Do you know the “prescription” for effectiveness?

May 15, 2017 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

Here’s a “secret” in business….

If you’re hitting the goals, clients rarely want to dig deep into the details.

But if you’re not, they will ask questions.

Just because we can get super finely detailed in digital marketing doesn’t mean we should. Prior to surgery, do you really want to know the fine details of the procedure?

It shouldn’t matter if it works, right?

Our friend Rich Castellano is a plastic surgeon and author of The Smile Prescription. We asked him for his thoughts:

“My highest recommendation for personal efficiency in relationships is relentlessly pursue what will make the other party ‘smile’ more.

If you get the job done, why would clients need to know the details?

In a business relationship, you approach a business transaction with a pain point: low yield on Facebook, unable to monetize on social, or in my case, people want to look and feel their best.

When clients walk out of our offices with a BIG SMILE on their face, we know that we did our job. If we are unable to make them smile, then we still have more work to do.

Effectiveness is all about the end result – creating the BEST customer service experience by analyzing and quantifying what makes your client smile more! When you are better at this than your competitors, your business will rise to the top.”

See the point?

Client gratification and project success is measured by the ends, not the means. The “prescription” for effectiveness is empathy.

Identify what’s preventing the client from smiling– then optimize to smiles.

Clients rarely need to know the nitty-gritty if your decision making is effective and you’re efficient too.

But consider the difference between effectiveness vs. efficiency.

If efficiency is the speed of an airplane, effectiveness is its direction– it’s only a matter of degrees between having a successful flight and going off course and crashing.

This is why effectiveness is the prerequisite. While you don’t want to inundate your clients with too much information (dense, frequent updates), it’s important not to go silent either.

We’ve learned there are two instances where clients will ask questions:

If their stats are tanking.
If we’ve gone too long without providing them with updates.

The best way to avoid both of these is by using the 9 triangles pairing of MAA/CID:

Even though internet marketing may appear mechanical, your judgment call is important and overrides robotic precision. What do you think is most important in terms of performance and optimization actions to take next?

Do you have any other business “secrets” to be more effective? Let me know in the comments below.

The Bounce Technique – Persuasion And Relating To Your Audience

March 31, 2017 By Ben Dahl Leave a Comment

Using “I” can be okay in writing if you use it the write way. Don’t beat your chest with a “me, me, me” attitude. Instead, balance the use of “I” and “you” to create empathy with your audience and create persuasive content.

[Read more…]

8 Key Points Of Good Communication

March 25, 2017 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

Scenario: your team is assigned an article for a client due in one week. You’re good at writing, so you knock out the writing requirements. You then send it to your editor, who knocks out the editing. Now it just needs to be beautified, so it’s off to the graphic designer.

Then it sits with them. Despite your efforts to contact them, the due date rolls around and the client fires you… all because of one person.

In a business setting, communication ties in with iteration. That’s why they’re part of the same concept. You can’t coordinate without communication. As elementary as this seems, it’s still a big reason projects drop and clients end up becoming dissatisfied.

With that in mind, here’s a simple set of strategies that may help you break down the communication barrier:

Better to get stuff out that is decent than delay and not ever post.
Put together a simple framework on how to communicate– whether it’s replying to an email, attending a meeting, writing an article, or whatever.
No fear = no procrastination.
Learn how to manage your email/schedule.
Consider the importance of iteration and how basic communication (even saying “I don’t know”) is the easiest way to avoid failure from lack of response.
Always tell others what you are doing when asked. Post your work, and pass it off if you can’t finish it.
Don’t get caught up in the details of planning so much that you fail to execute.
Do, Delegate, Delete (DDD). Either do it or pass it off, and then delete it. Don’t save it for later when you see it. This breeds procrastination, and as more things shovel in on you, it will slide further back and languish.

As elementary as these tips may seem, it’s failure to implement such practices that results in failure to succeed. In fact, because they’re so elementary, people tend to think they don’t need to put them into practice because they’re already “second-nature” to them.

That’s not the case.

–Logan Young, Vice President, Strategy BlitzMetrics

“In sports, they always preach the importance of mastering the fundamentals. Any team working
together on a project should operate by this same principle. Being a good communicator might seem simple, but I’m constantly surprised how often problems boil back down to someone’s inability to communicate effectively.”

The more people and more steps you have in a process, the greater the risk of failure. When the “weakest link” doesn’t do their part, they ruin it for the team.

Having you and your team consciously practice good communication will gradually transform your setbacks into desired results.

Surgeons don’t leave the emergency room to go out to knock on doors

February 28, 2017 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

You spend all this time talking to potential clients– they appear to have money, interest, and clear need for your services.
But somehow they don’t buy– they went with someone else, balked at the price, were just milking you for free consulting, or turned out to be jerks.

How do you avoid all this?

Know that surgeons don’t leave the emergency room to go out to knock on doors.

Imagine that you run a hospital and somebody waltzes into the emergency room.
They demand that you parade out every single type of surgeon and specialist you have.
Each one has to explain what they do and how they do it.

And all the while, you’re hoping that this patient will buy one of the procedures.
But the longer you spend answering their questions, the more you know it’s costing valuable time.

If you’re a consultant, freelancer, or agency, do you see what’s happening here?

Unless they have clear pain, don’t try to sell them on a surgery.
And unless they walk into your emergency room, don’t go out of your way to talk to them.

But what about generating leads, you say?
I can’t just sit there hoping that if I build it, they will come– we have to sell, right?

Yes, and you do that by putting out a lead magnet– a demonstration of your expertise.
And you qualify these people by using the “strategy assessment” to get their goals, content, and targeting.

In other words, if someone comes to the emergency room, the doctors aren’t going to just start operating.
No matter what the patient “thinks” the problem is, the specialists will take blood, x-rays, and diagnostics.

And you know that most patients are wrong in their self-diagnosis.
They also believe that they can get a heart surgery for the price of heartburn medication.

Same thing, right?

We follow a process called MAA— short for Metrics > Analysis > Action

As much as the would-be patient wants to get straight to action, we always follow these 3 sequential steps.

Metrics is to collect vitals via bloodwork, x-rays, and such– called the “strategy assessment” and access checklist.
That means we have not only their GCT (goals, content, targeting), but access to their analytics and ads.

Analysis is where they must pay for our time, so we can properly diagnose the issues and make a recommendation.
We don’t do this for free– our time is valuable and they must respect it by buying a “Power Hour”.

Action is the treatment plan, which could be surgery, medication, hospitalization, or other procedures.
And like any modern hospital, every procedure is governed by a checklist with the price associated with that package.

Are you operating with this efficiency– to not waste time with hypochondriacs, tire kickers, and witch doctors?

Are you making sure that you’re charging properly for your services by not giving out free consulting, even if you need the money?

But it’s XYZ MegaCorp, you say!
And all the more reason that if they’re qualified (heard of the BANT acronym?), they can put down whatever you charge for an hour.
We charge $750 for the Power Hour, but others may charge as little as $97.

For actual implementation, do you have a checklist for you and your people to follow, so you can create “repeatable excellence”?
If not, then you have random outcomes and too much manual, custom effort.

Logan Young is our Director of Operations, and stresses the importance of setting client expectations to keep things running smoothly:

“It’s essential to establish aligned expectations with a client from the get-go. If you let a client dictate the terms of your process, they will only continue to do so once you start implementing, questioning your practices and techniques at every step along the way”

But every client is different, you say!
You want room to be creative and to not be a robot cranking out objects on the assembly line.

The Tesla Model S is a template, too– and not low quality, mass production.
And every major surgical procedure has nuance, but is still governed by checklists, all the way down to how to scrub your hands before starting.
Do you think these doctors are just robots?

If you’re an agency, consultant, or freelancer, embrace the power of process.

The summary flow is this:

Success Tracker > Power Hour > Package

And this aligns with MAA: Metrics > Analysis > Action.

Implement this and watch your client headaches disappear, your lead gen struggles go away, and your operations run more smoothly.

Don’t make me chase you

September 9, 2016 By Dennis Yu 5 Comments

Don’t make me chase you– because every step that I take doing so is a step back from making progress. We’re not in grade school anymore, and playing tag over email isn’t very much fun. When you say you’ll do something and then don’t, it makes me feel like you did so with your fingers crossed behind your back.

We’re older now, and all of this running around is hard on the body and mind, and we shouldn’t feel the need to play dodgeball with emails. We’re on the same team trying to deliver results for the client.

If I’m communicating with you, I trust and depend on you. When my advice and instructions fall on deaf ears, it makes me feel like you don’t value my expertise, or are too afraid of failure to take the first step forward.

The first step into a forest is one of the last steps to get out of it. You should not let fear take over and freeze up– most of the time, the solution is right in front of you. By simply communicating, you can alleviate 99% of any issue that can arise.

Even if you’re sick, your wifi is down, you’re out of town, or any of the other various excuses that exist, it’s not an excuse to just go dark. If anything, you should be more on top of your communication when these things come up so you can avoid any potential issues they might cause. That way, the task can be delegated to another team member.

Your team is counting on you. Don’t leave them hanging for days while they assume you’re still doing your part. Let them know something has come up so they can help. That’s what teams are for.

The key is to not get overwhelmed. Often times you may be assigned a task that may seem so large that it feels crushing. Take a deep breath, figure out an action you can take (however small it is) and do it. Just start somewhere. You’ll feel much better about taking baby steps (which is what iteration is) than if you had put it off and made excuses as to why you hadn’t started yet, then having to breathlessly run to the finish line.

If you lack the skills to complete a task, ask for help! If you put something off until later, it will be too late, so handle it while it’s fresh– this means when that phone call comes in or you get that email, you act immediately instead of putting it off.

This is easy to remember: it’s 3 D’s– Do, Delegate, or/then Delete. This, and will alleviate that dread you get thinking about the email you’ve been putting off reading for weeks.

Reach out to your team and utilize what’s around you instead of taking it on alone. Tasks will be much easier, and you’ll be much happier in the process.

The hardest part of getting back to work is always the first 30 seconds when you start working. But sometimes you will amaze yourself how a surprisingly simple task was put off with more consideration than was needed to actually execute the task. The sigh of relief from completion is always more satisfying than the extra moments bought on borrowed time.

Keep in mind what Mark Lack, author of Shorten the Gap, says about avoiding procrastination:

“A great way to avoid procrastinating is to commit to chunking down your activities and taking action towards its achievement no matter how small the effort or time. The habit is more important than the effort.”

Print out this image to help you out the next time you reach for an excuse and remember that it’s always better to take some form of action rather than sit on it.

The world needs a MILLION Aarun’s– you do, too!

April 4, 2016 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

You’ll never really be good at something you don’t love.

So fine tuning your personal branding is about clarifying the things you’re passionate about.
And nothing is a better indicator of passion than where you spend your time, whether you’re paid for it or not.

Aarun Rumbaugh (I call him the BOSS), is 21 years old, 6 foot 4 inches tall, and loves basketball.
If you friend him on Facebook, you’ll see posts of him practicing into the night and videos of him dunking or attending a Golden State Warriors game.

Passion creates purpose, which translates into the drive necessary to be good at something.
So what better dream job than to be able to work on social marketing for the Golden State Warriors?
Who doesn’t want to be part of a winning team?

Aarun runs Facebook campaigns for the Warriors that sell tickets and merchandise.
He generates an 800% ROAS, meaning that every dollar invested yields 8 dollars in revenue.
So, of course, the Warriors are increasing their presence on Facebook.

I think I’m pretty competent at Facebook advertising, but I stand no chance against a basketball fanatic like Aarun who gets to work on basketball campaigns.
He knows the players, what’s going on with each of the teams, the stuff that hard-core fans are talking about, and things I have never heard of.

Because social media is about micro-targeted amplification (doing PR at scale with Facebook ads as your minions), such passion is compulsory.
In traditional media buying, you can blast out propaganda to the faceless masses– no need to personalize or be relevantly interesting.

Real fans can spot a fake, in the same way that if I were to go on stage and replace your favorite musician for one song, you’d know instantly.
So whoever is running your social has to be a real fan. Who are you kidding?

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If you’re an agency with many clients, finding passionate customers for each client who are also skilled in online marketing is a challenge.
That’s not even counting the distance of not being on-site to participate in the day-to-day details of what’s going on.

You’re out of touch.

The Aarun’s of the world are coming to disrupt you in the same way that Uber is disrupting the taxicab industry.
The market drives out inefficiency by getting more competent marketing programs that cost less money.

Did I mention that Aarun is 21 years old and has only a few years of experience doing Facebook marketing?
He’s had some college experience, but more importantly, a ton of direct experience.

He’s also not afraid to admit when he fails or is afraid, either– a sign of someone who can get things done and be a leader.

Following the framework of LDT (Learn > Do > Teach), he’s gone through training programs, executed QuickStart packages, and mentored other young Aarun’s.

9-Triangles-Individual-7-Career
It’s like gremlins, except you don’t need any water and don’t have to wait until midnight.

So you better disrupt yourself or prepare to get disrupted.
If you’re not doing this, then your competitors will be sourcing marketing support from their customer base and driving micro-efficiency.

People with two decades of experience like me can’t compete at this level any more than the old tired construction worker can outwork the young strong men.
Anyone can follow a checklist, which boils down complex projects into simple sequential tasks.

If you’re not a young adult, then you get multiplying power by mentoring this new workforce.
I mean, really– do you want to cranking out ads and reports all day? I didn’t think so.

You can own the strategy while the kids do the tactics.
You’re the architect, while the kids have the nails.
You’re serving clients in the dining room while the cooks in the back are following recipes.

Schools are now at an inflection point, since they have to build in working experience to enable young adults to transition to the workforce.
And it’s not only an apprenticeship model, like in Europe or what Obama wants to do with the community college system.
It’s teaching personal efficiency, communication skills, and stuff you don’t learn in the classroom.

9-Triangles-Business-Framework-v1

College is as necessary as ever– so this is not an argument to drop out of college and still remain uneducated.
Rather, the minimum bar to be a productive worker in modern society is ever higher– so schools must build in stronger vocational programs and ties with businesses.

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They must have certifications that are borne of checklists which prove direct skills competency.

The students must have not just a resume, but provable work experience accomplishing measurable tasks.

Aarun has written extensively about how teams in the NBA are faring on the court and in digital.
It’s one thing to have a line of work experience on your resume and altogether another to have direct proof and client praise.

Don’t think that this new labor force only applies to entertainment and CPG: sports teams, video games, soft drinks, and potato chips– anything.
Sourcing passionate folks for Jack Daniel’s is easier than for an industrial pipe manufacturer.
You just need to look harder and train a lot more.

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Perhaps even find a stay-at-home mom or retiree who can’t come to an office, but will gladly work from home.

And while your content might not be as interesting as a last second buzzer beater by Stephen Curry, remember that you’ll certainly be able to beat your competition.
Helpful content in your industry might not be interesting to the mainstream, but you’re not going for a million fans– just leads and sales in your niche.

Nor are we talking about just Facebook (which is more a data platform now than a social media site).
Add in the other apps Facebook controls, LinkedIn, WordPress, Google, and every other digital/mobile property out there.

If I ask you about any one of these, such as your website, you’ll likely say that you have plans to do it, but haven’t gotten around to it.
You know you need an Aarun to help you.

If you’re a business owner, where will you find your Aarun’s and how will you train them?
If you’re a student, what steps can you take to build your personal brand— to find stuff you enjoy, stop procrastinating, and start getting going?
If you’re a school, how are you implementing capstone programs to provide real work experience accompanied by a modern curriculum?

Let’s continue the conversation over on our Facebook page or get some training materials over on our site.

How to avoid fear and get things done

March 10, 2016 By Jared Whitman 1 Comment

The biggest problem we have faced as a company is flakiness— smart, well-meaning people who for whatever reason can’t seem to show up on time, turn their stuff in, or do simple tasks.

Why? It’s because of fear.

Overcoming fear becomes harder as you get older, just like changing old habits. This is a recurring theme with people who have trouble iterating, even when the answers are obvious, like when they are handed to us by the client.

Here’s a real world example based on an actual email chain stressing the importance of iteration and not succumbing to fear and “action paralysis.”

You’ll notice the project leader constantly trying to trigger the new analyst into iterating and being actionable, but the analyst’s fear is paralyzing them from acting. We’ll highlight the terms that clearly indicate their reluctance to act:

New analyst says: “I kept on stabbing away at trying to create suitable audiences for the client and who to target. These are our findings so far. And for any of the following are asking if you see any other directions that we could go to increase numbers…”

The project leader responds: “Hard to say if adding ‘mobile’ to various app names will work. But rather than debate, let’s set up small campaigns to find out quick. Even if we’re assigned a low Quality Score by Google (you get scored even without any traffic yet), don’t let that deter you.

Remove the 5,000+ employee filter, which may be unnecessarily cutting down the target counts. Certain job titles will only occur in enterprise companies, so one target will automatically filter for other targets that might not be explicitly available. In other words, some workplace information is sparsely populated, so be careful.
Make a list of the apps/modules that for, which are most– then bucket into “high” and “not high” value to start.
Don’t forget to look at the ad copy we already have.
Check out the Project Reporting Template to see how we approach Goals, Content, and Targeting (including the accompanying notes in the slides), so we don’t approach this in random order.

The new analyst now has the green light to take immediate action. They have a specific list of tasks to complete, action points, and this is the time for them to act and get this campaign running.

However, they still cannot overcome his fear to act, evident as the new analyst responds with more questions, answered by the project leader in-line:

I know we’re avoiding expensive terms like ‘enterprise mobility’ for AdWords keywords. There are so few searches, that I’d probably not even recommend running Search except for brand-related terms. That being said, are there any other keyword roots you recommend us researching?

Doesn’t hurt to try at low volume.

I’m worried less about squandering budget, as opposed to being fast at iteration cycles.

So try one ad group in AdWords with a $50 daily budget on this term in broad and exact match with two text ads.

We’ll probably do a lot better in search when we have vendor/app specific searches, but why not quickly and easily find out?

Short answer: quick test to find out CPC, CTR, volume, Quality Score, bounce rate.

Have the client write the first couple ads for us, then we can make small tweaks.

I’m uncomfortable removing some filter to keep them to larger companies, because I know a lot of 10-person companies with a CTO. What other ways in FB do we have of filtering to larger companies? What other types of titles do you suggest going after? I don’t know a lot of IT-specific titles that would not be found at smaller companies, but still be relevant customers. Your experience and insights will be extremely valuable for us here.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Rather than trying to solve for the weirdest edge cases that sometimes come up (something that really bright people do), go for what’s most likely to win. I’m lazy– you should let the system do the work for you.

Certainly, the price of traffic is 20X higher in LinkedIn, plus we don’t have oCPM or ad sets, so we can appreciate your caution. Not going to be the issue on Facebook, as we like to discuss.

Another way to look at it– focus your effort on where you can make the biggest impact.

That’s a corollary to “Top N”. How far will you get targeting an audience of just a few dozen people for each ad?

We’re having troubles understanding what is of high-value and what is not.

This is thinking way too hard.

Enterprise B2B lead gen doesn’t mean we have to be super complex.

If we know where all historical leads have come from (what apps are being used), why not mirror those same targets in proportion going forward?

They’re on the site– the elephant is in the room.

And we can adjust over time– remember that iteration allows us to change our answers many times.

I suppose we might be able to find some weird niche apps that nobody has ever heard of that might drive a couple leads, but I’d recommend going after the big easy target in front of us.

See how Occam’s Razor works, which is also similar to Top N.

The key thing to know about Top N is that there is an N– N is something like 5-6, so your iteration cycle doesn’t go forever or devolve into analysis paralysis (lack of action).

Do we have existing ad copy? Or are you reminding us to draft up ads? Sorry, didn’t understand your task here.

Not that I know of– ask the client to help out at first, so we’re clear on the value prop.

We can suggest some based on their decks, if you want to go for extra credit.

I just want the campaign to go live.

There are so many reasons to just stop, which may appear to be conservative, but is actually the most dangerous thing in online marketing.

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This conversation went on much longer than it needed to due to the new analyst’s inability to get past their fear and take action. They exhibited a problem that many smart people face, which is trying to make a campaign too perfect and being afraid to act until he knows every possible detail.

The beauty of online advertising is you don’t need to know everything right away. You are able to test on a small scale and alter your campaign time and time again. This means there should be none of the hesitation to begin the campaign that is being shown here.

Better to go live with a few short iterations than have the most amazing planning for the next couple weeks to study, but not have the benefit of traffic.

There are other ways to filter for enterprise companies beyond company size– for example, enterprise tools and certain job titles.

I see this blockage often and I know everyone can overcome it by simply acting. Overcoming fear will fast track your personal campaign and prevent you from action paralysis and being too afraid to launch.

Another important thing to note is the expediency of responses. The new analyst struggled with the fear of starting this campaign, but this fear was overcome quickly by the rapid communication between themselves and their project manager. This strong communication cut down time on starting the campaign to a day or two versus dragging on for months without action.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned starting out in this company was to maintain consistent communication and make baby steps towards an end goal. If the end goal seems impossible with your current skill set, just start somewhere. Don’t worry about looking incapable or dumb; we’re all constantly learning. Communication is the most important skill you can have in a professional setting (or life, for that matter)

Bottom line: if you don’t understand something, say it. Otherwise, it’ll never get done.

The biggest takeaway is that the pursuit of perfection is the enemy of taking action. It is always best to start small, then scale as you produce favorable results.

Are you overcoming your fear, and acting?

Ridding Excuses Through Open Communication

January 7, 2016 By Dennis Yu 5 Comments

We’ve all heard excuses, and, most likely, have made some ourselves. How many of us have heard or used one of the following? I’ll let you pick the excuse that sounds best to you:

I don’t have time / I have this thing coming up / I’m busy
My computer / car / pen is broken
I didn’t feel good
I don’t know how / I’m afraid I’ll ______ / I got stuck
I forgot
My dog died
I just didn’t feel like doing it

Yes, things come up. Life is full of uncertainty, and there are only so many hours in a day.

So, how do you squash excuses?

There’s no secret word or Jedi mind trick that fixes it. However, two things that will greatly help you squash your excuses include developing and sharing your big ‘Why’. In addition, having open communication; letting everyone know your status, and if a project / task needs to be delegated.

This article focuses on how to more effectively use communication to overcome excuses.

jakob-hager-foto.1024x1024 Jakob Hager, who co-founded TaskWunder, stresses the importance of having a framework in place for when communication fails.

“A business is a set of rules, of which communication is a major part. In an ideal world, we would only have to build rules that regulate how good communication works. However, I believe that a good (and scalable) business also builds rules for what happens when communication fails or misunderstandings happen. CID (Communication, Iteration Delegation) is a good general framework for building those rules.”

Mike Gingerich from TabSite offered the following advice on how to keep communication open by providing a comfortable environment.

a7W_3WhE “A central key in getting others to communicate effectively is to create an environment where they can feel comfortable, safe, and valued. Within that type of respectful environment, people are more open to communicating. A second key aspect is creating the expectation that communication is expected. This comes from laying out groundwork early on and demonstrating over time a commitment to following through on the communication expectations. Together this can help foster a creative environment where team members contribute and participate in a valuable way.”

We’re proponents of open, clear communication, outlined in our 9 Triangles, to keep us organized, and to help us plan every aspect of managing and running projects:

9-Triangles-Business-Framework-v1

The very first triangle that makes up the strong foundation is Personal Efficiency. It’s made up of Do, Delegate, Delete (DDD), explained by this video:

It’s simple: Want to (D)o it? Take it on and do it immediately. If not, (D)elegate it to someone else. Once you’ve decided on which option to go with, (D)elete it. If you leave it lingering for later and don’t answer it immediately, there’s a good chance you’ll continue to procrastinate, and the project will languish as more emails come in and bury it.

The next triangle in the foundation is Leadership. It is composed of Communication, Iteration, and Delegation (CID):

This builds on your personal efficiency, instantly (C)ommunicating your status when asked, and providing (I)terations through updates while (D)elegating as needed to spread the workload.

Here are some responses to the frequent excuses you may encounter:

Notice how we’re able to apply the concepts from above, which heavily rely on the CID framework:

1. I don’t have time / I have this thing coming up / I’m busy.

Restructure your time to be more efficient and prioritize your tasks with DDD. If you’re still unable to fit it in, delegate it.

My computer / car / pen is broken.

Let everyone on the project know you’re experiencing equipment issues, how long you estimate it will take to fix it, and delegate accordingly if you’re not able to complete it in a timely manner.

I didn’t feel good.

This one is common. If you’re ill to a point that you’re unable to work until you feel better, let everyone know (communicate!) so they aren’t left in the dark thinking you went AWOL, and delegate your projects.

I don’t know how / I’m afraid I’ll ______ / I got stuck.

Fear and vanity often get in the way of one taking action. Unwilling to show ignorance, they will soldier on blindly hoping the problem will fix itself or go away. Don’t be a deer in headlights! Ask someone for help before the metaphorical car runs you over. Don’t be afraid of failure either, since you won’t ever learn without honest effort. CID helps greatly here, since any issues that come up can be quickly addressed.

I forgot.

This one often comes up as a reaction not from not following DDD, but finding yourself forgetting to follow up or check on a project. There are multiple tools to assist you in combating this. We’re a big fan of Boomerang for Gmail.

My _____ died.

If the project is due during the time of grievance, let everyone know and delegate it to someone who can complete it.

I just didn’t feel like doing it.

That’s fine. No one is holding a gun to your head to do something. Delegate it to someone who wants to take it, and reconsider taking on projects you don’t want to do.

If you are shaking your head and thinking, “It’s as simple as saying something!”, you’d be surprised that lack of effective communication is the most common reason why projects fail.

The excuses above can be simplified into “Have an issue? Let everyone know. If it affects your ability to complete it, assign it to someone else”.

One of our analysts, Michael Dediu-Whealey, had this quote that we should all keep in mind: “Excuses are a reflection of our priorities. Our priorities are a reflection of our values. Our values are a reflection of who we are.”

and it was Aristotle who said “We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit”. So what does the habit of making excuses say about you?

Next time, instead of reaching for an excuse, try preventing it by encouraging open communication, and utilizing your team.

How has lack of communication hurt your projects? How have you combated it?

Want to read more by Dennis Yu? For more content follow him here:

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10 Tips to Online Marketing Success

August 19, 2015 By David Chojnacki 1 Comment

10 Tips to Online Marketing Success

David Chojnacki II

Confused about how to gain truly loyal customers through online marketing? You don’t want to feel like you’re underwater and alone. Here are 10 tips for you to implement today to help you stay afloat and increase your online presence and competitiveness.

1. Personal branding at the user level rolls up to content marketing at the company level.

The more you amplify yourself and your friendships, goals, and products, you will have the people you want to work with, beg for you to work with them! Both sides win, you look great and companies see you and what your goals are, and also you have a great resume for companies to look at and wonder “why not?” hire you.

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Why start all over and try to get new customers to buy your products when you have people in your system who have already bought something from you?! People who already bought from you are your best customers. This is lateral targeting, or retargeting.

3. Don’t sell, teach: cold-calling vs inbound marketing.

Cold calling is practically begging people to like your page or buy a product from you. If your product is good and marketed effectively, you won’t need to pay for advertisement or customers. Inbound marketing is bringing customers in by your engaging content, and because of that, your customers/fans will stay.

4. Omni-channel marketing is simply combining your content and audiences to maximize what’s already working.

You want your advertising to be engaging your customer on whatever platform they are on. Omni-channel marketing is not just getting an audience to post to, but engaging them in your content, and then conversion which has them as a returning customer/fan.

5. Old time SEO is dead- focus on pleasing users, not tricking robots.

You’re not going to get anywhere paying for likes and customers, or just trying to get a huge fan base. It’s all about engagement in your company, not numbers. If you want real customers, you need to give them real content and not just buy them out. One satisfied returning customer is better than twenty likes on your page when they will never return.

6. Competitive brand analysis– spying on competitors is easy.

With Facebook, you can search for people who like your rival company, and what else they like; just from the search bar! This helps you understand why they possibly would like the other company rather than yours.

For a more in depth version of this concept, watch Dennis Yu’s Learn 2 Earn Presentation at the LDS Business College.

7. Get your plumbing in place- connect all your profiles to see where your traffic lives.

The definition of plumbing in this sense is that you want every different platform to be connected. You can connect to so many more people if you have the right tools and extensions, and your profiles and advertisements on more than one social media site.

8. HTTPS: if you don’t have it sitewide, you don’t know where folks are coming from.

When you have https everywhere on your site, your site is secure, and a bonus, your site will show up more often in search results. By doing so, you’ll know who is coming from where and how they got onto your site, allowing you to understand where most of your traffic is coming from. You get to capture your own site’s data with site wide https and ssl.

9. Workplace targeting on LinkedIn and Facebook is a PR director’s best friend.

You are in such control with targeting your ads to specific people and Facebook allows you to target companies and people who work there. You’ll get so much engagement from one ad if it is targeted to the right place, and the right people. If the company isn’t doing the right thing, the PR Director will have trouble holding the bad ads and comments about his/her company at bay. Workplace Target to those with the needs of your specific product/service.

Data vs Man

10. Data wins arguments–Run simple tests instead of debating.

I can debate all day that more likes makes my company more successful than a great (PTAT) statistic with not even a quarter of as many likes. Why debate about it when you can just look at the data and see which gives my company more success.

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