by Brian Mawdsley | Oct 12, 2021 | Business
The world of customer relations and marketing is full of specialized terminology, making it easy to feel confused. For this reason, we have decided to dedicate an article to exploring the differences between the sales pipeline vs. sales funnel. Honestly, many people consider them to be the same and use the terms interchangeably. However, we hope you’ll be able to gain more understanding and use that knowledge to communicate with your colleagues accurately. If you learn the differences and carefully plan your marketing campaign, you will surely see an increase in sales.
I. What is a sales pipeline?
When determining what’s the difference between a sales pipeline vs. sales funnel, it’s best to start with accurate definitions. A sales pipeline constitutes all the different stages potential clients, called prospects, need to go through before becoming paying customers. It all begins with lead generation, and then sales representatives follow through until a sale is made.
Sales pipelines usually closely examine every individual stage in the process of attaining customers. This is done from the perspective of the company. The stages represented in a pipeline are there to reflect what the seller does during the entire sales process.
You can obtain a lot of relevant sales data by examining the sales pipeline and scoring leads.
The stages of a sales pipeline
Here is where things can get a little bit complicated. Different companies sometimes use various definitions, terms, and stages to represent their pipeline. Likewise, companies will commonly develop an internal jargon. As a result, you will need to make sure you are on the same page with the other team members and that your sales pipeline is handled the right way. This is especially important for managerial positions that can call for a ‘pipeline meeting’ and leave their team confused.
Here are the typical stages of a sales pipeline:
- Prospect or lead generation. Some companies don’t include this as the first step. They consider the pipeline stages to begin after they have already obtained leads. However, generating leads is where it all starts.
- Qualification. Does the lead have the potential to become a paying customer? You can score leads and allow sales teams to better focus their efforts.
- Meeting. In this stage, the sales representative discusses options with the prospect. Communication can also take the form of a call and take place over multiple interactions with a prospect. A common example of this is email communication.
- Proposal. Send a detailed quote to the prospect, which includes costs, terms, and conditions.
- Closing. The final negotiations that lead to the contracts being signed. Now the prospect becomes a customer.
II. What is a sales funnel?
Now it’s time to look at the other side of the equation in the sales pipeline vs. sales funnel. It’s commonly agreed that a sales funnel represents the journey prospective customers take to make it through all the stages of the pipeline. The sales funnel is centered on the customer and their progress towards making a purchase. The stages here are based on what the customer is going through.
Approach the sales funnel with your customer in mind to make the user experience rewarding.
Taking the customer’s point of view into account is an important part of design thinking. Whenever possible, you should approach the design of products, services, and processes with the goal of improving the user experience. Additionally, sales funnels also examine the number of prospects that make it through towards a paying customer. Therefore, relevant metrics are the number of prospects and the conversion rates. Consequently, this allows for reasonably accurate sales forecasts based on lead volume and previous sales data.
Stages of a sales funnel
Things are a bit more uniform this time around, and most companies have a similar distribution of stages.
The stages of a sales funnel are:
- Awareness. The prospect is currently looking for ways to understand the problem they are having. This is when they first hear about your brand and what you offer. Customers can be informed of your existence by a Google search, or your marketing efforts.
- Interest. Now that the prospect has learned about your product or service, they begin to do more detailed research. They can look into your products and services and realize they are the solution to their needs.
- Intent. In this stage, the prospect is seriously considering buying from you. Now they need to make sure that what you are offering is going to meet their demands.
- Purchase. The stage where the sale is made and contracts are signed. Unfortunately, there is no time to rest since the sales funnel isn’t over yet.
- Loyalty. You should always aim to provide long-term value in order to ensure repeat sales and get referrals. Customer loyalty is also the best way to build credibility in your industry.
Similarities between the pipeline and funnel
We have previously looked at their individual characteristics and compared sales pipeline vs. sales funnel to determine the difference. However, there are some similarities and things that tie them together. In both the pipeline and the funnel, fewer prospects will make it through the various stages compared to the beginning. Therefore, if visually represented, both can seem wide to begin with and narrow at the end. Since they both have a funnel-like shape, it can be easy to confuse them.
Interact directly with your prospects to turn them into customers.
Additionally, they both deal with the progress of leads towards paying customers. If your business is struggling to turn leads into customers, then you should consult the experts from Convert More. They have developed a smart call algorithm that automatically connects customers to your sales team. Direct interaction between website visitors and your employees is the best way to boost sales and improve the customer experience.
Drawing the final conclusions
When looking at the differences between the sales pipeline vs. sales funnel, it’s easy to come to a few conclusions. Although they both deal with the sales process, the main difference is in perspective and approach. The sales pipeline looks from the company’s perspective and is almost a guide to which steps to take. On the other hand, the sales funnel deals with the journey of the customer. You can use both to obtain large amounts of data and help with sales. Thus, it’s not a matter of which approach to take; rather, they represent flip sides of the same coin.
by Brian Mawdsley | Sep 2, 2021 | Business, SEO, Websites
Ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021
A website is as crucial for a business nowadays as brick-and-mortar stores were in the past. If you don’t have one, it’s like your company doesn’t exist. These days, a site can be your shop window, a counter for selling wares, or a contact center. As a matter of fact, it can be all three of these things at the same time. However, it can be only as useful as you make it. If your competition shows up higher on the SERPs, you’ll have difficulty reaching your target audience. To help you get in front of them, we’ll share a few ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021.
As you already know, SEO can help your business in many ways. But the main benefit of getting a good score is that your site will be visible and ranked well. If you pay attention to all the right things, customers shouldn’t have a hard time finding you. On the contrary, they’ll see your site anywhere they look online.
But what are these things you should focus on? Let’s take a look.
Find out the best ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021.
Use responsive design and connect to mobile users
Responsive design is one of the crucial things when it comes to making your website a success. If you want your site to be SEO-friendly, you can’t go without it. But, what is responsive design exactly?
It allows your website to adapt to any device the user is utilizing. So, they can search through your pages on a phone, tablet, or laptop. No matter what they pick, they’ll see the best version of the site for the device they’re using.
If you don’t go with it, people who visit your site on their phones will see a desktop version. Text will be tiny, they won’t see the images, and clicking on links will be trouble. So, they’ll leave, and that will send a bad signal to Google.
As experts from WP Full Care love to put it, the importance of an SEO-friendly website is in that it keeps traffic on your page for longer. If people spend a lot of time on a page they click on, for Google, it means they have a good time, so it’s much more likely for it to recommend the page to other users. And that’s the effect you want to produce.
Create the right kind of content
If you want to have a successful website, you must have a content marketing strategy in place. Content is the king for many reasons. It drives traffic to your site, engages your leads, and you can use it to build credibility in your industry. Now, there are a couple of things you need to think about when it comes to content, and these are:
- Picking the kind of content you want to make
- Choosing your topics
Regarding the former, you don’t have to only go for one type of content. People love to consume different kinds of formats, so feel free to get creative. However, you should know that long blog posts will bring you the most engagement, and videos are a close second. So, keep that in mind when making your strategy.
And when it comes to the topics for your content, things get a bit tricky. You want to find something that your audience wants to know, but that’s hard to find online. You can also work on the topics already well covered, but you have to find a way to be interesting and talk about them like no one else. One of the best ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021 is to be unique. And trust us, that sounds a lot easier than it really is.
Text content will still get you the most engagement, but the video isn’t that far behind.
Improve your page load time
Your website’s load time is an essential factor in your SEO friendliness. The quicker your pages load, the faster the users will get to the information they’re after. So, you’re eliminating the risk of them bouncing to a competitor’s site.
To improve your load time, first look at the images on your site. They’re great additions, but if they’re too large, they can make a mess and slow down your pages almost to a halt. Compress them, and your site should run more smoothly.
On the other hand, there are many more things that can make your site run more slowly, deeming website maintenance necessary. To keep it running at all times, you need to maintain your website correctly and on schedule. The last thing you want is to find out that your site has been down for a whole day because of a bug that you could fix in five minutes.
Connect to social media
You can connect your site to social media and get a lot of publicity and engagement from it. Make it possible for your visitors to share your content directly from their profiles, and that will bring you more engagement and chances to sell.
Moreover, if you show your social media profiles on your site, people who stumble upon it will know right away that you’re a legit business. Google’s algorithm also likes to see your site and social profiles connected, so you’ll get a pat on the back there, as well.
And finally, you can use social media to promote your business. Some networks like text-heavy promotions, while others are all about pictures. Of course, there’s no reason why you should utilize them both. The more channels you’re on, the broader audience you can reach, and that’s always good for business. Learn how to make your brand stand out on social media and get to your customers through their preferred channel.
More than half of the world’s population is on social media, so your site needs to be connected to them.
Conclusion
Now, you know some of the best ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021. However, these aren’t all of them. There are so many things you can do to attract the attention of both search engines and visitors. But what you need to understand is that the people are who you want to please. If you make them search for your site and stay on it, Google will boost your rank. Make your site attractive to your visitors, and you will have done almost all the job. It’s as easy.
Meta: Get to learn more about the ways to make your website SEO-friendly in 2021. Find out what you should do and what you should stay away from.
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by Brian Mawdsley | Aug 6, 2021 | Online Brand Building, Online Marketing, SEO, Websites
Keywords are the essential part of every search on the internet. They are specific terms people use when they want to find information about something, whether it’s when buying a particular product or reading about various topics. For a website owner, knowing how to find the best keywords for optimizing your website is vital in many ways. Basically, keywords can help you rank your content higher in search result pages. If chosen carefully, they will help you match your business with searchers’ intentions. As a result, your business will improve online visibility, get more traffic, and increase conversion rates.
How to find the best keywords for your website
To improve your online visibility, you have to optimize the content for both searchers and search engines. The primary goal here is to get ranked on the first page because it drives the most traffic. But, optimization can be an extremely time-consuming task and often requires you to call SEO experts for help. Before you do it, however, make some effort to understand how it’s working so you can properly plan your potential strategies.
To help you better understand keyword research, here is a brief explanation about how it works, and what steps it includes:
- Understand what keywords are
- Discern the three main factors
- Be ready to use keywords effectively
- Explore your niche and know your audience
- Define your goals and potential keywords ideas
- Make a list of focus keywords
- Use keyword research tools to help you
- Analyze your existing content
- Check your competitors’ keywords
1. Understand what keywords are
The first step is to understand what keywords are. As mentioned above, keywords are terms people type in search engines. You can basically utilize these terms in your content to better connect your pages with potential visitors. Since search engines will crawl everything on your website, keywords, along with other optimization techniques, will play an important role. That’s why the crucial part of every SEO strategy is to discover keyword opportunities and build your content around them.
2. Discern the three main factors
To be able to properly choose the right keywords, it’s fundamental to discern the three main factors:
- Relevance – your content will rank higher only if it’s relevant for search queries. Everything you place on your website has to contain proper keywords, relevant to the search intents. On the other side, mixing and matching unsuitable terms within your content won’t give you any results.
- Volume – there is no point in having a unique keyword spread throughout your content if no one is looking for such a term. This is why you need to consider the volume before you decide which keywords you want to compete for.
- Authority – authoritative content can help you win a high ranking on Google and other search engines. This is also reflecting on the choice of keywords. If you want to compete for specific keywords, you have to be the authority in the field. Otherwise, you won’t be able to compete with large, established, and resourceful websites.
3. Be ready to use keywords effectively
Before you make your list of keywords, make sure you first understand how you will use them later on. And in what amount they will be implemented in your content. While placing keywords with high volume inside the content will help you, don’t overdo it because it may get your website penalized. Once, you could achieve high keyword density by stuffing your content with countless keywords. And many websites were exploiting it. However, today, it’s crucial to avoid such behavior because search engines are condemning it.
Another factor to consider is the natural placement of keywords inside the content. They should add value to your content, so they should not be forcefully injected only for the sake of placement, mostly because it’s looking unnatural and doesn’t really contribute to user experience.
Finally, avoid using any black hat SEO techniques.
4. Explore your niche and know your audience
The next step in the process is exploring your niche and getting to know your audience. In general, you will have a list of topics you want to cover and use them as a “seeding place” for your keywords. Remember, there is no such a thing as the best keywords, only those that your audience is usually looking for. With this in mind, researching and focusing on specific audiences and their interests can help you collect more reliable keywords. Make sure you know what their needs, interests, and problems are, so you can provide appropriate content for their intent.
Explore your audience needs and search intents for the best SEO results.
5. Define your goals and potential keywords ideas
The previous step will help you figure out in what direction to point your SEO strategy. But, without clearly defining your goals, you won’t get too far. For effective marketing, you need to define and then align your goals with the search terms you will use. Think from the users’ perspective and create content that matches their interests.
If, for example, your audience are pet owners, set goals to help them in more means than simply offering them to buy pet food. Address their problems and offer solutions and guidance through relevant subjects on your blog. This, eventually, gives you additional space for implementing various relevant keywords.
6. Make a list of focus keywords
Now, you are ready to create a list of potential keywords you will use. This includes the list of focus keywords and topics related to your brand. But also the long-tail keywords, that the team behind azcitationservices.com argues are more descriptive and easier to rank for. While creating the list, think about everything your audience might be looking for.
It’s better to create an extensive keyword list you can trim later on.
7. Use keyword research tools to help you
Once you have your list, it’s time to expand it further and filter unnecessary terms out. For this, you will need proper SEO tools to help you. Without them, it will be impossible to analyze the potential of each keyword. Some of the most popular keyword research and SEO tools are:
- Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer
- SEMrush
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
- Ubersuggest
- Google Search Console
- and other
Each of the tools can help you determine which keywords to use. You can analyze their volume and other characteristics but also use them to find variations and additional suggestions.
8. Analyze your existing content
Finding the new keywords for optimizing your content is fundamental for further development. But, what about your existing content? To make the best out of your SEO efforts, you also need to analyze what you already have. Once you perform quality analysis, you will be able to correct the eventual errors. And, you will be able to better interconnect your existing content with new. Also, this step may give you additional keywords ideas, or help you realize which parts you want to emphasize more in the future.
Always audit your website and analyze what you have when making plans.
9. Check your competitors’ keywords
Finally, you want to be aware of your competitors’ strategies. The more you understand what’s going on in your niche, the better plans you will make. This will help you filter out the keywords that are too hard to compete. And will help you find potential gaps to fill in with your content.
By following these steps, you will be able to find the best keywords for optimizing your website content. It will eventually help you reach the right audience; Improve your overall online visibility; Increase the traffic of your website; And help you increase conversions. But, don’t forget that optimization is an ongoing process. For the best results, you will have to constantly work on your SEO.
Meta: Learn how to find the best keywords for optimizing your website content so you can rank higher in Google and other search engines.
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by Brian Mawdsley | Jul 29, 2021 | Business, Digital Media
What is a Blockchain Domain and Should You Buy One?
Get yourself simple, human-readable blockchain domain names with which you can receive all cryptocurrencies, and build censorship-resistant websites that only you can put up and takedown
What is a blockchain domain?
A blockchain domain is a blockchain-based domain name. That is, a blockchain domain can be assigned to a website with which you want to transmit any transaction, document, private key, or payment that you want to do using a blockchain domain, and can even have its data encrypted or under protection, which is more than any other domain type. The blockchain domain’s data is always encrypted so that only you (or your transaction partner) can decrypt the data and it can be transferred and exchanged between you or your transactions partner, only if you are using the same blockchain domain name. Here is an example of a web domain registration which you could use to create a blockchain domain for a website that you want to use to handle transactions using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.
Why would you want to buy one?
Thanks to Lightning Network (previously called Zak protocol), it is now relatively trivial to carry out very fast, low-cost, anonymous transactions, including microtransactions such as buying a cup of coffee using a regular currency. With bitcoin, this is cumbersome, expensive, and also violates the security of the network due to transaction confirmation delays. With Lightning, you can pay anyone instantly, on any device, using any currency, for just pennies in fees. Note that there are other ways to do this (the above works with the most popular one in existence today, which is bitcoin), but lightning is the most famous. Blockchain domain name hosting is a relatively new concept in the sense that it allows you to host websites with a unique, human-readable domain.
How do you buy a blockchain domain?
You buy it for a cryptocurrency of your choice on the main market, and there are tons of cryptocurrency exchanges for different cryptocurrencies. For example, the marketplaces are Coinbazaar, Kraken, Binance, CryptoMarket, ACX, and many others. Once you have found a suitable domain, contact the company or domain owner and buy it for a token. So the first thing is to buy a cryptocurrency, the second is to buy a domain name. That’s it. How do you create a domain name with a blockchain? As said before, the blockchain domain names are human-readable and therefore easy to implement. The easiest way to implement a blockchain domain name is to ask some people to help you to build it on Github. In most cases, they will agree to this and will modify the domain and write the code.
How much does it cost?
Prices are always based on demand. All other factors being equal, prices are based on the top 1000 domain names. You can get yourself a domain name from 1 domain name provider for as little as $12. There are of course always opportunities to get the cheapest domain name. How do I buy domain names from one domain name provider? Depending on your preference, you can choose to purchase your domain names on a domain name auction site, on a decentralized marketplace like NameCoin or on a centralized domain name provider like Name.com.
Conclusion
Your personal blockchain could have less bitcoin and do more. Our team built a completely secure, decentralized, and encrypted block chain-powered blockchain network for small, medium, and large organizations. We released it to the community, the next step for any new system is to start monetizing it with either subscriptions or consulting. If you have any questions regarding blockchain domain name buying, please leave a comment, we will be happy to help you.
by Brian Mawdsley | Jul 20, 2021 | Food for thought
Design Thinking: A Useful Tool for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
I assumed design thinking was just a buzzword that some people were using to sound smart.
What is design thinking?
Design thinking is a global development mindset that’s a tool for decision makers to develop products, services, processes, and organizations for a better quality of life for individuals and communities. The process aims to answer a long-term question, based on what’s needed at the current time and the future, not what’s convenient or practical. In practice, it’s seen as an approach that demands a sustainable approach to the design of new products, services, processes and organizations. Now, if you’re not familiar with the term design thinking, you’re in good company. In fact, most people aren’t, according to Richard Baraniuk, author of Designing for Impact: A Handbook of Design Thinking. He states in a 2014 TEDx talk: “Designers haven’t explained why they do things the way they do.
The process of design thinking
Design thinking is a design strategy used by startups, big companies and established organizations to create value. It’s a process that is used to come up with innovative solutions to meet business challenges, implement them, measure the effects and then iterate based on customer feedback. The most impressive part is that this is not new. Mark Wilson, CEO of Zipline Aerospace, recognized the importance of designing and innovation in the business world and decided to work on a course called ‘design thinking’. Zipline is a startup that makes drones that are able to deliver life-saving medicine to remote regions. To do this, Wilson designed a design process from the ground up that involved all the necessary disciplines.
Design thinking as a tool for business
At the fifth Annual Five O’Clock Club on Innovation that took place in San Francisco, a series of panels focused on design thinking in small business and entrepreneurship. In particular, panelists discussed design thinking in entrepreneurship and how it could benefit any business. Panelists included Roger Martin, a professor of management at the University of Toronto. He is also the Chairman of the University’s Rotman School of Management. Dr. Martin has many notable achievements including serving on the council of the Prime Minister of Canada and the president of the World Economic Forum. He also has many awards and was named one of Canada’s 25 most influential people in 2013. He talked about the role of design thinking and its impacts on businesses.
Design thinking as a way of life
Imagine, instead, that you come to business after having spent years in industry, having worked in hardware and software design. Having to design products for the benefit of customers, instead of the benefit of companies or designers, in order to keep a job. Or imagine that you work in the building industry and have to try to invent, for your client, a product that solves their building problems, rather than developing a bespoke piece of their product based on their needs. Or consider a startup in a developing nation, where you don’t have access to big business resources and can’t afford to pay consultants to test your product. With these experiences in mind, what is it you’re trying to do? You’re trying to make a difference for people. You’re trying to change a business or industry.
Conclusion
I’ve recently learned that it’s an actual thing, and it’s incredibly useful for entrepreneurs and small businesses to get creative, make something that people want and then market it for a profit. So let’s do that. Here are some ideas I found useful for Design Thinking at both a high level and an in-depth design level. Design Thinking 101: The Basics Starting with the basics of Design Thinking is a good way to start. What does it involve? The process involves looking at customers as individuals and understanding what drives their behaviors and passions. Most importantly, what drives their desires and what they don’t like. If you can understand these two aspects of customers, then you’ve got a great starting place.
