Few start-up companies are recruiting business analysts in the position of business analytics role. Among the analytics lovers who are looking for a good career path in business analytics, this might create some confusion. To be proficient, here is the post that clearly distinguishes between a business analyst and business analytics roles.

Who is a Business Analyst?

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) defines Business Analysis as the process of defining business needs and evaluating effective solutions to business issues. A business analyst has a vital role in enhancing an enterprise toward effectiveness, efficiency, and desirability.

What is Business Analytics?

Business analytics doesn’t have a lot to do with information and is focused on functions and procedures. He/she is more concerned with data values and reporting. A business analyst, in a precise manner, uses data to make useful, careful factual decisions for an organization. The development of business analytics is on-going yet is diverted in taking care of issues and improving effectiveness utilizing a set of information-driven understanding, administrative processes, and transparent correspondence. They apply key insights from data and work on salient features of the information pipeline.

Educational Background 

Business Analyst

Data Analysts should have knowledge on subjects like computer science, software engineering, programming, mathematics, and statistics. Having knowledge of these subjects, they can create and process algorithms and programs to deliver exact insight from the available raw data.

Business Analytics

Business analytics needs solid business sense on worldwide markets, activities, and the entire management. They have IT or software engineering foundations also, to empower them to utilize the data that information analysts allow. Without such a foundation, they probably won’t recognize what they were handling, so both are significant. In spite of the fact that some business analytics positions require just a four-year bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree would help them for senior positions.

Roles:

Business Analyst

A business analyst correlates the specialized team and the customer. The specialized team has the capacity to either develop and deliver a product or service. The business analyst should ensure the product delivered by the specialized team meets the present prerequisites of the customer.

A business analyst should be profoundly concerned about surveying circumstances, able to express meaningful conversations, and making the best suggestions dependent on the skills they have.

They have to concentrate vigorously on expanding the enterprise’s profits and improving their functional running costs to cut waste. It could mean recognizing redundant positions, items, affiliate marketing campaigns – or essentially whatever else.

Business Analytics

Business analytics will focus on the usage of big data tools to regulate business challenges and execute functional changes within an enterprise. Also, they need to find weaknesses in current processes and to project surface data to enhance efficiency and growth measurements of an organization.

Responsibilities

Business Analyst

The business analysts should properly communicate with all stakeholders and manage business processes effectively. Business analysts should handle data impacts on business operative decisions. They, even more, need to examine where they can make the system flow to be efficient.

Business Analytics

Business analytics works with organized data reports and applies SQL to recover information from databases. If the management needs an enterprise’s higher metrics, the individual will compose SQL queries to derive and examine the information from the database of transactions. He/she uses predictive analytics and statistics and applies logical skills to resolve business issues.

They can use advanced tools like Tableau, R, and D3.js library to communicate their program or discoveries to the end partners.

Skills

Business Analyst

• Fundamental Skills: Issue-Solving, Communication, Management, and Research abilities
• Technical Skills: Knowledge on IT, Software development and Domain
• Business Skills: Document Analysis and creative skills

Business Analytics

• Analytical Skills: Logical thinking, Data predictions
• Capability Skills: Understandable, Visualization, Clear Communication skills
• Programming Skills: SQL, Python, Julia, Hadoop and so on

Certification Courses:

Business Analyst

There are plenty of certifications to become business analysts and numerous organizations providing courses and exams to certify your business analytics skills. For a list of business analyst certification, check out these seven noteworthy certifications.

• Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) – It is for executives who are new to the data field.

• Certification of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA) – It is for business analysis professionals having experience of 2-3 years

• Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) – Suitable for BA candidates having work experience of 5+ years

• Certified Business Analysis Thought Leader (CBATL) – It is for candidates who have BA degree and over 10+ years of experience

Business Analytics

Some Universities offer an online certificate program, which is a relatively shorter way to gain specialization in a data field. Here are some famous certification course programs to look into:

• The Harvard Business Analytics Program – Harvard provides a 9-month certificate program for executives and trains with the data and analytics skill set to drive the industry.

• American University Master of Science in Analytics – This 1-year program is designed for professionals who plan to earn expertise in data analysis and get knowledge on new insights in their sector.

Career Options:

Business Analyst

If you wish to go for alternative careers with the current experience, below are five various career paths mentioned based on education and skills.

• Financial Analyst
• Computer Systems Analyst
• Market Research Analyst
• Postsecondary Business Teacher
• Actuary

Business Analytics

If you wish to specialize in your streams, here are some roles for an individual to choose from:

• Business Analyst Roles – Data Architect, Data Scientist, and Data Analyst
• Operations Research Analyst Roles – Business Operations Analyst, Operations Analyst, Operations Business Analyst
• Market Research Analyst
• Quantitative Analyst Roles – Quantitative Modeler, Financial Analyst

Bottom Line:

Analysts make the organization run better, and to do as such, they need data. It is clear with the above information that both business analyst and business analytics roles are key roles for effective business operations. Finally, they both work closely to deliver the final project successfully. To conclude, hopefully, you feel comfortable to plan a wise decision about which job suits and works best for you.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

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This is blog post number 553

The post Business Analyst vs. Business Analytics appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

As business owners, we are living in uncertain times, many of the business people I have spoken to are apprehensive about the future. In the United Kingdom, the reality of Brexit and all it entails means that business owners, senior management in larger companies and advisory boards of all descriptions are very risk averse. Business uncertainty is not confined to the UK of course, in Germany a recession seems imminent. There area also signs that despite the recent trade truce between the United States and China, both economies are set to become embroiled in a global slowdown within the next two years.

 Business is Risky

The natural human reaction to this uncertainty is to play it safe and be cautious, this approach seems reasonable but can you win with a ‘play it safe’ approach? Just being in business is taking a risk but so is the so called safer option of entrusting your livelihood to a single company as an employee.  In recent times, many household names in the retail sector have gone into administration including Blockbuster, Toys R US, Maplin and Thomas Cook. There are plenty more examples here. 

Bravery in Business

Playing it safe is famously what the directors of Blockbuster did when they turned down the chance  to buy Netflix for a reputed $50 million dollars. It is currently valued at $145 billion and Blockbuster is no more.

It is my recommendation that you are brave and take calculated risks for your business to give it a chance to thrive rather than merely survive. My opinion has not changed in the seven years since I wrote this article, Is your fear of risk taking holding you back? 5 big risk takers to inspire you   

Instead of passively hoping that your business survives a recession, create a proactive strategy that embraces risk and gives your company the chance to thrive in a recession. Be positive and be enthusiastic.

There are always companies that surface on the other side of recession in a better place than when they went into it. What will it take for your company to be one of those? That is what you should do.

If you need any help from a Content Marketing and Social Media perspective, please email me via mike@marketingfundamentals.com  to start the conversation.

Are you ready to embrace risk for your business? Let me know in the comments section below.

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

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

Why I Stopped Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

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 Tuesdays and Fridays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Web Hosting Special Offer

This is blog post number 534

Image credit: Pexels.com

The post Risk in Business : Are you Brave Enough? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

As business owners, it is often tempting to do whatever we can to increase web traffic to our websites. Traffic is important, you have probably been approached by many experts who have offered to increase the traffic to your website. The truth is, web traffic is important but your website’s conversion rate is more important.

Let me explain what I mean by conversions, a web visitor who takes one of your desired actions steps i.e. signing up to your mailing list, booking a one on one coaching session or purchasing one of your information products can be regarded as a conversion.

Conversion Rate

All other web visitors who visit your site without ‘converting’ are potential customers who have chosen not to take action for one reason or another. Across B2B service industries a conversion rate of 2.5% is considered good, therefore if you have 1000 visitors to your website in a month, 25 will ‘convert’ or 125 if you have 5000 visitors per month.

Imagine if you could increase your conversion rate dramatically, what if with only 1000 visitors you could increase your conversion rate to 10%? That would make a massive difference to the top line revenue for your company and also to profitability.

It is my belief that too many companies are chasing more traffic when they should be focusing on improving their conversion rate. Below I have listed 4 ways that you will increase your website’s conversion rate. I have assumed that your website is already optimised and that you have a clear proposition for your intended target audience.

Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate

Use Video Effectively

I recommend that you use video to bring your company to life, video has the potential to humanise your company and make you more relatable. Often in B2B industries, one company’s ethos and positioning can sound very much life that of its competitor. Don’t be bland! Use video to show your leadership team and staff in positive settings demonstrating the value that you bring to customers.

It is for this reason that I prefer this style of corporate video to the ubiquitous animated explainer video. There may be a place for an animated explainer video in your marketing strategy but do not rely on it to convert web visitors. Animated explainer videos also have the disadvantage that they do not show who works at the company.

Change Your Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is the incentive you offer web visitors to sign up to your mailing list, it may be a PDF checklist, a guide or some swipe files. Ebooks used to very common until they fell out of fashion. Your lead magnet may no longer be appealing to your target audience. Test new lead magnets for desirability and ensure that your Pop Ups or sign up forms on your website are working correctly.

Create Dedicated Landing Pages

Sometimes there are too many distractions for a web visitor when they visit your site, they see the interesting blog posts or embedded videos and forget to sign up for your mailing list or request a one on one consultation. Dedicated landing pages remove these distractions and have proven to be very effective at increasing conversions. Two companies, LeadPages and Unbounce, base their entire business around the creation of effective landing pages; there are also cheaper alternatives available.

Prominent Testimonials and Case Studies

Most service businesses will have testimonials and case studies but will probably not be using them effectively enough. Let me explain, web visitors do not want to search around for your testimonials page or case studies page. Place your best testimonials and case studies in prominent positions on the pages where you are asking visitors to purchase your products or services. Using your testimonials in this way will build trust and increase conversions.

These are just 4 ways in which you can improve your website’s conversion rate, there are other methods and if you’d like to discuss how your website’s conversion rate could be improved please email me via mike@marketingfundamentals.com  to start the conversation.

Are you happy with your website’s conversion rate? Let me know in the comments section below.

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

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

Why I Stopped Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

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 Tuesdays and Fridays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Web Hosting Special Offer

This is blog post number 532.

Image credit: canva.com

The post How to Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

A few years ago, I was working with a client in the fast moving consumer good sector (fmcg). Location based marketing was one of the major themes I explored in content that I created for them; location based marketing utilising Beacon Technology appeared well suited to retail.

For those of you not aware,  beacons are small wireless devices that transmit Bluetooth signals to nearby smartphones. Grocery retailers could send promotional offers to passing shoppers and cinemas could alert passers by to their latest cinema deals.

It was as if what happened Tom Cruise’s character (John Anderton)  in the film, Minority Report was going to become the norm.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

However, even before GDPR the location based marketing revolution never really got going. There are a number of reasons for this;

Beacons signals can be blocked by physical objects

It can be hard to find suitable locations to position Beacons

Customers have to be opted in and have bluetooth enabled to receive messages

Customers need to be holding their phone and to look at their phones.

Beacons are powered by batteries and it is not clear how long the batteries last.

Consumers have shown no interest in Beacons.

This is not an exhaustive list but already it is clear to see the practicalities of Beacon Technology do not match up to the vision.

Location Based Content Marketing

If location based Content Marketing were to become a new form of communication, I could imagine it working well at an industry conference, it would need to utilise the same technology that our colleagues focused on business to consumer (B2C) communications have been experimenting with. I do not predict this happening anytime soon.

There are other technological areas bringing change to Content Marketing sooner than Beacon Technology. Artificial Intelligence is one, the use of Chatbots and automated scheduling for Social Media is fairly common now, these are both examples of Artificial Intelligence. However, it will still be some time before Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing will be able to create machines that can write content. I explored this area in this post, What Impact Will Artificial Intelligence Have on Content Marketing?  I am sure you will find it interesting.

Have you experienced Beacon Technology in a retail setting or a museum? Let me know in the comments section below.

It has taken us a while to find the right email partner but we believe that Constant Contact has the flexibility to meet our email needs and yours too.

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

What Impact Will Artificial Intelligence Have on Content Marketing?

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

Why Your Business Needs Email 

How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers

Google+ is Dead (You Must do This!)

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

Professional Services: How Do You Fill Your Sales Funnel?

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

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Web Hosting Special Offer

This is video number 251 and blog post number 487.

The post Is Location Based Content Marketing Going to Happen? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

As the Founder of a Content Marketing Agency for B2B businesses, I am often immersed in our core activities which are, creating new blog content for our clients and distributing that content via Social Media. Many people think of Content Marketing as just a top of the sales funnel activity, but it is much more than that. Let me explain, below is a visual representation of a sales funnel*.

Image credit: https://blogs.harvard.edu

The Benefits of Using Email

Email Allows You to Nurture Leads

Content Marketing has proven itself to be very effective at attracting new leads into B2B businesses at the top of the funnel but also nurturing those leads lower down the funnel.

Usually, prospects will sign up to your mailing list in return for an incentive such as an eBook, downloadable PDF or a White Paper. It is essential that you build up your mailing list because email marketing will allow you to nurture your prospects in a structured way.

When you distribute content via Social Media you hope that your audience is online and active on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook at the time that your tweet or update appears. If they are not, you will  miss them.

This is not a problem that you have with email; your emails will go into your prospect’s inbox and be seen by them, providing they pass through spam filters of course.

Email is therefore a vitally important communications channel for your business. In addition to the key Social Media platforms, it one that we use at Marketing Fundamentals Ltd. We are not alone.

Email is Great For Delivering Content

When the Content Marketing Institute surveyed* UK B2B Marketers they found that email was the top format used to distribute Content, as demonstrated below.

Email is Very Effective

When compared with other communications channels,  email was found to be the most effective format for achieving specific objectives.

Email is Versatile

Email is very versatile, you can send a wide range of communications pieces safe in the knowledge that they will reach their intended recipient. The different content types are listed below; event emails, automated confirmation emails and newsletters have proven to be the most popular.

The case for B2B business people to use email is compelling, the next consideration is who should you choose as your email service provider?

There’s nothing wrong with starting off with free templates and services as a small company. However, you will have an important decision to make when you want to upgrade your email communications.

There are literally hundreds of email service providers in the marketplace, our recommendation is for Constant Contact.

Why Constant Contact?

1. Easy to use templates

2. Great tracking and data available

3. Free trial period of one month

You can sign up to Constant Contact here. 

Some of the templates available

A sample of the reporting available 

If you are now ready to take your email marketing up a notch, click on the link below to get a free month with Constant Contact.

Get a Month Free With Constant Contact

We believe that Constant Contact has the flexibility to meet your email needs.

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

Did Content Marketing Kill Email Marketing?

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers

Google+ is Dead (You Must do This!)

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

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

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Web Hosting Special Offer

This is blog post number 485.

Additional Image credits:

contentmarketinginstitute.com – Charts 

References:

* – The sales funnel is merely a graphic representation, in reality the sales process is less linear now due to information readily available via the internet. Prospects may already have made up their mind before they contact you.

** To read the Content Marketing Institute’s Report in its entirety click here. 

The post Why Your Business Needs Email 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

Image credit: https://texascitizensbank.com/

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

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

This video is called, How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers By Mike Pitt.   . Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, which is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London.

In this video, Mike Pitt explains how to follows up with LinkedIn searchers. These are people who searched for a relevant term and were presented with your profile.

This video will be of interest to business owners, B2B marketing managers, Content Marketing professionals, Social Media Managers and others who use Content Marketing and Social Media to promote their B2B business. Existing LinkedIn users will find this particularly useful.

Follow Up LinkedIn Searchers

Following up LinkedIn searchers is a great way to identify and connect with people who probably have an interest in the services and products that your company sells. Each week, LinkedIn provides you with a list of five companies that have employees who entered a relevant search term for your business. Of their own accord, LinkedIn user have typed in a relevant search term and LinkedIn has chosen to show them your profile. The LinkedIn algorithm is very sophisticated and dependent on many variables, so there is a strong likelihood that the person who searched will be a relevant connection for you. The challenge is to work out who searched for you. In this video, I demonstrate my method for working out who searched.

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

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

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

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Web Hosting Special Offer

This is video number 247 and blog post number 480.

The post How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

This blog post is an answer I gave on Quora to the question, What Unusual Social Media Accounts do Bloggers Use to Promote Their Blog? I decided to share it here because I believe it will give you new ideas for blog post promotion. There are many alternatives to the usual choices of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. In my answer I listed some of them.

Unusual Social Media

Hello

Thanks for the question.

I have a few suggestions for you but I should start by stating that unusual social media is fairly subjective. My assumption is that your list of usual would include Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google + and Pinterest. With that clarification, here are my suggestions:

1. Mix.com  ( Think of Mix.com as StumbleUpon 2.0). If these words mean nothing to you this post will help, StumbleUpon is Dead.
2. Flipboard: News for our time – Technically it’s an app and not a Social Media platform.
3. Steemit – Steemit definitely is a social media platform and it is one that is powered by Blockchain technology. It is the largest of the social media platforms powered by Blockchain technology.
4. If you would like more information on Blockchain technology or the 12 other social media platforms that use Blockchain technology you can read my post here, The New Wave: 13 Social Media Platforms Powered by Blockchain

You can use all the platforms above to promote your blog but your first step would be to identify whether your intended audience uses those platforms.

Good luck and best wishes!

Quora

Do you use Quora? It is the perfect platform for you to ask me a question; we could then start a conversation that could result in a meeting or phone call if you are overseas. I look forward to hearing from you on Quora.

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

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

Professional Services: How Do You Fill Your Sales Funnel?

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

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

Follow Mike on Twitter 

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow Mike on Pinterest

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This is blog post number 478.

The post Which Unusual Social Media Accounts Do Bloggers use to Promote Their Blog? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

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When you run a services business it is vitally important that your existing clients are great ambassadors for your company. Word of Mouth mentions are the foundation of many of the most convincing pieces of content that you can create. I am referring to testimonials and case studies. I have written here about how to get more referrals so if you have not read this already please do so. So what one thing is going to get your clients to bring you more clients?

Your Clients Will Bring You More Clients

The answer is simple – you have to amaze them. I did not say that the answer was easy to execute, but that it was simple to understand.

When you have amazed your clients with the results that you have produced, results beyond their expectations, and yours in many cases, they will shout it from the rooftops. They will mention you to their peers. You become a shoe-in for projects that require your specialism. This is a wonderful position to be in because your network of existing clients and customers generates all the new opportunities you need to grow.

At this point, it would be great if I could give you a three point plan to amaze your clients, but of course that is impossible. I do not know your strengths as a business or your clients. If you would like to discuss how to do this specifically, please email me and we can set a meeting. We would be happy to help.

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

B2B How Proactive Are you With Existing Clients?

Entrepreneurs – How do you generate new business? 5 strategies that work.

Professional Services: How Do You Fill Your Sales Funnel?

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

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

Follow Mike on Twitter

This is blog post post number 451.

The post Your Clients Will Bring You More Clients When you Do This One Thing… appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Better performing posts will drive more traffic to your website, which in turn should generate more leads and sales for you. I have assumed that you have an effective conversion process once visitors reach your site.

Your Most Popular Post

Which is your most popular post? You should know which one it is but just in case you do not know, here’s how to find out.

Open your  Google Analytics account

On the left menu you will see a list of options, click on ‘Behaviour’

Then click on ‘Site Content’

Next click on ‘Content Drilldown’

On the right of your screen you should now see a list of your most viewed content for the current week. Note – This image is not from our website’s Google Analytics report.

To find out the most viewed content of all time ensure that you change the start date in the top right corner to the date that analytics were first added to your site.

It should now be clear which is your most popular post.

Read it again and ask yourself the following questions:

What made this post so popular ?

Was it the subject matter?

Was it the blog length?

How about the use of imagery or video?

In answering these questions you will have a template for future successful posts and you have your own benchmark to measure future posts against.

If you like this post you will also like, How do you Publish Content Consistently?

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

Follow Mike on Instagram

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

Follow Mike on Twitter

This is blog post post number 449.

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The post Content Hacks: Learning From Your Most Popular Post appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.