Summary of the Work (Week 8- Week 9)

During the internship, I determined company sales funnel, implemented marketing automation system using ActiveCampaign, and created targeted landing pages for the company.

Below is my timeline which shows how many weeks I spent for each work.

1. Determined company sales funnel (2 weeks)
2. Implemented marketing automation system using ActiveCampaign (5-6 weeks)
• Determined the whole marketing automation system (2 weeks)
• Developed a simple automation system for testing purspose (1 week)
• Created 6 email campaigns using A B Testing (1-2 weeks)
3. Created targeted landing pages for the company (2 weeks)

Because I did some works concurrently, it shows more than 8 weeks.

I am really glad that I could have worked for DistinguishMe, interact with many people from different areas, learn digital marketing and web analytic (Google Analytics), and hear many live lectures from business professionals.

Developing "Program" Landing Page (Week 7- Week 8)

During week 7 - week 8, I developed a "Program" landing page. Though I really enjoyed making it, it took some time to develop it since I have never used Divi plugin on WordPress before. Our company has developed their website using Divi plugin and Thrive plugin. To be familiarized with Divi, I needed to watch many official Divi tutorial videos on YouTube. After watched them and studied for them, I created a demo web page to practice Divi before I actually started to develop a landing page. Still I need to modify "Program" landing page by this weekend, I think our company is ready to use three landing pages which Brandon, my co-intern, and I have worked on really soon.

Two More Weeks to Wrap Up

I have two more weeks to wrap up my project at DistinguishMe. I am going to finish making three landing pages and start the automation that I created two weeks ago by next week. I am really excited to see how the automation actually works and how our customers respond to our campaign activities. Since it is a 8 weeks internship, I may not see the complete result but will be able to see the first result for a couple of Campaigns.

During the Internship, Moses Lee and Matt Gibson, who are Co-CEO of DistinguishMe, helped me to prepare for my resume and gave me some good advice for the future job as well. I am really glad that I had an opportunity to work with great people and can see how the start up company works.

Developing Landing Pages (Week 6- Week 7)

After developing 6 email campaigns on ActiveCampaign, we found out that we needed to develop three landing pages for email #5 and email #6: 1. Exclusive 15 Minutes Call page, 2. Introducing Program page with FAQ, 3. Program Register page

To develop our landing pages, Brandon, my new co-intern, and I did below.

1. Watched some tutorial videos of WordPress and Divi plugin
• Our company has used Divi plugin to develop the website on WordPress but Brandon and I had never used it before. So we studied it first and then we actually used it.
2. Drafted the Lading Pages Skeleton
3. Divided the work: Brandon developed the Program Register page while I developed the Exclusive 15 Minutes Call page and Introducing Program pages.
4. At the weekly meeting, we reviewed what we had developed so far with our supervisor and identified what we should modify by next week.

Developing the web pages are a lot of fun, but it needs a great amount of time and effort. To complete the pages, we need to be patient and communicate well with each other about what to put in each page.

Next time, I will share how our landing pages are created.

Google Analytics Certification

During the summer internship, I had studied Google Analytics for a month. In July, I took the exam and passed it!

Here is the strategy that I used to pass the exam.

Preparation:

1. Registered for "Google Partners"
2. Created a blog (this blog)
3. Added tracking code to the blog

Studying:

1. Registered for "Google Analytics Academy"
2. Followed the instruction and watched the videos on Google Analytics Academy
3. Reviewed them and took assessment tests after studying each section
4. Practiced them on my Google Analytics which showed my web traffic of my blog

Taking the Exam

1. Reviewed what I had learned
2. Took the Exam

To be honest, I took the exam in July to see how hard the test was and didn't expect to pass it. Fortunately, I could pass it in my first attempt.

Many peers of mine took a strategy that they took it at the beginning of their studies just to see how hard it was. That was the exact strategy which I followed too. Of course, many failed at first but could have an idea about how to study and what the exam wanted to question us. I think this is a really good strategy because we could make a plan on how to study after taking the practice test.

Anyhow, if you want to study Google Analytics and pass the exam, I recommend you to follow my strategy and don't be afraid of taking the test early. You have multiple chances to pass the exam and even if you fail the exam, you can have an idea about what the exam wants to test you.

Developing Email Campaigns (Week 5- Week 6)

In week 5 - 6, we developed and modified 6 email campaigns on ActiveCampaign for a simple automation.

Here is how it works on ActiveCampaign.

The simple automation with 6 email campaigns.
*I got a confirmation from my supervisor, Matt to share this information and some diagrams on my blog.

1. Created 6 Campaigns: “Campaign Test Split Email #1”, “Campaign Test Split Email#2”,       “Campaign Test Split Email#3B” (“Campaign Test Split Email#3”), “Campaign Test Split Email#4”,   and “Campaign Test Split Email#5” with A B testing (Split Testing) on Campaign

2. Add campaigns into automation by using “If/Else” conditions (*Once “Campaign Test Split Email #1” starts, the Whole Warm Up Automation Serie will begin.)

3. Add Tag after each campaign (after each If/Else conditions): 

e.g. Tag “Warm Up Series Email#1 (David)” after campaign 1 (after first If/else condition)

4. After each tag, I used that tag to start another campaign:

e.g. Create Email#1 campaign (Campaign)=> Create “If/Else” condition on Automation => Create a tag “Warm Up Series Email#1 (David)” (Automation) => Create Email #2 campaign for customers who is tagged “Warm Up Series Email#1 (David)”

Social Media Development by 2017 Digital Clinic Interns

We, 2017 Digital Clinic Interns, have developed Instagram, Snapchat Take Over, and Blog posts on EMU Center for Digital Engagement to share what we have done and what we have learned so far.

Here is some examples of what we feel about our internship:

You can also find out our activities like our meeting with great guest speakers on our blog!!

If you want to check out more pictures, please go to our Instagram!

Below is my picture with one of our guest speakers, Jorel McCree on our Instagram.

Developing A B Testing (Week 4- Week 5)

In week 4- week 5, I developed a simple version of automation to test if it works before we activate the whole automation. During this testing stage, I developed A B testing, sometimes called Split Testing. Before I share what kind of A B testing I created for my company, I will discuss what A B testing is.

What is A B testing?

A B testing is a marketing technique to test two contents in a small audience first and apply a winning content to the large audience later. This technique is really useful and effective on knowing customers' preference before we target the large audience.

Here's is an example.

Let's assume that you are working at the travel agency and assigned to develop a seasonal email newsletter for your 100 customers.
You have 2 great contents for your newsletter but don't know which one customers like more.
In this case, you can use  A B testing technique to identify how sample customers respond to each contents. For example, you send content A to 10 customers (10%)  and send content B to 10 other customers.  (10%). You will track which one has more high response rate and/or conversion rate. Based on these rates, you can decide which content win the A B testing and apply it to the rest of your 80 customers (80%). By doing this, you can get more customers' attentions which can lead you to have high a conversion rate.

You can use this technique in many other ways.
For example, you can develop two exact same email newsletters with different subject lines. For example, subject line A is "Summer is coming soon! Are you ready?" and another subject line B is "It is getting hotter and hotter. Do you need a place to be cool?" In this case, you can track which one has a higher open rate to identify the winning subject line.

There are many things to test. Here's are some examples of what you can test for your email, social media, and even your website.

1. Headlines
2. Sub headlines
3. Subject lines
4. Paragraph Text
5. Testimonials
6. Call to Action text
7. Call to Action Button
8. Links
9. Images
10. Videos
11. Social proof
12. Different day and time
13. Media mentions
14. Awards and badges

What kind of A B Testing I developed for my company

For my company, I created 6 email campaigns and developed 4-5 A B testing. For one email campaign, I developed an A B testing which use different subject lines with the exact same contents. For 2-3 email campaigns, I made A B testing which tests customers preference over embedded video VS a link to video in their emails. At one email campaign, I tested two different contents with the same subject line.

Next post,

I will keep updating my work at my company and share my progress with you.

Develop the Whole Sales Automation on ActiveCampaign (Week 3 - Week 4)

At week 3 - week 4, I developed the whole sales automation on ActiveCampaign. I tired to make a simplest series first and then added some conditions like "If/Else" condition. 

For example, I made a simple scenario for "New Welcome Customer" series. It starts from tagging prospects "New Welcome Series" when they click one of the button in our website and subscribe our newsletter. After then we send an welcome email, follow-up email, and more. This is the simplest scenarios for "New Welcome Series".

In reality, each customer reacts differently. For instance, someone may open our welcome email but may not open follow-up email and stops their interactions. On the other hand, someone may open both welcome email and follow-up email and want to know more about us or even desire to buy one of our products. For every scenarios, we need to make a really complicated and comprehensive automation base.

In the end, I developed the whole sales automation base (platform) with 8 conditions, 6 tags to distinguish or identify customers, 10 automation series, and many emails.

However, it is really dangerous to apply this whole automation base to the all customers. If we click "Active" button, it starts the automation no matter what it contains some error messages or error series. This is why we need to test a small version of automation base first and then expand it to whole automation. In addition, in the testing stage, we can do A B testing. Briefly, A B testing is to test two contents for small audience first and then take the winner content and apply it to the last of audience.

For example, we send an email to 10% of the audience with different subject names but with the same content: 5% of audience with Subject A and 5% of audience with Subject B. Once we find out the winning subject name (either A or B), we are going to apply it to the last of 80% audience. This technique is really powerful since we can know our customers' preference and can increase open email rates

Next time, I will post the detail of A B testing and how to use it.

Progress & Workshop Meeting

As a digital marketing intern for the Center for Digital Engagement, we need to attend a group meeting with Mr. Gibson, the director of Digital Summer Clinic, on every Wednesday evening. At the meeting, we present our progress and difficulties that we have faced at our works for the first hour and listen to the lecture or success story from guest speakers, EMU Alumni, and entrepreneurs for the second hour. 

You can find these activities at our Instagram and Blog which are created by our co-interns.
At Instagram, you also can find me!

Develop the Sales Funnel and Customer Value Optimization (Week 2 - Week 3)

During the week 2- week 3, I developed the Sales Funnel proposal and Customer Value Optimization for the company. I will summarize how the Sales Funnel works and what CVO is on this post.

Sales Funnel & Customer Value Optimization

Here is how the Sales Funnel works.

(By the way, I used "Creatly.com" to draw my sample diagram. It is very useful online software and you can draw 2 or 3 diagrams for free.)

Explanation of the diagram:

"Traffic Source" and "Offer a Lead Magnet" are the Acquisition Phase that I discussed in the last post. At this phase, we are trying to get as many prospects as possible.

"Offer a Tripwire" is the Conversion Phase where a prospect become an actual customer.

"Offer a Core Product" and "Offer a Profit Maximizer" are Purchase Phase. "Offer a Profit Maximizer" is, for example, cross-selling or bundling to maximize the profit.

"Cycling Path & Spreading the Market" is the Post Purchase Phase. This is the phase which we help customers to return to our activity and lead them to repurchase our products and/or services.

How to increase online sale transaction?

There are three ways to increase online sale transaction.

1. Increase the # of customers
2. Increase the average transaction amounts per customer
3. Increase the # of transactions per customer

"Traffic Source" and "Offer a Lead Magnet"  at the Acquisition Phase and "Offer a Tripwire" at the Conversion Phase increase the # of customers.

"Offer a Profit Maximizer" at the Purchase Phase increases the average transaction amounts per customer

Finally, "Cycling Path & Spreading the Market" at the Post Purchase Phase can increase the # of transactions per customers.

After the meeting with my CEO, we decided to edit my proposal and make it more specific to the company.
Also, I am charged to develop an automation system using ActiveCampaign and WordPress based on the sales funnel.

In next post, I will share how I improve my Sales Funnel and how to automate the system.

What is the Sales Funnel?

So what is the Sales Funnel?

The sales funnel is the purchasing process which starts from attracting customers and ends in customers purchasing and repurchasing the company's goods.
Though there are many definitions of the sales funnel, usually, there are 7 phases for the sales funnel: Awareness Phase, Interest Phase, Evaluation Phase, Decision Phase, Purchase Phase, Reevaluation Phase, and Repurchase Phase.

1. Awareness Phase: This is the process where prospects become aware of their problems and seek the solution. They will eventually learn that there are some solution products and/or services for their issues.
2. Interest Phase: Prospects shows their interests to the company's service or product.
3. Evaluation Phase: Prospects examine different products and services for the best decision.
4. Decision Phase: The final decision is made and the negotiation between the buyer and the seller begins.
5. Purchase Phase: The products or services are purchased.
6. Reevaluation Phase: Customers review their purchases and consider of buying more company's products or services.
7. Repurchasing Phase: Customers repurchase more products or services.

In my opinion, this can be summarized in 4 phases from the perspective of the marketing view.

1. Aquisition Phase: Attract as many customers as possible.
2. Conversion Phase: Conver prospects into customers.
3. Purchase Phase: Lead and help customers to purchase the company's product and/or service.
4. Post Purchase Phase: Resolve congnitive dissonance and lead customers to repurchase their products and/or services. 

The ultimate purpose of developing the sales funnel is to understand the customer behavior. Once the company knows which phase their customers are at, they can target them specifically and help them to purchase the company's product and service.

Know the Company and Initiate the project (Week 1 - Week 2)

In the first week and the second week, my co-Intern Emma and I learned a lot about our company, DistinguishMe. The company has helped students to initiate their passion projects by coaching and giving them some valuable resources. By doing this, the students will not only have an experience of initiating their passion projects and overcoming the difficulties during their tasks but also will be distinguished from the others, which make them be more applicable for the best colleges.

During the summer, Emma and I will develop an automate sales funnel for the company and analyze the website traffic as well as developing and maintaining it.
Especially, I will be charged for the content marketing to convert normal people to the actual customers by using some techniques, like a lead magnet.

Next time, I will share with you about what the sales funnel is and how it works.

Introduction to Digital Summer Clinic 2017 intern

During the summer in 2017, I am working at "DistinguishMe" in Ann Arbor as a Digital Summer Clinic 2017 intern.
But what is Digital Summer Clinic?
Bud Gibson, the director of Digital Summer Clinic, says,

"Due to high demand, The Center for Digital Engagement and Ann Arbor SPARK will be working in conjunction for Year 3 of the Digital Summer Clinic Internship Program! This program offers up to 20 part-time, paid digital clinic intern positions for EMU and other local area students. Students from a variety of majors, CIS, Marketing, SCM, etc., are encouraged to apply, as this position is not focused in just one area of study."

We are working with Ann Arbor Spark and having a weekly meeting on every Wednesday night.
At the meeting, the interns will present their progress and difficulties that they are facing at their company. Also, we are assigned to take "Google Analytics" certification or "Google Adwords" during the Internship so that we can analyze the company's web traffic.

I will keep posting my progress at DistinguisMe and share with you!