Week 13: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 12

Lesson 12, the last inbound video is focused on the pillars of delight. Delight is so important for any type of a business because customers will become promoters. Once you have established trust, they become promoters and share your company with families and friends. This turns them into free advertisement. It costs much more money to attract a new customer than it is to sustain current customers. Great customer service can help create delight with your customers. Every area of your business should be focused on providing a great customer experience.

The three pillars of delights are innovation, communication, and education. Change is always happening so your products, services, and the experience you are providing to your customer should always be innovating and changing. Personal communication helps you build trust with your customers. They will trust you as a person over a robot any day. You also should be educating your customers on your product or service. Everyone can do this as well, it doesn't just have to be the sales team, a manager can help do this. Companies should be focused on solving customers problems, providing them with recommendations, and providing customers with a great experience by being genuine. In order to provide great customer experience, all team members should be trained in how to provide this experience. Below are the seven customer delight guidelines, to help create happy customers.

The Seven Customer Delight Guidelines:

1. Delighting team members
2. Educating team members
3. Empowering team members
4. Listening
5. Asking
6. Serving Follow up

These seven customer delight guidelines focus on hiring the right people, to help grow your company. Inbound marketing is all about creating great customer service, that all starts with the staff. 

Week 12: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 11

Inbound sales occurs in the close section of methodology. Sales and marketing go together because they work together in the smarketing process to increase revenue. Today, buyers have much more information on companies available, so they have a higher expectation for relevant, personal experiences when making a purchase.

Traditionally a sales team performed cold calling, were information gatekeepers, had static pitches, and were seller-centric. In inbound marketing they attract with content, are an open book, leverage the buyer's content, and are buyer-centric.

There are four best practices for effectively transforming the way you sell. They are, transform the way you target accounts, the way you prospect accounts, the way you connect with accounts, and the way your prospects perceive you as a sales person.

In order to do all of those steps you need to make sure you research your lead thoroughly. You should look up company information, read about their industry, check social media, and have overall lead intelligence. Today being a sales rep is all about understanding the customer before you call. You need to perform research, and have a game plan before you even think about picking up your phone and calling them. Inbound sales is all about providing a customized experience for everyone you call.

Week 11: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 10

Lesson 10 talks about how the marketing and sales team can come together to help increase revenue. This is known as smarketing, and it takes place in the close stage. 87% of the terms sales and marketing use to describe each other are negative. Lesson 10 focuses on combining the two teams to help grow a company.

In order for smarketing to be most effective, both teams must have the same organizational goals. This will help them focus their energy together. The marketing pipeline should be tied to sales quota, and there should be visibility into each other's goals. There should also be compensation based on shared marketing and sales goals. Last, there should be continual communication and education around personas. Smarketing is possible in any size company, it is all about working together as a team instead of as separate groups.

Smarketing can be integrated into your organization by making sure both organizations in smarketing speak the same language. Using the same terms helps them work together much easier. They also need to have a Service Level Agreement, an agreement that defines what each team commits to accomplishing in order to support the other in reaching the shared revenue goals. Closed-loop reporting also should be set up, it completes the feedback loop between marketing and sales. The sales and marketing team should also rely on data, while maintaining open communication. If
marketing and sales can find the balance to work together, companies will experience positive growth.

Week 11: MKTG 348- The Power of Images

Above is a picture of Stonehenge, if you are interested in history I'm sure this image would have grabbed your attention. It is one of the wonders of the world and it is an interesting topic for historians to talk about. If you are not interested in history, this image would probably have no effect on you and you would scroll right by it. Today, we will be talking about the power of images. A lot of people say "content is king," but a lot of the times, it is the image you post that draws the reader in.

For some the image of Stonehenge was enough to get them to start reading my blog. For others, they probably scrolled right by it. When writing an email, blog post, or any type of promotional ad it is important to really understand the audience of the advertisement. Being able to pin point who will be viewing your advertisements will make it easier for you to narrow down the focus of your ad. 

Two great image websites are www.clipart.com and  www.pixabay.com. You can find pictures that can be used to help enhance any email, website, advertisement, or promotion.

Week 10: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 9

Lesson 9 is all about sending the right email to the right person. Email marketing can be an effective way to reach your target market if you learn how to do it right.

Many consumers believe:

1. Email marketing is spam
2. Email marketing is old school

Reasons email marketing still works:

1. 4.3 billion email accounts that send 196 billion emails every day
2. 91% of consumers check their email daily
3. Email is a chnanel that you own
4. 77% of consumers prefer email for marketing commumnications
5. Email lets you be highly personal
6. Email has a marketing ROI of 4,300%

How to send the right email to the right person:

1. Determine your audience
2. Segment your contacts database
3. Send the right email at the right time
4. Nurture your lead into a customer

An effective email should include:

1. Personalization
2. Actionable language
3. Image as CTA
4. Personalized signature with CTA
5. Reason for sending email
6. Benefit to Reader
7. Direct link of communication

If you send an effective email it will help you turn your leads into customers. If you do not, it will turn away possible customers. Email is not old school, it is being adopted and used as a communication by more people every year!

Week 10: MKTG 348- Survey Monkey

We'll take a break from Hubspot right now and talk about SurveyMonkey. SurveyMonkey is a free online survey tool used to collect information and opinions of people who's opinions are relevant to a topic you are trying to learn more on. They are #1 free survey collector and one of their competitors is Qualtrics.

Professor Kelsey used SurveyMonkey to help collect data on MKTG 348 and learn our thoughts and opinions on the online course. It is much better than asking for an email on our thoughts, because it is anonymous so people can write what they want without him knowing who wrote it. It gives a sense of privacy so you can say what you want.

SurveyMonkey is a great tool to use, and we have utilized this website in many of my courses.

Week 12: MKTG 345- Five Basic Interview Questions You Need to Pay Attention to

When on a job search there is a lot of preparing that comes with getting ready for an interview. You must make sure you are prepared for any question that they are going to ask you. While they will ask you many questions, here are five that you need to pay attention to:

1. "Why are you here?" The company wants to know why you are looking to work for them and not a different company. They want to see that you have a reason for being here besides just needing a job.

2. "What can you do for us?" This is a company trying to figure out how you can help them grow as a business. They want someone who can help them face challenges and become a better company. They want to know what your special skills are that will set you apart from the competitors.

3. "What kind of person are you?" They want to know if you have the personality that will fit in with the atmosphere they are trying to create. Companies want to hire individuals who are easy to work with and who share common values with their fellow employees.

4. "What exactly distinguishes you from the nineteen or nine hundred other people who are applying for this job?" They want to know if you have a strong work ethic, good work habits, work fast, maintain high standards, and anything else that will set you apart from other employees.

5. "Can I afford you?" They want to know if you are willing to take the salary they have available for you.

These are the things that employers really want to know. These questions can either help you stand out or set you back from your competitors. Being able to answer these questions with ease and confidence will give you an edge over other applicants.
(page 60-61)

Week 11: MKTG 345- Conversation Tip #9

Even if you come prepared to a job interview, there are still things that can go wrong. Some of these things might seem very small, but interviewers tend to pick up on them. In order to iron out these issues, you must be aware of what they are. Here are 5 things that employers do notice about a potential employer:

1. Your appearance and personal habits. If you are fresh bathed, have freshly laundered clothes, and a fresh haircut you will give off a much better impression than someone who is not. Employers who want people who can represent their business well, so displaying these characteristics helps give interviewers confidence in you.

2. Nervous mannerisms. Some of these include avoiding eye contact, a limp handshake, and slouching in your chair.  Employers want people who are confident and can handle high-pressure situations.

3. Lack of self-confidence. These include speaking softly, giving answers in a hesitant fashion, interrupting the employer, giving one-word answers, or downplaying your achievements. These characteristics show that you are not confident in yourself. If someone can not be confident in themselves how can they be confident about your company?

4. The consideration you show to other people.Some major turnoffs to an employer are if you show a lack of courtesy, you display extreme criticalness toward previous employers, you drink alcohol during the interview process, and forget to thank the interviewer when leaving. Employers want people who are courteous and know how to treat others well. If they cannot treat a future employer well, who knows how they will treat customers.

5. Your values. If you show a sign of arrogance, laziness, constant complaining, irresponsibility, or lack of enthusiasm employers will not want to hire you. They want to make sure you have good morals and you will fit in with the values that their company is trying to instill in their employees.

While all of these things may seem small, they are things that employers notice. The good thing is that all of these things are changeable. Once you are aware that you are doing them, you can work towards changing them. If you fix these 5 mistakes, it will help elevate your job search.

Week 10: MKTG 345- 11 Approaches to Looking for a Job

When searching for a job there are many ways to find them. There is more than just making a resume and hoping someone stumbles upon it. Here are some pointers on other ways to get your name out there when looking for a job.

1. Look for employers' job postings on the Internet. While this is an option, it may not be the best one for you. Only 4% of people find a job this way so only use this technique if you are running out of options.

2. Posting or mailing out your resume to employers. Like the first option, this one is not as successful as the other techniques. While it works 7% of the time you should try other options before you rely on this one.

3. Answering local newspaper ads. If you're looking for a high salary you may want to skip this option. It works for only about 5% of people when you are trying to pull in lots of money. If your salary is of less importance it can work for up to 24% of people.

4. Going to private employment agencies or search firms for help. This method works anywhere between 5% and 28%. Agencies are four times more effective than just depending on your resume.

5. Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field. It only works 7% of the time, though.

6. "Job Clubs." These are job hunting groups that have a success rate of around 84%. These groups are highly suggested because not only do they help you find a job, but they offer you support on your job hunt.

7. Going to the state or federal employment office. It works 14% of the time and is worth a shot when trying to find a job.

8. Going to places where employers pick up workers. If you're a union worker you are able to go to a union hiring all. This method works up to 22% of the time.

9. Asking for job leads. With this method, you ask friends, family, and people you know in the community if they know of any place that would be a good job for you. Asking for job leads works about 33% of the time.

10. Knocking on the door of any employer, office, or manufacturing plant. It works best with small employers with it working 47% of the time.

11. Using the Yellow Pages. It involves going through Yellow Pages of your local phone book to identify subjects or fields that interest you. This is a great option and it works 65% of the time.

Week 10: MKTG 345- The Ten Commandments for Job-Interviewing

With these tips, your chances of finding a job are greatly increased

I. Go after a small organization with 25 or fewer employees. If you cannot find a job like this try and look for organizations with 50 or fewer employees. The smaller the organization the better.

II. Hunt for places to interview using eighty friends and acquaintances. Make sure you know what your looking for so you can tell them exactly what your looking for

III. Once you have found a place you are interested in, you need to find out who has the power to hire you. Then you need to find people who know you and know the person hiring so you can get an introduction.

IV. Do lots of research on an organization before you go there.

V. Prepare for the interview with your own agenda. Have your own questions and curiosities about whether the job fits you.

VI. If you initiate the appointment, ask for nineteen minutes of their time; and keep to your word strictly.

VII. Only talk for 20 seconds to 2 minutes when answering their questions.

IX. At the end of the interview, ask for the job.

X. Always write a thank-you, not the same evening as the interview.

IDS 202 Module 3

In the book The American Way of Eating, written by Tracie McMillan it talks about her journey through the food industry. She grew up in the Midwest eating cheap meals, never buying organic or fresh foods. She wanted to explore the food industry and gain a better industry of the food justice in the American food industry (McMillan 2012). 

She decided to go undercover for a local magazine to see why these foods are so expensive, and how they are harvested and treated in supermarkets and fast food restaurants. She was going to use the wages she earned in each job to live and eat off. She payed rent and bought groceries as if this job was her real life. She started off as a laborer in California, harvesting grapes, sorting peaches, and cutting garlic. Through her journey she found many disturbing issues with the food system in the United States, including many shocking issues during the farmers harvesting (McMillan 2012).

In all three of her jobs, she found out that the pay was very low, the work was dangerous, and the workers had no rights. Instead of being paid hourly, they were paid by how much they picked. This equated to much less than minimum wage. On top of that the conditions were poor, it was dangerously hot and very dusty. Even if these workers wanted to fight for their rights, they could not. A lot of them came over without legal documentation, so if they tried to fight for rights they would just be deported (McMillan 2012).

McMillian had a firsthand view of the way that workers are treated in the United States. They work long hard days, treated poorly, and paid poorly. With the prices that we pay in grocery stores, these workers should be getting paid more to do what they are doing. She worked in the fields for a short time, but it felt much longer because of how tough the work is (McMillan 2012).

The link below takes you to the Agricultural Justice Project. Their goal is to help transform the current agricultural system by empowerment, justice, and fairness for all who labor from farm to retail. They provide farms and food businesses with equipment and tools to improve work and trade practices to help the farmworkers. They work to raise awareness of the injustice occurring in the food system and want to teach people how they can help fix the problem (Agricultural Justice Project).

https://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/en/about/

Refrences

Agricultural Justice Project. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/en/

McMillan, T. (2012). The American way of eating: undercover at Wal-Mart, Applebee’s, farm

fields, and the dinner table. New York: Scribner.

IDS 202 Module 3 Food Justice

Steven Rosenbaum, the CEO of Magnify.net, discusses curation and why it is important in today's age. He talks about how the web is a huge place with tons of different information channels. The internet is slowly changing though, instead of algorithms taking over, human content is taking over. People no longer are searching out information made by robots, they want real-life stories, testimonials, and content. Human content, in the form of curation, helps others learn more about life experiences (Innovate -- curation! 2011).

In the food justice industry, people are searching for real-life testimonials of people who are passionate about food justice. So what is food justice? According to What is Food Justice, "Food Justice is communities exercising their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food. Healthy food is fresh, nutritious, affordable, culturally-appropriate, and grown locally with care for the well-being of the land, workers, and animals. People practicing food justice leads to a strong local food system, self-reliant communities, and a healthy environment" (WHAT IS FOOD JUSTICE 2018).

http://justfood.org/advocacy/what-is-food-justice

The website above is a non-profit organization located in New York City. They started in 1995, and their goal is to use sustainable agriculture by having an emphasis on community-driven food. Not only do they want to have sustainable food, but they engage individuals in the community to help feed, educate, and advocate for each other no matter their social, racial, economic, and environmental background (WHAT IS FOOD JUSTICE 2018).

They offer a community-run farmers' market network that offers both urban growers and regional farmers. They focus on serving low-income communities and rely heavily on volunteers. They also offer community food education with educational workshops. These workshops include nutritionists, professional chefs, food activists, parents, food lovers and more (WHAT IS FOOD JUSTICE 2018).

References

WHAT IS FOOD JUSTICE? (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from
http://justfood.org/advocacy/what-is-food-justice

Innovate -- curation! (2011, June 06). Innovate -- curation! | Steve Rosenbaum | TEDxGrandRapids. Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=iASluLoKQbo

Week 9: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 8

In the last two lessons we talked about calls-to-action, landing pages, and the last step is the thank you page. Lesson 8 will give you a closer look of the importance of a landing page, as well as how to create a successful one.

A thank you page helps you to convert the next step to a newly converted lead. Once the lead goes to the thank you page, it will thank the new lead for providing their information, as well as providing a little bit more information on what they just signed up for. It is used to end the conversion process, and move on to the next stage of the buyers journey. Thank you pages are much better than inline thank you messages, because pages allow you to provide even more information.

On a thank you page it is important to deliver promised content offer or set expectiaons, display the sites navigation menu, provide additional content, move new leads further into the buyer's journey, and include social options.

Thank you pages are an opportunity to further draw in your leads and convert them into customers, further into the buyer's journey. it is a very important step, that helps you further grow your relationship with leads!

Week 9: MKTG 348- Hubspot Lesson 7

Lesson 7 discusses landing pages and the importance of them. Landing pages are website pages used to convert visitors into leads. Landing pages are essentially digital sales representatives, using a form to gather information. They help you build a relationship with your leads and better understand their needs. They start with a call-to-action, that will lead to a landing page, and then lead you to a thank you page.

A landing page should always have a description of your offer in the headline. These landing pages should be clear with an action-oriented header, they should explain the offer clearly and place visual emphasis on the value, they should remove the navigation menu and links, the form length mirrors the value of the offer, include a relevant image, and add social sharing icons.

Numbers, bullets, and bolding can be used to create visual emphasis. The primary step of a landing page is to attract people to your page so you want it to be easy to read. 

Landing pages are a major step in the convert stage! They help you attract customers and further increase your business.

Week 9: MKTG 345- Google Analytics Academy

If you're still looking for a little bit more practice before you get certified, I suggest using Google Analytics Academy. They will help you learn how to navigate Google Analytics interface and reports, and set up dashboards and shortcuts. It will also help you analyze basic Audience, Acquisition, and Behavior reports, and set up goals and campaign tracking.

Below are the four units they offer, as well as all of the lessons that are broken up in each unit.

• 
  
• Unit 1: Introducing Google Analytics
• Lesson 1: Why digital analytics?

• Lesson 2: How Google Analytics works

• Lesson 3: Google Analytics setup

• Lesson 4: How to set up views with filters

• 
  
• Unit 2: The Google Analytics layout
• Lesson 1: Navigating Google Analytics

• Lesson 2: Understanding overview reports

• Lesson 3: Understanding full reports

• Lesson 4: How to share reports

• Lesson 5: How to set up dashboards and shortcuts

• 
  
• Unit 3: Basic Reporting
• Lesson 1: Audience reports

• Lesson 2: Acquisition reports

• Lesson 3: Behavior reports

• 
  
• Unit 4: Basic Campaign and Conversion Tracking
• Lesson 1: Measuring Custom Campaigns

• Lesson 2: Tracking campaigns with the URL Builder

• Lesson 3: Using Goals to measure business objectives

• Lesson 4: Measuring AdWords campaigns

• Lesson 5: Course review and next steps
• 
  

• 
  

Week 9: MKTG 345- Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 8

Throughout "Introduction to Google Analytics," we have spent a lot of time talking about Google Analytics, now it is time to start earning certifications! Certifications are very beneficial, you can add them on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Two great tests you can take are Google Analytics Individual Qualification, and Google Adwords Search Advertising Certification. Google qualifications and certifications are pretty much the same thing, so they are both good options.

Using the Analytics Academy is a great option, it offers free training and study materials. Below is a link to Analytics Academy, as well as two great courses to take.

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/

The best way to prepare for the test is to actually go on Google Analytics and set up your own account. Once you believe you have mastered Google Analytics, go ahead and take the test. Good luck, time to get certified!!!