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5 Tips for Growing Your New YouTube Channel

Posted: 29 May 2020 01:52 PM PDT

YouTube is the second most popular website of all time, with over 1.9 billion monthly users. The only site that generates more traffic is Google. It's easy to see why marketers and content creators decide to turn to YouTube when they want to grow their business. 

But there's a problem. These same people struggle with growing their channels when they first start out. Over 500 minutes of content is uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds, which creates an environment full of competition and various marketing strategies. 

If you're trying to grow your channel but feel overwhelmed, stick around. I am going to share several tips you can start using today to help you grow your channel, increase sales and cultivate an audience of highly engaged leads. 

Create a consistent brand theme

Your YouTube channel should carry a consistent them throughout all of your videos and on your profile. When someone lands on your page, they should recognize your brand if they have spotted your promotions on social media, found your website in the past or heard a friend or family member mention your channel in the past. 

Start by making sure the tone and images used in your uploads are consistent. Don't change the appearance of your thumbnails drastically between videos. The first part of growing is building a recognizable brand. You want people to scroll their YouTube feed and know that they are looking at one of your videos, even if they don't stop to read. 

It's worth remembering that consumers remember brand logos and catchphrases subconsciously. Not only will you recruit customers that are impressed by your neat and organized channel, but you'll also convince people to come back again based on their recognition of past experiences. 

Share on other social platforms 

YouTubers stand a better chance of getting recognized if they actively participate in other social media channels. Facebook and Instagram are the most common social media accounts to have, but Twitter and Pinterest can also prove beneficial. 

Most content creators use their other social media profiles to announce new videos, engage with their audience and share content from their website. For example, if a business owner operates a YouTube channel that shows off tutorials on how to use their product, they may use other social media channels to recruit subscribers for a free trial. 

Your marketing goals will vary based on the size and scope of your business, but you can certainly use social media to connect with your target audience and grow your channel. 

As you release new content, post a schedule on social media so your followers across all platforms know when to expect new content. This step adds another layer to your consistency, but you can use your other profiles to build this aspect of your brand image. 

Include a transcript and detailed description

There are two main reasons you should always add a transcript and a detailed description of your videos.

First, you're doing a service to your followers. Consumers like the ability to read along, and the hearing impaired cannot enjoy your video without a proper transcript. Take small steps to improve accessibility, and you'll see that a more diverse audience will start following your channel. 

The second reason deals with YouTube SEO. You're likely familiar with SEO as it relates to your website, but it turns out that search engine optimization plays a significant role in the success of your YouTube channel. 

When someone is looking for a keyword, the title, description, and transcript are all pulled from videos to form the context of your content. If your content aligns with the person's search intent, you're more likely to appear at the top of the results, so they are more likely to watch your content. 

Because context plays such a vital role in SEO, the more data you have for the algorithm to look at, the better chance you have of getting your content on display for the correct audience. 

Use creative engagement tactics

Next, let's talk about various engagement tactics you can use to get more people to subscribe. You can take countless approaches to engage your audience. The most common tactic is to encourage your subscribers to join your email list. Let them know that by subscribing to your list, they will get even more exclusive content not aired on YouTube.

You can send out the bonus material and special promotions that apply to your online store. Because emails have a 22.68% open rate across all industries, many marketers prefer to keep in touch with their customers using email marketing. 

Additionally, some marketers have found that lead nurturing through email resulted in 50% more sales. If you're a small channel looking to make it big, this could be a big deal for you. If you're not actively using email to talk to your audience, you're missing out on a massive opportunity to promote your new videos and updates. 

There are plenty of other ways you can engage with your subscribers without using email. Another common strategy is to host an online contest on your channel. Tell viewers that you are giving away a gift card or product from your store, and encourage them to engage with your brand for a chance to enter. 

In many cases, you can simply ask people to share your video, tag their friends or subscribe and comment. All of these actions build engagement on your channel, which will help you spread brand awareness and position yourself as an expert in your industry. 

Review your analytics

You may be familiar with the value of Google Analytics when you want to review your website data, but are you taking time to review your YouTube analytics? You can learn so much by examining the behavior of people that visit your channel. 

For example, if you notice that one of the topics you cover gets more attention than the rest, you can use this information to publish more great content in the future. Use this as an opportunity to figure out what people liked about those videos in the first place. You may have an underlying customer persona trend that you can resolve through your content. 

You can also fine-tune your channel as a whole. Look for features that users are not using, and remove them after a period of inactivity for a more organized profile page. Some creators start split testing their different features to see if they can get more engagement by moving things to other parts of their channel. How you split test and evolve your channel, in this case, is up to you. 

The last thing you should look at when reviewing your analytics is your link traffic. Some marketers miss out on significant opportunities because they don't pay attention to incoming links. Imagine if over half of your traffic came from Facebook, but you didn't know because you didn't check the links. Now you decide to reel in on some of your social media marketing, including Facebook. You've effectively cut off one of the most significant traffic sources but didn't realize it because you forgot to review your channel analytics. 

Back to you

If you log on to YouTube right now, you'll have no problem finding millions of pieces of content featuring every topic under the sun. You can stick out from the crowd, but you have to take the first step and start growing your YouTube channel. 

We have highlighted several helpful tactics you can start using today on your channel. Remember that all good things take time, and your account might not blow up overnight. However, if you're persistent and consistent, you'll have no problem managing a channel with the potential to reach millions of consumers from around the world. 

Save the Planet With These Business and Personal Credit Cards

Posted: 29 May 2020 01:51 PM PDT

Do you have business credit cards? Are you doing anything with them besides building your business? How about personal credit cards? Are you doing anything with them beyond having a more convenient way to pay for goods and services?

Business owners are understandably busy. At times, this can conflict with charitable impulses. No matter what, generous-spirited entrepreneurs need more convenient ways to help others. And maybe even save the planet.

Now, charitable giving may not be No. 1 on your list of perks you want from a business or personal credit card. But if you've ever wondered if your purchases of equipment, your travel, your rent and more could help out, then these cards are for you.

Keep in mind, you may need to get a little creative to do the most good. Here's how.

Business credit cards for donating to charities

The Blue Business®️ Plus Credit Card from American Express

The Blue Business Plus is a fine choice for small business owners who want to make charitable donations. There is no annual fee.

This card earns two Membership Rewards points per dollar on all purchases. This is up to the first $50,000 per year (then one per dollar thereafter). Transferable membership rewards points at 1.9 cents each is a lot like getting 3.8 cents in value per dollar charged on the first $50,000 charged per year.

It's easy to donate points to all sorts of charities. American Express allows for this via a program called Just Giving.

Just Giving includes well-known charities such as the Alzheimer's Association, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Doctors Without Borders, the Wounded Warrior Project and the ASPCA. It is also possible to donate directly to families requesting donations. (If you're looking for American Express Members Give, any search will redirect to Just Giving.)

The Business Platinum® Card from American Express

If you want to make a donation of $5,000 or more, the American Express Business Platinum Card offers 1.5 membership rewards points per dollar for all purchases over $5,000.

But make sure that wherever you decide to donate, the entire amount is charged as one transaction and not split into two or more payments. That is, do not donate on a monthly giving schedule. This is because you only get the 1.5 multiplier on charges over $5,000 when made as a single purchase.

But beware: This card has an annual fee of $595.                                                                                   

Chase Freedom Unlimited

The Chase Freedom Unlimited business credit card has no annual fee and earns 1.5% cash back. Cash back can be converted to ultimate rewards points. Get a 0% introductory APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers. Afterward, pay 13.49-25.49% variable APR.

There is no special bonus category for charitable donations for this card, but you can get ultimate rewards points at two cents each if you also have a premium ultimate rewards card such as the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This makes for a potential three cents in value for every dollar you spend. Cash-back rewards never expire.

While there is no annual fee, the premium cards necessary to make these points more valuable and transferrable to travel partners have annual fees. The Ink Business Preferred Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card both have a $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $450 annual fee.

Of course, entrepreneurs have personal credit cards, too. Here are some terrific personal credit cards for charitable giving.

Personal credit cards for donating to charities

Charity Charge Mastercard                                                                                                             

Earn 1% cash back on every purchase for your chosen charity/charities. There is no annual fee, but there is also no sign-up bonus. You can apply for this card via Commerce Bank with a fair credit score of 670 or higher. Odds of approval improve significantly if you apply with a good to excellent score of 680 or better. When you apply, Commerce Bank pulls your credit history from TransUnion.

There is a 1.99% APR for six months on purchases and balance transfers. After that, the APR is 16.74% to 26.74%, based on creditworthiness. 

Cardholders can donate tax-deductible cash rewards to several nonprofits.

Every purchase earns 1% cash back. This money is donated on a quarterly basis to up to three nonprofits of your choosing. Donate to a number of well-known causes, including the ones listed above. There are about 1.5 million charities in Charity Charge's database.

  • By supporting one nonprofit, it gets 100% of the 1% cash back
  • By supporting two nonprofits, each gets 50% of the 1% cash back
  • By supporting three nonprofits, each gets 33% of the 1% cash back

Recipients don't have to pay credit card processing fees. This means all of your rewards go directly to the organization(s) of your choice.

The only drawback is that you can get better cash-back rates from several other cards. But this World MasterCard comes with all of the perks of World MasterCards. Among a World MasterCard's many perks are extended warranties, price protection, identity theft protection, $0 fraud liability and MasterCard Global Service to help out if you lose your card.

Bank of America Susan G. Komen Card

To make a contribution to breast cancer research via credit card, take a look at the Bank of America Susan G. Komen card. It has no annual fee. Get a 0% APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers. Afterward, it is a variable 13.99-23.99% APR.                                                                                               

For each new Susan G Komen card opened, the bank contributes $3 to this foundation, which is dedicated to education and research related to the causes, treatment, and cure of breast cancer. Furthermore, the Komen foundation gets 0.08% of all retail purchases made with the card and $3 per card renewal.

This personal credit card also earns 1% cash back on purchases, 2% cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and 3% cash back on gas. Get a $150 online cash rewards bonus if you spend $500 in the first 90 days.

Bank of America customers get an added 10% bonus cash when they redeem their cash back as an electronic deposit into their BOA account. This better cash-back value is only for Bank of America customers.

One caveat if you're donating to charity via business or personal credit cards

Rewards cards, whether charity-focused or otherwise, often require good to excellent credit. Before you apply, make sure you check your FICO. Only apply if you have a good shot at approval, as a hard credit inquiry can lower your score.

And pat yourself on the back for your generosity and kind spiritedness. You just might have helped to save the planet.

How to Build Social Proof for Your Small Business

Posted: 29 May 2020 01:26 PM PDT

Are you struggling to generate leads and traffic for your small business? If so, you're not alone. Surveys show that a whopping 63% of marketers and business owners have trouble getting consumers to stay invested in their brand. 

Why? 

The main reason consumers hesitate to trust businesses is they don't see any signs showing they should feel good about handing over their credit card information and email address. If you want people to stay connected to your website, you have to do everything you can to gain their trust. 

Today we are going to talk about social proof, which is a psychological phenomenon grounded in trust. Essentially, social proof is the idea that people are likely to commit to a company if they see other people liking and using the same product. Similarly, interactions with companies that may be new to consumers can lead to more sales and engagement. 

Let's look at several ways you can build social proof for your website while increasing sales and boosting your lead generation efforts. 

Polish your website 

It's safe to say that we have all landed on an unpolished website when browsing the internet. When your goal is to build an audience and sell products, you cannot skimp on the quality of your website. 

The purpose of getting your site in tip-top shape is to show users that you are the real deal when they land on your homepage. You don't want people to navigate to your website only to see a cluttered mess that doesn't describe what you do or offer. 

Create a simple homepage that demonstrates your value to the community. Telling people what you do before they navigate to a second page will help build trust, which leads to more conversions. If people feel like you're being dishonest or vague on your homepage, they will leave and are not likely to return. 

You'll also want to test all of the different links, contact forms and calls to action on your site. Another red flag for consumers is a site that looks aesthetically pleasing but doesn't function properly. 

In other words, if someone wants to sign up for your email list, they should be able to quickly fill out a form and hit Submit. Check this process with a brand new email to make sure everything is working correctly. An organized, functioning site is one of the foundations of building trust with consumers. 

Gather feedback and reviews

Feedback and reviews are vital for building social proof for your business. You can gather feedback on social media, through email, or on your website. The trust-building here is long term but worth the investment. 

Let's say a bunch of people leave feedback requesting a specific feature for one of your products. If you get enough responses, you can turn this feature into a reality. As a result, the people who made the suggestion will trust your brand more because you recognized their need and took action to solve their pain point. 

Reviews are great for building trust with brand new customers. When you consider that 72% of people refuse to buy a product without reading reviews, you can see why this feature is so essential for your business. 

Allow customers to leave feedback on individual products so consumers can get a better idea of what they are buying before they enter their information. When you add reviews and testimonials to your site, you're giving the folks visiting your website a reason to trust you. Even if they've never met, the opinion of others is crucial for establishing a connection during the early stages of the buying cycle. 

Make social media engagement a priority 

Over 3.81 billion people use social media, and a staggering 80% of internet users have at least one social media account. It's clear that people talk through various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The conversations that take place on these platforms influence the decisions of countless customers across all industries. 

You can start actively building social proof for your website by making social media engagement a priority. Dive in and take part in conversations about your products, industry, and community as a whole. 

The best way to keep up with all of the different conversations is with social listening software that tells you when your brand name, or a specific hashtag, is mentioned across all social media platforms. Now that you have this information, you can stay on top of what people are saying across your industry. 

When you're actively using social media to talk to people with industry-related questions but have never heard of your brand, you're establishing yourself as an expert. If these people have problems in the future, they will seek out your brand, which could translate to a sale. 

Don't forget to actively engage with your existing subscribers. You can hold online giveaways, create polls and share valuable content to cement yourself as a reputable and trustworthy name in your field. 

Work with influencers 

Influencers are internet personalities that typically use social media or their blog to communicate with their audience. In most cases, the "product" is the personality of the influencer. They may have supplemental income such as merchandise or subscription tiers, but people tune in because they enjoy the character of the person who runs the channel of website. 

While engaging with your audience on social media is a great way to build social proof, working with influencers can take your efforts to the next level. Influencers often take on sponsorships for products and services that they believe in. This helps the internet personality make a living, but it also builds social proof for businesses. 

There are influencers that have millions of followers. When these people have an opinion, there's a group of fans that make their decision based on what their favorite influencers think. 

If you want people to trust your brand, look for reputable influencers that can promote your product to their audience. When their followers go to your site through the custom link, they will already have a level of trust due to your connection to one of their favorite internet stars. 

There are plenty of different promotions you can use when working with social media influencers. One of the most common trends involves the business giving the influencer a coupon code that will give their users a discount. In many cases, this code acts as an affiliate link, which provides the influencer with extra incentive to get people to click your link. 

Conclusion

You don't have to be an industry expert to know that there are more online businesses online than there was just last year. Due to this explosion of online retailers, consumers have a hard time putting their trust in one brand. Your job as a business owner or marketers is to sell more products by showing potential customers the value your product or service brings to the table. 

In order for them to care about your offer, they have to trust your business. Use the advice we outlined today to start building social proof for your website. Building a following of leads and customers that see you as a reputable figure in your industry will help you thrive and grow your small business. 

How To Use AI Web Scraping To Grow Your Business

Posted: 29 May 2020 01:24 PM PDT

Businesses rely on data to make informed decisions. However, getting data can be problematic for a few reasons:

  • Industry insights and reports can be too expensive for small businesses.

  • Manually collecting data is tedious and time-consuming. It also uses up precious resources that could be put to better use.

This is where artificial intelligence can help. AI's ability to gather and process vast quantities of data is transforming businesses today. The use of AI is one of the most significant trends in marketing. Twenty-six percent of marketers report that AI is the next big trend compared to 29% of marketers who believed that personalization is going to dominate marketing. And 21.23% consider voice search to play a major role in the future of marketing.

Interestingly, all these new trends rely heavily on AI itself. In this article, I'll discuss how small businesses can use AI to gather data through web scraping.   

Web scraping makes it possible to collect data from hundreds of thousands of sites. Some benefits of using AI-powered web scraping include: 

  • High-speed data collection: An AI-powered web scraper can collect and classify data in hours that can take full-time staff weeks to manually process.

  • Collect more data: It's only possible to collect data from several thousand of sites by using AI. Manual work can cover only a fraction of the quantity at higher prices.

  • Greater accuracy: Data scraping offers a high degree of accuracy and enables businesses to get the correct information to manage their business decisions

There are clear advantages to using AI in the form of data scraping to provide you with actionable information. Let's explore how this tool can help you in greater detail. 

How businesses can grow from web scraping

Business intelligence is essential for your company to survive today. However, it's a challenging activity that can a great deal of time and resources to carry out. Harnessing the power of AI means that you can drastically reduce your expenses while boosting your ability to make data-backed decisions. 

To give you a clearer idea, let's look at how web scraping can be applied to different industries. Using it can support your data analytics efforts and result in the achievement of your goals.

Data collection

In this section, I'll explore how e-commerce businesses and travel agencies can apply web scraping to collect data and manage it. 

E-commerce

If you run an e-commerce business, then one of your pressure points is to offer competitive prices. 

You can opt to scroll through your competitors' websites and manually track the pricing and price changes. But you can imagine how tedious and challenging this task can be. Developing an AI web scraper instead will help you track pricing across multiple sites and gather them for analysis. 

Another way that web scraping helps manufacturers is to track if distributors are selling their products at predetermined prices. Making sure that products are being sold at an acceptable rate means ensuring a business's brand image does not drop due to price competition. 

Travel 

Customers in the travel arena are often fickle and liable to choose offerings based on pricing. For travel and tourism businesses, it's important to know what prices their competitors are offering and the experiences they cover. 

Gathering this information is much easier with web scraping. If you're in the travel industry, this will make it possible to build customer loyalty and boost revenue. 

Here are a few more ways that travel businesses benefit from using AI-powered web scraping tools:

  • They can track new market opportunities.

  • Businesses can gather data about properties, such as the number of rooms, square footage and more.

  • You can collect and classify customer reviews to identify problems and leverage experiences that are successful.

  • Travel businesses have the information they need to offer competitive rates for flights, hotels, and travel packages.

A look into how travel and e-commerce sites can use web scraping highlights how small and newer businesses can compete against larger businesses. It can level the playing field while offering customers the best experience possible. 

Social media monitoring

Managing your brand image on social media is an imperative activity for any online business. Here are a few social media statistics to highlight exactly why.

  • 43% of people use social media to research what to buy.

  • 63% of people say that messaging apps are where they feel confident talking about content.

  • 15% of Facebook users in the United States use the platform to shop for products.

  • 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile each day.

  • 81% of people using Instagram to research products and services.

There are even more statistics available to show you just how important your presence online is. Web scraping supports your social media marketing by offering you a way to monitor what people are saying about your business and your competition. 

You can collect reviews, testimonials, ratings, social media posts and lots more to create an overall view of what people think. An AI tool can also perform sentiment analysis and tell you whether people are positive, negative or neutral towards your business. 

This will help you manage your brand image and track how it's changing over time. You'll also discover customer pain points and new ideas for product development. 

Risk management

A business needs to manage risk by verifying that all its partners and relationships are above board. When hiring personnel or getting a new supply partner, a business can manage risks by doing a thorough background check. You can use automated data scraping tools to conduct background checks.

It's true that you can probably do a basic online check on social media. However, data scraping allows you to get deeper information. You can search through multiple platforms and sources. 

Use data scraping to search through news and press releases. Collect data from corporate, financial and insolvency registers. You can also use it to get information from legal and other databases. 

In this way, you can protect your business by doing thorough checks and research on hires, partners and other important elements. 

Research

Good research is possible when a business, individual, or publishing company has access to data. Collecting data and coming up with new insights is a rigorous process that can be highly rewarding. 

Web scraping has clear benefits to researchers in the business, academic and journalistic fields. Using data gathered from thousands of sites, it's possible to gain significant information. As a business, you can observe social media trends, content marketing shifts or narrow in on emerging keyword searches taking place online.

Use an AI web-scraping tool to support your research practices. You'll be able to stand out from the competition and even drive thought leadership in your field. 

Leverage the power of AI in your business

Small businesses find it hard to compete with bigger businesses partly due to a lack of business intelligence. But the widespread development of AI today means that businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to create better products and experiences for their customers with the help of relevant data. 

AI web scraping is one AI tool that any business can use to collect information from online and public sources. You can build one in-house or work with a great tool online. Use the ideas mentioned in this article to find your own way of leveraging data to grow your business. 

Electronic Records Management 101

Posted: 29 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT

An electronic records management (ERM) strategy regulates how your organization's information is created, edited, shared, tracked, stored and protected. Using ERM software simplifies the process of records management by automating many functions like generating metadata for easy document retrieval and enabling access for approved employees.

With ERM software, you can collect and store pertinent business records such as contracts, emails, receipts and audit trails.

Read on to learn more about ERM and the key benefits it can provide for your business.

What is electronic records management?

Organizations use ERM applications to efficiently and systematically manage and share documents. It allows companies to reduce the physical space required to store paper documents and physical records, and it keeps critical documents safe from physical hazards like fire, floods or other damage.

Another advantage of using an ERM system is that it supports the automatic enforcement of consistent policies and styles across your organization, plus it may help your company comply with federal, state, and industry regulations.

An ERM system works with your documents by generating unique identifiers to make documents easier to find, providing safeguards against unauthorized users or changes to documents and creating an audit trail, all of which help protect your business and your information.

Why is electronic records management important?

An ERM system is important for any modern business because of the efficiency it provides. By electronically creating, storing and managing your documents, ERM systems allow any employee to access any record or document at any time.

Collaboration is easier, too. Employees can collaborate with their co-workers, track changes and easily find any electronic document within the ERM system.

What are the benefits of electronic records management?

Implementing an ERM system in your business can make nearly every day-to-day task that involves documents quicker and easier to accomplish, and it helps your team stay organized, which enables them to work more efficiently.

Here are some of the main benefits of an ERM system.

Efficiency

The main benefit of a CRM system is the impact it can have on your business's efficiency. Having one centralized place where all of your organization's digital records are kept can increase your business's productivity and make day-to-day operations smoother. An ERM enables employees to track changes on documents, pull up any document through advanced search and indexing, and make sure all regulations and policies are being followed.

Cost-effectiveness

If you're a new business, or even a small business looking to save money, an ERM system can help you cut costs by reducing the time your staff spends manually processing documents. It also eliminates the need for physical storage space for paper records.

Compliance

If you're in an industry that deals with sensitive information (healthcare, legal, etc.) or are a government agency, this feature may be of particular interest to you. Many document management systems and ERMs come with automatic compliance features that make it easier to comply with federal, state or industry regulations such as HIPAA. An ERM system with compliance features can help you stay on track with certain procedures, remind you how long certain documents must be kept filed, or automatically destroy an original record when the retention period is up by keeping documents on a records retention schedule.

Security

Data security is vital in today's world, so it is important that your business can assure customers that their information is safe in your hands. An ERM system can help you do that by providing and automating key security features such as user access controls, document tracking, password protection, automatic backups, determining a records manager and more. Electronic storage is also useful for digital preservation by storing all documents in a safe digital space, such as the cloud.

Scalability

A major benefit of ERM compared to traditional paper document management is its ability to grow with your business. No matter how big or how quickly your business grows, your ERM system grows with you and keep track of all your documents.

Collaboration

An ERM system makes it simple for users to share and collaborate on documents. Look for tools such as live editing, file sharing, plugin integrations and access restriction controls.

How to digitize and name your files

If your company has recently implemented or you're on the cusp of implementing an ERM system, decide exactly how you want to name and organize your files so it's easy for anyone in your organization to find and use them effectively.

Digitizing documents

While most documents are digital from creation these days, if you are in the process of converting your document management system from analog to electronic, you may have many papers waiting to be digitized and entered into the system.

To convert these paper documents to electronic files, here are the steps you must follow:

  1. Gather your documents. Gather the files you need digitized and organize them loosely – for example, you can make piles of invoices, piles of receipts, etc. Make sure your stacks are neat, and don't be afraid to adjust your piles as needed. Keep in mind that this is just the start of your organization and that you will dive deeper into indexing later.

  2. Find a scanner. Next, you need a device to scan the physical piece of paper into a digital format. This can be a scanner built into your printer, or you can download a mobile app such as AdobeScan, Dropbox, or Genius Scan. A scanner uploads a digital file to your computer, while a mobile app creates a PDF or JPG file that is stored on your phone or an online storage site and can be exported to wherever you need it.

  3. Organize your digital files. This is the most important part of the process as it determines how your company finds and works with documents. It is very important that you implement a sensible, organized system from the very start and create a companywide policy for naming documents. You can organize files in any way you want that makes sense for you and your business. Your system must make sense to you, first and foremost, but an outsider should be able to find a document easily.

Naming your files

When organizing files, a file name is the main identifier for the document. It provides metadata that helps contextualize that document with other records and record series. Having a consistent file-naming policy can increase collaboration and efficiency as well as help your organization stay compliant if you are in an industry with information-based regulations.

How to choose an ERM system

Besides price, consider your business's unique needs and what you hope to get out of ERM software. You should also consider:

  • How many documents you have (i.e., how much storage you will need)
  • What types of documents you have (Do you have sensitive material? Large-format documents?)
  • Whether your documents need to comply with regulations
  • How many security measures you need
  • What features you want
  • The level of automation you are looking for

How to keep electronic files secure

If all of your documents are digital, it is important that you have a system in place for keeping files safe and secure from threats like hackers or malware. A data breach can mean severe financial and PR-related consequences; it is in your best interests to do all you can to avoid one.

Here are five things you can do to protect your electronic files.

  1. Regularly back up your files. This should be a no-brainer, but it's a step many people overlook. If a virus infects your systems, you'll likely need to wipe your computer and reinstall programs, which may result in you losing important files. Make sure you are regularly backing up your files; make it a monthly recurring task to help you remember.

  2. Use an external hard drive. If you want to be extra secure about having backups, use an external hard drive to store copies of files. As the name suggests, external hard drives are entirely separate from your computer; your files are protected no matter what happens to your computer. You can even change the default storage location of your files to automatically store in the hard drive.

  3. Use cloud storage. Cloud storage is an increasingly popular option, since it is simple to use, easy to secure, and can be accessed from anywhere. If you decide to use cloud storage, make sure the site you're using is reputable and has multiple security measures in place.

  4. Have user controls. Most ERM services come with user controls, which allow an administrator to decide which documents users can access and what changes users can make. This helps you protect the integrity of your files, and creates an audit trail that identifies who made what changes and when.

  5. Encrypt your hard drive. While many computers come with built-in encryption, you can add your own for an extra layer of security. The most common way to encrypt files or applications is to add a password requirement for access.
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