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You are here: Home / 2019 / Archives for December 2019

Archives for December 2019

Marketing CBD Products For Greatest Impact – Content Marketing

December 23, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have heard of the latest personal health must-have product, CBD. CBD, or cannabidiol, is one compound found in the cannabis sativa plant. Now hailed as an essential supplement, companies provide CBD in a variety of products from oils to gummies. However, regulations on the sale of CBD and its derivatives can make marketing your product challenging. Here are some tips for marketing success in the world of CBD.

Featured Image by Julia Teichmann from Pixabay

CBD Content Marketing

Legislation regulating the marketing and sale of CBD products can be confusing, especially when you are marketing such products on the global stage. Laws vary nationally and regionally and responsible business owners do not want to engage in advertising that could promote illicit activity. 

RELATED CONTENT: MARKETING TRANSPARENCY AND YOUR CUSTOMER

Customers are actively searching for answers regarding CBD. Consequently, you need to generate content that will funnel them onto your sales platform by providing factual and helpful information. Having reliable and timely content is essential to successful CBD marketing. Your content must flow naturally and utilize keywords that are relevant to your customers’ inquiries. Providing customers the experience of reading an informative and well-researched article rather than a marketing script, then you are on the right track.

Evidenced-Based CBD Marketing

Many companies make bold claims about the health benefits of using CBD without providing any supporting evidence. When marketing CBD, make sure you are citing articles from academic studies. For instance, when marketing CBD to people who suffer from diabetes, evidence-based research about how CBD could be used to treat diabetes in the future is essential. When you provide such evidence-based marketing support, your products will interest more potential buyers and help you develop regular customers.

Influencer Marketing

Influencers have an incredible impact on CBD marketing success in the 21st-century marketplace. When you choose to engage with influencers, you are able to better focus and reach your desired customer. There are a few considerations to take into account when using an influencer to market your products. First, you must ensure that the influencer reflects your brand and understands your products. Second, a good influencer must share your values for the use of your product. While influencers can be very helpful in getting the word out about your company, the wrong influencer can halt the success of your marketing plan. 

Affiliate Marketing

Building up a strong network of affiliates can take time, but once you have a good network, they are an exceptional tool that can help your goals be realized. The impacts of affiliate marketing are not felt as quickly as influencer marketing. However, the results will give you a steady stream of traffic to your sales platform. By offering a good remuneration, your affiliates will keep working with you to increase traffic and help you turn visitors to loyal customers.

Marketing CBD
Image by Laryssa Suaid from Pexels

Final Considerations

Successfully marketing a CBD-based company in 2020 doesn’t have to be difficult. Any successful marketing plan requires planning. Think outside the box and consider diverse avenues of marketing to broaden your reach. Ensure that your content reads as factual and informative. This will be the backbone of a CBD marketing strategy. Lastly, recognized authorities on CBD and its benefits and experienced influencers will give you the target market that you want.

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Do It Well – Security For Your Business

December 22, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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In this digital age, hackers target businesses every single day. Consequently, companies whose employees work primarily online are at the greatest risk of cyberattacks. Because employees have access to sensitive information about your business, they need quality security awareness training in order to be prepared and protect your business. 

Featured Image by VIN JD from Pixabay

Here is how you can ensure that your security awareness training prepares your employees to combat cybercriminals.

C-Level Executives and Security Awareness

In a large company, employees rarely communicate with the owner of the business. They gain most of their information from managers and other senior-level employees. Consequently, management teams play a major role in building company culture.

Your C-Level Executives (COO, CEO, etc.) are incredibly important in setting the expectations for employee training and creating a culture of security awareness. Therefore, you must recruit C-level managers who understand the importance of security awareness and proactively build your employees’ awareness.

security awareness on mobile devices
Image by Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay

For example, ask your executive team to conduct various security awareness education opportunities on a regular basis. Encourage your C-level executives to send weekly e-newsletters to update their teams on the latest cybersecurity trends. These regular engagements with your employees will help create a culture of cybersecurity awareness.

Mobile Device Threats

Your security awareness training program should also focus on mobile device threats. Many modern businesses allow their workers to use their personal devices for work. Smartphones offer access to a variety of business applications. These apps improve collaboration and productivity levels, making them valuable tools for teams. However, such devices also leave your business open to additional cyberattacks on devices not owned by your business and not controlled by your in-house security.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQDGwJ5PPB8

Business owners that allow their workers to use these beneficial applications must be cautious. Train your employees to identify common threats on their mobile devices. Explain how hackers use third-party apps to gain access to entire devices. Ultimately, you can reap the benefits that the apps offer without putting your company’s data, or your employee’s data, at risk.

Gamification for Better Learning

Gamification techniques optimize your security awareness training program by engaging your employee’s creative and competitive natures. Employees retain more information in gaming training sessions. As a result, they understand the importance of cybersecurity better. 

With gamification, employees also gain practice in defensive strategies. Utilize platforms that prioritize education, but also offer employees rewards. The positive reinforcement of rewards increases employees’ motivation to stay alert during training sessions. 

Simulation Makes the Difference

The best educational programs include simulation exercises for real-world learning. In other words, real-world practice is what your employees need. Business owners who use simulation exercises in education about security awareness gain insight into how well employees understand cybersecurity and their part in combatting cyberattacks. Therefore, you must invest in a quality platform that enables you to monitor individual employee outcomes on simulated exercises.

Consider sending your team a fake phishing email on a regular workday. Use your platform to track how many workers open the email and engage the cyberattack. The outcome of such simulation exercises will provide important information to improve your training program. Perform simulation exercises regularly to enhance your security awareness training. 

Security-Awareness Events Create Culture

An engaged employee is an asset to your business. One way to engage your employees is through a shared experience such as a training event. Choose fun, educational events to boost employee engagement rates effectively. 

Gamification is important in training events, too. The best events operate under a game-like structure. They encourage teams to work together to solve complex puzzles and problems. Many include clues and, ultimately, a prize. When teams attend these events with a cybersecurity mindset, they use learned tactics to solve the puzzles at hand. As a result, your employees begin to build a security-focused team culture. 

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW MUCH DO YOUR EMPLOYEES ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT CYBERSECURITY?

Whether it’s your business financial accounts or your customer data, cybercriminals constantly attempt to hack into company systems and steal sensitive information. Because your employees utilize these systems, your entire team needs proper training. Above all, be confident that you can prevent data breaches from occurring when you engage with excellent security awareness training. Use these methods to improve your security awareness training and achieve optimal protection.

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Have You Tried This Webinar Software? – Marketing

December 21, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Keeping your audience engaged while delivering amazing webinar content is by no means easy. However, by using the right platform, you can turn your webinar events into effective, high-converting content. In this way, you’ll be marketing assets while delivering a memorable webinar experience to your audience. In this post, we take a look at how ClickMeeting enables digital marketers to effectively plan and run successful webinar events.

What Is ClickMeeting?

ClickMeeting is a web-based webinar solution built for businesses of all sizes. It allows you to monetize your webinar events. Moreover, you can extend the value of your webinars by offering on-demand webinar experiences.

It also
comes with a variety of useful features such as live streaming, waiting room
landing pages, in-webinar whiteboards, chat features, and screen sharing baked
into the platform.

ClickMeeting’s reporting features allow you to stay on top of important metrics. For example, you can learn where your audience comes from, how much time people spend engaging with your webinar content, the devices they use to view your webinar, and the average rating of your webinar events.

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO BOOST ENGAGEMENT ON YOUR WEBSITE

All in all,
this is a powerful tool that enables marketers at both B2B and B2C companies to
attract prospects, qualify leads, and boost sales. It helps you increase
audience reach and educate people about your products and services, more
effectively, and for longer.

Now that we
have a better understanding of what ClickMeeting is, let’s look at some of the
main features it offers.

1. Paid Webinars and On-Demand Webinars with ClickMeeting

Most webinars are live events that last anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes of presentation, followed by products and services pitched at the end. Some webinars are designed to generate leads for businesses, others educate already-interested people about the products and services the business sells, and still others are paid educational products.

While more traditional webinars work great for most businesses, there are other ways you can run the same sort of webinar event. For example, if you’re a consultant or other type of solopreneurial service provider, you might consider charging fees to attend your webinars. This is because registrants are often more likely to attend and participate in paid webinars, because they’ve spent money to gain access.

ClickMeeting and paid webinars

To this end, ClickMeeting’s Paid Webinar feature lets you create interactive content for your audience, educate them about your product or service, and charge a fee for attending the webinar. You can also offer a number of other features like private Q&A sessions, surveys, presentations, screen sharing, and real-time whiteboard illustrations.

RELATED ARTICLE: MARKETING FOR NON-MARKETERS: GET GOOD AT IT BY LEARNING TO LOVE IT

With ClickMeeting, you can easily schedule a paid webinar simply by setting the fee you’d like to charge and authorizing the native PayPal integration. Once that’s done, you can manage payments from a central location and view your paid events’ statistics. In this way, you can determine which ones were most profitable for your business.

You can also use ClickMeeting to let viewers see recorded webinars any time and anywhere they want. What’s more, setting up on-demand webinars in ClickMeeting is simple. All you have to do is record your live webinar, schedule a new webinar, and select the on-demand room type to share it with your attendees. Finally, link up your recorded webinar and create the webinar timeline.

ClickMeeting - scheduling a webinar

On-demand webinars help you generate leads. They also help you reach out to your audience and promote your products and services. Moreover, they can be useful content marketing tools for your business. Plus, you can use ClickMeeting’s automated email tools to dispatch reminders to registrants. After they have viewed your presentation, you can send follow-up messages.

In addition, you can share on-demand webinars with your social followers using ClickMeeting’s social media integrations for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

2. Facebook Ads and Messenger Integrations

One of the neat features on offer with ClickMeeting is that it lets you retarget people who attended your webinar. Think of it this way: If someone attends your webinar, they’re more likely to respond positively to your sales offers. With ClickMeeting, you can set up and use the native Facebook Pixel integration to retarget attendees. Then you can engage them with your sales messaging once they’ve attended the webinar.

For example, with retargeting ads, you can reach attendees who’ve watched your webinar. Then you can direct them to your sales page or business website. All you have to do is go into your account settings, select the native Facebook Pixel integration, and connect your Facebook Pixel ID to ClickMeeting.

This also lets you keep track of how webinar attendees respond to each sales offer you send their way. However, remember to use negative targeting to exclude specific audiences who have already converted.

For those unfamiliar with it, Zapier is an online automation tool that connects apps like Slack, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and others to help you automate various repetitive tasks. With ClickMeeting’s new Zapier integration, you can connect your account with 1,500 applications. This allows you to automate all sorts of tasks.

It’s no secret that digital marketers see higher engagement rates with Facebook Messenger than with traditional email marketing. For this reason, you might consider leveraging Facebook Messenger marketing to get in touch with attendees after your webinar.

ClickMeeting messaging

Also, you might consider using a call to action in your retargeting ads to encourage attendees to reach out to you via Facebook Messenger. You can then use ClickMeeting’s Zapier integration to send follow-up messages to webinar attendees and present your sales offer.

3. Question Mode in ClickMeeting

Keeping your audience interested throughout your webinar isn’t easy. The good news is that ClickMeeting comes with a number of interactive tools that can help you improve your audience’s experience by allowing you to communicate with them in real time. This helps to keep them actively engaged.

For example, with ClickMeeting, you can have two-way communication with your viewers. This lets you ask questions and gather responses. It’s also great for helping anyone who joined the webinar late to get up to speed quickly.

Also, ClickMeeting’s question mode lets you have private chats with your attendees to ensure confidentiality. Additionally, it saves the chat history. Then you can use this later to get in touch with leads.

This is especially useful, since attendees are likely to have questions during the webinar presentation. You can use it as an opportunity to connect with them after the webinar and continue the dialogue over email. In addition, it allows you to moderate publicly available comments by accepting, rejecting, or editing them.

4. Calls to Action

If you have experience running webinars, you already know how important it is to make an effective pitch when selling to your audience. Everything from your timing to the actual message is immensely important. Even if you aren’t explicitly asking people to do business with you during the webinar itself, because that might be too pushy, it’s still a good idea to ensure that your webinars aren’t nurture dead ends. In other words, it’s important that you recommend some next steps to your participants.

The problem is that webinar platforms typically aren’t equipped to help you in this area. Instead, you’re left to display a URL in your presentation slide, hoping viewers will type it in their browser. Even worse, you might need to verbally read out the URL to your audience.

RELATED ARTICLE: WANT TO MAKE MORE SALES? HERE’S WHAT TO DO

However, by posting a well-crafted and clickable call to action (CTA) in your webinar presentations, you can effectively guide leads down your sales funnel. This lets viewers know what the next step is in a seamless and prominent way. For instance, if you run a free masterclass webinar, you can display a clear message in your presentations that says, “Book My Free Consultation.” This can then link to a checkout page on your website.

For this purpose, ClickMeeting can help you display conversion-optimized CTAs via its built-in feature. You can surface the CTA within a custom-designed button and decide how long the CTA should be shown to viewers. If you use on-demand webinars, then you can also pre-set these CTAs to display at certain points of your replays, using the timeline editor.

CTAs can
also be used to encourage audience members to share the webinar with their
social followers or to distribute promo codes. Doing this in the first few
minutes of the live event will enable you to keep your audience engaged and
interested in your webinar throughout. You can also segment your audience to
send targeted follow-up messages only to the people who click on specified
CTAs.

5. Facebook and YouTube Live Streaming on ClickMeeting

Both
Facebook and YouTube offer live video streaming features that you can leverage
to reach more of your audience with ungated versions of your presentations that
they can access where they already are.

By
streaming your webinar on these social platforms, you can connect more
meaningfully with more prospective customers and make webinars a part of your
omnichannel content marketing strategy.

ClickMeeting offers Facebook and YouTube live streaming capabilities. You can use this to get your webinar in front of more people and maximize revenue.

All you
have to do is authorize your social accounts and initiate the live streaming
process once you’ve started the webinar. Alternatively, you can set this up as
a global setting, allowing you to automatically stream all of your ClickMeeting
profile’s webinars to the social network of your choice.

You can also choose between two stream layouts. These are Presentation and Presentation, video, top bar. If you want to use this feature to capture more leads, then you might want to consider opting to stream the Presentation only. Then, during your event, repeatedly tell the audience that if they’re viewing via Facebook or YouTube, they can click on the link you’ve posted in the description or comments, to click through to the full webinar experience. Stress that this will give them access to one-on-one Q&A and other gated features.

Give ClickMeeting a Try

ClickMeeting
can help you reach out to your target audience, monetize your webinars, and
educate people about the products and services your business offers. It offers
a wide range of useful features like paid webinars, on-demand webinars, CTAs,
retargeting ads, cross-channel messaging, and live streaming capabilities.

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Will the Environmental Industry Provide a Natural Fit for your Business?

December 21, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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What has $12 trillion in market opportunities? Businesses in the environmental industry, that’s what. According to The Responsible Business Summit New York 2020, the coming decade will be the time to enter this industry in a big way.

And if you happen to choose the right niche, you can benefit greatly while making a positive change on the world we all live in.

This two-day event will attract some of the leading global brands across many environmental industry segments. More than 120+ speakers, 20+ CEOs, 10+ workshops and over 100 investors will be on hand.

You will learn climate adaption leadership, making sustainability the future blueprint for business, building the 21st Century supply chain and more.

This year the socially responsible investing market is set to hit $23 trillion. So, if you are a small business in this segment or looking for new opportunities, take a look at this event.

The summit will take place in New York City from March 16 through 18, 2020. And if you click the red button you can save $300 with the super early bird registration.

Register Now





Events, Contests and Awards

  • Chief Data And Analytics Officers, Financial Services
    February 04, 2020, New York, United States
  • E-Commerce Day LA
    February 04, 2020, Marina del Rey, CA
  • The Responsible Business Summit New York 2020
    March 16, 2020, Brooklyn, United States
  • National Small Business Week
    May 03, 2020, Online
  • TECHSPO New York 2020
    May 07, 2020, New York City, New York
  • TECHSPO Houston 2020
    May 20, 2020, Houston, Texas
  • Sales Cruise 2020
    May 23, 2020, Baltmore, Maryland, USA
  • DigiMarCon Caribbean 2020 – Digital Marketing Conference At Sea
    May 23, 2020, Baltimore, Maryland
  • DigiMarCon West 2020 – Digital Marketing Conference & Exhibition
    June 10, 2020, Santa Monica, California
  • TECHSPO Los Angeles 2020
    June 10, 2020, Santa Monica, California
  • DigiMarCon Midwest 2020 – Digital Marketing Conference & Exhibition
    June 17, 2020, Chicago, Illinois, USA

More Contests

This weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends.

You can see a full list of events, contest and award listings or post your own events by visiting the Small Business Events Calendar.

Image: Depositphotos.com


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AI in the announcer's booth

December 19, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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AI could soon deliver sports commentary customized to a viewer’s preferences. And if robots can learn to do this sort of talking, the applications could be far-reaching.

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Get Telematics Working for Your Fleet to Save and Protect – Technology

December 19, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Photo by Quintin Gellar from Pexels

In the age of increasing peer-to-peer rideshare saturating the transportation market, you might think that drivers of all kinds would be taking advantage of telematics. This technology, otherwise known as “black boxes,” collects and analyzes data related to vehicle performance. Yet, even though the number of in-service drivers has increased, telematics continues to be underutilized.  

In fact, Aviva found that a substantial 47% of drivers would ‘never’ install a black box or similar device in their vehicles. This is in spite of the overwhelming belief that such devices could make the roads safer! Upwards of 74% recognize this technology’s usefulness.

When it comes to your business fleet, the need for telematics devices is unquestionable. Companies are able to take advantage of a number of benefits that individual in-service drivers are missing out on. Take a look at the gains your fleet could make with a telematics system in place.

Reduced Fuel Consumption

Some drivers are just better than others. The aggregation of data on the driver’s driving style in conjunction with the route, speed, and other data can be very helpful in providing pointers on how to improve fuel efficiency. Telematics makes it easier to use data to point fleet drivers in the right direction when it comes to saving fuel and saving business owners money. These individual savings make a considerable difference to business costs when applied across a large enough fleet. 

Reduced Insurance Premiums

As telematics devices encourage the development of safer driving practices, insurance companies have begun offering as much as 30% in discounts based on telematics data. Many insurance policies require telematics data. Additionally, there are 850,000 policies based at least partially on telematics data. Because insurance is generally dependent on the collective behaviors of a fleet’s drivers, it may be possible to negotiate lower insurance premiums regularly. 

Also, business owners should be aware that most leasing companies will require insurance to be arranged with an external provider. This is much easier to do when the company in question has accumulated independently-logged data proving the safe driving of its drivers. 

Photo by maitree rimthong from Pexels

Telematics and Maintenance

Modern vehicles have many more diagnostic features than ever before. Telematics systems can integrate with such technology to provide real-time data. This allows for centralized monitoring of mechanical issues as soon as they are flagged by the in-vehicle diagnostics systems. Preventative maintenance helps prevent downtime.

Driver Safety, Accountability, and Timekeeping

Tracking a fleet’s drivers through their workday promotes accountability. Drivers are far less likely to speed or engage in unsafe driving practices when they are aware that a data monitoring device is in use in their vehicles. Having telematics present also helps promote compliance with company policies. 

RELATED CONTENT: HOW TO AVOID RISK WITH YOUR BUSINESS’S CAR FLEET

In the event of an accident or emergency, telematics devices make it possible to deploy emergency services automatically. Devices can also inform fleet managers that an accident has occurred.  In the event of a minor collision, telematics can aid in sending a replacement vehicle to the site immediately. 

These potentially life-saving features communicate to your employees that you care not only for your vehicle but for the driver behind the wheel.

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Increase Productivity with Technology Tools– Technology

December 19, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Businesses are always on the lookout for new technology to encourage their workforce. Thanks to the variety of apps and tools available, employees are able to be more productive, efficient and innovative. In this article, Leading Sage Business Partners, Smith Cooper IT, shares 6 ways for increasing business productivity with the help of modern technologies. 

Take a look:  

Allow Flexibility to Increase Productivity

Allowing your staff a bit of flexibility can really boost productivity. A flexible working environment allows staff to do the job no matter the circumstances. For instance, consider when one of your employees needs to tend to a sick child at home. Utilizing telecommuting makes it possible to utilize some workday hours that would have been lost. After all, with the introduction of modern technologies and WiFi hotspots, working from home has never been easier. Online software, email, and online chats allow staff to pick up where they left off, wherever they are. 

business productivity and technology meet

Communicate with Online Software

No matter where in the world your workforce is based, communication is key. Remote working only flourishes when both sides can be reached easily and efficiently. Thanks to new technologies such as Slack or Google Hangouts, communication is easy to facilitate.

Reduce Paper Waste and Get Online

Using online software to deal with your business administrative tasks can save you time and money. For example, business management software Sage 200 helps you increase productivity by reducing your paper waste and allows clients and teammates instant access to accounts and resources. Additionally, software such as Mobile Dashboards and cloud storage limits your need to print documents.  Supervisors and team leaders are able to view team members’ work, set clear deadlines, and help keep track of progress.

Chatbots Are There to Help

If you’re a B2C company, chatbots or live chat software can help you retain leads and engage customers. Modern-day chatbots don’t just answer the FAQs. They also have the ability to find and order products, make reservations, offer tech support, and more. These services are conveniently available within a messenger app on your website!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P048MxXn1o

Technology to Stop Procrastination 

One of the downsides of the modern online world is that everything is now at your fingertips. Consequently, it is easy to get distracted by things like social media or online shopping. Innovators have created tech to stop us from procrastinating and help us focus on tasks at hand. With the introduction of website blockers and Pomodoro timers, wandering off to tempting websites easier to avoid during work hours.

Specialize Your Marketing Strategy

With new technology comes new marketing software which will help build productivity and output across all marketing channels. Software such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social help you plan and schedule your social media strategy. Moreover, SEO tools such as Ahrefs and PPC Tools such as Adzooma can all help you save valuable hours, too!

RELATED CONTENT: DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED NEW TECHNOLOGY?

There you have it. Six simple ways of using modern technology to increase your business’s productivity. Find out how Smith Cooper can help increase your business’ efficiency with the help of Sage 200 software.

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9 Advantages of Using an SAP ERP System – Running Your Business

December 18, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Featured Image By Bakhtiar Zein

Are you thinking of investing in SAP ERP software? It’s definitely not an easy decision to make. For one thing, it’s a substantial investment. But is it worth it? We say it is.

Whether your business is small or large, there are certain benefits of using an SAP ERP system for your company.

An SAP ERP solution can be a major asset for a company. For example, it can make your business run more smoothly by protecting and unifying your data, automating business processes, and producing easy-to-understand trends. These and a number of other capabilities will make your company’s operations and planning much more efficient.

Image credit: softkeymatrix.com

Here are nine of the most important benefits of implementing SAP ERP software.

1. Visibility and Accessibility of SAP ERP

One of the biggest benefits of SAP ERP is its accessibility. Employees from all departments in the company can access the data stored in the ERP software from any location and from any device.

The fact that the information is stored in a centralized location that is visible and easily accessible to everyone allows for better collaboration between departments. It also makes for more coherent workflows and streamlines task completion. Meanwhile, you can more easily track processes.

The data you’ll be seeing will be complete, accurate, and updated, Therefore, you’ll be able to make decisions quickly and with confidence.

2. Improved Efficiency

The implementation of an SAP ERP solution can significantly reduce the time and effort employees need for completing their day-to-day activities. Moreover, it can reduce or completely eliminate daunting manual processes, thus allowing team members to focus their attention on more important tasks.

In addition, an ERP solution will allow your business to standardize its own systems and processes. This will further enhance efficiency and productivity. And because most processes are automated, errors and costs are significantly reduced.

3. Customizing an SAP ERP System

Nowadays, most SAP ERP vendors offer several applications that you can implement together in accordance with your business’s specific needs. In other words, you can choose the components that work best for your company and leave out those you don’t need.

The manner in which the software is implemented represents yet another aspect of customization. The two major means of deployments are either through a cloud or on your company’s premises.

If you choose to deploy through a cloud, the software will be handled off-site by an SAP ERP provider. However, if you choose to deploy on your own premises, you will need to purchase and install physical software on all your company’s servers and computers.

4. Reduced Costs

Even though ERP software is a substantial investment, it can actually reduce costs in the long run. For example, instead of investing in several different systems that require infrastructure, staff, licenses, and support, you can focus on investing in a single efficient SAP ERP solution. In addition, using a single system reduces training requirements for end users.

5. Improved Collaboration

If you want your business to thrive, you must have strong collaboration between the company’s departments. Of course, this collaboration requires more effort and time. For this reason, teams usually tend to work in silos.

However, using an SAP ERP solution will streamline the process of collaboration by providing employees from all departments with access to the information they need anytime, anywhere.

The fact that data from each department is in a single centralized location makes communication across the entire company much more efficient. This is because every employee can access company data and get a clearer big picture. This in turn enables them to become more engaged and proactive. As a result, overall employee productivity improves.

Image credit: marketexpert24.com

6. Better Planning and Reporting

Implementing SAP ERP software means your company has a unified reporting system for every process. Because there’s a single source of accurate, up-to-date data, SAP ERP can generate useful analytics and reports at all times and without the help of an IT expert. This allows you to compare and analyze the work of different departments without having to use emails and spreadsheets.

7. Customer Service

The company’s employees aren’t the only ones who will experience the benefits of using an SAP ERP system. Your clients will benefit from it, too. Because client information is streamlined and centralized, your sales reps will be able to focus on building quality relationships with customers instead of constantly working on spreadsheets.

By tracking customer data, your marketing team can get clear insights, improve interactions with customers, and focus on designing more targeted marketing campaigns.

8. Data Quality and Security

One of the most important benefits of using an SAP ERP solution is data security. Both cloud-based and on-premises ERP software offer a high degree of security.

Sharing
data across different departments improves collaboration throughout the
company. However, SAP ERP solutions also offer intrinsic controls that enable
you to limit who can share and see data, thus ensuring its security. In
addition, the database system enables centralized backups of sensitive and
critical data.

RELATED ARTICLE: TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS FROM CYBERCRIME

9. Easy Scalability

To ensure success for your business, you need to think and plan for the future. Businesses that fail to prepare for the future often face problems that can become major setbacks.

Implementing an SAP ERP solution means having a system that can adjust to your company’s growth easily and efficiently. Whether you are entering a new market or expanding your customer base, SAP software will ease the transition. Also, if you’re introducing new products, processes, or departments, you’ll be able to add new users or functionalities to an SAP ERP software easily. Just be sure your SAP ERP vendor understands your intentions for future growth.

Implementing an SAP ERP System

When you have decided to implement an SAP ERP system for your business, take steps to drive user adoption. This will help to increase overall productivity once your employees are using the SAP ERP. To facilitate this process, consider getting help from professionals who will accelerate SAP training, making the SAP implementation process straightforward and painless.

Final Thoughts About Choosing an SAP ERP System

When deciding which platforms are best for your company, there’s no universal solution. It all depends on your company’s needs and problem areas. However, for most companies, the advantages of implementing an ERP solution outweigh the disadvantages. The opportunity for completely streamlining business functions and improving overall productivity makes ERP a worthwhile investment.

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Top Stories: SMB Wages at All Time High, Franchises Create Even More Jobs

December 13, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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How are small businesses feeling? According to a number of reports and indexes, very confident.

In this week’s round-up we have seen an all time high in wage growth and a high number of jobs from franchises. And with 2019, coming to an end in a little over a couple of weeks, it is a great way to welcome 2020.

In addition to these articles, the round-up has great marketing tips for bringing more visitors to your site along with the new top colors for brands in 2020 from Shutterstock.

The range of topics covered on Small Business Trends looks into all aspects of small business operations so you can get the answers you need in one place.

Whether it is retail trends, technology, startups, management or the other subjects take a look at this week’s roundup or the rest of the site for more.

Small Business News

Small Business Wage Growth at All Time High

According to the latest index report by Paychex and IHS Market, the average hourly earnings are up by 3.11% among employees of small businesses. This is the highest growth in wages since 2011, which is in part driven by low employment in the U.S.

Franchise Businesses Created 24,600 Jobs in November

The November 2019 ADP Small Business Report shows another month in which franchises are generating large number of jobs. Generally, this is a segment that shows considerably lower numbers, however, it hasn’t been the case the past couple of months. November 2019 ADP Small Business Report In October, franchises created 30,100 jobs.

Weave Payments Untangles Payment Processing for Small Businesses

Weave has announced the launch of Weave Payments. It’s a full-scale payments platform that caters to small and midsize businesses (SMBs). The platform looks to help owners reduce the time spent on back-end functions. These include processing paperwork so they can instead focus on growing and running successful businesses.

Data Security Remains Top IT Concern for Small Businesses and Others

A recent study shows 43% of data breaches involve small businesses. As a result, it’s no surprise that data security is the top IT concern for 2020. Netrix IT Trends 2020 provides more details. For example, 74% of organizations voted data security as their top IT priority in 2020. And 43% of organizations named data privacy as their top IT goal.

U.S. Chamber’s Shop Safe Campaign Seeks to Protect Businesses from Counterfeit Goods

In a bid to fight fake goods and scams this holiday season, the US Chamber of Commerce has launched its Shop Safe campaign. The campaign is spearheaded by the Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC). The GIPC warns the holidays present an opportunity for counterfeit goods and scam artists to trick unsuspecting customers.

Trump Approval Rating Among Small Business Owners at All Time High

The Q4 2019 CNBC-SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey reveals the approval rating among small business owners for President Trump is at an all-time high. At 60%, the report says it is the highest number recorded since the survey’s inception.

Management

What is Employee Relationship Management?

Employee relationship management are tools and techniques small businesses use to keep their employees happy and engaged. Here’s what you need to know to put together a system that works. What It Is Joe Flanagan is the Lead Project Engineer at Tacuna Systems. He supplied a more detailed definition. “It includes interactions between employers and employees,” he writes.

What is Holiday Pay and Should You Offer It?

Holiday pay is paid time off. Government statistics report that small businesses paid $0.78 for holiday pay per hour in 2019. As the festive season approaches, it’s important to understand the benefits to offering this extra pay to employees. There are no hard and fast holiday pay laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn’t make holiday pay a legal requirement.

Marketing Tips

How to Get Your Site Visitors to Read More of Your Articles

The Internet has gotten much faster: People just surf from page to page seldom making a pause to read or watch carefully. There’s some solid research on that phenomenon. And even though it is widely criticized, I personally see that too. I find it much harder concentrating on one thing for a long time. Click the link off my social media feed.

Shutterstock Reveals the Top Colors for your Brand in 2020

Businesses go to great lengths to find the right color that best represents their brand. This is because it is a great way to communicate your message; and a very simple way too. With that in mind, Shutterstock just announced the color trends the company is expecting to dominate in 2020.

Want to Market Your Business More Authentically? Read On

In case you haven’t heard, authenticity is the name of the game for online marketers and small business owners. Whether you have the big corporate brand name or not, people are looking to see that you actually care about others and your message before buying from you. You probably already know how important brand loyalty and trust is.

Retail Trends

Examples of Good Customer Service in Retail

Even in this digital age, retail remains still primarily a people business. No matter the size of your business, learn from these examples. Good customer service in retail focuses on your customers and builds customer loyalty. Total Wine & More: Total Expert Customer Service Founded in 1991 as a small store in Delaware, Total Wine & More now runs 205 stores across 24 states.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “Top Stories: SMB Wages at All Time High, Franchises Create Even More Jobs” was first published on Small Business Trends



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Holiday Blues? Here Are Some Ways to Cope – Running Your Business

December 12, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Featured image by Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH on Shutterstock

Are you stressing over a case of the holiday blues? You’re not alone.

Many people suffer from anxiety and even sadness around the holidays. It’s not unusual during this time of year, when stress levels and expectations are high and nostalgia is ever-present. To make matters worse, daylight hours are all too short. Under these conditions, the demands many of us place on ourselves during the holidays can take their toll.

Moreover, if you have a business to run, as well as meals to cook, house guests to take care of, shopping to do, and a house and tree to trim, overload and exhaustion can easily set in.

Ways to Cope with the Holiday Blues

You don’t have to settle for feeling blue around the holidays. In this post, we offer a few suggestions that can allow you to feel more relaxed—and possibly even more festive—instead.

Take a Quick Break from the Holiday Madness

Put your online store or your freelancing gig on autopilot for a brief while, and, weather permitting, step outside for a walk. Even if you have to wear snow boots or avoid mud puddles while you’re out, you will be surprised at how much better you’ll feel when you get back to your office.

If you absolutely cannot get out, a few indoor stretching exercises can get those endorphins flowing and your heart pumping again. Your business will be all the better for it, as you’ll be much more energized and creative afterward.

Let Yourself Have Some Holiday Fun

Have you ever tried your hand at online gaming? Many have.

In fact, an impressive 11% of all Internet traffic comes from players at online casinos. Since 2014, the online gambling sector in the UK alone, including online bingo sites, has grown by 300%.

A quick game, just for fun, could lighten your mood and help you enjoy the holidays again. Moreover, if you take a deeper look, you might see some greater possibility as well.

For example, if you look at the worldwide gambling industry overall, it’s clear to see that online gaming has experienced enormous growth. As 2017 came to an end, the total spent on gaming hit an impressive $107 billion—a record-breaking figure. In fact, it was more than people spent on music and film combined over the course of the same year.

It’s no wonder the online gaming sector is on the rise. Whether you love football, politics, reality TV shows, or eSports, you’ll find an outcome that you can wager on online. This is something which simply isn’t possible in real-world betting outlets.

It also stands to reason that this pattern of growth is set to continue in the near future. As technology advances still further, it’s likely that even more people will be drawn to the world of online gaming, and the industry will grow even more as a result.

RELATED ARTICLE: HAPPY HOLIDAYS! WAYS TO PLAN FOR THE HOLIDAYS FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

Spend Time with Loved Ones

Take time to love on a kitten or a puppy, even one that is not your own. Schedule a date for coffee with a treasured friend in the midst of the holiday frenzy. Cook a special meal for a special someone on an evening you both have free. Simple occasions such as these can help to make your holidays brighter and merrier.

Do Something Nice for Someone

There are so many opportunities to offer help and support to others at the holidays. For instance, an obvious idea is to give what you can to those charities that inspire you.

However, if your wallet is a little thin during December, schedule a monthly monetary gift to begin in January of the coming year. After all, most of those charities need support throughout the year as well, and not just during the holidays.

Of course you already know that kindness needn’t be limited to money alone, right? Lend an ear to a troubled friend, or help a stranger lift a heavy bag of groceries into her car. Small unselfish acts such as these will not only help the other person but will also lift your spirits as well.

Say No When You Need To

For many people, spending time with extended family is something others expect them to do around the holidays. This is all well and good if those family members are people you enjoy being around. But what if they’re not?

It’s okay to limit your time with people who leave you feeling drained and exhausted, even if you’re related to them. For example, instead of agreeing to spend an entire weekend with a houseful of keyed-up relatives, show up with a hostess gift and a covered dish to share, and stay only long enough for a meal and an amiable visit with the folks you do care about.

Then, if the afternoon or evening should take an unpleasant turn, simply don your coat and scarf and wave a cheery goodbye.

own the holidays
Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

Luxuriate in Some Quiet Time

Whenever you think about it, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Now, take another, then another. With each breath, sink a little deeper into yourself and disengage from whatever is going on around you. You can do this even in a crowd. No one need know but you. It can be your little secret.

Then return to the reality around you refreshed and renewed. This little exercise can take less than a minute, but it can save you hours of frustration and uneasiness. Repeat as often as necessary.

Practice Moderation in All Things

The holidays can be a time when many people feel the urge to overindulge in food or drink. However, doing so will only increase your holiday stress.

Own the Holidays—Don’t Let Them Own You

You want to keep your life and your business running as smoothly as possible through the holidays so you can hit the ground running with the new year. So take heed of these simple practices and enjoy more holiday cheer—and less holiday stress.

About the Author

Carrol Strain is a Top Rated copywriter on Upwork. She is also editor and on-call writer for the Business Opportunities blog.

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