Month: December 2015

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Refresher List
	As you prepare for the 2016 calendar year, it’s a good practice to reflect on what did (and didn’t) pan out during your 2015 business year. Are your contact lists in order? Do you have visibility into your sales pipeline The same holds true for those planning to launch a new business in 2016. Lists are a quick read, so keep one posted near your desk. In the meantime, here are a few bits of wisdom that might resonate: Clearly define your unique perspective on your marketplace Know your marketplace inside and out Launch (or update) your online presence before you open your doors for business Always anticipate your customers’ needs and nurture the relationships Never rely on a single client, no matter how lucrative Don’t try to control everything—be willing to delegate or outsource
	Setting Milestones
	One of the most powerful features of projects is the ability to set tasks and milestones. You can create milestones for each step in the project and specify a target completion date for each milestone. Tasks can be created and associated with each milestone within the project, so you have more granular control of what needs to be done, by whom, and when. For projects that have a pipeline associated with them, we use stages instead of milestones. Stages are a form of milestone but operate on a linear timeline rather than standard milestones which can be overlapping. If you use milestones, you will not have a pipeline option and vice versa. To add a milestone, open the project, click on the Milestones subtab, and then click the Add Milestone button. To see your milestones in a calendar view, click the calendar icon in the Milestones subtab. You can also subscribe to an iCalendar feed for the project by clicking on the subscription link below the calendar.
	Strike a Power Pose
	It turns out that the hands on hips, wide-stance, gaze locked firmly in the distance pose isn’t just for the likes of Super Man or Wonder Woman. Research shows that it can actually work for the rest of us mortals, helping us become more confident.   Based on research conducted by Amy Cuddy (a PhD in Psychology from Princeton University), who shared her findings during a TED Talk, if you stay in a power pose for just two minutes, you can increase testosterone levels and therefore boost your confidence and willingness to take risks—or at the very least feel more powerful before you step into an important meeting.   Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial of the best CRM around. Send Us Your Tips. Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us! If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card! Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email. About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager. She’s been writing about the “business of technology” in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

Whether you collect addresses via a registration page on your website or a sign-up sheet in a retail store, chances are your business has amassed a large supply of email addresses in some form or another. These addresses have a high value to your business – but the longer you wait to put them to use, the less of that value they retain (as their owners abandon old addresses or forget they ever gave you the address in the first place). How do you leverage your email address list to increase revenues and profits for your business? Here’s a collection of ideas you can use.

Start with a Newsletter

The email newsletter is a time-honored tradition in online marketing because it remains a very effective way to reach customers. Computer users will gloss over ads and forget to check social media regularly, but they won’t ignore their email – at least not forever. An email message captures a prospect when they are most prepared to listen to your message. Short of having a customer search for the name or your company online or type in your URL directly, email remains one of the most effective (and cost-effective) ways to reach prospects.

The content of the email messages you send is dependent on the specifics of your business, but the fundamental best practice for email newsletters across the board is that newsletters should not be simply about your company or your products. Discounts, information about new products, and company news are fine, but these should never be the primary focus of your newsletter. Instead, fill it with information that your customers can really use. An arborist may send notices about tree and plant care that coincides with the seasons. A high-end boutique may send a report on what was hot at Fashion Week. By creating a newsletter that is relevant to your industry and filled with information your customers are interested in you become a top-of-mind and expert resource. The more of your newsletters they engage with, the stronger that position is cemented.

Segment Your List

As your list grows in size, it’s time to start thinking about segmenting that list into logical groups. CRM software can help you do this, letting you split up customers based on potential size or value, location, demographic data, or any other variable that makes sense for your business. With your list segmented, you can send different messages to each group. The overall message of the newsletter might be the same, but you may opt to offer different discounts or promote different products for each group.

Segmenting can also be used in a more arbitrary way to perform A/B testing of different newsletters, offers, or promotions. In simple terms, you would send one newsletter to half of your email list and another newsletter to the other half. After the newsletter run, you can then determine which newsletter performed the best (at either overall readership or total conversions/sales), then use that information to direct how you craft the next newsletter you send out.

Time Your Messages Perfectly

When’s the best time to send a newsletter? It depends, but the best practice is that messages should be sent when readers are most actively engaged with their email, and when they are most likely to buy a product or service. U.S. ecommerce companies vastly prefer to send email during the overnight hours, so users have them fresh in their inbox come morning. This approach may work best for retailers, but not for B2B service companies. A little experimentation – and some analysis of your website’s logs to see when sales are most common – will help inform your timing.

Target Addresses Directly Through Social Media

One new way to leverage your email list is to target individual email addresses with laser-focused advertising. Both Facebook and Twitter let you upload a list of email addresses and then have ads served exclusively to these users (presuming they have an account on the respective network). This can be a far more effective way to spend advertising dollars than through relatively brutish PPC ads that are targeted primarily by keyword.

Be Cautious of Anti-Spam Rules

One caveat with all of these tips is that you need to be highly aware of anti-spam laws, which are often onerous and which come with stiff penalties if you violate them. The CAN-SPAM Act is the primary legislation you’ll need to digest and master, but some states have their own rules which you’ll need to follow, as well.

In a nutshell, be clear that your newsletter is an ad, make it easy for users to opt-out (and be certain your opt-out system works), and don’t include misleading information anywhere (especially in the addressing information in the header). Don’t overdue your frequency either. A few messages per month should be plenty, especially if you’re just starting out, or else users will feel they’re being spammed.

Remember: A slavish devotion to transparency will help to promote you and your brand as honest and trustworthy – and is likely to keep customers from unsubscribing.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

About the Author: Christopher Null is an award-winning business and technology journalist. His work frequently appears on Wired, PC World, and TechBeacon. Follow him on Twitter @christophernull.

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Smart Tips for Telecommuting
	Telecommuting has its advantages. Nearly six out of ten employers identify cost savings as a significant benefit to telecommuting. However, according to a recent survey conducted by the Flex+Strategy Group, 52 percent of the 600+ respondents indicated that they did not receive any formalized training on best practices for working remotely. Does that mean that money saved becomes time wasted because your employees aren’t productive? Not if you set up clear cut ground rules and provide the tools necessary for your people to get their jobs done. Set and prioritize (e.g. phone call first, email second, IM third) preferred forms of communication and suggested meeting times if you are working across time zones. Promote collaboration by providing Web-based tools that offer visibility into projects and timelines. Encourage work life balance by making it clear that the required work hours in the main office hold true for the home office.
	Multilingual Settings in Insightly
	Did you know the Insightly website is available in multiple languages? To change your preferred language: Click the User Settingsfrom the profile menu Scroll down to Language Settingand click the list to select your language Click the Save User Settings button   Insightly also allows for creating your own categories for tasks, files, projects, and opportunities. If your company has a mix of people who speak different languages, a good practice is to make these texts bilingual. For example, if you create a category called Meeting for tasks, an English/German version of this would be Meeting/Konferenz.
	Dual Purpose Office Supplies
	If you’re running a business, you’re investing in office supplies. Why not get some extra mileage out of a few ubiquitous items? Use heavy duty binder clips to organize cables or replace broken feet on a computer keyboard. Slide large rubber bands around both ends of a cutting board to keep it secure. Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial of the best CRM around. Send Us Your Tips. Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us! If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card! Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email. About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager. She’s been writing about the “business of technology” in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

Up Your Engagement: 3 Ways to Reward Behaviors You Want Customers to Repeat

Building a real relationship with your customers isn’t always easy. People expect brands to have ulterior motives and are always waiting for the sales pitch. To really engage, you have to know who they are, what they want, and where to find them.

You also have to inspire them to respond. How can you do that?

Personalize Your Comments

Social media is all about engaging conversation. Allow your team to join the conversation. Your followers will tweet out all kinds of personal information you can respond to without being intrusive or pushy. Avoid personal tragedies and look for happy moments or everyday observations.

Be sure to respond when followers retweet or share your content. Follow back everyone who shares one of your links or mentions your brand, and say thank you.

Why it works: No matter how many followers you have, social media can leave you feeling like you’re talking to yourself. It’s easy for comments to be overlooked and get no response. When a brand responds, it’s flattering and often beneficial. While you are being exposed to your follower’s audience, they are also exposed to yours.

When you respond with a personal comment, it’s human nature to respond back, and to seek new ways to engage. Consumer studies reveal that personalization leads to a higher response rate.

Be Generous with “Likes”

Hitting the like button shows your customers you’re paying attention to them. Be cautious about liking personal family photos. Look for those that show the photographer’s skill (like weather, sunsets, or landscapes), or those that feature pets or possessions.

If appropriate, ask permission to share their photos with your audience. For example, if you’re in the automotive industry, share user car or truck photos and give them credit…but not photos of their teenage daughters (too creepy).

Why it works: People are proud (but not protective) of cars, crafts, food, Christmas decorations, small dogs dressed as costumes, and other things that don’t compromise their identity or put them at risk.

By sharing things they are passionate about, you validate their feelings and acknowledge their skills, or show off their toys to a larger audience. Either way, it’s personal and lets them know you’re paying attention and interested in the same things. If you’re lucky, they’ll respond by posting more of the same – and by sharing your similar content.

Make Personal Thank You Cards

Sending out a simple “thank you” when a customer shares your content is great, but sending a personalized card is much more memorable, and you can do it in seconds using Canva.com or a similar program, as long as you prepare in advance.

Find background photos and load a bunch of templates with everything but the name. Use different phrases, such as:

• “[NAME], thanks for the retweet! – We appreciate it. -[URL or company name]”
• “Thanks for sharing the love, [NAME]. We love you back! -[URL or company name]”
• “Happy Birthday, [NAME]. Hope it’s the best one ever! -[URL or company name]”
• “Congratulations, [NAME]. What a beautiful baby! -[URL or company name]”
• “Congratulations on your promotion! That’s like a burger with EXTRA bacon! -[URL or company name]”

At Insightly, we have a CRM for all kinds of businesses and all kinds of users. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.