nudg guides brands to find the most effective strategies to market and grow their business using all digital and mainline channels

nudg Marketing

A look at 3rd-party AI tools and services, uncovering easy wins, and where to invest in an automated world Artificial Intelligence has become a bit of a divisive topic. While some industries have oriented their entire business around the technology, others are struggling to develop a strategy. The good news is that adopting AI doesn’t need to be this . dramatic An entire ecosystem of applications and services have cropped up to bridge the gap between the business processes of today and the intelligent ones of tomorrow. Adopting AI-enabled solutions can help companies streamline operations and eliminate repetitive tasks. From growing sales with intelligent customer engagement to reducing opex with automated IT operations, there are new tools available to support every department within a business. Here are some tools you can integrate today, at whatever stage or opinion you have on AI. Cross-Functional Solutions Where there is data, there is an opportunity for intelligent systems (AI) — to do something. A number of companies have built cross-functional solutions to meet the data opportunity across the board. The drawback is that these solutions do require collaboration (not plug and play) to develop models that are best suited for your use case, but the impact can be dramatic. : API for human automation. Apres : Builds augmented intelligence software for healthcare, commerce and financial markets. CognitiveScale : Cloud software that transforms handwritten paper forms into digital data. Captricity : Simplifies and accelerates your ability to use AI to unlock the value in your data. Machinify Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology for Splunk enables you to ask “plain English” queries of your machine data. Insight Engines : Maximizing the impact of data through advanced natural language generation (Advanced NLG) for the enterprise. Narrative Science : Human Resources HR is operationally intensive, rigidly structured and often slow to adopt new technologies. Recruiters alone spend over 60% of their time reading through resumes — time better spent with candidates. HR presents a clear opportunity for AI to improve the efficiency of the role: Actively pursue all credible candidates in the market at any given time, all the time — matched against fit criteria tailored toward your business. Optimized Recruiting: The opportunity to deal with employees as people, rather than functions and creating tailored milestones and objectives. Personalized Career Development: The ability to analyze messaging, both in the market and internally, and adjusting accordingly. Employee Sentiment Analysis: Packages tailored to the implicit needs of your employees, such as fitness trackers and programs for health insurance. Tailored Benefits: Uses machine learning to help organizations hire smarter by analyzing a person’s publicly available online presence. FAMA : Your team’s A.I. recruiter. Mya : AI-based anonymous career development platform allowing users to both know their worth and get concrete offers in real time (previously Workey). Gloat : AI powered employee retention tool. UnderstandBetter : Reduce corporate travel spend by rewarding employees for saving. Rocketrip : Cloud HR service that provides an integrated and video enabled digital platform for all recruitment needs. Peoplise : Talent Relationship Marketing (TRM) cloud platform connecting people to their ideal job. Phenom People : Predictive hiring platform that informs you who to hire before you meet them Koru : Helps businesses better understand their employees. Humanyze : Customer Service Advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) have created new opportunities for companies to engage with customers. From chatbots to voice assistants, AI can now simulate human interaction, triage the required service and route the solution accordingly. This has streamlined customer service centers to personalize customer service and enable more efficient interactions between vendors and consumers. Service personalized to the tune of all available data on the client and intelligent virtual assistants as an interface layer. Differentiated customer experience: Streamline inquiry capture and resolution process, proactive support, and account/client management. Smarter operations: Data analysis on a continuous basis — uncovering new revenue streams and decrease churn. Intelligent insights: Brings practical applications of deep learning & artificial intelligence to customer service operations of large companies. Digital Genius : Supplies artificial intelligence to augment and replace live chat customer support agents at eCommerce companies. Eloquent Labs : Automates customer care conversations. Kylie.ai : Virtual assistant solutions. Interactions : Offers artificial intelligence powered customer service. AlphaBlues : utomated customer support. True AI : A Advanced AI customer service across multiple channels including chat, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Hello Vera : AI for customer service. HelpScout : Social media customer service. Sparkcentral : AI voice platform for connected devices. Snips : Sales & Marketing SAAS has entrenched the value of sales and marketing data over the last decade, making historic records commonplace and an ideal for applying AI. Conversion-focused tools promise to make a significant impact on the top and bottom line: Automated outbound strategy targeting highest value leads, and delivering qualified prospects at the right time. Optimized account development: AI systems to support the salesforce with relevant insights, market movement and continuous training/coaching. Improved salesforce productivity: Personalized customer engagement, predictive marketing and messaging. Intelligent customer engagement: AI generated content and distribution, predictive marketing to increase retention, real-time competitive intelligence. Automated marketing: People-based intelligence through reorganizing the information on the web based on the people who use it. Node : AI powered sales intelligence to build relationships with your buyers and grow your sales. Nudge : AI software for marketing and sales enablement. Conversica : Records, transcribes, and analyzes sales conversations in real-time, highlighting important moments and revealing why you win and lose deals. Chorus : Provides users with a platform to maximize sales leads with analytics programs and innovative organization tools. FunnelBeam : Helps inside sales reps win more with an AI that learns from how your best reps communicate effectively with their customers. Nitrio : AI-powered analyst for marketers. Aiden : Automatically capture all sales activity to drive intelligent sales management and marketing accountability. People.ai : Predictive Marketing Platform for enterprise enables insight-driven customer engagement to win and retain customers. Mintigo : shows you the best way to communicate with any prospect, customer, or coworker based on their unique personality. Crystal : Virtual assistant that schedules your meetings. Clara : Marketing automation AI that delivers a personalized experience to each customer. Retention Science : AI generated language that resonates the most with any audience, segment or individual. Persado : AI powered marketing insights to create compelling content. Unmetric : Social strategy and analytics firm that provides Convey.AI semantic machine learning technology and Conversus App. Converseon : Legal Legal departments commit the majority of their resources to operational overhead — document parsing, research and discovery. Various AI tools have been developed to support these time-consuming tasks, often more effectively than their human counterparts. Augmenting existing legal teams with AI can provide an enormous benefit/ boost to productivity. AI assistant that provides rapid analysis and summarization of legal briefs. Legal research: AI able to identify relevant briefs and automatically generate next steps and other research tasks. Contract diligence: Documentation review and prioritization, automated story builder, instant translation. Discovery: Artificially intelligent attorney to help power through legal research. ROSS : Casetext’s CARA, automates key legal research tasks to analyze litigation documents, and uses that information to algorithmically query the law. Casetext : Platform for legal search, analytics and visualization. Ravel: Legal legal document review and discovery platform. Everlaw: Legal technology company providing research and analytics tools to turn unstructured case law into structured data. Judicata : Makes in-depth contract reviews accessible to everyone. LawGeex : IT Operations Increasingly complex IT operations are changing infrastructure attack surface area, continuously exposing organizations to new threat vectors. There is a real need for tools that offer the necessary intelligence and speed to keep up with the growing security threats companies face today. Beyond being able to take over manual tasks prone to human error, AI will be enable real-time threat detection and most importantly, prevent threats before they cause damage. Anomaly detection and prevention, real-time monitoring, autonomous remediation. Security: AI system that mimics how a user investigates, monitors, and troubleshoots events. Cognitive Insights: RPA tools to replace manual tasks and provide a real-time view of process workflows, and self-learning topology analysis. Streamlined Operations: Enable NLP bots that talk to a system to identify and resolve performance issues, monitor digital performance of IT infrastructure. Improved Customer Experience: : Root cause analysis software company acquired by Splunk. Rocana : Advanced monitoring platform for modern applications. SignalFx : Human-centered that helps people and machines work together to find clarity in chaos, and accelerate innovation. Moogsoft technology : AI-powered log analysis solution that monitors all your IT stack in real-time to predict issues before they affect the business and help you solve them faster. LoomSystems : Teaching machines to think, reason and communicate, acquired by Microsoft. Maluuba : Multi-turn, easy-to-use, and easy-to-author chatbot. Kitt.AI : AI-driven threat detection and prevention solution. Mistnet security : Enterprise immune system technology for cyber security. DarkTrace : Combines humans and machines into an AI system that detects cyber threats at scale and in real time. PatternEx Conclusion Building an AI muscle in-house is not the right strategy for every company (more here). That said, taking advantage of AI is necessary for all companies to keep up in any market. If the competition is running more efficiently, you are already a step behind. AI will affect every industry, everywhere. Whether or not you see this change happening today, it is important to start planning for it. Being ahead of the curve here is worth it. Disclosure: Juniper Networks is an investor in one of these companies.

Bolt-on AI: Is this the AI shortcut we’ve been looking for?

In this article, I’ll go over the 6 most common types of nudges, provide examples and give the latest nudging best practices so you can apply them to your SME or B2B marketing. Nowadays everyone's been getting nudged. Whether it’s a free trial, subscribing to an email list, or accepting cookies to a website you don’t expect to again, we’re bombarded by them. You don’t want to miss out on this, do you? I didn’t think so! (nudge, nudge) So let’s jump in. What Is Nudge Theory? There’s been a lot of talks recently about Nudge Theory and strategy in online marketing and customer-engagement circles. So what, exactly, are nudges? We define nudges as an intervention in choice architecture that causes a person to behave in a desired way or to choose a preferred option over alternatives. How can nudges help your business? Improving customer experience. Increasing conversion rates. Gaining accurate customer feedback. Reducing buyer remorse and costly customer returns. Upselling products and services by breaking through natural buyer resistance. Increasing open rates and reducing churn from email marketing campaigns. Increasing the potency of your social media campaigns by using social-proof to increase the efficacy of call-to-actions Growing sales revenues by understanding how choice architecture directly affects KPI outcomes. How do nudges work? Nudges work by taking advantage of our mental shortcuts (AKA heuristics). Here are the most successful mainstream categories of nudges designers are using in choice architecture right now: Strategic use of default options Pre-commitment nudge Social norms nudging Loss-aversion framing Gamification Precision engagement nudges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNrV67WAW3M?embedable=true Strategic Use of Default Options People are more likely to choose the default options than to modify them. But if you make people have to think about it, you are more likely to get a “no”. Strategic default business tips If you want a customer to take one option over others, make the preferred choice a default! 2. If cancellation rates for your product or service are high, consider nudging the customers to start at a lower tier as to reduce the potential for cognitive dissonance. This will help to familiarize themselves better with your solution without feeling pressured by time, cost, and your refund or warranty window. Pre-Commitment Nudge Getting a person to take a position or make a commitment to do something greatly increases the chances they will follow through on it. If we know what our customers’ top priorities are, and know our product or solution solves them, getting them to confirm acts as a micro-commitment that can start an agreement momentum. Pre-commitment business tips Ask your customer what their top priority is, and how committed they are to finding a solution. 2. State your call-to-actions in the first person. Switching to first person signals a shift in the conversation.” Ex: “start your free trial” vs “Start my free trial”. Social Norms Nudging Humans originated from pack animals -- we’re hardwired to be social and take social cues from others. Because of this ancient hardwiring, we’re more likely to do something if we believe that’s what others are doing (especially our colleagues, peer groups, and personal networks). Social norms business tips Include customer reviews on your product and landing pages as well as social media metrics when applicable. On Thank You pages, place your relevant customer testimonials visibly near the top. This will help to reduce cognitive dissonance associated with buyers’ remorse and second-guessing themselves that they made the right decision buying or requesting to speak with a salesperson. Loss-Aversion Framing People value what they currently possess more than what they don’t yet own. We’re more motivated by potential losses than potential gains. For example, a majority of people will exert more effort to prevent the loss of $10,000 than to acquire $10,000 because the satisfaction lost is more overpowering than the with the same amount. satisfaction gained Loss-aversion framing business tips Get customers on a free trial or money-back guarantee so they can experience how well your product works. They won’t want to revert if you gave them the desired results. Experiment and A/B test by expressing gains made from your product or service in the negative to exacerbate a pain point they’re having. X improves business efficiencies = Stop needlessly wasting time and money on Y Example: Gamification Adding game-playing elements such as scoring, competitions, changing difficulty levels, and random rewards lets you encourage higher engagement levels for a service, product, or policy. Gamification becomes more effective when it can be brandished among target peer groups and carries a sense of prestige or authority. The more social and shareable, the more effective your gamification strategies will be. Gamification business tip Create reward systems, run digital contests, acknowledge customers or users with high engagement, and periodically throw in surprise bonuses and gifts. Give leads/customers something tangible or intangible that increases their sense of prestige. A credential, certification, token, or another visible signal that shows one has attained increased status or prestige. Tangible Example: Novel ideas or valuable concepts that solve an immediate problem that their peer group experiences. Intangible Example: Precision Engagement Strategies Semi-customized nudges are delivered to precise, well-defined groups, and often at the best possible time. Precision engagement business tip Make your marketing automation system messages more granular with customer types, rather than sending the same message to your different buyer persona groups. Precision engagement nudges can also be influenced by actions your prospect takes reading an email or visiting your website, or timed to calendar events like Christmas shopping for eCommerce businesses. Nudging Best-Practices For Businesses: Conclusion Nudges have become both pervasive and highly invisible for most people. Businesses use nudge architecture to improve customer experience and lower attrition, gain valuable feedback, improve conversion rates and improve their bottom lines. Why leave your customer’s choice of architecture up to chance? Apply Nudge Theory choice architecture to your business today!

Nudge Theory Best-Practices For Business (With Examples) 

Someone conducted in Korea on how consumers respond to free promotions with different presentations and found that using “$0” instead of “free” could increase the conversion rate. Sounds like a half-truth, doesn’t it? fascinating research Can word choices actually influence the way decisions are made? It’s unbelievable, but it’s true and owes to something called the framing effect. To my surprise, I even found some real-world examples while researching the subject… So..what is the framing effect? The framing effect refers to a type of where people make cognitive bias a buying decision based on how the information is presented (”framed”) rather than the information itself. We look at how the information is worded, what’s been emphasized, and by whom. For example, you’re more likely to try a tool recommended by your teammate than when the same tool is recommended by a member of another team you hardly know (unless you’re on G2 or Capterra!). As buyers, when choosing between options, we tend to look at what features or benefits of the product are highlighted: negative attributes ( ) or positive attributes ( ). Only 10% fat 90% fat-free And what do we choose? Most of the time, it’s the 90% fat-free option — even if it’s the same information, just framed differently. But the question is..why!? As humans (and buyers), we all want to avoid loss. In comparison to a gain, avoiding a sure or probable loss is a whole lot more significant to us. This is why we naturally go for the fat-free option and risk-averse investment options. Now, contextually, the framing effect makes a tonne of sense for someone shopping at their local grocery store. But how does the framing effect play into ? For example, SaaS. product marketing Say someone who’s picking between two different SaaS products. Will they be persuaded to take action if the CTA button said “Try for $0”? Turns out, the framing effect works even better within those contexts. Let me explain how. How a single word decides the difference between a click and no click The , Co-founder of Unbounce, is a testament to why word choices matter. While working on a client project, Oli wanted to see which CTA would be more effective: often-quoted A/B test by Oli Gardner A: Start My Trial B: Start Your Trial It was only a difference between “my” and “your”. So they decided to run an A/B test, and to Oli’s surprise, the CTA with “my” outperformed the one with “your”. Turns out, first-person phrasing works much, much better. When used on a PPC landing page, it even got Unbounce a staggering 90% increase in click rates. As a buyer myself, I can understand why. Both the CTAs, even though asking to take the same action, invoke different sentiments in the visitors when read. “ ” - This CTA sounds more like the visitor is giving instructions to the machine. It gives the visitor a sense of “power”. Start my trial “ ” - This CTA sounds more like a nudge. Like something you’re “asked” to perform and have no control over. Start your trial Here’s another example by Brad Shorr, Director of Content & Social Media, Straight North, as shared in . a post on Wordstream They A/B tested two different CTAs for a PPC Ad, with just a slight change in wording. A: Get $10 off the first purchase. Book online now! B: Get an additional $10 off. Book online now. Which one do you think performed better? ..if your answer is B, you’re spot on. Brad told Wordstream that the CTR nearly doubled with option B, even though he was pinning his hopes on option A. And this is why word choices matter. A brief note on CTAs and “framing” as a marketing practice A single CTA isn’t the sole driver of conversions. It’s the last decision a website visitor or lead makes when they’re on your product/landing page. And to bring the lead up to that point — how you position and market your product plays a humongous role. How you “frame” your product/business in the market plays a humongous role. NO!!!! That’s your value proposition, right there. The more memorable it is, the better. Because are you just another SaaS in X or the next “Uber of X”? Is your product “all in one” or is it “Shopify is everything you need to sell anywhere”? Are you just another app for work teams or are you the “digital headquarter”? As David Ogilvy wrote in Ogilvy on Advertising, “ ” It isn’t the whiskey they choose, it’s the image. I wrote about how , customer-obsessed approach in my previous article. That’s another brilliant example of framing as a marketing practice. P.S. Jeff Bezos “framed” Amazon with their Day 1

The Framing Effect in SaaS Marketing: Sell for $0 or "free of cost"? 

You've built an amazing new product. The code is elegant, the interface intuitive. You launch it with pride! But then...tumbleweeds. Crickets. Where are all the users? As developers, we excel at building products but often neglect marketing them. Let's change that! The Developer's Dilemma We fall into the trap of "building because we can." Just because an idea is technically possible, doesn't mean we should spend months coding it. That's why validating ideas beforehand is so important, as we covered in "Validating Your Tech Idea: Before You Code." No amount of marketing can save an idea that doesn't resonate with real users. Which brings us to today's topic: once you've validated an idea, how do you get it in front of users? Marketing vs. Sales What exactly is marketing? Simply put, it's creating demand for your product. It's about awareness, interest, and desire. Sales is converting that demand into revenue. It's about evaluation, purchase, and loyalty. Without proper marketing, even the best applications go unnoticed. As developers, we need to skill up outside the code editor. The Power of SEO: Beyond Just Keywords When you hear "SEO," you might picture a complex web of keywords, meta tags, and a never-ending rat race for that coveted first-page position on search engines. But SEO, especially for developers, is so much more than just keywords. Understanding Search Intent Before you get into the nitty-gritty of SEO, it's vital to understand what users want. Search intent isn't just about what users type into the search bar but rather . really why they're searching in the first place For instance, if someone searches "how to secure a website," they're not just looking for general advice. They might be searching for comprehensive guides, expert opinions, or even tools and plugins tailored to their tech stack. Your content should answer these questions. unspoken Technical SEO This is where your coding chops come into play. Technical SEO is about making sure search engines can crawl and index your site efficiently. Think of it as optimizing the 'backend' of your website for Google and other search engines. A slow site doesn't just irritate users—it can hurt your search rankings. Look into compressing images, optimizing scripts, and leveraging caching. Site Speed: With the vast majority of searches now happening on mobile devices, ensuring your site is responsive isn't optional—it's essential. Mobile Optimization: Well-structured, semantic HTML can help search engines understand and rank your content better. Avoid unnecessary code bloat and keep things streamlined. Clean Code: Check out your lighthouse score - it's built right into Chrome and provides great suggestions on how to improve! Content SEO: More Than Words It's not just about stuffing keywords into your blog posts. Content SEO is about providing genuine value to your readers. A well-researched, comprehensive post on "The Top Security Threats for Web Applications" will rank better (and be more useful) than ten shallow articles. Quality Over Quantity: Having reputable sites link to your content can massively boost your SEO. Link Building: Consider guest posting or collaborating with well-regarded tech platforms in your niche. Incorporate visuals, infographics, and interactive elements. Remember, users are more likely to share (and search engines more likely to rank) content that stands out. Engaging Content: Connecting With Your Audience Beyond SEO, developers need to directly engage potential users. Here are some effective tactics: Actively participate in communities like Reddit, Quora, and Stack Overflow related to your product. Provide thoughtful answers and helpful advice. Leverage Forums: Send regular updates showcasing new features, user spotlights, industry insights, and more. Make it conversational. Start a Newsletter: Admit mistakes, share challenges openly, and respond to user feedback. Building trust leads to loyalty. Be Transparent: Collaborate on content creation with industry leaders. Their stamp of approval lends credibility. Utilize Influencers: Know where your traffic comes from, bounce rates, conversion rates, and other data. Let insights guide your strategy. Analyze Metrics: Content Marketing: Educate, Engage, Elevate Content marketing isn't just promotion. It's sharing knowledge, building community, and establishing yourself as an authority. The Power of Education Our industry changes . New languages, updated packages, evolving security threats. We know continuous learning is a requirement. so fast Create walkthroughs on using your product or addressing common challenges. If you were new to a JS framework, don't you look for beginner tutorials to guide your introduction? Take a lesson from those who've done it before. Follow suit! Tutorials: Showcase real-world applications of the product. Did someone use your app to boost productivity or your API for something cool or hang your art on the wall? Share these stories! Case Studies: Engaging Your Community While tech is logical, its end goal is human. Behind the code are developers, and behind the products are users. Allow users to interact with each other and you. They can share tips, give feedback, and even troubleshoot issues together. Forums: Host live sessions where users see your product in action and can ask questions. It adds a human touch and demonstrates transparency. Webinars: Run polls, surveys, or beta tests for upcoming releases. Encourage two-way communication. Feedback Loops: Elevate Your Brand's Voice Content marketing isn't just about quantity but also voice and consistency. Find a voice that resonates with your audience and stick with it. Consistent Tone: Tech evolves quickly. Update your content regularly to stay relevant. Stay Updated: Beyond blogs, consider videos, podcasts, and online courses. Reach different segments of your audience in the ways that want to be reached. Diversify Content: they User Engagement: It's More Than Just Sign-Ups You've launched your product, and the sign-ups are trickling in. That's great news, right? Well, yes and no. Sign-ups are a positive signal, but they're just the starting point. The real challenge is transforming these initial interactions into a lasting engagement. Beyond the First Impression Think of your product as a novel. The sign-up is like getting someone to open the book, but engagement is about keeping them engrossed chapter after chapter. Your onboarding process is like the first few pages of that novel. It should be intuitive, inviting, and set the tone for what's to come. Consider creating a brief tutorial or tour, highlighting the core features of your product. Onboarding with Care: Send personalized messages or notifications that cater to the user's activity or inactivity. For instance, if a user hasn’t utilized a specific feature, a gentle nudge highlighting its benefits can be effective. Regular Check-ins: Valuable Metrics Over Vanity Metrics Engagement is about quality, not just quantity. A million sign-ups mean little if most users abandon your product after the first use. This metric focuses on users who are actively engaging with your product, be it daily, weekly, or monthly. These are your most loyal users, and understanding their behavior can provide invaluable insights. Active Users: How long are users spending on your platform? Short sessions may indicate confusion or lack of interest, while longer sessions suggest deeper engagement. Session Duration: Which features are most popular? Which are being ignored? This data can guide future development and refinement efforts. Feature Usage: Foster a Two-Way Relationship User engagement isn't a monologue; it's a dialogue. Provide easy-to-access channels where users can share feedback, report bugs, or suggest features. Actively respond to this feedback to show users their opinions are valued. Feedback Channels: Consider implementing loyalty programs or gamification elements. For instance, badges for regular users or rewards for referring friends can incentivize continued engagement. Reward Loyalty: Encourage users to interact with each other. This could be in the form of forums, user groups, or even events. A sense of community can turn casual users into brand ambassadors. Community Building: The Pitfall of Comfort: Why Developers Shouldn't Just "Code More" We've all been there. Faced with a challenge or a stumbling block, we retreat to our comfort zone. For developers, that comfort zone is often the safety of the editor. When traction is low or engagement is waning, our first instinct might be to dive deeper into the code, build new features, or polish existing ones. But sometimes, ; in fact, . coding more is not the solution it might be the problem Comfort Can Be Counterproductive Adaptability is key. Here's why "just coding more" can sometimes be a trap: Spending days or even weeks crafting a new feature that users don't want or need is not just a waste of time but can overcomplicate your platform, pushing users away. Solving Non-Existent Problems: While you're knee-deep in code, who's out there interacting with users, gathering feedback, or steering the strategic direction of the project? Neglecting the Bigger Picture: Overworking and continual coding can lead to burnout, which in turn affects your creativity, productivity, and overall health. Burnout Beckons: Value Outside the Editor When exercising that entrepreneurial muscle, coding is a means to an end, not the end itself. It's essential to recognize the value in tasks beyond writing code: Engaging directly with users can unearth insights no amount of data analysis can provide. Understanding their pain points, aspirations, and workflows can guide development far more accurately than assumptions. Customer Development: Invest time in understanding market trends, emerging technologies, or even soft skills like communication and leadership. Continuous Learning: Collaborating with peers, attending industry events, or even just socializing can open doors to new partnerships, perspectives, and opportunities. Networking: Finding Balance Finding the equilibrium between coding and other crucial tasks can be challenging. Here are some strategies: Dedicate specific blocks of time for coding, user interactions, learning, and relaxation. This ensures varied activities and prevents overemphasis on any one task. Time Blocking: Periodically review your projects with peers or mentors. Fresh eyes can highlight areas you might be neglecting or spending too much time on. Seek Feedback: Allow yourself to wear different hats. Today, you might be the developer. Tomorrow, the UX designer, and the day after, the customer service representative. Embracing these roles can offer a well-rounded perspective. Embrace Other Roles: No-Cost to Low-Cost Marketing Strategies Every developer-turned-entrepreneur understands the appeal of optimizing resources. After all, isn't optimization the heart of our coding lives? Just as we seek to streamline our code for maximum efficiency, we can adopt a similar mindset in our marketing efforts. Fortunately, there are numerous strategies that require minimal financial outlay but can yield significant results. Get on Social Active participation in online communities can elevate your brand’s visibility. Join developer forums, tech groups, or startup communities. Share your insights, answer questions, and genuinely engage. This organic interaction often leads to increased brand awareness. Engage, Don't Just Promote: Sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit have vast audiences. By sharing updates, writing articles, or even tweeting thoughtful insights, you can position yourself as an authority in your domain. Leverage Platforms: Content is King Regularly share your experiences, learnings, or even challenges. Blogs not only enhance SEO but also establish thought leadership. Platforms like Medium allow you to publish for free and reach a broad audience. Start Blogging: Write articles for established tech blogs or platforms. It's a win-win: they get content, and you get exposure. Guest Posts: Networking and Collaboration Team up with complementary products or services. By promoting each other, you can tap into new audiences without spending a dime. Partnerships: Many local groups or communities organize free or inexpensive meetups. These are excellent platforms to showcase your product, get feedback, and connect with potential users or partners. Attend Meetups: Use Free Tools to Your Advantage Tools like Google's Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest can help you understand trending topics and optimize your content for better discoverability. SEO Optimization: Platforms like Mailchimp offer free tiers that can help you kickstart your email campaigns. A well-timed, engaging newsletter can work wonders. Email Marketing: Encourage Word-of-Mouth Even if you can't afford cash rewards, offer other incentives like features, extended trials, or merchandise for users who bring in new customers. Referral Programs: A positive review on platforms like Product Hunt, Capterra, or even Google can greatly enhance credibility. Encourage satisfied users to share their experiences. Testimonials and Reviews: A Developer's Marketing Checklist Marketing, while seemingly a vast territory, can be distilled into a few actionable steps. As a developer transitioning into the realm of entrepreneurship, having a clear roadmap makes things less complex. Here’s a concise checklist tailored for developers to ensure no stone is left unturned in the marketing journey. Understand Your Audience Envision the person who would benefit most from your product. What are their habits, needs, and challenges? Give your assumptions a reality check. Profile Your Ideal Customer: Find them. Talk to them. Gather insights directly from those who interact with your product. What do they love? Where can you improve? Something like Typeform goes a long way here. Survey Existing Users: Optimize Your Online Presence Ensure your site is search engine friendly. Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to assess and improve. Website SEO: Keep your channels updated with fresh content. Engagement is as crucial as promotion. Active Social Media Profiles: Schedule regular posts to establish thought leadership and enhance organic search results. Consistent Blogging: Engage and Network Participate in forums, answer questions, and share your insights. It’s not just about promoting your product but adding value. Join Online Communities: Webinars, workshops, meetups. Face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) interactions can lead to invaluable partnerships and feedback. Attend Relevant Events: Leverage Content Marketing Infographics, explainer videos, and interactive quizzes can amplify your reach. Create Shareable Content: Reach out to reputable blogs or platforms. Share your expertise and, in return, gain visibility. Guest Post: Experiment and Refine Test different marketing strategies to see what resonates with your audience. Iterate based on results. A/B Testing: Use tools like Google Analytics to understand user behavior. Where are your users coming from? What content are they engaging with? Monitor Analytics: Encourage Feedback Actively seek reviews. Positive feedback boosts credibility, while constructive criticism offers growth avenues. User Reviews and Testimonials: Make it easy for users to reach out. Feedback forms, chatbots, or even a simple email can bridge the communication gap. Open Channels of Communication: The market rewards multidisciplinary developers. Combine coding chops with marketing savvy. :chefs-kiss: As unconventional as it may seem, marketing your creations is essential. Let's build get the word out! and

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271 Stories To Learn About Growth Marketing

For most B2B marketers, it can be hard to keep up with the rapid pace of changes. Not staying up-to-date with key trends and best-practices can cost marketers and companies in lost market share, future opportunities and bottom-line profits. Today we’ll cover costly B2B marketing mistakes that many of the B2B companies I’ve been assessing so far in 2023 are making, and some B2B marketing best-practices you can apply right away. Now although these marketing mistakes are in the context of B2B SaaS and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that I’ve been reviewing, this will be valuable for any business owners and marketers looking to optimize their marketing, cut waste and greatly improve business profitability from marketing efforts in 2023. With that said, let’s jump right in. Marketing automations, lead nurturing, effective sales calls and retargeting visitors with ads is much more costly and prone to human error when it’s done manually instead of automatically with a page or a form specific segmentation strategy. 1) Companies using the same lead capture form for “contact us” and sales enquiries. Asking your lead what profession or general company title they hold at their business helps equip your sales team automatically with key pain points and aspirational goals so they can speak the language of your potential customer. Here's how we did it at LJ Welding Automation: 2) Not incorporating a self-identifying sales persona question on lead capture forms. Offer a free 15 minute consultation, a free trial, a discount offer, useful templates or something else that is a byproduct of the business that your customer may want. It should be a no-brainer and add value to the potential lead and help them along their buyers journey. 3) Not using any offers that entice visitors into becoming a lead. Landing pages are designed for the person to do 1 thing: become your lead. It's done by removing interactive element on the page except the 'submit' button. Normal web pages have menu and footer navigation that ruin conversion rates for getting leads. 4) Not using landing pages or thank you pages and relying on in-line messages instead. every Similarly with Thank you pages, after a visitor converts to a lead, you can immediately show them product demo videos and testimonials to keep the sales conversation going while your sales team prepares to make contact. Finally, Landing and thank you pages can help segment traffic for advertising based on if they became a lead yet or not. In-line thank you messages are a poor substitute for proper landing page structure and miss an unacceptable amount of strategic marketing value. On landing pages, you need to be pushy to get people to take action and . I’ve seen pop-up on exit intents capture lead info from hundreds of leads who would otherwise not have completed a form. 5) Not using pop-up on exit intent for landing pages. nudge them RELATED: Nudge Theory Best-Practices For Business 6) Online chat bot asking the wrong questions to visitors. This chatbot example is better off asking a question to learn more about the visitor’s pain point they’re trying to fix, or if they can find what they’re looking for, or see if they’re eligible for a special promo offer like a demo or discount. Chat bots are meant to help convert traffic into leads for your sales team or assist with customer service support. By using these microblogging sites, you're able to get your content ranking far higher in search results for organic traffic rather than relying on your website’s domain authority. 99% of companies will not outrank these three micro-blogging sites, so use them ASAP. 7) Not using HackerNoon , Substack or LinkedIn Articles to drive traffic from larger audience pools, as well as earn backlink authority. How-to: Publish your article first on your website, but then repost them on these other sites. Make sure to link back to the original on your website to drive new free eyeballs from those platforms and improve your website's authority. (canonical tagging) You can learn a lot about the effectiveness of sales collateral by seeing how much traffic it drives back to your website and becomes leads. You can't effectively improve what you don't measure. 8) Not using traceable and trackable links in their sales brochures and spec sheets. LinkedIn is a major B2B opportunity for new business where Twitter can be more superficial but provide social-proof opportunities on socials. 9) Putting equal effort on all social media platforms instead of focusing on the 1 or two that matter most (LinkedIn and Twitter). The best way to know your top two is by looking at your to see where traffic is coming from that converts into leads. referral Google analytics sources I’ve written about this plenty of times, but it’s so simple: all-lower-case-no-spaces-use-dashes-avoid-special-characters.jpeg 10) Not naming product image files in a way that's friendly to search engine indexers. Naming correctly matters not just for when a file goes on your own website, but also when you're trying to rank your product images quickly on Google search using free microblogging sites mentioned earlier and others, like and . Behance Dribbble If you’re in the business of improving reliability and efficiency for others, , this is about walking the talk for your own business. 11) Using patchwork softwares for CRM, web and marketing automations instead of a unified solution like HubSpot or comparable equivalents. working smarter and not harder A unifying all-in-one solution will help avoid unplanned downtime, hidden costs from popping up and making sales and marketing's job easier so they get more done. This can be as simple as an automated email a month after a sale to offer follow-up support, customized tips, suggest YouTube videos customers may now find useful or offer a customer satisfaction survey... whatever the priority is at the time for your business, incorporate that. 12) Not surveying customers post-sale to fine-tune the persona research or earn new product reviews, testimonials or case study material. Trade magazines and journals love publishing original guest posts and thought leadership content if it’s not overly promotional. They will only publish fresh content that hasn't been posted elsewhere first. Ask the Editor about their editorial calendar to find where you can add the most relevant value. You can find these publications easily at your trade shows as media sponsors, or type in your competitor's brand into Google and hit the “news tab” like below: 13) Not seeking out and creating guest posting opportunities when so much effort goes into content creation. It’s remarkable how much effort I’ve seen go into great quality content, only for it to be posted with no call-to-actions, no links sprinkled into other related-content on the B2B’s website just to sit there without either promotion or strategic purpose. For example, did you notice what I did under point #5? 14) Not interlinking content on the company blogs with more of their articles or a lead generation special offer. If you don’t do this, your competitor is stealing your traffic cheaply at the most valuable stage of the buyer’s journey. If you bid on it as well, it won't cost you much, but it dramatically increases your competitors' cost to compete for it due to your higher . 15) Not bidding on the company's own brand keywords for Google or Bing. Quality Score A lot of people don't know this, but Bing’s grown to account for . Windows PCs use Bing by default, and most companies provide workers with PCs over Macs, and that’s why you shouldn't neglect it for your B2B marketing. 16) Neglecting Bing and only using Google Ads. 8.85% of all online searches in 2023 You can create video content funnels that drive leads based on your buyers journey by using playlists of videos in an order and eventually running ads to get steady of new leads. You can also make ‘how-to’ style troubleshooting videos or common FAQs to take pressure off your customer support team. Create playlists based on products and short videos answering regular frequently asked questions. 17) Not using Youtube as an automated lead generation tool or customer self-serve troubleshooting solution. This is a massive waste of advertising budget because it always performs badly and doesn’t drive measurable results. Ads should drive traffic only to landing pages or other interactive element call-to-actions like “Call Now” unless it's very low cost-per-click and sending the right kind of traffic to content that is at the top of your funnel. 18) Running paid ads to a home page or other web page instead of to a specific landing page and offer. Be explicit about what you want the reader or viewer to do and don’t make them have to think. Showing your logo at the end of a video but not including a website address, a phone number, an interactive element to click on for more information or claim a special offer is a major, common missed opportunity that super-charges your marketing content. Make sure your call-to-actions are contextual to the content, and they will work for you 24/7. 19) Not including relevant call-to-actions to written content and video content. Content should be produced with the intention of helping your buyer personas through the awareness, consideration, decision and delight stages of their buyer's journey. Understand whose pain point you're fixing before you start creating content and use language that is familiar to them when describing your solution. 20) Creating the content before deciding who it’s meant for. Segmenting leads automatically from forms as mentioned in #2 helps to drip feed content that’s relevant to leads over a length of time that fits within your typical sales cycle. 21) Not incorporating marketing automation into the lead nurturing processes. The in B2B marketing is growing every day. Check out the recommended link for more inspiration. 22) Not learning and using ChatGPT or equivalents to write social media post drafts, find hashtags for a post, or drill down on their sales persona data for further insights. list of AI applications RECOMMENDED: How-to Use AI Marketing for Your B2B Marketing in 2023 A B2B SaaS wanted to increase SQLs by 8% a month. I looked at their sales process and saw a big problem: they were trying to drive leads toward a product demo sales call that could have been a 3 minute product sales video for that persona, but weren’t making the primary call-to-action try for free for X days which was an option found buried in the pricing page FAQs. In terms of micro-commitments, speaking with a sales person is a bigger ask than watching a product video demo and then trialing a software for free. Instead of sales people offering scripted product demo presentations, they would be most effective by doing customized onboarding for new SQLs who signed up to try the businesses SaaS for free. 23) Making the sales process unnecessarily more difficult. Structured data is what shows up at the top of a google search before website results. In order to rank your website needs a Moz domain authority above 30. You can find out your website's authority . Here’s a to write up all of mine. 24) Not using structured data mark-ups on key web pages like products, events, about page etc. here free resource I use Offers, recommendations, products, services, and posts made in your Google Business profile are favoured in search results over regular searches. That's because it's Google's digital properties and they promote their own stuff first. can cover more than 1/3 of the first page of local search results and is free to use (for now). 25) Not using the Google Business listing to its potential. Google's snack pack This comes back to knowing your audience before getting started. A business owner will have different motivations and pain points than a process engineer, a manager or an end-user. A good tip is whoever the customer is you're quoting for the case study, their business title is probably the sales persona audience to focus on. 26) Not writing case studies from the buyer persona perspective and being too general in the appeal. I’ve mentioned some in previous articles but good free ones I like are and . For SaaS companies especially, submitting published posts from  HackerNoon and LinkedIn Articles and guest posting sites can also be added to a company's profile as “News Mentions”. 27) Not backlinking articles after publishing, or having any plan to make backlinks happen. Instapaper Folkd Crunchbase The most cost-effective use of an ad budget is retargeting people you know are interested in your company already, versus prospecting for new business with people who are unfamiliar with you and your product. . If your ad budget is small, stick to retargeting only at first. 28) Not retargeting web traffic at all. Retargeting is the low-hanging fruit Web traffic that’s top of the funnel isn’t as valuable to the business as traffic that is in the decision stage of your sales cycle. 29) Not bucketing web traffic retargeting based on where the visitor is in the buyers journey. I’ve seen OEMs that don’t use their "90 day full money back" guarantees on sales pages and marketing collateral, and it really hurts their conversion rates. By including this information, the company reverses the risk away from the customer, so they have nothing to lose by trying the product. 30) Not promoting key selling information like free trials or money back guarantees. Sales videos are by far more effective than hero images but leaving the space blank isn’t helping convert more traffic into leads. 31) Not using hero images or sales videos on their landing pages. It’s ok to link off the website if it’s an important reference, but make sure it’s opening a new tab in the browser because your web traffic isn’t likely to return to your website once they've left. 32) Linking out to other websites without opening a new tab. Cost breakdowns of a marketing agency are typically as follows: ⅓ wage, ⅓ business overhead, ⅓ profit. The more time they spend over what they’ve allotted to you, the less profit a marketing agency makes. In essence, they are incentivized to do as little as possible without getting fired. That mark-up from marketing agencies is better spent on your business by paying and incentivizing high-quality marketing talent of your own, expanding advertising budgets and improving business long-term competitiveness and profitability. 33) Spending money with ad or marketing agencies instead of running  in-house. Now although lost opportunities from having these common but costly marketing mistakes is in the past, you now know what you can do to get ahead of your competition, just by making sure these costly and preventable marketing mistakes don't happen on your watch. If you know of a potential company, SaaS or OEM, tell them to . I’m open to all serious enquiries. Thanks for reading! PS: I’m looking to transition from consulting back to working for a B2B in need of a marketing director or VP. connect with me on LinkedIn

33 Common & Costly B2B Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Keeping the holiday spirit alive, here we are with more prizes for our fantastic community 🎁 🎁 Round 3 results of the by mParticle and HackerNoon are now live! Growth Marketing Writing Contest For those who are reading about this for the first time - mParticle & HackerNoon are excited to host for marketers and product managers. Growth Marketing Writing Contest Here’s your chance to win money from a whopping $12,000 prize pool! It could be any story on . We highly encourage you to write on #growth-marketing Product Management, Customer Data Platforms (CDP), Growth Marketing, Data Engineering, and Data Management. mParticle is a real-time AI customer data platform that powers your entire marketing stack with high-quality customer data. Request for a demo today! The Growth Marketing Writing Contest: November 2022 Nominations & Winners For selecting the top 10 nominations, we picked all the stories with the tag on HackerNoon, published in November 2022. Then we chose the top stories using 60:30:10 weightage respectively to: #growth-marketing Number of hours read The number of people reached The freshness of the content Here are the top 10 nominations: by Growth Marketing Vs Performance Marketing @dailyabay by 4 Steps to Build a Web Analytics Measurement Plan @mikhailkirilin by Nudge Theory Best-Practices For Business (With Examples) @darragh by 18 AI Marketing Softwares Your B2B Needs to Try Today @darragh by Secrets to Growth Marketing Data Engineering – Even in This Down Economy @manish8227 by 5 Steps to Increase Your Sales Department’s Efficiency @alexsolo by How Latin American Startups Can Make Their Own User Data Their Growth Superpower @marialejads by FTX Raised $1bn With This Pitch Deck in 2021. Let’s Review It! @sergey-baloyan by An Intro to Blockchain/Web3 Marketing in 2023 @dariavolkova by How to Use AI for Your B2B Marketing @darrag The winner in first place is: https://hackernoon.com/nudge-theory-best-practices-for-business-with-examples?embedable=true People value what they currently possess more than what they don’t yet own. We’re more motivated by potential losses than potential gains. For example, a majority of people will exert more effort to prevent the loss of $10,000 than to acquire $10,000 because the satisfaction lost is more overpowering than the satisfaction gained with the same amount. Wow , you have your three stories in the top 10 this month. Well-deserved win! You have won $1,000! @darragh In the second place, we have another excellent writeup: https://hackernoon.com/ftx-raised-$1bn-with-this-pitch-deck-in-2021-lets-review-it?embedable=true The first thing that catches your eye clearly is . There are no complicated backgrounds, animations, or illustrations. Just a light background and text. Nothing distracts from the content. Nothing should. the minimalistic design Psychologically, it is easier to make the reader focus on the things he needs to be focused on. In investment Pitch Decks, it's the numbers. And there will be numbers, lots of numbers. Congratulations, - you’ve won the second position and $600 in the growth marketing writing contest. @sergey-baloyan In the third place, we have: https://hackernoon.com/how-latin-american-startups-can-make-their-own-user-data-their-growth-superpower?embedable=true LatAm’s founders’ resilience is unmatched and the increasing adoption of tech solutions is a clear indicator of greater potential in the region and businesses’ willingness to adapt to the current digitization era. Early-stage startup data analytics tools help fuel investments and attract greater partnerships that consequently help the population uplift its quality of life. By showing well-informed data-based business strategies local founders and interested VCs are paving the way toward sustainable growth. Yay, ! You have won $400. @marialejads We will contact all the winners shortly. Want to know more about all the running and upcoming writing contests? Visit today! See y’all in round 4 of the growth marketing writing contest next month. contests.hackernoon.com

The Growth Marketing Writing Contest: Round 3 Results Announced!

Concurso de redacción sobre marketing de crecimiento: ¡se anuncian los resultados de la ronda 3!

Concours d'écriture sur le marketing de croissance : les résultats du troisième tour sont annoncés !

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グロース マーケティング ライティング コンテスト: 第 3 ラウンドの結果が発表されました!

O Concurso de Redação de Growth Marketing: Resultados da 3ª Rodada Anunciados!

Cuộc thi Viết về Tiếp thị Tăng trưởng: Đã công bố Kết quả Vòng 3!

增长营销写作比赛：第三轮结果公布！

Community-led marketing refers to the use of communities, often centered around a particular product or brand, to drive growth, insight gathering and impactful engagement. In the digital age, these communities can take many forms, including online forums, social media groups, and even in-person meetups. By fostering a sense of belonging and connection among users, these communities can serve as powerful marketing channels and help drive product growth. One example of a successful product that has leveraged communities for growth is the video game “Fortnite.” The game has a large and active online community of players who regularly share tips, discuss strategies, and create content around the game. This community has helped drive engagement and retention among players, ultimately contributing to the game’s massive success. , a service-led product in hiring and career development similarly operates a community group to foster members' growth, validate product demands and scale expansion operations. DiverseK Another example is the beauty brand The company has built a loyal and passionate community of customers through its social media presence and customer-centric approach to marketing. By regularly engaging with its followers and soliciting feedback, Glossier has been able to build a sense of connection and community among its users, which has helped drive growth and brand loyalty. Similarly, Product Marketing Alliance has a fantastic community-led strategy actively fueled by the global slack channel, ambassadors, and meetups across the world. Glossier. If you’re looking to start a community for your product, here are five key steps to consider: : The first step in building a community is to identify the group of people who are most likely to be interested in your product. This will help you understand their needs and interests, and tailor your community-building efforts accordingly. Twitter and Linkedin are great places to find the best group of people that are willing to become advocates at zero cost, provided the product solves a critical problem for them. Identify your target audience : Next, you’ll want to clearly define the purpose of your community and highlight your vision and mission respectively. This could be to provide support and help for users, share news and updates about your product, or simply create a space for users to connect and engage with each other. Outline your community’s purpose : There are many different platforms that you can use to build and manage your community, including social media groups, forums, and messaging apps such as Slack and Telegram. Choose the platform that best fits your target audience and community purpose. Some level of competitive intelligence might point in the right direction on some of the successful community platforms used by competitors in your industry. Choose the right platform : Once you’ve established your community, it’s important to actively foster engagement and connection among its members. This could involve regularly posting content, hosting events (virtual/physical) or webinars, and encouraging members to share their own experiences and insights. #WeeklyWinnings or #MidWeekHacks are some examples to nudge members to share their winnings or hacks that helped them work better. Encourage engagement and networking : To ensure that your community remains positive and welcoming, it’s important to invest in moderation and support. This could involve hiring moderators or volunteers to keep an eye on activity and address any issues that arise or establishing clear guidelines and rules for community behavior. It will significantly contribute to the sanity of the group and make it a safe space for everyone. Get volunteers for moderation Lastly, community-led marketing can be a powerful tool for driving product growth, engagement, and quality insight gathering. By fostering a sense of belonging and connection among users, you can create a loyal and passionate community that helps drive success for your product. By following the steps outlined above, you can start building your own community and take advantage of the many benefits it can offer. In subsequent articles, I will share more about the customer advisory board as a catalyst for product-led growth.

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