Posted by Becky Bornstein on April 9th 2012 | 0 comments
How does your sales team motivate themselves on a daily basis? It can very depending on the person. Some people like to watch motivational videos, others like to read motivational quotes or short stories. I prefer doing both! It just depends on the amount of time I have in that moment. The quickest way to pick yourself up in the middle of the day is to save or write down a few quotes that help motivate you and give you the drive you need to get your work done. Below are some of my favorite business quotes that I like to keep with me when I need the extra push.
“How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
“A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.” ~ Mary Kay Ash
“Day by day, what you do is who you become.” ~Heraclitus
“Falling down is how we grow. Staying down is how we die.” ~ Brian Vaszily
“Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” ~ Vaclav Havel
“Sometimes only a change of viewpoint is needed to convert a tiresome duty into an interesting opportunity.” ~ Alberta Flanders
“It is like the seed put in the soil — the more one sows, the greater the harvest.” ~ Orison Swett Marden
“Remember that you are needed. There is at least one important work to be done that will not be done unless you do it.” ~ Charles L. Allen
“Perfection does not exist – you can always do better and you can always grow.” ~ Les Brown
“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” ~ William Ellery Channing
What are some of the ways that you motivate yourself?
Posted by Becky Bornstein on March 19th 2012 | 0 comments
Social Media is definitely not going anywhere and companies are now asking their employees to get more and more involved. We know that this can be a very touchy situation, so it needs to be handled with a lot of planning and care. We support our clients, who are just entering this new marketing channel, build a strong online community. Below are some suggestions that we have for companies who are wanting to get their employees involved, but do not know where to start.
First, figure out what your goals are regarding social media and write them down. Then create a plan that explains how each person’s interaction will helps attain your goals.- Communicate your goals and plan in a clear way to your employees. Show them how their participation will make a difference and what exactly they need to do.
- Highlight the “Dos” over the “Don’ts” from your policy. Make sure to focus the discussion on positive behaviors in your governance.
- Address any issues with posts. Most people want to do the right thing even if they make mistakes. Identify problem areas for your organization and create additional guidance around them.
- Encourage people to speak for themselves, not the brand, even when they are talking about the space and the company.
The tips above will definitely get you started in the right direction! It’s great to be able to empower your employees and build a strong community at the same time. Has your company started integrating social media into it’s marketing mix?
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Posted by Becky Bornstein on March 12th 2012 | 0 comments
Have you updated your home page recently? If not, you may want to go back and review it. There are so many changes that need to be made to keep up with the new tactics. Everything from using flash, to copy length, to images are constantly changing. For example, a while back it didn’t matter if you had social buttons on your home page and now it’s a must! If you want people to view you as a credible source, then you will have social sharing buttons on your page. This shows you are up to date with the latest technologies and people tend to value your information more.
Below are some other elements that you must pay attention to when revising your home page.
Headline – This is the first thing people look at when they come to your site. Your headlines tells them what the rest of the page is about so keep it clear and simple.
Copy – This includes sub-headline and descriptions. Do not just tell your audience what your products are. Get creative and tell/show them how your product can solve their problems and make life easier. Also, remember to list the features of your products, not just the benefits.
Customer testimonials – This can be 1-2 sentence quotes or a short video of a customer describing your products/services.
Navigation – Put the navigation bar at the top of the page where it’s easily visible.
Offer Valuable Information – Give your clients the opportunity to download your latest whitepaper, ebook, or webinar. This will definitely have them coming back if the information is good!
What other tips would you add to the list above?
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Posted by Becky Bornstein on March 5th 2012 | 0 comments
Your brand is what separates you from your competitors. It’s very important that your brand is consistent across the board and that it conveys the message you want your target audience to see. It creates a perception of your company in their mind. When creating or maintaining a brand there are many things that need to be looked at and monitored to ensure that your brand remains consistent and creates the perception you want. Below are some top tips for maintaining brand consistency:
Create the right message. Make sure your words speak to your target audience because if they don’t get it, they are not going to be interested.- Ensure that the look and feel of your brand reflects your company personality and vision.
- Use the same logo, colors, fonts and copy language across all boards. You want people to recognize your brand no matter what platforms or marketing channel they are viewing. The more consistent the branding is, the more likely they are to remember your brand.
- Regardless of the size of your business or budget, invest in an expert opinion to ensure you have cohesive messaging and brand presence.
- Create brand guidelines, so that when logos or tag lines are used in other areas it is consistent. This will also make it easier to maintain consistency when items are printed in various locations.
The most important step to start with is creating the message. Once you have your branding finalized, the next important step is to create a guidelines book. Creating a branding guideline handbook will ensure that the brand will be used consistently over a long period of time.
When was the last time you looked at your company’s branding? Does your message convey what you want your audience to hear?
Photo courtesy of flickr
Posted by Becky Bornstein on February 16th 2012 | 0 comments
Mobile marketing is gaining momentum very quickly. It’s important that when you are in your planning phase of your marketing plan to make sure you not only list things that need to be done, but also list out things that shouldn’t be done. There are plenty of companies that have come before all of us and made mistakes that we can learn from . Below are some of the top things to avoid regarding mobile marketing:
Solve a problem via mobile marketing. Do some research on your target audience and see where they need some help. See if you can use mobile marketing to help solve their problems.- Make sure the landing page is mobile friendly. You don’t want people having trouble reading your content because if they are having a hard time then they are most likely to give up and not even read your message.
- Test the mobile application, make the changes necessary and test it again before launching it. You don’t want to have to remove the application and fix problems that could have been solved if proper testing was done. Also, if there are glitches then it’s going to reflect poorly on your company.
It’s great that companies are getting into new channels of marketing. New channels allow companies to increase their reach and gain more insight on what their consumers are looking for. The best way to find out what channels work for your company is to test them out. When testing these different methods make sure to do a detailed research on the method, so common mistakes can be avoided and you get the best possible results.
Has mobile marketing been effective for your company?
Posted by Becky Bornstein on February 13th 2012 | 0 comments
At DataSource we believe that one of the most important steps when working with a client is the assessment and planning stage. This is one of the first steps where we establish a benchmark so that we can set realistic targets and goals. We analyze your business processes and procedures to understand your current business environment in order to provide recommendations that are specific with target and cost savings objectives. We have worked with many clients throughout the years and we have found a set of questions that are really key to this portion of the assessment. They will help tailor the recommendations we offer. Below are the top 10 assessment questions that we have found most useful:
What current processes does your company have in place? What processes are actually used?- What are each processes used for? And who is involved with each process?
- When is the last time you evaluated your processes?
- Who keeps the processes updated?
- What are the top 5 issues you are currently facing?
- What is good about your current process?
- What are 3 specific goals you would like to attain?
- When do you want everything set up by?
- How do you currently measure your productivity?
- Are your current processes aligned with your overall business strategy?
There are a ton of other questions and evaluations that we preform. But these questions are a great place to start the process and get an introduction into the company that you are going to be working with. Data Source conducts a complete supply chain analysis so that we can maximize your cost reduction potential. Industry-specific assessments can be conducted for the commercial, restaurant/hospitality, and automotive industries.
What other questions would you add to the list?
Photo courtesy of flickr
Posted by Becky Bornstein on February 6th 2012 | 0 comments
A key component to creating a strong management system is the planning and assessment phase. In this phase detailed research will be done about a company, there will be internal and external surveys and various observations. The survey is a very important aspect because it gives you insight into what your internal team is thinking and what your customers think. It’s essential that the right types of questions are asked in the right form. Below are some key tips to creating an effective survey that we have found very useful in our process at DataSource.
Keep it short and simple. You don’t want people to get tired of answering questions and just fill in the blanks without giving it much thought.- Ask relevant questions and provide answer choices that are relevant as well. Keep it simple and to the point.
- Try to avoid open-ended questions. This takes too more time to answer and people are more likely to skip these types of questions.
- Don’t add complicated tables or multiple choice questions. Always remember that you need to make sense of your survey data in the end. For example, if you offer too many multiple choice options the data becomes more difficult to analyze.
- If you ask personal questions, always put a disclaimer saying why you want this information and how it will be used.
We hope that these tips are helpful for you as you create your own survey. This tips can be used for anytime of survey. The main things to remember are make it easy for your target audience to fill out and that it’s in a format that you can easily work with on the back end. What other tips do you have to add to the list above?
Photo courtesy of flickr
Posted by Becky Bornstein on January 26th 2012 | 0 comments
Technology improvements over the years have made it easier for customers and prospects to contact your company. Before, people used to have to send actual letters through the mail or wait on the phone, but today they can just shoot off an email immediately. With this change, this means there is a lot more communication pieces your company has to handle on a daily basis. Below are the 5 best response management practices to help deal with the increase in communication:
Assess the situation. Find out what channels people are using the most to contact your company. Then look into what types of calls are coming in, complaints, enquiries or orders. Once you figure this out, re-organize your resources to best fit the situation.- Respond in a timely manner. Research shows that people expect for their emails to be responded to within a few hours since it’s an immediate form on communication. Make sure that you are not having them wait for days to get a response. Have someone view the email and then get it to the correct person immediately.
- Deliver relevant answers. If the people handling all the emails are not capable of giving specific answers to questions, then make sure they forward the email to someone who can address the question directly. Nothing makes people more irritated when they receive and email that doesn’t answer their question or solve their problem.
- Put a FAQ on your website to help reduce the amount of enquiries you are receiving on a daily basis. Make it easy for people to find, so that way you don’t have to deal with generic questions cluttering your inbox.
- Filter out emails. Most email systems allow for filtering and sometimes you can set up an account to forward emails with certain keywords to an assistant, or to provide specific automated responses. This will save you tons of time and de-clutter your inbox.
What other response management practices would you add to the ones above?
Photo courtesy of flickr
Posted by Becky Bornstein on January 25th 2012 | 0 comments
Many marketers are diving into email marketing, but have a lot of concerns around it. Some of the fears that marketers are facing include, not knowing if the email is getting to the person’s inbox or if they are providing content that is going to help the recipient. As email marketing is gaining huge momentum, it is essential that you are sending out the right content and in the right manner so that no one is rubbed the wrong way. Below are some of the best tactics used to do email marketing correctly, so that you can get the results you anticipated:
Get permission from the recipients before sending the email. Make sure that they have opted in or agreed to receive emails. You don’t want to get reported as spam or have them opt out and you lose a business opportunity.- Make them offers at the right time. Find out what your target audience is in most need of and offer them ways of helping with it. And make sure the timing of the email is right too. The best time to send emails is in the morning and not on Mondays or Fridays.
- Make sure that your email matches your brand. Include your company logo and colors on all your emails for consistency. Doing this will make your emails more trustworthy.
- Set the expectations. Let you audience know how many times you will be emailing them periodically, so they don’t feel unexpectedly bombarded or like you forgot about them.
- Personalize the emails. Go beyond just using their name at the top; make sure the content is relevant to the person who is receiving it.
- Make it easy to unsubscribe. You don’t want to annoy the person because if you decide to send a personal follow up email inquiring why they opted out the person is more likely to respond.
- Test you email before hitting the send button. Make sure that it opens up in different browsers and also mobile friendly.
As you can see there are so many little things to do when it comes to email marketing. Make sure that you have chosen a person who knows what they are doing and have experience with successful campaigns. What was the most helpful tip from above?
Photo courtesy of flickr
Posted by Becky Bornstein on January 9th 2012 | 0 comments
Do you look at your analytics on a regular basis? If so, what are you looking for? Many times companies will just browse their analytics and add new email addresses to their database. They are missing out on a huge opportunity because many times you can review how someone is looking at your various sites and see if they are good prospects that are worth approaching. Below are 4 signs to help you pick out the prospects that you should give immediate attention to.
Prospect Visited Your Site Multiple Times in a Day - When considering a product, service or solution, most buyers do quite a bit of research. When you notice that someone is looking at your site several times, you should alert a person on your sales team so they can contact the prospect. This way they can deliver the information the prospect if looking for immediately and answer any questions on the spot.- Reviewed Case Studies on Your Site – When prospects are reading case studies they are past the basic research phase and want to know what typed of results your products/services have generated. They are typically looking for situations to prove or disprove your company’s fit for their needs.
- Signed Up for a Free Trial - You can even connect an automation tool that will send the prospect specific emails depending on what actions they took. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door and show them how you are paying close attention.
- Took a look at your pricing page - This can mean they are either trying to get some ballpark estimate on what a product/service like that would cost or they are very interested. This is another time you will want to alert a sales team rep to contact the perspective. The hands on customer service in the front end will really help turn your prospects into customers faster.
When do you start approaching your prospects? And what signs do you look for?
Photo courtesy of flickr
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“A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.” ~ Mary Kay Ash
