"Creepy Personalization, Corporate-Speakitis and Hacked SMB Websites" The IMPACT Show Ep. 40 [Show Notes]

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Bob and I discussed what's going on in IMPACT Elite, avoiding being creepy with personalization, Google Analytics and much more. 

Just in case you missed us live (or if you want to relive the magic), you’ll find the episode’s show notes below as well as the recording.

Enjoy and make sure to share! 

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Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this blog or email us at show@impactplus.com

IMPACT Updates

This week we had a leadership team meeting at IMPACT.

Once a month the IMPACT leadership team has a day-long offsite meeting. They come together to discuss challenges we need to overcome. 

Bob shared how this time they tried to broadcast the leadership meeting to the entire company. Anyone was allowed to hop in and listen (on mute) to the meeting. It was a great idea to help keep the company honest and transparent. How did it go? Check out the episode to find out.

Bob also mentioned how next week he will be speaking at the Traffic and Conversion Summit on "Bolt On" Business Models: Add Scale and Profitability By Thinking of Your Business Differently." Tickets are sold out but let him know if you're going! If you can't attend in person but want to watch live, there are livestream tickets available for $495 (or $695 with recordings).

What Marketers Be Talkin' 'Bout

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

IMPACT Elite is a community of over 2,100 passionate inbounders looking to help other marketers (and sales and customer success people) succeed. We’d love for you to join us! We’d love for you to join us! Go to impactplus.com/elite or just search the IMPACT Elite Group on Facebook and request to join. 

This week we had an exclusive IMPACT Elite conversation with Ryan Hawk of the Learning Leader Show podcast. Check out the recording.

So what else is happening in Elite?

There was a great post by Jason Petefish (JP): Not trying to sell on here - BUT I'm super excited to be at the very edge of releasing my new product and I got permission to get any feedback in this group, which clearly is a huge braintrust of smart marketers. I’m looking for gut reactions. I know who my market is and I’ll be researching ideas on how to effectively reach them online. Check out the full post and discussion in Elite.

First of all, I love when a new member jumps in and engages right away! JP actually messaged me ahead of time to see if this was appropriate. It got me thinking about creating some solid community guidelines so we maintain this amazing group. 

Also, we love that JP was really doing research on his potential buyers and understanding how to best communicate the value of his product in a way that would resonate with his ideal buyers. 

There was another great post by Elite member Jennifer Goode: I want to tell a “better/clearer story” in our content (proposals, blogs, social, white papers, website, etc). I can be the King of over complicating messaging. We have so much AWESOME data on conversion, strategy, etc and we need to start using it without confusing people. Check out the full post and discussion in Elite.

I particularly loved this comment by Franco Valentino: "I think we all suffer from Corporate-speakitis. Ann Handleys book "Everybody Writes" helped slay some passive voice issues I was dealing with. [...]Check out Joanna Wiebe's copyhackers.com. She has a training program for copywriters and a pool of talented folks you could potentially tap in to."

I know many people who have struggled to strike the balance between being human and being professional. Stacy, on the IMPACT team, even commented with this template for a messaging workshop. 

Bob weighed in and mentioned Joanna Wiebe’s formula for writing better copy. She says to start with the pain or problems people have, dive into the agitation, and then bring in and relate your solution. 

Bob also mentioned the importance of getting feedback from someone who really gets what you do but isn't super close to your content. Someone from outside your organization - potentially a great customer - is a good fit.

Digital Marketing News

Where each week, we share one thing from the world of digital marketing that caught our eye.

MarTech Today: Digital Billboards in the UK Will Start Showing Hacking Attempts

In the UK dozens of digital displays are demonstrating the frequency of hacking attempts on a typical small business’s website. They said during the trial period for the campaign, the hacking attempts averaged 23,000 daily, sometimes peaking as high as 60,000!

The Hiscox head of marketing said: “it is to make small businesses more aware of the very real threat that cybercrime poses and challenging the belief that cyber criminals only target larger organizations.”

What can you do to protect your site?

• Use a reputable platform. HubSpot includes SSL and takes a lot of steps to ensure security.
• If you're on Wordpress be sure to keep things up to date. Always update plugins when updates are available.
• You can also sign up for Google Search Console alerts when changes are made to your site. 

Marketing Dive: 75% of Consumers Find Many Forms of Marketing Personalization Creepy

Research by customer experience intelligence platform InMoment:

• 40% of brands admitted to being creepy!
• Highest ranking offenders: banks, healthcare and technology companies
• 1 in 5 tell friends about creepy marketing interactions
• 1 in 10 share it on social media
• Nearly half hesitate to give away information because they “feel like they don't receive value from disclosing the information.”
• If you take away one thing ^ THAT is it. Show the value. Explain why you need this information and how you will provide value with it.

Stephanie attended an Advanced Google Analytics Masterclass by Andy Crestodina this week.

I loved Andy's metaphor that marketing is cheese and a website is a mousetrap. You can have the best cheese but if you don't have a good mousetrap (a website that converts) you will never catch anything. Andy also talked about the huge difference between a "data puke" and an analysis that provides suggestions and ideas! Andy agreed to be a guest on our Inbound Success podcast so keep an eye out for that!

Next Steps:

We would love your comments! Feel free to send us an email or comment on the Facebook thread. 

If you really liked it, please give us a 5-star review on iTunes. 

We're going to IMPACT Elite to ask what you want us to talk about, so jump in on the post there.

Join Us Next Week! 

We'll be back again next Thursday, March 1st at 1:00 PM ET. 

Until next time... get out there and make it happen.