Travis Chappell is a podcasting consultant, professional connector, author, and international speaker. He is the creator and host of Build Your Network with 1.5 million downloads and almost 600 episodes. Travis has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and NASDAQ, and he has appeared as a guest on more than 50 shows, such as Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/110-how-to-monetize-a-business-through-relationships-and-knowledge/

Keith Keller is one of the leading experts on Twitter marketing, especially Twitter video marketing. He has his own podcast series on iTunes called Crack the Twitter Code and now offers one-on-one consulting to clients all over the world via Zoom. In today’s episode, Keith will share three power hacks he has learned about Twitter video marketing. 

 

Keith’s Story

 

Keith didn’t want to go to work on his 35th birthday. But he did because he had to. It ended up being the worst day of his life, but it made him realize he wanted to get out of there. He needed to get out of there. 

 

Keith didn’t want to go to work on his 40th birthday. He was at a new company, with a new boss, but he didn’t want to be there. But he went because had to. And after that, after those five years, he realized he had to just take the risk. 

 

Keith quit his job without a plan. “It was really scary. We bought a house, we owed money, but I couldn't go to that job anymore,” Keith said. “I thought the only way I'm going to do this is if I just jump.” 

 

After he quit, he booked an appointment with a career counselor, and she told him he would be great at what she did. So, he went back to university and studied to become a career counselor and eventually got a job helping kids with their careers. 

 

Then he did a podcast on it, and while he was doing the podcast, he thought he would send it out to other places. One of those places was Twitter. When he did that, he discovered that Twitter was 10 times more efficient for the same effort than other social media platforms. People started asking him to teach him about “cracking the Twitter code,” and he became the Twitter dude. So, he flipped the switch and started a new company on Twitter. 

 

Since then, Keith has been sharing his knowledge on how to use Twitter effectively, especially in videos.

 

3 Twitter Video Marketing Power Hacks

 

Keith gave us his three power hacks to market Twitter videos. 

 

1. The 2 Minute Video

 

On Twitter, a video can only be two minutes and 20 seconds long. This time constraint may seem restricting, but it is actually a benefit. Since the video is shorter and quicker to watch, more people are willing to press play. 

 

“By actually creating a video that's two minutes and 20 seconds, you're already distilling the wisdom of a longer video into a much shorter video. So the chances of that getting more views are exponential,” Keith said. 

 

If we film an interview that’s 15 minutes long, we can extract the most important part and put it into a shorter video to make it easier for our consumers and save them time. 

 

With a 10-minute or even a five-minute video, our audience has to commit to sitting down and spending their time watching our video. People become a bit more reluctant to watch a longer video since they aren’t sure if it will be worth their time. However, with a short, two-minute video our audience doesn’t have to commit too much and will be more likely to watch our content. 

 

According to a Microsoft study, the average consumer has an attention span of only eight seconds, compared to 12 seconds in 2000 (Source: Forbes). With such a low attention span, think of how difficult it can be to get someone to watch a two-minute video, let alone a 10-minute video. 

 

For example, Keith had a friend who interviewed him. The actual interview only got 202 views, but the short snippet on Twitter got more than 2000 views. It was the same content, but the extracted, shorter version did better because the audience only had to commit a little bit of time to watch it. 

 

If we can capture the attention of our viewers with our short video, we can feed them to a longer story. If they watch the short clip and find that they enjoyed it, they will be more willing to commit to spending more of their time watching our content. We can provide them with a longer video on other platforms such as YouTube.  

 

“You can make a really lovely story, and put a little bit of theme music or a little bit of a graphic at the front, a little bit of a graphic at the back, and two minutes in total in the middle, and you've got this lovely little sequence. Now, in itself, [the short video] will go well, but more importantly, it will feed people to the longer story,” Keith said. 

 

1. Repurposing Content

 

Repurposing content saves time and resources. We can put the same video on every social media channel but alter it to fit the needs of the audience on that channel. 

 

For example, a viewer on YouTube will be more willing to watch a 20-minute video compared to someone on Facebook. A viewer on Facebook will be more willing to watch a five-minute video than someone on Instagram. And on Instagram, a viewer will be more willing to watch a one-minute video than on Tik Tok. Once we understand the needs of the consumers on different channels, we will be able to effectively repurpose content. 

 

We also need to understand the limits of each channel. On Instagram, a video can range from 3 seconds to 60 minutes. A video posted on the feed can be up to 60 seconds, a story video can be up to 15 seconds, and a live video and an IGTV can be up to 60 minutes. 

 

On Facebook, videos must be less than 240 minutes or 10 GB. On YouTube, videos must be less than 12 hours or 128 GB. On LinkedIn, videos can’t be more than 10 minutes or 5 GB. And on Tik Tok, videos can’t be longer than 60 seconds, however, they previously couldn’t be longer than 15 seconds. Often the length restrictions of the social media platforms correlate to the attention span of the users. 

 

Once we have our Twitter video, we can start to look at more sharing options. “You can create a really rich story out of your videos and then put them on LinkedIn, which is an additional market of [about] 719 million users,” Keith said. The more platforms our video is on, the more reach it will have. We can even take our initial Twitter video, and take a quote from it, and turn it into a photograph to post, or we could write a blog post about it. 

 

The last thing we want to do when repurposing content is simply taking the exact same video and posting it on every social media channel. Each channel has a different audience and different formats or requirements, so it is essential to alter the content to fit each channel. Make it a little bit different every time. 

 

1. The Less Than 60 Second Video

 

If our video is less than 60 seconds on Twitter, our views will most likely go up. Kieth explained that our number one takeaway from his interview should be to create videos that are under 60 seconds. When a video is less than 60 seconds on Twitter, it loops. Immediately after our consumer finishes our video, it plays again, capturing their attention for just a bit longer. And in this world, every single second count. 

 

“Since I started introducing the 60-second rule, my video views were just going through the roof, because what I'm pondering is the fact that people are busy,” Keith said. “Make [your video] less than 60 seconds and your video views will go up.” By shortening a longer clip into 60 seconds, we are respecting and honoring our viewers’ time.

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Keith for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. Often the shorter the video, the more people are willing to press play. 
2. The human attention span decreases every year so our videos need to be more and more interesting and captivating. 
3. If we can capture the attention of our viewers with our short video, we can feed them to a longer story.
4. Repurposing content saves time and resources.
5. To effectively repurpose content, we need to understand the needs of the consumers on different channels. 
6. The length restrictions of the social media platforms correlate to the attention span of the users. 
7. If our video is less than 60 seconds on Twitter, our views will most likely go up.

 

Connect with Keith

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Keith, connect with him on his Twitter or website, globalsocialmediacoaching.com.

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

 

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

 

Have you tried creating and sharing videos in less than 60 seconds? If so, what were the results? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/109-3-twitter-video-marketing-power-hacks/ 

Keith Keller is one of the leading experts on Twitter marketing, especially Twitter video marketing. He has his own podcast series on iTunes called Crack the Twitter Code and now offers one-on-one consulting to clients all over the world via Zoom. In today’s episode, Keith will share three power hacks he has learned about Twitter video marketing. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/109-3-twitter-video-marketing-power-hacks/

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss portions of a sermon by a church leader named Gordon Hinckley about the world’s need for greater kindness, and we’ll discuss how kindness can help us make a difference as entrepreneurs.

 

The World We Live in and Why We Need Kindness

 

Hinckley described the kind of world we live in today, saying, “I have wondered why there is so much hatred in the world. We are involved in terrible wars with lives lost and many crippling wounds. Coming closer to home, there is so much jealousy, pride, arrogance, and carping criticism; fathers who rise in anger over small, inconsequential things and make wives weep and children fear.”

 

He continued, “Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children.”

 

With all the hate, jealousy, pride, arrogance, and criticism in the world, not to mention the wars and violence, we need to be kind. We need to do what we can to push back against all that negativity and show the world that it is still good in people. 

 

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.” (KJV Galatians 6:10)

 

Kindness in Business

 

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” - Amelia Earhart 

 

We can drive our businesses forward through acts of kindness. Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of the  New York-based company Kind Snacks, does this. He takes the subway to work every morning, and when he sees someone commit an act of kindness, he gives them a #kindawesome card, which is an invitation to enter an online code to receive free Kind bars. He also gives them a second #kindawesome card to give to a selfless stranger (Source: bthechange.com). 

 

The gesture is part of a company-wide cause marketing movement to trigger a chain of random acts of kindness around the world. It has generated more than one million kind acts. This kind of tactic creates loyalty in existing customers and awareness for potential customers (Source: bthechange.com).

 

Strategies like these are great ways to spread kindness and help our business. They show customers that we care and we are willing to put in effort when it comes to being a good business. Instead of being ruthless and uncaring in our pursuit of profits, we should focus on being good to our customers and community. We can only do this “when there is kindness, respect, and love,” Hinckley said. 

 

Kindness in COVID

 

When the pandemic hit the world, there were many people and businesses that were impacted negatively. Some businesses had to close, causing people to lose their jobs. Many have been directly impacted by the virus, and we all had to adjust to doing things differently. However, some businesses saw this as an opportunity to do some good. 

 

For example, Wild North Flowers, a company in Toronto, was forced to transition to an online-only model when the pandemic hit. Though the business took a hit financially, Jennifer Fowlow, founder and owner, did what she could to make a difference in the community (Source: shopify.com). 

 

Previously the company had a monthly tradition of a nomination-based flower giveaway. Fowlow turned this into a daily giveaway to workers on the front lines. “With the COVID-19 pandemic turning our worlds upside down,” Fowlow said, “this kind of gratitude is more important than ever.” The company also donated pre-paid flowers that were from canceled events (Source: shopify.com).

 

Another company, Summersalt, found a different way to make an impact. Summersalt is a brand dedicated to joyful moments like swimming, traveling, sleeping, and lounging. However, its apparel basics were also perfect for those who have had to isolate—something that usually isn’t a joyful moment (Source: shopify.com). 

 

In response to COVID-19, “the brand launched Joy cast, a free SMS-based emotional support hotline that connects those in isolation with members of their team who text back positive diversions—a meditation video, a self-care tip, or puppy GIFs.” (Source: shopify.com)

 

While the pandemic has been hard in different ways for everyone, we can be a force for good through sharing kindness. 

 

Humanitarian Efforts

 

In Hinckley’s sermon, he went on to describe numerous humanitarian efforts happening throughout the world. He described “volunteers reaching out to supply food, clothing, and other needed items to those in distress” and “lifting thousands out of the slough of poverty and into the sunlight of knowledge and prosperity.”

 

J.K. Rowling, who has lost her billionaire status from the millions she has donated, has said, “You have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.” (Source: Lifehack.org)

 

“There is no end to the good we can do, to the influence we can have with others,” Hinckley said. “Let us not dwell on the critical or the negative. Let us pray for strength; let us pray for capacity and desire to assist others. Let us radiate the light of the gospel at all times and all places, that the Spirit of the Redeemer may radiate from us,” he continued. “In the words of the Lord to Joshua, brethren, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God [will be] with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

 

Key Takeaways

 

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode. To read or watch the full sermon click here.

 

1. The world is filled with all kinds of heartaches and heartbreaks. We need more kindness to fight against that.
2. Kindness grows roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. Likewise, our actions of kindness can spread and multiply. 
3. When we are blessed with more resources than we need, we should give back and help those who need them.

 

Join Entrepreneurs of Faith

If this episode of Entrepreneurs of Faith resonated with you, please subscribe for FREE to Monetization Nation so you can receive future episodes of Entrepreneurs of Faith.

1. Subscribe to the free Monetization Nation eMagazine.
2. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
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4. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

What is the best example you’ve seen of a business sharing kindness? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/108-the-need-for-greater-kindness-in-business-and-the-world/ 

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss portions of a sermon by a church leader named Gordon Hinckley about the world’s need for greater kindness, and we’ll discuss how kindness can help us make a difference as entrepreneurs.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/108-the-need-for-greater-kindness-in-business-and-the-world/

I once completed a focus group for a company that showed about 70% of their customers did not talk to any other competitor before doing business with them. We found that customers didn’t choose the business with the cheapest price, or the best features or services, they chose the business they connected with first.

 

In the past, people would compare the pricing and features of many businesses, but now, an increasing number of potential customers just aren't investing time to do that. It's all about the ease of doing business. In order to be successful and gain customers, we need to meet our customers’ needs as quickly as possible.

 

In the last episode, Eric Keating and I discussed three ways to increase product-led growth and monetization. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss how product-led growth can help businesses meet the consumer’s need for instant gratification. 

 

Instant Gratification 

 

The market is shifting towards product-led growth. With more and more businesses offering self-service free product trials, customers expect instant gratification when they look at our services and products. In order to use product-led growth effectively to meet the needs of our customers, we should consider using free trials and freemium experiences. 

 

“There is this massive shift happening; it's been happening for a very long time in the consumer world and much more in B2B,” Eric said. “It’s this expectation that we all have from using Amazon and other consumer products that are completely self-service . . . [It’s] all about instant gratification.” 

 

When a consumer has a need or a problem, they expect an immediate solution when they come to our website or landing page. A lot of this is due to increased amounts of free value 

 

In today’s market, so many companies are offering free trials and freemium experiences. We can book appointments online or sign up for our own monthly subscription for a piece of software. In contrast, we have older companies who require us to request a demo or fill out a form before we can use their software. Then, we have to wait for somebody to get back to us before we can use their service or product. Between the two companies, customers almost always choose the first option—the one that leads to the fastest result. 

 

Eric explained how companies such as IBM, with maybe 100,000 employees and years of experience, are making the shift towards free trials and freemium. “When you see companies at this scale adopting this approach to be going to market and getting the product into the user’s hands, I think that's a sign that this is not just a little trend. This is the expectation moving forward,” Eric said. 

 

A product-led growth model is becoming essential in today’s market as it allows customers to serve themselves, and gain instant gratification for their needs and problems. 

 

Choosing a Service Provider

 

When customers are choosing a service provider, they often look for the business that will help them meet their needs the fastest. 

 

Let’s say we are looking for a carpet cleaning service. How do we find a local business? Most people would first do a Google search. After the Google search, three local businesses pop up. Which one do we choose? Most people will choose the business near them with the largest number of reviews and a strong average star rating. We call the business and the phone rings, and rings, and rings. No one answers. They ask us to leave a voicemail. But do we? 

 

Most people today aren’t even leaving a message. They call the first person with the best reviews, but if that person doesn't answer, most people are hanging up and calling the next most highly-reviewed company on the list. 

 

Keep in mind that a huge percentage of customers don’t like to make phone calls anymore. If there is a business with an instant chat on their website, a customer is more likely to ask their question in the online chat than call in. Better yet, if a customer can sign up for a free trial themselves, they can hit download and instantly serve themselves without ever needing to talk to someone. 

 

In product-led growth, we need to focus on self-service. We should make it easy for our customers to serve themselves and contact us if necessary.

 

Low Barrier to Entry

 

Having a very low barrier to entry, such as a free trial with no credit card required, is essential. 

 

“[If] you have a very compelling call to action and it's easier than filling out a demo request form to start using this product . . . you get people using your product. Thousands of people are starting to use our product every month because we have this low barrier to entry,” Eric said. 

 

In the example above, it is clear how important ease is. A customer will often choose a service that is easy and quick to use over a service that might cost less.  

 

“You're going to get more leads with the free trial,” Eric said. “It's just a lower barrier to entry. There's less friction. When you do that, you're going to start to have exponentially more people using your product, and how they use your product is very important to understand.”

 

Once we get our customers to sign up for our free trial, our job isn’t done yet. We need to use data and make sure they are getting the best experience we can offer. 

 

Data is essential in determining friction points within our users’ experiences. If we aren’t tracking the user’s flow through our funnel, it will be extremely hard to know where our customers are getting hung up. It will also be difficult to see where users are converting at the highest rates and having long-term success. 

 

“Data is not only going to enable you to answer the long list of questions that I'm sure you'll have as you start down this path, but also open up a ton of opportunities for you to monetize your user base to better serve your customers so that they retain longer and adopt more of your product,” Eric said. 

 

What about the sales team?

 

 In today’s market, the product is replacing a lot of traditional one-on-one sales and marketing communications. However, in product-led growth, companies can still take advantage of a sales team. Even with self-serve products, a sales team can provide additional help in lengthening the customer’s journey with the business. 

 

The main question is, “How do we exceed our customer’s expectations?” While most of our potential customers expect to be able to serve themselves instantly, the sales team can help those that require more information. 

 

“Even though [more than] 90 percent of our eventual customers start with a self-service free trial, we do have a sales team,” Eric said. “They behave a bit more like a hybrid between a salesperson and a support person, or a customer success person . . . They aid our prospects or free trial users in their path to success. . . We're seeing a lot of sales teams adapt to focus more on expansion opportunities versus net new business.”

 

Instead of focusing on making the initial sale, the sales team can expand and guide the customer into making another purchase. 

 

“As a marketer, as a salesperson, you have to start thinking about products more than you ever have. You need to be invested in the product experience and understand that the product experience is going to play a role in the sales and marketing go-to-market funnel now,” Eric said. 

 

We need to make sure we have a voice in the product experience, especially as customers expect to access our product or service immediately, without needing to go through a sales team or marketer, or without reading a lot of instructions. 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Eric for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. With more businesses offering self-service products, customers expect instant gratification when they look at our services and products. 
2. A product-led growth model is becoming essential in today’s market as it allows customers to serve themselves and instantly get a “taste test” to see if your product or service meets their needs. 
3. Free trials and the freemium model are a great way to help meet the customers’ needs for instant gratification.
4. When customers are choosing a service provider, they often look for a business that will give them the help they need the fastest. 
5. We must eliminate as much friction as possible in our customer journey and create a low barrier of entry. 
6. We need to make sure we have a voice in the product experience.

 

Connect with Eric

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Eric, listen to part one of this episode or connect with him on LinkedIn or his website, Appcues.com.

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

 

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

How do you meet customers’ needs for instant gratification? Do you provide free trials? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/107-how-to-use-product-led-growth-to-meet-customers-needs-for-instant-gratification/ 

In the last episode, Eric Keating and I discussed three ways to increase product-led growth and monetization. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss how product-led growth can help businesses meet the consumer’s need for instant gratification. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/107-how-to-use-product-led-growth-to-meet-customers-needs-for-instant-gratification/

In today's episode, I am joined by Eric Keating. Eric is a go-to-market strategist and the vice president of marketing at Appcues. He has worked in the SaaS world his entire career, starting with a company called Sonicbids, and has spent more than 10 years in marketing. 

 

Eric is an expert in the concept of product-led growth, what we have called the free trial or the freemium experience on this show. Today, we're going to dive deep into product-led growth and monetization. 

 

What is Product-Led Growth?

 

“Product-Led Growth is defined as a go-to-market strategy that relies on using your product as the main vehicle to acquire, activate, and retain customers.” (Source: ProductLed)

 

Essentially, the name speaks for itself. In product-led growth, we provide a free self-service product for our visitors. In order to turn visitors into active customers, we have to hook them and provide clear value. Often this is done through free trials. 

 

“Product-led growth is this concept that's really gained a lot of steam and awareness over the last one to two years,” Eric said. “It’s the idea that your product is the primary driver of your user experience. Making your product available to try for free in a self-service capacity as often as possible is one of the most effective ways to go-to-market today. . . . Leading with a self-service free product experience is something that has been true at almost every single company I've worked at.”

 

Below, Eric has shared three ways to increase our product-led monetization growth. 

 

1. Communicate with Our Customers

 

Communication is essential to monetize our self-service products. 

 

“In this world in which you need to deliver more self-service, effective product experiences, there's this need to guide and communicate with users inside of your application,” Eric explained. “That's the type of product experience that, when you do this effectively, can really drive adoption of your product and create new monetization opportunities.” 

 

In product-led growth marketing, we are offering a free service. But how do we continue to deliver value to our users, while also turning them into paying customers? The key is communication. We can’t just launch a free trial and hope that will be enough to monetize. We need to guide our users through the experience by raising awareness of the features our product offers. From there we can explain the advanced features and benefits they can receive if they pay for premium access to our product. 

 

Communication is essential in increasing awareness of the benefits and value of our products. Surveys, announcements, and newsletters are a few examples of how we can spread awareness and communicate with our customers. The goal is to keep them engaged, keep them using our product, and ultimately, adopt it fully.

 

One of Eric’s biggest home runs was while working for Compete, Inc. Compete had thousands of free users every month, but they weren’t converting as many customers as they would like. So, Eric started a project focused on analyzing how their customers were using the product, what features they were using, and what features and benefits they found most valuable. 

 

After doing the research, they created an incentive for the users to upgrade to the premium plan based on what they discovered through the data. He was able to double his company’s monthly revenue over one month because he understood his users’ wants and needs, and then communicated the value they were offering effectively through his promotion.  

 

1. Focus on the Initial Experience

 

In order to convert our potential customers into active customers, we need to make sure they have a good initial experience with us and our product.

 

“One of the most important parts of product-led growth is having a fantastic initial product experience,” Eric said. “I'm talking about the first minute your user starts using your product. The first day, two days, of their experience is so critical, not only to whether or not you're going to ultimately be able to convert them into a customer but also to their long-term retention.”

 

One of the biggest mistakes Eric sees companies make is flooding a new user with every little detail and feature about their product. When they give a customer a product tour, they think they have to show the new user everything. However, it often has the opposite effect of what they intended. Instead of feeling amazed at the product's features, the new user gets overwhelmed. 

 

“[The new user is] starting to use your product because they have a specific goal or outcome in mind, and your job is to get them to that goal or outcome as quickly as possible, not show them every aspect of your product,” Eric explained. “It is a phased approach. Get them to that moment, and then start exposing them to more. It's this gradual process, and trying to do everything in the first minute can really mess with your activation rates and conversion rates.”

 

In order to get a new user on board, we really need to focus on solving their problem. A product tour should be about explaining to the customer how we can help them, not about how amazing our product is and why they need it.

 

1. Offer Level 10 Passions

 

How do you stand out? Puppies. 

 

A few years ago, Eric attended an event with tens of thousands of attendees, and hundreds, if not thousands of vendors. As Eric and his team at Zaius planned what they were going to showcase at this event, they asked themselves, “What can we do to stand out?”

 

“We were still in the early stages,” Eric said. “The objective [was to] make sure that everybody attending this conference heard about Zaius, and that we were a familiar name from now on out.”

 

They asked themselves, “Well, what does everybody love?” And the answer came—puppies. They reached out to an animal shelter down the street from the event and asked if they could show off some of their dogs. If anyone wanted to take a dog home, they would cover the adoption fees. 

 

“We had the [dogs] there for about an hour and there were crowds. There were lines to come up and see these dogs. Mission accomplished. We had a ton of interest, not only in the dogs but eventually in our product as well,” Eric said. “Ultimately, the objective was to increase our brand visibility, awareness, and recognition, and we did that.”

 

After three years with Zaius, Eric helped grow their customer count 100x and revenues 35x, raising more than $43 million in venture capital. 

 

So, what’s the point of this story? Think outside of the box and discover your customers’ level 10 passions. When we do that, it will help to differentiate us and better connect with our potential customers. 

 

One of the tectonic shifts that are happening today is for every hour and every dollar that our customers have to invest, they've got a thousand good things to choose from. There's so much distraction. We can’t just be good enough. We have to identify their level 10 passions and connect with them through those (level 10 being a passion that is a driving factor in their life). 

 

Identifying the level 10 passions of our target audience and building our whole business around those passions will make us stand out. When Eric brought in puppies to the event, he leveraged a huge level 10 passion for many of the attendees. There were thousands of vendors at this conference, but he became the priority when he added puppies to their brand. 

 

In order to drive the growth of our products, we need to make sure we are identifying and connecting through our customers’ level 10 passions.

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Eric for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. Communication is key to monetize our self-service products. We need to guide our users through their product experience by raising awareness of the features and benefits our product offers. 
2. To convert our potential customers into active customers, we need to provide a great initial experience. The first impression really matters.
3. Our job is to show our customers that we can meet their needs as quickly as possible. We don’t need to show them every aspect of our product.
4. If we can help our customers achieve their level 10 passions, we will better differentiate ourselves and build stronger connections with customers.

 

Connect with Eric

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Eric, listen to part two of this episode or connect with him on LinkedIn or his website, Appcues.com.

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

 

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

 

Does your business use product-led growth? If so, how has it worked for your business?  Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read  at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/106-3-ways-to-drive-product-led-growth-and-monetization/ 

In today's episode, I am joined by Eric Keating. Eric is a go-to-market strategist and the vice president of marketing at Appcues.

Eric is an expert in the concept of product-led growth, what we have called the free trial or the freemium experience on this show. Today, we're going to dive deep into product-led growth and monetization. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/106-3-ways-to-drive-product-led-growth-and-monetization/

Welcome back to another episode with Laurie Delk Radecki. In episode one, we discussed how entrepreneurship has helped the widow of a police offer create the life she wants and provide well for the people she loves. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss why we need to focus on our relationships, Laurie’s top five tips for relationship marketing, and more. 

 

Being Present

 

When I asked Laurie what the greatest mistake or failure she’s made in her career, she said it applies to business and family. “As a mom, you know, you're talking to your children, and a lot of times when you talk to your children you're training them. You say, ‘look into mommy's eyes,’ right because you want to get their attention,” Laurie said. 

 

“I remember a point that I was multitasking, right? I was doing a bunch of different things . . . [doing] my best. One of my children came up to me and started telling me something. And . . . I was listening, but I was also multitasking. I said, ‘mm hmm,’ [but] I was typing, looking at my computer, and this child grabbed my chin and pulled me and said, ‘Mommy, look into my eyes.’

 

“It was just like, smack, you know . . . it just kind of really hit me.” She thought, “Oh my goodness . . . this is my child. I need to pay attention to this child.”

 

“The same thing in business—I need to pay attention to whoever's in front of me.” Laurie has noticed in business when she’d be talking to someone and they were doing something else or they were scrolling through their phone. “I just vowed to myself that . . . anytime I'm in front of a person, I would be present with them no matter what.”

 

“Relationships are important. . . . It doesn't matter how much money you make. If you get to the end of your life and you don't have people that love you, and you don't have people that are around you, then what is it all worth in the first place?”

 

5 Strategies of Relationship Marketing

 

Here are Laurie’s top five strategies of relationship marketing. 

 

 

• Text 10 People Everyday

 

 

Texting is a fast and simple way to keep in touch with people. “Back in the day, it was one dollar a text . . . but now everybody has texting free on their phone, now almost everybody has a phone. So [here’s] one of the things I do every day: I take 10 people, and I just text them something. And it's never business stuff . . . this is just building relationships, keeping in touch. So it might be, ‘I hope you have a fabulous Friday,’ [or] ‘Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.’ And that always ends up leading to a little bit more conversation.”

 

“If you're in business, but you're not just sending your business stuff out all the time, you're actually working to build those relationships, people will reply to you.”

 

 

• Call at Least 3 People a Day

 

 

Laurie does a similar thing with phone calls. “I try to call between three and five people a day. I put it on my schedule . . . just saying, ‘hi,’ hearing someone's voice.” Since COVID has started more and more people are using Zoom or other video conferencing technology to connect with friends, family, and associates, so Laurie tries to use those as well.

 

Laurie said it can be “like your Starbucks coffee chat, but . . . in your own home. But just talk to each other, keep in touch. And the same thing [with] business stuff—just say hi, see how someone's doing, look into their eyes.”

 

 

• Give People Reasons to Stay on the Email List

 

 

Email lists are another great way to keep in contact with people. “If you're going to have an email list, you need to give people value, give people reasons why they want to stay on your email list.”

 

 

• Social Media and Time Blocking

 

 

In 2020, there were 3.96 billion people in the world actively using social media, an increase of 10.9% from 3.48 billion in 2019. Back in 2015, there were only 2.07 billion users—that’s an overall increase in users of 92.76% in just five years (Source: backlinko.com). There’s a huge audience for us to reach on social media. Laurie said, “There's all the different platforms, and you could be on all of them, but usually nobody does everything good. One thing I also teach and train on is time blocking and doing a little bit of everything, but doing it [well] and being consistent while you're there.”

 

“I don't have anything pop up on my phone, not even texting. I only check my texts when I'm scheduled to check my texts, or I have extra time in my day or whatever, so that [I’m] not getting distracted from the things that I plan to do. So [I do] the same thing [with] social media.”

 

 

• Greeting Cards

 

 

Greeting cards are another fun way to connect with people. “I send cards of happiness. One of my cliche sayings is ‘I get to send happiness through the mail.’ And that's what I want. I don't want it to be kind of like, ‘okay, you know, I got this card and it was okay,’ right? I want them to get it and go, ‘Whoa, wow, that's awesome.’ I want that to bring out those endorphins and make them feel good. So that's, of course, going to build a relationship with you [and] them because it pulls the heartstrings together, but it also [helps us] keep in touch and [remember] them.”

 

A lot of people send Christmas cards, but we can also send cards at any time of the year. “I actually went into a store the other day that a friend of mine owns . . . and she had one of my cards on her counter at the store. . . . The front of it says, ‘smile,’ real big, and it has a smiley face, and [it says] ‘It's like yoga for your face.’ And so, I saw that thing somewhere, and I thought, ‘I've got to do something with this.’” 

 

“So I did,” Laurie said. “I sent out a few cards with that on it and just a cutesy little message on the inside. . . . just to make somebody smile when they opened it up. And it obviously made her feel good; she put it in her business right on the counter at the checkout register . . . and she never even said anything to me about getting the card. And I happened to go into the business last week, and when we were checking out, I said, ‘Oh my goodness, you have [my] card right here on your counter,’ and she's like ‘Oh yes, I love that card. I meant to tell you thank you.’ And that made me feel good . . . that she thought enough to even show my card to everybody that comes in her store.”

 

How do we turn these relationships into revenue?

 

So how do all these relationship strategies lead to revenue? Laurie said, “When you are building the relationships properly and you do have the good ethics and morals and integrity behind that, business is going to happen no matter what.”

 

“There [are] some people that your business or your service or your product won't ever be a fit for . . . and that's okay, right, but you can still build a friendship with them and build a relationship with them . . . because they have a circle of people that they know that they can refer you to.”

 

“If you put your . . . links and your things out about your business in different places, people are going to find you because people, especially nowadays, click around before they do business with you. They research you . . . they look for things, they read about things, and so they can find what you do as long as you have it out there in good places for people to find and [it’s] easily accessible.”

 

We do have to be careful when we post about our business though. “When I do post [about my business], it’s usually something like a testimonial. So it's not a flat out, ‘Hey, come buy this from me,” or “come get this,” but it's something that just tells people a little bit more about what I do, or what product or service I offer. So, that way it gets them . . . if they're interested . . . to want to reach out to me. And then when they reach out to me, then I can follow through with the process of asking them questions to make sure that I'm offering the best product or service for them.”

 

Remembering Our Why

 

Laurie’s last piece of advice was to remember why we started. “I think that's one of the biggest keys to success that I've had,” she said. “You [must] figure out why you want to do what you [do]. . . . I wanted to do things to help support the family. So, remember why you started, because in any business, whether you get very successful or whether you're on the trail to becoming successful, either way, there's going to be hardships. In those hardships you have to remember why you started it in the first place and what you're doing it for to keep that stamina, to keep going, to push through those trials that are going to come, because it doesn't matter what financial bracket you're in, you're going to get some of those trials.”

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Laurie for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. Try to text and call people every day to consistently nurture and grow connections.
2. We must make sure our email lists are providing value so people want to stay on them.
3. It’s too much to try to be on every social media platform, but time blocking can help us manage our time.
4. Greeting cards are a great way to send happiness through the mail and strengthen relationships.
5. If we foster these kinds of relationships, many of them will naturally lead to business.
6. Our relationships will be better if we devote our full attention to the people we are with.
7. If we remember why we started, it will help us get through the hard times.

 

Connect with Laurie

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Laurie or connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriedelk/, check out her website at http://lauriedelk.me/, or you can watch, listen to, or read the first episode with Laurie.

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

 

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

 

How has relationship marketing helped your business? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at:  https://monetizationnation.com/blog/105-5-strategies-of-relationship-marketing/