When Should a Business Outsource Its Marketing?

Most businesses handle marketing in-house. They begin with organic, grassroots campaigns and eventually scale up to more detailed (and costly) campaigns. But what if that’s the wrong way to handle it? Could outsourcing your marketing actually make more sense?

Marketing outsourcing

What is Outsourced Marketing?

Traditionally, marketing is one of those tasks that’s handled in-house. Either you hire marketing professionals and build out your own internal marketing department, or the founder works closely with one or two key employees to execute all aspects of the company’s marketing strategy. But in recent years, outsourced marketing has become quite commonplace – particularly for smaller businesses.…

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8 Ideas to Build a Customer Community From Scratch

Customer communities have tremendous potential to help you build your business. Stronger customer communities can attract new people to your brand, encourage loyalty for existing customers, and even relieve some of the burden of customer service.

Customer community meetup

So how can you build a thriving customer community from scratch?

The Value of a Customer Community

There are many different ways to build a customer community. You could encourage customers to share their personal experiences with your product or show how it can be used in novel ways. You could use it as a help and assistance forum, where people can exchange ideas and provide each other help.…

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How to Create an Amazing Workplace Culture

When it comes to building a successful business that’s set up for long-term success, you have to look beyond products, sales, and marketing and consider the “engine” that keeps it all running. In other words, you have to focus on the people who make it happen.

Workplace culture

What is Workplace Culture?

Workplace culture is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? And why is it so important?

According to YourRec.com, “Culture is the character and personality of your organization. It’s what makes your business unique and is the sum of its values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes.”…

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5 Factors to Consider With Packaging Design

Packaging is one of the last things most businesses think about when developing a product. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most important. And if you don’t give it the attention it deserves, you could be unintentionally holding your business back.

Packaging design example

The ‘Why’ of Packaging Design

The right packing design is important on multiple levels. But according to Industry Today, it ultimately services four distinct purposes:

1. Protection

Practically speaking, packaging exists to protect the item inside from being damaged during transit, storage, and display. For food and beverage products, it also keeps the product safe and free of germs.…

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5 Tips for Winning Facebook Ads

When it comes to online advertising, few platforms offer as much value to advertisers as Facebook. For starters, it offers incredible reach. Hundreds of millions of users visit the platform every single day, which gives businesses like yours the opportunity to reach most (if not all) of your target market.

Facebook app

Secondly, Facebook has the best targeting features of any platform (and it’s not even close). You can target people down to zip code, hobbies, and past spending habits. And as long as you know who your target market is, you can reach them.

Finally, Facebook advertising is cost-effective. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad.…

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4 Tips for Designing and Executing Better Packaging for Your Products

It’s easy to overlook the packaging of physical products, but it’s arguably one of the most important driving factors in the customer experience. The more you pay attention to the details, the better your results will be.

Package design concept

photo credit: Andy Mangold / Flickr

Why Product Packaging Matters

In a competitive marketplace, it’s easy to assume that customers are all being thorough and diplomatic in their decision-making processes. We imagine them filtering through options, objectively comparing and contrasting, and then reaching a final decision after discussing the choice with close family and friends.

But do you want to know the truth?

Most customers are making subjective decisions based on surface-level factors.…

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Why Business Meeting Audio Matters More Than You Think

Many businesses are starting to run meetings remotely through applications like Skype and Zoom. A handful of larger corporations prefer hosting meetings with high-level audio-video equipment professionally installed in a conference room.

Virtual business meeting at home

Both methods are suitable for hosting meetings – as long as the audio quality is good. When audio quality is bad, even the most expensive video conferencing equipment is worthless.

There are a handful of technical issues you need to manage when hosting virtual meetings, but here’s why audio should be your top priority.

1. Getting high-quality professional audio isn’t complicated

If you haven’t improved the audio quality of your virtual meetings because you think it’s too complicated, think again.…

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4 Reasons to Prioritize Philanthropy in Your Business

Corporations routinely use philanthropy to build a strong brand and reputation. Some philanthropic donations are in the form of time, but most are monetary donations. For example, billionaires like Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Warren Buffet regularly donate to nonprofit organizations and charities, including their own foundations. Between 2014 and 2018, Buffet donated $14.7 billion and the Gates donated $9.9 billion.

Philanthropy

What do billionaires gain from donating excessively high amounts of money? Their donations and involvement with meaningful causes establishes a positive reputation that creates consumer trust and tends to outweigh negative press.

Have you been curious about how philanthropy can support your business?…

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6 Tips to Get Restaurant Staff to Embrace New Software

Delivery and online orders need to be separated so they are delivered to the right personnel. However, you should be able to manage both systems on one platform. Software for cloud kitchens makes that possible with a platform that integrates all of your third-party software systems.

Restaurant manager using app

Software is the foundation for every successful restaurant operation. However, it can be difficult to get staff on board with a new system. People naturally resist change, especially when they’re used to doing things a certain way. You could have the best software in the world and there will always be people who will resist making the switch.…

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Digital Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

Marketing is the fun part in business. Take a moment to see it like this; you get the opportunity to tell the world about your passion and what your business has to offer.

Digital marketing

Sure, there’s more to it than that, but business marketing doesn’t have to be a dreaded topic of conversation. If you really want to reach the widest audience possible, you’ll work to fine tune your digital marketing tactics.

Take a moment to read through a brief compilation of a few digital marketing tips for your small business, and get to work today.

Build a strong social media presence

A strong social media presence can take your business far in digital visibility.…

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