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Having Financial Freedom And Being Realistic

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Financial Freedom|Having Financial Freedom And Being RealisticThis year has certainly not been one that has gone to plan for so many. You may have had good intentions and goals, especially when it came to your finances, but found yourself in a situation where you have struggled with less pay or no work at all. You are not alone. But as we come out of this difficult period it could be a good idea to make your finances a priority. It might mean selling and buying a new home, paying off debts, for example. It may even be to increase your savings or be a little smarter with your financial purchases. Whatever your goal may be, there can be actionable steps you can take now to help you achieve the goal. Here are some of the things to consider.

Take a look at your current situation

First of all, no matter what financial goal you will have in mind, you need to start looking at your current situation and address where you need to make some changes. Many people won’t scrutinize their bank statement, but by doing this now, you could highlight and be more aware of exactly how much you are spending each month. If you want to get serious an online financial planning tool can help you with all sorts of things to do with your finances. You may even identify rogue direct debit payments you thought had been canceling still leaving your bank account. It does happen. Take the time to note down all of your outgoings versus what you have coming in, and you will be truly aware of where you stand, ready to make some changes for the year ahead.

Monitor your credit report so that you can actively make changes

The next thing you might want to think about is your current financial history regarding credit and your current score. This will be especially important if you plan on any financial applications soon such as a mortgage. You may want to look into your report on credit reference agencies so that you have a true idea of what is going on behind the scenes. You may want to know what your score is now, and then look at ways you can improve it. This could be focusing on paying off debts or ensuring that all details on your credit file are correct. It saves a lot of messing around when the time comes to apply.

Start looking at ways to save

Saving may be a goal you have specifically, or it may form part of a bigger plan like eventually owning your home. So looking at ways to save could be a great starting point from now to help you build them up. It could be that you can save a set amount each month, which is great. Setting up a standing order into a separate account for this amount will help you build up that savings amount. However, you could look at other savings you can make every day and add to the pot as and when you can. This might be using cashback sites with everyday spending, or even thinking about things like saving on food shopping and sending the different you save over to your savings account. The more you find ways to save, the faster it will rise.

By setting yourself clear targets, and taking actionable steps now, you will be able to hit the ground running for the rest of this year.

B2B Lead Generation Strategies For SaaS Companies

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SaaS Lead Generation|B2B Lead Generation Strategies For SaaS CompaniesSaaS lead generation in a B2B environment can be quite challenging, and SaaS marketing is famous for being very data-driven with extremely little margin of error. Meaning, we also can’t rely on our competitors making mistakes to find new opportunities.

In this guide, we will discuss some of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies for SaaS companies, starting with the first one.

1. A Performing Website

In B2B marketing, your website is a very important marketing asset more than in a B2C environment. A website is perceived as more ‘professional’ compared to social media profiles, and most B2B buyers today expect a professional-looking and performing vendor’s website.

So, how can we determine whether a website is ‘proper’? There are three main factors:

  1. Great content both in quality and quantity
  2. Proper user experience, technical-wise
  3. Aesthetically-pleasing according to today’s standards

We’ll cover more about content in its own section below, but your website would need to at least achieve the following:

  • Mobile-friendly: there are two main reasons for this. First, Google and the other search engines now prioritize mobile-friendly/mobile-responsive websites on their SERP rankings. Second, is that simply a majority (over 60%) of users, including B2B buyers, are using mobile devices to access your website. The latest data has shown that 80% of B2B buyers are using mobile devices at work.
  • Fast loading speed: close to half of the users will bounce from a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load (on a standard 4G connection).
  • Security: how you convey to visitors that your site is completely safe is very important, especially if you also sell your products on your website. At the very least, make sure your site uses an SSL certificate (HTTPS instead of HTTP).
  • Easy to navigate: your website should be an all-in-one resource for your users. Make sure it’s very easy to find your contact information (make it as obvious as possible). Also, include effective clear-to-action with proper placements. Don’t forget to also display clients’ testimonies, client’s logos, awards/accolades, and affiliations properly. They are really important for B2B websites.
  • Aesthetically pleasing: yes, we do judge our books from their covers. Close to 40% of B2B buyers admitted to leaving a website due to poor design and/or navigation. It’s especially important to be clear about what your company is, what you do, and what you sell.

In short, make sure your website is performing well in both aesthetics and technical performance. Even just one bad experience on a website can make most users less likely to revisit this site.

2. Effective B2B Content Marketing

Content marketing is obviously very important nowadays both in B2C and B2B marketing, and today content can come in many different forms and mediums from blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos, live streaming videos, podcasts, and more.

Content marketing is very important because as we have discussed, more and more buyers are relying on online content to make their purchase decisions. 91% of B2B marketers are doing content marketing, and close to 80% of B2B buyers have admitted that content quality significantly influences their buying decisions.

So, how should B2B businesses approach their content marketing? Which types of content should they develop?

There are no one-size-fits-all answers for these questions, and ultimately how you should approach your content would depend on your target audience’s behaviors and preferences. Here are some of the content forms you can consider:

  • Blog posts:

Blog posts, articles, and other similar forms of textual content are very useful in the awareness building/demand generation stage.

The idea here is to provide content that tackles your target audience’s needs and problems, which should be related to the problems your product or service solves. Your content should show customers that you understand their needs and pain points and that your brand can be a potential solution for this problem.

Your blog shouldn’t only focus on promoting your product or service but to provide your readers with actionable, informative tips.

  • Social media posts:

Social media is where our audience is nowadays (yes, even B2B audience), and it would only make sense that we should have powerful, engaging content on social media platforms. We will discuss this more on the social media marketing section further below.

  • Video content and live streaming

We all know how big video marketing is nowadays, and it is also one of the most important formats in influencer marketing nowadays. Videos—in a B2B environment—allow businesses to offer in-depth tutorials and demos of your products, and are also a great medium to promote a product launch.

Live streams are also a very effective medium to engage your audience. You can, for example, create a behind-the-scenes content about your team or your product/service.

  • Podcasts

Podcasts are getting bigger in recent years, and can be a very effective medium to establish your credibility/thought leadership in your niche.

The key takeaway is to define your target audience, understand their behavior, pain points, and needs, and produce content to cater to these needs.

3. Social Media Marketing

As discussed, social media is an effective platform to engage your audience, since it’s simply where the audiences are.

We can divide social media marketing into two different types: organic and paid. Organic effort is building your own followers and posting your own social media content. Paid efforts, on the other hand, are about using the platform’s paid options (advertising, LinkedIn’s Sponsored Post, etc. ) to reach more audience.

The key here is finding the balance between both. Organic social media efforts are obviously more affordable and can be totally free, but it would take more time to build your audience. Paid efforts, on the other hand, would save time, but can be very expensive.

So, it is actually the case of finding the balance between time and cost.

4. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing used to be a channel that is almost exclusively B2C. However, in the past couple of years or so, many B2B businesses now adopt influencer marketing in their strategies with varying successes.

Even in the B2B environment, people are more likely to purchase products based on the recommendations of their peers, and this is why when a trusted influencer in the niche promotes your product/service, it can be very effective.

Influencers in the B2B influencer marketing offer:

  • Their authority and followers. They can help you promote your existing content and help make your brand more visible to their followers.
  • A different point of view than your brands’ which can help you in targeting your audience as well as reaching a new audience.
  • Authentic professional credibility that can otherwise take you years to build. This can help provide answers to the pain points of your target audience.

End Words

Although B2B lead generation is difficult, that’s not saying it’s an impossible game. With the right SaaS lead generation strategy, we can generate more leads and open up tons of new opportunities. It’s very important to remember that in B2B lead generation, lead quality is often more valuable than quantity, and we should always aim in getting higher-quality leads with each effort.

About the Author

Mike Khorev is an SEO consultant who helps SaaS, software, IT, technology, B2B and startup companies generate more sales and grow revenue online. He offers expert advice on marketing your company the right way through performance-based SEO, inbound marketing, conversion rate optimization, search engine marketing and many other online practices

Marketing Essentials: Finding Your Target Audience Is a 9-Step Process and It Goes Like This

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Finding Your Target Audience|Marketing Essentials: Finding Your Target Audience Is a 9-Step Process and It Goes Like ThisWhen it comes to effective marketing, few things could be considered more basic than identifying the target audience. Unfortunately, when the subject is discussed, it is often dismissed as just buzz words. This belies the history of successful marketing campaigns that are replete with target audiences that were identified and made the objects of effective appeals.

Effectively identifying and reaching the correct target audiences for your business can turn the tables on sales. Find your target audience (or audiences) over at Benchmark, and you will find your pot of sales gold.

This article will provide you with nine steps to help you find that gold.

1. Know your selling points. Whether you are selling a product or a service, you should know all of your selling points, including every reason your customer should know about what you are offering to fulfill their needs.

2. Know everything you can about your current audience. Understanding your current customers will go a long way toward identifying and selling future customers. They are your best source of identifying and appealing to prospective customers.

3. Dig deeper. There is no such thing as knowing too much about your audience. Every new data point that you learn about your audience will provide one more way to reach out to them.

4. Challenge your assumptions. When it comes to your customers, never assume you know anything. The best example is the fitness buff who starts a gym thinking his or her best customers will think about health the same way. Unfortunately, people get fit for many different reasons and need to be appealed to in different ways.

5. Know your competition. Everyone likes to believe that they have a product or service that is different from everyone else. This is usually not true. Check out competitors that sell something like yours.

6. Develop an audience profile. Any business owner should develop a detailed profile of who their target audience is. They should know, among other things, demographic data such as income, gender, age, marital status, job status, ethnicity, and educational level. As much as possible, they should also be able to identify psychographic data such as hobbies, behaviors, lifestyle choices, and more.

7. Go find your audience. To many marketers, this step is a matter of “easier said than done,” but it’s much easier when you know your resources. For example, with a list of demographic data about your target audiences, you can visit your county’s geographic information systems office, input the data, and get a complete printout of everyone who fits your criteria. Easy enough.

8. Run a test campaign. Building a relationship with target audiences is just like building a relationship with someone. To develop a relationship, you need to reach out. For target audiences, run a sales campaign to see how it works. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, tweak it until it does.

9. Grow your future. Thanks to ever-growing technology, advances in marketing couldn’t come at us faster. Utilize them. Campaigns might be shorter because of these changes, but don’t send out erratic and scattered messages. And, never assume what worked in the past will work again. Continually educate yourself about your changing target audiences.

Your target audiences will keep up with you, but will you keep up with them?

How To Improve Your Business Productivity While Working From Home

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Business Productivity|How To Improve Your Business Productivity While Working From HomeWorking from home can be challenging for some because there are so many things that may need your attention. From your children to household chores, your productivity may be suffering. If you are looking for ways to improve your business productivity, here are some helpful tips that will help you get through the day getting everything done on your to-do list.

Be More Efficient

Think really hard about how your business is running. Are there any opportunities for some processes to be streamlined? For example, if you own a commercial dash cam company, installing fleet tracking dash cams can be beneficial to improving your delivery times as some of these come with GPS features. Maybe you are spending too much time answering emails in which case a simple day restructure will help you move more efficiently. Ultimately, it depends on what your business’ short-term and long-term tasks are.

Know When To Delegate

This is something a lot of great managers and executives understand. You cannot do everything yourself. There is not enough time in the day. Delegating allows you to focus on the most important tasks for your day while someone else can handle the less pressing, but just as important tasks. Delegating can feel uneasy because you are essentially giving someone else the responsibility of pulling through.

Doing this not only improves your productivity but it also benefits your employees by giving them a sense of achievement and direction in their careers.

Cut Out Distractions

Distractions are typically the main culprits when it comes to business productivity. Things like social media and texting can be major time wasters. You want to make sure that you and your employees are utilizing the work hours efficiently. While you do not want to implement a no-phone policy, you can instead opt for frequent breaks. Taking lots of breaks will reduce your chances of getting distracted.

Use The Right Tools

Thank goodness for technology and apps. There are tons of time and productivity tracking apps that you can use to help keep you productive. These apps help you stay accountable for your time for the day, making sure that you are getting most out of the workday. You can also use collaboration tools like Google Drive and Trello to keep track of your projects and those contributing to those projects. Google Drive streamlines the collaboration process, allowing you to share things in real-time as they are being updated.

Keep Your Employees Up-To-Date With Training

Set your employees up for success by offering training that allows them to develop their productivity skills. Sometimes the process of hiring someone new can be nerve-wracking because this is a time typically when things start falling through the cracks. The best way to avoid this is to make sure all your employees, new and old, are properly trained. Training greatly benefits not just the employer but also the employees as well as improving greater efficiency and productivity.

How to Successfully Organize Virtual Events

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Virtual Events|How to Successfully Organize Virtual EventsOrganizing a virtual event requires the utmost care and attention. You need to promote the event, engage participants, create memorable moments for everyone present, and eventually prove that the event was a success.

In this article, we’ll provide some tips for organizing successful and memorable virtual events.

What Virtual Event Organizing Entails

Virtual events are built around data, participant engagement, and content. They contain the same elements as other types of events.

These include:

  • Event registration
  • Live presentation content
  • Live audio/video
  • Event website
  • Live polling
  • Note-taking
  • Question and answer
  • Interactive video conferencing
  • Recorded content
  • Feedback surveys

With all these elements in place, you can start planning your event.

Fundamentals of Virtual Event Planning

When hosting a virtual event, keep in mind that your attendees want to be informed, included, and entertained.

Your event will need adequate marketing. Without targeted, aggressive promotion, attendance will suffer.

In virtual settings, content rules. Create engaging sessions with powerful keynotes tailored to your participants. Provide options that are relevant to each participant to keep them engaged.

Lastly, you’ll need to capture attendee data and measure engagement, so you can prove your event ROI and the event’s success.

Planning Your Virtual Event

With the right tools and proper planning, you’ll create opportunities for all involved, including yourself, to forge meaningful business connections.

At your event, entrepreneurs and businesses will meet potential business leads. When planning, you should have inspiring speakers, a strong marketing strategy, informative and relevant content, and the opportunity for participants to network – but with some valuable twists.

These tips will help you plan for the event:

  • Gather all the information you need. List and secure resources on time.
  • Inform participants on time and follow-up with reminders, so no one is left out.
  • Send out materials on time, so participants can prepare.
  • Allow and prepare yourself and the attendees for some adjustments in the schedule.

How to Simplify Event Planning

Organizing a successful event comes with its own challenges. Even if you have planned out every detail, some road bumps are inevitable.
A good plan of action can help you overcome any challenges. Let’s look at some best practices to approach event planning.

Break Down the Event into Small Tasks

Breaking down the workload into small tasks is an effective practice to handle the organization. If you write all your tasks down, it’ll be easy to distribute the workload and simplify the decision-making process.

Once you conquer your schedule and to-do list, everything will be ready on time, and your team will organize accordingly. You need to have exceptional time management skills so that you can supervise the progress and make sure everything is going according to plan.
You can create a clear time table and share it with all parties involved to reduce any friction and delays.

Avoid Multitasking

Although an event planner is often perceived as someone always doing many tasks concurrently, you should avoid multitasking, especially at the planning stage. According to research, using multiple screens and devices is not good for your mental health.

Whenever you multitask, you’ll not only end up doing a few tasks but will also do them less efficiently. Focus on the most urgent tasks with the biggest impact, and give it your undivided attention.

After tackling the “big” things first, like settling on the site and time, booking speakers, and other essentials, smaller things will fall into place more naturally.

Build a Collaborative Team

Organizing a successful event depends on collaboration and coordination. If you can’t rely on your team to do their share of the work, you’ll also be forced to assume their duties, such as negotiating with suppliers, implementing the budget, and so on.

That’s why it’s important to diligently distribute tasks and deadlines, so everyone knows what their duties are.

Accept That Something Can Go Wrong

Watching the organization and event unfold according to plan is a joy, but things rarely go precisely as you envisioned.

Understand that you can fail, even in the tiniest detail, and you have to embrace the concept. As an experienced organizer, you should be calm when something goes wrong.

You may have a backup plan that’ll prevent any major fallback, but you cannot have a backup plan for everything. By embracing failure, you’ll stand tall and strong without blaming yourself. Take the failure as a lesson to make things right in your future events.

Final Word

A virtual event can be a powerful marketing tool. As an event planner, you need to deliver the most exceptional experience to all participants. To achieve this, you’ll have to vigorously follow your plan and schedule and make sure that all parties involved are on the same page.

A successful event is an event that provides value to your audience and participants. If you plan your event with that value in mind, you’ve set the foundations for an event that participants will remember for a long time.

About the Author

Joe Peters is a Baltimore-based freelance writer and an ultimate techie. When he is not working his magic as a marketing consultant, this incurable tech junkie devours the news on the latest gadgets and binge-watches his favorite TV shows. Follow him on @bmorepeters