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Many entrepreneurs will grow and evolve to the point they need someone else to manage their finances. An accountant isn’t just a luxury; in most cases, they are the most cost-effective and important way to manage your business finance.

How much you should be paying for your accountant will depend on a few factors, like how many employees you have, the number of creditors and debtors you have, and things like inventory.

While there isn’t a magic formula for exactly what you should be expecting to pay for an accountant, there are some rough guidelines that can point you in the right direction.

How Much Would You Expect to Pay

Accountants are highly trained and knowledgeable professionals. They understand how you can maximize your profits, reduce any tax you owe as well as make sure that you are registered for any credits, perks, and relief. On that basis alone, they are worth more than their weight in gold.

• If you have a small company, with between 1-3 employees and directors, then you should expect to pay no more than $628 (£500) per year for your accounting.
• For an SME, you should be expecting to pay between $628 – $12357 (£500 – £1000) per year. You should expect a charge of £10 to set up each payroll run too. On top of that, $5 per payslip (£4) on each run.
• For a VAT registered business with between 3-10 employees, you should be expecting to pay $1257 (£1000).

There are many variables when it comes to the amount that you should be expecting to pay.

Something that you should also consider is that a good accountant will have a degree from a recognized institution. Alongside their education, they will have many years of experience and, in some cases, with a business that does something similar to you. An accountant has the ability to consult with you and give you the financial data for you to make decisions going forward.

What Does an Accountant Do

Accountants in basic terms, examine and prepare financial records. They ensure that all of your business records are accurate and that your taxes are paid correctly and on time. Accountants can improve your financial operations and help you run your business more efficiently. Here are a number of tasks that an account performs:

• Making best-practice recommendations to the management
• Improve business efficiency in terms of finance
• Perform inspections on account books and accounting systems
• Ensure that records and statements comply with laws and regulations
• Prepare tax returns, compute taxes owed, pay taxes promptly
• VAT registration and management
• Payroll management
• Balance sheets, profit, and loss

When Should You Hire an Accountant?

Many small business owners and freelancers attempt to put off hiring an accountant. However, it is better to get into good money management habits as early as possible in your business. Finance management is something that doesn’t come naturally to everyone but is an absolute must.

For a single person, business accounting should be considered in the early days. When you outsource your accounting and other admin tasks, you free yourself up to work on your business. The time that you would be spent sorting through your receipts could be spent on securing new clients and working on new products.

Do you have a lot of expenses and income to manage? Many small and medium businesses have many more expenses and income streams than they had originally thought, and even more magically appear in the last week before their taxes are due.

Consider if you have the time to do your own accounting, or indeed it would be more preferential to hire an accountant who can dedicate the time that you can’t.

How Do You Find A Good Accountant?

The same way that you hire team members. Look for qualifications, good reviews/recommendations, and, when possible, has a chat in advance. Online searches can help, but keep in mind that you are going to be targeted for ads from accountancy firms – this doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right ones for you. You can start your search by seeking referrals from other small companies, or small business networks that you are part of. A good accountant can revolutionize your business processes and give you total peace of mind that your taxes and finances are always in good order.

The bottom line is your bottom line. An accountant will improve your financial process, keep your money managed well, and means that you don’t have to spend your business working hours or free time preparing accounts – with an accountant, it’s all taken care of.

Are you a small business wondering if LinkedIn should be a part of your content strategy? You bet, it should! Why? Because engagement on LinkedIn is booming. LinkedIn content creation is up 60% year-over-year, and if you are not on LinkedIn, your business is missing out on a huge opportunity to reach your target audience, drive leads, and traffic to your website and find new customers.

So, how you can use LinkedIn for your small business? Well, before you start building a brand presence on LinkedIn you will need to create a company page. So, let’s start with the basics and then take a deeper dive into different LinkedIn features.

Optimize Your Company Page

Completed pages get 30% more weekly views so start by creating a complete and keyword-rich company page.

So, take a stock of your LinkedIn company page to ensure it includes–

•  Your logo and a clean cover photo that resonates with your business

Companies with logos on their page get 6x more visits

•  An enriched company overview section, featuring your products & services, your mission, vision, and values.
•  A customized call-to-action encouraging visitors to take action e.g. visit website or register.
•   All relevant company information including website URL, location, industry type, contact information, and the number of employees.

Create and Share Engaging Content

Content is at the heart of all digital marketing efforts including social media. LinkedIn is no different. So, creating awesome content is the key to your success. Follow an “always-on approach”, meaning you should post relevant and exciting content, at least once a day or few times a week to regularly engage with your audience.

What type of content you can share and post on your LinkedIn page?

• Blogs
• Webinars
• Industry News
• Company Photos
• Products Videos
• Thought leadership Videos
• Infographics

When creating content on LinkedIn, make it about your audience—ask yourself what do my audience need or care about. In other words, don’t make your content a sales pitch about how awesome your products and services are, instead, engage and genuinely add value for your audience.

 LinkedIn recommends the “3-2-1” model, meaning “every week, aim to publish three pieces of industry-related content, two pieces of “proud” content (content that make your employees and community feel good) and just one piece of product or service-related content.”    

Pro Tip: Members are most active on LinkedIn during a workweek, between 9 a.m.-5 p.m., given the professional nature of the channel. So, plan to post your content accordingly.                                                                   

Make the Most of Your Content

Maximizing the reach for your content will enable you to raise awareness around your brand and grow your followers and find new leads. Here are a few tips that can help you expand the reach for your content—

• @Mention people associated with a specific piece of content e.g. a client or business partner.
• Participate in conversations most relevant to your business by adding relevant hashtags in your profile. LinkedIn allows you to add three hashtags to your profile.
• Every time you post on your LinkedIn page click the “Notify Employees” button to let your team know you have published a new post, encouraging them to engage with the post—share, comment, or like promptly. At this point, LinkedIn allows page admins to notify five employees in 24 hours.
• Leverage Showcase Pages to highlight specific brand initiatives, products, or business unit. A Showcase Page is an extension to your company page and once created will appear as ‘Affiliated Pages’ on your main LinkedIn page.

Expand Your Reach with LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups is a platform to cultivate a business community. Groups provide an opportunity for professionals from the same industry or with similar interest to share content, make contacts, find answers, share career opportunities, and establish themselves as industry experts.

Join LinkedIn Groups relevant to your industry and actively participate in the discussion, becoming a trusting voice in your community. You can even start a LinkedIn group focusing on a particular topic or aspect of your business.

LinkedIn Groups are a perfect platform to spark discussions about industry trends and challenges, and in doing so increasing awareness for your business.

Get Interactive With LinkedIn Polls

If you hadn’t noticed earlier this year LinkedIn introduced polls—a quick, easy, and fully-virtual way to solicit feedback from your community. Polls are another great way to engage your community or seek their insight while inspiring new conversations. You can access polls from your feed or from within specific groups. For more targeted insights, create polls in a specific Group focused on a particular topic in your industry.

Pro Tip: Keep an eye on your poll while it’s running to glean insights and continue engaging with your audience once the poll closes by sharing the results and thanking your community for participating in the poll.

Taking Advantage of LinkedIn Events Feature

LinkedIn is promoting its newest Events feature as a professional tool. So, why not take advantage of it and network with your connections. You can host both in-person or online events.

What kind of events you can host on LinkedIn—

• In-person networking events for your connections
• Alumni meetups
• Industry-specific meetups
• Workshops—either in person or online
• Product launches
• Conferences or summits

You can create an event from a personal page or company page. What’s great is that you can create private events, event update notifications, or use search filters such as locations, companies, and industry to invite the right attendees.

 LinkedIn recommends that you share your event as a post in your feed to maximize exposure. To enhance visibility share your event on your company page as well as your personal profile.

Wondering how you will manage the event? Well, once you have created the event you can track all interactions, post updates, attendees and invitees, from within the event page. Moreover, LinkedIn will send timely and relevant notifications to attendees regarding all important updates.

Conclusion     

With its members engaging more than 50% year over year with the LinkedIn Feed, the platform offers a tremendous opportunity for small business to tell their brand stories creatively. If LinkedIn is still not a part of your overall content strategy, now is the time to unlock the potential of the world’s largest professional network to reach your target audience and grow your business.

Author Bio: This article is written by our guest author Anuja Seith. She is a content strategist and a freelance writer who helps SMBs and startups, get more traffic and leads, and build brand credibility through creative storytelling. You can reach Anuja at https://anujaseith.com/

Businesses and industries are the two essential parts of the global economy that have been threatened and impacted severely by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the businesses and industries around the globe are bound to close (temporarily or permanently) because of the fear of getting infected by this deadly virus. World’s economy is now on the verge of being collapsed. Many business owners are trying to find out alternatives to run their businesses by imposing home office facilities for the employees or maintaining safe social distances. Many companies have already implemented home office facilities to fight this moment of crisis and keep the wheel of the global economy running. We are in a different era of business and marketing now. The year 2020 will decide the fate of the world.

As the public gatherings in the cities, corporate/industrial areas, even in religious houses are prohibited around the globe out of fear, and with good reasons, traditional ways of promoting/marketing and selling your products/services have now become entirely obsolete. As a result, more and more businesses going online and started to invest in creating their digital footprint when most of the potential customers are now using the internet to find their desired products and services.

The problem that arises with this new era of business and marketing is how to reach your target audience when traditional methods are not working? Here web content comes to play. To reach your target audience/customer online, creating a website is the best way. To create brand awareness of your business, and reach your target customers, web content is the irreplaceable part of your website. Content is the king for getting noticed by the search engines and create your strong digital footprint. Because, a high quality, informative and relevant content can help your website rank easily for your targeted search phrases or keywords to the top organic search results.

As more and more businesses are flocking towards online, web competition is increasing like a sand storm in the deserts. Everyone is trying to write better and better content to stay ahead of the competition. A high quality, engaging and relevant content is a crucial part of your website now more than ever if you want to bring online success. There are a lot of web content writing strategies, tips and tricks available on the internet. King Kongtent, a content writing and SEO Agency from Australia, has put together the best web content writing strategies in this infographic for you to get your content writing skill sharpen up!

The severe impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has paved the way for the so-called new normal. For consumers, it means consuming content and making transactions mostly through online means. The goal is to keep people healthy, productive, and safe in the comforts of their homes, away from public spaces.

For your company, the new normal entails that you review your business plan. If you have yet to build a business presence online, now may be an opportune time to do so. With people spending more time at home with their devices, it will be a costly mistake not to have a digital marketing strategy for your business.

Digital marketing allows you to reach your target market in widely-used platforms like social media, although limiting yourself to social media marketing isn’t the single best way to connect with your audience, either.

For example, you can expand your reach with PPC. PPC or pay-per-click, as the name suggests, is when you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. PPC is the opposite of attracting visitors to your site organically via unpaid search results, which is attainable through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

With PPC, you’re relying on buying—instead of earning—visits to your site, so it’s important that you do it correctly. Even if you pay $1–$2 for every click, there’s a good chance that what you spend in your PPC campaigns will be offset if you can get people to buy your product or service.

Other digital marketing strategies can help you ensure business continuity even in critical times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Use the succeeding sections to know the different disciplines of digital marketing as well as tips to better align your campaigns with how consumers are behaving based on the new normal.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website so that it meets the standards of search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing in giving people a positive user experience through quality and relevant information.

Here are some COVID-19-specific ideas for optimizing your website:

• Continue improving the quality of your website, even if there are fewer search activities these days. Know that other businesses may be taking a less aggressive approach in marketing because they may have other priorities to keep their business afloat, so beefing up your SEO efforts puts you steps ahead of the competition.
• Find out what types of questions people are asking these days and try to incorporate relevant into your content the keywords based on the most popular searches.
• Update your website to let people know any changes in your operations. For example, you may have shortened your business hours or added cashless payment options in compliance with health and safety protocols in your area.
• Optimize for mobile users. The user experience should be suited to the type of device that visitors use, including smartphones and tablets. Consumers more connected to their devices nowadays, so make sure that your website interface is both attractive and functional. Buttons, images, and other similar elements should help people to find what they’re looking for easily.

Read More:

• Convert Your Website Visitors into Buyers
• 5 SEO Best Practices

Mobile App Marketing

Part of your digital marketing strategy can also include building apps for your business. Mobile apps are popular because they help create a seamless experience in the buyer’s journey, which is an added convenience that’s very important for customers.

Follow these tips as you launch your mobile app:

• Simplify the registration process. Avoid asking users to provide personal information other than their mobile number and email address to encourage them to sign up.
• Use push notifications to inform your customers of sales events, new product arrivals, payment reminders, and so on.

Content Marketing

Content marketing involves creating and distributing educational, highly valuable content for consumers. In content marketing, you use blog articles, social media posts, infographics, eBooks, and so on to showcase not only your brand authority but also to build trust with your audience, as you help them solve their problems through the information you provide.

Consider these current best practices in content marketing:

Create content that people will actually want to consume.

Content that’s too sales-y won’t make the cut because you don’t want to make people feel that you’re only after their business, especially in these trying times. Try giving them something entertaining or inspirational instead to help them cope with the emotional distress caused by the pandemic.

Include videos in your content assets

Include videos in your content assets to let people know how to use your product or service in an educational yet engaging manner.

For example, if you’re offering homeschooling services, you can capture on video the methods that you’ll be using to conduct online classes with students to help parents decide if the program will work for their children.

Social Media Marketing

As a digital marketer, social media marketing can be a powerful mechanism for your team. A lot of people now get their content on this platform, and this trend is likely to continue as people remain isolated at home.

Keep these things in mind as you use social media to achieve your marketing and other business goals:

Invest in paid ads on social

As mentioned, other businesses may be doing less digital marketing these days, so there’s less competition in the social advertising space. On the other hand, more and more consumers who are in-home quarantine are shopping online both for essentials and non-essentials. This makes social ads one of the most cost-effective and results-oriented techniques you can use right now.

Leverage social to improve your brand of customer service

If your office or brick-and-mortar store remains closed or operates in limited capacities, you can use social to help resolve customer concerns through instant messaging or the comments section in your social media account. Keeping your customers satisfied helps set your brand apart and conveys a message that you truly care about your customers, with or without the pandemic.

Digital Marketing in the Age of the New Normal

Customers’ needs and shopping behaviour are continuously changing, especially in light of the new normal. This makes it necessary for your business to update your marketing strategies. Serving the right content at the right time and on the right channels can be a good starting point for your digital marketing team.

The role of advertising in today’s fast-evolving business world is inevitable. The present-day corporate world is competitive and challenging. Businesses that rely on proven advertising techniques are more likely to earn customer’s trust than those who don’t have a solid advertising plan in place.

Today, almost every field be it politics, education, or retail make use of advertising processes to grow and excel. Even immigration advisories also take help from advertising strategies to draw the attention of prospects.

Advertising not only helps you promote your products, but it also enables you to communicate well with your customers.

In this post, we’ll help you understand the importance and objectives of advertisements for small and mid-scale businesses. Also, we’ll have a quick look at some of the most popular advertisement methods and their impact on the success of your business.

Importance and Objectives of Advertisement

As mentioned above, advertising plays a crucial role in today’s vying business environment. In fact, it wouldn’t be incorrect if we consider it as a key to your growth and success.

No matter how high-quality and long-lasting your product is, all of your efforts will go down the drain if it fails to earn recognition among your target audience. Advertising is one of the ways you can fetch recognition and acknowledgment for your product.

Below you will find some of the benefits that advertisement offers to businesses, customers, and retailers.

Brand Awareness

With proper advertising strategies, it’s easier for businesses to drive brand awareness and create trust among potential customers.

When customers see your business name and logo often, they will eventually start trusting your offers. Here, you can also collaborate with other third-parties such as non-profits to increase brand awareness.

Market Expansion

The advertisement also allows businesses to expand their market. It helps them identify new opportunities while retaining the current options.

With suitable advertising strategies in place, you would be able to convey your message across different locations. This allows you to market and sell your products to the customers living in remote areas.

Product Launch

If you’re planning to introduce a new product in the market, you can employ the best advertising strategies to persuade your target audience to purchase your product.

Increased Revenue

As advertising strategies create brand awareness and encourage people to purchase your products, it significantly improves your business’s sales volume. Increased sales volume is greatly helpful in fighting the forces of competition currently prevalent in the market. With constant advertising and effective marketing, you can outperform your competitors and increase leads.

Improves Goodwill

Advertising helps improve your brand reputation and goodwill. Business goodwill is an intangible asset that increases the business value and expands its customer base in the long-run. Also, it helps you build valuable relationships that ensure the long-term growth of your business.

Elimination of Middlemen

Advertising strategies help you connect directly with your customers. When you’re able to connect with your customers without market intermediaries, you can save a lot on your logistics expenditure.

More Employment Opportunities

Advertising creates more employment opportunities for talented individuals having remarkable salesmanship skills.

Better Standard of Living

According to Winston Churchill, “advertising nourishes the consuming power of men and creates wants for a better standard of living”. With the right advertising strategies, you can introduce high-ticket products with better quality to your target audience.

Impact Buyer Decisions

One of the biggest advantages of using effective advertising strategies is to influence buyer decisions and promote sales. For this, advertisers have to educate customers about their products and prove that their offers are more value-driven and beneficial than others.

B2C and B2B Approaches

There are two ways advertising can happen in a business framework. B2C advertising model helps you sell your products directly to your customers. With B2C, you have to involve other businesses to market your offers for the final consumers.

Advertising Methods

Brochures or Flyers

Brochures have turned into a popular marketing medium in recent times. There is software available online that allows you to create attractive brochures containing useful info about your products and packages.

SMS Alerts

SMS is one of the surefire ways to reach out to your customers without investing hefty on your marketing plan. SMS boasts a massive 98% open rate, and it is one of the most effective ways to convey your message to your target audience.

Email

Similar to text messages, you can also send emails to your prospective customers containing details about your latest offers.

While there are a number of email templates available online that you can use to send to your customers, we suggest you opt for custom email designs to promote your offers.

Direct Mail

Direct mail is another useful advertising method that lets you send highly customized messages to your customers. Make sure you build a comprehensive mailing list of your current or potential customers and keep them updated with all the valuable and recent information you have.

Newspapers and Magazines

While newspaper ads sound outdated, the fact is that a significant chunk of the population still reads newspapers on a daily basis. So, it would be a great idea to market your products using this medium if you think your target audience is a dedicated newspaper’s readers.

Magazine ads, on the other hand, can get quite expensive. Try to find out options that are relevant to your industry. You can either place an ad or a short article covering your products in the magazine.

Newsletters

Newsletters can be a powerful medium to connect with your audience. You can hire a consultant to design an initial layout of the newsletter. Also, there are many desktop publishing tools that you can use to create an interesting newsletter for your business.

Posters and Billboards

Posters and billboards also enable you to get your message across. Make sure you choose the right size, images, and text for these mediums. Also, place them at locations where your customers will easily notice them.

Television

Television is certainly one of the most popular mediums when it comes to advertising your products and services. Almost everyone owns a TV these days, making it very easy to convey your message than any other advertising channel.

With Television, you can create ads that can be targeted both locally and internationally. TV ads grab consumer’s attention when they are relaxing in their home. While this channel is more expensive than other online and paper-based advertising mediums, it’s worth all the money considering the fact that you can reach out to larger audiences.

Advertising is key to running a successful business. A well-designed advertising campaign triggers public interest and encourages customers to purchase products.

It’s important to understand that the money you invest in your advertising campaigns is a long-term investment linked directly to your income statement.

Avoid These Seven Common PPC Mistakes for Small Businesses at All Costs

Make sure you keep your attention focused not only on advertising strategies but also on the right products.

Last but not least, make sure you research about different available advertising approaches and choose the channel that best fits your business and marketing style. Don’t forget to make a cost comparison that supports your overall marketing budget.

What advertising strategies do you follow to accelerate marketing activities within your organization? Share your feedback below as we would love to know about your choices.

Author-Bio: This article is published by our guest author Kazim Raza. He is one of the highly prestigious contents & research specialists. He’s expanding his career in brand optimization and the betterment of brand, traffic, and conversion. He’s currently associated with Optimus Law which is one of the biggest Birmingham Immigration advisors.

The monetary burdens of COVID-19 have put many small businesses searching for lower-priced marketing ways for their business. The accurate information is that people are spending time online more than ever before, and there are lots of easy ways to attain your customers digitally at no cost.

Here, I’m sharing 11 unfastened strategies to enlarge you’re attaining on 4 famous online structures:

• Google
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

Reaching Your Target Audience on Google

One brief notice before we start this phase: As of writing this publish, Google My Business profile modifying capabilities are varying from daily as Google suppresses and adds functions in reaction to COVID-19. If you get caught on any of the underneath hints, skip them and be on the lookout for abilities to return.

1. Update Your Google My Business Profile

Your Google My Business profile is the free list that appears for your commercial enterprise on each Google Maps and Google Local Search outcome. Due to big hours, physical closings, and constrained travel, consumers are acting even more “close to me” and “open now” searches on Google at some stage in COVID-19. They’re also searching for specific standards together with transport and online charge options. That being stated, you have to make the following updates to your profile to retain reaching your target market on Google:

• Verify your hours (or mark your business as quickly closed).
• Modify your description (a.K.A. “From the business”) to include relevant COVID-19 services.
• Have a class decided on, as this may allow you to suggest enterprise-specific attributes, such as curbside pickup, drive-thru, and transport for eating places.
• Create posts (greater on this subsequent).

Note: Google is the usage of blanket labels right now which include “hours and offerings may vary,” however you may nevertheless set your business up for success once they elevate this label.

2. Create Google Posts

Just like with social media systems, you could submit posts in your Google My Business list at no cost. But in contrast to social media structures in which users are leisurely strolling, consumers on Google are actively in search of. GMB posts permit you to get your updates and unique gives in front of consumers who are ready to have interaction, making this is a wonderful manner to attain and maintain customers throughout COVID-19.

This salon is quickly closed, but its online keep is accomplishing a giant Google Maps target market through this GMB put up.

And with GMB’s new COVID-19 publish kind, you can be even greater effective at accomplishing your target market at the proper time. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the Q&A phase (“Is your enterprise open all through COVID-19?”), which is temporarily not acting on profiles.

3. Write Applicable Blog Posts

The internet is saturated right now with COVID-19 content, however, that doesn’t mean you can’t still attempt to show up on the first web page of a Google search. The trick is to target lengthy-tail key phrases noticeably particular for your area of interest. For instance, a chiropractor could write a blog publish “At-home Lower Back Exercises” or “Avoid Neck Pain While in Quarantine.” This content material prices nothing to create apart from some time, which you may have extra off at this point, anyway.

The first actual results for “save you neck ache at some point of quarantine” are none aside from a small PT business in Cambridge, MA.

You ought to even tie on your geographic location for extra powerful concentrated on, like with a list titled “Best Places to Walk Your Dog in Bethesda.” These coronavirus-applicable pages will garner traffic in and of themselves proper now, but they’ll also raise your standard internet site search engine optimization for a long time.

Reaching Your Audience on Facebook in the Course of COVID-19

Social media is prime for building relationships, and with utilization growing all through isolation, you could attain greater of your audience on Facebook at some stage in COVID-19. Here are 3 methods to do this.

4. Hop on Facebook Live

More people are looking to stay motion pictures right now than ever earlier than. In truth, Facebook Live visitors have multiplied through as much as 50%. There are many obvious makes use of this free Facebook marketing function, which include answering COVID-19 purchaser questions, presenting a relevant recommendation, or leading a quarantine workout. But don’t forget additionally that Facebook Live movies may be stored. With viewership at an all-time excessive, this is a superb time to run live classes on your conventional and evergreen topics, which you may repurpose down the road as soon as the coronavirus has handed.

5 Pro Tips for Marketing Your Business on Social Media

5. Do a lucky draw giveaway

If you’re open and delivering, it’s an awesome concept to add a few greater pride in your deliveries. It’s a fair higher concept to add a few mysteries to the combination. As with the Facebook instance below, you can run a giveaway in which all orders positioned inside a specific time body qualify for an unfastened treat—and one fortunate winner receives a present card. Not most effective can this inspire extra audience engagement; however it’ll improve their spirits, as well.

6. Check-in along with your network

There are a plethora of COVID-19 posts on social media, however, that doesn’t imply you want to come up with an earth-shattering publish to stand out for your target market. A simple, heartfelt put up without a purpose aside from to wish your network properly can cross an extended way. After all, truly is authenticity.

Reaching your audience on Instagram throughout COVID-19

Instagram is wonderful for storytelling, and every person has their very own specific COVID-19 testimonies to percentage. Here’s a way to attain your audience at no cost on Instagram throughout COVID-19.

7. Use COVID-19 hashtags

Hashtags are an unfastened and yet powerful manner to amplify your social media visibility. There is, of direction, many trending COVID-19 hashtags circulating around. But huge Instagram hashtags like #COVID19 aren’t going to provide you with plenty of visibility. The secret’s to use a place and industry modifiers. For example:

• Instead of #COVID19, attempt something like #covidfashion #covidpetsafety or #covidhomeschooling.
• Instead of #wereinthistogether, attempt something like #portlandstrong.

Some different ideas for COVID-19 hashtags you may use or modify for your business are:

• #DIY (suppose #diyhomedecor or #diyhaircut).
• #boredombusters
• #athome (like #athomeworkout or #athomelearning).
• #quarantineedition
• #quarantine (Including #quarantineparenting, #quarantinecrafts, #quarantinerecipes).
• Of route, in case you’re just seeking to sprinkle in some friendly and uplifting hashtags, that’s high-quality too! Try COVID-19 hashtags like #wereinthistogether, #wellgetthroughthis, #allinthistogether, #thenewnormal, #alonetogether, #stayhome, #saferathome, and #sixfeetapart.

8. Write COVID-pleasant captions

There are a number of purposes your COVID-19 Instagram posts can serve. Here are some writing guidelines for Instagram captions to correctly attain your Instagram audience:

• When boosting morale: Keep captions mild and not too precise; anybody is experiencing it otherwise.
• When providing fitness and protection hints: Check captions for accuracy.
• When offering updates: Keep captions concise with essentials most effective.
• When promoting pivoted services: Include words like “curbside pickup “or “still available.”

Reaching your target audience on Twitter for the duration of COVID-19

Twitter takes on the conversational nature of Facebook but the faster intake tempo of Instagram. Here are three unfastened approaches to acquire visibility and resonate with your target audience during COVID-19.

9. Repurpose opinions

Part of Roger Smith Hotel’s Twitter method is that of taking rates from advantageous consumer reviews and growing tweets out of them. They have endured this tactic throughout COVID-19, and I must say, it works. The tweets don’t ask you to depart an overview or eBook a life, but the high-quality phrases and attractive pix do leave you feeling quite precise.

10. Take up #supportsmallbusiness gives        

There are lots of purchasers on Twitter right now who’re presenting to promote neighbourhood organizations in their area. Run a hashtag search like #shoplocal, #supportsmallbusiness, #shoplocal [yourcity], or #smallbusiness and notice if you find any gives.

11. Support different nearby corporations during COVID-19

In the instance below, Connected Kent gives to share 5 exceptional neighbourhood groups for every one tweet about their offerings. Why not do that method to your commercial enterprise? It’s a brilliant way to reach new audiences on Twitter at the same time as also supporting out different local organizations suffering in the course of COVID-19—all without cost.

Adapting Your Business in the Face of Shifting Consumer Behaviour

These free techniques of digital marketing are awesome strategies for reaching your target audience and assuaging monetary worry at some stage in COVID-19, but they may be tailored for use even after the pandemic has surpassed. Try them out and how knows, perhaps you’ll come out of this pandemic with a more potent online presence than ever earlier than.

Author Bio: This article is written by our guest author Dave Jones. He is a web content writer, and guest blogger, at Getsetgoweb who offers content writing services to online business owners including SEO and Digital Marketing, Website designing, and development, logo design, and corporate branding.

We all want our businesses to thrive, evolve, and shine in our respective markets. The quality and efficiency of our employees make a difference as to whether the business rises or falls. Let us show you how you can make them better.

Failure is not an option. That is what you probably tell yourself every day. No one wants their business to fail, but sadly, many do, and due to a variety of factors that cannot be controlled. But one that can, the level of employee proficiency and overall enthusiasm to do their job with gusto.

The workplace conundrum

Most people only work hard to avoid getting fired, and many employers only pay enough to keep an employee from quitting. Both employer and employee are looking at the edge of a veritable cliff, and that is no way to run a productive workplace. The employee motivation is obviously to get paid a living wage, or better, but doesn’t inspire passion in their respective craft. They need something extra, and they will give you something above the usual employee performance.

If you started a business, you probably did so to achieve something above what you could working for someone else. It’s naïve to think your employees aren’t thinking the same thing. They are hired by you to do a job, do it well, and together, the business reaches greater heights. After all, without them, your business is just you, and if you could do the job on your own, would you have needed to hire other people

1. A better employee relation strategy

The needs of the people change regularly, and you must have your finger on the pulse of this change to stay relevant to your people’s needs. Here are a few tips to help find that pulse and use it more effectively:

2. Achievable goals 

There is a line between ambitious and impossible, and many employers skate that line thinking more about the money than the reality of what can be accomplished.

Keep your goals just beyond the range of employee capability to inspire a better drive to succeed, but not so far out of the realm of possibility to discourage them. 

3. Always have a direction

Forward momentum without guidance is how a goal can be lost in the mire of uncertainty—this business is that flagship of your ambition. Captain your crew, and always have a plan, preferably before you do something new or different.

4. Hire effective management

People never ask why employee management is important because the answer is obvious. Without clear direction and the person in place to enforce that direction, sooner or later, chaos ensues. But management must be done right. Never micromanage. It undermines the staff’s ability to focus when a boss hovers. Employee monitoring is not hovering. It is checking in, getting updates, offering guidance, and keeping all the trains running on time.

5. Communication is crucial

You never want your place of work to turn out like a bad marriage, in which no one talks to anyone else, and nothing gets done. For your business to thrive, an active dialogue is paramount. Sometimes there are issues that you need to know. Employee support is key to keeping the wheels greased, and the best way to do that is an employee survey. If you wish, they can do it via an employee online survey platform that allows anonymous input.

6. Have some fun

There is a tried and true cliché that says, “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” While that may be true, having fun all the time isn’t productive. Having occasional fun events, on the other hand, can be. One of many employee motivational theories is to loosen up the workplace one day a week or have quarterly events, like casino night, complete with table games and no deposit slots.

7. Keep everyone on point

Never lose your focus and keep others true to theirs. It is so easy to become distracted with nonsense and take your eye off the ball. It is sadly part of human nature. Remove distractions and set clear standards to keep the focus clear and steadfast.

8. Criticism

For employee help, the best medium is yearly evaluations. Let them know where they have succeeded and give them insight into where and how they have slipped below acceptable expectations. Then assist them in bringing those lower numbers to a happier level.

9. Know thyself

You are not infallible. Know what you are capable of, and more importantly, what you struggle with. This will help you determine who to hire or what business is best suited for you. And will help you better grasp that your employees also have limitations. 

10. Completion

Never leave a job undone. Set quotas but keep them fixed in that they are for completed tasks. It is easy to lose your place when you quit in the middle of a job, even if you intend to circle back later.

Get the hard stuff out of the way

Even as a kid, we were told to do the hard chores first. The same applies to business. If you manage to get the more difficult tasks done early, then everything else is downhill and can be done with limited stress. And don’t forget to celebrate the little victories, as well as the overall completed goal. It keeps the motivation as a constant sensation.

No one is telling you to satisfy every selfish whim of your staff. That is no way to run a business. The suggestion is to be aware of the deeper realities of the people you work with and who work for you. If they want to be there, they will perform at a higher level than if they must reluctantly drag themselves into the workplace. Clear business knowledge is more than just how to make money. It is how to effectively inspire people to give their best effort. It’s about employee knowledge, too. Do you have any tips that can enhance and enrich a staffer’s workplace experience?

Let’s start with some intriguing facts. While shopping, for 64% of buyers customer experience is more important than pricing. And if the buying process is too vague and complicated, 70% of buyers would rather change the brand.

Moreover, before even dealing with the vendor or seller B2B consumers completely define their requirements for which half of the B2B buyers have already identified solutions.

This data should not be surprising as it reflects how the mindset of consumers has evolved with the evolution of technology. The emergence of the internet has made all the information we need easily accessible to all of us.

Cable, Phone, and Internet connections are as essential commodities like anything else in our homes, and we cannot function properly in their absence – forget undergoing a sluggish connection. Amid COVID’19 it has become even more crucial not to have steady communication support and that primarily includes Cable TV, internet, and phone.

Most of us working from home are only relying on good internet connection and ISPs have also come forward with packages and deals that incorporate students and professionals working online during the quarantine.

ISPs enabling instant customer support help is also more significant than ever before because we cannot afford the internet not functioning properly for a single day – it greatly affects our productivity and work hours. Spectrum internet customer service has been phenomenal throughout this global pandemic as it has always been before as well, quoting from general consensus and recent experiences.

Here, in this article, we are going to comprehend why ISPs should keep the customer service system intact and how significant it is for their business or any business in general.

But the question is how is it relatable to what you think about your marketing, selling, and your customer service team. There would be three definite roles described by many:

• Marketing covers brand and appearance.

• While the sales departments are all about developing relationships.

• And sustaining those relationships is linked to customer service.

But if these three roles are not operating in synchronizations with each other; they can affect your growth and can cause damage to your brand.

Whether the potential buyer is looking for any product or service, researching for options, making endorsements, or seeking an outlet to let other people know about their previous experiences which were good or bad their major option is doing it online. This is an established fact now, which results in blurring the boundaries of marketing, selling, and customer service.

Thus, adjusting your strategy is crucial to be effective in the marketplace we have today. Your organization needs to line up with the behaviour of your prospect as their journey is being commenced with your brand, which means you need to know how your potential buyers think; how they are researching; how they are purchasing, and what their buyer’s journey is.

Before any business is being sent to your way a prospect undergoes three stages which are: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Your prospect will search the internet and will look for information related to their problems or requirements. The content they get to see is helpful for them and that content is establishing trustworthiness between you and your client. You need to produce content that helps them in their research and let them know how your offers and services can aid them in the aforementioned stages.

At every step, we have mentioned before a buyer is looking for specific information. And exactly where it becomes interesting, let’s talk about blog, review, ratings, or your accessibility to your clients whatever it is you need to make the recent ecosystem work for you. For which you need to have input from your whole team

Your marketing team should create relevant and helpful messages and content that the customer can relate to.

Your sales team should make sure to be accessible. They need to be more helpful rather than just being some average salespersons with sales talks only. Your customer support should be more focused on reading and reviews of your existing customers. If you are generating helpful content you need to have a track record as social proofs, testimonials, and reviews. Also, the team needs to be available when clients have any questions. This way their trust in you will be established and they will start having confidence in you that you are qualified enough to meet their requirements.

You may catch yourself daydreaming about the biggest goals you can’t wait to achieve. You may even find yourself sleepless at night thinking about the life you’d be able to live once you get there. But once it comes to working towards those large goals, it may seem rather unachievable.

If you’re nodding your head yes, this is for you. Start by writing out what you want your life to look like. Then, break those goals down into smaller goals. Once you have those set, create a realistic timeline with rewards up to the leading goal — and repeat.

When you reward yourself for your achievements, you push through the hardest of times. Yet, if one of your biggest goals is to save for a house, or even a car, spending money on a reward may not be the best choice, but that doesn’t mean you should celebrate your wins either.

To create healthy habits and reach your goals time and time again, download Mint’s reward setting printables to track and celebrate your big achievements. Not to mention, the list of free reward ideas to celebrate your hard work. 

Set Your Goals

Start off by setting your big goals and write them down. Keep track of where you are on each week so you know exactly what you need to be focusing on.

Track Your Habits

It only takes 66 days to create a habit. If one of your goals is to work out four days a week, or drink enough water throughout the day, keep yourself accountable. Track your habits and ensure you do it for 66 days.

Have Visible Reminders

Sometimes, you may get down. You may lose all motivation and not want to keep going. Print out our motivational signs, cut them out, and hang them on your wall for a motivation boost.

Check Off Your Goals

As you start to check more and more off of your goals list, cut out and tape our stickers to remind yourself of how good you’re doing.

Reward Yourself

Now, as your goals fully come to a close, celebrate! Of course, be sure to set your next set of goals to keep the momentum going.

Effective data management, oriented to meet client requirements, has become a daunting task for companies of all sizes. This is primarily due to the massive amount of information generated when interacting with users. Fortunately, there are smart procedures to overcome these challenges and turn them into new opportunities. One of the most revolutionary ways this is represented is with artificial intelligence (AI) and CRM integrations.

Predicting current and future customer behaviour, plus understanding what their requirements are, is now simple with AI. Read on to know more about how CRM and AI can aid you in improving your client relationships.

Development of Human Machines

Today, technological progress has enabled human beings to give machines some abilities, which go beyond the archaic functions of merely storing data. Hence, as a result, this advancement has encouraged the growth of AI.

Intelligence signifies the capability of machines to understand, learn, and assess in the same manner as a human. To better understand how AI correctly works, it is essential to consider deep machine learning, as it is closely associated with this technology.

Deep Learning

It is an algorithm based on a cascade of networks that enables a predictive analysis via a parameter’s combination.

Machine Learning

Signifies the capability of machines to learn by themselves, without a programmer’s intervention or input.

Such learning engines became complicated algorithms, representing the basis of artificial intelligence. It’s the key to ensure success by combining CRM and AI technology.

If AI signifies an efficient resource, it’s because of the incredible scope it has to offer.

1. It can understand natural language.
2. Leverages reasoning and logic to solve problems.
3. It helps to detect patterns and predicts behaviour.
4. Collects and processes massive amounts of data, quickly.

When AI meets CRM

What does a CRM focus on, and what is the need to combine it with AI? The primary goal of CRM solutions is to understand clients better and offer them customized products.

From the start, CRMs have utilized databases to acquire their objectives in more straightforward ways. Until now, this management has been focused primarily on gathering, storing, and offering data at a customer’s request, leaving extraction, analysis, and interpretation aside, which provides actual value into the details received.

Coupled with the ever-enhancing volumes of data that companies must manage, it becomes easier to see why a CRM requires some AI support to adapt to this new age of digital transformations.

 Combining CRMs with AI

Good Data Management

All the data collected from digital interfaces and social networks can get centralized into the CRM system. So AI can interpret and redirect them to provide real value for their organization’s goals. In these scenarios, marketing teams and helpdesk systems can streamline and improve customer relationships by integrating resources, which enable the support department to respond quickly and appropriately to all client requests.

Streamlined Sales Strategy

It’s via intelligent data analysis and automated data entry where companies can generate accurate profiles of the clients who are willing to buy your products. By analyzing client behaviours, organizations can personalize advertising and provide the best material of interest to every lead.

As a result, sales teams can quickly promote a positive perception of their organization’s brand and encourage leads to close deals. Plus, AI can get utilized to assess client emotions to establish the right strategies, which increases the overall engagement level for every current and potential customer.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Quality customer service is a determining aspect when it comes to client satisfaction. Leveraging user-friendly marketing strategies that are specifically targeted for the correct time and in the appropriate context, organizations can aid their clients in developing positive feelings about the company. Additionally, by providing quick and efficient customer service, it is possible to humanize the communication your sales teams have with users and promote the ideas of an organization that stretches beyond sales.

Enhance Client Engagement with an AI-driven CRM

Technology can aid you in receiving emotional insight from your consumers. Sentiment analysis and image identification are two main reasons why an AI-enabled CRM is regarded as the future for your business. Do not risk losing your qualified prospects.

Artificial intelligence can aid you in understanding a client’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction in real-time. After collecting this valuable insight, it is easier for you to spot problems and take action accordingly. AI will be able to read client intentions better than your sales team.

Bots and Virtual Assistants

Now, it is time to forget about tedious processes and accelerate the sales cycle by leveraging new technology to interact with clients and easily schedule meetings. Also, enhance lead generation by creating accurate marketing campaigns. By integrating artificial intelligence into your CRM, you can automate reports, emails, capture data, and more. It aids you in avoiding the risk of potential human errors in your daily activities and administrative duties.

Automate Regular Everyday Tasks

AI will help you and your team to automate tedious and repetitive tasks that are time-consuming. Tasks such as data retrieval and input, determining call lists, and upgrading forecasts can all get handled by AI.

When CRM solutions learn more about client preferences and patterns, they will be able to recommend and deploy new methods on the user’s behalf.  The sales departments can then tap into each client’s collected data and spend time on developing stronger relationships and closing more deals.

Provide Instant Responses

Most customers value excellent client services, which should always provide instant responses and quick resolutions.     As per HubSpot, more than 90 percent of clients considered an immediate response as very important, and above 80 percent felt the same about marketing and sales inquiries.

For an extended period, instant responses were challenging to deliver to customers. With the help of automation and AI, things are now starting to transform. Common questions get quickly answered via automation, thus freeing up service representatives’ time so that they can focus on more high-value and complex questions or issues.

Learn How Your Customers Feel

According to Gartner, CRMs are where most of the company spending on business software occurs. Cloud-based systems tend to come with substantial price tags. It still makes sense to invest in, as the customer service and sales departments are the cornerstones of any successful business.

Meaning it is critical to get the most out of the money being spent. It is not enough to simply collect customer information and sales data. With AI, it is now possible to collect the data and filter through it to generate more appropriate sales goals, which can get upgraded in real-time. By implementing AI, it is possible to view how your clients feel at each stage of the sales pipeline and gain a collective view of their opinions.

This analysis data can satisfy customers’ inquiries and help turn an unhappy customer into a happy one. By knowing how a client feels can increase total sales by enhancing customer service and transforming the way, an annual business plan gets completed.

Organizations have recently been using AI to measure the emotions of clients. For instance, the Alexa team has been working to spot a user’s feelings by listening to the sounds and tone of their voice.

Smart Chatbots

Chatbots offer smart customer support and are better at crafting personalized content than human beings. They have access to lots of client-centred data points and combine location-specific requests to detect common problems easily, spot patterns, and predict what might be causing issues for a group of users.

Overcome Language Difficulties

Language is a tedious and strenuous barrier for organizations to cut through, particularly for smaller companies. Artificial intelligence has the power to help eliminate these obstructions.

For instance, when eBay introduced an AI-powered tool, which translated searches as well as listing titles back in 2014, sales from outside the United States to other countries were able to use this new tool, and total sales rose by 11%. The company statistics to this day remain particularly high as eBay continues to utilize this translation tool.

For organizations, the ability to sell across borders can transform their trajectory of user adoption and retention. Big business enterprises like Google offer AI-powered translation tools for every to utilize. Each business can now easily interact with their clients all over the world. So, we all must be thankful for machine learning and artificial intelligence for this change.

24/7 Availability

Even when your staff is not available, communication channels remain available open 24/7. With the help of AI, brands can better aid their clients, also if they don’t have the time to answer every single customer request. It makes your clients feel supported continuously. Investing in a good AI proves to be beneficial for your brand.

Empower Self-Service

One of the best factors of an AI is that it will eradicate the need of support agents to keep a customer “on hold” for an available executive to aid them with a simple issue related to a product or service.

AI has transformed all of this by enabling organizations to leverage virtual assistants and chatbots to answer many frequently asked questions, without filling up call-in support lines. It ultimately frees up customer service agent’s time to work on more challenging issues.

Does Your Business Need a CRM with AI Capabilities?

Do you need AI within your cloud-based CRM solution? Or is it just some other fancy add-on that might not provide real value to your business? The answers will depend on your organization’s unique requirements. Companies who are using the full power of their solution will find a lot of value in integrating an AI-powered tool.

The companies who are still struggling with CRM adoption, on the other hand, may find it an unnecessary and challenging burden to deal with. Finally, the more data your company gathers on leads and clients, the more use you will find in a tool specifically built to collect, organize, and access the information seamlessly within one solution.

Author Bio: This article is written by our guest author Emma James. She is a freelance content writer at SutiCRM, who frequently blogs on Business, Marketing, Sales, ERP and SaaS trends.