7 Ways Marketing Automation Can Save Your Agency Time Posted on December 26, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jeanna Barrett Marketing automation is just that; a way to automate your marketing actions. Many reasons why people look to automate processes and other tactics is merely to save time. But often saving time means saving money, too. Whether it’s for your agency, or for your client’s business, implementing a marketing automation software can help you save time and money. Here are just a few of the ways you can do so, CONTENT MANAGEMENT Now more than ever an emphasis is being placed on the value of your content; whether that’s the content you’re creating for your agency, or for your clients. Prospects and customers want to be targeted specifically based on their interests, or they’ll pass you up for your competition. Marketing automation can help you manage that content efficiently and save your agency time by connecting the right content with the right leads. Below are several ways marketing automation software supports your agency’s content management: Dynamic Content What is it? Dynamic Content is smart content and your secret weapon. It adapts to the behaviors and interests of the lead, based on website data it gathers from your leads and customers. The content can be personalized based on the lead’s request or previous visits to your website. It also allows leads to submit information back to you, which will help you gain additional information on that lead’s behavior. Gone are the days of irrelevant content, folks. And better yet, updating the materials is a lot simpler and less time consuming than doing it manually. A simple example of this is updating a header image to be from your visitor’s location (such as San Francisco) instead of using a generic image. Content Amplification Take that valuable, dynamic content, break out of the traditional organic strategies and integrate it with paid, earned and owned tactics across multiple channels, such as websites, social media and advertising. MARKETING DATABASE Sending a relevant email, notification or social media post at the right time to the right person can make a considerable impact when trying to close a sale. Marketing automation software provides a centralized location for all your marketing data, such as prospect and client behaviors and interactions. What can you do with all of that valuable content? Lead Nurturing The average buyer’s journey is pretty complex and can be labor intensive. Sending automated, well-timed and relevant emails and offers to prospects will help your agency develop a rapport at every stage of their buying journey. Marketing automation allows for tracking of lead engagements with your content and will help you pinpoint where these prospects are in their journey. This will help assure leads are not forgotten, and every opportunity is taken. Lead Scoring With the help of lead nurturing and having the ability to pinpoint where these prospects are in the sales cycle, you’re able to score these leads based on their interactions with your marketing efforts and whether or not they’re ready to buy. Lead Segmenting Marketing automation allows you to segment your leads into respective contact lists. For example, a common pain point or interest in services. With an automated process, these emails can be drip-fed to these designated contact lists. Again, relevant content at the right time! PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS Saving time on content creation and deployment, as well as pushing leads through the sales cycle quicker is very important to growing your (or your client’s) business. But marketing automation isn’t just going to save you time in those aspects. It will also help your agency improve overall processes. Sales Team With a lead management system, your sales team doesn’t need to educate their prospects on your product or service manually. They’ve already been nurtured through to the ready-to-purchase stage. This helps to give your sales team more time for other tasks. Troubleshooting With an automated process, it’s more apparent when you see a glitch or bottleneck in your system. You can identify these issues more quickly and find a solution real-time, versus, for example, waiting for next month’s report to come through and seeing discrepancies that happen too late to make changes to. Time is a hot commodity for everyone, and anything that can help your operations move at a quicker pace, save you time and provide value to you and your client is an absolute must. Invest in a marketing automation software that will help your agency and clients succeed. AUTHOR BIO Jeanna Barrett is the Founder & Chief Strategist of First Page, an award-winning online marketer and an expat entrepreneur. Through content, social media and SEO, Jeanna uses the power of words and data to drive growth in brand awareness, organic traffic, leads, revenue and customer loyalty. She has a combined 12 years of inbound marketing experience at venture-backed startups, digital agencies and Fortune 500 companies, with an expertise focus on small business and technology. She’s been named ‘Top 40 Under 40’ of brand marketers and ‘Best in the West’ for financial technology marketing. In 2016, Jeanna left the U.S. to lay roots and build her business in Belize.
8 Steps To Achieving Your Business’s New Year’s Resolutions More Quickly Posted on December 25, 2017June 13, 2018 by Allie Wolff Christmas is here, and all the focus is on gift giving, finishing up the to-do list and planning for the year ahead. It is also the time when people consider changes they wish to make in their business and often these come in the form of New Year’s resolutions. However, New Year’s resolutions tend to get a bad rap because of the number of people who make them and then fail to get past January before they give up on them altogether. When it comes to your business resolutions, you might want to think about taking a different approach. Set Milestones The best resolutions are quantifiable. Rather than say you want to grow your customer base, pick a specific number to aim for and then make it happen. Opt for a quantifiable resolution that is achievable sooner rather than later. You don’t want to spend all of January trying to reach your February goals. And, don’t forget, once you reach them, take the time out of your busy schedule to celebrate your successes. Make it Viable If you spend the whole year trying to reach your goal only to find that it is so far beyond your reach, it can be a real de-motivator. Goals should be able to be achieved – otherwise, you are just aiming for a pie in the sky. There is absolutely no benefit in trying to aim for unattainable goals. If it is a large goal, then break it down into smaller increments, so it doesn’t seem so insurmountable. Create Deadlines Rather than make year-long resolutions, set deadlines. Make resolutions which are adjustable each quarter to give you something new to aim for. Consider them mini milestones to help you along the way. By adding specific deadlines to your goals, you are creating a sense of urgency to get them done. The reality is it’s only a dream until you start doing the work to implement it. Assess your Goals Monthly If you are not actively trying to reach your goals, then it’s a waste of time even thinking about them. If you want to succeed, then you have to make it a priority. Plan monthly meetings and check where you are in relation to your objective. Are you on track? Does something need to happen or change before you can reach them? Strategizing sessions are important for the future of your business. Schedule It Some activities, due to the nature of your priorities, continually get pushed aside in favor of other things. Resolutions are one of those things. But if you plan for it and mark it on your calendar, or add it to your journal, then you have no choice but to tackle the task. Don’t make excuses; when the time comes, then do it. It may seem like a hurdle in your day, but it’s important that you maintain your focus on the long-term achievements, as well as the short-term day-to-day efforts. Know Your Why You may WANT to bring on change, but, do you know WHY you want to change? Knowing that in itself is a huge motivator and will help you keep your eye on the ball. Knowing your why will help you stick to your resolution when the going gets tough. Make a resolution which is beneficial to your business and which will resonate on a personal level. The why will be your reminder! Update Your Team on Progress If the resolution involves more than one person, update the team or the department involved on a regular basis. That will help everyone prioritize the resolution and enable it to be a firm fixture in everyone’s mind. The writing down of resolutions and the practice of sharing them with others increases the success rate enormously. Make sure they will not be forgotten. Forgive the Bad Days Quite often we are too hard on ourselves. If you have a bad day and don’t accomplish everything on your to-do list, it doesn’t mean that you have to throw the resolution away altogether. Some work towards your goal is better than no work at all. Don’t give in out of frustration or resentment. Just get back on the wagon and try again. If you use these strategies on a regular basis, then you will not only achieve your New Year’s resolutions more quickly, but you will also learn how to better set goals and develop your patience to match. Persistence is definitely a vital trait to have when it comes to meeting your goals, as is optimism. No one can expect any more than your best. If you know what you want and have noted it clearly with real direction, then you cannot fail.
7 Strategies to Increase Your Email Engagement Rate Posted on December 22, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jessica Lunk Despite the popularity of social media, email remains one of if not the most effective tool for marketing today. But with the number of emails being sent and received expected to top out at around 246 billion by the year 2019, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. What can you do to improve the odds that not only will you get your audience to open your messages, but the content within will compel them to take action? Here are seven strategies that will help you break through the clutter and get people clicking. Start with a quality list. When it comes to successful email marketing campaigns, it’s more about quality than quantity. In fact, if you’re sending your messages to people who aren’t likely to convert, you’re probably losing money and jeopardizing your deliverability. Focus on building a strong list of permission-based leads. You’ll send fewer messages, but your success rate will be much higher. Make it personal. One study by Experian revealed that personalized emails have a 29 percent higher open rate and a 41 percent higher unique click-through rate than generic messages. This doesn’t mean you have to create a different message for each recipient, but focusing on things like friendly tone, incorporating the recipient’s first name, and sending from a real person vs. your company name can all create a more personalized feel. Your CRM should provide you with plenty of data to further personalize your campaigns. Craft killer subject lines. Think of your subject line as the wrapping on a gift. The more eye-catching it is, the more it makes you want to open and see what’s inside. It’s the same with emails. 64 percent of people say they will open an email based solely on its subject line, so be mindful of this. Studies have also shown that subject lines of 50 characters or less are the most impactful. And remember to avoid words that are frequently flagged as spam, such as “free” or “click.” (More on this in a future post.) Segment your messages. Not every offer you extend will be right for every customer. Rather than sending out a blanket message to everyone on your email list, take the time to customize your messages for certain segments of your audience. One study indicated that segmented emails receive an open rate of 14.31% and a click-through rate of 100.95% higher than non-segmented messages, so it’s definitely worth the extra time and effort. Include strong calls to action. There’s a purpose behind each of your email campaigns, whether it’s to get more sales on your new product, increase your social media following, drive more traffic to your website or something else. Don’t just expect your audience to do what you want them to do. Compel them to do so by including clear and powerful calls to action. Don’t be afraid to play on people’s natural fear of missing out (FOMO) by using words that create urgency, such as “Act now,” “Limited time only,” “Expires soon,” etc. Be mobile-friendly. Nowadays more than half (54 percent) of all emails are opened on a mobile device versus a desktop computer. That means that the majority of your recipients will be viewing your emails using their smartphones or tablets. If your messages aren’t optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a significant portion of your target audience. If you are going to invest in any area, make it this one. Include social sharing buttons. Your offer might not be ideal for the person reading your email, but he or she may very well know someone else who could benefit. Make it as easy as possible for your email recipients to share your content socially by including sharing links. Still not convinced? Recent stats put the click-through-rate of emails containing social share buttons at a whopping 115 percent higher than those without. That’s pretty impressive. This list isn’t exhaustive. In fact, there are probably dozens of additional tactics you can try that might improve how your audience engages with your campaigns. The key to success lies in testing and tweaking. Don’t be afraid to try a few different things, analyzing the results and modifying your approach accordingly. The more effort you put in on the forefront, the better your results will be over the long haul.
5 Best Books for Servant Leaders Posted on December 21, 2017August 25, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick The short, dark days of winter are the perfect time to curl up under a cozy blanket with a great book. And, as the New Year approaches, it’s the ideal season to reflect on how you performed as a leader the past 12 months and to look for ways to build on your strengths in the days ahead. Many entrepreneurs aim for what Robert Greenleaf first described in his essay The Servant as a Leader. As he put it, servant leadership “begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.” The servant-leader model is more relevant than ever today, when lately it seems there is a headline every day about leaders who have misused their power and forgotten about the mission of serving. At the thriving companies you admire, the chances are good that there is a servant leader at the helm. Here are five books to help you explore the idea of servant leadership, so you can achieve your personal best as a leader in 2018. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition by Robert Greenleaf Reading (or re-reading) Greenleaf’s classic book is a great place to start thinking about what servant leadership means today. Greenleaf, who passed away in 1980, was a top executive at AT&T and a visiting lecturer at MIT’s School of Management and Harvard Business School. His ideas on empowering employees caused many leaders to rethink how they ran their companies and offered a new way to grow a company. Whether you run a sole proprietorship where you are managing contractors or have scaled up to hiring employees, Greenleaf offers many relevant ideas on how to build a stronger culture where your team will thrive. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek Sinek, author of the popular book Start with Why, offers insight on how to build a workplace around trust and avoid the infighting and silos that doom unsuccessful cultures. In case you’re wondering what the title refers to, Sinek found an answer to a longstanding question in his mind about how great leaders build trust when speaking with a Marine Corps general: “Officers eat last.” Essentially, great leaders put the good of the team ahead of their own, which sets the tone for the entire organization. If your team is young, make sure you check out the latest edition. Sinek’s 2017 paperback book, originally published in hardcover in 2014, now includes an expanded index on leading millennials. The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance by James A. Autry Autry, a former Fortune 500 executive, shows how managing with respect, honesty, love and spirituality will help you become a better leader. This book offers practical advice on how to apply servant leadership in less-than-ideal situations such as conflict and crisis and turn around declining morale. You’ll also learn how to train managers in servant leadership and continue to grow as a servant leader. The Serving Leader: Five Powerful Actions that Will Transform Your Team, Your Business, and Your Community by Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert This is the season when many people think about giving back, and The Serving Leader offers great ideas on how to do that in the coming year. Originally published in 2003 and updated in paperback in 2016, The Serving Leader is a parable about the lessons a dying father teaches his son that makes it easy to absorb and apply the key principles of servant leadership in every area of your life. If you are looking to bring deeper meaning to your life as a leader, this is a good book to add to your nightstand. The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader by James C. Hunter Being a servant leader doesn’t mean being wishy-washy. As Hunter explains, servant leaders can be uncompromising in setting the mission and values for a business and how it operates. But unlike old-school, hierarchical leaders who bark orders, servant leaders operate like coaches, empowering employees with the tools they need to thrive and excel. Hunter is a leadership consultant and author whose books are taught in MBA programs around the world. In today’s highly collaborative, fast-changing work environments, his ideas are more relevant than ever—as are the general ideas behind servant leadership.
6 Networking Apps Every Salesperson Needs Posted on December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 by Tegan Arnold Some say all you need to succeed is a great idea. But try walking into a pitch meeting with just a great idea—no pitch deck, no slideshow, no razzle, no dazzle. You might be pitching the next Uber, but good luck convincing your audience. Sales has become a game of efficiency and flash—and that means technology. It goes without saying that certain apps are a useful tool for anyone in business. And because a salesman’s worth is so often determined by their leads, the concept of networking—once the ultimate marker of sheer personality—has also become reliant, to an extent, on tech. Not that apps are replacing charm anytime soon. (Until someone comes out with an app for artificial personality enhancement, God help us.) But they can help salespeople in a variety of ways, particularly with smoother networking and broader opportunities. Besides, if nothing else, you’ll look like you’re sitting on the cutting edge of modern salesmanship. So if you’re in sales, make sure you’ve got these apps handy on your phone. LinkedIn Let’s start with the most basic networking app of all: our dear old friend LinkedIn. Despite bafflingly low brand engagement rates, LinkedIn remains the industry standard for meeting people who might give you a job. If you’re a frequent user, you may be familiar with the premium version, which, for a few hundred dollars a year, allows you greater flexibility to see and message people with whom you’re not yet connected. It’s a viable investment if you use it enough. If you want to up your game in another way, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator was designed specifically to help you with targeted lead generation. Their support staff is generally helpful at showing you the hidden secrets of the platform, so feel free to reach out to them if you’ve got any questions of your own. Close the Sale Alec Baldwin this ain’t, but it’s as close as you can get without getting outright yelled at to Always Be Closing. Close the Sale, an instructional app by sales guru Grant Cardone, is a perfect primer for any salesperson who wants to up their game with in-depth tips. With videos and theories on sales tactics for virtually any situation and common objection (too much money, not the right time, need to consult with others), this app will help entrepreneurial souls learn the game on their own, with a little help from a pro. That said, it’s currently listed at $99.99 on iTunes, which seems steep. But if you’re the type who’s spending hours reading this type of material, or even spending $20 apiece on books, it’s not a bad investment. The Evernote Series This all-in-one note-taking app is good for a lot of things, including organized note-taking and illustrative assistance. But the real gem here is the Evernote Scannable app, which helps you store data accrued from a business cards. Simply take a photo of the card and the app digests the information into your phone. There are other apps like this, too; CamCard is a strong contender to become your virtual Rolodex. But with a slightly smoother interface and great all-purpose notepad app, Evernote is a slightly neater option. Whatever Calendar Makes You Happiest I, for one, live and die by my Google Calendar. (Seriously: I have my anticipated death date locked in there, just to avoid double-booking.) But others swear by non-Google options, and that’s fair, too. DigiCal is a great choice with customizable widgets, while iPhone users love the Fantastical series, which emphasized natural language to double your app as a kind of personal secretary. Other salespeople like Calendly, which makes booking meetings on-the-fly easier for multiple parties. Whichever you choose, having an easy-access calendar just a few clicks away is critical when making meetings in person. Hatchbuck Every sales team needs a CRM—it’s the ideal way to communicate with your leads and stay on top of their needs. With Hatchbuck’s mobile app, you can keep your customers’ data conveniently stored in your pocket at all times, allowing you the flexibility to draw it whenever you need. You can quickly create, look up and update your customer or lead information on the go. The intuitive communication possibilities mean you can call, text or email them quickly, and you can update their information on the go if you’re multitasking and don’t want to miss a beat. Shapr It’s like Tindr, but for eager salespeople! (If that’s not their tagline, it should be.) Seriously, though, Shapr is the networker’s Tindr, and if you’re not on it, you’re missing out. You can swipe right or left on various people’s profiles—not for a quick hook-up, but for possible business connections and generally “inspiring people.” Maybe you’re selling coffee beans and you come across the profile of an independent cafe owner? Perfect match. Be careful, though: the Shapr folks don’t take kindly to people pitching on their platform. Remember that these are human beings and try to act, you know, human. Swipe to chat, then meet for a coffee. It’s always a better idea to pitch them in person, anyway—it’s more effective than relying on technology. For now.
Is It Time To Reevaluate Your Small Business Budget? Posted on December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 by Allie Wolff There are so many things you need to take into account when you run a small business. On some days, you may even feel like you are a juggler balancing an extraordinary number of rings in the air. Each ring has a name: customer service, budgets, cash flow, sales and marketing. If you aren’t careful, all of them could tumble to the ground in an instant. Don’t worry, many business owners can relate; you are definitely not alone. So, if you feel like your small business budget is in a pinch, ask yourself these nine questions. Is cash flow an issue? Your budget, in particular, must be a major concern as it has a knock-on effect on all the other areas of your business. If cash flow is a problem or marketing funds are tight, then your budget could be to blame. Your budget is your financial plan allowing you to estimate your sales and expenses, cover the wages and support your plans for growth. Is there a discrepancy in the actual costs vs. the projected costs? As you move through the year, you should be looking to your budget on a regular basis and noting actual costs next to the projected costs. The difference between the two should provide valuable information. If there is a huge discrepancy between your columns, then it may be time to reevaluate your small business budget. Is it the New Year or end of financial year? Budgets ought to be regularly re-assessed whether it be on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. The start of the New Year or the beginning of the new fiscal year are popular options, as business owners generally have a year’s worth of budgets to look over and assess. If you are new to the world of business, then your initial budget may be somewhat of a guessing game to begin with. Are you struggling to meet your expenses? Are you finding it difficult to meet your primary expenses such as rent or utilities? If you find your budget is limited and fails to cover your expenses, perhaps it is necessary to allocate some of the marketing or stock funds to some of the other budgetary categories. Your budget should be practical and usable; otherwise, there is no point spending the hours to create one in the first place. Are you trying to save money? While the struggle to pay your debts is one telling reason to evaluate your budget, it is not the only one. If your goal is to save money to grow your business and you are finding that at the end of each month you have nothing left in your savings account, then again it is worth assessing the situation. Are you spending too much? Can you cut back on your spending so there is money left over in the budget for a rainy day? Is your marketing budget limited? If your focus is on marketing and you have no funds left mid-month to continue your social media or online marketing strategies, then look at where money can be reallocated. Issues like these will be dependent on your particular business and your aims. As long as you are in tune with your business goals, you should be able to determine what may need to change. Have your business priorities changed? Regular budgetary analysis will help you confirm if your goals are being met. If not, you may be obliged to amend your budget or implement changes in your business. It’s only natural that your budget has to adapt alongside your priority changes. Extra funds can be siphoned into areas such as customer service or marketing as necessary. For the most part, your expenditure will remain relatively steady unless you’re making additional investments to allow for busy sales periods. Are you a start-up organization? If you are a start-up organization or have just had a business overhaul, it is imperative to assess your budget at the end of each month to see if it is accurate. There may be unexpected expenses that you had failed to consider when you first sat down to write your budget. There has to be some flexibility in the numbers to handle such situations, or you are going to struggle with cash flow on a daily basis. Plan a budget that will grow with your aims. That way you are not continuously worried about the state of your finances. Overestimating the figures will help you pay any unexpected bills which may arise. Is it time to outsource? As businesses grow, so may the demands on your workload. As a small business owner, you can only do so much in one day. You may find that it is necessary to hire a consultant or outsource some of your workload to make sure that everything gets done in a timely fashion. Additional wages may not have been part of your original business plan. So, if this is the case, you will require an evaluation of your budget to ensure there is enough money in the bank to pay the wages and meet all of your other expenses. Your budget is the lifeblood of your business. In times of cash surplus, it’s easy to disregard the need for one. But without it, your small business ship can quickly veer off course and into choppy waters.
10 Helpful Apps to Streamline Your Freelance Business Posted on December 18, 2017March 13, 2024 by Jeanna Barrett Are you the type of freelancer that views time as your friend, or your enemy? I think most freelancers can at least agree that time is your most valuable commodity, mainly because of the many different roles you lead throughout the day and the #1 freelancer rule — your time is money. How you charge, and how efficient you use your time, both increase your bottom dollar. If there’s anything you can do to have more time, you’ll likely take it. That’s why we came up with a list of our favorite apps that will help you streamline your solopreneur business and give you back some of that precious time. PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project management is a core function of your business. And good project management helps you complete your projects and deliverables on time. Not only do you need applications for lists and scheduling, but communication, too. Get started with these three apps below. Trello This project management app allows you to create specific boards that you can share with clients or other collaborators. Each board has the ability for you to add tasks, assign people to those tasks and instill deadlines. It’s also super easy and intuitive to move tasks around when priorities change. There is a chat function within Trello, which allows you to comment and add notes, ultimately eliminating those long email chains. It also syncs with your devices — from mobile, to tablet to desktop. If there’s one tool I’ve mentioned to people throughout my years of marketing and freelancing that I can’t live without, Trello is it. Calendly It can be a real challenge to schedule meetings when your client has one email application, and you have another. Eliminate those back-and-forth emails with Calendly. This app will help you schedule those meetings by generating a link you can share via email (or embed it on your website). Your client will have direct access to your calendar and vice versa. Slack Another way to eliminate numerous emails and email chains is through the use of Slack, a real-time messaging, search and archiving application. Slack can help you unify your team’s (or client’s) communication, manage your workflow better and easily find files. Not to mention you can integrate other apps and services, such as Trello and DropBox, making it even more efficient. Plus, Slack is fun with animated gifs and threading comments, it can allow you to feel more connected to remote resources or people you work with. ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT Account management is arguably another area of business that takes up a lot of your time when you’re trying to execute client needs. Below is a list of apps that will help make your processes more efficient – from invoicing and time tracking, to proposal-generating. FreshBooks FreshBooks, a popular online accounting and billing system, provides a complementary invoice creator. Its free invoice generator tool employs a step-by-step “wizard” style walkthrough, leading you through the completion of every section in the invoice template, simplifying the invoice generation process. Proposify Just because you’re a freelancer doesn’t mean your proposals can’t look professional and creative. Proposify allows you to create beautiful proposals, with an easy digital sign-off to help you grow your business quicker. The app also gives you metrics on your close rates, the status of your current deals and state of all your proposals. Sighted This app allows you to create customized invoicing and expense tracking and is built specifically for freelancers and solopreneurs. A few features: create invoices and receipts in any currency, web- and mobile-friendly, profit and loss reports, integration of online payments and more. And, in general, a CRM system is very beneficial for freelancers to help you manage contacts, automate follow-up and provide insights from data collected. With the numerous options out there, you are sure to find one that best fits your, and/or your client’s needs. EXECUTION MANAGEMENT Execution management is your money-maker. As a freelancer, it’s often that you execute multiple different initiatives for a client because outsourcing your work is costly. There are a whole slew of apps out there to help execute that email campaign, enhance a photo or edit videos, or build websites. Snapseed Snapseed is a photo editing app created by Google. It has over 29 tools and filters, can open JPG and raw files, and allows you to edit, crop, etc. This is a great app to use when your client provides photos that need just a bit of enhancement. Weebly Need to create a website, online store or blog for your client? Or, even for yourself? Weebly makes this easy through a drag and drop website builder, integrated eCommerce platform, and responsive themes. You can add photos, content, choose from templates and even ensure it’s responsive on mobile. Another great option here that is increasingly more popular for widgeted/templated website design is SquareSpace. Ahrefs When building your client’s sites, you want to understand where competitors or ranking within Google and what you can do to outrank them. Ahrefs provides a whole gamut of tools for SEO, such as backlink checking, competitor analysis, keyword research and more. These tools are important to help your client’s gain a competitive edge and attract more customers through an efficient and relevant website. Managing a freelance business can be a lot of work and require a significant amount of time, especially if you’re a multi-tasking freelancer, managing more than one role. While this list only shows a snippet of what’s available out there for you, these apps and others like it will also help you strengthen your talents and give you back time to keep growing your solopreneur business.
How to Encourage Employee Work-Life Balance During the Holidays Posted on December 15, 2017June 13, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick The holiday season is a time for employees to recharge and relax so they can start the new year off strong. Depending on the nature of your business, your company may completely shut down over Christmas, be run by a skeleton staff or act as if it’s business as usual. So, how can you encourage your employees to take leave during the holidays to fit in with your work schedule and make their work-life balance a priority? Educate them. Sit the team down and educate them on the importance of work-life balance on a physical and emotional level. Get an expert in if necessary. Explain that for them to be able to handle the busy year ahead, they need to take holiday leave as a reward for all their efforts throughout the year. Many companies are now canceling the end-of-year rollover to urge their employees to take vacation days around the holiday. Suggest they use their leave as a priority to enable them to be more productive on their return. Give travel and hotel vouchers as an incentive. Time off is not the only thing you can give your people this holiday season. Rather than handing out cash bonuses, give travel vouchers and hotel gift cards instead to encourage your team members to take a little time around holiday or do something out of the ordinary. By investing in your team, they will be more productive and engaged in the long run. In fact, you may want to consider making incentives part of your yearly plan. Give employees options. Just as every business is different, so is every employee. Ensuring that opportunities are given to your staff is the best way to satisfy everyone. Can they choose their own days off to coincide with other things happening in their lives? The more control over their workday they have, the happier they will be. Maybe offering unpaid holiday leave for those who require extra days can also be arranged. After all, it can be a struggle for parents, as an example, once school holidays start. Offer a flexible work schedule. Providing a more flexible work schedule will also make for contented employees. Can they work a four-day week instead of five, by adding an extra two hours to another day? If they start earlier in the morning, can they take extended lunches to meet up with friends or family? Flexibility is a necessity to many job seekers and will help with overall job retention in the long-term. Enable them to work from home. Is there a possibility that some of your team members can work from home? Telecommuting cuts back on the daily commute allowing your employees to spend more hours at home with their family. It is also a helpful option for those who have to stay home and look after sick kids. In fact, a Gallup poll in 2016 showed that 43% of employees worked at home some of the time, an increase from 39% in 2012. Even just being able to offer this benefit during the holiday season will make your staff happy. Telecommuting is becoming quite the norm these days. Model positive work-life balance. If you are trying to advise your staff to leave early and you’re still sitting in the office at 7 pm, they may feel bad about not staying on. Leave the office when you should, barring any emergencies, and don’t bow to pressure to email your team while on holidays. Otherwise, they may feel the need to check their emails while away and never really feel like they get any breaks away from their job. Be less strict with how they spend their working day. If your team needs to order gifts online away from the prying eyes of their partner, then be generous. Let the strict rules lapse and their personal life overlap during business hours ever so slightly. If they need extended hours to do a bit of shopping for the holiday season, then perhaps it can be arranged. If necessary, they can always make it up by staying later. Cut back on overtime. While it may be necessary for your employees to work on weekends occasionally, it doesn’t have to happen during the holidays. Some staff may enjoy working late, while others may feel guilty about spending time away from friends or family. To be fair to everyone, minimize the need for extra hours and stick to standard work hours over the holiday festivities. Gift unscheduled afternoons off. If you find that your employees have been working hard, give them the gift of an afternoon off without it affecting their pay. They will hardly turn down the offer if it’s handed to them without them even having to ask. You don’t have to make a habit of it, but now and then will undoubtedly make a welcome difference to their work-life balance. It is not your responsibility as a manager to provide work-life balance, but you can encourage them to take the necessary time off and ensure that they look after their health and wellbeing. You will find that any efforts you put into this area will be rewarded with dedication and motivation.
The Overwhelming Importance of an Annual Digital Marketing Budget Posted on December 14, 2017September 2, 2022 by Allie Wolff It’s that time of the year again. Business may be slowing down, and you’re knocking those year-end tasks off your list. But are you ready for what’s on the horizon? With the state of the over-saturated web, it’s important that all of your digital marketing initiatives are top of mind. You may not have them planned down to a T, but based on analyzing your results, you should have some idea of what you’re strategizing for the new year. Budgets can be daunting though. You don’t want to overspend or under plan, and a budget is imperative to make sure your team understands expectations and can plan their to-do lists accordingly. So where do you begin? First, review this year’s performance by asking a few important questions. What worked? And more importantly, what didn’t? Have you identified the best channels to reach your radical buyer? Where are your competitors putting their program spend? How is the digital marketing landscape for your industry changing in the new year? Once you’ve found the answers to all of these questions, you can break down your marketing program spend into the appropriate channels. Just because you’ve seen results in a specific channel this year doesn’t mean you should put all of your budget eggs into one basket. A year is a long time, and results are likely to change on a whim. Understand that a budget is fluid and can be changed to some degree, but if you all of a sudden have a $50,000 marketing opportunity that your budget isn’t prepared for, all other areas of your digital marketing strategy will take a hit. While this may bring you a big return on investment, it’s important to consider the residual impact that comes from removing the consistency of your ad spend in channels you’ve invested time and money into. Before straying off course, decide whether the risk is worth the reward. To alleviate some of the budget burden, we’ve compiled a comprehensive digital marketing budget worksheet for you to use in your planning. Figure out what works for your business and complete your own detailed digital marketing budget to knock next year’s socks off. Happy planning!