Something2Think About

Recently I learned of a fellow business owner who wanted to start doing some advertising.  His company had been busy for years, but recently his business had slowed down significantly. The phones weren’t ringing. The orders for work had stopped.  Enter the “famine” phase of the feast-famine cycle in commerce.

Naturally, he thought this would be the perfect time to start advertising in an effort to return to the full-plate part of the feast-famine cycle.

How does this “cycle” happen?  We get busy.  We get accustomed to keeping a fast pace and aggressively provide a product or service people need or want. So, our focus is on getting the current work done and getting on to the next project.  We also feel secure with the volume of projects in the chute and those on which we’re currently working.

Business is good. Volume is up. We have peace about it all. UNTIL . . . we experience a work slowdown, things begin to get quiet, and occasionally come to a screeching halt.  

Shift This Mentality4Better Results

Unfortunately, this is the stage when the ad people are called. This is when you check on your Google campaigns, or nose around the sales department, if you have one. Well, when work slows down, and things get quiet, you may decide “it’s time to advertise” . . . it’s too late.  

You’ve allowed your hectic production pace to shield the reality that you must pay attention to the marketing funnel constantly.  No doubt you’ve probably put in huge amounts of time and effort to build your brand and your sales. That’s exactly why you need to maintain your on-going marketing spending to safeguard your company for the future. Waiting until times get bad, never works. Remember this: When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.

It's easier to dial something up than to start from scratch.  That’s always true.

Keep an eye on your marketing processes even when things are good and business is booming.  Reacting to a slowdown is just that – reacting.  Be ahead of that pattern and implement marketing and advertising best practices before you have a slowdown or critical need.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned . . . you can’t control when that next piece of business comes into your world.  But you can control the bold steps of marketing or advertising to capitalize on your success.

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And just like that, the holidays are already here! As you frantically hang the stockings with care or try to meet those 2022 goals before the new year, it's important to slow down this holiday season both in and out of the office. With these simple tips on how to unplug from work during the holidays, you'll be ready to enjoy the full experience of this season.

What does it mean to "unplug" from work?

There are different ways you can unplug from work, both literally and figuratively. Our recommendation is to start (literally) with technology.

While it may be tempting to peek at your computer and work emails as you take a break from gift wrapping, resist those urges! Leave your laptop in a safe place at home before you hit the highways for the holidays. Ditching the computer at home will remove your direct line to work responsibilities and clear your attention span for holiday fun and rest. Plus – maybe Santa will bring you fabulous gift to occupy your time.

Although unplugging could be extended to ALL technology, we understand the necessity of having your cell phone handy during the holidays for emergencies or those holiday pajama photos. However, you can still unplug from the work and personal social media platforms that you use on a daily basis. Challenge yourself this holiday season — no Facebooking, no Tweeting, no Instagramming — and especially no endless scrolling on TikTok!! What special holiday moment can you experience around you? If you're tempted to take a photo, try to save it on your camera or cell phone to post later. Those adorable family Christmas photos can wait until 2023!

Why should I do this?

Did you know that 38% of people say their stress increases during the holidays, and roughly half of holiday vacationers don't disconnect from work during their time off (American Psychological Association)? Constantly being in work mode can have a harmful impact on your creativity and productivity. The additional time you dedicate to work outside of rest hours can lead to prolonged exhaustion and create burnout – and nobody enjoys this experience!

There's a reason your brain feels so different during and after the holidays. A change in your daily routine stimulates the senses with new smells, feelings, sights, sounds, and tastes (especially when the smells are holiday cookies or Grandma's cooking). When you unplug from work mentally, your brain can rest from its usual routine and accelerate from sponging up all the holiday experiences. But even if your job doesn't require much mental strain or creativity (like an assembly line), your mind can still benefit from the change in the long run.

What are some examples of what I can do?

·      What concerns or worries enter your thoughts when you think about disconnecting from work during the holiday season?

·      Many people worry about not being able to disconnect from their colleagues or clients when they leave for holiday break. Our suggestion is to start with writing out solutions and a plan to address your concerns with your team before you all leave for the holidays. This way, you're leaving your teammates with an action plan to start smoothly in the new year.

·      This may require training employees or colleagues on certain aspects of your job, communicating your extra holiday vacation plans in advance to colleagues and clients, working ahead on certain projects, and creating temporary processes while you're away.

·      While this may seem like a lot of work up front, the idea is to create plans that help your team, your clients, and yourself so everyone can succeed.

Do these things before you leave:

·      Write down your list of concerns about what it means to disconnect from work.

·      Create a plan of solutions for each concern.

·      Bring in team members, employees, colleagues, and external resources to help with action steps on executing the plan.

·      Work ahead on projects or requests so that you return from the holidays to a milder workload.

·      Create temporary processes and communicate the processes to those who could be impacted by your extra time away during the holidays.

·      Set your out-of-office message, turn off email notifications, step back from your desk, and breathe. It will all be ok.

·      Keep your first day back at the office clear of meetings and commitments to allow time to catch up on emails and missed phone calls.

Do these things while you're gone:

Breathe. Drink a cup of hot chocolate. That's it! Feel the fuzzy reindeer socks on your feet. Hear that? It's holiday break. This is your time to step away from work and give yourself some space to be present and spend time with those you love.

However, if you are heading out for the holidays early and you're in a position where your team may need to reach you with questions, here are some helpful ways to handle incoming notifications while you're away (if you absolutely positively must answer):

·      If you are in a position where you must receive some work emails, set holiday break alerts on your email so that even if you don't check it every day, you can still stay aware of urgent issues.

·      Put your phone on airplane mode when you're away from work, so it won't distract you with unexpected calls or notifications.

·      Set recurring time blocks throughout your trip for digital detox time—after all, spending time with the people around you is part of what makes the holidays so valuable! Be sure to stick to these time blocks.

·      Create a new holiday tradition: food, activity, location, music, fun, chill time, etc. Experience something a little different than what you're used to during the holidays.

Do these things when you get back:

Coming back from holiday break can be the hard part, but it doesn't have to be.

• If possible, schedule an additional day off between traveling home and returning to work. This can be a day when you are home to unpack, catch up on laundry, or just take an extra 24 hours to rest. Holiday traffic can be a knock-out, after all.
• Make a plan on what is realistic to achieve the first day and first week back after the holidays. Perhaps include:

• Reading and responding to X number of emails or calls each day.
• Setting up meetings to touch base with your team or clients.
• Assessing how things went while you were gone and the next steps needed.

While it's crucial to success to take time away for yourself, it's just as important to plan how you will step back into work when you return. After all, you don't want to reverse the good things your holiday break brought you by trying to do too much when you come back to work!

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Some people must learn the hard way.  Sometimes I’m some people.

I recently estimated that I had written over 160 of these monthly B2Seeds.  Early on I emailed them from my Outlook.  For well over a decade, I used the tool Constant Contact, which was fine and got the job done.  Then about two years ago our company started util­izing­­ a Marketing Automation solution called Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM.

Since we made the move to Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM, building the right process got easier. Our marketing and business development efforts have been so much better since the switch. Now our emails are easier to share and track. We’ve also implemented a complete marketing platform that allows us to see if people are finding us through Google, these emails, social media, or some other avenue.  It’s also aided the company’s business development efforts.  The pieces just fit together.

Our clients hear from us more regularly and our potential clients are nurtured throughout their own marketing buying process.  You’ve heard of the painter whose house was never painted and the cobbler whose kids had no shoes? Well, with Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM our house is painted, our kids have shoes, and we have a dynamic and helpful marketing platform to support our sales efforts.

Investigate a Shift2Improve

We’re always looking for ways to improve.  

The changes we implemented at 5Points Creative led us to a better way to help our clients, too.  Some of them have benefited from what we’ve learned and boarded the Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM train.  It’s improved their marketing, added deeper analytics, and situated them for even more success. It can do the same for you and your company.

At 5Points Creative, it helps us track leads, prospects, and soon-to-be clients through their entire journey.  Knowing where they are in the decision cycle and assigning next step tasks, reporting, and accountability all help us on the sales side of our organization.  It’s a genuine win-win.

If you’re interested in learning more, we have an easy solution.  You can learn from us. No need for you to keep doing things the hard way.  We can talk through your specifics and then set up a demonstration so you can see how it could impact your business.

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What’s Content Marketing? Simply put, Content Marketing is the foundation for an entire marketing and communication strategy. Content Marketing helps your website rank on search engines, position you as a subject matter expert, build your stakeholder list and engagement level, and nurture leads, with the goal of converting customers. 

1. Position your company and its key players as thought leaders 

According to hootsuite.com, 81% of people use Instagram alone to research products and services. Establish expertise and credibility with your ideal customers through Content Marketing by providing the information they are looking for. You can answer their top questions, introduce your team members, and keep them interested in your products and services. Viewers who are engaged with and trust your message are more likely to be loyal customers.  

2. Generate new business leads  

When you’re putting the work into creating compelling Content Marketing, don’t forget to throw in a submission form! This powerful tool will not only help you build your subscriber list, but it will also provide you with powerful data about your subscribers. HubSpot discovered that 74% of marketers are currently using web forms for lead generation, and 49.7% of them claim it to be their highest converting lead generation tool. Viewers’ interests, buying habits, key demographics, and level of engagement can all be captured within their submissions. You’ll know the exact moment your cool lead turns warm when they subscribe to your list!  

3. Improve your search engine ranking 

Content Marketing provides dynamic content for your website which works to improve your SEO. This year 57% of marketing executives claimed on-page content was the most effective SEO tactic, according to Content Trainer, Jen Barrell. Furthermore, the use of the right keywords will help you attract your ideal audience to your site. When you’re attracting the right audience, you stand a much better chance of converting those leads to a customer.  

4. Provide social media content that drives traffic back to your website 

Content Marketing is a fantastic tool to share on social media! According to entrepreneur.com, around 97% of all Fortune 500 enterprises use at least one social media platform to foster positive communication. It can open conversations and provide great clickable content which will help to build engagement with your audience. If your Content Marketing is especially compelling, it could help turn your audience into your advocate when they share your information with their own field of influence! There’s nothing more valuable than a word-of-mouth referral. 

5. Built-in content for your e-Newsletters 

Get right in front of your subscribers with the information you want them to know with Content Marketing. It’s a valuable way to know who is engaged with your message and what information is the most valuable to your audience. Due to its content variety, The Washington Post typically has an open-rate of 30%, which is higher than the average 22% bench mark. It also helps to fill out your content calendar. You can rest easily knowing that you always have the right content when you start building your email campaigns. 

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The headlines are ever-present.  Every day you see a story about how hard it is to find employees.  For a while many thought it was the fault of the stimulus checks or people not wanting to work.  Some leaders in certain industries, point to the slow downs in immigration and access to those who work in professions which are woefully short-handed.

The biggest contributor to this problem is retiring Baby Boomers, some of whom do so earlier than expected, way out number the next few generations.  Due to small numbers of Gen Xers, Gen Yers, Millennials, and the generations that follow, there are simply not enough people to fill those open positions.  It’s a math problem, compounded by other circumstances.

While all of this makes sense, it doesn’t help you replace or expand your staff, if that’s a priority for you.

We work with many small and mid-sized businesses. Often, our meetings and discussions focus on their recruiting needs and the problems unfilled positions create for them and their overworked employees. It’s a challenge we see across all categories of business and industry.

A Radical Approach4You to Start

Typically, we have a group of potential employees from which to draw when we have an opening, which helps when faced with job openings. There isn’t a perfect system for this, but there are a few initial steps any hiring manager can take.

One of the reasons I don’t have talent anxiety in my business life is that I will regularly meet with interesting people who are looking for work opportunities.  Even when we are fully staffed, I’ll often meet with people who are new to Roanoke, interested in working at our company, or who need some career guidance or feedback.

I genuinely desire to help people. For one reason; twice in my life, people have done the same for me. It’s my way of giving back.  It’s also a great way to discover highly talented people.  Many times, over the past decade, I’ve added a person because I thought they would contribute to helping us improve or expand our business.  On the other hand, some of these meetings lead to introductions for the job seeker to others who can use their talents.

Here is the radical idea for you.  No matter how busy your managers and leaders are, encourage them to make time to meet with potential employees or those who are (or may be) looking for work.  Meeting people before you have a critical need is usually an effective method to identify someone who might be a good fit for your company.

At the same time, it will reduce that open-job anxiety.

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Customer Service2Crow About

We read about providing great customer service, but when you’re on the receiving end, man does it feel good.

Most of us have some favorite brands – companies which are special to us or with whom we identify even more closely.  They can be local, regional, or even national companies, but we track and follow them and are keen on what they say and sell.

When both of those elements intersect, it is special.  And frankly, it can warm the heart of a marketer – even enough to share the story and it’s impact.  Ever since I read about Shinola, I was in love.  It’s a Detroit-based company (for those who know me, it’s already a plus in my book) which started as watchmakers and quickly moved into bicycles, bags, and then jewelry.  Their work is known for it’s quality and it is intentionally Michigan-based. That keeps with their “Made in America” approach.

A few years ago I got a watch I love from my wife (who I also love) that is one of my favorite possessions. Recently the battery struggled so I took it to my local jeweler who fixed it and the watch worked fine for a few days.  Then it stopped again.  That concerned me and I decided to reach out to the maker.  

Shinola made it easy.  A form, a label printed out, a tracking number, and good communication.  They told me it needed a new battery and said they would fix it.  But that isn’t the excellent customer service point.

An Adjustment4Your Team

I explained to Bri at Shinola that I had just replaced the battery so I was confused.  She took the time to check with the tech who was working on my watch and shared with me that a certain brand of battery (the one with the bunny, if you know what I mean) didn’t pair well with their watches and that’s all it was.

I learned something new – and something I can share with my local jeweler.  But what I really enjoyed was my exchange with Bri.  We swapped a few emails back and forth. She was personable, cheerful, and it was almost like you could sense she was smiling and enjoying her work as she typed.  It shone through.  She made what could have been a frustrating situation, one that is worth sharing.  She was helpful, fast, made a lasting impression, and when she sent her salutation – Shine On – with each email, it felt real.

Honestly it made me fall even more in love with the Shinola brand and got me thinking.  What are you and your employees doing to really wow the people with whom you do business?  Start now – be a Bri.  Shine On!

Written by Bruce C. Bryan, Advertising Czar at 5Points Creative