How to Grow Your Small Business With Content Marketing

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Hann Wang

Whether you’re launching a startup or already have an established business, a strong online presence is a must. Just relying on word on mouth alone isn’t enough.

More than half of shoppers say they use Google to discover brands. The data points to the importance of a digital marketing strategy.

If your target audience can’t find your business online, your competitors will happily grab those sales. So how can you attract prospects and bring in more sales?

The answer is with content marketing. Not sure what that is or what it entails? Don’t worry — we’re about to take an in-depth look at what content marketing is and how to get started.

What is Content Marketing?

ContenContent marketing is the process of creating and distributing engaging content. The goal is to attract prospects to your site and convert them into customers. By far, content marketing on WordPress is the most popular choice and a starting point for aspiring bloggers.

The average consumer today is constantly bombarded with ads. Content marketing is effective because it doesn’t take this aggressive approach.

Creating engaging content means you’re attracting prospects to your site and helping them address their issues. That in turn can help you establish credibility and build trust with your audience.

Publishing content on multiple channels can increase your reach. But as a small business, you may have a limited marketing budget. The good news is that content marketing is highly scalable, so you can start small and gradually ramp up your efforts.

Now let’s look at how to grow your small business with content marketing.

1. Define Your Content Marketing Goals

Content marketing is most effective when you have clearly defined goals. These should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. In other words, use the SMART goal setting methodology to bring structure to your marketing objectives.

For example, simply saying you want to increase traffic is too vague. A better goal could be increasing search traffic by 10% within the next three months. A goal like this makes it easier for you to measure your progress and pivot as necessary.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience is key to developing and implementing an effective content marketing strategy. If your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, they’ll likely move on and take their purchase elsewhere.

Start by creating a buyer persona — a profile that depicts your target customer based on market research. A buyer persona includes details like background, demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals.

Collect data about your audience using platforms like Google Analytics. You can take your research even further by surveying your existing customer base.

Developing a buyer persona may take some time. But it allows you to get a clearer sense of who your audience is, and create more effective content.

3. Decide on Content Types

The next step is to think about the types of content you’ll create. Publishing blog posts is a good place to start. This type of content is relatively easy to produce and it gives you the opportunity to share your expertise.

You can also use guest blogging to build backlinks and increase your Domain Authority. Guest blogging is when you publish content on other sites. It can drive referral traffic to your site and help you build a quality backlink in the process.

Other types of content you can create include ebooks, infographics, videos, webinars, and more. Revisit your content marketing goals to help you decide on which formats to focus your attention on.

4. Select Your Marketing Channels

Publishing content on your site is a great way to establish your business as a go-to resource for helpful information. But you’ll be severely limiting your reach if you rely solely on your site.

Social media is one such marketing channel you don’t want to overlook. With an estimated 3.6 billion people on social media, there’s a good chance your audience is on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Be strategic about which channels you market on. For example, Twitter may be a popular social platform, but is it where your audience is on?

Refer back to your research on your target audience. What channels do they actively use? This is important because those are the channels you’ll want to focus your efforts on.

5. Create a Content Calendar

Content marketing takes ongoing effort to be successful. You can’t simply publish one blog post and expect traffic to suddenly flood your site. At the same time, it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything.

A content calendar is a document that outlines upcoming content for the coming weeks and months. It details everything from the types of content you’ll create to when and where you’ll publish it.

Using a content calendar is a great way to keep all your content organized. Instead of starting from scratch every day, you can simply refer to the calendar and get started.

6. Incorporate SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your site with the goal of ranking higher in the search results. There are two aspects of SEO: On-page and off-page.

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual aspects of a page like titles, headers, meta descriptions, and the content itself for certain keywords. Optimizing on-page factors helps search engines understand what a page is about.

This LastPass review is a good example of a well-optimized page. It includes the target keywords in the title and it’s broken down into sections that are easy to read.

As you optimize your pages for SEO, always focus on your visitors. Spamming your content with keywords doesn’t work, and may incur a ranking penalty. Be sure to use a grammar checker before you publish to make sure that your content still flows well after optimization.

With off-page SEO you’ll focus on external signals like backlinks, which are a major ranking signal. Google sees links from other sites as a vote of confidence. Building backlinks to your pages can improve your overall rankings.

7. Scale With a Content Team

There’s only so much you can do on your own. Eventually, you should consider outsourcing your content marketing to scale your content efforts.

Use platforms like Upwork to find talented writers and editors who can implement your content marketing strategy. You can use Google Docs to write your content and automate with Wordable to automatically upload to WordPress.

Conclusion

Content marketing is a key strategy that can raise brand awareness and establish your business as an industry authority. It can also help you turn more visitors into customers. Implement the tips laid out here to grow your business with content marketing.

Google BERT, Translation, and Small Business SEO and Marketing

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Shiela May Pulido

** This article is updated regularly. It was last updated in April 2021 **

It’s been two years since Google BERT was integrated into search engine algorithms, in November of 2019. Since then, it’s been understanding searches through a vigorous crawling process, and integration of Google spiders and bots. This made it more capable of “reading” and “understanding” website content almost like humans.

BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers and it has revolutionized searches online, translation and will soon reach directly into the realm of websites. SEO experts have changed their methods before and after BERT was implemented, allowing for the increased changes in Google’s SEO algorithms.

With BERT’s increased understanding, you can look to translation to understand the changes BERT has brought about, especially in terms of machine and human translation, and certain sectors as translation services. This article takes a look at that.

Google BERT and Its Background in Translation

BERT is built on the back of the transformer, which is a neural network architecture created for NLP or natural language processing. BERT has thoroughly beaten more traditional NLP models in both English to French and English to German translation tasks.

One additional standard is the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SquAD) which is made up of questions to determine the NLP capacity, BERT even surpassed human accuracy rates, scoring 93.2% accuracy where human translations scored 91.2%.

Does this mean that human translators or translation services will soon be left by the wayside? While that day may eventually come around, at present translation by machine is still severely restricted, most notably in areas like figurative speech and localized vernacular and expressions.

While it presently works very well for translating large volumes of data, machine post editing, or more specifically, human translators from translation services are still necessary to finalize the translation.

BERT was released as open-source long before it was introduced into the actual search engines. While there has been amazing progress in some areas by such prestigious Ivy League universities as Cornell, at the end of the day, humans still seem far more capable of providing translation services, which revitalizes machine learning with language acquisition,that are more accurate and complete. In terms of search engine optimization, however, as may have been noted during the May 2020 Google updates, BERT will soon revolutionize search engine optimization or SEO and the approach to small business marketing online.

Google Bert and Its Impact on SEO

Google has estimated that the BERT updates will directly impact 10% of all search engine results, and while important, that is only a part of the outcome that is relevant to small businesses and SEO experts. The latest Google updates have caused many SEO professionals to reconsider how they do business and website owners to rethink their content marketing campaigns.

BERT is exceptionally adept at “understanding” language more similar to humans and as such, makes it much more capable in determining the search intent of people using the search engine. Google was quick to take advantage of this, not only in terms of the actual search results but also through the inclusion of additional “features” on the search page.

Among the many features of Google are paid advertisements, of course, reviews, featured snippets, the knowledge panel, related questions and other inclusions that make it substantially more busy for the searchers, and also more competition even for the top ranking websites.

There were some types of websites that have experienced more radical results from the BERT implementation. There is a complete list on the Search Engine Journal website where it notes that among them were sites focusing on history, natural and traditional medicine, news, music and entertainment; and perhaps most notably here, for small businesses and local business websites.

What Google BERT Means for Small Business

There is a page called SE Roundtable that lists all of the ongoing Google Updates and reports extensively on their impact on various websites. Of particular interest is one conversation pertaining to the May 2020 update and the apparent presence of a “bug” in the update that created adverse results for many local small businesses.

There seems to have been some speculation that this bug was specifically limited to local car dealerships, though further testimony from numerous SEO experts clearly showed that this bug was in fact not ultimately a bug and proved detrimental to a great many local business interests.

While this has been largely sorted out, it would appear that the stabilization of localized search results was as much a result of continued and deeper integration of BERT into the search engine algorithms and others were the result of changes in the practices of SEO for many of these local small businesses.

The Future of BERT and Small Business SEO

Many people have questioned how they can optimize their website content in order to maximize the benefits from the Google BERT updates. Perhaps one of the most wonderful things about the future of SEO and local business content marketing online, is that there is no need to optimize content for BERT.

Small businesses and SEO experts alike need to rethink their content marketing but for their readers and not for the search engines. If there is any tactic that would benefit in terms of SEO, it would be query-related content.

Search engine queries are the actual words, phrases, and questions being asked on the search engines. For the sake of brevity, the results from Ahrefs will be considered, where they list four different and distinct types of search engine queries.

What Are The Different Types of Search Engine Queries?

Navigational search engine queries
Informational search engine queries
Commercial Investigative search engine queries
Transactional search engine queries

Navigational search engine queries are where the searcher is merely looking for a URL or universal request location, more commonly known as a website address. These should not be mistaken for transactional search queries where the searcher is seeking out directions to a particular store in order to make their final purchase. These results should also be fairly common to the website and not require any specific focus by either SEO experts or the small business online operations.

Informational search engine queries are just that, used by viewers who are seeking out specific information. Some of these informational queries will be immediately answered in one of the many search engine features that were noted before.

If someone searches for the current time in New York City, for example, the answer will come up immediately on the SERP and there is no reason for the search to progress any further. These types of informational queries have a very low click-through rate and focusing on these types of queries is not likely to result in any increased website traffic.

The SEO expert should determine what the common and relevant queries are being searched in any given area, and the small business should focus on an international, multilingual approach to providing answers to those queries in their content marketing campaigns.

The content should then focus on providing meaningful and relevant resolutions for these queries. Ideally, the content should point to the fact that their product or service offers a viable answer to the question being asked. This process should ultimately direct the potential customer into a sales funnel.

Commercial investigative search engine queries are those where the searcher needs to find a particular service or product but have not yet determined the best products or services to meet their needs. This is where queries such as “what are the best translation services online” and similar questions will be asked of the search engines. These types of queries are why the SEO experts and small businesses may want to focus on “listicles” and other review type content for their site.

These types of viewers are the ones that are ready to purchase and who can be more easily directed to a well-planned sales funnel on the website. Look for this type of content to become increasingly popular and common for increasing rankings on the SERP, especially if it keeps the readers on the page long enough to read the entire article. This on-page time will be an increasingly important part of the new ranking factors by Google. SEO experts and small business owners should focus this content on overcoming any objections and leading the reader and soon-to-be consumer to the sales page or the buy now buttons.

Transactional search engine queries are those where the viewer knows the product or service they will be purchasing and are looking for the best price or location to purchase that product or service.

Conclusion

In the near future, look for the quality of content and the ability of content to directly answer search queries to become increasingly important as opposed to a focus on keyword content. On a side note, albeit a very important one; look for translation services and other services to expand as we expand into a more global digital environment and people recognize the ability to gain tens of millions of viewers with very little direct competition.

How to Recover Deleted Files from Hard-Drive Using EaseUS Data Recovery Software

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Ahsan Raza

On the occasion that you’re searching for a quick, entire, and safe data recovery programming to recover eradicated, lost, or orchestrated records or reports from PC, PC, or outside limit devices, by then EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best data recovery programming open on the web.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an outrageous free file recovery software for Windows customers to discover and recover lost or killed records, photographs, music, sound, messages, compacted chronicles, and so on unequivocally from hard drive, external hard drive, SSD, USB, memory card, moved the camera, cell phones and other putting away media. It can without a lot of a stretch and rapidly recover data from various types of data mishap: abrupt eradication, hard drive contamination, disease ambush especially Want to Cry Ransom ware, structure crash, volume adversity, stupid movement, arranging or by various reasons.

This free data recovery programming works magnificently with hard drives, gear RAID, SD cards, pen drives, iPods, and so on. Memory card data recovery can get back the lost records from hurt or subverted memory card including a memory stick, SD card, CF card, Micro card, and that is only the start. USB drive data recovery can restore records lost from a USB drive, pen drive, streak drive, and other removable amassing devices.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free is unimaginably simple to utilize and requires no earlier association on data recovery. It has a reasonable interface that shows recoverable information beforehand we start the recovery method. It gives you essential “Lively compass” and further “Significant yield” modes to find all lost or erased archives, photographs, and media records completely. Ensuing to inspecting, it empowers us to search for a record by name and channel the discovered pictures by content.

EaseUS free information recuperation programming is besides adaptable and profitable. You can beyond question convey checked results at whatever point and essentially import you’re saved sifting result and resume recovery without rescanning. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free engages you to restore up to 2 GB of information, anyway with Data Recovery Wizard Professional the extent of information you can restore is boundless.

The best technique to Recover Your Lost Data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free – Step by Step with Screenshots

Stage 1:

Select a region to begin discovering reports that you have lost. You can in like way pick lost sections here. Select and click Scan to begin finding the lost documents.

Stage 2:

Scanning your PC or outside contraptions for lost information begins. First lively sifting is done and after that noteworthy yield begins to discover more lost records by fundamentally examining the document records. You can delay the checking by some coincidence and continue later. After looking at is done, you can channel what you need to restore from the separated outcomes.

Stage 3:

Preview explicit restorable records/archives and tap on ‘restore’ to get lost reports back. That is it your data recovery is finished. (Note: DO NOT keep the archives into the hard drive or outside devices where you lost the information).

Presently you know how to utilize EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free to get lost data back. You should impart this article to other people, who you feel may benefit from this free data recovery programming.

Essential Phone Apps Every Small Business Should be Using

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Micky Addam

Mobile devices have entered businesses as the key gadget in various industries. Both small and large companies have employees who use mobile devices for their work. Small companies rely on efficiency and agility to stay competitive. It includes working directly from the office but also while on the go.

Hence, mobile devices have become inevitable in our work routines. Without them, we would not be able to communicate with our colleagues as efficiently as we do. However, to do business while on the go, your employees need to have the right apps. Luckily, there are many apps you can use, and many of them are entirely free. Cost-free options make them ideal for growing businesses.

Task management

All employees juggle multiple tasks at once, finding time to help or consult colleagues in between. However, the more assignments build up, the more difficult it is to keep track of your progress. Hence, you need a sharp and convenient tool to organize all your tasks for the week or month neatly. Luckily, there are many options available. All of them operate on a relatively simple principle and are beginner-friendly. So, do not hesitate to increase your productivity with the help of a simple app.

VPN

A phone VPN can quickly boost your security and privacy. When using your smartphone for private conversations and searches, you expect this data to be confidential. However, this data is easily snatched by marketers, websites, and even your ISP. A virtual private network app is designed to help you stay secure while online.

It encrypts your connection and prevents anyone from seeing what you do online. Hence, such security measures halt data thefts and loss of personal information. At the same time, quality VPNs can also be used to hide your IP addresses and help you pick one that unblocks geo-restricted content. All of these things are very important for businesses since online criminals often target companies. Furthermore, a VPN ensures that your Wi-Fi connection is safe, and knowing its questionable nature, you will be glad to have this protection.

Skype

Skype has been a standard choice for videoconferencing and overall communication for the last 15 years. Many different apps tried to compete, but none have succeeded. At the moment, the app itself has more than 10 million comments and reviews on Google store.

Skype has been a standard part of everyone’s PC for years. When the app came out, most people simply got Skype for their phones as well. Skype lets you voice or video call anyone for free. You can get a maximum of 25 people in a single call and share various files. However, if you are looking for something new, you can explore alternative apps as well.

Evernote

If your employees have a fast-paced job where they need to remember lots of information and do research, Evernote might be what they need. This app allows you to gather various pieces of online information in a single place.

The information can be changed, embedded, shared, tagged, and much more. At the same time, Evernote can be used as a notebook. You can store social media posts, contacts, create to-do lists, and much more. What’s even better is that all of this is entirely free. There is a paid version that gives more upload space and some additional controls.

Google Drive

Google Drive is cloud storage offered by Google. It’s attached directly to your email, and everyone can use it for free. The Google Drive app is free to download and can be used in many different ways. It’s great for any kind of writing work or documentation.

It lets you upload, store, manage, and share files. At the same time, users can edit those documents, leave comments, and communicate through the platform. The paid version gives more storage space.

Apps for successful cooperation

Project management is vital. It is especially true when doing work on smartphones. So, project management apps need to be clear and provide a nice overview of all essential information. That’s how people won’t make mistakes while doing their jobs.

For this reason, we find Trello to be the best fit, as it’s very visual. It’s designed around boards where users can create, check, move, and modify lists. As a project progresses, the cards are moved. All of the cards can be assigned with members, checklists, or have attached files. At the same time, people can use cards to leave comments or communicate directly. Trello is around $10 for businesses, but it’s worth the expense.

Conclusion

These are some of the best mobile apps for small businesses. Of course, there are thousands of others, but we feel that these will make an immediate difference in the way you do your business. So, do not hesitate to make your business mobile and flexible.

Virtual Fax – A Must Have Tool for Small Businesses

Posted on August 2, 2020 by Paolo Parodi

Good communication tools are essential to own a successful small business. They help us stay in touch with customers and providers, allowing things to run smoothly and without delays or complications. If you rely on faxing to communicate on a regular basis, you can improve the delivery of documents with virtual fax.

There are multiple companies that can enable us to fax from email in just a few steps and without the problems that traditional fax machines have, such as busy phone lines, paper jams, running out of ink, etc.

This new way of faxing is called “virtual fax”, because instead of printing all incoming documents and having to scan the ones you send, you can simply manage all files digitally. That’s right, all incoming faxes arrive to your inbox as PDF files, and in the same way you can send faxes straight from email, using digital documents. For businesses, this means that you’ll spend less money and time faxing on a daily basis.

What Are the Advantages of Virtual Fax for Small Businesses?

A free fax number. Another big benefit of using virtual fax companies is that they provide you a fax number, totally free of charge. When you create an account with a fax service you can choose between a local or a toll-free number, which people will use to send you faxes. Contrary to what happens with common dedicated phone numbers, this line will never be busy.

Speed of delivery. Faxing from your computer is many times faster than faxing through a machine. Once you press Send, your digital files are automatically converted to a fax image and sent to its destination without running into issues such as paper jams and interrupted transmissions. You can send email to fax, or you can use your service’s website to send faxes.

Fax from anywhere. With the use of a mobile fax app, businesses can send, receive and even sign faxes in just a few taps. There are apps that charge you per fax and others that work alongside online fax service subscriptions. We recommend the latter option, because they actually give you a number to receive faxes. If your business requires to be always on the go, this is an invaluable feature.

Automatic delivery. Every fax coming your way is automatically saved to your account and sent to your email as a PDF, you don’t have to do anything because the process is 100% automatic. Just make sure you enable notification on your phone and be able to read them electronically. Since your line is never busy you won’t have to worry about missing a fax ever again.

Other advanced features. Basic faxing tasks are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can enjoy with online fax. There are other features that can make faxing easier than ever before, such as the ability to schedule your fax at an exact date and time, fax broadcasting (send a single fax to a list of recipients at the same time, and integration with cloud storage platforms including Dropbox and Google Drive.

Choosing the Right Fax Company

To make the most out of online fax, you need to choose the right company. You’ll find that some services promise you everything, but many times customers have to deal with unreachable numbers or fax servers going down without customer support at hand.

Luckily, there are also companies that have proved time and time again that they are reliable and can really help your business take the next step in faxing. I’m talking about companies such as RingCentral, eFax and Nextiva, which we have tried and continue to use to this very day.

If you are having trouble deciding on which fax service to use, you can take advantage of free fax trials. Most fax companies give you the chance of creating a test-drive account, which you can cancel at any time. So, for a full month you can fully test the features of a service and check if it is really helpful in reaching your goals. A great thing about integrating an email to fax Google alternative in your business is that it is very quick to get started. It only takes a few minutes to create a new account and pick the fax number you wish to use. If you are in the US you’ll find that there are numbers for the vast majority of cities in the country, but if you are outside the US you’ll need more specialized services with international presence.

Secure Your Video Conferences With These 5 Steps

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Edward Roesch

Introduction

The security flaws inherent in video conferencing and in particular with certain offerings have been well documented over the last few months while the world at large has limped from one crisis to another. When security firms started predicting what would be the main security concerns for 2020 the increased use of video conferencing tools to support remote work did feature predominantly, however, they had no idea how the current pandemic would create an environment where the prediction became reality almost overnight.

Flaws And Threats

While businesses rapidly adopted video conferencing solutions or look to find the best HD conferencing API, the scramble to remain operational left the important security questions unanswered. Security researchers were quick to point out flaws including those that would allow unauthenticated users joining meetings or poor password management that would see gate crashers arrive to spoil the party. The good news is that steps can be taken to secure video conferences and these should be implemented as part of an organization’s security policy.

Understanding Your System

This step can be done when choosing a solution or even when one has been chosen. Of importance here is to ask what type of data encryption does the solution provide, how the data is managed, and the security features presented to users before they log in. Also, the age of the current solution should be looked at, if the product is older than five years it might not offer the required security measures to help combat modern threats.

Have A Policy in Place

As with policies that dictate how employees are to use personal devices in the workplace, whether in the office or, ever increasingly, remotely, a policy for video conferences needs to be done, if not already in place. Ideally, the policy needs to clearly list the boundaries and expectations of both the company and the employee. Requirements for recording meetings, what information can be discussed, how to use the camera and mute functions following policy guidelines, and what devices may be used are important considerations when drafting a policy.

Domain-Based Security

Too often is the case that these tools are connected directly to the Internet with no firewall in place. This is simply begging a hacker to compromise the company network. A far better approach is what researchers have termed Domain-based security and involves placing video conferencing solutions within the protective barrier of the company network and allows administrators to control access to the tool. As an example, if a video conference is set up between an outside stake-holder and an employee, an employee with the correct privileges will need to allow the outsider to join the call and authenticate their access.

Control Access

Closely linked to the above step is controlling who has access to calls. Technology has provided a handy tool to help manage this in single sign-on (SSO) systems. These systems are tied to users’ privileges and authorization level so that credential theft is made much harder. Further, these systems generate log data that tracks where, when, and how the user accessed the system.

Encryption

Concluding this article is a note on encryption. By using 128-bit AES as a company’s encryption standard for all things including video-conferencing the company has gone a long way to harden their data and keep it away from prying eyes. When using this standard to generate an encryption key for a video conference, it would take a supercomputer billions of years to try and break the encryption key.

A Guide To Combating Abandoned Carts

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Carol Trehearn

Abandoned shopping carts are one of the biggest problems for online companies. While a user might have liked your brand and products enough to add a product into a basket, they could be deterred by the user experience, order total, or second thoughts about their wants and needs. As a result, they might click away from your site and never return.

To grow your revenue and turn visitors into customers, read the below guide on how to combat abandoned carts.

Understand The Reasons For An Abandoned Cart

A high abandoned cart rate can be both confusing and frustrating for business owners. There are various reasons why a user might have failed to complete a purchase, which you must identify to secure more customers.

Common reasons for an abandoned cart could include:

Unexpected fees (such as shipping costs or taxes)
Complex navigation
Security concerns
Lengthy processes
Discovering a better price elsewhere

For this reason, you must aim to prevent worries from occurring, simplify the shopping experience, and avoid hidden extras to secure their custom. If you do plan extra fees for shipping, highlight the costs across your website to ensure a customer will factor in the price when adding items into their basket. If you fail to do so, the order total might not complement their budget, and they will be more likely to remove an item or click away from your site.

Build Trust In Your Brand

If a customer isn’t familiar with your brand and has never placed an order with your business before, they could worry about inputting their personal details and financial information. There are, however, actions you can take to build trust in your company.

Encourage visitors to trust your site by:

Investing in a valid SSL certificate
Adding trust symbols onto your site (such as PayPal Verified, Verified by Visa, and Verisign Secured)
Creating an attractive, easy-to-use website
Publishing high-quality thought leadership content
Displaying testimonials and customer reviews

Send Cart Abandonment Emails

You will likely capture a visitor’s email when they embark on the checkout process. If they fail to complete a purchase, you could send an autoresponder email to inform them their items are waiting in their cart.

While you shouldn’t inundate a visitor with messages, send one or two emails within 24 hours to encourage them to return to your site and finish an order. You must, however, learn how to create an engaging email marketing campaign that will not end up in their trash folder.

Launch A Remarketing Campaign

Remarketing campaigns can be a powerful tactic for encouraging past visitors to return to a site and complete an order. The advertisements can appear across social media, apps, or the Google Ad network to specifically reach a previous visitor using cookies. It will feature products they have viewed in the past in an attempt to re-engage with them and secure their custom.

Add A Guest Checkout Option

Many online shoppers don’t want to create an account and enter many personal details into a website. To improve the user experience and simplify the buying process, provide visitors with a guest checkout option. Once they have placed an order, a customer might be happy to add their information to place future orders on your website.

Feature Impartial Reviews To Convince Customers

Impartial reviews can remove any doubt about the quality of a product or service. To convince a customer that your product is worthy of their time and money, you should:

Incorporate genuine reviews and testimonials on your product pages
Feature reviews on your Facebook profile
Add a backlink to a review website, such as TripAdvisor or Glassdoor
Feature an app such as Notify on your online store to prove others are buying your products

Simplify Your Navigation

Visitors don’t want to enter many forms and click through many pages to make a purchase. As mentioned earlier, complex navigation could lead to potential customers abandoning their carts. Prevent customers from clicking away by reducing the number of clicks to three.

Simplified navigation should look like this:

Pick a product
Add an item into a shopping cart
Hit the checkout button

Reduce the time it takes from a product page to the basket and offer limited forms to fill for a fast buying process and a greater user experience. It could make a big difference to your yearly revenue and profit margin.

Incorporate A Progress Indicator

Increase a visitor’s patience by incorporating a progress indicator into the checkout process. It will show your customers where they are in the checkout and how many steps that they must take to complete an order. It will assure a customer that they won’t have many actions to take until they have bought a product, so they can quickly return to their day.

A progress indicator should have minimal steps to complete, which could prevent a prospective buyer from abandoning their site, such as:

Access Checkout
Billing
Shipping Details
Payment
Order Confirmation

You also could optimize the checkout experience by using A/B testing of a progress indicator. Remember, what works on one company’s site won’t necessarily work on your own, so test different options to find a sign that matches your web users’ online behavior and the company’s needs.

Use Visuals To Increase Buyer Confidence

Customers might have second thoughts about your products at the checkout, as they can’t hold an item in their hand to review its quality. Visuals can, however, convince them to make a purchase, as they will have a greater understanding of a product and how it could match their needs.

For example, you could add high-resolution product photographs from various angles. You also should add images that show visitors how they can use an item, and that highlights its many benefits.

So, if you want to lower your abandoned cart rate and maximize sales in 2020, you should consider the above advice. It could lead to a more significant customer base, an improved user experience, and a more substantial annual revenue.

4 VPNs That Are Suitable For Your Android Phone

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Allen Brown

As we go further and further with the internet at the very core of our communication, security becomes an issue. When we surf online, especially with our Android Phones, there’s an entire record of what we do, who we talk to, from where, and for how long. This is called metadata. This metadata is so incredibly valuable that it’s more important, and traded at a higher price, than oil. But leaving a trail of metadata has a downside: we have no control over who buys it, who sees it, or what they do with it. Maybe we don’t want other people to see the private photos we’ve sent. Maybe we want more encryption around personal medical data and inquiries. There’s a whole lot you can do with just a bit of privacy.

Enter the VPN. A Virtual Private Network is a shield against the most egregious of privacy concerns. According to opportunites-digitales.com, when you have a VPN, you essentially have a protective tunnel everywhere you go online. This is a huge concern, especially for Androids. Here are the 4 best VPNs for your Android Phone.

ExpressVPN

There’s so much hype around ExpressVPN for android, and for a good reason. It puts all the complicated settings options into a simple, easy to use, and efficient set of options. It’s this ease of use that has thousands flocking to download this app. It can be used all over the world, with servers covering 94 different countries. It allows for everything your average consumer would want in a VPN, and then some.

NordVPN

NordVPN has its branding and its message down to a tee. They have a mountain as their primary image, and that’s exactly what using NordVPN is like. They have an extra layer of security, much like a tunnel within a tunnel. They’re also incredibly scalable to larger networks, with a keen focus on merging android with company systems.

IPVanish

If you’re into the technicalities and nitty gritty of privacy, IPVanish has a bunch of cool features for you. They have split tunneling options as well as obfuscation. On top of that, there’s a “kill switch” that shuts off your internet in case the VPN drops. The problem with most VPNs is that if it drops, and enough metadata points place you in a single spot—like your home, data analysts can know where you are.

Surfshark

Surfshark is the best bang for your buck. It’s gained some decent traction in the security world for being the most accessible in terms of customer reach. People with smartphones all over the world can avail. This is also a great idea due to many budget hardware having questionable security to begin with. It’s a great first line of defense that carries the greatest weight for the low-low price.

Everybody needs a good VPN. In the Information Age, it’s hard to argue against it. What we do, and what we see is akin to where we go on the globe. If we have constant tracking on all of our movements, who is to say that it can’t be used against us? Modern concerns need modern solutions. With android phones, the answer is a solid VPN.

VPN for Android by Namecheap

Android VPN by Namecheap is a safe and fast VPN for your android device. You can easily download VPN for Android by Namecheap from the official website. Basically, it’s just like any other virtual private network that hides both your IP address and location. The app is very simple and easy to use on any of your old or new android smartphones. It has a world map that you can zoom in on, with your location highlighted.

One of the biggest advantages is that Namecheap’s Android VPN works with more than 1,000 servers spread across 50 countries, which guarantees you a high internet connection.

4 Ways To Make Your Small Business More Productive

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Bernadine Racoma

shallow focus photo of thank you for shopping signage

New small businesses are being created every day by ambitious owners looking to make a difference. As these companies go up against fierce competition, it is essential that small businesses do everything in their power to ensure that they are productive and efficient with every minute they have.

What stands in the way of many small businesses from reaching the top is a lack of productivity. Productivity is essentially how effective a business is using its time to improve itself and spread a message. With these 4 productivity hacks, your small business will be on its way to the top.

1. Be Collaborative

Being collaborative in the workplace is any business’s first step to success. All members of a small business team need to b eon the same page so that there is a clear vision and end goal. Working in the same space can help, but having effective communication outside the workplace is also key.

Given there are hundreds if not thousands of communication apps available to download and install collaboration with colleagues and stakeholders have never been easier. Setting up the time and space for a team to collaborate together will encourage the spreading of ideas that are what could take a business to the next level.

2. Spread Your Message

The main goal of any business is to spread a message to customers. You can do things like build your own blog or push new marketing campaigns to get your business seen by the masses. You can have the best product in the world, but it won’t stand a chance of selling in the current marketplace unless you are making it visible.

Understanding how you can sell online and get a message across around the world will open up your doors to new and never before considered markets. Using a powerful message to show customers you have plenty of value to offer them is what will get them hooked on your business.

3. Establish An Efficient Workflow

Productivity and efficiency are two products that go hand in hand when you look at how a company is going to do. Being productive means using your time effectively, and efficient workflows are how you are able to remove burdens and free up essential time.

Streamlining your online business means that you can sell products without having to do much work and can use your time for more important tasks. Having the luxury of efficiency on your side will make being productive much easier and, by extension, improve revenues and profitability. If you need help check out these top eCommerce website builders.

4. Have A Reliable Team

The last but often most important element to having a productive small business is to have a team that shares your goals and values. Asking people to invest in your vision asks a lot from people and you need to make sure they are reliable enough to help make your vision a reality.

Start conversations with every employee so you are all on the same page and can reach your goal together. The last thing you want to have to do is drag dead weight around that is not going to help you get to the top.

5. Be Secure

Keeping in touch with colleagues, selling products online from a website and ensuring security of stored data can be a real pain. Ensure that all hardware is secured with AV software, and lines of communication are sent via secure channels. Be prepared for the worst and it won’t happen, but give a thief or hacker just a small opportunity and they may end up destroying all that you have built or are trying to build.

4 Ways Local Businesses Can Benefit From An SEO Service

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Drew Gula

If you’ve done any research into promoting your business, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that search engine optimization makes the business world go round.

And unless you spent a decade in digital marketing, you might not have any idea how to use that information and actually improve your small business’ marketing strategy.

The good news is that you don’t have to worry about the technical complexities of SEO. There are hundreds of tools out there that will handle the details for you, and some of them specialize in small or local business marketing. A good SEO service will handle the details so you can focus on running your business and creating web content to attract new customers.

But before we look at how your local business can leverage an SEO service, let’s take a minute to break down search engine optimization and what it does as a marketing tool.

A Brief Introduction To SEO

At its most basic level, search engine optimization is all about keywords. If you run a local hardware store, you might assume that your ideal customer is interested in a few specific topics like DIY projects, home renovations, tools for rent, etc.

SEO tools help you see which of those topics that customers search for online. You might discover that “DIY bathroom remodel” is getting 10,000 searches a month, which means you should probably write a blog post or create a tutorial about that topic.

And the more of this research you do, the more relevant your content becomes. Which means you’ll start showing up higher in Google search results, which means more people will see your company and head to your website or social media pages.

Yes, an SEO strategy takes a lot of work in the beginning. But it helps you streamline the process to make things easier moving forward. If you use SEO correctly, you’ll be able to focus your time and money on the keywords that matter most to your business.

And to help you get started, here are 4 ways your local businesses will benefit from SEO (and why an SEO service can help you reach your goals).

#1. Tap Into Existing Traffic

Okay, so this one is fairly straightforward. But here are a few shocking statistics from SocialMediaToday:

46% of Google searches are people looking up local information
72% of people who search for local businesses visit a store within 5 miles
78% of local mobile searches resulted in an in-store purchase

Large numbers of people in your area are looking for local businesses. Whether you live in Burlington, Iowa or Brooklyn, N.Y., there is web traffic that you are missing right now.

An SEO service won’t guarantee that every one of those Google searches leads to a purchase from your business. But it does mean that you will suddenly have an “inside man,” someone who is finding the trends and helping you market to people in a way that leads to more brand awareness for your company.

#2. Target The Right Customers

The greatest strength of winning SEO campaigns is that it lets you segment your marketing. Instead of creating a bunch of generalized content, you’re able to build content clusters that specifically meet the needs of the different segments of your target audience.

For local businesses, that can make all the difference. People instinctively want to support businesses that align with their values, represent their hometown, or represent something they care about. But if you aren’t using SEO strategies, you won’t know which keywords will get your brand in front of those potential customers.

An SEO service won’t just take care of that for you — the good ones will work with you directly to make sure that your marketing strategy is as fine-tuned as is possible.

#3. Keep Up With Local Competitors

As a local business, it’s easy to think that your biggest competition is the national brands. You know, the ones with the billion-dollar ad campaigns that seem to haunt your dreams.

But the truth is that those brands aren’t using SEO strategies that target your local community. These mega-companies are going after keywords around their niche, which can make it competitive. But if you run a local bookstore, the best competition to focus on is the one against other local bookstores, both in your city and the greater region.

Let’s stick with the bookstore example. Customers already know what to expect from the nearest Barnes & Noble. But what if that customer wants used books, or fiction from local authors, or regional travel guides? They’ll search for “bookstores near [your town here]” and that’s the kind of keyword you want to focus on.

Targeting a keyword like “bookstores near [your town here]” might pull up a Barnes & Noble location, but if you create enough content that focuses on that keyword, soon enough you’ll start to climb higher and higher up the search results.

#4. Optimize Your Online Presence

SEO isn’t just a way to help your content rank for certain keywords — it’s also a way to build authority around your company’s web presence. (That’s actually at the core of search engine optimization, but in terms of local SEO, it’s more of a side benefit than the main focal point.)

A strong content strategy might get some of your blog posts, tutorials, and marketing materials to rank as a local business on Google. But if you use the same SEO principles on your home page, search engines will start to see your site as an authoritative voice in your community and industry.

Additional SEO Resources

As a reminder, there are dozens of high-quality SEO services out there. (Here’s a comprehensive list of SEO service companies.) Some specialize in local business, while others focus on domain authority. The point is, you can find a service to help you in a specific area or improve your overall web presence and keyword targeting.

If you’re new to SEO, you may want some tips on how to write SEO articles. And it might help to read a huge collection of statistics and facts to support the value of local business SEO. Or maybe you want to start somewhere small and try to get some of that “[enter business type] near me” Google traffic.

No matter where your business is or how you approach advertising, local SEO can help you maximize the time and money you invest in marketing. And an SEO service will take care of all the nitty, gritty details so you can focus on running — and growing — your business.

Drew Gula is the copywriter at Soundstripe, a company that produces royalty free epic music and sound effects to help businesses improve their video content.

Three Ways to Make Your Office More Secure

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Allen Brown

Having a secure office workplace is imperative to protect and ensure the safety of your staff, which is one of your primary responsibilities. This is the reason why you need to exert an extra effort to make your office space secure from those with malicious intentions to impose harm and damage, not only to your staff but even to your property as well.

Below are some of the simplest but most effective ways to make your office more secure.

Restrict Access to Premises And Equipment

One of the ways to make your office space more secure is by restricting access to your premises. You can do this by keeping everything locked and organized, from your office doors, drawers, and even the computers that you are using. In this way, only those who have the keys, access cards, or passwords will be able to enter the premises or utilize your office facilities and equipment. It is a good idea to keep reminding your staff to keep their passwords private or keep their badges in a safe place so that these won’t fall into the wrong hands.

Make sure that all the equipment that you use in the office are labeled properly with seals, logos, or stickers that make it easy for you to match with your inventory. In line with this, you need to keep a comprehensive list of all the things that your company owns such that you or your staff will be able to verify that everything is in the rightful place each time.

Install CCTV Systems

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems pose various benefits when it comes to security in your office. The indoor monitoring cameras that you install can be a way of catching intruders in your office space, particularly when you acquire systems that boast of numerous features such as high definition video streaming or infrared night vision. It is also a good idea to strategically place your CCTV cameras in the entrances of your office premises to have a good idea of the individuals that seem to survey the area.

Implementing effective security measures is crucial to make your office more secure, and partnering with Securitas Technology can help you achieve comprehensive protection.

Invest in an Alarm System

Apart from CCTV systems, you can also invest in alarm systems that typically work together to provide added security in your office premises. These alarm systems can act as a deterrent, inhibiting those with bad intentions to pursue whatever it is that they are planning. The great thing about alarms is that these are directly connected to the authorities such that they are immediately notified should any criminal activity occur in your workplace. In this case, potential trespassers or thieves will have second thoughts of targeting your office.

To wrap things up, restricting the access to your office premises as well as labeling your company equipment are only some of the simple measures that you can do to keep your office space secure. In addition to this, investing in a CCTV and alarm system will keep crime at bay. All these are geared towards providing your staff with a safe and secure environment to work with.

Why Every Developer Should Know Multiple Programming Languages

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Boris Dzhingarov

Being a developer is a promising professional choice, especially now that there is a surge in demand for capable developers from various industries. Aside from IT companies and tech start-ups, businesses across multiple industries are actively seeking developers to spearhead their various app and web development projects.

Mastering a particular programming language is the key to succeeding in this career, but mastery of one programming language alone is not enough. In today’s market, there are several reasons why developers should know multiple programming languages.

A Shift to Full-Stack

Knowing multiple programming languages means you are most likely capable of handling a wider range of development tasks. Instead of focusing on one type of development (i.e. frontend, backend, etc.), you can be more robust in your career as a developer.

Full-stack developers are in high demand as businesses try to keep their IT department lean and effective. Top names like Vudu Digital Web are hiring full-stack developers to accomplish that too. As a leading digital agency in Belfast, WSI Digital Web can offer unrivalled services, all in-house, to its clients, thanks to its solid team of capable developers.

Developers as Managers

Another big advantage you will gain when you have multiple programming languages mastered is easier access to management roles. When you are pursuing a low- to mid-management roles, mastery of multiple programming languages is a huge plus.

This is because you will most likely oversee other developers with specific roles, which means knowing the basics of the languages they use is a huge plus. Not only will you be able to organise developers better, you can also work better in coming up with out-of-the-box solutions.

More Learning Opportunities

If you think mastering multiple programming languages is easy, think again. There are plenty of courses and online learning programs that will help you pick up new languages in a matter of weeks – or even days. Online courses on programming are also becoming more accessible.

These online courses are not only easy to access, but they also offer certifications. When you are certified in more programming languages, your appeal as a developer gets a healthy boost, and finding better employment opportunities becomes easier as well.

Better Rewards

Speaking of better employment opportunities, it is also worth noting that developers who know how to code in multiple programming languages are in a better position to earn more than those who specialise in just one language. This is also due to the market shift mentioned earlier.

You don’t have to be good at everything. Two or three additional languages that serve specific purposes are more than enough to enhance your profile as a developer. Don’t be surprised to find more offers – and better ones – when you start mastering new programming languages.

Staying Current

The last reason why developers need to master multiple programming languages is the language itself. We are seeing new programming languages being introduced and even more development frameworks and kits being made available.

Newer programming languages such as Swift are worth mastering because they allow you to code better in a refined language. Proprietary languages are also worth exploring if you are working with specific hardware or systems.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why mastering multiple programming languages is highly beneficial to your career as a developer. Find a suitable language to pick up based on the career path you want to pursue and start learning about the programming language today.

Why a Reliable Internet Connection Is a Must During This Pandemic

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Allen Brown

While we are all wrapping our heads around this “new normal” that we’ve found ourselves in when the pandemic struck, we’re re-assessing what are actually the essential things we need in life. And one thing that keeps being at the top of the list is reliable internet. In the beginning, with the first stay-at-home orders, we saw many internet services crash under the strain but good providers like Spectrum internet outage turned out to be for a small period, and we saw once again how crucial they were to our daily lives. So, what are the things that make a good internet so essential?

Working From Home

A lot of people have switched to working from home to minimize exposure and eliminate using public transportation. For many, this means working online, whether by always being in contact with their colleagues, or full-on accessing their office computer remotely. Whichever the case, a productive day means stable internet and good speed. This is why at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of people reconsidered their internet and cable plans to make sure that they can stay connected and do their jobs properly. For some, a lousy internet connection actually meant potentially losing their jobs, especially if they are self-employed and had to put their business online.

Online School

For the younger generations, the start of the pandemic meant schools closing and their lives getting turned upside-down. While some countries introduced a system of TV classes, students still had to submit their assignments online, or join online video-calls with teachers. For kids without a stable connection, it could mean missing out on classes or not being able to fully understand the subject, because of constant interruptions. Additionally, since kids won’t be getting as much attention from the teachers, they might have to do a lot of additional research by themselves, which will also require reliable internet.

Stay Connected With Loved Ones

Social distancing has hit everyone hard. We all have to be responsible and keep our distance, but it’s normal to miss your family and friends. And this is where we use the internet most often – chatting, video-calling, and sending pictures of our lunch to friends and family. Especially when families have to be separated – for example, grandparents not being able to see their grandkids for a long time – video calls are life-savers and will help people stay connected and feel less lonely through these times. People who have been in long-distance relationships or live far away from a family already know this feeling all too well, but now this is a reality for nearly everyone.

Stay Informed

With new measures being introduced seemingly every day, it’s important you stay on top of everything that is happening and get the newest information from reliable sources – which can often only be found online. Without good internet, you might miss and important stay-at-home notice and get in trouble for it, or you might miss the instructions on what to do if you actually feel some symptoms. Not to mention, the world hasn’t stopped: things are happening the same way as they were before the pandemic started, and we need to be aware of current events around the world.

In short, stable internet access has been a necessity for years, but the pandemic has brought to light exactly how big of an issue it can be when we do not have access to it.

How To Block Ads On Your iPhone, iPad, Or iPod Touch

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Victoria Medison

Every year, advertising receives more and more influence on society. It forms a public opinion and imposes its ideas on people. We don’t even notice how advertising invades our consciousness and unobtrusively changes it according to the large corporation’s requirements. Nowadays, it’s impossible to go outside and not immediately see a few billboards or signs that urge us to buy something. Things get worse when advertising occupies our smartphones and laptops. We use them to work and relax, but instead, we get tons of pop-ups and banners that overlap the content in the browser.

Ads litter our consciousness and make us waste our money. Moreover, they waste our time. According to recent studies, the average person spends 4 years of life to view ads. 4 years that you can spend on self-development, family, or hobby. Therefore, many people prefer to block ads on computers and smartphones.

If you are a happy owner of Apple devices, then you’re surely annoyed enough because of ads. Over the past year, iOS users are complaining about the abundance of advertising in the operating system. The problem turned out to be so large-scale that the media started talking about it. Steve Streza, who developed the Tumblr app for iOS, wrote about this issue on his blog. A post titled «iOS is Adware» exposed Apple’s consumerism.

To make matters worse, Safari tracks your site activity, uses your search history, and geolocation to find relevant ads for you. Collected data is stored on the servers. If hackers attack these servers, then the history of your purchases, searches, and locations may be in the hands of scammers.

Besides privacy and obsession threats, advertising can also seriously compromise browser performance. You have definitely faced with a problem when the browser starts to freeze due to many advertising banners. Another problem is redirected links that lead to spam and advertising sites instead of showing the content you need.

So how can we deal with browser ads on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?

If you want to get rid of all the ads on your iPhone or iPad, then you should think about installing an ad blocker application.

Such apps will secure your data, remove ads from Facebook or YouTube videos, and even increase your device’s battery life! In addition, ad blockers can remove ads in apps and block tracking of your purchase history and behavior on websites. For example, the uBlock ad blocker, that is completely free while featuring many useful functions.

However, any application has its drawbacks. Some blockers take money from marketers for adding the specified sites to the «white lists» — they will show ads even despite the turned on blocker. Other blockers scare away users with a complex interface and settings.

If you are looking for an ad blocker that will simultaneously ensure the security of your data, save traffic and battery power, as well as speed up your browser, then you should install AdLock for IOS. This adblocker fights all types of ads: pop-ups, banners, virus links, and spyware. By installing it, you will not only get rid of ads but also protect your device from viruses. Besides, AdLock successfully blocks ads within applications — play your favorite games, chat in messengers, and listen to music without any distractions.

You can also remove ads through the phone settings. Enter the «Settings» on your iPhone, then go to «Safari», and activate the built-in «Block Pop-ups» function. Thus, you will partially block ads in your device. But this method won’t block them all, so installing a blocker will be much more effective.

Remember that by blocking ads, you save valuable time, which can be spent on more useful things. Furthermore, installing an ad blocker will provide useful features to protect your smartphone, so you never have to worry about privacy or viruses again.

5 Big Signs Your Site Desperately Needs A Redesign

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Carol Trehearn

Your site is the face of your business; therefore, it’s not good to neglect it. It’s a shame that web design advances so quickly as it can make you unsure whether you need to update your site to fall in line with new developments.

If you’re unsure whether you need to redesign your website, check for these signs. They could be making your business suffer.

It’s A Pain To Upload Content

If you’re not regularly posting content to your website, you should be. Content that provides value to your visitors is essential for your SEO work. Writing and uploading content is also a major drag, most people don’t want to do it, which is why your website needs to make sure it’s incredibly easy for you to do. If not, you will have an excuse to bunk-off your content duties and your website will fall off the search engine results page.

It Takes Ages To Load

47% of visitors leave a website if it takes more than 2 seconds to load. Google also monitors traffic and penalizes websites that people leave quickly, as these sites clearly don’t provide value to visitors. There is a difficult balance between getting the design features you need and cutting down loading speeds to make sites lightning-fast. The best website designers focus on usability as well as visual looks and a lot of this will be back-end (e.g. code compression).

Customers Can’t Navigate Easily

If you can, you should have surveys on your site that ask key questions about the user experience. One of those should be how easy it is for visitors to access relevant information about your site. If a user has a bad experience on your website, they will be much less likely to return. Navigation is also very important for SEO. If your customers can’t use your website due to navigational issues, that’s throwing away money. Get inspired by these amazing web design resources.

Your Competition is Clearly Doing It Better

You should check up on your competition every now and then. This is useful for a variety of reasons — assessing their pricing and marketing strategies so you can inform yours. If your competitors’ websites are clearly better than yours, you have a problem. Trust is everything in business and good web design suggests a successful company that can afford a slick site. This offers some social proof as it implies other people are trusting the company so much that they can spend money on good website design.

Your Site Looks Bad on Mobile

Google are starting to massively prioritize those sites that offer a great user experience regardless of the device that visitors use. It’s not enough not to have a mobile-friendly website, as well as one that works well on a variety of browsers by using adaptive design. This is especially important as over 53% of websites are accessed through mobile or tablet devices. If a user has a bad mobile browsing experience, it’s highly likely that they will go to a competitor instead, as they won’t have time to access the site from their computer.

What Should a Good Sales Enablement Manager be like?

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Monika Rose

Being a manager of any company is not easy, but when it comes to the sales area, it may seem even more complicated. Why? A sales manager needs to take care of the whole sales process, supervise sales representatives, set goals, or measure the results.

A manager is also responsible for the company’s profit and, of course, the main goal in this area is to increase it. This is a demanding task for any manager and it requires a lot of knowledge and effort.

A good way to deal with these issues is to introduce and use a Sales Enablement strategy within the company.

Sales Enablement – Basic Facts

Sales Enablement is an overall strategy that is used in the sales area, and it is concerned with maximizing profit by taking various actions. The actions are well-planned and interconnected.

Sales Enablement involves a few important steps and guidelines.

They Include:

Implementing a more customer-oriented strategy, getting to know customers’ needs
Taking care of the content and keeping it high-quality
Maintaining the motivation of the sales reps and other workers
Keeping the team highly-educated in the field
Executing, measuring and assessing the sales processes
Keeping all documentation neat and completed

Of course, in order to make Sales Enablement work properly, all of these points need to be fulfilled and remembered. If you’re interested in the methodology of the Sales Enablement, visit this website.

Also, when it comes to Sales Enablement, the MEDDIC methodology is a useful tool to use. The abbreviation stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Plan and Champion. You can read more about it on SalesHood.

The MEDDIC methodology helps to accelerate the process of Sales Enablement.

A Good Sales Enablement Manager

A Sales Enablement manager should be aware of all the facts that were mentioned above in order to build a successful strategy based on this knowledge. The manager should also have some more specific qualities and competencies.

Have A Proactive Attitude

What does it mean in the context of Sales Enablement? A proactive attitude means a willingness to make progress, a high level of problem-solving skills, being open to new solutions and strategies.

Sales is not all about analytics and measuring results. It’s also about direct contact, building brand image, being open to suggestions. A positive attitude towards all these aspects is a must-have for a manager.

Be A Team Player

The manager’s role is not only about establishing rules, delegating tasks, and supervising the team. It also involves cooperation, which is crucial to make the Sales Enablement process smooth and effective. The team needs to establish strong internal relationships, also with the manager, communicate on a daily basis, and become dedicated to the goal.

Be Dedicated And Make People Focus On The Goal

A manager who is not fully dedicated to the project is not a good one and won’t convince anyone to become fully engaged in the work, either.

A vital thing in Sales Enablement management is to focus fully on the goal and to make people work more effectively towards achieving it. We all have a natural tendency to imitate what we see around us – it’s a great asset to use as a manager who wants to maximize employees’ effort in the sales process.

Be A Motivator

Motivation is a key factor in the Sales Enablement strategy. A manager can motivate the team in numerous ways, for example by organizing various workshops, or training sessions.

An excellent idea to keep the motivation high is to take care of the team’s integration. As a manager, you can consider organizing a conference or trip for your team. Arranging some space to relax in the office could also be an opportunity for the team to integrate.

To read about more ideas for team integration, visit this website.

Be Organized

Good organization is inevitable in Sales Enablement, as the whole strategy is based on keeping a record of all documentation.

If any action that a company makes is not documented and stored, there’s no possibility to learn from it or take some advice for the future. If you feel like you’re not organized enough, you can always ask your coworkers for help, or read some tips on how to do it, for example, here.

Conclusion

Being a manager and performing the function well is not a piece of cake. It is possible, however, to manage the sales team effectively in accordance with the Sales Enablement rules.

Once the strategy is implemented and executed properly, it will only become easier to manage the sales reps and make a profit from this new way of working.