1. Develop a Strong Value Proposition

Making a convincing value proposition is a key aspect of establishing appointments for businesses operating in the USA. Value propositions are descriptions that explain the distinct benefits an item or service gives its customers and the reasons why it is superior to its rivals.

A compelling value proposition is vital for B2B appointment scheduling as it helps distinguish an organization from its competition. Convince potential customers to select their services.

This article outlines a few important strategies B2B appointment-setting companies within the USA can employ to create an effective value proposition.

• Knowing the market they are targeting and their needs in particular via market research and competitor analysis is essential in creating a compelling value proposition. 

• It is also crucial to concentrate on the benefits the company can offer instead of simply listing the features of the product or service.

• A strong value proposition must be concise, clear, and simple to comprehend. By highlighting the unique selling point of a company, like exceptional customer service or the latest technology, you can help set the company apart from other competitors.

• Using testimonials from customers can help establish confidence and trust among prospective customers. 

• Emphasizing ROI by showing how services can improve efficiency, cut costs, or increase revenue, can convince customers of the value of their services.

• To improve the value proposition by incorporating the feedback of customers and market research to make sure it is relevant and efficient. Your unique value proposition differentiates you from your competitors and will help prospective customers understand why they should choose your company.

It’s crucial to convey your business’s value proposition on your website, social media channels, and any other marketing materials.

2. Leverage Social Media

Social media platforms provide an excellent opportunity to interact with prospective customers and create leads. By posting regular content and responding to messages and comments, you’ll build an audience and attract new customers to your company.

A qualified sales lead has expressed an interest in your product or service and is likely to turn into a paying customer. Social media is a proven method to create qualified sales leads because social media platforms provide an excellent chance to connect with potential customers.

To generate qualified sales leads on social media, you should:

• Identify your target audience and understand their interests and problems.
• Create valuable content that provides solutions to their problems.
• Use social media to promote your content using relevant hashtags and keywords.
• Engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages promptly.
• Run targeted social media ads to reach more potential customers and generate qualified leads.

3. Optimize Your Website for Lead Generation

The website you have created is the primary point of contact for prospective customers. It’s crucial to ensure it’s optimized to generate leads. This means having clear calls-to-action, simple forms, user-friendly forms, and captivating content that catches the attention of your intended audience.

These are the most important tips on how to optimize your website to generate leads:

• Clear and concise messages: The message on the website must be concise, and clear and present a strong value proposition that explains the distinct advantages of the services offered by the company.
• Contact forms must be easy and user-friendly and only ask for the information needed to follow up with the person who initiated them.
• Call to action Effective call-to-action (CTA) buttons must be prominently displayed on the site and clearly explain the actions the user must take.
• Landing pages: Landing pages can be utilized to specifically target a segment of the targeted audience and urge users to take an action, like signing up for a free trial period or downloading an ebook.
• Search engine optimization SEO helps increase the visibility of a site on search engine results pages, which makes it simpler for potential customers to find the site.
• Mobile optimization: Your website should be designed to work with mobile devices since more people are using the internet via mobile devices resulting in an improved user experience. It also makes it more convenient for potential customers to decide on the site.

Utilizing these strategies, B2B appointment setters can improve their websites to increase lead generation and increase the chances of converting visitors into customers.

4. Use Paid Advertising

Paid advertisements on platforms such as Google and Facebook are a powerful method to reach a wider audience and generate leads. By focusing your ads on specific groups of people and their interests, you can make sure that your ads are reaching the most relevant people.

To generate leads, you can use different types of paid advertising, including:

• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, involves placing ads on search engines or social media platforms and paying each time someone clicks on your ad.
• Social media advertising, allows you to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Display advertising, which involves placing ads on third-party websites, can be an effective way to reach a large number of people quickly.
• Retargeting involves showing ads to people who have already interacted with your brand to encourage them to come back and convert.
• Native advertising involves placing ads that blend in with the content of the website or platform where they are displayed and can be less disruptive than traditional ads.

5. Attend Industry Events and Conferences

Attending conferences and events for your industry is a great opportunity to meet prospective customers as well as generate leads. Be sure to carry lots of business cards, and be ready to have meaningful conversations about your business.

To make the most of attending industry events and conferences, it’s important to do some research on the event and attendees. Promote your attendance to existing customers and prospects.

Have a plan for how you will engage with attendees, and collect contact information from people you meet to continue the conversation and move them further down the sales funnel.

6. Offer Free Trials or Samples

Offering free trials or samples is an effective way to convince potential customers to test the product or service and also generate leads. By offering a low-risk method to allow people to test your product, you will establish trust and credibility with your potential customers.

To offer a free trial or sample, you should first define your target audience. Decide on the length of the trial or sample, and promote the offer to your audience through various channels. Collect contact information from potential customers in exchange for a trial or sample.

Follow up with them after the trial or sample period ends to see if they are interested in purchasing your product or service. It is essential to highlight the benefits of your product or service and explain how the trial or sample can help solve their problems to create a compelling offer that resonates with them.

7. Ask for Referrals

Existing customers are a good source of leads. By soliciting referrals and encouraging your customers to recommend others to your company, it is possible to quickly and efficiently create new leads.

Asking for referrals is an effective method of generating leads. To maximize the value of referrals, you need to determine your ideal client and reach out to those customers you already have, offering incentives for referrals.

Follow up promptly with prospects you have referred to, and be sure to thank the people who referred you. In this way, you will be able to develop stronger relationships with your customers and generate leads that are more likely to be converted into sales.

8. Create Valuable Content

Making valuable content such as videos, blog posts, and infographics can help draw in and keep your customers. By providing useful information and insights that help establish trust with your targeted audience and increase leads.

To create valuable content for lead generation, it’s important to first understand your target audience and their interests. Once you have this information, focus on creating high-quality content such as blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, webinars, podcasts, and videos.

Incorporate relevant keywords to improve visibility in search engine results and optimize the content for conversions by including calls to action (CTAs) that encourage potential customers to take the next step. Finally, promote your content through social media, email marketing, and other channels to reach a wider audience and generate more leads.

9. Partner with Other Businesses

Collaboration with other businesses in your field can be an effective way to create more leads. By collaborating to promote each other’s companies and services, you can make use of each other’s networks and increase your reach.

The strategy of partnering with other businesses involves identifying potential partners and reaching out to them. Creating a mutually beneficial arrangement, establishing clear goals and expectations, and measuring and analyzing the results.

The first step is to identify businesses that have a similar target audience or offer complementary products or services. Once potential partners are identified, they should be contacted to explore collaboration opportunities.

It is important to ensure that the partnership is beneficial for both parties and to establish clear goals and expectations before beginning the partnership. Finally, it is essential to measure and analyze the results to ensure that they are meeting the agreed-upon goals.

10. Use Marketing Automation

Tools for automation in marketing, like lead nurturing and email marketing software, will help you simplify your lead-generation processes and keep in contact with prospective customers. By automating your marketing process, you will be able to save time and concentrate on other areas of your company.

Marketing automation is a powerful tool for lead generation. It involves setting up lead capture forms on your website or landing pages, creating targeted campaigns for specific segments of your audience, and nurturing leads with automated workflows.

Scoring and prioritizing leads based on their behavior and engagement, and analyzing results to optimize your strategy over time. By integrating your marketing automation software with your website and other tools.

You can collect important information about your leads and track their behavior, which can help you create more effective campaigns and close more sales.

Final Comment

In conclusion, generating leads is essential for small business growth, and these 10 strategies can help you do just that. 

By developing a strong value proposition, optimizing your website, leveraging social media, using paid advertising, attending events, offering free trials or samples, asking for referrals, creating valuable content, partnering with other businesses, and using marketing automation, you can effectively generate more leads and grow your business.

So, don’t hesitate to implement these tactics and take your small business to the next level!

The post Top 10 Smart Strategies for Small Businesses to Generate More Leads appeared first on SiteProNews.

One reason is that most people are spending large chunks of their time online these days. This is why brands are taking advantage of the time consumers are spending online. These brands are now using content marketing services and AI to run ads online. This allows them to reach out to customers who are active on the internet.

But, not every brand is convinced of the use of AI in digital marketing. So, we’re here to talk about why artificial intelligence is the future of digital marketing.

AI and Content Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is known to have benefits for content creation. This in turn allows AI to play a big role in content marketing as well. These days, AI has given rise to a new field known as content intelligence. Content intelligence is all about giving data-driven insights to content creators.

It also involves providing content creators with the feedback they need. They can use this feedback to improve their online marketing campaigns. The feedback they receive using AI will make content marketing easier in this way. Also, receiving feedback will allow you to create better content for your consumers.

The best part about using AI for content marketing is that it’s versatile. You can use AI-driven content marketing efforts across many platforms. These platforms include social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. You can use AI to help you design your social media posts.

The artificial intelligence software will take into account the latest trends on social media. This would allow you to incorporate these trends into your digital marketing efforts. So, consumers would be more likely to view your content in a good light if you followed these trends.

You can even use AI to improve the rankings of your online ads. This will allow you to attract more traffic to your ads and site. AI would make it easier for you to determine what works in a marketing campaign. It then allows you to duplicate these results in your content marketing efforts.

AI reduces the need for human labor to perform these tasks. Without AI, your staff would need to manually analyze your website rankings. The AI Software you use can give you statistics on how many viewers are clicking on your ads and buying your products. 

AI and Creating Better Content

There’s another reason why AI is considered the future of digital marketing. Most people agree that AI has no trouble figuring out what customers want. It can do this by uncovering crucial customer insights for you to view. You can use these insights to enhance your online content marketing efforts.

Often, you would need human labor to write down your ad content for you. But, these days you can rely on AI software to write down ad headlines and more for you. AI can suggest popular headlines based on the trends on social media. This will allow you to access many options while using minimal labor.

You can use artificial intelligence to make ads for a content marketing campaign. You’ll soon find that your content marketing strategy has improved tenfold thanks to the use of AI. Another advantage of using AI is that you can use it to create push notifications for customers.

The AI Software you use can create a schedule to send out push notifications at optimal times. These notifications will follow the marketing tone of your existing marketing campaign. So, you can see how it can help streamline your content marketing efforts on the internet. You can even incorporate the best PPC marketing tips to improve your efforts.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing deals with how much traffic you receive on display ads. You should know that a well-designed ad is more likely to receive a healthy amount of traffic. So, it’s important that you use the right artificial intelligence tools for your PPC efforts. 

Also, note that you can use AI to discover new marketing channels your competitors don’t know about yet. This will help you gain quite the advantage over your competition online. You could even use AI platforms to optimize your budget ad targeting.

AI for Email Marketing

You can even use artificial intelligence to set up your email marketing efforts. Email marketing involves more work than most people seem to realize. You would need to come up with creative subject lines and much more for email marketing. Remember, with email marketing, it’s all about how many people open your email and click on your ad.

It’s not easy to market your products via email for any reason. The fact that people mostly check their email for work is one of these reasons. So, you would need to put your best foot forward to improve the click-through rate (CTR) on your emails. 

This is where artificial intelligence software can make an impact. You can use AI for email content marketing in several ways:

• AI-powered tools can be used to help you write catchy subject lines for your emails. These subject lines are often interesting enough to grab a viewer’s attention. Viewers that find these subject lines interesting are more likely to open your ads and click on them.
• You can also use AI to determine how many people are opening your emails and clicking on the links provided. This will make it easier for you to determine your conversion rate online. 

You’ll find several AI tools online that help you with these tasks. You’re sure to find a tool that fits your requirements perfectly. You’ll even find tools that can optimize the timing of your emails.

AI and Predictive Analytics

You can also use AI for predictive analytics to make your ads better. Everyone who knows predictive analytics cannot argue its usefulness. You can use predictive analytics to understand how your customers will behave later. This will make it easier for you to design ads that will appeal to them.

You can develop effective marketing strategies if you use predictive analytics. Companies in many industries are using predictive analytics to engage their customers. They use analytics to understand how customers respond to their content marketing strategies.

Leading apparel websites analyze customer behavior to see where they’re going wrong. They try to figure out how long customers stay on their landing page. They also record how many customers that click on their ads buy their products. The rate at which customers buy their products is known as the conversion rate.

A company with a good conversion rate likely has a good revenue stream. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to focus on AI for content marketing. The best AI tools can use algorithms to analyze large sets of data. This in turn allows them to achieve specific objectives. They work as prediction machines to help you understand the results of the data they analyze.

This would leave you better equipped to align your marketing efforts with AI data. You can also identify tech issues with your website using AI tools. For instance, if your customers have a low response rate, it could be due to several reasons. One of these reasons could be long load times on your server.

You can start working on getting rid of these issues once they come to light. You can also increase your lead-scoring efforts to find the right customers. In the long run, this will help you capture your target audience.

AI and Product Recommendations

You can even use artificial intelligence to recommend products to your customers. This would make it easier for you to market your products to an interested audience. Machine learning allows you to improve product recommendations online. The right AI tools will allow you to make good predictions about what customers are interested in.

AI tools will also allow you to make timely predictions on customer behavior. Many recommendation engines these days use artificial intelligence. This is why they play a huge role in companies that rely on content marketing. Content marketers use recommendation engines to understand how customer tastes might change.

This allows them to understand how to change their campaign to match customer tastes. The recommendations that AI engines make are tailored to these tastes to be helpful. Using these recommendations can make a good impact on your content marketing campaign.

Large online retailers use AI tools to consider customer preferences. These retailers include the giant marketplace, Amazon. You’ll find that these retailers use AI to make a significant part of their revenue. Also, customers find themselves returning to these sites thanks to the recommendations.

A customer who finds what they want on your site is likely to return to it. But, you should use the right marketing strategies to ensure customers remember you. These days, social media platforms allow you to stay in touch with your customers. You can use platforms like Instagram to reach out to millions of people.

You can share information on your brand and offers to keep customers interested. You’ll find that using these tactics will help you improve your customer retention as well.

The Future of AI

You can use AI for everything from customer service to lead generation. Remember, AI tools are available for every area of marketing these days. Also, the role of AI in content creation cannot be overstated. Content creators are relying on AI to help them understand how to relate to audiences.

This is why AI is widely considered to be the future of content marketing today. AI makes it easier for you to determine what your target audience will respond well to. It also makes it easier for you to understand how you can improve your content marketing efforts. You’ll see how this will help you widen your consumer base in the long run.

With companies now focusing on customer needs to promote products, you can see why AI will lead us into the future. Also, the need to reduce dependency on human labor makes AI an attractive choice for most companies today. 

Conclusion 

These were some of the many reasons why AI is important for digital marketing. Businesses should decide if they want to use AI the right way to keep customers coming back for more. After all, the fact that AI has versatile uses shouldn’t go to waste. You should be able to use AI to suit your content marketing needs.

The post Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Digital Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

Wait, why are we talking about digital marketing, again? Oh yes, James is preparing for his next meeting, and collecting data for it. His new content marketing strategy should be doing great,but his data doesn’t agree.

His data indicates that he simply doesn’t have enough leads from his marketing efforts. But, that shouldn’t be possible, he’s invested so much in his content marketing strategy. Except….it’s very much possible and it happens all the time. But, it’s natural for James to wonder why this should be happening in the first place.

Today, even the biggest companies in the world have to up their marketing game. If they don’t follow the latest trends, they’re likely to fall behind their many competitors when it comes to lead generation. Content marketing is one of the most popular digital advertising trends these days.

This marketing technique involves giving your viewers useful information to promote your products. Sure, this information can be promotional. But, the main idea here is that viewers should find solutions to their problems with your content.

For this, you would need to have a well-thought-out content marketing strategy. But, it’s not easy to craft this strategy if you haven’t done it before. So, here are some of our best tips for leads generation through a content marketing strategy.

What Makes a Good Content Marketing Strategy?

Before we get started with our tips, let’s first talk about what makes a good content marketing strategy. A good content marketing strategy starts with understanding your audience. Different brands cater to different target audiences. For instance, Nike products don’t appeal to those over the age of 40.

‘Does that mean people over 40 won’t be buying Nike products?’, James wonders aloud at the meeting. ‘No’, replies Sheryl. an SEO expert, ‘it just means that Nike doesn’t consider people over 40 its target audience. Its marketing campaigns are aimed towards a younger, more athletic audience.’

Sheryl is right, of course. Nike ads are both engaging and inspiring. If you don’t have the resources for it, it can be challenging to create such content. You can find a content marketing consultancy to make useful content for your audience.

A dedicated marketing consultant can create an effective marketing strategy for your brand. You need to publish regular and engaging marketing content for your brand to stay on top of the marketing trends. Hence, hiring a content marketing consultancy can be the best investment for your company.

These marketing consultants improve your ROI by helping you reach your audience. They are aware of the nuances of the niche and have experience in creating engaging content to design marketing strategies.

Also, it’s helpful to note that the costs of this kind of marketing are less than outbound marketing. Besides, lead generation is better with content marketing than with outbound marketing.

For those wondering, outbound marketing is the conventional marketing method. This marketing method involves using promotional techniques to reach your customers. This is often time-consuming and ineffective in the face of changing trends.

Instead, content marketing will allow you to keep up with these changing trends.

Content Marketing Tips for Leads Generation

Now let’s talk about some content marketing tips that will help you to boost your lead generation.

1. Use Personalized Content as Much as You Can

Engage your audience better by using personalized content. The first step in this direction is to understand the needs of your target audience. This is the key to creating meaningful content for them.

James knows how to make content interesting, but doesn’t know how to make it meaningful. ‘The things I find entertaining aren’t always very meaningful. How can I make content that’s interesting and meaningful for our marketing campaign?’, James asks no one in particular.

Roshan, a display advertising expert, perks up. ‘Understanding how to make meaningful content isn’t easy, but it starts with listening to our audience’, he says.

‘This doesn’t mean that we need to speak to each customer individually. It simply means that we would need to bear their needs in mind for our advertising campaign.’

‘But how are we to do this?’, asks Sheryl. Roshan replies, ‘One way to do this is through user surveys in which you ask them questions related to our campaign. This will help us to understand what they want to see in our ads. We can use Google Analytics to understand what your customers want.’

Roshan really seems to know what he’s talking about! Knowing your customer demographics can help you improve your content. Think about it, content that would appeal to teenagers wouldn’t appeal to an older audience. Likewise, content that appeals to a male audience wouldn’t appeal equally to a female audience.

A fantastic example of a personalized marketing campaign is Cadbury’s campaign in Australia. The brand matched chocolate flavors to elements from Facebook user profiles. Once users connected with the brand, Cadbury used their photos and information to create content.

2. Pick the Right Channels to Promote Your Content

You would need to pick the right channels to promote your content online if you want to generate leads. After all, it doesn’t matter how good your content is if it’s not reaching your target audience. The right channels help you connect with your audience like never before.

This can lead to increased lead generation in the long run. You would first need to research about channel preferences of various audiences. Research would tell you that Instagram is a popular choice for younger audiences. But, Facebook is popular among those aged 25 and above.

‘What?!’, James exclaims. ‘I don’t even use Facebook anymore…I only see my parents and their friends on it these days’. ‘Shhhh. That’s not what the data indicates. Pay close attention to this next bit’, whispers Sheryl.

You need to consider which channels help you connect with the right demographic. Once you pick your channel, think about the format for your content.

Some channels like YouTube run ads in video format only. Other channels like Instagram use video ads and static ads. Music streaming ads run audio ads that are reminiscent of radio ads. A mismatch between your product and ad channel can make your ads ineffective.

For instance, if you’re selling machinery, your first choice for an ad channel shouldn’t be Instagram. You’d be better off using sites or blogs to feature articles on your machinery. You can create a blog for yourself and promote the links online.

Use relevant sites (such as construction-related sites) for link promotion. This will give you a good chance of improving your online lead generation.

3. Find Ways to Optimize Your Conversion Rate

Remember that the aim behind content marketing is to increase conversions. Conversions take place when a user takes the desired action upon viewing your ads. In most cases, these desired actions are clicking your ads and buying your products. But, there are other ways to measure conversions as well.

For instance, YouTube uses Engaged View Conversions (EVC) to measure conversion rate. This rate measures how many viewers viewed your ads for at least 10 seconds. So, it allows YouTube to show you how many users were interested even though they didn’t click on your ads.

‘But why do we care about users that say our ads but didn’t click on them? Wouldn’t it be a waste of time to view such stats?’, James asks Roshan. Roshan has some experience in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, so he answers, ‘This is a useful measurement method because viewers don’t always take action immediately.

A user might want to check out our website after they finish watching the YouTube video they’re interested in. So, it makes sense for us to measure how many viewers are likely to buy our products.For this to happen, our content should inspire actions in users.’

Let’s tell James A few ways in which he can inspire action in viewers:

• End your content with a CTA (Call-To-Action). These are usually small lines of sentences that encourage your viewers to convert. An example of a CTA would be ‘Click Here to Find out More!’
• Use attractive thumbnails for your video ads. A thumbnail is an image on display before a viewer clicks on your video.
• Allow your viewers the option to learn more about your products after they’re done viewing your ads. For instance, add a ‘See More’ link on Linkedin posts. Viewers interested in your post will click on it to know more about your company.

These methods should help you optimize the results of your content marketing strategy. This is because they help you inspire curiosity in your audiences.

4. Consider Keyword Research

The best content in the world is of little use to companies that can’t reach their audience. And, to reach your audience, you should know exactly what they’re looking for. This is only possible if you take part in some keyword research.

Keyword research deals with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), an important digital marketing technique. It is crucial to use SEO techniques for all kinds of advertising content. Know which keywords will get you a high amount of traffic online.

You can measure your traffic using tools like Google Analytics. This tool can help you understand how your SEO techniques are affecting your traffic. Then, think about how you can optimize your use of keywords.

An SEO expert can help you with your keyword research. And, a PPC specialist can help you use these keywords in the right places to boost traffic. So, you can have these experts design your display ads for you.

Keyword tools online can give you results on which keywords are popular. They also let you know which key phrases are gaining attention online.

Remember to check keyword difficulty (KD) when viewing keywords. This statistic will let you know how difficult it is to rank for a keyword. The higher the KD, the harder it’ll be to bid for it on a Google Ads campaign. Also, you should know that more popular keywords are priced higher than others.

Pay attention to these stats before you design your content around a keyword.

Conclusion

Designing a content marketing strategy should be easy if you follow the right steps. If you use each of our tips, you’ll be able to generate leads in no time. This in turn will help you boost your online conversions.

Remember to mix things up every once in a while. Marketing trends change quickly and your content should be able to keep up with that. Your target audience may display more interest in your competitors’ ads if yours miss the mark.

The last thing you should want is for your marketing efforts to fizzle out with insufficient leads!

The post 4 Tips for Generating Leads through Content Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

Measuring customer satisfaction can teach you how to turn your existing customers into loyal customers, brand advocates, or fanatics. CSAT is a popular metric for measuring customer satisfaction. However, before measuring it, you must first understand what CSAT is.

What is CSAT?

CSAT is an abbreviation for Customer Satisfaction Score. CSAT is a key performance indicator that demonstrates how satisfied customers are with a company’s products or services. 

It is a real-time metric that assesses the satisfaction level of customers. However, you can measure CSAT by conducting multiple surveys. These surveys should contain the following questions.

1. How would you rate your experience with our product?
2. What will be your disappointment level if the company stops providing the particular product or service? 
3. How will you rate your satisfaction score for the customer service operator you just spoke to?
4. Are you satisfied with our 14-day trial account? Rate your satisfaction level.

A CSAT question employs a rating scale to give customers a range of survey responses. Each company selects its own range, but the most common format is 1 — 5.

What is a Good CSAT Score?

According to Hubspot research, CSAT scores differ by industry. A good score is usually between 75% and 85%. Because CSAT only considers your promoter scores, achieving a near-perfect score is difficult. 

A score of 75% indicates that three out of every four customers gave you a positive rather than a negative or neutral rating.

According to statistics, 38% of companies are using CSAT for measuring their customer satisfaction metrics. 

Top Ways to Improve Your Company’s CSAT Score

The following are the ways that can improve your company’s CSAT score. Let’s dive into the section. 

1. Implement Cloud Contact Center Software

Customer satisfaction is the key point for any business. The contact center is the frontline warrior when it comes to customer satisfaction. If businesses still use old and traditional ways to entertain their customers, they will fail to do so. 

However, implementing modern techniques like chatbots, AI tools, Omni channel contact center software, and much more can help businesses satisfy their customers. Cloud contact center software provides dependable reliability and impressive uptime. It also ensures that when customers call in, agents are ready. Also,  when agents call, they are prepared with customer information to engage the customer faster. 

This, along with other benefits such as efficiency and flexibility, enables businesses to improve the agent experience alongside the customer experience. It also provides value to customers and makes it easier to connect with customers and earn their business in an overcrowded market.

Therefore, implementing cloud contact center software can be a great way to increase your company’s CSAT score. 

2. Make Your Company’s Culture Engaging

Creating a productive, supportive, and team-oriented culture gives employees confidence in their abilities. Allowing employees to improve through strategies such as gamification and rewards constantly will also motivate them.

Training your agents to respond to customers’ questions quickly and adequately will please both the customer and your employee.

3. Be In Your Customer’s Shoes

The golden rule to satisfy your customers is to have empathy for them. Treat them in a way you want to be treated by any customer service center. You should provide your customers with everything you expect from any other customer service. 

Go so far as to treat the customer as if he or she is your boss. Treat them with respect, full attention, and a commitment to providing high-quality service. Act as if your job depends on it. And however, it does, in the end.

4. Set the Measurable Goals

Improving your customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and other metrics necessitates identifying and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, you and your team may decide that CSAT, average resolution time, and agent response time are the most important metrics to improve.

Track and identify all the metrics. You will be able to identify problem areas once you have identified and tracked your metrics. Look for and analyze patterns, anomalies, and opportunities to improve your KPIs. 

These findings can assist you in identifying areas where agent training can be improved. As a result, you can train them better for better CSAT scores.

5. Provide Quality Assurance and Feedback

Giving your agents quality assurance (QA) and helpful feedback will give them insight into how they are performing. You should create a solid QA framework to assist you in creating an automatic feedback loop.

Consider the following questions when developing a framework:

• How can I listen in on agents’ conversations?
• What scoring system will I employ to assess interactions?
• What criteria can I apply to the data analysis?

Once you’ve determined these answers, provide the data and results to your agents. As a result, they can focus on the specific areas that they need to work on in order to improve their CSAT scores and other KPIs.

6. Consider Both Negative and Positive Customers’ Feedback

Each feedback is highly valuable to you and your agents on both the positive and negative ends of the spectrum. While positive feedback boosts confidence and motivates your agents, negative feedback identifies areas for improvement. You can learn a lot from this valuable feedback, so thank every customer, no matter how polite they are.

Also, start paying attention to your customers and their actual needs. If they complain that they were on hold for 20 minutes waiting to speak with someone, work to reduce that time.

Helping customers faster will increase their satisfaction levels. Various methods will help you in helping customers. Like:

• Hiring more people, 
• Offering the option to call customers back, or 
• Distributing the workload among current agents (and CSAT scores).

Another way to improve customer satisfaction is to look for trends in reviews. Tag reviews to categorize them if you notice common issues. By identifying the source of the problem, you can make proactive improvements before it worsens. 

Take Away

Customer satisfaction leads to increased business growth and brand credibility. Improving your customer satisfaction rating should be your top priority, and there are numerous ways to do so.

The most important principles to remember are: understanding your customers’ preferences, soliciting customer feedback, being consistent, and going the extra mile.

Begin implementing the above mentioned strategies and stick with them to see significant results.

The post 6 Tricks to Improve Your Company’s CSAT Score appeared first on SiteProNews.

This article will discuss what you need to know about link building tactics for small businesses.

Why Do Small Businesses Need Link Building Tactics in 2022?

There are many reasons small businesses need to focus on link building in 2022. Link building is a great way to increase your website’s visibility and organic traffic. It might also assist you in achieving a higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). If you’re not familiar with link building, it’s the process of creating links from other websites to your own.

This can be done through guest blogging, creating informative blog posts or articles, or engaging in online communities and forums. Link building helps search engines like Google understand your website’s relevance and authority. The more high-quality links you have pointing to your site, the more likely you will rank well in SERPs.

Link building companies have the resources and expertise to rank your website higher in search engines. If you want your small business to succeed in 2022, then consider investing in link building tactics. It is one of the most effective ways to improve your website.

What Are the Benefits of Link Building Tactics?

Link building tactics can provide your small business with many benefits. This includes increased website traffic, higher search engine rankings, greater brand awareness and exposure, and more leads and sales opportunities. Many link building agencies can help you achieve these benefits.

However, it is essential to choose an agency with a proven track record and can offer you customized link building services. Outsource link building to a reputed agency that can offer you the required services.

There are many agencies that claim to be the best in the business but only few of them can actually offer you what they promise. A good link building agency will have a team of experienced and skilled professionals who know how to get links from high quality websites. They will also know how to get links from authority websites in your niche.

When you outsource link building services, make sure that the agency that offers white hat link building services. White hat means that it uses organic strategies and methods that won’t possibly let Google tag your site as spam. Organic link building is the only option if you want to be on top of the game in the long run. 

Also, keep in mind to choose an agency that offers customized services. The agency should be able to understand your business requirements and objectives and then create a customized link building strategy for your website. The agency should also be able to provide you with regular reports so that you can track the progress of your link building campaign.

Types of Links That Matter Most for Small Businesses

Small businesses should focus on a few types of links when building their link portfolio. This includes but is not limited to relevant links from high-authority websites, directory listings, link roundups, local business listings, and resource pages. Relevant links from high-authority websites will be the most valuable for small businesses.

These are links from websites in the same industry or niche as your website. For example, if you are a plumber, a relevant link would come from a website about home improvement, plumbing or plumber salaries. Directory listings and local business listings are also important for small businesses.

These links help customers find your business when they are searching online for products or services in your industry. Link roundups are another great way to get quality links to your website. They are blog posts or articles that feature a collection of links to other websites. These links are usually related to a specific topic or theme.

Resource pages are another type of link that can be very valuable for small businesses. These are lists of websites, tools, or products that are helpful for people in a particular industry. For example, if you sell products for dogs, you may want to get listed on a resource page about the best dog products.

How to Identify Opportunities for Link Building

Link building can be a difficult and time-consuming task, but it’s important to do if you want your small business to succeed online. There are a few ways to identify opportunities for link building. Examining your rivals is one method. See who is linking to them and try to connect with those same websites. Another alternative is Google Search Console.

You can see which websites are in the same niche as your website and then try to contact those websites directly. Several link building agencies can help you with your link building efforts. These agencies will have experience in identifying opportunities and securing links from high-quality websites.

If you don’t have the time or resources to do link building yourself, outsourcing to a link building agency is great.

How to Run an Effective Link-Building Campaign

To run a successful link building campaign, small businesses need to understand the basics of link building. The practice of obtaining links from other websites to your own is link building. Link construction may be done in several different ways. One option is to contact other website owners and request a link.

This may be accomplished by emailing the webmaster or contacting them via social media. Another way is to create great content that other people will want to link. This can be a blog article, an infographic, or even a video. If you are unsure where to start with your link-building campaign, consider working with a link-building agency.

A link-building agency can help you to identify opportunities and create a plan of action. Also, It can also offer advice and assistance during the procedure. 

What’s the Future of Link Building for Small Businesses?

The answer may surprise you—link building is not going anywhere. In fact, small businesses need link building tactics more than ever to stay competitive. Link building agencies have become more popular in recent years as links have become more evident.

There are a few things to consider when deciding if link building is right for your small business.

The first is time. Link building can be time-consuming, so it’s essential to factor in whether you can take on this type of project.

The second is cost. Link building services can vary in price. So, it’s crucial to find an agency that fits within your budget.

The third is resources. Link building requires some technical SEO knowledge. It may be worth outsourcing the project to a link building agency.  Especially if you don’t have someone on your team familiar with this.

Conclusion

For small businesses to succeed in 2022, they will need to focus on link building tactics. Links are still one of the top three factors influencing how a site ranks. That is despite Google’s many algorithm changes over the years. Hence, small businesses should start focusing on their link building campaigns.

The post Small Businesses Need Link Building Tactics in 2022 appeared first on SiteProNews.

The effects of a cyberattack are adverse. Most companies suffer huge losses. Hence, companies’ ability to safeguard their IT systems and any information is vital.

The following are some tips to help your company lessen the chances of cyberattacks.

Conduct a Risks and Vulnerabilities Test

First, you need to conduct a risk and a vulnerability test. The test will help you identify cybersecurity practices in your company, risks involved, threats, and vulnerability. You can do the assessment internally or hire an organization that can assist you.

The assessment will help you identify any information assets that hackers could target. With a knowledge of your vulnerabilities, you can plan different ways on how to safeguard the weak spots. 

The assessment should also identify the most critical facilities and any loopholes, or pathways one can use to access your network.

Educate All Your Employees

Your employees can fall victim to an attack unknowingly. Unfortunately, cybercriminals may target anyone in your company.

Hence, it’s essential to teach your workforce how to identify and prevent common cyber threats. Your employees should know about the organization’s network security policies. The policies should evolve as cybercriminals often change their attacking tactics.

It’s essential to always update them on the new protocols that are put in place. They should also learn about phishing emails, identifying them, and what to do if they see one.

Collaborate with an MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider)

To increase your defense, it would be great if you partner with an expert. The primary focus of these frameworks is to keep threats and deter attacks from corporate networks.

They deal with services like managing firewalls, intrusion detection, antivirus services, and vulnerability scanning. The security models work within the network and provide comprehensive protection of the entire network.

An excellent example is ICS security (Industrial Control System). It safeguards the industrial control systems (both hardware and software) and monitors machine operation in industrial environments.

Several ICS vendors exist in the market. You can acquire the services of one to ensure your systems are always protected.

Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN enables employees to access the companies’ network remotely. It uses authentication protocols and advanced encryption to provide a high level of security. Thus, it protects the company’s data from unauthorized access.

Also, it’s important if you have salespeople in the field, or people working from home. It helps in minimizing the risks against cyber-attacks.

Install Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, and Anti-Spyware Software

This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to be immune to attacks. Ensure the installation of this software on each computer you possess. Computers lacking such software are most vulnerable to attacks.

Unfortunately, they can spread malware to other computers existing in the network.

The software comes at different prices and varies for each type of software. Lastly, constantly update such software to be on the safe side.

Use a Firewall

A firewall is a network security device that acts as a barrier between your data and cybercriminals. It monitors all incoming and outgoing networks based on an organization network policy. It allows non-threatening traffic and bars dangerous traffic from the network.

Apart from the standard external firewall, you need to install an internal firewall for additional protection. An internal firewall secures and monitors internal network traffic. The external firewall monitors the network perimeter from outside and stops unauthorized access. 

Employees working at home also need to install an internal firewall to their home networks.

Always Conduct Cybersecurity Assessment

You need to assess your networks continuously. Every time you sign in on a new network, there is a possibility that you could introduce new risks into the system. Whenever you replace a new server, add a router, or implement new software, your system becomes vulnerable to cybercriminal attacks.

Therefore, whenever a network changes, you need to perform an assessment. It’s important to understand the vulnerabilities existing and develop an incident response every time your network changes.

If an attack occurs, you should go back and check on why you missed a particular risk. Cybersecurity assessment needs to be a continuous learning process.

Utilize Multifactor Identification

Even with adequate protection, an employee can still make a mistake that may compromise your company’s data. Adding a multifactor identification setting on your major networks and email protection adds an extra layer of protection to your system.

You can review your network settings and tell your employees to factor in their telephone numbers as the second password. For instance, if cyber criminals discover your employee’s passwords, they won’t be able to use the passwords unless they also steal employee phones and have access to pin numbers.

Also, all data on your network needs to be encrypted. Even if the data is stolen, the thief would be unable to read it.

Use Safe Password Practices

It’s important to change your password frequently. This may be seen as an inconvenience to employees, but it’s a great way to ensure that you are minimizing the possibilities of attacks. Any device accessing the organization’s network needs to be network protected.

A strong password contains a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

You should change passwords every 60 to 90 days.

Back-Up Your Data Regularly

Data back-up is like a plan B when it comes to information in your network. Even with every precaution you take, data breaches are likely to happen. 

Thus, it’s important to back up your word documents, financial files, spreadsheet databases, account payables files, and account receivable files.

Also, back up all the data you store on the cloud. Back up the files in different locations because of the possibility of the files getting lost.

Conclusion

Safeguarding your company against cybersecurity threats is easier said than done. It involves a lot of work. Hence, both you and your employees need to be cautious and take the necessary precautions.

Unfortunately, this won’t stop cybercriminals from targeting and attacking you. However, employing the above tips is an excellent way to minimize your vulnerability to attacks.

The post 10 Ways to Be Immune to Cyberattacks appeared first on SiteProNews.

If you’re to succeed online, you need a top-notch strategy that includes using things like slideshow presentations to propel your business. Using slideshow presentations has become one of the best ways to spread the word about your brand and gain online traction.

This article focuses on how you can weave slideshow presentations into your social media strategy. It will help you to create a bigger audience and increase your customer base with slideshow presentations.

Repurpose Quality Content into Slides

The best way to build an online presence and grow an audience is to create catchy content. Your slideshow presentations should contain content that your audience wants to read. You can source the best topic ideas from other parts of your marketing strategy.

You also do not need to create fresh content for your slideshow presentation. Explore various topics on your website and social media platforms, then repurpose the content therein into slides. That way, your content will reach a bigger audience than it would if you depended solely on your website.

Besides, you should research keywords again and use high-ranking ones in the repurposed content. That will make it easier for both the web page and slideshow to appear in SERPs’ top two spaces.

Create and Upload Videos

Visual content is the way to go for businesses, and you should consider creating more of it. YouTube is the biggest video-sharing platform in the world, and that shows you how people love visuals. You can also exploit the love that people have for visual content to your business advantage.

If you’re creative enough, you can use slides to share engaging videos online. It is easy to create narration videos for your slides and make them even better for social media sharing. Go with short, enticing videos but not shorter than a minute and a half to ensure you capture the message perfectly.

Many people who’d like to check out your slides may opt for videos as they’re more engaging. Besides, videos convince you better, and your audience will take the desired actions quickly.

Source nice stock images and fonts

Images, unlike textual content, speak for themselves. Besides, research shows that the human brain processes an image quicker than anything written in text. You must include as many images as you can in your slideshow presentation to grab your audience’s attention.

The best thing about using images in your slides is that they’re relatively easy to edit and upload. Images also give you an alternative and easy way to devise your content and present it. Source relevant images and ensure they’re available for third-party use, then optimize them for social media.

Also, remember it’s not just about posting stunning pictures but using them to drive traffic. Therefore, include a tagline in every picture for the best results. There also is no limit to the number of images you can use in one slideshow presentation.

Upload to SlideShare

Slideshow presentations are sales pitches that can boost your business a lot. They can enhance transparency, simplify training, etc. If you’re looking to add more value to the slides, do not forget about them after the presentation, as there’s more you can do.

SlideShare, a social media platform commanding a community of over 80 million professionals, is one of the best places to post them. Posting them on this site will make them more productive as they’ll keep selling your brand to your audience.

The best thing about considering SlideShare is that it is a completely free platform. Keep your presentations short because long presentations can become boring and lethargic. You can use slide templates to create them to save time letting you focus on the content rather than design. Templates will be great for quick presentations when you’re under time pressure.

You can accomplish various things using SlideShare, such as presenting a fresh product or promoting an existing one.

Create an Infographic

Infographics can be challenging to put together, but that shouldn’t deter you from using them in your strategy. Research at the Content Marketing Institute shows that 65% more B2B marketers have started to use infographics in the past four years.

Pages and pages of text can be irritating to your audience. Or, they can make it difficult for them to grab the main message you’re looking to pass with the slides. Infographics, when used well, can deliver the desired results quicker.

It is easy to use PowerPoint to make infographics for social media. But then, take care not to overuse them as too many of them can make your slides look cluttered. Ensure that you also optimize them to the correct size to ensure that they display correctly on the social media platforms you’ll post to.

Save Slides as Image Files

You can also use slides in your social media campaigns by saving them as image files. Many marketers do not realize how slides can impact their campaigns if they use them correctly. There are cases of sharing the wrong slides because it can be difficult to identify them.

The best thing is to save them as images so that you can recognize them from the first to the last. You’ll find an option that allows you to do that on the file menu. To maintain the highest quality, you should scroll down the menu and save them as PNG files.

You can also choose to save them as a whole presentation if that works for you. However, the best way to do it is to save each slide separately because it makes them easily recognizable.

Share Slides on Social Media

Sharing your slides on social media is the best way to include slideshow presentations in your social media strategy. But then, you do not just share them on any social platform out there as the aim is to get the best results. It would be best if you therefore started by identifying the right channel.

The best thing is that this process will take little to no time if you’ve been marketing for a while with different techniques. You can go straight to sharing the slides to social media platforms that host your target audience. But then, make sure you optimize the slides for those platforms. 

You’ll get the desired results quicker if you focus your energies on the correct platforms.

Use as Little Text as Possible

Text can be a great way to communicate, but not all the time. If you’re looking for ways to pass your message efficiently, start by avoiding too much text on your slides. Every slide should communicate a unique idea and use 30 or fewer words to be effective.

If you have a big idea that cannot fit in one slide, do not try to do so forcefully. You can break it up and use several slides to communicate it to ensure that it doesn’t look intimidating. Make them as interesting as you can, and the results will overwhelm you.

Make Them Clear and Simple

Your slides need to be clear and simple to give you the best results. If you’re looking to get more engagements and new visitors through your slides, focus on making them as clear as possible. Ensure that visitors, even those using tiny screens to view the slides, have a great experience.

It would help if you had large fonts that are easy to read on small screens. Also, remember to use clear and properly sized images to catch the reader’s attention. Your typography also needs to be perfect to ensure the message reaches your audience as expected.

Start with Your Strongest Slide

During the presentation, you need to ensure that people get the point straight away. As mentioned earlier, you ought to have top-notch content if your social media strategy is to succeed. Now that you have it, you need to determine which slide comes first and which one comes last in your presentation.

You should put your best forward by starting with the strongest slide. Ensure that it has content that will intrigue readers and evoke emotions. In short, your first slide should give people a reason to keep looking at the rest of the presentation. Be bold and choose wisely to get the best results in the end.

Conclusion

An effective social media strategy is what every business needs to grow today. There’re lots of things that you can do to make your current strategy more effective. As seen above, including slideshow presentations is one of the best things you can do as a business.

You need to ensure that your slides are catchy to influence your audience’s decision-making. Follow the tips mentioned in this article to effectively start using slide shows as part of your social media strategy. The better you can implement these tips, the easier it will be to amass a huge online following.

The post How to Use Slideshow Presentations as a Part of Your Social Media Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

Such statistics may explain why companies are beginning to invest in technology. However, chatbots are still a relatively new concept. With improper implementation, it may cause more harm than good.  

 Our article will show you seven mistakes to avoid when using chatbots for your business.  

1. You Do Not Have a Strategy in Place

You know the current trend is to adopt the technology. You feel that as a business, you need to comply so that you seem up-to-date. You have not taken the time to come up with a proper strategy for the technology you buy. Think about it much like you would any other strategy.  

Let’s say you are looking for a nonprofit website design. You start by outlining your goals. It could be to attract more donors. You may also want to showcase your work. Now, ask yourself how chatbots can help achieve your goals. 

A chatbot on the homepage, for example, can guide visitors appropriately. It can also help respond to queries promptly. When setting up the chatbots, use the strategy to guide what you input.  

2. You Do Not Have an Audience Persona

Any marketing 101 will tell you to develop an audience persona before implementing any strategy. The same goes for the use of chatbots. Start by understanding the target market very well.  

Learn how they communicate and what kind of words they use. The way you communicate with teens will be different from how you talk to adults. Some customers may also just be searching for information.  

Others may need help with making purchases. It helps to have different buyer personas. Next, design the chatbots to communicate with each persona appropriately.  

3. You Have Replaced the Entire Team with Chatbots

Technology is excellent for increasing efficiency. You also do not have to be there all the time to supervise. However, you will need someone to oversee the performance of the chatbots. They may not be able to handle all the queries customers may have. 

The chatbots may also bombard customers with too much information. It can happen, especially when you’re running a promotion. It can lead to frustration, and you may lose the customer in the end. It is essential to pay attention to the design of the chatbots.  

Some chatbots can gauge a customer’s level of interest and can also send timely updates on discounts and sales. Having a human oversee such interactions will help avoid unpleasant experiences for customers.  

4. Your Chatbots Do Not Have a Personality

You have invested in an AI chatbot.  You have, however, left it at that. It has no distinct personality and sounds more robotic than human. Create a persona so that customers find it easier to engage with. 

Please give the chatbot a name and let your brand value and voice reflect in it. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What do you expect from a customer service agent, for example? They should be knowledgeable and easy to talk to. It is impossible to have a good experience when you feel like you are talking to a machine.  

5. You Have Not Crafted Your Messaging Well

Take time to craft your messaging well if you want to increase engagement with customers.  Lengthy messages are not a good idea. Focus on simple, short, and precise words. It also helps to ensure that the customer is getting the right information. 

Some chatbots have technology that makes them more intuitive. But this may not apply to the one you have. 

It is crucial to keep on testing the system. In fact, do not launch chatbots without first testing them. Take time to come up with a Q&A that covers all possible questions. Unfortunately, you may not be able to capture everything.  

 It takes us back to our original point of having someone oversee the system. You could also redirect the customer to sections on your website that can provide the necessary information.  

6. Your Chatbots Are Everywhere

You may think that having chatbots on every single page of your website helps, but what you may end up doing is distracting audiences. It could take their attention from the messaging. 

Avoid having chatbots on a landing page.  Instead, have a powerful Call to Action (CTA). It guides visitors to take a specific action you want.

A chatbot on the FAQ page, on the other hand, makes sense. People who come to that page are looking for information or answers. Having a bot there will help them get feedback faster. 

A good idea is to dedicate a page on your website for chatbots. You get more value and functionality, which is great for users. It can also help with SEO meaning more visibility for your site.  

7. You Do Not Measure the Performance of the Chatbots

It is important to keep up with analyzing the performance of chatbots. You get valuable insights that you can use to improve the functionality. 

Look out for things like completion rates and customer satisfaction. Also, check for feedback on speech and engagement. Chatbots should help enhance the customer experience. But how can you know what to work on if you do not carry out the relevant analytics?  

Final Thoughts

Chatbots help with a lot of functionalities. It is crucial to apply them in the right way for optimal benefits.  Have a strategy in place that helps you achieve specific goals. Design the chatbots with the customer in mind. Start by properly understanding the target audiences and developing relevant personas.  

Chatbots should be personable and helpful. No one wants to deal with a robot, so make it sound human. Be careful that you do not overwhelm customers with messages.  

Run relevant tests to check that you have covered the main customer concerns. Continue to test the performance and make the relevant changes. Avoid the mistakes we have highlighted above and It will make your investment in a chatbot worth every cent.

The post 7 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Using Chatbots for Your Business appeared first on SiteProNews.

We live in an age in which graphic design is more relevant than ever. People understand information better if it’s visually appealing. That’s why graphic design is here to stay. 

It’s also an insanely well paying job! According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for graphic designers was $52,110 in 2019.

So, now that you’re excited to hone your graphic design skills, where do you start? 

It’s good to always start with the tools you’ll be needing to practice your craft. Here are seven tools that you should have as a graphic designer:

1. Computer

Graphic design can be an expensive skill to develop.

Granted, artists don’t need expensive gear to make good art. A lot of legendary artists started with cheap tools. But if you’re in this game for the long run, you’re going to have to invest in the right tools.

What’s important when choosing the right computer is the specifications. Here are a few questions to keep in mind when picking out the right computer for you:

1. Can the specs handle the software you’ll use in designing? 
2. Is it able to render your artwork in HD? 
3. Can it multi-task as much as you do?
4. Is it in the size that fits my needs?
5. Will the parts still be good after a few years?

Asking yourself these questions first before making your decision is essential. You’ll be able to identify what computer you should get based on your needs. 

If you’re someone who enjoys the solitude of your own space, then maybe a desktop is a good option for you. It’s stationary and offers powerful parts that you can easily customize. Upgrading is less of a hassle for desktop users.

If you’re someone who is always on the go, then looking into laptops for graphic designers is the way to go. These small but highly capable computers could be perfect for you. They’re small enough for you to just grab and go, and they can still handle the software you’ll need. 

2. Graphics Tablet

If you’re an artist who draws or paints, this is a must-have for you. 

A graphics tablet acts as your paper. You’ll be able to digitalize your artwork as you create. Gone are the days when we had to scan our physical artwork to get a digital copy of it for reprinting. 

Graphics tablets can be a small tablet or an entire screen that you draw on. If you’re not sure if a drawing tablet is for you, you can start with tablets that are relatively cheap but bring you the same results. 

Wacom offers a wide range of tablets that you place in front of you and draw on while you look at your screen to see your artwork. These are great for beginners because they don’t cost that much. It takes a little getting used to, though. At first, it can be disorienting to draw on one surface but look at another to see what you’re creating. 

If you’re ready to invest in a bigger and much more expensive drawing tablet, then consider Wacom’s pen computer. With this device, you can draw right on the screen; it will feel just like you’re drawing on paper. 

3. Monitor Calibrator

Color is one of the very foundations of art. It communicates meaning and emotion that other elements of art may not do. But what happens if the colors you see are not the colors that your client sees?

This is where a monitor calibrator comes in. It’s so underrated but it’s a big must-have for any graphic designer.

A monitor can easily ruin how we see a work of art. Your work is instantly compromised when a monitor does not show accurate, true to life colors.

A lot of beginners struggle with this problem. They create the artwork, but when it’s shown to the clients, the colors are a tad bit off. 

A monitor calibrator helps ensure your screen shows accurate colors. Calibrating with the naked eye can be a real challenge. You may have biases since your eyes are not perfect. A monitor calibrator adjusts the colors to match a standard and provides consistent results. 

4. Hard Drive

As a graphic artist, you’ll be saving tons and tons of files. You’ll have different versions of the same artwork, just to have a copy of an older version in case you need it. 

These files can take up a lot of space, especially if you’re working on HD artwork. Sure, your computer can probably store all of them. It’s a computer for a graphic artist in the first place, right?

But what if your computer gets infected by a virus?

Having a backup hard drive is a good idea. A lot of artists struggle with this. They don’t have a habit of backing up all their work. It only occurs to them once a problem arises. 

Invest in a quality, durable, and large enough hard drive. You’ll have a backup of all your works and can take it around with you if your computer is not available.

5. Cloud Storage

We have just touched on the importance of an external hard drive. It’s also worth mentioning that you should have online cloud storage.

The only difference between cloud storage and a hard drive is that cloud storage stores files online. A hard drive offers a more physical, tangible form of storage. 

What is exceptional about cloud storage is that as long as you have access to an internet connection, you can get the files you need. It’s quick, easy, and you don’t have to carry anything around.

It can be a bit of a bummer though because some cloud storage doesn’t have high-quality security that safeguards your files. That’s why it’s also important that you have a trusted service provider.

6. Adobe Photoshop

Every graphic designer knows that Adobe Photoshop is an indispensable tool in their arsenal. This is what beginners and professionals use to ensure the highest quality of the artwork.

What’s nice about Adobe Photoshop is the flexibility of the program. If you’re knowledgeable enough, you can do tons of amazing things with it.

The features enable you to do both simple and complicated tasks. Need to do simple color grading on a photo? Sure. Need to draw artwork for a client? No problem. A client asked for a 3D rendered mockup? Sure thing.

It may be a little intimidating at first because there are tons of buttons and features. But don’t worry. These features are there to help you, not make things difficult. 

A word of advice though, Photoshop works with pixels. Zooming in on artwork made with pixels will have poor quality. You’ll be able to see all the individual pixels and find that it’s not suitable for artwork like logos that need to be resized from time to time.

7. Adobe Illustrator

As just mentioned, Photoshop works with pixels. In comparison, Adobe Illustrator works with Vectors. 

Vector images are created with math formulas. Don’t get overwhelmed by the term “math formulas.” All you have to know is that when zoomed in, vectors do not pixelate. This means you can zoom in as much as you want and still maintain the image quality.  

Adobe Illustrator is important for graphic artists who work with artworks that require it to be made with vectors. These forms of artwork include logos and other design elements.

Key Takeaway

Graphic design is an exciting skill to work on and an even more exciting career to pursue. There are so many possibilities in store for you!

Whether you’re pursuing it as a hobby or preparing to enter the industry, these are the tools you’ll need to get started. It may seem intimidating at first, especially since some of them can be expensive, but know that these are worthwhile investments.

The post 7 Tools Every Graphic Designer Should Have appeared first on SiteProNews.

Why Accounting Is Important For Small Business

The main purpose of accounting is to provide a complete picture of a company’s financial health. There must be scrupulous attention paid to the flow of money in and the flow of money out of the business; only then can a company’s profit or loss be determined. It tracks the income, expenditures, assets, and liabilities of the business. Accounting details can lead us to make new decisions for the business. Some entrepreneurs think that they’ll grow the business first and then second, account for business practices. Instead, they need an ongoing accounting while they’re working their business. This is the only way to fulfill business and legal obligations as well as attract potential investors.

We have presented the 8 best accounting tools for small businesses:

1. Wave

Wave is one of the best accounting tools for small businesses and freelancers. You can do free accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning. Partners and accountants can be granted access for transparency and up-to-date financial status.

There is also an option to create multiple accounts within a single account. Income-expense tracking, sales tax tracking, fully functional double entry systems are major features of Wave. Users’ data is completely safe; its connection with users is protected with 256-bit SSL encryption. 

It is free to create a Wave account. Accounting and invoice receipts from Wave are completely free. You don’t need to connect your bank account with Wave unless you use their payroll services. Payroll services include employee pay and attendant employee tax obligations. The payroll fee starts at $20 per month.

Pros

• Good customer support
• Provides free accounting features
• Easy to create reports and easy to share
• Credit card processing

Cons

• Difficult to use interface
• Doesn’t handle inventory well
• Possible issues when connecting a bank account
• Payroll service is not available for every country 

Notable Features

• Bookkeeping
• Invoicing
• Invoice templates
• Recurring billings
• Shows financial data

2. Zoho Books

From simple to advanced accounting, Zoho books can be used as a great tool. It includes sales and customer management, inventory management, and bank management. It handles multiple accounting tasks so users can focus on their business. It helps in finance management, automation of business workflows, and allows team collaborations.

You’re able to send and receive sales orders, upload expense reports, and track payments with Zoho books. Zoho also contains different apps for different specificities. It is easy to use and the website is filled with tutorials on how to use their services.   

You can simply start a 14-day trial and if you like their service, you’ll be able to choose from three plans: free, basic, and professional. The basic plan costs $9 per month and the professional costs $29 per month.

Pros

• Easy and clean user interface
• Easy to manage dozens of transactions
• Creates invoice in seconds
• Display charts for cash flows, receivables, bank accounts, etc.

Cons

• Limitation on collaborations
• Payroll is not available in every country

Notable Features

• Document management
• Inventory tracking
• Easy collaborations
• Integrated apps
• Automation

3. QuickBooks 

When we’re talking about the best accounting tools, how can we not mention QuickBooks? QuickBooks works on cloud-based systems of paying bills, payrolls, and data management. It is one of the most popular programs for accounting management. It makes it easy to track inventory, sales, and customer data. With the best customer service and easy working tools, it’s an excellent choice. 

Learning QuickBook can be beneficial for small business owners and entrepreneurs. As digital accounting continues its rapid growth, learning QuickBooks is worth it. QuickBooks training offers a set of financial courses that teaches about accounting and financial management.

QuickBooks is affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. Its plan starts with $7 per month to $15 per month. Features vary with different plans.

Pros

• Easy to use dashboard
• Provides accurate accounting reports
• Easy to find accounting errors
• Can be accessed from multiple accounts
• Tracks business revenues and expenses

Cons

• Fewer invoice designs
• Users limitations
• Lack of lot tracking and barcode scanning

Notable Features

• Track inventory
• Manage bills
• Manage sales tax
• Connect bank
• Cloud storage
• Unlimited invoices

4. Sage 50cloud

With features such as inventory, budgeting, taxes, cash flow, and invoicing, Sage 50cloud is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. It has different versions and features available in different countries. It is a hybrid desktop app that has features of cloud storage for data access and storage.

Users can track payments and receipts and can link a bank account for easy and direct transfers. 

Sage 50cloud has three price plans. They’re Pro accounting, Premium accounting, and Quantum accounting. Pro accounting starts at $56.08 per month, Premium accounting starts at $84.58 per month and Quantum accounting starts at $139.58 per month. It also provides massive discounts for its customers.

Pros

• Automatically import bills, receipts, and invoices from a phone snap
• Very simple and easy to manage
• Provides great month-end reporting

Cons

• More expensive than other accounting tools
• Not a user-friendly program

Notable Features

• Cash flow and invoicing
• Payments and banking
• Advanced inventory management
• Payroll

5. OneUp

With over 700k users, OneUp is one of the fastest growing online accounting tools for small businesses. Here we can create invoices, update inventory, and automate accounting. It is fully available for both desktop and Android users.

OneUp’s mission is to serve its customers by eliminating accounting tasks by making them easy. You can easily manage sales and purchase orders, customer relation management, and keep your inventory updated. 

Its monthly plan starts at $9 per user per month to $169 per month with unlimited users.

Pros 

• Easy to use program
• Suitable for small businesses, medium businesses, and enterprises
• More affordable than competitors’ brands
• All plans offer the same feature

Cons

• No bill payment option
• No telephone support
• Could improve time tracking

Notable Features

• Invoicing
• Accounting
• CRM
• Inventory management 
• Automate accounting

6. Tipalti

Tipalti began its service in 2010 to develop online accounting. Since then it has grown aggressively by improving customer experience and upgrading services. With Tipalti, you can easily manage invoices, payments, supplier management, and manage workflows. It allows processing of a high amount of global payments to partners, employees, or clients. 

It includes a basic interface and web design that makes it easy to operate. It also has additional features like currency management and intercompany bank transfers. Tipalti has AI tools to make accounting and financial management easy for its users. 

Pros

• Makes easy and secure vendor payments
• Simplifies the bill processing efforts
• Stores invoices and payment details
• Allows multiple payouts

Cons

• Program can be slow 
• Sometimes invoice scanner can’t copy numbers properly

Notable Features

• Online payments
• 100% safe payment
• International bank transfer
• Global payment processing
• Invoicing
• Artificial Intelligence 

7. Xero

With a base of over 2 million users, Xero is one of the safest and most secure accounting tools. It allows users to collaborate and work together on the platform. It has powerful automation for invoicing and reporting. It can handle bills, expenses, payrolls, work tracks, and payments. It can help to generate professional invoices with just a few easy steps.

It can also be connected with third-party apps like Paypal, Hubdoc, Stripe, and others. As a company, it is focused on improving and upgrading its services regularly. Xero offers good service at an affordable price.  

You can start Xero at just $7 per month with a limit of 20 invoices, or you can select an option for unlimited invoicing at $30 per month. And it’s easy to upgrade your plan as your business requirements change. 

Pros

• Clean and simple dashboard
• Easy project traveling and payroll
• Good customer service
• Easy to use and understand

Cons

• New invoice form needs labeled icons
• Weak mobile version
• Integration with more than required platforms

Notable Features

• Pay bills and expenses
• Easy bank connection 
• Track projects
• Payroll
• Manage inventory
• Multi-currency accounting

8. Neat

Neat is an accounting tool that accountants and small businesses can use. You can easily track your expenses and receipts with it. It has an option to instantly scan documents into the cloud-based system. It makes easy tax filing and reduces data entry by auto-populating data.

It can be operated through both Windows and Android. Registering an account in Neat is simple. Neat is a creative tool to store your documents in a safe place. 

Depending on your business size, Neat has three different plans.The Lite plan at $7.99 per month, the Premium plan at $14.99 per month, and the Business plan at $24.99 per month. You can also try any plan on a free 30 day trial. 

Pros

• Captures and store receipts and invoices 
• Text recognition of software is good
• Easy to use and navigate
• Easy to collaborate with staff

Cons

• The website can require a re-login
• Bad customer support
• Doesn’t work well in Macbook 
• No advanced financial reports
• Doesn’t manage inventory 

Notable Features

• Reduce manual entry
• Track receipts
• Simplify tax prep
• Data scanning

Final Words

Every business has its own accounting needs and requirements. In this article, we have mentioned different accounting tools for small businesses. Choosing the right accounting tool is a very big deal for any business. Fortunately, most of the tools we have mentioned above offer free trials so give them a try and choose the best for you. 

The post Top 8 Accounting Tools Every Small Business Needs appeared first on SiteProNews.

Our article will explore 8 latest trends in web design and development in 2021. Here are some of the ones we predict will have a huge impact.  

1. Use of Automated Testing Tools to Help Improve User Experience

 2020 has been a trying year due to the pandemic. Yet, it has also been a year when e-commerce has exploded. Brick and mortar locations became a no-go zone with the lockdowns. Most customers now use e-commerce platforms for shopping.  

Businesses had to catch up real quick; otherwise, they would lose out. It, therefore, became imperative to give customers a good user experience. Customers demand responsive websites. Businesses have had to invest in the latest technologies to keep customers happy.  

Automated testing tools provide a way to check the functionality of a website. They identify bugs and glitches, whether on the browser or mobile. The demand for online services will not end anytime soon. 2021 may very well experience more significant growth in the sector.  

2. Incorporation of Virtual Reality

 Business owners may have to improve the user experience with virtual reality. Customers need to feel like they are at a physical location. It allows for better interaction with products and services. In years gone by, e-commerce owners have primarily relied on images and videos.  

But now, the competition is greater. Even brick-and-mortar store owners are on the online platform. Providing an interactive experience for customers is now a necessity. Those who incorporate virtual reality may gain critical traction with customers.  

3. Incorporation of 3D Elements

3D is nothing new, but it is a trend that will only grow bigger. There was a time it was out of reach for many companies. Startups could not even start to think about the cost implication. However, technology has continued to evolve.  

Many web designers and developers now have easy access to 3D elements. It provides a more affordable option for those who cannot afford virtual reality. 3D allows for better interaction. Business owners will reduce bounce rates and engage with audiences better.  

4. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

 Chatbots and virtual assistants are already in use.  We, however, do not see the trend ending anytime soon.  Voice-user interface enhances experiences online. Instead of typing in requests, you simply speak it.

 Note-taking, information search or any other applications become so much easier. It could explain the popularity of Alexa and Siri. Having the same on your website is sure to be a win-win situation. The best part is you save on the cost of hiring full-time staff and customers receive responses promptly 24/7. 

 5. Increasing Inclusivity

Web designers are becoming more conscious of the need for inclusivity. How do you, for example, ensure that a visually challenged person can use a website? It calls for easier navigation and more visual navigation tools. 

 Stronger contrast between text and backgrounds helps with better visibility. Focus indicators, labels and instructions improve navigation. The use of jargon-free, easy to understand copy is great for better communication. 

 6. Greater Adoption of Dark Mode

Dark mode seems to be gaining more popularity. We can only expect it to get bigger in 2021. Twitter was one of the leading contenders with their mobile app. WhatsApp was quick to follow and the reception was quite positive. Dark mode allows for design aspects to stand out.

Dark mode also contrasts with the background resulting in an aesthetically appealing website. It brings a chic modern look to a website. Quite honestly, it is more likely to catch a user’s attention. 

It is also easy on the eyes.  Very bright colors can hurt your eyes, especially if you use the computer for too long. If you are using AMOLED or OLED screens, you get to save battery power with dark mode.  

7. Less Focus on Design Perfection 

Less focus on design perfection is resulting in a movement known as anti-design. It is all about throwing caution to the wind and allowing for imperfection. Designers can distort, exaggerate and experiment to their heart’s content.   

The grid system, for example, has been in use for a long time when designing layouts.  But now, web designers are coming up with interesting asymmetrical layouts.  It frees them from rigidity and allows for more experimentation.   

While the trend is not for everyone, it may very well catch on.   The younger generations who are now business owners may be more willing to adapt. You get more dynamism and a more exciting web design.  

Designers use multiple-element overlays, collapse gutters and empty spaces.  The play on fonts and image sizes makes the outcome more appealing. 

 8. Colorful Minimalism

Minimalism is something that web designers have done for a long time. Year-in, year-out, it continues to maintain its relevance. We do not see any change in 2021. What makes it attractive is the focus on basics. 

The text is clean, and there is a lot of empty space in the design. Many people associate minimalism with black and white websites.  But now, the trend could be moving towards colorful minimalism. 

Designers embrace the use of bold colors in the background and fonts. Even if they do this, they maintain the basic features of minimalistic websites. The result is a simple yet visually impactful website design.  

Final Thoughts

It is interesting to see the direction web design and development take in 2021. 3D elements, virtual reality and voice user interface will enhance overall experience. Designers now have more freedom to really express their creativity. 

Minimalism, dark mode and less focus on perfection are the perfect avenues for this creativity. Page responsiveness and loading speeds will be easy to check with automated testing tools. Such tools eliminate human error and make the processes more efficient.

The post 8 Latest Trends in Web Design and Development in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Workplace productivity has always been a factor for businesses but it gained notice and popularity only after the invention of personal computers in the 1970s and the World Wide Web in the 1980s. These technology-driven solutions have picked up steam and replaced the traditional productivity tools altogether. 

By the ‘90s, companies understood the need for better workplace productivity tools, and new technologies rolled out at a remarkable rate. Businesses started using Google’s Suite of tools including calendar, email, voicemail, web development tools, and more. 

We have come a long way since then ー other productivity tools like productivity tools like Office 365, Slack, Trello, Todoist, etc., have gained traction. Simply put, workplace productivity has now become a booming business benefitting the productivity tool developers and users alike. 

With the advent of analytic tools, AI, AR, automation, contact management systems, VR, and other advanced cutting edge technologies, workplace productivity has taken another step forward. These advances facilitate engagement between companies and their customers, generate revenue, and above all, create and provide best-in-class products and services. 

Modern-day technologies strive to deliver the best solutions to enable true productivity aligning with business goals and vision. Medium and small businesses have been seeking high-tech, innovative, and methodical solutions to enhance productivity at work.

In this article, I will walk you through three ways technology can increase workplace productivity, along with the best tools available to businesses. Read on!

1. AR-based technology

Worldwide productivity took a hit in the 2008-2016 period when a 1.1 percent annual productivity rate was recorded in comparison to 2.7 percent during the 2001-2007 period. Augmented Reality (AR) promises to boost this rate significantly. 

You might be aware of AR technology through the Pokémon Go game or you might have seen Tony Stark experimenting with his Ironman suit. It makes the digital content appear like a part of the physical world. Once the purview of science fiction, AR is making further inroads into workplaces aiming to enhance worker’s productivity, ensure workplace safety, and aid in skills training. 

How does it work?

Augmented Reality laps virtual features over a real-world view with a blend of software and hardware. 

Software

AR-based applications employ 3 fundamental principles to make the AR experience a reality. 

1. Light estimation – virtual objects can be positioned in the same lighting conditions as that of the surroundings
2. Motion tracking – lets your device determine its relative position to the environment so that virtual objects can be placed at appropriate locations
3. Environment understanding – allows the device to better understand the topography of the surroundings in order to accurately position the virtual objects

Hardware

For AR to work efficiently, a device to project the virtual objects is required ー the smartphone being the most commonly used hardware equipment. The device must be compatible with AR supported sensors and processors. Below are the key hardware components to enable AR on your device:

1. Processor – the mastermind of your device that determines if your device is compatible with the high-end AR requirements
2. Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) – to synthesize a photorealistic image of the virtual objects
3. Sensors – to give the device a full-fledged understanding of the complexity of the surroundings (gyroscope, proximity sensor, depth sensor, accelerometer, among others)

Best AR-based tool to enhance workplace productivity  

AR technology is growing at a faster rate than ever before. Aviation and automobile companies are already equipped with AR for visualizing navigation systems, ATC, maintenance, helmet-mounted display, and more. The following are the tools that companies can use to increase productivity at the workplace:

Re’Flekt

Re’Flekt uses AR and mixed-reality technology to help workers work productively. Operations, maintenance, and training enterprises can find this tool handy to use. The tool is compatible with all devices ー Android, iOS, Windows, and MS Hololens. 

It virtually creates step-by-step instructions and product components, thus eliminating the need to repeatedly check the manuals. Certainly, technicians will be more confident in their abilities and more productive while executing service processes. 

2. Self-service BI tools

Business Intelligence (BI) is a set of applications, architectures, processes, and technologies for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business-related information. The aim of BI is to make better business decisions by converting the data into a material business report. 

Self-service Business Intelligence (SSBI) enables workers to build their own data analysis model sans the inputs from developers. It enables the end-users of enterprise access to play around with their data with little to no technical knowledge. Consequently, the end-users can analyze the data, make decisions, propose plans, and predict results.

Another benefit of BI is in setting benchmarks for the companies. Organizations can gather information about top companies in the same domain and compare their business processes and performance metrics with their own. Based on the results, process changes can be made, and employee productivity can be boosted to meet the quality, cost, and time benchmarks. 

Advantages of BI

The following are some of the advantages of using BI tools: 

• Minimal cost
• Minimum technical exchange
• User autonomy
• Increased flexibility

Best SSBI-based tools to increase workplace productivity

1. Zoho Reports

Zoho Reports is particularly useful for startups and medium businesses kickstarting their analytics and SSBI. It lets you visually analyze your data, generate data visualizations, and explore the hidden insights (convert raw data into actionable reports, track key business metrics, identify outliers, and more). 

With Zoho Reports, you can connect not only to Zoho apps but also to any cloud-accessible database. You can upload data from MS Excel, CSV, HTML, JSON, XML, text files, and more. Additionally, data can also be fetched from Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Web URL feeds. 

2. Power BI

Power BI is an effortless and interactive data visualization tool that doesn’t require  users to have technical expertise in analytics. It is growing in leaps and bounds 一 thanks to the regular optimizations by a robust Microsoft community. 

Data-driven decision making got a lot easier with 120+ free connectors including those from Azure and Microsoft. One of the remarkable features of Power BI is the ability to ask questions in real-time in the Q&A feature and get data visualizations in response. For instance, you can type “What were the sales in the previous quarter?” and Power BI will present the data on the go. 

3. Time tracking tools

Time tracking software allows employees to manage their time efficiently. Workers can keep track of the time spent on projects or tasks. 

It can either be used singly or in conjunction with accounting systems, billing systems, project management systems, etc. 

The manual version of the time tracker is known as a timesheet where users can manually enter the time spent on tasks. Time recorders or time trackers automatically record the employee activity in the system. 

Time tracking technology empowers the workforce to be more productive and accountable. The collected data is used by the HR departments to understand how employees spend their time and to also identify the time-wasters. 

Best time tracking tools to enhance workplace productivity

1. Clockify

Clockify is the most popular free time tracking and timesheet app. It allows teams to track work hours, see current status, track the tasks worked on by each employee, and more. Records of employee productivity, attendance, and billable hours are the three key takeaways from the app. 

With the timekeeping feature, workers can track time for each project using a timer as well as allot time for tasks.

2. Toggl

Toggl is an easy-to-use cloud-based time tracking software. The most appealing feature of Toggl is its time tracking device. With the click of the “Start” button, you can start tracking your time on projects and “Stop” when you finish. 

Toggl can be added as an extension to most devices and browsers 一 Android, iOS, Windows, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. To enable the Toggl time tracker, you need to first create a Toggl account. 

Winding Up

Measuring employee productivity can enable a company to reap many benefits. Not only does it help review employees’ job performance, but it also plays a major role in analyzing their contribution to the company’s objectives. Precise productivity measurements can get you a step closer to cost reduction and maximum business profits, recognition of team and individual achievements, identifying strengths and shortcomings, and above all, boosting employee morale. 

The post 3 Ways Technology Can Increase Workplace Productivity appeared first on SiteProNews.

In fact, data shows that there are approximately 3.9 billion email users on a daily basis. With that many email users, as well as 59% of marketers stating that email is their biggest source of ROI, it’s hard not to get on board with email marketing. Email marketing simply works.

So why automate your email marketing? 

For the same reasons you automate many of the processes in your business. Consider your sales proposal process. You could take the time to write an RFP response, but it’s more effective to automate the process. It works the same with email marketing.  

You automate in order to simplify a process that already works. A process you can count on to provide you with higher customer retention, higher engagement, and an increase in revenue. The key to email marketing automation, however, is making sure to do it the right way. 

Follow these tips and establish an automated email marketing strategy that wins customers and keeps them coming back: 

1. Establish a clear goal  

Before you begin your email marketing strategy, you need to establish a clear goal or set of goals. Determining your goals will guide you as you prepare your email marketing strategy. 

What results are you expecting to achieve with your email marketing automation strategy? By when do you want to meet these goals? How can you measure the results of your efforts? 

Whatever your email marketing strategy looks like, it should always serve your goals and expectations. 

2. Understand your audience

Businesses that don’t understand their customers end up pushing them away with flawed marketing strategies. Understanding who your audience is will help you stay aware of who you are serving. 

If your business or website hasn’t launched yet, develop customer personas and target their needs. If your business or website is already established, segment your audience and modify your messaging to fit their specific situations. 

3. Develop your email marketing strategy

Once you know the goal you’re trying to reach and who your audience is, you need to develop your email marketing strategy. Do this before you choose an email marketing automation software, as your strategy should guide your decision of what software to use. 

What are the things you need to do in order to accomplish your goal? How will your strategy serve your audience? These are important questions to ask yourself as you develop your marketing strategy. Once you know the answers, you can move forward. 

4. Choose the right platform

Not all email automation software works the same way, which means you need to be careful about the one you choose. Your software options will vary greatly by price, but they will also vary by features. 

This is why you need to develop your marketing strategy before you pick your automation platform. Once you know what you need, pick a software that works well with your goals and expectations. 

5. Notice what works (and what doesn’t)

The job doesn’t end once you implement your email marketing automation. Though automation simplifies the process, it also leaves you free to focus on more important aspects of your strategy such as metric analysis. 

You must keep track of important metrics such as unsubscribe rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates. These will offer valuable feedback on what is and isn’t working in your strategy. Once you have that information, adjust your strategy and optimize it. 

6. Personalize your messages

Personalizing your messages goes beyond mentioning a name at the beginning of the email. Though addressing your subscribers by their name is a great strategy, there is simply more you can do to tailor your message to your subscribers. 

With all the information you have on your subscribers, you should be able to segment your audience and send out emails that are specific to them. Divide the segments by the categories that make more sense for your brand and modify your message accordingly.  

7. Let your subscribers choose

Give your email subscribers the opportunity to modify their email notification preferences. This might seem counterintuitive, but forcing your subscribers to receive email they don’t want might increase unsubscribe rates. 

To void high unsubscribe rates, give your subscribers the opportunity to modify their notifications. Allowing your audience to pick what they want from you is also a great way of finding out what content type works best for your subscribers. 

Final Thoughts 

Developing an email marketing automation strategy that wins customers on a consistent basis isn’t easy. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to simplify the process. 

Automation is one important step to take with your email marketing strategy, but the work doesn’t end there. As these tips demonstrate, there are many things you can do to optimize your email marketing automation and get more customers and subscribers.

The post 7 Email Marketing Automation Tips That Win Customers and Keep Them Coming Back appeared first on SiteProNews.

But why is this important?

First, imagine that you wanted to go on a website, but you had to wait several minutes for it to load. You’d lose patience and move on to the next site. So speeding up your website is good for user retention and improved experience.

Also, how quickly your website loads matters for SEO. Website speed is a ranking factor and improving this feature will get you a better ranking for your website. This, in turn, will translate into more traffic.

So, How Do I Speed Up My Website?

1. Resize Images Before Using Them

All WordPress themes have a maximum width for displaying images. Typically, a width of 700-800px works for most WordPress themes. But, to be sure, check specifically for your website. If you go above the maximum, it will slow your website down.

This happens due to two reasons: your images’ files are larger than they should be. And your website will have to work to resize the images to display them. To solve this problem, make sure you resize images before using them.

2. Compress Images

Resizing your images is only half the work. You can take it up a notch and reduce the images’ files dimensions by compressing them. We can shrink sizes in two principal ways, with or without losing image quality.

Lossless compression will shrink your files with no quality loss. Lossy compression will reduce dimensions greatly but will compromise your image. Choose a method that will work well for your content.

There are plenty of online tools that can help you with this. But, if you’re using WordPress, there are plugins that can compress your images with no quality loss. One example is Smush, but there are many others you can try.

3. Content Delivery Networks

When somebody visits your website, they have to download all your files from your hosting data center. Physical distance still matters, even if it’s just a couple of seconds. A difference of a single second, over what is considered best practice, could cost you 10% in traffic.

So, if your user is from the other side of the globe, you should take that into consideration. But what can you do?

Using content delivery networks is a solution. You store your website’s files in multiple locations around the world. This way, no matter where your users are from, they will use the data center close to them, making loading faster.

4. Browser Caching

Browser caching technically tells your user’s browser to store some files on their personal computer. Without this, they have to download everything from scratch every time they go on your website. This means longer loading times.

If you enable this when a user comes back to your website, they will load the files from their device, instead of downloading them again. Because of this, your website will load significantly faster.

5. Image Optimization

Another thing you can do is to be sure you have the right image for your needs. While it would be tempting to use only high-quality images—you may not need them all the time, and they make your website unquestionably slower.

So what can you do?

First, the most commonly used image formats are JPG, PNG, and GIF, and they are suitable in different contexts. There is also a newer format, WebP, that seems to take the best from those three: it’s 30% smaller and supported on 75% of browsers.

6. Build for Mobile

About 60% of global traffic comes from mobile. However, even if our smartphones get better every day, the speed of mobile data is still significantly slower than broadband speeds. Having this in mind, if your website loads quickly on mobile, it will work perfectly on a computer as well.

It’s very important to have a WordPress website design suitable for mobile users. A good idea is to use responsive images. 

You can provide the browser with various sizes for an image. This way, the browser decides which dimensions are best for the device used. So your website works as well as possible.

7. Load Fewer Resources

If you’ve taken lots of measures and your website is still slow, perhaps you should consider reducing the number of resources you’re trying to load. Having too many images on your website will slow it down, no matter their size.

One way to do this is through CSS elements; for example, creating buttons instead of using images. 

Another solution is lazy loading. This means that you defer loading resources that aren’t needed immediately. Technically speaking, images that aren’t visible to the user can be loaded later, when they enter the field of view.

Remember This:

Loading speed defines the first moments of user experience. Have a slow website and you’re likely to lose visitors as well as potential customers. People want to find what they’re looking for quickly.

Additionally, having a smooth website is essential for SEO. It can help you rank higher—this translates to more traffic for your website.

There are many ways in which you can improve your loading time. Resizing, compression, and optimizing images is mandatory. But you can also use things like content delivery networks or browser caching to improve your stats. However, sometimes you might consider that less is more, and be careful not to use unnecessary resources that could slow you down.

The post Quick Guide to Speed Up Your Image Heavy Website appeared first on SiteProNews.