In our last blog post, we gave a brief intro into CRO and why it’s an essential strategy to implement in your business. Below, we’re diving deeper into landing pages and Landing Page Optimization, as they are crucial aspects of your broader CRO strategy.

Creating an effective and properly optimized landing page can increase conversions – whether sales, signups, or otherwise. So let’s talk more about why you should use them, if landing page building software could be right for your business, what belongs on a well-performing landing page, and more!

Why You Should Be Using Landing Pages

As we just mentioned above, landing pages are an important part of the CRO strategy because they are one of the pieces of the puzzle you can use and continue to optimize in order to significantly increase your conversions. 

Overall, they have been proven to be more effective than your website’s home page, and most other top level pages of your website, when it comes to actual conversions. This is because while most websites are used to tell everything about a business, share all products available, provide an entryway to blog posts, resources, social media widgets and more (which is not exactly conducive to holding your audience’s goldfish-sized attention span), a landing page does just the opposite.  A great landing page is focused and singular-minded.

When designing a landing page, you should have one very specific goal you are trying to accomplish…without unnecessary links and navigation to other areas of your website…without other offers competing for their attention…without extra photos or content that distract from that one goal. 

You should be using landing pages because they can be one of the best salespeople on your team. Imagine getting a sales call from someone spending time telling you about everything under the sun when it comes to their business, then quickly asking, “So, are you ready to buy?” Contrast that with one that focuses on the very best product or service for you, the features and benefits it will provide, stories of how it changed other people’s lives who are just like you, and even a limited time discount on that specific offer. 

A website is still necessary for the big picture of your business, but effective landing pages are essential for converting visitors to leads or customers and especially when connected to strategies like your PPC and social media campaigns. 

Should You Invest in Landing Page Software?

One of the reasons we believe the focus on high-converting landing pages has taken center stage more recently is the increase in user-friendly landing page building software. These have been created to, hopefully, simplify the page building process using CRO best practices (particularly if you use a pre-built template). 

The way it used to be done, which is still a viable option for some, was to use your website’s standard page template to create a page that accomplishes your one specific goal, like we discussed above. 

A few potential problems arise with this method. Creating a page from the ground up can be costly, depending on your website platform’s page building capabilities. Not all are simple drag and drop with clear containers set up for images, text, etc. It’s very likely you’ll spend time and money working with a designer and developer to get it built properly. 

Another reason this isn’t our favorite way of building a landing page is because your website was most likely not originally built for one-page, conversion-focused content. To name just one example, your top navigation bar. This is, of course, necessary for navigating around your main website. But effective landing pages have very few links, and generally do not contain navigation. This is on purpose, to keep the visitor focused on the conversion goal at hand. So your standard page template within your website may not be as effective as building a page in a landing page builder.

Keep in mind, however, just because the software provides pre-built templates, doesn’t mean you won’t need some level of support or expertise at some point. While the drag and drop features are typically user-friendly, you’ll want to ensure the visual experience of the page still falls in line with the look and feel of your website and branding. It’s also important to use best practices for your imagery, CTA buttons, and conversion-based copywriting. (We’ve seen some pretty horrendous landing pages with terrible conversion rates when using landing page builders but without a knowledge of design and CRO.)

There are many options to choose from, at different price points, with differing levels of support, pre-built templates and ease of use. A few of our favorites are Unbounce, LeadPages and ClickFunnels. (Note: we have an affiliate account with ClickFunnels, should you choose to click on our link and start using the platform, but we use and recommend other platforms all the time because we believe different tools can be right for different client’s needs.) The tool you choose depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, whether you need built in follow up tools, and the past experience and preferences of your team.

Even as an agency with full custom design and development capabilities, using a landing page builder allows us to build beautiful and effective pages, keeping costs lower and passing those savings on to the client! 

Never Stop Optimizing 

It’s not enough to build a landing page, you also need to optimize it. I know, I know, is the job of a marketer EVER done? The answer is simply, nope! (and we’d say to be wary of anyone who tries to sell you a set-it-and-forget-it type of strategy…but I digress.)

Your newly built, beautiful landing page is hopefully part of a larger strategy to accomplish the specific goal we keep talking about. This means you won’t build a page and just hope someone stumbles upon it. No, you’ll use it as a destination for traffic, whether paid, or organic. And since you have a clearly defined goal, you’ll be able to understand whether or not that goal is being met. 

Remember when I mentioned landing pages typically don’t have navigation links on them? Because of this, your landing page might be the only thing the visitor sees, making it very important to continue to optimize once you see if the traffic you’re sending there is converting. 

A/B testing is at the heart of CRO, and good landing page builders have a level of A/B testing built right in. Assumptions you’ve made and questions you’ve had in the past regarding the best headline or call to action, or even button color are all elements you can let your audience decide rather than constantly guessing. It’s a very reassuring process. To not optimize would be wasting resources spent designing and building the page, as well as the resources spent driving traffic to it.

There are key components of an effective landing page, and it is important to A/B test these components, specifically, during your optimization process!

These are, in no particular order :

• An attention-grabbing Heading
  
• Conversion-focused subheadings
  
• Beautiful, high resolution and relevant imagery
  
• A compelling offer and how they will benefit from it
  
• One prominent Call to Action – (Remember, while there should be a main singular CTA, it should be repeated down the page no matter where they are while scrolling.)
  

Conclusion

While most people know about the importance of landing pages, we still see many businesses focusing their time and money on driving traffic. This is essential for getting eyes on your offer, but without a concentrated effort on building and optimizing landing pages, the chances of converting the traffic you’re spending money on will be significantly less.

So as you think through your business offerings now and in the future, remember landing pages and Landing Page Optimization are key tenets of an effective CRO strategy!

The post Want to Level Up By Using Landing Pages? Start Here. appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

You might be wondering, “What else can I add to my strategy? Am I always going to be chasing more shiny metal marketing objects and creating more and more assets on more platforms?”

Take heart. More is not always better. Instead, consider starting to optimize what you already have to convert more website visitors, using a process called Conversion Rate Optimization.

First, What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), is defined very clearly by Moz.com as the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. The CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what’s stopping them from completing your goals.

Conversion rate optimization is one of the most effective (and the fastest) strategies for turning your current web traffic into the lifeblood of your business…paying customers.

By definition, any business that operates a website (or landing pages) that lead prospects into a sales funnel needs to be performing conversion rate optimization if you want to grow your business. Simply speaking there are really only two things that happen in your business. You drive traffic into a funnel and you convert that traffic into leads and ultimately customers. Conversion rate optimization is everything you do to convert that traffic.

When you look at your business’s buyer journey and various sales funnels, there are proven strategies to encourage a prospect towards saying YES to becoming a subscriber, a lead, or even a customer. Knowing these strategies and when and where to apply them can dramatically increase your website’s conversion rate and should be a primary focus in your online strategy. And every percentage point of improvement in conversion not only leads to more sales, but continues to make your traffic investment more efficient.

So CRO improves ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) as well as your SEO efforts. Who wouldn’t want to do that?! Whatever methods you are currently using to drive traffic to your site, properly executed CRO multiplies the effectiveness of those methods.

CRO Comes in Many Forms (Pun Intended)

When it comes to optimizing your site for higher conversions, you’ll need to look at many different things, from the presence and effectiveness of forms on your site, calls to action (CTAs), the user experience (UX), including ease of navigation, site speed, etc, and more.

Think about your website experience through the eyes of your customer.

• Are you prepared to serve your customer regardless of the device they’ve found you on – meaning, is your web presence optimized for mobile, tablet and desktop?
• Are your imagery and font choices appealing and legible? An abstract image and tiny, light colored fonts might be a recipe for sending a prospect straight to your competitor. Combine that with a photo that doesn’t resonate with your ideal customer and your conversion rate might be suffering! It sounds dramatic, but did you know there are actually legal standards for things like font legibility? Yep, covered under Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from the Web Accessibility Initiative. 
• How easy is it for them to contact you? Is there a Click-to-Call or Contact Us button, or are they searching through the footer for contact info only to give up and move on?
• Have you given them a clear Call to Action with the next step they need to take? Not every conversion looks like a simple Buy Now button. Perhaps they need to set up a free consultation, download a form, verify insurance, or submit a quote. How straightforward and enticing is that next step? Oh and what is your primary call to action? Is there one? Two? Too many?
• Is there enough copy on the page to inform your visitor and get them to convert? Is there way too much copy on the page that distracts them from your primary call to action?
• Are you making it really easy for the visitor to accomplish THEIR goal in coming to your page? What is THEIR goal by the way. Does it match your goal for them?
• How many distractions are on your page? Are they distracting your visitor from their goals or driving them to your desired conversion?
• Are your forms optimized for the desired action? Are you asking for too much with too little in return? Remember conversion goes down pretty much in sync with the number of fields you require they fill.

This is not even close to being an exhaustive list, but as you can see, there are so many ways to improve your website and landing pages that could increase your conversion rate exponentially!

Tools and Resources

Conversion Rate Optimization is not a quick project you can knock out over a week or two. It is an ongoing commitment to a data-driven process, that includes both quick wins and iterations using A/B & Multivariate testing over time. Additionally, there are plenty of tools and resources that will help you along the way. Below are just a few examples, but check back often as we’ll continue to explore this topic even more on our blog.

Analytics – One such tool is something you probably already have – your Google Analytics account! This is the most important place to start. And in fact your Analytics account is the first place to “optimize”, making sure your account is in tip top shape, goals and funnels are properly defined, Google Tag Manager is being properly utilized, etc.

There are a wealth of CRO improvements just waiting to be fixed hiding in your GA account. But unfortunately Google Analytics improvements are not retroactive. Which is why we ALWAYS recommend starting first with an audit and optimization of your Analytics account.

A/B Testing – A tool like Google Optimize, Optimizely or others allows you to set up A/B tests and stop guessing at what you or your web designer thinks will increase conversion. TEST first and let your users decide for you. Landing page platforms such as Unbounce have basic A/B testing built in.

Heatmaps – Another incredibly useful CRO tool for understanding user behavior is Heatmaps. Heatmaps tools such as Hotjar and others will show you how visitors are interacting with your pages, where they focus their attention, and can even show recordings of their user sessions, revealing immediate opportunities for improving their user experience and giving you crucial information about what tweaks to make in your design, copy, or Calls to Action.

User Testing – Just like A/B Testing and Heatmaps, proper implementation of user testing lets real people determine the right direction for a website or landing page. And in today’s marketplace with incredibly efficient methodologies for easily accessing real people to interact with your pages, there’s no reason you can’t include user testing in your CRO strategy.

Different types of user testing available to you are:

• In-Person: Face-to-face between interviewer and user
• Remote: Done through a computer, with the participant and the interviewer in different locations
• Moderated: A remote user test, with the interviewer overseeing the test
• Unmoderated: Participants do the test on their own, with pre-established tasks and steps (We like UserTesting.com for setting these types of tests.)

CRO Partner – The resource that might be most worth your while, however, is a partner who specializes in CRO, who can work with you at a monthly pace you’re comfortable with, to identify areas of improvement and to continuously test and optimize your website, blog and landing pages. This type of agency will already know exactly what to look for, and has the tools needed to identify or accomplish various tasks. They can guide you much deeper into the process, far beyond the initial quick wins that are easiest to spot. At the end of the day, they will save you time, and the ROI you see from higher conversions will be worth your while!

Conclusion

In marketing, there are so many areas to focus on. If you’re the type of business owner or marketing manager that really wants to see more clicks, more followers, more traffic, you aren’t alone! This is a crucial area to focus on. But as mentioned above, why pay more money for additional traffic strategies if you aren’t efficiently converting the traffic you’re currently getting?

By starting with conversion rate optimization, you can feel much more empowered and justified to invest in traffic once you have a solid, data-driven, conversion-focused web presence in place!

The post A Brief Intro to CRO, and Why It’s So Important! appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

While many businesses unfortunately haven’t been able to see the sales boosts they’ve needed recently, we want to share a few ways to boost your systems and marketing infrastructure. This way, once the economy begins to open back up, you’ll be more prepared than ever to serve your clients well. 

As we all continue to social distance, and many of us are required to work from home, there are plenty of low-cost, low-barrier-to-entry ways to improve your marketing systems you can do from the comfort of your own home (or even couch!). These are things that seem to get pushed to the backburner during busier seasons, but now just might be the time to knock them out. 

Let’s take a look at a few. 

Develop An Email Series

Did you know that it takes an average of about seven touchpoints to convert a customer? This is why strategic email campaigns continue to be one of the most important ways to nurture a prospect from first touchpoint, all the way to conversion. 

These email series are a great way to continue showing up in front of your customer (whether or not they open every email you send), offering value far more often than you are pitching or selling. They establish trust, give you credibility, and help to ensure when the prospect does need the product or service you’re selling, you’ll be top of mind. 

You can choose to make the content timely to what’s going on in the world right now, or maybe you’ve had an email series idea for some time now that you can finally get to writing…one that you’ll have for the long run as part of your email marketing arsenal. Whether you have a simple, free Mailchimp account or a highly sophisticated marketing automation platform, you can write a relevant series of emails that build on each other to create one AWESOME marketing and sales tool.

An effective email series has, at minimum, three emails, but we recommend more if possible! And, when it comes to the content of these emails, remember Gary Vaynerchuck’s well-known adage and book title, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. A ‘Jab’ refers to offering valuable tips, ideas and information to your customer. It’s only after you’ve given that value several times that you should try to make your sales pitch, or, the ‘Right Hook’. 

Note: With a free Mailchimp account, you cannot automate your entire series, but if you’ve written the content, it’s simple enough to automate each one individually to send at the appropriate time. There are plenty of other marketing automation systems out there as well at a wide variety of price points. We’ve become fans of Active Campaign. You can start small and add powerful automation tools without racking up a big monthly bill like some other options on the market.

Produce Thoughtful, Valuable Content  

If Content is still King, then thoughtful, well-planned content might as well be the majestic crown that immediately lets you know this king is the real deal! Weird analogy, but give me a break, I’ve been quarantined for 35 days now

There’s clearly no shortage of content out there, coming in every form, on multiple platforms, all day, every day. (Although, can we all agree that the memes being created right now by people getting cabin fever seem to be funnier than ever? Something to be thankful for, for sure.)

We always stress to our clients, “Please do not create content just for the sake of content.” It should have a clear goal, and that goal should be related to pain points you can help solve for your ideal customer. Some common goals for valuable content are to educate your audience, entertain, engage, inspire or convince them. 

Know your goal before producing your content and the process will go more smoothly, and the outcome will most likely resonate even more with your intended audience. 

Take this time to write a few blog posts that can be spread out over the next few weeks, creating a regular publishing schedule for your business (then try to keep it going!). You could also develop an ebook or checklist that acts as a valuable download in exchange for gathering new email addresses. Or, sit down in front of a clean background and shoot a few talking head videos to use in your social media.

Start planning topics, outline your thoughts, and then decide which medium would be effective and, most of all, doable for you during this time! 

Develop your Customer Journey

If you’ve never sat down with the main stakeholders in your company and mapped out each phase of your customer journey, now is the time to do it! The customer journey informs the rest of your marketing strategy, tactics, and even the types of content you’d need to develop, so it is truly essential to your business. 

We recently wrote a more in depth blog post on customer journey mapping and how it relates to CX (or, customer experience). Please take the time to check it out!

In that post, we discuss the seven stages of the customer journey, from Awareness to Conversion and beyond (yes, Conversion is definitely not the last stage of the journey!). In each stage, you’ll need to think through the perspective of your customer. This will allow you to develop creative ways to move this customer along, through each consecutive stage, in hopes of creating a raving fan for life!

Develop a Funnel 

No matter the situation you find your business in, whether during a worldwide pandemic, or while it’s business as usual, every business greatly benefits from developing a digital, automated sales funnel. 

What does this mean exactly? Well, let’s walk through a scenario. 

You meet a prospect at a trade show, or you’re doing some networking on LinkedIn. They want to know more about what you do. And you don’t want to forget to follow up with them, because, they could be your next big sale!

You might hand them a printed piece of marketing collateral that explains who you are and what you do. You might even send them to your website so they can learn more about you. But let’s be honest, that piece of paper probably ended up in the trash by the end of the trade show (along with a hundred other brochures). And if they went to your website, I’m sure they were impressed! But they clicked around for a while, looking at your ‘About’ section, maybe some team photos, saw some products and then got distracted and may or may not have found their way back to that open tab again. 

Now imagine, instead, you send them to a dedicated landing page. It’s beautifully designed, with just the right message that speaks directly to their needs, along with the solution you provide, and even a few testimonials about how you’ve solved this same problem for others, bringing them amazing success. It’s like leading your prospect into a room with just one open door to walk through rather than 10 doors leading them in every different direction.  

Also on that page is not a hard sales pitch, but a valuable piece of content they can download by exchanging it for their email address. “The Top 3 Mistakes You Never Want To Make When Doing X” or “The Only 5 Things You Need To Know Before Making a Decision about Y”. (Maybe this is the Download you decided to write when we talked about creating valuable content above!)

Since this is the exact type of problem they’re currently dealing with, they submit their email address. This automatically triggers your follow up email series (again, could the email series you were already thinking about earlier in this post fit here…killing two birds with one stone?!)  The series could include one email that contains their download, another couple that offer additional valuable information, and a third that gives them the opportunity for a free phone consultation. 

By the time they get on the phone with you, they’ve had several touchpoints, you’ve become a subject matter expert to them, and the close will be that much easier. 

And all of this was automated. The funnel – from landing page, to download, to follow up emails – is created and implemented once, and then runs automatically without you needing to set reminders to send follow up emails or offers. 

If you’ve been thinking recently that you need a more effective website, you might actually just need some effective landing pages and funnel development instead! Check out our blog post on this topic, Why You Might Not Need a New Website. 

Work On Boosting Your Online Reputation 

One thing that has been so cool about this unprecedented time in history (if you can say anything is cool about this period), has been seeing people’s desire and willingness to support and help out other businesses. (Especially if you’re a small local business, but the sentiment seems to extend beyond that.)

Also, without daily commutes or after-work social functions, most of us have a little extra time to, for example, write a review or testimonial about a business we’ve had a great experience with in the past when things were normal, or even recently if you’ve still been able to conduct business!

Our latest blog post over at Fireworx Reputation discusses why reviews are going to be more important than ever coming out of this crisis. Be sure to check it out! (Hint: One reason is that customers are going to be more selective than ever about who they give their business to. Are you ready for that?)

While you probably shouldn’t be soliciting reviews from customers from two years ago, more recent ones that you never had a chance to reach out to would be a great list to email. A simple greeting and message, thanking them for their business and a review request is all it takes! 

Let them know exactly where to do this, based on what makes sense for your business – whether it’s leaving a review on review sites or sending you a testimonial you can use on your website or in marketing collateral in the future. 

*Note: Google Reviews is not currently fully operational, but will be again once the shut down period is over and there are plenty of other review sites that probably need your 5 star reviews. 

So What Do You Think?

Could it be possible to take on just one of these marketing best practices while we’re still in the midst of this crisis? Maybe even two of them? Could an email series and some new content be part of creating an entire marketing funnel? There’s a lot of room to get creative here and you can get started with just one thing at a time!

Put some downtime into any of these ideas and we guarantee you’ll feel more prepared to market to and provide value to new and even current customers. We give you full permission to have Netflix on in the background as you tackle your strategy (or strategies) of choice!

The post The Best Ways to Boost Your Business While Sheltering in Place appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

Great CX, or Customer Experience, is a non-negotiable. In the past few years, it has become a key differentiator between a brand and its competitors. 

Providing top notch customer experience has to start with understanding the journey your customer is on, from even before they know who you are, to the moment they decide to purchase from you and beyond. 

Why is Customer Journey Mapping so Important?

Salesforce defines customer journey mapping as ‘a visual representation of every experience your customers have with you.’ One reason customer journey mapping is so important is because of the impact it has on CX, or, Customer Experience. It’s contained right there in the definition!

Consider that a few years ago, the Customer Experience Impact Report found that 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. Customer expectations are higher than ever and we wouldn’t be surprised if this percentage continues to increase going forward. 

The lifeblood of your business literally depends on your customers having a great experience with you, and mapping your customer journey allows you to ensure great CX throughout their entire relationship with your company. 

This is Not One-Size-Fits-All

Depending on your business and the language you want to apply to your customer journey mapping, there are a few different approaches to identifying the stages of your customer journey. 

At its most basic, we’ve seen the journey boiled down to 3 stages – Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. 

While these can provide a great starting point, often times, even for a simple business, the journey is more complex. So we like break those stages out even further. 

Remember, it’s not one-size-fits-all, but the stages shared below will give you the framework to begin developing your customer journey map.

An Overview of Customer Journey Stages

It’s important to note, the timeline for the journey is different for every business and every customer. For example, the larger the purchase, the longer it may take for a customer to go through each stage. 

Additionally, not every customer will go linearly, one by one, through each of these stages, but for all intents and purposes, the journey you define using the stages below will be the most logical path. 

Awareness

This first stage takes you back to before a consumer even knows who you are. It aims to find the trigger point that will lead to this person becoming aware of you. 

How does the individual discover their need for the product or service you provide? For example, if you sell car insurance, the trigger point for becoming aware of their need would probably involve the consumer in the process of buying or leasing a car. 

Exploration

After they become aware of their need, the consumer usually goes through an exploratory phase. Here, they are starting to do some research into you and your competitors. They may follow you on social media or sign up for your emails. But remember, they are most likely doing the same with your competitors. 

Evaluation

Here, the prospect is more seriously evaluating their options, potentially getting a quote from you or wanting a demo of your product or service. They may start to narrow down their options based on any number of touchpoints they’ve had with you so far. Are you providing them with value and giving them peace of mind about the type of business you are? These are the things that create trust between you and a potential customer.  

Conversion

The prospect has now decided from what they’ve experienced and researched, that you are the company they’ll choose. Congrats! This stage focuses on such things as ease of transaction, etc. Have you made sure the process to buy from you is as frictionless as possible? 

Onboarding

The stage after conversion and before retention is not always broken out on its own, but we think it’s important enough to be its own stage! It might not be called ‘Onboarding’ for your business, but just think of it as the first interactions a customer has with you or your product after they have converted. 

It’s the moment in the customer journey where you really need to ‘WOW’ the customer, so they don’t have buyers’ remorse and so they easily move into the next stage. An exceptional onboarding (or first-time) experience can mean the difference between a long-term successful relationship with a customer or a quick churn. 

Retention

From there, the goal is to create retention or repeat buyers. What do you need to provide to this customer if they are going to consider buying from you again in the future, consider retaining your service month in and month out, or use your App regularly?

Advocacy

The ultimate goal for every business is to reach even more people, and since consumers tend to trust their peers even more than what a business advertises about itself, you need to turn each customer into a raving fan. In this stage, you’ll explore how you can encourage your new loyal customer to tell their friends and family about you, such as offering incentives for each referral they bring to you.

You’ll also want to provide friction-free ways for them to spread the word about you over social media or through online reviews to reach even more potential customers! 

Customer Journey and CX, Intertwined

As we already discussed above, CX and customer journey mapping are completely intertwined. For every stage of the journey, there are opportunities to focus on exceptional Customer Experience. 

In each stage, you’ll identify things such as your desired customer behavior within that stage, the problems they are facing, the goals they are trying to accomplish, and what they are currently thinking and doing in that particular stage. 

These are largely assumptive at first, but through research, talking to real customers, and developing your buyer personas, these assumptions become evidence-based. 

Additionally, for each stage you’ll map out how you will interact with the customer, the value you can provide, and tactics and technology needed to reach the customer effectively so they take your desired action.

The end goal is to know exactly what marketing you need for each stage of your customer journey, and how that marketing tactic meets the needs of your customer. This way of strategizing your marketing goals and tactics is highly effective whether you are a large, multi-national corporation or a small local business. 

Take email marketing, for example. We all know email marketing is an important marketing strategy. But what’s less understood is how this one type of marketing can be applied across the journey, and how different it looks at each stage. There are nurture emails, transactional emails, onboarding emails and so much more! Each type of email at each stage is a chance to provide value and an excellent customer experience. 

Conclusion

Delivering great customer experience at each stage of the customer journey is key to your success. Without it, a prospect quickly realizes they have other options, who are just a quick Google search away. 

Many companies (or even other marketing agencies!) want to jump right into tactics they think will work because it seems to be working for others. But it is crucially important to start with a smart and well-developed strategy that considers each stage your potential customer will find themselves in. 

This way, you can anticipate how to be the ones to fulfill their needs, give them an amazing customer experience, and create loyal, raving fans of you and your business. 

The post How to Use Customer Journey Mapping to Improve CX appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

Core Values are the essence of your business’s identity. They tell people what sets you apart from the guy next door. They tell people what your business cares about, and people care about what you care about.

Core Values are the essence of your business’s identity.
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So, what sets Fireworx Digital apart? What do we care about?

These Core Values are important to us—they keep us aligned as we strive to live them out everyday!

1. Begin with the end in mind.

Plan ahead. Set goals. Be prepared. Stay focused. It’s easy to get off track, and most of this happens right at the beginning. Each choice we make affects the future of a project, a client relationship, the effectiveness of a campaign, so at Fireworx Digital, our first core value is to begin with the end in mind.

2. Exceed Expectations.

It’s easy to say a project is “D for done” when you’ve met the expectations of your client. Some believe a job is done when the bare minimum has been completed. But it should not be just about checking an item off your list and accomplishing the task. We believe loyalty comes with exceeded expectations—with our clients and with each other.

3. Choose to Be Positive.

Did you know that our brains are actually wired to be negative? That means positivity is a choice—a choice that is difficult, but one that is necessary in a world of competition, roadblocks, and complicated projects. We choose to be positive, not only to simply maintain a good perspective and attitude, but in order to enjoy our jobs and lives more!

4. Be Humble, Honest and Transparent

Pride, dishonesty, and disloyalty make for bad business. We believe that humility is step one to success, and with it comes honesty and transparency. These are the types of qualities that can revolutionize entire cultures—entire industries even! At Fireworx Digital, we value these qualities in our relationships with our clients and as a team, and strive to live and work daily with humility, honesty, and transparency.

5. Pursue Growth and Learning Every Day

Stagnancy is dangerous. We see the marketplace as a place to both execute the expertise we have while simultaneously learning and growing from each unique project and client. We hope to never stop learning from the people, projects, and resources around us.

6. Celebrate the Wins

When you work hard, it can be tough to remember to celebrate when what you’re working so hard for actually happens. We believe that this is important because it builds momentum, unifies our team towards a goal, and ultimately keeps us positive!

7. Stay Hungry 

When we lose our appetite, we lose our drive. It’s important to stay driven, focused, and striving for success and progress. We desire to work hard and stay motivated to not just win clients, but to win for our clients.

8. Honor and Serve our Clients and Each Other

It’s the little things. And when honoring and serving others is a priority from the top down, no matter who we’re interacting with, big things happen. We don’t want to focus on what’s best for ourselves, but what’s best for our team and our clients—putting them first.

9. Be Creative and Open-Minded

“The mind that opens up to a new idea never returns to its original size.” – Albert Einstein. Sometimes we can get into a rhythm or routine that keeps us boxed into a certain way of doing things. We believe that there is importance in planning, routine and process, but we must always keep our minds open and creative to new ways of doing things and solving problems.

10. Make a Difference

What’s it all for? At the end of the day, we want to make sure that our work, our attitudes and our interactions are making a difference in the world. Meaning comes from not just what we do, but also by how we do it and what we do it for.

What about you?

So, what do you think? Hopefully you’ve been inspired to either write out and commit to a set of Core Values for your business, or dig out the list you wrote years ago and adjust to or recommit to them.

Want more information on Core Values and how to get started? Check out our blog post here.

The post The 10 Core Values We Live By appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

We would meet every Tuesday morning in Dave Gilbert’s (aka “The Big Cheese”) office, designed like a lighthouse in Dana Point, California. Dave was the founder and CEO of SimpleSignal, a growing Business VoIP service provider with big dreams of disrupting the legacy telecommunications industry through all of the new innovations and capabilities afforded by putting voice over the Internet. Sounds commonplace now, but back then it was truly revolutionary and not everyone was buying into it.

So every week we would brainstorm ideas and then execute on them while squeezing our conservative marketing budget to get the biggest bang for the buck to grow the business to the next level.

What About a Napkin Sketch?

So back to the question Dave was asking. “Paul, what can we do that represents our VoIP solution as the simple game changer it is for transforming businesses through more effective business communications?”

Together we came up with a plan…”Let’s sketch out what SimpleSignal does on the back of a napkin! If we can communicate it on a napkin, who could deny we have a simple solution to a complex problem?”

That was the day that Dave and I sat at his big circular conference table and literally drew out what SimpleSignal does on a napkin… in real time…with a pen… as we discussed it together. Yes we ultimately tweaked it a little but we decided to keep it raw, real, as if someone drew it sitting in front of their audience in a restaurant, at a bar, or in a coffee shop.

We can tell you the hardest part of this project wasn’t the concept or the artwork. It’s narrowing down the message and figuring out what you are willing to leave out of the visual conversation. And that is a painful process because of the fear of your audience missing the key point. And for us, they were all key points. Learning to remove the clutter is both art and science.

The Napkin Sketch Became “Legendary”

No fancy PowerPoint presentation could match the impact this simple napkin sketch had in communicating the SimpleSignal value proposition to a wide range of audiences for years. It instantly connected on a visceral level with anyone, regardless of their technical aptitude. It quickly and visually provided the talking points to be able to walk through an ironically complex communications technology offering and make it all sound simple.

Dave Gilbert used that napkin sketch in casual conversations standing in a hallway, he used it when he met with investors, he also used it in formal presentations in front of large crowds. In every case, it connected. We even heard that Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com held it up in a meeting with over 500 of his sales team and said something to the effect of “this is how you take the complexity of the cloud and explain it in a really simple way.”

SimpleSignal became respected in the telecom industry for being leading edge with their branding and marketing, and while we delivered excellence in all their marketing materials, trade show exhibits, websites, landing pages, videos and more, nothing got the attention and notoriety like our simple little hand-drawn napkin sketch.

What made this napkin sketch so effective? Here are a few thoughts:

1. It was simple. People crave simplicity. Our lives are increasingly complex. So presenting your value proposition on the back of a napkin is refreshingly unique. It makes an instant connection.
2. It was fresh. In an industry driven by big bloated PowerPoint presentations and data sheets, our napkin sketch stood out as unique. Don’t get me wrong, we use PowerPoint and data sheets and they are necessary in the right context. But they should not be a lazy alternative to other possibly more creative alternatives.
3. It forced us to simplify the message. Any temptation to try and add fourteen bullet points and two paragraphs of text were impossible, so the image and a word or two had to suffice.
4. It kept the presentation conversational. With so little to go by, the storyline had to be delivered within a conversation, no reading of slides, which created an incredibly natural environment for understanding the message.
5. It was easily shareable. When we created the napkin sketch, we first thought it would only live virtually, as an image online, in an email or in a flyer. But once we found a napkin printer that could actually print them on real napkins, they became a fun thing to hand out and they got passed around quite a bit. Going viral without technology… what a concept!
6. It was easy to add notes. Short notations could be added as you were describing what was on the napkin. And when you used a Micro Ball pen, the ink looked identical to the pen I used when we drew it out the first time. This created a highly effective customized version of the napkin for that particular audience that they could walk away with (and share with other decision makers).

What are your marketing challenges today? How can you simplify your value proposition? What is the true essence of your key marketing messages? Try drawing it out on the back of a napkin. It will instantly force you to answer these questions and more. And who knows, you might have the next big napkin sketch story!

Also if you’d like help simplifying your value proposition and presenting it verbally and visually in innovative new ways, we’d love to help!

The post An Entire Technology Company On the Back of a Napkin appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

The more you focus on building your online reputation, the better off your business will be in both the short and the long run! A higher quantity and frequency of reviews means higher credibility which ultimately means more clicks for your business. The flip side to focusing on gathering more reviews, however, is that the more reviews you get, odds are you WILL receive a negative review once in awhile. But we’re here to tell you it’s not the end of the world! Or, at least it doesn’t have to be if you’ve been building a solid reputation.

So, when is the worst time to receive a negative review, and how can I avoid that scenario? How can I respond to a negative review appropriately? What’s the best case scenario for a resolution of a negative review? We’re answering all of these questions below, so let’s get into it.

When is the worst time to receive a negative review?

At first, you might think, “Always! Why would I ever want a negative review left about my business?” Ok, sure, we aren’t saying you should be hoping for a negative review. Our point is that in a lot of scenarios, a negative review doesn’t mean you should panic, but there is a particular scenario where a negative review is a huge cause for concern — when you have very few total reviews.

It’s a game of averages when it comes to your overall star rating. Someone with dozens and dozens of positive reviews can get a terrible, 1-star review and it will hardly make a dent in their overall rating. Although you should still respond to it (as we’ll discuss below), your overall score will bounce back quickly. But having just a few reviews and receiving a 1-star review will drop your rating significantly, forcing you to go into damage control. It will take multiple new positive reviews to help make up the difference. Don’t ever find yourself caught off guard in this type of situation!

Avoiding that situation comes down to being proactive about gathering new reviews consistently, and engaging with those reviews, so consumers know you take their experience seriously.

How to respond appropriately to a negative review

Although human instinct is to fight back against someone who is attacking you (in this case, a verbal, online attack), it is of utmost importance that you don’t fire back in defense, or try to turn it on them for why they had this poor experience.

It’s very possible that this review was not warranted. That their perceived negative experience was actually the result of something they did. Whatever the reason may be, you’ll follow the the same guidelines to respond in a way that diffuses the situation rather than escalating it into a back and forth comment war on the review site for everyone to see.

Step back for a minute

The first thing you need to do is to take a moment, a few hours, or even a day (but not much longer than that!) to make sure what you respond with isn’t coming from a defensive or emotional posture.

Be kind & apologize

As you’re crafting your response, make sure you are being kind, apologetic and understanding of their feelings. You don’t need to fall on your sword necessarily, but you can easily disarm someone by letting them know you’re sorry they had this experience and that you understand their frustration. People want to feel heard, and letting them know that can help bring their anger or their guard down.

Get honest about your business

Now this next suggestion is something you can only implement if you actually believe and have seen it to be true about your business. We like to apply the old saying, “You can’t put lipstick on a pig,” to businesses that want to take their reputation seriously. If you have bad business practices, horrible customer service and/or a terrible product, focusing on reviews ultimately won’t help you. The truth WILL come out.

However, if the details in this negative review actually aren’t the norm, you can acknowledge that in a way that builds your business up (rather than tearing the reviewer down!). Something along the lines of, “We take pride in our ability to provide excellent service and a happy customer experience, and while it sounds like we didn’t get it right this time, we hope you’ll let us try to win you over!”

Take it offline

Finally, offer to take the situation offline by providing contact information for someone who would be happy to talk it through with them. Like we mentioned earlier, you don’t want to start a negative comment thread for the whole world to see. As much as this interaction is between you and an unhappy customer, it is also an advertisement to anyone else looking on about the experience they might be subject to if they choose to do business with you. Let’s make sure they see it will be a positive one!

What happens next?

Every situation is different, but there are a few things that could happen next.

The best case scenario would be the reviewer modifying or updating their review to reflect how their situation was dealt with in a positive way. They’re giving your business a second chance, but are also essentially advertising for you with this update. You just turned a negative situation into a positive, money making experience. This is why you should ALWAYS follow up on a poor review, no matter what!

Alternatively, the issue might be cleared up, but the review will not always be updated. Don’t be surprised if this is the case! They may not be holding it against your business anymore, but they just don’t feel compelled or motivated to go back through the process.

As long as you followed our guidelines for how to respond to their negative review, anyone who sees the interaction will most likely give you the benefit of the doubt because you took the time to respond in a rational, sympathetic way. You’ve humanized your business, and that goes a long way with people! Also, if you’ve been taking your reputation management and marketing seriously, you know that there are dozens of other positive reviews that will make this one almost obsolete.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

You can’t go wrong if you take the approach of putting yourself in your customer’s shoes when it comes to all-things-reputation. Chances are, like your potential customers, you check out Google or Yelp reviews before staying at a hotel or using a new auto mechanic. Think about what you want to see before committing to visiting a new business. Similarly, if you leave a negative review, how would you want the business to respond to you? Most likely, you’re looking for an understanding response and an effort to make things right.

By following our guidelines above, learning from each experience and building up your overall rating, a negative review will just become a tiny bump in the road as you outshine all of your competitors!

Interested in quickly building your reputation, but think you don’t have time to add hours a day onto your already full plate?

Check out our automated, do-it-all-for-you platform that will help you achieve your rock solid reputation.

The post How to Turn a Negative Review into a Positive Experience appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

There are tips, tricks and inspiration to be gleaned from every episode, but one of our many favorites is an interview with Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard. What’s perhaps most fascinating about it, is the fact that he truly does not want fame or fortune. In fact, he has tried many times to slow growth in order to keep the company small. But despite his efforts, Patagonia continues to grow and have record-breaking years.

So, what tips can we learn from the man with unstoppable growth and success? Below are some highlights from his episode.

7 Lessons to Adopt

**Note: This is not a word for word transcript on the various parts of the episode. The ideas themselves are from Yvon Chouinard, although we’ve paraphrased where appropriate. Listen to the entire podcast here when you get a chance!

Baby Steps

If I get an idea, I immediately take a step forward. If that seems right I take another step. If it doesn’t feel right, I take a step back.

Growth

Try to grow slowly, because there are two kinds of growth. Growing stronger or growing fat.  We wanted to grow slowly, so all decisions were made as if we would be around for 100 years.

Responsibility

This company (Patagonia) is the resource I have, and I should use that resource to show a different way of doing business.

Learning

Once I decided I was a businessman, I learned everything I could about it. I studied every kind of business style, from all over the world.

Team Building

Hire motivated, young, independent people and leave them alone. But you can’t just decide one day to adopt this. You have to start with the very first hire. “Ant colonies don’t have bosses, they know their job and they get it done.”

Differentiation

If you want to be successful in business, you just have to do it differently. Do it how no one else has thought about. Break the rules. Do it better.

Simplicity

The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. Everything pulls you to be more and more complex. But if we go to a more simple life, it won’t be an impoverished life, it’s going to be really rich.

We love his overall approach to business and life. It seems more common these days to hear about the need to do more, consume more, or to buy one more piece of technology in order to truly succeed. But Yvon shows how success can be achieved through living simply, caring for others and the environment, and taking your time to do it right. Check out his full episode and take a moment to get inspired by some of the other amazing guests on this podcast as well!

The post 7 Business and Life Lessons to Adopt from Patagonia Founder, Yvon Chouinard appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

When you started your business, you had a reason—a “why”. Maybe it was to break out of the mold, or to be the boss for once. Maybe you wanted more money, more control or saw an opportunity you just had to seize. Whatever the reason, you probably (hopefully) started by sitting down and making a business plan that included your goals, a mission and a vision statement—the “what” and the “how” that would drive every business decision you’d make.

Since then, perhaps your company has grown and you’ve hired some talented people to help you carry out that vision, and wherever there is a group of people—in this case, you may call them your “employees”, “staff” or your “team”—a culture exists. And culture is important. So important that many business owners or leaders decide to write “Core Values”. These core values are the culture deciders and drivers. They don’t claim what decisions your business will make; they claim how you will make decisions, do business, and interact as a team. They are the essence of your business’s identity.

So why does your business need them?

First, Core Values tell people what your business cares about.

This includes both your employees and your existing and potential customers.

When your employees’ values are aligned with your business’s values, “people understand one another, everyone does the right things for the right reasons, and this common purpose and understanding helps people build great working relationships. When values are out of alignment, people work towards different goals, with different intentions, and with different outcomes. This can damage work relationships, productivity, job satisfaction, and creative potential.” (Mind Tools)

Second, core values set your business apart.

According to Leadpages.net, the “About” section is typically one of the four most visited areas of your website. People care about what your business cares about. They want to know what makes your company different from the guy next door who can do the same thing. So, when your business has a set of core values that it is actually living and working out in the day-to-day, people will notice. And people will ultimately be drawn to the companies that value what they value.

So, where do you stand?

Here’s the thing. In order to be effective, core values must be more than a list of neatly worded statements. Especially in a world where we see countless headlines about companies large and small that lack integrity and accountability, your business’s Core Values must be available and known and practiced from the top down. If you’ve already written your business’s Core Values, take them out and read through them. Post them somewhere you’ll see them everyday. Re-disperse them to your employees. Talk about them in meetings. Memorize them.

If you’ve yet to write them, that’s okay! We believe it starts with where you first started out. It starts with tapping into the entrepreneur you were when you started your business—the one that wanted to do things better, differently, more honestly and with more integrity. Write down the personality that you want to see your business take on—the one that you want people to notice, not just on your “About” page but in the way you do business on a day-to-day basis.

One last thing.

We’re looking forward to sharing more about our Core Values in the coming weeks – what they mean to us, how they impact the way that we do business, and even how we’ve helped others with their core values and culture branding. Here’s what we’ve come up with and strive to live out every single day!

The post Consumers Are Wondering What Makes You Different appeared first on Fireworx Digital.

As a digital marketing agency, whose portion of their business revolves around developing websites, writing this post almost feels like blasphemy. Don’t misunderstand us, we feel strongly that there is a basic, essential need for every business to have an effective website.

(Disclaimer: If your website hasn’t been touched in a number of years, you probably do need a new one. There’s a lack of credibility that unfortunately comes with having a completely antiquated website.)

Pretty pictures don’t equal conversions.

But we’ve come across many businesses that feel the need to redesign and redevelop their website just because it isn’t being the top salesperson for their company they thought it would be, or because they don’t feel it’s the most cutting edge version it could be. They want the most current design, a whole new look and feel, and maybe if they just showcase more of their personality on the site, people will pick up the phone and do business with them.

Right?

Well actually, no, that’s usually not how it works.

Unless you’re one of the 22% of businesses that are satisfied with their website’s conversions, you’re looking for more. And if that’s the case, a ‘prettier’ version of your website won’t always be the fix. What you need is a funnel.

While a website may aim to accomplish many goals, a funnel has one goal: to convert visitors on a specific offer.

Focus is key.

Ever heard of “voluntary simplicity”? While things like minimalism and capsule wardrobes may just sound like a trendy millennial movement, there’s actually something to it. Having less choices, less clutter and fewer things vying for your attention naturally leads to less stress, can make people happier, and (what we’re most interested in) allows the individual to be more focused. Focus is key when it comes to someone sticking around on your site long enough to realize the true value you have to offer and to take action on one specific thing.

Picture this: A prospect arrives at your website. Their eyes scan the screen. There’s a top navigation menu that can take them a dozen or more places right off the bat. They might decide to learn more about your company or the many products or services you offer. They’ll take note of how easy (or difficult) it might be to get in touch with you. Now they’re distracted by the beautiful photos of your team, checking out upcoming events, reading blog posts, etc. Not to mention the countless other links to social platforms, special offers and more, begging for just a moment of their short attention-span.

Your first thought might be, “Wow! I would love to have a visitor checking out every page of my website and learning more about who we are!” And if your goal was just for a prospect to know about you, it would be a success. But a real conversion would be much more valuable. We want to see a specific goal accomplished; whether it’s a form fill, email submission, phone call, or maybe even a purchase.

Limit choices, increase conversions.

By limiting people’s choices, you’re actually increasing your conversion rates. We looked at multiple studies on removing header navigation done by Hubspot, Yuppiechef, Career Point College, SparkPage and more, and while percentage of increase varied, it was still always that – an increase. Hubspot’s increased percentages on middle of funnel content, such as a demo or free trial showed as much as a 28% lift in conversions. Yuppiechef and Career Point College both increased conversions by 100% and more!

The beauty of a funnel is in its simplicity, focus, and sophistication. As opposed to walking your prospect into a room with 100 doors and asking them to choose one to walk through (like your website is doing), when someone comes into your funnel, you are walking them into a room, and in that room they have just one door to walk through. The choice is simple! They can take a specific action, or leave.

Fortunately, even if they choose to leave, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost them forever. Because, retargeting. And while it’s true you can retarget from your website as well, the fact that your funnel is so specific means you can segment this visitor as having an interest in that very specific area of your business.

No ‘spray and pray’ marketing, just marketing that works.

Your marketing strategy becomes laser focused on those who are actually interested in what you have to offer when you take the funnel route. And the most exciting part is that implementing your funnel can simply be a matter of integrating with your current website and marketing systems.

One day, you will have to spend your marketing dollars on a brand new website. But we’re here to tell you, that day might not have to be today. Our advice is to create a system that funnels your audience into a specific offer, where you have a higher chance of conversion, and then follow up with them until you make the sale. Bonus points if this system is largely automated!

Now THAT’S effective, time and money saving marketing. And that’s something we can all get behind.

The post Why You Might Not Need a New Website appeared first on Fireworx Digital.