Joe Chernov says, “If I were to ask you to define a successful career, there’s a 46% chance you’d cite “money” as the measuring stick. Yet despite the emphasis placed on income, marketers are going about maximizing earnings in a flawed manner. I’ve managed marketers for the past decade, and most see career growth as “incrementally hierarchal” — progress unfolds linearly as the person climbs from one level of seniority to the next. A coordinator becomes an associate, an associate becomes a senior associate, a senior associate becomes a manager, and so on. It looks something... [...]

Kathleen Celmins says, “Blogs are like tattoos: you can’t stop at one. You think you can, but there’s an irresistible pull toward yet another one. So you hire someone whose primary job is to focus on content. Then you start adding blogs. It’s easy to do, really. Once you have the systems in place to create high-quality content for one blog, it’s really just a matter of design and scheduling to create another. Each of our three company blogs has a different target persona, so we’re writing to different audiences. But we’re a sales strategy company, and all our target personas... [...]

Emma Snider says, “The pen is mightier than the sword. Which is good, because you probably don’t want to threaten prospects into buying at sword-point. As the primary “weapons” to convert prospects into customers, words are incredibly important to salespeople. How sales reps deliver their messages and converse with contacts can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a conversation. Using the wrong phrase might cast a negative shadow on the proposal, while tweaking just a few words in the pitch might induce a client to buy immediately. The underlying message is certainly critical,... [...]

Jason Richman says, “In 2009, the Washington Wizards completed one of their worst seasons in the franchise’s past 50 years. But since then, the professional basketball team has undergone a complete transformation. Last year, they made it to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, and they’re currently in second place in the Eastern Conference. Being in sales, I’m always interested in how miraculous turnarounds are achieved. After I researched the steps the Wizards took to reverse their fortunes, it became clear to me that many of these actions are also applicable to sales... [...]

Glori Blatt says, “While many etailers view themselves as in competition with Amazon, it’s more effective to use Amazon’s success as an example and learn from it. We did that when we looked at three strategies to borrow from Amazon. Now, here are four strategies that you can use to optimize your differences to Amazon to provide your customers with an unbeatable shopping experience. 1) Curation Amazon has a huge product assortment, one that’s difficult even for the largest corporate retailers to compete with. Instead of trying to compete by offering consumers a product assortment... [...]

Matt Burke says, “It happens to the best of us. Maybe it’s because of a shift in strategy. Maybe it’s due to a lack of relevant content. Maybe they never meant to subscribe to you in the first place… Nah, that can’t be it. After all, you’ve been busy pumping out remarkable content to your targeted audience, right? But truth be told, sometimes your subscribers lose interest in what you have to offer—and that isn’t always a reflection on you or the quality of your work. They just need to be reminded why your offerings are so valuable, and why subscribing to your emails or blogs... [...]

Chris Simpson has released Get Blogging Results, for people who wanted to use a blog to sell their own products or affiliate products. Get Blogging Results will show you how to start a blog about a topic you are interested in, and use that blog to earn a living. Perhaps not ever possible topic can be turned into a money-maker, but many can, and Simpson shows you how, including: • How to find a niche that has profit potential • How to create your blog in that niche, starting from nothing • How to promote your blog to interested people • How to use Adsense to earn money from your... [...]

Emma Snider says, “The pen is mightier than the sword. Which is good, because you probably don’t want to threaten prospects into buying at sword-point. As the primary “weapons” to convert prospects into customers, words are incredibly important to salespeople. How sales reps deliver their messages and converse with contacts can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a conversation. Using the wrong phrase might cast a negative shadow on the proposal, while tweaking just a few words in the pitch might induce a client to buy immediately. The underlying message is certainly critical,... [...]

Ginny Soskey says, “Do you remember your first A/B test on email? I do. (Nerdy, I know.) I felt simultaneously thrilled and terrified because I knew I had to actually use some of what I learned in college stats for my job. I sat on the cusp of knowing just enough about statistics that it could be dangerous. For instance, I knew that you needed a big enough sample size to run the test on. I knew I needed to run the test long enough to get statistically significant results. I knew I could easily run one if I wanted, using HubSpot’s Email App. … But that’s pretty much... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Great news, marketers: Facebook just announced a feature that can help drive more traffic from your Facebook Page to your website: a call-to-action button. While this feature isn’t available to everyone just yet, it’ll roll out in the U.S. over the next few weeks and worldwide starting in 2015. So if you don’t see it on your Page yet, rest assured that it’s coming. In the meantime, you can catch up on all the feature’s details in this post. Here’s How a Facebook Page Call-to-Action Works Page admins can choose one CTA button... [...]