editor, Author at Mediastreet

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The 5 Types of People You Need To Start a Business

January 12, 2023 No Comments

Building a quality team can be challenging, but these five members are crucial to your success.

Starting a business can be a lengthy and challenging process. As a commercial real estate broker, I see companies begin regularly. Observing these business startups has allowed me to see the benefits of proper role delegation. Many sole proprietors are eager to take on the bulk of the business duties. But, the team route is the ideal path when organized correctly.

Some skills are advantageous, no matter what business you are starting. Since it is nearly impossible to do everything yourself, having a team behind you is best. Depending on your business plan, you could either hire your team or have partners. Diversifying your team’s skills is desirable regardless of whether the team is on salary or has an ownership interest.

1. The numbers guru

One skill to have in a team member is strength with numbers. This team member may be an accountant by trade or should have solid bookkeeping skills. In addition, your business will need a team member who is wise with money and understands how to manage business funds. This team member’s duties may include: balancing the business books, keeping tax records and producing financial reports such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets.

2. The analytical

Having strong analytic skills is another essential trait. This person needs to possess the skill of reading and understanding complex documents. Some of the roles of your analytical team member will include managing the process of forming your business and the forms and contracts your business needs. In an ideal world, your analytical team member would be a business attorney, potentially saving your business money on attorney fees.

The money-minded and dedicated document team members will work closely together. Combining these two roles is an option to consider. However, if you coalesce these roles for one team member, it is critical to confirm the team member can handle both functions.

3. The artist

Artistic talent is another skill that can be a massive asset for a business team member to have. Most companies will need a logo, website, flyers, banners and business cards. The entire team will benefit if one of the team members can design these items and is proficient in photoshop or other graphic design software. Although I am a fan of all team members having a voice, especially with logo design, there can often be too many cooks in the kitchen. If you have a team member whose purpose is to put together the best logo possible, trust them and do not have other team members overtake this role. It is also important to note that artistic skills can easily be outsourced. If you need a creative member on your team, you can look online to fill this role.

4. The tech lead

With technology being prevalent everywhere in today’s world, having a team member who is tech minded is highly advantageous. Responsibilities of your tech team member can include setting up your business computers, printers, networking, emails, backups, & virus protection. When you have a computer issue, it can shut down your business. By having an inside tech team member, you will be back up and running sooner rather than later.

If your tech team member can assist with the company’s website, that would be an additional asset. Depending on the complexity of your website, consider outsourcing the initial creation. If the design and programming are highly elaborate, it is not wise for your tech team member to devote time to creating the website. Once it is up and running, you will need to make periodic updates. Having a team member that knows how to make these updates will save your business time and money.

5. The salesperson

From day one, you will need a sales-minded individual as part of your team to grow your business. A sales-minded person can also handle marketing since marketing and sales are closely related. Skills this person should possess include the ability to network and prospect. Strong customer relationship skills are also vital to keeping existing customers. Tasks for this role will involve prospecting for new business, attending networking events and closing deals.

Social media posting will also be the responsibility of the sales and marketing position. Considering it can be challenging to find a non-owner to be as dedicated to this role as an owner, many business owners will be in charge of sales and marketing.

Before you make your team official, have a test meeting. You want to make sure your team works well together. At the test meeting, put together your agenda and stick to it. If any of your team members repeatedly get off-topic, this could be a red flag. You do not want to spend time in meetings with anyone getting off-topic. Sometimes people disagree in meetings to disagree, and it is crucial to have your team be on the same page as often as possible. Additionally, it is a good idea for your team members to be friendly with each other, but it is also important to keep professionalism a top priority.

Good luck with compiling your team. Remember to take it one step at a time and be mindful of your leadership style. A cohesive and happy team is key to a successful and profitable business.

By Roxanne Klein

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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How Six Negative Economic Trends Could Drive The E-Commerce Marketplace Model Forward

January 11, 2023 No Comments

By Mike Faber

The e-commerce marketplace model has been making a splash recently thanks to a plethora of new platforms launched by big retailers such as Macy’s, media companies such as NBC Universal or U.K.’s ITV, top celebrities (Goop, Poosh, Cosmoss) and, most importantly, tens if not hundreds of smaller social media influencers, digital media companies or pivoting e-commerce brands.

The reason for the uptick in brands and companies using the model, in my opinion, is that multivendor e-commerce marketplace—such as those operated by Amazon, Etsy or Farfetch—could be resilient to the current economic downturn.

How An E-Commerce Marketplace Works

As a retailer or a social media influencer looking to get started with the marketplace model, you’ll need to invite domestic, quality e-commerce brands to the marketplace. The brands who agree to a partnership would need to upload their products from whatever platform they use, such as Shopify or WooCommerce, into your marketplace product catalogue.

Seller onboarding generally takes a few minutes per brand and allows your audience to enjoy multibrand and cross-category shopping experiences within multiple categories, such as fashion, beauty, wellness, lifestyle, home and garden or baby and kids. Because of this, buyers would be able to purchase multiple products from any number of sellers in a single order. They could also enjoy marketplace-wide promotions or free shipping when offered.

As a marketplace owner, it could take only a few weeks to onboard tens or hundreds of brands. One of the reasons for the popularity of the model is that a marketplace owner can start running an e-commerce business with thousands of products without investing in inventory or a warehouse, as the sellers take care of order fulfilment and returns in a drop shipping model.

Marketplace owners generally collect a 20% to 30% sales commission from completed orders and handle the commercial relationship with customers.

Because of the low risk, many marketplace entrants are using the model as momentum against the current economic trends. For example, consider these six reasons why the predicted recession may further expand the marketplace model.

1. Recession, Inflation, Uncertainty

Economic downturns have a way of optimizing economies for maximum efficiency. Platforms such as Google and Alibaba emerged from the dot-com bubble. Startups such as Airbnb, Zalando and Uber were built during the Global Financial Crisis.

As VC fund Speedinvest pointed out, the current economic downturn and expected recession may open opportunities for those looking to invest in the marketplace model. Rough seas tend to weed out competitors and make suppliers keener to collaborate, which could allow marketplaces to expand quicker and consolidate their supplier base, building up the defensibility through marketplace network effects.

2. Deflated Company Valuations

Business can be a zero-sum game, meaning that someone’s loss is sometimes somebody else’s gain. Previously overpriced businesses are no longer able to raise funding at the previous valuations to fuel their hyper-growth.

Less money on the market translates into less investment in general and less competition in online advertising in particular. Higher returns on your ad spend shouldn’t be a surprise, as many e-commerce and retail brands reduce their budgets.

3. Privacy Updates Ending The Highest Bidder Era

Say goodbye to cheap online advertising. Say hello to organic audiences. By the end of 2024, Google is going to put an end to user tracking and personally targeted advertising, following in Apple’s footsteps. That move should effectively end the era that ballooned Facebook and the entire AdTech-powered highest-bidder economy.

But it could also give rise to the Creator Economy and high-value ownership of organic, engaged audiences based on authentic authority, shared values, relationships, relatable content and curated commerce. In the words of Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, Gen-Z creators chart a new path to entrepreneurship: Build an audience first and only then launch an e-commerce business.

4. Customers Getting Locked Away In Walled Gardens

Remember the “walled gardens” of America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe? Welcome to the brave new world of Amazon, Apple and Google customer data-collection ecosystems.

Some people only see Cookiemagedon and the inevitable regression to the stone age of making individual customers happy. For others, it’s an opportunity for the consensual collection of first-party data, such as user emails, shopping preferences and wishlists within their own e-commerce platform.

5. Erosion Of DTC E-Commerce

Direct-to-consumer e-commerce will not work without the consumer. While some may see this as the collapse of the DTC rebellion, it also opens the possibility of a fresh start. A new order in which creators and e-commerce operators run niche marketplaces, catering to the needs of their audiences with curated advice, recommendations and products.

In anticipation of Google finally saying “lights out” to personally targeted ads following us around, Shopify has advised its millions of DTC brands to start looking for new sales channels, such as marketplaces, ahead of time.

6. Overstocked Suppliers Looking For Sales Channels

Retail and e-commerce brands’ biggest holiday wish is to get rid of excess inventory. Brands looking for new sales channels and an opportunity to sell through marketplaces may see it as a safe bet because they won’t have to invest upfront in customer acquisition.

Bill Gurley, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capitalists, said lately that “If you’re going to build something from scratch, this might be as good a time as in a decade.”

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Mike Faber

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Mike Faber, a co-founder of Vendo, a marketplace SaaS empowering anyone to launch their own eCommerce platform with Shopify brads as sellers. Read Mike Faber’s full executive profile here.

Soured from Forbes

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You don’t have to play nice: guerrilla marketing for SaaS startups

January 11, 2023 No Comments

By Arvind Parthiban

Disrupting a market is tough, but it’s even tougher when you fail to use every weapon in your marketing arsenal. My startup recently launched a guerrilla marketing campaign that showed me how valuable this type of marketing could be for early-stage Indian software-as-a-service startups.

We organized a flash mob at our largest competitor’s biggest conference in Washington DC. It was a success – we found more prospects, created noise, got media attention, and we generated a mostly positive reaction. Here’s how we did it.

Taking on the market leader

Ambush marketing or guerrilla marketing is as old as marketing itself. The rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola has created some wonderful case studies of how this kind of marketing works. More recently, Samsung trolled Apple during the launch of the most recent iPhone 14.

Freshworks has also run many campaigns along these lines – examples include the famous Freshworks versus ServiceNow campaigns and, of course, the #Failsforce blimp campaign.

However, it seems to me that early-stage India SaaS startups have rarely attempted such guerrilla marketing tactics.

There is a cultural mindset that we need to overcome: In India, we rarely see brands taking each other on openly and there is a belief that we need to play nice.

But that isn’t enough if you want to disrupt a market – which means taking on the strongest player in the industry. Guerrilla marketing allows you to take on the leader and grab the attention of customers and the industry.

The industry leader has already done the work of getting customers and partners to attend the event, so if you run a well-tailored “gatecrashing” then you build brand recall among prospects and also win the respect of the competition.

Blueprint to a gatecrashing

How you should organize your “gatecrashing” will depend on what it is you’re trying to achieve, but here’s what we did:

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Arvind Parthiban

Sourced from TECHINASIA

In News

Three Tips For Translating Your Creativity To Your Online Presence

January 11, 2023 No Comments

By Ahmed Hafez Younis (aka Fizo)

That you have to be a creative professional to build amazing creative online is a myth.

A critical piece of our work at Meta is talking to small business owners about their wins, and, perhaps more importantly, their challenges, so that we can take those learnings to better serve the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) community. And while all small businesses are unique, in many cases, their challenges are the same– whether they’re starting out, or they have been in business for decades.

This is especially true when it comes to marketing, with new tools and trends popping up continuously. A common refrain from business owners is that rather than feeling empowered by the new digital tools at their disposal, they can feel intimidated. In fact, 40% of small businesses say a “lack of experience and understanding of digital marketing” is a top marketing challenge.

Additionally, through our work with small businesses owners, we have learned that time and budget constraints are key blockers when it comes to creativity. Even though entrepreneurs are inherently creative -the ingenuity of small businesses throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic proving that beyond a doubt- many business owners have shared that it can be difficult to translate that creativity to their online presence.

I believe it’s essential to help business owners embrace their creativity, allowing them to showcase their companies and connect with customers online and offline. I’m here to myth-bust that you have to be a creative professional to build amazing creative online. Here are three tips to help entrepreneurs tap into their creativity, and effectively market their business online:

1. MAKE FOR MOBILE While the criteria for big ideas haven’t changed, mobile-first is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. So, what are the keys to success when building content for mobile? I recommend following a few best practices. First, we’ve seen that vertical videos perform best, allowing you to take advantage of more real estate on people’s phone or tablet screens. (Imagine if you rent out a massive billboard, and instead of using the whole advertising space, you use 10% of it.) Some other notable insights: content that features people (vs. just product shots) tends to perform better. Think about how you can incorporate humans into your content- whether its employees, paid models, or customers who’ve given you permission to use their images. You also want to communicate clearly and succinctly. Our research has found that ads with short text overlays and captions below 300 words are optimal.

2. ADD VIDEO TO THE MIX Across our platforms, we’ve seen that the majority of video-only or video-plus-static-image campaigns outperform static-only campaigns in both increasing conversions and driving top-of-mind awareness. When experimenting with video and video-plus-static combined content, remember that short is sweet. There is no magic duration- your content should be as short as it can be, but also as long as it needs to be. Think of it as a game of Jenga: you build your content, and then start removing bits and pieces until you reach that critical point, where if you remove one more word, the whole thing will fall apart- this is when you know you’ve reached the right duration. Given this limited amount of time, don’t try to do too much– highlight your brand, and focus on a singular message. If possible, end with a clear call to action that indicates what you want your audience to do next– like visit your website, purchase a specific product or service, or contact you for more information.

3. GIVE REELS A SHOT Reels already make up more than 20% of the time that people spend on Instagram, so we know there is an appetite to explore a brand’s story in this format. When you’re building this type of content, think of it as infotainment. You want the content you’re presenting to be useful and engaging, while inspiring your audience to get to know more about your brand. For example, think about what are some of the most common questions you get from customers, and build video content that answers your top three queries. If you’re launching a new offering, develop a video that previews the new product or service, showing how it benefits customers. Make sure you’re entertaining and informing for optimal results.

From making for mobile, educating while informing and entertaining audiences, and understanding how to add video into the mix, there are a variety of ways business owners can expand their marketing horizons and tap into their creativity. Also, I want to remind all business owners: don’t doubt yourself. You are creative, and your business is unique. Now, you have the tools and skills (to continue) to show the world.

Feature Image Credit: shutterstock

By Ahmed Hafez Younis (aka Fizo)

Sourced from Entrepreneur Middle East

In News

Out-of-home is the perfect platform for brands to show courage in 2023

January 10, 2023 No Comments

By Ali MacCallum

Whatever the economic outlook, the role of advertising doesn’t change.

While there are thousands of columns and academic papers about the merits of brand building v sales activation, at its simplest level, good advertising works by creating a preference that builds share of wallet.

When wallets are stretched, advertising must work harder to communicate why a brand is worth every penny. We don’t need a crystal ball to tell us that next year will be challenging for both advertisers and the public.

Out-of-home (OOH) has already weathered two years of Covid-related restrictions. It survived not because of luck, but thanks to over a decade of investment in digital screens and the technology that delivers advertising to them, giving OOH the resilience and capability to continue to reach audiences during lockdown – and emerge stronger.

As we look ahead to 2023, this ongoing investment, coupled with OOH’s traditional strengths, gives us reasons to be optimistic for a year of growth.

Real-world reach

OOH has always delivered reach. In fact, national campaigns deliver more inclusive reach than any other channel. Inflation in TV advertising, matched with declining audiences, make OOH a natural choice for brands looking to reach mass audiences.

Of course, there is more to advertising than mass reach. It is OOH’s ability to deliver mass-personalization, at scale, that will deliver more value than ever to advertisers in 2023.

Context at scale

51% of marketers say that personalization is their top priority. Customers now expect it too, with 76% saying they’re more likely to consider purchasing from brands that personalize.

Consumers expect messages to be more tailored and relevant. OOH can achieve that by delivering cost-effective reach in a sophisticated and targeted way. Investment in dynamic digital means that the medium offers the ability to combine context and location to activate shorter-term messaging, flexing to adapt to changes in mood and mindset.

OOH has the flexibility to recognize that audiences aren’t mutually exclusive, and they change throughout the day, week, month and year. In 2023, we want the OOH industry to reinvent community beyond location. There’s a huge opportunity to build on the advances we have already made in targeted reach.

The last few years have been tough. Covid and lockdowns have meant some people are struggling to connect with society, with minority groups finding it more difficult than the mainstream to find a sense of belonging. According to Mindshare, around half of the LGBTQIA+ community feel their worlds have shrunk so much that they do not know what to do with themselves (54%) and they feel they have lost touch with who they once were (47%).

OOH is the most inclusive advertising channel. It exists to provide public utility first, and advertising second. By its nature, it’s for everyone. The opportunity is there for OOH to engage diverse audiences in a way that no other channel can. According to WPP’s Consumer Equality Equation report, if brands get just 1% of people from minority ethnic groups to change their spending habits, this equates to over £2bn ($2.45bn) short-term growth opportunity in 2023.

A matter of trust

In a climate of economic uncertainty, and where fake news and dubious claims by some brands circulate on the internet, OOH is a medium the public trust.

Big, bold advertising gives consumers the confidence that the brands they invest in today will be here tomorrow and are worth spending their money on. OOH has no editorial, it offers a public declaration and enables brands to provide transparent messaging and reassurance. Digital screens powered by investment in programmatic provide the agility to react to real-time events.

It’s no accident that OOH is used so widely for government communications. When social media companies look to build trust in their platforms, they turn to out of home.

Creative commerce

While technology has made OOH resilient, we must not forget the sheer creative power of the medium. At its best, creative OOH has always been a combination of the latest and best techniques and applications from the art, science and innovation communities, nicely combined to accommodate any creative request of context.

Done well, creative executions on a small number of OOH sites have generated huge volumes of earned media and broken into mainstream news, demonstrating how combining and layering creative techniques can produce impressive results.

Last year, Marmite’s special build campaign for its limited-edition Chilli Dynamite generated 194 million impressions and £650,000 ($795,000) in earned media, delivering sales five times higher than previous limited-edition releases.

Let’s be bold, and let’s be confident. The next twelve months will be challenging. Brands need to show courage to continue to reach their audiences and seize growth opportunities. OOH offers the perfect platform.

For more on OOH’s past present and future, check out our Deep Dive hub.

Feature Image Credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya via Unsplash

By Ali MacCallum

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The Radical Mindset Shifts That Helped Me Build a Multi Six-Figure Business During a Time of Scarcity

January 10, 2023 No Comments

By Gloria Chou

Scaling a business during a time of scarcity is challenging, but Gloria Chou figured out how to turn crisis into an opportunity for growth. Here are the mindset shifts that helped her pivot and grow after losing all of her client work.

It’s a pandemic-era tale we’re all familiar with at this point: In March 2020, I was happily growing my PR consultancy when, suddenly, everything froze. All my clients decided to pause their monthly retainers, and within a matter of weeks I didn’t know where my next penny was going to come from.

This experience could have easily stopped my business in its tracks, but instead, it challenged me to pivot and ultimately propelled me to new levels of success.

I knew that committing to monthly retainers wasn’t going to be feasible for clients, so I thought about ways that I could still get them results while offering more affordable rates. Ultimately, I decided this was a good opportunity to shift away from one-on-one consulting and productize my offerings while providing the same level of transformation.

By April, I had shifted to more low-touch one-on-one work, where I was providing clients my proprietary pitching framework and helping them write pitches, but then it was up to them to send it out and build those relationships, so they can actually own those relationships.

Six months later, I was launching the first iteration of my online course. And now, by making my methods more accessible and sharing what I’ve learned as an industry outsider, I’ve been able to help 5,000+ small business owners (primarily BIPOC and WOC) get seen, heard, and valued. Plus, I’ve unlocked more stability and earning potential in my own business, regularly having multi-six figure years and even earning seven figures cumulatively since I launched the course.

Doing all of this during a time of scarcity required some serious mindset shifts and letting go of unhealthy narratives that kept me stuck. As inflation and the shaky economy are presenting another challenging season for many business owners, I wanted to reflect back on the approaches that helped me build a thriving business despite what was going on in the world around me.

I let myself be imperfect so I can show up authentically

When launching something new in business, it can be tempting to spend time getting it just right behind the scenes before putting it out in the world. I didn’t have time for that at the beginning of the pandemic—I needed to pivot yesterday to keep my business afloat.

So I let myself be imperfect and show up in whatever version of myself I was in at the time, which helped me connect with others and made me much more relatable as a human. I launched an early version of my new offering even though it wasn’t the more automated version I envisioned. I talked to everyone I knew about what I was doing—in Clubhouse conversations, Slack channels, LinkedIn forums—and looked for any opportunity I could to learn more about what was resonating with people and what they needed that the market didn’t yet offer.

As scary as it was to release something that didn’t feel completely there to me, it ended up benefiting my business greatly. Not only did it mean I had a new revenue stream more quickly, it gave me a testing ground to better understand my customer, their needs, and what about my offering and messaging most resonated with them. This meant that when I was ready to start creating the online program, I could be a lot more confident that I was building something people would actually find valuable.

I tell my PR Starter Pack members this all the time when it comes to their pitches, and I think it’s true in business growth as well: There’s someone out there who can benefit from what you have to offer right now, even in its imperfect form. Don’t wait for the perfect time to release the perfect draft—instead, release that first draft and learn from it. Keep testing, iterating, taking feedback, and improving. That’s how you build expertise.

I practiced radical generosity

Common advice for knowledge-based business owners is to not give away too much for free. For instance, much of the advice around marketing online courses is to tell customers what you will help them do, but never show them the how until they’ve paid.

Maybe that’s true once a business has scaled, but I didn’t feel like it was the right energy to help me get started, especially during a time of scarcity. For one, not everyone had the means to buy my services immediately, but I still wanted to build a relationship with the right customers for the future. But more than that, since my offering was so new, I hadn’t even proven the value I could offer yet.

Instead, I gave everything away for free. I partnered with organizations aligned with my target audience, like iFundWomen and Female Founder Collective, and offered to do free workshops for their members. I shared my entire PR pitching framework during these workshops, and then would have hours-long Q&A sessions where I would stay on and review people’s pitches for free. I would go on podcasts and do Instagram lives and share all of my secrets for small business PR.

It may feel like this is a fast way to lose all my paying customers, but this is how I reached that first six-figure revenue mark without any ads. For one, by having radical transparency into my expertise and process, I was able to build a community and following. More than that, people got results using the method I shared with them. I’d regularly have folks who participated in my free workshops messaging me about features in places like Vogue and BuzzFeed—and then wanting to work with me further. Their thinking was: If your free offerings can help me so much, imagine what your paid program can do.

Now, anytime I see business owners around me holding their knowledge a little too close to the chest, I try and think about how I can let go a little and give more freely. This doesn’t mean I don’t have boundaries—it just means that I do business through the lens of my values, and the decision to give (or not to give) comes from an intentional place within. It helps me stand out and has yet to harm my business growth.

I aligned my marketing with my values

When the world is changing around you, I think it’s a good time to revisit your business playbooks, too. I didn’t want to continue to use so many of the scarcity-minded tactics I saw founders around me using, like fake countdown timers, high-pressure sales tactics, and trying to “sell at all costs” by preying on people’s FOMO

I was guilty of these tactics as well in the beginning, but after doing deep inner work, I realized that this wasn’t authentic to me, my message, or my values. In 2022, I worked with an ethical copywriter, Brittany McBean, to reflect on many unhealthy narratives I bought into by the online marketing world and consider how my messaging could better reflect my values. This process, which I refer to as a decolonization of my mind, revealed some powerful truths that also helped me grow my business in a more value-aligned way. I realized that so much of what I had bought into was also part of bigger systems of oppression, and it was up to me to actively reject this even though it felt easier to do what everyone else was doing.

I decided that, instead of using false scarcity in my marketing, I wanted to provide real support so that customers could make empowered decisions to join my programs, instead of fear-based ones. For example, I never pretend that my on-demand masterclass is live when it’s not—and yet, I still have over 5,000 people who have viewed the masterclass. This is a common tactic among online businesses who want to reach as many people as possible, but it proves to be unhelpful for attendees who want to ask questions in real time. I also reveal the full price of my program at the beginning of my masterclass webinar instead of the end, so that attendees know the details of what I’m selling right away instead of feeling bait-and-switched.

Rejecting the mainstream marketing culture that has worked for so many founders was scary, but it helped me grow a more dedicated audience. Especially during difficult times, people want to buy from businesses that they can feel connected and safe with. Now, I’m always thinking about how I can curate the experience of interacting with my business so the ethos of my values permeates everything that I do.

As we’ve gone through waves of uncertainty over the past few years, I think back to the fear of those early days of the pandemic often. It’s so easy to get sucked into that feeling and make rash decisions about your business, but I’m so glad I used that moment as an opportunity to intentionally create the next stage of growth for my business, reaching new levels of income and impact in the work I’m doing.

By Gloria Chou

Sourced from Buffer

In News

3 Ways to Reach Customers Despite a Market Slowdown

January 10, 2023 No Comments

By Vlad Gozman

Instead of cutting marketing spend, businesses should do these three things to reach and engage customers during a market slowdown.

A recessionary environment can be a make-or-break time for businesses. Some of today’s most successful companies were founded during recessions, such as Google during the dot-com bust of the early 2000s or Uber during the Great Recession of 2008. But for every company that thrives during a recession, there are many more that fail.

One of the key reasons that some companies succeed while others falter is how they handle their marketing and advertising spend during these difficult times. When a recession hits, businesses are quick to cut marketing budgets as they seek to reduce costs. But this can be a mistake.

Recessions provide opportunities for businesses to reach customers who may be more price-sensitive and receptive to new offers. Instead of cutting marketing spend, businesses should focus on reallocating their ad budgets to more efficient channels and developing interactive content that will capture the attention of customers who may be spending more time at home. Here are three ways businesses can reach and engage customers despite a market slowdown:

1. Develop interactive content

Customers are spending more time than ever online, so it’s important to develop content that is interactive and engaging. In a recession, ROI becomes even more important, so businesses should focus on creating content that will drive leads and sales.

Traditional paid advertising can be expensive and is subject to banner blindness, which is when users tune out online ads. Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls and surveys, can be a more effective and cost-efficient way to reach and engage customers.

Instead of non-consensually slapping users in the face with a commercial message, interactive content allows businesses to provide valuable information or entertainment while also gathering data that can be used to improve marketing campaigns.

For example, a fashion company might run a style quiz that helps users find the right clothing for their body type. Not only is this quiz interactive and fun, but it also provides the company with valuable data about its customers’ preferences.

2. Target recession-proof industries

A recession doesn’t impact all sectors equally. In fact, some industries have seen tremendous growth. The energy industry, for instance, has seen a resurgence as renewed consumer demand and limited oil supply have led to higher prices. Year-to-date, as the S&P500 has fallen by around 15%, the United States Oil ETF is up over 30%.

Healthcare is another industry that is relatively resilient to economic downturns. As people age, they require more medical care, and government spending on healthcare tends to increase during periods of economic hardship.

Other so-called “defensive” industries, such as food and beverage, household staples and personal care, also tend to do well during recessions.

Businesses that target these recession-proof industries can still find success even when the economy is struggling. That isn’t to say that your business needs to be in one of these industries to survive a recession, but it may be worth researching how your product or service can be positioned to appeal to these industries.

3. Focus on ROI-positive marketing channels

When businesses are cutting costs, they often reduce their marketing spend across the board. But not all marketing channels are created equal. Some, such as paid search and social media advertising, can be very effective in driving leads and sales but can also be expensive.

Other marketing channels, such as email marketing and content marketing, can be less expensive and just as effective in reaching and engaging customers. In a recession, businesses should focus on allocating their marketing budgets to the channels that will provide the most ROI.

Email marketing, for example, can be very effective in reaching potential customers who may be interested in your product or service but may not be actively searching for it. And because email is a permission-based channel, you’re more likely to reach people who are receptive to your message.

Content marketing can also be an effective way to reach and engage customers. By creating high-quality, informative content, businesses can attract customers who are looking for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.

In a recessionary environment, it’s more important than ever to focus on ROI-positive marketing channels. By allocating your marketing budget wisely, you can still reach and engage customers despite a slowdown in the economy.

With the right approach, a recession can be an opportunity for businesses to thrive. By focusing on interactive content, targeting recession-proof industries and allocating your marketing budget to ROI-positive channels, you can weather the economic storm and come out ahead.

By Vlad Gozman

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

20 Best Jobs For People Who Prefer To Work Alone

January 9, 2023 No Comments

By NyRee Ausler

here is a meme that reads, “I don’t want to go outside. It’s too peopley out there.” As funny as that sounds, there are people in our society that prefer to be alone.

We might call them introverts, loners, antisocial or shy, but the common theme is that they prefer their own company over that of others. They are people who hate people, essentially.

Being a person who dislikes being around people can limit your career options, but despite what you may think, there are a ton of paying jobs for people who prefer to work alone. Your personality doesn’t have to limit your job opportunities.

Below are jobs that you can do without changing your social behaviour. You just might find the perfect job for yourself.

1. Video Editor

Video editors spend hours at a time going through footage and combining clips into a masterpiece. This job requires a lot of quiet, alone time and is perfect for people who hate people.

2. Graphic Designer

Like a video editor, a graphic designer does editing, too. They edit existing images for public consumption and create them based on business needs. This job is a solo venture.

3. Accountant

If you have a love for working with numbers and organizing finances, a job as an accountant might be ideal for you. You get to spend all day with numbers instead of people!

4. Auditor

An auditor is someone who follows paper trails to resolve issues and ensure compliance. This position is ideal for someone who wants to be left to their own devices.

5. Veterinarian

If animals are your thing, although people are not, a career as a veterinarian may be just right for you. Also consider a dog walker, an animal trainer, groomer, or breeder.

6. Computer Programmer

A computer programmer codes and creates websites. In addition, they make computer applications that save users time and money. This is a lucrative career to get into.

7. Content Manager

If you enjoy strategically creating content that amplifies a company’s brand, a job as a content manager may suit you well. Editorial calendars, publishing, and writing are among the duties.

8. Drafter

Is drawing your thing? Do you love to put the puzzle pieces together to create beautiful structures? Look into a job as a drafter where you can design buildings or machinery.

9. Writer

Writing requires a lot of alone time and downtime. But it also means you have to be imaginative, creative, be attentive to detail, and self-motivated. If this is you, look into a career as a writer.

10. Editor

Every writer needs a good editor to make sure their words make sense. There are several different editing jobs, including proofreading, copy, line content, or structural and developmental editing.

11. Engineer

If you are interested in being an engineer, the first step is to get your bachelor’s degree in computer science. It’s a secure career and a good way to keep an introvert busy and engaged.

12. IT Manager

Computer security is a field that will always be in demand. If you like learning every aspect of the software programs people use, an IT manager is a great field for you.

13. Librarian

By nature, libraries are quiet, so an introvert would find a job as a librarian a perfect fit. You get the opportunity to learn all about books and be around people who do the same.

14. Social Media Manager

If you are more comfortable interacting with people virtually, you could make an awesome social media manager. You can communicate with others without having to be in their presence.

15. Researcher

If the thought of finding answers to complex questions excites you, a job as a researcher might be what you are looking for. History or science lovers would do well in this field.

16. Tradesperson

There are many skilled trades that require specialized expertise but limited human interaction. This includes laborers, plumbers, and electricians. These jobs can be pursued through the local union.

17. Voice Actor

If you like reading out loud and have a compelling voice, you should consider becoming a voice actor. You can do this as a part of a publishing company or as a freelancer.

18. Blogger

Blogging is the same as writing except that it’s on your own platform and you control the narrative. As a blogger, you can join other platforms or simply get started on your own.

19. Archivist

If you happen to have a master’s degree in archival science, a career as an archivist could be just what you’re looking for. You get to dive deep into history and organize the details.

20. Mortician

Maybe you don’t like being around people but are okay with the dead. As a mortician, you can make decent money and spend most of your time alone, except for meeting grieving family members.

As you can see, not being a people person does not have to stunt your career growth. You just need to find the right path for your unique personality.

Feature Image Credit: Jacob Lund via Canva

By NyRee Ausler

NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and author of seven books. She covers lifestyle and entertainment and news, as well as navigating the workplace and social issues.

Sourced from Your Tango

In News

Elon Musk Sent an Email to Employees. It’s a Master Class in How Not to Motivate Your Team

January 9, 2023 No Comments

By Jason Aten

This is not how you get people to do what you want.

Over the past six weeks, Elon Musk has spent a lot of time tinkering with his newest toy, Twitter. By tinkering, mostly I mean that he’s been poking around and breaking things.

First, he fired most of the senior leaders who knew how things worked. Then, he laid off half of the staff. Next, he asked the remaining staff to pledge to be “extremely hardcore,” or he would consider them as having resigned. Reports suggest that as many as a third of the remaining employees said “No, thanks.”

Finally, he initiated “code reviews” that resulted in more employees being fired because their submissions weren’t up to Musk’s extremely high standard for code screenshots. None of that, however, is quite like what he’s been up to most recently.

Musk spent most of the past week touting the release of what have become known as the Twitter Files. It’s a series of threads by a hand-selected group of journalists releasing internal information about how the company has operated for the past five years.

Those threads include internal emails about policy discussions and decisions about moderating content. They also happened to include the personal email address of a sitting member of Congress, and Twitter’s founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey. That tweet was later deleted.

This weekend, however, Musk sent an email to his remaining employees letting them know that leaking confidential information will not be tolerated. In fact, the wealthiest man in the world says he will sue any employee caught sharing information with the press.

Zoë Schiffer of Platformer was given a copy of the email, excerpts of which she shared on Twitter:

From her thread:

As evidenced by the many detailed leaks of confidential Twitter information, a few people at our company continue to act in a manner contrary to the company’s interests and in violation of their NDA. This will be said only once: If you clearly and deliberately violate the NDA that you signed when you joined, you accept liability to the full extent of the law & Twitter will immediately seek damages.

Apparently, Musk is cool with leaking internal information only if it serves his own purpose–even if it’s hard to fully understand what that purpose might be.

According to Schiffer, Twitter’s employees also had until 5 p.m. to acknowledge that they understood that it’s very bad to leak and that Musk will be super unhappy with them if they do. The problem is, if the goal is to cultivate loyalty, Musk seems to be going about it all wrong.

To be fair, no boss wants to feel like their employees are working against them, or that they can’t trust their team. If your employees are regularly leaking sensitive information, it’s not surprising that you might be upset.

Also, if those employees signed a non-disclosure agreement when they were hired, they are well aware that they would be expected to keep certain information private. That’s pretty common, especially at tech companies. It’s reasonable that Musk would want to remind employees that it’s not helpful when they disclose information to the press.

The thing is, instead of threatening to sue, you might want to figure out what’s wrong with your company culture. As soon as you play that “I’m going to hold you all legally accountable for making my life more challenging” card, it seems like you’ve lost the argument.

It also seems obvious that Musk has no sense at all of the people who work for him at Twitter. He hasn’t taken the time to understand the culture or earn their trust. Sure, he’s in charge, and he owns the company, but those two things alone don’t build trust.

There’s a reason the people who work at Twitter are leaking information, and it’s because they aren’t on Musk’s team. The thing Musk really wants is loyalty. He wants employees who will carry out his vision and be loyal to him personally. He takes any leak of information as not just a breach of confidentiality, but also as a personal offense.

Musk seems to think that ultimatums and threats are the best way to motivate people, but that’s almost never true. The biggest irony is that he could get what he wants by building trust with his team. This email is the perfect example of how not to do just that.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Jason Aten

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Learn Mobile Filmmaking and Capture Stories With Your Phone

January 9, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from WATC

With this highly recommended online course by Cassius Rayner, you can learn all the fundamentals of mobile cinematography to create captivating videos that tell a story using your iPhone or Android.

Telling a story is one of the most gateways into someone’s heart. And what could be a more perfect medium to do so than through movies? This is where documentary filmmaking comes in, allowing you to establish and build a connection with your viewers. Cassius Rayner, an award-winning filmmaker, takes his filming techniques to new heights by using only his mobile phone as camera equipment.

In this online course, students will learn the essentials of filmmaking and how to produce professional-grade content using only their phones. They’ll discover how to plan, write, shoot, and edit an entire documentary or audiovisual piece from start to finish under the guidance of a skilled instructor.

Mobile Filmmaking Online Course: Capture Stories With Your Phone

What will you learn in this online course?

In this course, you will be meeting Cassius Rayner. He is an award-winning filmmaker and an iPhone cinematographer who will be sharing his creative journey with you that led him into the world of mobile filmmaking. You will get to learn about his creative process and find out more about the people who have influenced his work throughout the years.

You will also get a general overview of how a camera works on a mobile phone before delving deeper into exploring various mobile accessories and applications that can come in handy. By the end of it all, hopefully, you would have picked up some valuable tips from Cassius regarding the basics of operating a camera along with some composition and lighting pointers too!

Before you begin to work on your documentary, it is important to first understand how to record sound. This course will explore the basics of scriptwriting and address some pre-production concerns including permissions, scheduling, safety, and equipment.

By the end of this course, you will know how to shoot and edit your interview footage, including adding cutaways. You will also learn how to organize and grade your video before sharing it with the world.

The course is in English with subtitles available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, and Dutch. You don’t need any experience for this course. All you’ll need is a mobile phone and a laptop.

Do not hesitate to find more online courses on WE AND THE COLOR.

By Dirk Petzold

Instagram: @weandthecolor 🙂

Sourced from WATC