The connection between color and the human mind is a relatively new branch of psychology. Experts have only recently begun to explore this bond. One important area is the hidden web design psychology. In his peer-reviewed journal, Mr. Singh states that 62-90% of the first impression about a product is based on color.
What is true for products is always true for websites. As they are the first contact with a product, websites depend heavily on color and the way we perceive a brand.
If you wish to make changes to your strategy, take a look at the following 12 color psychology tips.
Hidden web design psychology … gender has a role
When choosing colors for your website, you have to take gender into consideration. The psychological differences in color perception are still relatively unknown to the scientific community.
Some experts recommended color separation for marketers.
What does that mean? When gathering analytics about your website and social media, think about which gender is prevalent. I
If you’re selling cosmetics, we would advise gentle colors. Pick one of the basic colors and change up their hues.
Women love milder tones, so the color will have more psychological appeal to them.
Pay attention to the contrast
People in a constant state of flux nowadays. Everyone is in a hurry, so you can’t afford to waste time when people visit your site. You must make everything as visible as possible for people interested in your brand.
A key component, in this case, is contrast. One color makes the other more visible and vice versa.
This is very simple psychology that can help you gain more conversions and revenue.
If you’re unsure about which colors go together, use this Color Wheel.
The psychology of color.
Hidden web design psychology … men like more basic colors
Psychologists and neurologists are still unsure as to why men prefer basic colors, but they do. They like clear pictures with no conflicting elements.
Therefore, if your website (or sections of it) have a predominantly male audience, consider switching to blue, green or black.
Mike Jenkins, from AssignmentMasters , tells us his experience: “We realized 74% of our audience on the ‘statistics project’ section of our website were male.
After assessing this, we changed the colors to very basic ones and have seen a 45.6% increase in clicks. Also, the overall time spent on the page was higher by an average of 15.7 seconds.”
What do PayPal, Facebook, and many banks have in common? Their websites are almost entirely blue. Due to its calming properties, blue is used by many brands which deal with security and finances.
Facebook deals with data of several billion users, while PayPal is a conduit for several million transfers on an hourly basis.
It is in their interest that they send a message to their customers. This simple psychological trick helps people put faith in these companies and trust them with their money. What about different hues?
Well, this depends on the other colors on your website. Go for dark blue and try not to mix up multiple hues.
But never associate it with food!
The psychology of web design.
If you’re associated with food in any way, avoid the color blue. In spite of its calming effects on people’s minds, many hues of the color blue suppress our appetites.
Nutritionists and other experts around the world have used the “blue plate trick” to have their clients eat less. Therefore, if your brand is related to food, steer clear of the color blue.
Why is this the case? We don’t know for sure.
However, many evolutionary biologists and anthropologists claim that our minds associate blue with poison.
Grab attention with yellow
When you’re walking into your office, a common sign is always present. “CAUTION – WET FLOOR,” it says. The only reason people see it is because it’s yellow.
Birds have developer yellow feathers to become noticed by the opposite sex. Traffic signs are always yellow. Therefore, if you want to grab the attention of your visitors, employ the color yellow.
Don’t use it too much. Otherwise, it will lose its severity. Instead, save it for special promotions, important announcements and the stuff everyone has to see.
Children also love this color, as they deem it bright, cheerful and friendly.
Hidden web design psychology … green is closely related to nature
Green is the color of nature, and it’s the most logical connection our minds can make. In this day and era, ecological awareness is important. People view it as an important factor when they’re choosing a product for their use.
To send the right message, implement the color green either on the background or in some small details.
Without being overwhelming and too obvious, you can use this psychological trick to paint an image of your brand.
Green is also associated with positivity, creativity and – calls to action. Don’t overuse it and you’ll be able to utilize it correctly.
Be careful with orange
Psychologists and marketers alike agree on the notion that orange is not to be used lightly. It is vibrant, impulsive and immediately noticed.
Therefore, you should only use it on select occasions. It stimulates competitiveness and action. If you have limited-time offers, utilize the color orange in posts on your website, as well as emails.
For sports apparel brands, orange is a great ally. It immediately stands out and motivates the visitor of your website.
Out of all the colors we’ve mentioned, orange is to be used as rarely as possible.
Hidden web design psychology … black adds value and luxury
There is a reason why all-black outfits are the best choice for formal events – they stand out. But how does the color black accomplish this, when it’s not even a color?
The answer is – contrast. By definition, black is an absence of light. If your entire website is full of content and colorful features, breaking the routine will surely cause a stir.
Black is also mysterious, as it adds uncertainty to the beholder’s mind.
Don’t use too much black or your website will become very “painful” for people’s eyes.
Calls to action are to be in primary colors
Let’s remember the most basic “call to action” in our society – traffic lights. They signal what drivers and pedestrians have to do.
To accomplish this, they use basic colors – red, yellow and green.
For your calls to action, you can also add orange. But why are these colors the most successful in grabbing attention?
The answer lies in their simplicity. Because they’re not complex, these colors can easily be registered.
We all know how important it is to have a website that’s easy to navigate. Mark your calls to action.
Don’t forget white
In almost every feature on color psychology, people leave out white. We’ve gotten so used to it that it’s not even a color anymore.
White space is the best friend of every web designer because it’s a hub for contrast and space for ideas.
If you want to instill a feeling of freedom and spaciousness, use a white background. However, you should be careful when doing so.
Too much white can tire the eyes and cause people to leave the page. Make sure that there is a lot of content in dark colors.
One other trick is to use a light shade of off-white, to reduce ocular fatigue.
If nothing works – change it up
Color psychology is still a big, big “if” in the scientific community. You can do everything we’ve written here and still see no changes.
What should you do then?
Just change things up. If people are used to a certain color scheme on your website, add some new hues or just reverse the way they’re placed.
Sometimes, all it takes is a break of routine to see your brand grow. Of course, don’t change the colors of your logo and website too much.
Reserve it for holidays, special occasions and rebranding periods.
The bottom line
Color psychology is all about experimenting. Know which colors go well with your content and go from there.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and implement new ideas.
Persistence and creativity will take you far in the world of web design.
Sara Williams is an editor, journalist, writer from San Jose. She likes to read the world classics, traveling, to engage in yoga. Almost all spare time she spares to reading. Meet her on Linkedin and Twitter
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Ponder for a moment … the iPad, Cloud computing, and Apps. A few years ago, they barely existed. Now they’re an integral part of our lives. That swift journey from nonexistent to indispensable seems to happen a lot these days. But it gives us unlimited access to improve our learning and utility for things like utilizing awesome visual creative marketing tools through idea connection.
This makes you think: What visual design tools were you not using two years ago that today you can’t imagine living without today?
It’s always very useful when a marketer can express themselves creatively in a way they’ve never tried before. With a tool they may not have used before, you can add discovery learning into the mix.
The online tools that we will discuss today are great resources that will develop visual design creativity in all sorts of ways.
These are fun online visual creativity tools to explore and engage with your peers. Everyone can have fun with these. They’re perfect for adding creative touches to projects of all sorts.
Wondering what you’d look like as an android? Find out with Androidify. This is an online app that uses the mascot from the Android operating system.
You can turn it into whatever you want it to look like. Use a number of different options in the interface to customize your Bot. It’s also available as an app for the Android OS from Google Play.
Visual design tools … Animoto
Animoto allows you to create professional-quality videos with pictures and video clips. There are both free and paid versions of Animoto. Pricing plans range from $8 a month for personal use to $34 a month for businesses.
Here’s how to get started with Animoto. First, sign up for a free account. You can create your free account with your Facebook profile or with your email address.
Then click the Create button to start your Animoto project.
Next, choose a styleto customize the look and feel of your video. Click on the style template preview to see what your video would look like with that style.
Now you’re ready to add photos, video clips, and music. Animoto accepts photo and video uploads from your computer, smartphone, or other sources.
You can add your own song or select one from Animoto’s music catalog. Tracks available include instrumentals and songs.
Now you’ll want to personalize your video in Settings. Be sure toadd a custom thumbnail, video title, and description for your video. All of this information helps with search engine optimization.
When you’re finished, you can preview your work. Click the Preview Video button to see what your video looks like. If you want to make changes, close this window and make any required edits.
Finally, you’re ready to produce your video. To do this, click Produce.
Design Wizard is an excellent new graphic design tool that allows you to personalize an image or video in seconds. It holds over 1 million high-quality images and thousands of videos. The standout feature here is the magic resize button, which allows you to transform the size of an image while you are creating a design.
It also features excellent integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, Buffer, and Intercom. There is no attribution requires on any of the images in Design Wizard.”
Flame Painter
The makers of the design tool Amberlight, have a free online version of another drawing tool. It’s a visual stunner called Flame Painter. This free version lets you literally paint with fire right on the screen.
Using this tool, you can work with the full spectrum slider to create any color to paint with. You can also adjust the stroke’s focus, intensity, speed, and more.
Magisto
You can turn photos and video clips from your Android or Apple device into professionally edited movies with Magisto Video editor. This app will automatically arrange and add effects to your videos and slideshows without any extra effort, giving you a fully innovative video to share with your social networks.
Magisto has over 65 million users and has been featured on the Google Play homepage in 130 countries—so it’s a popular choice for many video editors around the world.
Picassohead is a unique and fun drawing tool that lets you style portraits and abstract art just like the famous artist himself.
The shapes and strokes used in this tool are extracted and duplicated from many of Picasso’s famous paintings.
Choose from a number of settings to draw, shape, scale, and color your creations. You can explore the gallery of previous work for inspirations, and save and email your work.
It appears in the Picassohead gallery for others to enjoy, and as a link for downloading and sharing your image.
Here is another tool that may be a help: Design Wizard
Replay
Replay is a video editing app made for heavy Instagram users. Turn your photos and videos into movies with seamless transitions, perfectly synced to your choice of music.
This app comes with plenty of tools and filters to edit videos from your camera roll, iCloud, or record straight from the app. Like any other app, enhance your experience and your videos with in-app purchases, like removing the watermark or adding more filters and effects.
Myoats is an online community for creating designs using a cool online drawing application. It’s a geometric tool that creates beautifully symmetrical designs easily and quickly. Myoats lets you download images as JPEGs or transparent PNGs.
You can save your designs to the community by being a member. You can also download them straight to your computer. It’s all free.
Legend … Build Custom GIFs
GIFs are 6-second videos. While there are apps that offer premade GIFs, consider customizing your own. This personalizes your brand and allows you to create unique content.
Legend is a smartphone app that allows you tocreate GIFs by combining text, flash, and images. You can download Legend from Google Play or the App Store.
Here’s how to use Legend to create your own branded GIFs. First, type your text. You have 100 characters to work with.
Next, choose a photo. You can take a photo using the camera on your phone, choose a photo from your photo library, or select a photo from Flickr.
Now it’s time to select your animation style. There are 18 variations to choose from, six on each screen.
When you choose your color palette, it changes the color of your photo and your text. Then tap GIF to convert your work into a GIFandtap More to save itto your camera roll.
This online tool lets you compare virtually any two things, and then learn a whole lot about them. You may be pondering a simple decision to make about whether to drink dark roast or medium roast coffee.
Or you may be contrasting the First and Second World War for historical analysis. With Differ, you can compare pretty much anything your heart desires.
There are literally thousands of reasons why you might want to use Diffen. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn simply by asking questions. Just begin typing whatever comes into your mind in the blanks.
Bonomo is another free online drawing tool, similar in format to Flame Painter but with a different visual effect. There are a number of different textures that can be used..
Grafitti Playdo
This is a unique tool with a fun interface for anyone who’s a budding graffiti artist. You’re presented with a cement wall and an actual shakeable spray can do your art with.
You choose your color and brush size on the fly, and go nuts with your graffiti art.
Textorizer
This three-tool pack works best on Firefox, Chrome, and Opera OS. This is a step up from creating word clouds, and you can render some stunning and emotive work with it.
For such a simple free tool, Textorizer is pretty creative and a lot of fun. You upload images and text and then work with them using the left sidebar sliders. It actually uses three separate tools:
Textorizer 1—Uses simple word-cloud formatting to enhance picture highlights.
Textorizer 2—Places text across a whole picture and enhances colors and shapes dramatically.
Excoffizer—Produces a vector rendition of an uploaded picture and uses parallel wavy lines for texturing.
Legend … Build Custom GIFs
GIFs are 6-second videos. While there are apps that offer premade GIFs, consider customizing your own. This personalizes your brand and allows you to create unique content.
Legend is a smartphone app that allows you tocreate GIFs by combining text, flash, and images. You can download Legend from Google Play or the App Store.
Here’s how to use Legend to create your own branded GIFs. First, type your text. You have 100 characters to work with.
Next, choose a photo. You can take a photo using the camera on your phone, choose a photo from your photo library, or select a photo from Flickr.
Now it’s time to select your animation style. There are 18 variations to choose from, six on each screen.
When you choose your color palette, it changes the color of your photo and your text. Then tap GIF to convert your work into a GIFandtap More to save itto your camera roll.
GoAnimate … Video Presentations
With the GoAnimate animation tool, you can create videos that are made up of template scenes, customizable characters, backgrounds, music, and props from their library. You can also upload your logo and change the colors to match your brand.
Choose a Theme
To create a video in GoAnimate, firstsign upfor an account and then click Make Video. Next, select your theme. You have three choices: Business Friendly, Whiteboard Animation, and Video Infographics.
Then select your template in Video Maker. Each template has a series of premade scenes with backgrounds, characters, props, and text boxes, which you can edit individually.
Choose your characterby category, from holidays to kids, politics, and sports. Remember to keep your character consistent throughout each scene.
Next, select props to enhance your video storytelling. You can move props around each scene freely.
Add Scenes
Now it’s time to choose your scene. In the image below, a template scene was selected for the title slide for a video. On the right, you can modify the text. Click the Add Scene button to insert additional scenes.
Add a Voiceover
Next, you can add a voiceover to your scenes. There are two ways to do this: with dialogue or narration. Dialogue applies to characters only and comes with automatic lip-sync. Conversely, the narration is voiceover without lip-syncing.
To add a voiceover to your video, use your built-in microphone to record your voice, upload a recording, or use one of GoAnimate’s professional voiceover partners (VoiceBunny, Buyvo, and Voices).
Add Music
Who doesn’t like a little music? GoAnimate features a library of royalty-free music to choose from. Click on the music icon to audition tracks. After you choose a music track, it appears below your scene and narration rows.
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
What would you say is the most important marketing element for your business? Not a trick question, but one that many of our clients miss. It is a value proposition canvas in our opinion, hands down.
Like Jack Welch says, if you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete. It is that simple. Save your money and time.
We have found many businesses that cannot articulate how their business is truly unique. What analogy to this situation stands out in our mind?
Trying to win against your competition without good business differentiation is like trying to sail with no wind.
There are two ways to win in a competitive market:
Achieve sustainable lower cost than your competition for the same products and services. That is very difficult, if not impossible.
Deliver more value, despite equal or higher price.
There is obviously not one answer that fits all in the question of customer choices.
Value proposition canvas … what is a value proposition versus a tagline?
Lots of our clients confuse a value proposition with a business tagline. But they are not the same. A tagline is a simple representation of the brand. One whose objective is to draw attention. A unique selling proposition, on the other hand, is a business differentiation.
It is designed to be the reason a customer will want to buy your product or service. Its objective is to market that makes the product or service stand out.
The art of tagline development is to distill the meaning of a big idea into a cogent message. It should be easy to say, easy to understand, and easy to remember. What do you think?
To ensure your brand expression is impossible to forget, use the following checklist to avoid the most common mistakes.
Tagline, strapline, slogan… Whatever you choose to call it, it’s all the same. It’s the key phrase that identifies your business by capturing the essence of three elements:
Your mission
Your promise
Your brand
Coming up with a great tagline is a struggle many people face. They get it wrong by focusing on what their product or service is and neglecting what it offers.
Taglines can help or hamper your marketing efforts. They must be clear and relevant. Some taglines make you scratch your head, some don’t make you think at all.
Some, the ones that work, make you think. You know what’s insanely difficult? Being succinct.
Seriously … it’s ridiculously hard. But do you know what’s even more difficult? Expressing a complex emotional concept in just a couple of words. In other words, coming up with a tagline. Yeah, it can be a head-scratcher.
But that’s why we have a lot of respect for brands that did it right. Looking for a little tagline inspiration of your own, take a look at some of our favorite company taglines — from past and present:
See Food Differently
I see food differently. The tagline for this campaign is Sea Food Differently. I think this is tagline writing at its best: clever, play on words, and RELEVANT. They are saying that Red Lobster does seafood differently (presumably better) than other restaurants. Perfect.
The uncola
A brave and somewhat bold way 7-Up’s tagline distinguishes its product from the cola competition. Taste wise it’s not cola, and that is 7-Ups promise. A good one, isn’t it?
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies’ fantastic tagline that doubles up as a jingle, and also is descriptive – they actual do Snap! Crackle! And Pop!
This is more of a slogan, a classic slogan example. It’s very advertising orientated – very product specific/descriptive. And the promise is freshness as the sound says.
Where dreams come true
This is just one of many of the dream makers at Disney, for they have so many elements and areas of operations. This includes Disney World to a range of other media and wonderful creations.
Disney is a dream company, while the word dream strikes similarity with DreamWorks; it works best for the Disney promise.
We make IT happen
IBM’s clever use of playing on IT (Information Technology) doubling up as IT (as in that’s it).
Just do it
Instantly, Nike’s tag line’s message began to resonate. It is no longer about just a shoe or a pair of shorts; it is a state of mind. You don’t have to be an athlete to be in shape or tackle an obstacle. If you want to do it, just do it. That’s all it takes.
The Ultimate Driving Machine
For BMW, the fact they call their vehicles “machines” shows a real truth, coupling with the word ultimate, the tagline is a well-oiled machine that works!
We try harder
This is a really strong tagline for Avis. It differentiates the brand as “going the extra mile” (this would be a relevant but more obvious tagline). It evokes that it genuinely does try harder
So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time, focus on delivering dramatic tagline design.
The value proposition on the other hand …
A strong value proposition speaks directly to your target audience. It tells them exactly why they should purchase your products and services.
In the case of non-profits, it’s why your donors should support your organization, members should join your programs, etc.
A simple statement
A value proposition is a short statement that tells your prospect why they should buy from your company.It is focused on outcomes.
Your value proposition distills all the complexity of the value you provide into an easy-to-remember phrase that your client can easily grasp and remember.
This helps spread word-of-mouth marketing, and it differentiates you from the competition. Keep in mind that your value proposition should identify and remedy an unmet need that your customers face.
It should relieve their pain.
Regardless of the size of your business or the type of industry you are in, your company should have a value proposition. To help you, here are some guidelines to follow in creating one for your business.
A strong value proposition does the following:
Creates interest, so that your prospects ask questions and want to learn more. Your value proposition opens the door so that someone might be willing to meet with you.
Differentiates your offer from your competitors’ offers and creates a strong differential between you and your competitors
Increases the quantity and quality of your sales leads and makes the conversion to a customer much easier
Wins your business greater market share in your targeted segments
Aligns your business operations more closely to customer needs
Are you starting to get a feel for a strong value proposition?
A strong value proposition is specific, often citing numbers or percentages. It may include a quick synopsis of your work with similar customers as a proof source and demonstration of your capability.
A value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using your products or services.
Its outcome focused and stressed the business value of your offering.
So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time and energy to optimize how to win customers from your competitors, focus on defining and delivering a winning value proposition and tagline, keeping your promises, and establishing as well as maintaining strong social relationships.
Value proposition canvas example … how to find value
Where to look for value in your business’s value delivery chain?
Here are top 5 areas we recommend you consider first:
Time
The most important of customer priorities today. What can you do to keep your time demands on customers to a minimum?
Convenience and easy to work with
Ones related to customer time for sure. Do everything you can to make things as simple as possible.
Customer experience/service
Great service creates a great experience and becomes something worth your customer talking to his friends about. It is the most important element of your word of mouth marketing campaign.
Trust and warranty
Trust is the most often named reason customers say they select businesses to do business with. Good warranties are great places to start building trust.
How to write a value proposition.
New ways
New ways of doing business. The best example for this value proposition in my mind … Netflix.
A great value proposition has some key responsibilities.
In other words, especially for a small company, telling your customers to “just do it” doesn’t make picking a pair of shoes any easier.
Instead, the following items are what you should be addressing:
Relevancy
Give your offering relevancy to customers by saying (outright) what problem it solves, or how it will improve their current situation.
Quantify
the value for your customers by listing specific benefits (steer clear of “It’ll save you money,” and opt instead for “You’ll save $30/month on your phone bill.”)
Point of difference
Place priority on your point of difference, which is the reason why your solution is better than the competition in some notable way.
The heart of a winning value proposition needs to be articulated for the customer value end state … not for your product, service, or business process.
Be your customers … study and creatively infer value by observing/learning from what they do.
Do your claims surpass the value alternatives in the marketplace? Will your customers believe your claims? Does your value differentiate you in the customer’s eyes?
Can you validate and deliver your value proposition?
Is it sustainable, at least in the near term?
Is it simple, clear, and specific?
When your customers have customers, different value propositions are required for different players in the value delivery chain.
Every business has a value proposition … either implied or explicit. Implied value propositions usually mean little to no discrimination versus your competition. Look beyond your implied values.
Remember this: Information is cheap. Attention is expensive. Time is priceless. Customer time and convenience is a great place to look for business differentiation. Give it a try today.
Value proposition canvas explained … secrets of value propositions
Can you double your business with great value propositions? Just thinking what it would take is scary, isn’t it? Almost regardless of whom you are or what you do, you have bigger and often better competitors. The market leaders.
And if you have no competitive advantages, no understanding of the secrets of unique selling propositions (USP’s), you really can’t compete.
But with extraordinary, unique selling propositions, it certainly is another matter. And knowing these ten secrets can help you with building fantastic USP’s for your business.
So let’s turn our attention to these10 secrets to deriving the best unique selling propositions possible.
Secret # 1 Best value
The most useful definition of unique selling propositions (USP) is a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons people should notice you and take the action you’re seeking.
This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.
If you don’t have strong selling propositions, people don’t have good reasons to do either of those.
For example, if your online bookstore has an average selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you? There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.
You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best couple of ways.
However, if you’re the best in at least several ways, you’re the best option for the people who value those propositions.
Starbuck’s doesn’t have the lowest prices. Amazon isn’t the most prestigious bookseller. Zappos’ isn’t the easiest way to shop. People buy from them for other reasons.
So, if your bookstore has the largest selection, for example, but the other things are just average, the people who value a large selection have a reason to buy from you.
You must have some product or service elements that are unique.
Something has to make you the best option for your target customers.
Otherwise, they have no good reason to buy from you.
Secret #2 Heart of the proposition
The heart of a winning unique selling proposition is the result of experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customers. The result of experiences.
For example, a customer shopping for an electric drill is looking for one that can deliver holes as easily and conveniently as possible. Also, one that can deliver the most multiple functions.
Secret #3 Articulate for customers
Unique selling propositions need to be articulated for customers … not for your products, services or business processes. Products, services, processes are the vehicles for the proposition delivery.
Secret #4 All businesses have unique selling propositions
Customers perceive relative value in any proposition, even implicit ones … so every business delivers a unique selling proposition (explicit or implicit). You need to design it explicitly.
Don’t let it happen by chance. You don’t win that way.
Secret #5 Become your customers
“Become” your customers instead of just asking them what they want from your business. Listen, observe and study to creatively infer from what customers DO.
Secret #6 Multiple unique selling propositions
When your customers have customers, different USPs are required for different players in the value delivery chain.
Secret #7 Span all your business functions
Look for value across your entire business. Use USPs to govern the span of all your business functions. One set for all functions.
Secret #8 Know how to employ USP’s
People won’t ever buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you. And they notice you only if you have strong and unique selling propositions.
The usual definition of a unique selling proposition is incomplete. It is a promise of something the competition cannot or does not offer.
It must be strong enough to move the masses, i.e., attract new customers.
Unique selling propositions, as defined it like that, are decent, but incomplete, internal tools that can guide your decisions to the right general direction. But nothing more.
Secret # 9 Demonstrate the proof
If you say, my pizza is the best in the world; will people flood your restaurant? No. They won’t believe you.
Without proof, you can’t say much before it starts to sound like marketing talk. No one pays attention. Or remembers. They just don’t believe. No believing, no trust. It is all downhill after that.
For example, I recently saw a digital marketing competitor site where they claimed to be the secret weapon of digital marketing for the most successful companies in the world.
Needless to say, we doubt anyone can take that seriously when nothing supports the claim.
As long as you don’t prove your claims, people are unlikely to believe them. And your unique selling proposition becomes of no use.
Use studies, testimonials, and common sense, among other methods, to prove your claims.
Impressive numbers can be the right choice, but they don’t always work.
Instead, a few expert testimonials make the idea credible. They can even take away the need for you to make any claims’ the testimonials can make the claims for you.
Similarly, you can use testimonials to build your products’ overall perceived value and take away the last doubt people might feel about your promises.
Many businesses don’t help people see what sets the company apart from its competitors. This always amazes us.
They are better than others, and they could prove it. They just don’t do it.
Instead, they try to persuade people with general promises, corporate babble, and feature lists. If your website doesn’t clearly tell visitors what makes you worth their attention, they won’t spend the time to figure it out on their own.
Secret # 10 Be clever in communicating your claims
It’s your job to hit people on the head with what makes you different and worth attention. Clever ways to communicate your claims. In believable ways.
When people understand why they should buy your product instead of any other, they’ll do it.
Examples of how to convert average value propositions into winners
Does your business have several value propositions that you employ? Are they just good enough or are they real winners?
And do you know how to convert average value propositions into winners?
A winning value proposition helps spread word-of-mouth marketing. Keep in mind that your value proposition should identify and remedy an unmet need that your customers face.
It should relieve their pain.
To help you convert so-so value propositions into difference makers, here are some guidelines that will be a big help:
Become your customers
“Become” your customers instead of just asking them what they want from your business. Listen, observe and study to creatively infer from what customers value
As an example, Dutch Boy Paint took the approach to think like their customers. Paint cans are heavy, hard to carry, hard to close, hard to open, hard to pour, and certainly no fun.
They’ve been around for a long time, and most people assumed that there had to be a reason why they were so bad.
Dutch Boy realized that there was no reason. They also realized that the can was an integral part of the product: People don’t buy paint, they buy painted walls, and the can make that process much easier.
Focus on best value
The most useful definition of a value proposition is a believable collection of the most persuasive best values why people should notice you and take the action you’re seeking.
This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.
Let’s take Zappos for example. If you are an online clothing and shoe business like Zappos, with a good selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you?
There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.
You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best in just a few ways. Zappos decided to push to be number one in all things customer service. Doing a great job of that, aren’t they?
A growing business because of their customer service value propositions.
Secrets of value propositions.
Heart of the value proposition
The heart of a winning unique selling propositionis the result of experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customers.
The end result experiences.
For example,the Safelite business model and value propositionsare built around customer convenience and trust. They take their service to the customer and build trust by a super guarantee.
Customers shopping for an auto windshield repair love that Safelite can deliver the repairs as easily and conveniently as possible.
Articulate for customers
Value propositions need to be articulated for customers… not for your products, services or business processes. Products, services, processes are the vehicles for the proposition delivery.
Take a recent JetBlue commercial for a great example of how to articulate value propositions to customers. Have you seen the latest JetBlue commercial design? You know … the one with the great use of the analogy using pigeons?
Quite clever isn’t it, and likely one you will remember and maybe even talk about, right? And perhaps the best example of articulating value propositions in a commercial I have ever seen.
Utilize multiple value propositions
When your customers have customers,different value propositions are required for different players in the value delivery chain.
The Safelite business is a great example of using multiple value propositions at once. While many businesses have a difficult time deriving one good unique selling proposition, a few have defined multiple unique selling propositions.
The best brand we could find with the best multiple selling propositions is Safelite Autoglass. See this case study in the next section.
Creative value proposition employment
People won’t ever buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you. And they notice you only if you have strong and standout value propositions.
Have you seen this Fios commercial? If you have a product that truly discriminates you from your competition, build your story and messages on these discriminators. Several of the most effective value propositions we have seen in a while are shared in these 30 seconds.
As the child in the commercial tries to do things with his TV, his uncle has to tell him that those things don’t exist with their system. But they obviously do in the system the little boy is familiar with at home.
It’s just that the uncle is not aware that they exist since his system doesn’t have them. Don’t need to say much as the visuals do much of the talking. Powerful.
Always demonstrate proof
If you say, my advertising design is the best in the world; will people flood my agency? No. They won’t believe me.
Without proof, you can’t say much before it starts to sound like marketing talk. No one pays attention. Or remembers. They just don’t believe.
No believing, no trust. It is all downhill after that.
For example, I recently saw a digital marketing competitor site where they claimed to be the secret weapon of digital marketing for the most successful companies in the world. Needless to say, we doubt anyone can take that seriously when nothing supports the claim.
As long as you don’t prove your claims, people are unlikely to believe them. And your unique selling proposition becomes of no use.
Here is a very different value proposition that you rarely see used and yet it is easy to demonstrate proof. Toms Shoes are quirky, comfy, light and inexpensive. That alone probably isn’t enough to make a company stand out in the shoe business.
The unique and compelling part of the TOMS Shoes proposition is that they give a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair you purchase. You don’t even have to remember the exact words. The story is what sticks in your head.
Who else cares that much? Very few.
Be clever in communicating claims
It’s your job to hit people on the head with what makes you different and worth attention. Clever ways to communicate your claims. In believable and memorable ways.
Let’s go back to the recent JetBlue commercial for an example of how to be clever in communicating claims of value propositions to customers. Have you seen the latest JetBlue commercial design? You know … the one with the great use of the analogy using pigeons?
Quite clever isn’t it, and likely one you will remember and maybe even talk about, right? And perhaps the best example of communicating value propositions in a commercial I have ever seen.
Strengthening Your VP
As you’ve probably seen from any number of conversion studies, there are a few persuasive elements you can use to strengthen the impact of any value proposition. As marketerSmriti Chawla highlights here, supporting elements can play a very important role in turning a good value proposition into a great one.
Here are a few persuasive elements that add authority to your value proposition:
People like hearing from…well, other people. It’s why customer testimonials are so effective at getting people to consider and believe your offer. (Remember, just because you’re telling the truth doesn’t mean customers will believe you. It’s your job to convince them.)
Assurance
Many companies promise the world, but if you can be specific about what you plan to offer to make sure customers are happy, it will go a long way. Instead of “Satisfaction Guaranteed,” try things like “Fall in love with it or send it back in 30 days, no charge!”
You can also offer assurance through the form of support, community, and content. People love knowing that others will be there to help them with their purchase.
Social proof
Outside of specific testimonials, social proof such as notable press features serve well for customers who might feel hesitant about buying from a new company.
You can also feature some interesting facts about your performance, or the notable brands you serve as we do on the Help Scout homepage.
Boosters for your value proposition
Sometimes it’s the little things that tip the decision in your favor. If all major things are pretty much the same between your and your competitors’ offer, you can win by offering small value-adds. I call them boosters.
These things work well against competitors who do not offer them. Boosters can be things like:
Free shipping
Fast shipping / Next day shipping
Free bonus with a purchase
Free setup/installation
No setup fee
No long-term contract, cancel anytime
Key takeaways
Just remember, a value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using your products or services. Its outcome focused and stressed the business value of your offering.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your unique selling propositions (USP’s)? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers? Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on unique selling propositions from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Facing many new challenges? You bet. Marketplace clutter. New marketing channels. Much more competition. Some that you may not have yet even noticed. And more on the way. Requiring leaders who are more attuned to shaping the future? Absolutely.
If you do not change the direction you may end up where you are heading.
Lao Tzu
One of the most significant challenges facing businesses today is the need to attract and retain the best talent. The talent pool is simply not growing at the rate at which the demand will continue to accelerate. Certainly, a challenge facing businesses big and small.
To meet the challenges ahead new leadership skills and behaviors are essential. We believe today’s business leaders require five key imperatives. These imperatives include the ability to:
Build Relationships
Leaders need to be able to establish and maintain good, effective relationships with their peers, with their employees, with customers, and within their communities. All are of critical importance to a business.
Good relationships can create a boundary-less flow of capability that can be channeled to customers’ highest priorities.
Create Teamwork
Leaders need to create a positive team environment where people are excited about the contribution they can make. Where they are inspired to be actively engaged. Where they understand exactly what is expected of them. They know the bar is set high. These leaders value diversity and foster inclusion and they know how to communicate with force and effect, both inside and outside the business.
Shape the Future
Leaders must be forward-thinkers who are able to envision a future state, set the direction, and then lead others toward that goal. Shaping the future is not just about the internal processes, it also means shaping the courses of action we have available to us in the markets. Expanding our markets, moving adjacently, and dealing directly with customers as well as potential business partners.
Deliver Results
Leaders are ultimately responsible for delivering results and that means continually driving operational excellence, adapting with agility to changing circumstances. The challenge will be to carry that strength forward with future leadership.
Leaders need to be stellar role models. Be completely accountable for all their actions. Be mentors and coaches for all around them… Leaders need to take the high road in pursuit of better performance.
Deliver Results
Leaders are ultimately responsible for delivering results. Quite simply, that means continually driving operational excellence and adapting with agility to changing circumstances. An additional challenge will be to carry that strength forward to the next future leaders
Employees are the most important discriminator in the success of any business. As leaders, we need to ensure that we are creating an environment where employees feel valued and know they are making a contribution to the business.
The bottom line
There’s a passage in Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 novel, The Sun Also Rises, in which a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he answers. “Gradually, then suddenly.” The quote has since become emblematic of how a crisis takes shape. First with small signs you hardly notice and then with shocking impact. Pay attention to this.
What we learned from the experience is that you can’t plan your way out of problems. If we were able to plan effectively, we wouldn’t have been in a crisis in the first place. Our success wasn’t the product of our own brilliance, but our willingness to experiment. That’s how we came across the “happy accident” that led to the events business.
The truth is that it takes some bad luck to get into a crisis and it takes some good luck to get out of one. Sound management can help stem the bleeding, but if you are ever going to rebuild a successful business, you have to experiment and allow for the unexpected.
More reading on social media platforms from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
As the leading signage solutions provider, we often get questions about the key differences and the advantages and disadvantages of indoor and outdoor signages, so we prepared this article to help you pick your next Signarama signage.
Purpose
First off, indoor and outdoor signages differ in purpose, so it’s down to what you want to accomplish if you are choosing between the two.
You can use outdoor signage to appeal to your market. When designed correctly, outdoor signage can help people recognize your brand, services, and products. They might not be aware of it, but you can imprint your brand in people’s thoughts with good outdoor signage.
On the other hand, indoor signages can help you when customers flock into your business as you can use these signages to promote your business even more.
Also, indoor signages can be used to inspire your employees by displaying your company’s goals and philosophy.
While outdoor signages are used more for marketing, indoor signages have a more personal connection with specific information for customers and employees in your business.
When it comes to the purpose of buying signage, there’s no problem with deciding to go for both as they have their purposes and should benefit your business in their unique ways.
Audience
Most likely, your business is in a busy commercial area where lots of things are going on and people are always running about and taking care of their jobs. Because of this, people won’t have a lot of time to stare at your signage.
With appropriate and well-designed outdoor signage, you can keep your market’s attention for the longest time possible. All you need to do is attract people to look at your signage for a few seconds, and your signage has done its job.
After looking at the outdoor signage and getting interested, some customers may go into your establishment.
Here is where indoor signages come into play. With quality indoor signage and well thought of content, you can increase your chances of profit if you do it right.
Material
There are many types of digital signages made with various shapes and materials, and they also come in different sizes ranging from those as small as tablets and as big as a billboard.
When looking for outdoor signages, it’s most common to find problems when examining the material and physical characteristics of signages because they will be outdoors night and day.
You have to worry about its brightness, especially during the day, as you want it to stay readable even under the heat of the sun. Also, it must work well in the dark and not be too bright so you won’t disturb other establishments in your area with too much light.
Also, since you will place it outside, you need to make sure that it’s made of sturdy material that can withstand the heat during the summer and also the winter and rain.
You would also need to consider the size, especially in big areas with other businesses, as you don’t want your signage to fall into obscurity.
For indoor signages, it’s less complicated because you don’t want to worry about the weather and other signages from other businesses. Since it’s your own environment, you can easily take care of it.
When it comes to the screen, LED and LCD are your main choices. If you’re looking for outdoor signage, LED screens are better since they can display the same content for long periods.
On the other hand, LCD screens will work better at displaying changing content in indoor environments.
Never get outdoor signages with LCDs as they can get damaged and are bad at displaying the same image for a long time.
Resolution and plug-and-play integration
Indoor signages are better for more up-close looks, which is why they typically have a highly better resolution than outdoor signages.
When it comes to displaying content, indoor signages are more flexible to work with as they are compatible with third-party controllers and input, while outdoor signages rely on its own software and controller.
Market engagement features
With outdoor signages, there’s a huge potential for reaching your market if you make the content as interesting as possible. It lets you introduce yourself to your market and get them interested. They can be very engaging, but they don’t offer any interaction with the market.
Unlike its counterpart, indoor signages can be equipped with features for customer engagement like touch screen menus, ordering, browsing, and many more.
While both are very engaging, they do it in different ways. Simply put, outdoor signages get people interested, and indoor signages keep them interested.
Integration
There are many ways to arrange your signages, and you need to keep in mind where you’re going to place your signage to make sure that it will fit perfectly.
Also, you need to make sure that your planned signage content is good for where it’s going to be and that it has a structure that can withstand other factors like people and weather.
The bottom line
If you’re deciding between indoor and outdoor signages, why? They are made for different purposes that complement each other. Instead of choosing one, it’s better to get both kinds and reap all the benefits that effective signages have to offer.
To help you choose the right signage for your business, we have a wide range of different signage types and brands. Call us now, and we’ll help you grow your business with your next Signarama signage.
If you want to keep getting regular customers into your business, then the most important thing you can do is to provide an enjoyable in-store shopping experience for each person who steps through the doors to your store.
The more that people feel that you provide good customer service, high-quality products, and a welcoming atmosphere, the more likely they are to not only spend longer shopping in your store but also to return.
There are lots of things you can do to improve the shopping experience within your store; but for now, here are four simple ideas which you could utilize to help you make a difference to your customers.
In-store shopping … be family friendly
While having children running around your store might not be ideal, it is more than likely going to be a frequent occurrence. Many parents have no choice but to bring their children along when they are heading out shopping, and it is often a stressful experience for them.
Therefore, if you can find a way to make your store more appealing to families, you are more likely to keep your customers happy.
For example, one simple way you could do this would be to widen the aisle spacing slightly, so that pushchairs are easily accommodated for. If you want to keep children from running around, then try and provide some stimulus for them as they walk around the store.
Pros and cons of in-store shopping.
For instance, you could paint markings for them to interact with on the floors, such as mini-games like hopscotch.
The happier the children are, the more relaxed the parents will be, and the more time they will spend shopping in your store.
Make shopping straightforward
Most customers do not have the luxury to spend hours roaming through the aisles of your store, looking in detail at every item they come across, and then queuing for hours when they get to the checkout.
Most of your customers will be looking for a shopping experience tailored to their busy schedules, and this is something you need to be able to accommodate.
There are several ways you can do this, such as making sure that every aisle is signposted with a number and a brief description of what can be found there. Items should be grouped appropriately, with the store layout being as ergonomic as possible.
You should also try and make checkout as quickly as possible, such as by utilizing an EMV terminal which takes contactless payments.
Create a community
While your products are important for sales, if you want to promote customer loyalty, and get the local people to back your store, then the most valuable thing you can do is to foster a community with those around you.
People like to return to places where they feel welcome, and the more at home they feel within the environment of your store, the more likely they are to spend longer shopping there.
There are some ways you can get involved with the community, from backing local sports teams and supporting local charities, to hosting events in your store, or even just rewarding local customers with special offers, and giving them loyalty cards with the chance to win rewards.
As people, we are sensory beings, and this is something you should always bear in mind when trying to charm to your customers.
It is important to engage the sense of your customers positively and appealingly, as this is the best way to trigger a strong sensory memory of your business in the minds of your customers and make them want to visit your store again.
There are some ways you can do this: visually, your stock should be laid out neatly, and eye-catching signs with clear writing should be used around the store, with sale signs being comprised of brighter colors. If you sell perfumes or makeup, then it is always wise to have tester bottles, as customers love to be able to interact with the product before they buy them, both through touch and smell.
You should also try and keep the air in the store feeling fresh with a pleasant, but not overpowering smell; this can be achieved by proper ventilation, and thorough cleaning of the store regularly with naturally scented products.
Finally, if you sell food, then on occasion it might be worthwhile offering tasters of certain products a couple of days a week, as this will draw customers in.
The bottom line
We all have busy lives; we’re all pulled in multiple directions all day long. Given an alternative, does anyone want less convenience or to spend more time on their to-do list?
This idea isn’t really new. Corner markets and convenience stores aren’t just competing with the big-box superstores, they flourish. Why? The reason is in their names: They’re right where their customers are, and they’re convenient.
They don’t usually have lines, and they don’t have aisles and aisles of choices to sift through.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
Check out these additional articles on business and its performance in our library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
I have not done any political posts in my previous 12 years of posting. Not really one of my interests. But in this election year of 2020, I am drawn to study the topic of how people choose to select the next president. I will do this by studying the qualities of the past 10 presidents (not political issues).
Select the next President.
Organizational Abilities
A president’s capacity as an organizer includes his ability to build a team and minimizing the tendency of subordinates to tell their boss what they sense he wants to hear. Veterans of the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, and George H. W. Bush presidencies have nothing but praise for their erstwhile chiefs. In contrast, few Johnson, Carter, and Clinton lieutenants emerged from their White House service with unmixed views of the president they served.
Presidents also differ in their ability to avail themselves of a rich and varied fare of advice and information. FDR encouraged diversity in the recommendations that reached him by pitting his assistants against one another. Kennedy’s method was to charge his brother Robert and his alter ego Theodore Sorensen with scrutinizing the proposals of his other advisers for flaws and pitfalls.
The modern president with by far the greatest and most demanding organizational experience was Eisenhower, who had a highly developed view of the matter. “I know of only one way in which you can be sure you have done your best to make a wise decision,” he declared in a 1967 interview.
Good Brain
The President must be a simplifier. Reagan is rightly criticized when he oversimplifies, which is often, but some of his simplifying are just right, not unlike good teaching or preaching.
Good brain.
In abstract intelligence, it could be that L.B.J., Nixon, and Carter would rate highest among the modern Presidents. All suffered from a lack of judgment and proportion, which does not show up in IQ tests.
A President needs a sense of history, including a feel for the situations where history does not apply. Jimmy Carter, despite his speed-reading studiousness and remarkable memory, was strangely deficient here.
A President must offer the country vision, and he must animate his Administration with purposes larger than the enjoyment of office. A visible zest for the job is perfectly legal, even desirable.
A President needs an ever-fresh curiosity about his big and complicated country. He can help overcome his isolation by seeking and taking advice from a broad circle. But many otherwise courageous people will simply not talk candidly to a President. He may be a very courteous listener, as Carter was, and still be incapable of any real exchange except with a very few intimates. Reagan is more open as a personality but not notably open to “new” facts.
Political Perspectives
Lyndon Johnson seemed almost to have taken his methods from the pages of Presidential Power. Within hours after Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson had begun to muster support for major domestic policy departures. He exhibited will as well as skill, cultivating his political reputation by keeping Congress in session until Christmas 1963 in order to prevail in one of his administration’s first legislative contests.
His actions won him strong public support, making it apparent to his opposite numbers on Capitol Hill that it would be politically costly to ignore his demands.
Character and Temperament
The presidential bedrock must be integrity, perceived, and real. (Integrity includes an honorable private life.) There is an unavoidable tension between this necessity and the political necessities of maneuver, indirection, and calculated ambiguity. Of the two masterly political operators among the modern Presidents, F.D.R. was frequently dancing along the ethical borderline, and L.B.J. was often well across it.
The President needs perseverance and personal ambition within healthy limits. A fashionable cynicism is that anybody so ambitious that he would put up with what it takes to get nominated and elected is morally disqualified for the presidency.
Having a Vision
“Vision” is a term with many connotations. One is the capacity to inspire. In this, the rhetorically gifted presidents — Kennedy, Reagan, and above all FDR — excelled. In the narrower meaning employed here, “vision” refers to preoccupation with the content of policies, and the ability to assess their feasibility and the possession of a set of overarching goals.
Here the standouts are Eisenhower, Nixon, and to a lesser extent Ronald Reagan, whose views were poorly grounded in specifics. Vision also encompasses the consistency of viewpoint. Presidents who stand firm are able to set the terms of policy discourse. In effect, they serve as anchors for the rest of the political community.
George H. W. Bush was not alone in lacking “the vision thing.” He falls in a class of presidential pragmatists that includes the bulk of the modern chief executives.
The Body
We prefer Presidents to look like Presidents. F.D.R. did (supremely so), also Ike, J.F.K., Reagan. Other recent incumbents, through no fault of their own, didn’t.
The costs of vision-free leadership include internally inconsistent programs, policies that have unintended consequences, and sheer drift. When it comes to vision, the senior Bush could not have been more different from his son, George W. Bush, for whom having an explicit agenda is a watchword.
A President needs tremendous physical stamina (though George Reedy, one of L.B.J.’s press secretaries, has noted that “no President ever died of overwork”). The 36-primary campaign, whatever else may be said of it, is a rigorous physical exam. We, at least, know that anybody who can get nominated and elected is in good shape
Cognitive Style
Presidents vary widely in their cognitive styles. Jimmy Carter had an engineer’s proclivity to reduce issues to what he perceived to be their component parts. That style served him well in the 1978 Camp David negotiations, but it was ill-suited for providing his administration with a sense of direction.
Another example of strategic intelligence is to be had from a chief executive who will never grace Mount Rushmore: Richard Nixon. Two years before entering the White House, Nixon laid down the goals of moving the United States beyond its military involvement in Vietnam, establishing a balance of power with the Soviet Union, and an opening with China. By the final year of his first term, he had accomplished his purposes.
Having Emotional Intelligence
Four presidents stand out as fundamentally free of distracting emotional perturbations: Eisenhower, Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Four others were marked by emotional undercurrents that did not significantly impair their leadership: Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan.
That leaves Johnson, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton, all of whom were emotionally handicapped. LBJ was subject to mood swings of clinical proportions. Jimmy Carter’s rigidity was a significant impediment to his White House performance. The defective impulse control of Bill Clinton led him into actions that ensued in his impeachment.
Richard Nixon was the most emotionally flawed of the presidents considered here. His anger and suspiciousness were of Shakespearean proportions. He more than any other president summons up the classic notion of a tragic hero who is defeated by the very qualities that brought him success.
Skill as a Communicator
Most presidents have not addressed the public with anything approximating the professionalism of countless educators, members of the clergy, and radio and television broadcasters. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama — and Clinton at his best — are the shining exceptions.
One president who allowed himself to be fazed by an accomplished predecessor was George H. W. Bush, Bush used the White House briefing room for his public communications, only rarely addressing the nation from the Oval Office, and he instructed his speechwriters to temper his prose. Bush’s initial three years of high public approval provide a reminder that formal addresses are not the only way for a president to remain in the good graces of the public.
The bottom line
The moral of this story is that culture can have a significant influence on leadership and team development. You definitely need leadership for the future more than anything else.
If these different thoughts are possessed by your current leadership or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.
Which of these thoughts on leadership collaboration stands out to you? Do you have any other ideas of effective leaders worthy of mention?
Knowing how your website is performing is very important. One way to do this is to measure the growth of your website. Certainly, numbers don’t lie (except they are falsified or tampered with). However, the best SEO metrics to use in measuring the growth of your website is not as easy because of the sheer amount of website metrics available at your disposal. In this article, we will discuss five of the best SEO metrics you should track to determine the growth of your website.
Why Track The Growth of Your Website?
Everyone that invests time, energy and effort in a venture will agree that growth is expected in one form or the other. Because it is expected, it is possible to make assumptions as to the efficacy of what you are doing and assume growth when in reality, no such thing is happening.
Tracking the growth of your website gives you an objective way to measure and quantify actual growth. This will help you determine the effectiveness of your method and strategy and warrant a review and change of approach where growth is not happening as expected.
5 Best SEO Metrics To Determine The Growth of your Website
Organic Search Traffic
The number of people who visit your website by clicking on search engine results is what is referred to by organic search traffic. New websites usually do not have a lot of it. Knowing how much search engine traffic you get monthly is objective proof of the effectiveness of your efforts. Of course, there may be seasonal trends that cause a spike or drop. However, a sustained increase or drop is indicative of something that is working or otherwise.
Conversion rate
Conversion talks about user actions on the website. Depending on the type of website, there are a number of actions that can be possible on a website from email signups to form submissions and even actual product purchases. When conversion rates increase, it also means that your audience is increasing. You’ll agree that audience growth will also mean website growth right? I think so too.
The number of returning visitors
The biggest websites are websites that have their own audience pool – people who like what they are doing and keep coming back, again and again, to check if there are new posts and contents on the blog or website. Measuring how many web users return to your website can help you to know if you are making an impression (and typically, the more of an impression you make on your readers, the more organic growth you will experience)
Referring Domains
An increasing number of backlinks to your website is a good way to measure growth. Much more, an increasing number of backlinks from different domains is even better. When you measure the number of referring domains and it increases, know you are growing.
Engagement metrics
Unique page visits, time spent on-page, and bounce rate can tell you volumes about how your audience engages with your site. An increased number of page visits and a reduced bounce rate is correlated with a growing website.
The bottom line
Metrics might be stressful to measure but they are definitely worth the effort. You cannot know what strategy is working and how well it is working if you do not measure them. After deciding what metric best suits your needs, use a tool like my site-auditor to do a complete analysis of that metric on your website and see just how much it tells you about how well you are growing or otherwise.
In the world of a business environment, the winds of change are always blowing, aren’t they? Sometimes you see the effects, sometimes you choose to ignore them. Not the best approach if you want to provide for business growth and become a winning business.
What would be your answer if you were asked to name the most important business success factors for your business? Would it be the most creative marketing … the best knowledge of your market … your knowledge of your market?
Successful businesses grow. Through better products and processes, they win the favor of customers, increasing their volume and margins. That success often translates into further advantages as they invest in new and better equipment, develop expertise and gain bargaining power with suppliers.
The typical story for why good firms fail is that they somehow lost their way, but as Clayton Christensen explained in The Innovator’s Dilemma, that’s not really true. Yet while he attributes the problem to disruptive innovation, the broader truth is that the likely cause of your business’s future failure is a factor in its success today.
Of course, those answers are important. But let’s expand the list. Here are the top 10 most important business success factors to a winning business that we use most often with our clients:
Business growth … best customer understanding
The one who best understands the customer, his needs, and priorities. One of the most common barriers to being intelligent about customer experience is lack of customer knowledge or understanding. When we talk about segments based on this, we’re looking through two primary lenses:
Needs: What your customers actually want, need and expect from you.
Value: What your customers are (or maybe) worth to your firm.
When most companies talk about segmenting customers, they mean segmenting by value. They divide customers into segments based on actual or potential sales. They strive to understand how much revenue they could get from a given group of customers.
Value segmentation is important from the company’s perspective; it helps your company know which customers it makes sense to focus efforts and resources. It also points toward groups who might be better served with a lower-touch, lower-cost digital strategy.
It’s an important first step. But most companies stop here. You cannot afford to. Why? Value segmentation doesn’t help you understand what one customer needs versus another. The bottom line is that if you don’t segment customers by their individual needs, it will be incredibly difficult to deliver exceptional customer experience, much less remain competitive.
The one who can best build relationships with both new and existing customers. Business is a people activity, people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Ones with whom they have relationships are at the top of the desirable business option list. The stronger the relationships with your customers, the greater will be their trust and loyalty in your business. So it is very logical for businesses to build customer relationships.
Studies show time and again, loyal customers are the aptest to tell their friends about your business, creating strong word of mouth marketing. And word of mouth marketing is the most important element of any marketing campaign.
Stick to your knitting
There is an expression that holds a lot of wisdom for me, “Stick to your knitting.” It means stick to what you know and what you are good at. How often have we disconnected from our true purpose to pursue some hare-brained scheme or take on some project because it seems to offer an easy path to success?
I have nothing against becoming rich nor do I have a problem with things that are easy. It’s just that to be really successful we have to be centered in who we are and stick to those things (our knitting) that allow is to express our gifts and strengths.
Types of business growth … success starts with your people
One of the most important parts of a brand is the people in the business. They’re living the brand every day. Your people need to know the brand thinking and where your brand is heading.
It doesn’t matter if they are customer-facing, or making the products your customers buy, they need an understanding of your brand vision to help deliver it. Remember, just putting them in a company uniform doesn’t mean they will be on brand!
People matter
Whether it’s your customers, team, community, vendors or even your competition, every individual around you is uniquely important. They all have hopes and dreams. They all have fears and struggles. They are humans, not units of production.
Every single one deserves to be treated with respect, dignity and a caring heart. Doing that well makes all your other tasks much easier.
As a team leader, be consumed with the needs of your team. Are you constantly doing what’s best for them? Treat your team like family, and they will act like family. You’ll be paid back in full with faithfulness, dependability, and profits.
Excellence matters.
Excellence matters
When it comes to your team, having the right people in the right positions allows you to do your best work.
Take plenty of time when filling positions. Pray for God to bring the right people in— and keep the crazy people out!
The concept of business growth … bias for action
The first step in creating a successful culture of execution is creating a bias toward action. People who make things happen need to be praised and rewarded. People who don’t should be coached to change, or weeded out.
Failure cannot be unduly punished. Unless people feel free to make mistakes, they will not feel free to take bold actions.
In their book “In Search of Excellence,” Tom Peters and Robert Waterman list a “bias for action” as the first of eight attributes that distinguish excellent and innovative companies.
Many of the companies they studied were very “analytical in their approach to decision making, but they are not paralyzed by that fact (as so many others seem to be.)
Motivated, talented team
The one with the best motivated and talented team. My choice of the more important of these two? The best motivated is my choice every time.
Keeping team skills refreshed
The one who keeps the knowledge and skills of his team highly refreshed and honed. Many organizations are becoming increasingly aware that they need to maximize the skills of their workforce, in order to compete and grow.
Related post: 10 Lessons for Successful Entrepreneurs You Need to Know
Essential skills help people perform the tasks required by their occupation, provide people with a foundation for learning other skills, and enhance people’s ability to innovate and adapt to workplace change. Most essential skills for us include writing, oral communication, collaboration, computer use, and continuous learning.
Best adapts to change
The one who closely observes the changes in the environment and best adapt to those changes and trends. At the early beginning of the trend. No waiting.
Key takeaway
Winning businesses have a common trait … a unique and different point of view. A unique personality. Winning business requires you to pick your spots that is to do the special things for special customers.
Do you have the winning equation for the success of your business?
What are some of your experiences with the success factors of your business?
Need some help in finding ways to grow your customers? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your business learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on business lessons from our library:
You only have to do very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong. Great quote from Warren Buffet. He is spot on with that comment, yes? Doing things wrong far outweighs doing things right. Especially in building a business that will deliver results.
Building isn’t easy, or we’d already be doing all this. We need to demand more of our political leaders, of our CEOs, our entrepreneurs, our investors. We need to demand more of our culture, of our society. And we need to demand more from one another. We’re all necessary, and we can all contribute, to building.
Applying state-of-the-art tools and processes is widely seen as a mark of excellence. So, perhaps not surprisingly, “best practice” is one of those terms that you constantly hear in corporate circles. Managers often see implementing them as key to their performance.
Yet many experts point out that adopting so-called best practices can stifle your ability to innovate. After all, once you designate a particular way of doing things as “best,” who is going to question it? And if nobody questions it, it won’t be improved.
Still, even keeping those objections in mind, best practices can be immensely valuable, if approached with open eyes and good sense. The truth is that much like any business process, they’re only as good as the managers who implement them. While many do use best practices as a crutch, they can also be used as a platform from which to innovate.
Why? Our view is that mistakes are more prevalent and certainly more costly.
That is why we believe if you are planning on starting a new business, it is critical to spend time on these 9 recommendations that will help deliver results:
Focused business plan
It’s not clear to us why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often focused on too many things. If you want to maximize success, the key is to focus on five topics. We recommend dividing the business plan into these five sections:
Be a creator of change. Watch for trends in the market and what your customers are doing. Stay ahead of the change curve by adapting before you have to. Remember the status quo is usually your worst enemy.
Network for support
Find local business leaders that can exchange ideas and support your thinking on the day to day activities. Activities like being a sounding board, idea generation, and offering lessons learned.
They often see solutions that you can’t see. You can do the same for them. Create a large network and make it social … like a casual advisory board.
Building a business … work on the right things
Sounds trivial, doesn’t it? But you would be amazed at how many of our clients have their priority lists inverted. Or work on things that should be ignored.
Tackle real problems on behalf of your customers, many of which may challenge the status quo.
Be curious. Experiment on a small scale often and learn. Place lots of small bets to see what will work best. Don’t be afraid of unconventional paths.
Building a business … don’t get totally consumed
Be a team player … caring about your employees. Delegate and empower them to act on your behalf. Remember that you can’t do everything or be everywhere.
Learn to back away occasionally. Maybe an afternoon … sometimes for a day. Find a balance between work and life that works for you.
How to build a business from scratch … gain customer insights
Unlike big companies, a small business gives you the opportunity to interact with customers on a daily basis. Make use of these interactions by gaining a better knowledge of their wants and needs. Ask good questions, listen carefully, and take notes.
You will be amazed at how eager many are to help and what you can learn. Customer insights are one of your most valuable assets.
Don’t hold back
Tell people about your ideas. Get feedback from customers, suppliers, and even your competitors. Talk with anyone who seems interested. Many will be both willing and able to offer ideas and advice.
Building a small business to have fun
You need to wear your enthusiasm and passion always. And here’s the thing. You really can’t be enthusiastic and show passion if you aren’t having fun. The key is to stay the course, with an even keel, and enjoy the ride.
My discussions with many small business owners over the last several years led me to create this list of recommendations. Guess what? They are not that different from my own personal lessons.
The bottom line
Did you know Leonardo Da Vinci’s life as a creative thinker provides inspiration and lessons to learn for companies working in the creative sector? The lessons above have a direct relationship with the design and innovation process inside companies.
Also, they are linked with different creative thinking and problem-solving tools and methods which can be implemented to connect between different patterns to reach creative ideas and solutions. Do you see?
Very, very few of Da Vinci’s abilities are in the populace. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be creative … it can be learned. Can you use these lessons to learn to see or see better? Give it a try. Practice and be persistent. Stick with it, and over the long haul, you will see some good dividends.
Your idea.
Follow these simple tips and you will be well on your way to the results you are looking for.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to continually improving your business learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on small business from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
