Mortgage rates today were unchanged. Thirty-year fixed, 15-year fixed and 5/1 ARM rates remained steady, according to a NerdWallet survey of current mortgage rates published by national lenders Tuesday morning. Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve will announce its decision regarding short-term interest rates. Most Wall Street analysts are expecting the Fed to delay any further hikes in interest rates...
Hosting a Super Bowl bash can feel like trying to dodge a blitz. With lots of guests, alcohol and charged emotions, disaster can strike from any direction. Here’s how homeowners insurance can keep your wallet from taking a hit. Intercepted belongings Even small parties could include a few friends of a friend whom you don’t...
Marketing automation is hot. All the notable reasons for this from three years ago still remain: limited human error, nearly infinite scalability, and the opportunity to get your message out without someone always manning the controls. Marketers are continuing to take note.
In a Spear Marketing Group survey, B2B marketers were asked which marketing technologies were important to them. The results:
Source: eMarketer.com
Content marketing was king for both now and in the future, but look down the list at marketing automation: No. 4 currently and No. 2 in the future. As we know, it’s hard to effectively manage your content marketing efforts without a marketing automation platform.
If you’re a small business, though, this presents a challenge. You need marketing automation, but you can’t throw cartoonish bags of gold at it—at least not yet. What are your different options? What are the pros and cons? Let’s take a look.
Billed as “the world’s easiest email marketing platform” with 350,000 subscribers in 182 countries, GetResponse began as primarily an email marketing platform. Now it’s an all-in-one online marketing solution for small businesses. It has an amazing ease of use, which provides an advantage over bigger names like HubSpot and Marketo—those platforms require a full-time CRM manager, and GetResponse does not.
GetResponse also has tons of tools under one roof: It has a landing page builder, email marketing, an auto-responder, and a webinar tool. Plus, it’s better-priced than its competitors. Among the limited cons: There is a limited range of newsletter templates, and sometimes the user interface can feel clunky.
Marketo’s current slogan appears to be “If you’re going to play, play to win.” This platform offers a vast range of features and analytics, and the A/B testing and overall interface are really easy to use—those are pros, but there are cons as well. The naming conventions in Marketo are more confusing than any other automation suite, and it is extremely “Salesforce-centric.” If your sales team is on a different CRM, using Marketo poses a challenge.
When it comes to setting up automation within your business, it’s important to find a solution that can seamlessly integrate with your existing applications and business tools. This is what SharpSpring says makes it stand out from the competition.
With a powerful dashboard and marketing solution in place, it allows for businesses and brands of all sizes to zone in on their target audience and provide them with the best messaging or engagement required. Analytics provided through SharpSpring make it possible for businesses to track and analyze their audience and engagement on all levels. SharpSpring also boasts that it offers a more affordable solution over competing services.
Billed as “marketing automation for fast-growing businesses,” Act-On offers excellent customer support in terms of training, basic tips, and strategy development. Its pricing structure can be on the high side—$2,000/month for the more advanced Enterprise Plan with 10,000 active contacts and six marketing users—and some users feel the reports are static. Act-On’s superior training and customer service, however, may help to alleviate those concerns.
Infusionsoft has strong all-in-one functionality which allows you to track behaviors, actions, and purchases all in the same system. It also has a strong learning curve for responsive email marketing, whereby if customers do “X action” on your website, they subsequently will receive “Y email.” Infusionsoft is generally more expensive than other marketing automation options for small businesses, though, and oftentimes the lead tracking can be spottier than similar platforms.
If you stumbled upon this article as a SMB founder and have never even heard of the idea of marketing automation, the name you probably have some context for is HubSpot. HubSpot is typically thought of as the big name on the block in this space. It has strong training programs and its certifications are respected in most of the marketing industry.
The HubSpot platform is generally very easy to use and learn, although as new integrations are added, that may adjust a little bit. Its major drawback is a steep price creep—as your lists and contacts grow, so do your charges (and more rapidly than you might think). This works well for enterprise or established companies (or can), but it creates a challenge for SMBs. Additionally, while the personas are very strong in HubSpot, A/B testing is only available at higher price points.
Salesforce is best known as a CRM, but it does offer an email marketing automation suite. Because of its power as a CRM, one of the best functionalities is “cross-channel journeys,” where you can craft customer journey experiences from email to social to ads to your website. The problem is that Salesforce is an enterprise-grade product, and the Marketing Cloud is no different—the levels of complexity make it hard to manage for most resource-strapped SMBs. Additionally, Salesforce is designed around account-based marketing, reaching out to several decision-makers, while SMB marketing is often designed around marketing to individuals.
If you’re an SMB looking to scale, you will need an all-in-one online marketing solution/automation suite. Each of the above, as noted, have pros and cons. Hubspot and Salesforce are probably the most well-known of this group, so resources and tips are easier to come by (because the user base for the products is higher). Act-On has excellent customer service, and InfusionSoft has great all-in-one functionality, but those two platforms can get expensive for SMBs (as can HubSpot and Salesforce). Marketo offers a great range of features, but unless you’re using Salesforce as your CRM, the value for your money might not be there. GetResponse might be the best play for a small business. The value is high relative to price, and the ability to create landing pages within the automation suite is something most of the other major players on the market don’t currently offer.
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For New England fans, trekking to the Super Bowl this weekend could mean seeing Tom Brady make NFL history. Of course, the chance to witness the star quarterback collect his fifth Super Bowl ring comes with a hefty price tag — one that would require 183 hours of work to cover, according to government data....
For Atlanta fans, watching in person as the Falcons try to win their first Super Bowl would be a dream come true. Of course, in reality, that “priceless” experience would come at a big cost — one that would take 244 hours of work to cover, according to government data. Traveling to Houston for a...
The new trend among robo-advisors might just be human advice. Betterment, the leading independent robo-advisor with over $7.3 billion in assets under management, announced Tuesday that it will offer two new service plans, both with access to a team of certified financial planners and investment advisors. The company is also changing the pricing for its...
By Allen Farrish
So why can’t I keep my employees? This phrase is heard so often from business owners. The cost of constant employee turnover is far greater than most people realize. The cost of training, mistakes, and lost customer business via new employee errors is tremendous. Even worse is the cost of accidents caused by new people.
The secrets to keeping good employees is simple and common sense. In my 40 years of managing, I have put together the following three items to consider:
It sounds so simple, but this rule is frequently and perhaps habitually ignored. You need to:
Hire people you can trust with your business and customers. Remember that most jobs today are self-supervised. Can you trust this person when you are not on-site?
Hire people with the same ethical values as you. If you would never steal from a business, then don’t hire someone who will steal. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like “Have you every stolen from a business?” or “Have you ever lied on an expense report?” Ask probing questions like what part of a job did they like the most; you may be surprised at the answers you receive.
Hire people who live reasonably close to your business. If the commute is one hour and the job pays $12 per hour, then the employee will fade fast.
Hire bright smart people. We all know that “A” employees outperform “C” employees many times over. “C” employees inevitably make costly mistakes, create bad customer service, irritate the “A” performers, and just drive you crazy. Do not just “settle” because you need to fill a position, and do not be afraid to hire someone smarter than you. Remember the smartest person can one day run your small business when you need to leave town for a few days. Don’t just hire employees who can perform the daily tasks you outline, hire people who can help you take your business higher. These are the employees who can also see new products, processes, and customers.
Treat your employees like gold because they are the gold of the business. Even with all the technology of today, a business is bust without solid employees. Treating employees like gold encompasses several areas:
Pay. It goes without saying that you will need to pay a bit more to get bright smart “A” people to work for you. Perhaps the “A” people make $14 per hour or $16 per hour rather than $10 per hour. Do not be afraid to pay different workers different rates. Advance the “A” performers faster than the others. If a “C” worker leaves over $10/hour, then so be it; if an “A” employee leaves over $10/hour, then shame on you.
When possible share part of the profits with your employees. If you have an “A” performer knocking it out of the park, then give that person a quarterly bonus.
Staying in touch. Keep in touch with your employees. Compliment them on their performance. Solicit their ideas. Know their families. Sales is famous for using the “relationship” approach with key customers. Successful sales people know that the better the “relationship” with a customer, the higher the chance of business continuity. While you must always maintain the boss/employee relationship, do not be afraid to know their personal needs. Remember that as the manager of a department or owner of a business, you too are selling to your employees. You are selling why your employees should stay with you and drive for higher success.
While pay is the item that most people assume means the most to employees, it’s actually one of the last items. However, if you do not pay a competitive rate, then your employee turnover will skyrocket; if you pay competitively, then pay is not a top concern. I offer the following items that have worked well for me:
Be flexible about work hours. If flexible time works for a job, then you will get a lot more employee interest. There are a lot of people today looking for additional work, but they need to work around the hours of another job. You will be surprised at the quality of people who need second jobs to support their families. Plus, lots of middle-aged people have demands with kids, spouses, and parents—if it is not the kid going to the dentist, it is the parent or spouse going to the doctor.
Be flexible with special situations. Perhaps the babysitter did not show up for an employee and they need to bring their kid to work. While bringing a kid to work is not appropriate for all jobs, bringing a kid to work on rare occasions is not the end of the world. You will keep an employee for life with this hint.
Talk to employees like they matter. Do not revert back to the 1960s and brow beat your employees. If you are yelling at your employees, then you have the wrong employee or you are the wrong boss. Today’s employee responds far better to a partnership than a chewing out.
Have performance reviews quarterly or semiannually. This sounds like a tough task, but it’s actually quite easy. The best performance reviews are when the two sides just talk—hear what’s on your employee’s mind. I am always surprised at what I hear from my best employees. While pay is always a topic that comes up, I frequently hear that employees just want to be appreciated. Give them the chance to vent without reprisal.
While I could make the list much longer, most additional items are secondary to these three. If you consistently achieve these three items, your employee retention should rise along with your business.
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Tax filing season is underway, but people who file early and claim certain tax credits might wait longer for their refunds this year. This is thanks to new IRS efforts to crack down on fraud. The change could affect millions of households, especially those with children. If yours is among them, here are a few tips...
By Allen Farrish
So why can’t I keep my employees? This phrase is heard so often from business owners. The cost of constant employee turnover is far greater than most people realize. The cost of training, mistakes, and lost customer business via new employee errors is tremendous. Even worse is the cost of accidents caused by new people.
The secrets to keeping good employees is simple and common sense. In my 40 years of managing, I have put together the following three items to consider:
It sounds so simple, but this rule is frequently and perhaps habitually ignored. You need to:
Hire people you can trust with your business and customers. Remember that most jobs today are self-supervised. Can you trust this person when you are not on-site?
Hire people with the same ethical values as you. If you would never steal from a business, then don’t hire someone who will steal. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like “Have you every stolen from a business?” or “Have you ever lied on an expense report?” Ask probing questions like what part of a job did they like the most; you may be surprised at the answers you receive.
Hire people who live reasonably close to your business. If the commute is one hour and the job pays $12 per hour, then the employee will fade fast.
Hire bright smart people. We all know that “A” employees outperform “C” employees many times over. “C” employees inevitably make costly mistakes, create bad customer service, irritate the “A” performers, and just drive you crazy. Do not just “settle” because you need to fill a position, and do not be afraid to hire someone smarter than you. Remember the smartest person can one day run your small business when you need to leave town for a few days. Don’t just hire employees who can perform the daily tasks you outline, hire people who can help you take your business higher. These are the employees who can also see new products, processes, and customers.
Treat your employees like gold because they are the gold of the business. Even with all the technology of today, a business is bust without solid employees. Treating employees like gold encompasses several areas:
Pay. It goes without saying that you will need to pay a bit more to get bright smart “A” people to work for you. Perhaps the “A” people make $14 per hour or $16 per hour rather than $10 per hour. Do not be afraid to pay different workers different rates. Advance the “A” performers faster than the others. If a “C” worker leaves over $10/hour, then so be it; if an “A” employee leaves over $10/hour, then shame on you.
When possible share part of the profits with your employees. If you have an “A” performer knocking it out of the park, then give that person a quarterly bonus.
Staying in touch. Keep in touch with your employees. Compliment them on their performance. Solicit their ideas. Know their families. Sales is famous for using the “relationship” approach with key customers. Successful sales people know that the better the “relationship” with a customer, the higher the chance of business continuity. While you must always maintain the boss/employee relationship, do not be afraid to know their personal needs. Remember that as the manager of a department or owner of a business, you too are selling to your employees. You are selling why your employees should stay with you and drive for higher success.
While pay is the item that most people assume means the most to employees, it’s actually one of the last items. However, if you do not pay a competitive rate, then your employee turnover will skyrocket; if you pay competitively, then pay is not a top concern. I offer the following items that have worked well for me:
Be flexible about work hours. If flexible time works for a job, then you will get a lot more employee interest. There are a lot of people today looking for additional work, but they need to work around the hours of another job. You will be surprised at the quality of people who need second jobs to support their families. Plus, lots of middle-aged people have demands with kids, spouses, and parents—if it is not the kid going to the dentist, it is the parent or spouse going to the doctor.
Be flexible with special situations. Perhaps the babysitter did not show up for an employee and they need to bring their kid to work. While bringing a kid to work is not appropriate for all jobs, bringing a kid to work on rare occasions is not the end of the world. You will keep an employee for life with this hint.
Talk to employees like they matter. Do not revert back to the 1960s and brow beat your employees. If you are yelling at your employees, then you have the wrong employee or you are the wrong boss. Today’s employee responds far better to a partnership than a chewing out.
Have performance reviews quarterly or semiannually. This sounds like a tough task, but it’s actually quite easy. The best performance reviews are when the two sides just talk—hear what’s on your employee’s mind. I am always surprised at what I hear from my best employees. While pay is always a topic that comes up, I frequently hear that employees just want to be appreciated. Give them the chance to vent without reprisal.
While I could make the list much longer, most additional items are secondary to these three. If you consistently achieve these three items, your employee retention should rise along with your business.
The post The Secret to Retaining Your Best Employees appeared first on AllBusiness.com
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Whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, you need certain information and documentation to file your tax return. Here’s a list of items taxpayers commonly need to complete the job. Personal data Let’s start with the obvious. Last year’s taxes, both your federal and — if applicable — state return. These aren’t strictly necessary, but they’re...
As a football fan, you know the rules of the game and the names of the players. But you might not know quite as much about the TV you’ll be using to watch your favorite sport — or what you’d want in a replacement, especially on short notice. “The Super Bowl is sort of the...
There could be an unexpected silver lining to filing your taxes this year: help tackling your student loans. As part of a new feature and partnership with the student loan refinancing company Earnest, Intuit Inc.’s TurboTax now lets users elect to receive student loan refinance estimates based on their tax data. This estimate will tell...
Mortgage rates were mostly lower today. Thirty-year fixed and 15-year fixed rates fell, while 5/1 ARM rates remained steady, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage rates published by national lenders Monday morning. Mortgage Rates Today, Monday, Jan. 30 (Change from 1/27) 30-year fixed: 4.43% APR (-0.05) 15-year fixed: 3.82% APR (-0.03) 5/1 ARM: 3.84% APR (NC) Get...
Is your small business marketing working as well as it could be? Marketing even the smallest businesses has gotten both easier and more complicated in the digital age. Easier, because online marketing is so affordable; more complicated, because there are so many options to choose from.
To find out how small business owners are keeping up, Vistaprint recently surveyed “micro-businesses” (U.S. small business owners with fewer than 10 employees). Here’s what they found.
Despite their small size, micro-businesses in general have moved into the digital marketing age. More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) say they market their businesses both online and offline. Over half (52.7 percent) say their online presence is “very important” to their marketing efforts, while 30.4 percent say it’s “fairly important.”
However, there’s still a long way to go. More than one-fourth (28.9 percent) of small business owners surveyed say they don’t market their businesses both online and offline. And even those who do market both ways often fail to present cohesive branding. About one-third of micro-business owners say developing a more consistent online and offline marketing identity would have a “substantial” financial impact on their businesses, and one-fourth think it would have a “significant” impact.
How can you maximize marketing a micro-business (or any business)? Here are five tips:
1. Make sure your business website is up to snuff. Less than one-third (32.7 percent) of small business owners in the survey say their website is their primary means of marketing. However, even if your website is not your main focus, it needs to be in good shape. Make sure your business website is mobile-friendly; most people search for local businesses on their smartphones these days, and Google awards higher rankings in search results to mobile-friendly sites. Make key information—your business address, hours, and phone number—easy to see, and keep it updated.
2. Give online advertising a try. Just 6.6 percent of micro-business owners in the survey describe online advertising as a marketing priority. However, when properly executed, online advertising can be highly effective and affordable. Since prospective customers search for businesses online, having your ads show up when they search for what you sell can only help your business.
3. Get listed in online directories. Only 5 percent of survey respondents say online directories are a key marketing method. But if your business is one that attracts local customers, online directories are vitally important to getting customers in your door. Plus, it’s easy (and generally free) to list your business in local search directories such as Google My Business or Yelp. To get the best results from online directories, make sure that your business name, address and phone number are exactly the same in all of your listings—if they vary at all, search engines will view the variations as different businesses.
4. Don’t rely solely on social media marketing. Social media is the dominant marketing method used by micro-business owners; 53.3 percent say it’s their primary marketing focus. However, while social media marketing is important, putting all your efforts into social media marketing can leave you vulnerable. What happens if the key social network you rely on makes significant changes to its algorithm or has a sudden decline in popularity?
5. Promote a cohesive brand image. More than half of small business owners surveyed say business cards are their primary print marketing method; print advertising and signage are also used. Whether your marketing online, on social media or in print, you need to convey a unified brand image throughout. That means using similar graphics, colors and images, as well as reinforcing trademarks and taglines. Last but not least, make sure that your print materials drive customers to your website and social media presence, that your social media accounts link to your website and that your website prominently displays your social media icons.
By integrating all of your marketing—print, online and social media—you’ll get better results from each method you use.
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Social media marketing for small businesses can be a tricky game. It’s difficult to know how to allocate resources to have maximum effect when there are so many different platforms, with best practices for each.
One question that every small business must face is which channels should or could be used more often—putting aside the obvious choice. When it comes to social media, there is no bigger name in the game than Facebook. It’s the platform with the most users, the biggest reach, and the largest cultural impact.
There may be trendier options in the game—Snapchat, with its burgeoning millennial base, comes to mind—but whether it’s for posting personal photos or for starting a digital marketing campaign, the first choice is almost always Facebook.
But there are tons of other ways to get the word out about your company’s product, great promotion, or new blog post. Which platforms are best suited to helping small businesses gain traction and build social media capital?
This isn’t a call to abandon Facebook, which would be fruitless. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is by far the most utilized social media platform of them all, according to the 2017 Wasp Barcode State of Small Business Report. Out of the survey’s 1,100+ respondents, 68 percent said they used Facebook as part of their marketing strategy; LinkedIn ranked second at 39 percent.
Here are the top 10, for the record:
1. Facebook (68%)
2. LinkedIn (39%)
3. Twitter (34%)
4. Instagram (27%)
5. YouTube, Vine, or Vimeo (25%)
6. We do not use social media as part of our marketing strategy (20%)
7. Company blog (19%)
8. Yelp (13%)
8. Pinterest (13%)
10. Live streaming apps like Periscope, Blab, or Meerkat (5%)
Putting aside the 20 percent who say they don’t use social media in their marketing at all, only 12 percent of respondents don’t use Facebook. This number is actually down from the previous year’s report which puts Facebook use at 70 percent. Its usage rate is especially high among mid-sized companies with at least 100 employees—but then again that goes for every platform (very small businesses are more likely not to do social media marketing or to use fewer channels).
Why is Facebook so popular? One reason of course is that it’s approaching 2 billion personal users. As the most popular overall platform, it’s the first place where companies go to spread their brand awareness. And that leads to more marketing-specific reasons such as Facebook drives the largest share of social media referral traffic, has the highest conversion rate for e-commerce traffic, and has an enormous influence on user purchasing decisions.
That’s not to say businesses should put all of their eggs in one basket and concentrate solely on Facebook. That creates concentration risk: If you focus on one area and it fails to produce, you’re in trouble. And since not every potential customer uses Facebook (surprising though that may seem), it’s beneficial to spread your message across other platforms to increase impact.
As to what social media channels are best suited for disseminating a small business’s message, here are a few options:
YouTube—and to a lesser extent Vimeo (Vine, included in the survey, was recently shuttered for good by Twitter)—ranks only at number five on the list. YouTube in particular is an undervalued resource for two reasons:
Keep in mind that video production quality is more important than ever, so your content needs to be well-produced (i.e., well-funded) in order to make an impact.
We’ve all heard the jokes: Google+ is a wasteland, comparatively speaking, in the social media world. You won’t find much argument against that, since engagement and content sharing on this platform is a fraction of what you’ll find on Facebook. But there is good reason to believe that an active Google+ page plays a role in the Google search ranking of your site, which is incredibly important. (Google’s actual proprietary algorithm is unknown, but estimated by many.) Anything you can do to keep your site on the first page of Google results should be done.
In addition, Google+ does have hundreds of millions of users, and some of the platform’s features—such as live Hangouts—can be used to easily share content across all Google channels, including YouTube.
These two photo-sharing (and video-sharing) platforms are grouped together here, though they are quite different in terms of the way you utilize them and the audience you’re looking to interact with.
If your audience skews younger, you’ll want to focus on Snapchat, which has a mostly millennial user base. Your content doesn’t need an overly polished or corporate look: Connecting with 18 to 24 year olds means having fun and being creative. There are over 100 million active users on the platform today.
Instagram, on the other hand, has over 400 million monthly users, but the user base is more well-rounded in terms of age as well as geography (meaning a majority of those users live outside the U.S. and thus won’t be prime candidates for buying from you). The content on Instagram should err on the side of professional and artistic, and there’s the added benefit of integration with Facebook.
You may not think of Yelp (or other review sites such as TripAdvisor) as social media in the purest sense, but Yelp is actually another great way to connect with users and elicit real (hopefully positive) feedback. If you’re worried about some of the controversy and negativity that has arisen from Yelp reviews, note that the Yelp team is known for helping businesses improve their status on the site and rise above the vitriol.
The truth is the vast majority of consumers let Yelp reviews guide their purchasing decisions. Whether or not you want to play this game, many of your competitors are, so it’s in your best interest to find how to make Yelp work for you.
At the end of the (work) day, different platforms might work better for your company depending on what you sell and who your clientele is. Experiment with these platforms (the Snapchat vs. Instagram debate is sure to rage on for years) or others like Pinterest to see which ones will get you the most traction.
But be warned: It’s not advisable to stretch your message across a bunch of platforms or download every single social media app because you think you need to. Try concentrating on a few to build your audience and cement your brand, and go from there. Good luck.
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Despite the potential that marketing automation offers to connect with leads and convert them to customers, many brands still use this marketing tool as simply glorified email distribution. The most successful companies use their marketing automation systems extensively, according to recent research.
And yet 85 percent of B2B marketers using MA platforms feel that they are not using them to their full potential and only 26 percent of B2B MA users have fully adopted their system. There is a wealth of data that says marketing automation works, but there’s just as much evidence that not every company that has marketing automation is getting the most out of it.
Marketing automation is one of the most sophisticated tools we’ve seen thus far in terms of how precisely it can deliver exactly what a target wants. Let’s look at a few of the hurdles that marketers have with marketing automation, as well as the best ways to circumvent those issues.
When marketers hear “automation,” they think “one-time effort.” Unfortunately, that’s not true of any marketing tool. Yes, marketing automation makes it easy to nurture leads while you sleep through pre-created emails, but that doesn’t mean your work is done.
It’s extremely important to monitor campaign results and continually tweak your emails to improve results. And as you launch new marketing campaigns, your marketing automation becomes the cornerstone of your efforts.
Key Takeaway: Marketing automation doesn’t do the work for you; it helps you automate repeatable, redundant tasks and provides you with the insights to improve your marketing. So use it as the tool it is and constantly strive to improve results.
Unfortunately, there is often a lack of integration between marketing automation and sales systems. In fact, there’s often a disconnect between Sales and Marketing teams, period, and this lack of alignment is a barrier to adoption of marketing automation for 30 percent of companies. The left foot doesn’t know where the right foot is stepping, and that makes it difficult to work together.
Marketing automation has the power to show you the revenue driven by marketing efforts, but dumping a lot of unqualified leads on your sales team won’t win you any friends.
Key Takeaway: Communication is key here. Make sure Sales is involved in in the processes. Establish the mindset of Sales and Marketing being strong partners with a common purpose. Work with your sales team to align processes between the two departments, and to set common definitions and clear goals. Meet regularly to ensure that marketing automation is complementing and contributing to the sales efforts.
Using marketing automation just because you think you should isn’t going to move the needle on results. It’s imperative that you set goals and understand the reports that you want out of the system. Not all the analytics you can get may be of use; instead, focus on those that contribute to your understanding of where you are with your goals.
Key Takeaway: The ability to track analytics is one of the most powerful functions of marketing automation. Having a strategy with set goals for your marketing automation is absolutely necessary. Clearly define your strategy and continually measure results.
For some reason, many marketers do this the other way around: they start using their marketing automation system, and then define processes. But it’s a whole lot easier if you first understand your buyers and their journey in researching and then making a purchase. From there, you can define the processes you will use to nudge potential customers into your lead funnel and nurture them from there.
Key Takeaway: You’ll get better results if you start with processes you can then repeat for best results. And don’t forget to work with your sales team when defining those processes.
While we started talking about companies that don’t take advantage of all the functionality in their marketing automation, some companies go overboard and end up frustrated. I get it: there are some amazing features in marketing automation that you want to try. But using them all at once only clouds the water. You’re better off using one feature or technique at a time and adding on from there. That way, you can measure results for that single change rather than wondering which of the many components you’ve thrown together actually netted those results.
Key Takeaway: Think of it as a maturation process: You will scale your efforts over time, but only after you’ve mastered each level.
Marketing automation has tremendous potential to convert customers at a great ROI. It’s all in the effort and attention you are willing to give it. Nurture your processes and continually tweak them for best results, and you’ll make 2017 the year that marketing automation took your business to new heights.
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Well-known retailers have ushered in January with plans to close physical store locations in 2017, and it could be symptomatic of issues in the industry. Shuttering storefronts Four days into the new year, Macy’s department store announced that it will be closing 68 stores. A day later, Sears Holdings Corp. reported that it’s set to close...
Tax filing season is underway, but people who file early and claim certain tax credits might wait longer for their refunds this year. This is thanks to new IRS efforts to crack down on fraud. The change could affect millions of households, especially those with children. If yours is among them, here are a few tips...
Marketing automation is hot. All the notable reasons for this from three years ago still remain: limited human error, nearly infinite scalability, and the opportunity to get your message out without someone always manning the controls. Marketers are continuing to take note.
In a Spear Marketing Group survey, B2B marketers were asked which marketing technologies were important to them. The results:
Source: eMarketer.com
Content marketing was king for both now and in the future, but look down the list at marketing automation: No. 4 currently and No. 2 in the future. As we know, it’s hard to effectively manage your content marketing efforts without a marketing automation platform.
If you’re a small business, though, this presents a challenge. You need marketing automation, but you can’t throw cartoonish bags of gold at it—at least not yet. What are your different options? What are the pros and cons? Let’s take a look.
Billed as “the world’s easiest email marketing platform” with 350,000 subscribers in 182 countries, GetResponse began as primarily an email marketing platform. Now it’s an all-in-one online marketing solution for small businesses. It has an amazing ease of use, which provides an advantage over bigger names like HubSpot and Marketo—those platforms require a full-time CRM manager, and GetResponse does not.
GetResponse also has tons of tools under one roof: It has a landing page builder, email marketing, an auto-responder, and a webinar tool. Plus, it’s better-priced than its competitors. Among the limited cons: There is a limited range of newsletter templates, and sometimes the user interface can feel clunky.
Marketo’s current slogan appears to be “If you’re going to play, play to win.” This platform offers a vast range of features and analytics, and the A/B testing and overall interface are really easy to use—those are pros, but there are cons as well. The naming conventions in Marketo are more confusing than any other automation suite, and it is extremely “Salesforce-centric.” If your sales team is on a different CRM, using Marketo poses a challenge.
When it comes to setting up automation within your business, it’s important to find a solution that can seamlessly integrate with your existing applications and business tools. This is what SharpSpring says makes it stand out from the competition.
With a powerful dashboard and marketing solution in place, it allows for businesses and brands of all sizes to zone in on their target audience and provide them with the best messaging or engagement required. Analytics provided through SharpSpring make it possible for businesses to track and analyze their audience and engagement on all levels. SharpSpring also boasts that it offers a more affordable solution over competing services.
Billed as “marketing automation for fast-growing businesses,” Act-On offers excellent customer support in terms of training, basic tips, and strategy development. Its pricing structure can be on the high side—$2,000/month for the more advanced Enterprise Plan with 10,000 active contacts and six marketing users—and some users feel the reports are static. Act-On’s superior training and customer service, however, may help to alleviate those concerns.
Infusionsoft has strong all-in-one functionality which allows you to track behaviors, actions, and purchases all in the same system. It also has a strong learning curve for responsive email marketing, whereby if customers do “X action” on your website, they subsequently will receive “Y email.” Infusionsoft is generally more expensive than other marketing automation options for small businesses, though, and oftentimes the lead tracking can be spottier than similar platforms.
If you stumbled upon this article as a SMB founder and have never even heard of the idea of marketing automation, the name you probably have some context for is HubSpot. HubSpot is typically thought of as the big name on the block in this space. It has strong training programs and its certifications are respected in most of the marketing industry.
The HubSpot platform is generally very easy to use and learn, although as new integrations are added, that may adjust a little bit. Its major drawback is a steep price creep—as your lists and contacts grow, so do your charges (and more rapidly than you might think). This works well for enterprise or established companies (or can), but it creates a challenge for SMBs. Additionally, while the personas are very strong in HubSpot, A/B testing is only available at higher price points.
Salesforce is best known as a CRM, but it does offer an email marketing automation suite. Because of its power as a CRM, one of the best functionalities is “cross-channel journeys,” where you can craft customer journey experiences from email to social to ads to your website. The problem is that Salesforce is an enterprise-grade product, and the Marketing Cloud is no different—the levels of complexity make it hard to manage for most resource-strapped SMBs. Additionally, Salesforce is designed around account-based marketing, reaching out to several decision-makers, while SMB marketing is often designed around marketing to individuals.
If you’re an SMB looking to scale, you will need an all-in-one online marketing solution/automation suite. Each of the above, as noted, have pros and cons. Hubspot and Salesforce are probably the most well-known of this group, so resources and tips are easier to come by (because the user base for the products is higher). Act-On has excellent customer service, and InfusionSoft has great all-in-one functionality, but those two platforms can get expensive for SMBs (as can HubSpot and Salesforce). Marketo offers a great range of features, but unless you’re using Salesforce as your CRM, the value for your money might not be there. GetResponse might be the best play for a small business. The value is high relative to price, and the ability to create landing pages within the automation suite is something most of the other major players on the market don’t currently offer.
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Social media marketing for small businesses can be a tricky game. It’s difficult to know how to allocate resources to have maximum effect when there are so many different platforms, with best practices for each.
One question that every small business must face is which channels should or could be used more often—putting aside the obvious choice. When it comes to social media, there is no bigger name in the game than Facebook. It’s the platform with the most users, the biggest reach, and the largest cultural impact.
There may be trendier options in the game—Snapchat, with its burgeoning millennial base, comes to mind—but whether it’s for posting personal photos or for starting a digital marketing campaign, the first choice is almost always Facebook.
But there are tons of other ways to get the word out about your company’s product, great promotion, or new blog post. Which platforms are best suited to helping small businesses gain traction and build social media capital?
This isn’t a call to abandon Facebook, which would be fruitless. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is by far the most utilized social media platform of them all, according to the 2017 Wasp Barcode State of Small Business Report. Out of the survey’s 1,100+ respondents, 68 percent said they used Facebook as part of their marketing strategy; LinkedIn ranked second at 39 percent.
Here are the top 10, for the record:
1. Facebook (68%)
2. LinkedIn (39%)
3. Twitter (34%)
4. Instagram (27%)
5. YouTube, Vine, or Vimeo (25%)
6. We do not use social media as part of our marketing strategy (20%)
7. Company blog (19%)
8. Yelp (13%)
8. Pinterest (13%)
10. Live streaming apps like Periscope, Blab, or Meerkat (5%)
Putting aside the 20 percent who say they don’t use social media in their marketing at all, only 12 percent of respondents don’t use Facebook. This number is actually down from the previous year’s report which puts Facebook use at 70 percent. Its usage rate is especially high among mid-sized companies with at least 100 employees—but then again that goes for every platform (very small businesses are more likely not to do social media marketing or to use fewer channels).
Why is Facebook so popular? One reason of course is that it’s approaching 2 billion personal users. As the most popular overall platform, it’s the first place where companies go to spread their brand awareness. And that leads to more marketing-specific reasons such as Facebook drives the largest share of social media referral traffic, has the highest conversion rate for e-commerce traffic, and has an enormous influence on user purchasing decisions.
That’s not to say businesses should put all of their eggs in one basket and concentrate solely on Facebook. That creates concentration risk: If you focus on one area and it fails to produce, you’re in trouble. And since not every potential customer uses Facebook (surprising though that may seem), it’s beneficial to spread your message across other platforms to increase impact.
As to what social media channels are best suited for disseminating a small business’s message, here are a few options:
YouTube—and to a lesser extent Vimeo (Vine, included in the survey, was recently shuttered for good by Twitter)—ranks only at number five on the list. YouTube in particular is an undervalued resource for two reasons:
Keep in mind that video production quality is more important than ever, so your content needs to be well-produced (i.e., well-funded) in order to make an impact.
We’ve all heard the jokes: Google+ is a wasteland, comparatively speaking, in the social media world. You won’t find much argument against that, since engagement and content sharing on this platform is a fraction of what you’ll find on Facebook. But there is good reason to believe that an active Google+ page plays a role in the Google search ranking of your site, which is incredibly important. (Google’s actual proprietary algorithm is unknown, but estimated by many.) Anything you can do to keep your site on the first page of Google results should be done.
In addition, Google+ does have hundreds of millions of users, and some of the platform’s features—such as live Hangouts—can be used to easily share content across all Google channels, including YouTube.
These two photo-sharing (and video-sharing) platforms are grouped together here, though they are quite different in terms of the way you utilize them and the audience you’re looking to interact with.
If your audience skews younger, you’ll want to focus on Snapchat, which has a mostly millennial user base. Your content doesn’t need an overly polished or corporate look: Connecting with 18 to 24 year olds means having fun and being creative. There are over 100 million active users on the platform today.
Instagram, on the other hand, has over 400 million monthly users, but the user base is more well-rounded in terms of age as well as geography (meaning a majority of those users live outside the U.S. and thus won’t be prime candidates for buying from you). The content on Instagram should err on the side of professional and artistic, and there’s the added benefit of integration with Facebook.
You may not think of Yelp (or other review sites such as TripAdvisor) as social media in the purest sense, but Yelp is actually another great way to connect with users and elicit real (hopefully positive) feedback. If you’re worried about some of the controversy and negativity that has arisen from Yelp reviews, note that the Yelp team is known for helping businesses improve their status on the site and rise above the vitriol.
The truth is the vast majority of consumers let Yelp reviews guide their purchasing decisions. Whether or not you want to play this game, many of your competitors are, so it’s in your best interest to find how to make Yelp work for you.
At the end of the (work) day, different platforms might work better for your company depending on what you sell and who your clientele is. Experiment with these platforms (the Snapchat vs. Instagram debate is sure to rage on for years) or others like Pinterest to see which ones will get you the most traction.
But be warned: It’s not advisable to stretch your message across a bunch of platforms or download every single social media app because you think you need to. Try concentrating on a few to build your audience and cement your brand, and go from there. Good luck.
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Despite the potential that marketing automation offers to connect with leads and convert them to customers, many brands still use this marketing tool as simply glorified email distribution. The most successful companies use their marketing automation systems extensively, according to recent research.
And yet 85 percent of B2B marketers using MA platforms feel that they are not using them to their full potential and only 26 percent of B2B MA users have fully adopted their system. There is a wealth of data that says marketing automation works, but there’s just as much evidence that not every company that has marketing automation is getting the most out of it.
Marketing automation is one of the most sophisticated tools we’ve seen thus far in terms of how precisely it can deliver exactly what a target wants. Let’s look at a few of the hurdles that marketers have with marketing automation, as well as the best ways to circumvent those issues.
When marketers hear “automation,” they think “one-time effort.” Unfortunately, that’s not true of any marketing tool. Yes, marketing automation makes it easy to nurture leads while you sleep through pre-created emails, but that doesn’t mean your work is done.
It’s extremely important to monitor campaign results and continually tweak your emails to improve results. And as you launch new marketing campaigns, your marketing automation becomes the cornerstone of your efforts.
Key Takeaway: Marketing automation doesn’t do the work for you; it helps you automate repeatable, redundant tasks and provides you with the insights to improve your marketing. So use it as the tool it is and constantly strive to improve results.
Unfortunately, there is often a lack of integration between marketing automation and sales systems. In fact, there’s often a disconnect between Sales and Marketing teams, period, and this lack of alignment is a barrier to adoption of marketing automation for 30 percent of companies. The left foot doesn’t know where the right foot is stepping, and that makes it difficult to work together.
Marketing automation has the power to show you the revenue driven by marketing efforts, but dumping a lot of unqualified leads on your sales team won’t win you any friends.
Key Takeaway: Communication is key here. Make sure Sales is involved in in the processes. Establish the mindset of Sales and Marketing being strong partners with a common purpose. Work with your sales team to align processes between the two departments, and to set common definitions and clear goals. Meet regularly to ensure that marketing automation is complementing and contributing to the sales efforts.
Using marketing automation just because you think you should isn’t going to move the needle on results. It’s imperative that you set goals and understand the reports that you want out of the system. Not all the analytics you can get may be of use; instead, focus on those that contribute to your understanding of where you are with your goals.
Key Takeaway: The ability to track analytics is one of the most powerful functions of marketing automation. Having a strategy with set goals for your marketing automation is absolutely necessary. Clearly define your strategy and continually measure results.
For some reason, many marketers do this the other way around: they start using their marketing automation system, and then define processes. But it’s a whole lot easier if you first understand your buyers and their journey in researching and then making a purchase. From there, you can define the processes you will use to nudge potential customers into your lead funnel and nurture them from there.
Key Takeaway: You’ll get better results if you start with processes you can then repeat for best results. And don’t forget to work with your sales team when defining those processes.
While we started talking about companies that don’t take advantage of all the functionality in their marketing automation, some companies go overboard and end up frustrated. I get it: there are some amazing features in marketing automation that you want to try. But using them all at once only clouds the water. You’re better off using one feature or technique at a time and adding on from there. That way, you can measure results for that single change rather than wondering which of the many components you’ve thrown together actually netted those results.
Key Takeaway: Think of it as a maturation process: You will scale your efforts over time, but only after you’ve mastered each level.
Marketing automation has tremendous potential to convert customers at a great ROI. It’s all in the effort and attention you are willing to give it. Nurture your processes and continually tweak them for best results, and you’ll make 2017 the year that marketing automation took your business to new heights.
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Is your small business marketing working as well as it could be? Marketing even the smallest businesses has gotten both easier and more complicated in the digital age. Easier, because online marketing is so affordable; more complicated, because there are so many options to choose from.
To find out how small business owners are keeping up, Vistaprint recently surveyed “micro-businesses” (U.S. small business owners with fewer than 10 employees). Here’s what they found.
Despite their small size, micro-businesses in general have moved into the digital marketing age. More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) say they market their businesses both online and offline. Over half (52.7 percent) say their online presence is “very important” to their marketing efforts, while 30.4 percent say it’s “fairly important.”
However, there’s still a long way to go. More than one-fourth (28.9 percent) of small business owners surveyed say they don’t market their businesses both online and offline. And even those who do market both ways often fail to present cohesive branding. About one-third of micro-business owners say developing a more consistent online and offline marketing identity would have a “substantial” financial impact on their businesses, and one-fourth think it would have a “significant” impact.
How can you maximize marketing a micro-business (or any business)? Here are five tips:
1. Make sure your business website is up to snuff. Less than one-third (32.7 percent) of small business owners in the survey say their website is their primary means of marketing. However, even if your website is not your main focus, it needs to be in good shape. Make sure your business website is mobile-friendly; most people search for local businesses on their smartphones these days, and Google awards higher rankings in search results to mobile-friendly sites. Make key information—your business address, hours, and phone number—easy to see, and keep it updated.
2. Give online advertising a try. Just 6.6 percent of micro-business owners in the survey describe online advertising as a marketing priority. However, when properly executed, online advertising can be highly effective and affordable. Since prospective customers search for businesses online, having your ads show up when they search for what you sell can only help your business.
3. Get listed in online directories. Only 5 percent of survey respondents say online directories are a key marketing method. But if your business is one that attracts local customers, online directories are vitally important to getting customers in your door. Plus, it’s easy (and generally free) to list your business in local search directories such as Google My Business or Yelp. To get the best results from online directories, make sure that your business name, address and phone number are exactly the same in all of your listings—if they vary at all, search engines will view the variations as different businesses.
4. Don’t rely solely on social media marketing. Social media is the dominant marketing method used by micro-business owners; 53.3 percent say it’s their primary marketing focus. However, while social media marketing is important, putting all your efforts into social media marketing can leave you vulnerable. What happens if the key social network you rely on makes significant changes to its algorithm or has a sudden decline in popularity?
5. Promote a cohesive brand image. More than half of small business owners surveyed say business cards are their primary print marketing method; print advertising and signage are also used. Whether your marketing online, on social media or in print, you need to convey a unified brand image throughout. That means using similar graphics, colors and images, as well as reinforcing trademarks and taglines. Last but not least, make sure that your print materials drive customers to your website and social media presence, that your social media accounts link to your website and that your website prominently displays your social media icons.
By integrating all of your marketing—print, online and social media—you’ll get better results from each method you use.
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A training manual is typically written with great care, following a style guide and listing every single detail in drawn-out paragraphs. It’s also likely to be forgotten, even before the sales rep gets their hands on it.
While written documentation is helpful for referencing policies, the real way to train a new salesperson involves hands-on techniques that actually show instead of just tell a salesperson what to do.
Conversations can be started with even the busiest of people, and saying the right things can make them want to carve out time for future interactions. Role playing is one of the best ways of practicing how to get the edge when there’s a limited amount of time. Reps can get feedback about their attitude, confidence, tone, and body language that they will hopefully take to heart.
Awkwardness can kill a conversation before it even starts, and so can a lack of listening. Clients typically never have to qualify exactly why they rejected someone, which means that role playing is a time to get those answers in a supportive environment.
Every person in the world is driven by rewards, but salespeople in particular respond to set milestones. These rewards don’t have to be gift certificates or bonuses. Sometimes the glory comes from friendly competition, and other times it just comes from getting the plaque or certificate as a symbol of doing hard work.
One thing to remember is that you are trying to inspire the team you’re given, meaning you’ll probably have to learn more about them before you decide which rewards are going to be worth dangling in front of them.
If you sit sales reps down for a meeting and talk at them for an hour, then you’re not allowed to be surprised when they don’t remember anything.
Typically half the total information delivered during training is lost to sales reps within a few weeks, unless they’re using the information on a daily basis. You’ll get more interest and retention if you use text messages rather than long emails, or have short meetings where employees have the opportunity to ask questions about small, digestible pieces of information. Also, beware of over-training sales reps as it’s been known to break down confidence. Use small bits of encouragement as a part of micro-learning too.
Feedback has been a consistent suggestion throughout this post because it works. When reps are given certain tasks to achieve, they want to know how they’re faring in the eyes of their managers.
You don’t have to give people compliment sandwiches or sugarcoat your feedback to protect their feelings. Just be honest, let them know where they stand, and give them the opportunity to use their voice if they’re frustrated. You should never hire people who aren’t open and receptive to tweaking their approach to sales, so hopefully you won’t get a lot of pushback when it comes to this training technique.
Sales training changes over time, which often means that one department is up-to-date while others aren’t quite sure what the protocol is. This can end up confusing human resources, upper management, or even older sales reps who have had very different training. This can also lead to sales reps getting conflicting advice about what they’re supposed to do, and how their first few months will be at the company.
For best results, keep people informed on what’s going on—especially when it comes to incentives, time tables, and territory assignments. Typically training becomes more rigorous as a company grows, and it helps if everyone is on the same page when there’s any type of change.
Success stories make a big impression on salespeople because they’re easy to understand, relatable, and they let sales professionals know that the power really is in their hands when it comes to making a name for themselves. However, when sales trainers use stories, they shouldn’t just be sharing anecdotes that pop into their head—the experiences should offer some type of moral that gives the salesperson a sense of the values of the company. For example, a sales instructor may want to tell the story of how a sales rep took a dying territory and made it great.
Few companies choose to offer this type of training. Most will only have a few half-hearted interactions, and then immediately send their salespeople out on the floor. Without a way to connect with salespeople, though, you give them the impression that they’re on their own, meaning they’ll be loyal only to themselves and their commissions rather than to the company. Providing memorable sales training will start the sales rep-company relationship off right in more ways than one.
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I am not one to ask for help, but in this case I must. I am a fairly successful marketer but I don’t do social media. Kind of hard for me to be a better marketer without it right?
Well, I’ve gotten by for many years, but I am at the point where I want to scale my business. I know that in order to scale, I must have a steady stream of people I can interact with, much like my mailing list which has been very successful for my business. One way to do this is to increase my social media following.
I got lucky a few months ago after reaching out to a few influencers for help. I met social media specialist Leonard Kim, managing partner of InfluenceTree. He had recently completed a case study on social media growth which I authored on Influencive. In doing so, I was able to learn many techniques that I will be implementing in 2017.
In 2016, Kim increased the social media following of Keck Medicine of USC by 1,265 percent. While I don’t have that high of a goal, I am convinced that applying some of Kim’s techniques, I will at least double my audience. Kim agrees that even applying a few of these strategies will help increase my following.
The problem I have with social media is my strategy (or lack thereof). You must have a social media strategy in order to determine your social media return. Kim says, “One of the main problems people have with growing their audience is that they have no strategy. There is a secret behind social media growth and strategy is the main driver.”
I have no strategy for how to grow my audience. I know all the methods that people have recommended, but have not sat down and put them in an order I can follow. I am more of a “do it as you go” social media strategist. So basically, I have no strategy which is why my social media efforts are suffering.
Currently, I have 5,331 followers, combining my stats from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I chose these three networks as they have been the most engaging for me. (I have tried other networks such as Pinterest, but I did not have the interactions I was hoping for.)
I find Keck’s 1,265 percent growth to be an unattainable goal for me. After all, I will be limiting the amount of time I spend implementing my strategy. Ultimately, I am striving to triple my following by the end of the year. This means I will amass 15,993 followers by the end of 2017, and I am aiming to triple my followers for each individual platform as well.
The first two things everyone must do when trying to gain followers is update their profile and create a strategy. Yes, part of your strategy includes creating the strategy. Bear with me here.
Prior to publishing this article, I went to all three of my profiles and made sure all the information was correct, I had profile images, and everything was up-to-date. You can see that my LinkedIn profile has the most followers which I can attribute to the LinkedIn best practices I picked up from some influencers a few years back.
Next, came my strategy, which again, if you don’t have one, you will have no way of telling if what you are doing is working (or what needs changing). My strategy isn’t complex, but it is more than I have ever had. Keep in mind that it may change depending on how I attract the most followers. I will publish updates to this post if that happens.
“One of the best strategies you can have is to have a content calendar, whether it be for a week, a month, or a year,” adds Kim. “The further ahead you get, the better off you are because you won’t have to scramble around for content and come up with things to do on the fly.”
Each weekday I plan on spending 30 minutes planning posts for all three social networks. The two software suites I will use are Feedly (to help find information to share) and Buffer (to schedule the posts). I am switching from another social media scheduler simply because Buffer integrates with Feedly so I can get more done in less time.
I will be doing four scheduled posts per day, per social media profile. In addition, I plan to share four other posts that I normally find in my feed (which I will repost/retweet with a unique headline).
Facebook seems to be where I need the most help. In order to increase followers and try Kim’s suggestion of boosting posts, I will spend $1 per day to boost posts. I am going to take the most popular post of the month and boost it the next month. Even spending as little as $1 will make a difference according to Kim. He says, “By spending a dollar a day on your most popular post, you are able to get more engagement on it. When more people like your post, you can start to invite the people who like your post to like your page as well.”
That’s it. May not seem like much, but it’s a plan—something I lacked up to this point.
When you read through Leonard Kim’s case study, you will see many best practices I did not mention herein. Many of these, such as the use of Twitter cards for posts, are something I have already set up. These are the minor things you can do to help attract followers and they are easy to implement.
I still don’t plan on being a social media guru, but I do plan on testing this study. Over the course of the year I will provide updates (Guess where? Social media!) to track my progress.
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Everyone likes to talk about hard work. You’ll see quotes plastered on break room bulletin boards. CEOs and entrepreneurs like to talk about it in keynote speeches. It’s considered a valuable metric when gauging an employee’s commitment to the company.
And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with hard work—in fact, it’s a good thing—it’s not always necessary to work harder in order to see better results. You have another option: working smarter.
If you can achieve the same results by working smarter (as opposed to working harder), wouldn’t you rather do that? Working smarter means leveraging the resources you have and developing savvy processes that reduce the need for more time and manual intervention.
What does it look like to work smarter? Here are a few suggestions and techniques that will allow you to increase output without demanding more time or effort.
We all have those tasks that we dread. Naturally, we tend to put these tasks off until the last possible moment. And while we may eventually get them done, having them hang over us like ominous black clouds ultimately creates added stress that slows us down. That’s why savvy individuals choose to conquer difficult tasks first.
When you conquer difficult tasks first thing in the morning, your day suddenly begins to crystallize and you become more ambitious and focused. The result is an easier day that’s more flexible and enjoyable.
There are a certain number of tasks that you do multiple times per day, every single day. Now imagine if you could shave a few minutes off these processes. How much time could you save every day, week, and month? You’d be amazed if you calculated the results. Here are a couple of ideas:
Adopt electronic signatures. Trying to get multiple people to sign documents and then upload and send those documents to the appropriate parties can be a nightmare. “Eliminating manual processing and document errors enables your staff to focus on their core responsibilities, rather than chase after people to sign documents and correct errors, leading to a better overall experience for everyone involved,” says Michael Laurie of eSignLive.
Organize your email inbox. How many hours do you waste trying to filter your email inbox? One study says the average person spends as much as 6.3 hours checking email each day. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools you can use to simplify the process of checking and responding to emails.
Even if you’re only able to improve a couple of processes, the hours you save can be reallocated to other important tasks that generate a better return on your time.
Poor communication can put constraints on your daily workflow that hurt productivity. The good news is that it’s really not that difficult to improve internal communication. With the right collaboration tools, you can quickly isolate and overcome points of friction.
Because email can be such a drain on productivity, many companies are turning to leading collaboration apps like Slack or Trello. The result is quicker communication with fewer missing pieces.
Do you arrive at work knowing exactly what you’ll be doing at each hour of the day, or do you simply take things as they come? While there’s a time and place for both strategies, creating a schedule (and sticking to it) almost always results in a better use of your time.
“The very act of using your organizational skills to plan your day, week, and month gives you a greater feeling of control and will help increase productivity throughout your day,” business consultant Brian Tracy says. “You’ll feel in charge of your life. It actually increases your self-esteem and improves your sense of personal power.”
When it comes to increasing output, you have the choice between working harder and working smarter. While both may get you the desired results, why would you want to do more work than you have to? By working smarter, you can save time and get better results at the same time.
In this article, we referenced a few specific ways in which you can work smarter, but be on the lookout for additional opportunities in your own organization. The more efficient you become, the more of a return you’ll begin to see on your time investment.
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