Best Advice: How a Cold Email Can Land You Funding

“If you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.”

Brian Wong  -  Best Advice: How a Cold Email Can Land You Funding

Someone once told me, “If you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.”
Those words changed the entire course of my career. They helped me launch my startup Kiip, acquire several rounds of funding, and learn from the brightest in the industry.
Why? Because at our basic human roots, we’re wired to help others. If you follow Gestalt psychology, we each work individually to benefit the community as a whole. We learn, remember, and teach different branches of knowledge. We want to impart our knowledge. We strive to become something more than the sum of our parts.
When I first heard those words, I had the advantage of youth. I launched Kiip at 18 and became the youngest CEO to ever receive venture capitalism. I was bright, eager, and ready to learn anything. Here’s the funny thing: when I asked those I admired for advice, they actually gave me money.
That was the case with Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express. It started — wait for it — with a cold email. I always cold-email executives; people usually feel too intimidated to reach out, so executives don’t expect it. You have the unique opportunity to capture their attention. So I sent Ken an email asking for his advice on mobile payments. Several conversations later, after bringing in Harshul Sanghi, Amex’s head of ventures, they invested in Kiip. None of which would have happened if I hadn’t sent that first cold email.

Don’t take my word for it. This philosophy has worked time and time again at other companies. Take Facebook, for instance. It has “client councils,” groups of the world’s top marketers who advise Facebook on advertising. The members, in addition to being renowned marketing masters, belong to companies’ top spending brands. So while Facebook asks CMOs for advice on bringing their advertising game to the next level, the CMOs involved are so excited to be a part of the initiative that they actually spend more on Facebook campaigns.
Even if you’re not a CEO looking to raise funding, you can use this tactic to get a raise or land that initial job. Instead of walking into the meeting demanding a higher salary, ask how you can contribute more to the company. Your boss will examine your work and reevaluate your worth. By asking for advice on your role, you can earn a raise without ever asking for it.
How to do this:

1. Play up the benefits of your age.

If you’re young, you have a fresh perspective that’s valuable to older execs. You can offer crucial insights into trends, newer technologies or social media marketing. Especially in industries like advertising, where brands are obsessed with targeting millennials, you’re walking market research for a coveted generation.
I know what you’re thinking. What if you don’t think you’re young? Turn that frown upside down — youth is a state of mind. It’s a matter of energy, curiosity and wonder. We’re all learning. We’re all growing. If someone can see that, you’ll be young to them.

2. Create an obligation to give back.

When you flatter someone by asking for advice, the inquired often feel a sense of responsibility to give back. The key is to approach the person with thought and research. For example, if you’re interviewing Elon Musk, don’t ask vague questions, like “Where do you see the future of the automotive industry?” Instead, ask pointed questions, such as “How does your marketing strategy plan to address the similarities between the Tesla 3 and the BMW i3?”
When you demonstrate genuine interest, the other person feels obligated to return the same level of involvement.

3. Get them excited.

Don’t hard sell anyone, especially when first reaching out. Ease into the conversation with a relaxed and friendly tone, maintaining an openness about your intentions. The other person will come up with their own ideas on how they want to work with you and get excited about the prospects.
At the end of the day, the worst-case scenario is you learn something new. So go ahead — ask a stranger for advice.
If you'd like to read more thought leadership by me, visit our company blog at blog.kiip.me.

The most effective times to post on Social Media

The most effective times to post on Social Media

Remarketing

Understanding Remarketing

The term “Remarketing” means targeting the users who previously visited your site but did not contribute to conversion. This process aids in reconnecting with potential buyers, this process is much more specific and focused. It is channeled towards those who have already displayed an interest in you.
WHY?

Now why should you target the users again? It is because Remarketing aims at capitalizing on the moment when users are ripe for the picking, (alright, to frame it in a less objectified manner) it is a process of increasing sales activity by targeting users when they’re most likely to contribute in conversion, which is right after they’ve browsed away from your website.

Now this approach is channeled towards a specific crowd, not a scattershot towards everyone. This step is undertaken to bolster sales activity, to get a greater number of registrations and to create brand awareness by being constantly present for the user/users.

Re-Targeting customers is a beneficial aspect as they’re most likely to buy right after navigating away from your page; it caters to a set of customized audiences.
Often referred to as re-targeting, remarketing becomes detrimental in extracting every chance at conversions.
Another alluring aspect is that the reach of such a marketing strategy stretches far and wide due to the vast expanse of the Google Display Network.
Efficient pricing makes it easier for you and your budget, especially with the ease of ad creation. With a wide array of options available, such as creative messages through text ads, there is greater visibility as to where you ads appear. Or you can have Ads in the form of Images/Videos.

We’ll look at the various forms Remarketing takes, at a glance

• Remarketing for the Display Network- Displays ads to your site for visitors while they browse the web.
• Remarketing Lists for search ads- matching the ads on your site according to the user’s search query on Google.
• Remarketing for Mobile Apps - the purpose of this is to reach customers who have frequented specific sections of your mobile app, it will display ads while they use other apps.
  
  The purpose of these ads is to generate dynamically created ads relevant to people who visited a specific section of a site.
  
  Here’s a start-up guide for creating your first basic remarketing campaign.
  

How to optimize for Conversion Rate?

How to optimize for Conversion Rate?

Conversion Rate Optimization: is to raise conversion optimization rate i.e. to generate and direct a colossal amount of traffic to your website and let the hits pile up.
The beauty of this is that you don’t have to alter your advertising expenditure, you just tweak up your approach to make the most of the traffic on your site. A high traffic rate is no indicator of success unless you receive as many conversions.
The objective is to compel the highest number of users to indulge in the process of conversion.
Now just before we go all “Gung-Ho” let’s take a glance to realign a couple of things

• Analyse your current rate of conversion.
  
• Jot down all the troublesome areas you have.
  
• Check if you have an effective Call-to-Action (A conspicuously placed “Buy Now”/“Contact Now” button)
  
• Ensure user friendly U.I. Paired with crisp, clean graphics to ensure the User navigates without any hindrance.
  
• Cohesion is of paramount importance, double check again whether your site is inseparably linked to the product on sale
  

Moving forward, the double checking and realigning things into perspective affect many factors which determine your conversion rates.
You have your Bounce Rates, which give you stats of users leaving after not getting past the first page, followed by Exit Rates which shows you the last page users viewed before leaving. Average Page Views, the number of pages users leafed through before navigating away from your website.

Now the question is why are they leaving? Is your site not compelling enough? Alluring enough? Are there too many Calls-to-action complicating the life out of the user? Are your products loosely linked with your ad? Website’s a bit too intricate and elaborate? 
Let’s not forget about the “split-second” attention of users that goes astray if the content is unappealing, the relentless speed at which the mind either gets attracted or strayed from the content is blinding. The rainbow of moods the user might have, the distractions faced by the user while shopping are uncontrollable forces of nature. What is in your control is to make the content appealing, universally.

We want quick and easy access to the site which makes good on its promise and indeed provides the goods the ad was made for, then we want quick and easy navigation to get or find the product/service we need and to sum it all up; a hassle free checkout which complicate the life out of you.

Make sure you don’t have your website committing these cardinal sins which lead to inevitable failure.
Having an unattractive Website
Make sure you website is not droll and unattractive. Ensure cheap graphics are not used; there needs to be harmony across the page.

Unnavigable WebpageSuppose you’re selling ties. If one has to peel his eyes out to get to know about the product, then you know you’ve lost your potential customer right there. (No information about the ties and the size chart being lost to oblivion would be the catalysts in hiking up the bounce rate, in this case)

Poor Call to Actiononce the user is lost on webpage, all hope is not lost, and they only abandon ship when there is no guide to get them back on track. No “help” button will be the final nail in the coffin, A coup de grace which will further bolster the exit rate on the website.
These reasons, coupled with many more seal the high Bounce Rate of any website, these are cardinal sins you don’t want to commit. Reanalyze your site and make sure your folly isn’t listed above.

performance tuning your email campaigns: Email Marketing

 

Performance tuning your email campaigns: Email Marketing

It’s All About The Click: Email Marketing 

Digital media campaigns across Consumer decision journey

Digital media campaigns across Consumer decision journey

Understanding PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS and their Roles in Web

Understanding PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS and their Roles in Web