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Most managers dread giving negative feedback almost as much as employees dread hearing it. It’s uncomfortable to tell someone they’re not performing well at something.

But the truth is, your employees want to learn and grow — and they’ll only learn and grow when the work and skills that need improvement are given some course correction. Giving them no feedback hurts more than it helps: 70% of employees say getting no feedback at all makes them feel disengaged.

It’s all about how you give that negative feedback. If you prepare and deliver it the right ways, then it can actually make your employees feel more engaged at work. In other words, tough love might work after all.

Check out the infographic below from Resourceful Manager to learn more about why bad feedback is better than none, and how you can deliver it in a positive way.

Imagine yourself sitting across the table from a prospective client’s CEO at a coffee shop. She’s engaged, ready to listen, and apparently in a positive state of mind. This is a marketer’s dream situation; you feel that any question is fair game and honest answers will be forthcoming. If you could ask her just one question to qualify her business for your services, what would it be?

Try this one on for size: As you see it, what is the current and future role of marketing in your business?

Now brace yourself: The answer to this question can give any marketer aspirations for greatness or fears of the calamity that lies ahead.

On one hand, the leader could give you a dream answer, paraphrasing Peter Drucker: “Our business has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. The rest are costs.”

Now that’s an answer that inspires confidence in the critical role marketing plays in creating and delighting customers. This CEO or CMO sees marketing no differently than innovation; she understands that a business without strong research and development (i.e., innovation) cannot deliver new and improved products and services.

But what if your prospect doesn’t initially recognize the value of marketing?

It’s truly unfortunate for marketers when leadership teams do not value marketing as an essential business function. CEOs who see marketing as mainly tactical, fulfillment and/or only end result-focused demonstrate a lack of leadership and complete organizational understanding. When a CEO sees the core purpose of marketing as increasing shareholder value, supporting sales, and generating leads, this could be an indication that there’s a tactical view of marketing at the highest levels of your prospect’s company. As a result, the business may not be as culturally or organizationally ready for marketing as it needs to be.

As a founder and CEO of an industrial marketing agency, I have had the pleasure to work and interact with over a thousand brands. It is my job to help organizations challenge their thinking on marketing and determine if they are ready, willing, and able to affect positive organizational and cultural change that elevates marketing to an essential business function — or as we like to say, “make marketing the strength of their business.”

Here are a few tell-tale signs that you should address directly to determine if your prospective client is ready for marketing:

1) Clarity

Brand clarity must be the “undercurrent of any downstream marketing activity.” In other words, before a single line of art, prose, copy or code is ever conceived, everyone from the leaders down to the marketers should be on the same page about the company’s identity. If this is not the case, your prospect’s business is not ready for marketing because it cannot speak with one voice.

2) Time and Attention

Leaders — and anyone responsible for the success of marketing — must give you their full attention. Leaders clearly will not be thinking of marketing exclusively, but marketing should command their undivided attention for at least a few minutes a week.

Marketing efforts require contributions from finance, sales, IT, and leadership at various times and for different reasons. Agencies see this all the time: They’re working with a client on developing a new marketing strategy, only to have their point person in the marketing department reassigned to more pressing matters like sales collateral fulfillment.

Leaders and marketers who only pay attention to budgeting are not engaged. Your prospect is not ready for marketing if leaders classify time for marketing as “not important” or “not urgent.”

3) Access and Resources

Marketers require support from a variety of internal and external resources to succeed. These can include anything from subject matter experts to inform content, to business and data systems for automation, contact management, finance, and proving ROI.

Being held accountable to results requires access to data across the entire customer journey — right down to accounts receivable. To this day, many organizations refuse to provide access to internal systems, data, vendors, and most importantly, the money needed to get the job done.

It has been said many times before: Where companies choose to spend their money truly reflects what they value most. Companies that do not provide access to the resources necessary for running a sustainable marketing department are not ready for marketing.

4) The Right People in the Right Seats

Many marketing practices are developed internally. As a result, organizations can find themselves without the full expertise needed to build up a robust marketing department. Often marketing leadership roles are combined with other areas of responsibility. For example, many companies have a single sales and marketing vice president. In situations where one individual is stretched between different priorities, sales support usually ends up consuming the vast majority of their time, resources, attention, and expertise.

Take a look at how your prospect’s organization is structured. Are the right people in the right seats? Is the marketing coordinator in a position where they can rally access to attention and resources on a daily basis? If your prospect’s organization does not have an established marketing leader, they are not ready for marketing.   

While it might be exciting to get in on the ground floor of a new company that is hiring its first agency, it is important to realize where this prospect’s organization currently stands. The signs discussed in this article should help give you an idea of how an organization’s leadership presently prioritizes marketing and whether or not they’re ready for an agency’s help. As you consider a discussion with your prospective client, be prepared to communicate the potential value that marketing can bring to the company and exactly what you’ll need to get there. If any of the red flags discussed here come up, it’s a sign that your prospect might not be in an ideal place to hire your agency. 

Over the years Google AdWords has evolved into a marketing tool that helps businesses drive leads and outrank their competitors. But what if I told you that the majority of business owners, marketers, and strategists weren’t taking full advantage of all AdWords has to offer? Queue the motivation for this article. Check out these 7n AdWords features you didn’t know existed to help elevate your campaigns to the next level.

1) Call-only campaigns

Google has cited that 70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results. Because of this proven consumer behavior, in February 2015, Google AdWords introduced Call-Only Campaigns. These campaigns are for businesses who place more value on a phone call than a website visit conversion.

Call only campaigns are only for mobile devices and feature a large clickable number with a few short lines for text. In theory, every click you pay for is a phone call to your company. This type of conversion allows you to create a bidding strategy based on how much value your company places on a phone call.

2) Ad Extensions

Have you ever noticed that some ads appear to be “bulkier” or have extra features than others? That’s because they are using ad extensions! These extensions allow you to get a higher click-through rate (CTR), increased visibility, and better user experience. To give you an idea of what each manual extension is used for, here is a brief synopsis:

• Sitelink extensions – Allows you to add links from your website to help people find what they are searching for.
• Call extensions – Allows searchers the ability to click a number to call your business.
• Callout extensions – Allows you to add extra ad copy so you can tell searchers what sets you apart from the competition.
• Location extensions – Allows searchers nearby to find your location or give you a call (map pin, navigation assistance, or call option).
• Review extensions – Allows you to showcase reviews from reputable sources.
• App extensions – Allows searchers to click a link that sends them to the app store to download your app.
• Structured Snippets – Allows you to add descriptive text to learn more about a product/ service.

Below is an example of an ad with callout, sitelinks, & location extensions:

*For a more in depth look at ad extensions, check out this blog “7 AdWords Extensions You Should Utilize to Improve PPC Conversion Rate”.

3) Customer Match

If you follow inbound marketing best practices then you probably have a few email lists built up from your efforts. Lucky for you, AdWords has a way of retargeting those users in their Google search engine with customer match!

You can now upload a list of email addresses to AdWords and show those prospects ads when they are signed into Google Search, YouTube, or Gmail. This will allow you to show them new products or promotions to re-engage them back into your sales funnel.

4) Ad Customizers

Ad customizers enable you to change the text in your ads based on what someone’s search query is. For example, if you have several products in the same category (like different HP printer ink cartridges) you can set your AdWords ad up so the displayed text will match the specific product a searcher is looking for: “HP printer ink 564” vs. “HP ink”.

This is also especially helpful when you have an offer or sale that is only for a limited time. Before ad customizers, you had to change your ad text everyday to reflect the countdown, but now you can set a new dynamic ad parameter that automatically changes the ad text to a new number each day.

5) Interest Targeting

Gone are the days where the only way to target searchers was through keywords alone. Nowadays, Google’s Display Network offers a few different ways you can target audiences by interest to increase the chances your ad will be shown to people who are most likely interested in your product/service.

In-market Audiences

To reach an audience who is actively searching and comparing your product or service, use in-market audiences. How does this work? Google looks at browser history (via cookie tracking) to find out what market segment a person is researching, and temporarily categorizes them in that market. Thus tailoring ads related to the theme that person is searching.

Affinity Audiences

Compared to in-market audiences, custom affinity audiences are analyzed based on overall interests and identity. Google will analyze online patterns in order to find possible matches to an interest category. This means that although they may not be actively searching within that category, they still have a connection that makes it likely they would be interested in a product/service.

6) Promote App Downloads Directly

For companies that have their own app, Google now has App Promotion Ads. Simply put, these ads have buttons that allow searchers to click and download the app straight from the app store on their mobile phones.

This helps eliminate any extra steps the user has to take in order to convert (like visit your website to download, only to be taken to the app store from there).

7) AdWords Editor

To round out our list of features you didn’t know existed, this last feature will help you manage and stay on top of your campaigns. The AdWords Editor is a free desktop app where you can download and manage multiple accounts for offline editing. The benefits? This editor allows you to do more things in less time than using the web-based interface.

Features include the ability to:

• View different parts of your account at the same time
• Edit items side by side
• Use keyboard shortcuts to jump around account
• Easily undo/ redo changes
• Bulk edit to make multiple changes

Next Steps

Are you taking advantage of all 7 of these AdWords features? If not, I would encourage you to explore all of the tools AdWords has to offer to assist in the success of your campaigns and alleviate some of the burden of maintaining your account. If you haven’t yet made the plunge into incorporating AdWords into your marketing strategy, be sure to download this free ebook “Why Google AdWords Should Be Part of Your Inbound Marketing Strategy”:

Live chat technology has been around for a while. And while customers increasingly demand immediate attention, businesses have been relatively slow to adopt a live chat strategy – particularly in the SMB space, where deals are still built on relationships.

Live chat is often solely thought of as a customer support tool and tends to be overlooked from a sales and conversion perspective.

Why Engagement Matters

Forrester data shows that 55% of US online adults are likely to abandon their online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. 77% say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer service.

Sure, customers can call an 800 number, send an email or fill out a contact form when they run into hiccups in their decision-making or purchasing process, but for every second that it takes a business to respond, the customer’s likelihood to purchase exponentially decreases.

Live chat fills that void, providing an immediate line of communication to get customers’ questions answered without leaving the page or picking up another device.

Live Chat as a Smarketing Tool

99% of first time website visitors are not ready to buy. A marketer’s job is to recognize their prospects’ intent, nurture them through their education and evaluation stages and deliver high quality leads to their sales team so they can close the deal.

Depending on your goals, users may or may not flow through your funnel as you’d like. While it does make sense for businesses to build sophisticated conversion paths, launch personalized email/website nurturing campaigns and use A/B testing to refine website copy and calls-to-action, the overwhelming majority of businesses are missing a key step in between – simply talking to their visitors.

Live chat allows you to pull up a virtual stool and talk to your website visitors at their peak point of interest.

So how do you begin evaluating whether live chat is a good fit for your sales and marketing objectives? We’ve gathered 9 inspiring examples showcasing some creative ways that businesses are leveraging live chat in their environments. Take a look and try to think of how you might mimic or adapt these strategies to enhance your customer experience and drive growth within your organization.

1) Betterment: New Client Onboarding Assistance

Betterment, a leading online investment advisor, uses targeted proactive chat invitations to engage with top tier clients when they sign up for a new account. Dealing with people’s money demands the utmost credibility and trust.

Rather than solely relying on their established UX flow to move clients down their investment funnel, proactive chat offers the opportunity for advisors to provide instant, personalized financial services to new clients so they can invest with confidence.

2) SnapEngage: Proactive Chat on 404 Page

There are few things more frustrating than not being able to find what you’re looking for, and arriving at a 404 page often results in visitors exiting a website. Rather than providing a list of suggested links that may or may not be relevant to their visitors’ search, SnapEngage immediately fires an automated proactive chat invitation when website visitors land on their 404 page so they can quickly guide them to the content they’re looking for.

3) Canyon: Multilingual Chat Support

Canyon Bicycles has a popular following around the globe, supporting a diverse set of customers speaking different languages. They use intelligent chat routing rules to immediately connect customers to the most appropriate members of their sales and support teams in their visitors’ preferred language.

4) Petplan: Facebook Fan Page Chat

“With 1.09 billion people logging in daily (a 16% increase year-over-year), [Facebook] is still the most popular social network around. Not to mention, Facebook owns 77% of all social logins.” (Check out How to Use Facebook for Business: 25 Facebook Marketing Tips and Tricks)

Petplan Pet Insurance has a ‘Chat with us’ tab on their Facebook page, allowing fans to communicate with their team in real-time without leaving Facebook, and serving as yet another lead generating channel for their sales and marketing teams.

5) U.S. Patriot Tactical: Text-to-Chat Customer Support

U.S. Patriot Tactical uses SMS-to-Chat services, allowing clients to start a live chat with their support team via a simple text message. They display their ‘Text-to-Chat’ phone number on their website, order receipts and packing slips to quickly facilitate communications around order inquiries, status and returns.

6) Ruffwear: Targeted Proactive Chat Invitations

Ruffwear not only uses creative [dog] agent photos to engage with visitors; they also trigger targeted proactive chat invitations specific to visitors’ needs on particular pages of their website (i.e. Dog Boots Fit Guide). Their helpful messages provide a good balance between self-help resources and the opportunity to receive personalized support with the click of a button.

7) Aid In Recovery: Real-Time Online Counseling

Aid In Recovery uses live chat to offer immediate assistance and assessment for people struggling with addiction. Operating in an environment where every second counts, Aid In Recovery relies on chat to get patients the help they need, the moment they ask.

8) Maids In Black: Simple Pre-Chat Form

Maids In Black uses a simple pre-chat form to gather basic information and offer visitors the opportunity to send an email or connect with a live chat agent. Keeping the form short with only a couple fields eases the path to engagement for visitors while also allowing the Maids In Black team to route chats and emails to the appropriate teams.

9) Mavenlink: Advanced Lead Qualification

Mavenlink relies on live chat to serve as a powerful front-line lead qualification tool for their marketing and sales teams. They pass an extensive list of contact details and custom operator variables (recorded by agents during a chat) to their CRM so they can appropriately assign leads and assign follow-up tasks to their sales team after a chat closes.

That’s it! What companies do you see using live chat in a creative, useful way?

Want to learn more about leveraging live chat to turn your website visitors into actionable leads? Download the free ebook by SnapEngage.