Boosting the result of your landing page!

To start let me share with you a really useful and nice graphic representation that I found today in the blog of HubSpot in my research time of the day. So let's start:

First of all,  what optimization is?  

The graphic above can help us to get a clear idea about it, but let me also help you to develop this idea. I want to clarify that the "Desired action" and the landing pages itself will be different according the objective and strategy that you have defined. For instance if you are a B2B company and you are using  LEAD generation into your marketing strategy to accomplish your sales objectives, then the desired action would be to get the further contact information of potential customers. As more visitors you get  filling your LEAD form, more conversion your landing page will have.  

Now, According the above, you have to consider the following check points to ensure a killer landing page:

• Set a clear goal, and ensure you don't distract your consumer from it.
• Simplify to get better results: One message, One objective, One page, one action!
• Be sure to know your audience and adapt the landing page according your potential costumer profile
• Use a clear and outstanding call to action (Buy now! Register now! Get start) This should be the first thing to stand out on any landing page.
• Use Social proof (Testimonials, Reviews): This will give you credibility 
• Include contact information: Adress, website, Phone, Emil
• About costumer forms (If any) ensure to keep it super simple
• Consider give freebies:  Coupons, Ebook, Whitepaper, Trial.
• Use mobile responsive desing, you won't want to lost customers because they can't access through their mobile devices.  
• Choose a testing method: For example A/B testing. 

If you want more Ideas, Here you will find 8 great landing page designs  for your illustration. 

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There aren't better books than these which inspire you.

I want specialty recommend  and share some thoughts about this amazing book which while I was going through each page it really got inspiring me so many times.  I just finished it the last moth its name is; La ruta de la Seda / The Silk Path (2nd book) by Bernard Ollivier (I read the Spanish version)

12.000 kms afoot through the mystic silk path! This is the "crazy" goal that Bernard Ollivier a french journalist decided to carry out!  At this time he is 62 years old! (Yeah 62!), he travels alone with only something of money, his bag-pack, his camera and a notebook. 

Just to help you to imagine why this is so amazing and exiting book and to give some kind of context to my final thoughts in this post, I did this roughly map that shows what this guy did only walking, (Green line is the first book and red line the second one) basically he crossed 4 countries walking;  Since Istanbul (Turkey),  Iran, Turkmenistan  to finally reach Samarkand (Uzbekistan).

  

Things that the book made me think

Follow your dreams! It doesn't matter what crazy this could be, Bernard has walked about 8.000 kms just because he set this as personal goal and he has this amazing wanderlust and craving for walk! 

The power of start with the end in mind, with the clear picture of what you want to reach, this will be enough to carry on. When all was going really bad, tough and looked like it will be impossible to finish that was only what Bernard thought to continue! 

Wherever you are going, you will find unbelievable kind and friendly people, Bernard had countless stories about how the people help him, I think without them he wouldn't  be able to reach his goal.

We walk the toughest paths don't with our body but with our mind and esprit, Bernard mention this in different parts of the route; "I don't walk with my legs I walk with my mind"

what we can reach  when we have self confidence and  willpower  is simply unimaginable!

To finish I left  you one of the last quotes of the book....
  

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The "what, why and how" of Employee Engagement

Keving Kruse in his articule "What Is Employee Engagement" published on Forbes, define Employee Engagement  as "The emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals... This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. They don’t work just for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion, but work on behalf of the organization’s goals".

Have you felt engaged or disengaged as employee? Have you felt happy in your job?, Have you felt the commitment and will to make the best of you? Have you worked more hours, arrive earlier or leave later your office, just because you felt fine to do it? I'm sure every of us have felt it in some point of our professional career. Let's do a short exercise; Try to recall these feelings of when you were  engaged and disengaged in your job and comparing both situations tell me how did you perform better? You should already got the answer, indeed engagement increase productivity, quality and costumer satisfaction, these are some of the reason because you should be concerned about how your employees or team members are feeling in the company, are they engaged or not?

So now that you know the "what" and "why" let me tell you about the "how" you could get this emotional commitment of the employees, you must take care of the following:

• Select people that fit with your organizational culture (Values, believes, behaviors)
• Since the selection and induction process be clear, transparent and set the right expectations
• Train and develop your leaders, "People quit their boss, Not their Job"
• Give them a clear vision about what your company/team is working for
• Give them a "why" they must understand their roles within the organization and why this is so important to reach the vision. 
• Clarify the objective and priorities of the company
• Listen to them, ask them how they are feeling, what they think. 
• Reward and recognize them for their outstanding performance and contributions. 
• Let them clear the "how" they can grow into the company.
• Take care of their personal and professional development.
• Challenge them, each one of us have a giant inside, show it to them and help them to get awake it.  

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How to drive effective meetings

Basically there are three key moments to drive the performance of your team through a meeting, the Before, During and After the Meeting ,  let me share some ideas:

Before the meeting
First of all you need to think how you will make this time strategic and define the objectives of the meetings.

Try using questions like:
- How is going on the goals of the moth/quarter? Is it necessary to take some action about that?
- Which problems, bottlenecks do you need to overcome?
- Which things do you need from you team?
- What information/Update your team must know?
- How could you help the team?
- What should be the outputs of the meeting?
 
Once you have  the clear picture of your meeting, create an agenda and allocate an appropriate amount of time. Finally Inform and confirm your team for the meeting, you must ensure the key people will be there.

During the meeting 
According the objectives you have defined after the meeting,  you should have an agenda and check points (this will be you plan),  your meeting will be effective if you follow it.

Below I'm presenting you a framework of how it could be, but keep in mind that this has to be customized to your meeting objectives.

Meeting Agenda 

Let's start (10 min)
Share the points to discuss and the objectives of the meeting
Choose one person responsible to take the outputs (Next steps, DDLs, people responsible, conclusions)

what's going on (15)
Follow up key commitments of the team in last meetings
Share last news, incoming changes, projects and relevant information with the team

 Let's focus to work (45 min)
Collaboration time to work on of strategies, action plans, solutions for current objectives, priorities, problems. As the meeting time is limited, you also can plan future independents meetings e.g. one to one or between two department leaders to get finished the issue in question.

To keep in mind: (10 min)
Clarify priorities, goals of the week/moth
Share important messages.

let's do that (10 min)
Next steps and check list, task assignation, check points, Closing messages.

After the meeting 
With the help of the person you chose to take the outputs, ensure these reach the team.
Take 10 min to evaluate how was the meeting, did you accomplish your objectives?, How could you do it better the next time?,  ask to your how they perceive the meeting.
Finally don't forget to track the next steps, DDLs, people responsible to ensure the things happen!

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Out of the comfort zone, loving India

It was 21 of July of 2014, I was in the Airport El Dorado (Bogota), I was sitting beside the boarding gate thoughtful and full of feelings,  I wrote down the following words while I was waiting for the final call.

"What can I say? I'm just to 2 hours to start my trip  and make real the most challenging decision in my life! I've decided to follow my dreams and go to India! To say goodbye to my family was really hard! I love them, I live for them! But now I'm decided to make this experience unique and unforgettable. Today I PROMISE to myself these 3 things!  

 1) I'm going to discover the incredible India;  its culture, history, flavors,  people, wonderful places and magic. 

 2) I'll trust in myself! I'm sure I can do it, I'm going to overcome all the  obstacles that I'll find, 

 3) I'll enjoy every single moment! I'll live this year as it was my last". 

It was the beginning of my trip, now four moths after that day I continue writing about my trip in India, currently I'm in Bangalore working for a Game development company in the HR department.  I'm really grateful of being living this experience, I've been absolutely out of my comfort zone,  adapting me to a new life such us; new languages (Hindi, Kannada, English and there are thousands more), New people and friends, new food (vegetarian and spicy), new traffic (Crazy and noisy), the fact of seeing many cows, dogs and eagles in your daily walks. I'd say that there are all type of experiences that you can live here "good" and "bad (Not at all)" it will depend of the attitude with you take it, but in my case I just have remembered my third promise, so I've enjoyed every single moment. This country is awesome! If you have a  soul of traveler and you love discovering new places and cultures, India is country for you, travel it's really cheap and safe! You only have to take care of always getting a fair price, they will try to overcharge you, this is a fact for the foreigners here.  

From my experience I can say that people in India is so kind, they will want to help you, offer their friendship and guide you. Something good is that you can communicate easily because the most of them speak English (They have some particular accent  but you'll catch it easy before the first or second week). So far I've just been in the the south of India but I'm planning to go to the north; Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jhodpur, Udaipur and Jaysalmer which will be my next stops, I'll tell you how the things are there. 

In summary if you are thinking about to come India, don't think it a lot, just come! but ensure to bring with you an open mind and heart, set up goals about what experience you want to live, check which city offer you what you want and enjoy it, India will embrace you with its magic. I assure you that when you come back to home you will be a better person with thousand of  nice stories to tell. 

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Making Decisions, Let's go to India!

I'm Carlos Salamanca and I'm In Bangalore India!  I'm writing this because I want to share the "why", So If you are thinking in travel to anywhere (I absolutely recommend India and this nice city) maybe this singles words could help you, If it`s not now, then when? We just have one short life! So let's live it!

Closing October of 2013, while I was checking my personal goals of the current and next year, I made the decision about some changes, I wanted to get out of the routine and look for new experiences.  At this moment I was enjoying my job leading the organizational development of an eCommerce start up in Bogota, but the thing was that I felt that I didn't want to start so soon this long path of a corporate career. If you have worked before you should know that being in an office 8 hours per day, 48 hours per week during one, two, three years end up in a boring and grey routine. 

All the above made me asking to myself about: How do I feel?, Which are my life priorities, objectives and likes? What do I want to change? Which options I have?. Finally after answer these questions and make different reflections, I concluded that I don't want to pass my life in a Office in Bogota (At least not yet) It'd be a boring and I just would be in my comfort zone.

My profession is International Business administrator so considering this of course my future life will be linked with an office! But so, what could I do about this? Let`s think.... I got it! My greatest passion is to travel, so I could put together both things WORK + TRAVEL and gain a personal and professional growth experience and make it unforgettable! So I thought that the best way of get it would be ensure get out of my comfort zone, so why not India? If it'd offer me all what I was looking for, an amazing culture, great people, beautiful destinations, Professional opportunities, challenging experiences and many things that to discover for first time!

If you are coming to India  I hope to  meet you here!

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Contact me

I have created this blog as a personal project to share Ideas, thoughts, stories and knowledge.  I’m open for conversation around business, coaching, sharing Ideas and networking. 

Get In touch

Carlos.business.manager@gmail.com

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