How to Create a Customer Journey Map: 5 Best Practices

How to Create a Customer Journey Map: 5 Best Practices

20 Jun , 2019 No Comments

If you don’t feel that you have a lot of insight into your customers’ decisions, it may be because you don’t have it written down yet.

The solution: a customer journey map.

What is a customer journey?

A customer journey is a quick path for getting inside the minds of your customers. At its most basic, a customer journey map is a sequence of all the possible events that your customer goes through.

That journey takes an individual from their first interaction with your company until the completion of the transaction.

What is a customer journey map?

The goal of the customer journey map is really to get a holistic view of what the customer is going through from their point of view and really what it’s like for them on a personal level, that human level.

–Kerry Bodine, Moz.com

You don’t know much about the customer journey until you can write it down. The map is where that happens. This map gives anyone who reads it instant access into what’s going on with a specific type of customer at any point.

By mapping out this journey, your company not only identifies the various aspects of its own sales funnel, but is then able to identify strengths and weaknesses along the way.

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The Seven Best Practices to Better Branding

The Seven Best Practices to Better Branding

18 Jun , 2019 No Comments

The importance of branding has never been higher than it is today. In fact, studies have shown that Millennials actually view their brand preferences as being nearly as integral to their identity as they do religious preferences. That level of commitment and evaluation cannot be understated!

This can be both a daunting and exhilarating realization—branding can make or break your business.  As such, it is more than just important to effectively build a brand; it is unequivocally vital. If you want to retain consumers—and you do, because repeat customers make up approximately one-fourth of all online purchases—then stellar branding is irreplaceable.

From first impressions to internal consistency to long-term loyalists, strong branding benefits every facet of your business. Like most things, though, building a brand easier said than done, especially in an increasingly competitive and complex world that relies heavily on internet-based customer engagement.

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Leveraging a knowledge base to boost customer success

Leveraging a knowledge base to boost customer success

28 May , 2019 No Comments

Customer support is critical to business and customer success. In fact, more and more companies are using it as a differentiating factor when trying to stand out in a crowded market. But even though it’s valued by customers, it’s not enough. They want answers immediately, and they want the option to help themselves. The best and most cost-effective, self-service method for customers is a knowledge base.

What is a knowledge base and why is it important?

A knowledge base is a centralized database of information that can be organized, stored and searched for future accessibility. Everyone, employees and customers alike, can use your knowledge base to help them find answers to any questions or concerns they might have regarding your product or service.

Knowledge bases include FAQs, troubleshooting guides, user manuals, product updates, how-to articles, and much more. And not only do that act as your 24/7 help desk, but when done right, they can free up your customer support reps’ time. So, instead of spending their time answering queries about minor problems, they can focus on solving more complex customer issues

Intrigued about creating a knowledge base for your business? Then, read below to find out how.

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8 tips to reduce employee turnover: Why it’s so important

8 tips to reduce employee turnover: Why it’s so important

22 May , 2019 No Comments

Reducing employee turnover should be a priority for any business. According to experts, it can cost twice an employee’s salary to recruit, hire and train a replacement. Turnover can also damage morale among your remaining employees, decrease productivity and make it harder to acquire new talent.

According to Work Institute, one in four employees (42 million U.S. workers) left their jobs in 2018 to go work for another organization. But companies with a culture that strongly values learning and team comradery have 30-50% higher employee engagement and retention rates than those that don’t.

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Interview tips: How to find the perfect job candidate

Interview tips: How to find the perfect job candidate

17 May , 2019 No Comments

Finding the perfect job candidate is no easy feat. On average, every corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, four to six are typically called in for an interview. But only one can walk away with the job. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. A few interview tips can help.

It takes a lot of resources to find a new hire. Recruiters advertise on job sites, wade through seemingly endless resumes, conduct interviews, run background checks, call references, and more.

When it’s all said and done, the average cost-per-hire comes out to $4,129, and the average time it takes to fill an open position is 42 days, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Human Capital Benchmarking Report.

But the costs don’t stop adding up there. Experts estimate the cost of onboarding an employee is about $240,000. That includes recruitment ads and staff time, relocation and training fees for replacement hires, the negative impact on team performance, the disruption to incomplete projects, and more.

Hiring the wrong person can put a sizable dent in your revenue. Making the right choice from the start is crucial. In this article, we offer some interview tips to help you find the perfect job candidate for your company’s open positions.

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Storytelling in marketing: Mastering this emerging trend

Storytelling in marketing: Mastering this emerging trend

02 May , 2019 No Comments

There’s a Native American proverb that says, “Those who tell the stories rule the world.” Before humans developed systems for writing and reading, the only way to record our history was by passing down stories from generation to generation. Through storytelling in marketing, this tradition lives on.

Stories have been a key driver of change throughout human history – both for good and bad. Good storytelling can evoke emotion and serve as a compelling call-to-action.

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Beginner’s guide to social selling

Beginner’s guide to social selling

23 Apr , 2019 No Comments

According to Linkedin, 78% of salespeople engaged in social selling outsell their peers who aren’t doing it.

In the past, social media platforms were reserved for B2C companies, serving as a direct line of communication to consumers. Today, savvy B2B organizations understand the need to engage their customers where they are, which, these days, is increasingly on social media.

As companies struggle to gain and retain the attention of prospective customers, social selling has emerged as an effective tool for organizations challenged by growing competition on a global scale.

If your sales team doesn’t engage in social selling, your company is leaving money on the table.

In this post, we’ll define social selling, outline its benefits, and cover some best practices for implementation.

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Customer acquisition vs. customer retention: Which to prioritize?

Customer acquisition vs. customer retention: Which to prioritize?

17 Apr , 2019 No Comments

Which is more important to you: acquiring new customers or retaining the ones you already have? Customer acquisition is an essential part of growing any business. We all know that. But customer retention is also critically important if you run a subscription-based business or have repeat customers.

So, they are both important. But how do you know which to focus more energy on when forming your growth strategy? The answer is complicated, subjective, and involves a variety of variables such as customer acquisition cost, your long-term business goals, your business model, and so on.

To answer this question, we must dig into the topic and shed some light on how each tactic can benefit or hurt your business.

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Video marketing: Tips for increasing social media engagement

Video marketing: Tips for increasing social media engagement

12 Apr , 2019 No Comments

Video content rules the internet. Think about it. When you’re scrolling through your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook feeds, what jumps out at you? Today’s consumers love video content and video marketing is increasingly important to a company’s ability to engage new prospects and existing customers.

Video content is everywhere and continues to take social media platforms by storm, especially when it comes to digital marketing for commercial brands. In fact, according to Web Video Marketing Council, about 60% of brands are actively using social media videos as a part of their digital marketing strategy.

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Using empathy to increase sales motivation

Using empathy to increase sales motivation

26 Mar , 2019 2 Comments

Sales is not an easy job, let’s face it. Some people take to it like a fish out of water, while others avoid it like the plague. It takes a certain type of personality to excel at sales. Salespeople must be confident, motivated and extroverted. They can’t have a fear of rejection because that’s a major part of the role. But how do you drive sales motivation in today’s highly competitive business landscape?

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