Archives for June 2020

How Can You Get Your Product Just Right?

June 30, 2020 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

There are plenty of things that are going to pretty high priority for you as a business owner. From your finances to your employees, the key to any great business is being away of all of the different elements and how they work together. However, there is one thing that should stand above all other things in terms of your priorities, something that is so important that your business essentially wouldn’t exist without it. That is, of course, your product. Without a product then there’s no reason behind your business in the first place. Of course, just having a product isn’t really enough, you’ve got to make sure that it’s a product that people are actually interested in. With that in mind, here are a few ways to make sure that you’ve got the best possible product for your business.

Conception

If there’s one mistake that business owners tend to make it’s that they have an idea for a product, but they try to move forward with it before actually giving it enough thought. Before you decide that you’ve got the perfect product and that it’s time to quit your job and start your dream business, it’s a good idea to take a moment to think. Don’t just assume that, because you like your idea, that it has mass appeal. Do as much research as possible. Find out if there are comparable products out there already and, if so, what could you do to compete with them? Figure out who your target demographic would be and talk to people within it to find out what they really want from the kind of product you have in mind. Only then will you have a strong enough idea of the appeal of your potential product to be ready to move forward.

Manufacturing

There’s nothing worse than a product with a great idea behind it, that is let down by the quality of its manufacturing. Depending on your business, there are a couple of ways of dealing with this. If you manufacture your products in-house, then it’s important to hire the best possible people and give them the best equipment to work with. Whether they’re doing everything by hand or using power tools and laser marking machines, having the right people with the right equipment is the only way to ensure high levels of quality control. If you’re outsourcing your manufacturing through companies like leeline sourcing, then a lot of that will be in their hands and not yours. Because of that it’s a good idea to do a lot of research into different manufacturing companies so that you’re sure you’ve made the right decision.

Logistics

Of course, a well-made product is meaningless unless it can actually get to customers. Logistics is an important part of any business that deals in physical products, and it’s not something you can afford to ignore. Whether you’re delivering individual products to customers or you supply to retail stores and other businesses, you’ve got to be fast, safe and reliable one hundred percent of the time. People will put up with a lot, but no one likes to be kept waiting, especially if their business is also dependent on it.

This might seem like a whole lot of effort for what is essentially just one single part of your business. But the truth is that every single aspect of your business needs this same level of attention if you really want to succeed.

4 Ways Investing in Employee Satisfaction Boosts Your Revenue

June 24, 2020 by Joe Peters 1 Comment

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Improving your company’s revenue, productivity levels, and talent retention starts with employee satisfaction. Happiness increases productivity for your team members by around 12%. Imagine what you could do with a team of happy and dedicated employees?

Although most business leaders know that their staff members generally accomplish more when they’re happy, they don’t always realize just how significant the impact of poor satisfaction is.

According to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, around 85% of people are unhappy or dissatisfied with their jobs.

This dissatisfaction doesn’t just mean that you’re leaving money on the table in terms of productivity and performance. It could also mean that you’re actively losing money too. Here is how investing in your employees can improve your revenue.

1. Reduce Workplace Mistakes

When you’re bored, stressed, or dissatisfied at work, you’re not focusing on delivering the best results. Engaged employees follow every guideline carefully and produce work that is reflective of your company culture. Disengaged employees rush through activities as quickly as possible to get them over and done with.

Unfortunately, rushing through tasks and not paying enough attention to best-practices and processes often causes problems.

In the best-case scenario, you’ll get a minimum viable product from your employees’ work. This means they’ll deliver the basics of what you need, but nothing else. In a worst-case scenario, the work produced will be riddled with mistakes.

Mistakes harm your company’s reputation and risk the satisfaction of your customers.

Investing in tools that make your employees feel happier and more supported at work will reduce those unnecessary accidents. For example, if monotony is the source of disengagement, see if you can add automation tools to make the tasks more enjoyable.

2. Improve Customer Experience

Happy customers are repeat customers.

Although it’s important to constantly track down new clients for your company, there are few things more beneficial to your business than repeat clients. Repeat customers are much easier to convert than new leads. They’re also more likely to become advocates for your brand.

Disgruntled or unhappy employees aren’t paying as much attention to the way they approach clients. This can mean that they rub your customers the wrong way.

Even if your staff’s attitude is okay, they may not be engaged enough to go above and beyond for the customer in terms of support and service. This means that you risk losing customers once again.

Happy employees often pass their happiness off onto your clients instead. Focus on giving your team members plenty of positive feedback and affirmation when they work hard at supporting your clients. They’ll be more engaged if they feel appreciated.

3. Strengthen Company Culture

The people around us often influence our mood and behavior. Even if your other team members feel satisfied at work, one unhappy employee’s attitude could turn the entire environment sour.

That’s why it’s so important to recognize unhappy employees early. Prolonging the issue and not responding on time harms your company culture and team morale in more ways than one.

Dissatisfaction creates ripple effects among the rest of your team members. Soon, you end up with even more unhappy employees to deal with.

If other employees see that a dissatisfied employee is continuously slacking off or making mistakes without any repercussions, you’re sending a message that such behavior is tolerated.

Sadly, sometimes there will be no other solution but to let the problematic employee go. If you have done everything you could to turn the situation around and your employee is still not delivering, it’s probably in everyone’s best interest for them to find a new job.

Replacing an employee is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. However, in the long term, you’ll benefit from removing a team member who generates business losses or creates tensions in your team.

To prevent such situations, speak to your team members as often as possible. Send out satisfaction surveys to see how your employees are doing and have one-on-one conversations with people who aren’t thriving in their workplace.

This way, you can come up with strategies together that will support your team members in feeling happier at work. Remember, don’t penalize anyone for sharing their dissatisfaction with you.

4. Improve Creativity

Dissatisfied and unhappy employees rarely go above and beyond to share their creative ideas and thoughts with the rest of the team.

If your staff members aren’t happy at work, they may not be inspired by your business either. This means they go through their career just following instructions, but never delivering any input.

While it’s essential for employees to follow the rules and best practices, it’s also crucial for your staff to offer valuable input whenever they can. Your team consists of a diverse selection of people with different backgrounds and skills. Making the most of the unique knowledge shared among your employees is how you innovate as a business.

If you feel that your team members aren’t inspired or motivated at work, it might be time to invest in a little competition.

Use wallboards to showcase the figures and successes of your best employees to the rest of the team. Have people compete for points and award prizes to those who accomplish the most. A bit of fun competition can get your employees motivated again.

Invest in Team Satisfaction

Your employees are some of the most valuable assets that you have as a business owner. They give you the talent you need to complete crucial tasks, and the support required to deliver fantastic customer experiences.

Unfortunately, if your team members aren’t happy and engaged at work, they will not be providing the best results.

Take the time to regularly assess your employees and recognize how motivated they are before your team members reach a critical point that will come with a great cost for everyone involved.

About the author: Joe Peters is a Baltimore-based freelance writer and an ultimate techie. When he is not working his magic as a marketing consultant, this incurable tech junkie devours the news on the latest gadgets and binge-watches his favorite TV shows. Follow him on @bmorepeters

4 Innovative Ways to Boost Brand Awareness

June 24, 2020 by Keith Coppersmith Leave a Comment

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Brand awareness represents how familiar people are with your brand and how they recall it. It inspires brand loyalty and retains customers. Most importantly, it maximizes sales. Customers would rather purchase from brands they are familiar with.

However, remember that brand awareness goes beyond your logo, product names, and mission statements. Here are 4 powerful tactics to use to boost brand awareness.

Create Shareable Infographics

To earn backlinks from reputable sites and boost social media shares, you need to create authentic, valuable, and visually appealing content.

That is where infographics shine. Research says that infographics can boost your website traffic by 12%. Moreover, HubSpot emphasizes that articles with infographics earn 178% more links than articles without authentic visuals.

Given that, it is not surprising that many B2B and B2C businesses are investing in infographics. For example, Domain.me hires Infostarters to create infographics for their blog. Each infographic is highly informative, easy-to-follow, and backed by the latest data. To maximize brand memorability, Domain.me always inserts their logo at the bottom of the infographic. As such, their infographics drive lots of organic traffic and shares. For example, the infographic about digital nomads earned 2.640 website visits, 650 shares, and 30 quality backlinks.

Boost Customer Support

Customer satisfaction is the foundation of your brand awareness. It determines how your target audience will perceive you. According to Zendesk, 87% of consumers will tell others about positive brand experiences, while 95% of them would share negative experiences.

Bad publicity may compromise the brand reputation you have been building for years. To prevent that, you need to provide spotless customer service.

In 2020 and beyond, customers do not want to waste time waiting for your feedback via email. They want to communicate with your brand 1:1, in real-time. That is why you need to provide omnichannel customer support.

Fortunately, the line between online and offline customer support has never been thinner.

For example, did you know you can switch from traditional business phone service to an online phone system? Some of the best-rated VoIP service providers, including Nextiva, OnSip, and Jive, allow companies to integrate their phone systems with their CRM tools to collect and synchronize customer data. They even offer comprehensive customer analytics and brand sentiment analytics, allowing your customer service agents to personalize customer interactions.

Another major customer support channel is chat. Apart from providing live chat service on your website, IM apps, and social networks, you should also invest in chatbots that will provide customers with personalized, 24/7 feedback.

Finally, listen to your customers on social networks. Many social media listening tools, including Hootsuite and Sprout Social, allow you to monitor brand mentions and hashtags so you can provide faster feedback on social. You can also use this data to measure brand sentiment.

Partner with Influencers

Did you know that 40% of Twitter users made a purchase after seeing a tweet from an influencer? Precisely because of that, you should start investing in influencer marketing.

When investing in influencer marketing, it is important to partner with the right influencer. First, they should be in the same or similar niche. If you are a healthcare organization, promotions by a fashion influencer would not make any sense, since you do not target the same audiences. Second, an influencer should share your values so they can send the right message to their followers.

Sure, you do not need to hire celebrity influencers to promote your brand. There are many micro- and nano-influencers that may get your brand noticed by the right people. Google even says that people trust micro-influencers more than traditional celebrities because they can relate to them.

Invest in Paid Brand Promotion

Organic brand promotion channels, such as SEO, email marketing, or social networks, take lots of time before they start delivering the desired results. To maximize your brand exposure faster, you need to combine your organic marketing campaigns with paid ones:

Paid social media promotion

This is one of the most impactful, and yet, most challenging paid brand promotion channels. Each social network has different rules for running paid ads.

For example, on Instagram, you can buy promoted posts, display ads within its regular content feed, or place ads within Instagram Stories.

Facebook also adds multiple promotion formats, including pins, boosts, and ads. All ad campaigns are managed via its Power Editor and Ads Manager, where you should set your budget, maximum bid amount, goals, keywords, etc.

Invest in native advertising

Native ads show your high-quality content on relevant third-party websites. They are designed not to disrupt user experiences – they are in line with the format, topic, and tone of the article a user is reading.

Use search engine marketing

Research says that 75% of users do not scroll past the first page of Google. That is why you should purchase sponsored listings to appear at the top of Google’s noisy search results.

Conclusions

Building and boosting band awareness does not have to be as tedious as it seems. That is why you should plan it strategically.

Start by improving your content marketing strategy. Apart from traditional blog articles, create shareable and link-worthy content such as infographics.

Strengthen customer service to get people to spread positive experiences.

Work with influencers to gain customers’ trust and boost brand exposure.

Invest in paid content promotion channels to boost brand exposure faster.

Finally, keep testing your marketing tactics to see which ones deliver the best results.

5 Methods To Guarantee Your Employees Are Engaged

June 22, 2020 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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Whether you’re running a startup business or a larger organization, you’ll want to be able to streamline it to the best of your abilities. And as part of this, chances are that you’re striving for an engaged workforce that puts out a high level of work every day.

You want to retain your employees so that your business doesn’t have a high turnover rate. But how do you do this effectively in a way that suits both your employees and your business’ goals? To guide you in the right direction, here are 5 methods that any business can use to help employees stay engaged and motivated in their role.

Implement Employee Training

One significant method that you can use that could prove to be invaluable in the long run is implementing employee training. Through offering this, your employees can hone their skills and acquire fresh knowledge which they can then use in their role.

Of course, when implementing this, you want to ensure that you’re providing training that’s unique and exciting to them – otherwise, it could have the opposite effect. So spend some time researching various training techniques and software that you can utilize. While doing this, read what others have said about it (such as through these iSpring Learn Reviews), to guarantee it’s suitable for your business and aligns with your budget.

Offer Favorable Employee Benefits

Now, this might seem like an obvious one. But many businesses are still failing to recognize the importance of it. No matter how many employees you have within your business, it’s important that you offer them benefits or rewards for working for you. Why? Because this helps to keep them engaged in their job.

Whether this is something as simple as a company discount, a pension scheme or even company days out, it could be the difference between keeping your employees and them looking elsewhere for a job. The benefits that you offer them, will, of course, depend on your budget. But whatever positive benefit you can offer, the more engaged them will be.

Welcome Feedback (and Listen to it)

Employee engagement goes so much further than offering benefits and implementing training. It also requires you as a business owner to listen to your employees and learn from what they say. Therefore, you should regularly welcome feedback from them – whether this is through dedicated questionnaires or through frequent team meetings.

Through acknowledging your employee’s thoughts and any criticisms that they may have, you’ll be able to discuss steps the business can take to improve their experience working for you.

Hire the Right Managers

Following on from this, as part of ensuring that your employees know that they are being listened to, you need to hire the right managers. They should care about the employee’s success, understand their strengths and provide them with the right opportunities to thrive within the business.

Therefore, as a business owner, you should work with the HR manager to ensure that every manager you hire is talented in effectively managing employees – so that their engagement levels won’t dwindle.

Inform Your Employees About Your Business’ Mission

Another way of encouraging staff engagement is by informing each of them about your business’ mission statement. Through doing this, you can ensure that each employee is on board with its values which will, in turn, showcase the ideal standards that your business is setting. Promoting inclusion, they will feel as though they are never left stranded in the dark.

Final Thoughts

So, there you go – those are 5 methods that you can use to help to guarantee that your employees are engaged in their everyday role. Of course, the method that you use is up to you. But whichever steps you take towards boosting employee engagement, the more successful your business will be in the long term.

How to Pick a Good Sponsor for your Business

June 12, 2020 by Puran Kaushal Leave a Comment

Finding the right sponsor is one of the toughest tasks while starting a business. It is also one of the most important tasks that you have to get right to make something out of your business. If you make a wrong choice in choosing the sponsor, you could end up in trouble in the later stages. It is necessary to choose a genuine sponsor. A wrong choice here might even end your business before even getting started with it.

The person you are choosing as the sponsor should be someone who are in good terms with you. It is necessary to keep good relations with the sponsor to continue the business. The best way of getting a sponsor is by being completely truthful with him/ her on the terms of the agreement which includes if he or she has any share in the company or if they will have any share in the future profits in the company. Never try to pass on a fake product in front of the sponsors and think about getting away with it. Tell the sponsors about your product and your ideas and assure them about how successful it can be and the chances of generating higher profits in the future. Make sure that you mention the profits that the sponsors will be able to generate if they invest in your company now.

Work with a sponsor who has a good amount of experience in the field which you are about to enter. He will be able to help you at difficult times and also advise you with what steps to take at every time. Also work with a sponsor who is more interested in the success of the company in whole and not just about his/ her profits. A sponsorship request letter might help you to impress a good sponsor that perfectly fit for your business.

Another important thing to consider is that you should have good knowledge in the system that you are about to join. Do some ground work and research in that area. Find that system and a sponsor with some level of expertise and he/ she will be able to back you up with support and will also be able to provide you some quality training.

Never work with a sponsor who has no idea with the system you are working. Always go for the one who knows precisely what he is talking about. A genuine sponsor will surely be able to answer your questions on how to handle your business. If the sponsor is not able to answer the questions put forward regarding the issue mentioned, be assured that he is no longer reliable. When you don’t get the right inputs at the right time, opportunities will be wasted.

A quality that a good business sponsor will have is in coming up with a plan that you can follow in future. This will help you to be methodological in your approach rather than just jumping into something by taking some harsh decisions. The most important stuff that you should look for in a business sponsor is how successful he is financially from his business ventures. If your sponsor is not financially successful, there is no chance of him being able to guide you to a successful business venture in the future. Don’t get carried away by the money he owns, it could be his family asset. Study in detail about his business ventures and check the success he had in them and how much wealth he generated as a businessman.

Author BIO: Puran Kaushal, a professional marketer, blogger, freelancer but a true content creator. . Having proven track record of Guest Posting, SEO, and Writing can stretch into a wide variety of skillsets.