How to Work Smarter, Not Harder on Your Business

Is all your hard work paying off? Maybe not. According to Boston University's Questrom School of Business, managers can't tell the difference between employees working 80 hours a week - and those who just pretend to. They couldn't see if their overworked employees actually accomplished more than those just pretending to work hard.

But the research doesn't give us a free pass to just slash our work hours and expect to see success. Instead, we should be working smarter, not harder, on our businesses to see results.

So instead of logging upwards of 80 hours of work a week simply for the sake of hard work, turn those 80 hours into a smart and savvy business hustle to skyrocket your success. Here are six ways to get started.

1. Get Clear On Your Goals

Serious focus and clear goal setting is crucial to your business success. Start by writing down your goals to give your hard work a boost. According to a study by Dr. Gail Matthews at the Dominican University, more than 70% of those who wrote down their goals and sent weekly updates to a friend were successful in achieving those goals. Meanwhile, only 35% of those who kept the goals to themselves were actually successful.

2. Offer Incredible Value

Creating unbelievable value in your business isn't a new concept. But how you do it should extend past the services you bill for. I exceeded last year's goal to connect or help one person a day and expected nothing in return. When I meet to help others or get to know them better, I don't ask for the sale or a return favor during that conversation. By simply focusing on helping others and creating value, I automatically generate leads and acquire new customers to the tune of six figures.

You can offer incredible value in your own business by focusing on what you do best. Give away a valuable ebook on your expertise if you're amazing at breaking down complex theories and jargon into easy-to-understand language. Create a LinkedIn group or a premium membership site if you excel at being a cheerleader for your clients and holding them accountable through their own business-building process.

3. Make It Passive

Earning a healthy income is relatively easy if you're working hard and putting in long hours. But there are only so many hours in the day that you can actually work. Spend too many hours on your actual services, and you sacrifice the time needed to develop new products and services and scale your business.

Instead, make part of your business a completely passive pursuit. Start by selling an ebook or self-paced video course. You can also look into how to diversify your wealth-building portfolio to earn passive income. That income can then be reinvested into your business to continue growing it.

4. Automate Your Systems

Earning money isn't the only thing that can be a passive pursuit in your business. Borrow from that passive concept and start automating your systems. Start by pre-qualifying leads with a survey or follow-up form to learn more about their business. This can dramatically reduce time on the phone going through the same questions you ask every lead, only to find out they're not your ideal client.

Use a system like KissFlow to determine processes, build forms, design the workflow, and set permissions for your team. SalesForce can also help automate processes like your project management systems, quality control, and managing advertising campaigns. Focus on completely automating your most common processes to create more margin and free up your time to build your business.

5. Eliminate Decision Fatigue

There are only so many decisions you can make in a single day before suffering burnout and decision fatigue. Research has shown that judges are more likely to offer parole and favorable terms during the morning hours - as decision fatigue sets in during the afternoon, similar offenders are more likely to be denied parole.

Make the majority of your decisions in the morning when your mind is the most alert and rested. Stack your afternoon with less-intensive tasks like meeting for coffee with a business prospect, answering emails, or getting in a workout at the gym.

And remember to take time to decompress and reflect. I reboot my brain by traveling, writing, and skydiving. In a survey of the daily routines of hundreds of Fortune 500 Executives, VPs and CEOs consistently use their evenings to unwind with a short walk, reading, pursuing a hobby, and shutting down electronics to relax before bed. When it's time to make more decisions in your business, you'll feel energized and more focused.

6. Outsource Strategically

Common sense should tell us we can't do everything ourselves. But in reality, entrepreneurs get stuck in the startup or bootstrapping mentality and keep doing everything themselves. Get more done in your business by outsourcing menial tasks, and anything that isn't within your range of expertise.

Start by outsourcing your bookkeeping to a monthly service like Bench, or your payroll to the experts at Wagepoint. Meanwhile, a service like Zirtual can provide you with virtual assistants to help with everything from travel planning to online research.

And don't just stop at delegating professional tasks. Remember, you can also outsource things like cleaning your office or home, cooking meals, and errand running to free up more time in your personal life and create more of a time margin in your business.

Are you ready to give up some control to work smarter, not harder? It's easy to keep wearing 'working hard' like a badge of honor. But working smart, automating processes, and giving up control can help your business soar and dramatically impact your bottom line.

What's your favorite way to work smarter, not harder, on your business? 

Let me know in the comments below.

Source : http://on.inc.com/2dvPxYB

15 things that happen to every social media campaign

You might think to be a "social media manager" is a dream job, like a travel blogger minus the packing and jet lag.

It seems easy: You do nothing but publish blogs, humor followers with memes, post a quote, share a link and watch YouTube. Well, if you plan on joining a social media company, you've got it all wrong.

Nearly nine out of 10 companies {88 percent) use social media marketing. It’s a virtual slug-fest. Enjoy it but don’t take it lightly. Social media requires hard work. You don’t just fire ideas into thin air. Identify your brand, understand your audience, choose a platform and deliver relevantly, interesting content. There are many pain points to overcome, many things that you must understand before you get giddy over every like or share your post gets.

Though being a social media manager isn't a bed of roses, it's not a bed of nails, either. Manage your expectations by noting 15 things that can happen while you run a social media campaign:

1. Expect to build a name .

Online presence, visibility, and awareness are part of the strategy. Putting your brand on social media is a cheap way to get exposure. And you’ll get the buzz if you do it right. Social media reaches out to a broader audience to pave the way to solid branding.

2. Enjoy brand loyalty.

A Texas Tech University report found brands that engage in social media enjoy higher customer loyalty. A study by Convince and Convert reported that 53 percent of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands.

Social media offers more chances to convert and improve brand loyalty. Every marketer must take advantage of this.

3. You can lose focus.

A report by Hubspot showed that consumers expect brands to be active on three or four social media channels. Logic tells you to immediately create four accounts at once but doesn't do it.

You must assess your resources before you do this or you risk failing in all. Do you have the people, the time, the energy, and the content to keep all of them going? Be realistic—take it easy. Focus on the platforms you can manage and the ones that cater to your audience.

4. You will stare at the wall.

One study showed that creating content is one of the biggest difficulties for digital marketers. You will experience this too. You will stare at a blank wall. There will come a time when you feel like you have done everything. You haven’t. Continue exploring and inspire yourself by reading and observing trends. Open your mind.

5. Formats can change.

Content comes in many forms: blog, video, photo, infographics, SlideShare, DIY, tutorial, list, memes, etc. At some point, you will know which ones work.

This requires understanding your audience. If you have a young audience, you might want to go easy on data and graphics. If your market is old, go easy on memes. Draw up a strategic formats plan.

6. Followers will get angry.

Stop telling yourself that you can please everyone. No, you won’t; no, you can’t; no, you don’t have to. The things you put out will get good and bad feedback. Learn how to deal with feedback. Do not ignore it.

7. Outsourcing to find the right people.

One tip for winning social media marketing: Find the right people to do it.

For start-ups, this is a real difficulty. It’s best to outsource. Don’t force yourself and your small team to do things you have difficulty doing. If you lack a good writer, hire freelancers. If you have difficulty scheduling, hire a virtual assistant. Assemble a team with potential, talent and the right motivation.

8. The fight for time and consistency.

In drawing up a plan, decide at what hour you should publish a piece of content. You must make sure that deadlines are met and schedules followed. Most social media channels enable you to schedule posts—but consistency isn’t just timing. It’s publishing the right content at the right time.

9. Analytics that are lost in (data) translation.

Analyzing metrics and data will be pain points. But don’t be scared of numbers. According to Propeller, a digital marketing agency, data is important in any social media campaign. It converts buzz into revenue. Measure ROI against goals, know the competition and go deeper into every like, comment or share.

10. Dropping everything if your post just went viral.

You‘ll occasionally experience the bliss of going viral. Viral content spreads like a disease. You’ll be surprised at how fast everything happens.

Enjoy virality, because it’s pretty hard to come by. Never rest on your laurels. Keep the ideas coming and get ready for your next viral content.

11. Winning the game of hashtags.

The #GetCovered campaign of the Obama administration is a social media campaign success story. Obama’s healthcare plan was off to a bumpy start, but things changed as soon as they launched the hashtag, reaching out to 26-35 year-olds and older adults. Millennials helped boost the government’s healthcare website traffic by 40 percent.

Get creative with hashtags without losing focus on the people you target. Soon you’ll know the difference between a poorly-constructed and a spot-on hashtag.

12. Find time to repurpose content.

The blog you published several months ago has become relevant again but fight the urge to publish the same blog.

Repurpose it by turning it into a list article. Turn (for example) a step-by-step guide to putting up wall decals into a video. Learn how to recycle content. It saves time and energy.

13. Prove you are not robots.

Social media is tricky in the way it connects people but risks losing people at the same time. It seems very impersonal. Don’t fall into that trap. Let your followers know to whom they are talking.

HBO’s “Girls” promoted their show on Snapchat in a personal way, filming behind-the-scenes videos. Imitate the social media campaign to improve your audience engagement. When you feel your campaign has gotten too mechanical, get personal—it might help things flow again.

14. Revenues are climbing.

Companies launch social media campaigns to boost website traffic, followers, and revenue.

A Social Media Examiner study found that 50 percent of brands that used social media for at least three years reported a spike in sales and revenue, which is good news for companies who take social media seriously. If you do things right, expect increased sales.

15. Select trends to ride.

In the blink of an eye, Facebook introduces an update, Instagram announces a new policy and a new social networking site is born. Learn about these trends, but don’t ride all of them. See which serve your goals and your audiences’ interests.

Social media is a big marketing help, but it poses big risks if you use it without know-how or a good plan. When done right, social media marketing is dynamic and fun.

Source: http://bit.ly/28K7jiJ

Why marketers can't ignore mobile and how they can integrate it into their strategies

Given the dramatic rise of mobile over the last several years — with even more dramatic growth coming, according to a recent Cisco report — marketers of all stripes should be integrating mobile into their marketing strategies. In the past five years alone, mobile has cemented itself as a strong marketing tactic. And with nearly two-thirds of Americans owning smartphones, it's clear that if advertisers want to reach consumers, mobile should be the first place they try. 

Cisco's Visual Networking Index white paper, which it released in February, painted a fairly bright picture for the mobile category, providing a global mobile data traffic forecast for 2015 to 2020. Some eye-popping data points about the rise of mobile include:

• Global mobile data traffic grew 74% in 2015, reaching 3.7 exabytes per month,
• Mobile data traffic has grown 4,000-fold over the past 10 years,
• And it has grown almost 400-million-fold over the past 15 years.

Going a step further, Cisco provided some milestone expectations for 2020:

• Global monthly data traffic will be 30.6 exabytes (compared to the 3.7 monthly exabytes at the end of last year),
• Mobile connected devices per capita will reach 1.5,
• A majority (75%) of global mobile data traffic will be video,
• And smartphones will account for 80% of mobile data traffic.

Given those numbers, it is more than clear that mobile marketing is a channel that simply cannot be ignored. It has already become a part of many other marketing channels including email, website marketing and search, among others.

Mobile is becoming such a critical marketing element, and Noah Jessop, head of data for Liquid PCH, told Marketing Dive that except for situations where businesses are selling high-value products, "where the shopper requires a large amount of information and coaxing before making their purchase," mobile should and needs to fit into virtually all marketing strategies right now.

"Mobile is critical — Google has finally noted that more than half of searches are conducted on mobile, and this will only go up as computing becomes even more ubiquitous," Jessop said. "The shift to mobile is only going to increase — and unprepared marketers will be left trying to catch up."

Making mobile part of an overall marketing strategy

One challenge with creating any marketing strategy is making budget and time decisions for the different marketing channels and activities involved. For instance, More time spent on email means less time for social media, and more money spent on paid search might mean less budget space for third-party creative talent.

Jessop pointed out the approach to mobile is no different than any other strategy decision. Though "there is no 'one-size-fits-all' when budgeting time and resources for mobile — the most important thing is to craft the connection with your potential customer in the best way possible," he said.

As many marketers are finding mobile to be the best connection with potential customers, Jessop advised marketers to watch out for two major challenges when creating a mobile marketing strategy.

1. When adding mobile to the marketing mix, don’t forget to optimize for mobile. He explained, for example, “Hollywood sometimes will spend 100% of their budget on mobile to promote a new movie opening. But the teams that make previews are still used to the old format — previews that open with a few seconds of black, a few seconds of title screens, as contrasted to the immediate, stackable experience that mobile dictates. In this case, Hollywood has the right idea of getting their advertising where eyes are going, but they’re leaving out a crucial component: making that mobile experience user-friendly.”

2. Be sure to recognize real-time opportunities to leverage the power of mobile. One way to achieve this, he suggested, is through a hyper-targeted, in-store mobile ad, which can serve as the best “real estate” for brands battling for attention in today’s hyper-connected world.

The value of mobile marketing

A key advantage of mobile marketing is the ability to reach people in different contexts, such as at the moment of price comparison in a brick-and-mortar location, or maybe just away from the office.

In the first case — the price comparison — Jessop said the mobile exposure can make it easier to “follow the digital bread crumbs” to figure out if the marketing message worked. He stated, “For example when we work with a retailer or quick serve restaurant on mobile marketing, we can connect the exposed mobile IDs to a panel of users who have opted in to sharing their location — and ultimately conclude if the campaign drove customers to the store.”

Reaching people away from the office is of value to both B2B and B2C marketers. Making a marketing touch point out of the office context might find someone who is more open to listening to the message.

“Rather than barraging the work inbox during the busiest part of her day,” Jessop said, “mobile paid media can be used to find the same executive during a weekend at home on her iPad.”

One important thing to remember, he said, is to "use the data you already have, about the customers who you know already love your product or service" — it might lead you to insights about potential new customers.

 Source: http://bit.ly/1RwlQm7

Inbound Marketing: Concepts, History and Evolution

The term “Inbound Marketing” has become in recent years one of those words that everyone talks about but no one is entirely clear what it really means or where it came from.

Inbound Marketing The idea born in response to changes in consumer behavior that are no longer passive recipients and are no longer willing to allow advertising breaks from traditional media such as radio, television or newspaper.

The response to these changes is a new philosophy called Inbound Marketing marketing in which customers are which includes brands and interact with them in a consensual without unwanted interruptions occur.

It revolves around three main pillars: SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing. All three work in an integrated manner, and form part of an overall strategy that combines all actions, channels and techniques for improving brand reputation and greater online visibility that translates into growth of visits, leads and customers.

Origin

The origin of this movement is given to Brian Halligan, one of the founders of Hubspot, who along with his partner, Dharmesh Shah, and one of his advisers, David Meerman Scott, coined the principles of this new form of marketing within the online world.

Evolution in the Twentieth Century

In the decades of 50 and 60 Peter F. Drucker emphasized the value that companies had to identify the interests and orientations of consumers in market research. Drucker noted, for example, the importance that General Electric had to use the inputs of consumers in all phases of design and development of products to achieve business success.

To explain the fundamental theory of marketing, Ducker focused on customer orientation and segmentation as the keys to marketing:

“Marketing aims to identify and understand so well the consumer that the product suits your needs perfectly” P.Ducker, 1974.

Inbound Marketing and the Digital Revolution

Based on these ideas, Seth Godin summed up the concept of marketing Ducker in his concept of “Permission Marketing”, where marketing leaves out aggression for sale and the intrusion and focuses on getting permission from consumers before continuing the sales process.

“Consumers will only permit a company to communicate with them if they know what they will gain in return. The advertiser has to compensate users, explicitly or implicitly, by paying attention to your message. “Seth Godin.

Another milestone in the development of the current paradigm of inbound marketing is “relationship marketing”, which became popular in the mid-90s and had the consultant and best-selling Regis McKenna one of its greatest exponents. Its maximum is that organizations should focus on satisfying and retaining its customers to create lasting relationships over time.

“Marketing is everything and everything is marketing.” Regis McKenna.

With the technological revolution that took place in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, all these theories gain a new dimension and its application to digital world creates the environment for the founders of Hubspot coined the term “inbound marketing” context.

SEO, Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing has become the main tools for consumers who are able to meet and interact with companies offering services and products they need. The goal is to generate the most value for visitors to become leads and customers.

Future

In a recent post Brian Halligan, taking on Amazon as an example, emphasized the fact that, in the near future, the success of many online businesses requires personalize the experience of users and exploit information gathered from leads and customers to provide them with messages and offers that fit the needs of each. The result of this “Segments of One” is a dramatic increase in conversion rates and the success of those who are able to implement it properly.

Conclusion

Both the present and the future of marketing require an effort from the brands to understand the changes that have occurred in consumer behavior in the way they relate and the medium itself. Therefore, it is more necessary than ever to adapt to a new context in which some of the traditional principles of marketing are staggering to give way to new ideas such as Inbound Marketing.

Source : http://bit.ly/1KRPMfE

13 Social Media Resolutions to Try in 2016

  





1) Refresh your friends and followings. Give your newsfeeds a fresh start by letting go of your unnecessary or unhealthy online connections, and only follow the people you really care to get updates from.

2) Limit your Snapchat stories to 1 minute or less. Just because they removed the numbers in the timer, doesn't mean we won't realize your story is ridiculously long. Unless you're DJ Khaled.

3) Slow down with your posts during Fashion Week. Front row snapshots, show invitations, celebrity spottings—keeping up with your social media during Fashion Week is a job in itself. Post less, we all have enough blurry runway pics to scroll through on our Instagram feed.

4) Show some love to your LinkedIn. LinkedIn—the poor neglected child of your social media sites. Update your profile, accept those invitations that have been sitting in your inbox for months and add your latest work to your page—take advantage of the resource, you never know what kind of career connections you can make.

5) Try taking advantage of the "see less" Facebook feature if you're going through a breakup. Not ready to see your ex on social media? Hide their activity from your feed if it'll help heal those wounds. (Or better yet, just delete them).

6) If you're still in a relationship, keep it on the DL. We know you treasure the special moments you have with your significant other, but don't rub it in everyone's faces. Which, similarly, leads us to #7...

7) Your child is cute. We get it.

8) Take a break from the Facetune and other face-editing apps. Often when you use them, you get so sucked in that you forget what looks natural. Unless you've mastered a way to flawlessly cover your blemishes and add a light tan without it looking completely obvious—as it usually does—you're better off with #nofilter.

9) Think before you comment and argue. As we enter upon an election year, opinions will fire up more often and conversations will be all the more volatile. This doesn't mean you should stop sharing your beliefs, but just be wary of (and prepared for) what reactions the articles or statements you post will incite. Not everything has to be a political rant or a comment showdown—as entertaining as it is for your followers.

10) Chill with the online tests. Do you really need to know who secretly wants to marry you, or which characters from the cast of "Friends" you and your buddies are? (You're Rachel anyways, duh.) These are funny once or twice, but it's not something your followers want to see every day. In fact, each time you sign up for one of these tests, you give that website access to your friends list and personal info. That might not be something you want going around.

11) Put the "act" in activism. Changing your profile picture or cover photo is a great way to spread awareness about a cause. But this year, try challenging yourself to offer more than post. Maybe make a small donation to an associated charity or sign a related petition. That'll give a lot more meaning to the causes on your page.

12) Live in the moment. The new year has a lot in store for you—you won't want to miss out by being too glued to your screen.

13) If you're still using a selfie stick: it will only go downhill from here.

Source : http://bit.ly/1TznvKv

6 CREATIVITY HABITS FOR PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY'RE NOT CREATIVE

EVERYONE IS CREATIVE. (NO, REALLY.) HERE'S HOW TO UNLEASH YOUR BEST IDEAS.

Think about the roles and responsibilities in your office. There are probably people you think of as "creative"—maybe those in product or graphic design, marketing, and even sales. Then there are those who don’t immediately spring to mind when that word is used.

But thinking about people—or yourself—as "not creative" could be hurting your company, because you’re discouraging them from thinking in innovative ways before they can even do so, says Mark Prommel, a partner at Pensa, a Brooklyn-based design and invention firm.

"Ideas and the creative execution of those ideas comes from anyone, anywhere," he says.

Does your workplace have creative designations? Use these six tips to create a culture where everyone’s creativity is stoked.

HABIT NO. 1: BANISH "YEAH, BUT"

If Leslie Ehm, president and "chief fire starter" at Toronto creativity training firmCombustion, could give organizations only one piece of advice to encourage creativity, it would be "to ban the phrase ‘yeah, but,’" she says. "'Yeah, but’ is just ‘no’ in a dress." Change the phrase to, "Yeah, and." That simple change suddenly confirms the original person’s contribution as valuable and builds on it. People don’t feel shut down. That’s collaboration in action, she says.

HABIT NO. 2: GET NEW PEOPLE AROUND A TABLE

One of the quickest ways to get people who think they aren’t creative to shed that viewpoint and start to contribute is to get them around a table brainstorming and coming up with solutions with a diverse group of people, says Jay Mathur, founder ofvalueideas, a creativity and management consultancy. The interaction with new people can bring perspectives never before considered and spur new ideas within the group, he says.

"If you bring a diversity of ideas, this is where a collision of ideas happen and the energy that releases new ideas. It can combine ideas. It can create more refined ideas," he says.

A 2015 study by researchers at Rice University and elsewhere backs a similar concept. The researchers looked at sales representatives at a pharmaceutical company in China. Those with wide networks of contacts came up with more creative solutions to sales and marketing challenges.

HABIT NO. 3: GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES FREEDOM

It’s important to have job descriptions so that people can get things done and know the benchmarks by which they’re being measured. However, leaders who are trying to create a culture of creativity also need to reward—or, at the very least, not discourage—people from contributing beyond the confines of their roles, Ehm says. She cites a team she’s currently training where employees are worried about whether they’ll actually be allowed to contribute once the training is over.

"We keep saying to them, ‘Leadership is saying yes,’ [and they say,] ‘But, when we get back to the regular kind of workflow, and we have to do things fast, are they going to allow us to do it?’" she says. Make sure your own culture isn’t causing this type of creative hesitation. And encourage people to question processes, Prommel says. Let people know that if they see a better way to do something, it’s not only okay to speak up—it’s valued.

HABIT NO. 4: REWARD THE EFFORT EVEN IF IT'S A FAILURE

Ehm defines creativity as "combining previously uncombined thoughts and ideas to create new thoughts and ideas. Once you’ve gotten people to do that, you need to reward the effort, rather than the outcome," she says.

"Hierarchically, everyone is rewarded for coming up with the right answer, to sort of smooth the rough spots in the process. There's not a lot of room for rewarding or celebrating the risk and the failure. You can't have creativity without failure," she says.

HABIT NO. 5: WORK ON NEW PROJECTS

Grinding out the same old projects every day can burn out even the brightest creative light. At Pensa, Prommel and his team try to carve out time to think about projects on which they’d like to work, or areas in which they’re interested and think of ideas. Give employees time to think about the projects on which they’d like to work and try to get them involved on those teams, he says. Letting employees be part of projects that excite them is going to stir creativity. Plus, contributions from people who have fresh perspectives can help bring forth new ideas.

Source : http://bit.ly/1RPk6bK