Crafting and Sculpting Your Message (The IMPACT Show Ep. 59)

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Nick and I talked about IMPACT's new newsletter, top discussions in Elite including personalized video, HubSpot's introduction of the flywheel, and more!

Check out the video recording below as well as the show notes. Enjoy and let us know what you thought in IMPACT Elite.

Like what you saw? Make sure to subscribe to email reminders and give us a review on iTunes.

Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this article, hit us up in Elite, or email us at show@impactplus.com

IMPACT Updates

The Updated, Pre-Recorded IMPACT Show

That's right - this was a pre-recorded, produced episode! Why you ask? We do the IMPACT show to engage with you - our listeners; our community. We were doing it live to be able to chat with you but it’s hard to pick a time that works for everyone and we got a lot of feedback that people were listening later anyway…so we listened! I mean, it's 2018, we all like to watch and listen to things when it's convenient for us.

Plus, this allows us more flexibility to do cool things like have guests on the show, include more music and fun transitions, and more. So, be on the lookout for new and exciting things to come! 

Of course, this is a test. We’ll check in with you often and we want your feedback! Please let us know in IMPACT Elite or email us at show@impactplus.com. 

Introducing The Latest [by IMPACT]

Whoa, we have a newsletter?

We're all media companies. You've heard us say it. At IMPACT we’re sharing a lot of content each day and we know that means a lot of email notifications. 

The Latest [by IMPACT] is the most honest, relevant, and actionable marketing content hand-curated and delivered to your inbox just 3x a week. Subscribe to The Latest here.

Naming The Latest was definitely an adventure. We took time as a team to come up with a bunch of options and talked through what the names might convey and why they would or wouldn't match our goals. 

Welcome to New IMPACT Team Members

We wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest team members to the IMPACT Team! One of the two newest additions is Megan Lang who is actually helping us edit this episode to make it the exciting final product that you get to watch and listen to! Check out Megan's intro video if you're in Film School for Marketers. Megan also helped with this amazing recap video of IMPACT Live 2018! Megan is yet another step toward our investment in video at IMPACT. 

Our other new team member is Genna Lepore, who Nick has actually known for years! She actually worked on the channel partner team at HubSpot with Nick for awhile and now she'll be on the sales and customer success team with Nick. Fun fact: she runs her own yoga studio too!

What Marketers Be Talkin' 'Bout

Where we go over what you're saying in IMPACT Elite.

IMPACT Elite has over 3,700 members! Know someone who would like IMPACT Elite? Invite them to join.

Discussions from IMPACT Elite

Back to the Future with BCC

JL Faverio posted "Is using BCC in emails still frowned upon for any reason? I'm looking to see if I should just send individual emails or save tons of time by using BCC instead."

Members jumped into the discussion asking questions about JL's goals and the purpose of these emails. Eventually, after some great discussion, we got to talking about HubSpot Sales Pro templates and sending personalized, individual emails at scale. 

Personalized Video in Email

Owen Blevins posted "HELP Please?! This might be a very naive question so my apologies in advance if it is. I use MS Outlook to send individual emails to highly targeted prospects in conjunction with a thumbnail/image like the screenshot I've included in this post. The thumbnail resembles a YouTube video complete with the play button. [...] This is a fairly laborious process, as it takes a significant amount of research, scripting, storyboarding, email and contact information verification and finally organizing the actual email that goes out to each individual. [...]

He went on to ask:

1. Is there a way to embed the video along with the thumbnail in MS Outlook and have it play in the actual email, and if so, could you share a link or point me to someone I could remunerate to learn how to do this?
2. If this is possible, is it advisable? will the email get flagged, stripped out, etc.?
3. Are there other options out there that employ this strategy that I could be directed to?

Check out the whole discussion in Elite.

Vidyard's Tyler Lessard jumped right in with some answers and advice for Owen. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes Elite so great. We have experts on hand ready to answer this kind of stuff and members who turn it into a great discussion, too. 

Speaking of adding video to email...Jacob recently introduced himself in Elite. He is our dedicated HubSpot video coach from Vidyard! If you have questions about HubSpot video and/or are a professional or enterprise user of HubSpot, reach out to Jacob.

Breaking the Wheel with Jay Acunzo

Nick and I hosted a webinar with Jay Acunzo, author of Break the Wheel, and we were blown away. Not only did he have great content but he was a fantastic presenter. 

Nick actually worked with Jay at HubSpot for awhile (Jay led the content team). Jay has done a great job building his personal brand - he started his own podcast and his own business (and he wrote a book)! You can learn a lot from how he got here and what he's doing now.

Plus, check out the recording of the podcast (which introduces some of the research and concepts from his book). And yes, he's doing the Audible narration of his book. 

Jay basically showed my life in a PowerPoint slide at one point in his presentation and it resonated with me - as I'm sure it would with you. 

Here are some of the brands Jay mentioned in his book: 

1. Poo Pouri - great video that won awards but was also USA Today said: “nowhere in a civilized society is there room for this ad.”

2. The Merriam-Webster dictionary! Their Chief Digital Officer knew their voice was bland but they were not bland people. They had to find a way to show that - and they did.

Inbound in Action

This is where we talk about what we’re doing and what we’ve learned lately right here in the trenches. 

WTF!? (What the Flywheel)

Ah yes, the flywheel. At INBOUND 2018 HubSpot let us know the funnel has died and the flywheel is what's here now. They talked about how "Funnels lose the energy you put into them once you reach the bottom, but flywheels are remarkable at storing and releasing energy." Watch the full keynote recording here.

Naturally, IMPACT Elite members had some thoughts. John McTigue posted some thoughts including: “Come to think of it, as long as we’re focusing on the customer experience, the flywheel (and the funnel) are marketing’s view of the customer experience, not the customer’s.” This led to a fantastic community hangout with our Elite members to talk about what the flywheel means for us and where we'll go from here. Fortunately, HubSpot actually has an Academy lesson on combining funnels and flywheels!   

Nick shared the HubSpot page on inbound marketing which has been updated to focus on the flywheel.

Some of what HubSpot said that resonated with me: “Funnels produce customers, but don’t consider how those customers can help you grow. And all the momentum you built acquiring that customer? Gone.

Word of mouth has always been fundamental but now...Trust is at an all time low, it’s harder to get distribution and prospects are doing more research. Losing the momentum you generate in creating a new customer is a real drag on your growth.”

Brian Halligan gave us some "homework" you can do to help start leveraging the flywheel at your organization. He even said that if you do the homework and Tweet it @ him with the hashtag #ourfunnel you can be entered to win VIP tickets to INBOUND 2019!

Here was Brian’s homework:

1. Draw your company’s flywheel with numbers on it
2. Draw your company’s forces on your flywheel
3. Re-draw your company’s forces on your flywheel to maximize delight and word of mouth

Whaaaat!!!??? Win 2 FREE VIP TICKETS to INBOUND next year?! Do your homework and tweet it @bhalligan with the hashtag #ourflywheel after #INBOUND18 pic.twitter.com/QS7OWTdmL9

— Stephanie Casstevens (@stephcasstevens) September 5, 2018

On our next episode we'd love to talk about The Customer Code which Dharmesh introduced in his portion of the keynote. We'd love to hear your thoughts on The Customer Code and, since we have more flexibility when this isn't live, we'd love to know what you'd like us to talk about on this topic. What questions do you have? What do you want us to dive deeper on? 

That wraps it up! To check out Final Thoughts be sure to listen to the episode or watch on Facebook.

We would love your comments. What did you think of the show? Let us know in Elite. Make sure you never miss a show or update by subscribing at impactplus.com/show. 

Join Us Next Time! 

Until next time...we'll see you in Elite!