Category Archives: Infographics

[Infographic] Is Your Small Business Prepared for a Cyber Attack?

Is Your Small Business Prepared for a Cyber Attack?

Is Your Small Business Prepared for a Cyber Attack?Cybersecurity has become a vital part of business as ransomware, hacking, phishing, identity theft, and other attacks have become frequent.

Small businesses are often vulnerable to a cyber attack. Many wonder how they can stay safe when they lack the resources of larger companies.

However, proper security protection doesn’t always involve a monetary component. Some of the best steps to company safety are entirely free. For example, a strong password policy and an administration access policy.

Password Policy

Employee passwords should be complex and hard to guess. As well, changing passwords regularly and two-factor identification adds another layer of protection.

Administration Access

Strictly limit access to any administration area. Make it available to the few that must have it. In fact, many security breaches are caused by employees who install infected software without realizing what it is.

Management should control high-level access. And control what can be updated and installed on company hardware. Train approved administrators properly on security issues. If an employee doesn’t need admin access to perform their job duties, they should not have it.

Thank you to HeadwayCapital.com for this infographic.

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The Secret to Crafting an Awesome Sales Pitch

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The-Secret-to-Crafting-an-Awesome-Sales-PitchTechnology is changing the way people interact with each other. Customers are more informed than they’ve ever been. Many are well researched on a company, its products, competitors, and reputation in the marketplace. This makes crafting a successful sales pitch rather difficult at times. Part of crafting a modern sales pitch is telling a story and using it to connect with potential customers.

Tell A Story

A good sales pitch tells a story. Remember a customer can get basic information about a product relatively easily. Customers want more than just facts, they want something they can relate to. A good story builds trust and creates an emotional reaction. The story itself doesn’t have to be complex. A hero overcoming adversity and succeeding despite difficulties is a classic story and one that works as a sales pitch.

Connect With Customers

People seek out a product or service because they have a problem that needs to be solved. Part of connecting with customers is framing the sales pitch as a solution for these issues. Focus on the positives a product can bring and show how it can remove negative issues. A good sales pitch presents a company as a problem solver.

Thanks to PureB2B for this great infographic.

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Referrals: Your Untapped Source for Generating Leads [Infographic]

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Referrals-Your-Untapped-Source-for-Generating-Leads-infographic-315Referrals are one of the most valuable sources of leads. When crafting a marketing strategy don’t forget the importance of word of mouth marketing. A good reputation, professionalism, and satisfied customers can help drive business. When properly applied referrals can account for roughly 40 percent of a company’s leads. Referrals can come from many sources. Here are three of the best:

Existing Customers

As noted above satisfied customers are an excellent source of referrals. Many people ask their friends for advice when choosing a company for a good or service and a customer with a positive past experience is likely to offer a recommendation. A company can drive a customer referral program by offering bonuses to existing customers who refer their friends and associates.

Former And Current Business Associates

Many companies have existing relationships with vendors and other B2B companies. As companies that focus on B2B sales often have an industry niche they specialize in they can be a great source on potential customer leads due to working with companies focused on the same (or similar) market segments.

Industry Experts

There are many experts who specialize in specific industries be they reporters, writers, educators, or advisors. An industry expert recommendation is not only knowledgeable but also carries with it a degree of respectability from potential customers.

Thanks PureB2B.com for this infographic.

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10 Influencer Marketing Strategies You Should Know [Gifographic]

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10-Influencer-Marketing-Strategies-You-Should-Know-j-01_01Influencers are people who can convince others to buy a product or service because of the number of followers they have.

For an entrepreneur like you, this is great news. You can tap influencers for influencer marketing in order to reach more people. Here’s how:

Takeover

Let your chosen influencers post on your brand’s social media accounts for a limited period of time, from a day to a couple of weeks. It’s a good way to generate fresh content without doing it yourself and to get more followers by the bulk.

Guest posts

If you’re not ready to let someone else take over your brand’s accounts, you can do the next best thing: Get influencers to write guest posts and publish it on your site. Or you can do it the other way around by writing a guest post on their sites.

Freebies

Instead of paying influencers, send them freebies of your products or services instead. In return, ask them to make reviews and publish them on their own accounts. This arrangement is called an exchange deal (or ex-deal for short).

These are just a few strategies you can use when partnering with influencers. Other techniques may work better depending on the kind of campaigns you’re running and the goals you’re targeting.

Our hat is off to Grin.co for this gifographic.

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The Unwritten Rules of Email Marketing [Infographic]

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The-Unwritten-Rules-of-Email-MarketingEmail marketing remains a highly effective method of lead generation. Despite its effectiveness, it does require work for companies to make the most of their email marketing. Therefore, you need to know the rules of email marketing and best practices.

Email marketing campaigns hastily thrown together will not be effective at driving purchases. People receive lots of emails every day. To make your emails stand out from the competition, they must look professional and read well.

Here are the three of the most common email errors:

  • Bad Subject Lines

    An email subject line is the first thing a potential client sees. If the subject is vague, uninteresting, or badly formatted, they may delete the email without reading it. Thus a subject line should be attention-grabbing and above all relevant to its recipients.

  • Unsolicited Mailings

    Nobody likes receiving unsolicited emails. (They have a word for this, it’s spam.) A business should always get permission to send to a readers email address as random mailings come across as desperate and unprofessional.

    In addition, emails must have an unsubscribe link. It’s against the ICANN SPAM laws to send an email without it, and it could get your email marked as spam.

  • Errors

    Professional mailings should look professional. So before being sent, check for typos, broken links, and incorrect formatting.

Thanks to our friends at PureB2B.com

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[Infographic] The Small Business Guide to Google Analytics

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[Infographic]-The-Small-Business-Guide-to-Google-Analytics-315Every business can benefit from using Google Analytics. It tracks the useful information that is vital to a healthy website. This guide to Google Analytics will give you the ability to track how customers respond to your website.

A website that doesn’t draw customers or engage them is not a useful business tool. With Google Analytics you can track where customers come from and what actions they take on your website.

3 Things Google Analytics Tells You About Website Visitors

  • Who They Are

    You can track where users come from, what devices they are using, what web browser they are using, and how many of them are visiting the website.

  • What They Do

    Track where users go once they are on your site, how long are the on various parts of it, how long do they visit the site overall, what do they do while they’re there, and do they fill out any forms while visiting.

  • What Parts Of Your Website Do They Like

    You can track how users respond to your site’s content. This includes how long they visit each page, what pages they visit the most, how they are responding to landing pages, and which parts they click away from without reading?

Thanks, Headway Capital for this informative infographic.

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A Trustworthy e-Commerce Website

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A-Trustworthy-eCommerce-Website-315In a typical online shopping situation, customers pay for their purchases first via a digital payment system. Then, they wait for the seller to ship their goods to them. Thus, trust is a big component of e-commerce, especially from the customers’ perspective.

To make customers trust your business before they even buy anything, here are a couple of key activities you need to do:

  • Be transparent

    Don’t wait for customers to ask you for details they need. On your page, make sure the following information is easily seen: your customer service channels and hours; number of customers served; year when your business was established; list of accepted payment methods (highlight Paypal if it’s included); and any form of verification from the brand you’re selling if you’re a reseller. Even if people haven’t heard of your business before, seeing these details will make them trust you more.

  • Be convincing

    Share credible testimonials from satisfied customers. Knowing other people already had a good experience with will make prospects more inclined to become customers themselves. If you’ve been featured by a publication (whether offline or online), make sure to cite that as well. People need to get reassurance from an authoritative third party before they’ll take a chance on your business.

Trust is hard to build at first, but start it right and you’ll get it in time. Thanks, Kissmetrics for this amazing infographic.

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How Mobile is Changing Business [Infographic]

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How-Mobile-is-Changing-Business-Infographic-316The rise of mobile device usage has a strong impact on our everyday life. Even businesses are not exempt. Here’s how the mobile evolution is changing the way we buy:

  • Online shopping

    E-commerce makes up for 10% of total retail sales in the United States alone. This statistic is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years as the rate of mobile device adoption increases.

  • User reviews

    As many as 56% of in-store purchases are influenced by recommendations found online. Therefore, people who are eager to share their experiences now have a platform which others are willing to read/watch/listen.

  • Mobile payment

    In North America, Paypal remains to be the most widely accepted among many digital payment systems. In 2016, Paypal had an annual payment volume worth more than 350 billion USD.

  • Geotagging

    People get more local results thanks to geotagging. Mobile ad campaigns with geotags reach a highly targeted audience, leading to an increase in good leads and conversions.

  • In-app purchases

    Digital goods are selling online as well. People prefer to use free apps but are willing to pay for more. Around 44% of users make in-app purchases after at least 10 sessions with an app.

Entrepreneurs who haven’t embraced mobile yet should take steps to adjust now. Mobile is changing the business landscape fast, so make sure you can keep up before it’s too late!

Thanks, Kissmetrics!

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Blogging Resources [Infographic]

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blogging-resources-315Like email, blogs look like they’re here to stay for a while longer. Since the very first blog post published back in 1994, blogging has come a long way in the 24 years that followed. Thus, don’t neglect blogging in 2018. These fast facts show that blogs still have a big place in people’s hearts:

  1. By 2020, United States will have around 31.7 million bloggers. Think of how many people you can reach if you have a blog as well!
  2. Half of the first 200 of the Fortune 500 companies have a corporate blog. If blogging is good enough for these industry giants, then it should be good enough for you, too!
  3. Around 53% of bloggers are 21 to 35 years old, a.k.a. the millennials. If your brand’s target is the millennial generation, you can connect with them through blogging!
  4. As many as 77% of internet users read content in blogs. Failure to blog means failure to interact with 3/4 of the total netizen population!
  5. Unfortunately, 55% of readers scan a blog post in 15 seconds or less to see if it catches their fancy. This means you’ve got to make a really good first impression!
  6. But that’s okay because you can grab attention with creative titles plus interesting images. Note that blogs with photos get 94% more views!

Thank you WebsiteBuilder.org for this great infographic.

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How to Organize Your Marketing [Infographic]

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How-to-Organize-Your-Marketing-Infographic-315A marketing stack refers to a suite of technologies marketers use for various marketing activities and tasks. It covers whole processes, from collecting and enriching to analyzing and archiving data.

Because a typical marketing stack has a lot of solutions in it, organizing one is almost impossible. But hard as it may be, it can still be done. Dividing marketing into the following channels is a good start:

Team collaboration

Group all solutions that facilitate communication and track group projects.

Content creation

Group all solutions that make producing engaging content easier and faster.

Marketing practice

Group all solutions that give frontline marketers the resources they need to manage their respective channels.

Under this category are three sub-groups:

  • Data platform – Group all solutions that pull relevant data from customers.
  • Intelligence hub – Group all solutions that analyze said data and help marketers come up with effective campaigns.
  • Campaign execution – Group all solutions that help marketers run and optimize campaigns across different channels.

This division of technologies is just one way to organize a marketing stack. However, you can find other ways you are more comfortable with. The important thing is to establish a system that’s easy to use not only for you but other marketers within your organization too.

Testing environment

Group all solutions that use customer feedback to analyze and test customers’ preferred medium of communication.

Our thanks go out to Techcrunch.com for this infographic.

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