4 Reasons Your Content Isn’t Cut Out for Mobile

At one time, websites were created with desktop and laptop computers in mind. But consumers increasingly use mobile devices to read email, search the Internet and read content, making it more important than ever that businesses give prudent thought to mobile content marketing. When content is consumed on small touchscreens and while readers are surrounded by distractions, it’s essential that brands reconfigure their content marketing efforts to match.

There are several things to consider as you evaluate your current strategies for areas that need improvement. Here are a few mistakes businesses often make when optimizing content for mobile:

1. You’re Following “The Standard”

Marketers often cite examples of winning mobile content marketing strategies when advising businesses on their own content. However, what works for a big brand like Red Bull or Coca-Cola may not work for every business. CMOs tend to watch those big corporations closely as an example of what works, rather than reading content on their own devices to truly get a feel for the user experience.

You must also pay close attention to the demographics of customers who interact with brands on mobile to make sure your content is geared directly toward your likely readers. Millennials between the ages of 18 and 24 are by far the largest users of smartphones and tablets, spending more than five hours a day on their smartphones on average.

The number of hours spent on a smartphone each day decreases with each generation group, with the upper half of millennials spending only 3.5 hours and 35- to 44-year-olds spending 3.4 hours each day on their phones. This is important to realize as you craft your own marketing strategy, especially if 18- to 24-year-olds are a target market for your products or services.

2. You Didn’t Design Content for Mobile

When mobile devices first grew in popularity, businesses scrambled to make their existing sites fit into smaller screens. Some marketers steered clients toward microsites, which satisfied the demand for mobile content while also letting businesses have control over what customers see. But today’s customers expect content to blend seamlessly between devices. Microsites can confuse customers and distract them from the message you’re trying hard to convey.

Instead of continuing to rework an existing site, throw out your current design and start over. Go through your site as though you were a customer on a smartphone, trying to locate specific information. Not only do people have increasingly shorter attention spans, but when they’re browsing on their smartphone they’re also subject to a number of distractions. Try to keep your content short, interesting and easy to navigate using a touchscreen.

3. You Designed a Dysfunctional App

Apps serve as the perfect alternative to mobile websites for some businesses. They can provide a way for customers to easily purchase products, schedule services, or just provide a fun game that builds your brand. With so many customers using Facebook to discover great apps, many businesses now opt for Facebook mobile apps instead of standalone apps that customers find through the app store.

That said, it’s far worse to create a poorly-functioning Facebook app than to have no app at all. Imagine a customer who is exited about downloading the app you’ve been promoting, only to find it doesn’t work. If that customer has paid for the app, the experience could easily turn into a customer service nightmare. Delay launching your app until you’ve ensured you’ve worked out all the glitches that are normally present with a new app.

4. You Don’t Have an Engagement Plan

Many businesses get so excited about the fact that they’re developing an app, they neglect to spend time making sure the app is easy to use. Whether you’re crafting an app for Facebook, the iTunes Store or Google Play, user experience is essential for a successful app.

Look at the app through a customer’s eyes and try to remember at all times that a customer will be interacting with the app on a touchscreen. Long forms with multiple fields can be a nightmare for a customer on a mobile device, so it can be a big help to transfer those details over through a customer’s login.

Usability experts can be beneficial when it comes to ensuring the user experience is a good one. If you can’t afford a professional team to offer feedback, consider using a crowd-sourced approach, or ask friends and family members to try the app out. You may even be able to get local college students to help out in exchange for a small fee or free products.

For businesses to succeed in their content marketing efforts, they must make mobile an important part of their marketing strategy. When brands look at their websites and mobile apps through the eyes of the customers using them, they they’re more likely to create an experience that keeps customers coming back.

Author: Jonha Revesencio

Jonha Revesencio is a marketing strategist with over 8 years of experience developing digital media strategies for finance, FMCG and tech companies. She has worked on the interactive and digital campaigns for brands such as IKEA, Dove, Panasonic, OCBC Bank, among others.  Her insights were published on Business Insider, Fast... View full profile ›

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4 Reasons Your Content Isn’t Cut Out for Mobile

These Maps Show How Much Money Each State Is Giving to the Presidential Race

When it comes to political fundraising, certain truths hold firm no matter who is in the race: donors in California, New York and Texas always dole out the dough. These so-called ATM states continue to deliver for the 2016 presidential race: An InsideGov analysis found that donors in those three states have given more than $180 million to candidates and super PACs so far this cycle.

The $180,329,978 from those states constitutes 46.4 percent of the total sum contributed between January and September of 2015. A huge portion of that total — $115 million — went to super PACs, which are not restricted in terms of how much money they can collect from individuals and corporations.

Florida elbowed its way into the top four for super PAC giving this year, with Sunshine State donors giving more than $41 million to these groups. Of that total, conservative super PACs collected $40,702,997, buoyed by two Republican presidential candidates who call Florida home — former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.

So far this cycle, Texas has delivered the most super PAC money to the presidential race. More than $48 million, virtually all of it for conservative groups, has flowed from there. Two GOP presidential contenders have connections to the Lone Star State: Bush has multiple family ties there, and Sen. Ted Cruz lives in Houston.

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The rest of the country follows the Florida and Texas trend, contributing more money overall to conservative super PACs. According to the most recent data available from the Federal Election Commission, of the $228.3 million raised for super PACs so far this year, 90 percent, or $204.7 million, went to conservative groups.

Even donors in deep blue states like California and New York have contributed more to Republican super PACs. In California, donors have bestowed almost $20 million to conservative super PACs and a little over $10 million to Democratic ones. The difference is even more stark in New York, where donors have given Republican groups more than six times what they have given Democratic ones.

Although Right to Rise USA, the super PAC backing Bush’s campaign, has raised by far the most money (more than $103 million), a batch of five super PACs supporting Cruz have combined to raise almost $38.1 million. Donors to the groups boosting Cruz have written the largest checks so far this cycle.

Robert Mercer, the CEO of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, gave $11 million, while Toby Neugebauer, the founder of private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners, gave $10 million to pro-Cruz super PACs. Additionally, a pair of brothers and their wives gave $15 million to one super PAC supporting Cruz. Farris Wilks and his wife, Joanne, gave $5 million each, and Daniel Wilks and his wife, Staci, gave another $2.5 million each. The Wilks families made their billions in the fracking industry in central Texas.

Candidate Cash

After the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which ushered in super PACs, these groups have had an outsized influence in American politics. But since super PACs are not allowed to coordinate directly with candidates’ campaign committees, campaign fundraising remains an important piece of elections.

The maps reflecting super PAC contributions and candidate fundraising are remarkably similar. As was the case with super PAC contributions, the states that gave the most to candidates’ official committees are California, Texas, New York and Florida. And, again, Republicans bested Democrats: Donors in those four states contributed $43.2 million to GOP candidates and $36.4 million to Democrats.

California and New York were friendlier to left-leaning candidates. Of the almost $16 million raised for Democrats in California, more than $13.5 million went to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In New York, which she represented in the Senate and where her campaign headquarters is based, Clinton collected more than $11.1 million of the total $12.2 million that went to Democratic candidates.

California-based donors chipped in almost $10 million to Republicans, with about $2.5 million going to Bush and almost $2.3 million going to Rubio. About $6.2 million went to GOP candidates from New Yorkers, with a little less than half of that going to Bush’s campaign.

In Texas, of the $20.5 million raised for candidates, almost $17 million went to Republicans. Cruz’s campaign received the lion’s share of that sum, at $9.2 million, while Bush collected $2.4 million. And in Florida, native sons Bush and Rubio were, again, first and second in fundraising. Of the $10.2 million from that state that went to Republicans, Bush collected about $4.7 million and Rubio received about $2.6 million.

In total, super PAC and campaign fundraising so far has brought in almost $390 million — and Election Day is still a year away. That can only mean one thing: Expect plenty more fundraising events and email pleas before the country decides on who is the next commander in chief.

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These Maps Show How Much Money Each State Is Giving to the Presidential Race

6 Things To Think About Before You Start Your Job Hunt

You’ve spent the last three months searching for a job and company that not only interests you, but that you’re confident you can excel in. Unfortunately, you’ve only been able to find one or the other.

Finding the right job fit isn’t always easy. The job search can be a painstakingly long process defined by constant hills and valleys (seemingly a lot of the latter).

In fact, job seekers report increasingly longer hiring times, with the job interview process taking an average of 22.9 days in the U.S., according to a June research report by Glassdoor. The reason? Glassdoor’s report found that labor markets in some countries simply do a better job at matching job seekers and companies.

When it comes to finding the right job fit, you have to be your own advocate. You’ll have a much better chance of success if you take the time to understand your goals, values, and skills — and how they apply to various positions and organizations.

So, here are six questions to ask yourself before beginning your job search:

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1. Why am I job hunting?

What led you to begin your job search? Are you looking for your first job out of college? Are you unhappy in your current position? Identifying why you’re looking for a job is the first step in finding the best possible job fit.

Let’s say you are, in fact, unhappy in your current role. Spend some time figuring out why you’re not satisfied. Maybe there’s a lack of development or advancement opportunities. Now you know to look for those opportunities during your job search. Answering this question before beginning your search will ensure you don’t fall into a similar situation.

2. Where do I see myself a year from now?

Goals give you something to actively work toward and be excited about. Establishing short- and long-term goals is a necessary step in developing a solid career path and finding a job that you’ll enjoy and be good at.

An easy way to set career goals is to determine where you see yourself a year from now. What do you hope to accomplish in that time? To better set long-term goals for yourself, where would you like to be in five years? These questions can help you figure out what you’d like to accomplish and what it’ll take to achieve those goals.

3. What path do I have to take to make this happen?

Now that you’ve established your short- and long-term career goals, it’s time to figure out how to make those dreams a reality. Discover exactly what it’ll take to achieve your goals. That can mean pursuing further education or training, getting involved in professional development and networking events, building your knowledge and experience through lower-level jobs — you get the idea.

To establish a clear direction, try looking at job ads for positions you’re working toward. What skill, experience, and education levels do those jobs require? This information can give you a better idea of what path to take.

4. What do I have to offer employers?

Whether you’re fresh out of school or have some professional experience under your belt, you have something to offer employers.

List out your experiences — in and out of school — and what you learned from each. Next, determine how those lessons, skills, and experiences can be applied to the workplace. This is something you absolutely want to figure out before being asked “Why should we hire you?” in a job interview.

5. What skills would I like to acquire/expand on?

While you need to know what value you can bring to a company, you also want to know what the company can offer you — this is where you really have to become your own advocate. Determine what skills could use some work and what skills you’d like to acquire. This will help you find a position that will provide the necessary resources to help you grow and develop as a professional.

6. What type of company do I see myself in?

Last, but certainly not least, find out what type of company you see yourself in based on your personality. When it comes to finding the right job fit, skills and experience aren’t all that matters. Your personality and interests are equally important, as they can help you determine whether you’d fit within a particular company’s culture.

For instance, if you work best independently, you might be more open to working in a traditional cubicle, whereas someone who enjoys collaborating and isn’t distracted as easily might enjoy working in an open office space. Or maybe you want a position that will allow you to make a big impact on the company. If that’s the case, maybe it’s the startup life you seek. Whatever the case, strive to find a company that fits your needs, skills, interests, and future goals.

What are some other things job seekers should nail down before they begin their job search?

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6 Things To Think About Before You Start Your Job Hunt

Tears During Feedback: Preparing Managers To Cope

Giving corrective feedback is a task many managers avoid, because they are concerned about how their message will be received. When a manager fears a staff member will cry during a feedback session, this concern will be amplified. As an HR professional, you can assist managers in this situation by using the following five simple steps.

Normalize tears

Knowing why people cry in response to feedback helps managers see that they did not ‘cause’ a staff member’s distress. Talk the manager through the emotional intelligence model, or refer them to this article. Explain that tears are simply an expression of the flight reaction to stress. This means that the manager can reduce the risk that a staff member will burst into tears by framing their feedback message carefully.

Teach feedback micro skills

Explain that framing feedback involves using neutral, non-judgmental language. There are three steps a manager can take to do this: avoid trigger words; use behavior-based descriptions of the current performance state; balance honesty and appropriateness. Refer the manager to Eleanor Shakiba’s article on these steps, which you’ll find at (link to October 2015 article giving feedback to difficult people)

Assist the manager to frame their message

Guide the manager through the process of identifying what to say. First they need to pinpoint the specific behaviour they want the staff member to change. Then you can help them describe that behavior in neutral and non-judgmental language. Ask them to check that their message is clear and evidence-based. If necessary, assist in rewording any sections of their statement which might elicit a fight or flight reaction.

Explain the four steps for responding to tears

When a manager knows exactly what to do and say in response to tears, they will feel more confident providing feedback to emotionally reactive staff. Your role as an HR practitioner is to coach the manager in applying four steps for responding to tears. Talk them through the process and provide examples of how to apply it in their specific situation. Assist the manager to design responses to their staff member which will fit their context.

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Rehearse

Suggest that the manager ‘rehearse’ delivering their feedback with you. Avoid the word ‘role play’ in order to maintain an informal, psychologically safe atmosphere. Ask the manager to imagine that you are the staff member and to deliver their feedback message. React by simulating tears. Allow the manager to run through the four step process. Then end the rehearsal and ask the manager to assess their own performance. Add your feedback and then repeat the process until the manager feels confident that they can respond assertively.

Summary

HR practitioners and trainers play a crucial role in equipping managers to deal with the more challenging aspects of people management. By investing time in coaching, you will develop the skills and confidence levels of frontline managers. And you’ll send a clear message that your business expects feedback to be provided often and well. Do you need to find a coach for a manager who is struggling to handle difficult reactions to feedback? View Eleanor Shakiba’s coaching programs here.

Author: Eleanor Shakiba

Eleanor Shakiba is a leader in people skills training. She trains and coaches professionals who want to solve people problems - conflicts, team dynamics issues and relationship glitches. Her YouTube channel provides free resources to people who want to build their influencing and conflict management skills. Eleanor's purpose is... View full profile ›

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Tears During Feedback: Preparing Managers To Cope

5 Ideas To Get Your Marketing Team Out Of A Creative Slump

Creativity is a fickle mistress. When you have it, you’re unstoppable—the world bends for you and caters to your every whim.

But when you lose it, it seems that you have never had it, you’ve always been a fraud, you’ll be stuck out in the lifeless, bland cold— forever.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel wrote “Cecilia” specifically about this very creative block. The song refers to St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. “Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily,” as it appears the saint has withdrawn her favor and put obstacles in front of them, only to be turned to “jubilation” when she “loves [them] again.”

Traveling between having creativity and feeling shut out from it can make even the sanest person feel a little crazy.

So what happens when it’s not just you, but your entire team is feeling the block all at once? When everything the team suggests has been tried, isn’t feasible, or doesn’t even sound cool? Here are a few tips for your team to try out when you keep running into the same brick wall—repeatedly—and need to get back on track with more creative ideas for marketing.

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1. Stop

Seriously, just stop. Stop doing whatever you’re doing. Maybe do something else. Or don’t do anything at all. Just don’t do what you have been doing. If you’re in a meeting that isn’t going anywhere, that isn’t fruitful or productive, hitting one creative block after another—call a recess.

Creative ideas for marketing don’t exactly thrive under intense pressure, and pressure is created when the demand for creativity is constant. We choke it until it’s lifeless and then can’t understand why it’s not helping us.

So don’t make your creative side a victim to your panic—stop, even if just for a few minutes.

2. Breathe, Eat, Sleep, Take A Walk

To elaborate on the previous idea, there are a lot of things you can do to distance yourself from your creative block for a minute when you stop demanding that it show up. Breathing exercises are very effective at clearing your mind and putting you in a calmer, more relaxed, more open state.

Sometimes “hungry” turns into “hangry” and we can’t think anymore, so stepping out to grab a bite can satiate the beast so we can later return to normal. Sometimes you’ve been at it all night and you just need rest for renewal. Or, if you’re in the office, get up, stretch your legs, and maybe go outside for some fresh air. No matter what, some time away from the situation will do everyone a little bit—if not a lot—of good.

3. Take An Internet Field Trip

At Dfuzr, when our creative team is in a bind, their first inclination is to head to Pinterest or other similar sites for inspiration. You can also hit up StumbleUpon, Etsy, and AdWeek among many, many others to see what other people are doing or have done and what has and hasn’t worked for them.

Go in with a specific goal in mind, such as, come out with five things you found really interesting to present at your next meeting, even if the ideas don’t seem to fit your business model.

This goal helps twofold:

1) It stops you from going down a Pinterest wormhole, tempting you to plan your dinner menu for the next week. You have to come out of this field trip with actual takeaways, and

2) Even if the ideas don’t seem to fit your business model, someone in the meeting room might have a brilliant idea for how to make it something that fits your business model!

4. Take An Actual Field Trip

Maybe you’ve had meeting after meeting, after breathing exercise, after lunch, after internet field trip, after meeting, and still, nothing is happening. I promise that you’re not doomed. You’re just a victim of an extended creative slump, and sometimes this happens.

How do you fix it? I know one agency that takes monthly trips as a team, which serves as both a team-building exercise and an “inspiration walkabout” of sorts. They might go to the art or science museum, go for a hike, visit a new restaurant or retail store, go to a historical landmark, take a wine and painting class, or go skiing.

No ideas are “off-limits” unless they’re terribly cost-prohibitive, and everyone comes out with a new experience.

Remember to bring notepads with you in case creativity strikes while you watch beer being made or play on a swing set!

5. Reconvene For A More Structured Meeting

Like I mentioned in the internet field trip idea above, a more structured meeting involves asking your team to arrive at the meeting with a certain number of ideas. No ideas are too big, too small, too stupid, too boring, or too irrelevant. The point is that you have ideas on the table–or wherever, if you take your meeting on a field trip!

As your team members list off ideas out loud, write them on index cards and tape them to the wall. Then start writing down any new ideas that come up as a result of hearing the first ideas. Write down sub-ideas pertaining to original ideas and place them underneath those big ideas, and so on and so forth. The objective is to get ideas out that will provide a chain reaction to the idea you’ll finally settle on. You might start with branding a big red ball and end up with a comprehensive guerrilla marketing campaign.

The possibilities are endless, but you have to allow for all ideas to be possibilities first.

Creative slumps are trying for teams. They can turn team members against one another and create a lot of self-doubt. Don’t let your team fall victim to a block—take this advice to take the pressure off yourselves and breathe life back into your creative process!

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5 Ideas To Get Your Marketing Team Out Of A Creative Slump

How to Measure the Success of Your Content Marketing

In today’s increasingly digital world, the importance of content marketing can’t be stressed enough. But when it comes to measurement, a lot of B2B marketers are left scratching their heads. This problem, like many others, stems from a larger problem in general marketing: lack of focus on the right audiences. Without a core strategy that defines a clear audience, content programs often fall short and lose momentum.

In response to this problem, B2B marketers are implementing Account-Based Marketing (ABM) across the entire funnel. An account-based approach allows you to focus your content creation efforts on the companies that matter the most to your business. You can then tailor the message to address each segment’s problems (instead of just talking about your product). Popular B2B segments include things like industry, geography and revenue.

After you’ve identified the segments you want to focus on and the content you serve them, you can focus your measurement where those two intersect. This requires you to shift away from traditional metrics like downloads, page views and social media mentions, to more robust data like MQLs, SALs, pipeline opportunities and closed revenue. That isn’t to say that traditional metrics aren’t worth measuring, but you need the meatier metrics to paint a complete picture of your content program.

To get this, you need to run reports in your CRM. By layering bottom-of-the-funnel data with traditional metrics, marketers can glean insights about their content creation and distribution strategies. Not only do these metrics help you determine what’s working and what isn’t, they can also help you map out a buyer’s journey.

See which pieces drive the most MQLs and which help close deals. From there, you can provide guidance to Sales on which assets to reach out with (determined by which stage prospects are in).

Seeing success in content marketing hinges on marketer’s abilities to make connections with data. By implementing an ABM strategy, you create meaningful pieces of content for your prospects and customers, all while answering the age-old CFO question—what am I getting for all this marketing spend?

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How to Measure the Success of Your Content Marketing

How to Increase the Value of Data by Managing Customer Preferences

In this video blog, we explore how much data is worth, and what businesses can do to dramatically increase its value, adding to their bottom line and improving customer experience and trust.

Data is valuable, a fact that is underscored as companies like Facebook and Google earn stock evaluations reaching  billions of dollars, in large part because of the consumer behavior data they can access.

However, all data is not valued equally. Some types of data are inherently worth more than others because it offers a deeper understanding of customers. Gathering information about the web pages a customer has visited and the products they are researching, for example, can provide helpful clues to who your customers are and what they want. Yet, this inferred data can be inaccurate.

That’s why explicit preference data that a customer directly shares with a business is tremendously valuable. Providing insight into a customers’ interests and intentions, this data supports the personalized, relevant customer experiences that help businesses stand out from the competition.

Customer Preference Centers can significantly increase the value of your data. Preference management can capture customer choices about methods of communication, topics of interest and data privacy. It can also ensure that these preferences are honored across all channels and customer touchpoints.

UPCOMING WEBINAR FEATURING NEW FORRESTER RESEARCH
Tuesday, November 10
10am PT | 12pm CT | 1pm ET

Join UnboundID and Forrester Principal Analyst, Fatemeh Khatibloo, to learn how Customer Identity and Preference Management can help you drive 1:1 customer experiences and grow your business.

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How to Increase the Value of Data by Managing Customer Preferences