This is a guest post by Jin Choi. Jin Choi is a writer who runs the MoneyNam blog. His favorite hobbies include learning about the newest trends in online marketing and lifting heavy iron at the gym.

The customer lifecycle consists of the stages that a customer goes through from the moment they become aware of your company to the moment they purchase your product.

It’s essential to apply the right strategies for each stage of the customer lifecycle if you want to maximize your customer lifetime value (CLV).

In order to build a successful company, it’s important to focus on the CLV.

Why?

Because repeat customers are nine times more likely to buy the same product from a new seller.

This Process Street guest post provides you with the tools to understand each of the stages of the customer lifecycle so that you can maximize the value of each and every customer you acquire.

• The stages of the customer lifecycle
• Customer lifecycle stage 1: Awareness
• Customer lifecycle stage 2: Engagement
• Customer lifecycle stage 3: Evaluation
• Customer lifecycle stage 4: Purchase
• Customer lifecycle stage 5: Post-purchase
• Customer lifecycle stage 6: Advocacy
• Customer lifecycle marketing: A summary

Let’s get started.
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Way back in 2014, we first tried our hand at launching on Product Hunt with an early version of Process Street. It got featured, but that was a different time; when Product Hunt’s staff manually selected each product feature (these days Product Hunt claims that an automated algorithm decides).

It was hunted (Product Hunt lingo for “promoted”) by Audrey Melnik of Funnel Ventures, didn’t even have a maker (another Product Hunt termin for the creators of a product), yet still found its way to the front page of Product Hunt.

Six years, a couple of relaunches, and a $12 million Series A on from that humble effort, Process Street has changed a fair bit. We’ve shipped over 30 products on Product Hunt; from podcasts, new Process Street feature launches, to whole product launches, to eBooks.

Some of them were great successes, with multiple top 4 spots and a whole bunch of front-page features. Others weren’t so great; some garnered next to no traction and were essentially dead-on-arrival.

The point of this article is to impart some of the lessons we’ve learned, from common myths and misconceptions, to what worked well for us (and what didn’t work so well).

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ll be covering:

• Why you should care about Product Hunt
• Common misconceptions about Product Hunt launches
• How to prepare for a Product Hunt launch (free checklist)
• Key takeaways: How to have a successful Product Hunt launch

Let’s start with the basics, which often get taken for granted when it comes to deciding whether or not to launch on Product Hunt.
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“Startups that regularly conduct qualitative research (not just quantitative) experience faster results in their quest to achieve product-market-fit.” – Mitchell Posada, I’m a startup, do I need to do Qualitative Research?

Why?

Because by regularly doing qualitative research, you are engaging with (and acting on) the voice of your ideal customer. To the point where the customer actually becomes a part of everything you do.

Whether you’re a founder about to launch a product or someone who is simply keen to understand and put into practice qualitative research methods – you’re in the right place.

Just keep on scrolling and I assure you that on finishing this Process Street blog you will be well versed in all that is qualitative research.

Alternatively, to skip to a specific section of the post click the links below:

• What is qualitative research?
• A closer look at qualitative research
• Types of qualitative research
• Qualitative research in practice: The chocolate method
• Is qualitative research for you?

Keep reading to find out exactly what chocolate has to do with qualitative research!
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You’re waiting for the train on your way to work. You’ve got a long day ahead, and don’t feel like swinging by the grocery store afterward. Fortunately, there’s a supermarket kiosk on the platform. You scan the barcodes with your phone and arrange for your food to be delivered when you get home.

As you cross the street to your office building, the strap of your computer bag finally breaks. You don’t have time to run out and get a new one, but that’s okay. Once you’re in your office, you log on to the company’s website, put on the augmented reality headset, and virtually try on different bags.

At lunch, you head down to your usual restaurant. The AI in the touch-screen kiosk suggests sandwiches you might like based on your order history, then uses facial recognition to complete the order and charge your account.

This is phygital marketing – all made possible by advances in augmented reality (AR).

The global AR and virtual reality (VR) markets are expected to reach 18.8 billion USD by the end of 2020 – over 78% growth from spending in 2019. By 2025, that growth is only expected to increase exponentially.

With the sophistication of AR/VR tech, more companies are incorporating it into their campaigns – and more consumers are expecting it.

In this Process Street post, we’ll take an in-depth look at the what and why of phygital marketing, but you can also skip ahead to one of the following sections:

• Phygital isn’t a real word… Is it?
• Living in a phygital world: Nintendo, Porsche, and Sephora
• Phygitalizing your brand

Let’s get phygital!

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“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker, 19th-century marketing pioneer

Fortunately, it’s no longer the nineteenth century.

Thanks to wondrous advancements in technology, you now have all the tools you need to determine exactly what is working within your sales processes and why.

How? Through the use of sales metrics.

Sales metrics help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing and sales strategies. They also provide insight into how much your business spends on securing a lead and allow you to monitor and analyze the progress of your marketing actions.

The question is: which sales metrics should you be tracking?

This Process Street blog takes you through 11 of the most valuable sales metrics, how to calculate them, and how to turn the metric’s data into actions that encourage your business to grow.

To jump to a specific section of the post click the links below:

• What are sales metrics?
• 11 essential sales metrics for digital businesses
• Make your sales metrics actionable

Alternatively, to get fully clued up on all 11 metrics and how to use their data in an actionable, positive way – just keep scrolling.

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With nine years in the aviation industry, Daniel Martin is an experienced team-builder with several high-performance content creation teams under his belt. He is currently the Head of Customer Success at LinkDoctor.

As of October 2019, there were 1.72 billion websites on the Internet. Keeping up with reputation and rank is important for any website owner, but it’d be impossible to manually check every site one-by-one.

Google has developed a ranking algorithm that crawls through billions of websites in a short time. This algorithm determines the site’s relevance and trustworthiness based on several factors, including backlinks from other sites.

A backlink is equivalent to statements such as “I trust this website,” or “This is a valuable website.” This is why link-building has become necessary to get higher ranks on the Internet.

High-ranking sites are more visible on search engines’ results, which leads to higher conversion rates and traffic.

When it comes to organic links, though, you can’t just ask other sites to give them to you; you need to earn them. But how do you get other sites to link to yours?

In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about:

• What are organic links and link building?
• Focus on gaining these high-quality links
• Low-quality organic links to avoid
• How to deal with toxic backlinks to your website
• Determining the best strategy to gain organic links
• Understanding user behavior and interests to increase organic traffic
• Identifying your site’s customer personas for more tailored content
• How to create high-quality, linkable assets other sites will want to use
• Optimizing your website for better organic links
• Leveraging social media for more backlinks

Read on for step-by-step instructions on sowing those backlinks to your site!

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“An hour of planning can save you ten hours of doing.” – Dale Carnegie

The formula for success on social media can seem like trying to pick the lottery’s winning numbers – impossible, with a dash of blind luck. What if you could predict some of the outcomes? The game becomes a lot easier, right?

One of the keys to success on social media is creating a well-thought-out social media content calendar process – another is executing it!

Having worked for a creative marketing agency, I understand the difficulty of creating a well-structured social media content calendar process. Waiting for approvals from your clients feels like rallying against Roger Federer at Wimbledon (his social media game is ace too). While cornering your colleague who still owes you that spellcheck is awkward at best.

So how do you become the Roger Federer of social media?

All it takes is a 3-step process to get the ultimate social media content calendar. But first, let’s see what you’ll learn about in this blog post.

• What is a social media content calendar? 
• Why do I need a social media content calendar? 
• What social media content calendar tools are out there?
• The 3-step social media content calendar process

Click the headings to jump ahead, or stick with me as we rally for serve.
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This is a guest post by Hannah Butler, who works as a web developer, designer, and writer.

According to a study by Digiday, Vanity Fair’s newsletter readers consume 2x more content than any other audience segment.

Another study by Parse.ly found that Greentech Media’s newsletter visitors spend 80% more time on site than visitors from other channels.

These studies reflect the effectiveness of business newsletters for engaging your audience, retaining readers, and converting prospects.

However, we at Process Street know that writing a business newsletter can be challenging.

That is why we have put together this article detailing how to write a business newsletter. You will learn the underlying principles behind newsletter writing, along with top tips and tricks for how to create compelling content consistently. And if that isn’t enough, we give you 30 top – free – template resources to speed up the process, helping you save time on tedious, repetitive tasks.

Check out our Creating a Newsletter checklist given below for a quick taster regarding what our templates have to offer.

Click here to access our Creating a Newsletter checklist!

Click on the relevant subheader to jump to the section of choice. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say.

• Why bother writing a business newsletter?
• How to write a newsletter
• Business newsletter templates to streamline your newsletter campaigns
• Sending your business newsletter using an email marketing campaign process

With that said, let’s get started. Continue Reading

This is a guest post from Alissa Zucker, marketing manager and writer at Mcessay. You can find her reading classical philosophy and writing short fiction in her spare time.

It’s predicted that by the end of 2020, businesses will have spent ~$110 billion on digital advertising alone in the US. To put that into context, that’s more money spent on digital advertising than what would be spent on both television and print ads combined.

This just goes to show the importance of digital advertising in the modern marketing communication mix.

It is essential that every business know how to effectively market their products and services in order to not only survive, but to grow and prosper in a competitive global market.

It’s not uncommon when questioned about marketing, that a business owner will simply produce a business card, a brochure stitched together using a Microsoft Office template, or a barely functional website with little to no traffic.

In this Process Street post, I want to provide you with an overview of everything you need to know about the marketing communication mix, including:

• The updated marketing mix: The 7 Ps of marketing
• What exactly is the marketing communication mix?
• Twelve factors of the marketing communication mix
• How to make the most of the marketing communication mix

Before diving into the specifics of the marketing communication mix, let’s first discuss the 7Ps of marketing.
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Lesley Vos is a content strategist at Bid4Papers, specializing in data research, copywriting, and content promotion. She has been published on Moz, CXL, Forbes, and more. Follow her on Twitter to read her latest articles.

The world’s demand for video content is enormous. It makes up 80% of all online traffic, and yet 53% of people want to see even more videos from brands they support!

In short, if you don’t consider video a part of your marketing plans, you’re missing a huge opportunity to grow. Not only does video content impact your brand’s authority, but it also can improve your traffic and overall search engine rankings by far.

But this is all easier said than done.

While producing and sharing a video might seem a great idea, you need to remember that it should complement your overall SEO and marketing strategy. After all, if you fail to organize and optimize your video content in the early stages, not only will it cost you a pretty sum, but it will be money spent in vain.

That’s why, in this guest post for Process Street, I’ll discuss video SEO marketing and optimization so your video content can achieve better rankings.

Just read through the following sections:

• What is video SEO?
• Planning your video content (with basic video SEO marketing practices)
• How to optimize video content for search and higher rankings
• Use Process Street for all your video and marketing needs!

Or, if you wanted to start working through an SEO checklist straight away, use this template.

Click here to get SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process!

Lights, camera, action,

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