EXCLUSIVE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reelection campaign is now selling new “Escape to Florida/The Lockdown Libs tour” T-shirts after some top Democratic politicians from states with stricter coronavirus restrictions were seen vacationing in the Sunshine State over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday.
LinkedIn is a perennially underrated social media platform. It’s not always easy to quantify how effective you are on the platform though. Enter LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index.
This handy metric tells you exactly how effective you are as a social seller while highlighting how you can improve. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about the tool, how to use it properly, and how to improve your score.
Launched in 2014, LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) measures how effective you are at social selling on the platform.
LinkedIn uses four factors to calculate your SSI:
Each factor is worth 25 points. Complete them all, and you’ll get a perfect score.
There are several reasons to aim for a high Social Selling Index. For starters, a high score increases your reach on the platform. Even if the LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t directly take your SSI into account when determining the reach of posts, all of the individual factors that go into calculating your SSI help you reach a wider audience.
A high SSI can also result in more connection requests and more people following you—which establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and makes it easier to connect with decision-makers.
LinkedIn provides data to back up some of these claims. According to their Social Selling Index page, leading social sellers create 45 percent more opportunities than lower social sellers and are 51 percent more likely to reach quota. In addition, 78 percent of them outsell peers who don’t use social media.
It’s simple to find your SSI on LinkedIn. If you’re already logged into LinkedIn, follow the link below to see your score.
Find your Social Selling Index.
You can also access your SSI through Sales Navigator by navigating to Admin and clicking User Reporting.
Key dashboard information to pay attention to includes:
We’ll discuss what each of these metrics means in detail next.
As I mentioned above, LinkedIn uses four factors to calculate Social Selling Index: establishing a personal brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships.
But what do each of those metrics actually mean?
Here’s what you need to know.
For this metric, LinkedIn looks at how complete your profile is and the quality of the content you post on the platform. Do you have a cover photo, a complete job history, and recommendations? How many posts are you creating, and how many views and comments are those posts receiving?
This metric is heavily focused on Sales Navigator, making it tricky for free users to get a good score. LinkedIn wants you to use its tools to find the right people, reach out to them successfully, and create systems and automation to make the process smoother.
Are you sharing popular content? If not, then you probably won’t score too highly in this metric. The more content you share and the more views, likes, and comments it receives, the better you’ll score.
The final metric is all about network management. It’s a measure of how often and successfully you reach out to people.
Exactly how useful is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index beyond being a vanity metric? It’s a fair question.
Some people, like Andrew O’Hearn, don’t see much value in the tool. He believes SSI is a way for LinkedIn to push Sales Navigator.
Do we really want to reinforce the ‘keyboard commando’ proclivities of some LinkedIn users who don’t often test their online assumptions in the real (face-to-face) business-related networking communities?
I think there are quite a few things you can do with SSI, however. Here are a few reasons to pay attention to LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index.
Checking your SSI is a great way to understand the strength of your personal brand and take actionable steps to improve it. After all, what gets measured gets managed, and you may not realize just how far you are behind your peers until it’s pointed out.
Because every improvement results in an increased score, SSI also provides a way to gamify the process, making you much more likely to actually do it.
You may think you’re slaying LinkedIn, but perhaps you’re not making enough new connections or posting enough valuable content. Either way, your SSI can easily highlight areas to improve.
Perhaps the best use for your SSI is as a benchmarking tool. The tool automatically compares your profile to other people in your industry and your network, so a quick glance will show you where you currently stand.
You can also use your personal score to track improvements and growth as a social seller. This is exactly what Microsoft did with their sales reps. When they first onboarded users onto Sales Navigator, their median SSI was 48. After a few months of training and activity, their average SSI score increased to 56.
The impact of that increase was telling. Those with higher SSIs saw a 37-percent increase in opportunities, and every 10-point increase saw 4.3 more opportunities.
It doesn’t matter what your SSI score is, there’s bound to be something you can do to improve it. Below I’ve listed five of the best strategies to improve your SSI and increase your effectiveness on the platform.
The first and easiest thing you should do to improve your Social Selling Index is to completely fill out your profile. There’s a lot to do here, so here are some jumping off points to get you started.
You’ll be amazed at how much your SSI score can jump just by filling out your profile properly. Be careful, though. You don’t want to include so much information that your profile becomes unreadable.
Whenever you are adding information to your profile, always ask yourself whether people would find it useful.
You need a big network to succeed on LinkedIn. Remember, while quantity is important, so is its quality. That means you shouldn’t send invites to random people. Instead, you take the time to find the right people.
That means people who:
The more cohesion in your network, the stronger it will be.
Use LinkedIn’s advanced search functionality to find the right people to connect with. Some of the features are only available for premium accounts, but even free users can leverage filters to find relevant people to connect with and improve their SSI.
You can also find related connections under “My Network” > “People you may know.”
One of the easiest ways to improve your SSI categories is to post quality content. This will improve your personal brand, build relationships, and engage with other users.
Quality content can come in the form of LinkedIn posts, or you can try more advanced tactics.
Having a big network is important, but so is engaging with them. You need to be in regular contact with a good chunk of your network to show the algorithm you’re committed to building long-term relationships.
Don’t just spam a load of people with connection requests. Aim high and start to follow thought leaders in your industry. Engage with their content thoughtfully and try to strike up a conversation. Make sure you’re responding to everyone who comments on your posts, too.
Conversations are becoming more important than ever on the platform. LinkedIn reports a 43 percent year-over-year growth in conversations during Q3 of 2021. The more engaged you are, the higher your SSI score will be, and the more conversations you’ll end up having.
One of the reasons LinkedIn pushes the SSI is to encourage adoption of Sales Navigator. In fact, it’s impossible to get close to 100 without using the paid-for subscription. If you already are a Sales Navigator user, you’ll want to leverage as many of the tools’ functions as possible.
In particular, use the saved search feature to automate finding relevant people to connect with.
A good LinkedIn SSI score is 70+. Between 40 and 70 can be considered okay, while under 40 is poor.
Simply follow this link to visit the SSI page on LinkedIn.
A good SSI score can help boost your influence on the platform and make sure you are doing all the things you need to do to become a good social seller.
LinkedIn updates the Social Selling Index once a day.
LinkedIn uses four categories to calculate Social Selling Index: establishing a personal brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. Each category is worth 25 points.
LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index shows how effectively you’re using the platform. Given the importance of social selling in many B2B industries, that kind of insight is crucial. It’s also a way to see how you compare to your industry rivals and find areas for improvement.
With a little more time spent crafting your profile, growing your network, and engaging with peers on the platform, you can send your SSI soaring. That can mean substantially more leads and sales. So, get out there and start making LinkedIn work harder for you.
What’s your best SSI metric?
House Insurance And Selling Your Home With any luck you have actually thought about working with an actual estate representative to assist you with all the great information if you are marketing your house. Otherwise– reach function! The procedure of selecting the appropriate realty representative can be equally as tough as it is very important. … Continue reading Residence Insurance And Selling Your Home
House Insurance And Selling Your Home With any luck you have actually thought about working with an actual estate representative to assist you with all the great information if you are marketing your house. Otherwise– reach function! The procedure of selecting the appropriate realty representative can be equally as tough as it is very important. …
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In today’s global marketplace, it’s a great time to be a consumer. The rise of e-commerce means more and more businesses are striving to get the consumer’s attention, offering better prices and services just to keep them interested. With online sales representing 16 percent of total retail ad spend, business owners don’t want to leave money on the table.
The smartest business owners know that the only way to consistently beat the competition is by offering more value to customers.
However, if everyone in my industry is selling the same products, at the same price, how can I stay competitive? The answer: Create memorable experiences.
If you’re looking for a unique way to offer value to consumers, customized products can be a powerful, engaging tool that improves customer satisfaction and drives up conversions in the process.
Customized products exist as a way for consumers to customize their purchases and walk away with a unique brand experience.
Examples include:
These examples showcase the importance of offering customization and customization.
It’s not just a theory. Epsilon’s research found that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer customized experiences.
The concept of customization was designed just a few decades ago to promote exclusivity. Customized products were a status symbol, a vehicle to make consumers with massive budgets feel special.
Although that’s still the case with certain products (exotic cars and designer handbags, for example), rapid advances in technology have made mass-customization a possibility for everyone.
Still, despite the lowered barrier to entry, product customization maintains a certain allure to consumers. This begs the question: If the key component of customized products is no longer there (the exclusive status symbol), then why are consumers still so interested?
The answer is actually pretty straightforward: Businesses were operating with a fundamental misunderstanding of what made customization so appealing in the first place.
What massive brands around the world have figured out, and what e-commerce business owners need to understand, is that exclusivity was only a small piece of the puzzle.
Product customization can have a massive impact on customer satisfaction, and by extension, your e-commerce business’s success. Why? Because not all of your customers want to experience your product in the same way.
Think about it. When it comes to something like marketing, we understand that different customers have different needs. The first-time visitor to your site needs a different call-to-action than the customer with the abandoned shopping cart. Customized customer experiences are nothing new, it’s just time that e-commerce businesses started to expand their customization horizons.
Where things get really interesting for me is when you start considering the potential financial value this brings to companies all over the world. Let’s not ignore the fact that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. More specifically, it puts business owners in a win-win scenario.
When you offer dozens of different variants and options to users, you’re creating a more inclusive marketplace, and different consumers with unique priorities can still walk away with something they like.
Even more interesting is the capacity for testing. You don’t need to make everything in your store customizable. Instead, you can test for specific features and determine the ones that people love.
Over time, business owners can collect data and use this information to build product offerings that their customers are statistically more interested in. More value for consumers, more value for the business. Win-win.
The benefits of customized products are pretty easy to measure. When a consumer can personalize a purchase, it gives them a chance to “stand out” and be distinctive.
Let’s use the example of a custom T-shirt. On the surface, it seems like customers are simply modifying something to maximize the value of that product. In reality, the experience is a bit more layered.
For the sake of analysis, let’s break down a study conducted by the Journal of Information Technology Management.
We’ve established that customizing products brings consumers a certain level of enjoyment. We can view “Enjoyment” as the umbrella category.
Within that category, there are two subcategories of enjoyment. On one hand, there’s “Use Enjoyment” and “Design Enjoyment.” Certain customers will fall into certain categories, depending on what they value in particular.
Each of those subcategories had its own subdivisions.
Consumers who fell in the “Use Enjoyment” category either enjoyed the unique appearance of the item or enjoyed the functionalities of the item that fulfilled their unique needs. Consumers in the “Design Enjoyment” category either enjoyed innovating or enjoyed participating in the design process.
You can use this framework as a way to test what your consumers expect from your business, but the key lesson to keep in mind here is that product customization should be an engaging, exciting process for customers.
All of this can get a bit abstract, so let’s take a look at a tangible example. Here’s how Dollar Shave Club handles customization.
They start with some strong and clear copy, and with a single click, you’re building your custom Dollar Shave Club box.
From there, you’ll complete a quiz and come out on the other end with a straightforward recommendation and a strong call-to-action. Of course, you can further customize your options by scrolling down the page.
On the surface, this might look like just another way to sell their products. In reality, that’s only half the story. Every aspect of this quiz is designed to ensure that consumers are presented with a solution that accurately addresses their pain points.
Lenovo, on the other hand, actually lets you build out your dream laptop.
It’s important to keep the limitations in mind, of course. While the laptop would be customized, the capacity of the laptop is limited.
When creating your customized product offerings, remember that removing concerns about compatibility can make life much simpler for your consumer. Unless they’re particularly tech-savvy, they probably wouldn’t understand why certain components just don’t work together.
Alleviating friction before it becomes an issue is one of the many benefits that come from creating a rich customization experience.
All of that looks and sounds great, but how on earth are you supposed to create customized products for your consumers? After all, offering 100+ options isn’t exactly budget-friendly.
Well, remember that consumers aren’t just interested in custom products. They want customized experiences. Most business owners already know this. It’s the reason so much time and money goes into marketing campaigns.
Focusing on customized experiences helps you develop a deeper relationship with your consumers. They can buy products anywhere, but your business is the only one that helps them customize their experience. Those better experiences lead to customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and hopefully, repeat customers!
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the tools you can use to build tailor-made products and experiences.
Whether you sell swimsuits, winter jackets, or everything in between, you understand that selling clothes online can be a customer satisfaction nightmare.
The biggest problem? Fit.
Everyone seems to have different definitions of small, medium, and large. While this can usually be fixed with a quick return and exchange, it tends to leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth.
So rather than focusing on fixing the problem, let’s find a way to make sure it never happens again. Making it an engaging sales tool is just a bonus!
A Custom Fit quiz might seem simple but make no mistake: Making your customers feel more secure about their sizing choices means they’re more likely to purchase as possible sizing issues are avoided.
One of the most undervalued aspects of product customization is its potential for reducing friction.
When you offer to bundle an accessory with a particular product, you’re not just upselling to make some extra money on the sale. You’re addressing two possible customer pain points before they even arise.
Right off the bat, you’re making customers aware of the fact that a particular accessory is necessary to ensure they maximize their purchase. As a bonus, you’re able to confirm compatibility by clearly showing consumers which items they should pair together.
It’s a way to ensure that consumers walk away with everything they need after a single transaction. Further, it’s more than just a good sales tactic. It’s an effective, thorough customer satisfaction tactic.
Maximizing your sales and profit margins is always going to be a priority, and every tactic here is designed to support that goal.
That being said, selling a consumer on the concept of customized products is less about actively selling and more about creating experiences that guide customers down the sales funnel with valuable information.
As far as I’m concerned, the best-customized experiences sell themselves. Of course, it helps if you’re building experiences that are so compelling and engaging that consumers can’t help but click the “Buy” button.
Use these tactics to drive conversions while still keeping the shopping experience engaging and personal.
All this talk of customized products might have you worried that you’ll need to spend tons of money on new inventory and be stocked up for potential buyers.
In reality, the process should start small. Unless you have a massive budget, your best bet is to test the waters and figure out what versions of products consumers are actively seeking.
If you’re experimenting with customizable T-shirt colors, you don’t need 50 new colors. Start with a few set colors, and give yourself plenty of lead time so you don’t have to rush production.
People aren’t interested in new colors? You can phase them out without worrying that you’ve let hundreds of dollars go to waste.
We already discussed this a bit earlier, but the value of the customer quiz shouldn’t be understated.
Let’s say you frequently have website visitors that don’t have a well-defined shopping list yet. These are people who are just browsing and seeing what catches their eye.
Well, what if you could guide that person towards a sale, while also providing them with value in an engaging way? Sounds like a great way to kick-start your relationship, if you ask me. Keep in mind that 90% of consumers are willing to share their behavioral data if it’ll make their shopping easier.
By creating a simple quiz and offering customized product recommendations, you can accomplish so much.
For starters, customers will walk away with a much clearer understanding of their needs. They’ll also associate you with industry authority since your business showcased your know-how and expertise.
Beyond that, your consumers are one step closer to making a purchase through your site. All thanks to a simple, two-minute quiz.
Customized products are often seen as some sort of gimmick, a cheap way to offer variety instead of value.
Interestingly enough, I’ve found that well-designed customized products offer an impressive amount of value to consumers.
Consumers can be empowered by a process that simplifies their shopping experience. Or they can walk away with a deeper understanding of what they need from your business.
As long as your customized e-commerce experience is compelling, engaging, and generally value-driven, you can be optimistic that you’re enhancing your customer’s shopping experience and by extension, increasing your chances of making a sale.
What kind of customized products do you think offer the most value? Let me know in the comments below!
The post Why You Should Consider Selling Customized Products appeared first on Neil Patel.
The problem with selling your startup is the long exit time. Sometimes it can take as long as seven years before you can sell your business and hop on the next idea.
And the investors? They feel the same way.
Who wants to wait almost a decade to buy a startup when the face of tech is evolving at such a rapid pace? Plus, the price tag on those more established businesses often run into the billions.
That’s an expensive mistake if you make the wrong investment.
The solution? Micro startup acquisitions.
From Facebook to Microsoft, there is a massive trend to seek out tiny teams of five or less, buy them, and use the technology and talent to gain a competitive edge.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of buying and selling a micro startup, the trends changing M&R strategy, and the top tools you can use to sell (or buy) your startup.
But before we dive into that, we need to look into what micro startup acquisitions are and why you need to sit up and take notice.
Micro startup acquisitions are a move away from buying businesses with established products or even proven revenue streams.
Instead, larger tech companies like Twitter and Pinterest are making investments in small startups. These businesses usually consist of 2 to 3 people, and companies are taking bets on their products that aren’t even fully realized yet.
Why?
Companies are becoming more proactive and want to acquire complementary products earlier on in their road maps as a way to outwit the competition and obtain the best talent in the industry.
What does this mean for startups?
Your exit strategy timeline is A LOT shorter. Gone are the days of waiting 5, 7, or 10 years to sell, making it more affordable than ever to bootstrap your startup.
Hike Labs was founded in 2014, and by 2015, Pinterest had swooped in and acquired the San Francisco-based mobile publishing startup.
Over the last couple of years, there have been clear trends in why big companies are choosing to invest in these small teams and use them as part of their growth strategy.
More deals are about gaining access to new capabilities or markets. While it’s a trend across sectors, it’s picking up steam in tech where companies are looking to deliver more complete solutions to consumers.
These acquisitions, which focus more on scope than scale, accounted for 90% of tech deals in 2019, which is a 40% increase from 2015. It’s a clear indicator that businesses want to expand their offerings and capabilities.
No one wants to be late to market.
Yes, the tech giants could develop the software these micro startups are making, but by the time it’s ready for market, a competitor might have rolled a similar product out and taken all the glory.
Or you could make the mistake of investing too much in the wrong idea, and there goes money, time, and resources down the toilet. It’s usually much cheaper to acquire a startup that has done the legwork than get an idea internally developed.
By acquiring micro startups, companies can mitigate both risks and reap the rewards.
For example, HR and finance SaaS vendor Workday bought Scout RFP (a San Francisco startup with a team of 8) for $540 million.
The startup built a cloud-based office procurement system that helps customers streamline supplier management. The acquisition is a step in the right direction for Workday to compete as a holistic enterprise resource planning solution.
It’s no secret that attracting top tier talent can take your business to the next level.
These micro startup acquisitions aren’t only about products. Sometimes it’s the talent that attracts the bigger guys. Micro teams can amplify a company’s productivity while getting rid of the learning curve which comes with new hires.
The innovation and ability to push a startup idea into production mean the team has skills and knowledge that is invaluable to an established company.
For example, when Instagram bought Luma (its first acquisition), the tiny three-person team was part of the deal. The Luma team’s knowledge in video stabilization technology was critical in launching Instagram’s complementary app, Hyperlapse.
A massive advantage of purchasing micro startups is the price.
It’s way cheaper to go small than fund a big, established company with hundreds of employees.
And the risk of it going under? A much softer blow.
If the investment goes the same way as Jay-Z’s Tidal music streaming app, it’s a much smaller amount to write off. Plus, you get to keep the team.
For example:
Microsoft spent $200 million to acquire Accompli and only $100 million for Sunrise. When you compare that to the $7.5 billion they spent on the acquisition of Github, or their purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion, that’s quite a bargain.
The same goes for Google acquiring Android for a measly $50 million in 2005 with key employees joining the company. As of 2020, the net worth of Android is estimated to be over $2.5 billion.
Another major trend in micro startup acquisitions is artificial intelligence. Companies in almost every sector are looking to take advantage of machine learning and integrate it into their products.
When you combine this with the shortage of AI talent, there is a race to scoop up startups and their teams who are in the early stages of funding and research.
In 2019, Facebook quickly snapped up a visual search startup called GrokStyle, who developed an app that can automatically detect decor and home furniture from a photo. When asked about the acquisition, Facebook responded in a statement that “their team and technology will contribute to our AI capabilities”.
Want to cash in on the micro acquisition boom? Whether you’re looking to sell or invest in a small business, there are various tools to help you swipe right and find your perfect match.
Micro Acquire is a marketplace that connects startups to buyers. The platform is free, private, and has no middlemen.
When you sign up, you’ll get instant access to over 10,000 trusted buyers with total anonymity.
The marketplace is designed to cut down on the time you need to sell your business and find startups to invest in. Once you’ve found a buyer or a seller, you’ll get a letter of intent (LOI) in 30 days or less.
Micro Aquire is for startups with an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of less than $500,000. It’s one of the best platforms for serial entrepreneurs to invest in small companies and grow them into booming successes.
Flippa is a marketplace for buying and selling websites, apps, domains, and online businesses.
While it helps to streamline the negotiation and transaction process, it does have a history of scam listings.
If you decide to buy on Flippa, do your due diligence and put the listings under a microscope to make sure it’s legit to find those diamonds in the rough.
Flippa is an ideal marketplace for small to medium-sized businesses. You can find a range of sellers at any price.
You can buy or sell online businesses and products like:
Flippa’s listing fees depend on what you’re selling:
There is also a 10% success fee on each sale, and you can upgrade your listing with various packages starting at $295.
Tiny Capital is a different breed in the micro acquisition space. Unlike some of the other tools mentioned above, it’s a traditional venture capital firm, with a twist.
Instead of buying companies and becoming a micromanaging nightmare, Tiny has a hands-off approach.
Besides the required monthly and quarterly reports, founders rarely have contact with the firm, with some businesses only speaking to Tiny Capital founder, Andrew Wilkinson, once every six months.
Tiny Capital seeks to invest in profitable internet businesses within the information technology sectors.
Think your business would be a good fit?
You need to meet the following requirements:
It’s the perfect micro acquisition option for founders who want a quick sales turn around (most deals are complete within 30 days) and an investor who is going to be seen and not heard.
There are no upfront costs with Tiny. All you need to do is contact the team, and you’ll get a response within 48 hours. If Tiny likes your business, you’ll get an offer within 7 days.
FE International is an acquisition advisory team for businesses earning five figures or more. With a 94.1% sales success rate, it’s one of the top tools for micro startup acquisitions.
As a full-service M&A (mergers and acquisitions service), the platform has integrated solutions for all the major elements of a successful acquisition. From valuation to exit planning to post-sale considerations, it’s all handled under one roof.
FE International specializes in selling websites in the SaaS, content, and e-commerce industries. It’s an excellent choice for startups within the 5 to 8 figure range who want top-tier support throughout the sales process.
There are no listing fees for sellers or joining fees for investors. Brokers are paid a 15% commission fee on all sales, and there is a buyer transaction fee of 2.5% with a maximum threshold of $1,000.
Since opening its doors in 2013, Empire Flippers has sold over $93,000,000 worth of websites and online businesses with an impressive 88% selling success rate.
Empire Flippers is interested in websites within the following categories:
There is an intensive seller vetting process to ensure only quality listings make it onto the marketplace, and there is a dedicated team for each step of the process.
To qualify for a listing on Empire Flippers, you must meet the following requirements:
Empire Flippers has a $297 listing fee for first-time sellers. But if your listing is declined, it is 100% refundable.
If you’re a repeat seller, you’ll only pay $97 to list your site.
Potential buyers must pay a refundable 5% deposit fee to gain access to a listings URL, P&L, and Google Analytics.
There are commission fees ranging from 8% to 15% depending on the final sale price.
The race is on for micro startup acquisitions.
Companies who understand the benefits of expanding their scope by adding complementary products and talent to their portfolio will reap the rewards.
Companies who forgo adding micro acquisitions as part of their mergers and acquisitions strategy are going to get left in the dust by competitors and struggle to find top-tier talent.
In short, there is no better time to be a desirable tiny startup.
Have you ever sold or acquired a micro startup? What has been your experience?
The post Micro Startup Acquisition: The Definitive Guide to Buying and Selling Small Startups appeared first on Neil Patel.
Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Smash your summer selling slump and keep your revenues so hot you could fry an egg on them. And more!
Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.
And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!
Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about cutting costs and improving customer experience with your business’s TV set. That is, if your business has one. Lots of businesses with waiting rooms do. Noobpreneur says there are a few things you can do to take advantage of this bit of advertising real estate.
Our favorite tip was not to advertise your own business. Although of course we can see and applaud the use of a business TV set for this particular purpose.
Nope. What we liked better was using the TV to advertise other businesses. Of course you will charge for the privilege. And keep in mind, this will not succeed if your business isn’t much of a business leader in the area. But if your business fits the bill, then why not try this?
Pro tip: why not reach out directly to related businesses? So, for example, pharmacies could sell advertising space to local dentists. Day spas could sell ad space to local aesthetician-type businesses, such as hairdressers. Marketing synergy is a good thing.
The next awesome tip is about presenting UI/UX designs to non-designers. Dribbble tells us one issue is just plain communicating. So, in the interests of full disclosure – UI means user interface. And UX means user experience.
The idea here is to make your website easy and enjoyable. And it should be clear and easy to understand. If you’ve ever loaded a s…l…o…w website or didn’t know how to get back to an earlier page, then you’ve witnessed, respectively, a lousy user interface and a terrible user experience.
What we really liked were the emphases on identifying a problem and demonstrating how your solution works. For the money people, this is key. After all, why pay for a design overhaul if you’re still left with the same old problems?
If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Smash the summer selling slump and keep your business as hot as a summer sidewalk.
Our following life-changing tip concerns using pull marketing when push marketing just plain isn’t cutting it. Startup Professionals lays it all out for us.
One thing which surprised us was how there are still some 25% of all businesses which don’t use social media at all.
Huh?
We can’t conceive of that these days.
And of the 75% which do, there are a number which just monitor and don’t engage.
Don’t be one of those companies. Not engaging, or worse, not being on social media at all, is like leaving free stuff behind. You’re tossing away free and (pretty) easy chances to get your brand out there.
Why the heck would you do that?
For our next sensational tip, we looked at setting the proper prices for your goods or services. DIY Marketers has all the details.
This is a terrific article, and we recommend reading the whole thing as the process makes the most sense when you look at it in order. It’s a fascinating exercise. But it all starts with one thing – how much do you want to be making?
Say what?
Now this makes more sense than you might think at first glance. Consider this: we have covered goals many, many times here. And what’s the first thing you need for a goal to succeed?
Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller?
You need a target!
And what better target than to decide how much money you want to make?
Let’s play with a few quick numbers, for illustrative purposes only. So let’s say you want to make $100,000 per year. And let’s further say that you sell widgets. If you sell one widget at $100,000 then you’re done, right?
Not so fast.
More expensive goods and services require excellent customer service. So if you sell your one $100,000 widget, then you maybe you need a dedicated person to handle that account. They might not handle any other accounts, in particular if the customer is fussy.
So if you have to hire a dedicated account manager for $50,000 per year, then you’re only making a $50,000 profit on your one overpriced widget ($100,000 profit – $50,000 in overhead costs for your account manager’s annual salary).
Now you need to sell two widgets. And you need an account manager for each of them. This is a simplistic sample. So we’re not looking at other costs such as manufacturing or shipping.
Now let’s sell your widget for $10,000. Your account manager may be able to handle ten accounts now (just to use a simple number here). Understandably, the customer service expectations are lower for cheaper widgets. So if your account manager still makes $50,000 per year, then once five widgets are sold, you’ve paid your account manager’s salary.
Sell 20 widgets and you’ve made your profit (you’re paying 2 account managers at $50,000 per year). If you give your account managers raises, you need to sell more product, or raise the price.
But at least you have a measurable goal. You know how close you are to making it. That matters more than nearly anything when it comes to pricing and budgeting.
This tip is so helpful, and it works! The Work At Home Woman gives us the lowdown on how to get better at selling.
This one, of course, goes far beyond smashing a summer selling slump. It goes directly to the ultimate success – or failure – of your business.
This was our absolute favorite tip. Of course, this can be easier said than done. But the bottom line is, we like to buy from confident people. And there is a huge reason for this.
Who wants to buy from someone who doesn’t seem to believe in their own product?
So no matter if you are desperate in real life – and don’t think there aren’t any seasoned salespeople who aren’t – do your level best not to show it while selling. Now, that may be easier said than done.
But practicing, as the article says, is a great idea. No matter what, you need to know your product or service backwards and forwards. And a quick pro tip from your intrepid blog writer – not having to worry about knowing what to say rather effectively removes one reason to be nervous.
Get out of your summer selling slump and for gosh sakes, don’t let it turn into a winter sales slump.
Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!
The summer selling slump is real. Fundera tells us how to smash it.
Even if you don’t actually have a summer selling slump, the truth of the matter is, your employees are going to be distracted.
The kids are out of school – and perhaps underfoot. It’s light out longer, so the end of the business day doesn’t coincide with nightfall. As a result, the days might feel longer, or shorter. It can be a bit disconcerting during about a month before or after the solstice. In all fairness, the same can happen around the time of the winter solstice.
We loved that some of the best suggestions had to do with keeping employees happy!
A few of these may very well seem like no-brainers. For example, creating Friday hours and allowing work from home seem to be almost intuitive. And so is changing to a casual dress code, even if it’s only for one day a week.
We also liked the idea of hiring a passel of summer interns. They can bring in a fresh perspective, even while they do the scut work. It’s hard to have a summer selling slump when there are new people around, with new perspectives.
Over two decades ago, your intrepid blog writer worked in the insurance industry. Egad, has it really been that long? Eek.
But I digress.
Now, keep in mind that this is before businesses got too comfortable with the internet. And it is also before casual Fridays were the norm, rather than the exception.
So what happened?
We did what we could. And since this was an office in beautiful downtown Boston, there were plenty of places to get the signature food of the summer.
I’m talkin’ ‘bout ice cream, of course.
We used to get cones every Friday, just after lunch. So it would be maybe 2 PM or thereabouts. This activity did not take too long. It had the added bonus of getting outside, however briefly. We would come back to the office if we were not finished beyond a certain time. That was around 1:30 if memory serves.
It was fun and easy. And it didn’t even cost the company any money. We bought our own cones. This tiny break made it a lot more tolerable to sit in an office, in a suit, no less, during the best weather of the year.
Of course, one part of a summer selling slump directly relates to your customers and prospects. Unless you want your employees to just sit around and play backgammon all day long, you are going to want to do something or other to bring in revenue.
So we really liked the idea of test launching a new product. In particular, if your website isn’t too busy, you will have an easier time of it when it comes to A/B testing and other details that go along with launching a product. Now, we would not recommend launching something big during this time. But if you have something minor, or just an extra to fling to the universe, why not do so during the slow months?
If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Smash the summer selling slump and keep your business as hot as a summer sidewalk.
Check out this spectacular tip, all about effective inboard marketing strategies. Word Stream says it’s all about the quality content. That is, the high quality content.
One excellent point W0rd Stream makes at the very start is something we have been observing for quite a while now.
There is just a ton of content out there. And it comes at all of us, 24/7. So what is happening is, essentially, people are tuning out a lot of that content.
Don’t act so surprised! You do it. I do it. Everybody does it.
After all, there are just so many hours in a day. If we felt the need to consume every moment of content, every pixel of it, we would get nothing else done. Ever.
Consider this: in 2017, a good 300 hours of content was uploaded to YouTube. Every. Single Minute.
And that’s just YouTube. So it is just plain not physically possible to consume every bit of content.
As a result, we have all become curators. Like it or not, we sift through the tsunami of content. And we inevitably search for what moves us. This means that ho-hum content is not going to cut it for much longer.
So as a business, your mission is to release quality content.
The article – which we truly feel should be read in its entirety – goes over a lot of familiar forms of content. these include podcasts and, surprise! YouTube videos. And it does our hearts good to see the suggestion of books.
What is this telling us? It’s telling us that longer form content has heft. And that makes a ton of sense. We all consume the equivalent of an all-junk food diet when it comes to most content.
So throw your prospects and customers a full-course meal and they’ll see you as an expert. And that means they will trust your product or service.
It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help keep your sales emails out of prospects’ spam folders. Succeed As Your Own Boss tells us there are some tell-tale signs of spam – at least, that’s according to email carriers and internet service providers.
Some of these may be self-explanatory. For example, clean up your email address lists! The more bouncing back you get, the more you look like a spammer. And don’t email all at once – a big bulk email screams ‘Spam!’
Our favorite tip was to keep triggering words out of your emails! Those are phrases like ‘absolutely free’ or ‘instant access’.
Consider this: if your email looks like spam to you, it’ll look like spam to ISPs and email providers. And, even worse, it’ll look like spam to your customers and prospects.
You don’t want that. Ever.
Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on making your business Instagrammable. Small Biz Trends lets us know all about it.
For some businesses, Instagram is where they post images of their product or service. But for others, customers may be posting about the company.
For those latter businesses in particular, the idea is to showcase the work place well. Our fave tip was to create an interesting wall. That’s a real wall, by the way. The idea is, if there’s a good backdrop for photographs, then people will be all too happy to use it.
This is why you see so many exterior walls with wings or the like.
Pro tip: why not hire an artist for this? This person can even be an art student. Of course, ask for samples to be sure you like what you’re paying for.
And by the way, while this is likely to be best for businesses where the customers come there in person, why not paint an interesting exterior wall? Which just so happens to have your signage in the background?
We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on how to change your business – for the better. Score says there are a number of steps you can take which will help you, no matter what sort of business you’re in.
We particularly loved two ideas – to get organized and to take a class. Both can refresh both you and your business.
Getting organized is key for your business and for you, personally. Consider all the time you may be spending looking for stuff. Now imagine having that time for something a lot more fun. Or more profitable. Or at least something which you need to get done.
Now you can.
And taking a class dovetails well with another tip, which is to get out of your comfort zone. You might be able to save time or money with what you learn. Pretty cold, eh?
But wait, there’s more!
While the article doesn’t get it, we couldn’t help but think about how taking a class in something utterly unrelated to your business can be just about as helpful.
So don’t feel confined to just taking accounting courses or software use training or the like. Unless you want to, of course.
Why not take ceramics, or philosophy, or music theory?
No learning is ever wasted.
So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?
If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Smash the summer selling slump and keep your business as hot as a summer sidewalk.
The post Smash the Summer Selling Slump and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.