“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
- Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135)

What other ancient wisdom would help social marketers, or all marketers for that matter?

Dear People Who Create and Distribute Awesome Marketing Thought Leadership Content:

I can’t stand it any longer.  Every day for the last 5 years, some awesome piece of thought leadership content comes into my inbox.  There must be hundreds, if not thousands of webinars, virtual conferences, blog posts, presentations, whitepapers, and case studies I would love to digest.  I really would.  But unless something changes I will probably only consume 1% of what I crave, simply because YOU’RE NOT MAKING IT EASY for me to grab this content on my iPod (or iPad) WHEN IT’S IN FRONT OF ME.

Big Idea:

You early adopters that made sure all your content was on iTunes but abandoned it…  You gave up too quick.  The rest of us needed time to catch up, and now we’re thirsty.  You’re putting barriers between me and the drinking fountain.

I’ve been an internet marketing consultant for 10 years, and by no means am I a cutting edge adopter of every social/RSS/tagging thingamaJIGee.  But I also don’t think I’m a laggard when it comes to how I use the internet and consume content.

I can’t imagine how corporate marketers that you are trying to reach, particularly older CMOs must feel.

I have never seen a single, clear, option to “PUT THIS ON YOUR iPOD”, directly next to the piece of content, on all the emails, landing pages, event invites, post event followups, etc. that I’ve received.  And it doesn’t matter if the email comes from the content creator, the sponsor, or the distributor.

In a world where the vast majority of your target consumers has an iPod, how could this obvious opportunity be so grossly overlooked?

Please don’t assume that just because you have an RSS or itunes feed or channel that I’m going to subscribe to it.  Just because I like a new song on the radio doesn’t mean I should have to join the band’s fan club to hear it.

I don’t necessarily care about all of your content… just this piece.  Make it easily available to me, NOW, without any add-ons

Everyone recognizes the icons for Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and LinkedIn.  Where’s the icon for “PUT THIS ON YOUR IPOD”?

How much more intelligent would I be today if I, instead of  listening and watching entertainment or limited value business content podcasts and audiobooks, in the car, while jogging, on vacation, in bed, etc, I had been consuming YOUR thought leadership content?

Because you can’t, or won’t make it obnoxiously clear and easy for me to either add your content to my ipod now, or automatically when it becomes available, with just a touch of a link, I will likely never digest it, and spread the word about it.  Your brilliance is lost somewhere in my inbox or if you’re lucky lost in a large list of bookmarked sites ‘i’d like to read someday’.

So as you look at both your own content and the content you are exposed to on a daily basis, ask the obvious question…  “WHY THE HECK CAN’T I EASILY GET THIS RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE, ON MY iPOD FOR ONDEMAND CONSUMPTION, ON MY TERMS, NOT YOURS?”

Here’s How I’d Do It:

I think i could figure out what this button meant (I’ve never seen it on any of the emails or landing pages you guys send me).

This would be even better….

But what if you don’t have your content ready for iPod distribution?  WHO CARES.

You can still collect my name or flag me in your database so you can notify me when you figure out how to do it.  I don’t really care if you send it to me six weeks from now.  If it’s good, it’ll hold up, I’ll still want to consume it.

So when I click on that button, show me this.

And you savvy as hell marketing automation people know you don’t need my email address cause you already went all Big Brother on my butt. So please, save me the hassle of giving you my email address and just show me this:

Peace.

This video was brought to my attention from my friend, Mark Sink.

I find it to be both interesting, and challenging.  I hope you will as well.

What are some videos that help get you on the right track?

Note: The title of this post was taken directly from John Ortberg’s book.

I live a comparably safe life. I crave comfort and consistency in the flesh, yet my spirit yearns to be stretched and made stronger and more resilient.

My job is not much different. As an internet marketing consultant, I’ve stuck to what I know and what I’m comfortable with, which is managing paid search campaigns and website conversion. I’ve been successful at this, but part of me has been looking for ways to stretch beyond my comfort zone. I’ve made various attempts, but always retreated back to my safe place when I lost sight of the shore.

Then, a year ago a series of events happened which started me on a journey, professionally and spiritually, which I would like to share with you. I stepped out of the boat.

JUNE 2009

A marketing friend of mine who I had helped with a few projects called me. I hadn’t heard from her in a year or two. She asked if I would assess one of her client’s internet marketing strategy.

The client was a medical practice right down the street from my house. I had worked with doctors before, and wasn’t very enthusiastic – their market was small, they typically had small or no advertising budgets, and medical is very competitive online. However this friend had always been very sweet and supportive of me, and I wanted to help her however I could.

JULY 2009

When I met with the marketing director for lunch, I was surprised by what I discovered. Turns out this local medical office offers a unique treatment for prostate cancer which has a very well documented success rate of curing men of the disease. It is so good in fact that people from every state in the U.S. and over 40 countries have come to Atlanta for treatment over the last two decades.

What really surprised me though, was the amount of money that this client had been spending advertising online, nationally. It was multiples greater than any client I had worked with previously.

Suddenly I was scared. I wasn’t expecting this. I confided in my friend that I thought the size of the account was over my head and skill level. Sure I knew the basic things that needed to be done, but executing them at that level and size, that was another story.

I started making excuses and coming up with reasons in my head to justify not writing the proposal. But I knew deep down that this was an opportunity for growth that God had put directly in front of me. I knew that even if I failed miserably it would be better than the consequences of not taking a small step of faith.

I presented a very simple proposal to senior management which they quickly accepted. This was actually much simpler than I had dreaded it would be. The basic principles of paid search management and website conversion are in play whether you have a very small budget or a very large one; however, the large budget made my risk of failure much greater. My lack of confidence was rocking the boat.

AUGUST 2009

I was very happy and grateful to my friend who brought me into this story. As a small thank you I arranged for us to adopt a girl from Uganda named Ritah through Compassion International. This allowed me to recognize God’s hand in getting me through this point with the client, and provided an excuse for my friend and I to join together in fellowship as we got to know Ritah better.

MAY 2010

For six months I continued to serve the client in this capacity, working diligently to bring their cost per inquiry was way down, and the number of total inquiries way up. By most measures, they were very happy and I was as well.

Then something started stirring inside of me. I was getting diminishing returns on the time and effort I was spending. To continue the growth, we needed to branch out and do more things.  I started battling myself in my mind. Beating myself up because I wasn’t willing to believe that doing something new would have nearly the impact that my initial work had delivered.

It was about this time that a simple idea entered into my mind (actually I believe it was put on my heart but I can’t really articulate or understand the subtle difference in words).

Get actual patient survivors to put on boxing gloves and videotape them saying “I Beat Prostate Cancer”

I really felt that I was supposed to not only present this idea to management, but make it happen as well. The problem though, was that I had no professional experience in video.

Many times in my life I’ve had feelings like this one that I felt were such good ideas, only to do little or nothing with them. But this time was different, for I only had to look from where I started with this client to know that it would be foolish to second guess.

I boldly presented the idea to the CEO, like I was pitching a movie script to a Hollywood producer. Unfortunately, his response was not very encouraging.

I didn’t take no for an answer though. I said, “We’ve got a patient alumni reunion coming up right? Let me get a couple of guys together and we’ll go down there and just get some test footage. I won’t charge you anything just let me test the concept and see if the alumni like the idea and if we can get them on camera in an authentic way.” For this, he agreed.

My plan was to setup a camera in the corner of the banquet room where the reunion was being held, and then hope that a few men would be nice enough to put on a t-shirt that I had printed up that said “Beat Prostate Cancer”, and boxing gloves and basically ham it up for the camera and deliver the money line “I Beat Prostate Cancer”.

The night before the shoot I was a nervous wreck. Thoughts of failure and embarrassment filled my mind. My biggest fear was none of the men would agree to participate. I dreamed up this incentive where we would give the person with the most energy on camera a $250 gift certificate to a fancy restaurant. I didn’t know at the time why I was so nervous and scared, or maybe I knew but didn’t want to admit, it was all pride and ego. What if the idea wasn’t good? Then the client would think less of me and begin to question my other ideas.

Daniel Roberts shooting screen tests of various RC Cancer Center alumni.

The night of the event I shyly began to approach the first few men who were enjoying their dinners and conversation. A few were reluctant but agreed to participate. Some of the men’s wives insisted they participate saying things like “God brought you through this, the least you can do is help by giving back a little”.

Three things happened that night. First, the shoot went very well for being a screen test, I had worried for nothing. Second, I heard several times about the role that God had played in many of these families’ journeys. Third, for the first time I began to see these men as real people and not as marketing data points.

We took the test footage back to the house to see what we had. We made all sorts of mistakes in terms of audio, how we coached the talent, and how we filmed the shots, but it was just a screen test. What we really wanted to come away with was proof that the alumni would participate, and that their enthusiasm and authenticity could potentially have an impact on other men who see the video. I felt that we had accomplished both.

JUNE 2010

We put together a rough edit of the footage and showed it to the client. They liked it and admitted that they didn’t think originally it was a good idea but got the concept after having seen it. They liked it so much in fact that they wanted to air it on cable television as a 30-second commercial.

I was frankly shocked. In my mind the footage was raw, unpolished, and not anywhere near the big vision I had in my mind for the real production. I told them there was no way they could air the footage, but they disagreed. They thought it had merit and was worthy of a test.

Since I had done all the shooting and editing on my own dime and time, and they really wanted to air the footage, I told them that I would give them the commercial on the condition that they approve a project that would allow me to do it the way I really wanted to do it, and that they buy the work I had done so I could compensate the people who had help me for their hard work and time.  Here’s the spot that was ran on television:

I took the money they had given me for the test shoot and television spot, and paid the people who had helped me for their time. I purposely left 20% of that money available because I knew I had to give thanks to God for getting me through the project, but more importantly and probably selfishly, I wanted to use that money to ‘sow a seed’ into what was yet to come.

A friend of mine introduced me to a pastor in India who runs an orphanage. I didn’t feel compelled to respond to the pastor’s frequent emails for donations and prayers but he’s pretty relentless and my friend has spoken very highly of the work the pastor was doing. So against logic and my normal behavior, I sent the money over there. My friend ended up matching it, and a few months later learned the pastor had used the funds to build church in a nearby village. What a humbling gift to see what a little money can do in the hands of resourceful and ambitious people.

Money from the test shoot helped build this church. Pretty cool!

The commercial aired on cable a couple of dozen times but unfortunately, it didn’t deliver much traffic to the website. I also didn’t hear anyone in the public talk about it anecdotally or even mention it. I had secretly hoped it would have created at least a little buzz, but I had done everything I could with what I had.

JULY 2010

When I presented the vision and budget for the bigger project, as expected it wasn’t really well received, especially given the lackluster performance of the TV spot. But I was pretty relentless, “Guys, we need to do this, I said.” I adjusted the proposal so they only had to pay 50% of the proposed fee and the other 50% would be paid only if, and when, they felt it was a worthwhile project and they had benefited from the results of it.

I was fine with this. By this time I had completely surrendered the project and outcome to God anyway in my mind. I hadn’t taken any compensation for the first video project, and I wasn’t planning on taking any for this one. I was just humbled and blessed to have a chance to do something different that stretched me both vocationally and spiritually.

My first mission was to find someone to direct and shoot the video. I had been attending Buckhead Church off and on for about two years and had always been amazed by the consistent and compelling videos they crank out week after week.

During Good Friday I saw an incredible set of videos at the service. I assumed they must have been a nationally syndicated production because it was so well done. I learned that it was done by Josh Peters here in Atlanta. That following week I reached out to Josh and laid my project before him. I wasn’t very smooth or savvy. I said, “Josh I’ll just lay this down for you, I’ve got this video project that I’ve completely surrendered over to God, here’s the budget I have to shoot all the videos and I was hoping you’d be interested in taking on the project.” The budget was all of the first 50%, or in other words, every penny I was guaranteed by the client. As the words came out of my mouth I didn’t believe for a minute that he would say yes, or even consider it. Not because it wasn’t good money, I don’t know if it was or not, but because I was nobody. A newly appointed first time ‘executive producer’ (and I use the term loosely) of some half baked concept that may or may not be a good idea.

Our plan was simple, find a boxing gym, rent it for a full day, get somewhere between 8 and 10 cancer survivors to come in, do boxing related activities and be interviewed.

I googled “Atlanta boxing gyms” and the first place I found was Decatur Boxing Club about 10 minutes from my house. I called the boxing gym and said we didn’t have a whole lot of money and we were doing a video about prostate cancer and would greatly appreciate if they’d let us use the facility for a day. It turns out the owner of the gym’s brother has prostate cancer, and I think he knew I was in over my head and took a little mercy on me. He agreed to let us use the gym so we set a date for August 20th.  It was actually Terri Moss, a long time friend of the owner that convinced him to let us use it.  She was absolutely incredible in her flexibility in working with us.  I’m convinced she was a guardian angel on this project.

So now I had a director, and a location, I just needed the men to agree to participate.

JULY 15, 2010

I then worked with the company’s alumni coordinator to call up the alumni and convince them to show up at the gym and share their stories. She was a critical part of the project because without the patients, I had no project!  Most of the men were happy and eager to participate. They are always gracious and want to give back for things like this. So now I had a unforeseen challenge, I only have enough budget for one day of shooting, and I need to make sure I have enough men to get enough usable, but not so many men that we can’t spend the necessary time with each man to get a good story on tape.

I also realized that the gym had no air conditioning and the days were regularly reaching the high 90′s in Atlanta. The gym owner told me over the phone that there was no way we could use their electrical panel to plug in portable fans or air conditioning units because it was old and the utility bills would be too high.

So now I’m faced with the knowledge that I’ve got 10 cancer survivors probably in their 60′s who are agreeing to volunteer and I’m going to have them boxing in a 100+ degree gym. The complexities of the project were starting to overwhelm me and I began telling myself it would be easier just to cancel this shoot and do it when it was cooler. I wanted to get out of it. I knew it would be safer. It would have been the easiest thing to do and the client probably would have been happy for me to let it go.

Against my instinct and natural tendencies, I pushed forward, scrambling to try and get portable air conditioners, and the generators needed to power them. I remember thinking, I’m spending a lot of money and effort to try and shoot these 10 guys. I hope their stories are compelling and extraordinary or I’m done!

As we approached the shooting day of August 20th, I was gaining a little faith and confidence each day as the logistics and details were beginning to all come together. The day or so before the shoot I was very anxious. What if the air conditioning doesn’t work? What if some of the men don’t show up? What if the footage is boring? Thankfully I’d been digging in the Word and various verses to know how to combat these thoughts.

AUGUST 20, 2010

So the day of the shoot was here, and while it was one of the longest, hottest, and hardest working days of my life, it went off about as smoothly as it possibly could. Everyone that was supposed to show up did, we even had a couple of survivors who we didn’t expect. Despite having both the generators and air conditioners on hand it was still well over 100 degrees in the gym. The men were awesome sports and didn’t complain at all. We started at 7:30 AM and wrapped up close to midnight. I was exhausted but so thankful and grateful that everything had worked out. I knew we got some great shots and the stories were good.

We were very careful and intentional about not scripting the men but rather let them say what was on their hearts and minds. This was not going to be a commercial for the client. It was never intended to be. I insisted on having complete creative control. They had produced commercials and videos before and didn’t need another one. This was decidedly different. We would capture and release the men’s stories in their own words delivered in their own way. I secretly had hoped that some of the men would thank God on camera for the work that He had done in their lives. I had selfishly hoped those types of statements would make their way into the videos and the client would have to decide whether to allow such statements to be shared or if they would insist they be edited out. At the time of this writing, I still don’t know if it will be an issue or how that will turn out. What an awesome gift that I would be put in a position to give a business the challenge or opportunity to let their own customers give testimony to the way God and their faith helped them through the very success that makes my client look good. This position was both empowering and humbling at the same time.

SEPTEMBER 2010

When Josh sent me the rough cut of the first interview I was blown away. The production quality was every bit as good as I had hoped, and the story of Bob Anderson was just really authentic and special. I was blown away because I had so little to do with it, and because of how far we had come since that first little test shoot. I was on a spiritual and vocational ‘high’. Then a funny thing happened. The second interview that Josh sent wasn’t as good as the first one. The production was, but the story wasn’t. The more I watched it, the more deflated my enthusiasm was. I had gotten so greedy, my expectations had gotten so high, that this particular interview had me down, even scared. What if the rest of the interviews aren’t better than this one? All this money, time and effort wasted? Even mishandled? I took that feeling into the weekend and just went on binge of negative thinking. It was all about me, how I was going to look if this project didn’t come off. How I was going to put my core service agreement with my client at risk if this out-of-scope crazy idea didn’t produce fantastic results.

Early the next week, Josh sent me the rough cut for the montage of all of the interviews. This was to be the primary video and focus of the new website. While watching it was I was torn in half. One side of me was watching it with pessimism, doubt, and even anger at myself for forcing this project on myself. But as I watched the video unfold before my eyes, I began to see the spirit of these men shine through. I saw something that I couldn’t have envisioned, scripted, or pulled off on my own. I saw emotion and courage captured on tape, beautifully and masterfully shot. I began to lighten up on myself though not completely. I shared the video with some select friends and people that I work with, but not the client. Everyone that saw it seemed really impressed and said it was great. Part of me wanted to agree with them, the other part was convinced they were just being nice.

There was no point or reason to turn back now, the budget was spent, the videos produced, now it was time to show it to the client. I sent them the link to the videos via email and anxiously awaited their feedback and response. Everyone in the company that saw it absolutely loved it, expect the the two people who really mattered, the CEO and the VP of Marketing. They liked the videos, and thought the quality was fantastic but weren’t really sure how and if the videos would do anything to help the business. I applaud their skepticism and pragmatism. They work extremely hard for the best interest of the company. The CEO even went as far as to say he didn’t want to put a whole lot more time or money into the project after seeing the video. I was a little surprised but not shocked, but I knew better than to put too much stock in any one person’s opinion, even if it was the opinion of the CEO.

OCTOBER 2010

Now it is October 2010, the website is built, and the videos are up for the world to see. Here’s the final video.

I never in a million years thought this project would get to this point. We launch this week but have little budget to promote it. If the site doesn’t deliver than we won’t get the 2nd half of the project budget and we will be unable to make the sizable donation that we had hoped for. I’m not worried about this. I’ve surrendered myself to God for the entire project and have done the best I could do. His will be done.

I’ve reached out to friends who have experience with social marketing and shared my story with them. Several people have been willing to help out. One of those people is my new friend Carlos Carrillo, whom I met at Buckhead Church.  He just happened to be starting a social marketing consultancy with an emphasis on non-profits and cancer.  He lost both of his grandfathers to prostate cancer.

Another friend, Mark Schaefer, suggested I ask the social marketing world at large for advice and help in getting this project promoted. That inspired me to launch a site called www.SocialCo-Op.com, which I hope will become a source to share success stories and learnings.

This experience has been a wonderful gift in growth and stretching of my faith and my own abilities.  It has also been hard not to see and acknowledge God at work in this thing from day one.  What makes this extra special is my decision to get baptized at Buckhead Church on October 31st.  To walk on this journey with Him in the same season as I prepare my heart for baptism has been more special than words can describe.

I will update this story as it unfolds.  I’m hoping come at least one step closer towards walking on water, but regardless of how it turns out, I will use this experience to become more in tune with the ways I can grow and serve.

Thank you to my cousin and friend Tim Gildner who cared enough to polish and edit this story.

More times than I like to admit, I limit myself with glass ceilings and false beliefs about what I am capable of doing. It bleeds over into my professional life as a marketer, both strategically, and from an execution point of view. When I think of myself, I’m never at my best. When I focus on the success of others and look up, is when I’m humbled and pleasantly surprised with what can be accomplished.

This clip from the movie Facing the Giants, is a great example and reminder of what we can accomplish when we put our trust in others who want what’s best for us. It’s also a great lesson that often times the thing that is holding us back is a false belief.

Whether you are an executive or a coordinator, ask yourself, “What are the false beliefs that are holding us back as individuals and organizationally?”

What’s the ‘death crawl’ that your team needs to suffer through to emerge victorious and stronger as a company and as a person.

What words of wisdom or inspiration can you offer in the comments below to help others become stronger emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually?

Why do so few companies have video testimonials from their clients on their websites?  Why don’t I?  There is absolutely no cost or technology barrier anymore.  So what’s our excuse?

It might not look good enough.  A good heartfelt moment trumps technical quality any day.  Go back and look at your home movies if you don’t believe me.

My clients might not be willing to do it.  Ask them, you’ll find out what you already knew in your heart, they’ll usually be happy to do it if their company would permit it.

I’m not sure what to say, or have them say.  Forget video for now, go get someone to help you mine or craft a good reference letter and testimonial with them first.

We have too many other things going on.  You’ll always have too many other things going on.  Once you get a video, it’s done and you can use it again and again.

We don’t want our competitors seeing who our clients are.  Want to keep your competition at bay from your clients? Let them see how thrilled your clients are with you and they won’t waste their time.  And believe me your competitors can find out who your clients are whether you put them on video or not.

Ask any B2B professional services company how they get the majority of their business and they will usually reply “word of mouth referrals.”  So why on earth would we not be leveraging one of the most sustainable and powerful ways to capture and distribute word of mouth referrals?

What’s your excuse?  What can we do to overcome our excuses and fears?

The challenge: By any means necessary, get at least two clients on video that your sales people can use at some point during the buying process.   If you cannot or will not do this, it’s probably a surefire symptom of some serious underlying problems that are keeping your business from thriving.

Every day you let a prospective customer leave your site without seeing your clients raving about you, is a potential lost opportunity.

If your website is getting long in the tooth or is long overdue for a major redesign but you don’t want to spend a huge budget on designers, developers, and a content management system, one of the first places one should look is no further than WordPress.

WordPress can do 80-90% of everything most B2B companies would need in terms of a simple lead generation/lead capture website.  You’d be amazed at how many websites are being built on WordPress.  Granted most of them have that ‘wordpress’ look and feel (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but the reduced time and budget to develop and deploy, you can put your dough into generating and converting traffic.

Do not underestimate the opportunity cost of sending your prospects to a less than professional and up to date website.  Whether you want to believe it or not, it is usually the first or second impression one will get of your company and is a reflection and extension of you.  I’m not getting up on a design soapbox or being an aesthetic snob.  I’m simply saying if you wouldn’t go to a tradeshow in an old crappy suit or with a makeshift old booth, don’t allow your website (who is your 24-7 front line sales person) represent you in a poor light.  It’s too easily fixable.  If your website sucks, and you know it, check out WordPress and I guarantee you within a week and done completely on the side, you can have a much better website, selling tool, and source of company pride and newfound energy.  If you don’t believe me, call me and I’ll work out a way to prove it to you.

While it may seem simple, I’m amazed at how often a simple unique phone number for paid search campaigns is overlooked by clients and agencies.  At the very least, the landing pages of your B2B AdWords campaigns should have a unique phone number that can report the quantity of calls, and ideally record each call for reference, quality assurance, and training purposes.  Telecapture is a very easy and affordable solution to start.  It can be setup in minutes and your company can get immediate benefit from it.  Once you start using it, there are other more elaborate tools and methods you can use to track Google AdWords generated phone calls, as well as Bing, Business.com, or practically any on or offline campaign you would want.

What phone tracking tools do you use?

Souly Business 24 from Todd Miechiels on Vimeo.

Just returned from my 7th or 8th (I lost count) Souly Business.  Once again (no surprise anymore), God showed up and touched the lives of dozens of men in ways that can’t be overstated.  This retreat held 4 times a year makes leaders into better leaders, husbands into better husbands, fathers into better fathers, you get the idea.  In a 48 hour period, in a most beautiful and serene setting, with no watches, cell phones, or computers allowed, you spend time with the most humble, authentic, and nurturing people you could ever hope to meet.  Come with an open mind and an open heart and prepare to have your life, and by extension, those people you most love, changed forever.  It’s not a miracle pill or anything like that, but as John Woodall said this weekend, “a change in direction”, that puts you down the path towards true peace, freedom, and joy.

This isn’t religious.  It isn’t anything like any church you’ve ever been to.  Brothers who have gone to church their entire lives come back knowing Christ, sometimes for the first time ever, in a completely new and liberating way.

To many of my friends the idea of attending anything like this totally freaks them out.  No one I know that’s attended has ever come back with anything but a grateful heart and a completely new outlook on life (and death).

I resist change.  I crave comfort. You won’t catch me doing anything real adventurous.  This event, which I’ve described as ‘bungee jumping for the soul’ however brings on the type of change I desperately need, and deep down want.

I had the amazing blessing of documenting the weekend through photography.   If you’re still reading, and haven’t heard of SoulyBusiness, consider this a seed planted in your heart.  If you’ve heard about it and still haven’t signed up, then let this be a little water on that seed.  If you’re waiting for a 2×4 between the eyes, don’t worry it will come when you least expect it.

Why do so few B2B marketing stakeholders pay attention to their website conversion rates?  Why are so many B2B marketers hung up on and obsessed with generating more traffic and ‘buzz’ via social marketing and search engine marketing?

If their business was a pizza shop and only 2 out of every 100 people who walked by actually walked in, and for every 100 people who walked in, only 5 bought  some pie, where do you think they should put the majority of their focus?  Finding more people or figuring out why more people aren’t walking in and buying a slice?

Take a quick study of your organization and roughly estimate how much time it spends trying to generate more traffic and followers vs. getting more of your website traffic to convert.

Better yet, do it over a pizza lunch.