Posts

7 Reasons Why You Can’t Do It Yourself

/in /by

There’s an app for that.
I’ve got a tool that does it for me.
It’ll be done in a few clicks.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Digital Strategy|7 Reasons Why You Can’t Do It YourselfWe all love the idea of relying on software solutions and automated formulas to succeed digitally. Unfortunately, for solo entrepreneurs, technology serves a dual purpose, acting both as a fit-for-purpose tool and an advisor. Understandably so, when you are launching a venture with limited time and budget, it’s easy to fall in the trap of automated solutions. Yet, the tech-based DIY approach of small business owners isn’t always the most effective path to success.

The real question you want to ask is not which tool can plan your digital strategy on your behalf, but which expert can you trust with the job. Outsourcing may appear as a less cost-effective solution, but it is likely to drive more satisfying outcomes than any automated or smart tech tool. If you lack the skill set to tackle digital marketing and sales tasks, it’s important to remember that a tool that is easy to use doesn’t make you an expert. Just as anybody can use a hammer, only trained professionals can build a house. The same principle applies to your digital strategy. Here is what happens when you choose to do it yourself with an online tool.

Your website is not unique

WordPress, Wix and Squarespace are some of the most popular DIY web platforms that enable everyone to create a functioning and professional-looking site without preliminary skills. However, it’s fair to say that while building a website may only take a few minutes, the lasting impression could be ever shorter. Indeed, the fresh-out-of-the-box look suffers from the own limitation of its template. Your website ends up looking like any other site and becomes a forgettable experience in the digital world of possibilities. Creating a design that is unique, and that reflects your personality and brand is a conscious effort. Ideally, you want to reach out to a professional or develop your web building skills accordingly. Otherwise, your web presence could become unrecognizable from other sites and brands. More importantly, you may not be able to offer the functions and options you need or implement the tools that are meaningful to your business without affecting the design.

Your landing pages are not UX-optimised

Everybody understands the importance of landing pages to support online conversions. Your landing page serves as a conversion platform, targeting interesting leads and turning them into customers. Therefore, the landing page is a mini page that displays highly targeted content. Thankfully, a variety of online tools can let you create high-quality landing pages that are designed to grab users’ attention. However, a performing landing page requires dedicated skills, including specialist UI and UX knowledge to convert. Did you know that the majority of low-converting pages share issues that a trained UX designer would have avoided? Indeed, they are too cluttered and colorful, confusing readers. They also often fail to redirect visitors to the main site, which can affect the credibility of the landing page. These mistakes can be counterproductive and cost you a lot of profitable conversions.

You don’t have a sales strategy

What is an online sales strategy? A lot of solo entrepreneurs reach out to proven business formulas, such as sales funnels that map out the customers’ journey to making any kind of purchase. Sales funnels are hugely popular because, when they are correctly applied, they can do wonders for business growth. The automated selling strategy can virtually boost your profit on autopilot. Except that there’s one crucial condition if you’re going to deploy sales funnels: You need to have a solid understanding of digital marketing; otherwise you could be making costly and counterproductive sales funnel mistakes. From understanding how to integrate the funnel to your other digital marketing tools to directing traffic to the right places, digital marketing professionals bring their know-how to the sales formula. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a defined strategy, you can’t make the best use of this marketing tool.

You rely on machine recommendations blindly

Most small businesses rely on Google AdWords to create manageable online marketing campaigns. Google AdWords offers businesses of all sizes the opportunity to control their marketing spending and efforts. As a result, you can create a profitable ad campaign with a limited budget. Additionally, the smart tool also provides recommendations to help you improve your account. While this might sound like a fantastic opportunity for amateurs to build a high ROI campaign, there’s a catch. According to Google, there are as many as 60 different recommendations available to users, and many of them can contradict each other or fail to benefit your campaign. Understanding which recommendations to follow and which to ignore requires marketing knowledge. But if you don’t have sufficient experience, you may end up damaging your campaign by following automated suggestions. Ideally, you don’t want to automatically apply suggestions without being able to check them first. The option is often set on auto-apply in Google AdWords.

You can’t track everything

Google Analytics is another fantastic free tool made by Google for digital marketers. If you have a website, you most likely use Google Analytics to track your traffic and understand how visitors behave on the site. Most self-building web platforms allow you to enter the Google tracking code, aka a JavaScript that tells the tool how to track online activities.

However, tracking is not as easy as it seems. Say you want to know how many of your visitors are making a purchase online. You will need to track the “thank you” page that appears after a complete transaction. Thankfully, it is something you can set directly within Google Analytics. But if the goal you want to monitor doesn’t create a new URL, you need to track events, such as clicks, for example. Event tracking requires a new JS code, which you may not be able to implement on the site.

You are missing out on advanced solutions

Google Analytics is a free tool that can do so much for digital marketers. As a result, it is a favorite. Unfortunately, amateurs are unlikely to make the most out of the tool. While you will still benefit from using Analytics, even at a superficial level, you will need additional skills to gain a significant advantage. Google Analytics API offers extensive flexibility in analyzing users’ behaviors and automating reports. However, the API interface is only accessible to trained programmers, which is where outsourcing your digital activities can make a big difference. Using an API in Analytics can offer additional insights about users – that you wouldn’t have received otherwise. It also highlights potential trends, letting you connect Analytics data with other tools.

You lose your brand through automated solutions

How much can you automate? The answer: Almost everything. However, automation is not always the right approach to digital marketing. Indeed, you can use automation to set up email campaigns or build marketing funnels. But did you know that you could also automate content creation? Automated content is not only a reality, but it’s been part of digital way-of-life for a long time. AI can perform simple tasks, such as acting as a chatbot or completing sentences. The tech also lets AI create entire blog articles. Yet, smart tools don’t replace people. The moment you trust a machine to write your blog, you lose what makes your brand unique.

Automated tools play a huge role in building a business and managing online activities for solo entrepreneurs. But it’s essential to draw a line. While tools become more advanced and intelligent, they don’t replace professional experience, personality, and strategic knowledge. There is nothing wrong with using the right tools for the jobs. But remember that technology doesn’t make you an expert!

8 Steps to Becoming a Better Leader Within Your Petrochemical Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Petrochemical Business|8 Steps to Becoming a Better Leader Within Your Petrochemical BusinessWithin oil and petrochemical industries, innovative thinking and strategic planning are key. As a leader in such business, you need to constantly be adapting your way of working, as well as understanding how to inspire the best out of your company and its employees.

Step 1: Encourage Effective Communication

Not only do you need to ensure that you’re effectively communicating with your people, but you also need to make sure that you’re allowing for effective communication throughout the business.
As there are so many roles and branches within a petrochemical business, you need to make sure that all employees and departments can effectually share information.

Step 2: Be Positive

The petrochemical business can be a difficult industry to get into, as well as hitting hurdles. What matters most as a leader is to remain positive and be a source of motivation and inspiration if times get tough.

Step 3: Leadership is Ever Evolving

There’s never a time you should stop learning about being an effective leader. Be sure to keep track of your skills, and where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You can then work to constantly improve your skills and learn new habits to enhance your role.

Step 4: Streamline Your Processes

As an effective leader within this industry, you should be taking all necessary steps to make processes as easy, quick and productive as possible. Making sure that you embrace helpful software and technology, such as field service software for your operatives, shows your employees that you care about proper management systems and anything which can make their jobs a little easier.

Step 5: Recognize Hard Work

No matter whether it’s in-office, out on the field or any other role within your business, recognizing hard work is a must. Be sure to regularly speak with employees to ensure that they know everything they’re doing right, and rewarding hard work.

Step 6: Stay on Top of the Competition

As a business leader, you will need to constantly be aware of what the competition are doing, so that you can effectively communicate with your team how your business can gain a competitive advantage. Employees need to know that you best understand how to help your business succeed over the competition.

Step 7: Pay Attention to Feedback

Being a leader doesn’t mean that you know everything. Being open to feedback from employees, both regarding your own role and the processes of the business, always means that you stand to learn something and gain an outsider’s perspective.

Always be willing to take on board constructive feedback.

Step 8: Stay Organized

It’s hard to trust a leader who is disorganized, who forgets tasks, or whose physical environment is in disarray, such as a messy desk. You can inspire trust by being an organized and tidy leader in everything you do. You need to be a person whom others can depend on, so that begins with being able to organize yourself and your own schedule successfully.

A Guide To Keeping Your Employees Happy, Safe & Fulfilled

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Managing Your People|A Guide To Keeping Your Employees Happy, Safe & FulfilledSomething that should be clear when you are looking after any business is just how important the employees are. Without them there, there is nothing that could be done in the company, and you would soon find that it all falls apart. And yet, so many employers fail to really take stock in this way or to fully appreciate the power and importance of their staff, and this can lead to a business which is not moving in the right direction – or, just as bad, not moving in any direction at all.

There are three basic things that you need to be aware of and focus on in order to keep your employees in tact as a force in your business. Firstly, you need to make sure that they are happy to work there, with all that it entails. Secondly, you must ensure that their workplace is safe and that they are safe on the job. Lastly, you should help them in whatever way you can to keep them fulfilled and fully enjoy their work in the deepest sense, day after day. In this article, we will look at each of these in turn, and discuss what you might need to do to ensure that you are making the most of them. As long as you follow this advice, there is no doubt that you will end up with staff who are happy, safe and fulfilled – and who are therefore much more valuable to you, in turn.

Happy

Keeping your employees happy might seem like something that is out of your control. After all, they are ultimately responsible for their own happiness, and you might not even feel that it is something you need to concern yourself with. However, the truth is that you do have something of a responsibility in this area, and you should at the very least ensure that you are not doing anything to decrease their overall happiness or make their efforts to be happy any harder for them. This is something you can take on as a manager, and it will make you one of the better managers and leaders out there, so it’s worth thinking about. What exactly can you do, however, to ensure that you are actually going to help keep your employees happy along the way while they work for you?

First of all, you should aim to treat them like people as best as you can. It can often happen in offices in particular that staff get slightly and subtly downtrodden, until eventually the relationship between people is much worse than it should really be. You should aim to avoid this particular catastrophe at all costs, and the way to do that is to ensure that you are treating your employees as the people that they are, day after day, without fail. Saying hello, having polite informal conversations, and just generally respecting the human being that they are are all important towards ensuring that your employees can feel respected in the workplace, and that they can continue to feel like a real person, and not just another cog in the machine. Of course, there will be times of stress when everyone has to buckle down and be a little more like a machine, but generally you can always find time for this kind of genuine human interaction – and if you can’t find time for it ever, something is wrong somewhere.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Managing Your People|A Guide To Keeping Your Employees Happy, Safe & FulfilledBut being happy goes beyond that, and you also need to make sure that you are providing some of the basic facilities that everyone needs at work. There are many of these which are legally necessary, of course, such as having bathrooms and break rooms. But as ever, you should make sure that you are going above and beyond these things, so that you know that you are actually providing everything that you can be in order to have happy employees. The break room should be free of anything which is likely to remind them of work – instead, it should be a safe separate place, and you should also allow your employees to go elsewhere for their breaks, of course, as it is their own time. This stuff is basic, but you also need to make sure that you are offering the right amount of break time, something which a lot of employers do get wrong from time to time.

All in all, keeping your employees happy means that you need to find a way to ensure that they are going to get what they deserve in their work and in the workplace. If you are keeping anything from them, they will inevitably end up feeling not happy, but a little disjointed instead. This is essential, so be sure not to overlook it.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Managing Your People|A Guide To Keeping Your Employees Happy, Safe & FulfilledSafe

All employers know that safety is one of those legal and moral responsibilities which you need to take care of. You will need to take this very seriously, too, as it is the kind of thing that can quickly land you in some deep personal and professional trouble if you get it wrong. But that is not the main reason to be concerned about safety in the workplace. The main reason, of course, is that it is important for your staff, and that is what you need to focus on first and foremost. Whenever you are thinking about the safety in your business, you need to make sure that you are doing whatever is right by your employees firstly – as long as you do that, you should end up with the kind of safety that is actually going to work in the way it needs to. So what should be your primary concerns when it comes to keeping people safe at work?

First up, make sure that the office itself is safe. There are as lot of things you need to do here. You might want to have security installed, including a security team and cameras if necessary, to ensure that no intruders can get in. You will also need to have structural analysis of the building done every six months or so to make sure that there is nothing structurally wrong with it which could end up causing problems for anyone later on. Again, in order to ensure that the place can be kept safe, you will need to make sure that you are focused on having the essential in place in case of an emergency. That means knowing how many fire extinguishers, where they should be put, smoke alarms and the same, and ensuring that you have carried out a fire risk assessment every six months, with a clear plan for evacuation on the wall in every major area of the company.

Once the office is as safe as you can possibly hope for, you will need to think about keeping people personally safe. You need to have one person in a team who is first aid trained, and that should include someone who has been trained in CPR through the AHA instructor network. There should also be a fire safety marshal who can direct people out when there are drills or, of course, real fires. In order to really keep people safe, you will also need to think about training them regularly in their own safety concerns and responsibilities. The more you do that, the more likely it is that they will continue to be safe on the whole.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Managing Your People|A Guide To Keeping Your Employees Happy, Safe & FulfilledAs you can see, there is a lot involved to keeping people safe, but it is necessary to do so if you want to make sure that they are truly enjoying their work. Alone, however, happiness and safety are not enough. You also need to make sure that your people are fulfilled. And this is something that is much harder than the last two put together.

Fulfilled

What does it mean to be actively fulfilled in a job? Probably, this has slightly different meanings for everyone, but you need to make sure that you are at least doing something in order to help your employees get there, whatever it might mean for them. Actually, there are a few factors which we might say are going to be especially common amongst employees, and as long as you are paying respect to these things you should find that you have a workplace full of basically fulfilled people. So what should you be trying to do to make that happen?

Generally, your staff will be fulfilled if you make a point of making it clear to them how needed they are, what their place is in the grand scheme of the business, and why it matters so much. You should aim to remind them of their importance, as well as giving them the right level of responsibility for it, and more and more as you trust them more. This alone is most of the work of making the job fulfilling for them, but you should also make sure that you speak with them regularly, and do whatever you can to make their work as fulfilling as possible, in whatever way they feel is necessary for them as an individual.

Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?…

/in /by

If you’ve recently started a business, I’m sure you’re quickly discovering just how much goes into making it a success. Your big idea is just the start of it. From there, you need to think about your HR, marketing, IT infrastructure and a whole host of other factors. With so much going on, it’s essential to make sure you don’t neglect anything important. Here are some things that you simply can’t afford to neglect…

Office Data Backup

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?...
Photo courtesy of Torkild Retvedt via flickr

Office data backup is something that you’ll hopefully never have to use, but you’ll be glad you have it if and when the need arises. Backing up your office data is a great insurance policy against the unexpected. Files can be wiped from your servers, sabotaged by a disgruntled employee, or some kind of freak disaster could damage the servers beyond repair. By regularly backing up all your company’s important data, you’ll be able to get the company up and running again soon afterwards. Despite the massive importance of backing up, a lot of small businesses manage to overlook it completely. If you haven’t already, take a look at your options and set up a dependable system for backing up your files.

The Employee Handbook

Neglecting this part of your business is usually a side-effect of rapid growth. In the early days of your business, when there’s only you and a few employees, any kind of solid HR policies aren’t really that necessary. However, when your business starts to grow and develop as an organization, you’ll need to take on a lot more staff. This means you’re going to need some solid rules in place. A good employee handbook will introduce new recruits to the company’s core values, mission and culture, will tell them what’s expected of them, but most importantly, it will tell them what’s permissible and what’s not. By taking the time to draft an employee handbook, you’ll protect yourself from all kinds of costly litigation and disputes. Whether you do it all on your own steam or reach out to an employment law firm like Ellis Whittam, an employee handbook is an absolute must. Just a few printed words can make all the difference to your company’s future!

A Good CRM

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?...

CRMs, short for customer relationship management platforms, are great tools for managing your company’s interactions with both current and prospective customers. With one of these in place, your company will enjoy better workflow, will be able to automate various tasks, increase the number of sales leads you’re getting and generally increase productivity. Although these auxiliary programs were once considered a luxury, an increasing number of firms are using them, and they’re quickly becoming something of an essential resource for any modern business. Despite what you may have been led to believe, CRMs aren’t exclusive to big businesses anymore, and the packages on the market are getting more and more cost-effective all the time.

As you move forward with your business, make sure you’re not neglecting any of these and holding your firm back from what it can achieve!

Top 5 Reasons Why Your Credit Score Matters

/in /by

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Top 5 Reasons Why Your Credit Score MattersIf you’ve been trying to get your finances in order lately, you may be looking for the best way to see credit score to help you gauge your current creditworthiness. Your credit score might not cross your mind often, but these three numbers are essentially a distillation of your history of handling borrowed money and can have a bigger effect in your everyday life than you might think. From determining what types of loans you qualify for to impacting your insurance rates, phone plans and even rental apartment, your credit score can be surprisingly meaningful in a number of ways. If it’s been a while since you’ve checked your score or worked towards improving it, it’s important to keep a number of key facts in mind about the importance of your credit score and what you can do to raise it over time.

1. It Affects the Loans You Qualify For

If you’re planning on applying for a major loan soon, you should be aware that having poor credit could disqualify you for certain loans. In some scenarios, you may be able to qualify but could get stuck with higher interest rates and worse repayment terms than if you had a higher score. For example, if you’re planning to purchase a home in the near future and will need to apply for a mortgage, your credit score may affect such factors as how much of a mortgage you’ll be able to take out and the interest rate for paying it back. This could potentially add up to paying tens of thousands of dollars more over the years, so improving your score before applying could potentially save you a significant amount of money in the long run.

2. It Could Affect Which Apartments You Can Rent

Even if you’re not planning to purchase a home, having a less-than-ideal credit score can affect the apartments you may be able to rent. Many landlords require a credit check before agreeing to lease their property, and some many use it as a way to filter out possible tenants and decide to whom they want to give the rental contract. Besides potentially keeping you out of a place you wanted, a poor credit score could also result in being asked for higher up-front rental deposits, again costing you more money than if you had a higher score.

3. It Could Impact Your Insurance

It may surprise you to learn that your credit score can actually affect your insurance costs. Insurers will sometimes use credit checks as a way of figuring out how much to charge since they use it as a measure of risk. A poor score could mean higher rates, which could potentially translate to hundreds more in costs per year.

4. It Could Prevent You From Getting a Better Phone Plan

Another unexpected way your credit score can impact your everyday life is that a poor score could keep you from getting a better phone plan. Mobile deals advertised on television, for instance, usually require credit scores above a certain threshold in order to qualify. A bad score could mean you won’t be able to get a better deal. Additionally, some carriers won’t grant you a contract at all, instead leaving you with only a pay-as-you-go option.

5. It Could Keep You From Getting a Car

Finally, if you don’t have good credit, you may find it difficult to finance a car. Auto loan rates often depend on a credit check, which means a better score can translate into access to the car loan you want. Without good credit, you may not be able to afford the vehicle you have your eye on.

Whether you’re planning to purchase a home and need a mortgage or just want to qualify for better car insurance rates, having a good credit score can make a big difference in your everyday life. While it can be easy for your credit score to slip through the cracks when you have other things on your plate, keeping up with your score and trying to improve it over time can help open new opportunities to you. If you’re trying to sort out your finances and boost your score, keep these important facts in mind and you’ll be well on your way to a stronger financial future before you know it.