Business.com

Business.com

How to Boost Your Email Lead List Through Social Media

Posted: 21 Mar 2019 09:00 AM PDT

Considering that there are over 3.3 billion social media users, it's no wonder that people are trying to find new ways to get social media to generate leads.

More people are using social networks every single day. Since last year alone there has been a recorded 13 percent increase of social media users in 2018 and 3.196 billion people globally have some form of social networking account whether it be Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest or any of the other big name networks.

We want to take a careful look at some of these marketing techniques and see how you can build a lean, more effective lead list by properly marketing your product or brand through social media. Here are a few tips to help you take your marketing game to the next step.

Editor's note: Looking for the right email marketing software for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.

 

Create Custom Ads

One of the best ways to reach your target audience is by releasing ads to them about your product or service. Facebook Ads is a great tool to use so you can have a strong reach on the most popular social media outlet online today.

Facebook's Ad program lets you create custom ads with your own images, your own copy, and your own headline to attract the right audience. Once you've created your ads you can use their Audience Insights tab in order to change the location, gender, and interests of the people you want to see your ad.

Targeting the right audience means you'll have a better chance at them subscribing to your email list to see what else you have to offer. You can use this in tandem with one-time discounts and promotional content to keep the users engaged and increase your subscriber count.

Promote Gated Content

Gated content is another excellent way to grow your lead list through social media. In a nutshell, gated content is content that cannot be accessed by a user until they sign up for your email list.

It may seem like a challenge to get people to sign up for your list based just on content, but that's where your marketing techniques come in. As you promote your gated articles online, make sure you're expressing to the user why this material is so important.

Expressing value to the customer will help encourage them to sign up for your list to see what the source content contains. If they are interested, you'll have a long term customer who is engaged in your brand, the service you offer, and your knowledge.

Create Videos

Visual content has a 40 percent greater chance of being shared over traditional text content. The reason behind this is that people are extremely visually. The creation of smartphones has allowed users to browse their favorite social media sites at their own pace, and now people have more time to dive into videos and images.

If you want to grow your email list on social media, try creating some viral videos to pull in both your targeted audience and generally interested people. Monitor your social media and website analytics following the videos. Dollar Shave Club did a great job of creating awesome visual content when their brand launched. They focused on humor, convenience, and price and they are now one of the most popular razor companies in the world.

Embrace Retargeting

Retargeting customers has grown in popularity due to automation. It's now easier than ever to track customer behavior and help lead them towards your brand if they leave your site sooner than you'd like.

In a similar vein, retargeting ads on social media are a great opportunity to bring in more customers by reminding them about why they were on your site in the first place. You can set ads to appear based on their previous behavior on your website. For example, if they made it to the cart page but didn't check out, you can promote a 10 percent discount to them on social media if they complete their purchase.

These subtle but powerful marketing tools are helping convert more customers and increase subscriber lists for thousands of companies around the world. As technology advances, there are likely going to be more sophisticated ways to boost your lead lists, but for now, social media is one of the most popular places for customers and there are plenty of excellent ways to beef up your leads.

How to Spot the Wrong Accountant for Your Business

Posted: 21 Mar 2019 07:00 AM PDT

Success in the corporate environment comes down to a variety of factors, from determination and passion to bold ideas and fresh, innovative thinking. But behind the exciting concepts and the new-generation branding, the foundations of your business must be firm and stand resolute.

One such element of your company that must not falter on the path to success is financial stability. Keeping the numbers in check, the books balanced and budgets above the line are utterly essential, which is why so many businesses opt for professional support from accountancy experts.

But, like most things in life, accountants are unique. Each firm or contractor you come across will do things differently. The result is that some will offer you better financial support than others. As a business, naturally you only want the very best service you can find. This, then, begs the question: How do you spot the wrong accountant for your company?

Here are four signs the accountant you're dealing with isn't the right one for your business.

Editor's note: Need accounting software for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you with free information.

 

They Don't Ask Questions

Be immediately suspicious of an accountancy firm that doesn't ask for details of your business upon initial inquiry. This will involve a sales representative or, an accountant themselves, asking about aspects of your business like:

  • Turnover

  • Staff figures

  • Industry

  • Growth expectations

  • Current expenditure

  • Business age

  • Outstanding debts

An accountant needs to know more about your business in order to offer you a bespoke and, most importantly, useful service. If they aren't trying to find out further details about your business and are more interested in the fact that you are willing to pay them for their financial support, they aren't going to be overly concerned about being able to offer services that are optimised for your businesses' particular needs.

They Aren't Using New Technology

There was a time when working with pen and paper and submitting postal tax returns were the height of accounting technology. The key word here is was. Accountancy very much occupies the digital space in 2019. Lots of firms now offer online accounting services and remote work, for example, with practices built entirely around cloud-based software. This isn't essential though, and many accountants still opt for local, face-to-face practices.

What is essential, however, is an ability to work with new technology. Specialist software and tools have been developed to streamline the working life of an accountant, ensure greater accuracy of results and assure more versatile support. This means better financial management for your business. Accountants using outdated processes aren't going to offer you this.

The best way to find out if your prospective accountant is up to date on technology is to ask them about the systems they use. If you aren't in communication with an accountant yet and are searching around, another good measure of their technological awareness is their website. An old-fashioned, worn-down design that appears to be unloved and built in the 1990s is a good indicator that the firm perhaps isn't keeping up with modern practices as best it could.

They Don't Have a Specialty

Everyone should have a target customer, but some businesses need to go more niche than others. In accounting, finding your niche is of the utmost importance. Financial pressures, responsibilities and goals fluctuate depending on business size, industry, objectives and more. Providing generic accountancy services for all types of businesses means a firm doesn't have a targeted method of operating, which can result in inefficient practices. Accountants who specialise in a particular area are more proficient in their ability to support a brand working in that niche.

Let's imagine that your business is a local bakery and you opt to work with a firm that has been taking on SMEs in the food produce industry for 10 years. They're going to know a lot more about the best way to support your financial success than an accountancy firm that has never worked within the sector, and instead often works with larger corporations in sales and marketing.

Practice makes perfect. Specialisms support more effective practices and result in the evolution of targeted expertise. This is expertise that your business can benefit from. A generalised accountancy firm might offer you a reasonable service, but it won't offer you the very best for your money. For that, you need a firm that specialises in you, whether that's a two-person partnership, a self-employed plumber or a multinational corporation.

Their Online Reviews Are Poor

It may seem obvious, but if you meet an accountant at a conference or find them outside of a Google search, you could miss online reviews. Customer testimonials on their website are one thing, guarantees from the owner are another, but nothing beats unabridged feedback from genuine consumers.

Before signing on with any accountant or firm, read their reviews. Do your research into their brand and dig up all the information you can. Try to get a broad range of feedback from different review platforms and see what other people are saying.

For small and local accountancy firms, getting feedback outside of reviews might be difficult, but if the brand is large enough, you can also take to business/financial forums to directly ask the online community questions about their experiences with the company.

The 5 Surprisingly Simple Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Posted: 21 Mar 2019 06:00 AM PDT

Simplicity is a pivotal element in the success of many of the entrepreneurial greats. Life, in general, isn't meant to be hard. If it becomes extra-challenging, it's an obvious sign you're going the wrong way.

After studying everyone from Steve Jobs to Henry Ford, I've deduced five surprisingly simplistic habits that helped them reach limitless heights in the business world. I've put them to the test and can say they indeed work, and then some. These habits are more than well worth implementing into your routine.

Dress for Success

If you're working from home some days, should you forgo the shower and stay in your PJs? Nope. Get up, get showered, put on your best suit and sit down at your home office to start a productive work day. Even if you only have phone calls that day, you'll be pleasantly surprised to discover you're much more confident, productive and on your game if you're dressed for success, even if it's just Fido who sees how awesome you look today.

Eliminate Distractions

Studies have proven if you're interrupted while completing a task, it can take approximately 20 minutes to regroup and get back into what you were doing. If Fluffy keeps jumping up on your warm keyboard, keep pets out of the office. Your home office or any workspace, should be quiet and have the ability to keep it off-limits from any distractions of any kind. Noisy street? Move your desk away from the window and put up a mirror so you can still enjoy the sunshine and outside view but without the extra distraction.

Interdependence 

Many of the uber-successful entrepreneurs aren't ashamed to admit they've most certainly called up the value of and utilized the art of interdependence. In layman's terms, interdependence is somewhere between complete independence and complete co-dependence. It's the humility to admit you're not total king of your empire and none of us are good at everything. I can't draw a stick figure to save my soul, so I have to rely on bringing in graphic designers whenever I require graphics of any kind. These people aren't hired as permanent employees, which is the great part. It's inexpensive, quick and makes sound business and financial sense, all the way around.

Contracted work saves a ton of money in comparison to having someone on the payroll. Plus, there are lots of freelance websites popping up where you can interview and hire the right person for the short-term (or longer term) project.

Delegation

In the beginning, my business was my baby and I thought no one could truly do a better job than I could. I had a very hard time practicing delegation.

At some point, as your business and empire grow, delegation is imperative -- vital, actually -- to long-term success. Sure, you might be able to do all the things you've delegated out, but as a successful entrepreneur, your time is valuable and can be best utilized in other areas of your business. It's like letting go of your first-born on the first day of school. Once you let go of the reins and get over the hump, it becomes routine, and a good habit to get into.

Hands On, Hands-Off

I've run into many young and ambitious entrepreneurs who bite way more off than they can chew at once. This isn't a debate about how much you can handle; it's to point out that building a successful business and entrepreneurial lifestyle takes time, effort, patience, diligence and pacing yourself.

If you rush ahead, there's a huge potential to miss crucial steps (the smallest details can become the most important ones in the end), major opportunities, and learning lessons that can save your butt on the long haul. Flying high above the radar instead of staying in the trenches as you build, automatically takes you from hands-on, to hands-off – and that's no way to navigate. As the Big Cheese, you need to remain in the loop and hands-on with the tiniest to the largest of details. Failing out of sync with your business model and blueprint is a dangerous move, any time or in any way.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the best practices or habits of successful entrepreneurs, but these points have greatly assisted my own business and success, as well as many of the businesses and entrepreneurs I've worked with during my 21-plus year career. Consider these the five base golden rules to start with. I encourage you to develop more of your own and what works for you.

 
Posted by: at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)