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xranker · 5 years ago

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What's Missing From Your Content Marketing Tech?

What’s Missing From Your Content Marketing Tech? Content marketing experts are a unique bunch When we asked Content Marketing World presenters about what’s missing in most content marketers’ tech stack, some waxed poetic, others imagined the possibilities, and others got practical, talking products and output That’s why we love them – a diverse group of answers means a diverse group of thinkers “Every content marketer is missing something from their tech stack Content marketing is a delicate, interconnected ecosystem – you have to have the right technology for each aspect of the process,” says Scott Spjut , assistant vice president, social and digital content, Fifth Third Bank To tackle this, we’ve divided this post into three categories: Tools you can use now General concepts for tools that exist or should exist Non-tech ideas that affect (or should impact) your content tech stack Whether you’re looking for a new tool, imagining tools to create (or wishing they existed), or think tech is overrated, these responses will resonate 13 content marketing tech tools you can use now For pulling third-party content A great news aggregator like Feedly – Michaela Alexis , LinkedIn speaker, trainer, and co-author of Think Video For identity, insight, governance A data lake to bring together data from web analytics, marketing automation, and CRM – and tie it to an identity, plus: LiveRamp – identity resolution work PathFactory – for content insight and activation Acrolinx – active content governance (Disclosure: those three are Velocity clients but we’re huge believers) – Doug Kessler , co-founder, Velocity Partners For indexing and security Index Checking is a good way to see whether a page is indexed or whether you’re blocking it (sometimes developers forget to remove a noindex used during a redesign) SSL Check is helpful for sites that move toward HTTPS but have page elements like images that aren’t in secure directories The tool discovers the pages with issues.. – Mike Murray , president, Online Marketing Coach For Instagram scheduling Planoly for scheduling out Instagram posts – Griffin Thall , CEO and co-founder, Pura Vida Bracelets For real-life talk Talking to customers, where the tool involved is called the telephone Of course, one could also use Skype, Zoom, and related tools I like to build a complete picture of my customers, including aspects of their jobs (or lives) that extend beyond the use of my products or services – Dennis Shiao , consultant, Dennis Shiao Consulting For all to see Microsoft Excel or Tableau – a platform that gives marketing visibility into the other business units, such as sales and insights – Christine Michel Carter , creator, Mompreneur and Me For project management I use Trello as a workflow and project management tool Every project needs a tool or space that is a single point of truth – here’s the latest version, here’s all the related commentary, and here are the next steps – as at-a-glance as possible. – Jonathan Crossfield , chief consulting editor, Chief Content Officer magazine 21 content tech tool concepts Artificial intelligence I see marketers shy away from AI-powered marketing technology and startups until the adoption is higher. But now is the time to embrace the speed, insights, and agility AI-powered technology has to offer and get ahead of competitors – Jeff Coyle , co-founder and chief product officer, MarketMuse Bots-plus Co-bots are technologies designed to work best when paired with humans’ empathy, intuition, and judgment In contrast, black-box robot technologies are hard to explain or learn. Once set up, they tempt people to stop thinking and work on autopilot That’s why robots can be dangerous – George Stenitzer , founder and chief content officer, Crystal Clear Communications Content management Marketing operations need to consider a solid CMS Along with providing a place to document and track workflow of content production , setting up a CMS with the proper information to track for each piece of content developed can provide insight into the activity of published content, as well as a road map to content planning for the future – Pamela Muldoon , campaign and content strategist, The Pedowitz Group Organization and collaboration I don’t think there are enough brands focused on the efficiencies a CMP can bring to your organization Being more organized and collaborative helps you create better content – Zari Venhaus , director, corporate marketing communications, Eaton CMS focused on sales Sales-oriented content management systems that allow for appropriate seller tailoring – Seleste Lunsford , chief research officer, CSO insights, research division of Miller Heiman Group Texting Given the adoption of messaging by people (consumers and business professionals), a text messaging platform that is owned will be important for conversational marketing programs in the near term And you’ll want it to be yours, rather than Facebook Messenger – grow your own opt-in list/audience Chat is great. SMS/MMS can take it up a level when done well – Ardath Albee , CEO and B2B marketing strategist, Marketing Interaction Inc Away from the internet Offline sales or traffic attribution is a big investment, but we are too far into the data-driven future to still be guessing at how we place our media or how we evaluate our digital campaigns Walk-in traffic verification or look-back attribution matching can help us know what really drove the number we care about most: sales! – Jessica Best , vice president of data-driven marketing, Barkley All-in-one engagement analytics One-stop engagement platform that would pull in all engagements, regardless of where they occur, social, web (own), web (third party – think guest posts), etc would give the content creator a perfect picture of their most engaged fans – Tom Martin , president, Converse Digital All-in-one project management A tool that truly integrates all channels and workflows – Christoph Trappe , chief content officer, Stamats Business Media Process analysis Something that’s missing way too often is a tool that offers the ability to measure and optimize the process of content marketing It might be a project management tool , an Agile tool, or just a good old-fashioned whiteboard, but having access to basic efficiency data is shockingly rare for content marketers We need to know how long things take, where the bottlenecks are, who’s holding us up – pretty much just a snapshot of how our operations are going Without that basic level of information, we’re stuck when it comes time to try and figure out how to do more in less time – Andrea Fryrear , Agile marketing coach and trainer, co-founder, AgileSherpas Audience knowledge Audience data collection and analysis to drive story topics, execution, and distribution are needed Marketers often don’t have access to audience insights and are thus engaging in guesswork about what will resonate with their intended audience At The Washington Post, due to our state-of-the-art tech and audience surveys, we are fortunate to have access to data about audience behavior and interests We then use this data to inform the entire creative and promotion process, from selecting the right story topics to type of content to distribution strategy It’s all about the marriage of science and art Our program for Destination Canada illustrates this We found that people who are engaging in travel content are also reading a lot of food and history content This guided our decision to focus the story on a chef traveling to Canada to learn about his culinary roots – Annie Granatstein , head of WP BrandStudio, The Washington Post Reverberation Without a doubt, the ability to know what content is resonating, either by individual channel or by owned media content This is a giant blind spot I experienced for myself, and one of the reasons I wrote software for Trust Insights to fix it – Chris Penn , c o-founder, Trust Insigh ts Full-picture understanding More and more marketers express a desire for a smarter, more in-depth understanding of their metrics , but most have not invested in the tools (and customizations) to bring all their data into one cohesive system If your information is in three places and you can only look at them in PDF form, are you really getting the full picture? Can you answer the important questions your organization needs to answer? – Zontee Hou , co-lead of consulting, Convince & Convert Buyer journey analysis Few content marketers have the technology in place to accurately implement multi-touch attribution and understand all the points of contact in the buyer’s journey And that’s a bummer because it means we are too often giving too much or too little credit to pieces of content in our library and making decisions based on partial data – Erika Heald , marketing consultant, Erika Heald Consulting Efficient and effective distribution Despite tagging and other methods of ordering content, I feel there is a huge need for a platform that can sort and deliver the right content at the right time This (likely AI) platform would access all your content (blogs, podcasts, videos, whitepapers, etc) organize and sort it, and then deliver the perfect piece of content to the sales professional depending on who they are engaging on what level of the buyer’s journey I spend far too much time sorting through my own blog and YouTube channel to find exactly the right article to deliver when I see a buying activity online – Viveka von Rosen , chief visibility officer, Vengreso Listening Social listening , specifically for smaller companies with smaller marketing budgets Social listening is a great tool not just for understanding the sentiment surrounding your business but also for being able to act on that, including creating the right kind of content In the rush to create and to publish, this is something that can get missed – Dan Hatch , founder, Typeset Script crafting Script creation is important if you’re doing video and animation work because crafting good content for the visual medium is different than just straight-up content writing – Ben H Rome , manager, marketing and communications, AIHA Idea generation Content marketers need tools to help them understand what content to create – Michael Brenner , CEO, Marketing Insider Group Dollars and sense A tool to quantify the ROI of content It’s important to ensure the back-end is integrated so that you can see the content the sales team uses and the content prospects read – Pam Didner , B2B marketing consultant and author, Effective Sales Enablement Revenue effect I think most marketers are missing a tool that helps measure the impact of their content on the revenue they generate… what tool is it? Unfortunately, I don’t think that tool exists – Andrew Davis , author, The Loyalty Loop, Brandscaping, and Town Inc Content value chain I haven’t found a tool to measure the whole value chain of content marketing as it relates to business goals We’re awash in data and analytics but I’ve found nothing that allows you to measure the activity and results in your content marketing ecosystem against business goals – Sarah Mitchell , founder, Typeset A few less-techy thoughts Measure for now Are your KPIs still stuck in the sales funnel developed in 1924? Or are you considering the modern buyer’s journey ? (Today’s buyer has been described as “adlergic” and many are reading blogs before interacting with a sales rep..) Make sure you’re gauging content marketing success with the right tools and with KPIs that fit today’s buyer, not yesteryear’s – Julia McCoy , CEO, Express Writers Connections Authentic engagement is the tool that is most often lacking in the content marketing effort. – Yadin Porter de Leon , global executive content strategist Universal buy-in Most of us have the tools we need The struggle is getting cross-functional buy-in to use those tools in a collaborative and effective way – Amanda Changuris , manager, social media marketing, AAA – The Auto Club Group Look before you buy (again) Instead of looking at what’s missing from your tech stack, look at what you’re using and how you’re using it first More isn’t always the answer And remember even the biggest, best platforms won’t work miracles on broken content – Anna Hrach , strategist, Convince & Convert What content tech do you want? If you could sit at the drawing board with content tech innovators, what would you have them design? Let us know in the comments Or if you already have the perfect content tech tool, we’d love to share the good word Add it to the comments HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Read the full article

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skillzme · 6 years ago

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10 Modern Tech Disrupting Digital Marketing [Infographic]

Technology is sometimes a blessing but most of the time a challenge. Organizations and marketers are suffering to most of the time to play catch-up instead of benefiting from technology. 10 Modern Technologies which are Disrupting Digital Marketing and still try to find their way to benefit everybody.

Digital Marketing is not anymore like traditional marketing. In the era of digital transformation happening everywhere, marketers want a proof of their investment. Most of the people are scared of the question, what is this or what does it mean? We face it every day in our life that we get confronted with technology or terms which we don't know what they stand for. Sometimes terms are misleading, sometimes it is only the fact that evolution in digital marketing is progressing in light speed. Let's have a look into 10 modern tech terms challenging us every day and which technology we should keep an eye on for better understanding. The infographic talking about 10 technologies Disrupting Digital Marketing below was put together by Spiralytics who offers data-driven marketing.

1. Big data

Big data is the biggest game-changing opportunity and paradigm shift for marketing since the invention of the phone or the Internet going mainstream. Big data refers to the ever-increasing volume, velocity, variety, variability, and complexity of information. Big Data improves data collection for accurate and personalized campaign targeting Get insights about your campaign performance Future applications include the creation of attribution models to identify the contribution of each channel on the total conversation, programmatic advertising, and optimization of video marketing

2. Artificial Intelligence

"Artificial intelligence marketing (AIM) is a form of marketing leveraging artificial intelligence concept and model such as machine learning and Bayesian Network to achieve marketing goals. The main difference resides in the reasoning part which suggests it is performed by computer and algorithm instead of human." - Wikipedia Finds useful patterns to gain insights into marketing numbers for better ad targeting and consumer behavior projection Also used by search engines to interpret queries for relevant results Al scripts for apps may enhance online customer chat platforms to learn more customer information, help solve problems, and find solutions on demand. Al-powered technologies can improve customer-centric strategies through better trend analysis, enhanced customer profiling, and even more sophisticated personalization strategies.

3. Machine Learning

Machine Learning gives computers the ability to learn from data and create accurate predictions, without explicit programming. When it comes to the marketing world, the promise of machine learning is in quickly finding hidden patterns in massive amounts of consumer data, Big Data and Machine Learning go hand in hand. Used In audience segmentation and integrated Into analytics to detect anomalies and do real-time analysis of large datasets Machines can make automated content creation possible. Banner ads, email campaigns, or social media posts can be generated and applied to different formats for different channels. As performance is being collected, headlines may automatically be changed to match the content that is performing well.

4. Bots

"When it comes to marketing, automation is a powerful tool that allows you to get more done in less time. Recently, marketing bots have become a popular form of automation. A bot is basically software that you can program to carry out a certain set of actions all on its own." - says Neil Patel about Bots Not only an effective way to communicate but is also a 24x7 two-way channel between consumer and brand. Commonly used in the sales and service departments and provides search and discovery and product recommendations May soon be able to remind consumers to replenish a purchase through voice assistants Chatbot communication may start and from one device to another

5. Voice Search

Voice users are asking your company to give them a reason to buy your product or service. The tech-savvy business that wants to increase their revenue and sales, voice search offers a smart way to do it, it's only a matter of bringing voice search optimization into your digital marketing strategy mix. Marketers utilize voice search to gather more information about the devices' users through their search engine queries, requests for specific information, application launches, selections, or voice dial. It may soon be integral to SEO. Marketers need to learn how to optimize keywords based on how it is used in a conversational manner rather than as a typed-up query. It has the potential to upend paid search and organic content strategy practices.

6. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality and augmented reality are immersive technologies which offer significant opportunities for brand promotion and the sale of products and services, but also to engage and retain customers, both B2C and B2B. Both make for an immersive experience. inciting a range of senses and emotions• Both make for an immersive experience. inciting a range of senses and emotions In turn, both offer a unique try-before-you-buy experience that enables consumers to explore a product. engage with the brand, and make the purchase all at the same time. Could bring together the physical store and e-commerce to *completely blur the lines between high street and online shopping experience." Can be used for short-form storytelling to provide interactive experiences around a branded content

7. Internet of Things (IoT) and Wearables

Since IoT technology connects the internet with objects that are ubiquitous in our daily lives, marketers in almost every industry will be able to engage consumers throughout every phase of the customer journey. Wearable technology: it's a buzzword that's incessantly thrown around without much understanding of what it actually is, or what it does. Beyond the fact that these technologies are smart devices that consumers wear and interact with, the full effects have yet to be determined. User to gather more information about its users like their habits and preferences. The more connected devices a user has, the more ways marketers can reach them in a detailed and timely manner. Sensor technology of wearables, which can also be internet-connected, made gaining insights into biological conditions possible. Biometric data may be used to understand a person's interaction with a brand

8. Blockchain

Blockchain Eliminates Digital Marketing Middleman. Digital marketing now utilizes “middlemen” that control the territory between advertisers and users. ... Google also handles the processing of transactions so that the website owner is paid fairly for clicks generated on the advertiser's ad. Marketers can use blockchain to motivate consumers to watch or read advertisements and engage by leaving feedback or tagging friends. Decentralized apps built atop blockchain have the potential to challenge the integrated app platforms by Apple and Android and to support new cooperative economies globally.

9. Beacons

Beacons are small devices that send Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Near Field Communication (NFC) signals to mobile devices nearby. Retailers can use beacons to identify and track people as they visited the retail outlet, providing valuable information to marketers about the past (and possibly future) purchases and segment audience though heat maps of popular products or areas in their shop. Gathers detailed information on customers to optimize store experience and create personalized campaigns based on their movement. E-commerce businesses can use localization todirectly target potential customers in specific.high-traffic locations by putting beacons in establishments and ping out offers. Bridges online and physical presence of businesses to ensure continuity. It can help determine what kinds of campaign capture the consumer's attention as it puts direct and relevant ads into every customer without chasing them down.

10. 5G

5G is the fifth generation of mobile innovation. It's an abbreviation that stands for the fifth generation of cellular wireless transmission. For marketers, it means faster data transmission and reacting faster on customers wishes and communication on the move. Faster connectivity also means faster page load times for low bounce rate and Increased CTR and ROI. May open doors for video ads utilizing VR or AR where advertisers can better showcase their products and services. May give marketers the power to collect consumer data In real-lime for optimized campaigns and improved location-based marketing. These Technologies may affect and benefit Marketing and other business activities including Data Gathering, Personalization, Data Analytics, Targeting and Placements, Content Creation, Customer Service, Content Distribution, and SEO. What is your take on these disrupting Digital Marketing technologies? Share your thought in our commenting section below. Read the full article

#AugmentedReality #BigData #Bots #BusinessChatbots #DubaiArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #VirtualReality #Voice-Search

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onyx-archer · 8 years ago

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The Flash Episode 20 Post-Episode Ramble

Alright, so this is kind of an impromptu post that will likely piss off SOME people (you know who you are) given how I’m going to tag this, and just be warned I’m not putting up with your bullshit tonight. I’m gonna be going into spoilers for this episode, given how it finally reveals the true identity of the big bad, and I want to talk about how I feel about it, and the show going forward. I’ll do it below the cut so them pesky WestAllen fans can fuck off for me talking about shit that they can willfully ignore because it’s not visible.

OH, and to the WestAllens who actually go to read the post and then proceed to act like you’re superior, this time you don’t actually have to see me calling Iris a badly written character... outside of this sentence of course. Oh, and yeah, that was me kicking at you with the intent to bother you. Just know if you decide to talk down to me like you know better that you will be blocked at the absolute worst. Keep it civil and mature, or don’t bother. I’m tagging it this way because I’m talking about the ship a little below the cut... though I’m being civil about it. It plays into my talking of the episode, so bite me, tags aren’t just to gush about ships and whatever.

Anyway, onto the bulk of the post:

So a number of things were done in this episode. Let’s talk about them.

First off, we meet the newest character of the show, Tracy Brand. By the sounds of her significance in defeating Savitar, she’ll probably stick around from here on out... adding to the roster of characters for next season. Assuming Caitlin is reformed (which I hope to the gods she is after this shitty “turn to the dark side” arc of hers) that’ll make the major cast will be at least 9 characters... which is a bit bloated.

It raises concern from me since part of the reason why Arrow fell into a pit of mediocrity was it’s cast became too large to support it’s writing properly. Not saying The Flash will suffer in the same way, but given how this season has been written, I think my concern is justified. We’ll have to wait and see either way. After all, we have 3 more episodes for stuff to happen to change this. And for all I know, Tracy will only be a recurring character after this Season. Again, time will tell.

Next we have the little Joe romance subplot. Given that I honestly can’t be fucked to remember her name right now (even with her major role as a plot device for the climax of the episode), I think it’s apparent that I don’t really find it interesting, though my mom (my grandmother, long story, not gonna bother with it here) thinks it cute (and according to her, better than the WestAllen stuff this season, which I can agree with), so I figured I could find something to say about it. It’s not that it’s a bad subplot for the season or anything; honestly, Joe deserves a lady like her in his life after all of the stuff he went through last season with his ex-wife.

My problem here is that after this episode, I only see her as a potential liability for Joe (which he himself knows is the case, hence why he tried to cut the ties prior to the climax), and by proxy, Barry and Wally (and potentially Cisco, assuming he embraces his Vibe identity more next season). Joe trying to cut the relationship off to “protect her” is honestly incredibly stupid in my mind, since he knows that Savitar could go after her, let alone Caitlin (we’ll get to that) if he distances himself from her, since the villain always aims for a potential weak spot to gain the high ground in a confrontation. Sadly, Joe was hit with a momentary dose of stupidity, and it nearly got her killed. It’s a tired trope, and it’s something I could do without, given all it does is reinforce the use of a “damsel-in-distress” type scenario, which is lazy writing.

Next, I’m briefly going to touch on the absence of Wally for most of this episode. I’m sure there might have been off camera reasons for it (life happens, and sometimes things need to be changed to fit that), but when my mom and I are asking each other “Where’s Wally?” and we don’t remember being told he was visiting Jesse on Earth-3, there’s a problem. I don’t recall them mentioning that in the episode, though that might have been during one of those moments when I couldn’t hear the TV, since I was in the next room over (as the kitchen and living room are divided by a wall, but no doors). If that’s the case, then whoops.

Now we get into the Caitlin stuff. You know, the stuff I have a problem with over all. I refer you to my last post talking about Caitlin’s shit writing this season, but just in case you don’t want to bother, lemme give you the short version: Caitlin’s transition into a villain was so pointlessly stupid, and poorly written, that it makes her look mentally deficient. Keep in mind that Caitlin is one of my favorite characters in the show, so me being ticked with the handling of her character is out of love for the character. I know that Killer Frost is a villain in the comics, and that Caitlin Snow is an incarnation of Killer Frost, but last I remember, the Caitlin Snow Killer Frost in the comics wasn’t really “evil,” and was now a member of the FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA! Yeah, it took a little bit to get there, but it happened.

The Killer Frost that the show is CLEARLY trying to be more like is Louise Lincoln, aka the Killer Frost that is referred to as “Killer Frost” in most non-comic DC properties. I honestly think this is a waste of a character... and that it goes against the character’s “heart.” Caitlin Snow is a woman who wants to do right in the memory of her dead husband in this show, yet if Ronnie could see her now, he’d be disappointed in her... and that’s a BIG reason why I think her arc in this season is bullshit. That, and like, SHE HAS FRIENDS WHO HAVE POWERS! I’m still utterly confused as to the logic behind NOT TELLING YOUR FRIENDS WITH POWERS YOU HAVE POWERS AND THAT YOU ARE SCARED OF THEM! It makes no logical sense, but this show is a teen drama, where logic goes out the window as the plot demands it... so Caitlin is made into an idiot because “drama” which is really stupid. Again, Ronnie would be so disappointed in her. Hopefully Savitar’s defeat fixes this crappy character shift, but that’s up to the writers. Personally, I’d love it if they made her a good Killer Frost, and maybe introduce the Louise Lincoln one in some capacity? It’d be interesting. Again though, that’s up to the writers.

The only good this episode touched upon with Killer Frost is Cisco getting a shining moment of badass, in a scene that echoes the scene where he loses his hands, as we saw in the last episode during Future Cisco’s flashback to explain why he couldn’t use his Vibe powers (which, by the way, is kinda bullshit logic if you ask me, since it’s more of a psychic ability... not a physical one... but whatever, maybe he got psyched out by the loss of his hands). I like how Cisco struggles to hurt his best friend, even if she’s flown over the cuckoo's nest, though it was incredibly trite that he’s only NOW afraid his powers could kill someone... But hey, Cisco was able to save the day, and since Cisco is ALSO one of my favorite characters, I can push aside fringe logic BS long enough to enjoy that subplot for the episode. I continue to hope that next Season, Cisco will do more as Vibe... but we’ll have to wait and see.

Next, it’s time for me to talk about Savitar, and his true identity reveal. The fact that they strung us along for 20 fucking episodes over this shit really bothers me... given that the reveal, while being an interesting enough twist, is beyond stupid. They poorly foreshadowed Savitar being a future Barry, and that’s the thing that bothers me the most. You know, other than a few aspects of the reveal, and the fact that it’s Barry. First, the fact that it’s an alternate timeline version of Barry is fine (I guess), and that he’s a product of something of a bootstrap paradox is alright too... but why in the fuck is it BARRY? It wouldn’t bother me so much if it weren’t for the fact that this makes the WestAllen aspect of the show even more idiotic in it’s pacing.

Because Savitar is Barry, and Barry loves Iris... wouldn’t he NOT want to kill Iris, to prevent past Barry from becoming him? I get that he lost his mind at some point, be that prior to being trapped in the Speedforce prison, or afterwards, but how does his motivation make sense anymore? Like, what does killing Iris do other than ensure his descent into madness, which isn’t even guaranteed. We don’t know if the Savitar we know is what happens to Barry in the future we saw in the previous episode after enough time passes, or if he’s a version of Barry that happens BECAUSE Barry went to the future... or anything of the sort. I hope we get answers, because fuck dude, Savitar’s a dumb fuck. I’m incredibly perplexed about this aspect. He wants to make Barry lose hope by killing the woman he once loved and that this version of himself currently loves? Why? Because he got faster, and more powerful as a result?

Something tells me that they are going to explain the loss of Barry’s mind with a “he began using Caitlin’s Velocity formula out of desperation, only for it to affect his mind like it did with Trajectory.” Also, I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s because of said speed enhancing drug, he needs the Savitar armor to run, so he doesn’t burn up? I mean, Tracy did hypothesize that he needs the armor to run as fast as he does due to the amount of energy he gives off in this very episode... so it’d make sense? It’d be an interesting way to tie things in with the previous season... but at the same time, it would make the whole “Savitar gained his speed from the Philosopher’s Stone” thing not be accurate...

Also, what was with that use of the “Trigger Phrase” realisation? I mean, Barry just suddenly put the pieces together because of something Joe and Cisco says? When the audience couldn’t? Say what you will, but that is poor set up for a twist, at least compared to the last two seasons. With Season 1, it was more in your face about the whole “Wells is actually Thawne” thing, but with Season 2, they hid clues to “Jay’s” identity in plain sight, with the use of visual cues, and small hints that were obvious if you went looking for them. But with Savitar, it’s all dialogue stuff, which makes it harder to figure out unless you binge the show... or at least that’s how I see it. Overall, I think Savitar’s reveal only further’s my view on Iris being a plot device, seeing as her death is the direct cause of Savitar’s “ascension” into the villain that kills Iris in the first place... making Iris’s life itself the deciding factor of everything... which is beyond stupid.

Iris does so little in the show (which my mom pointed out several times this evening), that her death has no real weight to anyone who doesn’t like the romance (that was rushed in this season to play to the stakes of her death being the cause of Savitar’s “birth.”), which is bad from a writing standpoint. Every viewer should feel like her death matters, because they connected with the character, yet everyone I know personally who watches the show feels nothing about her impending demise, or is, at the very least, bothered by the concept of her being “refrigerator’d,” because of their socio-political leanings. I don’t feel like she’s done anything of significant value for the story thus far, and I know plenty of people who share that sentiment. So with the writers shoving in every little thing to try and get the viewer to care about Iris’s life, even those that up until now didn’t really care for the character, is made more aggravating by the fact that she is now the key for the birth of the very villain that kills her in the first place.

If they had properly paced the romance, and made it believable enough to the average viewer, this would be an interesting development... but I’m sorry, the response to the character and her writing is so mixed that this feels like an awkward means to garner sympathy from the audience for a badly structured romance. I’m aware that people will say “the majority will say they like her!” and what not (I’m looking at you, WestAllens), but the fact that people like myself don’t care, that people like my mom, a casual fan of this kind of show doesn’t care, and my friend @ericthatguyyouknow, a die-hard fan of the comics doesn’t care, along with all of the SnowBarry’s I’ve interacted with that have expressed similar frustrations to the writing of the show’s romances, among other things, shows that the romance is not universally liked, canon be damned.

Sure, there will always be people who don’t like a relationship in the canon, you can’t really say there’s been an instance where that’s not the case... you can’t please everybody. But the fact of the matter is if people don’t care about the fate of a character, romance or otherwise, you’ve fucked up as a writer. A poorly written character is the kind of character that garners a feeling of apathy in regards to the fate of said character, whereas a good character is one you WANT to see happy if they are good guys, or punished if they are bad guys. Iris, to many people, is a bad character because they don’t care about her life, and this sudden revelation that her death causes Barry to go fucking mad, causing an endless loop of misery for Barry only makes them MAD, because it’s roping in the fate of a character they like with a character they don’t care about.

As hard as it is to believe, I don’t want to feel apathetic about Iris’s fate, or Iris in general. I want to be able to go “Iris is fantastic!” But I can’t ignore the faults that I see in the show’s writing and handling of her character when it’s directly in the way of her being seen as that great character that WestAllens and other Iris fans see. In Season 1, I knew this relationship was the likely direction... but after Season 2, I was left disappointed at best. I see problems you don’t, and that’s fine. Enjoy what you want.

I went a bit off topic there towards the end, but all in all, this episode was good in places, bad in other places, and is overall, pretty average I’d say. I don’t like the reveal much, and I continue to hate Caitlin’s badly written “heel turn arc.” Iris still feels useless, and this revelation doesn’t really change much for me. I’m mad that it took so long to get this reveal and how it was handled, but I’m glad we finally know so we can move forward. I’ll probably make a post like this next week too, so look forward to that if you want.

Oh, and before I forget, a reminder I’m putting this in the WestAllen tag AND the SnowBarry/FlashFrost tags because I tried to make a point involving those ships, or at least the character within those ships.

Side-note: There are people who want to say that SnowBarry/FlashFrost is abusive because of how Barry is trying to protect people from an unstable Caitlin, and has to use force to do so... well, uh, a version of Barry literally kills Iris... for no real reason other than wanting to keep a cycle going? I get that it’s an alternate future version of Barry, but still, I think that when it’s Barry killing Iris, vs Barry defending people from Caitlin with force... the former is the more “abusive” aspect of it. Although, that argument is bunk, since it’s only used to “validate” one’s hatred of a ship... even though the justification in itself is poorly thought out, and doesn’t understand the concept of “abusive actions” versus “the defence of one’s self and others from an aggressor.”

Also of note: The fact that Caitlin was so quick to help Savitar after learning his identity... makes you wonder why that was, doesn’t it? Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing.

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joshuakhardy · 7 years ago

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The Ultimate Sales Management Guide

Excellent sales management can elevate your company to the next level. It does not matter if you represent a young start-up or have been in the field for years, you must acknowledge that sales are the single most important thing at the end of the day.

Whatever your current business situation is, it is important to remember that great sales managers always try do their best with what they have. This sales management guide is designed to help you do exactly that.

What is sales management?

Sales management refers to all activities, processes, and decisions involved in managing sales function within the business.

However, for a sales manager, it only means one thing: coordinating and developing a successful sales team.

Like every management cycle, it is built on continuous observation, coaching, decision making, forecasting and making adjustments.

Essentially, we can break down sales management into three key areas:

Sales strategy

Sales operations

Sales analysis and reporting

Sales management is a lot like coaching a sports team. You have a roster of players that must be turned into a championship team.

The cycle starts by acknowledging your current situation. Sales are a practical extension of marketing strategy. So to start on the right foot, you have to know everything about:

What products do we sell?

Who are we targeting?

What is our unique selling proposition?

After you become familiar with the company’s marketing plan, it is time to get real with the sales strategy. Sales managers primary function is to convert marketing objectives into a specific and measurable sales task and supervise its execution. In other words, come up with a game plan and stick with it. Just like a coach does.

In the following parts of this guide, we will walk you through the next steps and issues that typically arise during the sales management process:

Key terms

Defining the sales task

Acquiring sales talent

Conducting sales training

Motivate sales team

Defining a sales force structure

Forecasting sales performance

Creating sales territories

Setting sales quotas

Managing sales team

Designing sales compensation

Communication sales compensation

Managing underperforming reps

Measuring sales performance

Key Terms

Account – A regular, paying client.

Buyer persona – fictional, generalized profile of an ideal customer with specified age, job, gender or other relevant demographics.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management. It typically includes CRM software that helps to manage customer data or sales pipeline.

Client relationship management system – Customer relationship management software that helps an organization determine the preferences and needs of their customers by tracking, recording, organizing and managing all customer interactions.

Closing – Convincing a prospect to make a definitive buying decision.

Cold Calling– The process of approaching potential customers for the first time, without prior introduction, relationship or contact.

Conversion – Turning a prospect into a customer.

Deal – An agreement on something with a client or prospect

Decision-maker– A person who is in charge of making buying decisions. Demo – Demonstration of your product or service.

Demographic – Characteristics of the population or particular groups in it, such as age, gender, hobbies or lifestyle choices, etc.

Filtering– A step between lead generation and lead qualification where new lead information is filtered for validity.

Funnel – Also called sales funnel or sales pipeline. A designed systematic process that customers go through on their way to closing.

Gate keepers – People who screen your attempts to approach a decision-maker.

Inbound calls – Business calls initiated by the clients. It includes most of the customer support calls.

Inbound marketing – Marketing approach focused on attracting leads through relevant and helpful content.

Key Account – A client with a large budget that makes up a large portion of purchases and is significant for the business.

Lead – A potential client that could be interested in doing business with you, usually with little information about you or your business.

Lead generating – Initiation of consumer interest in business products or services via advertising media.

Lead management– A process designed to generate new leads via various marketing campaigns or programs.

Lead management software– A computer program designed to streamline lead management process. It can be integrated as a feature in a CRM software.

Lead qualification – A screening process to figure out whether a lead has a motive and ample buying power to become a prospect and later an opportunity.

Opportunity – A qualified prospect that has shown interest in your products and has presented his needs and requirements for you.

Prospect – A qualified lead that is interested to know more about your products and services.

Quota – Monthly, quarterly or yearly sales targets used to measure sales success.

Sales analysis – Measuring, analyzing, reporting and making decisions based on sales results.

Sales operations – Building and maintaining the sales team.

Sales enablement – The process of ensuring that sales representatives have all the tools, skills and information needed to sell.

Sales force – People responsible for selling products and services.

Sales forecasting – Estimating future sales volume to predict company’s performance in the future or to make better, information based decisions.

Sales management – A comprehensive set of activities to create and manage a sales team.

Sales management planning – Organising a plan to achieve the established sales objectives.

Sales management strategy – Defining the sales process and finding the best way to approach it.

Sales manager – A person responsible for leading, managing and coaching a sales team and supervising the sales process.

Sales pipeline – Systematic and visual representation of your sales process.

Sales process – a Systematic approach that enables sales force to map out and track interaction with prospects from the point of engagement to a close.

Sales representative – Or simply sales rep. Your sales team member who is responsible for specific accounts or territories.

Sales target – Objectives that business or individual sales rep expect to meet per sales period.

Sales tracking– Keeping tabs on, recording and detailing all aspects of your sales process and activities.

Sales tools – All means that help you to improve your sales management process, such as CRM software, lead generation instruments, sales pipeline, funnel and others.

Sales Velocity – simply put, sales velocity is a marketing and sales metric used to measure the speed at which opportunities and leads turn into revenue, month over month.

Targeting – Reaching out to the segments and groups of the population that are similar to the buyer persona.

Territory – The area which is sales representatives responsibility.

Warm calling – Opposite of cold calling. Approaching customers with whom you have an already established relationship and experience.

Whale – A massive new lead that is at least ten times larger than your average sale.

Defining the Sales Task

A sales task formulation is first and the most important step in the sales management process as it sets a direction for your team. Here you establish your sales goal and describe how are you going to achieve it. A well-defined sales task includes a definition of your product, target audience, selling tactics and how are you going to communicate with your team.

A clear and measurable sales task helps your team to work more efficiently, reduces anxiety and increases overall team’s motivation. The more precise your sales task is, the better. The clarity of your sales task can significantly improve if you:

Assign a particular number of accounts for each rep. Sometimes geographical allocation can be ambiguous and unclear. The more accurate the account coverage is, the easier it is to act on them.

Set precise and attainable account management goals. It includes personal sales targets, activity goals, different quotas for different products, etc.

Use trustworthy information system. A poor system may distort sellers perception of input and results, all while simultaneously skewing accuracy of feedback.

Assess and correct field sales on the go. Make use of field sales management tools, such as management by objectives, scheduling field time or monthly feedback sessions. Your team will perform better if you deliver consistent coaching and guidance.

Acquiring Sales Talent

When you know what and how are you going to achieve, it is time to assess your team and, if necessary, make changes. Every sales manager needs people who are the best at carrying out the sales task.

To fill your all star roster with the best players, make sure to:

Look for the best talent amongst your competitors and establish a relationship with them.

Find good candidates where best workers usually go: industry conventions, conferences, and meetings.

Scan for the in-house talent: people who already know your enterprise and product.

Create a profile and work closely with your human resources staff.

Even when all the positions are filled, make sure to have a few extra candidates ready in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Maintain a good reputation, offer an excellent compensation package and if necessary, engage senior management in the process. Best sales people know how valuable they are and they love to be appreciated.

Conducting Sales Training

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.” Richard Branson

No matter how impressive your team members might be, they still need to be on the same page when selling your product.

First, outline your sales process – funnel. Emphasize how long your sales cycle should take. Then, recognize the skills needed to manage it effectively.

As a sales manager, your job is to enable your representatives to sell. As a coach, you also have to guide them through your sales funnel. Your team consists of different people, so sometimes, formal training is not enough. Make use of metrics to identify individual struggles and develop your players.

Best sales managers usually lead by example, but you may not always be able to teach the necessary skills or expertise yourself. Consider hiring a professional sales trainer, expert speaker or author. Other alternatives include sharing good books, online courses or attending live events.

Whatever training strategy suits you and your team best, put time and effort to make it something out of the ordinary. Don’t make it just a routine in the office, make it stick.

Most importantly, training is an ongoing process. Learned skills need to be constantly refreshed and built on, especially during this time of changes.

Motivating Sales Team

Even in such an exciting field as sales, employee motivation can be an issue. However, being a decent manager as you are, you can tackle it in numerous ways:

Trust is a cornerstone of motivation and the best way to create trust between you and your subordinates is by being transparent. Share your stories, failures, and disappointments and build on the real experience.

Show them that you care not only about their sales stats but also about their general well-being.

While it may sound comfortable, it is known that one size does not fit all and adjusting to the individual needs can go a long way.

Provide them with solutions that truly make a difference by identifying what is truly important for your employees.

Awesome rewards inspire people, and we are not talking about the money here. Do something personal for your employees: organize a contest, invite them to the BBQ, bring them food to work, or go to see movies together. Manage creatively and remember, that great management is more about earning respect and having fun instead of just trying to buy it off with a better salary.

Defining a Sales Force Structure

In this step of sales management process, you decide how many sales reps you need. There are two methods that you can use.

A top down approach:

1) Divide total annual revenue by the average sale sum per client. That gives you a rough idea of how many customers you need.

2) Then, figure out how many calls per customer you need to close a deal and multiply it by the number of clients (1). That helps you to estimate the number of calls required to meet your yearly target.

3) How many calls is a single rep capable of making per year? Divide (2) by this number and you will have your estimated number of employees.

A bottom up approach:

1) Lookup the total number of accounts you have in your area.

2) Decide how many calls you need per account to generate a sale.Multiply it by the number of accounts to get the yearly number of calls needed.

3) Calculate how many calls a representative can make per year and divide it by the total number of calls required per year (2).

That should help you to estimate how many team members you need.

These days sales performance forecasting can be done in two ways: manually and automatically.

The manual approach includes analyzing the market potential and sales potential.

Market potential is the size of the market. In other words, how much demand there is for you and your competitor’s product in your area? How much you and your competitors can expect to earn?

Forecasting sales potential is about claiming your share of the market. How much of the market potential can you win?

You can base both of these metrics by looking at either objective or subjective data. Objective data is based on past metrics and data. Subjective data stands for industry experts forecasts and opinions.

Automatic sales performance forecasting is based on external systems and services. That is the most attractive solution for businesses today. To make more objective sales decisions, you can make use of such tools as Teamgate.

Sales territories are about allocating initial prospects. The main question here is who will sell where.

As mentioned previously, it is very important to point out as many details about the accounts as possible.

Another tip in assigning territories is to make them equal in sales potential, not physical size. If it is possible, make use of geographical boundaries, but be sure that they same similar numbers of customers.

Lastly, be ready to change and improve your territories constantly. The number of customers and the abilities of your salespeople tend to change over time.

Every rep in every area should have an annual sales goal for the year. Quotas are a key metric to evaluate how well a salesperson did in his area. When setting sales quotas, it is important to remember, that data driven approach always guarantees more precision.

In contrast, inaccurate or unattainable sales quotas create a negative view of the managers, cause frustration, unfairness and can hurt you other ways.

The best technique to set sales quotas is the bottoms-up approach. It is based on real reps capabilities and historical team results. The key questions here are:

What are the stages of our sales funnel?

What are our conversion rates before each stage?

How do our conversion rates look like per territory?

To help you with the bottoms-up approach you can make use of Yesware’s quota calculator. If you have a variety of products, you should create a different quota for all of them. And most importantly, keep track of them and address issues on the go. Even if the quota is annual, good managers break them down to smaller periods. As a result, they enjoy better insights.

If you have a variety of products, you should create a different quota for all of them. And most importantly, keep track of them and address issues on the go. Even if the quota is annual, good managers break them down to smaller periods. As a result, they enjoy better insights.

Great teams have great coaches and great sales teams have excellent sales managers. There are many books with tips and tricks on how to handle the teams and it would be impossible to fit them all in one paragraph. However, several important things you should know about sales teams management are:

Take care of your top talent first. Many managers tend to take their eye off top performers and focus on the lesser ones. It only seems logical to help others. But in reality, top talent strives for attention and recognition, so you should consider dedicating, even more, attention to them along with some perks.

Treat everyone fairly but not the same. There is a big difference between discrimination and unfair treatment. Every one of your employees is a different person and what works for some will not function with the others.

Create winning environment. Encourage your team. Challenge them. Surround your subordinates with the best people and information available. Create an environment where they can do their best.

Give your salespeople all the attention they deserve.

Empower your people to grow. Growth is an essential element of job satisfaction. Make sure that your people feel like they are learning something new every day.

Another critical area of management is rewards. In other words, how much do you value your team members?

In general, there are two ways to design compensation plan: flat salary plans and variable commission programs.

is fixed so your rep will get agreed amount no matter what.

payment is linked with the number of generated sales and offers no limits. However, nothing is guaranteed as well.

The best approach in sales is to use the combination of both. Establish a competitive base salary and on top of it offer some bonuses for the reps or teams that achieve their target levels or quotas.

Great managers make sure that their reps are getting paid enough. Implementing sales compensation system consists of three steps:

Communicate. Your reps want to know how they are getting paid. Consider creating a document that explains everything about how the plan works.

Administer. Share the plan with HR or financial department, since they will have to process it, too.

Measure. Observe how your plan operates and receive continuous feedback. There is nothing worse than figuring out that your plan was not working at the end of the period.

Your superstars are getting the best rewards, but what about underperformers?

There can be a million reasons why a sales representative struggles.

However, like in every other management issue, you should start by searching for the root cause of the problem. The 5 Why’s model can you to discover it.

Amongst the most popular reasons for lagging performance are the following:

An employee lacks specific tools or skills.

An employee is unmotivated.

An employee is not the right fit.

There are many ways to stimulate underperforming reps once you identify the right reason. Possible options include leading by example, accepting responsibility for the problems or creating a culture of motivation.

In the worst case scenario, you have to fire someone, which is never easy. However, it is the only viable option if the employee continues to perform way below the standards.

Measuring Sales Performance

No matter what kind of a coach, planner or analyst you are, data driven decisions are the most reliable ones. Therefore, performance tracking and measurement are sales managers best friend.

To measure well, you have to measure right things. For a sales rep, the most important number is conversions. Of course, to see the bigger picture, there are many other numbers that you should take into account, such as total revenue, gross margin, the number of initial prospects or won accounts. Also, mind that raw numbers can be deceiving, so take advantage of the ratios.

Data analysis can consume a lot of your time, but smart managers know how to free up their time. Make use of intelligent data management systems designed to help your decision making. After all, numbers are just indicators and you need to be out there for your team.

At the end of the sales management cycle, you should report the results back to your reps, senior management, and marketing department. Good sales managers know how important insights are for the business and their team. From here, it is time to repeat the cycle again. Good luck!

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8246812 http://growthhackers.com/articles/the-ultimate-sales-management-guide

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karinaibond · 7 years ago