Author: Edward Robertson

How to Use YouTube Ads to Grow Your Business

Being a marketer is an interesting job.

On the one hand, you’re expected to keep up with trends. When a new social media platform starts to take off, you’d better be there promoting your brand.

Still, you can’t just blindly follow those trends. Popular platforms become saturated with dozens of competitors, and standing out becomes nearly impossible.

Don’t get me wrong; social media ads can work wonders. I’ve just noticed there are plenty of underutilized marketing platforms right now. The most noticeable of which is YouTube ads.

YouTube ads are one of the most overlooked ad formats in digital marketing, and it’s easy to figure out why.

The massive focus on social media ads combined with the challenge of creating compelling high-quality video content makes YouTube ads a tough sell to small business owners. 

Can YouTube ads be tough to grasp? Sure, at first. Luckily, once you get over that initial hurdle, YouTube ads offer some pretty unique marketing tools you can’t find anywhere else. 

That’s why today, we’re taking a deep dive into the world of YouTube ads, from ad types to strategy. We’ll even walk you through creating your first one!

5 YouTube Ad Types

If you’re unfamiliar with YouTube, their primary advertising format is known as the TrueView ad. Before we can understand the value of skippable in-stream ads, we need to take a closer look at YouTube’s TrueView ad approach. 

TrueView ads were created to solve a massive problem. Before TrueView ads, users lacked any meaningful way to control their advertising experience. Without a way to meaningfully interact with the content, ads ran the risk of being both frustrating and irrelevant. 

YouTube was hoping to present itself as a valuable advertising platform, but its original approach to advertising severely limited the effectiveness and efficiency of brand marketing efforts. No brand wants to waste precious time and money selling to viewers who simply aren’t interested.

Here’s the simple explanation: Your brand only pays for TrueView Ads when viewers watch for at least 30 seconds, watch your entire video, or interact with your ad via call-to-action (CTA). 

1. Skippable In-Stream Ads

YouTube Ads - Skippable In-Stream Ads

The first variation of the TrueView ad is the skippable in-stream ad. At a minimum of 12 seconds and a maximum of six minutes, in-stream ads play before a viewer’s video on YouTube. 

These ads feature a countdown timer on screen, as well as a link to the brand website. You can also tag on a companion banner ad, but it’s worth pointing out these companion banner ads won’t be on all YouTube pages where your in-stream ads are served.

Of course, the most important part of this variant is the option to skip the video ad after five seconds. If they choose to skip and don’t interact with your ad, you don’t have to pay a dime. Assuming you uploaded the video to your YouTube channel, once the viewer watches for 30 seconds, a view is attributed to your view count. 

2. Video Discovery Ads 

YouTube Ads - Video Discovery Ads

TrueView Discovery ads are promoted throughout YouTube, appearing as an image thumbnail with up to three lines of text. These ads function as an entirely optional way for viewers to consume your brand content.

Discovery ads are visible on the YouTube homepage, at the top of a viewer’s YouTube search results, and on the suggested videos list on their video’s watch page. The best part? Your brand doesn’t spend a dime on these ads unless viewers interact with them.

That’s what makes this advertising approach so useful to brands and marketers. TrueView ads work to protect both the viewer’s time and your brand’s money. 

3. Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads

YouTube Ads - Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads

If the TrueView approach just doesn’t interest your brand, YouTube has plenty of other options. Non-skippable ads function a bit differently on this platform. They might look just like skippable ads on the surface, but you’ll be limited to a 15-second ad window for non-skippable ads.

Beyond that, you’ll be dealing with a cost per thousand (CPM) payment structure, forcing you to pay for every thousand views. 

The only scenario where you’d want to use something like this is when you’re dealing with a proven target audience or when your brand is looking to maximize its reach. Otherwise,  there’s a strong chance you could waste time and money selling to the wrong prospects.

4. Bumper Ads

YouTube Ads - Bumper Ads

As you research YouTube ads, you’ll likely come across bumper ads and wonder what purpose they serve. What makes them different from the traditional non-skippable in-stream ad? 

The most significant difference is the duration of your ad window. Instead of 20 seconds, bumper ads are expected to last less than six seconds. 

Why would this distinction matter? Well, a viewer’s time and attention are valuable commodities. YouTube needs to protect their user experience, primarily by providing users with relevant information. YouTube limits these bumper ads to avoid frustrating viewers with non-skippable ads. 

The key to making bumper ads work is creating something memorable. The format might not support long-form stories, but there are plenty of ways to portray your brand in five seconds. 

5. Masthead Ads

YouTube Ads - Masthead Ads

Think of YouTube Masthead as YouTube’s premium advertising experience. Imagine your ad being the first thing viewers see whenever they use the platform. It’s a marketer’s dream come true, and with good reason. 

Of course, there’s a reason you’ve never seen a small business on that masthead. That premium experience comes with a premium price tag. At about $2 million per day, masthead ads are extremely expensive and far beyond the average brand’s marketing budget.

Think of these like Super Bowl ads: impressive reach and traffic, but not reasonable for most marketers. YouTube’s other advertising formats are more cost-effective, easier to experiment with, and generally more valuable to your brand’s marketing journey.

What Makes YouTube Ads Unique?

With all the different variants and the added work of creating a compelling video ad, some marketers might wonder why they should use YouTube ads over social media ads. After all, that’s a ton of extra work when you could just make some simple visuals on Facebook ads.

While it’s certainly easier to make ads on social media, YouTube is a powerful tool for brands looking to promote high-quality video content to a massive audience. In fact, in a side-by-side comparison, an Agorapulse study found YouTube ads produced more views, more clicks, and higher conversions than Facebook Ads!

How to Decide Which Kind of YouTube Ad Is Right for Your Business

You’re ready to get started with your YouTube video ads. You’ve done all your audience and keyword research, and you know what the messaging should look like. Now you just need to pick an ad format.

When you’re first getting started, settling on a format to use can quickly become confusing. Should you use TrueView ads because you’re only charged per interaction? Are impressions more important or is traffic your only priority? 

If you’re completely new to the world of YouTube ads, this breakdown of video ad formats by marketing objective exists to help you take that first step forward. Not to worry, your brand will start to identify what works well over time via testing and data collection.

Brand Consideration: Video Discovery Ads

One of the most compelling reasons to experiment with discovery ads is their potential as a brand consideration tool. 

Instead of focusing on squeezing in a quick ad before someone else’s video, you can integrate your ad content into the YouTube search experience. This is where your keyword research can really shine. Create content that revolves around those low competition keywords with high volume.

When viewers click on your ad, they’ll be taken to your YouTube channel to watch that video. The goal here is less about CTAs and conversion and more about providing a closer look at your brand. If you have great instructional videos or interesting presentations, a discovery ad can work wonders for you.

Brand Awareness: Non-Skippable Ads

For the sake of clarity, let’s define a few terms before we move on. Brand awareness is about maximizing visibility for your brand. Ideally, it lays the foundation for effective lead generation. 

The main objective of lead generation is to both identify likely prospects quickly and offer properly defined metrics. Both lead generation and brand awareness are powerful tools when used correctly, but it’s vital you understand when to best use them.  

Think of brand awareness as the top of the marketing funnel, leading into quality lead generation.

If your primary marketing goal is casting a wide net, non-skippable ads can effectively raise awareness for your brand. These ads can appear pre-roll, mid-roll, or even post-roll. If you’re worried about placement, YouTube serves these ads whenever they believe viewers are most likely to watch.

Lead Generation: TrueView In-Stream Ads

Maximizing brand awareness is great, but if you want to turn your traffic into interested prospects, you’ll need ad content that truly converts. 

TrueView in-stream ads are perfect for this because they’re designed to be skippable. They introduce a level of reliability to the marketing experience. This potential prospect found the first five seconds of your ad compelling and was willing to stick around.

My favorite part? If a viewer doesn’t want to consume your content, they can just leave, at no cost to you. If the viewer does want to interact, they’ve now provided you with some very valuable information. They’re genuinely interested in your brand! 

Message Reinforcement: Bumper Ads

Let’s say you’ve already established an audience via digital media. You want to get a message out to them, maybe to announce your latest shoe release or phone launch. You need to maximize your budget, but you don’t really need to educate your target audience on the brand.

This is one of the scenarios where bumper ads perform well. The bumper ad doesn’t allow for much in terms of storytelling or education. What it can do is allow just enough time to hype up a new product or service. 

Reach: Masthead Ads

We’ve already established that Masthead ads aren’t for the average small business. While they may not be a cost-effective way to market your brand, they do highlight a lesson about ad budgets in marketing: specifically, the concept of ROI. 

On the surface, spending millions of dollars on a single ad can seem ridiculous. What if the messaging doesn’t land perfectly? What if you were wrong about the target audience’s pain points? It seems like such a massive risk. Still, massive brands are doing this regularly. Why?

Well, consider how these massive brands approach marketing. With millions on the line, their latest marketing campaign is composed of detailed, layered strategy with one element at its center: data, and lots of it.

This data, likely collected over several years, confirms they’ll receive a positive ROI from this investment. Where small brands see risk, massive brands see growth opportunities. 

Of course, it’s not like only massive brands are entitled to that level of confidence. The commitment to making data-driven decisions is what elevates any marketing strategy. 

Masthead ads aren’t impressive because they’re expensive. They’re impressive because they show that with enough data, even the biggest risks become manageable. 

How to Create a Video Ad for YouTube

Let’s say you’ve never created a video ad before. All this video ad strategy sounds great, but it won’t make you a master visual content creator overnight. Fortunately, you don’t need to spend months learning how to edit to make compelling videos. When in doubt, a little external guidance goes a long way.

Google is hard at work getting YouTube Video Builder, their accessible video creation software, ready for the public. In the meantime, tools like Promo and Animoto walk you through the process of building strong video ads in minutes. 

Measure the Success of Your YouTube Ads

YouTube ads track plenty of metrics for you automatically, everything from watch time to engaged-views data is available, if you’re interested. 

Unfortunately, that much information can be overwhelming when you’re new to the platform. When you’re first getting started, focus on view rate for skippable ads. This is essentially your true engagement rate, determining how well you can turn viewers into interested prospects. 

If your view rate is low, there are a few possibilities. Maybe your headline doesn’t draw people in. Maybe your video doesn’t capture the viewer’s attention quickly enough. Remember those first five seconds need to be compelling.

For non-skippable ads, the focus is still on engagement. The only difference is that you’ll use click-through rate (CTR) to determine whether your ad connects your target audience. 

If your CTR is unusually low, there are two possibilities. Either the video is being delivered to the wrong audience or the video itself is not connecting with your target audience. I advise testing for both by experimenting with different target audiences and creating multiple videos. 

How to Create YouTube Ads

Ready to get started? Here’s how to create your first YouTube ad.

  1. Upload Your Video 

    Log into your brand’s YouTube account and click on the camcorder icon on the top-right of YouTube. Then, click “Upload Video.”

    From there, you’ll be taken to the upload window where you can now upload your video. Make sure you fill in title, description, and tag information.

  2. Create Your Campaign

    Sign in to your Google Ads Account and select “New Campaign.”
    You’ll see an option to choose a campaign goal, but just click on “create a campaign without a goal’s guidance” for now. You can now select a campaign type, so select “Video” or “Display,” based on your goals.

    For our purposes, we’re going to focus on the “Video” option. At this point, you’ll be asked to select a campaign subtype. Select the most appropriate option and click “Continue.”

  3. Configure Your Campaign

    Now that you’ve created your campaign, it’s time to configure it properly. Start by giving your campaign a name for easy data collection.

    Then, confirm your bid strategy, ad budget, and campaign duration. From there, also confirm your networks, locations, and languages.

    Content exclusions are in this section as well. This determines where your ads are shown. If your brand is typically family-friendly, you’ll likely want to choose limited inventory. If your brand is more mature, expanded inventory could be a good fit. You can also exclude certain types of content and labels here.

  4. Target Your Audience

    When targeting your audience, start by defining their demographic information including age, gender, parental status, and household income. Google also lets you experiment with some more specific audiences like “bachelor’s degree” or “health care industry.”

    Use keywords, topics, and placements to further narrow down your targeting.

  5. Finalize Your Ad

    Set your maximum bid. In the “Create your video ad” section, find your YouTube video and choose the appropriate video ad format (as listed in the above sections.)

    Once your video ad format is selected, fill in the “Final URL” and “Display URL” sections. You can also include your call-to-action and your headline here.
    You can auto-generate a companion banner, or upload your own below.
    Once you’re ready, click “Create Campaign” and you’re all set!

Final Thoughts on Growing Your Business With YouTube Ads

Listen, I get it. Wrapping your head around YouTube ad creation can be a bit of a challenge at first. 

The idea behind this guide is to arm you with a strong foundational understanding of how YouTube ads function, and how you can make your own.

Feel free to bookmark this guide if you ever need a refresher course, especially when it comes to campaign and video creation. 

Fortunately, YouTube ads function just like any other digital marketing platform. Focus on your key metrics, test regularly, and above all else, respect the data. The path to consistent growth might not be glamorous, but it certainly gets results.

What digital marketing platform do you think is underutilized right now?

7 Advanced Facebook Search Operators

Facebook might have started as a way to connect college students, but today it is a full-fledged search engine, much like Google or Bing. The social media giant’s rise to search engine status includes the addition of advanced features, like Facebook search operators.

What are Facebook search operators, and why should you care about them?

Search operators are a powerful tool for filtering search results, but they also have added benefits for marketers and business owners.

Before we get into that, let’s first talk about what search operators are and why they matter.

What Are Search Operators?

Search operators are advanced search commands that make it easier to filter search results based on what you do (or don’t) want to see in search results.

For example, if you were looking up recipes for chicken soup but didn’t want to see results from Pinterest, you could use a search operator to remove Pinterest results by typing in:

“Chicken soup -pinterest”

facebook search operators - pinterest example

Google uses a wide range of these search functions that make it easier to use the search engine, including:

  • @: to search social media sites
  • $: to search for a price
  • –: to leave a word out
  • “Quotes”: to search for an exact match
  • . . .: to search a range of numbers
  • OR: to combine searches
  • Site: to search a specific site
  • Related: to search for similar websites

You can also combine these commands if you want to get fancy. For example, you could use “@ neil patel OR kelsey jones” to search for social accounts for both Neil Patel and Kelsey Jones.

Search operators make it easier to find the exact data you are looking for, but they also come in handy for marketers.

4 Reasons to Use Facebook Search Operators

Facebook used to have a feature called the Facebook Graph Search, which allowed users to search for specific content on the platform by using sentences rather than just keywords. It also allowed you to find who liked a page or visited a specific city.

Facebook Graph was changed in 2019, making it much harder to search the platform. Search operators, however, fill that gap by allowing users to search for highly specific content.

How can Facebook search operators help marketers? Here are a few ways you can use those advanced search features:

  1. Research your competitors: See what your competition is up to, including what type of content they share and what topics they talk about. You can also find new competitors in your geographical area.
  2. Find content to share: Search for multiple topics or exact phrase matches to find content your audience will connect with.
  3. Find user-generated content (UGC): Search for your brand name (and common misspellings of your brand name) to find content users have shared about your brand, even if they didn’t tag you.
  4. Research your audience: Understanding who your audience is and what type of content they like can help you build a stronger relationship. Use Facebook search operators to find content on related topics or specific phrases.

7 Facebook Search Operators to Try (and How to Use Them)

Facebook search operators use Boolean operators, which are the basis of database logic. In layperson’s terms, Boolean operators are terms that allow you to broaden or tighten the search results. For example, you could use AND to search for two search terms at the same time.

Below, I’ll cover how to perform each type of Facebook search, explain what information it will help you find, and explore how to use the search operators to grow your business.

I know it might sound complicated, but I promise it’s pretty simple, and the results are worth the effort.

1. Basic Boolean Facebook Search

Boolean searches don’t work using Facebook search, so you’ll need to use Google to perform all the searches we’re about to cover.

Using site: before the name of a site will display search results just for that specific website. Here’s how it works in practice. Type in site:facebook and then whatever search term you’re searching.

Example:

site:facebook.com my favorite murder podcast

This will display the results of groups or posts about the My Favorite Murder podcast.

Facebook Search Operators to Try - Basic Boolean Facebook Search

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Use this to find groups, pages, and users related to a specific topic. For example, if your target audience is small business owners, you could search for groups and pages for small business owners.

Pro tip: This search works for all websites, not just Facebook. Say you want to find a post from your favorite digital marketing blog or by a specific writer. Then you would perform a search for “site: <website URL> <the term you’re looking for>.”

2. Boolean Facebook Search for Two Terms Needing to Be Present

Using the AND Boolean search function, you can search for two terms simultaneously. For example, if you want to find information about digital marketing and small businesses, you would search:

site:facebook.com digital marketing AND small business

This will display search results related to both digital marketing and small businesses:

Facebook Search Operators to Try - Basic Boolean Facebook Search for Two Terms Needing to Be Present

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Perform competitive research for a specific niche or find groups your target audience belongs to on Facebook.

3. Boolean Facebook Search for One of Two Terms Needing to Be Present

Similar to the AND function, this search operator allows you to find results for one term or another. Unlike AND, which requires both terms to be present, the OR function allows you to find results including either term.

Let’s say you have a software company that targets customers who have SaaS (software as a service) or those who have a membership site. You would search:

site:facebook.com SaaS OR membership sites

The results will display groups, pages, and posts related to SaaS or membership sites.

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Research several competitors simultaneously or search for content related to your brand using both your official brand name and a misspelling or commonly used term.

For example, site:facebook.com Moz OR Hubspot would return terms related to both brand names.

4. Boolean Facebook Search for Terms That Should Not Be Present

What if you want to search for a specific term, but you keep getting unrelated results? The NOT Boolean function allows you to remove unrelated search terms.

For example, let’s say you are looking to hire a web developer, but you keep seeing results for designers. You would search:

site:facebook.com web developer NOT designer

The results will include videos, pages, and profiles related to web developers but not web designers.

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Search for employees or more specific content related to your industry by excluding specific terms. You can also use it to narrow geographical areas with the same or similar names, such as Paris, Georgia NOT France.

5. Boolean Facebook Search for Exact Phrase

Google and Facebook’s search features have gotten smarter in recent years, but sometimes they still don’t get it quite right. If you find your search results are slightly off, you can use the exact phrase match search operator.

This Boolean function tells search engines to only return matches that are precisely the same as your search.

To use this function, add quotation marks to the term you want to search.

Example:

site:facebook.com “mexican restaurant in kansas city”

A list of Mexican restaurants’ Facebook pages will appear in the SERPs, like this:

Facebook Search Operators to Try - Basic Boolean Facebook Search for Exact Phrase

Remember this is an exact match search. The search engine won’t return results that deviate even slightly. Search results for “mexican restaurant in kansas city” versus “mexican restaurants in kansas city” could be extremely different.

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Find competitors in your area or look for groups or videos related to a specific key term. It might also help you find UGC if your brand name is very similar to another brand or phrase.

6. Boolean Facebook Search to Fill in Blanks

What if you don’t know exactly what you are looking for? The fill-in-the-blank function might come in handy. For example, if you’re looking for a specific person but can’t quite remember their name, you can use an * (asterisk) to tell Google to fill in the blank.

Say you work for Hardrock Cafe and are looking for UGC. Some users might type in Hard Rock Cafe, while others might use Hardrock Cafe. The fill-in-the-blank search operator will return results for both.

Here’s how to use it:

site:facebook.com hard * cafe

Note that this will turn up more than just Hard Rock and HardRock; it returns any results that include Hard and Cafe, no matter what is between them.

Facebook Search Operators to Try - Basic Boolean Facebook Search to Fill In Blanks

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Use the fill-in-the-blank function to find information about terms that are often misspelled or formatted differently, or if you can’t remember the exact spelling. This search operator is ideal when users might not remember the exact format of your brand name. It can also help with competitive research by broadening searches.

7. Boolean Facebook Search for Local Businesses

Facebook is a powerful tool for local SEO, with more than 1.85 billion daily active users in the United States alone. Using a search operator for local searches can help marketers and business owners find local businesses.

Say you are considering opening a coffee shop in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. You could use this search:

site:facebook.com coffee shop rogers park chicago

This returns a list of all the coffee shops in that neighborhood.

How to Use This Facebook Search Operator to Grow Your Business

Local businesses can perform competitive analysis or market research to find local businesses in their niche. It might also help you to find brands for a cross-promotion strategy. 

Conclusion

Search algorithms have come a long way in recent years. However, they aren’t perfect.

Facebook search operators let you filter and refine search results for competitive analysis, find content to share with your users, and even locate groups where your target audience hangs out.

If you want to improve your Facebook marketing strategy, search operators are another tool in your toolbelt. 

Have you used Facebook search operators before? Which one is most useful?

The post 7 Advanced Facebook Search Operators appeared first on Neil Patel.

The Good and Bad of Deadstock Products for E-commerce

E-commerce retailers face many obstacles in the realm of online business.

A common yet persistent issue is deadstock products.

The accumulation of deadstock inventory can drive up operational and warehouse costs. As more products enter the warehouse, the cost of storing unsold items can drain the valuable financial resources of your business.

What’s more, seasonal trends and products make it difficult to eliminate deadstock products completely.

How to solve this problem? This article explains how to avoid deadstock and how to get rid of it when it piles up in your warehouse.

Let’s start with the definition for deadstock first.

What Does Deadstock Mean?

Deadstock is synonymous with dead inventory.

These are items that haven’t been sold and are very unlikely to sell. If you don’t use an inventory management system, these goods likely pile up and remain forgotten in your warehouse.

An alternative definition of “deadstock” refers to goods that are no longer sold in stores. In this case, these deadstock goods, like unused or unworn shoes or vintage apparel, are sold at much higher rates.

For the purposes of this article, we won’t explore the latter definition in this post.

Is Deadstock Bad for Business?

Deadstock comes with a price.

Retailers won’t be able to recoup the cost of manufacturing products if they never sell.  

As a result, unwanted items take up space in your warehouse. A longer stay means more storage costs for your business.

How to calculate deadstock? To understand its consequences for your business, calculate the costs involved in holding onto these useless products.

List rental costs, utilities, equipment, insurance, and security used to guard your items.

Ideally, businesses make up for these costs through sales, but deadstock products remain stagnant in your warehouse. Instead of making a profit, retailers pay to keep these useless goods.

Deadstock also has an attached opportunity cost.

The space occupied by these items could have been used for “headstock” or highly profitable and bestselling items, which instantly make a profit for your business.

How to Avoid Deadstock

In my experience, you need to avoid deadstock as much as possible.

Business of Fashion reports that dead inventory costs around $50 billion per year for the US retail industry.

If a retail brand’s standard margin is around 60%, then a deadstock worth $40,000 represents around $100,000 worth of retail sales and $60,000 of gross margin dollars.

I’ve advised a lot of e-commerce stores, and I can tell you it’s best to avoid deadstock than to wait for it to snowball at a later time.

So today, I’ll share tips for avoiding deadstock.  

1. Improve Inventory Management For Less Deadstock

Inventory management is a major cause of deadstock.

Fortunately, an inventory management system can guarantee your inventory is monitored and managed appropriately.

Here are some popular inventory management systems:

  • inFlow Inventory: an inventory management system that can manage up to 100 products.
  • Sortly Pro: a cloud-based inventory management system that can handle up to 100 transaction entries per month.
  • Odoo: a free open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
  • ZhenHub: a cloud-based inventory management system for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

There is no right or wrong inventory management system. Instead, find a solution that meets your needs.

Once you have a system in place, keep track of the products on your shelves, as well as those that end up as dead inventory. In addition, you must identify the products with no sales or low sales for the past year.

An intelligent inventory management system can identify bestselling items, allowable return dates, expiration dates, as well as flopped goods you’re better off without.

2. Discount Potential Deadstock Items

Pay attention to what’s selling and what’s not.

Take into account the latest market trends. What are the popular products people love? How long will this trend last?

Seasonal products might be selling like hot cakes for the first few weeks, but the excitement fades eventually.

A good tip is to discount potential deadstock items by hosting end-of-season sales.

For example, Patagonia, The North Face, and H&M frequently have end-of-season sales to sell their jackets and coats once the winter season ends. This way, they can get rid of deadstock items and make way for next season’s collections.

Perishable goods won’t be sellable after their expiration date has passed. That’s precisely why you must monitor items that will almost reach their expiration date and then offer them at discounted prices.

Tools like Wasteless utilize AI to prevent food waste through a dynamic pricing model. By using machine learning, they can use variables like brand popularity, seasonal popularity, and expiration dates to determine the real-time price of perishable goods.  

Deadstock products for e commerce Wasteless tool

Of course, your profit margins will be lower than expected for discounted products. However, a discount helps you get rid of unpopular products, and it’s a lot better than stocking these goods in a warehouse and paying more for storage.

At the very least, you have an opportunity to make up for the manufacturing costs and break even.

3. Know Your Target Audience

This happens all the time: You promote the product, but it just won’t sell.

If an item remains unsold despite numerous promotions, your target audience probably doesn’t want them.

Every time you source potential products to sell, you must understand the conditions you are dealing with.

This is why market research and surveys are crucial to your success. The socioeconomic profile, gender, location, and interests of your audience can predict the outcome of the sales of your store.

So, before you pay for manufacturing costs, ensure your consumers want the product.

To get started, create a marketing persona for your online store. This doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here’s an example of a marketing persona that considers the demographics and characteristics of your consumers:

Deadstock products for e commerce Know your target audience

Another idea is to perform market research by sending regular surveys to pinpoint your customers’ needs. I highly recommend getting current customers as respondents because they’ve experienced your product and likely fit with the profile of your target market.

Survey Monkey recommends asking these questions to evaluate the product/market fit.

  • How did you find this product?
  • How would you feel if this product was no longer available?
  • What are the benefits of using this product?
  • What alternatives would you use if this product was no longer available?
  • Have you recommended using this product to anyone?

It’s best to conduct surveys regularly to identify opportunities within your target market.

Also, understand the items and trends that customers love and take them into consideration for future product releases. You can use inventory management software to identify products that sold out quickly to make sure you’re selling the products that shoppers need.

Having more bestselling items is key to the elimination of deadstock, and while you won’t always be able to sell 100% of items in your inventory, knowing your customers and assessing product/market fit will help reduce the accumulation of deadstock.

4. Diversify Your Products to Avoid Deadstock

You may opt to sell bestselling items only to avoid deadstock completely.

However, you must guarantee that most of the bestselling items in your store don’t have the same features or characteristics. Otherwise, you can get more deadstock too.

Having too many similar items may mean cannibalization. Some customers may prefer one brand or item over another, which leads to low sales numbers for other goods.

This is common for retailers offering similar items from multiple brands.

Diversify your product inventory to avoid this consequence.

A good tip is to add complementary products of existing items in your e-commerce store. For starters, complementary goods are products that are used together. They may be completely different from an item you’re selling, but their combination of complementary goods will sweeten the deal.

For example, if you’re an iPhone retailer, then add iPhone cases and accessories to your arsenal. As the value of the latest iPhone decreases, it may become more mainstream. Thus, more people will be buying your cases and accessories in the future.

Deadstock products for e commerce Diversify your products

Alternatively, you can offer an assortment of related products, instead of selling them separately.

For instance, Harry’s – a men’s grooming brand – offers a “Truman Set,” which includes a foam shave gel, blades, and razors packed in one convenient package.

Deadstock products for e commerce men s grooming brand

How Do I Get Rid Of Deadstock?

Now, if you already have deadstock, it’s time to get rid of it.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Return Deadstock Items To Suppliers

If you’re in the window to return, this may be the best option.

In the short-run, you’ll pay a small fee, but at least you can avoid a major loss and more deadstock.  

As long as the items are in good condition, you may be able to return them to the supplier. However, review the return policy of suppliers first to guarantee they allow this method.

Most suppliers have a restocking fee worth 10% of the merchandise. You’ll likely get an option to pay in credit rather than cash.

2. Put Deadstock in Clearance Sections and Bundles

What if you sold some items at a discount, but it just won’t sell? You can take it even further.

Find out the lowest price that you can sell these products. Then bundle related and complementary products together and sell them as a set.

For example, Glossier bundles related items together and offers them at a discounted price. Many beauty enthusiasts prefer a complete set sold at a discounted rate, rather than purchasing a single item with no discount.

Deadstock products for e commerce Put deadstock in clearance section

If you have a lot of stocks with the same item, get rid of them through freebies and giveaways. Consumers love to get free stuff, so it may compel them to return to your online store and make a purchase.  

During the holidays, you can bundle items to create holiday gift sets with an assortment of products.

For example, Soko Glam bundles miniature-sized skincare products and sells them as a gift set for the season of giving. Plus, customers who make orders above $135 will receive a Dreamy Satin Pillowcase while supplies last.

how to get rid of deadstock

3. Sell to Deadstock Buyers

You’ll likely lose some cash, but getting some money back is better than a total loss.

Here are some deadstock buyers to consider:

  • Wholesale: If you have a lot of deadstock in good condition, you can sell them to wholesalers. For clothing retailers, popular boutique wholesale clothing suppliers include Sugarlips Wholesale, Bloom Wholesale, Wholesale Fashion Square, Tasha Apparel, Magnolia Fashion Wholesale, and LAShowRoom.
  • Amazon Seller Central: Amazon has a Seller Central where you can adjust the pricing or match your competitor’s lowest price.
  • eBay: Deadstock consisting of repaired or returned products could be sold to eBay at drastically reduced costs.
  • Consignment shops and warehouses: These buyers usually purchase clothing, home goods, and old items that could be sold at low prices.
  • Closeout liquidators: These businesses can buy a bulk of your deadstock and resell it in their own stores at cheaper prices.

4. Donate Deadstock to Charities

Finally, if a product just won’t sell, consider donating it to charity.

Donating to charity is a popular option for clothing retailers. You can sell deadstock items to discount stores like T.J.Maxx or the Outnet as a last-ditch attempt to make sales.

Some foundations like The Salvation Army and Oxfam accept donated clothes.

We bet there are many charities in your local communities and cities. You can donate to any organization, just make sure it’s legal. Find a reputable charity where you can sell your items.

While you may not be able to sell these goods, you can claim a tax write off for donating them. If handled well, this initiative will make your business look good.

Conclusion

If you want to eliminate deadstock products, make an active effort to find products that will sell.

Use an inventory management system to track unwanted items in your inventory. Bundle deadstock products and sell them as gift bundles or give them away as freebies. As a last resort, you can even sell deadstock products to wholesalers, consignment shops, Amazon, or eBay.

There are many options to avoid the accumulation of deadstock and get rid of unsold items stuck in your inventory,

How will you avoid deadstock products?

The post The Good and Bad of Deadstock Products for E-commerce appeared first on Neil Patel.

MessageBird (YC S16) Is Hiring Engineering Managers

Article URL: https://www.messagebird.com/en/careers-job/?gh_jid=4802218002&gh_src=6ede66ac2us

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24671384

Points: 1

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Reward Based Crowdfunding vs. Equity Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding can be a great option for funding a business, if you run a successful campaign.  The problem is, though some campaigns are very successful, many are not.  It helps to understand the different options available.

Which Option is Best for Your Business: Reward Based Crowdfunding or Equity Crowdfunding?

There are many benefits to crowdfunding, the most popular being the debt free financing of your business. However, there are a couple of different types of crowdfunding, and there are even more platform options.  Some options work better for certain types of businesses than others.

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

What is Reward Based Crowdfunding

rewards based crowdfunding Credit SuiteReward based crowdfunding is crowdfunding in which backers receive a reward for their investment.  This could be something as simple as a thank you note or as elaborate as the actual product.  For example, a jewelry maker may offer a free pair of earrings.  

One smart jacket company offered free coats with investment, and a cooler company offered free coolers.  One word of warning, be sure you can keep your promises.  More than one company has gone south or at least ended up in major trouble because they could not keep their promise to investors. 

What are Some Benefits of Reward Based Crowdfunding?

The biggest benefit of reward based crowdfunding is that it’s one of the cheapest ways to raise capital.  There is no collateral requirement and no credit check or prior business experience required.  There is no need to have professional financial or legal help, as the process is simple.  You do not give up any equity or control in your company, and you get tons of exposure to your audience on the front end. 

That said, it’s not all sunshine.  Many, if not most, campaigns do not raise enough funds to fully finance the business.  That means other means of financing have to be utilized. Also, some platforms will not allow you to access any of the money if you do not reach your goal.  

Reward  Based Crowdfunding vs. Equity Crowdfunding

The major difference in these two types of crowdfunding is what investors get for their investment.  With reward based crowdfunding, investors receive some incentive for their donation that is not equity in the company.  With equity-based crowdfunding, the investor receives equity, or a share in the company. 

Another difference is that, as a general rule, equity-based crowdfunding brings in larger amounts of money.  This is because it draws a different type of investor.  The question then becomes, why doesn’t everyone choose that?  The key is, some businesses are better suited for equity-based crowdfunding and some are better suited for reward based crowdfunding. 

Is Reward Based Crowdfunding Best for Your Business? 

So, which types of businesses do best with crowdfunding based on rewards rather than equity? Typically, this works best for startups in creative fields.  Those that do not qualify for traditional business loans, but have a strong project.  Sometimes these businesses just want to test the market, and a crowdfunding platform is a great place to do that. 

It doesn’t really work well for those businesses with a complicated product or service.  It can be hard to explain the value of these types of companies to the masses.  This type of funding tends to work best for businesses that offer:

  • New Local Services 

If you think about it, this  makes sense.  If you want to open a local business, especially in an area where there is a direct need, it could do well with small business crowdfunding.  Local Lift is designed specifically for local businesses to request funding, gauge interest, and even build a customer base before opening.

  • New High-Tech Gadgets

This doesn’t mean just a new take on what is already out there.  Rather, this is something that is completely unique.  That is what is going to get the most support.  Also, it needs to have a working prototype and there needs to be research behind it. 

  • Unique Inventions for the Home

This category gets a ton of support, especially for items that solve everyday problems. For example, the fly killing salt shotgun and the wet diaper sensor have seen great success!

  • New Tools for Cooking at Home

These are gadgets that will let you do something at home that you normally can’t.  An example is carbonating your own soda.  Another one is  something that lets you cook things faster, or easier.  Items that serve multiple purposes are another option.  Maybe an easy way to make sushi at home?  New kitchen tools for the home are often successful.

Platforms for Reward Based Crowdfunding and Equity Crowdfunding

How do you get started with crowdfunding of any type?  There are a number of platforms out there.  Some are only for offering rewards.  Others allow you to offer equity as well. The most popular are Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but they are not the only players in the game. 

Kickckstarter

With over 14 million backers, Kickstarter is one of the largest crowdfunding platforms in the world.  They boast over 130,000 funded projects. These include products and services related to:

  • Publishing
  • The arts and film
  • Comics and illustration
  • Design and tech

Kickstarter requires you to have a prototype. In addition, projects cannot be for charity.  However, nonprofits can use Kickstarter.  This is one platform that does not allow equity crowdfunding.

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

Other banned projects and perks include anything to do with:

  • Contests and raffles
  • Cures and medicines
  • Credit services
  • Live animals
  • Alcohol
  • Weapons

Kickstarter will collect a 5% fee on all funds.  They also use a payment processor, Stripe, that applies payment processing fees (roughly 3-5%). Unsuccessful campaigns do not pay a fee. There are also fees of 3% + $0.20 per pledge. Pledges under $10 have to pay a discounted micro pledge fee of 5% + $0.05 per pledge.

Indiegogo

Indiegogo has over 9 million investors. They do not allow campaign goals below $500. Also, they charge 5% platform fees and 3% + 30¢ third-party credit card fees. Note that fees are deducted from the amount raised, not the goal. As a result, if you raise more than your goal, you will pay more in fees. They do not accept PayPal.

Indiegogo is noteworthy because they offer flexible financing in addition to fixed financing options. So, if you do not make your goal and you chose flexible funding, you can at least hold onto what you collected. This is the opposite of how crowdfunding normally works.

RocketHub

RocketHub is better suited for those who need venture capital. They give you an ELEQUITY Funding Room. There, you can pitch your idea and see if it stimulates any interest from donors.

This platform is specifically for business owners working on projects related to:

  • Art
  • Business
  • Science
  • Social

If you achieve your fundraising goal, you will pay a fee of 4%. In addition, you’ll pay a 4% credit card handling fee. But if you do not reach your goal, then that fee jumps up to 8% plus the credit card handling fee. That means RocketHub is best for companies that are more confident they will make their goals.

CircleUp

CircleUp aims to help up and coming brands and companies raise capital for growth projects. However, companies must apply and show revenue of at least $1 million to get a listing on the site. That said, the platform will sometimes make exceptions.

CircleUp can be good for those who already have a somewhat established business. That includes business owners who want both funding and guidance in order to take their businesses to the next level.

If your business gets approval for listing on CircleUp, the fee percentage comes from the total amount you raise.

GoGetFunding

GoGetFunding has been around since 2011. They let fundraisers keep the money they raise, regardless of whether they meet their target. If your business idea is unproven and you are unsure of whether you can meet your funding needs with a crowdfunding for business campaign, flexible funding can be a great option.

They charge a 6.9% fee. This is pretty high, but it includes both the platform fee and the payment processing fee. Therefore, it is actually more cost-effective than many other crowdfunding for business options.

Crowdfunder

With Crowdfunder, investors purchase equity in promising companies. They consider campaigns to be deals, and its donors are investors. Self-start listings are $499/month. Self-start plus is $999/month.  In their community, there are over 15,000 investors and 200,000 startups.

Fundable

This is a crowdfunding for business platform that allows companies to raise funds from investors, customers, and friends. They have over $80 million in funding commitments.

Fundable does allow equity crowdfunding campaigns. Also, they charge $179 per month to raise funds. Fees on rewards are: 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction. They do not charge success fees.

Fundly

Fundly allows for crowdfunding for creative ventures. If your business has a creative lean, this might work for you.

There is no minimum amount to fundraise or to keep money you raise. You can usually withdraw payments within 24 – 48 hours of the donation. In addition, they offer automatic transfers. It is free to create and share an online fundraising campaign.

Yet, Fundly will deduct a 4.9% fee from each donation you get. A credit card processing fee of 3% is also taken out from each donation. Also, there are nonspecific automatic discounts for larger campaigns.

Tips for a Winning Campaign

There is no such thing as guaranteed success.  These steps can help make sure you give yourself the best chance possible when it comes to fundraising through crowdfunding. 

Research

You have to know your market and what demand looks like.  The only way to find that out is to research. Figure out how much money you actually need before you set your goal. Lots of business owners have started crowdfunding campaigns only to find the demand isn’t there or their goal fell short of the actual need.

Make a Prototype

Truly, you have to have a sample to show investors. It’s important. People are almost always more likely to let go of money if they can see something tangible. This is so vital that Kickstarter actually requires you to have a prototype to show potential investors

Think About Which Platform You Should Choose

Once you know who your target audience is, you can determine if you would be best served by Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or another, lesser known platform. If your audience doesn’t use the platform you are on, it won’t matter how great your idea or product is. They’ll never see it.

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

Give Good Stuff!

This is huge.  Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and don’t give away the company. Still, if someone one is going to help you get started, they deserve something amazing.  Offer more than a thank you note. Be bold with what you offer as a reward for their support, without harming your success.

Goal Setting is a Must

Setting goals you can reach is necessary to success. Make certain you look at the numbers in relation to actual facts before you set a fundraising goal. Be certain you have production facilities on the line that can meet the timeline goals. Do not randomly set goals with no clue what it will take to reach them. 

Marketing Matters

You can’t just throw any old campaign together. If you create a video, it needs to be professionally edited. Any social media should be specifically targeted toward your audience. If they are a techy audience, pull out all the tech stops.  If they are an older crew, they may need less fanfare and a more straightforward approach.  The fact that videos work well reigns pretty much across audience lines however, so definitely consider a video. 

Is Reward Based Crowdfunding for Your Business? 

The answer is, it depends.  It is worth a shot for many businesses, but for sure it should not be counted on as a total funding solution.  There are some campaigns that raise all the money they need, but that is usually the exception rather than the rule.  Most have to explore other funding options as well.  However, you will have a much higher chance of success if you choose the right type of crowdfunding, the right platform, and the perfect marketing plan for your specific business.

The post Reward Based Crowdfunding vs. Equity Crowdfunding appeared first on Credit Suite.

Why Owners Opt for Small Business Credit Cards

Why Owners Opt for Small Business Credit Cards

The small company bank card market is a quickly expanding market in the monetary solutions market. If you are preparing to get small company bank card, see just how your factors compare to those of various other company charge card owners:

· Business charge card give reputation as well as authenticity to your service. It is an abstract advantage, yet when business bank card business authorizes a company charge card for your small company, it provides a signal to various other sellers that your service has excellent, audio credit history. An organisation charge card is a really reputable imprimatur.

· For the start-up local business, or one which has a ruined document, an organisation charge card permits your service to restore a credit score or develop background. By making sure that this credit rating continues to be constantly favorable, you will certainly develop the structure for protecting a company finance or credit line need to you choose to broaden business in the future. Business bank card is your ensured credit line in the meantime.

· Monthly overhead are simpler to track with a company bank card. The regular monthly service bank card account declaration aids with the settlement of the acquisitions you make in support of your service.

· The efficiency of business charge card declaration is not restricted to tracking overhead. When you prepare your publications and also your monetary records for earnings taxes functions, it can additionally be utilized as a dependable– and also appropriate– alternate docudrama evidence.

· Business bank card and also individual charge card have comparable advantages as well as benefits. When you have a company charge card, you will certainly have a different possibility to take pleasure in price cuts, money back as well as awards factors on acquisitions of the solutions as well as items required for your organisation.

· When you have company charge card released to your workers, they can make acquisitions in behalf of your firm without progressing their very own funds, or utilize business bank card when they take a trip for service. Their use business charge card makes it simpler to represent costs.

· When you bill acquisitions to service credit scores cards, you obtain the opportunity to appreciate money discount rates. Costs to your service credit history cards constantly count as money acquisitions, considering that your organisation credit history card company will certainly take treatment of paying them soon later on.

· The acquisitions you make on your service charge card might get unique insurance coverage securities from business bank card business. In situation something ends up incorrect with the product you acquired through your company charge card, as well as the seller is not happy to return your cash, the insurance coverage security will certainly cover the quantity.

· There is rightful problem concerning the high rate of interest prices on company credit report cards. If you intend to bring an equilibrium, make certain you locate the service credit rating card with reduced passion prices.

When you do a whole lot of traveling, · The benefits service credit report cards provide excellent advantage.

Basically, it makes great company feeling to have an organisation bank card or 2 available.

· Business credit score cards give integrity and also authenticity to your company. It is an abstract advantage, yet when the service credit scores card firm accepts a company credit rating card for your little company, it offers a signal to various other sellers that your service has excellent, audio credit scores. · For the start-up tiny service, or one which has a ruined document, an organisation credit history card permits your organisation to restore a credit history or develop background. By guaranteeing that this credit scores background continues to be continually favorable, you will certainly develop the structure for protecting a service lending or line of credit score must you determine to increase the service in the future. Fees to your company debt cards constantly count as cash money acquisitions, because your service credit rating card provider will certainly take treatment of paying them soon after that.

The post Why Owners Opt for Small Business Credit Cards appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.

OneSignal is hiring a Back end Engineering Manager interested in Go and Rust

Article URL: https://onesignal.com/careers/76fc9e90-4b89-4c0b-afe3-4b5fa9da33c5

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23149912

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Start Smarter Hiring Practices in 2020 and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

It’s 2020, time for smarter hiring practices. Hiring is costly, but bad hiring can be devastating to a business. Learn how to perfect this essential business skill. Plus, nine other ways to take your small business to the next level this year.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Bring Smarter Hiring Practices to Your Business and More

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! Start with smarter hiring practices and more and watch your business grow and thrive.

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!

#10. How to Excel in Your Business

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about working with our old friend, Excel. HubSpot says this old workhorse program is on many if not most resumes. That is, for people looking for office jobs. There are any number of traditional uses for Excel. The article provides instructions for how to create a business model. That’s worth the price of admission all by itself.

So, instead, we want to concentrate on one specific use in the article.

Time Tracking

There are any number of time tracking apps and software out there. But before you go and plunk down serious money for one or learn a new system (even if it’s free), our old friend Excel can also do the job.

All you really need is a spreadsheet with the following:

Dates Covered 1/17/2020 to 1/23/2020
Date Time In Lunch Start Lunch End Time Out Hours Worked
1/17/2020 8:45:00 AM 1:00:00 PM 1:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:45
1/18/2020 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:30
1/19/2020 8:15 AM 12:15 PM 1:00 PM 6:00 PM 9:00
1/20/2020 8:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:30
1/21/2020 9:00 AM 11:45 AM 12:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:15
1/22/2020 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:30
1/23/2020 9:15 AM 12:30 PM 12:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:15
Total Hours Worked 54:45:00

 

Formulas

Here’s how the formulas work. Let’s start with cell A1 (that’s where you type Dates Covered). In cell A3, put the first date of the time period you’re covering. Obviously, if your time period is longer or shorter, add cells accordingly. In our example, you put the last date of the time period in cell A9.

For cell B1, type =A3. This gets you the first date of the time period. In cell A4, type to. And in cell A5, type =A9 (if you’re adding or subtracting dates, then you want the cell including the last date after the equals sign).

Format cells B3 through E9 under Custom. Add h:mm AM/PM as the format. For cells F3 through F9, format under Time, 13:30. In cell F10, format it under Time, 37:30:55.

The F3 formula is: =(C3-B3)+(E3-D3). Place your cursor in the right lower corner of cell F3 until you see a black cross. Pull down until cell F9 and you’ll get the right formula for all of the cells where you need it.

The F10 formula is: =SUM(F3:F9). Everything else is just formatting and depends on how pretty you want the spreadsheet to be.

To calculate salary, add a column where you convert the hours to regular format (it’s probably easiest to do this manually). Hence, 8:30 should be written as 8.5. Add one more column and type in =(cell name*salary), where cell name is the designation of the cell with the converted format and salary of course is what you pay on an hourly basis.

Excel Rocks, and It Works

When your company gets larger, Excel might no longer be a feasible way to handle your time tracking. But until it is, this hardworking program can be your best friend.

#9. Get in the Ring with Business Heavyweight, Amazon

The next awesome tip is about competing with the 700-pound gorilla in the room: Amazon. Small Business Bonfire notes smaller enterprises can successfully compete. They are often nimbler and can be quicker to react to new information or business conditions. Those are huge advantages. Here are a few more.

Personalized Service

There are only a few areas where Amazon can truly offer a personalized sales experience. For example, when installation is offered. And even then, installation isn’t offered everywhere. It’s a lot more likely to be available if you live in a major urban center (like I do).

So, you, as a small business owner, have got something that Amazon doesn’t. 

In your shop, you can greet customers by name if you know them. And you can use data to give them personalized recommendations. While Amazon tries to do so with offering related products, they don’t always hit their marks.

You’re smarter than Amazon’s suggestion database. 

I guarantee it.

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

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! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

#8. Improve Your Website Rankings

Our following life-changing tip concerns upping your website rankings in search. Success Harbor lays it all out for us. 

Now, we’ve blogged about a lot of their suggestions already. Here, they’re in a convenient format. But I will caution you: some of the information is out of date. For example, they suggest getting backlinks from StumbleUpon. Well, they shut their doors in June of 2018.

So, take their suggestions with a grain of salt.

We suggest, of course, to create as good a website as you can. That means speed, links that work, user security, and relevance. Because what helps you succeed in search will also help you succeed in business.

#7. Google, Let Me Talk to You About Search

For our next sensational tip, we looked at improving and optimizing your website for voice search. Doers Empire says that voice search is getting big – which is exactly what our SEO people are telling us. Current reports say a good 3.5 billion voice searches go on every day. Yeah, that’s billion with a B.

We recommend reading the entire article as there are details which you shouldn’t miss. So, instead, we’ll concentrate on one area only.

Long-Tail Keywords Rule

You may have heard the term before (at least, I hope you have). If you haven’t, no sweat. Here’s what they are.

Let’s say you go shopping for a birthday present for the six-year-old daughter of a friend. And you know this little girl loves animals. The more exotic, the better.

Instead of searching for just gifts, your search might look something like this.

Show me zebra-striped barrettes for a little girl. The seller must offer free shipping.

You’ll get a lot fewer results this way. But the chances of them being on point are extremely high. 

By being specific in your prose on blogs and product and landing pages, you’ll get prospects who are a lot closer to buying. They know what they want. And once search serves them with choices, they’ll decide.

You may pick the first return you get. Or the one with the best prices, or a seller you know and trust. Maybe you’ll select a local retailer or made in the USA or even a seller where you have an account and can get loyalty points.

To make your search even faster, you might even specify those particulars from the start. If you only get one search result, then so what? If it’s precisely what you want and need, you have no need for a second search result.

Specify. You’ll never regret it.

#6. Save Bucks on Search

This tip is so cost-effective, and it works! Word Stream tells us all about improving your pay per click (PPC) budget. Paid search can be a godsend. It can get your product or service in front of so many more people! So, don’t spend an arm and a leg on it.

A lot of this article is about budgeting and forecasting, so please check it out for the details.

Our biggest takeaway from it was to keep in mind that results in search aren’t immediate. So, be patient! And recognize that any budgeting will need to take multiple month payments into consideration.

You won’t be an overnight success. But with smart paid search planning, your not-so fast success won’t come at the expense of too much of your company’s budget.

#5. Smarter Hiring Practices Can Be Yours

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

It’s 2020, time to bring smarter hiring practices to your business. 

Small Business Bonfire says there are some understandable legal pitfalls when it comes to hiring and firing.

The article provides valuable advice for both hiring and firing. It really should be read in its entirety – we highly recommend it. This includes doing a business background check, of course.

But first, here are some personal stories/observations on both.

Hire Better in 2020 Credit SuiteHiring – a Personal Story

Of course, your intrepid blog writer has been hired in places. And I have also done hiring in some places.

My first tip is to make candidates feel comfortable. Remember, you were in the exact same situation before. Being kind costs your company nothing (whereas the hiring process for just one new employee can run about $4,000). And being kind can help more introverted candidates shine. 

Not all of your employees have to be live wires, unless you’re hiring for the Sales Department. Hiring some of the quieter people out there can help better balance your workforce. Going out of your way to make them comfortable can help some people who otherwise may not interview well most of the time. More perspectives are good for any business.

Firing – a Personal Story

Yeah, I have been through this as well. And I have had to fire people. It’s never easy. It shouldn’t be.

My suggestion is to, assuming the person wasn’t actively stealing from the company or harassing your other employees, make it easy for them to collect unemployment. There are states where there are a lot of restrictions on who can collect. You may be disappointed in a hire who didn’t work out and didn’t really do much. But keep your personal feelings out of it if you can.

You may be less than thrilled with your ex-employee. But your okay could be all that’s standing between them getting an unemployment check and being able to feed their family – or not. You’re angry at them, maybe. But you’re probably not angry at their spouse or significant other. And for God’s sake, you’re not angry at their children. Right?

So, don’t begrudge them the ability to collect on insurance that you and they have paid into. You won’t get that money back by being nasty. 

Do this, and you’ll be able to sleep at night.

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

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! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

#4. Use Your Smarter Hiring Practices and Put Together a High-Performing Team Through Leadership

Check out this spectacular tip, all about building higher-performing teams through leadership. Talk about your smarter hiring practices! Proof Hub notes that their first suggestion is to do just that – to engage in smarter hiring practices and bring in people who you feel can excel. And, they need to be people who you feel will work well together.

We wanted to focus on one particular tip.

Address the Team, Not Individuals

We found this to be a fascinating idea. Now, of course teams are composed of individuals. Their roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined. Underperformers should be shored up and helped, so they can succeed.

But this particular tip is about when things go a little, shall we say, ca-ca.

When one person is continually blamed for problems, it doesn’t just hurt them. It doesn’t just make their work life miserable. It can also make others’ work lives miserable. If you have put together a good team who like to work together, then blaming X for really anything is going to be felt by the entire team.

We would like to add not just addressing the entire team when things go haywire. We also strongly suggest any personal issues for one employee in particular be handled in private. 

Because dressing down an employee in front of others, no matter how well-deserved, makes people uncomfortable.

Do the right thing and wait for a time when you’re not in front of the rest of the team. HR may need to be involved, of course. It can’t always be one on one. Just, eliminate the audience.

Treat that employee like you would want to be treated.

#3. Huddle Up and Get Your Business Going

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you more effectively handle your short huddle-style meetings. Great Game tells us a company huddle should be handled more or less like an actual sports huddle. 

That is, check your current game conditions. What works, and what doesn’t?

Check the score. That is, what are your numbers?

And plan the next play. As in, what are your upcoming plans?

But our fave tip was to get all fired up. Being psyched about who you are, and what you do, is a great way to lead your business into future success. Dare we say? It helps make your smarter hiring practices really pay off.

#2. Polish the Shine on a Dull Industry 

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on creating compelling content, even when your company and your industry aren’t exactly excitement fests. Noobpreneur reveals all about garnering attention even when you’re industry is kind of, for lack of a better word, dull.

Sorry.

So, how do you do it? We really liked the examples and ideas this article had, so we recommend reading it in its entirety. Hence, we’ll zero in on just one of their ideas.

Focus Your Blog Topics

We firmly believe in this! Consider these Friday posts. While they aren’t about business credit, per se, they are about running a small business. Marketing is a huge part of business, and it can lead directly to success. Furthermore, the better you can market yourself and your business, the better you’ll handle important business moments such as meeting with investors or talking to a lender about a loan.

Going utterly off-topic is a poor idea pretty much 100% of the time. Why?

Because your readers aren’t coming to your blog for your movie reviews if your company is all about baking cookies. With no connection to your main topic, your readers will see the off-topic post for what it is – a waste of their time.

Ouch.

There’s nothing wrong with branching out a bit. But you need a connection to the main topic at hand. Without that connection, you just look like you’re trying to be all things to all people. And that never works out.

#1. Become an Investor Magnet

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on attracting investor attention with your personal attributes. Startup Professionals says a personal connection between you and angel investors and venture capitalists can be the difference between success and failure.

They cited a few examples of how you can become catnip to investors. Here are a few that we especially loved.

Integrity, Humility, and Stability

Yeah, we know. There are a lot of wacko geniuses out there. But stability goes a lot further with investors. You could be brilliant.  But if the investors think there’s a chance you’ll crash and burn, they’ll lose interest. And if they think you’ll skip town with their funds, then they’ll be happy to have the law on you.

Effective Communication

You don’t have to be a salesperson. The two suggestions in the article were to personalize communications and to listen as well speak. And let’s face it, that’s good life advice anyway.

Already Set and Achieved Fundamental Milestones

Many investors want to see you’re already on you’re way. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to already be profitable. It’s more that you have set goals and have met some of them. This doesn’t just show you’re operating well. It also shows that you’re capable of making SMART goals and follow through. 

Expert in Your Chosen Field

This, we felt, is key. This doesn’t just show that you know your stuff. It also means that you keep up with your industry. And it means that you are willing and able to continue your education. You don’t rest on your laurels. You read, you network with people in your field, and even return to school if necessary. And you care about being right.

Pro tip: it’s not just investors who love that.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

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! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

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