Yes we have all been there. We get caught up in the moment, all ramped up, and before we can even think about it we do it at the worst possible time. That's right, we post something on facebook, twitter, or our blog when our emotions are on overdrive. It's not until later that we realize the error of our ways and severely regret what we posted prematurely.
We as humans have always had the ability to fly off the handle and say things that we later regret. In the past though we only had to worry about the people in the room hearing our demented rantings. Then with the invention of email and cell phones we needed to worry about sending emails or texts to people we know with our off-the-wall antics. As technology progressed it has given us the opportunity to send these messages around the world in an instant. It's much more difficult to take back or appologize for thoughts that we put out there without thinking them through all the way. This gives all the more reason why we should wait until we cool off before posting our opinions.
That being said, we've all made the mistake of premature "post"ulation. What now? Do we delete the post knowing that half of the free world has already read it and judged us for our heat of the moment opinions? Do we post an explanation of our irrational thinking of our post? Or do you just wait until you run into people and sheepishly explain what happened?
What do you think? What approach have you taken when you've made this mistake?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
HUG2010: Who's your MoFu?
No No we are not trying to be inappropriate. At HubSpot they have coined the term MoFu to represent the middle of the funnel. This session was a discussion on how to take leads and turn them into conversions. I have found this sessions to be the most entertaining session by far. The whole session related lead nurturing to the process of dating. The typical sales funnel takes:
Visitors -> Leads -> Customers
The dating funnel takes:
People you meet -> Dates -> Marriage
At HubSpot they also get very excited about data and statistics, also known as data "porn". For example of people that research products they want to buy 6 months later only 23% of them actually purchased the product. At the same time, 6 months later 67% still plan on purchasing. People that nurture their leads close 20% more of people than those that do no nurture their leads.
What is a lead? It is a person who is interested in your product. Or from a dating perspective it is a phone number given to you on a napkin. Another bit of data is that 78% of sales that started as a web inquiry went to the first responder. That means that it is very crucial to get back to people as soon as possible.
What is a qualified lead? It is a lead that fits the profile of an ideal customer. In the dating world it is a person that you've been on a date with and still like.
Through HubSpot you have the option of create what are called lead nurturing campaigns that allow you to send automated emails in timed intervals if people fill out a specific form on your website. Based on the form filled out you can decide if they should get a different set of information (and create a new lead nurturing campaign) or if they can get the same set of emails as the person who filled out a different form.
How do you send them lead nurturing emails without seeming spammy?
Make sure that your emails are not all sales material talking about you. You want to be sure to send them information that is our could be of value to them. You don't need to use HubSpots lead nurturing campaigns to do this you can do it manually or utilize other tools of your choosing.
What are some lead nurturing email ideas?
Thank you/welcome letter
Tips
FAQs
links or information about online tools
Series of archived blog posts relating to information they requested/downloaded
Product Specs or documentation.
Who should my lead nurturing emails come from?
It depends on who will respond to them or follow up with them if they have questions.
Every person may have a different approach or opinion about lead nurturing. The takeaways are that it's important to respond quickly and make sure that you tailor your lead nurturing to your sales cycle. You don't want to send out emails over a nine month period if you customers usually close within 2 months. Talk to your sales team to be sure you work together to iron out the best process to maximize lead conversion.
Visitors -> Leads -> Customers
The dating funnel takes:
People you meet -> Dates -> Marriage
At HubSpot they also get very excited about data and statistics, also known as data "porn". For example of people that research products they want to buy 6 months later only 23% of them actually purchased the product. At the same time, 6 months later 67% still plan on purchasing. People that nurture their leads close 20% more of people than those that do no nurture their leads.
What is a lead? It is a person who is interested in your product. Or from a dating perspective it is a phone number given to you on a napkin. Another bit of data is that 78% of sales that started as a web inquiry went to the first responder. That means that it is very crucial to get back to people as soon as possible.
What is a qualified lead? It is a lead that fits the profile of an ideal customer. In the dating world it is a person that you've been on a date with and still like.
Through HubSpot you have the option of create what are called lead nurturing campaigns that allow you to send automated emails in timed intervals if people fill out a specific form on your website. Based on the form filled out you can decide if they should get a different set of information (and create a new lead nurturing campaign) or if they can get the same set of emails as the person who filled out a different form.
How do you send them lead nurturing emails without seeming spammy?
Make sure that your emails are not all sales material talking about you. You want to be sure to send them information that is our could be of value to them. You don't need to use HubSpots lead nurturing campaigns to do this you can do it manually or utilize other tools of your choosing.
What are some lead nurturing email ideas?
Thank you/welcome letter
Tips
FAQs
links or information about online tools
Series of archived blog posts relating to information they requested/downloaded
Product Specs or documentation.
Who should my lead nurturing emails come from?
It depends on who will respond to them or follow up with them if they have questions.
Every person may have a different approach or opinion about lead nurturing. The takeaways are that it's important to respond quickly and make sure that you tailor your lead nurturing to your sales cycle. You don't want to send out emails over a nine month period if you customers usually close within 2 months. Talk to your sales team to be sure you work together to iron out the best process to maximize lead conversion.
Dharmesh Shah - Social Inbox
The jewel of the HubSpot User Group was listening to Dharmesh Shah talk about the new tool that is only in alpha stage of development, "Social Inbox".
Basically the concept is to build a tool that will be able to leverage your facebook, linked in and twitter connections to find business prospects. He led with the question, "Wouldn't it be great if you could wake up every day and have an inbox with possible leads that have been found in your social media connections." Alright, this is not a direct quote - but that was the gist of it.
The Social Inbox can be programmed to find people with specific demographics in the three main social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook), or find people that tweet specific phrases (keywords) that are important to your business, or find people that have specific keywords in their professional title on LinkedIn, facebook... you get the idea. This tool is still being developed and is in no way taking on it's final form - but it seems like an extremely exciting prospect and should be extremely valuable once it is in production.
And best of all it will be included in the HubSpot Subscription - so there will not be any additional costs to be able to use this tool.
Another tool that was mentioned and unfortunately I don't know if it was going to be part of the Social Inbox, is something he calls, "Smart Timing" for Twitter. The idea is to be able to set up a tweet ahead of time and specify a trigger that will release the tweet. An example would be if you created a tweet about John Doe, and you want him to see it - you would be able to create the tweet and have it sent out when John Doe logs into Twitter. That way you would know that he saw the tweet.
Basically the concept is to build a tool that will be able to leverage your facebook, linked in and twitter connections to find business prospects. He led with the question, "Wouldn't it be great if you could wake up every day and have an inbox with possible leads that have been found in your social media connections." Alright, this is not a direct quote - but that was the gist of it.
The Social Inbox can be programmed to find people with specific demographics in the three main social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook), or find people that tweet specific phrases (keywords) that are important to your business, or find people that have specific keywords in their professional title on LinkedIn, facebook... you get the idea. This tool is still being developed and is in no way taking on it's final form - but it seems like an extremely exciting prospect and should be extremely valuable once it is in production.
And best of all it will be included in the HubSpot Subscription - so there will not be any additional costs to be able to use this tool.
Another tool that was mentioned and unfortunately I don't know if it was going to be part of the Social Inbox, is something he calls, "Smart Timing" for Twitter. The idea is to be able to set up a tweet ahead of time and specify a trigger that will release the tweet. An example would be if you created a tweet about John Doe, and you want him to see it - you would be able to create the tweet and have it sent out when John Doe logs into Twitter. That way you would know that he saw the tweet.
HUG2010: How to Create a Blog Factory
It can always be daunting when you are faced with the task of constantly coming up with new blog topics for your website. This session gave suggestions and idea on how to keep the ideas for blog topics flowing.
Brainstorming
It's easy to brainstorm several ideas for a blog post but having enough information and knowledge to actual write a blog post isn't always easy. So taking a large list of ideas and then narrowing it down to which ones you can write about and then from that you can select which topics you actually blog about.
Spin Offs
There is the option to provide more detailed information on previous blog submissions. You can write another blog posting that relates to a current one that utilizes keyword phrases you wished you could use and link between the two blog postings. You can also create a new blog posting that responds to questions or comments that were made on previous postings.
Use Old Content
You can use older case studies or white papers and break them apart into a series of new blog postings to revitalize an interest in the topics. You also have the option to link back to the initial white paper for them to see all the information in one place. It is important to optimize the information for both SEO and for new visitors to make the most of your content.
Brian Halligan the CEO of HubSpot also had a few suggestions that have helped him over the years. He finds that he thinks of blog topics in his every day activities whether it's going to a ball game or reading the morning paper. Just make a note of ideas when you think of them and you can weed through the good and bad ideas later when you have more time to think about what you want to say.
He also had some suggestions on the best way to brainstorm. He's researched brain function and has found that if you're in a quiet room, not thinking about a specific topic, and let your mind day dream that you can come up with lots of ideas. Just write them down when you think of them and keep on day dreaming. There is bound to be a good idea in there somewhere.
Brian had a suggestion on how to entice people who don't want to blog into blogging. Bring out their competitive side. Give an incentive to the person each week who created the blog with the most pageviews or comments to an article in the last 10 or 30 days. People like to win and this just might work.
Blog topics are always going to be a struggle just try to sit back relax and see what comes to you or hit the books or archives and see what you can repurpose into useful information for your visitors. You won't be sorry.
Brainstorming
It's easy to brainstorm several ideas for a blog post but having enough information and knowledge to actual write a blog post isn't always easy. So taking a large list of ideas and then narrowing it down to which ones you can write about and then from that you can select which topics you actually blog about.
Spin Offs
There is the option to provide more detailed information on previous blog submissions. You can write another blog posting that relates to a current one that utilizes keyword phrases you wished you could use and link between the two blog postings. You can also create a new blog posting that responds to questions or comments that were made on previous postings.
Use Old Content
You can use older case studies or white papers and break them apart into a series of new blog postings to revitalize an interest in the topics. You also have the option to link back to the initial white paper for them to see all the information in one place. It is important to optimize the information for both SEO and for new visitors to make the most of your content.
Brian Halligan the CEO of HubSpot also had a few suggestions that have helped him over the years. He finds that he thinks of blog topics in his every day activities whether it's going to a ball game or reading the morning paper. Just make a note of ideas when you think of them and you can weed through the good and bad ideas later when you have more time to think about what you want to say.
He also had some suggestions on the best way to brainstorm. He's researched brain function and has found that if you're in a quiet room, not thinking about a specific topic, and let your mind day dream that you can come up with lots of ideas. Just write them down when you think of them and keep on day dreaming. There is bound to be a good idea in there somewhere.
Brian had a suggestion on how to entice people who don't want to blog into blogging. Bring out their competitive side. Give an incentive to the person each week who created the blog with the most pageviews or comments to an article in the last 10 or 30 days. People like to win and this just might work.
Blog topics are always going to be a struggle just try to sit back relax and see what comes to you or hit the books or archives and see what you can repurpose into useful information for your visitors. You won't be sorry.
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