The latest social media usage insights from the team at Pew Research.
* This article was originally published here
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Research Highlights Social Media Usage Trends in 2024
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Articles or Videos? How to Choose the Right Content Strategy for Your Business [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 76]
About the Episode
Deciding how to approach content creation in your marketing plan can feel like a tricky balance. Should you invest in more video content to build trust with prospects? Or stick to written articles to help potential buyers find you on Google? It’s a question almost every business with an online presence has asked.
In this episode of Endless Customers, Alex Winter sat down with Lindsey Auten, a content trainer at IMPACT, who’s helped hundreds of businesses get results by creating both written and video content. Their discussion zeroed in on the strategic choice between the two content types, and Lindsey shared key insights on how to maximize your ROI by letting your audience's needs guide your strategy.
In this episode, we break down the factors you should consider when deciding between written and video content—and how each can be a powerful tool for connecting with your audience and closing sales.
The Importance of a Balanced Approach in Written and Video Content
Right off the bat, Lindsey made it clear that it’s not a question of choosing between written and video content. “The reality is,” she said, “you need both.” Why? Because each type of content serves a unique purpose in today’s marketing landscape, and a combination of the two gives you the best chance to meet your prospects where they are.
With search engine algorithms evolving and user expectations constantly shifting, sticking solely to one type of content can limit your reach. Businesses that focus only on blogs may miss out on the trust-building potential of video, while those that focus only on video risk losing out on the website-first advantages that well-crafted written content can provide.
The Case for Written Content - Depth, Discoverability, and Trust
Written content has been the foundation of digital marketing for years, and there’s a good reason for that. Articles, blogs, and guides allow you to go deep into a topic, answer specific questions, and show up in search results where your customers are looking for solutions. Plus, well-optimized written content tends to have a longer shelf life than video.
“People think written content is dying,” Lindsey noted, “but it’s actually evolving. It’s about meeting customers’ expectations in how they want to consume information.” Written content may not be as “flashy” as video, but it’s accessible to those who prefer reading, and it also provides a sense of authority that can build trust over time.
Here are some reasons why written content still matters:
- SEO Benefits: A well-optimized article or blog can help your website rank higher on Google and other search engines, increasing your chances of being found by potential customers.
- Detailed Explanation: Complex topics or nuanced issues are often better suited for a written format, where you can go in-depth.
- Conversion Opportunities: Written content can drive readers to your website and prompt them to take action, such as signing up for a newsletter or contacting your sales team.
In short, written content is essential for helping your audience find you and for establishing authority and trust on specific topics.
The Case for Video Content - Humanizing Your Brand and Building Trust
On the flip side, video content has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. Video creates an emotional connection that written content just can’t match, and it can put a face to your business, making you feel more approachable and trustworthy.
“Video content can create a level of comfort,” Lindsey explained. “People see your team members, your expertise, and they feel like they know you even before talking to you.” This familiarity can make a big difference, especially for businesses in fields where building trust is essential to landing new clients.
Here’s why video content can be a game-changer:
- Engagement: Video is inherently more engaging, with research showing that people are more likely to watch a video than read a full blog post.
- Building Trust: Seeing someone on screen feels more personal and can make a potential buyer feel like they already know your company.
- Visual Learning: Some concepts are simply better explained visually. For instance, if you sell products or services that require a demonstration, a video can show how it works in real-time.
In short, video helps humanize your brand, making it easier to establish trust with potential clients.
When to Choose Written Content or Video Content
While you want a mix of written and video content, certain situations call for one approach over the other. Lindsey explained that it all comes down to the “intended outcome” of each piece of content.
“Start by looking at the goal,” she advised. “If you’re trying to build a reputation for authority on a specific topic, written content is the way to go. But if you want to build trust with potential clients, especially for higher-stakes interactions, video might be more effective.”
Here’s a quick guide to help you decide:
- Choose Written Content When…
- You’re targeting search engines for visibility.
- You need to explain complex information in depth.
- You’re sharing evergreen content that will stay relevant over time.
- Choose Video Content When…
- Your goal is to build a personal connection or build trust with your audience.
- You’re explaining a visual concept or product.
- You’re targeting social media platforms, where video engagement is high.
The Power of Repurposing: Combining Written and Video Content
If both written and video content are essential, then one of the smartest ways to maximize ROI is to repurpose your content. This approach lets you cater to different audience preferences without doubling your workload. Lindsey suggested pairing a blog post with a short video summary or even embedding videos in longer articles to appeal to both readers and viewers.
“Repurposing is a great way to get the best of both worlds,” she said. “For example, if you’re writing a ‘Big 5’ article on pricing or product comparisons, turn it into a quick explainer video to embed in the article. Not only does this serve different learning styles, but it can also boost engagement and keep readers on your site longer.”
Tips for Effective Repurposing:
- Create a blog post and a video on the same topic: This gives you two pieces of content you can cross-promote. Just make sure to change the content to fit the medium you’re using.
- Use video snippets on social media to drive traffic back to a related article on your website.
- Embed videos in blog posts to increase dwell time and engagement on the page.
Common Problems to Avoid
Many businesses make the mistake of treating content creation as a “production-only” role. Lindsey pointed out that while it’s important to produce regularly, it’s also critical to be strategic. “The output is important,” she said, “but what’s almost more important is the result of that output.”
Another pitfall is focusing on quantity over quality. Businesses sometimes feel pressured to churn out content, but without a clear goal or strategy, this approach can end up wasting resources without driving results.
Lastly, Lindsey emphasized that it’s not enough to just publish content. You need to track how it’s performing. If a blog post isn’t getting traffic, revisit it and make adjustments. If a video isn’t converting, analyze what might be turning viewers away. This constant optimization is what makes a content strategy truly effective.
The Key to a Strong Marketing Strategy
At the end of the day, the question of written vs. video content is less about “either-or” and more about “both-and.” By strategically mixing the two, you can create a robust content strategy that appeals to a wide audience, builds trust, and keeps you visible in search results.
As Lindsey put it, “It’s not about choosing one over the other—it’s about understanding when and why each is valuable and letting that guide your decisions.” With this balanced approach, you’ll be better positioned to capture and convert leads, all while adapting to your audience’s needs.
Whether you’re launching a blog series or setting up a YouTube channel, remember that the key to effective content marketing is balance. Use written content to establish authority, video to build trust, and repurpose where possible to make every piece work harder for your business.
Connect with Lindsey
Lindsey Auten is a content and video trainer at IMPACT with a background in broadcast journalism.
Learn more about Lindsey from her IMPACT bio
Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn
See how businesses can benefit from our sales and marketing training
Keep Learning
-
Learn: 'The Big 5': Best Business Blog Topics to Drive Traffic and Sales
-
Get Inspired: How to Create Industry-Disrupting Content That Will Turn Heads
Author: awinter@impactbnd.com (Alex Winter)
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Instagram Says It Does Not Reduce the Reach of Sponsored Content
IG chief Adam Mosseri says that this does not happen.
* This article was originally published here
Monday, November 11, 2024
The World’s Largest Unconnected Populations [Infographic]
Billions of people around the world still have no access to the internet.
* This article was originally published here
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Pinterest Reaches New Record High for Users in Q3
A solid performance update from Pinterest in Q3.
* This article was originally published here
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Why Your Costly Website Redesign Isn’t Bringing Leads
A business finds a web design agency looking for a completely new website. After months of design and development (and tens of thousands of dollars), their stunning new site launches. But six months later, the company comes to realize that the new site doesn’t meet their needs.
The site is beautiful, but traffic is flat. The few leads that are coming in aren’t qualified.
The company is stuck. Do they return to the same agency and pay more for updates? Do they start over with someone new? Why didn’t they get the website they hoped for? How will they get a return on their investment?
The fact is, some version of this scenario happens way too often. Maybe it’s even happened to you.
But it’s not your fault. The very process of redesigning a website is deeply flawed. And to understand why clients so rarely get what they’re hoping for, we have to start by looking at the process itself.
With years of experience working with businesses to build effective digital marketing strategies, we at IMPACT have seen firsthand why most website redesigns fall short of their goals.
In this article, we’ll uncover three common pitfalls in the common website redesign and share actionable strategies to transform your site into a lead-generating asset.
3 uncomfortable truths about website redesign that no one talks about
If you've got $50,000 to spend on a new website, agencies will line up around the block to take your money. There are even some who promise a brand new website in 30 days, start to finish.
It's tempting to be swayed by these offers, but there’s a big catch. Actually, there are three big catches.
1. A website redesign will ultimately fail without a strong business strategy
Think about why visitors come to a website. Unless we're talking about social media, visitors are not coming for entertainment. They want information.
Will your website provide them the information they need? Or, to back up, do you even know the questions they’re asking?
If your site is beautiful but useless, how many visitors will come and stay?
When an agency sells a new site, business strategy is rarely part of the conversation. That is, how will you use the website to market and sell more effectively? There's more focus on bells and whistles — and this is a big problem.
At most agencies, the web team is totally separate from the marketing and sales team. As such, your website redesign is not seen as a whole-business undertaking.
This is backward thinking.
After all, your website is supposed to attract leads with content marketing, right? It's supposed to help with the sales process. To talk about a website and not talk about broad strategy is like building an office complex without roads or a parking lot.
Sure, it looks nice, but how are people going to get there?
2. Ignoring user data in a website redesign kills lead generation
In the traditional redesign process, once a site goes live, the agency pretty much hands over the keys to the client and they go their separate ways.
This method completely disregards user data, which is critical to maximizing conversions.
Rather than building a site based on the way the agency thinks visitors will use your site, a better way is to launch the site and then test and adjust it. A/B testing, heatmaps, user pathways, and traffic data can enhance your site and create an improved user experience over time.
Unfortunately, agencies rarely invest the time or resources necessary to make use of this information. Once they’ve built the site and sold the site, they’re onto the next project for another company — and the client is left holding the bag.
3. The client team is never taught how to fully use its own site
Your business is changing all the time. New team members, new products, new messaging. Through it all, your website stays the same. Without in-house knowledge to make updates, build landing pages, change design elements, and perform tests, you’re stuck asking the agency or hiring a freelancer to make the changes for you.
Otherwise, your site quickly gets out of date, which is another problem.
You should have the internal expertise to be in control of your site so it can reflect your business today and in the future. After all, it’s your website. It should feel like yours.
Website Mastery: Strategy, data, and users
At IMPACT, we’ve never shied away from challenging the norms. We’ve loudly proclaimed that the traditional relationship between an inbound marketing agency and a client is broken, outdated, and inefficient.
We believe the same thing is true about the website redesign process.
The fact is, the traditional approach to website redesign costs companies billions of dollars each year, both in costs and lost revenue. First, clients shell out hefty sums for websites they might not even need. Then, they’re losing revenue because their shiny new site is not actually attracting traffic and qualified leads.
It’s time to imagine a better way.
Website Mastery overhauls the website redesign process, focusing on strategy, data, and the people who use the site — both inside and outside of your organization.
Informed by strategy
A website is a critical component of your marketing and sales plan — but it is not a strategy in and of itself. You need a robust business strategy before you need a new website. If you don’t have that strategy, we’ll work with you to build one.
Optimized with data
We build and launch the core elements of your site, typically within 4 to 6 months of getting started. This approach lets us gather valuable user insights early on, which we then use to continually refine page design, site structure, landing page performance, conversion pathways, and more.
Built so you can use it
At the same time, we train your team to take control of the website when they’re ready. Your team needs to know how to update the site, build and adjust pages, analyze website data, and test features.
This way, you have the expertise to guarantee that your site will serve your business for years to come.
So, will IMPACT build me a website?
Our team of experts can build you the exact website you need, but we never want to rip anyone off. Therefore, we likely won’t build you a new website right away. Too often, businesses get sold a new website when they don’t really need one, or before they’re ready.
If you come to us looking for a new website, you’ll fall into one of the following categories.
1. You may need a new website, but you need a business strategy first
(True for about 65% of all clients)
Yes, we can see a new website is in your near future, but you don’t yet have the strategy in place as a foundation. First, you need to work with our coaches and trainers to build a solid business plan. We’ll help you hire an internal team and learn to produce the content that will bring in organic traffic, build trust with prospects, and drive revenue.
If you start working with our They Ask, You Answer Mastery team, we can get going on your website once you’ve built some momentum and gotten things in place. This will likely be in a few months.
For this to succeed, it’s essential that your team has direct access to make updates and changes, rather than relying on an external agency each time you want to publish new content or tweak the site. However, many businesses don’t have a dedicated team member who owns these responsibilities or the technical setup to do this easily. We’ll help you put those structures in place so that your team can manage your website effectively, eliminating the need to pay for small updates or wait on someone else’s schedule to post content to your site.
Website Mastery — that is, the planning, strategy, design, development, testing and training of your new site — usually lasts between five and 12 months, depending on your unique needs.
Again, we want to make sure you’re getting the site you need, and we believe strategy comes first.
2. You need a new website and a new strategy — and we can do both at once
(True for about 30% of all clients)
This could be the case if you have the necessary budget and internal team structure already. If you can make a substantial investment in your digital sales and marketing and in your website simultaneously, we can work with your team to do both at the same time.
You probably already have a content manager on staff, for example, but maybe your inbound strategies are ineffective. Even with a team in place, you might still lack the capability to make changes on your website directly. In many cases, businesses don’t have a designated person to own website updates and manage content posting, which can slow down your team’s ability to respond and adapt. You’re ready for both of IMPACT’s training regimens at once.
This means you’ll get started working with IMPACT’s coaches and trainers for a 12-, 18-, or 24-month engagement. Simultaneously, you will begin working with a website strategist on our web team to start planning your new site.
Website Mastery will last six to 12 months, with your Mastery program continuing longer if you’re on the 18- or 24-month track.
3. You’ve got a fully-realized inbound marketing and sales strategy in place; Let’s build a website!
(True for about 5% of all clients)
Congratulations, your business strategy is sound! You’re keen on answering customer questions, providing value to your buyer, frequently updating your website with new content, and using this content in the sales process — and you’ve got the team in place to do it. This means you’re completely ready to get started on a brand new website where all of that content can live.
If you’re at this point, we can get started on your website right away!
And if you have a coach, they will ensure the new website fits seamlessly into your overall inbound strategy — and that your leadership is fully invested in website development and optimization.
Strategy first, website second
When businesses see their traffic or their leads fall off, they are tempted to move quickly to address the problem, which is the right instinct. However, all too often businesses reach for the biggest lever in front of them: I need a new website. They think this will solve all of their challenges, and they’re ready to invest heavily to do so.
The problem with this approach is that it’s putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. You might very well need a new website, but it’s almost certainly not the first thing you need.
Without a sales and marketing strategy behind it, your website is unlikely to deliver value to your customers. And, if it doesn’t provide value, those customers are going to bounce instead of converting — and you’ll be left with a very expensive, very beautiful website that doesn’t help you bring in revenue, which is the last thing you want.
For many of your customers, your website serves as their first introduction to your products and services. That site needs to be in lock-step with a broader strategy that helps you connect and build trust with those customers. Without that in place, your branding, messaging, and content could be adrift and ineffective.
At the same time, you want your site to provide the best experience possible for your visitors — and that assurance can only come if you use data to inform your site’s structure and content.
But strategy needs to come first. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not concerned with your organization's long-term growth.
Website Mastery will allow you to partner with IMPACT experts to make sure your site's design and development is based on more than just best practices and assumptions.
When we make decisions with data, when we are guided by strategy, we make the best decisions possible.
Your website is a big deal. You don’t want to get this wrong.
Author: jbecker@impactbnd.com (John Becker)
* This article was originally published here
Friday, November 8, 2024
Thursday, November 7, 2024
6 Smart Ways to Speed Up Your Content Creation with AI
Your content is the soul of your brand, and that’s not something to take lightly. For years, we’ve been warning businesses of the dangers of outsourcing content creation to an agency. When you do, you end up with a small volume of generic content that doesn’t capture what makes your brand unique.
If you’re using AI without a clear set of best practices, you could run into the same problem.
So, how can you benefit from AI technology without falling victim to its flaws? The key is to find ways to integrate AI into your creation process rather than building a process around AI.
Below, I’ll walk through the steps we teach our clients to follow — and we’ll see ways you can bring AI into the work you’re already doing.
This way, AI is a multiplier, not a potential liability.
1. Brainstorming with AI to spark new ideas
In our world, content always starts with a brainstorm. We tell our content managers to meet with other teams (sales, service, product development, etc.) to get a sense of what the customers are asking. Then, they use a tool like Semrush to do keyword research.
Here’s something else you can try. Use ChatGPT-4o, which is my go-to for most content needs.
Put in a product or service page from your website. Ask ChatGPT to generate a list of 50 questions your potential buyer might have who had just visited your site. Don’t forget to describe your ideal buyer to ChatGPT to make the output even more tailored to your needs.
As a bonus, this is a great way to evaluate your messaging. If AI is finding holes in your copy, you know what updates you need to make!
2. AI for SEO: Real-time keyword assistance
Once you’ve begun your writing, turn to SurferSEO for real-time AI-powered SEO assistance. Sure, you can do keyword research anywhere, but too often you end up with vague best practices or mountains of data that’s hard to sort through.
Surfer gives you real actionable insights delivered as you write. The software provides short- and long-tail keywords, along with the suggested frequency of use. You also get word length recommendations, tone suggestions, and an overall score that shows you if you’re on target.
Because the software is continuously updated and powered by current AI, you know you’re getting advice that applies today, not 12 months ago.
3. AI transcription tools that turn interviews into text
For content managers who rely on interviews, tools like Otter AI, Cockatoo, and Fireflies AI are lifesavers. You can get an accurate transcript in minutes, all for just a few dollars a month.
Two things to remember about these tools.
- First, they have free versions for you to check out before you buy.
- Second, they do other things too, like take meeting notes.
If you’re not sure about spending the money, see what else the tool can do for you and your team and decide if it's worth it.
4. Editing and fine-tuning with AI
If you need help with the actual writing, head back over to ChatGPT and try creating a custom GPT to match your brand’s style. My colleague Mandy York made one for content review, and she walks you through the entire process in a recent post. 
There are tools like Jasper. Claude, and Content at Scale that can do this too, but I like the control you get in ChatGPT, so that’s where I usually go.
5. AI for keeping everything on schedule
Content marketing has a ton of moving parts. You’re scheduling interviews, brainstorms, publication dates, and more. At IMPACT, we’re big fans of Reclaim, which is an AI scheduling tool for your calendar.
Once you go through a few steps and it learns your preferences, Reclaim sits in your Google calendar and helps you schedule meetings and stay organized — while also making sure you have breaks and time for decompression.
For busy pros, it’s a must.
6. Content distribution: CRM and AI integration
Gone are the days when content just lived on your blog. Today one written blog post becomes a podcast, a social post, a YouTube video, and a newsletter.
When it comes time to distribute your content, having a CRM like HubSpot is a game-changer. HubSpot has made a big push into the AI space in the past 12 months, and they always seem to be rolling out new updates — including content remix, which is amazing! So, if you’re coordinating the publication of your article with a LinkedIn carousel and an email blast, HubSpot can help.
You can also use AI to help you tweak an email subject line, craft a meta-description, or even write a whole blog post. But just as with all AI, use it carefully.
Speaking of which…
AI best practices (**for you to bookmark**)
Our own Marcus Sheridan put together a full list of AI best practices and policies that your company should consider. You can read the whole post here, but below are the most important guidelines.
I’ve quoted them directly from Marcus:
If you use generative AI, these things must be true
- Everything is edited by a human before it’s published. This is an absolute must for me, even with the best tools. You need real human eyeballs on anything that’s going out to make sure it sounds like you and fits with your goals. You want to stand behind anything you say, but it’s hard to do that if it was composed by an LLM.
- We always fact-check every claim we make. AI tools “hallucinate.” This means they can make up facts — but they can also make up the sources of those facts. Scientists are not sure why. ChatGPT can cite research that never happened, reference books that don’t exist, and court cases that are totally phony. It’s up to you and your team to verify everything. This means rigorous fact-checking and a skeptic’s mindset.
- We run a plagiarism checker to make sure our AI didn’t steal anyone’s work. This connects to the first two. Some tools have plagiarism checkers built in. Many do not. There are independent tools like DupliChecker and Plagiarism Detector where you can paste in text and get a percentage score for how much is plagiarized. Your standards for plagiarized work should be extremely stringent. You don’t want a machine to steal someone’s work and you end up passing it off as your own.
- We pay attention to potential biases in anything AI-generated. This one is harder to check for, I know, but it’s good to have in the back of your mind. Remember, it’s great to share the opinions and insights of your team. It’s bad to inadvertently put out biased content you can’t back up.
- We always keep our goal (and our audience) in mind. The goal of any content should be to educate buyers and build trust with your audience. AI can help you do that faster, but it’s just a tool. If it’s misused, it will hurt you more than help you.
For any AI that you use, keep these best practices in mind:
- Evaluate any tool before you use it. New tools are emerging at an overwhelming rate. Not all are trustworthy. Not all will be around in six months You should test and evaluate any tool before using it for work. If you’re in doubt about it for any reason, don’t use it. There’s likely an alternative.
- Protect company and client data at all times. Certain levels of ChatGPT and other tools are not secure places to put sensitive data — something certain businesses have found out the hard way. Be extremely careful about what you input, especially when it comes to financial data, employee evaluations, and other such material.
Become an AI-assisted content marketing master
For all the advances of AI, we have to remember that it is a tool, not a strategy. Even the most sophisticated tools are best used to enhance human creativity, not replace it.
The best way to move forward is to look for ways you can integrate AI into an already well-built process. Just make sure you’re ‘the human in the loop’ to second-guess, double-check, and run quality control.
At IMPACT, we train teams to market better — including how to use AI to build trust and improve outcomes. Want to talk further? Reach out to us at IMPACT and let’s chat!
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Launching A Website? How To Make Your Website Your Best Sales Person [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 75]
About This Episode
Many business owners invest heavily in their websites and then, well, assume they’re done. But launching your website isn’t the finish line—it’s actually the start of a continual process of optimizing and enhancing a critical sales asset.
If you’re a business generating $5 million or more in revenue, it’s likely that you already recognize the value of a website. But perhaps you’re grappling with how to keep it fresh, effective, and optimized to capture customer attention. Today, we’re walking through what Vin calls the “living, breathing” nature of a successful website—and how to give it the attention it needs to perform like the sales machine it can be.
The Common Misconception: Launch It and Leave It
Once a website goes live, it’s easy to feel the work is done. After all, you’ve put in the time and budget, and now it’s up and running, ready to attract customers, right? Unfortunately, that’s where most businesses get it wrong.
Vin explained, “Websites are not typically cheap things…they’re meant to be a phenomenal marketing and sales tool for the long term.” Yet so many business owners treat it like a static object, a one-time investment that should naturally generate leads without much oversight. But this approach fails to consider how rapidly the digital landscape and customer expectations change.
The Website’s Role as a Sales Tool
Here’s the fundamental shift that many companies need to make: Your website is part of your sales team. In fact, it should be your best salesperson.
Alex pointed out, “It’s an extension of your sales team. It’s a sales tool, so you need to look at it that way.” This mindset shift is critical to understanding why a “launch and leave” mentality holds your business back.
Imagine hiring a top-tier salesperson and then saying, “See you in six months—hope you’re closing lots of deals!” That would be absurd, right? Yet, this is exactly what happens with many business websites. By failing to check in, update, and optimize, you’re letting that investment stagnate.
Three Foundational Strategies to Make Your Site Work Harder
So, how can you ensure your website performs over the long haul? Vin offers three foundational strategies to keep in mind:
1. Shift to Sales-Centric Messaging
Most websites lean heavily on “we” and “our” language—big mistake. If your site’s content is all about your business rather than the customer, you’re missing the mark.
“A quick test,” Vin suggests, “do a ‘find and replace’ for ‘we’ and ‘our’ on your website. If those terms dominate, you have a messaging problem.” Instead, make sure your content speaks to your visitors, focusing on their needs, pain points, and the solutions you provide for them.
2. Structure Content to Drive Sales-Qualified Leads
Effective websites create a seamless path from awareness to action. The key is structuring your site to guide visitors to the right content at the right time. For example, if a visitor is just starting to learn about their problem, your blog or learning center should be their first stop. If they’re ready to buy, your primary product or service pages need to make it easy to convert that interest into action, whether that’s scheduling a consultation or requesting a quote.
3. Test and Tweak to Match User Behavior
“Everything we do with websites is based on fundamental assumptions,” Vin explained. But as with any hypothesis, those assumptions need testing. AB testing and other analytics tools like Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar allow you to see if your messaging, layout, or calls-to-action are resonating with visitors.
Even a small tweak can make a big impact, but without tracking, you’ll never know what’s working and what isn’t. “You need to treat the website like it’s a salesperson,” Vin said, adding, “This is the training—the testing to see what works.”
Embrace Data-Driven Decisions to Keep Customers Engaged
Your website isn’t for you—it’s for your customers. One of the biggest traps companies fall into is designing and updating their site based on internal preferences instead of customer needs. Data-driven decisions are the solution here.
Vin recommends asking these critical questions: Are users clicking on the primary call-to-action? Are they scrolling past your lead generation form? Do they respond to videos more than images? Armed with these insights, you can prioritize changes that align with customer behavior rather than just company desires.
“None of this matters until it’s proven,” Vin said. “I’ve done so many tests… I’m often shocked when something I thought would work doesn’t. But we learn from it, and that’s how we tailor the experience.”
AB Testing: Letting Users Drive the Direction
AB testing helps you let go of assumptions and let data lead. Whether it’s changing a headline, shifting a call-to-action, or updating imagery, AB tests can validate whether certain updates actually improve engagement. According to Vin, a test should run at least four weeks for best results.
“It’s essential to monitor tests over a full month to catch weekday and weekend variations, as well as any seasonal shifts,” Vin noted. These patterns give you a clearer picture of what works and how customers respond. Just be careful not to chase after every new trend or to over-test; prioritize meaningful changes that support your goals.
Giving Your Sales Team a Valuable Asset
When sales and marketing work together, they create a feedback loop that improves your website and the sales process itself. Sales teams can give critical input on what messaging resonates with leads, allowing marketing to refine the content accordingly.
As Vin puts it, “When your website becomes a true extension of your sales team, it changes the game. Stronger conversations, higher close rates, and less wasted time on bad-fit leads are some of the immediate payoffs.”
Keeping Content Fresh Through Accessibility
One of the worst positions a business can be in is having a beautiful, custom-built site that’s completely locked down. If you don’t have direct access to make updates or adjustments, you’re essentially stuck in a “launch and leave” situation, where small, necessary tweaks take weeks or months to implement.
When you launch a site, ensure you or someone on your team has access to make changes—this is essential for long-term success. Otherwise, you’re stuck paying for updates that could be made in minutes or missing out on opportunities to optimize based on timely insights.
Websites Need Check-Ins, Just Like Your Team
The heart of optimizing your website lies in continual attention and care, just as it does with any high-performing sales team. Vin advises regular check-ins, ideally in regular revenue team meetings, where data and site performance can be reviewed. Discuss questions like:
- Are calls-to-action getting the attention they should?
- Do visitors drop off on certain pages?
- Is there a new pain point we need to address in our content?
Each of these questions opens the door to new ways of refining the site and improving the user experience. And if you’re nervous about the data, don’t be—there’s a lot to learn, and no change is ever wasted.
Your Website Is a Living Sales Asset
Ultimately, your website is not a one-time investment. It’s a continually evolving asset that represents your business to thousands of customers, day in and day out. Treating it like the “set it and forget it” project leaves your business vulnerable to missing out on sales, conversions, and the chance to build lasting customer trust.
To echo Vin’s final thought, “If we’re not coaching our sales team or optimizing and testing our website, how much are we leaving on the table?” When you treat your website like the living, breathing salesperson it’s designed to be, it starts working for you—bringing in more qualified leads, giving customers the information they need, and ultimately, driving greater return on your investment.
Connect with Vin
Vin Gaeta is IMPACT’s head of web strategy. He leads a team of designers, developers, and strategists to provide full-scale website redesigns for our clients.
Learn more about how we build websites that actually deliver ROI
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Author: awinter@impactbnd.com (Alex Winter)
* This article was originally published here
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Thursday, October 31, 2024
AI for Businesses: 6 Steps All CEOs Should Take
It’s been more two years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, and business as we know it has changed forever.
CEOs are all asking the same question right now: How do we embrace AI at our company in a way that’s safe and effective? Studies show that many companies haven’t developed an AI strategy yet, which means very few small and mid-sized businesses have found an answer to this question.
The key is developing a culture where your people feel comfortable experimenting and problem-solving with AI. If leaders take the right steps now, they can help their people see AI as a helpful tool and not a threat.
Below, I’ll outline six steps you can follow to encourage healthy AI use at your company.
Why a top-down approach won’t work with AI
As I look at small and mid-sized businesses out there that are winning with AI, they all have something in common: They’ve avoided the mistake of going top-down.
Let me explain what I mean.
Often, you hear about CEOs coming back from conferences or discovering something new and saying, “We need to start doing X right away.” These kinds of initiatives tend to fizzle out.
Maybe the buy-in isn’t there.
Maybe the CEO moves on to something new.
To build an AI culture, you can’t follow that playbook.
With AI, there are literally thousands of new tools on the market — with more coming all the time. Even AI experts can’t keep up.
Your front-line employees are the ones in the day-to-day work of your business. They’re the ones who need to be leading this charge. They’re the ones who can try out a bunch of tools and see which ones they like.
As the leader, it’s your job to make it safe and fun to experiment. Then, let your people lead the way. They’ll come back to you with things you never dreamed of.
And your business will thrive.
Building a healthy culture of AI in 6 steps
Whatever your starting point, whatever your company identity, these six steps will help you build a healthy AI culture at your organization.
1. Start with education
The clearest way to combat fear is with education, so the first step is all about information.
At IMPACT, we tell our clients to take an entire day for an AI training workshop. You can watch keynotes, share presentations, and check out product demonstrations and walk-throughs.
Everyone will come into the day with different levels of comfort — most will have experimented on their own, some not so much — but they will leave with a shared language and a clearer understanding of AI and its capabilities.
2. Set clear expectations
Pretty quickly, you can get all the fears out into the open, and that’s always an important first step. As a CEO, I know how when things go unaddressed, they tend to fester. The way you fight it is with clarity and information.
Your people will want to know, first and foremost, if AI is going to take their jobs. A lot of talk in the industry goes like this: AI will not take your job, but someone better at using AI than you might.
I think that’s true, but I also like what HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah said at INBOUND 2023: “AI is going to take your job — but it’s going to give you a job you like even more.”
The way you prepare for the future is by learning. Tell your employees that experimenting with and embracing AI is now part of their job — and it will now be a part of their performance review.
Ask that they set aside an hour per week to learn and experiment.
As you do this, you’re going to address some concerns. Most of all, people will want to know if AI is going to take their jobs.
Remember, a top-down approach is not going to work. You don’t want to choose the platforms and tools your team should use.
Instead, let them discover the tools that can make them better at their jobs, and then let them swap stories and insights.
But this experimentation is important. AI is the future. If we’re not learning, we’ll fall behind our competitors. AI is going to disrupt knowledge work, and those marketers, designers, and developers who want to keep doing things the way they’ve always done them are going to get left behind. They need to start preparing for that future now, and they do so by exploring and discovering.
3. Give them guidelines
Experimentation is the goal, but only if it’s done safely and responsibly. Otherwise, you have chaos and risk.
There are a lot of great examples of AI guidelines out there. The city of Boston, for one, published a pretty comprehensive guide to using AI.
At IMPACT, we created what we call the "SAFETY" guidelines to keep us and our clients safe. We rolled these out to our team and made sure they were crystal clear.
We say that any AI experimentation needs to be:
- Secure: We must keep our (and our clients’) data secure. Check the data security levels of the tools you use and act accordingly. If you’re not sure, don’t risk it.
- Assistive, not autonomous: AI is a helper, not a team member. There must be a human in the loop at all times. We are accountable for what AI does, and our oversight is vital.
- Fact-checked: We would never blindly publish anything AI produces. We check everything.
- Experimental: AI can help us improve our work quality and increase our output. We need to experiment to see how.
- Transparent: Our use of AI is not a secret. We should be transparent with coworkers, supervisors, clients, and our audience. We cite sources.
- Remember, Your expertise matters: AI can enhance your creativity. AI can speed up your repetitive tasks. None of this is possible without your expertise. Let AI multiply your impact for the good of the organization.
Guidelines are there to keep them (and your company) safe. If they’re done right, guidelines don’t restrict experimentation — they make it easier.
These ones are broad enough to cover big concerns. Just like with everything else, encourage your people to use their best judgment.
4. Identify your 'AI champions'
Identify internal AI champions who can help teach, support, and encourage other employees. These should be tech-savvy early adopters who are optimistic, well-liked, and good teachers.
You could make these folks your official champions, with some formal expectations tied to the role, or it could be more of an informal thing. But you’ll want these champions to have a direct line to the leadership team so that as they build momentum and buy-in they can keep company leaders in the loop.
5. Provide a process for experimentation and measuring ROI
Experimentation can be haphazard. Your team members may want a framework to help them stay on track. At IMPACT, we recommend a process that’s based on the scientific method. The same one you learned in school.
It goes like this:
- Describe the problem or opportunity
- Create a hypothesis
- Determine the metrics for success
- Plan an experiment to test your hypothesis
- Identify the potential impact
- Run the experiment
- Document the results
- Share your findings
We ask our team members to document the AI experiments they’re undertaking. With a formalized process, we can keep track and share information between teams.
All along, you’ll be tracking the potential ROI of these experiments, both on the micro level (experiment by experiment) and on the macro level (for your whole organization). Some AI tools, like chatbots, can be expensive. Others are cheap. Working them into your processes can yield a huge savings — but only if you keep track.
Remember, not all experiments will be successful, and that's okay. You will learn a lot from any failure.
Also, remember that things are moving at a break-neck pace. If you try something today and it doesn't work, there might be new tools in six months that make it possible. So make sure you keep trying.
6. Reward employees; celebrate success
If you want something to become a part of your culture, reward it. If you want a success to be duplicated, celebrate it.
There are a number of ways you can do this, from a simple shout-out at an all-hands meeting to an actual cash prize or bonus. At IMPACT, we do both. We share our AI wins at our monthly meetings so each experiment can inspire others.
At the same time, I’ve put in place a $5,000 per quarter prize to be given out at my discretion. It may all go to one person. It may be split between several — or it may not be awarded in a given quarter.
The idea of a bonus spurs innovation, and we’ve seen a big uptick in experiments since the prize was announced.
Leading your company into the future
Getting your team to embrace something new can be hard, and sometimes you need help. As my business partner Marcus Sheridan always says, you can be a prophet to the whole world, but you might not be accepted in your hometown.
In other words, changing an organization from the inside is no easy task. Even if you’re the CEO, creating a culture change out of the blue can be daunting.
You may need some guidance.
We’ve led AI workshops at dozens of businesses that build momentum, create buy-in, and change the culture. We can work hand in hand with your team to set the right tone so your people feel excited, not on-edge.
If you’re among those 80% of businesses still waiting on the sidelines, now’s the time to step forward.
With the right assistance, you can create a culture of innovation that will keep you ahead of the curve for years to come.
Author: rruffolo@impactbnd.com (Bob Ruffolo)
* This article was originally published here
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