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This video is called, LinkedIn Messaging: How to be More Effective By Mike Pitt. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can . Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, which is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London.

In this video, Mike Pitt discusses, LinkedIn Messaging: How to be More Effective

This video will be of interest to business owners, B2B marketing managers, Content Marketing professionals, Social Media Managers and LinkedIn users who use a website to promote their B2B business.

LinkedIn Messaging

LinkedIn now has over 610 million members and has established itself as the most important platform for those targeting a B2B audience. On the platform itself, LinkedIn messaging is potentially more effective than conventional email for generating leads and converting leads into sales.  In this video, I discuss one feature of LinkedIn messaging that is particularly helpful when it comes to ensuring that messages you send are read and responded to; watch the video for detailed information on this feature.

Here is my Linkedin profile , if you would like to connect with me on LinkedIn, send me an invitation and mention this blog post or the video and I will connect with you.

Have you tried any of the methods above to increase your reach on LinkedIn? Let me know in the comments  section below. Also, let me know how much time you spend on LinkedIn each day?

If you’ve liked this post you will also like the following posts:

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

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LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

Professional Services: How Do You Fill Your Sales Funnel?

Professional Services: How Do You Build Trust in Your Company ? 5 ways

LinkedIn: Advice For B2B Businesses – Playlist

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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This is video number 261 and blog post number 503.

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The post LinkedIn Messaging: How to be More Effective ( Part 1) appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Business loans are the lifeblood of smaller companies, and if you need to get a cash injection for your tech company, there are a number of considerations you should weigh up before taking action.

The first is whether you need to get a business loan at all, or whether you might be able to raise the cash you need by changing business practices and releasing cash that is currently being wasted. Often companies can find cost savings within their existing processes and creating additional efficiencies can sometimes solve a cash-flow problem.

The second consideration is whether your team works at full capacity. Can headcount be reduced?  Redundancies are not nice but they may unlock additional funds from payroll savings.

The third consideration, is what is your data telling you? Fully detailed performance reporting of the past 1 to 5 years should inform your decisions. In addition, you will need a solid business plan that demonstrates to yourself and your management team what can be achieved and when you are likely to improve your cash-flow.

Following the process described above, you may decide that you want to borrow funds. It could be for a concrete purpose like buying a machine or recruiting a certain person or it could be just to finance  your ongoing operations. Whatever the reason is, deciding you want external funding is just the beginning of the process.

Bank Versus Lender

There are a lot of lenders out there in the Australian market and picking the right company or bank to provide you with the funding is essential for a healthy and useful process. The ins and outs of each lender and bank are too difficult to explain, but showing the differences between the two is very possible.

As per this comparison between banks and online lenders made by Small Business Loans Australia, non-bank lenders are generally more expensive, less difficult to deal with and are much quicker to respond than banks.

How Much do You Need to Borrow?

Your first consideration should be how much money you need to borrow from the bank. It can be tempting to keep the amounts to a minimum, so you are not paying out more than you need to. But borrowing too little can be as problematic for a business as borrowing too much, because it could mean being forced to return to borrow more sooner than you might otherwise be comfortable with.

A good rule of thumb will dictate that you will need to borrow funds to keep your business alive for at least 6 more months at current revenue pace, or will help facilitate such a line of cash-flow earlier. That rule of thumb will also say that you should never borrow money for periods shorter than this, because this means you will need to borrow additional capital within the next months.

So, be realistic not only about the amount you need to borrow, but the amount you are likely to be able to borrow and choose an amount that allows you to achieve your aims without creating additional cash-flow stress for you or your business.

What Will Your Bank Need to Know?

Once you know how much you need to borrow, prepare your documentation to take to your bank to convince them that your business is a good ‘risk’ for it to loan to. Your bank will need to know what you want the business loan for – and if you are a start-up or a relatively new business, you may find it difficult to give these details exactly.

Remember to take your business plan and financial statements, with these it should be easier to demonstrate what the money you are borrowing will be used for. Your financial statements will give  your bank a clear indication of your profit and loss, cash-flow, assets and liabilities.

Creating your bank-oriented business plan

Spending time researching your business and the market you are targeting is essential to create a viable business plan. It can take more time researching a good plan than it does writing one, so be prepared to put in the leg work.

That loose business plan you’ve devised before even applying for a loan? It’s mostly irrelevant because banks can be overzealous when it comes to business plans.

You also need to provide a strategy for marketing, your product development, and your financial forecasts to show any potential investors, including a bank or other institution lending you money, where your business is likely to be in three to five years.

Your credit score

One of the key measures which determines whether your bank will lend you money will be your credit history, whether that is just for your business or your own personal credit history too. If your business has not been established for long, your personal credit score will be taken into consideration. So ensure you have spent time cleaning up your own credit score if you are trying to borrow at an early stage.

Most companies do not know what their credit score is, or how to improve it. Almost three out of five small business owners have never checked their credit score according to research from Experian and that is not good business practice.

Make your credit score more healthy

Any lender will check your company’s credit score, and you should be checking this yourself on a regular basis. As the Experian website states: “A healthy credit score is made up of three key elements: robust information, sound financial management and regular monitoring.” If you have applied for a number of loans in quick succession, these credit searches for each institution will be listed on your credit score and could be detrimental. Lenders will be concerned about that kind of action, as it suggests a desperate pattern of behaviour that flags your business as having a higher level of risk.

It may be that you need to spend some time working on improving your credit score to make your business more appealing. You can do a number of things to achieve this, such as paying any invoices due promptly, collaborating with your suppliers so they provide feedback on your payment records, and providing as much additional data to credit reference agencies as you can. It has become harder for businesses to get a loan, so the more you can do to improve your business’s chances, the more chance you have of getting the money your business needs to grow.

What will an Online Lender Need to Know?

Generally speaking, online lenders are more technology oriented so a lot of the legwork should be done automatically. Upon signing up you will need to provide either certain documents from your bank, and/or connect the lender to your credit card processor or PayPal account to verify the levels of revenue. The decision whether your web design or web development business be approved will be done automatically with little to no human involvement and the reply will be sent to you in between 1 and 72 hours.

Final words – How to Treat Business Loans

A business loan is not an easy decision to make and is not an easy process to initiate in. Unless you need funds urgently, you will need to develop patience and endurance. Financing your business is a marathon and not a 100 metres sprint.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

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The post The Troubles and Struggles of Applying for a Bank Business Loan appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

The world of online shopping offers so many possibilities to so many people. In this day and age, just about anyone can set up their own e-commerce store online and get selling. However, with the sheer amount of choice that comes with online retail, how do the smaller online businesses get themselves noticed? They’re facing more challenges than ever, but if they overcome them, the reward is bigger than ever.

e-Commerce Challenges

Crowded Market

More and more people are shopping online and as a result, the online market place is more crowded than ever. Even the big retailers are trying harder to get themselves noticed.  Lesser-known online businesses can struggle to get customer attention amongst increasing number of competitors, both big and small. Thankfully there are number of things they can to get their site found by potential customers. They can offer unique products, competitive rates and have a strong social media presence. The latter can potentially be helped with the help of online influencers.

Social Media

Moving on from the last point, social media itself is another challenge smaller e-Commerce will face. It is vital for online businesses to have an online presence in order to keep up with the crowd. This can make for some great customer engagement and grow a larger consumer base. However, it does come with its own challenges. Social media is 24/7 so online businesses have to make themselves available all the time to deal with customers, rather than the standard working day.

Keeping Products Secure

Once the e-Commerce site has managed to sell their product to a customer, the challenge doesn’t end there. A huge problem they will face is making sure the products remains safe until it gets delivered to the customer. With the help of a professional delivery company – such as Whistl– they can ensure any products will be handled safely and effectively. It takes the stress away from the business and the e-Commerce can focus on selling rather than sending.

Keeping Up With Demand

The best outcome for a small online business is for them to keep growing. Once this begins to happen, it’s fantastic but also presents the business with another challenge: keeping up with the demand. What could have started as selling a few parcels a week could escalate, and they’ve got to keep up to keep the customers happy. By employing more staff or using a third party delivery service a smaller e-Commerce can keep growing and maintaining a profit.

If you’ve liked this post you will also like the following posts:

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B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

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This is blog post number 471.

The post Important Challenges all International e-Commerce SMEs Will Face appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Reaching Your Profitable Destination

Marketing a digital agency takes time, and you could actually fill a textbook as thick as your arm with the proper steps to take, and information necessary to properly take those steps. This is no textbook, but is rather a “menu”, if you will, describing a number of dishes which precede, sustain, and follow a meal.

Content marketing will be explored specifically in this writing, as it has a very high level of ROI—though it’s worth noting that the same general precepts apply to other avenues of marketing. For example, content marketing requires a certain level of original content to be created and disseminated for proper effect. In the same way, using a billboard would require a certain level of time left standing to reach the requisite number of potential clients and have any real impact. It’s the same thing, just in a different medium. Accordingly, variables change.

You’d need to cover them all in detail to be comprehensive; but if you understand where those variables are, and that marketing essentially reflects the same kind of practice in different ways, then you can take a general article like this one and apply it to a broad level of outbound marketing strategies.

So following we’ll look at the “meal”, beginning, middle, and end, which most generally characterizes the most popular and, as some would consider them, successful means of digital agency marketing today.

1: The Appetizer, Marketing Built Around User Experience

A good way to get around all of these is to focus your marketing campaign around fulfilling the needs which have resulted in a certain kind of user experience. Say, for example, that your digital agency develops apps for smartphones, and is specifically designing one that is used in dating.

You’d want to collect as much information as you could pertaining to other dating apps, and that which is both lauded and despised in their regard. You’d then want to compile that information and associate it with your new app. In terms of marketing, you would want to focus on how what your app does is better than the competition in one area, and fixes problems of the competition in another. You’re focusing on singing your app’s praises, and fixing problems that similar apps have that monitors and showcases problems for developers.

User experience is a great way to reap this information, and you can find it for free all across the web—all you need to do is research appropriately. When you have that research, both the quality of your digital agency’s products or services, and the quality of marketing surrounding them, will be more effective. Additionally, this “appetizer” sets you up for the main course: developing actionable content that is likable, sharable, interesting, and valuable to target markets.

2: The Entrée, Continuously Produced And Creative Content

There’s a process here that looks like this:

•         Research is conducted pertaining to the market your digital agency serves
•         Ideas are generated for content addressing that market
•         Varying online markets sympathetic to your agency are identified
•         Content is created that is informed by all these facts
•         Content is published
•         Content is promoted

Here’s an infographic from Moz.com which really illustrates these points:

There are a few things to add to that, like recirculation and guest-blogging. Both would technically fall under what’s known as promotion. Basically, you want to get your content—written or otherwise—featured on guest sites that serve markets which either correspond or are adjacent to your target market.

Adjacent markets can bring crossover clientele and expand your market reach. Target markets are more likely to have those in a demographic sympathetic to your products or services, and apt to convert. Again, these principles generally apply across all kinds of outbound marketing. Research, creation, and dissemination of advertisement materials follows an essentially uniform process.

Where your digital agency really differs has to do with specific online means of presentation. Not only do you want to have this content available in visual, video, blog form and other video streaming sites on your company’s website; you want to utilize things like social media to get the word out. This step is, appropriately, the “dessert” of the whole enterprise and one which will provide you with a clear understanding of how whitehat works.

3. The Dessert, Maximizing Social Media Platforms

Check out this infographic from DailyInfographic.com showcasing twelve steps worth considering for social media marketing success:

That says it all in a nutshell. Again, you can see how the principles outlined in the creation of general content above have some parallel qualities to those explored in this process. Researching what you’re going to write, and where it’s going to go, creating the content, promoting it—all are very similar to conventional content creation and dissemination which exists regardless of dedicatedly social platforms that constitute the bulk of today’s media.

Where you’re going to find some differences between the conventional process, and social media marketing, is in terms of data examination and re-examination. Social media has an amorphous quality that is constantly shifting. Where in terms of conventional blog-related content marketing, you’re looking at broad trends designed for ROI in a year or two’s time, with social media you can catch a “wave” and ride it in to viral success very quickly if you’re wise about how you conduct your campaign.

In the process outlined in the infographic, you’ll find a section pertaining to KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. Now these are going to be different for different social media platforms, and there are a lot of social media platforms out there. Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, Minds, Twitter, YouTube, Gab, Reddit, the list goes on. Each has enough KPIs to write an article as lengthy as this one. You need to determine which platforms are in greatest alignment to your target market, and which KPIs to focus on branching off from there.

At that point, you want to get all the team-members who’ll be involved in the social media campaign “on the same page” regarding KPIs and the like which you plan to focus on. Only then do you start producing the content which will eventually be disseminated across the social media platforms which align to your operation.

Scrum at the start of each week in order to establish weekly social media goals, and review your progress at close of business on Friday to see what was accomplished and what still needs work the following week. Part of that scrum should involve planning out content campaigns. Think of it like the release schedule for Marvel’s recent proliferation of superhero films. Disney execs got together and ironed out a schedule of release, making a sort of tree on a whiteboard that helped them organize based in terms of plot, budget, marketing, etc. You need to do the same with your social media marketing team.

It also makes sense to utilize more than one social media channel if at all possible, and treat each of those channels idiosyncratically. You need individuals dedicated to answering prospect responses both positive and negative, and you need to review the campaign every month to see what needs improved, what isn’t working, and which forward steps make the most sense.

A Fine Marketing Meal

With an appetizer of market research pertaining to user experience, you can establish what kind of content to produce such that it most appropriately meets the needs of your target demographic. When you design that content, you’ll have a research and development process unique to each marketing campaign, but which will most likely take a year or more to reach maturity.

Your content should be disseminated across a variety of blogs you run, and guest blogs you’re able to post on, as well as social media. If you can design visual and video content, do so.

Social media is a means of advancing your primary content, which is why it is listed in this writing as a “dessert” of sorts. While it is an end in and of itself, you’ll need to design content for it specifically; so it makes sense to use what you’re already spreading through other digital avenues, as such crossover minimizes marketing cost over time.

That said, there are quite a few different ways to go about marketing, and as has been pointed out, there is enough information out there to write many books about. Which is most pertinent to you will depend on your business. That being said, the primary thrust of your marketing campaign for your digital agency will involve research of the market, creation of content, and dissemination of that content in a managed way that adapts as necessary.

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B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

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Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
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This is blog post number 470.

The post 3 Ways To Market Your Own Digital Agency In 2018 appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

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Remember the time when learning was monotonous when all students learned the same thing in the same way?

Well, the time has changed, these days’ educational innovations are set where you must teach to each individual learning style, and create differentiated learning plans for each student. Keeping students engaged and motivated can be a challenge, even for the best teachers. It’s easy to teach the same lessons year after year simply because they have worked in the past, without giving much thought to students’ current interest level. But even the strongest curriculum still needs some variety once in a while to make learning fun.

It’s important to remember that education is a product to many students.  A lot of people have to take out personal student loans in order to afford their education.  So, you owe it to them to make it a worthwhile experience.

On the other hand, we have even had our moments in some lectures, seeing that flash of interest in our students’ eyes, smiling as the bell rings because the energy is so high and no one wants the period to end and for the case of online students, they leave great comments and show their appreciation and love for the teacher in the discussion board. How do we extend these moments? Can we create an environment that keeps students stimulated and craving more? Is it possible to have more fun?

One study carried out in 2009 suggested that almost 60% of those who study find at least half their lectures boring, with about 30% claiming to find most or all of their lectures boring. According to Dr. Sandi Mann, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire “Although a range of factors may contribute to these findings, they do prompt the question of what it is about the learning experience that might be deemed ‘boring,’”

Mann and her colleagues found that students adopt a variety of methods to escape the boring lectures. The most popular are daydreaming (75%), doodling (66%), chatting to friends (50%), sending texts (45%), and passing notes to friends (38%). Over a quarter leave the lecture at the mid-session break. In this article, we look at the 3 most important ways to make learning fun and interesting.

Learn about Your Students Beforehand

Before you start making your online training development strategy, you’ll need to know exactly who your students are. If you teach kids online, you need to find out about their educational and professional background. You must be able to know their depth of knowledge and experience in the industry or are they totally newcomers? And you need to know what they consider to be fun. You can get the answer to this by asking them in class, or for online students, you can get the answers by surveys, interviews, or by careful observation on the job.

By getting these facts about your students, you can determine the e-learning design elements and multimedia tools that would be perfect addition to your online training development strategy. Another interesting part of getting the data of your students before developing your development strategy is that it can help you find out how much that has been covered on the subject in previous classes and modules and this can help to differentiate between the content that simply needs to be refreshed within the students’ minds and that which needs to be newly acquired and absorbed.

Challenge

Set up activities that makes the learner think and apply what he or she has learnt in the course. Incorporating group projects where students have to work together to develop something related to the topic work very well for the students. By making learning interactive, it actively engages students and raises their interest in the current topic or unit.

Challenging students by providing hands-on activities that requires thinking skills such as problem-solving, riddles, or reading comprehension questions will spark the students’ interest and get them thinking. You can incorporate these activities to be done in groups, this will create more interactions between the students and enforce the power of teamwork, this can also be done online, and you can use several mediums to group the students like WhatsApp and Slack.

Use Educational Real World Scenarios in Lectures

Some instructors complain that some modules are inherently boring. The truth is that there is no module that is boring, you just need to give purpose to the task and show them the connection with the world around us. Interactive scenarios give students the opportunity to make choices that lead to rewards or consequences.

Hence, they are ideal tools for making online lectures fun, given that students will automatically develop an emotional connection with the situation or problem being discussed. This can make the online lectures exciting and challenging, which makes it more meaningful, interactive and productive for everyone involved. An interactive lesson is more likely to develop a relationship with the students.

Getting your students more involved in the lecture is likely to get them more engaged. In no time, your students are going to be eager for the next class because they can’t wait to learn something new.

If you’ve liked this post you will also like, What is Amazing.com?

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Follow Mike on Pinterest

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Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
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This is blog post post number 461

The post How to Make Learning More Enjoyable for Your Students appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

A beginner’s guide to Improving IT resilience For Your Business

IT resilience is when your business systems can seamlessly adapt to changing circumstances in order to protect data and applications, mitigate the risk of downtime and focus on service delivery.  

In other words, IT resilience ensures that your business is ‘Always-On’ also known as business continuity or serviceability.

Why is that important?

Downtime (when a system cannot perform its primary function) can have catastrophic effects on your business including (but not limited to):

•    Reduced profitability due to loss of revenue and Downtime incurred costs to get the systems back online again.
•     Reduced staff productivity and morale
•    Backed up orders
•    Reduced or none existent serviceability.
•    Potential overtime costs to repair systems, catch up on productivity.
•    Loss of customer confidence which can lead to brand damage ex. “Don’t use McGregor’s Stationary, they have issues delivering on time.”
•    Ripple effects that could impact the business for months post-downtime.

IT resilience, however, is much more than just mitigating the effects of downtime.  

If a disaster were to strike would your business perish or would it be up and running again in a matter of hours? The latter signifies good IT resilience whereas the former is proof of the lack thereof.

Here are some things you should look at to get you on your way to IT Resilience:

Power Outage Protection

Computers run on power and power failures are becoming an everyday ordeal and the simple fact of the matter is that you can’t afford to be without a backup plan.

Sudden loss of power can have nasty effects on your productivity; it can sometimes wipe away weeks’ worth of work and scramble a system into oblivion.

The first step is to invest in a quality UPS system for each computer.

UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) is a device that is rooted between the computer and the power supply, it can detect any changes (drops or surges) in the power supplied to the computer and will switch to battery backup when the voltage drops too low.

It will also supply a constant stream of voltage to your pc, which protects it from power spikes.

What that does is give you the time to save and backup any important projects that you are working on.

Generators are the most important tool for business continuity when it comes to power failures.

Sometimes there will be a generator backup system for the entire building but if that isn’t the case then you have no choice but to invest in your own.

You will need to determine what is the right size generator for your business, and then you will have to make sure that it is properly installed with an ATS.

An ATS is an Automated Transfer Switch; it will systematically transfer the load of power from one source to another. However, this can take anywhere from 2 – 2- minutes which is why a UPS system is so important.

What is Backup and Data Recovery?

A backup is simply a duplicate of data, applications or processes to an alternate location. It’s important to store vital information in more than one place because there are so many threats to business systems these days.

Data Recovery, however, refers to how quickly and successfully said backups can be recovered in a disastrous event.

Both of these are important, but integrating them is the next step to business continuity and improved serviceability.

Traditional vs. Modern Backup and Data Recovery

A traditional backup system entails manually backing up systems to an extra pc/ hard drive/ backup appliance, has to be manually tested, upheld and is a constant source of headaches for a small business owner.

Modern Backup systems also have appliances, but these are smart devices that need little to no human intervention and automatically duplicate backups to a cloud.

Backing up to only a cloud is also a very popular option for modern backup systems.

But there are some major issues with traditional backups:

•    It’s a bulky, inefficient and time-consuming process that has to be repeated daily (which can lead to excessive costs for extra IT techs)
•    Testing has to be done manually and can be inefficient and often much too late to recover corrupted data.
•    There is no protection against ransomware.
•    The recovery process is long and costly and often unsuccessful and at times impossible.
•    Has no safeguard in place for natural disasters or theft.
•    It may seem cheaper until you have to recover corrupted data, stolen hardware and eventually completely restart all of your business systems.
•    Searching for the data you need (data recovery) can be frustrating and time-consuming.
•    When disaster strikes you can’t carry your servers with you to safety.

Meanwhile, modern IT Resilience Solutions are simply brilliant.

•    There are all in one devices that act as a local backup whilst also transferring backups to the cloud and integrates systems and application seamlessly.
•    This means that your backups are done time efficiently and effectively and
•    Your downtime is cut in half.
•    Features integrated disaster recovery testing with a built-in notification system.
•    Has built-in ransomware protection that can stop malware in its tracks.
•    The appliances feature predictive analytics that can anticipate hardware related issues from a mile away.
•    Should worst come to worst, you can operate your business from the cloud. How cool is that?
•    Data recovery is relatively painless and very effective.
•    Offers greatest resilience and continuity to modern day businesses.

Finding the right plan for your business can be daunting but it’s in your best interest to push forward and find innovative solutions that work for your business.

If you’ve liked this post you will also like, Have you set up Your Services Business for Success?

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

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A few years ago, adding someone’s name to an email message was considered high-tech and deeply personalized. Today, that practice is standard if not antiquated. Big Data, machine learning, and AI are top buzzwords on everyone’s lips in the world of marketing personalization. But these terms don’t have to be intimidating for low-tech marketing organizations and they don’t have to be expensive for small businesses. Here’s what you need to know about data-driven personalization in your marketing efforts.

What Is Data-Driven Personalization?

Put simply, data-driven personalization is the process of segmenting audiences and making marketing decisions based on facts and information, rather than best practices or historic choices. At face value, that concept isn’t complex at all, but grows more advanced when you add data elements and smart tools to do the personalizations for you.

Here are a few common terms that you will encounter in data-driven personalization:

• Big Data: extremely large data sets collected on a variety of factors ranging from customer demographics to personal preferences. This is too much data for any one analyst (or team of analysts) to sort through and make sense of.
• Artificial Intelligence: bots that perform tasks that humans normally would. For marketing, this means analyzing big data and making decisions based off of it.
• Machine Learning: the ability for robots to create their own rules and make decisions based off of their experiences, rather than algorithms programmed by developers.

For example, an AI tool might look at swaths of big data and determine that the best time to send an email to customers is at 10 am on a Tuesday. A machine learning AI tool would study open rates over time, and adjust the send time based off what it finds.

Either way, machines are determining which times are most effective to generate email opens or sales and scheduling the emails instead of humans. This takes the burden off of marketing teams who would otherwise have to study the data and schedule the emails themselves.

Why Is Data-Driven Marketing More Effective?

Data-driven personalization in marketing allows brands to focus on their customer’s needs and intent. Not all customers have the same goals and needs, which can be challenging for marketers broadcasting the same message. Instead, data-driven personalization identifies customer needs and provides solutions for them. A business might have a dozen different messages or solutions based on a customer’s journey or demographics.

Data-driven digital marketing is also flexible. It allows brands to change that they do and how they do it with just a few clicks. If you don’t see the results you want, turn to data to understand why and change your ways. You can also test different ideas and determine their success based on clear analytics.

What Personalization Strategies Do Most Marketers Use?

You don’t need MIT-league developers to implement data-driven personalization in your marketing strategy. In all likelihood, you might already use data to make your marketing decisions and automatically personalize your content in some way or another.

Business Insider shared a survey of more than 220 marketing professionals about the types of data-driven marketing personalization they plan to use in 2017. The top tactics used last year include:

• Email message personalization
• Targeted landing pages
• Contact data segmentation
• Triggered email campaigns
• Retargeted advertising
• Lead generation and collection

Instead of mass promotions where you try to reach as many people as possible, data-driven marketing allows you to reach the best people possible (those who are most likely to buy) and reach them in the best-possible manner.

How Can Data-Driven Automation Improve My Workflow?

Along with making your sales and marketing tactics more effective, data-driven marketing tools can free up your time and make your sales workflow more effective. AI doesn’t necessarily take away the creative aspects of marketing, but rather replaces the menial tasks that clog up your day.

For example, some AI tools vet potential leads to see which ones are likely to become sales. Instead of giving your sales team 1,000 leads to sift through, the tool might present them with 200 highly-qualified leads that are already in the middle of the sales funnel, along with suggestions for what products to sell to them. This makes the sales team more effective by increasing their successful calls and conversion rate.

You don’t have to tap into advanced machine learning tools for effective data-driven marketing personalization, but you do have to base your decisions off of concrete information and not intuition. AI and machine learning can’t solve your problems, but they can boost your metrics and make your workflow a little easier.

Craig Smith is the founder & CEO of Trinity Insight, a leading eCommerce consulting agency.

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Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

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To name a few, Aeroflot and Karcher are the users of the  email sending platform SendPulse. Some may argue that the presence of some business bigwigs among customers is not the reason to focus on a particular platform. However,  the trust of the big brands corresponds well to the social proof which is appreciated by marketers for many reasons.

Of course, the contemporary email marketing environment does not suffer from a lack of the email bulk sending services. Dozens of them are available now on the market. Moreover, quite a big number of the comparative reviews of such services have been made by numerous observers on the internet.

Nevertheless, what is really missing here is the thorough dissection of every particular email sending platform, at least of those that constitute top 10 by the user ratings. Hopefully, the present review of SendPulse can be useful for the marketers who are used to making a conscious choice of an email sending toolkit.

The home page and the general view

Under quite a minimalistic interface of the SendPulse website users can find the sufficient functionality. The customers’ feedback along with the description of advantages and capabilities of the platform is represented by the website home page. The piece of information is big, but users can hardly get lost there since everything indicated is relevant to the main goal of the service. Products, price, and help sections provide users with the detailed information of how to arrange their marketing campaigns. The popular flat design of icons and visuals of the main page demonstrates that the SendPulse team follows the trendy approaches to the development of the user interfaces. The well-balanced proportion of the textual and visual contents on the website makes the information perception convenient.

Emphasizing the artificial intelligence on the home page is worth special mentioning. No matter from what perspective you look at it, the highlighted AI capability of the platform is a right move. Few topics on today’s internet can measure up to the AI popularity. Indeed, the machine learning technologies create the efficiency improvement opportunities beyond the reach of purely human intellect. Why not apply them to the email marketing optimization?

The email service

The registration in the email service of SendPulse is free as well as the one-month trial period. During the period you can send 15 000 emails to 2 500 readers from your mailing lists. The section’s interface looks ascetic that does not mean primitiveness, however. Both vertical and horizontal functional frames provide access to various features and subsections necessary to create and optimize an email campaign. The last campaign infographics available on the front page shows the major metrics. The size, design, and position of tabs make the entire page easily graspable in a few seconds even for the new users.  No redundant prettifying or irrelevant data is present. Thus, the user-friendly interface focuses on the functionality that is actually expected from the well-structured marketing toolkit.

Creating a campaign

The “create a campaign” tab redirects a user to the first stage of the process in the form of a table where a mailing list is proposed to be created. UniSender and MailChimp services can be applied to import contacts to the newly created mailing list. However, the manual input is also possible. The sender email address can be edited if the one indicated by default is not appropriate for some reason. The sender’s name and the email subject are to be defined in the relevant lines. The most interesting option here is the possibility of personalization. Even though the personalization criteria is limited by only a few variables such as name and a customized introductory text, the option as such reflects the advanced approach SendPulse applies to email campaigns.

Templates

This is where the true creativity begins. The second step of the campaign’s creation represents the section of the email templates. The section is divided into four subsections at the user’s choice: the “my templates” one allows to import your own templates, the “template editor” provides developing the customized emails, the “pre-designed email templates” collection offers numerous pre-designed templates of various  specializations from real estate to Christmas’ smiles, and the “HTML editor” is made for the programming-savvy users. It is worth noting that even the pre-designed templates are editable. The rich functionality of the editor with a simple drag-and-drop method and the abundance of the professionally designed ready templates make users stick around for a long time surfing through numerous creative opportunities.

Finalization and sending

The final stage of an email campaign implies indicating some data regarding the initiator of the campaign when the email designing is finished.

Then, the email should pass through the SendPulse moderators. It takes a few minutes to get an email notification that your campaign is approved. So, the whole process of the email campaign’s creation is simplified without loss of functionality which is equal to MailChimp and other advanced email platforms.

Before sending the email to the subscribers it is possible to check how it looks on different platforms by clicking the “preview” tab or a “test email” one. Besides, in order to personalize your campaigns in a more profound manner, A/B testing is available there.

Price

The price section looks like a calculator where the service cost depending on the number of emails is indicated. Moreover, the number of subscribers is the variable which can be adjusted by users in order to get information about the cost of either a yearly subscription or a monthly rate. Without having to dive deeply into a comparison between SendPulse and many other competitors regarding the service cost it can be stated that the quotation of SendPulse is average. It means that it is almost half the price of MailChimp, for example, being at the same time twice as much as numerous lower class email services.

Tips and tricks

Like any reputable email sending platform, SendPulse cares about the users with regard to the success of their email campaigns. The “knowledge base” section of the website represents various learning materials suggesting how to improve email campaigns. The topics covered by this section constitute the experience which should be shared by a capable email marketer. It is undoubtedly a good practice since many novice users are spared from having to explore the email marketing tips and tricks on the third-party websites. The helpful hints beginning from the message creation and up to the autoresponder system activation are available there along with links to many other relevant articles.

Conclusion

The only missing feature is an automatic re-posting on social media to consider SendPulse just a perfect platform.  In other respects, SendPulse corresponds to the advanced-level email sending services. The minimalistic user-friendly interface, rich functionality, flexible editor, abundance of templates, and considerable service cost all make SendPulse attractive to both the experienced email marketers and the beginners. The fast launch of campaigns and the AI-powered optimization are the peculiar advantages of the platform. So, getting back to the first line of the present review, Aeroflot and Karcher have the sufficient number of reasons to be the customers of SendPulse.

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Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

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This is blog post post number 427. This a a featured post.

The post SendPulse: The Worthwhile Platform for Email Campaigns appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Why oh why do we do this to ourselves! As if the 9 to 5 grind wasn’t enough, we throw in a bunch of unnecessary meetings, and then fill them with quite literally the worst phrases the English language can come up with, because apparently, we live for the pain. We cannot stop ourselves using business jargon.

Business Jargon

It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned veteran or a new graduate, there are some business sayings that will leave you wondering what the hell was actually just said and why people can’t just speak normally. For example:

Blue sky thinking: as opposed to green or pink sky thinking, which is an absolutely different thing. What this means nobody has ever actually been able to determine, however a team of researchers are still working on it. We’ll update you as soon as we have more information.

Low hanging fruit: can anyone actually ever use this phrase without making you think of fruit? And exactly what fruit does hang low, and have you ever picked it before? We’ve quite literally never seen a tree or a bush or a shrub with low hanging fruit. Apart from blackberries. Yeah maybe blackberries.

Not enough bandwidth: why can’t you just say you’re busy Steve?! There is no other time in your life anyone uses this phrase. When your mum asks if you can come around and help set up for your grandad’s party, at no point do you reply, ‘sorry mum, I just don’t have the bandwidth’. Because it sounds ridiculous that’s why.

You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole: have you ever tried to put a square peg in a round hole? No, exactly! And who has a square peg anyway.

A pedigree candidate: again, in no other situation in your life do you use pedigree in regard to people. You only ever really use it when you’re looking for a new pet.

The Worst Business Jargon

Open the kimono: if someone says this, you are in under no terms obligated to open any part of your clothing whatsoever. Keep everything snuggly tight and closed. No one needs to see an open kimono.

Think outside the box: is there anything more annoying than when someone asks you to do this, because naturally, all you can think of is a box. Big ones, little ones, colourful ones. And then you start thinking you need to come up with some crazy ideas and you spend your night brainstorming the weirdest ideas and that my friends, is a dangerous rabbit hole to fall down.

How much runaway do they have: in the world of recruitment this often means, how old is the candidate. But alas, you’re now sitting daydreaming about planes and holidays, exotic destinations and remote beaches, which incidentally is more fun than trying to guess the age of your candidate, but inevitably not what you’re supposed to be doing.

Holistic: this one is a real classic, and if you listen carefully, you can hear it being whispered in office across the land. It basically rose to fame some years ago and is stubbornly clinging on like a Big Brother contestant, refusing to go anywhere when you know it really should.

Leverage: the most polite way of trying to determine how much room you have to play around before you need to seriously start doing anything.

By close of play: no one is playing here, let’s be real. Just say the end of the day like a normal person. Using the verb play to describe your working day, won’t trick you into believing you’re having a good time. It’s a ruse.

We could carry this list on all day, because apparently, it’s never ending, but we wouldn’t do that to you.

About Access Recruitment

Access helps the UK’s top recruitment agencies to simplify the everyday running of their business to improve productivity, control costs and enable growth. Access recruitment software brings together best-of-breed products onto one single platform to make a difference to the entire recruitment process – from sourcing the right candidate, paying staff, billing clients and complying with confidence.

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This is blog post post number 414.

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1. Customer Acquisition

The hard thing about customer acquisition is that it’s such an individual problem. At the same time, it is integral to the growth of any business. The inability to acquire customers has no easy fix- but a good way to find out why no one is joining is to figure out why some might be leaving.

For now, research suggests that in order to get more customers or clients you need to stand out, have more personality, and create more video (in addition to having an exceptional product or service.)

2. Negative Public Perception

Not all markets are easy to enter. Some come with a lot of negative stigmas. Even so, it’s possible to succeed. When was the last time you paid attention to the payday advance industry? If it’s been a while, you might want to revisit it to observe what they’ve accomplished.

With major news outlets and even the government cautioning their potential customers, this industry has grown to $4 billion in revenue. With locations spanning from Denver to Los Angeles, they’ve marketed payday advances to the ultimate target audience. How did they do it? Their service is very particular- short term loans that are meant to be paid back within weeks. With responsible use, that’s a great tool, but when used irresponsibly, it becomes a burden.

Of course, that wasn’t the only method, pay attention to their ads and you’ll quickly spot a few other things, but coming across as responsible certainly hasn’t tarnished their reputation.

3. Lack of Product Diversity

What if you happen to be in a market with products identical to yours? Well, that means you have to get creative. You’ve probably already heard how Fiji brand bottled water did it- but have you thought about how “hormone free” eggs have managed to carve out a niche when all eggs (and chickens) are hormone free?

Highlighting a benefit that your customers might not realize can put you ahead just for the fact that your competition didn’t think of it. Try to think of your industry and products like a newcomer might. Are there any “standard” features that go under-represented?

4. Proving the ROI

Some marketing campaigns are notoriously tricky when it comes to nailing down effectiveness. This doesn’t get easier when you make multiple little changes or have several campaigns going at once. To quell this challenge, you need the right tools- there’s no way around that. These days there is a software solution for everything- even specific types of marketing campaigns. Finding the right one might take a little time, but it will be well invested.

5. Catering to the Customer

This was the Radioshack problem. Not even a successful, national brand can hop around from opportunity to opportunity. If they do, pretty soon they will be unsuccessful. It’s best to stick with what you are known for and cater to the customers that love you for it- rather than everyone whether your business is relevant to them or not.

Find your avatar, learn what they want and how your business can fit perfectly into their lives. Market to them and soon enough you will have a thriving community of perfect, loyal customers.

6. Everything is On Sale

It’s hard not to join the “race to the bottom.” Everyday whether you are online or off you will see dozens of things “on sale.” The term has lost much of its magic and isn’t saving the stores that use it most often.

As an alternative to steady sales, you can offer loyalty discounts and programs. These incentives won’t cheapen your brand in the eyes of your customers while still enticing them to make another purchase. Alternatively, you can always schedule a price increase or create a new plan if your current numbers are lackluster.

7. Staying Focused and Maximizing Your Budget

Though using the right tools has been mentioned several times in this post, that does not mean you should jump on every new thing you see. “Shiny object syndrome” is a time waster. Stick with what you know until it doesn’t work. If you must, try out a new product once or twice a year. Having limits will reduce temptation.

Similarly, sticking with what works will help keep your budget in check. Making the most of the tracking tools available will keep you from overspending on ineffective campaigns, too.

Conclusion

A career in marketing is challenging. It takes work but marketing is anything but boring. Marketers really need to market to the moon and back with clever strategies. Knowing how to navigate through the challenges without hitting an iceberg will help you keep afloat and stay on track to success.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms.  We hope you found this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

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This is blog post post number 388. This is a featured post.

The post Top Marketing Challenges and How to Overcome Them appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.