The 3 C's of Effective Marketing

 

Sammi Caramela

Running an effective marketing campaign doesn't have to be complicated. Just remember the three C's of marketing.

A good marketing strategy is a must-have, especially for a small business with a limited following. To truly build brand loyalty, you have to appeal to your customers while staying true to your company and keeping your competitors in mind – in other words, follow the "three C's model" of marketing. This model focuses on three key factors every marketing strategy should prioritize. Here's how to use this method to boost your business.

1. Company

Marketing is all about branding. Start by defining your company's mission and building a brand that accurately represents it. That way, people understand who you are and what to expect from you, and you'll feel more confident in your marketing messages.

"2020 has been a year where employees and consumers want to know what your brand, company or business stands for," said Jessica Garrett Modkins, president of Hip Rock Star. "This is the time to build your strategy around the issues that matter to the very fabric of your service. This is an opportunity to evaluate your corporation's heartbeat."

By doing so, you're reminding your customers who you are beneath the surface, which is crucial in today's socially responsible business climate. However, consistency is a key factor, said Daniel Foley, director of Assertive Media.

"Having strong values and ideals for the company is important, to make sure that all marketing [for]  a business is done in the same way each time," he said.

2. Customer

Your customers are the reason for your business and the driving force behind all you do. It's important to communicate with them in a personal way, rather than simply buying ad space or pushing your products and services.

"You have to know your customer base well and make sure you are pitching to them; make your product exactly what they need," Foley said. "Your marketing should speak to them, not just be shown to them."

This is especially true on social media, where many customers vet businesses before investing. You can get to know your customers by engaging with them on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

However, creating a social media account shouldn't be something you just check off your list. To really benefit from it and connect with your customers, you'll want to dig a little deeper.

"Your customer is relying on you to communicate with them – staying top of mind," said Garrett Modkins. "Run a campaign using social media, requesting your customer base to provide their name, email address, telephone number and other industry-specific information you need to stay in touch with them when they are no longer active on social media. Use this database to expand your communication with coupons, testimonials and how-to videos exclusive to this platform."

It's crucial you meet your customers where they are, rather than simply hoping they'll come to you. Find ways to express your appreciation, and support them through their buyer journeys.

3. Competition

Regardless of the industry your business is in, you'll always have competition – and that's a good thing. You're doing something right if you have direct competitors, but you'll want to understand how they market themselves, as well as any gaps they fill that you don't.

But while it's important to keep up with your competitors, they shouldn't be all you think about.

"Competition should be evaluated but not stalked," Foley said. "Remember, your competitors should be worried about you, not the other way around. Continue to innovate, and they will not be competition anymore."

To really stand out from your competition, personalize your messaging whenever possible. Storytelling is an instant way to connect with your customers, Modkins said.

"This is the surefire way to give a point of differentiation between your company and the competition," she said. "Seek out success stories with your customers. Take these stories, and amplify this message through marketing tactics to bring in new customers. Every brand has a good success story which can lead to deeper customer engagement."

Additional C's of marketing

 We put together some more C's to help spice up your marketing strategy.

Compelling

The word "compelling" is defined as evoking interest or attention in an irresistible way. It's also the opposite of boring. From the marketing angle, it means that your brand messaging needs to capture your audience's attention (and, of course, that it doesn't bore them like those hundreds of cookie-cutter pitches they are bombarded with daily).

How do you do that? At a time when people's attention spans are so short, what are you doing to ensure that your marketing message or the content you create truly resonates with your clients in a convincing, powerful and credible way? It is important to genuinely understand what your clients are interested in and to offer them a compelling reason to notice you.

If your content is quickly forgotten – or, worse, not noticed at all – it's a red flag you're doing something wrong. Here's how you can fix that:

• Dig deeper into your marketing metrics from a recent campaign.
• Evaluate how much or how little you've achieved your goals.
• Conduct customer research and/or surveys to determine your customers' biggest pain points and challenges.
• Collect relevant data, and turn them into actionable insights.
• Create marketing campaigns based on those insights.
• Test the effectiveness of your content. Your readers will indicate what they like by responding, sharing and taking action. The content that fetches the best results will tell you what type of content you should write and share in the future.

Consistent

Marketing requires a consistent drumbeat to steadily build up your firm's awareness and credibility. You can't expect overnight results, and you certainly can't expect to get thousands of followers despite never posting a second article on your LinkedIn page. When it comes to your marketing efforts, frequency matters a lot, but what's even more important is to make sure that everything about your brand looks, feels and sounds consistent.

Often, companies struggle in this area. They throw different (and inconsistent) messages against the wall to see what sticks. Unfortunately, this confuses your customers and leaves your company riddled with brand-awareness and identity issues. In contrast, when your target customers hear the same core message several times, they are more likely to spread the word in the way you want.

Millennials – currently the most lucrative market, with $200 million in annual buying power –  demand a consistent experience from brands, a global SDL survey  revealed in 2015 . Clearly, if left unchecked, inconsistency can become the weakest link in your marketing strategy.

A content audit is a great place to start. Assess blog posts, whitepapers, bylines, case studies, social media posts and other forms of content to check if every aspect of your brand's presence looks and feels consistent across every channel. Also, check for consistency in every customer touch point: email signatures, business cards, letterhead, invoices, envelopes, fax sheets and all other things related to your brand.

Cohesive

Your clients find you and interact with your company in a variety of ways, including PR, social media, websites, videos, email, sales meetings and events. However, your efforts across all marketing channels should weave together a cohesive story.

This doesn't mean repeating the same message mindlessly over and over again, in a way that borders on spamming. Instead, it's about finding the central theme that will resonate with your clients and then carrying that golden thread throughout your campaign. Simply put, presenting a marketing campaign that isn't thematically united is like arriving at a party wearing mismatched clothes: People may notice you, but they certainly won't take you seriously.

Instead, take your clients on a journey. Tell them the story of how your company can help solve their problem, and make sure every story has a beginning, middle and end. Don't reduce your brand stories to merely marketing materials or sales pitches. Rather, treat them as opportunities to let your brand's personality shine through and connect on a deeper level with customers.

For B2B businesses competing in today's rapidly changing digital economy, the customer may seem like a moving target, constantly flitting among myriad channels and displaying an incredibly diverse range of behaviors and preferences. The three C's of marketing will help you develop solid engagement strategies and highly relatable content to capture mindshare, build market share effectively and dominate your industry.

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The four types of sales revenue – and which is best for your business

I want to share with you some important revenue generation concepts that will help you in your strategic analysis and planning efforts.

You’re unlikely to read about these concepts in a traditional business planning textbook, and very few accountants even know about them. Yet they are crucial to the development of your business.  What’s more, come to grips with these concepts and you will see business growth and development in an exciting, new light.

To illustrate these concepts further take a look at the following matrix:

As shown in the visual, revenue in your business can be classified into four categories – of which one category offers you the greatest potential for long term success. Let’s take a closer look at them.

First of all, a business can generate front end revenue and back end revenue.  Front end revenue is that which you receive from first-time customers, while back end revenue is what you get from existing customers.

Next is low value revenue vs high value revenue. Low value revenue is that which is generated from products and services where the unit sales transaction value is low, as is the gross margin. And high value revenue is that which comes from products and services where the sales transaction value and gross margins are high.

With these definitions in place we can classify the sales revenue in these broad terms:

Front end/low value revenue:  Low margin/transaction revenue to first-time customers.

Front end/high value revenue: High margin/transaction revenue to first time-customers.

Back end/low value revenue: Low margin/transaction revenue to existing customers

Back end/high value revenue: High margin/transaction revenue to existing customers.  These are your high value customers.

In the visual I’ve given each type of revenue a color, which is a rating of that type of rating.  Red = bad, orange = ok, Green = great.

Now, here’s what I’d like you to do.  Take a look at your revenue for say the past 6 months and segment it according to the definitions I’ve given you.  Put simply, work to identify what proportion of your revenue is green, red, or orange.

When you’ve done that, answer this question:

It’s true, in business the bigger the back end the better.  And all highly successful businesses have big back ends.

The cold hard reality is this.  If you generate mostly red revenue, it means your revenue stream model is severely flawed.  Businesses with mostly red revenue operate what I call the churn and burn model because it requires them to churn through customer after customer just to stay afloat.  The model is very short-sighted.

On the other hand, if a significant portion (over 60%) of your revenue is of the back end variety then it means you have a well structured revenue stream model and that it is operating effectively.  Naturally, the ideal situation to be in is when most of your back end revenue is green revenue.

And one other point. If you have a lot of green revenue you will likely find that it is being generated by a small proportion of your customer base (anywhere from 5-20% of your customers).

Take another look at the matrix at the two blue arrows.  They are there to remind you of the direction you need to head in your revenue generation efforts.  You start out in the left hand side by generating front end revenue.

But, to develop your business you need to need to move diagonally to the right and vertically. That is you need to generate back end revenue/high value revenue.

Some keys to developing back end high value revenue?

• Develop a strong strategic position and strategy
• Develop a back-end focused revenue stream model
• Create and develop a powerful sales process

What is a value proposition?

A value proposition is often defined as "what the customer gets for what the customer pays" or "a bundle of products and services that are of value to the customer". My definition on the term value proposition in relation to business models is different; A value proposition is how value is bundled and offered to potential value recipients. The term 'Value' is not limited to products and services, the term 'Value recipient' is not limited to customers and the "Value proposition" is not always tied to the source of revenues. Value propositions are the core of business models; what is the value provided? why is the value provided?

Value is not limited to products and services

Providing something new, something unique, something more convenient or accessible, customized, with higher performance or to a lower price are all common value propositions towards traditional customers. But value can also be to enable risk- or cost reduction for a supplier, provide access to databases or research tools for early-stage university research, provide user data to "upstream" application developers, out-license manufacturing or quality assurance processes to other companies, cross-license technology & IP, bring passangers to remote airports, provide jobs and enviornmental responsibility for a region, pay tax to a government, or take active involvement in a community. When realizing that existing assets and capabilities can have a value for someone else, new interesting business models often emerge.

Value recipients are not limited to customers

Potential value recipients can be customers, suppliers, partners, competitors, industry trade groups, professional associations, actors in other industries, universities, research institutes, non-profit organizations, local or national communities, government, society, etc. Also, internal employees are target for value propositions such as good wages, job security, an interesting place to work, recognition, stock options, free food, social events etc.

A value proposition is not tied to the source of revenues

Even though the business model spells-out how a company makes money, and the value propositions are what the company offers, not all value propositions have the purpose to generate direct revenues. Reasons can be to, increase the value of existing intellectual assets and capabilities, get access to new assets and capabilities, create momentum for a new technology, lower cost of development, reduce risks, build new markets, attract the best people, etc.

Google as an example

Google generated 99% of total revenues 2007, and 97% of total revenues in 2008 from advertising, still most of Google's value propositions are not directed towards its advertisers. Below some of Google's value recipients are listed with examples:

- users (a very large number of value propositions, often provided for free)

- network partners (revenues in return for relevant ads on their sites)

- developers (providing platforms such as GWT for free to enable development of rich content)

- business owners (data on popular search terms to better formulate value propositions)

- libraries (digitizing all or part of book collections to create full-text searchable online catalogs)

- authors and publishers (make books out of print available for purchase in digital formats)

- employees (working conditions, "own time", job security)

- google owners (growth , financial performance)

- society (free tools such as blogs and localized versions of Google in developing countries)

Searching for value propositions

When searching for valuable assets and capabilities to offer, it is important to not only focus on own business model and industry, but also the potential need of others:

• How can we strengthen own value propositions?

• How can we strengthen others' value propositions?

• How can we create joint value propositions with others?

The Value Proposition Hierarchy Explorer is a tool to clarify the space around an originally stated value proposition by broadening or narrowing the scope and identify new ones.

Value Net / Coopetition / PARTS

The Value Net or Coopetition framework is an alternative to Porter’s Five Forces framework. It was developed by Adam Brandenburger and Gary Nalebuff in 1996, combining strategy and game theory, in order to describe and analyze the behavior of multiple players within a given industry or market.
The authors’ fundamental idea is that cooperation and competition coexist. It is often necessary to do both at the same time, cooperate with other players in order to foster market growth, but also compete with the same players in order to maximize your market share. Grow the pie, vs. splitting up the pie. A bit of a “yin and yang” concept. Simple games, such as the prisoner’s dilemma, have shown that depending on how players look at the relative benefits of competing vs. cooperating, the outcomes can vary dramatically. Brandenburger and Nalebuff apply the same concept to a business setting. Their key message: You have the opportunity to shape the game, not just play the game. They identify four players in the Value Net:


Customers buy your company’s products and services, in exchange for money.
Suppliers provide resources to your company, in exchange for getting paid.
Competitors offer substitutes (direct or indirect) to your company’s products and services. Note that your company’s competitors compete both on the customer side (offering similar products and services) and on the supplier side (buying similar resources).
Complementors provide products or services that allow a customer to get more value out of your products or services if they buy both. Again, there is a similar dynamic at work on the supplier side.
It’s important to note that any given company can take on multiple roles, acting e.g. as both a supplier and competitor.


Brandenburger and Nalebuff suggest to define your business strategy based on five components, using the acronym PARTS:

Players: The obvious first task is to categorize who the relevant players are and what roles they play. In terms of shaping strategy, a company should think about whether bringing in additional players can work to its advantage (additional suppliers to decrease costs, additional complementors to increase the value of the product to consumers). Questions to ask in this context: What are the opportunities for cooperation and competition with each of the various players? Who else could / should join the industry? Who stands to gain/lose if they do join?

Added Value: Identify your company’s added value from the perspective of each of the market participants. What actions can be taken to increase this added value in order to maximize profitability? For example, how could the loyalty of customers and suppliers to your products and services be increased? What can one company do to limit the added value of another company?

Rules: Just as the prisoner’s dilemma has certain rules, each industry and market also has rules and regulations. Some are written and enforced by law, some unwritten but generally accepted practices. An example of that could be a “most favored nation” clause where a customer insists in a contract with a supplier to get the best price that any other customer might also get. Questions: Which rules are helping your company, which are hurting your company? What new rules would be in our favor? Who has the power to create, enforce and overturn rules?

Tactics: What actions can one player take to shape the strategies, actions and perceptions of other players in the market? How can you deliberately send signals and messages that influence the perception of other players, which in turn may influence their actions? (All of this obviously in the context of what is legal). There is an element here of figuring out to what extent it is in your company’s best interest to have the market rules be very transparent or rather opaque.

Scope: Often, a market is not isolated, but is linked to other markets. Plenty of recent examples have shown that software, hardware, media, e-commerce, advertising and telecommunications markets are either closely interlinked, or players in some markets have taken deliberate strategic moves to pro-actively link them. They key is to ask what markets could potentially be linked, how you as a company could create value added from linking your products and services to that market, and how that may affect the perceptions and actions of other players.

Mapping the Market

This is an interesting way to describe a market by showing visually both the size of the various customer segments as well as the market share (segment by segment) of key competitors. One can even add a growth dimension by adding +/- signs, or up/down arrows.

As usual, the trick is how to define the segments. The recommendation is generally to look at end users, not necessarily the purchasing decision makers or the distribution channels. Doing this at a fairly detailed level is often time consuming and difficult (lack of reliable data). But it tends to reveal interesting insights in terms of market penetration and growth opportunities.

6 Types of Clients You're Better Off Without

JACQUELINE WHITMORE

CONTRIBUTOR

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve had at least one bad client. While some entrepreneurs seem to be born with an invisible force field that repels bad clients, others attract them like a picnic lunch draws ravenous ants.

If you’re in the latter category, there’s hope. You too can learn to spot bad clients before they become a drain on your time and on your business.

There are many different types of bad clients, typified by certain undesirable traits. Here are six of them.

1. Time wasters.

Time is money, and the financial success of your business depends on using your time efficiently. Clients who tell you they want one thing and then change their minds time and time again after you’ve provided exactly what they said they wanted waste your time and make you less productive. There are only a limited number of hours in a day, so don’t squander them on bad clients who continually disrupt your workflow.

2. Energy zappers

Along with time, energy is an entrepreneur’s most valuable and salable commodity. Uncommunicative, uncooperative or just plain obnoxious clients drain your energy. Their tactics can range from persistent passive-aggressiveness to outright verbal abuse. Worst of all, their negativity is contagious. Try to drop these vitality-vampires like a bad habit before you get sucked in.

3. Fee hagglers.

Clients who pester you to lower your fees don’t truly value what you provide, and most likely never will. However, there are exceptions. Clients who are trying to get their business off the ground may have limited funds, or may be working for a cause that you passionately support. Just be aware of what really matters to you, and set clear boundaries when deciding whether to accept “charity” cases.

4. Commitment phobic.

Some people like to “shop around” and consider all their options before they choose how to spend their money. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, as long as their actions can signify that they’re serious about finding the right fit for their particular needs. Beware. Their indecisiveness could be a red flag warning they may well repeat that pattern once you start working together.

5. Criticizers and complainers.

Some customers are never satisfied, no matter what you do to please them. When clients provide negative feedback about your pitch or the work you’ve done, it’s important to determine its validity and make improvements as indicated. But some people make it a habit to continually criticize and complain about everything because nothing is ever good enough for them. It’s good sense to avoid these bad clients whenever possible.     

6. Late payers.

You have a business to run, which requires steady cash-flow, so clients who don’t pay invoices on time disrupt your financial viability. But perhaps more importantly, people who constantly delay payment don’t sufficiently appreciate the value you bring to their business. When clients fail to meet payment deadlines, stand your ground. If you’ve met your obligations, they need to meet theirs. Those who repeatedly don’t pay up promptly are less-than-ideal clients.

To run a successful business, you can't spend your time nursing bad clients. Avoid them (or fire them) and you will have more room to focus on clients who are a joy to work with and appreciate you.

From Customer Interactions to Emotional Engagement: 5 Trends Shaping Marketing

Our world is nothing like our “father’s Oldsmobile.” Change is a constant yet those four words do not adequately capture what is going on. We are in the midst of a world shift that will forever change our and the lives of our grandchildren.

The shift is not about a faster more fluid global world or the rise of new technology, it is more profound than that. We, individuals and organizations, are losing our separateness and becoming a collective. The catalyst as well as what binds us together is technology.

Call it the Internet of Things (IoT) or the connected economy, the bottom-line is that technology binds us – individuals, communities, economies – together and is reshaping how we value and define relationships. What affects one, affects us all.

For marketers this is an exciting and terrifying time. We understand the customer in ways that was unimaginable in the past. We’re moving beyond customer interactions to emotional engagement. With new depths of data and analytics marketers can guide every corner of their entire organization on how, when and with what to create meaningful emotional connections with B2B and B2C customers. We continue to automate repetitive process and data intensive tasks and empower machines to make routine decisions so we can get out of the weeds. Our time is better spent on things like long-term strategy, social responsibility, and consciously with intent defining how we want our world to be in 2020 and beyond.

Technology coupled with the rise of customer has set an irreversible course forward that is redefining marketing and what it means – to customers, marketers and the C-Suite. To understand where we are in this transformation we need to understand how we got to this point.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a number of B2B CMOs from Fortune 10 down to Fortune 2000 companies at the request of Marketo who funded this research. The interview focused on the most significant trends that shaped marketing today as well as those on the horizon that CMOs are closely watching.

These five trends that shaped the state of marketing today:

1. Social media mainstreams

Social media is pervasive and has been embraced by B2B and B2C buyers as a key mechanism for taking full control of their brand relationships. The ease with which buyers can reach their peers has forever changed the influencer landscape. Brands and sales teams are increasing losing their role as trusted sources of knowledge. Both are increasingly viewed as a commodity. What drives a customer to purchase from a brand is not price, product or brand cache but their reputation within the buyer’s social graph, past experience and their ability to build value-based human-to-human relationship.

Buyers give more credibility and weight to the opinions and advice of their peers than they do to brand content, media relations or campaigns. That reliance on peers, easy access to customers and digital sites like G2 Crowd has all but obsoleted traditional industry analysts and media relations. The effect has been a complete redefinition of how trust is built and who communicates brand messages. Increasingly it is not the brand but customers, peers, communities and thought leaders that define positioning, messaging and the company’s reputation. Savvy marketers have embraced these trends by shifting their marketing culture, skill sets, programs and investments to be customer-aligned.

2. Death of outbound marketing

There has been over the past two years the steady decline in the effectiveness of outbound marketing. CMOs are finding that over 50 percent of their leads come from inbound marketing activities and they are shifting spend accordingly. Inbound marketing is more effective in pulling buyers to the brand and through their journeys though all would agree the practice remains nascent.

A significant portion of the early stages of the buyer’s journey is driven by buyer self-discovery – from understanding the problem, alternative solution approaches, outcomes their peers have realized and best practices. Brands have realized that the awareness-attraction-engagement cycle needs to be redefined to educate-enable-engage. The result of this trend has dramatically reshaped marketing team competencies.

3. Marketing’s street cred, finally

Marketing has struggled for decades to be seen as a value-adding member at the board table. Being seen as a cost center, the “colors” or “party team”, or the blamer for when things go wrong gets old real fast. Gaining street cred with peers and boards has been a major focus for CMOs. Technology has not only improved marketing execution but data driven decision outcomes as well.

Marketing automation, ERM, CRM and predictive analytics technology are enabling CMOs and their marketing teams to significantly improve their ability to credibly and transparently measure and report on marketing-attributable revenue and ROI. The ability to measure and predict how various marketing activities will perform and be able to adjust on the fly based on detailed insight into how buyers are reacting to marketing campaigns is the baseline to success. A number of CMOs have invested heavily in building very detailed market models that predict the yield from spend in various categories. Being able to confidently (and accurately) forecast pipeline and booked revenue from B2B marketing spend is changing the perception of marketing. Challenges remain in achieving full customer lifecycle visibility and using data science to advance customer engagement.

4. The link between employee and customer satisfaction

Organization theorists have long touted the importance of employee satisfaction. Yet CMOs have only recently recognized the strength of the linkage between employee engagement and customer satisfaction and loyalty. To that end, programs have been implemented, often in partnership with Human Resources, to keep employees up-to-date on company developments, news and product information. That information comes in many forms ranging from product announcements, knowledge bases, technical information, and financial news to real-time customer feedback.

CMOs are realizing that employee engagement and satisfaction doesn’t come from free lunches, Friday beers and fussball but from making sure that employees have meaning, mattering and belonging. The data shows there is a direct correlation between how happy, informed and trusted an employee is and the satisfaction of the customer they interact with. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the contact center, field maintenance, sales, marketing or finance – the linkage is real. This trend has focused organizations on equipping employees with the information and insights they need to better understand and respond to customer needs and expectations.

5. Only talk about revenue

Some things haven’t changed, namely B2B Boards of Directors and CEOs continue to only be interested in revenue pipeline metrics. While CMOs have made great strides forward in accounting for the revenue impact from marketing spend, Boards and CEOs have little interest in understanding the softer attributes that impact revenue such as reputation, reach and customer experience.

The frustration for CMOs is that the conversation has so narrowed that neither understand the power of marketing or how the discipline’s dramatic changes impacts how companies spot and respond to opportunities. Having been burnt in the past by pushing non-financial issues, CMOs are sticking to the script.

There were a number of surprises from these interviews. One was that the sophistication of an organization’s marketing was not defined by company size, budget or CMO’s vision but by their customers. Regardless of company size, progressive CMOs are constrained by how comfortable their customers and Boards of Directors are with new methods of engagement.

These past trends have dramatically reshaped what marketing means today and what it will look like in the future. Everything from competencies, organization structure, reporting metrics to how CMOs keep their organizations agile and healthy is being rethought.

The future of marketing is exciting as well as challenging. CMOs are faced with the duality of managing breakneck pace of change within their customer segments and marketing practices while educating their peers and boards on the new role of marketing, revenue impact of customer alignment and the value marketing brings to the table.

Christine Crandell

What is Whale Curve and How to Use this Excel Chart?

Whale curve can be easily created in Excel. Most of the Excel users trying to create Excel chart with whale curve are looking at visually analyzing and reporting their customer profitability. While this chart can be used by anyone in business - most of the users come from companies with large customer base like logistics and manufacturing companies. In addition business professionals who are ABC (activity-based costing) users use the whale chart. Anyway, what is the whale curve and what are the benefits of using it? You can use this chart template to visually represent your customer profitability. This means you need to have the profitability for each of your customers. Once you have the data creating the curve is the easy part. In order to create the curve you need to rank your customers from most profitable to least profitable (with negative profit or loss). The resulting curve shows the cumulative profit (your overall profit) as each customer is added to the curve. In most cases, the most profitable customers create the largest part of the profit – this is where the curve generally rise after which the curve growth is declining and at some point the curve declines as customers with negative profit (loss) are represented on the whale curve. Looking at the right part of the curve can be alarming because you can visually see the impact of the bottom customers on your overall business profit. However, at the same time, this is the tricky part for every manager. What do you do to improve the big picture? The first logical step for an outsider would be to fire all the bottom (negative) customers however in most examples this can be a mistake because without those customers the remaining part of the curve will change as well. Changes of this kind of scale are not made in vacuum without impact on the big picture. Reasons are changes in purchasing power, negotiating power, pricing, volume, economies of scale….

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How to Create Whale Curve in Excel? Download the template and follow the quick instructions: 1. Gather and organize your customer profit data – the profitability for each of your customers. 2. Enter (copy and paste) your customer list in column A in the excel template and the profitability for each customer in the next column (Column B in the template). 3. Sort your data by profit descending (click on cell B2 and click the Z-A sort button). 4. Column C has the formulas to calculate the cumulative profit for your data. What you need to do is to simply drag or copy the cells in column C to adjust for your customer list and the data will update. 5. Adjust the scales in your chart - double click the X axes and adjust the range (min and max values based on your data). Do the same adjustment for the Y axes range for minimum and maximum values. This will give you the right focus and curve for your data. Note: Gross margins and gross profit can be misleading so if your profitability data includes profit per customer at gross level your whale curve does not represent the true net profitability. For best and most reliable customer profit analysis use ABC to calculate the net profit for each customer  https://bit.ly/2ZRo9yB

7 Steps for Successful CRM Start

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is now a widely used term by business people. Different sources suggest different definitions but I assume the reader is already familiar with CRM system therefore I will avoid adding another definition to the World Wide Web. However, I have news for those who think CRM is just an online solution; well, it partially may be true. Modern CRM is a process that sets the stage for communication between a business and its customers. The more transparent this communication is, the more bonding the relationship becomes. Business owners should align their goals and mission statements such that sales and customer service employees make the best use of CRM to deliver the core value to the customers.

Apart from being a great communication tool, CRM can help you understand unique customer needs, decide which products and/or services are profitable. Nowadays, everyone is familiar with 20/80 rule which is 20% customers/products make up for 80% of your net profit. There are number of reports you can run within CRM which helps you make clear decisions about whether to implement a new feature or a product or vice verse, cease or decrease the particular types.

In the following lines I will try to list the steps that are necessary to choose and make the best use of CRM:

Before you choose

1. Familiarise yourself with CRM system. Basically, it consists of four main parts:

Marketing- Run campaigns, Generate leads, Form a Database

Sales- Assign, Qualify, Convert Leads and Track Opportunities

Orders- Deliver Products, Produce Invoices

Support- Manage Cases, Conduct Trainings, Provide Service, Develop Knowledge base

2. Most of the CRM solutions provide flexibility depending on your organisational workflow. Play with the system and contact the potential vendors inquiring about possible customisations that befit your workflow

3. Before selecting a particular CRM system the top management needs to conduct a research so that the new system will easily integrate with other sections of your business such as Accounting, Project management, Payroll, etc. Kpi.com offers an ‘all in one package’ ERP system

During Implementation

4. Once a particular CRM solution is employed you need to ensure your staff is comfortable with it. Especially, sales and support teams should be trained exclusively to deliver the best customer experience. Usually, ERP providers offer free trainings during the first month or two so do not forget to contact them directly and ask

5. Like I mentioned above, when using CRM system one needs to learn how to efficiently use reports. You can pull out the most valuable data on:

• Customer Profile- it is more cost-effective to keep the existing customer than attracting the new one. To maintain the current customer base you need to distinguish your loyal customers from the walk-ins and treat them the way they deserve
• Case Management- various reports can be pulled out of case management itself. The most important one is bug reports- it helps business owners to clearly see where they lack quality. If similar complaints are piled up in your case management, then it is time to roll the sleeves up and sort them out
• Leads- one can generate CRM reports on lead conversion, leads by industry, leads by status etc. Each of these reports serves different purposes. For example, you can evaluate sales performance with the help of lead conversion report

6. Almost all the CRM systems now support mail integration by which you can integrate your email address to the system and take advantage of built-in Message Center and Case Management. If you are new kpi.com user you can read a well-described wiki article to get started with mail integration in kpi.com

7. Run marketing campaigns using the mass-mailing tool. It is a great way to communicate with all of your customers as well as the leads. Inform them of the new updates, discounts and new line of products/services. But do not overwhelm your customers/leads since you might run the risk of getting labelled as spammer. Stay tuned for the next blog post on how to effectively use Email Marketing tool to win customers!

by Bekzod Mirahmedov. He is a Business Development Manager at Finnet Ltd, kpi.com- simple ERP solutions software

Infographic: How to create a successful Valentine's Day campaign

Love your customers this Valentine's and give them what they want by using these quick and easy steps to better communicate with them over the romantic season.

How I Reached 100,000 Visitors with These 7 Rules

Over the years, I’ve taught you a lot about content marketing… from what tactics others are using to showing you what’s working.

But I’ve never really opened up and shared the rules I blog by. What you don’t know is that I rarely release a blog post if it doesn’t follow 7 key rules.

So, what are these rules that have helped me grow the Crazy Egg,KISSmetrics, and Quick Sprout blogs to over 100,000 visitors a month?

Here are the 7 rules I blog by:

Rule #1: Set the right frame

In blogging, framing refers to the way you set the mood for the rest of your blog post. For example, in this post, I talk about the rules I use to grow blogs to over 100,000 visitors a month.

The reason I set the frame this way is because I already have credibility with you due to the fact that you already read Quick Sprout and already know I am a successful marketer. I also share a specific traffic number—100,000 visitors—because I know most of you haven’t achieved that number yet, but want to.

Framing the post this way will encourage more of you to read the rest of it.

On the flip side, if I framed this post by telling you that these are just 7 generic rules other bloggers are using, you would have no reason to follow them as they may not be from a credible source. Plus, you wouldn’t know the type of results you could potentially achieve by following them.

Let me show you another example of framing. My friend David used it on his e-commerce blog. He wanted to write a blog post that taught people how to generate more sales during the holiday, so he started off his post with:

Hope you had a profitable Thanksgiving.

Can you tell me the issue with this frame? Most e-commerce sites are profitable, especially during Thanksgiving. The real issue is how profitable they are and how much more money they could have made.

So, I had him switch the copy to:

What if I told you that you could have made two, if not three, times more money on Black Friday than what you pulled in? The reality is you could have, but before I go into how, let me first explain why…

Do you see the difference? Every e-commerce owner wants to make more money. Which is why they are more likely to read the second version over the original.

Framing is powerful! You just have to use it in the right way.

If you want to learn how to frame your blog posts, read this.

Rule #2: Hook your readers

Do you know what the attention span of a goldfish is? 9 seconds. And if you think that’s short, take a guess what your attention span is.

A whopping 8 seconds. That’s right… humans’ attention span is shorter than goldfish’s.

Out of every 8 people that read your headline, only 2 continue to read the rest of your blog post. Why? Because you aren’t hooking your readers and grabbing their attention.

That’s why you need to focus on writing the perfect headline. You can do this by:

• Keeping your headline to 6 words and under 65 characters (ideally)
• Using interesting adjectives within it
• Integrating negative words as they tap into insecurities
• Making your headlines personalized
• When possible, using numbers and data

When writing headlines, check out this free tool by Portent as it should make your life a bit easier.

Rule #3: Data builds credibility

If you are seen as an expert, more people are likely to follow you. But how do you get people to see you as an expert?

You use data.

It doesn’t matter if you are the source of it or you are citing someone else. By continually using data within your blog posts, you create credibility. It shows that you have done your research and aren’t making anything up.

It’s the main reason why I release data-filled infographics each week. Using data works so well that I incorporate a ton of it into my blog posts on my personal blog too. Many of those posts have links to at least 20 different sites.

By using data within your blog posts, you will help people start seeing you as an expert. Plus, others will see you are linking to them, and some of those people will start sharing your content and eventually link back to you.

Rule #4: Blog with your heart

Have you ever seen me blog about topics other than marketing and business? No. Why?

Because those are the two topics I really care about. I love them so much that I center my life around them, sometimes to a fault—sometimes, I neglect other things in my life, such as my family, because I’m knee deep in my blog or business.

I am working on fixing that, but the point is that I love blogging because I’m writing about topics I am passionate about.

That’s what allows me to write consistently and never give up on blogging. If you don’t love what you are writing about, eventually you’re going to quit, and your blog won’t gain popularity.

Plus, the quality of your content will be drastically different. People can tell when you write about something you are passionate about. The quality of the article that’s written with care and passion is a lot different from the quality of the article that’s written out of pure necessity.

Rule #5: Love your readers

Look in the mirror, and ask yourself: “Do I love my readers?” Do you love your readers so much that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make them happy?

If you do, they’ll not only stick around for a long time, but they will also support you. They will comment on your content, share it, and tell the world how great you and your company are.

I love my readers, which is why I respond to almost every comment. I also try to respond to every email that is short and to the point.

And when I screw up, I try to make things right. For example, I get over ten thousand spam comments a day, and it is nearly impossible for me to go through them all. So, some good comments get lost, and I get angry emails such as this one:

To try to make this reader happy, I donated $20 to their Go Fund Me project. I didn’t have to do this, but I felt it would make the reader happy, so I did.

I care for my readers to the degree that I will do almost anything for them. The real question is, do you?

Rule #6: Don’t repel readers with fancy vocabulary

Don’t you hate it when people talk down to you? I know I do. I especially hate it when people try to use fancy language I don’t understand to make me feel dumb.

And I’ll be honest, I don’t have the best vocabulary, and I am not the smartest person out there. I know I can learn more and continually sharpen my skills in all aspects of life.

Granted, when you are blogging, you are educating your readers, but this doesn’t mean you are smarter or better than they are.

This is why I use simple vocabulary. It makes the post feel more like a conversation and less like a classroom setting. Just as you can learn from me, I can also pick up a few things from you… which is why I prefer a conversation.

Use simple vocabulary to help increase user engagement.

Rule #7: It’s all in the list

Have you noticed that on all of my blogs—from Quick Sprout to Crazy Egg to KISSmetrics—I collect emails?

Why?

Because email marketing is a consistent source of traffic that you can control. All you have to do is send a blast to your list every time you publish a blog post, inviting your readers to check it out.

Emails are so powerful that for one of my blogs, they account for 28% of the total traffic. They are so effective that I am willing to spend $1,500 a month with these guys just because they get my emails in people’s inboxes… even though I don’t make a dollar from email marketing.

If you are going to blog, make sure you come up with an enticing opt-in such as an e-book or a course like I offer on Quick Sprout.

Or if you don’t have time to create an offering, you can always re-purpose your old blog content. Or better yet, do something like Groove.

Whatever you decide to create for your opt-in, make sure it is enticing. Without an email list, it will be difficult for you to grow your blog.

And once you are ready to collect emails, follow this post, which will teach you how to collect emails without needing a lot of technical knowledge.

Conclusion

If you follow these 7 rules, you will see an increase in traffic. And it isn’t just me who is seeing success from these rules. Bloggers like Brian Dean, who have been following in my footsteps, are seeing similar results too.

So, what are you waiting for? Why not test out a few of these rules with your next blog post?

What other rules should you blog by?

by NEIL PATEL on DECEMBER 8, 2014