Funnel

funnel

The TechBeat: Automate Hiring, Build Effective Funnels, And Go for Top Talent With This Guide (2/1/2025)

Out With Funnels, In With Gravity The marketing funnel is dying. Long live “digital gravity.” For years, B2B SaaS marketers have clung to the funnel like a lifeboat: awareness, consideration, decision. Wash, rinse, repeat. But today’s buying journeys aren’t linear, and the funnel feels as outdated as a dial-up modem. Enter digital gravity—a new way to think about customer acquisition. It’s less about shoving leads through predetermined stages and more about building a gravitational pull so strong that customers are drawn in on their own. Think omnipresent content, strategic influence, and an ecosystem where your brand becomes the obvious choice. “Digital gravity isn’t about chasing customers. It’s about being the center of their universe when they’re ready to make a move.” Why Funnels Are Failing Funnels worked when buyers followed predictable paths. But in 2025, that’s a fantasy. “Modern purchasing decisions are anything but linear. They’re messy, multi-dimensional, and influenced by everything from peer reviews to random LinkedIn posts.” And the traditional funnel assumes all leads are equal, ignoring the nuances of behavior, intent, and context. The result? A clunky model that oversimplifies complex buying decisions—especially in the B2B SaaS world. The Gravity Playbook If funnels push, gravity pulls. The premise is simple: become unavoidable. How? By building digital mass—content, trust, and presence. A lot of it. Everywhere your audience hangs out. Blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media—you name it. But it’s not just about throwing spaghetti at the wall. Quality and relevance are everything. “If your content doesn’t provide value, it’s just noise. You need to create something your audience actually cares about.” The goal? To be top of mind, not in their face. Digital gravity lets potential customers orbit your brand, entering your ecosystem when they’re ready, not when you’re desperate. Bootstrapped vs. Funded: Building Gravity on a Budget Startups often face a tough question: build momentum now or conserve resources? Funded companies can afford to (AND SHOULD) play the field, pumping out content across multiple platforms. Bootstrapped startups, on the other hand, need to focus their energy. Pick your battles. Don’t try to be everywhere. Be strategic. Find the channels that matter most to your audience and own them. Tactical Moves to Harness Digital Gravity Let’s get practical. How do you build this elusive pull? Scrape Smart, Target Smarter Find the Right People: Use tools like Apollo.io to zero in on industries, job titles, and company sizes that fit your product. Gather Intel: Tools like Hunter.io can help you collect emails—ethically, of course. (Privacy laws exist for a reason. Laser-Focused Ads: Stop wasting money on broad campaigns. Hyper-targeted ads on LinkedIn and Google work better every time. Content That Actually Works Leverage UGC: User-generated content (think reviews, testimonials) adds authenticity. Experiment with AI: AI avatars and personalized ads are no longer science fiction. They’re here, and they’re effective. Test Relentlessly: Run A/B tests until you figure out what sticks. Then do more of that. Cold Emails That Don’t Suck Be Personal: Research your prospects. Know their pain points and craft emails they actually want to open. Stand Out: Generic subject lines won’t cut it. Ask a bold question or highlight a specific value. Drive Action: Clear, concise, and actionable. Your email isn’t a novel; it’s an invitation. Layer Your Channels Go Multi-Channel: Ads, podcasts, blogs, emails—each should reinforce the other. Build Trust: Share thought leadership, host webinars, and publish articles that position you as an industry authority. Media as a Profit Center Here’s where it gets really interesting. Digital gravity isn’t just about attracting customers. It’s also a way to make money. How? Turn your marketing into media. Ads on Your Platforms: Got traffic? Monetize it with relevant ads. Partnerships: Collaborate with brands or influencers to co-create content. Subscriptions: Offer premium content for a fee. “Marketing doesn’t have to be a cost center. Done right, it can drive revenue.” Exponential Growth Digital gravity isn’t just about steady growth; it’s about exponential growth. Think snowball effect: the more presence you have, the more people notice, engage, and convert. Exponential growth is about momentum. “Once you’ve built enough digital mass, the system starts working for you.” The Future of SaaS Marketing The age of funnels is over. Digital gravity is rewriting the playbook for B2B SaaS. It’s a paradigm shift—one that rewards creativity, strategy, and relentless focus on the customer. The good news? The tools are already in your hands. The bad news? It’s not easy. Building digital gravity takes time, effort, and a willingness to experiment. But if you’re ready to break free from the funnel, the rewards are waiting. Welcome to the new frontier. k bye. Out With Funnels, In With Gravity The marketing funnel is dying. Long live “ digital gravity .” marketing funnel digital gravity For years, B2B SaaS marketers have clung to the funnel like a lifeboat: awareness, consideration, decision. Wash, rinse, repeat. B2B SaaS marketers But today’s buying journeys aren’t linear, and the funnel feels as outdated as a dial-up modem. Enter digital gravity —a new way to think about customer acquisition. digital gravity It’s less about shoving leads through predetermined stages and more about building a gravitational pull so strong that customers are drawn in on their own. Think omnipresent content, strategic influence, and an ecosystem where your brand becomes the obvious choice. “Digital gravity isn’t about chasing customers. It’s about being the center of their universe when they’re ready to make a move.” “Digital gravity isn’t about chasing customers. It’s about being the center of their universe when they’re ready to make a move.” Why Funnels Are Failing Funnels worked when buyers followed predictable paths. But in 2025, that’s a fantasy. “Modern purchasing decisions are anything but linear. They’re messy, multi-dimensional, and influenced by everything from peer reviews to random LinkedIn posts.” “Modern purchasing decisions are anything but linear. They’re messy, multi-dimensional, and influenced by everything from peer reviews to random LinkedIn posts.” And the traditional funnel assumes all leads are equal, ignoring the nuances of behavior, intent, and context. The result? A clunky model that oversimplifies complex buying decisions—especially in the B2B SaaS world. The Gravity Playbook If funnels push, gravity pulls. The premise is simple: become unavoidable. How? By building digital mass —content, trust, and presence. digital mass A lot of it. Everywhere your audience hangs out. Blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media—you name it. But it’s not just about throwing spaghetti at the wall. Quality and relevance are everything. “If your content doesn’t provide value, it’s just noise. You need to create something your audience actually cares about.” “If your content doesn’t provide value, it’s just noise. You need to create something your audience actually cares about.” The goal? To be top of mind, not in their face. Digital gravity lets potential customers orbit your brand, entering your ecosystem when they’re ready, not when you’re desperate. Bootstrapped vs. Funded: Building Gravity on a Budget Startups often face a tough question: build momentum now or conserve resources? Funded companies can afford to (AND SHOULD) play the field, pumping out content across multiple platforms. Bootstrapped startups, on the other hand, need to focus their energy. Pick your battles. Don’t try to be everywhere. Be strategic. Find the channels that matter most to your audience and own them. Tactical Moves to Harness Digital Gravity Let’s get practical. How do you build this elusive pull? Scrape Smart, Target Smarter Find the Right People: Use tools like Apollo.io to zero in on industries, job titles, and company sizes that fit your product. Find the Right People: Use tools like Apollo.io to zero in on industries, job titles, and company sizes that fit your product. Gather Intel: Tools like Hunter.io can help you collect emails—ethically, of course. (Privacy laws exist for a reason. Gather Intel: Tools like Hunter.io can help you collect emails—ethically, of course. (Privacy laws exist for a reason. Laser-Focused Ads: Stop wasting money on broad campaigns. Hyper-targeted ads on LinkedIn and Google work better every time. Laser-Focused Ads: Stop wasting money on broad campaigns. Hyper-targeted ads on LinkedIn and Google work better every time. Content That Actually Works Leverage UGC: User-generated content (think reviews, testimonials) adds authenticity. Leverage UGC: User-generated content (think reviews, testimonials) adds authenticity. Experiment with AI: AI avatars and personalized ads are no longer science fiction. They’re here, and they’re effective. Experiment with AI: AI avatars and personalized ads are no longer science fiction. They’re here, and they’re effective. Test Relentlessly: Run A/B tests until you figure out what sticks. Then do more of that. Test Relentlessly: Run A/B tests until you figure out what sticks. Then do more of that. Cold Emails That Don’t Suck Be Personal: Research your prospects. Know their pain points and craft emails they actually want to open. Be Personal: Research your prospects. Know their pain points and craft emails they actually want to open. Stand Out: Generic subject lines won’t cut it. Ask a bold question or highlight a specific value. Stand Out: Generic subject lines won’t cut it. Ask a bold question or highlight a specific value. Drive Action: Clear, concise, and actionable. Your email isn’t a novel; it’s an invitation. Drive Action: Clear, concise, and actionable. Your email isn’t a novel; it’s an invitation. Layer Your Channels Go Multi-Channel: Ads, podcasts, blogs, emails—each should reinforce the other. Go Multi-Channel: Ads, podcasts, blogs, emails—each should reinforce the other. Build Trust: Share thought leadership, host webinars, and publish articles that position you as an industry authority. Build Trust: Share thought leadership, host webinars, and publish articles that position you as an industry authority. Media as a Profit Center Here’s where it gets really interesting. Digital gravity isn’t just about attracting customers. It’s also a way to make money. How? Turn your marketing into media. Ads on Your Platforms: Got traffic? Monetize it with relevant ads. Ads on Your Platforms: Got traffic? Monetize it with relevant ads. Partnerships: Collaborate with brands or influencers to co-create content. Partnerships: Collaborate with brands or influencers to co-create content. Subscriptions: Offer premium content for a fee. Subscriptions: Offer premium content for a fee. “Marketing doesn’t have to be a cost center. Done right, it can drive revenue.” “Marketing doesn’t have to be a cost center. Done right, it can drive revenue.” Exponential Growth Digital gravity isn’t just about steady growth; it’s about exponential growth . exponential growth Think snowball effect: the more presence you have, the more people notice, engage, and convert. Exponential growth is about momentum. “Once you’ve built enough digital mass, the system starts working for you.” “Once you’ve built enough digital mass, the system starts working for you.” The Future of SaaS Marketing The age of funnels is over. Digital gravity is rewriting the playbook for B2B SaaS . playbook for B2B SaaS It’s a paradigm shift—one that rewards creativity, strategy, and relentless focus on the customer. The good news? The tools are already in your hands. The bad news? It’s not easy. Building digital gravity takes time, effort, and a willingness to experiment. But if you’re ready to break free from the funnel, the rewards are waiting. Welcome to the new frontier. k bye.

The Age of Marketing Funnels is Over

If you’re running an e-commerce store, you’ve probably been there: people are visiting your site, browsing around, and then… poof, they’re gone without buying anything. Frustrating, right? That’s where funnel analysis comes in. It’s all about figuring out what’s going on at each step of the customer journey and spotting where they’re dropping off. In this article, I’ll show you how I use BigQuery to break down and analyze the e-commerce funnel step by step. Let’s dive in. What Is Funnel Analysis? Okay, so here’s the deal: a funnel is just a fancy name for the journey your customers take on your site, from the moment they land to when (hopefully) they make a purchase. It looks something like this: Homepage Visits: They land on your site.
Product Page Views: They start browsing your products.
Add to Cart: They like something enough to add it to their cart.
Checkout: They decide to proceed to checkout.
Purchase: They complete the order. 🎉 The goal of funnel analysis is simple: figure out how many people make it from one step to the next, and where you’re losing them. Analyzing Funnel Transitions with BigQuery If you’re storing event data in BigQuery, you can run queries to track how users move through each step of the funnel. Let me show you how. Step 1: Querying Funnel Steps Here’s a simple query that shows how many users move from one step to the next: WITH funnel_data AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    event_name,
    MIN(event_timestamp) AS first_event_time
  FROM your_dataset
  WHERE event_name IN ('page_view', 'add_to_cart', 'begin_checkout', 'purchase')
  GROUP BY
    user_pseudo_id, event_name
),
step_transitions AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'page_view' THEN first_event_time END) AS homepage_view_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'add_to_cart' THEN first_event_time END) AS add_to_cart_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'begin_checkout' THEN first_event_time END) AS checkout_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'purchase' THEN first_event_time END) AS purchase_time
  FROM funnel_data
  GROUP BY all
)
SELECT
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_1_homepage,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL AND homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL AND add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL AND checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions; Step 2: What This Query Does Tracks the first time each user triggers key funnel events like page_view, add_to_cart, etc.
Counts how many users successfully transition from one step to the next. The output will look something like this: Step

Users



Homepage Visits

10,000



Product Page → Cart

4,500



Cart → Checkout

2,000



Checkout → Purchase

1,200 Interpreting the Results From the table above, you can see: A 55% drop-off between browsing and adding to cart.
A 40% drop-off between checkout and completing the purchase. This tells you exactly where to focus your efforts. For example: Product Page → Add to Cart: Maybe your product descriptions or images aren’t convincing enough.
Checkout → Purchase: Could be an issue with shipping costs, or maybe your checkout process is too complicated. Optimizing Based on Funnel Insights Once you know where the drop-offs are, it’s time to take action. Here are a few things I’ve tried (and they work): 1. Fix Product Page Issues If people aren’t adding items to their cart: Use higher-quality product images.
Write more detailed (and engaging!) descriptions.
Highlight offers like free shipping or discounts. 2. Simplify Checkout If users drop off during checkout: Remove unnecessary steps (nobody likes filling out 10 fields).
Offer guest checkout—forcing account creation is a killer.
Be upfront about shipping costs early on. Tracking Over Time You can also adjust the query to compare transitions over time—for example, before and after a design update: SELECT
  FORMAT_TIMESTAMP('%Y-%m-%d', TIMESTAMP_MICROS(MIN(event_timestamp))) AS date,
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions
GROUP BY all
ORDER BY 1; This way, you can see if your changes are actually making a difference. In Conclusion 🥳 Funnel analysis doesn’t need to be overwhelming. With a few simple BigQuery queries, you can break down your user journey, pinpoint drop-offs, and start making improvements. Remember, even small tweaks—like better product images or a smoother checkout process—can make a huge difference in your conversion rates. So, roll up your sleeves, give it a shot, and let’s turn those visitors into customers! Thank you for your time; sharing is caring! 🌍 If you’re running an e-commerce store, you’ve probably been there: people are visiting your site, browsing around, and then… poof , they’re gone without buying anything. Frustrating, right? That’s where funnel analysis comes in. It’s all about figuring out what’s going on at each step of the customer journey and spotting where they’re dropping off. poof funnel analysis In this article, I’ll show you how I use BigQuery to break down and analyze the e-commerce funnel step by step. Let’s dive in. BigQuery What Is Funnel Analysis? What Is Funnel Analysis? Okay, so here’s the deal: a funnel is just a fancy name for the journey your customers take on your site, from the moment they land to when (hopefully) they make a purchase. It looks something like this: It looks something like this: Homepage Visits: They land on your site. Product Page Views: They start browsing your products. Add to Cart: They like something enough to add it to their cart. Checkout: They decide to proceed to checkout. Purchase: They complete the order. 🎉 Homepage Visits : They land on your site. Homepage Visits Product Page Views : They start browsing your products. Product Page Views Add to Cart : They like something enough to add it to their cart. Add to Cart Checkout : They decide to proceed to checkout. Checkout Purchase : They complete the order. 🎉 Purchase The goal of funnel analysis is simple: figure out how many people make it from one step to the next, and where you’re losing them. Analyzing Funnel Transitions with BigQuery Analyzing Funnel Transitions with BigQuery If you’re storing event data in BigQuery , you can run queries to track how users move through each step of the funnel. Let me show you how. BigQuery Step 1: Querying Funnel Steps Querying Funnel Steps Here’s a simple query that shows how many users move from one step to the next: WITH funnel_data AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    event_name,
    MIN(event_timestamp) AS first_event_time
  FROM your_dataset
  WHERE event_name IN ('page_view', 'add_to_cart', 'begin_checkout', 'purchase')
  GROUP BY
    user_pseudo_id, event_name
),
step_transitions AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'page_view' THEN first_event_time END) AS homepage_view_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'add_to_cart' THEN first_event_time END) AS add_to_cart_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'begin_checkout' THEN first_event_time END) AS checkout_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'purchase' THEN first_event_time END) AS purchase_time
  FROM funnel_data
  GROUP BY all
)
SELECT
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_1_homepage,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL AND homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL AND add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL AND checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions; WITH funnel_data AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    event_name,
    MIN(event_timestamp) AS first_event_time
  FROM your_dataset
  WHERE event_name IN ('page_view', 'add_to_cart', 'begin_checkout', 'purchase')
  GROUP BY
    user_pseudo_id, event_name
),
step_transitions AS (
  SELECT
    user_pseudo_id,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'page_view' THEN first_event_time END) AS homepage_view_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'add_to_cart' THEN first_event_time END) AS add_to_cart_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'begin_checkout' THEN first_event_time END) AS checkout_time,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'purchase' THEN first_event_time END) AS purchase_time
  FROM funnel_data
  GROUP BY all
)
SELECT
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_1_homepage,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL AND homepage_view_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL AND add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL AND checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions; Step 2: What This Query Does What This Query Does Tracks the first time each user triggers key funnel events like page_view, add_to_cart, etc. Counts how many users successfully transition from one step to the next. Tracks the first time each user triggers key funnel events like page_view , add_to_cart , etc. first time page_view add_to_cart Counts how many users successfully transition from one step to the next. The output will look something like this: Step

Users



Homepage Visits

10,000



Product Page → Cart

4,500



Cart → Checkout

2,000



Checkout → Purchase

1,200 Step

Users Homepage Visits

10,000 Product Page → Cart

4,500 Cart → Checkout

2,000 Checkout → Purchase

1,200 Step Users Step Step Users Users Homepage Visits 10,000 Homepage Visits Homepage Visits 10,000 10,000 Product Page → Cart 4,500 Product Page → Cart Product Page → Cart 4,500 4,500 Cart → Checkout 2,000 Cart → Checkout Cart → Checkout 2,000 2,000 Checkout → Purchase 1,200 Checkout → Purchase Checkout → Purchase 1,200 1,200 Interpreting the Results Interpreting the Results From the table above, you can see: A 55% drop-off between browsing and adding to cart. A 40% drop-off between checkout and completing the purchase. A 55% drop-off between browsing and adding to cart. 55% drop-off A 40% drop-off between checkout and completing the purchase. 40% drop-off This tells you exactly where to focus your efforts. For example: Product Page → Add to Cart: Maybe your product descriptions or images aren’t convincing enough. Checkout → Purchase: Could be an issue with shipping costs, or maybe your checkout process is too complicated. Product Page → Add to Cart : Maybe your product descriptions or images aren’t convincing enough. Product Page → Add to Cart Checkout → Purchase : Could be an issue with shipping costs, or maybe your checkout process is too complicated. Checkout → Purchase Optimizing Based on Funnel Insights Optimizing Based on Funnel Insights Once you know where the drop-offs are, it’s time to take action. Here are a few things I’ve tried (and they work): 1. Fix Product Page Issues Fix Product Page Issues If people aren’t adding items to their cart: Use higher-quality product images. Write more detailed (and engaging!) descriptions. Highlight offers like free shipping or discounts. Use higher-quality product images. Write more detailed (and engaging!) descriptions. Highlight offers like free shipping or discounts. 2. Simplify Checkout Simplify Checkout If users drop off during checkout: Remove unnecessary steps (nobody likes filling out 10 fields). Offer guest checkout—forcing account creation is a killer. Be upfront about shipping costs early on. Remove unnecessary steps (nobody likes filling out 10 fields). Offer guest checkout—forcing account creation is a killer. Be upfront about shipping costs early on. Tracking Over Time Tracking Over Time You can also adjust the query to compare transitions over time—for example, before and after a design update: SELECT
  FORMAT_TIMESTAMP('%Y-%m-%d', TIMESTAMP_MICROS(MIN(event_timestamp))) AS date,
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions
GROUP BY all
ORDER BY 1; SELECT
  FORMAT_TIMESTAMP('%Y-%m-%d', TIMESTAMP_MICROS(MIN(event_timestamp))) AS date,
  COUNT(DISTINCT user_pseudo_id) AS total_users,
  COUNTIF(add_to_cart_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_2_to_cart,
  COUNTIF(checkout_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_3_to_checkout,
  COUNTIF(purchase_time IS NOT NULL) AS step_4_to_purchase
FROM step_transitions
GROUP BY all
ORDER BY 1; This way, you can see if your changes are actually making a difference. In Conclusion 🥳 In Conclusion 🥳 Funnel analysis doesn’t need to be overwhelming. With a few simple BigQuery queries, you can break down your user journey, pinpoint drop-offs, and start making improvements. Remember, even small tweaks—like better product images or a smoother checkout process—can make a huge difference in your conversion rates. BigQuery So, roll up your sleeves, give it a shot, and let’s turn those visitors into customers! Thank you for your time; sharing is caring! 🌍 Thank you for your time; sharing is caring! 🌍

Discover Funnel Bottlenecks: Step-by-Step Analysis with BigQuery

Hey folks! Congrats on scaling your team and growing your efforts! In our previous article, we covered the process of hiring salespeople—what steps to take and what questions to ask along the way. But now, we’re going to talk about how to scale that funnel! Specifically, how to scale the process of bringing awesome people onto your team. That’s the focus today, alright? We’re going to dive into the tools. Tools that will allow you to follow the same funnel but spend less time on manual tasks. Here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ll cover: Tools for research
Tools for sourcing candidates
Tools for finding their contact info (only the public kind, don’t worry—we’re staying on the right side of the law here)
Tools for sending email/LinkedIn sequences automatically bonus in the end: A tool for automatically generating custom emails And that’s pretty much it! These tools will help you build a hiring system, not just make a random hire once in a while. Let’s get started! Tools for research Step 0 is knowing what tools to use to properly research the talent pool, salaries, product market, and more. For researching the talent pool, I use LinkedIn Talent Insights. It provides a clear understanding of geographical markets, showing where the talent you need is located, which companies they’re working for, and what those companies are doing right now. It also helps you see what kind of education people have. Once you’ve identified locations, companies, and the demand levels, you can dig deeper into researching salaries for the required position, location, and company. Keep in mind, the higher the demand, the more prepared you should be to offer a salary above the range you see. For salary research, I use Indeed Career, Glassdoor or Salary.com. These platforms show salary ranges based on title, location, and company. Keep in mind that LinkedIn Talent Insights is a paid subscription. It comes as part of a bundle with the LinkedIn Recruiter subscription. So, if you're ready to go full pro mode, I recommend purchasing it as a bundle, since we’ll also be using LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing candidates. Tools for Sourcing Candidates Once you know the location of your candidates, the companies they’re likely working for, and the approximate salary ranges, it's time to build a proper pipeline of matching talent. I use several tools for this, depending on how niche the candidates are. Here are the classic tools that will fit in 8 out of 10 situations: Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Recruiter For sourcing candidates, there are also tools that are primarily made for salespeople, but they’re incredibly useful for recruiting as well: Apollo
Snov.io
Clay All of these tools let you set filters for titles (or functions), location, years of experience, current or past companies, and hundreds of other settings. But the most important ones are location, function, and experience level. Tools for Finding Candidate’s Contact Info Now we get into more specific tools. We’ll be using "sales tools" rather than general recruitment tools. As mentioned, Apollo , Clay and Snov.io are originally sales tools. The bonus with both is that, in addition to building a pipeline, you can automatically scrape public contact details, like a candidate's work email. So, by using both of these tools, you can effectively build a database of candidates. If you’re using LinkedIn Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Recruiter, you’ll most likely only get the candidate’s LinkedIn profile link. To get their email, you can use the SalesQL extension. This tool scrapes data from the LinkedIn profile and provides all available public contact details. SalesQL is free for up to 100 contacts per month, which is usually enough for most recruiting needs Tools for Sending Email/LinkedIn Sequences Automatically Lemlist – Sends sequences via both email and LinkedIn


Apollo – Email sequences


Clay – Email sequences Lemlist is one of my favorite tools right now because it offers A/B testing for your emails. This allows you to track which pitches your candidates are responding to and adjust your emails accordingly. Plus, you can run multi-channel outreach, meaning you can reach out via both LinkedIn and email within the same tool. It's a great way to optimize your outreach strategy! Okay, Here’s the Cherry on Top! How to Automatically Personalize Your Email I know you’re aware that OpenAI exists, but hear me out—what if there was a platform that combined all the tools I mentioned earlier in one place? A platform that could automatically source people with the right experience, find their contact details, personalize emails via ChatGPT, and send sequences? That tool doesn’t exist yet, but you can create one for yourself, just like I did. I used Airtable and integrated all of it into one space. Here’s how it looks: Basically, you can connect all those tools (some of them via Zapier) to Airtable and automate everything with just one click. Conclusion I hope this helped broaden your hiring horizons and gave you some fresh ideas on tools that will make scaling your hiring efforts easier—and a lot more fun than dealing with manual work! PS: None of these tools were sponsored—this is just a genuine recommendation. Hey folks! Congrats on scaling your team and growing your efforts! In our previous article, we covered the process of hiring salespeople—what steps to take and what questions to ask along the way. But now, we’re going to talk about how to scale that funnel! Specifically, how to scale the process of bringing awesome people onto your team. That’s the focus today, alright? We’re going to dive into the tools. Tools that will allow you to follow the same funnel but spend less time on manual tasks. Here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ll cover: Here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ll cover: Tools for research Tools for sourcing candidates Tools for finding their contact info (only the public kind, don’t worry—we’re staying on the right side of the law here) Tools for sending email/LinkedIn sequences automatically Tools for research Tools for sourcing candidates Tools for finding their contact info (only the public kind, don’t worry—we’re staying on the right side of the law here) Tools for sending email/LinkedIn sequences automatically bonus in the end: A tool for automatically generating custom emails bonus in the end: A tool for automatically generating custom emails And that’s pretty much it! These tools will help you build a hiring system, not just make a random hire once in a while. Let’s get started! Tools for research Tools for research Step 0 is knowing what tools to use to properly research the talent pool, salaries, product market, and more. For researching the talent pool, I use LinkedIn Talent Insights. It provides a clear understanding of geographical markets, showing where the talent you need is located, which companies they’re working for, and what those companies are doing right now. It also helps you see what kind of education people have. LinkedIn Talent Insights. Once you’ve identified locations, companies, and the demand levels, you can dig deeper into researching salaries for the required position, location, and company. Keep in mind, the higher the demand, the more prepared you should be to offer a salary above the range you see. For salary research, I use Indeed Career, Glassdoor or Salary.com. These platforms show salary ranges based on title, location, and company. Indeed Career, Glassdoor or Salary.com. Keep in mind that LinkedIn Talent Insights is a paid subscription. It comes as part of a bundle with the LinkedIn Recruiter subscription. So, if you're ready to go full pro mode, I recommend purchasing it as a bundle, since we’ll also be using LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing candidates. Keep in mind that LinkedIn Talent Insights is a paid subscription. It comes as part of a bundle with the LinkedIn Recruiter subscription. So, if you're ready to go full pro mode, I recommend purchasing it as a bundle, since we’ll also be using LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing candidates. LinkedIn Talent Insights LinkedIn Recruiter Tools for Sourcing Candidates Tools for Sourcing Candidates Once you know the location of your candidates, the companies they’re likely working for, and the approximate salary ranges, it's time to build a proper pipeline of matching talent. I use several tools for this, depending on how niche the candidates are. Here are the classic tools that will fit in 8 out of 10 situations: Sales Navigator LinkedIn Recruiter Sales Navigator Sales Navigator LinkedIn Recruiter LinkedIn Recruiter For sourcing candidates, there are also tools that are primarily made for salespeople, but they’re incredibly useful for recruiting as well: Apollo Snov.io Clay Apollo Apollo Snov.io Snov.io Clay Clay All of these tools let you set filters for titles (or functions), location, years of experience, current or past companies, and hundreds of other settings. But the most important ones are location, function, and experience level. Tools for Finding Candidate’s Contact Info Tools for Finding Candidate’s Contact Info Now we get into more specific tools. We’ll be using "sales tools" rather than general recruitment tools. As mentioned, Apollo , Clay and Snov.io are originally sales tools. The bonus with both is that, in addition to building a pipeline, you can automatically scrape public contact details, like a candidate's work email. So, by using both of these tools, you can effectively build a database of candidates. If you’re using LinkedIn Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Recruiter , you’ll most likely only get the candidate’s LinkedIn profile link. To get their email, you can use the SalesQL extension . This tool scrapes data from the LinkedIn profile and provides all available public contact details. LinkedIn Sales Navigator LinkedIn Recruiter SalesQL extension SalesQL is free for up to 100 contacts per month, which is usually enough for most recruiting needs SalesQL is free for up to 100 contacts per month, which is usually enough for most recruiting needs Tools for Sending Email/LinkedIn Sequences Automatically Tools for Sending Email/LinkedIn Sequences Automatically Lemlist – Sends sequences via both email and LinkedIn Apollo – Email sequences Clay – Email sequences Lemlist – Sends sequences via both email and LinkedIn Lemlist – Sends sequences via both email and LinkedIn Lemlist and Apollo – Email sequences Apollo – Email sequences Apollo Clay – Email sequences Clay – Email sequences Clay Lemlist is one of my favorite tools right now because it offers A/B testing for your emails. This allows you to track which pitches your candidates are responding to and adjust your emails accordingly. Plus, you can run multi-channel outreach, meaning you can reach out via both LinkedIn and email within the same tool. It's a great way to optimize your outreach strategy! Lemlist is one of my favorite tools right now because it offers A/B testing for your emails. This allows you to track which pitches your candidates are responding to and adjust your emails accordingly. Plus, you can run multi-channel outreach, meaning you can reach out via both LinkedIn and email within the same tool. It's a great way to optimize your outreach strategy! Lemlist Okay, Here’s the Cherry on Top! Okay, Here’s the Cherry on Top! How to Automatically Personalize Your Email How to Automatically Personalize Your Email I know you’re aware that OpenAI exists, but hear me out—what if there was a platform that combined all the tools I mentioned earlier in one place? A platform that could automatically source people with the right experience, find their contact details, personalize emails via ChatGPT, and send sequences? That tool doesn’t exist yet, but you can create one for yourself, just like I did. I used Airtable and integrated all of it into one space. Airtable Here’s how it looks: Here’s how it looks: Basically, you can connect all those tools (some of them via Zapier ) to Airtable and automate everything with just one click. Zapier Airtable Conclusion Conclusion I hope this helped broaden your hiring horizons and gave you some fresh ideas on tools that will make scaling your hiring efforts easier—and a lot more fun than dealing with manual work! PS: None of these tools were sponsored—this is just a genuine recommendation. PS: PS: None of these tools were sponsored—this is just a genuine recommendation.

Automate Hiring, Build Effective Funnels, And Go for Top Talent With This Guide

(1) Samir Chitnavis, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK;
(2) Thomas J. Haworth, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK;
(3) Edward Gillen, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK;
(4) Conrad W. Mullineaux, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK;
(5) Christopher D. P. Duffy, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK (Email: c.duffy@qmul.ac.uk). Table of Links Abstract and Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Local spectral irradiance as a function of stellar temperature
2.2 Thermodynamic model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system
2.3 Lattice model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system
3 Results
3.1 Orbital distances and incident spectral fluxes
3.2 Thermodynamic antenna model: Increasing antenna size in limited PAR
3.3 Lattice antenna model: Increasing the size of a “flat” antenna in limited PAR
3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’
4 Discussion
Acknowledgements, Author Contribution Statement, Authors disclosure statement and References 3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’ This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. (1) Samir Chitnavis, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK; (2) Thomas J. Haworth, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK; (3) Edward Gillen, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK; (4) Conrad W. Mullineaux, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK; (5) Christopher D. P. Duffy, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK (Email: c.duffy@qmul.ac.uk). (1) Samir Chitnavis, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK; (2) Thomas J. Haworth, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK; (3) Edward Gillen, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK; (4) Conrad W. Mullineaux, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK; (5) Christopher D. P. Duffy, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK & Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Empire House, Whitechapel E1 1HH, UK (Email: c.duffy@qmul.ac.uk). Table of Links Abstract and Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Local spectral irradiance as a function of stellar temperature 2.2 Thermodynamic model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 2.3 Lattice model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 3 Results 3.1 Orbital distances and incident spectral fluxes 3.2 Thermodynamic antenna model: Increasing antenna size in limited PAR 3.3 Lattice antenna model: Increasing the size of a “flat” antenna in limited PAR 3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’ 4 Discussion Acknowledgements, Author Contribution Statement, Authors disclosure statement and References Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Local spectral irradiance as a function of stellar temperature 2.1 Local spectral irradiance as a function of stellar temperature 2.2 Thermodynamic model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 2.2 Thermodynamic model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 2.3 Lattice model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 2.3 Lattice model of an oxygenic light-harvesting system 3 Results 3.1 Orbital distances and incident spectral fluxes 3.1 Orbital distances and incident spectral fluxes 3.2 Thermodynamic antenna model: Increasing antenna size in limited PAR 3.2 Thermodynamic antenna model: Increasing antenna size in limited PAR 3.3 Lattice antenna model: Increasing the size of a “flat” antenna in limited PAR 3.3 Lattice antenna model: Increasing the size of a “flat” antenna in limited PAR 3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’ 3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’ 4 Discussion 4 Discussion Acknowledgements, Author Contribution Statement, Authors disclosure statement and References Acknowledgements, Author Contribution Statement, Authors disclosure statement and References 3.4 Lattice antenna model: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’ This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv

Thermodynamic limits around M-dwarf stars: Improving antenna efficiency with an energetic ’funnel’

As a wise man once said, «The whole world is a bunch of bloody funnels», and I agree with him. The concept aptly applies to the recruitment process. The spray-and-pray When hiring people, it's important to understand that the best specialists are almost never actively looking for a job. They are comfortably seated in companies with good salaries, big bonuses, a gym, free juices, and a fancy badge that pleasingly beeps when swiped at the office turnstile. Often, the whole recruitment process is just a 'spray and pray' approach. Recruiters write to potential candidates: «Hey, we have a cool vacancy, pay well, interested in chatting?». According to my LinkedIn profile, I'm a co-founder at several companies, and I'm still getting the whole bunch of such invites, although it's quite obvious that a job offer would be ignored. Such workflow can catch some people who are already job hunting but it sends the same message to a large number of people who aren't, resulting in a generally low response rate. The good ol' funnel I suggest looking at hiring as marketing, which opens up new and amazing edges. The good old funnel approach comes into play. Let's consider this in the context of searching for a CTO. How a marketer would approach this task First, conduct classic JTBD (jobs-to-be-done) customer development (in-depth interviews). Select CTOs that fit your profile but who you know for sure are currently not interested in joining your firm. Arrange calls with them and the main question to ask is: what would make you immediately resign and accept an offer; describe your dream job (what kind of company, tasks, team, salary); what are 3-5 factors that you look at when choosing where to work and who to work with. From analyzing the customer development interviews, it turns out that top candidates are not as motivated by money; for them, it's more important to have recognition, a cool ambitious case in their resume, the level of people they will work with (to learn from them), the company's mission (increasingly critical), and interesting tasks. Based on these responses, you can creatively upgrade your materials at all stages of the HR funnel: the message on , the job vacancies page, your company's pitch during introductions, a whole lot of them. LinkedIn As soon as each stage of the funnel is based on the real needs of the client (candidate), the conversion at each stage dramatically increases, and most importantly, the quality of candidates. Rinse and repeat, continue to test at each stage, re-do customer development and upgrade your materials. A message to such guys might look like this: Hi username, a few guys from #### told me you're the coolest CTO they know, so I decided to write to you. (recognition) Here at ####, we've assembled a team from ####, ####, and #####, ##### and are developing #### in #### (we're already one of the highest in revenue in the region). (cool team, interesting tasks, opportunity to learn) Interesting tasks for 2024 include #####, #####, and then ##### . (ambitious case) Cool stuff: we use ####, and like no one else in the market #### . (interesting tasks, opportunity to learn) We're currently talking with various awesome people, looking for someone to head our development instead of one of the founders. (recognition) Maybe you'd be interested in a 15-30 minute call to get acquainted? (won't take much time) The same framework works for other vacancies. Iterate, research, test, improve. Good luck with your search, guys. I wish you the top candidates!

Hiring Is a Bloody Funnel—The Whole World Is

Once you’ve built your SaaS product, marketing is the next step. And how well word of your product spreads depends on your Top-of-the-funnel (ToFu) marketing efforts. A good strategy, well executed, could lead to incredible signup rates in the long run. So, in this article, we’ll cover the best practices for creating ToFu content that sparks interest. Let’s dive right in. What is ToFu Marketing ToFu marketing is shorthand for top-of-the-funnel marketing. It’s that involves creating awareness about consumers' needs and subtly hinting that your product can solve them. ToFu exists alongside MoFu (middle-of-the-funnel) and BoFu (bottom-of-the-funnel) on the customer journey and is critical in raising awareness about solutions. a stage in the marketing funnel The main thing to note about ToFu marketing is that it focuses on raising awareness about a need and the existence of a helpful solution. In this stage, selling isn’t the main objective, at least not in the short term. It’s essential to bear this in mind before planning your ToFu strategy, or else your efforts may come off as desperate, leading to potential distrust. ToFu vs. MoFu vs. BoFu The primary difference between top-of-the-funnel content and content created in the other marketing stages is that they cater to different needs in the customer journey. ToFu content is designed to help customers who are just becoming aware of a problem that’s not well-defined, that is, those in the awareness stage. They tend to have longer word counts because they try to answer many questions. MoFu content, on the other hand, is targeted towards potential customers in the consideration stage. They have become acutely aware of their problems and are actively narrowing their options to the one that seems best for them. Their search entries are more specific this time, so MoFu content, like comparison charts, webinars, and podcasts, usually have long tail keywords. When your prospects are ready to purchase, . Unlike ToFu content that avoids directly selling, BoFu tells your audience exactly why they should pick your product by highlighting its unique advantages over other products. Examples include case studies, trials, demos, and customer stories. ) BoFu content helps them choose your product Before you map out your strategy, create user personas. You must understand what kind of people you aim to sell to before making a great ToFu strategy. This is where come in. user/buyer personas User personas are fictional, detailed representations of your ideal customer or target audience. Using them lets you make your content and marketing campaigns more personalized. The most successful SaaS businesses have multiple buyer personas refined over the years until they accurately or nearly perfectly fit the audience they market to. In-app surveys and questionnaires can benefit companies with a reasonable user base. But it can be a little more difficult for startups that don’t have as many users yet. Still, start with what you have. Research your existing customer base and consider factors such as their occupation, age, and home life, among others. You could even survey your current clients to learn more about them. Even if you haven’t entered the market yet, you can create well-defined user personas by looking at your competition. Research what market segment they’re earning the most from and use that info to draft your user personas. Make sure to categorize your personas into different segments to be more specific as you reach out to them. ToFu Content Creation Best Practices The quality of your ToFu content can largely determine how many people notice your product. And the more attention you can garner, the more leads you are likely to attract as well. That said, here are some best practices for making excellent ToFu content. Craft attention-grabbing headlines and hooks It takes 15 seconds for readers to decide whether to continue reading an article. For video content, it’s . five times less time So, when you make content, aim to grab your audience’s attention within the first few seconds. This means using interesting headlines and attention-grabbing intros in your articles and intriguing hooks in your videos. For instance, “10 insanely gatekept methods to saving thousands of dollars on streaming platforms” is a much better title than “10 Ways To Save Money on Streaming.” Video content is even trickier. But here’s one of many hooks that can keep your audience glued: “Stop wasting money on streaming platforms. Instead, try these ten methods to save you tons of cash while enjoying your favorite subscription service.” Utilize various content formats Consider using as many content formats as possible when making ToFu content. This approach enables you to reach audiences that you otherwise may have yet to be able to touch with your content if you stuck to just one. For example, posting short-form videos is a great way to reach many people, but so is a great blog post or a brilliant infographic with your brand’s logo and theme. Incorporate storytelling and emotional appeal . It’s why human-created content has an edge over AI-generated ones. So, leverage this advantage as much as possible, as many startups lean towards AI content these days. Emotions and stories appeal to humans However, maintain brevity. As much as people like stories, they get bored easily when the takeaway isn’t in sight. Optimize content for search engines (SEO) Aside from just using semantic keywords in your content, incorporate other SEO practices. Optimize meta titles, descriptions, and even captions, and obtain backlinks from reputable sources to ensure your content stays on the first page of SERPs. It can be incredible the difference being on top of a Google search can have for your content. Regardless, avoid prioritizing SEO over quality and intent. Leverage multiple social media platforms. It’s best to utilize several social media platforms to make the most out of your content. When doing this, remember that each platform has a different algorithm. So, tailor your content to each one. Also, post the content type that works on each platform. For instance, while long-form posts may do well on LinkedIn, Twitter (or X) may not favor lengthy threads. Trends change occasionally, so try to stay on top of industry patterns. Tread carefully with Email marketing strategies for ToFu Using emails during the ToFu stage is very tricky. You can either nail it or have your domain flagged and all your email campaigns . There is a delicate midpoint that can lean toward either possibility, but it solely depends on the quality of your email copy and your strategy. permanently directed to spam folders As a rule, only email people who subscribe to your newsletter, and avoid using clickbait. Setting clear KPIs It’s easy to lose sight of the metrics you plan to measure when they’re unclear. For instance, suddenly switching from measuring impressions to tracking the number of likes and followers on your pages can quickly make you lose motivation. Because building an organic following takes time. Furthermore, content on TikTok, for example, tends to garner than the same content posted on Instagram. Hence, it takes more time to grow an Instagram following than on TikTok. So, don’t be discouraged if you primarily use Instagram for marketing. more individual views The main point is clearly defining your KPIs for each stage in your marketing process. It will help you streamline your efforts to achieve your goals and keep you motivated in the long run. Conclusion Creating ToFu content that piques attention in an increasingly competitive market takes time and effort. While you’re trying not to be too forward and aggressive with your marketing, you also don’t want to create content that doesn’t drive leads in the long run. So, this article has explored the best practices for creating ToFu content that sticks. Properly implemented, you’ll have a solid foundation for future marketing campaigns.

Top-of-funnel Marketing Best Practices for SaaS Startups

This story was originally published by by Evan Robinson-Johnson for . contributed reporting. ProPublica ProPublica Debbie Cenziper A former Lebanese diplomat sanctioned by U.S. authorities for allegedly funneling money to the terrorist group Hezbollah was arrested last week in Bucharest, Romania, and U.S. officials are seeking his extradition. Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 58, is accused by federal prosecutors of attempting to evade sanctions by trying to launder and move more than $800,000 from the United States to Lebanon, according to the Department of Justice. Bazzi was current or former diplomats identified last year in an investigation by ProPublica and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that revealed widespread abuses in a little-known and poorly regulated system of international diplomacy. one of 500 So-called honorary consuls work from their home countries to represent the interests of the foreign governments that appoint them. In exchange, the volunteer diplomats are afforded some of the same legal protections offered to career diplomats, including travel benefits and political connections unavailable to most private citizens. The found that a number of consuls have stood accused of crimes or were embroiled in controversy — many while they held their posts. “Shadow Diplomats” investigation Thirty current and former honorary consuls have been sanctioned by the United States and other governments; nine have been by law enforcement and governments, including Bazzi. linked to terrorist groups Bazzi was appointed honorary consul in Lebanon by the government of Gambia in 2005 under the regime of then-Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, according to court records. The Gambian government terminated his appointment in 2017. A year later, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Bazzi a “global terrorist,” accusing the businessman of funneling money to Hezbollah, a militant group that has attacked U.S. service members, civilians and others in countries including Israel, Argentina and Iraq. The designation blocked Bazzi’s interests in domestic real estate and prohibited American citizens from conducting any business that would benefit him. In 2019, Bazzi sought to overturn the U.S. sanction. In court records, he said the government failed to provide evidence that he had financed Hezbollah. The sanction is still in place. Bazzi’s attorney could not be reached for comment. In a three-count unsealed last week in New York, Bazzi and a second man were charged with conspiring to launder money and to cause U.S. individuals to conduct unlawful transactions involving a global terrorist. indictment Recorded communications revealed that the men proposed numerous strategies to move money, including transferring funds through a fake restaurant deal and a family loan scheme in Kuwait, according to the Justice Department. “The defendants in this case attempted to provide continued financial assistance to [Hezbollah], a foreign terrorist organization responsible for death and destruction,” Daniel Kafafian, acting special agent in charge at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey division, . said in a statement John Marzulli, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in New York’s Eastern District, declined to comment on Bazzi’s prior status as an honorary consul. Marzulli said he could not say when the men will arrive in the United States; the government is seeking extradition. Each count in the indictment carries up to 20 years in prison. The Eastern District U.S. attorney, Breon Peace, said in a release: “Mohammad Bazzi thought that he could secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon without detection by law enforcement.” This “arrest proves that Bazzi was wrong.” Matthew Levitt, a counterrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Bazzi was especially skilled at finding ways to establish relationships with people in power. “This is someone who is a player for senior Hezbollah operatives and senior Iranian leadership,” Levitt said. “His arrest and extradition is significant.” Photo by on Josh Appel Unsplash

This Man Is Accused of Funneling Money to the Terrorist Group Hezbollah

Regardless of how mature the product is, its owner will always be curious about how it performs, what the conversion rates are, and what areas for improvement there are. One of the most important tools that product owners should get access to at some point in time is an . event tracking system Table of Contents Why an event tracking system is important. When to implement an event tracking system How to implement an ETS In-house vs existing solutions Architecture of event-tracking Operationalization or Make it work Conclusion Why an event tracking system is important Implementation of event tracking will allow businesses to get scientific answers to lots of product-related questions, such as: At which stage of the sign-up journey did I lose most of the users? What would be the conversion rates if I split users into 3 groups and showed them different checkout buttons? Is it true that the performance of my product depends on how it’s been implemented by various clients? When to implement an event tracking system In my , I described how to set up an environment to perform experiments with your product. The approach I provided there implied that one can reuse existing information resulting from core data flows as part of backend architecture. Doing so will be especially beneficial for the products at the early stages of development. previous article At some point in time, the product reaches a stage when it can no longer be sustainably developed without relying on data. Therefore, enhanced is applicable to more mature products. The table below systemizes the recommended practices for product analytics depending on a stage of maturity: event tracking Maturity stage of your product What can your product do? Who is using your product? Recommended practices of product analytics MVP (although MLP, i.e. ‘Minimum Lovable Product’ is better) Very is available basic functionality at one specific market Loyal and patient customers Simple and that store information related to lifecycle of product’s core entities (e.g. of the order or payment). Information is used for health check, building and testing of simple hypotheses high level funnels that are based on the data tables Surviver . New features have been added, but overall still behind well established players (in terms of functionality and market share) Core functionality works rather stable Customers are coming from various segments on a regular basis Funnels . Allows the detailed analysis and obtaining specific insights at each part of the funnel. Can be combined with practices of MVP/ MLP stage based on event tracking covering most important user journeys Serious player Functionality competes or even outperforms established players May have a . It is used by large enterprise clients. There are also plans for global expansion strong position at specific segments . In addition to capabilities of practices for earlier stages, can also be used for precise monitoring of minor adjustments aimed at single-digit conversion improvements. Multiple funnels based on detailed event tracking. Each user journey can be explored separately How to implement an ETS Decide if in-house implementation works for you To begin with, you should decide whether it should be an already existing solution or built in-house. When making a decision, one should consider the following 3 factors: From my experience, end-to-end implementation of event tracking (from the beginning until the moment you will see the first events recorded in production) will take around 3 weeks for 1 mid-senior engineer. On top of that, several weeks of dedicated data engineering and analytics teams’ support will be required to turn obtained data tables into nice and insightful dashboards. Availability of resources: frontend in-house solution will require an initial one-off cost to implement, but will allow you to achieve good economies of scale in case your product will keep developing. In case your company will later introduce new products and services, it will also benefit from existing solutions almost out of the box. Cost: if your product is developing at a fast pace, think twice about whether an already existing on-market solution will allow you keep the required degree of flexibility in terms of supporting every change. Flexibility: To summarise, developing your solution in-house has certain benefits in the long run, however as mentioned in the beginning, it’s highly important to select the right moment for implementation. Proper timing will allow you to ensure that all factors are considered: You have enough resources You are confident that this project will yield you a positive return on investment You believe that your product and company overall will keep growing and all future projects will benefit from the event tracking Further parts of this article will be focused on the implementation of in-house solutions. In case you decide that procuring an existing solution works better for you, you should expect that it will provide you with an end-to-end experience. Architecture of event-tracking While designing your solution, the most important thing is to decide how you want to see your data. The most common approach relies on 3 main concepts: Event, which can be defined as a combination of: Object, e.g. “Order” button Action performed with the object, e.g. “Shown to user” or “Clicked by user”. Therefore, several events can be associated with the same object within the same user journey. Session, which represents a unique and uninterrupted interaction of the user with your product, where interruption can be either: achievement of some event X minutes of a user being idle Parameters of events, which can be used to pass any other relevant information and which can be added to your events at any point in time. The most typical parameters you may need are: Timestamp of event id of the user (if known) Device type (iOS, Android, Windows, …) Experiment-related information. For instance, if you do A/B test, you can pass information on which group user was assigned to. Based on this data you can calculate the performance of each group in terms of conversion and choose the best option. From a data flow perspective, it is rather straightforward. Whenever the user performs an action you are interested in, your library should call the corresponding endpoint and pass relevant data there within the request payload. For instance, the user presses “Create order” button, which triggers the request (illustrative): Request URL: https://eventtracking.yourpoduct.com/WebTracker/RecordWebEvent Request payload: Session_id = abc Event_object = OrderButton Event_action = Clicked Parameter_1 = Value … Operationalization or Make it work Fire the first set of events: Once you’ve got the infrastructure to fire events, it’s time for the most practical step: you have to understand the exhaustive list of events you need to see. Although it takes time, this procedure is necessary if your end goal is achieving visibility on what’s happening with your product. A suggested approach is the following: Understand all the (sub)-flows your product has (e.g. quick flow for existing users vs long sign-up flow for new users) Refresh your knowledge of the flows by manually going through each and recording screencasts Carefully review your recordings and for each flow prepare a spreadsheet outlining all the events that you need to track. The structure of the spreadsheet can be like this: Type of flow (e.g. existing users) Event object Event action All parameters with possible values Discuss the spreadsheet with your Frontend engineer and make sure that all the data you need can be tracked. Bear in mind, that you will be able to add some events in subsequent iterations Finally, ask your engineer to start firing the events in a production environment. It’s not necessary to include all possible events in the scope of the first iteration. Focus on the most important ones that are needed to get insights and test hypotheses. Double-check Once the first iteration is done, it is crucial to make sure that everything works in the correct way. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the number of events you have and miss the gaps. The most reliable way to double-check is: Repeat the step when you went through all flows and recorded screencasts. However, at this time make sure you also save the session id for each flow you are going through (can be easily copied from the network tab of your browser’s console). You can use session id as a title for each screencast for simplicity. Wait until the data on events recorded can be accessed in the database (usually, it’s not immediately) Query the events tracked for each session you have. The dummy example of the query would be: select * from your_product.events_recorded where session_id = ‘your saved id for each flow’ Compare the results of your query with your corresponding screencasts and come up with a list of all gaps (most likely you will observe some). Reach out to your Frontend engineer to close the gaps. Repeat this procedure until you are confident that all events are tracked properly. Construct first funnels (visualize insights) Ask a question Start by asking the main questions you have regarding your product: At which stage of the signup flow users are mainly dropping? What is the reason for existing users not reaching the end of the journey? Which parts of the UI will I most likely experiment with? E.g. titles of the main Call to action buttons Prepare mock-ups with dummy data Based on the key questions you have, you can create mock-ups of your funnels and see if those would be sufficient to satisfy your curiosity. It’s always a good idea to visualize what you want to see before reaching out to the data team. Calculate and sense check Once visuals are sorted out, don’t hurry by jumping straight into making ‘fancy’ funnels. Instead try to calculate all the pieces of data (for a selected period of time), which make up the funnel in a separate spreadsheet to see if the data makes sense. Try to be as critical as possible: Some inconsistencies would immediately get your attention. Make sure that once events are sorted and aligned to user journeys, it’s always a declining trend. You can also triangulate against different sources of data. For instance, compare the number of orders created from your database to the number of events when the last screen was shown. Clearly, the number of events should exceed the number of orders created. If it’s not the case, then you are missing some events Once done, you can proceed to the final step. Construct the funnels you need based on mock-ups and queries you used for sense check Set up clear procedures for the future Don’t settle once you are done with covering all key user journeys with your event tracking-based analytics. Most likely, your product will be changing in the future. One should be very cautious in order not to lose the results of great effort that has been put to set up the event tracking. To achieve that, make sure you have an exact procedure in place with all relevant parties following it. The procedure could be like this: When you or your designer start working on new user journeys, make sure that all changes to the existing product are explicitly highlighted. Communicate the changes to your frontend team that will be updating UI, and make sure all the new events will be sent, while irrelevant events to be deprecated. Having a spreadsheet as a tracker for new/ deprecated events could be useful for you. Aware your analytics team that datable will contain new events, which should be incorporated into subsequent funnels. In the end, you as a product manager should be responsible for results and making sure that  current funnels still make sense. Usually, it should be the case unless you don’t introduce significant updates to your product. Conclusion To sum up, the implementation of event tracking will be a significant enhancement of the product owner’s toolkit. However, one should be reasonable when deciding if the product is mature enough for that. A simple rule of thumb to decide: if you can come up with a substantial “no-brainer” backlog of improvements for your product (which don’t need to be ‘scientifically’ proven), then it’s most likely not yet mature enough for the event tracking, and you have more important things to spend your resources on. Once the product is ready for implementation of event tracking, its owner should understand that it could take a while to achieve the end state. Be prepared for numerous iterations and attempts to resolve inconsistencies. Finally, getting to the end state can be tough. However, losing progress is much easier. In order to avoid the loss of fruits of your labor, you should have a strict and precise procedure for updating your event gathering and analytics whenever something is being changed in your product.

How to Create Effective Product Funnels with Event Tracking

Ah, the marketing funnel. It’s the thing that marketers can’t stop talking about, and customers need help understanding what it is and why they should care. In this blog, I’ll share the , different types, and how to retain customers. key elements to creating a funnel marketing Let’s shed some light on this very important topic! What Is A Marketing Funnel? At its core, the marketing funnel is a . It is an organised way to identify and target potential customers, nurture them with content and resources, and then convert them into paying customers. process of converting prospects into customers Marketing funnels are used in many different industries and come in many shapes or sizes depending on the needs of your business. The marketing funnel concept is a marketing strategy marketers use to attract as many leads as possible and then gradually to the eventual conversion point. nurture prospective customers through suitable schemes How To Create a Marketing Funnel Crafting a Marketing Funnel doesn’t have to be difficult. Make it easy by following these six simple steps: 1. Uncover Your Target Market . What are their preferences, needs, and desires? When you understand the specifics of your customers will assist in tailoring the remaining parts of your marketing funnel. Knowing what motivates them helps you identify areas for improvement and drive new sales opportunities. Understand the profile of your target audience 2. Generate Content Content serves as the backbone of your Marketing Funnel and can be deployed to captivate future customers with your product or service. Make sure it’s fresh, engaging, and informative! 3. Generate Leads Using lead magnets, such as an enticing free trial, discounted product or webinar can help you attract the perfect target audience and capture important leads. Make sure your offer is worthwhile for those who are interested! 4. Unleash your Marketing Funnel Spread the word about your lead magnets and content on social media, via email campaigns and other digital marketing platforms. Plus, you can employ classic methods such as print advertising or even rely upon traditional word-of-mouth. 5. Strengthen connections Lead nurturing is an integral element of the Marketing Funnel. Strategically deploy automated messages and other forms of outreach to foster relationships with prospective clients, keep them informed about your product or service, and create lasting impressions. 6. Transform leads into clients After following the steps outlined above, it’s time to transform your prospects into customers. This can be achieved through tailored emails, follow-up calls, customised offers and more. While funnels are designed to illustrate a customer’s journey throughout their purchase, they often need to account for the meandering paths customers take when making decisions. After all, who can say that their purchasing process was linear? Start by identifying and analysing your customers’ stages before investing in your product/service. By doing this, you can tailor content and opportunities better so that each customer has a unique journey towards conversion! Benefits of Creating a Marketing Funnel Creating a marketing funnel can provide . Firstly, it helps to identify and target potential customers that are the most likely to convert. Secondly, it provides an organised process for nurturing prospects through their buying journey. several benefits for businesses Finally, it allows marketers to track the effectiveness of their campaigns across each stage of the funnel. It also and trust with potential customers by providing them with the information they need to make an informed decision. Marketing funnels are a great way to ensure that your prospects have all of the information they need before making a purchase, thus increasing . helps to build credibility conversion rates Types of Marketing Funnels Funnel marketing has the capacity to tailor its goals and target specific audiences. For example, digital marketing funnels are built for online activities – no offline strategies included! Content channelling further amplifies this experience by allowing users to interact with content intuitively tailored to them. The Sales Funnel . Some people opt out, some lose interest, and some choose another method of purchase. Commercially, funnels derive from the probability of sales and opportunity gradually decreasing at each step Entrepreneurs, marketing organisations and marketing departments within larger companies should have a funnel. The AIDA Funnel has been around for a long time, as early as the 1890s, when it was seen as a revolutionary and proactive marketing formula for attracting customers. AIDA By harnessing the power of to recall the sales funnel stages and create tailored content for each stage, you can achieve the same objectives as using the traditional sales funnel framework. AIDA When a customer begins the sales journey, they will go through steps similar to what follows. AIDA Example Awareness Our target audience people like Charlie. He’s educated, middle class, brand loyal and has loved cars all his life. He’s now at a point where he can buy the car of his dreams.  And whilst reading the Sunday papers one summer’s day, he comes across a review about a new Porsche. The article is full of praise for the german powerhorse, with its handling, power and road presence. Interest With a spark of – he starts researching Google for more information. The following morning, he calls his local Porsche dealer and arrange a test drive. interest Desire On his visit to the dealer, the beauty of the car takes him aback. The salesman plays his part dutifully, expressing the wonders of the fine automobile. Sensing our gent’s interest and to learn more, he hands the keys to the prospective customer and says, “Why don’t you take this beauty for a spin?” desire Action After the test drive, our prospective customer decides it’s just what he has been looking for. He takes action and places an order. Digital Funnels Similar to the classic model of , a digital funnel used online can be constructed similarly. However, with the age of technology, there are more automated systems and tools to help the seller and the buyer on their journey. This sort of funnel process is usually termed as a . AIDA Conversion Funnel So, taking our model, let’s look at the steps involved with a digital funnel. AIDA Digital Funnel Design Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eric-delcroix/21438701322 Optimising The Funnel To improve your marketing funnel’s success and increase the number of potential leads at each stage of the process, . The easiest way to start thinking about your sales funnel optimisation is by breaking it down into . it’s important to optimise your funnel the major measures – , and Upper Middle Lower • The function of . the upper funnel is to attract new visitors • The is responsible for . middle funnel turning new visitors into qualified leads • The is where the macro . lower funnel conversions, or purchases, happen Each part of the conversion funnel should be approached differently; therefore, different marketing methods are employed. TOP OF FUNNEL (TOF) The traffic you’re sending to your online store will largely . Focusing on driving quality traffic is the first step to optimising the upper funnel and there are various methods you can test: determine the effectiveness of your conversion route • Optimising your for paid search and display ads keywords • Correct targeting of your social media ads (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) • Creating unique, keyword-optimised content (blog posts, eBooks, guides, infographics, videos, etc.) MIDDLE OF The FUNNEL (MOF) Potential customers enter this middle funnel once they engage the brand meaningfully. This part of the marketing funnel is all about building trust with your prospects and demonstrating the benefits of your products. Now that you have your potential customer’s interest, it’s time to , demonstrating your product’s or service’s quality. build trust and loyalty Engaging your audience with the following helps build that trust: • Testimonials • Product Reviews • Case Studies • Automated Marketing Campaigns • Engaging Content (the comparison between two separate campaigns/ads) to track key metrics. Running continuous A/B Tests will provide you with essential feedback BOTTOM OF FUNNEL (BOF) As leads drip down into the last stage, you need to start pulling them into new conversion funnels. The more customer data you have, the more personalised and targeted experiences you can craft to keep them interested and wanting more. Once a lead has converted, pull it back into the nurturing phase and continue building rapport through targeted offers and email campaigns. Social Media Funnels A social media sales funnel guides your followers, taking them from the moment they first learn about your product on social media to becoming dedicated customers. It’s an effective tool that encourages repeat purchases and builds brand loyalty. The social media sales funnel consists of : four distinct stages Awareness/discovery Intent Conversion Loyalty To effectively leverage conversions and nurture customer loyalty, it’s essential that you create content tailored to each stage of the buyer journey. When you craft a well-thought-out social media marketing scheme and provide content of value, users will be more likely to engage with it by liking, commenting on, or sharing your posts. By interacting with a brand hashtag campaign or viewing your ads, potential customers will be able to identify and connect with you easily. This opens the door of opportunity for your business as you can focus on those who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer – giving them a chance to become lifelong customers. With a typical social media funnel, as seen above, we are only seeing half the journey for customers. Much like a traditional funnel, it stops at the point of sale. But, in the modern age, that is . only half the journey The template of has not become defunct – it just needs to evolve! AIDA Bow Tie Funnels We have already looked at the first stage of the funnel through the model; let’s now look at the , known as the . AIDA retention side through the marketing funnel Bow Tie Funnel With the bow tie marketing funnel, businesses can and loyal to their brand. Not only does this approach foster customer trust, but it also creates an army of devoted followers who will become vocal advocates for the company. ensure customers remain engaged This method focuses on building strong relationships over a long period of time so that customers are immersed in your brand’s world. You will reap the rewards of your hard work from a prior stage in this advocacy phase. . Fostering customer satisfaction ensures that they remain loyal to you Take pride in what you do, and showcase how effortless it is for customers to interact with your business, knowing that this is just another proactive step in the marketing mix to raise awareness about your product/service – and your reputation. The Evangelists By cultivating strong relationships with existing customers, you maximise the possibility of customers returning and recommending your business to their peers. A typical example would be musicians who use Marshall amplifiers. The reputation of this brand is huge. Used by performers globally, these stalwarts play a significant part in brand awareness for the company. Creating customer journeys is achievable through loyalty and referral programs. These helpful schemes motivate consumers to repeat purchases while spreading positive word-of-mouth about your business. However, it’s important to note that not all companies can benefit from such initiatives; offering post-purchase are also . excellent aftercare services and customer support essential components in building lasting relationships with clients Adopter The first level is recognising the customer who has just purchased. This is a brand new purchaser, so it’s important to make them feel confident and encourage them to remain loyal on their way to becoming a . Brand Ambassador The simplest way is to offer a bonus reward, a discount off the next purchase or perhaps an invitation to a VIP area that’s related to the product. Think creatively and consider how you would want to be rewarded in a similar manner. At this stage, use the purchase as a springboard to gather further customer information through email or a follow up call. Apply this information across the entire funnel. The Loyalist The following stage of retention in the funnel is the . Loyalist This generally refers to one of the following: A customer who upgraded their purchase at checkout Repeat Customers The difference between an and a is that the former may have made an impulse purchase, while the latter instinctively chose to buy from you. Adopter Loyalist To convert an Adopter to a Loyalist, ensure that your message (marketing) connects with the . Offer incentives to buy related products or offers for a repeat purchase. Consider how you can recommend incentives such as offering tier pricing to maintain their path along the funnel. Loyalist The Advocate The is a satisfied customer who has bought from you and likes the product or service you offer. Advocate This is the customer who will start using their social influence through online platforms such as reviews, testimonials, social media or word of mouth to recommend potential customers to your products or services actively. To keep them on side and engaged, entice them with incentives. These could be: Membership of a VIP club with personal referrals Access to new products in exchange for reviews This sort of . It’s extremely , and most importantly, it’s coming from a neutral and trusted source. advocacy is worth its weight in gold cost-effective Ideally, you want advocates of your brand to encourage other customers to become advocates, so use further incentives. Make Advocates Feel Special Reply to their tweets, share their positive posts on Facebook, and answer them with a personalised response if they connect through email. The quickest way to lose an is to make them feel like one of the masses. Treasure them! Advocate The Brand Ambassador These are the company’s friends! They are (think or ) – they tell their friends and colleagues how happy they are and are passionate about their relationship with you. emotionally connected to your brand Apple Jeep Enhancing the customer experience for . Loyal customers that help market your brand is a social-proof strategy that should be wholly embraced, as it will provide a budget-crunching and formidable ROI. this group is a key tactic to use in your marketing funnel stages For small businesses, the personal touch such as a handwritten message will let them know how special they are to you. Acknowledgements to offer include: Free overnight shipping Gifts for Birthdays and/or Christmas The Art of Retention Customer lifetime retention is nothing new – it’s been around for a long time. However, there are many examples of companies throughout history who, for one reason or another, decided that, after a while, they would change their systems or the way they recognised key customers. They essentially took them for granted. Part of this problem arose because companies tend to budget for something other than advocates or brand ambassadors. They assume that because their customers are on board, they will be, for a while, asking themselves why they should waste time and money keeping happy customers happy. Financial institutions, utility companies, insurance brokers and the automotive industry would benefit more if they put more energy into customer retention. On average, you can fail a loyal customer a couple of times. After that, they will start falling off the radar and consider switching to a competitor. And guess what? They will make a point of telling everyone they know! Conclusion Overall, marketing funnels can be a powerful tool for businesses to convert prospects into customers. They provide an organised process for targeting and nurturing potential customers while providing the resources they need to make an informed purchase decision. If you want to increase your conversion rate, creating a marketing funnel is worth considering! https://piershgardener.com/category/how-to-guides/?embedable=true

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Stories, News & Mentions about FUNNEL

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