SEO

6 Tips For Mastering Video Calls That Wow Your Clients

Published

2 years ago

August 12, 2022

6 Tips For Mastering Video Calls That Wow Your Clients

What if you and your clients could look forward to video meetings instead of viewing them as a necessary evil?

According to a Korn Ferry 2019 study, “89% of workers say they waste time each week attending unproductive meetings and calls.”

This current trend of poorly executed meetings provides ample opportunity for you to shine as a video meeting aficionado.

You can transform this aspect of the client journey with proper execution, resulting in a more fulfilling role and stickier client relationships that will increase your value in the marketplace.

Before The Meeting

Laying a solid foundation for an excellent meeting is where preparation comes in.

Do Your Homework

It helps to know if your attendees – or someone close to them – have a recent accomplishment that involves congratulating or rejoicing with them or simply asking about it.

You simply want to do proper reconnaissance to ensure you have the right amount of current, meaningful knowledge. Trust me; it’s well worth the extra 5–10 minutes of research and will be a game changer for both parties.

Build Q&As Into Your Agendas

Questions are inevitable in video calls, especially in our industry.

Notwithstanding the verbal recap mentioned later in this article, you’ll want to reserve the last five minutes for questions and answers.

If you neglect this practice, you risk going over time or rushing your exit, both of which are video call no-nos.

Send Manual Reminders

First, you’ll want to send a manual meeting reminder an hour or two before game time.

Automation is not failproof, so manual reminders ensure your attendees show up despite technological glitches.

Manual reminders also add a nice human element by customizing the experience and communicating your involvement and interest.

Consider inserting light humor into these reminders to build a rapport with the participants.

In short, this practice serves as a simple way to go the extra mile.

Confirm Audio & Video

The most important pre-meeting check is firing up your software 5–10 minutes early to ensure your audio and video are in full working order.

You will want to see what your background looks like and confirm that your bedhead is under control.

Take note of the mute button, and be careful not to mute yourself while talking on the call!

During The Meeting

No matter how often you’ve been on video calls, there’s always some discomfort.

Eliminate Awkwardness

Eliminate awkwardness right out of the gate with a question or comment about your attendees or their business.

The ideal scenario here involves you celebrating something with the participants, as we covered above.

This approach may not be as creative as fun icebreaker suggestions, but it is safe.

And it enhances the client experience by adding another level of personal touch.

Here are some life-event examples:

Brand anniversary: The company recently celebrated (or is about to celebrate) an anniversary since its launch.
Role anniversary: An attendee recently celebrated (or is about to celebrate) their anniversary in their current role, with the company, or in the industry.
Recent promotion.
Recent post/article.
Recent project or case study.
Redesign of brand and/or website.
Wedding.
Wedding anniversary.
Birth of a child.
Birthday.
Graduation.
Favorite professional sports team victory.
Marathon.

Note: Most of these events are not limited directly to your attendees; they can also apply to one of their loved ones.

Communicate Hard Stops

One meeting party foul, in my book, is not communicating a hard stop at the onset of the meeting.

Let attendees know, as soon as possible, that you need to end at the agreed-upon time.

Failure to do so can create an awkward end to a meeting, depending on how the time is managed.

Reiterate The Agenda

As a strategic courtesy, remind invitees of the timeframe for the meeting and confirm that it still works for them.

Something like, “It looks like we carved out 30 minutes for this meeting. Does that still work for you?”

Second, don’t assume attendees read the itinerary.

Make sure they know what’s on the line-up, and allow them to make an addendum.

This critical step in the meeting sets proper expectations and gives the attendees a sense of control, both of which will put them at ease.

Stick To The Agenda

We all know this is much harder to do than it sounds.

It is important to ensure that you use the agenda as your guide for executing the meeting.

Do not veer off into areas not previously agreed to by both parties.

First, it can be seen as unprofessional to go off on tangents not included in the original talking points.

The reality is that people do this all the time, and it will probably go unnoticed.

However, here is what will not go unnoticed: A tightly run meeting that sticks to the agenda, which will stand out in the crowd every time.

How To Address Peripheral Inquiries

What about tough scenarios where the attendee interjects a comment or question guaranteed to derail or delay the meeting?

In this situation, it is best to simply acknowledge the question and ask for permission to address it at the end of the meeting.

That offers yet another opportunity to provide a sense of control to your guests while managing your meetings efficiently.

The attendee will also appreciate you bringing up their inquiry at the end of the meeting because it is another indicator that they have been listened to and prioritized.

At the end of the meeting, you have two options.

If you have a hard stop, tactfully highlight the meeting’s success and ask permission to address their question via email or similar.

You can even add it to the next meeting if applicable.

Even if you have some flexibility, you should still underscore the successful meeting before addressing any peripheral concerns, helping to ensure they understand you upheld your end of the deal.

Provide a verbal recap of the meeting (discussed below) and highlight that you’re ending on time, indicating that you managed the meeting well and were respectful of their time.

The recap is followed by a comment like, “Fred, you had a question earlier about ________. I do have some extra time if you would like to extend the meeting, or we can tackle this via email if that works better for you.”

Notice that you are tactfully highlighting that they are prolonging the meeting.

Provide A Verbal Recap

Verbally recapping a meeting is one of my favorite things to do when it concludes.

It enhances thoroughness, provides helpful summaries, and creates a less awkward ending.

These recaps should be comprehensive, highlighting all the main talking points of the meeting, including incidental topics.

They should also be succinct, bullet point-like statements.

End On Time

This cannot be overstressed.

First of all, it communicates that you respect everyone’s time.

Second, it shows that you know how to run a meeting efficiently.

And, if you’ve covered everything necessary in less than the allotted meeting time – feel free to end the meeting early. After all, who doesn’t love reclaiming a few minutes of their day?

Send An Email Recap After The Meeting

This is just a best practice.

Yet, how many of us are guilty of neglecting this step?

This should be a simple email with a bullet point for everything discussed, including action items.

You should also ask the recipients to confirm that nothing was missed.

Conclusion

Consider practicing a couple of these tactics at a time until they become habitual.

Follow that up by implementing a few more.

This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and thus failing to improve your video call management.

Mastering video calls is a simple way to earn the respect and appreciation of those you meet with.

Equally noteworthy is the great satisfaction you will experience when executing your meetings with finesse.

Here’s to you becoming that digital marketer everyone looks forward to meeting!

More resources:

Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock

Related Topics:Calls Clients Mastering seo tips Video Wow

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SEO

brightonSEO Live Blog

Published

3 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of ~~sun~~, sea, and SEO!

Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.

Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary.

SEO

Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome

Published

6 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Max

Close-up of a document with a grid and a red stamp that reads "delayed" over the word "status" due to Chrome's deprecation of third-party cookies.

Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.

The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.

Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025

Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.

Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The statement reads:

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”

Continued Engagement With Regulators

Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.

This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.

The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.

Transition Period & Impact

In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.

However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.

The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.

While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.

Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.

Publisher & Advertiser Implications

The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.

Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.

However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.

With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.

Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock

SEO

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

Published

1 day ago

April 24, 2024

Max

How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results

ChatGPT is a game changer in the field of SEO. This powerful language model can generate human-like content, making it an invaluable tool for SEO professionals.

However, the prompts you provide largely determine the quality of the output.

To unlock the full potential of ChatGPT and create content that resonates with your audience and search engines, writing effective prompts is crucial.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the art of writing prompts for ChatGPT, covering everything from basic techniques to advanced strategies for layering prompts and generating high-quality, SEO-friendly content.

Writing Prompts For ChatGPT

What Is A ChatGPT Prompt?

A ChatGPT prompt is an instruction or discussion topic a user provides for the ChatGPT AI model to respond to.

The prompt can be a question, statement, or any other stimulus to spark creativity, reflection, or engagement.

Users can use the prompt to generate ideas, share their thoughts, or start a conversation.

ChatGPT prompts are designed to be open-ended and can be customized based on the user’s preferences and interests.

How To Write Prompts For ChatGPT

Start by giving ChatGPT a writing prompt, such as, “Write a short story about a person who discovers they have a superpower.”

ChatGPT will then generate a response based on your prompt. Depending on the prompt’s complexity and the level of detail you requested, the answer may be a few sentences or several paragraphs long.

Use the ChatGPT-generated response as a starting point for your writing. You can take the ideas and concepts presented in the answer and expand upon them, adding your own unique spin to the story.

If you want to generate additional ideas, try asking ChatGPT follow-up questions related to your original prompt.

For example, you could ask, “What challenges might the person face in exploring their newfound superpower?” Or, “How might the person’s relationships with others be affected by their superpower?”

Remember that ChatGPT’s answers are generated by artificial intelligence and may not always be perfect or exactly what you want.

However, they can still be a great source of inspiration and help you start writing.

Must-Have GPTs Assistant

I recommend installing the WebBrowser Assistant created by the OpenAI Team. This tool allows you to add relevant Bing results to your ChatGPT prompts.

This assistant adds the first web results to your ChatGPT prompts for more accurate and up-to-date conversations.

It is very easy to install in only two clicks. (Click on Start Chat.)

Screenshot from ChatGPT, April 2024

For example, if I ask, “Who is Vincent Terrasi?,” ChatGPT has no answer.

With WebBrower Assistant, the assistant creates a new prompt with the first Bing results, and now ChatGPT knows who Vincent Terrasi is.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

You can test other GPT assistants available in the GPTs search engine if you want to use Google results.

Master Reverse Prompt Engineering

ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for reverse engineering prompts because it generates natural and engaging responses to any given input.

By analyzing the prompts generated by ChatGPT, it is possible to gain insight into the model’s underlying thought processes and decision-making strategies.

One key benefit of using ChatGPT to reverse engineer prompts is that the model is highly transparent in its decision-making.

This means that the reasoning and logic behind each response can be traced, making it easier to understand how the model arrives at its conclusions.

Once you’ve done this a few times for different types of content, you’ll gain insight into crafting more effective prompts.

Prepare Your ChatGPT For Generating Prompts

First, activate the reverse prompt engineering.

Type the following prompt: “Enable Reverse Prompt Engineering? By Reverse Prompt Engineering I mean creating a prompt from a given text.”

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

ChatGPT is now ready to generate your prompt. You can test the product description in a new chatbot session and evaluate the generated prompt.

Type: “Create a very technical reverse prompt engineering template for a product description about iPhone 11.”

Reverse Prompt engineering via WebChatGPT

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

The result is amazing. You can test with a full text that you want to reproduce. Here is an example of a prompt for selling a Kindle on Amazon.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {product), capture the writing style and the length of the text :
product =”

Reverse prompt engineering: Amazon product

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

I tested it on an SEJ blog post. Enjoy the analysis – it is excellent.

Type: “Reverse Prompt engineer the following {text}, capture the tone and writing style of the {text} to include in the prompt :
text = all text coming from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bard-training-data/478941/”

Reverse prompt engineering an SEJ blog post

Screenshot from ChatGPT, March 2023

But be careful not to use ChatGPT to generate your texts. It is just a personal assistant.

Go Deeper

Prompts and examples for SEO:

Keyword research and content ideas prompt: “Provide a list of 20 long-tail keyword ideas related to ‘local SEO strategies’ along with brief content topic descriptions for each keyword.”
Optimizing content for featured snippets prompt: “Write a 40-50 word paragraph optimized for the query ‘what is the featured snippet in Google search’ that could potentially earn the featured snippet.”
Creating meta descriptions prompt: “Draft a compelling meta description for the following blog post title: ’10 Technical SEO Factors You Can’t Ignore in 2024′.”

Important Considerations:

Always Fact-Check: While ChatGPT can be a helpful tool, it’s crucial to remember that it may generate inaccurate or fabricated information. Always verify any facts, statistics, or quotes generated by ChatGPT before incorporating them into your content.
Maintain Control and Creativity: Use ChatGPT as a tool to assist your writing, not replace it. Don’t rely on it to do your thinking or create content from scratch. Your unique perspective and creativity are essential for producing high-quality, engaging content.
Iteration is Key: Refine and revise the outputs generated by ChatGPT to ensure they align with your voice, style, and intended message.

Additional Prompts for Rewording and SEO:
– Rewrite this sentence to be more concise and impactful.
– Suggest alternative phrasing for this section to improve clarity.
– Identify opportunities to incorporate relevant internal and external links.
– Analyze the keyword density and suggest improvements for better SEO.

Remember, while ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it’s essential to use it responsibly and maintain control over your content creation process.

Experiment And Refine Your Prompting Techniques

Writing effective prompts for ChatGPT is an essential skill for any SEO professional who wants to harness the power of AI-generated content.

Hopefully, the insights and examples shared in this article can inspire you and help guide you to crafting stronger prompts that yield high-quality content.

Remember to experiment with layering prompts, iterating on the output, and continually refining your prompting techniques.

This will help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of SEO.

More resources:

Featured Image: Tapati Rinchumrus/Shutterstock