Marketing and Social Media News

4 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Becoming An Entrepreneur

1. Are you ready to work harder than you ever have?

As an entrepreneur, you will most likely work harder and longer than ever before. True entrepreneurs aren’t only putting in 40 hours a week and then calling it a long week; they are more than likely doubling the hours they had at their regular jobs.

The best part about working that hard and that much is you’re working towards something that you are passionate about. You’re working towards what you’re creating and what you will be able to call your own.

Working for someone else can be satisfying in a certain sense, but you are still working towards a goal and building a company that is not your own. Working for yourself means ownership, and creating, from the ground up, what is yours.

2. Are you ready for the obstacles ahead?

Being an entrepreneur and following your own path has its own set of obstacles. Tough obstacles. In a 40-hour work week, you faced obstacles, but usually on a smaller scale. The obstacles you face with a normal job can be missing a deadline or messing up a sale, but it’s not life-threatening. The obstacles you will face as an entrepreneur can be life-threatening in the sense of, if you fail or quit, you or your family could lose everything. If you don’t make it through the obstacles as an entrepreneur, you could easily ruin your life and have nothing to show for it. But overcoming the obstacles of entrepreneurship will reap some of the biggest rewards.

3. Are you ready to be your own boss?

Being a full-time entrepreneur means you set your own schedule, make your own hours, and do your own thing whenever you want. That sounds pretty exciting, right? Just make sure you don’t get too comfortable with that idea. Everything you do as an entrepreneur will affect your results and your success. If you constantly procrastinate and get complacent, you will see the same thing happen in your business and in your life.

4. Are you ready to have fun?

Despite all of the hard work and different challenges you will face as an entrepreneur, you will still have fun. The best part is seeing you slowly progress and build a company or a brand from the ground up. At eye level, it doesn’t seem like too much fun with all of the hard work and dedication, but if you take a step back and look what you have created, you will feel accomplished and it will only motivate you to keep moving forward.

Entrepreneurship takes a lot of effort and dedication, but it’s amazing. Are you ready for it?

 Source: http://tcat.tc/1oIV2aZ

What Your Favorite Social Media Network Says About You

“You are what you eat,” or so the old saying goes, but I’m pretty sure it’s high time we update that adage to “You are what you tweet.” Whether you want to admit it or not, the things you get up to online say a ton about who you really are as a person. Read on to find out what your favorite social media network says about you:

Instagram

If you had to describe yourself in three words, you’d say: “Foodie. Adventurer. Storyteller.” You can’t remember the last time you ate a meal without organizing the items on your plate in a particular way. Your fantasize about quitting your office job, taking a cab to the airport, and never looking back. You know a lot about angles and lighting and teeth-whitening products. Your most overused saying is, “We should totally get together soon! I’ll text you!” You dream in shades of Perpetua.

Facebook

You’ve got friends in low places, high places, and downright bizarre places… And you always know where they are at any given moment because they’ve all “checked in” on Facebook. Duh. You believe that everyone has the right to hear your opinion. Your 2016 New Year’s resolution was to stop getting so invested in other people’s problems. You haven’t had much success keeping that resolution, unfortunately.

Snapchat

In your world, the weekend starts on Thursday night. You can’t remember the last time you turned down an invitation of any kind—you is an “up for anything” kind of person. You’re maybe a wee bit “much” for most people’s tastes, but you couldn’t care less, to be honest. You would describe your personal style as “Miley Cyrus meets Instagram model meets Blossom.”

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is your favorite social media network because it’s the only one you participate in. You simply can’t fathom why anyone would be so foolish as to have any part of their personal lives on the Internet for public consumption. Don’t they know that employers have Google, too?

Twitter

No one would ever accuse you of beating around the bush. You’re a straight shooter, and you like to keep things short and sweet. You aren’t afraid to call people out on their bullshit. There’s nothing you love more than a rousing debate, and you are well-versed in the world of Internet acronyms. You always have a dozen projects on the go, but you can’t seem to follow through with any of them. Your current undertaking? Writing a screenplay about a woman who stumbles upon a political cover up in action and live-tweets the entire thing.

 Source : http://bit.ly/1LmeWnj

What Is the Best Social Media Platform for Driving Traffic?

There almost too many social media accounts to count at this point.  Everyone that has taken at least a vague interest in putting their business out to the public has jumped onto Facebook.

Whether you do Facebook ads or just use Web or foot traffic to drive visitors to your Facebook Page, being on FB is almost a prerequisite. 

So this article is not about Facebook per say, it is really about knowing your demographic and the platforms at which are most valuable and can send targeted viral traffic to your website.

Tumblr

My choice for creating shareable GIFs and funny memes that can send a large amount of reblogs, likes etc to your post.  The traffic that you get from Tumblr may not be the highest quality as with the type of viral shares that happen, not everyone that shares your post (hopefully you linked back to your website) will visit your site, and those that do may not be your target market.  Here is an example of a tumblr post that generated 535 notes and sent 53 viewers to the website that put that post out. Now, these funny gifs have little to do with “web design” but the title of the post “can’t touch my web design” was followed up with MC Hammer doing the Can’t touch me dance. And dancing dogs etc.  So that is rather funny.  Tumblr is a great platform for driving traffic.  If you create shareable, viral content like this, you can gain lots of visits and notes and shares that will help with strengthening the power of that Do Follow Link from Tumblr.

Reddit

A very difficult platform to master.  Shares or posts are voted up or down with Karma points.  If you are deliberately trying to make self-promotional shares for the aim of driving traffic to your sight without providing value first, well then you will most likely get harassed by other Redditors or booted completely.  Here is a great getting started guide for reddit. If your post is helpful and gets upvoted a bunch, you can get loads of traffic from Reddit.  This traffic can be very niche specific and targeted if your post was in a very niche part of Reddit.

Facebook

Yeah I know boring right?  Well Facebook Ads are still one of the best ways to really drill down and get in front of those targeted potential customers.  You think all that data that you put up about yourself in college was just so your friends could know that you love Tommy Boy and that you love wakeboarding?  Well maybe back in 2004 it was, but now that data is harvested for the (almost) sole intent of marketing things to you.  I do not market via Facebook ads currently but have dabbled with the interface and it is extremely targeted and for that I think, this is the king for paid social traffic.

Source : http://bit.ly/1XsLs8G

Automate social media

There are a few tools and strategies I've found that help automate social media so I can focus on growing my business. If that sounds like a plan, then give these seven techniques a try.

1. Social media automation software and apps

The easiest way to automate social media is by using automation software and apps. These include Hootsuite, Buffer, SproutSocial, HubSpot, Social Oomph and Social Flow. Each tool may have unique features of their own, but essentially they all allow you to schedule social media posts in advance and monitor your accounts when someone mentions your brand or leaves a comment.

If you’re just starting out, select just one tool and experiment with it by scheduling a couple of updates. I personally use Buffer and really like it. Most of the tools above have apps so that you can stay up-to-date with your social media accounts while on the go.

I also like using Brand24 to find out who is talking about my company online. This is a social listening tool that shows me every person that mentions my brand both on social media or a blog post. They don't do any social posting but the social listening feature is amazing. You can then acknowledge these mentions and thank people publicly.

2. Fill in the gaps

Automation tools like Hootsuite can be a real timesaver. But, you can take that automation to the next level by using tools like Zapier and IFTTT. Basically, these resources make it possible for apps, systems and websites to talk to each other. For example, you could create a "zap" that automatically posts new WordPress posts into your Facebook page.

IFTTT gives you the ability to create "recipes" so that you can sync your online profiles or Google Calendar with social media so that you never forget a birthday. The possibilities are endless. Check out this Buffer post to help you get started with IFTTT.

3. Sync your blog

You’ve worked pretty hard on that blog post or creating that infographic. Why not ensure that it’s going to be seen by your friends and followers on social media? If you use WordPress, this is pretty easy to do since there are more than enough plugins that allow you to add social share buttons onto your page or automatically post on social media whenever you publish a new article.

However, you can also sync your blog content and social media updates in advance with a tool like CoSchedule. This handy service lets you plan out your editorial calendar in conjunction with the social media channel that you want the content to be shared on. Remember, not all types of content will work on all social media channels. Share content on the channels where you know your fans will see it. I find that the content that does super well on Twitter doesn't do as well on Facebook for my audience. My Google+ audience likes more in depth articles while my Twitter likes short nuggets of advice. Test out and see what your audience likes and then automate it as much as possible.

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4. Recycle evergreen content

Unless you literally started a blog last week, there’s a very good chance that you have some old blog posts in your archives. While it wouldn’t make much sense to share an article that discussed the hottest marketing trends of 2010, you could share evergreen content.

Evergreen content is timeless content that is still relevant. You could go through your archives, or you could also use a WordPress plugin like Revive Old Posts to simplify the process. There is also a killer tool that I use called MeetEdgar that allows you to publish a post and then automatically recycle your top posts several times on a schedule.

5. Tweet multiple times

While you don’t want to be the person who is flooding your fans' feeds with the same link to a recently published article, there’s also no rule saying that you can’t post that multiple times. In fact, the most effective Twitter users tweet 3 times per day. Even if you only send out the same content, you’re increasing your chances of it getting noticed by a different audience.

If you look at your audience and get to know them you'll find that they are from all over the world. This means that whenever you tweet, you'll have followers online. I like to setup a schedule for tweeting several times a day at specific times. I then go online and find the best content (mainly motivational quotes as they do super well as you can see from my Twitter stream) and schedule them out over the coming months. This allows me to spend two to three hours once every three months finding good quotes. Keep in mind that you can always post something important to social media whenever you want. This is just scheduling out so when you get busy, you don't look inactive.

6. Curate content

Social media isn’t just about sharing content that you’ve created. It’s also about sharing other people’s content. Thankfully, curating is easier than ever with the help of those automation tools that you’ve been using. For example, Hootsuite gives you the option to discover suggested content that you’re interested in based on keywords. Buffer allows you to create a posting schedule based on updates from within your network.

Newsfeeds like Feedly, dlvr.it and Scoop.it can also be used to curate and share relevant content. But, if you need a more robust content curation tool, there’s no better option than Curata.

7. Focus on one task when you have down time

Finally, you have to realize that you can’t automate 100% of your social media activity and have it be exactly what a dream account would look like. If you want to have a huge strong following, automation won't ensure this. There needs to be moments when you have an actual interaction with customers, fans or followers. And, trust me, people can easily notice when an account is basically a robot. Instead of getting overwhelmed, focus on accomplishing one task whenever you have some down time.

This could be anything from responding to or leaving comments, personally sharing updates or refreshing your profile. You don’t necessarily have to do this every 30 minutes, but try finding a little bit of time each day or each week to give your account a human touch. I find that the more personal touch I give my account the more real I am to my followers. This gains their trust and with their trust you can make a more powerful impact online.

Source ; http://on.mash.to/1PqKt3x

5 Essential Search Trends That Will Impact Online Revenue In 2016

What will search marketers need to focus on in the coming year to stay ahead of the curve? Columnist Jim Yu explores five trends to keep an eye on.

The search and content marketing world has undergone some major changes during 2015. The stage has been set for a shift away from producing content for its own sake. Instead, there is a trend towards the use of search and social data to guide content creation. This development will be a critical part of boosting engagement for brands and helping their content attract the desired audience.

Although the content itself has a central role to play in the conversion of customers, the importance of the more technical side of search optimization should not be overlooked. The industry maturation has also impacted where brands need to focus their efforts on the behind-the-scenes tasks that help to drive content forward and into the limelight.

Here are five SEO trends brands should pay close attention to as they move into the New Year.

1. Mobile Apps Will Need To Be Optimized

Mobile apps are likely to become an increasingly significant factor for search and brand exposure in 2016. The year 2015 already saw mobile searches overtake desktop searches, and the use of mobile apps has been growing. These apps are going to become essential for the mobile user experience.

Any doubt about the importance of apps can quickly be put to rest by noting that 52 percent of all time spent on digital media is consumed by mobile apps. Also, 42 percent of all mobile sales generated by the top 500 merchants came through mobile apps.

To keep customers engaged with the brand, these apps need to be optimized. Well-designed mobile apps should align with the organization and the brand message that you are promoting.

Remember that when people are searching for apps in the app store, they are just going to be seeing the icons with minimal information. All images used with the apps, particularly the icon, need to be visually engaging and encourage people to click to learn more.

As the app begins to find users, make sure to keep an eye on the ratings and reviews. If customers start to complain about any particular errors or usage struggles, then correct the problem right away and let people know that the issue has been addressed.

2. Structured Data Will Become Even More Significant

In 2015, Google announced the usage of their new machine-learning system, known as RankBrain. This A.I. technology has been designed to better understand the intent of searches. Google says that it has been particularly helpful when the search engine faces a query it has not seen before. This ranking factor has quickly become prominent, as the search engine giant claims that it is the third most important ranking signal in their algorithm.

These developments indicate that A.I. is likely to become an even more significant factor in 2016 and beyond. As Google and the other search engines are able to better incorporate machine learning into their algorithms, they can potentially develop an intelligent algorithm that can learn what customers are looking for and maximize their user experience by showing the best possible sites.

On a technical side, to anticipate this development, brands will need to focus on structured data. Structured data markup, such as that found on schema.org, helps websites communicate with search engines by precisely describing what is on the page rather than leaving it up to the spiders to interpret. This helps search engines display the website more accurately.

In the past, missing or inaccurate structured data markup could usually pass by unnoticed or with a minimal impact on brand performance. As the search engines become more intelligent, however, they are likely to also become more dependent upon this extra data — failure to do it correctly will have a greater impact on site success.

When using the schema.org markup, brands should always use Google Webmaster Tools to make sure the markup has been used correctly. The Structured Data Testing Tool will make it easy for brands to ensure that they have added everything accurately.

Brands should ensure that their markup has been used throughout the site consistently — particularly for rich content, such as videos on the website. Structured data markup will help ensure that rich snippets appear whenever possible, such as in video search results. This can increase the click-through rate for the site by making it look more appealing on the search engine results pages.

3. Site Layout Will Become More Significant

In 2016, engagement will take center stage. On the competitive content battleground, brands have to focus on increasing engagement to keep visitors interested and coming back to the site to progress towards conversion.

Site features, such as the layout, will be an important part of rising above the noise of the modern content battleground. When customers have trouble finding the information they need on a website, they are likely to just click back to search results. An estimated 50 percent of potential sales are lost because customers cannot find what they seek.

Ensuring that the site is optimized for visitors and conversions means primarily that it is easy for customers to navigate. Examine your site data and see how visitors are reacting. Are there certain pages that are not being visited? Are there high numbers of people who click on several different pages in rapid succession, only to then click off the site? These people were looking for something in particular but could not find it.

To counter this impact, you need to look at how your site is organized. Make sure that subcategories are easy to understand and navigate. Drop-down menus can be very helpful because they help to minimize clicking for the visitor. Consider adding an internal search, particularly for e-commerce sites, to help customers find what they need even easier.

Keep in mind that site layout and optimization also applies to mobile. To do this properly for smart devices, you need to make sure you understand what your customers do on the site. For example, providing the brand’s contact information and a click-to-call button up front can be very helpful. Look at your mobile data to better understand what customers are doing on your site and make sure that your mobile pages are ready to maximize the on-the-go user experience.

4. Links Will Still Be In The Spotlight

The first big Penguin update in over a year is anticipated to hit within the next few weeks. This update has promised to clean up link struggles that have been plaguing websites since the last Penguin release in 2014. This impending update has many people on their toes, wondering how this will impact link building.

Brands should be making sure that they are in a position to take advantage of this update and not get hit with penalties that will get the New Year started off on a bad foot. This means taking a careful look at the current link profile. Look for anomalies like sudden spikes in the number of backlinks for your page.

It is also important for brands to focus their efforts on earning backlinks that will have a positive impact on the page. Keep in mind that links from reputable websites, the ones that would positively impact a backlink profile, will be ones that need to be earned.

Solid websites know that linking to other websites will be like a vote of confidence for that site. These websites will only link to pages that they feel meet the quality and value that they provide for their own visitors. Building a quality backlink profile, therefore, means focusing on:

• providing high-value content for visitors
• creating a well-designed, easy-to-navigate website
• promoting content through social to get it in front of influences and reputable sites
• seeking guest posts on quality web pages.

On the flip side, brands should also review their backlink profile to identify any potentially problematic links. If you spot any spam sites linking to your page, disavow them through Google. It is not worth the risk of having these in your backlink profile with the new update coming.

5. Search Will Be Less About Just Website Rank And More About Overall Content And Online Presence

The year 2016 is likely to see maturation in online marketing as success becomes less defined by a website’s ranking and more about the overall online presence of the brand. The website will need to be well integrated with the rest of the online platforms, especially social media.

Facebook in particular has been working on developing a better search experience for users, and it is likely to become increasingly sophisticated in the coming year. That means brands have to be prepared to optimize their online presence on social media. This will become particularly significant with the growing importance of mobile apps, like the Facebook App and the YouTube App. Customers will likely use these with an increasing frequency, which means that the content posted on social media needs to be ready for these searches.

This optimization process requires paying close attention to both the posts made and how the profiles themselves are completed. Businesses should make sure that they describe themselves as completely as possible within the About Us sections. Use vocabulary that customers employ and data-backed keywords. The posts should incorporate high-quality images and engaging text. Use the Open Graph Protocol to maximize your control over how your content appears when posted to Facebook. Make sure that articles included are mobile-friendly. Link posts across the different platforms, such as including links back to the website and blog.

Overall, stop thinking of website development and social media marketing as two different entities. They should instead be treated as a two parts of the brand’s overall web presence.

Final Thoughts

As the online marketing industry continues to grow and refine itself, marketers are likely to feel the pressure as they struggle to stay on top of the latest developments and ensure that their search and content marketing initiatives perform.

2015 has been an exciting year as the industry has developed, and the next year also seems to have many new trends in store. I look forward to seeing what other exciting developments evolve over the next 12 months.

Source : http://selnd.com/1TY84vw

Six Trends Shaping Location Marketing In 2016

How will local marketing change this year? 

From apps to beacons to mobile wallets, columnist Adam Dorfman covers six trends local search marketers should pay attention to.

How should businesses think about location marketing in 2016?

With more than 50 percent of all computing currently being done on mobile devices, I believe location marketing is on the cusp of exploding into something new: Becoming the foundation for all marketing.

The increasingly strategic value of location data and the strength of mobile will make local marketing more of a foundation of all of marketing. Here are six key trends shaping the local marketing landscape in 2016:

1. Location Data Will Become The Foundation For Local Marketing

For quite some time, businesses have treated location data — such as their names, addresses and phone numbers — as a passive asset that protects their brands. Keep your location data accurate, and you make it easier for searchers to find you. 

But brands are realizing that data aggregators such as Localeze and publishers such as Apple and Foursquare can be powerful partners to amplify location data across the digital world where customers live, search and shop.

As a result, businesses have a new imperative: to make their data more accessible by unleashing it through relationships with major publishers and aggregators, as well as carefully curated vertical market platforms. 

According to SIM Partners proprietary research, enterprises that improved the accuracy and reach of their location data by just 20 percent saw traffic to their location pages increase up to 450 percent and on-page action conversion rates increase by 216 percent.

2. Google Will Invest More In Local Search

Google adding local searches to their recently released Search Quality Ratings Guidelines, releasing a Google My Business API and saying that local knowledge graph results will soon be editable, all point to the fact that local search is getting a lot of attention at Google HQ at the moment. 

I suspect that the drop of local business information from Google+ is the first of many large disruptions from Google in the local search space. 

3. Apps Will Flex Their Location Marketing Muscle

Businesses are discovering how apps such as Periscope and Snapchat can support advertising and direct response at a national level. Dunkin’ Donuts recently included Snapchat as part of a promotion to celebrate National Coffee Day. Taco Bell used Periscope to promote a biscuit taco giveaway across its locations.

National enterprises have the muscle to measure the results of these campaigns and adapt them for even more targeted audiences, which is where local marketing becomes more relevant. We’ll see the emergence of more sophisticated local marketing to capitalize on regional differences in demographics, seasons and local events.

To take advantage of the value of micro-platforms, businesses need to syndicate their location data more aggressively to the aforementioned data amplifiers that share their data with these apps.

4. Beacon Mania Will Grow In The First Part Of The Year, Before It Inevitably Ebbs

In 2015, beacons were the darling of location marketing, with big brands such as Target announcing national implementations designed to share more meaningful content with shoppers through their mobile devices. Business Insider predicted that beacons would directly influence $4 billion in in-store sales in the United States in 2015, a figure that would increase by tenfold in 2016.

But early adopters are already discovering the drawbacks of beacons, which include limited range and high maintenance, especially for brands with hundreds and thousands of locations. 

In 2016, brands will take a more measured approach toward beacon adoption as they weigh other options to generate in-store traffic and sales, including GPS and emerging technologies such as the IndoorAtlas indoor positioning system (IPS), which relies on a building’s “magnetic signature” to help shoppers locate products and other people inside large buildings such as shopping malls.

Beacons will not go away, but businesses will begin to target their use more selectively to offer targeted content to shoppers in-store.

5. Mobile Wallets Will Explode In Popularity

Just as businesses are getting savvier about the limitations of beacons, they’re also beginning to wake up to the power of mobile wallet offers to create customers at the local level. 

According to mobile marketing provider Vibes, more than half of consumers would like to receive mobile wallet content on a weekly basis, and 70 percent of consumers will save an offer to a mobile wallet when presented with the option.

Consumer acceptance of mobile wallets, coupled with the widespread uptake of Apple Pay, has already inspired businesses such as Pep Boys to create compelling mobile wallet offers that increase foot traffic and sales.

With 80 percent of “near me” searches occurring on mobile devices, businesses are finding more creative ways to create contextual content that turns searchers into shoppers. 

But what will help mobile wallets take off in 2016 is their increasingly diverse applications, ranging from coupons to loyalty programs to mass transit.

6. Disruptors Will Continue To Edge Their Way Into What Has Traditionally Been Google’s Turf

Google will continue to be the 800-pound gorilla of search, but we’ll also see Apple and Facebook continue to encroach upon Google.

Consider how Apple is making search more predictive and smart through iOS 9. In an iOS 9 world, Apple Search has become a far more powerful search tool by drawing up a number of local data sources, including native app content. 

By proactively serving up suggestions for nearby things to do and buy before you even conduct a search, Apple Search is fast becoming an intriguing pathway for location marketing.

In the meantime, Facebook continues to strengthen itself as a local search platform. The day is fast arriving when Facebook will serve up suggested local enterprise content next to personal conversations and queries about where to go and what to buy. I see opportunities for Facebook to monetize its business directory and make use of personal recommendations that people make to each other.

Brands need to pay closer attention to how consumers are using alternatives to Google and build relationships with these publishing alternatives.

Final Thoughts

To flourish with local marketing in 2016, enterprises should broaden their local search ecosystem to include apps such as Snapchat, treat their location data as a scalable asset and pivot to the needs of mobile consumers. Adaptable brands will win with local marketing in 2016.

Source : http://selnd.com/1VJVQrw

The Secret to Predicting Startup Success in 2016

When it comes to investing in startups, one thing is clear ... nobody knows the outcome. This can change that.

What's the best way to measure a startup?

Profit is non-existent for most startups. Even revenue can be elusive at the early stages. And what's the magic number for users or customers? 100? 10,000? 100,000?

In the book Startup Wealth: How the Best Angel Investors Make Money in Startups, Josh Maher interviews many legendary investors including Brad Feld, Mark Suster, Catherine Mott, Christopher Mirabile, Allan May, Joanne Wilson, and more. What heuristics did they use to know whether or not to invest in a startup?

Right now the answer is all over the board. There are no standards. Some people invest purely based on their relationship with the founders and do little to no due diligence. Others spend months or even years tracking a startup before taking the plunge.

I'd argue that Net Promoter Score (NPS) should be a required foundational metric behind measuring startups of every size. If you are a startup founder, it should be used as a KPI. If you are an angel investor, you should request it for due diligence. And if you are a venture capitalist, you should be requesting your entire portfolio to be reporting NPS figures to you.

Here's why:

Universal Applicability

Whether you are running a consulting company or a high tech mobile app... whether you have just one customer or tens of thousands ... whether you have no revenue or millions in profit ... you can still run NPS campaigns.

That's because fundamentally all businesses have customers. Even if you don't have revenue yet (maybe you are still building out your user base) you still have users. And with users you can have an NPS score.

With NPS, you ask just one question: How likely (from 0 to 10) are you to recommend my product or service to a friend or colleague? As long as you have some kind of product or service, you can measure NPS.

This makes NPS an ideal key performance indicator if you are trying to evaluate a startup.

TIP #1: Don't fret about the exact score.

If your potential investment is running an NPS campaign for the first time, the chances are that their score is not going to be that great. Many products find that their first score is not what they expect. That's what makes NPS such a powerful survey technique. It gives you an honest assessment of how well you are turning users into fans.

You might be hoping that they are in the high +70's like Apple. But as long as they are positive (and not net-negative), it should not be raising any big red flags at this point.

(After all, the real power of NPS is in the follow-up process)

The score is just a starting point on a journey.

So if you aren't overly concerned with the NPS score, how do you use NPS as a metric for evaluating a startup? Good question! That brings us to our second point.

Honest Customer Feedback

Most investors ask for customer references as part of the diligence process before investing. But this has always confused me. Whenever you ask for a reference, the people given as references are intrinsically likely to tell you good things, since they are often friends with the person in the first place.

But ideally, you would want a way to get a more critical eye for some honest customer feedback rather than just talking to the one or two best references that a startup can provide you.

If you have an NPS campaign as part of due diligence, spend most of your time evaluating the individual responses rather than obsessing about the overall score. And if you are not given all the individual responses, insist on seeing them.

The second question in a NPS survey is: What was the biggest reason for having given that score?

This open-ended question lets customers praise and vent about what they care about most. Reading through these responses will give you the most independent and honest feedback you can get when evaluating a startup.

Often, these responses will include the best and worst of a startup. People who love the service will tell you why they love it. People who are having trouble with the service will tell you why they are having trouble. Those problem areas can then be used as starting points for further diligence.

Many people underestimate how powerful NPS is, especially because it is so simple to implement with just two quick questions. But done correctly, these two questions really are the only two questions that need to be asked.

Implicit Accountability

Although I've already said that the first NPS score doesn't matter, I don't want you to come away with the impression that none of the NPS scores matter.

In fact, tracking NPS scores over time is a fantastic way to audit that progress is being made to improve the product or service.

After the first NPS campaign, you will know the top three biggest problem areas. The next time an NPS campaign is sent, if the same problems come up again in the same frequency (or worse), then it is a sign that something is deeply wrong.

Ideally, as an investor in startups, you should be able to keep track of all your portfolio's NPS scores over time. Comparing them to each other is a possible way to keep an eye on the investments that might need more of your attention. However, a better indicator is to make sure that all of your portfolio's NPS scores are steadily improving over time.

No other score that I know of can provide this kind of warning system no matter the underlying business model or source of revenue. NPS gives you a tool that uniquely can predict breakout success or imminent failure for venture capitalists.

 

Implementing NPS as a key performance indicator can easily be done whether you are a startup founder, an angel investor or a venture capitalist. And done properly, the results can be amazing. For example, after we implemented just one sales technique into our NPS process at Promoter.io, we were able to increase MRR by 32%. You can even use NPS to drive a marketing campaign. So add this tool to your diligence worksheet and ensure that all the startups you work with start tracking it today.

Source : http://bit.ly/1OCrAt6