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Looking for a Productivity Boost? Best Apps and Tools That Can Help

Steven on October 23, 2019

To be more productive means to work better, faster and longer. While being more productive is often a psychological challenge before anything else, there is also a ton of tools and apps that can enhance your productivity. In this post, we present some of the most common ones.

For “offline” storage

More often than not, the simplest tool at your disposal isn’t found on your laptop or smartphone. Even big-time CEOs don’t shy away from relying on a notebook to organize their work for the week. Yes, notebooks are pretty analog, but they can still be quite useful.

Every Monday, for example, you can map out your week in your notebook and prioritize what you need to do in the next five days. Then, if you find yourself working on something that isn’t a part of that list, you can try to stop and evaluate whether or not it’s an actual priority.

For online storage

Dropbox is likely one of the first few apps that gave birth to the concept of an online storage locker for paperwork. In it, you can post files, pictures, videos and other types of data in your own Dropbox section and be able to access them from anywhere.

Regarding data security, there are a couple of security practices you should consider if you want to have maximum defense. Dropbox’s own security provides 256-bit AES encryption for all files and a two-step verification process. By default, all data stored in Dropbox is private. All in all, Dropbox is a robust app for small businesses offering a secure and convenient way to store and manage information.

For having everything in one place

While it may be traditional and classy, the compendium is still one of the easiest ways to organize and secure all your belongings, such as pencils, markers, notebooks, or smartphones, in one place. With a compendium, you won’t have to worry about forgetting that one pencil you like the most, while its zip closure will make sure your belongings are safe and sound.

Moreover, if you’re an entrepreneur, there are a lot of professionally made promotional compendiums that can be customized with your business’s logo. These compendiums are amazing when it comes to branding, expanding the reach of your business, or promoting a new product or service.

For logging time

Auditing hours each day, particularly regarding client work, is an activity which is by no means easy. However, being able to view what you’ve worked on (and for whom) will assist you in establishing the value of your time. Hours is an amazing time tracking resource (with iOS and Internet apps) that will enable you to easily capture the hours you spend on each project.

Reports allow you to audit how much time you spend on a particular client and item. This app is perfect for freelancers or contractors, but also for any individual looking to audit their work time. Some people also use Toggl, a mobile app with easy-to-use interface that lets you log in work hours.

For traveling

In theory, traveling the world is amazing, but the real process can easily become quite stressful with itineraries, boarding passes, and hotel bookings all over the place. This is where TripIt comes to rescue, as it takes everything you need to travel and streamlines it into one place. You can name your travels, set reminders, import all of your travel data, and basically have everything ready at the touch of a button.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a free-to-use and must-have writing application. It isn’t only for writers, but for anyone responding to a recruiter on LinkedIn, sending an important email, or any other crucial document for that matter. With it, you will be able to check spelling and grammar or get context-based suggestions that improve your documents, messages, articles, and anything else that is text-based.

That’s it! Remember that, although these apps can help with specific activities or increase your overall productivity, being more productive requires that you change your negative habits and incorporate good ones.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know

Steven on October 22, 2019

As far as working from home jobs are concerned, blogging is one of the highest-rated activities or businesses that an individual can run. Blogging does not require a college degree nor does it require years and years of technical training. It does, however, require passion, great grammar command and the willingness and tenacity to work. Many people hear about blogging and think that it is a breeze, an easy way to make money. The truth is, it is very difficult to make money from a blog unless you have what it takes. This means you have to have great content, garner a sizeable and commendable audience, and most of all, have the necessary know-how in effective ways to monetize your blog. Monetizing your blog is the ultimate test when it comes to blogging success. This involves extensive marketing for no matter how monetized your blog is, if it does not get the necessary and right traffic, it will still be useless to you. Getting your blog noticed and standing out from the millions and millions of blogs online today is no easy task, it takes quite a bit of skill. Here are 9 blog promotion tactics by http://socialmarketway.com that every blogger should know.

Go social

Other than Google, social media sites command the highest amount of online user traffic today. Facebook is second only to Google. Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the rest are not so far behind. This means that these social media sites are where your audience is to be found on a regular basis. If you want to effectively direct this substantial amount of traffic, then you need to engage with the community in general, the easiest way to do this is through these social media sites. The thing to remember is this, a social media campaign can look a lot like spam. This is mainly because people come here to interact with one another and share ideas. Unless you are actually contributing to the conversation in a meaningful way, simply posting a link to your blog will be considered spamming and this will result in you getting banned. You need to interact with the community. This involves taking an interest in what they are discussing and contributing relevant information which you can then link to or from your blog.

Target a ‘sharing’ audience

This should be part of your strategy. Try as much as you can to make your target audience the sharing type. There is certain demography of people that is more likely to share material online than others. Audiences that include people looking to lose weight, bodybuilders, technologically astute people, and serial shoppers are all examples of audiences that will willingly help spread the word about you and your blog. This is provided the content is relevant and useful.

Guest blog

Once you have found a niche, look for other authoritative sites and blogs within that niche and guest post on them. This involves writing articles, following forum threads and interacting with the site administrator and the audience. Once you have gained their trust and your opinion is valued, you can simply request the site administrator to let you link back to your blog. This way, you will gain their audience and hopefully the people they recommend.

Appeal to the vertical markets

You have to make your blog an authority with relevant content as well as offering solutions to the society at large. This means FAQ pages and several ‘How To’ articles. Feature different industry trends with credible and verifiable statistics. Once this is done, your blog will be regarded as a valuable resource and this will keep people coming back.

Participate in forums and discussions

These are platforms where likeminded people go to hold meaningful discussions. Once you have found your niche, find all the highly-trafficked and relevant forums and actively participate. Give relevant advice and links to actionable and useful information. As part of this advice, you can send them over to your blog. Remember, these are serious people and spamming will NOT be tolerated.

Include your blog in everything about you

This means that you should always mention your blog whenever and wherever your name appears. In your bio, your online resume, your other websites, your email signature, your internet profile, your social media accounts…anything that features you should also feature your blog.

Utilize bookmarking sites

Making use of social bookmarking sites can be a very resourceful way of gaining backlinks. These are ways through which you can widely advertise your blog without paying for it. You can always opt for paid advertising.

Make your content SEO friendly

When it comes to blogging, the number one rule is quality content. In your struggle to churn out high-quality content, make sure that it is SEO friendly. As mentioned earlier, only the various search engines like Google have more traffic than social media sites. This means that the majority of organic traffic can be found in search engine page results. Properly optimizing your blog content gives you an added advantage of getting this organic traffic.

Use web analytics

This is similar to carrying out a survey. Analytics gives you a break down on where most of your traffic comes from, which pages and content they spend more time and what they actually think of your blog. Paying attention to these statistics and tweaking your blog in accordance with the results will go a long way in improving your performance. It is a way of giving the client what he/she wants.

Call to action

Sometimes you just have to be blunt and tell your readers what you want them to do. In every article or comment you make, find a way to include actionable and relevant information that can link back to your site. This way you can simply tell them to click over to your blog for further information. They know what they are getting and you are not being vague about asking them to switch over.

These are 9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know. However, what you need to remember is this, for your blog to succeed, you need to be passionate about what you are writing. Without this passion, you will not be motivated to churn out high-quality content consistently, which is the core of every blog.

Digital Branding

3 lessons learned responding to a PR Crisis

Steven on October 21, 2019

Building a brand from the ground up can be very rewarding. However, it takes a lot of hard work and usually, a lot of time.

Unfortunately, an unexpected PR crisis can ruin a brand overnight. This can be devastating, especially when the crisis is caused by events unrelated to your company.

This is what happened to the UK dry herb vaporizer company, Vape Elevate. Last summer, a mysterious vaping illness swept the USA. Eventually, this illness was linked to a company selling illicit E-Liquid. Unfortunately for Vape Elevate, this illicit company shared a name with one of its brands; Dank Vapes.

Eventually, customers in the UK were becoming confused between the two unrelated brands and sales were greatly affected.

We spoke to Cara Robinson, Customer Experience Manager at Vape Elevate to find out what lessons she learned responding to a PR crisis.

Act quickly and preempt any damaging news

To this day, Cara’s biggest regret is not preempting the public relations crisis by communicating as soon as possible with her customers

“We were fully aware that a company sharing our name was being linked to the vaping illness. However, because it was happening over 2000 miles away and our sales were unaffected we decided to ignore it – much to our regret”.

By not acting quickly, customers are left to draw their conclusions of events. Even if the conclusions are wrong, it can still be damaging for business.

Cara agrees “Had we not buried our heads in the sand, we could have prevented our customers from confusing our brand with the illicit vaping brand.”

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

One thing that Vape Elevate did get right was putting themselves in their customer’s shoes.

“We quickly found that anyone searching for our brand on Google would be presented with stories about people falling ill. This is the last thing you want to read when shopping. It was then we knew we had to rebrand.”

By viewing the brand as a customer would, Cara’s team was able to identify exactly where the crisis lay and ensure they came up with the response that best met their customer’s needs.

Have a communications plan

Once a plan of action has been decided upon, the entire team must be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Social Media is increasingly likely to be the first port of call for confused, angry and inquisitive customers. During a PR crisis, any responses customers or press receive should be predetermined and approved by senior management. It’s important to not allow any employees to go rogue.

Sending out a mass email to your customer database is another great way to manage communications. This is exactly what Vape Elevate did as Cara recalls:

“We announced our brand change by sending an email simultaneously to our customers, our suppliers, and the press. It gave us control of the narrative and we were able to reposition the brand change as exciting.”

Top Tips For Handling A PR Crisis

It’s a worst-case scenario that can befall even the most prestigious organization: a public relations crisis. From a string of bad reviews to a serious financial scandal, a negative incident can have a powerful impact on a company’s reputation — no matter how small or diplomatic it is. That’s why it’s critical for every business to have a reaction plan in place. Here are some do’s and don’ts when navigating a PR crisis.

In today’s digital age, news can go viral almost instantly. The implementation of a swift and effective crisis management plan is essential. An organization should address the issue head-on, whether it’s with an apology, an explanation or an announcement. If an immediate, informative response is not possible, the business should at least communicate that it’s looking into the issue and give a reason as to why there will be a delay. Above all else, it’s important to take responsibility for what happened.

Before sending representatives to address the media, make sure they fully understand the response strategy and are given enough information to answer questions. If time allows, set up a practice session to ensure they are prepared. Emphasize that the company’s message must be consistent across multiple channels.

Refrain from saying “no comment,” as these are two of the most damaging words in PR. Shutting down communication leaves a gap for others to fill, and what they say may be worse than the truth. If an organization is waiting for more information, it should let the public know that it is working on a response or a reaction to the situation.

For more tips on how to handle a PR crisis, see the accompanying infographic.

News Exposure provides a variety of media monitoring services, including TV broadcast monitoring.

Digital Branding

Types of Purpose-made Website Templates and the Various Usages of Those

Steven on October 21, 2019

A web template or website template is primarily a web page, which is pre-designed with a custom set of elements, which anyone can simply pick and simply plug-in your text or image to build a fully functional website. Unlike the need for custom coding and designing, the pre-built website templates will let anyone, even those who don’t have any knowledge of coding, to set up their professional websites.

Website templates are usually built with HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap codes and will let anyone tweak the layout to set up a unique website. There is no need to hire a professional developer or designer to construct a website. Nowadays, even many of the developers who are into professional website creation make use of these templates to prepare business websites. Website templates will let the amateur web developers build their websites quickly and easily without the need to do the coding from scratch.

Usage of these templates also lets anyone make websites at a reasonable cost, and the entire process of web development is also made less time consuming with the use of templates. The modern-day templates are also coming search engine ready out of the box, so the users can easily search for and find your products and services online. Each template available out there in the website template repositories are also self-contained. You just have to plug-in your unique content as text, images, or videos, and then tweak the layout according to your needs with drag and drop options to complete the layout and publish the website.

Various types of web templates

As discussed above, the website templates come self-contained as downloadable zip files or kind of an online web builder user interface. If you are a bit coding-savvy, then you can use an HTML code editing program also to do the customization. These could be made simply static or highly responsive and dynamic. You can configure these templates to be adaptive to the needs of any mobile or PC browsing. You can also put the file extensions as.htm, .html .php, .asp and so in. In any case, these could be built using the HTM and CSS codes. The modern-day templates are coming responsive out of the box, and the layout could simply flex to the entire width effectively for a comfortable view.

What are all there in the website templates?

Usually, you can find or include text and images (.jpg, .png or .gif formats), HTML5, CSS3 elements, jQuery, shopping carts, payment gateways, contact forms, slideshows, dynamic image galleries PDF download, video, and graphic players, embedded YouTube, etc. to point out a few. The designs and codes of the web templates may vary largely from case to case, so the users need to be very careful and picky while choosing their most appropriate website template. Ensure that you check all the functions of the template as well as the scripts, functions, and applications you need for your website. With the Designmodo free website templates, you can all add custom text, scripts, stock photos, third-party plug-ins, or anything to the template easily to create custom-built pages. The default stock images could also be replaced with the user content like.jpg or .gif images.

The website templates come as standalone zip files, including built-in scripts for multiple pages. There may have been many developers who worked behind it to create these pre-built templates and for the clients. In addition to it, the website templates can also be purchased by the clients and make use of a developer at their end to customize the layout and design. Most of these website templates can be used as a base, and using a professional to complete it will help save a lot of time and effort compared to building a site from scratch. Using website templates, there is also no restriction as to how to customize a website and what all elements to be included in it later. However, you can also have a look at the user agreement while downloading a website template to see if there are any such restrictions.

More about HTML and CSS-based designs

HTML, as well as CSS, are plain text coding languages which can be used for browsers to render the webpage designs. The latest versions are HTML5 & CSS3, which are now considered as the website standards. It is W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, which updates and maintains the standards for these.

The web templates now come in various flavors, and you need to be very careful while considering the options and choose one. You shouldn’t instantly commit to any design without scrutinizing them. It is also ideal to choose one which will be compliant with the current standards and also ply responsive on the mobile screens. Ensure that the website you develop passes the Mobile-Friendly Test by Google.

Adaptive design vs. responsive design

Adaptive web templates are similar to responsive web designs and will consist of the media queries of CSS code. The major difference in terms of adaptive design is that it targets the desktops and mobile devices separately. There could either be a separate design or another set of web pages for each device. Detection of CSS, PHP, jQuery, or ASP could be used to redirect the users from various devices to corresponding web pages. However, there could be many gray areas in adaptive design. On the other hand, responsive web design only needs one type of development. Bootstrap uses a grid-based system with which the web page gets open based on the characteristics of the browser and the device screen on which the website is open.

There are also many web builder systems offered by hosting companies and proprietary CMS providers. However, while combined with the template designs coming packed with the hosting packages, your websites may not be portable, and you will find it difficult to port it to another hosting server later. So, it is best to stay away from such hosting service add-ons, and it’s ideal to choose independent website templates, which you can seamlessly customize and personalize with code updates.

Digital Branding

Guest Posting: How To Find The Right Service Provider For Your Business

Steven on October 20, 2019

Guest posting is one of the most rewarding practices for link building and marketing for businesses from every industry. It not only helps with securing high-quality backlinks but also helps with brand building.

Let us understand first how guest posting can help your business:

It helps bring in referral traffic through contextual links
Your mention on reputable blogs and websites improves your brand recognition
You get to generate more revenue through high in-flow of targetted traffic
You can earn the trust of your audience as a genuine content creator

Having known these benefits of guest posting, you may consider it for acquiring backlinks to your website. But, the time and amount of effort required in blogger outreach and securing backlinks from influencers may seem like a daunting task.

Nevertheless, you can hire SEO reseller services to help you with your guest posting exercise.

Here’s how you can find the right fit for your business.

Start your search from Google

Your old friend Google has answers for everything. You can begin your quest to find the best service provider for your guest posting by searching for relevant terms. For example, you can search for, “list of guest posting service providers”, which would bring up a long list of agencies and SEO companies offering guest posting services.

Sort the most reliable ones

The search result would bring up thousands of companies that offer guest posting services. Obviously it gets tough to sort which one is the best out of these. Here’s a secret tip: choose the ones that rank on the first three pages. These service providers certainly understand how links work, that is why they are ranking at the best positions for the most competitive search term.

Alternatively, you also need to understand that the ones with the best reviews are the most reliable ones. Sort for the ones that have the best customer feedback and highest ratings across various business portals. Once again, Google can help you find these reviews.

Understand the benefits they offer

Apart from simply guest posting, you also need to know if your potential service provider can offer you any other benefits. For example, some agencies offer content creation and blogger outreach services as well in combination with guest posting. Having these services along with the primary task, can reduce your efforts and improve the returns for link building through guest posting.

Place your order and relax

Now that you have all the information to choose the best service provider, the last step is to make sure that their services fit in your budget. Once you have identified the service provider that satisfies all your requirements and that too within your budget, it’s time you start working with them.

At first, you should place a few orders, just to make sure that you’ve chosen the best service. Having made sure that you can rely on your service provider, you can proceed with placing your link building orders with them.

Having said that, it is important that you always keep in touch with your link building service provider to stay on top of the campaigns that are carried out for you.

Digital Branding

4 Useful SEO Tools to Help You in Your Business

Steven on October 19, 2019

There is no online business owner today who doesn’t understand the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). With the online mode becoming the preferred medium for both social and business interactions, the SEO services in Mumbai, Delhi, etc. have gained importance. According to a survey, nearly 93% of the total net users today use the online medium to get the desired information. Looking for the desired information, these users are just interested in clicking on the first few results that get displayed and hardly bother to go past them.

Thus, the focus of the SEO company in Mumbai that you have hired would be to get your business to appear in the first few listings and for that, they make use of various SEO tools. Some of the SEO tools that can help in taking your business to the next level are:

SEO Profiler

Keyword research, link building and researching the keywords used by your competitors are some of the important SEO activities. SEO Profiler is an apt tool that makes it possible to do all these on a single platform. Competitive intelligence research is very much required to gain an edge on your competitors.

This tool, besides providing all these, also offers aesthetically pleasing and detailed reporting features, which can be used for displaying the data that is generated by this tool. It is free for the 30-day trial, post which you have to choose a plan depending on whether you are using it for beginner-level accounts or for professional SEO agencies.

All in One SEO Pack

It is a feature-rich plugin, which is making its presence felt since its debut in 2007. It is used by SEO services in Mumbai, Delhi, etc. as it features automatic title optimization and meta tags, built-in API, Google’s AMP and analytics support and more. SEO beginners, as well as advanced users, find it useful. The beginners often use it with its default settings, while the advanced users override the default settings and create their own custom settings.

WPTouch

WPTouch is again a feature-packed mobile plugin for WordPress and it is also recommended by Google. It is used for creating a mobile-optimized version automatically for a website. The best part is that no code change is required for doing so.

UberSuggest

If you want to gather any data related to your domain name or keyword, you can do so for free using UberSuggest. It is a free program that tells you a keyword’s volume, suggests long-tail keywords related to your content, the average cost per click and shows which site tops the ranking for the particular keyword you have entered. By entering your URL into UberSuggest, you can get all the details about the organic traffic and keywords of your website. It also tells about the backlinks that your site has generated and other similar details.

Making use of the SEO tools helps in improving visibility and rankings on the search pages as they are designed to perform specific tasks brilliantly.

Local Branding

Board Portals Are Essential for These 3 Reasons

Steven on October 18, 2019

Directors are busy people who need to succeed in competitive environments: for the sake of the organizations they’re helping to run, they need all the helpful tools possible. There are many technologies that claim to be modern miracles, but most of them don’t really deliver meaningful results.

Organizations across North America in many industries are now turning to board portal software to help their directors stay quickly and securely connected. Read on to learn about the best board portal software currently on the market and all the ways that it can help your organization deliver real results.

1. Collaborate From Anywhere

Your directors may not be in the same cities or countries, but they’ll still be able to collaborate closely. Board portal software lets them annotate documents and flag passages, which they can then share with other directors or keep for their own personal use.

If one director changes a document, the other directors are notified via email. This means there is no time wasted keeping other directors updated, and everybody comes to the board meeting with all the latest changes.

It’s also easy for directors to work from anywhere. There’s a centralized, cloud-based repository constantly accessible that storing all the important board documents directors need. They can access these materials from whichever device they prefer using most — laptop, tablet, or desktop.

2. Reduce Operational Hurdles

The busywork of board management is considerably reduced by the latest board portal software. It’s extremely easy to digitally keep and distribute minutes, monitor attendance, track expenses or call for votes and signatures quickly and in a way that’s paper-free.

Going paperless has immediate practical benefits, such as foregoing courier expenses and reducing your carbon footprint. But it also means that material cannot be lost and is always accessible from anywhere in the world.

3. Total Security

Organizations need the most powerful tools to keep connected. But in a time where numerous corporations and even seemingly impenetrable political parties are getting hacked, it’s understandable that security is paramount.

Board portal software is highly encrypted, requires high-end data backup and industry leaders all adhere to independent, third-party security certification requirements. This keeps your sensitive information confidential. Every log-in can be authenticated, so it’s easy to verify that everyone who accessed the system was meant to have access.

If a director should become separated from their company-issued device, the cloud-based app can be wiped remotely to help prevent a security breach. This same director can simply log-in from any other device if they need access to important board materials. Either way, even in an emergency situation, directors will never experience any operational interruption.

Board directors have enormous responsibilities and busy schedules — they need all the best modern tools possible to help them get the job done. No wonder organizations across North America are turning to board portal software as an affordable, easy to use, powerful, and secure way to put the best of modern technology to work.

Personal Branding

What To Consider When Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

Steven on October 18, 2019

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that a chair is one of the most important things in an office and this is because that chair is the one thing where you have to spend the rest of your day. In simpler words, you and your employees all will be spending more than half of the day sitting in a chair in a position that already adds a lot of stress on the structure of the spine. Now with all that stress on your back, you don’t want to make things worse for yourself, right? Well, if not, then this article is a must-read for you. Today we are going to jot down the basics that you need to consider when choosing the right ergonomic office chair.

It’s imperative to have an ergonomic office chair that supports good posture and keeps your lower back as stress-free as possible. There are several types of ergonomic office chairs available in the market, but not all types can be comfortable and suitable for all people. This is the reason why you should always do proper research, check out sites like officechairist.com, and then make a final purchase decision without any rush.

Speaking of purchasing an office chair, here are the things that you need to consider in this regard.

Tips For Choosing an Affordable Office Chair

1- Comfort

The very first thing is, of course, comfort. If you are comfortable in a chair and if you know it’s not hurting your posture, then you shouldn’t give it a second thought and just purchase it. People have this misconception that the more expensive a chair is, the more comfortable it will be. You need to forget the price tag for a while and first check the comfort. Sit in the chair and get up once you know that “this is the one”!

2- Material

Even chairs are made up of different materials, and usually, people opt for the leather ones, but if you don’t like the sound and feel of leather, no worries because you can always opt for some other material and for some other chair. Believe it or not, the material matters a lot, and it also should be of high quality if you want the chair to last longer with you. You see, sometimes the comfort level is excellent, and the posture maintained is great too, but the quality of material used to make the chair is so poor that it starts wearing. This is the reason why you should opt for high-quality material so that the chair is durable and worth your money.

3- Seat Height

The next is the height of the seat. Your seat should be easily adjustable so that even if someone else comes and sits on it, he or she can adjust the height of the seat accordingly. The best seat height that works for most people lies between 16 to 21 inches off the floor. So, if you don’t know much about the heights and the adjustments, then just opt for the measurement we just gave.

Conclusion

These are some of the main things that you need to consider before buying an office chair. Consider the tips we gave and of course, make a budget first. These chairs vary a lot in prices, so it’s better to have a budget and then follow it during the purchase. Again, never opt for the chairs that are too pricey because the price is just a figure, and people can easily fool you with expensive tags and low-quality chairs. Check the comfort first and then buy the chair!

Legal Branding

Key Ways You Can Show Your Clients You Appreciate Them

Steven on October 15, 2019

Many entrepreneurs focus on how to continually get more clients, and how to make the ones they have to spend more and buy more often. While this is an important part of business, it’s also wise to show your customers that they mean more to you than simply some better numbers on a spreadsheet or more cash in the bank.

If you want people and/or organizations to continue to spend money with your business, as well as to recommend your venture to others, it’s a good idea to show how much you appreciate your clientele. This doesn’t have to cost you a ton, either. There are plenty of ways to show customers you value their business without draining your bank account.

Get to Know Customers and Provide Thoughtful Touches

To make people feel special and appreciated, you need to know who they are and what’s important to them. Pay attention when your clients talk about their families, passions, hobbies, upcoming events, etc. Then, make an effort to show people you’re thinking of them by sending a note or gift or by making a phone call on special occasions. Get in touch on people’s birthdays or when they get married, have a child who graduates, or has some other key event happening.

Celebrate the successes of your clients, too. For instance, if you learn that a corporate customer has won an award or opened a new location, congratulate them, send a small gift, and show you notice them and the wins they’re having.

Also, send people quality business thank you cards at the end of the year to thank them for their patronage. Acknowledging that you couldn’t move your business forward without your customers makes people feel valued. You may want to add a gift to this Christmas expression of gratitude, too. Choose something relating to what your clients do in their spare time, such as a meal voucher at a happening restaurant for a foodie or tickets to a basketball game for a sports lover.

Another thoughtful touch is to remember the preferences of clients. For instance, make a note of what kind of coffee or tea people like and have it on hand when you meet with them or examine which types of products customers buy and let them know when you have something similar available.

Add Value

Another way to show clients you appreciate them is to add value to them. For example, if there’s an extra job you can do for someone that won’t take you long because of your experience, but that will save your client a whole lot of time, make the extra effort.

You can also introduce customers to other business contacts who might provide the additional services they require or who can otherwise help them achieve their goals. Plus, look for ways to help educate your customers, such as by sending out helpful updates or information about industry trends, new technologies or tools, upcoming events, or keyways clients might be able to save time or money.

Give People as Much Personal Attention as Possible

As a busy entrepreneur, your time is limited. However, to show your clients you appreciate them, do what you can to give them personal attention on a regular basis. This is particularly essential for your top clients who spend the most money with you each year and who have been the most loyal.

Make people feel safe knowing that they can reach you for information, advice, or other support when they really need it, rather than always being transferred to someone who is lower in rank and perhaps not as familiar with their purchase history, business setup, or needs.

Be a Good Communicator

Similarly, be a good communicator. Your clients won’t feel appreciated or happy if you take forever to respond to their questions or requests, hurry them off the phone or out the door, or say you’ll ring them back but don’t. It’s not nice for people to feel that they’re less important than other things on your list. They don’t want to have to chase you to get assistance, either.

Also, make an effort to get in touch with clients on a regular basis. Send an email or pick up the phone every few months to see how they are and if they need to buy more stock, hire your services again, or another type of assistance.

When you’re chatting with customers, remember that communication is a two-way street. Don’t just talk; also listen. Notice people’s body language and display active listening, repeating things back to people to be sure you truly understand what point they’re making or the information they need. This reduces the likelihood of miscommunication and makes people feel properly heard and appreciated.

To make your customers feel special, you’ll need to invest some time, energy, and possibly funds. However, doing this will reward you in spades in both the short and long term.

Legal Branding Personal Branding

Why Branding Doesn’t Cost as Much as You Think

Steven on October 15, 2019

Branding is one of the most essential components of a successful advertising strategy. While it’s vital to get the word out about the goods and services your business offers, it’s all for nothing if you can’t communicate why customers should work with you. You need to emphasize the special qualities that make your business stand out in a crowded market.

Good branding doesn’t have to be fancy. Like all the essential components of a quality marketing strategy, a little branding goes a long way. There are ways to establish your brand identity even when you don’t have a big budget.

Here are seven ways you can create an effective branding strategy for your company while spending much less than you’d expect.

1. Build Your Identity

Your branding should communicate the core elements of your business’s identity, as well as what services you provide and what industry you work in. You don’t have to hew to industry trends, but your branding should give customers an idea of what your company does with just a glance.

You can start with in-house graphic design if you’re not ready to outsource. Free design and branding tools like Canva or Looka can help you develop logos, graphics and promotional material for your company.

When your business expands and you want to invest more in branding, you’ll also have a good starting point for the designers you work with. Even if not professional, your homemade branding will show others what you consider to be your business’s values and major appeal.

2. Know Your Audience

Market research can take many forms, but it has to get done somehow. Surveys and test ad campaigns are some good ways to gather information.

Once you have a healthy amount of data or a good feeling about your lay of the land, you can start building customer or audience personas. Personas — archetypes of the people you want to sell to — will help you structure your branding strategy by clearly outlining what you think your audience is after.

One example of a persona you might use could be a DIY enthusiast who is after supplies and information. They want knowledge that is reliable, straight-to-the-point and a little rough around the edges. You can then use this simplified version of your audience to inform your branding.

3. Establish Your USP

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what makes you different from the competition. Identify your USP, then use it to guide your brand voice and demonstrate why customers should choose your company.

“High-quality” and “customer-focused” are phrases that every business wants to use to describe itself. You’ll need to be more specific, and really dig into why your company does what it does.

How many years have you provided top-tier customer service? What kinds of projects have you worked on? How have you overcome challenges? Do you offer something with unique features that no other business can compete with?

Eventually, you may loop back around to describing your business as customer-focused and one that delivers high-quality products. It’s not the best place to start, though. People have heard it before, and they want something a little more substantial.

4. Care About the Consumer

Value your customer’s time. Bad business writing costs smaller companies an average of $420,000 every year. That’s because when you ask customers to slog through marketing-speak without speaking directly to them, they tune out.

There are many different tips and tricks you can use to grab a potential customer’s attention in both branding and writing. However, one of the most effective philosophies to have — which will help make your overall strategy more successful, no matter what you do — is to care about the customer. Treat their time as more valuable than your own. Good branding earns every second it spends in front of a customer’s eyes.

This can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Start with your research, put yourself in your customer’s position and build on your USPs.

5. Be Part of Your Community

You can create better branding by making your business a part of your community. Better local contacts will help you stay on top of the latest developments and also build a network that will help you know what people need. You’ll also be building relationships with local personalities or industry influencers that you can leverage or build into powerful marketing partnerships.

6. Go Big on Visuals

When designing any part of your branding or marketing strategy, you have an opportunity to use visual design to underline and strengthen your message.

Follow the basic visual design principles that professional graphic designers use. These guidelines will help you reduce clutter, strengthen your message and be clearer in your branding. All this will help your marketing do a better job of communicating what your business offers to customers.

7. Remain Consistent

Especially at first, keep your branding consistent. Repetition is how customers become aware of your company. If you are cycling between logos and branding you don’t have faith in, it’s less likely for you to become familiar and recognizable. You should avoid iterating on your strategy too often. Slowing down will help your message stick in customers’ heads and also give yourself a chance to collect data on what works — or doesn’t — in your current branding strategy.

This also means establishing a consistent web presence, like a blog or set of social media accounts. It will communicate to customers your company’s core mission and beliefs, as well as what your business can do for them. Blogs, interestingly enough, are one of the most trusted forms of information on the internet. A professional-looking blog with some informative, relevant content can help you explain how your business stands out from the competition.

There are other practical reasons for being consistent in your online presence. If you haven’t posted in several months, it can leave potential customers with a bad impression of your brand — or worse, lead them to believe you’re no longer in business.

Why Branding Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Branding is one of the most important parts of any marketing strategy — and it’s worth the investment. However, good branding doesn’t have to be expensive. A solid plan does not require glossy graphics and fancy web design to work. Instead, good branding is about knowing your audience and communicating with them in a way they’re receptive to.

Any company can benefit from basic design and branding principles. While bringing in a professional agency can be a good idea in the long term, smaller businesses with less to spare for marketing don’t need to wait — branding doesn’t always need a big budget.

For the end, here is the research about brands with strong personalities and how it influences their purchasing decisions.

Source: Adzooma

About the author

Lexie is a branding enthusiast and web designer. She loves checking out local flea markets and taking her Goldendoodle on hikes. Follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner and check out her design blog, Design Roast.