eShipGlobal

Tag: Business Tips

  • Tips for Strengthening Your LinkedIn Profile

    Tips for Strengthening Your LinkedIn Profile

    –

    Having a LinkedIn account is almost becoming a necessity these days. Employer like to look up job candidates and/or post jobs on LinkedIn. It is a great social platform to network with other professionals, look for jobs, look for candidates, stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends and reach other businesses.

     

    If you are a CEO or are looking to start your own business, having a great LinkedIn profile is important. Investors, partners, other businesses, future employees and even customers will be looking you up. So, here are some tips to help make your LinkedIn profile stand out.

     

    1. Have a professional profile picture
    Profiles with pictures are more likely to be seen and it is always nice to be able to put a face to a resume. The profile picture should look professional and only have you in the picture. It is also important that the picture be current, within the last few years unless you have changed a lot since then.

     

    2. Ask for recommendations
    Having recommendations looks great on a profile page and strengthens your overall content. Ask your co-workers, clients, customers connections, and/or bosses to write a positive recommendation on your LinkedIn page.

     

    3. Network
    You don’t need to have many network connections to reach LinkedIn’s All-Star level profile, but they are important for a strong LinkedIn and to get the most out of this social platform. When asking people to be your connection, write your own message and include how you met them or a personal message. Do not use the standard connection request.

     

    4. Write a strong headline
    Think carefully about what you write for your headline and summary. Your headline does not have to be your title and is not recommended to use a title if you are looking for a job. Instead try to write something that showcases your value, speciality or where you want to be.

     

    5. Have a clear and concise summary
    Your summary is a description of who you are and what you want to be. What makes you stand out? Highlight your passions, key skills and other unique experience or talents you have that will set you apart. Ideally your summary should be short, a few paragraphs. Using bullets when listing out skills or other lists makes your summary visually appealing and easier to read.

     

    6. Showcase your talents/business
    LinkedIn allows your to add portfolio/website links, and also allows you to showcase photos, videos, presentations, or links to files to your profile summary. This allows clients, employees, employers or investors to see your skills and the different projects you have worked on. It is also a great way to show off your talents!

     

    7. List your talents/skills and get endorsements
    Another way to show off your talents/skills is to list them in the skills section on your LinkedIn profile. To strengthen this section get people you know and work with to endorse your skills. You can list a number of skills, but focus on your most relevant skills. You don’t want the people viewing your profile to only see your outdated skills first and potentially not even seeing your newest skills.

     

    8. List all your degrees and job experience
    For your education, you should write a brief summary for the university/degree listed. What did you study, did your minor, were your involved in any organizations or honor societies? For your job experience, write a brief description and include the various projects you worked on and what responsibilities you had.

     

    9. Add a background image
    LinkedIn profiles that include background images receive more views and get better response rates. It is not that had to add one and it can make a big impact.

     

    10. Fill out as much information as possible
    LinkedIn provides many other areas that you can fill out: volunteer work, interests, contact information, your Twitter handle, accomplishments and more. The more your can fill out the better. Just don’t go too far back when listing accomplishments or volunteer work. They don’t need to know what awards you received in middle school.

     

    Another important thing about LinkedIn is to remember to update your profile page: change your profile picture, add new job experiences, etc. Don’t just fill it out and let it sit there. Update it and revise it. It is a living profile, not like a hard-copy resume which only has to be updated when you are looking for a job. LinkedIn is a social media platform, so it is beneficial to go and be active on it. Happy networking!

     

     

    By Ashleigh

  • Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Office

    Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Office

    –

    In business we tend to emphasize customer relations and appreciation. We recognize that without them our business would – well – have no business. However, there is another important part of business that can often get overlooked: employees.

     

    Without the work and expertise of employees, businesses could not grow. Which is why it is important to recognize and appreciate all the hard work employees do throughout the year. Having a Thanksgiving office celebration is a great way and time to let your employees know that they are appreciated. Here are a few great ways to celebrate Thanksgiving at the office.

     

    Have a Thanksgiving lunch
    Set a time during the month of November to schedule a Thanksgiving lunch for all your employees and have food catered in. Make sure to give plenty of time for people to eat, chat and for a nice toast.

     

    Have Fun with a Thanksgiving Potluck
    If you are on a tight budget or do not have the manpower to plan a catered lunch, then plan a potluck lunch. Get everyone to bring their favorite Thanksgiving dish, give out prizes or have fun games. Just don’t forget the turkey!

     

    Exchange Thank You Cards/Notes
    Encourage employees to write notes of thank yous to fellow employees. Gather them in jars and pass them out or have a Thank You board where they can pin their notes. You can even make it a board where they can post whatever they are thankful for.

     

    Volunteer/Donate
    A great way to celebrate Thanksgiving and give back to the community would be to volunteer at a local soup kitchen or charity organization. Call around and see if any organization needs extra volunteers. Or you can encourage employees to bring in canned food to be donated to help feed the needy on Thanksgiving.

     

    There are many ways businesses can celebrate Thanksgiving together. Not only can it demonstrate your appreciation to your employees, it can also help strengthen relationships and communication between departments and employees. Just remember to let them know that you appreciate all the hard work they have been doing!

     

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • 3 Mistakes Companies Make That Hurts Their Business

    3 Mistakes Companies Make That Hurts Their Business

    –

    Every company and business leader wants to have a successful business. They work hard to attract customers and develop products. They pour money into products, marketing, advertising and public relations. Unfortunately, some businesses focus too much on grabbing customers that they neglect other areas. Here are three mistakes businesses can make that will hinder their success.

     

    1. Poor Customer Relations

    Customers are crucial to a business, which is why having a good relationship is essential. This includes providing great customer support and listening to customer feedback. Many companies have been negatively affected by bad customer service. The best marketing is word-of-mouth, but if what is being said is not positive it will make it very difficult to gain new customers. To make matters worse, an unhappy customer will share their views to more people than a happy one.

     

    2. Inconsistency

    People like stability and dependability when it comes to businesses, products and services. Products and businesses that are inconsistent with their practice, appearance, quality or support have a negative impact on customer experience; which can often lead to poor customer relations. Poor service or products, even with a great customer support team can detract customers from using your service or purchasing your product ever again.

     

    Inconsistency in business appearance may not be quite as damaging but it does have an impact. Consistency in business brand makes a company look professional and provides a feeling of stability. An inconsistent brand does not.

     

      3. Poor Leadership

    Leaders are responsible for their employees and their department/team’s productivity. A poor leader often results in poor financial results, lower productivity, lower morale and collaboration, and increases turnover rates. Poor leaders can be micromanagers, lack communication skills, have unclear expectations, have to high of standards, and do not listen to employees. They create a negative environment that stifles innovation/creativity and hinders productivity. A great leader listens and communicates clearly. They focus on supporting their employees and not pushing them.

     

    If a business base is not strong, the company will not be successful. A strong base comes from happy customers, a clear business plan/identity and through great leadership. If one of these three is not strong, it can affect the other two. How strong is your company’s base?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • 5 Elements of a Good Marketing Plan

    5 Elements of a Good Marketing Plan

     

     –

    Marketing is important for any business. However, without a marketing plan even the greatest ideas can be failures. Plans provide insight and determines if the marketing was successful. There are several parts that go into a marketing plan, starting with the business.

     

    1. Business Identity

    All marketing plans should align with the business’ overall mission and vision statements. Marketing plans also need to take in who their business’ audience or target audience is. In other words, the marketing plan needs to be in alignment with the business’ brand identity.

     

    2. SWOT Analysis

    Another important aspect of a good marketing plan is the SWOT analysis. A good SWOT analysis provides insights on what your businesses/products strengths and weaknesses are, what opportunities available and the threats business or product may face. A successful marketing plan leverages the business/product’s strengths and opportunities while being mindful of the weakness and threats.

     

    3. A SMART Plan

    The actual marketing aspect of the plan needs to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.

    Specific – A great marketing plan has very specific goals and objectives in mind. What are you trying to do with your marketing efforts? Increase revenue? Expand brand awareness? Objectives are supposed to help meet the goal, which move the company towards its vision or goal.

    Measurable – All objectives should be measurable. You want to increase revenue? How much do you want to increase it by? This will also help determine if your plan was successful: whether or not you reached the measured objective you were trying to hit.

    Achievable – You objectives and goals should be achievable. Don’t expect to turn your business/products into a household must have overnight. That is not achievable.

    Realistic – Similar to achievable, having realistic goals and objectives are ones that can be met. Realistic goals and objectives are ones that are reasonable for your company and products. You cannot increase sales by 200% if production cannot support that number.

    Timely – It is important to set a time frame for the objectives. When do you want to see the results? For instance, seeing a 10% increase in revenue by the end of 6 months. The time frame should be achievable and realistic. At the end of the time frame you will see if you met the measurable objective.

     

    4. Tactics

    After you have laid out all of the above you need to think of tactics that will help you meet the objectives/goals. Tactics can include social postings, flyers, rebranding, SEO, representatives and more. How are you going to use advertising, communication, public relations and representatives to reach your objectives?

     

    5. Evaluate and Modify

    Marketing plans are not set in stone. The data and information gathered throughout the process should be looked at and the plan should be adjusted accordingly. If one tactic is not working, try a different one. Evaluating and modifying a plan occurs throughout the entire process until the end of a campaign.

     

    Whether you are developing a marketing plan for a campaign, a product or company, it is important to keep these 5 elements in mind. Having a good marketing plan can be the difference between a failing business and a successful business. So, what does your plan look like?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • What Social Media Channels Should Your Business Use?

    What Social Media Channels Should Your Business Use?

    –

    Using social media in marketing strategies has become a must for many companies. The question many businesses face is what social media platforms should they use or focus on. Posting on every social media channel is not efficient and can be a waste of time and resources. The best thing businesses can do is to  post on the social channels their audience or target audience is on. Here are some key demographics to help you determine what social channels to use.

     

    Facebook

    Facebook is still the dominant social media channel and is used by a wide variety of audiences. Here are some key demographics to be aware of (percentage is based on those who use the internet):

    • About 79% of all online adults use Facebook.
    • The demographics lean slightly more towards women with 83%
    • Men are slightly lower with 75%
    • The lowest demographic is for those 65+ years in age, with only 62%
    • The ages of 18-29 are the largest demographic with 88%.

     

    Instagram

    Instagram is the second most popular social media platform, but still does not compare to Facebook. Instagram is very image dominate and is great for very visual businesses, like clothing lines, bakeries, or travel-related industries. It is difficult for businesses that are more service based, but not impossible. High-quality, and preferably original, images are important.

    • About 32% of all online adults use Instagram.
    • The demographics lean more towards women with 38%
    • Men are lower with 26%
    • The lowest demographic is for those 65+ years in age, with only 8%
    • The ages of 18-29  makes up the largest demographic with 59%, much greater than the next age range, 30-49, with 33%

     

    Pinterest

    Pinterest’s popularity did not increase much between the 2015-2016, but it still remains a popular platform just under Instagram. This again is another visual social media platform, but the great part about Pinterest is the lifespan of pins and the high conversion rates. Infographics and how-tos are very popular.

    • About 31% of all online adults use Pinterest.
    • This platform heavily leans towards women with 45%
    • Men, while a growing demographic, only sit at 17%
    • The lowest demographic is for those 65+ years in age with 16%
    • Pinterest is one of the few platforms that spans age ranges, with no particular age range holding a larger portion. Ages 18-29 are still the largest with 36%, but ages 30-49 and 50-64 are 34% and 28% respectively
    • Pins lifespan lasts months, not hours or minutes
    • 88% of users purchase something they pin

     

    LinkedIn

    LinkedIn is very popular among professionals of all ages and genders. It contains the most varied demographics, but is tailored for working adults. If your target is teens, housewives or retirees you may want to consider a different channel.

    • About 29% of all online adults use LinkedIn.
    • The demographics are almost equally tied with men being slightly greater at 31%
    • Women are just slightly lower with 27%
    • The lowest demographic is for those 65+ years in age with 20%
    • Linked, like Pinterest, is one of the few platforms that spans age ranges, with no particular age range holding a larger portion. Ages 18-29 are still the largest with 34%, but ages 30-49 and 50-64 are 33% and 24% respectively

     

    Twitter

    Twitter has struggled with gaining popularity and has been surpassed by the previous platforms mentioned. However, it is easier to target audiences that use Twitter through the use of Hashtags. The only other platform that does this is Instagram, but it does not have the same ability to go viral that Twitter has.

    • About 24% of all online adults use Twitter.
    • The demographics are almost tied with women only being a margin more at 25%
    • Men are just slightly lower with 24%
    • The lowest demographic is for those 65+ years in age with only 10%
    • The largest age demographic is the ages 18-29 with 36%, but ages 30-49 and 50-64 are 23% and 21% respectively

     

    The key thing to do when developing a social media marketing strategy is to monitor the various social channels and adjust accordingly. If you find that you attract your audience on one platform more than the other, focus on that social channel. The more you learn and adapt the more successful your social media marketing will be.

     

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • 8 WordPress Plugins for Businesses

    8 WordPress Plugins for Businesses

     

    –

    WordPress has become the go-to website tool for businesses, professionals and individuals. It is easy-to-use and has many great plugins that help you customize your website to do what you need it to do. Here are some great WordPress plugins for Businesses:

     

    Yoast SEO

    Yoast SEO improves WordPress’ already good SEO. The plugin helps by checking title length, meta description, analyzes reading level, checks whether the focus keyword was used (in images, description, post, etc.) and more. SEO is important to businesses, which is why this plugin is so important.

     

    WP Forms

    WP Forms is a powerful form builder. Its drag & drop functionality makes it easy to use. The Contact Form for this plugin is free and the full form functions start at $39 a year. The full form plugin allows users to create unlimited forms, have unlimited entries, advanced form fields, multi-page forms, integrates with constant contact and has conditional logic. It is a cost effective form plugin that businesses will find useful.

     

    WooCommerce

    This plugin does not need much introduction since it is well known, especially in the business world. WooCommerce turns a wordpress website into an eCommerce storefront. It is a completely free tool that has been downloaded over 3 million times.

     

    Constant Contact Forms by MailMunch

    A great way to market to existing customers is through newsletters and email campaigns. Constant Contact is a mass email marketing tool that allows businesses to easily create beautiful emails and send them to a large number of people with just one send. The WordPress plugin allows you to add a popup to your website that allows users to signup for your newsletter. The emails are automatically added to an email list within your Constant Contact account.

     

    W3 Total Cache

    W3 Total Cache is another plugin that improves SEO. W3 Total Cache helps with website caching, which improves website performance and reducing download times. Increasing web speed improves SEO and user experience, both of which is good for businesses.

     

    Smush Image Compression and Optimization

    This plugin also helps improve website speed by compressing large image files. It eliminates unnecessary data from every single image without losing the image quality. This is great for eCommerce or other businesses that utilize a lot of images on their website.

     

    WordFence

    WordFence is one of WordPress’ most popular security plugins. Its Web Application Firewall reduces your risk of getting hacked. It also alerts you to failed login attempts and if your website was compromised. You can also see your web traffic and hack attempts live with the Live Traffic view.

     

    Visual Composer

    Visual Composer makes it easy to build and alter your WordPress website. It is a drag & drop page builder. When creating a page you can drag & drop a variety of elements (grids, sliders, images, videos, etc) onto your page. You can also easily divide pages into columns. This plugin makes it easier to design and customize your business’ WordPress website.

     

    There are tons of great plugins out there. WordPress is a powerful website tool that allows businesses and people to build virtually any type of website. And with so many plugins to choose from, you can do pretty much anything.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • The Importance of Having a Mobile Responsive Website

    The Importance of Having a Mobile Responsive Website

    –

    It has become necessary for business to have an online presence. One of the biggest ways businesses build an online presence is through their website. A website is like a digital storefront and it provides customers with their first impression of your business. It used to be that was all you needed, a website. But now, just having a website is not enough. Today, businesses don’t only need a website, they need a mobile responsive one.

     

    About 77% of the US population has a smart phone. More than 11% of people access the internet through devices like a smartphone or a tablet. In fact, the number of mobile-only users has surpassed the desktop-only users. This is especially so for the younger millennial generation.

     

    About 85% of millennials own a smartphone and about 15% are dependent on their phone for online access. In fact, 89% of millennials connect to the internet on a smartphone vs 75% access the internet on a laptop. Millennials are also more likely to buy stuff when using a smartphone. It is their dominant way to shop.

     

    Having a mobile-friendly website also improves your search engine optimization. Google penalizes websites that are not mobile friendly. They rank mobile-friendly websites higher since most of their searches are done on phones. This is important because SEO and search engine ranking helps potential customers find your companies website. The higher your business ranks, the more likely you are to be found.

     

    Luckily, it is not too hard for business to make their website mobile responsive. WordPress, a tool used by many small businesses to manage and build a website, has several themes that are mobile responsive. It is a bit more difficult for HTML webpages, since knowledge of coding is required. However, there are people and companies out there that will help business either build a new mobile-friendly website or make their current one mobile responsive.

     

    Don’t know if your website is mobile-friendly? Google allows you to check. There are many reasons why businesses should be developing websites with mobile-first in mind. Increased traffic and revenue are just two very important reasons.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Is Your Business Socially Responsible?

    Is Your Business Socially Responsible?

    –

    There are many areas of business that get attention: business plans, growth hacking, social media marketing, etc. Another big buzzword in the business world today is “Social Responsibility”. The focus on social responsibility have been driven by millennials. The millennial generation are passionate about social causes and prefer businesses that are socially responsible. So what is social responsibility? The short definition is that it is improving the welfare of society. However, there are many ways business can be socially responsible.

     

    1. Environmental Efforts

    There are many ways businesses can get involved in environmental efforts. Reducing their carbon footprint, recycling, and making their products or operating plants more environmentally friendly. This is especially important for businesses that are perceived as not being environmentally friendly, like power plants and oil companies.

     

    2. Ethical Practices

    The government already has many laws that determine business practices, but there are still areas businesses can improve ethical practices. This can include what overseas labor they use, how much they pay their employees, improving work culture, reducing employee risk,increasing transparency, etc.

     

    3. Volunteering

    This is a great way for businesses to be social responsible because the impact can be seen by the company, the community, and the customers. It is also a great way to bring together employees and team build. There are many ways to volunteer: blood donations, can food drives, planting trees, working at a soup kitchen, cleaning up a local park, and so much more. Volunteering in an area that you business or your business’s customers are in can not only help the community, but is great marketing.

     

    4. Donations

    This is the most easiest way to give back to the community. There are many organizations, local, national and global that accept money donations from individuals and companies. A way to involve the entire company is to encourage employees to donate and have the company match those donations.

     

    Just doing one of these methods can demonstrate social responsibility and no matter what size you business is there is a way for you to give back to your community. People nowadays are looking for socially responsible companies, whether it be to buy from or work for. So, what are you doing to help society and/or the environment?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • 5 Great Books for Entrepreneurs, Startups and Marketers

    5 Great Books for Entrepreneurs, Startups and Marketers

    –

    There are so many books out there that business leaders, marketers and entrepreneurs should read. They all offer great insight into strategy, innovation, business, marketing, etc. It can be difficult to decide what books to start with first. Here are 5 great book that every entrepreneur, business professionals and marketers should read.

     

    Trust Agents:

    Learn how to build brand influence and reputation while earning trust from people all online. Social networks are powerful. With this book you will learn how to grow your brand, build influence/trust and increase your business profits profit using social media.

     

    Letting Go of the Words:

    If you are starting a business or are in the marketing field, you probably understand how important content is to SEO and business growth. Letting Go of the Words is a book that helps people write content for the internet that works. It covers a wide range of topics like, content strategy, SEO, social media and even some web design.

     

    Made to Stick:

    This New York Bestseller talks about why some ideas take off and others fail. Entrepreneurs and startups have great ideas that they want to see thrive and become successful. This book helps improve your ideas chances at sticking and thriving.

     

    The New Rules of Marketing and PR:

    Marketing and PR have changed drastically with the dawn of the digital age. This book aims to provide insight on how to get your message to your audience through means like social media, video, blogs, news releases and viral marketing. Learn how to reach your audience without paying the cost of traditional advertising.

     

    The Innovator’s Dilemma:

    This book on innovation has been referenced by many great thought leaders, like Steve Jobs. Without innovation, even the most outstanding companies can still lose market leadership. Know when and how to push aside traditional business practices when pushing products.

     

    Have fun reading!

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • 10 Inspirational Business Quotes to Help You Grow

    10 Inspirational Business Quotes to Help You Grow

    –

    It is fairly easy to start a business. To grow the business and make it successful is the real challenge. There is a lot that goes into growing a successful business: business plans, product development, marketing strategies, product launches, customer service, financial obligations, and more. Growing the business is hard, which is why it is easy to become discouraged.

     

    Luckily, there are many entrepreneurs and successful CEOs that have shared stories of their challenges and successes. They all probably had difficult days and faced numerous challenges. Here are some quotes from successful business people to help inspire you and your business.

     

    “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs


    “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell


    “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all” – Michael Leboeuf


    “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” – Sam Walton


    “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch


    “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” – Steve Jobs


    “The golden rule for every business man is this: ‘Put yourself in your customer’s place.’” – Orison Swett Marden


    “Great companies are built on great products” – Elon Musk


    “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” – Peter Drucker


    “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” B.C. Forbes



    Learn from the entrepreneurs that came before you and the businesses that surround you. Business is an ever changing landscape. The sooner you learn, adapt and change, the bigger chance you have at being successful.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • The Importance of a Well-Designed Website

    The Importance of a Well-Designed Website

    –

    A business’s website is their online storefront, whether or not it functions as an eCommerce store. Websites are usually the first impression consumers usually see when searching for businesses, products or services online. Much like the popular saying, first impressions are lasting impressions. Which is why your first impression should be positive.

     

    There are several factors which can impact the impression a business website gives to its audience. The main ones are content, design and functionality. Here are some things you will want to keep in mind when developing your website.

     

    1. 55% of visitors only spend 15 seconds on a page.
    2. As of October 2016, more people access the internet via mobile or tablets than desktops.
    3. Users want to be able to find the information and can get frustrated if you have too many or too ambiguous navigation links.
    4. Customers may leave your site before it finishes loading if it loads too slow.

     

    The Content:

    Content is almost or just as important as design/functionality. The content is the message you are wanting your users to read. The design of the website should enhance the content and not detract from it. Below are some tips for creating web content.

     

    1. People get intimidated by long blocks of text, so keep your sentences/paragraphs clear and concise.
    2. Most people don’t actually read website content, they scan it. Make you website scannable by using headers and short paragraphs.
    3. The average American adult only has a reading level of a 7th-8th grader. So try to avoid long or difficult words.
    4. Write content using the inverted pyramid style – overview first then get to the more in-depth details further down.

     

    The Design and Function:

    Design and functionality should go hand-in-hand. Yes, you want your website to be visually appealing, but you also want people to stay and interact with your website. When designing your website keep these things in mind.

     

    1. Use quality images. Remember your website reflects your business. Low quality images could make your visitors think that your business is low quality or not as reputable.
    2. Your design, colors, font, etc. should be consistent with your brand identity.
    3. Keep navigation simple, you want your visitors to find the information they are looking for.
    4. Know what your objectives are. What actions do you want your user to take on your website?
    5. Design with your user in mind. Think about how your user will be accessing the website, what will they see first, what will stand out, etc.
    6. Paragraphs with centered text is harder to read and should be used sparingly.

     

    Your website is your businesses digital face. It is the first thing you customers see when searching for you or discovering you online. Having a well designed website is important because you only get one chance to make a good first impression. So, what is your website saying about your business?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Analyzing Your Shipping Spend

    Analyzing Your Shipping Spend

    –

    Businesses operate with numbers in mind: KPIs, ROIs, profit margins, expenses, etc. It is important for businesses to keep close eyes on what they are spending and how much. It is also important for growing business to limit how much they spend in some areas in favor of investing the money in areas that would help them grow. One of the areas that can often be overlooked is how much money businesses are spending on shipping.

     

    When analyzing shipment volume, UPS and FedEx usually divide it up between business-to-business and business-to-consumer. Notice that business is in both categories. Businesses often ship products, supplies or important documents to customers, partners or other businesses.

     

    One way to cut shipping costs is to improve efficiency and compare carrier rates and services. eShipGlobal’s flagship solution, eShipEnterprise, is a customizable solution that allows business to manage their outbound shipping and consolidates invoicing. However, what can really help lower shipping costs and provide more insight into shipping spend is the Supply Chain Analysis add-on service.

     

    The add-on service adds on to eShipEnterprise, and eShipLab, solution to help businesses analyze the shipping data collected within enterprise. It aims to provide meaningful insights that can help businesses manage how they ship in the most efficient way.

     

    The Supply Chain Analysis service looks at many different variables like, human error, carrier performance, billing errors, cost per shipment and more to determine how to improve shipping efficiency. Shipping reports are usually done on a quarterly basis and provide an in-depth analysis of the routing and shipping data, the efficiency of shipping and suggestions for potential improvements.

     

    Supply Chain Analysis is just one of the multiple add-on that can be customized into the enterprise solution. Others include:

     

    • The Export Control Package, which helps businesses ship internationally in compliance with government regulations: ITAR, EAR, etc.
    • The Inbound Package, which provides businesses with more control over supplier inbound shipping.

     

    The less money you spend on shipping, the more money you can invest into growing your business. Do you know how much you are spending on shipping and are you shipping efficiently?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Growing Your Audience Through Partnerships

    Growing Your Audience Through Partnerships

    –

    Partnerships can be very important to startups or small businesses looking to grow. When two companies come together they can expand their reach, offerings, content and message to a wider audience. Partnerships can also increase profits with revenue sharing. When your business sends traffic to the partner, you get a portion of their revenue.

     

    There are many different types of partnerships: cross-marketing partnerships, product collaborations, brand partnerships, influencers, and more. If you are wanting to grow your audience, you may want to consider cross-marketing, brand and influencer partnerships. Influencers can cost a bit of money, but they are not called influencers for nothing.

     

    When looking at cross-marketing and brand partnerships with other businesses, you will want to at partners that share the same target audience as you or have the audience you are looking to reach. You will want the partner company to have the similar values, goals and objectives.

     

    A partnership is a relationship. Like all relationships there are things that will need to be communicated and consider before entering into a partnership. Like what are you looking to get out of the partnership, what will you need to give towards the partnership, will there be revenue sharing involved, how with the two companies work together, how will decisions be made, etc.

     

    At eShipGlobal, one of our biggest audience is international students and international student advisors. Over the summer we launched a new initiative, UEMSConnect, to help build a closer relationship with our audience. One of the ways we are looking to grow this community is through partnerships.

     

    When looking at partners, we look at what services and products they are providing and if they can help our audience. Our partners have the same audience as we do, or they are looking at reaching our audience. We have several different types of partnerships and are looking to grow our partnership program to include more services/products.

     

    One aspect of our partnership program is cross-marketing and content sharing. Our partners are highlighted on newsletters, our website, and through various marketing promotions. We are also included in some of our partners marketing efforts. In addition to cross marketing, we share content. We allow our partners to produce guest blogs and we write guest blogs for them as well. We also have exclusive content and offers that are provided to our users and theirs.

     

    Our partnership program is new and still growing, but the possibilities that are open when two companies work together are amazing. If you are looking at growing your startup or small business, you may want to consider partnering with another company. After all, they say two heads are better than one.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Why Blogs are Important to Businesses

    Why Blogs are Important to Businesses

    –

    The use of content marketing has grown over the years. More and more business are finding that content is important to growing business and keeping customer attention. The method of using content to market a product, business or service is not new. In fact, Benjamin Franklin used published a journal to market his printing business. Other companies have used guidebooks, cookbooks or other printed material to promote their products.

     

    Today, the use of printed content to promote a business is no longer necessary. There are many different ways in which businesses can market through content. Social media and the internet has made it easier to publish content that will reach the masses. Blogs are just one of those methods.

     

    Blogs benefit businesses in many different ways. First, if the content is good, it will keep your customers returning to your site and interacting with your brand. Second, it can help your business with SEO.

     

    Blogging helps to create backlinks and establishes your business as a subject-matter expert. When people search on Google, one of the determining factors that Google looks at when ranking websites is reliable and trustworthy content. They determine this by website traffic, the number of backlinks to credible sites and social shares.

     

    Blog content also provides a way to add more keywords, photos and videos to your company’s website, which improves SEO and gives Google more content to look at.

     

    By providing content through blogs, you have a platform to engage your customers while subtly promoting your brand and products. Most people do not like to be sold to. Blogs provide a way for your company to engage them and talk to them without openly pitching a product.

     

    In short, whether your business is a new start up or a long standing one, blogs can help improve and grow your business. The most important thing to remember about content marketing is that quality is more important than quantity.

     

    Want more great business tips? Check out our other business blogs on our website!

     

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Improving Business Shipping Efficiency

    Improving Business Shipping Efficiency

    –

    A good business is built on organization, productivity and efficiency. The bigger the company grows the more important efficiency and management become. That is why there are so many systems, software and tools out there to help them manage their business. Businesses utilize tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Quickbooks, Hootsuite, and many others to manage areas of business like marketing, sales, customer service, accounting, etc. With efficiency and management being so important, why does certain areas often get overlooked? For instance, shipping.

     

    Businesses, are often shipping products, supplies or important documents to customers, partners or other businesses. In fact, business-to-business shipping makes up nearly half of all shipments UPS and FedEx ship. UPS and FedEx shipment volume is usually divided up between business-to-business and business-to-consumer. Note that business is the common factor.

     

    When businesses ship a lot, they often have their own carrier account and are invoiced at the end of the month by the carriers they use. Managing one carrier might not be that difficult without a system, but there are several different carriers. DHL, FedEx and UPS are three big shipping carriers that ship both domestically and internationally. Managing all three carrier accounts and invoices is often troublesome. Not to mention that businesses may have multiple departments that ship documents or packages and keeping track of what department ships what is difficult.

     

    However, there is a system that helps manage business shipping, solving many of these challenges to improve business efficiency. eShipGlobal’s Enterprise solution is a customizable solution that allows business to manage their outbound shipping and consolidates invoicing.

     

    The web-based solution integrates with financial, ERP or 3rd party legacy systems and allows businesses to look at past orders and receive reports on shipping analytics. They will also be able to compare carrier rates, saving them more money.

     

    Another great aspect about this solution is the packages that be added on to the service. These packages are:

    • The Export Control Package, which helps businesses ship internationally in compliance with government regulations: ITAR, EAR, etc.
    • The Inbound Package, which provides businesses with more control over supplier inbound shipping.
    • Supply Chain Analysis Service, which is a more in-depth analysis of businesses shipping data to provide meaningful insights into their shipping habits and spending.

    It is important for businesses to be efficient because efficiency saves them time and money. One way businesses can improve efficiency is to utilize solutions, like eShip Enterprise, to manage certain aspects of their business. Is you business operating efficiently?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Managing Your Business’ Social Media

    Managing Your Business’ Social Media

    –

    Social media has impacted the way people communicate and interact. In fact people are spending more and more time on social media channels. This is why it has become important for businesses to not only be on social media, but to be active on it. Social media has become a way for customers to interact with their favorite brands and to communicate with companies.

     

    The problem many small businesses face is staying active with so many social media platforms.  The top two social media platforms to be on, generally, is Facebook and Twitter. Other platforms that may be important depending on your user demographics and industry is LinkedIn, Instagram, SnapChat and Pinterest. It is recommended that you post 1-2 times a day on Facebook, 3-5 (some recommend up to 15) times a day on Twitter, about once a day on Instagram, and 3+ pins a day on Pinterest.

     

    If you are a startup or small business, you probably don’t have a team dedicated to monitoring and publishing to your social channels. Luckily, there are tools that can help make this easier.

     

     

    Hootsuite

    Hootsuite is a social media management tool. It is an easy-to-use online platform that allows you to schedule social media posts across multiple channels (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, etc.).

     

    You can also monitor all your social media accounts on one platform. Hootsuite’s “streams” search your social platforms for words, hashtags, mentions, etc. This allows you to see at a glance who is talking to you, find content to curate, or keep informed on what’s going on in your industry.

     

    Hootsuite also has an analytic dashboard that shows you how your social platforms are performing, tracking information like followers, engagements and link clicks.

     

    Lastly, Hootsuite is budget friendly. They have several subscription packages. The first is free and allows you to monitor three social media accounts. Then they have two professional versions. The basic Professional plan allows you to have up to 10 social media accounts and is $19 a month. The Professional Plus plan allows you to monitor 20 social media accounts and have 3 different users for $99 a month. Their Enterprise plan is customizable so pricing may vary.

     

     

    Hubspot

    Hubspot is another tool that can help manage social media accounts. You can manage platforms like: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Pinterest and more.

     

    Like Hootsuite, Hubspot also allows you to schedule posts to all your social accounts and create streams to monitor social media keywords, mentions, etc. Hubspot also provides analytics to help you analyze your business’s impact on social media. You can monitor engagement, clicks, visits, etc. Since Hubspot is an inbound marketing tool, you can also track to see what posts/platforms drive actual leads.

     

     

    Buffer

    Buffer is a content publishing platform, so its main function is to publish and/or schedule social media postings. You can hook up Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest accounts to Buffer. Buffer does have analytics, but only for the content posted through the Buffer platform.

     

    Some great things about Buffer are the pricing and its compatibility with tools like IFTTT and Zapier. Like Hootsuite, Buffer has various plans. The free version is free and allows you to monitor 1 social profile per platform and schedule 10 posts per profile. Its Awesome plan is $10 a month and allows you to have 10 social profiles per platform with 100 scheduled posts per profile. Lastly, their Business plan is $99+ and allows you to monitor 25 profiles per platform, have 2,000 scheduled posts per profile with 5+ team members.

     

     

    There are many other great social media management tools: Sprout Social, TweetDeck, MeetEdgar and more. So no matter what your need is or how small your business is, there are tools out there can can help you manage your social media accounts. Have any other tools you like to use? We would love to hear about them!

     

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Using Twitter For Business

    Using Twitter For Business

    –

    Is your business effectively using Twitter? Facebook may still dominate the social media industry, but Twitter has seen some growth this year. In fact, it has been steadily growing in users and daily active users over the past few quarters. Twitter is also ranked as the 2nd or 3rd most popular social media platform in several countries, which is important if you have an international audience. So, are you ready to step up your Twitter game?

     

    Post Often (But Not Too Much)

    Each social media platform has a daily recommended posting amount. For Facebook, it is about one to two posts a day. Twitter, however, it is recommended to post more. The ideal number is often debated, usually somewhere between 3-5 tweets a day. However, there are a few that will recommend tweeting more (7+ per day). Test out how your engagement does with 3-5 posts. Usually after a certain point your engagement drops.

     

    When To Post

    The days and times you should focus on posting will vary. Tweets have an incredibly short lifespan, about 18 minutes. This makes timing very important. You want your tweets to go out at times that your audience will be on. Generally, it is best to tweet between noon – 3:00pm, Monday – Friday. With the majority of the US population in either the Central Time Zone or the Eastern Time Zone, it is best to use one of those two. Obviously, not all audiences are the same, so try to find out when your followers are on and adjust your tweeting schedule to them. Tools like Klout will give your recommendation on what times to post based on your audience engagement.

     

    Hashtags

    Twitter is based about the use of Hashtags. So it is important to use them when tweeting. They can help connect your tweets with a specific audience. For instance, #Fashion will be seen by those interested in fashion. However, DO NOT go overboard on the hashtags. Usually if you have more than two hashtags your engagement drops. So try to keep the hashtags between 1-2.

     

    Mentions

    Mentioning influencers and other businesses related to you or your industry can help improve engagement and retweets. So feel free to add a @twitterhandle onto a few of your tweets. You can also ask questions to influencers and talk to your audience to help improve engagement.

     

    Tweet Chats

    For those who are not familiar with Tweet Chats they are conversations held at a specific time and day using a set hashtag to communicate with. For instance, #SmallBizChat is a Tweet Chat for small businesses that meets every Wednesday at 8pm EST. Usually the chat is focused on a set topic for that week. Usually, the moderator asks a question and all the participants answer. It is a great way to gain new followers and connect with influences and other businesses in your industry.

     

    Advertising

    Just like Facebook, Twitter has a way to advertise through their platform. There are different types of campaigns that serve different goals, like website clicks or increasing followers. Similar to Facebook, you can set a daily budget or a total budget and it can run until the money runs out or through set days. You can target your audiences via locations, keywords, interests, behaviors, etc. While advertising will not make or break your Twitter success, you may find that it performs as well as or better than Facebook. We have had more success on some of our ads via Twitter than we did via Facebook.

     
    Twitter is one of the big social media platforms out there and it appears to be growing in popularity. Twitter is a great way to communicate, network and stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends. It also is a great platform to engage with your audience. So, now the question is, are you ready to create and/or improve your business’ Twitter account?

     

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Why Is Having a Brand Identity So Important?

    Why Is Having a Brand Identity So Important?

    –

    Brand identity is a term used often in business. But what exactly is a brand identity? A business’ brand is its identity. It reflects the business from its promise to its customers to the company’s work culture. A brand is far more than just a logo. It is the values, mission, promise and vision of the company. A brand is what sets your business apart and makes it memorable. So how can small businesses develop a brand identity?

     

    Questions You Need to Answer First

    • Who is your company’s audience? How do they see you?
      • This is key because your audience is who you want to remember your brand. Therefore, your brand should match their values and resonate with your audience. By determining how they see you, you can see what might need to be adjusted or what you are doing correct.
    • What is your company’s values?
      • These are the values your company reflects and it is a promise of what your customers should expect from your business. These values could be clarity, timeliness, dependability, etc.
    • What is your mission and vision statements?
      • Do not confuse your mission and your vision statements. Your vision is where you would like your business to be one day. This is the hopeful long-term goal. You mission statement is a more attainable short-term objective and how your business plans on getting there

    Knowing the answers to these questions will help you identify or define your brand. The next part of a brand identity is the part the customers with see regularly, the logo, tone, design style and copy.

     

    The Visual Elements

    Your logo, font and brand colors should reflect your business and its values. A dark, hard and edgy logo design does not match a whimsical, floral clothing business. Having a mismatched design or elements is like walking into a house that has some rooms completely modern and other rooms country. It can throw people off and/or give them the wrong impression of what your business sells or represents. Remember your first impression is important and these visual elements will often be that first impression.

     

    The Written Elements

    If you know who your audience is and how you want your company to come across, you can start to develop the tone for your company. Tones can be professional, conversational, humorous, playful, etc. A business targeting millennials, for instance, might use a humorous conversational tone, since that often appeals to millennials. Your tone should match both you and your audience. Everything should be written in the tone you decide to use, that includes all copy, content and your tagline.

     

    All these elements make up a brand identity. However, just having a brand identity is not enough. Consistency is key to a strong brand identity. This means that everything should be consistent and reflect this identity. If your business values and promotes timeliness you need to be timely. Your customers to see your brand identity at EVERY point of contact.

     

    Your brand is what sets your company apart and a strong brand identity will help your business stand out. It does not matter if you are a big business or a one-person operated eCommerce business, having a brand identity is important to success and growth.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Tips for Developing Good Content to Boost Your Business

    Tips for Developing Good Content to Boost Your Business

    –

    How much time are you spending developing content? Many businesses throw content creation to the end of the line, or forget it completely. However, content has become increasingly more important in businesses. Content is king. While having content is important, it is more important to have good quality content. Here are some tips to help you develop quality content.

     

    Research

    Before writing any content, first you must understand who your audience is, what they care about, and how you can align it with your company. Here are some questions you will also want to look at: what are your competitors talking about, how are they doing on social and how often do they post. Knowledge is key. Having content your audience does not want to read or having content that doesn’t relate to your business is counter productive. You want people to read your content, see you as a subject-matter expert and want to find out more about your company.

     

    Who Will Be Producing The Content?

    Because quality content is important, do not just pass this job off to the newbie or intern. Ideally, you will want someone who can write well. If you do not have anyone in house that can produce content, there are always services out there that will write content for you.

     

    The Content

    Once you have conducted the research you can start deciding on what topics/subjects you will want to write about. Your content does not always have to directly promote your products or services, but it should promote an area tied to your business, products or services. For instance, a home insurance company blogging tips about good home ownership. If you did the research, you will have a better idea about what topics to write about, what tone to use and how often you should be writing content.

     

    Formatting and length

    While Google still prefers long content, about 1,000+ words, the average reader tends to prefer shorter content. However, the formatting of the content is far more important than the word count. Most readers tend to get intimidated when seeing large blocks of text. A good way to prevent this is by breaking up the paragraphs into smaller sections. Each section should have an accompanying header, and if applicable a subheader. Bullet points are also a great way to break up long bodies of text.

     

    Good quality content not only brings potential customers to your website, but it also helps search engine ranking. Some businesses are able to make it to page one on Google search through good quality content alone. Content marketing and content creation are only going to become more important as Google adjusts their search algorithm to provide better results with higher quality information. Are you ready to produce higher quality content?

     

    By Ashleigh Cue

  • Is Your Small Business Collaborative?

    Is Your Small Business Collaborative?

    Small businesses are just that – small. They usually have a small staff size and probably a small budget to operate on. They are focused on growth and productivity. That is why it is so important for small businesses to have a collaborative work culture. Here are some important reasons why you should be collaborative.

     

    1. Area of Expertise

    Collaboration allows employees to utilize their areas of expertise. This is great for small teams since someone’s weakness might be another’s strength. This also provides a chance to look at a problem, product or issue using multiple different perspectives. You can approach the problem from multiple angles in order to get the best solution.

     

    2. Better Communication

    When teams and employees collaborate with each other they build and develop better communications skill between them. Better communication means that it will be easier to share ideas and/or updates with other teams or other employees. Communication is important to any business. It reduces delays, improves work/management environment and it helps build trust with the company.

     

    3. Community

    A collaborative and communicative work culture creates a strong bond between employees and the company. Employees develop closer relations to each other and to the company, which helps to increase productivity and lower turnover rates. It also attracts the more tech-savvy generation, the millennials. They enjoy sharing their ideas and refining them with other people.

     

    Collaboration have many other great benefits for small businesses. However, collaboration is only as good as the teams that are collaborating. The key to good collaborative teams is diversity and an open mind. It is also important to foster individual thoughts and ideas. Innovative individual thoughts can lead to great things when combined with collaboration. A good team with innovative ideas that collaborates and communicates is key when growing a small business.

     

    By Ashleigh Cue