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

Check Your Insightly Time Zone Setting

With its many customizable settings, Insightly allows you to set up your CRM to match your business needs and preferences. This flexibility allows Insightly administrators to create everything from teams to custom fields to categories, and each individual user has the ability to change preferences for visual theme, currency, time zone, and more. Search for these topics on our Help pages to guide you through the steps. Paul Betts, an Insightly customer in the U.K., recommends that everyone on your account check the time zone settings to make sure you’re all on the same page and schedule. This will make sure there’s no confusion when viewing another user’s events on the Insightly calendar. Paul will be receiving a $10 Amazon gift card for this tip! Use our links below to submit your own!

Make the Best Use of Your Work Time

If every minute of your day is packed with tasks, you may be missing some opportunities as you rush toward burnout. We all know we need an occasional vacation, but 20 minutes of planning time in the morning or the previous afternoon will help you make every day more productive and reduce the stress of unexpected interruptions. Use that time to schedule for last-minute changes and opportunities, figure out which tasks can be delegated, and prioritize your tasks. Ignore the email and the phone for a few minutes a day and translate those savings into greater production!

Assess Your Routines and Make More Time

Just as you’ll find pockets of time for higher work productivity through planning, you can make more time in your personal life by assessing your daily routines. With a small notebook at hand or in a mobile notes application, jot down your activities once or twice an hour for a few days. Think about the reasons for your actions and question if they make sense. Sometimes, long-standing assumptions that drive our habits are no longer valid as our lives and responsibilities change. Bringing this to light can be the first step toward meeting those goals we have neglected and setting new ones.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other 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.

If you haven’t tried Insightly to manage your tasks and your time, sign up for our 14-day free trial for our premium plan or try our free account for the basics. Compare the list of features and sign up on our pricing page.

Content marketing is a useful and successful way to reach people online, deliver your valuable message, gain new leads and convert more sales. Over sixty percent (60%) of consumers say that they feel better about a company that offers custom content and seventy-eight percent (78%) of them believe that those organizations are more interested in building relationships with them.

Image Source: ShutterStock.com

By repurposing existing content that was once a smashing success, you can breath new life into this valuable data and reach a whole new audience. These methods can retarget readers in a different way by reincarnating our information.

Here are a half-dozen ways to turn your content around:

Revamp, Reuse, and Repurpose

Sometimes all our content needs is a quick update, perhaps a title change or a few little tweaks and adjustments that will give it a fresh new appeal. A little rewording, changing some dates, updating a few statistics—these can all make some older content more relevant. Repurposing can be confused with republishing. Rather than simply reposting repetitive information, you can give it a newfangled edge with a more applicable rebirth.

Ask Questions, Get Answers, and Gain an Audience

If your content is informational, statistical, or analytical, your data will easily translate into a quiz. People love to interact online and, when posed with a question, many of them will happily chime in with their answers. Whether it is a true-or-false approach, multiple choice, or a blind question, you will provide your readers with valuable information in a fun and engaging way.

Giving It New Life in Graphic Form

Infographics are a success way of condensing large amounts of data and statistics into a more easily digestible form and have been very popular for a few years. Transforming your information into a visually appealing graphic will draw much more attention than mere text alone. If you struggle with PhotoShop or other graphic programs, there are plenty of free and low cost services that can assist you with turning your text into an informative graphic.

Blog It and Hog It (the attention)

If you don’t already have a blog, or if your material wasn’t already in the popular blogging format, consider starting one or transforming your content into a blog. Blogging is an excellent way to get new readers and, more importantly, additional viewership in the form of repeat visitors. There are dozens of popular blogging platforms where you can transform your material and engage with your audience. From Blogger to WordPress, check into their different features, services, and functions to see which would best suit your information.

Image Source: ShutterStock.com

Light a Fire on Kindle

Self-publishing is taking off on Amazon, and with Kindle Direct Publishing you can turn a Word document into a book in very little time. Their free publishing tool is available to anyone online, and you can choose to give your book away or sell it and split the revenues with your host. You can get a free Kindle book that shows how easy it is to be a published author. This step-by-step guide will take you from preparing your text to reviewing your sales.

Slide It and Share It

For visual content or even statistical data and other information, these can be reborn on SlideShare. Once uploaded, these slide decks can be viewed on their site, embedded onto a website and viewed on most mobile devices.

Successful marketing strategies can include our previous content if we get creative and present our information in a new way. By recreating and repurposing our content we can see it in a whole new light—just as our readers will.

With Insightly, you can upload related content assets like files and graphics to a project to keep everything in one place. Include the URLs of published material in the project description and link contacts to projects they’ve participated in and you’ll stay on top of your marketing efforts! Try our full-featured 14-day trial or register for the free account.

About the Author: Dave Landry Jr. is an online business journalist and personal finance adviser living in Los Angeles, California. As a guest author, his writing often covers content and social media amplification, business communications, finance management, and online marketing. Connect with him on Twitter @davelandryjr.

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

Organize Your Tasks with Categories

The Insightly Tasks tab already helps you keep your tasks in order by grouping them by the due date and priority you’ve set on each task, but did you know you can add color-coded categories to the mix to help you filter your list and focus on specific duties? If you’re a real estate professional preparing an open house, you probably have tasks to check in with a seller, prepare a sign-in sheet, and put out signs. If you use an “Open House” category for these tasks, you can select it from the Category dropdown to see a focused list of all the upcoming open houses. If you’re in construction, set up “Contractor” and “Inspection” categories. Running an IT business? How about “Equipment purchase” and “Scheduled visit”? Because you can set up your own categories, you can customize categories to fit your needs!

Sponsor an Organization for Good and for Marketing

Sponsoring an organization is a great way get involved with local, charitable, or national organizations while promoting your business. You can lend a hand to a group that reflects your own experiences, such as starting a small business, or you can choose an organization that reflects your broader interests, like animal rescue. When you look into a sponsorship, check for a good reputation and an audience that would be interested in your products or services. Ask if their own marketing will include your business name. Find out what kind of publicity they plan before and during their events. Local organizations are often inexpensive to sponsor and may give you a good return on your investment while connecting you to your community.

Repurpose and Get Things in Order

Organizing at home is often an endless struggle, but when you’re clearing out some clutter there may be a way to kill two birds with one stone by reusing things in novel ways. If you need a place to store your Christmas ornaments, use an apple container from the grocery store. Before you get rid of those old clothespins, you might want to think about the cords hanging under your desk. Adapting new uses for things you might otherwise throw out is not only a good way to recycle, it may be a great way to get things in order. A quick internet search could help you find new purpose for a shoe organizer as a place to hold office supplies or snacks or a winerack as a towel holder. You’ll start seeing new uses for items all around you!

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other 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.

If you haven’t tried Insightly, your future CRM, sign up for our 14-day free trial for our premium plan or try our free account for the basics. Compare the list of features on our pricing page.

Sometimes we get comfortable using certain software and miss new feature launches. If you don’t have time to keep up with feature rollouts or you just aren’t sure of every possibility offered by Insightly, this post is for you. Check out these six Insightly features you can use to your advantage in 2015.

Integrate QuickBooks

One feature that Insightly users have been begging for is QuickBooks integration. Well, you’re wait is over. QuickBooks Online now fully integrates with Insightly. QBO gets its own tab in Insightly where you can view up-to-date customer payment information instantly. The best part is that data syncs both ways, so dual data entry is completely eliminated. It’s not only accessible from contact and organization records, you can link all relevant QBO data for projects and opportunities, as well.

Video Conferencing with Google+ Hangouts

Google Apps integration is a well-known Insightly feature, but did you know that Google+ Hangouts support was recently added? Now you can choose as many as ten of your contacts in Insightly and invite them to a voice or video Hangout. One of the best parts is that Hangouts is totally free, so you can video conference without paying a subscription or licensing fee.

Automate Tasks with Zapier

For anyone looking to save time through automation, Zapier is an excellent tool to have in your kit. With it, you create settings that tell an action in one app to trigger another app. This is called a “zap.” When you integrate Zapier with Insightly you can automate tons of valuable functions. For example, you can create a zap that sends every new connection in LinkedIn straight to Insightly. Gravity Forms, Wufoo, MailChimp, Google Docs, Evernote, and Stripe can all be included in zaps to help Insightly deliver loads of automation possibilities.

Connect Insightly to Your Files with Dropbox

Another coveted feature that recently launched is Dropbox integration. Using the “Files” subtab, you can link Dropbox files in Insightly. When you link files to a contact, you can see them right in the Insightly record. This gives your team instant access to the files associated with each client. User access is determined by your Dropbox settings, so sharing in Insightly does not change your permissions. You must grant users access within Dropbox.

… Or Box

Do you prefer Box cloud storage? Well, Insightly now offers integration with Box, too. Just like with Dropbox, you log into your Box account from Insightly’s “Files” subtabs. Choose which files you want to link to by selecting the checkbox next to the filename. The links are then displayed in your customer’s Insightly record. Because they aren’t moved or copied, they don’t take up space in Insightly and you retain your Box security standards.

The Master Class

Another really helpful feature is our user training. Insightly has partnered with Logical Operations to bring you a one-day class aimed at small business owners. It doesn’t just teach you the mechanics of using Insightly, but also how you can use Insightly for your business. You’ll gain a deeper understand of the capabilities of Insightly along with expert advice relevant to your business.

You can see a list of all Insightly’s premium features on our pricing page, where you can also register for a free Insightly account or try a 14-day trial of our premium plan.

Whether you’re just thinking about trying Insightly or you’ve been using it for a while now, be sure to check out these awesome features. The mix of automation, quick access to data, and the elimination of double accounting data entry are sure to help you grow your business in 2015.

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on using Insightly, a tip on running your business, and a tip on improving your life. This week, we reach the end of the year, a time to pause and reflect on experiences of the last twelve months. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Use Insightly’s Reports to Measure Progress
	Insightly’s opportunity reports are a great way to assess the progress of your business over the last year. Different reports use different parameters to gather their data, so make the most of them by entering essential information when creating your opportunities. Key fields include the Forecast Close Date, the Opportunity Value, and the Probability of Winning.

Look Back to Improve Your Business

Keeping a business running requires loads of work and focus as you’re working to close the next deal and hustling to keep up with current customer demand. The year-end is a good time to pause and consider the highs and lows of 2014: What made the good deals shine and what contributed to the ones that slipped by? Don’t sweat the missed opportunities—after all, you can’t go back in time. Instead, see them as a chance to learn and make things better for next year. Think about the processes you’ve always wanted to improve and try out new tools or software features that can increase productivity. By being as objective as possible in your assessment and investing some time in improvements, you can increase efficiency, lower expenses, and boost future sales!

Your Own Money Matters

Your holiday spending or charitable donations may have called attention to your personal finances, but that money is flowing during the rest of the year, too. Just as you have to regularly manage your business finances, your personal financial future is an ongoing consideration. Take a look at your savings, debt, and spending over the last year. If you haven’t created a budget, start planning one for 2015. And don’t forget to put aside something for savings and retirement—your future self will be very thankful that you did!

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other 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.

If you haven’t tried Insightly, everyone’s favorite CRM, sign up for our 14-day free trial for all features or our free account for the basics. Our full list of features is available on our pricing page.

As we reach the end of the year, it’s a natural time for reflection. You might find yourself thinking about the things you’ve learned, reviewing your achievements, and planning your goals for the new year.

If growing your business is among your New Year’s resolutions, but you’re not sure where to begin, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best small business books of 2014 to help you reach your goal.

	Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners by Dawn Fotopulos Does the word “accounting” fill you with dread? Never fear—Dawn Fotopulos is here! In this book, she demystifies accounting through illustrated real-world examples. You’ll learn simple steps you can put into practice to better measure and understand the health of your business.
	A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive by Ted Coine and Mark Babbit If you think having a social media strategy is just for big companies, think again. Through stories of social media success and failure at organizations like Zappos, Bank of America, and Southwest Airlines, you’ll learn all you need to know to not only survive the world of social media, but to actually thrive.
	Nonstop Sales Boom: Powerful Strategies to Drive Consistent Growth Year after Year by Colleen Francis If your sales results unpredictably waver between highs and lows, this book is for you. You’ll learn how to break the cycle by recognizing and nurturing all four critical stages of client engagement, resulting in a regular flow of prospects moving seamlessly through your sales pipeline.
	The Small Business Life Cycle: A No-Fluff Guide to Navigating the Five Stages of Small Business Growth by Charlie Gilkey Whether you’re just starting out or have been around the block a time or two, this book is a must-read for small business owners. It will help you to determine which of the five stages of small business growth you’re currently in and, more importantly, what you need to do to make your business grow stronger.
	The Daily Entrepreneur: 33 Success Habits for Small Business Owners, Freelancers, and Aspiring 9-to-5 Escape Artists by Rebecca Livermore You can train yourself to build a successful business, the trick is to establish habits that will get you there. This book will help you do just that. You’ll learn valuable lessons such as how to stand out from the competition, how to overcome stress and burnout, and even how to build solid business connections—all with the goal of helping you run your business more efficiently.

If you’re not already using Insightly CRM to review this year’s work or lay out your tasks for 2015, try all of our features with a 14-day free trial or register for a free account for the basics!

Jess Greene-Pierson is Insightly’s Senior Customer Experience Manager, and she’s passionate about helping our customers get the most out of Insightly and grow their business.

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

Tag Contacts When Sending Them to MailChimp

Many customers with Insightly paid subscriptions are using our MailChimp integration to keep in touch with groups of Insightly contacts. If you’re sending out email campaigns or other communications, use Insightly’s tagging feature to keep track of which contacts have received an email.After you’ve selected contacts and sent them over to MailChimp, they will still be selected on the Contacts tab, so you can quickly use our bulk editing feature to tag them with information about the email. Include a date in the tag, and each time you view a contact, you’ll be able to spot when they received the last MailChimp email!

Stay in Touch With Your Customers

Sustaining business relationships, from your customers to your employees, is vital to small business growth. Keep the door for communication open by sending newsletters, company or industry updates, or holiday messages at regular intervals—a “drip marketing” strategy. You don’t want to overdo it and have your emails relegated to someone’s spam folder, so keep track of your communication history. Not only will you keep your business contacts informed, but you’ll be more likely to receive feedback, referrals, and repeat business!

Nurture Your Personal Relationships

Making a small business a big business takes a lot of work and time, so your work life and personal life can easily get out of balance. Actively nurturing good personal relationships helps you recharge, reminds the people you care about that they’re important to you, and gives you a broader perspective that helps you manage stress when times get tough. Just as you keep in touch with your business contacts, schedule regular time for your personal relationships. From phone calls to family time, make these moments count.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use your tip in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

And if you haven’t tried Insightly, everyone’s favorite CRM, try all of our features with a 14-day free trial or register for a free Gratis account to try the basics.