marketing - PSPinc Official Company Blog

Automation Tools for Sales and Marketing

7月

11日

When you consider your marketing or sales process, where do you see the cracks? Is there room for improvement? Do you need to boost productivity in any particular area? Could you fill the gap with an automated experience to improve the customer experience?

If you answered yes, let’s nail down the type of tool(s) you should consider:

Marketing Automation:

Marketing is different from sales. And that’s the first thing you need to decipher when looking at automation tools – is it for marketing or sales. If it’s for marketing, it should produce another way for potential customers to hear about you and your story. Here’s what you might consider:

• Newsletter system for solicitation and subscriptions, which can also be customized/personalized
• Automatic thank you notes to subscribers and new inquiries
• Automatic follow-up emails
• CRM tools to track new inquiries and store into database as leads
• Tracking analytics tools to understand user behaviors online and better understand potential customers

Sales Automation:

When customers are in touch with the sales team, you want to give them the very best experience but that can be tricky. Salespeople are human and humans are the most unpredictable elements in our society. Automation tools can close any inconsistencies and help your best salesperson be more efficient in making the deal. Here’s more tools you might consider:

• Sales demonstration videos
• Automated follow-up emails
• CRM integration and reminders for leads
• Integrated sales calls
• Automated outbound emails

Some of your business processes can’t be automated because you may want to ensure different results, and that’s just fine. You know what’s best for your business, but now you have some ideas to research if you think automation can help any areas where business is slipping.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Technology #SmallBusiness #BusinessTips #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation #Marketing #Sales

5 Marketing Trends in 2019

6月

20日

Check out the following 5 marketing trends that can help your business stay on track with the ever-changing landscape of the digital business world.

1. Use audio to reach new audiences.

There may be more screens in front of us than ever before, but audio is far from being dead. Think about all the ways audio has been integrated into our lives, from the smart speakers we talk to, the podcast we listen to, and the music we stream. Creating audio content can be an attractive way for your audience to interact with your business. One easy way to start creating audio content is to try a free trial of our service – Click It Audio.

2. Be the expert in your field.

This is a trend that is unchanging. When was the last time you worked with a company that was uninformed in their area of expertise? If you have knowledge in a certain field you should be sharing that with your customers. This can be in any form as long as you’re proving that you have a passion and knowledge in that area. An easy way to become a leader in your field is to start your own blog.

3. Be aware of security updates.

Last summer we covered the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) set in place by the European Union. Security is still high on our trend list in 2019 because of upgrades to TLS and requirements by Google and other companies to have SSL certificates for your websites.

4. Create native ads.

Have you ever liked or commented on an Instagram or Facebook post - only to realize it was an ad? More brands are taking a less obvious approach to their marketing by creating native ads that are more subtle and blend into the platform environment. Google search results ads blend into the list of results and can appear to be organic versus paid. The same goes for social media ads that appear to be normal posts, but are in fact, ads.

5. Show CEO transparency.

Following CEOs on social media has become a common way to keep up with the “personalities” of our favorite brands. CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and John Legere attract millions of social followers. Putting a face and personality to your company’s online presence isn’t just for Fortune 500 companies. Small businesses can take a page from Elon’s playbook by becoming the company’s spokesperson. CEOs that step into a spotlight and interact with their customers on a direct basis can help improve their businesses trust, authenticity, and relationship with their customers.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Technology #SmallBusiness #BusinessTips #Google #BusinessTrends #2019Trends #Marketing #DigitalMedia #OnlineMarketing #WebTrends #DigitalTrends

Customer Surveys: Ask the Right Questions

4月

16日

image source: pixabay.com

We often ask questions with some expectation of the answers before we hear them. When asking our customers for their input, however, we must willingly set aside our opinions and remain neutral if we want to get honest feedback and learn something valuable from them.

According to Peter Drucker, guru of business management, the fax machine is a prime example of the influential power in our questioning techniques.

Before the fax machine came to market, U.S. manufacturers conducted market research asking, "Would you buy a telephone accessory for upwards of $1,500 that enables you to send, for $1 a page, the same letter the post office delivers for 25 cents?" You guessed it; the answers were no and U.S. manufacturers did not pursue the fax machine.

On the other hand, as Drucker pointed out, Japanese manufacturers asked a more straightforward question: “Is there a market for what the fax machine does?" And they realized fax machines could replace courier services like FedEx in the 70s. As a result of asking the right question, Japanese manufacturers were first to market and more dominant in fax machines than U.S. companies in the 80s and 90s. It was too late for many U.S. companies to follow suit.

Collecting feedback from our customers is beneficial, but only if we phrase our questions in such a way that allows them to be honest and think for themselves. If we are going to take the time to survey people, make it worthwhile. Prepare ahead of time, keep it straightforward, and take the bad with the good – because it all helps to better your business.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #Surveys #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerFeedback #CustomerService #OnlineSurveys #CRM #FocusGroups

How to Host a Focus Group

4月

11日

image source: pixabay.com

Hosting a focus group to get more granular feedback from your customers is a great way learn what’s working, what’s not, and what the people want. The feedback can help you make better informed decisions when it comes to introducing, modifying or discontinuing products or services – instead of relying solely on your gut instinct.

Follow these five steps to host a successful focus group:

1. Define your Mission

What do you want to learn from your participants? Plan your focus group around a purpose and stick to it.

2. Recruit Participants

Carefully consider the people you invite. Think back to your plan for the focus group. Should you invite business people or consumers? What ages? Does income level or location matter? And should you be talking with people who are loyal to your company or people who have stopped purchasing your products or services? Maybe you need a good mix of everyone. You might consider sending out a questionnaire to pre-screen participants.

3. Provide Incentives

Time is money so be sure to reward the people who participate. Perhaps a discount or a gift card. Whatever that is, put yourself in their shoes and determine if the incentive is worth your time.

4. Interview

Interviewing participants in person is beneficial because there is much more to answers than words. Tone of voice and facial expressions can say a lot too. You can really capture the feelings in person. Prepare questions in advance and be very straightforward when delivering them. Don’t use a lot of adjectives or language that can be leading. Stay objective and try to get non-biased answers.

5. Take Notes

This is your chance to get more than a yes or no answer, so take advantage. Take notes on how the users engage with you. How do they appear? Do they smile? Are they agitated? Are they struggling to answer right away?

For a successful focus group, you need plenty of preparation ahead of time. You can find lots of sample questions online to give you ideas!

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #Surveys #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerFeedback #CustomerService #OnlineSurveys #FocusGroups

Simple, Immediate Surveys get Results

4月

9日

image source: pixabay.com

The best time to ask a customer about their experience with your business is immediately after your transaction or interaction with them. Life is busy and our memories get muddled because of it, so don’t wait too long to get feedback. Ask when when it’s fresh in your customer's mind.

If you want to keep it really simple, ask just one question: “Are you happy?”

Here are two ways PSPinc is doing that:

Feedback Form

We implemented a simple email survey through our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so whenever our support staff helps a customer, the customer immediately gets a follow-up email asking them to rate their experience with us. This can tell us a lot about how we are doing, and also what kinds of issues customer are having.

Opinion Stand

On a tablet next to our lobby entrance, we ask customers, “How did we do?” and they have the option to give their feedback on the tablet as they exit.

Don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your customers. These simple and quick surveys can provide a lot of great insight into what you’re doing right and what you need to do better.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #Surveys #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerFeedback #CustomerService #OnlineSurveys #CRM

How to Get Customer Feedback

4月

4日

image source: pixabay.com

Learning from our customers equips us with information to better our business. In a previous article we discussed using analytics as a tool to understand our customers’ online behavior. Now let’s talk about reaching out to those customers to get their feedback.

One of the best and easiest ways to engage with your customers is to create a survey for them. Surveys are easy to make and you can customize them to ask broad questions or get very specific – it all depends on what your company needs from it.

Here are some key points for you to consider before you start your survey:

- Determine your goal for the survey, and what you want to get out of it.

- Compile your customer list, preferably emails, to which you can send the survey.

- Consider offering an incentive (coupon, freebie, discount) if they take the survey.

- Come up with your questions. Keep it simple and neutral, don’t lead your customers toward a particular answer. Stay completely objective. Consider questions like: How do they like your product or service? Where did they learn about you? What else would they like to see your company offer? What is your strength / weakness?

- Keep it short and tell them up front how long it should take to complete the survey. Everyone’s busy, don’t get greedy with their time.

- Be sure to follow-up at some point so your customer doesn’t think their time and feedback was wasted.

- Consider asking some of the tough questions, even if you’re worried about receiving criticism. Remember, you’re not looking for a testimonial; you want to understand how you can improve. Customers might appreciate it.

Once you figure out your questions, then you can find the survey tools. PSPinc has an online form program, so if you need any help, contact us! We would be happy to assist you.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #Surveys #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerFeedback #CustomerService #OnlineSurveys #CRM

Learning from our Customers

4月

2日

image source: pixabay.com

Sometimes we let our values or assumptions dictate our business decisions. But how do we know if we’re making decisions that appeal to our customers’ needs and desires? If business is good, that’s a pretty solid indicator your ways are right. But what if business could be better? I think there’s always room for improvement, and it starts with customer research.

In this next series of articles, we explore ways we can learn from our customers – starting with web analytics.

Google Analytics is a free web tool that’s simple to use. First, you need to setup your Google Analytics account. Go to www.google.com/analytics. Follow the instructions and get a “tracking code” for your website. If you’re unsure how to proceed once you have your tracking code, contact your webmaster, your marketing company, or call us at PSPinc.com (1-800-232-3989). Most websites have easy ways to embed those codes so you can track the visitors to your pages.

Google Analytics can give you a lot of data about the people visiting your site, including where they come from, how they enter your site and where they exit.

Some things to look for include:

- Page Hits = how many pages are viewed
- Visitors = how many visits you had
- Unique Visitors = how many visitors are new to your site
- Bounce = meaning people are leaving your site
- Page Flow = shows how your visitors navigate through your website

So now you have all this data in front of you, but what do you do with it? Start asking questions. Here is a jumping off point:

How many people are visiting your site? Where are they coming from?
Who are they? Are they your target audience?
How are you attracting them? Are they spending time on pages you hoped they would hit?
Are they taking the “actions” you want them to take via your website?
What pages interest them the most? What pages do they leave from, and why?

Questioning this kind of data may help you develop some theories for testing your website’s appearance, content and functionality, and improve its performance altogether. Even a small tweak can make your homepage more effective.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #Surveys #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerFeedback #CustomerService #OnlineSurveys #CRM

7 Ways to De-Stress at Work

3月

28日

image source: pixabay.com

It’s okay to feel stressed or frantic about work sometimes, but when it happens every day it’s time to make some changes. From jamming to your favorite tunes to tidying up a bit, here are 7 ways to de-stress while at work.

1. Exercise

Don’t underestimate the benefits that a brisk walk around the office or around the block can have on your energy levels. If you don’t have time to leave the office try stretching at your desk or take a walk to the bathroom.

2. Snack

People are more prone to stress on an empty stomach. So, if you find yourself in a heated internal monologue, try grabbing an apple from the kitchen. A snack might be just the break your body needs to deal with a stressful situation. Make sure you’re hydrating too!

3. Communicate

Try communicating your worries to a friend, co-worker, or even with a pen and pad. You might be surprised how verbalizing your stress can help. Don’t just complain about your problems, make a list of actions that you can take to tackle each one.

4. Take a Break

Give your mind a break by finding something that will distract you from your tasks. Even moving on to a new task, and taking a short break from the one that’s causing stress, can help you refocus while you continue to get work done.

5. Breathe

Inhale for 1…2...3…4 counts and exhale for 1…2…3…4 counts. Repeat this breathing exercise several times and then allow your breathing to return to normal. Repeat as often as you need throughout your day. It might seem too simple, but it actually works!

6. Listen to Music

Instrumental, classical, jazz, and even lo-fi music can be a wonderful distraction when stress hits. Try listening to calming music while doing your breathing exercise.

7. Tidy Up

The saying is “A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind.” By tidying up your desk and cleaning your office, you cut down possible distractions and feel more energized to take on your tasks.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips

Why is my Company's Facebook Reach Declining?

3月

21日

image source: pixabay.com

Facebook had a rough year in 2018 and it’s hasn’t gotten any better so far in 2019. They acknowledged their mistakes and rolled out some changes to the news feed.

Like Google, Facebook determines how posts rank and which ones show up first in your news feed. In an effort to ‘save Facebook’ Mark Zuckerberg has implemented changes that cut back on showing posts that aren't from users' friends and family.

Since Facebook is now scoring personal posts above business posts, the change has been costly to companies trying to increase customer engagement. They've seen a significant drop in organic Facebook reach throughout the year.

What does this mean for your business?

Essentially, your company’s Facebook posts will (on average) be shown to only 2 - 5% of your audience. If you have 1,000 followers, that means only 20 - 50 of them will see your post. Our company has seen a stark drop in engagement this past year on our own social pages.

Companies will be looking for ways to get those numbers back and the fastest way to do that is paying for ads. We expect ad prices to start going up as more companies look to broaden their reach in non-organic ways. The good news is there are still ways to grow your organic reach:

1. Focus on the quality of your content instead of the quantity.
2. Facebook is putting more focus on ‘meaningful discussion’ so get engaged with users, reply to comments, rather than simply liking posts or comments.
3. Don’t oversaturate your page by posting too often. At most, you should post once a day but studies have shown that posting less than that doesn’t hurt your reach.

On top of everything, Facebook continues to deal with pressing issues like questions from congress over user privacy and an outage last week that lasted over 12 hours. Facebook is home to over 1 billion users and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. But the social media landscape is quickly changing and companies will have to adapt and work harder in order to get the same results that came so easily only a few years ago.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #SEO #WebDesign #WebsiteBuilder #Facebook #SocialMedia

9 Things Every Small Business Website Should Have

3月

19日

image source: pixabay.com

As a business, you want to make sure your office or storefront looks professional. You may apply a new coat of paint, add lighting and signage where it’s needed. You do this because you know your appearance has an effect on people’s opinion of your business. Well, the same concept applies to your online business.

Below, we share 9 elements that every website needs to put its best foot forward.

A Clear Description

When someone visits your website, they shouldn’t have to dig through pages to learn who you are and what your business does. State your business name clearly and sum up your products or services on the homepage. Don’t put everything on your homepage, just enough to give visitors adequate information about your business so they can decide if they’re on the right site.

Easy Website Address

When choosing a web address, note two things: Make it memorable and keep it short. If your web address is complex and long, your visitors might forget what to type in or misspell it. Keep it simple and try to avoid dashes, if possible.

Simple Navigation

So you don’t know how to code or anything about web design. Great! Keep your website simple and easy to navigate. Worry less about how pretty your website looks; instead make it easy to navigate and chock-full of great information about your business.

Clear Contact Information

It sounds silly, but you’d be surprised how many websites don’t have a clear description of the business or any way to be contacted. Contact information should be one of the top priorities when building a website. A clear and obvious section that contains your phone number, address, business hours, and email info can make a huge difference.

If you can, add a contact form on your website to make it even easier for visitors to contact you.

Customer Testimonials

Establish trust and legitimacy with new visitors by adding testimonials to your website. People love to hear from other people about their stories and experiences with a company. If you don’t have any testimonials, start asking your current or past customers to leave one on Google or Yelp. In exchange, you can offer to link to their businesses website from the testimonial they give you.

Call to Action

Each page on your website should serve a purpose and that purpose should have a ‘call to action’. What is the purpose of your homepage? It might be to inform visitors about your business and give them a way to learn more about your products/service. So in this case, you should have a call to action that leads visitors to your product/service information.

If the purpose of your product page is to lead customers to your contact page, have a call to action that links them to the contact page.

Fresh Content

Updating your website with new quality content frequently will not only help your SEO, it will also give visitors the most up-to-date information. Websites that have old and outdated information reflect poorly on the business.

Links to Social

Your business should be on social media as another means to reach potential customers online. A great way to grow your social channels is to include icons on your website that link to your social pages.

Secure Hosting

Often overlooked, a secure hosting platform can make a huge difference when it comes to your website. Small businesses that collect user information need to protect themselves and their customers. It’s important to find a trustworthy hosting company that will keep your websites protected from hacker attacks.

Dreamersi is a product of PSPinc and offers secure hosting packages and SSL certificates that ensure your site is protected at all times.

#ENnews #PSPinc #Blog #Marketing #Advertising #B2B #SmallBusiness #OfficeTips #SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #Website #WebHosting #OnlineMarketing #DigitalMarketing

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PSPinc Official Company Blog

フリースペース

Automation Tools for Sales and Marketing

5 Marketing Trends in 2019

Customer Surveys: Ask the Right Questions

How to Host a Focus Group

Simple, Immediate Surveys get Results

How to Get Customer Feedback

Learning from our Customers

7 Ways to De-Stress at Work

Why is my Company's Facebook Reach Declining?

9 Things Every Small Business Website Should Have

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