The Pinnacle Moment

If you had to think of a pinnacle moment with the C.E.O.S. in your life, what does that look like?

Does it center around an act of kindness that was fueled by previously voicing a need? Providing a spectacular purchasing process because you answered all of the customer’s questions? Or simply, being affirmed by a team leader for a job well done?

Through each of these experiences, the space to have a conversation was created.

The Pinnacle Question

Celeste Headlee, award-winning journalist, professional speaker and best-selling author of We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, is notorious for creating these spaces with people and raises an important question in 2016 that is still relevant today.

 “Is there any 21^st century skill more important than being able to sustain coherent, confident conversation?”

To put it simply, no.

Headlee believes that in order to hone this skill people need to engage in “honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening.”

Yet, sadly, this skill has been greatly inhibited by a highly polarized culture. One that is constantly driven by the need to speak with the intent to be heard instead of speaking with the intent to listen.

This egotistic intent, where the focus is on oneself instead of others, has created an unbalance that Headlee hopes to restore to balance.

“A conversation requires a balance between talking and listening, and somewhere along the way, we lost that balance.”

This unbalanced, polarized culture is fueled by the most trivial of issues from politics to entertainment. Nowadays people are so passionate for or against a side that the idea of compromise has become pointless to them.

“Pew Research did a study of 10,000 American adults, and they found that at this moment, we are more polarized, we are more divided, than we ever have been in history.”

Although this study seems daunting and irrevocable, Headlee’s decades of professional speaking experience allowed her to create a framework that will help renew the balance and bring people back to the roots of speaking with the intent to listen.

Headlee’s 10 ways to have a better conversation:

1: Don’t multitask. Be present.

2: Don’t pontificate. Enter each conversation with the assumption that you have something to learn.

3: Use open-ended questions. Find out the five W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why?

4: Go with the flow.

5: If you don’t know, say that you don’t know.

6: Don’t equate your experience with the other person’s experience. All experiences are individual.

7: Try not to repeat yourself.

8: Stay out of the weeds. Focus on the root of the story not the trivial points.

9: Listen.

10: Be brief.

Although 10 rules seems like a lot to remember, Headlee states that if a person takes the time to master even one of these rules that they will be skilled enough to create a space to enjoy better conversations with coworkers, friends, and team members.

Conclusion

Whether you use one or more of these rules, Headlee’s TED Talk boils down to this, “Go out, talk to people, listen to people, and, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”

I am truly amazed each day by the people in my life and grateful for the conversations that have made me into the person I am today.

My hope for you, is that this framework will help you flourish in your day to day conversations with the C.E.O.S. in your life and encourage growth in your soft skills.

Go out and do great things!

Bio on Headlee

Celeste Headlee, the speaker of this TED Talk, “10 ways to have a better conversation,” has over 20 million total views to date. Celeste’s work and insights are featured on TODAY, Psychology Today, Inc., NPR, Time, Essence, Elle, BuzzFeed, Salon, Parade, and many more. She has presented to over 100 companies, conferences and universities including Apple, Google, United Airlines, Duke University, Chobani and ESPN, and received the 2019 Media Changemaker Award, (celesteheadlee.com).

We have put together a must-read list of ’10 marketing books for 10 years’. Front Porch Marketing turns 10-years-old this month! Marketing has been constantly evolving over the past decade. As an all-remote, agile marketing company, we’ve evolved right along with it. But sometimes it can get hard to stay on top of all the changes.

That’s why we turn time and time again to the experts in our marketing books. In honor of our 10^th anniversary, we rounded up 10 must-read marketing books that we think demonstrate positive perspectives and practical advice.

Books are one of the easiest ways we know to dive into new marketing topics. Then we can grow our practice and application of that knowledge. We hope these suggestions offer you some inspiring new perspectives on the ever-evolving world of marketing and help you stay on top of all the changes. If we can help you with your marketing challenges in any way, please ask!

Must Reads: 10 Marketing Books for 10 Years – our marketing reading list for 2021

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers by Seth Godin

This is one of our favorites. Seth teaches you how to frame your marketing messages so that your customers will willingly accept them. Permission marketing enables brands to cultivate long-term relationships with customers. This builds trust and ultimately increases the likelihood of making a sale. Seth challenges you to only talk to people who are already raising their hand asking to speak with you. Then he shows how this customer is your most valuable one.

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant

This one is near and dear to our own Front Porch Marketing mantra. Adam – an award-winning researcher and professor – says that the key to success is not ambition or greed, but thoughtfulness. Good guys will indeed finish first in Adam’s worldview. And he gives ample evidence and example to prove it.

The Results Obsession: ROI-Focused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing, by Karen J Marchetti

Karen leads with proven and practical digital strategies to boost client leads. She shows you how to increase email click-through rates and generate higher opt-in rates. She shares how to assess your current digital marketing channels like SEO, email and PPC and optimize them for better results. And with an emphasis on small business, this book serves as a handbook to make the most of every marketing dollar.

Marketers of Tomorrow: A Step by Step Toolkit for Inbound Marketing by Tyrona Heath

Tyrona, a Google marketing alum, offers valuable information on attracting and converting customers using inbound marketing. With SEO, blogging, social media and email marketing as your toolkit, follow Tyrona’s step-by-step system to set up and deliver an inbound marketing plan. Turn strangers into visitors, visitors into leads, leads into customers and customers into loyalists using minimal resources.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

The authors of this book base their thinking on a study of 150 strategic marketing moves spanning more than 100 years and 30 industries. They show you how to build lasting success from creating a new market space (a blue ocean) in which there are no competitors. This book represents a ground-breaking new perspective because dominant marketing thinking for the past 25 years has been concerned with creating revenue by taking market share away from a competitor.

Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story, by Miri Rodriguez

Miri helps brands understand the why and how of infusing their marketing strategies and tactics with an authentic voice that will resonate with consumers. This book serves as a template for helping brands discover that voice, and their story, and structuring them to share insights with their customers.

Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit by Joe Pulizzi & Robert Rose

Joe and Robert – the founder and the Chief Strategy Advisor for the Content Marketing Institute – share bold thinking putting content at the forefront of marketing. They’ll help you create value for consumers and instill loyalty in your followers. This book outlines how to look at marketing as a profit center instead of a cost center. Content marketing helps brands own media instead of purchasing it.

The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks: How Brands Create Authentic Engagement by Understanding What Motivates Us, by Joe Federer

Joe, the former head of strategy at social media giant Reddit, offers effective engagement strategies on social media through the lens of human psychology, neuroanatomy, biology and anthropology. Using more than a decade of experience, he explains consumer behavior in social media in terms of how the different social platforms each represent different mindsets: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy by Anindya Ghose

From the MIT Press, Anindya draws from his extensive research in the US, Europe and Asia using real-world examples from global companies to explain consumer behavior in the mobile realm. He identifies nine forces that shape consumer behavior and how to tap into those forces to influence shoppers and maximize brand opportunities.

What’s Your Problem? Become a Better B2B Marketer by Enhancing Your Problem-Solving Skills by Steve Goldhaber

Before jumping into content marketing, step back and assess what the core business problems are that content marketing can solve. Steve offers a guide to identify and define those problems. Then he helps you understand where content marketing can add the most value for your brand. Content marketing is more than just writing and design, and Steve teaches better techniques for distribution, measurement and optimization.

Let us know if you’ve read some of these, or have others that are your favorites! Please share your favorite marketing books in the comments to make our list more complete.

Where are you on your 2021 goals right now?

Already, we are halfway through January. What has the year looked like for you? Are you following through with your resolutions? Are you on the trajectory to meet the goals you have set for yourself?

Or are you going through the motions? Because it already feels like you don’t have the time to start or already missed your chance.

Creating resolutions or goals at the start of the year may seem frivolous or trivial to some but these ideas can truly kickstart your year on a high note. When it comes to 2021 goals for your company or for yourself as a team member, I want to encourage you to commit to getting things done. By putting your mindset into one that is proactive, realistic and driven I believe that you have the ability to accomplish any goal that you set your heart to.

Now that I’ve got your mind thinking about your goals or potentially lack there of, it’s time to get to business. Grab the nearest paper you have or even open your notes app.

Think of three types of goals you want to set for yourself.

Three Types of Goals: Physical Goal

The first kind of goal is physically oriented. There are numerous ways that this goal could look like to you. It could look like a number on a scale or the number of workout classes you take per week. Or it could look like you getting more rest than you are getting right now and allowing yourself the time to recharge. We could also pivot to nutrition where you may want to be more proactive about what you put into your body rather than what you do with it. Maybe that looks like eating a salad twice a week or skipping desserts until the weekend. Truly, YOU know your body best – what do you want this goal to look like?

Three Types of Goals: Mental Goal

The second kind of goal is mentally oriented. Do you let yourself take a breather when you need it? Or do you push through and jump onto the next thing on your never-ending to-do list? While endurance is admirable, I want to encourage you to also take the time to listen to what your body and mind are telling you. If you take a break after a long day there is nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, you deserve that breather and I am proud of you for persisting with as much tenacity as you have.

This goal may also look like setting healthy boundaries that you’ve always wanted to set but felt like it just never stuck. I myself, have difficulty with setting boundaries but with practice it has become easier to find pockets of peace in my day. This could look like you sending automated messages through your work email past a certain time. Be more proactive with your work/life balance.

Although silly, something that helped me was writing in my agenda “me time.” This was my way of giving myself the space to do whatever I wanted for one hour. Therefore, not to stress about the other things on my agenda. It allowed me to recharge. Hit the ground running with new ideas and a positive attitude.

On the flip side maybe you are so set in boundaries to the point that your no’s in life highly outweigh the yes’s. Give yourself the mental space to step out of your comfort zone. Therefore, try something new. Start saying yes to things that you wouldn’t normally do and discover a different side of yourself that you may have never explored. In the infamous words of Babe Ruth, “never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

Three Types of Goals: Personal Goal

The third kind of goal is personally oriented. Think about something that you want for yourself. Is there a raise that you’ve been wanting for some while? But, haven’t been taking the steps to get it? Are there monthly profits you want to accomplish for your company? Or is there an activity that you always wanted to try out but never did?

No matter what this goal looks like, make sure that it makes YOU happy. Ask that person out that you’ve always wanted to but never have. Try new foods that you’ve been too nervous to try. The world is your oyster. With an entire year ahead of us, time is on your side.

Dig Deep

Goals and resolutions buzzing through your head? I encourage you to write them all down. No matter how frivolous they may seem. Take a moment to dig deep. Then, analyze what you’ve written. Is there a common thread? Something that surprised you?

Whatever it may be, I want you to group them up as best as you can and find those three core goals. With the simple act of just writing these down, “you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals.”

How fantastic is that!?!?

Have Your Three?

Now, figure out a game plan. Plan out realistic smaller goals. Reach your overarching goals and resolutions. Create consistency. Is your goal to get a raise? Then, start looking at the historical value that you bring to the company? Should you do more? For instance, meetings you could attend during your free time? And are you taking the steps to reach that goal?

In conclusion, whatever goals you choose to set, remember to make 2021 the year of getting things done.

2021 is your chance to start fresh in marketing your business – so here’s your Marketing 101 for 2021

In the sea of marketing possibilities: programs, platforms, practices, what is the best course of action? It can be overwhelming. And with the promising new year of 2021 approaching, how do you decide what to focus or re-focus on? Marketing 101. Back to basics.

We are finding that many of our clients are spending this quarter reflecting and refocusing. They are homing in on what makes their business better, and then doing more of that for their Marketing 101. They are taking this opportunity – when much of the world is operating under an umbrella of The Great Unknown – to really get to know themselves, and know themselves well. And then take the necessary steps to take their company to the next level.

How did we get here? Pandemic. Panic. And from both of these we are seeing a renewed sense of Purpose. How has that manifested itself? We have all gotten more digitally focused, learning new platforms that keep work working when we can’t be together. We have all learned how to be more efficient with our precious time – doing more with less because we have to. We’ve all become experts at continuing to reach our customers with fewer resources. We have all learned how to focus on what’s important in our daily lives. So we propose Marketing 101: focusing on doing fewer important things for your business in 2021 – and doing them better.

Be the brand of your dreams.

Your brand is the foundation of your business and everything else builds up and out from there. So this is where we recommend starting. Right now is the best time to step back and reflect. Do you know what your mission is? Do you know exactly what kind of people find value in your company’s product or service? Is your brand working as hard as it could for you? Your branding should really represent and reflect your business as it stands now – because like it or not mostly everyone’s business has pivoted to an extent in the past three quarters.

We’ve rebranded a good number of our clients in the past 6 months – helping them really understand who they are, what they stand for, who their core audience is, and how they want to do business going forward. With a detailed Brand Elaborative in hand, business owners can easily discern where to focus their efforts and how to effectively market to their audience. It’s a map that leads them in the right direction for marketing in 2021.

Visual Marketing 101: Refresh your logo to reflect your brand’s mission.

A logo refresh is honestly a great place to start the new year as a Marketing 101 first step. New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t just be limited to a new diet, exercise routine or haircut. Your business can experience the same shot-in-the-arm – with a new logo – that a new haircut gives you. Armed with a strong visual presence, a lively color palette and versatile modern typefaces your brand now has new tools and a new voice to build community with your customers.

When you update your logo, you’ve created a reason to talk about your business, just as you would personally with a new haircut or new exercise routine. Keep your customers excited about the future. People want to hear good news, and celebrate success – since it seems in short supply recently – and with your new look and confident voice you can connect with them and bring them along to share in the journey.

If your brand was a person, would people want to hang out with them?

With your new branding and logo in hand, extend your voice and visuals to your social media and your website with a powerful Content Marketing plan. Make your customers feel like a community. Make them feel valued and a sense of belonging by helping them, educating them, solving their problems and being there when they need you. Your brand can have a definite personality and power. And your brand can use those powers for good. That’s a brand that people want to hang around with – the one that makes them feel important and smart.

Got limited resources? Marketing 101 says use what you have.

We hear you. One super efficient thing that brands can do is repurpose their existing content across channels. One way we maximize our client’s effectiveness is to take a look at what they have already done well and double down.

A great company brochure can be turned into 20 Facebook social media posts and most likely a blog post or two, with relevant bits of information and helpful graphics. Every company’s website is a treasure trove of social media content that’s already been written, just waiting to be broken into little pieces and shared as social media. Sometimes just having a fresh outside eye look at your company’s assets can help you see that you have more than you thought you did!

Be the best version of yourself for 2021.

Overall, when we’re looking at what to recommend to our small and medium-sized businesses for 2021, we keep coming back to these important things. Remind yourself of who you are and why you do what you do (branding), show your audience you mean it (logo) and bring them into your brand’s community (website, social, content marketing).  A brand is a promise, and 2021 can be the year your brand makes a promise to be the best version of themselves.

This week, we welcome Alison Moreno, our newest accounting rocker, to the team!

Alison Moreno’s Look on Life

1. What is the biggest misconception about accounting today?

Overall, I’m sure there are several misconceptions about accounting, however, for me, it was thinking I had to be a math wizard to be a bookkeeper. Before, I always struggled with higher math but keeping track of finances is basically just adding and subtracting.

2. What advice would you give to someone struggling with QuickBooks?

Take a class! They are easily available and it’s a very easy program to learn.

3. One of the biggest lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?

Love what you do and don’t be afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone. Surprisingly, you might just realize it’s the most wonderful thing!

4. What does good Accounting look like for a marketing firm?

What I love about accounting is its consistency no matter the company. There are slight changes depending on those that make financial decisions for the company, however, assets will always equal liabilities plus equity.

5. If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would it be?

At the beach. Hawaii has the best beaches in my opinion but that’s as exotic as my beach expertise gets. We were supposed to go on a cruise this year to celebrate our 15-year anniversary but that’s been postponed. After that, I’m sure I’ll have some more favorite beaches.

6. If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead who would it be?

My Grandpa. He was one of my favorite people, and he was a great example to me of a hard worker and kind honest man.

7. If you could describe Alison Moreno in three words what would they be?

Positive, adventurous, hungry

8. What is your favorite thing about FPM?

So far, the people are my favorite thing. Although I have only spoken with a few, I am really excited to work with everyone.

9. Tell me about a major milestone in your life?

Almost 4 years ago I hit my goal weight and had lost 70lbs. Previously, I struggled with weight and eating healthy and finding exercise I enjoy but somehow, I figured it out and it brought me to tears. Overall, it taught me a lot about myself and what I am capable of and I have been able to help friends as well.

10. In what ways does the team at FPM have aligned values?

They are unified in success and creativity. Watching them throw out ideas with great feedback to help each other is such an encouraging thing to see from the get go with a new company.

11. Your goals for FPM?

As a newly certified bookkeeper, I am excited to put my knowledge to practical use and to gain even more knowledge as I work with others and gain experience. Also, I want to be able to answer any question thrown at me or know exactly where to look to answer it.

12. How would you describe the culture at FPM?

So fun and inviting. Watching them discuss ideas and congratulate each other on successes for their clients confirms my opinion of what a great company this is.

13. How does FPM differentiate itself from other marketing companies?

Honestly, this is the first marketing company I’ve ever done business with so I’m starting from scratch. Nonetheless, I love the personal feel of the environment. It already feels like a family-type unit working together.

14. What is a fun fact about yourself?

I have been a photographer for the past 7 years. Undoubtedly, it is my creative outlet. Even though it is a part-time job, I would do it for free because it is one of my favorite things to do.

In Conclusion

Thank you for tuning in as this New Rocker shares her Porch insights. We are excited to have her on the team and watch her flourish. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions you’d like to ask Alison.

Finding joy is the overarching theme at my daughter’s school.

It is perfect as children are good at finding joy in the simplest of things. It is also a reminder to find joy throughout the day. Yet, in the busyness of our professional lives, practicing gratitude often takes a backseat. As enter the Thanksgiving season, what if we took the time to find joy in the most miniscule of things each day?

Practicing gratefulness is particularly important for business leaders in challenging times.  Research shows that an attitude of gratitude can mean fewer sick days and higher job satisfaction rates. It is easy to appreciate that both of those things help the bottom line.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

~Vincent Van Gogh

Start by finding the positives.

Was that presentation you’ve worked on for a month canceled at the last minute? Great! Now you have time to connect with a coworker or to make the call you have been putting off.  Was a meeting called unexpectedly?  No problem.  Now you can grab that extra cup of coffee while you listen to a presentation.  

Uplift yourself. Each day give thanks for one very small thing or accomplishment. Start daily and increase from there, consistently giving thanks for things that may seem miniscule.

Show simple appreciation.  We all like to know our time is valued. Give thanks to your team for simple things. This can include changing the copy paper or hopping on a call at the last-minute.  Pay attention.  Check in with your team often to let them know you care. Celebrate any and all successes, no matter how small. If they are out of sorts one day, drop them a quick note to let them know you appreciate their work.  Circle back often.

Soon, you’ll notice the culture of your business is more positive.

Why wait for Thanksgiving? What is one small thing you can find joy in today? 

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was not worried about my mental health or how I would cope with lockdown. As an introvert, I genuinely thought this will not be a big deal for me. I am a young-ish person in reasonably good health, so I was not worried about getting sick. This will be my Olympics, my time to shine.

I was wrong.

It’s one thing to stay inside all day because you want to, it’s quite another because you have to. Add to that doomscrolling and my tendency toward rumination, I found myself falling into what I call, a Covid Hole. Everyday started to feel like it had the same flavor. It was like each day was a sad, sad Groundhog Day.

I can’t really explain why exactly, but I started crawling my way out of this dark pit in September. Maybe it was the realization that I needed to cut myself some slack. Maybe it was the timing – I love fall. Whatever the reason, here are a few things I’ve done that have helped my mental health.

Get Out There

Get out where? Anywhere. The “where” doesn’t matter, just change your environment and ideally, see people and hang out with friends if you can. At some point, I decided to put my mask on and just go outside.

Meeting friends for coffee and was such a breath of fresh air to talk and enjoy their company. I became used to seeing masked faces and returned to my pre-Covid retail habits. I spent hours at Barnes & Noble and Target, my happy places. Even professional networking made me feel better. The chance to socialize lifted my did wonders for my mental health.

Human beings are social creatures, even the introverted ones. I realized I need more social interaction than I thought. Just call me a “talkative” introvert.

Accept the Transience of Life

I heard a tip once that helps my mental health: when you find yourself in a stressful situation, add “for now” to the end of that sentence. Work is so busy and stressful, for now. Fighting with my computer is driving me crazy, for now.

Everything comes and goes, the good and the bad. Wishing for bad things to stop happening is like trying to stop the ocean with your bare hands. The ocean, life, is going to do what it wants to do. Accept that waves come and go.

Ask for Help

I’m not saying I am great at delegating, but asking for help, is … well, helpful. You are not alone in this, so ask for help – from your family and your co-workers.

Look Forward to Something

Whether that something is big or small, it’s a joy to have something to look forward to. For me, I’ve been looking forward to coffee with friends and on a much bigger front, the impending birth of my brother’s first child. Her name is Elise but I like to call her Baby Gregorio. Thinking about my impending role as “Fun Aunt” lightens my mood and helps my mental health.

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I hope these ideas, while not groundbreaking, were helpful for you. As someone whose everyday life always has a small hum of nervousness around it, I know it’s hard sometimes to pull yourself out of rut. But it can be done. You can find the joy and you can ask for help. The main thing is believing that you can feel better.

Go build yourself a sturdy raft and find some excellent first mates. It may feel awkward. It might even make you feel nervous – trying new things can do that sometimes. But that feeling will go away and I can almost guarantee you that you will feel better.  

Fundraising for causes near to our hearts is in the Front Porch Marketing team’s fabric of being.

Last year marked my last of three being involved in Jesuit Preparatory School of Dallas Mum sales.

The new Mum Moms found a new solution to Mum sales in the COVID19 world. No Homecoming Dance or other celebrations. So why spend the time or energy?

Reasons Not to Cancel Your Fundraising Efforts

1. It is tradition. Everyone wants to continue traditions and celebrations. Even if they look differently. Students want to celebrate Homecoming. Donors want to continue annual giving and / or event attendance. They look forward to it. We are thirsting for normalcy.
2. Fundraising for Mums helps the school. Our school communities need more funds to operate at their best. Now more than ever.
3. Volunteers for Mums builds school community. Volunteers help make the work happen. They come together. Celebrate tradition. Share stories. Ask advice. Coming together to make this happen.

Tips for Fundraising During the COVID

1. Adjust communication tone. Be authentic and empathetic.
2. Adapt communication vehicles and their frequency. Email, text and phone are preferred. Make sure they are quick and to the point. Adjust frequency. More emails and texts are needed to break through the clutter. But they must be on point and useful.
3. Reinvent your event. Socially distant or online. Engage experts if needed. Events can still happen. It takes extra time. More investment of dollars is needed. Keeping the conversation going is immeasurable.
4. Make involvement easy. SignUpGenius is a great vehicle. Make sure volunteers know where and when to meet. Maximize their time spent. Create opportunities to volunteer from home.
5. Make donating simple. Eliminate all the barriers to donation. Make sure the donate button or page is front and center. Optimize the speed and ease of use.
6. Pick up the phone or schedule a video conference. Check in with your donors. Reach out. Show them you care. You do.

My Mum Mom fundraising era has (maybe temporarily?) ended. The relationships I made with all communities and the students are priceless. Make sure your efforts create the same.

A tracking pixel is a little HTML code that tracks behavior from your customers – it records for instance when a user visits your website or opens an email from you, or interacts with a banner ad that your brand has created. It essentially fills the same role as a cookie but tracking pixels cannot be blocked by normal browsers like cookies, so they offer an alternative information tracking process.

A tracking pixel is also a tiny graphic with the dimension of 1 pixel by 1 pixel. Because it is this tiny, no one notices when it is included on a website or in an email because it is usually designed to blend into the graphics.

Brands can use a tracking pixel to gather this behavior data and then analyze it to make better decisions on what to put on their website, in their emails, on their social channels. Where are most of your customers located so you can market to them at a local level? Are most of your customers are on-line late at night, so it would make more sense to schedule your emails or social media when they are on-line looking for answers? Maybe a tracking pixel could give you more insight into answering questions like these.

How Does a Tracking Pixel Work, and What’s in it for You?

By adding this little snippet of code to a website or email, the brand links a piece of content – like a web page, an email, or a banner – to the pixel’s server. Then when a user, let’s say visits the brand’s website (where the tiny pixel is) the code gets processed by the browser being used and is then registered and noted in the server’s log files.

When this process occurs, several different pieces of information can be transferred in regard to the content that a user is interacting with. Brands can find out answers to questions like:

• What is the screen resolution of this device?
• Is this content being viewed on a mobile device or desktop?
• What is the OS of device the customer is using?
• Is the customer looking at your content in a browser or in an email program?
• What is the IP address and location of the viewer?
• When was the content was viewed?
• What types of ads does the customer like clicking on?

One of the most common use of tracking pixels is for retargeting. Did you just look at a pair of shoes yesterday and now you’re seeing those shoes in Instagram? Do you feel like you were just talking about a specific thing and BOOM there it is in Facebook? That is a tracking pixel doing its job. That little guy is trying to be helpful!

Tracking pixels are also used to measure a marketing campaign’s performance or track conversions. They can be used to build an audience base for a new product or service.

How to Insert a Tracking Pixel

Web and social analytics tools such as Google Analytics and the analytics available within Facebook for Business, for instance, give brands thorough explanations and tutorials on implementing tracking pixels. There are two ways to include a tracking pixel in your website:

• Through your CMS dashboard.
• In the hardcode of your website. If this is the case, you will need to get your web developer involved.

What’s in it for your customers?

Tracking pixels can benefit customers over time, as the data garnered can be used to make offers more relevant, questions answered more readily, and overall make the user’s experience better. Privacy advocates argue that pixels violate user privacy and allow spammers access to personal data more readily. User consent must be secured first and GDPR rules require the choice of opting-out of being tracked.

Many of the data points tracked and logged by a tracking pixel can be helpful information to brands when they decide what to highlight on their website – which part of the website is the most popular and gets the most traffic? One could infer that this particular content is valuable and sought after and therefore create more like it to be more helpful to their customers in the future.

Use tracking pixels wisely and carefully by being a responsible brand – answer their questions, be helpful, get them the information they need. In this way, the tiny tracking pixels can yield big results for both you and your customers.

Bad habits are time-sucking, energy-wasting, and detrimental to our wellbeing. So why does seemingly everyone have them, and is there a way out? We develop bad habits mostly due to stress and boredom. These bad habits actually address certain needs in our lives! While cutting them out cold turkey may seem like the best solution, the better alternative is actually to replace our bad habits with good ones. By doing so, we replace our bad habits with a healthier behavior that addresses that same need. Here’s Front Porch’s advice for overcoming bad habits:

Set a deadline

Setting deadlines forces yourself to act. Whether this means forcing yourself to move and undertake the burden of rent or not stopping until a task is done, put yourself in a situation where you physically have to get your rear in gear!

Knowledge is power!

Read about what you want to be/do. It will build confidence and help you in a professional setting, and any setting for that matter.

Eat well and exercise

The power of a good morning routine can easily be overlooked. I have found that waking up early and exercising jumpstarts my day, as well as automatically removing any stress I was carrying.

Find a substitute habit!

As mentioned earlier, we develop bad habits to deal with stress, such as nail biting, foot tapping, and jaw clenching. Finding a substitute habit will help overcome bad habits. An example of a substitute habit can be taking a walk when you find yourself tapping your foot. Also, squeezing a stress ball when you start clenching your jaw.

Find a buddy!

Joining forces with someone who shares a common goal can be very powerful, and this way you both hold each other accountable. You are in it together!

Cut out triggers

While this may seem self-explanatory, actually stick with it! Throw away sweets, hide TV remote, delete apps temporarily- do what needs to be done to ensure you rid yourself of the bad habit.

Conclusion

Bad habits are normal, so don’t beat yourself up! If you are able to recognize they are bad, you’re one step closer to replacing them. Thank you for reading, and we hope you are able to overcome at least one bad habit with Front Porch!