Net Promoter Score: What It Is & Why You Should Measure It

Interested in using online surveys to drive business growth? Meet the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Introduced in 2003, this simple survey question gauges overall customer satisfaction and loyalty based on their willingness to recommend a brand to others.

In this post, we’ll look at what NPS is, how it works, and why it matters to your business.

An Overview of Net Promoter Score

What is Net Promoter Score?

NPS asks a simple question: How likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague? The respondent ranks their likelihood on a scale of 0 to 10—0 being highly unlikely, 10 being extremely likely.

Fred Reichheld introduced the Net Promoter Score as measure of customer loyalty while working with Bain & Company. Reichheld demonstrated a strong relationship between this simple metric and a company’s growth, compared to its competitors. After Reichheld premiered NPS in the Harvard Business Review, companies began using it both as a standalone metric and within broader customer satisfaction surveys to gauge how customers viewed their businesses. In both cases, NPS effectively boils down a customer’s overall feelings about a brand.

Why Net Promoter Score matters

While Net Promoter Score is only a snapshot of customer sentiment, its results can spark efforts to improve customer experience, boost brand loyalty, and reduce churn. It’s a simple starting point for a more complex conversation.

Bill Macaitis, CMO of Slack and former CMO of Zendesk, told SaaS Office Hours that he believes NPS is one of the most important marketing metrics:

“One metric that most SaaS marketers don’t measure frequently, but should, is Net Promoter Score. Best in class companies achieve a score of 70 on a scale of 100, but according to Zendesk data, the typical B2B software company achieves only 29. NPS is a leading indicator of future growth. The larger the number of advocates for product, the lower the customer acquisition costs for the company, and the more effective customer success team will be.” — Macaitis

Having a solid grasp on how customers view your business is extremely important. Why?

1. Unhappy buyers are quick to share their stories. In fact, 95% of customers will tell others about a bad experience. If you can spot an unhappy customer by a low NPS rating, you can proactively reach out to mend the relationship.


2. As Reichheld said, “Evangelistic customer loyalty is clearly one of the most important drivers of growth. While it doesn’t guarantee growth, in general profitable growth can’t be achieved without it.” In other words, without customers championing it, a brand won’t go far.

The bottom line: Net Promoter Score results show a business how it can improve customer experience. Every uptick in an NPS is proven to substantially impact success.

Calculating your Net Promoter Score

The NPS survey groups respondents into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. With a quick calculation, you can produce a hard number (your Net Promoter Score). Your company can then study the results and work to improve customer sentiment.

Here’s how it works:

• Promoters respond with a 9 or 10.


• Passives respond with a 7 or 8.


• Detractors respond anywhere from 0 to 6.

To properly calculate your overall Net Promoter Score, you’ll need to subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters (% Promoters – % Detractors = NPS).

If you’re using GetFeedback for your NPS survey, you’ll get an automatic summary report with a visual histogram, like the one below. And when you integrate NPS with Salesforce, you can examine customer responses against other valuable CRM data.

So, for example, say 100 people responded to your NPS survey, and these were the results:

• 5 responded with 0 to 6 (Detractors)


• 40 responded with a 7 or 8 (Passives)


• 55 responded with a 9 or 10 (Promoters)

Your calculation would look like this: 55% – 5% = 50

Your Net Promoter Score will fall anywhere from -100 to 100, with a score above 50 considered excellent. Some of the most successful companies in the world have notoriously high Net Promoter Scores. Apple, Google, and Harley-Davidson are among them, according to Reichheld’s research.

If you’re curious about the average Net Promoter Score by industry, NPS Benchmarks is a great resource. Here are some of their findings:

As you can see, different industries have very different Net Promoter Scores. Keep this in mind when you roll out an NPS survey or include the NPS question in a CSAT survey. You can use your industry average as a benchmark to meet or beat.

The pros and cons of using NPS

As with any metric, there are pros and cons to the Net Promoter Score. You should factor these in when using NPS to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Pros:

• Easy to complete


• Fast, one-question format


• Predictive of future trends


• Metric for return on investment (ROI) that makes sense company-wide

Cons:

• Limited view of customer experience


• No specific insights (unless you follow up with an open-ended question or more specific CSAT questions)


• Location bias, based on where the NPS question appears

Start measuring Net Promoter Score today

Think of the Net Promoter Score as a starting point for a much larger strategy. It can deliver powerful insights about customer experience and serve as a constant benchmark for companies to beat.

If you’re ready to use NPS to evaluate your customer relationships, be sure to start with an effective survey as the foundation. Executed well, the Net Promoter Score can inspire major growth.

Author’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2016. It’s been updated for accuracy and freshness.

Source: B2C

Is Your Approach to Digital Marketing Old-Fashioned?

Is your company’s approach to digital marketing old-fashioned?

It is if you agree with any of these statements:

1. Digital marketing doesn’t produce a high ROI


2. A website is all I need to optimize digital marketing


3. Quantity in content is more important than quality


4. Digital marketing isn’t right for me (my industry)


5. My target market isn’t on digital platforms


6. Digital marketing is too expensive

So, let’s break it down to see why your approach to digital marketing is old-fashioned.

Your approach to digital marketing is old-fashioned if:

You think digital marketing doesn’t provide ROI

Hubspot’s digital marketing report for 2015 shows that 3X more businesses report higher ROI from digital than traditional marketing efforts. Case studies reported by Rutgers show industry leaders (and others) gain a higher ROI on digital than traditional. In fact, Nielsen reports only 18% of TV ads generate a positive ROI, despite capturing 60% of spend.

Data shows the positive (superior) impact of digital marketing on your bottom line. Maybe more important, analytics available to monitor digital marketing efforts allow you to fine tune your marketing strategy in a way that’s impossible with traditional media. With traditional marketing, you’re pretty much operating blind.

You think a website is all you need

Sure, a website is critically important for a successful online strategy, but you need more. First, you need traffic to that site and digital marketing is a key tool for sending traffic.

SEO or search engine optimization requires a focus on digital due to changes in the algorithm Google and other search engines use to determine where you show up in search.

Digital marketing efforts also increase the reach and frequency (2 key measures of how effective marketing communications are) as prospects see your message echoed by their social graph. More important, social mentions are more influential than commercial messages (ads) because people trust their social graph more than they do your biased communications (their interpretation).

You think more content is better than quality content

If your approach to digital marketing relies on throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks, you’re definitely wrong.

And, this is why you want a marketer running content rather than a journalist or English major.

Creating valuable content improves your SEO, but it also persuades visitors to close. That’s why understanding your customers (and prospects), understanding tools of influence, crafting persuasive messages, and a general understanding of marketing make a huge difference in your bottom line.

You think digital marketing isn’t right for me

I’ve heard this approach to digital marketing more times than I care to count — and it’s wrong.

Any industry can effectively use digital marketing.

• B2B firms use it for lead generation


• B2C firms use it to generate sales in stores on online


• Every business benefits from email marketing — which also requires list building


• Social advocates and evangelists amplify your message and support your brand


• Digital advertising offers better targeting, A/B testing to improve returns, and is less costly than traditional advertising


• Even firms that might find it difficult to engage customers/ prospects about their brand, can gain traction by using digital marketing to support a cause or celebrate a customer

You think your target market isn’t on digital

It’s no longer true that digital marketing only works with younger audiences. Here’s a breakdown by Business Insider of who’s buying online.

Image courtesy of Business Insider

Notice, there’s a slight drop off with older demographics, but there’s still substantial opportunity for digital marketing to older consumers, even those in their golden years.

In fact, the only demographic you can’t reach online is the under 13, and even lots of them are online.

Not only can you reach nearly every demographic using digital marketing, but, even when it’s hard to reach your target market, you’ll likely reach influencers. For instance, funeral homes can reach survivors who are often making choices for the deceased and adult children often influence purchases for their elderly parents. Even young kids influence their parents’ purchase decisions even if the parents aren’t engaging with a brand online.

You think digital marketing is too expensive

Digital marketing is the most cost-effective form of marketing. Period.

And, if you think you can make a business without doing some marketing, you’re wrong. Everyone needs some marketing spend or they’ll never reach their potential.

That said, digital marketing costs money. Having your nephew or daughter do digital marketing only works if they have expertise in marketing. The fact they have 500+ friends on Facebook doesn’t mean they have any clue about how digital marketing works — especially when it comes to monitoring and tweaking performance to optimize returns.

Also, beware of a number of fly-by-night agencies out there who will take your money without delivering a quality return. If you’re paying less than about $1000 a month, you’re with one of these agencies. Just like cheap web design or any other professional service, low price often indicates poor quality, but high price doesn’t often mean you’re getting high quality either.

Instead, read blog posts by agencies you’re considering hiring and ask yourself these questions:

• Do they show thought leadership?


• Is the agency successful with their own digital marketing?


• Is their work cited by other reputable blogs?

Also:

• look at the agency’s previous clients and get recommendations from them.


• Ask for a detailed proposal that shows some understanding of your unique needs rather than a cookie cutter approach.


• Who will handle your account — a trained marketer or someone hired by the agency with little background in marketing?

Source: B2C

Tech Solutions for Keeping a Close Relationship With Customers

Your small business is growing and life is getting hectic. Because of this, you’ve noticed that one of the first things to go as orders pour in is one-on-one customer interaction. You don’t want to lose your customer retention or your customer service because you’re not giving them the time they deserve.

The good news is that technology is here to help. Here are the best tech solutions to keep customers feeling like they are your top priority even through your growing pains.

Use Beacons for Better Marketing

What once may have been thought of as intrusive is being touted as the marketing tool of the future. Beacons use location-based Bluetooth technology found in mobile devices to send out text advertisements to customers’ phones that are nearby. Statistics show they’re working. According to Adobe Digital Marketing Blog, 98 percent of text messages are opened (unlike 30 percent of emails), and 90 percent of text messages are read within three seconds.

While polite, value-delivering emails are still a good source of revenue, these statistics alone should make you consider dedicating some advertising dollars toward text marketing. Beacons also are a great option for live events such as trade shows and location-specific sales events.

E-Commerce Sites Need a Real Phone Number

Your business needs to have a phone number on your website. Email is not the new toll-free phone number. If you have never been in a stalemate with a company that refuses to return emails, it can be endlessly frustrating if your product turns out to be a dud. Build trust and comfort with your customers by having a phone number they can call and talk to a real person. E-commerce sites should see an increase in sales, a decrease in returns and a little more love from Google when they add a phone number.

You can use the Google Voice App to get a free local phone number and have calls sent directly to your phone. The more you can cultivate a personal relationship with your customers, the more success you’ll see. This includes replying to every email, rushing important packages and personally answering phone calls from customers. In addition to providing great customer service, listening to customer questions and concerns lets you keep a finger on the pulse of your company.

Know Your Customer Well

Customer profiles, account numbers and order history are only a small part of what customer relationship management (CRM) software offers your growing company, making it one of your most important tools. If you have a physical location, having all the information needed to answer customer questions at a moment’s notice will set you apart from your competition and build a reputation for excellent customer service. CRM software also gives you the ability to more accurately and regularly obtain customer feedback, maximize retention and calculate the lifetime value of a customer.

Source: B2C

Maximize Your Mobile E-Commerce Conversion with Engaging Mobile Apps

Let’s get straight to the point. Gartner Research says that “by 2017, U.S. Customers’ Mobile engagement behavior will drive mobile commerce revenue to 50 percent of U.S. Digital Commerce Revenue”[1]

However, before diving into mobile, the challenge with e-commerce sites must be addressed first. The #1 e-commerce site pain starts with the standard e-commerce funnel. There will always be a drop off rate or in other words, a cart abandonment rate, which most sources claim is around 68%. That’s why e-commerce managers are hired — to figure out how they can convert web visitors into customers and why visitors abandon their carts in the first place… Sounds manageable, right?

No way.

Taking a look at the graphic above. You can see each stage has its own set of disadvantages. There are plenty of reasons why visitors abandon the cart. From impersonal user experiences, complicated payment conditions, to having second thoughts on the offer or product, the reasons go on and on.

However, addressing these issues doesn’t necessarily have to start at the top of the funnel.

It starts with your mobile app. Your customers spend more time on apps than any other digital channel (about 90% apps, 10% mobile sites) according to comScore[1]. Imagine tapping into your app where you can nurture users (leads) through personalized, 1-to-1 engagements, then drive them to purchase either via your e-commerce site or within your mobile commerce app.

So how can you (as a brand) accomplish better mobile e-commerce revenue? How can you drive conversion rates from mobile app engagement? Start with these 3 main points:

Phase I. Nurture them with relevant offers.

Just like an inbound marketing strategy where you nurture your web leads with content/offers that would interest them, mobile has the same nature. Translating that tactic through an app remains the question.

How do you engage your app users with content or offers that would interest them?

First, start by segmenting your persona group. A persona group should have enough valuable or actionable data about them. You need a proper integration of your CRM or e-commerce system with a constant influx of data coming into your mobile app channel. The point of data coming from all channels into your mobile channel is to better segment your persona group, or at least initially before you engage users.

After you choose your persona group, formulate the right kind of engagement that would:

A. Incentivize them to engage back (with mobile assets* as a start)

B. Track their in-app engagement data with mobile analytics setting

C. Learn about your users/customers

D. Make data-driven decisions based on such mobile engagements

D. Calculate the mobile ROI in your e-commerce conversion rate from mobile qualified leads or alternatively, mobile community leads (MCLs)

For instance, let’s say you have a large persona group of business travelers. They only check in the airport through your airline app. Because they prefer to check in via your app, why not send them a voucher for $10 off their next flight if they answer your question (the engagement).

Mobile Engaged Leads

Make sure that John can book this flight by being redirected from the app (via app deep linking) into the airline site with the promotion readily available and the confirmation of his redeemed promo in his in-app wallet. Final conversion example #1 of an omni-channel journey (mobile and e-com. site).

Final conversion example #1 of an omnichannel journey (mobile and e-com. site)

But let’s say John didn’t engage back with an answer. He was disinterested in the $10 voucher and swiped away the notification. Or he simply hit the red opt-out option below. Therefore, approach him with another offer.

Let’s say he was revisiting the app screen on “products.” He has been checking out the weather-proof spinner bag because after his flight back, he discovered his luggage got totally soaked and destroyed.

Why not offer John a voucher for $30 off the weather proof spinner if he upgrades to business class?

If he still doesn’t budge, give him a sense of urgency with a timer ticking away.

Phase II. Enable Precise and Targeted Deep Linking to E-Commerce Site Offer.

Let’s say John does click the call-to-action “Buy now” button. Guide him to the exact product page with the offer in the e-commerce site page (hence, the weather-proof spinner). In order to show him the offer, you must have the capability to enable deep linking. Without getting into the coding or development of deep linking, choosing the right mobile engagement platform can enable you to automate deep linking to the exact product page on your e-commerce site.

Speed should also be taken into account, otherwise, your lead will drop off the funnel if he or she isn’t redirected to the offer immediately. Google claims that, “When your site or app is clumsy or slow, 29% of smartphone users will immediately switch to another site or app if it doesn’t satisfy their needs”[2] At this stage, you have a much higher rate of conversion or converting the mobile user into a paying customer because he or she has been nurtured through your app. How again? Because you nurtured them with contextually relevant offers and personalized 1 on 1 engagements, seen in phase I. John needed that waterproof spinner and you approached him at the right time (he’s back home from the flight), in the right context (he had a history of looking at that spinner on the app) and with the right format/offer (which is the product page on the e-commerce site). Now let’s say John finishes the transaction. He has officially completed the funnel.

At this stage, you have a much higher rate of conversion or converting the mobile user into a paying customer because he or she has been nurtured through your app. How again? Because you nurtured them with contextually relevant offers and personalized 1 on 1 engagements, seen in phase I. John needed that waterproof spinner and you approached him at the right time (he’s back home from the flight), in the right context (he had a history of looking at that spinner on the app) and with the right format/offer (which is the product page on the e-commerce site). Now let’s say John finishes the transaction. He has officially completed the funnel. Now what?

Phase III. Constantly Question Your App’s Value Proposition and Omni-channel Strategy Through Each Conversion.

Whatever your app stands for (the value proposition) one thing is for sure, you have to constantly ask yourself, what is the value of my app for my users like John? What can they learn? What info will help them or make their lives easier? What products are they looking for and how can I help guide them to the right choice/place? How can I keep them engaged, active and keep them coming back?

At the same time, you must ask yourself, what is important for my business so that I can drive conversion rates up and make more sales? How can I better my omnichannel strategy with constantly refined data to/from my app channel? Specifically, what type of important data can I draw from user engagement inside the app and in the e-commerce site?

The questions go on. But this is just the beginning of a new, uncharted territory between high qualified mobile leads going into the e-commerce funnel all through the power of a mobile engagement solution. If you’d like to see this in action, I recommend you to see a demo.

[1] http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2971917 [2] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/speed-is-key-optimize-your-mobile-experience.html

Source: B2C

3 Things You Should NOT Do With Your FMCG Mobile App

The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is experiencing a major shift in the marketplace due to technology. As consumers continue to uphold mobile as an irreplaceable aspect of their daily lives, FMCG must adapt technologically with the times. 235 billion apps were downloaded in the year of 2015! In fact, consumers spend almost 90% of their time in apps rather than mobile sites and television.

Never in history did brands have such an amazing opportunity to drive engaging dialogues with users. And for FMCG brands, this is the ultimate chance to finally be able to create a direct communication channel with customers. As a two fold, one of the biggest issues FMCG brands have been facing for decades is communicating with consumers directly. In the past, the only way to reach consumers is via retailers and reaching the “top shelves.”

However, the bigger the opportunity, the bigger the challenge. How will brands reach their mobile consumers? And by which means can they build brand awareness, brand advocacy and ultimately influence consumers’ buying decisions?

The simple answer is by being “engaging.”

But first, let’s define what exactly “engaging” is.

The keywords “involve someone in a conversation” by “drawing in” “captivating” or “engrossing” someone’s attention or interest pretty much hits the nail on the head. The problem is that most of the consumer-facing brands are so far unable to truly create one-on-one dialogues, meaningful engagements and offer exceptional mobile customer experiences.

Now we’ve reached a point where B2C brands need to deliver an exceptional mobile experience. Rather than pushing out noise through traditional means of advertising or impersonal SMS messages and push messages, brands should focus on smarter ways to engage.

Thus, with the right tools and a superb mobile marketing strategy, FMCG brands have the opportunity to directly communicate and set up engagements with the end-consumer through the FMCG app empowered by an intelligent mobile app engagement platform. Gone are the days when FMCG brands used to fight other brands to domineer on the top retail shelves. But now FMCG brand can win back customers via the app. However, many large FMCG brands still don’t know how to start regarding user engagement. Let’s start off the list with engagement mistakes #1.

1. Not conversing with contextual relevancy

Like any good relationship, it takes dedication to maintain it from both parties. It isn’t one-way street. Getting to know your consumers on a hyper-contextual and personal level is key. How? Focus on listening to your consumers across all customer touch-points. Then engage back in the right context. Perhaps your app has some goals like selling your product, pushing product information, sending news, offering coupons.

That sounds all fine and well. However, how are you listening to them? Do you monitor on how they engage back with you? Did they provide you valuable feedback? Do you give them a chance to voice their opinion on something? Do you know if they enjoyed the mobile experience? What type of data are you actually gathering from the engagements? Can you gather actionable data like in-app data, location data, weather data, social data, and so forth? And do you actually use this data to further understand and provide better value to your consumers?

A powerful mobile app engagement platform deployed into an app and integrated into your backoffice systems is the first step. You’ll want to drive a powerful omnichannel journey that draws data from multiple touchpoints. A journey that allows you to not only engage with your customers in one on one dialogues, but offers a wealth of m-CRM (mobile CRM data). Therefore, you will further create better context and precise, automated engagement decisions. Without contextual data, you stand the risk of annoying your users with ill-planned engagements and irrelevant offers. Keep in mind, that each engagement has its right time and place.

2. Not mastering the science of location-awareness touchpoints

Where there’s a time and a place for each engagement, there’s one thing you must repeat ad nausea like a real-estate agent, “Location, location, location!” Adopting location technology gives FMCG brands opportunities to create delightful ‘mobile moments’. These potential moments can boost engagement by leveraging off a customer’s location.

However, a huge mistake FMCG brands make is to use location triggers as a way to send push messages alone. Many brands think under the disguise they’re actually doing something “engaging”. This approach fails and results in non-contextual, impersonal, and typically annoying customer interactions. This is not well received by customers as it feels intrusive, or even creepy and does not deliver a good experience. Beacons are an important ingredient, but they should be used with other integrated data sources. Most importantly, they should be used in the right context of a sequential customer journey.

Location awareness should be used, but not abused. On the other hand, most brands don’t know how to maximize the power of location awareness technology. For example, beacons can be an amazing tool to drive omnichannel mobile experiences as well as boosting mobile engagement. For example, let’s say your brand sells pasta. If a first time customer who happens to be a student is nearby a shelf with your branded pasta boxes. Wouldn’t it be interesting to send them a video recipe which uses your pasta (and pasta sauce) to get them inspired?

If they do decide to engage and watch the full video, give them a small discount end of the video. If they do end up buying the pasta, engage them when they reach their home (through battery friendly GEO technology) and ask if they’d like to cook up the pasta recipe at home. Encourage them to share a picture of the finished pasta meal on social media (Instagram maybe? and tag your brand). Next, award them with a follow-up discount on their next purchase in store. Now you’ve engaged the consumer through multiple channels: in-store, mobile and social media.

Well done!

3. Not offering mobile experiences with relevant ‘assets’

Boosting engagement by designing well-thought out, personalized mobile journeys starts off with actions. Enable your consumers to accomplish these actions – and ultimately convert, depending on your goal. For example, buying, increasing brand awareness, playing among a community, promoting your brand through advocacy and so forth, can fuel great mobile experiences. Throughout your designed mobile journey, are you giving consumers different means to engage with you? In the mobile world, allowing consumers to engage with your FMCG app through different ‘assets’ is the key to unlocking engagement opportunities.

But what exactly are assets? Well, assets are, but not limited to, high quality, creatively rich, interactive engagement tools like coupons, vouchers, surveys, polls, messages, 3D product models, videos, loyalty points, games, etc. – all native designed to be displayed in a pixel perfect way on the screen of the mobile app device – thus, delivering a very rich experience to the customer. Assets can be sent to users even if their device is closed.

Through a dynamic mobile engagement platform, a marketer can set up automated and contextually relevant assets in order to improve the mobile experience. For example, your brand sells men’s razors and your goal is to get young guys excited about the “Zilver” razor. Would it be more meaningful to engage John through a push message which says,

“Hey, try our new Zilver razor and get a discount”?

Or show him a 3D spinning model of the new Zilver razor which he’s been eyeing for the last 10 minutes in the aisle (beacon detected). Then give him a run down on the cool functionalities of the razor. Or perhaps offer him a little game to play to get a reward such as a discount if he shares the game through social?

Hopefully, you’d NOT chose the push message option. Push messages are NOT ALWAYS the most appropriate or engaging asset. If John does end up buying the razor, as he exits the store, you could send him a push message thanking him for the purchase. Or perhaps offer a beautifully branded customer satisfaction poll. Here’s an even more powerful mobile journey to inspire you- all stages are possible to create and automate through the MobileBridge platform.

fmcg mobile journey

Recap on boosting engagement for FMCG apps

Overall, executing a great omnichannel mobile engagement strategy will result in very effective customer engagement. The good surprise it’s quite easy to do. Here’s a quick overview on the list.

1. Roll out your strategy with a well-thought out engagements plan. Make sure it enables 1 to 1 contextual dialogues that leverages your data in an omnichannel approach. Make sure to present your FMCG app with clear value and track every single engagement through actionable data.

2. Don’t forget to include location touchpoints (like beacons). Therefore, you can unlock potentially great mobile moments based on where your customer was, is and where he or she is going.

3. Lastly, offer your customers exceptional mobile experiences through contextually relevant assets. Use each asset as a means to engage with users, gather actionable data. Therefore, assets enable you to make more precise engagement decisions in the future and ultimately convert your consumers. “Fixing” your existing FMCG app can be done with very little effort and within a very short amount of time. The key of course is choosing the right mobile app engagement platform.

Like to know more about FMCG app engagement?

Download our eBook on “What You Need to Know About Mobile Engagement” here

GET MY EBOOK

Source: B2C

Triple Your Study Speed with this App

If you often review pdf or E-Pub documents and take notes from them then you need MarginNote Pro. No ifs or buts, this will dramatically increase your Study efficiency. Let’s review MarginNote for IOS.

Pros

• Extremely efficient way to create outline notes, mindmaps and flashcards from selected Text and diagrams in E-Books.


• Highlighting text & diagrams, tagging, search, additional comments and voice notes. It’s all there and more.


• Integrates with other mindmapping programs and Evernote


• Hierarchical document management system

Cons

• Post processing of the outline/mindmap is necessary to create a hierarchy from the highlights.


• The resultant mindmap is a bit messy as there is no central node. Exporting to iThoughtsHD remedies this.


• Takes some time to learn the full functionality

Bottom Line

Without doubt, the fastest and easiest way I have found to make notes from E-Books. I could not contemplate using any other method at this point. Other methods now look tedious and feature constrained in comparison to MarginNote Pro which really boosts productivity.

Introduction

I stumbled onto MarginNote Pro by accident. I had independently created my own tool to create mindmaps from pdf highlights to make my study and note taking more efficient. I was referred to MarginNote after posting this article and I have to say Sun Min did a much superior job than my simple tool. It is extremely powerful and one only has to refer to the user manual to get some feeling for this. Should you be in the middle of eating your cornflakes, best put down that spoon. I would not want anyone to be choking when I relate the size of the user manual – it is a whopping 144 pages. 144 pages! When was the last time you read a 144 page user manual for an IOS app?

I fell into the depths of despair at the prospect of having to condense this tome into a 1500 word review for my readers. I likely can’t do it justice, but let’s have a go in this review of MarginNote Pro.

User Interface

As with my normal app review, let’s start off with the user interface of MarginNote Pro. There are quite a few different views so we begin with the Top Level document management. This is a fairly straightforward affair where you can organize your pdfs and E-Pub files. Folders can be created to categorize the documents. It is also possible to retrieve the files from Dropbox, iCloud or to import from other IOS apps.

MarginNotes Document Management

Most of your time though will be spent reading documents, so you will be staring for prolonged periods at the screen below. There are four key areas,

• The centre shows the E-Book in question. To highlight any text or dragram, drag straight onto the area of the page that you want to select. That is sufficient to highlight that text or diagram in one step.


• The top enables switching between different views – Book text, Outline, Mindmap or indeed combinations of these.


• The bottom provides some options for adding comments and freehand drawing


• Finally the right of the page shows the page comments and you can also add voice notes which will show up here.

MarginNotes Pro Main Book viewing screen

This main screen is the MarginNotes view where you are really creating the content and notes that you wish to review or study at a later time. The review of that information can be done using outline, mindmaps, flashcards or a combination of those. That we review in the next section.

Features and Functions

The primary function of MarginNote is for a reader to define key pieces of information in an E-Book, supplement it with additional notes and make those two pieces of information available for review in a condensed format. So, there are 2 parts to this process. The definition of the information and the review of that information. First the former of the two.

There are several ways in which you can create the review material in MarginNotes.

1. Directly selecting a section of text. This is a simple one step to procedure to create a highlight and is very efficient. A small window also opens where the colour can be changed or additional information added.


2. Dragging across a diagram will also create a highlight for that diagram. It will appear in the outline or mindmap view as the diagram. The short video below indicates how quick and simple it is to highlight text and diagrams.

3. Selecting text also enables comments to be added. So, select the highlighted text, hit the comments button on the pop up window and you can enter additional comments on the text.


4. Voice messages. On the right comments bar there is a little microphone button at the bottom. If you wish to dictate some thoughts on the text, also possible by hitting that little button. You can get some idea of the power of the additional comments section in the video below.

5. Free hand drawing. Hit the button at the bottom for freehand and you can directly draw on the pdf. Again this drawing will become a highlighted item that can be searched for and listed with all the other highlighted text, diagrams and notes.

After highlighting and annotating a book, it is time to view that information. The screenshot below shows two options. On the left we have the outline view and on the right the mindmap. Any change to one will immediately reflect in the other. The outline view is a hierarchical view of all the highlighted items and you can easily change the indent or position of any of the notes.

One tedious part that I have found here though is the creation of the hierarchy. By default, all outline items will be at the same level and one needs to indent each item appropriately. TIP: To make for quicker and easier organization of the highlighted items, colour code them to indicate where they stand in the hierarchy. I use Red for top level headings, then Yellow for sub-headings and blue for paragraph text.

Hybrid Outline and Mindmap view

Naturally, the outline view is hierarchical and can be expanded and contracted as one wishes. It is also possible for the app to create flash cards with the same information as a useful aid to memorization of the information.

As you can see from the screenshot above, MarginNote does not really do an excellent job of organizing the mindmap notes. I find iThoughtsHD to be much better in this regard so would TIP: Recommend to export the final mindmap to iThoughtsHD for easier viewing.

View of the complete mindmap in iThoughtsHD

As you create more annotated books the need for search functionality increases and thankfully MarginNote has your back. It is possible to tag comments and quickly filter for those comments on any of the annotated E-Books as well as conducting text searches.

Text and Tag Search Functionality

A couple of other nice features to mention. From highlighted text it is also possible to use that text as a search term in the MarginNote Web browser for further research. Photos and comments can also be added to the comments section of any note.

Platforms

Currently MarginNote is available on two platforms, IOS and Mac. In my opinion, it is ideally suited to a touch interface and so if you are interested to buy then it may be better to go for the latter of the two.

Fortunately MarginNote also integrates well with other apps. E-book files can be imported from cloud services such as Dropbox or iCloud and can even convert web pages to Epub format for annotation. Various export options include

• Omnioutliner


• Mindmanager, iThoughtsHD


• Evernote sync


• As annotated pdf

Pricing

Pricing for the IOS version of MarginNote Pro is a very reasonable $7.99, while the Mac version is $32.99.

Last Words

I think we can wrap this up with a bit of logic.

If,

You have an iPad AND

You use said iPad for consuming E-Books AND

You wish to highlight/annotate those books for reference THEN

Get this App!

I think it is a great tool and very powerful and has certainly changed the way I take notes from E-Books for the better. One slight downside that comes as a consequence of the functionality is that there will be some learning curve involved so you may want to have a browse of the 144-page manual. Stick with it and you will find it to be a boon for your study efficiency. In my non-scientific study, I typically could review a book and make notes 2-3 times faster than normal. Recommended.

Source: B2C

Answering Eight Key Questions Will Help You Get A Job Offer

The hiring manager will want you to answer these eight key questions before giving you an executive-level job offer in marketing.

This list of questions is modified from a Marketing Executives Networking blog by Lisa Fernow “Not Hearing about Any Good Innovations?” that recommended asking similar questions when looking to understand potential innovations.

1. What’s that mean in English?

This is Lisa’s and my favorite question. Whether trying to get support for an innovation, writing a résumé, or answering an interview question: Be clear. Be specific. Be understood.

Your content must be understood to have a positive impact. And just as important, you must come across as honest, straightforward, and able to communicate to be a viable candidate.

2. What critical problem(s) do you solve?

You usually have to prove that you already have done what they believe the company needs the new hire to accomplish.

3. Who really cares?

You need to clearly communicate to the hiring manager:

• Why they should care about what you can do for the company and him/herself; and


• How you can make buyers care more about the company and its products and services.

4. What’s really at stake for them beyond fixing the obvious problem/need?

This is a BOGO: they can hire you to solve the primary problem and get a secondary benefit for free.

5. What is the company doing today that you can improve?

It’s important to study the company and be able to discuss (after the appropriate hedge that you can’t know as much as an insider) some ideas for improvement and change based on your previous successes.

One caution: I once suggested changing a program that was championed by my interviewer. Game over. No job offer.

Regardless, successful candidates usually have to make some suggestions based on limited knowledge.

6. Why are you superior to other candidates and how can you prove this?

You likely will be seen as superior to other candidates if you can get the hiring committee to reach these three positive conclusions about your capabilities and especially attitude.

• You can do the job.


• You will like working for the company and boss and can effectively work with peers and the CEO.


• They will like working with you.
  
  • Never forget: People hire people, not just recitations of responsibilities, companies, job titles, and bulleted accomplishments.
  
  

7. Can you walk me through a concrete example of your relevant accomplishments?

The key is to directly and quickly lead the interviewer through what s/he wants to talk about (relevant to them) using an approach similar to PAR or SAR:

• Problem/Situation, Action, Result

You also can start with the result as long as you make the journey impressive and understandable.

There are several other approaches that can help you organize your thoughts into very short stories with a beginning, middle and end.

8. What’s the simplest way we can decide?

You need to help the hiring manager and committee decide that they want you. The classic approaches still work:

• Do homework and preparation going into the interviews.


• Position yourself relative to the company’s needs/opportunities.


• Answer these eight questions during the job-hiring process.


• Prepare important/relevant/impactful people who have worked with you to give tailored recommendations linking the company’s needs to your successes and especially your character.


• See question six above.


• Follow up.

Lisa’s earlier blog primarily emphasized the importance of asking questions to improve communications. I’ve slightly rewritten her questions and illustrated how they need to be answered to get a job offer.

Source: B2C