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Where To Start Optimization Testing On Your Website

If you're just getting started with web optimization testing or have limited testing resources (hey that's like everybody), which pages you test is the most critical decision you have to make. At today's WhichTestWon's Conference I learned from Justin Rondeau that our optimization instincts are probably wrong on where to start testing.

Page Requirements for Optimization Testing

Before you can test a page, it must meet these two requirements:

• Does the page get enough traffic to reach statistical significance in a reasonable time frame (1-5 weeks)?

• Does the Page Directly Impact Conversation? If Yes, what is the current conversion rate? If No, what is the long term value of the conversion that this page lifts?

Start Lower in Your Funnel

For an eCommerce site, start as late in your conversion funnel as possible. Here's a typical eCommerce funnel:

• Entry Pages: These are politically charged since many people may be involved in creating these campaigns, skip optimizing these first.

• Category Pages

• Search Results

• Product Pages

• Cart & Checkout: START HERE. Few people will challenge you to improve the cart because carts are just carts. You can create a lot of lift here.

• Receipt/Thank You: Rarely tested! Try an up-sell or cross-sell here instead of during checkout.

Next, Where Is Your Landing Money?

Don't start with high bounce rate pages. We know–they're sinking ships that you'd like to save. Not worth your time. Try landing pages for your highest conversion traffic. Or landing pages for your most expensive (PPC) traffic.

Next, Test Your Conversion Path

Now that you've improved the beginning and end of the funnel, now you can test the middle. This means testing your category pages, search result pages, product pages, and so on. Find everything that is stopping people from buying in your funnel and test how to fix it.

Next, PPC Traffic

If you're paying for customers to click on your links, you need to nail the landing page. At a minimum, your page needs to feature what your ad claimed. You'll be surprised at how many people screw this up.

Next, Referral Traffic

Know who is sending you traffic and where they are sending them. Make sure you're meeting the standards that people expect.

Am I Done Yet?

Of course not! Follow WhichTestWon for more testing ideas or get you butt to Austin for the Live Event. 

Get Free Press For Your Startup With Original Data

Getting traditional PR coverage is hard! As new startups flood journalists with lame press releases, how do you stand out from the pack? Will Flaherty of SeatGeek taught "Data Driven PR" at General Assembly today.

Startups have a treasure trove of valuable, propriety data regarding some aspect of their given vertical. When packaged in a digestible and usable format to the right journalists, it will get you mentioned. Although it may not be a love story about your company, it will get you more free press.

What kind of data do you have?

• Demographics about your audience

• Trends in your marketplace

What Your Data Can Lead To

• Print: Stories were created from data sent to individual writers.

• Radio

• TV: Since television is a visual medium, they place the highest value on giving them someone who is immediately available to be on camera. This means you need someone who can talk knowledgeably and is willing to meet a camera crew wherever local news crews are.

• Infographics: These are produced by SeatGeek and take about 15-20 hours to produce. You'll notice in their Final Four infographic that they partnered with Seamless to get even more interesting data.

How to Pitch Data

1. Create a couple of hypotheses around a topic that your audience might find newsworthy. SeatGeek picks a type of event and location to focus their analysis on based on which news outlets they want to attract. It's faster to chase existing stories in news (like the Super Bowl) and provide data to earn mentions. SeatGeek has also done well digging up deep data on an original story to get higher quality mentions.

2. Pull the raw numbers into something like Excel and analyze it while keeping an open mind for new findings.

3. Synthesize the trends you're seeing in the data. What are the changes over time, locations, etc. Write compelling punch bullet points.

4. Create a visual element (graph/infographic) to convey your data in a different and powerful way. (Don't forget to include your logo & URL on the graphic)

5. Push the pitch out to interested journalists, bloggers, and media members.

Building Your List of Media Members To Pitch

• Find the media members who are writing stories in your locale/vertical/etc. If you know one site that perfectly epitomizes the readership you're looking for, copy their URL. Then do a Google search for "related:URL.com" to see the sites that are similar to them.

• Most of the time, their email address will be listed on their stories or website. If not you can use a few tricks to find it.

• If they work for an organization with a common email structure like first.last@company.com you can use that. You can use Gmail tools like Rapportive to confirm your guess.

• You can search the journalist's tweets for their email address using sites like Snap Bird. Just enter the target's Twitter name and the search term "email".

How to Contextualize Your Data Points

• Comparison: How do prices/demand/profits compare to others or past? How do customers in your area compare to other areas?

• Superlatives: Most expensive/popular thing in X years.

• Trends: How is prices/profits/demand changing over time.

• If Statements: If you bought all components individually would it be cheaper than buying them individually? If you had bought this widget it the past, what would it be worth now?

• Use Google Alerts to track what are popular story topics in your industry.

Writing Your Pitch

1. Punchy, description subject line. Use an actual data point that will stand out to a journalist drowning in story pitches.

2. Personalized opening paragraph. Make it clear this isn't a stock email to hundreds of people. Mention your specific relationship with them whenever possible.

3. Crisp, clear data points. Write in complete sentences (that the journalist can copy) and bold the numbers you're pitching.

4. Always provide a link. Encourage the journalist to link to your site by providing a landing page that supports the story (hopefully a page that puts readers a click away from a transaction with you).

5. Give them a method to follow up. Make yourself available to provide more data or provide a quote. Will uses a Google voice number that forwards to his cell phone (which I thought would be great for scaling later on, if you want to have different folks answer at different times).

Check It Out

• OkCupid (a dating site) pulled aggregated data on their users to create buzz-worthy blog posts and earn press mentions in the New York Times.

• Yipit (a daily deal aggregator) has become the go-to source on daily deal industry metrics. They produce detailed data reports that they sell to the other daily deal sites and the financial community.

CannaInsider Interview with Jazmin Hupp

In true Cannabis social media fashion, the CannaInsider was banned from YouTube in the years since this podcast from 2015. The transcript still remains though! In it, I share all the information on why women will be successful at running cannabis businesses and how to get started.

Full Transcript

Matthew: Hi, I’m Matthew Kind. Every Monday and Wednesday look for a fresh episode where I’ll take you behind the scenes and interview the leaders of the rapidly evolving cannabis industry. Learn more at www.cannainsider.com. That’s www.cannainsider.com. Are you looking for a fulfilling and lucrative career in the cannabis industry? Visit www.cannainsider.com/careers. That’s www.cannainsider.com/careers.

Now here’s your program. Women Grow connects, educates and empowers cannabis industry leaders by creating community and events for aspiring and current business executives. I am pleased to welcome Jazmin Hupp, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women Grow to CannaInsider today. Welcome Jazmin.

Jazmin: Thank you so much for having me.

Matthew: Sure. To give us a sense of geography where are you today?

Jazmin: I am mostly based out of a suitcase. Today I am in New York City. Women Grow was founded in Denver. The majority of our national staff are there, but I have bases in New York City and San Francisco, but I’m mostly on the road. We have chapters operating in 20 cities, and my goal is to visit every city at least once a year.

Matthew: Wow. For listeners that may not have heard of Women Grow in the past, can you just give us a high level overview of what it is?

Jazmin: Sure. Women Grow is a professional networking organization that supports female leaders in all segments of the cannabis industry. Our goal, as you said, is to connect, educate and empower women to lead America’s fastest growing industry. Our largest program is the signature networking events which our held on the first Thursday of every month in 20 cities across the country. We also hold cooperative events with the top conferences, host webinars, publish a lot of content. And on February 12th we recently brought together 76 women in cannabis in Washington, D.C. Then I flew to San Francisco, held an event for 200 entrepreneurs and investors called Creating Cannabis Products for Women featuring 6 of the top female cannabis business owners in the Bay Area. And then I went to the Emerald Triangle and met with women organizing in Humboldt. That’s a pretty typical month for me in Women Grow.

Matthew: Jazmin you’re so lazy. We’re going to have to talk to somebody about that.

Jazmin: Of course.

Matthew: Now I want to rewind a little bit. I want to talk about the, you know, making cannabis products more friendly to women, but I want to rewind a little bit to back in the very beginning with you and Jane. What was the impetus to start Women Grow? What was the conversation you were having with Jane, and how did women grow spark? What was the first spark where you said we got to do this?

Jazmin: Sure. And you’ve interviewed Jane before so I will have to reference your listeners to her edition to get her perspective on it because of course it’s a little different from mine. But Women Grow was announced at NCIA’s national conference last June by Jane, and I was sitting in the audience. Jane had organized the top women business owners in Colorado who wanted more women to join the industry but had run out of steam to do it in their spare time.

She had been producing events for international organizations like UNICEF and G Medical. I had launched six businesses before this and had about a decade of practice in branding and communications. And I had been working with an organization called Women 2.0 based in the Bay Area. And Women 2.0’s mission was to get an equal amount of venture capital funding for women in technology, and I had helped Women 2.0 from grow from the Bay Area to do events in 6 countries for about 100,000 entrepreneurs. But even after 9 years of Women 2.0 only about 4% to 6% of venture capital funding goes to women which severely limits the types of technology products we see on the market. The script for how technology funding worked had already been written and it wasn’t inclusive. Coincidentally Jane had fashioned the Women Grow launch after Women 2.0. So we decided it was meant to be and started collaborating right away.

Matthew: Great idea. Now there are a lot of different areas under the cannabis umbrella where women can get involved, but they may not be aware of all the different ways they can get involved in the cannabis industry. Could you name a few to help add some color around that?

Jazmin: Sure. Well your audience is probably a lot more sophisticated about the types of cannabis businesses out there because you’re interviewing all these great people. But a lot of people start out thinking that there’s only two jobs in cannabis. Either you’re producing cannabis products or you’re selling them. And the truth is that this is a multibillion dollar industry with dozens of different specialties.

Some of the areas that I don’t see a lot of competition in, but I think women are particularly great at are cloning banks, trim crew services, HR services, marketing and training. We have a webinar that should be available by the time this podcast is released. It goes into depth about all the different industry opportunities and how to decide which one might be right for you.

Matthew: Great point. We also interviewed one of the founding members of Women Grow from Cannabis Trainers, Maureen McNamara. And she’s an excellent trainer. So that’s to your point, you know, there is a lot of opportunities in training as the other aspects you mentioned. Now for women that are in states where cannabis is currently not legal, what should they do? Should they just wait or is there any opportunities to get started doing something now?

Jazmin: Yeah, you’ll notice that a lot of the successful business owners in cannabis actually came from the legalization movement. Working to legalize in your state will instantly connect you with other like minded people, educate you on all the issues and give you the confidence to move forward. Additionally having women help write this legislation make it more likely that the final results appeal to women who are often cited as the swing vote in legalization. And it helps make sure that the final results are fair and inclusive.So if you’re in a prohibition state, find the legalization organizations near your and volunteer. Some of the groups that we partner with are NORML, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Marijuana Policy Project, MAPS which is the Multidisciplinary Associate for Psychedelic Studies and so on. And so get connected with those folks and start volunteering and start making a difference.

Matthew: That’s an excellent point about the volunteering and activism because you are dead right. There is so many people I’ve met that are really leaders in the space from a commercial side that have their origin story in the activism. So it was a natural progression. So a lot of people out there what are listening that are wondering how to get in that is an excellent suggestion. Now you were recently at Lobby Days, what is that and why is it important?

Jazmin: We just had our first annual Lobby Day event, and it was a fantastic experience for everybody that attended. To steal a line from my friend Joe Brezny, “If you’re in the marijuana business, you are now also in the policy business”. And the cannabis industry is one of the most closely regulated, and we don’t expect that to change any time soon. Unlike most developed industries where multibillion dollar companies pay hoards of lobbyists, there are actually few lobbyists involved in cannabis. So each individual person can actually make a big impact on how we get to serve patients. After 80 years of Reefer Madness, the staffers creating marijuana policy may know very little about what we do and why we do it. So we have to show up and tell them.As you would expect from an industry that is legal at the state level but illegal federally, there are a lot of conflicts to be resolved in a short term. So as your listeners probably know, access to banking for cannabis businesses is spotty at best. One of our founding members,Brook leads the Live Green Group in Colorado, and they’ve lost 34 bank accounts over the last five years. Last year they did over $10 million in revenue and didn’t have banking services for half of that. So forcing these cannabis businesses to be conducted in cash benefits no one, and that’s why we were there supporting HR 2652 which is the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act of 2013. Notice it’s of 2013 because we’re still trying to get this passed.The second major conflict that we were working on is the section of the tax code called 280E. I don’t know if your listeners are familiar with 280E.

Matthew: Sure, you can cover that briefly.

Jazmin: Well so 280E prohibits businesses involved with drug trafficking from deducting normal business expenses from their income. This was written so that drug cartels couldn’t write off their speed boats for example. Unfortunately the IRS has interpreted that to apply to our state legal cannabis businesses. So many dispensaries pay 50% to 70% of their net income, not profit, income in federal taxes because they can’t write off salaries, health insurance, retirement benefits, business equipment, rent, marketing, utilities, so on. Cannabis business owners want to pay their fair share of taxes, but we need to make it fair.

Matthew: Gosh that is totally unfair. You’re right. Now you have somewhat of a controversial position on women’s purchasing decisions of cannabis. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Jazmin: Yes. Women are going to be the dominant cannabis product buyers after national legalization. Right now it appears that more men than women consume cannabis, but that’s mostly related to its illegal status and the types of products on the market, not because there’s anything about cannabis that’s better for men versus women. Once prohibition is lifted cannabis products become just like any other household good, and we know women already control the majority of household spending. On top of that women are more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic illness, more like to try alternative health therapy, and are more likely to be in charge of the wellness decisions for their families. One on five women will face depression. One in eight will face breast cancer. There is no scenario where I can imagine where women don’t become the dominant buyers of cannabis products.

Matthew: Right so make your cannabis products very women friendly and how do they do that?

Jazmin: Well the first step is to get more diversity on your leadership and marketing teams. Having an inclusive team where people of all genders and colors are heard are going to help you make the best decisions day in and day out for your brand to attract an inclusive audience. I especially encourage you to pick a woman to run your social media marketing. We’re seeing a ton of brands take the easy route for quick attention by posting bikini babes with bongs. If you’re treating women like decoration to attract men instead of serious customers, you’re missing out on a loyal audience. A loyal audience that very few brands are actively serving. I think anyone who probably picked up a podcast with Women Grow on it gets this, and I can’t wait to see the new products and services you come up with. The guys with their heads stuck in the sand will be quickly surpassed.

Matthew: Now is there any examples you’ve seen recently of companies that have put out in the market women friendly cannabis products that you were impressed with?

Jazmin: Absolutely. We’re seeing a lot of great work being done on the edibles front to serve a more diverse customer than just candies or cookies. So in Colorado one of our founding members is Julie Dooley, and Julie’s Baked Goods specializes in gluten free edibles with no refined sugar. Which honestly she was just a patient on the market who had to be gluten free herself due to a health concern, and there were no products available on the market for her. And so she brought those products out to the market and they’re wildly popular. We have another brand called Auntie Delores out of California who sponsors Women Grow who is going to rapidly expand into multistate operations because they’re creating products that just nobody else was in a brand that’s friendly to both men and women.

Matthew: You know one other thing that Julie Dooley is doing that’s interesting is she actually names the strain too on her edibles so you know exactly, it allows you to dial in your experience which is very helpful which I don’t see a lot of edibles doing. I know Julianna and Lauren at Auntie Delores, you know, they talk a lot about their ingredients and being very transparent with the ingredients and that’s helpful. And they also talk about, you know, doing things that other people aren’t doing. They’re like hey there’s a lot of chocolate bars out there, we’re not going to make a chocolate bar. So being innovative in that way I think really helps you stand out. So great points. Now Women Grow is still a young organization. Where do you see it going? I mean even since we had Jane on, maybe Q3 of last year, it’s changed. The scope has changed. How are things evolving? Where do you see it going in the next few years?

Jazmin: I mean it was just since you’ve interviewed her we really seen what an amazing opportunity we have to create a new industry with a new script that’s diverse from the very very beginning. This is an industry that’s going to serve people of all colors, of all genders, of all ages, and the best way to do that is to invite all of those people into the industry. So from our humble beginnings as a professional networking organization we’re now working to create programs to push women into the cannabis and up to the top.

Our monthly events in 20 cities are a great introduction to the cannabis industry for women. They can learn a bit about the industry in a supportive environment without quitting their day job or investing $1,000 up front. We hope that our events and content online are part of a very successful research phase that convinces them to get their first job or launch their first company in cannabis. From there we hope they attend one of our national events like our leadership summit which teaches women how to grow and expand their businesses to rise to the top of the market. And we’re just going to keep going from there.

Matthew: So walk me through what it’s like to attend a Women Grow event. For someone that’s walking in for the first time, what can they experience? What’s it like? What do they do? How long do they last? What’s the vibe like?

Jazmin: So our monthly networking events in these 20 cities across the United States are the first Thursday of every month. So you have a consistent time and place that you can plan to, you know, make your first entry or your fifth entry into the cannabis market. And that was something that no other organization across the country was offering was a consistent, pre-planned time to meet which seems so simple, but consistency is one of the things that this industry is lacking on many levels.

So when you arrive we hope that you will be greeted with a crowd that is the exact opposite in ratio from what you would see at a typical cannabis industry event. The majority of cannabis industry events are about 80% men and 20% women, and our events are the exact flip of that. So you’re going to have 80% women and about 20% men at our events. You’re going to have time to mix and mingle. And again these people tend to be very open and welcoming. The marijuana industry is blue ocean right now, blue sky. There’s no reason for us to even treat each other like competition because the market is going to be large enough that there is room for everyone right now. And then we listen to an industry speaker and get a current perspective on what’s going on in the market.

This is an industry that’s difficult to research online. Remember it was illegal not too long ago, and it’s still illegal in a lot of states. So there’s not a ton of information available online. You really do have to show up in person and talk to the folks doing this and do the research on your feet to really get a sense of where the market’s going and where you might belong in it. So you’ll get some great information from an industry speaker. And then we do some sort of activity at almost every meeting that will force you to introduce yourself to as many people as possible. So for example my meeting here in New York, we go around the room and everyone gets up for 15 seconds and just says who they are and what they’re interested in so that after we have the speaker people can just jet over to meeting new people. When is the last time you went to a networking event and knew all 50 people in the room, that’s the type of event that we hope to create.

Matthew: Do you have an example of a woman that came to Women Grow and didn’t have any background or history in the cannabis industry and was successful in kind of breaking into it, because I want to leave listeners with actionable information or examples on how they can get into it. You mentioned a little bit about the social media and women tend to gravitate to that because they’re good at it. That’s an excellent way you can provide value I think out of the gate. Do you have any other examples of how women kind of busted into the industry with no previous background into it?

Jazmin: Sure. I think a lot of people think that you know you had to be an underground grower for the last 20 years to be a part of this industry, but the truth is the vast majority of people getting into this industry are new to the industry. They’ve got great professional backgrounds in maybe related fields, but being new doesn’t make you unqualified. It just makes you kind of like everybody else. And so one example is we had a member come out to our Denver chapter named Lauren Gibbs, and she runs a business that does social media strategy and was able to very quickly assess what the cannabis industry needed in comparison to our other clients, and now has cannabis clients within her larger social media strategy business.

Matthew: Now there’s a lot of cannabis companies out there that are looking to get their brand out there in a national way, and you offer some sponsorship opportunities that I think do this well because everything is so compartmentalized in states or cities. Can you talk a little bit about the sponsorship opportunities you have?

Jazmin: Absolutely. Like you said there are very few national organizations in cannabis. I actually was just in Humboldt County last week, and the women there asked me well what are the women doing at a national level. How are the women organizing at a national level? And I kind of looked over my shoulder and I was like oh shoot we are the women organized at a national level. There really isn’t anybody else. And that applies to the industry in general is that there’s only a very few organizations working on a national, and we’re lucky enough to be one of those.

We’ve been really fortunate to have nearly 50 companies come out to support making cannabis an inclusive industry, and in order to make our events as affordable as possible we depend on this companies who want to be known for attracting female customers and female employees to sponsor us, and that covers the majority of our expenses. So if anything I’ve said resonates with you and you want to be part of creating something awesome, email Julie@womengrow.com to talk about those sponsorship options. The cannabis industry will never be this small again. And so your small gesture now can make a big change to our collective future.

Matthew: And before we close, you were just on a bunch of trips all around the country. Can you just give us a few nuggets of what you learned or key takeaways, you know, visiting different people in different parts of the country?

Jazmin: Oh wow. I mean I think the thing that you learn the most is that this is a very very local industry, and what is so stunning to me is how different everything is, you know, in Colorado versus Washington and Washington versus California. And then once you get within California the difference between Humboldt and L.A. they’re just different planets. So I guess my first advice is to recognize that to the outside world we may look like one cohesive industry, but there is actually so much happening and so much that varies depending on the local level, and that’s why we do have these local chapters that can talk to people about what’s happening locally in their state because a program that I might give in San Francisco that generates a ton of interest… so for example we did Creating Cannabis Products for Women for 200 in San Francisco and we got great feedback from people who said yes I’m going to start my business now, yes that really encouraged me to start fundraising, yes that was exactly what I wanted to hear. And then I drove up to Humboldt and started talking to women there about becoming executives and leading the industry and they were like hold the phone, we don’t think of ourselves as executives. We think of ourselves as farmers. We don’t think of, you know, we’re not out here to lead an industry. We’re out here to protect our families and to protect our livelihood. It’s just a whole different mindset and a whole different set of priorities. So I think the first tip is just to remember just how actually diverse the industry is.

Matthew: Now for women listening right now, you said 20% of the people that come to you, the different chapters are men, do men come? What are the reasons that men come?

Jazmin: Men come because they are very smart and they know that what we’ve got going on is pretty powerful. Many come just as a support to a female executive on their team. The guys who come they tell me that they understand how well connected and how fiercely intelligent the women are that are a part of this industry, and they want to be a part of that. They’re looking for female cofounders. They’re looking to add women to their team, and we’re a great event for that.

Matthew: Now as we close how can listeners learn more about Women Grow online?

Jazmin: Definitely go to www.womengrow.com and sign up for our list. That’s how we publish all of our future events, all of our content. Go to our blog and just read everything I’ve ever written about how to research the industry, how to figure out what event is right for you in the industry. We also encourage you to make a plan to attend a national conference this year if you haven’t already attended a national conference. It’s a great way to give you a good picture of the industry, and we host kick off events for the largest of the national conferences. So you can join us in May in Chicago. In June we’ll be in both New York City and Denver, and in November we’ll be in Las Vegas, and we do these kick off events to set you up to be more successful and make connections there. You can also follow Women Grow on Facebook and on Twitter.

Matthew: Jazmin thanks so much for being on CannaInsider today. We really appreciate it.

Jazmin: Absolutely. Thank you Matt.

Matthew: If you enjoyed the show today, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes, Stitcher or whatever app you might be using to listen to the show. Every five star review helps us to bring the best guests to you. Learn more at www.cannainsider.com/itunes. What are the five disruptive trends that will shape the cannabis industry in the next five years? Find out with your free report at www.cannainsider.com/trends. Have a suggestion for an awesome guest on www.cannainsider.com, email us feedback at cannainsider.com. We would love to hear from you.

Why Focus on Women in Cannabis Now?

Some folks are surprised that there are already groups serving minorities within the cannabis industry since it's fairly new. In truth, this industry is already quite large and I agree with predictions that it will grow $35 Billion industry in sales over the next 20 years. (For comparison alcohol retail sales in 2012 were $197.8 billion.)

The Industry's Survival Depends on Greed Not Screwing This Up

The Cannabis industry is in a volatile stage where a few bad actors could retard the progress towards creating a national regulated market. 80 years of anti-marijuana propaganda, started by William Randolph Hearst, is a daily struggle to overcome. We cannot afford to have an industry that puts greed ahead of health and safety. I'm generalizing of course, but women tend to make community- and family-oriented choices. Having women involved in the cannabis industry is just one more check on us not making the mistakes alcohol and tobacco industries did in the past.

The National Cannabis Industry Association, a founding member of Women Grow, features this education for newcomers to the industry at their events and their Code of Conduct emphasizes professionalism.

The opposition says we're the next big tobacco industry in the making.

Diverse teams show that we look and think nothing like big tobacco did and never will.

Diverse Teams Create an Industry That Serves Diverse Customers

Some early companies were focused on their most loyal customers: people who like to smoke frequently. Some of their customers had serious medical conditions, some didn't, but many ended up focusing on potency to serve those loyal clients.

Today, with over half of Americans living in a state with some form of legal cannabis, the market is much broader than we thought. Newcomers, women, seniors, and athletes are just some of the new groups we're serving now. These new customers need new products. The fastest way to create those products is to include people from those groups in your business.

Julie's Baked Goods, a founding member of Women Grow, creates healthy cannabis-infused edibles. Founded by a mom with celiac disease, she was one of the first to create edibles that would not appeal to children. Her products are a favorite among patients with digestive challenges and healthy adults.

The opposition says we're only out to get everyone high.

Let's show them we're in the industry for so many more reasons (and getting high is safer than getting drunk).  

Companies with Female Leadership Outperform Others

I was taking clients on a tour of top dispensaries in Denver and suddenly realized that the majority of stops we were about to make had female owners (3D Cannabis Center, The Farm, Good Chemistry, Mindful and LiveGreen Cannabis). Even though few dispensaries are owned by women, those dispensaries are often the ones that differentiate themselves in training, selection, or environment in my experience. Don't believe my anecdotal experience in Denver, let's get the big numbers in here.

Catalyst studies the financial performance of Fortune 500 companies based on the gender diversity of their board of directors. Here's what their study found:

• Return on Equity: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 53 percent.

• Return on Sales: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 42 percent.

• Return on Invested Capital: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66 percent.

Diversity Goes Far Beyond Just Gender Diversity

Empowering women in cannabis is just the first challenge for Women Grow. We have this chance to create a new American industry that we can all be a part of (instead of spending decades trying to change it after it's already been built). I hope you'll join us for an event near you because we have a lot to do together. 

Reading Up on the Cannabis Industry

People researching the legal marijuana industry often ask me how to get started in the Cannabis industry. These are the resources I read to stay up to speed on current Cannabis culture. Try using an RSS reader, like Feedly, to create a news dashboard of all these sites instead of visiting them individually.

Cannabis Industry Reads

• Canna Law Blog: This is a must-read for current analysis of the changing marijuana industry landscape in real time.
• Marijuana Business Daily: The oldest cannabis industry news source and the only completely editorial independent.
• Marijuana Today Podcast: Weekly podcast with the latest business news and politics discussed by friends of the ArcView group.

Current Cannabis News & Opinion

• Huffington Post's Medical Marijuana Section: Broad selection of popular web articles.
• MJ Headline News: The media arm of the Marijuana Business Association, based out of Seattle.
• The Cannabist: The Denver Post's dedicated marijuana news site with culture, reviews, and food.
• Cannabis Now: I subscribe to their print edition as well.
• Marijuana SubReddit: I'm not a fan of Reddit as a community but they do surface some great links early.
• The Weed Blog: Interesting range of original articles.
• High Times: You know High Times already and it's worth keeping tabs on. Avoid their mobile site, which values their link farm so highly that it's barely readable.

The Legalization Movement

It is important to understand legalization across America on the road to growing the cannabis industry. Donate your time, money, and some attention to this.

• Drug Policy Alliance
• Marijuana Policy Project
• NORML

Leave any sites you recommend adding to this list in the comments. Thanks!

The Call for Self Regulation in the Cannabis Industry

We have an opportunity to regulate the cannabis industry from WITHIN or will be subject to others doing it TO the industry. This is the beginning of a multi-billion dollar industry that is only growing larger every year. Many legislators are now trying to regulate this industry for the first time with mixed results. Leslie Bocskor of Electrum Partners, challenged cannabis industry stalwarts and new comers to self-regulate at the NCIA's Southwest Summit today.

Regulation Needs

• Genetics: When you buy a bottle of Malbec, you never wonder if you're actually getting Malbec grapes. When you buy a strain from a dispensary, you have no guarantee that it is actually the strain its labeled with.
• Product Integrity & Safety: Ensuring that the potency of your edibles is consistent so that your customers have a safe and predictable experience.
• Advertising & Marketing: Underage use is the cannabis industry's number #1 issue that threatening legalization across the country. We cannot afford for product names (Girl Scout Cookies) or packaging (Buddafingers) to be attractive to children.

The Alcohol Industry Invented This Model

The "We ID" campaign you see in liquor stores across the country was not mandated by the federal government. The alcohol industry works to prevent underage drinking–not because it was mandated by the state but because they understand it's good for their business. Unlike the state-sponsored "lab rat" campaign in Colorado, the cannabis industry could be educating parents on how to talk to their kids about marijuana.

Self-Regulation Done Right

The cannabis industry will need to form their own regulatory bodies funded by membership dues. Yes this will be expensive but being subject to poor regulation will cost a lot more going forward. Take the hints from the alcohol industry and decide to create an industry we can all be proud of. Not only because it makes financial sense but it's also the right thing to do.

Nevada Medical Marijuana Regulation Priorities...Live from Las Vegas

Cannabis industry leaders and a few of the 6,496 medical marijuana patients in Nevada testified today at the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice's Subcommittee on the Medical Use of Marijuana. The agenda included representatives from the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, NORML, Nevada Division of Public & Behavioral Health, and cannabis business owners from other states. Nevada currently allows patients to cultivate up to 12 mature plants and the application process for Cannabis businesses just closed on Monday. The 20 person committee met to hear testimony on how to regulate a brand new legal medical marijuana market before the current patients have their growing rights sunset in 2016.

The Cannabis Business Permitting Process

Chad West, Bureau Chief, Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, testified on the medical marijuana permitting process in Nevada. As of today, Nevada has received 497 applications for dispensaries, cultivation centers, infused product manufacturers and testing labs (a few more may trickle in based on mailed date). This is a merit-based process with three person panels reviewing and scoring each applicant. Each application consists of at least a banker's box worth of materials and a $5,000 or more fee (Senator Segerblom quipped that Nevada probably earned more from the application fees than all online gambling revenue to date). The winners of the permitting process will be annouced by November 3.There are currently only 6,496 medical card holders in Nevada (Mr. West admits that the state is behind in reviewing card applicants) and he is predicting a 32% growth in card holders year over year. If Nevada does go ahead with allowing out-of-state card holders to purchase medical marijuana while visiting Nevada out-of-state patients will obviously overwhelm local patients in Las Vegas and Reno. Mr. West's slides are available for download.

Regulating Ancillary Businesses

Susan Chicovsky employs 60 people for her trimming and harvesting contract labor service, Green Mountain Harvest in Colorado. She serves multiple cultivation and dispensary businesses and is expanding nationwide. Nevada is forming regulation for third-party/ancillary services and Ms. Chicovsky asked the panel to consider the following businesses types in their suggestions:

• Harvesting & Trimming Services
• Information Technology (IT)
• Staffing & HR Services
• Contractors
• Cloning Banks
• Security
• Paraphernalia
• Marketing
• Transportation
• Packaging
• Garbage Services

Cannabis Infused Body Treatments

Jordan Person, owner of Primal Therapeutics, presented her work using cannabis-infused oils for massage therapy in Colorado. Infused bodywork is not currently regulated in Colorado and Ms. Person encouraged the committee to specifically allow it in Nevada. In her work with patients, she's found cannabis-infused oils unsurpassed for pain relief and relaxation. Unlike ingesting cannabis, her treatments have no psychoactive effects but do increase circulation and reduce pain. If the treatment did you get you "high", it would be almost impossible for her to work full days. Senator Segerblom was excited to bring cannabis-infused spa treatments to Nevada but there are a lot of open questions on who would have to hold a medical card for treatment (the therapist, the patient, or both?)

Solving the Cash Loophole

Michael Tuccelli-Margolin represented C4EverSystems Cash Management, which sells a "reverse ATM" to dispensaries. Their machine takes cash payments and locks them into cartridges to be transferred into a bank. This prevents the cash from being used for money laundering, something a town like Las Vegas knows a lot about. The machine is also able to validate individual customers, and if Nevada requires the technology statewide, it would prevent patients from visiting multiple dispensaries and purchasing the maximum allowed multiple times. Mr. Tuccelli-Margolin offered to develop the technology for Nevada (for free of course). The hardware is free to the dispensaries and C4EverSystems takes a 1.75% fee on sales.

Insuring the Medical Marijuana Industry

Patrick McManamom from Cannasure Insurance Services presented on the speciality nature of insuring this new industry. They provide liability insurance for dispensaries, cultivators, infused product manufacturers, and other ancillary businesses. The risk profile of a medicated edible manufacturer turns out to be quite different from a standard bakery. Mr. McManamom claims deep expertise in risk management for the Cannabis industry versus a traditional insurer. Some of his security recommendations include:

• All access to the business, cash, and product is video recorded. Upload all video to remote service so an on-site thief cannot take the footage with them.
• Perform criminal background checks on all employees and drug testing for meth, heroin, and other high-risk drug addiction.
• Train all employees on security measures and keep security "need to know". Limit who knows the timing and procedures for handling large amounts of cash & product.
• Separate cash and product vaults.
• Require labs to retain testing samples for 90 days, in case of a bad reaction the sample can be retested.

Mr. McManamom highlighted the liability insurance requirements for Nevada. The coverage needs here are 2-3X higher than other states. For example, his largest liability policy in Colorado is under $10 million, while he's looking at $42 million policy for a facility in Nevada.More pictures of the hearing are available for download.

Explaining Why Marijuana Should Be Legal to Your Mom

As we make plans to visit family during the holidays, it's also time to gear up for your first (or fiftieth) Thanksgiving dinner conversation on cannabis legalization. Mainstream America has a ways to go when it comes to accepting marijuana and every one of us has the power to change minds and answer questions in our hometowns. The success of our industry hinges on convincing people who don't consume cannabis that it is a safe addition to healthy & conscious living.

1. Marijuana is Safer Than Alcohol

As America's increasing thirst for alcoholic beverages shows–$124.7 billion in sales last year (not including bars & restaurants)–we love our mind-altering substances. Alcohol is responsible for over 25,000 overdoses every year and is correlated with disturbing violence trends. Compared to marijuana with no overdoses ever recorded in history and no association with violence. According to the Mayo Clinic, overuse of alcohol leads to:

• Liver disease

• Digestive problems

• Heart problems

• Diabetes complications

• Sexual dysfunction

• Birth defects

• Bone loss

• Weakened immune system

• Increase risk of cancer

That's a pretty long list of disadvantages compared to the four known side effects of some strains of marijuana. (Three of these four are actually why cannabis is so popular for people with chronic illnesses or undergoing chemotherapy.)

• Sleepiness (dominate in Indica strains)

• Increased appetite (dominate in Indica strains)

• Short-term memory loss

• Paranoia (dominate in Sativa strains)

2. Marijuana is Safer Than Prescription Painkillers

According to the CDC, prescription painkiller overdoses have reached "epidemic proportions":

• Prescription painkiller overdoses killed nearly 15,000 people in the US in 2008. This is more than 3 times the 4,000 people killed by these drugs in 1999.

• In 2010, about 12 million Americans (age 12 or older) reported nonmedical use of prescription painkillers in the past year.

• Nearly half a million emergency department visits in 2009 were due to people misusing or abusing prescription painkillers.

• Nonmedical use of prescription painkillers costs health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs.

Marijuana has been used for pain relief for thousands of years. The Chinese term for "anesthesia" (mázui 麻醉) literally means "cannabis intoxication” and dates back to circa 2600 BCE. Queen Victoria's personal physician, Sir Russell Reynolds famously prescribed cannabis for menstrual cramps. Prior to the outlawing of cannabis in America, there were at least 2,000 medicines that contained cannabis, produced by over 280 manufacturers.For many, marijuana has proven to be a safe and reliable alternative to prescription painkillers. A recent study of deaths from 1999-2010 showed that there "was about a 25% lower rate of prescription painkiller overdose deaths on average after implementation of a medical marijuana law."

3. The War on Drugs Has Failed

After over 40 years and spending well over $1 trillion dollars, the government's war on drugs has not accomplished any of its goals. The prices of drugs have steadily declined, while usage rates have stayed constant. In fact the U.S. is the number 1 nation in the world in illegal drug use. What we have created is a $320 billion global illegal drug trade industry that criminal cartels use to fund violent agendas–and of course don't pay taxes.

The Cato Institute estimated that legalizing all drugs in the US would save approximately $41.3 billion in enforcement costs and yield tax revenues of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Imagine taking those revenues and using them to treat addiction or any other unintended consequences of legalization.

7 Reasons You Should Focus on Women in Your Advertising & Your Business

Cindy Gallop opened the second 3% Conference in San Francisco, named because only 3% of Creative Directors in advertising are women. Gallop's keynote is required watching for men and women, as she teaches us how businesses are missing out on innovative ideas and ultimately profits by staying male-centric.

Key Takeaways

• Women ARE your target audience. Women are no longer a "niche" marketing target. They make the majority of purchases in almost every sector and are key purchasing influencers in every sector (even traditionally male-dominated ones). Women influence 60% of car purchases and 90% of technology purchases. Women are even the majority of gamers today, if you include social gaming.

• "Women share the sh*t out of everything." At any social gathering listen to the men talk about sports scores while the women share their experiences. Women have shared their experiences to build intimacy since the world began so it's no mystery why today they are the majority of social media users.

• Women get stuff done. Even if your product is aimed at men, Ms. Gallop recommends targeting your advertising at women. Women are the norm. Men are now the niche audience. There is a ton of money to be made by taking women seriously.

• Marketing done with women through the male perspective is no longer acceptable. When the 97% of Creative Directors are men, you gets ads that don't feature women in dynamic, engaging, and aspirational roles – instead you only see women as mothers, girlfriends, and sidekicks. We need a new approach to creativity – created by women, presented to female Creative Directors, for female clients.

• "Women challenge the status quo because we are never it." Women innovate and women disrupt. If you want your company to be innovative, find every department run by an all-white-male team and add women to it.

• "Women notice things that men don't." They notice relationships. They notice how people communicate. They notice how to get people to work together more cooperatively naturally and intuitively. Women notice the things that will make your company run better than it does today.

• "Women get sh*t done." How many women do you know that support men by doing the things they don't want to do? From the laundry to Sheryl Sandberg operating Facebook so Mark Zuckerberg can do what he really wants to do. The men who recognize this can still be the stars of the show but have a much smoother operation behind the scenes.

Your To Do List

Cindy Gallop implores men and women to do the following things to help change this culture, and ultimately make a ton of money.

1. Call It Out. If nobody says anything, nothing will change. Every time you see a conference with an all-male line-up – say something. Every time the junior male account rep tries to take over a meeting you should be running – say something. It doesn't require being angry, it just requires pointing it out, because gender bias is often unconscious. You have to "break the closed loop of white guys talking to other white guys about white guys."

2. Put Yourself Forward. Women who don't promote themselves help this male-dominated cycle continue. Gallop cites how there's been a ton of outrage over Twitter's lack of female board members but women she knows (and are highly qualified) hesitate even nominating themselves to advise a new startup.

3. Redesign the Business. Business has been built for centuries around a male model of command and control, which is perfectly logical because, for centuries, women weren't allowed to work. The Future of Business is about complementing that with female values – collaboration, consensus building, and community. The system of business today is based around men going to work and women staying at home to support them. The reason we don't have enough women in leadership is because the very system is built to work for men and not the women who shoulder an unfair amount of the home support work. When women look up at the men running their organizations and see the grueling hours, they opt-out. But why have we designed every position at the top to be so unbearable? It doesn't have to be. Gallop challenges us to redesign a bite-size chunk of how something is done at your company. Redesign it the way you want to work and point to it as an example of how a redesigned business process makes work better for everyone.

Gallop believes the business model of the future is "shared values + shared action = shared profit (financial & social)". This is the business model she urges brands to adopt. Go beyond "co-creation" and pursue "co-action" between brands and people to benefit everyone. This business model also applies to men and women working together to create a world that we will all love working and living in.

Watch It!

How To Create A Responsible & Effective Cannabis Brand

The first annual Cannabis Business Summit wrapped up today with an overview of how Cannabis companies should shape their brand and marketing strategies. Taylor West, Deputy Director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, led a session with Kali & Bridget from Agent 64.

Culture Movements Are Not Marketing Gimmicks

Bridget believes that Cannabis legalization is a cultural movement, which means you are now a part of the cultural movement.

"Culture movements define an idea on the rise."

We have a huge responsibility to shape how the public perceives Cannabis going forward. Unlike traditional product marketing, which starts with the product, Bridget encouraged the audience to define their cannabis brand based on the culture movement and not on the product.

Integrated Marketing

I believe in integrated marketing, where every touch point from the front door to the website is shaped by marketing. Bridget spoke about the importance of looking at every single customer touch point and making it consistent no matter where you're interacting with your customers.

Why Market Responsibly

1. It's The Right Thing To Do: We are building a brand new cannabis industry from scratch and we have the opportunity to be the example. Let's skip the bad marketing to children from industries that came before us (Marlboro's Joe the Camel).
2. Don't Screw This Up For Everyone: This is an industry that is in a very volatile position. Your work in the cannabis industry reflects on the entire industry.
3. The Medical Credibility of Cannabis Is At Stake: Unless you are in Washington and Colorado, you are marketing a medical product. When you don't market cannabis responsibility you are hurting the chances of people discovering or having access to the medical benefits of the plant.
4. You Need New Customers: If you'd like to grow your business, you have to start thinking beyond your current customer base.

"Think about customers not in your traditional demographic."

Think about marketing to women. Think about senior citizens. Think about health care professionals. At the very least–you need to not actively repeal these groups. At the most–you need to attract these segments to your brand.

Define Your Brand Promise

This is the most important thing you can do. Living and breathing your brand promise from CEO to budtender shapes your entire company.Build Your Golden Circle: Define why you do it. Then how you do it. Then what you do. Simon Sinek's TED talk explains exactly why you need to do this.

Marketing Strategies

This is no different than the marketing strategy process for most industries. If you haven't been through this process before, find someone who has to guide you.

1. Define your customer segments: Who are you going to talk to and what do they want?
2. Find the white space: Where is there opportunity in the market that isn't currently saturated?
3. Figure out what unique about your brand: What do you stand for that other's don't? What is truly important to you?
4. Define your brand promise: Notice all that research and thought you need to do before you could define this?
5. Pick your target profile: What is the age, income, gender, location, etc. of your target customer?

Customer Retention

• Customer surveys: Ask you customers how they heard about you. Why they choose you. Make sure you know what makes you different from your customer's perspective.
• Brand design: What does the design of your brand tell customers about you?
• Customer database management: Do you know who your customers are and what they're buying? Personalize your marketing to your customers exact needs whenever possible. Many companies wait until they are quite large to setup robust customer analytics, missing years of data that could reveal where and how they should have grown.
• Online/social media: This is an industry that was used to darker corners. Today you need to take control of social media and your public perception actively. Options for paid social media are limited but that may not last forever. You need to build community now.

Responsible Marketing 101

• Don't Market to Children: Perhaps the most important thing to remember.
• Don't Market Like Children: Put forth a face that is professional and polished. If you take beer as an analog to cannabis, remember that no one is ever drunk in a beer commercial. Sell your experience. Your experience goes far beyond "getting high".
• Don't Alienate 50% of the Population: You can segment your marketing without actively offending women. Women are actually more likely to have a chronic illness, more likely to try alternative medicines, and more likely to control a family's medical decisions. Women aren't decoration for your ads.

What They See is What You Are

No matter what you think your mission–what your customers see is what they will define you as. This extends to your logo, signage, employees, and more. You need everything that makes up your company to be true to your brand.

What They See is What WE Are

As an industry. All Cannabis companies are affected by the images being put out by the Cannabis industry. From legislation nationally to your home district, the marketing being done in this industry will affect how the Cannabis industry proceeds (or doesn't). You have the power to shape our collective future so we hope you take it very seriously.Photo from Barbary Coast MMJ Dispensary, San Francisco

Prioritizing Product Features for Cannabis Companies

Maybe you're designing the next Vape sensation or the next killer weed app. Whether you're starting a MMJ dispensary or working on your next edibles brand, product feature strategy will be vital to your success. (If you're opening a marijuana retailer, just replace the word "product" with "store" features.) You can always add more features but which ones matter most to your customers and which can you execute?

Picking Your Target Audience

Everyone wants to sell their products to everyone. But the truth is, you need to narrow down on who your most profitable customers will be. Even though lots of different types of people shop at Trader Joe's, the company makes many decisions by targeting a specific customer: “An unemployed college professor who drives a very, very, very used Volvo." You'd have no idea that their clear target customer is what helps make the South Pacific theme with matching specialty food at low prices so cohesive (and profitable).A clear target audience will allow you to make core strategy calls like:

• Product Line Decisions - "What products do my customer need?"
• Product Feature Decisions - "What does my target customer want most?"
• Location Decisions - "Where does my target customer shop?"
• Pricing Decisions - "How much does my target customer have to spend?"
• Advertising Decisions - "What would influence my target customer to try my brand?"

If you keep a target customer group in mind when making strategic decisions, the end result will be a cohesive product that has the potential to sell.

Picking Product Features

Let's say I'm designing a bud vaporizer targeted at glaucoma patients over 50. You can brainstorm a hundred features that you could add to this vaporizer but how do you choose which ones you should focus on? You have competitors that are developing new vaporizers with larger staffs than you, so you better move fast to keep up. Luckily you only have too weight two factors:

1. What features will differentiate my product from the competition? (In a way that won't be instantly copied.) AND
2. What features will my customers PAY for? (Extra features are nice but if it won't lead to more sales, skip it.)

Number two is a little deceiving. This includes features you can and can not advertise. Features that your customers love and tell their friends about ("looks like a USB stick so it's easy to get passed airport security") are just as important as features you can put in a big headline ("lightest vape on the market").

Prioritizing Product Features By Execution

Business success thought-leader John Spence, boils his Wharton School of Business class into one sentence:Successful Strategy = Valued Differentiation x Effective ExecutionIf you're chosen product features that differentiate you, then the most important factor to your success is which features can you effectively execute? In his book, Letters to a CEO, John Spence breaks this down:

• Highly differentiated but not valued by your target customer = bankruptcy
• Highly valued but easy to copy = price war (and there is always someone willing to drop their prices and go into bankruptcy faster than you)
• Highly valued and defensibly differentiated but not executable = bankruptcy
• Highly valued, defensibly differentiated, well executed = business success

If you can pick the features that you can effectively deliver to an audience primed for your product, your cannabis brand will be in great shape. Making the plans is often a lot easier than actually executing on them. John reminds us that "Great creative ideas abound; flawless execution of those ideas is exceedingly rare."

Your Company's Facebook Posts Will Soon Be A Waste Of Time

Without boosting your Facebook boosts with advertising spend, you're shouting into the dark. No matter how hard you worked to build your fan base, as many as 98% of your fans never return to your Facebook page after liking it.

Facebook Organic Post Reach Is Diving Off A Cliff

The percentage of your fans that you reach organically (without paying for ads) is rapidly declining: from an average of 12% in October 2013 to 6.2% in February of 2014 (according to social@Ogilvy). The day when your organic posts will reach virtually no one is coming fast.

Shift Strategies or Abandon Facebook Organic Posts in 2014?

Even though Facebook has become an advertising network (with a social media network as a lost leader), you can still target extremely specific audiences. What other medium can you find 15-17 year old girls who live within 50 miles of Cleveland, Ohio, and own an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5? If you have the ability to craft campaigns that speak to your customers in their own homes and phones you can reap enormous rewards. I can't name another newspaper that is sent directly to all of my customers, for as little as $25 a campaign. Can you?

Custom Audiences Are Your New Best Friends

You're going to upload lists of email addresses and lists of phone numbers from your customer contact lists. This will allow you to target your current customers for ads (even if the haven't liked your page) and find more people like your customers on Facebook. Custom Audiences will allow you target people who have shopped with you before.Uploading your customer's email addresses and phone numbers to Facebook puts a lot of trust in their court. Facebook says that they encrypt the data that is uploaded, use it for matching purposes at that time only, and then delete the data. This means you should update the data periodically to add new customers. Privacy is never perfect but this is likely worth the risk for your brand. (Technically, they hash the data, not encrypt it, if you want the full technical explanation.)If uploading your customer lists are too creepy, try tracking everyone who visits your homepage. You'll install a tracking code in your header tags so that you can retarget ads to anyone who visits your company's website. Slightly less creepy and it continues to grow as your website traffic grows. 

Lookalike Audiences Are Your New Holy Grail

How often do we sit around as marketers and complain: "I wish I could find more people who are just like my best customers." Facebook is offering to deliver them to you. Once you've uploaded a list of your best customers, you can tell Facebook to match their entire database of people within any single country to your type of people. To get started, see Facebook's "How to Create Lookalike Audiences".

So Now Facebook Is Just Like Any Other Advertising Network? Nope!

It seems clear that Facebook is turning into an Ad network and should be treated like the New York Times or Google Adwords. But one thing still separates Facebook, according to the Ogilvy report. There's one thing that STILL means your social media marketing messages should be fundamental different from other paid ads.

Personalizing B2B Sales Relationships at Scale

Marketers think in terms of campaigns and touch points, whereas traditional sales people think about one-to-one sales calls. This conflict is being riled up by a few factors:

• Less selling involves in-person contact (more demos are online or remote)
• There's an increased volume of leads coming from marketing
• It's hard to hire more bodies to interact with them with all leads

Tawheed Kadar has solved for these conflicts by making each sales person a mini marketing organization with his 5x5 Method, which he spoke about the Sales Hacker Conference today. Oh and if you haven't guessed yet, his company ToutApp will help you do this.

The 5X5 Method

5 Pre-Planned Templates

These are the five touches a sales person will need to make with an inbound lead. These can be emails, phone calls, tweets, or LinkedIn messages.

5 Days/Weeks/Months Apart

Each touch is going to be 5 days apart. You may elongate the schedule but unless the prospect is super engaged, you don't want to overwhelm them with touches too close together.

5 Strategic Touches

You'll give a little bit and take a little bit over five contacts with the prospect.

1. Introduce yourself: First touch is simple, don't ask for anything!
2. Provide value: Again–don’t ask for anything! Just provide information that the customer will value. Not about your product but about their needs.
3. Offer help: Next you offer them help with a need they have.
4. Engage for feedback: Build rapport.
5. “The Ask”: Only after all these touches, do you actually ask to meet.

Is This Sales Automation?

Yes and no. You’re using your staff to run a drip campaign but with their active involvement so you’re building a better funnel that engages sales people. You don’t want these emails to look like designed marketing emails. The email should look personal.

Best Practices for Touches

• Automate when possible: You may want to automate certain inbound lead collection funnels.
• {{Personalize}} as much as possible: Make sure your email system pulls in multiple data points to personalize the email touch points.
• Use Engagement Data to drive next steps: Front-load leads that visit your blog or pricing page. If your prospect is engaging you online, your rep needs to skip waiting 5 days and call now.
• Constantly iterate and test new messaging: Someone on the team needs to be testing new subject lines and messaging to create the ultimate text.

How You Can Provide Value to the Client in Your Touch

• Use LinkedIn: Research who you’re actually talking to and what the people above your lead are asking them to do.
• Check Glassdoor for Employee Reviews: Are employees leaving? Can you offer help in retention? What do employees complain about? Do you solve for that?
• Check Indeed for Jobs: Hey it looks you’re hiring VP of Sales, do you want my lead list of VPs of Sales that I just interviewed?
• Read their Blog: “Gateway to the soul of the company.” Incorporate what they care about into your touches.

Will This Work In Your Organization?

Check out the ToutApp blog for more sales education materials.

B2B Technology Sales Without a Sales Force

John Marcus runs a software company with a sales force of just himself–but he doesn’t touch 90% of the deals. In his work with Hubspot he studied the science behind sales conversions to build Bedrock Data, and here is how you can sell to businesses without a sales force.

MECHANISM OF ACTION

Starting with your product, look at your product will help sales reps FROM OTHER COMPANIES  to:

• Shorten their sales cycle
• Close bigger deals
• Increase their sales close rate

HOST RANGE

Find the other companies that can use your product to overcome objections from their prospects. In Bedrock Data's case, they integrate business databases so they went about finding business data companies.

VECTORING

Next you will infect organizations that can benefit from your product with your DNA. There are two vectors but only one that works:

• Corporate Exposure Vector: Emails about new features and partnerships are typically deleted.
• Direct Exposure: Find inside sales reps of your target companies that are crushing it on LinkedIn. Look for young, smiling, and socially connected sales reps. Send them information about your product and tell them how you can help them shorten their sales cycle, close bigger deals, and increase their close rate. Then you're going to offer to get on sales calls with them to assist. After you do a few calls, they're typically able to sell on your own so you can piggy back on someone else's sales force.

CONTAGIOUS

Start doing co-marketing and joint white papers. If other organizations see deals being closed because you were involved, they will pull you in to intro you. Make your materials easy and natural to share.

FROM THE SALES HACKER CONFERENCE

Notes are from the New York Sales Hacker Conference today in New York City. A few hundred sales managers gathered in a dark basement of a ping pong club with a crackly A/V system to listen to a mix of B2B sales content. Here's hoping they take the ~$300 per person for a better venue next year.

How to Clean a Customer Mailing List in Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac (De-dupe and Address Validation)

You would think I stopped advertising through direct mail in this age of fancy social media but direct mail still works. Here are my top tips on pulling a mailing list of your customers and then getting it ready for a mailing house using Microsoft Office.

Which Customers Should I Send To?

Obviously this is going to depend on the goals of your specific campaign but I like to consider the following:

• Geographic location: For most mailings, I limit my list to customers within 5 miles of my store. There is no use in sending a promotion to tourists who only visited your store once on vacation.
• Total revenue: Everyone has high and low value customers, perhaps try converting medium spenders to high spenders in your next campaign?
• Frequency of purchase: You may find that more frequent shoppers are more likely to respond to your mailing over single visitation high-spenders.
• Timing of purchases: If you're planning a holiday promotion, you might try contacting the customers who shopped with you during that last holiday season.

#1 Hide Irrelevant Data

Depending on how your list is pulled, you may have columns of information that you won't be using to make your mailing list decisions (customer numbers, phone numbers, etc.) Select those columns and Option-Click to hide them or go to Format > Columns > Hide.

#2 Freeze Your Header Row

If your list is more than a screen length long, it'll be easier to read if you freeze your header column with labels. This will allow you to see those labels no matter how far you scroll down. Select the cell under your row of labels and go to Window > Freeze Panes.

#3 Turn on Filters

Your mailing list likely has some entries with incomplete information (blank name, address, city, etc.) You're going to check for blank cells by filtering your data and sorting it. First select ALL of your data (if you leave any columns out, they will be mismatched with the rest of your data FOR ALL OF TIME.) Then go to the Data > Filter. Now you have nifty little inverted triangles at the top of each row.

#4 Filter for Incomplete Data

Go to your first nifty inverted triangle in your first column (typically name) and sort the list by ascending or descending. Then scroll to the bottom of your data and you'll see all the rows that are missing data. If you have the business name but not an individual in that business, your direct mail piece will likely end up in the trash. Mail rooms just don't know what to do with general mail that isn't addressed to a specific employee or department. Do this with all of your columns, delete rows with incomplete data until you've eliminated all the bad addresses. 

#5 Find & Replace Bad Data

Your data may have unhelpful cells filled with "NULL" or all your ampersands (&) were replaced by "•". Scroll through your data and see if there are any repeatable errors you need to find and replace. If you have complete cells of unhelpful data:

• Select the column with the replaceable data
• Hit Command-F
• Put the bad text in the "Find what:" box
• Click Replace and leave that box blank
• Then select "Find entire cells only" (if you don't you'll also erase anyone that happens to have "null" as part of their name or address)
• Hit Replace a few times to make sure it's working correctly
• Then hit Replace All to finish the job.

If you have strange text that has replaced normal characters you can put the bad text in the "Find what:" box and what it should have been in the "Replace with:" box and repeat the same steps (keeping "Find entire cells only" turned off).

#6 Duplicate Your List Before De-duping

It's a good idea to duplicate the list you're working before you do any major (or experimental) deletion. Go the bottom tab of the sheet you're working on and Option-click it to bring up the Move or Copy menu. Select your sheet and Create a copy to duplicate your list.

#7 Eliminate Exact Duplicates Automatically

Depending on how your list was pulled you may have duplicate customers on the list (and you don't want to spend the money sending them the same piece twice.) This will only work if the data you have is an exact duplicate. For example, if you have one row where the customer has put their apartment number and one row where they haven't, you'll have to wait until the next step to catch that.

• Select ALL of your data (if you forget any columns your data will be mismatched FOREVER and your mailing list will be ruined.)
• In your ribbon (the big menu at the top) go to Data and then Remove Duplicates.
• Select the columns that are most likely to have duplicate information. I like to select the columns with name and ZIP code. If the name and ZIP code match I have enough data to assume the customer is the same and therefore one entry should be eliminated.
• Select Remove Duplicates.

#8 Eliminate Partial Duplicates Manually

Your final check for duplicates uses conditional formatting to highlight possible duplicates for you, so you can scan down your list quickly.

• Go to the Home ribbon.
• Then select Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values...
• I prefer to select Format with: red border but you can use whatever you like before pressing Ok.

#9 Make the Final Cut

Before you spend mucho time scrolling down through your list manually to remove duplicates, you may want to narrow down your list even more. Think about cutting customers that are far away, don't spend enough, or you don't have recent addresses on.

#10 Do The Last Manual Check

Scroll down your mailing list and do a final check for issues like:

• If you have two entries for the same name, eliminate the entry with less address information.
• Delete customer nicknames or extra information that may be in your data.
• Anything else your database might have institutionally wrong with the mailing information.

#11 Create Your Control Group

To measure the effectiveness of your mailing, sort out at least 10% of the list and mark that as a control group. This will be a group of customers that fit the same buying patterns as the customers you mailed but did not receive the promotion. This will help you assess of the customers that you did mail how much buying would have happened without the promotion. You CAN'T just chop off the bottom of the list though, this must be a random sampling.

• Insert a new column at the front of the sheet by selecting the top cell left cell (like A1), then Insert>Cells and then Entire Column. 
• Select the the second cell in the new column (like A2) and enter "=RAND()" in the cell to insert a random number.
• Select the second cell in the new column (like A2) again. Then hold Shift, scroll to the bottom of your list and click the last cell with data in that column (like A19292) to select the entire column.
• With the entire random number column selected, go to Edit > Fill > Down to insert the "=RAND()" formula into every cell.
• Now that you have random numbers, use your automatic filters (upside down triangle at the top of each column) to sort the mailing list by ascending or descending random numbers.

You'll take the bottom 10% (or more) of your list into a new document. These customers will be your control group for tracking purposes.

14 Keys to Great Retail Merchandising

Today, I learned how boring all my store display ideas are from Bob Phibbs, "the Retail Doctor", at the Apple Specialist Conference in Austin.

Why Merchandise?

• It raises your average purchase amount by silently adding-on to every sale.

• Turns mission shoppers into browsers and makes them curious about what else you offer.

Great Merchandising...

• Is simple and fast to understand.

• Slows down a customer's eyes

• Is coherent and logical (you don't put diapers next to vodka)

• It groups products that a certain type of customers are likely going to buy (you put products for seniors in one display, not mixed with products for parents and teenagers)

What is the message you want to send?

• We have this in five colors?

• We have sales stuff?

• Here's the full picture of what you need.

4 Types of Bad Displays

• Illogical groupings of products that don't work together.

• Crammed displays with too many choices.

• Half empty displays where the fixture stands out more than the product.

• Add more signs (if the first signs didn't work, add more).

6 Types of Good Displays

• Complimentary displays: paper towels with window cleaner or waffles with pancake syrup.

• Coordinated displays: all the things you need to do "X" (all the accessories you need to paint a room).

• Environmental/lifestyle displays: Shows the products in use or reasons to buy the product visually. Garden bug spray with big panels on what type of damage bugs do and how to use the spray.

• One product type displays: Can be strong but are often dangerous. All the belts hung together are great if you're looking for a belt but you're going to skip it if you didn't intend to buy a belt.

• Stand out displays: Intrigue the mind by putting something unexpected. Hang 30 light bulbs and turn one on.

• Stop displays: Displays that make you stop to figure it out but don't have anything to do with the product you're selling.

How to Do Great Merchandising

• Start at the Front Door: Make a front window display that makes it clear there is something new (or arrange the old product in a way that makes it look different).

• Plan Inventory: Make sure you have inventory to support the sales of whatever you feature.

• Find one Thing to Unify: A theme or purpose that everything works together on.

• Build the Biggest Add-on: Accessorize a complete outfit.

• Pay Attention to Color: Add more color or coordinate colors if possible.

• Vary Heights: Put products at multiple levels. Products on counters encourage customers to touch them. Customers are more likely to buy anything they touch. Products on walls have less engagement.

• Consider Something Different: A "pig in the window" is something that engages a customer with color, movement, or oddity. Put a moving train in your window and people will watch it. Put a toilet in your window to sell waterproof iPhone cases. Generic signs kill good displays. If the copy doesn't provoke a reaction, you've failed.

• Lighting: Focus on what you want to sell the most. Show the customer where to look.

• Proper Signage Helps Educate Your Customer: Make the customer feel smart. Anytime a customer has a question or feels intimidated they won't buy.

• Sell the System: Put all the accessories you need together. All the ingredients for a recipe put together.

• Keep It Sparkling: Clean all the your displays daily. Clean your front doors hourly.

• Monitor Sales: Decode whether placement or product drove sales. Move a display every two weeks to different parts of the store and monitor the sales in different locations. You'll find you have hot spots and cold spots on the floor for placement.

• Clear Pricing: Don't make anyone guess what your products cost.

• Brand Your Signage: Young customers are likely to take pictures of fun displays, make sure your branding shows up with it.

New Trend: Video Holiday Cards - Bergdorf Goodman Goes to the Dogs

I received more video holiday cards than physical cards from businesses this year for the first time. Whether your business is trying to save trees or just preparing for the Postal Service to go out of business, a video holiday card might be right for you.

Tips For Spreading Your Business Message with a Video Card

• Set a budget: Although a video card is cheap to send out through email, you can spend much more producing a video than printing paper cards. Make sure to set a budget and find a video director that can work within it.
• What's the payoff?: The best holiday videos have a plot payoff for watching them. You know how the best commercials can make you want to cry in 30 seconds? Can you make your story pay off at the end? Watch Bergdorf Goodman's longer holiday video for their heartfelt ending. Or check out LivePerson's charity donation at the bottom of this entry.
• Keep it short: 30 seconds to 2 minutes is optimal
• Keep it agnostic: Unless you're sure all your customers celebrate Christmas, it's better to go for general Happy Holidays.
• Make it fun(ny) or unusual: If you want the video to be shared, make it fun or funny. On the unusual side, Tekserve's most successful viral video featured $60,00 worth of recycled iPods.
• The delivery method is the most important part (and often overlooked): Once you have the perfect holiday video card, the most important part is getting it watched. Make sure you consider the timing of sending your video to recipients, the holidays get busy and any non-essential message gets trashed. Can you create a great email message that will make them want to click-through? Will your recipients be able to view it from their mobile phones?
• Seed the sharing: If your holiday message is meant to reach potential customers as well as existing customers, reach out to target blogs and ask them to embed the video. Don't forget to upload it to your Facebook page and YouTube.

Bergdorf Goodman's Holiday Card

Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan, created a great holiday promotional video card by letting famous New York dogs lose in the store. Not only are cute pet videos more likely to be shared, but also I would argue that BG's target customers are dog owners. Because having a dog in Manhattan is a luxury, their shoppers are more likely to be pet owners. The fun footage of dogs running through the store gave them a great excuse to show off a lot more products than a typical commercial. Although I would have made the video shorter, the ending is the perfect heartfelt payoff that their target customers will love. If you check the audience analytics on YouTube, you'll see this video is most popular with women age 35-54 (their target customers).

Offering to Donate To Charity

With more businesses limiting gifts to employees, donating to charity on their behalf has become popular. LivePerson sent their customers an email asking them to visit the page screen-shot below and choose from one of twelve charities for a donation. This method aligns your organization with doing good while making your customers feel good. You'll notice LivePerson doesn't mention how much they will be donating so the bottom-line impact was totally up to them.

12 Things You Haven't Tried To Improve Your Website's SEO

"Best practices are things you should have done if you had thought of them first." If all your competitors are doing it already, you won't get the returns you're looking for by jumping in late. Try taking best practices from other industries and reusing them. This quote is from Byrne Hobart, who taught the Advanced SEO course at General Assembly that I attended last week.How to Advance Your Way Up the Blog HierarchyHere's how to work your way from nothing to a top-level blog or news source.

• Do a Google search for "your industry blog" and you'll find the most popular ones. Pick a highly-ranked blog that speaks to your prospects. Then use Google to show sites related to the highly-ranked blog by searching for "related:rankedblog.com." Less popular related blogs will be returned. Continue to do this until you find the least popular blogs with readership communities. Collect these into a list.
• Stalk your new blogger friends. Comment on every post they write on your industry and re-tweet their stuff. After a few weeks they'll start to recognize you as a loyal reader.
• Write a post they'll like on your blog and send it to them. For example, write a deeper-dive into a topic they cover or a clarification of something they wrote. If they repost your piece you're in! Plus you'll be the girl they turn to when they need a quote or clarification on your industry.
• Now use their repost of your content to trade up to more popular blogs. Most bloggers read all the blogs larger than theirs and a few sites less popular than theirs. Write an email to a more popular blog, "You may have seen my post on LesserBlog.com, I liked your related post, and so I write this post."
• Continue trading up until you reach the top blog in your industry.

Get More Shares By Giving Up CommentsYou can get more shares if you make sharing the only action available at the end of your post. When someone gets to the bottom of your post, they typically have a couple of choices: commenting, reading a related article, etc. If you make the only option sharing the article with their network, you'll get more shares. This works especially well with controversial content where your audience wants to add their input but can't because you've removed commenting. Google doesn't discern between people linking to your page because they disagree or agree with you.Fast Content Gets Shared FasterContent that is fast to read will get shared more often and more quickly. Shorter posts rise to the top of Reddit because Reddit takes the velocity of votes into account. So a photo that takes five seconds to read and react to will rise further than a well thought-out post that takes ten minutes to read. So if you have a long article, create an infographic of your top data from the post that you can share everywhere and then link back to your longer article.Get More Shares By Figuring Out Why Your Audience Really ReTweetsWhy do most people actually share your posts? They want to show off that they read your type of content (regardless of whether or not they do). This is why posts by Malcolm Gladwell are tweeted seconds after they're posted. Your audience wants to show off how smart they are for finding your content and sharing it with their friends (Facebook) or potential bosses (LinkedIn).Test Keywords Using AdWords Instead of SEO Because It's Cheaper (Really)Ranking on your keywords through organic search can take weeks and even months to climb to the top. You can buy the top slot through AdWords and check if the keywords you've chosen really convert before investing in a longer-term SEO strategy. Once your keyword terms move into organic search the conversion rate won't necessarily be the same but this is a great tactic to compare potential keywords against each other.Swap SEO Friendly Headlines In After Everything-Else Friendly HeadlinesSEO friendly headlines are stuffed with keywords that target searchers. Everything-else friendly headlines use a teaser proposition, controversial view point, or question to encourage click-throughs and shares. You can post the article with your teaser headline, get a lot of shares, and then switch it to your keyword stuffed headline later. Your article will retain it's popularity for being shared even after you change the headline.How A Print Ad Can Increase Your Search RankRun an ad campaign that tells your audience to search for "your company + what you do" on Google. If you get enough people searching for your brand name in conjunction with high-priority keywords, it will rise your search rankings. You'll be more likely to appear in the search suggestions for what you do. Coupon Cabin ran subway ads asking people to Google their name for coupons instead of listing their URL.Optimize Your Guest Blog BioWe all know that guest blogging (in both directions) will help bring credibility to your site. What you may not have thought of is optimizing the keywords used in your guest blog bio. Try to keyword stuff the link back to your company's site. So instead of "Jane Smith is Founder of Company.com" try "Jane Smith is Founder of the most popular widget company in New Jersey."Links Are ForeverWhen someone posts about your business but doesn't link to you, simply contact them and ask. Articles last just as long as the news cycle but links are forever.Use WordPress if You CanSimply put, search engines love WordPress. To solve the SEO drawbacks of WordPress, download the All in One SEO Pack.Use The Most SEO-Friendly URL For Your BlogYour blog's URL should be YourSite.com/Blog for maximum SEO benefit to your site. If you're in a "serious" business and the term "blog" isn't appropriate for your target audience, use YouSite.com/Articles or YouSite.com/Research.This post also appeared on Women 2.0's Blog For Female Entrepreneurs.

Creating Negative-Cost Marketing

Would you rather be the ad next to an article in the New York Times or the topic of the article? Would you rather buy ad spots on TV or be the TV show? These are the questions that Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, asks business owners to consider. TerraCycle recycles traditional trash into a large variety of consumer products. They make thousands from a self-published book, average 17 articles a day in various publications, and were the focus of a short-lived National Geographic Channel series.Mr. Szaky contends that creating the content, instead of marketing next to other people's content has saved him thousands and had a much larger impact than traditional marketing. My experience a previous supports his theories. I publish an eighty-page pocket guide to using your computer, which costs us fifty cents per piece to print but is more valued by our customers than any other promotional piece we've created. It saves our employees & customers time by being a great reference for common questions while advertising our expertise to the world.In the new age of marketing, trustworthy content will bring you more customers at a lower price than traditional ads ever could.Read TerraCycle's Quest to Create 'Negative-Cost' Marketing on the New York Times website.