Tech

intelligence tracking
 by Basim Mirza

Intelligence: Double Your Business With 6 Metrics

Intelligence Tracking takes the uncertainty after you e-mail a proposal to your prospect. You’ll know and understand what to anticipate, and how to respond. Having such information is critical to increasing the likelihood of closing high level sales.

As a marketer, for many years I’ve been obsessed with data and economics. That obsession has really helped me bring something unique to the table to the marketing profession and industry. One of these innovations is the understanding of how to find intelligence on your prospective leads, and use the data to determine the answer to these two questions:

  • Is this prospect taking my proposal seriously?
  • Which prospects should I be spending most of my time with?

Not only were these questions important to my sales team, it was something many of my prospects were asking. It was these two questions that led me to determine the 6 intelligence metrics that will double your sales. As you read the information on business intelligence, you will definitely appreciate how this can add value to your practice. This would be especially useful if you’re running a consulting practice or sell high level services.

 

These intelligence metrics will double your business…

 

  1. Frequency of Email Opened
    This metric is one of the first places to start. This one really determines all the other 6 I’ll be discussing. At the end of the day if your prospect hasn’t even opened your email, then you haven’t captured their interest yet. Now this could mean that they are busy and just haven’t yet gotten round to your proposal. Some of my biggest clients have taken weeks (even months) to open an email. However knowledge is power, and just having an understanding of whether your email has been opened will give you the confidence to follow-up with your prospect. Maybe they just need a quick reminder? Maybe they’ve just been hiding the fact that they are not interested? Either way, at least you’ll know whether to spend any more time or not. Your time is your most valuable asset!Another important reason worth mentioning is finding out the level of interest in your email. If your prospect opens your email 3,4, or even 18 times, what does that mean!? It could be that he or she is super engaged, which makes the prospect even more qualified! It could also mean that he or she is indecisive, which is always a red flag. Either way, you’ll be more confident in your next move.
  2. Frequency of Link(s) Clicked
    If you’ve decided to share a link or an article on your blog, that’s a hyperlink that can be tracked. The engagement on that link will give you a clear indication on your prospect’s intent. He or she may not even click the link, in which case you may want to change your approach or move on to another prospect. Similarly to the first point, if your prospect is clicking the link multiple times, this is a clear indication of his or her’s interest in what you’ve shared. This will give you the confidence in shortlisting this prospect, and escalating towards closing a sale. As opposed to frequency of email opened, frequency of click makes the engagement level more certain and definitive.
  3. Average Proposal Reading Time
    Now we’re getting in to the good stuff! If you’re seasoned as a business owner or sales leader, you’ve probably sent out many proposals to your prospects. When you send out emails to your prospects, you can set tracking on the attached proposal. Once the email is sent, you can sit back and wait for the data to come through. Eventually you’ll find out how much time on average does your prospect spend reading your proposal. You know if it’s more than a minute, he or she is most likely giving it a serious review.

    intelligence
  4. Average Time Spent Per Page
    Understanding the engagement levels on each individual page of your proposal will give you a clear understanding on which content is your prospect taking more seriously. If your prospect is spending more time on the pricing page of your proposal, you can probably make an educated guess that he or she is spending time thinking about the investment opportunity. I’ve had prospects who are interested in the process, and others may spend more time on the section that talks about the services. These are all clues on your next steps. The screenshot below is an actual proposal sent by our team to a prospect, and we track his engagement per page.intelligence
  5. Number of Visits Per Page
    Understanding the number of times your prospect has come back to read specific a page will help you evaluate which page required the most attention. Having this knowledge can give you an idea of how the prospect is approaching the proposal.intelligence
  6. Prospect Reading Completion
    Prospect Reading Completion comes as a percentage, and knowing how much of the proposal is complemented will right away tell you if the prospect has read the entire proposal. If there are parts that have not been read, not only will you be able to tell which parts, you’ll be able to advise and review over the neglected parts with the prospect. This metric will also tell you if the prospect may have skimmed the material, in which case it’s also best to check the reading time to determine this.

If you’d like to know more on how to implement intelligence in your business. Book your complimentary strategy session with us, and we’ll show you how.

in Business / Content / Marketing / Networking / Tech 0 comments
seo strategy
 by Basim Mirza

SEO Strategy: Profit From Rankings [Video]

Your SEO Strategy is a gateway to all kinds of exposure from search engines. Take our word for it, with the right approach you can have your brand in front of MILLIONS of eyeballs… for free. Check out the video below, as Basim show’s you below how to do this organically!

How Do I Build a Profitable SEO Strategy For My Website?

 

The beautiful thing about SEO is that you can really play into this and you can really build your content in such a way so that you are attracting lots of people through those search engines. Google mainly because Google is the biggest mammoth out there. So you have got to think about how you can look good, not just in front of Google – like where Google actually rewards you for your content that you are putting out on the website – but also the users who are actually searching on Google. What you want to do is plug into the people that are searching through the long-tailed keyword, and maybe in some cases the short-tail. But mostly long-tail, where they are basically typing “what is the nearest restaurant near me that gives sushi?” or whatever. So you want to plug into that and you can use organic content to actually do that. You can actually base your articles and even videos like this, you can plug into SEO. Not social media, don’t worry about the social media part, focus on your website. HubSpot actually did a study where they found if you have over 311 index pages on Google, you are going to increase your traffic by over 230 percent. So that is crazy! If you actually follow through on that, you are going to start seeing those kinds of results as well. So follow through on that because most people don’t and I think we all know that. So really just see and think about how you can create lots of unique and valuable content to pump out through your website or blog or resources section. Add value and the traffic is going to come.

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 by Emma Cameron

How to Grab Your Consumers Attention Within a Few Seconds

The attention span of the average human decreases every year. In only thirteen years, we have gone from an attention span of 12 seconds to a mere 8 seconds. This is due to our fast paced lifestyle, the changing dynamics of technology and advertising clutter. Not only does this have direct consequences, but it is becoming a problem for both brands and marketers who want to grab consumers attention – and keep it! This poses a serious challenge for brands and marketers. However, there are solutions that can help you quickly grab anyone’s attention in just a few seconds.

  1. Let photos speak for you:

Whoever came up with the phrase “a picture is worth a million words” was spot on. Consumer interest and curiosity can be sparked in a matter of seconds with captivating photos. Brands have been moving towards image-centric marketing rather than traditional text-based ever since the rise in the use of social media marketing. This is rather smart due to the fact that between 65 and 85 percent of people describe themselves as visual learners. They digest information more easily by visual stimulation rather than traditional text based. Interesting images spark consumers’ interest just enough to make them want more. This is why many photo and video sharing sites and apps are becoming increasingly popular with consumers and brands. Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr are some of the most popular sites right now where consumers and brands are flocking to. These sites thrive on photo and video sharing, and have become successful due to their simple format, and engaging content that brands are uploading.

  1. Make it personal: 

Consumers crave the feeling of brands speaking directly to them. Personalized promotional emails and personalized online advertising techniques are considered the top strategies for this and help encourage consumers to purchase and engage in repeat buying. When you have the tools and processes in place to track individual consumer data, it really goes a long way – minimizing your client acquisition cost!

Furthermore, many companies have embraced this personal tactic in their products and services and have been extremely successful. For example, Coca-Cola introduced their “Share a Coke” campaign last summer after years of falling sales. By simply adding popular names and labels to each bottle, Coca-Cola was able to personalize their product, which resulted in an increase of sales.

  1. Encourage Consumers to Participate on Social Media Channels: 

Encouraging consumers to participate in social media campaigns can build personal relationships with your brand and keep you at the forefront of a consumer’s mind. For example, GoPro interacts with consumers on their social media pages, and excels with their engagement on Instagram. This is all due to the campaign “photo of the day” – which has been going on for a few years now – where GoPro features photos that their consumers have taken with their product. This campaign has been very successful for GoPro who has a combined following of over 22 million followers on all their social media channels. This has allowed GoPro to interact with consumers on a regular basis and optimize their brand presence. Encouraging consumers to participate on social media channels is an easy and simple way to draw attention from your consumer(s).

We may never be able to reverse the affects that technology, our lifestyles, and clutter marketing has had on our attention spans. But thankfully, there are still ways to navigate this obstacle when it comes to marketing and advertising!

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analytics
 by Mitchell Cameron

Analytics, Predictive or Prescriptive? Why not Both?

Analytics and data are essential to running any business today and firms have established systems that track and monitor everything that we do. In order to have a more effective marketing strategy it is important to understand the different types of data and how to properly use them. The three basic types are descriptive, predictive and perceptive analytics. We discuss each in more detail below.

Descriptive Analytics

This type is raw data in summarized form. Examples include social engagement counts, sales numbers, customer statistics and other metrics that show you what’s going on in your business in an easy-to-understand way.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics forecast what will happen in the future. Examples include consumer trends, forecasting and opportunity analysis that will help determine the actions of a business.

 Perceptive Analytics

This type of analytics builds on predictive analytics. It involves informing key decision makers about different decision choices with their anticipated impact on key performance indicators (KPIs). This type helps you develop specific recommendations. An example of this would be a GPS system which first predicts a route using a multitude of different inputs and “advises” a person to take the shortest route with a predicted ETA.

Using both Predictive and Perceptive Analytics

Both of these types of analytics must be used in order to maximize your company’s marketing efforts. One without the other does not bridge the gap between raw data collected and what actions your company will take. “Prescriptive analytics can help companies alter the future,” stated Immanuel Lee, Web analytics engineer at MetroStar Systems. “They’re both necessary to improve decision-making and business outcomes.”

Perceptive analytics ultimately clarifiy predictive data and can help a company improve their marketing strategy to increase sales. Simply knowing information about a consumer or industry offers some information to a company about the market in which it operates but this is the first step. The next step is to actually determine what this information means and the impact that it has on key areas of the business.

Tips for your Analytics Program

1) Start Small

When dealing with analytics there are many various types of data that get recorded. Therefore it is important to start small and work smart in order to gather the right types of data. Within your business there are many different activities that go on day-to-day and sometimes a more focused strategy is better.

2) Create Specified Data Sets

By separating data into specific groups, it is easier to use when needed within your marketing strategy. Data can be separated into segments like gender, income level and location. This in turn makes it easier to specifically predict and make recommendations through a perceptive program.

3) Understand Why Data is Collected

Predictive and perceptive analytics ultimately depend on humans that design systems and collect data. It is important to understand why certain types of data are being collected and what the purpose of this information is. Understanding why this information is collected and what its use will be will help when trying to determine the best marketing strategy for a company.

4) Keep Your Systems up to Date

As your business grows and advances, it is critical to develop and keep your systems up to date. Technology makes it easier and more efficient to gather information about customers within your market. When your analytical systems are up to date, your company will be more adaptive at responding to current trends or consumer wants.

At Mirza International, we have the know-how when it comes to analytical marketing, which will save you both time and money. We can offer you marketing services that drive success and help convert data into a focused marketing strategy. The benefits for you? Less wasted effort and a greater return – which will help your business grow and keep you happy!

Click here to book your complimentary consultation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 by Emma Cameron

How the Advertising Feature on Instagram Works

Have you ever scrolled through your Instagram feed, and were surprised to see an advertisement from your favourite brand? Have you ever wondered how these advertisements matched your interest or hobbies so well? Well in 2014, Instagram introduced the advertisement feature that allows brands to sponsor ads to their target consumer(s). These ads pop up on the targeted users feed, regardless of if the user is following the brand or not. Brands can pick from three ad formats – photo, video, and carousel ads.

Instagram uses Facebook’s demographic data to present the correct ads to the appropriate demographic. For an example, you would never want a 40 year old male who is interested in sports seeing an ad for beauty products targeted at teens. This is important to ensure that relevant content is being shared with the right audience.

Instagram first tested the advertising feature by selecting specific brands – Taco Bell, Mercedes-Benz, and Chobani were some of the earliest adopters! After a successful run over the course of a few months, the ad feature is now available to businesses big or small! Though the advertising feature appeared to be working successfully, Instagram did fine that they needed to give users the opportunity to mute these sponsored ads. Advertisements are always labeled as sponsored and users have the ability to hide ads if they are not pleased with the disruption on their feed – giving the user control over what they see. Instagram has found this to be successful, and consumers are responding well to this control.

Many brands who have used the advertising feature on Instagram have been more than pleased with the return they have gotten on these ads. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream ad campaign reached an estimated 9.8 million people just in the United States in only eight days – impressive! Mercedes-Benz used Instagram to launch its compact SUV called the “GLA” in collaboration with Facebook last fall and saw an increase of 580 percent to their site! Happn has been using the advertising feature for a month now, and has reached an estimated 3 million users in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Paulo. The app has seen a conversion rate of 84 percent in terms of app downloads as well as registered users – incredible!

There are over 400 million Instagram users worldwide, and over 70 million photos and videos uploaded everyday – making Instagram the perfect untapped app for advertising and branding! If executed properly, Instagram advertisements can open up a new market and even a new target consumer to businesses!

in Business / Lifestyle / Marketing / Social Media / Tech 0 comments
advertising, marketing
 by Mitchell Cameron

Advertising: Research Today Compared to the Past

Market research and intelligence is something that has changed and affected advertising world wide. In the past, research was conducted through interviews, trade journals and a lot of difficult work. Research departments were reliant on their own personal networks and the ability to do physical research.

However, today we have access to any information we want at our fingertips through the Internet.  I think we can all agree that the internet has revolutionized the business world. In terms of market research, the amount and ease of access to information makes today’s research an area a company can gain a competitive advantage in. In the following article we will look at first, how the advertising industry has changed and second, how a company can use market research to gain a competitive advantage.

Advertising and Market Research Today

First, let’s discuss how marketing research and intelligence has changed. Then we can go over how a company can gain an advantage over its competition using technology today.  In the past, organizations relied on well-staffed research departments. These advertising departments consisted of trained staff that would do research the old fashioned way – through endless readings. They would be reliant on their networks of information, industry statistics, journals, and their ability to acquire information about the industry themselves. Now, with a click of a button and a few keywords, we have access to tons of credible work from around the globe.

Today, the effectiveness of market research is dependent on the researcher’s ability to use technology to their advantage. There are thousands of management systems in place that track consumer behaviour and compile databases of the buying habits of millions of people. With technology we can track these behaviours through sales and point of purchase monitoring. Researchers also have access to millions of customer reviews and all their competitor information which they can search on the Internet. This allows them to measure their success against competitors easily by simply reading reviews online. Demographics are also heavily monitored and recorded through automatic computer systems, whereas in the past, researchers would have to rely on the census for this information.

How to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Now let’s take a look at how a company can gain a competitive advantage over their competitors by using market research and intelligence. Competitive advantage is defined as something that you or your organization does better than competitors.  Since there is so much available to us now compared to the past, a company can really capitalize on its market research.

By keeping up with current technologies and customer tracking systems, companies can now know what their consumers want before they even want it. Predicting customer needs is a great way to gain the edge over your competitors.

A company can also target customers with specific content and promotions related to their interests.

In addition, an organization can focus on the customers that make them the most profits or who use their product or service the most. The easiest way to gain a competitive advantage through market research and intelligence is to target the right customers with the right content. This will build a relationship with your target customers and make them feel as the company is tailoring its products or services directly to them. Apple is a great example of how a company can use market research to build relationships with its customers. Apple is constantly researching and looking at databases to figure out what Apple users want next and because of this they have high customer loyalty.

Other Advantages Today

It is also a lot easier to conduct market research now as opposed to the past, where an entire department was needed to conduct the research. By properly staffing and optimizing a firm’s research systems with a few indispensable human resources and the proper technology, an organization does not need a research department. This cuts costs and can also be seen as an advantage over a competitor who has to operate and pay employees of a huge research department.

We can see that market research plays a huge role in the effectiveness of a firm’s marketing strategy. It is important for a company to stay up-to-date with the most current customer relationship management systems so that they can stay ahead of their competitors in the industry. Mirza international is up-to-date with the best practices on tracking customer activity online and creating content to target your most profitable segment. To book a conference call to see how we can help you, visit: http://mirzaintl.com/

 

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 by Emma Cameron

How GoPro Empowers Their Customers

gopro

Social media is an amazing new marketing outlet that allows consumers to keep connected and engaged with their favourite brands. Social media not only allows brands to specifically advertise to their demographics, but it is also allows consumers to advertise and promote their favourite brands products and services as well.

GoPro has been doing a success job of empowering their users, while using their content to promote their brand. GoPro allows everyday people the ability to shoot HD footage and capture out of this world photographs on their miniature cameras – no matter what their past experience consists of. Not only are their products successful, but their presence on Instagram is as well. GoPro currently has 7 million followers, and averages about 300,000 “likes” per post. Their following is continuously growing, and so is their social media campaign. The company came up with the campaign “Photo of the Day”, where users upload their HD photographs to their own Instagram accounts, tagging GoPro in these photos. Everyday, GoPro picks a photo to be featured on their own Instagram account and tags the user in the re-uploaded photo. GoPro is not just stopping at photos, they are also promoting users to create extreme videos that they repost on their Youtube page.

gopro photo

This campaign has been extremely successful, and has been going on for years now. This allows GoPro to empower their users and promote their work, while at the same time be able to share these photos and use them as advertising tools. Creating a sort of win-win for both the user and the brand. This is just one of the many brands who are embracing social media, and really allowing consumers to take the reigns on advertising through these platforms.

As more and more brands move towards social media marketing, this tactic will become increasingly popular. Consumers love it and so do brands!

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 by Emma Cameron

How To Use Hashtags Effectively

Hashtags are an important part of our social media and tech culture today. So important that in 2010 the Oxford Dictionary added the word, and the board game Scrabble added it to their dictionary. Though most people in the world have heard of hashtags, or have seen them live in action, many still do not know to how to use them effectively. Hashtags are simple to use and can really drive traffic and engagement to your post or content – making them an important tool to know inside out.

 

Choosing The Right One:

It is not effective to just pick any word or phrase and proceed to use it as a hashtag. You should research which ones are already in use and in what context they are being used. For an example, if you come up with a hashtag that fits your brand perfectly, you need to make sure that other brands or individuals are not using that same one in a completely different way. This can cause confusion and a loss opportunity for your brand, and it could pick up some unwanted attention.

 

Pick The Right Social Media Platform:

Different social media platforms yield different returns for your content.

Twitter:

Twitter is the originator of the hashtag, and continues to still be the powerhouse. Tons of research has been done to track the effectiveness of the use of them on Twitter. According to one study, tweets with one or two hashtags can double the chances of engagement. However, if you exceed two per tweet, the chances of engagement actually drops by 17%. Staying within two per tweet limit is crucial. It is also important to note how “engagement” is defined in research. The engagement that is activated by hashtags can include different types of interactions; 22% of engagement comes from replies to brand’s tweets; 78% are retweets; And 92% are link clicks. Depending on the use of them in a tweet, it can either increase or decrease this amount of engagement

Facebook:

Facebook introduced hashtags to their site in 2013, which was a late start for the social media powerhouse. Though Facebook currently ranks the highest for the most used platform in the world, their engagement using hashtags is one of the worst. Studies have shown that Facebook posts with hashtags actually have less engagement than those without. Furthermore, studies have found that Facebook and Twitter are similar in the sense that overuse can also decrease the amount of engagement and interaction. It is more beneficial to keep hashtags down to one or two per post on Facebook in order to receive interaction back.

Instagram:

Instagram is the complete opposite to Twitter and Facebook when it comes to hashtags. Other social media sites diminish your return on engagement with the more hashtags you use per post. Instagram views this in a different light, and the more hashtags that are used the more noticed, liked, shared, and commented your post will get. Post that exceed 11 or more hashtags, are the post that bring in the highest number of interactions. Hashtags can be your best bet for growing a fast following on Instagram.

 

Timing is Everything:

As with most things in life, everything always comes down to timing. The same can be said with using hashtags on social media sites. There are many different online tools that can help you set up and schedule times to post content to your social media sites. This helps with getting content out during times of high usage, and on significant dates (e.g. holidays, campaign launches, etc). This can really help with getting your hashtag out there, and bringing in traffic.

 

Hashtags are a huge part of our social media sites today. Hashtags allow brands to reach more followers, give followers the opportunity to engage and interact with their favourite brand. It is one of the greatest inventions and one of the best things for online marketing.

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