B Marketing ' Savvy marketers sharing insights, tips, resources, and war stories.
Anywhere we're needed ' http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com

@CMIcontent ' Content Marketing Institute ' Content Marketing Institute for all things #ContentMarketing. Home of Chief Content Office Magazine and THE event Content Marketing World. #cmworld. Also follow Joe Pulizzi @juntajoe.
Cleveland, OH ' http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com

@MarketingSherpa ' MarketingSherpa ' MarketingSherpa provides B2B and consumer marketing professionals practical case studies, research, and training on email, demand gen, search, social, and more.
Jacksonville Beach, FL ' http://www.marketingsherpa.com

@B2BLeadBlog ' B2B Lead Roundtable ' B2B Lead Roundtable (MECLABS) reaches 9,000+ daily LinkedIn Group and Blog on: markting, lead generation, management, nurturing, research, case studies
Global ' http://B2BLeadBlog.com

@Arketi ' Arketi Group ' A high-tech business-to-business (B2B) public relations and digital marketing agency. One of @b2bmagazine's top B2B agencies.
Atlanta, GA ' http://www.arketi.com

@B2B_Chat ' #B2BChat ' Weekly Twitter chat for B2B marketers ' 8 p.m. ET Thursdays. Moderated by @andrewspoeth, @b2bento, @cuferg and @wittlake
http://linkd.in/qJtYFg

@SiriusDecisions ' SiriusDecisions ' SiriusDecisions provides senior-level executives with the sales and marketing operational intelligence required to improve topline performance. Follow analysts @jblock, @megheuer, @rossgraber, @izjay, @tjarros, @jneeson, @eeestep and more.
Connecticut · http://www.siriusdecisions.com/

@Intel ' Intel ' A global B2B technology innovations company ' news, views and events about global tech innovation.
http://www.facebook.com/intel

@Eloqua ' Eloqua ' Eloqua pioneered the Marketing Automation industry, and today is the leader in Revenue Performance Management and modern marketing strategies.
Vienna, VA ' http://blog.eloqua.com

@Gartner_Inc ' Gartner ' The leading global provider of independent and objective technology related to research and advice.
Stamford, CT ' http://www.gartner.com

Top B2B Marketing Influencers ' Individuals

These individuals know the field. Follow this list of influencers to learn about the latest and greatest in B2B marketing, and while you're at it, throw them as tweet as most of them will respond back!

@MarketingProfs ' Ann Handley ' Head of Content here at 'Profs. People seem to like my writing: contentrulesbook.com annhandley.com
Boston, MA ' http://www.marketingprofs.com

@PaulDunay ' Paul Dunay ' Global VP of Marketing for Maxymiser, Author, Blogger, Public Speaker and Award-Winning B2B Marketing Expert.
New York ' http://pauldunay.com

@Ardath421 ' Ardath Albee ' B2B Marketer, Content Strategist, Writer, Storyteller and Author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
Southern California ' http://marketinginteractions.typepad.com

@NoyesJesse ' Jesse Noyes ' Managing Editor @Eloqua. Storytelling through content marketing, blogs, social media & more. Taco connoisseur.
Austin, TX ' http://blog.eloqua.com/

@ArtilleryMarket ' Douglas Burdett ' Marketing strategist for defense contractors. VMI grad, former artillery officer, and Madison Ave ad man. My blog helps defense contractors with marketing. Also follow Doug @DouglasBurdett.
Norfolk, VA ' http://defensecontractormarketing.com

@BillyMitchell1 ' Billy Mitchell ' I'm a Marketing Agency partner and Senior Creative Director at MLT Creative in Atlanta, GA. We are the idea launchpad for B2B marketers. We make ideas work.
Atlanta, GA ' http://www.mltcreative.com/blog

@MarcusNelson ' Marcus Nelson ' Founder of @addvocate ' Husband to @emilyjo ' Father of 3 ' Twin ' Chilli Champ ' Half Kiwi ' #Texas born ' #Wisconsin raised ' Former @salesfoce @uservoice
San Francisco, CA ' http://about.me/marcusnelson

@NealSchaffer ' Neal Schaffer ' Trilingual Social Media Strategy Consultant, Coach, Keynote Speaker, Author Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales & Social Media Marketing
Irvine, CA

@DougKessler ' Doug Kessler ' Creative Director & Co-founder of Velocity, B2B marketing agency to the stars. I tweet on content marketing, B2B copywriting, social media, tech marketing'
London ' http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk

@TomPick ' Tom Pick ' B2B marketing consultant focused on web presence optimization, SEO, SEM, social media, online PR. Blogger.
Minneapolis ' http://webbiquity.com

@MarkWSchaefer ' Mark Schaefer ' Chieftain of social web's most unique blog, {grow}. Consultant, college professor, author of Return on Influence and Tao of Twitter. Social Media Bouncer.
Tennessee and New York ' http://www.businessesGROW.com

@Wittlake ' Eric Wittlake ' Focus: Digital Media & Marketing for B2B. Belief: Marketing should serve and respect the audience. Job: Media Director, @BabcockJenkins. Co-mod: #b2bchat
Portland, OR ' http://b2bdigital.net/

@JChernov ' Joe Chernov ' VP of Marketing at Kinvey. Content Marketer of the Year winner. Words are my own, for better or worse. More here: http://about.me/jchernov
Melrose, MA · http://www.jchernov.com

@Fearlesscomp ' Jeff Ogden ' Global leader for GE at The Pedowitz Group President. Find New Customers www.findnewcustomers.com
Long Island, NY ' http://www.marketingmadesimple.tv

@JeffreylCohen ' Jeffrey L. Cohen ' Dad, Manager of Content Marketing: @Salesforce @MarketingCloud, Author: The B2B Social Media Book, Managing Editor: @smb2b, B2B Social Media Speaker
Durham, NC ' www.SocialMediaB2B.com

@MarkRaganCEO ' Mark Ragan ' CEO of Ragan Communications. Publisher of PRDaily, PR Daily EU, Ragan.com. Healthcare Care News, HR Comm. Tweets comms news, conference deals and more.
Chicago, IL ' http://www.prdaily.com

@Mvolpe ' Mike Volpe ' CMO @Hubspot ' marketing, startups, entrepreneurship, SaaS, B2B, lead generation, blog, social media, SEO, analytics, VC, golf, Patriots, Red Sox
Boston, MA ' http://www.mikevolpe.com/marketing-speaker

@StephanieTilton ' Stephanie Tilton ' Content marketing consultant for B2B high tech. Write case studies, eBooks, white papers, etc. that advance the buying cycle: Founding member @savvy_b2b blog.
Greater Boston, MA · http://www.tentonmarketing.com

@JasonMillerCA ' Jason Miller ' Social Media & Content for @Marketo, B2B Blogger, RocknRoll Photographer, amateur comedian, Hair Metal Expert, Aspiring magician. All opinions here are my own.
San Francisco, CA · http://rocknrollcocktail.com

@AndrewSpoeth ' Andrew Spoeth ' Interested in B2B marketing, social media, and tech. Moderator for #B2Bchat. Head of Social Media at CA Technologies.
San Francisco ' http://www.marketingfinger.com

@WendyMarx ' Wendy Marx ' Award-winning PR and marketing communications executive who helps B2B companies become well-known brands.
http://marxcommunications.com

@Mike_Schultz ' Mike Schultz ' President, RAIN Group. Publisher, RainToday.com. Author, Rainmaking Conversations, Blogger RAIN Selling blog.
Stow, MA ' http://www.raingroup.com/blog

@MicheleLinn ' B2B contest marketing consultant; Executive Editor of Content Marketing Institute; blogger and one of the founding members of savvyb2bmarketing.com
Royal Oak, MI ' http://www.linncommunications.com

@HJSewell ' Howard J. Sewell ' President of Spear Marketing Group, a full-service B2B demand generation agency. 20+ years in B2B direct marketing, demand gen, and lead management.
Seattle, WA ' http://www.linkedin.com/in/hjsewell

@Marketingwizdom ' Robert Clay ' INTJ Entrepreneur; strategist; author; speaker and business mentor to aspiring market leaders. Digital native and foodie into cars, design, Apple and skiing
Milton Keynes, UK ' http://marketingwizdom.com/twitter

@KylepLacy ' Kyle Lacy ' Sr Manager, Content Marketing & Research at @ExactTarget. Author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies, Branding Yourself and Social CRM. Thoughts are mine alone.
Indianapolis, IN · http://www.kylelacy.com

@cuferg ' Christy Ferguson ' B2B Marketing & PR Strategist, Corporate and Agency. Avid non-fiction reader, information junkie, passionate Philly sports fan. Co-Mod of #b2bchat.
Denver, CO ' http://www.uherfergusoncommunications.com

@MaureenB2B ' Maureen Blandford ' Championing efficacious sales support & marketing for B2Bs ' figurative middleware for B2B Sales & Marketing Alignment. If I'm not here, you can find me on G+
http://MaureenBlandford.com

@JBecher ' Jonathan Becher ' #SAP Chief Marketing Officer & performance management enthusiast. I believe words matter. (Disclosure: yes, he's our social CMO @SAP and my ultimate boss)
Palo Alto, CA ' http://alignment.wordpress.com

@TonyZambito ' TonyZambito ' Executive Consultant, Sales Benchmark Index. Provide expertise in buyer research, buyer personas, and marketing/sales effectiveness to achieve revenue growth.
New York · http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com

The Leadership Secret

I was honored when Major Chris Whipp, former British Army Officer, head of Command and Tactics training to the Army Air Corps and the first Apache Attack Helicopter Pilot in the Blue Eagles Helicopter Display Team, reached out to me to share a preview of his book, 'The Leadership Secret: Be the Difference that Makes the Difference.'

As I wrote in my review and believe wholeheartedly, Chris does a masterful job of distilling the intricacies of leadership down to a critical truth: 'There isn't good or bad leadership'You are leading or you are not.'

This important truth forces people to look at their approach to leadership in a very honest light. He also encourages everyone to view themselves as a potential leader because, as he reminds us, you do not have to be the best at any particular skill to excel as a leader.

Most importantly, Chris reminds us all that the evolution of our world has led us to a place where the keys to leadership in business as well as the military include flexibility, the freedom to maneuver, and mutual trust between leader and followers.

As with Keni Thomas's book, Get It On! What it Means to Lead the Way, about his experiences fighting in the horrific 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, there were so many leadership lessons from Chris's military examples that made me think more expansively about business leadership.

The Source of Mutual Trust

The source of mutual trust between leader and followers is the belief that we have each other's best interest at heart. I wanted to highlight this because Chris does a brilliant job throughout the book of giving examples of actions that tie back to creating this trust. In fact, he has a whole chapter on Getting to Know Your Staff that begins with this insightful quote:

'If motivated you will do it now, if inspired you will do it forever.'

One might think that the importance of getting to know your team is obvious, as would be the process to go about doing so. But I recently coached a woman who was invited, along with her boss, to meet with the executive two levels up (her boss's boss). They were to discuss her career goals as part of a focused talent management program, helping high-potential employees to get the visibility and opportunities necessary to continue along their desired path.

When she and her boss got into the meeting with the higher-up, the executive started the conversation by telling her what he thought was best for her. He went on to explain to her all the reasons she should be motivated by various steps, and about his experience helping others 'like her' move up in the organization. The woman was dumbfounded by the leader's complete lack of interest in what she actually wanted, and what her very clear motivations were. Instead, he made the conversation all about him.

I suspect many of you know people just like this!

Chris does a fantastic job of talking leaders not only through how to get to know your staff, but yourself as well. He even devotes an entire chapter to 'Learning Emotional State Control,' which is critical for leaders under stress (um, all of us!). His 'how-to's' truly set this book apart, and they're written with the directness of a military officer who truly does have your best interest at heart!

I highly recommend The Leadership Secret to anyone looking to be the kind of leader people seek out and loyally follow!

~

The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership

Are you an introvert looking to use your introversion to your advantage in business & leadership or an extrovert interested in leading introverts more effectively? I wrote this eBook for you'

'The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership' eBook is NOW Available! Amazon Best Seller, Amazon Hot New Release, and the inspiration behind my Harvard Business Review article! Featured on Huffington Post. BUY Now on Amazon for Kindle or Buy it at B&N for Nook! Also available on iBooks!

Click here to DOWNLOAD in PDF format. Thank you!

Being an introvert is truly an advantage in business and leadership if you know how to leverage it, and if you remain true to yourself.

Think like a Publisher; Act like a Journalist

You know the first rule of content marketing is to think like a publisher, right? Our job as content marketers is to figure out what information or education our target market wants and then develop content to fill the void. It's an important shift away from broadcasting the products and services we offer. If you ask me, the second rule should be to act like a journalist.

A blog post at PR 20/20 caught my eye this week. The (Self) Education of a Content Marketer speaks to the necessity of immersing yourself in every part of a topic you may be covering. It's no longer sufficient to understand your message and how you want to position it. You also need to be able to tell a story worthy of captivating an audience. You want to ensure everything you publish is credible and that requires research, often quite a lot of it.

Acting like a journalist
In working alongside copywriters and other content producers on several different projects, the most creative pieces always come from journalists. When I asked print journalist Dan Hatch, Marketing and Media Editor at The West Australian, how he came up with so many good sources and content ideas, he told me it was his newspaper training. Reporters must 1) fill a certain number of columns with new content every day and 2) write a story. That's two significant differences from traditional marketing copy. But if we really want to think like a publisher, then we have to be developing content like a journalist.

Good sources for information
So where do journalists find what they need to create a great story? It's often in the most mundane places. Be prepared to troll through pages and pages to find the inspiration and sources to develop your content. Fortunately, we can do most everything on the web but you have to break away from Google search results if you want to stand out from everyone else. Move away from popular sites like Mashable and the Huffington Post because that's where everyone else is snooping around.

Off the beaten path
Here are some of my favourite places to dig:

• Local and community newspapers
• Industry associations
• Industry newsletters
• Industry reports and surveys
• Government websites
• Press releases from government officials
• Online media release distribution sites
• University websites
• LinkedIn discussion groups

Does it sound like a grind? If so, you might be in the wrong job. Journalists, by and large, are incredibly curious people. They're full of questions and willing to follow many threads on any topic to get the story they want. In the process, they make valuable contacts they can tap in the future when they need a comment, quote or expert opinion. It all goes into writing a richer, more entertaining story. As marketers, we absolutely have to be taking this approach if we want our own content to stick.

Do you think marketers should act like a journalist or is it overkill?

If you would like to find out more about content marketing, plan to attend Content Marketing World Sydney, from 4-6 March. Early bird registration closes on 31 January. If you're not in Sydney, the Content Marketing Institute has arranged a special group rate at the Sheraton on the Park for people ' like me ' that will be traveling to the event. I hope to see you there.

Image courtesy of graur codrin/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This article is an original contribution by Sarah Mitchell.

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Common Sense Keys For Creating Your Career Success Story

The story of our careers, work and jobs continues to be written and told by all of us living it.

2008-2010 were tumultuous, paradigm shift years that most of us had never known, seen or experienced in our lifetime. We were all forced to deal with change on just about every level of our personal and professional lives. People were shocked and stunned with lay offs, downsizing, trying to find jobs with far smaller job pool and, technology and communication changes that most people were not skilled up to use. These years were some of the scariest times for small business and corporate America, but, we have come through and are the better for it.

2011-2012 were transitional years when things settled into what they are and where they are for now. Change will continue, but the processes, systems, media's, platforms and best practices are in place for what we know is our new business terrain. The official transition from AOL to Google is complete, if you know what I mean.

Everyone's career story has come through the past four years in different ways. I have seen amazing resilience, inspiring creativity, clever trends and innovation mostly driven by all the generations in the workplace but especially the looming Gen Y and Gen X, who are the key drivers of so much of it, but watch out for the up and coming GenZ.

From desktop to mobile, laptops to tablets, email to text, and 24/7 real-time, all the generations still in the workplace continue to be living in a technological and social marketing revolution.

I see 2013 as the start of another cycle and a pivotal year for using, harnessing and leveraging everything that we now have to create, communicate and move content and information. Sales and marketing are now married to technology and social media marketing in a way it never has been before.

Brian Solis is the benchmark voice for our new media generation. Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, and culture. His new book, The End of Business as Usual explores the emergence of GenerationC, a new generation of customers and how businesses must adapt to reach them. He has written The Little Blue Book of Social Transformation, An essential Guide for Executives, which can help all of us continue our personal and professional transformation in the age of content creation and engagement.

I see three emergent themes that will impact career success moving forward:

1) Career transition is not a period thing anymore, it's a way of life.

2) We move our careers in the direction we want them to go and take personal responsibility for this now.

3) Expect change with an attitude of optimism and opportunity rather than doom and gloom.

Here are some common sense keys that will help you create your career success story , no matter where you are in your life or what you choose to do. Sometimes we need to be reminded of how important simple, common sense things can be.

• Be professional and relevant.
• Initiate solutions and solve problems.
• Care about others, so they will want to care about you.
• Use your smile, sense of humor and personality to connect.
• Be authentic, real and get more personal with people.

How the heck did we get to 2013 so fast?

Let go of any and all old ideas that don't apply to today's best practices and real world. Don't fight where things are now and do not procrastinate on making essential changes in your personal branding, marketing and business. Always be in 'skill up' and 'learn new' mode on everything that applies to your career advancement and success. Seek out new people, ideas and approaches and be open-minded to taking some calculated thoughtful risks.

Don't wait for things to happen and come to you, because they won't. Things will drop in your path that are put there by design to assist your process. Don't be like Haw, in Who Moved My Cheese and be waiting for things to change back or just show up. Hem went out looking for more cheese and he finally found it.

2013 holds so much potential and promise for all of us to have a wildly successful year.

There is an air of anxious anticipation for enjoying the rewards that come from the perseverance we have all had to have and show the past few years. We are ready for the rewards, that come from good energy, action and activity.

When you celebrate you and continue to create and live your career story, the right people always seem to find each other.

Author:

Deborah Shane is Top 100 Small Business Champion 2012, Career Author, branding/media strategist, writer and speaker. She hosts her Toolbox Blogand a popular weekly Business Radio Show that has over 108K downloads! She is a regular contributor to SmallBizTrends.com, Monster, Blogher, PersonalBrandingBlog.com, Forbes.com. Her book Career Transition-make the shift is available on Amazon.com and all major book sellers. Deborah delivers smart ideas and solutions, which make her a popular go-to resource for CNN, CBS, Fox and Forbes.

Make Your Lead Generation Campaign Flu-Free

This is the time of the year that would most certainly bring worries for many business owners (correction, worries for everyone). It is inevitable, and everyone is needed to handle it ' the flu season. And this can have a negative impact on your lead generation campaign. If the situation becomes worst (where key appointment setting personnel becomes absent due to sickness), then you really will have a hard time to generate the needed sales leads in your campaign. You will need a contingency plan in place. Considering the various methods that you need can employ, which ones are the most important? You will find these below:

1. Plan specific employee roles ' to prepare your company during the flu season, you need to come up with a plan that includes the specific roles of each employee. Study your critical operations (like those in telemarketing), find out the people necessary in those parts, and discuss with them what plans to make in the event some calls in sick.
2. Conduct a flu awareness campaign ' nothing beats an aggressive information drive. Not that your employees are anywhere dense in head, but a little reminder about sneezing and cough etiquette can go a long way in preventing the spread of flu in your workplace. This is also a good time to inform everyone about medical services and, if available, flu vaccination to prevent flu infection.
3. Invest in more technology ' the nice thing about technology in the work place is how it can contribute to overall B2B leads productvity of everyone (without the requisite close physical contact with each other). If this is possible in your office, have your employees work from their homes. Working remotely from their homes is also a contingency plan that extends beyond that of the flu season. It can provide you and your people added flexibility on how they go about their work. Just make sure that you have the equipment for this arrangement.
4. Test your systems ' this is related to point number three. You need to ensure that the communication and work tools installed in your employees' homes are in good working condition. Conduct a test run of your system and see if there are any bugs that you need to take care of. Try picking a date, and then send at least a quarter of your employees home to use the system. See if they connect with your production floor.

Of course, this arrangement will work perfectly for companies that does not handle that much sensitive data. This is a different story if you handle data processing and retrieval tasks. In cases like these, you really have to keep your personnel reporting to the office. Still, as long as you keep everything clean (and remind your people to wash their hands after using the washroom), then you can still prevent the spread of the flu. It may border on the obsessive, but a little cautiousness can be a great help in maintaining the health of your company. In this way, your lead generation campaign can be flu-free.

This post originally appeared at CallBoxInc

This article is an original contribution by Belinda Summers.

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How To Repurpose Your Inbound Marketing Content

Not too long ago the only thing people posted on the Internet were articles and blogs. It wasn't by choice. The redundancy in this form of content was a matter of capability ' or lack thereof.

Today you can take a blog post, turn it into an audio file or podcast, v-log yourself summarizing the article or syphon out key statistics from the post to create an infographic.

Even newer forms of online multimedia can be repurposed. Audio files can be transcribed or posted to video sharing platforms. Videos with the right kind of audio can be recorded with different applications and turned into a podcast.

Don't think that because the information is the same, all this content repurposing and multimedia work is a waste. The value of creating content for different platforms is immense.

Let's explore!

Audio

A podcast format has multiple advantages. Unlike a radio show that comes on every morning at 6 AM, a podcast is there any time any place, and can even be emailed to you. Internet users are in agreement about the benefits. Statistics show that over 70 million people have at one point listened to a podcast, and podcast listeners are more receptive to the ads they hear compared to radio.

Looking at social media, Stitcher, BlogTalkRadio, iTunes and more are places where you can put your content and find your audience. Stitcher has 6 million registered listeners, and BTR has 23 million monthly listeners.

If a blog post was just a blog post, it may never be found by this different type of web user. A recorded reading of an article allows it to be shared with even more potential customers. That audio can even posted to YouTube, with slides and photos inserted so people aren't look at a blank screen. Now this content has hit three birds with one stone.

Visual

Pinterest! Instagram! What more do we need to say?

The number of people on these two social media outlets has exploded. It was recently reported that Pinterest is up to 23 million unique users - they launched in 2010 - and this September Facebook king Mark Zuckerburg estimated Instagram was up to 100 million users! That's triple what they were 6-8 months ago!

So how can the latest article that you slaved away for eight hours researching on be shared with this visually stimulated audience? There are two answers depending on the industry.

If the topic was real esate, we already know people want to see it ' so digging up the best photos and posting them to Pinterst and Instagram accounts is a no-brainer.

Just like Twitter, a setence or two plus a link can be added in the description or excerpt, allowing people can click through to the blog post.

Pictures of cars, vacation destinations, cell phones, and even hardware equipment can all be visually appealing with the right touch. Food, fashion and sporting are ripe for visual social media platforms.

For nerdy industries like accounting, engineering, or SEO analyzers, an info-graphic filled with all the data put into a blog post is a fun an easy to share statistics with other social media users.

Video

Let's all put on our director caps and pretend we're trying to grow a hair salon business. What video content can we create that will attract new customers? The answer: a video that includes a tour of the salon and a recording of a customer before and after they got their highlights done ' with clips of the process spliced in.

From something as visual as hair to as analytical as inbound marketing, videos work. A simple computer screen recording with a voice narrating what's happening can be informational and valuable. Even a simple v-log about what's new in an industry can be useful content.

Once completed, making a blog post out of it is as simple as re-listening and transcribing what's been said.

That's the hardwork, here's the bonus: the video just created is something that can go on a YouTube channel (and within an article of course). In this long list of statistics on YouTube users, the big one to remember is there are 800 million different viewers worldwide each month.

Today there are even more places to post your videos, with sites such as Vimeo and Ustream all growing their number of users.

As one blogger wrote in her article 34 Ways to Use Youtube for Business, 'YouTube's not just for posting silly videos of sleepwalking dogs and other embarrassing moments ' it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. You can use it to show off your expertise, share knowledge, market your products and connect with customers, colleagues and prospects.'

The PPI Scandal ' Could It Happen Again?

When it was revealed that banks were mis-selling PPI, a scandal hit as everyone started to claim back their money. People lost their trust in the banks and the products they were offering. However, it looks like the banks have not learned from their mistake as more products are being mis-sold. Could the PPI scandal really happen again?

How PPI was Mis-sold

Payment protection insurance was sold as a way to protect the repayments on loans and credit cards. If someone was made redundant or could not work due to an illness or injury, the insurance would make the repayments for the first 12 months. However, not everyone could benefit from this protection.

It was only for those who were employed (not self-employed) and had to leave their job through no choice of their own. Those who left the workplace would not be able to make a claim. Those who did not have a job for whatever reason would not have needed the insurance and not everyone was made aware of the product they were agreeing to.

Lenders have now had to pay thousands of pounds in compensation to those who were mis-sold the product, either because they did not need it or they were not made aware of it in the first place.

Protocols Now in Place 

Those selling products like PPI now have to follow certain protocols. They will need to make sure the customer is aware of the product and understands more about the terms and conditions. When the protocols are not followed, the lender will have to pay the customer compensation for mis-selling the product.

These protocols have been put in place for many products, including charges for various types of bank accounts, income protection insurance and extras for accounts. However, banks still face penalties as they fail to meet the protocols and mis-sell various products to their customers. With banks now under much more scrutiny, it could lead to another PPI scandal as more people claim money back for services that they were not made fully aware of.

Staff Have to Meet Quotas 

Staff members from some of the top banks have blown the top off a number of scandals happening within the workplace. The staffs have sales quotas that they have to meet and face disciplinary action if they fail to do this. Members of staff have been caught adding policies onto accounts without going through all the information for customers on the receiving end. This could lead to another PPI scandal if banks fail to put the customer first and determine the need for the product instead of trying to sell and make profits.

The PPI scandal has hit the banks hard and many would think that they would have learnt their lessons. However, it seems not as many continue to mis-sell products to their customers just to gain more profit. The PPI scandal led to thousands of people gaining compensation, so far totalling in the billions, it is only a matter of time before banks lose their profits again by having to pay out more compensation.

This article is an original contribution by Julie Cheung.

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How to Professionally Participate in Web Forums to Get More Traffic

Web forums are excellent sources of targeted viewers, especially active online communities with sections and discussion pages that are closely relevant to your target niches, site content, products and service offers. Regularly participating in these online communities can improve your bottom-line results.

Imagine knowing a good number of Internet communities where lots of people frequently hang out to learn new things and find solutions to their problems and needs. Now, imagine having a list of Web forums with sections, discussion pages, marketplaces and advertising platforms that are relevant to your site content, products and services. Yes, by spending a couple of hours each day in those Web forums, helping other members with their urgent problems and immediate needs about things that are relevant to your business:

It won't take long before you establish a good solid reputation in those online communities as a friendly resource of useful info and advice about your niches. At this point, more members and guests will be interested in knowing you more. This means they would most likely check out your profile in those Web forums, go to your Facebook page, click your signature links and end up in your website or blog. However:

You can't achieve these results if you don't know how to professionally participate in the relevant discussion pages of those online communities. Here is a step by step guide that can help you do this correctly:

How to Correctly Participate in Web Forums to Get Good Traffic Results

1. Make sure that the Web forum has active sections and discussion pages relevant to your expertise, interests, knowledge, and site content, products and service offers.

2. Carefully read and study the account registration and profile development rules of those Web forums before signing up as a member. Of course, follow these terms and requirements.

3. Before posting in those Web forums, check out their posting rules and guidelines. By doing this, you'll avoid instances where your posts can get deleted or your account banned from those online communities.

4. Also check out their forum signature linking requirements. Most Web forums don't allow affiliate links to be posted anywhere.

5. Create catchy statements and phrases for your signature links. It should grab the attention of other members and guests in those Web forums. It should also be enticing and interesting, enough for them to click it and end up in a relevant page of your website or blog.

6. Deliver what your signature statement or phrase promises. This means the pages you link to should be able to provide your target viewers with the benefits they expect to get after clicking your signature links.

7. Find discussions in those online communities that are closely related to your expertise, site content, products and services. Search for threads that talk about possible solutions and useful advice about urgent problems and immediate needs of people who are most likely interested in your niche. Carefully read the entire thread, or the significant sections of those discussion pages, before posting replies. This will ensure that you can be as helpful as you can, instead of writing unrelated info and advice, or worse, repeating things already discussed in detail by other thread participants.

8. Remember; always be as friendly and helpful and professional as you can be in those Web forums. Your main objective is to establish a solid reputation in those online communities as an expert in your niche who always provides value in relevant discussions.

Following the things above will give you the best results you can get from your Web forum marketing campaigns, in terms of driving more targeted traffic to your site and converting that traffic into willing buyers and repeat customers. You should consider offering an updated report with mind-blowing info, advice and benefits for your target viewers. By doing this, you can entice your viewers to sign up as your mailing list subscribers, and by having an active mailing list of people interested in your site content, products and services, you have repeat business in your hands, right in that very list.