7 Rules of Business Writing

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Leya Miller

There are few formal rules for writing in business. You need to convey a marketing message or promote a product. Start by clearly stating your purpose in the heading.

Keep your message flow clean. Establish common language with your audience, and draw them to your intended conclusion. Make your writing educational, and your customers will read further.

You can present a solution by starting with a clear statement of the problem, which is solved by your service or product.

Business writing is very different than writing a college essay. With an essay, you have to fulfill the task of research and conveying the results. With business writing, you need to work on attracting your audience and then promoting a solution. That is, your audience already has a general idea of what will be discussed. The business author needs to concentrate on revealing new things and not overload the narrative with service details.

Mistakes When Writing for business

Unlike essays, writing for business is not limited in time. You can rewrite it many times, ask your friends to read your content. You can hire writing for business help. Take advantage of all the opportunities and try to avoid common mistakes.

1. Bad Grammar and Spelling

Don’t think that you can limit yourself to spell-checking. Reread your content and make sure there are no ambiguous expressions, unfortunate turns, etc.

2. Add the details.

Too often, an interesting article loses out in what is an enumeration of statements without illustrating them with examples. Avoid clichés: the importance of hard work and perseverance, and learning from mistakes.

3. Wordiness.

SEO content is rewarded by the number of words, so you need to manage this amount wisely. However, it is most important that your ideas move quickly. Your audience will become bored if what you say is already well known.

4. Long sentences.

The longer the sentence, the better – this is what some writers think. However, this is far from the truth. Most consumers have short attention spans, and many readers do not speak English as a first language. Conveying your content in short sentences will sell your product better.

When writing for business, discard encyclopedia words. Incorrect use of such words distracts the reader’s attention and diminishes the importance of the content.

Testing the Content

It is of great importance when writing for business to check the first version of the text. When writing a draft, your main task is to develop an argument, polish your main thoughts and arrange them in a strict sequence, accompanying them with illustrative materials or supporting data, etc. After writing the first draft, let it rest for a day or two, and then go back to work on revising and improving it on a “fresh head.”

When checking your writing, pay attention to the following essential points:

5. Presented Data

Regardless of the question, you are answering. You need to achieve certain goals. You are expected to keep the following in mind when writing your essay:

Did I answer the question posed?
How clearly and accurately have I stated my thoughts?
Does what I wrote sound natural, are there any mistakes where?

6. Include all the Details.

Everything you write in the business content should be supported by examples, make references to your experiences. Details will make your product writing interesting, unique and specific.

7. Distinctiveness / Uniqueness / Something interesting, funny.

Be yourself and let that show in your writing. Very often business owners worry about whether they can make the right impression, so they remove anything that makes them stand out from the content. This makes the writing boring. Your audience will appreciate your original approach.

Effective business writing will draw more customers and help your business thrive. Keep your attention on the style, and let the outcome speak for itself.

How Enterprise Mobility Management helps you manage business communication

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Dan Kihato

About 80% of today’s workforce uses a smartphone to do at least part of their job.

Any company with employees working on mobile devices should be thinking about how efficient and safe this is – especially today with more employees working from varied locations.

Real-time communication and remote working capabilities are important, but the more employees rely on mobile phones for work, the more problems and security risks pop up.

This is where Enterprise Mobility Management solutions come in.

What is Enterprise Mobility Management?

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is an umbrella term for a group of technology and data protection processes.

Some of the services an EMM solution can include are:

Mobile Device Management (MDM) for security enforcement
Mobile Application Management (MAM) for managing software
Mobile Information Management (MIM) for authorising access permissions
Mobile Content Management (MCM) for controlling storage of corporate data
Mobile Expense Management (MEM) for overseeing data costs

Most EMM packages include MDM, MAM, and MIM as the minimum, but the individual services can be combined in different ways according to specific business needs.

Individual businesses set their own levels of security and data control for employees using mobile devices for work.

How does it work?

Portable work devices need just as much security as devices kept permanently in-office.

The range of mobile devices and extent of their potential usage can make managing them remotely a difficult problem.

EMM simplifies things by integrating mobile devices into a secure corporate network to prevent misuse and security breaches.

All devices that can access corporate systems remotely from outside the office should be protected with EMM, including:

Smartphones
Tablets
Laptops
Wireless printers
Wireless scanners
Wearable devices (e.g. smart watches)

You might not think about the potential risks of employees accessing data on these devices from anywhere outside the security of the office, but without EMM protective measures in place they’ll be opening your business to dangerous malware.

Some of the services EMM uses to prevent this potential data theft include:

Remote configuration
Mobile data encryption
Password lock enforcement
Conditional access management
Monitoring and updating software
Geolocation tracking
Tracking security threats in real time
Remote data wiping

Without software processes like this, data breaches can cost your business extensively – both your finances and your long-term reputation.

What are the benefits?

In addition to protecting your business against costly data losses, there are many other benefits of EMM:

Centralized system keeps everything secure in one place
Services multiple device types and operating systems
Real-time access speeding up analysis and decision-making
Better cross-level communication means better collaboration
Efficient distribution of resources lowers costs and improves satisfaction
Increases engagement and productivity of employees
Remote installation and upgrading of software
Troubleshooting and customer support outside of IT department

Overall, EMM saves time and operational costs and boosts user satisfaction, resulting in increased profits and empowered employees.

All these benefits go hand in hand with making your business data remotely accessible while keeping it secure.

How you can set up Enterprise Mobility Management

Your company will need to integrate EMM with existing applications and policies so they align with your business objectives.

Employees will also need training to understand how EMM is used before you deploy it company-wide.

Before searching for an EMM provider, you’ll need to think about:

The services your business provides
Where you want the company to be in 5-10 years
Which EMM solutions you’d need for which people
Who needs access to what, and how they’d access it
Which operating systems and devices employees already use
Who would be responsible for developing EMM strategies
How you’d comply with local laws and industry regulations
Which pain points could potentially cause issues
How you’d implement EMM (on premises or cloud-based)

Having answers for these questions will help you to identify the best EMM solution for your business.

It’s an important decision, which is usually made on a case-by-case basis according to company device guidelines and usage activities.

The final deciding factor will be your budget, as tiered EMM subscription services offer various packages for increasing prices.

Larger EMM operators tend to offer more expensive suites with pre-selected features, but they come with more comprehensive customer support.

A single-console EMM solution like IBM MaaS360 for business phones is often the easiest answer.

An EMM system like this, tailored to your business, will get you the secure mobile capabilities you need without the complications.

Easy and Effective Ways to Speak English Better and More Fluently

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Allen Brown

English, a language that is 1,400 years old and is spoken by over 983 million people, is definitely one of the most spoken languages in the world. Besides being a medium of instruction and business, it is also a great medium of entertainment and literature. With over 67 countries and 27 non-sovereign entities considering English as their official language, it is almost impossible to be employable without great English skills.

You could be sitting in a remote part of Germany or Japan and enroll yourself for one of the many English courses in London without much effort. All you need is an interest in learning and a good internet connection.

However, not everyone had the opportunity to learn and master the language as we were growing up. But that shouldn’t be a hindrance to your growth! Remember, it is never too late to learn a new language or pick up a new skill. So, if you are curious to learn English, here is how you should go about it.

Online Courses

There are numerous websites, institutions, and universities that offer online English language classes for people across the world.

Use The Dictionary

The reason most people find it challenging to learn a new language is not knowing the right vocabulary. And to avoid embarrassment, they switch back to their native tongue rather than continuing their English learning efforts. You could avoid this by getting yourself a simple English to your native tongue dictionary.

Besides using it while conversing, you could also get into the habit of searching for new words and memorizing them every day. Please limit yourself to five words a day and try using them in everyday conversations naturally. And soon before you realize it, your English will be proficient and impeccable!

Watch and Learn

The audiovisual stimulation that we get while watching movies is a better way to memorize things. That is the reason why we can so distinctly recall a movie that we watched a few decades ago, in comparison to the news or article that you read a few weeks ago. So, give your brain the audiovisual stimulation to learn English by watching a lot of movies. You could follow this through by imitating the way the actors speak and pronounce certain words.

Besides watching movies, you could also try listening to podcasts, online classes, in fact, even your friends talking. As you watch and surround yourself with people who are fluent in English, you are sure to pick it up too.

Practice

This is the only and the most effective way to learn the English language. You need to keep conversing in English even if you are just learning the language. Practice it in front of the mirror, talk to your friends and family, and have small conversations with strangers. You would make significant progress within a short time, and that’s something to pat yourself on the back for!

So, are you all set to learn English? Here’s wishing you good luck with your efforts. Happy Learning!

How to Transcribe Video and Audio on Mac

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Chris Miller

Transcribing is a process of converting audio to text (or the contents of a video to text). Though far from creative, this job is often necessary. For instance, you are a journalist. You probably have an audio record of an interview, which you must turn into the text of the appropriate format. Or, you need to document the results of meetings, discussions, conferences, etc. Or, you have dictated some statements and ideas for yourself to work on them later.

Transcription jobs are far from the most exciting activities. Besides, when you do it manually, this routine can drive you crazy. You have to play your audio or video record and type what you hear simultaneously. If the quality of the record is not excellent, you’ll have to stop, listen to the phrase again, play backward, then forward, etc. This all demands time and concentration, which is really draining. Fortunately, there are specialized tools and other alternatives.

Types of available text transcription methods on Mac

The specificity of converting audio to text is dealing with both the audio or video source and text editors simultaneously. This requirement determines the usage of larger screens of PC or Macs and their keyboards to follow the processes.

Depending on the performance method, you may transcribe your audio manually or automatically, using the available technical means or support from specialized services like Transcriberry. Let us review the available opportunities in more detail.

Manual transcribing on Mac

The available solutions for manual transcribing mostly aim to simplify the processes. The task of recognizing the speech in the source and turning the audio or video to text is still the human transcriptionist’s responsibility.

Mac works with many specialized software solutions that you can download and install on the computer. Also, there are web applications available through the browser. The latter option is even more popular, as it does not depend on the OS at all, and you can use it on Mac, Windows, Linux, or mobile devices if needed.

Whether you work with the installed software or online service on Mac, these solutions follow the same principle. You upload the file with the record to convert it to text. The system allows you to play the record and type the transcription in the working area. The tools locate the player and the text editor on the same screen, and the performer does not need to switch between tabs. The overall process becomes smoother and lets you focus on the task better.

In order to support the human transcriptionist, such software will offer lots of additional means. There are words auto replacement, auto-completion, text suggestions, the possibility to add time codes, etc. The job is still yours, but you can do it faster and synchronize the listening and typing activities. With proper typing skills and good quality of the source video or audio, it is similar to writing by dictation.

Among the many available solutions for manual transcribing on Mac, you’ll find the variants for both amateurs and professionals.

Automated transcribing on Mac

AI-based transcription solutions are on the rise as well. The quality depends on the voice recognition, and the AI capabilities become more advanced in this aspect continually.

Speaking of the Mac capabilities, we should mention its in-build Dictation and Speech utility. By enabling it, you can dictate any text and let your Mac transcribe it in real-time. Using the advanced settings, you can review the results immediately. One of the brightest advantages is that this option works offline as the transcription is performed locally on the machine. Your voice is accepted directly, without sending it through the Web.

Still, this convenient option is far from being a universal answer to all questions. It works with the data obtained through the microphone and won’t process the uploaded files. You might play your record to “dictate” it to the utility. As you know, the results depend on the quality of that material, like with all other tools.

There are other third-party solutions available for Mac. They all combine the speech-to-text AI algorithms and text editors for the human transcriptionists to revise and correct the results of the automated transcribing.

Even the best transcribers use automated transcription systems time after time. For instance, when they have a high-quality source file and need to speed up the initial analysis. Then they work on the recognized data personally, adjusting it to the English audio text.

However, no professional transcriptionist will rely on the automated system entirely. Most likely, you are interested in obtaining the highest quality when transcribing your audio. Then, the best option is to apply the manual approach. The alternative is delegating this job to specialists.

Professional online transcription services

As the number of users in need of transcribing services increases every day, the need gets the supply. Both the desktop and online solutions offer support for the do-it-yourself approach. On the other hand, there are professional companies such as Transcriberry that provide the targeted service.

You might prefer to do the job yourself. In this case, experts will consult you and provide our dedicated resources. They are online, so they are perfectly compatible with Mac. Or, they can take the entire task and ensure the best-quality converting audio to text for your needs.

Types of Sales Representatives and their Foolproof Methodologies

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Addison Yes

When it comes to sales, it isn’t just about selling the product or service to the customer. You need to understand their requirements, pressure points, and issues before furnishing your product for purchase. Imagine yourself in a mall looking out for different things before buying your said product and an amateur salesperson insisting you buy a specific brand. He/She is not paying any heed to your concern and just babbling about how beneficial the product can be for you. What would your reaction to him/her be?

If the salesperson had known anything about sales methodologies, he/she would try a different approach. And there would have been a brighter chance of you making the purchase thinking that you need to have it. It is what sales methodologies do. It provides you with various sets of rules and rhythms to follow, right from finding a prospect to closing a deal. Sales methodologies are the combination of different researches and findings done over a long period by several researchers. And today, we will be indulging in some of them to give a better perspective.

Before getting to know the methodologies, here are the 5 profiles of sales representatives,

The hard worker – The one that goes out of his way to ensure the deal is closed. They are remarkably determined individuals.
The relationship builder – Everyone in and around the market knows them. Famous for building connection & trust with everyone around.
The problem solver – Their purpose is to solve customer’s problems and consider that to be the utmost priority.
The lone wolf – As the name itself suggests, they are the rulers of their own might. They will make rules of their own and aren’t afraid of breaking the norms.
Challengers – They are well aware of the customers’ needs and the sales processes. They spend more time teaching the customer about the value proposition than closing the deal.

Now that you understand the types, here are some of the methodologies for closing the deal.

Target account selling

This is the most commonly used methodology. The sales representative has a specific number of leads to persuade and follow up with. This helps the representative to concentrate on the list than try and gain contacts and start with the sales funnel. It does save the time of each person from searching the potentials.

The intention here is to get the potential clients in closing the deals. This requires a great amount of coordination from the sales team along with marketing as well as customer support.

The Challengers Sale

A challenger is defined by the ability to teach, tailor and take control. As mentioned about the sales representative’s trait above, a challenger studies the customer and their distinctions & how to get them into understanding the usefulness of the product. It is about bringing the balance of customer relationship with getting them to know about the product’s value.

In Challengers sale, the representative takes control of the conversation and informs the buyer about the know-whats and know-hows that the buyer cannot find on the internet. In return, the buyer gets the best experience while buying the product.

Inbound Selling

Did you know? In this type of sale, more than 57% of customers are already into the sales funnel of buying the product. It makes the representative’s lives easier to persuade the leads and confirm them to final deals. Marketing plays a substantial role in filtering the failed potentials and provides the sales representative with the potential prospects.

In inbound selling, the customer is already aware of the products you cater to and is interested in what you can offer them. They reach out to the sales representative only to help them guide to the right product. So it becomes more of consultation or solution-based than sales.

Buying Signal Sale

A buying signal is an opportunity for the representative to get in touch with the customer and let them know how useful the product is. With the buying signal’s help, you can determine when a prospect would need your offer. Every time a person visits a website, it creates valuable data for the sales team to use. However, they seldomly get any updates about it. Using this technique, you can gather and understand the interests of each customer’s purchase and persuade them accordingly.

However, not every time you’d get a chance to contact the customer directly. And, you’d end up losing a lead or spending too much time on finding their contacts. Here is when you can utilize the tools that can help you in email search. GetEmail.io is a powerful website with a massive database of email contacts to cater. You can easily find your prospect’s email addresses within a matter of seconds. In return, it boosts your productivity while saves enough time for you to concentrate on other leads.

6 Useful Tips To Make A Professional Business Presentation

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Charlene Brown

Business presentations are about more than impressing senior management and potential buyers with a bunch of well-put slides. You need to make a good first impression and make your presentation stand out to those taking the time to listen to your business ideas. Whether it’s your boss or a group of important business investors, many people struggle with stage fright when it comes to speaking in front of an audience. That’s why you’ll need these tips to deliver a powerful presentation that implements your business ideas. Keep reading to find the 6 most helpful tips that can help you make the best professional business presentation.

1. Have Enthusiasm

Your energy matters big time when you speak in front of an audience. The people listening to your presentation can tell how you feel about the ideas you’re presenting. Your audience is not going to want to hear you speak for hours about an idea or a topic you don’t care about. If you make it boring, nobody’s going to be interested or take you seriously. That’s why you need to show the most passion when you deliver your presentation and show your audience how much you’re eager to display your business ideas. Make sure you show this through your body language and eye contact with your audience.

2. Create a Strong Opening

People nowadays expect to be entertained in order to gain their attention span. This is why you should open your presentation strongly with something that grabs the listeners’ attention. Think about using a pro tool like Visme to add compelling graphics and style. Start with an impressive quote, a touching personal story, or even a shocking statistic to get them interested in the rest of your presentation. You’ll also need to back up your opening with reassuring statements that let your audience know they need to sit through your presentation to get their questions answered.

First impressions are everything at the beginning of your presentation, so make sure you give your audience something that lets them know your presentation is going to be worth their time. Try introducing your audience to your topic by using a SWOT analysis template deck. This will go over the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business or your competitors.

3. Mention Your Goals Early in the Presentation

It’s easier to get your points across when your audience knows where you’re going with your online presentation. It’s a lot more efficient to explain your goals and the purpose of the presentation earlier, in the beginning, to help your listeners relate your points as you deliver your material.

In the end, this will make it easier for you to invoke the targeted type of reaction, whether it’s gaining approval to proceed with an initiative, earning funding, or simply changing their minds regarding a particular business idea. Provide your listeners with a step by step plan of your presentation, the points discussed, and the goals behind this professional discussion. This way they’ll be more understanding when you present your main CTA, and you’ll be able to convince them with your desired ideas.

4. Interact With Your Audience

It’s important to pay attention to how your audience is reacting to your presentation while you deliver your material. You have to be careful not to make your listeners bored with the content you’re presenting. This usually happens when you don’t talk enough to your audience during the presentation. Involve your audience by including them in the presentation and turning it into a conversation rather than a long lecture.

5. Use Visual Aids

The human brain retains information for longer periods of time when exposed to visual content. People are more likely to remember your ideas if you use visuals in your presentation. This usually means PowerPoint slides. You can incorporate visuals in your presentation slides by including videos, pictures, and even art to get your points across.

You can also summarize your complex topics in visual flow charts and help your people get a better understanding by picturing the statistics. There are thousands of helpful tools like Simple Slides to help you create presentation slides that are interesting and informative.

6. Prepare for Hard Questions

You must be prepared for difficult questions when delivering your business presentation or else some listeners may derail your presentation by questions that you don’t have answers to. It’s your job to get to know your audience before the presentation and plan for the potential questions that can arise as people start thinking about your business ideas. Take the time to prepare for all possible objections or all possible questions that your audience may throw your way while delivering your information.

To make a business presentation that counts, you need to be prepared with more than intriguing content. It starts from your body language and eye contact to the way you answer your audience’s questions. Make sure you show up early to give yourself some extra time to prepare the presentation setup.

How to Make Your Online Community a Safer Place

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Edward Brown

At a time when we need to limit the amount of physical contact and interaction we do, it’s vital to find ways to keep in touch with others. Surviving through the pandemic isn’t just about getting out of being physically healthy, it’s also about getting out mentally fit as well.

To fight the sense of isolation and loneliness, one thing you can do is engage in online communities with people that share the same interests as you. Of course, there are dangers when it comes to online communities. Whether you’re a moderator or a part of the community, it’s always better to stay free from toxicity and potential threats online.

Let’s put you in the position of a moderator. This makes you the leader of the community and in some cases, you are the founder as well.

How can you ensure that the people within your community are safe? Here are some tips you might want to consider.

Get A Content Moderator

If people are free to post their content and thoughts on your community, then it’s imperative that you take the time to moderate what is posted on your platform. Understandably, not everyone has the time to do this but there are ways you can do this without having to do it yourself.

Of course, we are talking about hiring online moderators that do the job for you. It’s a little expense on your end but it’s an investment that keeps your community happy and well-regulated.

A content moderator will basically browse through all of the user-submitted content in your forum or page. It would be best to hire multilingual online content moderation services so that more people have the opportunity to enjoy your community safely. It’s the easiest way to filter content without having to go through hoops on your end.

Aside from keeping your community safe, content moderation also helps you abide by community standards set by certain platforms.

For instance, Facebook has community standards even for the Groups features. If the Group you own breaks those guidelines, the group can be deleted entirely. It would feel horrible to have your page taken down because of the post made by others.

Filter The Community Rigorously

Some platforms allow you to filter all of the people that join your community. For instance, Facebook lets you set a few questions that interested people will need to answer should they join the group. Once submitted, you can check out their answers and it’s going to be up to you whether or not they are allowed to join.

It may seem bothersome on your end to set up such restrictions on your page but trust us, it can pay off. Aside from filtering your members, these will also prevent bots and spammers from getting into your community. Thus, making everyone much safer within.

Some people won’t even try answering the questions once they see it on your Groups application menu. However, that only serves your community better. You’re at least guaranteed that every person in the community is passionate and serious about joining.

Be Clear About Your Rules And Regulations

Every online community thrives on proper management. Without a proper set of rules and regulations, no online community will be safe for anyone. As such, it is important that from the very beginning, you become clear about what you expect from members of the online community.

Setting a list of do’s and don’ts to follow is a must to keep an online community safe. Some of the common rules that benefit every member include prohibiting hate speech, racial slurs, adulterated content, and even the sharing of pirated content. It’s safeguarding not just your members but your community as well.

The rules and regulations should be visible upfront. On Facebook, you can pin it at the top of the page so all members will see it once they get to your community’s hub. You can also do this on other platforms such as online forums and community websites.

The key to making a good set of rules and regulations to abide by is to make sure that everyone benefits from it. There is such a thing as being too strict about the rules. If you are having trouble setting your own regulations, you can turn to other online community owners for help to ask them about what rules they set and go from there.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ban Or Remove Members

A common mistake that community owners make is being too afraid to remove members. It’s understandable that as a community owner, you’d want to see your group grow larger in numbers. However, it’s more important to keep your members happy and satisfied.

If you continue to keep toxic and offensive members for the sake of keeping your community large, you’ll end up with fewer members because others will leave on site.

The best way to regulate your members is by giving them at least three chances when it comes to bannable offenses. Make a list of members who break the rules and once they commit a mistake three times in a row, then you should bid goodbye to them immediately.

Understandably, some offenses are heavier than others. For instance, if one member engages in hate speed on your platform, then it would be best to have him or her removed immediately.

To be fair to others, make it possible for those that have been banned to rejoin the community eventually. Give them a few months of probation before letting them join again. Like with banning, some offenses are unforgivable so it would be best to let members who commit such acts permanently be banned from the community.

Running a community is not just about making the most members. It’s also about making each and every one of your members feel safe and respected. With the world in the state that it’s in, the last thing anyone would want is to get toxicity online. Communities online should be a safe haven for everyone.

Benefits of Using a B2B Prospecting Tool

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Bailey Merton

Most salespeople face the challenge of finding new prospects and turning them into customers. They believe that prospecting is one of the most challenging parts of the sales process. Luckily, advancement in technology has made everything a lot easier and it offers a solution for almost every business process.

For instance, a company can keep up with or beat its competitors by keeping its pipeline for prospects full through the use of a top-notch B2B prospecting tool.

So, what benefits could your business enjoy by utilizing a B2B prospecting tool?

Reducing the Salespeople Workload

Typically, sales prospecting tools help the salespeople to comb through the internet for prospects and develop targeted lists of companies. After all that, the salesperson must maintain constant communication with potential clients to ensure they remain interested in the company’s products. However, the same salespeople who do prospecting also have other duties such as marketing the business’ products to new clients and attaining their overall monthly targets. All of these tasks can take much of the sales team’s time and leave them overwhelmed.

The good news is that when a business incorporates a good b2b prospecting tool into its sales process, it manages to automate a lot of the repetitive prospecting activities. That way, the company automatically does most of the monotonous tasks such as sending emails to prospects. And the automation reduces the salespersons’ workload allowing them to handle other sales tasks.

Increasing the Number of Customers

The primary goal of using a B2B prospecting tool is finding more potential clients to convert into buyers. It is crucial to attract more customers, given that any business loses around 15 to 20 percent of its existing customers annually through attrition. As such, if there’s no more prospecting, the company could see its entire customer base finally gone.

Fortunately, by using B2B Marketing S o ftware, a company can increase its buyer pool and keep its salespeople gainfully engaged working with both existing and new customers. Besides, when businesses gain new clients, they manage to spread the risks of lost sales. Therefore, the company can cushion itself from issues because losing customers means potential issues in the future.

Generating More and Better-Qualified Meetings

Unfortunately, most direct sales revolve around drafting sales pitches which takes up a big chunk of the sales reps’ time, and then the proposals are sent to the wrong clients resulting in rejection. That means so much loss of business resources. But, by using a B2B prospecting tool, the sales staff can identify the right companies to pitch to and not just send pitches blindly. With proper targeting, the sales team interacts with and meets more qualified clients, or in other words, more sales-ready prospects resulting in sealing more deals and fulfilling their sales targets.

Increasing the Company’s Revenue

Using a B2B prospecting tool enables everyone to do what they enjoy because there is a dramatic reduction of repetitive and tedious tasks. Besides, the prospects receive their products on time and in a unique way, making them happy. The result is more satisfied clients, leading to more repeat sales and more customers which boosts the company’s revenue.

On top of the benefits discussed above of employing a B2B prospecting tool, the tool results in more motivated sales teams. This is because the tool removes the tedious routine tasks by automating them and helping the sales team meet sales-ready prospects, leading to greater sales numbers and attaining targets faster.

What Are The Benefits of Online Learning?

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Pete Brown

The pandemic sure has caused a lot of negative things from health to even our country’s economy. But on the brighter side, it made us see more alternatives to our usual activities, such as forcing us to work and study from home.

However, many people are still skeptical about the benefits of it, particularly studying online. If you’re one who’s also dubious, here are some advantages of online classes that will help you decide.

Cost

One of the first things that most of us often check before enrolling in a school or university is their rates. Fortunately, online schools are more affordable. This is because academic institutions don’t usually need to produce physical learning materials that cost them more.

Since classes take place online, this means they don’t have to pay for their rent. Plus, they’re able to save more on bills and other miscellaneous fees. Compared to the traditional schools or universities, a student will likely spend only between $100 and $400 per credit hour on average for online courses.

Traditional schools, on the other hand, need to produce more physical learning materials. They also need a budget for rents, bills, and maintenance of their buildings. Hence, their rates cost more.

Efficacy

Many are also skeptical about online classes because they’re doubtful of their efficacy. But apparently, a study shows that it’s just as effective as traditional classes.

However, there’s a chance that it could be more effective. This is because online classes are more engaging. Plus, a student has more ways to ask his queries that will help his studies if he’s too shy to ask during class.

Safety

If you’re concerned about your safety against the pandemic, online classes sure are a great option as it offers no limits when it comes to location. The lesser interaction and contact with other people, the lesser the chance you’ll be exposed to the SARS-CoV2 virus.

Another good news is that you or your child is also safe from abuse in schools. Abuse can also happen in school. Online classes, however, helps in preventing it from happening as you’re safe from anyone you may do you wrong in school.

Schedule

Traditional schools have a set schedule. A typical day in a traditional school usually starts around 7 AM and ends around 3 PM.

But online classes are different. Sure, some schools also have a set schedule for online classes but you’re more free to do other things during class, depending on your instructor’s classroom rules. You can even attend your online class while you’re away for a vacation thanks to school class scheduling software.

Some schools online even allow their students to choose their schedules based on their availability. This works well, especially if you’re a working student. Check online coding classes for kids in Toronto.

This kind of schedule also allows you to enjoy a study-life balance. You have more time to spend with your family or yourself, which helps make you grow.

Online classes sure can be daunting as we’re not all used to this setup. Many of us are still adjusting to it so it’s normal to feel skeptical about it but it’s something worth considering.

Qualities to Look For in a Printer

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Charlene Brown

Looking for a new printer? It can be overwhelming trying to decide on a printer due to the vast number of different models, styles, and features available. To make it easier for you, gathered here is a list of 7 key qualities you should consider when buying yourself a new printer.

1. Functionality

The first thing you may want to research is whether you want an all-in-one printer or a printer that quite literally just prints. All-in-one printers scan, fax, copy, and print. These kinds of printers have more functionality and purpose. Naturally, the more functionality a printer has, the more expensive it will be. So depending on what your priorities are, you can get a cheaper printer but you will be compromising on quality.

2. Scanning Abilities

If you are someone who frequently uses a scanner, then you need to make sure you are getting a printer that has good quality scanning features. For instance, if you frequently scan documents that are irregular in shape, then you will want a model that has a flat-bed scanner. Some select models use capable automatic document feeders, such as Epson and Lexmark. What this means, is that you can load several pages at the same time in the printer’s tray, instead of having to slowly feed each page one by one. This feature is a real time-saver and one that is worth having!

3. Wireless Features

You have to bear in mind what device you will be printing from, as some devices will work better with other printers. There are many different printing options available out there for different devices as what is the best printer for one device may not work for another. For instance, a printer suited for Chromebook will not necessarily be the best printer for a Macbook.

There are models available that feature Wifi connectivity that allows you to print documents even when you are not nearby the printer!

4. What Ink Does It Use?

This may seem trivial, however, the last thing you need is to purchase a printer that only works when using an obscure or expensive ink. The running costs of your printer will depend on your model, for example, an inkjet printer tends to be more expensive as replacing them doesn’t last as long. This is where the cost per page comes into play, as a laser printer has a more expensive cartridge typically, but lasts much longer. So, arguably, the laser printer is a more cost-effective option. Either way, before buying a model you should have a good idea of how much the replacement of ink will cost you. That way there are no nasty surprises down the line.

5. Size

This point is simple, what size do you want? That will depend on your priorities, whether you want something compact and portable, or whether you need something big and industrial to get high quantities of printing done. A smaller size does not equate to a poorer quality! It can be tempting to think the bigger the printer the better it must be, but it really does depend on the manufacturer, the features available, and its main purpose. There are a lot of choices when it comes to sizing, so you will not get stuck on finding something that fits your space.

6. Printing Speed

This is very important depending on what you need and uses your printer for. So, if you need your printer to print high quantities at a fast pace, then you need to check how many pages per minute the model can produce. This is especially important in office environments when everyone is trying to access their documents. To give you a rough idea your standard level printer will print 20 to 30 pages per minute. However, if you are printing in color then this will take longer.

7. Print Quality

The greater the print quality, unsurprisingly means the higher the price. Laser printers typically offer the most impressive quality but are certainly the more expensive option and they require more running costs. If you are printing at home on a more casual basis then an inkjet will provide you with good enough quality. When checking for printer quality, the key thing to check is the printer’s dots per inch (DPI) as this will tell you how well a printer can duplicate the pixels of the image/document you are printing.

Hopefully buying a printer will not be too much of an ordeal for you now that you know what qualities to search for! Do your research, assess your priorities and you will find the perfect printer for your needs.

4 Apps You Should Install to Advance Content Creation

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Grace Johnson

Every time you share something with other people on the internet, you create content. A blog article, a YouTube tutorial, an Instagram post, or a TikTok video – all these are examples of content. And if you produce such things regularly, you know how important it is to have the most efficient tools at hand.

In this article, we’re going to share our four favorite apps for advanced content creation. Continue reading to find out what they are – and why we think they are so good.

Google Docs

Google Docs is probably the most popular writing and editing tool right now. And for a reason, as it’s the best cloud solution for every text content creator that totally replaces traditional office suites like Microsoft Office. With Google Docs, writers can create awesome content with minimum effort.

The service can be accessed online or offline and offers all of the basic editing tools that Microsoft Word does. Every content creator will surely appreciate the fact that the app is cross-platform. It is supported by all devices, meaning that you can use it both on desktop and mobile devices. With it, you can write and edit your documents anytime, anywhere.

You also won’t need to bother about saving the changes as all of them are being saved automatically after every symbol you type. But the most important thing is, Google Docs is perfect for collaborative writing and editing.

No more sending emails with your Word documents back and forth! Just share your Google Document saved on Google Drive with your collaborators in a couple of clicks, and they’ll be able to access the doc immediately. Isn’t it perfect for collaborating with a paper writer who’s helping you with your essay? And you can leave comments, too!

That’s enough to fall in love with Google Docs, but if you need to create other content like spreadsheets or presentations, you should also try these Google apps:

Google Spreadsheets;
Google Presentations;
Google Keep;
and Google Calendar – to keep track of all your plans!

Adobe Lightroom

Photo content is essential for attracting your audience’s attention – hardly anyone likes reading texts without illustrations. Oftentimes, images are even more important than texts – for instance, in visual social media like Instagram or Pinterest.

And though everyone can make a decent photo using a smartphone camera, it doesn’t mean such photos are ready-to-use for social media or blog posts. However skilled you are, all images need some tuning in an image editor to enhance their quality and make them stand out on social media or blog posts.

One of the best ways to polish your images and make them look professional is to use Adobe Lightroom. This software is used by nearly all professional photographers. Even its basic free version is easy to navigate and doesn’t require any specific skills.

In fact, you can make your photos look better by using an “Auto” button. Yet, if you want to go further, there’s also a bunch of pre-installed styles that you can also apply in one click. What’s more, you can create and save your own styles (presets) or buy and load those created by professionals. Content creators like BuyEssayClub appreciate these features.

However, if you feel that Lightroom is not enough, you can install Adobe Photoshop. It is for sure the king of all photo-editing software which also comes as a mobile app called Adobe Photoshop Express.

InShot

Video content is getting increasingly popular on all social media platforms. So, there’s no escaping the fact that you need to create it if you want to stay relevant and keep engaging your audience. Still, you don’t have to be a professional video editor to produce decent clips worthy of posting in Instagram stories.

By now, there’s an abundance of video-editing software that’s free (in basic versions) and easy to use. One of the most popular cross-platform apps widely used by Instagram and TikTok bloggers is called InShot.

InShot’s free version is very basic, but it can still do a decent job when it comes to cutting and merging clips, adding music, simple transitions, and more.

However, you’ll have to watch ads every time you need to save or share your clips, and if you want to use the app in full capacity, you’ll eventually have to pay. Luckily, it’s not expensive and has different payment plans.

As for the alternatives, you can also try:

iMovie (Apple only);
Adobe Premiere (Adobe Premiere Rush);
Movavi Clips.

Canva

One more indispensable app for creating social media content is Canva. Originally, it was an image editor for non-professionals, but now you can also edit videos in it. But what’s most valuable in this app is that it offers thousands of free templates that will help you jazz up your photo content in no time.

Canva is a cross-platform software that comes as both a desktop version and a mobile app. This makes it a truly universal tool for all content creators – primarily, social media managers. It also has lots of free features, but you’ll need to pay to unlock the advanced ones. However, it’s not too pricey – just a little over $100 if billed annually.

As for the features Canva offers, there are quite a lot. You can create your own designs from scratch or use professional templates for all kinds of graphic products. This goes for Instagram stories and highlights, logos, business cards, Twitter banners, YouTube previews, and more.

You can also use the program for image editing, adding captions in custom fonts, making animated text videos perfect for Instagram or Facebook stories, and more. If you don’t have quality images of your own, just choose from the program’s extensive library and create logos, banners, or image posts in minutes!

While Canva is awesome, there surely are some alternatives. The most popular alternatives are Figma and Designhill Logo Maker.

Wrapping Up

Content creation is hard work that requires lots of knowledge and skills. However, it’s become much easier today due to the abundance of highly functional, easy-to-use apps. And though these apps are only tools and can’t do the brainwork for you, they can easily advance and facilitate every content creator’s working process.

In the article above, we’ve listed some of the best apps for content creation and editing available at the moment. Try and use them to your advantage!

How to Reduce Confusion When Communicating Virtually

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Alex Sanders

For all of the good that comes with running a remote business or virtual team, there are a number of unique challenges that emerge when you’re no longer interacting with your people face to face. Confusion and miscommunication are chief among these issues.

3 Tactics for Reducing and Avoiding Confusion

Virtual teams are great. Not only do they provide a tremendous amount of flexibility, but they also allow each member of the team to work in an environment that’s comfortable and suited to their own needs. However, ignoring the shortcomings of virtual teams does everyone a disservice.

If you want your business to run as smoothly as possible, you need to be forthcoming about the challenges that exist with communicating 100 percent virtually. More specifically, you have to address the issue of confusion and the friction that exists when communicating tasks, facilitating feedback loops, or managing projects.

While nothing can replace the clarity of face-to-face interactions with your team, there are ways you can reduce confusion in a virtual setting and enjoy optimum productivity and efficiency. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Set Ground Rules

The first step is to establish clear and precise guidelines for how team members are to communicate with one another. This might seem like such an obvious thing, but the reality is that everyone has their own preferred methods and modes. By creating ground rules, so to speak, you cultivate consistency and pave the way for less confusion.

For example, how should new assignments be distributed? (Is the project manager supposed to send an email, make a phone call, or schedule a Zoom meeting to discuss?)

Or what about simple details like receiving a message on Slack? (Consider creating a universal symbol of acknowledgment that the message has been received and read – such as a checkmark or thumbs up.)

Little details like these can help your team avoid the issues that so-often plague virtual teams and put a chokehold on productivity.

2. Choose the Right Medium

Be intentional with the various forms of communication you allow in your business. While there is no shortage of options, some solutions are much better than others – particularly when clarity is the primary objective.

Email: Good for non-urgent messages where you want to document something and/or provide thorough detail. Also great for sending large attachments and links that someone needs to open on their computer.

SMS: Designed for short and concise messages. Ideal when you want to get straight to the point. SMS emphasizes clarity by forcing you to strip out any filler language and focus on the “meat” of the issue.

Video conferencing: If you have something important to discuss with a group of three or more, a quick video conference can help you get on the same page with one another. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to see body language.

Voice call: Looking for the quickest possible way to communicate an idea without the possibility of the meaning being misconstrued in a text format? A voice call allows you to explain yourself and leverage inflection and tone to ensure complete clarity.

There’s a time and a place for each of these modes of communication. The important thing is that you set clear rules on when each is preferred so that your team knows what to do in any situation.

3. Practice Empathy

If you want to reduce confusion, you (and your team) must learn to be empathetic with the person you’re communicating with.

“We often think that others are more in sync with what we’re thinking than they really are. The obvious fix for this illusion is greater empathy,” Harvard Business Review mentions. “Put yourself in the position of the other person. Actually visualize that individual in his office as you send him an email.”

Remember that simple details like grammar and spelling can make a huge difference. Always read your message prior to identify issues like misplaced commas, misspelled words, missing words, etc. Correcting an issue like this upfront can prevent unnecessary back-and-forth.

Restore Clarity in Your Organization

A healthy amount of clarity within your organization can help you avoid and overcome a litany of issues that so often plague virtual teams. By emphasizing frictionless communication, you’ll find it possible to get more done in less time (and with better quality).

Now’s the time to step up and embrace this all-important challenge of restoring clarity to your business. Which tips will you put into action first?

8 Great Tips on How to Organize Your Business Calls

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Jennifer Clare

Business phone calls are daily bread to every company, big or small. After all, businesses need to interact with their customers and partners; otherwise, they’ll miss opportunities and eventually fail to grow and prosper. That’s why an effective communication channel is necessary for this line of work.

Reliable services, such as Weave phone systems, can help you make your business calls more organized by improving customer service, reducing pressure on you and your employees, facilitating workflow, and promoting the growth of your company. It also helps you reduce performance costs over time. If you don’t have a phone system yet, consider getting one as soon as possible.

However, there’s much more to business calls than meets the eye. A phone and an answering machine are not enough! Fortunately, there are many strategies and smart solutions that will facilitate this important activity.

If you want to learn how to make your business communication more efficient, using a single cloud PBX communication service that unifies business phones, video conferencing, texting and collaboration under a single phone number is your best option.

Keep reading to learn why an effective communication solution is indispensable for your business.

Invest in a Reliable Phone System

Proper communication is key to every successful transaction, agreement, and business activity. A day at an office can turn into chaos if the communication channel is disrupted and there’s nothing to keep it in order. Fortunately, there’s an excellent solution – a business phone system based on SendMyCall Virtual PBX.

Prioritize Your Calls

Big and small companies deal with clients, partners, and other people on a daily basis. If you want your business calls to be organized, you need to figure out who needs your attention first.

Some business operations won’t happen until you resolve an issue with other partners. A good rule of thumb is to keep a schedule and note down people and places that require a phone call from you. Then, start making calls from the most to least urgent.

Keep Track of Your Business Calls

In every company, employees must know who’s responsible for each task. If you work with multiple clients and need to make several phone calls every day, you should specify who takes care of which ones. To improve the communication channel, you may consider creating a system where you’ll keep track of all the calls you and your employees make. This way, you’ll be able to oversee progress, analyze results, and delegate tasks.

Keep a Message Pad Nearby

You know how it is with clients and business partners – they all have thoughts, opinions, questions, and ideas they want to share and hear your response. A message pad is a great tool that will keep you focused during a call, help you organize your thoughts, and allow you to note down important remarks you can use for reference later on. Sometimes the old-school pen and paper method is the best and beats digital notebooks hands down.

Remember About Phone Etiquette

Making and answering phone calls can be challenging – not everyone knows how to do it in a professional manner. However, you need to be sure that you and your employees can communicate with your clients effectively. For that, you must be familiar with the phone etiquette.

Here are some of the best practices you should follow:

Be prepared for each conversation
Answer promptly
Announce yourself
Stick to your agenda
Be an active listener
Be mindful of your tone
Recap your conversation
End the call on a professional note

Send a Follow-Up Email

When you’re finally done talking on the phone, you can sigh with relief and go about your day. However, if you managed to take notes in your trusty message pad, you may realize your job is not done just yet. Many important decisions and things happen over a call. Your client may have a specific request or come up with a question or an issue that requires you to do some research and prepare an elaborated written response. As such, you should send a follow-up email containing the most important points and information, as well as declarations of your future actions.

Don’t Forget About Time Management

All of the tips mentioned above will help you organize your business calls. However, you shouldn’t forget about another essential aspect of this activity – time management. You can delegate the tasks, have the best phone system available on the market, and multiple clients who need your services, but all that will be for naught if you lose track of time.

You need to know when to make your phone calls, who needs your attention first, and how much time you can spend talking on the phone. The best thing you can do is to be prepared before you dial a number. Make sure you know what needs to be discussed and what kind of questions may appear. Having a document with frequently asked questions and answers can speed up the process – feel free to come up with one if it applies to your line of business. Additionally, answer in a timely manner, be precise, and keep your calls short. After all, you don’t want to make people think that your phone call could just as well be an email.

The Bottom Line

Business calls are a crucial part of every company’s usual functioning. Not a day goes by without phone calls, emails, and messages. You need to communicate effectively with your clients and business partners – otherwise, you’ll never get the results you hope for.

There are some strategies that will make this task go easier. In this case, proper management is key, and an efficient phone system can work wonders in your company. Hopefully, the tips mentioned above will help you organize your business calls better. Feel free to implement the changes in any areas you think need improvement and wait to see the results.

4 Reasons Payroll Software Supports Scaling Your Business

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Alex Sanders

Are you still processing payroll manually? Do you use software only to track employee hours through a time clock? When you process payroll manually, you’ll certainly come to understand the process inside and out and hone your payroll processing skills. However, payroll skills won’t help you scale your business.

If you’ve got 5 or fewer employees, you’ll survive with manual payroll for a while. However, to scale and grow your business, you’ll need to start using payroll software.

1. Scaling your business requires simplifying processes and systems

Scaling a business requires simplifying operational processes and there’s nothing simple about a manual payroll process. It takes an incredible amount of time to manually calculate wages, overtime, and taxes, not to mention the lengthy process of cutting, signing, and delivering checks by hand.

If you offer 401(k)s, benefits, commissions, bonuses, sick pay, vacation time, or retirement plans, you’re looking at a full-time job just processing payroll. When all your time is tied up, you’ll never scale your business.

Payroll software simplifies, automates, and streamlines virtually the entire payroll process. You can even get software that comes with advanced features that make life easier for you and your employees.

For instance, Paylocity allows your employees to access a portion of their earned wages before payday. You can also monitor metrics and trends through a visual dashboard to make better hiring and budgeting decisions.

To make the right business decisions, you need access to the depth of insights only software can provide.

2. Payroll software eliminates careless mistakes

Careless mistakes are all too easy to make when crunching numbers by hand. Pushing just one wrong button on your calculator or misreading a number on a piece of paper can have devastating consequences. You might pay an employee or vendor too much or too little, withhold the wrong amount of tax, or misrepresent your available cash flow and overspend.

Using a paystub creator eliminates the majority of oversights and careless mistakes.

Integrating advanced payroll management software streamlines these operations further, ensuring accuracy and compliance across all financial transactions.

As long as the data is entered into the system correctly, the risk for mistakes is greatly reduced. With an automated payroll system, the majority of data will be retrieved directly from time clocks, electronic W2 forms, and standard settings.

3. Payroll software makes it easier to open new locations

When your goal is to open new locations or sell franchises, you’ll need all the time you can get. Using payroll software will free up your time so you can get your new locations up and running.

When you find good payroll software, you can also recommend that your franchisees use that same software to help them streamline operations. After all, when they succeed, you succeed. However, just make sure you don’t require your franchisees to use specific software or you risk creating an employer-employee relationship. Global Franchise Magazine explains this in detail and shares why it’s a good idea to simply “strongly recommend” specific payroll software and HR tools rather than require their use.

4. Payroll software creates consistency that keeps employees happy

Maybe you don’t make payroll mistakes all the time, but only every few pay periods. The moment those mistakes start to inconvenience your employees, they’re going to look for another job.

For instance, say you have to short a future paycheck because you overpaid on a current check. Employees will generally be forgiving if this happens once. However, additional issues will be met with frustration. When small mistakes become a pattern, employees won’t stick around.

Consistency is a critical requirement for scaling your business and applies to every system and every aspect of your business. Creating consistency around your payroll practices is necessary to keep employees from getting frustrated and getting a job with your competitors.

You don’t want to lose your best employees when you’re trying to scale your business. Dealing with turnover, interviews, on-boarding, and training will take your attention away from scaling your business.

Scaling your business requires a commitment to simplicity

Complex systems don’t scale easily. Processing payroll manually is a complex system. If you scale your business with a manual payroll process in place, you’ll multiply your payroll workload each time you grow a little bit. As you start forming new partnerships, you’ll increase the complexity as well.

Hanging onto a manual payroll system will hold you back in your efforts to scale. Using payroll software will reduce complexity, increase simplicity, and create the foundation for smooth scaling.

How to Write a Marketing Content – Examples and Tips

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Lucy Miranda

Marketing content is at the core of promoting businesses in the digital world. Creating content that can help ideas stick, influence consumer behaviors, and promote products and services is a tricky job. Jones Miles, an online Marketing expert at GoAssignmentHelp, says, “Today, the word-of-mouth publicity has transmuted to spreading of information and influence through social networks. For small business owners, creating viral content is the most effective way to harness the power of social media and online marketing.”

So what makes certain ideas, products, actions, or stories stick in our minds more than others? Let us decode how to create effective marketing content:

Less is More

Assignment helper Prius Myers gives an excellent example to explain this phenomenon. He says, “Suppose you visit Dell’s website to buy a laptop. Each listing on the site presents a long list of information about PC cards, media base, docking ports, modular options, memory keys, types of DVD drives, etc. You have no clue about the technology – and despite extensive information, you are at a loss on which laptop to buy. Now, imagine seeing a video of each laptop where you can see it from all angles and check out its best features by clicking on it. Wouldn’t that make it easier for you to decide which one to buy?”

Many times, when businesses describe their products, they make the mistake of using nuanced and complex messages. They think that by telling more about the product, they will impress a potential buyer. The truth is when you learn a lot about a topic at once, you forget most of it instantly. The best strategy is to choose one or two best features of the product and build your marketing content around it. Such content will be easier to understand and have longer retention duration.

Use Analogies to Introduce a New Idea

Riteish Mukherjee from GoAssignmentHelp shares, “When Facebook first came out, it was portrayed as an online yearbook. People treasure their high school yearbooks as they spark memories of their old friends and teachers and instantly associated Facebook with an online medium to stay in touch with their friends.”

Analogies are effective ways to communicate unfamiliar ideas to an audience. They make your marketing content more relatable. Experts suggest that you should use an analogy to explain something, present complex or abstract arguments or concepts more simply, or compare and contrast two or more products or services.

Minnie Sietelman, who helps MBA students in assignment writing, warns, “One has to be careful while using an analogy. It should not be used as a core idea but to support and explain the idea. You should also be sure that your target audience knows what you are referring to when you make an analogy. Someone who is not interested in sports would not understand a basketball analogy. Similarly, people who are not Marvel fans would not relate with Ironheart or X-23 analogies.”

An analogy must also be related to your idea or product in some way for it to be effective. You may compare Content Marketing with Farming as both are related to the creation, planting seeds (content), growing, and producing fruits (results). Both of them use tools. Land can be related to the context of content and user-interface can be related to soil in the agricultural farm.

Create Curiosity Gaps

The most effective content marketing campaign is one that successfully makes people want to know more about the topic. Serve them with an appetizer that makes them want to devour the whole meal. A popular assignment writer in the UK, Simranjeet Chaddha, says, “The advent of websites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed has made the concept of ‘curiosity gap’ quite popular. Earlier, the print media was known for long well-researched articles or salacious rumors and gossips – depending on their target audience. In the world of online marketing content, clickbait and snackable content are driving revenues and traffic. The audience of today has smartphones with RSS feeds. It needs more than rhetorical questions and trick content to stir their curiosity and make them click a headline and compel them to read a blog post or an article.” You can try to share your viral anonymous stories at The Doe site.

According to Simranjeet, four ways to implement the curiosity technique while creating marketing content are:

Create an irresistible headline: Upworthy requires its writers to come up with at least 25 headlines per article. It pushes writers to brainstorm on writing a headline that gives the user enough information to decide whether he or she wants to read article or not but is not detailed enough to say it all in one line. The ideal headline is one that balances information with intrigue.
Publish your content frequently: Giants like HubSpot and popular newspaper websites publish a ton of content every day. This helps them to cover a wide range of topics to cater to different types of audiences. There’s another advantage. If some of the content does not perform well, other articles take over. It becomes a game of numbers. More you publish; more are the chances of making your marketing content go viral.
Perform A/B tests of your content: Publishing often also gives businesses the power to experiment with their headlines, type of interactive experiences they publish, and social media marketing or online marketing strategies they implement. You can analyze which content piece performs better than others and use the insights to refine and tweak your content strategy.
Post content that goes viral on social media networks: Engagement with the audience is the currency in the world of marketing. Hence, businesses that promote contests and quizzes like ‘Which car are you?” and “Which Marvel superhero you look like?” draw more traffic through social shares.

Whether you have a small business or a large business, you work for-profit or a non-profit, these simple marketing content strategies can help you leverage the power of digital platforms and increase your revenues several-fold.

How to Collect Emails from Your Website Visitors

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Allen Brown

In this digital era, many business owners have started taking their companies online to expand their reach, hoping that technology will do its trick and drive people to their online stores. However, increased traffic doesn’t necessarily equal increased sales because people won’t spend money on products on their first visit.

Shopping online takes time as it is hard to make a decision when you cannot physically examine the products. The best way to ensure that potential buyers will come for a second visit is to collect their emails and send them frequent reminders without spamming them. On that note, here are the most effective ways that you can adopt to collect visitors’ emails.

Use Pop-Ups

The most popular method to collect emails from your visitors is using pop-ups, owing to their ease of placement and effectiveness. We have all come across a small box requesting our emails that pop up while scrolling down a page. Unfortunately, they can be irritating to some people who often end up closing the tab. That’s why you should make the pop-ups easy to close and adjust them to appear on the side of the page instead of blocking the whole screen.

Create a Sticky Top Bar

A sticky top bar is a less annoying alternative to pop-ups as it stays at the top of the screen as you scroll down. It will exist for the sake of grabbing a visitor’s attention without ruining their time on the website. This bar is most commonly used for announcements, but there is no harm in making them gather emails as well.

Build a Squeeze Page

When a person clicks on an advertisement that you have placed, they will be directed to a squeeze page containing related information. Before the visitor can access the details, they should be asked to enter their email address in a box that appears on the front page. For an attractive design, you should use squeeze page tools to create an effective page that is attractive enough for potential buyers. Make sure not to include too much content and focus on the benefits of your products. The newsletter that you will send later on will include details about the offers and a link to direct them to the different items that are on sale or part of said offer.

Create Sidebar Forms

The main purpose of a sidebar is to include links to direct visitors to other pages, top articles, and recent news. Recently, some marketers have started to use them to add a rectangular box that asks interested people to subscribe. You can encourage them to leave their emails by adding a discount percentage on their first purchase after subscribing.

Host Competitions on Your Website

It is worth a shot to hold a competition on your website if you are struggling with the other methods. Depending on your kind of business, you can optimize the questions and allow people to enter after signing up. Setting a time limit will make it more interesting, and you can offer a small gift for the winner.

You need to collect email addresses from visitors to build your database. While it won’t cost them any money to sign up, many people are wary of giving out their emails to unfamiliar websites. That is why you need to be smart when requesting their emails or setting up pop-ups so as not to drive away potential clients. Moreover, you have to be mindful of the emails you send them and make sure you only send relevant information because otherwise, they will unsubscribe to your newsletter.

Moreover, you have to be mindful of the email content you send out and make sure you only send emails to valid and active email addresses. Otherwise, your messages can land in the spam folder or get marked as undeliverable, which hurts your sender reputation and can eventually lead to your account being banned.

Luckily, there are plenty of sales automation tools like Snov.io email tester that can check email validity individually or in bulk. Just pick the right software for you!