AdScience and valuo provides powerful and affordable advertising management software to customers worldwide from multinational enterprises to small businesses and professionals. In all of our market areas, our approach is consistent. We focus exclusively on Business owners to drive sales growth with Marketing and Advertising Pros and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise Ad Agency vendors. AdScience delivers on this commitment with unexpected simplicity through products that are easy to find, buy, use and maintain while providing the power to address any advertising management problem on any scale. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our online community, to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at http://www.AdScience.co/.
Since our founding, valuo’s mission has been to provide purpose-built products that are designed to make Business owners and Leaders and Marketing and Advertising professionals’ jobs easier. We offer value-driven products and tools that solve a broad range of marketing management challenges – whether those challenges are related to print, radio, television, applications, billboards, flyers, web, digital, mobile or virtualization.
We distinguish ourselves by refusing to accept the status quo established by enterprise ad agencies and vendors. Face it: The vast majority of marketing management tools today are difficult to use, expensive, and really do not address the realities of today’s real-world business and consumer management challenges. Sadly, business owners and advertising pros have resigned themselves to accept this as just another part of the job. But we do not think marketing and advertising has to be as complicated as its made out to be.
At AdScience, we are fanatical about putting our users first in everything we do. We strive every day to deliver powerful functionality that is easy to use with one of the fastest and deepest datasets in the market.
Our approach is to deliver “unexpected simplicity” and redefine the expectations business owners and professionals have for enterprise software.
Simply put, we work to:
Eliminate the complexity found in traditional advertising – making it easier to find, buy, deploy and maintain campaigns.
Connect with our community marketplace – using daily interactions with our large, global user community to guide our product development and strategy.
Constantly evolve our products – ensuring that our software is on point to meet the most important problems that business owners and professionals have today, and continues to deliver increasing value.
Our company was built by network and systems engineers, data scientists and marketing strategists who know what it takes to manage today’s dynamic advertising, marketing and sales and business development environments. They combined this expertise with a deep connection to the marketing and advertising community to create advertising management products that are effective, accessible and easy to use.
The result?
Advertising management software that works for you – and that delivers on our promise of “unexpected simplicity.”
Types of Marketing Metrics and KPIs
Marketing departments operate across multiple channels. From social media, to email marketing, to lead generation, your digital marketing strategy will include a number of activities. With such a wide variety of channels being used, it’s important for marketing teams to actively track progress and performance in real-time with the right marketing metrics and KPIs. When choosing the right marketing metrics, you should keep in mind which channel you are using and who will be using the data to make business decisions. The types of metrics you want to track will vary for different marketing roles. Executives will want to see an overview for every marketing channel, while managers will want to dive into the metrics for a deeper understanding of day to day performance.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) supply statistical data that you can use to analyze trends, or to indicate problem areas. Use the KPI definition and hierarchy tools to create KPIs, to define the calculation of KPI values, and to create goals by arranging your KPIs into hierarchies. The configuration that you do in the KPI tools determines what is displayed on the KPI dashboard.
In the Operations view, for KPIs that you configure and organize in the KPI definition and hierarchy tools, you can view KPI indicators and goals on the KPI dashboard. If history is enabled for a KPI, you can also view the KPI’s history as a chart in the Trends window.
KPI types
With the KPI definition tool, you can define the following types of KPIs:
An aggregate KPI has a value that is calculated by applying an aggregation function to a specific data source property.
An expression KPI has a value that is based on an SQL query that you define.
Alternatively, you can create KPIs whose values are read from the IOC database through the KPI REST service. For example, you might want to calculate KPI values in an external system and then import the values into IBM® Intelligent Operations Center through the KPI REST service.
To open the KPI definition tool, in the navigation menu, click Administration > Configuration Tools > Key Performance Indicators > KPI Definition.
Data and area filters
You can add data and area filters to aggregate KPIs to filter the data items that are used in the calculation of KPI values. Data filters select data items according to specific property values in the data source. Area filters select data items according to boundary areas.
Value Optimize
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
latin valere optimus
internet valuo
val·ue
ˈvalyo͞o/Submit
noun
1.
the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
“your support is of great value”
synonyms: worth, usefulness, advantage, benefit, gain, profit, good, help, merit, helpfulness, avail; More
2.
a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.
“they internalize their parents’ rules and values”
synonyms: principles, ethics, moral code, morals, standards, code of behavior
“society’s values are passed on to us as children”
verb
1.
estimate the monetary worth of (something).
“his estate was valued at $45,000”
synonyms: evaluate, assess, estimate, appraise, price, put/set a price on
“his estate was valued at $345,000”
2.
consider (someone or something) to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of.
“she had come to value her privacy and independence”
synonyms: think highly of, have a high opinion of, hold in high regard, rate highly, esteem, set (great) store by, put stock in, appreciate, respect; More
op·ti·mize
ˈäptəˌmīz/Submit
verb
make the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource).
“to optimize viewing conditions, the microscope should be correctly adjusted”
COMPUTING
rearrange or rewrite (data, software, etc.) to improve efficiency of retrieval or processing.
op·ti·mi·za·tion
ˌäptəməˈzāSHən,ˌäptəˌmīˈzāSHən/
noun
the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource.
“companies interested in the optimization of the business”
value definition
1. Accounting: The monetary worth of an asset, business entity, good sold, service rendered, or liability or obligation acquired.
2. Economics: The worth of all the benefits and rights arising from ownership. Two types of economic value are (1) the utility of a good or service, and (2) power of a good or service to command other goods, services, or money, in voluntary exchange.
3. Marketing: The extent to which a good or service is perceived by its customer to meet his or her needs or wants, measured by customer’s willingness to pay for it. It commonly depends more on the customer’s perception of the worth of the product than on its intrinsic value.
4. Mathematics: A magnitude or quantity represented by numbers.
optimize definition
1. to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible.
2. to make the best of.
3. Computers. to write or rewrite (the instructions in a program) so as to maximize efficiency and speed in retrieval, storage, or execution.
4. Mathematics. to determine the maximum or minimum values of (a specified function that is subject to certain constraints).
The Business Model Canvas value proposition provides a unique combination of products and services which provide value to the customer by resulting in the solution of a problem the customer is facing or providing value to the customer.
The Value Proposition Canvas
Create the value your customers want
A simple way to understand your customers needs, and design products and services they want. It works in conjunction with the Business Model Canvas and other strategic management and execution tools and processes.
val·ue prop·o·si·tion
noun
(in marketing) an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.
What is a ‘Value Proposition’
A value proposition is a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement convinces a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings. Companies use this statement to target customers who will benefit most from using the company’s products, and this helps maintain an economic moat.
BREAKING DOWN ‘Value Proposition’
A value proposition is a promise by a company to a customer or consumer segment. It is an easy-to-understand reason why a customer should purchase a product or service from that specific business. A value proposition should be a clear statement that explains how a product solves a pain point, communicates the specifics of its added benefit, and states the reason why it’s better than similar products on the market. The ideal value proposition is concise, and it appeals to a customer’s strongest decision-making drivers.
Creating a Successful Value Proposition
A company’s value proposition communicates the number one reason why a product or service is best suited for a customer segment. Therefore, it should always be displayed prominently on a company’s website and in other consumer touch points. It also must be intuitive, so that a customer can read or hear the value proposition and understand the delivered value without further explanation.
A successful value proposition has a bold headline that communicates the delivered benefit to the consumer. The headline should be a single memorable sentence, phrase or even a tagline. A sub-headline is often displayed below the main headline, expanding on the explanation of delivered value and providing a specific example of why the product or service is valuable. The sub-heading can be a short paragraph between two and three sentences, with bullet points below the sub-heading to list the key features or benefits of the product. This allows consumers to scan the value proposition quickly and pick up on the product features. Added visuals increase the ease of communication between business and consumer.
Value propositions can follow different formats, as long as they are unique to the company and to the consumers it is servicing. However, all effective value propositions are easy to understand and demonstrate specific results from a customer using a product or service. They differentiate a product or service from any competition; avoid overused marketing buzzwords; and communicate value within five seconds of reading it.
valuable
What makes you valuable?
People won’t ever buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you. And they notice you only if you have a strong value proposition.
The usual definition of value proposition is crippled. It describes it as “a promise of the value you can deliver.”
Value proposition, if you define it like that, is a decent—but incomplete—internal tool that can guide your decisions to the right general direction. But nothing more.
A more useful definition of value proposition is “a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons people should notice you and take the action you’re asking for.”
This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.
If you don’t have a strong value proposition, people don’t have good reasons to do either of those.
For example, if your online bookstore has average selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you? There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.
You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best in one way.
However, if you’re the best in at least one way, you’re the best option for the people who value that aspect.
Apple doesn’t have the largest product selection. Amazon isn’t the most prestigious. Tiffany’s isn’t the cheapest.
People buy from them for other reasons.
So, if your bookstore has the largest selection, for example, but the other things are “just average,” the people who value a large selection have a reason to buy from you.
Something has to make you the best option for your target customers.
Otherwise, they have no good reason to buy what you’re selling.
The value of a strong value proposition
When you’ve created and refined your value proposition (the way I believe you should), it will help you in several ways:
It makes you focus on aspects of your business and initiatives that make the biggest difference. You’ll know what you need to deliver to be the best option for customers.
It helps you avoid wasting time, money, and energy. You won’t waste time going after customers who won’t buy from you anyway. You won’t waste money offering products or services that don’t attract more customers. And you won’t waste huge amounts of energy (as well as time and money) on marketing efforts that don’t create results.
It helps you develop the most persuasive marketing concepts. You don’t have to guess whether you’re focusing your marketing correctly or not. You can create a simple, clear list of the few things that really make the difference, and you can focus your marketing only on those.
It gives you the right basic wording for marketing messaging. People often water down their marketing message so much that it loses its persuasiveness; they create “marketing bladiblaa.” When your value proposition is refined, you can just copy the basic ideas from it word for word and build your marketing messages around them.
It shows you how your customers view you and your products. Without a strong value proposition, you might speak about your business and products in a way that doesn’t resonate with your customers. You don’t know what’s wrong, but you’re making your prospects feel misunderstood. And people who feel misunderstood don’t buy from you.
It reveals the connections between your product and your prospects’ goals. Understanding exactly how people believe your product will help them is necessary if you want your business to succeed. Otherwise you can only guess what people expect and hope for.
It gives you confidence. Having a strong, refined value proposition gives you clarity so that you can move forward without second-guessing your every move.
Value-added describes the enhancement a company gives its product or service before offering the product to customers.
value added: In business, the difference between the sale price and the production cost of a product is the unit profit. In economics, the sum of the unit profit, the unit depreciation cost, and the unit labor cost is the unit value added. … The first component is a return to labor and the second component is a return to capital.
The expenditures approach says GDP= consumption + investment + government expenditure + exports – imports. The income approach sums the factor incomes to the factors of production. The output approach is also called the “net product” or “value added” approach.
urban dictionary
value add
A business euphemism for “the reason I’d like you to think I’m useful.”
My value add on this project is to leverage best-known-methods (BKMs) to focus on strategies leveraging core competencies moving forward synergistically to achieve our mutual business objectives.
What is Value Optimization and why is it important for marketers and business owners to understand?
Are you familiar with the expression, “The most valuable customer is the one you never lose”?
In the CRO industry, it’s easy to focus on simply converting more leads all day, every day. More visitors to the landing pages, more emails submitted, more phone numbers captured, etc.
A higher conversion rate is great, but as Peep says, “If you want to increase conversions, make everything that you sell one cent, conversions go way up, but you go out of business.” It’s really all about revenue.
The key to more revenue? Well, it’s retention. (No, it’s not just for recurring billing models.)
Consider that 40% of an ecommerce store’s revenue is created by 8% of its customers and that 82% of companies agree that retention is cheaper than acquisition.
Your work isn’t done after the initial conversion (one night stand). If retention (a long-term relationship) is your focus, your funnel can be optimized to encourage people to convert again and again.
Why Is Retention Important?
A repeat customer spends 67% more than a new customer. According to a 2014 survey, 61% of small business owners generate over 51% of their annual revenue from repeat customers.
Therefore, focusing your efforts on retention optimization instead of acquisition optimization will yield a higher ROI. While most marketers know the value of retention and optimization, it is rarely carried out.
1. Satisfaction
First and foremost, you want to satisfy your customer. After she converts, is she satisfied with what she receives? Does she get the value she is expecting? This is the fundamental goal. If you can’t make good on your initial promises, retention will suffer.
2. Extension
How can you encourage your customer to repeat the purchase behavior? How can you upsell her on more features? Now that she’s converted once, you want her to convert consistently.
3. Advocacy
Once she’s a regular customer, you want to use her social influence to reach more qualified leads. In 2014, a Huzzah Media survey found that referral programs were the most successful marketing tool (52%). Your repeat customers are the most likely to refer you and become advocates for your brand.
The 3 Core Stages of Retention
After the initial conversion, there are three core stages: short-term retention (first experience), mid-term retention (habit forming), and long-term retention (core value reminder). Each of the three stages presents the opportunity for optimization.
Essentially, short-term retention is all about how quickly you get people to experience your core value.
Factors that affect short-term retention:
How persuasive your transactional messaging is.
How intuitive your customer onboarding process is.
How aligned your value promise and delivery are.
2. Mid-Term Retention
After experiencing your core value, people need to form habits around it. That core value needs to seamlessly integrate into their day-to-day life.
Factors that affect mid-term retention:
How well repetition is built into your core value.
How interesting your gamification strategy is.
How compelling your referral program is.
Even after habits are formed, your core value needs to be revisited time and time again. How do you maintain (or improve) that value over months? Years?
Factors that affect long-term retention:
How effectively you can revive lapsed leads.
How well you refine current product / service features.
How interesting your retention hooks (i.e. LinkedIn endorsements, @mentions, likes, upvotes) are.
Getting Started…
So, where do you start optimizing for retention?
As with most things in CRO, the answer is “it depends”. Your customer lifecycle isn’t the same as mine. We both have different conversion funnels. There’s no hard and fast rule that will work for everyone, in every situation.
However, there is a simple 3-step process you can follow to set yourself in the right direction.
1. First Experience
In terms of ROI, your customer’s first experience is vital. If that first experience isn’t positive, there’s no chance at short-term retention. That’s why it’s the perfect place to start optimizing.
Ask yourself this: What are the steps necessary to get my customer to experience my core value? Go ahead and map it out right now.
If there are a lot of steps, you’ll want to eliminate some barriers. If those steps take a long time to get through, you’ll want to make the experience more intuitive. If you need customers to read a manual before use, you’ll want to make it easier.
Even the smallest disruption to the first experience can have a big impact. That’s why it’s necessary to optimize it as much as possible.
2. Context Is Everything
Do people who use your product or service for business stick around longer? Are customers using your product or service for personal reasons more likely to repeat the purchase behavior?
Find the context that works best for you. What contextual conditions have to be met for people to understand your product best? The goal is to switch them into that context as quickly as possible.
Asking someone to enter their “business email address” is a simple language tweak, but it works to change the context. (Note: It also encourages higher quality email addresses and improves deliverability.)
@gmail.com is thinking about learning about CRO in their spare time, maybe. @yourdomain.com is thinking about how to apply CRO to their business right now, as he’s reading.
Who is more likely to retain the information and get the most value from the ConversionXL guide? That person is also more likely to consume more of our content in the future, signup for our course, attend ConversionXL Live, etc.
3. Build Personas
Your product is used differently by different types of people.
54% of women said their main reason for using Facebook is to view videos and photos. 42% of men said their main reason for using Facebook is to share their content with a wider audience.
That’s a fundamental difference: the average woman is using Facebook primarily to consume and the average man is using Facebook primarily to share.
Consider how men and women might use Pinterest differently.
Or how personal and business customers might use Hootsuite or Buffer differently.
Think about how salespeople and marketers might use HubSpot differently.
Building customer personas allows you to better optimize for retention because they all experience your core value in a slightly different way. Based on their assigned segment, you can trigger a custom onboarding flow to ensure their first experience is tailored to them (and their perception of value).
How to Optimize for Retention
One of the easiest ways to really understand retention optimization is to look at real world examples. Transactional messaging, customer onboarding, qualitative research, gamification / retention hooks, referral programs, and revival messaging all play a role in retention.
Of course, that list is not exhaustive and there are other optimization points, but let’s get started with these six points first.
1. Transactional Messaging
Transactional messaging is the copy and creative following any transaction in your onboarding flow. For example, the messaging after an email submission or a checkout process.
“Save your information for next time”.
“Let us know what you think”.
“Popular Items Based on Your Order”.
First of all, Crate & Barrel doesn’t make you create an account to check out, reducing friction. They do, however, encourage you to create an account afterwards by asking you to save your information for next time.
Consider the theory of reciprocity. When are you most likely to be open to / optimistic about repeat purchases? After completing a checkout process without friction.
More importantly, Crate & Barrel shows you more products that you might be interested in, based on what you just purchased. Yes, they could experiment with showing other relevant products vs. baskets after I just purchased a basket, but the retention effort is there.
2. Customer Onboarding
Customer onboarding is any effort used to familiarize someone with your product or service, and encourage repeated use. For example, highlight boxes demonstrating features, processes to add or invite friends, etc.
Customer Value Optimization (CVO) is the process we use for every business we start, acquire or consult.
The goal is to create a sales funnel that allows you to outspend your competition to acquire and keep customers.
Jay Abraham once said that there are only three ways to grow a business,
Increase the number of customers
Increase the average transaction value per customer
Increase the number of transactions per customer
Stick to the main functionality of your product. Remember, ask what customers need to know to experience your core value as quickly as possible.
3. Qualitative Research
You all know what qualitative research is, right? Qualitative research gives you an inside look, allowing you to identify why customers are churning. You can use this information to optimize for retention and reduce churn in the future.
“Why?” is the most important question you can ask here; don’t be afraid of a few open-ended questions.
ust as in any other aspect of CRO, you have to do your research. What are your customers telling you about your core value? Where do they think you fall short? Use that information to make informed retention optimization decisions.
4. Gamification / Retention Hooks
Earlier this year, Shayla Price wrote After the Purchase: Optimizing Customer Retention Through Gamification. I suggest you read it to get a more in-depth understanding of how gamification and retention optimization go hand-in-hand.
Essentially, gamification is the application of game-thinking in non-game contexts. Retention hooks, as defined by Brian Balfour, are built-in features that give customers a reason to send notifications to other customers, bringing them back to the product.
5. Referral Programs
Referral programs are the online word of mouth.
Just in case you’re not already familiar with the impact of a referral, in a 2013 survey, 84% of consumers said they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family and friends about products (making them the most trustworthy).
Trusty word of mouth advertising results in new users.
Habits begin to form as groups of friends and / or colleagues begin relying on the same product.
A longer habit formation period (16 GB of free space) results in a higher likelihood of purchase down the road.
In fact, earlier this year, dotmailer found that referral programs deliver customers of 25% greater lifetime value than other customers. So, while encouraging habit formation with existing customers, you’re simultaneously acquiring new customers with a higher probability of repeating the purchase behavior.
6. Revival Messaging
Revival messaging is the copy and creative sent to lapsed leads and unengaged customers. For example, a seasonal reminder from an ecommerce store.
They take two very different approaches. Urban Outfitters appeals to a specific persona through subtle humor while Gap appeals to reason with a 50% off discount code.
No matter how effective your short- and mid-term retention, long-term retention will be an on-going battle. Once a customer stops coming back, how do you reactivate them?
Once again, all that matters is getting them to experience that core value again. How you do it is up to you and ready for optimization.
The CVO process is what we use at Idea Incubator (our parent company) to grow revenue in all three of these ways.
Marketers and businesses should understand it because it is how you create an unstoppable business. Those that employ this process are impossible to compete with.
That’s a pretty bold statement that employing this process makes a business impossible to compete with. Can you tell us more about what makes it so powerful?
One of my favorite business quotes comes from Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon.com, who often says… “Your margin is my opportunity.”
What I often say is… “He who can spend the most to acquire customers, wins.”
The idea behind the CVO process is to build a marketing funnel that allows you to spend more than your competition to acquire customers.
We use a 5-step process…
Lead Magnet Offer
Tripwire Offer
Core Offer
Profit Maximizer
Return Path
The first two steps (Lead Magnet + Tripwire) increases the number of customers. The Core Offer plus the Profit Maximizer increases the average transaction value per customer. And the Return Path increases the number of transactions per customer.
With each of these five steps in place, you’ll be able to spend more than your competitors to acquire customers.
Can you tell us a little more about each step of the process and give us a real-world example for each of how businesses use them to grow revenue?
Sure thing.
A Lead Magnet is a valuable piece of information given in exchange for contact information (usually an email address).
A Tripwire Offer is a low-dollar (usually $1 to $20) that is intended to convert the maximum number of leads into customers.
A Core Offer is what most businesses already have. This is the flagship product and is usually a higher dollar amount.
A Profit Maximizer is the upsell, cross sell, bundle/kit, etc that is used to maximize the transaction value of each new customer.
The Return Path is the tactics used to bring existing customers and customers back into the funnel.
Let’s look at a simple funnel an information marketer might be running. In this case the marketer is running traffic from an email list (built through a Lead Magnet) to a Tripwire Offer.
We’ll talk about the Return Path a bit later if you want… it’s kind of its own animal.
Here’s what the metrics look like for this funnel…
Tripwire Offer – A $9 Information Product is converting at 8%.
Core Offer – A $197 Information Product is converting at 4%.
Profit Maximizer – A $497 Coaching Offer is converting at 6%.
Once you have these conversion rates… it’s time to calculate two VERY IMPORTANT metrics that will tell you:
How much a customer is worth
How much you can pay for traffic
There are so many metrics to look at in business and marketing. Can you tell us about the importance of these two metrics and how they relate to each other?
Well… remember that the goal is to be willing and able to spend more than your competitor to acquire a customer. To do that —> you need to know what a customer is worth and how much you can pay to acquire a customer.
To calculate how much a customer is worth, you need to calculate Average Customer Value or ACV.
And to calculate how much you can pay for the traffic to acquire a customer you need to calculate Average Visitor Value or AVV.
It’s pretty simple to do… the formula looks like this:
Tripwire Price + (Core Offer Price * Core Offer Conversion Rate) + (Profit Maximizer Price * Profit Maximizer Conversion Rate) = Average Customer Value
For the funnel above it would look like this:
$9 + $197(.04) + $497(.06) = $46.70 Average Customer Value
This means that you can spend up to $46.70 to sell a $9 product before you go negative.
Now… to find out how much you can spend to get a click, you simply take ACV and multiply it by the Tripwire Conversion Rate.
For the funnel above it looks like this…
$46.70(.08) = $3.73
This means that you could spend as much as $3.73 per click to acquire a new customer on the front end of this funnel before you go negative.
That’s good information to have.
A lot of business owners focus so much on attracting new customers, they forget to market to what may very well be their best source of new sales… their existing customers. Is that where the Return Path comes in? Can you tell us about how that works?
Sure thing…
The Return Path is about increasing transaction frequency with your customers. If you have a funnel in place there will be some customers that will go all the way through purchasing each offer. For all others you will need follow-up in place.
You also need to create systems by which you can notify existing customers and prospects of new offers you have available.
The big tactic here is, of course, email marketing. But retargeting, remarketing, loyalty programs, custom audiences in Facebook and all forms of organic social media are also great ways to get people to come back and buy more often.
Learn the Steps to Customer Value Optimization
The following flowchart outlines the CVO system.
Download a PDF version here
Print this PDF version and tack it to the wall next to your workstation. If you plan to execute this plan, you’ll need to reference it often.
When you’re learning new tactics like Facebook Advertising, Google Analytics, or SEO, you’ll need to constantly remind yourself of the CVO process. Otherwise, you’re wasting time and money.
This is a warning: There is little profit in understanding, for example, Pinterest advertising or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in and of itself. There is enormous profit in understanding how to apply these traffic strategies to the CVO process.
Here is a flowchart of the Customer Value Optimization system…
Here are the steps:
Determine Product/Market Fit
Choose a Traffic Source
Offer a Lead Magnet
Offer a Tripwire
Offer a Core Product
Offer a Profit Maximizer
Create the Return Path
Lean into this article and pay close attention — we’re about to reveal the EXACT process we use to sell products and services in multiple niche markets and mainstream verticals including…
Finance and Investing
Men’s Clothing
Home Improvement
Survival and Preparedness
Beauty
… just to name a few.
Let’s begin with…
Step 1 – Determine Product/Market Fit
Business is pretty simple.
We get paid to move people from a “Before” state to a desired “After” state.
In the “Before” state, the customer is discontent in some way. They might be in pain, bored, frightened, or unhappy for any number of other reasons.
In the “After” state — life is better. They are free of pain, entertained, or unafraid of what previously plagued them.
People don’t buy products or services…
They buy outcomes. They buy access to the “After” state.
A great offer will genuinely move a customer to a desired “After” state…
… and great marketing simply articulates the move from the “Before” state to the desired “After” state.
Most businesses that fail, particularly at start-up or when entering new markets, do so because either…
They fail to offer a desired “After” state (the offer is no good)
They fail to articulate the movement from “Before” to “After” (the marketing is no good)
Needless to say — getting clear on the desired outcome your offer delivers is fundamental to the success of your business.
Here’s how to get that clarity…
The 8-Question “Before/After” Grid
Before you create or market another offer — go through this exercise.
Ask yourself these eight questions…
What does your prospect HAVE in the “Before” state? What does your prospect HAVE in the “After” state?
How does your prospect FEEL in the “Before” state? How does your prospect FEEL in the “After” state?
What is an AVERAGE DAY like for your prospect in the “Before” state? What is an AVERAGE DAY like for your prospect in the “After” state?
What is your prospect’s STATUS in the “Before” state? What is your prospect’s STATUS in the “After” state?
For example, we’ve done some consulting for a company that offers a product to parents of babies.
It’s a little, squishy baby bath tub you place in a sink or in a larger bathtub. It keeps the baby comfortable and safe while the parent bathes them.
But it does so much more than that.
As a father of four, I know that bath time for baby is a scary, frustrating experience.
Customers who buy this soft, safe baby bathtub are transformed…
From HAVING a cold, hard bathtub to a warm, squishy bathtub.
From FEELING scared and frustrated to confident and in control at bath time.
From having an AVERAGE DAY with a terrible bath time experience to making bath time a breeze.
From a STATUS of unappreciated as a mother to a “super mom.”
Average marketers only articulate what a customer will HAVE if they purchase their product or service. Great marketers speak to how a customer will FEEL, how their AVERAGE DAY will change and how their STATUS will elevate.
With this simple eight-question “Before/After” Grid, any half-decent copywriter will be able to create a marketing message that will have an impact.
The marketing copy writes itself now that you are clear on the “Before” and “After”…
“Bath time with your newborn doesn’t have to be a scary, frustrating experience.”
“Say goodbye to bath time stress. You’ll actually enjoy bathing baby with this safe, comfortable bath tub.”
“You’ll feel like Mother of the Year as your baby plays and bathes in the safety of this warm, soft bath tub.”
Do you see how this copy clearly articulates how the product will move mom from a “Before” state of stress and unhappiness to to an “After” state of joy and happiness with baby?
It’s powerful stuff.
But understanding how you will transform your prospect from a “Before” state to a desired “After” state also impacts…
How much you can charge
What is the distance between the “Before” and desired “After” state?
That distance is called VALUE.
Want to charge more for your products and services?
Simple — create a greater distance between the “Before” and desired “After” state by either:
Creating a better product or service (better offer).
Articulating the movement from “Before” to “After” differently or more clearly (better marketing).
When rolling out a new offer, starting a new company, or moving into a new market — keep it simple.
Get clear on your “Before” and “After.”
If you’re not able to clearly articulate how you can take your prospect from the “Before” state to a desired “After” state — you may have an issue with Product/Market Fit.
There may be nothing more important than Product/Market Fit, simply because every other part of the process is dependent upon having a group of willing and able buyers.
In the next step, we’ll dispel the myth behind traffic generation…
This might shock you but you DO NOT have a traffic problem.
You might have a business model problem, an offer problem, or a measurement problem.
But you DO NOT have a traffic problem.
Here’s why…
What if I told you that every time you get a visitor to a web page you make $10 in profit? Could you get traffic to that web page?
Heck yes you could. You could pay up to $10 to get a visitor to that web page and still break even. In fact, you’ll be able to pay more than $10 to get a visitor to that page when you truly understand the whole of Customer Value Optimization.
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
I’ve often said,
“He who can spend the most money to acquire a customer, wins.”
And Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, once said (in a tongue-and-cheek warning to his competitors)…
“Your margin is my opportunity.”
The lesson we’ve learned is that once you understand CVO, you become unstoppable. Amazon.com sells on the thinnest of margins knowing that acquiring new customers, selling them more, and selling to them more frequently is how you become unstoppable.
Traffic is not a problem.
Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn, just to point out the obvious, are lining up to sell you targeted traffic. Your Search Engine Optimization agency wants to send you more traffic. Your Pay-Per-Click agency would love nothing more than to send you more clicks.
You simply need to understand:
How to measure what traffic is worth.
How to extract maximum immediate value from that traffic.
Tactics are worthless if you don’t understand the CVO process.
This is why you are frustrated. You have no context. You have no system.
We can teach you to drive traffic through tactics like blogging, Facebook Ads, or email marketing but first you need to understand the system.
The goal, no matter which traffic source you choose, is to drive prospects into the CVO Funnel.
Become a master of a single, steady traffic source. Stay focused on that traffic source and, once mastered, add a second and third traffic source.
These traffic sources include…
Email marketing
Social Advertising (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube ads, etc)
Banner Advertising
Blogging
Organic Social Media
SEO
Your traffic strategy (if the goal is acquiring new leads and customers) begins and ends with driving visitors into the CVO funnel.
It begins with the Lead Magnet…
Step 3 – Offer a Lead Magnet
The next two sections (Offer a Lead Magnet and Offer a Tripwire) show you how to grow your business through the first of Jay Abraham’s methods, increase the number of customers.
The Lead Magnet is an irresistible bribe that gives a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.
Make no mistake, although no money changes hands, this is a transaction. And, it is often the first transaction you will have with a prospect.
You will need to provide tremendous value with the Lead Magnet.
The Lead Magnet is usually offered on a web page called a landing or squeeze page that is optimized to convert even cold traffic into leads.
The landing page doesn’t need to be fancy. Here’s a high-performing Lead Magnet landing page from Digital Marketer…
The Lead Magnet exists to increase leads. Because the Lead Magnet is the very top of the CVO Funnel, increasing opt-ins here will pay dividends throughout the rest of the system.
But all Lead Magnets are not created equal. The best will convert north of 50% of visitors into leads and you’ll be relieved when I tell you that the highest performing Lead Magnets have one thing in common…
Specificity: The Key to Getting More Leads
What irresistible bribe could you offer in exchange for a prospect’s contact information?
The good news is that you DO NOT need to create something lengthy or complex. In fact, we’ve found that the more laser-focused your Lead Magnet is — the better it will convert.
So, for example, this is NOT a good Lead Magnet…
Your prospect doesn’t want a 20-Week E-Course. They want to solve a problem. They want an outcome.
Contrast the prior two Lead Magnets with the specific problem that is addressed in this Lead Magnet…
A Lead Magnet that solves a specific problem for a specific segment of the market will generate more leads…
…and more leads means more Tripwire sales.
Step 4 – Offer a Tripwire
If you understand and execute on this step, you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors.
Remember, our first goal is to increase the number of customers. So far, we have only generated leads through the Lead Magnet. We still haven’t generated new customers.
The Tripwire offer is made to those who have displayed interest through the Lead Magnet.
The Tripwire is an irresistible, super low-ticket offer (usually between $1 and $20 that exists for one reason and one reason only… to convert prospects into buyers. In markets selling high-ticket products and services Tripwire offers as high as $500 can convert well.
The goal of the Tripwire is to fundamentally change the relationship from prospect to customer. The conversion of a prospect to a customer, even for $1, is magical.
The key is to make a Tripwire Offer that leads are unable to resist.
The most common way to make the Tripwire irresistible is by selling it at cost and, in some cases, at a loss to you.
That’s correct — you are not trying to make a living from selling Tripwire Offers. You are trying to acquire buyers because there is nothing more valuable than a list of buyers.
When you understand the rest of the Customer Value Optimization process, you will understand how the Tripwire Offer is the single most powerful addition you can make to your business — even though you make no direct profit from it.
Tripwires are all around us.
It’s the ridiculous flat screen TV deal at Best Buy. It’s the rock-bottom price of a Kindle Fire. It’s the $20 for $50 worth of Mexican Food Groupon offer. It’s every service offered for a measly five bucks on Fiverr.
The strategy behind the Tripwire is simple:
Convert the maximum number of Lead Magnet leads into paying customers, even at the expense of your profit margin, with the understanding that acquiring a paying customer will deliver profit through the next three steps:
Core Offer
Profit Maximizer
Return Path
OK, now that you understand how to increase the number of customers, let’s talk about increasing the average transaction value per customer.
You likely already have a Core Offer. It’s your flagship product or products.
Most businesses get nowhere by making Core Offers to cold prospects. You’ll see your Core Offer sales explode with the addition of the Lead Magnet and Tripwire Offer.
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www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
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After all, you’ve already had two successful transactions with this buyer.
This is why it’s critical to over deliver with the Lead Magnet and Tripwire.
In some cases, sales from the Core Offer will make you profitable. But it doesn’t have to. If you follow through on the CVO process, you could take everything you make from the Core Offer and reinvest it to acquire more customers.
Again, this is how you become unstoppable. You build a system in which you can spend more to acquire a customer than your competitors.
Your competitors are making a Core Offer and trying to make a living from it. You don’t need to make a dime from your Core Offer.
Remember, as Jeff Bezos says, your competitor’s margin is an opportunity. It is your opportunity to, for example, spend more on traffic acquisition, conversion rate optimization or increase the value of your offers.
It might stun you to find out that many of the most successful businesses in the world make no profit until they reach the next two stages, Profit Maximizers, and Return Path.
Here’s where things get very interesting…
Step 6 – Offer a Profit Maximizer
The second of Jay Abraham’s business growth methods is to increase the average transaction value per customer. The Profit Maximizer does just that.
Most businesses don’t have Tripwire Offers and they don’t have Profit Maximizers. They live and die selling cold prospects on their Core Offer.
This is why they struggle and you won’t.
Would it shock you to find out that McDonald’s makes almost no money on the hamburger? The hamburger is the Core Offer, but it’s the fry and soda Profit Maximizer that built the Golden Arches.
This type of Profit Maximizer is called an immediate upsell…
Best Buy sells laptops and plasma TV’s (Core Offers) on wafer thin margins you can’t resist and makes it up on warranties, installation, and Geek Squad support (Profit Maximizers).
Amazon makes a Cross-Sell Profit Maximizer offer when they show you, “People who bought this product, also bought that product” to increase the Average Basket Value, also known as maximizing profit.
But Amazon also makes a Bundle Profit Maximizer offer with their “Frequently Bought Together” offer…
Any offer made after the initial sale is a Profit Maximizer. Because the single biggest expense most companies will incur is the cost of acquiring the customer (which is the job of the Tripwire Offer) and everything else increases the customer’s immediate and lifetime value.
What could you be offering as an upsell or cross-sell? What could you bundle with your Core Offer? How can you incorporate a subscription or membership site into your business model?
Find your Profit Maximizer and you begin to become unstoppable.
But there is one more way to grow…
Step 7 – Create the Return Path
The last way to grow a business is to increase the number of transactions per customer.
Enter the Return Path.
The goal of the Return Path is to have frequent, strategic communication with your buyers and prospects that cause them to buy again and again.
Because you have received their contact information through the Lead Magnet, you have the ability to continue marketing.
You can offer new Lead Magnets, Tripwires, Core Offers, and Profit Maximizers because you have permission to market to them or bring them back to the Tripwire, Core Offer, or Profit Maximizer that they didn’t buy the first time around.
The Return Path is anything that brings the customer or prospect back more frequently including…
Exit Offers
Organic Social Media (like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn)
Loyalty Programs
Content Marketing (Need Content Marketing training? Check out our Content Marketing Mastery Certification)
Outbound Sales Calling
Ad Retargeting (More on ad retargeting here)
… but none is more powerful than automated email follow-up. (You can get my book on email marketing, The Invisible Selling Machine, by clicking here.)
The single most impactful action you can take right now is to set up what I call The Machine.
The Machine is the Ultimate Email Marketing Gameplan and it is… unfortunately… far too involved to cover here. (Wow… I just noticed this article is over 3,000 words.)
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
Create a strong value proposition (and learn to use it)
Creating a strong (business) value proposition is the most important task any business, including yours, will ever undertake.
When it’s strong and refined and you know how to use it, it gives you a seemingly unfair competitive advantage against your competitors.
You should create it as soon as you can, ideally right when you start building your business.
But it’s just as beneficial to businesses that aren’t new. Some of the biggest companies in the world are heading toward bankruptcy because they haven’t done a good-enough job creating their value propositions. Re-defining it, though, could make the difference between sinking and swimming.
However, a great value proposition by itself won’t make you successful, but xAlt.co can help
What is the business model canvas?
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm’s or product’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances.
value prop of stem cells
Stem Cells 101, the Value Proposition
The Key purpose of stem cells is to maintain, heal and regenerate tissues wherever they reside in our body. This is a continuous process that occurs inside the human body throughout its life.
If we did not have stem cells, our lifespan would be about 1 hour, because there would be nothing to replace exhausted cells or damaged tissue. In addition, any time the body is exposed to any sort of toxin, the inflammatory process causes stem cells to swarm the area to repair the damage.
As an example: Say you went to the gym in the morning and did some squats. As a result of that, you would get tiny tears inside the muscle. The stem cells that reside beneath the muscle would come out and repair those little tears.
The reason that, if you continuously go to the gym, you would start to build new muscle, is because those stem cells, hard at work underneath your muscle, are helping to repair and build that new muscle. This would apply to all of the tissues inside your body.
Sure, it is easy to think of stem cell therapy as a magic bullet, but is wise to implement strategies that nourish and thereby help optimize the stem cells we already have in our body.
As noted by Kristin Comella, named # 1 on the Academy of Regenerative Practices list of Top 10 stem cell innovators, has been a stem cell researcher for nearly 20 years: “You have to create an appropriate environment for these cells to function in. If you are putting garbage into your body and you are constantly burdening your body with toxins, your stem cells are getting too distracted trying to fight off those toxins.
By creating an appropriate environment, optimizing your diet and reducing exposure to toxins, that will allow the stem cells that we’re putting in to really home in and focus on the true issue that we’re trying to treat.
The other thing we’ve discovered over the years is that [stem cell therapy] is not the type of thing where you take one dose and you’re cured forever. Our tissues are constantly getting damaged … You’re going to have to repeat-dose and use those stem cells to your advantage.
When you think about a lizard that loses its tail, it takes two years to grow back the tail. Why would we put unrealistic expectations on the stem cells that we’re trying to apply to repair or replace damaged tissue? This is a very slow process. This is something that will occur over months and may require repeat dosing.”
In the past, stem cells were isolated from bone marrow, and were used for bone marrow transplants for cancer patients since the 1930’s. But, stem cells come from just about any tissue in the human body, as every tissue contains stem cells.
Human bone marrow has very low amounts of mesenchymal stem cells now believed to be the most important, from a therapeutic perspective.
Mesenchymal stem cells help trigger an immunomodulatory response or a paracrine effect, which means they send signals out to the rest of your body, calling cells to the area to help promote healing.
What researchers have discovered recently is that a more plentiful source of stem cells is actually your fat tissue. Body fat can contain up to 500X more cells than bone marrow, as far as these mesenchymal type stem cells go.
One thing that is also critically important when you’re talking about isolating the cells is the number of other cells that are going to be part of that population.
“When you’re isolating a bone marrow sample, this actually is very high in white blood cells, which are pro-inflammatory.
White blood cells are part of your immune response. When an injury occurs, or a foreign body enters your system, white blood cells will attack. Unfortunately, white blood cells do not discriminate, and can create quite a bit of damage as they clean the area out,” Ms. Comella says.
Stem cells, in particular the mesenchymal cells, quiet down the white blood cells and then start the regeneration phase, which leads to new tissue.
Bone marrow tends to be very high in white blood cells and low in the mesenchymal cells. Isolating stem cells from fat tissue is preferred not only because it’s easier on the patient, but fat also contains a higher population of mesenchymal cells and fewer white blood cells.
“The benefit also of isolating [stem cells from] fat is that it’s a relatively simple procedure. There’s typically no shortage of fat tissue, especially in Americans.
Also, as you age, your bone marrow declines with regards to the number of cells in it, whereas the fat tissue maintains a pretty high number of stem cells, even in older individuals.
We can successfully harvest fat off of just about anyone, regardless of their age or how thin they are. The procedure is done under local [anesthesia], meaning that the patient stays awake. They don’t have to go under general anesthesia. We can harvest as few as 15 cubic centimeters of fat, which is a very small amount of fat, and still get a very high number of stem cells,” Ms. Comella says.
A stem cell procedure can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000, depending on what is being done, and rarely if ever will insurance cover it.
Still, when compared it to the cost of long-term medications or the out-of-pocket cost of getting a knee replacement, stem cell therapy may still be a less expensive alternative.
Also, a single extraction will typically yield enough stem cells for 20 to 25 future treatments, should one decide to store stem cells for future needs.
“I think it is accessible for patients,” Ms. Comella says. “It’s an out-patient procedure. One should plan to be in clinic for about 2 hours; no real limitations afterwards, just no submerging in water, no alcohol, no smoking for a week. But other than that, patients can resume their normal activities and go about their regular daily lives.”
Interestingly, Ms. Comella notes that patients who eat a very healthy diet, focusing on Organic and grass fed meat, have body fat that is very hearty and almost sticky, yielding high amounts of very healthy stem cells.
“We can grow much better and faster stem cells from that fat than [the fat from] somebody who eats a grain-based diet or is exposed to a lot of toxins in their diet,” she says. “Their fat tends to be very fluffy, buttery yellow. The cells that come out of that are not necessarily as good a quality. It’s just been very interesting. And of note, patients that are cigarette smokers, their fat is actually gray-tinged in color. The stem cells do not grow well at all.”
The beauty of stem cell therapy is that it mimics a process that is ongoing in the human body all the time. Our stem cells are continuously promoting healing, and they do not have to be manipulated in any way. The stem cells naturally know how to hone in on areas of inflammation and how to repair damaged tissue.
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
www.valuo.io ww.value-o.com www.valueoptimize.com
The Business Model Canvas value proposition provides a unique combination of products and services which provide value to the customer by resulting in the solution of a problem the customer is facing or providing value to the customer.
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