The Ultimate Guide to Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)

60% of global respondents in a LinkedIn survey believed that misalignment between sales and marketing could damage financial performance (LinkedIn 2020), yet there are a number of disconnects between the teams from strategy to process. At many companies, it can feel as if there are 100 miles between sales and marketing.

One of the most critical steps to aligning your sales and marketing efforts is creating a service level agreement (SLA). Traditionally, an SLA serves to define exactly what a customer will receive from a service provider. But SLAs serve internal operations as well, and sales and marketing agreements are among the most crucial.

Ultimately, an service-level agreement is designed to create alignment between two parties by setting clear expectations and mitigating any issues before they happen. With that in mind, there are multiple types of SLA depending on your use case.

1. Customer Service-Level Agreement

A customer SLA is precisely what it sounds like: an agreement by a vendor to deliver a certain level of service to a particular customer. Here's a fun example:

In the TV show The Office, the company, Dunder Mifflin, supplies paper to various organizations. They might have a customer SLA stipulating that Dunder Mifflin will supply [Company X] with 50 reams of paper per month, shipped every Monday to [Address 1] and [Address 2] by Darryl Philbin -- with a confirmation of delivery sent to Jim Halpert. (Sorry, we had a little too much fun with the references in that one.)

2. Internal Service-Level Agreement

As explained earlier in this blog post, an internal SLA only concerns parties from within the company, rather than its customers. So, while a business might have an SLA open with each of its clients, it can also have a separate SLA between its sales and marketing departments.

For example, let's say Company X's sales department has to close $5,000 worth of sales per month in total, and each sale is worth $100. If the sales team's average win rate for the leads they engage with is 50%, Company X's marketing director, Josh, can work with the sales team on an SLA, stipulating that Marketing will deliver 100 qualified leads to sales director, Amy, by a certain date every month. This might include four weekly status reports per month, sent back to Josh by Amy, to ensure the leads Amy's team is receiving are helping them keep pace with their monthly sales goal.

3. Multilevel Service-Level Agreement

Multilevel SLAs can take several forms. This type of agreement can support a business's customers or the business's various internal departments. The point of this type of SLA is to outline what is expected of each party if there's more than just one service provider and one end user. Here's an example of a multi-level SLA in an internal situation:

It's a no-brainer for Company X's sales and marketing teams to partner up on an internal SLA that delivers leads from Marketing to Sales every month. But what if they wanted to incorporate a customer retention strategy into this contract, making it an SLA between Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service? After sales closes on 50 customers for the month, it's Customer Service's job to keep these customers happy and successful while using their product. In a multilevel SLA, Company X can have sales director, Amy, send monthly "customer friction" reports to Joan, the VP of service, based on dialogue the sales team has regularly with its clients. This helps the customer service team build a knowledge base that better prepares them for the pain points customers call them about. Learn more about customer service's increasing role to business growth in the HubSpot Academy.

What an SLA Includes

The details of an SLA will differ among internal and external agreements. Nonetheless, there are common building blocks that each SLA should be sure to include, whether the recipient of the service is your customer or your sales team.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing & Sales SLA Template

Download this Template

HubSpot's Sales & Marketing SLA Template is the ideal resource for outlining your company's goals and reaching an agreement between these two crucial teams. Download it now and get to work.

1. Summary of Agreement

The first item on your SLA should be an overview of the agreement. What service have you agreed to deliver to the other party? Summarize the service, to whom it's being delivered, and how the success of that service is to be measured.

2. Goals of Both Parties

In external SLAs -- those between a business and its customers -- the goals stated in the agreement are primarily those of the customer. If this is your intention, work with your client to marry their needs with the abilities of your product, and come up with a measurable goal that your company can feasibly meet for the client on a regular basis.

Is this an internal SLA between your sales and marketing departments? Both teams should have their goals outlined in this section of the contract, while making sure that when Marketing hits its goal, Sales can reach its own goal as a result.

3. What's Needed by Both Parties

SLAs should include what each party needs in order to reach their goals. In agreements that serve a customer, keep in mind their needs might go beyond simply "the product." They might need more than that to reach their goals -- such as weekly consulting, reporting, and technical maintenance from you.

SLAs between sales and marketing teams should describe what they might need from the opposite department in order to help them hit their targets. Marketing, for example, might need weekly status reports on Sales' pipeline so the marketers can adjust their lead-generating campaigns accordingly.

4. Points of Contact

Who's in charge of making sure each party's goals are met? Sort out which team does what, and who talks to whom, in this section of your SLA. Is there a separate employee using the services, in relation to the employee who reports on performance every week? Make it clear who's involved in the SLA, and how.

5. If Goals Are Not Met

You might not want to think about it, but there should always be formal consequences when a goal isn't met as part of an SLA. Don't freak out, though -- these consequences aren't always business-ending situations. Include a form of compensation to the service's end user for when the service doesn't meet their agreed-upon goals. In external SLAs, according to PandaDoc, this compensation can come in the form of "service credits." Grab PandaDoc's free SLA template here to find out more.

For Sales and Marketing SLAs, work with your sales team to establish a plan for how any lost revenue is to be made up as a result of an unreached sales quota. You might settle on a strike system that holds certain employees -- in both Sales and Marketing -- accountable for diagnosing and resolving issues of low performance.

6. Conditions of Cancellation

Under what circumstances will your SLA be terminated? Whether your contract serves a customer or two internal departments, you'll typically find yourself putting the SLA on the chopping block when it's just not working. Maybe your goals have gone unmet for the last three months, or the current agreement simply doesn't have buy-in from everyone involved.

Come up with formal conditions under which you'd cancel the current SLA in pursuit of, hopefully, a better SLA.

Examples of SLAs

While an SLA will be unique to your needs, here are some examples and templates that can give you an idea of what an SLA may look like.

1. HubSpot's Marketing & Sales SLA Template

As previously mentioned, HubSpot has a template for marketing and sales service-level agreements. Instead of being overly complicated, the template provides straight-forward, no-nonsense sections so that any party can skim at a glance.

What we like best: It's laid out in a two-column style to easily denote which team is responsible for which activities and metrics. Having them side-by-side like this further underscores the goals of partnership and alignment.

2. Hivehouse Digital's Marketing & Sales SLA Template

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This sales and marketing SLA template focuses heavily on metrics, making it a great choice for high-performance teams. The design relies on tables for easy information input and even comes with prompts/examples to help you define the agreement.

What we like best: The document is organized step-by-step, making it a great choice for teams without a formalized SLA process (yet).

3. Lucidchart's Marketing and Sales SLA Template With Examples

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Instead of going through the process of creating an SLA, this template organizes sections by the marketing and sales process itself, from goals to lead qualification, handoff, and nurturing.

What we like: The template takes a visual approach with columns for marketing, sales, and shared goals. This makes ownership crystal clear throughout the process.

4. AT&T's Small Business Service Agreement Example

Here's a real-world example in the wild. Not all SLAs are between marketing and sales teams or even other internal departments. Here's an SLA that lays out a service agreement between AT&T and its customers, setting expectations for the engagement. They make this SLA publicly accessible for all their users.

What we like: The agreement is plain and simple, leveraging bullet points to make each detail clear and understandable.

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5. Microsoft Azure SLA Example for Cloud Services

As a service provider, Miscrosoft Azure also makes its SLA for customers public. The SLA uses bullet points to clearly identify its offerings and customer promises, which are unique depending on the plan and services rendered.

What we like best: The SLA is organized with headings for quick navigation to the offerings that are most pertinent, and information is kept concise with an optional "View full details" link.

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6. PandaDoc's Multi-Page SLA Template

PandaDoc provides another option for provider/client agreements and is a great choice for more formal arrangements.

What we like: This template makes for a clear and concise SLA with times, dates, and solid expectations.

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How to Make an SLA for Marketing and Sales Alignment

As mentioned previously, SLAs are common between a business and new customers. However, SLAs can also improve internal alignment. When one exists between sales and marketing departments in particular, this agreement details marketing goals (like number of leads or revenue pipeline) and the sales activities that'll follow and support them (like engaging leads that were qualified by the marketing team).

Both the sales and marketing departments use this document as a commitment to support each other based on concrete, numerical goals. And guess what? 87% of sales and marketing leaders say collaboration between sales and marketing enables critical business growth.

Now, if you don't have a Sales and Marketing SLA in place, fear not: We've outlined how to create one below so that you can easily start aligning your sales and marketing teams.

To draft your SLA, you first need to align your Sales and Marketing teams around a shared set of goals -- or, as we put it before, the harmonious "Smarketing." This alignment can then dictate the creation of a written SLA that reflects these goals. Here's how to create an SLA with "Smarketing" in mind:

1. Calculate a numerical Marketing goal based on the sales team's quotas.

As a marketing department, not only should you have a concrete goal for each campaign you run, but you also should have a high-level numerical goal that aligns with the sales team's operations. At the end of the day, that'll mean qualified leads and actual sales from those leads.

Salespeople are driven almost entirely by their sales quotas -- the numerical goals that correlate with their compensation and job security. If Marketing commits to a similar, related numerical goal, it shows that the team is being held accountable in a manner similar to Sales. The trick, however, is to make sure your numerical goal can effectively power the sales team's numerical goal.

In order to calculate the marketing side of your SLA, you'll need the following four metrics:

• Total sales goal (in terms of revenue quota)
• % revenue that comes from marketing-generated leads (as opposed to sales-generated ones)
• Average sales deal size
• Average lead-to-customer close %

Then, it's time to do some calculations:

• Sales quota x % revenue from marketing-generated leads = Marketing-sourced revenue goal
• Marketing-sourced revenue goal ÷ Average sales deal size = # of customers needed
• Customers ÷ Average lead-to-customer close % = # of leads needed

2. Segment your goals by specific intervals during the year.

It might also be a good idea to reevaluate the marketing side of the SLA each month, as a variety of factors can change the numbers used in your calculations over time. To do so, create a document that tracks your SLA calculations by month, which should include the following metrics:

• # of marketing-generated leads
• # of those leads that became customers
• Revenue from those closed customers
• Total revenue closed that month from marketing-generated leads only
• Total revenue closed that month

You will also need:

• The average sales cycle length

With the figures above, you can re-calculate the metrics you started with on a monthly basis, or at whichever interval suits your business -- quarter, year, etc. Just make sure the same measure of time is used for both Sales and Marketing to maintain alignment. Have a look:

• # marketing-generated leads that became customers ÷ # marketing-generated leads = lead-to-customer close %
• Revenue from closed customers ÷ # of marketing-generated leads that became customers = sales deal size
• Total revenue closed from marketing-generated leads / total revenue closed = % revenue from marketing-generated leads

You could also take it one step further, and incorporate quantity and quality into these metrics. The above calculations provide you with a quantitative volume goal of marketing-generated leads. However, we know that not all leads are created equal, and as a result, some may be considered higher- or lower-quality than others.

For example, a decision-making executive might be a more valuable contact than an intern. If that's the case, you can do the above analysis for each subset of leads, and set up separate goals for each type/quality level.

Want to take it even further? Measure in terms of value, instead of volume. For example, a CEO may be worth $100, for instance, while a director is $50, a manager is $40, and so on.

3. Calculate Sales's figures and their goals.

The sales side of the SLA should detail the speed and depth to which a salesperson should follow up with marketing-generated leads. When establishing this end of the SLA, consider these two sales statistics:

• Salespeople who follow up with leads within an hour are nearly seven times more likely to have meaningful conversations with a decision maker on the other end.
• However, only 7% of leads respond to a follow-up contact within five minutes after filling out a form.

Bottom line? Not all leads may be fit to send to Sales immediately. They often need to meet some minimum level of quality, like reaching a certain activity level, which can only take place after being nurtured by Marketing.

Nonetheless, engaging a lead the short time after he/she converts is critical to maintaining a relationship with them -- the question you have to answer is what that engagement should look like. Either Sales or Marketing should take action to start building that relationship, make nurturing easier, and set up the sales rep for success when she eventually does reach out.

Keep in mind this advice is futile if you don't consider the bandwidth of your sales reps. Sure, in a perfect world, they'd make six follow-up attempts for each lead -- in reality, though, they may simply not have enough hours in the day to do that. For that reason, you'll also need to factor in the number of leads each rep is getting (based on the Marketing SLA), how much time they spend on marketing-generated leads versus sales-generated leads, and how much time they have to spend on each one. If you're looking to conserve time, some of the follow-up -- email, in particular -- could be automated, so look into options there.

4. Set up Marketing SLA reporting.

Now that you have your SLA goals, it's time to track your progress against that goal -- daily.

To start, graph the goal line. Multiply 1/n -- n is the number of days in the month -- by your monthly goal. That should determine what portion of your monthly goal you need to achieve each day. You'll want to graph that cumulatively throughout the month and mark your cumulative actual results on the same chart. We call that a waterfall graph, and it looks something like this:

5. Set up Sales SLA reporting.

For the Sales SLA reporting, you'll have two graphs -- one monitoring the speed of follow-up, and the other monitoring the depth of follow-up.

To graph the speed of follow up, you'll need the date/time the lead was presented to sales, and the date/time the lead received her first follow-up. The difference between those two times equals the time it took for Sales to follow up with that particular lead.

Take the averages of lengths of time it took for Sales to follow up with all leads within a particular timeframe -- day, week, month -- and chart it against the SLA goal.

To graph the depth of follow-up -- e.g., the number of attempts -- look specifically at leads that have not been connected with, since the goal of the follow-up is to get a connect. For leads over a certain timeframe that have not gotten a connect, look at the average number of follow-up attempts made, and graph that against the SLA goal.

6. Communicate, celebrate, and address the achievement (or lack thereof).

Maintaining strong communication regarding how each team is performing on goals boosts transparency. If either team isn't reaching their goals, addressing that confirms their importance, while celebrating hitting those goals can aid motivation.

If you're not sure where to begin when it comes to setting these goals, check out our free Marketing & Sales Lead Goal Calculator, designed to help you determine and track the goals that will eventually become part of your SLA.

One Last Step When It Comes to SLAs

When it comes to what should be in your service level agreement, there's one final piece: Review these metrics on a regular basis to monitor your progress, and make sure both Sales and Marketing have access to the reports for both sides of the SLA.

This step helps to maintain accountability and transparency and allows for both teams to address issues -- or congratulate each other on productive results.

Editor's Note: The post was originally published in January 2019, but was updated in December 2019 for comprehensiveness.

The Ultimate Guide to Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Write a Professional Resignation Letter [Samples + Templates]

If you are leaving your job, you’re not alone.

In April 2021 alone, around 4 million people quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. That number is the highest recorded since the bureau started recording such rates.

Even though millions quit their jobs every month, we understand that telling your boss that you’re leaving the company is never an easy conversation. A respectful resignation letter can mean the difference between an awkward goodbye and a chance for a long-term professional connection.

Ideally, you’ll provide a resignation letter two weeks before you leave the company. A resignation letter lets you officially announce your termination at the company and also offers essential housekeeping information, like your last day and other details about your departure.

An effective one helps you ensure a positive conversation with your boss and a smooth transition to your next journey.

But how do you write a good resignation letter? What should you include and exclude?

Writing a resignation letter can feel like a daunting task, so we’ve created a professional resignation letter template to get you started and included examples for inspiration.

What do I include in a professional resignation letter?

Writing a professional resignation letter starts with understanding each of its components:

1. Statement of Resignation and End Date

Begin your letter by stating your position at the company. This might seem redundant if you work at a small company and your boss knows you well, but it’s essential to include it since the letter is your official termination. Along with this information should be a simple statement of your resignation. 

Also, providing an end date in the first body paragraph is helpful since that’s one of the first questions your employer is going to have.

Here's what this first paragraph may look like in practice:

I would like to inform you that I am resigning from my position as [Position Name] for [Company Name], effective [Date].

2. Gratitude

Take the time to consider how you’ve grown or what you’ve appreciated most about your time at the company. Be as specific as possible — perhaps the company provided professional development opportunities, or maybe you’ve enjoyed the climate the company fostered and the supportive atmosphere.

It’s also nice for your employer to receive a thank you for the time and resources they’ve used in supporting your career growth. Here's an example of what this may look like:

I appreciate the opportunities for professional development that you have provided me over the past two years. I have enjoyed my tenure at [Company Name] and particularly feel honored to have been part of such a supportive team.

If you’d like, you can include where you’re headed next, too. For example, if you’re switching industries to pursue a passion or going to graduate school, it might be appropriate to include that. For example:

I accepted a position as a [New Job Title], and I'm looking forward to [pursuing my passion in X or continuing my work with a focus on Y].

However, if you’re leaving the company for a competitor, it’s better to omit such information.

3. Transition Details

In the third paragraph, mention your willingness to make the transition easier. For example:

If I can be of any help during this transition, please let me know. I am available to help train my replacement and ensure that all my reports are updated before my last day of work.

This sentence might look different for you. But regardless of what you write, it’s good practice to include specific details regarding how you’ll help.

As an optional follow-up paragraph, briefly review the work you'll be surrendering when you officially leave the company. Although it’s technically your manager's responsibility to pick this work up and determine how it will continue, it's helpful to list all the projects and tasks you've been in charge of to make the transition even easier on the company in the interim.

If you didn’t serve in a managerial capacity or collaborate with other departments, you could skip this part.

4. Personal Contact Information

This last paragraph is optional and doesn’t need to be included all the time, particularly if you have no desire or need to use your former employer as a reference. However, many candidates choose to maintain their professional networks, so such a closing may look like this:

Thank you again for the opportunity to work at [Company Name]. I wish you all the best and look forward to staying in touch. You can email me at [Email Address].

Professional Resignation Letter Samples

With the above template in mind, let's look at a few sample resignation letters for different positions, each taking a slightly different but amicable tone to their resignations.

1. Gracious Resignation Letter Sample

2. Brief Resignation Letter Sample

3. Immediate Resignation Letter Sample

While the best way to quit a job is to give at least two week’s notice and offer to help with the transition, sometimes circumstances make that impossible. If you need to leave your job immediately without notice, you need an immediate resignation letter.

Here is a sample that can help you:

Free Professional Resignation Letter Templates

Download the Templates Now

Sometimes the nature of your position merits a more specific letter of resignation when you leave. Below are a couple of templates that help these more dynamic roles make a graceful departure from the company.

1. Contractor Resignation Letter Template

If you work freelance, you might need to adjust the focus of your resignation letter so it addresses your final assignments and how exactly you'll be parting ways with your client. This includes your current duties, which tasks you won't complete, and how you'll accept your final payment.

2. Executive Resignation Letter Template

If you're in an executive- or senior-level leadership role, a quick email or two-paragraph notice to your superior might not suffice as an official resignation. Because these roles are harder to fill, you might play a more significant role in the transition period -- especially since you manage more people and decide on the direction of more projects.

The template below separates the resignation into two sections -- the first is the resignation itself, and the second is how (and with whom) the resigner's work will continue. It is just one of the different templates we have on offer.

Ready to Write Your Resignation Letter?

No matter your role, why you're leaving it, and who you're informing, be polite in your resignation letter. Gratitude and support during your departure go a long way with employers, and the last thing you want to do is leave the company on a sour note — even if you're leaving for sour reasons.

By drawing inspiration from resignation letter samples and templates, you'll protect your bridges and keep your professional network intact as you start your next adventure.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How to Write a Professional Resignation Letter [Samples + Templates] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

The Ultimate Guide to RFPs

Have you been tasked with the job of creating a request for proposal, or an RFP?

Whether you have no idea what that is or haven’t written one in awhile, today’s guide can help.

We’re diving into the specifics of what an RFP actually is, why you might need one, and how to create your very first one today.

To start, you should understand what all these letters even mean.

 

When your company has a new (often large) project, or one that’s more complex and requires a bit of outsourcing, an RFP can help you get the job done right the first time.

The RFP doc becomes a way for you to quickly uncover the strengths and weaknesses of potential vendors in relation to your project without having to spend too much of your time hunting for them yourself.

RFPs can also give you a sneak peek into different strategies you may not have considered since each vendor will include their own unique action plan along with their bid.

And you’ll have this information before you ever have to commit to the vendor.

Keep in mind, this should not be confused with an RFQ.

RFP vs. RFQ

An RFQ, or request for quotation, is slightly different than an RFP since it’s just the quote itself. Here, companies solicit multiple price quotes from various vendors to compare services based on price alone. While an RFP includes a price quote (along with several other specifics), an RFQ does not detail anything other than price.

As opposed to an RFP, an RFQ is a request for quote or quotation.

Here’s how to understand the difference:

While you’re technically receiving a quote in an RFP, you’re also getting information like the action plan, timeline of completion, deliverable schedule, and the list of services provided as well.

But with an RFQ, you’re only receiving the quote itself for the service or products you’re interested in purchasing.

In most cases, simply comparing quotes is not enough to see if a potential vendor is the right fit for your company, which is why an RFP is more appropriate in these situations.

What is an RFP in marketing? 

In Marketing, an RFP is often used to outsource any marketing activities that could help your brand increase reach. These activities include anything related to marketing that you can't do internally. 

For instance, if you work at a small startup, you might create an RFP to find a full-service communications and marketing firm to create an integrated marketing plan for your business. If this is the case, you'd outline in your RFP that you're looking for a firm to help you "increase SEO presence" or "attract social media followers", etc. 

On the flip side, if you work for a marketing agency, you'll want to keep an eye out for RFPs in your area related to services you offer. For instance, if you work for a web design company, you'll want to look for businesses that have created RFPs for web design services. 

What is an RFP in sales?

In sales, an RFP is often created when a business is looking to purchase a product or service to suit its needs. For instance, if an enterprise company is looking for a new CRM software, the business might release an RFP that outlines what it's looking for, and what it's hoping to achieve with new CRM software. 

For this reason, RFPs can play a critical role in the enterprise sales cycle. Enterprise companies that issue RFPs are often looking for businesses that can provide them with IT support, security, onboarding and training, and other additional services. To close these larger accounts, it's vital your sales team is prepared with an RFP response process, and is able to efficiently respond to these large companies within the time allotted. 

The RFP Process Explained

Before potential bidders can submit their proposals, an RFP must be drafted by the company requesting the work. (P.S. We’ll show you how to do this later in this guide)

This gives potential contractors a better idea of what your company is looking for.

Once your RFP is sent out, contractors or vendors can review it and submit their best bids to compete for the job.

In these proposals, vendors generally include the following items:

• An action plan of how they’re going to solve the issue
• A timeline of what you can expect
• Any necessary background information
• How much they expect the entire project to cost

In certain cases, bidders may come back and say specific components of the RFP need to be adjusted based on their experience in the industry.

At this point, you can either review their feedback and create a new RFP to adjust for the changes, or you can leave the original as is and keep it in mind while considering the other submitted bids.

Once you receive all the proposals, it will be almost effortless to compare each one and determine which vendor is the best fit for your company.

Out of the stack of bidders, you’ll want to narrow this down to a handful of your top three, five, or 10 favorites to consider, depending on how many you receive or are interested in.

From here, you’ll want to spend time vetting potential vendors further to determine who’s really the ideal fit for the job.

Some companies may request one more best and final offer from their top vendors after they’ve started this negotiation process to ensure they’re not only getting the right person or company for the job, but at the right price, too.

While this may sound like an extra step, it’s one that may save you money, time, and headaches down the road.

But this also leads us to a big question: Is all of this really necessary?

Can’t you just spend time reviewing two or three vendors on your own?

As you’ll see next, that route is definitely not in your best interest.

Why Issue a Request for Proposal?

Let’s briefly compare these two scenarios:

• Option #1: Spend time finding the perfect vendor on your own.
• Option #2: Use an RFP to get potential vendors to come to you.

Choose the first route, and you’ll probably use your coworkers, friends, and networking groups to help solicit possible referrals for the job.

Or you might perform a Google search to check out the top vendors in your area.

After you review the website of a possible candidate for the job, you’ll craft the perfect message to reach out and learn if they can even help.

Then, you’ll have to explain the specifics of your project and you may or may not ask them to submit a proposal before deciding to choose them for your project.

It’s not a complicated process, but did we mention you have to repeat it for every promising referral or vendor you come across?

Imagine how long that’s going to take!

Now, what if these potential contractors already knew your project details and they came back with their best plan of action and a formal bid for you to review?

So instead of having to explain your needs each time, you would simply outline it once, and send it out to the masses.

And to save you even more time, it would be up to potential contractors — not you — to reach out.

The RFP route also gives you a sneak peek into each vendor’s real plan of action, not the one they talk you into over the phone or in person.

Since potential candidates have to submit a formal bid, they’ll need to spend time outlining the solution and really working through the problem at hand.

And if they don’t, you have an easy way to weed out vendors and cut through the stack of options fairly quickly.

But, to get to this point, you can’t make this next mistake.

Here’s What Not To Do With an RFP

If you want to find the right vendor, you need your RFP to be specific.

Only asking “yes” or “no” questions won’t get you anywhere.

That’s why you must create specific questions that require thoughtful answers.

Try to use sentences similar to these:

• Can you share an example of how you’ve solved this problem or a similar one for another company? Did you encounter any unforeseen roadblocks? What would you do the same or differently this time?

• With your proposed redesign, how long would it take a non-tech savvy person to complete the new registration form? How much time do you estimate this could save?

With these tips in mind, you’re ready to draft your first RFP.

How to Write an RFP

Here’s the basic structure of an RFP and what to include in yours:

1. Project Overview

Before you go into the specifics of your company, you should give a brief introduction to the project itself so vendors know right away if it’s something worth bidding on.

2. Your Company Background

This shouldn’t be a long history of your company. Rather, it should give contractors a better idea of what your company does and who you serve as a target market.

3. The Goals of Your Project

Clearly identify what you hope to accomplish with this project and what you see as a “win” so everyone is on the same page.

4. Project Scope

The details of the project are essential in an RFP. In the same way you don’t want to use vague questions, a vague project scope won’t help you find the right vendor either.

Spend time really detailing your project scope so there’s no surprises later on.

5. Target Deliverable Schedule

Even if your deadlines aren’t super tight, you should still have a target deliverable schedule in mind. This needs to be included in your RFP so potential vendors can properly gauge if they have the resources and bandwidth to complete the job on time.

6. Possible Roadblocks

Don’t hide your existing or potential issues under the proverbial rug if you want them to disappear. A successful RFP is explicitly clear about any technical issues or possible roadblocks, such as: Are you dealing with custom coding or an outdated platform? Does your team have limited resources?

By explaining these up front, potential vendors will know exactly what they’re getting into.

You’ll also naturally weed out contractors who can’t handle the task due to those constraints.

But you’ll also connect with companies that know how to work around these common issues with skill and finesse.

Remember, it’s far better to find this out now than after you’ve accepted the bid and started work.

7. Budget Constraints

It’s also important to be upfront with your budget too. The more you can eliminate surprises, the better for all parties involved.

8. What You’re Looking For in Potential Vendors

Another way to reduce or eliminate surprises is to explain exactly what you’re looking for in potential contractors.

All you have to do is outline what matters most to your project (i.e., time, solution, budget, etc.) and show how you’ll be evaluating their proposals based on that.

We’ll show you how this is done soon, but before we do, there’s one more thing to add here: an RFP cover letter.

Just like a cover letter for a resume, an RFP cover letter creates a professional image for your brand and sets the tone for prospective vendors. It signals that they should take the proposal and the project seriously.

The good news is there are a number of tools to make creating RFPs easier and less stressful than you’re imagining.

Sample Responses to RFPs

If you've issued an RFP and are collecting responses, you might be wondering what you should look for in effective RFP responses. Here, let's look at a few examples of impressive RFP sample responses. 

Example One: General RFP Response for Web Design Services

Dear [author of RFP]:

Regarding your request for proposal (RFP), [our company] is thrilled about the opportunity to provide you web design services. Having worked with [brief list of past clients], we believe a partnership with [company you're writing to] would have a tremendous impact on your customer satisfaction and bottom line.

As one of [client's industry] leading providers of [client's main service], you know just how critical this time of year can be for your customers. On average, the cost to deliver is $[xxxx.xx], and [client name] is committed to "[client's mission statement]."

As these challenges become more common, it is increasingly important to provide customers with a powerful, SEO-optimized website to atttract new leads. With this in mind, [our company] intends to help [client's name]:

• Create a sleek, impressive website that is clean, user-friendly and mobile responsive to work on all devices, so web viewers have a strong first impression of your brand regardless of the device they use to find you. 

• Help you strengthen brand identity through a new logo and a new, cohesive color palette. 

• Ensure each of your web pages are SEO-optimized to rank quickly, which will attract new customers to your website and demonstrate your leadership in the industry. 

As stated in the executive summary, [our company] intends to help [client's name] [brief allusion to client benefits outlined in executive summary]. To do this, our team has outlined a proposed set of deliverables, an order of operations, division of labor, and expected dates of completion to ensure the partnership between [your company] and [client's name] is successful.

[Your company] can't wait to work with you to help [client's name] in addressing [client's challenges described in Executive Summary]. To recap, please see below a brief overview of the services included in this partnership.

This sample response clearly and succinctly explains how the vendor's service will solve the buyer's critical pain points when it comes to creating a strong website. By outlining the key benefits, you're showing the client how you'll put them first and focus on their needs to get the job done. 

Example Two: Video Production Company Offering Its Services

When responding to an RFP from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Paul Horton Visuals chose to create a full webpage dedicated to their RFP response. The webpage format enabled the team at Paul Horton to create a full sample video treatment and process to show Anthem what they'd be able to deliver if Anthem chose them. The page also includes an embedded video to highlight the strengths of Paul Horton: video production. 

Proposal Software Tools to Help You Manage RFPs

In this article, we outlined 10 tools to help you manage and create professional looking proposals in less time.

For today’s purposes, the following five tools are great places to get started:

1. RFPIO

RFPIO Solves the problem of responding to RFPs, from project management to collaboration, to integrating with other software.  Their solution includes reporting dashboards, auto-response features, and automated generation of proactive proposals from within your CRM. RFPIO also includes an intelligent answer library that turns previous RFP responses into on-demand intelligence that empowers revenue teams with enterprise content at their fingertips wherever the work. 

And what's better? RFPIO has an integration with HubSpot that will automatically sync your RFP with your portal, making it easy to share information with your team. 

2. PandaDoc

To create customized RFPs with your own branding, consider using the proposal software PandaDoc.

Here you can set up your first RFP within minutes and even collaborate with team members using real-time updates within the document itself.

3. Nusii

Similar to other proposal software on the market, Nusii uses a drag and drop editor that makes building RFPs a breeze — especially for beginners.

Thanks to its clean, modern, simple design, it’s also really easy to figure out too.

One of the most helpful features of Nusii is using it for re-working existing RFPs to save you time. Just copy the content from an RFP you like and edit information to fit your new request.

4. Loopio

How do you plan on organizing all the responses to your RFPs?

One standout feature with Loopio is its RFP response library, which gives you instant access to all your answers from previous RFPs. This saves you the hassle of digging around to find what you need in a crowded inbox.

Their magic feature will even help you auto-populate a response if it appears similar to one you’ve already done.

Plus, you can manage your entire RFP process — including sending automated responses — and collaborate with your team all in one place with their intuitive dashboard.

And if proposal tools are out of the budget right now, or if you’d like to try your hand at creating your own first, use this template as a starting point.

5. RFP360

RFP360 streamlines your approach to RFP response management. Their intuitive knowledge management, workflow and collaboration features make it easy to create, review, update and approve compelling responses in a single library. Proposal automation and answer intelligence (AI) capabilities accelerate your ability to answer questions, suggesting the best possible responses and automatically completing them in bulk.

You can also import RFPs in various formats and generate polished final proposals, and integrated extensions allow anyone across your organization to use content from your knowledge library in Microsoft Office files, online questionnaires and forms — without leaving those applications.

Free and Editable RFP Template

Download a free, editable RFP template.

To use this template, simply download it here or fill out the form below. You can remove sections or pieces of information that don’t pertain to your project and add whatever else you need for your RFPs.

Over To You

Now that you have a better idea of what an RFP is and how to create your first one, you’re ready to get started.

Sit down with your team to narrow down your project’s specifics, goals, and scope of work. Then determine when the project needs to be completed and your budget before moving on to the drafting phase.

With this intel gathered, you’ll be ready to plug everything into our template.

You can also use this tried-and-tested proposal formula to ensure your RFP is professional and polished too.

Follow these steps and you’ll have an RFP template you can quickly update. Your next project will be a success that much faster. 

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August, 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The Ultimate Guide to RFPs was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Going global and staying local – How Storytel cuts through the noise

Storytel is a remarkable success story, one where adaptation and best in class localisation plays a starring role. And in terms of display campaigns, Storytel is a brand at the forefront of multi-market, multi-channel advertising.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Storytel is one of the world’s leading audiobook and e-book streaming services and offers unlimited listening and reading of more than 500,000 titles on a global scale. Present in 20+ different markets it prides itself on connecting with customers at a local level.

At the heart of its digital and display advertising are dedicated individuals who are driving the brand towards ever more global success.

We spoke to Storytel’s Kajsa Berthammar, Head of Brand & Campaigns, Sara Waldestam, Campaign Planner, Svante Fjaestad, Motion Designer, and Nikolina Ivis, Design Coordinator about how they achieve their marketing objectives.

What are the challenges facing Storytel when doing digital marketing? In particular, display advertising?

Kajsa Berthammar, Head of Brand & Campaigns: When it comes to digital and display, it’s making all the formats, especially small formats.

Today we operate across 20+ markets, so that means producing a lot of material! That’s always an issue and it’s an issue that’s increasing for us as we grow.

Sara Waldestam, Campaign Planner: The challenge is with the formats, as Kajsa said. In particular, the volume we need to create, especially for smaller markets and verticals.

Kajsa: We also offer a service that is very local, if you compare it to a lot of other streaming services like Netflix or Spotify. Storytel users tend to consume the content in their local language, meaning we need to easily tweak our material.

The same is true of our video creatives – it’s complicated creating video for a global brand and maintaining local relevance.

How is Storytel overcoming these challenges?

Kajsa: We try to automate as much as we can. In that sense, Bannerflow has been really helpful for us when it comes to intuitive format adaptations and those kinds of things; such as the smoothness of adding local images, or localising copy.

But then it’s also the media mix and understanding the bigger picture. For us it’s about creating smart templates and doing whatever we can with data feeds and those kinds of things that can be automated and connected to the product.

How have your display advertising processes changed since using Bannerflow?

Sara: A big change has been that things that once were done by a production company, we now use Bannerflow instead. And with 20+ markets to serve, we can now take a single campaign and push it out to all of those markets quickly.

Kajsa: The general answer is that we have been able to make the markets more self-servant. Now we can provide material to 20+ markets without doing every single adaptation ourselves, which is a huge help.

Sara: Bannerflow enables us to use the right display formats for the right market. Before we were like, no, we can’t make one more size but today we can target better because we can create that extra size. Plus, since our Christmas 2020 campaign, we started creating social assets in Bannerflow – with sound – which was amazing.

How long does it take you to produce a campaign?

Kajsa: It varies because we do everything. Big global brand films, which cover every channel – including display – for those the production process is quite long.

But we also do many performance-focused campaigns. And, of course, this is a much quicker process. For example, it could be: Can we test this? Can we try it in one market and see if it works and then ramp up? etc.

What’s the quickest campaign you’ve ever done?

Svante Fjaestad, Motion Designer: I’m not sure – but the last one for the performance team was 56 still ads, complete with videos for about 50 more, which took 15 hours. However, when the automation works as it should, it goes rather quick!

Sara: We are pushing large amounts of display formats in those sets too. How many sizes do you have in one set?

Svante: Maybe a few hundred, it was a lot – and that’s just for the English template. The local markets will take the English version of the campaign and translate it into their own local language. And the best thing is they don’t have to go into each asset at one time; they just change the image URL, change the copy, and away they go!

What is it like producing and controlling campaigns across multiple markets?

Kajsa: As you know, Storytel is a rather local product in the sense of the content. Meaning that when it comes to titles and book covers (those kinds of things), it’s crucial that we localise.

Failure to do so would just be weird. We simply can’t promote a title that we don’t have in the specific market materials. Yet, it’s also important to find a balance and understanding in regards to what material we need or what should be localised, and when and where it is not as necessary. Because localising is also a very time-consuming process.

How are you able to make sure your localisations are accurate?

Kajsa: We set the master copy for our global communications, either in-house, or via an agency; depending on the campaign. Local teams then translate it by themselves. This is also a challenge – just with translation and localisation. It’s a process that needs to be tweaked all the time, to ensure that we do it in the best possible way.

 

Nikolina Ivis, Design Coordinator: A big thing for us is using automation but achieving the flexibility we require as well. Usually those two things collide.

We want to automate as much as possible, but we also need to be able to adapt creatives to 20+ different markets. And sometimes that can be complicated, for example, a word in Finnish might be ten times longer than in English, and so on. You always need to find the best way to blend automation with the flexibility to make changes.

In Bannerflow you just translate an ad set in the platform and it’s done.

Are you able to take learnings from one market and apply them to new markets?

Kasja: That’s often what we do. You have an idea of what you think might work, test it in one market and then you scale it out.

Currently, one of the things we are investigating is exploring how much you need to localise and amend. If you look at the time, effort, and resources going into our ad output, what is the perfect balance? And with the setup we now have, it’s possible to start looking at these questions and answering them.

Do you feel your focus on localisation gives you a competitive edge?

Kajsa: We’d like to hope so. It’s one of the things that makes us stick out, I feel. We have a local presence, local offices, and local production processes, in most markets where we are present. And that’s not always the usual set-up.

If you have your ears to the ground, then of course you get the extra sense of what works or what doesn’t. It’s easy to assume what works in one market automatically will work in all of them – when in fact we need to be very open to local differences.

Finally, what is it about the Bannerflow platform that makes designing ads smoother?

Nikolina: The scaling and automation. And just to underline it: today we create something once and then share it to all of the markets to do their adaptations. Before we had to do every banner manually in our team and that takes so much time.

Now, if you just change the copy in the box to the right and then change the image, the creative automation adapts all the assets – easy for us in Stockholm, and easy for all the other teams in different markets. If they want to change an image, or the copy, it’s done and dusted in two minutes.

Next steps

Want to know more about how to localise and save time building ads through production automation? Then get in touch with the Bannerflow team today, or apply for a demo now!

The post Going global and staying local – How Storytel cuts through the noise appeared first on Bannerflow.

Going global and staying local – How Storytel cuts through the noise was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): 8 Ways To Get Started

Today, most marketing teams are focused on driving traffic toward websites in hopes that this traffic then converts into qualified leads for sale reps to close. But that's only half the battle.

Getting more out of existing traffic and leads (versus entirely new traffic) can propel companies toward long-term, sustainable growth. That's where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in. In this guide, you'll learn about the power of CRO, why your business should focus on improving your conversion rate, and how to get get started.

What is a conversion rate?

A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like completing a web form, signing up for a service, or purchasing a product.

A high conversion rate means your website is well-designed, formatted effectively, and appealing to your target audience. A low conversion rate could be the result of a variety of factors related to either website performance or design. Slow load times, a broken form, or copy that doesn’t convey the value of the offer are common reasons for a poor conversion rate. 

What is a good conversion rate?

A "good" conversion rate depends on your industry, niche, goals, traffic channel, and audience demographics, among other factors. For example, the average conversion rate of ecommerce sites globally was 2.17% in the third quarter of 2020, which was down from 2.37% the previous year. The ecommerce conversion rate in the US was higher, however, at 2.57%.

The average not only differs by year and by country — it also differs by niche. For example, the average conversion rate of ecommerce sites in the food and beverage sector is 5.5% whereas the average in the haircare sector is 3.5%. 

If your conversion rate is lower than you'd like — maybe it's below average in your industry, or lower than your top competitors, or simply underperforming against your own goals — then it's time to optimize. 

What is CRO?

Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of enhancing your website and content to boost conversions. 

The process of optimizing for conversions allows you to boost your number of highly-qualified leads, increase revenue, lower acquisition costs, obtain greater value from your current leads and customers, and, simply, grow better.

Conversions can happen all over your website: on your homepage, pricing page, blog, landing pages, and more. To maximize the potential of converting website visitors into paying customers, you should optimize each location. 

Before we take a look at the benefits of CRO, let's walk through how to calculate your site's conversion rate. That way, you'll have a better understanding of how much time and resources to invest in a CRO strategy. 

How to Calculate Conversion Rate 

Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors and multiplying that number by 100 to get a percentage.

As long as you know how you're defining a conversion, then calculating your conversion rate is easy. You just plug in two values and multiply by 100. 

Let's say you're defining a conversion as a newsletter opt-in, and you have an opt-in form on every single page of your website. In that case, you'd divide the total number of newsletter form submissions by the total number of website visitors and multiply it by 100. So if you had 500 submissions and 20,000 visitors last quarter, then your conversion rate would be 2.5%. 

You can repeat this process for every conversion opportunity on your site. Just make sure to only count the number of visitors on the webpages where the offer is listed. For example, if you want to calculate the conversion rate of your ebook offer, then you'd divide the total number of downloads by the number of people who visited webpages where the ebook offer is listed. 

Alternatively, you can calculate your website's overall conversion rate by dividing the total number of conversions for every conversion opportunity on your site by the total number of visitors on your site.

How Websites Benefit From CRO

Here are four areas of your website that have the potential to largely benefit from conversion rate optimization.

1. Homepage

Homepages are prime candidates for CRO. In addition to making a first impression on visitors, the homepage is also an opportunity to retain those visitors and guide them further into your website.

You can do this by emphasizing links to product information, offering a free signup button, or even incorporating a chatbot that solicits questions from visitors at any point during their browsing experience.

2. Pricing Page

A website's pricing page can be the make-or-break point for many website visitors. CRO can help a pricing page convert visitors into customers by modifying the pricing intervals (e.g. price-per-year vs. price-per-month), describing the product features associated with each price, including a phone number for visitors to call for a price quote, or adding a simple pop-up form. 

Hotjar, for example, added a simple email opt-in popup form on its pricing page and got over 400 new leads in just three weeks.

3. Blog

A blog is a massive conversion opportunity for a website. In addition to publishing thoughtful and helpful content about your industry, a blog can use CRO to convert readers into leads.

This process often includes adding calls-to-action (CTA) throughout an article or inviting readers to learn more about a topic by submitting their email address in exchange for an ebook or industry report.

4. Landing Pages

Since landing pages are inherently designed for people to take an action, it makes sense that they have the highest average conversion rate of all signup forms at 24%. An event landing page, for example, can be optimized with a video of last year's event to encourage visitors to register this year. A landing page that's offering a free resource can be optimized with preview content from that resource to encourage visitors to download it.

Now that you know where you can optimize for conversions, you may be wondering how you know when your business is ready to start the process.

When is CRO right for your business?

The short answer: CRO is important for any business online. That's because, no matter how established or large your company is, you want to convert your website visitors into qualified leads, customers, and brand advocates — and you want to do so in the most effective, impactful, and reliable way.

With conversion rate optimization, you'll get more out of your existing website traffic while ensuring you're targeting qualified leads.

Although this is a straightforward concept, setting a conversion goal isn't as easy as saying, "This page converted 50 people this month, so we want to convert 100 people next month."

You don't just want 50 more conversions from a webpage. Instead, you want 50 more conversions for every X amount of people who visit it. (This is your conversion rate — the percentage of people who convert on your website based on how many people have touched it).

To provide a better understanding of where you stand at any point in time in regards to conversion rate, here are three commonly-used formulas your business can use to understand, analyze, and improve.

CRO Calculation 1: Conversion Rate

As we mentioned earlier, to calculate conversion rate, you must divide your number of conversions (or leads generated) by your number of visitors (or web traffic), and then multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage.

Leads Generated ÷ Website Traffic x 100 = Conversion Rate %

CRO Calculation 2: Number of Net New Customers

To calculate your number of net new customers, you'll want to divide your net revenue goal by your average sales price.

New Revenue Goal ÷ Average Sales Price = Number of New Customers

CRO Calculation 3: Lead Goal

And lastly, to calculate your lead goal, take your number of new customers and divide it by your lead-to-customer close rate (which is your total number of leads divided by total number of customers) percentage.

Number of New Customers ÷ Lead-to-Customer Close Rate % = Lead Goal

Here's an example of these formulas in action:

If your website has 10,000 visitors per month that generate 100 leads — and subsequently, 10 customers each month — the website visitor-to-lead conversion rate would be 1%.

What if you wanted to generate 20 customers each month?

You could try to get 20,000 visitors to your website and hope that the quality of your traffic doesn't decrease — although, that's a risk you'll likely want to avoid. Rather, you could obtain more leads from your existing traffic by optimizing your conversion rate. This is less risky and is more likely to produce better results for your bottom line.

For instance, if you increase your conversion rate from 1% to 2%, you'd double your leads and your customers. The following table is proof of this — you can see the positive impact that results from increasing your website's conversion rate:

Company	a	B	c
Monthly Site Traffic	10,000	10,000	10,000
Conversion Rate	1%	2%	3%
Leads Generated	100	200	300
New Customers	10	20	30

Notice the drastic increases in number of leads generated and net new customers when you boost your conversion rate.

Not only that, but it's clear that generating more website traffic isn't necessarily the right approach when trying to improve your conversion rate — in fact, this chart shows you that you can grow your business substantially without increasing traffic at all.

Hard to believe? Think about this way: Pretend you were trying to fill up a leaky bucket. If you pour more water into the bucket, you won't fix the root cause of the issue — instead, you'll end up with a lot of water that's wasted (not to mention, a bucket that will never fill up all the way).

Are you ready to take the first steps toward CRO at your company? Review the strategies below and start experimenting.

CRO Marketing Strategies to Try

Here are some applicable conversion rate optimization marketing strategies to test and implement at your company.

1. Create text-based CTAs within blog posts.

While it's considered a best practice to include CTAs in a blog post, they sometimes fail to entice visitors to take your desired course of action. Why?

Banner blindness is a real phenomenon related to people becoming accustomed to ignoring banner-like information on websites. This lack of attention coupled with the fact site visitors don't always read all the way to the bottom of a blog post (rather, they "snack” on content), means a different approach is required.

That's where the text-based CTA comes in handy. Here at HubSpot, we ran a test with text-based CTAs — a standalone line of text linked to a landing page and styled as an H3 or an H4 — to see if they would convert more traffic into leads than regular CTAs located at the bottom of a web page.

In HubSpot's limited test of 10 blog posts, regular end-of-post banner CTAs contributed an average of just 6% of leads that the blog posts generated, whereas up to 93% of a post's leads came from the anchor-text CTA alone.

2. Add lead flows on your blog.

A lead flow is another conversion rate optimization element you can include on your site. Lead flows are high-converting pop-ups designed to attract attention and offer value.

You can select from a slide-in box, drop-down banner, or pop-up box, depending on your offer. We experimented with the slide-in box on the HubSpot Blog back in 2016 and it achieved a 192% higher clickthrough rate and 27% more submissions than a regular CTA at the bottom of a blog post.

3. Run tests on your landing pages.

Landing pages are an important part of the modern marketer's toolkit and, as mentioned earlier, integral to conversion rate optimization.

That's because a landing page is where a website visitor becomes a lead or an existing lead engages more deeply with your brand. To optimize a landing page, run A/B tests to identify your best design and content features for audience members.

For instance, with A/B testing you can quickly and easily test different versions of your website copy, content offers, images, form questions, and web pages to determine what your target audience and leads respond to best.

Thanks to A/B testing, China Expat Health was able to increase their lead conversion rate by 79%. One of the most impactful changes was swapping out the headline “Health Insurance in China” for “Save Up to 32% on Your Health Insurance in China,” which immediately conveyed a value proposition to visitors. This proposition was then supported by customer testimonials.

Get everything you need to start effectively A/B Testing your website today.

4. Help leads to immediately become a marketing-qualified lead.

Sometimes visitors want to get right down to business, skip parts of the typical buyer's journey, and immediately speak with a sales rep (rather than be nurtured).

There are specific actions you should encourage these high-intent visitors to complete so they can easily become marketing qualified leads (MQLs) — and they can take action through a combination of thoughtfully designed web pages, compelling and clear copy, and smart CTAs.

For instance, at HubSpot, we discovered that visitors who sign up for product demos convert at higher rates than visitors who sign up for free product trials. So, we optimized our website and conversion paths for people booking demos or meetings with a sales rep.

Admittedly, this depends on your product and sales process, but our best advice is to run a series of tests to find out what generates the most customers. Then, optimize for that process. The key here is to look for ways to remove friction from your sales process.

5. Build workflows to enable your team.

There are a number of automated workflows you can create to enable your team with the help of marketing automation software.

For example, with marketing automation, it's possible to send automatic emails with workflows. Then, leads can book meetings with reps in one click. Meanwhile, reps receive notifications when leads take high-intent actions such as view the pricing page on your website.

Or, if you work in ecommerce, you can send an email to people who abandon their shopping cart as a reminder.  According to research from Moosend, abandoned cart emails can be very effective. They have a high open rate of 45%. Of the emails that are opened, 21% are clicked. Half of the people who clicked make a purchase.

Here's an example of an abandoned cart email by the Dollar Shave Club. 

Image Source

6. Add messages to high-converting web pages.

Use live chat software to chat with your website visitors in real-time and offer support and guidance as needed. To increase conversions, add these messaging features to your high-performing web pages — such as your pricing and product pages — so leads get the information they want in real-time.

You can also make your messaging and chat bots action-based. For example, if someone has spent more than a minute on the page, you may want to automatically offer to help and answer any questions they may have (again, a live chat tool, like HubSpot, makes this easy).

7. Optimize high-performing blog posts.

Again, publishing blog articles opens the door to a big opportunity for conversions. Even more so if you already have existing blog content on your site — in fact, at HubSpot, the majority of our monthly blog views and leads come from posts published over a month ago.

To get started optimizing your blog content, identify your posts with the highest levels of web traffic but low conversion rates. (Possible causes of this issue may be related to SEO, the content offer you are promoting, or your CTA.)

In one instance, we at HubSpot added an inbound press release template offer to a blog post about press releases — as a result, we saw conversions for that post increase by 240%.

Additionally, look at your blog posts with high conversion rates. You want to drive more qualified website traffic to those posts and you can do so by optimizing the content for the search engine results page (SERP) or updating it as needed to ensure it's fresh and relevant.

8. Leverage retargeting to re-engage website visitors.

It doesn't matter what your key conversion metric is: The cold, hard truth is that most people on your website don't take the action you want them to. By leveraging retargeting on Facebook and other platforms, you can re-engage people who left your website.

Retargeting works by tracking visitors to your website and serving them online ads as they visit other sites around the web. This is particularly impactful when you retarget people who visited your highest-converting web pages.

The normal inbound rules still apply here — you need well-crafted copy, engaging visuals, and a compelling offer for retargeting to work.

Take United's retargeting campaign for example. Using insights from previous ad campaigns, United focused on reaching people who had viewed their ads and were already considering booking a vacation. To this select audience, they promoted a 15-second video ending in a call-to-action.

If viewers felt inspired enough to book their vacation, all they had to do was click on the CTA to be taken straight to the United website. This proved to be a huge success. In just one month, 52% of conversions attributed to YouTube were click-through conversions directly from the ad.

(If you're a HubSpot customer, take a look at how the AdRoll integration can improve your conversion efforts.)

Now, let's talk about how you can get started with CRO at your company.

How to Get Started with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Maybe you're wondering, "Where do I start with CRO?”

Enter: PIE framework. Before starting a CRO project, prioritize your efforts by ranking each element on Potential, Importance, and Ease.

Use the PIE framework to answer the following questions for every strategy outlined in the previous section. Then, assign a score between one and 10 (one being the lowest and 10 being the highest) to each strategy.

• How much total improvement can this project offer?
• How valuable will this improvement be?
• How complicated or difficult will it be to implement this improvement?

Once you've assigned a score for each strategy, add up the numbers and divide the total by three — this gives a score that shows what project will have the greatest impact. Then, work on the projects with the highest scores first.

The PIE framework isn't perfect, but it's easy to understand, systematic, and offers a starting point for CRO collaboration and communication among colleagues.

Frequently Asked Questions About CRO 

We've covered a lot about conversion rate optimization, but not everything. If you still have questions, then check out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions below. 

What is the purpose of a conversion rate optimization?

The purpose of conversion rate optimization (CRO) is to improve the likelihood of visitors taking a desired action on a webpage.

What is a CRO strategy?

A CRO strategy is designed to convert more of your visitors into paying customers. While each CRO strategy will vary company by company, the general steps will not. You have to identify key metrics and your target audience. Then you have to collect user feedback and other data to decide what you’re going to test. Finally, you’ll run A/B tests to improve different pages and parts of your site for conversion.

What are CRO tools?

CRO tools are designed to simplify or automate the process of optimizing your conversion rate. They might help with lead capture, research, analytics, mouse tracking and heat maps, feedback, or running experiments.

What is a CRO test?

A CRO test involves adding, re-arranging, and redesigning elements on your website in order to maximize your conversions. Different CRO tests might focus on optimizing the copy, design, or placement of your CTAs, or the length of your headlines, among other elements. 

Begin Using CRO

There are many "best practices" out there when it comes to CRO but, ultimately, you need to find out what your customers respond to, and what drives results for your business.

Keep these three follow-up actions in mind when getting started with CRO today:

• Use the three formulas to start the CRO conversation.
• Experiment with CRO strategies to discover what works for your business.
• Leverage the PIE framework to help prioritize your strategy.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): 8 Ways To Get Started was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Add HTML Embed Codes to Your Website [Quick Tip]

If you want to curate others' content from social media or just make your own visual social media content work harder for your overall content strategy, you need to know how to embed HTML code onto your blog or website.

But wait a second ... before we get into the nitty-gritty of this tip, what the heck does "embed" mean? And what is HTML? If you don't know how to code at all, no worries — embedding external content is extremely easy. Let's take a second to break down the basics.

What does embed mean?

Embed means to integrate external content into another website or page. You embed something when you place a block of code — called an embed code — into the HTML editor of another website. When you hit ‘Save’ or ‘Publish,’ the media then renders on the published page.

Embedded content is referenced with HTML. HTML is one of the most basic languages used on the web to design and lay out web pages.

You often see this code when you're in the "back end" of your blog post. There’s where you’ll add your embed code.

Most social and multimedia websites have an option to generate an embed code right in each individual post. Here’s an example of an embed code for a HubSpot YouTube video:

And here’s the embedded result.

Want to do the same thing on your blog posts and pages? Let’s go over how you can generate an embed code for the top social sites.

Below, we cover these steps in more detail for each platform. In general, you’ll want to:

1. Generate the embed code.
2. Access your content management system and paste the embed code in your HTML viewer.
3. Finished! You have embedded content into your website or blog.

Let’s dive into each step.

1. Generate the embed code.

Before embedding external content, you must first generate an embed code for the post or page you want to embed on your website.

We’ll go over how you can do that on most of the major social and content networks.

Embed a Facebook Post

To embed a Facebook post, do the following:

• Navigate to Facebook on your desktop browser and go to the post that you’d like to embed.
• Click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post.
• On the drop-down menu, click Embed.

• A pop-up will appear, where you have the option to include the full post and access advanced settings. For beginners, we recommend leaving the options as they are and simply clicking Copy Code.

• Finished! You’ve got your embed code.

Embed an Instagram Post

Want to embed an Instagram post? The process is similar to Facebook’s. Note that you can only embed posts from the desktop version and not the mobile app.

• Click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post.
• A popup will come up with several options. Click Embed, the second-to-last option.

• A pop-up will come up with your embed code. You have the option of including or excluding the caption.
• After you’ve finished customizing your options, click Copy Embed Code.

• Complete! You’ve got your Instagram embed code.

Embed a YouTube Video

YouTube videos can take your blog posts to the next level, and the best part is that you can embed its wealth of content on your blog posts for free.

To do so, take the following steps:

• Navigate to the video that you’d like to embed on your website.
• Under the video, next to where the likes are located, click Share.

• A pop-up will come up with several options, including sharing the post to other social networks. Click Embed.

• YouTube will create an embed code, which you can customize. You can start the video at a certain point or hide the player controls.
• After choosing your options, click Copy on the lower right-hand corner of the pop-up.

• Complete! Your YouTube video is ready to get embedded.

Embed a Tweet

If you embed a Tweet on your website pages or blog, you can generate engagement for your Twitter profile without relying on your Twitter followers. Website visitors can engage with your Twitter content, too.

To embed a Twitter post, do the following:

• On a desktop browser, navigate to the post that you’d like to embed.
• Click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post.
• A drop-down menu will appear. Click Embed Tweet.

• Twitter will take you to an external page on publish.twitter.com, where you can then further customize the look of the Tweet before embedding it on your site. For instance, you can set it to dark mode and change the display language of the Tweet.

• Once you’ve customized it, click Update.
• Click Copy Code.
• Finished! The Tweet is ready to embed on your site.

There’s another way to generate an embed code for Twitter. Go to publish.twitter.com and insert the URL of the post that you’d like to embed. Twitter will then generate the embed code, and you can customize it using the same process as the last method.

Embed a Pinterest Post

Embedding a Pinterest post can lead website users back to your Pinterest profile and help you grow your Pinterest following. To get started, do the following:

• Navigate to the Pinterest post you’d like to embed.
• Click on the three dots right next to the image (or under the image, if you’re using the mobile website).
• On the drop-down menu, click Get Pin embed code.

• A pop-up will appear with the embed code. You have the option of creating a small, medium, large, or extra-large embedded pin.

• Once you customize the size, highlight the code and click Command + C or CTRL + C.
• Finished! Your Pin is ready to get embedded.

Embed a SlideShare Presentation

While SlideShare presentations are not as popular these days, they can still be a handy multimedia tool for spicing up blog posts and pages. Here’s how to embed a SlideShare presentation:

• Go to the SlideShare presentation you’d like to embed.
• Click Share under the presentation.
• In the same window where the presentation appears, you’ll see the option to share it via social channels. The embed code will be underneath that.

• Choose the size of the embed window and which slide you’d like the presentation to start on.
• Highlight the embed code and click Command + C or CTRL + C.
• Ready! You can now embed the SlideShare presentation in a web page or post.

Embed an External Webpage

Don’t want to embed a social post but rather a web page? You can embed an external web page using the iframe HTML tag.

All embed codes, including the ones for social sites, use iframe tags. This is what they look like:

You can use these same tags to embed an external webpage. Here’s how:

• Navigate to the webpage you’d like to embed into your site.
• Open up the notepad app on your computer. Paste the following code into it:

• Return to the webpage and copy the URL.
• Paste the entire URL where it says url in your iframe code. Don’t forget to include https:// at the beginning of your URL and to place the link inside the quote marks. Here’s what your code should look like:

• Change the width and height of the frame if desired.

• Copy the entire line of code. After, the webpage is ready to get embedded on your website.

2. Access your content management system and paste the embed code in your HTML viewer.

Although every CMS is different, you can probably find the HTML viewer with similar steps. We’ll go over how you can do it in CMS Hub and WordPress.

CMS Hub

In CMS Hub, you actually don’t need to add your embed content using the HTML editor (although you have the option to). Here’s how:

• In your HubSpot dashboard, navigate to Marketing > Website > Blog. If you’re planning to add the code to a website page, navigate to Marketing > Website > Website Pages.

• Find the post or page that you’d like to add the embed code to. Hover over it, then click Edit.

• Click into the module where you’d like to add the embed code. An options bar will appear near the top of the screen. In the right-hand side, click Insert.
• Choose Embed from the drop-down menu.

• A pop-up will appear. Paste the iframe code into the text bar.

• Click Insert.
• Finished! You can edit the width and height of the embed content to customize it further.

To access the HTML editor, complete steps 1-3 above. On the top options bar, click Advanced > Source Code. You can then paste your embed code manually. Note that the end result is the same.

WordPress

To paste an embed code into your WordPress website, use the following steps:

• Access your admin area and go to either Pages or Posts.
• Click the title of the post that you want to add the embed code to. This action will take you to the post editor.
• Click the Text tab on the upper right-hand corner of the text editor.

• Paste your embed code where you want the module to appear.

3. Finished! You have embedded content onto your website or blog.

Once you reload the page, your embedded social post will appear.

Add Embedded Content to Increase User Engagement

By embedding external content on your pages and posts, you can increase engagement on your website and get your site visitors to interact with the content you post on social media. The best part is that it’s easy to do — simply generate the embed code, paste it into your HTML editor, and watch your user engagement grow.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How to Add HTML Embed Codes to Your Website [Quick Tip] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns