Jason Kumpf

How To Boost Productivity Without Burning Out

Most people yearn to be as productive as possible. Executing such action helps them accomplish a greater number of tasks over shorter durations. However, while striving to achieve such aims could yield several personal, professional, and financial rewards, increased productivity could also lead to burnout. Fortunately, however, highly productive individuals might avoid this potential pitfall by practicing the following tips:

Delegating Certain Tasks

No matter how hard-working and productive someone might be, there is only so much one person can accomplish. In recognition of such facts, efficiency experts suggest periodically delegating tasks. Duties can be assigned to subordinates or even freelancers. The critical factor is the avoidance of wearing too many hats and becoming overwhelmed.

Learning To Say No

Often, no is the easiest word to pronounce but the most challenging word to actually say. That said, productive people like to be busy and also usually enjoy pleasing people. Unfortunately, however, no one can make everyone else happy all the time. Ergo, mental and physical burnout can often be avoided simply by saying no from time to time.

Setting Boundaries

Avoiding burnout is often contingent upon setting boundaries. Achieving this aim usually means establishing limits regarding issues like how many responsibilities one will take on or how many associations they should maintain…

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How to Build Customer Loyalty

Your business relies on its customers to survive. If you don’t have people returning to your business, then your business will not survive. How do you turn customers into loyal customers? If you want to know, read, and review these three tips to build customer loyalty in your business.

Special Offers

You can create special offers for your customers. If they follow you on social media or sign-up for information, then you can send them different offers; this includes sending them different messages, emails, and texts.

These offers should encourage people to return to your store by giving them some kind of discount or bonus. Think of different things that you can offer customers to encourage them to return. Doing so will help you to develop a better relationship with these customers.

Meet Their Needs

You should always seek to meet the needs of your customers. People form loyalties towards stores because they feel like those stores give them something that they want. You need to discover what your customers want and provide that to them…

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Creating a Solid Social Media Strategy

You’ve probably already recognized the need for being strategic in your business. Everything that you do concerning the day to day operations of your business has to be done for a reason and with a purpose in mind. Your money and your livelihood are on the line, so you certainly don’t want to be “flying by the seat of your pants.” It’s easy to get so caught up in strategizing daily functions that you forget to develop a strategy for your business’ social media. Here are some tips for building an effective strategy for your company’s social media presence.

What’s Your Why?

While your social media usage will undoubtedly serve many purposes, you must identify the main goal for your business’ social media. In an ideal situation, social media will help your business in multiple ways. Still, you won’t be effective in any of them if you try to focus on all of them simultaneously. Pick one or two areas that you really want to be the primary motivation behind your social media and design your strategy accordingly.

Know Your Target Audience

Unless you own a “big box” store, your business probably doesn’t appeal to every demographic. It’s vital that you understand your company’s primary demographics and build your social media strategy around that information. Just like every demographic doesn’t frequent your business, every demographic doesn’t use every social media platform. Finding the overlap between particular platform usage and your primary clientele will not only save you money in wasted social media advertising, but it will also ensure that your social media advertising reaches the highest number of potential customers.

Metrics Matter

To the casual user of social media, nothing is more important than getting “likes.” Thousands of people post selfies every day hoping to get a “thumbs up” or a “heart” reaction from their host of followers or friends. That doesn’t matter as much to your business. Figure out how to increase the metrics that actually matter to your company’s health. Knowing the differences in reach, clicks, and engagement will allow you to decide what’s working and what isn’t on your social media so you can adjust accordingly.

Social media is a fantastic resource to help grow your business’ reach. Figuring out a strategy to improve your social media performance will put you at the front of the pack.

This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Why Should Brands Use Influencer Marketing?

The internet is changing the way people do things, so it is no surprise to hear that it is also drastically altering marketing. More and more companies are turning to influencer marketing, a type of marketing that involves working alongside social media influencers. These wildly popular internet personalities can use their platform to recommend products, giveaway items, and encourage their followers to use specific brands. Here are some of the main reasons that brands should start using influencer marketing.

It’s Affordable

Influencer marketing has one of the highest possible returns on interest in marketing. Research has found that the average influencer charges $200 to $250 for each sponsored post. This gives companies the ability to reach thousands of people without having to break the bank. Brands are currently making $7.65 for every dollar that they spend on social influencer marketing.

Companies Can Target Their Audience

With typical advertising, a company usually just created an ad and hoped as many people saw it as possible. Influencer marketing is different because it involves a lot of highly detailed analytics. Companies can use this research to figure out exactly which demographics purchase their products, so they can make sure their marketing reaches these people.

It Boosts SEO

One of the most important things for any company is its search engine optimization rankings. A high SEO ranking means that a business may be one of the first viewed results when potential customers search for relevant keywords. Having influencer marketing ensures that more posts link back to a company’s main site, boosting their SEO higher. With the possibility of going viral, companies can get even more links back to their main page, ensuring they are the first thing that shows up when people search for their product.

Companies Get Fresh Insight

Unless a company has millions of dollars for marketing, a lot of their advertising campaigns end up being made by the same person. This can end up creating stale and repetitive advertising that does not appeal to customers. Influencer marketing encourages more people to get involved so that companies can end up with creative content. These unique pieces can help increase brand credibility and market to people without seeming like obvious ads that annoy users.

This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Using Social Media for Advertising

Advertising is expensive. A 30 second TV ad during the Super Bowl can cost a company upwards of 5 million dollars! Unless your company is already an international success, you may not be able to write a 5 million dollar check for a 30-second spot. But there is an advertising source that is exponentially cheaper (and even free in some cases). Here are some tips on how you can optimize your social media to more effectively promote your business.

Different Platforms Have Different Bases

It’s vital that you realize that every different social media platform appeals to a different demographic. Therefore, your advertising cannot be uniform across all platforms. Pinterest appeals more often to females than males, younger people use Snapchat more than Twitter and Instagram more than Facebook. Depending on your business, you’re probably not targeting every person across every age group. Be sure to do your homework about what groups use which platforms and aim your advertising accordingly.

Learn From What Doesn’t Work

It’s easy to focus on your successes and ignore your failures. However, it’s crucial that you learn from your ads that don’t work as much (if not more so) than the ones that do. Every social media platform will provide an engagement analysis on the ads that you have launched. Study the ones that don’t work then compare them to the ones that did. Fix the differences and watch your business grow.

Keep Mobility In Mind

If you walk into any public place, you’ll probably see countless people on mobile devices. They are taking selfies to post on the platforms that they use, sharing videos, and “checking in” at businesses that they’re visiting. When you’re designing your social media ads, keep the mobile apps that people are using at the forefront of your mind. It’s important that your ad catches the eye of people who are scrolling through their phones more than the person who is using their computer. You must be mobile-friendly.

Some social media advertising is free, and some can cost as much as you want to invest. But it’s important that you use the fullness of the resources that are in front of you. You may never have a Super Bowl ad, but your business can still be seen by multitudes.

This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Branding Tips for Startup Companies

If you’re reading this, you’re obviously already deep in consideration about launching your own startup business. Maybe you’ve already made the decision to go for it, to be your own boss, and to forge your own path. If so, congratulations! You’re about to step into your own version of the American Dream. Here are some tips for developing your brand and doing the most to really get yourself and your startup company in front of investors and clients.

Naming Rights

One of the most empowering parts of starting this company is that you get to pick the name. If you have children, you have already been through the process of picking out a name that you want them to carry with them through life, and now you’re getting to do the same thing with your business. It’s important that you pick a name that is unique without being too outlandish. You want to be catchy without being nonchalant. Try to avoid weird spelling, nonsensical capitalization and other things that will make it harder to find your company online and focus on something that establishes your goals and purpose but will still stick in people’s mind.

Surveying the Scene

In all likelihood, you aren’t the first person to launch a business in the field that you’re launching in to. There are probably already some successful brands out there, and in the same vein, there are probably some companies that have already come and gone. Learn from both of them! Don’t copy what the successful companies do, but figure out why they do it. Then in as much detail as possible, study what the companies that folded did wrong and avoid those same mistakes and some of the other missteps that often cause issues.

Know Your Market

There are some things that are simply unavoidable in any business. One of those things is geographical biases. Some markets just don’t lend themselves to certain businesses. For instance, you probably don’t want to open a surf shop in the Appalachian Mountains. Do deep research on your target market and see how well your business can do in the area that you’re looking to launch it. It’s vital that you build your advertising, your branding, everything that you do hones in on your target demographic.

Congratulations on taking your first steps in business and best of luck in your venture!

This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Using Public Speaking as a Marketing Tool

Marketing is a critical component of business success because it’s essential to drive sales revenue growth. There are some seasons when exposure beyond your standard marketing campaign is required to generate leads. Public speaking can be the ideal marketing tool to use, especially if you don’t have a new product or service to promote. You can focus on your current offerings and the mission of your business. Check out the information below regarding the steps you can take to market your business with public speaking.

Find Industry Conferences

One of the first steps you’ll want to take towards the use of public speaking for marketing is to identify conferences in your industry. There are often annual conferences that have a lead time of six months to a year for the submission of conference speaker applications. You can find relevant conferences by checking in with industry associations and trade publications. You can also conduct a simple online search to see a list of different conferences.

Choose a Talented Speaker

When selecting a member of your team to speak at a conference, be sure to choose the person that’s most engaging, regardless of their title. This may not always be an executive leader. Perhaps you’ll want a sales lead or someone else on your team that’s proficient at presentations and public relations. If you send a speaker that’s engaging and charismatic, you’re much more likely to yield desired outcomes.

Establish a Speaking Calendar

To optimize the use of public speaking for marketing purposes, consider establishing a calendar that has all of the speaking engagements you want to attend. This will enable you to make sure they’re spread out throughout the year so that you have consistent PR opportunities. You can also use this calendar to keep track of all relevant conferences in your industry. You can schedule it as a recurring event and confirm dates each year.

When you’re first getting started, you might be tempted to speak at a conference that doesn’t quite align with your brand. It’s best to be selective about the speaking opportunities chosen, especially as the number of engagements you have grows. Speaking at a conference has the potential to provide consistent brand exposure.
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This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Common Qualities of a C-Level Executive

Becoming a C-level executive isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s usually a process that started with a climb up the corporate ladder or by launching a start-up that expanded. Either way, there are qualities known to produce successful outcomes. Check out the list below of characteristics that contribute to success among C-suite leaders.

Visionary Leadership

Having visionary leadership means you’re able to see the big picture and have a plan for how to achieve long-term goals. Without vision, your team is less likely to get through difficult seasons. In fact, it’s one of the most essential skills to have because it enables you to drive the mission forward. A companion of visionary leadership is strategic thinking. This is because it’s necessary to have a strategy for how you’ll stay focused on advancing business initiatives.

Relationship Management

Many C-suite leaders will agree that the most challenging part of running a business is managing relationships. This includes interactions with employees, vendors, customers, and all other stakeholders. It’s often the responsibility of C-level executives to cultivate a team-focused environment, and that requires strong relationship management skills. This capability enables you to model appropriate behaviors so that others on your team can manage relationships by following your lead.

Technical Acumen

Whether you’re a CEO, CFO, or COO, it’s important to understand the functional elements and inner-workings of the business. This includes technologies that are industry-specific and what’s required for the security of data. While you don’t have to be an expert, you should understand how things work. Why? Because you’ll need that knowledge to make sound business decisions related to information technology.

Interpersonal Communication

Being able to communicate well is non-negotiable as a C-level leader. The way you interact with different people is important for the effectiveness of business operations. Being an excellent communicator will enable you to connect with people. This is critical when you need to deliver persuasive presentations. Notably, you should also have strong written communication skills.

The role and responsibilities of a C-level executive are never-ending. You must be able to wear different hats, and the skills listed can help you do so effectively.

This article was originally published on ncunews.com

Retaining Top Talent in Your Business

A successful business has many different functioning components that make an operation whole. The employees of a business, whether it is large or small, are an essential part of the companies foundation and overall success. As a business owner or a high-level executive, retaining top talent within your organization is imperative. Here are a few keys ways to keep employees thriving and retain top talent.

Invest in Training and Education

Training programs are critical for new employees to complete before they continue into their positions. Take the time to invest in a well thought out training program that will engage new hires and help them get started. Training shouldn’t end once the new hire starts working. Holding refresher courses is a great way to keep employees motivated and further their development. Many companies also choose to invest in furthering the education of their employees by offering tuition reimbursement programs as well. Entrepreneur contributor, Harry West, says, “To encourage employees to take advantage of additional education programs, many organizations offer partial or complete tuition reimbursement and/or time off work to complete courses and schooling.”

Provide Regular Feedback and Communication

A good leader focuses on helping their employees reach their developmental goals. One of the easiest ways to do this is by providing employees with regular feedback and encouragement. Help your employee develop their strengths, and guide them by leaving the lines of communication open. The right feedback can show your employees that you value their performance and want them to continue to grow within your organization. Additionally, don’t be afraid of criticism, as long as it’s constructive and positive; negative criticism can decrease motivation and productivity. The way you deliver criticism can make or break how your employees respond to it.

Offer Opportunities for Internal Growth

While focusing on the development of your employees is essential, so is providing opportunities to grow within your organization. Employees want to know they can start a career and seek new internal opportunities to move forward. While you can still hire external talent, be sure to focus on current employees as well.

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3 Sure Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

A company’s brand is an essential part of its potential to be successful. Consider the brands you’re aware of and may use daily. These brands have done their due diligence in promoting brand awareness and reaching their target audience. The larger the audience, the higher the sales. So, when creating a brand, what are some of the best ways to increase brand awareness and maximize the potential for success?

Research SEO Tactics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major part of the online world and a brands ability to get their name out to the masses. When a company has various social profiles and websites, they’ve begun the process of creating a strong online presence. However, having these profiles isn’t enough. Consumers looking into a brand don’t typically scroll passed the first page of search results. Therefore, page one is an immediate first impression. To improve their online presence brands should be sure to optimize all of their content, websites, and social profiles, using keywords that are specific to their brand, product, and target audience. Search engines tend to recognize these keywords and generate results based on relevancy.

Social Media Activity

Social media has changed the game for brands of all sizes. Small companies can reach a massive audience just by using social profiles alone. To increase your brand awareness, having major social profiles is a must. Keep each profile relevant with engaging content and activity. Use each profile not only to reach your audience and market your brand but also connect on a more personal level. Many consumers will utilize a brand’s social profiles to shop and communicate any issues or concerns. Keep your profiles updated consistently and utilize hashtags and keywords that will direct targeted traffic to your page. Additionally, many company’s use paid ad’s on social profiles to further promote their brand.

Partnerships

With the power behind social media, brands now have the opportunity to collaborate and help build awareness easily. Brands can partner with other larger companies, smaller independent companies, or social media influencers that use their profiles for advertising brands and their products. Giveaways and contests are a fantastic example of collaboration between two brands; they create an exciting and straightforward way to reach the target audience and work with other companies within your market.

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