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Everything You Need To Know If You Want To Sell Online

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Selling Online|Everything You Need To Know If You Want To Sell OnlineThanks to technological innovations, selling online has become easier than ever. And because it’s scalable, it’s precisely the type of business that entrepreneurs need to get themselves into. Instead of trading your time for money, you can just increase the number of units you shift over time, generating massive returns.

If you’re currently selling on Shopify or any of the other platforms, this post can help you. Remember, flogging goods is about more than setting up a website. It’s also about putting the systems in place that will allow sales to happen.

Here’s what to do.

Choose Where You’ll Sell

The first thing you’ll need to do is choose where you want to sell. There are lots of platforms out there, each with advantages and disadvantages.

Remember, if you choose one of the larger e-commerce vendors to host your goods, you’ll have to pay them a commission every time you make a sale, so your margins will always remain depressed.

If you go down the hosted route and sell independently, you’ll get bigger margins, but you’ll also have to do more marketing. Thus, it all comes down to where you think your competencies lie.

Choose How People Will Pay

Payment systems are the most complicated aspect of setting up an ecommerce business. Just displaying goods and writing descriptions is easy. But connecting your site to POS and banking is much more challenging.

Fortunately, most platforms now provide tools that do this automatically for you. For instance, the Shopify FFL checkout allows you to sell restricted goods safely. Other services use their own methods.

Where possible, you want to offer a variety of payment methods. Try to include PayPal if you can, as people who haven’t been to your site before are much more likely to trust this method.

Start Marketing Your Online Store

The next step is to start marketing your online store.

This is more challenging than you might expect. You can have a great ecommerce platform. But if you’re failing to reach out to the community, you won’t get anywhere.

Social media is perhaps the best place to start drumming up business. It’s relatively inexpensive and a great place to begin getting people interested in your services.

Work Out How You’re Going To Do Shipping

Shipping is one of the most challenging aspects of e-commerce. Finding a system that allows you to deliver the right goods to the right customers on time is a notoriously challenging process.

The best option here is to simply outsource the task to a fulfillment provider. These services store and then distribute your goods on your behalf when customers order them.

Please note that these solutions aren’t just “cutting into your margins.” For many new companies, they’re a necessity. You simply don’t have the systems to bring distribution in-house, unless you’re selling just a couple of dozen items a day (and even then, it can be a hassle).

In summary, selling online has never been easier, but it requires a degree of patience and strategy.

How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Productivity| How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small BusinessWhen you’re the owner of a small business, it can often seem like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Unanswered emails, unfinished tasks, rising stress levels, and a to-do list as long as your arm are all fairly common, and can often leave you feeling overwhelmed. You can relax, though, because we’ve come up with five great ways to boost productivity in your small business.

Utilize Organizational Tools

To stay on top of daily, weekly, and even monthly tasks, the best thing to do is to utilize some of the great online tools available for businesses. Asana is a brilliant work management app that allows you to organize and plan your workflow more easily; tasks can be scheduled either for yourself or for other team members, and there’s also a great built-in messaging feature which can easily replace traditional emails. Microsoft Teams is fantastic for coordinating staff messages and arranging meetings, and also includes a handy conference call element.

Choose Business Coaching

There’s nothing more helpful when you’re struggling than receiving motivation and tips from someone with more experience and knowledge. INFIX are a team of consultants who provide small businesses with coaching packages on how to grow your company, via one-to-one online video sessions. Covering everything from strategy and goal-setting to growth and pricing, they’re a one-stop shop for anyone who has hit a stumbling block within their business.

Motivate Your Employees

One of the secrets to a successful small business is happy employees; it’s proven that motivated and upbeat staff provide better results, so it pays to take this into consideration. Setting reasonable working hours, providing fair pay and being supportive are all great ways to stay on top of staff morale – and remembering to give credit and encouragement is also key. Another great tip is to seriously consider flexible working requests; parents and guardians often require time off at short notice, and being understanding in these situations is beneficial.

Delegate Tasks

As the owner of a small business, it can often be tempting to try and manage all of the most important tasks yourself – but this is often a one way road to unfinished work and dissatisfied customers. Many employees will be keen to progress within the business, take on more hours or further their career, so increasing their workload can be beneficial to everyone concerned. Giving employees more autonomy and responsibility isn’t only helpful to you – it can also make them far more productive.

Pick the Right Foods

Eating the wrong foods at work can put you on a fast track to flat energy levels, sluggish thinking and low motivation, so ensure you fill your body with the good stuff throughout the day. If you’re super busy finding time for lunch can be tricky, so make sure what you do eat is packed with nutrients; avocados, quinoa and chia seeds are all superfoods which stick with you, and can easily be mixed into a quick and tasty salad. Keeping healthy snacks on hand is also a great tip (and one your staff will thank you for!); nuts and seeds, dried fruit and even the humble banana are all great for keeping hunger at bay throughout the day.

SMS Marketing Trends 2021

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, SMS Marketing Trends 2021

Since the world has been gripped in the hands of COVID -19, it brings significant changes in the life of businessmen. SMS is now regarded as the marketing tool and perfect way to bridge the gap between the business and its consumers. According to a study, the texting was increased by 53% and recorded to be higher than average in both January and February. Let’s look at some of the trends in SMS marketing and the probable changes they must bring to the lives of many.

1. More than SMS, Omni channel is better preferred: In case you want to establish a better relationship between with the customers, prefer Omni channel more than only SMS. Earlier SMS was regarded as the only channel of communication with the customers; the contact number and email ids of customers were collected by the senders. But now, SMS has an incredible open rate (say 98%) acceptance and it can be integrated with other channels as well. 2021 will notice certain trends in SMS marketing and they would be like the following.

  • Blog posts and other company news can be shared through messages.
  • E- Mail and SMS promotion can be combined.
  • SMS can be well combined with social media marketing.

With the help of marketing automation software it is possible to integrate other channels with SMS.

2. SMS as a customer care channel: Some ways are prominent where SMS can facilitate the customer service functions.

  • They can be used for sending confirmations.
  • They could be used for providing delivery tracking information.
  • They can be used for confirmation and also rescheduling appointments.
  • They are generally used for responding to questions that are frequently asked.
  • While you text with customer support that allows a shorter time of resolution.

In the present year 2021, you may expect to see a betterment in customer service. Since the SMS platforms come handy, there is much improvement in the transactional SMS, and the two way SMS that helps in customer and business services.

3. B2B SMS marketing is on the rise: B2B marketing uses SMS for interacting with the customers and it’s in rise in 2021. Well, the amount of SMS used by B2B is always lesser than B2C. SMS is used to send text to customers as well as valuable information. Well, there are many ways that can help in this regard:

  • By sending personalized messages that customers can know the expected time of delivery as well as the order number of the materials.
  • The customers might know about the product updates and also improved services thereby keeping them in the loop.
  • While you exchange messages with potential customers, it can keep themselves motivated.
  • There can be timely updates about the company’s products and offerings.
  • You may schedule product demos and webinars, as well as answer FAQ’s that provides limited time offers.

4. User reviews is the trend:The use of SMS is on the rise. According to a study about 82% of the consumers read the online reviews especially for the local business. Reviews play a critical role in sales and marketing. In fact, there are several polls and surveys conducted that would give an idea of people the product. In fact threads are provided via SMS and users are expected to complete the poll. Give customers a chance voicing their opinion on the various products and services; you may see the use in social media. The surveys conveyed can help to build the necessary insight.


5. Transactional SMS updates for cross selling: The transactional SMS would keep the customers updated about their purchase and any interactions with the Finance business. By sending SMS to the customer would create a positive image, and there are chances they would convert to potential customers. The companies will be provided with a chance to promote cross selling and providing discounts, all to attract a buyer.

6. Elevate your business with SMS marketing message: In the future, maybe SMS marketing will be combined with marketing strategies as a mix. The success of a marketing strategy depends how effectively it’s used to send text and manage the potential clients. With advent of age, SMS marketing will be the most effective tool to communicate and give a boost to sales.

The marketers hope that business will see a havoc change in 2021 and that will be reflected in the marketing trends. Business trend will be more empathetic this year and that will lead to a stronger customer relationship. E-mails and SMS are regarded as a perfect tool that can help push notification and can elevate sales along with revenue. After all, there is a saying that ‘Content is the king’, and it would appear like that text only emails and SMS are the main tool that can lead to a successful marketing strategy and future development.

About the Author

Susan Raj is Marketing Head of TXTImpact.  TXTImpact provides Business Text Message products for marketing to and support of customers to increase their client base. Our Enterprise Text Message Marketing Platform designed for your business, allows marketers to communicate and engage customers on the go instantly.

Best Sales Intelligence Software

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Sales Intelligence Software|Best Sales Intelligence SoftwareBefore sales intelligence software, sales reps would have to manually collect information on their accounts, reach out individually, and schedule follow ups. All this meant a lot of detective work (and not a lot of sales work) which can be automated with sales intelligence software.

Sales software is helpful to collect data and insights for companies by using external or internal data to expand sales and increase sales processes. Data collected by sales intelligence software is used to discover opportunities and inform reps of important insights into their accounts. Once salespeople have identified an opportunity they can then create strategies and improve ROI.

A good sales intelligence software must be able to merge with other sales software, business intelligence, and analytics or data management solutions. It should also be functional to search lists of companies, find potential customers, and use contact information to reach them.

Some of the best sales intelligence software include:

Vainu

Vainu provides company information whenever it is needed hence keeping the sales team relevant. The software collects data, reads, and analyses any company information that exists making it easy for the sales team to interpret and layout a strategy for their customers.

Adapt

Adapt gives users access to business contacts to build competent leads and interact with new customers faster. It offers B2B company data and contacts across various industries. The software is built for sales teams and marketers to meet goals faster.

Clearbit

Clearbit is a data engine focused on marketing for interactions of customers. It enriches customer data allowing for more personalized marketing and sales outreach as well as prequalifying and scoring leads.. The software updates sales records automatically and gets you alerts when specific contacts interact with your site.

Datanyze

Datanyze focuses on website technology. It provides technographic insights to salespersons based on data science to target their sales at scale. They offer multiple ways to access their data with ease which in turn creates campaign segments and deploys triggers and workflows.

Insideview

Insideview aims to place itself as a company database that integrates with CRM. It has an AI B2B data platform combined with data expertise from Insideview and customer support that makes it trusted by the best-performing companies. It also adds social media feeds of various companies as well as providing news mentions.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator makes prospecting easy. Reps can target accounts by industry, company size, location, as well as find contacts based on job title, seniority, and skills. Unlike LinkedIn, Sales Navigator is a paid sales intelligence application.

With Sales Navigator, reps can engage in a meaningful way with their accounts. It also allows reps to stay updated on activities in their accounts and even be able to connect with new contacts without necessarily having their contact information.

ZoomInfo Powered by DiscoverOrg

ZoomInfo collects data by researching and interviewing companies analytically each year. This software solution is used for B2B sales teams for IT departments. It also includes data on new initiatives and projects enabling the sales team to deliver more personalized and relevant outreach. The software also assists in targeting companies that visit your website, therefore, increasing sales success and productivity

Obviously, there are more types of software such as HubSpot Sales Hub, Owler, D&B Hoovers, and Leadfeeder. Although what is important is to utilize sales intelligence software that will enable you to find accurate possibilities. And that you find software that makes it all easy to analyze the data.

Starting a Business for the Post-Pandemic World

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Post-pandemic World|Starting a Business for the Post-Pandemic WorldThe world has changed. That is what everyone is saying as we are in the midst of a once in a generation global crisis. Change can be daunting. Whether you are a potential new business owner or someone who has been in the game for years, you knew how your industry operated before, and you at least had an idea of how to navigate within that system. Now you have to figure out a whole new way to play.

Change Is the Name of the Game

The pandemic has caused a massive change and forced many businesses to fold. However, companies that have been around for decades and make it through the crisis will recognize that change is nothing new when it comes to business. While some industries may face more frequent and drastic changes, every business needs to adapt sometimes.

Restaurants may seem like an industry that hasn’t faced much disruption overall. However, even they have to monitor the latest dietary trends. Then, of course, one of the largest shakeups came with the rise of fast food.

Some industries face change at a greater rate, but all industries change over time. Some of the most successful companies don’t just change how they operate within an industry but switch industries altogether. Many of the largest companies now operating today started out doing something completely different. Some companies that started out doing something entirely different include:

  • Nintendo – This video game manufacture began as a playing card company and also ran a taxi company, food company, TV network, and hotel chain.
  • Nokia – This popular mobile phone brand started as a paper mill.
  • Wrigley – One of the biggest chewing gum companies started out selling soap and baking powder.
  • Marriot Hotels – Began as a street-side root beer stand.
  • Samsung – This electronics king got started by exporting noodles and dried fish.
  • American Express – The credit card company that originally delivered parcels across the country.

The point is that businesses have to learn to adapt to survive and thrive. Sometimes a change in business comes from forced outside conditions, and other times it comes from inspiration from within. Inescapably, though, it always comes eventually. Starting a business in the current climate is a great way to prepare yourself for success because you can’t rely on following an already laid out way of doing things. You need to innovate immediately.

Filling a Gap or Flooding the Market?

If you are planning on creating a new business that you will hope to launch as the world opens back up again, it is important to recognize the market you will be entering.

Once the world returns to normal, some industries will operate in much the same way as they did before. However, others will operate in a vastly different fashion. There are also going to be a number of industries that don’t recover to pre-virus levels, while others will be bigger than ever before.

You need to figure out where your proposed business lies along these spectrums so that you can fully understand the risks of your endeavor.

Many businesses were forced to close down during the pandemic, but the industry need will return to pre-pandemic levels. That means there will be a lot of holes to be filled, and you could be stepping in at the perfect time to provide the service that people need. Many other services that boomed during the pandemic are likely to drop off dramatically as the disaster recedes.

Basically, opening a new restaurant where you have half the competition you would have had if you had opened your doors in 2019 will be a much safer bet than starting a business that sells medical masks.

The Importance of Insurance

One thing that the pandemic has certainly shown is the importance of insurance. Health insurance, cancellation insurance, and business insurance that covered disruption are three prominent insurance options that many people who had them were very grateful for once the pandemic hit. While hopefully, we will not face another crisis of this level anytime soon, these are still great safety nets to have.

Whenever you invest a lot of money in anything, like your business, home, car, wedding, or self, purchasing insurance is a good option. People planning to get married in early to mid-2020 who had to postpone may not have benefited from buying wedding liability insurance. However, if they bought wedding cancel or postponement insurance, they were certainly breathing a sigh of relief.

The same goes for business owners. Those who left business disruption insurance off their coverage plan were left out in the cold when forced to shutter their doors due to lockdowns.

The Digital Age Has Truly Grown Up

The world has been transitioning to digital more and more over the past few decades, and the pandemic pushed that movement forward even further. Many businesses who adopted a more digital approach with things like having employees work from home don’t plan to go back to the old way of doing things. Many former office jobs have switched to being fully remote and will stay that way while others will keep a partially remote aspect.

There are many benefits to having your employees work from home. Your good employees are often more productive because by cutting out their commute, they are less tired and more able to focus. At the same time, it is easier to identify your bad employees and demand improvement or part ways. You can also rent smaller offices or have no main office at all. Either option can save a lot of overhead costs.

Due to this and other factors, you may find that this is the perfect time to start your new business. With many industries, you won’t find yourself at a big disadvantage to your more experienced competitors, since they will be learning the new way of doing business right alongside you.

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