The Secret To Creating A Value Proposition That Resonates.

Every business provides a unique value to their customers. But articulating that advantage in a compelling narrative—one that pinpoints what sets your business apart from competitors, and how that benefit impacts your customers—can be a challenging exercise.

These are the elements that create a powerful value proposition, which is an important first step before approaching marketing, branding, content creation, etc.  A value proposition serves as a guide for your brand. And it’s essential to targeted, well-crafted brand messaging. Different from a mission statement, tagline or slogan, a value proposition explains the “why” behind your service or product.

Here’s an example: I was working with a new client on value statement development; they kept coming back to their initial position: “We help our customers solve problems.” Zoom out and think about that statement: It can apply to most any company, from a software developer to an industrial grease manufacturer.

Click here to view infographic

The key to creating a powerful value prop is to keep digging deeper: It must speak to what you do that others can’t, the benefits that (your service or product) provides—and further, what your service or product enables your customers to do. That’s the sweet spot that you’re looking to hit when developing your value proposition.

HubSpot sums it up perfectly: “Your value proposition is your unique identifier. Without it, people don't have a reason to work with you over somebody else.” This article from HubSpot offers five prompts for value prop development:

1. Identify all the benefits your product offers.
2. Describe what makes these benefits valuable.
3. Identify your customer's main problem.
4. Connect this value to your buyer's problem.
5. Differentiate yourself as the preferred provider of this value.

After your brainstorm the answers to these prompts, it’s time to draft your statement. But what makes a strong or a well-composed value proposition? Here are a few guidelines from QuickSprout:

• Clarity—easy to understand
• Communicates specific results customers will get
• Explains how the product or service is different/better
• Succinct: Can be quickly read and understood—1 to 3 sentences 

This graphic from the HubSpot article offers some great examples.

If you’d like some help drafting your value proposition—or if you’d just like to bounce your ideas off of me, email me at emoriarty@shamrockcompanies.net.

Ellen Moriarty

7 Steps to Getting Brand Trust Right

At Shamrock, we’re all about sharing the wealth—so we’re reposting this article from Content Marketing Institute that offers valuable tips about how to build trust in your brand. Here’s the article in its entirety:

There’s a crisis in consumer trust. At least that’s the word in the research.

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that only 48% of the U.S. population trusts business as an institution (a 10-point drop from 2017).

Yet, brand trust is one of the biggest factors in consumers’ purchasing decisions.

According to PwC’s Consumer Insights Survey (2018), 14% of respondents put trust as their No. 1 reason for choosing a retailer. “Trust in brand” was the second most frequently cited reason for purchase decision-making.

But while 72% of CMOs feel pressure to secure brand trust, it’s not always clear how to take ownership of it. This guide can help.

Step 1: Know your brand-trust goals (and how to measure them)

Do you want your customers to be raving about your company on review sites? Do you want them to recommend your products or services to friends and family? Do you want loyal customers who patronize your business?

Define what brand trust means to your organization. Detail what success looks like and how you will measure it.

To monitor how your brand is talked about online, set up Google Alerts for your brand keywords. When they appear online, you’ll receive an email from Google.

You can also monitor how well your audience trusts your brand by checking out relevant review sites – Google My Business, Yelp, Trustpilot, or industry-specific destinations. You can track mentions and conversations on social media with social media management tools like Hootsuite.

You can ask your customers directly for their opinions on your brand through online tools such as Survey Monkey, which provides templates you can customize. You can conduct an online survey to find your Net Promoter Score (how likely they would be to recommend your business to a friend or colleague) or assess customer satisfaction.

Step 2: Appoint a brand trust lead

Although this step isn’t mandatory, consider it if you’re keen to get your brand trust right.

Your brand trust lead is responsible for ensuring that your brand’s goals and vision are well detailed – how you want to be perceived and how you go about achieving trust. The lead can develop blueprints and protocols for how to achieve trust in your content, across your marketing activity, and in your customer service.

This person also can be responsible for monitoring and evaluating perceived trust of your brand, and for leading changes to continually improve your brand trust.

Step 3: Be authentic through brand storytelling

Authenticity is proven to be at the heart of trustworthiness. Consumers today are not interested in the sales pitch, the marketing lingo, or the “key benefits.” They want to know who your brand is.

Achieving authenticity comes down to your company’s DNA – your values, your goals unrelated to profit, your culture, etc. Out of this comes your brand’s unique and authentic voice.

Be authentic by being present – respond to negative feedback, address complaints, engage with your customers online (failure to respond to customers on social media can increase churn by 15%). And when you make a mistake, own it.

Be authentic by telling stories, which can better engage your customers and help develop a relationship, and, therefore, build trust.

Getting your storytelling right means developing a brand narrative. Nike tells its brand story not by promoting its products or even its brand. It tells the story of Rory McIlroy as a child looking up to his hero Tiger Woods and then finally meeting him. Only toward the end does the viewer see the trademark swoosh and the slogan “Just Do It.”

TIP: Invite your customers to tell their stories. Share these on your social media platforms and use a relevant hashtag to attract other customers to tell their stories too.

Step 4: Offer consistent customer experience

Customer service, while critical to any business, is somewhat limiting in its ability to develop a trusting relationship. It’s transactional – answering a question, helping pick out the right product, or troubleshooting problems.

Customer experience goes further, looking at the person’s journey through your brand. If done well, it provides your customers with a personalized, unique, and consistently high-quality experience that demonstrates that you understand them and their needs.

The better the experience your customers have, the more likely they are to trust you as a brand. According to PwC, 73% of consumers cite customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, yet only 49% say companies deliver.

TIP: Review your customer journey and list the touchpoints between your customer and your brand. Identify the opportunities where the relationship can be enhanced through, for example, heightened personalization.

Step 5: Focus more on relationships than conversions

Businesses understandably tend to fixate on conversions, sales, and revenue. However, those that focus on customer relationships first will be paid dividends in the long run.

According to Wunderman Thompson, 56% of consumers feel more loyal to brands that “get them” – that have a deep understanding of their priorities and preference. These brands have taken time to understand their customers and made efforts to build relationships.

TIP: Treat your first-time customers like VIPs, set a high benchmark for your relationship from the beginning.

Step 6: Embrace transparency

Transparency about your business is a crucial factor in eliciting trust. According to research by Reach Solutions, 58% of consumers don’t trust a brand until they’ve seen “real-world proof” that it’s kept its promises.

Transparency is showing your customers the truth about your brand, your products, services, etc., so they can determine for themselves if you’re worth buying from. Don’t expect them to take your word for it.

How you prove your transparency depends on your business. Transparency, for example, could be publishing third-party research about your products, divulging ingredients for your products, or responding openly and honestly to queries on social media.

Step 7: Build social proof

According to a Nielsen study, 92% of global online consumers trust word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family above any other form of advertising (up 18% since 2007). While this illustrates consumers’ growing distrust of advertising, it also shows that peer reviews and social proof are more important than ever.

BrightLocal’s research also backs this up. In 2017 and 2018, reading a positive review made survey respondents more likely to use a business. Only a small proportion (15%) said they didn’t let reviews influence their decision.

TIP: Interact regularly on industry-related review sites with customers who are talking positively and negatively about your business. (Sign up through a tool like Mention to alert you of online mentions so you can respond in real time.)

Ready to trust?

Brand trust is a big deal for marketers in 2019. It’s time to be proactive about it.

Your brand trust relies on what you say to your customers, how you say it, and how you prioritize their needs. It is communicated in your transparency – how you own your mistakes and inject your personality – and how you prioritize relationships over sales.

Building trust with your customers isn’t easy, but leaving it to chance won’t cut it anymore. If you take steps to own it, consumers will choose you above your competitors and, if you maintain their trust, stay with you for the long haul.

Use AI to Improve Marketing Outcomes.

Some people argue that digital technology has dulled our minds. (Even our text messages are auto-corrected!) But the truth is, technology makes us smarter marketers.

It used to be that we manually analyzed mounds of consumer data in hopes of aligning our marketing programs for greater ROI. But Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology changes all that. AI automates the process of refining big data which we can use to better target our customers, serving them the right message, at the right time, using the right channels.

A recent article in Entrepreneur by Albizu Garcia outlines the benefits of using AI to drive marketing automation and make valuable brand connections. Here’s a quick summary:

Reach more qualified customers. AI uses customer data to efficiently engage new customers who match existing customer profiles. It allows you to target customer leads based on personal interests, buying habits, geographic activity, and past interactions—these can then be combined to create a list of likely targets.

Based on this customer-profile data, you can send highly-targeted (and even better: personalized) content using email marketing, social media marketing, targeted ads, direct mail, etc. to engage them at every stage of the sales funnel.

Boost customer retention. After you find new customers, keep them loyal to your brand by continuously providing value and relevant content. AI is a great tool to make that happen by serving up tailored content and personalized recommendations or by offering assistance via chatbots.

Drive operational efficiency. “Chatbots are a vital tool in increasing efficiency while decreasing overhead costs. A chatbot can use personalized information for each customer it speaks to, allowing it to provide real-time, valuable assistance or service in a targeted and friendly manner.”

Read the full article here. www.entrepreneur.com/article/326228

Improve brand consistency. Most of us use multiple digital devices throughout our day. AI allows you to create a seamless experience between devices and across multiple channels so that customers are engaged—and opportunities are not missed.

As AI technology continues to evolve, we’ll see it used more in marketing automation as a tool to simplify processes.

Are you using AI in your marketing program? If you’re interested in learning more about it, connect with me directly at tconnor@shamrockcompanies.net.

Tim Connor   

Craft better CTAs. Get better conversions.

Do I have your attention?

If I do, it won’t be for long: According to Statisticbrain.com, the average person's attention span is eight seconds and most of us read only 28 percent of the words on a webpage. As marketers, that makes it challenging to engage and convert readers.

This is where strong calls to action (CTAs) come in: These buttons or links—on websites, landing pages, emails—are compelling, persuasive statements that move your visitors to act, guiding them through the sales funnel: Maybe you want them to watch a video, schedule a demo, sign up for a subscription, or learn more about your product/service. The right CTA can help you make those connections.

Here are a few tips to make sure your CTAs are fine-tuned to help you net the desired action-activated response:

1. Be direct. Simple and effective is what you’re looking to accomplish, so craft your message using words that make it clear what you want the reader to do and/or why it’s of value. (Five words or less is ideal)
2. Use multiple CTAs strategically placed throughout your site or landing page to attract and convert visitors at all stages of the buyer journey.
3. Make it relevant. Your CTA should be specific to the content on the page—don’t use the same CTA throughout your website.
4. Optimize for mobile. Remember that many of your readers will be accessing your website or email via their mobile devices, so not only do CTAs need to be brief, they also need to be formatted to make a visual impact on a mobile screen.   
5. Keep it simple. By keeping graphics clean and uncluttered, your visitors will find your message easier. (Don’t make them search for it!) Hubspot offers a great example of a sleek, well-designed webpage with a CTA that stands out clearly:
   
6. Offer a time-sensitive special. Most of us don’t want to miss out on a good deal or deep discount. So, instead of directing your readers to check out your new product, consider adding a “deal of the day” pop-up CTA that prompts the reader to check out your special offer before it goes away.
7. Provide options. One way to get visitors to spend more time on your site is to offer multiple CTAs that lead them down different paths. Here is a great example from Humboldt County (source: Hubspot).
   
8. Test your CTA. A small change in your CTA can make a big difference. You might not expect higher click-through rates as a result of moving your call to action above the fold, or changing the color, or swapping the word “my” for “your” but those subtle changes can greatly affect your conversion rates. Test and then redeploy to keep your content fresh and effective.

I’m always on the lookout for examples of CTAs that work for me. Can you think of any that have caught your attention or compelled you to act? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook.

Ellen Moriarty

Build trust by humanizing your brand. Here’s how.

Is your brand trustworthy? While you may be strong in your conviction, your answer might not resonate with today’s consumers: According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer (the industry standard for measuring consumer trust) only 48 percent of Americans trust businesses—and that number is on the decline.

So how do you build trust among leery consumers? One way is to simply get real, making memorable connections with your audience by showing the “human” side of your brand.

A recent article in Entrepreneur magazine reinforces the argument for creating authentic, transparent connections with your customers: “according to PwC’s Global Consumer Insights Survey 2018, more than one in three consumers surveyed ranked “trust in brand” among the top three factors, other than price, influencing their decision to shop at a particular retailer. How do you get consumers to trust your company? You do it by showing them the human side of your brand.”

Read the full article here or continue reading for a summary of Entrepreneur’s tips for making a human connection with your brand:

Make them laugh. It’s ok to show your not-so-serious side. A little levity goes a long way toward breaking down barriers. The article contends that “showing your more playful side will help consumers see that you’re not just a business focused on selling a product; you’re a human who can put aside your seriousness and have some fun.”

Create original funny content or share popular or existing posts that will get people laughing: That carefree feeling is what consumers will then associate with your brand.

Introduce your team. Authentic content that showcases your team and/or your operations is a great way to put a face with your business. Candid photos, videos, meet-the-employee spotlights, a glimpse behind operations—these are simple ways to put your brand out there in a very human way.

Share user-generated content. “This works to humanize your brand in two ways: First, it’s exciting and flattering to the user who gets his or her photo featured on your website or social media feed. Second, it shows other consumers that you have great relationships with their peers and that those people already enjoy your products.”

Tell authentic stories. Don’t spend all your time talking about how great your company is; humanize your brand by sharing authentic stories about your failures, hardships and lessons that you’ve learned—this will help customers better relate to you.

Show appreciation for your customers. “Letting your customers know that you care about and appreciate them is one of the best ways to humanize your brand.” Consider sending your best customers company swag; offering special discounts; or simply connecting with a personal message or hand-written note. That personal touch goes a long way toward creating raving brand fans.

This “human” directive is one we’ve been incorporating on our Shamrock twitter feed—and we’re seeing positive results. What’s been your most successful “human” marketing touch? Chime in our Facebook page.

Ellen Moriarty 

3 Key Strategies for Succeeding at Marketing on Mobile

With the explosion of the mobile market this decade, marketers need to be constantly on the lookout for ways to tailor their efforts to the mobile user. After all, Mary Meeker’s 2018 internet trends report shows that more than half of the 5.9 hours that people spend on the internet each day is through mobile devices.

At the same time, those individuals are growing increasingly accustomed to navigating their consumer decisions through their smartphones and tablets. For that reason, mobile marketing is a critical channel not only for directly driving sales ordered through mobile platforms, but for maintaining brand visibility and loyalty.

The problem is, knowing just how to optimize your mobile marketing campaigns is not always obvious. It’s important to understand the options you have and to implement them effectively. Done well, the following strategies will help you and your company make the most of mobile marketing.

1.) Gamifying your approach.
Although consumers may no longer be impressed with gimmicky gamification, being able to engage their attention through something legitimately fun and mentally stimulating can still be a powerful technique for keeping your brand in their minds. Given that mobile is well integrated with online social networks, gamification can enable friends and family members to act as brand advocates as they bring new people to the games.

Although innovation and creativity are crucial to good gamification, there are some basic principles that you should keep in mind. A system of rewards is important because people like to know they are making progress in the game or getting closer to some real-world discount. Badges and points systems are perhaps less appreciated now that they’ve been standard features of gamified ads and websites for some years now, but they can still be valuable if used skillfully.

2.) Playing well with Google and the robots.
All of your digital marketing efforts should be adapted for mobile use, including your website, email newsletters and other channels. This is especially imperative now that Google is indexing based on mobile sites rather than desktop sites, an approach called “mobile-first indexing.”

And if you're not considering AI in your marketing efforts, you should be. Demandbase reported that 80 percent of marketing executives believe that AI will “revolutionize” marketing in the next two years.

That is not surprising considering how well-suited AI systems are for chugging through user data and finding the patterns that can inform your marketing efforts. This includes identifying the best leads, as well as determining the time of day most favorable to pushing out updates and offers.

3.) Building the infrastructure you need.
In order to successfully use the tech required to make your mobile marketing dreams a reality, you need to invest in the right infrastructure. Part of having the right infrastructure means understanding the importance of speed. For example, Google found that when the load time for a page on mobile went from one second to five, the bounce rate went up by 90 percent.

Another essential infrastructure element is a secure network. According to Alissa Lovens, leader of Zayo Group’s global marketing strategy for its finance and professional services sector, “Private, dedicated connectivity to a public cloud provider reduces many of the performance and security concerns associated with public internet environments.” Lovens notes that this approach provides solid network reliability, keeps the costs of infrastructure down and ensures your bandwidth is able to handle your needs. She adds, “Applications must be up and running when customers want to access them, whether … through a mobile app or at their desktop or laptop computer.”

With these strategies in place, let the devices and the culture of sharing on mobile do the rest of the work. Mobile devices are the new horizon for marketers, and they need to be taken seriously as a key priority. Fortunately, technology continues to make this platform a faster, more secure and more enticing experience for users. By keeping in mind a few central issues, you can capitalize on this new opportunity. In the end, companies that create compelling mobile marketing campaigns will be the big winners in the years to come.

Let’s Get Personal: 13 Places To Research Your Potential Customer.

There’s no such thing as TMI when it comes to doing business research. Today, we’ve got access to data at our fingertips, and even on our wrists, about everything from market trends and industry performance, to products and services.

When you’re looking at research from the sales perspective, it becomes a uniquely personal search. A successful salesperson gathers that critical business data, and also works to make a personal connection with his/her customer by finding what makes that customer tick.
 

While I’m not suggesting you creep on your prospect’s Instagram, I am saying that a little effort to get personal goes a long way. Finding out more about your prospect on both a business and personal level can help you align your products or services to better provide value. By leading with that targeted, personalized value proposition, your communication instantly becomes more approachable and authentic. And when accompanied with diligent industry and product/service research, it gives you the advantage that can help close the sale.
 

To help you get started, I’ll paraphrase a HubSpot article that provides a list of resources for conducting comprehensive customer research:

1. LinkedIn. Find details about your prospect’s job responsibilities or duties, past employment history, and learn of any shared connections. Also click through to their groups to see what’s being talked about; and review what content they’ve shared recently.
2. Twitter. Use his/her personal page to get a sense of interests or to identify trends. Also check on the company’s page to understand how they present their brand.
3. The Company’s Website: Press Page. Scroll through recent news and do the same for that of their competitors.
4. Blogs. Read what your buyer reads and read what your buyer writes.
5. Facebook. Pick up personal information or identify shared friends or organizations.
6. Your Marketing Automation System. Search the prospect's name in your system to turn up existing contact records. Maybe they’ve contacted you? If this buyer is already familiar with your product/service, tailor your approach to their current stage in the buying process.
7. Your CRM in case another team member has reached out in the past—use the existing data profile to your benefit.
8. Google the prospect and the company to uncover additional details that might not have turned up in other searches.
9. Quora. Use Quora to understand what your prospect is hoping to learn or if there are any issues he/she is currently facing.
10. Glassdoor. Find out about the company’s culture; if they're hiring new employees in a division related to your product, that's a good sign.
11. Datanyze offers a free Chrome Extension that you can click while on the prospect's website to see which technology tools they're currently using.
12. Crunchbase gives you information on acquisition history, investors, customers, and more. 
13. Yelp. If your prospect works directly with consumers browsing their Yelp page is a great way to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.

Is there any tool that you use that’s not on my list? Please share with me on LinkedIn.
 

Tim Connor

 

Dare To Be Different To Make The Difference!

Dare To Be Different—and Outwork Your Competition

In the world of marketing, it often feels as if everyone is trying to sell something. Everyone wants to

be the person to deliver the latest and greatest products and services to the masses. But if we are all climbing the same mountain at the same time, how do we make it to the top? How do we stand out above the competition and achieve success?

Just be different. Ask yourself how you can get in front of perspective clients and what you can bring to the table that others won’t.

Start by constantly reinventing your business: Don’t let yourself get pigeonholed into one genre of resources. Set yourself up for success by targeting and profiling companies with which you want to work. Then, apply consistent marketing tactics using multiple quality touches, for ultimate exposure. These tactics could include phone calls, emails, self-promo marketing campaigns, direct-mail pieces, etc. Just make sure your touches are creative and highlight all your capabilities: digital, mobile apps, postage-savings tactics, etc. The point is to catch your audience with an “ah-ha” revelation.

Once you’ve grabbed their attention, don’t just present one solution. Use this opportunity to consult on an entire marketing package for a project and present EVERYTHING.  Think of the project from your client’s point of view. Use the mindset, “you brought me here to provide X, but I can also give you Q, R and S!” This avenue of presentation will be time-consuming but ultimately will earn business. Take your time—and stand out.

When it’s time to execute, gain your customers’ trust and confidence by communicating what to expect until the products are in-hand. A Thank You email, followed by proofs, ship dates and tracking confirmations will keep both parties connected and involved. This extensive customer service will push you ahead of the competition.

After your transaction, keep in contact. Present new ideas and cutting-edge solutions. This approach is more consultative and educational than trying to “sell” something. Offer to hold lunch

meetings to present these ideas. Whether you get one or 12 people in a room over sandwiches, the exposure is critical. Show them what’s new and hot from each aspect of your portfolio; perhaps a new mobile app or trending direct mail items. Bring solutions to the table to remind your customers that you are one contact with multiple resources, reinforcing the value and time savings they enjoy by working with you, and not seven different companies.

This path will not be easy. Each of these tactics takes time, effort and creative brainpower, but hopefully will set you at the top of the mountain. You will not only rise above the competition, but will no longer be selling stuff. Now, you’re providing solutions, you’ve developed solid relationships with your customers—and it all started by being different.

Bob De Garmo

President

BDeGarmo@shamrockcompanies.net

A Culture of Creating Raving Fans

“Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better...

Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans." 

That’s the premise behind Ken Blanchard’s revolutionary approach to customer service.

Customer feedback is gold. But if you don’t have processes in place to collect that input, then you’re coming up short. In his book Raving Fans, Blanchard identifies three steps to creating raving-fan customer service:

1. Decide what you want. What kind of customers are you looking for? What type of relationship do you want to build with them?
2. Understand what your customers want.
3. Deliver plus-one. Whatever it is that you do—perfect that—and then add 1% more: It’s the extra push that will set you apart. 

At Shamrock, Raving Fans isn’t a theme—it’s part of our culture. It has helped establish a framework for our customer-service directive. We use an internal auditing system that tracks how we exceed client expectations, and identifies areas where we can improve, and address and prevent problems before they impact our customers.

Shamrock is feedback fearless: While our team asks customers to tell us what we can do to improve, it is equally important that we share that same raw feedback with our customers. For Shamrock, feedback is a two-way street; if our customers aren’t open to that exchange, then it’s not the right match for us. In 2016, Shamrock’s fulfillment operations had a 99.95% accuracy rate—that stems from continuously tweaking and refining our processes based on customer feedback.

In order to deliver world-class customer service, you have to put systems in place to receive constant feedback. Further, you have to have people on our team who welcome and embrace that input. It ties back to culture: Can that open exchange work for you? Can you operate in a feedback-fearless mode? The results will blow you away. Feel free to contact me directly at dfechter@shamrockcompanies.net or 440.250.2157.

Good luck,

Dave Fechter

Dave Fechter will celebrate his 20 year service anniversary with Shamrock in May 2017.  He started as Plant Manager and worked his way up to his current role as COO. Dave is a devoted Notre Dame fan and proud alumnus. He is a huge sports fan in general because he loves competition of any kind, including the intellectual - he aspires to be a contestant on Jeopardy! When he's not absorbing every new bit of information he can, he's absorbing music. He does more than listen - he enjoys the history, technology, coordination and execution.  He even plays a little guitar.