How to Keep the Workplace Merry and Bright this Holiday Season

Every year, you begin the holiday season believing that it truly is “the most wonderful time of the year.” It doesn’t take long, however, to realize that sometimes work is anything but wonderful thanks to an office full of co-workers and a job to do.

Fortunately, there are ways to make the season bright while still getting your job done. What follows are some tried and true tips to help you do just that:

  1. Don’t go crazy when it comes to decorating. Whether you are chasing sales leads, seeing patients, answering phones, or updating mailing lists, it is important that your surroundings reflect your professionalism. Sure, a few decorations are fine, but leave the blinking lights, scented candles, and musical figurines at home.
  2. Try not to overindulge in office goodies. Putting on a few pounds over the holidays is normal but if you overindulge all day, every day you are going to end up feeling sluggish and unable to concentrate. Bring some healthy snacks and keep them at your desk if necessary to keep yourself from being tempted.
  3. It may be better to give than to receive but don’t go overboard. Giving gifts to all or even a few of your co-workers or boss can get tricky. Most people are stretched thin this time of year and if you are giving out gifts, they may feel like they must reciprocate. If you do feel the need to hand out gifts, be sure to keep them very inexpensive. Expensive gifts are rarely – if ever – appropriate in the workplace.
  4. Get some fresh air. Although the weather outside may be frightful, if at all possible try to get outdoors during the workday and take a short, brisk walk. This will do wonders for your energy level and help to reduce stress.
  5. Remember the Golden Rule. Take your cue from your co-workers. If a fellow employee doesn’t share your exuberance for the holidays, don’t try to force him or her into the holiday spirit. There is nothing worse than an overbearing co-worker. Likewise, try to be patient if you are the one who thinks holiday cheer has no place in the office. Don’t be Scrooge, and as much as possible, try to go with the flow this time of year. After all, it won’t last forever.

 

 

 

 

When Thanking Clients, Think Outside of the Box

One of the best way to connect with your customers is to thank them for their business. While there are tried and true methods – a handwritten note or a box of candy, for example – it is important to mix things up.

If you are struggling to come up with unique ways to thank your clients, we’ve compiled a list of ideas that will help to set you apart from the competition.

  1. Ask clients what their favorite charity is and make a donation to that charity. Along the same lines, if a client has lost a loved one to a particular disease or has a child with a chronic disease, consider making a donation to a relevant charity.
  2. Give your best client a shout-out on social media. Not only does this acknowledge their business, it gives them some free advertising and potential sales leads.
  3. Invite them to come speak to your employees about their area of expertise. Do you have a financial planner for a client? Let them speak to your employees about investing or saving for retirement.
  4. Send them referrals. Nothing says thank you like sending business their way.
  5. Throw a customer-appreciation party. Summer barbeques or football tailgates are just two fun ideas.
  6. Acknowledge significant business anniversaries. Opened their doors five years ago? Just grew their staff to 100? These are all great reasons to congratulate them.
  7. Offer them a deep discount on your product or service. Imagine sending your monthly invoice with a zero balance and a note that says, “This month is on us – thanks for your business.” Talk about making an impression.
  8. Send them a book that you think they would be interested in or that is related to their business. Remember, it’s the thought that counts and this type of gift shows you put a lot of thought into it.
  9. Send a client two gift cards. Ask them to keep one and use the other one to make someone else’s day.
  10. Take them out to lunch at a nice restaurant and talk everything but business. This tells your client that you are willing to spend time and money on them – no strings attached.

Customer loyalty goes a long way. Competitors are always going to try to steal your clients. When your customers know how much you value them, it will make them much harder to lure away.

Retargeting the Right Way

Big data allows businesses to do some amazing things. One of these things is to retarget customers. Research tells us that retargeting helps turn shoppers who are just looking into buyers. Approximately two percent of shoppers will convert on their first visit to an online store and retargeting brings back the remaining 98 percent.

Through the use of retargeting, visitors to a website or online store are tracked and ads are then placed for that website or online store on other online sites they visit.

Retargeting can be achieved in a variety of ways. Here are some of the most common:

  • Email retargeting allows a customer to be targeted based on how they have responded to one of your emails.
  • Site retargeting allows you to show ads to visitors to your website.
  • Facebook retargeting displays banners on Facebook to visitors to your Facebook page.
  • Search retargeting involves pursuing consumer leads who have searched for particular keywords or phrases.

Another advantage of retargeting is that you are able to tell when to stop pursuing customers who are unlikely to purchase from you. The best marketers are able to analyze how many times a consumer needs to be exposed to your product or service before they make a purchase. If a prospect has received that specific number of ads or touches and still is not interested, it’s time to stop pursuing that prospect.

It is no secret, however, that when consumers are retargeted by a company, some of them have a tough time shaking the feeling that they are somehow being spied on. Therefore, it is important that you retarget in a way that doesn’t make prospects uncomfortable. Here are some ways to do just that:

  1. Don’t place your ad on so many of the websites a prospect visits that it becomes annoying. When customers get annoyed with a company, even if they need its product or service, they most likely won’t buy it.
  2. Always offer an opt-out. There is no reason to make a customer who doesn’t want to see your ad see it.
  3. Avoid static banners. The best banner ads are animated ones. It also is a good idea to change up your ad on a regular basis.

Retargeting is an effective tool for increasing your sales. However, if not done correctly, retargeting can definitely backfire.

 

Successful Marketing Efforts Employ Multiple Techniques

Content marketing and social media are the hottest trends in marketing these days. This is no surprise given the success businesses have found using these channels to market their products and services as well as to promote their brand.

What may come as a surprise, however, is that most marketing experts will advise against relying solely on content marketing and social media. That is because adding other forms of marketing to the mix – especially tried and true methods – can help businesses reach new customers while retaining current ones.

So what marketing strategies are still worth your time and marketing dollars?

  1. Pay per click (PPC). Perhaps due to a change in how Google is now displaying ads, PPC spending is on the rise after a period of decline. Display ads are now more difficult to distinguish from organic results so PPC is worth exploring again.
  2. Link building. It was in 2011 that link building’s popularity began to decline as more businesses started to focus on content marketing. But link building is still an important part of luring search engine traffic. What is important to keep in mind is that today’s link building should encourage people to click on links from relevant sites. Links should not be used merely to compile clicks for the sake of getting a higher ranking on search engines.
  3. Telemarketing. Recent studies show that when it comes to leads, telemarketing leads rank in the top 10 for return on investment. The personal connection of telemarketing is what experts say keeps it so relevant.
  4. Postcards. Postcard marketing has taken a hit because of rising postage costs and less expensive online advertising techniques. What many people are not aware of, though, is that direct mail still has a lower cost per lead than even most online methods of advertising. And of all the direct mail options, postcards remain the most affordable.
  5. Tradeshows. While tradeshows can be expensive due to cost, they are still a very popular and effective marketing channel for new business and sales leads. That’s because tradeshows, like telemarketing, offer a type of personal interaction that online marketing cannot achieve. While the popularity of tradeshows has been on the decline, it is still one of the top five marketing channels.

Content marketing and social media are great ways to market your business. However, that doesn’t mean that you should rely exclusively on those two methods in your quest to attract new customers and retain current ones.

Are You Marketing to the Wrong People?

No matter how big or small the business, marketing is essential to its success. And no matter how large its marketing budget, no business wants to waste its time or money on pursuing dead-end leads.

In his article, 7 Ways to Avoid Marketing to the Wrong People, AJ Agrawal tells us that if you are marketing to the wrong people, your business is unlikely to succeed. Of course, figuring out who exactly you should be marketing to can be a difficult task. Especially when you are just getting your business up and running.

Thankfully, Agrawal has some helpful tips to help. His first tip is to avoid casting your marketing net too wide.

 It’s tempting to go for the biggest audience, but working in a niche is more effective. Defining your target market will provide a solid foundation, as well as strict parameters that will focus your efforts. Try not to think of it as exclusion, but a way to simplify and streamline campaigns.

He also encourages businesses to – among other things – align content strictly to personas, segment marketing databases, and look at reconverting existing customers.

Agrawal cites ProOpinion, a professional network that promotes success in business, which says that 39 percent of small business owners don’t invest in any type of marketing.

That’s despite the fact that effective marketing is their main profit driver. These businesses need to look at ways to allocate a small budget to marketing, and use that budget with laser-guided precision to achieve high ROI.

At GoLeads, we help businesses of all sizes get the most out of every one of their marketing dollars. We do this by helping these businesses identify their target audience and develop the strategies to get noticed by that audience. We’d love to do the same for you.