Emma Snider says, “Who doesn’t love a good countdown? Almost everybody does. And if you don’t, you might want to hide out for a bit. It’s certainly the season for them. Before you count down the ball dropping to mark the beginning of 2015, take some time to reflect on the highlights of 2014: a particularly large or significant deal you closed, the month you blew quota out of the water, your president’s club trip. It’s only by looking back and celebrating your accomplishments that you’ll be mentally prepared to move forward and crush another year. As for... [...]

Emma Snider says, “The pen is mightier than the sword. (Which is good, because you probably don’t want to threaten prospects into buying at sword-point.) As the primary “weapons” to convert prospects into customers, words are incredibly important to salespeople. How sales reps deliver their messages and converse with contacts can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a conversation. Using the wrong phrase might cast a negative shadow on the proposal, while tweaking just a few words in the pitch might induce someone to buy immediately. The underlying message is certainly critical,... [...]

Emma Snider says, “All customers are not created equal. Sure, you might like some more than others, but that doesn’t mean they’re your best clients. Sales comes down to revenue and ROI — so how can sales leaders objectively determine which customers are most valuable? Through a customer lifetime value (CLV) analysis. But calculating CLV isn’t a cake walk — inaccurate data, confusing metrics, and inadequate technology can all block the path. But the organizations that do figure out a customer’s net costs and revenues over their engagement see the benefit:... [...]

Ryan Lynch says, “2014 has been a big year — between “Let It Go,” Flappy Bird, and Kim K trying (and, thankfully, failing) to break the Internet, we’ve lived through some memorable moments.  And because social media is so tied to our day-to-day lives, we’ve also lived through some memorable social media campaigns. So, in the spirit of the holiday season and the coming new year, we’re proud to present Cleriti’s top four favorite social media campaigns of 2014 (in no particular order): 1) The Project For Awesome Fundraiser The Project For Awesome is an online, non-profit fund... [...]

Emma Snider says, “A clean slate can be a doubled-edged sword. With no precedents set, you can do whatever you want. Very freeing … but maybe too freeing. I’ll start here! Wait, doing that first might be better. Nope, scratch that, this is definitely the way to go … or is it? Ack. For salespeople, a new year means new goals and a brand new number to hit. With everything they achieved the previous year in the rearview mirror, it can be hard to know where to begin. Enter this SlideShare. We asked a variety of sales experts to weigh in on three critical questions: What... [...]

Ryan Lynch says, “Your business can always benefit from high converting landing pages. Higher conversion rates means more customers, and more customers means more profit potential. The purpose of your landing page is to capture leads and warm them up before sending them further down your sales funnel. Think of your landing page as a work of art. Every detail of your page should have a deeper purpose for being there other than a need to fill up space. From the size and color of your call-to-action button to the length of your copy, every choice you make should have a strategic reasoning behind... [...]

Lisa Calhoun says, “In the two seconds it takes you to read this sentence, 1,000 photos have been uploaded to Instagram. Its 300 million users, as I write this, share 70 million moments every day. As we move into 2015, agencies are in a new position. We no longer own “the most creative content.” Actually, creative content is a commodity now. So how can agencies stand out and grow in 2015? Traditionally, we’ve let our clients do the talking and refer us — that will stay the same. Traditionally, we’ve also let our amazing creative work do the talking — that will no longer... [...]

Amanda Durepos says, “Optimizing your marketing campaigns for mobile users isn’t just about having your landing pages render nicely on all smartphones and tablets. It’s also about considering the user behind the device; what they’re doing and thinking about while they’re using it. And while the same people tend to use both mobile and desktop, their behavior and goals at a given time differ depending on the device they’re using. But differ how, exactly? I spoke to nine digital marketers to ask what they’ve learned about their mobile audience and how they’ve... [...]

Dough Davidoff says, “In the sales and marketing world, there are few issues that are getting more attention than the issues surrounding lead management and follow up. In my experience, clarity around lead management, qualification and response times are the crucial linchpin to align sales and marketing efforts. It’s a rather scary statistic, but according to a study most recently done for Harvard Business Review, 71% of qualified leads are never followed up with. What’s more is, of the leads that are followed up on, they’re only touched an average of 1.3 times. This represents tremendous... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Given the popularity and effectiveness of visual content for marketing, it’s no surprise that today’s marketers are creating more and more infographics. They’re a more enjoyable way of digesting statistics, data sets, and timelines, and they can drive more traffic and engagement than plain text. Even though there are a lot of good infographics out there, there are still a ton of bad infographics out there, too. You usually know one when you see one: Either it’s jam-packed with information, or it hardly shows any useful information at all.... [...]