Lunch & Learn |
Corbitt Chandler of Apex Current taught our first session of March Sales Funnel Madness at Forge! Apex Current focuses on performance-driven Facebook ads so Corbitt is certainly knowledgeable about how to establish an effective sales funnel for different types of companies.
Check out our PDF that summarizes Corbitt’s Lunch & Learn. Complete with information on how to structure your landing page, the anatomy of a sales funnel, the importance of retargeting your audience and a link to Corbitt’s personal ROI Calculator.
Lunch & Learn |
Do you ever feel confused by LinkedIn? Do you wonder if you’re utilizing LinkedIn in the best way possible? Donna Gilliland, Founder of MOSTraining Inc. recently taught us the basics of how to best use LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has over 500 million users! It truly is a powerful tool you can use to help grow your business and brand. Entrepreneurs especially tend to engage heavily on LinkedIn. Donna gave us a few steps for starting a LinkedIn profile (or just coming to finally try out LinkedIn):
Know your goals for being on LinkedIn.
You should really sit down and write our your goals! And create your LinkedIn profile specifically to meet those goals. Start by gathering all of your information: job history, education, skills, certifications, articles, memberships, etc.
Focus on choosing the right background image, profile picture and headliner. Your profile is the first thing people see when they search your name!
Recommend others and build up your own recommendations.
But never accept a recommendation from someone who knows nothing about your work! Also don’t recommend someone who you haven’t worked directly with. When someone recommends you, do the same for them!
Make sure you are findable in LinkedIn Advanced Searches.
In order for people you find you, you must fill out your profile in detail! Use keywords strategically- don’t be guilty of keyword stuffing! Also use conventional job titles- don’t use ‘cute titles.”
Profile tips: you must have a profile picture, add your current position to your profile, add at least 5 skills to your profile and include your city!
Join LinkedIn Groups.
Choose groups based on your industry and interests! Make sure you contribute to those groups- be engaging and helpful! Showcase your expertise and network with industry leaders. Just remember that groups appear on your profile!
Continually add status updates!
LinkedIn Publisher is a blogging tool that can be utilized through your profile. This is a blog within your profile that can showcase your expertise and you can build your own following! Your content becomes part of your profile. Status Updates can help you gain visibility, share information, attract new clients, etc.
Follow LinkedIn Company Pages.
These are great sources of information! You can stay on top of what your competitors are doing too. Be sure to follow your customers’ pages and also your vendors’ pages too.
Thank you Donna for all of this valuable information! I think we all have a checklist of things we can do to improve each of our LinkedIn profiles. Click below to download Donna’s PDF from this Lunch & Learn event. Join us at Forge for future events by checking out our Facebook page!
Lunch & Learn |
In March Forge is focusing on the importance of sales funnels! Sales funnels illustrate the journey that your prospective customers go through on their way to buying your service or product. You have to take people through the funnel journey in order to get a new client! Josh Rhodes emphasized this when he talked about the importance of sales and the sales funnel at our last Business Breakthrough Session.
“Sales is the oxygen mask of your company.”
Josh Rhodes, CEO of Big Lead Gen Inc.
We have two Lunch & Learn events planned for March 13 and March 20. First, we’ll be hearing from Corbitt Chandler- the Founder and CEO of Apex Current. Apex Current uses data and analytics to create highly targeted digital marketing campaigns for your audience and CRM automation to generate qualified leads, sales, new customers and repeat buyers. Before Apex Current, Corbitt was the Vice President of Marketing for Iron Tribe for nearly three years. Iron Tribe is a fitness chain with nearly 40 locations across the Southeastern United States. Corbitt knows the importance of sales funnels! He’ll be teaching us “Effective Sales Funnels” – check out the Facebook event for more information!
Our second event will be taught by Will Yarbrough, the Sales Manager of Fleetio. Fleetio Manage helps you control the chaos of fleet operations, it’s an all-in-one fleet management software for fleets of all sizes. And Fleetio Drive tracks drivers and monitor driving behavior using only smartphones. He will be focusing on “Feeding the Funnel and Making it Count.” In our second Business Breakthrough Session, Tony Summerville (Founder of Fleetio) emphasized the importance of the sales funnel for his company. Will is here to expand on the journey their customers take! Click here to RSVP to the event.
As Josh Rhodes said, “You must perfect your funnel! These are the progressive micro commitments that your customer takes as they progress toward purchasing.” Let’s focus on sales funnels and learn together. Join us at Forge for these two events!
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Forge News and Updates |
Online entrepreneur Josh Rhodes of Groovy Marketing and Big Lead Gen Inc. taught Forge members How To Go From Entrepreneur to CEO at our February Business Breakthrough Session. Josh has great advice on sales funnels, metrics, profitability and much more! Watch the video here.
6 Reasons Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck:
1. They don’t think sales first.
Sales is the oxygen of your business! You need sales to reach your goals. You don’t have to perfect your product before putting it out there.
2. They try to do too much.
You can’t be all things to all people! You need to know your strengths and stick to it. For example, Chick-Fil-A sticks to chicken!
3. They never identify the life cycle of a business and where they are in it.
from Les McKeown’s Predictable Success
4. They don’t understand risk.
Treat risk like an asset to leverage!
5. They don’t establish metrics.
Metrics give you control. When you have metrics and know them and they’re accurate, you have control over the velocity and trajectory of your business. Find the things you can measure every week. For example: respond to every customer support inquiry everyday by the end of the day.
To grow any company, there are three primary metrics: new customers, average cart/transaction value and customer lifetime value.
6. They don’t keep the company’s core values in mind when hiring.
Big Lead Gen Inc. knows their core values and only hires people who align with that. If an employee is amazingly smart but not coachable, it will sink the ship. Hire slow and fire fast!
So you may be asking yourself “What now?” Josh says now focus on perfecting your sales funnel! We will bring you more information on that soon! Also check out this section of his website where he linked several of his resources and helpful books.
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Lunch & Learn |
Paul Martin has been working with communications teams across the nation for over 20 years. He coaches all types of businesses in how to connect and grow their brands to be more cost-effective and successful. This week he taught us how to use video to grow a business.
Video was the fastest growing marketing medium in 2017. In 2018, if you don’t have videos in your marketing strategy, you’re missing business. Paul taught us what to do to get started making videos that convert.
The Power of Video: Why?
Paul emphasized that video marketing creates stronger customer engagement and increases trust. And 64% of consumers purchase after watching branded social content. Just using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts the open rate by 19%!
The Power of Video: What?
What makes a good video to grow your business? Great marketing videos engage two parts of our brain in the right order: ordering our experience and constructing our reality. Good videos also share some kind of new understanding. Great videos show us what that new understanding means for us!
The Power of Video: How?
Great marketing videos tell a story instead of making a sale. Focus on introducing a character and then get right to the conflict. Then you should provide a solution and reject it! Immediately after, provide a better solution to the problem. But leave the solution unfinished.
Everyone will orient themselves within the story that is being told. You can control that orientation with the way you make the video- perspective of the camera, lighting, music, etc.
Great marketing videos use targeting! You have to create an overlap between you and your audience- the more overlap, the bigger your target. Being on target really maximizes your effort. If you don’t know your target audience, start doing research! Ask around.
Start with ONE goal.
What do you want your video to accomplish?
Here’s an example: “Like a Girl”- an Always commercial. The one goal of this commercial is to cut down the phrase “like a girl.” You can see how the music changes midway through the commercial and this changes the audience’s mood. Also the different perspectives and distance to the actors makes a big difference in the overall vibe.
What’s the takeaway?
- Know the goal of your video
- Write a script
- Make every second count
- Create a hook (within the first 5 seconds!)
- Let the viewer know what they can do
- Don’t be stopped by technology!
Here is the video Paul created for Forge!
Thank you Paul Martin for all of your wisdom and insight! Check out Paul’s website. Email Paul at paul@knackhaus.com or call him at 402-277-0697 for any inquiries or questions.
