The importance of a killer value proposition

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There are sales people who can sell a book to a blind person. That’s an accomplishment, but wouldn’t be easier AND more useful to sell this visually impaired person a book in braille? Marketing can make or break a great product or service, the journey becomes a lot more logical if the offer matches the demand and vice versa. In short; you need a killer value proposition to succeed in business.

Nearly three quarters of new products on the market fail. Make sure you’re reaching the right audience with the right offer.

What is a value proposition?

If an interested party decides to purchase a product or subscribe to a service, the promise the company makes to deliver certain goods or services is the value proposition. This includes the message and intent of the company, a compelling argument to choose this particular provider above all others. There are three cornerstones that can be addressed from a customer’s view:

1. Emotional: The potential customer is looking for peace of mind, you promise to alleviate worries and/or personal challenges.

2. Functional: There’s a practical challenge, the customer needs something to get from point A to point B.

3. Social: In this case the customer is looking for a solution to communicate with friends, impress colleagues etc.

The customer wants to get something done. You promise to help the customer achieve this goal. In order for this to work you first need to create a detailed customer profile.

In the value proposition you’re promising to supply a solution to a problem, or to provide a better solution to the mentioned problem. The distinction between those two propositions matter. It’s easier to communicate how you can improve on an existing product or service, compared to selling an innovative and groundbreaking new product or service.

So let’s take a look at a successful company and how they have created a killer value proposition:

Slack: Where work happens

The value proposition: Slack is a new way to communicate with your team. It’s faster, better organized, and more secure than email.

Is it a messaging app? Is it a productivity app? Or is it both? The reason why the popularity of this service has skyrocketed in the past few years is the way it addresses some challenges team members faced with similar offerings. Slack really delivered on the three cornerstones I mentioned above. The user was growing increasingly frustrated with a lack of integration and overview within project management. Slack offers numerous integrations so third party applications can be ‘plugged into’ the software, and it allows for easy communication with team members wherever they are at any given moment. Their slogan is “Be Less Busy” which seems like a promise that’s too good to resist.

Four factors that define a good value proposition

We now know the definition of a value proposition, let’s take a look at why it’s important to define this for both your customer and for yourself. Here are four factors that define a good value proposition:

  1. Define the ideal customer. This allows you to create a value proposition that addresses the wants and needs of your target audience. Find qualitative leads, not quantitative.
  2. Never underestimate your customers. They might already know what they want, it’s up to you to provide an answer to their query that resonates with them.
  3. The added value of your company might be crystal clear to you as an insider, you will still need to formulate and present it in a way that your prospective customer understands in order to bring the message across.
  4. Repeat your message, repeat your message, repeat your message. On every webpage, in your social media accounts and promotional materials. This creates a uniform message to your audience which will be remembered.

Build a killer value proposition in five steps

We’ve mentioned ‘good’ and even ‘killer’ a couple of times now. This implies that merely defining a value proposition isn’t enough, you really need to examine all factors that determine good value. Here is a five step plan to define a killer value proposition that will benefit your company in more ways than one.

Step 1: Know your customer

Every good answer starts with a question. In this case there’s no specific question asked yet, so you have to define this for yourself. Crawl into the brain of your perfect customer and ask yourself why this person would choose you instead of competitors. This could expose some flaws in your business model which can be confronting. Perhaps you discover that you have been targeting the wrong target audience all along!

Fun fact: Post-it notes started as a failed project of developing a new type of glue for industrial use. The product didn’t stick permanently as was required. This ‘flaw’ turned out to be the perfect solution for an entirely different group of consumers.

Step 2: Define your strengths

Now you’re going to look at the company itself. What are some valuable assets that might translate into a great value proposition? Here are some examples:

  • The company has been in business for 20+ years. This indicates a reliable company instead of a startup with no prior business experience.
  • You have successfully acquired some of the best and brightest experts in their respective fields with a CV that will enhance your status as a knowledgeable organisation.
  • Some big companies or organisations have used, or are currently using your products and/or services. Name names, show logos, don’t be too modest to showcase them.
  • Your tools work on desktop, tablets and smartphones with optimized layouts and features. This implies you offer flexibility instead of demanding users to change their preferred workflow.
  • It’s easy to return products or cancel subscriptions. This provides a reduced risk of testing your services and shows you are convinced of the quality on offer.

This does not mean one of these valuable assets will become your value proposition, a list of defining features will identify the general direction of your promise.

Step 3: Rank your appeal and exclusivity

Now you have a list of positive features, it’s time to rank them on both appeal and exclusivity. Appeal stands for the desire in the market for the specific asset, exclusivity stands for the number of competitors offering the same strength. Making a list for one of these considerations is pretty easy, combining them can be a challenge. If there’s a large desire there’s a significantly smaller chance of being exclusive.

In this step the competitive edge is introduced. Before you were looking at the desires of your target audience and your offer. Now you have to consider the competition. This could result in a strategic shift within the company. Perhaps you have to approach a different audience, or you will actually have to change your business operations.

Did you know: Nintendo started as a playing card company in 1889. In the 1970’s they started experimenting with coin-op arcade machines. Even though they changed their business model they target ‘players’ to this day.

Step 4: Verify your claims

Make sure your claims are verifiable. Promises mean nothing if you can’t back them up with actual facts. Instead of claiming “First class support” prove your claim with “24-7 support staff”. “World leading” is a hollow statement, “Number one downloaded productivity app” can be verified objectively. Actual numbers, objective facts and external praise from trusted sources support your promises.

Sure, you can ‘massage’ the numbers by cherry-picking facts. Limit the amount of disclaimers to avoid appearing disingenuous. “Number one selling in -subcategory- in -region- in -timeframe- on -platform- doesn’t hold much weight.

Step 5: Formulate your value proposition

Now you have a list of claims that are desirable, exclusive and verifiable you can combine all elements to distill your ultimate value proposition. In fact, the result should be evident in hindsight. There should be no doubt that you have arrived at a promise that will appeal to your customer, a claim that you can not only fulfill but have already proven to be true.

Best practices

Unique at something does not mean unique at everything. The best at something does not mean the best at everything. Hone in on your killer value proposition and use this in your marketing strategy. Here are three famous brands that ‘kill it’:

1. Apple

It’s pretty hard to find actual technical specifications for iPhones. Instead of stating a screen resolution they came up with a ‘Retina display’. They made this term up, it’s their trademark. It means a user can’t see the individual pixels on the regular viewing distance. Apple is great at translating technical specifications to value propositions that resonate. The experience is the product.

2. Uber

This company started in a time and a place where yellow cabs were considered a joke to commuters in large cities. People grew tired of high prices. IF you could get a cab, the service level was considered to be poor. Uber is not a taxi service, it’s an app that couples passengers with drivers. That’s why they are “the smartest way to get around”.

3. Unbounce

Building landing pages is one thing, A/B testing is quite another. Marketing professionals understand the importance of A/B testing even though they might not like the process. It’s a technical challenge for the most part, less creative nor commercial. Unbounce allows marketers to perform A/B testing without IT support. They know their audience and speak to their base with a promise of efficiency. They provide A/B testing without tech headaches.

By the way, I’m sure you can come up with criticism of (some of) the aforementioned companies. All big brands tend to have some skeletons in the closet. And often in plain sight to be frank. But because they’ve defined such a focused value proposition most customers choose not to acknowledge the flaws. You don’t need to be perfect in every way, you need to excel at your promise.

Don’t offer services, offer solutions

There was a period in marketing in which companies would promote themselves based on their strengths and abilities. In the last decade or so marketing copy has changed. Now it’s usually composed from the perspective of the customer. What is your challenge? How will I solve your challenge? Why is my solution better compared to others? Take the time to create a great value proposition, and embed it within the core of your organisation. This will make it much easier to fulfill your promises.

Self-reflection can be a challenge. Would you like someone to hold the mirror? Contact me and I’ll help you define a killer value proposition.

To CDP or not to CDP

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Have you ever wondered how you can identify preferred customers based on data? Adding a ‘love’ emoji next to your BCF (Best Customer Forever) might look cute, but that’s not the solution we’re looking for. In MarTech, you have to make choices in both tools and implementation. Just because a high-end solution works for one company, doesn’t necessarily mean it will translate to your situation.

You will have to assemble the right combination of tools to process all data that will play a role in your activities. The challenge lies in the fact that data is often processed with separate tools and by various experts in their particular field. 

With a Customer Data Platform (CDP), all relevant data can be presented within a single viewport regardless from where the data originated from. Let’s take a look at the concept of CDP and how this platform can benefit marketing professionals.

Introduction to CPD

A Customer Data Platform is a marketing system in which customer data provided from various channels in an organization is consolidated in order to create various customer models. This allows the marketing professional to model, target, and deploy messages and/or offers to customers. This data is presented in a unified web-based interface.

This doesn’t seem to be a unique set of features. However, CDP differentiates itself from other similar martech tools in two unique ways:

  1. The marketing organization is presented with a complete and individualized customer view.
  2. All features available to the user are presented in a single user interface.

With other systems that feature similar data management, the various data from different sources never present a complete view of the customer or prospect. Let’s find out where CDP actually provides an added value to other systems in play…

How CPD can improve your marketing and business

There’s an expression that states, “can’t see the forest for the trees”. In other words, there’s so much information available that using it all becomes impossible. We’re living in a world of Big Data. Unfortunately, that often means it ends up in a Big Mess. Face it, you can collect a lot of data, but it’s pretty much useless unless the data is processed and consolidated with other data. There are many tools available to orchestrate campaigns, the customer journey, advertising, mailings, and many, many more. Various experts seem to hold their cards close to their vest, leaving marketers to operate based on sheer guesswork. With CDP, marketing professionals no longer have to work with incomplete information; they can take control over the available data.

To make it a bit more concrete, let’s list some possibilities:

  • You can create unified and persistent customer profiles. Instead of data points from various sources, you can look at defined attributes of an individual client or prospective one. This customer profile is updated dynamically when new data arrives.
  • The available attributes can be filtered or grouped in any possible configuration, so multidimensional segmentation can be achieved. These results can also be used to run predictions or change behaviors.
  • Timing is critical in business. This means acting, not reacting, on the customer lifecycle. You can now be proactive because, when you have all available data at hand, you can activate marketing programs on all available channels.
  • Based on all available data you can run predictive models and analyze the outcomes. This results in implementing superior segmentation with a higher yield.

Hopefully, you’re starting to see the difference between an actual Customer Data Platform and other tools that focus on just one specific method of data collection. If not, don’t worry. We are now going to take a look at some benefits that take the theory of CDP and put it into practice.

Benefits for marketing professionals

Sure, we know there’s a lot of data surrounding us. And it’s pretty obvious that consolidating data into a single view can create a unique customer profile that can be processed in any preferred manner. But what are the actual benefits related to marketing efforts?

  • For starters, you can identify preferred customers. Face it, not all customers are created equal. With a bird’s-eye view on all available data, you can quickly find the customers who create the highest revenue, cause the least problems, or provide both.
  • The reverse is also true. Some customers are simply not worth the hassle. With singular data points, the ‘troublemakers’ can slither through your business activities and cause more harm than good. With a complete overview, they will quickly rise to the surface, at which point you can devise a strategy to get them back in line  or cut them loose if that’s better for the bottom line.
  • With CDP, you can analyze the data of prior customers who have stopped using your products or services. Because you have all data visualized in a concise overview, the reasons customers have left will become immediately apparent. With other tools, these clients can fall through the cracks. The marketing department can then look for possibilities to re-activate the customer.
  • You can reduce advertising costs because you have more insight into your customers. Why retarget an existing customer that has already purchased your product? For instance, what if the customer profile doesn’t match the offer you’ve previously sent based on incomplete data?

These are just a couple of unique advantages. Contact me if you want to discover the many benefits your company could be enjoying.

Is CDP superior to Google Analytics (or other tools)?

MarTech tools are a dime a dozen. In the case of Google Business tools, they’re often free to use. The main problem with these tools is the myopic view they employ. They can be useful for aggregating data, but practical analysis is either cumbersome at best or simply impossible to achieve. In the end, you’ll end up exporting and importing data to other software applications or cloud-based web apps. This is not only time consuming, there’s no comprehensive overview available.

In short, marketing professionals can be left out of the loop, which is surprising considering they are the gatekeepers who can both bring in customers AND increase revenue. CDP brings structure and insight to marketers allowing them to create marketing campaigns that deliver.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on the subject of Customer Data Platforms. I’ll be happy to see how CDP’s fit into your MarTech strategy, just let me know if you need help!

World wide team building for team leaders and members

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“Working from home is here to stay.” These are the words of Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, the video collaboration platform that has become a household name in 2020. We’re not saying Yuan had a hand in unleashing the Coronavirus upon the world, we can confirm his company increased its revenue by 370% in Q4/2020 compared to the same timeframe in 2019. We witnessed a lawyer ‘wearing’ a digital cat filter in court to Wonder Woman singing “Imagine” with her millionaire buddies. Video meetings have become the lifeline for many professionals across the world.

Imagine a meeting without an office

For a virus that has forced society to ‘social distance’ it sure has changed our perception of intimate communication online. Yuan isn’t wrong in his prediction, although we were forced into a digital office environment many professionals will adopt this technology as the new standard in collaboration. But how do you build a team if the members are spread across their homes and even the globe?

Hi, I’m Sean and I work from home. No, this is NOT a ‘get rich quick’ scheme and I’m not selling trading software. I’m a MarTech professional with quite a bit of experience with building virtual teams using both technology and social engineering. You can read all about it on this page or contact me on how to build teams without boundaries.

Your meetings suck

Do you organize meetings, in person, at your company? I’m sorry you have to find out this way but the participants might not like them. They’re messy, unproductive, and boring. The team members would rather work by themselves or in a separate unit comprising a small group of experts in various fields. The way meetings are handled in companies worldwide do little to further the business goals and are often even detrimental to the bottom line. Think about it, you’re asking qualified experts to stop whatever they are doing to step into an office and listen to information they could have gotten in Slack or Microsoft Teams.

So if your in-person, real-life meetings are met with either disinterest or even disdain, think about working with team members all over the world. Stop organizing meetings that suck and start a new method of collaboration that produces results.

Learn to use your tools

On this page we’re not going to elaborate on the various tools you can use within your organization, if only for the fact that different companies will require different solutions for their particular challenges. I’m going to write about the way you can build teams that are able to perform in a professional environment without restrictions in time, location or size. Regardless of what the ‘best’ tools are, make sure your team members can work with them. On desktop, laptop or mobile, using WiFi, cellular, or a UTP-cable. And at home or on the beach, shout out to the digital nomads out there!

This is how you build a team

A team is not a group of people that happen to be in one location at the same time. Somehow this is not clear in many if not most companies. Take team building exercises for instance. People that might not even know each other by name are placed in close proximity to perform all kinds of tasks that have little or no connection to their day-to-day activities. How often do you find yourself standing on the edge of a table falling off with your back turned to the floor?

You’re not getting it Sean, this is an exercise in which you learn to trust your teammates. Well fine, but what happens if a colleague that I rely on is currently located in New York when I’m in Paris? I’ll drop on a Parisian floor, that’s what happens. Get off the table and get into the cloud.

Team building is not a matter of placing bodies in one room, it’s about sharing thoughts and ideas in an environment that is receptive to creative expression and intelligent discourse. But that sounds much more complicated so many companies rather opt for a field trip or a fun workshop. It’s actually not so complicated though, let’s take a look at some (remote) team building strategies that worked for our business.

1. Get the right people together

Professionals love to work with people that have different skills and expertise but are operating on the same level. Both professionally and intellectually. It feels liberating if you can speak freely without ‘translating’ your ideas to a communication partner that is clearly not operating on your level.

If you’re building a team with members from various countries and even different age groups you’ll have to take cultural differences and contextual awareness into account. A twenty-something female software developer from New Delhi will look at things from a different perspective than a fifty-something male salesperson from Melbourne. Sometimes skills aren’t enough to be part of a team.

Don’t let this be interpreted as a justification for a homogeneous team, on the contrary. Diversity in teams will allow for a wider range of thoughts and solutions to be presented which will only make the connections stronger. Also, keep teams small. More people means more noise and less productivity for each person. Accountability can be hard to maintain in a large group.

2. All team members should be on the same page

Diversity in team members, unity in the team. This means setting ground rules concerning all forms of communication. For instance common courtesy, a common language, and adherence to certain social values. Try to keep politics out of the discussion, however sometimes they can’t be avoided. For instance, a team member that identifies as a different gender or is non-binary. Or someone who is very sensitive concerning expletives or blasphemous language. Set ground rules and be flexible so you can adapt when required. You can get very far with mutual respect.

3. Conflict resolution

This brings us to conflict resolution. There might be instances where team members don’t see eye to eye. There must be a tie-breaker when decisions have to be made, or an assigned confidant to contact if there’s a (personal) conflict. A good team leader knows when not to get in the way of brilliance but is always there to support team members. Where people work together there will be conflict eventually.

4. Work from a unified vision

There will of course be team projects, don’t forget to share the overarching vision of the company with team members. This allows participants to see the bigger picture and put things in perspective. Although what you do is important, it’s still a part of a much larger picture.

However, don’t diminish the accomplishments of a small team or individual. Show interest, compliment progress, and mention names of team members during meetings. This evokes a sense of personal pride that will motivate individual participants and inspire other team members. Again, skilled professionals tend not to feel intimidated by their peers because they know their personal strengths.

Small rewards and compliments can go a long way.

Also, take a pause at certain milestones, reflect and analyze before moving on. Change direction if required, set new goals, and improve your planning where applicable.

Remote working

The previous suggestions can be used in both local and decentralized teams. Now let’s delve a little deeper into remote teams. Although working through digital channels has existed since the days of ARPANET it has never been more widespread than today. Besides the aforementioned examples of Zoom and Slack there are many other solutions. Microsoft Teams for instance, or even a business related WhatsApp group. Choose wisely and look for a solution that fits within your existing workflow. The more flexible solutions will offer plugin integration so you can use the services that apply to your business.

How do you manage a remote team?

Video chat is important for team building. It’s difficult for people to express themselves with written words alone. Relying on chat and mail will limit the possibilities of group communication. Our expressions, gestures and just seeing someone’s eyes can be crucial in collaborative efforts. Do keep in mind your team members might live in different time zones which requires some flexibility of all those involved.

Team meetings should never be crowded. If the team is very large try to mix and match members so no one becomes isolated from the team. Make sure everyone knows each other, even in a superficial way. The team leader must also communicate with individuals so you can really focus on their progress, ideas, and emotional state.

Many video chat applications allow some form of muting and moderation. Write a simple code of conduct for all participants to avoid confusion during a meeting.

Remote working is not a given

Using technology will not be a large hurdle in MarTech, communicating remotely still might prove to be a challenge for participants. Some team members will take to remote working like a duck takes to water, without any effort at all. Some will even prefer working remotely from the home or anywhere in the world. Others will miss guidance, support, and an office environment. Be mindful of these differences and cater to the individual. There are plenty of tools to choose from, not everyone has to use a hammer if they prefer a screwdriver.

Do you want to have a chat? I’m available for a meeting in the cloud. Just contact me and we’ll set up an appointment.

Healthy Churn equals Healthy Business; 11 ideas you can immediately use to reduce organizational churn

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If you are a store owner the proposition is simple: In order to convert new customers they first have to come through the door. But what if there is a revolving door and the customers go out as quickly as they enter? In that case you’re left with a vacant store and an empty cash register. 

Churn is the amount of customers you lose in any given period of time. In order to run a successful business you need to reduce churn for your organization. Let’s take a look at the concept of churn and see how we can change that revolving door into a regular door … perhaps with a padlock.

What is churn and why should you care?

The term ‘churn’ comes from the process of creating butter from milk. By churning you lose some of the milk which causes the butter to stiffen up. Once you lose too much of the milk the butter will turn into a solid rock. That doesn’t sound very appetizing does it? The ‘churn rate’ is the amount of subscribers to a service that will cancel their subscription, divided by the original amount of customers at a certain date.

Let’s say you own a dairy shop, just to stay in the spirit of butter churning. You have a great service in which you send out an assortment of cheeses and butter to your customers every month. You want to calculate the churn rate for the month of March. In that case you take the amount of cancellations and divide that with the number of subscribers on the first day of March. So let’s say you have 200 customers and 10 customers end their subscription before the end of the month. 10 divided by 200 is 0.05 which translates to 5% churn.

Of course there might be new subscribers during this month but those customers aren’t calculated in the churn rate. This indicates that churn is just one metric in a more complex set of calculations. However, it takes a lot more effort and expenses to gain new customers compared to retaining existing customers. You don’t want a revolving door in your dairy shop, you want an ‘entrance only’ door and lock those customers in as soon as they sign up. Of course you can’t force them to stay aboard, you can however convince them to keep enjoying your fine cheeses and butter products. Let’s take a look at the primary reasons subscribers choose to cancel their patronage.

These are the three biggest reasons why customers leave:

  1. Your products or services do not correspond with the original offer. “You offered cheese AND butter. I’ve received only cheese and zero sticks of butter for two months now!”
  2. There’s a competitor that offers a better product or service. “Buttery Cheeses Inc. offers products made from organic milk from grass-fed cows!”
  3. There was not enough effort put into building a customer relationship. “The quality is fine but it’s getting a bit predictable and boring to be honest.”

As I stated before the churn rate is just one metric, a point of calculation. It is however a very important indicator of your business health. Existing customers were once convinced that your offer was good enough to subscribe. Why did they change their mind? Is it something you did wrong or perhaps something you should‘ve done?

If you lose 10 customers each month and gain 100 you might not see a problem right away. You’re still growing your business, right? But if you see the churn rate steadily rise as your customer base grows, your business will become less healthy which can lead to some serious problems in the future. Let’s explore some ideas to see why customers abandon ship and how to prevent this from happening.

Ideas (for improving churn) on a business level

1. Become a customer

It’s pretty easy to set up a sales funnel according to a standard procedure, but have you actually traveled along that path? Back in the eighties the CEO of Hair Club for Men promoted his business by stating “I’m not just the president of Hair Club for Men, I’m also a client!” What happens after you sign up? How fast does the customer service respond to complaints? And how are issues resolved? Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes and see if you run into a brick wall.

2. Promise less, deliver more

Every new customer makes the board of directors happy, so the eagerness to please the marketing department might promise more than the company can actually deliver. Although you should never sell yourself short, it’s better to hold back a little bit and deliver more than your subscribers expect. Make sure the packaging is perfect, or send a free sample along with the order. Take one or two bullet points of your sales proposal and surprise the customer with a treat.

3. Check out the new kid on the block

If you see the churn rate rising you could be doing something wrong. But maybe there’s a competitor out there that just does things ‘more right’. Unless your former customers have developed a lactose intolerance they will still want to consume dairy products, just not YOUR offering. What is the competition doing and how can you improve to retain your customers before they jump ship? Or get them back from the evil clutches of your competitor.

Ideas (for improving churn) on a marketing level

4. Know your customer

That ‘blue ocean’ of unlimited potential customers? Forget it, bring your ideal customer in perfect focus by creating a buyer persona that you can target. Write in the correct tone of voice, create ad campaigns that target a specific audience and be consistent in all you say and do. And no, you will not exclusively approach females named Karen, aged 25-35 that like dogs and drink Cabernet. A buyer persona does however give you a fictional person to keep in mind while setting up a marketing strategy.

5. Reward loyalty

Quite a few companies make the mistake of offering new subscribers a hefty discount without any advantages for loyal customers. These loyal subscribers are also brand ambassadors with a need to be rewarded. This does not automatically mean a discount though. Create exclusive offers, introduce new products for ‘preferred customers’ first or send an inspiring newsletter.

6. Create communities

That buyer persona we mentioned before? Of course, there are more customer profiles and stages within the customer journey that you can use for more specific targeting. You need a different hook to catch a specific type of fish, with user segmentation you can communicate with customers on their level of involvement and commitment.

Ideas (for improving churn) on a user experience level

7. Make sure the entrance is without obstacles

How do you enter a store without a door? Or would you become a member of a service with numerous grammatical (or language) errors on the homepage? First impressions count, make sure you welcome customers at the door with a beautiful design and an intuitive user interface to name but a few options.

8. Hire staff members who understand customers

More and more services are automated with AI. Although Artificial Intelligence certainly can provide you with valuable tools in customer relations, your ‘real’ staff members are actual people that should be able to empathize with the customers they serve. This will create a greater sense of community and loyalty.

9. Divide accounts between your staff members

A lot of customers like to communicate with the same support staff member. By assigning customer success representatives your clients can pick up the conversation where they left off. By maintaining a personal profile for each client the representative can also proactively provide support. Upselling is a possible strategy in this area, but now we’re specifically looking at reducing churn.

10. Dangle a carrot and make it fun

Loyalty programs allow the provider to ‘gamify’ the experience. With promotions, newsletters and other interactive media you are conditioning your customer to login to their accounts and remain active. Just like a game you should ‘unlock’ new challenges and possibilities to keep your customer engaged. From the client’s perspective you’re ‘gamifying’ the experience, from a corporate point of view you could call it ‘dangling a carrot’. Whatever your perspective, make being a customer fun.

11. Be interested in the opinion of your (former) customer

In business “good riddance!” is rarely a solid approach for continuing success. Even if you can’t retain a departing customer, at least try to understand why they are abandoning your service. On the cancellation page ask (not demand) to provide a reason, ask for permission to be contacted by a representative or see where you can change your business operations so you can keep other clients aboard.

Conclusion

As you can see from the ideas on this page there are many possibilities to reduce churn, increase revenue and build a healthy company based on a reliable user base. There will always be customers that will opt-out and that’s fine, just try to keep the churn low and learn from these situations.

This page is meant as a simplified primer about churn. Do you want to understand more about this subject and learn how to implement churn ratio in your business analysis and operations? Send me a message and we’ll dive deeper into this subject.

What does iOS 14 mean for your Facebook strategy?

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The new trend in MarTech is privacy. The era in which companies had an almost unlimited access to the online identity of individual users seems to have run its course. More and more organizations, lawmakers and tech companies are making the shift from personal tracking to a more anonymous model. This could seriously impact your digital acceleration, what do the new privacy features in iOS 14 mean for your Facebook e-commerce scaling strategy?

Are you worried your bottom line will be affected due to the new rules in iOS 14? Contact me for up-to-date info about your digital acceleration options for 2021 and beyond.

What’s the big deal with iOS 14?

Apple iOS 14 was introduced in June 2020 and is considered one of the largest updates in the history of the platform. The Home Screen has been refined, Siri is finally a bit smarter and it’s now possible to set third-party apps as the default. Great for Apple users right? Well, if your company relies on user data to grow you might not be so enchanted by a couple of new features. In particular the way Apple will handle user privacy in the future.

If you’re an Android user you will surely be aware of the numerous warnings about the ways apps use your data. Access to the microfone, camera and contacts if you just want to play a simple game. Apple has avoided these messages for the most part, primarily because their App Store is much more curated compared to the Google Play Store. Basically, the threshold is set so high at the Apple entrance you will be safe once you get inside.

Well, this practice has changed with the introduction of iOS 14, now there’s a lot more information available about the ways Apps use your data. This is not all, with the introduction of Apple iOS 14.5 third party trackers will get the opt-in treatment. The user will get a pop-up asking the user if they want to allow tracking. Suffice to say many users will opt-out of this option resulting in much less user data for advertisers to collect.

Should you be worried?

There are many things going on in the world right now you should be worried about, how high does this development rank? That depends on your reliance on mobile user data to gain insight into your target audience. If you’re reading this page chances are it will rank pretty high, and you should start working on changing the way you collect data. As more mobile users will cut the cord regarding the Facebook Pixel and other tracking technologies your connection to your target audience will be affected. Don’t get worked up too much though, every challenge comes with new opportunities.

What is the impact of iOS 14.5 for MarTech?

We’ve come to accept cookies as the default of tracking users online. Some cookies are there to store personal settings or to retrieve abandoned shopping carts. Some are there to track the user during a single browsing session, some are persistent and follow the customer on their journey. This technology can benefit users and companies alike, but they are not always beneficial to all parties involved. If a user does not want to be tracked they can already exclude (third-party) cookies while visiting a website in the browser. This is in part due to international regulations, with the EU as a frontrunner in this area.

Apple is a company that has always been an advocate for user privacy. Because they are a hardware company first, software company second, they can afford to increase user privacy without harming their bottom line. In fact, privacy protection is part of their identity and an important reason customers choose Apple products over competitors. iOS 14 is the first step towards full transparency, iOS 14.5 will take this shift even further. The new policy applies not only to the Safari browser but system wide, and will have effect within the Safari browser, native Apple apps and all other apps on any mobile Apple device running iOS 14.5 or higher.

Tracking cookies such as the Facebook Pixel will still be available with the main difference users will be prompted to opt in or out. Early estimates state 90 percent of users will opt out and 60 percent of companies will see a decrease in revenue. If you or your client makes use of the Audience Network option your campaigns might lose their relevance and fail to reach the target audience. Even if the user allows Facebook tracking the retention is still just 7 days. This leaves a window of one week for retargeting.

And what can I do about it?

Facebook has already developed the “Aggravated Event Measurement Protocol”. This protocol limits measurements to 8 conversion instances for each domain name. Examples of these conversions are visiting specific pages, adding items to a shopping cart or completing a purchase. You can take some measures right now:

  • Update the Facebook SDK for iOS 14 to version 8.1.
  • Evaluate the options in the App Events and Mobile Measurement Partners.
  • Make sure top level domains are verified.
  • Configure the 8 web conversion events you want to track for each domain.
  • After publication it’s not possible to toggle iOS 14 inclusion. You will have to turn it off or delete entirely.

Keep in mind the collection and analysis of statistics has been limited since the introduction of iOS 14. Real-time reports are no longer possible and data can take a while to show in your dashboard.

What’s the future for user tracking?

Apple iOS is one of the largest operating systems in the world, with over 60 percent market share in the United States and over 30 percent in Europe. Furthermore Google has announced to stop tracking cookies in the Chrome browsing by 2022 and replacing it with a new system that they claim will protect user pagina . This means some of the largest tech companies in the world are placing user privacy at the forefront of their business strategy. Is this a bad thing? No, it’s probably about time companies stop regarding users as data generating cattle and take online privacy seriously. Companies have been spoiled with detailed analytics about individual users and will have to adapt their marketing strategy. Instead of fearing changes welcome new opportunities.

How will you reach your audience after iOS 14.5? Send me a message and let’s see if your business is future proof.

Sales funnels vs. Growth loops

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If you’re involved in marketing you are certainly aware of sales funnels. In stores, online, for products or services; the sales funnel is thé standard strategy for customer conversion. But this old marketing method is definitely showing its age, the growth loop seems better suited to successful business growth. Instead of a linear approach to conversion there are looping patterns, these allow companies to build on past success and grow. Let’s explore the concept of growth loops and how they compare to the reigning champion ‘the sales funnel’.

What is a growth loop?

A growth loop is a closed system where the sum of all input creates an output that can be used as input for a new cycle. This loop can be repeated for increasingly better results based on the goals that are defined beforehand. Here’s an example of a growth loop for a social media service:

  1. A user visits a webpage or opens an app.
  2. This person signs up for an account.
  3. The person uses the service and adds content.
  4. This content is spread across the network or through search engines.
  5. This inspires other users to sign up, share content or create new content.

This loop applies specifically to social media platforms that thrive on new users and contributors. These users can be targeted by advertisers, this implies that more signups mean greater revenue. The growth loop will increase in volume which can lead to a rapid acceleration of results.

The use of loops can also apply to other goals such as upselling to existing customers. Instead of entering a new sales funnel the prior success is reinvested into a loop. Take for instance a subscription to a free service with optional paid plans that offer more features. Instead of creating a new funnel the user is placed in a loop to increase the likelihood of upgrading.

How do growth loops compare to sales funnels?

During the introduction I described the standard sales funnel as the ‘reigning champion’. Although this approach is still widely used in companies worldwide, many entrepreneurs and marketing professionals realize that the rigid structure of a linear funnel isn’t sustainable in the long run. Growth loops are not replacing the old method overnight, you can see loops being implemented in linear strategies. It works a bit like a board game with a ‘go back to square X’ approach. But this time the path will be slightly changed, with some obstacles removed and improvements implemented.

The most obvious issue with a sales funnel is the lack of connection to the greater strategy. It’s difficult to grow a company based on a series of dead ends. You could advertise with the intent of selling 1000 units very quickly or you could advertise with the intent of selling 100 units + 10% every month. So instead of focusing on a single large event you set a course for a growing sales perspective. Keep in mind that +10% is a cumulative goal, the actual amount will keep rising just like interest on an investment.

This is a simplified view on a growth loop. By using output as input the new cycle will grow larger, and larger and larger.

How to build a growth loop that … grows!

To make growth possible you need to build your strategy from the ground up. In the previous example I compared one large sale to multiple smaller sales with increasing revenue. The marketing strategy for both scenarios will be vastly different.

Let’s build a growth loop together that has the potential to expand with these five building blocks:

1. You want to build a community, this means you need content that will attract new users to join. These new users will in return provide new content for both existing and new users. Not only will the community grow, the loyalty of users will also increase.

2. Inspire users to share the content on your platform with others to expand your reach. You can do this with obvious and less obvious triggers. If you want to activate existing users you will have to offer them a reason to do so. You can appeal to emotional and subconscious responses by implementing various psychological triggers.

3. Make sure you track all actions that are possible (and legal!) to track and compartmentalize them where applicable. You want to optimize your growth loops which means analyzing data and making adjustments along the way. Each loop builds upon the success of the previous loop and adds new value.

4. Invite and/or nudge your audience to share information about your services or platform. Don’t sit and wait until your users invite others to the party, provide them with guidance and advice to lower the threshold. Utilizing your CRM expertise in a growth loop can increase the growth potential significantly.

5. Collect and analyze performance at every step. Make sure your existing users stay informed, invite them to share and participate and see what the conversion rate in each step is. If conversion is lacking, the loop can’t grow and will eventually start producing diminishing returns. Make sure every step in the process is closely monitored and optimized if it underperforms.

Of course you will profit from custom blocks in your strategy, I’d love to take a look at the potential of growth loops in your organization with you.

Get rid of internal competition

One major takeaway that I want to emphasize is how growth loops require a collaborative effort. In a standard sales funnel every department will have unique goals that don’t always match. For instance; the marketing department is tasked with acquiring 100,000 extra visitors to a website. The next step in the funnel is a conversion, let’s say leaving an email address. It doesn’t matter where those 100,000 people come from and what they’re interested in, just get the target and celebrate. If only 1,000 visitors actually provide their email address the yield is pretty low. Never mind the next step, we all know how a funnel is shaped.

In a growth loop the various contributors and departments work together towards a shared goal. There’s no internal competition but a collaborative environment. Otherwise, the participants will just get their subpar results thrown back in their face at the looping point. If you want to create a healthy business with growth potential, collaboration, and insight are of vital concern.

Are you ready for a roller coaster ride? Buckle up!

Using growth loops in combination with funnels will expand a linear process to a compound strategy. This is a long term process that requires various iterations and room for experimentation in both your strategy and in the product or service itself. With a reliable tech stack you can track all data without clutter.

So, what do you think? Are standard sales funnels outdated and will growth funnels benefit your business? Let me know about your current strategies and let’s find out how we can improve your results.