Dream Big: an Article Series e-Book for Goal Achievement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

03 PREFACE

05 GOAL 1: REDUCE WASTE IN MY MARKETING SPEND

08 GOAL 2: EXPAND VISIBILITY TO MY TARGET AUDIENCE

011 GOAL 3: OPTIMIZE MARKETING + WEBSITE TO INCREASE
BUSINESS SUCCESS OUTCOMES

014 GOAL 4: USE BIG DATA TO PREDICT BUSINESS TRENDS

016 GOAL 5: TO BETTER ALIGN MY BUSINESS WITH CONSUMER
NEEDS

019 GOAL 6: MEASURE IMPACT OF OFFLINE EVENTS + ADS

022 GOAL 7: RECRUIT AND RETAIN THE BEST TALENT

025 GOAL 8: CONVERT USERS ACROSS ALL SCREENS

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Dream Big, Dream Smart
In our new series Dream Big, you will learn many ways to establish
goals, reflect and measure those goals, gain encouragement and also
how to implement the steps to achieve what you dream. So start
dreaming… you have a lot left to accomplish.

We all have dreams. Some of us share our dreams and some of us hold
them tight. I personally feel in order to achieve a dream you need to
let it flourish by sharing it with others. Dreams can be about personal
matters or business, but at the end of the day, dreams are really goals.
Dreams and goals are both something at which we want to excel,
something we hope to conquer, achieve or overcome. In this series, we
urge you to Dream Big because stretching the limits is good for us all.
“Stretching the And you may find yourself in very rare company without having even
arrived.
limits is good
for us all.” For me, dreams are inspiring. I may have many of them, but I only
set out to achieve the ones about which I am truly passionate. I aspire
to do things that involve taking a risk and pushing personal limits.
These dreams can live in both soft and hard metrics of measurement.
For example:

Soft Metrics to me would be becoming a better husband and father
on a daily basis by actually taking conscious steps to listen, spend
time, turn off the iPhone and just play with Thomas the Train.
Another example is spending more time at work focused on how to
be a better communicator versus relying on what may have worked
in the past. These aren’t able to be measured against numbers; in fact,
they may never be truly achieved in the sense that you continually
work toward them or they have an indefinite timetable.

On the other hand, Hard Metrics are like paying off my home,
getting down to my “playing weight” of 195 or growing revenue at my
company by 30%. My progress toward these can easily be measured
against hard numbers and usually have finite timetables.

Dream Big, a Series from AskingSmarterQuestions.com 3
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Dream Big, Dream Smart
(Continued)

Given all the dreams we could have, I often try to remember and reset
to ask the question – “What is the one thing that could make the
most difference?”

With this question in mind, I will give you two simple steps that are
helpful in setting Dream Big goals and working toward achieving
them.

Make your dreams an adventure. Dreams should have some sense
of not knowing if you can get there. A bit of a struggle is good for
us. In fact, I’d argue that if the dream was too easy to achieve, then
you haven’t set a BIG enough dream. Now, don’t go set a dream to
become a billionaire. Sure, it’s a big, big dream—and you might even
“I’ve never had a be able to achieve it—but what I’m talking about are dreams that will
piece of advice that positively impact your business and your life. Becoming a billionaire
cost me too much.” might achieve one of those without the other. Have some risk in your
dreams, but also have a way that others can help hold you accountable
to them. In our last series Dollars & Sense, I wrote about “Staying
Ahead” and accountability is part of that, but remember to have an
adventure and enjoy working toward the goal.

Ask & Seek Advice. I’ve never had a piece of advice that cost me too
much. It’s simple: don’t be a big shot and pretend you don’t need the
help. Also don’t be too afraid about what the person may say when
you ask. We all need help. In fact, most people are happy to provide
it and sometimes in the oddest of places and circumstances if you
seek it. There is a great TED talk called The Art of Asking – take 10
minutes and watch it.
Please enjoy our series Dream Big, which will hopefully help you
achieve your hard and soft metrics goals for your business and even
for yourself. If at first you don’t succeed, make your dream BIGGER.

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Goal 1: Reduce Waste in My Marketing Spend
Marketing budgets are full of wasteful spend. Especially with the
heightened popularity of social media, companies are spending time
and money without seeing a hard number ROI. Agencies are not
providing adequate measurement to their clients and the result is
wasted spend. Improving efficiency in your marketing budget begins
with reducing this waste. The goal is ultimately to hold your budgets
more accountable, and luckily, there are many ways to do this. I will
go over a few of these tactics now:

1. Enhance tracking capabilities
When you sit down at a marketing meeting and decide your strategy,
“It’s imperative to the most important component is how you are going to measure
success. “Brand awareness” is difficult to measure, so it’s imperative
have goals that to have goals that have trackable action plans. Brand awareness is
have trackable lovely, but if you supplement this intangible “awareness” with key
performance indicators, your campaigns will be able to show their
action plans.” true return on investment.

In order to measure, you must first implement the correct tracking.
How are you going to tell who called after seeing your ad on Google
or Bing? How are you going to assess what platforms drive the most
conversions on your website? How can you tell if someone submitted
their resume on your careers page because they saw a tweet from
your brand? Answering these questions is easier than you think, as
there are tactics to measure almost any online action taken by a user.
Implementing the correct analytics + tracking code is the first step you
must take in order to best assess your digital marketing initiatives.

2. Optimize toward business goals
Once you have implemented tracking code + analytics across all
of your marketing initiatives, it will then be time to assess what is
succeeding and what is failing. Optimization is an everyday practice.

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Goal 1: Recruit and Retain the Best Talent
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That’s right; you should be optimizing campaigns constantly. If you
are running a remarketing display campaign, check to see which
ads and which platforms perform the best. Find what actions users
are most likely to complete on your website according to these
variables. Do not accept visits; optimize toward your most important
conversions.

This will help keep your marketing focused on driving your business
and will help reduce wasteful spend. Refining your target audience
might mean garnering fewer transfers to your site, but these visitors
will be more likely to complete the action you want. If you have
trouble staying focused in the midst of hundreds of metrics, try
writing your overarching business goals on a post-it. If you are pitched
“Marketing insights a flashy marketing initiative that is not measuring success of one or
can improve more of these goals, reject it.
practically every
3. Leverage marketing data to improve every aspect of your business
facet of your
business.” When we learn things from marketing campaigns, we tend to think
it terms of applying them to future marketing initiatives. While this
is a standard practice, we like to think of marketing data as a vehicle
to drive operational change. Many companies keep their marketing,
research + development, sales and creative teams separate. However,
marketing insights can be applied to improve practically every facet of
your business. A simple example of this would be if you noticed that
transfers from paid search campaigns for running shoes were highest
in the beginning of the year when New Years resolutions were still
in tact. By applying this small insight, you could predict and better
fulfill manufacturing, shipping + sales needs. Now imagine applying
insights like: people living in the South are more likely to run outside
and wear down their soles faster, which means their purchase cycle is
shorter; or that people who live in a 300 mile radius of the warehouse
receive their shoe shipment faster and are more likely to positively
review your company online as a result.

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These are just a few ways in which you can reduce wasteful marketing
spend. Dare to get granular. Do not settle for convenience metrics–
even on social media. Stick to marketing initiatives that accomplish
business goals, not just marketing goals. Do not participate in any
initiative without having a tracking + analysis plan in place. I can tell
that your brain is already burning with ideas, so go get started!

“Dare to get granular.”

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Goal 2: Expand Visibility to My Target Audience

We often talk to businesses that want to expand their visibility online,
but are not sure what platforms accomplish this best for the smallest
price tag. The truth is that there are tons of ways to improve your
visibility and reach your target audience, but you have to evaluate the
ones that work best for your company’s goals and are most efficient at
connecting you with your customer. Here are some of the best ways
to expand your visibility online. But before you get started, be sure
that all initiatives align with your overall business goals and have an
effective measurement plan in place:

Where the Consumers Are

“Be sure that all First you must assess who your ideal consumer is and where these
people are most active. Chances are, they use search engines. But
initiatives align with where else do they go to look for information? If they’re on social
your overall channels, what platforms are they accessing most? If it’s a tech
audience or tends to skew younger, there’s a good chance they are
business goals.” active on Twitter. Older business professionals? Look into LinkedIn.
Does your audience skew female? A Pinterest strategy could be
worth developing. Is your audience a part of a niche? Get your brand
involved on industry-specific forums or within blogs. If your brand is
particularly great at developing video content, don’t forget YouTube.
Here are some ways to capitalize on these platforms to increase reach
+ visibility:

Paid Search Marketing
As we have already mentioned, most active Internet users utilize
search engines, with Google comprising about 70% of the market
share. Therefore, these are not bad places for your business to show
up. The trick is to finding the most efficient way to utilize paid
search campaigns. In other words, it should pay for itself. Here are
some ways to cut the cost on paid search ads but still reach a relevant
audience:

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1. Match types
16% of Google searches are unique (have never been searched for
before). Therefore, it is important that you utilize different match
types that show the ad that is most relevant according to the search
query.

2. Content
Create ads with content that cater to not only different queries, but
different demographics and locations to increase relevancy.

“Optimizing the 3. Extensions
search engine does From directions to click-to-call to product extensions, these are a great
not mean gaming way to get ahead of the competition and get the sale or lead.
the system”
4. Build out the long-tail
Long-tail keywords are simply more descriptive (and long, go figure),
which usually indicates that the consumer is lower in the purchase
funnel. The times your ads will show may be fewer, but these people
are more likely to convert.

Search Engine Optimization
SEO is another way to become more visible in the search engines.
It is very different from paid search because it is a lengthier process
and deals with organic results on the search engine result page.
Optimizing the search engine does not mean gaming the system,
but making sure that you are being proactive about developing fresh
content and links, which increase authority and relevancy. Most SEO
services encompass two distinct routes: on-site and off-site.

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On-site SEO ensures that the content, structure and navigation of
your site (as well as your internal linking strategy) is easy for the
search engine to crawl, read and interpret so that each of your pages
can be indexed correctly.

Off-site SEO develops a linking strategy that helps your site gain
authority.

Social Communication

“Digital exposure Social media is considered a “no-brainer” for many marketers and
companies. But the truth is that in order for your company to
can fluctuate be successful on social channels (e.g. garnering visits, attention),
within minutes” your company has to have something to say that is share-worthy.
Developing a content strategy is imperative here. Staying consistent
with updates and maintaining a brand’s voice is critical in social
channel management.

There is also the element of social advertising, which marries the
function of paid search to the virality of social media. The targeting
can incorporate the standard demographic and geographic modifiers,
but can also encompass interests or lifestyle, which can be helpful to
some brands.

Ongoing Optimization
How might ongoing optimization of your campaigns and initiatives
keep you visible? Simply put, your competition may not be doing it.
Digital exposure can fluctuate within minutes, so it is important to
be constantly optimizing messaging, content, links, paid search ads,
etc. in order to stay in front of your targeted audience.

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GOAL 3: OPTIMIZE MARKETING + WEBSITE TO INCREASE
One goal we consistently hear from potential and current clients
is minimizing cart abandonment and increasing conversions on
their websites. Conversion optimization has many facets and can be
different for various business models and largely depends on what the
brand’s predominant key performance indicators (KPIs) are.

The first step is determining your website’s KPIs.
Adjusting your KPIs may be in order. KPIs are actions taken on the
website that enable you to assess engagement + sales on your site. For
eCommerce sites, the most important KPI is generally a consumer
purchasing a good. However, for sites like a city’s Visitor’s Bureau,
“Which actions on the most important KPI may be completing a form asking for more
information about the region. All of these KPIs can be monetized and
your site are the ranked by importance, but it is first absolutely necessary to decide
largest priority or of which actions on your site are the largest priority or of the most value;
then you are able to optimize your website toward them.
the most value?”
The second step is assessing your collected data.
There are two authoritative sources of data related to your website.
One is the marketing and ads that are directing users there. The
second is your on-site analytics. They each can reveal information
about what your user wants and may help you draw conclusions
about what your site is lacking.

Marketing: Are your ads clear and relevant? If optimizing toward
a purchase, list pricing, inventory, shipping and other availability
details that could potentially filter customers, bringing in only those
interested in purchasing after being given all of the information.
In other words, an ad that reads: “Men’s Northface Jackets Now
Available” may bring in more clicks, but an ad that reads “Men’s Black
Northface Jackets – Now $89.99 may ensure a higher conversion rate.
In the first example, a customer might click on the ad and get to the
website and realize that the black jacket is out of stock or that it is (in

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their opinions) overpriced. They click back to the search engine and
begin again, leaving your site with a higher bounce rate.

Website: You’re examining website actions and user behavior in order
to determine where the hang-ups may be. What is preventing these
people from purchasing with you? Is your site’s navigation confusing
or convoluted? Are your product descriptions as in-depth as possible?
Is your purchase button easy to find on all product pages? Assessing
website pathing reports is a great way to follow users as they navigate
your site and find out if they are utilizing paths you intended. If they
are going to disjointed pages, it is likely that there is a problem with
your conversion funnel. This can be fixed by rearranging elements
or changing functionality on the page in order to create a better user
“Simple A/B testing experience and more clear path. Perhaps in an effort to streamline,
can reveal a lot about you made things more complicated (it happens).
user behavior” The third step is conducting on-site tests.
To combat accidentally making things more complicated, you want
to test changing various elements on your website’s “problem” pages
or paths. Simple A/B testing can reveal a lot about user behavior and
what experience they want when coming to your site. Once you have
been able to pinpoint hang-ups in the conversion process, you are
able to begin testing elements that could potentially affect the user
experience. This can range from creating stronger calls to action across
your site, changing the color of your conversion buttons, or adjusting
settings on your shopping cart that will shorten the length of time
users spend purchasing the product or service. Some users wish to
create profiles on websites in order to save their personal information
and shorten purchasing time, but others prefer to remain anonymous,
what is often called the “guest checkout.”

Since not all sites are eCommerce, let’s say for instance that your
website’s main KPI is filling out a “Request More Information” form,
as on many B2B websites. These are qualified leads that can lead to

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business growth, so it’s important that the option to fill out this
form is not only easy to find on your site, but once there, the form
is intuitive. If using a captcha, do not make it overly complicated or
you could risk losing the user out of frustration. It is important to
marry user experience with logic.

Step four is implementing changes + following up.
Not only should you implement changes (quickly) once you have the
results from your on-site tests, but you should also follow-up with
your customers to create brand loyalty. Customize your marketing
efforts with email and remarketing display ads in order to keep your
brand fresh in their minds, even when they are high in the purchase
“Follow up with your cycle. Staying in front of your consumer, especially in digital, is most
consumers to create of the battle.
brand loyalty” When you reach a comfortable conversion rate, it is likely that
the user experience is also positive. When this number dwindles,
it’s possible that it’s time for a website and/or marketing initiative
refresh. It is important that you do not consider the marketing
and website as separate initiatives, however, because the data
collected from site analytics can often be used to improve marketing
campaigns and thus, your business.

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Goal 4: Use Big Data to Predict Business Trends
Big Data is a hot topic. Heck, there’s a Harvard Business Review
category dedicated to articles strictly about the “problem” of Big Data.
But at ASQ, we like to think of Big Data as an opportunity rather
than a problem. With all of the data that your website can collect,
it’s hard to imagine a scenario where your business goals cannot be
completely data-driven. However, there may be some sources of data
you are not considering.

We like to lump them into two groups: internal variable data (you’re
probably considering) and external variable data (maybe you’re not
considering).

“We like to think Some examples of internal variable data include: calls, revenue, jobs,
cost and marketing (including traditional, digital and social – unpaid
of Big Data as an or paid). These are things that you consider to directly impact your
opportunity rather business. And while you are right, they may not paint the whole
picture. That’s where external variable data comes in. Some examples
than a problem.” of external variables include: weather, stock prices, consumer
confidence, material prices for your products, shipping costs, or
anything else you might think indirectly impacts your sales.

Shall we use a metaphor? All right then. Think of your business like
a map. The question you want to answer is “where are we going?”
The answers lie in where you’ve been, where you are now and the
prediction for the future. Big Data can help answer all of these
independent questions, which allows us to predict where you’re going.
Just how is this accomplished? Well, first we connect the dots among
your disparate data sources. Whether or not its an automated or
manual process, we are able to layer your data sources and make them
searchable. This gives us the “where you’ve been” picture. Often times,
companies are collecting data across tons of platforms and they’re all
housed in different places. Creating a program to access all of your
data and pull them together is called custom database development.

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Goal 4: Use Big Data to Predict Business Trends
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Now we are ready to assess the “where are we now” and “where are
we going” pieces of the map. To do this, we compile + organize the
historical data along with the other relevant external data variables,
layering the information so that it is easier to access and analyze.
Next we create a statistical model to predict trends for the future that
influence your business. We are then able to manipulate factors in that
model to determine how much it will impact your bottom line, thus
the ability to find where your business can run on optimal efficiency.
It is not enough to consider the internal variables, but to also include
things that impact consumer decisions also.

So why do we need to work with Big Data in this way?
“Database Aside from the obvious positives already mentioned, database
management management creates ways to communicate with every level of
creates ways to professional in your company. Take, for instance, reporting. Analysts,
management and clients need to look at the data in various levels
communicate of depth, and the database creates the opportunity to do that
with every level automatically and seamlessly. Additionally, different people pulling
reports from different data sources can often lead to human error.
of professional” Automating reports ensures better accuracy and more seamless
trending over time, which leads to better models and predictive
analysis.

Big Data does not have to “bury” your company, as some have
claimed it will. It is possible to aggregate + act upon it for optimal
business efficiency based on a seemingly-endless number of factors.
The question is now not Where are we going? but How soon can we
get there?

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Goal 5: To Better Align my Business with Consumer Needs
Consumers. You can’t always trust them to tell you exactly what they
want, and it can be hard to determine their needs based on intuition.
That’s why we always recommend making decisions about your
business based on data. So what kind of data will help you determine
a consumer’s wants and needs? We have a few ideas:

Social Research + Intelligence
Social intelligence is something that we really believe in. It entails
social media monitoring (or listening) to public consumer updates on
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, in blogs, forums and more. Whenever a
consumer discusses your product, brand or competition, you can be
“If there is an area privvy to what they say (as long as their comments are public). How
does this help? Well, for starters, you can assess consumer sentiment
where you need about your brand and products or services. If there is an area that you
to improve, we need to improve, we can guarantee that a consumer is talking about
it right now online. This feedback can be indispensable because it
guarantee that a can lead you to make data-driven business decisions based on what
consumer is talking consumers want. Instead of creating a focus group or interfering
with their time on your site with surveys, you can obtain unsolicited
about it right (ie: unfiltered) and real-time opinions that can help you make better
now online.” business choices. What kinds of better business choices can be based
off of social intelligence? Here are just a few examples:

1. Improve marketing. Sure, you know that your red velvet cupcakes
sell the best, but do you know why? Perhaps it’s the icing consistency,
perhaps it’s the price, or perhaps it’s the one that is always available
at 3pm when most people crave sugar. There are so many reasons out
there for you to consider. If you tap into the minds of the consumer,
it may help narrow down your reasons, thus improving your
marketing. Let’s say it’s the icing. You can start a campaign that tells
consumers that this particular icing is now available on every flavor of
cake. Let’s say it’s the 3pm availability. You can create a campaign that
is targeted at afternoon snackers and tailor messaging directly to them.

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2. Improve customer service. Perhaps it’s not cupcakes. Instead,
you are a dentist. As you glean insights from your social research,
you notice that the waiting room comes up as a sticking point for
most patients. In fact, it may keep them from returning to your
business. You can then set out to improve upon this aspect of your
business: you could implement scheduling changes to decrease the
time customers spend in the waiting room, or work on making
your waiting room nicer. Add magazines, a coffee maker, a TV, a
vending machine–whatever! Now you’ve provided customers with an
additional reason to come back to your business.

3. Find out what your competition is up to. Sure, there are plenty
of ways to assess your competition, but none may be as detailed as
“Glean information what you will hear from your customers. Therefore, it is important to
about what create a social research strategy that encompasses your competition.
customers think What are consumers comparing about your two businesses? How
does each succeed and where can each improve? You can glean
regarding your information about what customers think regarding your competitions’
competition” promotions, warranty and/or policies, guarantees and their loyalty to
the brand. This will help you determine ways in which you can gain a
competitive edge.

Price Sensitivity Analysis
Many businesses set their prices and forget it for years, but this does
not optimize your business, as your margins and overhead fluctuate
far more often. Price sensitivity analysis essentially aims to find the
optimal combination of your cost incurred, your price point and
consumer demand. Creating a graph that manipulates these variables
allows you to determine at what price point consumers will buy
the product or service from you (and not your competitors) and at
what price point allows you to maximize profit. To assess how much
consumers are willing to pay, you can look at historical data like
trended demand over time, or simply submit a survey.

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User-Experience Testing
Our last idea for aligning your business with consumer needs is user-
experience testing. This takes place online and is a way for you to tell
how your website performs with consumers. Your website is usually
the first impression a consumer has about your brand nowadays.
If they have a bad experience the first time, they will find other
places to visit the next time they’re in the purchase consideration
phase. If they have trouble loading your site, navigating its pages,
if they are subjected to ugly 404 pages or reach roadblocks in your
conversion funnel, you can bet that they will not return. Therefore,
it is important to marry your data and creative in order to create a
“Your website is website that is aesthetically pleasing, search engine-friendly and, most
importantly, user friendly.
usually the
first impression To do this, you must monitor users’ reactions and engagement with
your website. Then collect and analyze user feedback in order to
a consumer has create the optimal user experience. This will give you insight into
about your brand” what consumers find most valuable about your site, which gives you
the opportunity to expand that offering or component. You can gain
insight about your website’s design, copy, navigability and more,
which will allow you to make decisions that positively impact your
business. Let’s say, for example, that you’re trying to sell a product,
but most consumers are coming to your site just to get reviews and
information. It’s time to discover ways in which you can enhance the
profitability of the site and capture consumers who are lower in the
purchase funnel. This can all be done with user-experience testing.

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Goal 6: Measure Impact of Offline Events + Ads
One of the things that marketers, data scientists and advertisers
alike love about digital is the opportunity to hold marketing truly
accountable. That is, attribute true return on investment to digital
initiatives. But you do not have to sacrifice accountability when
measuring offline initiatives. There are plenty of ways to use digital
tools to monitor the success of offline advertising. Below are a few
simple ways to accomplish this:

1. Use vanity URLs
By creating landing pages specific to an offline initiative, you can
track how effective the call to action is. For example, let’s say that
“Attribute true you’re running an ad for your Miami hotel in Travel Florida magazine
citing your recent award as the Best Hotel on South Beach. Instead
return on investment of including your generic website (www.miamihotel.com), send users
to digital initiatives.” to a specific landing page that will indicate to you from where they
came. To do this, you can simply use a vanity URL that redirects to
a page with more specific tracking code. An example might be www.
miamihotel.com/bestonsouthbeach that redirects to www.miamihotel.
com/?cmp=southbeach_trvlfl_feb2013. Using this tracking code
allows you to see that the South Beach campaign in Travel Florida
magazine in Feb 2013’s issue sent you x clicks and x conversions,
without the consumer having to memorize a long and convoluted
URL.

2. Integrate social media into offline ++hannels
You’ve no doubt seen this everywhere. 70% of Super Bowl
commercials incorporated a hashtag or Twitter handle. You may not
be able to tell how many people watched your commercial, but you
will get a good idea of how many social influencers saw it and had
a comment. Additionally, these branded hashtags enable brands to
see immediate, real-time response to offline initiatives. You won’t
have to wait for a focus group to tell whether or not people liked
your commercial, hated the new jingle or think your promotion

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is amazing. For more information about how brands can integrate
social and TV, check out this post on the second screen phenomenon.
Hashtags can also be used in print ads. Though not as timely as TV,
it can still drive consumer conversation online, where it can be better
monitored by your brand.

3. Unique coupon codes
People are always in search of a good deal. Since you’re in tune with
your customer needs (right?), you are willing to give them a discount.
However, it is not useful to use one discount code for every channel.
To best assess which offline channels are driving conversions on
“Measure the your website, use unique coupons and promo codes. If your ad is
running in Lucky Magazine, give out the promo LUCKYMAG. If
impact of offline your ad is read aloud on Sirius XM’s Highway radio, use promo code
versus online” HIGHWAY. This is a remarkably easy way to tell how people found
your brand and how they were influenced to buy your product.

4. Use sound recognition apps to drive to your website
You may have seen the Shazam icon pop up on your television every
now and then when watching a commercial. If you open a sound
recognition app like Shazam, it will take you to the website. This
essentially works like scanning a QR code from a print ad. It’s great
for those looking to measure engagement with radio or TV ads,
but the users must also already have the app, which may impact the
volume of consumers interacting on this platform.

5. Site intercept surveys
Site intercept surveys are conducted on-site and ask the users a few
questions about their website experience. Consider incorporating a
question about how the user found your site. To measure the impact
of offline versus online, offer options like: online search, television ad,

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radio ad, newspaper, social media and friend referral. Though this will
just be a sample of those who visit your site, it will give you a good
idea about how people are becoming exposed to your brand. How
likely to convert is a consumer coming from an offline channel versus
an online channel?

All of these tactics can help you measure the impact of your offline
initiatives using digital tools as a means of accountability. They
also give you the ability to make data-driven decisions about your
marketing initiatives. Are you reaching the right audience on the
channel that they prefer most? Granular tracking of your marketing
is the only way to measure success beyond convenience metrics,
attributing ROI down to specific campaigns, ads and platforms.
“Are you reaching the
right audience on
the channel they
prefer most?”

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Let’s assume that–since you’re reading this blog–your company aims
to be data-driven. But you may not be approaching hiring in the same
way. We’ve all seen the conventional model: find a person who has a
decent amount of education in a given or related field, ask them a few
questions about their strengths and weaknesses and negotiate a salary
you can both live with.

But that is not always the best way to go about hiring people. There
are many factors that you have not yet considered beyond what this
person’s title and role might be. For instance, which team will they
work on? How are their specific skills going to balance and help that
team become all that they can be? How is their experience going
“There is much more to help shape where the company is going? What personalities will
they work best with? Too often we assume that everyone will work
to know about a well with whomever we put them with. Sure, they might get things
person than what is done and they might be cordial, but designing teams based on
individuals’ strengths and weaknesses can increase productivity and
typed on resumes” output. Similarly, the quality of work might improve if you refrain
from having several of the same personalities on one team. If there
are several highly analytical and detail-oriented thinkers, perhaps they
need a person to drive the bigger picture and think about the creative
execution.

There is now so much more to know about a person than just what
is typed on their resumes. People are more than numbers, so I’m not
exactly suggesting a Moneyball approach; however, considering more
than the person’s resume qualifications could impact the team and the
company positively. Here are a few ideas for recruiting and retaining
the best talent:

1. More than keywords
Many data systems will organize candidates by keywords you put
in. Do not only focus on what the candidate might possess (a 4-year
degree, 3+ years experience in your field), but what personality traits

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you think would be the most beneficial to that role. Think outside
the box and consider candidates that have an analytical background
even if it’s not in the exact field for which you’re hiring. You can teach
someone software; it’s considerably harder to teach them how to
think.

2. Consider what you can offer
Everyone always focuses on what the potential employee can bring
to the company, but intelligent folks do not want to stay at the same
level forever. Ascertain what your company can provide this individual
not only in the way of salary and benefits, but career and personal
“Ascertain what your growth potential.

company can provide 3. Emphasize education
this individual”
Not only will this make your current and potential employees feel
valued, but it will ultimately improve their understanding of the
work and the quality of their output. Offering free online courses or
even just webinars is a great (and inexpensive) way to continue your
employees’ education.

4. Peer interviewing
Most people are used to having a phone interview followed by an
in-person interview with their potential bosses or HR Director. But
these might not be the people that this candidate has to work with
on a daily basis. Therefore, some companies are implementing a peer
interview program that allows current team members to assess how
well the candidate will fit in with their team and the company as a
whole. People who are in the job every day and know what it takes
may see something that you do not.

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5. Added benefits
Studies have shown that the just-out-of-college generation is excited
about working in a start-up atmosphere. Why is that? Because
there are added benefits that don’t come with the average 9-to-5.
Things like free parking, social outings, flexible work hours, relaxed
work environment, pets at work, work from home options and free
transportation are very appealing to this generation of workers, and
they’re usually willing to overlook the longer hours and learning curve
that comes along with the start-up culture. Ask yourself what your
company can offer in the way of added benefits and promote them
feverishly.
“Set the bar high
6. Set the bar high
for everyone”
To get the best talent, you must be able to not only fulfill their
personal growth goals, but also challenge them to be better. If you’re
recruiting people who feel like they’re not being well-utilized, they’re
going to be complacent or just quit. Set the bar high for everyone
and the intelligent ones will rise to the occasion and strive to achieve
what could be. Setting the bar low will only hurt the team and your
company’s success.

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Goal 8: Convert Users Across All Screens
In the last year, smartphone subscriptions increased by 55%. Just
over 50% of mobile users now utilize smartphones, which means
big money for websites and ads that are mobile-optimized. With the
growing use of mobile devices for searching, purchasing and more,
many companies have struggled to get mobile-friendly versions of
their websites up and running. But there is an option for which
an entirely separate and new site does not have to be constructed:
responsive design.

Responsive design essentially creates the website’s functions and
images as separate entities which grow and change as the screen
size changes. If a user on a desktop makes the window smaller, the
“Gone are the days functionality of the website does not change. Similarly, the user who
views the desktop version on the smartphone or tablet version can still
when the mobile perform the same actions. Gone are the days when the mobile version
version of a of a site is just a limited version with minimal actions you can take.

site is just a SEOMoz‘s visual account of how it works is helpful. Here is the
limited version” standard view with 9 elements on the site:

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Here’s what happens when you pull the screen wider:

And here’s what the elements do when you narrow the screen (or view
“What are other the site on, say, an iPhone):
considerations
before moving to
responsive design?”

So what are other considerations before moving to responsive design?

First, SEO. Mobile sites used to have to compromise the amount
of information that was on the page due to lack of space. With

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responsive design, the elements are all there on the page. When users
want to find information on their smartphones, your site will have
good usability, which is important to search engines. Also, people
probably will not type a 7-word search query, so keeping your pages
targeted to shorter keywords and keyword phrases is smart.

Second, user experience. While user experience may be enhanced for
all the aforementioned reasons, it’s necessary to point out that with
responsive design, your mobile site is confined to what is on your
desktop site. For most businesses, this will be fine. However, for some,
the mobile experience may need to be separate. Consider the reasons
a user would search for your business on their mobile devices and why
they would search for you on their desktops. If the reasons are quite
“Consider the different, having the same site content and functionality might not be
reasons a user would the best answer for you.
search for your
business on their
mobile devices”

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Like what you read and want to learn more?

Primary ASQ contributors Steve Parker, Jr. and Jeff Adelson-Yan
are also the Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Levelwing.
Levelwing is a business analytics and intelligence firm, mining and
analyzing data to help businesses operate with greater clarity and
profitability.

Please contact us directly to learn how your business can benefit from
our services.

e: steve@levelwing.com
p: +1.843.631.4587

Or visit our website at
www.levelwing.com/services

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