​I’m sure you’ve been to many presentations/meetings where you get to the end and think you’ve wasted an hour or more of your life. If it’s been a whole morning, it can be even more exasperating. Your time is valuable. Work must be done or you’re running late. But you’ve just wasted 10% of your working week. 

So, when it’s your turn, you get the nod saying ‘please present X to 2-20 people,’ how do you react? In most cases you realise that it’s quite a responsibility. Others freak at the thought and have sleepless nights and palpitations.  

However, it is fair to say, that when you get it right, it can do your career a lot of good. That’s what ‘Cracking Presentations’ does for you. It makes you good at this art.

I cannot condense a whole day’s course material into a few hundred words so for now, let’s just look at the first stage – Preparation. 

For a start, 80% of the success of a presentation hinges on your preparation. Sadly, many go off on their pet subject like an avid train spotter, but this is all about confidently showing others a smart piece of work so that they understand and agree with your proposition. 

I often hear people saying, ‘But, I’m not a sales person!’  Well, you are now! Presentations are meant to sell a concept or viewpoint. You want everyone on the room to agree with you or argue a point. Then the essential points that should be implemented. It may be only to bring people up to speed. Whatever else happens, they cannot leave the room confused, doubting you or your material. 

So, with preparation of your material – decide on the end goal first. What should your audience walk away with?

• Everyone works on WIIFM – What’s in it for me? How will your presentation benefit them? 
• What is the compelling proposition that they will hook up to?  If they leave saying/thinking ‘So what?’ you’re sunk! 
• They must leave the room feeling as if their time has been well-spent or, for sure, they will need to be far more convinced that they should give up their time next time. So, respect their time and effort.  
• Exactly what should a good result look like?  Agreement? Harmony? Some going off to implement your ideas? Gaining their support for funds or policy? 
• So, who’s in the room?’ When you’re inviting people, find out their roles and seniority. You cannot play to an audience unless you know why they’re there. 
• Are they the decision makers or just gatekeepers who will report back to their boss?
• Ask HR for the average cost per hour across the company of all middle grade people. Then understand how much your meeting is costing the company. (It focuses the mind on how productive your presentation must be!) 

There will always be cynics (‘I don’t really need to be here/ I’m too busy.’ ‘Let’s get this over with.’) That is why you have to overcome any objections or reticence, so bring people onside. 

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so decide on what that should be. Hook people from the introductory 30 seconds and you’ve got a chance!

Seth Godin in his clever book, Tribes says:

People don’t believe what you tell them.
They rarely believe what you show them. 
They often believe what their friends tell them,
but they always believe what they tell themselves.
What leaders do is tell stories they can tell themselves,
stories about the future and about change.
Seth Godin, Tribes ​

Instagram is a great platform for engaging with your target audience and although it depends on your business, Instagram typically achieves more likes, follows and reach than other mainstream social media platforms. It does, however, have one major drawback - it’s harder to organically drive people to your website.

Anyone using Instagram for business will be aware that you cannot include clickable links in standard posts to your feed and links are only possible in Stories if you have over 10,000 followers (which everyone has, right?).

The only clickable link for most Instagram businesses is the one that appears in their bio.

If you are a regular blogger or a business trying to promote a special offer - and want to use Instagram to increase visitors to your website then it can be a challenge.

Here are 4 ways to generate more click-throughs from your Instagram profile so that you can drive visitors to your website.

Instagram Ads

When you advertise on Instagram, the ads are not just clickable but you can also reach potential new customers who don’t yet follow you by defining who your target market is. If you are running a marketing campaign, for example, with a special offer then using Instagram Ads is a great way to find new business. Advertising on Instagram costs money, making it less attractive for regular bloggers if you want people on Instagram to visit your blog posts.

When I refer to ‘Instagram Ads’, I’m talking about all forms of advertising on Instagram. It’s possible to advertise on Instagram by setting up a Facebook Ads campaign as well as advertising directly on Instagram.


Copy and Paste

The simplest and cheapest but the least effective of the four ways to drive Instagrammers to your website is to include a link in your post and ask them to copy and paste it into their browser.

Many people won’t have the desire (or knowhow) to copy the link and open the browser to paste in the link. On a desktop is easier but since Instagram is seen by almost everyone on a mobile phone then this makes the task even harder. Only people who are super keen to visit the link will spend the time copying and pasting the link.

Visit our bio

As well as having the link in your post, you can also include wording to tell them to use the clickable link in your bio. Visiting the bio and clicking on the link is much easier than copy and pasting a link into a browser but it’s not ideal if you want to send people to different pages. You can’t, for example, send people directly to your various blog posts if you are publishing articles on a weekly or monthly basis.

There is, however, a better solution...

Use a multiple links tool

At Think Twice Marketing, we use Shorby. An app that allows you to have a selection of links available when someone clicks on your bio link.

Although the bio can only have one clickable link, multiple links tools like this allow you to create a mini pop up menu on your phone with multiple links. These links can be easily edited or removed and can include links to specific blogs, your home or contact page or even to WhatsApp or Email so that they can contact you directly.

Using a multiple links tool allows your audience to quickly find the page you want them to visit on your website directly from your Instagram bio. All you need to do in posts is tell people to click on the link in your bio.

You can see how we use a multiple links tool by visiting Think Twice Marketing on Instagram and clicking on our bio link.

If you would like multiple links set up in your Instagram bio, get in touch or view the Instagram multiple links service we offer in our store.

The instant response from marketers (including anyone focused on video marketing) to this question would be a resounding ‘yes!’ followed by ‘why wouldn’t you use video in your marketing?’ - but there are various factors to consider before jumping in to use video marketing with both feet. First of all, let’s consider some of the benefits of using video in marketing:

• It can grab the attention of potential customers
  
• It hugely increases engagement in social media posts and on websites
  
• Conversion rates are higher when using video
  
• It can help with SEO (increasing how high up in Google search results you appear)

There have been various sources showing how much higher engagement and conversion rates are when using video and while the numbers vary, they are still big.

In 2017, Wordstream reported (amongst other data) that:

51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI
Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
Sixty-four per cent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos
Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more

According to Optinmonster (2019), 'video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year'

We aren’t going to cover the benefits listed above in detail here but it’s sufficient to say that using video marketing is a MUST for many businesses.

The concerns?

The main issue with video marketing is the time it takes to create good quality, relevant videos (and if you are outsourcing to an agency then time is money!). Writing content, whilst not as effective as video, takes very little time to do and while using images on your website, in email campaigns and on social media may take longer than simple text, it’s still a lot quicker than creating videos and can still be effective.

The issue with time and effort spent creating videos depends on how many videos you use in your marketing. If you are posting on social media everyday then you can easily find yourself running out of time creating videos to get more attention rather than doing other things in your business. Instead of making all content into video, you might find that creating occasional videos for social media posts, having a single video on key landing pages and videos for well thought out marketing ads campaigns is a better way to manage your budget and time.

Another concern when it comes to video marketing is knowing what sort of video you want and how the script will go. There are various types of videos ranging from animation (dynamic illustrations or explainer videos) to testimonial, advertorial and even storyboard style videos that are more simplistic and consist of a combination of images, moving words and sound to create a video (according to uscreen there are 15 different types of video that you should be aware of). Video marketing can make marketing a lot more complicated if you don’t have the knowledge and experience to succeed.

Things are getting better!

The good news is that video-making apps are becoming easier to use, more powerful and can help you create videos quicker than ever before (and although some have free versions, great features at an extra cost). There is also a growing number of skilled video marketers who can help create the perfect videos for your marketing.

It still remains time-consuming to create videos but selectively investing time and money in video marketing is the right way to grow your business.

At Think Twice Marketing, we offer solutions such as explainer videos and converting blog posts into videos (just like the one below) that can be posted on social media and on YouTube.

If you would like to find out more about how to use video marketing then get in touch.

In my book ‘Psychology in Marketing and Sales’, I talk about the power of fear and how it can be used to generate sales - but before we answer the question as to whether you should sell based on fear, let's first understand what we mean by the word fear itself.

Fear probably sounds worse than it is and we aren't talking about scare tactics, threats or anything unethical (sorry horror movie fans - this isn't’ for you!). Fear is about demonstrating what somebody might be missing or losing out on if they don't have your product or service. An example of this could be how you can avoid becoming unhealthy or ill by buying a fantastic range of branded healthy foods.

This contrasts to selling products based on the positive benefits. Using the last example you could promote the brand of health foods by saying ‘get fit, be healthy and have a great active life’ by buying this great brand of healthy foods.

When it comes to promoting the benefits of your product or service, selling based on fear has been proven to be more successful but if it isn't done correctly then it could backfire and damage a brand reputation or least be seen as being too negative.

Here are some examples of effective positive and fear-based messages for different types of businesses. How do you feel when you read the two versions? Do the different statements impact the way you feel differently?

Enjoy a happy retirement by investing in a pension now
Don’t lose out on a happy retirement with limited money to live on, invest in a pension now

Protect your PC from viruses with antivirus software
​Avoid losing data and precious time recovering your PC with antivirus software

Beat the queues with fast-pass
Make sure you don’t waste hours queuing up. Grab your fast-pass now

There are benefits to using both styles and a mixture of both is usually the best option.

Selling based on fear is used more widely than you might think, from the shortage of seats left when booking a flight (only 2 seats left, don’t miss out!) to pensions, investments and car breakdown cover (don’t get stranded on your own with your car broken down…) to the range of every day offers you see telling you that if you don’t take advantage of the offer in the next 2 hours then you will miss out.

​In fact, there has even become a widely used term we now use to describe one of our biggest fears - FOMO (fear of missing out).

The next time you work on your marketing, consider how you can develop your messaging and the benefits by pointing out both what’s great about what you offer AND what your potential customer could be missing out on.

If you would like to learn more about how to promote your products and services based on the way the human mind works then why not grab a copy of my very affordable book Psychology in Marketing and Sales - but be quick, it’s so good I might have to put the price up soon! 😃 ​

Want a recap? The video below is a summary of this blog post. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel on YouTube for more videos!

A call to action is, as the name suggests, a call or message to prompt someone to take action - and while this sounds straightforward, many marketers either fail to have the right call to action, position it badly or don’t have a call to action at all in their marketing!

The call to action (or CTA) can vary depending on various factors such as the type of campaign, the channel being used and the how ready a customer is to buy. In printed marketing and on a website the CTA could be a special offer and with a face-to-face meeting or phone call with a potential customer the CTA could be to arrange the next meeting or to email more information.

Take it steady, or get to the point?

For most businesses there are always customers who are ready to buy and customers who want to find out more about your brand, what you offer and if you are a trusted brand to buy from.  Both types of customers should be targeted with different marketing campaigns. The customer who is willing to buy is more likely to accept a call to action that’s direct, such as ‘if you order today then you will receive an extra month for free and 20% off’ but a customer who is still in the early stages of making a decision is more likely to need a softer approach as part of a longer sales. In this case, offering a call to action such as a free guide on how to achieve something or another offer that isn’t immediately going to get the sale is more effective.

In my next blog I will include more detail on how to make call to actions more effective but here are some ways you can be more effective in your marketing:

Positioning
A call to action needs to be easily accessible and having it at the top and the bottom of marketing materials and landing pages is more effective. If your website has lots of images and words then the call to action needs to stand out and having it visible at the top makes it easier to find.

Have a CTA!
It sounds obvious but it’s easy to forget a call to action. Check your marketing and communications to make sure you have a call to action as much as sensibly possible. This should include web pages, marketing materials, blog posts and your email signature - even if it’s just a link to drive someone to read your blog posts.

Make it desirable, even irresistible!
Sorry but ‘click here’, ‘sign up’ and ‘submit’ don’t get me excited and want to take action. Signing up and submitting are also considered negative subconsciously (are you ready to submit or commit to ‘signing up’ even if it’s just for a regular email newsletter?). Phrases such as ‘save me money’, ‘show me how’ and ‘join’ are more powerful and more likely to prompt a potential customer to take action.

In my book, How To Create A Perfect Landing Page, I talk about how CTAs are possibly THE most important element in a landing page if the aim is to convert visitors into paying customers. You can find out more by grabbing a copy of my easy to read book on Amazon.

If you need help designing more effective marketing campaigns and call to actions then get in touch for a free marketing review.

When it comes to online advertising, it doesn't get any bigger than the two tech giants Google and Facebook. But which one is best for advertising your business?

The aim of this blog post is to discuss the pros and cons of using Facebook Ads and Google Ads (previously Google Adwords). We won't be discussing the in-depth details of the various ways you can advertise on the two platforms.

While both platforms allow you to advertise on third party websites as sponsored ads, Google stands out in one important way - Google search. Adverts created with Facebook that appear on Facebook, Instagram and other sites can be considered to some extent as 'speculative'. Yes, you can define your target audience. A seller of training equipment for playing hockey might be able to target people such as 'anyone who lives within 25 miles of New York, has an interest in hockey and is aged 25-44' but that doesn't mean that person who sees the advert is interested in, or wants to buy what's on offer. They might not play hockey and only have an interest in watching it.

With Google, you appear when people are actively searching for what you sell. Using the above example, a person who wants to buy a hockey stick has already made a conscious decision to find out more about the various types or is ready to buy. They are already further into the decision making sales process and are likely to search specifically for 'hockey sticks' or 'buy hockey stick'.

This means you are appearing to people who are genuinely interested and are closer to buying. With Facebook you might need to reach out to more people to generate sales. That doesn't mean Facebook isn't worth considering.

Facebook has many advantages. It tends to be lower cost pay per click, it has access to an audience that's in the billions and there's the opportunity to educate people who may don't think they need your product... but they do.

Facebook, like Google, also allows you to do re-targeting so that your ad will appear when you have visited a similar website. If you had to decide which platform to use then it will depend on your budget, objectives and industry you are in. You may, for example, have the objective to raise awareness of your new product during a product launch and decide that Facebook is best for that. Facebook is also great for short-term promotions, allowing you to reach a lot of people in a short period of time.

Personally, I prefer Google but that doesn't mean it will always be the right solution for your business. Consider your objectives and what you want to achieve before making a decision. You may want to use both platforms to be more effective.

If you need help with online advertising, contact Think Twice Marketing.

To be clear, I'm not endorsing launching poor products to grow sales and this story isn't about any product Think Twice Marketing has launched! I'm a great fan of reading books that help to understand and develop marketing as well as around personal development and this story is from a book titled Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.

The story is about a company that launched a breadmaker which, at the time, was a relatively new concept. When Williams-Sonoma first launched their breadmaker for $275, sales were poor and despite their best marketing efforts, consumers didn’t get the concept of making bread at home and found it even harder to understand why they should pay $275 for such a device.

Williams-Sonoma needed a plan B. More thought into improving the solution, it seemed was needed. So what did Sonoma do?

They launched a larger, heavier and less attractive breadmaker at a 50% premium to the original version (although at the time it was considered to have more features the new breadmaker couldn't really be justified at a 50% premium).

What happened was unexpected. Sales started to grow rapidly - but not for the premium priced product, it was for the original machine priced at $275. Why had this happened?

The answer, it seems is - in one word - relativity. This is less about Einstein and more about how people compare your solutions relative to each other, relative to the competition and relative to the idea of not purchasing anything at all.

On its own, the $275 bread maker had nothing to compare against. Possibly a cheaper coffee maker or some other kitchen appliance? Or maybe the idea of keeping $275 in your pocket? Once the new bread maker was launched consumers were saying “wow, this bread maker is much better value for money and is smaller, I think I’ll take that one” rather than “a bread maker? Not sure why I want to pay over $200 for that!”. The conversation in their mind had shifted from whether to buy at all to which one should I buy.

Relativity plays a big role in marketing and decision making. If you are looking to launch a poorer or inferior product or service we can't help but If you would like to learn more about how relativity can be used to improve your marketing activities and grow your sale then my book 'Psychology in Marketing and Sales' is a recommended read. Head over to the Resources page to find out more.

How much time do you spend on the wording for your title? Whether it's email marketing, blog writing or any other form of marketing where a title or heading is required many marketers and business owners underestimate the importance of the title. Consider this...

At some point in the past you may have written a blog post or an email to send out to your distribution list and very quickly added the title. If you have then you aren't alone but it's one of the worst things you can do. If the title doesn't capture the attention of the reader then they aren't going to read the rest of the content.

In today's world, we are busy people; constantly bombarded with information such as emails, notifications and bits of information we see around us such as ads on the TV or people talking. When it comes to grabbing the readers attention, your campaign is just one of many activities trying to grab and maintain their attention. If you haven't succeeded then those previous minutes or hours you have spent writing the body of the content is wasted. The content won't get read.

The purpose of a title?

The purpose of the title is to tell the reader what the main content is about, right? Actually this is only part of the answer. More importantly, the purpose is to grab the readers attention and make them want to read more. If you fail in the last part then the marketing campaign will be less effective.

In email marketing, typically less than 30% of subscribers will open an email, fewer will read more than the first couple of lines and even fewer will read the whole email. The subject heading should entice the reader to open the email. The email title should entice the reader to want to read the main content and the first few lines of content should entice the reader to want to read the rest. The same principle applies for blog posts.

An accountant, for example, might write a newsletter which includes 3 great tips for reducing the tax a business has to pay. When the email arrives in your inbox and you see the title, which one of these are you, as a business owner likely to open?

Summer Newsletter 2019 or 3 Proven Ways To Pay Less Tax In Your Business

The sight of the word 'newsletter' makes me want to immediately delete the email or at best, leave it in my inbox to read later (which in reality I will never come back to).

Time well spent

I've seen an argument for spending more time on the title of a blog post or email campaign than on the rest of the content. I'm not convinced by this as some campaigns can take hours to write and spending several hours deciding on a title doesn't make sense. Without doubt, an effective, well written title is crucial - and arguably more important than the main body of content but with experience it shouldn't take that long to come up with a powerful headline.  Just spending 10-15 minutes playing around with different wording may be enough time to find the perfect headline.

Here are some headlines types to consider:

- Ask a question that will get the reader thinking and prompt them to read further such as 'Are you struggling to find time to get fit' (if you are a personal fitness instructor reaching out to your audience).
- Start with 'How to' or 'Discover why' so the reader is clear that the content will explain the answer.
- Make a single bold statement that the reader wants to find out more about. This style is more inline with newspapers who often do headlines such as 'Boy saves lives' or 'Millions suffering'... you get the idea.

The use of power words are also important and this is discussed in my book 'How to create a successful email marketing campaign'.
 
One element we haven't discussed in this blog is the importance of effective headings in blog posts from an SEO perspective. Titles should include keywords that are used as part of an SEO campaign to get to the top of Google. You can find out more about this in my blog post How to SEO Your Blog Posts.

If you would like more help writing your marketing campaigns including writing effective titles then contact Think Twice Marketing.

I always find it interesting how salespeople and marketers differ on this, especially in larger corporate businesses where sales and marketing teams are separated but need to communicate closely.

'Marketing do advertising and create fluffy nice looking brochures' you might hear the salesperson say 'while we go out and get the business in and close the deals'. The Marketer might retort that their efforts to show social proof of a great brand with great products have already done the hard work while the sales guy just needs to turn up, have a chat and walk away with the order... and the credit. These thoughts might be harsh, but the good news is they are both wrong.

The majority might argue that marketing and sales are separate but in reality, the two functions are (or in practice should be) very closely aligned. The job of the marketer amongst other things is to look after the customer but in a slightly different way to the salesperson. While a sales person can be more personal they can only reach out to so many people with phone calls or face to face visits.

Similarly, a good marketer should know how to drive customers online to sales pages (or landing pages) and should know how to create those pages in a way that converts visitors into paying customers. The marketer's job is to work with sales to generate opportunities and help close sales where the salesperson doesn't have the bandwidth.

Sales and marketing should work together in many different aspects to drive a business forward. Here are some examples:

- Participating at exhibitions needs marketing to support efforts in using email marketing, social media and other ways to drive visitors to the event where salespeople can build relationships and generate more qualified leads
- Sales teams can provide valuable customer and market feedback to help marketers create more effective solutions that in turn generate more sales and more easily
- Online advertising and landing pages should be designed to generate leads that salespeople can call, visit or email to qualify further and convert into sales

So, are sales and marketing the same?

​In theory, they are different but both roles share the common objectives to generate profitable sales, possibly through slightly different activities but always with the customer in mind.

In smaller businesses, one person may look after and manage the whole sales and marketing process (as well as run the business) so the lines are blurred between the two functions. Whether you believe that sales and marketing are the same or not, it's important that the two functions are as closely integrated as possible for a business to succeed. You could argue that marketing IS selling and selling IS marketing. After all, in his book 'To Sell Is Human', Daniel Pink argues that everybody is a sales person and every day of our lives we are constantly selling something, whether it's convincing friends to go out for a drink, telling the kids how important homework is or asking the boss for a pay rise.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree?

For a free review of your sales and marketing activities, contact Think Twice Marketing.