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Marketing is the life’s blood of your business. Prospects must be found and—somehow—converted into customers. Fortunately there’s plenty of insight into how to do this, because prospects generally follow a clear pathway in making buying decisions. It’s called the sales funnel. In this new blog series on marketing best practices, we’ll examine the concept of the sales funnel, what behaviors and interests your potential customers demonstrate at each stage, and the techniques you can use to move them from prospects all the way to customers. The concept often is illustrated like an actual funnel, or inverted pyramid. Brand-new prospects who first become aware of your company and services—probably via internet searches or by reading your blogs on your or other sites—can be viewed as being at the top of the funnel. They’re merely aware of you, but it’s a critical first step. It’s now your job to move them from mere awareness to actual interest in what you have to offer, a consideration of …

Anytime I do a media training I ask the same question: “How many messages do you think you should have for your target audience?” Every time I get the same answer… “Three.” Three seems to be that magic number. In the literary world there’s the “power of three,” a writing principle that says things that come in three are funnier, more satisfying, and more effective. Even in numerology, three is considered to be “the perfect number.” Lists that come in three seem to be easier to remember. No one wants a list of 15 things. Three seems to be just enough. So, when it comes to crafting compelling messages — we should stick with three, right? Wrong! Instead, it’s crucial to focus on your single most important message. Here’s why… Audiences just can’t absorb multiple messages. According to neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon, you’re making a mistake presenting more than one main message. Dr. Simon’s book,  Impossible to Ignore , shows that audiences remember best when you present your single most …

A few months ago, I asked a simple question – have you ever quit a job? The responses came in fast and furious – but what was more interesting were the reasons why people quit their jobs – and how many of them would have stayed if given the chance. In the pilot study, one of the key statistics that stuck out was….  92% of people said they quit because of management. Think about it. It wasn’t the food, the benefits, the salary, or even their coworkers. The top reason that people quit was because of the management team. What’s even more scary than that?  60% said that they quit because of their immediate manager. Think about that for a second. Let’s say that you and 9 other people in your company have a $50,000 job. Your company is large, greater than 10,000 employees, and 10 of you quit in the year. No big deal, right? The  average cost of turnover  for someone in your range is about 150% -  so that’s going to cost the company $750,000 .  If the  average turnover  in a company is 15% - …

Imagine you live in Maine. You see a headline on your phone that reads: “Bear sighted in backyard.” You click on the story, and you see the bear sighting happened at a home in Alaska. Are you going to read the story? Now imagine that you click on the same headline and see that the bear was sighted in your next-door neighbor’s yard. Will you read more? Chances are you’ll focus on the story when it more directly impacts you. That’s because we’re more apt to pay attention when we feel involved and when we think the message will affect us. Local news knows this well. According to a national study, 70% of Americans say the most “valued” part of a local news broadcast… is the weather. Why? Because that’s the portion of the news that most directly involves the viewer! Newscasters know this, which is why a local broadcast will run a weather segment almost 3 times in a half hour show. We are better able to focus on things when we feel the information will involve or impact us. So in order to …