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Do You Need a CRM?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article | Do you need a CRM?Customer relationships are crucial to the success of any small business. Recently, customer relationship management (CRM) has gained popularity. The use of the best free CRM software is a tremendous accomplishment. To what extent may implementing a customer relationship management system predict the success of your organization? Here are some problems you might be going through in your business that might indicate that you need a CRM:

The Quantity of Leads is Unmanageable

CRM could be handy if you are trying to handle the inflow of consumers you are having. A sophisticated CRM system will categorize and prioritize leads so that your sales team can respond to them promptly.

You Are Unable to Locate Any Client Information

In the past, spreadsheets, emails, and post-it notes may have been adequate for your organization. Your team’s ability to see consumer interactions and make timely decisions will be hindered as it grows if it continues to use obsolete tools. A corporation should utilize a customer relationship management system to enhance sales and customer retention.

You Are Unaware of the Members of Your Sales Team

Monitor your sales force both at home and on the road. Using a sophisticated CRM, team members can rapidly update information from their mobile devices, allowing you to monitor and respond to real-time changes. A dependable customer relationship management system enables accurate monitoring of company operations and revenue forecasting.


Inept Interactions With Customers

Acquiring new clients is a challenging endeavor. The last thing you desire is subpar service. If your customer service team spends more time reacting to problems than proactively addressing client expectations, you may want a customer relationship management system. Case management and a comprehensive customer view enable you to impress and retain customers.

Reasonable customer relationship management solutions promote knowledge sharing and case assignment among customer support agents. Customers can acquire answers through self-service forums, allowing operators to focus on more complicated problems.

You Are Responsible for Managing the Accounts Over the Long Term

There are numerous types of consumers. No one wants to feel as though they are unimportant to you. By keeping track of significant anniversaries and accomplishments for your most valuable clients, a CRM system may enable you to send timely emails demonstrating your concern for their company. A CRM system can also be used to monitor employees. This allows you to adapt to future encounters and retain a relationship with a client even after contact has moved on.

The Preparation of Reports Wastes Time

Manually entering data into reports deprives salespeople of time they could spend making sales. The centralized nature of CRM platforms’ data storage facilitates analysis and reporting. Periodically, some programs can “clean” client data by adding missing information and deleting duplicates. They can also synchronize your account and contact information with your CRM.

The Path to Your Growth is Obscure

Describe your strategy for acquiring new customers. Is your confidence in the scalability of your company warranted? It may be time to consider a customer relationship management system if your approaches and resources are insufficient. A scalable solution allows your organization to grow without sacrificing efficiency. A scalable CRM software/Sales CRM system can expand and adapt to your business. On the Salesforce AppExchange, there are close to 3,000 corporate applications.

Reasons Why You Should Get A LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Done

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Reasons Why You Should Get A LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Done

Getting your team involved in LinkedIn marketing can be tricky. Fortunately, there are some resources you can use to make it easier. These include templates that follow brand guidelines and content ideas. This way, even if your team isn’t a designer, they can still be included in the strategy.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing on LinkedIn is a great way to get the attention of industry leaders who may be interested in your products or services. However, it’s important to start building relationships early. Influencers can help boost your brand’s reputation and drive sales.

Clear Strategic Goals

To be successful, your LinkedIn marketing strategy must be based on clear, strategic goals. These goals should be specific and include brand awareness, consideration, and conversion. They should also include measurable metrics and a planned editorial calendar. It is helpful to divide your objectives into sections, such as macro-topics. Then, you can create an editorial calendar that includes topics related to each objective.

In addition to attracting followers, your LinkedIn strategy must also focus on retaining these followers. This requires providing relevant, high-quality content. The quality of your posts can make or break your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Taking Advantage Of LinkedIn’s Features

One of the most effective ways to generate new leads on LinkedIn is by leveraging the features of this networking site. For example, you can publish an article on the LinkedIn blog. This feature enables you to publish articles that can be read by other members and get indexed by search engines. Not only is this feature useful for building relationships, but it also allows you to stand out from the crowd.

LinkedIn has many free features to help you market your business. For example, you can post blog posts and status updates and even request recommendations from your connections. This helps you attract potential new customers. Moreover, you can even use LinkedIn for recruiting, hiring, and finding new business leads.

To Promote Your Business

To promote your business on LinkedIn, you need a strategy. Unlike other social networks, you can’t just publish the same content across different networks. Your strategy should focus on specific objectives such as brand awareness, consideration, and conversion. You need to have clear goals and define metrics, as well as a planned editorial calendar. For example, you need to establish what types of content your audience wants to read, and then organize your schedule around them.

To Generate Leads

Creating and sharing your content on LinkedIn is an excellent way to engage your followers and generate leads. You can choose to make your content more targeted and niched, and use a variety of marketing methods. For example, you can create ads aimed at specific groups of people, such as people who are looking for jobs. This can be a great way to generate leads for your real estate business.

Another great way to generate leads on LinkedIn is to learn from your connections. Connect with your existing clients and ask them to recommend you to their connections. This method is far fewer sales and pushy than cold calling. You can also browse through the profiles of your current clients and see who you have in common. This can give your leads a sense of confidence in you.

To Increase Traffic

If you want to gain the most benefit from using LinkedIn, the first step is to get a strategy in place. You can get help from social media dashboard software to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Once you have a strategy in place, you can get started and reap the rewards.

For Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is a great way to gain more exposure for your brand, and it’s also a cost-effective way to engage with your customers. Employees have personal networks that can connect them with others and build trust. They can share content with their connections, which improves networking and sales results.

Employee advocacy can also help your company build a positive reputation in the industry. Employees are usually proud of their employer and are happy to share positive experiences. This will make employees feel more attached to the company, which will increase retention and longevity. A successful employee advocacy strategy on LinkedIn will give your employees ready-to-share content and optimize their profiles to get the most attention possible.

Lastly

LinkedIn is a powerful social network. It can be used for employee advocacy and to drive leads. But, before you can make the most of it, you need a marketing strategy. That’s where a professional LinkedIn marketing strategy comes in handy.

5 Problems No SEO Expert Should Solve — And Why You Should Fix Them First

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Nowadays, relying on search engine optimization experts to improve your online visibility is a good business practice. Indeed, working with a professional SEO Company can positively affect your ranking in the search result pages, help drive more organic traffic to your website, and generate more leads. Your SEO strategy can be highly effective in maximizing lead generation. After all, SEO guarantees visibility on one of the most trusted brands in the world, Google. Being seen and found in Google search is a recipe for success.

Additionally, unlike advertising campaigns, organic leads coming through your SEO activities are “free”. While this doesn’t mean that a partnership with an SEO expert is pro bono, there are no advertising fees or cost per click with search engine optimization. Your SEO results can also help lower your advertising costs. For example, SEO-optimized pages decrease their average bid costs on Google AdWords. In other words, SEO can drive leads, increase brand awareness, and decrease other marketing expenses.

But it is important to understand that while SEO can be a highly effective strategy, it isn’t a miracle solution to solve all business problems. Here are 5 things you can’t expect from your SEO specialist.

#1. Figuring out the rest of your marketing strategy

An SEO partner focuses their energy on developing your SEO plan. When it comes to determining other marketing activities, your SEO contractor is the wrong point of contact. Indeed, high level marketing activities such as market data, marketing budget, or even marketing objectives will be defined by your business plan. Your business plan acts as a guiding map providing clarity on your business services, objectives, and strategy to achieve these goals. As a result, marketing will be determined at this level.

If you struggle with the creation of a coherent marketing strategy, it can be useful to reach out to a marketing strategist who can assist with this part of the business plan.

#2. Creating new content to inspire future products or services

While SEO-optimized content generation can be one of the services, your SEO copywriter will not provide content for a service or product that doesn’t exist. SEO-optimized content means that your SEO partner can help make your existing services and products more appealing to search engine platforms. The SEO copywriter is not a fiction novelist. They can’t invent what your services should be like.

If you need SEO content, you have to provide all the necessary information to your contractor, including:

  • What services you offer
  • Who your target audience is
  • What problem the services can solve
  • What your keywords are and which words you wish to rank for
  • How customers proceed to purchase or order
  • What your USP is (Unique Selling Proposition)


#3. Designing your website

Here’s an important distinction that many businesses fail to make. A website designer will develop the design and layout of your website, including the use of graphics, videos, and sounds.

An SEO expert can provide technical SEO improvements through the additions of schema markups, for instance, to your HTML. While many SEO specialists have a strong understanding of coding language to improve your SEO ranking, they do not utilize their coding know-how to upgrade the site’s layout or appearance.

If you wish to launch a new SEO-friendly website, you will need to plan a project that involves both web designers and SEO professionals.

#4. Managing your social media profiles

Social media managers are in charge of your social media presence. An SEO expert can provide support, such as creating tracking-friendly SEO URLs that can be shared on Twitter or Facebook. These links can make it easier to figure out where your traffic is coming from and which social media platform drives the highest conversion rates.

But the social media involvement for SEO stops right there. Creating engagement on social media and reaching out to your customers online is something you should entrust a trained specialist, aka a social media manager.

#5. Providing intelligence on the next market trends

Competition monitoring belongs to the regular tasks of an SEO contractor, as they track the ranking and keyword choices for your competitors. Yet, it is easy to confuse SEO monitoring and competition analysis at a business level. Your SEO agency is not designed to capture market intelligence about business choices and trends of your competitors. It is the task of a business and market analyst. The results observed can be used as part of a new business plan, which can affect your marketing strategy as a whole and your SEO activities in particular.

If you are going to make the most of your SEO activities, it is of the utmost importance to entrust experts with activities and strategies within their area of expertise.

Do Content Creators and Influencers Need Legal Services?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Do Content Creators and Influencers Need Legal Services?Over the past ten years, social media has been a crucial part of marketing, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, this luxury platform has become essential for the economy’s growth.  As people sat at home bored, baking banana bread and whipped coffee, social media became the primary source of entertainment, with apps like TikTok dominating with over a billion active users.

Companies began using the platforms to build their business, through in-app purchases, the app’s algorithms, and live stream functions to advertise their products. As a result, there was a rise to a new form of solopreneurship through content creators.

Unfortunately, due to the blanket immunity offered to internet companies, it’s not unusual for a content creator to be misused by the company, experience plagiarism, or be cyberbullied by other content creators.

Types of Legal Services a Content Creator or Influencer Should Look For

Content creators and influencers have a top need for legal services as they are part of an industry that’s growing alongside the proliferation of social media networks. Working with different businesses and companies which differ in terms and conditions may lead to confusion when commercializing content.  For this reason, social media influencers and content creators should have a lawyer from a reputable law firm like LawsuitLegalNews.com to help protect their growing brand. There are no one-size fits all legal services, but some areas of the law tend to be more relevant than others for content creators and influencers.

Below are the types of services a content creator or influencer should seek from a lawyer:

1. Intellectual Right Protection

Social media content creators have an exclusive opportunity to build an intellectual property portfolio, and by being in the spotlight through their work, one needs to be proactive regarding their intellectual property.

Some of the few areas content creators should pay much attention include:

  • Copyright protects the original workmanship, and the content creator can follow through with litigation against anyone infringing on their rights.
  • Rights of Publicity – This form of intellectual property protects people who are the actual brands; therefore, your image and likeliness cannot be used by a brand without your consent for any commercial activity.
  • Trademark – Content creators and influencers are not only exploited for their names, image, and likeliness but also for their valuable brand. For example, the 1.8 million followers of Minimalist Baker may not be aware of the person behind the account, but they recognize the brand.

2. Contracts to Perform Services

Hired content creators and influencers provide third-party services to promote goods or services. Therefore, an influencer inherently expects compensation for the value added to the third party.

An influencer must ensure there’s a written contract before engaging with a third party for monetary gain to have legal protection in case things go awry. Oral agreements may feel valid but difficult to enforce due to the lack of evidence.

When drawing a contract, have a lawyer present to help you analyze, review, and negotiate each clause. A contract has three main elements, an offer, acceptance, and consideration. Hence, as a content creator, play an active role during the negotiations to understand the parties involved, compensation, exclusivity, licenses, agreed to services, post requirements, breach, and moral clause.


Do Content Creators Need Legal Representation?

Social media may seem all fun, but the laws around it are not, and with new online business opportunities comes more exposure. Having legal counsel on your side will protect your brand and hold anyone legally responsible in case of a breach or harassment.

Content creators and influencers should be cautious about understanding their governing laws related to their profession of posting content for public consumption to avoid lawsuits and giving out misguided information.

The Costs Of Running A Trade Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | The Costs Of Running A Trade Business

Thinking of starting a business as a tradesperson? Trade businesses include the likes of plumbing, electrics, roofing, tiling, landscaping and window cleaning. They can be a popular business venture for those that have the skills – and they can be relatively inexpensive to start up compared to many other types of business. However, there are still costs that need to be budgeted for if you’re going to start a trade business. Below are some of the costs to consider when running a trade business.

Tools

Perhaps the most important cost to consider is acquiring tools. Pretty much every trade from pest control to tree surgery requires tools. Certain trades are likely to require more expensive tools than others – for example, a decent piano tuning kit can be bought for less than $20, while a decent commercial carpet cleaning machine will cost over $1000 to buy.

Buying used tools could be a way to save money. When it comes to specialist tools that you may only need for one-off jobs, it may make more financial sense to hire them. You can also lease tools, which can be cheaper upfront than buying, but potentially more expensive in the long run.

To work out exactly how much you need to spend on tools, make a list of all the tools you need. Then compare prices online to work out exactly how much all of these tools will cost. If you need to take out a loan, this will help you to know exactly how much to borrow.

Supplies/parts

On top of your tools, there will be ongoing supplies or parts that you’ll need to buy. These will likely vary from job to job and are something you should factor in when it comes to quoting a price.

The internet is one of the best places to look for niche supplies like boiler auxiliary equipment or pressure washing chemicals. More general supplies and parts may be possible to buy from a local store, although you may still find that you access greater discounts online. Some suppliers may even be able to offer loyalty discounts or bulk discounts for supplies and could be worth sticking with.

Travel

You also need to consider the cost of travelling to your clients. This will typically involve owning or leasing a vehicle. Some tradespeople simply use their personal vehicle. However, if your personal vehicle is too small for your tools or not business appropriate, you may have to consider acquiring a new vehicle (a separate vehicle could also give you the option to invest in branded vinyl wrapping).

Each job you do will cost you money in fuel, which is also important to budget for. Many trade companies will only serve customers in a certain area so as not to spend too much time or money travelling to clients. Of course, if your trade is very niche, you may have no option but to cover a larger area in order to source enough customers.

Licensing/certification

Some trades do not require you to have any licensing or certification. In other cases, licensing or certification may be compulsory. It’s worth looking into the regulations of your state to see what the case is.

Most companies need a business license, which can cost between $50 and $550 depending on the state and profession. Certification fees are likely to vary depending on where you obtain them from – in some cases, there may be multiple certification courses that you can take. Some may also have to be regularly renewed, which is something to budget into your running costs.


Insurance

In many cases, it is not mandatory to take out insurance as a tradesperson. An exception is if you hire employees, in which case you are obliged to take out worker’s compensation. You will also need auto insurance for your commercial vehicle.

Other types of insurance may be highly recommended depending on the trade. Public liability insurance is something that most trade businesses should consider taking out. This insurance scheme can help to pay out compensation if a member of the public is injured or their property is damaged as a result of your work. You could also consider insuring your tools against damage and loss.

It is worth taking the time to shop around for insurance as it could save you a lot of money. Some insurers may offer specialist policies catered to the risks of your specific trade. There are also trade business insurance packages that you can take out that combine multiple policies for a discounted price.

Marketing

Marketing is essential for attracting business. You will need to invest some money regularly into marketing if you want to generate customers and grow.

A website is the most basic marketing necessity. You can build a website yourself, or hire someone to build it for you. A DIY website is the cheapest option – nowadays there are drag-and-drop website builders you can use that don’t require any programming knowledge.

There are so many other types of marketing that you can spend money on including social media marketing, SEO, PPC ads, business cards and flyers. It’s worth experimenting with different forms of marketing to see what works. You can hire marketing agencies to help handle marketing for you – in such cases, make sure to shop around to get the best rates.

Tax

Every business has to pay tax on its earnings. You will need to file a tax return each year, which will need to be accurately calculated. You can do this yourself or you can hire an accountant (the latter can save you a lot of time and hassle, but is an extra expense to budget for). At the very least, you should try to invest in accounting software to help make bookkeeping easier.

A benefit of being self-employed is that you get to claim expenses, which can result in tax reductions. This includes all the costs listed above. This is why it’s important to record every expense, so that you can accurately deduct the necessary amount of tax each year.