What happens when you sign up for a free software trial, webinar, or demo?

If you caught last week’s episode of the Loyalty Loop you’ll know that signing up for anything means you’ll be hit with a ton of follow up emails, mostly begging you to arrange a call with a sales rep.

And most of the time, consumers just hit delete — or unsubscribe.

So, as sales people or marketers, how do we get people to actually follow up and purchase our software? Or at least agree to a call?

To find out, I’m doing a real-life marketing makeover for two brave companies that have agreed to let me dissect — and improve! —their marketing campaigns. Here, in part 2, I’m going to uncover the ONE thing they can change immediately, to have the biggest impact on the prospect’s experience.

Where to begin…?

In last week’s post I asked you guys to chime in with your ideas for how Courtney from Vidyard and Annette from Aprimo could improve their...

You know what’s going to happen as soon as you sign up for a free software trial, demo, or webinar, right? You’re going to get hit with at least a hundred emails and a dozen phone calls from eager marketers, all desperate to talk you into a sale. 

And I know, because in the last two years I’ve signed up to 140 of them!

But how many of these calls and emails actually work? Well, not that many because there are usually at least 4 glaring issues with each and every one of the marketing tactics they’re using. 

Over the next 3 posts, I’m going to help a couple of real-life sales people uncover these issues and give their marketing campaigns a bit of a makeover so they can deliver bigger, better results.

And because I’m writing this from Napa, California, I’m going to start with a wine analogy...

Why your website is like a sleeping vine

It's winter here in Napa Valley. And every one of the vines here are dormant, they’re sound...

Ever watch an ad and find yourself thinking, “huh?”, even though you know all of your buddies love it? Or absolutely cracking up at a “genius” marketing campaign only to find the rest of the world up in arms about it?

All the damn time, right?

Because that’s the thing about great marketing: it can divide us, make us think, cause debates, and apparently inspire awesome new YouTube shows such as the one linked right here.

So here’s how it works. Dean Shaw and I, Andrew Davis, are going to take a whole bunch of our favorite/most hated ads and marketing campaigns and try to decide whether they’re brilliant…or stupid. Then we want you awesome folks to chime in and let us know whether or not you agree, and why.

First up: Peloton

You’ve heard of Peloton, right? You must have because, man, that ad was all over the place all through the holidays. And Peloton got a ton of heat for it because a whole bunch of viewers (and by that we mean...

I’ve had a good look in my crystal ball and when it comes to the evolution of customer experience, I reckon one trend in particular is going to dominate this year: personalization.

But here’s the interesting thing: this isn’t a new trend. In fact, the Cloud IQ team released research documenting the rise of personalization as a customer trend way back in 2017. At that point they found that 69% of all consumers across the UK, U.S, and Australia want more personalized experiences and in 2018 Accenture Research found that an incredible 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide such an experience.

So far though, not enough businesses are listening to the research. Or if they are listening, they’re not quite nailing what personalization means to the consumer.

On the bright side, now you know that personalization is what customers want in theory, all you need to do is keep on reading to find out what it actually looks like in practice, and...

What’s your customer’s trigger question? We all think we know the answer to this one — it’s whatever they typed into Google before they were directed to your site, right?

Well, not so much. You see, the real trigger question comes way before they even get to that stage. And I have a little exercise to share, that’ll help you uncover it, every time.

The curse of knowledge

Last week, I was in the Bahamas with 700 heating, ventilation, and air conditioning professionals — every one of them was an HVAC expert. Now, if you’re running a successful business, you too are an expert in your particular field. And when it comes to uncovering your customers’ trigger questions, that’s a problem.

You see, you know too much. It’s the curse of knowledge, and if you want to overcome it, there’s only one thing for it.

You gotta start acting like a moron. Yes, really…

Loyalty Loop lesson 1: Act like a moron (and discover your...

Do any of these sound familiar?

“Consumers demand free shipping these days and it’s killin’ us.”

“Customers today just want a cheap product. In an Amazon world we gotta reduce our prices if we want to compete.”

And my personal favorite: “We gotta keep our content short, our marketing short; people have the attention span of a goldfish.”

I hear these all the time from businesses. Whenever revenues start to slide, or marketing campaigns fail, business owners turn to these consumer-driven excuses.

But the thing is, the problems they’re facing often have less to do with changing consumer behavior — and way more to do with their own less-than-stellar business practices.

This week, I’m going to take the daddy of all excuses, dig a little deeper, and figure out if the problem is consumer behavior, or whether the real issue is a little closer to home.

The print industry is doomed

“People don’t want print...

“How can banks improve their customer experience?”

A few weeks ago a Loyalty Loop subscriber actually asked me that question and they couldn’t have picked a better time to ask. You see, I’m actually looking for a new bank right now.

And the reason I’m switching after 27 years?

My current bank’s customer experience leaves me feeling like I’ve been scammed

Quick disclaimer: I haven’t exactly been with my bank for nearly three decades by choice: I started as a BankBoston customer, and then BankBoston was bought over by BayBank, which was bought by Fleet Bank, which was then sold to Bank of America. So it’s fair to say that I’m a Bank of America customer by acquisition, not by choice.

But all of those mergers are kind of old news, so why am I only now considering moving my five (yup, five!) bank accounts elsewhere? 

Well, it’s mostly down to one short email from Sophia at Bank of America:

Subject line: Follow up to...

Bonobos — the menswear retailer Walmart purchased for $310 million a couple of years ago — isn’t doing too well.

And it’s a real shame because I actually really like their products. They’re stylish, well-made, just really great clothes.

The thing that’s not so great? The customer experience

If you’ve already checked out part 1 of my Bonobos breakdown analysis, you’ll have seen how the brand failed to impress after the first moment of commitment. And in part 2 you’ll remember that things went from so-so to pretty terrible when I actually visited the store and bought some suits.

But, hey, things can only get better right? And just maybe, in part 3, they’ll totally redeem themselves. After all, I’ve already made my purchase. All they need to do is ship it out: job done.

Well, let’s just see…

Miami Matt strikes again?

Poor Miami Matt — he’s going to get a raw deal in this post. You see, after...

Walmart are in a sticky situation, after investing $310 million in struggling menswear brand Bonobos. And they really shouldn’t be because this has the potential to be a great brand, making great products.

So where are they going wrong?

Well, you’ll remember that last week I took a look at how Bonobos failed to impress after my first moment of commitment: booking my Guideshop appointment.

This week I’m going to show you how things went from bad to worse…and the three lessons we can use to create a great Loyalty Loop. Oh, and I’m going to go undercover in NYC to do it. Exciting, huh?

The Miami Guideshop appointment

But first things first, back to Miami and my Guideshop experience.

Now you might remember that this is how Bonobos pitches their in-store Guideshop experience:

"Every Bonobos Guideshop location is outfitted with a team of knowledgeable, stylish, and witty guides that will give you as much attention as you want or don't want, to make sure...

350 million dollars — not exactly small change, right? 

That’s how much Walmart paid for the Bonobos menswear brand two years ago. So I imagine they’re not exactly super pumped about the fact that the brand is struggling. Like really struggling. At the point where they’re having to lay off dozens and dozens of employees and may even have to sell the brand.

But why isn’t it working out for them? After all, they’re working with a great product. Their clothes are stylish, well-made, they feel great, they use great fabrics…

Well, folks, you’ve probably guessed what I’m going to say this but here goes anyway: it’s all about the customer experience. And when it comes to Bonobos, the customer experience is broken.

Over-worked buttons, “Queer Eye”, and Bonobos

Time to back up a bit. I was watching videos of my recent speeches at events around the world and realized that I’m outgrowing my suits. Those suit...