Anabel Merto
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Post summary:
Email marketing is the most effective marketing channel and for every $1 you spend, you can expect a return on your investment of $51. Are you achieving a high ROI from your email marketing campaigns?
A successful email marketing strategy is more than tactics. We provide you 5 strategies, including real-life examples of how Amazon, HubSpot and President Barack Obama use email marketing to succeed.
With 3 unique email marketing strategies, we let you in behind-the-scenes and share case studies on how we used email marketing to achieve a 94% open rate and 30% click through rate.
More than 290 billion emails are sent daily.
This figure is expected to reach 347 billion daily emails by the end of 2023.
Email marketing strategies have changed over the years.
What worked five years ago, now no longer works.
But it's still a key player to any marketing strategy.
In fact, for the very best online marketers’ email marketing is their go-to marketing channel.
Why, you ask?
It's because it brings in the results and delivers the best marketing ROI:
That’s right!
Email marketing outperforms all online marketing strategies, including SEO, PPC, and content marketing!
An email marketing strategy is an important part of any marketing strategy. Email is the most cost-effective way to promote your products, communicate with your customers and reach your business goals.
And on average, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect a return of $51 (up from $39 last year)!
Not bad, right?
Here, we will share the best email marketing strategies you can use to achieve extraordinary results through email marketing.
5 strategies for better email marketing campaigns
When you follow these email marketing strategies, email will become your most important channel too!
Let's get started.
1. Personalize your messages
When we say personalized email marketing, we don’t mean that you send an individual email to every single subscriber. Personalization means that you use customer data to create a personalized message.
A great example of a company that does personalization well is Amazon.
All of Amazon's emails are personalized.
It's not "Dear valued customer", but "Dear Steven".
It's not, "You might like these... (randomly generated)", but "You might like these (based on my purchase history)".
To Amazon, email marketing is not just another marketing channel. It's key to of the overall customer experience.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO is an email mastermind. Jeff Bezos understands the value of emails and has been known to read through customer complaints. It’s also why more than 35% of all product sales come from recommendations (both via email and on screen).
And it's not just Amazon that have seen these kinds of results through personalization.
A study by Experian found that personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates!
Let’s break this down into numbers we can all understand:
The most recent research found that email marketing generates $0.08 in revenue per email.
That may not sound like much...
But if you send out an email campaign to 500,000 subscribers, you can generate up to $40,000 in revenue.
That's a lot of additional revenue!
But, if you use personalization in your emails, you can expect a lot more!
According to brand new research,
Personalization can generate $20 in ROI for every $1 invested.
How's that for a revenue opportunity?
The best part is this:
70% of brands do not use personalization within their email marketing strategy.
This means that by personalizing your emails, you stand out against the competition.
The simplest form of personalization is to address the reader by name. Most email service providers (ESP) offer this within their functionality and this tactic alone will improve your campaign performance.
For example, email subject lines that are personalized with a recipient’s first name can increase open rates by 16% higher open rates.
Considering that 47% of all emails are opened because of subject line alone, that’s a sure fire way to get more eyeballs on your email.
Outside of using the customer’s name, here are a few more tips to help you get started with personalization:
Ask for the right information upfront: Great personalization starts way before you hit the ‘send’ button. It all starts with your sign up form. Without data such as name, company and location, you will be very limited with your personalized communication. Remember to only ask for the information you need, rather than the information you want. This is one of the ways that GDPR has impacted marketing teams.
Use a real reply-to email address: When you use donotreply@example.com, it takes away the authenticity from the messaging. You want your readers to engage and respond to your campaigns. Use a real reply address will improve credibility and appear more personal.
Use your real email signature: Just like using a real reply-to email address, you want to use real contact information within the email and the best way to do that is to include your contact details in the email signature. Giving your readers the opportunity to contact you or connect with you online is a great way to be personal and build a relationship with them.
2. Segment your subscribers
According to email marketers, segmentation is second on the top initiatives list this year.
Do you know why it is so high?
It's because when you segment your database, your email campaigns become much more targeted to your audience.
Let’s take a look at an example:
You're hosting a networking event for small business owners located within a 20 mile radius.
How can you expect to get the best turn out for your event?
The answer is segmentation.
The best way to get small business owners to turn up to your event would be to create a segment of people who list themselves as a small business owner that lives within 20 miles of your event and then send them an invite by email.
The segmentation part is simple and can easily be done through CRM software.
Compare this to sending one email to your entire database, with subscribers spread across the country (or continent).
How annoying is it to receive an email that invites you to an event that is located on other side of the world?
It's very annoying!
Before you start segmenting your database, let’s take a look at how valuable it can be.
A study by HubSpot found that all email marketing KPIs perform better when you segment your email list.
The segmentation results include increased performance in:
If you segment your lists, you get better open rates, revenue, leads, transactions and more customers.
Another benefit is that segmentation goes hand in hand with GDPR and email marketing.
But, does it really work?
Yes!
Here's an example from our own email marketing campaigns:
We recently sent out two email marketing campaigns. Both campaigns had the same subject line and the same content.
The first campaign was sent to our non-segmented email list, while the second was sent to our segmented list (segmented by interest).
The first non-segmented email earned an impressive 42 % open rate and a 4.5% click-through rate.
However, the segmented email campaign earned a 94% open rate and a 38% click-through rate!
I’d say it’s pretty valuable, wouldn’t you?
And that's why so many marketers' are segmenting their emails, right?
Wrong.
As 9 out of 10 email marketers' do not segment their database.
So, here are a few examples for you to get started with segmentation:
Segment by industry: Do you offer services and products to businesses or consumers? Knowing the industry of your subscribers is a great way to segment your email campaigns. For example, a business that sells car parts would engage at a much higher rate if they receive email campaigns on car products, compared to a business that sells software.
Segment by company size: Also known as account-based marketing, segmenting email campaigns by company size or annual revenue is a great way to increase response rates. A small business that employs 5 people is not likely ready for the biggest industry conference of the year, whereas a business that employs 750 people might be a better fit.
Segment by sales cycle: Early stage buyers will not be ready for an aggressive sales pitch or one-to-one demo but, they will be more appreciative to receive an industry research white paper. On the other end of the cycle, buyers who are ready to buy will respond well to product webinars or free trial offers.
3. Send mobile friendly emails
In 2012, 27% of all marketing emails were opened on a mobile device.
By 2014, that number jumped up to 42%.
Now, it’s as high as 61%!
These are huge numbers!
And what do you do as soon as you wake up in the morning?
If you’re like me, I’m guessing you have your phone next to your bed and the first thing you do each morning is check your phone for calls, messages and yes, you guessed it, emails...
Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. 50% of us do this.
When you send an email to a subscriber who reads their emails on their mobile device, but the email is not optimized for that device, what do you think they do with?
Mostly, they will unsubscribe or delete it.
So why is it that almost half of all emails are still not mobile friendly?
Worse still, our own email marketing research found that 20% of email campaigns are not optimized for mobile.
Yet on the opposite end of the scale, and when email campaigns are optimized for mobile, they generate a lot of revenue!
The average revenue per mobile email is $0.40, which is more than 4x that of a desktop email click, according to Yesmail.
Revenue per email on mobile devices is 4X higher than desktop
And 55% of smartphone users have made at least one purchase after receiving a mobile promotional email.
Furthermore, a study by Flexmail found that 36% of B2B companies that have optimized their email campaigns for mobile devices saw an overall improvement to their email performance.
So, how do you optimize your campaigns for mobile devices?
Don’t worry, here are some tips on how to do that.
Implement responsive email design (RED): Creating a responsive email design means that the user experience is optimized regardless of the device or screen they use. Most email service providers (ESP) offer this solution within their email functionality.
Keep the subject line and pre-header short: The subject line is crucial. Keep it short so the reader knows exactly what the email topic is about. And the pre-header text (also known as snippet text), don’t let it go to waste by using “To view this email in your browser…â€. Instead, summarize the email or include a call to action (i.e., Use “FREESHIP†to get free shipping).
Make the CTA big and obvious: Mobile device vary in size. While a text link may work on a tablet or larger screen, you might be alienating your readers who have a smaller screen (or bigger hands!) if your call to action is too small. Make the call to action, big, bold and simple to click.
4. Test copy, design and buttons
Whether you test your home page, landing pages or email templates, testing provides us with data to make practical decisions that will improve our marketing performance.
And email marketing is no different.
Most marketers have A/B tested their email campaigns.
If I had to guess, I'd say you’ve tested your email subject line, right?
Even the former President of the United States has A/B tested his email subject lines….
Think I’m kidding?
Email marketing played a huge part in the success of Obama's 2012 Presidential campaign.
By sending several variations made to the subject line to a small sample of subscribers, they were able to calculate the amount in donations they could expect to receive based on the results.
The sample size revealed that the poorest performing subject line ("The one thing the polls got right.."), when sent to the entire database, would generate $403,603 in donations.
The best performing subject line ("I will be outspent") was expected to generate $2,540,866 in donations.
That's a huge difference!
In fact, the best performing subject line outperformed expectations and generated a total of $2,673,278.
That's an additional $2.2 million in donations raised due to a change in the emails subject line!
President Barack Obama raised an additional $2 million in donations by split testing his email subject line
But it's not only subject lines you can test through email marketing.
You can also test:
From address: The name that appears in the “from†field has a huge impact on whether the reader opens your email. In fact, the sender name is the main reason why people open your email. Test your from address by sending your campaigns from a person’s name, person + company or from your CEO.
Plain text vs HTML campaigns: Like most marketers’, I’m sure you are already sending a plain text version of your email. However, have you thought of testing an email campaign that is plain text only? And when you add an element of personalization, plain text emails appear to be written just for the reader.
Long vs short emails: You can keep your emails short and sweet or, you can create long detailed emails. Long form emails can include more detailed copy whereas shorter emails will send the reader directly to a targeted landing page. The best way to see what works best? Test it.
(Not sure how to design your email campaigns? We've collected 21 of the best B2B email marketing examples from the world's leading SaaS companies.)
5. Automate email campaigns when possible
Trigger-based emails are emails that are sent out automatically based on user behavior.
The most common forms of trigger emails are ‘welcome’ emails, ‘thank you’ emails and ‘transactional’ emails, such as order confirmation email and email receipts.
The data behind trigger emails shows us that trigger emails perform much better than traditional email.
For example, Epsilon found that:
Open rates for trigger emails are as high as 49% (95% higher than traditional email open rates)
The average click-through rate (CTR) for trigger emails is more than double the rate compared to traditional email click-through rates
The best converting websites in the world, sites that convert as much as 40% of their traffic, use trigger emails.
And not only that, Forrester research found that trigger-based email marketing campaigns can generate 4x more revenue and 18x greater profits!
Does this sound too good to be true?
Well, it's not. We've tested it. And it works!
Our triggered emails generated 5x higher open rates and 15x higher click-through rates.
Today, only 20% of marketers currently use triggered emails and they make up a low percentage of overall email volume, at around 2.6%. However, they can be responsible for as much as 20% of your email marketing revenue!
Triggered emails perform really well because they hit the email marketing sweet spot.
What does the email marketing sweet spot look like, you ask?
It looks like this:
And the reason why they perform so well is because of context.
Consider the following scenario;
You visit a website, browse the product line and add items to your shopping cart but, you begin to have doubts and decide to leave before completing a purchase.
Sound familiar?
This happens to every single eCommerce store, every single day.
But what if, one hour later, you receive an email that includes the exact product you were shopping for?
And what if this email included not only a quick-link back to your shopping cart but, a free shipping code or 10% discount?
You’re now more likely to complete your purchase, aren’t you?
That’s the power of trigger emails.
But setting up triggered emails is expensive and complex, isn't it?
It doesn't have to be. You can start by using auto-responders in your customer service software to replicate the automation aspect. That's what we do for all of our existing triggered emails and we're happy with it.
Here are some examples of trigger mails you can send;
Activation: A new user creates an account but, they do not use your product within the first 7 days. Create an "activation" campaign that sends an automated email with their login information, steps on how they can get started and include a video demonstration for additional support. You can also invite them to a one-on-one meeting to walk them through the product and answer any questions they may have.
Win-back: An existing customer is soon approaching the end of his yearly subscription. The customer hasn't used your product in 3 months and you need a way to win them back and keep them for another year. Create a "win back" email that sends an automated email to all customers that are coming to end of their contract with a list of new product features and a short plan on expected releases in the next six months.
Surprise: Customer loyalty is the key to success. And you can reward your loyal customers by giving them something for free every now and then. Create a "surprise" email that sends an automated email to your best customers that offers a free yearly license to your software for them to use, a gift card or even a coupon code to redeem a box of cupcakes. It’s a small cost for your business but, the reward is huge!
Conclusion
Email marketing continues to deliver results.
But email marketing has evolved. It's no longer as simple as sending the same email to all.
It's time to update your email marketing strategy.
Now, you need to send targeted messages. Messages that are personalized, and optimized for multiple devices.
You also need test new elements. Trends change quickly, and what worked 12 months ago may not be successful today. Be open to testing. And when you understand what works, find ways to automate it through triggered emails.
If you implement these new changes into your email marketing strategy your customers will be more responsive, your campaign performance will improve and your business will continue grow.
What do you think makes a modern email marketing strategy successful?
Let me know by leaving a quick comment below.
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Anabel Merto
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Feng Shui has been practiced for thousands of years. It is defined as the art of living in balanced harmony with the earth. According to Feng Shui, when we live our lives in harmony with the earth, we invite the universe’s natural gifts of peace, happiness, and abundance to flow into our lives.
In Feng Shui application, charms can be used to enhance your best direction for good luck. These charms can also be used in conjuncture with specific elements as cures and enhancers for various Feng Shui applications.
Let’s explore ten good luck charms in Feng Shui:
Lucky Money Cat (maneki neko)
The Lucky Money Cat is a lucky charm that’s very popular in Japanese and Chinese cultures. The Cat’s beckoning paw signifies approaching wealth. Cats are also able to see in the dark, and will frighten away evil spirits that have bad intentions toward your success. At work, this lucky charm is best placed on your office desk or next to a cash register. In your home, you can place the cat in the southeastern (wealth) or northeastern (inner knowledge areas).
Money Frog
In many Asian cultures, The Money Frog is thought to have been the personal pet of the Chinese god of wealth. This frog is actually a three-legged toad and the figurines often hold a coin in the mouth and have a string of coins around the feet. They should be placed either facing the main entrance, in the northern (career) area of a space, or in the southeastern (wealth) area to activate the flow of prosperity in your life. If you want to place it in your store, the frog should rest prominently near the cash register, facing the entrance.
Chinese dragons
The Chinese dragons are considered as the Supreme Being of all creatures. They symbolize good luck, success, and protection. These dragons can be easily found at Chinese architecture, such as palaces, walls, bridges, and even household items like china and serving bowls. This lucky charm can be placed in various sectors of your home to specific chi energy the dragon represents.
Koi or carp
Koi or carp serves as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. This fish is able to grow very old, and it also represents unity and fidelity since they often swim together in pairs. This is why fish charms are often given as a wedding gift to represent a perfect union. It is also a symbol of fertility because of their ability to reproduce rapidly and in large volumes. Placing three koi in a bowl will also attract strength and prosperity during difficult times.
Bamboo
Bamboo has long been the Chinese symbol of strength. Many admire the bamboo’s qualities of fast-growth and resilience. The symbol of bamboo is used to express an understanding of what a real gentleman should be like: strong, uptight, and persevere, even if he is not physically strong. You can grow your luck by setting bamboo plants in the east or southeast sector of your home.
Chinese Knot
Chinese knots consist of a cord, a knot, and a tassel, and are characteristically made using a single piece of thread. The most commonly used color in Chinese knotting is red, which symbolizes good luck and prosperity. It also can be used to ward off evil spirits or to bring good luck to a marriage. The Chinese knot should be put in the southwest part of the bedroom to enhance happiness in relationships.
Laughing Buddha
In Chinese culture, the Laughing Buddha is considered a man of good and loving character and his image represents contentment, happiness, good luck and abundance. The statue is also believed to be a Feng Shui symbol that brings prosperity to one’s life. The Laughing Buddha should be placed towards the main door of the house or the office, or in a corner table that is diagonally opposite to the front door.
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May 6, 2021
Anabel Merto
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Websites with a prime functionality have high acceptance rates in terms of end-customers and reflect on ROIs. Hence a website must be oriented towards the end user in each of its aspects. A quintessential feature for web development services is an all-round customization. This enables a website to meet client requirements in the finest of ways. Web development should also be oriented towards ensuring that a website stays secure against cyber threats. A high degree of security for customer data is hence ensured. To ensure that the front-end and back-end perform seamlessly, the web designer and web development teams must operate in a close co-ordination. Transparent work processes reflect over project turnaround times and creates websites that are a perfect match for clients’ business requirements. An organized approach makes it easier to complete the projects within budgets. Mobile optimization ensures that a website delivers a top-grade performance across all devices. With 90% of customer interactions nowadays taking place over smartphones, keeping a website mobile optimized delivers rich dividends. An advantage of using Wordpress is that a web developer accesses responsive web technology by default. But a developer should check a website’s performance across devices and see if the responsiveness of a website needs to be customized. Factors that make WordPress Advantageous for web development Wordpress websites are exceedingly popular and each day, 50,000 new WordPress websites are launched over the internet. The best web development company in Odisha creates top performing WordPress websites across domains, such as blogging, fintech, banking, e-commerce, news and logistics. WordPress is defined by its versatility. Web development keeps WordPress websites innovative. It is the finest option for creating multi page enterprise grade websites. SEO considerations should play a role at every stage in website development. WordPress websites are characterized by creative expertise. They also feature a flawless functionality, easy navigation, neat designs and quick loading times. The SEO performance stays high, but strategic efforts towards SEO ensure that a website attracts traffic from the desired consumer cross section demographics. The best web development company in Odisha accomplishes the same for your organization Requisite implementation of WordPress themes make the websites easy to customize. Theme integration allows a website to have the right kind of an aesthetic appearance. Similarly, with the implementation of WordPress plugins, the functionality of the website enhances and becomes easier to use. Plugins make it easier to incorporate, APIs and custom post types within a website. The best web development company in Odisha ensures that WordPress plugins and third party software integrate seamlessly with your website. Loading times and a website’s functionality stay top-notch and the front-end and the back-end alike deliver prime functionality. In total, WordPress has over 55,000 plugins. As an example, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin for eCommerce websites. Similarly with the top class social media integration features offered by WordPress, one can create posts and monitor accounts from the WordPress backend, as a single dedicated destination. There is no requirement to log on to social media accounts individually. In order to keep a WordPress website’s functionality top notch, a web development company in Odisha should deliver end-to-end services. This enables a business to derive maximum advantage of WordPress’s flexible features. eCommerce website development in odisha
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Anabel Merto
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Your logo is the first part of your brand that people see. It’s also the central icon for how people remember you, and how they make associations about your brand. While it’s great to explore your creativity when designing a logo, there are a few common mistakes that can undermine an otherwise great logo design.
Luckily, these kinds of errors are easy to remedy if you know what you’re doing. We’ve laid out the top logo mistakes in the categories they most commonly appear: Color, Shapes & Symbols, and Typography.
Ready? Let’s jump in!
Color
Some of the worst logo designs we’ve seen involve poor use of color. Here are a few of the most common mistakes people make, and how you can avoid them:
Mistake #1: Using logo colors that are irrelevant to your brand
Colors are intrinsically linked to our emotions as signals to help us navigate the world. Think of color as part of the personality or body language of your brand.
With this in mind, your logo needs to reflect your brand. One of the most critical logo mistakes you can make is to use colors that don’t appear anywhere in your brand identity. This is a huge no-no, and should be avoided at all costs.
Mistake #2: Inconsistent tints and shades
Tints and shades determine how pure a color tone appears to us.
One of the most common reasons colors don’t work well together is that they have different saturations and values. Unless you’re a seasoned designer, making a pure-tone-red work with a pastel baby blue is HARD to pull off.
If you look at the chart below, you’ll see what we mean.
See how the purer tones in the top row work better with colors in their row, rather than with those in the bottom row?
Pick logo colors with similar saturation and value. It shows a level of care for your design process and a commitment to consistency in your brand.
The Mastercard logo is a great example: notice how the hues of each color are the same? Now imagine if the red circle became 50% less saturated. Would a pastel-red work with the bright hues of the rest of the logo? Probably not!
Mistake #3: Using too many colors
Okay, sometimes it works (take the NBC logo for example). But unless you’re literally selling lucky charms, it’s generally not a good idea to use every color possible.
In fact, using too many colors signals that you can’t decide what palette to go with, which in turn makes your brand character unclear—and therefore less likely to resonate with your target audience.
The Pepsi logo is a great example of a simple yet effective color combination. Notice how Pepsi also used the negative white space to break the colors apart and emphasize their contrast.
Ideally, it helps to work with two to three colors that have a clear relationship to one another. (If you’re stuck, check out some of our color combinations for inspiration).
Mistake #4: Using gradient logos without appreciating their context
In our always-on digital world, gradient logos are becoming the primary logo for many businesses.
A word to the wise, however: these logos have strict design rules about where gradients kick in and the rate of the transition between colors. Make sure you keep consistent with the gradient rules used in your logo, and everywhere else in your brand.
Mozilla’s logo and brand guidelines, for example, are a great way to understand the level of detail that goes into using logo gradients across a wider brand identity.
Shapes and symbols
Lurking behind a ton of logo fails is insensitivity to shape and symbolism. Since both of these elements are an integral part of how your logo carries meaning, it’s vital you know what to do, and what not to.
Mistake #5: Using containers incorrectly
As you can see, containers are an amazing way to put text into context. But you need to get the right balance.
Too big, and your logo text will become overpowered by the excess space. Too small, and your poor logo will be all boxed in. Similarly, using the wrong style of container detracts from your logo.
As a general rule of thumb, ask yourself whether or not the addition of a container enhances, or takes away from your logo. Try out different combinations until you land on something that works visually.
Tip: If you’re really struggling to make your logo container work, maybe the solution is to simply leave it out!
Mistake #6: Inappropriate logo marks
Your logo mark is the symbol used alongside, or separate to your logo text. Great logo marks have a simple but effective relationship with the logo text, and can also work in isolation.
Bad logo marks fight for attention, don’t make any sense, and undermine your brand. Make sure the logo mark you use has some relevance to the text, even if it’s super simple.
Headspace, for example, has the most basic logo mark ever. (Literally, it’s just a circle).
Why does it work so well? Because it suits the brand. If you look closely, you can see how the circle isn’t quite perfect. Given that Headspace make a mindfulness app, the logo mark brilliantly captures the idea of accepting things as they are. The best way to avoid logo design mistakes is to align your logo to your brand as clearly and simply as possible.
Mistake #7: No visual hierarchy
There should be a clear relationship between fonts you’ve chosen that follows a logical and intuitive design hierarchy. Where does the eye want to go first? What information do we receive and in what order? Is there a natural flow between the logo mark, the main font, and the secondary font?
Visual hierarchy is all about designing to suit the natural habits of the eye. We see big things, high contrast, and bright colors first, followed by small things, low contrast, and dull colors.
Mistake #8: Confusing scale
Scale can have a huge impact on how we process an image. Even simple changes in the scale of your logo elements can make a big difference.
A common mistake people make is having a HUGE logo mark, with a teeny-tiny line of text. As we discussed, visual hierarchy is about designing with the eye in mind. This means creating harmony between the scale of every element within your logo.
Typography
Fonts are a classic example of the old dictum, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.†With that in mind, choosing the right font is a critical part of your logo design. One of the most common logo mistakes we see involves poor use of typography in one form or another.
Mistake #9: Choosing an inappropriate font
It’s important to choose a font that matches your brand story and purpose. If you run a cutting-edge tech company, for example, you may not want to have a cursive, elaborate, or old-fashioned font.
Similarly, make sure your font has enough contrast to be seen with ease. Too little weight or a lack of differentiation between your text and background color makes it tough for people to read your logo.
Design is about justifying each choice you make conceptually. While it can be tempting to add ten shapes, fifteen fonts, three containers and the entire color spectrum to your logo, this won’t give your customers the impression you’re in control.
Learning the basics of logo design allows you to break the rules effectively, where necessary. Until then, avoid logo mistakes by keeping things simple.
The less work your customers have to do to understand and trust your brand, the better!
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Anabel Merto
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Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising remains one of the most effective ways to get new leads and drive sales, so naturally, you want to optimize PPC ads for your company.
For one thing, because a PPC campaign is centered on specific targeted keywords, you end up with more targeted traffic. This lowers the risk of getting the wrong leads and improving your conversion rates in the long run.
And, because paid ads are immediately rolled out, even for a new business, you can easily get results faster than if you’d relied on inbound marketing strategies like SEO.
While you can and should still focus on long-term inbound marketing strategies for your own site—organic leads will help lower cost in the long run—using PPC campaigns alongside these strategies can help you increase sales and justify the cost of running these campaigns in the first place.
Interested to see how you can create a high-converting PPC campaign? Here are our top 10 tips for optimizing your PPC ads to drive conversions and boost sales.
PPC optimization strategies
Update your keywords list regularly.
When you put out your first PPC campaign, you most likely had several keywords to cover. Because you pay a certain amount per keyword, review the performance of each one, then remove those keywords that aren’t performing as well.
You can divert your budget for those under-performing keywords for new keywords or to increase your budget for your better-performing ones.
Also make it a habit to add negative keywords. so you don’t rank for search terms that might get you the wrong kind of visitors. Negative keywords are essentially the keywords you don’t want to rank for—for instance, a wedding photographer wants to rank for terms like “wedding photography†but not “wedding videographer.â€
You might also want to experiment with local keywords to get highly targeted traffic from people in your area. So, instead of simply using a keyword like “wedding photography,†you might go the extra mile and try to rank for “wedding photography Denver.â€
Improve your website’s performance.
Next, you’ll want a website that loads quickly, as users are more likely to abandon websites that take more than 2 seconds to load.
If you want to check how fast your website loads, use tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom Tools, or Google’s Pagespeed Insights.
If you want to check how fast your website loads, use tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom Tools, or Google’s Pagespeed Insights. This is a great way to start to optimize PPC ads.
Ensure your website’s secure and accessible.
An accessible website is one that’s easy for visitors to read through and browse. Most of these have to do with design, such as using the right fonts, breaking up longer paragraphs, and using different content formats like images and videos wherever relevant.
There are some rules of thumb for great website accessibility you might want to look over and, as you’re doing so, be sure to also focus on website security.
Opt for https instead of http—search engines like Google penalize unsecure websites, and this could hurt your PPC campaign performance or lower visitor trust.
Create localized landing pages.
If your business operates within a certain vicinity, you should be making the most of localized landing pages to really hit the right people at the right time and place.
If you have multiple locations, differentiate each with their own landing page, making the experience more personal and relevant to your visitor.
Example of a localized landing page for a California service
This step is easy to do when you have a reliable website builder. Simply duplicate pages that may be dependent on location and optimize your copy to reflect this.
Use ad extensions.
Ad extensions are a free add-on to use for your paid ad campaigns, so you ought to take advantage if you aren’t already.
Some of the best ad extensions for a PPC campaign are sitelink, callout, and review extensions. These do well to let a user know what your site’s all about, what people think about you, as well as giving them a glimpse of what they can find on your website as a direct link.
You might also opt for extensions that enable users to call or contact your business directly.
Optimize PPC ads by paying close attention to each part of your ad.
Develop a re-marketing strategy.
A re-marketing (sometimes referred to as retargeting) strategy involves tracking site visitors and sending them relevant ads in other sites and platforms like social media.
This is a great strategy to convert leads into paying customers, especially if they weren’t ready to purchase the first time or you weren’t able to capture their email address or contact details.
A/B test everything.
A/B testing your ad campaigns should be a practice you do every time. Since so many factors can affect a customer’s propensity to click or purchase, you should be testing out different elements to see which have the most conversions.
For example, create multiple versions of your landing page and test different designs and headlines.
You can also A/B test your ads right from Google Ads under their Experiments tab. You can instantly link to separate landing pages and experiment constantly.
To further optimize your pay-per-click ads, you can also A/B test your ads right from Google Ads under their Experiments tab.
Capitalize on FOMO.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, makes a fantastic tactic to drive more sales. There are many different urgency tactics that work well, and many successful campaigns often use a combination at the same time.
Right from your PPC ad, you can already use scarcity to draw people in. Including phrases like “sale ends in 24 hours†or “free X only until Y†or even “X spots/units left†can do great to elicit FOMO feelings in customers.
You can also use FOMO in your landing pages to further drive your limited offer. Here’s an example of a brand that uses multiple scarcity and urgency tactics to encourage sales.
Use FOMO in your landing pages to encourage interest.
Focus on the channels that deliver the most conversions.
Over time, you’ll see which of your ad channels are making the most conversions.
If you’ve spread out your campaign budget to multiple platforms and channels—for a start, consider search engines and a mix of social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn—then, eventually, it becomes clear which platform brings in the most customers.
This might take a while before you learn which are your best performing channels, but, once you figure out what they are, focus on pushing more budget to drive traffic through these channels to increase conversion rates and maximize ROI.
Brush up on your copywriting skills.
Last but not least, copywriting is one of the most important parts of your PPC ad. Because these ads appear as search engine results, you don’t have much real estate to showcase photos or videos.
Instead, your copy becomes front and center. If this is your first few PPC campaigns, one of the best ways to get a good ROI is hiring experienced copywriters who’ve worked on similar campaigns in the past.
So, if you’re a B2B company, for example, you’ll want to employ the help of experienced B2B copywriters who know exactly how to market your service to your ideal customer.
Whether or not you’re about to create your first or even fiftieth PPC campaign, it’s worth knowing strategies and tips that’ll help you optimize your ads, increase conversions, and boost more sales. Use the strategies above to see how you can keep tweaking your PPC campaigns, don’t be afraid to experiment, and find ways to make good ads even better.
Kevin Payne is a content marketing consultant that helps software companies build marketing funnels and implement content marketing campaigns to increase their inbound leads.
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Anabel Merto
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March 24, 2021
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As 2020 draws to a close, there are many
robot trends to look for in 2021. Some of these trends will carry over from the past year into the new one, such as the use of collaborative robots. Other trends will likely focus on the expansion of robotic automation with industries and application capabilities. In the coming year we are likely to see more universal robots automating production lines.
Return to Rapid Growth for the Robotic Market
While 2020 was originally predicted to be a big year for the industrial robot market, the COVID-19 pandemic diminished those expectations. The worldwide shutdowns in the manufacturing sectors initially caused a slowdown in the robot market. However, one of the lasting impacts of the pandemic is the acceleration of robotic automation. In the second half of 2020, many manufacturers began automating with robots to survive COVID-19. An increasing number of manufacturers are deploying FANUC Arcmate 120ic to combat the negative impacts of the pandemic. This trend is expected to increase as we move into 2021 and lead to the rapid growth of the industrial robot market. The pandemic has caused many companies to see the importance of sustainable manufacturing. Switching from manual processes to automated ones with articulated robots like the Motoman MA1400 will accelerate the robot market in 2021.
Continued Expansion of Cobots
Collaborative robots were one of the biggest trends in 2020 and this trend is expected to continue throughout 2021. As more manufacturers turn to robotic automation, cobots provide an affordable, user-friendly alternative to traditional industrial robots. Cobots are excellent for small manufacturers or those who are new to robotics. The FANUC C-7ia can work safely alongside humans, assisting them with production related tasks. Cobots increased productivity, quality, and the efficiency of manufacturing operations.
Growth of Robotic Automation in the Electronics Industry
For decades the automotive industry has been the largest user of industrial robots, but this may change in 2021 as more electronic manufacturers are expected to automate with robots. Electronic devices have become more sophisticated, smaller, and delicate making them more complex to assemble. Components are tiny and fragile, making human handling nearly impossible. Advancements in gripper and robot technology has expanded robot automation into the electronic sector . In 2021 we will see more six axis robots like the FANUC Lr Mate 200id assembling electronic devices.
Increased Vision System Integration
Robotic vision systems have been around for some time, but in 2021 there will be an increased use of them with robots. As more manufacturers automate and applications become more complex, there will be an increased demand for vision system integration. Vision systems enhance the accuracy, functionality, and autonomy of industrial robots. Vision systems allow robots to automate tasks that were once only reserved for humans. The FANUC M-2ia can be used to detect different materials on a conveyor in recycling operations.
Advancements of Robot Capabilities Through AI
Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere these days, from smart phones, computer software, and even industrial robots. The use of AI with robots is expected to advance robot capabilities in 2021. With AI robots will be more intelligent allowing them to complete new applications, automatically adapt to different work environments, self-identify mechanical issues, and even communicate with other robots to teach one another tasks.
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Anabel Merto
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Despite the travesties of 2020, artificial intelligence has quickened its progress. Baidu upped its performance across vaccines, autonomous vehicles, language processing, and quantum computing.
The year 2020 was profoundly challenging for citizens, companies, and governments around the world. As covid-19 spread, requiring far-reaching health and safety restrictions, artificial intelligence (AI) applications played a crucial role in saving lives and fostering economic resilience. Research and development (R&D) to enhance core AI capabilities, from autonomous driving and natural language processing to quantum computing continued unabated.
Baidu was at the forefront of many important AI breakthroughs in 2020. This article outlines five significant advances with implications for combating covid-19 as well as transforming the future of our economies and society.
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It's also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.
1. AI and vaccine development
The trend—and why it matters. It typically takes years, if not decades, to develop a new vaccine. But by March 2020, vaccine candidates to fight covid-19 were already undergoing human tests, just three months after the first reported cases. The record speed of vaccine development was partly thanks to AI models that helped researchers analyze vast amounts of data about coronavirus.
There are tens of thousands of subcomponents to the outer proteins of a virus. Machine learning models can sort through this blizzard of data and predict which subcomponents are the most immunogenic—i.e., capable of producing an immune response—and thereby guide researchers in designing targeted vaccines. The use of AI in vaccine development may revolutionize the way all vaccines are created in the future.
Baidu’s innovations. In February, Baidu opened its LinearFold AI algorithm for scientific and medical teams working to fight the virus. LinearFold predicts the secondary structure of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequence of a virus—and does so significantly faster than traditional RNA folding algorithms. LinearFold was able to predict the secondary structure of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequence in only 27 seconds, 120 times faster than other methods. This is significant, because the key breakthrough of covid-19 vaccines has been the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Instead of conventional approaches, which insert a small portion of a virus to trigger a human immune response, mRNA teaches cells how to make a protein that can prompt an immune response, which greatly shortens the time span involved in development and approval.
To support mRNA vaccine development, Baidu later developed and released an AI algorithm for optimizing mRNA sequence design called LinearDesign, which aims to solve the problem of unstable and unproductive mRNA sequences in candidate vaccines.
In addition to opening up access to LinearFold and LinearDesign for researchers around the world, Baidu also formed a strategic partnership with the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, part of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Following an outbreak at Beijing’s Xinfadi market in June, Baidu’s AI technology allowed authorities to complete genome sequencing of the coronavirus strain within 10 hours, helping curb the outbreak. In December, Baidu unveiled PaddleHelix, a machine learning-based bio-computing framework aimed at facilitating the development of vaccine design, drug discovery, and precision medicine.
2. Fully automated driving and the rollout of robotaxis
The trend—and why it matters. Autonomous driving technology continued to mature in 2020, with the industry’s leading companies testing driverless cars and opening up robotaxi services to the public in various cities. Fully automated driving, which enables rides without a human safety driver on board, will be necessary for the scalability and commercialization of autonomous driving.
Baidu’s innovations. Over the past year, Baidu launched the Apollo Go Robotaxi service in the Chinese cities of Changsha, Cangzhou, and Beijing—including in busy commercial areas—becoming the only company in China to start robotaxi trial operations in multiple cities.
These developments are a result of Baidu’s continuous innovation in developing AI systems that can safely control a vehicle in complex road conditions and solve the majority of possible issues on the road, independent of a human driver.
At Baidu World 2020, its annual technology conference, Baidu also demonstrated its fully automated driving capability—where the AI system drives independently without an in-vehicle safety driver. To support fully automated driving, Baidu developed the 5G Remote Driving Service, a safety measure whereby remote human operators can take control of a vehicle in the event of an exceptional emergency. Baidu’s achievement of fully automated driving, and the rollout of its robotaxis, suggests a positive outlook for the commercialization of the technology in the near future.
3. Applied natural language processing
The trend—and why it matters. In 2020, natural language systems became significantly more advanced at processing aspects of human language like sentiment and intent, generating language that aligns with human speaking and writing patterns, and even visual understanding, meaning the capability to express understanding about an image through language. These natural language models are powering more accurate search results and more sophisticated chatbots and virtual assistants, leading to better user experiences and creating value for businesses. Websites like worldstar hip hop also use chatbots to increase customer satisfaction.
Baidu’s innovations. Baidu released a new multiflow sequence framework for language generation called ERNIE-GEN. By training the model to predict semantically complete blocks of text, ERNIE-GEN performs at an elite level across a range of language generation tasks, including dialogue engagement, question generation, and abstractive summarization.
Baidu’s vision-language model ERNIE-ViL also achieved significant progress in visual understanding, ranking first on the VCR leaderboard, a dataset of 290,000 questions built by the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for AI, that aims to test visual understanding ability. ERNIE-ViL also achieved state-of-the-art performance on five vision-language downstream tasks. Visual understanding lays the foundation for computer systems to physically interact in everyday scenes, as it involves both understanding visual content and expressing it through language. It will be crucial for improving the quality of human-machine interaction.
4. Quantum computing
The trend—and why it matters. Quantum computing made significant inroads in 2020, including the Jiuzhang computer’s achievement of quantum supremacy. This carries significance for AI, since quantum computing has the potential to supercharge AI applications compared to binary-based classical computers. For example, quantum computing could be used to run a generative machine learning model through a larger dataset than a classical computer can process, thus making the model more accurate and useful in real-world settings. Advanced technologies such as deep learning algorithms are also playing an increasingly critical role in the development of quantum computing research.
Baidu’s innovations. Baidu achieved a number of technical breakthroughs in 2020 that promise to bridge AI and quantum computing. In May, Baidu launched Paddle Quantum, a quantum machine learning development toolkit that can help scientists and developers quickly build and train quantum neural network models and provide advanced quantum computing applications. The open-source toolkit both supports developers building quantum AI applications, and helps deep learning enthusiasts develop quantum computing. In September, Baidu entered cloud-based quantum computing with the launch of Quantum Leaf, which provides quantum development kits such as QCompute, and can shorten the life cycle of quantum programming and help realize a ‘closed-loop’ quantum tool chain.
5. AI chips
The trend—and why it matters. AI hardware continued to develop in 2020, with the launch of several AI chips customized for specialized tasks. While an ordinary processor is capable of supporting AI tasks, AI-specific processors are modified with particular systems that can optimize performance for tasks like deep learning. As AI applications become more widespread, any increase in performance or reduction in cost can unlock more value for companies that operate a wide network of data centers for commercial cloud services, and can facilitate the company’s internal operations.
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Anabel Merto
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January 29, 2021
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Head coach of the national U17 team, Fatai Amoo, is confident of building a very solid team for the country before the next international outing.
Amoo was appointed by the Nigeria Football Federation as the successor to Manu Garba and he was saddled to build a team that will excel and represent the country’s pedigree at the level of international football.
The former Nigeria midfielder has been working and supervising an open screening exercise at the FIFA Goal Project pitch inside Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, in order to achieve these targets.
“We are taking our time to select the best legs in that category for the country. All the players need do is to come and prove their mettle, irrespective of who they are, who sent them, or where they are coming from.
“We are trying to be as objective in our selection as possible. Nigeria is the leading country at the U17 level, having won the FIFA U17 World Cup a record five times. We are working very hard not to fall below that standard or leave room for excuses. â€
Amoo is to help Nigeria qualify for the 14th edition of the African U17 Cup of Nations to billed for Morocco in 2021.
The competition is also a direct qualification for the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup finals in Peru and the top four teams are guaranteed a place in the tournament.
Nigeria is the most successful team in the history of the U17 World Cup, winning tournaments a record five times.
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Anabel Merto
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January 21, 2021
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Cross-channel marketing is a strategic, customer-focused digital marketing technique used by marketers globally to provide their customers with a consistent experience when interacting with their brand across multiple digital channels. It is a powerful way of designing your marketing strategy to create customer journeys involving various channels.
Implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy can be a little intimidating. You need to take care of multiple channels while designing your campaigns. Keeping track of every campaign and integrating their analytics is certainly not an easy task.
But before we dive into how you can create a successful cross-channel marketing strategy, let’s understand why it’s needed in the first place.
Why should you consider cross-channel marketing?
Cross-channel marketing improves the shopping experience of customers through personalization. It allows you to reach out to your customers across multiple channels to ensure that your brand remains in front of their eyes at all times.
Through cross-channel marketing, you can move your prospects seamlessly through the sales funnel across multiple channels. You can pick up your marketing on another channel from the exact point where it stopped on the first channel.
With the increasing number of marketing channels, having an efficient cross-channel marketing strategy in place for your marketing campaigns is a necessity. You need to ensure that your brand is in front of your audience at all times. This way, there are better chances of converting them.
Channel Strategy: Where Are Your Users?
As with any new marketing endeavor, investing in virtual assistants shouldn’t happen without a clear strategy. The personal assistant can be complex, because, like the web, they can reach people across channels — but they go beyond desktop, laptop and mobile. Virtual assistants extend across smart home devices, smartphones, web browsers, traditional voice calls, social media and more. That’s a lot to consider!
Which channels are most important to your specific audience? Which channels support the highest volume of customer interactions? This insight can dictate where to deploy a virtual assistant and how it should be designed to interact with consumers.
For instance, if your target audience engages heavily on social media, deploying a virtual assistant that can provide support to consumers across social channels in real time should be a top priority. If many of your customers are on the go but picking up the phone to call with questions or concerns, deploying a branded voice-based virtual assistant to a customer service support center may be your best bet. If you want to be present in the homes of your customers, then adding support via a home assistant like Alexa could round out your strategy.
While virtual assistants can cross channels, beginning with the channel or channels with the highest volume of customer activity (which is often a combination of voice and webchat) is typically the best place to start.
Tips to create a winning cross-channel marketing strategy
Here are some tips that will help you create a winning cross-channel marketing strategy:
1. Create buyer personas
It’s essential to understand your customers before you create your marketing strategy for them. For this, you should create rich buyer personas that contain information about your customers’ preferences, behaviors, buying habits, and preferred modes of communication. If you already have a following on social media, you can use social listening to achieve this. Through it, you can find out your audience’s needs, desires, and pain points. These can be crucial for developing your buyer personas.
Invest time into creating these persons to figure out what your customers like and what they don’t. Think beyond the classic customer behavioral patterns to come up with a diverse range of buyer profiles. Remember, the better you know each of your buyers, the more accurate your strategy will be.
Observe your buyers. What do they buy? What’s their buying frequency? How are these purchases made? Where is the traffic coming from?
One of the most effective ways to do so is by imitating the buyer’s journey. Start by exploring your website, search through different categories, place an order, and file a customer support claim. Basically, go through the entire user experience yourself, from the start to the final payment. This can help you figure out what you need to offer to your customers.
2. Use mediums that complement one another
When you’re selecting channels for cross-channel marketing, you need to be selective. Certain channels work better together than others. Try to incorporate all channels through which your audience interacts the most with your brand.
For example, you can ask your customers to check-in via your app when in your store, or include URLs in emails.
Common mediums that complement each other include:
-Retail Store/Mobile
-TV/Mobile
-Radio/Mobile
-Computer/TV
-Computer/Mobile
-Computer/Radio
3. Unify your data
The backbone of a cross-channel marketing strategy is having all your data within a customer data platform (CDP). It’s essential that you have the analytics data available to capture and analyze your leads’ touchpoints.
Typically, this involves using browsing cookies or tracking URLs to establish connections between online actions with an individual lead’s profile. Track and analyze the emails that have been sent to them, and which ones they have interacted with.
You must also know which blog posts they have read, the social media campaigns they engaged with, and conversations that your customer support team had with them. All of this data should be in your CDP.
4. Align content with a specific buyer’s journey
Each customer's journey is different, and each of them should be treated differently. This includes designing content specifically for individuals based on their consumer habits. As a result, your content strategy needs to be designed so that it aligns well with all buyers’ journeys.
For example, when a customer abandons their cart, you can send out an email that offers a discount to them. Similarly, for those who purchase your products, you can send them a thank you email. This way, they’ll engage with your content on a different channel and take the action you want them to.
Also, personalization can improve your sales as customers are more likely to engage with content that gives personalized recommendations. Nearly 84% of customers said that being treated as a person is crucial for winning their business.
5. Leverage Social Media
Social media is one of the most crucial channels for implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy. Multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest allow you to take advantage of visuals to engage with your audience.
At the same time, they give you the opportunity to interact directly with consumers; something that isn’t possible in most other channels. This can help you increase your brand awareness, engagement, and even conversions.
Using social media, you can also divert your traffic to other channels and define your buyer personas, as mentioned above. It’s thus necessary to have a strong presence on social media to build a powerful cross-channel marketing strategy.
6. Use cross-channel marketing platform for WordPress & WooCommerce
With Growamtik, you can segment users based on over 50 different personal and behavioral attributes on their journey, such as personal details, site activity, email activity, shopping behavior, and more.
7. Test with control groups
A control group is basically a group of users who do not receive your ads from your marketing campaigns. Consider using different control groups that are not targeted by any cross-channel marketing to assess your marketing campaigns’ effectiveness.
They can be used to measure the impact of engagement campaigns to determine which marketing campaign is working effectively and which needs to be optimized more.
Control groups also tell marketers if they should refrain from using any marketing campaign at all for a particular segment of consumers and simply let those consumers follow their usual path.
Once you have tested and analyzed your marketing campaigns, you can always send the same campaign to the control group after the test is over. Instead of sending a wrong marketing campaign to everyone at once, you can test the efficacy of your campaigns in small batches.
8. Invest in customer support
76% of customers76% of customers said that it’s easy to switch brands to find ones that match their expectations. To ensure that you don’t lose out on customers, you need to ensure that your customer support is available at all times. You must try your best to resolve all of your customers’ problems to improve their satisfaction, else they may shift to another brand.
This is especially important for e-commerce marketers who could be at the receiving end of the customer’s wrath when they don’t get good customer support. You must thus invest in your customer support and add options such as live chat and chatbots to your store. This can help you resolve customer questions instantly.
You should aim to provide exceptional service that leaves the customer feeling respected and valued. It increases customer loyalty and also generates positive word-of-mouth, which enhances your brand awareness. Make sure that your customer service related interactions transition smoothly between all channels.
9. Integrate your findings
Creating powerful cross-channel marketing campaigns is one thing, but analyzing their insights can dramatically change your marketing game. Interweave your findings from your marketing campaigns to create a seamless experience.
Ask yourself questions like:
Does my social media strategy support my web strategy?
Does my campaign reflect the same message throughout different channels?
Am I targeting the right audience on each channel?
Is X social media platform better than Y platform?
When all channels are well-integrated together, the customer experience will be better. Your customers will be confident, and they’ll know what to expect every time they engage with your brand.
Conclusion
By leveraging the data insights from your marketing campaigns, you can make constant improvements to ensure that your cross-channel marketing strategy is driving real results.
A cross-channel marketing strategy is an effective and sophisticated way to reach out to your audience. From creating brand awareness to generating leads and driving higher sales, a powerful cross-channel marketing strategy will help you do it all.
You must ensure that your content and customer service are well-aligned with each channel to provide a smooth transition to your audience. Test your strategy with control groups and polish it until it becomes perfect.
Are there other things you keep in mind while implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy or do you have any tips to add? Let me know in the comments.
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Anabel Merto
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January 19, 2021
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Imagine closing each workday with a satisfied sigh, knowing that you had been so productive that you accomplished everything on your list. And knowing, too, that you were at the top of your creative game—getting your tasks done both efficiently and well. See yourself whistling as you walk away from work?
You can be the star in this movie about productivity, rather than the alternate version where you end the day tired and slumped behind a desk stacked with unfinished projects. If you don’t like the way your usual workday goes, there is a way to change it.
Most of us aren’t as productive as we would like for two reasons: We have bad habits that interfere with our workplace productivity and we’re reactive rather than proactive, putting out fires instead of making progress toward our goals.
The solution is simple, though not always easy. We can replace our bad habits and reactive patterns with good habits that will make us proactive, and take charge of our own workdays. Follow these tips on how to increase productivity and become your best, most productive self at work.
Do Your Heavy Lifting When You're at Your Best
There’s endless advice out there for people not to do mental sludge tasks like answering email or routine chores in the morning, but to start out instead doing whatever tasks are most creatively demanding—which is great if you’re a morning person. If you’re more of a night owl, like me, obviously this isn’t going to work well for you.
Productivity expert Tony Wong advises, “Use your morning to focus on yourself… Start your day out right by ignoring your emails in the morning and getting in a good breakfast, reading the news, meditating, or working out. This will ensure you’ve got the necessary fuel for a productive day.†The point is, do your most demanding tasks in your personal peak productivity time, whenever that is.
Stop Multitasking
It's a productivity killer. Research shows that productivity can be reduced by as much as 40% by the mental blocks created when people switch tasks. Even more startling, in a University of London study, IQ dropped 15 points for some multitasking men.
Need more evidence? A study out of the University of Sussex in the UK indicates that multitasking may actually be physically harming your brain. The study found that participants addicted to using multiple devices simultaneously had a lower gray-matter density in a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which is linked to emotional control and decision-making, empathy, and the brain's response to rewards.
So stop trying to do everything at once. Instead, dramatically increase productivity by giving your full attention to one task at a time. When your eyes and hands start drifting toward something else, think about how important it is to keep all your little gray cells.
Prepare a To-Do List Each Night
o-do lists are invaluable productivity aids. They get you organized, provide you with focus and reward you with feelings of satisfaction when you’re able to check off things that you’ve accomplished.
Making (or updating) a to-do list each night means that you won’t waste time at the start of the workday looking for your task. You might even try talking through your list with someone. Leo Wildrich, the co-founder of Buffer, explains the power of this technique in "What Multitasking Does To Our Brains":
The to-do list I jotted down didn't change, but it felt as if I had done half the work of it all in my head already. The next day, all I had to do is look at the task and get it done.
Cut Down Your To-Do List
How many items are on your typical to-do list? Eight? Twenty-eight? However many, you’ll feel good when you finish each of them and cross them off. But you’ll never join the ranks of the productivity superstars unless you cross off some of them before you even bother to do them—because higher productivity demands focus.
In "The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs," Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs, relates how Jobs’ insistence that Apple produce just four computers saved the company. He also relates how Jobs used to-do lists to engender focus:
After he righted the company, Jobs began taking his 'top 100' people on a retreat each year. On the last day, he would stand in front of a whiteboard… and ask, 'What are the 10 things we should be doing next?' People would fight to get their suggestions on the list. Jobs would write them down—and then cross off the ones he decreed dumb. After much jockeying, the group would come up with a list of 10. Then Jobs would slash the bottom seven and announce, 'We can only do three.'
Getting focused means narrowing your options. So each night when you’re reviewing your to-do list, ask yourself two questions;
What are the important tasks on this list?
How many of these important tasks can I realistically accomplish or make significant progress on tomorrow?
Delegate Properly
Delegation is to productivity as a nail gun is to driving nails. Once you’ve started using it, you’ll be amazed at just how much faster and easier your job is. If you do it right, that is. For many managers and business people, delegating is like a polar bear swim; they plunge in enthusiastically but jump out just as fast.
Why? The most common complaint is that delegating work gives the manager or leader even more to do; now they have to supervise someone else’s work on top of doing their own. But If you assign a task to someone and then supervise them closely while they’re doing it, you’re micromanaging, not delegating.
When you delegate properly, you have more time to spend on your own work. The key is to assign the right task to the right person—a person you know has the skills to do the job and that you can trust to get it done—and then leave them to it. It takes some getting used to, but you'll be surprised how productive you can be when you really let go.
Time Tracking Software
When you're in the zone and lucky enough to experience peak productivity windows, the last thing you want to do is remember to track your work hours. That's where a time tracking program comes in. Rather than interrupting your creative flow to track the clock or relying on your memory after the fact, a time keeping app does all the work for you, automatically.
The best time tracking apps allow you to create accurate invoices for clients, see how long different tasks take to complete, or help ensure that a flat-rate project doesn't cost more money to complete than it brings in.
Eliminate Distractions
Nilofer Merchant, HBR Writer and founder of Rubicon Consulting, shares some valuable advice that her boss gave her early in her career:
Feed the Eagles. There are only a few things that matter. Know what they are. And place your energy into them. They aren’t always right in front of you so you need to look up and out more. Starve the Turkeys—lots of things are right in front of you … pecking around, making noise, and demanding attention. Because they are right in front of you, it’s easy to pay attention to them most and first. Ignore them. They will actually do fine without you.â€
We've already looked at the importance of focus. But the flip side is that you need to identify and ignore those turkeys too. And for many of us, those turkeys demanding attention are social media and email.
To be productive, you need to shut down their noise and shoo them away. Turn off your email and phone notifications if you need full concentration. Are you a Facebook or Twitter addict? Use social media as a carrot. Allow yourself X number of minutes browsing after you accomplish a major task. Then shut it off and get back to work.
Get Enough Sleep
Seventy percent of Americans admitted to sleeping on the job in a survey done by William A. Anthony, PhD, a clinical psychologist and director of Boston University's Center for Psychological Rehabilitation. Why? Because they need to, Anthony says. Early-morning commutes, long work hours, and too many responsibilities at home mean that increasing numbers of people aren’t getting the shuteye they need.
We all know that sleep deprivation has negative effects on our performance. Lack of sleep decreases our concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity, and logical reasoning. And because the pre-frontal cortex is particularly vulnerable to a lack of sleep, tasks that require logical reasoning or complex thought will be the most impaired. Surprisingly, it only takes one night of sleep deprivation to create big deficits in our abilities.
So how much sleep do you need? Seven to nine hours a night if you’re an adult age 26 to 64, according to the National Sleep Foundation. If you’re not getting that much, then taking a nap during the day could be beneficial to your productivity.
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