Smart Uses For Technology That Can Save Your Business Time

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Business Technology|Smart Uses For Technology That Can Save Your Business TimeTechnology is a massive advantage for any business. It can help you to improve processes, cut down on inefficiencies and identify areas for improvement. However, there are so many types of technology available that it can be daunting to know where to start. The important thing is to understand what’s out there. You could do this by keeping up with the latest technology news and find innovative ways to apply new tech. It can also help to consult with other business leaders to learn from their successes with tech.

Use Marketing Tools

Marketing technology can help streamline your marketing strategy. You should do some research into the tools available and find one that allows you to set up your marketing strategy in a way that lets it run efficiently and proactively. There is a lot of work that goes into marketing, and it’s essential to get it right to give your business the highest chance of success. It could help to get in touch with a marketing agency who will be able to advise you on the best tools and strategies to be noticed.

Stay Ahead Of Industry Developments

Being in the know about technological advances is the best way to ensure you find the right tech at the right time. You can do this by subscribing to different industry news resources. The sooner you implement new technologies, the sooner you will see results. Ensure that the technology you are considering is reliable before you start using it.

Give Employees Remote Working Options

Remote and flexible working are excellent ways to improve employee satisfaction at work. You can use technology to allow your staff to work remotely. This gives them a better work/life balance and will enable you to hire the best people for roles in your company, regardless of where they are located.

You could use video conferencing software, cloud storage and instant messaging platforms to keep your employees connected and productive.

Manage Pensions Efficiently

Offering a pension is essential for your employees’ job satisfaction. It is vital to ensure that you manage your employee pensions effectively and allow staff to see how their pension is stored and what they can expect to receive from it.

Pension administration software is crucial to help you manage company pensions and can be beneficial to both employee and employer. It is a good idea to do some research into the types of pension software available. In the digital age, this sort of technology has never been important to the industry. Do some window shopping and look into pension administration software like this to get an idea of what you should be looking for.

Go Paperless

Cutting down on the amount of paper you use can save you time and money – as well as doing your part for the environment. Consider the different uses you have for paper currently, and see if you can easily replace them with digital alternatives. For instance, filling out lengthy paperwork in a warehouse can slow things down, whereas filling the information out online can mean that you can pre-populate common answers and save time on filing and copying.

Automate Processes

Review your processes to see if there are any that you could do with automation. For instance, sending out chaser emails or copies of invoices can take up a lot of valuable time, and having these tasks automated can free up staff time for more high-value work.

You should ensure that you use a professional IT company to set up automation unless you have experience doing so. This can help ensure that there are no issues or bugs that can cost your business money.

Host Regular Team Meetings

You can use video conferencing platforms to host team meetings across multiple locations. This can help foster good relationships between employees, keep everyone in the loop about business developments and give them the chance to innovate and collaborate. It may help to try out a few different platforms to find the one that suits you and your team best.

Keep Your Data Secure

Storing data and documentation online can be a great way to improve your efficiency and save time, but it is crucial to ensure that you do so safely. The cost of a cybersecurity breach can be high both in terms of money and reputation.
It can help to ensure that your staff understand the ways to be safe while working online. You could consider sending staff members on a course about online safety. Changing passwords frequently is another excellent way to keep your data secure.

Conclusion

Technology is a crucial tool for any business in 2021. It would help if you were proactive in finding tech that works for your business model and practices. It may help to discuss potential changes with your employees to make the best decisions. You could also take on board any suggestions employees may have on which technologies to make use of.

Cutting Your Business Costs: Top Tips

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Costs|Cutting Your Business Costs: Top TipsEven with less costly technology and marketing tools, it costs money to run a firm, and those expenses rise regularly. You must keep your expenses under control to maintain your profits. Here are some strategies to cut costs and increase your bottom line in your business.

Lower your workspace costs

Depending on the health of the commercial real estate market in your area, you may be able to take advantage of low office space rates to relocate your company or negotiate better lease terms with your current landlord.

If you do not need to conduct your business from a commercial location, even better. Why not run your business from your home or on the go?

If this is not possible, look at other ways that you can save money. Can you downsize your commercial property? Can you look at lowering your bills by installing insulation from www.insofast.com? Can you talk to your landlord about switching energy and utility suppliers if there are cheaper options available?

Reduce staffing costs

If at all feasible, involve family members in your business. Your partner could be willing to take on a business responsibility, saving you the cost of employing someone else.

If you have children of a suitable age, why not involve them in your business as much as possible? For young people, learning about business is a fantastic experience that keeps money in the family.

Another approach to save on staff expenses, depending on your business, is to engage contract workers or freelancers, who save on taxes and other employee-related expenses. Just make sure you follow the IRS rules for determining who is a contractor and who is an employee.

Lower vehicle expenses

If you own or operate a service or contracting company that requires a vehicle, you are probably well aware of how vehicle costs might affect your bottom line. Larger vehicles, such as vans and crew cabs, might have exorbitant fuel and maintenance expenditures.

How can you lower your transportation expenses other than limiting business vehicle use to only essential travel?

If you have a lot of miles on your business vehicle(s), cutting down on fuel consumption is critical. Diesel and hybrid vehicles are more expensive to buy at first, but they can save you money on gas and maintenance in the long run. Because modern trucks use more advanced materials to cut weight and improve efficiency, it might be worth turning in your gas guzzler for a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

If your company is just getting started or your budget is limited, leasing a car offers many benefits, including fixed monthly expenses, the flexibility to return the vehicle at the end of the lease period, and the elimination of depreciation and maintenance expenditures. If it makes sense, most leasing businesses offer lease-purchase arrangements, which allow you to buy the car at the end of the lease term.

These are just a few of the ways that you can cut your business costs and raise your bottom line. What are your tips?

7 Inbound Marketing Mistakes Your Business Must Avoid

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Inbound Marketing|7 Inbound Marketing Mistakes Your Business Must AvoidAs the world continues to battle COVID-19 and continue with vaccination efforts, many business owners are left wondering how to promote their brands in a post-pandemic world. There’s no denying that inbound marketing is the way forward for many organizations.

After all, inbound marketing enables businesses to get a better marketing ROI and boost their bottom lines. However, some entrepreneurs aren’t doing inbound marketing correctly and end up wasting their time – and money.

You’re likely reading this article today because you want to make sure your inbound marketing efforts aren’t for nothing. With that in mind, take a look at these common mistakes that you must avoid the next time you launch an inbound marketing campaign:

1. Not Having a Strategy

It might surprise you to learn that many businesses end up with lackluster inbound marketing campaigns because they don’t have a strategy or plan. Instead, what they have done is throw some content out there and hoped for the best.

You shouldn’t ever launch an inbound marketing campaign without having a strategy in place first. In other words, you need to have clearly defined goals so you don’t lose focus and you can measure your results easily.

2. Not Having a Long-Term Plan

You may decide that you have a strategy and you’re planning to use B2B lead generation as part of your campaign. But, you only want to run your campaign for a short period. The thing is, your business is a long-term operation – not something that will stop next week.

Instead of chasing quick fixes to draw in more customers and generate brand awareness, you need to have a long-term plan for your inbound marketing campaigns. For example, how would you like to promote your products and services in the next 12 months?

3. Writing Lackluster Content

If your inbound marketing campaign involves directing people to your website, what do you think might happen if they look at your content right now? Will they feel impressed enough to follow through your CTAs, such as subscribing to a newsletter or buying something?

Or, will your audience take one look at your content, laugh, and forget your brand even exists? You need to make sure that you offer high-quality, relevant content for your prospects to read. It goes without saying that your content should also be engaging and valuable.

4. Not Focusing on Your Target Audience

The reason you are performing inbound marketing is that you want to attract a specific group of people. Your goal is to have them do something, like visit your website or give you a call and ultimately spend their money with you.
That sounds like a simple strategy. However, things become complicated when entrepreneurs, companies, and other organizations fail to focus on their target audience. Instead, they end up targeting the wrong people.

Make sure you have a clear focus with your inbound marketing campaigns. You need to know who it is you want to attract, and you must know why you want to attract them. It’s worth taking the time to understand your target market and what drives them.

5. Not Doing Any Research

It’s no secret that the key to any good outcome in life is by conducting the right level of research. The same concept applies to inbound marketing campaigns; you wouldn’t spend money on your marketing without researching what will return the best ROI.

With that in mind, you need to always conduct plenty of market research and determine which methods will work best for your business and niche. Don’t assume that certain marketing methods that work for someone else will automatically work for you too.

6. Forgetting to Analyze Your Results

It might shock you to learn that many companies spend money on their inbound marketing campaigns yet fail to do any proper results analysis. They might see an increase in sales or interest in their brands, but they don’t understand how or why that has happened.

That’s why it makes sense to conduct plenty of results analysis to ensure your inbound marketing campaigns are working. When you analyze the results, you can then tweak your campaigns by making the right adjustments for an increased ROI.

7. Not Having a Social Media Focus

Lastly, did you know that some companies spread themselves too thin across social media platforms by signing up to literally all the leading social networks? When they do that, they don’t realize that they’ll need a team of people to manage all those social media profiles.

Sign up to the social networks that you feel will significantly benefit your business. Don’t spend your time signing up to all new or obscure social networks, hoping to cast a wider net to your target audience.

5 Tips For Improving Productivity and Lead Generation Within Your Company

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Improving Productivity|5 Tips For Improving Productivity and Lead Generation Within Your CompanyOnly those who have managed their own business understand the proper pressure and expectations for a company leader. This is mainly because of you having made all-important business decisions and various families relying on them. Whether it’s a small, medium, or large enterprise, the pressure remains the same for the ones in charge. Operating a business in this regard isn’t easy at all, and this, in many cases, leads to companies becoming stagnant as you get comfortable where you’re at now. This is common and not always the wrong decision; when you’re comfortable and can see that your business model will remain sustainable, why risk anything? With the current economic state and people innovating like they are, it won’t be long before the competition gets even more as the leads get less. You have to ensure you deliver the best service, products, and turnaround times than your competitors. This article will look at five aspects that might increase your efficiency within your business.

1. Outsourcing Relevant Departments

One of the most challenging business challenges is when the finances get tight after a few bad months. After a pandemic like covid-19, many businesses are in this exact position; they need the staff to start working but can’t afford them. With technology on the brink of taking over so many parts, innovative companies are offering other businesses the opportunity to outsource departments to them by utilizing technology. This means you get the job done for a fraction of the price, and you don’t even have to accommodate the cost to the company for various employees doing the same thing.

2. Improving Products

Your product and service will be vital in your path to success. It’s challenging to produce the best quality product or service as a start-up, but after some time, as you develop and learn, you should treat your product accordingly. By continuously creating what you offer, customers shouldn’t even be a thought, and it should be a must. You have to remain competitive within your market; other companies are constantly innovating, so should you. You should also find the perfect balance between price and quality; offering the best quality product at unaffordable prices might not always work out. You have to consider what your competitors offer and for what price and react accordingly.

3. Reliable Suppliers

When you’re a business that uses external suppliers, it will be increasingly important to build and maintain a strong relationship with all of them. If you do well, they’ll appreciate your business anyway. But, maintaining good relationships with suppliers offers you a range of ways to become more competitive than your competition. You should also ensure you find the best and most reliable suppliers for fabrication, Heat Treatment Equipment, and industrial machinery to maintain your operations supply. Your suppliers will have an enormous impact on your business and how effective you’ll supply the demand.

4. Effective Marketing

Marketing has played a continuous role in the development of some of today’s most prominent organizations. In previous years, marketing was measured on how many people you reached; now, it’s measured how many relevant people you achieved. Marketing to the wrong people is pointless, it’s like not marketing at all, and you’ll most likely waste your budget. Let’s look at three effective marketing strategies professionals can quickly help you with.

Google Ads

When you need immediate results with your marketing campaigns, you can look at paid marketing means like Google Ads. Because it delivers near-immediate visitors to your website, it is somewhat more expensive than other marketing strategies. You bid against competitors for the highest ranking on relevant searches from Google. On your website, you’ll need to convert these visits into leads and sales once they’re interested.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has become more influential as more people started using it. On platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and linked in, you can reach millions of potential customers with a simple click of a button. The pricing also depends on your industry and which keywords you’re marketing for. The more companies that advertise to a specific demographic, the more expensive it becomes. However, it’s also an excellent means of marketing if you need immediate results; remember, the time of the month will also have a massive impact on sales in your area.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, SEO in short, is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of your website traffic by making use of organic search engine results. It’s an unpaid means of advertising and should be more of a long-term focus instead of short-term like the previous two. It’ll ensure once you’re ranking well, you’ll have a consistent stream of website traffic without even paying.

Useful things to Consider When Starting a Business

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Starting a business|Useful things to Consider When Starting a BusinessStarting a business is the dearest ambition of many intrepid and talented individuals. However, before you take the plunge and set out to establish your own company, there are a handful of things that you should take the time to consider carefully. These topics will have a large impact on the state of your business to be and it is vital to your success that you know how you want to handle them before plunging in.

Your Product/Service

First and arguably most important is the product, or service, that you intend to supply through your fledgling company. Without a solid understanding of what you intend to provide and why, you will never be able to take the various steps needed to establish your company and find success in the competitive world of business.

What Purpose Does It Serve? Before you do anything else you should sit down and ask yourself what purpose your product, or service, serves. Without a clear reason for your product to exist, it will invariably fall short and your business along with it. This is not necessarily because there is no market for the product, you simply must understand your own product to have any hope of selling it effectively.

How Will it Be Delivered? The way that customers will receive and use your product, or service, is an important consideration. Is it a local business? Do you have the capacity to deliver your product? What impact will your customers’ area have on your ability to provide your service to them? These are all questions you should be considering.

What Makes it Unique? Fitting a niche is, more often than not, what will truly spell success for your business. If you see a hole in the market that you are able to fill, then you are likely to find a dedicated and grateful audience who will remain loyal to your product. So, taking the time to ensure your product has a strong unique selling point (USP) is well worth the effort.

Your Marketing

Once you’ve decided on and given proper consideration to the product that you intend to sell through your business, the next thing that you have to think about is how best to market your product. An effective marketing strategy is key to building a successful business and there are a few important aspects of your marketing strategy that you should definitely decide on before committing yourself to anything.

Target Audience. Your target market is an incredibly important thing to nail down and comes hand in hand with the niche that you decided on for the product you are selling. By knowing who you need to be marketing your product to, you can lighten your workload significantly while still achieving standout results in terms of customer conversions. This is the power of a well-considered target audience.

Web Presence. On top of your target audience, a powerful tool to boost the efficacy and impact of your marketing efforts is to focus on building a web presence. Through this you reach a far wider and more reliable market than most other forms of advertising. In fact, it has been suggested that the vast majority of buyers will interact with the digital landscape before making a purchase.

Building Brand. Lastly, your brand is a vital aspect of any business. Your brand is what your customers associate with your company and often the quality and memorability of your brand will contribute significantly to the potential sales that your business can make. Customers form strong emotional connections with brands and these connections not only drive business, but also motivate loyalty.

Customer Service

A vital area of business, regardless of what kind of company you are running, is the experience of your customers. Without a positive customer experience, you are unlikely to gain any repeat custom or recommendations and your business will swiftly fail. Effective customer service is the key to guaranteeing a solid customer experience, meaning that if your customer service is airtight, chance are that your customers will have a good time.

Effective Communication. Communication is the backbone of customer service and is why services such as a virtual answering service for your business can be an incredibly beneficial investment. By ensuring that customers are given consistent and reliable access to a genuinely helpful and effective customer service team, you can ensure that customers are far more likely to trust your business and invest more financially than they otherwise might.

Problem Solving. Part of this incredibly beneficial customer service experience is a willingness and ability to solve any and all problems that your customer might be having with your product. Solving these problems will help to maintain and even boost customer satisfaction, improving their overall relationship with the business.

Your Startup Costs

Finally, the last important thing that you will need to take time and consider is the cost that you are going to incur in setting up your business. Depending on what you are planning to sell and how, you are going to spend varying amounts to get your business off of the ground, so it helps to consider closely what your initial costs are likely to be.

Facilities. Does your business need to have any specific facilities to operate properly? If you have aims to hire employees then you are surely going to need and office, and if you need to produce merchandise then you will need facilities for that too. Investigate how you could most easily provide the facilities you need to make your business a success and that will give you a baseline for this cost.

Equipment. Additionally, if you are producing merchandise or simply crunching data, you are going to need some decent equipment to get anywhere with the work. From computers for desk work, to high tech machinery to produce products, there are all sorts of potential pieces of equipment you might need. Be sure to research this ahead of time.

Staff. Workers are an invaluable aspect of most industries and, although you could probably get by without them initially, you are almost always going to want other people working with you to make your company great.