10 Ways to Use Social Media to Enhance Your Qualifications as the Top Marketing Candidate

StockSnap / Pixabay

Unless you’ve been hiding out under a rock, you know social media (and social media staffing) is an incredibly powerful tool for brands wanting to build a strong digital presence. This is also true for marketers’ personal brands – whether you’re looking for a new job or looking to get out of your current one, social media can be a great tool for building your credibility.

From Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn to Snapchat, the power of these major social networking platforms can be a valuable weapon in helping you advance your marketing career down the right path. It is one of the most effective tools in not only building corporate brands but also your personal brand and reputation as a professional.

The hiring and executive recruitment process has dramatically transformed, especially in the digital marketing world. Whether you believe it’s fair or not, recruiters and employers are going to check social media profiles to find top candidates and . This is doubly important for marketing professionals, who will not only be judged by their behavior on social channels but also how deftly they use them.

As a marketing recruitment agency, we’ve come across a lot of mistakes that marketing professionals make on social media that unfortunately hinder their potential for a new job and career growth. A poor social media presence can cost you to lose out on a great job opportunity.

Marketing Recruitment Agency Provide Tips to Help Advance Your Marketing Career in the Right Path

According to CareerBuilder, 70 percent of employers say they use social media to consider candidates before choosing to hire them. CareerBuilder also found that 61 percent of companies are looking for certain information to support candidates’ qualifications for jobs through their social media profiles. In addition:

• 50 percent are looking to see if a candidate has a professional online persona


• 37 percent consider what others are posting about a candidate


• 24 percent are looking for any reason to not hire a candidate

Taking the time to polish up your social media profiles to be in great standing is so important – especially if you’re applying for certain fields like social media marketing. Improve your chances of being hired by using the powers of social media to enhance your skills and credibility as the top candidate for the job.

Here are a few ways to enhance your social media marketing profiles when looking to advance your career and how to successfully make yourself stand out in a crowded job market.

1. Be Present and Active on Social Media

You may think it’s better off to have no social networking accounts at all when looking for a job but social media has become such an integral part of how we communicate – personally and professionally. In fact, 57 percent of companies are less likely to start the interview process with a candidate they can’t find online.

It may sound a bit ridiculous that being present on social media is necessary to be considered for a job but if used strategically, your social media can open up great opportunities for your career.

2. Stay Active on Social Media

Just as it’s important to be present on social media, it’s even more important to be active. It’s one thing to have social media but successfully keeping up with it is where it counts.

Fully equip all of your accounts with updated, relevant information regarding your work experience and skills. Display all of your valuable accomplishments and awards. This is especially important for platforms like LinkedIn where your skills and work history hold the spotlight.

Your resume should match up with the information you have on your actual profile. Any information that doesn’t match up on any one of your social accounts will confuse recruiters and employers so pay attention to all of the details – incomplete and inaccurate information will make you seem unprofessional and unprepared.

Also, don’t forget to have a professional profile picture and show off that great smile!

3. Show Off Your Personality + Creativity

Marketing recruitment agencies always consider how candidates will fit in with the culture of a company. Sure you may have all of the necessary technical skills and valuable experience, but if your personality isn’t a great match with the company, it could be a recipe for disaster.

36 percent of companies have said that someone’s creativity displayed through social media made an impact on a hiring decision. Use your social media networks to show off your personality and creativity – show them that you’re more than just a one-dimensional marketing robot! Your personality and charisma can help you seal the deal on a job offer.

4. Be Cautious of Everything You Post

This is obvious but one that needs constant reiteration. One of the biggest mistakes marketing recruitment agencies see candidates make is posting tasteless content, thinking it won’t be seen by employers. However, the Internet is an open space to see everything and even dig up old dirt so make sure to be conscientious of what you post.

If you’re afraid you might slip up and want to be cautious, you can make your profiles private from the public on Twitter and Instagram. You also have the option to configure Facebook’s extensive privacy settings. However, keep in mind that keeping your social media so private may deter hiring recruiters away, and like you’re hiding something. Police your social media profiles with a watchful eye.

You want to project yourself as professional a candidate as possible. Instead of being cautious of things you shouldn’t post that would prevent you from getting a job, focus on things you should post to increase your chances of getting one instead.

5. Make Valuable Connections

Connecting with other professionals in your industry is a great way to build your credibility. Join relevant groups on LinkedIn and Facebook and engage with them to effectively grow your network. Simply introduce yourself to other professionals and post relevant content to build your validity as a marketing expert.

Building long-lasting relationships with other professionals will help you make a great impression that could increase the chances of them reaching out to you for future job and work opportunities.

If you’ve connected with current and former colleagues, managers, and direct reports over the years (and you should have), try to get some recommendations from them. That’s one of the best ways you can stand out to any marketing recruiter,

6. Actively Look for Jobs

You’ve probably come across major job search engines like Monster, ZipRecruiter and Indeed. While these platforms are great sources to look for jobs, actively looking for jobs on companies’ Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages is important as well.

Take advantage of search engines on social media networks to find new job openings and positions. LinkedIn is the primary social media platform to look for new opportunities and connect with employers. Social media giant Facebook has a Jobs feature that helps connect employers and job seekers. Google has also recently released its Google for Jobs tools that works as a great search engine to discover new marketing opportunities.

Sitting and passively waiting for a job to fall in your lap isn’t going to increase your chances of landing a new job. Follow companies in your field and industry to get the most recent updates on new job openings and relevant news.

7. Use Relevant Keywords

Marketing recruitment firms and employers use certain keywords to search for in resumes when looking for potential candidates. Make sure you include relevant keywords that fit the job position you’re applying for in your resume, LinkedIn profile, and wherever else you see fit.

For example, if you’re applying for an SEO analyst position, include keywords like “SEO strategy” or “keyword analysis” to boost your visibility in the search engine. Incorporating keywords employers are looking for will grow your chances of being found among a mass of potential candidates.

8. Be Easily Reachable

On the appropriate networks, like LinkedIn, make sure directions to contact you can be easily found so recruiters can contact you conveniently.

Most social networks have different settings you can adjust to make it possible for someone to engage with you, even if you don’t have an immediate connection.

Frequently check your inbox on your social media accounts to respond as quickly as possible to potential employers reaching out to you. Today’s marketing jobs are filled fast! Time is crucial and can be a determining factor of whether you get a job or not.

9. Blog

Just like businesses use blogs to share industry knowledge and stay relevant, consider writing an article that’s relevant to the position you’re applying for. This will show that you have extensive knowledge in the industry and a great way to demonstrate your great communication skills – something that every employer values.

This doesn’t mean you have to start your own blog or website – you can write relevant pieces of content on LinkedIn! However, if you do happen to have your own blog, post it on LinkedIn as well to make it easily accessible for recruiters to read. Make yourself a resource for knowledge and industry advice – taking the time to share your expertise will certainly impress employers.

10. Police your social media even after you get the job

Got the job you’ve been going after? Congrats! You’ve passed the rigorous social media screening process and have been accomplished getting the position. However, don’t fall in the trap of thinking your social presence is now a separate entity from your professional life… These two aspects are connected now more than ever.

Marketing recruitment agencies often find that marketers neglect or misuse their social media networks after they get a job, which is a big mistake. Employees still have to be careful of what they post on social – your employer can easily find your profiles and see all of your online activity.

Don’t complain how much you hate you coworkers or about that annoying customer you had to deal with – your boss won’t hesitate to take action. One small mishap can cause you to lose that position you worked so hard to get.

Source: B2C

5 Things Online Retailers are Doing to Stand Out from their Competition

Brick and mortar retail is taking a hit. Recently, many of the major retailers such as Macy’s and Sears have announced stores closing all over the United States. While some believe it is due to a weak economy, the reality is that online sales are killing walk-in retail.

Stores that want to make money need to have an online presence. Over the last 20 years, ecommerce has taken off and has now become one of the most used shopping methods by consumers.

The more stores that have an online footprint, the more crowded it has become. As with brick and mortar, stores need to find a way to stand out online. The lack of knowledge of how to run an ecommerce platform has caused many retailers to fail in the online game.

The number of options afforded to ecommerce players are endless (website designs, shopping carts, etc.), making it more difficult to stand out from the crowd if you don’t have the right setup. If you cannot differentiate yourself from the competition, you may as well shut down your site.

“Having so many good options – and some lingering bad options too – can make the process of picking an ecommerce platform seem more complicated,” writes Armando Roggio for Practical Ecommerce.

So, what are the better ecommerce players doing to stand out from their competition.

1. Eliminating Clutter and Reduce Steps

Ever clicked on a website and immediately feel information overload? How long before you clicked off simply because you didn’t feel like navigating through it?

My point exactly.

Eliminating clutter has helped many ecommerce stores to stand out. And clutter means more than just pages with too much information.

“De-clutter the page and limit the amount of information you ask from the user,” writes Khalid Saleh for Usability Geek. “Use smart forms that pull in city, state information, etc. from the zip code. Leverage Google auto-fill forms to help users checkout faster.”

Basically, retailers need a website that is easy to use (both navigation-wise and checkout-wise). People abandoning shopping carts because they have to input too much information is common. After all, people can find the same or similar products through a competitor who doesn’t make things so difficult.

So how do you eliminate steps? Saleh makes a great point above. Use auto-fill if you can and don’t make people jump from one screen to another to complete the checkout process.

Companies such as Amazon.com have this down. Ever seen their 1-click ordering? Once you have your account set up, all you need to do is click the buy button and everything is completed for you. No going to multiple screens or filling in the same information over and over.

Amazon.com dash buttons allow consumers to simply push the button and place a preset order for certain products. Out of laundry soap? Simply click the button next to the washer. Image obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

Amazon.com even goes a step further by offering “Amazon Dash Buttons” where you don’t even have to be on a computer to place an order.

2. Quality as the Main Focus

Quality, quality, quality!

Gone are the days of seeking the absolute rock-bottom price. People are now looking for value and are willing to pay, as long as they receive quality.

Great examples are freelance marketplaces, Upwork and Freelancer. I will not call out which one I think is better, but I will say that one has a vigorous screening process for freelancers. If you are looking for quality, one excels above the other. While you may get a better deal on one, you receive better quality on the other.

Many retailers offer quality guarantees on products, including offering free shipping on returns so that buyers don’t pay out of pocket when there is an issue. Getting rid of things like “restocking fees” have helped sites earn repeat business.

By focusing on quality, customers know they can trust that site and will return over and over while the competition still struggles to convert new customers.

3. Being Socially Responsible Helps the Bottom Line

We are in an era where being socially responsible is rewarding, both personally and professionally.

“People like to feel that they are doing good for the world,” writes Thomas Smale for Entrepreneur, “even when they’re shopping online. From the user’s perspective, seeing that you, the brand owner, have donated a portion of your revenue will seem a selfless act. And it will help the user feel good about doing business with you.”

While we receive the joy of helping others, companies have found that corporate social responsibility has also helped them stand out from their competition.

How much does it help, you ask?

A 2013 study conducted by Cone Communications and Echo Research reported by Entrepreneur.com showed that 82 percent of consumers in the United States consider corporate social responsibility when deciding where to shop. 82 percent!!!

Companies such as Walmart, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola give away a lot of cash to charitable causes. Walmart alone gave $301 million to charitable efforts in 2015.

This is one reason why companies are very open about their charitable work. In fact, some businesses are even giving a percentage of sales to charities. This is an easy way to market their corporate social responsibility.

SRR presenting a check to the United Way in 2010. The company donates $500 to the choice charity of company employees who works a month without a lost day due to work related injury. Image obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

Finally, companies that want to take things a step further are inviting employees to choose the charitable programs the company gets involved with. This is a way to turn employees into brand ambassadors while at the same time participating in corporate social responsibility. A win/win for the company.

4. Elimination of Hidden Fees

I hate hidden fees! (Don’t we all?)

Think about ordering a pizza online. While your bill may initially be $15 (thankfully as you may only have a 20 spot), by the time they add on the delivery fee you are at $22.

Hidden fees are not only my pet peeve, but for many others too. According to Time.com (who also points out the frustration of pizza delivery fees), “the only thing these fees do is mislead the consumer by adding a hidden mark-up to the advertised price.”

And that is exactly how consumers feel – misled.

There are some that have eliminated hidden fees, but as Time.com points out, these fees are needed to recoup the cost of doing business. What many retailers don’t get is that people will gladly pay these fees if they know about them upfront and are not surprised by the markup at the last minute.

No Surprise Pricing: costs presented upfront vs. hidden from customer. Image obtained from Quality Logo Products website.

Some retailers have made the choice to be upfront about their pricing from the start instead of displaying fees later in the buying process. As shown above, Chicago-based promotional products distributor Quality Logo Products is doing just that. They are changing this frustrating trend with what they refer to as No Surprise Pricing. Visitors to the website see all associated fees from the beginning to the end of their order. The price on screen also self-adjusts in real time based on any changes made during the customization process.

5. Professional Photos over Stock Photos

Simple enough. Using professional photos can set you apart from others who are using the same stock photos.

There are only a few websites out there which have free images. In fact, there are really only a few quality sites that offer paid images. Regardless, everyone is using the same images.

So why not use your own?

“A stock image risks being no more distinctive than a black T-shirt at a heavy metal concert,” writes Jonathan Crossfield for Content Marketing Institute. He makes a good point which is why retailers wanting to stand out should avoid using them.

If you want some proof behind the madness, look no further than Neilson Norman. In 2010, they published a study showing that some types of stock photos are completely ignored. This means that people will see your website as if it is your competitors. You are trying to stand out, not blend in.

When I talk about professional photography, I don’t necessarily mean you need to hire an expensive photographer. You can do your own photography to both save money and stand out from stock images.

Final Thoughts

As with any business, standing out from your competitors is vital. If you can’t do so, you will drown in the sea of competition.

For those in the ecommerce space, this is even more important. With so many people selling their products or services online, you must find a way to shine through in order to convert customers that would otherwise buy from someone else.

Using things such as quality, bottom line pricing, and corporate social responsibility are all good ways to help stand out.

What methods do you use to stand out? What examples from other websites can you share for others to see?

Source: B2C

5 Ways to Escape from Your Job Search Rut

It’s hard to imagine anything more dispiriting than a job search rut. You desperately want new employment. You’ve made your resume and cover letter, you’ve reached out to your contacts, you’ve hit the pavement looking for openings—and nothing. You’ve not gotten any calls or interviews, much less job offers. You are, simply put, stuck.

The good news is, there are ways to get yourself unstuck. Rather than throwing in the towel, try these ways out of your job search rut.

Talk to people.

One of the most harrowing parts of the job search process is that so much of it is done online these days, without any room for human interaction.

That can take its toll emotionally and psychologically—so break out of that rut. Reach out to former co-workers and ask to have lunch or coffee with them. Mine your LinkedIn contacts for people you could get together with face-to-face.

You can view it as networking, or simply as a chance to get face time with actual humans. Either way, it will bolster your spirits—and possibly lead to some new doors opening, too.

Get feedback on your resume.

If your resume isn’t getting any bites, it could be that it’s just not a well-conceived resume.

Our resume writing experts can take a look and immediately diagnose any problems—and present you with a new resume that gets everything right.

Freshen up your LinkedIn profile.

Likewise, our team can help you optimize your LinkedIn page—boosting your chances of getting found by online recruiters within your industry.

Don’t leave it to chance. Get a LinkedIn profile that has all the right keywords in all the right places.

Broaden your search.

We’re not suggesting you change industries altogether. We’re just saying that, if your search is stuck, it could be that the focus is too narrow.

Try searching for jobs that maybe don’t quite fit the parameters you’ve been looking for in the past. Stretch yourself—just a little. Or simply try searching for similar positions with different job titles.

Take care of yourself.

It really is disheartening to be stuck in a job search that doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. That can rob you of some of your mental health and happiness, so make sure to take care of yourself.

Schedule some time for you—to do some yoga, get a massage, or just hit the gym. Whatever helps you deal with stress and anxiety in a healthy manner, that’s what you should be doing. And who knows? It may be just what you need to get some new perspective or a fresh burst of energy for your job search.

Source: B2C

5 Tips to Improve the Conversion Rate of your Landing Page

Landing pages are the engine of online advertising, playing a huge role in campaigns from nearly any channel. Every landing page should be laser-targeted to a specific segment of the market. A lot of attention is paid to headlines, copy, and the general layout of landing pages without giving the proper attention to the core tenants of web design. You can have the greatest copy in the world, but if your visitors are confused by the layout of your page you’ll have a hard time converting them into customers.

As you begin to take stock of your landing pages and find ways to improve them, keep these tips to improve conversion rates in mind:

Embrace and Optimize for Mobile

By 2020, nearly 90% of people in the United States will own a smartphone. Already, more than 50% of all internet traffic comes from users on a mobile device. If you aren’t taking mobile users into account when designing your landing pages, you are leaving money on the table. Mobile devices can be difficult to design for since there are many different sizes of screens, resolution, and software to account for. Ensuring that your landing pages use responsive tech is a good starting point.

Make sure that you are using testing software to see how your website looks when loaded on a variety of mobile operating systems. While you should focus on the latest versions of both iOS and Android — it is important to remember that most people are slow to upgrade. A page that loads improperly is almost always a lost conversion.

Use Heatmaps to Eliminate Distractions

Heatmaps are tools that allow you to track mouse movements on your landing pages. It can give you a good idea of what portions of your landing pages are working, and which portions are not. Most users mirror their eye movements with their mouse pointer, providing insight into the areas of your page that your users are looking at most frequently.

It’s common sense that you should place important call to actions and page elements where your visitors are looking. But, few recommend using heatmaps to spot distractions. What phrases, pictures, or text is causing them to look away from the most important parts of your copy? Are users becoming distracted by specific parts of your pages? Most use heatmap images to show them where to place things, but using heatmaps to spot the parts of your pages that are distracting to users is just as useful.

Don’t Ask for Too Much

One of the biggest factors in your ability to capture a lead or complete a sale is the amount of information that you ask for from users. Asking for a name and email is usually something that most visitors are willing to do. But, asking for an address, phone number, or other personal information can quickly dissuade users from joining your mailing list. Limit the amount of information that you ask your users to submit, and you’ll see immediate improvements in conversion rates. A good example of this comes from Eligibility, who doesn’t even ask for a name — just a state and email in their form.

When you call a visitor to action within your copy, the easier that you can make that action the more likely they are to complete it. If someone asked you to take out the trash, you would probably say “sure,” and go do it. But, if someone asked you to help them remodel their home, you might be a little taken aback. The same principle applies to your customers. Asking too much of them is more likely to drive them away.

Use Video and Images to Complement Copy

They say that half of people are “visual learners,” meaning that they retain more information when it is presented to them visually, rather than in text. That’s a lot of people that you are forgetting about if you aren’t reinforcing your copy with images or video that conveys the important messaging.

Too often the pictures on landing pages are chosen because they look good on the page. These pictures inhabit valuable screen real estate that would be better used to deliver marketing messaging and drive home the most important aspects of your copy.

Videos are an excellent way to use a small amount of screen real estate to deliver a lot of information. No matter how long your video is it always take up the same amount of space on the screen. So the next time that you are thinking of putting that stock photo on your landing page, consider whether the investment in something more visual would be worth your time.

Get Personal with Testimonials

Testimonials are often one of the most important sections on your landing page. The nature of testimonials is personal and social proof is powerful. Seeing a trusted name recommending your product or services can go a long way toward convincing someone to buy. But, far too often companies hide the person giving their testimonial behind logos. Instead, ask for permission to use their picture. If you really want to go the extra mile, a video testimonial is perhaps the most impactful type of testimonial you can include on a landing page.

There are a lot of advanced strategies that you can use to optimize landing pages. Marketing blogs write about them all the time. However, too many companies adopt advanced strategies without having their basics covered. Simple things like ditching stock photos for visual marketing materials or going the extra mile with your testimonials can have a huge effect on conversion rates.

Source: B2C

8 Reasons You Aren’t Getting An ROI From SEO

Nikin / Pixabay

You’re stuck. Traversing the online landscape and getting noticed was harder than you thought at first. But then after you’ve invested a ton of money into an online marketing campaign, you’ve realized that those efforts at lead and conversion generation from SEO aren’t working either. It leaves you confused and wondering where you could have possibly gone wrong. Luckily, there are a number of telltale patterns to unsuccessful SEO efforts.

Correlating Traffic With ROI

55 percent of all visitors will leave that site within 15 seconds. The belief that the more traffic your SEO efforts generate directly translate into a greater ROI is a flawed one. That’s because while SEO can drive traffic to your site, its full value does not manifest unless the user signs up for an account or makes a purchase. For example, if your site got one million hits but not one user bought anything or signed up, the traffic you are getting is essentially useless.

Believing That Paying More for SEO Brings Greater Returns

SEO costs a lot of money, but quantity does not mean quality. Many businesses spend upwards of $1500 to $3000 a month on SEO costs with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Think about it this way, there are only so many businesses that appear on the first page of a Google search, so all of those other businesses that pay for strategies which don’t get them to the top of the first page are burning through a lot of money.

Investing In SEO Without Understanding It

SEO is defined as a marketing discipline that focuses on growing visibility in organic search engine results. The point of organically growing your visibility is that paying for a top spot on Google or another site is expensive. Users and potential customers view a sponsored result as an “illegitimate” result since it is displayed at the top because of money rather than its relevance to their search. Not grasping the basics of why you are even implementing SEO measures in the first place can cost you dearly in the long run when you don’t know the right time to cut your losses.

Incorrect Timing

Two people can say the exact same joke, but the timing of their delivery determines its impact on an audience. The same thing applies to SEO, except we’re talking about searches rather than jokes. It may be surprising to find out that certain keywords have peaks during different times of the year. For instance, basketball has shown a significant peak during the months of April to May according to Google Trends. If your SEO efforts are timed such that the search volume for your word or phrases is low during a certain time of the year, it can negatively impact your ROI.

Giving Up When It’s Too Early To Tell

Day trading and managing SEO will be your worst nightmare if you’re a defeatist. There are huge fluctuations in search engine traffic to even the most popular sites. Moz documents that Yahoo search traffic fluctuates between 800,000 to 2,000,000 links to their domain on any given day. If you’re just starting out, calling it quits because your site has a few bad days or is on a downward trend for traffic may cause you to prematurely end your SEO campaign in failure.

Unrealistic Goals

A third of small businesses fail within their first two years according to statistics from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and one of the most popular causes for failure is choosing a business that simply isn’t profitable. What that means is that business is an affair where people commonly sink great amounts of money into creating a product or service for which there is nonexistent demand. It’s easy to fall into the same trap and mindset when it comes to setting goals for your SEO efforts in the sense that you may just be committing to an SEO campaign that never would have produced results.

Not Spending Enough Money

Believe it or not, there is a sweet spot for spending that will result in the optimal results for the money you are spending. If you’re spending less than $100 for “affordable” SEO efforts, then you’re throwing that money straight out the window because there’s no way that a company will be able to generate anything that will boost your rank to the first page for multiple search engines with such low starting capital.

Not Capitalizing On The Influence of Social Media

We commonly think of SEO as dependent on the number of backlinks to a site or some other metric like keyword density – that’s all in the past. Now, a survey by Econsultancy reveals that 74% of companies and 82% of agencies claim that social media is highly integrated into their SEO strategy. That means that search engines are increasingly leaning towards an approach that analyzes social media as a factor in weighing the relevance of web pages and ranking them.

Source: B2C

How To Clarify and Align Sales Goals

stevepb / Pixabay

While you may see your goal in any meeting as to sell a product, in reality, what you are trying to do is to solve a gap in the buyers existing abilities and what the possibilities exist for the company. A sale only happens if there is value in the product for the buyer, but that doesn’t mean that the only goal the sales rep has is to make the sale. Here is some detailed information on how to clarify and align sales goals during your next sales meeting.

In fact, the seller needs to go into the meeting also looking for a way to resolve the challenges of the buyer. In this way, both the seller and the buyer are in alignment, looking for ways to create a solution that satisfies a recognized need within a system. Learn How to Run A Productive Sales Meeting and your ability to clarify and align goals will improve dramatically.

This type of alignment of goals brings the buyer and the seller into a mutually collaborative experience during the meeting. However, this won’t happen by accident. Creating a message in advance that is tailored to clarifying the focus of the meeting (to solve the problem/gap/want/challenge of the company) needs to be an important part of your preparation. It should also be a clear intent in your opening message and outlined in your agenda; clarifying for the buyer what your true objectives are for the meeting.

This will prevent that defensive, disinterested and often dismissive attitude that can be difficult to break through when talking to decision makers in any business. Being well prepared and offering a valuable solution diminishes this natural dynamic in the room. So, make sure that you stop pitching & start solving client business problems.

Additionally, by structuring the sales presentation to be interactive, informative and not a hard-core sales pitch further aligns the goals, allowing you to test possibilities along the way and then move into the close at the opportune time.

Have a structured process for getting your prospects to take the next steps towards closing the sale. Here is an article that outlines 3 Steps to Help Prospects Commit. Don’t leave such an important meeting and process to your memory alone, always have an agenda and structured process. This agenda should even include a process to overcoming sales objections.

Source: B2C

How Can You Outperform the Winners-Eat-Everything Digital Economy?

Lesson for leaders

How will you exceed the new winners-eat-everything digital economy? You must surpass the world’s billion-user platforms that are eating the digital world, and as Amazon shows, advancing far into the physical one. Even the billion-user platforms face this threat. They will soon need to defeat each other or lose everything.

Digital convergence wars are coming. Why? The prize is the world’s digital infrastructure for decades to come. If you are one of today’s giant leaders, the reward is to concentrate the world’s wealth in your own corporate-first hands. The penalty will be total defeat.

If you are a publisher or media, your only chance is to change the paradigm, win a different game, and conquer from your chosen playing field. Your competitive strategy could be to add people-first exponential growth publishing, and ride it to industry leadership—then scale it to lead the world.

This may be your last chance to win today’s only real race, to capture the fast-arriving digital infrastructure. Put on your ten-league boots. It’s stomping time.

Who leads the race to eat the future? Of the 14 platforms with a billion-users, Google and Facebook own 11 of them.

Today’s business scale is billion-user platforms: lead the world or go home

How have today’s billion-user platforms been created? Hunt for massive traction by pivoting your innovations, buying hot startups and copying those you can’t buy. Then scale digitally worldwide.

By 2025 the dominant platforms aim to capture most of the world’s digital economy through addictive technologies, AI, robotics, universal tracking-advertising-persuasion, cost elimination, and automated jobs. That digital world will surround and be invisible to unconnected companies.

Today’s linear and non-platform leaders will have four choices:

• Be consumed and work in the digital infrastructure for its leaders


• Decline to a smaller size and work in the old disconnected economy


• Die


• Only a few will rise to the challenge of taking on today’s leaders by building a world-leading platform of their own.

Publishing is one of the major industries that could be up to this challenge.

The Digital Convergence Wars of 2020-2025

Digital Convergence will explode into war. Follow-the-leader will stop working as the platforms add hooks to consume companies that merely copy them. Each of the giant platforms will spend $billions to capture your customers, the economy and entire societies.

How will your company win against the billion-user platforms, AI’s and voice bots from Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple?

Either capture your industry, then other industries, or be captured.

Digital convergence warfare is almost here. How do you prepare strategically?

These wars will fight to own the world’s fast-arriving global digital infrastructure:

• Digital Convergence Wars are arriving: This will rapidly converge the future of devices (Apple, Samsung, AR-VR-MR), advertising/marketing (Google, Facebook), work (Microsoft, Slack), commerce (Amazon, Alibaba, Walmart), cloud (Amazon, Microsoft, Google), and much more. Some of today’s leaders will not make it.


• The top leading companies each have their roadmap, but they know it’s too early to see if they can win: The billion-user platforms are not yet prepared battle for their strategic global convergence into a digital infrastructure. Facebook announced the most visible 10-year roadmap. It focused on their $2 billion VR purchase of Oculus, and Mark Zuckerberg demo-ed himself living in VR in the future. Then Amazon leaped ahead with Alexa, Google declared AI will be its future, chatbots rose, Pokemon Go triggered Apple’s addition of the ARKit platform, the cloud services war erupted, and Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26 billion and re-focused on the cloud. These are the skirmishes. The great war for dominance has yet to break out.


• Tech’s leaders know that tech causes widespread job losses and leaves millions behind: They talk up “more creative lives” and avoid visible systems to grow widespread prosperity, because that will highlight their negative impacts. It will also prove that they don’t know how to solve problems caused by corporate-first platforms. None of the billion-user platforms has a roadmap to build a planet that delivers universal prosperity and include everyone. Today’s leaders focus attention on their latest shiny object advance. This distracts from the “real story,” which is: who among them will wind up winning and becoming the richest while not mentioning how many people are made poorer as tech leaves their jobs behind. They don’t discuss the answer to our generation’s historic question: where is the wealthy future we knew was coming from advanced technology? It’s here but it’s in their pocket. Most of the world remains relatively poor, without a clear way to rise.

In contrast, an exponential platform is the only IP (intellectual property) that has been developed specifically to deliver a people-first digital Earth, start universal prosperity, and build a successful planet in years, not some future generation.

• This IP is an “intentional invention” to create a positive future without revolutionary wars, and without attacking those at the top.


• The U.S. Patent Office divided its 1,400-page patent specification into 31 technology categories.


• This IP is designed to create a patent family with a potential hierarchy of hundreds of divisional patents.


• Why start with IP? To provide competitive advantages to the few companies that invest in leading a successful planet, to strengthen their unique role and leadership.


• Who is paying attention? This IP has already been cited by over 650 subsequent patents, with the most citations from leading tech companies. In comparison, the average patent receives only 3 citations, and only a small number of patents receive more than 100-200 citations, out of millions of patents.


• The growing number of citations of this IP is already making it a node in the tech “IP tree” that reveals the future.

As the physical and digital worlds merge, the digital Earth will grow dominant. Everyone will fall behind if tomorrow’s digital infrastructure fails to accelerate everyone’s personal abilities and successes.

But if the digital infrastructure is people-first, then everyone can rise. Think of how many people use one direct and simple Amazon and bypass all the other e-commerce choices.

Instead of today’s multiple platforms, a people-first publishing platform would simplify everyone’s “presences”; always on connections; personal digital protections and physical safety; immediate achievement during each interaction; and everyday online life, work, and entertainment. This was designed to build the preferred choice for digital life, work, learning, and entertainment.

A direct and personal “People-First Digital Earth” will empower everyone to achieve much more, immediately, across the world. Its exponential publishing platform may be the last chance for leading publishing and media companies to take the lead.

What’s at stake? The winning infrastructure will lead the digital economy for decades to come

Today’s leaders have corporation-first roadmaps. Their success comes first.

Instead, an exponential publishing platform adds a two-way Internet business model that builds a successful digital Earth that includes everyone.

With Digital Convergence Wars arriving by about 2020, it’s time now for publishing to prepare its strategy, technology, and platforms.

This Media 2025 Exponential Roadmap gives publishers and media critical elements they need for victory:

1. You see what’s coming while you still have resources, talent, communication channels that reach everyone, and are early enough to act.


2. This technology shows you how to leap ahead at speed, and translate new people-first technology into business leadership.


3. Business ecosystem — Its technology and its exponential platforms are designed for partnering and ecosystem growth. Many threatened industries and leading companies will face digital extinction. You expand your central role by coordinating their sharing in people-first prosperity by using your exponential platform as a service.


4. People ecosystem — Large numbers of people can use your exponential platform to take personal action and rise to the top. Successful personal lives can begin again. Your platform will continuously grow and advance their needs, protect them personally, and drive both personal and children’s success. That will appeal to people everywhere, worldwide.


5. Cloud business — An exponential platform produces a scalable cloud service you can deliver as a scalable business. It begins by developing it and using it online for your company, markets, and customers. Then its proven advantages can be sold as a service. Potentially large numbers of leading companies who can add it rapidly to drive their own successful global digital transformations.


6. Early revenues — To cover costs, future participation can be pre-sold at early stages, just like movie distribution rights are currently pre-sold for countries, toys and branded products are licensed toys, and other spin-offs are pre-sold. In the movie industry, these sales can cover most movie production costs. There is also the tech model of other companies’ VC funds investing and purchasing an equity stake.

Once launched, an exponential ecosystem can use your “Digital Earth as a Service” (DEaaS). Companies can generate new growth by adding an advanced Digital Earth for their customers and markets. People can rise by using your Digital Earth to live, work, learn, and entertain.

Instead of a digital Economy driven by corporation-first dominance, you can lead a successful people-first Digital Earth with visible markets and more efficient people-first companies that serve everyone faster, cheaper, and better. Your leadership helps capitalism evolve into partnership capitalism that benefits everyone, instead of a few.

There isn’t another roadmap like this, to drive the success of large numbers of companies and people worldwide. But to win, it’s time to fasten your seat belt and learn how a successful digital Earth will work.

Source: B2C