Reporting Suspicious Email Addresses: the First Step Getting Rid of Spam Bots

In the age of the Internet, each person is familiar with spam. It means sending letters and messages without the consent of the recipient. With the help of such messages, unscrupulous people usually sell goods of dubious quality. This is the dark side of email marketing. You may think that it is easier to ignore, but there are many negative consequences of spam.

For this reason, many platforms initiate programs to fight it and report IP address on https://cleantalk.org/blacklists/report-ip if you believe it is a spambot. Here is how it works. Let’s assume that you have discovered an email address that you believe is a spam bot. The first step would be to enter it on the website and check. After that, the system is going to check this email on several websites. If the email indeed belongs to a bot, it will be added to a blacklist.

As you can see, the procedure is very simple. It will take you only a couple of minutes to do it. You may think that it is a waste of time, but here are the main reasons you should report spam email addresses.

1. Collective work brings results. Of course, if only one or two people report an account, it will not make any difference. However, imagine that all website users will report suspicious emails. It will help to fight spam bots much more effectively.
2. If the email is blacklisted, it will not be able to operate on your website. Remember, that you are doing this for yourself. By checking email addresses and reporting spam bots, you are protecting your site from such attacks in the future. You won’t have to deal with abnormal traffic that can load the website. You won’t also spend your money and other resources on sending emails to bots. You will also be able to see the real statistical data and improve your website. Your users will have a better experience without seeing all the spam in the comments and messages.
3. You will help others. Once an email is added to the blacklist, it is visible for everybody. It means that you will not only help yourself but also make sure that other people will be able to protect their websites.

In this perspective, it may seem that fighting spam is a useless activity that only takes valuable time. However, reporting a suspicious email is the best thing you can do for yourself and other website owners. A blacklist database has proven to be very useful as a protection and fighting tool against spam online.

spam email -DepositPhotos

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source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/reporting-suspicious-email

Symmetry Financial Group Among North Carolina’s 40 Fastest-Growing Mid-Market Companies

This past November, Symmetry Financial Group (SFG) was included in Business North Carolina Magazine’s “Fast 40” list. As the fastest-growing insurance marketing organization in the country, SFG welcomed the local distinction and looks forward to furthering the prosperity of the Old North State.

“We are honored to be recognized on the Fast 40 list, an achievement that reflects the hard work and outstanding efforts of the entire Symmetry team,” said one of Symmetry Financial Group’s co-founders, Casey Watkins. Watkins has built his career on establishing successful life insurance agencies and now guides their business strategy.

Watkins was one of three visionaries who developed the idea for and founded Symmetry Financial Group after years of working in the insurance industry. Watkins, along with Brandon Ellison and Brian Pope, started Symmetry Financial Group in 2009. Headquartered just outside Asheville, North Carolina, Symmetry Financial has fostered its roots by developing the communities that make up its business. They’ve experienced exponential growth in the ten years since its inception, and the Fast 40 distinction celebrates these efforts.

About the Fast 40 list

Symmetry Financial Group was among 70 mid-sized businesses that applied for Business North Carolina Magazine’s “Fast 40” distinction. These companies, from all types of North Carolina industries, ranged from $10 million in revenue all the way up to $500 million. Cherry Bekaert LLP made the determinations of who made the cut, and at the end of the day, the winners were announced at a recent reception at High Point University in North Carolina. In their decision-making process, representatives of Cherry Bekaert took a quantitative and qualitative look at all of the applicant businesses.

This peek into the vitality of North Carolina’s different industries was illuminating for one Cherry Bekaert representative, who said that “North Carolina flourishes across multiple industries.” Tensions regarding a potential upcoming recession dominate the national headlines, but here in North Carolina, business is good. At least, it is for the companies that made it onto the Fast 40 list. This is because sustainable revenue and employment growth are part of Cherry Bekaert’s determination. Each company that ultimately makes the list must demonstrate three years of revenue and employment growth. Symmetry Financial Group was proud to have made the list and is a model for what success looks like in North Carolina today.

Symmetry Financial Group’s Business Growth Game Plan

Revenue and employment growth have been an integral part of Symmetry Financial Group’s operational success since their start in 2009, and the Fast 40 distinction demonstrates this achievement.

Symmetry Financial Group provides life insurance solutions and custom coverage options for mortgage protection, critical illness insurance, disability insurance, and retirement protection. Not your average insurance company, SFG provides users with the opportunity to shop over 30 of the nation’s top carriers to put together coverage plans tailored to their specific needs.

Helping people connect with the right insurance products and companies is what Symmetry Financial Group is all about. After seeing significant gaps in the insurance process, SFG’s founders knew that there had to be a better way. They redefined the way agents do business by offering a suite of digital tools to help established insurance agencies with lead management, contracting, underwriting, and new business. These areas of the insurance process were in dire need of revitalization, and Symmetry Financial has since improved the ways in which its agents manage their businesses.

Symmetry Financial Group has now expanded beyond its humble North Carolina beginnings and maintains a national presence. Their agents are state licensed independent brokers with a precise understanding of their state’s practices and insurance options.

Symmetry Financial Group’s Similar Accolades

Receiving a distinction like the Fast 40 award can mean a lot to a North Carolina company like Symmetry Financial Group. To be honored by the people and places that make your business run is a hallmark of a sustainable business. Their approach to insurance marketing has not only won the company local praise but has led to national recognition as well. Symmetry Financial Group has been recognized for the last four years by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies. Entrepreneur Magazine also recognized them as having one of the top company cultures in 2017 and 2018.

Symmetry Financial Group Looks Ahead

The sky truly is the limit for Symmetry Financial Group, as the company bases its business on relationships and people first. Saying what comes next for a company that refuses to follow convention can be difficult. As long as SFG continues to build upon this foundation, it seems that more growth is on the way.

 

For more on where the company is headed, check out Symmetry Financial Group’s blog or connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

 

Charlotte Skyline -DepositPhotos

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source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/symmetry-financial-group

Here’s Why You Should Master MS Excel To Transform Your Business

Scientists use it to feed a distinct grouping of qualitative and quantitative data. So do teachers when they need to compare the marks of the students. As do entrepreneurs, to store data and visualise it in many different forms. visualization using excel is a growing area. The new buzz word is PowerBi – it’s your visualizations tool or Dashboard as some would recognize it. In English, all these means is creating graphs out of large amounts of data.

Yes, we are talking about Microsoft Excel. These three professions are amongst the top 80% of work opportunities that require spreadsheet skills and managing a seemingly endless amount of data. Yet, a lot of people pursuing these professions dread using Excel because it has so many different elements and an intimidating stigma around it.

The good news? Well, many of them succeed at realizing how it can make life a lot easier for everyone and utilize the benefits to the maximum. 

That being said, if you are a business owner or manager looking for a handy tool that can transform your business, here are some of the benefits of enrolling for Excel Courses In Sydney.

It Is More Than Just Making Tables

Excel is a problem-solving program. Most people think of it as a tool used to generate traditional spreadsheet, but it can do so much more than that. You must understand the complexity of the programme to be able to harness everything Excel has to offer. Excel can:

• Do mathematical functions on your behalf
• Organize data so that it becomes easy to navigate
• Turn your data into PowerPoint presentations and graphics
• Analyze data using pivot tables
• Make predictions and better-informed decisions using What-if Analysis group. 

To know how one value in a formula can impact the outcome, use Excel Goal Seek feature. It is simple to use yet extremely helpful in finding quick answers. Here’s an example for a better understanding, Imagine you need to work out a final pay amount to the bank. Now, you have a figure in your mind, let’s say $80,000 a year, but you don’t know what value to put in the hourly rate. You try 36, it doesn’t work. You try 38, 39, 40, 40.5, nothing works. Then, what would you do? Can’t think of anything? Well, when situations like these drive you crazy, Goal Seek could be the place for refuge.

It Keeps You Organized

As a business owner, you’d understand how important every piece of information is, and also know how confusing it feels when you have to store data in a few different places. Be it CRM, accounting software, hard drive and other folders on the computer. Not to forget the paper forms that remain stashed away somewhere in the office. Having said that, Excel can help you save and track all the information in a single place. Excel can help you stay more organized, give you access to information when needed, handle small as well as big data, and help you use that information to improve your business.

It Simplifies Calculation And Complex Figures

One of the greatest benefits of Excel is that you can set up formulas, plug in numbers, and perform complex calculations without any hassle. Excel simplifies complex calculations. All it takes is basic training to learn the symbols and language to express the formulas. Once you are thorough with all the Excel formulas, you will easily be able to manage complex calculations and set up multiple spreadsheets. There are various tools in Excel that are effective in managing calculations. For example, if you use Define names, you can make a complex function much easier to read.

Your Vlookup function could look like this initialy =Vookup(A1,stocklist!A1:C200,2,False) or = Vlookup(A1, MasterList,2,Fasle). which is easier to understand.

Visit my YouTube channel – Analir Pisani or book a customised training session.

It Saves Time And Improves Productivity

In addition to simplifying the calculation and complex figures, Excel’s plethora of functions and programmes are meant to save your time. The importance of time for a business cannot be underestimated. When you harness the power of Excel, you will know the functions needed to solve even the most complex problems, and have more time for other tasks. 

This extra time can be utilized in tasks like team development, fostering creativity, and enhancing productivity. Additionally, you will have more time to spend with your friends and family, looking after your personal growth, and build strategies to increase your profits.

It Makes You Better At Your Job

As mentioned before, so many people rely on Excel for help. Irrespective of what work you do in the office, Excel helps you do your job better, one way or the other. You just need to figure out what that is.

For example, is there a better tool that you could use for finance and accounting? A better way to organize your data? Could the spreadsheet allow you to better communicate your ideas visually? Turn to Excel, and all your questions will fly away.

Even greater, mastering Excel can make you the go-to person in the office. Don’t you want to be everyone’s favourite?

And That’s Why You Should Undertake Excel Training Courses

Excel may seem a bit confusing at first, but once you start using the tool for the basic tasks in your life, you will see how it can make your life easier. So what are you waiting for? Book a Customized Excel Course that covers the topic you are interested in. 

 

 

man using spreadsheet -DepositPhotos

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source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/master-excel

Most Common CRO Mistakes Beginners Make

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a technique for increasing the percentage of website traffic that converts. Naturally, this will increase your number of customers, revenue, and helps grow your business.

Conversions are the users who have entered your sales funnel and completed the action you asked them to do. This could be buying a product, signing up for an email newsletter, or downloading an app.

Whatever the case may be, it’s important to track your conversion rate so you can improve your process and increase conversions. CRO tactics are used to increase the likelihood of conversions and increase your total conversion volume.

Before we dive into some common CRO mistakes, let’s take a more in-depth look at what CRO is and why it’s important.

Benefits of CRO

CRO allows you to obtain more value from your current customers and users as well as open the doors for new customers. It will increase traffic to your site, consequently revenue. CRO is essential to growing your business, and if you are just getting started with this strategy, one of your first areas of focus should be user experience.

Improving the landing page that your audience visits will guide your audience through the sales funnel until they exit by completing an action. But, don’t just give your landing pages a makeover. Like SEO, CRO is also affected by the quality of your website and the relevance of your content.

Make sure your website is organized, detailed, and easy-to-browse. You’ll find that the conversions start to spike almost instantaneously.

Now that you understand the basics of CRO, here are some common mistakes you should avoid.

Your Website Isn’t Optimized for Mobile

It’s important to track the amount of traffic coming from mobile users because many users prefer browsing from phones. If you have a really low percentage of mobile users, chances are that your percentage of desktop users is even lower.

To successfully convert your leads, you should have a responsive mobile website design that loads quickly.

Optimizing your pages for mobile doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes, it’s as simple as increasing the size of your CTA buttons or having comparison table data in a single column so visitors don’t have to scroll sideways.

Your CTAs are Weak

Call-to-actions may not seem important, but they are vital to the success of your business. CTAs are the last piece of content that users see before deciding to complete a purchase or leave your sales funnel. It makes sense that you’d want to spend some extra time crafting yours.

The simplest piece of advice that you can follow is to make your CTAs bright and large. The eye naturally gravitates towards things that are colorful and noticeable. Whatever color you decide on, make sure it’s different from the color palette of your website.

In addition to those small changes, make sure you choose a legible font. Use phrases like “See the Latest Price,” or “Read These Reviews.”

Your Sidebar is Crowded

Sidebars make it easy for users to navigate your site. It’s where users can see everything that your business has to offer and decide where they want to navigate to first.

Having too many choices may deter website visitors. Be very selective with the pages you display on your site. Don’t intimidate your audience. Stick to the bare necessities and make it easy for potential customers to pursue your products.

If you have them jumping through hoops to buy something, they’ll be motivated to leave the site and find a similar product elsewhere.

Your Site Isn’t Direct Enough

When internet users visit websites, they usually do a quick scan to see if the site they’re on is relevant to their search. This process happens almost instantaneously, so you must make sure that a user’s first impression of your site is a great one.

You can do this by using these simple strategies:

• Use a lot of white space – people don’t like to look at clutter. Make sure you’re only publishing important content.
• Prioritize images and videos. If you’re able to get a message across using a picture or video, do it. People are more willing to look at an image than they are to read even a short paragraph.
• Take advantage of bullet points. When a user sees bullet points, they’re less intimidated by the amount of writing on a page.
• Create smart headlines. Your headlines have to tell it all. Make sure your headlines summarize the content so users can find out what they’re supposed to even if they don’t read through the entire piece of content.

CRO Strategies

Now that we’ve covered the most common CRO mistakes let’s take a look at some effective strategies that you can implement into your marketing efforts.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is when you create two different versions of a page and show groups of visitors different versions of the page.

This allows you to compare the two and uncover the strategies that are making one page more effective.

A/B testing takes the guesswork out of marketing. The best part is that it’s specific to your business. You get to learn what works best for your business and audience.

Behavior Tracking

Online marketing is a bit challenging since you can’t directly track customer behavior. With a brick-and-mortar store, you can easily see who is coming in and out and the areas they are spending the most time in.

However, there is software that you can implement into your site to track user behavior. These types of programs show you what pages have the most activity and engagement.

Once you know this information, you can model all of your pages after the more successful ones.

Get a FREE CRO Audit

Conversion rate optimization is an important technique that can dramatically improve the performance of your business.

Before you can make meaningful improvements to your site, you need to find out what areas of your site need a bit more substance.

Get a free CRO audit to learn more about the state of your website. This data- and research-based assessment will reveal the weak points of your website.

Knowing these weak points takes the guesswork out of CRO. Take advantage of this convenient assessment and get started with CRO today!

 

 

 

conversion rate graphic -DepositPhotos

The post Most Common CRO Mistakes Beginners Make appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/digital-marketing/common-cro-mistakes

How To Engineer Success Through Measurable Key Performance Indicators

It could be the new decade that has brought with it feverish discussion of Key Performance Indicators, or maybe it’s the fact that professionals have started to take the wheel and drive their own development. Whatever the motivation, measurable Key Performance Indicators can allow you to level up and gain deserved recognition for your hard work. So rather than letting a year go by without reaching any milestones, let’s discover how you can engineer success through Key Performance Indicators.

Make your Key Performance Indicators SMART

It’s an acronym I am sure you are familiar with, and it has stood the test of time for a reason. When you sit down to design your roadmap for success, ensure that every intention is Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related. ‘Generating more sales’ might sound like a target to strive for, but ‘increasing sales by 25% by July’ might give you greater clarity on what success looks like with a measurable, time-related outcome. If this discussion of Key Performance Indicators is one that has to happen with your manager, ensure that you both agree on the specific details to avoid ambiguity and disappointment on either end when a Key Performance Indicator is only partially met.

Set up Goal Posts Throughout the Year

Your Key Performance Indicators serve no one by being hidden in the bottom drawer. These goals should be a live document that you revisit many times throughout the year, not only keeping you accountable but inspired too. You may wish to design these Key Performance Indicators as quarterly or half-yearly items, or you may prefer annual targets with the plan to hit mini goalposts throughout the year. Whatever length these short and long term goals span, you should be checking in with them as often as possible. It might prevent you from pursuing a workstream that doesn’t drive long-term value to you and the business, and it will keep your objectives and outcomes clear as day.

Use Your Key Performance Indicators as a Tool for Collaboration

What direction do your weekly WIPs usually take? If you are like many other professionals, they might be lacking motivation and effective outcomes. If your Key Performance Indicators are the centre of your development and progress one-on-one’s, then you and your director will be able to discern the next steps for you to take and agree upon which goals have been met. Essentially, use them to your advantage here. Demonstrating to management that you are taking these Key Performance Indicators seriously will go along way, and it will only serve you to have those key decision-makers engaged in your progress going forward. No more WIP agendas, as the only instrument on the table to measure success and progress will be your well-defined Key Performance Indicators.

Benchmark Yourself Against the Market

Key Performance Indicators shouldn’t be seen as a noose or barrier, it should be a tool that will benchmark you favourably against the market. Or at least it should be. Knowing what the average Key Performance Indicators are for your role and industry will put you in a position of power and let your manager know that you are performing at a higher level than your peers. Your event attendance might only be 80%, but what if your market is only seeing a 65% attendance? Exceeding these industry standards will also give you a demonstratable case as to why you should be considered for future roles and opportunities.

Now that you have an appreciation of the power of your Key Performance Indicators, you can start to design achievable goals that will inch you closer to success. Getting clear on what success actually looks like will make this process easier and more manageable.

 

 

 

tablet with metrics -DepositPhotos

The post How To Engineer Success Through Measurable Key Performance Indicators appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/success-perfomance-indicators

Are Directors Personally Liable for Business Debts?

If you’re facing spiraling business debts you might be wondering if you, as director, could be personally liable to pay them.
The answer is dependent on a few different factors which we will cover in detail below. Starting with the most important…

How the Business Is Structured Matters

When a business is set up, directors must choose between becoming a sole trader, partnership, or private limited company. Here is how each structure affects liability for business debts:

Sole Trader

If a director decides to operate as a sole trader, they and the business are legally considered the same entity. There are pros and cons to this. While all the business earnings are theirs to do with as they please, they are also personally responsible for all unpaid business debts.

So if the business runs out of money and is unable to repay creditors, the director will need to use personal funds to resolve this. If they can’t pay, creditors are able to take personal assets to recover the money owed.

Partnerships

There are two types of partnerships in the UK; limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships.

In a limited partnership, ‘general’ partners can be held personally liable for all of the partnership’s debts. ‘Limited’ partners are only liable for the amount they invested in the business.

In a limited liability partnership, none of the partners are personally liable for business debts. As above, they are only liable for the amount they invested.

Private Limited Companies

Private limited companies are their own legal entity. They offer the most protection to shareholders and directors because no individual is personally liable for the debts of the company. But there are exceptions to this rule.

Here’s When a Director May Find Themselves Liable for Company Debts:

You Signed a Director’s Personal Guarantee

Personal guarantees are a security measure used by financial institutions and other lenders; another way to guarantee that the money loaned will eventually be repaid.

Directors sign personal guarantees all the time. They do this to secure extra funding, rent office space, hire equipment or buy goods from suppliers on the account. But, if the business becomes insolvent and is unable to pay these debts, the director becomes personally liable for them. This means using their own assets to clear the debt.

You Failed to Act in the Best Interest of the Company’s Creditors

When a company goes into liquidation, its directors are investigated by an insolvency practitioner. Directors have a legal responsibility to act in the best interest of the company’s creditors during insolvency. This essentially means doing everything possible to ensure debts continue to be repaid.

A director must not do anything that causes debts to increase or go unpaid nor should they show favouritism towards a particular creditor.

Directors who fall foul of any of this face serious consequences, including being made personally liable for company debts.

Overdrawing From the Director’s Loan Account

A director’s loan account allows directors to extract money (that isn’t a salary or a dividend) from the business. If they never take money out of the business or put in more than they take out, the loan account balance will be at zero (or in credit). But, if they take out more than they put in the loan account becomes overdrawn and this is where issues can arise.

When a business becomes insolvent, the director’s loan accounts are considered an asset. Assets are used to pay off creditors. If the loan account is overdrawn, directors are expected to pay back the money they have borrowed. The problem becomes very complicated if the director cannot pay it back. If you find yourself in this position seek expert advice immediately.

The Consequences of Being Liable for Company Debt

Company debts can be significant and they must be paid. If a director is found liable, they must do what they can to personally repay them.

This could include selling assets, remortgaging their home, or using savings. But if none of this is an option, and the director is unable to repay debts, they can be forced into bankruptcy by their creditors. Some directors may even choose to declare themselves bankrupt in extreme circumstances.

Furthermore, if a director is made liable because they failed to act quickly and properly during insolvency, they may be barred from being a director for up to 15 years.

To Summarise

The issue of personal liability can seem complicated and cause great worry but the majority of limited company directors are not responsible for business debts. If you acted in the best interests of the business, repaid any loans from the company, and have not signed any personal guarantees, you can rest easy.
If you have any concerns about your personal liability, talk to an insolvency practitioner for advice.

 

 

liability concept -DepositPhotos

The post Are Directors Personally Liable for Business Debts? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/business-finance/director-liable-debts

Five Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Should Publish a Book

If you’re not a seasoned writer, publishing a book of your own might sound like a far-fetched and daunting idea. No matter what your level or style of writing, however, don’t wave this idea aside too quickly! If you’re an entrepreneur, this may be your opportunity to increase brand visibility and put yourself on par with competitors in your field — which means a boost in profitability. Still unsure whether to take the plunge? Then check out these five reasons why every entrepreneur should publish a book.

1. Pass on Your Experience to Future Generations

Stories of entrepreneurs who have created their own business from scratch and achieved tremendous success are instructive and useful for novice business persons emerging in the industry. Everyone wants to know how to attract investors, promote their products, make people believe in their idea — all those nitty-gritty details and secrets that made you successful. The experience of esteemed entrepreneurs is a storehouse of handy information for beginners. This is your way of passing on your success story so that upcoming business-minded leaders can use your best practices to solve their issues and build themselves a strong business empire. Just as Lee Iacocca revolutionized management, you too can become an inspiration for future generations of entrepreneurs.

2. Draw Attention to Your Brand

In the business world, brand awareness and attention mean more sales, bigger investments, higher profits. This is the dream of every profitable business! There are many creative ways to put a spotlight on your business, but publishing a book is one of the most original ideas. Consumers these days are tired of stale marketing strategies that explain why you should choose them. Instead,  they’re looking for refreshing and honest reasons why they should be into your brand and ideas. Your book might be the answer to their pleas. Keep in mind, however, that this strategy could be a two-edged sword. If the whole piece revolves around how great you are and what an honor it is to become your client, it will surely put people off. But if you keep your story fairly non-promotional but entertaining, compelling, and engaging, you will naturally grab people’s attention. And voila! They’ll connect to you and your story and want to find out more via your brand and business.

3. Books Help Attract Talents

People are a business’s most valuable asset. Attracting promising professionals is a great success for any company. What if the candidates themselves start seeking your favor because they liked what they read in your book? If your worldview and goals align with theirs, they will dream of becoming part of your team. The right people in the right places will give your business a huge competitive edge. Your book can become a magnet for the best people in the industry.

4. Raise Awareness to the Issues of Today

When promoting their brand, entrepreneurs tend to concentrate solely on their business. Focusing on serious issues outside of your industry, however, can resonate with millions of people around the world. This might be a problem of sustainability, ecology, global warming, economic development across the world, etc. By publishing a book that addresses environmental, social, and political problems and the ways to solve them can help you gain recognition not only as a successful business person but also as a prominent public figure and humanitarian. This strategy matters more than ever these days since consumers want to see a human face put on companies.

5. Make Money

Business people don’t normally publish books to earn money. However, who said you can’t try? A book can actually become one of your business ventures. Beautiful words about successful strategies and knowledge that feed them are great, but actions speak louder than words. Let the sales figures of your book prove that you turn everything you touch into gold! A talented person is talented everywhere — your bestseller can cement your status as a capable entrepreneur. 

So, if you feel like writing a book, nothing should hold you back! With a clever book cover design and a compelling story, you’re guaranteed a successful publication. Happy writing!

 

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The post Five Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Should Publish a Book appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/entrepreneurs-should-publish-books

Is a Work OS the Solution for Your Organization’s Problems? Maybe, But Probably Not.

Your company faces serious leadership and management issues. Its various departments work in independent silos, each interpreting the corporate mission in its own way, and all pulling in different directions to achieve it. Because of this situation, where there is no horizontal alignment, cross-team collaboration is only a dream and in fact, any inter-departmental collaboration is enormously difficult.

With the inefficiencies and poor communications of this Tower of Babel, your leadership team is almost invisible to the rank and file. How can workers embrace your priorities if they aren’t aware of what they are?

According to vendors, there’s a technology fix for this: work OS. These solutions, that include companies such as monday.com, Coda and Notion, claim to offer a remedy for these kinds of dysfunctions. With their easy-to-use communication and collaboration tools, centralized resources and automated workflows, they make it easy to knock down silos and have everyone pull together for the same corporate goals.

A Work OS allows managers to easily track progress on any task and project, so they can pivot when necessary and reallocate resources to keep things moving forward. Different teams and departments are connected and communicating with each other, aligned in the same workflows, running together in lockstep, on the same agile sprints. The easy creation and automation of workflows and seamless access to the third-party apps team members like to use, means that employees can spend more time doing the work they love and are good at, and less on menial tasks. . . And the pitch goes on.

This, at least, the story they tell.

If setting up this cloud-based hub for all work and cooperation within your organization sounds like a solution that’s too good to be true, that’s because it is. A work OS is an amazing tool but it’s only as effective as the organization, and the people, wielding it.

Companies Need Real Change Not a Band-Aid

True corporate change is painful and it’s tempting to use Band-Aid remedies. But these can disguise the fact that that company-wide work problems start with issues at the top.

One of the chief issues that leaders and managers face is a silo mentality – “a mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same organization. This type of mentality will reduce efficiency in the overall operation, reduce trust and morale, and may contribute to the demise of productive company culture.”

Salesforce, for example, cites a study surveying 1,400 corporate executives, employees and educators, in which 86% of respondents blame a lack of collaboration ineffective communication as the reason for workplace failures.

“We must address the fact that organizational silos can . . . be the result of a conflicted leadership team, and that conflict trickles down causing unrest and employees becoming fearful of sticking their necks out,” writes Brent Gleeson, a keynote speaker and author of Taking Point.

In essence, corporations don’t need more technological tools, they need leaders who:

• Work together to create a unified vision for the company.

• Inspire employees to strive towards a common goal

• Provide incentives and motivation to keep everyone energized and on track.

• Define the benchmarks and timeframe used to measure progress and success

• Foster a company-wide culture of collaboration

True Collaboration is the Key to Success

Yes, statistics show again and again that fostering collaboration across teams and departments will boost business results and morale. For example, a joint study between the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and Rob Cross, Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Business at Babson College examined more than 1,100 companies and found that organizations that promote collaborative working are five times more likely to be high performing. In fact, just the perception of working collectively on a team can boost performance, another study shows.

A Harvard Business Review article on “Cross Silo Leadership” argues that leaders need to help their people to develop the capacity to cross boundaries and “see and connect with pools of expertise throughout their organizations and to work better with colleagues who think very differently from them.”

To overcome the challenges of doing this on an individual and organizational level, they should implement these practices (rather than just buying the latest software suite):

• Cultivate and deploy people with wide experience – These are the people in a company who already have “experiences and relationships that span multiple sectors, functions, or domains and informally serve as links between them.”

• Encourage employees to ask the right questions – The only way people can learn to work across work boundaries is to ask a lot of the right kinds of questions. Management and leadership can spark the process by asking smart questions themselves, taking a reading of what their employees think and feel.

• Learn to see things through the eyes of others – Through cross-silo dialogs, enlightened hiring practices and other methods, leaders and managers can help employees see things from other people’s points of view, helping reduce the kind of misunderstandings that can happen between different groups in a company.

• Broaden everyone’s vision – Teach people to widen their horizons by looking beyond their immediate job function, or business unit or team. This can be done, for example, by bringing together people from diverse groups together on company initiatives. Or by urging employees to look to networks outside of the company and even their industry for inspiration and information.

Increase Leadership and Management Visibility

In his post, “To Succeed in Business Managers Need More Visibility,” David Hassell points out: “You can’t fix what you can’t see, and you can’t manage what you are unaware of. This principle is true for both top-down visibility, as well as awareness of what’s happening on and across teams.”

To break down silos in an organization first requires candid communication between leadership/management and employees. By doing this, managers can establish a bond of trust and growing confidence that gives teams the freedom to succeed. At the same time, the leadership and management will become “visible” to their teams, who are buoyed by their support and guided by their business priorities.

With encouragement and guidance from the top, teams will start to communicate with and support each other in the same way, trading silos for valuable cross-team collaboration.

Once a company’s enlightened leadership and managers are committed to gaining trust, aligning everyone with corporate strategy and business goals, breaking down dysfunctional vertical structures, and promoting organization-wide cooperation, then they could turn to a work OS for valuable assistance in achieving these aims.

enhanced workflow -DepositPhotos

The post Is a Work OS the Solution for Your Organization’s Problems? Maybe, But Probably Not. appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/modern-business/work-os-solution

How to Start Your First Marketing Campaign With a Low Budget

Preparing the funds for a startup business may already empty your pockets, but the sad truth is that you still need money for the marketing campaigns. It is great that you’ve set up your small business and it is up and running, but how can you attract customers to your shop or make sales if you won’t run a marketing campaign?

Personal loans for fair credit might help you with the funds, but you are still operating on a tight budget. You don’t have to fret because it is possible to run a marketing campaign with a small budget. We will walk you through the different methods to start your first marketing campaign without breaking the bank.

Set your Marketing Campaign Budget

Always start small if it is your first marketing campaign. No matter what you do and how experienced you are in the field, mistakes would happen on your first try. Once you set a budget for your marketing campaign, you have to follow through.

You cannot blindly set a budget for your marketing campaign. You have to make sure that it is within reasonable grounds and you can get it back from the sales you make from your customers.

First, you have to determine the customer lifetime value (CLTV), which indicates the income that you get from an average customer. You have to make an estimate on how many customers the campaign would bring you. If a customer has a CLTV of $1,000 and you can get at least three customers from your campaign, you can set a budget of $1,000 to $1,500 for the marketing campaign.

Research First

You have to do your own research for your small business. There is no one-size-fits-all marketing campaign so if you have a “start now, research later” mentality, you will surely waste a lot of money. Trial and error is part of the game, but with all the businesses that were already established right now, this pretty much non-existent.

You still have to test the campaigns, but it won’t be as difficult as starting from scratch as you already have the fundamentals. You have to do extensive research on the marketing campaigns and your target audience before you start anything.

Social Media Marketing

This is the most important marketing campaign for any start-up business because it is literally free to register your accounts on social media. Building up a following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more would take time, but at least, you already have the foundation of your social media marketing.

Social media marketing is probably one of the most affordable marketing campaigns that you can do. You just have to create your account, spend a small amount of money to advertise your page and start posting relevant content.

Hiring a professional to jumpstart your social media marketing is also advisable, especially if you have no idea how it works.

“Content is King”

If you’ve been researching marketing campaigns, you may have come across this specific phrase. Online marketing won’t be complete without high-quality and reliable content. If you don’t have any idea how to write articles, you can get one for a few dollars.

Good-quality content can help bring more traffic to your company website. The more traffic you get, the higher the chance to get customers. However, you cannot simply post any article. You have to make sure that it is relevant and it is giving something of value to the readers.

Keep Track of the Results

For social media marketing and content marketing, results are easy to track as you can see if your recent marketing campaign made an impact or your articles are getting enough views. Tracking the results of your marketing campaign is free of charge and you won’t have to spend a penny unless you plan to hire someone to do it for you.

Track the results and make the appropriate changes based on your findings. If a certain campaign is not doing great, you can shut it down and start a new one or you can make changes to it. Don’t run the same old marketing campaigns if you are not even sure if it is giving you results or not.

Influencer Marketing

Since your local business is pretty new, you cannot afford to spend extravagantly on marketing campaigns. Influencers are getting a lot of popularity lately and you can use this as a way to market your products and services without spending too much.

Online influencers are totally different from celebrities. They have a huge fan base and this is what you are after. You don’t have to hire them as brand ambassadors as it would cost you a lot of money. You can just send them samples of your products or if you are offering services, you can invite them over for free.

Getting a shout out from one of their video blogs (Vlogs) or just a simple thank you message on their page would already boost the popularity of your business.

Wrap It Up

A low budget marketing campaign doesn’t mean that it is less effective than more expensive campaigns. As a matter of fact, a starting business should always start with low budget marketing campaigns as it is a good way to build a foundation for your business.

If you are on a tight budget, don’t feel bad. There are many things that you can do to start your marketing campaign without spending too much.

 

 

man budgeting -DepositPhotos

The post How to Start Your First Marketing Campaign With a Low Budget appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/digital-marketing/low-budget-campaign

Best Tricks to Increase Instagram Followers

Do you want to get famous on Instagram?

Are you searching for the latest tricks which will yield you a lot of new Instagram followers?

There’s no denying that we all want to learn those tricks and hacks which will give us new followers on Instagram every day. To get real Instagram followers fast you should see how can you get instagram followers from BuyTrueFollowers.

Trick 1 – Mass Follow and Unfollow

This is a time-consuming task, but the results are great. Mass following significantly increases the number of followers and that too fast. You must search for profiles that are like your profile. Then open their latest posts and follow people who have liked or commented on the posts. A lot of those people will start to follow you when they see your profile. But after some time, you need to unfollow them as well. You can do this straight away or after one or two days as you like.

Trick 2 – Post Every Day at Peak Posting Times

You must be active on Instagram and post regularly. You should post a minimum of one photo or video per day. You also need to consider the peak posting times. Not a lot of people consider this when they post a picture. Do research on what time most people will see your post and make a schedule of sharing posts during that time period. This will maximize the reach of your posts.

Trick 3 – Use Popular Hashtags and Relevant Keywords

Hashtags are an amazing tool. You can find the people who might be interested in your content by searching the right hashtags and engaging with them. You can also simply use those hashtags in your posts and wait for people to find you and follow you. Hashtags increase the visibility of your posts so that more people will find them. There are some hashtags that are specifically used for likes and follows. InternetMarketingRocks uses extensive research on hashtags and relevant keywords and help you gain more followers on Instagram.

Trick 4 – Geotag Your Photos

Add your location to your photos whenever you post it. It is a great way to expand your reach in the local community you are based in. Geotagging pushes your posts to the feeds of people living in those specific locations. This increases the chance of people finding your page and following it for the long run. People tend to follow the profile of someone of their community more often.

Trick 5 – Tag Other People in Your Photos

There can be many reasons for tagging someone in your post. Maybe they are in your picture or something related to them is present in your picture. You can even tag someone if you think they might like your post. There are practically no boundaries to this. You can tag feature accounts of your niche which might share your post and you get some new pair of eyes watching your post through them.

Trick 6 – Engage With Your Followers

This is a simple trick but is very useful. You can engage with your followers in many different ways. You can come up with your own way of interacting with them. You can like, comment or share their post if you like it. Talk to them on comment replies or direct messages. Come live when you have some free time.

Trick 7 – Re-Create What Has Worked Best in the Best

Always look closely at your analytics. Look for the posts which perform better than the other posts. Try to find the reason why it performed so well. Create new posts based on a similar theme that got that post so viral. You don’t have to repeat this strategy repeatedly. Mix and match with over new things. Keep experimenting to find the things that work the most.

Hope these tricks will help you gain more followers.

twitter type bird -DepositPhotos

The post Best Tricks to Increase Instagram Followers appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/social-media-marketing/instagram-follower-tricks

The Best Tools To Use For Employee Satisfaction

It’s critically important for any company to attract top talent, but equally important to be able to retain them. Employee satisfaction can be a difficult thing to manage, as gaining the feedback you need to make necessary adjustments isn’t always straightforward without the right tools at your disposal.

What is the satisfaction level of your employees? What is your company culture from the perspective of your employees? These are the questions you need to ask to retain your most skilled and valuable employees, and not lose them to your competitors. The good news is that there are many tools available for you to gain the insight you need to offer employees the workplace atmosphere they want.
To that end, let’s look at some of the most popular and useful employee satisfaction tools and how they can help you get the feedback you need to meet employee expectations.

15Five

The name of this application stems from the idea that it provides a quick and simple way for managers to survey their employees. The employees take 15 minutes to fill them out and return the surveys, and then the manager takes five minutes to review them. It’s a pretty straightforward arrangement, but there’s more to the platform than that.

15Five provides a host of built-in survey questions to choose from, but managers can add their custom questions as well. Different reviewers can be defined for specific employees, and feedback can be forwarded to other stakeholders for whom the feedback would be useful. Survey groups can also be configured to support separate teams, and you can also set goals and accomplishments for team members.

Officevibe

Officevibe takes a bit of a different approach to the employee survey process. Instead of just sending out employee surveys on a regular schedule, it includes the ability to have a dialogue around the survey responses that are returned. This helps gauge employee satisfaction and also identify opportunities to improve your process.

Officevibe takes the results from these surveys and rolls them up into reports that can be used as reference materials to be shared with other company stakeholders. It also includes a polling option where you can solicit feedback from your team about their thoughts on projects, changes, and other work-related matters, and see how they progress over a defined period.

Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway is precisely what it sounds like: a platform designed to help you manage rewards given to employees for various reasons. It includes the obligatory survey functionality, of course, but Reward Gateway also contains tools designed to handle individual accomplishment recognition, gifts for employee recognition events, employee discounts, and more.

The survey component can measure employee engagement and allow you to set milestones that determine commensurate rewards. This will help you increase engagement over a more extended time, and will make you better able to read the signs of what drives that engagement.

Weekdone

Weekdone combines employee satisfaction with progress tracking, and all rolled up in one platform. This is done by having employees enter their weekly plans, as well as progress updates on project work, and problems they encounter with people, policy, and technology. This functionality allows progress to be tracked and gauge where employees may be having a difficult time.

Weekdone can expand its interface with additional questions and fields and has a robust reporting function that allows you to look at both individual employee and team progress. Weekdone can also integrate with many other Human Resources software platforms, so more data can be processed on both ends and aligned with company goals.

Polly

Let’s face it: some team members aren’t that great at keeping up with email and being responsive via that medium. That’s where Polly comes in because it makes it easier to get quick feedback in a group chat setting in Slack. Setting up a poll in Polly is super easy: all you need to do is go into Slack, enter the poll command, and you get a dedicated URL you can access to create a customized poll.

Polly offers additional paid features that enhance the base offerings of the main application. Some of these features include the ability to ask open-ended questions instead of a list of choices, turning off anonymous answers, or giving users the ability to select more than one option if they are undecided.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the excellent employee satisfaction tools you can use to measure employee engagement and adjust your process accordingly. Business requires a lot of applications to keep the machine running, such as a mass payment system for multiple industries. But these employee satisfaction applications will put you ahead of the curve for attracting and retaining top talent.

 

smiling man -DepositPhotos

The post The Best Tools To Use For Employee Satisfaction appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/employee-satisfaction-tools

5 Tips on How to Build Customer Loyalty and Trust

It costs about five times more to acquire new customers than to retain current ones. Business owners, therefore, need to find innovative ways to keep their customers coming back. This can be done effectively by creating trust and loyalty in those customers through reliability. 

However, it’s not all about customer retention. Happy customers are more likely to recommend your business to their friends and family who in turn, will be more inclined to try you out based on the “word of mouth” advertising. Not only does this earn your business new customers but these new customers will already have an inherent inclination to trust your brand. Should you deliver to their expectations, you can stoke that trust and use it to turn those customers into lifelong users and brand ambassadors. 

You can clearly see why building customer trust and loyalty is important for your business. Here are some tips on how you can do that for your business starting today. 

Through these tips, you can start to slowly but gradually build loyalty and trust among your existing as well as new customers:

1. Create a Database of Your Customers

The very first thing you need to do is find a way to list your customers. You can do that by creating a database of all your existing customers. This database can be used to determine your actual market demographic. The system you create here should be populated with actual paying customers. For that, you will need to use tools such as biometrics identifying people which can help you detect fraudulent clients and separate those names from your real customers. Once you have your database, you can use that data to determine how best you can market your goods and services to keep those customers satisfied. 

2. Create a Loyalty Program

A loyalty program is one of the best ways to keep customers coming back. It speaks to the innate need for people to do things when there is “something in it for them”.  Offering a reward for repeat purchases give your customers a powerful incentive to keep coming back to you as well as to tell their family and friends about all those wonderful offers that you give them. 72% of American customers today say that they are more likely to choose a business that offers loyalty programs over one that doesn’t. 

3. Ask for Customer Feedback

Everyone wants to feel heard and your customers are not an exception. By asking for feedback from your customers, you not only give them a chance to be heard but you also give your business a chance to improve its products and services. 

• You can easily do all this by sending out surveys asking the most pertinent of questions:
• How your customers are finding your goods and services?
• Whether or not your products and services have lived up to their expectations?
• Do they get the kind of support and response that they expect from your brand?
• How satisfied are they with the overall performance of your brand?

While all these questions are important, the most crucial one is to ask for their suggestions as to which sectors of your brand can be improved. This is where you will find customers giving you their honest opinions about how best you can serve them. By taking all this information in and acting on them, your customers will begin to feel heard and slowly start to identify as part of your brand which creates more trust and loyalty. 

4. Publish Customer Testimonials and Review

In this digital age, social proof is a very powerful marketing tool that, if used correctly, can help you gain more clients and foster better trust and loyalty from your existing ones. Customers are more inclined to believe other customers over companies. That is because people know that, no matter how unbiased you try to be in your own evaluation of your brand, there is always a very good chance that you will inherently lean on the positive aspects while downplaying the negative. 

However, honest and random customer reviews tell them exactly what it’s like dealing with you as a brand. That is why you need to publish more testimonials and reviews (even the bad ones) so that people can see what other people are saying about your brand. It creates a transparency that fosters trust. 

5. Offer the Best Customer Service

Nothing turns customers off a brand as much as bad customer service. As soon as people feel that you don’t do enough to address their concerns or questions then they will start feeling unheard. When that happens, they immediately start looking for alternative brands that will treat them better. Your customer service should be quick and effective. You can use several avenues for this:

• Have a number where they can call in and speak to a real person. 
• Have social media platforms where they can post they questions and you can post your timely responses. 
• Create a chatroom on your website.

Having a way through which your customers can easily get a hold of you when they have concerns is the best way to offer them reliable customer service. 

Many of these tips and tricks are easy enough to implement and can help you gain the trust and loyalty of your customers without costing you too much in terms of capital.

 

 

customer loyalty -DepositPhotos

The post 5 Tips on How to Build Customer Loyalty and Trust appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/build-customer-loyalty-trust

Why Do I Have Bad Credit and How to Fix It?

Having bad credit can make it harder to get accepted for a range of different type of loans. For example, if you were applying for bad credit car finance and find yourself being declined, you may want to reassess your credit before you start applying. If you have bad credit you may know exactly where you went wrong over the years or you may not have a clue why.

Missed or Late Payments

One of the most common ways that people have bad credit is from regularly missing or making late repayments within a credit agreement. Multiple missed payments can negatively impact your credit score over time.

Being Declared Bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal status which is usually declared by a person who has debts that they cannot pay. Bankruptcy usually lasts for a year but it can stay on your credit file for 6-10 years, depending on how long it takes till you are discharged.

Having a County Court Judgement

A Count Court Judgement or CCJ, is a court order in the UK which is usually put in place if a person fails to pay back money they owe. CCJs stay on your credit file for six years.

Entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement is a way of dealing with your debts and is an agreement between you and the creditors that you ow debt to. In most cases, you agree a payment schedule of when and how you will pay them back. An IVA usually lasts between 5-6 years.

Defaults

If you miss a payment that you owe to a creditor, the debt can then turn into a default. This is when a lender decides that you are not going to pay back your debt. A default can stay on your credit file for up to six years.

No Credit History

Many people assume that if they have no credit then they will have a good credit score. However, this isn’t always the case. Credit score are all about history and predicting the future, if you don’t have any borrowing evidence then you may find yourself with bad credit by default.

How Can I Fix Bad Credit?

 

Fix Any Mistakes on Credit Report
Take a look at your credit report and make sure all your information is accurate and up to date. You should also check your credit history and keep an eye out for any fraudulent activity. If you see anything that doesn’t look right, you can contact your credit reference agency who has provided your credit report.

Register on the Electoral Roll

Even if you don’t care about voting in the UK. It’s a good idea to get yourself on the electoral roll. The electoral roll is a register of everyone in the UK who has registered to vote and also shows your personal information including name and address. Potential lenders can use your personal information to verify that you are who you say you are and prevent any fraudulent activity.

Make Payments on Time and in Full
If you have struggled in the past making repayments, this may not be as easy as it sounds. However, even a few months’ worth of evidence of meeting your repayment schedule can help to increase your credit score.

Dissociate Yourself From Financial Partners You Don’t Need

If you have taken our credit or finance in the past with someone else, you will be financially linked on your credit file. If your credit has expired and your financial partner has a low credit score, its best to remove this link from your credit file. If your financial partner has bad credit, it can be negatively affecting your score.

Avoid Multiple Applications

Usually, many finance lenders and online applications use a soft search application. A soft search provides a check on your credit file which is not recorded and does not harm your credit score. However, a hard search is recorded and multiple hard search applications in a short space of time can cause your credit score to be negatively impacted.

 

 

cutting card -DepositPhotos

The post Why Do I Have Bad Credit and How to Fix It? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/personal-growth/fix-bad-credit

Essential Tools to Help Grow Your Fashion E-commerce Site

Are you frustrated with the lack of traction you are currently seeing with your fashion retailing website? Are you noticing an increase in sales but having a hard time keeping up?

You aren’t alone and these problems are common for new e-commerce businesses! Luckily, there are multiple tools available to help you grow your business and ensure your longterm success.

We’re going to discuss a few tools that you should be using to ensure you make as much money with as little effort as possible. Keep reading to find out more!

Management Software

If you haven’t decided to start using apparel industry management software yet, now is a great time to do so. This type of software is flexible in what it can do for your company and will help you fill roles you might otherwise have to outsource.

When choosing management software, look at what programs it can be integrated with. Ideally, you will find one that works with your payment gateway, accounting software, shipping, and point of sale system (if you have one.)

Even if these other programs aren’t currently being used, hopefully, they will be one day because that will mean your company has grown! With this said, any management software that you use should be able to offer varying price points based on the size of your business and the integrations that you need.

Great Customer Service

There is at least one business that you refuse to use based on their poor customer service. Don’t be that company.

If you can handle answering emails and phone calls about your products, do so. Eventually, you will get to a point that this option isn’t feasible. So you will either have to hire a customer service team or outsource the work.

One of the best things to keep in mind when it comes to customer service is the Golden Rule. If you wouldn’t want to be treated in a certain manner, don’t do it to your customers or else you run the risk of losing them for good. You’ll have to follow your own set of policies but always try to have someone respond to calls and emails within a 24-hour period.

On the same note, if you happen to receive a bad review (it’s inevitable because it’s impossible to make everyone happy,) take the time to respond. Thank customers for great reviews, but take care to respond professionally when someone is unhappy.

Financial Software

You probably already have an accountant or someone who handles your taxes. If you don’t, find one immediately. Once you’ve established a working relationship with a financial professional, make their job easier by implementing accounting procedures, including the use of financial software.

Your accounting software might be a free online version or part of a package from your payment gateway. Whatever it is, use it from the beginning in order to keep the best financial records possible, minimize your tax burden, and be able to see a true picture of your business at a glance.

Deciding to use some type of financial or accounting software in the beginning stages of your business will get you into the habit of recording all transactions and allow you to devise the best practices for your company. You will also be able to better train other workers when you, yourself have a working knowledge of your chosen software.

Predictive Product Recommendations

When someone searches your site for something and can’t find exactly what they’re looking for, they might shop elsewhere. To reduce the chances of this happening, or to further enhance a customer’s buying experience, many companies are implementing the use of Artificial Intelligence.

This might sound expensive and something that isn’t quite feasible yet but you’d be surprised at how cost-effective this tool is. This type of ‘service’ will keep users on your site longer and ideally entice them to purchase more products!

Digital Marketing

Of course, you use Facebook and Instagram to post your products. You might have a blog. The question is, are you consistent in your use of all platforms? If you haven’t already, you should consider automating your posts to allow for optimal levels of engagement.

You should ultimately have a complete strategy that incorporates search engine optimization of your site, targeted content, and social media posts that include both photos and videos. If this sounds like a lot of work, it is – at first.

After a few attempts, you will begin to see what your audience wants to see and responds to best. If you’re still having trouble with this area after a few months, there are multiple companies that specialize in digital marketing for e-commerce, with pricing options for every budget.

The Dollars that Make Sense

You may be able to skip using some of the tools listed here in favor of doing it yourself or skipping it altogether. Unfortunately, by doing most of these tasks yourself, you end up allowing pieces of your business to ‘fall through the cracks.’

To avoid having this happen, it makes sense to utilize each of these tools for your e-commerce site, even if they do cost a bit of money. Eventually, you will see high returns from a relatively small investment. You’ll also likely be able to spend less time working and more time doing the things you love.

Ultimately, you have to make the call about where and how to spend your money but you won’t regret at least researching each of these options further!

 

 

fashion online shopping -DepositPhotos

The post Essential Tools to Help Grow Your Fashion E-commerce Site appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/fashion-commerce-tools

Tried and Tested Tip to Compare Car Insurance Online

Your car is important to you. Sometimes, we spend a good amount of time-saving the money to buy the car that we want. Since you have invested a fortune to buy a car, you can’t afford to lose your car to a robbery or an accident. Therefore, it is very important to get the RIGHT kind of insurance for your ride.

The question here to ask is, what exactly is the right kind of insurance? Well, the answer is very simple and complicated at the same time. In this blog, I’ll try to explain how you can get the right insurance for your car by comparing it online. To have a basic idea lets take an example of Metromile and Geico insurance. Both of these insurers offer competitive quotes. You can easily compare Metromile and Geico quotes online.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the procedure of comparing car insurance quotes online. So, sit back and relax because I’ve got you covered with all your queries in this blog.

Gather the Necessary Information

You’ll need four types of basic information to get the insurance for your car.

• Your personal information
• Information about your car
• Your full driving history
• Lastly, the name of your current insurer

This information is required for the formation of the insurance quote by your insurer. The more correct and accurate your information is, the better the quote will be.

Get the Right Liability Coverage Levels

As you might already know that insurers offer different coverage levels based on your preference and the type of your vehicle. However, it is entirely on you to decide which coverage level you want. You’ve invested in your car and you, and only you know how much value it holds for you. Therefore, decide carefully which coverage level suits you the best.

Collect Quotes from Different Places

After collecting all the information and deciding the coverage level you want, now it is time to do the real thing. Get quotes from different insurers online. An online insurance quote is going to save you a lot of time. Also, if you’ve got your insurance quote online, it will be a piece of cake to compare it online.

Finally, Compare Your Quotes

You’ve got quotations for your car from different insurers. Now, it is time to compare the best one out of them. Before you start, you need to know that there is a lot that goes intocomparing car insurance online. From your zip codes to your gender, you’ll need to put everything on the site you are comparing your quotations.

Therefore, I would suggest you go to the site you are using for the comparison and read the instructions so that you don’t end up all anxious and nervous. The bottom line is that you need a fair comparison to choose the right insurer for your car. So, choose both the platform for the comparison and your insurer wisely.

 

 

cars highway -DepositPhotos

The post Tried and Tested Tip to Compare Car Insurance Online appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/comparing-insurance-online

How to Create an App for Your Business

It doesn’t matter if you are a budding entrepreneur or an owner of a booming business, having an app can be a great asset for your company.

There used to be a time when just creating a website for your business was sufficient. In today’s age, if you wish to connect with your audience, having an app is a must. Mobile applications can really boost user engagement and help present your business in a more natural way.

Even if you have a new, innovative idea and want to provide some value to your users, creating an app is just the right strategy.

Before we move forward and show you how the app creation process works, it is important to address this burning question that we hear so often.

Is the App Bubble Really Over?

For the past few years, we have constantly read and heard a certain group of ‘analysts’ depicting a very gloomy state of the app industry.

Just one look at the download and usage stats paints an entirely different picture. The app industry is constantly growing and showing absolutely no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Mobile penetration and usage are increasing, downloads are soaring and users are spending more and more time on their devices. Just take a look around yourself, no matter where you go, you see people glued to their mobile phones.

According to stats, 90% of the time users spend on their mobile phones is spent in mobile apps.

Just take a look at some at the stats from the App Annie Forecast and you will get an idea of how rapidly the app industry is expanding. They report that by 2022, the mobile device install base will reach a massive 6 Billion and the annual mobile app downloads will be at a staggering 258 Billion!

Do Your Research

Spend as much time as possible on research. It is important to know what you are getting into. Try to understand your market, research about the latest app trends, learn about the most cutting edge technologies and try to find out what problems you can solve for potential users.

Researching the top apps and analyse how they are getting things done. By analysing existing products, you might be able to add some more value or offer a totally innovative solution. There is no knowing when your epiphany strikes.

Do not limit your research to a certain field or topic. Cover different fields and areas. Later on connect the dots by revisiting your knowledge and applying what you learned.

This is also a good time to decide if you will build a mobile website, native app or a hybrid app. While having a mobile responsive website may seem like a decent, cost-effective solution, you must delve deeper into the benefits of having an app.

Mobile websites can not cater to complex functionality and lack the ability to deliver an intuitive, user-friendly interface like native apps. Native mobile apps also harness the full potential of the device to deliver powerful solutions.

On the other hand, hybrid apps share a common code base and built using platforms like React Native. While going for a hybrid app means less code, the maintenance of such apps is often troublesome and expensive. The community and development resources are not as readily available as those for native app development. Ultimately, this choice is governed by what kind of app you are going for.

If you want a fast, highly user-friendly app that leverages full device capabilities, then go for a native app.

Executing Your App Idea

If my experience as a founder has taught me anything, it’s that your idea is not unique. If you think you just came up with a brilliant idea then there is a very high possibility that hundreds of other people also have the same idea. The only thing that matters is how you execute that idea!

Do I Really Need a Team?

Yes, you do. Creating a successful app is not a one-person job. This is one of those scenarios where you really need to assemble the whole squad (call in the Justice League or Avengers, whichever one you prefer) to have a real shot at producing something of substance.

This is no joke, but creating a great app does take sweat and blood. Countless hours of dedicated work go into producing something magical. Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn shared some great insights regarding this very topic in his book, ‘The Start-up of YOU’.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”

He goes on to say, “A team in the business world will tend to perform at the level of the worst individual team member”

Now that we have sorted this out, you might ask, so should I hire an in-house team or outsource my sacred app idea?

Well, there are certainly some known pros and cons of both. Like, hiring an in-house team certainly gives you the advantage of being ‘on top’ of everything but we all know it costs a fortune. Outsourcing may be relatively cheap but there is always the danger of ending up with a team that is ill-equipped to handle such a project. In this case, you end up wasting not only your hard-earned money but also your most valuable resource, time.

So what if there was a solution that offered the best of both worlds? Outsourcing your project to a highly skilled app development team with a proven track record of delivering awesome solutions is the answer.

Tools to Get Started

All professionals have mastered certain tools in their domain. They leverage their power to provide the maximum value. While it is not entirely practical to make a comprehensive list of all such tools, here we will list some of our most widely used tools.

Research Tool:
App Annie is a great tool to conduct your research regarding the trends of the app market. You can analyze the market, track competitors and get an estimate of how much they are earning. Sensortower is also a decent research tool. It can also prove useful in optimizing your app.

While you are at it, benefit from the immense resources of Google by taking a look at Google Trends. Another useful tool from the Google arsenal is the Keyword Planner.

User Testing:

Usabilityhub and Usertesting are two great tools to test user behavior without actually writing any code. Such resources can help you in various stages of the development process. From validating your idea to narrowing down features. You get a better understanding of how users think and what their actual pain points are. Helps in creating a very user centric application.

Design Tool:
Hard core designers will argue that Sketch is more of a prototyping tool as opposed to being a design tool. They might say something like Adobe Photoshop or the vector-drawing, Adobe Illustrator fits better here but we decided to highlight Sketch for being a super robust and all powerful tool that just lets you get things done smoothly. The sheer beauty of the design is that you just naturally ‘know’ how to perform the task that you want to do.

Sketch is only available for Mac and costs $99.

Prototyping tool:
As we will see in the next section, prototyping is an absolutely vital part of the whole process. One of my personal favorite tools for simple and quick prototyping is Adobe Xd and the best thing is that it is absolutely free. I really liked it because it stays true to being a fast and efficient prototyping tool and does not have any confusing additional features that just get in the way of productivity. Similar to Sketch, it feels natural to use and is powered by the design giant Adobe.

InVision app is also a great prototyping tool which we have come to love. They also recently launched a desktop version of their web based tool in the form of InVision Studio. It comes with a slick interface and tonnes of awesome features. You can easily import your Sketch designs into InVision.

Development Tools:
Both Apple and Google have constantly refined their app development tools so that developers can produce better and better apps for their devices. To produce an app for iOS, you will need xcode (along with a Mac). Android apps can be built using Google’s Android Studio.

Analytics Tool: 
Getting detailed app analytics will help you stay aware of how users are interacting with the app and achieve a better user experience. Google Analytics serves as the quintessential analytics platform. You can also use App Annie to see usage analytics of your app.

Creating the App

MVP Approach:

The mobile application industry is extremely fast-paced and competitive. A typical app creation process can take somewhere between 8-12 months but this does not mean that your user gets to try out the app for the very first time after this duration.

Making a Minimum Viable Product is the right way to go about it. Your goal should be to get to the market quickly instead of wasting time. Just make a trimmed down version of the app and start testing it out with actual users.

Prototyping:

Without users, your app is useless. So, how do you make an app that people will use? It is only possible by creating quick prototypes and testing them out with users. This rapid prototyping ensures that the app you create is something users love.

A number of different prototyping tools (like the ones mentioned in the previous section), can be used to you mock the actual functionality and flow of the app. Prototyping tools have become really capable and you can easily experiment with different designs, animations and features.

Prototyping is the very heart of the whole app creation process.

UX Design:

How your users interact with the application will ultimately decide it’s fate. A user-friendly application will always be preferred by users. This is where UX (User Experience) comes in. A great UX designer will analyze the app and create an optimal flow for the user. Each and every small detail is perfected to make the app as smooth as possible for the user.

Coding and Databases:

The code is what lies at the heart of an application. A great app developer will use the code to translate your requirements into app features. Following the best coding practices and architecture ensures that your app is secure and scalable.

A database is where you store all the data of your application. The app needs to be connected to a database so that users can access the data from there and perform basic operations like adding or editing data.

Publishing:

Once all the pieces have been fitted together, it is time to release your app to the public. You need to own developer accounts to publish your app. The Google developer account which lets you publish Android apps on the Play Store costs $25. Apple Developer account is expensive and costs $99 yearly. It allows you to make your app available for all Apple devices.

Once you own a developer account, you can upload the app build to the store. Upon approval, the app becomes available for users to download.

App Monetization

You can decide if you want your app to be available for a price or as a free download. A free app does not imply that you can not earn from it. In fact, the majority of the highest-earning apps are available as free apps.

These free apps make money mostly via in-app purchases. Ads area also a popular means to monetize mobile applications. Although a lot of app developers rely on ads but they do get in they way of a fluid user experience.

You must think of a proper app monetization strategy before developing your app. This will help gear the whole process towards your eventual goal.

The Importance of Marketing Your App

With loads of new apps coming every day, it is a highly competitive space. You can not rely entirely on word of mouth to get your app going.

The first step in marketing your app starts with the App Store Optimization (ASO).

ASO (App Store Optimization) is the foremost means of making your app visible in the App Store and Play Store. ASO involves choosing proper metadata, description, images and properly filling out all of the necessary store listing. You should target the keywords that people are searching for the most and make the app as appealing to users as possible.

Users have a very low attention span so it is really important to deliver them an attractive and informative outlook of the app when they first look at the app listing. A well designed logo will serve as a bold first impression of your app. Pay extra attention to getting it just right.

Do keep in mind that App Store Optimization is not just a one time effort. It takes constant experimentation to achieve maximum results.

App Maintenance

App maintenance is one of the most neglected parts of app development and often people forget to consider it while making cost estimates.

However, every app needs maintenance to keep it relevant. Once your app goes live and actual users start rolling in, there will be a constant need for bug fixing and improvement based on feedback.

Typically app maintenance per annum can cost around 20% of the development cost.

There are loads of benefits of keeping your app updated. First and foremost, it will help a lot with user retention. Keeping the user hooked to your product is the dream of every founder. The key to attaining the coveted and much-emphasised metric of DAU (Daily Active Users) lies in providing a flawless user experience. Providing new features via updates and staying relevant with the trends certainly helps.

Make use of user feedback to improve your app. Use both quantitative data (like app analytics) and qualitative data (user surveys, interviews and reviews) for this purpose. Make note of the frustration points of your users and try to resolve them. With new mobile phones and tablets launching regularly, your old designs might not work so great on the latest devices.

Your app will also need updates to make it more secure and to cater for any changing licenses and compliance requirements. The recent push towards GDPR is a great case in point. Negligence of such compliance can result in huge fines for you.

Make sure you don’t make the mistake of neglecting app maintenance. After all the effort of getting an app created, now it deserves some nourishment and care to grow. Treat it like your baby and help it grow!

Conclusion

Creating an app is an exciting adventure. Whoever said, “It’s not the destination, It’s the journey” definitely hasn’t experienced the wondrous rush of creating an app.

For app development, the journey is definitely worth it but the destination is even more rewarding. So make sure you choose someone who knows how to help you make the most out of this journey and enables you to achieve the most outstanding results

 

 

 

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