Smart Ways to Reduce Marketing Costs While Increasing Results

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing Costs|Smart Ways to Reduce Marketing Costs While Increasing ResultsMarketing is an integral aspect for every business. It can also be expensive and leave a giant hole in even the biggest budgets.

At least, that is the case for those not willing to be smart and creative with their marketing efforts. This is because even frugal spenders can have an effective advertising campaign without needing to splash the cash.

If you want proof of this, read on for shrewd methods to reduce your marketing costs while also boosting sales results at the same time.

Step it Up with Social Media

For frugal marketers, one of the best tools at their disposal is social media. Obviously it is free to set up a business page on the likes of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It also doesn’t have to cost any money to make posts — although it is recommended to use ads on social media at some point.

Because of this, social media is a fantastic tool with limitless potential. If you manage to strike gold — aka a viral post or Tweet — this could lead to your brand being seen by hundreds of thousands of people. To improve your visibility on social media, consider the following:

  • Post regularly. Try and make at least one post per day on each platform
  • Don’t prioritize quantity over quality
  • Understand your audience and the content it craves
  • Build up relationships with customers and other businesses
  • Use visuals when possible. Videos and photos always perform better than text-based content
  • Monitor performance. Are certain posts/Tweets working better than others? Stick with what works going forward
  • Don’t ignore any responses to your social media content. Always reply back as soon as possible

Use a Direct Mail Service

Even though this article has generally highlighted digital marketing tips, make no mistake: there’s still a place for using physical marketing for your business.

This is arguably best evidenced by mail-based marketing. Whether it’s a letter or leaflet, any mail through the post is impossible to ignore. As a result, it has a distinct advantage over emails or other online marketing strategies which can be easily skimmed over.

Sadly, a mail campaign can be a costly procedure unless you go with a direct mail provider. As established mailing experts Washington Direct Mail (WDM) demonstrates, you can receive a full-service mailing campaign at a reduced cost compared to doing it in-house.

Repurpose Content

If you’re sitting on a large quantity of content, it’s about time you start squeezing every bit of value out of it for your company’s benefit.

In terms of repurposing content, this means taking an original piece of content — say a blog post — and adapting it for different formats. For example, that blog post could be transformed into social media posts, or maybe even a video.

If you have a large piece of content such as an eBook, this is even better. This could be broken up into multiple blog posts, an infographic, audio content, etc. Basically, you have many opportunities to market your business with content you have already created.

How can businesses save hiring costs

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Hiring Costs|How can businesses save hiring costsDo you want to reduce hiring costs in your company when hiring new employees? In an economic context pushing for the optimization of all resources, recruitment costs now represent an important issue for any HR manager. The search for the right candidate monopolizing numerous resources and proving to be time-consuming, any solution allowing to accelerate the processes deserves to be studied. Investing in the software will save you a lot of recruiting time and budget. You can even use a lot of platforms like artwork Australia that also will help you save recruiting cost in an effective way.

It is never an easy task to find the best talent without a substantial budget. But that does not imply rash spending in the name of top quality rental research. There must be a balance between the recruiting budget and the efficiency of hiring so that the quality of the search for new employees is not compromised. Here are some tactics to consider to reduce the costs of hiring new employees:

Have an effective referral program

One of the best sources of quality hiring can be done with recommendations. This results in much-reduced costs, because it does not involve agency or display costs, nor to devote a lot of time and money to supply staff. So it is a good idea to have a solid referral program that will motivate your employees to recommend others to come and work in your company.

Have talented pipelines

The longer it takes to fill a position, the more expensive it becomes. This implies that if the time required to hire is reduced, the costs would also be reduced. One way to reduce the hiring time and always have quality hires is to build a talent pipeline. These refer to candidates that you have hired in the past and who would occupy a future position in the company. With a talent pipeline, when a position becomes vacant, you can get in touch with them without waiting to post an ad or source for new candidates.

Invest in effective recruiting software

The other reason responsible for the higher recruiting costs is the time spent hiring teams to perform recruiting tasks. There is a lot of excellent recruiting software that can automate most of the functions that normally cause recruiting teams to spend a lot of time. Cutting costs is a top priority. But poorly managed cost reduction programs can do a lot of damage to your company. A poorly implemented austerity program costs time in the fight against falling earnings worsens the mood among the workforce and can even damage the company’s added value. To prevent this from happening to you, you should note the following points:

Define goals

Name ambitious but realistic goals. Even if you want to save quickly by looking at your falling earnings, do not take hasty measures. Clarify with the respective managers of the individual departments which cuts are possible in the long term.

Avoid lengthy approach

Determine area-specific savings potential and then draw up a list of priorities for the savings goals per department.

Control the project

Put an experienced project manager behind the wheel. So you have a single contact person who knows the details and at the same time ensures that the overall project runs according to the plan.

Stay consistent

If you have planned the savings sensibly, you should not accept a “not possible” in an affected area. Reverse the burden of proof. Areas must justify why the previously defined goal cannot be achieved. Allow a slightly extended implementation period, but remain consistent with the target size.

Monitor implementation

Ask the project manager to update you regularly. Define a project end at which the results are presented – regardless of whether the project is completed as planned or not.

Reduce fears

Meet your employees’ subtle fear of layoffs. Explain the upcoming measures to the employees. Factually informed employees will be far less likely to turn negative comments. How to protect the project and the company?

Flexibility in travel planning lowers costs

Even if there is pressure in many companies and deadlines have to be observed, or the business partner has only limited time, it is sometimes worthwhile to be flexible. Flights, train or hotel costs can vary greatly depending on the day of the week, savings of up to 50 per cent are possible here. Therefore, communicate to your employees, specify alternative dates when planning the trip and think flexibly. It is best if your employees can use their internal travel planning tool to book the trips themselves, and the costs are transparent – this creates trust and saves money.

Transparent and simple planning for employees is essential

It would be cost-effective if you were able to plan your employees’ trips in the long term. However, this is usually not the case, since trips have to be started unexpectedly. If the employees in your company book the trip themselves, it can cost you a lot of money. You cannot assume that all of your employees will follow your travel booking guidelines if you have them at all.

Simple and easy-to-implement guidelines help you to act cost-effectively. For example, a few tools can help your employees plan their trip themselves without breaking the budget. Automated communication channels prevent mispricing. It is also important here that travel accounting is also standardized. A receipt for credit card statements says too little. A clear documentation requirement is essential and helps to reduce costs in the long term.

Analyze your expenses

If you document your expenses, you should also analyze them. This can give you some eye-opening effects. Which item on the trip is the most expensive? Which department travels most frequently and for what reasons? Does travelling to a certain city exceed your budget? See your business travel post early so you can respond in the next quarter. Here you can learn more than how to efficiently analyze the expenses?

Create incentives

Everyone is happy to get commendations. It is important that you tell your employees why you are going to cut travel costs, and they may need to adjust them. Praise can be different for each company. Team events organized with a saved amount, a meal together or vouchers – there are no limits to your creativity here.

Conclusion

A poorly integrated recruit could leave you far too soon and force you to start all over again. We can never advise you enough to ensure the onboarding of your new employees. Start by anticipating their arrival by providing a number of points of contact with superiors and an astonishment report to be able to detect any malfunctions.

Prepare a welcome booklet, a tour of the company, a presentation of the teams with which they will be brought to work and be available to answer questions.

Follow the above tips if you really want to reduce the hiring cost. They will definitely help you.

How can you make brainstorming fun?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Brainstorming|How can you make brainstorming fun?What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is used as a method to generate ideas to solve a problem. It is a creativity technique done in groups to find a solution for a specific problem. It puts together the list of ideas given by the member in a free-thinking environment. Brainstorming is popular mostly in design teams because they have to think out of the box and in every direction. By brainstorming, we can cover the problems with many ideas given by the members and can have many creative ways. You can have every imaginable solution to the problem.

Some rules that can help your team in brainstorming:

  • There should be a facilitator who can conduct the meeting.
  • Give a chance to everyone to give their creative ideas.
  • There should be a time limit given to them to think.
  • Let them ask questions from you about the topic, the clearer they will be about the topic, the more creative ideas you can get.
  • You can encourage weird ideas too, do not shut the person down, listen to them. Maybe you can consider their ideas.
  • Build on others ideas, make someone else’s idea more creative.
  • Do not make it a fish market, allow everyone to speak but one at a time.
  • Do not be negative or give immediate judgment.

Brainstorming can be fun for some people, but some people do not like it because they are too shy to speak or introverts. Extroverts can speak too much and can dominate the introvert. The leader of the team should lead it in a solution-focused environment. There are ways by which you can make the brainstorming fun like a pinboard, and everyone can participate.

Warm-up activity

Give their brains a little break. Your brain should be clear to generate creative ideas. You can give them the activity at the start that can help them in brainstorming. Ask your participants questions that can help them to open their minds. Give them a silly question like what will you do if your sunglasses were x-rayed vision, once they start thinking about the ideas, it means they are ready to be creative.

Outside of the box

Sometimes the office environment can be stressful, and it gets impossible to think creatively. Take your time outside of the office. Take them to a coffee shop, or an amusement park. Take them anywhere that can help them in generating creative ideas and can think outside of the box. Changing the environment of a person can help them in their creativity. It will be a fun and creative trip where everyone will be giving their ideas in a not so boring environment. Everyone can get comfortable and comfy in that environment, and no one will have that office pressure, they can have their time to clear their mind from other problems and think creatively.

Ask for the worst ideas

You always ask your team to give you good and creative ideas but now ask them to give the worst and terrible ideas for the situation. Write the problem on the board and ask them to start giving the worst idea they can think of. The ideas can be stupid, but maybe you can think of something creative from that idea.

  • It will create a fun environment; everyone can laugh.
  • A positive feeling around the meeting.
  • There will be no pressure and time limit.
  • People can get more comfortable.

Looking for a problem from an opposite perspective can help you a lot. It can give you real ideas, and you can always make them a little better.

Get colourful

Maybe it has been a long time since you and your team picked up some colours and markers? Give your team colour books and colour pencils. Even if they are not good with drawing or doodling, tell them that it should not be the perfect art piece. A study shows that doodling can help you to alert your mind. Doodlers perform 29% better than non-doodlers. Many people can start daydreaming while doing a boring task. Colouring can help them in being creative. So next time you get a lot of colour books and markers for your meeting.

Walls can talk

This technique is best for boring meetings. Write down the problems or project your team needs to work on each wall. Write questions on the walls. Give your team members the pad of sticky notes and tell them to walk around the room, see the problems and write any solution that is coming to their mind anonymously. Set a time limit of 10 to 15 minutes. Encourage creative thoughts. In the end, you can gather everyone’s suggestions and can work on it as a team. You can ask the team member to vote for a better idea.

Bring an outsider

Your team consists of mostly the same people. There is a group of the same people with the same minds every week. The same ideas, same patterns, and disagreements. Everything repeats it selves when you are with the same people every week. Why not change it a little bit? Bring an outsider in the meeting. We all know a designer will only think like a designer, by bringing another person who is not known to the environment can give their honest opinions and ideas, and he can be work as your customer. You can know your customers’ point of view. You can bring any person from your office, but he should not be the person who knows your work, that is how that person can come up with unique ideas from an entirely different perspective.

Be different

Choose any of the ways you want to make your meeting fun and creative. No one likes to sit in a boring meeting and generate ideas like the old style. Take them out, make them think out of the box, give them colours, help them get comfortable. These things can surely help your team to get creative and you can and the best ideas. Everyone loves a little bit of weirdness. Get that creative person out of you and start brainstorming!

Conclusion

Brainstorming is often considered difficult particularly for people who are not creative; however, if all the above-mentioned approaches are adopted, one will be able to expand his/ her thinking capacity and be able to brainstorm the ideas.

The best fidget toys to relieve stress and anxiety at your office

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Fidget Toy|The best fidget toys to relieve stress and anxiety at your officeWe live in a fast-paced world with cut-throat competition. Companies try their best to be number 1 in the league. This does not come without a cost. Every individual in the office must give their 100% to stay ahead in the game.

From leadership to the employees, everyone is in constant pressure and stress. Since offices can’t put an end to the work problem, they have introduced stress toys to help the employees combat stress.

Being constantly under pressure can harm us, deteriorate our health and affect our ability to enjoy and even work efficiently. The office often overwhelms us and we can’t manage the work-life balance in our lives. We don’t take stress seriously but when it becomes chronic, anxiety can deteriorate the quality of life and severe our personal and work ties.

There are many ways professional workplaces try to lower the anxiety of their employees, they might be excursion trips, exercise or yoga. All these things take time and most are practiced away from the workplace. To relieve pressure and lower the stress that office workers experience, it is worth trying some stress games that, in addition to entertaining, allow us to improve well-being and restore psycho-emotional balance.

Toys to relieve stress

Our brain is a powerful tool and when it spends too much time stressing over our worries it can damage itself badly. The problem is the brain itself does not realize the amount of stress it is in.

It is not crazy to think that small toys or simple games can be good allies against stress. Several investigations indicate that fiddling with small devices can generate benefits in restless people who feel anxiety since it can help them focus on what they are doing and even serve as a boost for their creative ideas. Fidget means small and frantic movement which we unintentionally make while stressed. The fidget toys come with options to choose the best suitable stress relieving fidget toy for you.

Here we will tell you the best fidget toys which come with many options and are the best allies against the stress. These fidget toys also help adults with ADHD.

They are basically small “toys” to keep your fingers moving and relieve tension. They are simple and come with options to choose varied and in different materials. They have the most varied formats, from plastic disks that allow wheel spin or press switches to metal tops.

Fidget Spinner

Fidget spinners were the most popular fidget toys. The people who were not going through a stressful period had a fidget spinner as well.

They became famous among kids, teens, and adults likewise. It gave a calming effect to the user and surely relieved anxiety. The Fidget Spinner has become the ultimate global entertainment. It’s all the rage in schools and even presidents use it.

Fidget spinners are of different materials, such as plastic or steel, they are formed by a central axis with two, three or more arms, which rotate. Due to the equal weight distributed to the arms, the fidget spinner rotated for quite a while and helped people regain their calm.

Fidget Cube

It is a gadget in the form of a cube that, in each of its six faces, has a different mechanism oriented to calm the nerves. Completed with buttons, wheels, levers and even a metal sphere, its creators ensured that the different fidget options in the fidget cube allow releasing tensions easily and efficiently without disturbing anyone.

Although they vary in different versions, a fidget cube has buttons that click, a sphere which you can rotate, a wheel, rotating gears and a switch to press it as many times as you want.

You can have fun with it, calm your nerves or simply stop biting your nails. And the best thing is that everything in that fits inside your pocket.

Epic Pen Spinning

This toy, which also works as a pen, is elongated and has counterweights at its ends to turn it around and do impossible tricks with the fingers of the hand.

Pin Art

A Pin Art screen, Pinscreen, Needle screen or Rod screen, is a device that allows you to form images by moving very thin cylindrical rods, guided by a suitable mesh and held in a frame.

The Pin Art screen was patented by Ward Fleming and in its beginnings, back in the ’80s, it was considered a “toy for executives”. It is a mechanical, simple and fun game that today is in a lot of homes. Only with how to press or sink fingers, faces or objects, a small 3D sculpture appears.

Coloring books

Coloring books have proven to be an excellent stress-relieving option. Coloring had always been something exclusive to children. In an increasingly fast-paced world, the need to sit down and distract the mind became an adult demand and mandalas became an ideal anti-stress option.

Mandalas are circular designs that symbolize the notion that life never ends and has been used for centuries as a spiritual tool in the East. Today they are fashionable in the West and many recommend them as a resource to relieve tension and improve concentration by painting and coloring these drawings.

Stress putty

Stress putty is like slime but less runny. It is an excellent option to relieve office stress and anxiety. They come in different colors and textures as you can even customize them by adding Styrofoam balls or glitter.

Fidget pen

How many of us repeatedly press the button on the end of our ball pens without even realizing that the sound it makes can be a nuisance for all the other employees? That is why a fidget pen is the best option for such people as it can give stress relief and also does not make any sound.

Fidget toys manufacturers have to keep a number of things in consideration like it should not make sounds that can disturb others. They should be lightweight so the users can easily take help from stress toys to relax and relieve the extra office stress and last but not least, it has to be easy on the pocket.

Work in a stress-free environment

Chronic stress can lead to several psychological and physiological ailments. Individuals and offices have to take care of the employees by managing other factors that might lead to access to stress and anxiety.

Fidget toys, helpful colleagues and an understanding leadership can help in creating a stress-free environment for the people in your office and keep the employees happy.

All You Need to Know About Unsecured Business Loans

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Unsecured Business Loans|All You Need to Know About Unsecured Business LoansWhen you first try to establish your business the first thing you look for is money. Money is an essential component of any business. How are you going to finance the idea which you have in your mind is the main question. When you read the biography of any big businessmen they all tell how they gather up finances. Some sold their land some borrowed money from relatives some put their house on stake to get some finances luckily nowadays unsecured business loans facility is available for people who want to venture in business.

What is an Unsecured Business Loan?

Let’s take a brief look at what an unsecured business loan is all about. In secured business loan when you go to a bank or any other loan provider you have to put your tangible asset on stake (as a guarantee) to get the loan but in unsecured business loan, you don’t have to put your asset (which is commonly known as collateral) as a guarantee instead of the bank see your credit history and provide you a loan on the credibility that you have given them written promise that you will return this money.

An unsecured business loan is the entrepreneur’s heaven to start a new venture without seizing his asset.

How many types of unsecured business loans?

We are dividing them into two main categories

  • One type of unsecured loan is made you repay and withdraw continuously.
  • The second is fixed terms of payment lender has to make small payments until it reaches the whole amount.

Why it’s Called Unsecured?

It’s called unsecured because one party is lending money but another party is not putting collateral on stake. In secured business loans if the lender failed to repay you can seize his asset but this is not the case with an unsecured business loan.

What information is required by a bank or a Venture Capitalist for Providing an Unsecured Business Loan?

1. History of Your Transactions:
The first and foremost information that banks ask is about your track records of three months how much cash you withdraw and how much you have reimbursed in the bank.

2. Business Partners:
The second most important information required by the bank is who was your business partners in the past and how was your dealing with them and who are your current and future partners and their record of business and stakeholders.

3. Your Lending History:
Yes, you heard me right your lending history, who you had lent money in the past, their contact details and did you return the money, and at what time?

4. Tax Details:
How much tax you have paid annually as an individual and how much you have paid as a business entity.

5. Credit Score:
Your credit history is very important, to lend you money, banks will also want to know your credit scores and details about your credit card history

6. Profit and Loss:
Another important thing lender wants to know is how well is your business running. Is it making a profit or running at a loss? As it plays a vital part to know about the borrower of the money, although they have some knowledge about your money details. All this information is required by the bank to process your application on the unsecured business loan.

Pros of an unsecured business loan:

1.Less Time Required to Proceed:
As we all say that time is money, you need money on an urgent basis, the unsecured loans are provided on an urgent basis which will eventually work for you.

2. Flexible period (payback):
It is also a great advantage for you, to pay back your loan according to your flexibility. The purpose of an unsecured loan is to provide you money on an urgent basis and also pay back the amount according to your flexibility of time.

3. Flexible amount:
It is very important to pay back the amount of loan in a lease form, like you may have the option to pay back the amount on a monthly lease basis.

4. Good for young entrepreneurs:
As they are fast loan providers and have the different options available for the convenience of the borrower it is beneficial for the entrepreneurs, as it will not only help them to start the business but also it will help them to grow their business.

5. No risk to a personal asset:
As business is all about profit and loss, the unsecured loans are providing benefit to the young energetic individual to provide the business opportunity with the option of no personal guarantee needed, which means that if the company faces any losses in future, the owner of the business will not be personally responsible for the loss.

Cons of an Unsecured Business Loan

  • High Markup
    Everything comes with advantages as well as some disadvantages. As the unsecured loans will help the borrower to pay back the money in lease form, but it has a higher amount of mark up as compared to other loans available on an online basis.
  • Increase in the Overall Borrowing Cost
    By providing the loans on a lease basis, it will increase the overall cost for the creditors, also, it will not help the borrower to save the interest cost which is the main consequence in an unsecured loan.

Conclusion:

Several loan companies are providing loans and giving help to the entrepreneurs but they also are helping the different businesses in different ways, to establish and grow.

To get loan from a genuine money lenders are most essential thing which a person need to look up for, also, after getting a loan the borrower must need to work hard to repay it, as it is the responsibility of the borrower to work and return the money and also to establish the business in a greater way.

Also, search for the money lenders that are providing the services according to your own need and according to your own choice of paying back money policy which is feasible for you.

Research, before you get into the loan process, as getting a loan according to your needs, is difficult. Try to clear your mind and focus. Moreover, try to discuss your business plan with the other successful entrepreneur so that you may also get tips for your business venture.

For entrepreneurs, try to work on innovative ideas that will lead your business venture towards a successful journey, although it will require a great effort from business owners as well as with the other partners but will eventually work. Lookup for the opportunities and avail them on time so that you can grow your business.