Over the past fifteen years, I have had the opportunity to work closely with CEOs of companies, both large ($1b+) and small (start-ups). While each CEO brings a unique set of characteristics to the table, there are some commonalities between those that are able to steer their companies to success (whether through organic growth, acquisition, or an IPO) and those that fall short of their potential.

See Also: 5 Reasons You Should NOT Start an Online Business (and Keep Your Day Job)

Below is a list of five essential attributes successful leaders possess:

1. Ability to focus on the vision and to communicate that vision to stakeholders.
2. Awareness of operational details, however, not involved with them.
3. On top of industry trends -- an avid reader.
4. Hires strong management teams and supports their decisions.
5. Meets with customers and can articulate customer needs, challenges and business goals.

See Also: How to Launch an Online Business in 10 Simple Steps

1. Having a Vision

Being at the top of the pyramid, a great CEO must be able to clearly communicate the vision of the company in order to inspire staff, investors, and customers. As the company flag-bearer, all eyes turn to the CEO for direction and example.

2. Macro Management

While it is key for the CEO to understand the every-day activities of the organization and how all the parts fit together to move the company forward, the best CEOs do not get dragged into the seductive lure of micro-managing granular details.

Instead, they maintain a highly trained management team that is fully capable of handling these tasks.

This enables the CEO to remain focused on the primary duties of increasing revenues, and meeting the goals identified in the vision.

3. Leveraging Industry Trends

Staying on top of industry trends through reading, attending conferences and joining trade associations is essential for CEOs to ensure that the direction and vision for the company is on course.

The ability to see into the future is invaluable for steering clear of potential threats and capitalizing on future opportunities.

This is especially important in the constantly evolving technology industry where the CEO needs to determine which changes will have long-term impact and which are merely fads with little real value.

See Also: The Top Trends in Online Marketing Right Now

4. Develop a Foundation of Strength

No company or CEO is successful without a strong management team. Each member must be a leader that knows and is accountable for his or her job responsibilities (and does not try to do the work of other team members).

Quality managers, in turn, know how to mentor and acknowledge the accomplishments of their own staffs in order to keep them motivated, involved and on track to meet the business goals of the company.

See Also: How to Hire a Social Media Marketing Manager

5. Customers are at the Core

Successful CEOs look beyond their raw technology and focus on finding ways to help customers solve their problems. They describe their products in terms of how they address the needs and challenges of their customer’s instead of listing product capabilities.

Great CEOs use their own customers’ words and verbiage.

Through weekly meetings with customers, CEOs have an endless supply of anecdotal situations to share with stakeholders that help create a better product and a more thorough understanding of the customer requirements for a successful business relationship.

See Also: 7 Steps to Increasing Your Sales Conversions

This article is a guest contribution from Nadel Phelan.

Dr. Phelan is President & CEO of NPI PR (npipr.com) and has 20+ years of experience in global marketing, market research and public relations for high-tech companies including HP, Cisco, and Microsoft. She has led scores of companies through IPOs on eight different exchanges and participated in the promotion of 60+ companies through successful acquisitions (two for over $1B). Dr. Phelan is also an avid photographer and award-winning writer.

Guest Post by Charlotte Hicks Crockett, Managing Editor of B2B Writing Success

If there is one overriding theme in the trends we are seeing in B2B online marketing right now, it’s sophistication. Online media has evolved from the new and experimental phase into a secure position in nearly every B2B company’s marketing.

While there is a constant flow of new social media platforms, apps, and marketing software, the underlying technology used in B2B online marketing has stabilized.

The changes we see now are new applications of the existing technology to improve marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

Today, we’ll look at five major trends and their implications for B2B companies.

1. Omnichannel Marketing

Online media has become so universal that it’s easy to forget what life was like before search engines and social media. It’s now integrated into all aspects of our lives and our businesses.

Our prospect’s attention flows seamlessly from one media to another - and our marketing must too.

The first step - integrating digital marketing with all of a company’s marketing initiatives - has already occurred. There’s no longer a “social media strategy,” a “search engine strategy,” and a “content marketing strategy” - it’s all simply “marketing strategy.”

The next step is the move from multichannel marketing to omnichannel marketing. While both involve marketing across multiple media channels, there is a distinct difference in how that marketing is done.

In multichannel marketing, the focus is on the media - how each channel can be tweaked to produce the maximum result. It’s data-driven, with results measured within each channel.

Omnichannel marketing effectively flips the process on its side, focusing on the buyer instead of a particular media channel.

The buyer is led through the buying process across multiple media platforms, always receiving a consistent, relevant message.

It’s essentially giving them a positive customer experience before they become a customer. Done properly, it should feel seamless and natural to the buyer and allow them to feel in control of their buying decision.

2. Adaptive Content

Omnichannel marketing also sets the stage for a better buying experience through adaptive content.
Adaptive content is content that adjusts what is displayed, based on actions by the reader. It’s probably best explained by looking at an example.

Cameron is looking for a hotel to host a large conference. Like other event planners, she will need information on meeting room size, audio and video set-up, and sleeping room availability.

However, since one of the speakers is the Vice-President of the United States, she is most concerned about the hotel’s ability to work with the Secret Service and provide a secure entry and exit.
Cameron searches online for hotels in the area with experience hosting top government officials.

She narrows her search down to two hotels and downloads their conference information packet.
The first hotel redirects her to a page with testimonials from other event planners raving about the banquet facilities and the food served at their event.

All good information, but not specific to Cameron’s most pressing needs.

The second hotel, however, “seeing” that she spent the majority of her time on the page about hotel security, redirects her to a page with helpful information about hosting a senior government official and the direct line to their head of hotel security. Cameron’s job just became much easier, thanks to the hotel’s use of adaptive content.

Adaptive content not only personalizes the buyer’s experience, it shifts the conversation from sales to relationship building.

3. Video and Podcasting

Brian Clark of Rainmaker Digital has been emphasizing the importance of every company becoming a media company for several years now. The explosion in the popularity of podcasting and video makes this even truer today.

One of the reasons video is a valuable tool for B2B marketers is the ability to show how a complex product is used.

Adding the visual imagery not only allows more clarity in the communication, it stimulates the buyer’s brain in ways that text articles can’t.

Video can be integrated into websites, presentations, case studies, and white papers. It can also be used as part of the on boarding process, showing a new buyer how to implement their purchase and answering common questions about the product.

Wistia, a video marketing company, found that adding video to email increased click-through rates by 300%.

Surprisingly, good video can be shot with a smartphone or tablet, making video a viable option for any size company.

The popularity of podcasting reflects the trend toward on-demand information and entertainment. Many business executives listen to podcasts during their commute, while exercising, or to pass the time during yet another flight delay.

Setting up and running a podcast does take significant effort, but the payoff can be well worth it.

See Also: The Top 10 Money Podcasts that Smart Entrepreneurs Listen To

4. Influencer Marketing

Social media has given rise to a new group of influentials — people with a large following who are able to influence the purchasing decisions of their fans.

In many cases, the reach of one individual exceeds that of the mainstream media such as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. Media is no longer only controlled by a handful of publishers.  

This isn’t just a consumer phenomenon; there are highly influential people in the B2B market as well. Of course, there always have been experts and thought leaders in every industry, but the reach of online media has amplified their value.

B2B companies are starting to reach out to the influencers in their market to leverage their reach and relationships with key prospects.

In a recent interview with B2B Writing Success, Kirsten Billhardt, Marketing Manager for Dell’s IoT division stressed, “We love to work with influentials!”

Do you know who the key influencers are in your market?

See Also: 7 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing is So Powerful

5. Freelance Experts

If your head is spinning from trying to keep up with multiple media channels, new marketing tactics, and the constantly changing social media platforms, you’re not alone.

Just as influencers allow companies to expand their reach beyond their own efforts, using freelance copywriters and other digital marketing experts allows a company to focus on their core messaging and outsource the most time-consuming marketing tasks.

While you could certainly hire the staff to have comprehensive expertise in-house, it’s prohibitively expensive to cover the vast array of channels now required for B2B online marketing. Having access to a variety of freelance professionals with deep expertise allows a company to maximize their marketing effectiveness without breaking the bank.

The end result of all of these trends in B2B online marketing is a better buyer experience — and the ability of companies to better target their ideal customer. What’s not to love?

So, what’s next on the horizon? Watch for the impact of augmented reality and virtual reality — both promise to radically change the buying process for both B2C and B2B companies.

About the author: Charlotte Hicks Crockett is the Managing Editor of B2B Writing Success, which helps copywriters of all experience levels tap into the huge opportunity of the B2B market. Members have full access to a constantly expanding library of articles, how-to videos, and live training sessions from top B2B copywriting experts to help them in any type of B2B copywriting project from blog posts to video scripts to white papers.

See Also: 7 Guaranteed Ways to Make People Love Your Business and Brand

Guest post by Pam Foster, AWAI (American Writers & Artists, Inc.)

​Note: Additional commentary by Brian T. Edmondson are noted in italics.

What is copywriting? The simple definition is this:

Copywriting is the skill — and field of work — where people write sales promotions and other marketing materials for products, services, fundraising campaigns, etc.

It’s the craft of writing persuasive messages that prompt people to take action (buy something, inquire about a service, download a free eBook, donate to a cause, etc.).

When it comes to marketing and advertising your business, copywriting is the single most important skill you should learn the master; whether you are doing it yourself or outsourcing it to a professional copywriter.

You know that TV commercial you just watched before the evening news? A copywriter wrote the script for that commercial.

How about the brochures you picked up at the local home and garden show? Yes, copywriters wrote those too.

And the content on that website you just visited? Yup. One or more copywriters likely wrote the content on every single page of that site.

These are examples of broadcast, print and online copywriting, and to be clear — copywriting is NOT about legal trademarks. Protecting one’s inventions or creative works is a copyright, a completely different topic.

Now, Here's the Surprising Answer to "What is Copywriting?"

Copywriting is a skill that’s needed EVERYWHERE today.

It’s used in thousands upon thousands of materials and messages sent out to reach specific audiences, around the clock, every day. This means there’s an ongoing pool of marketing copywriter jobs for individuals who can write for a wide variety of projects.

Traditionally, before the days of the Internet, copywriting was needed for about a dozen different types of marketing materials, including direct mail packages, postcards, newspaper and magazine ads, TV and radio commercials, brochures, posters, coupons, sell sheets (for sales reps to carry), and even cereal boxes.

Today, the world of copywriting has exploded online as a critical component of 75 to 100 or even more different types of marketing tools and tactics, such as websites, email copy, online articles, social media posts, blogs, online ads, videos, webinar presentations, and so on.

Think of it. A marketing campaign for just one single product may require all of these types of copywriting and many more, depending on the type of product:

• Product sales page online (think LL Bean or Amazon product descriptions)
• The product’s packaging/label (yes, someone wrote the words on that box)
• Product ads in Google, Facebook ads and other popular online venues
• Product ads in print magazines
• Brochures to be handed out at a trade show
• Product demo video(s)
• A white paper or special report on a problem the product solves
• Emails promoting the product
• Case studies that explain how customers benefit from the product
• Product specification sheets and how-to-use web pages
• Articles and blog posts about the product
• Testimonials and customer stories
• Sales letters for direct mail and/or online web pages

​I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Every company that makes products, sells services or raises money needs good copywriting to compete for customers and dollars.

For most businesses who do their own marketing, they just simply take their best guess at putting words into any of the above mentioned forms of media. In many cases they simply just borrow from other ads they see; which were done by people doing the same thing. It cannot be overstated that the words you use can have a huge difference between spectacular success and miserable failure; and that there is an entire field of study devoted to the mastery of copywriting.

So Here's Another Important Question: What is GOOD Copywriting?

Aha! There’s a big difference between so-so copywriting and effective copywriting. Effective copywriting is writing that works really well in driving responses and increasing purchases.

Let’s look at five of the components of good copywriting, using a cat product to illustrate our points.

Good Copywriting is Written to a Specific Audience

If you’re promoting a product that provides fresh water to cats around the clock, the copywriting must speak to cat owners. In a one-on-one “conversation,” you’ll want to explain how the product solves the cat owner’s desire to provide fresh, healthy water.

One of the best ways to improve your marketing materials is to stop trying to sound "super professional" and writing in the third-person. First person writing in a conversational tone works really well.

Good Copywriting Offers a Unique Benefit or Promise to that Audience

Cat owners have thousands of product options to consider, so the copywriting must differentiate this cat-water product from any others available. What makes this the best solution (the easiest, safest, healthiest, etc.)?

Many people refer to this as your USP or unique selling proposition. What makes you different from every other me-too product or service out there?

Good Copywriting Offers Strong Proof that the Product is a Winner

To make sure cat owners don’t hesitate or worry that the product is not going to live up to its promises, it’s best to provide specific proof that the product works, such as customer testimonials, test results compared to other cat-water products, perhaps a marketing video on how easy it is to use, etc.

If you're to using testimonials in your marketing, then start doing so immediately!

Good Copywriting Guides the Audience to an Appealing or Beneficial "Call to Action:"

If you’re trying to get cat owners to watch a demo of this brilliant water-dispensing invention, the copywriting will need to clearly guide them with a call to action, which could be: click on the video to see how simple it is. In addition, the copywriting should offer something special that makes the cat owner want to act now: “Save $25 if you order by XX/XX date.”

Telling people exactly what they need to do next and why they should do it right now are two things every marketing piece you create should include.

Ideally, Good Copywriting is Tested and Tweaked Over Time to Improve the Results

A few simple copy changes can boost response by 10%, 20%... even 150%, so it pays to test different messages and offers.

If you're not tracking everything you are doing then how will you know what's working and what's not? In additional you should be constantly testing to see if you can improve the results you are already getting.

Get More Information on Copywriting that Works

You can browse hundreds of free copywriting articles on AWAI’s website, which includes expert tips from some of the top copywriters in the industry. This is also a great resource if you’d like to find out how to become a copywriter — one of the fastest growing career paths today for writers interested in making a good living doing freelance work from home or as a full-time staff copywriter for a company.

About the author: Pam Foster is the Director of Copywriting Training at AWAI (American Writers & Artists, Inc.), which has been helping people develop skills to acquire financial security, independence and freedom since 1997. And as the world’s leading publisher of direct-response copywriting, travel writing, photography and graphic design home-study programs, AWAI has helped thousands of people do just that.

After the internet became a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1990s, it changed life as we know it. Communications, travel, music, government… shopping.  Yes, retailers large and small have embraced the Internet as a way sell to customers across the country… and around the world.

E-commerce has grown exponentially over the last decade and shows no signs of slowing down. Consider that 40 percent of the world’s internet users, that’s more than 1 billion people, have shopped online at least once.

And worldwide business-to-consumer online sales were $1.7 trillion in 2015… and that grew to $2.35 trillion at the end of 2016.

Large e-tailers like Amazon and eBay, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart, have embraced the online business model wholeheartedly. But even though they may dominate the industry, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for small operators like you.

In fact, there’s never been a better time to get involved in selling online as a solo entrepreneur. It’s so much easier to make money with an online business than have a bricks-and-mortar store. The risk, the investment, and time spent is so much smaller.

Along with all this e-commerce activity has grown a whole new way to create and sell products. And it happens to be the easiest, most cost-effective, and oftentimes most profitable way to operate an online business. I’m talking about selling information products.

What Are Digital Information Products?

An information product can come in all sorts of formats, but at its heart a product like this must pass on useful advice to the consumer.

Despite the name, people don’t want simply information. They crave tips and strategies for making their life better. They want guidance. And that’s what the best information products provide, whether it’s a video, an ebook, an audio, a webinar, a membership website…

Keep in mind that in this case, although a CD or DVD or a printed book is technically an information product, we want to focus solely on those products that are delivered electronically, usually via download or some secure membership website.

For example, an ebook in PDF format, a video on a password-protected site, or an audio recording downloaded from your website.

The reason for this is because this way your customers can order products anytime day or night, from anywhere in the world, and get their product instantly, without you being involved in the transaction. It’s money while you sleep. Sure, you will have to handle customer service and keep an eye on sales. But it’s much less hassle than having to keep track and send out orders.

Why You Should Sell Digital Information Products Online

There are several more advantages with digital information products.

1. They are easy and cheap to create. You can make a digital information product using nothing but your time and mental energy. That’s free when it comes to your investment money-wise. You just need ideas. Then you write your ebook, film your video, record your audio, create your webinar… whatever you plan to do. This also means that if the product doesn’t sell as well as you like, you haven’t sunk any money into the project. That reduces your risk and financial exposure.
2. It’s virtually free to store them. Because these products are digital, they are simply space on a server, on your computer (make sure to back it up), or on the cloud. For people with physical products, if they're not doing online drop shipping, they have to carry large inventories. That costs money to store and manage all that product if you have a warehouse and have hired a fulfillment house or other provider to oversee it.  And don’t even think about doing it at home — you’ll quickly become overwhelmed. Much better to stick with digital in which your products take up basically no space.

At this point, you might be worried. You’re thinking that if you have digital products being sent to customers… what’s to stop them from sending copies to their friends or selling it on their own? Nothing really. But rest assured that 99.9 percent of your customers won’t do this. And for the most part information marketers aren’t too concerned about this issue cannibalizing sales.

How to Find a Profitable Market for Information Products

So how do create your own information products… and make sure they’ll be bestsellers?

The first step is research. You need to follow the trends and figure out what the most profitable niche markets online are right now and what format would work best to meet that need. A great place to start is with your own interests. If you can match a profitable business with a passion, you’re all set.

So start with an interest you have. Then start checking around online to see whether you are the only one who loves… online poker, for example. Look for blogs, Facebook groups, and online forums for discussions about this niche. Look at the mainstream news — is it mentioned? Look at retailers like Amazon or eBay to see what products they have for sale in this niche.

For information products in particular, you should check out the site Clickbank.com, which used to specialize in information products although it has branched out into other areas.

You’ll find many categories in all of these places, from yoga to dog training to travel planning to weight loss and fitness… there’s sure to be something that you’re interested in.

From all these sources you’ll get a good sense of whether or not this a viable trend with sales potential. You should also research what sorts of products are offered, the topics they cover, the prices… this is also vital market data you can use to guide as you create and sell your own similar information products. You’re not plagiarizing or ripping off — you’re getting inspiration.

It may seem counterintuitive to seek out thriving markets and then try to join in. But that simply means that there is a ready market for your products. It’s not good to be a pioneer and try to create a market from scratch — that’s often a recipe for failure. Your prospect’s follow trends and latch on to fads… you should too. At least until the next trend comes along.

How to Create Digital Information Products

As far as creating your information products, that’s easy too. Remember that the content, whatever the format, should be useful advice. You could create how-to guides, strategies, tips, and tricks… provide something the prospect can’t get on their own.

For ebooks, magazines, and similar products, you can create them in Microsoft Word and then save them as a PDF. For the cover, find a freelancer on a site like Fiverr.com to create a professional looking cover for you for very little money — as little as $5.

To film videos you can use your smartphone or a simple point-and-click camera. Once you have the “raw” movie file, you can use an intuitive video editing software like iMovie (if you have a Mac) or Windows Movie Maker to create your own cleanly edited video.

Audios are simple too. Just use GarageBand (if you have a Mac) or the Sound Recorder app on Windows Media Player to record your voice. You will need a microphone.

If you want to interview others, you could use something like Skype or GoToWebinar.

Another option, if you’re showing people something your computer screen, like explaining the features of a piece of software, you can use the screen capture program like Camtasia to film every second of what you do to playback later.

How to Market Your Information Products

In many ways, no matter how far we’ve come when it comes to technology and online selling… the same principles of marketing and consumer psychology hold true. And that’s definitely the case with your online venture.

The name of the game here is direct-response marketing. Back in the day, this was done with snail mail flyers, letters, magalogs, catalogs, and other printed material. Yes, so-called “junk mail.” But they wouldn’t send it out by the millions if it didn’t work. These days this sort of content is sent out electronically. And it still works like a charm to get customers to open their wallets.

The good news is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money when you engage in direct-response marketing online. Email marketing is a virtually free method to reach sell your products. And that will be the basis of your marketing efforts.

The basic idea is create a list of email subscribers. You send them both useful content — free valuable information related to your product/niche, as well as offers to buy products. Sending them the free content will speed up the process of them knowing, liking, and trusting you enough to buy your paid products. The novelty of buying stuff online wore off years ago and now people have a lot to choose from — you must give them a warm fuzzy feeling to be the one they buy from.

Yes, only a small percentage of people will actually respond. But that’s how direct response works. You should have enough prospects coming in that even a small percentage of conversions will result in a profit.

To build an email list, you can employ a variety of methods.

1. Search Engine Optimization: In a nutshell, you use valuable content on your website or blog to catch the attention of Google and get listed high in the search results.
2. Paid ads: Whether you use Google’s own pay-per-click ads or banner ads or run ads on a blog network, this can be a viable option, albeit expensive.
3. Social Media: Networks like Facebook are invaluable at reaching a targeted customer base these days.

So how do you take it to the next level? You tap into that small amount of people who buy your introductory product, also known as a front-end product. You contact those people differently than your normal subscribers.

Because they have bought something, they are more likely to buy similar products. So you offer them more in-depth, higher-priced products, known as “back end products.” That’s where the big money is. A back end product could be one-on-one coaching or an event, for example.

Putting It All Together

As you can see information products make for the perfect online business. They’re digital, easy to create and deliver. And the profit margins are huge.

So next steps…

1.  Find your niche – make sure it has bestselling potential.
2. Figure out which format works best for your niche: audio, video, ebook, etc.
3. Create your information product(s).
4. Create an email list and then market to that list.
5. Profit!

On a final note, another simple way to make money online is selling digital information products as an affiliate.

It has advanced entire societies, improved our standard of living and given us 50 different ways to watch Seinfeld. It has also changed the way we do business. But in a world where customers expect new products and services to change as quickly as the seasons, how can we, as entrepreneurs, anticipate current trends?

Here are a few ways to stay ahead of the pack:

 

Allow time for creativity.

First and foremost: think. One of the forefathers of business philosophy, Napoleon Hill, wrote, “It is in the quiet that our best ideas occur to us. Don’t make the mistake of believing that by a frantic kind of dashing around you are being your most effective and efficient self. Don’t assume that you are wasting time when you take time out for thought. Thought is the foundation upon which all else is built by man.”

Become a dedicated trend watcher.

You have to know your market before you change it. Keeping tabs on industry best practices and your competitors’ activities can help you strategize and improvise. Read industry newspapers, magazines and blog posts. Watch webinars and attend conferences. Track trends with Google Trends, Feedly or Mashable. Talk with your clients, friends, customers, competitors and co-workers.
Trend spotters understand that trends have a mood, a unique behavior and a lifespan. Being able to recognize those traits can help you forecast, anticipate changes in trends and maximizes your profit potential.

Think like a customer.

We are all consumers. We all know what we need, like and think is cool. One way to be a trendsetter is to think like a consumer. What products or services would you love to see?
“Creating a customer-focused culture of this nature is a business opportunity that should not be overlooked,” wrote digital marketing executive, “Most businesses are failing when it comes to the customer experience, which is your opportunity to swoop in and enchant those same customers into falling for your company.”        
Some of the best innovation originates from responding proactively to customers’ needs. Never underestimate the relationship you share with your loyal customer base. Their feedback is a reliable (and highly affordable) platform for exploring innovative ideas.
It was Walt Disney who said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
In this fast-paced world, being the first to introduce a new product, service or technology can be a “make or break” scenario, especially for a startup company. But if you rely on creativity, invest resources and time in identifying trends, and invite a fresh perspective on what your company provides its customers, you won’t be chasing the current trends; you will be defining them.