TOOLS FOR TEAM PODCASTING AND COLLABORATION

Two heads are better than one. And when it comes to podcasts, some of the most successful podcasts are the ones with more than one host. The witty banter between co-hosts can add a lot of personality to the program, not to mention when you have interview guests or even guest hosts on the program from time to time!

Setting yourself up for a podcast is one thing. You’ve got to get the microphone and maybe some basic audio editing software like Audacity. And you’ve got to deal with distribution and the other logistics. But, when you introduce multiple team members for collaboration, you need to make sure you have the right tools for the job.

Squadcast

Especially if you want to record a video podcast to go along with your audio podcast, Squadcast is one of the best and most powerful options to consider. What’s really handy here, for both yourself and your teammates (as well as special interview guests), is that there are no installs, plugins or extensions. Just click and record.

While you might think that you can just record a Skype conversation or a Zoom meeting, the problem with that approach is that you are at the mercy of the livestream. If there is a hiccup in the stream, that hiccup translates to your recording. With Squadcast, even if something happens with the “live” audio, it can be corrected after the fact.

That’s because the software combines the original source — both audio and video — to create the final recording; it’s not just recording the “live” conversation. This means you get higher quality audio, studio quality even,

Pricing starts from $9/month (when paying annually) for the Dabbler plan, allowing for 2 hours of audio recording each month. That includes automatic backups, WAV/MP3 formats, and one host with up to 3 guests.

Zencastr

Looking for something simpler and potentially cheaper as you’re just getting your feet wet with podcasting? Zencastr might be the one for you, as long as you only want an audio podcast and not a video one.

Again, everything can work from directly within the browser, so you don’t need to install any specialized software. Simply send your unique link to guests (and co-hosts) and they can join in on the conversation. Like Squadcast, the audio can be recorded separately to overcome any potential hiccups you may have in the recording during the “live” conversation.

As an added bonus, Zencastr can send you separate audio files for each of the guests, so you can edit the files accordingly in whatever way you want. Record in lossless WAV, use the soundboard for “live” editing, and automatically upload to Dropbox or Google Drive too.

The free hobbyist plan allows for up to two guests, up to 8 hours of recording each month, and MP3 recordings.

OBS Studio

You may already be familiar with OBS. While it might be known best as the free alternative to Xsplit for video game streaming, the free software is also really useful for other purposes. I’ve previously talked about how you can use OBS to record a screencast, for example, as well as how it can fix variable frame rate videos for you.

If you’re interested in putting together a split-screen video podcast, for example, or if you want to move between different audio or video sources on the fly, OBS can be a great option to consider. It’s really robust with a lot of customization options, allowing for “live” edits if you don’t want to cut everything together after the fact.

And yes, it’s free.

Google Docs

I’m going to end with an obvious one, but one that’s still worth mentioning. Google Docs in particular and Google Drive in general can be especially useful for team podcasting and collaboration purposes. Work with your fellow team members on a shared Google Doc to work through topics for discussion, any research or scripting you want to do ahead of time, and any show notes you want to accompany your podcast when it comes time to publish.

This can also be a good way to collaborate on a content calendar without turning to a more complex project management solution like Basecamp or even Trello. You can set up a simple template in Google Sheets, for example, or you can share a Google Calendar. The flexibility is great, and everyone already has Google accounts anyhow.

Do you have a podcast? Is it a solo affair or do you collaborate with other team members?

QUALIFICATION PROCESS OF A SALES TEAM

In order to meet your sales goals, and truly benefit the company in terms of business growth, it's critical that a sales team have a defined qualification process in place. This will not only enable the team to focus on the prospects who have the highest potential of becoming clients, it also decreases the sales cycle, makes sales discussions smoother, and saves time and resources for both the company and the client. 

Can’t fit a round peg in a square hole as they say. It’s best to identify who is a good prospect as early on in the sales process as possible.

Finally, be aware that your criteria can change - in fact you should expect it to as you continually improve your sales process and continually define the markets and people you should work with to see the highest Lifetime Value.

HANDLING STRESS

What exactly is stress?

According to the American Institute of Stress, the word stress as it is currently used was coined by Hans Selye in 1936, who defined it as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”.

An increased number of people are reported to feel stressed by their daily routines. Stress can cause you to overeat, feel tired, and not want to be active. Healthy eating and regular physical activity may help offset the effects of stress.

To relieve stress and stay on track with improving your health, we recommend that you try a combination of these behaviours.

• Get adequate sleep.
• Try a new hobby or any activity that sparks your interest.
• Surround yourself with people whose company you enjoy.

Remember, a balanced eating plan, regular physical activity, stress relief, adequate sleep, and other behaviours may help you stay healthy for life!

5 BEST PUSH NOTIFICATION SOFTWARE (IN 2021)

Are you looking for the best push notification software to engage your visitors and bring them back to your website?

Push notifications are a powerful tool that helps you re-engage and connect with your website visitors after they leave your site.

For instance, research shows that targeted notifications offer 1.4X higher CTR (Click-through-Rate) than regular notifications. So, with push notifications, you can send these targeted messages to users to bring them back to your site and get more conversions and sales.

Just in case this sounds a bit confusing, let’s break it down further.

What Are Push Notifications and What Are They Used For?

Push notifications are brief messages that pop up in the user’s browser, mobile device, or app, asking them to take a specific action.

Push notifications allow you to send targeted and personalized messages to users and bring them back to your website. They are sent directly to the user’s web browser or smartphone, similar to SMS messages which helps increase the engagement rate.

You can send many different types of push notifications, including:

Blog posts Abandoned cart reminders Product releases/announcements Subscriber discounts Flash sales Exclusive content

 
Now that you probably understand the value of push notifications, I’ll help you find the best push notification software for your website that gives you the most bang for your buck.

With that said, here’s my selection of the 5 best push notification software for your site:

1. OneSignal

OneSignal is a widespread push notification tool with features such as automatic push notifications, announcements, abandoned cart notifications, and more.

The plugin lets you set push messages to show after a certain number of page views or seconds. That way, you can give visitors more time to engage with your site before displaying it.

OneSignal also allows you to create in-app messages, push notifications, and emails. In addition, you can segment your audience to maximize targeting and perform A/B testing to see what campaigns work the best.

One drawback to OneSignal is that the plugin gets expensive as you need more features. And it comes with fewer options to automate and customize your messages than some of the other software.

Cost:

OneSignal offers a limited free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. Their Growth plan starts at $12 per month for 1,000 subscribers, which gives you access to their standard personalization and critical features.

2. iZooto

iZooto is another audience marketing software that offers real-time push notifications, as well as recurring and scheduled notifications.

Like OneSignal, iZooto allows you to personalize your push messages.

To summarize, iZooto offers:

WordPress integration A/B testing Timezone notifications User interest and attribute capturing

 
The plugin helps increase your subscriber count by showing push messages after a specific time or when a website visitor scrolls down or clicks a button. You can set this depending on your preferences.

The only downside to iZooto is that you need an SSL certificate installed on your website to use the plugin. It only works with HTTPS, but if you want search engines to trust your site and favor it in search results, you’ll need to use an SSL certificate anyway.

Costs:

iZooto doesn’t offer a free plan. The software starts at $85 per month, which gives you up to 30,000 subscribers and unlimited notifications.

3. PushAssist

PushAssist is straightforward to set up and supports Chrome, Safari, and Firefox browsers. It works on both desktop and mobile.

With PushAssist, you get access to scheduling tools, audience segmentation and personalization, and analytics.

It also allows you to monetize your push notification traffic by letting advertisers send notifications to your users, which can help you make more money.

PushAssist works with both HTTP or HTTPS websites, but you can’t remove the PushAssist branding unless you’re using the Business plan or higher.

Costs:

PushAssist offers a free plan with up to 3,000 subscribers and unlimited notifications. And the Premium plan starts at $9 per month, depending on the number of subscribers.

4. WonderPush

WonderPush is another popular push notification tool. Just like the other push notification software on this list, it lets you segment your subscribers, view real-time analytics, automate notifications based on behavior or time, and more.

On top of that, you get every single feature, no matter what plan you’re using, including:

Unlimited notifications Unlimited team members A/B testing Real-time analytics Personalization And more

 
It allows you to send push messages using regular browsers, mobile devices, and mobile apps. These features are available no matter the pricing plan.

Cost:

WonderPush doesn’t offer a free plan (only a 14-day free trial). The Premium plan starts at €1 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers. And then an extra €1 for every 1,000 subscribers after that.

5. PushEngage

PushEngage is my #1 choice of best push notification tool, which offers top-notch support if you ever get stuck. You can set it up to automatically send push notifications or use it to send custom messages manually.

The plugin is beginner-friendly, and the setup process is super easy. It supports all devices and browsers and works on both HTTP and HTTPS websites.

PushEngage comes with powerful marketing automation tools such as automatic drip campaigns, smart opt-in reminders, A/B testing, analytics, custom-triggered campaigns, interactive message options, and more.

With the triggered campaign feature, you can automatically create abandoned cart notifications, send price drop alerts, schedule messages, and more.

What’s excellent with PushEngage is that you can track the metrics of each campaign and even calculate the transactional revenue it generated using goal tracking.

Best of all, the plugin’s dynamic segmentation helps you send ultra-targeted messages based on users’ actions. For instance, you can segment visitors who viewed a specific page, added products to the cart, or bought something, and more.

Cost:

PushEngage offers a free plan with up to 500 subscribers and 30 campaigns per month. The Business plan costs $9 per month for up to 100K subscribers and unlimited notifications. It also offers Premium plans for businesses with great demand.

Conclusion

And there you have my selection of the 5 best push notification software. Using any of these push message tools will help you engage with users after they’ve left your site and bring them back to finish the purchase or sign-up process.

HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER RETENTION TO BOOST RETENTION RATE

As marketers, one of your most important goals is to boost your sales and increase the overall profit of your business. So what do you do to make that happen? You acquire new customers and then convince them to make a purchase, right?

But that’s not the only way to boost your sales. Acquiring new customers isn’t easy. It’s time-consuming and is an expensive affair.

Studies show that acquiring new customers can cost you anywhere between 5 to 25 times. This makes sense because, unlike retaining your existing customers when you are targeting new ones, you have to freshly invest your time, money, and resources to make the process a success.

But by retaining your existing customers, you can save all of that. So instead of focusing on acquiring new customers, it can be wiser to focus on retaining the old ones.

A good way of doing that is to boost your customer experience. If your users are satisfied with your products and services, they will definitely want to continue buying from you. It also improves your chances of getting recommended.

But how do you boost customer experience? Let’s find out.

1. Personalize the Buyer’s Journey

A very effective way to boost customer experience on your website is to personalize your user’s buying journey. For that, you can start by collecting the user information to understand their needs and interests.

This will help you identify what your users are looking for. So you can easily display products or services on your site based on their interests. You can also monitor their behaviour on your website and recommend products based on it.

Another way of personalizing your buyer’s journey is to use their names to greet them the moment they open your app or website. Doing all of these will make them feel more valued, and they would love to come back to your site too.

2. Create Loyalty Programs

If you want to retain your customers, you have to give them a reason to come back to you. One way of doing that is to create customer loyalty programs. In this program, you reward your customers for their continued loyalty. It’s a great way of encouraging them to come back to you more often and building on your existing relationship with them.

You can simply add loyalty points to their account every time they make a purchase and allow them to redeem the points at the time of their next purchase. You can also add these points for different actions like writing a product review on your site, sharing your products on social media, etc.

3. Improve Customer Relations

Your customers won’t stay with you if you don’t invest in building relations with them. There are various ways of building and nurturing your relationship with your customers. One of them is to offer top-notch support.

You’ll have a lot of customers who would reach out to you for support. Make sure to always listen to their concerns first and then do your best to solve the problem.

Sometimes you may not be the right person to solve the issue; in that case, redirect them to someone who can quickly help them reach a solution. If you think the matter will need some time, be proactive and tell them what’s going on.

Another way of building customer relations is to keep your promises. For example, if you have a money-back guarantee, make sure that the amount is credited to the customer’s account within the given time frame. This will build trust and give your users a reason to return to you for further purchase.

You can continue to nurture your relationship by surprising your users with a complimentary gift with their purchase, offering special offers on birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

4. Accept Feedback

To be able to improve the user experience on your website, you have to first know what your users think about your business. The best way to know that is to ask for customer feedback. In doing so, you’ll get both good and bad feedback.

Accepting the positive one is easy. But accepting the negative ones isn’t easy for everyone. But no matter how difficult it can be, you have to understand that collecting feedback can help you improve your business. So instead of taking them personally, look at it from a constructive point of view.

Don’t be quick at responding to them. Take some time to process your emotions if it’s something negative. Then apologize for the inconvenience caused and try to learn more about the issue by asking clarifying questions. This will help you understand the matter from the user’s point of view and think of ways to solve it. Also, doing so will let your users know that you care about them.

So these are some of the easy ways to improve customer experience on your website. If you haven’t used them yet, go try them now. It will definitely help you boost customer satisfaction and increase your user retention rate.

HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS USING FACEBOOK GROUPS

With Facebook’s 2.45 billion active users, there’s massive potential in using this popular platform to market your business and build lasting relationships with customers. In fact, Facebook affects more than 50% of people’s purchase decisions, so using Facebook the right way can help your business grow significantly.

But what’s the correct way to use Facebook to grow your business?

Facebook groups are one of the best ways to grow your business using social media marketing. It can help you build a community, improve customer relations, and increase your business engagement.

Facebook groups help you create more meaningful interactions with your fans. It’s not just about promoting your products and services and driving direct sales. You’re building lasting relationships and loyalty to your brand, which will help you create a sustainable business.

And developing meaningful interactions became essential after Facebook changed its algorithm back in January 2018. Mark Zuckerberg then announced that Facebook wanted “people to stay together” and that the newsfeed would start showing “more from friends, family, and groups” and less from “businesses, brands, and media.”

That meant that Facebook business pages were no longer enough to market your business. It was time to get creative and figure out ways businesses could stay connected and engage with their audience. And that’s where Facebook groups took off.

What Are Facebook Groups?

Facebook groups are public, private, or secret communities where fans can communicate, connect, and share thoughts about a common topic. The people in your Facebook group are likely your most loyal customers.

In contrast to Facebook pages, where page owners share content the audience can like and comment on, Facebook groups make it possible even for members to share posts, videos, and images on the group’s feed.

It’s a place for discussion, rallying around common causes, and learning about a company’s products and services.

Best of all, it opens up an opportunity for two-way conversations, which can give you deep insight into your customers’ needs. That said, a smart business owner takes this opportunity to watch, learn, and ask for feedback.

For example, WPBeginner has a popular Facebook group that offers WordPress help for beginners that don’t have any technical experience.

It allows WPBeginner to connect with their fans instantly, and group members can also help each other out and share experiences—reasons why this community keeps growing every day.

With that said, let’s move on to how to grow your business using Facebook groups.

1. Build Lasting Relationships

Did you know that 70% of B2C marketers got their customers through Facebook? That’s a lot of potential sales to tap into for your business.

Best of all, Facebook groups allow you to build lasting relationships with your customers and get them to continue buying from you.

Typically, customers tend to be loyal to companies that treat them well. And a Facebook group offers a chance to engage directly with your fans and build trust and loyalty. It’ll help you to take your relationship with your customers to the next level.

In addition, happy customers are also more likely to share their praises about your company and get other people to purchase your products.

2. Offer Exclusive Content to Group Members

Adblocking has increased from 15%-30% in the last four years (in the US). People are tired of paid ads taking over their Facebook feeds. But by leveraging your Facebook group, you can offer early bird promotions or exclusive deals without being intrusive.

In addition, you can also keep your Facebook group members engaged by creating content they can’t get access to anywhere else. This can boost the value of the group and make it feel much more significant for members to be a part of.

To maximize the value of your group, you can be the “support hero” and offer help to your members immediately. The fast and direct response to issues will make your members feel cared for. And by announcing the answers to the rest of the community, you’ll limit future support tickets as well.

3. Create a Facebook Poll

Creating a poll and asking group members what they’re enjoying and what needs improvement can help grow your business.

With a Facebook poll, you can check the pulse of your community, and at the same time, you get valuable feedback about your brand and products. So, consider your questionnaire to get the most out of the poll.

Again, taking action on the feedback and posting about improvements shows that you care about your audience, which will increase customer retention.

4. Encourage User-generated Content

User-generated content means all content that’s generated by your fans. It can be reviews, video testimonials, photos, blog comments, or social media comments.

You can leverage this type of free marketing even in your Facebook group. For example, you can request and encourage group members to share images using your products. Or video testimonials with their best experience related to your brand. To encourage even more content, you can host a giveaway.

More importantly, ask your fans for permission to use their content across your social media channels and on your website. Before you know it, you’ve grown your sales revenue by leveraging free UGC marketing.

5. Promote Your Business in Other Facebook Group

You can join other Facebook groups to connect with potential customers and business partners and timely promote your business.

However, the trick to successfully promoting your business in someone else’s Facebook group is not immediately going for the sale but offering value and building trust.

I recommend starting by joining a few groups that are directly related to your products or services.

And once you’ve found your Facebook groups, take some time to get to know the lay of the land before you start adding content. If you fail to provide value that relates to the topic or mission of each group, you’ll not have much success.

6. Use Auto Posting

Keeping up with Facebook groups can be quite overwhelming since you’ve to spend time and effort constantly interacting with your fans and posting engaging content.

But you can make this process a lot easier with social media automation tools like SocialPilot, Buffer, Hootsuite, Agorapulse, or MeetEdgar to automate your Facebook group posting. That way, you can create your content beforehand and schedule it to post regularly.

Using themes for the different days of the week is an excellent way to auto-post and boost engagement.

For example, you can schedule posts with informational content on Mondays, questions & answers on Tuesdays, and promotions on Wednesdays. And why not make Fridays a fun day, where you post fun photos or videos and ask members to post theirs. This can help you collect more user-generated content.

7. Generate More Website Traffic

Lastly, you can also use your Facebook group to generate more website traffic.

Facebook group members are more likely to click on your links since they’ve already shown interest in your brand.

So, take the opportunity to share links to enticing blog content in your Facebook group and get them to visit your site. Even better, if you share blog posts with videos, you have a 53x more significant chance of ranking on Google’s first page.

Wrapping Up

I hope you found these 7 tips to grow your business using Facebook groups useful. Remember that Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes content with high engagement, so the more you and your group are interacting, the more organic reach you’ll get.

Also, if you’ve got fans hanging out on other social media networks, like Twitter or Instagram, you can invite them to join your group and grow your business even more.

SIX WAYS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH YOUTUBE

Do you want to leverage the power of YouTube to grow your business for free? 

YouTube is a widely-used platform that anyone with a phone can access. When you understand how to make use of it, you can bring in more traffic and engage your audience in a powerful way. 

Here are some key YouTube marketing statistics you should know about:

• YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users
• The platform outdoes all of cable content when it comes to reaching 18-49 year olds
• You can boost your website SEO by adding YouTube videos to your pages as people spend 60% more time on a page with a video on it
• 84% of people say that watching a video has convinced them to buy a product

I’ll lay out ideas for how you can make use of YouTube that are free and effective. With a bit of planning and content building, you’ll establish your brand and grow your business for the long run. 

Teach an online course

People often go to YouTube to find ‘how-to’ posts. Especially when they need a visual guide to solving their problems. 

When building your videos, look for key pain points that your audience faces. What do they struggle with that your business can help solve? But avoid creating promotional videos. Start by genuinely helping people with their needs. 

For example, if you have a food blog, then you might help your audience with videos on ‘how to create family meals on a budget’. You can create individual videos or an entire series and set up a playlist that will auto play content. 

With free and helpful online courses and how-to posts, you’ll help people and build a positive reputation for doing so. 

Create a giveaway

Do you like to get things for free? I bet you do and your audience does too. If you want to build traction fast, then a good way to do this is to create a giveaway and link it to YouTube. 

Start by defining a goal that you’d like to achieve with your giveaway. Do you want to build your YouTube following? Grow your email list? Or drive traffic to your website? 

When you have a clear goal, you can build your giveaway campaign and your YouTube content to reflect that. 

Here’s a specific example of how you can link your YouTube content to a giveaway. 

Using a giveaway plugin, build a campaign where users have to do two things to enter your giveaway: one, watch a video, and two, subscribe to your channel. 

Once your user does that, they’ll have an entry in your giveaway and are in the running for an awesome prize. 

Make sure to offer a great prize that’s compelling enough for users to take action. With a giveaway campaign, you’ll get a boost in your business growth fast. 

Add YouTube to your website

While sharing your videos on YouTube is a great way to tap into a vast audience, you’ll also be competing for their attention with other content creators. 

One way to remove this issue is to add YouTube to your website. I don’t mean simply embedding or linking to YouTube on a web page.

Adding a social feed for YouTube on your website with a social feed plugin provides more interactivity than merely embedding videos on your site.

With a social feed plugin, your feed will automatically update when your content changes. And your users can like, share, and follow you right from your web page. 

And most importantly, they’ll view your videos right from your website and won’t get distracted by other content. 

Work with other businesses

You don’t have to grow your channel and your business on your own. It’s common for businesses and individuals to collaborate to make content together. 

When you work with other creators, you tap into their audience and they reach yours. Look for ways to provide value when you’re seeking a collaboration. It’s important to create a mutually beneficial proposal and to have metrics for your marketing campaigns. 

A few ways to collaborate with other YouTube Creators is to:

• Ask an influencer to review your product without bias
• Sponsor a video made by an influencer whose followers consist of your target audience
• Create a giveaway and collaborate with a creator to promote it. You want to offer a great prize like free products to attract viewers

An important aspect of collaboration is making sure that the brand or YouTube creator you work with aligns with your own business. You need to study a number of content creators and learn about their audience. It’s important to work with other YouTubers whose brand and content complements yours to grow. It’s a free and effective way to reach people with YouTube.

Create live videos

An important way to connect with people is to create live videos. Because such content is streamed live, it’s exciting and more interesting to users. 

It also gives you a chance to engage with people in real-time and answer questions. Here are few specific ways you can use live videos:

• Share surprise announcements, updates, and news with live videos to generate a buzz
• Host events and interact with audience members is real-time
• Host interviews live
• Have a question and answer session

Whenever you finish your live video, be sure to ask users to take some kind of action. Redirect them to follow you on social media or to sign up for your email list. 

Engage your audience 

One thing that many businesses miss with YouTube and other social media is that these are places where you need to build a community. 

The top influencers online develop a strong following because they build high-quality content that’s focused on delivering authentic and useful information. 

These major content creators also listen to their audience, engage with them by replying to comments, and go on to create videos that people want to see. 

It’s not enough to simply create YouTube videos. You also need to engage with people. Look at their comments, answer questions, and focus on community. 

It can be a slow process doing so, but the rewards are stronger than if you didn’t try. As you build a community, you’ll also develop social proof through them and find more success with your marketing. 

Conclusion

When used well, YouTube can help you grow your business for free. It’s important to leverage it the right way. You can do this by making useful content, focusing on what people want, and building a strong community.

EMBRACE UNIQUENESS

What would our world and our families look like if we simply embrace uniqueness? Behind the eyes of every human being is a heart, a soul, and a story. Each one of these stories is littered with fear, insecurity, joy, celebration, heartache, hope, love, rejection, and a deep desire to feel like we matter to someone or something. These stories are what we have in common, although they are all beautifully and tragically unique. Let’s ask and listen. Let’s honor the stories. Embracing uniqueness matters. 

Try this: Create a “Get to Know You Better” interview event. Have each family member write three questions they would like to ask each member of the family. Then start the interviews. Rotate interviewees until everyone has been interviewed. Be kind. This is about acceptance, not a roast.

HOW TO OVERCOME CUSTOMER OBJECTIONS

One of the biggest challenges marketers face is overcoming customer objections. In the old days of marketing, salespeople would work hard to convince prospects that they should take a specific action, like buying a product or service, over the phone or face to face.

The world of digital marketing has changed the way businesses and customers interact forever. You still have your customer service team, but that’s not always enough. Many people have objections and won’t bother directly reaching out to your business. Luckily, there are some creative workarounds for this problem.

Instead of participating in active conversations with every visitor, you have to strategically anticipate what potential customers want and overcome their objections using your website.

Today, we will share several must-see tips that may help you turn more sceptical visitors into loyal customers.

Ready? Let’s begin!

1. Highlight Your Unique Value Proposition

The first thing you should do is make sure visitors understand your value proposition. Imagine visiting a website and discovering that none of the products have a list of features or even a brief description. Odds are, you would say, “I don’t need that,” then leave without a second thought.

You want to avoid this situation with your customers and instead explain why visitors should buy your product or service. One way to drive your point home is to go beyond explaining features. Instead of saying, “Our product does (X),” You want to say something like, “Our product does (X), which helps you accomplish (Y) because (Z).”

When you use this format to explain the benefits, users can quickly determine if your product will help them reach their goals or resolve pressing pain points. This will take the guesswork out of their decision and can lead to a substantial boost in sales.

You can amplify your value proposition by including a detailed description and examples of people using your product. We suggest including videos on your key product pages. Research shows that landing pages with videos tend to get 80% more conversions.

2. Show Plenty of Reviews

Did you know you can use existing customer reviews to overcome objections? A whopping 72% of shoppers say they will not take action on a website until they read reviews.

In other words, new visitors want to see if current customers think your product or service is worth their time. There are several key places throughout your website where you should show plenty of positive reviews. Your landing pages, homepage, and product listings should all feature reviews that amplify your value proposition and build trust.

Let’s make one thing clear; if someone doesn’t trust your site, they will internally cite this as a reason for not completing their order. If, on the other hand, you can show that your company is reputable and trusted by thousands of other customers, you’ve managed to overcome one of the most troublesome objections faced by business owners and marketers alike.

3. Publish Relevant Blog Posts

Your content marketing strategy is one of the best ways to keep users engaged with your brand. Research shows that 70% of consumers prefer to get to know companies through their blog posts instead of direct marketing.

It’s possible to cover a wide range of objections with your blog. Remember earlier when we stressed understanding user goals and pain points? The information you obtain during this time can help you come up with a ton of great topic ideas.

For instance, the owner of an email marketing firm knows their audience wants help generating leads. They may choose to publish plenty of helpful, unique content that shows visitors how to grow their lead list.

If you can connect your product to the articles you publish, users will begin to see how your business can help them find success. Not only will this strategy help you build trust and overcome objections, but it can also help you get more sales. On average, 47% of shoppers read at least 3 blog posts on a company site before they make a purchase.

4. Cover Objections in Your Marketing Campaigns

Your email, social media, and push alert marketing campaigns should all address common objections. There’s a good chance you have followers and subscribers who haven’t placed an order on your site. They are somewhat interested in your product but still can’t decide if your value proposition is truly worth their money.

Because they are still on the fence, they will likely read your posts on social media and check out your latest email newsletter. If you can reach out to these people and help them overcome their concerns, they are more likely to become customers.

We suggest creating targeted campaigns for your various customer personas. In most cases, each persona will have a slightly different set of objections. Use what you know about your existing customers to determine how to approach each segment’s set of problems and goals.

You can also reach out to your existing subscribers if they haven’t placed an order in a specified timeframe. We like using emails and push alerts to connect with our subscribers and find out what we can do to get them to return for a repeat order. This strategy can help you reach out to visitors that placed an order once and seemingly forgot about your company.

5. Collaborate with Your Customer Service Team

Finally, let’s talk about your support team and how they can work through customer questions and concerns more efficiently. Like our last tip, users who reach out to your support staff genuinely want to give your product a try, but they need some convincing.

You can boost conversions and overcome objections in several ways. You should first make sure you’re sending everyone who reaches your customer service team a survey. Ask questions like:

– What prompted you to reach out to us?

– What product caught your eye?

– Did we resolve your question or concern?

– What can we do to improve your experience next time?

 

Use this information to develop your audience personas and marketing campaigns to match the needs of your visitors.

You can also take this data and collaborate with your team. We have a monthly meeting where we go over the most common questions mentioned by our customers. This information helps us plan future content and train our team by working through potential responses together.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are plenty of creative ways you can help potential customers and grow your business. The most important thing to remember is you have to keep an open mind. Personas, products, and objections change over time. If you regularly track your progress and understand how people perceive your brand, you can keep your customers happy for years to come.

 

THE PANDEMIC LED MANY WOMEN TO RETHINK WORK.

No one had it easy during the pandemic, but the data shows that women may have had a harder time than men.

At the end of 2020, women held 5.4 million fewer jobs than they had in February 2020, before the pandemic began. Meanwhile, men lost 4.4 million jobs over that same time period. While working-age women overall have largely recovered since the depths of the pandemic, mothers have repaired their losses more slowly. As of July 2021, nearly one million fewer mothers were actively working than in July 2020, according to Misty Heggeness, principal economist and senior adviser at the Census Bureau.

There are things employers can do to help. In a panel discussion on Tuesday hosted by the Independent Women's Forum, a national organization dedicated to developing and advancing policies for women, experts discussed what employers can do to keep their female employees, especially those with children, on the payroll. Here are three things women say they want.

1. Accessible child care.

Many of the current struggles women face derive from finding adequate and affordable child care, said Angela Rachidi, senior fellow and Rowe Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. She noted that many employer policies don't completely meet a family's needs, such as providing access to a convenient child care provider. It's also not particular to the pandemic. Rachidi pointed out that workplaces should be focusing on policies that offer more flexible, more affordable options, as opposed to just blanket child care subsidies.

"I think that that's where our focus should be," said Rachidi. "It should be not only our government policies, but also our workplace policies to make child care better, and meet the needs of families."

2. Workplace flexibility.

Flexibility is vital to all working parents, not just mothers. But mothers are often quicker to express a desire to have the flexibility to work a reduced schedule, if need be, said Rachel Greszler, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. So if the goal is to keep working parents on the payroll, or get them back, allow them time off during the day if needed, or the ability to structure their own hours. 

If you've offered more flexibility during the pandemic, think about maintaining those policies or asking employees their thoughts on new schedules. "The pandemic has allowed employers to see that they're able to have these policies. And not only the paid family leave, but the remote work and the flexibility. And I think it will become a silver lining coming out of all of this," said Greszler.

3. Paid time off.

Paid time off is useful for parents, who need the time to care for an infant or an ill loved one. President Biden's American Families Plan includes $225 billion to create a paid medical and family leave program. The program will eventually guarantee 12 weeks of paid leave, providing a federal subsidy for workers of up to $4,000 per month. The Department of Labor found that 95 percent of the lowest-wage workers, mostly women and workers of color, lack any access to paid family leave, so the program is needed. 

But to keep women in the workforce long-term, you should offer both paid leave and increased flexibility, said Greszler. Because paid family leave, while necessary, may have a lower utility for women on a day-to-day basis than, say, malleable hours.

"I don't think [a lack of] paid family leave is holding women back," said Greszler. "Women increasingly value flexibility far more than family leave."

Even so, both policies can be done. And the balance of the two may also help employees be more productive. In 2019, for example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation decided its generous 52-week paid parental leave policy was not working because too many workers would be out at the same time, creating more disruption that it was worth. Instead, the organization decided to offer half as much paid leave and a $20,000 stipend to new parents to help cover expenses and child care.

10 PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS TO FOLLOW

When you are faced with a problem, how do you go about solving it? Do you let it overwhelm you, or do you flex your problem-solving muscles and figure out the best solution?

People who throw themselves at their problems often become frantic and confused. They take a haphazard approach to thinking, and then they are amazed when they find themselves floundering and making no progress.

Luckily, there is a much better way.

I’d like to introduce you to a problem-solving process that can help you face and tackle any type of challenge. With these 10 problem-solving strategies, you will strengthen your abilities to always find a solution while enabling yourself to see real progress.

Once you begin to execute this approach, you will no longer shudder at the first sign of a problem and instead feel confident to face it right away.

When you are faced with a problem, how do you go about solving it? Do you let it overwhelm you, or do you flex your problem-solving muscles and figure out the best solution?

People who throw themselves at their problems often become frantic and confused. They take a haphazard approach to thinking, and then they are amazed when they find themselves floundering and making no progress.

Luckily, there is a much better way.

I’d like to introduce you to a problem-solving process that can help you face and tackle any type of challenge. With these 10 problem-solving strategies, you will strengthen your abilities to always find a solution while enabling yourself to see real progress.

Once you begin to execute this approach, you will no longer shudder at the first sign of a problem and instead feel confident to face it right away.

In this 10-step problem-solving process, I’ll walk you through how to identify and implement the right solution to the problem at hand. In learning these steps, you will develop your critical thinking and elevate your problem-solving skills.

1. Begin With A Positive Approach

When a problem arises, it’s easy to enter panic mode or envision worst-case scenarios. Before you let your mind go there, take a step back and address every problem as simply another situation. It is a challenge that, with the right approach, you can handle. Part of that approach is thinking positively and creatively about the situation.

When figuring out ways to use creative thinking for problem-solving, I like to explore how geniuses solve challenges. They think outside the box, keep an open mind, and take a systematic approach.

It all starts with thinking positively about the problem. Remember: it is a situation, not a problem.

Problems are a fact of life; you can’t control when or how they occur but you can control your attitude. The more positive your language is, the more confident and optimistic you will be when approaching any complication.

2. Define The Problem

What exactly is the challenge you are facing? What about this particular situation is causing you stress and anxiety? You must clearly define the problem to resolve it.

Not only should you clarify what the problem is, but you should also see what caused the problem. If you can’t conclude the cause of the problem, you may need to meet with other parties involved to determine the root before moving forward.

If you are working with a group, it’s important to write and rewrite the problem until everyone agrees that the problem is clearly and correctly defined. When the issue is clearly defined, the solution may be obvious. But you may never find the solution at all if the problem isn’t defined.

3. Address The Situation From Different Directions

As I mentioned above, geniuses solve issues with out-of-the-box thinking. You need to see the problem from every angle before you begin offering solutions.

You should think: Are there other problems that are affecting this obstacle? If so, you need to address it first.

It can be easy to have tunnel vision when you’re problem-solving, but there are usually multiple things at play with any dilemma. Zoom out from the situation at hand and see all contributing factors to the issue and listen to everyone’s point of view.

Meeting with others who may be involved in the process can offer you more brainpower to shed light on the problem, that’s why teamwork is so important. You can work together to look at what the issue is affecting, what is affecting it, and how to solve it.

4. Brainstorm Solutions To The Problem

Part of addressing the situation from different directions is to come up with not just one but several solutions. There are likely to be multiple solutions to any single problem.

The first conclusion that comes to mind may not be the best one, but the more you focus, the more solutions you will find. That’s why brainstorming all possible resolutions is an essential step to problem-solving.

As you brainstorm, it’s a good idea to consider the “ideal solution.” If you were to discover one way to answer every pain point you outlined when you defined the problem, what would that be? What would it accomplish?

Defining your end goal will help inspire unique ways you can get there. It can also help to pose the problem as a question and come up with conclusions to that question.

After brainstorming all potential solutions, ask yourself, “What solution will produce the best outcome?”

5. Find The Best Solution To Solve Your Challenge

Now, not all possible solutions you outlined will be a good fit. You should be able to narrow down each method and see which is the most effective for your issue.

Do this by comparing each of the results with the one you believe to be the most ideal. Which one is the best under the current circumstances? What will successfully solve the problem?

After looking in-depth at the various approaches, decide on the best solution for the situation.

6. Prepare For The Worst

Before you jump at the chance to solve your problem with the best-fit solution, consider the repercussions of the solution. Now is the time to jump to worst-case scenarios–What will happen if the solution fails? Knowing the answer to this will allow you to prepare if it doesn’t resolve your dilemma.

Even if at first you don’t succeed, you will learn something in the end. Don’t take it as a failure.

Instead, accept that it didn’t work and try something new. Thankfully, you already have a list of alternative solutions that can help you find the right one.

Remember: The power of positive thinking will allow you to uncover more solutions. If you can train your mind to think this way, the more solution-oriented you will become.

7. Set A Deadline For Your Solution

The next of my 10 problem-solving strategies is to create a timeframe for your solution. Determine when to implement the solution, how long it will take to complete, and when you expect to see results.

What actions are necessary to meet this deadline and who will be accomplishing it?

It’s important to not only set a deadline but also place standards on how you will measure its success. How will you know that you’re making progress? How will you compare the success of this solution against the success of another?

Determine what key performance indicators will allow you to measure the success of your outcomes and set a series of short-term deadlines to report.

8. Take Responsibility For Implementing Your Decision

Now that you’ve found the solution to the problem, consider how it will impact the situation if it works or if it doesn’t. If your outcome doesn’t work, that’s ok, but it is your job to accept responsibility.

Some of the most creative ideas never transpire because no one is assigned the authority to carry out the decision. Taking responsibility for your decision doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be the one to implement it. There may be various people involved in the problem and different jobs required to accomplish the solution.

By taking responsibility for the decision you make, you’ll ensure that everyone involved knows what job they need to do, when they need to do it by, and how the successful or unsuccessful completion of that job is defined.

9. Solve Your Problem

Now it’s time to take action. Execute your solution so you can reach your defined goals and learn what works best.

However, not every problem will be solved easily and you may encounter additional obstacles as you attempt to solve the initial problem. You can overcome any drawback by tapping into your creative mind and taking action consistently and persistently until you reach your goal.

As you work hard, you won’t only uncover more solutions but you can develop your capacity to achieve more in the future.

10. Track Your Results

The final step of my problem-solving process is to track the results. Using the deadlines, KPIs, and scheduled reports you set in step 7 will let you know immediately if you’re on track or falling behind.

When you reach your deadline, ask yourself if you met the goals you set out to achieve. What worked and what didn’t work? Did you solve the problem? Did you solve it with the approach and timeframe you expected?

Answering these questions will allow you to understand if you need to take further action and help you improve your problem-solving methods for the future.

Problem Solving Skills You Can Start Using Today

It’s unnecessary to feel overwhelmed and confused when a problem arises. Stress and unhappiness come from how you respond to those situations. When you enhance your problem-solving skills, you will experience determination when the next difficult situation arises.

While you may not know how to resolve most issues right away, you will know the problem-solving steps to take to uncover the best response: Define the problem, determine the cause, discover the best solution, take action, and analyze the outcome.

Follow this process over and over again and you will creatively solve your problems. After all, effective problem solving is a skill that you can develop with practice.

- Brian Tracy