The widespread lockdowns accelerated the rise of e-commerce as consumers choose to shop online instead of risking their health. Statistics show that customers spent a whopping $900 billion on online purchases in 2020, a 44 percent increase compared to 2019. Experts predict that this growth will only continue as consumers will find it difficult to shake off the purchasing habits they developed during the pandemic.

Even before the pandemic struck, business analysts were already insisting that e-commerce would soon dominate retail, claiming that by 2040, 95% of purchases would be done online. Many businesses stubbornly refused to accept this prediction, choosing to rely on strategies that have worked for them all these years. However, as COVID-19 forced consumers into their homes, businesses that relied solely on foot traffic and had little to no online presence had trouble making ends meet, and some had to close. Meanwhile, online businesses managed to stay afloat, and some even thrived.

After witnessing their competitors’ success online, many businesses followed suit and began developing websites and social media platforms. However, there are risks associated with conducting business online.

The dangers of online retail

Part of starting a business is taking precautions against threats like theft, fires, etc., by installing locks, security cameras, fire alarms, and sprinkler systems. Similarly, there are dangers present in the digital sphere which could jeopardize your business, and you need to take steps to mitigate these threats. One of the biggest concerns online businesses face is cybercriminals.

Cybercriminals, more colloquially known as hackers, are people who attempt to gain access to computer systems to destroy, steal, or modify data. They can then sell this data to the black market, lock businesses out of their system, or target their clients and partners.

The importance of cybersecurity

There are many ways hackers can gain unauthorized access to your system. Malware and phishing are the easiest ways hackers can access a device because it relies on a naive user unknowingly relinquishing login information or installing harmful software. Other hacking techniques are more complex, depending on exploiting vulnerabilities in your system like SQL attacks, DDoS, and session hijacking.

Without deploying security measures such as anti bot protection, cloud, and on-premise data security, DDOS protection, web application firewalls, runtime protection, and others, you not only put your business at risk but also your clients’ safety. An online business without effective cybersecurity measures is like an unattended store with the door wide open. You’re essentially inviting unscrupulous folks to come in and do whatever they want.

If you run a small business, you may think that hackers won’t target you, but the truth is you’re likely more vulnerable to cyberattacks. Data from 2019 showed that small businesses were the target of 43 percent of the data breaches in 2019. Hackers view small businesses as easy prey because they believe their security is easier to bypass than larger corporations.

The cost of cyberattacks

Most business owners haven’t fully grasped the scope of damage a cyberattack can cause. In 2020, the average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million. This is because if your business gets struck with a cyberattack, you may face hefty government fines. Not only that, clients may sue if their personal information was compromised. Besides these legal repercussions, you could also irreversibly lose consumer trust. Adding all these up, it’s no surprise that the US Securities and Exchange Commission reported that 60 percent of companies who are victims of cybercrime likely go out of business within six months of the attack.

Defending against cyberattacks

The good news is that there are cost-effective ways you can protect your business from hackers. Here are some tips recommended by cybersecurity experts:

Train your employees

Phishing is so prevalent among hackers because exploiting human error is one of the easiest ways they can break into your system. If your employees aren’t adequately educated on hacking techniques, they may unknowingly leave your business vulnerable. Teach them never to download attachments, click links from suspicious emails, or send sensitive information across unsecured channels.

Avail of cybersecurity services

Cybersecurity professionals are the best people to provide you with protection against hackers. These services offer a range of customizable cybersecurity plans that can be tailored to your needs and budget. Before signing with any contractor, ask yourself the following questions:

• How are the reviews? As with any service, the best way to ensure their legitimacy and gauge the quality is by checking their reviews. Don’t just rely on the reviews posted on their website. Check third-party sites and try to contact previous clients to get a more comprehensive idea of what it’s like to work with this company.
• Do they provide 24/7 support? Cyberattacks can happen anytime, so it’s best to partner with a service that can assist you even outside regular business hours.
• How much is their service? Small businesses don’t have the luxury of unlimited resources, so it may be tempting to go for the cheapest option. However, security is one aspect of your business you never want to skimp on. It could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line.

Keep software up-to-date

It’s not just your antivirus software that you must keep updated. Operating systems often prompt you into installing the latest update, and it’s in your best interest to do so, as these patches can contain fixes for known vulnerabilities that hackers have recently exploited. In addition, you should also update third-party apps like Microsoft Office, Adobe, and other work-related software.

Constantly reassess your security status

Change passwords every 60 to 90 days. You should also do this after any major incident, such as an employee having a work laptop stolen or someone with knowledge of the login credentials being dismissed. In addition, maintain a regular schedule of security audits to ensure your documents are backed up, secure and that your system is adequately protected.

The takeaway

The mass migration of businesses to the online market comes with a slew of challenges. More business owners are learning how to run a business online effectively, including the importance of incorporating cybersecurity into their business plans. Insurance companies even offer cybersecurity insurance to cover damages resulting from a cyberattack. Companies that were former victims of cybercrime are more open about sharing their stories so that others can learn from their mistakes. With this growing awareness of the devastating effects of cybercrime, the chances of businesses falling victim to hackers can be decreased.

Unfortunately, hackers develop more insidious ways of circumventing cybersecurity measures every day, but experts are working round the clock to find solutions for the latest attacks. As business owners, our role is to work closely with your cybersecurity provider to perform risk assessments and fortify any vulnerabilities in your system. Listen to their advice and keep you and your employees updated on the latest cybersecurity protocols to keep your business from falling victim to attacks.

The post Keeping Your Business Protected in the Digital Age appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Create A Consistent Brand Image

First off, it is important to create and maintain a consistent brand image. Start off by generating a bold, bright, and memorable logo. Your logo should capture the overall feeling and emotion behind your brand. When creating a logo, use an eye-catching color palette, as well as complimentary, readable fonts. This way, you can establish a consistent tone and brand voice that speaks to your audience. Simultaneously, you should implement comprehensive brand guidelines across different platforms. This way, you set a standard expectation from your professional small business image. Of course, this allows you to benefit from increased consumer recognition, loyalty, and business credibility. Certainly, creating a consistent brand image is valuable to maximize your SMB marketing efforts. 

Focus On Your Top Customers

In addition, focus on your small business’s top customer base for growing sales. Prioritize building long-lasting, professional relationships with your most loyal consumers. This encourages them to continue spending money while you nurture your leads. Keep the focus on your top customers, also means to gain financial security which is extremely important for SMBs. Simultaneously, maintain an active presence with these customers on social media. This way, you can continuously grow your community, humanize your brand, and establish yourself as a thought leader. You may even want to experiment with loyalty programs, giveaways, and customer discounts. With these in place, you can increase customer lifetime value (CLV), develop brand advocates, and maximize retention. Surely, focusing on your top customers is a great way to maximize efficiency throughout your offline and online marketing efforts. 

Integrate A Lead Generation Tool To Your Marketing Efforts

Now, consider implementing a lead generation tool. There are plenty of dependable tools to generate qualified leads for your small business. Though Conversica is a known player in the industry, some of the best Alternatives to Conversica, for example, allow you to automate your lead conversions with AI-powered assistants, website chatbots, and meeting schedulers. This way, you can streamline lead qualification, reactivation, as well as event follow-ups across your pipeline. Of course, this empowers you to reduce acquisition costs, maximize marketing investments, and bolster post-event engagement levels. Leveraging this functionality, you can ensure that your brand never misses a highly-qualified lead again. Absolutely, considering integration of a lead generation tool can be an important step to maximize your small business marketing budget.

Get More Referrals

At this point, try and obtain more referrals for your small business. Consider creating a referral program where you provide shoppers with discounts, commissions, or rewards. In addition, look for alternative ways for consumers to recommend you to their friends, family, and coworkers. Stats show that Referred customers’ LTV is 16% higher when compared to non-referred customers.

At the same time, you should continue to educate your current audience about your mission, products, and services. To maintain professional relationships, be sure to formally thank anybody that sends you a lead. Of course, positive reinforcement greatly improves your brand image and consumer perception. Surely, these tactics will help you avoid the deadly sins of poor company branding. Definitely, obtaining more referrals is incredibly imp ortant to maximize your small business marketing efforts. 

Emphasize Your Business’s Value Proposition

Of course, you should always emphasize your value proposition to potential new customers. Constantly inform your target audience about what makes you different from the competition. Use social media, SMS messaging, and Conversica alternatives to communicate with customers. This way, you can gain market share, better direction, and drive clarity. At the same time, these tactics enable you to promote understanding, engaging, and confidence across your brand. This way, you can improve your operational efficiency, marketing ROI, and prospective lead quality. Indeed, emphasizing your unique selling proposition (USP) is of the utmost importance to enhance your small business marketing efforts. 

There are plenty of highly-effective ways to maximize your small business marketing efforts for a better advertising ROI. First and foremost, create a consistent brand image. This will help you maintain a market competitive edge, easily introduce new products, and bolster business credibility. Now, consider integrating an automated lead generation tool or alternatives to Conversica. At this point, get some more referrals for your growing company. Of course, look for innovative new ways to emphasize your business’s unique value proposition. Follow the points highlighted above to learn about the best ways to maximize your small business marketing efforts.

The post 5 Ways Maximize Your Small Business Marketing Efforts appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

A survey by Deloitte revealed that 75% of CFOs expect the pandemic to have a severe effect on their business and don’t expect demand to return to pre-pandemic levels until later this year. However, they identified digitization and streamlining processes as the keys to helping their businesses survive tough times. It’s safe to say that these expectations carry over to small businesses as well.

Consolidating data is the first step companies ought to take when creating streamlined processes. Here are five benefits of financial data consolidation for organizations of all sizes.

1. Better Budget and Cost Projections

FP&A professionals routinely run into hurdles when completing monthly closes that are essential for budgeting and cost projection. Often, finance departments prefer to use old, trusty templates and add data from various parts of the business as needed. However, as the month draws to a close, all of these data have to be updated and verified.

A single platform that allows departments to input their data in their preferred format and automatically transforms it into the FP&A team’s chosen format will increase the pace of the monthly close. As a result, finance teams can provide the CFO with better cost projections that feed into working capital calculations.

An automated system that pulls in numbers from departments in real-time makes life even easier for finance teams. Thanks to breaking down operating expenses in real-time, business owners can have greater confidence in their numbers and create accurate projections.

2. Consistent Reporting

Excel is still the software of choice in many businesses and with good reason. It’s versatile and highly customizable. Also, every professional in the industry has been trained on it. Moving to another solution doesn’t make sense.

However, consolidating data in an Excel sheet is tough, especially for larger organizations. The best platform solutions augment Excel workflows instead of trying to replace them. By integrating these solutions with Excel, finance teams can pull data automatically into their spreadsheets and have them organized for analysis.

Teams can then export these data to ready-made report templates that change dynamically thanks to real-time data feeds. The result is a consistent report format that eliminates manual work and eliminates errors. CFOs and business owners can easily view the financial impact of their decisions.

Ad-hoc reporting is easy as well, thanks to integration which results in advanced filtering functions appearing within Excel. Teams can slice and dice data easily to present better insights during meetings and presentations.

3. Better Investment Decisions

Many teams rely on manual reporting processes and this only increases the amount of clerical work they have to carry out. Gathering data from varied sources only increases this work, and there’s little time left for analyzing numbers.

Automating data collection into a single platform eliminates the need for manual processes. It also frees up teams to execute value-add processes such as identifying key drivers in a business. Capital allocation is one of the most critical tasks in a business.

Teams can paint a more accurate picture of a business’ strengths and weaknesses by diving into COGS, Capex, Opex, and other financial data. Owners, armed with this knowledge, can make better capital allocation decisions and model different scenario outcomes.

For instance, owners can model the outcome of buying a smaller competitor versus projecting revenues by building a business unit internally. While surface-level revenue comparisons are helpful, consolidated data can help decision makers analyze the effect of demand swings on department budgets and second-order consequences.

4. A Single Point of Truth

Disparate data sources make maintaining data integrity close to impossible. When everything’s decentralized, finance team members cannot run accurate projections or have confidence in their numbers, because they’re never sure of how true their assumptions are.

While creating a shared Excel file allows multiple users to share their data on a single page, it complicates data integrity. Excel cannot create a cell-level audit trail that can identify sources of error. Neither can it automatically validate data and check it for consistency. Preventing double entries and redundancies is also impossible.

Expecting employees to manually validate cell-level data is unrealistic. An automated platform that integrates with Excel will have minimal workflow impact and will bring the power of technology to eliminate manual validation processes.

The result is a fully validated source of data that has high integrity. Teams can build projections using this base and execute their tasks better.

5. Easier Access to Insight

Analytics platforms are everywhere, but they’re only as good as the data they’re fed.

Businesses that have powerful analytics engines backed by manual data validation processes are not extracting the most benefit from their software.

An analytics package can’t shed insight into a company’s financials without receiving a full picture. By bringing all of their data into a single place, running analytics and dashboarding data is simpler. Armed with insight, businesses can make better decisions.

Worth the Migration

Consolidating financial data into a single place might require a change in mindset, but it’s well worth the investment. The benefits outweigh the friction, and companies can improve the quality of their decisions significantly.

The post 5 Benefits of Consolidating Company Financial Data in One Place appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Leverage Social Media Channels

First and foremost, social media is one of the most valuable event marketing channels that you can leverage as a small business. There are several strategic techniques for social media event advertising. For example, you can post an interactive countdown, post event teasers, and offer sneak peaks. Similarly, you can create an event page to begin to build your audience. Other popular promotional methods include hosting a giveaway with event-themed merchandise, interviewing notable attendees, or designing custom augmented reality (AR) filter, which will work for major channels like Instagram or Snapchat. Additionally, you should create a hashtag so that your followers can easily connect with other event attendees. Certainly, leverage popular social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to advertise your events.

Simplify Ticket Purchasing

A major part of event marketing is being able to simplify your ticket purchasing process. This typically means making your tickets easily accessible to buyers on multiple environments. For a small business on a budget, it is important to sell your tickets on widely-used, convenient third-party ticketing platforms. In addition, you can sell your entrance vouchers using your blog or website. Other popular solutions include distributing your tickets through major small business social media channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  This way, you can drive 24/7 secure, and accessible sales. Surely, it is important to simplify your ticket purchasing process in order to maximize your event marketing results.

Send Digital Cards & Invitations

In addition, your small business can always send out some exciting cards and digital invitations. You can use robust online tools to help you easily design, optimize, and publish your cards. For example, you can use Smilebox to create top-quality invitations, eCards, and announcements. To further amplify your event marketing campaign, you can even use this high-power tool to create business flyers. This way, you can send personalized invitations with speed, cost efficiency, and measurability. Absolutely, creating some digital cards and invitations is essential to successfully advertise your SMB event.

Create Content For Events Promotion

No matter what kind of gathering you are advertising, it is important to create high-quality content for event promotion. Get started by finding the best event-focused content based on length, design, and relevancy. Then, search social media platforms and event websites to find questions that your audience is asking. This way, you can create strategic content that fills in the gaps. Simultaneously, you may want to showcase user-generated content (UGC), which will show attendees what the inside of your events look like. Following these techniques, you can bolster audience retention, establish trust, and generate leads. Moreover, these techniques help to improve conversions, build brand authority, and enhance your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. In fact, these tactics may even be able to enhance your local SEO digital marketing efforts as well. Indeed, it is important to create well-written content for small business event promotion.

Offer Free Tickets

Moreover, you can always consider offering free tickets to some of your attendees. Offer free tickets to the first one-hundred people that sign up for your event. In exchange for free admission, ask them to mention your event to their friends and family, or share it on their social media. Even after free tickets have run out, you can consider offering free gifts and swag to other members. If your small business can afford it, consider offering free t-shirts or gift cards to the first five-hundred people that register for your seminar. Indubitably, offering free tickets is essential to get the word out about your small business event.

There are plenty of creative ideas for how to successfully advertise a small business event. First off, consider leveraging popular social media channels. Next, you will need to simplify your ticket purchasing process. In addition, consider creating electronic invitations, brochures, and flyers. Of course, it is important to create strategic content for event promotion. Naturally, this will enhance your content marketing efforts as well. Moreover, consider offering free tickets to get the word out about your event. Follow the points highlighted above to learn about the most creative ideas for how to advertise a small business event.

The post 5 Creative Ideas For Advertising Small Business Events appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Credit Card Cracking is a particularly damaging type of credit card fraud that enables hackers to get access to your sensitive information as well as take control of your finances. Today, we explore credit card cracking and the ways in which small businesses can avoid its dire consequences.

What is Credit Card Cracking?

Credit card cracking refers to a criminal act that uses bots to fill the gaps in your credit card information and, in turn, can cause catastrophic financial consequences. The software “cracks” the missing data and makes the card disposable for the perpetrators.

Your name and Private Account Number (PAN) are usually the starting information the hacker uses to crack your cards. Other data, such as CVV number, expiration date, and your zip code, can be guessed much more easily since the number of combinations is limited.

How Can Someone get Your Credit Card Information?

Card cracking is made possible because necessary information such as your credit card number and the name written on the card are both easily obtainable. Knowing how criminals can get to them is can help you protect your business.

Your PAN can be acquired via the dark web (a hidden layer of the internet known for illegal activities that can be accessed using the Tor browser), chips illegally integrated into POS machines, phishing scams, or be given by people who have access to your card.

In case your small business uses a POS machine for card payment and issuing receipts, checking for loose parts or ripped out wires can help you protect your customers from identity theft.

Phishing scams ordinarily involve calling the identity theft victim and asking for the credit card information. The reason the scams work is that criminals usually impersonate official authorities or those working for any of the victim’s trusted organizations, such as a bank.

People working in restaurants or even banks can potentially give out your credit card information and sell it for profit.

Protecting Your Credit Card

Preventing identity theft by anticipating it might occur is a good way to start securing the company’s funds.

For instance, being familiar with your bank’s policy in case of identity theft and stolen funds can go a long way. Check your bank balance regularly so that you can report any suspicious activity in time. You can also set up automated message alerts for any larger withdrawals as well.

Educating employees regarding security practices is crucial. For point-of-sale businesses, it’s important to ensure your employees check POS machines and not leave them unattended during working hours.

Also, making sure they aren’t connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots while being on the company’s network and warning them from opening suspicious emails can prevent many cyber-attacks as well.

Bots operating on a large number of e-commerce sites will try and purchase something, simultaneously guessing your credit card information. Therefore, that is the kind of activity that has to be monitored if a business wants to avoid an attack.

Having the tools that register suspicious bots and multiple orders of small quantities and requiring CVV info from your customers can take security to the next level.

Why is Card Cracking Detrimental for Small Business?

Small businesses tend to overlook the dangers of crimes such as credit card identity theft. That is mostly because they assume criminals won’t be interested in their smaller-scale companies.

In reality, insufficiently protected companies are more likely to be a target since it’s much easier to obtain their sensitive information.

Credit card fraud can financially damage small businesses that have fewer funds to work with and thus cannot financially recover.

The reputation of your small business can be affected if your customers experience card cracking. Research shows that 49% of customers do not go back to the retailer in case of credit card fraud.

Final Words

Your business can easily be a target of identity theft, which utilizes credit card cracking technology. Such attacks can damage your reputation as well as finances, and most small businesses aren’t ready for them, nor do they ever recover.

Depending on the type of your business, it’s crucial to implement proper security measures that can prevent both your clients and your business from being a victim of stolen credit cards.

The post How to Protect Your Small Business from Credit Card Cracking appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Data from a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute indicates that 63% of small businesses experienced data breaches in 2019. Small businesses lack the resources that large enterprises do, and as a result, cybersecurity protocols suffer. Here are four steps you can take to secure your small business online.

Define Your Environments and Perimeters

The first step you must take is to conduct an audit of your existing network infrastructure. What are the entry points to your network, and where have you stored sensitive information? Your business has different electronic assets. Rank them by criticality and review the existing security protocols you have in place to protect them.

Assets that are the most critical must be heavily protected. This sounds obvious, but many small businesses apply the same degree of protection to their least and most critical assets. While you can use a single platform or tool to protect your business, you need to devote more resources to protect the assets that mean more to your business. 

With an increasing number of small businesses moving to the cloud, defining the extent of your network is crucial. Many third-party cloud providers have robust security protocols, and the average small business is better off leveraging their expertise instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. However, you need to evaluate your network perimeters. Network access points and endpoints are two features of your network perimeter that need to be guarded at all times.

Increase Visibility

Once you’ve completed an audit of your network, you need to gain visibility on the risks that your business faces. Most small businesses never bother to monitor their networks for risks. They install standard security solutions and leave it at that. Attackers these days are using increasingly sophisticated methods of breaching networks. 

Using one-off solutions and not scanning for threats is a huge mistake. Automated penetration testing should be a standard part of your cyber risk assessment process. Continuous monitoring platforms evaluate your risk from different attack vectors and model your organization’s response as well as the potential damage you could suffer.

Cybersecurity should be a recurring process in your business, not something that you should set and forget. Automating these tasks is a great option. There are several third-party tools you can use to conduct automated penetration tests. A penetration test, or pentest, will help you figure out network vulnerabilities in a safe environment. Pair this with a continuous security validation tool, and your business will always be protected.

Rely on Analytics

Every cybersecurity platform provides you with in-depth analytics. At first glance, analytics can seem intimidating due to the wealth of data they provide. However, ignoring them and not using them to the fullest extent can be detrimental to your business’ cybersecurity stance. 

The first task you ought to carry out is to prioritize threat alerts. Tie the order of priority back to asset criticality. Remember that some of your assets might depend on one another. A threat to a low criticality asset might affect a more critical one. Therefore, an alert connected to this low criticality asset must be highly prioritized.

Continuous monitoring platforms will give you access to threat analytics that you can use to determine which assets of yours are being regularly targeted. Use this insight to beef up security in the areas that need them. Install the latest updates and patches to make sure your security framework is up to date.

It’s best to always assume a worst-case scenario and create a disaster recovery plan. Implement a business continuity plan for when your business is under attack. Leverage your cloud service provider’s expertise to create reliable backups of your data. As a result of these measures, your organization will be more resilient.

Train Your Workforce

Remote work is increasingly becoming the norm, and studies project that returning to the old ways of working in an office is unlikely. Your cybersecurity training programs need to pivot towards bringing about a change in behavior instead of merely making your employees aware of threats.

In practical terms, this means instead of telling your employees of the threat of phishing or malware, conduct a workshop that simulates such attacks and train your employees to respond effectively. The human element remains one of the weak points in every business’ cybersecurity response. Mitigate this with regular fire drills and emphasize cybersecurity as a point of company culture.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that cybersecurity is an IT issue or that you can rely completely on third-party providers. It’s as much of an issue as sales or marketing is, and every employee is responsible.

New Protocols for Better Cybersecurity

These four steps will help you pivot your cybersecurity plan in a direction that will ensure you’re always protected. It’s safe to assume that your organization will be under attack at some point, so start working right now to secure your assets.

The post How SMBs can Implement Robust Cybersecurity Protocols in 4 Easy Steps appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In the workplace, employees routinely consult one another over various aspects of their assigned work. When everyone is working from home, those effortless interactions are no longer possible. You have to MAKE them happen, or you don’t have a team anymore, you have a list of employees doing their own things.

You have to put in a lot of effort to make working remotely work. Getting the work done is important, but workforce cohesion is more important for the long-term health of your business. When everyone is working from their home office, the glue of daily face-to-face interaction is missing, so you need to put new systems into place that encourage bonding between employees.

Let everyone See the Big Picture

In the office, everyone has some idea what everyone else is doing. This happens naturally in casual conversations, overhearing others talking, and in more formal briefing or consultation meetings.

When employees are all working alone, in their home offices, each person only sees their own work, their own tasks. After a few weeks, they lose track of where their work fits into the big picture.

As a manager, it is next to impossible to keep track of where everyone is in their assigned tasks when you don’t see them every day. You no longer get casual updates. You don’t get feedback in the form of smiles or frowns when you pass an employee’s desk.

You might have been able to keep the big picture in your head in the office, but when everyone is working remotely, you will need to look for a project management software that will allow you to see how each team member is progressing with the tasks you have assigned them. You don’t need to spend the year’s entire budget because free and low-cost software will work well for many companies.

Most PM software is cloud-based and charges depend on how many ‘seats’ you need. You will need a ‘seat’ for every team member, to allow individuals to see what others are doing.

Communicate, Communicate

Email is a poor communication medium because all you can send is text. Your email can never convey tone of voice or body language that together account for 93% of the meaning in a face-to-face conversation. The same limitations apply to any text-only communication system.

You need video-chat. Use a scheduling app to set up video conversations with each of your team members every day, just as you would in the office. It doesn’t have to be a formal conversation, just a quick ‘How are things going?’ type chat.

Employees need to be able to video chat with colleagues as simply as they would talk to someone at a nearby desk.

Communications should be as normal as you can make them. Set up ‘coffee breaks’, ‘lunchrooms’, and ‘happy hours’. All will help team members to continue to bond with colleagues and work together as a team, helping one another wherever possible.

Consider Individuals

Your employees are all people, not automatons. They have different ways of thinking and different needs.

At the simplest level, people have different extrovert and introvert tendencies. Most people lean one way or the other on the extroversion/introversion spectrum so they think differently and have different needs.

An employee who is the life and soul of the office, always full of witty remarks and the center of any conversation will suffer greatly from the isolation that being part of a remote workforce necessitates. This person NEEDS the social interaction your casual lunch/coffee/happy hour video chats will provide.

The employee who is quiet in the office does not want to be totally alone in their work at home. He or she will welcome one-on-one conversations with managers or colleagues.

Remote working might not last forever, but while it’s here you need to work at maintaining the cohesion of your workforce. Don’t let anyone ever feel they are on their own: Use video chats to feedback to employees multiple times every day.

Summary

Working from home sounds great, but it has its own challenges that we need to overcome to maintain the health of our businesses. From keeping track of what employees are doing, to motivating extroverts and introverts alike, and getting used to using a webcam: It’s just a matter of finding alternatives that work for the work-from-home situation we are in.

The post How to Maintain a Cohesive Remote Workforce appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But getting started can feel overwhelming. And you likely have a lot of questions. Which platforms should you begin with, for example? How do you implement a rigorous analytics infrastructure so you can measure results? Are elements of your broader ad funnel, including landing pages and email sequences, up to scratch?

If you feel confused, don’t worry. In this post, we’re going to outline six tips that will help you plan and implement your first successful campaign.

1.  Consider an Agency

Before you dive into the process of building an in-house team and implementing your own campaigns, it’s worth considering an agency. Outsourcing your PPC campaigns may prove far more cost-effective in the long-run than handling everything yourself, especially if you don’t already employ people with the relevant skill-sets and experience. What’s more, good agencies with expertise that’s specific to your industry are easy to find.

Agencies tend to fall into one of two categories. General agencies will handle wide-ranging campaigns over multiple platforms. Alternatively, bespoke services, like Facebook ads agencies, tend to focus on a smaller number of platforms and areas of expertise. It’s worth considering both types. Research your options thoroughly and make sure you ask about past experience with companies similar to your own.

2.  Focus on One Platform Initially

There are lots of platforms to choose from: Facebook, Google Adwords, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bing Ads, to name just a few. Deciding which one to start with can be difficult. Often, companies will opt for newer platforms in the belief that ad prices will be cheaper. Or they may go with a bigger alternative like Facebook because it offers a wider reach. Both of these approaches essentially involve taking a stab in the dark.

Your decision about which ad platform to use should be guided by data. In particular, you should gather demographic and psychographic information about a site or network’s users and see how closely they match your own customers.

3.  Create Compelling Headlines and Graphics

In their eagerness to master the technical aspects of running an ad campaign, many companies forget about the actual ads themselves. It’s common to see well-organized campaigns with uninspiring, poorly-designed visual and textual elements.

You should focus on creating compelling graphics and headlines, based on detailed buyer personas, from the get-go. A variety of inexpensive tools, like Canva and Photoshop, enable you to create professional graphics for a fraction of what a professional will charge.

And if you don’t have the relevant expertise in-house, hire somebody that does. Investing a little now will be far more cost-effective in the long-term than running a campaign with sub-par ads.

4.  Refine Your Whole lead Funnel

Remember that paid ads form just one part of your sales funnel. You might have the most beautifully-designed ads on the planet along with a perfectly-optimized campaign. But if your new leads are landing on poorly-built landing pages or receiving boring follow-up emails, your ad strategy won’t count for much.

Ensure that leads are being nurtured through a tested, well-thought-out funnel that includes dedicated landing pages, email nurturing sequences, free gifts and promotions, phone or in-person follow-up, and retargeting. Many companies become disillusioned after failing to generate results from their ads. But often it’s the surrounding elements, that make up the broader sales funnel, that are at fault.

5.  Test New Platforms

Once you start making headway with a particular platform, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Google Adwords, or any other, don’t be afraid to start branching out. Specifically, pay attention to up-and-coming websites and networks, especially social media sites, that present low-cost opportunities. By taking a diverse approach and testing new services, you can leverage untapped markets before your competitors.

While you shouldn’t focus exclusively on these platforms, it’s usually a good idea to allocate at least some of your budget for trying out potentially lucrative opportunities. The same principle also applies to new features and ad formats on networks that you leverage as part of your existing strategy.

6.  Pay Close Attention to Analytics

If you’re going to drive a positive return-on-investment from your ad spend, you need to test. It’s difficult to overstate this point. Paying close attention to your analytics will allow you to build a profitable first campaign and then tweak your future campaigns for even better results.

Determine which metrics you will use to gauge success. For most companies, achieving a positive customer-lifetime-value and cost-per-lead balance will be the aim. Larger companies may opt for less obvious KPIs like overall engagement or reach. Whatever the case, define your core metrics right from the start.

It’s also worth considering advanced analytics tools. Most platforms include their own analytics dashboards which can provide valuable data. With third-party tools, however, it’s possible to take this information and generate actionable insights that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

Conclusion

While setting up your first campaign might feel daunting, don’t be put off. Millions of companies are leveraging paid ads to drive new leads. And with an adaptable approach, you too can find large numbers of new customers. Just remember to start off with a platform that has a user base that matches your target market, pay attention to analytics, and don’t be afraid to outsource.

The post How to Use Paid Ads to Generate Leads: 6 Essential Tips for SMBs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Build Your Business Website

Developing your website is one of the first steps when moving your brick-and-mortar business online. Organizational websites are a central point of communication and information for online businesses. Having a clear, user-friendly, well-developed website, you can set a clear first impression for online customers.

Be sure to constantly review your website for inaccurate information, misspellings, or logical mistakes. You will also want to create any multistep form templates like order forms that you may need. To ensure professional quality, you may want to consider outsourcing website development to a professional agency. In addition to designing your website, these companies can help you navigate the best decentralized or cloud web hosting services to operate your site. If you are already very technology-driven, you should be able to develop a simple website on your own in no time.

Find Profitable Products To Sell

Before you can launch, you need to find more profitable products to sell. For new eCommerce business owners, one of the most preferred ways to find and distribute products is through dropshipping. While moving your business online, you can expand your product offering. Utilizing a dropshipping model, you can find high-quality, profitable products for your online store in minutes. Online dropshipping providers help you find products, add them to your eCommerce platform, and begin distribution to your customers. Utilizing these services, you can simultaneously expand your product options and categories. While expanding product options, the dropship model simultaneously allows you to reduce your physical inventory and overall risk. Eventually, you can even automate your dropshipping model to customize product offerings, set competitive prices, and scale your business.

Grow Your Digital Audience

After successfully sourcing products for your new online business, it is essential to look for ways to grow your digital audience. Even with a loyal customer following for your existing brick-and-mortar business, you need to constantly look for ways to grow and expand your digital customers. Without geographic restrictions, owning an online business allows you to serve new clients across the globe. To expand their following, many business owners look to traditional social media or content marketing strategies. Utilizing these methods, you can prepare blog posts, audio, video, or social media content in order to increase your brand exposure and customer awareness. At the same time, you can grow your digital following by making guest appearances on notable websites, podcasts, or online events. Before launching your digital business, be sure to look for ways to grow your online audience. And don’t overlook the power of amping up customer service at your brick-and-mortar location, either; customers talk. For example, a strategy as simple as providing smart order pickup lockers for customers who order products online can be very helpful to satisfying customers.

Identify Payment Processing Solutions

Once you have constructed your online business plan and sourced profitable products to sell, it is integral to identify payment processing solutions. Without high-quality payment processors equipped, you will be unable to process business transactions through your platform. Most eCommerce business owners utilize secure payment gateways to process digital transactions. These solutions allow online shoppers the freedom to use their preferred payment method. At the same time, secure payment gateways ensure your customer knows that their information is safe. After you have planned the fundamentals of your organization, it is essential to identify payment processing solutions for small business.

Make Your Digital Business Fit

Once your online business is planned and constructed, you need to make your online business fit with your existing one. Even with a well-planned, profitable digital business, you still need to determine what to do with your offline organizational structure. Depending on the success of your online business, many owners decide to close their brick-and-mortar stores all together. Utilizing this strategy, you essentially move the entire business into online, eCommerce based operations. Other business owners, on the other hand, choose to run both businesses together indefinitely. Even more, you can slowly transition your brick-and-mortar business to focusing on your online organizational structure.

There is a comprehensive solution to help you transition your current brick-and-mortar business into the online world. One of the first steps is to build a website to establish your online business presence. With your website and eCommerce platform constructed, you need to find high-quality, profitable products to sell. Then, you must identify methods and practices to grow your digital audience. With your inventory secured, you need to identify secure, simple payment processing solutions to begin accepting online transactions. Finally, look for strategic ways or solutions to make your digital business fit with your existing one. Consider the points mentioned above to learn about how to transition your brick-and-mortar business into the digital world.

The post How To Transition Your Brick-And-Mortar Business To an Online Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Yet many of the data super-scientists – the guys with the PhDs who are creating the algorithms, building the tools, and designing the infrastructure – say companies really ought to think more about “small data.” Big companies often think a little too big for their own good, and the best tools for the job are often more affordable than you think and readily available. These may include spreadsheets powered by Microsoft Excel or even a more robust business intelligence platform like Sisense’s reporting tool.

Indeed, small companies may even have advantages over larger enterprises when it comes to unlocking the value of business intelligence.To start, small companies have less data to sort through and clean up. What’s more, all that data is less likely to be siloed and is more likely to be immediately useful.

Here’s why it may be worth your time to give data analytics a second look.

You can make your lean operation even leaner and more profitable.

Successful data analytics projects solve specific business problems and contribute directly to your bottom line.

For example, you can use data analytics to:

• Increase sales
• Manage inventory
• Cut waste
• Use your marketing dollar more effectively
• Retain customers

All of these can either save you money, increase efficiency, or grow your revenue without forcing you to hire more staff members, or expand operations. Data analytics can help you do more with what you already have.

One great example of how all this can play out in a small business setting comes from a little cafe out of Copenhagen called Sokkelund Café and Brasserie. They used “small data” to grow their cafe from $1.1 million to $6.1 million in annual revenue.

They tracked sales per seat per day, customer retention, and other data to discover a lot of important insights about the business. These included their most effective marketing strategies, the impact of menu changes, and identifying wasteful processes that were eating up the cafe’s time, money, and ability to be nimble in the marketplace. They even managed to reduce their water and energy consumption. Much of this was done thanks to the data they were gathering anyway through the course of their normal business operations.

Data analytics could be the key to competing in, or even disrupting, tough, crowded marketplaces.

You can’t have innovation without information. In marketplaces that are oversaturated, innovation may be the only way to stay alive.

Consider Carvana, an online car marketplace. They had to overcome two huge customer fears. First, the fear of buying a used car in general, with all of its associated risks, like getting a car that will turn into a giant brick a week after purchase. Second, they had to overcome people’s fears around buying cars online.

To do this, they’d need a stellar reputation. Above reproach, even. The problem?

Used car sellers are often used car buyers themselves. They do a lot of guessing about cars when they pick them up at auction. When you buy a lemon, the problem may be less about maliciousness and more about the dealer’s own inability to spot it.

Carvana used data to solve the problem. They figured out how to identify high-quality used cars at auction, and how to make more informed bids on them. The result? A trusted online used car marketplace which is able to undercut competitor prices. One that offers a car-buying experience that’s arguably more comfortable and fun than the brick-and-mortar version.

Data analytics allows you to pinpoint problems and solve them before they threaten your business.

Consider Dannon yogurt, which has a problem built right into their business model. The problem is the yogurt itself.

Get too much on store shelves, and it goes bad before customers can buy it. Produce and distribute too little of it, and the company loses shelf space and the market share that goes with it.

Their answer? Using data-driven decision making to stock just the right amount of yogurt at each store.

Small businesses could have similar issues and often do. For example, fluctuations in demand make staffing and hiring challenging. It can be difficult to know what inventory to order, how much, and how to shelve it effectively. If a four-day stint of bad weather could severely eat into your profits, data analytics gives you the potential to know that and to adjust your strategy accordingly – by hosting a large event or a big sale a few days before the storm is supposed to hit, for example.

Small business operations have a much smaller margin for error than massive enterprises. Data analytics gives your business the power to stay in business.

Data analytics lets you take advantage of personalization.

Technology presents a paradox. It’s more convenient but it’s faceless and less personal. Everyone puts up with “press one for billing, press two for sales, ram your thumb into the # button sixteen times in the hopes that it will skip you to a human” mode of engaging with a business. Nobody likes it.

The personal touch – that sense that a business owner knows you, knows what you like, and cares about both – is one of the biggest edges a small business has.

Data analytics can help you bring that touch into your marketing, allowing you to create the feeling of doing “business with a handshake and a smile,” even if you’re doing it mostly behind a computer screen. It automates the process of keeping track of customers’ identities, likes, and dislikes. It allows you to show products customers love or segment your emails right down to the individual level.

Personalization is the cutting edge marketing trend right now…don’t let your big competitors take this potential edge away from you by ignoring data analytics.

Getting started is simpler than you think.

You don’t have to be a statistics expert. You don’t need to be a data scientist or have a PhD.

You don’t have to struggle with Excel, either. Even though it’s possible to conduct a lot of data analytics on a spreadsheet, you wouldn’t be alone if you stared at all those green columns and rows wondering just how, exactly, you’re supposed to make all those entries add up to an insight.

Instead, you can use drag-and-drop interfaces and tools pre-designed to accommodate and analyze the most common and useful types of small business data. Then, once you get all the data into the system, you’ll have everything you need.

From there? Start pinpointing business problems and asking yourself what you need to know to solve them. Let the data guide you to those answers.

Finally, think in terms of incremental improvements rather than sweeping changes. Incremental improvements can bring huge returns, especially over time, and allowing yourself to focus on these smaller gains can keep data projects from becoming overwhelming and unwieldy. Keep it lean, mean, and performance-based, just like your business.

The post Why Small Businesses Need Data Analytics Too appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

One way to go about boosting your productivity is by getting more organized.

When you organize every single day and your entire week with a specific purpose in mind, you and your employees will get more done and build a successful and profitable business with the help of work scheduling app,You can organize all your work and also plan a schedule for your employees.

Then if you have staff working remotely or if you are working at home remember that you can use time tracker software in order to keep track of what they are doing and how much time it has taken.

Therefore, I have put this guide together to help organize your workweek at a small business…

Create a task value chart delegate tasks based on value:

Cutting down goals into tasks is a common method people use these days to simplify projects. But what they forget to do is make a task value chart. A task value chart is a spreadsheet where you detail how valuable a task is. Tasks that add more value to your business’s bottom line should come under high value tasks and tasks that don’t make that much of a difference should be categorized as low value tasks.

An example of a high value task is a meeting with a potential client who could hire you and pay you thousands of dollars. While a low value task is scheduling the meeting with the client.

Another example of a high value task is creating a webinar that can generate sales. And a low value task is sharing details about the webinar with your social media followers.

This way you should asses tasks and grade them based on their value on a scale of 1 to 10 and then delegate them to the right people. You, yourself or your most skilled employees can handle high value tasks. While employees such as your assistants can handle low value tasks.

You can also hire virtual assistants to help you handle the low value tasks, especially if they are a lot of them. And of course, there are a lot of tasks you can automate. This can work out even cheaper than hiring a virtual assistant. Automation apps can also handle certain tasks more efficiently than virtual assistants.

Have a work schedule for each day:

Another tactic that works very well is having a work theme for each day of the week. This will help you and your team focus on one thing and minimize distractions. For example, Monday can be the day when you work on your marketing, Tuesday can be for sales and Wednesday can be for meetings.

This way choose a theme for each day. You can create a work schedule template in advance to help you stick to this format and make it a habit.

The main benefit of having a theme is that it prevents multitasking which most of us aren’t very good at. Studies have shown that multitasking can reduce productivity by 40%.

When you force yourself and your team to work based on a theme for an entire day, you will completely eliminate multi-tasking.

Plan even minor details beforehand:

There’s a problem many of us face almost every day that destroys our productivity. This is known as decision fatigue. When you have several decisions to make on a daily basis, it leads to paradox of choice. Having to make these decisions on a daily basis not only costs us time, but also makes us mentally tired and it reduces our focus and productivity rates.

So, plan every single thing you need to do beforehand. Decide on what you are going to eat, at what time you will get to work and more minor decisions like these at the beginning of the week or the previous night at least. Top entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg take decision fatigue very seriously. This is one of the reasons why he wears the same clothes every single day.

Conclusion:

This is the simple step by step process you can use to organize your week. It does take some effort and a lot of time to get organized, but the effect it will have on your business is priceless. If you are too busy to handle this, I recommend that you get one of your employees to do this or outsource a freelancer to help you out. There are many people out there who specialize in this.

The post How You Can Step Up Your Work Schedule Game appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

3.9 billion people actively use email. Over 293 billion people send and receive emails every single day. And about 40% of people check their email 6 to 20 times per day.

If you master email marketing, you should be able to reach any of the marketing goals you have. So, here’s a quick guide on the 4 most important components of the perfect email and how to get them right…

A curiosity generating subject line

The subject line is probably the most important part of the email. If you ace it, you will convince more people to open the email and check out the rest of the content. So, spend an ample amount of time writing this part, especially if this is a cold email approach.

Remember that the main job of the subject line is to convince people to open the email and read the rest. Quite often people try to add the end goal of the email here and they end up writing a subject line that doesn’t generate any curiosity.

Here are a few advanced tactics you can use to write a better subject line…

Keep them short: A study from Sendgrid found that 3 word subject lines have the highest engagement rate at 21.2%. So, remember that less is more when it comes to email subject lines. Don’t try to write a sophisticated subject line just because you ‘need to’. Instead, in a few simple words get your main point across.

Only start the first word with a capital letter or don’t use any capitals at all: When you email friends or family do you use any capital letters in your subject lines?

I am guessing that you don’t, as most people write them quickly without using any capital characters at all.

This is the same tactic you should be using when you write emails to potential clients or customers. Most of your competitors are capitalizing each word in their emails. Therefore, when you send an email with no capitals in the subject line, it will stand out and draw the attention of the receiver and they will be more likely to open it.

Split test different subject lines: Another tactic you can try is to split test subject lines. This is where you create 2 or more versions of the subject line and test them out to see which one drives the highest engagement. The best way to do this is when you run big outreach campaigns using an email service provider as you can set the software to send emails with different subject lines to different people and then pick the winner.

It is possible to use this technique with cold outreach as well, but you will need to use an email tracker and analyze results manually.

The email introduction:

The next part of the email is the introduction. This is where you introduce yourself and add in some personalization to show the receiver that you wrote this email specifically with them in mind. You can easily do this by typing in ‘Hi’ and placing their name right after that. And then writing a couple of lines about what you like about the receiver’s work or the company they work at.

This personalization will help you build some rapport with the receiver.

Here are a couple of rules to follow while writing the subject line…

Write at the level of a 3^rd grader: People receive an average of 88 emails per day. Going through all of them and replying is a straining task. This chore will cause their attention span to dwindle. This is why to ensure your email gets read, you need to keep it as simple as possible. The easier your email is to read more people will read it fully.

So, use a tool like Hemingway to edit and reduce the reading level of the email to that of a 3^rd or 4^th grader.

Make it all about the receiver: In order to make an impression, you need to get the receiver to like you. So, instead of talking about yourself, make it all about them. If necessary, conduct some research online to learn as much as you can about the receiver.

Main email content:

The next part is the main email content where you let the receiver know the reason why you are sending this email. Don’t try to dilly dally here and get to the point quickly. There’s no need to write your life history. As aforementioned people receive several emails daily and they don’t want to spend hours reading unnecessary text. In a few lines just let them know what you want and the next steps they need to take.

The email introduction along with the main email content should be no longer than 300 words.

Here are a couple of tips that will ensure your main email content gets the job done…

Include a call to action: You should ensure that the main message of your emails ends with a call to action and a link that gets people to take action. You can actually try using a button call to action instead of the usual anchor text with a link option as buttons can increase click-throughs by 28%.

Check grammar: As I mentioned earlier, people receive several emails daily. Therefore, it is your job to make a good impression and stand out from the rest.

One way to do this is to make sure you write your email with impeccable grammar. When your writing is clear, more people will read it completely and follow through with the call to action.

So, take your time to write the email and proofread it a couple of times before hitting send. If necessary, you can use a browser extension that checks for errors.

The Email Signature:

The signature is what you end your email with. A basic signature should start with a greeting like ‘Thank you’ and should be followed with your details and links to your website. There are so many variations for email signatures. For some ideas check out these examples of email signatures.

A good signature should establish credibility and increase the chances of a response. So, add in details such as companies you have worked with and sites you have been featured on. You can even include links to your social networks (especially if you have a lot of followers) to show that you are the real deal.

Bonus: 3 tips for writing a better email

Here are some bonus tips to help you get the most out of the above 4 components…

Have one goal:

The key to great emailing skills is to have one goal. When you have too many goals for each email it leads to the paradox of choice and the reader doesn’t follow through on any of them. So, think about what your most important goal is: is it get more traffic or get a reply or get a sale or something else like getting a backlink for SEO and then build up towards it in your email.

Optimize for mobile:

49.1% of people will read your email on mobile devices. To ensure that these people have the best experience while reading your emails you will need to optimize your emails for mobile. If you share any links, images or attachments in your emails make sure they are optimized for mobile as well.

Follow up:

People can sometimes miss your email because they have had a busy day or week or because your email could have ended up in the spam folder. So, make sure you follow up with people who don’t open in 2 to 3 weeks. You can try using a different subject line.

Conclusion:

These are the 4 most important components of an email. If you want more people to open your emails, read them completely and take action you will need to include all 4 of them in every email you send. And to get even better results, you can make use of the 3 extra bonus tips I shared.

The post Master The Art of Emailing With These 4 Simple Steps appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Small to medium businesses (SMBs), which are now pressured to compete with larger enterprises, can now turn to technology to boost their effectiveness across various business processes. However, choosing which tool is right for the company’s situation can be tough given the large number of services and applications now available to SMBs. Companies must also consider which ones are the most cost-effective.

Here are five tools SMBs can use to overcome challenges in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape.

1 – Reason

SMBs have increasingly become the target of cyberattacks. Poor security measures applied by small businesses make them easy to hack. A single security breach can cause loss of data, downtime, damage to reputation, and potential lawsuits. Despite these risks, many SMBs are still not investing in capable security solutions.

Due to the advent of the recent SMBs hacking attempts on the rise, Reason Cybersecurity now offers its antivirus solution for Businesses – a dedicated version of their security solution specifically designed for SMBs. Reason features an antivirus that offers real-time protection and threat removal. Reason also has ransomware protection that prevents rogue processes from encrypting files. Reason also offers privacy-oriented features such as camera and microphone protection.

Reason for Business is currently available for SMBs in affordable subscription packages. Such security tools can help SMBs safeguard themselves from modern cyberthreats and help them avoid expensive costs due to breaches.

2 – accessiBe

Calls for websites to be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities have grown over the past couple of years. There have already been thousands of lawsuits filed against companies that are non-compliant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). While making the web accessible to everyone should be a priority for all, SMBs find themselves in a tight position. To become compliant, companies must abide by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) which isn’t an easy thing to do manually, as it requires plenty of technical know-how to pull off. The lesser evil alternative is investing hefty budgets into accessibility consulting services, but many SMBs simply can’t afford it.

accessiBe addresses this problem through its platform. Site owners simply have to install a single line of Javascript and accessiBe can readily apply the modifications necessary to make the website ADA-compliant within 48 hours. accessiBe features improvements such as making websites navigable using special input devices and their content readable by screen readers.

accessiBe gives SMBs the opportunity to capitalize on the burgeoning people with disabilities market. In addition, SMBs will be able to make many services available to people with disabilities and avoid facing lawsuits as well. Depending on page count, websites can make their sites accessible for as low as $490 a year.

3 – ClickMeeting

SMBs must also find efficient ways to reach out to their stakeholders. There may be plenty of opportunities to perform cross-border business but a small company’s sales force may be hampered by expensive travel costs for them to do live demos and presentations.

ClickMeeting is a webinar solution that allows companies to educate staff and clients across the globe. The webinars can also be used to engage customers and prospective clients with product demos and presentations that can help them learn more about a company’s product and service offerings. The demos also come with a live chat and  Q&A feature which allows marketers to answer customer inquiries. The webinars can also be a great tool for communication and collaboration, especially when building and managing remote teams.

ClickMeeting is available for organizations of all sizes through different subscription plans starting at $25 per month.

4 – VideoBoost

SMBs can also work on building brand awareness to reach more customers and improve sales. One of the most effective ways in increasing awareness today is through video content. Video marketers reportedly increase brand awareness by 54%. However, creating high quality videos can be expensive as it typically requires having a team of creative professionals.

VideoBoost is a video maker app that allows companies to easily and inexpensively create videos from their phone, using a huge selection of templates, customization features, a stock footage library and an audio library. The resulting videos can also be readily integrated into various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more.

VideoBoost is part of the BoostApps suite which help marketers create engaging content across various media. VideoBoost is a free app and is available to download on the App Store. Premium features such as attractive deals on stock videos and images are available through subscription packages starting from $9.99.

5 – pCloud

Many businesses are using cloud storage solutions to make file sharing and remote working easier. Cloud services are also the most cost-effective way to digitally store data. However, they can also be susceptible to security breaches.

pCloud enables organizations to store and share their files online via the cloud. This allows employees to access documents anywhere through any device. The storage service also features TLS/SSL encryption that ensures secure file sharing. For additional security measure, users can opt to encrypt their most sensitive files and make them password protected.

SMBs can avail the family lifetime plan for $500 which gives small businesses 2TB of storage and the ability to delegate access to others.

Conclusion

Careful selection and adoption of digital tools can help SMBs be competitive. The automation that these tools bring minimizes the impact of mundane tasks and time-consuming business processes. Many of these tools are now also made available through the cloud and can be acquired through subscriptions, allowing SMBs to easily find and adopt solutions that would give them the most benefits and are fit for their situations.

The post 5 Top Tools to Get Your SMB Up to Speed in Today’s Digital Landscape appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Why?

The short answer is because if you don’t, your business will be exposed to lawsuits. GDPR is administered in the regions of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). If your business collects, processes, or stores the personal data of the citizens of the EU, your business must adhere to the principles stated in the GDPR.

But you must understand them first, right?

Let’s get to know the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation.

General Data Protection Regulation

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important data privacy regulation in the 21st century. It introduces rules and regulations regarding the collection, processing, and management of personal information data.

General Data Protection Regulation came into effect on 25th May 2018 in the EU and revokes and replaces the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. The regulation applies to the personal information data of the citizens of the EU.

7 Key Principles of the GDPR Compliance

Article 5 of the GDPR lists out seven key principles that work at the core of this data protection regime for regulating personal data of the citizens of the EU.

1. Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency

The first principle of the GDPR asks you to process the personal data in a fair, lawful, and transparent manner. Of course, it’s more complex than what can be explained in a single sentence. So, let’s understand each of them separately.

1.1 Lawfulness

The idea of lawfulness means that all the processes in your organization related to handling the personal data of the citizens of the EU must adhere to the rules and regulations mentioned in the GDPR. The legislation mentions rules and regulations for every step of your data collection and management policy.

That means the complete process of collecting, processing, and storing the personal information data must meet the requirements given in the GDPR.

1.2 Fairness

The concept of fairness states that you shall be fair to the clients whose data you’re managing in your organization. Your actions and processes must equate to the notice you provided to your clients regarding managing their data.

Simply put, you must keep the promise made to the clients while collecting their data. You shall only collect personal data for the purpose, process it in the manner, and store them for the time period you promised to the clients.

1.3 Transparency

The notion of transparency is pretty clear — you shall not hide details from the subject clients about managing their personal data. You must inform them about the purposes and the time period of processing and storing their data.

The clients must know everything about their data — what you’re going to do with their data, who all will have access to your data and why, what processes will you put in place to protect their data, etc. Moreover, you must inform them in advance if you’re going to change one of your promises in the future.

2. Purpose Limitation

The second principle of the GDPR limits you to collect personal data for a “specific, explicit, and legitimate purpose”, as directly stated in the legislation. You must explain the purpose of data collection and then store the clients’ data for the least amount of time necessary to fulfill the declared purpose.

So, you shall not collect the data for one purpose, then process or store them for some other purpose. Simply put, it limits you to collect, process, and store data just for the purpose you stated to the clients while collecting their data.

3. Data Minimization

The third principle of the GDPR asks you to collect the minimum amount of personal data that is adequate, limited, and relevant for fulfilling the purpose of the data. For example, you shall not ask more data from the clients in the hope of making use of the extra data in the future but ask just the required data.

4. Accuracy

The fourth principle of the GDPR directs you to take every possible action to update or remove inaccurate or incomplete data. Moreover, the clients have the right to request you to delete or update their incorrect data, and you must adhere to their requests. Also, you must fulfill such requests in a month.

5. Storage Limitation

The fifth principle of the GDPR asks you to delete personal information data after its purpose is fulfilled. The legislation doesn’t enforce any deadlines or timescales for storing the data. That said, the timescales will be determined by your business’ processes and the key purpose of collecting personal data.

6. Integrity and Confidentiality (Security)

The sixth principle of the GDPR directs you to handle the clients’ personal data in a safe and secure manner. So, you must protect your GDPR data from unauthorized or unlawful processing or storage, accidental loss, destruction, or damage using the required organizational and technical data integrity or safety procedures.

Moreover, the term “confidentiality” in this principle means you must maintain proper anonymization or pseudonymization systems to safeguard the identity of your clients. It’s a good practice to get some official certification as well, say ISO 270001, to demonstrate your commitment towards cybersecurity.

7. Accountability

The seventh and the last principle of the GDPR talks about your business’s accountability under the regime of the GDPR. It’s a new principle that focuses on two elements: your and your business’s responsibility to adhere to the GDPR and your capacity to demonstrate compliance for the principles of the GDPR.

The legislation requires you to document all the policies and procedures held in your organization regarding the collection, processing, and storage of personal data. Also, you must prepare and justify every step of your data management policy in the official document proving the compliance with the GDPR.

That’s all about the key principles administered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Did you find it helpful? Please write a comment below.

The post Staying Safe with GDPR: 7 Principles to Make Sure Your Business is Covered appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

A tool that can help you track these metrics and make necessary improvements is a time clock software. You need to get it immediately if you aren’t already using one. But you need to be very meticulous about it. As there are hundreds of them to choose from and if you aren’t very careful, you could end up with the wrong one.

Make a list of the essential features you require:

The first thing you must check for is that the time clock software has all the features you require. So, make a short checklist of all the features your potential time clock software requires. The website monitoring service includes all the key features (transaction, FTP, mail server monitoring, uptime report,real-time dashboards, etc.) necessary for webpage performance analysis. They use real browsers from the cloud for the performance check and notify you if any problems are detected by email, SMS, and phone.

This should include…

1. How many people will be using the app and if the number will increase? As you need to pick a software that will be able to accommodate all your employees and managers who will monitor it.
2. Are their upgrades? You should be able to upgrade your plans and add in more features.
3. How hard is it to use the software? Can anyone at the company use the software or does it require technical expertise and do you have an employee who can handle it?

This way make a list that is as detailed as possible. Don’t be afraid to write down a question, no matter how silly it looks. It is important to get the right software the first time because moving to another one will be highly convenient to both you and your employees.

After you make this checklist you can look up words like ‘time clocking software’, ‘time clocking software for business’ and ‘time clock apps‘ on search engines and on software directories like Capterra. This will result in hundred and hundreds of software. You should visit their websites, check them out and make a list of potential tools that meet your requirements to a spreadsheet. Include comments that will help you easily recollect what you liked about them.

See what customers are saying:

After you create the list of potential time clock software for your startup, you should visit their testimonials page and see what customers are saying about them. If the software’s website has some case studies that show you the effect their tool has had on their business i.e. number of hours saved, amount of money made as a result, you should definitely read them.

You can also conduct a quick search on social media to see what people are saying about them as you can find more genuine responses here.

Test out the tools:

After you read testimonials, case studies and social media updates, your list of potential time clocking software to use will become shorter.

Next, you should take each of these tools, sign up for a free trial and begin testing them out. Most of the top tools will offer a free trial. Don’t just get one person to try it out, get some of your managers and employee (all, if possible) to take it for a spin. They will be using it the most and their opinions should matter most.

Ask them to use all the features for a few days. Also, contact customer support a few times to see how quickly they respond. The best companies will respond within 24 hours. Make a note of the performance of the software and the customer support on a piece of paper or spreadsheet. You can rate it on a scale of 1 to 10.

Follow this process and test out at least 5 software for 2 to 4 weeks. By the end of the test you will find the perfect software that suits your business.

Now choose the right time clock software for your startup:

These are the steps you should follow while choosing a time clock software for your business. Make sure you go through all of them. It might seem like the first software you test out has all the features you are looking for, but trust me when I say that there will be better ones out there. Also, as you keep using a software for a while you will begin to see all the flaws in it better. So, take all the time you need.

The post How to Choose the Right Time Clock Software for Your Startup appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Hitting your online sales goals is one key performance indicator, of course. But what if you want to really get into the details and observe exactly how your visitors are interacting on your site? The answer is to use a heat map.

Heat maps is a graphical demonstration of how website users and visitor interact and resonate with your website.

In other words, what works and what’s not.

With visitor data that’s presented in an immediately-understandable visualization, you get facts about your visitors’ activity rather than relying on hunches. This information enables your team to level-up your website and give your visitors the experience they want. Which buttons are they clicking, their cursor movement, their eyes focus and more.

But because heat maps are seemingly easy to use and understand, many marketing teams formulate quick hunches at first glance without taking time to think about best practices. Avoiding the following common mistakes can make the difference between stagnate and stellar.

Not Using Other Analytics Tools Along with Heat Maps

Whether you’re working on a car, building a home or improving a website, numerous tools should be used to complete the job correctly. While you can certainly gain instant and accurate insights using heat maps, other tools (such as Google Analytics) should be used with them to confirm speculations and hunches or to cross reference data.

Perhaps one reason why some marketers use heat maps in isolation is that the graphical representation is easy to present to managers and colleagues. Simple visualizations are indeed a refreshing change from dull and complex Google Analytics reports. But supporting heatmap-driven epiphanies using other tools will keep you from taking the wrong actions.

When presenting the data, it’s always good to use heat maps. Everyone appreciates quick and intuitive visualizations, especially those who aren’t keen on spreadsheets and other traditional analytics

tools. Then, if someone wants more details about the data, break out the Google analytics information you’ve already uncovered. As always, the more preparation, the better.

Not Taking Sample Size or Time-Periods into Consideration

Heat maps are excellent for visual simplicity.

They remove the complexities and numbers that are found in spreadsheet data. But It can be dangerous to make decisions about your website (or even make website changes) when you forget that heat maps aren’t showing you the size of your data set. Are the colors representing 1,000 visitors to your site, or 50,000 visitors? Adjust the settings of your heat map tool to make sure your sample size is representative of your audience.

The sample time-period is also important. If you’ve set your heat map tool to collect data on the first 2,000 visitors, and that number was reached within the first 24 or 48 hours, how can you observe weekday vs. weekend behavior trends?

What about visitor behavior during the beginning of the month vs. the end of the month? Bottomline, you need a lot of data to reach the right conclusion.

Not Segmenting by New Visitors vs Returning VisitorsI

t’s a common mistake to lump all visitors together in the same heat map without differentiating the new from the returning. Returning customers and new visitors behave differently on websites.

Knowing the differences can be very important for seasonal marketing campaigns, special offers, and being aware of how often visitors are coming back to use your site.

You’ll want to see data for each segment because the two heat maps will look significantly different. You also want the ability to know what kinds of information both segments seek, and how they interact differently with your site.

Not Pairing your Heat Map Tool with Visitor Feedback

Once you’ve used a heat map to gain insight into your visitors’ behaviors, it’s time to go a step further by gaining context.

Heat maps give you a big-picture view that tells you what your visitors are doing. But customer feedback enables you to zoom in and learn the specific why’s behind your visitors’ activities.

When you discover roadblocks and drop-offs, feedback can tell you if the problems are related to product pricing, complicated website functionality, a lack of information on your site, or something altogether different. A couple popular website-feedback elements include:

Popup surveys – These are popup windows that ask one or two quick questions about your visitors’ experience. They should be used as a visitor is exiting your site. A popup window could ask something like, “What is your primary concern about making a purchase on our site?” A couple of choices are then given for the visitor to select

Feedback widgets – A feedback widget appears as a button housed at the side of a web page. When a visitor clicks the button, the widget enables them to highlight specific parts of the web page and provide feedback about what’s highlighted.

On-page surveys – This type of feedback survey appears as a small, unobtrusive window at the bottom of the web page. It’s similar in appearance to a chatbot text window.

Not Recording Visitors’ Activity

Heat maps are great for seeing the overall picture of how hundreds or thousands of visitors are interacting with your website. But the best heat-map technology on the market also gives you the ability to record your visitors’ activities at the individual level.

By recording your visitor’s website activity, you get deep insights that shed light on previously unanswered questions. Learn, for example, the pages that are leading to conversions (or falling flat,) how much time specific visitors are spending on different pages, and whether they’re using mobile devices or desktops. You might even be able to ascertain reasons why a large percentage of your visitors are quickly abandoning certain pages.

The more knowledge you have about individual visitor journeys, the easier it will be to turn your website into a well-oiled conversion machine.

Not Blocking IPs

For new web pages that receive very little traffic, you don’t want your heat map to reflect the activity of people from your own company.

If most of the traffic is coming from a company’s representatives (like marketers and web developers,) the heat map won’t be useful. The fix is to set the heat map tool to exclude your company’s IPs, including the IPs of your remote employees.

Best Practices + The Right Tool = Success

It’s key that you don’t let a heat map’s ease-of-use dull your vigilance.

Also remember that not all heat map tools are created equal. Look for one that enables you to record user activity and offers visitor-feedback options. The ability to differentiate between new and returning visitors is important as well.

The bottom line is simple: the right tool combined with the above best practices will enable you to fine tune your site for optimal results.

The post Are You Making These 6 Heat Map Mistakes? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

“. . . Equifax has confirmed that attackers entered its system in mid-May through a web-application vulnerability that had a patch available in March. In other words, the credit-reporting giant had more than two months to take precautions that would have defended the personal data of [147] million people from being exposed. It didn’t.”

Unfortunately, as reckless and negligent as this seems, this type of behavior is par for the course for many of today’s businesses. Particularly when we consider the situation surrounding Spectre and Meltdown:

“. . . research revealed that nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years contains fundamental security flaws. . . and while software patches are available, they may have impacts on system performance. . . the flaws are so fundamental and widespread that security researchers are calling them catastrophic.”

With critical vulnerabilities exponentially rising, small and medium-sized business needs to learn how to implement an effective patch management process as a means to avoid joining the long list of data breaches in 2018 (so far).

Here are 6 steps for enforcing a strong patch management process.

#1: Make Patch Management a Priority

IT employees are the ones who manage the patching process. However, business managers often split these resources across a variety of demands and requests.

To effectively maintain network security, company leaders need to hold patching as a pinnacle priority by allocating the appropriate time, resources, and manpower to the effort; and doing so in routine fashion.

The most effective strategy is to hold team members and managers accountable for ensuring this process is handled and maintained in a timely fashion. If you need a way to help manage all of your documents, then consider using ediscovery.

#2: Appoint Ownership

The IT department tends to tout a myriad of members who apply patches regularly. This is a mistake as the task is then owned by no single individual. Without crystalline accountability for who oversees what, the chain of command and communication channels can quickly break down.

If your organization’s size warrants it, consider talking higher-ups into hiring a full-time patch management and validation specialist. While some might view it as extremes, the imperativeness of this position should be clear given the plethora of security breaches in the last 10 years.

If a dedicated patch specialist simply isn’t an option for your company, then opt to hire a consultant to assist your brand with security patch revision validation and deployment.

No matter which route you go, it is imperative to possess a powerful patch management software that can help to automate the process, manage the company’s security infrastructure, and bring new tools to a department.

#3: Accurately Assess Your Inventory

IT needs to be keenly aware of every system operating within a company’s ecosystem to effectively identify which patches are necessary as vendors release them. After all, you can’t patch what you don’t know is there.

While some of you at larger organizations might be thinking this is impossible, consider the fact that the 2017 Trustwave Global Security Report revealed that 99.7% of web applications include at least one vulnerability.

If IT and security managers fail to take the entirety of the company’s system into consideration – including proprietary systems and third-party apps, services, platforms, libraries, and devices – threats and vulnerabilities are multiplying by the day.

Review the threats of all your systems facets and aspects, asses the risks, establish priority, and begin securing your network.

#4: Promote a Testing Procedure

Before deploying a patch, it is necessary to look at all your company’s systems to ensure that the patch won’t break anything. To safeguard from such an event, you need to test the patch and move through all the trial and verification steps necessary to verify that there will be no adverse consequences from its deployment.

The best way to do this is to create a testing lab that mimics your system environment. While this approach is costly and time-consuming, it is far less costly than having a patch break a vital system.

#5: Be Committed

Patching is an incredibly complicated and delicate matter within modern IT stacks that feature various points of integration, customized components, add-ons, mobile endpoints, and a multitude of other variables.

With that in mind, business owners and IT managers need to accept that there will be some issues that can be resolved, and those that can’t. When certain issues cannot be patched, they need to be documented.

For many organizations, these exceptions – even if written down – will never be revisited. To maintain a secure environment, it is necessary to regularly go back and reassess these exceptions to review if a new solution has emerged and that it is not introducing new risks that were originally unforeseen.

#6: Archive and Analyze

In addition to archiving system inventory information, brands need to closely monitor and document patches that have been released from vendors, scheduled patch testing, and deployment dates, and patch completion times dates.

To manage all this information in an effective and streamlined way, it’s wise to develop or employ a dashboard that creates visibility on the entirety of your patch management initiatives. This will also help IT gain a greater understanding of where vulnerabilities have been patched and where they still exist.

Additionally, monitoring metrics such as percent or number of systems up-to-date, number of patches failed, etc. are all critical to track to fully understand the health of an organization’s digital ecosystem.

The easiest way to create such a system with this information is to employ one of the many patch management platforms on the market.

People tend not to care about patch management until something goes wrong; Equifax’s breach is a prime example. Don’t practice the same low-security standards. Employ these six patch management best practices to avoid becoming the next company to make the news because it was hacked.

The post How Patch Management Can Save You from an It Security Breach appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

When you think about it, it’s basically like a video on steroids. In addition to engaging your audience through a live feed, you also get to interact with them through polls, chat, and Q&A sessions.

But the best part of webinars is how accessible they are as marketing tools — even for small businesses on a shoestring budget.

Modern webinar platforms allow you to handle everything in one streamlined dashboard, from managing subscriptions to analytics.

What they can’t do, however, is magically transform you into an effective webinar host.

It doesn’t matter if you pick the most sophisticated webinar platform on the planet — you still need to learn how to host a webinar successfully by yourself.

Of course, what better way to do that than to look at the pitfalls that turn webinars into utter disasters.

In this post, we’ll talk about some of the worst possible mistakes you can do when hosting a webinar.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Not Engaging Your Audience

First of all, mistaking webinars for webcasts is a common rookie mistake.

A webinar, just like traditional seminars, allows the audience to interact with the host. On the other hand, a webcast has a one-way flow of information wherein viewers have no way to communicate back.

It’s a fundamental difference that new webinar hosts tend to overlook. As a result, they end up missing out on the huge benefits of hosting an interactive webinar.

Keep in mind that hosting a webinar is a great way to obtain valuable insights and feedback from your audience.

Having a simple Q&A session also allows you to eliminate every ounce of doubt your audience has regarding your brand. It enables you to prove your expertise and win their vote of confidence — thus, making it easier to turn them into warm leads or even paying customers.

If the thought of talking to dozens, hundreds, or thousands of viewers online sounds too intimidating, consider inviting guest presenters to host the webinar with you. These can be people from the same company or popular influencers in your niche.

Just remember to look for webinar presenters who can add value to the webinar’s theme and subject matter.

For example, if your webinar is about online marketing, you can have individual presenters for specific topics like SEO, social media, and email marketing.

Here are some of the tools that can help you find influencers for your webinar:

• Followerwonk
• Kred
• BuzzSumo
• Twtrland

2. Shying Away from Pitching Your Products & Services

While some people offer webinars on a paid subscription basis, most use them primarily for brand building and marketing purposes. Whether you like it or not, the audience is already well aware of this.

Everyone knows that you don’t put webinars just for fun. In which case, you might as well be upfront and honest about your marketing objectives.

Remember, as long as you provide value through your webinar; you have every right to endorse your products and services whenever they make sense.

For example, if you hosted a webinar on how to launch an online course from scratch, pitch your web development services only as an add-on that will help them reach their goals faster.

Whatever you do, avoid positioning your product or service as a mandatory purchase. Every bit of information in the webinar must come useful with or without your product — unless, of course, your webinar is a live product demonstration.

Just be sure to express your gratitude in case they do decide to purchase. Say something akin to: “Your purchase would really help us out and would support the creation of more webinars in the future.”

The post 4 Webinar Hosting Mistakes that can Ruin You to Oblivion appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

According to Ambassador, 71% of customers who have a good experience interacting with a brand on social media are likely to recommend it to others. And research from UMass Dartmouth shows that 77% of millennials make purchases both online and in-store after viewing posts on Facebook.

But it takes a lot of effort to make that happen. Marketers go through a great deal to get people to share their content online, including running contests and promotions, employee advocacy initiatives, paid advertising campaigns and more.

So how do you know whether or not your efforts to get people sharing your content are paying off? How do you know which tactics and sharers are the most profitable? Here are some things to think about that can help maximize your social media ROI.

1. Use UTM Parameters on URLs You Give Influencers

An underutilized attribution solution, UTM parameters are nothing more than tags you add to the end of a URL. When the link is clicked, the tags are sent back to your Google Analytics and tracked. This way you can see how much traffic is coming from each of the influencers you’re working with, so you can tell which ones are providing the best value.

This is helpful when deciding who to work with on future campaigns, and it can also give you the information you need to ensure you’re seeing proportionate value from the influencers you’re currently paying.

You’ll have to create separate URLs for each influencer, and make sure they are different enough so you can see which traffic is coming from influencer A, B, and C, but similar enough that you can tell it’s all part of the same overall campaign. You may even want to get really specific and give each influencer separate UTM URLs for each of their social media platforms, so you can see which of their platforms provide the highest ROI.

The more unique URLs you have, the better a system you’ll have to use to manage which URLs belong to whom. It’s a good idea to build them all and list them in a spreadsheet until Analytics data starts coming in.

2. Compare Data With What You Would Have Spent on Promotion

Compare your share volume, sharer audience size, and engagement data with what you would have spent to achieve the same impact with promoted social posts. A good way to do this is with a simple “earned media value,” or EMV, formula.

Just take the number of sharers in your brand advocacy team and multiply it by the number of shares per influencer/employee. Then, multiply that by the number of clicks generated per share, and multiply that by the cost per click.

So as an example, let’s say you have 10 influencers who are sharing your content with five tweets each, and each of those posts gets 10 clicks, at an estimated $3 value per click. In this case, your EMV comes to $1,500. You’d have to spend that much on advertising to get the same impact. This method allows you to see what you’re getting for free, and allows you to use your advertising budget to amplify the results even more.

The problem with this method is that you’re often paying influencers to share the content, so the promotion isn’t always free. On the other hand, if your company has a vibrant employee advocacy initiative underway, then you’re paying them regardless of whether they share your content or not, so in this sense, it’s free.

3. Merge Channel Referrer and Sales Data

When you merge your channel referrer with your sales data, you can see how many customers and how much revenue is coming to your business as a result of clickthroughs from social media.

This method specifically attaches traffic referrers to your sales data so you can see how many customers and how much money come from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora and whatever other social networks you’re on, allowing you to see which networks are the most popular with your customers, so you can adjust future campaigns accordingly.

Many CRMs make it easy for you to run reports like these once your data sources are synced up properly, but the setup work can be complex if you’re not a data professional, so you may need some help to get started.

ROI Goes Beyond the Content Itself

Content distribution can be both costly and time-consuming. That’s why it’s critical to go beyond the ROI of the content itself and see how much money each piece makes you from the shares it gets on social media.

Of course, the content share will likely most often originate with your company page, but the more people you get sharing it – either through employee advocacy, a brand ambassador program, or as a result of organic fan engagement – the better the ROI of your content marketing efforts will be.

The post How to Calculate ROI When People Share Your Content appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Not only would they lack the funds for product research and development, but they’d also lack the resources to acquire the tools that can help them streamline their business.

Are you struggling with the same issue?

Have you been itching to streamline your small business’ operations yet you don’t have the money to acquire the right tools? Harbortouch POS Systems is one of the best point-of-sale systems for small business on the market. Streamline your operations with a solution that is perfect for small restaurants, quick service restaurants (QSR), retail stores, small bars, coffee shops, donut shops, cafes, yogurt shops, concessions stands, food trucks and so much more. Any business that is using a cash register can upgrade to an Echo tablet with ease due to the dual capabilities of this register system.

If you answered with a “yes,” then allow me to share with you three affordable powerful tools that you can use to optimize the way your small business runs.

Let’s get right to it.

1. Use Social Listening Tools

Unlikely large brands who have an established reputation that can “cushion” them from a PR disaster, small businesses are often obliterated beyond repair when faced with the same level of problem.

In such situations, the small business owners are forced to close their stores and are often left with a monstrous debt — let alone an irreparable damage to their personal brand.

And so the question becomes, how do you keep your company from experiencing such a PR disaster?

That’s where social listening comes in.

While it is true that the digital universe is a vast frontier that’s littered with  tech comparison site, you’ll be amazed to know that monitoring your brand mentions isn’t as complicated and time-consuming as you might think.

With the use of social listening tools, you can get notifications straight in your inbox the moment others mention your brand.

Let’s take the SentiOne social listening tool for example.

Once you’ve created a free account and create a new project, you can then enter your brand name or the keyword that you’d like to monitor for mentions all over the internet.

Here’s how the platform looks from the inside.As you can see, the platform will be the ones to scour the web to look for the keywords that you’re monitoring. Of course, if your brand was mentioned in a negative light, then you’d be able to address the problem immediately before everything blows up into something that can wreck your business.

What makes the platform even more remarkable is the level of customization that it offers to its users. When setting up your project, you can add several filters to ensure that you’re getting relevant mentions.

You’ll also be amazed at the amount of data that SentiOne can fetch in a matter of minutes.

With this tool in your arsenal, you’d be able to streamline the way you run your reputation management efforts.

You no longer need to hire several people to do manual searches on Facebook or the other platforms where your audience might be hanging out.

You can just set-up your project once at SentiOne, and be able to sit back and relax, knowing that there’s a powerful tool constantly monitoring the web for mentions about your brand.

The best part is, you can use the platform for as low as 39.20 EUR (net per month). When you consider the level of protection and productivity that the platform can bring to your business, I’m sure you’ll agree that their price is more than reasonable.

2. Use a powerful Point of Sale (POS) system.

With a “good enough” POS, you’d be able to process payments and complete transactions without a hitch. However, with a robust and powerful one, you’d be able to achieve far more.

For example, small business owners using cloud-based POS systems can monitor their operations better — compared to those whose POS systems aren’t cloud-based.

After all, even if they aren’t in their stores, they’d still be able to check their sales and other pertinent data about their business through the internet.

Mobile POS solutions can also do wonders for small businesses. In situations where there is a power outage, the small business owners would still be able to process payments through their mobile devices.

Another advantage of mobile POS solutions that merchants can enjoy is the fact that they can process payments even in informal environments — as long as they have their mobile device and access to the internet.

What’s even better news is there are several POS systems that are free despite having a plethora of features that can help small business streamline their business.

To learn more about what other POS providers are offering and the kind of features that their products have, you may want to read MerchantMaverick’s comprehensive POS software reviews.

3. Use Project Collaboration Tools

One of the things that make running a business challenging is the fact that there are several facets to it that you need to manage.

For one thing, you need to make sure that your product delivery and order fulfillment runs smoothly. There are also clerical and regulatory compliance tasks that you need to contend with. And if that isn’t enough, you also need to monitor how your marketing campaigns are running (among other things).

When you consider all of these, small business owners can’t help but feel overwhelmed when addressing their list of to-dos.

The solution?

Assign your list of to-dos to your team and use a project collaboration tool to monitor the progress of each team member or project.

While there are several project collaboration tools on the internet, we will look into Trello since it is one of the best tools used by businesses online.

Trello is a free project collaboration platform that uses the Kanban relay system where the users can create “Cards” for their tasks and also create several “Lists” where they can pin their cards depending on the status of their tasks.

In the example below, there are four lists: “To Do,” “Doing,” “Done,” and “Suggestions.”

You can also assign a team member/s to work on a task by clicking “Members,” then selecting the account of the user whom you want to work on the task.

Because the platform is highly visual, the small business owners won’t have a hard time understanding the status of their business. They’d know the status of each task, who is working on a task, even view the roadblocks if there are any, and whether or not the task is within the deadline (among others).

While Trello’s free subscription is good enough for several of its users, you can sign up for a paid account to have access to their paid features. 

The post Affordable Yet Powerful Tools for Streamlining Your Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But there’s also a growing concern among new business owners who are interested in leveraging paid search. This problem that potentially hinders the success of their online campaigns is click fraud.

What Is Click Fraud and Why Is It a Problem?

Click fraud is a bad practice where anonymous webmasters or competitors intentionally inflate the number of clicks on a business’ pay per click ad. Most often than not, these unscrupulous parties use automated robots to perform these clicks.

The result is that advertisers will be shelling out and burning thousands of marketing dollars for clicks that were never sent by real customers. Click fraud as a pressing problem negatively affects a business’ budget.

In fact, recent figures suggest that click fraud is costing advertisers about $16.4 billion in a year. While this continues to be on the rise, you can take several steps to help you approach the problem effectively. That way, you’ll be able to safeguard your business from being put in a bad financial situation and losing customers.

Keep track of patterns in your pay per click analytics

It’s worth your effort to watch out for unusual changes in your PPC analytics. There’s a reason for you to suspect fraudulent activity if your ads are getting more clicks than usual. At the same time, you notice that you aren’t receiving customer conversions during these increase in your clicks. A bit more diligence such as this goes a long way to avoid payment fraud.

Of course, looking out for unusual patterns requires that you have internal reporting. Collect pieces of information such as the IP address, click timestamp, action timestamp, and user agent. Make sure that you report your findings to search engines so that your account will get credited.

Leverage a software that fights click fraud

The DIY route to preventing and solving cases of click fraud can only go so far. Which is why brands realize that they need to invest in an automated solution. ClickCease is a click-fraud detection software that monitors your campaigns round-the-clock.

As an advertiser, you have the flexibility to decide on a threshold for the clicks that you get. Personalization is a plus factor to consider in Clickcease as you can ensure that you target the right audiences at the best place and time.

Fully automated to scale your PPC efforts, it hides your ads from potential attackers. See all your data at a glance with its intuitive dashboards to show how your campaigns are performing

Alter your targeting campaign

Sometimes, it will help to change your targeting campaign to do away with those unqualified clicks. For example, ifyou find out that you’re receiving a ton of clicks from a specific country but aren’t getting conversions, you can exclude this location in your AdWords settings.

Usually, click farms are found in poorer countries. In click farms, a click master pays workers for a very low fee to click on paid advertising links. Once the advertising budget of a brand is depleted, competitors will then be able to display their ads at a lower cost.

Better yet, program your AdWords right from the start to eliminate the possibility of click fraud in certain places. You need to remember though that weeding out countries also eliminates the good traffic you will get in those locations.

Run your ads on reputable websites only

Sites that are of low-quality are common places where click fraud occurs. The lower the quality of the website you run your ads on, the higher the risk of fraudulent activity to happen.

Search engines like Google allow you to tweak your ad campaigns so that you limit your ads to trusted websites only. This way, you protect your advertising budget and showing up in front of the wrong audience. Always prioritize websites you know have a huge number of real audiences who are likely to become paying customers.

Advertise on social media instead

Launching ads on social media networks like Twitter and Facebook is another way to prevent and fight click fraud because you do away with third-party platforms. Another benefit of advertising on social media is that you’re able to take advantage of more advanced targeting options.

These targeting capabilities allow you to choose specific demographic criteria and other personal details about your audience which result in more qualified leads. However, choosing social media over search has also a disadvantage. On social media, there is the lack of user intent.

Consider a remarketing campaign

Last but not the least, a remarketing ad campaign is another solution to stop click fraud. Remarketing is a form of online advertising in which you display your ads to people who’ve visited your website in the past. As they move on to other sites, seeing your ads reminds them of your brand, enticing them to complete an action on your site such as an email sign-up or a purchase.

Since search engines provide you with a tracking code to follow users who’ve interacted with you previously, you can reduce the incidence of fraudulent clicks. Remarketing is also beneficial since it lets you achieve specific goals such as a purchase when users abandon their shopping carts.

In Conclusion

Any business, your business, can be a potential target of click fraud. But you don’t have to eliminate PPC advertising from your marketing arsenal simply because malicious competitors and bots are out to undermine your campaigns.

Using the strategies we have just discussed, you’ll be able to prevent and stop click fraud right in its tracks. To sum them up, make sure that you monitor unusual changes in your analytics and report them, tweak your ad campaign, pick reputable sites to show your ads on, advertise on social media, use an automated software, and consider remarketing.

With consistency and vigilance, you can attract your best customers and enjoy a higher ROI.

The post Actions Your Business Should Take Incase of Click Fraud appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

One of the most notable reasons for the workforce facelift is paradigm-shifting technologies that have enabled such a transition to occur.

In recent years, various platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, TaskRabbit, Handy, and a myriad of others have burst into the public limelight, providing a reliable avenue for those who need a job done to be matched with those capable of fulfilling each need.

These types of platforms are what has – and continues to – fuel to immense growth of the gig economy. These portals enable people of all walks of life and varying levels of knowledge and skill to connect with a wide variety of suitable jobs and tasks; everything from giving someone a ride to completing surveys, app development, and more can all be found on these marketplaces.

This type of on-demand work is now commonplace in the United States. A 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that, “. . . nearly one-in-ten American adults (8%) report that they have earned money from some type of digital work platform in the last year, often by doing online tasks.”

The study also noted that while some use these types of digital marketplaces for fun, a significant number of individuals “depend heavily” on such platforms for the bulk of their annual income.

This dependency should be evident considering that 2016 saw American freelance workers reach over 53 million, comprising 35% of the country’s workforce. Moreover, these self-employed individuals earned an estimated $1 trillion last year.

Because of these statistics and the popularity of freelance platforms, the gig economy is often celebrated by media outlets as a way for the typical 9-5 employees to become independent business owners, to gain the flexibility and freedom they have always desired.

While this is largely true, the gig economy is still undergoing an inevitable evolution; as most everything does.

As it currently stands, all the most popular freelance platforms are still centralized platforms, meaning that freelancers must rely on certain institutions to earn their living.

This can sometimes be challenging for the self-employed with increasing fees and charges implemented by websites like Upwork and others. For example, Upwork charges clients, “. . . 20% for the first $500 billed with the client,” with rates adjusting from there.

Freelancers, by their very nature, however, are self-reliant and independent. These folks, by definition, have taken their lives and their salaries into their own hands.

While the gig economy has flung open the doors for the masses to also take control of their professional destinies, is there a way to further the evolution of the gig economy and diminish reliance on a certain system, while simultaneously growing interlinked and autonomous communities that can prosper together?

Is there a way for freelancers to push the system forward, thereby becoming increasingly independent within a transformed version of the gig economy?

Yes. And the answer to doing so lies in blockchain technology.

How the Blockchain Revolutionizes the Gig Economy

Blockchain technology holds the potential to fix certain flaws within the gig economy (such as the centralization of platforms like Uber and others) while pushing the gig economy forward into adopting a new, and even more empowering paradigm.

Current freelance marketplaces tout users as independent entrepreneurs, yet these folks are often dependent on the centralized systems in the same way that they would be dependent on a traditional job.

Freelance marketplaces built on a foundation of blockchain-based, peer-to-peer networking, however, effectively diminish the control a centralized institution holds over a marketplace and places that authority squarely in the hands of its users, making them true independent entrepreneurs. According to Gavin Wood, allow developers to deploy an application for a fixed fee and process one block on the network at a time. Calling it a “pay-as-you-go” model, Wood said many applications could benefit from this kind of flexibility.

This is exemplified by miners. This model has each user contribute resources required for running the marketplace, thereby making it resistant to control by a single entity, effectively empowering its community to prosper in accordance with its own attributes and abilities.

As the system begins to mature and unfold in this direction, more people will find interest in adopting such platforms because of the freedom they tout; a win/win for everybody involved.

And blockchain-based marketplaces like CanYa are already busy putting this solution to work.

CanYa characterizes itself as “. . . a hybrid between an on-chain cryptocurrency payment layer using CanYa Coins, and a fast off-chain service that enables users to find and book services.” It is definite that waves lite client have huge ability to play important role for controlling blockchain account finance.

What makes marketplaces like CanYa even more feasible and sustainable is the trustless payment system on which it is based. When exchanging services for “CanYa Coins,” funds are held in escrow to guard against currency fluctuations; this provides users with assurance that they will always be paid the agreed upon amount, even if price fluctuations occur.

Additional Benefits

When presented with regulatory obstacles – as every growing industry eventually faces – blockchain is relatively impervious as there is no central office for an institution or government to go after.

In early April, Italian lawmakers opted to implement a nationwide ban on Uber. While taxi associations were pleased with the ruling, this is sure to significantly impact any freelancers who leverage the platform to generate income.

With the use of blockchain technology, however, bans would be extremely difficult to impose upon an open source, peer-to-peer platform.

Blockchain-based marketplaces ensure there is no centralized control by a group or individual. This decentralized model enables a true gig economy to grow and flourish as the technology provides the level of control and freedom that most freelancers aim to achieve.

Start offering your services on cryptocurrency and blockchain-based marketplaces now, as this is very likely the future of the gig economy.

The post How the Blockchain is Set to Alter the Gig Economy scene for the Better appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

True work culture stems from four pillars of wisdom that can only be achieved by good leadership. In effect work culture starts from the highest levels of management whose goals can only be envisioned through simple terms “setting a good example”.

4 pillars of wisdom the influence work culture from good leadership

• Practical vision
• Inspiration
• Motivation
• Implementation

In an effort to reach one’s goals, a clear practical path leading to effective implementation is imperative in helping employees understand what is expected of them. Defining business vision helps employees focus without resorting to unnecessary practices or wasted performances.

Inspiration is the mark of true leadership where a positive attitude and an authoritarian directorship tempered with humility is a perfect dose to cultivate work culture. Being emotive and relating to employees needs with a caring attitude instigates an equal measure of respect admiration and cooperation. Todd McKinnon CEO of Okta once echoed such values where he explained how work leaders set the tone for true work culture. Executive leaders need to work as a team themselves where transparency sets a perfect example to the workforce.

6 main influences of work culture

While the ethos of work culture has been widely studied by academics worldwide, one particular breakthrough by professors Edward Deci and Richard Ryan from the University of Rochester rightly pinpointed what drives work culture and what hurts it. The professors defined six points that influence work Culture.

• Play
• Purpose,
• Potential
• Emotional pressure
• Economic pressure
• Inertia

While the first three motives impacted a healthy work culture, the latter three points had a negative impact. Play, purpose and potential defines an employee within whom the ideals of work culture has been rightly embedded because it proves passion and love for work. It proves that the employee is driven by a sense of purpose and does so because of the desire to be recognized for potential. This is the perfect mantra for a healthy work culture driven business.

The latter three motives do not just prove the failure of an employee but an organization’s inaptitude to produce a healthy atmosphere that drives an employee to be productive.

Motivating an employee through emotive psychology

How do you motivate an employee? Is it always incentives that do the trick as most believe? Unfortunately NO!! While incentives are a common feature of any good business, it is cultivating a sense of responsibility to the productivity and welfare of the business that is all important. An employee walking that extra mile just because he wants to is the ideal mentality to achieve that reflects true work culture.

Tapping into the psyche of an employee and understanding human temperament on an individual basis is extremely important in achieving perfect coordination between a team. It helps in cultivating camaraderie, mutual respect and responsibility. It creates a clear sense of focus and understanding of the levels of authority without animosity or enmity. That is perfect work culture.

Work Culture should be harvested not demanded

When implanting the tools of work culture amongst employees, one must never adopt a demanding attitude. Work culture as mentioned earlier can never be demanded. It has to be sown, cultivated and harvested through cooperation and passion. You may get your employees to work extra time but that isn’t work culture. Productivity isn’t measured by quantity but quality. Targets can be achieved in a shorter time span through quality work. Helping an employee understand personal growth and a sense of achievement is a path shared by the company envisioning its own success. This greatly contributes to a high level of work culture in any organization.

Work culture thrives from diversity, not unilateral thought

It is a huge misconception on the part of many that work culture is the result of a unilateral thought process. A team thinking on the same wavelength producing the same ideas breeds monotony and limits creativity. A team consisting of people with diverse thinking produces a myriad of ideas healthy for implentation of new projects and initiating innovative methods of work that benefits client and company alike. Moreover diversity of thought produces healthy criticism and elimination of weak points in any brand building or marketing project.

A perfect example of work culture, its ideals and its cultivation within a workforce is the organizational principles followed by the award winning healthy snack delivery service Snack Nation. It is widely representative of how an organization needs to be run in respect to employee motivation and work culture.

It can rightly be concluded that work culture depends on the perfect coordination of leadership and workforce. It is not coerced nor is it demanded but rather it is impacted by a positive psychology of all concerned thereby instigating an atmosphere that rightly describes “WORK CULTURE”!!

The post Cultivating Work Culture through Emotive Motivation and Leadership appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Not only has it helped a good number of webpreneurs or business owners with bringing in more clients, but even the podcast listeners themselves are getting tons of value out of it.

This business-building strategy has proven itself to be so effective, that the speed of which the marketing method is gaining traction is nothing short of a miracle.

If you’re still thinking twice about whether or not you should use podcasts, then you can check out some of the main reasons why businesses should start it.

1. Branding

There are a plethora of ways podcasts can help you with establishing your brand.

For one thing, having a podcast will make you even more accessible to your audience. The fact is, while written content is great, having a podcast has its advantages.

For example, your audience won’t be able to read your articles when they’re driving or going for a jog.

When you have a podcast, on the other hand, they can consume your content even when they’re on the road or while preparing their meals.

Influencers are all too aware of the power of podcasts that several of them are consistently publishing their podcast episodes on iTunes and other platforms. Tai Lopez is one such influencer.

Through his podcasts, he managed to help countless people by helping them better themselves. The messages he shares on his episodes are so powerful, that he’s managed to garner close to a 5-star rating, with over 5,000 people rating his podcasts.

Of course, Tai is just one of the many influencers who is using podcasts to further their business. And you can bet your family jewels that they’re getting amazing results out of their endeavor.

2. Trust

Because podcasters open themselves to a higher level of transparency to their audience — compared to them publishing articles — it becomes easier for them to establish trust.

That right there is crucial. Because when trust is built between business entities and their audience, sales, leads, and business growth (among other things) is bound to happen next.

Riling up audience engagement is also a lot easier to pull off when there is trust between the business owners and their audience.

Because of the trust that’s been built, the audience won’t worry about sharing their struggles; they know all too well that the podcaster won’t judge them.

More than knowing that they won’t be judged, they’re even expecting the podcaster to share their insights on how they can solve their problems. This compels them (and others) to share even more.
The win-win situation is a perfect recipe for business growth.

It breeds trust, a deeper level of relationship, and it makes you — the business owner — the go-to-guy of your audience when they’ll experience challenges.

When you’ve managed to establish a meaningful relationship with your audience, it becomes almost impossible for your competitors to snatch them from you.

What’s even better is your audience will refer you to their circle of influence via word of mouth, which is arguably one of the best marketing methods a business can ever have going for them.

3. It is perfect for networking.

Here’s a question: How would you feel if someone reached out to you then asked if they can feature you in their podcast?

You’d be stoked, wouldn’t you?

And if you’re being honest, you’d probably give the person a big warm hug for the opportunity.

I don’t blame you.

After all, you can use the opportunity as a springboard to grow your business.

Once you’ve been featured, it becomes highly likely that someone from the audience will reach out to you and inquire about your services, or you can use it to establish strategic relationships.

TL;DR: Podcasts are perfect networking tools.

Of course, networking is just the tip of the iceberg.

Once you’ve built a network of like-minded individuals, you’d have access to all sorts of opportunities.

Starting a mentorship business is a good example.

While it is true that starting a mentorship business isn’t exactly easy, there are several action steps or marketing strategies that you can use to help you succeed — of course, having a podcast series is one of those.

The good news is, it’s not even that hard to start one. You just need to make sure that you have the crucial elements in place, and you’d be able to start churning up your podcast episodes.

4. Lead generation

Podcasting and generating leads are a match made in heaven.

Let me explain why I’m saying that…

As I’ve mentioned, when you have a podcast series, it becomes easier for you to establish trust with your audience, right?

Not only that, but you’ll find it a lot easier to network with other influencers since you can feature them in your podcasts.

Now, here’s where podcasts can work its magic when it comes to helping you generate leads…

• Freebies

You can tell your audience during one of your podcast episodes that you’ll give away a freebie if they’ll sign up to your opt-in form.

• Access to the beta version of your products for those who will signup

As you run your podcast series like you normally would, you’ll mention several times in your episode that you’re giving away access to the beta version of can you buy real phentermine online your new product to those who will opt into your updates.

• Influencer marketing

Here’s the deal, should you decide to run your very own podcast series in the future, try to feature influencers (those with a decent number of followers), over those who do not have an established brand visibility.

After all, when you have influencers sharing your content with their audience, or them spreading the news about your business, your likelihood of growing your followers increases because the influencers themselves already have followers (they number by the thousands, in most cases).

The post 4 Main Reasons Why Your Business Should Use Podcasts appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With the ubiquity of data connections, Internet-of-Things, connected workflows, and social networks, small and medium businesses are increasingly becoming capable in collecting data from customers, operations and the Internet at large. The increasing ease with which data can be acquired means there is also a need to ensure its security and integrity for them as well.

With rich data under an organization’s care, there is always the danger of malicious entities that intend to scrape their deep webs. These can include hackers wanting to sell your data or keep it hostage. Or, it can also involve competitors looking to take a deeper look into your organization, customers or products.

Why Does Data Scraping Matter

A 2015 study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute found that the business cost incurred from losing each record averages $154 in the year, up 6 percent from the previous year’s $145. Such a cost grows proportionally depending on an enterprise’s scale. Small businesses, meanwhile, risk losing a lot more, in terms of customer trust.

The key trends in data leak prevention (DLP) today have shifted from keeping track of data flows and network resources towards ensuring encryption on data objects themselves, says Charles Foley, CEO of Watchful Software. “Between 2016 and 2020, DLP technologies will admit that they can’t block the flow of information and as a result they will disregard attempts to stop/block transmission,” he says on Digital Guardian. “Instead, they’ll employ an increasingly powerful schema for encryption tied to authorization and credentials for use.”

Cyber security expert and author Joseph Steinberg adds that due to the prevalence of the cloud and distributed systems, it’s becoming more and more difficult to mitigate risks from potential leaks arising from data exchange. “[Infrastructure] will need to be improved or supplemented in order to address the risk that emanates primarily from employee and customer personal accounts used on personal devices rather than from corporate controlled systems,” he shares.

Scraping comes in many forms, although the common denominator is that bots crawl and parse a website or database in order to collect data. It can be as simple as content scraping, in which the content on your consumer-facing website is reposted elsewhere. It can go deeper, however, and bots can scrape your database in some form, either through brute force (different combinations of queries), or by finding loopholes and security flaws.

Any of these could lead to serious repercussions. For example, a competitor could use ingenious methods to extract pricing data on your products. While any potential customer can do this on an individual basis, a smartly engineered bot can extract the data in its entirety, bit by bit.

How to Deal With Data Scraping?

Hardening one’s infrastructure against the possibility of such data extraction should therefore be the priority. However, simply encrypting data might not always be the most effective method, especially if such data can be accessible on clearnet through customer-facing interfaces.

One possible solution is by filtering and blocking these potential scrapers at several levels, which prevents these from even reaching your front end. Incapsula’s Nabeel Hasan Saed, writes a four-step solution for blocking potentially harmful scrapers. He stresses the importance of blocking harmful bots, while still providing adequate access for those that are actually helpful, such as Google search crawlers. This involves analytics, taking a challenge-based approach, watching out for bot behavior and shielding your site from scrapers through robots.txt.

Incapsula’s own solutions can also define your network topology through reverse proxying, such that scraping (and other attacks) can be blocked on edge. While the main intent of such services is to prevent overloading and network outages, an added benefit is that reverse proxy can also secure infrastructures by acting as the middleman for traffic—thus filtering out potentially harmful bots, while letting legitimate traffic through.

On the need to be Proactive

Juniper Research estimates that cybercrime will cost organizations $2.1 trillion by 2019, and this will come from attacks and data breaches perpetrated or orchestrated by organized cyber crime groups and state-sponsored hackers. Increased enterprise mobility exposes even more endpoints to potential attacks. And it is becoming more and more profitable for cyber criminals to hold user data ransom, among other shady business models.

Given these potential risks, the key takeaway here is that no organization should have to passively wait for an attack to occur and then take action on a reactive basis. Rather, protecting one’s deep web assets will require proactive measures, including hardening one’s infrastructure, filtering out potentially malicious network traffic, and establishing policies and procedures for ensuring data integrity.

The post Why Small Businesses Need to Exert Serious Efforts against Data Scraping appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

And if I’m guessing right, most of the write-ups you’ve read are generic — borderline useless — that you can’t even imagine why anyone would take the time to write such a piece.

Don’t worry; this article isn’t one of those.

If you’re sick and tired of reading pointless articles about B2B marketing disguised as “must-read guides,” then you’re in the right place.

B2B Marketing professionals from Novus are going to share with you a 3-step marketing strategy that you can use to grow your customer base. If you take the time to implement/use the steps detailed in this guide, I promise you’ll get positive results out of your marketing endeavors one way or the other.

Let’s hop right in.

Step 1: Scrape data from directory sites to get leads.

The YellowPages is the next best thing since sliced bread for business owners and marketers who are looking for clients in a B2B setting.

Not only does the website have bazillions of people visiting them on a monthly basis (Similarweb says they have about 40.50 million unique monthly visitors), but the platform also houses truckloads of businesses in their database.

Don’t believe me?

Allow me to show you a glimpse of what the platform has to offer.

For the sake of example, I’ll look for  a Marketing Agency to help grow your business in Los Angeles, CA.

I see 3000+ businesses listed.

While I doubt that all of the business listed are real (some of them are probably closed already), I’m sure you’ll agree that a good bit of the businesses listed here are still alive and kicking.

That being said, if you’ll go to YP to scrape the website and contact information of your target business, then you’d be able to come up with a list of people to target real fast.

Once you have the list ready, you can start sending outreach messages to the business owners. Depending on your take on what B2B selling is all about, this might or might not be a good tactic for you to try. If you’re more comfortable with pure inbound marketing, as opposed to inbound mixed with outbound, then scraping the YellowPages and then reaching out cold is probably not a good fit for you.

Just remember, there is more to scraping data from the internet than just using it to come up with a list of people to reach out to. The benefits of web scraping are far overreaching. Not only can you use web scraping to find leads, but you can also use it to study your competitors’ marketing strategies, get better insights on how your target audience are reacting to offers, or extract data from websites.

At this point, you should already have a list of businesses whom you can reach out to. However, before you do just that, I urge you to do step number two first.

Step 2: Use Twitter to establish your personal brand.

Having an established brand is important before reaching out to others — especially to business owners. With all the spammers on the internet, almost everyone tends to be wary of who’s reaching out to them. If they do their research and see that the person who reached out to them doesn’t have a strong enough clout, then it’d be easier for them to dismiss the person as a spammer, therefore, ignoring the person.

Of course, you do not want to be ignored by the business owners whom you’ll reach out to.

After all, what good will the list that you’ve put together in step number one be if none of them will reply to your outreach message, right?

Well, it’s a good thing there’s Twitter.

Establishing your brand through Twitter is fairly simple to pull off since there are Twitter automation tools that you can use to increase your Twitter following. There are a couple of nifty things that these automation tools can do for you. Narrow.io’s features allow you to follow/unfollow people automatically, and also “Likes” other people’s posts if their posts have the keywords that you added in your account settings.

With these two features alone, you’d be able to grow your Twitter followers (therefore establishing your brand, to some extent), without you having to spend countless hours on Twitter. You just need to set the Twitter automation tool one-time, and you’re pretty much ready to go.

Step 3: Start your outreach.

At this point, you should already have two very crucial ingredients to your client acquisition endeavor: 1) A list of prospects that you can reach out to, and 2) An established enough brand as evidenced by your Twitter profile having thousands of followers. Now that you have these two points readied, it’s time for you to start reaching out to your list of prospects.

There are several angles you take when reaching out to your leads. You can either offer them freebies to get them to open up to you, you can straight up pitch your services on your first email (rarely should you do this), or you can contact them offering to collaborate with them on a project of some sort (among other things).

Because there’s no way I can predict which approach you’ll take, allow me to share with you some guidelines that you need to consider when creating your outreach messages.

These are some of the crucial points that you need to consider to get better conversion rates.

1. Talk about how the recipients can benefit from you, and not on how awesome you are.
2. Keep your message as concise as possible.
3. Make sure that your message have these elements: a) How they can benefit from you, b) A short statement telling why they can trust you, and c) A clear statement telling them what exactly it is that you want them to do. When you have these points in your message, your chances of getting a reply drastically increases.

Whether you’re pitching a guest post, straight-up selling your services, or you’re trying to build a strategic partnership with your prospects; you’ll get better results out of your outreach methods with the points above.

The post This 3-Step B2B Marketing Plan Can Bring You More Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Hackers’ break-in attempts will never stop, so you need to create a culture of security in your startup. Security must be central to your business because when hackers succeed, 60% of companies fail within six months.

1. Poor Network Security

People are the enemy of security because everyone takes shortcuts and is lazy at times.

Passwords are the first line of defense in any computer network. Employees using the same network password as they use elsewhere is a major cause for concern. Any data breach in the other network also means that the employee’s access password to your secure network is compromised. You can get around this by enforcing monthly password changes.

Employees write down random passwords on paper or on their phones, negating their effectiveness as a security tool. One workaround is to implement letter/number/symbol combinations, but let employees choose passwords that they can remember.

If employees log on to the company network using their own unprotected devices it exposes every connected machine to attack. The best way around this is to provide employees with phones and tablets for work-related use with random inspections to check for games and non-business data.

2. Data Theft

BYOD is a major source of data breaches and you should consider whether the savings are worth the risk.

Many individuals are lax about the security on their phones and tablets which will expose any company data to public scrutiny on the wireless networks those people use.

Then there is the added risk of an employee leaving the phone on a train or other public place, which could lead to a data breach that you might not even be told about for fear of a reprimand. If there is one thing worse than losing your company data, it’s losing it and not knowing your customers’ credit card details and addresses have been lost.

3. Poor Website Security

If you have a WordPress site then install a security plugin such as iThemes Security.

The screenshot above of an iThemes Security installation shows all the free options available in the dashboard. The pro version gives you even more security settings you can change.

A second aspect of web security is theft of your web copy. The Internet is full of webmasters who think it is legal to clone your page or copy your images. These thieves rely on the immense nature of the Internet and know you are unlikely ever to find them.

You can invest in any of a multitude of web scraping tools to continually check the Web for copies of your proprietary images, data, and text. When you find clones, you can issue DMCA take down requests, which will prevent any cloned site from outranking you in Google.

4. Burglary

Physical security in the form of an alarm system and locked doors is always going to be an unavoidable expense.

Burglars target buildings that are empty at night or weekends and offices are particularly tempting because of the high-value printers, computers and ancillary equipment they contain.

Losing your $1,000 computer or laser printer is always going to be a financial blow, but if your customer data is stored on that machine, it is a disaster. If your passwords to your website or bank account are stored on the device, or written on a note on the screen, then your troubles are magnified ten-fold; that’s just one of many examples about why you may want explain to your children why they should not share their personal information online

The best system will alert you to any unusual activity detected by external cameras before any damage is done. You can then inform the police while the criminals are still on-site.

5. Loose Lips

Every company has secrets their opposition would pay for and every employee you take on is an added security risk. Ensure every new hire signs a non-disclosure agreement and have a lawyer draw up a contract that protects you in the event of your employee deciding to leave.

You can reduce the chances of someone talking to the opposition by supporting staff members in their personal development and having a good atmosphere where everyone’s contribution is valued.

In Brief

If you are not stressing security-awareness in your employees, then your business is headed for disaster because a data breach will destroy you.

You can reduce the chance of a data breach if you have good systems in place, but constant awareness is necessary to thwart the never-ending stream of hacker attacks every business is exposed to.

The post 5 Ways Poor Security Could Destroy Your Small Startup appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

During the slow times, it makes a world of difference to have an established system in place for generating new leads and pushing them into and through your sales funnel.

This is obviously much easier said than done.

Inbound marketing efforts are not always effective. The leads you do have go cold. And even more often, people are just downright uninterested.

If this is the situation your brand is currently facing, fret not for you can refill your marketing funnel with just a few steps and a little bit of guidance.

1. Land in the Right Inboxes

When your sales funnel is barren, there are a variety of ways to drum up leads. You can ask current customers for referrals, attend networking events and collect business cards, write informative articles in publications your desired audience gravitates towards, and so on.

There is a good chance, however, that even these tactics will fall short and you will have to mine for prospects using search engines and platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social destinations.

The key to this method is selecting an industry or demographic that has proven particularly fruitful in the past and targeting these individuals.

Create a spreadsheet for this folks and organize them by their likelihood to be interested in your offerings.

Before reaching out, however, it is necessary to ensure you have the correct and appropriate email address. Since people have, on average, 1.7 email accounts, your best bet at catching their attention is using a corporate address; this, unfortunately, is not always easy to find.

In such situations, it is wise to deploy an automatic email finding tool.

This type of service will save you tons of man hours hunting down the correct address and can ensure you are getting in front of your audience.

Once you have the right contact information for your leads, it’s time to start the outreach process.

2. Start Cold Emailing

There are a lot of businesses and entrepreneurs that shy away from cold emailing tactics and largely consider these types of communications to be spam; this is nonsense as cold emails are still a widely used technique in various fields and are (more importantly) still quite effective.

You do, however, need to know how to appropriately construct your message and grab their attention. Anything that is are extraneous in any sort of way will get glossed over and eventually canned.

Start by ditching the introduction. Forget telling people about who you are or what your company does. Honestly, at this point, they don’t care.

Get right to the meat of your pitch by pointing out your prospect’s potential pain point and how you can solve it.

Additionally, considering that there are 205 billion emails sent every day, cold emails have a tremendous tendency to get lost in the mix.

This means that you need to continuously follow-up to verify they have seen your message. If this sounds time consuming, that’s because it is.

A more efficient technique involves leveraging a cold email outreach service like Mailshake which allows you to schedule various follow ups at custom intervals.

These types of services are not only an incredible resource for helping to maximize your funnel filling potential, but they often provide other beneficial tools for brands to utilize such as templates, analytics, and other insightful features.

Using this method, you are far more likely to gain the attention of a prospect than by simply sending a solitary email and crossing your fingers that they respond.

3. Know How to Follow-Up Effectively

You’ve manage to hook your lead and gain their interest; fantastic!

Now you need to close the deal.

Sending your prospect a business proposal is one of the best and most effective ways to showcase your company’s skillset and its ability to generate results.

Again, easier said than done.

Starting your proposal off on the right note and organizing the material in a convincing and appealing way is no small feat. Your copy needs to be insanely compelling. Additionally, company data like objectives, strategy proposal, campaign breakdowns, pricing packages, and more all need to be featured in an appealing and professional manner.

If this is something that you struggle with, you might want to consider setting your frustrations aside and utilize a powerful proposal software like PandaDoc that eliminates many of these pain points.

Any proposal software worthy of your time and money should be dynamic in its ability to create, send, and sign documents while also providing useful resources like templates, analytics features, and information archives that allow users to become increasingly effective at writing organized proposals.

Cold emails can often feel like a shot in the dark; especially when your company’s sales funnel is running on empty. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

There are extremely viable options for vetting out cold contacts, making sure they get in front of the right eyeballs at the right time and with the right message in order to move them into your sales funnel and get them to convert.

If your brand needs a refill on prospects, this is proven method to welcoming new and loyal prospects into your all-important sales funnels.

The post Filling the Funnel: 3 Steps to Turning Cold Leads into Hot Prospects appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

So where should you focus your technology integration?

Above all else, focus on revenues.

Ideally, as a business owner, you should spend most of your time on production (of your goods or services) or marketing. Everything else is extraneous and eats into your profits, and if you really want to do a good profit, learning about useful strategies for this like Earnandgo, which is highly influencer network and could really make a difference in the way you make money online.

So take a hard look on where you’re spending your time and resources. Identify the tasks that, if automated, could free you up to do what you do best, which will of course equate to higher revenues.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these three powerful and trusted software services that, if used properly, can equate to more cash for your company.

#1: ClickMeeting

Webinars are an undeniable force for driving sales in today’s world.

The near feverish clamoring that consumers have for video content only adds fuel to the growing application and use of webinar technology by a myriad of established brands.

Since webinars are so effective at helping to educate consumers and convert them into full-fledged customers, webinar providers like ClickMeeting are an excellent resource to help a business pull in some extra cash.

ClickMeeting recently released a free eBook  which outlines numerous ways that a business can leverage webinar technology to drive sales; the perfect guide for anyone looking to leverage the monetary benefits of this technique.

ClickMeeting’s platform provides users with an assortment of features that assist brands in appearing professional, engaging audiences, and collecting the insights needed to attain better results with each subsequent broadcast.

With a ton of presentation tools, customized invitations, webinar recording options, in-depth analytics, and a host of other prosperous elements, this is an ideal platform for leveraging your thought leadership into an additional revenue stream.

#2: Famebit

Famebit, recently acquired by Google, is an influencer marketing platform where marketers can acquire some of the most impactful social authorities for a campaign.

You don’t need to just run a traditional influencer campaign with these folks. As ClickMeeting points out in the eBook, you can also gather these experts for a guest speaking webinar:

“Many businesses or entrepreneurs pay big bucks to get an expert to teach their audience what the business offers and how to grow an area of business or succeed with a product.”

Using this platform, however, you are likely to pay far less than through direct outreach efforts. And considering that influencer marketing delivers a higher ROI than most other tactics, it’s safe to assume that you will earn your money back and then some.

To get started, users simply need to create a campaign in which they select the platforms they wish to target; options include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Next, choose the type of content your brand desires – review, unboxing, tutorial, etc. – set up your campaign details, choose your audience specs and budget, and submit for influencers so influencers can start bidding.

This tool is easy to use and can help your business prosper in a multitude of ways.

#3: Affiliate Window

Affiliate marketing programs are an excellent source of income for blogs, and brands that are struggling to make ends meet.

Affiliate Window is one of the most popular affiliate networks and touts more than 1,600 brands across 11 global territories and an ocean of products to promote.

When combined with webinar technologies, ClickMeeting has found this marriage to be a powerful force:

“If you’re an affiliate offering a product or a service provided by someone else, offer it in a sales webinar – without sounding like you’re pitching, of course. Take the role of a recommendation genius and apply it in a webinar setting, and you’ve got the easiest money-making machine in the world!”

The tool features a robust analytics platform that allows affiliates to view real-time reports featuring click rates, commission earned, and other vital data points.

In 2016 alone, Affiliate Window claims to have generated over $6.7 billion for its clients – this equates to a pretty decent chunk of change for the advertisers as well.

These tools are excellent additions to any entrepreneur’s toolkit as each possesses its own unique revenue-generating capabilities. If you need more inspiration for how to use technology to generate webinars, the eBook is chalk-full of additional ideas.

The post 3 Services that Help Generate Income for Your Brand appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This basic approach may generate some results, but the lack of a defined plan will eventually take its toll on your business.

Fortunately, there are a variety of technologies and tools that can help you successfully launch and maintain an ecommerce business. Here are five that deserve your attention:

1. Oberlo

Are you interested in launching an online store, but concerned about sourcing high quality and affordable products? This is where Oberlo comes into play.

Oberlo is a marketplace to search for, compare, and find products to sell online. In other words, it helps connect storeowners with suppliers.

Adding to this is its dropshipping tool, which allows you to do the following:

• Find and import products into your online store, all with a single click of your mouse (Chrome plugin).
• Sell items for a profit.
• Ship items directly from the supplier, meaning you never have to touch inventory.
• Automating many aspects in your store, such as item fulfillment.

Since its launch in 2015, Oberlo merchants have sold more than 85 million products. That number alone proves how powerful this technology can be.

2. Shopify

Are you searching for an online platform to power your online store? Shopify is more than your average, run of the mill ecommerce software.

With this technology at your fingertips, you gain access to everything you need to sell online.

Here are some of the many features that have made Shopify so popular among online storeowners:

• No design skills necessary
• Full customization of all aspects of your online store
• Dashboard for tracking sales and growth trends

With more than $34 billion sold by stores running on the Shopify platform, it’s easy to see that this is a great place to start your journey.

Wix or Shopify? Decisions, Decisions! When it comes to an online website builder with E-Commerce punching power which corner will you side with? It is clear that there are lots of web builders and E-Commerce platforms available for you to choose from. Wix vs Shopify for E-Commerce certainly falls into this category.

3. Google Analytics

Here’s how Google defines its Analytics tool:

“Google Analytics Solutions offer free and enterprise analytics tools to measure website, app, digital and offline data to gain customer insights.”

In short, this is a free tool that allows you to track visitors and gain key insights. For example, you can learn:

• Top traffic sources
• What your visitors are doing when they visit your site
• Top devices and operating systems
• Most popular pages

The more you know about your audience the easier it is to adjust your marketing plan with the idea of boosting conversions, sales, and revenue.

4. Canva

The best online stores provide an amazing customer experience. A large part of this is the design of your website, combined with your use of graphics.

If you’re seeking a way to improve the overall appearance of your website, Canva is one of the many tools you need to use.

It doesn’t matter what type of graphic you’re trying to create, Canva makes it simple – even if you don’t have any design skills.

There are more than 10 million people using Canva to meet all their design needs, many of which are online storeowners. From product images to social media illustrations, use Canva as a means of taking your creativity to the next level.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. If you want to start an ecommerce business with the idea of reaching all your goals in the near future, don’t overlook any of these technologies. They can all do something special for your business.

The post 4 Technologies to Help You Launch an Ecommerce Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Here are 4 ways you can quickly scale up your ecommerce efforts.

1 – Go cross-border

What better way to scale up than opening your business to new markets? If your products or services have universal appeal, consider going cross-border. A quick way to check interest is to implement SEO and analytics and look through your site’s traffic data for visitors that come from outside your country. Often, this means that people interested in what you offer. Seek these visitors out and consider servicing their territories.

Thanks to improvements in shipping and fulfillment, it’s now easy do cross-border commerce. Know which payment methods your target markets prefer. Each region would have their own preference and you can’t assume that cards are the only way to go. For example, parts of Europe especially in Scandinavia and Southwest Europe prefer to use their bank accounts for payments while developing countries in Asia demand cash-on-delivery options. Knowing this is crucial since the unavailability of their preferred payment method is a major reason why shoppers abandon their carts.

According to Oscar Berglund, the CEO of Stockholm-based fintech company Trustly “Many shoppers are likely to abandon their carts if their preferred payment method is not available. Merchants that don’t allow the consumer to pay in the way he/she likes are losing out on revenue.”

In a recent interview, Berglund said that digitalization is making banking faster.

“Traditional bank payments will become faster, safer and more convenient. This advancement will be driven mainly by better and more user-friendly methods of digital authentication.”

Trustly currently operates in 29 European countries to enable merchants to accept bank transfer payments.

Partner with a payments service to process these payments for you. Getting a payments provider is also more convenient since you also don’t have to worry about navigating the regulations of each target country you’d like to engage business in.

2 – Get and keep more customers

Aside from going cross border, you can focus on growing your customer base from your current market. This means ramping up your marketing efforts. Ecommerce is rarely “build it and they will come.” Successful ventures always reach out to customers and encourage them to do business.

There are several engagement campaigns that you could readily start. You can curate and share content through your social media pages. You can start a newsletter and send prospects helpful content about things related to your product line or industry. You can even send out or post promo codes to encourage them to purchase.

However, doing this manually can take some effort so consider implementing marketing automation. You can even create targeted event-based campaigns such as prompting modals to visitors as they exit your store. You can even send out reminder emails to users who abandon their carts. You can grow your customer base by keeping conversion high.

3 – Improve your supply chain

Another thing to prepare for when scaling up is improving your supply chain. Often, startups often get frazzled trying to keep up with demand when business unexpectedly picks up. This can be prevented if you have a good handle of your processes.

One way to anticipate demand is through analytics. You can monitor which products get browsed and bought. You can also analyze your customer’s behavior on your site. Such insights can even help you optimize your catalog and inventory. You can get rid of poorly performing products and stock up on your best sellers. You can even consider overhauling your catalog and focus on more upscale products if the numbers point to such trend.

Knowing the ebb and flow of your stocks also helps make sure that you can both readily deliver to your customers by having stocks on hand and avoid tying up your resources with extra units held in your stockroom.

4 – Improve customer experience

What is ultimately key to success in ecommerce is providing a hassle-free experience to your customers. This has become all the more crucial especially now that ecommerce has shifted to mobile. BI Intelligence forecasts that mobile commerce will account for 45 percent of ecommerce come 2020 so you would do well optimizing your site for mobile.

Aside from making a mobile-friendly site, consider creating a dedicated mobile app as it provides a quicker experience for your users. Apply the best practices in designing your user experience. Make your search bar visible. Create easy to use sorting filters to help your users browse through the search results.

Another important thing to consider is localizing your experience for your markets. You can provide translations of your product descriptions, currency conversion for prices, and even be upfront about added fees such as taxes and shipping costs which may vary depending on their location.

Minimize the number of steps customers need to go through to complete the transaction. A Baymard Institute study on cart abandonment also cites checkout issues as top reasons why customers leave so by working on your interfaces you could the eliminate points of friction that customers hate.

A superior experience would make your ecommerce presence stand out and win you more customers.

The post 4 Ways for Ecommerce Companies Can Scale Fast appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But website optimization isn’t just about great content and top-notch SEO.

There are plenty of components that business owners and marketers overlook when optimizing various pages as they have been programmed to look at a specific set of needs, effectively ignoring fruitful areas of potential.

Today, instead of diving into the more run-of-the-mill website optimization tools that you have probably read about a thousand times before, we are bringing you some powerful and less-obvious utilities that will help your site reach new levels of operational success.

Gain New Referrals via Existing Customers

Although most are not fully aware, the opinions of our peers have a dramatic impact on how we perceive products, services, and even other people. And that is the exact philosophy behind referral marketing.

Referral marketing is the method of promoting a company’s offerings to new consumers through word-of-mouth recommendations. Harvard Business Review defines referral marketing as, “. . . the science of converting a customer’s social capital into a brand’s economic capital.”

Gaining new referrals is achieved through a set of incentivized processes that promote consumer advocacy as a means to drive brand growth.

This entire premise is built on the foundation of providing excellent customer experiences; the very backbone of marketing today. Achieving this allows a brand to engage a customer’s sentiment for the company and leverage the advocacy opportunities available by incentivizing the customer to bring a friend, family member, or acquaintance into the company’s marketing funnel.

If this sounds too easy or unrealistic, consider that a 2015 Texas Tech University study uncovered that 83% of people are likely to share a company’s offering after a satisfactory encounter. In reality, however, only 29% follow through with the recommendation. This means roughly that 45% of your customer base wants to share their story, they just can’t find the opportunity.

That is what referral marketing provides them.

A recent Heinz Marketing report proves this thesis by displaying that companies that implemented referral programs experienced 86% more revenue growth than those who have not.

Setting up a referral marketing program is easy when you leverage seasoned services like RewardStream.

This platform hosts a brand’s referral program and customers can refer friends through email, social media, texting, and in-person conversations. When a new consumer is driven to take an action on your site, RewardStream automatically provides the referrer a reward.

They also provides businesses with detailed analytics to understand how the program is adding value to the business and its customer base. This type of marketing initiative is perfect for nearly all brands, especially those in the ecommerce or B2B spaces.

Drive Consumers Actions with the Right Messages

All of your marketing efforts have a single goal: Bring potential customers into your sales funnel by using local optimization strategy for a lead gen.

In order to get consumers to enter voluntarily, you must invite them to take an action that resonates with their wants or needs. These are called calls-to-action (CTA) and commonly appear in emails and on websites in the form of buttons that read “Buy Now,” “Download,” “Subscribe,” and similar phrases.

Unfortunately, the above noted CTA examples aren’t all that effective. The key to successfully getting consumers to act is to offer them something instead of asking them for something.

Additionally, your CTA button should possess a certain level of visual appeal and make its offer crystal clear.

Many marketers and business owners fail at this juncture and deploy multiple CTAs instead. But one powerful CTA is better than many lackluster ones as this removes additional choices; more choices are proven to lead to less action.

In order to employ effective, compelling CTAs,check out MaxButtons if you’re a WordPress user.

This WordPress button generator touts over 5,000 pre-existing CTA buttons and also houses over 35,000 free curated icons. What makes this tool especially useful is its simplicity and dynamic nature.

MaxButtons requires zero knowledge of coding principals, allowing both veteran and novice WordPress users to leverage its offerings. Additionally, the buttons available on this platform feature a responsive design and will accommodate users of any device.

MaxButtons also offers a variety of social media buttons to boost your social followings and allow visitors to easily share materials with their audiences. Since MaxButtons can integrate with a variety of services, its usefulness and potential for prosperous outcomes is far reaching.

Acquire Mobile Downloads through Mobile Marketing

Most are keenly aware that mobile devices are on the fast track to dominate our digital world.

More than 2 years ago, Google announced that half of all searches take place on mobile device. Additionally, Statcounter recently uncovered that mobile internet usage has now topped desktop as well.

What many may not be privy to, however, is that apps are beginning to absorb even more mobile web browsing. In 2016, ComScore announced that roughly 50% of the time Americans spend online is spent in-app.

This means that any wise business owner has an app for their brand. One of the best ways to promote a mobile app is through mobile marketing services like LinkTexting. According to the company, its technology is responsible for driving more than 200,000 app downloads each day.

This platform provides brands with three website widget formats for bolstering app downloads. Each one of them allows consumers to enter their phone number in order to receive a download link for the desired app instead of manually searching for it.

Making the service even more valuable is the fact that LinkTexting provides users with analytics data around app downloads including how often it is downloaded, where it is downloaded from, and much more.

This kind of information allows business owners to achieve a greater understanding of their target audience and how to market to them effectively.

The post 3 Website Optimization Techniques for Maximizing Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you use a time tracking service then this is absolutely possible. At the same time, you can also more effectively schedule tasks and make invoicing and payroll run more smoothly. But, with so many options, which services should you look into? Here are ten suggested service to get you started.

1. Due

Known for it’s intuitive dashboard and professionally designed invoice templates, Due.com also comes equipped with a powerful tool that’s perfect for freelancers and small business owners. The tool keeps track of every minute that you and your team spend on a task. The timer also comes in the form of a pop out widget so that you’re free to browse around other sites and work on other tasks.

Due.com is a free signup site, and also integrates with third party sites like PayPal, QuickBooks, and Basecamp.

2. Toggl

Toggl is lauded for being one of the simplest time tracking tools available. How easy? Just signup, click start on the clock, and hit stop once you’ve completed your task. Toggl records the session time and then allows you to describe the assignments. You can use this information to create reports for your clients when it’s time to invoice them for your services.

Toggl integrates with Basecamp, Asana, Freshbooks, and Zapier. The basic plan is free, but there are also paid plans at either $9 or $49 per month.

3. Harvest

Harvest is a popular time tracking app for freelancers and small business owners since 2006 thanks to having top notch reporting options. For example, a project manager can open up the dashboard and easily review the status of a user, client, project, budget, or subtasks. When you switch to “Day” view, you can add daily sessions and begin the clock and even sends automatic reminders to team members to submit timesheets.

Harvest integrates with Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Quickbooks, and Xero. Flexible monthly plans start at a free basic option to $99 per month.

4. Timely

Unlike most other time tracking services, Timely focuses more in being a weekly planner. This means that you fill out your daily or weekly schedule first and then use the timer to record the time spent on a various projects. Timely doesn’t record start and stop times, instead it records the length of a session and the date that it was recorded.

Timely integrates with calendars like iCloud, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo and offers either a free plan or more robust option for $14/month.

5. Paymo

Paymo is more than just a time tracking tool. It’s also a solid project management app that allows business owners to manage their teams, create invoices, and review reports like timesheets. As for the time tracking app, it’s an easy-to-use timer where you simply create a project, task, notes, and then hit the start button. Paymo also comes with an automatic time tracking app that will run in the background of your computer and monitors your activity.

The Paymo app can be used on mobile devices or desktops. There’s a free version, but for access to all of the features you’ll have to select either the $4.95 or $9.95 monthly option.

6. TimeCamp

TimeCamp was specifically designed to assist teams with time tracking. That’s pretty much it. However, this easy-to-use tool comes packed with features ranging from one-click/automatic tracking, reporting tools, to-do-lists, and timesheet approval. It also integrates with Podio, Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Wunderlist, and QuickBooks.

There is a free option, but most business owners will have to select either Basic ($6) or Pro ($9) monthly options.

7. Paydirt

Paydirt is another service that provides online invoicing, business reports, and team management tools. But, the Paydirt time tracking feature is one of the more unique options available. It automatically determines the client you’re working for and then starts tracking the hours you’re putting in automatically. There’s also a one-click time tracking feature, the opportunity to start a timer if you already started, and works on any web page or mobile app.

Starter plans begin at $8 per month and go up to $149 for agencies.

8. Bill4Time

This service actually lets you select your industry, such as Legal, Accounting, Architects, Freelancers, or just small business owners in general, so that the company can determine how to assist you better. Overall, Bill4Time comes with one-click timers, one screen batch time entry, and the ability to sync appointments so that you simplify your billing.

Pricing varies depending on your industry, but the average price is $15/month.

9. Timesheets

With this cloud-based service you can view the real-time totals on your employee’s timecard. This includes hourly and project timesheets, as well as mileage and expenses so that you can quickly identify billable and unbillable hours. There’s also a GPS tracker if you really want to keep tabs on your team. It also integrates with Quickbooks so that you can quickly invoice clients.

The monthly price is based on how many employees you have. If you’re working solo, Timesheets is free. But, if you have 20 users, for example, you’ll be charged $90 per month.

10. Deputy

With Deputy you can quickly and easily verify employee timesheets with reliable time-tracking software. The software is extremely user friendly and easy to learn, both for employees and HR staff. Breaks are even trackable with an easy toggle option.

Like many other services, pricing varies depending on the amount of users you have. The starting price is $4.50 per user per month. If you are a small team, though, Deputy does offer a free option where you can approve 100 timesheets. This option comes with less features, but it provides you an opportunity to test out the platform. 

The post 10 Time Tracking Services for Small-Business Owners appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Analytics has emerged to be a difference maker in ecommerce. It can track all your customers’ activities to know where your traffic coming from, what products they are browsing, how long they spend on each page, what items they put in or take out of their carts, and how successful are you in closing sales. This allows you to understand your customer behavior.

Guy Greenberg, founder of business intelligence and analytics company CoolaData, believes that understanding buyer behavior is key to increased conversions. He writes, “Advanced behavioral analytics offers businesses this added advantage by collecting, storing, enriching and analyzing raw user data over time.”

By knowing these, you would know which areas you need to improve on in your products and services. However, this is predicated on enabling analytics early on. Here are 7 areas where analytics can help improve your ecommerce efforts.

1 – Tailor a customer experience unique to your market

Providing a superior customer experience is essential to ecommerce. You should minimize customer effort from the moment they land on your page until you wrap up the sale. While there has been plenty of research done to identify “best practices” to consider in crafting user experience, it is still crucial to monitor how customers behave in your own context especially if you operate in a particular vertical or niche market. For example, if you offer more big-ticket or upmarket items, buyers may want to research more on the product compared to cheaper items. Analytics can tell you what content buyers are looking for. This way you can strengthen features such as comprehensive product descriptions, user reviews, and Q&A.

2 – Curb cart abandonment

Cart abandonment remains a major concern for ecommerce. Ecommerce across all industries suffers from an average abandonment rate of 70 percent. The reasons behind are varied from unexpected costs to complicated checkout processes to limited payment methods. Through analytics, it is possible to pinpoint the exact instances when users leave your service. This way, you can improve upon these areas and even conduct interventions in order to win them back.

3 – Improve marketing efforts

You can craft engagement campaigns and loyalty programs based on customer behavior to further improve your business. Analytics can be integrated with automation tools to help manage marketing activities and campaigns. For example, in the case of cart abandonment, automation tools can trigger email reminders or pop up promo codes just as customers leave in order to entice them to push through with the sale.

4 – Manage stocks and pricing better

It’s easy to determine which products are doing well based on sales figures alone. However, this doesn’t paint a complete picture. Analytics can help you delve deeper into your sales data. You can explore if there are products that are popularly browsed or added into carts but don’t get bought. You can then decide on actions such as tweaking your prices. You can even narrow down your catalog and focus on the ones that generate the best profit for you. You can also consider moving upmarket if you notice that you are moving big-ticket items more than low-priced products.

5 – Minimize returns

If you ever shopped for clothes online, you know how difficult it is to get the right size even if there are size charts available. Even Amazon users have to rely on other buyers’ feedback to make sense of a garment’s true size. US fashion retailers report a return rate of between 20 to 40 percent. Faulty sizing is largely responsible for such a high rate. Merchants have to shoulder much of the costs from returns. With the high rate, returns are costing many businesses. To help combat this, personalization platform True Fit uses analytics to provide fit ratings and size recommendations for shoppers. This lessens buyer anxiety and saves merchants on returns.

6 – Enable personalized recommendations

Personalization is a key driver to customer engagement. A major ingredient in Amazon’s secret sauce is its personalized recommendations feature. Recommendations account for 35 percent of  its sales. Powering the recommendation engine are algorithms that rely on the analysis of extensive historical customer data. You can definitely explore implementing your own recommendations engine and this requires tracking customer behavior on the onset.

7 – Prepare for cross-border ecommerce

Developments in logistics and payments services have enabled many ecommerce businesses to go global. However, a key challenge for cross-border ecommerce is localization. Culture has a great impact on buyer attitudes and preferences. For example, some regions prefer particular products despite not performing well in your other markets. By using analytics, you will be able to compare user behaviors specific to each market enabling you to customize your strategies and campaigns accordingly.

The essential thing to understand about analytics is that it gives you objective information about your business. In a high risk business environment such as ecommerce, it is important to rely on hard numbers rather than pure intuition. Adopting analytics early on will help you be mindful of all trends that are affecting your business. Using these insights, you can then pivot accordingly. By adopting early, you can also collect longer historical information about your customers and your business. These could prove useful for your business down the line especially when implementing engagement programs and personalization features.

The post 7 Reasons Why Your Ecommerce Business Needs Analytics appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Many of us fanaticize about quitting our day job, becoming our own boss, and gaining financial freedom by doing something we love beyond words

The intrinsic barriers that come with building a startup company is what keeps many out of the entrepreneurial game.

The single most daunting hurdle that stops the majority of people from ever launching is the same one that keeps them locked in soul-sucking jobs: Money.

Obtaining the necessary funds to begin a business can be a frustrating and arduous process; no one will argue that. But in today’s world, there are more options, tools, and platforms available to business owners than ever before; this this has made acquiring startup funds a tangible reality.

In fact, if you’re willing to think outside the box you may be surprised at how accessible your business dreams are. For example, a service called CloudKitchens allows restaurateurs to grow and expand by renting a ghost kitchen in Austin, Los Angeles, and many other cities. Coworking spaces allow consultants to “fake it until they make it” with a legitimate office address. Phone answering services do the same.

If you’re ready to join the ranks of those who left behind the proverbial safety net, I’ve got the resources for getting your startup funded.

Don’t Fear the Small Business Loan

Stop cringing; loans are not what they used to be. This is a perfectly viable way to get your business launched.

There are two types of loans to consider: Small Business and Personal.

Let’s deal with the small business loan route first. Since most banks won’t make loans to startups, a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan is your best hope. There are several SBA loan programs to choose from, though this is not who actually makes the loan. The SBA merely provides a guarantee for the loan if the applicant passes the screening process with an accredited SBA lender.

SBAs are particularly beneficial as they can help startups acquire funding, informational resources, and mentorship options.

To make sure that you obtain the lowest financing costs available, it is wise to use a business loan calculator to figure out a loan’s APR and get the best pricing possible.

If you have long-standing and satisfactory relationships with a bank, you could attempt to procure a business loan. If a loan is at all a possibility, be prepared to enter into an extensive loan application process that will include collateral for the loan.

Your second option will test the level to which you’re willing to be humble and ask for help. There are countless stories of successful entrepreneurs that launched their business with help from family and friends. If you are fortunate enough to know someone (or a collection of someone’s) who has the resources to and willingness to fund your company, this can be an ideal situation as it significantly cuts down on the paperwork and red tape you have to deal with.

As an established rapport already exists with your potential lender, it’s much easier to have open and honest conversations about the risks and rewards of the venture.

Be aware, however, that personal loans come with some significant potential downfalls.

Considering that more than 50% of startups fail in the first 4 years of operation, you are risking your relationship with whoever puts up the money.

Additionally, friends and family members likely don’t possess the experience necessary in order to provide guidance or help with business-related questions. This could also have adverse consequences on your business and relationship.

Those are the conventional options. Let’s move to the myriad of digital opportunities that can help you acquire the capital you need.

Specialized Funding Platforms

The online world enables startups and small business owners to gain all of the necessary resources for building a business. There are now a plethora of digital platforms that cater to entrepreneurs in need of funding.

Alternatively, platforms like FundingPost, Angel Investment Network, and Gust all help entrepreneurs and startups to connect with angel investors across the globe.

Each of these platforms has their own unique spin on the process so it is necessary to identify which is the right fit for you.

FundingPost connects entrepreneurs and investors at physical events in over 23 cities.

Angel Investment Network connects hopeful business owners and venture capitalists in the virtual space.

Gust also operates in the digital realm, but provides a variety of other tools and council for entrepreneurs to leverage along the way.

If none of these sound like a fit for you, there is yet another powerful route you could go to acquire money.

Start a Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular option for startups. The World Bank has estimated that crowdfunding will become a $90 billion industry by 2020 and many others have predicted that this medium will have surpassed the venture capital industry by the end of 2016, though this has yet to come to fruition.

For these reasons, platforms like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, RocketHub, and similar websites are particularly viable funding destinations.

Additionally, Indiegogo recently announced its entrance into the equity crowdfunding space through its partnership with Micro Ventures. This makes Indiegogo a particularly appealing option for startups as the site receives more than 15 million visitors per month.

Raising money can certainly be an intimidating and (at times) disheartening process. Thankfully, there are now an abundance of options for entrepreneurs to rely on. If you find yourself rejected from certain institutions or platforms, simply refine your pitch and move on to the next one. You can even use a combination of these options to turn your startup dreams into a reality.

Stay diligent. Don’t lose your passion. Persistence is always the secret sauce to success.

The post Where to Acquire the Funding to Start Your Own Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you focus on each individual, you’ll end up perceiving retention as this formula full of fine details where even the tiniest misstep can completely ruin your vibe. The truth is that customer retention—at least in the initial stages of growth—involves painting with the broadest strokes possible. Get too caught up in the details, and you’ll spend too much time on minutiae to run your business efficiently.

Repeat customers are the lifeblood of small businesses, with about a third of them reporting that 71-90% of their customers visit more than once per year and 70% of their profits come from their loyal customer base. Once you’ve gathered steam, you have to know how to keep it without blowing it all out. Here are a couple of guidelines that will create an environment that’s conducive to that kind of momentum:

Show Your Expertise

Let’s suppose you’re running a hardware shop and you don’t know how a rotary-percussion drill works. That would leave a horrible impression on customers even if they themselves don’t know this information. The moment someone walks up to you, they come with the expectation that you’re the authority on everything you’re offering.

Make sure that any employees you hire have a passion for what it is you offer. They should be willing to walk up to customers and assist them even when such assistance wasn’t requested. Interacting with people who represent a business makes it feel more “alive”. Even if you’re selling hammers, your customers want to feel like they also bought a service. They want to value the time that they spent with you.

Don’t Be Shy About Social Media

Surely your idea of running a business 10 years ago didn’t involve spending time on the laptop or tablet typing up tweets, did it? Oh, how times have changed! Almost half the world’s population is connected to the internet, which gives you a potential reach that stretches far beyond your local area.

Keep in mind that buying ads on social media has its uses, but it only takes you so far. People on the web pay more attention when you speak with them directly and give them a line with which they can reach you anytime. Facebook is great for this since it allows people with accounts to send your business page a message that you can reply to. Twitter on the other hand is great for inserting your brand into conversations. Get active on the web and see where it takes you. People who like your attitude will feel as if they “fit in” with your business culture. When others see that you are responsive to messages, they’re more likely to send you one, too. It’s up to you if you want to take advantage of the potential snowball effect.

Organize Your Background Processes

The modern-day small business runs on coffee and technology. The days of the “mom and pop” shop that closed at odd hours of the day to do its inventory and get its papers in order were left behind back in 2011.

Today, we are overwhelmed with the sheer amount of applications we need to keep everything running smoothly. Having most day-to-day functions handy in your point of sale system would not only ease this burden, but also keep your customers’ data safe. Modern POS systems offer you the possibility of introducing reward systems like loyalty cards and give you access to a variety of payment systems that anticipate any needs a customer might have.

Modernizing your infrastructure no longer requires the large investment it did back in the early 2010s and most applications now mold themselves around your business model. You now have a plethora of options that can give customers more incentive to return while at the same time improving their overall experience during visits. This two-pronged strategy provides you with the synergy you need to keep people coming to your door.

Reward Your Most Loyal Customers

Loyal customers often have a tendency to spend more. The 80-20 rule comes to mind, which states that 80 percent of your revenue will come from 20 percent of your customers. They’ve stuck with you and have given you the largest chunk of your revenue. Perhaps it’s time to think about how you can reward that.

By providing a reward, you’re giving your customers a clear signal that you appreciate their patronage. That may provide just the incentive they need to stick with you through the long run. Perhaps you can give them a discount on their next purchase or provide them with a higher-tiered loyalty program with which they can save more as they make larger purchases. Whatever you do has to be sufficiently memorable enough for you to have a reasonable expectation that the customer will come more often.

It’s All About The Experience

Customer retention goes hand-in-hand with quality of experience. If your customers walk out with warm, fuzzy feelings, they’re more likely to put your business in their “mental speed-dial”. This makes them more likely to think about your brand the next time they need something you have to offer. Rewarding loyalty will solidify the relationship you have with your customers, establishing a bond that gets more difficult to break as time passes. Building upon that increases your customer retention and makes life easier for everyone!

The post How to Become a Customer Retention Guru appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Social media automation comes at a cost, even if you stick with basic software. Is it worth it?

Email automation comes with a monthly cost; does it earn enough to justify the cost?

Where should your marketing dollars go? Is email dead as a dodo? The crowd says social media, and especially Facebook, but have you checked for yourself?

Marketing decisions are always about choosing the most efficient channels for conversion into customers. When you look at your typical customer profile, the decision may appear obvious; Facebook if your customer profile is less than 30, and email if he is over 30. But is that an over-simplification?

Comparing Reach

Facebook follower numbers are high, but that means nothing because communicating with them is nigh on impossible. Facebook’s filtering mechanisms. Brian Boland from Facebook in the UK wrote about why organic reach is headed for zero.

Sharing helps to increase your reach and to put your brand in front of new faces, but the increase is from such a small base that it is always going to be a low number.

It takes more effort to acquire email subscribers, but every subscriber will see your email, though it might be in the promotions tab.

The Facebook Process

Someone is interested in you and clicks a link to follow your Facebook Page. You hope they will see some of your content in their feeds.

In reality, your organic reach to Facebook followers is very low for two reasons:

• Facebook limits organic reach because they want you to pay for ads
• There are so many possible items that can be shown in users’ feeds

If someone follows you, even then they don’t see your page in their feed.

Your page is hidden away behind the Pages link as highlighted above. Only if the individual shrinks the page or scrolls down will he or she see more than the top few pages they have followed.

The chance of one of your followers going through this process to see what is happening in your business is effectively zero.

The Email Process

Someone has to go to a bit more trouble to sign up to your email list.

You can make your signup page attractive and outline all the benefits people will get by clicking that button.

A subscriber needs to go to a bit of trouble to sign up, but there is nothing unexpected, and it just means a few clicks if he is using an autofill app.

You can then direct the subscriber to any page you choose. You have his attention, so use it to good effect.

From here on the subscriber sees every message you send. Yes, you need to work hard to make them interesting enough that they are worth opening, but the same can be said for a Facebook Page post. At least with email, you know people will see your marketing messages.

Advantage Gmail

Email has one other advantage. If you are using a gmail account you can personalize your signature. You can do this using the Settings link in your account, but the email signature you get is boring and does nothing for your marketing.

What would you give to have an email signature like one of the above? WiseStamp is a gmail signature app that will let you design the email signoff of your dreams.

Facebook Automation vs. Email Automation

Facebook automation possibilities are limited. Yes, you can use Hootsuite to upload a series of posts, but remember only 7% of your followers will see your post unless you pay to promote it.

Personalization is not possible with Facebook posts, further limiting their conversion rate.

Email automation possibilities are endless. The smart autoresponder from GetResponse allows you to build multiple lists and to divide each list into segments so you can target particular groups more easily.

You can also send unlimited personalized emails and develop automated workflows you can use time and again.

Check out this SmallBiz Technology post for further advice on choosing a marketing automation provider.

Your Takeaway

Customer acquisition is a combination of reach and engagement. One without the other is worthless. If your message reaches one million people, but no-one clicks on the link, then all that reach was wasted. Facebook has too many distractions to be an effective final stage marketing vehicle. Its best use is to persuade Facebook users to subscribe to your email list.

Build your email list, and use an autoresponder to send multiple messages to your subscribers. Be open and be yourself because people buy from people they trust. Emails and the blog posts they link to are excellent tools in the trust-building process that must precede any sale.

The post Battle of the Giants – Facebook vs. Email appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

You look in cupboards and behind doors in a desperate search for a machine that was the heart of your business.

Slowly you start to accept your computer has been stolen, along with all your software, passwords and customer data.

You wish you had got around to that data backup plan and you wonder where to start your business recovery program.

This scenario is all too real, and companies go bust as a result.

Insurance

Insurance might pay for replacement computers, but you won’t get a new machine tomorrow, and there are many forms to fill and hoops to jump through before your stolen computers are replaced.

Preventing theft is the only way. It will cost money, but spending a few hundred dollars on improving security could be the difference between your business surviving or going down the tubes.

Security Systems

For most people, the safety of their residence and workplace is of prime importance to which there’s just no substitute. Commercial establishments and the other institutions are open during the day when people are working and clients are coming in. this suggests that doors would need to be hospitable allow people in. But some doors should allow only passage of permissible individuals. this is often why there are access control systems, which are purposely installed to sift incoming persons. The Access Control companies provide mechanism are often physical or electronic. Doors are often locked manually to stop outsiders from simply going inside a prohibited room. Computer systems could also be wont to activate electronic locking systems. There are tons of companies that provide services like installation of electronic lock and security systems, and there’s a security system that creates use of both physical and electronic activation/unlocking system. as an example , doors could also be opened using access control cards which are simply swiped through card readers. this type of access control that utilizes cards rather than keys is now becoming more common. In fact, this is often the foremost common sort of electronic door access that’s utilized in many establishments.

Security systems cost money and long-term monitoring contracts are a drain on your income. Installation of a wired system is particularly disruptive, and it is expensive to modify a hard-wired security system to accommodate changes in working patterns and use of space.

CCTV Installation Melbourne can create a top-notch security solution from a range of branded CCTV systems, are much more flexible, cost less and are easier to install. You can do the installation yourself without even touching a drill or screwdriver because components are lightweight and are held in position by sticky pads.

This Cnet review of the SimpliSafe wireless alarm is a good place to start your search for an affordable wireless alarm system. This particular system lets you set up alerts to your cell phone, as well as viewing a live camera feed, though you do still need a monitoring contract.

Simple Do-it-Yourself installation of a wire-free alarm gives you further savings and wireless also means you never need to pay an installer to repair wires if someone cuts a cable by mistake.

Theft of Equipment

The trend is for computing devices to become smaller. Smaller computers are easier to steal. A burglar no longer needs to run down the street with a computer tower system in his arms. Now he can fit it into a pocket.

You can never reduce the risk of burglary to zero, but if you increase visible security, a criminal is likely to look elsewhere.

Movement sensors, glass breakage sensors, and cameras can all be integrated into one simple system that is armed and disarmed by entering a code into an alarm panel.

Data Security

The worst thing that can happen to your business is if a break-in results in the data on your computer’s hard disk being stolen. If your confidential customer data is stored in the Cloud, you are safe, as long as your password was not on the stolen computer in a file named passwords.txt, or on a sticky yellow note the side of the computer.

Customer Data

If you lose customer contact and billing details, it is a multi-faceted disaster. If you have lost customers’ personal or financial data, you have to notify every affected customer and will lose their trust. You also face potential legal claims for damages that could take every cent you have ever earned.

Website Hacking

Many businesses update their websites and store access passwords on their computers. When your machine is stolen, the thieves then have access to your sites. Third-party hackers will pay for these website access codes, and your reputation takes a second hit, your Google ranking crashes and your visitors are offended by whatever the hackers do to your web pages.

You should forbid employees from storing access codes on your computers, in email or on sticky notes. Check the computer by typing the code into the search bar in the Start menu.

Your Options

Any risk assessment of your office security must have two considerations:

1. The probability of a security breach
2. The possible consequences

If you work in a low-crime area, the cost of office security might seem to be wasted money because the perceived risk of theft is low. However, the consequences are immeasurable but include loss of reputation, damages claims, your business folding, and you and your employees losing your income.

A low-cost, DIYwireless alarm system such as the SimpliSafe one can provide peace of mind and reduce your risk of being a victim of crime.

The post How to Reduce the Cost of Office Security appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

There’s something comforting about the familiar and personal touch. This applies even if you’re a small tech venture. There’s no reason why you can’t provide a friendly face to your customers and thus inspire trust and loyalty.

Here are some ideas on how you could build better relationships with your customers:

1. Personalize interactions

Having someone call you by name is probably the best experience you can have with a business or an organization. It just makes you feel at home. Forget about misspelt names on Starbucks cups. We’re talking about that local diner feel, wherein your servers greet you with a smile and ask you if you’d want your “usual.”

For a digital product, small changes to your user interface – such as using the nickname to label an account (e.g. “Mike’s Account”) – makes such a difference. Amazon is such an expert at personalization. Notice how there’s plenty of personalized details that persist, aside from calling you by name. These include showing you the last items you browsed, showing you items on your wish list, and suggestions based on your previous purchases.

Letting users customize and personalize settings that persist across sessions (like if they log in using a different computer or device) are things they will truly appreciate.

2. Give customers a sense of security

With all the news surrounding data breaches and stolen records, it could be a challenge for small businesses to win customers’ trust, especially when they provide personal and financial information. Owning a business is a rewarding experience that offers many benefits, but failing to be proactive about protecting your business can lead to significant financial losses. Protection from a variety of potential losses must be put into place. You can Protect Your Business From Financial Blunders. As more users become more conscious about security, “little” things like not enabling SSL (wherein you site just uses http and not https) can drive prospects away. That shows that you aren’t willing to make the investment to encrypt data transfers for your users.

There is also always an increasing risk of cyberattacks against sites and services that gather customer data. This not only results in lost productivity and damages, but it also means losing customers in the process. Don’t scrimp on protection. Solutions like Incapsula’s web application firewall and Let’s Encrypt’s SSL scripts range from free to premium, but you can give customers better assurance of their data’s security and integrity.

You can even create a small campaign about improving your security. You can privately announce to your existing customers that you are implementing security measures on your website or services because you care about their data.

3. Respond to issues promptly

It is rare or even impossible to have a perfect batting record when you’re dealing with people. There will be people who will find something wrong with your product or be dissatisfied with your service (even if it’s their fault).

What separates the best businesses are the way they respond to customer issues. It might be surprising, but customers may actually forgive initial frustrations if you are able to fix the issues quickly. The data even suggests that smaller companies are quicker to respond.

So be sure to have a support channel open, and have systems in place so your support team or staff can quickly respond. If your product or service is through an app, you can even embed a “call now” link that automatically dials you support hotline to help users connect with you easily. Avoid canned responses, too. Hear them out, be patient and polite, and speak about their concerns. Provide honest explanations and abide by reasonable timelines to get back to them.

4. Provide value added services

A great way to win loyalty is to keep on giving. Customers feel that they get more than their money’s worth when you provide value added services. And this isn’t about discount coupons or anything with monetary value.

You can provide a free tool, widget, or app exclusive to your users. Or perhaps you can send out a newsletter or give them access to a blog with helpful content. Useful content is an excellent marketing tool that you can package as a service.

If you are working on a subscription model, you can even provide complementary short-term extensions, such as 7-day or 14-day periods for your users to continue enjoying the product before they get charged for renewals.

Relationships matter

Keep in mind that strong customer relationships aid not only in customer retention, but also in increasing the chances of referrals, as well. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth and testimonials. Even blunders can be forgivable if you are swift to respond and minimize the time and effort that customers take to have their issues resolved. So why not try out ways to grow customer trust and loyalty?

The post 4 Techniques to Grow Customer Trust and Loyalty appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Who’s going to reach the bottom first? Are there other options to cutting what you charge?

Buyers use many factors to decide who to choose from, and very few choose the cheapest supplier regardless of other factors. Repricing is an important strategy for Amazon sellers, and it is affordable even for a small retailer.

What Factors Affect Amazon Buyers’ Decisions?

Appearances

First impressions matter. This is one reason we all spend so much on website design. Amazon spares you this cost because all listings look the same. Or do they?

Are you using the same manufacturer-supplied images as every other small business seller? Engage a professional photographer and add extra photos of your products, taken from different angles, so buyers have a better idea of its size and shape. Include interior and working parts shots that other sellers don’t bother with. If multiple color options are available, use one picture that shows all the color possibilities together. Think laterally and make your seller’s page stand out.

Emotions

We now know that many buying decisions are based on emotional factors and that we need to understand a buyer’s emotional intelligence to make a sale more likely. Amazon limits you in how you can use color and layout to influence emotion, but you can use your description and color options in photos to influence buyers.

In the image above you can clearly see the prominence given to the brightly colored dumbbell set. The colored dumbbells will appeal to the emotional intelligence of female buyers, especially when seen against the contrast of the masculine hex designs below.

This screenshot for kettlebells gives even more prominence to attractive designs with high emotional appeal.

Discounts are another way of appealing to the emotions, particularly since Amazon highlights your discount in red text, as is offering a free return facility because it removes any risk attached to the purchase.

Stock Levels

Amazon displays your stock levels, and this probably affects how likely you are to feature in the Amazon Buy Box. Carrying stock has costs, but if you make more sales as a result, then it is worth considering.

The Description

Bullet points are great, but you still need to be careful in crafting your description. Emphasise the benefits of each feature for maximum appeal. Cut out any unnecessary words and be certain that the English are perfect.

Delivery Options

Do you deliver internationally? If you want the sale, you need many delivery options, and charges need to be low.

Feedback and Reviews

Small businesses need to look after your customers especially well because you are your business. Make sure your personality coming through is a business asset rather than a handicap.

Poor feedback or one-star reviews will kill your Amazon business. If you’re looking for a way to get verified reviews on Amazon, check out this article on realitypaper to get the great reviews you deserve.Only sell authentic, high-quality merchandise, make sure photos give some idea of scale and include sizes in inches and centimetres: All of these will help to ensure that buyers receive what they expect and are not surprised by the smaller than expected size of your merchandise.

When a shopper asks a question, answer it immediately. Yours might be a one or two person operation but you can still assign the task to a freelancer on the other side of the Earth when you are not available. Polite and helpful answers to questioners give people useful clues as to your character and how easy you would be to deal with if they have any problems.

How Many Sales

Nobody wants to be first. High numbers of sales show you are a reliable seller who knows what you are doing. Getting your first sales is vital to increase customer confidence, so cut your prices and get them. You can raise your prices gradually once you have a good number of sales and reviews.

How Effective Is Repricing on Amazon?

An Amazon repricer program is worthwhile because it does a lot more than cutting your price to make you the cheapest seller. It will automatically change your prices as competing Amazon sellers stock levels and prices change.

Repricing programs use artificial intelligence to make you the most profit, rather than just the highest number of sales. They recognize that fewer sales at a higher profit margin are better for your bottom line than more sales at a break-even price or barely above it.

Should You Buy into a Repricing Program?

Yes, repricing software is an essential part of marketing automation, which allows your tiny company to compete with the big boys.  However, you do need to get everything else right so you don’t have to compete on price alone.

Prices are important because customers expect low prices from Amazon sellers, but buyers also base their decisions on factors such as stock levels, color options and indeterminable emotional factors. You should use A/B testing to find the best options for your business as well as opting in to an Amazon repricing program like Feedvisor or Optmizely.

The post How To Master Amazon Repricing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

They are in for a rude awakening.

With how competitive and fast-paced the business world has become, business owners are bound to experience bitter defeat if they don’t learn new strategies and methodologies that can give them an obvious advantage over their competitors.

What’s the most effective way to learn new business strategies and concepts, you might want to ask?

Well, that’s where business consultants come in.

Let’s talk about why small business need business consultants right now more than ever.

1. Learn new techniques and mindsets.

Business can learn a lot from what Sam Ovens has to say about entrepreneurship, “Entrepreneurship and success is more of a battle in your own mind than it is in anything else.” When business have consultants who can share these kinds of insights and ideas with them, they are bound to be equipped with the right mindsets that would help them achieve insurmountable success.

Also, when business owners hire consultants that are worth their salt, they’d be able to learn the tricks of the trade that other successful businesses in their industry are using. Also invest in tools to automate your processes. Hospitals are getting access to aces charting where they can store patient information and also keep it secure.

Considering how important having the right mindset and business strategy is to success, it pays for entrepreneurs to invest in hiring an experienced consultant to jumpstart their business’ growth. 

2. Get connected with like-minded people.

Business consultants are often well connected in the industry that they’re in. That’s just how they are because of the nature of their work. They often deal with business owners, managers, or people with influence that can often make a positive impact to a business startup should they decide to help. This is a great chance for small business to take part in the growing niche of influencer marketing to grow your brand and audience reach.

At this point, I need you to imagine how much value you would get if your business consultant would introduce you to their contacts. Perhaps to someone who would do well as your client or your supplier. Or perhaps to someone who can help improve your business process.

That’s just a glimpse of how much business consultants can help small business. With this kind of benefit, a business can easily look like an established brand when they are seen together with influencers or industry leaders.

3. Have better clarity.

Clarity is power. The more clarity a business owner has, the more laser focused his actions are towards reaching his goals. That means, no unnecessary turns to the left or to the right that can cause the business owner to be distracted in what he has set out to do.

With how the internet has opened truckloads of opportunities and solutions to the business owners, getting pulled in by the shiny object syndrome has become a common challenge that they have to contend with — they have no clarity.

However, when they have business consultants who can call them out for their lack of clarity, they are immediately pulled back to the road that they ought to be traveling.

When you think about the amount of money, time, and resources that get wasted when someone gets pulled in by the shiny object syndrome, you’ll have a better appreciation of how crucial a business consultant’s role is to a business.

4. Have an accountability partner.

Taking a small business from the startup phase to a level of overwhelming success requires hard work (tons of it), focus, perseverance, careful planning, motivation, and everything else in between. All of which are exceedingly hard to sustain if you’ll go at it alone.

However, if you have an accountability partner to push you and speak life to you in situations where you are just about ready to call it quits, your chances of succeeding drastically improves.

The good thing about making your business consultant your accountability partner is the fact that he is well equipped with motivation strategies/techniques and the psychology behind how people’s minds work.

Here’s the thing, while a business owner can certainly choose his best friend as his accountability partner, there is a good chance that his best friend will fail miserably at his task.

Why, you might want to ask?

Simple. That’s because his best friend isn’t trained in the psychology of motivating people (among other things). Sure. His best friend might be genuinely concerned about the business owner (which is also important in and of itself), however, being genuinely concerned alone just isn’t going to cut it when a person’s goal is to achieve significant levels of success. You’re going to need help — a professional one at that.

And so the question becomes: If you want your business to succeed, are you going to need professional help? Or is it enough for you to receive genuine concern from one of your family members?

At this point, I hope you answered the former.

5. Business consultants can optimize your business process.

Because the consultants come from a neutral place when observing a business process, they can see how the business operates from a different perspective. When you couple that with their years of experience in the industry, they can determine (and point out) the unnecessary steps that a small business makes in their business operation.

Once these unnecessary steps have been pointed out to the business owners, they can then get rid of it increasing the efficiency of their business workflow.

What’s next?

Are you currently working with a business consultant? If you answered with a “yes,” can you share how your working relationship with him/her have been so far? What are some of the best practices that you can share when it comes to dealing with business consultants?

The post Why Small Business Owners Need Business Consultants Now More than Ever appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you’re the owner of an SMB, you’re used to wearing many, many hats, and you know how fierce the competition is. SMB’s often have little to no room for error, and productivity depends on hyper-smart time management and budget-friendly choices.

Inefficiency is the enemy of a small business and it can sink a ship shortly after setting sail.

The good news is the digital space constantly offers an ocean of tactics and tools developed for business owners who seek automated assistance. The bad news is you have to keep up on what’s out there, or your competitors will beat you to it.

Let’s take a look at some of the most recent advancements and how they can increase your brand’s effectiveness in 2017.

Better, Smarter, Faster Invoicing

The success of virtually any business relies on generating sales, earning revenue, and getting that money in the bank on time. But we’re all used to delayed or missing payments, and chasing down our clients for timely payments is not an efficient use of any manager’s time.

The best way to ensure prompt payments is to employ a digital invoicing system. Be aware that many of today’s solutions are clunky and inefficient, adding to complexity and stress rather than alleviating it.

That’s where services like Sighted become a lifesaver.

Sighted is a customizable invoicing software that allows business owners to streamline their expenses and revenue. The system enables users to tailor invoices to meet the needs of a project through product or service details, per hour, project, or product pricing, and various other personalized features.

The service also makes receiving payments a synch with integrated online payment options, a kaleidoscope of supported currencies, and even provides financial reporting information to help you understand where your money is allocated. With a top tier price of $9.00 per month, Sighted is a highly affordable option for SMBs.

Alternatively, if you would like an invoicing service that integrates checkout options, there’s MoonClerk.

MoonClerk also allows merchants to set up one-time or recurring payment invoices for clients, but this technology also enables SMB owners to link to checkout pages from nearly anywhere, including emails and Facebook.

MoonCleark even allows users to brand their checkout page with logos, fonts, colors, and more to ensure a consistent experience for consumers.

Greater Outreach and Relationship-Building Strategies

Contrary to what some people believe, email is still one of the most effective channels for generating leads and sales; email drove 25% of all sales on Black Friday 2015.

This year, approximately 225 billion emails will be sent each day; a 5% increase over 2016.

Part of the reason email is such a strong focus for business owners is that 72% of consumers state that email is their preferred method of communication with companies.

This means that there is massive potential for growth and failure among increasingly cluttered inboxes. To break through the noise, you’re going to need a stellar email solution. Enter: Mailshake.

This email provider helps to bolster a brand’s outreach and relationship-building efforts through customizable email templates that cater to efforts involving lead acquisition, link building, content promotion, and other business-centered tasks.

Mailshake also allows users to established automated follow up emails based on actions (or lack thereof) of recipients and also supports drip campaigns, real-time email alterations, and robust analytics so that you know how your efforts are performing.

Email is not the only avenue to build relationships or conduct outreach through, however, as content marketing plays a major role in both of these departments.

Despite its overabundance online, content is still one of the most effective ways to educate consumers, build trust, drive sales, increase SEO rankings, and reach other digital goals. But as a small business owner, you likely don’t have the time to create unique content on a regular basis.

To help streamline and amplify your content marketing efforts, there’s ClearVoice.

ClearVoice helps SMB operators to acquire unique and compelling content by simply uploading the details of the required materials and assigning it to a team member.

If you don’t have employees to handle content creation, it can be outsourced to one of 2,500 different freelance writers that ClearVoice matches with your content needs, creating a perfect pairing.

The ClearVoice marketplace can be leveraged to create anything from articles to infographics and freelancers can be paid through the system too.

The system also provides a bevy of content management tools such as collaborative editing features, publishing options, and a curated list of trending topics and stories so that you are never short on inspiration.

Amplified Social Media Engagement

Social media has become an essential marketing and communications tool for businesses of all sizes. The content that companies share helps to reach new audiences and build awareness. But as an SMB, there is a good chance that you don’t have the funds to generate unique materials for every social share. That’s where DrumUp saves the day.

DrumUp allows SMBs to access and schedule social shares from a curated list of the most relevant content. These effective creations can be posted across various social networks to help maintain consistency and engagement.

The service delivers content directly to a user’s dashboard based on the keywords entered and new feeds can be integrated so that you are sharing content from your favorite reputable sources.

DrumUp also suggests relevant hashtags to include in scheduled posts so that your updates reach the highest number of applicable readers.

In addition to content curation and social scheduling, DrumUp also features employee advocacy and gamification features like contests and leaderboards to help transform staff members into powerful conversion drivers.

SMB owners often have a hard time balancing all of the necessary management, marketing, and growth tasks needed to build a prosperous business. Let technology do the heavy lifting and boost your business’s efficiency and productivity by employing these proven, effective, and reliable tools.

The post How To Amp Up Your SMB’s Performance and Productivity appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

You woke up at 2 in the morning after having dreamt of an epic business idea.

“It’s one of those mind-blowing ‘Aha!’ moments again!” you say to yourself.

At this point, your brain is running at 274 miles per hour taking in more ideas, figuring out the possibilities, and calculating the risks (among other things).

Simply put, you’re dead excited about the new business idea that you’re practically obsessed by it. You then reach out to your phone to contact your business partner to tell him what’s up.

Just minutes after your conversation with him, however, all hope and enthusiasm you had in you have been extinguished. #CompetitionProblems

Your business partner was very quick to point out how GINORMOUS and well-known your competitors are, that it’s borderline impossible for you to succeed.

*sigh*

“How on earth do I succeed at marketing this new business if I’m going against established brands?” You asked yourself.

Friends, if you’re asking that very question right now, then I’m glad that you’re here. I will share with you five effective marketing strategies that will help you dominate even the most established of brands.

If that’s what you’re trying to do right now, then you absolutely need to read on.

1. Focus on what makes your brand special.

There is no point in playing the marketing game in the big brands’ homecourt. I mean, there’s just no point in fighting them in something that they are already well known for.

Instead of going on a suicidal mission such as that, you can focus on highlighting the things that make you special. That way, your competitors will somewhat become irrelevant to your audience as they read your marketing materials, since you’re talking about the things that are unique about your brand.

A solid example would be how VIDGO is slowly but surely gaining some traction despite them competing against a ginormous brand like NETFLIX.

If you check out VIDGO’s content on the internet, you’ll notice how they won’t fail to mention the fact that they’re taking Live TV Streaming to a whole new level — something that NETFLIX doesn’t quite have yet.

NETFLIX only allows its users to watch TV shows or series once it’s available in their library of movies/shows. VIDGO, on the other hand, gives their users the ability to watch TV shows, news, and channels live.

VIDGO’s marketing strategy has proven to be so effective, to the point where reputable websites with millions of monthly traffic like HuffingtonPost, Mashable and Tech.co have written about them.

2. Show genuine concern for your customers.

You’ve heard it, right? Customers feel that their concerns are ignored.

Customer A bought a product from a ginormous company. The product ended up being defective, so customer A experienced truckloads of inconvenience.

When customer A complained to the company, he/she didn’t get a single reply.

An even worse scenario is when the company does reply, yet the kind of message that they send to their customers are generic or borderline cookie-cutter/useless messages.

Scenarios like these often make the customers feel unappreciated.

This kind of scenario is quite typical for huge brands for a lot of reasons.

Check out the majority of Upwork’s reviews/feedback. You’ll notice how the freelancing site isn’t taking the time to address their community’s complaints.

Here’s another comprehensive review of Upwork. You will know what it does, how it operates, what are some of the pitfalls and how to avoid them so you can hire the best talent for your business (at the best price!).

Here’s a question: How do you think their customers feel when no one from the company is answering their complaints or problems?

If you’ll take the time to show genuine concern for your customers by providing amazing support, there’s a good chance that they’ll choose you over the huge brands.

3. Don’t be everywhere.

You don’t have to be on FB, LI, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter (among other social media sites) if you don’t have enough resources to stand out on the platform.

Instead of spreading yourself too thin, you should try focusing on 2 – 3 platforms (maybe even one if that’s the only thing your budget allows), that way, you’ll manage to stand out and create a profile that has a decent number of followers.

Don’t be obsessed with being all over the internet. Just like in most things, focusing on quality and not so much on quantity can pay you dividends.

Important note: I am not telling you to ignore the other social media sites. What I am telling you is you need to consolidate your resources and focus on 1 – 3 platforms for now. Once your resources allow you to pursue other platforms, then you hands down need to grow on other sites as well.

Remember that the internet is continuously expanding, if you aren’t trying to expand your visibility as well, you’ll end up getting left behind.

4. Embrace being the underdog.

You can bet your family jewels that humans have the inclination to like the underdogs. A study conducted way back in 2007, and 2009 is a good proof of this claim.

Both studies tell us that there is value in embracing your role as being the underdog. When you emphasize this point to your audience (while not sounding like a beggar or a company that lacks self-esteem), this can inadvertently cause your audience to support you instead of the existing company that they are transacting with.

5. Give incentives.

Huge brands won’t bother with giving incentives that much since they’re expecting their audience to chase after them — mainly because of how established they are. Because they have an existing pool of customers and they have a sense of “stability” in their company, they don’t bother to pursue new customers as much as new companies would. In short, some established brands often do not give as much “love” to their prospective customers.

That’s what you’ll exploit.

You can set yourself apart by giving away meaningful incentives to your prospective customers to win them over.

Notice how I highlighted the word “meaningful?” I wanted to highlight the word because a meaningful incentive can work wonders for you. It has the ability to bring in more sales, leads and even influence your customers to share your products their network of connections proactively.

On the flip side of the coin, however, giving away craptastic incentives will either get you ignored, or worse, your prospective customers might end up getting really annoyed at you.

That being said, should you decide to follow this tip, be sure to make your incentives worthwhile for your prospective customers. Otherwise, the whole thing can backfire on you.

What’s next?

Are there marketing strategies that you can share with our readers that can help them dominate their niche, despite them competing with reputable brands?

If you answered with a “yes,” please share your marketing strategies in the comments section below. Cheers!

The post 5 Marketing Tips to Help You Dominate Bigger and More Established Brands appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

By the end of 2019, the number of worldwide email users will increase to over 2.9 billion. Over one third of the worldwide population will be using email by year end 2019”.

As for marketing emails…44% of people make purchases because of a promotional email.

So there you have the stats. Email is very much alive and well, and nowadays is the preferred method of communication across the world.

Although email signatures have been around from the stone ages or so it seems, they now have the potential to not only be a digital calling card, but a powerful and ideal marketing tool, because call to actions can be included in a way that is not pushy or salesy. Now the email signature can tell a story without you needing to.

In this article, find seven sneaky and subtle ideas to prompt action from email recipients.

#1 Create pro email signatures

Instantly add trust and credibility to your brand by creating a super professional email signature.

To do this easily, use Wisestamp. It works with just about all email service providers.

Once created, simply plug the HTML provided into your email settings, and Bob’s your uncle. Because of how easy this tool is to use, it would be a good idea to take the next six ideas and plug them into an email signature that is created on Wisestamp. While a basic email signature like the one shown is free, some features can only be used with the premium package.

#2 Add a “what can I do for you?” video clip

If you are sending “cold” emails to prospects, add a video clip to your signature which explains, in a short and concise way, how you can help them. Take care that this clip represents your brand, so it needs to reflect quality and character.

Adding a clip to your signature makes it easy for people to find out what you do and how your product or service could benefit them, without the need for a time consuming face-to-face meeting.

Don’t let the video making idea daunt you…it’s easy to create a pro one with RendrFX (and you can even make your first one for free).

Upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo, and then using a tool like Canva, design the image for email that points to the video.

#3 Promote an event

Using a catchy call to action in your email signature, let recipients know about your event, conference or upcoming sales webinar.

Be sure to point them to a web page where they can find out more, or register.

#4 Advertise blog posts or case studies

Promoting a well written, informative and value-add blog post may be what convinces your prospect that the product or service you provide is credible and trustworthy. Adding a blog post or case study link to your email signature can be a powerful way to showcase your expertise.

#5 Add a link to customer reviews

Research shows that your prospects will trust what your customers say about your brand before they’ll trust what you say about it.

In fact, according to Vendasta, 68% consumers report that positive customer reviews make them trust a business more, and star ratings is the primary method by which people judge your business, so it’s a very powerful tool you can use to build brand credibility.

Granted, it’s not all that easy to incorporate reviews into your business when you don’t know how, so using a tool like Yotpo can be of great help. Yotpo helps you collect genuine customer reviews and works to get more of them. This tool gives multiple benefits, because not only does it collect reviews for you, but also drives more traffic to your site and boosts sales, as a result of incorporating reviews. Simply add a link to your email signature, that leads clicks to your reviews.

#6 Promote sales

If you’re having a sale, notify the people you email by simply including a link. People associate sales with red, so including a bit of red somewhere is a great idea, so that the eye is drawn to the notification, as the “sale” part shows in this example:

#7 Mini website-in-email

A website is like your business’ brick and mortar building: it’s a way for people to get a feel for the brand, and find out information about the business.

In this example email signature, Rex Weston provides a mini-website right from his signature, which includes all his details, as well as a virtual business card and a link to a PDF brochure. At the bottom, it also let’s recipients know of an event the company will be at, and where to find their booth.

All this arranged in a very smart, clean look.

If you really want to go to town, within minutes you can create a one page mini introduction website with WiseIntro, and link to it from your email signature.

This tool is especially helpful for personal branding and for getting more leads, as it includes a signup form on a webpage that is not filled with distracting elements as a website usually is. The result is that you’re likely to get more sign-ups than you might from a website.

Adding the page link into your email signature encourages recipients to find out more about you, and take the action you want them to take.

Summary

Email is the preferred method of communication, so marketers should optimize the opportunity by adding a call to action to email signatures.

Seven brainy ways of sneaking in a call to action, is by:

1. Adding an introduction link which leads to a sign-up form on a standalone webpage.
2. Including a link to a video demonstrating your product or service.
3. Promoting an event by inserting a link to a registration page.
4. Advertising your latest blog posts or case studies.
5. Including a link to positive customer reviews and ratings.
6. Promoting e-commerce sales.
7. Adding a mini website-in-email signature by including lots of information about how your business can benefit the recipient.

The post 7 Ways To Use Email Signatures As Sneaky Call to Actions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The thing about selling content online, is that not only do you need the best way to upload your content, but you also need to consider a host of other stuff, like search engine optimization, marketing, presentation, delivery methods, payment and so on.

In addition, there are methods that cater for the small business, and others for larger companies who already have hundreds of courses.

Methods of selling content

Before you take the plunge and decide on a platform for your online courses, be diligent about doing your homework. The reason for this is that once you’ve loaded your content onto one platform, it’s going to be a mission to move it someplace else. FastSpring’s easy-to-use, full-service ecommerce platform includes everything you need to successfully sell digital downloads globally.

What you need to consider:

• Hosting for reliability and speed – you want to make sure your learners don’t get frustrated with the backend of your platform.
• Payment options – it is best to provide as many payment options as possible, or you may lose business.
• How easy it is to upload stuff like digital downloads and videos – you don’t want to battle when uploading digital downloads, videos, etc.
• Help with marketing the courses – does the platform make marketing your courses easier? For instance, does the platform provide a landing page builder?
• Course content delivery – how does the content need to be delivered? I.e., you may want to drip feed it by email. If so, how will it work.
• Integration with other third party services – understand exactly what else you’ll need to make everything work, and find out if those functions are easily integrated.
• Whether the platform is mobile responsive or not – drop it like a hotcake if it is not.
• Whether the platform is search engine friendly – Is the platform built to provide search engines with what they need, so that you get more traffic?

As you go through the options below, you’ll need to find out the answers to the above questions. And only then should you make your decision.

Oh, and one last thing: avoid making your decision based on price, as this could bite you in the butt at a later stage.

Types of platforms for small businesses

Branded Learning Management Systems website business

Think of this platform as purchasing a full-on online business. All you need to do is change the templates and add the content. It’s probably the easiest way to set up an online training business.

If we were to use Kajabi as an example of a branded LMS website business – and be aware that all of these types of platforms vary in what they offer – you get your own customizable website, landing page templates you can use to direct traffic to in order to get higher conversions, and you can email right from the system, so drip feeding is a piece of cake and you don’t need to pay extra for an email marketing software facility. All the tools you need are provided.

Pricing for a system like Kajabi is $103 per month as a starter, but you save costs by not having to fork out for a landing page builder and email marketing software.

This option is the superior choice because it has everything in one tool, is easiest to setup and use, and consists of everything you’ll need for marketing purposes.

WordPress websites membership plugins

If you’re already on WordPress, you may want to install a membership plugin. There are free options which is great because if your budget does not allow for any other paid option, it’s nice to know that there are ways to create an online course business using free tools.

But as with all tools, check that the plugin of your choice can do what you need it to do, and that it works well and integrates with any other services you may need to add, like an email software platform and payment gateways.

It’s not suggested you choose this option if you are a WordPress newbie, because you may face some serious struggles.

Membership websites are perfect for getting a community together: sharing media, tutorials, or ideas for the selected ones who join your secret club. However, managing such a platform may seem a very messy thing. Handling payments, subscriptions, permissions, and many more services can sound very intimidating. This is where the right membership website builder can make your life easier. With superior ease of use and great design, they can help create a great experience for both you and your visitors.

WordPress websites Learning Management System plugins

While membership plugins are made specifically for control access of content, LMS plugins are developed specifically for online courses and are best in terms of structure and creating a course that flows in a specific order, providing a complete learning path.

They also tend to provide course-rich features, like quizzes, assignments, progress tracking and certificates.

An example of an LMS plugin is LearnDash. Prices vary, but you’re looking at about $160 for a single website.

Marketplace websites

Choosing to go the marketplace route for your online courses is good from the point of view that those sites already boast a good amount of traffic, and usually have good search engine rankings. What this means for you, is that you don’t need to work so hard at getting people to the location of your course. Having said that, it does not mean your course stands a better chance of getting sales either, depending on your niche.

Because on the flip side of the coin, you will probably have a lot of competition on marketplace sites. So if you choose to go this route, you will need to make your course stand out from the rest of the crowd, and how you do that will depend on the marketplace website.

The main con of using sites like Udemy, is that you don’t own the list of subscribers and you can’t control your price. They set the standards and the manner in which you present and deliver your course, so it will have to be according to their standards, not yours.

Summary

The best option – if your budget allows it – is to go with the branded LMS option. The second best options are between the LMS WordPress plugin and marketplace sites. The last option you should consider, specifically for online course management, is the membership plugin.

The logic for this conclusion is that the membership plugin:

1. a) is not as easy to set up and make everything work as the other options, and/or
2. b) it may not be the best option from an SEO point of view, and that would be detrimental to your success.

The post The 4 Methods Of Selling Your Content Online appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The forecast

The 2016 holiday season has estimates of a stunning $9 billion rise in holiday season ecommerce revenue comparison to last year, growing from $69B to $78B. Average order values will also increase by around $25 from the beginning to the end of the annual holiday season. Despite this elevation in spending, experts believe holiday online purchases are 55% less probable of being fraud. However, this does not cancel the necessity to evaluate and analyze the past with the goal of refining our current methods. Chargebacks are extremely costly and an argument otherwise is quite hard to comprehend.

Using past data correctly

November renders a massive increase in consumers using international cards to make their purchases. To define the safe or threatening nature of each order, merchants are now able to take advantage of reviewing past data. While it may seem strange, the days of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and New Year’s Eve actually pose a lesser risk compared to other days of the calendar. Due to a lack of understanding on the part of merchants, majority of all rejected orders during the 2015 holiday season essentially lacked any legitimacy concerns.

As a result, relying solely on past data would be an unwise practice, especially as our times continue to change. Take Donald Trump’s election as president, for example. With each passing year, ecommerce sales have been increasing in ratio in comparison to in-person purchases. To cope with the new environment, fraudsters have evolved their tactics. The proxies they use are more complex, such as mobile versions. Another increasing malicious fraud trend includes account takeovers. To ensure customer security, merchants are encouraged to welcome machine learning algorithms, enjoying the ability of real time rules refining.

High value found in returning customers

Knowing if a consumer is interested in your goods or services for the first time, or is a returning customer, is crucial. Returning customers are less likely to be involved in any form of fraud in comparison to new cases. As a result, returning customers should enjoy far better approaches by retailers. The ability to make such a distinction is crucial during the holiday season when large orders are involved.

The truth is, however, that distinguishing returning customers from the new is no easy task. This brings into necessity the employment of a complex, yet powerful, linking system able to identify customers according to different fields. This includes device fingerprinting, email domains, IP addresses and products. However, a must to keep in mind is the sensitive nature of ecommerce merchants collecting such data from their customers. Many may consider such a practice a violation of their privacy. In the meantime, this method will decrease the possibility of false decline rates and facilitate the need to identify returning customers.

Data, data, and more data

January is a month of chargeback arguments and merchants need advance preparations. Successful merchants are those able to access more historic data about their consumers. The more data, the more capable merchants are in corroborating returning customers’ identity. A log of well-kept customer data, for example, from the month of September will help ease and clarify disputes erupting each year in February. Such screenshots are best stored as PDFs, parallel to third party sources such as Emailage, Facebook or White Pages, all used to enrich a merchant’s data bank.

How to respond

Merchants can find a more vigorous understanding of their customers through elastic linking data technology provided by Riskified, a leading e-commerce fraud prevention company pioneering the chargeback guarantee. Merchants are also capable of accessing past customer shopping information through the company’s database, especially necessary when dealing with new customers. This is especially useful in decreasing the number of order declines.

“Not only do we approve 66% of orders retailers plan to decline, but we also guarantee every order we approve to provide assurance and peace of mind,” explained Riskified CEO Eido Gal in an interview.

With more small and large businesses embracing methods to immaculate records these days, further evidence is useful to help resolve chargeback arguments. This type of service is best provided through partners for third party fraud prevention purposes.

Final thoughts

Improving shopping experience is always a major goal for ecommerce merchants. While smart data methods can provide significant leverage for merchants, the consumer must never feel intruded, tracked, followed or any such dangerous impression. Asking proper questions and seeking the right data is key in how to tread on this fine line. Considering the powerful nature of smart data collection technology, it is wise to take simple steps to begin with and time will tell when to implement more complex methods.

All in all, executing correct methods, treating new and returning customers accordingly, and seeking the correct source of support will decrease money going down the chargeback drain. And most importantly, allowing consumers and merchants rightfully enjoy their holiday season.

The post How Smart Data Can Help eCommerce Merchants Save Money Over the Holidays appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

An average staff turnover of 10 years.

High profile potential clients who call you instead of you calling them. A company which retains it’s customers year after year after year.

This is what your business could look like.

And this is what it means to be an IT business that delivers service excellence. Exceptional companies are created by design, not by default.

And it all starts with a happy team of staff members, which is why we’ll focus on that aspect as the basis of creating a service excellence culture in an Information Technology business.

What is service excellence?

Service excellence is best described as a culture. It’s the fundamental link between a productive, successful business and an inspired, motivated workforce.

To achieve truly exceptional levels of service, people must be inspired to go that extra mile.  They must be emotionally connected to the company so that they continually give their best.

Service excellence is all about behavioral change and empowerment of staff.

Benefits of a service excellence culture

If you’re wondering why you should bother, maybe these well-known statistics will provide motivation:

• A customer will tell on average, 10 other friends or family about their service experience.  In the case of IT service delivery companies, it’s likely contracts won’t be renewed, and you’ll need to keep sourcing more clients.
• Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than holding on to your current ones.
• The average company loses 10% of its customers each year because of poor customer service delivery.
• 40% Of your customers will switch to competitors if they experience poor service.

Examples of service excellence culture

Disney Resorts, known as the undisputed worldwide leader in customer service, spend a huge amount of money training their street sweeper, who they consider to be one of their most valued assets.

Why a street sweeper?

Well, Disney recognized that most of their guests approach the street sweeper for information as if he were an information kiosk. They tailored their approach to their customers, instead of trying to tailor their customers around their processes.

Then there’s Commerce Bank; the bank which makes more money than any other bank in the world, with the greatest annual growth rate. What makes them different to other banks?

Commerce Bank believes that customers pay for convenience, and their aim is to provide a unique experience for all their customers. Unlike most other banks, they are relationship oriented, going so far as to be pet friendly, and staying open when other banks close.

They are so anti “how-this-is-always-done”, that they incorporated a “kill stupid rules” rule. Staff who provide alternatives to what may be “stupid” rules, get paid.

The problem with the IT industry and service excellence

In the IT industry, staff are usually employed for their technical skills. And when staff move up the chain of command, they are promoted for their technical ability, not their managerial skills. And so, in this industry specifically, there is generally a lack of understanding about what makes a great service experience.

Why technical people rarely understand the elements of a great service experience.

Image Credit: VirtualBusinessSolutions.Biz

With this in mind, it might be of great benefit to hire someone who is not technical, to work on your IT service delivery strategy.

Service excellence begins with your staff

There are quite a few elements that need to be covered when you implement a service excellence project into an Information Technology business, but the success of it hinges on your staff.

The elements of incorporating a service excellence project.

Image Credit: VirtualBusinessSolutions.Biz

There are a plethora of findings and statistics to prove that happy staff are more productive, bring in more sales, more dedicated, take less days off, and more.

So what you need to do to provide a service excellence culture, is to make sure your staff are happy.

How happy are your staff?

The very first step is to find out the happiness levels of your staff, and address any problems they have with their work environment.

If you’re The Boss – no matter how nice you may be – there’s no way you can know for sure if your staff are happy without doing some kind of anonymous staff satisfaction survey. But to get the answers you really want (and you want truth, no matter how bad it may be, right?) you need to make sure that staff know what you’ll do with what they tell you, and maybe even offer some kind of incentive to complete the survey, or make it mandatory. While they may be forced to participate, they are not going to bother giving you good information if they don’t believe it’s going to benefit them.

Once you have the information, create a project to address issues with the intention of improving the staff work environment. Bear in mind that you as The Boss, may need to “suck it up” if there are negative details about you. Don’t make anyone suffer for telling the truth, no matter how bad the feedback is. If you punish staff for truth, they will clam up and never trust you again.

Make the staff work environment fun

Fun makes work a great place to spend time. And for work to be fun, happy staff have to feel excited to be there. It’s a good idea to create opportunities for people to bond, so that they become a unified team, and the best way of doing this, is by having social occasions and team building activities for work.

The Zurich Google offices boast a slide to make work even more fun. Google goes to great lengths to spark innovation and creativity. It’s what makes them the search engine that dominates the world.

Image Credit: WorkHappyNow

Wrapping up

Companies like Disney Resorts and Commerce Bank, who both provide exceptional service experiences know that at the foundation of their success, lies a happy, motivated, inspired workforce.

Although there are many elements in delivering an exceptional service experience, it all begins with how satisfied your staff are.

First find out how happy your workforce is, deal with any issues, and then make work a fun place to be, where people bond to form a strong team.

Once this has been achieved, you can start working on all the other elements, like training, service recovery, branding, etc.

The post Happy Staff: The Foundation Of Excellence For Any Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a number of significant upgrades to BI tech. IBM has announced the development of a new “smart storage” algorithm that uses a complex matrix of “data value” signals to determine caching priorities and render servers more efficient. Sisense has begun working with the new 6th Generation Intel Core vPro processors to deliver 300 percent improvements in BI analytics speeds. Teradata is rebooting its massive parallel processing (MPP) platform under the new brand name IntelliFlex, while reconfiguring the architecture of Intelliflex’s data warehouse to reduce down time and latency. And Hadoop distributor Hortonworks recently rolled out a new platform called DataFlow, which uses agent technologies to consolidate event records fired off by internet of things (IoT) sensors.

While big data may have seemed as mysterious as magic to marketers in its infancy just a few years ago, marketing itself has moved on from being a primarily “creative” field to increased emphasis on science, and it’s all enabled by tech advances like those described above. In practice, this magic is contingent on the inventive thinking of the CMO, or the marketing team member who devises queries and wrangles dashboards to come up with the “big idea.” It’s increasingly becoming about math – get the right algorithm, and you can get the right numbers on your side.

Following the money and the bytes

This type of marketing activity represents significant change from yesteryear’s imperfect methods of determining who a company’s buyer personas and existing customers are, what they want and how to engage with them most effectively. Now we can unlock insights like these based on huge collections of actual interactions, as our big data shows us how to best deliver the big idea.

Computer Sciences Corp estimates that the total amount of data generated by humankind will grow by a mind-blowing 4,300 percent between 2009 and 2020. Investors are betting heavily on the value of that big data for marketing and BI purposes, pouring in some $7.4 Billion for marketing technology funding and acquisitions over the course of Q4 of 2015 alone, according to VB Insight. No wonder Gartner predicts that IT spending by CMOs will soon surpass that of CIOs.

So what kinds of solutions are CMOs buying? They are buying the tools necessary to evaluate and refine marketing strategies. Today’s marketers are bent on measuring and optimizing their allocation of marketing resources, their conversion rates and their customer experiences. Setting up big bata capabilities in-house, however, is beyond the reach of most companies. The closing of that capability gap is where the big money is going.

Big data’s marketing impact point

Multiple channels are necessary for reaching the widest possible relevant audience with meaningful messaging that converts – which is the goal of marketing, after all. Multi-channel marketing demands prioritization and all kinds of other decisions, though, which are unrelated to the big idea yet necessary for delivering its power of persuasion.

In this sense, the insights that self-service platforms like Sisense can unlock for its clients form the basis for making touch marketing prioritization decisions quickly and effectively. Sisense simplifies business analytics for complex data by leveraging two innovative technologies. In-Chip Analytics forces data into the cache of a desktop computer or server, rather than having the CPU refer over and over again to stored memory. This accelerates the process so dramatically that data preparation steps can be eliminated, and the nimble, on-the-fly results necessary for business decisions become not just possible, but easy.

Single-stack architecture means that everything is handled by Sisense – the ETL (extract, transform and load), the data management environment, the analytics environment and the visualization. This allows the company to deliver business intelligence (BI) as a one-stop-shop to companies from SMBs with ten employees, all the way up to eBay and Lockheed Martin.

Self-service data-driven marketing

Effective BI software allows marketing departments to test concepts without being reliant on data scientists, and without the complex organizational and technical processes which block effective testing. Inexpensive, easy-to-access information gives marketers the power to make decisions about which types of customers are best engaged with through which marketing channels.

Knowing what’s the right channel, the right time, and the right way to reach out to the right people allows marketers to optimize their budgets and maximize their growth.

The post How Big Data’s Maturity Enables Informed Marketing Decisions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Although effective content marketing is the key to web traffic, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Are you producing high-quality content that for some reason isn’t getting results? Have you been pulling your hair out trying to discover what’s wrong with your content?

If you feel your content truly is valuable to your audience, perhaps you don’t have a content problem. Instead, you might have a distribution or a viewability problem.

Many marketers don’t think about the importance of effective content distribution. The reality is that good distribution is just as important as the quality and value of your content. After all, if no one discovers your award-worthy content, few people will visit your website, become leads, or convert to paying customers.

Content Distribution Methods to Invest In

Here are a few content distribution methods and platforms that have been proven effective.

1. Content Distribution Platforms

If you’ve never used a content distribution platform, your content might not be getting the attention it deserves. How do these platforms distribute your content? They partner with large media outlets such as Time and CNN, and then place your content on such sites in the form of native ads.

You’ve probably visited highly-trafficked sites and stumbled upon content sections titled “Recommended for You,” or “From Around the Web,” or “You May Also Like.” The articles and videos in these sections look like editorial features, but they’re actually promoted content from a content distribution platform.

And the best part? The readers who come across your promoted content are already interested in what you’re offering. It’s all thanks to sophisticated algorithms used by the content distribution platform.

The rise of content discovery is significantly impacting the online-search industry, and its growth will most likely continue well into the future.

2. Facebook Ads

Facebook has over 1.4 billion monthly users. And of the 50 million small-business Facebook Pages, 2.5 million of them are Facebook advertisers. Is your business one of them?

Facebook advertising is a highly-effective way to distribute your content to a large audience who will find your offerings relevant. The pay-per-click format offered by Facebook is very controllable. Even low amounts like $100 or even $50 can attract attention to your content.

Facebook’s Ad Manager offers some of the best targeting on the planet. With the ability to target almost any kind of audience, you’re able to focus on those who are most likely to view and share your content.

Tips to consider:

• Besides creating Facebook Ads, another cost-effective way to reach more people is to boost Facebook posts that contain your content.
• Join relevant Facebook Groups, and share any content you’ve published and advertised.
• For extra momentum, create Instant Articles on Facebook to promote your content.
• Pin your best content to the top of your brand’s Page.

3. Twitter Ads

With 320 million monthly active users, Twitter offers marketers significant content-distribution opportunities. And like Facebook ads, Twitter advertising can be effective without spending an exorbitant amount of money. Several Twitter ad campaign types are available, including:

• Website clicks campaigns
• Followers campaigns
• Engagement campaigns
• App campaigns

In your Twitter campaigns, shoot for running five or six promoted tweets simultaneously. And to keep your campaign relevant and fresh, add some new tweets to the campaign every week.

Other tips to consider:

• In your content, encourage your audience to follow you on Twitter.
• As with other platforms, adding images and video makes your content more engaging on Twitter.
• When your audience shares your content on Twitter, retweet them!
• If your content included names or thoughts from any influencers, mention them on Twitter. With any luck, they’ll retweet the content.
• Keep your tweeted content pinned to the top of your tweets.

4. Email Marketing

Yes, this traditional method of content distribution is still effective and dependable. When done right, email marketing (such as newsletters) delivers excellent ROI and helps you maintain a strong connection with your audience. It’s also an effective way to regularly spotlight your brand, products and services. And as an important bonus, email marketing is known for being highly shareable.

When using email marketing to distribute your content, remember that traditional methods like “batching and blasting” aren’t effect today. (This is the tactic of blasting your entire email list with the same content regardless of your audience’s past web-browsing behavior or purchase history.) Instead, it’s far more effective to incorporate tactics like email segmentation, and geo-targeting.

Other tips to consider:

• In your emails’ signature line, add a link to more content you’d like to promote that week. Include a message like (“Check out my recent article on…”)
• Try to sponsor an email newsletter within your industry so you can feature some of your content in it.
• Ask an influencer with a large email audience if they’d share a piece of your valuable content with their audience. Their audience will benefit, and it could lead to more traffic to your website.

5. LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Content

According to a report from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. While LinkedIn’s popularity for marketers is well known, many people don’t realize that only around 20 percent of your followers see your LinkedIn posts. Direct Sponsored Content is a good solution.

Direct Sponsored Content allows a brand to distribute content to larger audiences on LinkedIn, while also targeting audiences by LinkedIn groups, skills, location, age and gender.

Also, unlike regular Sponsored Content, “Direct” Sponsored Content does not show up on a company’s LinkedIn Page. This allows brands to distribute as much content as they want without cluttering their Company Page.

Other tips to consider:

• Create status updates about your content.
• If you included the names or ideas of any influencers in your content, tag them in your LinkedIn status updates.
• Share your content in your LinkedIn groups who’d find the content valuable.
• Write a post on LinkedIn Pulse with a link to your content.

6. SlideShare

Smart content marketers convert their content into SlideShare presentations. Why? With millions of content-hungry users on SlideShare, it’s the most well-known slide presentation platform in the world. Consider these staggering facts:

• 70 million people around the globe are active on SlideShare.
• It’s a trusted source. Users know that many respected authorities and influencers, in several industries worldwide, are found on SlideShare.
• SlideShare can be used for lead generation.
• With a domain authority of 95 and page authority of 79, SlideShare offers excellent SEO.

Tips to consider:

• When re-purposing your content, create a single slide to feature your content’s main point. Use subsequent slides to further develop the main point.
• Make sure your images are attractive.
• Don’t be afraid to use as many slides as needed to make your presentation valuable.
• Add calls to action at the presentation’s close.

7. Quora

Your brand creates knowledgeable content that addresses many questions people in your industry have. If only there were a platform that enables you to find these questions! Of course, such a platform exists.

Quora is a popular question-and-answer platform with 1.3 million visitors each month in the U.S. When users type questions into Quora, they see search results for their questions that have already been asked by others – as well as answers from experts. If their question has never been asked on Quora, they can submit the question themselves.

One excellent way to use Quora for content distribution is to search for questions that your content answers. When you find the right question, you can then repurpose your content into a clear answer and provide a link to it in your response.

Other tips to consider:

• For effective branding, write a Quora bio that conveys your knowledge and experience. Your readers will see your bio every time they read your answers.
• Follow any Quora topic you have expertise in. You’ll receive email updates when new questions have been asked within those topics.
• Perhaps this should go without saying, but make sure your answers are always useful and never spammy.

Although this is not an exhaustive list, it covers many of the proven distribution methods that get results. If other platforms have worked for you, don’t stop using them! The more distribution methods you use, the better. The goal, of course, is getting your content into the hands of as many relevant audiences as possible.

If all these distribution methods seem like a lot of work, that’s because content distribution is a lot of work! But its importance can’t be overstated. In fact, it has been said that content is no longer king. Distribution is.

Like everything else in business, there are no shortcuts in content marketing or distribution. It takes consistent effort, research, and creativity. But the good news is that those who make content and distribution a priority will be rewarded with a loyal audience and a healthy ROI.

If it all starts to feel exhausting, think of the end results. When your hard work has earned you an audience and high web traffic, you’ll be thankful you put in the time and effort.

The post 7 Content Distribution Methods That Boost Web Traffic appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How do you know which experts are worth following? I’m glad you asked, because you’re about to be introduced to some of the world’s most trustworthy online marketers.
The following influencers are trusted and well known by many brands across the world. So whether you’re a seasoned marketer wanting to keep up with the latest trends, or you’re just starting out and looking for advice, you can learn from these gurus.

In no particular order, here are some online influencers to remember:

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is the well-known online marketer behind such popular resources as Kissmetrics, Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, and Hello Bar. His current focus is on Kissmetrics, a tool that tracks and analyzes customer behavior on clients’ websites.

Many of the most renown companies in the world have sought his expertise, including HP, Amazon, GM, Viacom, and NBC.

Notable recognitions for Neil include being called a top influencer on the web by The Wall Street Journal, and one of the top 10 online marketers by Forbes. Even more notably, President Obama recognized him as a Top 100 Entrepreneur Under 30. He was also awarded Congressional Recognition from the House of Representatives.

How to follow Neil:

Neil’s Podcast: Marketing School. “Marketing School brings you 10 minutes of actionable marketing advice every single day. Get the right tips to take your business to the next level.”

Twitter

Neil’s blog

2. Ann Handley

Regarded as the world’s first Chief Content Officer, Ann is the head of content for MarketingProfs – a training and education company with the largest community of marketers in its category. She’s also known as a pioneer in digital marketing. She co-founded ClickZ, one of the original sources of interactive marketing news.

Ann has been recognized by Forbes as the most influential woman in Social Media. She’s also been called one of the top 20 women bloggers by ForbesWoman. She frequently contributes to the LinkedIn Influencer program and Entrepreneur magazine.

Ann is the author of Everybody Writes, which is “your go-to guide to creating ridiculously good content that attracts and retains customers.” She also co-authored the best-selling book, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.

How to follow Ann:

• Twitter
• Ann’s blog
• Ann’s contributions to Entrepreneur

3. Christoph Cemper

Christoph is an SEO guru and a top online marketer. Often speaking an SEO and Digital Marketing conventions, Christoph has earned himself a name as a.founder LinkResearchTools, LinkDetox and Impactana to help SEO professionals and online marketers get better results.

You can find Christoph valuable advice frequently on MarketingLand, SearchEngineJournal and SearchEngineWatch where he shares his insight on the latest happenings in SEO and Online Marketing.

How to follow Chris:

• Twitter
• Christophs’s blog

4. Sujan Patel

Sujan is a high-energy growth marketer and a digital-marketing influencer with a “passion to help people and solve problems.” He has over 13 years of internet marketing experience.

Sujan is the co-founder of Web Profits, a growth marketing agency that helps companies leverage the latest marketing strategies to fuel their businesses. Web Profits has offices in the US, Australia, Singapore and Romania. They also employ over 20 design and development experts, and over 30 copywriters.

Sujan has led the digital marketing strategy for companies such as Mint, Sales Force, Intuit, and many other world renown brands. He’s also a prolific blogger, writing six blog posts a week. He blogs for publications like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc.

He’s also a partner in software companies such as ContentMarketer.io, Narrow, Quuu, and Mailshake.

How to follow Sujan:

• Twitter
• io blog
• Web Profits blog

5. Rebecca Lieb

A content strategist, content marketer, and digital marketing innovator, Rebecca Lieb has been at the forefront of digital advertising and media since it all began. She’s been a corporate trainer to companies such as Facebook, Pinterest, DuPont, Adobe, Nestlé, Fidelity, Home Depot, Cisco, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Save The Children, and more.
Rebecca is also respected for publishing a substantial amount of original research. Some of the research includes a significant body of work on the topics of content marketing, content strategy and converged media.

In 2011, she authored Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher – How to Use Content to Market Online and in Social Media. It was one of the first books on the subject of content marketing. She’s also the author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, which became an instant Amazon bestseller.

How to follow Rebecca:

• Twitter
• Rebecca’s blog

6. Matthew Toren

A specialist in strategic marketing and advertising, Matthew has many other areas of expertise as well: Business development, business growth techniques, entrepreneurial emergence, entrepreneurial strategy management, innovation and new venture creation.

He’s the owner of iSmallBusiness.com, and describes it like this: “iSmallBusiness.com is small business with a mission: to make the important stuff for your small business front and center.” The site posts valuable information that inspires and assists entrepreneurs in starting, managing, and growing a small business.

An innovative author, Matthew is also well known for an award-winning book for kids that he and his brother, Adam, wrote together. Titled Kidpreneurs, the book won the Gold award for kids’ books from NAPPA (National Association of Parenting Publications.)

He also co-authored Small Business Big Vision with his brother. The book won the Small Business Book Awards in 2012.

Among other projects, Matthew also co-founded Blogtrepreneur.com, the #1 rated small business blog on the web.

How to follow Matthew:

• Twitter
• Matthew on Entrepreneur
• Matthew on com

7. Aaron Orendorff

An independent content strategist and copywriter, Aaron helps both emerging and established businesses produce clear, compelling content. He specializes in advertising copy, including banner copy, Facebook ad content, LinkedIn copy and Google AdWords. He also focuses on website copy and editing, mottos and taglines, branding development, product descriptions, long-form articles, email content, and newsletters.

Aaron also serves as a full-time faculty member in Klamath Community College’s Arts and Communication department in Klamath Falls, OR. He teaches several writing, communication, public speaking and philosophy courses that train students for higher education.

He’s a contributor at Lifehacker, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc., Business Insider, The Next Web, Content Marketing Institute, Success Magazine, Copyblogger, MarketingProfs, and others.

How to follow Aaron:

• Twitter
• iconiContent blog

8. Avinash Kaushik

Avinash is a web analytics specialist and the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. Known for putting a common-sense framework around the complex environment of web analytics, he helps marketers leverage data to reinvent their digital existence. He’s the creator of the popular blog Occam’s Razor, and he’s written two bestselling books – Web Analytics 2.0, and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.

Avinash is the Chief Education Officer and co-founder of Market Motive Inc., a resource that teaches digital marketing from Silicon-Valley based industry experts. He has worked with world-renown brands such as Time Warner, Dell, Unilever, Porsche, IBM, and Vanguard. He’s also lectured at universities like University of California – Los Angeles, University of Virginia, Stanford University, and University of Utah.

How to follow Avinash:

• Twitter
• Occam’s Razor blog

9. Ian Cleary

Ian is the founder of RazorSocial, the world leading site on social media tools. It’s “dedicated to helping others become insanely productive and efficient in online marketing through the use of online tech and tools – so no entrepreneur gets left behind.” RazorSocial’s training programs teach businesses and marketers how to create a digital marketing engine that builds a consistent stream of profitable leads.

With 20 years in technology and digital marketing, Ian was listed as the 8th most influential person in social media globally by Onalytica. He’s also been the winner of the annual “Best Social Media Blog” award by Social Media Examiner for the past four years.

Ian has been Published in MarketingProfs, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, VentureBeat, Social Media Examiner, and many more. He’s also a professional speaker at marketing events such as Social Media Marketing World and Content Marketing World.

How to follow Ian:

• RazorSocial blog
• Twitter

10. Diane Rayfield

One of the first 40 people worldwide to become certified in social-media marketing, Diane is a true social media pioneer. She’s the founder of Harp Social, and she believes that behind every visible brand is an expertly-engineered and executed social media strategy. Her focus is on helping businesses implement a sound social media marketing strategy through social-media best practices.

To quote Diane: “Today most clients have social media but have no idea how to optimize it, how to benefit from it and really, don’t have the proper resources to maintain and grow their social presence. That’s where I come in with a strategy, content plan and community management plan based on each client’s goals and budget.”

Diane also provides customized social-media training. From training on optimizing LinkedIn profiles to instructing on how to leverage social media platforms, Facebook marketing, Twitter, or Google+, all of her classes are interactive.

How to follow Diane:

• Twitter
• Harp Social blog

11. Amber Naslund

Seasoned marketing executive Amber Naslund has a deep understanding of how social media and digital communication impacts organizational culture and operations. Amber says, “I believe social media is a catalyst for change – not the solution in itself – and that marketing has an unprecedented opportunity today to drive change within our businesses.”

She’s presently the SVP of Marketing for social intelligence platform Sysomos. Her role is to create value for customers and community through content development, customer success and engagement programs, employee engagement initiatives, social strategy, and industry thought leadership.

Throughout her 15+ years of marketing expertise, she’s served as the president of SideraWorks and VP of Social Strategy for Salesforce Radian6. She’s advised such Fortune 500 companies as Coca-Cola, American Express, L’Oreal, Dell, AMD, Kraft Foods, CDW, Avaya, and others.

Amber is the co-author of The Now Revolution. This bestselling social-business book is used by companies and universities to teach a strong foundation for social strategy. She also delivers keynote speeches on corporate culture, social business, and communication at industry conferences and private events every year.

How to follow Amber:

• Twitter
• Amber’s blog

12. Vanessa Fox

An influential blogger, SEO consultant and author, Vanessa Fox says “I’m particularly interested in the intersection and evolution of how we interact with the world offline and online.”

She’s the CEO Keylime Toolbox, a fresh approach to understanding SEO. The resource includes a comprehensive reference library and tutorials. It features important SEO metrics and actionable insights for improving qualified traffic from unpaid search.

Vanessa is also a part time lecturer at University of Washington. She teaches an undergraduate class at the iSchool about search engine optimization, searcher behavior, and the search engine industry. She’s also on the University’s Informatics Advisory Board.

She authored Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy. The book has been called the “first must-read-to-survive business book of the twenty-first century”.

How to follow Vanessa:

Vanessa’s blog

Twitter

13. Ehsan Jahandarpour

Ehsan Jahandarpour is a globally recognized growth hacker, and influencer marketing strategist. Forbes listed him as top 20 growth hackers in 2016.

Ehsan is known for his innovative approach towards growth hacking, and earned-media strategies. He helps companies like Microsoft, PETRONAS, BBDO, etc. to scale their business and grow faster.

If you want to learn about influencer marketing, and growth hacking, Ehsan has been sharing his actionable strategies on his blog, his growth hacking webinar, and authoritative magazines such as Entrepreneur magazine, Inc, Huffington post, business2community, business.com, socialmediatoday, etc.

How to follow Ehsan:

Twitter

Ehsan’s site

14. Pam Moore

Pam is a passionate marketing, social media, and branding enthusiast. With over 15 years of experience building brands and communities, she’s been included in Forbes Top 5 Social Media Women Influencers, Forbes Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers, and Forbes Top 50 Social Media Influencers.
She founded Marketing Nutz, a full-service social media, digital marketing, experiential branding agency.  Her services include marketing & strategy, social and digital quick-start consultation, social-media services, branding and creative services, and training workshops.
Pam is also a dynamic keynote speaker at worldwide events, as well as a trainer, best-selling author, consultant, and a strategist who “has the guts to tell you what you may not want to hear but must hear to drive results.”

She co-authored a book titled Relationship Age: The World’s Leading Experts Teach You Proven Strategies for Creating Profitable Relationships in the World of Social Media.

How to follow Pam:

• Twitter
• Pam’s blog

15. Krishna De

Krishna is an influencer in the fields of marketing, social media, personal branding, and online reputation. She’s a mobile brand journalist, a keynote speaker, mentor, live-stream strategist, and a mom to three girls on top of it all.

In her digital marketing mentoring, she works with client agencies behind the scenes to help them understand how to integrate their inbound marketing. In her social media consulting, she helps clients communicate social media policies and frameworks, and helps deliver social media communications programs.

Krishna also helps her clients with mobile and micro content creation, as well as live stream strategy and training.

Besides helping her clients boost their marketing and social business success, she also leverages her experience by speaking at industry conferences across Europe.

How to follow Krishna:

• Twitter
• Snapchat

The post 15 Top Online Influencers You’ll Want to Start Following Today appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

It can be difficult to start a new business. The fact that it’s new may even expose you to challenges that you did not expect. Your time, budget and manpower sometimes get stretched. Business tools help you get things done faster. They also help you remain professional and organized when carrying out important tasks.

Here are 4 tools to help you start your own business:

1. Mobile-Friendly Website

Why do you need a mobile friendly website?

Mobile long overtook desktop as the preferred method of accessing the internet. It is no longer just nice to have a mobile friendly site; it has become mandatory for anyone who wants to get proper attention from their online audience.

The number of people who own smartphones has constantly been increasing. In the US alone, 68% of people owned smartphones in 2015, which is a huge leap from 35% in 2011. The figures are similar in the UK. These numbers clearly depict that you need to have a mobile-friendly site.

Such sites rank well in Google. Google itself confirmed this in April, 2015. Therefore if your site is still not mobile responsive, you’re losing a lot of SEO juice. You’re also not meeting your audience where they prefer to read from you. You definitely need to either create a mobile-friendly website or use a responsive theme.

For a mobile site, use a mobile friendly website builder, to make the process hassle free. The main advantage of this is that you won’t need to spend lots of money to redesign your site. You can easily build it yourself. Your website will also work well on all devices; it will simply identify the device that’s browsing your site and optimize your site for that screen.

2. Payment and Invoicing Tool

You need to get paid, right? That’s the whole essence of business; to provide an excellent service that meets a need, and get paid for it. It may be hard to track payments and invoices, especially when you’re very busy trying to give your startup some major traction.

Many business owners find it hard to get time to send estimates and invoices. Using web-based payment and invoicing tool makes the work easier. This allows them to quickly prepare invoices, send them to clients and track their payments. Following up on unpaid dues becomes easier.

A good invoicing tool should be fast, generate professional invoices and be able to integrate seamlessly with other services. You should also be able to export your estimates and invoices as CSV, XML or other formats. Through such tools, you’ll be able to easily see what invoice has been sent or paid. Also, those that are due. Furthermore, there should be options for discounts, taxes, and language.

3. Webinar Solution

Webinars are huge and have been giving excellent results for quite some time. Over 60% of marketers use webinars in their content marketing strategy. Webinars result in high-quality leads and give marketers a great opportunity to give prospective clients top-notch value.

Webinars help you to become an authority to your readers. You appear to them as a great presenter who is confident and provides value. This creates respect and brand trust. Remember that when you build a trusted brand, you increase your content consumption, clicks on your ads and overall conversion.

Webinars act as traffic magnets. They attract droves of traffic and give you lots of new subscriptions. Best of all, if you promote your products during the webinar, you can significantly increase your sales. With an effective overall strategy, you can get repeat sales from the people you convert through efficient webinars.

A great webinar service provider will make it easy for you to create a webinar. Some great features of a good one include webinar rebranding, global web conferencing, customized invitations, polls, and surveys, attendee statistics among others.

4. Project Management Tool

Did you know that for every $1 billion that’s been invested in the US, $122 million was wasted due to poor project performance? Most organizations believe that project management is very important for the performance of their business or success of their organization. This goes to show that any startup should be serious on their project management.

Project management skills play a huge role in any business. Quite often, a project’s outcome is affected highly by the early planning and monitoring stage. In small businesses, all the work is done by just a few people, but they still need to perform. Due to globalization, there are many projects that are carried out remotely.

Due to the heavy project management demands, entrepreneurs and SMBs are increasingly using integrated project management tools. These maximize productivity and organization. They help in keeping track of projects, managing workers, setting milestones, scheduling work and sending invoices among other features.

Conclusion

There is cut-throat competition in business today. For you to succeed, you need flexibility, speed, and agility. Ensure you have a mobile-friendly website so that you can take advantage of the increasingly popular mobile internet viewership. Use an excellent payment and invoicing tool so that you can better track your payments. Use a powerful webinar solution to get massive leads, traffic and sales. Finally use a great project management tool to ensure you have incredible project success.

The post 4 Tools You Need To Start Your Own Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Fortunately, there are a lot of incredible tools that make it infinitely easier to take care of your business’s marketing yourself. If you want to DIY your marketing, there are 6 tools that all small and medium businesses should add to their marketing toolkit.

1. GetResponse

GetResponse is an essential tool for all DIY marketing toolkits, regardless of the size of your business. Their goal is to help you create beautiful marketing materials that convert, with zero experience needed on your end. Creating a landing page, for example, as never been easier. Their drag-and-drop editor and more than a hundred mobile responsive templates makes it easy to create gorgeous landing pages, no coding knowledge required.

Image source: getresponse.com/features

Their email marketing features in particular offers incredible value to businesses. Like their landing pages, they offer easy-to-customize email templates that are just as stunning and mobile responsive. Through their software, you can also quickly import thousands of subscribers from multiple platforms to your email list, send out autoresponder campaigns,  preview what your content will look like in the users’ email, and get email analytics. Email marketing is essential for lead nurturing and sales purposes, and this software is an ideal solution.

2. Trello

Trello is a virtual collaboration tool that can be organized like a to-do list, allowing you to see what’s being worked on and who is working on it. It’s separated into boards, then lists, then cards. You could, for example, have a board specifically for content marketing, with lists including “to be assigned,” “in progress,” “pending review,” and “complete.” Specific tasks can be added to cards, which can be moved from list to list.

Image source: trello.com/guide/collaborate.html

The interface is user-friendly, and it allows you to add as much information as needed; you can invite specific team members to boards, assign tasks, and add comments, files, and checklists to each card. Did I mention it is free?

3. Brand24

Social media should be an essential part of your marketing strategy, regardless of industry, and tracking your social media results can take up a lot of time. Brand24 is an incredible social media monitoring and analytics tool, and an essential must-have for the DIY marketing toolkit.

Image source: brand24.com/features

With this tool, you can monitor a specific keyword or groups of keywords as well as mentions, and see what people are saying. This software will show you how the volume of both discussion and reach are evolving for your business, and whether the discussion is positive or negative.

This tool helps you identify key discussions you should take part in, so you can jump in and engage where it counts most.

4. Wisestamp

Wisestamp is another great tool that can help you elevate your email marketing campaigns. This tool enables you to create gorgeous, customized signatures to place at the end of your emails. You can add your name, job title, contact information, and even a headshot or picture to your signature. This adds a more personal element to the emails, and can increase conversions and leads.

Image source: wisestamp.com

With their pro plan, you can create multiple different signatures, and you’ll have access to their premium templates and design features.

5. Yotpo

User generated content, including reviews and social content, is effective at driving conversions of all types. Actually getting users to create and post that content, however, is sometimes easier said than done. Once you have to track it down and find it, it becomes exhausting. That’s where Yotpo comes in.

Image source: yotpo.com/features/review-generation

While many users will happily read reviews and use that information to make their buying decisions, only a small number actually leave them. Yotpo automatically sends perfectly timed follow-up emails to your customers after a purchase that asks them to leave a review. They’ll then display these reviews on your product pages to help increase further conversions.

Yotpo now also new content curation features, which helps you find social UGC, then creates easy-to-moderate shoppable feeds that can be used to drive conversions.

6. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the best all-in-one social media management tools available. With so many platforms available for businesses to be on, keeping track of it all by yourself is almost impossible without a tool like this one to help you.

Image source: hootsuite.com/products/social-media-engagement

Hootsuite allows you to manage, schedule, and monitor your social media activity from one dashboard. Platforms supported include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and more. You can also assign team members to respond to specific messages or streams of engagement, ensuring that no potential customer will fall between the cracks.

The post DIY Your Marketing: The Essential Toolkit for SMBs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

While many brands all over the world are reaping the benefits of their content marketing efforts, just as many are puzzled as to why it’s not working for them.

If you aren’t getting the results you want, there are 6 common reasons why your content marketing isn’t working. We’re going to look at each cause and solutions for how to fix them.

1. You’re Doing Content Marketing with No Goal

Most brands take on content marketing because they believe it will help their business, but sometimes, that’s as far as their strategy goes; they pump out blog posts and cross their fingers and see what happens. They don’t have more specific goals for their content marketing strategy, which is ultimately why it fails.

You need to ask yourself what you specifically want to achieve with your blog posts. Do you want to increase your sales, or get more leads? Showcase your industry expertise? Boost SEO rankings?

Caption: Trunkclub’s blog provides visitors with fashion advice, like how to pick out a pair of boots. In order to see their collection and full recommended outfit, users need to create an account and login, driving conversions and sign-ups. 

You need to know what you want your content marketing strategy as a whole to accomplish, and then optimize each post for the specific goal you want it to accomplish; you can’t just go on autopilot and hope for the best.

To address this problem, you need to take a look at what you want your content marketing to achieve and come up with ways to optimize for those results. Doing thorough keyword research, using alt tags in images, and specifying meta descriptions can help you increase the changes of your content being indexed, for example. Placing clickable CTAs throughout your site to learn more about a product or sign up for your newsletter can drive sales and leads, and providing consistent, high quality content educating your readers can build your credibility.

2. You’re Content is Stagnant

If we find something that works once in our content marketing, it’s easy to want to stick to that, whether that’s a style of post or a certain subject. While this might work for a little while, but long term, users are going to get tired if they don’t feel like each post is offering them something fresh and new. Whether you’re only posting too-similar listicles or going over the same topic with little variation, you might lose viewers in favor of competitors that are more diverse.

While it’s important to figure out what works well for your audience, you still want them to feel like they need to read each post for fear that they’ll miss something if they don’t. Some strategies to prevent stagnation in your content marketing include:

• Featuring high quality guest posts from other industry experts
• Add infographics or videos
• Place interactive features (like polls or quizzes) in your content
• Share a mix of case studies, how-to information, and breaking industry news
• Check what’s trending now; Clearvoice has a great database of trending articles if you’re stuck and can connect you with high quality freelancer

Keep an eye on what’s working for you, and check in to your analytics frequently, as it can change before you know it.\

3. You Aren’t Tracking Results

Some businesses will run entire content marketing strategies without ever thoroughly tracking any of their results. Monitoring analytics of your content can tell you what’s working and what isn’t, and it can often give you a lot of insight into how to product better content over time.

Some important metrics to track include:

• Conversion rates, including leads or sales
• Bounce rate
• Engagement rates
• Page views

Tracking the activity on your website is important, but it’s also just as important to see how your content marketing is affecting your social media and email marketing campaigns. They’re all intricately linked together, so looking at the big picture is important, too.

There are a ton of great tools available to help you track all of this information about your content marketing; Google Analytics is a great go-to tool for all businesses, and will even show you where your best traffic is coming from and how they move through your site. Other tools let you create dashboards that pull analytic information from multiple sources, including Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and ecommerce tools like Shopify.

4. Your Content is the Same as Everyone Else’s

There are tons of posts being put out every day; in this current climate of content overload, the question becomes how do you stand out? With a million posts about Facebook Ads or how to choose a wedding cake or best interview questions to ask, how is yours going to be different?

Ultimately, you need to decide how you’re going to be different, and what you can uniquely offer readers that no one else can. Even if it’s just your writing style and your voice that’s unique, something has to be special.

There are a few ways you can write unique posts and lead magnets. One way to do this is to comb the internet and message boards for unanswered questions; if one question keeps getting asked over and over again, there’s clearly an audience and a demand for content that addresses it. Another great method of creating new posts is to take a broader idea, like “Ten Classic Wedding Menus” and focusing in on one niche idea that fits within it, like “Six Wedding Menus to Keep Your Gluten Free/Vegan/Paleo Friends Happy.” 

Sometimes, creating content that’s different from everything else will rely on a combination of research and understanding (and fully embracing) your specific niche.

5. It’s Not Actionable

This is one of the biggest problems most content has; it’s so heavily theoretical, or there’s so much information overload, that users walk away from content thinking “well I still don’t know how to do any of that.” It’s like the manager that keeps telling salespeople “just sell more! Try harder!” As anyone who has ever worked in sales knows, this doesn’t actually ever help anything.

If you take a close look at a lot of how-to posts (or even content in general), they’ll talk about a problem or an idea but won’t show you to actually execute it. It therefore is rarely actually useful, and still leaves your readers wanting.

Your content should offer specific actionable content that users can make use of. This post, for example, is actionable by offering solutions to the problems that prevent success with content marketing. It’s the difference between the manager saying “you need to sell more” and saying “By showing the complementary product and showing them as a set, you’ll have bigger sales.”

Actionable content is valuable content, and that’s what will drive results.

6. It Feels like a Sales Pitch

While you can feature your products and place information and snippets of content to drive conversions, your content should not read like one long 1,000 word sales pitch. It doesn’t feel genuine, and in the age where “authentic content” is king, you’ll lose readers quickly.

We’ve all seen content that is so clearly created only to promote a product or an affiliate link, and the result is that readers are automatically less likely to trust it (and you).

Trademark Universal Stone’s blog post about whether granite is worth the return on investment is a great example of how to promote your products (theirs is granite) without making it read like a sales pitch.

If you’re going to promote a product or place affiliate links, it should almost never be the center of a blog post or lead magnet. Content marketing is about building a relationship with your customers, and if it reads like an advertisement, it won’t be effective.

Instead, subtle mentions of a product and a link and/or CTA to learn more are all that’s needed. You can also place a call to action at the very end of the post, encouraging users to contact you to learn how you can help them more.

Final Thoughts

Content marketing can work, and if you’re putting regular, consistent effort into it, it should be working. Even if your content worked for you in the past, maintaining an effort towards adaptability will keep you up to date on best industry, marketing, and SEO practices, keeping you moving in the right direction and giving you better results long term.

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