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

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 4 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, a tip on improving your sales, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

 

	Start Using Custom Fields
	As an Insightly user, you’re part of a community consisting of more than 800,000 users spread across 100 countries. While it’s certainly comforting to be in good company, statistics like these are also a testament to Insightly’s flexibility. Insightly is used primarily by small businesses. Manufacturing firms, consultants, retailers, medical professionals, and real estate agents are just a few of the small businesses served by Insightly. With a customer base as diverse as this, providing a customizable data structure is vital. One way that Insightly accommodates data flexibility is through the use of custom fields. When you signed up for your Insightly account, you may have noticed that contacts, leads, and other records offer certain fields by default (name, phone number, email, etc.). While default fields are great for starters, your complex business needs may not be met by the standard offering. To maintain even better records, leverage the power of custom fields. For example, let’s imagine that you own a small auto repair shop. An important source of recurring revenue (and new opportunities) involves performing oil changes for your customers. On average, most customers bring in their vehicles bi-annually for this service. Using Insightly, you might create a date field called: “Last Serviced On.” Once utilized, you’ll be able to see which customers are overdue for maintenance. This can help you streamline your marketing efforts and provide even greater service for customers. For additional tips on using custom fields in Insightly, click here.
	Create a Continuing Education Program
	If you’ve decided to schedule more time for continuing education, you’re making a wise decision. Knowledge is an important factor of what makes you so marketable, and staying ahead of the field is a worthwhile priority. However, many business owners make the mistake of taking a reactive approach to learning. The daily demands of running a business can make little time (or brainpower) for proactively seeking new best practices. If this sounds like you, here are a few tips to consider when building a simple, effective continuing education process: Subscribe to industry newsletters – Use your inbox more effectively by opting into relevant distribution lists. There are many free subscription services (such as this one) that aggregate informative news for your line of work. In addition, many blogs offer an RSS-to-email service, whereby you can receive on-demand posts via email. Get started by investigating noteworthy sites in your industry. Download an RSS reader – There are dozens of smartphone apps that do essentially the same thing: monitor and aggregate content from the sites you enjoy reading. Once installed on your device, you’re just a tap away from the latest breaking news (without having to visit a dozen different websites). Do a quick search and find out which app is right for you. Build an in-house learning team – If you’re looking for a more customized workflow, consider starting an in-house team whose mission is to collect and organize important content. By investing in the process, you may find yourself more apt to actually digest the content. This approach could also help you keep other stakeholders in the loop.
	Schedule the Stuff You Love, Too
	“Send me an invite, and that way I remember to show up.” We’ve all said these words at least once. Our calendars, while incredibly useful for keeping us organized, are packed full of stuff we would otherwise forget to do. Client meetings, webinars, vendor negotiations…each new day brings a list of priorities, some of which are more exciting than others. At times (especially on Monday), our calendars can seem overwhelming. How will you find the motivation to get through another week of the humdrum? Your calendar doesn’t have to be reserved for most dreaded work-related matters. Try scheduling the stuff you actually look forward to, such as: Family fun Off-site brainstorming sessions Enjoying coffee with colleagues Sporting events or concerts Strategic planning for next year Continuing education time Now, as you review your upcoming workload, you’ll begin to see a wider spectrum of endeavors. In the short term, this type of scheduling diversity could help you find that much-needed boost of productivity. In the long run, you may even find yourself using your calendar (and your time) much more strategically.
	Weigh the Pros and Cons of Sales
	The upsides of a sales-focused career are usually pretty obvious. As Adam Honig points out on the Spiro blog, unlimited earning potential, exciting relationships, and new career opportunities are just a few of the perks. On the other hand, as with anything, sales presents its share of potential downsides. Uncertainty and stress are usually at the top of the list. Balancing the perks and risks isn’t always easy. In fact, even the most experienced sales professional occasionally asks the question, “Is this really worth it?” Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer. However, if you find yourself asking this question, ponder these additional thoughts before you despair: Is sales actually to blame; or, does this particular role just stink? Does the company I currently work for help (or hinder) my efforts? Would a “less stressful” job (such as a corporate desk job) actually be less stressful? Would a more efficient use of technology (such as Insightly) help me? If you decide that a sales path is still right for you, there is good news. Sales professionals (good ones, at least) are some of the most sought after employees by companies large and small. Don’t be afraid to improve your situation by keeping your options open.

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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.

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About the author: Matt Keener is a marketing consultant and President of Keener Marketing Solutions, LLC. Matt specializes in content marketing and strategic planning, having helped numerous Saas (software as a service) companies and other small businesses worldwide. Read more of Matt’s work, check out his book, or connect with him onLinkedin.

How can anyone keep up with the world and all its complexities when the steady progress of evolution has been left behind by a crashing series of big bangs?

Read the full article at: www.brandquarterly.com

 

Just like any tough choice, it comes down to examining your needs, looking at the bigger picture for the country, the vision and goals, and picking the person who can do the best job.

Fortunately when it comes to making choices in our business, we aren’t faced with potentially life-altering options, but bad decisions can definitely affect our bottom line. In fact, you might be overwhelmed by the number of options that seem to fit your needs. Still, the same process applies—weigh out your needs, look at your vision and goals, pick the best option.

If you’re selecting a CRM, how do you pick the right “candidate for the job”? None of us has a crystal ball, and it can be hard to foresee the problems you might run into down the road. Should you pick a small niche company that’s tailored to your business, but doesn’t offer the support, flexibility, and experience? Should you go with a large company that might not understand the challenges of a small company?

Come to think of it—it’s more like an electoral choice than you might realize!

In business, as in politics, follow the process and focus on the overall goals. Look at your timeline, your team, and what you hope to accomplish. Shop around to find the best choices (or hope for the best candidate) and then cast your vote and go from there.

Assess Your Needs

Each politician must understand the needs of their constituency. In choosing a CRM you must look at the needs of your office, and your customers.

Are you primarily focused on B2B sales, or are you selling directly to customers? Do you have a large audience and a well-known, strong brand? Are you growing, holding steady, or in a recovery period? What does your sales process look like?

All of these factors can play into your need for a CRM, and what you hope it will do for you. If you’re relying on spreadsheets and old fashioned data-control methods, chances are you know you need something to manage your customer relationships, but the question is…what?

You also need to look at the way you communicate with your customers. Do you use social media, and have a strong online presence? If you’re dealing with things like managing posts, shifting customer contact information (email addresses, for example) and online outreach, then you need a CRM that can handle it. You need a CRM that’s mobile friendly and offers integration with all your current systems. You need a system that works with MailChimp, Gmail, Google Calendar, QuickBooks and other programs you already rely on.

When you look at your needs, you also want to step back from becoming too myopic with your industry-view. An industry-specific, or vertical CRM might seem helpful because of common language and industry jargon, but you might be sacrificing accessibility. Industry-specific CRM’s appeal to a very narrow market; and were often created by someone within the industry, not someone who understands the technical aspects of database management. You might not find the support you need. Although it might have been written for a business in your industry, it wasn’t written for YOUR business.

Consider instead, the option of a CRM that’s customizable enough to grow with you, and works with the programs you’re already using. Look for something user-friendly with an interface that’s easy for all employees to grasp and customer support at the ready.

Just like in an election, you should do your research and listen to what other constituents are saying! Which candidate are they supporting and why? Which CRM fits their needs and why do they endorse it?

Look at the Vision for Your Company

When in doubt, whether it’s about a candidate or your business, always step back and re-focus on the vision. A good candidate should share your vision, or offer a clear picture of outcomes. They should be able to explain their goals and talk about what they want to do, and they should be aligned with your own goals and values.

What are you looking for in a CRM? A CRM should be aligned with the big picture for your business as well. You want something that can give you an overall portrait of the communication that’s happening with your customers. You want to understand your demographic and use that data to propel your plans for future outreach, sales and expansion. You need to see the full picture.

When you select a CRM, choose a program that fits your budget and understands the needs of your unique business. You don’t want something that requires months of setup and training, and offers bells and whistles you don’t need or want.

What are your sales goals for the next year? What about the next five? Look at your projected growth and where you want to be in the future. Your CRM should expand with you and grow as your needs grow, whether you have two employees and 20 customers or 30 employees and a thousand customers. You need to keep track of important information and customer preferences. You need to have a record of each touch point in your database, readily accessible when a question arises.

Find a CRM that fits your needs and can handle whatever comes your way. Pick something aligned with your vision that can help you meet and exceed your goals and take your company to the next level. Just like a good candidate in an election, don’t fall for the loudest or the flashiest, or the one with the biggest Super PAC. Take a measured look at each option and pick the one best suited to take you into the future!

 

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

Learn the most common mistakes marketers make with lead generation, along with how to fix them.

Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com

The numbers vary by study, but between 25 to 65% of e-commerce customers make purchases via mobile devices. This set of shoppers has very specific needs. If you aren’t meeting them, chances are you’re losing sales. What do you need to know to target mobile shoppers?

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize

This isn’t the first time you’re hearing this advice, but it bears repeating. Whether you create an app or optimize your website design, you must optimize the shopping experience for mobile. This isn’t a matter of budget or timing. It’s non-negotiable. More and more of your customers are experiencing your brand via mobile devices, sometimes on very small screens. If they cannot view a page properly or the shopping cart is broken in mobile browsers, you will lose a sale.

Customers don’t want to stop their busy lives, put down their smartphone, find a computer, and navigate back to your site. Issues such as being unable to clearly see a product and difficulty entering information via mobile are some of the most popular reasons people don’t make a mobile purchase.

Mobile Segmentation

Targeting the right audience with the right ads always requires data. In addition to basic demographics, such as location, you’ll want some mobile-specific customer data. For example, which devices are your customers using to access your site?  Are they coming to your site via social media? If so, which social media networks are bringing you those mobile customers? Which apps are they using? It’s not enough just to know many customers are coming to you via Facebook, thus you should spend more energy on marketing on Facebook. If you know customers are viewing your site in Safari browser mostly between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on iOS devices from links in the Facebook app for iOS, then you can begin to put together some ideas about your Mobile Buyer Personas. Understanding your audience is the first step in creating campaigns they won’t ignore.

Email

With so much focus on social media marketing, email sometimes gets overlooked. Don’t let your email list grow stale just yet. As many as 68% of emails are opened on mobile devices. While they don’t count for nearly as many conversions, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to increase your mobile email conversions.

One common problem is emails that aren’t optimized for mobile. They should be readable across devices, mobile browsers, and email apps. Frequently, users get emails that refuse to scale properly or have other display issues rendering them unreadable. In those situations, your customer is much more likely to hit delete than to seek some other device for reading your email. Another hindrance to conversion is when your subscriber clicks through from an email to a page with mobile display issues. Optimize. Test. Repeat often.

Mobile Gaming

This is an area ripe with opportunity for marketing. Whether you create a game for your business or advertise your product or service within games, you should be looking at mobile games as a marketing opportunity. For most businesses, in-app advertising makes the most sense. Depending on your budget, this could mean buying a text ad, a static image, video, or even creating a mini-game that can be played within the app. Most smartphone users play mobile games. Typically they’re playing games to kill time, so you have a captive audience. They’re even more likely to pay attention if they’re receiving an in-game perk for viewing your ads. The initial learning curve to entering the world of “app-vertising” may be well worth your time.

Mobile For You

Your customers aren’t the only important people using smartphones and tablets to do business. Your team is, too. They need access to crucial sales information, customer data, and project calendars on-the-go. Use a CRM with feature-packed apps, such as Insightly, and your team will have all project, pipeline, and customer data at their fingertips. They’ll even be able to scan business cards into your contact database with their mobile device.

It has been said customers may become so saturated with mobile marketing, they’ll eventually ignore it. If they’re constantly bombarded with ads that aren’t relevant to them, then surely they’ll ignore them. However, if you leverage deep customer data, personas, and work to target your marketing — not just to maximize potential conversion but to maximize value to your customers — you’ll build a community of customers who care about your brand and your message. Pair that with excellent, personalized customer service and your community will outlast any downward trend in mobile marketing that may come along.

 

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

Will anyone actually click my ad and buy my product? It’s a terrifying question, but an important one. Turns out that everyone (including you) wants to get more conversions from a Twitter ad campaign.

Read the full article at: blog.kissmetrics.com

CRM Makeovers by Gene Marks

In 2016 we launched the “CRM Makeover” series to help our new and existing customers get even more value out of Insightly CRM. What is a CRM Makeover? It’s an hour of free consulting with CRM expert and noted author, Gene Marks. This year’s winners include:

• Chris Hathaway of AggData, LLC
• Rachel Boschen of the New York Daily News
• Annie Reeves of Chintaro Software

Getting Down to Business

After diving into the specifics of how each customer is using Insightly CRM to manage day-to-day business operations, Gene provided detailed recommendations on ways each business can derive even more value out of their CRM platform by making adjustments to things such as workflow processes. And it doesn’t stop there. Each customer’s business was also profiled in one of several publications, including Inc. and the Huffington Post.

Make 2017 Your Year for a CRM Makeover

If you’d like a chance to win a CRM Makeover for your business in 2017, follow a few simple steps. If you’re a current customer on either a Free or Paid Insightly plan, Subscribe to the Insighly blog and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win.

New to CRM, No Problem

Even if you’re a CRM newbie, you can still become eligible to win a CRM Makeover. Just sign up for a Free or Paid Insightly plan AND Subscribe to the Insightly blog and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win. Get on the path to a CRM Makeover today!

 

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

 

While attacks against big businesses make headlines, it’s small- and medium-sized companies that are increasingly being targeted by cybercrooks. Symantec found that 43 percent of all cyberattacks worldwide last year targeted companies with fewer than 250 employees. And even the U.S. government is sounding the alarm, making protecting small businesses a “top priority” of the House Committee on Small Business.

How are hackers getting inside? Long-trending issues like failure to change default passwords, employees opening spam email, and workers clicking on dangerous web links at work all remain massive problems that won’t be going away soon. However, they will soon be joined by some newer exploits that are making the security landscape much more complicated.

Here are four of the biggest emerging cybersecurity risks.

Data and Device Proliferation Makes Security More Complex

Two of the biggest trends in technology in recent years are the rise of mobile devices as a primary computing platform and the growth of the cloud for data storage and processing. These have opened up a vast new world of work for large and small companies alike, but they have also created a much more complicated security environment. Enterprise-class organizations have largely figured out how to implement cloud security tools and mobile device management platforms to mitigate these risks, but SMBs are still finding their way – and they’ll need to figure it out, quickly.

Intellectsoft CEO Paul Bach says, “Consider a doctor’s office, where nurses and doctors more increasingly rely on mobile phones and tablets for email, data input, prescription cataloging, and patient history. Just a single breach of patient data could potentially expose confidential info belonging to hundreds of patients. In a large hospital, they might have a well-trained IT team onsite to implement security. But most small-medium sized businesses do not have an onsite IT team, and are intimidated by the cost and complexity of a security solution.”

When equipment is entrusted to the hands of employees 24/7 (as in the case of employee mobile phones used for corporate work), the situation gets more complex. “Laptops get lost, phones get swiped, and your company’s data is in the hands of whoever finds it,” says IT consultant Tim Singleton. “For most companies, it presents a threat to customers and trade secrets. For medical clients, it poses an actual criminal risk.”

Websites Held for Ransom Cost Companies Time, Money, and Embarrassment

“Ransomware” is a common type of desktop exploit in which system-crippling malware is installed on a victim’s PC, and the only way to remove it is to pay its creator to take it off. This would net the crook a few bucks for each successfully paid ransom.

That’s old news. Hackers have set their sights on greener pastures: Hacking into business websites, defacing or disabling them, and requiring a much higher ransom to return control back to the company. “Many SMBs are unfamiliar with how their web hosting works and how to secure it, which makes many sites low-hanging fruit for fraudsters,” says Steve Hamrin, owner of a Lexington, Kentucky-based computer service company. “This can be an enormous hole to dig out of for an SMB.”

The Internet of Things Opens New Doors for Hackers

The world is enamored with web-connected fitness monitors, video cameras, and consumer appliances… and most experts see this as a security disaster in the making.

“I listened to a pitch in a local Sam’s Club a few weeks ago from somebody selling remote controlled door locks,” relates Greg Scott of Infrasupport, an IT infrastructure consultancy. “I asked the guy about how to secure them and he said, ‘They’re locks – they’re for security.’ I asked him how do they defend against somebody impersonating me and using a cell phone to unlock my door locks and he said, ‘Well, they run over the AT&T network, so that’s pretty secure.’ That’s the state of IT security knowledge in the SMB space.”

IoT devices will ultimately give hackers an exponentially greater number of avenues – called “attack vectors” – in which they can find a weakness and exploit their way into an organization’s network infrastructure. Expect to see a major news headline within the next two years that blames a major corporate hacking event on an IoT product.

Third-Party Security Becomes a Troubling Problem

We live in a world of contract labor, outsourced help, and freelance workers. Train your internal staff about good security habits all you want – what good will that do you if a freelance designer who’s logged into your content management system carelessly leaves his laptop unguarded at a coffee shop?

This is an increasingly common scenario with no great solution. You can require outsourced workers to complete your training courses, carry cybersecurity insurance, and follow certain policies, but enforcement is difficult, and rules like this can cause businesses to run afoul of labor laws, requiring classification of those contractors as employees – leading to heavy employment tax penalties.

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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.

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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 4 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, a tip on improving your sales, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

 

	Save Time & Improve Productivity with Activity Sets
	Speaking of pipelines and tasks, did you know that Insightly’s activity set feature can save you hours of administrative work each year?  What is an activity set? In short, an activity set is a way to automatically create pre-defined tasks or events in Insightly. Activity sets can be manually or automatically triggered, depending on your preferences. Here’s an example of each:  Manually Applying an Activity Set Let’s say your administrative assistant answers incoming phone calls from new customers. Each time a new call is received, she pops open Insightly, creates a new lead record, and captures the person’s contact info. At the end of the call, she usually finds herself assigning several follow up tasks for herself and you. Sometimes she forgets to assign all of the correct tasks, which annoys you and makes her feel bad. To remedy this situation, you configure an activity set. Now, instead of remembering to assign several tasks and due dates, your assistant simply applies a single activity set to the lead record. Multiple tasks are assigned with one click, and everyone is happy. For added convenience, check to see if your mobile device offers voice transcription. This can be very helpful when capturing thoughts in the task’s “description” field. Rather than fumbling with your keyboard, let your smartphone or tablet serve as your virtual assistant. As you add more “idea” tasks into Insightly, it may be wise to define a task category reserved only for collecting your thoughts. By organizing ideas in this way, you can quickly view and prioritize those that add the most value to your business. Automatically Applying an Activity Set Using pipelines to trigger activity sets adds even greater automation. When an opportunity (or project) advances from one stage to the next, Insightly can automatically apply an activity set of your choosing. No more waiting for someone to manually apply the set. Instead, tasks and events are assigned to the correct users like magic.
	Automate the Rest of Your Life
	While we’re on the subject of automation, there’s no reason to isolate it to the confines of your business. Your personal life can probably stand to benefit from the power of automation, too. Every hour is a precious gift, so constantly seek ways to use time more wisely. Here are six simple ideas for moving toward a more automated personal life. Enable automatic payment authorization for utility bills and other expenses. Start using your bank’s budgeting software (or find one that offers such a service). Use a news aggregation app to collect stories you care about (and weed out the noise). Configure recurrent reminders in your smartphone, especially for important stuff you forget to do (like paying your estimated taxes on time). Consider participating in the Amazon Subscribe & Save program for items you already buy each month. Opt-in to receive paperless statements, rather than being bombarded with paper documents in your mailbox. Automating the mundane can help you realize more time with loved ones or reach other personal goals. Take the first step today, and you might be surprised by the new efficiency you can achieve at home!
	Clear Your Mind by Going “Distraction Free”
	What’s that noise? Oh yeah, it’s the familiar buzzing sound of your phone. It’s only Tuesday morning, and you already have five unheard voicemails, six unread texts, and even more overdue tasks. It’s just another week of your life. You have several important goals to accomplish this week, but you feel like you’re falling behind. You’re simply too busy dealing with the latest crisis (which usually turns out to be less urgent than first thought). While it’s certainly important to be responsive, jumping from one distraction to the next can be detrimental to your productivity. How can you look beyond the noise and actually get work done? It’s time you freed your creative genius by going “distraction free.” Here are just a few strategies for doing so: At the start of each day, identify pre-scheduled meetings and budget “work time” where available During such work time, put your phone on silent and turn it upside down Close or hide your email inbox and only check it every 30 minutes Mark your instant messenger status as “do not disturb” Set a goal to only check social media once in the morning and afternoon Batch up “computer-free” activities to ponder in a peaceful location If all else fails, turn off your phone for a few minutes (yikes!) By going “distraction free” and crossing things off your to do list, you’ll likely feel more productive and less frazzled. You may even be in a better mindframe to handle your next crisis!
	Break Big Sales Into Manageable Steps
	The thought of making your first multi-million dollar sale can be daunting. Of all the actions you could take, what should you do first? How do you know what should happen after that? Your gut tells you to do one thing, while your brain pulls you in a completely different direction. You’re stuck, and you need a gameplan. Luckily, most sales processes follow a similar pattern. If you’re completely new to sales, you unfortunately lack the practical experience to draw upon. However, most people reading this article have likely made at least a few smaller sales. Making a big sale is often much like a smaller one, just on a larger scale. Think back to some of your more memorable sales. What did they have in common? Was there a rough sequence of events that happened leading up to the purchase? Although each niche and industry is going to be different, most transactions went through some or all of these phases: Initial Inquiry / Interest Discovery of Information Needs Assessment Bidding / Quoting Decision by Customer Fulfillment Before becoming too overwhelmed, try breaking your process down into manageable steps. If you’re using Insightly, you can even build customizable pipelines and tasks. Now, instead of staring at a blank opportunity record, you have an action-oriented path aimed at closing that big deal.

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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.

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About the author: Matt Keener is a marketing consultant and President of Keener Marketing Solutions, LLC. Matt specializes in content marketing and strategic planning, having helped numerous Saas (software as a service) companies and other small businesses worldwide. Read more of Matt’s work, check out his book, or connect with him onLinkedin.