Lauren Hintz says, “When you’re prospecting, most buyers you encounter are in the Awareness stage of their buying journey. Therefore, your goal is not to sell them on your product. Your goal is not to get them to see a demo of your product. Instead, your goal is to educate them enough to bring them to the Consideration stage of the buyer’s journey or disqualify them as a bad fit. You’ll see that the Awareness stage of the buyer’s journey shown below matches the same point that salespeople move from identifying good fit leads to connecting with them. During an initial connect call... [...]

Pete Caputa says, “Forty-two percent of salespeople report that prospecting is the part of the sales process they struggle with most. But as a sales professional, consistent prospecting efforts are arguably your most important activity. And these days, email is an essential part of an effective prospecting campaign. The hardest part of email prospecting? Efficiently making the right amount of high-quality attempts to each prospect with the right amount of time in between. The average rep only makes two attempts before giving up, yet the average sale requires eight attempts. It’s no wonder... [...]

Kayla Lewkowicz says, “We spend hours planning out every detail of each campaign, crafting the perfect copy and agonizing over fonts, colors, and spacing. We talk through our personas, target audiences, and messaging. We build emails from scratch or lovingly modify templates so that we’re putting our best foot forward with our email marketing campaigns. With all the blood, sweat, and tears that go into our emails, there’s nothing more heartbreaking than finding out the message never made it to our subscribers. No matter how carefully we plan our campaign strategy, design, and development,... [...]

Art Sobczak says, “A couple weekends ago I was in Chicago for a baseball game with some friends. We all had similar mid-morning flight times out of O’Hare the following Tuesday morning. Being a group of six, we needed a large vehicle to get us from downtown to the airport. No problem. The doorman at the hotel hooked us up with Leo, a private driver. He called Leo, and told him what time we needed to be picked up. Being a skeptical road veteran and having been left waiting too many times for rides that didn’t show up when I needed to catch a flight, I asked the doorman for Leo’s number... [...]

Marissa Breton says, “Over the past three years, Snapchat has been slowly moving away from its original concept: a place for creating and sharing ephemeral content that disappears immediately after being shared. With the introduction of Stories in 2013, a feature that allows photos and videos to be visible for 24 hours, the app started inching away from that mission. This week, Snapchat took a giant leap away from its initial premise by introducing Memories. The new feature enables users to share content after the initial photo has been taken, allowing for a more curated (and less instantaneous)... [...]

Kristina Volovich says, “Content creation is an essential part of a marketer’s day-to-day job. From drafting ebooks to promoting webinars, we have to be creative and concise with our writing in order to engage our audience. However, finding the right words can be tough — especially when there is limited space. I’m sure we’ve all struggled with having just one too many characters in a tweet (I know I have). Creating search ad copy is similarly tough. It’s crucial to craft just the right copy to draw your potential customers in and make them interested in your... [...]

Leslie Ye says, “If you’re not using trigger events to sell, you’re missing out. We preach inbound sales on this blog — that’s hardly news. That means no cold calling, no untargeted outreach, and no more spray-and-pray. Selling with trigger events — some kind of social activity or event that signals your prospect’s company might be thinking about a purchase decision — is one of the best ways to get started with inbound. After all, you’re reaching out to a buyer who has specific questions with helpful advice and answers. But not every trigger event is worth pursuing.... [...]

Lauren Hintz says, “The most common lead sources include: Inbound leads, inbound companies, trigger events, and common connections. All of these lead sources include active buyers. Active buyers are easier to connect with than the passive buyers. After identifying active buyers, it’s time to move onto the second stage in the Inbound Sales Methodology. Outreach Content for Inbound Leads Inbound leads typically have the most context around the specific interests of the buyer. For example, you may know the buyer read specific blog articles or viewed your pricing page. You may know that the... [...]

Ellen Bartolino says, “As a marketer, you know how powerful email can be to generating leads and nurturing prospects through your funnel. But have you ever wondered if you’re really getting the most value out of the channel? If you’re not optimizing your emails for your mobile audience, you’re missing out. Over 50% of emails are opened on a mobile device, making it crucial for marketers to master capturing the attention of their mobile readers. If you’re looking to learn more about mobile email optimization best practices, tune into a live Google Hangout with email... [...]

Tom Fielder says, “Why do we find ourselves tied to the television, compulsively watching the next episode – and the next, and the next, and the next – of our favourite series on Netflix? We don’t necessarily want to keep watching, but if we do have more time, there is something about those cliffhangers, unresolved plotlines, and sudden twists of surprise that keep us glued to the tube for as long as five or six hours at a time. There is something addictive — even compulsive — about stories. The Storytelling Brain According to cognitive scientist Michael Gazzaniga, a desire... [...]