The 12 Ironclad Rules for Issuing Press Releases

One thing that never changes is our desire to keep up with the news.

These days, most people prefer to read their news online. According to Pew Research, 89% of Americans get at least some of their local news online.

And, it’s not just consumers who are reading the news online. It’s just about everyone. While some SEOs assume press releases are merely an SEO tool, such couldn’t be further from the truth.

News readership statistics for the U.S. population

As a matter of fact, press releases are branding and credibility tools, not SEO tools. They are a great way to get the word out and more effectively brand companies, products, and services.

If a release is engaging enough, it can generate social signals, drive shares, direct targeted and organic traffic, and create journalistic interest abroad. All of this is in addition to the sweet maraschino cherry on top – the possibility of major media coverage.

To get all of these lovely amenities wrapped up with a big, red bow on top, you’ll have to play by the rules.

A press release lets you spread the word about your company and its offerings in an ethical, journalistic-manner that focuses on newsworthiness and branding over SEO, social media, or anything else. The simple tenets of who, what, where, why, and when apply (the five Ws).

To make it work, you’ll need to follow these 12 unbreakable rules for obtaining publicity.

Rule No. 1: Know How to Write a Press Release

If you have never written a press release, consider using a professional content writer or service. Press releases are about telling a story; your story. Writing from a journalistic approach takes years of studying and practice. That’s not to say that any good writer isn’t capable of doing it; it’s just that you want to be as knowledgeable as a professional or hire one.

Press releases must cover something newsworthy. A PR Daily article outlines six necessary AP style guide steps for composing your release to assure that it’s newsworthy.

They include: stating your objective clearly, use the five Ws, minding your spacing, using proper grammar and style, and sharing names and titles correctly and appropriately.

The proper format for writing an effective press release

Rule No. 2: Know Your Audience

Writing for your audience is critical when producing any piece of content. A bit of demographical and customer research will go a long way toward achieving this goal.

For example, if your target market consists of the 45-and-over age group, using modern terms that don’t appeal to them won’t do much to help you gain traction. Understand your audience and who you are writing for before you craft your newsworthy release.

Rule No. 3: Understand Targeting

All releases are targeted when you set them up to go out for distribution. Proper targeting can mean the difference between thousands of reads and plenty of traffic streaming back to your money website or the lack thereof.

Be sure you research every industry your company, products, or services apply to before setting your industry targets pre-distribution.

Industry targeting options for distributing your press release

Rule No. 4: Craft a Punchy Elevator Pitch

Remember that press releases are a major form of branding, which is exponentially vital in today’s online marketing world. SEO today is often more about branding and engaging content than just getting backlinks.

The best way to write a classy elevator pitch with viral potential is to make sure you know your brand, understand your market and have a deep understanding of the competitive edge you have to offer.

Still, you’ll also want to add some spice, bravado, and swagger to your headline to capture more attention.

A stagnant headline may be newsworthy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not making people pull their hair out when they read it. Read more on these in an article by TechCrunch.

An example of the most amazing press release ever written.

How to Write Bad PR Titles

Let’s say you own a software company that is releasing its next version with a much-anticipated update that users have begged for the past few years.

You could propose a boring title like: “XYZ Software Company Announces Newest Version of XYZ Pro.” This title certainly is newsworthy. It’s definitely going to get approved by the editors. But the problem is that it’s boring. It does nothing to engage the reader.

How to Create Good PR Titles

Try to be more creative. Revamp the title above to make it punchier, catchier, and more engaging. For instance: “Almost Human: XYZ Pro Takes Thinking Out of Doing; New Update Adds Human-Response Feature to Interface.”

Rule No. 5: Abide by the Editing Process

Editors at press release distribution services, newspapers, and online news websites are stringent. Keep in mind that they are usually fervent studiers of the English language, AP style, tone, and prose. They don’t see any wiggle room in proper grammar or adherence to style; they see only black and white with no spatial gray area in between.

A Community Tool Box publication offers some tips on avoiding press release rejection by using proper grammar, spelling, titles, style, and prose. Remember, editors won’t fix your document for you; that’s on you. They might make minor changes.

However, if your release is not almost picture-perfect, it will go in the rejection pile with all of the other shoddily composed (and promptly rejected) news releases that editors get bombarded with day after day.

Read this article by the Torontoist to find out what editors – like the one at the Star, mentioned in the article – do when they are over-inundated with error-prone articles and news releases.

Rule No. 6: Collaborate to Succeed

Teamwork goes far in helping to develop an effective press release. Collaboration is how some of the finest marketing pieces are created.

So why limit the idea of the piece and its composition to just your ideas? Instead, brainstorm with a few others and co-create and co-write the piece together. This will improve clarity and can drastically enhance the quality of your press release.

Rule No. 7: Cross-Promote to Gain Credibility

Cross promoting is often called free advertising, which is exactly how the Edward Lowe Foundation references it. Cross promoting can help your information spread across multiple platforms quickly.

But, there are three inherent rules of cross-promotion: cost, control, and credibility.

Finding a cross-promotion partner is easy if you already do business with them. Imagine splitting the cost of the press release distribution and syndication with a brand that improves your overall branding and reach.

Reaching out to a few business partners may be you need to find a cross-promotion partner for your next PR campaign.

Rule No. 8: Use Quality Distribution Channels

Cheap distribution is not good, and good distribution is not cheap. Distribution costs money, plain and simple.

There’s a lot of squabble online about which press release distribution service is the best. Speaking from personal experience, there is only a handful worth using.

I’ve nailed Wall Street Journal time and time again using Berkshire Hathaway’s Business Wire, but it costs $400 or more for a release with a 400-word limit. (They charge you for every 100 words after that.) You’ll also pay a pretty penny to add photos, videos, social media signals, and so forth.

Marketwire gets decent traction and features an awesome dashboard with good analytics. PR Web is the most profitable of all distribution services but still charges nearly as much for tier-one distribution as the other services.

As for add-ons, you get more bang for your buck on PR Web because you can add videos, images, and hyperlinks for free. Other services to consider include: PR Newswire, B Wire, and 1888PressReleases.

Distribution services provide varying degrees of options for your press release.

Rule No. 9: Syndicate Post-Distribution

Syndicating your press release is crucial. Sure, it’s going out to all of these places. But, if you don’t take some additional “traction-action” yourself, you could be wasting your own time and money.

Ensure that your social channels are all set up to syndicate your press release. That means Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. When syndicating your press release, you will want to access the dashboard and find different major mediums that it was posted to for distribution. Use a different medium for each social channel syndication. For example:

• I watch as my PR goes out around the world. Once it hits major portals like the Boston Globe, the Sacramento Bee, or the Houston Chronicle, I take those hyperlinks and use a different one with a unique description for each social channel I syndicate on.
• I post my Boston Globe clipping on Facebook and say something like: “Boston Globe Covers XYZ Software Release in Feature Publication.”
• Then I take the Houston Chronicle listing and send that out on Twitter using a unique description, and so on.
• Rinse and repeat. Don’t worry about trying to get social traffic back to your website. Rather, focus on branding and creating viable credibility and increased social signals that ultimately do wonders for your website.

Syndicate your press release post-distribution through your social channels

Rule No. 10: Gain Social Traction

There’s only one service I’d recommend for your press release’s syndication on social channels, and that service is Pitch Engine. This is a social branding and marketing distribution service that you piggyback with your press release.

It allows you to track social analytics and traction as you gain more headway. You’ll want to write a unique copy of the actual release for Pitch Engine to gain even more traction.

When you do syndicate your actual release on social media (as explained above), consider boosting those posts to spread brand awareness, garner more social signals, and create chatter.

Rule No. 11: Repost with Content Discretion

Avoid reposting the actual press release on your website because this can denigrate your content authenticity and page-score ranking with Google and the other search engines.

Instead, write a unique teaser paragraph or two, then link it to the release on the host site that distributed it or one of the major media outlets that picked it up.

This greatly enhances credibility with your site visitors because they see that you were just covered in the New York Times (and they can read your full release on that portal instead of reading it on your site). Imagine how that makes them feel about your brand.

Rule No. 12: Enhance Your Release with SEO and Pictures

Most press release distribution services offer a few very worthwhile add-ons. The first is the SEO enhancement feature. By all means, opt for do-follow links. A few more high PR backlinks will never hurt your website.

Consider expanded distribution to hit more sites, albeit at an increased cost. For example, if you are a multinational company, consider worldwide distribution with AP Newswire syndication.

If you are a domestic company, target national regions to hit every major news medium in the U.S. instead of the limited newsfeeds in your set geo-region.

Finally, pictures, videos, and sound files are worth a million words. Adding these multimedia elements to your press release helps gather more attention, improves social media reach, and drives brand awareness.

Ultimately, the future of your public relations – and your brand’s reputation – is in your hands. Make the most of it.

Has your company had success with press releases? Share your experiences below! 

The post The 12 Ironclad Rules for Issuing Press Releases appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/ironclad-rules-for-press/

Marketing Automation Consulting

Why aren’t more companies using marketing automation?

A recent survey from Liana Technologies found that 60 percent of respondents said they didn’t know how to use marketing automation. They listed a lack of know-how as the main reason they weren’t adopting marketing automation campaigns.

Half of those surveyed also listed a lack of strategy or personnel as yet another reason they weren’t moving forward with marketing automation. 

As you can see from the research, these companies need marketing automation consulting. 

10 Ways a Marketing Automation Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

Marketing automation is often viewed as a nice-to-have option, something that could be helpful but really isn’t all that necessary for companies looking to grow. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing. 

This isn’t always as clear until you breakdown the benefits that come with marketing automation. 

Here are ten ways a marketing automation consultant can help you grow your business. 

1. More targeted marketing: Many companies force their customers into the same marketing funnel. They’re not focused on optimizing their funnel based on the buyer’s journey, so most of their prospects fall out of their marketing funnel. A marketing automation consultant helps you segment and target your customers properly. A good consultant will help you identify customers who are ready to buy, leads that need to be nurtured, and leads you can disqualify. 
2. Improve customer experiences: According to Salesforce, 76 percent of consumers expect you to understand their needs and expectations. Another 84 percent said, “being treated like a person, not a number” is essential to earning their business. Marketing automation helps you achieve this at scale, so you’re able to provide the one-on-one attention and personalization customers expect.   
3. Increased traffic: Big companies have embraced analytics, but most don’t know how to use their data. Most don’t have a data-driven culture, so it’s difficult for many organizations to have confidence in their marketing decisions. This isn’t just big companies, though; it’s most companies in general. This means it’s harder for companies to identify the traffic sources working well versus those that aren’t. With marketing automation tools like lead scoring and lead nurturing, you can identify your best performing traffic sources.
4. Higher quality leads: When customers go through the same funnels, without segmentation, lead quality suffers. Your marketing automation consultant should help you outline the buyer’s journey and segment customers based on their place in the funnel. Doing this increases lead quality as customers are pre-qualified before and after they convert. This keeps the quality of the leads sent to sales high. 
5. More leads: Once you’ve identified the list of marketing automation tools and workflows you need to generate high-quality leads, you can use those same automation tools to scale your lead generation campaigns. Your marketing automation consultant will help you increase lead production, using the lessons learned from your smaller campaigns. You’ll know which traffic sources perform best, how to improve lead quality, 
6. Increased conversion rates: One of the hidden benefits of marketing automation is that the benefits are cumulative. Your marketing automation consultant will show you how to combine the strategy, tactics, workflows, and tools you’ve put together into a single system. Each component, when optimized, should produce increased conversion rates consistently in your campaigns over time.   
7. Increased ROI: As your conversion rates increase, your ROI will continue to grow. A great marketing automation consultant will show you how to maintain your ROI as you continue to scale. You should see more revenue with less spend consistently over time.   
8. Reduced expenses: As metrics like your return on ad spend (ROAS) and your conversion rate improves, you should see a decrease in costs (e.g., cost per lead, cost per action, customer acquisition costs). Your marketing automation consultant should monitor your returns and expenses, ensuring that both are moving in the right direction. 
9. Data sharing between marketing channels: Your marketing automation stack should provide your team with the right data analysis tools. If you use analysis tools like Cyfe or Power BI, you’ll want to make sure that your team has access to data across marketing channels; your consultant should help you set this up, so your team has need-to-know access to data. Doing this will reduce operational silos, keeping everyone in your team on the same page; no more fights between sales and marketing for control. 
10. Shorter sales cycles: Let’s say you’ve received two sets of leads. Set A has customers who are ready to buy now. They’ve done their homework, and they’ve decided your company is the best fit. Set B has interested customers; they won’t be ready to decide for another three to six months. Set A has a shorter sales cycle — your consultant helps you find and segment these customers as they come into your funnel.  

These benefits aren’t random one-offs; they’re outcomes your business needs to grow. The problem with growth is scaling. As you grow, it gets harder to manage all of this manually. 

How to Get Started With a Marketing Automation Consultant

Your marketing automation consultant should be a specialist with deep expertise in automation. They should also have experience across a broad range of marketing disciplines and channels, including:

• Advertising (display, content,
• Analytics
• Branding
• Content
• Direct response
• Email
• Market research
• Mobile 
• Sales
• Search (organic and paid)
• Websites (e.g., conversion rate optimization, usability, etc.)

If you’re ready to get started with a marketing automation consultant, there are a few things you’ll need to prepare ahead of time. Upfront preparation makes it easier to get started; your consultant doesn’t have to waste a lot of time (and your money) getting you up to speed.

Both of you will be able to jump in right away. 

You’ll want to make sure that you have a list of:

• Goals, KPIs, and objectives: For example, this could include a list of tools you’d like to integrate in your technology stack, as well as how you’d like these tools to perform. This could also provide your consultant with information on the specific outcomes you’d like to see due to automation (e.g., a 7 percent increase in productivity, shorter sales cycles, less double entry, improved utilization rates, etc.).
• The tools and resources you’re using: You’ll want to make a list of the tools and resources you’re already using. Collect additional information on the number of users for each software, tool, or subscription. Make note of any API keys and special instructions. Also include a list of the software, tools, and resources you’d like to use.
• Decision-makers and influencers: If you’re part of a team, you may find that some people aren’t all that excited to share their data. Others are interested in working with your consultant to automate essential marketing tasks. Sharing a list of decision-makers and influencers with your consultant makes their job easier. Right from the beginning, they know where everyone stands and who to talk to if they need help getting everyone on the same page.
• Obstacles and challenges: You’ll want to outline the list of barriers and challenges that may prevent you from achieving the goals and objectives you’ve listed above. Maybe some of the services you use don’t offer an API or integrate with third-party services like Zapier. Maybe some of the tools in your list are outdated, or they’re unsupported legacy options (i.e., legacy software running on Windows XP).
• Policies and procedures: If your company has specific policies, procedures, or guidelines for software purchases, you’ll want to share that with your consultant as well. You want to let your consultant know what’s allowed, required, forbidden, and unacceptable. You want to set your consultant up for success by giving them a clear set of guidelines to follow; this helps your company grow. 
• Strengths and weaknesses: This step is uncomfortable but it’s also important; if your team, division, or company has problems in a specific area, spell that out for your consultant as clearly as possible. Does it take your company a long time to make important decisions? Is your organization good at finding great employees and contractors? Give your consultant a brief overview of your strengths and weaknesses. Getting people on board is easier when you know what you’re working with. 

Sharing this information upfront makes automation smooth and efficient.

If you’ve already answered these questions for your consultant, they’re able to focus their attention on helping you automate your marketing campaigns, projects, and tasks. 

Measuring the ROI of Marketing Automation Consulting Services

In general, consultants aren’t big on measuring ROI, but they should be. It’s reasonable to expect the same from your marketing automation consultant. If you’ve done the upfront work I’ve mentioned already, you should have everything you need to measure the ROI ahead of time. 

Remember the list of goals, KPIs, and objectives you wrote down earlier?

Your consultant should be able to help you refine your goals and objectives. If you haven’t already, you want to add some specificity to these goals. You’ll want to add specific numbers, facts. or figures to these goals. Use these figures as a general guide — you want to discuss these with your consultant making sure they’re realistic and achievable.

Here are a few examples you can use:

• Increase productivity becomes — Increase our marketing team’s productivity by 16 percent
• Improve lead quality becomes — Use lead scoring to achieve a 6 percent lift in marketing qualified lead volume
• Identify top-performing marketing channels becomes — Identify top performing marketing channels by automating URL tagging for all current and future marketing campaigns
• decrease customer acquisition costs becomes — Reduce customer acquisition costs on Google ads by a minimum of 11 percent

Measuring your ROI is pretty straightforward if you have a clear idea of your campaign goals and objectives. The easier it is for you to list a starting point, the easier it will be for your consultant to help you reach your goals and objectives.

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Marketing Automation Consultant

Choosing the right marketing automation consultant is simple if you’ve prepared ahead of time. From there, you can screen consultants the same way you would for any other consultant or professional. First, you outline your process, listing your goals and objectives, your current technology stack, decision-makers, influencers, etc. Second, you filter your providers through your process, ensuring each candidate meets the criteria you’ve set.

Here’s a shortlist of the criteria you can use to evaluate your consultants.

1. They understand digital marketing. The best marketing automation consultants are marketers themselves. The ideal candidate is a marketing veteran who’s managed marketing campaigns from beginning to end throughout their career. You’re looking for someone who got their start as a marketer.
2. They understand your business. Your marketing automation consultant should have an in-depth knowledge of your business — how it works, what you need, mistakes to avoid, etc. If you’re managing a retail or ecommerce company, your consultant should have experience managing marketing campaigns for retail or e-commerce companies. You’re looking for someone who has a native understanding of your business.
3. They’re data-driven. Marketing automation requires a mix of art and science. You’ll need someone who loves to read through data but is skilled enough to explain it to the people on your team who aren’t data-driven. The ideal consultant can tell stories with data and helping your team make important decisions. 
4. They’re proactive and knowledgeable. When it comes to automation, you shouldn’t be as knowledgeable as your consultant. They should be able to make recommendations and connections you weren’t even thinking of. They should be able to help you automate your campaigns in new ways; to increase your productivity by customizing your marketing stack.  

This checklist is pretty simple. 

A great marketing automation consultant should be able to handle everything we’ve covered so far comfortably. They should be able to break things down for you, showing you how to improve your plan, refine your goals and objectives, and add to your technology stack. 

They should be asking questions. 

If they’re good at what they do, they’ll have some questions and requirements of their own. 

Conclusion

While many organizations are switching to marketing automation, most don’t have a clear plan they can follow. Companies list a lack of know-how, strategy, or personnel as the reasons why they weren’t completely on board with marketing automation. 

That’s changing fast, though. 

More companies are investing in marketing automation. They’re taking the time to implement a strategy for their business. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing, especially as your company grows. 

With the right consultant and a clear strategy, you’ll have the people, process, and technology you need to grow your business quickly. 

The post Marketing Automation Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/marketing-automation-consulting/

Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions

The post Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/bounce-rate-analytics/

Which Social Media Sites Really Matter and Why

Social media is critical. I doubt anyone would argue with me about that. But social media is also misunderstood in some ways. One of those misunderstandings is which social media sites a business or individual should be on.

If you read this article, you’re going to understand which social media sites are best for your brand or business.

You won’t have to waste your time messing around on social media sites that have no ROI, and you even might do better at gaining leads on the social media sites that are perfect for your business.

A Quick Look at the Social Media Landscape

Social media isn’t a fad or trend. It’s an enduring reality of online existence. For marketers, it’s indispensable. But when you approach social media as a marketing channel, things may get a bit confusing.

Here’s why.

Social media marketing includes a myriad of potential social media sites, a vast array of ways to engage, and a medley of styles for each platform.

It’s more than just Facebook. You need to figure out which of the legion networks to join. Then, you need to determine optimal messages, posting frequency, cost of social media management, integration with other marketing channels, and how to make the most of the billions of people who are purportedly hanging out on social media.

To slice through the confusion, here are four questions that you should answer.

1. Where Is My Audience?

The primary question to ask about social media is where your audience is actually spending time. What social media outlets are they on?

A caveat is in order: just because you have followers doesn’t mean that you have an audience.

In January 2019, a report claimed as many as 50% of Facebook’s accounts were fake. Simply having a bunch of followers doesn’t guarantee that you have a human audience.

If you buy followers, you are almost assuredly bought fake accounts. While these fake accounts might be great for follower numbers, they don’t do much for your actual marketing. (Which is why I recommend deleting fake followers.)

2. Where Is My Audience Active?

Big social media numbers don’t mean big activity.

For example, there are nearly 3 billion accounts, but only 1.73 billion are daily active users. Twitter, too, has a lot of members with a relatively low number of active members. Of the site’s 330 million signups, only 145 million are daily active users.

A social media user needs to be active on a social media site to be of any use to you.

There’s a disparity between overall members on a site and the number of active members.

3. Where Is My Audience Searching?

As I’ve discussed before, people use social media for searching, not only socializing.

Every minute, people are conducting millions of queries on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you are active on these social media platforms, you can appear in social media search results.

4. What Niche Social Media Sites Are Right for Me?

Some businesses are missing out on a deluge of warm leads, because they are absent from niche social media sites.

Someone might tell you, “OMG! You have to join this social media site! We get all our leads from it!”

Okay, that’s great. But that doesn’t mean that your business needs to be there.

What kind of business do they have? If they are a boutique silk scarf seller and found a social media site for silk scarf aficionados, then they’ve obviously found the right social media site.

But if you’re a SaaS business, chances are you won’t gain as many warm leads from silk scarf social media sites.

I’ve provided these four questions as a framework for determining your social media strategy. Don’t join randomly. Instead, choose intentionally by answering the four questions.

• Where is my audience?
• Where is my audience active?
• Where is my audience searching?
• What niche social media sites are right for me?

With that in mind, let me explain the social media accounts that truly matter.

Join the Big Three Social Media Sites 

At this stage in social media, there are three sites that reign supreme. These sites are crucial, regardless of your audience, your business model, and your strategy. Join them.

Facebook

Facebook has over 2.7 billion monthly active users, the largest of any social network. In the past decade, it has become a fixture of the daily online experience. Nearly half of all Facebook users are active each day, and they spend half an hour or more on the site.

These users aren’t only browsing profile updates or viewing photos.

Each Facebook user is connected to dozens of pages, groups, or events. That’s where you come in — your marketing efforts and Facebook presence.

Twitter

Twitter is a happening place. There are more than 330 million Twitter monthly active users, and 100 million users are active at least once a day. Plus, there are more than 460,000  new accounts created every day.

Twitter is less of a lead generator than other platforms like Facebook. But it is an incredibly powerful search engine and news source. Many businesses also use Twitter to provide customer service.

LinkedIn

Every second, two new people join LinkedIn. Now, with more than 706+ million users, LinkedIn is a force to be reckoned with.

According to Search Engine Journal, marketers love Twitter and Facebook. They leave out LinkedIn. But here’s the deal. LinkedIn is the platform for B2B marketing, not B2C marketing.

LinkedIn proudly touts its user base of professionals. Many of those professionals are connected with companies. These companies could benefit from the extra marketing love. Don’t neglect LinkedIn, especially if you’re in B2C.

Those are the big three. Whatever you’re selling, doing, being, or saying, these are the three social media accounts you need to keep active.

Consider the Lesser Three Social Media Sites 

These are called “the lesser three” (my term) only because they’re not part of the big three. These social media sites are huge, and I strongly encourage you to be present on them as well as the big three.

Pinterest

Early in its life, Pinterest got labeled as a social platform for women. At first, that was true. But now, women account for about half of Pinterest pinners, which isn’t much different from the gender slant on other social media sites. Pinterest is a place to be for any gender, any company, and any brand.

And the site is growing fast. The business generates more than $400 million a quarter and has 335 million monthly active users.

Instagram

I’ve found that Instagram is a powerful way to promote both one’s personal brand and a business, too. Despite my not-so-often posting, I discovered that liking and commenting on other photos is a powerful way to grow a massive following.

Instagram is a visual platform. We already know that pictures get 5x higher engagement on Twitter, and photos make up 93% of the most engaging Facebook posts. With Instagram, it’s all photos and videos. That kind of visceral appeal is one of the reasons for Instagram’s massive popularity. Throw video into the mix, and you’ve got a social media channel that is basically addicting. Visual content in social media is electric.

Some social media marketers have argued that Instagram only serves the purposes of image-heavy brand content for companies like National Geographic. Sure, National Geographic’s Instagram channel is killer, and they have a strong 4.8 million followers.

However, I would argue that Instagram is effective for nearly any type of business. I’ve seen successful fitness coaches, booksellers, conference speakers, coders, video game designers, SEO companies, and accountants make a dent in the Instagram universe.

YouTube

YouTube has the distinguished position of being the second largest search engine in the world. Considering that Bing and Yahoo have been vying (unsuccessfully) for that position, that’s no small feat. YouTube did it without even trying.

Despite their modest pretensions to massive search, YouTube is a hit when it comes to video watching. Obviously. In fact, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults than any cable network.

Some brands lend themselves to video virality more than others, but any brand can be successful at video marketing. A video doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy to be effective in brand promotion. It needs to be on YouTube.

Check Out Two of the Little Social Media Sites 

My word “little” needs a bit of a disclaimer. These social media sites are massive. However, as social media marketing platforms, their benefit comes in their niche sub-communities for people of shared interest.

On Facebook, you might socialize with people you went to school with — friends from past and present. On Tumblr, however, you might interact with people who share your interest in, say, aerial photography drones.

In that sense, your audience might be smaller but more focused.

Tumblr

Even though it’s technically a “blogging platform,” Tumblr has enjoyed meteoric growth in its young life.

In 2013, Tumblr was raking in monthly pageviews that soared over 5 billion. With smart posting (i.e., great content) and consistency, many marketers have discovered that Tumblr is an ideal place to impact one’s niche. Some marketers actually host their company blog on Tumblr. (This is something which I don’t recommend for SEO purposes).

Reddit

Reddit is a news site, basically. But as a social media news site, it has an appeal that goes beyond mere “headlines.” These headlines are voted up and virally shared.

Maybe a dog saying “Hiiiii!” isn’t quite as meaningful as business news or government decision-making. But still, Reddit is a marketing channel that might work for some companies. Of all the social media sites, Reddit has the highest percentage of news-readers — 62%, according to Pew researchers.

To use Reddit effectively, the secret is creating engagement on subreddits and communities packed with people who are passionate about what you are. This is your target community. Then, you create relevant headlines and promotions to create an uptick in your stories.

Want to learn more about marketing on Reddit? Here’s a quick rundown:

Find One Niche Social Media Site

Last, explore the niche social media landscape. You might discover that it’s an absolute waste of time, and there is zero ROI. Or, on the other hand, you might find a world of untapped potential and dozens of warm leads. It’s worth doing some exploring.

Here’s are a few sorta-popular niche sites. Forget the millions of followers and fans. Here, it’s all about a targeted audience:

• Untappd – Beer lovers
• Behance – Creative professionals
• Care2 – Green lifestyle
• GoodReads – People who love reading
• Ravelry – Knitters and crocheters
• Gentlemint – Pinterest for dudes

The best way to find your niche social site is to google it. You will find something.

Conclusion

The social media scene can be bewildering. But if you follow this plan, you’re going to see a higher social media marketing ROI:

• Must: Join the Big Three: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Should: Consider the Lesser Three: Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube
• Could: Check out Two of the Little Ones: Tumblr, Reddit
• Possibly: Find One Niche Site

As you engage in social media, you’ll discover the social nuances of your own niche. It will look different for every business, region, target audience, and personal style.

What social media sites have you discovered to be useful for your business?

The post Which Social Media Sites Really Matter and Why appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/which-social-accounts-matter/

A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a powerful tool for those wanting to track user interaction on their Facebook business page. Facebook Insights can be seen by all the admins of your page, and it can provide a wealth of information about your content and audience.

By using Facebook Insights, you’ll be able to determine the best time of day to post, the best day of the week to post, and what type of content is most popular.

It is important to note that the Facebook Insights tool is constantly updated to reflect your page’s developments and any patterns that may form. So you’ll need to keep checking back to keep in the loop.

So, what can you learn from Facebook insights?

1. How to Access Facebook Insights

Go to your Facebook Business page, then click “See All,” under “Insights” on desktop.

This is the main Insights dashboard, and here you’ll see information about trends, posts, and your audience.

You’ll be able to see your most recent posts, Facebook likes, reach, actions on page, the gender and age of your audience, and much, much more. Don’t be afraid to dive in here; it might look a bit overwhelming, but it is pretty easy to navigate.

2. Facebook Insights: Virality of Posts

One of the most important things you can learn is what type of content is likley to go viral.

Click on Posts, you’ll see your latest Facebook posts and learn about their reach and engagement. This is especially useful if you would like to see which posts were the most successful.

You can sort posts based on:

• Reach (organic vs paid)
• Type of post
• Targeting
• Reach engagement
• Date published

This is useful if you want to know the success of a certain post (i.e., a video you posted recently). So instead of sifting through all the posts, you can simply sort by videos.

You’ll be able to see the date the post was made, the title of the post, the type of post, who it targeted, reach, and engagement. You won’t see the virality in a percentage form anymore, but you can still gain a ton of useful knowledge about your post behavior.

Takeaway: Knowing the reaction to different types of Facebook posts gives you the knowledge to create more content that your fans like, which will then increase your branding, reach, and hopefully drive traffic to your website.

3. Facebook Insights: Page Likes

If you click on “Likes,” you’ll be able to see the demographics as well as the locations of your fans. You’ll also be able to see their age groups.

In this example, the Cheap Flights South Africa fan page has a much larger female fan base than a male fan base. We are also able to see that most users are in Cape Town, South Africa, so they should customize their posts accordingly.

Below you’ll see another graph that looks like this:

Now you can search by new likes and even by unlikes. For example, in the above graph, you can see the fan page had some unlikes.

It would be useful to go back to your page and see what posts you wrote on those days. Your previous posts may be able to give you an indication as to what went wrong that day.

Weren’t you entertaining enough? Or were you just too much? Perhaps you posted too many articles and not enough images? It is crucial that you do this step otherwise the stats are pretty much just stats.

What to get more likes? Check out this video for seven strategies to grow your Facebook likes:

Takeaway: Having demographic information about your fans allows you to build personas of your target audience. This can be very beneficial when creating landing pages, home page copy, and overall marketing messages.

4. Facebook Insights: Reach

It’s all very good and well that you have a Facebook business page, but how much of your content is actually reaching your fans? Who is talking about your page? Are any of your fans referring your page to others or sharing your images with their friends?

The Reach section, located just under Likes in the left-hand bar, will provide this crucial information.

It will also tell you how often your posts are marked as hide, report as spam and unlike.

Takeaway: The important part of the Reach area is that you can see what days and types of content help you reach the widest possible audience. (Unlike before, you won’t see reach in terms of paid Facebook ads; you’ll need to use the Ads Manager for this information.

5. Facebook Check-Ins

Facebook check-ins can be really useful for companies that have a physical location. Fans that ‘check-in’ when they arrive at your business show their loyalty to you in doing so.

Under the check-in section, you’ll be able to see the number of people who have checked in, where they live, whether they are male or female, etc.

Takeaway: Check-in data is extremely valuable for businesses with a physical presence. From being able to measure the social media impact on sales, to monitoring your busiest days – definitely, dig into this info!

6. Want More Detailed Facebook Insights Data? 

Insights already offers a ton of data, but did you know you can actually export the data? Export your data using the top right button on the Insights page.

This little block will pop up:

Select Page Level Data and the MS Excel format option. You can choose a date range for the data.

Once you’ve downloaded the insights you’ll see never-ending columns of data which may at first seem overwhelming. At the bottom, you’ll also see various data sheets containing information such as key metrics, daily like sources, daily viral reach etc.

Each column in the key metrics sheet provides you will different information. For example, if you scroll to the Lifetime Total Likes column you’ll be able to see how many likes your page received over the dates you specified.

Total Daily Reach is useful as well and here you’ll be able to see the number of people your posts may have reached (even from friends of your fans).

Takeaway: Sometimes looking at the tabulated data can provide more insights than graphs. If you’re proficient with Excel, you can slice and dice your data to find out more about your Fans and social media impact.

My recommendation: Don’t be afraid to dive in and see what’s inside!

Conclusion

From learning what types of Facebook posts are most effective to learning where your audience is located, Facebook Insights provides a plethora of useful information about your business page.

However, the key is to take that data and create something meaningful with it. Use the data to track the performance of your page, find emerging patterns, and develop a more effective social media strategy.

What have you learned about your post or audience from Facebook Insights? How will that data help you create a more effective Facebook strategy? 

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/guide-to-facebook-insights/

How to Respond to Ripoff Report Reviews

Ripoff Report is a popular website that claims to give consumers recourse if they are scammed on the internet.

But what if the tables turn, and your legitimate business is listed?

What course of action can you take?

How Ripoff Report Listings Can Impact Your Business

According to reputation management best practices, you should claim all the online listings you can, including local directories, social media, and authoritative sites such as government and educational domains.

Unfortunately, getting listed on RipoffReport.com is not the kind of reputation you want. 93% of consumers use online reviews to help them determine which products and services to buy. So having just one negative review online can harm your business by turning good customers away.

The reviews on Ripoff Report are always negative, unlike Yelp, where you will find a mix of good and bad reviews.

The site has even been accused of promoting negative content with the text on its homepage that states, “Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported, file your review.”

Despite hailing itself as a bastion of truth for average folks against businesses that would do them wrong, the site admits it lacks “the internal resources” to ensure all posts on the site are truthful.

This means someone could write a false negative report about your business and have it published for millions to see.

According to data from Ripoff Report, the site receives between 125,000 and 250,000 visits a day, which is more than a million visitors per week.

Google certainly helps with visibility. Reports often appear in the search results for the people (or companies) mentioned in the reports.

What is Ripoff Report’s Purpose?

Ripoff Report is a privately held, for-profit company founded by Ed Magedson in December 1998. The site was originally created to promote Magedson’s self-published book “Rip-Off Revenge” and provide consumers with a forum to vent their frustrations about businesses.

Since then, the site has gathered an infamous reputation as the one place businesses never want to be listed.

The site uses platitudes like, “By consumers, for consumers” and, “Don’t let them get away with it!”

But it’s the last one, “Let the truth be known!” that may be misleading. That is because a significant number of posts on Ripoff Report may be inaccurate or misleading.

The site has been widely accused of spreading defamatory content, then extorting victims by offering to edit the content on the site for pay.

For small businesses that may not have the resources to pay to get the negative reports edited or removed, being listed on the site could be devastating.

This is why it is imperative to respond immediately to reports on the site, no matter how negative or defamatory the content may be.

Ripoff Report Scams

Scams on Ripoff Report are all too common. Scammers might call your business and complain about not receiving a particular order. Only this order doesn’t exist.

When you refuse to send them any product, the scammers will threaten to write a bad review unless you send them money.

Another version of the scam involves a fake customer posting a fraudulent complaint about your business on the site. The scammer will send you a link to the review via email, along with an offer to remove or edit the review — in exchange for money.

But there are ways to mitigate the damage.

Aside from getting the report removed entirely, the best course of action may be to respond to the report and appeal to the person who wrote it.

Here is some advice to help you do just that.

Traditional Options for Dealing with Ripoff Reports

Your first reaction to seeing your business listed on Ripoff Report, regardless of whether the allegations are true or false, may be to get the report edited or removed entirely.

It’s an understandable reaction — but it might not be possible without paying high fees.

Before we cover how to respond to these reviews, let’s explore your other options.

Get Ripoff Reports Removed

If you want to wipe the internet clean of the negative review, there are removal services you can try.

Companies use advertising and PR campaigns to remove harmful content from the internet legally.

If you don’t want to go with a reputation management agency, you can always try turning to the site directly.

Use Ripoff Report’s CAP

The site has its own “Corporate Advocacy Program” (CAP) that promises to help you regain control over your online reputation. The program allows businesses to tell their side of the story and “take care of complaints on your own by filing rebuttals, which are free.”

As part of the CAP program, someone from Xcentric will review the report about your business and contact the author to verify if the report is unfair, unbalanced, or phony. The company claims it determines the truthfulness of complaints as best it can.

The CAP program provides updates to existing reports adding a headline noting your commitment to addressing complaints and helps prevent the filing of fake reports by competitors or malicious individuals.

All of this will not come free, however.

The last reported estimate of CAP starts at $7,500, followed by a monthly service fee and per-report fee.

How to Remove Ripoff Reports from Google

A single unsatisfactory review on Ripoff Reports can pose a reputational risk. You can try to use Google’s take-down process, but Ripoff Report may be able to subvert Google’s actions to de-index the offending content.

Bury the Ripoff Report with Positive Content  

You can try to bury the report on the Ripoff Report site, which may carry over to Google and other search engines.

Start by looking at the meta-description used in the harmful content, and note the key terms they use.

Then use those keywords to create positive posts and pages in the hopes they will be ranked by Google. If all goes well, the content will outrank harmful content and banish those negative reviews further down in Google’s results.

For this to work, your posts need to be published on major online platforms that rank higher than the mention you don’t want.

However, this method can be time-consuming.

Imagine the amount of damage that could occur while you are working to rank more positive content.

Join Ripoff Report

If you can’t beat them, join them.

While Ripoff Report does seem to make its living off of extortion, Google seems to have a “love affair” with the site. You may be able to use that factor to your advantage.

Ripoff Report has high visibility, lots of online visitors, and with Google spreading the content far and wide, you can use this moment to come out ahead.

You can try to reply to the review in the hopes that your reply will show in the Google results, thus swaying consumers to see your side.

How to Respond to Negative Ripoff Reports

Before you respond to a foul review, consider if there is any truth to the report. If so, the best thing you can do is apologize. This will maintain your integrity while showing other consumers that you can admit when you’re wrong.

Fully admit to the mistake, and suggest steps for remedying the situation.

For example, if a consumer of your e-commerce store received a shirt in the wrong size, offer to send the correct size or a complete refund. Offer options and be reasonable and do your best to de-escalate the issue and deliver an adequate resolution.

To really hammer home that you are a reputable business, consider adding positive references to the rebuttal. That way, consumers reading your response can contact those references to determine on their own how committed you are to customer service.

You can also leave your contact information so other consumers can reach out if they want more information.

Ask the Consumer to Remove the Negative Review

If you can reach an amicable solution to the problem, ask the person if they will consider deleting the original review on Ripoff Report. Some consumers choose to edit their original posts with a follow-up.

Even if the consumer’s attitude has warmed the edit, the effect may not help your business, especially if the individual shares that you asked them to remove the review after solving the problem.

When to File a Ripoff Report Lawsuit

Finally, as a last resort before replying to the negative review, you can always try filing a Ripoff Report lawsuit.

Get a Court Order

Going to court over the negative review is certainly an option, but this method will not come cheap. There is also the time factor, as a defamation case may take months or years to process.

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning the Communications Decency Act, which protects Ripoff Report from defamation lawsuits.

The CDA was originally passed by Congress in 1996 as an attempt to regulate pornographic material online.

The act is the short name of Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which seeks to regulate indecency.

However, the language of the Act has been interpreted to mean that operators of online services are not to be considered publishers. This, in turn, means companies such as Ripoff Report are not legally liable for the words of third parties who use their services.

Direct Action to Remove a Ripoff Report

You can try suing the company behind Ripoff Report, Xcentric Ventures, LLC. However, to do so you will have to enter arbitration, which will cost you an initial fee of $2,000.

Plus, the company has been involved in quite a few lawsuits. These have been filed by individuals, search engines, and entire countries.  

While other countries have succeeded in blocking the Ripoff Report (only for the blocks to be lifted shortly afterward), to date, the company has not lost one case in the United States.

Sue the Person Who Wrote the Defamatory Content

You can also bring a legal case against the Ripoff Report author. However, anyone over 14 can leave a review on the site. So the person could still be a minor and may have remained anonymous, making it impossible to file a case against them.

Suing Google for Ripoff Report Removal

Finally, can submit a court order against Google in the hopes of pressing the company to de-index the offensive search results.

However, suing Xcentric and even Google may bring more headaches than the case is worth.

You may find yourself with mounting legal fees and court cases that drag on for years. Those companies have the resources to delay matters in court. Do you?

What’s worse, if you lose your case, you may be required to pay the other parties’ legal fees.

Which could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For small business owners, suing is not a viable option. That makes responding and seeing the review as a positive element instead of negative that is your best resource.

How Can Ripoff Reports Help E-Commerce, Local, and SMB?

Instead of feeling down about your Ripoff Reports, use it as an opportunity to boost your business. Here’s how.

Focus on Superior Customer Service

If the negative reviews about you are truthful, fix what’s wrong, and grow your business. You should see the Ripoff Report as a positive.

Someone pointed out what needs to be repaired so that you can please your customers. If the issue points to slow response times, consider adding an e-commerce chat box to your site, for example.

This way, you are using the consumer’s grievances constructively and will come out ahead of the situation, despite the potential and temporary ding to your reputation.  And, don’t forget to respond to the review and list what changes you’ve made.

Improve Your Products & Services

If the review is about your products or services (and the report has merit), tweak your offerings. Better customer service and attention to improving offers can go a long way toward getting more sales for your e-commerce business or getting more attention to your small business or SMB.

Don’t alter your course over one foul review, of course, but do pay attention to what your customers have to say.

Reframe It: There is No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

The negative report written about you may trash your business, but it’s also bringing your business to the top of consumers’ minds.

Everyone who reads the report will think of your business – good or bad. Use this to your advantage by replying to the review and making amends, which is the far superior option when faced with a bad review.

What if the review is fraudulent and doesn’t contain a lick of truth? You can still turn this situation into a positive by…

Burying the Negative Report Under Positive Google Reviews

Put effort into gathering all the online reviews you can. When you focus on customer service and premium offerings, your customers are sure to want to spread the good news.

Give them the platform they want by sending them to Ripoff Report and Google to leave online reviews.

By asking happy customers to leave unbiased reviews on Ripoff Report and Google, you will help push that negative content down in the search results.

And discerning customers reading your new reviews will see that your army of fans has come out to cheerlead for your side, mitigating the damage of the negative Ripoff Report.

Competitors to Ripoff Report

Ripoff Report is not the only review site out there, though it is very popular.

There are also a number of other review sites, and anyone could use them to write about your business.

Here are a few sites to keep an eye on.

Competitor 1: Complaints Board

The folks behind complaintsboard.com consider the site to be a virtual conference room where constructive conversations about business experiences happen. The site is professional and polished but, as expected, most of the reviews are negative.

Competitor 2: Consumer Affairs

Consumeraffairs.com contains business listings in a variety of industries, like Ripoff Report, only the company admits that companies pay the site to be accredited or when consumers click on their listings.

Anytime payment changes hands, the truth may become muddled, so take the information you read on this site with a grain of salt.

Competitor 3: Better Business Bureau

Bbb.org strives to be an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can come together and discuss businesses fairly and accurately.

The reviews on the Better Business Bureau tend to mix good and bad, much like Google reviews.

Monitor these sites for reviews about your business and respond promptly to keep your reputation high. Even if the reviews are negative, admit when you are wrong, try to make things right, and bury the review with others if you cannot come to a resolution that involves outright deletion.

Conclusion

Find time to build a comprehensive content marketing strategy and then tackle the problem head on. Appeal with the author of the review, state your case and try to make amends.

If the review is false or inflammatory, focus on other consumers who might read the review and leave your contact information so they can reach out for more information.

How will you respond to preserve and potentially boost your online reputation?

The post How to Respond to Ripoff Report Reviews appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/ripoff-report-reviews/

Best HR Outsourcing Services

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

HR is confusing. And the legal ramifications of doing something wrong… are huge. 

There’s a reason people spend their entire lives learning the ins and outs of human resources—there’s a lot to it. But the good news is that nobody expects you to know it all and you don’t have to navigate it alone. 

The best HR outsourcing services exist to make your life easier.

However, there are a ton of service providers on the market. How do you decide which one’s right for you when they all appear to be exactly the same?

To help answer that question, I looked at countless options and narrowed it down to my top six recommendations. And by the end of this guide, you’ll know everything you need to know to make the right choice for your business. 

The top 6 options for HR outsourcing services:

1. G&A Partners – best for customization and flexibility
2. Bambee – best for policies and administrative tasks
3. Paychex – best HR outsourcing services for SMBs
4. Insperity – best PEO outsourcing for enterprises
5. ADP – best full-service non-PEO outsourcing option
6. CPEhr – best for individual HR outsourcing and consultations

How to choose the best HR outsourcing service for you

There are countless different HR outsourcing services to choose from. 

And distinguishing between all of them can feel like an impossible task. 

So, before we dive into my top recommendations, let’s talk about what makes my recommendations stand out, and how to decide on the best HR outsourcing services for you. 

The size of your business

Handling HR for large companies is vastly different than doing the same at a startup or small business. As such, different HR outsourcing companies specialize in different things and offer services targeted to a specific type of customer. 

On the other hand, some offer solutions for businesses of all sizes. 

However, it’s essential to consider your business’s size and budget when making your final choice. You should also think about how fast you plan to grow and expand your team. 

Always make sure to talk with a sales representative and be as detailed as possible about your current and future situation to make sure they can handle everything you need. 

Types of services

Some HR outsourcing companies (like Bambee) only provide a specific type of service. On the other hand, some offer everything you could ever possibly need… but at a higher price point. 

It may be helpful to outline your processes for each HR activity you currently manage in-house. 

This can help you identify problem areas or bottlenecks with room for improvement. Then, you can pinpoint exactly which tasks and services you should outsource. 

If you already know, or you want to outsource everything, consider the associated costs to ensure it’s within your budget. And keep in mind that most providers don’t offer pricing online. 

So, you’ll get a chance to speak with their team before making your final decision. 

Just remember to ask about the specific services you need to make sure they can help you with everything on your list. It’s also smart to compare your initial consultation experience and pricing of various companies before choosing one. 

Short-term vs. long-term

Do you need help for the foreseeable future or just for a one-off event like a round of recruitment? Some providers (like CPEhr) offer a la carte options so you can pick and choose what you need. 

On the other hand, some only offer all-in-one solutions. So, it’s important to understand your needs before you make any decisions. 

If you need short-term help, make sure you communicate that during your consultation. 

Level of support

Do you want your HR systems to run completely hands-off? If so, you need more support than a team that needs one-off tasks or particular areas of their HR handled for them. 

Here in a second, we’ll talk about the different types of HR outsourcing services. 

But keep the level of support you think you need in the back of your mind, as this plays a large role in which company you should choose. 

Flexibility

If you already have a benefits package or an internal HR team, you need more flexibility from your HR outsourcing provider. Especially if you want to keep the same benefits package you already have. 

Some providers don’t let you do this as they have their own preferences and partnerships. 

And you also need to draw a clear line between what your in-house team does vs. what your outsourcing company provides. That way, nobody wastes time doing the same tasks twice. 

However, if you’re a brand new company or don’t have any HR systems in place, you won’t need the same flexibility level. So, you have fewer restrictions to worry about. 

Customer and employee support

HR matters, benefits in particular, are confusing and hard to navigate. 

Because of that, your employees must have easy access to someone in your HR department. 

When you outsource this, your employees should be able to directly talk with the company, whether it be to ask a quick question or get help choosing the right benefits package. 

Some providers offer a dedicated manager that handles this, making it much easier for you and your team to get the answers they need. Furthermore, they should also provide an employee self-service dashboard for paystubs, W-2s, time off, and more. 

Regardless of who you choose, make sure they plan on taking great care of your team. 

The different types of HR outsourcing services

HR outsourcing is technically separate from PEO and HR software, but they’re very similar in nature. So, let’s take a second to walk through the differences before we get started.

HR software

This is something companies provide to make in-house HR management easier. 

With HR software, you pay a monthly fee to use it every month. Alternatively, you could buy a license and install it on your computer. 

It’s mostly for automating processes or providing a network of benefits providers. 

You can use it as a tiny business without HR or if you have a dedicated HR team. Either way, it’s a software that requires you (or someone on your team) to run it. 

With that said, it’s very flexible and affordable.

However, don’t confuse it with HR outsourcing because they aren’t the same, although a few of the providers on this list also offer HR software. 

Human resources outsourcing (HRO)

HR outsourcing means hiring a third-party to take on all or part of your HR management tasks. This can include things like payroll administration, benefits management, recruitment, and employee training programs. 

The benefit of outsourcing in this manner vs. hiring or expanding your in-house team is lower associated costs. When you outsource, you don’t need to pay a salary or provide benefits. 

So, the overall cost is typically much lower than adding new people to your team. 

All of the options on this list offer HR outsourcing in some form or another. Some only cover specific tasks like policy creation, while others offer services covering every aspect of human resources. 

With HR outsourcing, you can decide if you want to outsource all HR activities or just a few. 

Professional employer organization (PEO)

PEO services are a specific type of HR outsourcing in which the company is your co-employer. Furthermore, the service provider becomes the employer of your employees. 

And since the PEO company is the employer, they’re responsible for payroll taxes. 

This type of agreement typically requires a lengthy contract. However, you’re in charge of what your team does on a day-to-day basis. So, everything stays the same on your end, except you’re no longer responsible for specific HR tasks or payroll taxes.

Furthermore, the two parties decide how much responsibility each party handles. 

So, this type of agreement can be extremely flexible if that’s something you need. This is especially beneficial if you already have an HR department.

One of the most significant values of this type of partnership is access to better benefits packages for your team. Plus, you can get those pesky HR tasks off your plate. 

However, you sacrifice a certain degree of control by inviting someone else into your business. 

#1 – G&A Partners Review — The best HR outsourcing service for customization and flexibility

If you’re looking for a customizable and flexible all-around HR outsourcing solution, G&A Partners is my #1 recommendation. 

They combine intuitive technology encompassing everything you need with world-class customer service to empower your business and employees. From payroll services to health insurance, retirement plans, and recruitment, G&A Partners covers it all. 

Furthermore, each plan is custom-fit to your business and specific needs. 

So, you don’t have to worry about cookie-cutter plans that don’t quite fit the bill. Plus, you also get a dedicated client service team to manage everything and help you out when you need it. 

As a G&A Partners client, you can choose from countless services, including:

• Payroll administration and processing
• Self-service employee dashboard
• Time clock, scheduling, and PTO
• On-demand data access
• Benefits from the top providers
• Benefits administration
• Ancillary benefits
• Wellness and financial health
• Sourcing, recruiting, and hiring

And since each plan is custom to match your needs, you’re not stuck paying for services you don’t actually need. Plus, you can rest easy knowing you comply with local, state, and federal legal regulations. 

From recruitment and onboarding to payroll and benefits administration, you’re in good hands.

With that said, G&A Partners doesn’t share pricing online. So, schedule a free consultation to build a service package tailormade for you, your business, and your #1 asset—your employees. 

#2 – Bambee Review — The best HR outsourcing services for HR policies and administrative tasks

If you’re a small business with fewer than 99 employees, Bambee is an affordable way to hire a dedicated account manager to handle HR policies and employee training.

Hiring an in-house HR manager can easily cost $4,000+ every month, plus benefits. So, it gets quite expensive and unattainable for really small businesses. 

But with Bambee, you can outsource starting at $79/month (or $99/month if you pay monthly). 

From the start, you get a dedicated HR manager to help build your HR policies and walk you through your state’s compliance regulations. 

They can also help you onboard employees, terminate them, and handle corrective action while staying in compliance. 

Furthermore, Bambee can also help evaluate your risk for wrongful termination. 

So, you don’t have to worry about expensive lawsuits or continually wondering what you’re responsible for after employee termination. 

Plus, you get complete remote access to your manager via phone, email, and chat to answer questions and help you with anything you need. And the best part? Your employees can chat with them as well. 

With Bambee, you get access to powerful and helpful features, including:

• Creating and implementing company policies
• Staff training, so they understand your new policies
• E-signatures and an online document viewer
• Staff folders for organization and compliance
• A smart cabinet for record-keeping
• HR forms and agreements (i.e., HIPAA notices or offer letters)

You get everything you need to create, implement, and manage internal HR policies. However, you are sacrificing several crucial features, like payroll administration and benefits management for affordable pricing.

So, keep in mind that you will have to manage those things on your own. Bambee can answer questions and look into those things for you, but they’re not included as part of the package. 

#3 – Paychex Review — The best HR outsourcing services for small to midsize businesses

Paychex is one of the most popular and trusted HR solutions on the market. 

They’ve been around for more than 45 years, and over 680,000+ businesses trust them with their HR software and service needs. 

From benefits and attendance to payroll, HR, and onboarding, they offer everything you need to run and streamline your small or midsize business without hiring in-house. 

And the best part is that you can choose which services you need, rather than paying for everything and using a handful of features. 

Plus, you can outsource everything… or a few things, depending on what you need. 

They offer software and service packages for small, medium, and large companies. So, it’s an excellent option for everyone. But their small and medium sizes packages are where they truly shine. 

In fact, more than half a million of their customers are small businesses. 

With their small and midsize packages, you get access to Paychex Flex, their all-in-one HR automation software. 

But you can also choose between 24/7/365 customer support or a dedicated specialist for help when you need it. So, whether you have a dedicated HR team or not, you can rest easy knowing you have an expert manager behind you. 

Paychex Flex comes with a wide range of powerful features, including:

• Recruiting and applicant tracking
• Time and attendance
• Hiring and onboarding
• Retirement and termination
• Health insurance administration
• Payroll management
• PTO, 401(k)s, and other benefits

You won’t find their pricing online, so get a free quote to learn more about Paychex today!

#4 – Insperity Review — The best PEO services for enterprises

Insperity is an all-in-one HR service provider for small businesses and enterprise organizations alike. They offer individual solutions and a full-service PEO option, making it perfect for small to medium enterprises. 

It’s an excellent choice if you have the budget for their PEO choice as an alternative to hiring or expanding an in-house HR team. 

They also offer a wide range of HR software if you’re a smaller business interested in managing HR activities on your own. However, that gets old very quickly, especially if you have a ton of other things on your plate. 

Insperity’s PEO all-in-one solution covers every HR service imaginable, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits
• FSA and HSA accounts
• Disability, employee assistance, and retirement
• Payroll processing and administration
• Time and attendance tracking
• HR administration and wage garnishments
• An employee self-service portal
• Risk mitigation and legal compliance
• Recruiting and performance management
• Training and development programs
• Company culture development
• Advanced analytics and reporting
• Personalized customer support for your employees

As if that isn’t enough, they have a team of specialists dedicated to managing different HR tasks. So, you know you’re getting the best of the best. 

It’s essentially an extension of your business (or HR department if you already have one). 

Insperity’s services are a practical way to reduce risk, improve productivity, automate your HR processes, and get a bird’s eye view of your most valuable asset—your employees. 

They offer two-year pricing guarantees, billing transparency, and fixed service fees, so you never have to guess how much you’re going to pay every month. 

However, their prices aren’t available online, so get in touch with their sales team to learn more. 

#5 – ADP Review — The best for full-service non-PEO outsourcing

If you’re interested in full-service HR outsourcing but don’t want to go the PEO route, ADP is an excellent choice. They provide complete outsourcing for everything from administrative tasks to payroll processing and more. 

With that said, they do offer a PEO option. But they’re one of the few providers that offer complete packages without the complexity of an enterprise-grade PEO partnership. 

On top of that, they also offer one of the most popular HR software packages on the market. 

So, you can create an entire HR department using their services and software without having to hire in-house or expand your existing team. 

ADP’s team of experts is ready to help reduce your risk and everyday burden, regardless if you’re just looking for a helping hand with administrative tasks or facing an acquisition, merger, or an at-risk termination.

So, no matter the situation, ADP has you covered. 

They offer a variety of individual services and more strategic offerings, including things like:

• Payroll and benefits administration
• Time and attendance tracking
• Employee handbooks and internal policies
• COBRA insurance administration
• Dynamic analytics
• Compliance training, tracking, and reporting
• Recruitment and staffing

On top of that, they also offer a bundle of business processes and HR outsourcing if you need even more assistance with the ins and outs of your business. 

Because each package is tailored for your business, you won’t find ADP’s pricing online. 

As such, you’ll have to get with their sales team to learn more and start building out your HR outsourcing package. 

#6 – CPEhr Review — The best HR outsourcing services for individual tasks and HR consultations

If you’re interested in outsourcing individual HR tasks or receiving HR consultations, CPEhr is a smart choice. They offer a wide variety of different services designed to help make your life (or your HR department’s) life a bit easier. 

So, rather than spending time running payroll or finding the best benefits for your team, you can work on things that actually move the needle for your business. 

Plus, they also take pride in helping customers develop long-term and short-term HR strategies, so you’re never left to figure things out on your own. 

Whether your HR department needs some extra assistance or you need one-off services, like recruitment for an open position, CPEhr has you covered. Their services span basic administrative tasks to more complex strategy planning, including:

• Payroll and tax administration
• Recruiting, onboarding, and training
• Benefits administration
• COBRA insurance management
• Disability and retirement
• Employee benefit orientations
• Employee and management training
• Risk management consulting
• Employee handbooks and policies
• Unemployment and disability administration
• Performance reviews
• Legal compliance
• Government audits

Essentially, CPEhr covers anything you need, whether you want to outsource everything or a short-term one-off situation. 

They also offer PEO and full HR outsourcing plans, if that’s something you’re interested in. However, their a la carte services and complete flexibility are what make them stand out from everyone else on this list. 

Like most providers, you won’t find pricing online. 

Get in touch with their team to talk more about your needs and learn more about how CPEhr can help your business today!

Wrapping things up

G&A Partners is my top recommendation for most users. It’s incredibly flexible with the ability to handle businesses of all shapes and sizes. Plus, they offer a wide range of services to help make your life easier. 

But that doesn’t mean they’re right for everyone. 

So, don’t forget to use the criteria we talked about as you go through the process of finding the best HR outsourcing services for you, your team, and your business. 

How do you handle human resources at your company?

The post Best HR Outsourcing Services appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/best-hr-outsourcing-services/

Analytics Consulting

Your analytics should tell you everything. 

Tools like Google Analytics are incredibly valuable for businesses. Once you’re setup, you’ll have everything you need to analyze your performance data properly. Instead, many companies have realized that their analytics tools have introduced a lot of unexpected problems. 

They’re not getting the kind of value they need. 

That’s the good news. Most companies think their data is clean; that they’re making good decisions with the data they have. Most of these companies are wrong; they just don’t know it yet. This is why companies need analytics consulting. They don’t know what they don’t know. 

Today, I’ll show you how to find the right analytics consultant for your business.  

4 Ways an Analytics Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

Many companies make the wrong assumptions. Using a tool like Google Analytics, clients think all they have to do is drop the tracking code into their web pages, log into their account, and begin analyzing their data. It sounds easy, but it often isn’t. 

There’s more to it than that. 

This is why you need an analytics consultant. With the right consultant, you’ll have the education you need to grow your business. You’ll be able to pull insights out of your data using a variety of methods. Each of these strategies is important because they have a cumulative effect on your business. 

Here are four ways analytics consulting can help you grow your business. 

1. Exclude spam traffic via bots, scrapers, and spiders

How much of your traffic comes from real visitors? How much of it comes from bots, scrapers, and spiders? According to Imperva, almost half of all internet traffic is non-human. In 2014, Google introduced an obscure setting that enables you to filter out bots and spiders listed in IAB’s Interactional Spiders and Bots list. This low-key setting is buried in Google Analytics, but it’s incredibly important; many small businesses still aren’t aware of this setting. 

You’ll also need help to filter out referral spam.

Referral spam is basically fake website hits; these bots, scrapers, and spiders land in your site. Site owners send their spam to your site. They hope you’ll see these referrals in your Google Analytics account, clickthrough, and visit their site. 

This junk traffic poisons your data. 

It gives you false readings based on inaccurate data. Your site may be more or less profitable, depending on your visits-to-spam ratio on your site. This isn’t something many businesses watch for in their analytics reports. 

A good analytics consultant will consistently filter the variations of spam traffic (e.g., direct spam traffic, referral spam traffic, etc.) out of your reports, so you get a clear picture of your marketing performance. 

2. Help you analyze your data properly

A lot of companies don’t know how to analyze their data properly. According to Forrester, between 60 and 73 percent of a company’s analytics data goes unused. Companies collect lots of data on customer activity, but they aren’t using it, why?

There are lots of reasons. 

• Companies don’t know what they have 
• Companies aren’t aware of the value of their data
• They don’t know how to evaluate or analyze their data
• Their data isn’t available to those who can use it 
• There’s too much data to go through and not enough time to use it

Think about it. 

Right now, your company has valuable data about your customers. This is data you can use to attract more customers, lower expenses, grow faster, jump ahead of competitors, etc. 

If you’re unaware of the data, you can’t use it. 

A good analytics consultant will help you analyze your data properly, showing you what you have and how you can use it to grow your business. 

3. Identify the list of problems you’re trying to fix

Your data isn’t as valuable without context. 

If you know the problem you’re trying to solve, you have a pretty good idea of the answers you’re looking for in your data. 

That’s the problem though. 

A lot of companies treat their analytics tools as a technology issue. They focus their attention on the obvious issues like hardware or software. They rarely treat their analytics as a question and answer tool. That’s exactly what it is, though. 

Target had the right idea when they started their analysis with a problem/question. 

Remember the story?

“If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that?” It’s a creepy story that shows the power of questions and problems. A great analytics consultant will help you discover the issues you’re trying to solve and the questions that need answers. 

4. Focus your attention on the metrics that explain why

Analytics tells you what happened — what visitors did when they arrived on your site, the ads they responded to, what they read most often, etc. It doesn’t tell you why visitors do the things they do. Understanding what is important, but it’s more important to understand why something happens. 

Focusing on the right metrics is the answer. 

The right analytics consultant will help you answer the “what” — basically looking in the rearview mirror. But they’ll also help you look ahead; They’ll dig deeper, showing you the why behind visitor and customer behaviors. 

Your analytics consultant should provide you with the education and support you need to squeeze more value out of your data.

How to Get Started With an Analytics Consultant

Avinash Kaushik has a three-step framework he uses to help analytics consultants support their clients. He calls it Data Capture. Data Reporting. Data Analysis. The nice part about this framework is the fact that it’s easy for both clients and consultants. 

Consultants can use each of these buckets to analyze your goals, objectives, and the results they want to accomplish with each. 

You’re basically goal setting with this framework.

Here’s a closer look at each of these three buckets and the goals for each of these. 

1. Data Capture: Work in this bucket is focused on audits or updating data capture methods (e.g., updating, editing, or customizing tags). This step is especially important because it determines the quality of what comes afterward. If you’ve done a good job with your data capture methods, you’ll have accurate data and reporting you can use for your analysis. 
2. Data Reporting: Your consultant sets up the reports you need on the intervals required. Your consultants help you identify the reports you’ll need, and they provide you with the reports you need regularly. 
3. Data Analysis: This is what Avinash calls an open-ended assignment, but it’s one you’ve provided to your consultant. You’re asking them to answer specific questions for you — your consultant should be able to show you what to measure, what your data is saying, what to do based on your data, and why you should do it. 

Here’s what this means for you. 

You’ll want to find an analytics consultant or agency that can handle all three steps in this framework. This also means you’ll need a clear idea of problems you’re dealing with ahead of time. 

Measuring the ROI of Analytics Consulting Services

Many companies don’t understand analytics.

If you don’t understand analytics, that’s okay; you just need to know whether you’re generating a return on your analytics investment. According to Nucleus Research, analytics returns $13.01 for every $1 invested. 

Your consultant should be able to calculate your return on analytics investment. 

This obviously much easier if your consultant is focused on the data analysis bucket. Suppose they’ve made several data-driven improvements to your site over three to six months. Their recommendations have lead to an increase in revenue, profit, or a return on investment for you. They should be able to verify your return on investment using the worksheet I’ve linked above. 

The good news is the fact that analytics, as a discipline, is data-driven.

Checklist For Finding the Right Analytics Consultant

Choosing the right analytics consultant requires a very different set of skills. If you’re working with an independent analytics consultant, you’ll need to approach this in one of two ways. 

1. Choose a consultant with all of the skills needed to perform across all three buckets (data capture, reporting, analysis). 
2. Choose an agency with analysts and implementation specialists needed to generate the results you need. 

Here’s a list of the skills needed for each of the three roles in your buckets. Avinash breaks these skills down in detail in his web analytics consulting framework post. 

Here’s a quick summary. 

• For the data capture bucket, your consultant should have the skills of an implementation specialist. They’re experienced with tag managers; they understand data dimensioning and working knowledge of tracking variables. 

• With the data reporting bucket, your consultant should be familiar with report creation in your analytics platform; they should also have a master list of the custom reports you’ll need for various options. It’s also ideal if your consultant has a working knowledge of his own set of customizations. 

• For the data analysis bucket, your consultant should be a web analyst. Your consultant should be comfortable with advanced statistics and analytical techniques. They should be experienced in descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. 

If you’re working with an independent consultant, they should be an industry veteran with the skills I’ve listed above. If you’re working with an agency, they should have employees with the skills for each bucket. If you have implementation specialists, you can handle data capture and possibly reporting. 

Just make sure they’re a fit for that role. 

Conclusion

Many companies aren’t familiar with analytics consulting. They’re not entirely sure how analytics impacts their organization. That’s okay, as long as the ROI is there. 

Using a tool like Google Analytics, many companies assume that all they need to do is customize the tracking code, drop it onto their web pages, log into their account, and begin analyzing their data. It should be that easy, but it isn’t. 

There’s more to it than that. 

With most companies, their analytics data goes unused, they collect lots of data on customer activity, but they don’t know how to squeeze value out of their data. Analytics consulting can help you evaluate your performance data properly. Choose the right team,  and your data will tell you what you need to know. 

The post Analytics Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/analytics-consulting/

Best Agile Project Management Tools

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Running an agile team effectively is nearly impossible without the right software. 

But agile project management tools can make your life much easier. It’s the best way to collaborate with your team, manage changing tasks, and keep track of various projects at scale. 

In addition to the managerial perks of agile project management software, your entire team will benefit as well. These tools will make it easier for everyone to work efficiently, communicate, and meet deadlines. 

Recognizing you need to invest in agile project management software is only half of the battle. Finding the right software for your business and team is a different story entirely—which is why I created this guide.

After extensive research and testing, I narrowed down the top five agile project management tools available on the market today.  

The Top 5 Options For Agile Project Management Tools

1. Forecast
2. Monday
3. Mavenlink
4. Jira
5. VivifyScrum

How to Choose the Best Agile Project Management Tools For You

There are certain factors that must be evaluated as you’re shopping around and assessing different tools. By following the buying guide I’ve outlined below, you’ll know exactly what to look for and what’s important in an agile project management solution. 

Agile Framework Preferences

The very first thing you need to consider is the agile framework you plan to use. For those of you who are already familiar with the concepts of agile management, you probably have a preferred methodology.

Do you want to use Scrum or Kanban? Lean? Crystal? Are you using agile framework variations such as Scrumban?

Depending on the answer, you’ll be able to find an agile tool that specializes in your preferred framework. It’s worth noting that not every agile project management software supports all agile management frameworks. So make sure the options you’re considering offer the methodology you need to implement. 

Collaboration Features

Team collaboration is a crucial component of agile management. You want to make sure the software you’re considering comes out-of-the-box with collaboration tools. 

Most solutions should come standard with features like team tagging, comments, file sharing, and other basic tools. Some software will have more advanced features, depending on your project type, industry, and team needs. 

Team Size

Just because an agile project management tool offers collaboration features, don’t assume that the tool will be robust enough for your specific team.

There are solutions on the market made for small teams with a handful of users. Those won’t be ideal for businesses that have multiple teams, hundreds of users, and multiple projects across several departments. 

It should be relatively easy to determine if the tool in question is built to scale. If not, you can always express those concerns with the sales team during a free trial or demo. 

Project Type

The complexity of your projects will also play a significant factor in choosing the best software for your team. 

For example, software development teams and internal IT departments typically have more advanced needs since these projects have a higher level of complexity. In these cases, you should avoid beginner tools and look for industry-specific solutions tailored toward your project needs. 

On the flip side, managers and teams who are just starting out with agile project management should be seeking basic solutions to manage simple projects. 

Reporting

The best agile project management software will provide you with detailed reports and advanced analytics about your projects. 

You can use these dashboards as a way to learn more about your team’s productivity, find out if the project will be completed on time, and if you’re staying on budget. As a project manager, this information is crucial to the big-picture operation of your business. 

Usability

The usability of an agile management tool is often overlooked during the evaluation process. But it’s definitely something that needs to be taken into consideration.

What is your technical experience? How tech-savvy is your team?

If you choose a rigid solution that’s tough to use, it can do more harm than good. So you need to find a balance between a tool that’s robust enough to handle your project complexity while still easy for your team to navigate. This is another reason why you should always take advantage of free trials and demos as you’re narrowing down different options. 

The Different Types of Agile Project Management Tools

Not every agile project management tool is the same. Before we dive into the reviews and recommendations, I want to quickly explain the different options. 

The easiest way to segment these tools is based on the agile frameworks that they offer. It’s also worth noting that some solutions will fall into more than one of these categories below.

Scrum

Scrum is one of the most popular agile frameworks because it can be used for such a wide range of projects. Over the years, Scrum has gained popularity because of its simplicity, easy implementation process, and proven productivity boost. 

With Scrum, the project manager will work closely with the team in terms of identifying and prioritizing functionality in the backlog. This backlog will contain whatever tasks must be accomplished to deliver the final product. 

Kanban

Kanban is the most popular visual workflow management methodology. Kanban boards make it easier for agile teams to manage various tasks in the project life cycle. 

Similar to Scrum, Kanban is built to help teams collaborate with high efficiency. 

The basic principles of Kanban include visual workflow automation, limited WIP (work in progress), and enhanced workflows. This process helps promote continuous collaboration and ongoing learning for agile teams. 

Lean

It’s common for software development teams to leverage the lean agile methodology. This iterative framework is highly flexible and doesn’t have rigid rules or guidelines. 

The main principles of lean management include team empowerment, enhanced learning, eliminating waste, delivering tasks as soon as possible, making decisions as late as possible, and seeing the big picture. 

Individuals and small teams will have more decision-making authority, as opposed to a hierarchical flow. Lean management also helps ensure that the entire team is productive for the longest amount of time. 

Crystal

The Crystal agile methodology is another popular software development framework. It’s lightweight and typically comprised of a family of agile processes. These include Crystal Orange, Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, and others.

Each individual framework has its own unique rules and characteristics based on factors like project priority, team size, and more. 

Crystal puts emphasis on the interaction between the processes and people involved in a project. Some of the key principles of Crystal include simplicity, teamwork, collaboration, and the ability to improve processes. It promotes high user engagement while removing distractions and bureaucracies. 

Other Types of Agile Project Management

There are lots of other agile frameworks out there. When you consider the variations and combinations of some, this number is in the dozens. 

Other popular types include LeSS (large scale Scrum), SAFe (scaled agile framework), feature driven development (FDD), extreme programming (XP), dynamic systems development method (DSDM), Scrumban, adaptive software development (ASD), agile-agile hybrid, and FAST agile. The list goes on and on. 

#1 – Forecast Review — The Best Collaboration Features

Forecast is an all-in-one project management and resource management solution. It’s built for project-driven companies that want to empower teams, automate operations, and unite all projects into a single tool. 

With Forecast, you can automate tasks for project planning, resource allocation, and more. The software is powered by AI technology to help simplify monotonous tasks. 

Here are some of the top reasons and why Forecast ranks so high on my list:

• Keep the big picture in mind with real-time operational visibility
• Analyze decisions and financial health of projects
• Admins can set different permission levels for each user (clients, collaborators, etc.)
• Simple and organized backlog of project tasks
• Easy to plan sprints and track progress
• Automatically get notified about key updates in your workflow
• Continuous and fast delivery of products and tasks

Overall, Forecast has everything agile teams need to improve communication. Create and assign task cards, file sharing, dependencies, subtasks, comments, and priority lists are just a handful of examples.

It’s a popular choice for agencies, consultants, and software teams. Forecast also has solutions for project accounting and business intelligence. The software seamlessly integrates with other popular tools that your team is using.

Forecast’s AI will learn from your previous projects and suggest the number of hours that should be allocated to similar tasks. 

Plans start at $29 per seat per month (with a minimum of 10 seats). Try it free for 14 days; no credit card required. 

#2 – Monday Review — The Best For Agile Beginners

Monday.com has quickly become one of the most popular agile project management tools on the market today. It’s trusted by 100,000+ organizations worldwide, including some big names like Coca-Cola, Adobe, Hulu, and the Discovery Channel.

This is a great choice if you’re new to agile management and need a solution for basic projects.

It’s one of the easiest ways to plan, track, and deliver team projects from a single workspace. Here are some of the other reasons why I like Monday so much:

• Deploy in minutes with hundreds of customizable templates
• Integrates with tools like Slack, HubSpot, G Suite, LinkedIn, Teams, and more
• Automate repetitive tasks to save time and avoid human error
• Visual data with Kanban boards, timelines, maps, calendars, and more
• 24/7 customer support with a 10-minute average response time
• Track the progress of your projects and make data-driven decisions
• Set project goals and empower stakeholders

Monday.com makes it easy for teams to collaborate. You’ll benefit from features like file sharing, task assignments, task priorities, visual boards, and other ways to see what everyone is doing at a glance. 

It’s a popular choice for remote work, marketing, creative teams, HR, sales, and more. While Monday does have tools for software development, IT, and construction projects, it’s definitely better for simple projects.

Plans start at just $8 per seat per month (with a minimum of three seats). You can try Monday.com free for 14 days with an unlimited number of users; no credit card required. 

#3 – Mavenlink Review — Best For Agile Management at Scale

Mavenlink is another all-in-one solution for project management and resource management. It’s a modern way for teams to collaborate from anywhere, which is perfect for remote work.

In addition to improving your team’s productivity on the operational end, Mavenlink provides deep insights into the financial performance of your projects and business as well.

Some of the top features, benefits, and noteworthy highlights of Mavenlink include:

• Rich insights for data-driven business decisions in real-time
• Flexible way to manage resources and project tasks
• Real-time automation tools
• See all projects at a glance with complete project portfolio view
• Easy to assess the health and status of specific projects or portfolio of projects
• Reusable templates to replicate success
• Consistently deliver projects on-time
• Improve project performance
• Extend workspace with popular integrations (Salesforce, Xero, Slack, HubSpot, etc.)

Mavenlink is great for larger teams that need to manage projects across multiple departments. This works fine if you’re just using it for a handful of projects. But it works just as well if you have a project portfolio of 500+.

For small teams and enterprises alike, Mavenlink has a plan for everyone. Rates aren’t available online, so you’ll need to contact their sales team for more information. 

Try Mavenlink free for ten days.

#4 – Jira Review — Best Agile Project Management Tool For Development Teams

Jira by Atlassian is a bit unique compared to some of the other tools on our list. This agile project management software is built specifically for software development projects.

With Jira, software teams of all sizes can plan, track, and release exceptional products.

Let’s take a closer look at Jira’s top highlights for agile management:

• Plan sprints, create user stories, and distribute tasks for software teams
• Prioritize complete team’s work in context with full visibility for everyone
• Real-time visual data reporting
• Choose a pre-built workflow or create your own custom solutions
• Integrate with hundred of developer tools out of the box
• Connect software team’s work to your product roadmap
• Scrum boards, Kanban boards, roadmaps and agile reporting

Jira is arguably the safest project management tool on the market today in terms of data encryption and compliance. It integrates with 3,000+ apps in the Atlassian marketplace as well.

Software teams, look no further—Jira is the best option agile project management tool for you. 

The tool is free for up to ten users. Paid plans start at just $7 per user per month. Try it free for seven days.  

#5 – VivifyScrum Review — Best All-in-One Agile Management Tool

VivifyScrum is a versatile agile management solution. It’s trusted by small teams and large organizations alike.

Regardless of your team size and project complexity, this tool can help manage everything from a single platform. 

Here are some of the top reasons why you should consider VivifyScrum:

• Unlimited Scrum boards, unlimited Kanban boards, and unlimited items
• Custom boards with built-in team collaboration tools
• Built-in features for invoicing clients and tracking payments
• Time tracking and team management features
• Create custom workflows with agile boards
• Reporting and analytics with burndown charts, Scrum metrics, and more

The software comes with mobile apps, API access, file storage, unlimited integrations, unlimited active sprints, and so much more.

VivifyScrum starts at $10 per month for small teams. Contact the sales team for more information on Enterprise pricing. Regardless of your team size and project management needs, you can try VivifyScrum free for 14 days. 

Summary

The only way to effectively manage an agile team is with the right project management tool. Which agile project management software is the best?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Factors like project type, team size, and other considerations must be evaluated for you to make an informed decision.

Follow my methodology and recommendations described in this guide to find the best agile project management tools for your unique situation.

The post Best Agile Project Management Tools appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/best-agile-project-management-tools/

The Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn Stories

LinkedIn Stories are here, and the first thing you might be thinking is, “How can I use them to grow my business”?

We all see how powerful stories are for brands on platforms like Instagram. Over 500 million people use Stories each day, but how can you use this social strategy to boost your professional reputation on LinkedIn?

In this guide, I’ll show you how to use LinkedIn Stories and share strategies you can start implementing today.

What Are LinkedIn Stories?

If you’ve ever made a story on Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, LinkedIn Stories operate in pretty much the same way. You create a short video of up to 20 seconds, and once you upload it, the video is available for people to see for 24 hours, and then it goes away.

Users can post as many Stories as they like, making it easy to quickly jump in, record a quick update with what you’re doing, and then allow your connections to check it out.

So, why stories? Why do I think LinkedIn is starting to roll out something so casual on a platform geared towards networking and digital resumes?

Because we’re living in the “age of sharing,” and the more you share, the bigger your brand becomes. Stories are a great way to share all of those imperfect moments in your professional life, and I think that’s what the Senior Director of Product Management, Pete Davies, is going for.

The format will help kickstart conversations and nurture the relationships that are core to everything that happens on LinkedIn.

Why Should Your Business Create LinkedIn Stories?

Now let’s talk about some of the reasons why you should consider implementing a LinkedIn Stories strategy in your business. If you’ve been using Instagram or Facebook Stories for a while, you’ll likely be able to come up with a plan pretty quickly; if not, here are some reasons to take notice.

Pull Back the Curtain

One of the best ways to generate attention for your business is to show people what’s happening behind the scenes.

Show your network there’s a personality behind the business. This helps create a more personal experience. When people see you’re more than a “brand,” you’ll build the trust that’s so necessary when trying to get someone to do business with you.

Taking this even further, you can use this strategy to give your connections some insight into your process.

For example, if you run a print on demand shirt store, use LinkedIn stories to show people how you make your shirts and why they should choose you over someone else.

There’s a great opportunity here for you to separate yourself from the competition without having to hard-sell anyone.

Document the Hustle

In years past, we were so focused on making everything perfect. We needed to buy the best equipment and do everything to ensure no one ever saw us make a mistake.

Those days are long gone.

We’re living in a world of constant connection, and we can’t be afraid to document what we’re going through as it’s happening. For those of you who are already doing this, that is excellent news. If you’re not, now is the time to get started.

Don’t be afraid to show your connections that you’re a real person with faults. If something is going wrong, do a story and explain to your colleagues what happened and how they can prevent the same thing from happening to them.

Doing this shows authenticity, and people don’t hire a brand; they hire people.

On the flip side, share your triumphs and successes as well. If you just closed on a huge contract with a big client, create a story explaining how it went and what you think you did well.

You don’t have to give away sensitive information, just let your network know what you’re winning, and it might motivate them to reach out and connect with you.

Increase Engagement With LinkedIn Stories

Stories on LinkedIn provide the most significant opportunity for engagement. On Instagram, as much as 25% of users swipe up on branded stories. Now we’re taking this same thought process but moving it to a platform entirely dedicated to business networking.

There’s a lot of power here.

Keep in mind that, even though your stories might not result in a direct sale, you’re generating awareness around you and your brand.

LinkedIn allows you to engage with the people you need to directly talk to for access to new opportunities.

For example, let’s say the Director of Marketing at a company posts a story about their SEO strategy, and you are interested in working with them. Here’s your chance to directly reply to that story with some tips and ideas you’ve used in your own business.

Keep in mind that you may get a generic response to something like this, but you’re increasing the person’s chances of checking out your profile to see what you do. If you’re active on LinkedIn and your profile is well optimized, you just might find a message in your inbox.

How to Create LinkedIn Stories?

Creating LinkedIn Stories is simple. It works the same as every other platform.

You’ll go into your LinkedIn app and click the “post” button at the bottom. Once you do that, you’ll see a new button titled “share a story.”

When you click it, you’ll be able to record a video or take a picture and customize it to your liking.

The story uploads, and once it’s done, you’ll find it at the top of your LinkedIn home with all the stories from your connections. This is a fantastic way to put your name at the top of everyone’s page.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn Stories are only available on the mobile app. You can’t create or view them from your desktop.

What Makes a Successful LinkedIn Story?

If you’re sitting there right now, wondering, “What steps do I need to take to create the best story?” Selling with LinkedIn Stories is easy, and I’ll guide you through it.

Looking at Instagram as an example, 50% of businesses worldwide create an average of one story per month. So, you can see where the low hanging fruit lies here. You have an excellent opportunity to generate a lot of free attention for your business — with the right strategy.

Here are the most important metrics to consider when determining the success of your LinkedIn story.

Grab Their Attention

The first thing you’ll notice about LinkedIn Stories is they don’t offer a preview at the top of the screen like Facebook and Instagram. This makes getting the initial click a bit more difficult.

You can’t create a clickbait thumbnail to get people to click on your story. So, your LinkedIn profile picture needs to get the attention of your audience.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn is a professional network, so use a professional headshot on your profile. This is not the place for a picture of your cat or your car; you need to dress and look the part.

Think about your target audience and dress to get their attention. An agency owner pitching agriculture businesses might not look the same as one pitching boutique coffee shops, right?

Start Strong

The average person only watches 40 to 60% of your story, so you must grab their attention right away. If you start with a boring message, chances are they’ll swipe away and assume your Stories aren’t worth watching.

Consider starting your story with the most exciting part of the video. While you only have 15to 20 seconds, take those first five seconds to speak directly to the camera and call out your audience.

If you’re trying to reach agency owners making $100,000+, call them out right away. Address a pain point or issue they might have within the first five seconds, and you’ll increase the chances of keeping them around for the next 15.

Keep Their Attention

At around the 10-second mark is where you will start losing people. They’ll swipe to your next story or move on to a different profile. You need to hold their attention by keeping it as interesting as possible.

Consider using props, bring in other people, and utilize statistics that draw in your audience and speak to them directly. Every business should have a customer avatar. If you don’t, now is the time to start!

Figure out exactly who your ideal customer is and bring them to life with personality traits, demographic information, pain points, and desires.

You should know exactly who they are, what they want to hear, and what you need to say to make them stick around.

Close It Out

While Stories are meant to be informal, it doesn’t mean you can’t have an objective in mind. You should always be looking for ways to convert the people watching your Stories.

These are great opportunities to get free attention, so make the most of it.

Keep in mind that a lot of people have likely swiped away by the time you get to your last five seconds. That means these people are highly interested in what you’re saying and may want to learn more.

For example, you could turn a blog post you recently posted into a Story. Take the three most important points from the post and highlight them in a story. In the end, tell the viewers where they can find the blog post and prompt them to check it out.

There are a million different options, but you want to have some type of call to action at the end of your story.

You don’t have to ask someone to buy something directly, but you should always tell them what to do next.

Tips on Converting LinkedIn Story Viewers to Clients

If you’re on LinkedIn, I can bet you’re there to get clients. Why else would you use the platform? Networking and building connections are great, but the end goal of those efforts is to add more clients to the database.

Here are a few quick tips to help you get the most out of your LinkedIn story viewers.

Stay on Brand

On Facebook, users move 41% faster on mobile than desktop. While we don’t have data from LinkedIn yet, we can expect the numbers to be similar. You need to be quick in establishing your brand and representing it the right way.

When someone taps your story, they should get hit immediately with something that makes your brand stand out so they’ll remember it.

Even if you’re just quickly recording a story about going for a run before hitting the office, talk about how it impacts your performance at your business.

Provide Value

The best way to convert traffic is by giving something away. You don’t have to overcomplicate this. Provide free information, offer a short how-to, or show them how to solve a critical problem.

Revisit your customer avatar here and think of something that might be on their to-do list. What’s something that your ideal customer hates doing? Chances are it might be the very thing you do and offer to take care of it for them if that’s the case.

Always Have a Plan

Just because LinkedIn Stories are casual doesn’t mean you need to improvise all the time. Never fill the story with something that doesn’t have an objective.

Doing this one time will hurt your brand, and people might just swipe by you because they think you have nothing to offer.

Every time you put something out to your audience, you should have a plan in mind to provide value. Give yourself enough time to plan ahead and even consider developing a content calendar for your LinkedIn stories.

Conclusion

LinkedIn Stories are an exciting addition to the networking platform. Based on what the Senior Director of Product Management said, they’re trying to make LinkedIn appear less intimidating and more informal.

Have you ever had the opportunity to stand out and become an early adopter? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. Either way, LinkedIn stories offer a unique chance to jump ahead of the competition and get your content in front of your target audience first.

Why wait? Create your first LinkedIn Story right now and get ahead of the pack!

Have you tried LinkedIn Stories yet?

The post The Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn Stories appeared first on Neil Patel.

source https://neilpatel.com/blog/linkedin-stories/