Are you ready for a HOT weekend ahead? Time to pull out the pool float and the frozen margaritas.
It’s been a busy and exciting week for us here at EYR. We’ve made new connections and had some great meetings.
Oh, and we’re rounding out an excellent week with a solid roundup of Our Favorite Headlines. The theme of this week’s edition is hacks; that is, quick tips and tricks you can use in marketing and life. Whether you’re looking for ways to improve your marketing response rate, boost your success with prospects, or even get out of a career rut, here are five “hacks” to try this quarter.
Check them out, then let us know your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter.
Why Giving Clear Instructions Can Increase Your Marketing Response Rate
The Takeaway: This concept seems so simple, but it can be one of the toughest things to remember as you create and launch a marketing campaign. It’s easy to get caught up in worrying about things like the neuropsychology of color or how the exact placement of a button on a landing page affects conversion rate, when the answer to marketing success is much simpler: Tell your audience what they should do next.
As you create your marketing pieces, do away with any presumption that your audience will understand what they’re supposed to do next. Instead, take the time to spell it out for them in a helpful (non-condescending) way. Once you know there is no room for confusion, then you can test which color button works best for your audience.
Go With the (Work)flow: Why You Need Process to Make Your Marketing Programs Run Smoothly
The Takeaway: This isn’t so much a hack, since creating processes requires time, thought, and energy. However, once the processes are in place, you’ll find that your marketing campaigns run more smoothly, take less time to execute, and are more effective. Maybe it is a hack after all?
Whatever you call it, having processes in place for regular marketing activities will make collaboration among teams and departments easier, and will ensure that expertise doesn’t leave with individual employees. You can create a checklist in a Word document, build a plan table in Microsoft Excel, or have your designer create an actual flow-chart – just be sure to get your processes documented.
This half-hour exercise can get you out of your career rut
The Takeaway: Even if you’re pursuing your passion, it’s likely you’ll find yourself in a career rut at one time or another – after all, our brains are biologically wired to crave change. The trick to getting out of a rut is to start with gratitude and make time for structured reflection. Use some vacation time to get away from work and do something you love, then take time to reflect on the areas where you feel disengaged. As you write out your thoughts, don’t worry about how jumbled or nonsensical they may appear to outsiders – you can polish it up for your memoir later.
The Tiny, Essential Google Tricks for Way Better Search Results
The Takeaway: This is another one for our “Cool Things” file. If you are an adult human, then you probably use Google on a regular basis. (If you’re not an adult or human, why and how are you reading this?) For Google users far and wide, these tricks have the potential to make your life just that much easier. Try them out next time you’re on the hunt for something!
How to Send a Follow-Up Email After No Response
The Takeaway: As the lines between sales and marketing continue to blur, it’s important that we have the skills and knowledge to take on both tasks. Whether you work in a sales role or a marketing one, knowing how to send a follow-up email – close and all – proves to be a valuable tool.
