Category: business coach

Ensuring Your Customer Support Stands Head And Shoulders Above The Rest

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Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Your customer support department may have been established. You may have the staff dutifully answering each call. You may be present. You may have a script for your staff to follow. But none of that means you’re actually providing GOOD service, and it’s certainly not a given you have a customer support team with an excellent track record. Ensuring your customer support stands head and shoulders above the rest should be your ultimate goal. It’s amazing what customer care can do for a business. One excellent response can create a customer for life, or until they have their impressions proven wrong.

It’s not simply enough to have a customer service department. You must make it great. You can make it great. But how? Luckily for you, the advice is here:

Sorting Calls

First of all, you’ll need to ensure your company has a support management system in place. Simply opening up your landline telephone number to the public can be quite an overwhelming burden if you’re slowly growing in size. You will need a method of sorting phone calls, ideally from the use of virtual headquarters. A little tinkering, and you’ll not only be able to manage calls and place them on hold professionally, but help them find the department they need. This means you can then train your specialist staff for each department, perhaps even one or two staff attending phone calls per department in the early days. Sorting calls not only allows for a more appropriate reaching of your staff, but can be utilized as an FAQ for staff members.

Consider how banks do it. When calling a bank, after passing security you will often be greeted with many options. Before putting you through to an advisor, the automated system will often remind you of your bank balance, perhaps any outstanding issues on your accounts, or will direct you to further resources that could help them before an agent is brought into play. Utilized in your business, you may find that sorting calls allows you to reduce that flow of intense support request, which allows your staff to give longer, more personalized calls for those who truly need the help.

Multiple Options

Ensuring customers are afforded multiple means of contact can also help them find someone to talk to more appropriately, should they need it. A live chat agent could be utilized by someone who needs a response, but has a problem with less immediacy than a phone call often deals with. Email options allows a no-pressure return of aid on a timeline less expectant of you. And of course, your phone options could be for the problems that truly cannot wait. Offering all three of these options for support queries can help you sort issues raised by a matter of immediacy, helping you develop a more capable prioritization of your duties in the customer care field.

Staff Authority

Allowing your staff leeway to develop a more creative solution to an issue can help the most amount of problems become solved. It’s often incredibly infuriating for a customer to be sent from support department to support department, trying to explain their issue again and again, almost without end. This can happen in some businesses, especially if the support specialist isn’t given the tools to see the issue in the first place. This is why indexed and history-generating customer accounts can be a great boon, not only for security but to help you support specialist absorb the full scope of an issue before enacting a solution.

While allowing your staff complete free reign over the issue can mean wild conjecture and a customer being told separate things by separate people, if reigned in with a guideline and set of protocols to follow, a staff member should feel able to apply multiple methods at their discretion. For example, if an issue cannot be resolved, refunding, opening a new customer account and perhaps applying a promotion for them can help you retain a customer instead of hitting a dead wall, and sometimes that’s the most salvageable option for the business.

Relationships & Off-Script

Just like giving staff the authority to make decisions, also allowing them to form a mini-relationship with each phone call via the use of appropriate joking (if led by the caller,) and to add a little levity and caring to the conversation through staff training could help the customer experience vastly improve. No one enjoys time spent calling businesses for a support issue. With this allowance, the artificial exchange becomes a little more tolerable on both sides.

With these simple tips, your customer service support is sure to be head and shoulders above the rest in your industry.

Video Marketing Matters, But You Don’t Have To Reach Hollywood Quality Just Yet

Scott Asai1 Comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

It seems that the issue of getting your brand noticed online becomes more intricate every single day. As little as five years ago, business success on the internet was about little more than developing a decent website. Around two years ago, it became essential for every business to have pretty strong social media incentives. Most recently, we’re seeing more visual mediums coming to the fore. Instagram is forever gaining in business potential at the moment, and YouTube is entering the playing field, too.

And, it’s this latest newcomer we’ll be focusing on today. The fact is that this video streaming platform has got a lot of business owners stumped right now. While it’s changing the way we reach our audiences, it’s also draining many a profit margin. Why? Because making videos isn’t as simple as writing a status update, or even paying for a domain name. Instead, it takes both time and equipment to get right. And, given it’s a reasonably untested domain as it stands, that can cause real issues. Indeed, business owners who are spending big on their efforts here are fast finding that they don’t see any return on their investment. Thus, video marketing = lost profits for them.

But, that doesn’t mean you can cut the world of YouTube from your marketing efforts altogether. While it’s easy to spend more than you see back here, any platform is worth making the most of. All you need to do is make sure that you aren’t spending the Earth on productions fit for Hollywood. In truth, staying simple here is the key to seeing a return. And, we’ve got a few pointers to help you do just that.

Turn to an outside company

If you’re a video novice, you may find turning to an outside company like Flood Social is your best bet for success. That way, you’ll only need to worry about paying one flat fee for all your marketing needs. Thus, video needn’t cost you anything extra at all. Such companies are also skilled in finding marketing ROI.  As such, they’ll continually track your returns from each platform to ensure you aren’t paying more than you get back. Even if you only use this as a short-term option, it’s a fantastic way to build an audience here without spending a fortune. A stint with an outside company can also be an excellent way to determine whether video marketing would be worth your while in the long-term. Don’t hesitate, then, to do your research and start contacting potential companies as soon as possible. The faster you jump on this growing medium, the more chance you have of being at the front of the wave.

Use what you have

Whether you use an outside company or not, there may come a time when you want to embark on video making alone. That’s fantastic news as long as you remember one essential thing; you don’t need high-end cameras to make this work. Too many companies make the mistake of thinking they’ll see high returns on efforts here. As such, they jump the guns and stock up on cameras which cost thousands. Unsurprisingly, they then have to put years into this pursuit to see any real profits from it. The thing to remember is that, while important, video marketing is a lot like a social media presence. It can create leads, but it’s only a sideline to your business. It’s a marketing effort which you should spend as little on as you can. All the better for seeing decent returns. With that in mind, then, focusing on filming what you have. iPhones are most worth a mention here. Most of us have one of these in our pockets, and they have fantastic filming capabilities. Without needing to spend a penny, then, you’ll find that you can create high-quality videos as soon as you fancy. Equally, asking around your team may reveal that you already have access to plenty of YouTube-worth cameras. Remember that you don’t need movie-quality soft focus or zoom capabilities. All you need is a decent quality picture and a reasonable sound. And, they don’t have to cost anywhere near what you would expect.

Trust basic editing equipment

There’s also a temptation to turn to complicated and expensive editing equipment to get a good finish. Again, though, this is rarely worth your time. For one, it’s another waste of good money. High-end editing equipment easily ranges into the hundreds. What’s more, complex programs can take a lot of work to understand and get right. So, you’ll increase those costs even more by having to dedicate a lot of time to editing even simple videos. Consider, instead, that there are plenty of good-value editing software programs to choose from. iMovie, for instance, comes free on the majority of Apple products. This is ideal if you’re filming on your phone, as it’ll enable you to edit on there as well. You can even use this if you’re uploading from other cameras. The easy to use interface of programs like these ensures you can edit top-quality videos in no time. You’ll undoubtedly find you and your team get the hang of something like this faster than those complex programs you were going to pay a fortune for.

Create your backdrops

Sadly, the potential expenses here don’t end there. Do you see now why so many companies overspend on this venture? An excellent looking backdrop is about as essential on a YouTube video as a hashtag is on Twitter. As such, many business owners make the mistake of spending money on video-specific studios or expensive white screens. In truth, though, you can create a perfectly good DIY backdrop for no money at all. The only thing you need is a plain white wall, and perhaps a print of your company logo. You may also want to make use of pretty office chairs, or a plant for appearance sake. But, a little thought should reveal that you have everything you need around the office already. Whatever you do, then, don’t go out spending unnecessary money on this.

Only put in what you get out

So far, we’ve focused on saving money when you start making videos. If you want to, you can keep costs down for the duration of your YouTube journey. If you see real success here, you may want to up your game by buying some of the expensive equipment we advised against. In truth, there’s nothing wrong with doing this, especially if you see decent returns. The thing to remember is that you don’t want to be in debt to your marketing campaign. It that happens, you won’t benefit from the interest you gain. To make sure that doesn’t happen, then, take time to understand how much revenue your videos bring. You can then set about only spending your profits from this field on expanding your efforts here. That way, you only spend money your work has already earnt. Doing this also ensures that your company doesn’t ultimately end up out of pocket.

A final word

No one can deny that video is the next big thing for companies. With the introduction of Instagram TV earlier this year, that only looks set to become even more the case. As with anything, though, you need to keep profits at the forefront of your mind here. Don’t spend, and keep your focus on saving. Get that right, and you’re sure to see decent success here in no time. Hollywood, here you come!

Optimize Startup Performance For More Efficiency

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Funding And Cloud Optimization

Obviously one of the best ways to increase your startup’s performance is going to involve using funding solutions from crowdfunding sources and other similarly-aligned options. But you can’t predict what kind of funding is going to come in from such options.

So you can’t depend on it. While crowdfunding is a great way to help ensure your startup can go where it is designed to go, it’s not 100% reliable. More reliable options involve streamlining existing operations so that they can be handled with the littlest loss of expense.

Another way to optimize operations is through time sheets. If there’s one thing that holds true for almost all businesses, it’s the fact that they need a way to track how much time their employees are spending on work. Traditionally, Excel spreadsheets have been the go-to option that many businesses prefer for time tracking.

If you’ve ever used Excel, you know that it can be convenient, and it can also be ridiculously complicated for no discernable reason. Solutions which outsource the complication through cloud-based application innovation save time and money while expanding mobility. Time can be tracked accurately remotely, and without the same hassle traditionally associated with Microsoft Excel.

Advantages Of Modern Tech

Such solutions reduce operational expense. Instead of having to hire someone to keep track of payroll, or spending hours doing it yourself, with a few clicks of the mouse, the job is done.

You’re likely not going to have resources for the necessary employee support your startup needs. You’re going to have to do a lot of the “busy work” yourself, until you build up requisite momentum. Using things like cloud-based applications to optimize your business will save time, money, and keep emotional strain from guiding you into poor decisions.

Application Monitoring

Something else that’s considerable in the modern business environment is the creation and monitoring of applications which have been put together for your business. These applications could be designed for sales, for information, or just for client convenience—a real estate agency with a mortgage calculator and a property finder app on its website can be quite valuable to your target market.

But if you’ve got such an application, you will have to deal with errors. Error-monitoring features come built-in to certain logging frameworks.

When you can continuously monitor your applications, the moment an error crops up it can be rectified. Older methods of monitoring require physical observation. That takes time, and won’t be as effective—sometimes errors can persist for a long time without being detected. Automatic detection solutions catch them regardless.

A lot of the technology covered in this writing so far is facilitated via cloud computing solutions and using such cloud innovations to your advantage. This is a great way to gain competitive edge as a startup. You’re going to have the ability to compete with larger businesses with the cloud. It can provide you the same or similar utility an on-site server can for a fraction of the cost.

Everything Together

Cloud computing can allow you to use Big Data to identify and apply trends as they develop and transform. Additionally, cloud computing can help you to institute and utilize IoT (Internet of Things) solutions which help you see where costs can be curtailed and services optimized.

Have you heard of edge computing? This is like a personal cloud for your business that uses IoT devices instead of servers. Substitute IoT devices for servers, and you understand edge computing. This kind of data transferal and processing is going to increase in size and applicability with time—getting in with such cutting-edge trends now is a wise move for your startup.

Lastly, you do not want to bite off more than you can chew. You want a contingency plan, you want to take steps that are going to make you money, and you do not want to get involved keeping up with the “Joneses” of other operations similar to your own.

Focus on optimizing what you have as best you can, and you’ll likely see profitable results over time. The best thing you can do as a startup is to provide good products and services cost-effectively, and in an organizationally optimized, cutting-edge way.

Why Investing In Mobile Marketing Is A Good Call

Scott Asai3 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

This decade has seen the growth of a new type of marketing – one that involves targeting users through their smartphones. This type of marketing has many advantages over regular digital marketing and it is thought to eventually dominate all other forms of marketing. After all, many of us spend hours on our smartphones – it’s got to the point where people are more likely to check their phones whilst stuck in traffic than they are likely to notice a billboard. Here are just several good reasons to invest in mobile marketing.

More people are now using the internet on mobiles than on PCs

Google have declared that 60% of searches are now made on a mobile device as opposed to a laptop or desktop computer. Whilst some of the rules for using the web are the same as they are on a computer, others are not.

For example, a website that is user friendly on a computer screen may not be as user-friendly on a mobile screen – text may be too small to read or links may be too small to tap with a finger. This is why having a mobile-version of your website is now important as mobile users could get put off using your company if your website doesn’t format properly on a mobile device.

It’s been found that people also use different keywords on a mobile device and react to ads in a different way. For this reason, a separate mobile marketing strategy can be advantageous as your regular digital marketing methods may not be working on mobile users.

Mobile marketing allows you to target people on the move

Another advantage of investing in mobile marketing is the fact that you can target people more easily based on their location. People take their smartphones with them everywhere and many people share data of their location. Using location-based ads, you can let smartphone users in your area know that your company exists. You can also use social media to alert smartphone users in your area using hashtags and geotags, plus you can provide a map on your website that helps people to more easily find your business premises. This is something you can’t do as effectively with any other form of marketing.

You can more easily convince people to call you with mobile advertising

If someone sees your ad on a PC but doesn’t have their phone to hand, they may not be as likely to call you up. However, if someone sees your ad on a smartphone, they’re more likely to call you there and then. It’s possible to set up ad extensions and buttons that allow people call up your company with the tap of a button rather than having to enter your number manually. For certain businesses such as taxi companies, takeaway restaurants and emergency handyman services, this could be extremely useful for generating more customers.   

Apps offer limitless possibilities

Mobile marketing also offers the unique opportunity to market to people through apps. An app can be a fun way of connecting to customers whilst taking advantage of the mobile possibilities it can offer. It could serve as a digital loyalty card for customers to use in your store or it could allow people to track a delivery in real time. In fact, it doesn’t really matter what the purpose of the app is – an app will provide customers with a physical reminder of you on their phone, which could help to encourage them to do business with you again. There are many app development companies out there that can build you an app such as the company at this weblink. Shop around app developers to find one within your budget that can meet your needs.

You can keep existing customers in the loop via text

Internet advertising and apps aren’t the only way in which you can market to people through their phones. There’s also the option of SMS marketing (marketing to people via text message). This can be a great way of keeping existing customers in the loop – more so than email, as people are more likely to read texts. There are various SMS services that you can use to bulk text clients. Just make sure to always offer an opt-out feature with every text as some people can find this form of mobile marketing a little too invasive.

The Dos And Don’ts Of Getting Your Brand Noticed Online

Scott Asai3 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

You can’t sell your products if no one knows about them, that is why it is so important to get your brand noticed online. Of course, this is a task that in an ever more complicated digital world can sound easier to do than it is in practice. Luckily, though we have some savvy tactics that can help your brand stand out amongst the online crowd, just read on for more advice.

Do be an expert

First of all, to get your brand not just noticed online buy trusted as reliable, it can help to be thought of as an expert and leader in your field. Of course, you are probably wondering how exactly you do this, and it’s through a multi-pronged approach.

Firstly, it can be helpful to get published in relation to the field that you work in, something that it is now straightforward to do with sites like Linkedin. Also, don’t forget that setting up live streams and webinars for free can help push your status in the eyes of potential customers up to expert level.

Remember too, that by establishing your brand as an expert in your field you will garner positive regard, and trust with potential customers. Something that can then be used to leverage later sales on and so contribute to the success of your company.

Don’t forget about effective SEO

Also, it’s pretty vital to remember that a big part of getting noticed online is about potential customers being able to find you either when they look for the product you are making or your brand specifically. Of course, this is something that is achieved in large part by search engine optimization SEO.

SEO is all about showing up in relevant search results, and good SEO will get you on the front page. This is especially important because research shows that the majority of clicks that converts to purchase are ones that come from the 1st page of searches, and so if you can ensure you show up there you are much more likely to get your brand noticed online in a meaningful way.

Of course, type SEO into a search engine (Don’t worry it won’t break the internet!)  and you will get a million pages explaining the difference between onsite and offsite, as well as what backlinks are, and how to write long tail anchors.

Luckily, if you are too busy running all the other aspects of your business to bone up on this subject, there is another option, and it’s to use a company like BCC Interactive SEO Agency to help you get found online. Something that will free you up to focus on the other pressing jobs you need to do, while still ensuring that your visibility will be maximized in an increasingly digital world.

Do engage your customers

Also, to get your brand to stand out above your competitors online, it’s crucial that you encourage the engagement and interaction of your customers. Happily, there are many ways that you can do this effectively.

The first is, of course, by using social media to not only humanize your brand but also help to create and maintain a community around your business. To do this, you will need to provide the opportunity for your customers to interact with you and each other and ensure that their voices are heard when it comes to developing a new product, or making important decisions.

Additionally, it may be possible to take customer engagement to the next level, depending on the product you are offering. This next level is where you use a small group of ‘superfans’ to promote your product through reviews and word of mouth.

Of course, they are not paid to do so and so retain their objective status in the eyes of other potential customers. However, there are tactics you can implement to ensure that such superfans maintain their momentum such as online VIP groups, exclusive offers, newsletters, and even opportunities to visit your premises. Yes, such things take some thought and work, but with the positive coverage that they generate for your brand online, they are well worth the investment.

Don’t neglect your visuals

Simple online videos can get your point across quickly and effectively.

Lastly, when it comes to getting noticed online, it’s vital to not forget about the value of visuals, as well as the material that is written. In fact, with images and videos being consumed voraciously, the visuals that you use can play a huge part in raising awareness of your brand.

 

To that end, it’s important to include original photos, illustrations, and videos on your website, as well as have them hosted on other sites as well. Then in combination with the tips above you should be in the perfect position to get your brand to stand out from all the others, online.

Ecommerce Tips & Tricks That’ll Help You Succeed

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Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Ecommerce is one of those business niches that can really confuse a lot of people. But even people like you who work in ecommerce can still learn more and do better going forward. That’s one of the great things about it; there’s always plenty of room for improvement, no matter how long you’ve been working in ecommerce or how much you think you know.

There are some things in particular that you will want to get right in order to give you the best possible chance of succeeding. It’s those things we’re going to look at and dissect today. Read on if you want to find out about the key tips and tricks that will help you to succeed in the world of ecommerce.

Use the Best Images and Design Elements

The way in which you present your business to the world will have an impact on how people view and interact with it. If they see images that look poor and like they’re very generic, they will think your business is lacking professionalism. Design elements matter just as much because cutting edge designs can make your business look modern and appealing. Whereas, if the designs are outdated, people will view your business in the same way.

Take Time Choosing the Platform

The platform you eventually choose for your ecommerce business will be really important. You want it to be the kind of platform that people can use swiftly and easily whenever they need to. And it should be working at all times, not going down at important times of the day when you could be making sales. You should read The Complete Guide to Finding the Best Ecommerce Platforms if you don’t know where to start. It’ll make the choice clearer for you.

Offer Bonuses Like Free Returns

Free returns is one of those things that many customers expect nowadays thanks to the precedent set by large companies such as Amazon. If you can, you should offer the same as an added bonus because it’s something that customers really like. They want to be able to buy in confidence, knowing they can return the item if they decide it’s not for them after it arrives. It’s just one idea of a bonus you should be looking to deliver to customers.

Make Use of Analytics

Analytics is more important than ever before, and you should look to make use of it by assessing how people are interacting with your business and using its website. The more you do this, the more you’ll discover about what customers want and what they don’t. It can then help you to fine tune the website and improve the business’s relationship with its customers on the whole. There are so many analytics tools out there, so make use of as many as possible.

Build Trust in Your Brand

Building people’s trust in your brand will also be really important because people don’t tend to give their money to companies that they don’t have trust in. That’s just the way it is and you need to deal with that. Show people that your brand is serious about protecting customers and doing the right thing by them at every opportunity. And handle problems in a helpful and professional way.

 

Make the Most of Reviews

Using reviews on your website can be scary, but it’s something that ecommerce sites can really benefit from. When people can see what other people thought of a product, it will help them to decide whether they should buy it or not. Be balanced and don’t just delete the negative comments because if you have faith in your products, they’ll be outweighed by positive reviews anyway.

Research Keywords and Work on SEO

Building a solid approach to SEO is definitely important when you’re looking to grow your brand and make a success of it. Your ecommerce company only really exists online, so you want to make it easy to find via the main search engines, particularly Google. Therefore, you should do some research into relevant keywords and then develop an approach to SEO from there. It’s pretty straightforward.

Ecommerce is not necessarily always very easy to get right. There are plenty of ways to get it wrong if you don’t really know what you’re doing, so it’s up to you to make sure that you embrace these ideas and boost your chances of success early on. Luckily, there are so many ways to succeed and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

How to Sell More Gift Cards in Your Store

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Gift cards can be incredibly useful to your business. People with a gift card tend to spend more money. They see their gift card balance as extra, a bonus, and they don’t mind spending more to get what they want. They are also much more likely to visit a store if they’ve got a gift card to spend. If someone receives a gift card for a store they don’t usually shop in, they’ll visit so as not to waste it, and often spend more than the balance of the card. It’s an easy to way to make more money, reach a new audience and get customers coming back.

Gift cards can make a great addition to your store, and as well as selling them, they are great to have in stock. Custom gift cards give you a great way to give your customers something extra, to offer deals and to promote your business. Most stores find that they sell a lot more cards over the holidays, but they can be exceptionally useful all year around if you can find ways to boost your gift card sales. Let’s take a look at some ways that you can do this.

Advertise Them

Most stores stock and sell gift cards. But, aside from sometimes displaying them by the tills, they fail to advertise them. If you want to sell more, the first thing that you need to do is let your customers know about them. Promote your cards with posters and marketing, offer an exclusive deal to those who purchase one, mention them in your email marketing newsletters, advertise them on your website and get your staff up selling them at the till. Get the word out as much as you can, and you are bound to sell more.

Motivate Your Staff

Your staff are a useful tool when it comes to selling gift cards. They can let customers know about them, and they can teach them more about how gift cards work and how fantastic a gift they can be. If you want your staff to sell more cards, turn it into a contest with a prize for the person who sells the most cards over a specific period. You could always trial this approach over a busy period, and then continue it the rest of the year if it does well.

Add Some Fun

Gift cards can be dull and uninspired. Or, they can be fresh and exciting. Don’t just offer the same basic card all year around. Inject some fun. Offer themed cards around holidays and events, add gift card holders or packaging to make them more appealing, or offer a choice of designs and envelopes.

Sell in Other Places

Selling cards in your store is great. But, if you want to reach a wider audience and sell more cards, you need to do more. Remember, people buying your cards as gifts might not necessarily shop in your store. Sell them on your website, and social media feeds, as well as adding links in your email marketing campaigns. Then, get them into other large stores such as supermarkets and department stores.

Can You Work Together?

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Working together might sound like the kind of statements that don’t belong in the modern world. Indeed, with more and more remote workers and digital clients, the idea of maintaining a sense of togetherness feels overrated. But, unfortunately, you’d be wrong to ignore the importance of building and managing a solid team. Ultimately, when employees are the primary assets of success in your business, you need to give all your attention to how your people engage with each other, within the company and create the overall spirit within the workplace. So, naturally, the question of how your team work together and if they can work together at all.

First of all, it’s essential to understand that there are several obstacles to a useful and productive team. The key to guaranteeing high-quality collaboration in the workplace is to identify what could be an issue and how to solve it. As a rule of the thumb, you need to assume that most companies have to invest in their team improvement strategies. The secret is to know where the investment is going to make a difference!

Do you use collaborative tools?

The ages of people sitting in front of their desks and only communicating through face-to-face meetings or phone calls are long gone. Nowadays, successful businesses that manage to encourage high productivity within their team have had to invest in collaborative tools. For large teams, remote-based teams, and international teams, you can combine projects and manage common efforts through a communication tool, Slack. This is a helpful tool to manage cross-team projects and maintain open information. You can also rely on planning tools such as Doodle, which can keep large projects on track by encouraging every participant to give their input on time. Thankfully, you can rely on digital techs to introduce positive collaborative habits within your team. Most issues related to delays in projects, information not being passed on time, or deadline and specs confusion can be tackled through the right tools.

Can your employees work as a team?

Sometimes, the only problem within your team is that people don’t know each other well. With long working hours and often extended commute – as more and more employees live up to 1 hour 30 of their workplace –, it’s not easy for your staff to be in a position to establish a trust bond with colleagues. But you can help them and create a trustworthy space in which they can develop the proper team building spirit your business need. At the heart of it, team building is about people sharing tasks and combining forces towards one single goal. That’s precisely where escape rooms offer a fantastic immersive experience that introduces new bonds without the pressure of work projects. 

Do you provide effective leadership?

You might be an innovative entrepreneur, but being a leader is a different kettle of fish. If you’re experiencing troubles with your leadership skills or if you’re not feeling confident about them, you might affect your team more than you know. Indeed, ineffective leadership can result in employees suffering from low morale and confusion. When the direction lacks clarity, your employees find it hard to engage with the company and the rest of the team. They feel demoralised and negative about their work performance. In the long term, this can influence not only the productivity but also the quality of their input and increase staff turnover.

Do you intentionally ignore conflicts?

Conflicts happen in everyday life. While you can ignore bickering and mean comments that occur when people are exhausted or are having a bad day, you need to acknowledge a conflict situation before it escalates too much. It is your role to help when employees can’t sort it out themselves. You can encourage an open conversation and ensure that nobody monopolizes the conversation as they work their way through the resolution. Additionally, you need to learn to listen carefully to what is said when a person speaks. It’s a good tip to rephrase what has been told to ensure you’ve understood the problem.

Is your team overworked?

How much does your team work? Don’t worry if you don’t know the answer. But you need to pay attention to their workload. While most teams can handle short periods of overtime to finish critical projects, you can’t expect them to maintain their productivity and effectiveness for a long period. Overwork decreases not only the overall quality and quantity of output but it also dramatically affects the general mood in the workplace. People begin to feel disengaged with current projects and develop a cynical approach to new ideas and interactions. Gradually, this attitude is likely to lead to broken teamwork.

The bottom line is that the more you look after your team, the better your business will be. So, if you’re experience productivity or quality issue, take the time to consider other explanations before blaming it on a lazy employee.

There’s So Much More To A Content Marketing Strategy Than Blogging

Scott Asai1 Comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

You are proud of your business. You worked damned hard for a great many years to build it up from nothing. You love your customers and value each and every one who alights on your website or walks through the doors of your physical premises. You also appreciate that if you’re to continue to enjoy their loyalty you can’t just expect them to keep coming to you. You need to extend a hand to them. You need to offer them something for nothing. You need to lift the curtain and let them take a peek behind. You need to take steps to forge a meaningful bond with them that will result in years of happy trading. That’s where content marketing steps in. Content marketing can not only strengthen the relationship your customers have with your brand, it can help you to create a brand identity that attracts legions of new clientele, strengthening and promoting your brand.

Yet, despite the power of content marketing, many entrepreneurs think only of blogging when it comes to using content to engage your audience. While your blog is certainly an important string to the bow of your brand, it is hardly the be all and end all.

Here are some other essential aspects of content marketing which should be incorporated into your strategy…

Video marketing

In an age where most of us consume digital content through mobile devices, in short bursts and on the go, long form written content may not be the best platform to reach busy customers. Video content, however, is quick and easy to digest and can make a huge impression. Given that video will account for 81% of online traffic by 2021 it’s a growth medium that you need to get familiar with. If you’re not using it, there’s a good chance your competitors are.

Email newsletters

Email newsletters are a tried and true method of not only keeping regular customers abreast of what’s going on with your business, it’s also a great means of building a sense of exclusivity. Thus, forking out for the best email marketing software is a worthy investment. You can alert your faithful customers to special offers and promotions as well as delivering targeted content and promotions designed specifically for them. Be warned, however, this is only effective for customers who opt in. You’ll need to tread lightly when it comes to staying on the right side of anti-spam laws.

Tweets and social media posts

Brevity is the soul of wit, and if you master it, you can concoct some devastatingly effective Twitter campaigns. See what you can learn from some of last year’s most successful campaigns. Remember also that a picture is worth a thousand words, and creating engaging content on Instagram is a great way to build a relationship with visually oriented customers.

Tips and tutorials

Finally, perhaps the best free gift you can give your customers is knowledge. Give them tips or tutorials that can help them to overcome the hurdles they face regularly and they will trust in your authority. It’s also a great way of illustrating real life ways in which your product can benefit them or even highlight unorthodox uses for your product.

5 Clear Signs That You Need SEO to Help Your Business

Scott Asai2 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Search engine optimization is a term that we’ve all heard before. It’s a series of strategies and techniques used to help us improve our search rankings. That means getting us higher in the Google rankings, it means more exposure and it means making your website easier to find.

However, most people ignore SEO because they either don’t understand its importance, or they simply don’t think it’s worth the money. Instead, they choose the DIY SEO route and attempt to stuff their websites full of keywords and use outdated strategies to rank higher. Unfortunately, many of those methods are considered underhanded black-hat methods that could eventually get your website blacklisted.

Here are five signs that you clearly need some SEO help with your website.

  1. Your website is growing stagnant

Original content is king when it comes to SEO. Make sure you add original descriptions, blog posts and general content to your website to keep it fresh.

  1. Your website doesn’t look good on mobile

SEO now includes making your website fit on a variety of different platforms. If your website doesn’t work properly or looks horrible on smartphones and tablets, then you need to optimize it for those platforms.

  1. You rank, but you don’t convert

Ranking high is one story, but actually converting those page views into sales is another matter. SEO can only carry your business so far, but what will you do even if you do reach the number one spot on Google?

  1. You don’t have a social media page

Social media pages and SEO go hand-in-hand. If you don’t have a social media page that’s incorporated into your SEO strategy, you’re doing it wrong.

  1. You have no idea what you’re doing

Let’s face it, you need to be a specialist to do DIY SEO. However, if you’re serious about learning, then take a look at the infographic below to learn some of the biggest SEO trends in 2018.

 


Infographic By: Oregon Web Solutions