Best Email Autoresponder

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You know the revenue is out there and you know an email campaign can help you get it. But how do you keep a strong handle on your campaign as it plays out over weeks and months?

Email autoresponders can save you a ton of time and deliver huge returns on campaign investment. Yet automation can be a double-edged sword.

The sad truth is that many thoughtful email campaigns become inbox wallpaper. It only takes a few mistimed or off-target emails before your audience starts to tune them out.

A good email autoresponder gives you the ability to connect with customers, at scale, without overwhelming them

Or your team, for that matter. These products eliminate many of the tedious and repetitive tasks that are so essential to building relationships at scale.

Delight your customers with content they’re interested in. Get full visibility into your open and click-through rates and watch them climb.

Let’s walk through the best email autoresponders, what they can do for you, and how to select the right one. 

The Top 5 Options for Email Autoresponders

  1. Mailchimp – Best for beginners
  2. MailerLite – Best free email autoresponder
  3. Klaviyo – Best for ecommerce
  4. GetResponse – Best for sales teams
  5. Moosend – Best for simple marketing automation

How to Choose the Best Email Autoresponder for You

Email autoresponders can help your teams get more done in less time, without sacrificing the personal touch that drives clicks. However, not all email autoresponders are created equal. 

Some will work well for a brief series of 3-5 emails that welcome a new contact and warm them to your products—good for a simple customer journey.

Others help you set up complex automated workflows that respond to customer behavior, shopping tendencies, and other triggers you define.

The end goal is setting up something that automatically sends the right message, to the right customer, at the right time. 

Here are the major features of email autoresponders that are helping companies increase their chances of success:

Automation Capabilities

It’s right there in the name—the big boon of autoresponders is automating menial, manual campaign tasks. 

However, the more robust tools tie into your customer databases or CRM, and let you define triggers based on a range of highly-personalized criteria.

Some of the popular automation capabilities you will see include:

  • Welcoming/Onboarding: Greet new users, customers, or employees
  • Web Trigger: Make contact when someone clicks on a link, fills out a form, updates a field, makes a purchase, or joins a group
  • Reminders: Send time-sensitive emails about deals or webinars
  • Celebrations: Send discounts for birthdays and anniversaries
  • VIP: Trigger discounts and promotions for loyal customers 
  • Abandoned cart: Contact a customer with the opportunity to buy items left in their cart
  • Follow up: Reach out after a purchase or interaction
  • A/B testing: Experiment with different versions of the same email to analyze performance and evolve your strategy
  • Branch flows: Create workflows that split customers based on conditional or logical triggers to direct them down the most appropriate path

A really good autoresponder lets you build out workflows within a visual editor, giving you a bird’s eye view of each trigger and step of the process. 

Make sure you pick something with the capabilities you need to design each customer’s entire journey.

Email Editor

Don’t forget about crafting great emails. They have to be appealing from the subject line to the CTA, and every element must be optimized for web and mobile.

Good email autoresponders make these challenges much easier. My favorite products have intuitive visual email builders that help you make content that converts. 

Beyond designing beautiful emails quickly, you can add buttons, embed content, and preview exactly what your email is going to look like from a customer’s point of view.

Find an autoresponder with an email editor that your employees enjoy using that also delivers predictable results. 

With it, you’ll find that your teams will be able to quickly generate on-brand emails, consistently building out the perfect message for each step of a customer’s journey.

Email Segmentation 

The contacts who make up your list are different people. That should go without saying. 

But, even today, many companies rely on email blasting their full list to get the word out.

Effective email campaigns are based on putting things in front of customers that they actually want. 

Email segmentation allows you to leverage customer data in service of better targeting, through which you can differentiate your contact list into groups based on:

  • Age
  • Average spend
  • Cart contents
  • Gender
  • Geolocation
  • Past purchases
  • Weather conditions
  • Website behavior

Companies like Starbucks are sending weather-appropriate discounts on drinks: it’s no accident when their emails entice consumers to warm up on a rainy day or cool off when the temperature spikes.

This is a whole new way to approach customers where they are

Every company defines their important segments differently. The richer your customer data, the easier it will be to use email segmentation to increase your conversion rate.

Email Personalization

Automated, personalized emails go well beyond using a contact’s name in the subject line. 

With Klaviyo, for example, you can automate the inclusion of product recommendations in the body of your email based on a contact’s location, past purchases, current weather, and so on. 

Some autoresponders leverage machine learning to suggest products that other shoppers with similar tastes have ordered. 

The best tools help you nail the easy stuff—like greeting subscribers by name and remembering their birthdays—while helping you convert customer data into revenue.

Tip: the better your email segmentation strategy, the easier it will be to leverage personalization, especially at scale.

Campaign Management

As your contact list grows, it’s going to include more diverse customers at different stages of their buying journey. 

You are going to want an email autoresponder that gives you the ability to manage this growing list and provides visibility into the ongoing performance of your campaign.

We all know about open rates and click-through rates. Those are important, but make sure you find something that lets you drill down into what matters at the end of the day, like sales per email, ROI per email, and total sales per email sent.

Staying effective in the long term means making adjustments. Campaign management tools help you figure out what’s working and what to change.

Email and Subscriber Limitations

Typically, email autoresponder pricing is based on the number of subscribers you have and the number of emails you send each month.

This should be a pretty straightforward consideration. But if your goal is growth, factor in how many more you’re looking to add to your list over the next month, quarter, or year.

If your email marketing strategy takes off and you need to bump up into a higher pricing tier, will that be a problem for your budget and ROI?

The Different Types of Email Autoresponders

Email autoresponders have been around for a long time. These days, virtually all of your best options are going to come as one component of a larger email marketing service.

That said, you can still find tools that will help you automate email marketing without requiring you to incorporate new services into your business processes.

The questions you need to answer are: Are you looking for basic email autoresponder features that help you automate specific workflows? Or are you looking to automate complex email workflows that dovetail into your larger marketing strategy?

If you answer yes to the first question, a dedicated email automation tool should be able to help you accomplish your goals. If you answered yes to the second question, you are going to want to skip ahead to the bundled products that will better meet your needs.

Dedicated Email Automation Tools

Exemplary products: MailerLite, Mailchimp (Free & Essentials), GetResponse (Basic), Moosend (Free)

Free email autoresponders and lower-tier plans allow you to build out simple workflows. This might be a welcome series, an automated response to a new customer or purchase, or a follow-up with someone who just reached out to customer service.

These dedicated email automation tools are great because they’re so easy to use. Virtually any member of the team can put together workflows that save time each day. 

Of course, these options don’t come with as many features to segment your list, personalize emails, or manage a campaign.

Another potential problem is that it’s harder to assess your campaign performance and make adjustments without advanced tracking and reporting.

That said, dedicated email automation tools allow individuals to accomplish far more than they could ever do manually. 

If you already have a suite of online marketing tools that are working well and all you need is the email automation, these products can work wonders without a significant outlay.

Automation Bundled with Email Marketing Tools 

Exemplary products: Klaviyo, Mailchimp (Standard & Pro), Moosend (Pro & Custom)

To provide a more complete tool for the job, there are a range of autoresponders that offer automation bundled with email marketing tools.

These products make it easy to track customers, analyze behavior, and revise your campaign strategies accordingly. 

Tools like Klaviyo, for example, integrate directly with your customer data, giving you powerful segmentation and personalization capabilities with hardly any extra work.

They also let you build complex workflows that let you tailor your automation strategy to your specific needs. Often, they will include a visual builder that makes it much easier to design and manage flows.

With email marketing services, it’s important to recognize that lower-tier plans are going to function more like simple automation tools, even if it’s the same product. 

Mailchimp, for instance, lets you create multi-step journeys with their Essentials tier, but you can’t include branching points unless you get their Standard plan. If you want to take advantage of all the segmentation features—which will make your multi-step journey more effective—then you will have to get their Premium plan.

#1 – Mailchimp — Best for Beginners

Mailchimp is a powerful product that hasn’t lost its simple feel, though it has grown considerably since it first hit the market in 2001. 

Today, it functions as an integrated marketing platform, taking on way more responsibility than the email automation it became famous for.

Despite its depth, I like Mailchimp as an email autoresponder for beginners because it’s constantly offering user recommendations based on intelligence from billions of email interactions. 

Subject Line Helper, for instance, offers data-driven insights about how to increase open and click rates. 

There are plenty of other excellent features, including:

  • Drag-and-drop email editor
  • Segmentation capabilities to target messaging and automate product recommendations
  • Send Time Optimization
  • Multi-branch customer journeys
  • Behavior-based automation
  • Lookalike audience finder
  • RSS to email 
  • Transactional Emails with Mailchimp API or SMTP

Mailchimp offers a free forever version that’s limited to 2,000 contacts, but comes with features like a marketing CRM and landing pages that you won’t get with other freemium email autoresponders.

To get the Customer Journey Builder, which lets you construct workflows in a visual editor, you will need one of the paid plans:

  • Essentials: starting at $9.99/month for 500 contacts
  • Standard: starting at $14.99/month for 500 contacts
  • Premium: starting at $299/month for 10,000 contacts

Some of the aforementioned features, like predicted demographics or the lookalike audience finder, are only included with Standard and Premium.

Millions of companies have seen Mailchimp increase their ROI. You can get started with the free version today, knowing that they also have tools to help you grow.

#2 – MailerLite — Best Free Email Autoresponder

MailerLite is used by more than one million companies, startups, and freelancers because it is an intuitive, budget-friendly platform that delivers results. 

Its free version lets you send 12 emails per month to 1,000 subscribers, which might be all some people need to get started.

For an email autoresponder that’s easy to use, MailerLite comes packed with simple, yet powerful features that help you optimize your campaign. 

I like using A/B split testing to send two variations of an email and see which one performs better.

The clean MailerLite interface gives your teams the control they need to communicate effectively with your subscribers. 

Some of its best features include:

  • Automate RSS to email
  • Time-zone based email delivery
  • Auto resend unopened emails with alternative subjects or personal messages
  • Segment subscribers based on a varied criteria
  • Rich email personalization
  • Target specific interest groups by tagging subscribers or inviting them to self-select
  • Track email campaign activity with detailed reports
  • Click maps to analyze subscriber interaction with your emails

MailerLite also comes with features to customize your website experience, like pop-ups and embedded forms, as well as an amazing drag-and-drop editor to craft striking newsletters.

Better still, it’s very affordable beyond the free version.

  • Free: Up to 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 monthly email limit
  • $10/month: Up to 1,000 subscribers, unlimited emails
  • $15/month: Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited emails
  • $30/month: Up to 5,000 subscribers, unlimited emails
  • $50/month: Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited emails

As a free email autoresponder, MailerLite is hard to beat for any small business. You get a free website with five landing pages, a drag-and-drop visual email editor, and advanced segmentation features.

It’s almost unreasonably generous.

For organizations that need the paid plans, the price is still very competitive and the premium features will pay for themselves many times over.

#3 – Klaviyo — Best for Ecommerce

Klaviyo ties into a CRM or ecommerce platform and makes it easy to deliver ultra-personalized content via email. 

No more unfocused email blasts to the public. Instead, Klaviyo allows users to build out unique customer journeys for long-time fans and first-time window shoppers. 

Because it has native integration with customer data sources, you can get pretty fine-grained with the segmentation. 

And, with the simple user interface, anyone on your team can start maximizing the relevant content every visitor sees.

Klaviyo iworks across many channels, allowing you to expand your subscriber base via Facebook, for example.

Nurture individual leads from a 10,000-foot view by using the features in Klaviyo’s extensive toolkit:

  • Prebuilt autoresponders
  • Email personalization for first-time buyers, regulars, VIPs, and more
  • A/B split testing
  • Drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG email editor
  • Responsive templates optimized for web and mobile
  • Shoppable product recommendations in email
  • Rich selection of behavior-based triggers 
  • Comprehensive segmentation options

The free plan for Klaviyo maxes out at 250 contacts and 500 emails, after which you will be asked to upgrade. Paid plans start at $20/month for up to 500 contacts and unlimited email sends, climbing higher depending on the size of your contact list.

#4 – GetResponse — Best for Sales Teams

GetResponse has provided one of the simplest, most effective email autoresponders for more than 20 years. Over that time, they’ve added features and evolved the UI to keep it one of the most useful products on the market.

Their experience shows. They know what works, why, and how to help you get set up. 

For one, GetResponse offers hundreds of professionally designed templates to communicate with customers at every step of their journey.

The built-in sales features are also really nice, and really set GetResponse apart from the other easy-to-use autoresponders. Even their Basic plan comes with a sales funnel, unlimited lead funnels, and unlimited landing pages.

With other email autoresponders, you’re going to have to integrate your pipeline. With GetResponse, you can keep daily operations under one roof.

Along with a flexible email autoresponder, GetResponse has a number of other useful features to help you connect with customers:

  • Unlimited email sends
  • Transactional and time-sensitive emails
  • Drag-and-drop email editor with mobile and inbox preview
  • Add content blocks, videos, buttons, and social media icons to emails
  • A/B testing
  • List and calendar views for email scheduling
  • RSS-email templates

GetResponse doesn’t have a free forever plan, though they do offer a free trial. Pricing starts at $15/month for 1,000 contacts with their Basic plan, which comes with all the features listed above. 

And much more. Honestly, the Basic plan is far from basic.

At the Plus and Professional pricing tiers, you have more features like webinars, as well as greater degrees of customization. 

Their top tier plan, Max, comes with a dedicated IP address, SSO, and other features designed to secure and streamline enterprise email marketing and sales.

#5 – Moosend — Best for Simple Marketing Automation

Moosend is an affordable email automation tool with an almost nonexistent learning curve. Yet for how easy it is to get started, Moosend users wind up automating their email marketing in really impactful ways.

It’s sad to think, but some companies spend thousands of dollars a month on ultra-powerful marketing automation software that they don’t really need. Plus, that stuff can be really hard to use.

With Moosend, you get a lot of freedom to customize your email marketing automation. There’s a rich set of triggers and actions all managed in a drag-and-drop interface. Workflows can be shared among team members, who can leave notes.

The Moosend interface itself is great at educating users how to automate and fine-tune customer journeys. With templates, preset workflows, and rich tracking capabilities, Moosend makes it simple to find what works for your unique subscriber base.

Leverage the AI to hyper-personalize your emails based on similar consumer preferences and other behavioral analytics.

They’ve recently added “And/Or” expressions to custom fields. This allows for a lot more customization in terms of defining triggers. Custom fields don’t have to be just one thing any more!

Without writing a single line of code, you can gain quick mastery of a deep set of email automation features that include:

  • Rich tracking, reporting, and analytics
  • Click heatmaps
  • Five types of subscription forms
  • Direct SMTP service
  • Cart abandonment 
  • Embed product blocks in newsletters for shoppable emails
  • Mobile responsiveness
  • GDPR compliance
  • Native integrations with WooCommerce, Salesforce, WordPress and dozens more top products

Moosend has a free forever plan, which is capped at 1,000 subscribers, and comes with many of the best features. For additional subscribers, you’ll need a Pro plan, which starts at $8/month.

The exact price will depend on the number of subscribers you need to accommodate. For example, 25,000 subscribers is $100/month. The Pro plan maxes out at 200,000 subscribers ($608/month), with custom plans available to reach an audience of any size.

Compared to other, more expensive options, Moosend tends to be much easier to use even with many of the same essential features.

Summary

Many people begin the search for an email autoresponder only to discover that what they actually need is an email marketing platform. 

The closest option on this list to a dedicated email autoresponder is MailerLite, which still comes with way more than simple email automation capabilities. It’s a really good option (and price) for companies that already have great CRM software and really just need the email autoresponder capabilities.

Mailchimp and Moosend are more feature-rich than MailerLite, but both remain incredibly easy to use for non-specialists.

GetResponse works well for sales teams because you’ve got conversion funnels and the ability to host webinars is baked in. 

Klaviyo is probably the most comprehensive tool on this list, and it works incredibly well at automating the processes necessary to run a successful email ecommerce campaign.

I like all of these email autoresponders because they help you benefit from the unavoidable trial-and-error associated with email marketing. 

No campaign is ever going to be perfect, but the right tools will help you continually evolve your strategy to meet your customers where they are.

The post Best Email Autoresponder appeared first on Neil Patel.

The Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with no Annual Fee

Can you get the recession-proof best business credit cards with no annual fee? Absolutely! No matter what the economy is doing, you can get cards just like these.

You Need the Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee

Are you looking for the recession-proof best business credit cards with no annual fee?

According to the SBA, business credit card limits are 10 – 100 times those of personal cards! This means you can get a lot more cash with company credit.

And this also means you can have personal credit cards at shops, and now have an alternate card at the same retail stores for your company. And you will not have to put up collateral, cash flow, or financial information to get small business credit.

The Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee – Benefits

Features vary, so be sure to select the benefit you prefer from this array of alternatives.

The Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee

No Yearly Fee/Flat Rate Cash Back

Ink Business Unlimited℠ Credit Card

Check out the Ink Business Unlimited℠ Credit Card. Beyond no annual fee, get an introductory 0% APR for the initial one year. Afterwards, the APR is a variable 14.74 – 20.74%.

You can get unlimited 1.5% Cash Back rewards on every purchase made for your corporation. And get $500 bonus cash back after spending $3,000 in the initial three months from account opening. You can redeem your rewards for cash back, gift cards, travel and more using Chase Ultimate Rewards®. You will need excellent credit scores to get this card.

Find it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/business-credit-cards/ink/unlimited

Establish business credit fast and beat the recession with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

Irresistible Cards for Jackpot Rewards That Never Expire

Capital One® Spark® Cash Select for Business

Have a look at the Capital One® Spark® Cash Select for Business. It has no yearly fee. You can get 1.5% cash back on every purchase. There is no limit on the cash back you can earn. Also get a one-time $200 cash bonus once you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. Rewards never expire.

Pay a 0% introductory APR for 9 months. Then pay 14.49% – 22.49% variable APR afterwards.

You will need good to excellent credit scores to qualify.

Find it here: https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/spark-cash-select/

An Alternative to the Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee: Dependable Credit Cards for Fair to Poor Credit, Not Calling for a Personal Guarantee

Brex Card for Startups

Check out the Brex Card for Startups. It has no yearly fee.

You will not need to provide your Social Security number to apply. And you will not need to provide a personal guarantee. They will take your EIN.

Nonetheless, they do not accept every industry.

Additionally, there are some industries they will not work with, as well as others where they want added documentation. For a list, go here: https://brex.com/legal/prohibited_activities/.

To determine creditworthiness, Brex checks a corporation’s cash balance, spending patterns, and investors.

You can get 7x points on rideshare. Get 4x on Brex Travel. Also, get triple points on restaurants. And get double points on recurring software payments. Get 1x points on everything else.

You can have bad credit scores (even a 300 FICO) to qualify.

Find it here: https://brex.com/lp/startups-higher-limits/

Establish business credit fast and beat the recession with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

Terrific Cards for Cash Back

Flat-Rate Rewards

Capital One ® Spark® Cash for Business

Check out the Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business. It has an introductory $0 yearly fee for the first year. Afterwards, this card costs $95 each year. There is no introductory APR offer. The regular APR is a variable 18.49%.

You can get a $500 one-time cash bonus after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. Get unlimited 2% cash back. Redeem at any time without minimums.

You will need great to outstanding credit to qualify.

Find it here: https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/spark-cash/

Flat-Rate Rewards and No Yearly Fee

Discover it® Business Card

Take a look at the Discover it® Business Card. It has no annual fee. There is an introductory APR of 0% on purchases for 12 months. After that the regular APR is a variable 14.49 – 22.49%.

Get unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases, with no category restrictions or bonuses. They double the 1.5% Cashback Match™ at the end of the first year. There is no minimum spend requirement.

You can download transactions| quickly to Quicken, QuickBooks, and Excel. Keep in mind: you will need great to exceptional credit scores to get approval for this card.

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/business/

Bonus Categories

Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card

Check out the Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card. It has no annual fee. There is a 0% introductory APR for the first year. Afterwards, the APR is a variable 14.74 – 20.74%. You can get a $500 one-time cash bonus after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.

You can earn 5% cash back on the initial $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on web, cable, and phone services each account anniversary year.

Get 2% cash back on the initial $25,000 spent in combined purchases at filling stations and restaurants each account anniversary year. Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is no restriction to the amount you can get.

You will need outstanding credit to get this card.

Find it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/business-credit-cards/ink/cash?iCELL=61GF

Boosted Cash Back Categories

Bank of America® Business Advantage Cash Rewards MasterCard® credit card

Take a look at the Bank of America® Business Advantage Cash Rewards MasterCard® credit card. Get an 0% introductory APR for the initial 9 billing cycles of the account. Afterwards, the APR is 13.74% – 23.74% variable. There is no yearly fee. You can get a $300 statement credit offer.

Get 3% cash back in the category of your choice. So these are gas stations (default), office suppRecession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with no Annual Fee Credit Suitely stores, travel, TV/telecom & wireless, computer services or business consulting services. Earn 2% cash back on dining. So this is for the initial $50,000 in combined choice category/dining purchases each calendar year. After that earn 1% after, with no limits.

You will need exceptional credit to qualify.

Find it here: https://promo.bankofamerica.com/smallbusinesscards2/

An Alternative to the Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee: Secure Business Credit Cards for Average Credit

Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business

Check out the Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business. It has no annual fee. There is no introductory APR offer. The regular APR is a variable 24.49%. You can get unlimited 1% cash back on every purchase for your company, without minimum to redeem.

While this card is within reach if you have average credit scores, beware of the APR. But if you can pay in a timely manner, and completely, then it’s a good deal.

Find it here: https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/spark-classic/

Flexible Financing Credit Cards – Have A Look at Your Options!

The Plum Card® from American Express

Take a look at the Plum Card® from American Express. It has an introductory annual fee of $0 for the first year. After that, pay $250 each year.

Get a 1.5% early pay discount cash back bonus when you pay within 10 days. You can take up to 60 days to pay without interest when you pay the minimum due by the payment due date.

You will need great to excellent credit to qualify.

Find it here: https://creditcard.americanexpress.com/d/the-plum-card-business-charge-card/

An Alternative to the Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee: Company Credit Cards with a 0% Introductory APR – Pay Zero!

Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express

Take a look at the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. It has no yearly fee. There is a 0% introductory APR for the first twelve months. Afterwards, the APR is a variable 14.74 – 20.74%.

Get double Membership Rewards® points on everyday business purchases like office supplies or client dinners for the first $50,000 spent annually. Get 1 point per dollar afterwards.

You will need great to exceptional credit to qualify.

Find it here: https://creditcard.americanexpress.com/d/bluebusinessplus-credit-card/

American Express® Blue Business Cash Card

Also check out the American Express® Blue Business Cash Card. Note: the American Express® Blue Business Cash Card is identical to the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. However its rewards are in cash rather than points.

Get 2% cash back on all qualified purchases on up to $50,000 per calendar year. Then get 1%.

It has no annual fee. There is a 0% introductory APR for the first one year. Afterwards, the APR is a variable 14.74 – 20.74%.

You will need good to exceptional credit to qualify.

Find it here: https://creditcard.americanexpress.com/d/business-bluecash-credit-card/

Establish business credit fast and beat the recession with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

Your Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with No Annual Fee

Your recession-proof best business credit cards with no annual fee with depend on your credit history and scores. Only you can make a decision on which rewards you want and need, so make sure to do your research.

And, as always, make sure to build credit in the recommended order for the best, fastest benefits. Check out how this will help your company get the recession-proof best business credit cards with no annual fee.

As the economy continues to change, you can still get financing for your small business. Let us show you how.

 

The post The Recession-Proof Best Business Credit Cards with no Annual Fee appeared first on Credit Suite.

SBA Loans for Equipment Loans?

There are so many different types of business loans out there, it can be hard to figure out which type you actually need. Even harder is figuring out which type you actually qualify for.  For example, if you need to buy new equipment, equipment loans would seem to be the way to go, right? Even then, do you go with SBA loans, traditional loans, private lenders? 

SBA Loans for Equipment Loans: When Do You Need One and What to Do When You Don’t Qualify

The truth is, it’s not always so simple.  Sometimes, traditional loans work best for equipment purchases.  However, there are occasions when other options may fit your specific situation. But, when are those times? Furthermore, what are the other options?

Credit Line Hybrid Financing:  Get up to $150,000 in financing so your business can thrive.

SBA Loans for Equipment: What are Equipment Loans?get loans for equipment Credit Suite

Equipment loans, whether SBA loans or not,  are loans that are secured by the equipment being financed. For example, if you bought a new industrial freezer and financed it with an equipment loan, then the freezer would serve as collateral for that loan.  

The beauty of equipment loans is that you get the lower interest rates and better terms that typically come with secured financing.  The problem is, that isn’t always enough to qualify. 

SBA Loans for Equipment: What Qualifies as Equipment?

Equipment is not attached to the property, but the assets are longer term generally speaking. This includes things like heavy duty copy machines, industrial freezers and ovens, and more. These things can be used as collateral to secure a loan to purchase them.  

SBA Loans for Equipment: When Do Equipment Loans Work Better Than Other Loans? 

Using the equipment as security doesn’t get you out of needing to meet requirements like minimum credit score and income.  However, if you do meet these requirements and therefore qualify for the loan, the collateral can help you snag better terms.  Interest rates will almost definitely be lower, depending on other factors. 

SBA Loans for Equipment: Other Options for Equipment Loans? 

What if you don’t meet traditional requirements for equipment loans? There are other options. 

SBA Loans:  Options for Equipment Loans

The SBA has a few loans programs that work well for equipment financing. 

7(a) Loans 

This is the main program at the Small Business Administration. Through it, borrowers can get federally funded term loans up to $5 million. This money is available  for expansion, working capital, and other things as well as, purchasing equipment. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions in partnership with the SBA process these loans and disburse the cash.

The minimum credit score to qualify is 680. There is also a required down payment of at least 10% for the purchase of a business, commercial real estate, or equipment. The minimum time in business is 2 years. In the case of startups, business experience equivalent to two years will work.

This is the most popular SBA loan program.  THis is due in part to the fact that funds are allowed to be used toward a broad range of projects, including buying equipment.

504 Loans 

The 504 loan program offers loans up to $5 million.   Money can buy equipment, as well as  facilities or land. Generally, these loans are  used for expansion. Private sector lenders or nonprofits process and disburse the funds. This program works well for commercial real estate purchases especially, but also for equipment.

Terms for 504 Loans range from 10 to 20 years, and funding can take from 30 to 90 days. They require a minimum credit score of 680, and collateral is the asset it is financing. There is also a down payment requirement of 10%, which can increase to 15% for a new business.

There is a requirement you be in business at least 2 years, or that management has equivalent experience if the business is a startup.

Credit Line Hybrid Financing:  Get up to $150,000 in financing so your business can thrive

Microloans 

Microloans are just what they sound like.  They are small loans, up to $50,000, that can be used to purchase equipment, start a business, buy inventory, or just as working capital.  Community based non-profits administer microloan programs as intermediaries.  The financing comes directly from the Small Business Administration. They can take upwards of 90 days to fund, and the minimum credit score is 640.

Credit Line Hybrid

If SBA loans will not work for your equipment needs, a credit line hybrid might.  It allows you to fund your business without putting up collateral.  Furthermore,you only pay back what you use.  It is unsecured, no-doc funding.  That means you do not have to turn in any financials. 

How hard is it to qualify?  Not as hard as you may think.  You need good personal credit, but that is relative.  Your personal credit score should be at least 685, which is lower than what is required by most traditional lenders.  In addition, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments.

Also, in the past 6 months you should have fewer than 5 credit inquiries.  You need to have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards as well.  It’s preferred that you have established business credit, but not absolutely necessary.

Now, if you don’t meet all of the requirements, you can take on a credit partner that does.  Many business owners work with a friend or relative to fund their business.  If a relative or a friend meets all of these requirements, they can partner with you to allow you to tap into their credit to access funding. 

Credit Line Hybrid Benefits

There are a ton of benefits to using a credit line hybrid.  Most notably, it is unsecured, meaning you do not have to have any collateral to put up.  Then, as mentioned, the funding is “no-doc.”  This means you do not have to provide any bank statements or financials.  

Not only that, but typically approval is up to 5x that of the highest credit limit on the personal credit report. Additionally, often you can get interest rates as low as 0% for the first few months, allowing you to put that savings back into your business. 

The process is pretty fast. One other benefit is this.  The approval for multiple credit cards creates competition. This makes it easier, and even likely if you handle the credit responsibly, that you can get interest rates lowered and limits raised every few months. 

Online Lenders for Equipment Loans?

Another option if SBA loans will not work is an online lender.  This is especially true if your personal credit score isn’t great.

Even if you have great business credit, most term loans and many lines of credit require a personal credit check.  They may take your business credit into account, but if your personal credit stinks, it won’t help you much. Online lenders tend to have lower minimum personal credit score requirements than traditional lenders. 

An added  benefit is, an online lender will typically send you the funds faster.  Sometimes you can have the money in as little as a few days, with approval coming in as little as 24 hours.  

An Online Lender Could be the Answer to Your Funding Needs

If you can go with a traditional lender, great.  They often have better rates and terms.  However, if you, like many business owners, do not have that option, an online lender may be the perfect solution for equipment financing.  Approval requirements allow many more borrowers to get their funds quickly and easily.  Take into account the following factors: 

  • How much do you need? 
  • What do you need the funds for? 
  • What is your credit score? 
  • How much of a payment/ interest rate can your budget handle? 

It’s also important to note, there are a lot of predatory lenders online.  You have to be careful. The list above is a great starting point, but don’t stop there.  There are a lot of options, so be sure to research. 

Some of our Our Best Picks for Online Lenders

Fora Financial 

Founded in 2008 by college roommates, online lender Fora Financial now funds more than $1.3 million in working capital around the United States. There is no minimum credit score, and there is an early repayment discount if you qualify.

The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000. The business must be at least 6 months in operation and the monthly revenue has to be $12,000 or more. There can be no open bankruptcies.

OnDeck 

Obtaining financing from OnDeck is quick and easy. First, you apply online and receive your decision once application processing is complete. If you receive approval, your loan funds will go directly to your bank account. The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000.

Just like any other online lender, they do have certain requirements to qualify for a loan.  For example, a personal credit score of 600 or more.  Also, you must be in business for at least one year. Annual revenue must be at or exceed $100,000. In addition, there can be no bankruptcy on file in the past 2 years and no unresolved liens or judgements.

Kabbage

Kabbage is an online lender. They offer a small business line of credit that can help businesses meet their goals quickly. The minimum loan amount is $500, and they do not exceed $250,000. You must be in business for at least one year and have $50,000 or more in annual revenue, or $4,200 or more in monthly revenue, over the last 3 months.

Kabbage is  great if you need cash quickly. Also, their non-traditional approach puts less weight on your credit score, so they may work better for some borrowers than other lenders.

Rates start at 6% and go up to 22%. APR works out to 8 to 25%, and there is a 3 to 5 % origination fee.

Advantages are the soft credit pull and the fact that they will look at factors other than your personal credit if your FICO score is low. Another benefit is that Bond Street can offer very large loans if you qualify. Disadvantages are the longer time in business requirement and high APR.

Credit Line Hybrid Financing:  Get up to $150,000 in financing so your business can thrive.

Lending Club

Popular online lender Lending Club offers term loans. Business loans from $5,000 to $300,000. Loan terms are 1 to 5 years.

Get a quote in less than 5 minutes. Funds are available in as little as 48 hours if approved. There are no prepayment penalties.

Annual Revenue must be $75,000 or more. You must be in business for 2 years or more. Personal FICO score of 620 or better is required.

Rates of 5.99% to 29.99%. Total annualized rates starting at 8%.

Advantages are that the annual revenue requirement isn’t too high. Funds are available quickly. Disadvantages include high maximum rates.

Funding Circle

Funding Circle is a way to apply for SBA funds online.  To get started with Funding Circle, you must meet the following requirements. 

  • In business for more than 3 years
  • At least $500,000 in annual revenue
  • No federal tax liens
  • 680 FICO for personal Guarantor
  • Positive book value (assets > liabilities)

SBA Loans are Just One Way to Finance Equipment

Traditional equipment loans are the lowest cost way to finance equipment.  They won’t work for everyone though.  If they will not work for you, there are other options. The SBA offers loan programs that work well for equipment financing, and online lenders can be a possibility as well.  

Perhaps the most unique and under-utilized option is the credit line hybrid.  When you use this option, you do not have to use the equipment as collateral, and sometimes you can get 0% interest, at least initially. 

It will likely take some time to figure out which option for equipment loans will work best for your business.  The first step is finding out that there are, in fact, options.

The post SBA Loans for Equipment Loans? appeared first on Credit Suite.

New comment by heliasvieira in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2020)"

SEEKING WORK | GMT-3 (Brazil) | Remote

I’m part of a team of +50 developers with a 10-year background working together on high-visibility projects for Fortune 500s, Inc 5000s, internationally renowned names such as the UN & the IOC, and high-growth startups coast-to-coast.

We are now focusing on helping several early-stage startups to build their digital platforms/products using tech like React, React Native, Node.js, Laravel, AWS, ElasticSearch, and more.

If you’re a founder/CTO that’s got a great product, is a cool person, and could use some help hitting product milestones faster or launching your product on time and within budget, we can probably help.

All of our team members are internal employees (no freelancers) with proven experience working with major organizations worldwide.

Rates are $39/hr, being in Brazil and sharing our profits with our devs, we can afford to be very competitive on pricing, especially considering our expertise & portfolio.

Reach out @ hi@nextly.team to see some of our previous work or to chat.

The post New comment by heliasvieira in “Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2020)” appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.

How to Use Machine Learning to Improve Your Digital Marketing

Machine learning is on the verge of transforming the marketing sector. In many ways, it’s already started. According to Gartner, 30% of companies will use machine learning in one part of their sales process by 2020.

What’s more, these companies are using machine learning to get ahead of competitors by tackling some of marketing’s toughest challenges, such as personalization, instant customer support, and big data.

In other words, machine learning isn’t just for computer scientists. Marketers should sit up and take notice. Below, I’ve covered five ways you can use machine learning to supercharge your digital marketing efforts.

What Is Machine Learning?

Before we get into the marketing side of things, let’s take a second to establish what artificial intelligence and machine learning are.

Artificial intelligence is simply any form of intelligence demonstrated by a machine instead of the natural intelligence displayed in humans and animals. When most people think of artificial intelligence, they think specifically of computers that replicate some level of human intelligence, like a chess-playing computer I mentioned in the introduction.

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables systems to find new and better solutions automatically by learning from mistakes and experiences. The more data and experience a machine learning algorithm has access to, the better it becomes in the future.

Machine learning systems can largely be divided into two subsets: guided and unguided. Guided machine learning systems are supplied with data sets and solutions by humans in the first instance. They are taught which patterns to look for initially and will then get better at identifying those patterns going forward.

Unguided systems are given access to unsorted and disparate data sets and are left to decipher patterns independently without guidance from humans. Unguided systems will create an algorithm and then look for ways to improve it going forward.

Using Machine Learning to Improve Your Marketing

We know that marketing teams don’t want for lack of data. Marketers struggle with making sense of all the data they have at their fingertips and then putting that data to use. This analysis is where machine learning comes in.

The primary reason to add machine learning to your marketing stack is that it can make sense of vast amounts of data much faster and much more effectively than humans.

Machine learning can use data to identify patterns and make predictions almost instantly. Marketers can then use these insights to optimize a huge portion of their workflow, from running more tests and improving their website’s UX to personalizing the customer experience and automating consumer engagement.

The long and short of it is machine learning can be used to improve just about every part of your digital marketing efforts. Below we discuss five of the most important ways.

Analyze Data Sets

However you use machine learning in your marketing efforts, the process will probably begin by analyzing data sets.

For instance, machine learning can be used to analyze and find user activity patterns on your website. Rather than sifting through data in your Google Analytics profile yourself, a machine learning algorithm could do the job in seconds, predicting future user behavior and identifying patterns that you can use to optimize your site.  

Sure, humans are perfectly capable of analyzing data themselves, but you can’t do it half as fast or accurately as AI-powered solutions.

Marketers can also use machine learning to gain a better understanding of their customer base.

Take customer segmentation, for instance. Dividing up your audience into different groups can make your marketing efforts much more effective, but it’s time-consuming to do so yourself. On the other hand, a machine learning algorithm could automatically segment your customer base based on actions and behavioral patterns that you couldn’t hope to identify.

Create and Optimize Content

You don’t need me to reiterate the importance of content in your digital marketing efforts. However, you may need clarification on how machine learning can improve what you write and publish and why using machine learning in your content marketing strategy is essential.

For starters, machine learning can help your articles rank higher in search engine results. It’s one thing to be a great writer; it’s another to write in a way that pleases Google, so it rewards you in the SERPs. You need to make sure you use all relevant keywords, discuss every relevant topic, and cover all of your bases in general.

That’s pretty hard to do without smart content creation tools like Frase.io, which uses machine learning to compare your content against Google’s top results and make sure you hit all of the relevant points.

Machine learning Frase

Second, you can have machine learning algorithms write content for you. Phrasee is an AI-powered copywriting tool that uses machine learning to create email subject lines and push notifications that its algorithm believes will drive the highest ROI.

Machine learning AI Copywriting

You can even use AI to help you curate content for your customers. Curata offers a machine learning content curation software that helps marketers find and publish the most relevant and engaging content for their audiences.

Machine Learning Curata

Increase Personalization

Personalization matters for consumers. Research by Accenture shows 91% of consumers prefer brands that remember who they are and provide relevant offers and recommendations as a result. What’s more, if they don’t get a personalized experience, over half of consumers are only too happy to switch to a competitor.

Here’s the good news: machine learning lets you deliver the most personalized customer experience possible. You can employ a machine learning algorithm that tracks user behavior on a granular level, learns what products they like, and creates a personalized homepage and recommendation list as a result.

Amazon, for instance, uses AI algorithms that take into account the purchase history of users, the items in their cart, and their viewing habits to offer the product recommendations that are most likely to convert.

The same algorithm could also generate personalized offers for every customer and email them to consumers when they are most likely to purchase.

Improve Marketing Automation

Better personalization is one way machine learning can transform how your brand engages customers, but it’s not the only way. AI and machine learning can also be used to better automate your marketing efforts and significantly improve customer engagement as a result.

Let’s say you automatically send an email to customers when they sign up for your newsletter or abandon their cart. While most brands will send a generic email, companies that adopt machine learning can tailor content and offers based on that consumer’s browsing history. If they looked at your brand’s range of dog toys before signing up for your newsletter, a relevant offer on chew toys would make them much more likely to re-engage with your brand.  

For SaaS brands, AI-powered marketing automation tools can analyze much larger and disparate data sets to better segment leads. This allows sales reps to prioritize those leads that are much more likely to convert.

Marketing automation is incredibly powerful. According to Invesp, marketing automation leads to an over 14% increase in sales productivity and an over 12% reduction in marketing overhead.

It’s entirely possible to do this without machine learning, but AI makes your automation efforts much more personalized and much more powerful.

Utilize Chatbots

Chatbots are a powerful customer service tool. Eight out of ten consumers who have engaged with them report a positive experience. If you run an online business, they are all but essential.

With chatbots, you don’t have to have a human on-hand to respond to consumers. Instead, machine learning-powered chatbots can automatically answer consumer queries with a scarily-high rate of accuracy. That’s because your chatbot will learn from your website’s content and the conversations it has with consumers to constantly improve the answers it provides.

Because the chatbot is continuously learning and improving itself, it will deliver an even better customer experience with more conversations. You may want to have your chatbot pass an incredibly complicated query onto a human at first, but soon the bot will become so effective there’ll be no need for a human to interject.  Eventually, you’ll have a smart enough chatbot to upsell the consumer, not just answer their questions.

Consumers probably won’t be able to tell they’re speaking to a robot, either. Some chatbots, like IntelliTicks, employ another branch of AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), to have human-level conversations with customers.

What’s more, data gathered by AI-powered chatbots can be analyzed by another machine learning algorithm to generate insights that marketers can use to optimize their efforts going forward.

What is the Future of Machine Learning?

Things move fast in the world of machine learning. Expect advances in marketing AI to happen rapidly.

Improved unsupervised machine learning algorithms are in development right now, for instance. These algorithms don’t need input from humans at the start, making them much easier and faster for marketers to implement.

Personalization will become even more powerful, too. Machine learning algorithms will become better at discerning what consumers want for one, but the ways they can be integrated with online stores will improve, too. Soon, marketers will be able to customize every part of their sites for individual users, much like social media timelines are personalized for every user.

Finally, expect big advances in mobile machine learning. AI-powered digital assistants will become a more prominent part of our life, and marketers will have to develop strategies to contend with this. Mobile applications will also be able to integrate machine learning features in the same way websites can right now.

Don’t get overwhelmed, however. Before you start worrying about what the future holds, work your way through the suggestions I’ve made above first. You’ll then be ready for whatever occurs in the future.

Conclusion

It’s clear: machine learning can transform your digital marketing efforts.

Don’t rush into the world of machine learning, however. Adopting solutions without first understanding how the technology works and its role in your company will typically do more harm than good.

Machine learning is powerful, but it isn’t a silver bullet. Adopt one solution at a time, however, and you’ll be fine.  

Continue your education by reading my articles on AI’s role in SEO and AI-powered digital assistants.  

Which machine learning strategy are you going to implement first?

The post How to Use Machine Learning to Improve Your Digital Marketing appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best Online Reputation Management

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

You’re already doing so much for your business. How do you successfully manage your online reputation, too?

You can do it and do it well. But if you’re already managing a lot, your best bet is outsourcing it to an ORM, or an online reputation manager. 

Your online image can determine how long you stay in business and if your profits grow year after year. The problem with that is that you can’t always control what customers say about you online, or even when a damaging business mishap gets out in the open. 

To help you put your best image out there, I’ve reviewed and done extensive research on online reputation managers, so you don’t have to. Finding the best ORM for you is easy once you know exactly what you need. 

The Top 4 Options For Online Reputation Management

  1. Go Fish Digital – The best ORM for managing reviews 
  2. Reputation Rhino – The best for individuals and small businesses
  3. Reputation Resolutions – The best ORM for crisis management
  4. Big Leap – The best for SEO and content management

How to Choose The Best Online Reputation Management For You

Unfortunately, there isn’t a singular “best” reputation manager that fits every business like a glove. If there was, then this guide wouldn’t be necessary. 

Different ORMs cater to different services. This can mean some are better than others at crisis management, online monitoring, online review management, SEO focused branded content strategy, or even supplying attorneys to advocate on your behalf.

First, are you building a new online reputation from scratch? Maybe you’re trying to improve a negative reputation? Or are you being proactive and investing in maintaining a good one?

You have to determine where you are on your reputation management journey. Then you can think about a few factors that can refine your search even more.

Business Size and Type

Your company size generally correlates with the size of your reputation. Obviously, the bigger and more varied your sales channels, the more work you’ll have managing how you look online.  

Your business’s size can also dictate the amount you’ll want to invest in ORM services. Some questions to consider are: What is your estimated current business reach? What types of distribution channels do you sell through or publish content on? Are you a service-based business, an organization, or an e-commerce store?

When choosing the best ORM for you, these are some key questions to consider before moving forward. If your business isn’t a complex enterprise, you won’t need a costly ORM that specializes in litigation, video removal, or a team of expert attorneys. 

Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy also determines the type of online reputation management you need. 

Do you primarily sell via a content creation strategy? Do you sell on multiple e-commerce platforms? Is your business big enough that it sells through on-air advertising? Do you already have a strong social media presence that drives sales?

Outlining how you primarily reach your customers is another way to narrow down your search. If you don’t, it might affect how well your ORM can deliver results. 

Long-Term Crisis Management

Think about the future of your business and its reputation. Sure, at some point you might need to put out a reputation fire that caught you by surprise ASAP. Or maybe you’re only getting started and want your name out there in the short-term in a positive light to drive more sales.

But do you have a long-term plan for managing reputation crises that will inevitably come up in the future?

This will determine which ORM can deliver on either your short-term or long-term goals. Each one is built differently to cater to your business goals, as we’ll see further in this guide. 

The Different Types of Online Reputation Management

There are tons of online reputation managers out there that offer a lot of the same services. But most of them fall into three main types. Most reputation management companies will provide an initial analysis and general monitoring of your reputation’s current state. 

After that, they start to get a little more specific in how they specialize.

Crisis Management

Crisis management usually takes more than a one-off approach to managing any brand’s reputation. You might need more than image takedowns, burying negative reviews with positive ones, or generating positive content. 

How an ORM handles a crisis can mark the difference between a business that survives through it or one that suffers those losses and ultimately closes its doors. 

ORMs that handle crisis management usually approach them from all angles, meaning deploying a long-term reputation management strategy and additional costs. 

Online Review Management

Online reputation management specializing in managing negative reviews tends to be a great fit for service-based businesses and e-commerce stores. 

Those terrible product reviews you read first on any product you find online? The right ORM can be effective in either removing them with their own set of tools and contacts or burying them with positive reviews over time. 

Businesses with reviews on Yelp, Amazon, or their own storefronts can benefit significantly from hiring an ORM effective in negative review management. 

Though, if you’re an enterprise-grade business that needs review removal as part of a broader strategy, you’ll want to go with a more varied ORM. 

Content Management

ORMs can focus on content creation as a reputation management strategy, surrounding your business with tons of positive branding.

They don’t necessarily have attorneys at your beck and call ready to take down negative media propaganda. But their laser-focus on SEO strategies that put the best reviews and mentions of you out there can be worth it if it means you’ll make a great first impression. 

This also improves your new and returning customer experience. 

A majority of your customers are using Google to search for your products or services. Making sure search results show the best content about you online is the way to go if you’re a content-focused business. 

#1 – Go Fish Digital — The Best ORM For Managing Reviews

I’ve listed Go Fish Digital as the best agency for managing reviews, and while that’s true, Go Fish Digital also wows with the option of full-service reputation management used by the likes of Geico, Ford, and Airbnb.

With Go Fish, you can gain thorough insight into your customers’ reviews and comments online. 

They work closely with huge review sites like Yelp to manage negative reviews by advocating for review removal on your behalf through their agency tools. They also work to get your best Yelp reviews to the top for more visibility. 

They’re exhaustive in their brand monitoring abilities and monitor all corners of the internet like Wikipedia and Reddit threads to create a plan of action in your favor.  

Go Fish’s review management works by pushing positive content to higher visibility with SEO, adjusting copy in public places where you’re mentioned, cleaning up Google autocomplete, and even promoting positive information about your business wherever your target audience is. 

As they create results, they keep you up to date with a relevant score you can see on their dashboard. 

To be clear, Go Fish is a reputable ORM that does not post false reviews for you. Still, their Yelp review management service is one of their strong suits.

Some of their best review management features are:

  • Managing negative Google reviews
  • Negative auto-complete cleanup often generated from those reviews
  • A dashboard that keeps you updated on your brand’s daily search results
  • Crafting a strategy for your business to encourage the best reviews possible
  • Creating and delivering a strong case on your behalf for negative review removal to the Yelp team

For pricing, you’ll have to contact them directly to get a quote. 

As with most ORMs, their prices change depending on the size of your business and the specific services you’re looking for.

Get in touch with Go Fish to get an initial quote. 

#2 – Reputation Rhino — The Best For Individuals and Small businesses

If you’re wondering who exactly needs reputation management, Reputation Rhino’s answer is ‘everyone.’ That’s why it’s the best ORM for solopreneurs and small businesses.

Reputation Rhino is a leading online reputation manager based in New York with clients like Disney, Microsoft, and Nestle. They offer a number of reputation solutions for almost any scenario imaginable, including ones that cater impressively to an individual and their personal brand.  

It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, university, hotel, or contractor, Reputation Rhino helps you with Glassdoor, Yelp, and YouTube review removals, social media management, and even an SEO strategy to put the best parts of your brand (or yourself) front and center. 

Do you have terrible images that need to get removed from Google? They can do that. Do you need to fight against libel and personal defamation? Their team of public relations specialists can do that, too. These are services an individual or small business may not know how to do or not have time to take care of.

Their best ORM services for individuals include:

  • A personalized strategy to defend against smear campaigns
  • Suppressing negative online search results
  • Adding an extra layer of protection to your personal privacy
  • Eliminating news articles, forum comments, and negative content

As an individual or SMB, you might be nervous about investing money into an ORM. To help, Reputation Rhino offers a 30-day money-back guarantee that can ease your worries about whether they’ll deliver. If you need a more personal approach to reputation management, Reputation Rhino is happy to work with you individually. 

Their pricing starts at $1,000. But you’ll have to contact them for a personalized package. 

Get started with Reputation Rhino and request more information.  

#3 – Reputation Resolutions — The Best ORM For Crisis Management

Unlike other ORMs out there, Reputation Resolutions is the go-to agency for crisis management that can start working on your behalf in 24-72 hours.

A combination of their speedy response, team of attorneys, wide array of solutions, and seasoned professional team makes them the best ORM for enterprise-level reputation and crisis management. 

Maybe your business is an established corporation, but there’s been a sudden increase of negative reviews, you’re dealing with a handful of loud, angry customers online, or there is negative propaganda about you in the media. Ouch. Reputation Resolutions provides everything you need to turn a crisis around. 

Here’s a quick rundown of their top-tier crisis management features:

  • Cyber forensic investigation
  • News article removal
  • Court record removal
  • Thorough and ongoing reputation monitoring
  • Private information removal
  • Unwanted image removal

If you’re an smaller or mid-sized business looking for a management agency to simply take care of negative reviews, Reputation Solutions isn’t the agency for you. 

Alternatively, if you’re an established, well-known business in need of comprehensive PR management, attorneys, or copyright infringement services, then look no further than what Reputation Solutions can offer you. 

To get a pricing quote, email or call them for a free consultation, and they will learn more about you and tailor their services to your specific needs. 

#4 – Big Leap — The Best For SEO And Content Management

Big Leap’s ORM services are designed around one thing: content management. Their award-winning content marketing strategy centers around burying the negative and growing the positive.

This is fantastic news for you if you’re looking for an ORM that cares deeply about gaining customer trust through a long-term strategy. 

If your marketing strategy is mainly through content, you’re not as concerned about a sudden PR crisis, or Yelp reviews are mostly irrelevant to your sales success, then Big Leap’s trust-building approach can help you create results. 

They begin by scouring the internet for every mention of your business.  They do social media and search audits, along with a competitive analysis, to give them the bigger picture of where your reputation lies. 

Then they create a positive content strategy tailored specifically for you through brand-strengthening content and social media campaigns. As they execute their content strategy, Big Leap regularly reports back to you with updated results.

Some of their best ORM content management features include:

  • Brand name monitoring
  • Content strategy, creation, and promotion
  • Site optimization
  • Constant workflow updates on content strategy execution

Big Leap doesn’t list their prices publicly, but you can request a quote on their site. 

Conclusion

You don’t have to suffer from a bad reputation that only seems to be out of your hands. There are plenty of agencies out there that can help lighten your reputation management load once you’ve reached out and established a relationship with them. 

Online reputation management agencies can indeed offer a lot of the same services. But look closer to find what they specialize in. Hopefully, this in-depth guide helped shed light on which of the top ORMs can work for you.

Check out each agency on this list and get a quote from the one that fits you best to start managing your online reputation now. 

The post Best Online Reputation Management appeared first on Neil Patel.

New comment by heliasvieira in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2020)"

SEEKING WORK | GMT-3 (Brazil) | Remote

I’m part of a team of +50 developers with a 10-year background working together on high-visibility projects for Fortune 500s, Inc 5000s, internationally renowned names such as the UN & the IOC, and high-growth startups coast-to-coast.

We are now focusing on helping several early-stage startups to build their digital platforms/products using tech like React, React Native, Node.js, Laravel, AWS, ElasticSearch, and more.

If you’re a founder/CTO that’s got a great product, is a cool person, and could use some help hitting product milestones faster or launching your product on time and within budget, we can probably help.

All of our team members are internal employees (no freelancers) with proven experience working with major organizations worldwide.

Rates are $39/hr, being in Brazil and sharing our profits with our devs, we can afford to be very competitive on pricing, especially considering our expertise & portfolio.

Reach out @ hi@nextly.team to see some of our previous work or to chat.

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New comment by kaspar1992 in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2020)"

Humanitec is looking for a developer advocate/technical writer/speaker and awesome storyteller. The position is (and will remain) fully remote:

https://humanitec.com/open-positions/senior-developer-advoca…

This is an incredibly exciting job offering for anyone in software engineering who has a passion for writing and speaking. For anyone who wants to evangelize an entirely new category (Internal Developer Platforms) in a lean, fast and crisply executing company. An Internal Developer Platform is like Heroku but on top of the tech and tools you use already.

You’ll work with a bunch of exceptional and experienced colleagues on enabling other developers to focus on code rather than the underlying infrastructure. Truly rewarding job you can learn a ton in with weekly coaching sessions with industry leading advisors such as Chris Schagen (ex CMO Contentful).

I highly encourage you to apply even if you don’t have previous experience with developer advocacy but just want to get into this field. If you have experience with software engineering and especially kubernetes and devops that’s totally fine!

Please everyone, share, comment and spread the word everywhere it’s much appreciated!

New comment by davidtranjs in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2020)"

SEEKING WORK | GMT +7 | Remote | jslancer.com We are a web development team of 5 in-house developers. We have been working with clients from USA and European. We help startups building SaaS products with React, NodeJS, Stripe. ————— What we can help you? ————— – We are hard-working technical team that can transform … Continue reading New comment by davidtranjs in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2020)"

New comment by thelastinuit in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2020)"

Location: Mexico/Germany Remote: yes Willing to relocate: yes Technologies: Ruby, JS, PHP and Rust Résumé/CV: https://luisignac.io Email: email@luisignac.io