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What do you think of when you see the word “introvert”?

“Shy,” “quiet,” and even “antisocial” might be some qualities that come to mind. But we’ve got news for you: How we think of introverts is pretty misconstrued from the actual definition. An introvert, according to Dictionary.com, is “a person characterized by concern primarily with his or her own thoughts and feelings.” Let’s explore that.

Looking at that definition, introverts aren’t necessarily the timid lambs that stereotypes make them out to be. Rather, they’re introspective individuals who can still be outgoing — they just don’t crave being around other people, speaking and presenting, all the time.

That’s why it might be a bit trickier for introverts to run a meeting — not because they’re reticent, but because they take extra time to process their internal thoughts and surroundings, according to Quiet Revolution, an organization dedicated to the science of psychological introversion.

But “tricky” certainly doesn’t translate to “impossible.” So if you’re an introvert who’s been charged with a running a meeting, check out these tips.

But First, a Little More on Introversion

I’ll never forget the day I found out that I might be an introvert. I came across an article that described the characteristics of introverts, and realized that they many of my social patterns — things like enjoying quiet time to myself, or in a social situation, opting for longer conversations with fewer people (rather than small talk with tons of strangers).

But how could I be an introvert? I was a theatre minor. I used to sing with a punk band. Those were not things that introverts do, right?

Wrong. The more research I do on introversion, the more I realize that it’s a vastly misunderstood population. And it’s a big population. According to the Quiet Leadership Institute (an extension of Quiet Revolution), half of the U.S. workforce identifies as introverts.

Susan Cain, co-founder of Quiet Revolution, explored these misconceptions in her 2012 TED talk. I, like many others, had introversion confused with shyness, or maybe even stage fright — neither of which I’ve ever possessed. But introversion, she explained, is “different from being shy. Shyness is about fear of social judgment. Introversion is more about, how do you respond to stimulation, including social stimulation.”

That’s what makes us different from extroverts, who “crave large amounts of stimulation,” noted Cain. It’s not that introverts are afraid to lead meetings — or speak in public, sing with a punk band, or go to parties alone. The distinction is how we prepare for or function in those situations.

But when it comes to introverts and extroverts, one isn’t better than the other. Plus, according to Cain, the “best performing teams are a mix [of] introverts and extroverts.“

So when it comes to those meetings, here are our tips for how introverts can run them in an effective way.

The Introvert’s Guide to Running a Meeting

1) Know where you stand.

First things first: You might not even be sure where you stand on the introvert/extrovert spectrum. Guess what — Quiet Revolution has a quiz for that.

For the purposes of this post, the assessment is probably most helpful for folks who don’t think — or don’t want to accept — that they’re introverts. But a quiz like this one can help you learn a lot about your behavioral patterns, and perhaps avoid a case of mistaken identity.

Source: Quiet Revolution

For example, according to the Quiet Leadership Institute, 96% of workforce leaders identify as extroverts. That implies a staggering imbalance among management, but could that number be the result of personal misconceptions similar to my own? Perhaps these leaders identify as such because they enjoy taking charge and overseeing groups. As we covered, introverts can still possess those qualities.

You might even be an ambivert — someone who falls in the middle of the spectrum — which after taking the quiz, I learned is the bucket into which I fall. In any case, having this information can help you recognize certain habits, which in turn can help you lead more effectively.

2) Set aside (quiet) time to form an agenda.

When I asked my team for meeting leadership tips, my colleague, Janessa Lantz, made an excellent point.

“Introverts often need time to prepare thoughts,” she told me. “By sending out an agenda in advance, you’re designing a more inclusive meeting.”

But planning a meeting this way doesn’t just benefit the attendees — as considerate at that might be — it also works to your advantage. Nearly 86% of people with introverted qualities agree that they “pay a lot of attention to the meaning of [their] thoughts and actions.” And while that can lead to a more thoughtful approach to things, it also requires extra time.

That’s where being the designated leader of a meeting is a good thing. You have the luxury of time to yourself, hopefully, to plan the meeting and put the necessary consideration into it. So don’t look at the task as a setback — it’s actually an opportunity.

3) Lead with the topics you’re passionate about.

Many introverted leaders admit that while social interaction doesn’t frighten them, prolonged exposure to it can leave them feeling less energized, due to their sensitivities to stimulation. That’s why, during a panel discussion on introversion at the 2016 New Work Summit, LinkedIn Chief Human Resources Officer — and self-proclaimed introvert — Pat Wadors recommended starting the meeting off with topics you’re most passionate about.

“If there’s passion around a topic, I don’t want to be in my head worried about, ‘Will I be called on?’” Wadors explained. “I have a point of view. I will speak early. And then, my energy is spent really actively listening and being present.” Check out the full discussion:

Here’s another opportunity for you to use running a meeting to your advantage. If there’s something that you strongly feel needs to be discussed, consider proactively scheduling a meeting that will be entirely dedicated to it. That allows you to dedicate extra time to a specific topic or project that’s important to you, and thoughtfully form an agenda with points that are vital to it.

But scheduling meetings comes with its own set of parameters, which brings us to our next point.

4) Invite only those who absolutely need to be present.

As we noted earlier, introverts tend to value quality over quantity in social situations. Meetings are no different. Instead of inviting the entire team, only invite the people who absolutely need to be there, and focus on having a productive conversation with them.

That technique goes beyond introversion — after all, there’s a book out there called Meetings Suck for a reason. They’re a huge culprit when it comes to wasting time. Just look at these statistics from the Wrike Work Management Survey:

• 24% of employees cite meetings as their biggest productivity roadblock.
• 34% say that they attend six or more meetings per week.
• Only 9% of meeting attendees believe they always walk away with clear, actionable outcomes.

When you’re tasked with running a meeting, make sure it’s done efficiently, and help conserve the time of others wherever you can. Since introverts tend to thrive in situations that permit a higher-quality discussion with a fewer number of people, this approach should help make the meeting more productive and thoughtful.

5) Take your time during the meeting.

In the article “An Introvert’s Guide to Communicating With Results,” entrepreneur and CEO Caren Merrick writes, “It is perfectly acceptable to not immediately answer a question.”

As long as we’re being honest, I’ll confess that I sometimes have a bad habit of speaking up in meetings or discussions, just for the sake of looking like I’m engaged. Trust me — Don’t do that.

As per Merrick’s advice, it’s better to take your time to contribute something thoughtful to a conversation, even if you do so after the fact in a follow-up email or chat. In fact, you can even build that into your agenda, by dedicating a portion of the meeting to outlining next steps and “questions to be answered.” Then, make sure you schedule time for yourself to personally debrief what you took away from the meeting, and any further commentary you’d like to provide afterward.

That said, don’t take too long to follow up. With our growing to-do lists and shrinking attention spans, you’ll want to make sure the meeting is still somewhat fresh in your colleagues’ minds when they receive your notes.

6) Schedule time to decompress after the meeting.

In addition to setting aside post-meeting time to debrief, you might want to clear your schedule for time to decompress. Because of an introvert’s aforementioned sensitivity to stimulation, it’s often helpful to schedule a meeting and organize your day around it so that low-energy tasks follow it, or a re-charging activity, like having a quiet lunch break.

Permitting yourself that time to refuel — even if it’s the rest of the work day — will allow you to revisit items from your meeting when you’re clear-minded and energized. Chances are, your colleagues would prefer that your follow-up communication is thought-out, rather than immediate.

You’ve Got This

Now that you know what it really means to be an introvert, you might feel a little bit more empowered. With this information, not only can you go forward with a renewed sense of confidence, but also, you have a greater understanding of what helps you to be a strong leader.

And again — Maybe you’re not actually an introvert, or you’re a mix of both. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, it’s important to understand what allows you to succeed.

Understanding these work styles won’t just give you introspective insights — it can also make you a better leader with a greater comprehension of what’s best for your colleagues. As you plan and run these meetings, do so with your team in mind, and see how these approaches fit into the way they work.

So go ahead, do a little research. Next time you’re asked to run a meeting, you’ll be glad you did.

What helps you lead a meeting — especially as an introvert? Let us know in the comments.

Let’s say you’re climbing the performance chart that reflects your ad campaigns. After all that hard work and PPC strategizing you put toward improving your performance grade, how steep is the climb looking? Is it an easy or tough climb?

Some of us come off as natural all-star rock climbers, while others are left frigid, timid, and stuck to the crevices of the wall.

What’s the secret? As with most things: proper training. And if you don’t have any, don’t worry — there’s still hope.

We here at KlientBoost have partnered up with HubSpot to bring you some rock solid tactics that you can use to get a grip on the whole PPC thing.

The Iceberg Effect: Gain More Control Over Your PPC Campaign

The search terms that you end up paying for and the keywords that you’re actually targeting don’t always line up the way you want.

Too often we see the “Iceberg Effect” in action, where miscellaneous search terms below the surface are tacked onto keywords that we think are working properly in our ad campaigns. It gives us an unhealthy search to keyword ratio that might look something like this:

Not being in control of all those search terms? Not ideal. With a search term to keyword discrepancy ratio of 132:1, it can be challenging to continually improve your clickthrough rates and lower your cost-per-click averages.

How do you gain control of this icy situation? We use something called Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) to shoot for a 1:1 ratio of search terms to keywords, allowing for more control over the entire ad group.

Here’s what a non-SKAGs search term report might look like:

It’s not that any of these search terms are bad, it’s that each search term has a different conversion and sales rate. And by keeping them as search terms and not turning them into keywords, you will never be able to control them to take your PPC campaigns to the next level.

So what does a search term report look like if we use this granular PPC tactic and use SKAGs?

Everything in the search term column matches the keyword column. With the SKAGs tactic, you can get super granular and isolate one variable at a time, which means you have more control over your entire PPC account.

And with the ability to lower your search term to keyword ratio to 1:1, you can take it one step further and do the same from keyword to ad. When this happens, you’re able to increase your clickthrough rate, which in turn:

• Increases your quality score
• Decreases your cost-per-click
• Increases your impression share
• Improves your average position

Value Tracking: Keeping Tabs on Conversions vs. Sales

With your PPC tactics now upgraded, your PPC campaigns should be driving up conversion volumes and making you more money. But do you know which keywords, audiences, or placements are actually making you money?

If you don’t track the components of your campaign and attribute them to your sales, you might be missing out on where to focus your efforts. By implementing Google’s ValueTrack parameters you can automatically track data within URLs when your visitors convert.

When you tie your hidden field sales tracking back to your CRM, you can find out specific details about which leads are making you the revenue (doesn’t apply to ecommerce). Hidden form fields can reveal to you things that happen during a conversion, like which landing page URL your conversion came from, where the visitor is located, or what keyword they typed in.

You can also do this with manual UTM parameters. Here’s an example of how on the surface, you would think Keyword #1 is converting better:

Keyword #1 has a lower cost-per-conversion.

Here’s an example of what hidden field sales tracking can reveal to you on a deeper level:

Now Keyword #2 looks better, right?

Although Keyword #1 has a lower cost-per-conversion, Keyword #2 has a much higher sales rate, which is making you more money. See the benefits of tracking the sale vs. the conversion?

Knowing these types of details can help you understand where you should be crediting your sales success, so you can be more aggressive in bidding on those keywords, audiences, or placements. With this PPC tactic, you can ease up your budget on the areas that aren’t contributing to sales, and allocate to the areas that are.

The CTA Thermometer: Gauging Visitor Intent on the Temperature Scale

Not all PPC visitors come through to your landing pages with the same conversion intent.

Typically, those that come through from display tend to be colder, while visitors that come in from search tend to be warmer. Here’s a visual we’ve learned works well across the multitude of client verticals we service:

There’s a temperature scale that varies depending on visitor origin. Knowing where your visitors come from can help you immensely when it comes to matching your call-to-action with their temperature in the conversion funnel.

We recommend testing out various CTAs to match the intent temperature of your visitors — after all, a small CTA tweak could’ve made all the difference.

Here are some ideas to make your offer more relevant to your visitors:

In short: the warmer your visitor’s intent the warmer the CTA can be. Traffic that comes in from the display network will likely respond to colder CTAs, since those visitors are in the awareness stage.

Micro PPC Conversions: Breaking Down the Larger Conversion Into Smaller Pieces

As you know, the more granular and detail-oriented you can get with you PPC campaigns, the more control you can have over the success of them.

When it comes to conversions, you can break down your larger macro conversion into micro conversions to figure out where your issues are.

An effective way to figure out which part of your PPC campaign is causing the conversion bottleneck is to analyze the micro conversions. Let’s say that you’re running some new Facebook campaigns but for some reason, no one is converting. If you knew, however, that visitors spend an average of four seconds on your site/landing page, then you know that your Facebook ad targeting may be off. Instead of thinking it’s the ad or landing page that needs some tweaking, it could be your targeting instead.

Here are some common types of micro conversions we use to analyze the path towards a conversion:

What can each of these common micro conversions tell you about your landing page? Let’s break it down:

• Time On Site. How long are your visitors spending on your site? If the time is brief, the conversion issue doesn’t have to do with your landing page design. The issue is happening in an earlier stage, like in your ad campaign or your targeting options.
• Scroll Depth. How far are your visitors scrolling down your landing page? If they aren’t scrolling down very far, maybe you need to have a shorter landing page where your CTA is above the fold. If they’re scrolling pretty deep, it might be a good opportunity to include additional (super legible) offer details toward the bottom of the page.
• Form Field Completion. Are visitors abandoning your forms? If so, try testing out different formats and include a multi-step landing page with more form fields.
• Button Click. Testing out different CTA button colors and copy may be the key to your larger conversion success.

By isolating micro conversions you can zero in on where exactly the conversion friction is located, which can help you alleviate the issues quickly and reach your larger conversion goal.

Closing Thoughts

Whether it’s addressing the Iceberg Effect, tracking your sales vs. conversions, testing CTA temperatures, or analyzing your micro PPC conversions, each of these PPC tactics can have a significantly positive impact on the performance of your campaigns.

And the best part, there’s a good chance your competitors don’t even know about them.

Now it’s your turn to up your PPC performance game. With these useful PPC tactics, you’ll be climbing your performance incline to the top with utmost ease.

What are your best PPC tips? Share them in the comments below.