How to Increase Your Focus at Work

Improve Your Focus at Work

If you find it difficult at times to sit down at your desk and really focus on something, you’re not alone. A 2015 Microsoft study states that the average human attention span has shrunk to eight seconds and it is expected to continue to shrink.

So how can you improve your focus at work and do what needs to get done? Whether you are calling sales leads or grading papers, you have to be able to focus.

Stephanie Vozza writes in 8 Ways to Improve Your Focus that one of the first things people need to realize is that focus is an acquired skill. To say that some people are able to focus and others are not is false. Vozza compares focus to a muscle that needs to be trained.

Too many people labor under the idea that they’re just not focused, and this becomes a self- fulfilling prophesy. Once you drop this mistaken belief, you can take a much more realistic approach to building focus.

Vozza has eight tips for building your focus, ranging from taking short breaks to grabbing some coffee. While the tips are simple, it can be difficult to implement the changes. One thing Vozza advocates is unplugging for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, people who are constantly checking their email or text messages may find this excruciating but it is definitely worth the effort.

While it may seem obvious, in order to stay focused people must identify what they should be focusing on. In other words, if you know what you need to be doing you will be less likely to be distracted by things that aren’t important.

No matter how quickly things are moving or how much information you have at your fingertips, you won’t accomplish much if you are unable to put your head down and get work done. Now that’s something you really need to focus on!

How to Make Your Next Email Marketing Campaign Your Best

When it comes to marketing methods, email remains one of the most popular ways to communicate with current and prospective customers.

One reason that email marketing is so popular with marketers is because it works. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields an average 4,300% return on investment for U.S. businesses.

There is simply no better way to provide current customers or prospects relevant content than email. No matter what your objective – promotional, educational, or simply to introduce yourself – nothing works better.

So now that we know email isn’t going anywhere, here are some ways to make sure your next email marketing campaign is your best:

  1. Make sure you have the right audience by obtaining a premier business email database for sales leads. A high accuracy rate for email mailing lists is essential or your efforts are wasted.
  2. Optimize it for mobile. More than 60 percent of decision makers read emails via their mobile device and studies show that emails that are not easy to use on mobile devices will be deleted. And there are no second chances. Once a reader determines your brand’s emails don’t offer a pleasant experience they are extremely unlikely to open subsequent ones.
  3. Content should specifically mention the person who is reading the email. By using their name and other specifics, such as their location or company, an email will seem more personal.
  4. If you are sending promotional materials, don’t use the same promotions you use on social media. If you offer 20 percent off an item through your Facebook site, try free shipping through email or vice versa.
  5. Keep in mind that usability studies show that most people won’t look beyond the first screen of an email so try to keep content short enough to be contained on the first screen. When you do need to send a longer email, use a hyperlinked table of contents at the beginning of the email so people can quickly and easily access the information that interests them.
  6. Measure the results of every email campaign. This will allow you to find out what worked, what didn’t work, and how your next campaign can be even more successful.

The key to successful email marketing is to make sure every one of your email campaigns is better than the last. By using the steps above you can make sure that this is always the case!

 

Quality Content is More Important than Ever

Producing quality content is becoming more and more important for companies looking to market their products and services and generate sales leads. Unfortunately, producing such content is proving increasingly difficult as the marketplace becomes more crowded and the competition gets tougher.

So how can you make sure that your content stands out from the crowd? What follows are some helpful tips and small changes you can make to ensure that your content doesn’t get overlooked.

1. Make sure that all images attached to your content are relevant. While experts have told us for years that images make a huge difference in attracting readers, slapping up just any picture won’t reflect well on your copy. Also, make sure that all photos are formatted and optimized to avoid slowing load times.

2. Make your posts as reader-friendly as possible by including bullets and lists. More than the look of your content, however, it’s important that your content uses clear, simple language. Unless a sentence adds real value to your post – get rid of it!

3. Include influencers. Readers respond to industry leaders. Quotes from authorities on a subject matter always add credibility to posts.

4. Tell secrets. Let’s face it, readers want to learn something they won’t hear anywhere else. Make sure when readers finish reading one of your posts, they learn something new – an insider tip. This type of information is what will keep them coming back for more.

5. Don’t always play it safe. Got a controversial point of view on a particular topic? Don’t avoid it, embrace it. Even if readers disagree with what you have to say, they will respect you for having the guts to say it.

6. Get emotional. There may be no crying in baseball, but when it comes to writing content it’s OK to get a little emotional once in a while. When readers feel that they can relate to your struggles and even failures, you will gain their trust. Open yourself up a little and you will be surprised at what happens next.

Many businesses believe that getting their content noticed involves making huge, sweeping changes to their posts. The fact is, sometimes just a small amount of tweaking can make a big difference. After all, when it comes to content, the way you are saying things can be just as important as what you are saying.

How to Plan for the Unexpected

When running your own business, it’s essential that you have a business plan in place. The trouble is, no matter how well thought out that plan is, challenges will arise that disrupt it.

The most successful business owners not only have a business plan, they know what to do when life, or business, throws that plan out of whack. And as any seasoned business owner will tell you, it isn’t a matter of if obstacles arise, it’s a matter of when, and how many, obstacles arise!

So as a business owner, what do you do when the inevitable crisis occurs? The following guest post gives you some good insight into how to cope with an unexpected bump in the road.

The Evolution of SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been important to businesses. However, recent changes to Google’s algorithm mean that now, more than ever, businesses need a firm grasp on the best practices in SEO. This is especially true for businesses that rely heavily on results from search engines to drive traffic to their websites.

At GoLeads, we are always amazed at the responses we receive from clients after we introduce the subject of SEO to them. Answers are varied, but usually come down to these top 3:

“Oh, we’re already doing this.”

“I have someone concentrating on this full time.”

“We do outbound calling. We don’t want inbound calls.”   (Really?)

What’s interesting about the first two responses is that it doesn’t take much research to recognize they really aren’t doing anything when it comes to SEO. We can never find them in the organic listings under their keywords or phrases. Plus, their back-end coding is all wrong, there is no new content…the list goes on.

The great thing about SEO is that it’s never too late to start taking an active approach to it. Now is the time to get back in the game. That’s because Google has changed the rules quite dramatically that it’s possible for everyone to compete for visibility.

Need another incentive? Businesses that do not abide by Google guidelines may be removed from its search engine entirely.

While deciphering and adhering to SEO best practices may seem daunting, fear not! Learning how to best leverage SEO for your business is not impossible. What follows are the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to the latest in SEO:

  1. YOUR WEBSITE MUST BE MOBILE AND USER FRIENDLY. Most of us realize that every business must have a mobile website. But equally important is that your mobile website is easy to read and look good on every type of mobile device, including smart phones and tablets.
  2. CONTENT REMAINS KING. Content continues to reign supreme and it is becoming more important all the time. Today’s content must be high quality, provide useful insights, and be easily shared.
  3. SPEED COUNTS. Slow websites will be penalized. For example, if the pages on your website take too long to load, your page ranking will suffer.
  4. TIME (ON YOUR WEBSITE) IS OF THE ESSENCE. There is no such thing as someone spending too much time on your site. In fact, Google will be judging your content on how long people spend on your website. Likewise, if you have a lot of visitors to your website but they don’t stay for long, you need to find out why that is and take steps to change it.

Knowing what SEO strategies are most important and how to implement them can be a struggle. At GoLeads, we help businesses just like yours do this every single day and we can do the same for you. Navigating the new SEO landscape can be difficult, but the good news is you don’t have to go it alone!