Gennaro Cuofano's Blog, page 223

What Is A Post-It Business Plan? The Case For A Post-It Business Plan

The post-it business plan is a methodology that helps you focus on keeping a long-term focus on your mission and vision, while also having a short-term focus on experimentation, execution, and speed.

Let me show you how.

Are business plans useful at all in today’s business world?

In the old days, you would start to build a business by writing a business plan.

Indeed, that is a document where entrepreneurs or aspiring so, can state their assumptions about the business. They can make financial projections and show how the business will grow in the future.

When the web took over the business plan became not only a document that didn’t make sense to the new business world, where companies could finally test their assumptions quickly, and build a viable business model, before to run out of cash.

No surprise then that a topic like “business plan” is becoming less and less relevant:

[image error]

The topic “Business Plan” has lost interest over time according to Google trends

The fact that a business plan was a purely intellectual exercise became even more evident when Steve Blank together with Eric Ries launched the concept of lean startup.

As Steve Blank put it, a business plan doesn’t survive the first contact with customers.

Indeed, while in the past companies would start from putting down this nice neat and seemingly perfect document. And execute it.

Today we know for a fact that most of the work of an entrepreneur is about searching the right business model, that when executed in the marketplace, it enables the business to succeed.

Thus, execution and iteration of a business model only happen when you have experimented and finally found the proper business model. Entrepreneurs can speed up this process by using one-page tools like the business model canvas, the lean canvas, the blitzscaling canvas, the FourWeekMBA canvas, and many others.

The most important thing is before moving with fast execution and iteration of a business model an entrepreneur should search for the pieces that make more sense to the kind of business she is trying to build.

For that matter, a business plan is a document which won’t be of much use. If at all, this document will make it harder for the entrepreneur to find a proper business model. That’s because the assumptions contained in the business plan won’t survive the first contact with customers.

And it is important that the entrepreneur is ready to throw away the business plan to experiment with the business model.

So why are people using business plans today? There might be still reasons for entrepreneurs to use business plans.

For instance, for an organization which is trying to build a business based on external fundings, those investors might require a document to look at. Usually, that happens in the more traditional world, of getting a loan from a bank or financing from a public institution.

Indeed, in the venture capital world, which looks at investing in startups with exponential growth potential, venture capitalist might be looking at a pitch deck, rather than a business plan.

But also in those cases venture capitalists, in the end, might rely more on their guts or how much they like the potential business model, the idea, the team or the technology, rather than basing that decision on a business plan.

That is why I’m proposing the post-it business plan approach.

What’s that?

Enter the Post-it Business Plan

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The premise of the post-it business plan is straightforward.

You need to work at two levels, which are diametrically opposite.

The first level is in the very long term. That is comrpised by your mission and vision.

The other level is the very short term. Where you focus on experimentation, execution and speed.

On the back of the post-it, you will have the mission and vision. That’s because,even when you’ll be experimenting in the short term, you still need to have clear the vision and mission of your business. Indeed, it doesn’t matter how many experiments you will run in the short-term your mission and vision will work as a compass for you to keep moving in the right direction.

On the front of your post-it instead, you need to have three key objectives that you can test on a weekly basis. This short-termism will help you to experiment quickly so that you can bring your business closer to your long-term mission and vision.

When it comes to the short-term execution plan, the time frame can vary from a week to a few months. My advice is to break down the critical objectives into something smaller that can be achieved in a week.

For instance, if one of the key objectives is to build a site that has a hundred thousand visitors, before you could accomplish that you need to break it down, in a way that can be attained, tracked and experimented in a week, or a month maximum.

Therefore, you might want to have as a key objective something like “publish four articles this week” which can be accomplished with some level of effort. And on the other side have the mission and vision intact.

Thus, where the three key objectives will keep you motivated in the short term. The long-term vision and mission will keep you on the right track!

That’s the only document you need to get going once you’ve drawn the potential business models you might want to experiment in the real world.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Idea Generation: How To Enhance Your Creativity Flow For Business Growth
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post What Is A Post-It Business Plan? The Case For A Post-It Business Plan appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

The Case For A Post-It Business Plan As Your Business Compass

In the old days, you would start to build a business by writing a business plan.

Indeed, that is a document where entrepreneurs or aspiring so, can state their assumptions about the business. They can make financial projections and show how the business will grow in the future.

When the web took over the business plan became not only a document that didn’t make sense to the new business world, where companies could finally test their assumptions quickly, and build a viable business model, before to run out of cash.

No surprise then that a topic like “business plan” is becoming less and less relevant:

[image error]

The topic “Business Plan” has lost interest over time according to Google trends

The fact that a business plan was a purely intellectual exercise became even more evident when Steve Blank together with Eric Ries launched the concept of lean startup.

As Steve Blank put it, a business plan doesn’t survive the first contact with customers.

Indeed, while in the past companies would start from putting down this nice neat and seemingly perfect document. And execute it.

Today we know for a fact that most of the work of an entrepreneur is about searching the right business model, that when executed in the marketplace, it enables the business to succeed.

Thus, execution and iteration of a business model only happen when you have experimented and finally found the proper business model. Entrepreneurs can speed up this process by using one-page tools like the business model canvas, the lean canvas, the blitzscaling canvas, the FourWeekMBA canvas, and many others.

The most important thing is before moving with fast execution and iteration of a business model an entrepreneur should search for the pieces that make more sense to the kind of business she is trying to build.

For that matter, a business plan is a document which won’t be of much use. If at all, this document will make it harder for the entrepreneur to find a proper business model. That’s because the assumptions contained in the business plan won’t survive the first contact with customers.

And it is important that the entrepreneur is ready to throw away the business plan to experiment with the business model.

So why are people using business plans today? There might be still reasons for entrepreneurs to use business plans.

For instance, for an organization which is trying to build a business based on external fundings, those investors might require a document to look at. Usually, that happens in the more traditional world, of getting a loan from a bank or financing from a public institution.

Indeed, in the venture capital world, which looks at investing in startups with exponential growth potential, venture capitalist might be looking at a pitch deck, rather than a business plan.

But also in those cases venture capitalists, in the end, might rely more on their guts or how much they like the potential business model, the idea, the team or the technology, rather than basing that decision on a business plan.

That is why I’m proposing the post-it business plan approach.

What’s that?

Enter the Post-it Business Plan

[image error]

The premise of the post-it business plan is straightforward.

You need to work at two levels, which are diametrically opposite.

One is in the very long term.

And the other is a very short term.

On the back of the post-it, you will have the mission and vision. That’s because, in the very long term, you need to make sure to have clear the vision and mission of your business. Indeed, it doesn’t matter how many experiments you will run in the short-term your mission and vision will work as a compass for you to keep moving in the right direction.

On the front of your post-it instead, you need to have three key objectives that you can test on a weekly basis. This short-termism will help you to experiment quickly so that you can bring your business closer to your long-term mission and vision.

When it comes to the short-term execution plan, the time frame can vary from a week to a few months. My advice is to break down the critical objectives into something smaller that can be achieved in a week.

For instance, if one of the key objectives is to build a site that has a hundred thousand visitors, before you could accomplish that you need to break it down, in a way that can be attained, tracked and experimented in a week, or a month maximum.

Therefore, you might want to have as a key objective something like “publish four articles this week” which can be accomplished with some level of effort. And on the other side have the mission and vision intact.

Thus, where the three key objectives will keep you motivated in the short term. The long-term vision and mission will keep you on the right track!

That’s the only document you need to get going once you’ve drawn the potential business models you might want to experiment.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Idea Generation: How To Enhance Your Creativity Flow For Business Growth
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post The Case For A Post-It Business Plan As Your Business Compass appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

Announcing The FourWeekMBA Online Business School

Back in 2011, I got my international MBA. I found the program extremely valuable, as I was making a transition from law to finance; and at the same time, I wanted to bridge the gap between the university world and the entrepreneurial world.

On the other hand, I’ve also found many flaws in the way the MBA is conceived given the changed premises of today’s business world. And that is why in 2015, I set to build my own business school. It took me a while to process the way I wanted this business school to look like.

But finally, in 2019, I’m taking this step and launching the FourWeekMBA business school. Why did I do that? Let me explain.

How has the business world changed?

The business world has changed. This might sound a trivial statement. Yet, not so if you go inside most business schools around the world. 

The digital world has changed how entrepreneurship works, and it has become critical to understanding those dynamics. 

That is why I’m building up the FourWeekMBA Business School. I want to make this platform the go-to place for business students, professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs.

What’s going on with higher business education?

An MBA can still be a valuable program for people that want to progress their business career. And for aspiring entrepreneurs. However, there are some aspects of an MBA program that are fundamentally flawed. 

As the business world changes at a faster and faster pace, the opportunity cost associated with enrolling in an MBA program has become too high for most people to bear.

That is also why there seems to be a sharp decline in interests for the program:

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By looking at the data related to MBA enrollments, it seems that in 2018, most top business schools experienced a sharp decline:

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And not even top business schools really make money from MBA programs. 

How Harvard Business School really makes money

Most people believe that Harvard Business School primarily makes money from its MBA program (I thought it too). But then I looked at the hard numbers, and I figured a different story: 

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HBS Financials

While the MBA is one of the largest contributors to HBS revenues, it is not, by far, the main one. 

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In addition to that, the MBA program itself generates high fixed costs for the school, which makes the program highly unprofitable.

Therefore, when you look at Harvard Business School business model you realize how they need to charge high-tuition, as they need to pay salaries and benefits to professors and academics working at the business school. 

In part, this is normal as the academic research process is expensive. 

If we were to look at HBS Business School as a company, its MBA actually is a losing business unit. 

Indeed, 16% of HBS revenues come from MBA tuitions and fees, 44% of its total expenses go to salaries and benefits, instead. Not all the expenses for salaries and benefits go to the MBA, most of them might do. 

Thus, the MBA itself is a model which is not financially sustainable for the school, if it weren’t for donations from alumni. 

Just to be sure, HBS is an incredible reality, as it manages to still be profitable nonetheless as an educational institution which, in any case, has to finance research. 

Thus, HBS really makes money via its publishing arm. 

But here comes my point. How valuable is research in the business world? 

Technological innovation vs. business innovation

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When I interviewed Greg Satell, author of Mapping Innovation. He showed me a simple quadrant could be used to define innovation. The quadrant tells us that when a problem is not well defined, neither its domain, we’re in the basic research quadrant. 

On the opposite side, when a problem is well defined and so is the domain that is when sustaining innovation happens, and so on. 

Now, while when it comes to technology, I agree with this view. When it comes to business, I believe (you can prove me wrong) that most innovation happens in the real world while the role of academia might simply become that of curating and rationalizing tools used already by entrepreneurs. 

There is also a problem of wording, as most people today confuse technological innovation with business innovation. 

Technological innovation does spur business innovation. Think of how the Internet has enabled a Cambrian Explosion of business models, that disrupted old ones. And how this explosion is still ongoing.

Yet those are two separate concepts and it is important to keep that in mind.

Business innovation happens “outside the building”

However, business innovation primarily happens through business model innovation. And business model innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. As Steve Blank would put it that happens “outside of the building.” 

That means academic research in the business context is valuable if it is highly tied to classifying real-world entrepreneurial tools. But as often happens, either the academia is too slow in recognizing the proper value to certain phenomena (as it needs to be rigorous). 

Or it lacks the proper incentives to simplify the tools and frameworks for entrepreneurs (academics are rated for the complexity of their ideas, rather than their effectiveness in a real-world scenario).

Entrepreneurship requires focus, experimentation, and a good dose of learning, fast, so that business objectives can be achieved. 

When entrepreneurs test assumptions, they don’t have to be rigorous or precise. They need estimate and ballpark, well-executed, and tested using the real-world as a lab. 

In short, my whole point (which you can agree or not) is that while for other sciences, there might be a clear benefit of research. When it comes to the business world, research might bring little real-world benefits. 

Enter the FourWeekMBA Business School Model

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The FourWeekMBA Lean Canvas made with LEANSTACK 

Whit these premises I’m starting up the FourWeekMBA Business School.

While I’m not going to tell you how the FourWeekMBA Lean Canvas looks like (hey, that would be like giving you the recipe of my business!). Among the other things, I’ll uncover for you – once we open up the Business School – how I managed to build the FourWeekMBA, from strategy to execution. 

Here let me tell you a few things about what makes the FourWeekMBA Business School unique and why the vision of building it makes me so excited!

Fueled by passion

After years of trial and errors. The Bud Caddell Diagram suggested how to find the “Hooray” spot:

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I had the idea of FourWeekMBA seeding since 2011-12 when I was taking my MBA. But I only started to execute it in 2014-15. At the time though I could not figure out why it didn’t take off. I still didn’t grasp the reasons why the old business school model was failing.

Only in 2018, after years of trials and errors, and once I took back on track my blog, my vision became clear. 

Top business schools all over the world (including top-tier schools like MIT and HBS) referenced the materials from the FourWeekMBA as reading materials to their classes. 

That is when I realized I was on the right path.

FourWeekMBA Business Model Story

At this stage, if you really want to appreciate the uniqueness of the FourWeekMBA Business School, the best place to start is its business model story. 

Problems: What’s wrong with the old Business School model?

I identified six key problems that make the old model extremely vulnerable (there are even more but I stopped to the main ones): 

Entry barriers
Length
Cost
Outdated education
Real-life expertise issue
Remote learning

Let me explain!

Entry barriers

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Source: ccepted.com/mba/selectivity-index

Even before you can walk in the business school, they’ll ask for certificates, high grades. In many cases, the process to get in is stressful and it requires an investment in time, which might be well spent in actual learning and knowledge acquisition to progress your career or grow your business. 

You didn’t even enter the school, and they ask you certificates like GMAT to confirm that you’re smart. But the kind of smartness that you might need in the real world goes well beyond a pre-packaged test, made to measure your intelligence on paper. 

Thus, the old model creates entry barriers, so that it can justify its being “selective” and to only enroll the smartest people around to charge high fees. 

The model I have in mind doesn’t place any entry barrier. The selection won’t happen top-down, but it will be driven by survival, where the real world and the ability to actually get extraordinary results will eventually select the best people. 

Length: too long for today’s fast-pacing world

Up to a decade ago, it might have made sense to invest in a program that kept you out of the job market for at least two years, before going back to the real world. 

However, in today’s fast-paced world, this means entering the business school to learn tools and frameworks to help you in business. When getting out, though, those same tools and frameworks might be already outdated!

Thus, a new model has to be able to give knowledge and insights that practitioners are currently using. 

Cost: too risky for today’s ever-changing skillset

Fewer and fewer people can afford dozens of thousands of dollars to enroll in an MBA program. The financial burden (especially in the US) has become unbearable for many students and professionals.

Also, while in the past (up to a decade ago) it made sense, as you could repay the financial investment. Nowadays, the ROI from an MBA is not as clear as it used to be. 

Thus, proper business education needs to be priced at 1/10 to 1/100 at the current costs. As we’ve seen in the HBS case, those high tuition costs need to cover up to fixed expenses, and things like the rental of historic buildings to maintain the prestige of the university, and toward salaries and benefits of academics and professors. 

The new model enables us to cut those costs, as it can be provided entirely online and by real-world practitioners, which don’t need a salary to survive. 

Outdated business education: stuck in the old world

As the business world moves faster, business schools might fall behind and teach things that have become pretty much outdated in the real business world.

That happens because academic knowledge, in business, is finding a hard time to adapt. And while top business schools have the resources and competencies to offer, up to date business education, many others are left behind.

Thus, either you enroll at a top-tier business school, where you get access to the most advanced resources, or you’re left out. 

The new model proposes an alternative, where people can get access to practitioners that can show the most advanced tools, and frameworks to succeed. 

Real-life expertise wanted: let entrepreneurs take the “chairs”

Another key problem the traditional business school model is about mostly employing professors to teach disciplines that require a high degree of experience, rather than just study. 

In short, those that today should be teaching, in business, are these practitioners, that really managed to achieve extraordinary results in each field.

In other words, the new model demands business school to be taught by practitioners!

Remote learning, accessible on-demand

The Internet enabled several ways of content delivery that changed education altogether. Two powerful modes of content delivery are on-demand and remote teaching. 

A business school fully developed around that gives anyone the ability to learn (no matter where you are) at any time (no time constraints). This is very powerful and still relatively underutilized in business schools. 

In short, the new model will create a Netflix effect on business education. 

How will the FourWeekMBA business school be different?

Well, at this stage, it feels great to have got so far. However, to finally accomplish the mission of FourWeekMBA, I’m finally building up from scratch the FourWeekMBA Business School. 

It will be an online business school, as a substitute for an MBA, with a few key differences: 

practitioners as teachers as a rule of thumb.
The content will be delivered in several formats (audios, videos, interviews, transcripts, text, and ebooks).
It will always be accessible on-demand (any time, anywhere).
No entry barriers, the real world will be your judge. 
You will learn tools and frameworks used by entrepreneurs, practitioners, and executives at top organizations (no theorizing). 

The lean multi-staged roll-out of the Business School

I preach what I teach. This is my key principle. That is why I’m building the school by following the lean principles. 

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The Traction Model by Ash Maurya, author of Scaling Lean (Source: blog.leanstack.com)

Rather than launch and open the school to an unlimited number of students. I’m following a staged roll-out. Ash Maurya highlights it on Scaling Lean. 

In other words, I’ll launch the school by following these steps:

in September 2019, I launched the “Business Model Innovation Workshop,” which went sold out after a week. Thus, I passed the Problem/Solution Fit Stage. 
By January 2020, the second step and second staged roll-out will follow a 10x growth path and bring in 10-20x times the number of students I had with the workshop. This will help pass through the Product/Market Fit stage. In other words, before the e-learning platform can scale, it needs to be ready to have a constrained number of students. Only then it will be ready to level up.
A third stage, in which the Business School might experience the first phase of scale, enrollment might be open a larger number of students. There is no timeline for that as it might happen in six months or in one/two years depending on the feedback of the existing students and the readiness of the platform to deliver to fit the market.

Who is the FourWeekMBA Business School for?

You will benefit from the school if you are in one of the following categories:

Business school student: you are a student of business at a business school which want to complement the curriculum of the classes taken to get the most out of my MBA, get the highest grades, and a set of resources you’ll have for life.
Business professional: you are a professional in a field that goes from accounting, finance, to sales, marketing or engineering. You’re not yet in a managerial role, but you’re looking to take that step. The FourWeekMBA Business School will give you the insights and knowledge to step-up your career.
Aspiring digital entrepreneur or entrepreneur: you are an entrepreneur looking to grow an online business from scratch. Or to actually leverage on an existing business to scale it further. Also, you might be an entrepreneur who is willing to put the effort to understand the digital world, to enhance a more traditional business. The FourWeekMBA Business School will give you the tools, resources, and frameworks to business growth. 
Executive: you are a business professional already in a managerial role, and you’re looking to level up your game to bring it to the next level. Thus, you’re trying to become a partner of it further. The FourWeekMBA Business School will give you the insights and resources to make it through. 
Analyst: you are an analyst that understands the financial world pretty well. However, you’re still missing higher-level business concepts that would help to gain a better understanding of the companies you’ll be analyzing so that you can move from pure finance to other fields like venture capital, or private equity. The FourWeekMBA Business School will give you the toolbox to gain a deeper understanding of digital businesses, beyond pure financials. 

What disciplines will you learn?

Great business education has to give at least an understanding of the key disciplines needed to run any business. 

Those include: 

Financial Literacy
Financial Analysis
Business Modeling
Business Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Sales and Marketing
Distribution Strategy
Business Development
Growth Marketing
And more

Thus the FourWeekMBA Business School will be structured around those disciplines and more. 

In addition, it will host over time additional formats like: 

Webinars
In-depth interviews
Guides
In-depth analyses
Notes

The aim is to give you all you need to succeed in the real business world. 

Business model innovation as the centerpiece of the Business School

One of the people that I like to follow the most in the business world, venture capitalist, Fred Wilson, in a recent article, highlighted something that many are still missing today:

I believe business model innovation is more disruptive than technical innovation.

That might sound trivial, yet it’s not. Most of us believe that technical improvements (what we call technology) are what enabled global changes.

While this is true, there is another component, the business model innovation which caused even more massive changes to our society.

That’s because technology enables a new way of doing business. And assumptions that in the past were the basis of doing business, suddenly become outdated.

As Fred Wilson further explained:

The move from desktop computing to the web. We saw massive disruption as we went from a licensed software business model to an advertising-supported business model, which has evolved into an advertising/subscription freemium business model.

When new, revolutionary technology finally is widely adopted, that is when a massive phase of business model innovation happens. For instance, we’re still looking at how the Internet-enabled the digital economy still ongoing explosion. 

We might be looking at a similar change and blossoming of new business models with the advent of the Blockchain and crypto-based business models. 

That’s why the Business School will be centered around dissecting business models and understanding business model innovation at a deep level.

What do you gain?

From the FourWeekMBA Business School you can expect: 

Career advancement
Start-up a company
Grow a company 
Scale-up a company
Step up from employee to manager
Level up from executive to partner
Move onward from analyst to private equity, or venture capital analyst

You can enroll in the school here. 

In the meanwhile, you can consult these resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post Announcing The FourWeekMBA Online Business School appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

Chatbot Marketing: Definition, Examples, And Best Practices

We love our Siri and Google Assistant; we enjoy telling Alexa to play our favorite music, to call someone, and to answer questions about our beloved sports figure or movie actor. This is the new world of chatbots – having a conversation with a machine rather than a live person.

And consumers seem to be more than ready for it. Not only is it fun, but it’s also efficient – especially for current generations on the go, in a hurry, and impatient for information and results right now.

In fact, according to a report from Salesforce, 69% of consumers would rather communicate with chatbots, because the get fast answers, faster than email, and they do not have to sit on hold by phone.

Chatbots and Marketing

So, what does all of this have to do with marketing? A lot actually. Consider all of the aspects of marketing for which chatbots can be useful:

Chatbots can satisfy consumer demand for 24/7 information and assistance

And with continually improving natural language processing technology, they are learning continually and getting far better at responding satisfactorily. Whether a customer wants more information about a specific product or service or has an issue with a product, delivery, exchange, etc., a chatbot can handle it.

Chatbots can track customer data

And when those customers return, they will be greeted by name, reminded of their past orders, and even receive recommendations and suggestions for additional products or services that may be of interest. This personalizes the communication – something that is always a plus.

Chatbots will give businesses an edge on their competition

Simply because they are more efficient, serve customers better and faster, and do not have human personality quirks that might offend or put off some people. With bots, customers get the attention they deserve an get it well.

Are There Challenges? 

Designing and developing (and continually improving) chatbots is the biggest challenge and cannot be accomplished without professional help, in most cases.
Bots have not been perfected yet. While natural language processing and AI have certainly come a long way, there will still be issues – expect them to occur. Understand that, like any type of marketing, things evolve constantly, and marketers must stay on top of this technology too.
Another challenge will be how to incorporate chatbot marketing technology with mobile apps. Initially, there will be a decline in such usage, but, ultimately, they can be connected, especially through voice technology, as it evolves.
Bots cannot yet gather and churn the big data, and so in-depth analytics is not possible. With time, that will come too, but in the meantime, other data gathering and communication with actual and potential customers will still be necessary. But implementing bot technology now will ensure that you are prepared when the time comes.

How to Get Moving on Chatbot Marketing
Embrace It

You cannot ignore the fact that chatbots might soon be mainstream in overall marketing strategies. Acting now can give you an edge. The technology is moving rapidly, and you need to get on board now.

Ask the important questions first

What is the purpose of my bot? Exactly what do I want it to do?
How necessary is it? Can it provide value to my current and potential customers that they aren’t getting now?

Once you know the answer to these two questions, you are ready to move forward with development.

Keep it simple initially

You cannot anticipate every question or every issue members of your target audience may have. Research your customer base and identify the most common questions or issues they have. In other words, what will provide your customer with the most value?

There are tools, like Kik and Telegram that allow businesses to automatically set up accounts that are really quite simple and will take care of those basic tasks you want your bot to perform.

They can do such things as provide information on or find specific products or services, provide shipping and delivery details, give help with checkout and payment processes, and, for stores or restaurants that deliver or provide takeout, take care of food orders.

You probably do not understand the development aspects of chatbot technology

But so long as you do know what you want your chatbot to do, you can find the resources you need. Obviously, your budget plays a role, but if you do your research you may be able to partner up with a startup that is hungry for business and get a really cost-effective deal.

The other option is any number of bot-building templates that will walk you through developing your own – no coding experience required!

Again, Start Simple

When Taco Bell decided to launch its chatbot, it focused on only one thing – takeout orders. The bot took orders, repeated those orders to customers, and then provided options and suggestions based upon that order. Be like Taco Bell.

Expansion can come later. Getting it right with simplicity first keeps customers happy and your reputation intact.

Test and Re-Test

You cannot afford glitches that result in unhappy users. And there will be frequent updates that will impact its quality. You are better off having a separate bot developed for each type of campaign or purpose, and direct your customer questions and issues automatically.

Your developer will thank you too – his job will be much easier updating and fixing glitches on individual campaigns than on a broad single one that will have more chance for errors.

As you monitor and test your bots, you will learn many things – you will learn what your customers like and don’t like, what they are really using and what they are not.

This will inform how you modify and upgrade those bots. And with every modification and enhancement, you will be testing again.

Don’t Pretend

If your customer/user is misinformed and thinks he is speaking to a human, you are not honest or fair. This ultimately causes mistrust. And give your bot a catchy name.

Your Bot is Not the Full Answer

Bots must be attached to humans. There will be questions and issues that your bot cannot address. In these instances, the only smart thing to do is to refer that user to a human, tell that person you are doing so, and exactly when to expect a suitable response.

Make Your Bot Friendly, Even Humorous, But Do Not Wax On

Users appreciate the friendliness and a certain amount of humor (check out the Poncho Weather App) but do not have your bot go on and on. They also want answers and resolutions promptly. So, find a good balance. One of the ways to do this is to check out the bots being used in your sector and see how they resonate with users. Also, be mindful that the more conversation your bot gets engaged in, the tougher it will be for it to keep up. Don’t put yourself in that kind of position.

Examples of Chatbot Marketing

Sprout Social has provided an article that contains a number of truly effective bot marketing examples. You will see all of the reasons why those specifics were chosen as great examples and get great ideas for your own.

Key takeaway

These ten aspects of chatbot marketing are obviously just the start for you. There is no question that they will play a huge role in business marketing strategies and tactics going forward. Your single choice is to get on board now, learn all that you can, experiment with bots, and become a master of your marketing fate.

Author Bio: Marie Fincher is a content writer with a long history in marketing, the technology of marketing, and BI. She is a frequent contributor to blogs on data science and those related to marketing in general. As well, she is on the regular writing staff of Grab My Essay.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Idea Generation: How To Enhance Your Creativity Flow For Business Growth
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post Chatbot Marketing: Definition, Examples, And Best Practices appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

Idea Generation: How To Enhance Your Creativity Flow For Business Growth

Ever since the Lean Startup became a reality, people like Eric Ries have widely built upon the belief that ideas are overrated. According to this belief, in the entrepreneurial world, success is not about having ideas.

That is instead about being able to have a framework that makes you understand what ideas make the most sense in the marketplace, what ideas to prioritize, and how to execute them.

This might be true, for successful entrepreneurs, who have mastered a set of habits that enable them to be able to generate a decent number of ideas in the first place.

What about those people who have trouble generating ideas?

For that matter, I’ve put together a framework that you can use to put yourself in the creativity zone, which will enable you to have such a vast number of ideas, that the only problem left will be how to validate those ideas, and how to build a viable business model.

Why anyone can be creative

The common belief is that you are either born creative, or you will never be. However, this belief has been long contradicted by recent discoveries in neuroscience, especially tied to the plastic structure of our brains.

Michael Merzenich, the author of Soft-Wired, explains:

Whatever the circumstances of a child’s early life, and whatever the history and current state of that child, every human has the built-in power to improve, to change for the better, to significantly restore and often to recover. Tomorrow, that person you see in the mirror can be a stronger, more capable, livelier, more powerfully centered, and still-growing person.

This is not rhetoric, but the fruit of a scientific inquiry that over the last decades has shown how our brain is elastic and plastic.

Which in practice means that with the proper habits in place you can tweak your brain to work in your favor. And in particular, you can enhance your creative flow. Thus, having a continuous flow of ideas, that you can test in the real world, to build viable business models.

Getting into the Flow process

Have you ever experienced a feeling of oneness with the activity you were performing? In short, you got to the point of mastering a task, like playing the piano, writing, or running, that at a certain stage, you felt a feeling of “flow.”

According to psychologist Michael Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow, that feeling, which he calls “flow” is a sort of balance between boredom and anxiety, where both are at a level that becomes a flow state of mind.

Therefore, when you’re challenged in, for instance, playing the piano, you will feel a minimum level of stress; at the same time though, that stress will be coupled with a level of skills which is aligned to the fact that if you do improve, you’ll also be able to play piano better than before.

That motivation to improve will move you toward this state of flow, which, according to Michael Csikszentmihalyi, is at the core of improving at anything you do. And you can leverage this concept to enter into the creativity zone.

Creativity can be manufactured

Michael Csikszentmihalyi also authored a book, called Creativity, which is a window into how to understand the creative process and therefore enhance your own creativity, to have a continuous flow of ideas which you can experiment back into your business.

More precisely, Csikszentmihalyi divides the domains that can help you tap into the creativity flow in:

Acquisition of creativity and interest

He breaks it down further by looking at three essential habits to master:

Curiosity and interest

In business, we like to do things with an objective. However, often, creativity is about enjoying and paying attention to things on their own sake.

Thus, strengthening your curiosity and interest can be done by focusing our attention on new things, or things that surround us, trying to look at them from several perspectives and with a fresh and new eye.

This process can be further enhanced if a journal is kept, which is an excellent way to record this process and learn about your internal state of mind and how to express it.

Another meaningful way is to go for things that spark your interest, beyond the domain of business, which can sharpen your creative flow, that in turn might be applied back to the business world when you expect the least.

Cultivating flow

The state of flow is fundamental to get in the creative process and come up with ideas that might impact your life and business. This state of flow implies focused attention on things around you.

That also means in trying to control as much as possible the environment around you.

Habits of strength

Try to control your schedule in a way that you find the rhythms that work out best for you. For instance, if at night, your creative flow is at its height, take a bit of time to put down your ideas, which you might want to experiment throughout the week or month.

Also enable yourself to have some time to relax your mind and reflect, without distraction. As many entrepreneurs like to be always busy, they hardly find some time to reflect. However, relaxation and reflection, free from any activity, can be an incredible enhancer for productivity.

Just doing something differently from how it is usually done, and by breaking the usual schedule, can also help boost the creative flow, and work as idea generation strategy.

Another important strategy is to make sure your office or daily environment is organized in a way that can help the creative process.

In the long run, you want to maximize the things you like, and gradually get rid of the things you don’t like. I know it might sound trivial or unfeasible for some. But remember, we’re talking about the long-run.

If you live a frustrating life, there will probably be no space left for creativity, as invasive, distracting, and negative thoughts will take control over you. Thus, create leverage by time to time, to organize your life so that most of the time, you like what you do.

This will, in turn, enhance your energies, thus making your creative flow at the point in which ideas will come naturally, and the only thing left is to validate them!

Mastering your internal traits

Mastering your internal habits is about initially manipulating on purpose your attention to focus on things differently.

To develop a new perspective, to look at things from different angles. Over time this exercise, which might be extremely hard in the short term, will become automatic.

This also implies challenging yourself to develop positive traits you didn’t think you could. One suggestion from Csikszentmihalyi is to shift from openness to closure, thus moving from being open and receptive but also hard-driving and focused.

Apply your creative energy

According to Csikszentmihalyi, applying your creative energy can be reduced back to three key domains:

Problem finding

Which is about how to find new ways to look at things around you. By learning how to express yourself, learn how to evaluate several viewpoints, consider several solutions to each problem. Learn how to implement those solutions to specific problems.

Divergent thinking

Divergent thinking is about learning how to come up with a great number of responses to problems. This implies producing as many ideas as possible, without focusing on whether those ideas are good, for now.

Try to have diverse ideas, and look at things from two opposite sides. In short, if you’re arguing, try to look also at the other side to understand that position.

Thus divergent thinking is about putting the necessary energy to get outside the routine thinking process.

Choosing a special domain

Many creative people might be tempted to focus on too many domains. However, as you progress, you might want to pick a primary domain, which as you become good at it will improve your creative flow.

This, in turn, will also expand the capability to see at things in a different fashion.

Funneling ideas

Now that you set yourself to have as many ideas as possible (it might take a while to get into the creative flow) it is time to funnel those ideas into a working business model.

In order to funnel those ideas you might follow three simple suggestions:

Don’t be scared to throw 99% of your ideas

As you go from jotting down your ideas to thinking about executing them. You’ll figure that most of them are not viable in the first place. You won’t even need to spend money or time to understand that, it will be almost automatic.

It’s weird how our brain when an idea first strikes make us feel like it’s the most ingenious one. Yet, at a further reflection, just a few hours later, when we sit down and think about executing it becomes worthless right away.

Are you passionate about it? Or are you willing to put together the team that might be passionate about it? 

I know that some of you might think that business is not about passion but about the opportunity. This is true only in part. Businesses that start from scratch before they take off (except very rare occasions) take time to build.

Thus, you might want to remove from the table those ideas you’re not passionate about. Alternatively, you might want to keep those ideas, if you are passionate about the project, and about the prospect of putting together a team that might be passionate about it.

This will be extremely important to pass through the first phase before the flywheel is ready to gain traction and momentum.

Idea validation: Is there a market demand?

At the stage in which you’re left with those ideas that seem still good when you sit down, and you think about executing them. It is time to understand whether the market might want them.

For that sake a framework like pretotyping, or the leaner canvas. Those are very fast frameworks to validate your ideas, before wasting time and resources in trying to build something none will want.

A market doesn’t mean an industry. Also a niche market, where a thousand people can benefit and are willing it has the potential to become a six figures business in no time.

Read next:

Pretotyping: How To Find The Right Idea To Avoid Business Failure With Alberto Savoia

Continuous Innovation And Lean Startup With Ash Maurya

Business models tools and frameworks

For that sake, you might want to understand what pieces make up your business model. And what frameworks you can use.

The most common methodology is the lean startup. And among the most common tools and frameworks from the lean startup, there is the business model canvas and the lean canvas.

Also, you can consult the FourWeekMBA canvas. At this stage, it is essential you have a solid framework to test only the ideas that can become a business in the real world.

Read next: 

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained

Suggested readings

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Additional resources

 

Business resources:

The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post Idea Generation: How To Enhance Your Creativity Flow For Business Growth appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

Leverage On Translation To Internationalize Your Business

The opportunities ahead of you when you start your own business are incredible. Your startup is your chance to put in place the business practices that will help you reach your goals following your ethics. Few opportunities afford such freedom – or come with such responsibility.

“Translating” challenges into opportunities

That responsibility can be a curse as well as a blessing. Not only do you have the freedom to do it all your way, but you are also the person who is entirely in charge of everything. From marketing to finances, as the founder of a startup, the buck stops with you.

Recruiting the right people is all on you, and who you hire will have a significant impact on the way that the fledgling company takes shape.

When you have global business success in your sights, rather than just local, the opportunities – and the challenges – are further multiplied. It’s up to you to jump on small business trends in not only your own country but all those where you plan to operate.

That means building a brand that will resonate with audiences who are diverse both in terms of geographical location and cultural attitudes. Translation and localization services play a vital role in this.

How to grow your business while tackling translation

In terms of your business startup checklist, dealing with language barriers should be right up there at the business model generation stage.

Just as it’s essential to hire the right staff team, finding the right translation agency can make a massive difference to your chances of global success.

As such, make this a core part of your planning and focus on how you will communicate with audiences – and potentially staff – in different countries. Be as detailed as possible at this early stage.

After all, what is a business model good for if it doesn’t map out everything you need, including how to deal with language barriers?

How to find the perfect translation agency

Once you have your startup business ideas mapped out, it’s time to find the perfect translation service. Professional translation services vary hugely in quality, just as services do in other sectors, so it’s important to start by reading plenty of reviews online.

If you have acquaintances who can make personal recommendations for good translation services, so much the better.

In addition to a host of recent, positive reviews, it’s important to look for the right blend of languages and experience when it comes to choosing your translation company.

You will likely need more than just document translation services, so be sure to engage a company that offers translation of different media, desktop publishing services, proofreading, editing, interpretation services, and localization expertise.

This wealth of skills will provide you with the flexibility to grow your business in multiple countries while easily calling on all of the services that you might need as part of doing so.

It’s also a good idea to opt for an agency that offers express translation services, in case you need something in a hurry at some point in the future.

The importance of localization

Localization, in particular, is key to expanding your small business into a global empire.

What is business development like in different countries? How do audiences in certain cultures respond to different marketing approaches? Which words or symbols might inadvertently offend another country?

Localization can answer all of these questions and more, helping you to shape the way you present your business overseas to give it maximum appeal to each and every audience. It is a core component of turning your small business ideas into a global success.

Quality assurance and translation

As a small business founder with big plans, quality control will rest entirely with you. This includes translation work, which can be tricky when you don’t speak the language(s) in question.

Thankfully, there are a couple of ways that you can ensure the quality of the translation is up to scratch.

Firstly, you could consult a native speaker. You could hire an online language teacher or find a well-regarded freelancer who you could pay for an hour or two to review your translated materials.

Alternatively, you could consult another translation agency, asking them to proofread and edit your translated copy, to see if they can spot any errors.

Ensuring that your translations are of the highest quality is extremely important. After all, your target audiences will form their first impressions of your startup based on those materials. If they’re littered with typos or poorly localized, what does that say about your company’s attention to detail or its approach to quality?

Thankfully, by incorporating all of this into the plans for your startup at the business modeling stage, you will be well-positioned to get translation and localization right from the outset.

Yes, these services can be added on later if necessary, but making them a fundamental part of your planning gives you a serious head start and could make all the difference when it comes to beating your competitors in the race for international market share.

Guest Contribution by Elnar Jun Ubod, SEO Expert and contributing writer at tomedes.com

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post Leverage On Translation To Internationalize Your Business appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

10 Content Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business

Have you ever wondered what makes online businesses successful?

Or better still, what is the backbone of successful online businesses?

What engages web visitors and keeps them coming back?

Three questions. One solution. Content.

Content makes the difference between a struggling online business and a successful one.

And to be a successful content marketer, you should consistently apply the best techniques.

Statistics show a high demand for content. The content marketing survey report from demandGen in 2015 showed that: 75% of people who purchase B2B consult web content before deciding what to buy.

If you want to drive more traffic, set up a lucrative online business, and constantly experience high conversion rates, then you should carefully reconsider your content marketing strategies.

Learning what works for others and what doesn’t work is vital because it can help you generate more leads and traffic. And that’s what you’ll learn from this article.

I will guide you through 10 content marketing tips to help you stand out from the noise. And reach your target audience and customers.

#1. Build More Targeted Landing Pages

Your Landing pages are crucial. 

Nullified health raked in 60% more money by simply optimizing their landing pages for exact keywords.

They diligently desired to learn more about their market. And they learnt about it and about the customers too. Then went on to integrate what they have learned in their content.

What about Copyblogger media? They have dozens of landing pages. Each optimized for a keyword that the target audience is enthusiastic about. 

You need to learn this: when creating landing pages, find hot keywords. And build your content around them.

The simplest way to start creating quality Landing pages right away is by using templates. You can choose from a lot of them. However, I personally love Unbounce and Instapage.

#2. Segment Audience Based On the Product Need

Smart content marketers know better than not to segment their audience based on their needs.

You need to segment your audience because while some are buyers, others are not.

It’s logical. Your content are not suitable for everyone at a particular time. Different cycles of buying exist. hence, the need for “awareness” content for newbies and “new improved features” for repeat clients.

The content for newbies will bore repeat clients off their boots and the ones for clients might leave the newbies muddled up.

Therefore, don’t fail to make the most of your marketing efforts by separating customers according to their roles and needs.

A buying persona should be made for the target audience. And will enable you to speak exclusively to a specific audience.

It is usually hard to perform this separation on a blog. So an email autoresponder will be helpful in this.

The email list segmentation is in fact, a must if you desire to make the most from your contact list.

According to Emarketer report: 39% of email marketers that separate their email lists experience more open rates. 28% show better email delivery and more revenue.

#3. Find Out Your Niche Audience, and Give Then What They Want

Before you create amazing content, you need to have a good knowledge of your audience.

The first technique towards this is keyword research to ascertain what your customers are looking for.

Snoop around Google trends and get a proper idea of what your customers want.

Type in your main keyword into the search box and find out how much searches the keyword has amassed in a given period of time.

Through the graph at Google trends, you will know how popular your keyword is. And from there you’ll get insight on how to strategize your content.

The more you know and understand your readers, the more you make your content fit them. And the more your content marketing strategies will prove more effective.

#4. Track Ongoing Results of Data and think Tactically

While you may rely on web data, at times you have to verify these results yourself by personal experimentation.

What worked in the past five years, or even in the past year may no longer work today.

So don’t just accept anything you see on other websites and blogs. Learn to think for yourself. Develop a habit of thinking critically and tactically.

Keep in mind that results are not absolute. So you could get a different result when you do your own experiment. That actually happens 98% of the time. Through deliberate trial and error, brainstorming and observation, you may end up developing a new concept. Which everyone can learn from. This is the way to become an expert.

Brian Dean used this concept in his business and came up with the well-known “content upgrade” strategy.

And now many content marketers apply it in building up their email lists.

#5. Make Effective Content Strategies and Use Consistently

Don’t try to build a castle in the air. Don’t strain yourself. Don’t outdo yourself. 

Take things easy. Careful. But serious.

Start from your level and keep scaling up. 

Don’t fuss about your blog not generating enough traffic. Or worry about not reaching 1000 visitors in a month.

Just start the way you should. Small. Build and consistently apply content marketing strategies that can help you achieve your goals.

Instead of whining about not making 1000 visitors in a month. Set a target. Aim. You can aim for 100 visitors in a month. Make sure your targets are realistic. Something you are sure you can achieve.

Keep focusing on reaching your target each month.

Hitting smaller goals will sum up and make the bigger impacts you crave for. Using the hedgehog model, create an awe-inspiring content. And make your visitors share it on various social media platforms.

Use the same technique for your email list. Pay attention to 3 to 5 subscribers each day. 

As the month ends you will notice and an increase in your email subscribers. From 90 to 150 depending on how things go.

#6. Are You Consistently Running A/B Tests?

How many times do you run spit testing?

Research by Adpushup revealed that the rate of conversion range from 1% to 3%. And A/B testing can help you have a better conversion rate.

The slightest addition to your conversion rate is important. As it comes in handy.

Whether you run a small scale business or a large organization, you need to find what resonates with your audience. When you do, optimize your content around that to the fullest. Your content marketing strategies will make more sense.

Split test on just about anything. You may need to focus on headlines, visuals, landing pages, CTA amongst others, because they impact your search performance and drive more traffic.

Run your A/B testing on both mobile and desktop interfaces. Pay attention to user behavior that impacts conversions such as landing pages, email opt-in form and so on.

#7. Craft Your Content Based On Your Core Values

Your core values are what you stand for. They propelled you to where you are today. So your business should express your values.

As your values guide your personality. So much so, your business should have certain core values guiding it too.

For example, if you desire for your target audience to gain from the content you share with them, you should research well for the content. Craft a super beneficial content and share with them. As it is in line with your values.

Focus on improving your website and content to improve user experience. 

No one can dictate these values for you. They have to originate the beliefs you hold dearly.

When your content is built around your values, they help you connect to your audience marvelously. You will find your business exciting.

#8. Make Sure Your Technical SEO Optimized Well

The SEO strategy has evolved past stuffing content with keywords.

So to keep getting the benefits of traffic you need to adjust. Google algorithm now focuses on content quality than SEO stuffing or quantity. This is In order to give the best results. And help people find solutions easily.

Therefore technical SEO is crucial. Hence you need to consider the technical health of your website. 

Optimize your website the best way. And make your content easy to find.

To achieve this, you need to conduct a technical SEO Audit.

Analyze and find what you are doing well. Detect what needs fixing and fix it.

#9. Do Your Competitor’s Analysis And Work With The Data

These days competitor’s analysis isn’t a thing of choice. It’s a must.

You have to spy on your competitors, find out what they do and figure out how to outsmart them.

Industrial experts believe that competitor analysis is a crucial aspect of marketing success.

If you do it well and include the results in your own strategy, you will experience a remarkable steep in your conversion rate and other aspects of marketing.

Use SemRush and other tools to check out your competitors. It takes time to look up all your competitors. However, a simple check on only a few competitors can give you a lot of insight into the industry.

#10. Start Blogging On Niche Topics 

Blogging is a great way to reach your target audience. As you get on blogging on your niche, try to get your content shared on social media platforms.

As you blog, get more and more creative. Diversify. Innovate. You will ultimately begin to get outstanding results.

Some of your target audience are on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram. So you need to be everywhere.

Your content shouldn’t just lie fallow. You put in a lot of time in creating it. So it has to get the attention it deserves.

As you concentrate on your niche, repurpose content to get more traffic. Repurpose only high-quality content, as they have a greater chance of yielding fine results.

Key takeaway

In content marketing, you care about your customers. Your customer’s don’t care about you, they care about their problems.

Therefore you must set out to solve their problems. Be people-focused. And spend time getting to know your audience. That will pay off.

Apply these 10 tips, you will find your business growing and your personal brand getting more popular. However, you need to find a proper balance between user satisfaction, your conversion rates, and your content.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post 10 Content Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

The Top Advanced Email Marketing Strategies For eCommerce

Before we get to the tactics to enhance the email marketing strategy for your e-commerce, let me give you a brief historical context of how emails were born, to understand the power of this technology which for many seem to be outdated, yet it is still proving the one with the highest ROI.

Emails: A Brief History

Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian Born American scientist, famous for his controversial claim of being the inventor of email. He contended that Ray Tomlinson (known internationally and credited as the inventor of email) only created a basic system for sending text messages for the ARPANET.

Where Ayyadurai went on to build a more functional and paper-based mail system that foreshadowed the current system of Electronic Mail exchange. All of these were around the ‘70s or ‘80s, depending on your source.

These dates are not very important/relevant for you as a marketer. However, there is another interesting story that runs along. Gary Turk, the “official father of spam” identified an exciting opportunity to reach out to customers (conveniently). This must-have been a brilliant idea before junk email even had its name.

The idea did work, and email was commercialized at least a decade before it was widely popularized. Thanks to Turk, now we have different labels in our email client to categorize the varieties of spams! Even as we complain about the overflowing spam folder, we cannot ignore its effectiveness.

Now you cannot claim that you have not clicked on a single advertisement mail in your life. Most people still see it as spammy, but the results generated by email marketing in CRM and lead generation and conversion are high.

Marketing using emails is gaining popularity, platforms like womenofemail.org which exists to propagate the idea of email marketing for a woman marketer, are indicators of important it is for marketers to develop and design clear strategies.

Marketing in the global context is all about making the world look smaller and electronic media is the quintessential vehicle for that. Over the years, marketing strategies all over the world have been shaped by growth in technology. Applying the most productive and fruitful measures at its very first sight is very essential in keeping yourself edgy.

When it comes to eCommerce, the internet is taking a toll and has changed the entire shape of how an eCommerce business runs. Right from getting customers aboard to giving them constant updates regarding discounts and sales, everything is done “online”. How? Email. 

But, the strategies used by eCommerce business to make their name in this world is what makes them stand apart from the others. This is what we talk about in this blog post. Read on to understand how to create an effective email marketing strategy and how can email marketing to get more sales. 

How Do You Create an Effective Email Marketing Strategy?

eCommerce sales are directly proportional to how good your marketing strategy is. Better the strategy, better is the chance of your business getting customers, and chances are higher that sales will increase.

Everything depends on a great marketing strategy. In this blog post, we focus mainly on how to create an effective email marketing strategy. Let’s dig in!

Having Clear Policies and Priorities

There should always be consistency in the character. You should have a clear framework for what and how you interact; what is your reciprocatory style.

Every marketing executive should understand that keeping up with the set policies and guidelines are necessary to maintain integrity in the middle of dog eat dog competition. The priorities of the organization should be kept in mind while designing the strategy.

Building a Mailing List

Having a clear focus on the targeted audience is important. Building a mailing list by introducing forms in web pages can give the marketer a steady focus on their prospect customers.

One can also get lists from external sources; data collected for a similar survey/purpose. However, there is a disadvantage to this approach. The recipients in the lists might not properly represent the target audience.

The purchased list can only do as good as an alphabetic email directory. There are no filters on demographics, geography or any other means of classification.

A customized form in the website to collect customer data can be of great avail. This way, the customer is not disturbed with unnecessary mails as he has personally subscribed to the list.

Words of Wisdom

The word ‘infomercial’ originated somewhere around the 1980s. The campaigns had started to focus on adding value to the customer instead of just driving out many variants in the consumer goods segment and getting the market to accept it.

The new approach was focused on educating and informing the customer and enhancing the utility of the product and services. The same ideology can be applied in email marketing.

A regular informative journal sent out to the customers can let them know how much the organization cares about the product quality and customer interaction and can win many hearts. This will help in concreting customer loyalty.

Reward for Loyalty

Let’s take a moment here. There are a number of highly competitive Ecommerce dealers. Why should the customer come to you? While you ask yourself that question, let’s go back to the dog eat dog scenario.

You will have to engage in constant price wars in order to survive. This necessarily means that the customer will choose you only if you recognize and reward their loyalty.

It is not enough that your service and product/service delivery is efficient, without proper incentive, the customer will not come to you. 

Improving the Email Opening Rate

Let’s face it; no one really likes to have advertisement emails in their mailbox. An email sent from an address that opens as “do-not-reply…” is not really warm/inviting. No one likes you if you talk like radio and never listen.

Moreover, such emails are mostly generic and you’ll just feel like a notice handed out to you which you would rather use as a napkin.

If the customer should feel that the message was truly intended for him, there has to be a certain level of exclusiveness and the marketer has to concentrate on segmenting their subscriber list.

So, essentially, the marketer has to

Listen more intently
Be Short, concise;(brevity is your friend),
Be more personal, and most importantly be
Focused on the segments

There has to be a reply to the mail, and it’s always better that there is an individual at the other end reading the mail; the mail shall be signed by the sender. This way the mails will look more personal. 

A neatly tailored strategy considering all such factors of significance can improve the quality of emails, and increases the chances of the customer opening and reading it and serving the purpose.

Bonus Tip: Adopt a Marketing Project Management Software

Along with the above email marketing tips and tricks, adopting a marketing project management software is another important technique to keep your marketing game strong.

From initiating a marketing campaign to its implementation to how successful the strategy really was – all this is really difficult if done manually. But with a simple marketing project management software, you can do it all on a single platform.

Key takeaway

Having the perfect email marketing strategy is really important in not only boosting customer engagement and retention but also eCommerce sales.

Remember the key email marketing tips and tricks mentioned in this blog post and, to implement all strategies perfectly, adopt a marketing project management software.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post The Top Advanced Email Marketing Strategies For eCommerce appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

Decoding The Authority Marketing Model Of Content Marketing

Authority marketing is a term that has been around from at least the early part of this decade. The strategy revolves around establishing yourself (or your business) as the ‘go-to’ authority for topics related to your industry. In doing so, your brand becomes the face of the industry and thus, a leader in your space.

Public speaking, webinars, and event marketing are some examples of authority marketing that predate the term and have existed for several decades. More recently, content marketing emerged as a ‘poor man’s’ version of authority marketing but has quickly risen to become the most popular and effective strategies. 

An excellent example of this is the help desk startup, Groove. The company grew from basically nothing to over $5 million in revenues solely on the back of content marketing. Today, both Groove and its founder Alex Turnbull are considered authorities in the industry. 

What Groove did was to use their blog to provide a ‘behind the scenes’ account of their own growth story. This allowed them to offer a unique perspective that was hitherto unavailable. As Groove grew, their content established them as an authority that other entrepreneurs (who are part of their target audience) looked up to.

While Groove’s strategy might have worked for them, that is not necessarily the only way to establish authority in your space.

Understanding your unique offering

Content marketing is commonly done, with great success, with recycled or repurposed content. While this may work for content geared towards SEO or lead generation, authority marketing hinges on originality of thought. Creating a unique hook or angle to your content is vital.

Being a thought leader

It is not easy to adopt this hook. To be a successful thought leader, you must be an exceptional observer of the trends and patterns in your industry. Many a time, you should be among the first in the industry to experiment with and write about these emerging trends.

A good example of authority marketers who adopted this technique is Brian Dean from the SEO blog, Backlinko. He identified a trend among SEO marketers who looked up existing pieces of content on a topic and produced an article that was exceptionally superior to the ones that already exist.

In doing so, these marketers were able to capture backlinks and citations that were otherwise pointing to these relatively outdated pieces. Brian named this technique the ‘Skyscraper technique’ which is today considered one of the core fundamentals of content marketing for SEO.

Dig into your own proprietary data

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to create a hook is by digging into your own proprietary data. Email marketing company Omnisend looked into the thousands of messages sent by their own customer to come up with an original research piece titled, “The best time to send emails”.

Using your organization’s proprietary data gives you insights that are not available with anybody else. Not surprisingly then, such content pieces help in establishing authority in your industry.

If you run a product where you do not own proprietary data, then you may rely on publicly available third-party data to produce unique insights about your industry. For instance, a travel website may apply regression analysis or other statistical models on publicly available information pertaining to flight routes, timings, etc. to come up with unique insights like the best time of the year to fly on-time, or the routes that experience the most turbulence.

There are hundreds of such content topics one could come up with, and this will establish your authority in your industry.

Creating tools and metrics for your industry

Every industry is governed by metrics that is used to measure and segment the various stakeholders. The financial industry, for instance, uses credit scores to segment customers based on their creditworthiness.

In the automobile sector, cars are segmented based on the mileage they deliver, their safety rating, and so on.

A great way to build authority in your industry is by establishing the guidelines and creating tools that help industry watchers define the players. A popular example (albeit not from the content marketing space) is Michelin’s using of their star rating system to classify restaurants.

While Michelin is not really in the food business, they have successfully established their brand as an authority in the fine-dining space.

In the internet world, similar metrics have been designed by companies like Moz that developed an in-house metric called the ‘Domain Authority’ to measure a website’s online authority that defines their ability to rank on Google.

When Google stopped making their in-house metric ‘PageRank’ public, marketers moved on to alternatives like DA that have made Moz an authority in the SEO world.

From a content marketing perspective, perhaps the best example of this is LonelyPlanet’s annual listing of the top places to visit. By producing a scientific list based on emerging travel trends, LonelyPlanet’s lists have emerged as one of the top trusted destination guides in the travel industry.

After the guide featured Iceland in their list, tourism to the country surged, forcing the country to take dramatic steps to stop the small island nation from being overrun by tourists.

Devising an authority marketing strategy

While content marketing is a cheap and effective way to establish authority in your industry, your strategies are likely to be more effective if this is combined with other forms of authority marketing like webinars or events.

In a way, this is also an extension of content marketing since a lot of popular conferences and events are covered in mainstream media outlets. Your participating and speaking at these events provide these media outlets an opportunity to include your thoughts, and this is an effective strategy to enhance your industry authority.

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post Decoding The Authority Marketing Model Of Content Marketing appeared first on FourWeekMBA.

How To Integrate TikTok In Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Let’s start from the basics. If you haven’t heard of TikTok let me explain what that is.

What Is TikTok

TikTok is one of the most popular social media on the planet. It’s easy to use, entertaining and – most of all – highly addicting. In September 2018,  TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in terms of monthly install on the App Store.

This app combines the lip-syncing trends of Musical.ly (acquired by ByteDance – the company behind TikTok) and the fun of Vine (discontinued in 2016), in turn creating a place where one will be able to find viral videos with catchy songs.

This app already has a vast number of well-known content creators that have 1M+ followers each. Content creators upload daily comedic and/or entertaining videos or interact with their followers on TikTok live streamings.

The live feature allows TikTok influencers to reach millions of people at once. When looking at the bigger picture content creators have the ability to influence their followers into purchasing a new pair of shoes, downloading new apps for their smartphones, or even listening to a new song. Businesses should take a moment to look at the potential TikTok has to offer as a channel of marketing, and even for their own entertainment purposes.

TikTok for Business

Clearly, TikTok is becoming a new and alternative acquisition channel for many businesses that want to promote their products or services. Instagram has become more saturated and full of fake profiles. These people are asking for a large amount of money for something as simple as an Instagram story or a picture post. This forces companies to start searching for new opportunities in terms of budget and demographics.

A type of business that is already using TikTok as a way to increase awareness is music labels that are supported by influencer marketing agencies to make a specific song go viral. Thanks to TikTok influencers that will use it as the soundtrack of a video.

For example, The Influencer Marketing Factory helped Universal Music Denmark launched a new song by the artist K-Phax, using only 5 influencers (by creating a hashtag challenge), and in only three weeks the results have been1M+ views on the hashtags, 1000+ videos created, 5M+ reach of the song, and 10M+ combined reach of users.

How To Integrate TikTok In Your Next Marketing Campaign

Firstly, it is important to know that TikTok doesn’t allow (at least for now) a user to add a link to their organic videos. This means that no one can use TikTok as a direct way to drive traffic to a website or a landing page (as of yet), but the main goal would be to boost:

Brand awareness
Make a song viral
Launch of a new product (e.g. Sneakers)
Promotion of an app that can be easily found on the App Store using the search feature

The only way to get a link on TikTok is to spend money on their Platform Ads, which is currently in the beta phase and open for application.

With that being said, there are three points to take into consideration when creating a successful marketing campaign on TikTok:

Find the right influencers

It is crucial to find the best content creators and influencers. This can be done on your own or by hiring an influencer marketing agency to assist in the process. It is important to note that this process can be time-consuming. Agencies are usually in direct contact with the platform’s users which makes the process more efficient in terms of reducing the response time and increasing the rate of replies.

An influencer with a large following does not automatically make them the best choice. A great influencer has a community of followers that can be influenced. When looking for an influencer, a metric to take into consideration is the Engagement Rate (ER). In TikTok’s case, this can easily be calculated by: (hearts + comments) / n. Of followers * 100.

The company, in this way, can then benchmark the ER of a specific influencer with the graph below that shows the average engagement rate of the users on the social media, in order to see if they have enough engagement with their followers.

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Source: theinfluencermarketingfactory.com

Use The Right Song

Music is an important factor when it comes to TikTok videos: in fact, grabbing the viewer(s) attention is key as you have 1 second before the user scrolls down to the next video. Using a catchy song helps in achieving higher engagement, this also creates a potential domino effect of duets (that means other users make a duet video using the original) that will considerably increase the overall reach of the marketing campaign.

You can find the most used and popular songs in TikTok under the Discover section as shown in the screenshot below:

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Use The Right Tone Of Voice

TikTok is a place for entertainment that speaks its own language. With that being said, please approach the content with an open mind. Young influencers know what their followers want, so the content creator shouldn’t be forced to use a business or marketing tone.

They should be allowed freedom and creativity (which can sometimes be unique) to express themselves as this is part of their brand image, and that makes them so likable in the community.

A company’s manager may not understand the content because of slang, a new trend, a way to dance, but it doesn’t mean that the user won’t understand it, and this makes the video even more organic.

Users, especially on TikTok, look for authenticity and they don’t want to see hard-selling videos that tell them what they should be doing. Speaking the same language as the users is more effective in soft-selling a product in a way that will appeal more to younger generations.

Wrapping Up

TikTok is the new social media that is beating Instagram and YouTube and businesses shouldn’t waste a great opportunity (especially now that the market is not yet saturated) to try this app as a marketing channel to increase awareness and speak to younger generations that tend to be more susceptible to online banners and traditional ads.

Read next: TikTok Business Model: The Rise Of Creative Social Media Powered By AI

Business resources:

What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
The Complete Guide To Business Development
Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
How To Write A Mission Statement
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

The post How To Integrate TikTok In Your Digital Marketing Strategy appeared first on FourWeekMBA.