New Article: Leading with Talent Development

Using talent management software packages to administer employee performance has suddenly become hugely popular. Within this new-found appreciation of the need to better address the management of human capital is the need to develop the actual talent within that resource pool. According to a recent report titled Human Capital Management: The CFO's Perspective, sponsored by CFO Research Services, 92 percent of those interviewed believe that human capital has a direct effect on customer satisfaction, 82 percent said it has an impact on profitability and 72 percent felt it shows up in innovation and product development.

Don’t Put Talent Development in a Corner

Talent development refers to the process of assessing the innate skills, interests and passions of employees and actively aligning them with a company's objectives. Frequently, talent development is relegated to a tab in the talent management software system alongside a yearly assessment or a one-day workshop on communication styles. When this happens, upper management misses out on a huge opportunity to fill needs with the available human resources.

Talent development should be of equal or greater importance to talent management. In a highly competitive race to hire and retain the best individuals, ignoring this component of human resources is a costly decision. The nature of people makes development necessary.

Self-Actualization Equals High Performance

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a very simple way to illustrate the need to have a talent development strategy. The theory’s familiar pyramid represents the five human psychological needs. It starts from the most basic, with physiological needs like food and water, and continues with safety, love and belonging, esteem and finally self-actualization. Of course, most employees get the first two levels fulfilled just from a basic paycheck.

In order to encourage people to become high-performing contributors to the organization, their other needs must be met too. This nurturing is often looked at as fuzzy or soft, but these actions can have the most concrete impact of any organizational initiative. In fact, problem-solving skills and creativity are found at the top of the pyramid in self-actualized individuals─the very ones you want to recruit and retain.

Providing the opportunity for individuals to learn about how they communicate, how they become stressed, how they approach working on a team and how they typically meet their psychological needs is not soft. These personal dynamics have a real impact on each employee’s engagement in the organization’s larger purpose. A cohesive program of talent development activities that addresses these needs and is part of a comprehensive plan for the long-term fulfillment of key positions in your company has become a critical aspect of integrating talent development with company vision and success.

Resources

• Best Practices in Talent Management Workforce.com in Workforce Management
• Towers Perrin-ISR. “Employee Engagement Underpins Business Transformation.” Towers Perrin-ISR Case Study, July 2008.

New Article: The Ebook Market Explosion

Ebooks are becoming increasingly popular options for many people. They are a smart choice for the environment and are easily accessible at any time from any place. While there is still a demand for printed books, ebooks will probably never completely replace printed books. The demand for ebooks exists and is growing.

Growth of the Ebook Market

In the past seven years, there has been tremendous growth in ebooks. The International Digital Publishing Forum makes it their business to track such growth. Their research shows that first quarter 2002 wholesale ebook sales of less than $2,000,000 in the United States grew to over $16,000,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008. Retail sales are estimated to be double these numbers. Japan’s ebook market in 2006 reported sales of over $58,000,000 USD for mobile phone ebooks and $68,000,000 USD for online ebook sales.

Demand for Ebooks

In today’s digital age, more and more people are getting information from portable media devices like their Kindle, iPod, laptop and even their cell phone or PDA. Ebooks are the perfect complement to such devices. Because most people who have these electronic items are rarely without them, it makes buying ebooks and accessing them fast and easy.

There is great potential in this market, as one of the most common complaints by ebook buyers is that there is simply not enough selection available. According to a 2006 survey, users of ebooks often find that when they search for a particular title that it is unavailable in the format they prefer. In addition, there are presently technology problems in regards to the format used for reading different ebooks. There is no industry standard and this is holding back the market’s growth. Ebook sellers who offer their books in a multi-platform format have a distinct advantage over other companies in the marketplace. Reducing or removing digital rights management would greatly help growth also.

Potential markets to expand in ebook selling:

• people living abroad, for whom shipping books is costly
• travelers who wish to carry multiple books with them
• individuals who are physically handicapped and don't travel well to bookstores
• those who want to read at night without disturbing their partner
• researchers who need access to multiple books simultaneously

Market Acceptance for Ebooks

By looking at the steady growth of ebook sales worldwide, one can see that market acceptance of ebooks is growing. While initially rejected for multiple reasons, the convenience and ease of ebook use are making them a more popular option for many people. It is unlikely that ebooks will completely replace print books in our lifetime. However, when and if issues like digital rights management and multi-platform formats are standardized, market acceptance will skyrocket and sales will grow at an exponential rate.

In the multi-billion dollar industry of book sales, ebook sales to date are small, but growing. In 2007, the Association of American Publishers reported sales of $25 billion. Ebook sales statistics show that the market acceptance of this new product is nowhere close to its ultimate potential. The book industry itself is huge; therefore the potential for revenue in ebooks is also huge. Ebooks are already very popular with a certain segment of the population. With time and some changes to laws that are likely to happen, ebooks are sure to become an even more popular alternative to printed books and those who are a part of the industry will benefit greatly.

• http://www.tedgoas.com/docs/goasThesis.pdf
• http://www.openebook.org/doc_library/surveys/IDPF_eBook_User_Survey_2006.pdf
• http://www.openebook.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm
• http://www.publishers.org/main/IndustryStats/indStats_02.htm

New Article: The Environmental Impact of Ebooks and Printed Books

The impact ebooks have on the environmental is far less than that of printed books in a variety of ways. According to the research study conducted by Consuming Australia, for every dollar we spend, 720 grams of greenhouse gas is emitted into the air. It takes 28 liters of water to publish a traditional paper back book.

Ebooks are becoming more and more popular amongst those who have a deep concern for the environment. Why? Publishing books using digital technology save trees. The information is written in a word document and stored on the Internet or a file server. Ebooks can be easily downloaded or distributed in an email over the World Wide Web. . Ebook do not take up any physical storage space on book shelves. Since you do not need physical transportation to distribute eBooks into the marketplace it means big savings for the environment.

Carbon Foot Print of Printed Books Affects the Environment

A printed book makes a much bigger carbon footprint than an eBook. Let me explain further. Every aspect of making a traditional book impacts the environment, here’s how:

• The Ink and paper used to create a book
• Energy used to create publish a book
• Packaging of the book for transport
• Cost of transportation to a warehouse and bookstore

For you as a shopper, buying a book impacts the environment by the energy consumption and gas emission from your drive to the bookstore to the bag it is placed in. This doesn’t even begin to consider the energy consumed in the marketing of the book and the running of the store itself.

Gas and Greenhouse Emissions of Printed Books

For every gallon of gas you use on your trip to and from the bookstore, you create 22 pounds of greenhouse emissions. This number is even higher for the trucks and airplanes used in transporting the goods to the store. The bookstore uses energy to light the store, to climate control it and much more in order to sell the books you buy. Marketing means additional environmental impact from lighted signs to brochures, ads and pamphlets. Each makes a carbon footprint. Even if you skip the bag it is placed in at the sales counter or order a book online, there are still many environmental effects of the books themselves like packaging paper and materials.

How Many Trees Does it take to Make a Book?

About 30 million trees are used annually in the making of books. Attempts have been made by the publishing industry to be more environmentally friendly. Books made with recycled paper have made less than half the impact on the environment as ones that have new paper in them. A Composite Environment Impact Index, CEII, was comprised to quantify the carbon footprint of a variety of things. Recycled paper production uses 170.07 pounds. Paper pulp made from wood makes 298,562 pounds of impact. Regardless of whether a book is from recycled or virgin paper, it makes a much bigger environmental impact than an ebook.

Other Environmental Factors of Printed Books and Ebooks

Another environmental aspect to consider is what happens to printed books with time. Unfortunately, when books come to the end of their usefulness, people don’t always choose to do the right thing. There are 37 million tons of paper thrown away on a yearly basis that could be reused and recycled. Many of those books that end up in landfills are paperbacks which have never been read. The cover is torn off and the retailer gets credit for not having sold the book, while the remainder of the book typically goes in the trash.

Ebooks consume energy in order to be read. If you choose to invest in an electronic reader, there is the environmental impact of the production and purchase of that product to consider. However, a reader is used with countless ebooks, making it a product that reduces waste because it is being used over and over. The amount of energy consumed in the reading of an ebook is minimal when compared with even the commute to the bookstore.

Ebooks stand out as an environmentally good choice. Anytime an ebook can replace a printed book, the earth breathes a little easier.

• http://envimpact.org/
• http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/shopping_is_cos.php
• http://envirostats.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/fiber_cycle_communications_deck.pdf
• https://www.greenpressinitiative.org/about/bookSector.htm
• http://www.cutyourfootprint.com/index.php

Working on launching Typexperience - online library of personality type video's

I'm launching a video sharing community (think youtube) for people interested in personality type theories (think myers-briggs, keirsey, disc, enneagram..etc).

http://www.typexperience.com

Someone asked what the mission was...(my response below)

The ultimate goal is to create a public library with real videos of real people. I think when you're first learning about personality type theory it can be more efficient to watch 20 videos of a specific type and start learning their patterns then to guess on 1 person or even a few. The smaller sample doesn't necessarily cover the differentiation within the types and can lead to stereotyping. By having this library with different people--gender, culture, generation, and possibly even context--we can see the entire spectrum of the type.

Because there are so many people mistyped out there there is the argument that some people might be presenting a type in the incorrect way. This is where the community aspect comes in. People can vote, comment--or even post response videos. Hopefully it generates dialogue about the different personality type's behavior and increases learning among a large group of viewers (the world).

New Book Just released: The Secret to Successful Internet Marketing

Now available...

The Secret to Successful Internet Marketing

Acclaimed internet marketing strategist and design consultant, Kris Kiler, wants to help you use the Internet effectively to get more business. Billions of dollars are spent each year in "scattershot" advertising all over the Internet. This money is often wasted because little to no effort is put into the architecture of a clear and coherent process to sell prospects the advertised product or service. By presenting the fundamentals of a new approach to Internet marketing, Kris introduces you to a simple and practical system that can provide bottom-line results to using the Internet effectively in your marketing strategy. He wants you to be successful.

Who's reading it?

• Marketers who are conducting email campaigns or using Google AdWords to promote products and services and want to maximize their ROI are reading this book.
• Social networking enthusiasts who are writing buzzworthy posts and want to find a way to capitalize on their effort are reading this book.

This book is not going to solve every problem you have (remember it's only $20) but it will get you up to speed on the things you should start working on today to imrove your results immediately.

This includes small business owners who wear the marketing hat and log-in to their AdWords account daily. This book will give you something else to do for at least a day or two.

This book can help you if

• you have a single offer (product or service) that you are trying to sell over the Internet.
• you want to build up your email list in order to sell a product or service via email.
• you have an established business and want to create a separate web presence for a single product or service.
• you been in business and want to expand into other markets but might not want to relate the product or service to your current business.
  

This book uses centuries-old success principles integrated with marketing fundamentals to make you a better marketer—which means attracting the right prospects and selling more products and services.

Who's buzzing?

Scott Campbell is the Director of Training of 5D Leadership. He says...

"Where was this book when I first started using the Internet to market my business ten years ago? I just finished reading it and I have already been able to implement several ideas. Kiler has written a gem that every entrepreneur needs to read."

---

Patti Serano is the Founder of The Entrepreneur Club. She says...

“How well the masses need this kind of information today. This book is perfect for the person or business that needs to come up to the times.”

---

Beatriz Zayas is the Director of Valley College Consulting. She says...

"Reading Ready, Aim, Capture! opened my eyes to the ways in which I am not actively seeking my potential clients and the common assumptions that having a general web-page is enough for people to seek information about our services and products. I now realize the importance of landing pages and the role they play in our fast-paced information online. I will definitely encourage all small business owners to learn and educate themselves in ways in which they can use landing pages in their overall marketing effort."

---

Sheila Dixon is the Founder of WBIS. She says...

"Thanks to the tools, tips and resources in Ready, Aim, Capture!, the WBIS landing page receives consistent and measurable results. If you have a website, your business needs this system to land clients and convert them to lifetime members."

No waiting, no delays - You get instant access to this book
24 hours a day - 365 days a year!

What's inside?

Preface

Chapter 1 What Is a Landing Page?

Why Are Landing Pages Important?
What about Blogging?
I Sell through Amazon.com I Don’t Need a Landing Page
Next Generation Marketing Strategy
Action Item

Chapter 2 Building an Effective Landing

Exploration of the Eight Essential Landing Page Elements
Adapt Your Approach
Action Items

Chapter 3 Focus on Your Prospect

Focus, Focus, Focus
Define and Segment Your Target Prospects
Use Keywords to Match Your Prospects
Do Your Research
Action Items

Chapter 4 Converting Prospects Into Customers

Create Your Conversion Process
Generate Compelling Sales Copy
Use Psychological Triggers
Never Lose Focus
Action Item

Chapter 5 Driving Traffic To Your Landing Page

Search Engine Optmization (SEO)—Organic Search Results
Search Marketing—Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Social Media Optimization—Generating Backlinks
Email Marketing
Action Items

Glossary

Resources

Books
Article Distribution Services
E-Commerce/Payment Processors
Email Marketing
Marketing Support Information
Outsourcing
Press Release Distribution Services
Search Marketing
Self-Publishing Resources
Stock Photos

Strategic Marketing for Driving Traffic to Your Online Business

Strategic Marketing for Driving Traffic to Your Online Business
by Kris Kiler

A recent study, which used web searches in 75 different languages to sample the Web, determined that there were over 11.5 billion web pages in the publicly indexable web as of the end of January 2005.* And you thought writing your marketing copy was tough? The competition to bring people to your site can seem incredibly daunting. Consider the fact that Google posted record advertising incomes of almost ten and a half billion dollars in 2006.**

So what is a consistently effective way to drive traffic to your website for the longterm?

The answer: backlinks.

Generating backlinks to your website is a highly effective way to build traffic. Backlinks are inbound links to your website. Search engines use the number of backlinks to a web page as one of the indicators for how popular that page is on the Internet. In this article, I’ll review five ways to generate backlinks to your website. The first category of backlinks—Pointers—are the type of backlink I consider superficial, but necessary, in the longterm battle for web traffic. These pointers are usually simple hyperlinks with your domain name or company name associated with them. The second type—Positioners—are links associated with unique content specifically focused on positioning you or your business as the expert in a specific area of expertise.

Quick note: I do not include blogs in this article because while they do generate backlinks—they should be included in the domain of customer relationship management and corporate communications and is a platform of communication of its own. Blogs will be a vehicle for distributing your press-releases and articles as well as other corporate communications and will generate backlinks. But seeing blogs for the purpose of backlinks is missing out on the larger picture.

5 Strategies to Generate Backlinks to Your Website
Type 1: Pointers
1. Viral Marketing
Promote your website by placing ideas or content within online communities with the hope that they will spread virally. This includes the use of video on websites such as YouTube, community sites such as MySpace, blogging using tools such as Blogger.com, news websites with emphasis on user votes for relevance on sites such as Digg, or discussion groups specific to your target prospect. You can find potential discussion groups on Yahoo Groups or Orkut.


2. Link Exchange
A Link Exchange can either be a large group that is organized to provide its members with backlinks (often called a web ring) or simply you searching for sites that have complimentary service offerings and asking them to place a link to your website in exchange for you placing a link on your site to their site.

3. Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, classify, share, and search Internet bookmarks. This is a great way to build backlinks to your website that can increase the popularity and importance of your page resulting in higher search rankings. I recommend integrating AddThis to your website.

Type 2: Positioners
4. Free Press Release Distribution
Press Release Distribution can be a very quick and easy way to generate links to your website. There are many sites that offer free service as a means to collect ad revenue and you should take advantage of them. You can use a service such as Guru.com to hire a professional to create your press release or you can try writing it yourself. If you choose to write the press release yourself, I recommend going to PRWeb and finding a press release that is similar to what you’ll need. This doesn’t necessarily mean a competing product but if you are selling a sports energy drink then you may want to research press releases for new commercial offerings for beverages.

Here is a list of free press release sites:

Recommended
• www.Free-Press-Release.com
• www.1888PressRelease.com
• www.TheOpenPress.com

Other Free Press Release Sites
• www.PR.com
• www.PRLeap.com
• www.OpenPR.com
• www.I-Newswire.com
• www.AddPR.com
• www.PressReleaseSpider.com
• www.PRLog.com
• www.Pressbox.co.uk

5. Distributing Articles
Distributing an article written by you and on a topic related directly to your website can both help generate backlinks to your site and help you become an established expert in that particular topic. Most article directories that you will submit your article to will only require a minimum of 500 words. I suggest trying to take the time to write your own articles. Creating your own piece of work only fuels the desire to make the efforts necessary to get people to your website.

As stated previously, you can hire a professional through Guru.com to write your article costing you somewhere between $50 and $150 depending on the quality of professional you hire. If you choose this route, make sure you go through the article to make sure that article conveys your unique identity. There’s nothing wrong with hiring someone to write your article but make sure that it has “you” embedded within the content and it conveys the concepts according to your unique perspective.

Either way, whether you hire someone to write your article or write one yourself, I highly recommend hiring an editor to review your article for errors.

Here is a list of article directories you can submit your article to:

Recommended paid services:
• www.ArticleMarketer.com
• www.ArticleTrader.com

Free do-it-yourself sites
• www.EzineArticles.com
• www.GoArticles.com
• www.ArticleAlley.com
• www.ArticleDashboard.com
• www.ArticleCity.com
• www.Amazines.com
• www.ArticleIntelligence.com
• www.ArticleInternet.com
• www.FreeFindArticles.com
• www.1888Articles.com
• www.ArticleBlotter.com
• www.ArticleBaseCamp.com

You can also submit your articles to SpeakProfit™ (business-related) or SpeakGoodness™ for free. Both of these sites offer free accounts for you to write your articles and blog.

Use the five strategies for longterm results. Don’t get caught up in worrying about overnight success. Keep writing content and continue to build your network. In the marketing game, slow and steady wins the race. As long as you keep moving and taking actions—no matter how small they may seem—you will see results.

Action Item: Review your social media optimization strategy. How often can you distribute articles, press releases, and blog entries? Create your strategy and start executing today.

Notes
* http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~asignori/web-size/
** http://investor.google.com/fin_data.html (the actual figure was $10,492,628,000)

©2008 Kris Kiler. All Rights Reserved.

Building An Effective Landing Page: Marketing for Your Online Business

Building An Effective Landing Page: Marketing for Your Online Business
by Kris Kiler

As an online marketer, you need to develop a system for short-term gains and long-term opportunities to provide for future sales and marketing. You can envision your landing page as a hub—like an airport. Your goal is to have traffic sent to a single hub and when people arrive, there can be a variety of new opportunities presented to them.

If your landing page is successful and gets the prospect to complete the offer, they can be rerouted to another page that presents them with yet another compelling value proposition. This new hub may be a list of affiliate offers, another product, or a newsletter opt-in form.


EXPLORATION OF THE 8 ESSENTIAL LANDING PAGE ELEMENTS
Let’s review the essential elements you will need for your landing page:

1. Value proposition / offer—in the form of a sales prompt or opt-in form
2. Conversion process—process prospect will go through in order to complete the purchase or subscription
3. Marketing copy—either short or long form using psychological triggers
4. Web page design—the design of your landing page (i.e.; website)
5. Product imagery—3d images of product or headshot of author or service provider
6. Transaction utilities—auto responder, shopping cart software
7. Elements to reduce anxiety—testimonials, satisfaction guarantee, third party credibility indicators
8. Analytics—data gathering script


1. Value Proposition / Offer
What will you be offering your prospects? A newsletter? A report? A training seminar? You will want to define clearly what you are offering. Complete the following statement. It will be your guiding statement as you move through this report.

I am offering a/an _____________________ on the topic of ________________________

in order to help ___________________with their problem of ________________________

Examples:

1. I am offering a report on the topic of creating and marketing landing pages in order to help marketers with their problem of achieving sales for their offering over the Internet.

2. I am offering an online software product on the topic of tracking advertising profits in order to help Internet marketers with their problem of making money with online advertising.

3. I am offering an employee training on the topic of leadership development in order to help organizations with their problem of managing talent development through the leadership pipeline.


NOTE: The goal of any landing page is to complete a successful transaction between you and your prospect.


2. Conversion Process
This is the process the prospect will go through in order to complete the buying process or subscription. Where are they coming from? When they get to your landing page, are they going to click “buy now” and go to a shopping cart? Are they going to click “subscribe now” and be taken to a form that requires them to enter their email and other personal information? Will you then require them to check their email in order to double opt-in by reconfirming their requested subscription? This means that you need to think holistically about your value proposition. Thinking holistically about your Value Proposition involves two key elements: continuity and congruence.* Continuity means that each step in the conversion process either states or supports the Value Proposition.** Congruence means that every element of your page either states or supports the Value Proposition (Design, Copy, Images, Colors, Logo, Price).*** Section 4 will provide more detail and concrete suggestions on how to enhance your conversion process.

3 & 4. Marketing Copy / Web Page Design
Creating effective marketing copy and web page design, can be difficult hurdle to overcome if your natural talents or skills don’t support them. You should be able to find a professional to write your copy and a professional to design your page in the same place. They require different skill-sets and should be treated as such.

There are many places on the Internet where you can find a marketing professional and website designer to get the work done. Guru.com and Elance Online are the two leading providers of project submission sites to receive bids on your project from freelance professionals. Make sure you leave your project budget confidential and communicate with the professional so you can find the person who you will be able to collaborate with the best. Often times, the lowest bidder will end up costing you time and possibly more money if they don’t perform to your expectations.

5. Product Imagery
Proverbs to the contrary, everyone does judge a book by its cover. This is why you will want to invest in having a professional create a three-dimensional image of your product or a logo for your newsletter or something visual that is associated with your offer. As with selling anything, you are selling yourself. It would be wise to take a good picture of yourself or again consider hiring a professional to take one and add it to your landing page.

6. Transaction Utilities
An auto responder can be an important tool to your customer relationship building. The old adage is true, “The fortune is in the follow-up.” If you use an auto responder, following-up with customers that purchase your product or sign-up for your newsletter can be automated and make your follow-up emails more time-efficient. AWeber is a very popular service for setting up auto responders that you will want to research.

If you’re offering a product for sale, you will need to sign-up for a shopping cart service so your customers have a way to check out securely. There are a handful of popular shopping cart services and some use PayPal as a means to process payment so you’ll want to have your PayPal account created and verified before you start researching the others. TradeBit, ClickBank, 1ShoppingCart, and 2CheckOut will all allow you to make your transactions quick and secure.

7. Elements to Reduce Anxiety
Reducing the anxiety your prospect feels when they visit your site is critical to completing a successful transaction between you and your prospect. There are three simple ways you can reduce anxiety and reassure your prospects that it is safe to conduct business with you; testimonials, providing a satisfaction guarantee, and posting third-party credibility indicators such as BBB Online or HackerSafe.

8. Analytics
If you are part of a large corporation, your website will likely already have an analytic tool. If you are a smaller marketer, visit Google Analytics to sign-up for a free account. Google Analytics offers a wide array of features including; integration with your Google AdWords account; multiple-users; visitor trending and loyalty; detailed traffic reporting (referring sites, search engines, and keywords); and more. It’s an invaluable tool to making decisions to alter your landing page marketing strategy.


ADAPT YOUR APPROACH
It is important to experiment with the design of your landing page and the execution of your marketing strategy. Don’t hesitate to test out different tactics until you find the right mix that matches your approach with your prospect. Some marketers have success with short copy and an opt-in system that provides free information in exchange for personal information and others have success with long copy and the sale of a product ranging in price from $7 to $700. It is critical to understand that whatever approach you decide to use, your landing page will need to be focused with a single goal in mind—getting the prospect to respond positively to your offer. This requires you to focus your efforts on creating a system for a targeted audience and adapting your approach until your success exceeds your expectations.


ACTION ITEMS
1. Use Guru.com or Elance to find a marketing copywriter (or try yourself).

2. Use Guru.com or Elance to find a web designer that has experience in landing page design. http://www.kriskiler.com

3. Research transaction utilities—online delivery systems, auto-responders, and shopping carts.


Notes
*, **, *** Marketing Experiments Journal: Landing Page Optimization Monday, 05 November 2007

©2008 Kris Kiler. All Rights Reserved.