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Choosing what to sell online is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as an entrepreneur. To be successful, you need to pick products that you’re passionate about and find an ecommerce model that resonates with your personality. With that in mind, let’s look to popular TV show Shark Tank to help you get started on the right foot –– because no one embodies passion and personality like the stars of the Tank.
It’s tough being thrown into the Tank. Judges on the popular television show, Shark Tank, will hit you with tough questions and there is a lot to learn from the best of the best in the entrepreneurial industry. Sometimes, you need to listen to the words of a seasoned mentor.
“Shark Tank was a good experience for me in that you walk into this room and you exchange a lot of ideas and a lot of questions in a short period of time,” says Abe Geary, founder of PetPaint. “Mark Cuban’s biggest advice on the show was, “Why don’t you go the ecommerce route rather than trying to build the wholesale-retail network? Go straight to the consumer.”
That was in 2013. Since then, Geary has taken his PetPaint idea to the web, like Cuban suggested, increasing his sales 130% year over year. His Shark Tank appearance certainly helped to gain valuable eyeballs on his products. After the show aired, Geary saw a 55,000% spike in traffic.
“The biggest challenge, and the greatest asset, that we have is that it’s a new and exciting product,” Abe replied.
“All the more reason why the web would have worked great for you,” Cuban countered.
To truly utilize the web to grow product awareness, one of Geary’s top priorities was in building a robust PetPaint community. Before Shark Tank, he used the online store as proof of concept, setting up the company for future growth with consumers and retailers. But, PetPaint has continued to build their fanbase with offline events as well. The product is especially popular as a charity fundraiser and with rescue organizations looking for a safe way to help deserving dogs find a forever home.
Since his appearance on Shark Tank, Geary has honed in on another particularly engaged customer segment: dog groomers. By providing professionals with a new way to boost their own revenue, he’s establishing a base of loyal repeat buyers. Their artistic creations, which range from zebras to cartoon characters, are also a great way to show off PetPaint in action.
“My goal for PetPaint is to take it from a novel product to actually creating an industry segment,” he said. “Nobody’s heard of paint for dogs in the past, but you’re going to think about it in the future. And you’ll have a place to buy it, whether it’s from my ecommerce site, multiple other online avenues or your nearest pet store. That is my goal for the next five years.”
SoapSox, a successful Kickstarter idea turned company, had a unique journey into the Shark Tank. The company was accepted for the 2013 season, when they already had a deal with Nordstrom but no sales.
“I was terrified to go on national TV and look like an idiot,” says Ray Phillips, founder of SoapSox, a unique and fun washcloth for kids. “So we respectfully declined. The producers urged us to reconsider, ‘Few people get calls back, so really think about it. We’d love to have you back, but we can’t guarantee anything.’ But we knew we weren’t quite ready.”
Over the next six months, SoapSox built a solid customer base and got some serious sales numbers under their belt. The company also received a rejection email from Shark Tank for Season 6, but when Phillips reconnected with the casting director again at a New York trade show, the producer told him to delete the email. SoapSox moved forward with filming on Shark Tank in 2014.
“The people at Shark Tank are amazing,” Phillips said. “The whole experience was so amazing, I can’t even tell you how amazing it was! When you have a platform like Shark Tank, that changes the whole ballgame. We didn’t know we’d air until for month, so we had a Plan A and a Plan B. We went with Plan B. We want to ride the Shark Tank wave as much as we can.”
In the end, however, Phillips turned down all offers from the Sharks. He came into the tank asking for a $2.6 million valuation, offering 10% of the company for $260,000 in capital infusion.
FUBU founder Daymond John started off a round of bidding after all of the other judges opted out. Daymond offered the men a steep $260,000 for 33% of the company, cutting their valuation by more than half. Shortly after Daymond entered his offer, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec entered back into the mix, offering $1 Million. Lori and Robert saw the product moving in a different direction, and they said in order to move in that direction, they needed to own the company outright.
Phillips rejected the offers, but has been riding the Shark Tank wave ever since. SoapSox is now available in 51 Nordstroms across the country as well as online.
Your product must be safe from copying. The Sharks are keen to deal with products, processes and technologies that are securely owned, so it’s best to try for a patent. Being proprietary helps prevent any competition from popping up by mimicking your property. You also have the ability to license your property to other businesses, guaranteeing yourself a nice check in the mail for little effort.
Did you know sharks will die if they stay still? So will entrepreneurs. According to the Sharks, you must constantly be on top of your game, innovating and improving your business. Whether it be a rise in sales from an amazing press release, a stellar marketing strategy, or a climb in your SEO rank, what goes up must come down. Being able to constantly adapt to changing technology, consumer behaviors and competition is something a successful entrepreneur cannot survive without. Your products can fade into obscurity quickly, so, as un-inspirational as it sounds, it’s best to be planning for the worst –– consistently pushing the limits of your creativity to stand out.
An investor isn’t interested in dumping some money on a product with low margins, so it’s best that you reduce the cost to manufacture your product. Being able to produce your product as cheaply and efficiently as possible in large volumes, while retaining its quality, allows you to lower your cost of goods sold (COGS) and improve your returns, overall increasing company revenue.
If you aren’t motivated and don’t believe in your product, you’re just treading water. But investors are merciless, and you won’t receive an investment on passion alone, no matter how committed and emotional your pitch is. Numbers speak louder than words, and actions speak louder than promises. Your product’s past sales revenue, market performance, and potential competition are what earn you an investment.
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We have a 9 a.m. meeting? Yikes! Hold on – let me just click around the internet like a maniac to find something for the morning tweet.
Sound familiar? Scrambling for social content is not a new phenomenon. We have meetings. We run late. Things come up. And it’s really hard to get any meaningful amount of work done when you have the next social media update looming over your head every 30, 60, 90 minutes. It all moves so fast that you might periodically feel a case of the vapors coming on, which is why pre-scheduled social media content should be your new best friend.
A few years ago, we created a social media content calendar template to help, which we recently updated to be better, faster, stronger, and just generally prettier. You can fill it in at the same day and time every single week to prep for the following week’s social media content. That means when you burst through the office doors at 9 a.m., it’s not in panic mode looking for something to push out to your Facebook fans – you already took care of that last week.
This blog post will walk you through exactly how to use the template to stay on top of your social media content planning for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
(Note: HubSpot customers can also schedule content through Social Inbox, or use this spreadsheet to organize their content and subsequently upload it to Social Inbox. Detailed instructions for doing this exist in the cover sheet of the template.)
Alright, if you open up the social media content calendar template, you’ll notice the bottom of the Excel spreadsheet has several different tabs, most of which are dedicated to a specific social network.
The reason you’ll want a different worksheet for every social network is simply that every social network is a little bit different; you can’t just craft one social media update and use it across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. You may promote the same piece of content across all four of those networks, but that doesn’t mean you’ll craft your update the same way. (You may even want to add new tabs if you’re active on other networks, like Quora or YouTube.)
This following sub-sections will walk you through how to fill out each of the four tabs you see in this template – the updates for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. But before we get to that, let’s just walk through the “Monthly Planning Calendar” so you know what that’s for.
The monthly planning calendar provides an overall snapshot of your monthly social media campaigns. It’ll help you coordinate better with other stakeholders, not to mention keep all the moving parts straight in your own mind. Here’s what it looks like:
There are three sections to take note of when you edit this template for your own purposes. First, the color-coding key: these are the types of content or campaigns around which you might coordinate. Though some of this might be relevant to you, it’s simply there to indicate what one might put in there, so be sure to edit it to align with your own campaigns.
The other two sections you’ll need to edit are the Month and Year at the top of the calendar (duh), as well as the cells below each day of the week. In those cells, you should enter the type of content you’ll be promoting that day and color-code it to align with the campaign it’s supporting.
Instead of deleting all the content in this spreadsheet each month, I recommend copying this worksheet twelve times over, and creating a separate sheet for each month. (If that gets to be too overwhelming, you can always save those tabs as a separate file.)
Alright, now let’s get to the social media content. This section will be the lengthiest, because all subsequent sections will draw on the instructions we go through here. So if you read one section, read this one.
Let’s say you want to add some tweets to your scheduling template. Skip over to the “Twitter Updates” tab, where you’ll see this:
The first four columns, “Day,” “Date,” “Time,” and “Date and Time” are there for your convenience, and if you choose to use a third-party app for pre-scheduling your tweets, these columns will be useful. For now, just fill in the date on which you’d like your updates to publish to Twitter, and the time at which you’d like them to go out. The “Date & Time” column will automatically change based on what you input in the previous two columns.
Now, let’s move over to the “Message” column. Here, input the copy you’d like to appear in your tweet, bearing in mind you should keep it under 118 characters to allow enough room for a link and/or image. This spreadsheet will auto-calculate the number of characters you’ve entered to keep you on-point, turning yellow when you’ve reached 95 characters, and red when you’ve reached 118 characters. After you’ve composed your tweet, paste the URL you’d like to include in your tweet in the “Link” column; be sure to include UTM parameters so you’ll know whether all of these tweets are actually driving traffic, leads, and customers. This is an important step to remember if you’d like to be able to demonstrate ROI from social. You can also use the “Campaign” column to add an associated campaign, which helps which more robust tracking and reporting.
Finally, in the “Image” column, attach the tweet’s image (if you have one). For Twitter, we recommend images that are 876 x 438 pixels. If you’re having trouble attaching your image to the spreadsheet, follow these steps:
Step 1: Right-click the cell in which you’d like your image.
Step 2: Click “Hyperlink,” then click the “Document” button, and finally, click “Select” to choose your image.
Step 3: In the “Choose a File” window, select the image from your computer and click “Open.”
Step 4: You’ll now see the image attached to the “Insert Hyperlink” screen. Feel free to edit the “Display” text to change the file name, then click “OK.”
Note: This process is simply for organizational purposes. If you decide to upload the spreadsheet to your social media publishing software, it will not attach – you will have to do that with your marketing software. If you’re a HubSpot customer, details for how to bulk upload your Twitter content to Social Inbox can be found within the downloaded template.
Now, let’s talk about how to set up your Facebook content in advance with the template. Navigate on over to the tab in your template labeled “Facebook Updates.”
Facebook updates work similarly to Twitter updates, with the exception being bulk uploading your content is not possible in Social Inbox.
The first three columns, “Day,” “Date,” “Time,” and “Date and Time” are there for your convenience. Head on over to the column labeled “Message” and input the copy you’d like to appear in your status update, corresponding to the days and times you’d like those updates to run. Then move to the “Link” column and input the link you’ll be, you know, linking to in the update. (Don’t forget that tracking token.) If you’d like the update to be tagged to a certain campaign, include this in the “Campaigns” column. Finally, attach an image just like you did with your Twitter updates – if you’re using one, we suggest you edit it to be 1200 x 900 pixels.
LinkedIn updates are the most unique, because you have both Company Pages and Groups to consider. To demonstrate the difference between Company Page updates and Group updates, let’s navigate over to the column labeled “Title (For Group Discussions Only).”
LinkedIn Groups let you post a few kinds of updates, one of which is called a “Discussion.” You will only fill out this column if you’re looking to post a Discussion to your LinkedIn Group – because Discussions are the only update you’ll be posting that requires a title. If you’re not posting a Discussion to a LinkedIn Group, you don’t need to fill out this field, because your update will not have a title.
You’ll fill out the next column, “Message,” for every type of update you post, whether it’s for a Company Page or a Group. Simply input your copy into this column, and then navigate to the next two columns, “Link” and “Campaign” to input the URL to which you’re directing readers with the tracking token you’ll use to track activity, and the associated Campaign if one exists. If you’d like to use an image for an update, attach it per the instructions laid out in the “Twitter” section. We recommend editing the image to 700 x 520 pixels.
Finally, we come to Google+. Start in the “Message” column and input your status update. Then move over to the last two columns and input the link to which you’re directing readers, and the campaign associated with that update. If you’re attaching an image, you could use multiple different sizes, but 960 X 960 pixels works best.
This template also provides you with a tab called “Content Repository,” which should help you keep track of all your content and maintain a healthy backlog of fodder to make sourcing social media content easier.
As you create more assets, you’ll likely want to resurface and re-promote those pieces down the line, too. To ensure you don’t lose track of all of that content, record it on this tab so you’re never at a loss for what to publish on social. If the content you’re promoting isn’t evergreen, be sure to include an expiration date in the column marked “Expiration” so you don’t promote it when it's jumped the shark.
This tab will also help you maintain a healthy balance of content: A mix of your own content and others’, a mix of content formats and types, and mix of lead generation content vs. MQL-generating content vs. traffic-friendly content.
Whether you use this spreadsheet to plan your content out in advance or upload to a third-party app, you’ll still need to supplement these updates with on-the-fly content. Breaking news hits? Whip up a quick update to share it with your network. Someone in your network tweets something interesting? Give it a retweet with some commentary. Got a fascinating comment on one of your updates? Respond with a “thank you” for their interaction or an additional follow-up comment. This is all to say that coming up with and scheduling your social media content in advance is a huge time-saver, but it should go without saying that you still need to monitor and add to your social presence throughout the day.
Finally, we encourage you to experiment with your social media publishing. This template provides publishing dates and times for each social network, but you may find those are way too many updates for you to fill, or perhaps too infrequent for your booming social presence. You should adjust your social media publishing frequency as needed.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2012 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
I once made a really big hiring mistake.
After a series of promising interviews, I took on an intern whose level of professionalism, performance, and overall demeanor quickly took a turn for the worst.
After a discussion with my supervisor, we agreed that it was in the best interest of everyone to not move forward with the internship. However, when we sat her down to talk, she countered our concerns about her performance by saying, “But, but … I was driving all the way from [insert desolate location here] to get here every day.”
I recall staring at her blankly.
Since when does the length of your commute warrant special praise?
We all wake up every morning, brush our teeth (hopefully), and make our way to work. However, the simple truth is that the act of “showing up” isn’t enough to propel career advancement.
The most successful people earn the attention and respect of their boss by proving that they are an asset to the team. So if you’ve ever entertained the thought of a promotion at work (who hasn’t?), we’ve identified a few things every boss loves to see you doing.
At HubSpot, we fire our best employees. (No, that wasn’t a typo.)
If you have a great idea – and you can prove that it actually delivers – you will be fired from your day job to own and grow that idea.
Take it from HubSpot’s VP of Sales, Pete Caputa.
“In 2008, one of our sales reps came to me with an idea that he believed could revolutionize HubSpot,” explained HubSpot CEO, Brian Halligan in an interview with Inc.
“At the time, we sold our software directly to consumers. But the rep, Pete Caputa, thought HubSpot should have a reseller channel in order to expand the business model. Basically, he wanted to sell our core product to third parties, who would then turn around and sell the product to their customers.”
Halligan was far from sold on the idea, but he decided to give Caputa an opportunity to prove himself.
“If you want to do it so bad, start doing it nights and weekends and show us this will work,” he said.
Not long after accepting the challenge, Caputa was, in fact, fired from his day job and tasked with growing the partner program.
Point being, don’t be afraid to bring big ideas to the table. This is the type of behavior that bosses love to see, as it exemplifies your ability to think about the business on a high level.
While it’s easy to solve for problems that specifically pertain to you and your reports, the goal is to identify and solve for problems that influence the grand scheme of things. Think like a founder, and your boss with take note.
Depending on your industry, getting ahead at work can sometimes feel like a dog-eat-dog type of situation.
And while the old saying goes, “Nice guys finish last,” there is actually a huge opportunity for self-advancement through the act of helping others. Not to mention, if your boss catches you in the act, it’s going to highlight your ability to be remarkably helpful (a trait almost every boss cares a great deal about.)
But don’t just take it from me, here’s what Adam Grant, author of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success has to say about it:
The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade.
In this book, Grant dives into the idea that in the workplace, people can be divided into three categorizes – takers, matchers, and givers. Takers are known to, well, take from other people, whereas matchers are more apt to make even exchanges. And givers? Givers separate themselves from the rest by doing good without expectations for reciprocation.
Grant goes on to provide examples of successful givers throughout history, such as president Abraham Lincoln, venture capitalist David Hornik, and businessman Jon Huntsman, Sr.
Do yourself a favor and dig into their accomplishments a bit, I’ve got a hunch it’ll inspire you to rethink the potential benefits of lending a helping hand.
The other day I swore I saw Jake Gyllenhaal in Whole Foods.
Excited to tell someone, I texted my friend to tell her, to which she replied – “Send pictures or it didn’t happen.”
This got me thinking about our innate desire to “see it to believe it.” If my own friend wouldn’t believe me without photo evidence, why would you expect your boss to “take your word for it” when it comes time to talk about your performance?
The simple truth is that most bosses are busy, leaving little time for them to investigate whether or not you’re accomplishing what you’re supposed to be accomplishing. If you’re not vocal (and visual) about your performance, you run the risk of going unnoticed.
For this reason, CEOs love to see their employees not only measuring their efforts, but also reporting on them. Clear, specific, goal-oriented reports serve as one of the most effective ways to communicate your progress and prove to your boss that you’re capable of taking on more.
In terms of what to include in these reports – think ROI. While vanity metrics like views might be worth noting for yourself, your boss wants to see how your efforts are specifically influencing the bottom line.
“Don’t just report on what you crossed off your to-do list, report on what those activities achieved. So often, young staff want to prove that they’re working. We know you’re working. We see it and are proud of you for it. Prove not that you’re working, but that what you are DOING is working,” explains HubSpot’s Meghan Anderson.
If you’d like to start reporting on your marketing activities, you can use this free template.
“My kids will have chocolate dripping from their mouths, and I’ll say, ‘Did you just eat chocolate?’ And they’ll be like, 'No, I didn’t just eat chocolate’,” jokes Peter Bregman, author of Four Seconds.
Sure, it’s silly, but it’s a great example of how silly you sound when you’re being reactive, rather than proactive. Certainly not a situation you’d want to be caught in with your boss, right?
From a psychological perspective, we react to avoid punishment – it’s a direct result of the stimulation that our amygdala (a subcortical brain structure that is linked to both fear responses and pleasure) experiences when we are surprised or caught off guard.
And while it’s unrealistic to assume that you’ll never be forced to make a quick decision in front of your boss, proactive employees aim to control situations by causing things to happen rather than waiting to respond after things happen.
But how?
Aside from taking steps to plan ahead and anticipate “what ifs,” Bregman encourages people to pause for four seconds before responding to something to give themselves a moment to process and reflect.
This will help you strategically and intentionally choose the words that you’re going to say, to ensure that you don’t wind up saying something that you don’t mean.
Nothing is ever promised tomorrow today.
(For those you that caught that, yes, I did just quote a Kanye West song in a marketing blog post.)
The fact of the matter is, part of being a noteworthy employee is being able to adapt to whatever industry or company changes come your way.
Let’s say your company runs into an unplanned expense, or an important member of the team gives their two weeks unexpectedly. That would certainly throw a wrench in your budget and bandwidth, wouldn’t it?
While many would spin these events into an excuse as to why they couldn’t accomplish their goals, the most successful people find a way to do more with less. And the really successful people find a way to do better with less.
So when a budgeting issue forces you to cut down on the funds being allocated to freelanced content, don’t use it as an excuse to allow content production to come to a halt. Instead, consider what you can do to turn the situation around.
Maybe you work towards creating one strong ebook on your own that you can then divide into separate blog articles to feed your content calendar until the budget is there. Or what about reaching out to a co-marketing partner to join forces on a piece of content that you can mutually benefit from?
Another great way to demonstrate your ability to do more with less would be to scale back the average time of your meetings. According to Atlassian, the average person spends 31 hours in meetings throughout the course of a month.
The trouble people have with doing more with less is that often times they think the solution is just working for longer. Instead, make better use of your time. Cutting your meeting time in half will force you to get to the point quicker and leave you with a ton of extra time to allocate toward other projects and tasks. Or writing an ebook with the intention of repurposing parts of it into several blog posts will help you create more content at a faster pace.
Remember – excuses don’t promote career advancement, solutions do.
Part of getting ahead is being humble enough to admit you don’t know it all.
Anyone who has worked on a long-term project knows that it’s really easy to get wrapped up to the point where you start to see your progress through rose-colored glasses. At this stage, it’s most helpful to invite an outsider in to poke holes in your approach.
What’s working? What’s missing? What is needed to take this project from good to great?
According to research from the Social and Personality Psychology Compass, feedback – both positive, and negative – plays an instrumental role in the way we approach goals.
Their data suggests that the influence of feedback is often situational, depending largely on the individual’s level of expertise. Novices respond better to positive feedback, as they are commonly concerned with “evaluating their commitment,” whereas experts are more responsive to negative feedback as they are focused on monitoring their progress.
While this is interesting in and of itself, it’s important that you’re prepared to handle whatever feedback comes your way. And while positive feedback is often pretty easy to accept, negative feedback can come as a challenge for many.
To ensure that you make the most out of constructive criticism, take note of the following tips:
No CEO wants to walk into an office and see a group of people that look like they are suffering through a college history lecture. Not only is it not good for company morale, but it signals to them that they could be doing something wrong.
For this reason, it’s important to focus on looking at the glass half full, no matter what is on your plate.
Why?
Research from a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper revealed it pays to be positive. Literally.
According to their study, not only did optimistically inclined MBA students have an easier time finding jobs comparable to their peers, but they also saw between a 5-10% increase in the probability of being promoted over their pessimistic peers.
This research taps into the idea that success can be tied to our ability to stay positive, even when completing overwhelming tasks, such as job hunting.
(Note to self: Keep calm and smile on.)
Are you interested in setting up a Facebook page for your business? Not sure where to start? Maybe you’ve thought about it but didn’t get past choosing a category or creating a cover photo. If you’re considering setting up a Facebook page, or have started the process but never finished, this article is for you. […]
This post How to Set Up a Facebook Page for Business first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
Most business school conversations over beers end with a hangover – Neil Blumenthal’s ended with a billion dollar business.
If you aren’t familiar with Neil’s name, you’re likely familiar with the brand he and his co-founders started: Warby Parker. Because Warby’s brand is ubiquitous thanks to the company’s product and marketing success, many consumers all over the globe think of the company as an overnight success. In reality, the brand is a product of years of blood, sweat, and of course, a few beers.
In the most recent episode of The Growth Show, we sat down with Neil to talk about Warby Parker’s success. Below are a few key insights from our conversation that you can incorporate into your company’s own growth strategy.
Warby Parker hit its annual sales goal within three weeks of launching its website, so it’s easy to think they were successful right out of the gate. But the truth of the matter is what Neil and his classmates spent a full year and a half creating the brand, product, strategy, and values that would eventually become Warby Parker – the initial success of the launch was a direct reflection of that hard work.
Neil noted that the brand’s intention to break into the world of “health and fashion” made it particularly important that they get buy-in from top-tier consumer periodicals. To that end, Neil and his team met with 40 (!?) fashion PR firms and consultants before deciding on a team that helped land them in Vogue and GQ the month of their launch. The Warby team recognized early that the bar for a minimally viable product is significantly higher in the consumer fashion market than it may be in other realms of tech – and invested time, money, and energy accordingly.
Most parents are outraged when children selectively listen, but blocking out certain people and messages can actually be an invaluable skill when you launch a business.
Case in point: Countless people told Neil and his team that no one would ever buy glasses online, but his team was convinced there was a significant need in the market for a player willing to think and act differently by eliminating the middle man from the process.
However, the Warby Parker team didn’t block out all external advice. They met with a Wharton pricing professor pre-launch, who warned them that their cost of goods would double after launch and that they should double their price accordingly. The Warby team went with a $95 price point (far above their initial idea of $45, but lower than $99 for fear of being perceived as a discount brand) and built the Wharton professor’s insight into their model.
Sure enough, their cost of goods doubled as they upgraded hinges, finishes, and supplies to fit their premium brand perception, and the professor’s sage advice resulted in a win-win on pricing and packaging for the company.
Entrepreneurs talk a lot about hiring for aptitude and culture fit, but very few test for empathy as a core value to join the team. Neil and his co-founders actually fired one of the organization’s first employees because he wasn’t friendly enough in emails to customers.
Sound drastic? Not for a company committed to delightion. For some brands, customer delight is a PR strategy. But for Warby Parker, it’s a non-negotiable part of the company’s business model and recruiting model, and ensures that every person on their team, whether she’s a retail associate or Chief Financial Officer, is unequivocally committed to delivering the best for the company’s customers.
Warby Parker sells glasses, but the brand is also a promise to give back to developing countries by providing eyewear to people who need it most through their “buy a pair, give a pair” business model. The mission matters not only to Warby’s customers, but also to its employees, enabling the company to grow fast online and in the retail space.
Warby Parker is a great example of an organization that does well by doing good, leading with its mission front and center. The enthusiasm of the company’s fans and followers shows that approach paying back in spades. Your business model may change, your pricing may alter, but your mission should continue to engage your team and your target market whether your company is 10 months or 10 years old.
Having 20,000 customers on a wait list sounds like a great problem to have, but in reality having 20,000 impatient, unhappy people could be the beginning and the end of a business if mishandled. When the company sold out rapidly of its existing inventory, Neil and his three co-founders worked with their outsourced developers to develop “sold out” functionality (they hadn’t imagined they would need it), fielded calls and emails from customers, and were transparent about the delay in shipments to keep people updated on orders and engaged with the brand until their glasses arrived. Warby recognized that your startup isn’t defined by short-term demand, but by long-term relationships, and the strength of their business and their brand is a direct reflection of investing in those relationships early and often.
In addition to beers, Neil and his co-founders spent a lot of time at their favorite corner table at a local restaurant giving feedback to each other. While the entire founding team had worked long and hard hours before, they knew actually starting their own company would be a grind, and that launching a company often meant friendships and relationships would end ended badly.
So instead of wishing and hoping it would work out, Neil and his co-founders made a pact early to commit to the business and to being open, honest, and constructive in their feedback to each other. One of my favorite quotes from Neil was that “arrogance and entitlement impede innovation.“ It’s a good reminder for all of us that the smartest jerks in the room don’t prioritize the customer or self-improvement. So be transparent with your team about what matters, what doesn’t, and how you’ll work together – doing so prevents countless roadblocks and rifts later on.
What do overalls, Mariah Carey’s Christmas album, and hashtags all have in common?
Believe it or not, they are all products of the 90s.
While hashtags didn’t rise to popularity (with the help of Twitter) until after 2007, they were actually first used during the late 90s to categorize items into groups on IRC (Internet Relay Chat.)
Since then, you’ve seen them, you’ve used them, but it’s likely that you’re not quite sure why.
You’re not alone.
While the concept has been around for a while, the social application of hashtags is still a relatively new concept for marketers transitioning away from traditional marketing methods. And like most new things, hashtagging has left us with a ton of questions.
How many is too many? How long should they be? Where should you use them? And perhaps most importantly, why should you use them?
For answers to all of your burning hashtag questions, check out this infographic from SurePayroll. Not only have they laid out the basics for hashtagging on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but they also dive into some tips to help you run a successful hashtag campaign.
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One of the key elements of inbound marketing is the use of automated workflows because they allow you to better engage leads through a set of targeted emails, while saving time by automating the process. Workflows can be a helpful addition for any industry, but especially for higher education.
The college admissions process is a perfect use case for automated workflows, as they can be used to move a potential student along the buyer’s journey to an end goal – in this case, to apply to your institution.
Workflows can be used to help nurture potential students through their buyer’s journey with your institution. They might enter the workflow after their first interaction with your institution and end it with full knowledge and a desire to apply.
The series of emails can help tell your institution’s story while building a relationship with the students, from the initial introduction about your school and the exciting open house event coming up to downloading checklists or the application.
Workflows are also a great way to promote content up front without having to do one-off emails every week. This frees you up to spend more time on strategizing other ways to reach your potential students.
In order to have the most success with workflows, you need to tie them into your overall marketing strategy. Begin by brainstorming what it is you want the workflow to achieve. General awareness? Greater number of applicants? Then, consider the messaging that would best speak to your target audience. Once you have that figured out, plan out how you want the workflows to run and what content each one will contain.
Take these 8 tips into consideration when thinking about setting up an automated workflow for the college admissions process:
Use a workflow for the application correspondence. Instead of having admissions counselors follow-up with each student who has started, but hasn’t yet submitted, an application, they could set up a workflow to automate this process. When a student creates an ID or login for the application, they could get enrolled into a workflow that gently reminds them of their application and provides tips and contact information if they need help.
Students who do submit an application would get enrolled into a different workflow that provides information on the next steps, like filling out financial aid and putting down a deposit.
Use fixed date workflows in the college admissions process to help with timeliness! Set up workflows around certain dates for things like FAFSA deadlines and ACT or SAT dates.
Make sure to back track and set the trigger date several weeks before the deadline so you can provide helpful tips and reminders beforehand.
Many high school students begin the college search and application process their junior year, but some do it their sophomore year, while others wait until senior year. Adding a field for “graduation year” to your forms could be the starting point for a standard workflow.
If the student graduates high school in 2016, he or she is most likely a senior and would enter the senior, more specific workflow. If the student graduates in 2018, he or she is probably a sophomore, so they would enter the workflow that has more top of the funnel information.
Either way, be strategic and use the buyer’s journey as your guide for email content. Begin with introductory, basic content in the first few emails and segue into more personalized, deeper content for the last few emails.
The majority of parents help with the college application process, and many of them want to be just as involved as the student. Creating a workflow for the parents, based on self-selection, will provide them with helpful information alongside what their student may or may not be receiving.
When planning your workflow content, make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) in every email. Common CTA examples include a link pushing them to your site to learn more, a checklist to download and use for their campus visit or an application to fill out.
These CTAs should drive them take an action with your institution. The information they fill out to receive a checklist or other pieces of content will help you learn more about them and better understand where they are in the buyer’s journey.
Don’t overload your potential students with multiple emails per week. That’s the quickest way for them to tune out everything you send. Instead, make a schedule that includes both workflow emails and one-off emails.
Set the workflow delays to work alongside the other email blasts, making sure both schedules are coordinated before you hit send.
Set up multiple smart lists for different buyer personas, or potential student groups. An example of this could be students identifying which major or department they are interested in, and subsequently being pulled into the corresponding smart list.
Then, you could build workflows around each major or department, and place each list of students into the appropriate workflow.
In some cases, it can be beneficial to use two workflows in conjunction with each other. Let’s say you have a general workflow that provides top of the funnel information to students about your institution.
Once a student takes an action, they can get taken out of that workflow and pushed into an additional workflow that is more middle or bottom of the funnel. This can be done by creating a smart list that would be used as the goal list in the first workflow and the starting list of the second workflow.
Utilizing automated email workflows for the college admissions process is a no-brainer. It is a simple way to have consistent contact with potential students while moving them closer to your end goal. Additionally, workflows can work alongside blog posts, social posts and additional inbound marketing activities to achieve the greatest outcome for your institution. Download our white paper to learn more about using inbound marketing for the college admissions process.
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Not sure what to tweet to get your followers to engage with you? Whether you’re just getting started with Twitter or you've been using it for a while, but feel like you’re in a rut, it can be hard to come up with new ideas for what to publish.
Sometimes, it can help to follow some tried-and-true tropes. Here are several Twitter “formulas” you can follow. Just make the following changes to each one:
Note: Each audience is different, so you may find that some of these formulas work better than others to grow your following.
This go-to tweet style is the easiest to execute, but many times, people forget to include a relevant hashtag and the author’s Twitter handle. The hashtag could get your tweet more exposure to people following that hashtag. And always credit your information source (the author or the site you got the post from) on social media. It’ll show appreciation to the original content creator – and they might return the favor by sharing some of your content with their followers.
Example: 12 Tweet Formulas to Get You Started on Twitter: http://hub.am/Sgsvt5 #twittertips by @HubSpot
Like the basic shared content tweet, this tweet includes the article title (or a shortened version), a relevant hashtag, and the author’s Twitter handle. But in addition, you’ll add your opinion – whether it’s a quick “+1” or something a little more in-depth. Something personal like that might increase engagement rate with your tweet.
Example: Bookmarking this. > 12 Tweet Formulas to Get You Started on Twitter: http://hub.am/Sgsvt5 #twittertips by @HubSpot
Typically, when you want to retweet someone’s tweet, you’ll simply click the retweet button and share the content with your followers. But if you want to know how to retweet with a little flavor, we’re going to show you. There are two ways to add commentary to a retweet: using the “retweet with comment” feature or composing a new tweet and publishing it manually.
The “retweet with comment” feature allows you to embed an original tweet within your own message, and then comment on it in up to 116 characters. To do this, click the retweet icon at the bottom of the tweet. In the window that appears, add your comment to the “Add a Comment” section (and include a hashtag, if you so desire).
Example:
(For more details on how this feature works, read this blog post.)
To retweet with commentary in this way, simply copy and paste the person’s tweet into a brand new tweet, preface the tweet with RT @TwitterHandle, and add commentary to the beginning. If you modify their tweet at all (e.g. to make the tweet a bit shorter, allowing more room for your comment), use MT – which stands for “modified tweet” – instead of RT.
Example: #7 is important but often forgotten. - RT @mvolpe "10 Things Great Marketers Do Every Day" http://hub.am/1m6RPK4 by @kellykranz
If you put someone’s Twitter handle at the very beginning of your tweet, Twitter assumes you’re @replying to that person – so they omit that tweet from showing up on your Twitter followers’ feeds. While this is usually a good thing (otherwise, your feed might get taken over by @reply tweets), there may be times when you want your followers to see that tweet on their feeds. To do that, simply add a period right before their Twitter handle.
Example: .@HubSpot redesigned their blog! Check it out here: http://blog.hubspot.com #webredesign
Fear is a powerful motivator. Nobody wants to suck, or fail, or flounder, or fall short, or whatever [negative result] you use. And if they do, they want to learn how to remedy the situation, fast – that’s where you can help them. Also, if there’s a relevant hashtag you can use here, don’t forget to include it!
Example: Don’t let your blog fall into a rut. Find out how to churn out new blog posts quickly: http://hub.am/1nD3y5M #blogging
Don’t just find any old data point here – find something that will really intrigue your target audience. Once they get this little preview, they could want to read the full story to understand (1) why this data point is true, and (2) what they should do about it. Just be sure your statistic is recent and from a reputable source.
Example: Did you know 6.5% of blog posts are published on the weekends & they get 18% of all social shares? http://hub.am/1otH7QF #blogging
This tweet can take many forms, but instead of tweeting a basic shared content tweet, you’re adding your endorsement to the tweet and possibly including info on why you enjoyed the piece.
Example: I loved this article by @lkolo25 about how to not screw up your landing pages - http://hub.am/1p2LQwy #leadgen
Did you know you can embed a SlideShare presentation directly into a tweet? That way, your followers can flip through the presentation without ever having to leave Twitter (or the page a tweet is embedded on).
To embed a SlideShare presentation into a tweet, all you have to do is link to the presentation and it will embed automatically. This is also true for documents and videos from SlideShare as well.
Example:
20 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Pinterest Features You Didn’t Know Existed: http://t.co/yLFzTr392P via @HubSpot #socialmediatips
— Lindsay Kolowich (@lkolo25) April 27, 2015
Twitter, like all social networks, is a two-way conversion. You should regularly ask your followers questions. These can be tied to an article you’ve read or could be something a little more random (though still tied to your brand). Not every tweet needs to drive traffic to a website page.
Example: What tool do you use to schedule your social media posts? #socialmedia
Again, not every tweet needs to drive traffic to a website page – in fact, tweeting bits of advice that obviously aren’t traffic drivers is a great way to build credibility. Tweets like this are retweeted frequently and can get you more engagement and followers, so don’t look as a “sacrifice.”
Example: Do you pass reshare test? Be valuable on #socialmedia: 1) Provide information 2) Provide analysis 3) Provide assistance 4) Be entertaining.
Everyone loves a daily dose of inspiration! It’s difficult to research quotes and find the perfect one, so inspirational quotes are best shared when you randomly come across them and get inspired yourself. So keep your eyes peeled for great quotes, takeaways, data, etc. Just make sure to give credit where it’s due!
Example: “Our time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” - Steve Jobs #quote
There are lots of ways to spice up your tweets with visual content. The simplest of them all is adding a photo to your tweet, using the text part of the tweet as a caption, and sharing that with your followers. This is great for sharing pictures of your office space and employees, or promoting events and webinars. Remember to include any relevant Twitter handles or hashtags.
Example:
Fantastic shot taken by yours truly from the 2014 @HubSpot Inbound Marketing Conference in Boston. #INBOUND14 http://ift.tt/1ds2ouo
— David Roberts (@DavidatJDR) November 17, 2014
Click to tweet: 12 Tweet Formulas to Get You Started on Twitter: http://ift.tt/1ds2mTp @HubSpot #TwitterTip
Click to tweet: Check out these fill-in-the-blank tweet formulas: http://ift.tt/1GEUF5O
Click to tweet: Running out of tweet ideas? Here are some fill-in-the-blank formulas - http://ift.tt/1GEUF5O
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Live streaming has come a long way in the last decade. Back in 2008, I covered the U.S. Presidential Primary in New Hampshire with a Nokia N95, and streamed in 3G, using Qik. Other options at the time were Flixwagon and Kyte … ever use one of those?
Luckily, today, we have mobile devices that can record in HD and stream over 4G and/or wifi. The user experience is a lot better for both live streamers and viewers – which is why live streaming on mobile apps is becoming more and more popular.
Want to live stream videos from your smartphone or tablet? You’ll find there are a couple apps to choose from that’ll let you share live video easily with your network. The trick is knowing which one best fits your needs.
To help you choose, let’s take a look at the best features of four of the most popular new live streaming apps available today.
Best feature: The video from your broadcast is available to viewers for 24 hours after it ends.
Ever seen someone tweet a link to their live broadcast, only to click it and find out the broadcast is over and there’s nothing there to watch? While that can happen on Meerkat, it won’t on Periscope. Why? Because Periscope will save your videos to the app by default, and they’ll be available for viewing by your followers for 24 hours. (Even though this is the default, you can delete them manually if you want to.) You also have the option of saving your videos to your phone’s camera roll.
There’s also a list on the Periscope app of the most recent 15 streams. From that list, you can click on the ones that are archived, watch the video, and see all the chat messages appear as they were made in real time. It’s almost like you’re watching it live.
Here’s a screenshot of The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon using Periscope to live stream his monologue rehearsal:
Want to learn more about using Periscope? Read this blog post for more tips and tricks.
Best feature: Your viewers can text chat with you during your live broadcast.
Chat is a fun way to connect with your followers, and Meerkat takes full advantage. When you live stream on Meerkat, a chat stream appears and scrolls upward from the bottom of your mobile device. This is fun for viewers to interact with one another and with the broadcaster, if he or she is watching the chat. The video experience is powerful already, but the added chat feature can lead to developing stronger relationships with your followers.
Want to see what it looks like? Check out the screenshot below, and find my chat message to Brian Stelter of CNN near the bottom:
The user interface is really nice: New messages coming in stay at the bottom of the screen so they don’t cover too much of the video. You can also scroll backward to read any messages you missed. Finally, if the viewer has selected this option in the settings, then his or her chat messages are posted to Twitter as @reply messages so you can continue the conversation on Twitter. Very powerful connecting stuff here!
Another great feature: Katch Kats for Meerkat lets broadcasters record and post their live streams to YouTube.
Whereas Periscope automatically records your live stream and gives broadcasters the option of saving it to their camera rolls, Meerkat doesn’t automatically record it. However, if you use the #katch hashtag in your broadcast title or comment with #katch during your stream, then your video will automatically save to YouTube.
Viewers might request you to do this by using #katch in the comments, but the broadcaster him or herself must use the #katch hashtag in order for the video to be saved. When the broadcaster uses the hashtag, Katch Kats automatically creates a YouTube video and notifies followers by posting a link in the comments.
Best feature: You can host your live stream on a web page and send followers there.
Using Hang w/’s simple web widget, you can point people to your own web page to drive traffic to your website. In addition, Hang w/ lets you own your own user page where followers can watch your live streams. The app will point viewers to this page and they can watch it there. This makes it easy to promote a live stream ahead of time.
Check out the example below of Jared Leto’s page:
Best feature: You can set up your own channel, invite others to stream live to it, and manage which live stream is broadcast.
You can also hook up your Stringwire account to YouTube and live stream there. These are pretty advanced features that’ll be fun to experiment with.
What’s a great use case here? Stringwire is a good platform to use if you want to get your video seen on broadcast or cable news, as it allows you to direct a multiple-camera broadcast and stream live to your Stringwire account or to YouTube. As a long time video producer, I felt comfortable shooting in landscape mode with Stringwire.
Just look at the types of videos Stringwire features:
NBC and other news outlets will be looking at Stringwire for videos to share on air, so in this case, shooting videos in the landscape orientation is the best choice. And keep in mind that when you share on Stringwire, other people could potentially make money off your videos.
All of these apps are viable options depending on your needs. The best way to figure out which of these apps is right for you is by figuring out where your audience is by trying them yourself and gauging their performance. Currently, I’ve got them all. They’re being updated regularly, so you’ll see bug fixes and new features added. Sometimes an app might have trouble connecting, so you can move on to the next one.
The ability to stream video and chat with viewers in real time is powerful. Go out there, try it, and have some fun. (Then, share your experiences with us in the comments!)
Is YouTube a part of your social media marketing? Or do you only post videos occasionally? YouTube Cards let you add interactive cards to your videos. They provide excellent motivation for viewers to act on your calls to action. In this article, I’ll explain how to use YouTube cards to promote your business, products and […]
This post How to Use YouTube Cards to Promote Your Business first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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The finance industry is just one of those industries that’s REALLY difficult to work in as a marketer. You can’t be creative nor imaginative. Your hands are always tied. There’s simply no place for inbound marketing. … Right?
Wrong, wrong, WRONG!
If ongoing research is anything to go by, finance is one industry that’s seeing an increasing level of demand for engagement over the internet. From formal customer service to helping people research specific services or just providing some useful and relevant advice.
And sure, marketing within the finance industry can be challenging. In many cases, it’s highly regulated and sales can be very complex. But nothing is impossible. With some of creativity, company support, and the bandwidth and permissions to be a little bit gutsy, you can make some serious advances – and the challenge should be embraced as a priority.
To help finance marketers overcome these marketing challenges, we’ve put together an ebook tailored specifically to marketers in the finance industry. It covers everything you need to get started with inbound marketing – including blogging, downloadable content, email, social media, and calls-to-action. It also includes a ton of detailed case studies from all types of organizations within the finance industry.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
Inbound marketing holds a lot of potential for finance marketers in all types of companies, from insurance to banking to investments. Learn how by reading the full ebook here, and take note of all the helpful advice from the finance marketers presented in the case studies.
